Unshakeable Influence Podcast

Ben Landers, Founder, and Advisor of Blue Corona- a 9-time Inc. 5000 digital marketing & technology company that focuses on home services helping them increase sales, reduce cost, and differentiate their brands online. Ben is currently the brand ambassador and the host of the Growth Stories Podcast. He believes that the company exists to help clients' businesses grow, and its success is solely dependent on the growth and success of others.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• How did you achieve the 9-time Inc. 5000 notoriety?
• How would you describe your true north as a leader? (4:15)
• For your company's transformation, how did you align behind that set of beliefs and operationalize them? (5:30)
• Talking about recruitment, how are you selecting people who are most likely to be engaged and thrive at work in your environment? (8:35)
• In transitioning your position from CEO/Founder to more of an advisory role now, how is the journey been for you, and how is your true north as a leader kind of informed your decisions along the way (12:48)
• What's transpired in your awareness to make that decision to shift into another role back in 2018 (18:08)
• When you started Blue Corona, what did that leap of faith looks like and how did that come about? (24:15)
• What do you see next for you and Blue Corona? (31:38)
• How do you overcome or mitigate challenges? (35:55)
• How do you stay on top of your game and recharge? (40:54)
• If you could take everything you know about leadership and entrepreneurship and distill it down to one key piece of advice for our listeners, what is the nugget you want to leave people with? (42:07)

Scott Seagren, who works as a Leadership Coach and is a trusted colleague of Daniel's, has an open, insightful, and meaningful conversation about the great resignation and how it's being driven in large part by the great reconnection, where people are wanting to connect more with themselves, others, and to something bigger and more meaningful than just a job and paycheck.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Thoughts about people who change jobs or careers and what they are looking for? (2:15)
• The great pause before the great resignation (6:55)
• Reconnection with self and others? (8:30)
• The distinction between being alone and being lonely? (10:30)
• Are you moving away from something you don't want or towards something you do want? (14:00)
• Connections bigger than ourselves and our spiritual journey (17:54)
• What is your experience in deeper connections with family? (27:32)
• Over isolation and pivoting on emotion during the Pandemic (31:30)
• The connection between lightness and Darkness in us (33:10)
• Stepping back, taking a deeper look, and recommitting (40:15)
• Risk of getting away from the job or working away from the boss, when perhaps what you're really trying to run from is inside of yourself (42:15)
• Emotional trauma and blinders (45:00)
• The inner critic (52:05)
• Closing thoughts (56:05)

Aaron Brown, VP Talent Development at Mountain America Credit Union. A systems-thinking data-driven business minded leadership development professional that is passionate about people, learning, and culture. He knows how to strategically align people, processes, and workforce systems to shape high-performance culture. He designs success drivers into the system vs. chasing engagement and attrition through symptomatic approaches. Aaron shaped his career and helped him a lot with his opportunity growth in an overseas environment growing up and learning about diversity. He believes that investing in people is the best way to achieve business objectives.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Tell us about how Mountain America Credit Union got to be recognized as the best place to work by Glassdoor? (4:55)
• How did you help each person in your organization to help embody the company values? (8:45)
• Behavioral change in the bigger picture. (13:20)
• What are some of the biggest challenges you face as a talent development leader? And how do you overcome those challenges? (21:20)
• What is next, where do you go from here? (26:15)
• How do you enroll the executive team and the whole leadership Council into the approach (35:30)
• How would you describe your true north as a leader? (40:15)
• How does your true north inform your leadership decisions? (48:30)
• What do you do to recharge and sustain yourself in what I'm sure is a very demanding role? (54:10)
• If you could take everything you know about leadership and distill it down to one key piece of advice for our listeners, what would that be? (57:30)
• And what about Talent Development leaders specifically, what advice do you have for them? (58:40)
• Any final thoughts you want to leave the audience with? (1:01:08)

Description

Martin Rowinski, CEO at Boardsi, born and raised in Warsaw Poland -a global technology pioneer, executive recruitment expert, and international speaker with 25 years of c-level experience. Rowinski created and spearheaded their proprietary software that allows companies to effortlessly search for the most qualified Boards of Directors and Boards of Advisors from a pool of thousands of top executives across the U.S. and internationally. As well he is the author of the book "The Corporate Matchmaker", which talks about executives and members of the board advisory.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• How would you describe what Boardsi does? (4:49)
• What drew you to do this business? (6:55)
• What is your "secret sauce" that sets you apart from other firms like yours? (8:25)
• What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced in getting Boardsi off the ground and to where it is now? (13:55)
• How are you getting the funnels upfront to get those leads? (16:30)
• How would you describe your true north as a leader? (18:40)
• How does your true north inform your leadership decisions? (21:10)
• How do you attract the right people? (25:45)
• For your employees, how do you help them stay inspired (30:00)
• What do you do to recharge and sustain yourself in what I'm sure is a very demanding role? (32:20)
• If you could take everything you know about leadership and distill it down to one key piece of advice for our listeners, what would that be? (35:50)
• And what about entrepreneurs specifically, what advice do you have for them? (37:25)
• Any final thoughts you want to leave the audience with? (38:40)

Carolyn Herzog, Chief Legal Officer and member of the Audit Committee of the Association of Corporate Counsel, is a globally-focused Legal Coach with a deep understanding of the distinct cultural differences that can impact business strategy. Carolyn is a cybersecurity C-Suite executive that has worked in a variety of industries including Fortune 500 and large UK multinational technology and international development. She believes that being resilient will get you through terrible times and unprecedented situations.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• How do you describe your true north as a leader (1:10)
• How do you differentiate between diversity, inclusion, and fairness (5:20)
• What changes does it makes to you over time (9:20)
• How your true north helps you in your leadership decision-making (18:12)
• Why do you think in your experience introvert leaders have been more effective (21:35)
• What are the biggest challenges you have faced as a General Counsel leader and how have you overcome those (24:30)
• How do you keep yourself recharged (34:15)
• What would you give as a piece of advice on leadership (36:28)
• As a General Counsel leader, what advice can you give for legal leadership (40:29)
• Final thoughts you want to leave (44:40)

Steve Grau, CEO & Founder of Royal Ambulance, became well acquainted with the healthcare system when his grandfather had a stroke and suffered from severe mobile impairment. From that moment Steve was determined to improve the health care system. His goal was to improve the experience for hospital patients and their families, which steered him to solve the challenges associated with inter-facility patient transport. One of the missions of his company is to become a beacon for young professionals to join him and grow together along the way.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• What are the unique challenges you have faced and how do you address them (4:50)
• How do you innovate despite of all the challenges regarding the rates that are dictated by customers (8:03)
• How do they see you as a differentiated service in a customer standpoint (13:40)
• How do you describe your true north as a leader (15:32)
• What do you recognize more fully as far as your impact as a leader (18:55)
• What are the biggest challenges you have faced as a leader in Healthcare and how have you overcome those (22:25)
• How are you addressing attrition (26:10)
• What do you do to sustain yourself when you're feeling burnout. (31:28)
• One key thing that you leave people with about leadership, what would that thing be (37:47)
• What advice you can give to healthcare leaders? (39:50)
• Final thought you want to leave (42:10)

Lisa Lang started her education pursuing a career as a teacher and followed a non-traditional career path that eventually led to her current position as General Counsel for Kentucky State University. By focusing on her passions and making unconventional choices, she has been able to create a space for herself that intersects all of her experience gained in military and civilian roles, while allowing her to live the life that she wants to lead.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• What drove you to work with a leadership coach and what have been some major learning points (2:50)
• How did the coaching process help you be more adaptive and resilient in your role (7:00)
• Describe your "True North" as a leader (13:08)
• As a legal leader what are some of the specific challenges of your profession and how do you overcome those challenges (21:28)
• What were some of the key things that helped you make the adaptation from military to civilian environments (27:00)
• As a GC in Higher Education, what are the similarities and/or differences from being a GC in private/public companies (28:51)
• What career advancement advice do you have for legal leaders who are early in their career (32:10)
• What are some of the non-traditional career choices you made along the way and how did it all fit in looking back (34:30)
• When you look back on all of your career pivots, how did they help you get to where you are in your career today (38:50)
• If you could distill everything you know about leadership into one key piece of advice, what would it be (42:10)

I am excited and grateful to share my interview of John O'Melia with you in this episode. Building a career from a consultant foundation, John developed a depth and breadth of experience spanning many business units. He moved into the start-up world in 2017, worked his way up to CEO with Seal Software, and played a pivotal role in selling that company to DocuSign in 2020. John is currently the Chief Customer Officer with Contentsquare and graciously connected with me to dive into his career path experience.

Here are some key moments from our conversation:

• Being perceived as prepared for your CEO role (3:45)
• First 6 months in CEO role (6:00)
• Making the choice to transition CEO-CCO (7:40)
• Defining your True North as a leader (13:50)
• Key Mentors and how have they influenced you (22:20)
  • Special Mention: Rick Devenuti (both John and I worked closely with this influential leader) (25:00)
• Key career moments (26:40)
• Most impactful career lesson (35:21)
• Merges and Acquisitions (43:00)

Sometimes referred to as a corporate agitator or a changemaker Lisha Bell is, by her own definition, "a woman on a mission". She recognizes and appreciates the limits of one person's influence and has mastered working with community to scale impact. I had the honor of interviewing Lisha recently and am excited to be able to share that conversation with you as we kick off the 2022 season.

Here are some key moments from our discussion:

• What is Your True North? (2:40)
• Changing Organizations From Within VS Finding a Better Environment (5:00)
• Employee Activism (9:30)
• Approaching Challenging Conversations (12:45)
• Choosing Risk (14:45)
• Manifesting Destiny (17:30)
• Assessing Priorities to Make Greatest Impact (19:45)
• Current Challenges (21:00)
• Unlearning (27:05)

Given the uncertainty that we exist in right now, it can be challenging to focus on long-term goals. In this liminal space that seems to never end, how can we maximize our ability to create powerful intentions as we approach another New Year? Today Colin T. McLetchie, PCC BCPP (President and Founder of Five Ways Forward) and I dive into this idea and develop concrete ideas you can use to create lasting and powerful impact.

Here are some of the key points from our discussion:

• NY Resolutions vs Setting Intentions/Themes (5:25)
• Creating A Spacious Structure (11:40)
• Inviting Others to Be Part of the Journey (12:30)
• Creation vs Shedding (22:30)
• Getting Clear About Desired Results (29:50)
• Inviting Self-Compassion (35:25)
• Evaluating Where We Are (45:00)
• Making the Choice vs Obligation (48:55)
• Intention Setting—Not Just For New Year (53:40)