The IVY Podcast

We're thrilled to connect you with Dr. Kira Banks for an important and actionable conversation on how we can achieve transformative success through diversity by creating a truly inclusive organization. In a dynamic discussion moderated by IVY CEO and YPO Metro NY Chapter Chair Beri Meric, Dr. Banks will outline steps to develop a diversity and inclusion strategy that can serve our teams and our stakeholders throughout our careers. She'll share how organizations should best navigate past diversity related failings and their internal and external repercussions, and how leaders can foster healthy discussions about race in the workplace. Dr. Banks' approach incorporates extensive diversity work in corporate and academic settings with cutting-edge experience design in order to meet organizations where they are and catalyze lasting change. We'll discuss what steps leaders and companies need to take to move from statements of support to action that will create lasting change beyond this moment and be felt in the everyday experience. As a diversity, inclusion and equity consultant working with a wide range of international firms in corporate, non-profit, educational, and community settings for over 20 years, Dr. Kira Hudson Banks is highly skilled at facilitating difficult dialogues and designing customized, impactful, and long-term diversity solutions. She is passionate about helping leaders make every workplace an inclusive workplace and believes inclusive workplaces make for more engaged, productive, innovative, and happy employees—and more successful organizations.

We are thrilled to connect you with Jeff Lawson, the globally-renowned Co-Founder & CEO of Twilio, with over one billion in revenues, for a high impact conversation on how we can best harness the power of software developers and win in the 21st century! With nearly every industry turning digital, companies need the best software to win the hearts and minds of customers. Lawson argues that developers are the creative workforce who can solve major business problems and create hit products for customers—not just grind through rote tasks. Lawson will share the three critical actions that leaders who build industry-changing software products consistently are doing well when onboarding software developers as partners. As a software developer and public company CEO, Lawson is the perfect guide to helping us bridge the language and tools executives use with the unique culture of high performing, creative software developers. Jeff is also the author of Ask Your Developer: How to Harness the Power of Software Developers and Win in the 21st Century. In a dynamic conversation moderated by IVY CEO and YPO Metro NY Chapter Chair Beri Meric, we will learn Lawson's playbook for unleashing the full potential of software developers in any organization, showing how to help management utilize this coveted and valuable workforce to enable growth, solve a wide range of business problems and drive digital transformation.

We are excited to connect you with Aron Ain, Aron Ain, CEO and Chairman of UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) and bestselling author of WorkInspired, who built a 3 billion-dollar company by embracing employee development and engagement as a growth strategy. This will be an invaluable opportunity to learn how to build an organization where everyone loves to work! Imagine a company where employees feel not just “satisfied” but truly cared for, respected, and energized, where everybody loves to work. Think of the impact this would have on recruitment, retention, customer satisfaction, innovation, and overall performance. As a leading global provider of workforce management and human capital management cloud solutions, Ain believes that anything is possible when people are inspired. In a dynamic conversation moderated by IVY CEO and YPO Metro NY Chapter Chair Beri Meric, we will discover UKG's highly admired WorkInspired culture, and the surprisingly simple rules to follow to replicate that success. Ain's inspiring guide reveals the best practices that have earned UKG distinctions on coveted lists, such as Glassdoor's 100 Best Places to Work and Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For. This will be an amazing opportunity to learn how to build a winning culture and we hope you will join us!

Join us with the leader of Bain & Company's Global Innovation Practice and renowned business researcher Darrell Rigby to learn how to do agile right and lead transformation without chaos. For decades business leaders have been painfully aware of a huge chasm: They aspire to create nimble, flexible enterprises. But their day-to-day reality is silos, sluggish processes, and stalled innovation. Today, agile is hailed as the essential bridge across this chasm, with the potential to transform a company and catapult it to the head of the pack. According to Rigby, agile teams can indeed be powerful, making people's jobs more rewarding and turbocharging innovation, but such results are possible only if the method is fully understood and implemented the right way. In a thought-provoking conversation moderated by IVY CEO and YPO Metro NY Chapter Chair Beri Meric, the myths and misconceptions that have accompanied agile's rise to prominence will be dispelled as Rigby lays out a road map for what really matters when leading the transition to a truly agile enterprise. The key focus, as Rigby argues, is balance. Every organization must optimize and tightly control some of its operations, and at the same time innovate. Agile, done well, enables vigorous innovation without sacrificing the efficiency and reliability essential to traditional operations.

We're thrilled to connect you with the Academy Award–winning legendary American icon Matthew McConaughey! In this once in a lifetime exclusive digital gathering, McConaughey will personally share with us the “outlaw wisdom” he's accumulated over his remarkable life. We'll learn first-hand from his most important life challenges, and hear his inspiring, often funny, and uniquely McConaughey take on topics universal to the human experience; How to be fair. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good person. How to have meaning in life. McConaughey recently collected his key learnings from decades of personal journals which he beautifully shared in his highly acclaimed new memoir, Greenlights, which he describes as “not a traditional memoir, or an advice book, but rather a playbook based on adventures in my life,” and a guide to achieving a state he calls “catching greenlights.” Moderated by IVY CEO and YPO Metro NY Chapter Chair Beri Meric, this will be a unique opportunity to connect with one of the most brilliant storytellers of our time, a man who has grappled with the lessons of his life with passion and discovered how to live truly fully. We are excited for McConaughey to be your personal guide to catching more greenlights in life, and hope you can join us!

Join us with Tara Schuster, Author, Playwright, and Vice President of Talent and Development at Comedy Central for some bracingly honest, often hilarious, hard-won lessons in learning to love and care for yourself from a creative executive called “ahead of her time” by Jordan Peele and praised by Chelsea Handler, Adam Grant, and Glennon Doyle. By the time she was in her late twenties, Tara was a rising TV executive who had worked for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and helped launch Key & Peele to viral superstardom. By all appearances, she was thriving. But beneath that veneer of success, she was a chronically anxious, self-medicating mess. No one knew. Tara will share hard-won lessons from her celebrated new book, "Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies", the story of her path to re-parenting herself and becoming a “ninja of self-love.” In a conversation with IVY CEO Beri Meric, Tara will share the simple, daily rituals she used to transform her mind, body, and relationships. She calls her approach of learning to love yourself in a non-throw-up-in-your-mouth-it's-so-cheesy way. She'll tackle topics so many of us struggle with, including self-criticism, emotional baggage, gratitude, and self-limiting beliefs, with humor and understanding. Tara's candid, practical insights will help create a life you truly love and feel more confident in your choices, no matter where you are in your life.

We're very pleased to connect you with Professor Omid Safi, renowned Duke University professor of Islamic studies, for a deeply impactful conversation about timeless lessons we can learn from Rumi and Sufism, with lasting relevance and transformative power in our time. In this thought-provoking conversation moderated by IVY CEO and YPO Metro NY Chapter Chair Beri Meric, Safi will guide us through Sufism's tradition of “radical love”--love for the divine and for our fellow humans--and how it can serve us in challenging times. Safi will relate how Rumi's wisdom on selflessness, standing with those that are suffering, and learning to accept the more painful parts of life rather than trying in vain to escape them can be a healing, guiding force. In our discussion, Safi will draw from his fascinating work linking the American Civil rights Movement and Rumi's teachings--two traditions that he believes uniquely bind love and justice. A deeply respected scholar who has delivered the keynote for the annual Martin Luther King commemoration at the National Civil Rights Museum, Safi grew up in Iran and the American South. He is a nationally sought-after speaker on the teachings of Muslim mystics, or Sufis, and the poet Rumi. This will be a wonderful opportunity to reflect and find opportunities for deeper meaning in our daily lives.

We're excited to connect you with Afdhel Aziz, globally renowned founder of the influential brand purpose consultancy firm Conspiracy of Love, to learn how to do away with outdated marketing models and embrace environmental, civic, and economic issues in a way that will grow our brand awareness and business, while still insisting on cutting-edge products with on-trend design. Bringing in insights from a new generation of marketers, social entrepreneurs, and leaders of brands like Zappos and The Honest Company, as well as culture creators working with artists like Lady Gaga, Pharrell, and Justin Bieber, Aziz will chart a path for how to change a business and change the world for the better. In this special conversation hosted by IVY CEO and YPO Metro NY Chapter Chair Beri Meric, we will explore Aziz's 7 principles, ranging from “Treat People as Citizens, Not Consumers,” to “Lead with the Cool”--distilled from his new book Good Is The New Cool, to provide us with actionable steps toward a new business model for the twenty-first century After a life-changing experience during the devastating tsunami in his native Sri Lanka, Aziz left a comfortable corporate job to focus on purpose. Now he works with Fortune 500 brands like Adidas, Facebook and Microsoft, focusing on the link between purpose and success, and how to revolutionize marketing to serve the increased social responsibility Gen Z and millennials demand from brands.

Join us with world-renowned author, entrepreneur, and 5-time CEO Margaret Heffernan for a thought-provoking conversation on how leaders can best navigate and shape our uncertain future. We are addicted to prediction, desperate for certainty about the future. But the complexity of modern life won't provide that; experts in forecasting are reluctant to look more than 400 days out. History doesn't repeat itself and even genetics won't tell you everything you want to know. Tomorrow remains uncharted territory, but Heffernan will enable us to learn how we can forge ahead with agility. Drawing on a wide array of people and places, our conversation will trace long-term projects that shrewdly evolved over generations to meet the unpredictable challenges of every new age. Heffernan will also share radical exercises and experiments that redefined standard practices by embracing different perspectives and testing fresh approaches. We'll see how preparing to confront a variable future provides the antidote to passivity and prediction. Ranging freely through history and from business to science, government to friendships, this important conversation will challenge us to mine our own creativity and humanity for the capacity to create the futures we want and can believe in. Heffernan's book Willful Blindness was named one of most important business books of the decade by the Financial Times. Following her career as the CEO of several multimedia companies, Heffernan has become one of the most influential thought leaders on organizational psychology and leadership topics working today, her TED talks having been seen by more than nine million people.

Join us with the legendary Bode Miller, the most decorated male skier in U.S. history with 33 World Cup wins, two overall titles, four world championships, and six Olympic medals, for an inspiring session on How to Perform & Keep Improving Like an Olympic Gold Medalist. Bode Miller innovated a racing technique that was uniquely matched to his athletic strengths and fearless style. Miller's risk-taking and keen ability to correct mistakes by adapting in real-time – at full speed – are characteristics that made him an unparalleled competitor on the world ski stage, and now as a disruptive entrepreneur and business leader who has collaborated with noteworthy apparel and ski companies including K2, Atomic, Kjus, Nike, Head Alpine Equipment, Fischer, Rossignol, and Bomber Ski. The retired Olympic champion's go-for-broke, risk-taking style is now breaking down barriers for the next generation of athletes by partnering with the Institute for Civic Leadership Academy to launch a Bode Miller Winter Sports Academy - a first-of-a-kind, full-time online private school for students who are pursuing outdoor sports. Miller is also a key voice in a groundbreaking new documentary, The Weight of Gold, which examines the mental health challenges endured by world-class athletes, and how stigmas around mental health and performance can be overcome. In a dynamic conversation moderated by IVY CEO and YPO Metro NY Chapter Chair Beri Meric, Miller will share lessons from his tenacious career both on and off the slopes to help us navigate the most difficult sections in the course of our lives. This conversation will leave us inspired, motivated, and ready to perform like an Olympic gold medalist in our own organizations.

We're thrilled to invite you to join us with the legendary Kim Malone Scott, New York Times Bestselling Author and Former Google & YouTube Executive, to explore lessons from her own management experience and award-winning book, Radical Candor that is reshaping modern management. Scott earned her stripes as a highly successful manager at Google and then decamped to Apple, where she developed a class on optimal management. She has earned growing fame in recent years with her vital new approach to effective management, the “radical candor” method. Radical Candor is about caring personally and challenging directly, about soliciting criticism to improve your leadership, and also providing guidance that helps others grow. It focuses on praise but doesn't shy away from criticism―to help you love your work and the people you work with. In a wide-ranging conversation with IVY CEO and YPO Metro NY Chapter Chair Beri Meric, we'll learn Scott's three simple principles for building better relationships in the workplace: make it personal, get (sh)it done, and understand why it matters. Through actionable lessons, Scott will distill why radically candid relationships with team members enable bosses to fulfill their three core responsibilities: create a culture of Compassionate Candor, build a cohesive team, and achieve results collaboratively.

We're thrilled to connect you with Dr. Kathryn D. Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space, for an inspiring conversation about leadership, innovation, and humanity's journey to the stars. As a key member of the team that launched, rescued, and maintained the Hubble Space Telescope, Sullivan personally shepherded an innovation that has revolutionized our understanding of the universe, revealing thousands of new galaxies, planets and moons, transforming our knowledge of black holes, and allowing us to actually measure how fast the universe is expanding. In a wide-ranging discussion, we'll hear from Sullivan on how she approaches life and work, and what allowed her to succeed as one of the first six women to join NASA's storied astronaut corps. In addition to a fascinating insider's look into what it's like to travel and innovate in space, this conversation, moderated by IVY CEO and YPO Metro NY Chapter Chair Beri Meric, will be a wonderful opportunity to reflect on what sets great leaders apart, as well as the practical and symbolic import of the space frontier.

We are proud to connect you with John Mackey, legendary co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods and co-founder of the nonprofit Conscious Capitalism. This will be a deeply inspiring conversation that will challenge us to look past conventional business wisdom, and imagine a bright future with a thriving, purpose-driven, sustainable economy. Mackey started a movement when he founded Whole Foods, bringing natural, organic food to the masses, leading his company to become a $15.7 billion Fortune 500 company with more than 460 stores and 87,000 team members in three countries. Mackey cut his pay to $1 in 2006 and continues to work for Whole Foods because of his passion for seeing the company exemplify a way of doing business that is grounded in ethical consciousness. In an exclusive conversation moderated by IVY CEO and YPO New York Metro Chapter Chair Beri Meric, we'll learn the critical takeaways from Mackey's leadership journey, and his vision for a more innovative, value-based leadership—in business and in society. We'll also distill the key lessons from his new book Conscious Leadership, and break down the strategies that have helped Mackey shepherd Whole Foods through four decades of incredible growth and innovation and become internationally renowned as one of the most inspiring business leaders of our time. This conversation will be an empowering call to action for entrepreneurs and trailblazers to step up as leaders who see beyond the bottom line.

We're excited to connect you with Jim Kwik, World's #1 Brain Coach for Will Smith, Google, SpaceX, Nike, Virgin, Zappos, GE, Harvard, United Nations and more! A world-renowned expert in brain optimization, accelerated learning, and memory improvement, Jim will enable us to learn how we can all master the most powerful technology in the world and train our brains for optimal performance. In this invaluable a conversation moderated by IVY CEO and YPO Metro NY Chapter Chair Beri Meric, we'll learn specific techniques to form high-reward routines, break negative patterns, eliminate mental fog, vanquish the “super-villains” that hijack our attention and slow us down, and tap into an unlimited source of motivation in order to reach our goals. Despite what others may have told us, and whatever our age or background, our potential is infinite when we know how to use your brain. For more than 25 years, Kwik has coached top CEOs, athletes and super-achievers from all walks of life to unlock their true capabilities with science-based practices and field-tested techniques. We hope you will join us for this once in a lifetime opportunity!

Join us for a crucial conversation on how we can revive dialogue in a polarized time with the legendary Irshad Manji, prize-winning professor, New York Times bestselling author, winner of Oprah's "boldness" award, and founder of the Moral Courage Project! Manji believes America's true founding genius is diversity of thought. Having experienced censorship and prejudice in her own life, Manji brings her experiences as a refugee from Africa, a Muslim immigrant to the U.S., and a scholar of moral courage to her passionate advocacy for turning disagreement into engagement. In the United States, discord appears to be hitting emergency levels. Yet for Manji, it isn't cultural or racial differences that make an enterprise more or less successful. "Honest diversity" recognizes that we are all multifaceted and worthy of being heard, not herded. In a conversation moderated by IVY CEO and YPO Metro NY Chapter Chair Beri Meric, Manji will share key lessons to overcome tribalism and why we can never win by labeling those who disagree with us. This will be a taboo-busting conversation about identity, power, and finding common ground even while standing one's ground. Together with Manji, we'll chart a path for how to open the hearts of opponents for the sake of sustainable progress. 

We're honored to invite you to connect and learn with legendary Harvard Business School Professor Frances Frei in a transformative conversation on How We Can All Become Better Leaders By Empowering Others! Through inspiring stories from ancient Rome to Silicon Valley, we'll discover the origins of great leadership, showing how the boldest, most effective leaders use a special combination of trust, love, and belonging to create spaces where other people can excel. You'll leave with practical battle-tested tools—based on their work in companies such as Uber, Riot Games, and others--for unleashing greatness in other people and, ultimately, in yourself. When leaders seek out advice, they're often told to fix themselves. In this conversation, we'll imagine a modern leader who succeeds not by turning inward to address their own strengths and flaws, but with an unrelenting focus on other people's potential. We'll dig into the key concepts from Frei's new book Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader's Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You, in which Frei argues that the most important thing you can do as a leader is build others up. Leadership is about how effective you are at empowering other people—and making sure that this impact endures even in your absence. Frei is a star professor at Harvard Business School, and recently served as Uber's first SVP of Leadership and Strategy, helping the company navigate a very public crisis in leadership and culture. Frei is a world-renowned expert that has worked with early-stage tech founders to Fortune 50 executives to public-sector leaders.

We're thrilled to invite you to connect with the world's leading networking expert Keith Ferrazzi to learn how to master the future of work relationships! Keith is the NYT bestselling author of ‘Never Eat Alone' and ‘Who's Got Your Back'. According to the legendary Peter Diamandis, Founder of XPrize, “Keith Ferrazzi is that rare speaker who combines an infectious energy with inspiration and great stories to lift the audience. No matter how engaged people are when they enter the room, Keith grabs their attention immediately and takes them on a ride where they will leave wanting not only to transform their teams, but transform their lives to be more honest, open and of service to others. I always know we'll have an amazing experience when Keith speaks.” The tools we have at our disposal have dramatically changed the ways in which we can work. No longer tied to a desk or even a location, we are now able to collaborate across countries and disciplines with only our imagination holding us back. With years of experience working for and with Fortune 500 companies, Keith is uniquely positioned to help our organizations transition from a top-down hierarchy focused on incremental growth and limited flexibility to one where innovation thrives as departments and disciplines work in concert to raise the entire organization higher. Though the course of our conversation, we'll learn how to: Collaborate and align to make every team in your organization more responsive to the market and your customers Transform high-performing individuals into a high-impact team leaders that take responsibility for every member's success Empower internal service and indirect sales teams to become trusted advisors who shape customer experience Turn your people leaders into coaches who work with the specific strength and style of each team member Grow large strategic accounts faster by aligning your sales ecosystem behind the deepening of key relationships  

We have exciting news!  After a hiatus we're excited to announce that the podcast is back!  We're committed to bringing you weekly episodes from amazing thought leaders on topics ranging from how to enhance your leadership skills and performance, to navigating global trends, to maximizing your personal wellbeing. Things look a little different and we sit down with IVY's Chief Learning Officer, Jeff Hittner, to learn what you can expect in future episodes of this podcast.  

Sebastian Terry, famed author and motivational speaker, started out on a crazy journey to accomplish small seemingly unimportant things that made him happy, which led him on great adventures to the ends of the earth. What started as one man's journey to find purpose in life has grown into a global movement of people chasing their dreams and helping others do the same. In this podcast listen to him speak about how he took these small things and used them to make a huge impact and how you can too! This podcast is presented by Convene.

At 27 years old, Tiffany Pham redefined the term “mogul” after founding her company, Mogul, a social empire that connects women from across the globe. The platform provides them education, employment opportunities, and information access. And her accomplishments haven't gone unnoticed. Not only was she named in Forbes' “30 Under 30” and Business Insider's “30 Most Important Women Under 30”, but IVY recognized her talents early on, awarding Tiffany an IVY Innovator Award in 2014. In this podcast, Tiffany shares her story and the lessons she's learned about forging your own path and following your passions. Discover the secrets to breaking through the noise in this age of disruption. This Podcast is presented by Convene.

Eric Spencer isn't your average hedge fund CFO. He's also an ultramarathon runner -- meaning he runs an unbelievable hundred miles or more during each race. In this podcast, Eric shares stories of the challenges he's faced while running 14 ultra marathons and breaks down six invaluable life lessons he's learned from each story. They say, “life is like running a marathon,” and you'll find that the challenges he faced while running parallel challenges we all face in our personal and professional lives. Learn what it takes to successfully overcome any challenge or reach any goal.

What happens when a rapper teams up with a neuroscientist? Leading neuroscientist Dr. Heather Berlin and rapper Baba Brinkman joined IVY to explore the links between cognitive functioning and creativity in order to teach practical ways to be a more creative, innovative, and revolutionary thinker.

While happiness should always be a top priority, it is the small moments that bring us joy that we can measure -- like getting a whiff of freshly baked cookies or a story that makes you laugh uncontrollably. At our IVY Happiness Masterclass with Ingrid Fetell Lee, Founder of The Aesthetics of Joy and author of Joyful, teaches us how these joyful experiences can increase your overall happiness. This Masterclass is presented by Convene.

Stress is all around us and has a tremendous impact on our well-being. In a powerful and vibrant masterclass, Dr. Catherine Sanderson breaks down the power of the mindset in our daily lives as well as the substantial influence thought patterns have on our psychological and physical health. Dr. Sanderson tackles the myth that all stress is negative by showing how to tweak the stress mindset to facilitate personal growth and live longer.

The world-renowned Vishen Lakhiani, founder of three companies, CEO of Mindvalley, and author of best-selling The Code of the Extraordinary Mind, takes IVY Members through his history, discussing his successes and pain, to teach us how we can all live a more fulfilling and productive life. Lakhiani speaks about his radical philosophy to wake up the consciousness of the human species by changing education, business, religion, and politics in order to rebuild our planet, and in turn, rebuild ourselves into a happier and more unified community.

Unlike most children who pick up an instrument for “fun”, renowned Jazz Musician Ted Nash first picked up a clarinet at age 12 and decided in that moment that music would be his passion and profession. Fast forward decades later and Ted Nash is a Grammy winner and one of the most well known saxophonist and composers in the Jazz world.

Leadership is at the heart of everything we do -- from how we drive our teams towards success professionally to how we manage our personal responsibilities. Harvard Professor and author of Leading with Dignity, Donna Hicks joins IVY to discuss the fundamentals of becoming a great leader, drawing on her extensive experience working on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, US/Cuba dialogues and dignity restoration projects in Syria and Libya, to name a few.

Senior Program Director of Executive Education at Northwestern University Robert Hughes challenges IVY Members to finish this sentence: As a leader, I am... By understanding who you are and what guides you is just as important as the skill set you need to be a great leader -- from how you deal to failure to who your roles models, it's important to know what has shaped you to be a leader.

Drew Dudley joins our IVY Leadership Masterclass to share his inspirational views on leadership by showcasing the problems with how society has made it taboo to identify ourselves as leaders. He lists the key strategies members can use to lock down their leadership values, celebrate their successes, and learn that being a leader is up to them, not others.

Drawing on her own experience and a life-altering decision to move halfway across the globe, motivational speaker, Kirsty Spraggon, has the ability to help the audience connect with themselves and others in a deeper, and more meaningful way. Her videos have been watched by more than 1.7 million people in 120 countries and she's been featured in everything from Fox Business, Women's Health, Forbes, and The Today Show to name a few. She is taking her passionate work directly to the people by organizing a first of its kind event series, Truth Telling for Truth Seekers. Spraggon challenges the traditional approach to leadership by insisting the first step is understanding your own authentic self. To be a great leader is to be a great person and to be a great person you have to first do the deep inner work.

It is the belief of Former Assistant Secretary of State John Hillen that as leadership challenges get more sophisticated, a different set of strategic and interpersonal skills is required of leaders — one that takes inner work-to thrive in a constantly shifting workplace. Based on his work with hundreds of leaders and organizations, Hillen explains how to overcome these challenges, not with more tools, data, or analytics, but by radically changing their mindset, behaviors, and skills to reinvent themselves as a “sophisticated leader.” Presented by Convene.

At our IVY Leadership Masterclass, famed speaker, Sheryl Alonso, discusses learning how to not only become great leaders, but authentic ones as well. Drawing from extensive experience as an Academic Director and Vice President for many years at Mercy Hospital in Miami, Sheryl guides members on their path to professional development as authentic leaders who not only build successful teams, but make a difference while doing so.

The digital world has become integrated in all of our careers and its rapid progression means we not only have to quickly adapt, but also find ways to be on the cutting edge. Founder and CEO of Cheddar Jon Steinberg joins this IVY Ideas Night to discuss how to develop a culture of innovation in your team. Presented by Strayer University's Digital Entrepreneurship MBA with Cheddar.

Clearing your mind, whether it be through mindfulness or a good night's sleep, is beneficial to every facet of our lives. At this IVY Ideas Night, sleep expert Dr. Michael Breus and Lunya sleepwear founder Ashley Merrill will discuss the secrets of sleep, mindfulness and tips you can use to improve your daily life

From subway cars to taxis. Bikes to scooters and segways. Now, Boosted Boards are in. The future of local transportation is rapidly evolving. Jeff Russakow, the CEO of Boosted, joins this IVY Ideas Night to discuss the future of transportation, the evolution of rideshare programs, regulation within congested cities, ownership versus shared, and Boosted's role within the future of cities.

As founder of Africa Rising Foundation and the Mandela Project, Ndaba Mandela is carrying on his grandfather Nelson Mandela's legacy. Ndaba joins this IVY Ideas Night to discuss the lessons he learned growing up with his grandfather and his new book, Going to the Mountain: Life Lessons From My Grandfather, Nelson Mandela.

We're constantly hearing about blockchain and cryptocurrency, but do you know the full potential of each? Managing Director of Swick Capital, Adam Swick, joins this IVY Ideas Night to delve deeper into what blockchain and cryptocurrency are and the future applications of each in the business landscape.

Paul English, co-founder of Kayak, Lola and GetHuman, wants to make an impact, and is putting his knowledge, experience and money where is mouth is. Paul discusses how he turned his business success into charitable endeavors, including MLK Boston, and his mission to create a new memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King in Boston.

Moran Cerf, world-renowned neuroscientist joined this IVY Ideas night to discuss the brain science behind business and the decisions surrounding it. By applying methods from neuroscience to understand our psychology, behavior change, emotion, and decision making, Cerf teaches members how we can best use our brain in business.

Spencer Lyon, Community & Strategic Partnerships Director at RealDAX, is on a misson. He wants to improve industries by joining them with the blockchain and cryptocurrency world. He joins this IVY Ideas Night to bring blockchain and cryptocurrency to life as he will shed a light on what they are and what they are not, their evolution, where they are heading, and how to apply them in the business landscape, focusing on the real estate industry.

Al Roker, America's favorite weatherman, broadcaster, and media executive, took the stage at this IVY Ideas Night to discuss his latest work, Ruthless Tide. The book focuses on the deadliest flood in United States history and the heroes and leadership lessons that emerged from it. Roker also took us on the journey of his career, offering lessons into how to merge and balance passions with careers. This IVY Ideas Night is presented by smartwater®.

High-profile thought leader Priya Parker joins this IVY Ideas Night to shift our focus from the details, such as our table setting and powerpoint slides, to the people at our events if we want to foster meaningful connections. Whether it is a team meeting, conference, birthday party, wedding, or anything in between, Parker shares her innovative approach and guiding principles into lessons that are essential for effecting change, creating lasting connections, and fostering remarkable collaboration. This IVY Ideas Night is presented by smartwater®.

Society tells us we must constantly balance sleep, work, friends, family, fitness, and more. Randi Zuckerberg a founder, executive, mother, media personality, and best selling author, joins our IVY Ideas Night to dispute this idea. In conversation with Juju Chang, Emmy-award winning co-anchor of ABC News' "Nightline,” Zuckerberg uses her latest work, Pick Three: You Can Have It All (Just Not Every Day), to guide members in choosing three areas of life to focus on at once. Instead of a “well-balanced” life, she guides members to strive for a “well-lopsided” life. This IVY Ideas Night is presented by smartwater®.

Apolo Ohno, legendary 8x Olympic medalist, joins this IVY Ideas Night with cryptocurrency pioneer & Tether Co-Founder, Reeve Collins to dive into the world-changing field of blockchain and cryptocurrency. Together, their combined expertise will lead members in understanding the current state of this technology and what we can expect to see in the not-so-far-off future, especially when it comes to how it will impact our world.

Ken Jennings, the longest-running Jeopardy Champion and bestselling author, joins an IVY Ideas Night as he traces the evolution of humor and what it means to be funny now. In this talk Jennings argues that throughout human history, characteristics like strength and education were hallmarks of success, whereas now, using humor gets you a lot further than productivity and innovation. Now that our society expects everything from safety videos to news headlines and presidential campaigns to be funny, Jennings offers members with insights into what we can expect from here.

It is not everyday that we see passion projects turn into a successful business. Seth Browarnik, a photographer who captures the magic behind Miami's world-renowned social scene, did as he watched his once small photography projects grow to become a go-to for high-profile celebrity photography. Over the course of this IVY Ideas Night, Browarnik discussed his journey and to gave members valuable lessons in how to pursue passions to dominate niche markets. This IVY Ideas Night is presented by smartwater®.

With an overwhelming amount of news coming from mainstream media, blogs and social media, Jim Newton, a former LA Times Editor at Large and professor of Public Policy at UCLA, joined us for an IVY Ideas Night. Among many other topics, he touches on the evolving industry of journalism, using insights from his experience and personal journey. Though social media and blogs are essential to mainstream media succeeding, he claims nothing can take the place of true reporting, as there is a difference between fact and opinion. That being said, they must coexist in order for the other to be successful.

John Hillen, a business professor, former Assistant Secretary of State, and former U.S. Army officer, joins IVY to discuss how leaders must grow along with their companies. In this talk, he identifies the common stalls or warning signs to look out for and provides the tools necessary for overcoming them. Through his work with hundreds of leaders and organizations, he has taught members how to combat these challenges by radically changing their mindset, behaviors and skills to reinvent themselves as a “sophisticated leader” rather than using more data or analytics.

In this episode of the IVY Podcast, father-son duo Pierson and Peter Krass join an IVY Ideas Night for an honest conversation about the emotional hurdles of the entrepreneurial experience such as the failure, stress, anxiety and depression that professionals can struggle with. The pair then provided members with the best practices to operate at an optimal level emotionally, mentally, and physically, all based on wisdom and research from interviews with top entrepreneurs, researchers, and doctors.

Sally Kohn, a highly regarded author and CNN political commentator and columnist, joins IVY to discuss the findings from her recent work, The Opposite of Hate. Kohn conducted extensive research in a search of discovering why we hate and how we can stop it in a time when we are facing an epidemic of incivility and hate—with divisive political speech, online trolling, and hate crimes escalating. In this talk, she dives into the evolutionary and cultural roots of today's rampant anger and hatred, giving members powerful examples, and offering rich food for thought on how each of us can help contribute to a more peaceful society.

Emily Chang, a Harvard University graduate and five time regional Emmy award winning journalist currently working as Bloomberg Technology's anchor and executive producer, joins IVY to discuss her new book Brotopia. An exposé into how Silicon Valley's sexist, aggressive, and misogynistic culture creates an environment where women are subject to toxic workplaces and sexual harassment despite the utopian ideals and moral high ground that the Valley claims to hold. In her book, she continues to discuss how to fix this culture: bring down the Brotopia.