Unshakeable Influence Podcast

Lucas James Talent Partners is an On-Demand Talent Acquisition Services firm focused on providing clients a high quality, cost-effective, variable, and transparent talent acquisition experience. The most efficient, cost-effective way to perform talent acquisition activities is in-house - and they give their client partners a solution to help expand their internal offerings on an as-needed, cost friendly basis.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Brief introduction of yourself and your company. (00:43)
• How did you come up with your unique ways of addressing clients recruiting challenges? (03:49)
• What do you think is the reason why companies don't invest more on talent acquisition? (11:10)
• What has your company's growth curve been like, and the success factors and challenges you have seen along the way? (13:03)
• How would you describe your north star as a leader? (19:30)
• How would you characterize the culture of the organization now? (21:11)
• What do you do to recharge and rejuvenate? (43:10)
• What key piece of advice for people listening can you share? (44:59)

Patrick Dennis is the Chief Executive Officer of ExtraHop. Working alongside a world-class executive team and a seasoned board of directors, Patrick is responsible for driving company-wide strategy and priorities with a focus on customer success, innovation, and rapid, scalable growth.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Brief introduction of yourself and your company. (00:41)
• What drew you to this role? (02:27)
• Did you think maybe someday you will be a CEO? (06:38)
• How was your journey and transition into your first CEO role? (09:52)
• How do you go about making the best hiring decisions? (15:01)
• What do you do to get the best out of the organization's people? (19:27)
• How do you describe your true north as a leader? (25:51)
• What is your practice about how you as a leader encourage and enforce accountability within your organization? (30:00)
• What are some of your biggest challenges as a leader and how you overcome them? (33:10)
• How did you know that you have enough confidence for your first CEO role? (38:57)
• What do you do to make sure you are getting quality feedback including feedback that might be difficult to hear? (43:33)
• What do you do to recharge? (47:32)
• One key piece of advice you want to leave to the listeners? (50:15)

Dan Fantasia, CEO & Co Founder of Treeline. It was founded in 2001 and is known for helping companies hire elite sales professionals in 30 days or less. Thousands of clients and tens of thousands of sales athletes have turned to Treeline to reach new altitudes.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Brief introduction of yourself and your company. (00:41)
• What is different and unique about how Treeline solves problems for clients? (02:00)
• What are the core values of Treeline's culture? (08:20)
• Leaders are free to make mistakes. (11:37)
• Why was company culture a motivating factor to start your company?(13:15)
• Through the growth your company has experienced over the years, how do you keep the culture going to the direction you wanted it to go? (16:36)
• What have you done over the years to help the company and individuals improve one step at a time? (20:56)
• What do you do to be the better version of yourself? (25:20)
• One key piece of advice you want to leave to the listeners. (30:35)

David Berman, Co-Founder & CEO of Berman McAleer. David established Berman Financial Group in 1999 and realized his professional dream of partnering with his best friend in 2002 to form Berman McAleer. As CEO, he set the company's strategic direction and chairs the executive committee.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Brief introduction of yourself and your company. (00:41)
• How does your unusual incentive structure provide better service to clients? (04:33)
• Value system that creates more fulfillment for employees and clients. (11:58)
• Three core values of the organization (13:07)
• How do you work with clients to help them get clear about what money really means to them? (18:43)
• How would you describe your true north as a leader? (24:53)
• How long have you been working with a coach and what benefits have you experienced? (33:24)
• What is it that will make you happy if it's not just achievements or accomplishments? (38:59)
• What do you do to recharge and rejuvenate? (40:46)
• One key piece of advice you want to leave to the listeners. (41:49)

Aliyah Nance, VP of People at Paystand. Aliyah is an experienced Finance and HR Professional with a demonstrated history of working with high growth startups. She is a strong accounting professional skilled in Negotiation, Budgeting, Business Planning, Strategy, Team Building and Customer Service.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Brief introduction of yourself and your company. (00:39)
• How did you make the transition to VP of People when you didn't come from that background? (03:22)
• What led you to be more people focused? (06:59)
• People drive the company more than anything else (08:05)
• What was the transition like as you accepted the role of full time VP of People? (09:26)
• How did Paystand successfully open their offices just two months after the pandemic started? And why? (12:35)
• What are your key values as a leader? (15:54)
• How do you do your best to hire the right people? (17:43)
• How do you lead by example and embody the leadership values? (18:54)
• How do you keep your company culture growing in the direction you want it to grow? (20:38)
• What were your key challenges along the way and what did you learn from them? (22:18)
• How do you recharge and rejuvenate? (27:04)
• One key piece of advice you want to leave to the listeners. (29:15)

Mike Zani, CEO of The Predictive Index. They develop systems and methodologies for talent optimization, and bring that discipline through a platform and the world's largest network of talent optimization consultants. Mike helps leaders intentionally and strategically designs great teams and a successful culture.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Brief introduction of yourself and your company. (00:44)
• How has your company changed and grown over time and how do you manage that change and growth? (08:38)
• For you, what is a great teacher or coach? (12:50)
• What is your true north as a leader and how does it translate to your day to day behavior and how you lead? (16:16)
• What is your experience as far as the importance of consistency in your leadership conversations? (23:23)
• What predictive index does? (25:52)
• How can people engage with your tool and services? (28:21)
• What are some of your biggest challenges along the way and what have you learned from them? (29:54)
• Overlaps in leadership journey and personal growth. (34:20)
• Share something about your book. (36:59)
• What do you do to keep yourself at the top of your game? (39:09)
• One key piece of advice you want to share base from your experience? (40:35)

Alec Ford, Chief Executive Officer of Karius that envisions a world where infectious disease is no longer a major threat to human health. To achieve this, the Karius Test uses genomics and AI to map a patient's microbial landscape from a single blood sample to enable clinicians to make rapid treatment decisions.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Brief introduction of yourself and your company. (00:40)
• What's the typical process to identify infections? (04:23)
• How Karius improves outcome as the test is more holistic and timeliness of results is much more immediate (07:43)
• What drew you to this industry and what keeps you going? (08:52)
• Whatever you are trying to do, you should overestimate what is required and go above and beyond expectations. (17:58)
• Your career progression over the years. (20:30)
• How's the current transition in your career going for you? (28:10)
• How did your vision change over time? (30:50)
• The more investment you're willing to make, the more confident you become. (38:43)
• How do you recharge and rejuvenate? (47:58)
• One key piece of advice you want to leave to the listeners? (51:50)
• How do you maximize the chances of people to feel comfortable? (55:13)
• Any final or closing thoughts for the audience. (1:01:47)

Alex Frommeyer, CEO and Co-Founder of Beam Benefits. Beam Benefits simplifies and modernizes employee benefits through their intuitive digital platform, self-service tools, AI-powered underwriting, and unique Beam Perks™ program. Beam Benefits delivers a simple, smart, and wellness-focused experience for brokers, employers, and members that include dental, vision, life, disability, and supplemental health.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Brief introduction of yourself and your company. (00:43)
• What inspired you and your partners to start a business? (04:25)
• Why were you so clear at a relatively young age, the three of you wanted to partner and form a business together? (06:17)
• What are you doing to digitize and help your clients more effectively? (11:45)
• For 10 years now since you started, what's the growth curve been like? (17:42)
• We deliberately took smoother and more linear path to make sure we didn't grow too quickly. (19:56)
• What were the stepping stones along the way? (20:55)
• How do you describe your True North - key values as a leader? (23:16)
• How do you manage the company's rapid growth curve? (29:03)
• Leadership growth is willingness to take feedback. (30:05)
• Why are you so clear about being laser focusd on your company culture? (34:35)
• How you keep your self going and high energy? (43:55)
• One key piece of advice you want to share to our listeners? (47:15)

Lalith Subramanian, Vice President, Product Development of DocuSign. Lalith has deep expertise in information security(endpoint, forensics, eDiscovery), data governance, AI/ML, BPM/data integration, content management, ERP, regulated vertical solutions (Healthcare, Pharma/Lifesciences, Fin.Svcs) and with proven success in building and leading distributed product management and engineering teams and managing global customer relationships.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Brief introduction of yourself and your company. (00:44)
• With your first leadership role, what was the transition like for you and how did you grow through that? (03:39)
• To deliver success, it's about the combine output rather than individual output. (10:01)
• How do you navigate of letting go of the details of technology and then embracing more of your leadership ability? (10:50)
• How did you describe your true north as a leader and your key values as a leader? (13:26)
• What were the significant inflection points along your career progression and what did you learn from them? (18:55)
• Adaptation of your leadership style to accommodate cultural sensitivity was an important thing. (24:30)
• What key mentor have you experience in your career and how did that person impact you? (28:53)
• What do you do to recharge and rejuvenate? (31:41)
• One key piece of advice in leadership for people. (34:14)

DeLinda Forsythe, CEO & Founder of Innovative Commercial Environments (ICE). ICE focuses on developing the most creative office and hospitality spaces in San Diego - Creating Spaces to Transcend the Ordinary.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Brief introduction of yourself and your company. (00:40)
• What was the inspiration for you to launch a different way of approaching commercial furniture and office spaces? (04:50)
• In your experience, how do leadership, soft skills and mentorship translate to financial results? (07:42)
• Employees and clients value us as much as we value them. (10:50)
• Changing the conversation to being about the best value/ROI vs. just the best price. (24:04)
• What are some of the leadership challenges you have faced along the way and how did you overcome them? (25:41)
• What's next for you and what does it look like? (32:27)
• One key piece of advice in leadership for people listening. (38:40)