Michael Green explains why he co-founded Athena Security and how a real, heartbreaking incident in 2023 reinforced the urgency of their mission: saving lives by detecting and denying weapons—and sometimes dangerous people—before they enter facilities. He shares how targeted violence can slip through gaps in coverage and how that reality pushed his team to deploy faster and more widely.

Federico and Michael unpack what it takes for security programs to work in the real world. Michael explains that detection is only part of the system: outcomes depend on disciplined processes, well-designed secondary screening, and consistent officer performance over time. They discuss the core tradeoff every organization faces—accuracy, speed, and convenience—and the “necessary friction” required to keep environments safe without overwhelming staff with alarms or fatigue.

Michael breaks down Athena’s approach to weapons screening using multi-frequency electromagnetic detection to identify metallic contraband, with customers setting the “threat target” based on what they want to keep out. He describes how most teams handle alerts through secondary screening (often with hand wands), and why higher sensitivity (like detecting small blades) inevitably increases alarms and workload. They also cover the challenges of 24/7 operations versus event venues, where staffing is concentrated for a short window.

The conversation goes beyond weapons: Michael highlights rising concerns like phones and smart devices as new forms of contraband and data risk, and explains why schools face unique challenges due to large perimeters and the creativity of students. He also outlines how Athena uses AI to increase accountability—confirming officers are present, resolving alarms with documented reasons, and providing audit trails and system health monitoring.

Finally, Michael shares his vision for the next 3–5 years: a convergence of systems—weapon screening, X-ray, visitor management, access control, and video—into a unified security operations view, moving toward a more seamless, less manual “tunnel of truth” experience.

About Michael Green:

- https://www.athena-security.com/

- https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelleonardgreen/

About Federico Ramallo ✨👨‍💻🌎

🚀 Software Engineering Manager | 🛠 Founder of DensityLabs.io & PreVetted.ai | 🤝 Connecting 🇺🇸 U.S. teams with top nearshore 🌎 LATAM engineers

- 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/framallo/

- 🌐 https://densitylabs.io

- ✅ https://prevetted.ai

🎙 PreVetted Podcast 🎧📡

- 🎯 https://prevetted.ai/podcast

- 🐦 https://x.com/PrevettedPod

- 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/prevetted-podcast

00:00 Introduction to Athena Security and Its Mission

00:58 The Importance of Threat Detection Technology

05:25 Innovative Screening Solutions for Public Safety

07:23 Challenges in Different Environments

11:45 Balancing Accuracy, Speed, and Convenience

14:12 Common Failures in Security Technology

16:37 Choosing the Right Detection Setup

19:47 The Future of Threat Detection Technology

Swati Swoboda traces her path from an eighth-grade research project on a library computer to leading development for Vault in Shopify’s Office of the CEO—work she calls “metaprogramming the company.” In this conversation, Swati and Federico dive into the arc of modern engineering: from Classic ASP and hand-editing production files to Rails’ elegant conventions, from code reviews to reading far more code than you write, and from individual craftsmanship to orchestrating AI agents at scale.

Swati’s origin story begins pre-Google, when Yahoo directories and Ask Jeeves sparked a fascination with how the web worked. A 37signals (Basecamp) redesign demo later revealed the power of product and UX to remove friction from everyday tasks—an ethos that still guides her. She reminisces about Classic ASP (“Response.write everywhere”), the security lessons of SQL injection, and why C# plus Visual Studio felt magical—before discovering how Rails’ readability and conventions make both writing and reading code feel like prose.

Inside Shopify, Swati explains Vault, the internal system that houses projects, reviews, and company knowledge. Through the GSD cadence, leaders (including founder/CEO Tobi) review thousands of projects on a regular rhythm, creating alignment, shared context, and accountability. Is that bureaucracy? Swati’s view: every company has bureaucracy; the question is whether it creates clarity and reduces waste—duplicate work, abandoned efforts, and misaligned launches that erode trust with merchants. Vault acts like GPS for work: it surfaces direction, status, risks, and trade-offs so teams can move faster in the same direction.

On autonomy vs. micromanagement, Swati draws a line between intrusive time-tracking and principled, opinionated leadership. Engineers “earn agency” by aligning frequently, exposing assumptions, and inviting context.

AI is everywhere in her workflow. Shopify teams use Claude and agents heavily, which means 100+ PRs in a day isn’t unusual. The skill that shines now is less about hand-optimizing algorithms and more about communication, problem framing, and system design: expressing outcomes, sharing context, and rigorously steering agents. PMs can “vibe-code” prototypes to validate ideas; engineers elevate to higher-leverage problems and faster learning loops. Far from shrinking the field, Swati expects AI to create more engineers overall (though fewer per company), with roles blending product sense, architectural judgment, security awareness, and foundational CS literacy.

Themes you’ll hear throughout: build tools that reduce pain; prefer clarity to speed when it protects trust; ship to learn, then iterate; and treat culture as a product you can shape with systems. It’s a candid tour through how a founder-led company scales alignment, why Rails still “fits the brain,” and how the next generation of engineers will manage fleets of intelligent collaborators to deliver real-world impact.

About Swati Swoboda:

- https://x.com/swatiswoboda

About Federico Ramallo ✨👨‍💻🌎

🚀 Software Engineering Manager | 🛠 Founder of DensityLabs.io & PreVetted.ai | 🤝 Connecting 🇺🇸 U.S. teams with top nearshore 🌎 LATAM engineers

- 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/framallo/

- 🌐 https://densitylabs.io

- ✅ https://prevetted.ai

🎙 PreVetted Podcast 🎧📡

- 🎯 https://prevetted.ai/podcast

- 🐦 https://x.com/PrevettedPod

- 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/prevetted-podcast

00:00 Introduction to Swati Swoboda

01:40 Swati's Origin Story in Software Development

04:41 The Impact of Engineering on User Experience

06:38 Rails vs. Other Programming Languages

09:35 The Beauty of Code and Readability

11:15 The Evolution of Programming Languages

15:42 Metaprogramming at Shopify

20:23 Company Culture and Project Alignment

22:44 Avoiding Wasted Efforts in Engineering

25:04 Balancing Bureaucracy and Innovation

27:07 Learning from Mistakes and Iteration

35:28 AI's Role in Software Development

46:31 The Future of Engineering with AI

Shreya Hegde: Senior Product Manager–Technical at Amazon, traces her path from software engineering in India to healthcare startups and finally Big Tech—showing how her craft evolved from “shipping more features” to designing resilient systems that deliver real outcomes. She explains the spark that drew her to product: realizing that technology quietly shapes how people live and work. Early on, she measured success by launches and deadlines; over time, she pivoted to validating the problem first, using deep customer empathy, “day-in-the-life” research, and treating constraints as design inputs rather than blockers.

Shreya walks through her career tour: CGI (engineering, ERP), a healthcare startup (MedAsset), and a larger healthcare firm where she shipped B2B products for hospitals nationwide. Her most formative launch was a price-transparency product built amid evolving regulation for the No Surprises Act; the lesson: in regulated spaces, compliance and product thinking must be integrated from day one. Moving to Amazon was the inflection point where scale met full accountability—decisions suddenly affected thousands of operators and meaningful dollars—demanding multi-year thinking, narrative clarity, and influence without authority.

Inside Amazon, the SPM-T role blends problem framing, engineering/design reviews, one-way/two-way door trade-off calls, stakeholder alignment, and metric inspections. Her favorite part of the job is the ambiguous pre-work: connecting dots before writing a single PRD because “clarity compounds,” and skipping that investment just creates rework later. On measurement, she frames a pyramid: North-star business outcomes at the top, with leading indicators beneath—guided by data but grounded in product sense and real customer anecdotes. Ambiguous goals become testable bets; roadmaps should express intent, outcomes, and learning, not false certainty. She cites a recent project where technical depth (accurate modeling of spatial/operational complexity) unlocked customer value that a market-only lens would have missed.

Advice threads the conversation. PMs moving from small companies to Big Tech often underestimate influence and overestimate authority—earn trust early with crisp narratives and data. To her younger self: don’t rush to prove value; build judgment through active listening. Across contexts—from startups to Amazon—Shreya argues for systems thinking, disciplined discovery, and the courage to slow down up front so teams can move faster, smarter, and with greater customer trust over the long run.

About Shreya Hegde:

- https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/iot/delivering-an-integrated-approach-to-safety-how-aws-workforce-safety-solutions-make-work-safer/

About Federico Ramallo ✨👨‍💻🌎

🚀 Software Engineering Manager | 🛠 Founder of DensityLabs.io & PreVetted.ai | 🤝 Connecting 🇺🇸 U.S. teams with top nearshore 🌎 LATAM engineers

- 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/framallo/

- 🌐 https://densitylabs.io

- ✅ https://prevetted.ai

🎙 PreVetted Podcast 🎧📡

- 🎯 https://prevetted.ai/podcast

- 🐦 https://x.com/PrevettedPod

- 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/prevetted-podcast

00:00 Introduction to Shreya Hegde

02:49 Evolving as a Product Manager

05:42 Career Journey and Key Inflection Points

08:22 Challenges in Healthcare Product Launches

11:09 Mindset Shift in Big Tech

12:43 Day-to-Day as a Senior Product Manager

14:59 Metrics and Measuring Success

17:44 Translating Business Goals into Roadmaps

19:05 Technical Depth vs. Market-First Approach

19:55 Advice for Product Managers Transitioning to Big Tech

21:32 First Principles Thinking

22:08 Final Thoughts and Advice for Future PMs

David Esposito traces how West Point, the 101st Airborne, and leading soldiers in high-stakes environments shaped his approach to listening first, setting clear principles, and acting with calm resolve as a healthcare CEO. He and Federico dive into his work at ONL Therapeutics, a biotech company developing therapies to protect retinal cells in diseases like age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and retinal detachment. David explains how the retina works, why retinal cells don’t regenerate, and how ONL aims to “help patients see the future” by stopping stressed cells from dying.

He also offers advice on eye health: why regular exams matter, how many eye diseases progress silently, and why people should understand options and tradeoffs before procedures like laser surgery. Shifting to leadership, David describes running a small team executing a large global clinical trial—balancing workload, avoiding burnout, and breaking down silos so experts solve problems together instead of protecting turf.

The conversation then moves to his role on the board of Allergenis, a company using blood-based diagnostics to better understand pediatric food allergies. David explains what board work looks like versus being a CEO, the value of emotional detachment when advising founders, and why honest feedback is essential for building stronger businesses. He and Federico reflect on the importance of trusted advisors who can see what operators miss when they are “too deep in the game.”

David also shares the story behind Harvest Time Partners, his “side hustle” focused on helping people be their best at home, at work, and in the community. Starting with a family conversation board game, he has built tools and books to reinforce principles like compassion, honesty, sacrifice, and teamwork. He talks about co-creating with his wife Tracy, the challenges and rewards of working with a spouse, and why having a strong partner at home reshapes how you experience wins and losses.

Finally, David reflects on exits—both acquisitions and wind-downs—what he wishes he had known beforehand, and what other CEOs should understand: deals are never smooth, something always goes sideways, and the real fulfillment comes from moving science forward and helping patients, not just the headline valuation. Looking ahead, he hopes his companies are known for developing leaders who stay deeply human in an age of AI: present with their teams, able to connect, and committed to mission-driven work.

About David Esposito:

- https://onltherapeutics.com/

- https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidesposito2/

About Federico Ramallo ✨👨‍💻🌎

🚀 Software Engineering Manager | 🛠 Founder of DensityLabs.io & PreVetted.ai | 🤝 Connecting 🇺🇸 U.S. teams with top nearshore 🌎 LATAM engineers

- 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/framallo/

- 🌐 https://densitylabs.io

- ✅ https://prevetted.ai

🎙 PreVetted Podcast 🎧📡

- 🎯 https://prevetted.ai/podcast

- 🐦 https://x.com/PrevettedPod

- 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/prevetted-podcast

00:00 Introduction to Leadership and Vision

04:33 Understanding ONL Therapeutics and Its Importance

08:14 Eye Health: Importance and Preventive Measures

13:24 Leadership Challenges in Early-Stage Biotech

19:12 The Role of Teamwork in Leadership

21:54 Board vs. CEO: Different Leadership Roles

23:54 The Emotional Connection in Leadership

28:42 Harvest Time Partners: A Journey of Impact

35:01 The Dynamics of Working with a Spouse

39:36 Navigating Business Transitions and Exits

43:52 The Future of Leadership in an AI World

Dan Kurdys joins the PreVetted Podcast to explore how AI, CRISPR, and modern plant science can help crops – and the people who depend on them – keep up with a changing climate. As Executive Vice President of Business Development at Pairwise and former Global Business Lead for GenAI at Bayer Crop Science, he works where agriculture and deep tech meet, focused on turning science into real products for farmers and families.

Using the blight-stricken Earth of Interstellar as a starting point, Dan explains why that Hollywood scenario is exaggerated, but why the risk behind it is real if agriculture becomes complacent while nature keeps evolving. He shares his early days walking cornfields in Michigan with a punch card and carbon-copy forms, contrasted with the robotics and vision systems he saw in pharmaceutical plants. A story about his tool-and-die-maker grandfather leads to a key idea that runs through the episode: you don’t start with a shiny tool like AI or CRISPR, you start with the problem and then pick the right tool for it.

Dan describes Pairwise’s mission as making plants easier to grow and easier to eat. He and Federico talk about picky kids, pitless cherries, seedless blackberries, and compact plants that produce more fruit per acre. With the analogy of editing a long document, Dan explains how CRISPR lets scientists “find and edit” specific parts of a plant’s genome to improve traits such as plant architecture, flowering time, yield, and resilience. The same approach can help move crops to regions with better water access, make them more resource, efficient, and finally bring serious innovation to under, served crops like avocados and cacao that never had big breeding programs behind them.

The second half of the conversation focuses on AI as the other big lever. Agriculture today is drowning in data, Dan says, but the real challenge is turning that data into insight at the exact moment a decision must be made. He talks about specialized AI agents that can pull in the right context, reduce errors in complex, weather-driven systems, and act as force multipliers for agronomists in the field and scientists in R&D, while partnerships help extend these tools to smallholder farmers and regional crops.

Throughout the episode, Dan comes back to trust, mission, and impact. People trust what they can see and taste, so a great product experience plus transparency beats any technical lecture. The best AI plus biology plus business teams he has seen are united by a shared mission rather than an org chart, with mutual accountability pushing everyone to raise their game.

About Dan Kurdys:

- https://www.pairwise.com/

- https://www.linkedin.com/in/dankurdys/

About Federico Ramallo ✨👨‍💻🌎

🚀 Software Engineering Manager | 🛠 Founder of DensityLabs.io & PreVetted.ai | 🤝 Connecting 🇺🇸 U.S. teams with top nearshore 🌎 LATAM engineers

- 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/framallo/

- 🌐 https://densitylabs.io

- ✅ https://prevetted.ai

🎙 PreVetted Podcast 🎧📡

- 🎯 https://prevetted.ai/podcast

- 🐦 https://x.com/PrevettedPod

- 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/prevetted-podcast

00:00 Introduction to Agricultural Innovation

02:52 The Role of Technology in Agriculture

05:47 Personal Journey into Agriculture

08:19 Understanding Pearwise and CRISPR Technology

10:40 The Future of Food: Making Produce Fun

13:35 CRISPR: Editing the Genetic Code

16:10 Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change

18:32 From Concept to Field: The Journey of Crop Innovation

20:19 Impact of AI on Agriculture

26:08 AI and Gene Editing for Smallholder Farmers

28:21 Balancing Traits in Crop Development

31:05 Building Trust in Technology

32:17 Regulatory Frameworks and Innovation

34:50 CRISPR vs. GMO: A New Era

37:10 The Role of Context in AI

38:49 Creating High-Performance Teams

41:21 Future of Food: A Vision for 10 Years

Beth Flory is the CEO of Safe House in Henderson, Nevada, a comprehensive domestic violence agency supporting survivors and their children. Beth explains how Safe House provides a 62-bed emergency shelter in a confidential location, a 24/7 crisis hotline, victim advocacy through the legal process, licensed counseling, and community outreach.Always free of charge.

Beth shares why this work matters so much in Nevada, a state that consistently ranks among the highest for domestic-violence-related homicides. She also explains how domestic violence can lead to homelessness, and how Safe House helps remove barriers through practical support like safety planning, help obtaining vital documents, and even assistance with security deposits and first month’s rent.

The conversation explores the cycle of violence, incident, honeymoon phase, tension building, and repeat, and how generational patterns can continue when children grow up in violent homes. Beth highlights financial abuse as a major trap: controlling income, stealing paychecks, opening credit cards in a victim’s name, and creating debt that makes it harder to leave. She also describes how abusers with resources can use the legal system to wear victims down, and how advocates and community partners like Legal Aid can help survivors navigate court.

Beth’s path to leadership is a core theme. After a personal experience that pushed her to work in violence prevention, she joined Safe House in 2008 as an entry-level residential advocate. She worked overnight shifts, supported clients in crisis, later became a children’s advocate, then moved into operations,handling HR, volunteers, bookkeeping, and pandemic protocols, before being succession, planned into the CEO role.

Beth also speaks openly about the emotional weight of trauma work, the need for self-care, and being trauma-informed not only with clients but with staff, many of whom are survivors themselves. The episode closes with a simple but powerful takeaway: when someone is in crisis, don’t overthink it,just say, “I’m here when you need me.

About Beth Flory:

About Federico Ramallo ✨👨‍💻🌎

🚀 Software Engineering Manager | 🛠 Founder of DensityLabs.io & PreVetted.ai | 🤝 Connecting 🇺🇸 U.S. teams with top nearshore 🌎 LATAM engineers

- 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/framallo/

- 🌐 https://densitylabs.io

- ✅ https://prevetted.ai

🎙 PreVetted Podcast 🎧📡

- 🎯 https://prevetted.ai/podcast

- 🐦 https://x.com/PrevettedPod

- 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/prevetted-podcast

00:00 Introduction to Safe House and Beth Flory

03:27 Understanding Domestic Violence and Safe House Services

14:15 Beth's Personal Journey into Social Services

17:41 The Interconnection of Gambling Addiction and Domestic Violence

22:34 Challenges in Providing Support and Resources

25:58 The Emotional Toll of Supporting Victims

32:12 Transformative Journeys: From Crisis to Resilience

37:44 Climbing the Ranks: A Personal Journey to Leadership

45:58 Building a Supportive Community in Leadership

48:22 Being There: Simple Ways to Support Someone in Crisis

John Hooker: In this episode, John Hooker, Director of Engineering at Statistics & Control, shares how his lifelong fascination with gas turbines led him from aerospace engineering at Iowa State into turbomachinery control and, eventually, advanced process control and large-scale simulation. He explains how controlling a turbine in an airplane isn’t that different from controlling one on the ground—an insight that helped him land in oil & gas consulting at a small company that grew into a global team with offices across multiple countries.

John walks through how their work expanded from PLC-based turbine and compressor control into building training simulators and full network simulations—gas, pipelines, electrical, steam, and even oil wells—often because customers kept asking: “Can you simulate this too?” Federico and John unpack why simulations grow more complex than expected, especially when you start layering on optimization and economic goals that change with market conditions (like maximizing throughput when gas prices are high vs. minimizing cost when prices drop).

They share real “engineer pain” stories: a geothermal steam project that was mysteriously off by five megawatts until they realized altitude and humidity were missing from the model; and the reality that every plant has its own twist—single-speed pumps, mixed fuel gases, outdated P&IDs, or aging valves that leak so badly “30% open” behaves like “100% open.” John emphasizes a key principle: you can’t optimize what you can’t control—solid control comes first, then optimization.

The conversation also dives into industrial tech realities: legacy Windows XP systems still running remote stations, the shift toward virtualization and cloud access, redundancy strategies for data and communications, and the “too much data” problem that makes predictive maintenance and analytics valuable—when the data quality is good. John closes with practical advice for young engineers: learn fundamentals (like ISA resources), ask experienced people questions, and learn by doing—build small control examples, simulate processes, and iterate fast.

About John Hooker:

- https://www.linkedin.com/in/johndhooker/

About Federico Ramallo ✨👨‍💻🌎

🚀 Software Engineering Manager | 🛠 Founder of DensityLabs.io & PreVetted.ai | 🤝 Connecting 🇺🇸 U.S. teams with top nearshore 🌎 LATAM engineers

- 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/framallo/

- 🌐 https://densitylabs.io

- ✅ https://prevetted.ai

🎙 PreVetted Podcast 🎧📡

- 🎯 https://prevetted.ai/podcast

- 🐦 https://x.com/PrevettedPod

- 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/prevetted-podcast

00:00 Introduction to Control Engineering and Career Path

05:07 The Evolution of Simulation Technology

09:14 Challenges in Engineering Solutions

15:35 Navigating Software and Technology Changes

21:41 Consulting and Client Expectations

24:14 Project Challenges and Optimization

27:03 Control Systems and Their Importance

30:39 Mechanical vs. Electrical Systems

35:10 Data Management and Predictive Maintenance

39:30 The Role of AI in Engineering

46:55 Advice for Aspiring Engineers

Bill Canady joins Federico Ramallo to share simple, hard-earned leadership lessons from running and transforming billion-dollar businesses. Bill explains his “four commandments” for leading any organization: be data-driven (decide with 20–80% of the data), no surprises (share bad news fast), be on pace (avoid leaving people behind or becoming the bottleneck), and results matter (no “best efforts” culture). He describes how these rules create alignment, clarity, and accountability across teams.

The conversation then turns to a challenge many founders face: pushing for results without burning people out. Bill’s approach is to set the destination (the goal), then let leaders and teams own the strategy for how to get there. When people have control, feel trusted, and know the “lines on the field,” they move faster with less stress and stronger ownership—without the CEO driving from the backseat.

Federico shares his own journey from engineer to CEO, including how he learned to delegate, design decision-making, and build a company that can run without him in the day-to-day. Bill and Federico compare notes on building scalable systems, creating processes, and evolving as the business grows.

They also explore Federico’s product, PreVetted.ai—an AI-assisted screening system designed to reduce false positives, provide feedback to candidates, and improve hiring speed while protecting quality. Bill discusses where AI helps (skills and early screening) and where humans still matter most (fit, values, and trust).

Finally, Bill outlines Arrowhead Engineered Products’ future: growing toward $2B in revenue, improving profitability, expanding global leadership in powersports, outdoor power equipment, and rotating electric, and shifting the company’s purpose from “parts” toward “passion and protection”, helping customers enjoy what they love while staying safe.

About Bill Canady:

- https://billcanady.com/

- https://the8020institute.com/

- https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-canady/

About Federico Ramallo ✨👨‍💻🌎

🚀 Software Engineering Manager | 🛠 Founder of DensityLabs.io & PreVetted.ai | 🤝 Connecting 🇺🇸 U.S. teams with top nearshore 🌎 LATAM engineers

- 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/framallo/

- 🌐 https://densitylabs.io

- ✅ https://prevetted.ai

🎙 PreVetted Podcast 🎧📡

- 🎯 https://prevetted.ai/podcast

- 🐦 https://x.com/PrevettedPod

- 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/prevetted-podcast

00:00 Introduction to Bill Canady

01:12 The Four Commandments of Business Leadership

04:31 Driving Results Without Burnout

08:17 The Importance of Delegation

12:41 Transitioning from Founder to CEO

15:41 Building Trust and Delegation

19:10 Balancing Work and Family

20:00 The Evolution of Coding and Technology

23:13 Early Beginnings in Coding

26:52 The Role of Family in Business

31:10 Future Aspirations and Innovations

36:12 Evolving Roles in Tech and Recruitment

39:07 Leveraging AI in Recruitment

40:42 The Future of Automated Hiring Processes

44:23 Transitioning from Services to Products

47:43 Building Relationships in Recruitment

52:29 Navigating Competition in Recruitment

53:52 Vision for the Future of Arrowhead

01:00:37 The Future of Automotive Repairability

Liz Ortenburger, CEO of SafeNest in Las Vegas, explains how Nevada’s largest domestic and sexual violence nonprofit works across three “buckets”: prevention, protection, and empowerment. She shares why SafeNest is different—because prevention includes working not only with survivors, but also with abusive partners and youth at risk of repeating the cycle.

Liz and Federico explore the science behind adversity and outcomes, including adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and how trauma strongly increases the risk of later violence, addiction, homelessness, and poor health. Liz argues that one of the most overlooked tools is also one of the simplest: building hope. She describes “hope plans” for kids—clear goals, steps, and supportive adults—so young people can see a future that is better than their past and believe they can reach it.

They discuss how emotions are handled in society: boys are often taught to hide feelings, and girls are often dismissed for expressing them. Liz explains how this feeds into violence, and why teaching emotional skills early—anger awareness, de-escalation, and accountability—could prevent future abuse. She also talks about bullying and the idea of asking “What’s the function?” behind harmful behavior.

On the protection side, Liz describes crisis hotlines, emergency shelter, and SafeNest’s partnership with police—responding to high-danger calls like strangulation or assault with a deadly weapon. On empowerment, she shares how SafeNest supports survivors long-term with mental health care, visas, housing, and career development.

The conversation also challenges the current justice system approach: mandatory arrest and “no drop” prosecution can remove survivor choice and still fail to reduce violence. Liz makes the case for separating low-level first-time cases from the courts, focusing courts on high-lethality cases, and expanding real support for abusive partners—therapy, workforce development, and tools to change—because ending violence can’t be solved through a survivor-only system.

They close with a practical call to action: invest in young people, especially by being a steady adult role model, and help kids build confidence and hope—one relationship at a time.

About Liz Ortenburger:

- https://SafeNest.org

About Federico Ramallo ✨👨‍💻🌎

🚀 Software Engineering Manager | 🛠 Founder of DensityLabs.io & PreVetted.ai | 🤝 Connecting 🇺🇸 U.S. teams with top nearshore 🌎 LATAM engineers

- 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/framallo/

- 🌐 https://densitylabs.io

- ✅ https://prevetted.ai

🎙 PreVetted Podcast 🎧📡

- 🎯 https://prevetted.ai/podcast

- 🐦 https://x.com/PrevettedPod

- 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/prevetted-podcast

00:00 Introduction to SafeNest and Liz Ortenberger

01:02 Understanding SafeNest's Approach to Domestic Violence

02:50 The Importance of Prevention in Breaking the Cycle of Violence

07:50 Building Hope: A Pathway for At-Risk Youth

14:54 The Impact of SafeNest on Survivors and Abusive Partners

32:39 Rethinking Domestic Violence Support Systems

32:47 Understanding Survivor Return Rates

36:52 The Role of the Criminal Justice System

41:13 Revisiting Domestic Violence Policies

48:52 The Importance of Survivor Voice

52:29 The Role of Male Role Models in Prevention

Damon Lembi is the CEO of Learnit, a 3x bestselling author, former Division 1 baseball player at Arizona State, and host of The Learn-It-All Podcast. In this conversation with Federico Ramallo, Damon shares how his “all-in” mindset helped him reach 200+ podcast episodes in under two years—because for him, podcasting feels like getting a personalized MBA through deep conversations with great people.

Damon walks through his early identity as an athlete: a high school All-American, drafted by the Atlanta Braves, and later playing college baseball at Pepperdine and Arizona State—where he hit a home run in the College World Series. When his baseball career ended at 22, he faced an identity crisis and had to rebuild his future from scratch. He explains how mentors and family helped him realize he was more than baseball—and that the discipline, grit, teamwork, and feedback culture of sports transferred directly into business.

He then tells the Learnit origin story: his father started the company after taking a boring computer class and believing there had to be a better way. Damon joined Learnit at the ground floor as a receptionist—not wanting special treatment—and deliberately learned every role in the company (IT help, teaching, cold calling, sales). That curiosity built empathy and business understanding, and eventually helped him step into the CEO role.

The episode also covers Damon’s Learn-It-All mindset versus the “know-it-all” ego trap. Damon breaks down his 4 C’s framework—character, curiosity, courage, and confidence—and connects it to modern leadership challenges like AI, burnout, delegation, and building teams that aren’t “yes-men.” He closes with a practical approach to imposter syndrome (label your fear, take the leap, deliberate practice, then “learn and let go”) and a reminder that great leaders aren’t finished—they’re always in the making.

About Damon Lembi:

- Podcast: The Learn-It-All Podcast

- Website: https//www.TheLearnItAllLeader.com

- Learnit: https://www.Learnit.com

- The Learn-It-All Leader: https://a.co/d/5oebQ6a

- The Learn-It-All Leader for Kids: https://a.co/d/eQ5D2nl

- Instagram @damonlembi

- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/damonlembi

- Youtube: @thelearnitallpodcast

- X: @damonlembi

About Federico Ramallo ✨👨‍💻🌎

🚀 Software Engineering Manager | 🛠 Founder of DensityLabs.io & PreVetted.ai | 🤝 Connecting 🇺🇸 U.S. teams with top nearshore 🌎 LATAM engineers

- 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/framallo/

- 🌐 https://densitylabs.io

- ✅ https://prevetted.ai

🎙 PreVetted Podcast 🎧📡

- 🎯 https://prevetted.ai/podcast

- 🐦 https://x.com/PrevettedPod

- 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/prevetted-podcast

00:00 Introduction to Damon Lembi and His Journey

02:41 The Transition from Sports to Leadership

05:19 Building a Career at Learn It

08:05 Lessons from Sports and Leadership

10:27 The Importance of Feedback and Curiosity

13:20 Damon's Children's Book and Parenting Insights

15:42 Leveraging Technology in Education

18:18 Imposter Syndrome and Overcoming Fear

21:16 The Learn-It-All Mindset

23:59 Delegation and Empowerment in Leadership

26:40 The Role of Accountability in Leadership

29:18 Final Thoughts on Leadership Growth