Rebel's Center of Creativity

Leaders are essentially mental athletes with no off-season. You're expected to perform on such a high level, in every interaction. Always on display. Always in the game. As leaders, our audience expects us to evolve and upgrade ourselves every day. We're mental athletes, competing, adapting — in Ron & Chris' case, they have someone they're actively playing against (cybersecurity threats). Chris Cochran is the CEO, Executive Producer and Ronald Eddings is the CPO, Executive Producer, both of Hacker Valley Media. In many ways, threat intelligence and many other life experiences have taught them how to challenge yourself and your mental toughness to compete in the big game of life and leadership day in, and day out. 

Overcoming the initial anxiety that providing and receiving feedback brings takes courage, trust, and accountability. In receiving feedback in particular, once you get past the potential defensiveness or taking it personally, and understand how to execute on it, you’ll find you have the opportunity to grow exponentially in your career and personal life. Being able to provide and receive feedback goes hand-in-hand with leadership. You shouldn’t be afraid to provide feedback in order to level up those around you. On today’s episode of the Rebel Leadership Podcast, Allison Minutillo talks to VP of Client Services Lora Olivieri and Chief Strategy Officer BJ Kito about the importance of providing and receiving feedback—and overcoming the anxiety that can come with it. When it comes to aspiring leaders giving difficult feedback, you don’t have to be emotionless: try to make it as human as possible and don’t be afraid to be vulnerable, and always deliver it in a kind and strong manner. We’ll explore the process of recognizing when someone is ready to—or needs to—receive feedback and understand that it shouldn’t be taken personally, but that it’s coming from a place of care. Listen to it, learn from it, and act on it in order to grow stronger in your career. Receiving feedback from someone who has experienced both wins and losses—and learned from both—can be a critical part of your growth. Remember, you’re not a leader until you’ve built that foundation of trust and respect for others to learn from you. Ready to get inspired?      

Working remotely has become the norm for a lot of people, but what about when it comes to overseeing an entire department from 22 hours away? What may feel impossible to some is thrilling for those who thrive on problem-solving. On today's episode of the Rebel Leadership Podcast, Allison Minutillo talks to Vice President of Client Delivery & Technology Solutions David Givens about the importance of trust and building that trust. For David, it’s not always about seeing an individual's impact from a personal perspective, but about how they impact an entire team from within to do more. We take a dive deep into the passion of problem-solving, working on other people’s time, accepting interruptions, building relationships first, and engaging on the regular. While you’ll hear many stories—insights from David’s life as a line cook and learning the importance of leadership from his head chef is moving—what we see from that story are the very core values he instills in his entire team today. So buckle up, get inspired, and prepare to “trash the trash.”     

Change is never easy, but reinvention is another subject entirely. Rebuilding yourself professionally from the ground up takes a level of commitment and belief in yourself that you may not have even known you possess. But if you take on that challenge, the rewards and opportunities can be tremendous. On today's episode of the Rebel Leadership Podcast, Allison Minutillo talks to Content Manager Jon Feld and Content Creator Kyle Wood about the risks and rewards associated with their respective reinventions. Jon came from a non-agency background and Kyle had a long-term retail management career. Both took a love of writing and desire to make a change as the basis to reinvent themselves, to take their own 180-degree professional turns. Together, we explore how the ability to overcome their fears and change, learn, and grow have been key to success and fulfillment they never thought possible. Prepare to learn what it takes to reinvent yourself.       

How much does family come into play when developing leadership skills? What about when you’re 1 of 12 kids? Yep, you heard that right — a dozen. For Bryn Tindall, growing up in that big family helped shaped the leader he is today. On today's episode of the Rebel leadership podcast, Allison Minutillo talks to Bryn Tindall, his wife and Rebel’s Chief Legal Counsel & HR Jen Tindall, and Bryn’s mom — the one who raised 12 kids — Mama D. We explore how Mama D’s steady hand, inability to sit still, work ethic, selflessness, and constant ability to love and live in the moment gave Bryn the right foundation to lead Rebel.

What does intimidation mean? How do leaders intimidate (whether they know it or not)? And how can intimidation be overcome? On today’s episode of the Rebel leadership podcast, Allison Minutillo and Content Strategy Specialist MaryKate Caron, discuss the impacts of intimidation—of feeling inferior or “less than”—and what it takes to break down that wall. Self-awareness, authenticity, displaying self-confidence, showing belief in others, mentoring, transparency… they’re all factors in keeping intimidation in check.

Leaders need to have many things…They need resilience. They need vision. They need strength. They need confidence and conviction. But above all else, one thing has hit home hard lately… and that’s the power of belief. On today’s episode of the Rebel leadership podcast, Allison Minutillo and Bryn Tindall get real and very personal about some recent moments of doubt that led them to fully appreciate the power of believe and the role it plays in being the leaders we strive to be.

Teams are incredibly complex to build. To inspire. To coach. To lead. So we decided to take a break from the day to day and reflect back on one of our highest performing teams at Rebel interactive group: new business. 

Bryn Tindall, the CEO & Owner of Rebel Interactive and Joe Martin, the Senior Director of Business Development at Rebel Interactive sit down with me to break down the anatomy of our high performing new business team. Everything from constant feedback to live coaching, communication format and trust, team culture and authenticity  — leaders of all industries can apply the learnings on this episode to whichever team they lead, or aspire to. 

Which words come to mind when you think of a salesman? Car sales? Aggressive? Annoying? Sneaky? On today’s episode of the Rebel leadership Podcast, we’re talking to someone we consider to be a Caring Salesman. Yep, it’s possible. Scott Donofrio is one of our senior business development leads at Rebel Interactive Group and has built a reputation of authenticity, honesty, kindness, trust, and compassion for both his peers and his clients. He not only crushes it from a new business standpoint, but he builds relationships that are real and flourish over time. 

Above all the work you produce or professional successes you have, your invisible reputation means the most. This topic hits home for Lora Olivieri, Rebel Interactive Group's VP of Client Services.

It's defined in how you make people feel behind the scenes, when no one else is watching. 

It's the Slack messages you send when you think no one will know. 

It's how you treat people in moments of stress or crisis. 

It's the time and attention you give to others; the credit you take (or don't) for their work. 

It's the texts you send asking how they're doing after you saw them struggle in a meeting. 

Sometimes career acceleration has more to do with the human than the professional wins. Ask yourself, how will you be remembered?