What if the conversations your team isn’t having are costing you more than the ones it is? 

In this episode of the Balancing Act podcast, Andy speaks with Gustavo Razzetti — culture change instigator, CEO of Fearless Culture, and bestselling author of Remote, Not Distant, Stretch for Change, and his new book Forward Talk: The Bold New Method For Getting Teams Unstuck. 

Gustavo introduces the concept of conversational debt — the compound cost of the conversations teams avoid — and unpacks the three destructive patterns that keep teams trapped: avoidance, blame, and groupthink. He explains why the corporate obsession with psychological safety has become a bandage for deeper issues, and why getting unstuck isn’t about better meetings — it’s about better conversations. 

Tune in to episode 248 to hear Gustavo’s rocket-booster moment about a CEO who chose to trust his team before taking the client’s side, two mentorship moments — one for the CHRO investing in change capabilities, one for the CEO who just wants his teams to "get along" — and his closing reflection on the pointlessness paradox that quietly drains team performance. 

Connect with Gustavo's work here:

What if the corruption of great companies isn’t an ethics problem at all — but a design problem? 

In this episode of the Balancing Act podcast, Andy speaks with Eric Ries — creator of the Lean Startup methodology, and New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way. His new book, Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great, argues that corporate corruption is not primarily ethical — it is structural — and offers a practical blueprint for organizations that can grow, prosper, and endure without losing their soul. 

Eric revisits the Lean Startup methodology fifteen years after its publication — what’s changed, what’s been distorted, and how he thinks about the MVP, the pivot, and the build-measure-learn loop today. 

Tune in to episode 247 to hear Eric’s rocket-booster moment, his mentorship moment for the chief product officer trying to adopt Lean Startup at scale, and his closing reflection on equanimity as one of the most underrated attributes of the entrepreneurial journey.

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What if everything you've been told about resilience is wrong? 

In this episode of the Balancing Act podcast, host Andy speaks with Jay Abbasi — CEO and founder of The Conscious Professional, former Tesla leader, and international keynote speaker who has coached leaders at Google, Amazon, and Wells Fargo. After his father’s sudden passing in 2014 woke him up to the costs of living on autopilot, Jay rebuilt his life around one question: how do leaders perform at a high level without burning out? 

Andy and Jay unpack the Three Rs framework — recharge, reframe, reconnect — the myth that resilience means powering through, why the most burnt-out leaders are the ones who built their entire identity on a single pillar, and the research connecting negative thinking to physical illness. It’s a conversation about adaptability, multi-dimensionalism, and what changes when leaders stop being self-absorbed long enough to actually engage with their work. 

Tune in episode 246 to hear Jay's story and learn how to recharge before you hit zero. 

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Thoughtload — not workload — is what’s breaking your team. In this conversation, Dr. Liane Davey explains why, and what leaders can actually do about it.

Dr. Liane Davey is an organizational psychologist, New York Times bestselling author, and co-founder of 3COze Inc., where she advises executive teams at companies like Amazon, Walmart, TD Bank, and Sony PlayStation. Known as the Teamwork Doctor, she has spent 25 years helping cross-functional teams — from Boston to Bangkok — move from dysfunction to high performance. She’s a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review and the author of The Good Fight, You First, and Thoughtload: Manage the Madness and Free Your Team to Do Great Work (Page Two Books, May 2026).

Liane’s rocket-booster moment came twice: once when she failed first-year calculus and stumbled into organizational psychology, and again when she made the deliberate decision — six years into her first firm — to “repot” herself at a smaller, more strategy-focused practice. That repotting set the trajectory for everything that followed.

Whether you’re a senior leader watching your team burn out, a manager trying to make sense of context-switching chaos, or a knowledge worker who can feel the weight of 20 mental tabs open at once, this episode offers a new vocabulary for what’s actually wrong — and a practical path toward lighter, more focused work.

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What does cognitive science actually tell us about how adults learn at work — and why are most corporate learning programs still built on myths? 

In this episode of the Balancing Act podcast, Andy speaks with Dr. Tessa Forshaw — cognitive scientist, co-founder of the Next Level Lab at Harvard University, and co-author of Innovation-ish: How Anyone Can Create Breakthrough Solutions to Real Problems in the Real World (Wiley, 2025). 

Tessa and Andy explore why learning takes effort (and why frictionless tools often don’t teach), what “innovation hesitation” is and how leaders can disarm it, why the apprenticeship model still matters, and what’s coming out of Harvard’s new Workforce Learning and Innovation Initiative. 

Tune in to episode 244 to hear Tessa’s story and learn how to design learning that actually changes the brain — and how to lower the bar to innovation so your team can actually take the first step. 

Dr. Forshaw is offering a discount for our listeners to Harvard Graduate School of Education's The Future of Workforce Learning and Innovation Certificate Program. Here's the discount code: BAP5 (5% off). The link is here: https://www.gse.harvard.edu/unbound/future-workplace-learning1600

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What if the biggest untapped resource in your organization is the energy your team members are holding back? 

In this episode of the Balancing Act podcast, host Andy speaks with Dave Garrison—CEO and co-founder of Garrison Growth, Harvard MBA, former CEO of NETCOM On-Line Communication Services (one of the first public internet companies), and author of The Buy-In Advantage: Why Employees Stop Caring and How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Give Their All. 

Dave draws on 25 years of CEO and board experience—spanning the broadcast, wireless, and internet industries—to explain why traditional engagement metrics miss the mark and what leaders can do instead. The conversation explores the critical difference between compliance and genuine buy-in, practical tools for cascading strategic objectives through every level of an organization, and hard-won lessons from leading companies through hypergrowth.

Tune in episode 243 to hear Dave’s story and learn why creating a culture of buy-in doesn’t cost a dime—it just requires leaders willing to invite people in rather than tell them what to do. 

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What if the answer to the skills gap isn’t competing for talent—but developing it before graduation? 

In this episode of the Balancing Act podcast, host Andy Temte speaks with Stephanie Reisner—President and CEO of GPS Education Partners and co-author of Make School Work: Solving the American Youth Employment Crisis Through Work-Based Learning. 

Andy and Stephanie dig into the mindset shift from buying talent to developing it, the power of mentorship in work-based learning, GPS Ed’s partnership with 3M to scale manufacturing career pathways, and the four A’s framework—authentic learning that develops aspiration, ability, and agency. Stephanie also offers pointed advice for school superintendents and parents navigating workforce readiness with their teens. 

Tune in to episode 242 to hear Stephanie’s story and learn how communities, employers, and educators can build career pathways that actually lead somewhere meaningful. 

How do you calm an angry person in 90 seconds or less—without defending yourself, explaining, or arguing back? 

In this episode of the Balancing Act podcast, host Andy Temte speaks with Doug Noll—a trial lawyer turned peacemaker, award-winning mediator, and author of De-Escalate: How to Calm an Angry Person in 90 Seconds or Less. Doug is also the co-founder of the Prison of Peace project, where he trained maximum security inmates to reduce violence using empathy skills, and he teaches decision making under uncertainty and conflict at Pepperdine’s Straus Institute. 

Doug shares the neuroscience behind affect labeling—the simple practice of naming someone’s emotions to quiet the brain’s threat response—and reveals how two words (“you feel”) can transform relationships, resolve team conflict, and build trust. 

From the story of a prison inmate who reconnected with her son after 18 years to a CEO who turned a toxic culture around in six months, this conversation makes the case that empathy isn’t a soft skill—it’s the hardest and most important leadership skill there is. 

Tune in to episode 241 hear Doug’s story and learn what it really means to listen someone into existence. 

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What happens when a nurse-turned-speechwriter has a eureka moment in a big-box store and decides to reinvent the way America cleans? In this episode of the Balancing Act podcast, host Andy Temte talks with Monica Nassif—the founder of Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day and Caldrea—about building brands rooted in authenticity, disrupting a $30 billion market, and knowing when to let go of the business you built from nothing.

Monica Nassif is a serial entrepreneur, brand builder, consultant, and author based in Minneapolis. She founded Caldrea in 2000 and Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day in 2002, scaling the brands into more than 20,000 stores nationwide before selling to SC Johnson in 2008. Her career began at Target Corporation (then Dayton Hudson) as an executive speechwriter, and she went on to found the marketing communications agency Kilter Inc. Monica has been inducted into the Minnesota Business Hall of Fame and named University of Minnesota Entrepreneur of the Year and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year (Midwest Division). Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Fast Company, and Real Simple. She also appeared on NPR’s How I Built This with Guy Raz. Her new book, I Bottled My Mother: The Mrs. Meyer’s Story: Grit, Grime & Growing a Business (IdeaPress Publishing, March 2026), is her third book.

Monica’s rocket-booster moment came at 28—the oldest intern in Target’s history—when her English advisor slid an internship application across the table and changed the trajectory of her career. That experience ignited a love for retail and consumer products that eventually led her to walk a big-box store in Atlanta, look at a pallet of garish cleaning products, and ask, “What if that was awesome?”

Guest: Monica Nassif

Host: Andy Temte

Fear-based leaders are forming networks—and they’re not hiding anymore. In this return episode of the Balancing Act podcast, host Andy Temte sits down with CEO coach and author Kate Lowry to unpack practical tools for navigating toxic leadership without losing yourself in the process.

Kate Lowry is a CEO coach, venture capitalist, and author based in Silicon Valley. She developed her expertise on fear-based leadership growing up in a hierarchical family, then refined her approach across startups, private equity, management consulting, and big tech—including roles at McKinsey, Meta, and Insight Partners. She is the founder of Scaleheart Co. and the author of Unbreakable: How to Thrive Under Fear-Based Leaders (October 2025). Kate first appeared on the Balancing Act in Episode 213.

In this conversation, Kate describes the cultural whiplash she’s witnessed over the past three years—a dramatic swing from emotionally intelligent, employee-centered leadership to an environment where fear, dominance, and cruelty are openly celebrated. She shares how she recognized that her coaching clients—accomplished leaders from top institutions—were paralyzed by this shift, and realized she had a survival toolkit they desperately needed.

Guest: Kate Lowry

Website: katelowry.com

Coaching: scaleheart.co

Book: Unbreakable: How to Thrive Under Fear-Based Leaders

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/katherinejlowry

Instagram: @kaitunbreakablelaury

Host: Andy Temte

Website: andrewtemte.com