Real Talk with Tia & Jill

There is a real and growing frustration with culture work in organizations — and it is not because belonging and leadership development are bad ideas. It is because culture initiatives have almost always been designed to change other people. The survey measures what others think. The training tells others what to do differently. The plan describes the gaps in others. The leader who commissioned it all was never the subject of the work. Nobody asked them to go first. That is not a personal failure. It is a systemic gap in how culture change has been taught and sold to organizations. This episode of Real Talk with Catalyst Food Leaders cofounders Tia Glave and Jill Stuber, names that gap directly — inviting the exhausted leader into a reframe rather than pointing blame — and makes the case that the missing piece was never another initiative. It was the leader's own behavior, and the willingness to look there first.

Schedule a Culture Conversation at catalystfoodleaders.com/contact

Briana Lorenzo did not take the expected road into food safety. She came from clinical lab and biotech research, found her way into food, and has held Director-level roles across some of the most demanding food environments in the industry — all before most people have figured out what they want their career to be. She joins Catalyst co-founders, Tia Glave and Jill Stuber, on Real Talk to talk about the journey, the gaps she keeps seeing, and what she thinks the food industry needs to do differently if it wants to keep the next generation of leaders actually leading. This is a conversation for the early-career professional who needs to hear that the path does not have to be straight — and for every senior leader who needs to hear what their next generation is actually thinking.

Culture surveys measure what people say. Culture plans document what organizations intend. Neither one tells you what actually happens when a leader is in a moment that counts. This episode is about the three behavioral signals that reveal exactly where a culture stands — and what leaders can do with that information. Catalyst Food Leaders co-founders, Tia Glave and Jill Stuber, are bringing this framework to BRCGS Connect Americas in October. This is the conversation before the room.

Sharron Northern has spent her career building leadership capability inside some of the most recognized names in food and CPG — General Mills, Hershey, and now kdc/one. She joins Real Talk with Catalyst co-founders Tia Glave and Jill Stuber, to have the conversation most L&D leaders never say out loud: what happens when a program works, and then stops working, and nobody wants to name it. This one is for every HR leader, L&D strategist, and VP who has built something they are proud of — and quietly knows it is not reaching everyone who needs it.

On this episode of Real Talk, Catalyst Food Leaders cofounders Tia Glave and Jill Stuber are getting into something that most food companies know is true but rarely say in a budget meeting. Your culture might not be broken. It might just be costing you far more than you realize. And you would never know it until you did the math. We are bringing in a special guest, Craig Stevenson, who has seen this from the inside of a food organization. The employee turnover that compounds. The non-conforming product that traces back to a leadership gap. The talent that quietly stopped raising their hand. And the other side of that conversation: what becomes possible when culture actually works. No matter what function you support, if you lead in a food company, this one is worth your time.

Watch Real Talk live on Mondays at 11a ET / 10a CT https://www.catalystfoodleaders.com/real-talk

You love what you do. You love the people around you. But the organization? Some days, it feels like it is actively working against you. The endless hours. The feeling of juggling fifty things while finishing none of them. The "Sunday dread" that starts creeping in around 4pm. The "I just need to shut work off" feeling that follows you into evenings you were supposed to have for yourself.

This episode of Real Talk is for the food leader who is not ready to quit but is absolutely exhausted by the chaos. Catalyst Food Leaders co-founders Jill Stuber and Tia Glave get honest about what it actually takes to lead well when the culture around you is a hot mess, and give you three tools you can use this week.

Watch Real Talk live on Mondays at 11a ET / 10a CT https://www.catalystfoodleaders.com/real-talk

In this episode of Real Talk, Catalyst Food Leaders co-founders Tia Glave and Jill Stuber sit down with someone we have worked with and genuinely love. Taylor Clarke founded Amborella Organics, a seed-bearing lollipop company she and her husband built from an idea into a nationally recognized food brand with their own commercial kitchen and real retail presence. And along the way, she had to figure out food safety mostly on her own. No big quality team. No consultant on retainer. No resources built for a business of her size. What she had was a product worth protecting and the willingness to build what she needed one honest step at a time. We are talking about what that actually looked like. What she prioritized first. What nobody told her. And what finally made it feel solid. If you are a small food founder, this one is for you.

Watch Real Talk live on Mondays at 11a ET / 10a CT https://www.catalystfoodleaders.com/real-talk

Every food leader has something they know they need to do. Develop themselves. Build their team. Fix their culture. And most of them have been meaning to do it for a while. In this episode of Real Talk, Catalyst Food Leaders co-founders Tia Glave and Jill Stuber get direct about the real cost of waiting: not just the dollars, but the compounding effects. The people who leave. The culture that calcifies. The next-level role that goes to someone else. This is not a cheerleading episode. It's an honest look at why smart leaders keep delaying smart decisions, and what changes when they stop.

For individual leaders who are ready to stop researching and start, the next Bootcamp cohort starts September 15th - registration is open. Download the module details at catalystfoodleaders.com/programs. 

For organizational leaders who are heading into 2027 planning, set up a free 30-minute Culture Gap Conversation with us.  This will be the most useful 30 minutes you'll spend before you write next year's budget. Book at calendly.com/catalystfoodleaders/intro.

World Food Safety Day is June 7. But the conversation about what food safety leadership actually requires does not start on a single day. It starts when food safety professionals honestly ask themselves: Am I just the expert in the room, or am I actually leading? Reagan Brashers is a food safety microbiologist with a PhD from Texas Tech, a fourth-generation agriculturist, and someone who has spent her career bridging the gap between science and the people who need to use it. On this episode of Real Talk, Catalyst Food Leaders co-founders  Tia Glave and Jill Stuber get into what it takes to go from food safety expert to food safety leader, and why that development gap is one of the most important conversations the food industry is not having loudly enough.

Learn more about Strategic Leader and our leadership development courses here: https://www.catalystfoodleaders.com/leadership-development-programs

Download Making the Case for Development here: https://www.catalystfoodleaders.com/making-the-case

Watch Real Talk live on Mondays at 11a ET / 10a CT https://www.catalystfoodleaders.com/real-talk

May is Small Business Month. And here's a number worth sitting with: small businesses were responsible for 88.9% of all private-sector job growth from 2023 to 2024. In food, those small businesses are also navigating something that doesn't come with a manual: food safety. Without a dedicated team. Without a compliance budget. Without anyone who's done it before sitting across the table. On this episode of Real Talk, Kim Bryden of Cureate joins Catalyst Food Leaders cofounders, Tia Glave and Jill Stuber, ICF-PCC, to talk about why small food businesses struggle with food safety, and why the reason is almost never what the founder thinks it is. Kim has advised over 1000 food and beverage entrepreneurs. She sees where the wall is before founders hit it. Today she's telling us exactly what she sees.

If today's conversation made you want to take an honest look at where your food safety foundation stands, we built something specifically for you.

The Small Food Business Food Safety Starter Kit includes a foundational program checklist and a growth path guide that maps what food safety requires at every stage of your business, from farmers market to major retail.

Download it free here → https://www.catalystfoodleaders.com/starter-kit

And if you want to tell us where you are in your journey, reach out at [email protected]. We're building something for this community and we want to hear from you.

Watch Real Talk live on Mondays at 11a ET / 10a CT https://www.catalystfoodleaders.com/real-talk