Disclaimer 6/15/22: A few statements made by the guest weren't accurate—an innocent error. Please visit the show notes page for corrections. 

76% of people want CEOs to lead societal change, feeling that governments are too slow, but where’s the line between leading positive change and being politically polarizing? Christian Sarkar, author of Brand Activism: From Purpose to Action, joins me for a friendly debate. 

Sarkar discusses why CEOs need to lead cultural change, why capitalism is broken, and the difference between regressive and progressive companies. But this isn't a cut-and-dry issue.

No one could argue Michael Jordan has one of the biggest brands of all time, and when asked to endorse a Democrat years ago, Jordan famously stated, "Republicans buy sneakers too." But today, brands do take sides. Patagonia, Ben & Jerry's, and Nike are all examples of how activism can lead to more profit. 

So, who's right? What are the implications? Sarkar doesn't hold back, and neither do I. 

Politics and ego often trump profitable outcomes. #2 on the Thinkers 50 list, Rita McGrath has seen this play out in real time. 

McGrath is a professor at Columbia Business School and the best-selling author of many books including Seeing Around Corners. She explains how organizations large and small can see inflection points in advance by identifying weak signals within their organization. 

One major theme she discusses is how well executives, intentional or not, insulate themselves from the front lines of their organization. Behind every organizational failure, was a leader who saw the weak signals, and refused to listen. 

McGrath also discusses the role of clear facts in future decision-making and why waiting for the data is a fatal choice. 

If you're at risk of being disrupted or seeing customers slowly leaving you for other solutions, THIS episode is your weak signal of a coming inflection point. You should probably listen before it's too late. 

Why does your boss repeat the same broken leadership model, despite seeing poor results? It's because many business models are simply a warm security blanket, absolving the CEO responsibility. Best-selling author, Roger Martin calls out bad leadership and explains how data can crush imagination. 

Martin is the former Dean of the Rotman School, best-selling author, the #1 Thinkers 50 for Management, and author of his newest book, A New Way To Think.

Topics in this show:

• How do leaders get trapped in bad models to begin with? Did they ever work? (Nope!)
• Why adopting models gives leaders an "out" from their failures. 
• A symptom of a broken model is customer service repeating "that's just policy."
• Why we must be cautious on how we interpret AI data to predict future models and how we risk limiting imagination. 
• How the ridiculous hiring and firing cycle many large organizations use, stems from their organization of employees around roles but not projects.

Go to justinkbrady.com/roger-martin to see all resources, and buy the book.

We hear the percentage. 90 - 95% of startups fail. But we only hear the success stories. No one has the guts to talk about losing it all, going bankrupt, and being forced to move out of their house. This week, we hear from Derian Baugh, former CEO and founder of Men's Style Lab. He tells how it all unraveled and what he's working on next. 

Every startup founder fears the day the money dries up. When that day comes for the wide majority, they fall silent. For years that was the case with Derian Baugh, CEO of Mens Style Lab, but today he shares his failure experience and if he regrets the decisions he made. For anyone who has failed at business and picked themself back off the floor, this will resonate.

Check out the full show notes at justinkbrady.com/derian-baugh 

AI has turned into a marketing term, and the result is confusion for everyone on what AI is. So, what is AI, and what isn't AI? For example, did you know taking panorama photos or using HDR is computer vision, but not AI? 

The difference is if the system, or machine, is learning through data, or if the process is fixed. Face recognition requires AI for example. 

What is OpenCV for? Why do we need an open-source library for AI? In a way they are collecting the lego blocks, so builders can focus on building new things, not starting from scratch.

Go to JustinBradyShow.com for the full show notes and clickable highlight chapters. 

It's difficult to get a seat in Professor Arthur Brooks' happiness class at Harvard according to the WSJ. He explains how happiness is an effective productivity tool, and how leaders can avoid the hyperpolarizing political pitfalls being experienced by Disney and others.  We discuss why people are so quick to throw around racist accusations for those that oppose Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, how Disney should have acted to avoid being in the center of the new Florida bill fight, and why the wide majority of Americans don't actually want the hyper-polarized state we're living in. 

Did you know 93% of Americans hate how divided we are? Brooks suggests if you stand up to the whiners and tell even your own tribe "no" there's a much bigger group waiting for you on the other side. 

He dispels the BS that disagreement is bad, and explains why Republicans say they are grateful for Democrats.  If we don't shut down the extremists and enter an economic civil war, he gives cultural examples of what that will look like.

Longtime retirement and money guy, Chris Hogan suddenly vanished from the web months ago leaving many to ask where he went and if we'd hear from him again. Now that he's "back" I ask him what happened, and what his new plans are. 

We discuss inflation, interest rates, leadership, how he's learned from his failures, and what YOUR future looks like. What decisions should you be making right now, to get through "the stuff" you're dealing with?

Get his official links at justinkbrady.com/chris-hogan-coach

What does the hybrid office look like as we come out of the pandemic? You will probably like it a lot, explained Reid Hiatt, CEO of Tactic. He believes the office is following the same path successful retailers took, building experiences for employees.

We discussed how hybrid work actually saved the open workplace that most people hated, why massive corporate offices may be on their way out, and how hybrid work will actually make the office... dare I say it... FUN?

Tactic is a company designed to enable hybrid work and solve the challenges surrounding a distributed and hectic remote workforce.

Check out the show notes to learn more. https://justinkbrady.com/reid-hiatt

Most successful entrepreneurs forget the people that helped, and tactics they used to become successful. But Kara Goldin, CEO and founder of Hint has incredible recall, sharing the good and bad of her journey to become a quarter billion dollar brand. She also has an inpsiring answer to the question: "is it hard raising money as a woman?"

Goldin started her entreprenurial journey simply asking clever quesitons as a waitress in Scottsdale, Arizona. She ended up being a sought-after sales person by top tech companies but decided to sell water instead.

Hear her story on why a Coca-Cola executive calling her "sweetie" motivated her to take over the industry and eat into his profits. Also discover how she figured out calling people directly gets big results, the barriers we build in front of ourselves, and how to handle recurring sacrifices.

Get clickable chapter highlights, and see all the show notes at https://justinkbrady.com/kara-goldin

Is it nice to be your own boss? Not really. If you make a great product, will it spread via word of mouth? Probably not. Is your idea valuable? Unlikely. Steven Hoffman, CEO of Founders Space tells the honest truth about entrepreneurship and why 44% of businesses fail because they don't make products customers want. Crazy!

If you're getting ready to launch a company, or are considering it, listen to this first.

When I asked a startup friend about him, he immediately told me "oh yea, that guy is awesome!" His name speaks for itself. Hoffman has created many startups, both bootstrapped and venture-funded, and he obliterates the startup-bro, "just do it" advice.

Hoffman also talks about why going to the customer seems to be the answer for almost every startup challenge. Oddly, many startups fail to do this step correctly.