Full Wattage

How close can you get to power without losing yourself?

James Orsini has spent more than 40 years in rooms most people spend their careers trying to enter. Goldman Sachs. Saatchi & Saatchi. VaynerX, where he helped Gary Vaynerchuk turn an ambitious vision into a global powerhouse.

Not bad for the son of a plumber from Newark, New Jersey.

But James's story isn't really about climbing to the top. It's about knowing who you are, recognizing your value, and building extraordinary success without needing to be the biggest personality in the room.

In this episode of Full Wattage, James and Courtney explore the power of the second seat, why being told he was "too nice" to become a CEO didn't change him, and the difference between adapting to your environment and losing yourself to fit in.

James also shares how he's approaching his next chapter as Chairman of Factotum USA and co-founder of Vyve, still building businesses, but on his own terms.

An unexpected perspective on ambition, identity, and what it really means to make it.

Connect with James:

• Instagram: @jamesorsini
• LinkedIn: James Orsini
• X / TikTok: @jimmythepencil
• Factotum: factotum.com
• Vyve: vyve.co

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Full Wattage. For people who refuse to live dialed down.

What do you do when life stops following the plan?

This episode gets into the deeply human stuff: how we respond when certainty disappears, how perspective changes what we can see, and how much agency remains even when circumstances are out of our control.

Expect a conversation about navigating fear without letting it run the show, the difference between knowledge and earned wisdom, why community matters more than ever, and what happens when identity gets too tightly tied to a role, title, or version of life that no longer fits.

There is also a bigger question running underneath it all: as machines become more capable, what becomes more valuable about being human?

Love. Perspective. Connection. Soul. Awe.

Or, as Tina puts it:

“Awe is data for the soul.”

This is a conversation about choosing love over fear, finding humor in the middle of uncertainty, paying closer attention to what makes you feel alive, and becoming more awake to the life you are actually in.

Find Tina Sharkey :

On the Web
On Insta

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What if the biggest mistake we make about our potential is assuming we already know its limits?

New York Times–bestselling author and one of the world’s leading experts on human performance, Steven Kotler has spent more than 30 years studying flow, peak performance, and what happens when people push beyond what they thought they were capable of. His conclusion: we consistently underestimate ourselves because capacity reveals itself in stages. You don’t get to see the next version of what’s possible until you’ve built the ability to reach it. 

In this conversation, Steven and Courtney unpack how flow expands performance, why identity often lags behind ability, and why the evidence of your own life may be a better predictor of your future than the story you currently tell about yourself.

They also explore the role of challenge, curiosity, purpose, intuition, and attention in continuing to grow without forcing the outcome. And as AI takes on more of our thinking, Steven makes the case that the skills we once dismissed as “soft” - creativity, focus, discernment, meaning - are becoming some of the most important capacities we have to protect.

This is a conversation about how human capacity actually expands, how we get in our own way, and why what feels impossible today may simply be beyond the edge of the evidence you have so far.

Find Steven:
Website: stevenkotler.com
Flow Research Collective: flowresearchcollective.com
LinkedIn: Steven Kotler on LinkedIn

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Website: fullwattage.co

Sometimes the hardest part isn’t knowing what we want.

It’s letting ourselves keep moving once we start getting it.

Tom Giles has spent more than 30 years asking consequential questions and listening for the moment people go off script. In this conversation, the lens turns inward.

We explore the scuba certification he put off for decades, the pull between individual desire and responsibility, how easily we shape-shift around what other people expect from us, and why momentum itself can feel strangely destabilizing.

Because our lives can start changing faster than our identities can catch up.

And when that happens, we tap the brakes.

This is a conversation about curiosity, identity, time, and what it takes to keep moving toward what you already know you want.

Listen and let us know what stayed with you on Instagram @fullwattage.co and join the Full Wattage mailing list for new episodes, ideas, and what’s emerging next.

Most people think confidence comes first.

That once they feel certain, qualified, or ready enough, they’ll finally say what they want and move toward it.

Stephanie Barbour has spent more than 15,000 hours coaching leaders, and she has seen the opposite. Confidence is built after we begin. We name the thing. We claim it. We take one awkward step. Then another. Eventually, action becomes evidence.

In this conversation, Stephanie and Courtney explore why it can be so difficult to admit what we want, the subtle ways we interrupt our own momentum, and what changes when we stop waiting for confidence to arrive before we move.

Because ready is not a feeling that finds us.

It is something we build.

Work with Stephanie: https://www.barbourleadership.com

What happens when the plan changes, but the promise still matters?

In this short Full Wattage solo, Courtney reflects on the commitments no one else sees, the discomfort that comes with showing up differently, and why confidence often arrives after the action.

Because the promises no one sees are often the ones shaping who you become.

Most of us think we're qualified for one version of ourselves.

We become the title on our business card. The industry we've always worked in. The story we've repeated for years.

But what if your greatest strengths have nothing to do with the role you're currently playing?

Former Goldman Sachs Partner Lisa Shalett built an extraordinary career by saying yes to opportunities that made no sense on paper. Moving from revenue into compliance, then legal, audit, brand, digital, and beyond, she discovered something that changed the way she sees work—and herself.

This conversation is about the danger of confusing your identity with your job, why curiosity is often a better guide than certainty, and how the skills you barely notice in yourself may be the ones that change your life.

If you've ever felt pulled toward something that doesn't fit the story you've been telling about yourself, this episode is for you.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why the best opportunities rarely look obvious at first
• The hidden skills you're probably overlooking
• How curiosity creates opportunities that certainty never will
• Why your identity is bigger than the role you play
• What happens when you stop asking, "What do I do?" and start asking, "What am I capable of?"

Because sometimes the biggest transformation isn't becoming someone else.

It's finally seeing who you've been capable of becoming all along.

What if the person you're trying to become doesn't exist yet?

If you've ever felt stuck between who you've been and who you're becoming, this conversation is for you.

David Kidder has built and sold companies, written New York Times bestselling books, advised Fortune 500 leaders, and spent decades helping entrepreneurs navigate uncertainty. But this conversation isn't about exits or success.

It's about what happens when everything you've built no longer defines you.

We explore why failure can be the greatest source of freedom, how fear loses its grip the moment you face it, why you can't know where your path will lead before you begin, and what it means to surrender control without giving up ambition.

David shares the lessons that only come from starting over, the difference between playing to win and playing not to lose, why permission is often the thing standing between us and the life we want, and how becoming, not achieving, is the real work.

Connect with David Kidder
🌐 https://www.davidskidder.com

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What story have you accepted about your life that was never actually yours?

At sixteen, Halim Flowers was sentenced to two life sentences. The world handed him an ending before his life had even begun.

He never claimed it.

In this episode of Full Wattage, Halim shares how he built freedom in his mind long before he was physically released. From 22 years behind bars to becoming an artist, author, entrepreneur, and cultural engineer, his story is not about resilience as a buzzword. It is about certainty. It is about self-definition. It is about refusing to let the worst thing that happened to you become the truest thing about you.

We talk about the hunger that shaped him, the moment he stopped waiting for the world to change, the books and beliefs that helped him move from belief to knowing, and the purpose that now drives his work: bringing beauty, wellness, and cultural capital into the communities most often denied them.

This conversation will make you look at your own life differently.

Because the story written for you was never yours.

Halim Flowers on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/halimflowers/

Mind Over Matter Book by Halim Flowers - https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Over-Matter-Halim-Flowers/dp/XXXXXX

Obama Foundation USA Leaders Program - https:// Obama Foundation website

Artonomics Initiative - https://artonomics.com

Most of us think the thing standing between us and our best performance is more skill.

More practice.
Better technique.
A different strategy.

But what if that's not the problem?

Dr. Rick Sessinghaus has spent decades coaching elite golfers, including two-time major PGA champion Collin Morikawa, through the highest-pressure moments in sport.

What he's learned is that the obstacle is rarely talent.

It's the interference.

The doubt.
The distraction.
The fear.
The stories we tell ourselves when things stop working.

In this conversation, we explore what it takes to stay in the game when nothing is clicking, why one bad variable doesn't mean the entire system is broken, and the question that changes everything:

Who needs to show up right now?

Whether you're leading a company, raising a family, building something meaningful, or simply trying to become more of who you're capable of being, this conversation is a masterclass in performing under pressure.

Work with Rick: theflowcode.com

Full Wattage.
For people who refuse to live dialed down.

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