Podcasts about COO

What if the most valuable currency in your career isn't money, but authentic relationships nobody can take away?In this urgent episode, guest host Sivana Brewer digs deep with John Rubino, COO and founder of JID Investments and a US naval aviator turned business leader. Together, they unravel how military discipline, open-book honesty, and relentless connection-building are the forgotten keys to thriving in today's high-stakes market.Discover the proven systems, mindset shifts, and emotional skills John uses to lead through market chaos, burnout, and uncertainty. If you're tired of surface-level business advice and want the real trade secrets to scaling impact and resilience, you need this now.Listen or risk missing out on the exclusive moves that successful second-in-commands use to win, when everyone else is underwater.Timestamped Highlights[00:00] – Transitioning from Navy pilot to COO: war stories behind real discipline[02:05] – How John's military roots shaped his leadership style and investor trust[04:40] – The wild pivot: launching a business before leaving active duty[07:07] – Top Gun moments, family legacies, and the dream of commanding multi-million dollar assets[10:53] – Secret systems for managing 18+ deals and 200+ investors without chaos[14:02] – Navigating COVID uncertainty—how top COOs adapt and overcome[17:02] – The hidden ROI of real relationships and why most companies are doing it wrong[29:44] – Masterminds and tribe thinking: the best advice John gives his own kids[34:02] – John's high-impact daily process for balancing work, team, and personal lifeAbout the GuestJohn Rubino is the COO, founder, and co-managing partner of JID Investments, where he's raised over $45M and delivered returns across dozens of real estate projects for 200+ investors. With more than 20 years as a U.S. naval aviator followed by a decade in private equity, John is renowned for his disciplined, relationship-first approach to investing and leadership. He also coaches real estate and financial professionals in strategic wealth-building at KW United Wealth.

Ex-corporate operators don't fail because they're dumb.They fail because they try to play entrepreneurship like a safe promotion instead of a thousand-run swing of the bat.In this episode of Second Life Leader, I sit down with Roger Martin—former pharma COO who walked away at 46 from the “sharp suit + stock options” life to wake up on a Monday with no salary, no benefits, and no safety net. Since then he's co-founded RockBox Fitness, Beam Light Sauna, and ThriveMore Autopilot, and he's brutally honest about what it actually takes to survive that transition.We get into:* Why survival is wildly underrated as a business strategy—and why just staying in the game longer than everyone else becomes a superpower.* How to think about exponential learning as your real edge (not your idea, not your funding).* The difference between pulling the slot machine lever and building offers that can hit “thousand-run” grand slams.* Why most management jobs are going to be eaten by AI agents—and what that means for your next decade if you're still hiding in middle management.* Corporate as a paid training ground vs. a life sentence, and how to know when you've shifted from learning to just turning the crank.* The conversations we're having with our kids about college, creative careers, and being broke on purpose while you chase something real.* Roger's simple, ruthless advice to his son chasing music—and to any founder on the edge of quitting.If you're in your own second act—post-layoff, post-burnout, post-“this can't be my legacy”—this one is a mirror and a map.Connect with Roger:https://www.linkedin.com/in/realrogermartin/www.realrogermartin.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.dougutberg.com

In this episode, Eric Malzone sits down with Amber Burke, COO of Burn Bootcamp, for a deep, candid conversation on what it really takes to scale a boutique fitness franchise without losing its soul. Amber shares her journey from Division I athlete and strength coach to C-suite leader, offering a rare operator's perspective on franchise growth, leadership, technology discipline, and community-driven fitness. They unpack Burn Bootcamp's steady rise from 250 to nearly 400 locations, why the brand has avoided outside capital, and how product integrity, people, and culture fuel long-term success. The conversation also explores the current state of boutique fitness, the balance between technology and human connection, and why strength training, accountability, and community remain timeless drivers of results. We discussed:

Are you secretly worried your growth will wreck the “family” vibe in your business or that tighter systems will make top talent leave? In this episode, Sivana Brewer interviews Erica Wright, COO of VRA Realty, whose systems-first playbook catapulted the brokerage from 85 to 115 agents, spanning five states.They dig into the raw truth of building infrastructure for explosive scale (without losing loyalty), balancing tough accountability with real compassion, and leading teams remotely while launching new ventures abroad. Discover how Erica harnessed her psychology and sales background to build trust, manage visionaries, and create a culture where hard conversations actually drive growth.Don't miss this episode if you want to avoid costly attrition, burnout, and lost culture. Listen now for exclusive, actionable insights. These proven moves aren't taught anywhere else!Timestamped Highlights[00:00] – Erica's bold entry: transforming chaos into compliance with her first CRM rollout [05:51] – How a psychologist became an operations powerhouse (and opened 8 offices in 6 months) [09:45] – Balancing ambition and deep family ties after personal loss—the surprising lessons for remote executives [13:46] – Color-coded calendars and time-blocking rituals: how Erica runs five business lines from Mexico [16:01] – Her step-by-step playbook for deciding what to delegate, outsource, or tackle solo [19:11] – The “idea overwhelm” dilemma—how to hold visionaries accountable to the real mission [21:37] – Inside the first 90 days: building trust, rolling out new systems, and avoiding agent revolt [25:27] – The truth about “family cultures”: love, accountability, and how to fire without guilt [28:07] – Why being COO feels lonely (and what to do about it, ven if you're building a team abroad) [31:31] – Emotional management, therapy sessions, and creating radical honesty in a high-turnover industry [39:28] – Erica's regrets—and #1 advice for any new COO about setting boundaries with their CEO [41:05] – Her next big move: remote work, funds management, and two brand-new business launchesAbout the GuestErica Wright is the Chief Operating Officer of VRA Realty, a fast-growing boutique real estate brokerage now spanning five states and over 115 agents. Known for her powerhouse systems mindset and global operations expertise, Erica engineered VRA's scale through smart hiring, process revamps, and authentic relationship-building. She brings a rare blend of psychology, direct sales, and hands-on leadership from international markets, transforming loosely organized teams into high-accountability, high-loyalty cultures. Erica is also the founder of Steven's Wings, a nonprofit for underserved youth, and is launching “This Might Be a Bad Idea”—a podcast about life and leadership abroad.

You know that feeling when you wake up already behind, your to-do list is endless, and no matter how productive you are, it never feels like enough?Today we're talking about the quiet burnout that comes from living in constant urgency — and why time itself isn't the problem.I'm joined by Andrew Hartman, founder of Time Boss and former startup COO, who built his entire framework after burning out repeatedly in high-pressure environments… including a season where chronic stress literally cost him his sense of smell.Andrew helps high-achieving leaders stop running their lives on hustle, adrenaline, and fear — and start operating at their highest sustainable pace, with more clarity, presence, and peace.In this episode, we're diving into:Why productivity culture is keeping you dysregulatedThe hidden reason time always feels scarceA nervous-system-friendly way to plan your weekHow to lead your life instead of reacting to itThis conversation is for you if you're highly capable, deeply responsible, and exhausted by the pressure to always do more — even when things look “successful” on paper.You'll walk away with a calmer lens on time, permission to slow the pace without losing momentum, and a practical framework for creating days that feel spacious, grounded, and aligned with the life you actually want.Connect with Andrew:Free Time Boss MasterclassFind him on LinkedIn

Published 18 January 2026Last week we saw the big announcement from American Magic of their new training facility and their partnership with SailGP. American Magic state that they hope to help grow sailing through their efforts in Pensacola, so of course we reached out to our old mate Tyson Lamond, COO of American Magic to find out all about what is happening and there is plenty to discuss. Enjoy.#american magicteam #sailgp #disrupta_ #vaikobi #vaikobisail #radixnutrition #barkarate #sailingpodcast  #barkarateconversations #worldsailingofficial #sailing #boat #ocean #sport #voile #sail #sea #offshore #sailors #sailingworld #extremesailing #foils #yacht #yachts #saillife #instayacht #sailingblog #instasail

Matt Adell is a music tech entrepreneur and the COO & co-founder of Musical AI, a rights-first AI licensing platform designed to protect creators in the era of generative music. With a career spanning influential companies like Beatport and Napster, Matt brings deep experience at the intersection of music, technology, and digital innovation. Today, he's focused on building ethical AI systems that respect copyright, ensure proper attribution, and create sustainable opportunities for artists as the future of music rapidly evolves.In this episode, Matt breaks down exactly how AI is reshaping music creation, copyright, and compensation—and what independent artists need to know to protect their work and thrive in a generative future.Key TakeawaysHow generative AI is disrupting the music industry and what it means for artists, songwriters, and producersWhy copyright, attribution, and licensing matter more than ever in an AI-driven music ecosystemHow ethical, rights-first AI can create new opportunities without undermining human creativity or fair pay---→ Learn more about Matt Adell and his work at: wearemusical.ai.Book an Artist Breakthrough Session with the Modern Musician team: https://apply.modernmusician.me/podcast

It's YOUR time to #EdUp with Shouvik Paul, COO, CopyleaksIn this episode, part of our Academic Integrity Series, sponsored by ⁠Integrity4EducationYOUR cohost is Thomas Fetsch, CEO, Integrity4EducationYOUR host is ⁠Elvin Freytes⁠How is CopyLeaks (named #153 on Inc. 5000 in 2025) bringing enterprise grade AI technology used by Bloomberg, Forbes, BBC & 450 plus companies to over 500 educational institutions & why are 10 to 15 universities switching to them monthly?How does Copyleaks' AI technology achieve 99.8% accuracy by analyzing word clusters like "attuned to these fluctuations" (used 102,000 times by AI vs 14 times by humans in 1 million papers) & patterns of usage rather than just flagging individual submissions?How does the AI source match database work to show professors side by side comparisons of student work against already published AI generated content & why does Shouvik say you need the human in the loop to make final academic integrity decisions?Listen in to #EdUpThank YOU so much for tuning in. Join us on the next episode for YOUR time to EdUp!Connect with YOUR EdUp Team - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elvin Freytes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠& ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Dr. Joe Sallustio⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠● Join YOUR EdUp community at ⁠The EdUp Experience⁠We make education YOUR business!P.S. Want to get early, ad-free access & exclusive leadership content to help support the show? Become an #EdUp Premium Member today!

Aycee Gardner is the CEO of Behind The Scenes Studio. Email her at aycee@btsstudio.co or learn more about Behind The Scenes Studio at www.btsstudio.co.Patrick Coddou is my business partner and COO at AJF Growth. Follow him on X at https://x.com/soundslikecanoe.FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/andrewjfaris⁠ Email: ⁠podcast@ajfgrowth.com⁠Work with Andrew: ⁠https://ajfgrowth.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MORE STAFFINGRecruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting ⁠https://morestaffing.co/af⁠. WASTENOTWasteNot filters out past buyers so your ads only reach new customers—lowering CAC and fueling growth. Get ad exclusions that finally work at https://wastenot.io.

Kicking off season 7 of Bold Like Her with an old friend I had the chance to catch up with as we sat down to chat fitness, life and where she is now in her career. Kate is the COO of Higher Ground Fitness, helping them to continue to grow and open more locations around Boston.  We talked about what the workout looks like along with their proprietary HGF Machine! Fitness has always been a part of Kate's life, in fact she ran the Boston Marathon at the age of just 15! She followed the path she thought was meant for her with positions in finance at companies like Wayfair and Pintrest but felt a pull in another direction. She found herself mentoring and coaching other fitness studio owners on how to run their locations as money making businesses and as fate would have it met the owner of Higher Ground.  

What if building world-class company culture could slash turnover, ignite team loyalty, and make you love coming to work, even after 14 years in the trenches? In this electrifying episode, guest host Sivana Brewer dives deep with Vincent Malizia, Co-Owner and Chief Culture Officer at A1 Roofing, to reveal how a "people first" mindset transformed his business. They unpack how working alongside family, delegating with trust, and prioritizing fulfillment (inside and outside work) create truly sustainable success. You'll hear raw stories, unconventional tactics, and hard-earned lessons on leadership, autonomy, and building a company that people actually brag about.Listen now to discover proven strategies that will help you avoid endless burnout, break free from revolving team doors, and stand out with powerful emotional intelligence. This is an exclusive, story-rich episode, a must-hear for any operator or leader ready to love their business (and life).Timestamped Highlights[00:00] – Why most people who resist change eventually check out, and how Vincent attracts “let's go” energy[01:14] – The unexpected origins of A1 Roofing: family hustle, college lessons, and sharing everything[08:04] – When company leaders choose team dignity over difficult clients—winning big by walking away[09:08] – How investing in health benefits, retreats, and family flexibility created a magnetic culture[12:32] – Unlimited PTO and summer Fridays: why radical time-off policies actually increased productivity[13:01] – The surprising drop in turnover rate, and how Vincent's approach crushed industry averages[15:14] – Why giving up Saturday work fueled energy and fulfillment for tough field roles[22:27] – How moving from “doing it all” to scalable systems unlocked Vincent's passion (and his sleep)[27:02] – Mentorship, leadership meetings, and a wild commitment to personal growth—all in the real world[34:10] – Inside the rare, drama-free CEO/COO partnership—what makes “ego-free” collaboration last[39:55] – How AI transformed operations and supported team members with real challengesAbout the GuestVincent Malizia is the Co-Owner and Chief Culture Officer of A1 Roofing, a leading commercial roofing company serving the New York tri-state region. Known for his 14+ years of people-first leadership, Vincent rebuilt A1's company culture from the ground up—cutting turnover by more than half and fostering a team of nearly 100 employees. He's recognized for his advocacy of autonomy, meaningful recognition systems, family-friendly policies, and investing in mentorship at every level.

D.O. sits down with Selene Kellam, COO of Lower Mortgage, for an insightful conversation on The Loan Officer Podcast. In this episode, Selene shares her unique journey from starting as a temp in the mortgage industry to becoming the CEO of Thrive Mortgage and now leading at Lower. Loan officer looking for a new place to call home?

Jen Hardy is a transformational speaker, coach and trainer who helps high-stress professionals move from burnout to clarity and recapture their joy. As COO of The Academy of MotivAction®, she's led over 1,500 hours of live workshops, retreats and keynotes focused on emotional resilience, communication, and self-leadership. Her work centers on restoring human connection in high-pressure environments, because success means nothing if we lose ourselves in the process. Linkto episode can be found here:  #drdanamzallag, #drdanpodcast, #Happinessjourneywithdrdan,#ddanmotivation, #inspiringinterviews, #drdancbt, #drdantherapy,#drdancoaching, #drdanhappiness,  

As part of our official DealFlow Discovery Conference Interview Series, produced by Mission Matters, along with our partner DealFlow Events, we're showcasing the innovative companies presenting at the upcoming DealFlow Discovery Conference (January 28-29, at the Borgata in Atlantic City) and the executives behind them. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Gordana Slepcev, CEO of Lomiko Metals, about the company's critical-minerals projects in Quebec and Newfoundland. Gordana shares Lomiko's mission to develop graphite, rare earths, and other strategic materials to support North America's energy, battery, and technology supply chains while creating long-term value for shareholders and local communities. About Gordana Slepcev Gordana Slepcev, M.Sc.P. Eng, is a Professional Mining Engineer registered in Ontario with more than 25 years of global mining experience in developing, building, and leading safe mining operations. Ms. Slepcev's extensive experience spans multiple commodities, including gold, base metals, coal, and industrial minerals. She brings considerable experience in mineral exploration, permitting, corporate and regulatory/First Nations/ Indigenous relations, and project financing to Lomiko. Before joining the Company, Ms. Slepcev held the position of COO for BMSI, a privately held company, where she was responsible for restarting the barite reprocessing facility, mitigating historical environmental impacts, and overseeing EPCM contractors. She also formerly held the role of COO of Anaconda Mining, where she was responsible for the company's operations and development of the Goldboro project. Ms. Slepcev graduated from the University of Belgrade with a M.Sc. and is the past Chair of the Toronto Chapter of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum (CIM). She is a WTPEO committee member and a member of the Advisory Board of the OreBit platform. About Lomiko Metals Lomiko Metals has a new vision and a new strategy in new energy. Lomiko represents a company with purpose—a people-first company focused on manifesting a world of abundant renewable energy using Canadian and Quebec critical minerals as a solution for North America. The company's goal is to create a new energy future in Canada by growing the critical minerals workforce, becoming a valued partner and neighbour within the communities in which it operates, and providing a secure and responsibly sourced supply of critical minerals. Lomiko is actively developing two main projects in the province of Quebec: La Loutre, which is held 100% by Lomiko and is being explored for high-grade large flake graphite Bourier, which has been optioned by Lomiko and is being explored for lithium Both graphite and lithium are essential to supplying North America's rapidly expanding electric battery and green energy industries. This interview is part of our effort to help investors discover compelling companies ahead of the event — and to help CEOs introduce their story to the 1500+ conference attendees. Learn more about the event and presenting companies:⁠https://dealflowdiscoveryconference.com/⁠ Follow Adam on Instagram at ⁠https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/⁠ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule. Apply to be a guest on our podcast: ⁠https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/⁠ Visit our website: ⁠https://missionmatters.com/⁠ More FREE content from Mission Matters here: ⁠https://linktr.ee/missionmattersmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After leaving her role performing the duties of the chief information officer for the Department of Defense last month, Katie Arrington has taken a new position as CIO at quantum computing company IonQ. Arrington will step into the role Jan. 19, reporting to the company's COO and CFO Inder Singh, IonQ announced Wednesday. Kirsten Davies was nominated by President Donald Trump in May 2025 to be the Defense Department CIO, and it took most of the remainder of 2025 for the Senate to confirm her into the role. She was sworn in just before the Christmas holiday, at which point Arrington stepped away from her service to the Pentagon. In joining IonQ, Arrington will serve on the company's executive team. As CIO, Arrington will continue to support the U.S. military from a different vantage, leading modernization and security of IonQ's enterprise systems in support of its mission to deliver quantum capabilities to American warfighters. Before rejoining the Pentagon a year ago, then as deputy CIO for cybersecurity, Arrington had a previous stint as CISO in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, where she was largely responsible for the development of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program. Now: President Donald Trump re-nominated Sean Plankey to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Tuesday, after Plankey's bid for the position ended last year stuck in the Senate. It's not clear whether or how Plankey's resubmitted nomination will overcome the hurdles that left many observers convinced his chance of becoming CISA director had likely ended, but it does definitively signal that the Trump administration still wants Plankey to have the job. Plankey's nomination was included in a batch sent to the Senate announced on Tuesday. CISA spent all of 2025 under Trump without a permanent director. Trump nominated Plankey, who held a couple cybersecurity roles in the first Trump administration, to lead CISA in March. He got a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing in July, then won approval from that panel that same month. But Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., had placed a hold on Plankey's nomination over a Coast Guard contract that the Homeland Security Department had canceled in part. While he awaited confirmation, Plankey had been serving as a senior adviser to the secretary for the Coast Guard. A spokesperson for Scott did not immediately respond to a request for comment. North Carolina's GOP Senate delegation also had placed holds on DHS nominees related to disaster aid to their state. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said last week that the holds would remain until Secretary Kristi Noem appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee. A White House official had denied reports that Plankey's nomination was all but over last year. “President Trump has been clear that he wants all of his nominees confirmed as quickly as possible, including Sean Plankey, who will play a key role in ensuring a strong cyber defense infrastructure,” the official told CyberScoop. Asked Wednesday at the Surface Navy Association national symposium about what he was doing to convince senators to lift their holds, Plankey answered, “The administration, the White House has to say that this is a priority of us.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

This Stock Is Using Crypto To Disrupt Traditional Finance GuestParker White, CFA, COO, & CIO at DefiDevCorp. $DFDV Websitehttps://defidevcorp.com/TickerDFDVBioParker White most recently spent 6 years at Kraken, holding a number of roles including Director of Engineering. Prior to Kraken, Parker White worked in TradFi for 5 years, conducting bond trading and portfolio management for regulated institutions ($2B RIA). After receiving his CFA, he entered the Crypto space in 2017, running an algo trading startup throughout 2018. Parker has been active in Solana since 2021, has been an angel investor in Crypto since 2020, and sits on the Advisor Board at TVP for the Bitcoin Venture Fund Series (BVF 1 & BVF 2).

Episode Overview In this Power Hour episode, John Kitchens is joined by Joel Perso for a deep dive into one of the most overlooked growth constraints in real estate businesses: operational chaos. As agents and teams ramp up lead flow, listings, and transactions, most don't realize they're unintentionally building a treadmill instead of a scalable business. John and Joel kick off a multi-week Power Hour series focused on helping agents and team leaders move from production overload to operational clarity—without losing momentum. This episode zeroes in on the single most common operational question agents ask once growth kicks in: Who should I hire first—and why? From admins to operations managers, integrators, and COOs, John and Joel break down each role, when you actually need it, and the costly mistakes teams make when they hire out of order. If your business feels busy but fragile, this conversation will help you close the "back door," protect your pipeline, and start building a business that lasts. Key Topics Covered Conquering Operational Chaos Why growth without operations creates burnout, bottlenecks, and missed opportunities The difference between building a business vs. building a treadmill How operational clarity protects momentum as deal flow increases The Right Hire, in the Right Order Why most teams hire too much responsibility into one role The difference between an admin, operations manager, integrator, and COO How to identify what stage your business is actually in The Admin Role (Where Most Teams Should Start) What an admin should and should not be responsible for Why admins follow processes—not create them Common mistakes that cause admin hires to fail Virtual vs. in-office admin considerations Operations Managers & Scaling Support When an admin is ready to grow into an operations manager role How operations managers turn chaos into order Why this role helps leaders finally "breathe again" Head of Operations vs. Integrator vs. COO Why titles matter—and how they can backfire if misused The danger of inflated titles in small teams Why "Head of Operations" often creates clarity without compensation confusion The real definition of an EOS Integrator—and why most teams aren't ready for one COO Reality Check Why the COO role is defined by the CEO's strengths and weaknesses The 7 types of COOs and which ones show up most in real estate How to decide if you truly need a COO—or just better execution Compensation & Personality Fit Why operations team members value stability over incentives Why bonuses don't motivate ops roles the way they motivate agents Disc profile considerations for operational leadership The importance of tenacity and execution over ideas Resources & Mentions Honey Badger Nation – Community and leadership resources EOS / Traction / Rocket Fuel – Referenced frameworks (with important clarifications) CoachKitchens.ai – AI-powered coaching tool for real estate leaders Joel Perso – The Growth Centric Fractional COO services for 7-figure real estate teams Contact: joel@thegrowthcentric.com Final Takeaway More leads don't fix broken operations—they expose them. If you want to scale without chaos, burnout, or constant firefighting, you must hire intentionally, in order, and with clarity. This episode lays the groundwork for building an operational foundation that supports growth instead of suffocating it. "If you don't counterbalance growth with operations, you're not building a business—you're building a treadmill." - John Kitchens Connect with Us: Instagram: @johnkitchenscoach LinkedIn: @johnkitchenscoach Facebook: @johnkitchenscoach If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a review. Stay tuned for more insights and strategies from the top minds. See you next time!

In this episode, I sit down once again with Randy Hurtado, a respected roofing industry leader, entrepreneur, and COO of The Good Contractors List, to unpack what truly separates top contractors from the rest of the market. Randy shares how the industry is shifting away from pay-to-play marketing and toward trust, credibility, and reduced risk for homeowners. We talk about how AI-driven search is changing contractor visibility, why third-party backing and guarantees matter more than ever, and how reputation now plays a bigger role than traditional advertising. His philosophy remains consistent: Build trust first. The business follows. We also dive into the growth of The Good Contractors List, including how contractors are vetted, why real estate professionals rely on it, and how being backed by a trusted platform changes conversations with homeowners and referral partners. Randy explains how top contractors position themselves as the safest choice—not the cheapest one. Toward the end of the conversation, Randy shares powerful leadership lessons for entrepreneurs, including why he hires for character over experience, what traits you can't train, and why wearing multiple hats early on is essential before learning how to delegate the right way. If you're a contractor or business owner looking to stand out in a crowded market, earn better referrals, and build long-term authority, this episode will give you a clear framework for separating yourself from the rest—without racing to the bottom.

Unless you make them too big to rig! PLUS, Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Drew Allen, author of For Christ and Country: The Martyrdom of Charlie Kirk, talks to Shaun about the death of equal moral standards in America and why Democrats canonize one person while condemning another who did the same thing. And Julian Hagmann, COO of Caring Professionals Inc, talks to Shaun about how the billions of dollars being frozen to blue states puts a spotlight on billions of dollars of fraud happening in Democrat states and cities. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Human trafficking doesn't always look like chains and shadows. Sometimes it looks like a teenager sitting in class, a kid showing up at church, or a young person scrolling their phone at home. In this powerful and eye-opening episode, we sit down with Brittany Dunn, COO and co-founder of Safe House Project, to expose the realities of human trafficking hiding in plain sight and what it will actually take to stop it. This is not a conversation built on fear, but on clarity, courage, and responsibility. What you'll hear may challenge your assumptions, but it will also equip you with the knowledge and tools to make a real difference—starting right where you are. What did they talk about?   Trafficking Hides in Plain Sight Leadership Starts With Showing Up What to Look For: Signs That Should Raise Concern The Butterfly Effect: Small Actions, Massive Change  

What if the reason you're working nonstop but still not seeing real profit has nothing to do with mindset and everything to do with your numbers? In this episode, Ati sits down with operations and finance expert Michelle Ghassemi to break down the single most important metric every coach and service provider must track to build a sustainable, six- or seven-figure business — without burnout or guesswork.

Ander Tallet, co-founder and COO of Dash Bio and CEO of DigitalRadius, joins Ross Katz to discuss transforming the traditional CRO model through automation, transparency, and productization. Drawing on deep experience from Moderna, Science Exchange, and his leadership roles in digital transformation, Ander shares how Dash Bio is slashing turnaround times, improving data quality, and simplifying procurement for biotech companies. This episode unpacks the future of CRO services, strategic procurement, and the power of operational innovation in biotech. What you'll learn in this episode: >> Why traditional CRO models hinder speed and transparency in biotech >> How Dash Bio delivers 90% faster turnaround through automation >> What productizing CRO services really means for the customer experience >> How regulatory requirements shape innovation in clinical bioanalysis >> Why investor buy-in requires solving real, painful problems in biotech Meet our guest Ander Tallett is the co-founder and COO of Dash Bio and the CEO of DigitalRadius, where he leads digital transformation initiatives as one of the largest Smartsheet partners in the ecosystem. He previously served as Chief Strategy Officer at Science Exchange and co-founded Block Mill Capital, a B2B SaaS-focused investment fund shaped by his experience evaluating and implementing more than 100 SaaS platforms.  About the host Ross Katz is Principal and Data Science Lead at CorrDyn. Ross specializes in building intelligent data systems that empower biotech and healthcare organizations to extract insights and drive innovation. Connect with our guest: Sponsor: CorrDyn, a data consultancyConnect with Ander Tallet on LinkedIn  Connect with us: Follow the podcast for more insightful discussions on the latest in biotech and data science.Subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed this episode!Connect with Ross Katz on LinkedIn Sponsored by… This episode is brought to you by CorrDyn, the leader in data-driven solutions for biotech and healthcare. Discover how CorrDyn is helping organizations turn data into breakthroughs at CorrDyn.

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career ✓ Claim : Read the notes at at podcastnotes.org. Don't forget to subscribe for free to our newsletter, the top 10 ideas of the week, every Monday --------- Matt MacInnis is the chief product officer and former longtime COO at Rippling, a unified workforce management platform valued at over $16 billion.We discuss:1. Why “extraordinary results demand extraordinary efforts”2. Why you should deliberately understaff projects, and how to know when you've gone too far3. Matt's transition from COO to CPO and what surprised him about leading product4. The “high alpha, low beta” framework for evaluating people, processes, and products5. When founders should quit their startups (hint: much earlier than VCs want you to)6. How to fight entropy in your organization through relentless energy and intensity—Brought to you by:Google Gemini—Your everyday AI assistant: https://ai.dev/Datadog—Now home to Eppo, the leading experimentation and feature flagging platform: https://www.datadoghq.com/lennyGoFundMe Giving Funds—Make year-end giving easy: http://gofundme.com/lenny—Transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/10-contrarian-leadership-truths—My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/181916584/my-biggest-takeaways-from-this-conversation—Where to find Matt MacInnis:• X: https://x.com/stanine• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/macinnis• Email: macinnis@rippling.com—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Matt MacInnis and Rippling(04:38) The importance of extraordinary efforts(08:37) The challenges and rewards of relentless effort(10:11) Your job as a leader is to preserve intensity(12:39) You learn far more from success than failure(16:34) Transitioning to chief product officer(19:54) Fixing product management at Rippling(25:27) The “high alpha, low beta” framework(28:55) The PQL framework(35:16) Hiring frameworks and team dynamics(36:52) A helpful interview tactic(40:00) Leading as a COO vs. a CPO(42:34) The reality of product-market fit(46:38) The problem with venture capital(49:29) When founders should quit their startups(41:48) The immutable market(54:13) Lessons from Notion's success(57:43) Investment strategies and narrative violations(01:00:42) The power of compounding, power law, and entropy(01:07:02) Maintaining intensity and fighting entropy(01:11:33) The importance of feedback and escalations(01:14:31) Rippling's vision and success(01:17:48) AI's impact on SaaS and business software(01:23:42) AI corner(01:26:23) Final thoughts and lightning round—Referenced:• Rippling: https://www.rippling.com• Sunil Raman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunilraman• Dan Gill on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dangill• Carvana: https://www.carvana.com• Brian Chesky's new playbook: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/brian-cheskys-contrarian-approach• Parker Conrad on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parkerconrad• Inkling: https://www.inkling.com• Akshay Kothari on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akothari• Notion: https://www.notion.com• Conway's law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law• Seeking Alpha: https://seekingalpha.com• Dennis Rodman's website: https://dennisrodman.com• Dancing pickle emoji: https://slackmojis.com/emojis/456-dancing_pickle• Pickle Rick: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickle_Rick• SPOTAK: The Six Traits I Look for When I'm Hiring: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/spotak-six-traits-look-m-181335267.html• Geoff Lewis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geofflewis1• Zenefits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TriNet_Zenefits• New banking records prove Deel paid thief who stole trade secrets from Rippling: https://www.rippling.com/blog/new-banking-records-prove-deel-paid-thief-who-stole-trade-secrets-from-rippling• Workday: https://www.workday.com• Matic robots: https://maticrobots.com• Wall-E: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970• Conviction: https://www.conviction.com• Mike Vernal on X: https://x.com/mvernal• Sarah Guo on X: https://x.com/saranormous• No Priors: https://linktr.ee/nopriors• Gemini: https://gemini.google.com• ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com• Claude: https://claude.ai• Bryan Schreier on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanschreier• Heated Rivalry on HBO Max: https://www.hbomax.com/shows/heated-rivalry/50cd4e99-04ee-427b-a3b4-da721ed05d9c• Fellow coffee maker: https://fellowproducts.com/products/aiden-precision-coffee-maker—Recommended books:• Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space: https://www.amazon.com/Pale-Blue-Dot-Vision-Future/dp/0345376595• Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values: https://www.amazon.com/Conscious-Business-Build-through-Values/dp/1622032020• Thinking in Systems: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Systems-Donella-H-Meadows/dp/1603580557• The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done: https://www.amazon.com/Effective-Executive-Definitive-Harperbusiness-Essentials/dp/0060833459—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com

A Escola Tá Te Enganando? | #podcast #empreendedorismo #podcastbrasilNeste episódio, recebemos Eduardo Murin, COO da rede CNA, para um papo reto sobre os desafios do ensino de idiomas no Brasil e os gargalos do nosso sistema educacional. Com uma visão crítica e embasada, Murin questiona a estrutura atual das escolas, que muitas vezes entregam uma formação superficial — e ainda cobram caro por isso.

A global hospitality leader breaks down what really drives profitable restaurants. In this episode, Roger sits down with Marvin Alballi to unpack the thinking behind high standards, smart training, menu discipline, and guest-first leadership and why getting the fundamentals right is the most strategic move a restaurant operator can make. Restaurant Rockstars Academy Built for restaurant owners who want better margins, trained teams, and systems that actually work.

Hugo Marston, former head of security at the U.S. embassy in Paris, has retired and is ready to realize his lifelong dream of owning a mystery and antiquarian bookshop. But when a blackmail scheme targeting a chocolatier leads to murder, Hugo is again called to investigate in the first Paris Bookshop Mystery for readers of Charles Finch, Tasha Alexander, and Lev AC Rosen.Hugo has led an exciting life as an FBI profiler and the US embassy's head of security, but now he's ready to embrace a quieter existence as a bookseller in the Marais district of Paris. His former employer, however, has other plans for him. A prominent American citizen is the COO of a boutique chocolate emporium in Paris, where they've received a mysterious and threatening note. A blackmailer who goes by the name The Shadow wants half a million euros or else their “darkest secret will be revealed.”Eclat de Chocolat is housed in a chateau dating back to the 1700s. The building, which served as a convent in the first half of the twentieth century, where the angelic Sister Evangeline and her order of nuns helped countless orphans during World War II, has been beautifully converted into a chocolate factory. So what dark secrets could a chocolatier be hiding? The COO has no idea.Involving his friend, Lieutenant Camille Lerens, Hugo begins to investigate. But soon a second note appears on the premises, canceling the blackmail threat. The same day, the body of an employee is found in an old graveyard behind the chocolatier. Now Hugo and Lerens have a murder on their hands, but is it connected to the blackmail attempt? As they dig for secrets and motives, it becomes clear The Shadow's grave work has just begun . . .Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the second episode in the reignited series "Coaching for Transformation". This series will focus on unpacking the coaching strategies that help leaders grow into the best versions of themselves.This conversation is hosted by Dario Minaya, with insights from Susan Minaya, COO, Chief Learning Strategist and Executive couch with Minaya Learning Global Solutions. This episode will focus on the impact of avoiding hard conversations.Stay tuned to learn more.

If you think storytelling is just for the stage, think again. In this week's episode of Consulting Matters, I sat down with not one but two former Disney executives—brothers Bob and Rick Allen—who know the real power of story: not just to entertain, but to lead, influence, and change minds. Their Disney roots run deep (102 years combined, starting with their dad, who worked alongside Walt himself). But what they reveal goes far beyond theme parks and parades. Tune-in To Hear: Why story—not data—is the consultant's real superpower A behind-the-scenes look at how Disney embeds story into everything (including spreadsheets) The 6 storytelling elements every coach and consultant should master Why does how you share your ideas matter more than how smart your ideas are How to use story to influence even the most results-driven executives And yes, we swap some epic Disney tales, from launching resorts like Animal Kingdom Lodge to transforming a Disney division into a private company (and surviving 9/11 with a Navy contract!). If you love Disney, storytelling - or just want to coach and consult with more meaning - this episode is a must-listen. Chapters: 01:32 Disney Family Legacy and Its Impact 16:46 From Disney to Entrepreneurship 23:30 The Power of Storytelling 39:14 Engaging Through Anecdotes 43:54 Influencing Through Connection 56:32 Zenovation: Merging Mindfulness and Innovation 01:00:00 Tales of Mouse and Men: Insights from Disney 01:02:20 Building a Collaborative Network Next Steps: Notice where your message stops landing: Pay attention to the moments where you explain what you do, but people still look unsure. That is often a sign that the story is missing, not the expertise. Start with the picture before the process: In your next conversation or proposal, describe what changes when the work is successful before explaining how you get there. Stories help people see themselves in the outcome. Get support clarifying your message: If this episode made you realize you need help communicating the value of what you do, I created a free messaging guide to help. It includes four simple questions designed to help you move from confused to confident, with messaging that makes the right clients say, “Where have you been? I need you.” Download it here: https://www.betsyjordyn.com/confused-to-confident Other episodes you may enjoy: How to Shape What Clients Think You're Worth with Casey Brown (Ep143) Inside My Brand Messaging Process (and Why It Always Works) (Ep140) The Curse of Knowledge: Why Your Expertise Might Be Hurting Your Message (Ep139) About my guests: Rick Allen began his Disney career sweeping the streets of Main Street, U.S.A. at Magic Kingdom, a role that launched a 43-year journey with Walt Disney World. Over the course of his career, Rick spent 24 years in executive leadership across theme parks and resort hotels, served on the grand opening team for Disneyland Paris, and led the operations design and opening of Disney's Art of Animation Resort. After retiring from Disney, Rick served as Chief Operating Officer for Give Kids The World and later as COO for the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games. He now consults with organizations in hospitality and experience design and serves on the board of Shepherd's Hope, a nonprofit providing free healthcare to the uninsured in Central Florida. Rick is passionate about unleashing the power of inspiration to elevate customer experience. Bob Allen is the Chief Storytelling Officer at IDEAS and brings decades of creative leadership from across Disney's entertainment and production legacy. He began his career in the entertainment industry as a musician at 16 and went on to hold key roles in Disneyland's Live Entertainment division, contributing to major productions including the Main Street Electrical Parade. Bob later worked as a writer and producer with Walt Disney Imagineering, helping develop attractions for EPCOT, and went on to lead film, tape, and multimedia production for Tokyo Disneyland. After relocating to Walt Disney World, Bob held senior leadership roles including Director of Film and Tape Production and Vice President of Disney Production Services, overseeing creative operations at Disney-MGM Studios. Today, Bob focuses on concept development, experience design, and branding, helping organizations harness the power of story to create meaningful, memorable experiences. About the host: Betsy Jordyn is a business mentor, brand messaging strategist, and former Disney consultant who helps purpose-driven consultants and coaches build profitable businesses rooted in their unique strengths. With over 20 years in the industry and a knack for turning big ideas into clear positioning, she's your go-to for strategy that aligns with your calling. And together, we're gonna have a conversation about what storytelling really is, why it matters so much more than most consultant-coaches realize, and how to use it to elevate your influence and impact.

Today I'm joined by Andrew Spitzer, COO of Spitzer Autoworld. Spitzer breaks down how his fourth-generation family business doubled its footprint to 26 rooftops while maintaining radical showroom etiquette. He reveals why he bans AirPods on the floor, how a chance encounter with Henry Ford shaped the group's legacy, and the specific ways they use AI to scale high-touch customer service. We also explore the group's "Elite 8" meritocracy and why service retention is now the primary driver of their long-term growth strategy. This episode is brought to you by: 1. Merchant Advocate - Merchant Advocate saves businesses money on credit card fees WITHOUT switching processors. Find out how they can help your dealership with a FREE analysis. Click on @ http://merchantadvocate.com/cdg for more. 2. Impel - Meet the AI Operating System built for a new era of automotive retailing. From CRM to service bay, from website to DMS, it unifies and orchestrates every part of your dealership operations—and your customer lifecycle. Visit @ http://impel.ai and and discover how Impel AI turns routine interactions into VIP experiences. 3. Nomad Content Studio - Most dealers still fumble social—posting dry inventory pics or handing it off without a plan. Meanwhile, the store down the street is racking up millions of views and selling / buying cars using video. That's where Nomad Content Studio comes in. We train your own videographer, direct what to shoot, and handle strategy, to posting, to feedback. Want in with the team behind George Saliba, EV Auto, and top auto groups? Book a call @ ⁠http://www.trynomad.co⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out Car Dealership Guy's stuff: For dealers: CDG Circles ➤ ⁠⁠https://cdgcircles.com/⁠⁠ Industry job board ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://jobs.dealershipguy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Dealership recruiting ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgrecruiting.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Fix your dealership's social media ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.trynomad.co⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Request to be a podcast guest ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgguest.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For industry vendors: Advertise with Car Dealership Guy ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgpartner.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Industry job board ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://jobs.dealershipguy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Request to be a podcast guest ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgguest.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Topics: 00:39 What is modern showroom etiquette and technology? 03:12 What is the history of Spitzer Auto World? 06:40 What are Spitzer Auto World's core marketing and branding strategies? 08:21 How does Spitzer Auto World engage via social media? 13:23 What drives Spitzer Auto World's acquisition and growth strategy? 19:46 How do cultural touches enhance customer experience? 27:32 How does a centralized BDC and meritocracy work? 30:07 How is AI used in sales and service? 36:26 What is Spitzer Auto World's service retention and VIP program? Car Dealership Guy Socials: X ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠x.com/GuyDealership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/cardealershipguy/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tiktok.com/@guydealership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠linkedin.com/company/cardealershipguy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Threads ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠threads.net/@cardealershipguy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077402857683⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Everything else ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠dealershipguy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

What if the most important people in a company are the ones no one talks about? They're the builders behind the scenes. The operators who organize chaos, fix what's broken, and quietly turn vision into reality. Scaling isn't glamorous — but it's essential. In this episode, we explore what it really takes to grow companies fast and smart, and how AI is accelerating the shift toward adaptable, cross-functional leadership. Casey Woo is a public market investor turned high-growth technology COO and CFO with more than two decades of experience helping companies scale. He's served as a six-time CFO and two-time COO across software, hardware, marketplaces, and eCommerce. He's also the founder and CEO of The Operators Guild, a global community of over 1,000 top operators, as well as FOG Ventures and Guild Talent — all built to support the people who actually make companies run. In this conversation, Casey breaks down what it means to be a "scaler," how AI is reshaping the value of specialization, and why operators are the backbone of every high-growth company. From Investor to Operator Casey shares his journey from Wall Street to Silicon Valley and why leaving a prestigious investing career was both terrifying and freeing. The money and status were there, but fulfillment wasn't. That realization pulled him into early-stage tech, where he discovered his true passion: building companies from the inside out. As an operator, Casey learned that scaling isn't about titles — it's about solving problems. Finance, operations, strategy, leadership — whatever the company needs, the role stays the same. That mindset eventually led to the creation of The Operators Guild, which began as a small breakfast group for overlooked CFOs and COOs and grew organically into a global community. Why AI Rewards the Elite Generalist Casey offers a practical take on AI — not as a threat, but as leverage for the right leaders. As AI replaces narrow, repetitive specialist tasks, the advantage shifts to people who can think horizontally, connect ideas, and move across functions with ease. Early-stage founders and operators are uniquely positioned to thrive in this environment, using AI as a team of "semi-specialists" to move faster and build smarter. Rather than abandoning your strengths, Casey encourages leaning into them — and using AI to amplify what you already do best. This is the rise of the modern business artist. Enjoy this episode with Casey Woo… Soundbytes 13:42-13:55 "Scalers are highly creative. They are generally impatient. They love the intellectual stimulation of organizing chaos, solving problems. So they run towards problems." 19:26 – 19:44 "AI literally is intelligence, right? Artificial intelligence. Right. So it's starting to be like a human and specifically, the easiest thing for it to start is anything specialized. Because anything specialized is homogenous." Quotes "Scaling is actually very nuanced. It's not just, 'Oh, finance needs a CFO.' No — you don't need a CFO at Series A." "Scalers are highly creative. They are generally impatient." "AI is moving the world away from hardcore specialists." "I could go to a corporate job, but my soul would die." Links mentioned in this episode From Our Guest Website: https://operators-guild.com/ FOG Ventures: https://fog.ventures/ Connect with Casey Woo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseywoo Connect with brandiD Find out how top leaders are increasing their authority, impact, and income online. Listen to our private podcast, The Professional Presence Podcast: https://thebrandid.com/professional-presence-podcast Ready to elevate your digital presence with a powerful brand or website? Contact us here: https://thebrandid.com/contact-form/

Send us a textGrowth doesn't usually fail because of strategy. It fails when ownership breaks down and culture can't keep up with scale. If your agency is growing, your calendar is full, and you're still the point of escalation for too many decisions, this conversation will sharpen how you think about leadership ownership culture.In this episode, I sit down with Chris Sund, President and COO of UnitiMed and GQR Healthcare, two of the largest healthcare staffing companies in the country. Chris has led rapid growth, inherited teams from founders, and made decisions most leaders delay, like hiring a Director of Culture before sales or marketing.We talk candidly about scaling without burnout, building accountability without control, stopping blame before it spreads, and why execution, not just information, is what actually drives transformation. If you're refining internal systems, strengthening team performance, or trying to remove yourself as the bottleneck without breaking momentum, this episode will give you clarity you can apply immediately.Books MentionedThe 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. MaxwellExtreme Ownership by Jocko Willink & Leif BabinThe Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink & Leif BabinThe Need to Lead by Dave BerkeIf you want to stay connected with Chris, visit chrissund.com or connect with him directly on LinkedIn. He's generous with his time and deeply invested in helping leaders grow with clarity and purpose.Join Dr. William Attaway on the Catalytic Leadership podcast as he shares transformative insights to help high-performance entrepreneurs and agency owners achieve Clear-Minded Focus, Calm Control, and Confidence. Free 30-Minute Discovery Call:Ready to elevate your business? Book a free 30-minute discovery call with Dr. William Attaway and start your journey to success. Special Offer:Get your FREE copy of Catalytic Leadership: 12 Keys to Becoming an Intentional Leader Who Makes a Difference. Connect with Dr. William Attaway: Website LinkedIn Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube

Has organizational change redefined your job role? If it hasn't yet, it will at some point. Whether acknowledged or ignored, every organizational change at a company impacts you. This is broader than just layoffs and more employees under a single manager. What are the organizational changes we might see, and what can we do to stand out and stay the course? This week in episode 355 we're joined by guest Ryan Conley. Listen closely as we uncover different patterns of organizational change and provide practical tips to take action when those changes happen. Ryan helps us understand the corporate lifecycle and how to reframe this concept to understand where we are in the career lifecycle. You'll hear from Ryan's personal experience why the most resilient (and successful) technologists can identify and fill the gaps left after an organizational change whether that means working for a new boss, joining a different team, or changing job roles. Original Recording Date: 11-13-2025 Topics – Framing Our Focus on Organizational Change, Observations and Patterns, Defining the Career Lifecycle, When Colleagues Leave the Company, Layoff Resources, Working for a New Boss, Becoming Part of a Different Team, Shifting Job Roles or Job Level Changes, Parting Thoughts 2:58 – Framing Our Focus on Organizational Change Ryan Conley is a global field principal with 11p years of technical pre-sales experience. Before this, Ryan accumulated 13 years of systems administration in industries like education, finance, and consulting. In a recent episode of our show, guest Milin Desai compared organizations to living, breathing organisms that change. Nick posits that we don't always think changes at our company will or can affect us as employees, but they do. Ryan references Aswath Damodaran's writings about organizational change through the frame of a corporate lifecycle. We can relate by considering where our company might be in that lifecycle. As we experience the impacts of organizational change, Ryan encourages us to consider where we are in our career lifecycle. 4:19 – Observations and Patterns We see organizational change in different ways. What are some of the things Ryan has seen that he would classify as organizational changes? Let's take a step back, past the current headlines, and look at the wider industry. Companies are growing inorganically (through mergers and acquisitions) or organically through investments in R&D (research and development), for example. Ryan has worked with companies that grew by acquiring 2 new companies each year to give an example. When you're on the IT side of the acquiring company, there is a lot involved in the process like integrating e-mail systems, networks, and CRM systems. This process also involves getting 2 teams to work together. If one team needs to move from Office 365 to Gmail, it can be a big adjustment to employees' daily workflow. The acquiring and acquired companies may have the same or very different cultures. In some cases, a company will want to acquire others with similar cultures, while some may not be concerned about the culture and choose to focus on the intellectual property (products or services, knowledge of how to build or manufacture something, etc.) of the company to be acquired. Nick says the experience for people on the side of the acquiring company and that of the company getting acquired can be quite different. Nick worked in IT for a manufacturing company for about 9 years, and over the course of his time there saw the company acquire several other companies. Nick usually had to go assess technology systems of companies that were going to be acquired and figure out how to integrate the systems in a way that would best service the user base. From what Nick has seen, some employees from the acquired company were integrated into the acquiring company, while others were eventually no longer with the company. Anxiety levels about an acquisition may be different depending on whether you work for the acquiring company or the acquired company. “The people are just as much of the intellectual property of the company as, in many cases, the actual assets themselves. And in some cases, that culture just isn't a fit.” – Ryan Conley Ryan shares the example of someone he knew who left after another company acquired their employer because the culture was not a fit. Losing a key leader or a key subject matter expert after an acquisition could create a retention problem because others may want to follow them or start looking elsewhere. "So how do you protect the culture internally? How do you integrate a different culture in? But also, how do you kind of protect the long-term viability of the team as individuals, first and foremost, but then also the organization long-term? Depending on the intellectual property the acquiring company is after, we don't usually know the level of due diligence completed to understand the key resources or subject matter experts who must be retained for longer-term success. Ryan encourages to imagine being the CTO or VP of Research and Development at a specific company that is suddenly acquired. People in these roles drive the direction of the technology investment for their company today as well as years to come. After being acquired, these people might be asked to work in lower levels of leadership with different titles, which could result in “title shock” and require some humility to accept. This scenario is a leadership change that happens as a result of an acquisition, but we might see leadership changes outside of acquisitions. Some leadership positions get created because of a specific need, others are eliminated for specific reasons, and some get shifted down or changed. Each of these changes has a downstream impact on individual contributors. Ryan talks about the positive impacts of leadership changes and gives the example of when a former manager was promoted to senior manager and allowed that person to hire a manager underneath him. There isn't always internal mobility, but leadership changes could create these opportunities for individuals. Nick talks about the potential impact of a change in our direct boss / manager. If a boss who was difficult to work for leaves the company, getting a different boss could make a huge positive impact on our daily work lives. Similarly, we might have a great boss leave the company or take a different role, requiring that we learn to work for someone else who may operate very differently. Ryan tells us he has worked for some amazing leaders and says a leader is not the same as a manager. Ryan cites an example of getting promoted into a role that allowed him to have more strategic conversations about the focus of a team with his boss. We can choose to mentor members of our team so that when opportunities arise from structural change, they are equipped to seize those opportunities. Change can be viewed as an opportunity. A company's overall priorities may have changed. Shifting priorities may require a company to operate very differently than it has in the past, which can cause changes to people, processes, and technology. Nick references a conversation with Milin Desai on constrained planning from Episode 351. Milin encourages regularly asking the question “is this still how we want to operate?” The way a company or team operated in the past may not be the best way to do it in the future. Changes to operations may or may not create opportunities for our career. Ryan loves this mindset of reassessing, which could apply to the company, a team, a business unit, the technology decision, etc. “I love the mindset of ‘what was best, why did we do it, and why was it best then?' And then the follow up question is ‘is that still best today?' And it's ok if the answer is no because that leads to the next question – ‘how should we be doing it today…and why?'” – Ryan Conley, commenting on Milin Desai's concept of constrained planning Ryan talks about companies reassessing their core focus. We've seen some companies divest out of a particular space, for example. Nick says this reassessment could result in a decision to pursue an emerging market which could lead to the creation of a new business unit and new jobs / opportunities for people. It could also go in the other direction where the company decides to shut down an entire business unit. 15:30 – Defining the Career Lifecycle Going back to the analogy Ryan shared about corporate lifecycle, we can reframe this and look at the career lifecycle. “Where are you at in your individual career journey? Where are you at in that lifecycle?” – Ryan Conley People close to retirement may be laser focused on doing well in their current role and hesitant to make a change. Others earlier in the career may want to do more, go deeper, or be more open to making a change. Ryan recounts speaking to a peer who is working on a master's degree in AI. “With challenge comes opportunity, so do you want to try something new? And it's ok if the answer's no. But if there is an opportunity to try something new and you're willing to invest in yourself and in your company, I think that's worth considering.” – Ryan Conley We've talked to a number of former guests who got in on a technology wave at just the right time, which led to new opportunities and an entirely new career trajectory. Becoming aware of and developing expertise in emerging technologies can lead to new opportunities within your company (i.e. being able to influence the use of that technology within your company). “I think as technologists, whether you're a business leader over technology, whether you're day in / day out in technology as an individual contributor…emerging technology brings new challenges, just with a learning curve…. There's hard skills that have to be learned. You get beyond the education it's then also sharing with the peers around you…. So, what was best yesterday? Is it still best today? And tomorrow, we'll ask the question again.” – Ryan Conley Ryan says this goes back to our analogy. Should we be doing certain things manually now, or is it better to rely on tools that can help automate the process? If we go back for a second to Ryan's previous mention of integrating the technology stack for different companies, being part of the integration process might enable someone to learn an entire new technology stack. We might have to assess what is best between Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, for example, and develop the transition plan to move from one to the other and perhaps even capture the business case for using both within a company. To Ryan, this is an example of seeing a problem or gap and working to fill it. “If you want to be just a long-standing contributor to the team and your individual organization, I think it's worth calling out…those who stick around longer and get promoted faster are the ones who see a gap and they plug it.” – Ryan Conley Ryan shares a personal story about a co-worker who attended a Microsoft conference on their own dime. This person worked over a weekend to setup a solution that saved the team significant time doing desktop imaging. But then, Ryan's colleague took it a step further and trained the team on how to use it. Nick highlights the fact that we should remember to document our accomplishments to keep track of how we've changed as a result. We can use this information when searching for new opportunities or even in conversations with our leader. 20:34 – When Colleagues Leave the Company Another form of organizational change we've seen is outsourcing specific business functions. Daniel Paluszek spoke about companies outsourcing functions outside of their core business in Episode 338. If IT is outside the core business, a company might decide to outsource it. It doesn't mean that's the right decision, but it could be a possibility. Companies may outsource other functions like HR and payroll as well to give other examples. If IT was internal and it gets outsourced, that is an organizational change and will affect some people. Similarly, insourcing a function which was previously outsourced will have an impact. Ryan has learned in the last few years that some people are more adaptable to change than others. “And it's not just looking at the silver lining. It's recognizing the change. Maybe there's a why, and maybe there isn't a why. Or maybe the why hasn't been clearly articulated to you. Being able to understand, what does this mean to me…. As an organization do I still believe in them? Do I still believe in the technology as a technologist? Do I still enjoy the people I work with? Those are all questions that come up, but ultimately you have to decide…is this change I want to roll with? Is this change I don't want to roll with?” – Ryan Conley To illustrate, Ryan gives the example of a peer who left an organization after seeing a change they didn't like in order to shift the focus of their role from technology operations to more of a site reliability engineering focus. While this type of change that results in a talented individual leaving an organization can be difficult for teammates to accept and for a manager to backfill, these types of changes that are beneficial to someone's career should be celebrated. When we assess whether the changes made at a company are those we can accept and roll with, we can first make sure we understand what we are to focus on as individuals operating within the organization. We have an opportunity to relay that to other members of our team for the benefit of the overall team culture and to build up those who do not adapt to change well. Understanding organizational changes and what they mean for individuals may take repetition. While Ryan understands that he responds well to change, he remains empathetic to those folks to need to hear the message a few times to fully understand. Nick says we can learn from the circumstances surrounding someone leaving the company. For those we know, what interested them about taking a role at another company? Perhaps they took a role you've never thought about for yourself that could be something you pursue in the future. If a member of your team leaves the company, sometimes their role gets backfilled, and other times it may not. If the role is backfilled, you get to learn from a new team member. If not, the responsibilities of the departing team member will likely be divided among other team members. Though it would result in extra work, you could ask to take on the responsibility that would both increase your skill set and make you more valuable to the company. When Ryan worked for a hedge fund, the senior vice president left the company. This person was managing the company's backups. Ryan had experience in this area from a previous role at a consulting firm and volunteered to do it. Shortly after taking on this responsibility for backups, he found that restoring backups from tape and needing to order new servers posed a huge risk to the company in a disaster scenario (i.e. would take weeks to restore everything). Ryan was able to write up a business plan to address the business continuity risk and got it approved by the COO. “Being able to see a gap and fill it is the central theme, and that came from change.” – Ryan Conley Ryan says if you're willing to do a little more work, it is worth the effort to see a gap and work to fill it. 27:34 – Layoff Resources We acknowledged some of the byproducts of organizational change like layoffs and flatter organizations in the beginning of our discussion. We are not sidestepping the fact that layoffs happen, but that is not the primary focus of our discussion today. Here are a few things that may help if you find yourself being impacted by a layoff: First, know that you are not alone in experiencing this. “When a layoff hits, it's important to remember…it's extremely rare that that's going to be personal. Once it's firmly accepted, look for the opportunity in a forced career change. It's there.” – thought shared with us by Megan Wills Check out our Layoff Resources Page to find some of the most impactful conversations on the topic of layoffs on our show to date. We also have our Career Uncertainty Action Guide with a checklist of the 5 pillars of career resilience as well as reusable AI prompts to help you think through topics like navigating a recent layoff, financial planning, or managing your mindset and being overwhelmed. 28:43 – Working for a New Boss Let's move on to section 2 of our discussion. If you're still at a company after an organization change has happened, we want to talk through some of the ways you can take control, take action, and succeed. We want to share a thought from former guest Daniel Lemire as we begin this discussion: “Companies are the most complicated machine man has ever built. We build great machines to accomplish as set of goals, objectives, or outputs. The better you can understand the value the company delivers…the faster you can understand where you fit in that equation. If you don't understand where you contribute to that value, there's work to be done. That work may be on you, may be on your skills, or perhaps it's your understanding of where you fit into that equation.” – Daniel Lemire Let's say that you're impacted by an organizational change and will be working for a new boss. What can we control, and how to we make a positive impact? Ryan says we can be an asset to the team and support larger business goals by first giving some thought to who the new boss is as a person. Try to get to know them on a personal level. Ryan wants to get to know a new boss and be able to ask them difficult questions. Similarly, he wants a boss to be able to ask him difficult questions. Meeting a new boss face-to-face is ideal if that is possible, but this can be more difficult to arrange if your boss lives a large distance from you. Make sure you understand the larger organization's mission statement. As individual contributors, we may lose sight of this over time. “If that is important to the team and the culture, I think it's worth making sure you're aligned with that. I think it's worth understanding your direct manager's alignment toward that and then having that kind of fuel the discussions…. What are you expecting of me? Here are my expectations of you as my manager. Where do you see change in the next 6, 12, 18 months?” – Ryan Conley, on using mission to drive conversations with your manager A manager may not have all the answers to your questions. They could also be inheriting a new team. Ryan encourages us to ask how we can help our manager to develop the working relationship further. This is something he learned from a previous boss who would close every 1-1 with “is there anything else I can do to help?” Nick says a manager may be able to contextualize the organization's mission statement for the team and its members better than we can do for ourselves. For example, the mission and focus of the team may have changed from what it once was. A new manager should (and likely will) set the tone. Nick would classify Ryan's suggestions above as seeking to learn and understand how your new manager operates. Back in Episode 84 guest Brad Pinkston talked about the importance of wanting to know how his manager likes to communicate and be communicated with. This is about understanding your manager's communication preferences and can in some ways help set expectations. A manager may be brief when responding to text messages, for example, because they are in a lot of meetings. But if they tell you this ahead of time, it removes some assumptions about any hidden meanings in the response. Ryan gives the example of an executive who used to respond with Y for yes and N for no to e-mails when answering questions. We can also do research on a new boss in advance. We can look on LinkedIn to understand the person's background and work history. We can speak to other people inside the company to see what they know about the person. Ideally, get a perspective from someone who has worked for the manager in the past because a former direct report might be able to share some of the context about communication preferences and other lessons learned from working with that specific manager. We can also try to be mindful of how the manager's position may have changed due to organizational flattening. They may have moved from managing managers to having 15 direct reports who are individual contributors, for example. “Their time might be stretched thinner, and they're just trying to navigate this new leadership organizational change with you.” – Ryan Conley The manager may or may not have wanted the situation they are currently in. How is your boss measured by their boss, and how can you help them hit those metrics? You may not want to ask this in the first 1-1, but you should ask. Ryan suggests asking your boss what success looks like in their role. You can also ask what success for the team looks like in a year and what it will take to get there. Based on the answer, it might mean less 1-1s but more in depth each time, more independence than you want, or even more responsibility than you wanted or expected. Ultimately, by asking these questions, you're trying to help the team be more successful. We want our manager to understand that we are a competent member of the team. Understanding what success looks like allows us to communicate with our manager in a way that demonstrates we are doing a good job. Some of the time in our 1-1s with a manager will be spent communicating the things we have completed or on which we are actively working. We need to demonstrate our ability to meet deadlines, for example. Daniel Lemire shared this book recommendation with us – The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter. It's a great resource for new leaders but also excellent for individual contributors. Ryan tells us to keep track of our wins over the course of any given year (something that was taught to him) so we have it ready for performance reviews. He encourages keeping a journal that we start in January. Keep track not only of what you did but the outcomes your work delivered and the success metrics. For example, if you gave a presentation, note the number of people present. The company culture may have some impact on the language you need to use to word your accomplishments (i.e. using “I” statements). “I didn't want to be the only person who could do it. I'd rather learn it and then enable 5 other people to do it. And then those 5 people go do it, and that is a much bigger outcome.” – Ryan Conley, on the outcome of efforts at work and being a force multiplier Have a journal of the things you do at work that you update consistently. This could be screenshots, a written description, etc. “What are the metrics that you should be tracking? Mentally think about that because…when you have your annual review, you're going to miss something. You're going to miss a detail. You're going to miss an entire line item versus if you started in January and you just get into the practice of ‘I did this.' And then when you're having your first annual review with this brand-new manager, it's far easier to have a more successful conversation.” – Ryan Conley, on the importance of documenting our work in a journal somewhere Ryan reminds us it is ok to use generative AI tools to check our work. Use multiple different tools to get suggestions on how you might want to phrase the outcomes you delivered and the metrics you tracked. Nick says we should document our accomplishments as Ryan mentioned, but we should make sure we keep a copy of them so that we do not need to rewrite them from nothing in the event we are impacted by a layoff. If the journal containing all of your accomplishments is sitting in the corporate OneDrive or cloud storage, you will lose access to it when you leave the company. Be sure you have a disaster recovery plan for your accomplishments! The new boss is probably going to have team calls of some kind. While what you experience may vary from this, in Nick's experience the first time a manager hosts a call with their team they will share some career background, how they operate, and give team members some idea of what to expect. This kickoff team call usually happens before 1-1s begin. Listen really carefully when this first team call happens. Write down some questions you can ask the boss in that first 1-1 conversation. The manager will have to lead that first 1-1 conversation a little bit, but coming into it prepared with questions will be far easier than trying to think of questions in the moment. A simple follow up question Ryan suggests is how the manager wants to handle time off. Is there a shared team calendar, a formal process, carte blanche, specific blackout dates to be aware of, etc.? We can handle the simple things about how this new manager operates and what their values are early on in our working relationship. Ryan tells us he learned far too late to ask how managers handle promotion / raise / career growth conversations. One of Ryan's past managers scheduled a quarterly checkpoint to specifically talk about career growth items. Ryan was in charge of making the agenda in advance, and his manager would come prepared to talk about each agenda item. It's ok to ask for these regular career discussions. If your manager has a large team, these may be less frequent than otherwise. Ask the manager about the best way for both you and them to come into these discussions prepared. Nick likes the idea of an individual owning the agenda for these conversations. Nick tells us about a manager who sent out 1-1s to team members and provided a menu of options for the types of things that could be discussed during the 1-1 time in the body of the meeting invitation. It helps give people ideas for things to discuss but also lets them know the overall intention of the 1-1s. For the very busy manager, we could ask to use a specific 1-1 to talk about career-related items rather than in a separate meeting (if needed). Nick mentions a recent episode of Unicorns in the Breakroom Podcast in which Amy Lewis talks about using a shared document for 1-1s to hold an employee accountable for bringing agenda items and to document what transpired in previous conversations. Along the lines of trying to be helpful to a new manager, ask how they want to handle team calls when on vacation. Will team calls be cancelled when the manager is on vacation, or are they looking for team member volunteers to host these calls? This may be an opportunity to step up and do more if you want that, especially if you want to gain some leadership experience. Ryan tells us at one point he was a team lead, and part of his responsibility was leading team calls in his manager's absence. This involved leading the call, taking notes, and taking action on follow up items from the meeting. We should bring up time sensitive items to the boss quickly, especially if something needs attention. Communicate things that have a financial impact to the company (a subscription renewal, drop dead due date to exit a datacenter facility, point at which access to something will be lost, etc.). Do not assume your manager knows if you are unsure! Ryan recounts a story from earlier in his career when a CFO wanted a specific number of users added to the Exchange server. There were several cascading impacts of completing this task that went well beyond the scope of licensing and involved procuring more hardware. Ryan took the time to explain the implications. “This is a simple ask. You want the answer to be yes, but I'm going to give you more context…. There is a deadline. I want to make sure we hit it as a team, but there are some implications to your ask. I want to make sure you're fully aware.” – Ryan Conley, on giving more context to leadership Share what you have in flight and the priorities of those items. The new manager may want you to change the priority level on some things. 45:21 – Becoming Part of a Different Team You could end up working on a completely different team of peers as a result of organizational change. You might work on the same team as people you already know but might not. You may or may not work for the same boss. Ryan and Nick have experienced very large reorganization events and ended up in different divisions than they were previously. Ryan had a change of manager, change of a peer he worked closely with, and joined a new team of individuals reporting up to the same boss all at once. “A little bit of the tough lesson is you go into a bigger pond…. I think it's ok to take a moment and pause. For me, I had to kind of reassess and kind of figure out…what are these changes? What are the new best ways to operate within this new division so to speak? …within my team, no one on my prior team was on my team, so it was like this whole new world.” – Ryan Conley After this change, Ryan saw an opportunity to go deeper into technology and chose to take a different role. Ryan worked for a new (to Ryan at least) leader who was very supportive of his career goals. This leader helped Ryan through the change of roles. “If you do good work, even through change…if you're identifying gaps, you're filling it, you're stepping up where the team needs you to step up, you're aligning with the business direction to stay focused…I think there can still be good outcomes even if in the interim period you're not 100% happy.” – Ryan Conley If you don't know anyone on your new team, you have an entire set of people from which you can now learn. Does your job function change as a result of joining this new team? Make sure you understand your role and its delineation from other roles. Maybe you serve larger customers or work on different kinds of projects. Maybe you support the technology needs of a specific business unit rather than what we might deem as working in corporate IT. Maybe you focus on storage and high-level architecture rather than only virtualization. It could be a chance to learn and go deeper in new areas. Did the focus of the overall team change (which can trickle down and impact your job function)? Maybe you're part of a technology team that primarily manages the outsourced pieces of the technology stack for your company. So instead of working with just employees of your company you now work with consulting firms and external vendors. Ryan says we can still be intentional about relationships and he illustrates the necessary intentionality with the story behind his pursuit of a new role. Ryan was intentional about his desire to join a new team after the reorganization, but it didn't work out on the timeline he wanted. He remained patient and in constant, transparent communication with a specific leader who would eventually advocate for him with the hiring manager. Just doing our job can be difficult when we're in a challenging situation like a manager we do not get along with, trying to evolve with a top-level strategy change, etc. This can involve internal politics. Stay the course. Ryan tells us about a lesson he learned when interviewing for a new role he wanted. “Maybe be a little bit more vocal. Pat yourself on the back in a concise way. Again…go back to your journal, know your metrics, and stick by them.” – Ryan Conley, on interviewing and humility Nick says the intentionality behind building relationships applies to your relationship with your boss (a new boss or your current boss that has not changed). This also applies to new teammates! What are the strengths in the people you see around you? Who volunteers to help? Who asks questions when others will not? Ryan shares a story about 2 peers who on the surface seemed to disagree a lot but ended up making each other better (and smarter) by often taking opposing sides on a topic. When one of them left the company, the other person missed getting that perspective and intellectual challenge. Ryan suggests we pay attention to the personalities of team members and the kinds of questions they ask. If a specific teammate tends to do all the talking in meetings, find ways to enable others to speak up who have valuable perspectives but may be quieter. This at its heart is about upleveling others. We can do that when we join a new team, but we can also do this for former teammates by keeping in touch with them over time. This could apply to former teammates who still work at the same company as well as those who have left the company. Ryan tells us a story about when he first made the transition from working in IT operations to getting hired at a technology vendor in a very different role. “It's very different being face-to-face as a consultant, face-to-face as a vendor. And I had a buddy. He started going back 11 years almost to the day here. We were each other's lifeline…. He would have a bad day, and he would call me. Most of the time I was just there to listen…. And then the next week it was my turn, and I would call him…. So having a buddy in these change situations I think is a great piece of advice.” – Ryan Conley It can be easy to fall out of touch with people we no longer interact with on a daily or weekly basis. This takes some effort. We've met people who try to setup a 1-1 with someone in their professional network once every 1-2 weeks. Ryan has a tremendous amount of empathy for others who have recently had a child, for example. We can buddy up with specific professional or life experience and take the opportunity to learn from them. Ryan refers to building an “alumni network” of people you want to remain close with over time. While this helps build our own set of professional connections, we can do this by mentoring others as well (a chance to give back, which is usually much less of a time commitment than we think). Ryan has mentored a number of new college graduates and managed to keep up with their progress over time. Listen to the way he describes the career progression of his mentees and the long-term relationships it produced. We might be mentoring others (on our own team or beyond). This could act as relatable experience for a future role as a team lead or people manager, but highlighting this experience to your manager is something you should do in those career conversations. In those 1-1s with your manager you are asking how you are doing but also how you can do better. Sometimes that means doing more of something you have done in the past. Ryan reminds us that the journal is a tracking mechanism for specific actions and their impact. Whether it's mentoring or helping the manager with hiring or candidate evaluation, be sure to track it! There might be a gap in expertise on your team that you can fill (either because you have a specific skill or because you learned a new skill to fill that gap). When joining a new team, do some observing and stay humble before you declare there is a gap and that you are the one to fill it. Ryan says we can raise gaps with our manager. For example, maybe there is only one person on the team who knows how to do something. Could you pair with that person and cover them while they are on vacation? “I think it goes back to recognizing that you cannot learn it all and then revaluating…what do I need to learn? So, there's certain functions that you have to know how to do, and that's where your manager's going to help you set those expectations…. We're in technology, so as a technologist, what do you want to learn? What do you want to do more of? And that could be a gap that you see, and you have that conversation….” – Ryan Conley If there is not an opportunity at work to learn what you want to learn (i.e. your manager might not support you doing more of specific work, etc.), you can learn it on your own time and then re-evaluate longer term what you want to do. 59:46 – Shifting Job Roles or Job Level Changes We talked about this a little bit earlier. Maybe you stay an individual contributor, move into leadership, or change leadership levels entirely within an organization. Ryan talks about the new expectations when you change your daily role. There are expectations we put on ourselves and those expectations put on us by our leaders. There are both opportunities and challenges. Ryan shares that he has been approached in the past to lead a team, but when this has happened, he took the time to think through what he wanted (his career ladder, his motivations, and his desired focus). “Leading people is not something that I want to currently focus on. I know what I'm motivated by. I'm a technologist at heart. I want to keep learning, and I personally like the technology that I'm focused on right now. And it's not that leadership would necessarily remove technology entirely…. It's just it would be a different focus area. And I think in your career journey it's worth just kind of keeping tabs on where you're at in your career (the ladder of change that we keep mentioning, that lifecycle)…. Do you want to go up the ladder as part of your lifecycle and get into a management role? I think mentorship can be very fulfilling. I think leading people can be very fulfilling. But in my case, I've decided I still want to stay an individual contributor. There's still aspirations that I have there….It's ok to say no is really what I'm getting at…. Really think about the job that you're in at the company that you're in. What are the opportunities within? What motivates you? And stay true to that.” – Ryan Conley Ryan has said no to being a people leader as well as to technical marketing roles. He had a desire to get through the principal program. He encourages listeners to think about whether they would be happy in 1-2 years if they took a new role before making the final decision. Nick mentions the above is excellent when you have the choice to take a new role. But what if it's forced on you as the result of an organizational change? We can recognize where we are in the career lifecycle even if an organizational change places us in a new role that was not our choice. Make sure you understand what the new role is, and think about how you can align it with where you are in the career lifecycle (including the goals you have and the things you want). Nick had a manager who encouraged his team to align their overall life purpose to the current job role or assignment. In doing this, it will be easier to prevent intertwining your identity with your job or your company. We may have to put out heads down and just do the work for a while. But maybe there is an opportunity to align with the things you want and the type of work you want to do which is not immediately obvious. In this job market, if you are employed, be thankful and do a great job. Ryan hopes listeners can think back to an unexpected change that happened which led to new opportunities later. “Pause, recollect, align your focus with your new manager, align your focus with either the changing mission statement or the current mission statement…. What is fulfilling you personally (your own internal values)? If they are being conflicted, I think there's a greater answer to some of your challenges, but they're not being conflicted how can you be your best self in a company without the company being all of yourself? …The cultural identity of the workplace and the home can sometimes be a little too close, a little to intertwined…. Maybe you're just way too emotionally invested in your day job and it's just a good moment to reset…. What is your value system? Why? And then how can you be your best self in your workplace? And I think far too often we want to have our dream job…. ‘A dream job is still a job. There are going to be days when it is just a really difficult day because it's a really difficult job. It's still your dream job, but every job is going to have a difficult day.'” – Ryan Conley Every job will be impacted by some kind of organizational change multiple times throughout your career. 1:06:18 – Parting Thoughts Ryan closes with a funny anecdote about a person who worked on the same team as him that he never had the chance to meet in person. In this case, the person invested more in their former team than meeting members of their new team. Maybe a good interview question for those seeking new roles could be something about organizational changes and how often they are happening at the company. Ryan encourages us to lead with empathy in this job market and consider how we can help others in our network who may be seeking new roles. Ryan likes to share job alerts on LinkedIn and mentions it has been great to see the formation of alumni groups. “Share your rolodex. Help people connect the dots. And lead with empathy.” – Ryan Conley To follow up on this conversation with Ryan, contact him on LinkedIn. Mentioned in the Outro A special thanks to former guest Daniel Lemire and listener Megan Wills for sharing thoughts on organizational change that we were able to include in this episode! Ryan told us we can lead with empathy when helping others looking for work in this job market, but Nick thinks it's empathy at work when we're asking a new boss or team member how we can help. If you want to bring more empathy to the workplace, check out Episode 278 – Uncovering Empathy: The Greatest Skill of an Inclusive Leader with Marni Coffey (1/3) in which guest Marni Coffey tells us about empathy as her greatest skill. It's full of excellent examples. If you're looking for other guest experiences with organizational change, here are some recommended episodes: Episode 210 – A Collection of Ambiguous Experiments with Shailvi Wakhlu (1/2) – Shailvi talks about a forced change of role that was actually an opportunity in disguise Episode 168 – Hired and Acquired with Mike Wood (1/2) – Mike Wood's company was acquired, and the amount of travel went up soon after to increase his stress. Episode 169 – A Thoughtful Personal Sabbatical with Mike Wood (2/2) – Mike Wood shares another acquisition story that this time ended with him taking a sabbatical. Episode 84 -Management Interviews and Transitions with Brad Pinkston – Brad Pinkston shares what he likes to do when working for a new boss. Contact the Hosts The hosts of Nerd Journey are John White and Nick Korte. E-mail: nerdjourneypodcast@gmail.com DM us on Twitter/X @NerdJourney Connect with John on LinkedIn or DM him on Twitter/X @vJourneyman Connect with Nick on LinkedIn or DM him on Twitter/X @NetworkNerd_ Leave a Comment on Your Favorite Episode on YouTube If you've been impacted by a layoff or need advice, check out our Layoff Resources Page. If uncertainty is getting to you, check out or Career Uncertainty Action Guide with a checklist of actions to take control during uncertain periods and AI prompts to help you think through topics like navigating a recent layoff, financial planning, or managing your mindset and being overwhelmed.

Miloš Zlatković (Mily Technologies), Erik Wilhelm (Kyburz), Gordon Steward (The Information Factory), and Jorn Spiertz (Shiptimize) discuss delivery technology.   This special episode was recorded at the OMNIC stand at Parcel+Post Expo 2025.   Miloš Zlatković, Founder & CEO at Mily Technologies, covers practical applications of AI in the postal, delivery and last mile space: Moving fast with the right data set Using AI to select OOH delivery partner locations Leveraging publicly available data Erik Wilhelm, Head of Research at Kyburz, discusses electric delivery vehicles: Factors driving interest in electric delivery vehicles Trend towards carrying greater parcel volumes in EVs Increase in battery capacity Experience with Swiss Post in battery life Customising to different local operating environments Gordon Steward from The Information Factory discusses analysing delivery costs: Understanding direct and indirect costs in parcel networks Updating underlying costs Identifying and analysing potential cost savings Jorn Spiertz, co-founder and COO at Shiptimize, covers shipping technology, inclyding: Automating delivery solutions The post-purchase experience Understanding e-commerce marketplaces  

Julie Coin is founder of Midnighties, a luxury bamboo sleepwear brand for woman that features built-in padded support (launched in 2025). Julie is also a Fractional COO and Operating Advisor to a VC fund that invests in health and sustainability-focused technology companies. Previously Julie spent the majority of her career in global strategy, COO and President roles in Wall Street, blockchain and fintech.In this episode, Rebecca Murphy talks with Julie Coin about leaving Wall Street to launch her luxury sleepwear brand. Julie shares the challenges of building a product-based business and how her corporate experience shaped her as an entrepreneur.

Send us a textMiguel Armaza interviews returning guest Dan Westgarth, COO of Deel, the company that's redefining how businesses hire and pay talent anywhere in the world.Deel has grown into one of the most valuable private tech companies on the planet. In 2025, they crossed one billion dollars in revenue, achieved a $17 billion valuation, and paid out $22 billion in payroll globally. Dan oversees an organization of 3,300 people across more than 100 countries. Before Deel, he was an early operator at Revolut.Timestamped Overview00:00 Intro & Dan's Background05:51 Expanding products and global reach06:30 Optimized systems scaling go-to-market12:55 Begging for Ghostbusters Expertise13:41 RevOps solved with Ghostbuster18:05 Building a Streamlined Goal System20:26 Payroll and Adjacent HR Services26:09 Keep It Simple Prioritize People28:15 Morning Routine and Work Prioritization31:46 Clarifying Communication for Alignment35:27 Building payroll processing enginesWant more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today's global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join ~85,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp

In this episode, Molly sits down with Christy Lang, COO of Hougum Law Firm, to explore how leadership skills transfer across industries and why the core challenges of leadership are the same no matter the business. Christy shares how non–law firm experience strengthens operational leadership; why core-value hiring and middle management are critical; how EOS creates focus, accountability, and traction; and how data-driven trust allows visionaries to let go, delegate, and scale profitably without burnout. Key Takeaways: Christy's move from publishing to law demonstrates how transferable business and leadership skills strengthen law firm operations. Hiring for values first ensures alignment, accountability, and a healthy, scalable team culture. Implementing EOS provides structure, focus, and execution discipline to hit growth milestones. Success comes from blending referral-based marketing, digital efforts, and a team-centric model. Clear accountability and trust enable operational efficiency and sustainable firm growth.   Quote for the Show: "The highest thing in our hiring process is our core values, actually… Because skills can be taught, tasks can be taught, but you can't really inherently enforce core values into someone that's just not there." - Christy Lang   Connect with Christy: Website: https://hougumlaw.com/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christy-lang-911497b9/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hougumlawfirm  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hougum_law_firm/  Links: Website: https://hiringandempowering.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hiringandempowering Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hiringandempowering LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hiring&empoweringsolutions/ The Law Firm Admin Bootcamp + Academy™ : https://www.lawfirmadminbootcamp.com/ Get Fix My Boss Book: https://amzn.to/3PCeEhk   Ways to Tune In: Amazon Music - https://www.amazon.com/Hiring-and-Empowering-Solutions/dp/B08JJSLJ7N Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hiring-and-empowering-solutions/id1460184599 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/3oIfsDDnEDDkcumTCygHDH Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/hiring-and-empowering-solutions YouTube - https://youtu.be/TLvVEoT2N3o 

Read the shownotes and full transcript on our site: growyourcreditunion.com Credit unions are out there chasing new members—spending on billboards, opening branches, crafting the perfect rate specials. Meanwhile, 80% of your existing members have one product with you and you haven't called them once. Maybe the new members you're looking for are actually the members you already have. In this episode of Grow Your Credit Union, host Joshua Barclay and co-host Becky Reed welcome Elizabeth Osborne, COO at Great Lakes Credit Union, to talk about: Everyone's measuring trust wrong The growth obsession is backwards You're tracking the wrong economic data Plus we play a BRAND NEW GAME that we hope you really enjoy. A huge thanks to our sponsor, CU Benefit Stop absorbing annual benefit cost increases of 20-40%. CU Benefit is a strategic CUSO partner designed to help Credit Unions pre-fund up to 100% of employee benefits and unlock balance sheet potential. Generate investment returns 4-5 times higher than traditional bonds. Strengthen employee retention and increase net income by as much as 50%.  Watch this video or visit CUBenefit.com to learn more.

Glean has grown into a $7.2B company by giving employees AI assistants and agents that extend their capabilities.CEO Arvind Jain is back on Grit alongside Joubin Mirzadegan. Here's what stood out:“My mindset by default is that if you build something last year, that it's got to be obsolete. There has to be a new way to do that thing better today. If not, then it's just lack of imagination.”“I have no doubts that AI capabilities are just going to increase more and more over the next few years. But even more important is this concept of how much are we even leveraging what AI can do today? I would say that we've not even used 1% of current capabilities of these models”“If you're trying to be everything to everyone, then you just cannot compete with somebody who's focused on a smaller problem and going deep into that.”You can also listen to Arvind's earlier episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIH0Qp6d6bg&list=PLRiWZFltuYPF8A6UGm74K2q29UwU-Kk9k&index=96Guest: Arvind Jain, founder and CEO, Glean​Connect with Arvind JainX: https://x.com/jainarvindLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jain-arvind/Connect with JoubinX: https://x.com/JoubinmirLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joubin-mirzadegan-66186854/Email: grit@kleinerperkins.comFollow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/kpgritFollow on X:https://x.com/KPGrit​Learn more about Kleiner Perkins:https://www.kleinerperkins.com/

What would change in your studio if picture day actually gave you time back instead of taking it away? Olivia Mode-Cater sits down with Lisa Mallis, Co-Founder and COO of PhotoDay, to unpack one of the most underestimated (and misunderstood) moments in the dance studio year: recital portrait day. What's often treated as a logistical headache is actually a powerful opportunity to elevate your brand, increase revenue, and reclaim your time. Lisa shares her journey from high-volume dance photography to building technology that transformed how studios and photographers handle picture day and why systems, transparency, and experience matter more than ever. Together, Olivia and Lisa explore how outdated processes create unnecessary stress for studio owners, staff, families, and photographers and how the right workflows can turn one of the most chaotic days of the season into a smooth, confidence-building, revenue-generating experience. This episode is a must-listen for studio owners who are tired of burnout, overwhelmed by logistics, and ready to grow their business while reclaiming their life. You'll hear: Why recital portrait day feels so overwhelming and why it doesn't have to The hidden revenue opportunity most studios are leaving on the table How systems and automation can dramatically reduce stress for owners and families Why "return on time" matters more than return on investment How transparency and feedback create stronger studio partnerships What recital photos really represent for families — and why that matters for your brand How to create an experience parents remember with love, not frustration If you're ready to stop dreading picture day and start using it as a strategic advantage in your studio, this episode will change how you see it forever. Discover how studios are upgrading picture day with PhotoDay at photoday.com Join our growing community of people just like you inside our free Facebook group. Click here to join! 

Cybercrime Magazine deep dives into cyber ranges with thought leaders Lauri Almann, co-founder and Chairman of the Board, and Daz Preuss, COO, at CybExer, providers of Immersive testing and training environments that improve your cybersecurity skills, build your cyber resilience, and reinforce your defences. This episode is brought to you by CybExer. Learn more about our sponsor at https://cybexer.com

“A large part of what you bring to work affects everybody else around you, so if you bring joy that becomes infectious, that infection makes the whole place more joyful.”Dipak Golechha is Chief Financial Officer of Palo Alto Networks, the world's leading enterprise cybersecurity company, where Dipak leads global finance and operations. A seasoned finance leader, prior to Palo Alto Networks, Golechha held a variety of global leadership and executive roles around the globe. Prior to joining Palo Alto Networks, Dipak served as CEO of Excelligence Learning Corporation, a childhood education company backed by private equity. Before that, Dipak was CFO at The Nature's Bounty Company, a $3+ billion health and wellness consumer products company with brands including Holland & Barrett. Dipak also spent seven transformative months as CFO of Chobani, helping structure the rapidly growing company through capital raising and private equity partnerships. Dipak spent 18 years at Procter & Gamble in finance and operations leadership roles across multiple geographies. His P&G career began in London before an early expatriate assignment to Caracas, Venezuela. He held finance leadership positions in the Clairol acquisition, corporate treasury, global M&A, and became Global Divisional CFO and COO for Pringles—one of P&G's youngest executives in this role. His final position was leading finance for the global feminine care division. Dipak serves on the board of Spring Health, and holds a B.A. and M.A. in Economics from St. John's College, Cambridge University, This conversation is hosted by P&G Alum Sudha Ranganathan, who's spent over 19 years in diverse Marketing leadership roles at companies like P&G, PayPal, and LinkedIn where she's honed her passion for customer-centric marketing and talent development.This is a sponsored episode with our partners at Palo Alto Networks, a proud global presenting sponsor of the P&G Alumni Network. Interested to feature your company and executives on the P&G Alumni Podcast? Reach out to jswuest@pgalums.com

Tallulah Le Merle is an AI investor, advisor, and speaker. She is a Partner at Fifth Era, where she leads the firm's AI strategy. Fifth Era now manages eight investment vehicles with exposure to more than 80 unicorns through fund-of-funds and co-investments. She began her career as a management consultant advising FTSE 100 companies (Johnson & Johnson, Mars, HSBC, Unilever, etc.) on digital and data transformation - including AI strategy back when it was still largely machine learning and big data. She later served as a fractional COO for AI scale-ups, working directly with founders at the heart of the ecosystem. Tallulah speaks frequently on the future of AI and investing at global conferences and panels, often with a lens on the humanity side of the technology equation, and hope in the age of AI. She also hosts Fresh AI, the world's first fully AI-generated daily news podcast on artificial intelligence.

Ever feel overwhelmed by the impossible task of scaling a team without losing your soul or your culture? You're not alone… or powerless.In this episode, Sivana Brewer is joined by David Chol, COO of Vanguard Properties, for a candid conversation about breaking through isolation, banishing burnout, and the rare leadership moves every operator needs to hear (but never gets taught).They dive deep into why “quality over quantity” culture trumps complexity, how to actually build people (not just systems), and what happens when you ditch the rulebook and trust your gut. Learn proven ways to create psychological safety, unleash autonomy, and develop team members you never realized were hiding in plain sight.Listen now if you want a legendary team, not headaches. Tune in today to steal the strategies you won't find on any corporate checklist and avoid the silent cost of letting your best people stagnate.Timestamped Highlights[00:00] – The wild, serendipitous story of how an overseas friendship turned into a game-changing recruiting move[01:24] – “Quality over quantity”: The Vanguard way of winning big without getting bigger[04:46] – Why career-crushing heartbreaks can open doors to your best opportunities—and why David welcomes them[10:17] – There was no playbook: What happens when you're handed your “dream job” and left to sink or swim[13:15] – Surprising truths: What David really discovered about himself when the safety nets disappeared[19:04] – The secret to creating a culture of radical autonomy without chaos—or loss of accountability[21:10] – Why most interviews are fake (and how to truly get to know someone before you hire them)[31:35] – The 15-calls-a-day ritual: The proven method that keeps hidden talent from falling through the cracks[38:03] – Exactly how to keep your best people growing—plus the overlooked dangers of ignoring their untapped skills[42:07] – The harsh realities no one tells COOs about—plus honest ways to navigate “second in command” constraintsAbout the GuestDavid Chol is the Chief Operating Officer of Vanguard Properties, the Bay Area's largest independent and LGBT-led brokerage, boasting 500+ agents and a forty-year legacy. A lifelong real estate operator with roots ranging from private equity to technology, David is known for building standout cultures and pioneering people-first leadership strategies that drive growth, even when markets are in turmoil. At Vanguard, he champions autonomy, radical honesty, and transforming hidden staff potential into real company wins.

Check out host Bidemi Ologunde's new show: The Work Ethic Podcast, available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde sits down with cybersecurity leader Gideon Hazam, the Co-Founder, COO, and CCO of Memcyco, to unpack the exploding threat of phishing, account takeover (ATO), and digital impersonation in the age of AI. Why are brand impersonation attacks so hard to detect—and why do many organizations still treat them as "lower urgency" than other cyber risks? What does "preemptive, real-time defense" actually look like when scammers can move at unprecedented speed and scale? Gideon also breaks down emerging fraud vectors like employee portal abuse and remote access scams, and shares what needs to change—from company playbooks to federal legislation—to better protect customers and employees alike.Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.comSupport for The Bid Picture podcast comes from Celsius. If you're working on a healthier relationship with technology, a small shift can help—step away from the scroll, take a walk, and reset your focus. Celsius is a convenient grab-and-go option for the moments you want energy with intention, so your day isn't powered by endless notifications. If you try Celsius, and they ask how you heard about it, please mention The Bid Picture podcast. Learn more at celsius.com.Support for The Bid Picture podcast comes from Audi. If you're trying to be more intentional with technology, it helps to choose experiences that support your attention—not compete for it. Audi blends performance with thoughtful design to make the drive feel focused and considered, giving you space to reconnect with what matters beyond the screen. If you check out Audi, and they ask how you heard about it, please mention The Bid Picture podcast. Learn more at audiusa.com.Support for The Bid Picture podcast comes from Amazon Prime. When tech feels like it's running your day, Prime helps you simplify the parts that don't need your attention—fast delivery, easy returns, and entertainment options you can choose intentionally, on your schedule. Build healthier boundaries with your screens by planning what you watch, when you watch, and letting the errands handle themselves. If you check out Amazon Prime, and they ask how you heard about it, please mention The Bid Picture podcast. Listeners can find out more from amazon.com/prime.Support the show

Hey there, creature catchers! Need a quick treat to keep you entertained between episodes? Welcome to PODSNACK!, your bite-sized adventure that's full of fun!In this special WORLD Edition series, we are setting off on a massive adventure across the entire world! We will meet the strangest, goofiest, and occasionally scary magical monsters, learn about world cultures, try out some of their language, and pick up interesting vocab along the way.

Are you facing the pressure to reinvent your business before it's too late? Imagine your cash flow vanishing, your team at risk, and your market shifting overnight.In this candid, deeply human episode, Sivana Brewer talks to Ruth Velez, COO and co-founder of Vinali Group, who led her company from the brink of collapse during COVID through a string of audacious pivots to global growth. Ruth exposes the real emotional rollercoaster behind leading with your partner, building culture across borders, hiring and keeping amazing talent, and never losing faith, no matter how chaotic it gets.This episode isn't just about operations, it's about surviving, adapting, and growing stronger together. Listen now to avoid the pain of stalling out, wasting years on the wrong models, or letting fear keep you stuck. Don't miss Ruth's rare, actionable insights. You won't get this level of honesty or inside story anywhere else.Timestamped Highlights[00:00] – The bold moment Ruth and her husband decided failure was NOT an option[02:50] – How COVID nearly destroyed their staffing business—and the exact pivot that saved them[03:59] – Recruiting from Colombia: training from scratch to building a cross-border powerhouse[05:45] – Nearshoring vs. offshoring: hidden advantages for cost, culture, trust[08:52] – Security, HR, and team-building—the true reasons to use a staffing partner[12:00] – Grit and transparency: the secret to client loyalty during chaos[17:48] – Marriage + business: the COO/CEO dynamic, picking which wild ideas to follow[24:06] – Being the “options queen”—conquering doubts and finding your strengths[33:42] – Building legacy: raising entrepreneurial kids in a family business[35:34] – Only work with clients who TRULY fit—how that changed everythingAbout the GuestRuth Velez is COO and co-founder of Vinali Group, an international nearshore staffing company headquartered in Orlando, FL with offices in Colombia and across Latin America. Ruth is known for operational excellence, culture-building, and helping US companies leverage nearshoring for both trust and talent.

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Teri Williams. President & COO (and owner) of OneUnited Bank, from Money Making Conversations Masterclass: Purpose of the Interview The interview aimed to: Showcase OneUnited Bank’s role as the largest Black-owned bank and its commitment to financial empowerment. Educate listeners on digital banking solutions, financial literacy, and generational wealth strategies. Promote OneUnited Bank’s services and initiatives, including its youth financial literacy contest and “One Transaction” wealth-building concept. Key Takeaways Origins & Growth of OneUnited Bank Started as a community bank in Boston, later acquired four Black-owned banks (Miami, LA, Boston) and merged into OneUnited. Became the first Black-owned digital bank and now serves customers nationwide. Digital Banking & Accessibility Customers can open accounts online in minutes. Features include: Mobile check deposit (take a photo of your check). Direct deposit with early pay (up to 2 days early, no fees). Largest surcharge-free ATM network (100,000 ATMs, including Walgreens, 7-Eleven, Chase, Citibank). Combatting Financial Deserts Addresses lack of brick-and-mortar banks in Black communities and reliance on predatory check-cashing services. Emphasizes that check-cashing services never improve credit scores and often harm financial health. Financial Literacy & Wealth Building Advocates automatic savings as a key wealth-building habit. Introduced WiseOne, a tool that aggregates financial data to: Track net worth, income, expenses. Identify duplicate charges and suggest savings. Provide debt-reduction strategies. Youth Financial Literacy Initiative “I Got Bank” Contest for ages 8–12: Read a financial literacy book (free download available). Submit an essay or artwork on what they learned. 10 winners receive $1,000 savings accounts. One Transaction Concept Six key transactions to build generational wealth: Homeownership (OneUnited offers $25K–$50K down payment assistance). Life Insurance (affordable way to transfer wealth). Investments (automatic contributions). Profitable Business (entrepreneurship or side gigs). Credit Score Improvement. Savings (automatic transfers). Focus on one transaction at a time for sustainable progress. Economic Advice for Uncertain Times Anticipates stagflation (inflation + rising unemployment). Recommendations: Hold on to your job (avoid unnecessary job changes). Save more, spend less. Notable Quotes “We were the first Black-owned digital bank—and now the largest Black-owned bank in the country.” “Check cashers only report to credit bureaus when you don’t pay them. That’s crazy.” “If it goes in your pocket, you’re more likely to spend it. Wealthy people automate savings.” “One transaction can make the difference between being wealthy or not.” “We have the largest surcharge-free ATM network in the country—100,000 ATMs.” “Hold on to your job. Start saving more and spending less.” #SHMS #STRAW #BESTSupport the show: https://www.steveharveyfm.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Teri Williams. President & COO (and owner) of OneUnited Bank, from Money Making Conversations Masterclass: Purpose of the Interview The interview aimed to: Showcase OneUnited Bank’s role as the largest Black-owned bank and its commitment to financial empowerment. Educate listeners on digital banking solutions, financial literacy, and generational wealth strategies. Promote OneUnited Bank’s services and initiatives, including its youth financial literacy contest and “One Transaction” wealth-building concept. Key Takeaways Origins & Growth of OneUnited Bank Started as a community bank in Boston, later acquired four Black-owned banks (Miami, LA, Boston) and merged into OneUnited. Became the first Black-owned digital bank and now serves customers nationwide. Digital Banking & Accessibility Customers can open accounts online in minutes. Features include: Mobile check deposit (take a photo of your check). Direct deposit with early pay (up to 2 days early, no fees). Largest surcharge-free ATM network (100,000 ATMs, including Walgreens, 7-Eleven, Chase, Citibank). Combatting Financial Deserts Addresses lack of brick-and-mortar banks in Black communities and reliance on predatory check-cashing services. Emphasizes that check-cashing services never improve credit scores and often harm financial health. Financial Literacy & Wealth Building Advocates automatic savings as a key wealth-building habit. Introduced WiseOne, a tool that aggregates financial data to: Track net worth, income, expenses. Identify duplicate charges and suggest savings. Provide debt-reduction strategies. Youth Financial Literacy Initiative “I Got Bank” Contest for ages 8–12: Read a financial literacy book (free download available). Submit an essay or artwork on what they learned. 10 winners receive $1,000 savings accounts. One Transaction Concept Six key transactions to build generational wealth: Homeownership (OneUnited offers $25K–$50K down payment assistance). Life Insurance (affordable way to transfer wealth). Investments (automatic contributions). Profitable Business (entrepreneurship or side gigs). Credit Score Improvement. Savings (automatic transfers). Focus on one transaction at a time for sustainable progress. Economic Advice for Uncertain Times Anticipates stagflation (inflation + rising unemployment). Recommendations: Hold on to your job (avoid unnecessary job changes). Save more, spend less. Notable Quotes “We were the first Black-owned digital bank—and now the largest Black-owned bank in the country.” “Check cashers only report to credit bureaus when you don’t pay them. That’s crazy.” “If it goes in your pocket, you’re more likely to spend it. Wealthy people automate savings.” “One transaction can make the difference between being wealthy or not.” “We have the largest surcharge-free ATM network in the country—100,000 ATMs.” “Hold on to your job. Start saving more and spending less.” #SHMS #STRAW #BESTSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stop waiting for your hard work to speak for itself — the silence may be exactly why you're being undervalued. In this masterclass edition of Negotiate Anything, elite voices come together to help you stop "negotiating down on yourself" before you ever reach the table. In this episode, you'll learn: The Power of Self-Advocacy: Heather Spillsbury, COO of 50/50 Women on Boards, reveals why even high-performing leaders underestimate their value — and how a "high-impact soundbite" can instantly elevate your presence to boardroom-ready. The "Mercenary" Mindset: Jasani Courtney, VP of Human Resources, reframes your career as a business transaction — where you intentionally sell your skills to the highest-value opportunity. Why Negotiation Isn't Risky: Discover why it makes zero sense for companies to pull offers simply because you negotiated. The Holistic Offer: Learn how to evaluate total compensation beyond salary — time off, benefits, retirement, and bonuses — so your job supports your life, not the other way around. Pre-Negotiation Marketing: Understand why negotiation starts long before the table, through consistent, authentic visibility of your value. Whether you're pursuing a promotion or a seat in the boardroom, this episode delivers the mindset shifts and practical strategies needed to advocate confidently and secure the compensation you deserve.