Ideas that come from birds of a feather tend to die. Having the same people, with the same background, all looking at the same information isn't going to make that magical innovation genie appear. But, ideas that come from diversity in thinking, thrive. Marketing, consumer trends, and business expert Kelly McDonald shares with Inside LaunchStreet how to build a real culture around diversity. We all know the ‘why’ but Kelly digs into the ‘how’ and the business impact of the how.

Want to know what it’s like to push the boundaries of an industry? To do what others are afraid to do? And to see the payoff a willingness to change and innovate? Me too! That’s why I had Brian Benstock of Paragon Honda on Inside LaunchStreet. He’s in the auto sales field, which hasn’t changed in longer than I can remember. But his business has and customers are flocking to him and competitors are trying to catch up. This is a great lesson in what’s possible, even in legacy industries.

Do you ever wonder why some people succeed and some don’t — especially when they seem to start out on an even playing field? Well, that’s exactly what our Inside LaunchStreet guest, Angela Duckworth, wondered and took the time to research. She studies everyone from CEOs to West Point cadets. Can you guess the factor that led to those that made it and those that didn’t? It’s not intelligence, resources or skill. It’s grit. Turns out it’s more important that we think. What a great way to kick of

Learning from failure is integral to innovation. And it’s best if it’s someone else’s. It’s a free lesson. And that’s exactly what Kyle Murray did with the epic failure back in the day of Crystal Pepsi. He dug deep to understand why it failed and how we can learn the most valuable lessons from their experience.

In this episode, I pull out five clips from a range of incredible innovators that have stopped by and shared their brilliance on Inside LaunchStreet in 2018. They range from an Intrapreneur shaking up his large, bureaucratic company, a Silicon Valley pitch expert, a master investor, a pair of rocking entrepreneurs that have built an empire and someone that trained under the management guru, Peter Drucker. These clips highlight just some of the nuggets of gold shared in our interviews.

We’ve entered a new era. One that requires us to solve challenges we’ve never seen and explore solutions we’ve never created. If you are like me, sometimes it’s hard to wrap your head around it. And that’s why I had Greg Satell on Inside LaunchStreet. He is the author of Mapping Innovation: A Playbook For Navigating A Disruptive Age, a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review and INC and a sought-after innovation thought leader.

Let's face it — trying to be innovative in a workspace that feels boring and stiff is hard. Yet, that's what most of us face every day — a workplace that keeps you siloed and doesn't help you think differently. I find it super frustrating so I brought on Shama Hyder to talk about the Empowered Workplace and the new frontier in employee and customer experience. She’s an author, business owner and was called the “Millennial Master of the Universe” by FastCompany.com.

Have you ever wondered how to take your team or organization from no or low levels of innovation to high levels? How to get people to buy into the idea that innovative thinking and processes are important to success?

Have you ever wondered what you need to build a real culture of innovation? I'm not talking about ping pong tables and trust falls. I’m talking at the base level or culture. The invisible glue that makes it happen. Well, thanks to our guest Yoram Solomon, it’s not so invisible to us anymore. In fact, it’s quite tangible. Yoram is the founder of the Innovation Culture Institute.

Many of us struggle with the roadblocks of bureaucracy and legacy thinkers squelching innovation. Whether we work in corporations, for ourselves or as our guest does, in the behemoth that is higher education, we have to figure out how to navigate the system in order to drive innovation forward. Today’s Inside LaunchStreet guest, Alexader Lowry, has some experience in this so I asked him, “Hey, how do you pivot in an industry that wants to stay the course?”