#70 Stories of Reinvention, Forward from 50: How to Rediscover Purpose, Passion, and Possibility with Greg Gerber 

What happens when the career that defined you for 20 years disappears, not slowly, but all at once? 

That's exactly what happened to my guest today, Greg Gerber. For nearly two decades, Greg was the voice of the RV industry, building a daily publication that reached 16,000 subscribers. Then he sold everything, bought a motor home, and lived in it full time for three years, reporting from inside the industry he covered. What he uncovered led to a series of editorials that cost him almost two-thirds of his revenue within weeks, and eventually, the business he'd built his identity around. 

That loss became the doorway to Forward From 50, the platform Greg founded to help people over 50 rediscover purpose, not just recreation, in the years ahead of them. Nearly 200 interviews later, he's heard the same story again and again: people stepping away from careers that no longer fit, and into work that finally does. 

In this episode, we talk about: 

🔹 What "apathy creep" looks like, and why so many high achievers drift into it without realizing it 

🔹 The real difference between retiring from your job and retiring from your purpose 

🔹 How losing nearly everything forced Greg to rebuild his identity from scratch 

🔹 Why purpose isn't real purpose unless it's helping someone else 

🔹 The story of an engineer who traded MRI machines for balloon animals, Olympic officiating, and quieter pickleball courts 

🔹 The 22-question guide that can help anyone who feels stuck find direction 

🔹 Why curiosity — not recreation — is what keeps us sharp as we age 

If you've ever wondered what comes next after the title, the paycheck, or the identity you built your life around, this conversation is for you. 

Connect with Greg Gerber:

🌐 Website: forwardfrom50.com 

📱 Community: Forward From 50 on Facebook 

🎧 Podcast: Forward From 50 Podcast 

About Greg: Greg Gerber is the founder of Forward From 50, a Wisconsin native who moved to Arizona in 2009. A journalist by trade, he created the RV industry's first entirely online news site and its first business-related podcast before founding Forward From 50 in 2021 to help people over 50 pursue lives of purpose. Learn more: forwardfrom50.com/about 

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• Free Book: The Trust Gap
• The Learning To Lead Newsletter
• LeaderNotes

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.

Contact Mark at: [email protected]

 
What if the crisis you're dreading isn't actually your biggest problem? What if it's simply the spotlight that finally shows everyone what was already there?
 
That's the question I couldn't stop thinking about after my conversation with Hanna Bauer in Episode #68, "The Great Recession of Trust: How Leaders Can Rebuild What's Been Lost." In this episode, I'm unpacking five key takeaways from that conversation — insights I believe every growth-minded leader needs to hear.
 
Meet Hanna Bauer

Hanna is the founder of Heartnomics, a Maxwell Leadership Certified Facilitator, a Six Sigma Black Belt, and a Baldrige Examiner who has guided leaders and organizations across 29 states and 7 countries.

But here's what makes Hanna's story different: her framework didn't come out of a business school case study. It came from a childhood spent fighting a life-threatening heart condition — surviving two heart attacks before the age of 10, and becoming part of a pioneering 1992 heart surgery that has since saved more than 3,000 children.

Years later, as a CEO, Hanna nearly broke her own company by mastering strategy and systems while letting go of the thing she knew best: her people. That collapse — and the industry-wide disruption that followed — taught her a truth she's built her entire career on:

Crisis doesn't create culture's problems. It reveals the ones that were already there.
 
What We Talked About
 
Throughout our conversation, Hanna unpacked why we're living through what she calls "the great recession of trust." We talked about why love is the foundation beneath empathy and accountability — not a soft skill leaders can afford to skip. And we explored why resilience has to be built long before a crisis ever arrives.
 
Here are the topics we covered:
 

1. Why crisis doesn't stop you — it reveals you
2. Why love is the foundation of trust, not a soft skill
3. Why building resilience before you need it is imperative to your success
4. Diagnosing organizational misalignment before it costs you your best people
5. Balancing love with accountability without losing credibility
6. Understanding trust as the true currency of leadership
7. Measuring the cost of lost human potential
8. Leading transformation at the individual, organizational, and national level

If you haven't listened to Episode #68 yet, I'd challenge you to go back and take in the full conversation. Hanna speaks from her heart — she named her business Heartnomics for a reason — and it comes through in a deeply authentic way as she walks all the way back to her childhood and the battle she fought just to stay alive.
 
Five Key Takeaways for Growth-Minded Leaders

1. Crisis Doesn't Stop You — It Reveals You
 
When Hanna's industry faced total disruption, she realized the crisis wasn't creating new problems. It was bringing to light the ones that had been tolerated all along.
 
Leadership insight: The culture that shows up under pressure was already there in good times — it just wasn't being tested yet. Ask yourself: what would a crisis reveal about my team right now?

2. Love Is the Foundation of Trust — Not a Soft Skill

Hanna pushes back hard on the idea that love is fluff. She connects it directly to empathy, authenticity, confidence, and the genuine ability to value people. As she puts it, you cannot have a valued workforce without also having a loved workforce.

Leadership insight: You can't ask your team for empathy, authenticity, or engagement without first giving them love. It's the root — not the extra.

3. Resilience Is Built Before You Need It
 
Just like cardiovascular endurance, resilience isn't something you can summon in the middle of a crisis. Hanna says it has to be trained in the calm. Here's how she describes it:

Leadership insight: If you're waiting for a crisis to start building resilience in your team, you're already behind.

4. Misalignment Shows Up in Patterns, Not Single Events

Hanna outlines the early warning signs of a misaligned organization: high turnover, no succession plan, constant bottlenecks, and — above all — a meeting culture where you need a meeting before the meeting, and another one after it, just to solve the same issues.

Leadership insight: Misalignment rarely announces itself. It shows up first in your calendar and your org chart — long before it ever shows up in your numbers.

5. Trust Is the Leader's Currency

According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, over 64% of people don't trust the organizations they work with. Hanna connects that deficit directly to a leader's ability to drive change.

Think about your own organization for a moment. What's your trust rating? How would your people describe the trust they have in you as a leader — and in the organization as a whole?

I've seen this play out time and again in coaching and consulting engagements: low trust between levels and departments is almost always at the root of a struggling culture.

Leadership insight: You can't spend trust you haven't built. Every ask for change is a withdrawal from an account leaders have to fill first.

The Bottom Line
 
Trust is the currency of leadership, and it has to be built before it's spent. Great leaders don't demand trust because of their title — they build it through love, consistency, and systems that keep people at the center.
 
So here's my challenge to you this week: go build that trust. Show your team you have their back. Love and care for them well enough that when the ask comes, they already know the answer.

Connect with Hanna:

• Website: heartnomics.com
• LinkedIn: Hanna Bauer

 
Resources Mentioned

• Episode #68: The Great Recession of Trust: How Leaders Can Rebuild What's Been Lost — listen to the full conversation with Hanna Bauer

Take Action
 
If this episode resonated with you, here's how you can help:
 

• Subscribe to the Learning to Lead Show so every new episode lands right in your podcast app
• Leave a rating in your favorite podcast app — it helps us climb the rankings, reach more growth-minded leaders, and attract guests you'll want to hear from
• Download your free Leader Notes for this episode — a comprehensive summary of the key topics and resources, linked in the show notes

Until next time — go out this week and learn, grow, lead, and take your organization to the next level.

Free Learning To Lead Resources

• Free Book: The Trust Gap
• The Learning To Lead Newsletter
• LeaderNotes

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.

Contact Mark at: [email protected]

#68 The Great Recession of Trust: How Leaders Can Rebuild What's Been Lost with Hanna Bauer

Episode Summary
 
What do you do when the very system you built to create clarity ends up costing you the heart of your organization? That's the question Hanna Bauer had to face — and it's the question we're wrestling with together in this episode.
 
Hanna's story starts long before her career in leadership development. At just four years old, she was diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition. What followed was a childhood spent in and out of hospitals, enduring two heart attacks by age 10, failed treatments, and a groundbreaking heart ablation surgery that hadn't been tried before, a surgery her doctor compared to finding one light switch in a pitch-black, spinning room. It worked. And twenty years later, that same procedure had saved 3,000 more children.
 
That's a miracle. But it's also, as Hanna discovered, a masterclass in leadership, one she didn't recognize until decades later, when she found herself as a results-driven executive who had gotten so good at strategy and systems that she'd let go of what she knew best: the heart. The people.
 
In this conversation, we talk about:

• The four leadership lessons Hanna learned as a child — courage, the language of love, empathy without answers, and reframing failure as part of the process
• Why she believes "crisis doesn't stop you — it reveals you" and what that means for the culture you're building right now, in the calm before the storm
• Her HEART framework and BEAT methodology, born not from a whiteboard session but from her own lived experience of survival
• Why love isn't a soft skill — and how she connects empathy, authenticity, confidence, and trust directly back to it
• How to balance love with accountability without losing credibility as a leader
• The signs of a misaligned organization — from meeting-about-the-meeting culture to the silent cost of lost human potential
• Why we're living through what Hanna calls "a great recession of trust" — and what leaders can do to start rebuilding it
• What it's been like serving on the John Maxwell faculty, including leading full-country transformation initiatives in the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Panama

 
Key Quotes from the Episode
 

 
Takeaways You Can Apply This Week
 
If you walk away from this episode with nothing else, let it be this:

1. Audit your own alignment. Are your systems clear, but your people quietly disengaged? Misalignment often hides behind productivity, until it doesn't.
2. Build resilience before you need it. Like cardiovascular endurance, resilience is trained in the calm, not summoned in the crisis. Where are you investing in your team's capacity today?
3. Redefine accountability as a byproduct of community. You can't hold people accountable to a culture they don't feel safe in. Proximity and trust come first.
4. Start measuring what actually matters. Are you tracking satisfaction, belonging, and meaning — or just deadlines and deliverables?
5. Remember: service is leadership. Hannah didn't set out to become a leader. She simply started serving. Sometimes that's exactly where leadership begins for you too.

About Hanna Bauer

Hanna Bauer is a leadership consultant, John Maxwell faculty member, and Six Sigma Black Belt who helps individuals and organizations align strategy, systems, and people so they can navigate crisis and seize opportunity with resilience. She is the creator of the HEART framework and BEAT methodology, and has led leadership and transformation initiatives across multiple countries, including the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Panama.

Connect with Hanna:
 

• Website: heartnomics.com
• LinkedIn: Hanna Bauer

 
A Question to Sit With

Before you close this out and move on to the next thing, ask yourself: Where in my leadership have I let systems replace people? You don't have to have all the answers today. You just have to be willing to be there and to lead from the heart, like Hanna's grandmother once did for her.
 
If this episode moved you, share it with a leader in your circle who needs to hear it — and subscribe to The Learning to Lead Show so you never miss what's next.

Free Learning To Lead Resources

• Free Book: The Trust Gap
• The Learning To Lead Newsletter
• LeaderNotes

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.

Contact Mark at: [email protected]

#67 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Neill Marshall and Kurt Mosley

Guests: Neil Marshall & Kurt Mosley, HealthSearch Partners

Episode Overview

What if the most important leadership decisions you'll ever make happen before you've even earned the right to lead?

In this episode, I sit down with Neil Marshall and Kurt Mosley of HealthSearch Partners — an executive search firm that has guided more than 700 executive-level searches in hospitals and healthcare. Across all that experience, they've uncovered a pattern that holds true no matter the industry: the first 90 days aren't about strategy. They're about trust.

Get that window right, and everything else accelerates. Get it wrong, and you could spend the next year trying to recover credibility you never built in the first place.

Neil and Kurt share story after story — from a CEO who replaced worn-out mattresses in a hospital residence the same day he heard about them, to a leader who quietly climbed a ladder to fix a light bulb instead of delegating it away. Small acts. Enormous credibility.

At the heart of it all is one simple, powerful truth:

Great leaders don't walk in the door and announce who they are. They show it — one consistent, credible action at a time.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

1. Building trust before you try to lead change
2. Using symbolic acts to set the tone for a new role
3. Listening well enough to understand culture before changing it
4. Creating an early win that builds lasting credibility
5. Separating real problems from isolated complaints
6. Avoiding the most common first 90-day mistakes
7. Turning early wins into sustainable systems
8. Resetting with integrity after a misstep

Whether you're stepping into a brand-new role or you're a season into your current one and need a reset, this episode will help you:

• Build trust faster — without rushing your decisions
• Read culture accurately before trying to change it
• Create early wins that actually matter
• Lead with consistency instead of big declarations
• Recover credibility after a misstep

5 Key Takeaways for Growth-Minded Leaders

1. Trust Is Earned in the First 90 Days — Not Given by Title

Most new leaders assume their title has already earned them a followership. Neil and Kurt see it differently: it's not your strategy people need to trust first — it's you.

The first 90 days are a momentum phase. Build trust early, and everything that follows accelerates. Skip that step, and you'll spend the next year trying to recover credibility you never built.

Leadership Lesson: Your title gives you authority. Your first 90 days determine whether you've earned the right to lead.

2. Small Symbolic Acts Build Lasting Credibility

One CEO moved into a hospital's residence dorms for his first 90 days. When a resident mentioned the mattresses were worn out, he had them replaced that same day. Another leader quietly climbed a ladder to fix a burned-out light bulb rather than pointing it out to someone else.

Neither leader gave a speech. Both built credibility that outlasted their tenure.

Leadership Insight: One symbolic act is worth more than a hundred emails or edicts.

3. Listening Has to Come Before Declaring

New leaders are often expected to move fast. Neil and Kurt caution against mistaking motion for progress. The leaders who last diagnose before they prescribe — they ask before they act.

Four questions to ask early in any new role:

1. What's working that I shouldn't mess up?
2. What's getting in your way?
3. What are people not saying out loud, but everybody knows?
4. If we're successful in 90 days, what's different?

Leadership Lesson: Ask before you act. People trust leaders who understand them before they try to change them.

4. Culture Is the Multiplier

As Kurt put it plainly: misreading culture can undo a leader's best work.

A leader has to earn the right to change a culture by first understanding it. Otherwise, even good decisions land as tone-deaf ones.

Leadership Insight: You can't lead what you don't understand.

5. Ownership Turns Mistakes Into Trust

Even the best leaders stumble in their first 90 days. What separates leaders who recover from those who don't is simple: ownership.

People forgive mistakes — but they won't forgive you for being disingenuous. The leaders who reset well go back to their team, and often their board, and say plainly what they got wrong, what they learned, and what they're changing.

Leadership Lesson: Accountability isn't weakness — it's how credibility is rebuilt.

Bringing It Home

Whether you're starting a brand-new role or you need to reset where you currently stand, these five principles are practices you can put into place right now — and take your organization to the next level.

Resources Mentioned

• Leader Notes — Download your free summary and outline of every topic covered in this interview.

Connect & Subscribe

• Subscribe so every new episode of Learning to Lead arrives in your favorite podcast player as soon as it's published.
• If this episode added value, a 5-star rating helps more leaders find the show — we'd be grateful for yours.

Now get out there this week and learn, grow, and lead — and take your organization to the next level.

— Mark Cundiff, Host, The Learning to Lead Show

Free Learning To Lead Resources

• Free Book: The Trust Gap
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🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.

Contact Mark at: [email protected]

Guests: Neill Marshall (Board Chair) & Kurt Mosley (Associations Practice Leader), HealthSearch Partners Host: Mark J. Cundiff — The Learning to Lead Show

Episode Summary

What if the first 90 days in a new role mattered more than your strategy, your resume, or even your title?

That's the question at the heart of this episode. Neill Marshall and Kurt Mosley have been part of more than 700 executive searches in healthcare, and they've watched leaders walk into new roles thousands of times. The pattern they keep seeing is simple: the leaders who win the first 90 days build momentum that carries them for years. The leaders who don't spend the next year trying to earn back trust they never built in the first place.

In this conversation, Neill and Kurt share the framework they coach executives through before they ever set foot in the building — from negotiating a win before accepting the job, to the small, symbolic acts that build lasting credibility, to the questions every new leader should be asking their team. Along the way, they tell some unforgettable stories: the CEO who moved into the hospital's resident dorms, the executive who quietly fixed a mattress problem on day one, and the leader who picked up trash in the parking lot before he ever walked through the front door.

This episode isn't just for healthcare executives. It's for anyone stepping into something new — a role, a team, a season of leadership — and wanting to get it right from the start.

What You'll Learn

• Why trust — not strategy — is what people are actually evaluating in your first 90 days
• The most common mistake new leaders make, and why it costs them credibility fast
• How to "negotiate a win" before you even accept the job
• Why one small, symbolic act can build more trust than 100 emails
• The four questions every leader should ask their team in the first 30–60–90 days
• How to tell the difference between a real problem and one person's opinion
• Why restructuring or judging people too early backfires
• John Wooden's principle for new leaders: "Be quick, but don't hurry"
• How to turn early wins into lasting systems and rhythms
• What to do — and say — when you get the first 90 days wrong

Topics Discussed

• Neill and Kurt's personal leadership journeys, from a college entrepreneurship club to the baseball diamond
• Why the first 90 days function as a "momentum phase" for every new leader
• The Dunkin' Donuts story — and what it teaches about reading culture before acting
• Negotiating a win before taking the job
• The mattress story: how one act of listening built a CEO's credibility for his entire tenure
• Impressing people vs. earning authority — and why they're not the same thing
• The four questions to ask your team early on
• How to separate signal from noise when gathering input
• Building your own "influence org chart" instead of relying on titles
• The risk of moving too fast — and the risk of moving too slow
• Turning early wins into repeatable systems and leadership rhythms
• Developing leaders at every level of the organization
• How to reset with integrity after a misstep in the first 90 days
• Why writing things down — and turning lessons into stories — sharpens you as a leader

Memorable Quotes

About the Guests

Neill Marshall is Board Chair of HealthSearch Partners and an executive search veteran with more than 30 years of experience, having led more than 600 senior-level assignments. He co-founded HealthSearch Partners in 2017 and previously held leadership roles with major search firms including Witt/Kieffer. Neill earned his degree in Business Administration & Management from Texas A&M University, where he helped build the Society for Entrepreneurship and New Ventures (ENVE). He and his wife, Mary, live in Coppell, TX.

Kurt Mosley is the Associations Practice Leader at HealthSearch Partners, bringing more than 30 years of healthcare industry experience. Before joining HealthSearch Partners, he spent 31 years with AMN Healthcare and Merritt Hawkins, most recently as Vice President of Strategic Alliances. Kurt's insights have been featured in USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Modern Healthcare, and HealthLeaders, and he has spoken to more than 90 healthcare organizations, reaching over 6,500 leaders in the past two years. He and his wife, Deborah, live in Dallas, TX.

Connect

• Website: HealthSearchPartners.com
• LinkedIn: Search Neill Marshall or Kurt Mosley
• Email: [email protected] | [email protected]

The Learning to Lead Show is hosted by Mark J. Cundiff. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and if this episode challenged or encouraged you, share it with someone who's about to lead something new.

Free Learning To Lead Resources

• Free Book: The Trust Gap
• The Learning To Lead Newsletter
• LeaderNotes

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.

Contact Mark at: [email protected]

Free Learning To Lead Resources

• Free Book: The Trust Gap
• The Learning To Lead Newsletter
• LeaderNotes

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.

Contact Mark at: [email protected]

Have you ever noticed that some of the most successful people you know have it all figured out in one area of life... and are quietly falling apart in another?

The CEO who can close a nine-figure deal but can't stick to a diet for two weeks. The entrepreneur who built an empire from nothing but hasn't had a real conversation with his own kid in months. We've all seen it. Maybe you've lived it.

This week, I sat down with Boaz Gilad — former real estate CEO turned performance coach and author of The Zenith Code — to talk about why this happens, and what it actually takes to break the pattern.

Boaz's story is one of the most unconventional paths to leadership I've featured on this show. He grew up in Jerusalem, served as a paratrooper in the Israeli army, then moved to New York at 22 to chase a completely different dream — acting. He trained at the Stella Adler Conservatory, studied Philosophy at Hunter College, and waited tables to make ends meet. A real estate side hustle turned into a 20-year career that took him to CEO of a public company and made him a driving force in Brooklyn's real estate resurgence. Then he lost it all in a hostile takeover.

That collapse became the foundation for everything he teaches today.

This conversation will challenge how you think about goals, discipline, and what it really means to perform at a high level — not just in one part of your life, but in all of them.

What We Cover in This Episode

• Boaz's leadership journey — from acting in New York, to building and taking a real estate company public, to losing everything in a hostile takeover
• Life as a series of games — why every area of your life has its own rules, scoreboard, and time limit, and why that framework changes everything
• Why top performers plateau — the real reason high achievers double down on their strengths instead of confronting their blind spots
• The "inspiration junkie" trap — why waiting to feel motivated is keeping you stuck, and what to do instead
• The 90-day framework — why 90 days is the sweet spot for building real, lasting change
• Productive discomfort — why success was never meant to feel comfortable, and how to make peace with that
• Trust and accountability — how misaligned goals quietly destroy trust on a team, and how to fix it
• Why even the best need a coach — the humbling truth behind Steph Curry's shooting coach and what it means for the rest of us

Key Quotes to Remember

A Few Questions to Sit With

Boaz doesn't just hand you answers — he hands you better questions. Here are a few worth carrying into your week:

1. What game am I actually playing right now — and is it the one I say I'm playing?
2. Where am I doubling down on a strength instead of confronting a blind spot?
3. If a camera followed me for a week, would it capture the life I say I want?
4. Who's on my team right now — and are they built for the level I'm trying to reach next?

About Boaz Gilad

Boaz Gilad is an entrepreneur, author, and performance coach known for his work with high-achieving individuals and organizations. Born in Jerusalem, he served as a paratrooper in the Israeli army before moving to New York, where he studied acting at the Stella Adler Conservatory and philosophy at Hunter College. He went on to serve as CEO of several New York real estate development firms, playing a key role in Brooklyn's real estate resurgence and taking his company public. He's the author of The Real Estate Millionaire (McGraw-Hill) and The Zenith Code, has guest lectured in NYU's MBA program, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He hosts the podcast Unmask and leads Zenith Clubhouse, a program for high performers pursuing growth across both business and life.

Connect with Boaz:

• Book: The Zenith Code
• Substack
• Podcast: Unmask
• LinkedIn
• Learn more: zenithclubhouse.com

Free Learning To Lead Resources

• Free Book: The Trust Gap
• The Learning To Lead Newsletter
• LeaderNotes

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.

Contact Mark at: [email protected]

Free Learning To Lead Resources

• Free Book: The Trust Gap
• The Learning To Lead Newsletter
• LeaderNotes

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.

Contact Mark at: [email protected]

What if the biggest obstacle to your leadership isn't your experience—but the story you're telling yourself?

In this episode of The Learning to Lead Show, Mark Cundiff sits down with Jennifer Doty, former Fortune 100 executive, speaker, author, and leadership coach, to explore how leaders can overcome self-doubt, embrace uncertainty, and create meaningful career and life pivots.

Jennifer spent nearly two decades at MetLife, rising through multiple executive leadership roles. Along the way, she discovered that the best leaders aren't necessarily the smartest people in the room—they're the ones willing to ask better questions, learn quickly, and help others succeed.

Together, Mark and Jennifer discuss overcoming imposter syndrome, leading outside your expertise, navigating career transitions, developing a resilient mindset, building powerful networks, and why changing your thinking is often the first step toward changing your leadership.

If you've ever questioned whether you're ready for your next opportunity, this conversation will remind you that growth rarely begins inside your comfort zone.

In this Episode You Will Learn

• Why leadership is about influence—not expertise.
• How Jennifer overcame months of imposter syndrome after taking on a role she knew nothing about.
• The importance of mentors during seasons of rapid growth.
• Practical strategies for navigating layoffs and major career transitions.
• Why your identity should never be tied solely to your job title.
• How daily mindset practices shape long-term leadership success.
• Why asking better questions often matters more than having better answers.
• The power of leading with gratitude and possibility thinking.
• How customer-focused organizations avoid drifting away from what matters most.
• Why limiting beliefs quietly sabotage leadership potential.
• How leaders can reframe negative self-talk into empowering beliefs.
• Why networking should begin long before you need your next opportunity.
• Simple daily habits that build confidence, resilience, and emotional strength.

Key Leadership Takeaways

1. You Don't Need Expertise to Lead Well

2. Growth Lives Outside Your Comfort Zone

3. Your Experience Is More Valuable Than You Realize

4. Ask Better Questions

5. Never Let Your Job Become Your Identity

6. Career Pivots Begin Long Before You Need Them

7. Be Clear About What You Really Want

8. Mindset Is a Daily Practice

9. Stop Believing Every Thought You Think

10. Put the Customer in the Room

Memorable Quotes

• "You don't need to be the expert. You need to know the right questions to ask."
• "If I can do that, I can do anything."
• "Your relationships are one of the most valuable assets you'll ever have."
• "Your identity should never be your job title."
• "It's not happening to you. It's happening for you."
• "You get paid the same amount to be miserable as you do to be happy."
• "If you're going to make up a story, make up a good one."
• "Leadership is shining your light on others so they can see theirs."
• "It's always working out."

Connect with Jennifer Doty

Jennifer Doty is a former Fortune 100 vice president, speaker, author, and leadership coach who helps leaders and teams break through limiting beliefs, strengthen their mindset, and create meaningful, measurable change. Drawing from more than twenty years of executive leadership experience and her own career reinvention, she equips organizations and leaders with practical tools that transform confidence into action and mindset into lasting results.

• LinkedIn
• Website
• Email: [email protected]

Free Learning To Lead Resources

• Free Book: The Trust Gap
• The Learning To Lead Newsletter
• LeaderNotes

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.

Contact Mark at: [email protected]

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🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.

Contact Mark at: [email protected]