IgniteCast - Official Podcast of the Ignite Leadership Conference by CDF

Blue Delta Jeans are some of the most coveted bespoke jeans available anywhere--and the company was founded and thrives In Tupelo, Mississippi. Josh West and Nick Weaver, Blue Delta's co-founders, join Judd and Rory to talk entrepreneurship, growth, pivoting to PPE in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, why they're happy to do business in Mississippi, and what you need to do to create a thriving culture. This is a long and multi-faceted conversation!

🎧 New episodes drop every other Thursday, packed with insight, inspiration, and actionable ideas to help you grow as a leader—right where you are.

Want to learn more about the Ignite Leadership Conference?
 Visit 👉 www.igniteleadership.com

Rory Tyer (executive coach and co-founder of GoInnovation) gets put in the interview hot seat by Judd, and talks about the founding of the business, how he got into leadership development and coaching, and several pieces of advice for leaders on dealing with failure and empowering the people around them.

🎧 New episodes drop every other Thursday, packed with insight, inspiration, and actionable ideas to help you grow as a leader—right where you are.

Want to learn more about the Ignite Leadership Conference?
 Visit 👉 www.igniteleadership.com

Judd Wilson is Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce in the Community Development Foundation. In this episode Rory (his co-host) interviews him about his journey to this role, what he likes most (and what's challenging), and how he maintains healthy work-life harmony in the midst of so many personal and professional commitments. Judd interviews Rory in part 2.

🎧 New episodes drop every other Thursday, packed with insight, inspiration, and actionable ideas to help you grow as a leader—right where you are.

Want to learn more about the Ignite Leadership Conference?
 Visit 👉 www.igniteleadership.com

Can leadership development change the world? Before founding GoInnovation, CEO Steadman Harrison opened the first Africa-based office of the Center for Creative Leadership in Ethiopia 2009. As part of a movement called Leadership Beyond Boundaries, he and others scaled research-based leadership development to more than 500,000 people in five years. Today he has come full circle and leads GoInnovation's globally dispersed team from its Africa Regional Office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In this episode (recorded in the dusty hills of Ajloun, Jordan) you'll hear about simple tools to build relationship in any project or work (and why that matters for productivity and trust), hacks for simplifying and communicating important messages, and inspiring stories of the change that's possible when you choose to pass on whatever's been placed in your hands to just one other person.

🎧 New episodes drop every other Thursday, packed with insight, inspiration, and actionable ideas to help you grow as a leader—right where you are.

Want to learn more about the Ignite Leadership Conference?
 Visit 👉 www.igniteleadership.com

Barton Ramsey disrupted the gundog training and breeding industry by founding and flourishing Southern Oak Kennels, as well as Cornerstone Gun Dog Academy - the first fully online gun dog training program. In this episode Barton talks about growing up and being perceived as "rebellious" (which later became an entrepreneurial drive to create something new), the values that sustain him during seasons of change (and what can sustain you through change too), and what matters most in building a company you and your customers can be proud of.

🎧 New episodes drop every other Thursday, packed with insight, inspiration, and actionable ideas to help you grow as a leader—right where you are.

Want to learn more about the Ignite Leadership Conference?
 Visit 👉 www.igniteleadership.com

Cathy Northington started as a temp, and was eventually asked to be Chief Operating Officer of the Mississippi Economic Council - the first African-American woman to hold a C-suite position in a state chamber of commerce in the United States. In this interview she tells that story and reflects on the influences, core values, and priorities that helped her get where she is today and overcome the idea that she wasn't a leader.

🎧 New episodes drop every other Thursday, packed with insight, inspiration, and actionable ideas to help you grow as a leader—right where you are.

Want to learn more about the Ignite Leadership Conference?
 Visit 👉 www.igniteleadership.com

There are many ways to measure a person's legacy. The Reed family name is well known in northeast Mississippi; Reed's Department Store has been a Tupelo fixture for many years. Jack Reed Sr. was a deeply influential leader, and for this final episode of season 1 we gathered his grandchildren in one room (with two on the phone) to reflect on the many lessons they've learned from him, both before and after his death several years ago.

🎧 New episodes drop every other Thursday, packed with insight, inspiration, and actionable ideas to help you grow as a leader—right where you are.

Want to learn more about the Ignite Leadership Conference?
 Visit 👉 www.igniteleadership.com

How do you sustainably and significantly raise the overall quality of life for an entire community? It takes a lot of willing hands and a long-term perspective. 

In this episode, David Rumbarger, President of the Community Development Foundation, talks about the leadership lessons, tough experiences, and demonstrated successes that have helped thousands in northeast Mississippi have access to higher-paying jobs and a great community.

🎧 New episodes drop every other Thursday, packed with insight, inspiration, and actionable ideas to help you grow as a leader—right where you are.

Want to learn more about the Ignite Leadership Conference?
 Visit 👉 www.igniteleadership.com

Few industries are as challenging right now as health care. Shane Spees leads North Mississippi Health Services, which includes North Mississippi Medical Center - the largest non-metropolitan hospital in the United States. In this episode of Ignitecast, Shane shares his story, and wisdom he's learned navigating the tension between delivering excellent patient care and navigating relationships between medical providers, insurance companies, and the wider communities NMHS serves.

For more information about CDF: cdfms.org

For more information about GOinnovation: GO-innovation.com

🎧 New episodes drop every other Thursday, packed with insight, inspiration, and actionable ideas to help you grow as a leader—right where you are.

Want to learn more about the Ignite Leadership Conference?
 Visit 👉 www.igniteleadership.com

Toyota's name is legendary in the leadership world, in part because of the Japanese concept of "kaizen," which roughly translates to "continuous improvement" and refers to the mindset that all members, from CEO to floor workers, are constantly working together to notice what could be better and make that happen.

Sean Suggs is president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi, responsible for a plant that employs about 2,000 workers and produces the Corolla. In this episode he talked with us about what it means to build a good team, what it's like working across a geographically dispersed and global brand, and how he makes himself as available as he can to everyone in the plant as part of Toyota's Start Your Impossible initiative.

🎧 New episodes drop every other Thursday, packed with insight, inspiration, and actionable ideas to help you grow as a leader—right where you are.

Want to learn more about the Ignite Leadership Conference?
 Visit 👉 www.igniteleadership.com