Unshakeable Influence Podcast

Krista Snelling, President and CEO of Santa Cruz County Bank that focus on developing long-term relationships, providing responsive customer service, problem-solving, and direct access to decision makers. Since opening in February of 2004, Santa Cruz County Bank has made a commitment to be an environmentally aware and conscientious business.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Brief introduction of yourself and your company. (00:45)
• Where you started in your career and where you landed now? (04:45)
• What did you love about your job and how did you know you love it when you're in it? (09:50)
• How to deal with people? (10:52)
• How would you describe your leadership and style? (15:24)
• Bond and make a connection with people. (20:11)
• How would you describe your true north as a leader? (21:00)
• Transition that you made both in new company and as a first time CEO. (27:54)
• What was your strategy coming in to make that transition? (32:45)
• How did you prioritize where to start? (36:54)
• Some of the challenges you faced along the way? (41:18)
• One of the biggest challenges senior leaders face. (47:57)
• What helps you rejuvenate? (53:43)
• One key piece of advice to the listeners. (54:43)

Joseph Perekupka, Chief Executive Officer of Freespira, Inc. Joseph is a Commercial Leader and Executive with broad experience in all aspects of launching start-up companies and med-tech products. He demonstrated success in Digital Health and Medical Devices across the spectrum of critical facets of the business, including: sales, marketing, operations, contracting and P&L management.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Brief introduction of yourself and your company. (00:41)
• Approach to the challenges in healthcare system. (09:04)
• Your journey as a leader, where did you start and how did you end up here? (16:00)
• Opportunities to increase the impact of the product. (23:40)
• How do we get to these patients and remove the obstacles that they see in terms their ability to get care? (24:2)
• With change comes opportunity. (27:15)
• The rest of your journey in leaving and getting back again in Freespira. (27:45)
• What else did you do in being intentional about making this transition? (32:10)
• How do you describe your true north as a leader? (34:32)
• What have been some of your challenges in your career and how did you overcome it? (41:35)
• What do you do to recharge and rejuvenate? (50:26)
• Parenthood and leadership. (55:00)
• One key thing about leadership? (58:36)

Laura Franco, a Partner of Winston & Strawn LLP. Laura is a member of Winston & Strawn's Videogame, Gaming and Esports Group dedicated to providing comprehensive legal solutions to companies in these industries. She has extensive experience representing global companies in trademark, copyright, patent, unfair competition, false advertising and domain name litigation, in federal and state courts, and the TTAB.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Brief introduction of yourself and your company. (00:43)
• Advice to your clients as brand protection goes. (02:48)
• What makes Winston & Strawn such a good culture? (06:23)
• How would you describe your true north as a leader? (15:53)
• The importance of personal connection with our team members. (17:29)
• Support for all levels of staff in the company. (19:20)
• Be transparent and forthcoming about my mistakes as a leader. (20:18)
• What are your biggest challenges in your career and how do you overcome them and learn from them? (24:13)
• What is your advice to your younger self? (27:08)
• What do you do to recharge and rejuvenate? (35:00)
• What key piece of advice you have for people listening to focus on as leaders? (36:11)
• How did it impact you not having female role models? (40:19)
• Any final or closing thoughts for the audience? (45:20)

Ankit Mahadevia, Co-Founder and CEO for Spero Therapeutics. Ankit focused on novel treatments for Gram Negative infections. He built team responsible for 11 approved antibacterial drugs and raised $97M in private capital across Seed through Series C crossover round to enable construction of multi program late stage infectious disease pipeline and he leads program that achieved positive Phase III outcome in single pivotal trial required for US approval.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Brief introduction of yourself and your company. (00:43)
• What inspired you to write a book? (01:38)
• Introverts can be great leaders. (05:48)
• Being transparent and believing in something bigger than you are. (08:43)
• What's your take on introvert leadership? (09:09)
• How do you help yourself to get the space you need to recharge after being drained through the interactions with others? (17:06)
• How do you define your true north as a leader and how did that feed into the book that you've written? (19:02)
• Finding, attracting and retaining the right people. (30:22)
• Any advice you have for people who are might introverted? (32:30)
• Challenges you faced along the way and some challenges as an introvert leader? (38:25)
• My transparency is a strength. (41:11)
• What's the one most important thing you'd want to leave the audience with? (42:36)
• Final and closing thoughts for the audience. (43:27)

Arvinder Dhalla, VP of Clinical Development for Rani Therapeutics. Arvinder is a problem-solver, results-oriented, innovative scientist and leader with more than 20 years of Biotech and Med-tech experience in cardiovascular, endocrinology and PAH therapeutic areas. She led multiple drug development programs from early discovery to clinical development and participated in investigational new drug (IND) and new drug (NDA) applications which resulted in two drug approvals.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Brief introduction of yourself and your company. (00:41)
• Focus of the company and what makes it different from others. (4:46)
• Impact internally and outside impact in the industry (9:48)
• What are your key values and your true north as a leader? (11:43)
• You have to lead by example and show people what you want to see in them (13:47)
• What do you think led to your success today? (14:45)
• Be the best you can be, no matter what. (17:40)
• Biases exist. (22:00)
• What would be the key piece of advice you want to give people? (23:04)
• Do your best work. (24:54)
• Any challenges you face along the way? (26:01)
• Is it part of your approach to break problems down to smaller bite sizes as more manageable? (28:15)
• What helps you to recharge to stay at your best? (31:03)
• If you could distill everything you know about leadership down to one key piece of advice, what would that one key thing be? (33:57)
• For the women and the minorities listening, what advice you want to leave them with? (34:52)
• Final and closing thoughts for the audience (36:55)

Kevin Miller, Co-Founder and CEO of GR0. Kevin simultaneously, launched a grammar website, thewordcounter.com, to prove his strategies of work. Then worked with several startups as a growth marketer before launching GR0, his own SEO agency. Here are some key moments from our conversation: • The power of your network (4:40) • Your network must have believed in you and your company and putting their reputation on the line. How did you achieve that? (5:06) • What do you think it is about you that contributed to your decision to start a company and then be so successful at it? (6:55) • The power of taking risks (8:30) • How did you achieve such rapid growth from an operational perspective and a people perspective - adding a couple layers of management in such short period of time? (10:00) • Learning how to trust your team (10:57) • How you do your best to select the right people for your company's environment who will be that kind of person who you do trust? (12:18) • What do you do to inspire people to want to stay with your company longer term? (14:13) • Having strong culture (15:28) • Matching the culture to personal values (17:50) • How would you describe your true north as a leader? (20:36) • What were your challenges along the way and how you overcome and learn from them? (22:19) • How do you help yourself stay at the top of your game? (24:50) • If you had to distill everything you know about leadership down to one key piece of advice, what would it be? (27:41) • For entrepreneurs or inspiring entrepreneurs listening, what advice do you have for them? (28:45)

#Freedom #Respect #TakeADayOff #DecisionMaker #Purpose #BestVersionOfYourSelf #Honesty

Adam Taylor, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Vericall. Adam has a passion for creating solutions that marry the two key functions of delivering great user experiences and maximizing revenue for clients. Since launching VeriCall, he is able to use his expertise in designing bespoke solutions for high volume service operations across multi platforms and acquisition routes for his clients.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Bringing opportunity to local areas (3:07)
• Creating a fulfilling career rather than "just work" (4:32)
• How would you describe your true north as a leader? (4:55)
• Setting your mission statement and then living it day-by-day (6:58)
• What are the key moments and challenges along the way to get to where you at today? (18:44)
• How did you ramp up in terms of leadership and management structure? (22:33)
• How do you go about influencing the decision makers who purchase your services? (37:33)
• What are the ways in which you recharge and help yourself stay on track? (42:24)
• The biggest challenge for people starting on a business? (44:29)
• What is one key piece of advice you'd like to leave entrepreneurs with? (46:35)

Derek Hansen, CEO, and Co-founder of Mynt Systems - a company that was born from a desire to create a paradigm shift in the energy and sustainability world by combining multiple functions that would result in a turn-key model with massive results for people, the planet, and profit. Derek had a passion for all things Building Performance since childhood and began working part-time, as a teenager, in his father's company TGC, Inc. Following his passion for architecture, he worked as an intern at the prestigious Thatcher and Thompson Architects before moving into construction.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• What the company does and when did you start it? (2:45)
• How did you execute that complex business concept? (5:43)
• How does your business model, and purpose of life meld with your overall worldview, values, and meaning? (12:20)
• Talk about how does your mantra as a leader translate to your day-to-day decisions? (19:30)
• Talk about more on personal & business transformation, how do you see that in terms of helping your people, business, and client's transformation? (23:00)
• In the selection of your people, how do you make sure that you get the right fit? (26:55)
• What do you do to recharge and stay on track? (40:55)
• If you could take everything you know about leadership/Entrepreneurship and distill it down to one key piece of advice, what would that one thing be? (45:43)
• Any final or closing thoughts? (47:45)

Derek Hansen, CEO, and Co-founder of Mynt Systems - a company that was born from a desire to create a paradigm shift in the energy and sustainability world by combining multiple functions that would result in a turn-key model with massive results for people, the planet, and profit. Derek had a passion for all things Building Performance since childhood and began working part-time, as a teenager, in his father's company TGC, Inc. Following his passion for architecture, he worked as an intern at the prestigious Thatcher and Thompson Architects before moving into construction.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• What the company does and when did you start it? (2:45)
• How did you execute that complex business concept? (5:43)
• How does your business model, and purpose of life meld with your overall worldview, values, and meaning? (12:20)
• Talk about how does your mantra as a leader translate to your day-to-day decisions? (19:30)
• Talk about more on personal & business transformation, how do you see that in terms of helping your people, business, and client's transformation? (23:00)
• In the selection of your people, how do you make sure that you get the right fit? (26:55)
• What do you do to recharge and stay on track? (40:55)
• If you could take everything you know about leadership/Entrepreneurship and distill it down to one key piece of advice, what would that one thing be? (45:43)
• Any final or closing thoughts? (47:45)

Basel "Vasili" Nassar is the founder and Chief Executive Officer at Boss Nation Brands, Inc. A skilled executive with over 25 years of experience building industry-leading innovations, focused on both consumable and non-consumable goods. He co-founded 3 Greek Gods, a leading brand within the Greek Yogurt retail space, and grew the brand portfolio to over $100 million. A true entrepreneur who is still actively working closely with his team to innovate and acquire market share, in both broad and narrow segment markets.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• What inspired you to start Boss Nation Brands? (1:57)
• What's different or unique about Boss Nation Brands compared to other brands? (2:48)
• How does your true north as a leader inform your day-to-day decisions? (4:50)
• Talk about how you have gone about attracting, retaining, and developing people over time? (6:46)
• What do see as a perfect storm condition and how did you address them? (10:30)
• What have been some of your biggest challenges in your career and how did you overcome them? (13:15)
• What do you do to recharge and rejuvenate? (15:45)
• If you could take everything you know about leadership and distill it down to one key piece of advice, what would that one thing be? (19:30)
• Any final or closing thoughts? (20:45)