The Action Catalyst

As a past business owner, Joni Fedders understands the risks, rewards, and challenges that ownership and professional management bring. She had the opportunity at Iams as a Brand Manager to live in a professionally managed organization where she saw first-hand how strategy, strong leadership and culture can fuel a company to do great things.

After Iams, Joni co-founded a technology services company and became an Aileron client herself, taking the Course for Presidents, establishing an outside Board of Directors and utilizing strategic planning. The company grew from 2 to 100 employees in five years, was a finalist for the Ernst & Young Cincinnati Entrepreneur of the Year award, and was named by the Cincinnati Business Courier as one of the 25 fastest-growing companies in the region. After selling this business, she and her husband just couldn’t stop and bought a second business in decorative packaging that they operated for seven years before successfully selling.

In her role as President, Joni oversees Aileron’s strategic direction, culture, and operational activities. Her leadership and energy inspire and motivate the Aileron team and the community as we strive to raise the quality of life, one private business at a time.

Joni was honored with the “Forty Under Forty” award and received her bachelor’s degree in business from Miami University (the real one, in Ohio). She obtained her MBA from Xavier University. As college sweethearts, Joni and her husband Jim have been married for 27 years; they have three great children, a golden retriever and a small mutt who thinks he’s a cross between a mastiff and a pit bull. Family time is a crucial priority for Joni and they enjoy skiing, tubing, running, fishing, sports, eating Chipotle (don’t ask Joni to cook – she can’t), family events and vacations.

More with Moore is Action Catalyst host Dan Moore's reflections and commentary on discussions with each of his esteemed and accomplished guests.

In this segment, Dan dissects Episode 296, with holistic executive coach and consultant, Katy Kvalvik.

Katy Kvalvik has been inspiring women and men all over the world to be empowered, lead their best lives, and achieve optimal, lasting results since 2009. Katy is a graduate of UC Berkeley, certified executive coach, board-certified health counselor, certified trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, certified yoga instructor, and business mentor. After suffering two major accidents, rebuilding her body, and deciding that people should not have to suffer the way she did to get answers, she founded the Harmony MethodⓇ, an integrative leadership and total lifestyle system. Katy is an expert in advanced communication skills for high-stake conversations and presentations, influence and negotiation, and leadership development. She also speaks about integrative health, specifically stress reduction, gut health, chronic pain, and chronic fatigue. She has spoken at conferences including Wisdom 2.0, the Hive Global Leadership Conference, NAIFA Sales Conference, and the Wanderlust Festival circuit. She has worked with companies such as Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Sony, American Express, Beach Body, Singularity University, and tech start-ups like VideoAmp, Pivot Bio, and MediGram to name a few.

While she now works with executives, leaders, and creatives to help transform and inspire them to create a positive impact, greater consciousness in their organizations, and achieve optimal business results, she previously was a leader in the medical device industry. There, she successfully ran multimillion-dollar territories, managed teams under high pressure, and was involved in the creation of leadership programs within her companies. Katy is very aware of the challenges today’s executives, entrepreneurs, and innovators face, which is why she has dedicated herself to helping and inspiring leaders all over the world to develop strategies for success and achieve optimal results.

For more information, please visit KatyKvalvik.com.

More with Moore is Action Catalyst host Dan Moore's reflections and commentary on discussions with each of his esteemed and accomplished guests.

In this segment, Dan dissects Episode 295, with author, programmer, entrepreneur, and autodidact, Scott H. Young.

Scott H. Young rose to autodidact stardom when he learned MIT’s 4-year computer science curriculum in less than 12 months. Next, he taught himself four new languages in a year. Such extreme self-improvement projects may seem outside the realm of most of our capabilities, but Young believes that the principles and methods that he and other ultralearners employ are essential tools for anyone who wants a competitive edge in the fast-changing, aggressive workplace. In ULTRALEARNING: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career, Young reveals how basic strategies that he and other ultralearners embrace can give anyone the edge in organizing and executing a plan to learn something new deeply and quickly—and without teachers or tuition.

“Although the ultralearners are an extreme group of people, this approach to things holds potential for normal professionals and students,” Young writes. “What if you could create a project to quickly learn the skills to transition to a new role, project, or even profession? … What if you could learn a new language, simulate a university degree program, or become good at something that seems impossible to you right now? Ultralearning isn’t easy. It’s hard and frustrating and requires stretching outside the limits of where you feel comfortable. However, the things you can accomplish make it worth the effort.”

Sharing stories from his own experiences and those of other ultralearners he has encountered—as well as such iconic autodidacts as Ben Franklin and Richard Feynman—Young extracts his curriculum for mastery from the ground up. Beginning with a metalearning map that breaks down how a subject works and what kinds of information and skills you need to conquer it, he shows how and where one needs to focus one’s attention. A firm believer in directness—hands-on practice doing rather than mere theory—Young explains the need to identify and drill your weaknesses to bolster retrieval and retention. Applying ultralearning ideals also requires the vulnerably to admit those weaknesses, to seek advice and criticism, and to experiment outside your comfort zone. The more one learns, the greater the craving to learn more, Young says. And the better you get the more you recognize how much better you could become.

More with Moore is Action Catalyst host Dan Moore's reflections and commentary on discussions with each of his esteemed and accomplished guests.

In this segment, Dan dissects Episode 294, with physician, author, speaker, and retired NASA astronaut, Dr. Rhea Seddon.

Dr. Rhea Seddon is a woman of many firsts. One of only six women in her medical school class of 100, she was the first woman ever accepted to the surgery residency program at her university. In 1978, she was one of the first six women accepted into the Astronaut Corps, and when she married fellow astronaut Capt. Robert “Hoot” Gibson, they became the first active astronauts to wed. Together they produced the first official “astrotots” (children born to two astronauts). In addition to her space career, Dr. Seddon’s life experiences have led her from surgeon to licensed private pilot, to healthcare executive, entrepreneur, author, president of a large women’s charity group and now, professional speaker.

Entering the Astronaut Corps in 1978, she served the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for nineteen years, spending thirty days in space aboard three Space Shuttle flights.

After leaving NASA in 1997, Dr. Seddon was appointed the Assistant Chief Medical Officer of the Vanderbilt University Medical Group in Nashville, where she focused on innovative systems and methodologies for improving teamwork in healthcare. Eleven years later, she continued that work as a founding partner of LifeWings Partners, LLC, which teaches those concepts to healthcare institutions across the United States.

She is a member of both the Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame and Tennessee Women’s Hall of Fame, and her significant contributions to aeronautics and science were recognized in 2015 when she became the eighth woman inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame. That year, she also published her autobiography, Go For Orbit, and in 2016, she was awarded the Independent Book Publishers Association Ben Franklin Gold Award for Best Autobiography/Memoir.

Based on her diverse life experiences, Dr. Seddon enjoys sharing the wisdom gained and lessons learned as she speaks nationally and internationally about teamwork, leadership and inspiring others to recognize and act upon life’s many opportunities.