Top Voice Podcast with Michael J. López

Michael welcomes leadership and executive coach Katie O’Brien Ceccarini, founder of Endurance Management Coaching and author of the award-winning book Fearless Feedback, to discuss why feedback is hard and how to do it without losing the relationship. Katie shares her path from early education to Yelp and Opendoor, where she trained managers to handle difficult conversations, and introduces her framework: mindset, relationship, and delivery. They cover tactics like swapping the word “feedback” for “information,” building trust through relationship kickoff and reinvestment conversations, naming which “hat” you’re wearing with close colleagues, and clarifying the purpose of a conversation (instance, pattern, or role fit). For receiving feedback, Katie offers “thank, own, ask,” stresses communication preferences, and notes not all feedback must be implemented.

Timestamps:
00:24 Welcome
02:53 Why Feedback Feels Hard
04:02 Rejection and Identity
06:04 Early Manager Lessons
09:03 Fearless Feedback Framework
10:52 Mindset and Language Shifts
17:11 Close Relationships at Work
21:16 Delivery Purpose Instance Pattern Fit
24:08 Receiving Feedback Well
27:19 Not All Feedback Is Gold
31:28 Relationship Kickoff Conversation
35:27 Key Takeaways and Where to Find
38:31 Closing Question Leadership Story
41:04 Final Thanks

Connect with Katie:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-ceccarini/
https://www.enduranceboss.com

Michael hosts Brad Kapellas, Site Vice President at Entergy’s Grand Gulf Nuclear Station, for a discussion on nuclear plant operations and the practical science of organizational change. Brad explains the industry’s highly regulated, procedure-driven 24/7 environment, the two-year operating cycle, and the high-stakes refuel outage window, where every offline day can cost roughly $1M in lost generation. He argues culture matters beyond compliance because ownership and vigilance prevent problems, and he describes shifting Grand Gulf’s recovery approach by removing non-value-added oversight, empowering decision-making at the lowest level, and focusing on a few behavior changes sustained over 18–24 months. They recount achieving a 28-day outage with strong safety and performance results, discuss later backsliding when fundamentals were assumed ingrained, and share leadership lessons centered on curiosity, constraints, experimentation, and building capability that endures beyond any one leader.

Timestamps:
00:24  Welcome
01:05  Inside Nuclear Operations
04:16  Maintenance and Outage Cycle
06:49  Site VP Leadership Role
08:20  Why Culture Beats Compliance
10:20  Removing Bottlenecks Faster
12:36  Too Much Oversight Trap
15:04  Trust and Empowerment Story
19:09  Refuel Outage Turnaround
24:04  Cost of Downtime Metrics
26:21  Cutting Plans Doing Less
27:47  Behavior Shifts Framework
29:33  Outage Reality Check
31:06  Five Behavior Shifts
32:41  Sustaining Culture Change
35:55  When Momentum Slips
37:12  Change Is A Capability
37:58  Leadership Staying Power
41:44  Reliability Turnaround Story
45:52  Leadership Lessons Learned
52:50  Irrational Decision Question
54:52  Final Thanks

Connect with Brad:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-kapellas-08265835b/

Michael's National Workforce Study on Change Management: https://www.michaeljlopez.coach/research

Michael welcomes journalist and creator Natalie Campisi to the Top Voice Podcast to discuss reinventing yourself mid-career after repeated industry upheavals. Natalie traces her path from traditional newsrooms and the Associated Press through a pivot into marketing, then back to financial journalism at Bankrate and Forbes before being laid off in 2025 amid widespread media cuts. She explains how today’s moment differs from 2008 due to changing news consumption, SEO’s decline, AI-driven distrust, and the growing value of trusted human personalities. Natalie shares the Gen X “identity crisis” of job loss, redefining success, and choosing independence by building a YouTube channel, pursuing filmmaking, and learning AI tools for production. They discuss perfectionism, making mistakes, networking, asking for help, and practical advice for experienced professionals navigating career pivots.

Timestamps:
00:24  Welcome
01:27  Natalie Career Origins
04:27  Layoffs and AI Shift
08:08  What Changed Now
11:21  Identity and Success
15:12  Building YouTube Path
18:45  Embrace Mistakes
23:54  Skills and Networking
27:51  Asking for Help
32:20  Next Steps Ahead
34:23  Key Takeaways
37:45  Mentorship Belief Shift
39:13  Where to Follow
39:43  Closing

Connect with Natalie:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliecampisi/
https://www.youtube.com/@NatalieCampisi

Michael interviews Mark Cuban about disrupting U.S. healthcare through transparency and direct contracting. Cuban explains how CostPlusDrugs.com sells thousands of medications with disclosed costs and a 15% markup, and how CostPlusWellness.com publishes open-source direct contracts employers can use to contract with providers. He outlines how employer-sponsored and self-insured plans work, why big insurers and PBMs create opacity through networks, denials, spread pricing, and gag clauses, and why direct contracting can lower costs while improving provider yields. Cuban describes a step-by-step approach for employers: avoid long renewals, use AI to review contracts, add carve-outs based on claims spending, and consider independent TPAs. He details PBM pushback, brand-drug rebate dynamics, and argues that using AI and contract transparency can squeeze out middlemen over time.


Timestamps:
00:24 Intro
00:49 Mark Cuban Joins
01:20 Cost Plus Drugs Explained
03:43 Why Healthcare Is Opaque
06:25 Self Insurance Basics
09:02 Direct Contracting Pitch
14:29 Gag Clauses And Games
16:40 How Wellness Works
19:09 Switching Steps With AI
25:14 Denials And Real Stories
30:14 Pushback From PBMs
32:05 Brand Drug Pricing Breakdown
34:54 Making Drugs Affordable
35:37 PBM Threats Explained
37:24 Cost Plus Transparency Model
38:42 Culture Versus Ethics
40:07 Expose The Contracts
42:14 Contract Terrorism
42:50 Why AI Changes Everything
44:32 Employers Must Own It
47:46 Future Without Middlemen
49:09 Education Next To Disrupt
52:47 Using AI For Advocacy
56:09 Practical Advice and Closing

Follow Mark:
https://markcubancompanies.com
https://www.costplusdrugs.com
https://costpluswellness.com

Michael interviews Patrick Cates, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs at USC, Marshall School of Business, about the turbulent “new normal” facing higher education amid political pressures, international student compliance shifts, financial strain, layoffs, leadership turnover, and rapid AI-driven change. Cates argues AI is primarily a culture-change issue, noting universities’ slow, brittle structures—like the 1–2 year peer-review lifecycle—are colliding with the speed of AI. He explains why blanket AI policies often fail in distributed power environments and highlights change via respected faculty examples, including Marshall’s early AI pedagogy paper. Reflecting on USC’s post-2018 culture transformation, he emphasizes operationalizing shared values, measuring culture through people-centered indicators, and prioritizing strong, kind leadership, psychological safety, and adaptability as foundations for higher ed’s future.

Timestamps:
00:24 Welcome
01:27 Meet Patrick Cates
02:48 Higher Ed Turbulence
05:15 Resistance to Change
06:41 Perfect Storm Pressures
10:18 AI as Culture Change
13:59 How Universities Adapt
18:00 USC Culture Journey
20:30 Making Values Real
29:49 Measuring Culture Health
34:56 Culture Over AI
37:04 Psychological Safety
40:27 Key Takeaways
43:09 Walk Up Song
44:18 Where to Connect
44:55 Closing

Connect with Patrick:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcates/

Michael's National Workforce Study on Change Management: https://www.michaeljlopez.coach/research

Michael welcomes Naphtali Bryant, managing principal consultant at RAC Leadership and former US Marine and chief people officer, to discuss the “curse of competence” and how leaders become bottlenecks by continuing to solve, edit, and rescue instead of building team capability. Naphtali explains that promotions often reward past competence, but leadership requires shifting from having answers to developing others, using the question “Whose growth does this moment belong to?” They cover how dependence shrinks ownership and initiative, why “my team needs to step up” can mean the leader must step back, and practical tactics like restraint, better questions, and telling hard truths. They also discuss culture, leadership inflection points, AI’s impact on leadership value, and when staying an individual contributor may be the best path.

Timestamps:
00:24 Welcome
01:10 Meet Naphtali Bryant
02:39 Marine Corps to Tech Journey
05:38 Defining the Curse
08:45 Whose Growth Is It
11:05 Ego and Restraint
13:10 Inflection Points Mirror
16:03 How Leaders Get Stuck
19:22 Culture and Echo
23:32 Top Down to AI Shift
25:54 AI Changes Leadership Value
28:15 IC vs Leader Path
31:06 Key Takeaways and Closing

Connect with Naphtali:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/naphtalibryant/
https://racleadership.com

Michael's National Workforce Study on Change Management: https://www.michaeljlopez.coach/research

Michael hosts Aditi Joshi, an emergency medicine physician turned digital health leader, to discuss the evolution and adoption challenges of telemedicine and broader healthcare technology. Aditi recounts entering telemedicine in 2013, scaling programs through the pandemic, and now consulting on digital health adoption and scaling. They cover why patients generally like telehealth, why many health tech startups fail due to slow health-system implementation and clinician behavior change, and how required usage plus department-level ownership helped scale telemedicine at Jefferson. They also discuss AI in healthcare, distinguishing administrative “back-end” uses from clinical “front-end” advice, and why confidence, trust, and messaging affect adoption. Aditi shares her book, “Telehealth Success,” and key takeaways on implementation strategy and understanding end users.

Timestamps:
00:24  Welcome and Setup
01:24  Aditi's Telehealth Journey
02:46  Telemedicine Then to Now
04:56  What Patients Really Want
07:07  Why Health Tech Fails
10:40  Clinician Adoption Barriers
16:34  Scaling Across Hospitals
21:02  AI Hype vs Reality
27:19  AI Telehealth Agents
29:01  Book and Consulting Work
31:37  Cost Savings and Incentives
34:00  Key Takeaways and Closing

Connect with Aditi:
https://draditiujoshi.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-aditi-joshi/

Aditis book:
https://a.co/d/08473ukY

Michael's National Workforce Study on Change Management: https://www.michaeljlopez.coach/research

Michael interviews Doug Milliken, former Clorox VP of Marketing and now partner at Kremer & Milliken, a consultancy focused on helping large companies understand and evolve organizational culture to improve performance. Milliken argues culture—defined as behavior and how work gets done—is a primary driver of operating profit and a capability leaders can intentionally manage. He discusses driving change as an “outsider-insider,” a Clorox decision-making initiative where teams discovered faster, Agile-like approaches by gaining agency and clarifying what decision-makers actually needed, and his experience leading Clorox’s digital transformation by building psychological safety, achieving zero attrition, record engagement, and 3x expected financial returns. They also explore rising change fatigue from overlapping transformations (including AI) and efforts to build teams’ capacity to absorb change.

Timestamps:
00:24 Welcome and Guest Intro
01:27 Career and Culture Focus
04:11 Outsider Insider Change Agent
07:13 Decision Making Transformation Story
13:29 Culture as Capital Capability
18:10 Winning Over Skeptical Leaders
22:19 Digital Transformation Culture Proof
27:08 Change Fatigue in the AI Era
34:08 Key Takeaways on Culture
36:47 Hardest Career Pivot Lesson
40:31 Where to Find Doug and Closing

Connect with Doug:
https://creamerandmilliken.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-milliken-3798a01/

Michael's National Workforce Study on Change Management: https://www.michaeljlopez.coach/research

Michael interviews keynote speaker and USA Today bestselling author Simone Knego about her new book, Real Confidence, and why confidence is built like a skill rather than something you’re born with. Simone shares her journey as a mom of six, becoming a grandmother, and a pivotal 2015 decision to climb Mount Kilimanjaro that helped her reframe self-doubt and capability. She explains her REAL method—Respect yourself, Embrace your failures, Ask yourself what you want, and Live without limits—plus a practical “control-alt-delete” reset to change unhelpful thoughts and habits. They discuss high achievers’ confidence gaps, dropping “just” from self-talk, psychological safety and connection at work, and how leaders can use AI without losing human culture.

Timestamps:

00:24 Welcome and Guest Intro
01:23 Simone Journey and Book
03:29 Kilimanjaro Confidence Shift
06:12 Reframing Self Worth
06:54 The Confidence Gap
08:35 REAL Method Overview
09:17 Respect Yourself First
10:40 Embrace Failure to Grow
13:01 Ask What You Want
17:20 Living Without Limits
18:47 Control Alt Delete Method
20:08 Rewrite Your Inner Story
21:35 Thrive At Work Teams
24:17 Imposter Syndrome Promotions
27:06 Drop The Just Rule
29:38 Three Confidence Takeaways
31:23 AI And Company Culture
33:18 AI Confidence Risks
34:43 Where To Find Simone
35:14 Final Thanks And Wrap

Connect with Simone:
https://simoneknego.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/simoneknego/

Michael hosts a special panel episode of the Top Voice Podcast with Zensai leaders Nina Carøe (Chief Human Success Officer), Robin Daniels (Chief Business Officer, repeat guest), and CEO Rasmus Holst to discuss their book The Human Success Playbook and the future of the human-AI experience at work. They explain why Zensai positions itself around “human success” rather than traditional HR, focusing on building high-performance teams through learning, performance, and engagement, and introducing a Human Success Score to give executives a shared language. The conversation covers constant change since COVID, disengagement trends, treating AI as a tool and potential “team member,” and the need for clarity to avoid chaos. They contrast old hierarchical structures with a value-stream “diamond,” emphasize simple values (“human” and “success”), and share practical leadership advice, ending with where to find the book on Amazon and connect via LinkedIn and zensai.com.

Timestamps:
00:24 Welcome and First Panel
01:25 Meet the Guests
03:55 What Zensai Does
05:30 Why Human Success Now
07:06 From HR to Human Success
09:45 Inside the Human Success Playbook
12:11 CEO View No Map for AI
15:40 Chief Human Success Officer
20:33 Culture AI and Clarity
25:36 Hard Choices and Governance
26:17 Hard Cuts vs People
26:58 Why Teams Win
28:43 Rethinking Value Creation
30:15 Map Not GPS Leadership
31:47 From Hierarchy to Diamond
33:48 Values Human and Success
36:58 Why a Leadership Fable
40:38 One Action This Week
42:34 Sensei Future Vision
45:00 Unlearning for AI
47:15 Where to Find the Book
47:50 Closing Thanks and Wrap

Connect with Zensai panel:
https://zensai.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasmusholst/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninaelisabethcaroe/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robingdaniels/

Michael's National Workforce Study on Change Management:
https://www.michaeljlopez.coach/research