The Corporate Couch: Work Stories I Only Tell My Friends

Shari Noonan (see bio below) has built a career by stepping into complexity and figuring out how to move it forward.

In this episode, Jeff talks with Shari, CEO and co-founder of Rialto Markets, about a career that started with summers at Lake of the Ozarks, waiting tables, reading through the local library, and becoming an accounting major partly out of spite after a professor suggested she switch to communications. Naturally, she stuck with accounting. Spite, apparently, can be a surprisingly effective academic advisor.

Shari’s path took her from KPMG to consulting, from the early days of electronic trading to Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and eventually into the startup world with Rialto Markets. Along the way, she worked through major shifts in capital markets, post-merger integration, corporate complexity, thousands of systems, regulatory challenges, fundraising, litigation, and the identity shift that comes with leaving a big-company platform behind.

We talk about:

• Growing up in Kansas City and spending summers at Lake of the Ozarks

This is a conversation about reinvention, resilience, market disruption, trusting your gut, and learning how to move through chaos without dragging a steamer trunk full of old corporate identity behind you.

And yes, we also cover random Polish landladies, TV taxes, microfiche misery, eight bosses, 2,500 systems, dine-and-dash trauma, and why sometimes the worst job you ever had is useful because at least you can check it off the list.

About Shari: Shari Noonan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Rialto Markets, a FINRA-registered broker-dealer and SEC-registered Alternative Trading System built to bring institutional-grade infrastructure to private capital markets.

With more than 25 years of experience at Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and Instinet, Shari helped shape the electronification of public equity markets. Today, she is applying that same innovation mindset to private markets, helping expand access to capital through regulated platforms for primary issuance, secondary trading, transfer agency, and digital securities.

Under Shari’s leadership, Rialto has become a pioneer in the tokenization of real-world assets, including music royalties, film rights, and community-owned enterprises. She is also a leading voice on how passionate communities, from fanbases to alumni networks, can become powerful new capital formation channels.

Shari holds a B.S. in Accounting from Marquette University and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. She has received multiple industry honors, including the Marquette University College of Business Administration Entrepreneurial Award and the Markets Media Choice Instinet Positive Change Visionary Award.

Anna Redmond’s story starts with a mountain lion in her yard.

Seriously.

Before Jeff and Anna (bio below) get into entrepreneurship, physical security, challenge coins, blockchain, Harvard, venture capital, and leadership, Anna explains how a mountain lion turned her neighborhood into a national news story and trapped her family in the house for hours. Not your typical podcast warm-up.

Anna is the Founder and CEO of Braav, a physical security company trusted by organizations nationwide. She also built AllCoin, a free platform helping military, law enforcement, and first-responder communities digitize, verify, and preserve their challenge coin collections on the blockchain.

Born in Kiev, Ukraine, when it was still part of the Soviet Union, Anna moved to the United States as a child. That early family leap shaped her comfort with risk, curiosity, and building her own path.

In this conversation, Anna shares how she went from Harvard to venture capital, from finance to entrepreneurship, and eventually into private security after realizing many organizations are responsible for keeping people safe without having true security expertise in the room.

We also talk about the history and meaning of challenge coins, why the stories behind them matter, and how AllCoin is helping preserve those stories for veterans, first responders, families, and future generations.

This is a conversation about risk, reinvention, service, security, storytelling, and building something because you cannot stop thinking, “There has to be a better way.”

And yes, we also cover juggling, lemonade stand inflation, bringing food to meetings, presidential coins, Navy SEAL coins, and a mountain lion that clearly did not care about Anna’s calendar.

About Anna: Anna Redmond is the Founder and CEO of Braav, a physical security company trusted by organizations nationwide. A Harvard AB/AM and former venture capitalist at Rustic Canyon Partners, Anna has been featured in Forbes, Security Journal Americas, US News & World Report, and TechNewsWorld. She also built AllCoin, a free platform where military, law enforcement, and first responder communities can digitize, verify, and preserve their challenge coin collections on the blockchain.

In this Special Edition episode, Jeff welcomes friend and Kansas City connector Noorah Nachbor, founder of Palm and Light (Her Website) and The Leap, for a conversation about career pivots, energy, intuition, healing, entrepreneurship, and what happens when the corporate grind no longer fits.

After nearly two decades in recruiting, talent acquisition, and HR, Noorah stepped away from corporate life to launch her own talent search and placement firm. She quickly proved she could build a business, but the constant networking, hustling, and grinding left her depleted.

So she went inward.

After taking time away from LinkedIn and the noise, Noorah followed a nudge to get trained in Reiki. What started as something she thought she might do for family and friends soon grew into Palm and Light, where she now helps clients through energy healing and intuitive coaching.

Jeff also shares his own experience working with Noorah, including how her sessions helped him find clarity in both his personal and professional life.

This is a conversation about listening to your gut, giving your mind time to rest, and finding the courage to build work that feels more aligned with who you are becoming.

And yes, Corporate Couch listeners get a special offer: mention the podcast and receive 10% off any Palm and Light service.

This episode is brought to you by... Ever wish your company updates could be less "quarterly earnings report" and more "late-night talk show"? At Pelaccio & Partners, we're revolutionizing internal communications with podcasts that employees actually want to listen to. Imagine podcast episodes that make your employees laugh while keeping them informed. Our founder, Jeff Pelaccio, doesn't just create podcasts; he creates conversations that break through the noise. Whether you're a growing startup or a massive corporation, we turn your company's story into audio gold. Leadership becomes human. Remote teams feel connected. Your message cuts through the clutter. Jeff is happy to share his insights on improving your culture, increasing employee engagement, and retention. You can contact him via LinkedIn or schedule a Zoom call via this link - 15-minute call with Jeff.

Jeff welcomes his friend, former Sprint PCS colleague, and fractional CMO Lori Wiles (see bio below) to The Corporate Couch for a conversation about career pivots, marketing strategy, leadership, AI, and finding new energy in the next chapter.

Lori’s career started in broadcast news, where she was a 10 o’clock news anchor and reporter in Garden City, Kansas. That chapter included chasing tornadoes, interviewing a self-professed witch with an FCC problem, shooting video from a helicopter during an orchestrated wheat harvest, and learning that TV lighting matters when you want viewers to know you have teeth.

From there, Lori moved into marketing and became part of the early Sprint PCS adventure, where the job description was basically: “Whatever it takes to launch Sacramento by December.” She and Jeff revisit the wild startup energy of those early days, the Grand Street Café diet plan, creative briefs, brand tracking, and what it felt like to help build something big before it became corporate.

Lori also shares lessons from her time at the NAIA, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, Cerner, Lockton, and GEHA, including what she learned about culture, servant leadership, layoffs, mentorship, and knowing when it is time to move on.

Today, Lori helps small and mid-sized businesses build stronger marketing foundations as a fractional CMO. Her approach is strategy-first and AI-assisted, helping companies clarify their ideal customers, positioning, messaging, and marketing priorities before they start hanging social media pictures on a wall with no basement.

This is a conversation about reinvention, resilience, marketing that actually works, and the strange magic of a career that keeps giving you new classrooms.

And yes, Lori and Jeff will probably still be having coffee when they are both retired, whenever that mythical event actually happens.

About Lori: Lori Wiles is a fractional Chief Marketing Officer, speaker, trainer, and brand strategist with experience spanning startups, nonprofits, and Fortune 100 companies. Over her career, she has helped lead major brand and product launches across organizations including Sprint, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, Cerner, Lockton, and GEHA.​ As VP of Marketing at GEHA, Lori led the team behind the naming rights launch for GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, including the organization’s sponsorship of the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes, helping drive major increases in brand awareness and membership growth.

Today, Lori supports small businesses across multiple industries as a fractional marketing leader, with a focus on strategy-first, AI-forward marketing planning and execution. She is also a guest lecturer at the University of Kansas and a coach and trainer for Small Business Development Centers in Kansas City and northern Colorado.​ A University of Kansas journalism graduate and former TV news director and anchor, Lori brings a rare mix of storytelling, strategy, leadership, and real-world marketing firepower to every room she enters. 

Dave Patrick was one of the earliest guests on The Corporate Couch, appearing way back on episode seven.

More than 200 episodes later, he returns to the couch to go deeper on one of the topics that made our first conversation so memorable: why CEOs often struggle to understand marketing, and why that disconnect can lead to a lot of expensive activity that looks productive but does not actually drive the business.

Dave brings the perspective of someone who has lived on both sides: iconic agency experience, CMO roles, marketing strategy, teaching MBA students, and now helping companies through Wise Strategy.

We talk about:

• Why CEOs confuse marketing activity with marketing strategy

Dave also explains why marketers need to speak the language of the CEO: revenue, ROI, EBITDA, causality, cost, and growth. In other words, stop walking into the boardroom with fog machines and brand poetry when the CEO is asking, “How does this help us sell more?”

This is a conversation about marketing that actually drives business, strategy that gets to better, and why companies are not one ad campaign away from success.

And yes, we also cover Super Bowl ads, Dunkin’, JCPenney, Subway franchisees, McDonald’s chairs, movie launches, Home Depot end caps, and why the best marketers are really in the business of creating want.

To learn more about Dave, please visit WizeStrategy.

This episode is brought to you by... Ever wish your company updates could be less "quarterly earnings report" and more "late-night talk show"? At Pelaccio & Partners, we're revolutionizing internal communications with podcasts that employees actually want to listen to. Imagine podcast episodes that make your employees laugh while staying informed. Our founder, Jeff Pelaccio, doesn't just create podcasts; he creates conversations that break through the noise. Whether you're a growing startup or a massive corporation, we turn your company's story into audio gold. Leadership becomes human. Remote teams feel connected. Your message cuts through the clutter. Jeff is happy to share his insights on improving your culture, increasing employee engagement, and improving retention. You can contact him via LinkedIn or schedule a Zoom call via this link - 15-minute call with Jeff.

What happens when your podcast guest hands you a 15-page dossier about himself before the interview starts?

You know you’re in for a different kind of conversation.

Jeff recorded this episode in person at Kendall Schoenrock’s (see bio below) podcast studio in Lenexa, Kansas, where they talked about entrepreneurship, AI, family, fear, legacy, and what it means to build things that last. Kendall also hosts his own podcast, Hidden Foundations, making this part conversation, part podcast crossover, and part “two guys with microphones trying to figure out life before the coffee wears off.”

Kendall’s story starts in Junction City, Kansas, where he launched a tech consulting business at 15. From there, he went to Villanova, helped build and sell a technology company, explored oversized wall graphics, took a life-shaping service trip to Peru, and eventually returned to Kansas to help grow his family’s government-focused real estate business.

We talk about startup risk, getting paid to drink beer in college, AI-powered thinking tools, “boring compounding,” fatherhood, legacy, and why relationships may matter even more in the age of AI.

This is a conversation about technology, entrepreneurship, family, discomfort, reinvention, and the long game of becoming a better version of yourself.

And yes, we also cover Anheuser-Busch bar psychology, unused Vietnam visas, Claude, Obsidian, Villanova, and why sometimes the best business advice comes from your spouse reminding you that life is happening now.

About Kendall: Kendall Schoenrock is an operator, investor, and the host of Hidden Foundations. A Junction City, Kansas native, Kendall started his first tech consulting company at age 15 before going on to become employee #3 at TurnTide, which was later acquired by Symantec for $28 million.

His career has taken him across technology, e-commerce, and real estate, including building RockPetz/Larger Than Life Prints to nearly $3 million in annual recurring revenue before selling the company in 2012. Today, Kendall leads SilverRock Ventures and Gov Leases, where his work focuses on durable real estate investments, government leases, and long-term community impact.

In this Special Edition episode, Jeff reconnects with Ed LeBeau, founder of Heartland Golf Schools (Website) and one of the most influential teachers in Jeff’s own golf journey.

Jeff first met Ed in 2003 while attending Heartland Golf School, and over the years Ed has become a bit like Jeff’s own Bagger Vance: part golf instructor, part philosopher, part calm voice on the lesson tee reminding you that maybe the problem is not your left elbow, your hips, or the seven swing thoughts currently fighting in your head.

Ed shares how his background in business, logistics, sociology, and corporate life eventually led him to build a golf school focused not just on mechanics, but on behavior change. As Ed explains, golf is difficult because players are not just learning a motion. They are trying to change habits, manage expectations, and simplify a game that most people accidentally make way too complicated.

We talk about:

• Why most golf instruction is too focused on body parts

Ed also shares three golf book recommendations and explains why the game can teach us more than how to hit a better shot. It can teach us how to think, how to focus, how to manage frustration, and how to stop making a hard game even harder.

This is a conversation about golf, habits, business, leadership, expectations, and the beautiful madness of chasing a little white ball around a very large field.

And yes, if you have ever told yourself to “keep your head down,” Ed may gently ask you to stop giving yourself terrible advice.

This episode is brought to you by... Ever wish your company updates could be less "quarterly earnings report" and more "late-night talk show"? At Pelaccio & Partners, we're revolutionizing internal communications with podcasts that employees actually want to listen to. Imagine podcast episodes that make your employees laugh while staying informed. Our founder, Jeff Pelaccio, doesn't just create podcasts; he creates conversations that break through the noise. Whether you're a growing startup or a massive corporation, we turn your company's story into audio gold. Leadership becomes human. Remote teams feel connected. Your message cuts through the clutter. Jeff is happy to share his insights on improving your culture, increasing employee engagement, and retention. You can contact him via LinkedIn or schedule a Zoom call via this link - 15-minute call with Jeff.

Maki Moussavi is back, and she officially becomes the first guest to return for a full-length episode.

No pressure, Maki. Just podcast history :-)

In her first conversation, Maki talked about career journeys, leadership, and the idea of success conditioning, the way high-achieving professionals are trained to chase goals, promotions, validation, and the next “big thing,” often without stopping to ask whether any of it is actually working for them. In this return episode, she goes deeper. Much deeper.

Maki and Jeff talk about what happens when the corporate script stops making sense, whether it is after a layoff, a career pivot, burnout, entrepreneurship, or that sneaky little voice asking, “Why am I still doing this?”

We talk about:

• Why success can look impressive on the outside and still feel empty on the inside

Maki also shares why leaving corporate life is not always the glamorous “be your own boss” fantasy people sell online. Sometimes it is freeing. Sometimes it is disorienting. Sometimes it is both before lunch.

This is a conversation about work, identity, ambition, burnout, self-awareness, and the uncomfortable freedom that comes when you finally stop outsourcing your definition of success.

And yes, we also cover corporate vampires, universe throat punches, toxic coworkers, mediocre performers, and why asking better questions might be the first small rebellion.

To learn more about Maki, please visit her website.

This episode is brought to you by... Ever wish your company updates could be less "quarterly earnings report" and more "late-night talk show"? At Pelaccio & Partners, we're revolutionizing internal communications with podcasts that employees actually want to listen to. Imagine podcast episodes that make your employees laugh while staying informed. Our founder, Jeff Pelaccio, doesn't just create podcasts; he creates conversations that break through the noise. Whether you're a growing startup or a massive corporation, we turn your company's story into audio gold. Leadership becomes human. Remote teams feel connected. Your message cuts through the clutter. Jeff is happy to share his insights on improving your culture, increasing employee engagement, and improving retention. You can contact him via LinkedIn or schedule a Zoom call via this link - 15-minute call with Jeff.

In Keith Bradley’s case, you get Made in KC.

Keith, co-founder of Made in KC, shares the story of how a 300-square-foot pop-up featuring 15 local artists grew into one of Kansas City’s most recognizable local brands, with more than 15 locations, including a store in the Kansas City airport. And yes, the founders’ combined retail experience at the beginning was basically one winter break at Williams Sonoma and one summer waiting tables. A retail empire born from vibes, curiosity, and a very brave spreadsheet.

Keith’s story starts far from Kansas City, in Southern California, where he grew up thinking he might become a Los Angeles Laker, wearing the surfer uniform without doing much actual surfing, and getting his first skateboard at age two. After his parents divorced, he moved to Boonville, Missouri, a dramatic shift that helped shape one of his biggest strengths: adapting to change and connecting with people from different backgrounds.

We talk about:

• Moving from Southern California to small-town Missouri

Keith also shares why Made in KC is not just about selling local products. It is about building a platform for artists, makers, entrepreneurs, and the city itself.

This is a conversation about community, adaptability, entrepreneurship, local pride, and what happens when you build a business around the idea that Kansas City is better when Kansas City supports Kansas City.

And yes, we also cover California surfer fashion, Truman State University, following a girl to Kansas City, and why sometimes your lack of experience might be your greatest business advantage.

About Keith: Keith Bradley is co-owner of Made in KC. For the past 10 years, Keith and his business partners have been active in growing and celebrating Kansas City's great artisan and maker community by giving them one of the most robust platforms for selling local goods in the country. Additionally, Keith is passionate about all things Kansas City, including its civic and nonprofit communities. He is a Kansas City Tomorrow Alum and currently serves on the board of both Jackson County CASA and Habitat for Humanity. Keith is married with four kids and resides in Kansas City's Brookside neighborhood.

What do 11 kids, Jesuit college night, Charlie Hooper’s, plumbing supplies, private equity, faith, family, and a guy named “Billy the Turd” have in common?

Billy Hodes (see bio below).

Billy grew up in Kansas City as the youngest of 11 children in a big, faith-filled family where business lessons were often served at the dinner table. His father built a national plumbing supply distribution company, taught him the value of hard work, and once fired him after Billy hung up on the company’s top sales producer. Different generation. Very direct feedback loop.

From there, Billy’s career took him from selling plumbing supplies across Alabama, Mississippi, and the Florida Panhandle to buying and rebuilding a distressed division of Midland Metal, later merging back with his brother’s business, and eventually partnering with private equity to grow through multiple acquisitions. Along the way, he learned that culture, people, trust, and communication are not soft business ideas. They are the business.

We talk about:

• Growing up as the youngest of 11 kids

Billy also shares how the sale of the business gave him space to think about what came next: more time with his wife, his kids, his faith, strategic investing, advisory work, and eventually Acumen, where he now leads a faith-based peer advisory group for business owners and CEOs.

This is a conversation about work ethic, humility, family business, faith-driven leadership, and the power of surrounding yourself with people who help you become better.

And yes, we also cover nude beaches, name politics, Spring Hill College recruiting strategy, and why “Billy” was never going to become “Bill.”

About Billy: With over 25 years in the industrial distribution business, Billy Hodes has experienced every stage of entrepreneurship. He grew up in a family business, worked alongside his brothers, acquired and expanded his own company, and later navigated a merger and private equity partnership. After selling his company in 2023, he turned his focus to real estate investment while exploring his next adventure.​ 

Now, as a Growth Catalyst with Acumen, Billy is passionate about helping business owners and CEOs sharpen their leadership, navigate challenges, and drive meaningful growth. Having experienced firsthand the power of peer advisory, he is committed to fostering strong communities of accountability and wisdom.