Make Minutes Matter

What’s left when the title, the salary and the corner office go away? In Part 2 of this conversation on Make Minutes Matter, host Karen Gilhooly and John Janclaes, former CEO of Partners Federal Credit Union, get personal about leadership presence, workplace engagement and rebuilding your identity after a career ends. Karen opens with her own reckoning: the titles and the companies were what she did, not who she was.

Janclaes shares the night he diverted to Orlando after the Pulse nightclub shooting and learned one of his employees had been injured. When he walked into headquarters, two staff members hugged him and said, “We knew you would come.” That expectation, he says, is the real measure of a culture. They connect it to Maslow’s hierarchy and to how the pandemic, remote work and fast-changing technology have made it harder than ever to get “the alchemy right.”

Gilhooly explains the framework behind her book, The Three Buckets, which grew out of her years as an “engagement paramedic” for struggling teams. Bucket One is all in. Bucket Two is a necessary pause to ask whether the effort is still worth it. Bucket Three is stuck, with no options in sight. She landed there herself, caught between a 24/7 role and failing parents, until her husband showed her a video of herself “in rare form.” Her father, in his final days, was still going out swinging with power tools and pajama pants. He was in Bucket One. She was wasting her minutes.

On execution, Janclaes points to the Bain study behind Time, Talent, Energy: the best organizations finish their week’s work by Thursday noon, while others grind into Saturday. Most strategies fail for two reasons, an unclear goal and not knowing how to get there, and AI is widening that gap. As CEO, he spent an hour every day with frontline employees to test whether the strategy was felt on the ground. They close with his decade-old purpose statement: be awake, pay attention to life’s rhythms, help others thrive, and take on things he doesn’t yet know how to do.

Key Takeaways 

Guest Bio

John Janclaes is the former President and CEO of Partners Federal Credit Union, which serves The Walt Disney Company’s cast members and employees. He is a management consultant and the author of three books on leadership and organizational performance, and has worked with more than 100 organizations across all but four states. He hosted the C-Suite Interviews podcast for three years, teaches a master’s-level course on risk and execution to bankers, and today advises fintechs and private equity firms.

Chapters

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For 16 years, John Janclaes led Partners Federal Credit Union, built to serve The Walt Disney Company's cast members and employees. He took it from the bottom decile of industry performance to the top, where it stayed for a decade. In Part 1 of this three-part conversation on Make Minutes Matter, host Karen Gilhooly and Janclaes discuss how deep listening shaped Partners' mission, why he built a leadership university for all 800 employees, and his philosophy: "All must lead and a few will manage."

After moving from consulting into credit union leadership, Janclaes oversaw the merger of Disney's two credit unions, one serving Walt Disney World and the other Disneyland. The mission, "Make All Financial Dreams Come True," was born at Disney's Orlando laundry. More than 10,000 people worked there, many of them Haitian immigrants who had never had a bank account. When Disney leaders named transportation as employees' biggest challenge, Janclaes's team staged a sale of 500 used cars, lined up by weekly payment, with a return option. It was banking expertise used to solve a human problem, not to push a product.

Janclaes argues that leadership belongs to everyone, not just people with titles. After the Center for Creative Leadership's "Leadership at the Peak" program, he built in-house leadership and lending universities. He separates the management sciences banking runs on from the leadership sciences of self-awareness and influence. Engaged leaders drove better performance, and better performance kept people engaged.

On feedback, Gilhooly practiced giving it in grocery stores until it came naturally. She calls it a gift, even when it's the ugly Christmas sweater you'd rather hide. Janclaes recommends rehearsing hard conversations with a colleague first: "Work harder on yourself than you do on other people." Gilhooly shares lessons from HSBC, where she built one global client experience and encouraged employees in Asian markets to speak up. Her guiding phrase: "Say what you mean, but don't say it mean."

They close on partnership. Members could feel the culture of Partners' 30 to 40 strategic partners, so Janclaes met key partners every quarter to work through "the uglies." "We can out-partner the competition." Part 2 continues the conversation.

Key Takeaways

Guest Bio

John Janclaes is the former President and CEO of Partners Federal Credit Union, which serves The Walt Disney Company's cast members and employees. Over 16 years he took it from the bottom to the top decile of industry performance. His 35+ year career includes executive roles at some of the nation's largest credit unions and credit union service organizations (CUSOs). In 2014 he founded CEO's Corner, which offers executive coaching, advisory work and keynote speaking. His guiding philosophy is "all must lead and a few will manage."

Timestamps

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike Terzian, CEO of Foothill Federal Credit Union, joins host Karen Gilhooly on Make Minutes Matter for a candid take on burnout, boundaries, and where AI fits into a healthy workplace. From the "digital sunset" to treating office days like a business trip, Terzian shares hard-won lessons on hybrid work, delegation, and responsible AI adoption.

Gilhooly opens with her "digital sunset" framework, a graduated wind-down instead of an unrealistic hard stop at 5:00. Terzian models this himself, scheduling emails for later and being explicit about when he's truly off. Both agree burnout is less an individual failing than a byproduct of always-on culture, and that leaders set the tone whether they mean to or not.

The conversation turns to hybrid work: Gilhooly recalls managing global teams through COVID, while Terzian offers his go-to analogy: treat in-office days like a business trip, with a clear agenda, rather than commuting in just to sit on Zoom. He also shares his "rubber band principle" for stretching people's responsibilities without breaking them, and a mentor's lesson that life isn't a dress rehearsal.

The centerpiece is AI at work. Terzian describes Foothill's AI agent Hal, which handles routine loan paperwork so employees can focus on higher-value work, and points to JPMorgan's gains as proof AI augments rather than replaces people. Still, both caution against polished AI output standing in for real understanding, a "Hollywood set" with nothing behind it. Their takeaway: AI is a powerful thought partner, never a substitute for human judgment.

Key Takeaways

Guest Bio

Mike Terzian is CEO of Foothill Federal Credit Union, with a career spanning marketing, lending, and executive leadership, including a long tenure at Disney's Partners Federal Credit Union. He's a vocal advocate for AI that enhances, rather than replaces, human contribution.

Chapters

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before he became CEO of Foothill Credit Union, Mike Terzian helped run one of the most unusual financial institutions in the country: Partners Federal Credit Union, built exclusively to serve Disney's cast members, Imagineers, and employees worldwide. In this episode of Make Minutes Matter, host Karen Gilhooly sits down with Terzian to unpack how a marketing career led him into credit unions, what he learned building culture inside "the happiest place on earth," and why the best leaders ask more questions than they answer.

Terzian traces his path into financial services: an MBA in marketing, consulting stints at AC Nielsen and Mercer, and client relationships that pulled him into credit unions full time. That path led to Partners Federal, serving roughly 120,000 Disney cast members and employees globally. He and Gilhooly demystify credit unions themselves — nonprofit, member-owned institutions that reinvest profits into lower fees and better rates instead of shareholder returns — then dig into what made Disney's ecosystem so distinct. Terzian describes a company as varied as "50 states," where park cast members, Imagineers, and corporate teams each needed different messaging and support.

Storytelling runs through the episode as a leadership discipline, not just a marketing tactic. Terzian argues Disney's real edge was narrative craft, and that authentic, transparent stories that build trust are what made his marketing team indispensable internally. He ties this to a leadership philosophy shaped by Simon Sinek's "Power of Why": the best leaders lead with curiosity rather than answers. He compares his role to a conductor who trusts specialists to play their instruments instead of trying to be the smartest person in the room.

The episode's centerpiece is culture — what Terzian calls "how you get stuff done." He walks through a multi-year culture initiative at Foothill: an "iceberg exercise" that surfaced 139 distinct cultural traits, later distilled into eight core pillars, plus a three-tier leadership academy that's already graduated multiple cohorts. He and Gilhooly reach for sports and music metaphors: an orchestra needs one of each instrument, and a baseball team needs trust and tough feedback. Leaders should treat individual differences as a force multiplier, they argue, rather than sanding everyone down to sameness.

They close on culture's fragility — it takes years of intentional work to build, but can collapse far faster than it took to create if leaders coast after early wins.

Key Takeaways

Guest Bio

Mike Terzian is CEO of Foothill Credit Union, leading organizational strategy, culture, and growth. He previously spent years at Partners Federal Credit Union, serving The Walt Disney Company's cast members and employees exclusively, holding EVP and VP roles over marketing, member services, lending, and analytics for an organization of roughly 425 team members and 120,000 members. Terzian holds an MBA in marketing and began his career in consulting at AC Nielsen and Mercer. He played college football at UC Davis and leans often on sports and music analogies to explain leadership and teamwork.

Chapters

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it really take to build a life you love?

Should you leave a secure corporate job? How do successful leaders think about failure? What creates lasting relationships? And how do you discover work that genuinely energizes you?

In this special Best Of episode of the Make Minutes Matter Podcast, host Karen Gilhooly brings together some of the most impactful conversations from past episodes featuring John Pagugua, Wayne Brown, Sean Young of Watson and Young, Sarah Murrow, and Brie Temple.

Whether you're considering a career change, building a business, leading a team, navigating relationships, or searching for more meaningful work, this episode is packed with practical advice, inspiring stories, and timeless wisdom from entrepreneurs, executives, and thought leaders who have taken big risks - and learned even bigger lessons.

From entrepreneurship and innovation to leadership, confidence, AI, relationships, and purpose, these are the conversations our audience continues to come back to.

Featured Guests

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Karen Gilhooly and Brie Temple, Chief Commercial Officer at Talkify, pick up right where they left off, and this time, the conversation goes even deeper.

Brie opens up about what it actually takes to lead at scale, managing 2,500 outbound sales agents across international BPO operations, and the labor, safety, and cultural realities most leaders never see. She also gets candid about the partnership behind the career: the intentional choices she and her husband made so her ambition could thrive, and why the support system behind a high performer rarely gets talked about.

From there, the conversation turns to culture. Brie makes the case that the same swipe-right mentality reshaping dating has quietly infected hiring and loyalty at work, and why that should worry every leader paying attention. She brings that same honesty to the debate over matchmaking versus algorithms, explaining why AI still can't replicate human chemistry and how Talkify's new Arrows platform is built to keep human intelligence at the center of digital convenience.

Brie and Karen also dig into the trades renaissance, the opportunity gap in skilled work, and why AI's disruption of white-collar jobs should have more leaders questioning college as the only path to purpose. Brie offers a sharp warning about AI as an echo chamber: a tool that's only as accurate and unbiased as the humans feeding it, and what that means for anyone making decisions with AI-generated data.

The episode's most human moments come toward the end. Brie reflects on why the ability to receive feedback gracefully is a harder, rarer skill than giving it, and shares the desk-pounding leadership mistake she still cringes about today. She closes with her most personal disclosure yet: a family mental health crisis that had her commuting by plane every week for seven months and the tribe principle it taught her about why your circle is your most important strategic asset.

This is a conversation about what actually holds a leader and a life together.

Don't forget to subscribe to Make Minutes Matter for more conversations about leadership, relationships, and making every moment count.

Dive deeper and check out Karen Gilhooly's book, The Three Bucket Leader: https://a.co/d/08vuNA9

Executive Producer: Matthew “MoJo” Jones; Editor: Nathan Wheatley; Associate Producer: Xavier Adetula; Filmed at Wolff Island Studios in Brooklyn, NYC

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Make Minutes Matter, Karen Gilhooly sits down with Brie Temple, Chief Commercial Officer at Talkify, one of America's largest matchmaking platforms. Bri oversees every customer-facing function and leads with a philosophy rooted in human connection.

Brie's path to the C-suite is anything but linear. She set out to become a marriage counselor, fell into sales, and climbed the ranks at companies like DirecTV. Eventually, she came full circle, landing at a matchmaking company where her belief in the power of relationships shapes everything she does.

This conversation goes deep. Karen and Brie candidly explore the things most leaders never say out loud. They discuss how growing up with an emotionally or physically absent parent quietly shapes who we become as professionals. They examine why radical transparency can backfire when it transfers anxiety instead of confidence. And they explore what it actually means to be responsible not just for your team, but for what they bring home to their families at night.

Brie also pushes back on the checklist culture that dominates modern matchmaking and modern hiring. She makes a compelling case that friendship and genuine compatibility matter more than any list of requirements. In one of the episode's most quietly profound moments, she offers a thought on grief that will stay with you long after the episode ends.

This is a must-listen for anyone who has ever wondered whether their "detour" was actually preparation. It's also for anyone who wants to lead in a way that leaves people better than they found them.

Don't forget to subscribe to Make Minutes Matter for more conversations about leadership, relationships, and making every moment count.

Resources

Learn more about Tawkify here: https://tawkify.com/

Article: Brie Temple Of Tawkify On How To Navigate Our Complicated Modern World To Find Love

Dive deeper and check out Karen Gilhooly's book, The Three Bucket Leader: https://a.co/d/08vuNA9

Chapters

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Make Minutes Matter, Karen Gilhooly continues her conversation with Sarah Murrow, President & CEO of Allianz Trade Americas, diving into a more personal side of her story.

Part 1 explored the landscape (https://youtu.be/Omz0Gv9Wd6w). Part 2 focuses on the journey.

Sarah reflects on her career, starting with a cold rejection from Allianz Trade (then Euler Hermes) in 2003, to receiving a life-changing Friday afternoon phone call in 2016 that uprooted her family and took them to Paris. What unfolded between those moments, and everything that followed is a powerful lesson in how embracing intentional discomfort can lead to a career most people only dream of.

Karen and Sarah candidly discuss topics leaders rarely voice aloud: the self-doubt that accompanied a global role she didn't feel prepared for, the complex decision to ask her spouse to become a stay-at-home dad for their two daughters in a foreign country, the resistance she encountered while advocating for equal paternity and maternity leave in the UK, and the deeply emotional moments they shared while reflecting on the unwavering support of their husbands, their true partners in every sense.

This episode also delves into rejection as an opportunity, how missed promotions can redirect you toward the right path, and what it really means to show commitment to a company before they've fully committed to you.

Sarah offers straightforward yet profound advice for early-career professionals: every day, challenge yourself to step into discomfort. Growth doesn't occur during easy moments. It comes from the ones you willingly face head-on.

This is a must-listen for anyone who's ever faced rejection and wrestled with whether to move on or try again. Because sometimes the path forward is clear, and other times it requires persistence and resourcefulness.

Don't forget to subscribe to Make Minutes Matter for more inspiring conversations about leadership, reinvention, and making every moment count.

Dive deeper and check out Karen Gilhooly's book, The Three Bucket Leader: https://a.co/d/08vuNA9

This show is produced by Rainbow Creative (https://www.rainbowcreative.co) with Matthew "MoJo" Jones as Executive Producer and Nathan Wheatley as Editor. For sponsorship opportunities, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the first “Best Of” Episode of Make Minutes Matter! In this episode you will hear from a powerful panel of leaders and coaches who explore what it truly means to find purpose and fulfillment in your career. From aligning core values over mere job performance to the dangers of coasting through life on autopilot, our guests share raw personal stories and hard-won wisdom.

Whether you're a manager struggling to inspire your team or an individual questioning your path, these conversation offers actionable insights on living and leading with intention. Make sure to dive deeper and watch or listen to each episode!

Conversations led by our host, Karen Gilhooly | Leading With Purpose

Karen connects the dots between personal purpose and team-level leadership, noting that great management means helping every person feel valued and operating in their strengths. She warns that leaders who skip this work will see the cost reflected directly in low engagement scores and disengaged teams. Karen also offers a sobering reflection on the trap of coasting by pointing out that time is finite.

Guests Clips Summaries

John Paguaga - John’s First Appearance | Values Over Skills

John opens with the memorable "hole in the street" parable. This is the idea that the most powerful guide isn't the expert or the authority, but the friend who has been in that same dark place and knows the way out. He reflects on his own journey of using lived experience as a compass for helping others. John emphasizes that aligning your work with your core values, not just your skills, is the true key to sustainable fulfillment.

Karen Dixon | When Employees Feel Invisible

Karen shares a coaching story about a remote employee who feels invisible and irrelevant to his own manager—a vivid example of how poor one-on-one culture erodes trust and engagement. She highlights how the expectation gap between managers and employees has widened in the remote work era, and how small moments of (dis)connection compound over time. Karen underscores that when employees feel like they don't matter, no amount of process or policy fills that void.

Bryan Schneider | Reconnecting Teams to Why

Bryan brings 20+ years of organizational experience to the question of why large institutions struggle to sustain meaningful change—arguing it comes down to patience and the willingness to keep telling the story. He stresses that purpose-driven leadership requires going beyond ego and continuously reconnecting the team to the why behind their work. When that "why" can't be clearly answered, Bryan believes it's not only acceptable but necessary to pause and reevaluate the direction entirely.

Ray Pendleton | Purpose Through Struggle

Ray draws on the Greek myth of Erite—the fork in Hercules' path—to illustrate how the "easy road" of power and glory without struggle ultimately leaves people hollow and unhappy. He argues that the struggle itself is inseparable from the satisfaction, and that getting what you think you want without earning it in a meaningful way ruins both the person and those around them. It's a powerful reminder that purpose is found in the journey, not just the destination.

Marie Letko | Curiosity Creates Calling

Marie brings an energizing perspective rooted in lifelong curiosity—waking up every day asking "what can I learn today?" and finding that mindset transformative in her work with clients. She advises young professionals to stop waiting for the perfect job and instead journal across every role they hold, looking for the through-line of what genuinely energizes them. For Marie, that thread was always people—and recognizing it early (or even late) is what turns a career into a calling.

These episodes were produced by Rainbow Creative with Matthew “MoJo” Jones as Senior Producer, Stephen Selnick as the Founding Senior Producer, Edited by Nathan Wheatley and Graphic Design by Mohamed Naser. Best of Post Production Produced by Nicholas Peters

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Make Minutes Matter, Karen Gilhooly sits down with Sarah Murrow, President & CEO of Allianz Trade Americas, for a candid conversation about what it really takes to build a meaningful, long-term career in a world that often rewards constant movement.

Sarah shares her 22-year journey with one company, spanning continents, roles, and leadership levels, not as a story of staying put, but of constantly evolving. From saying yes to uncomfortable opportunities to leading a major IT transformation she initially got wrong, her experience offers an honest look at growth, missteps, and the mindset required to lead at the highest level.

Karen and Sarah explore the hidden “equity” professionals build over time; credibility, relationships, and influence, and why walking away from it isn’t always as simple as it seems. They also unpack the tension between stability and ambition, the reality of leading through constant change, and why caring deeply about your work remains one of the most underrated competitive advantages.

Throughout the episode, they reflect on navigating leadership as women in traditionally male-dominated industries, focusing less on barriers and more on what it actually takes to earn, and own, your seat at the table.

This episode is for anyone questioning whether to stay or go, push forward or pivot. Because building a career isn’t about following trends, it’s about making intentional choices that compound over time.

Be sure to subscribe to Make Minutes Matter for more conversations about leadership, reinvention, and making every minute count.

Dive deeper and check out Karen Gilhooly’s book, The Three Bucket Leader:https://a.co/d/08vuNA9

This show is Produced by Rainbow Creative (https://www.rainbowcreative.co/)  with Matthew “MoJo” Jones as Executive Producer, and Nathan Wheatley as Editor. For sponsorship opportunities email [email protected] 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices