Podcasts about jotform

You've probably had this moment: something small happens, and your reaction feels bigger than the situation. That gap between “what happened” and “what I told myself it meant” is where so much leadership, stress, and conflict is born. We sit down with Coach Monique DeMonaco, founder of EQ Wize and an emotional intelligence and change expert, to unpack why awareness is the first step to any sustainable change and why fixing behavior alone rarely works.We get practical and personal, moving from childhood messages and limiting beliefs to the inner critic that talks to us in a voice we would never use on a friend. Monique breaks down the brain-based drivers that sit under so much human suffering: the belief of not being enough, fear of rejection, the need for connection, and the sense that what we want is not available to us. We also explore how memory and interpretation can shape present-day workplace culture, from tense feedback conversations to the way we read a manager's tone.You'll hear actionable tools you can use in real time, including Monique's “delete delete” pattern interrupt to stop spiraling thoughts and replace them with something true or at least neutral. We also talk confirmation bias and the reticular activating system, the brain's filter that decides what you notice, and why that matters for communication, empathy, and better decision-making. We close by connecting emotional intelligence to the modern hiring landscape, including the skills employers keep asking for: EQ, business etiquette, and critical thinking.If this sparked an insight, subscribe, share the episode with someone who would benefit, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

I looked at my bank statement and thought, "WTF am I paying for all of this?" Editing apps I forgot I signed up for. A JotForm plan that ballooned to $90 a month. Slack at $137. A pile of Zapier automations quietly duct-taping five different platforms together, and every time one broke, it cost me time I didn't have. None of it felt like a big expense in the moment. All of it added up to something embarrassing.This episode isn't a framework or a three-step plan. It's me walking you through exactly where money was quietly leaking out of my business, what I changed, and why now, before Q4, is the time to do your own audit. I also get into a hiring shift I made instead of adding a new position, a retail line I'm swapping out after years of loyalty to bigger brands, and a genuinely big personal win I almost didn't let myself celebrate.In this episode:Why I finally consolidated five-plus software subscriptions into one platform, and how much that patchwork of tools was actually costing me in money and timeWhy I built content creation directly into my assistant's job description instead of hiring or outsourcing it, and how that decision is paying for itself multiple times overThe honest reasoning behind switching our retail line, including what's really happened to margins and manufacturer relationships with the bigger brandsWhy I'm cutting down the number of SKUs we carry per category, and the buyer-behavior shift behind that decisionSwitching to Mangomint:I finally made the switch after years of jimmy-rigging Zapier and Square to work for a hybrid salon. If you're curious whether it'd work better for your salon, grab your first month free with my link: https://www.mangomint.com/referral/lexi/Salon Visibility: The training that builds your digital footprint so new clients can actually find you, on Google, on AI search, everywhere they're looking. This is the foundation everything else gets built on. Learn more: https://www.salonmindsmastermind.com/salon-visibility

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Most leaders think they're fixing a performance problem when they're actually managing a clarity problem. Dusty Holcomb, CEO and founder of The Arcqus Group, joins me to break down a deceptively simple idea: remove ambiguity and performance follows. We get specific about what “clarity” really means in leadership and why it has nothing to do with barking orders or tightening control.We talk through one of the hardest career transitions, moving from the person who gets results to the person who creates the conditions for other people to get results. That includes letting go of the spotlight, hiring people who are better than you, and shifting from “how to do it” instructions to clear outcomes that give your team agency. Along the way, Dusty shares a practical lens that instantly changes how you communicate: your question to statement ratio. The higher you go, the more questions you should ask and the better you must get at listening.We also explore the hidden friction that comes from expectations trapped inside a leader's head. Dusty explains how “rules of engagement” act like a decoder ring for your team: what you value, how you make decisions, how you prefer to communicate, how you give feedback, and what your non negotiables are. If you've ever felt frustrated that people “should just know,” this conversation gives you a better path, plus a simple two minute meeting prep framework you can use today.If you found this useful, subscribe on your favorite podcast app, share the episode with a leader who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Most leadership advice assumes people are fixed and organizations are machines. We don't buy that. People change, teams adapt, and every interaction leaves a trace, which is why we're using a garden metaphor to tie together the biggest lessons from Antoniette Roze, Ron Friedman, and Frans Campher. When leadership is a living ecosystem, your job is not to “control the machine,” it's to tend the conditions where trust, clarity, and good work can grow.We start with communication as planting: the difference between having an idea and helping someone receive it. If you've ever explained something “clearly” and still met confusion or resistance, the problem may be soil, not seed. We dig into generative listening, how people interpret messages through history and emotion, and how real co-creation happens when input can actually shape outcomes.Then we zoom out to team performance and team productivity. Individual optimization does not guarantee collective performance, especially when focus time becomes someone else's bottleneck. We walk through what a high-performing team needs: shared goals people understand, role clarity that prevents waiting, and interdependence that matches how work really flows. Along the way, we bring in behavioral humility (with a nod to Robert Sapolsky) to replace snap character judgments with curiosity and smarter accountability.Finally, we go inward. Leadership masks, persona, authenticity, and shadow show up in the room whether we admit it or not. You'll leave with five questions to use before your next important conversation and a simple one-week experiment to run in a single team or meeting. Subscribe, share this with a leader who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find the show.Send us Fan MailSupport the show✅ Follow The Leadership Project on your favourite podcast platform and listen to a new episode every week!

In this Spotlight Session, we sit down with Erman Ergun, Director of Channel and Marketing Partnerships at Jotform, to talk about smarter lead generation using the native Jotform + HighLevel integration.With almost 8 years at Jotform, a 20-year-old, fully bootstrapped company that's grown from 3 million to nearly 40 million users, Erman has helped small and mid-sized businesses turn a single form into a full lead-gen and workflow engine, no website required.We dive into:

No city (or metro region) is defying gentrification. All of them are failing at it.I feel that in my bones and soul when I step out of my creative studio and into a world where the train might be cancelled after I made the 15-20 minute walk to the station, and I can only get to McDonald's on foot within 5 minutes.A world where my younger cousins in school may not be valued because they're Black, but maybe they have a good doctor, an amazing community recreation center, and someone to make their hair look dope? I know they probably don't say dope for any reason anymore, but still, we are all aging and growing on this round planet with dwindling water together.That's why I decided to take cities back to school this fall and grade their performance! I did a more qualitative measure of this back in 2018-2019, and now I want to put a number on this work, so you all can more easily measure your city's progress and improve on areas that would be graded “needs improvement” on a traditional report card. A version of this report card is also in The Defying Gentrification Playbook.I graded the six metros/cities I've lived in (Greensboro; Washington, DC; Baltimore; Kansas City; Raleigh; Durham) and four cities I would consider living in (Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Atlanta) I counted the core city elements and included adjacent counties if they behave as suburban satellite business districts and villages, not just the legacy city limits and their central business districts. Still, my 13 rubric points for metro regions may not be your 13.However, as a scholar of cities for nearly two decades and a multiply marginalized person as a regular human in cities for 40 years, I feel like my rubric covers everything.I've created a JotForm survey to capture cities and specifically metro regions I haven't been able to include in this series and to test the validity and reliability of my rubric so that this measure can be expanded. I also added a block so that you can tell me what I missed, so it can be added in. My rubric is very US-centric, but a lot of what I'm grading is affected by US federal law. I'd love to see how a Vienna or Hong Kong or London would look in my metric. That's where this survey comes in. Take the survey.Over the next few weeks, as I celebrate my tenth anniversary of dropping everything and moving from Kansas City to Washington, DC, out of my own volition, on the assumption that I could thrive in the District, I'll share my personal grades of cities/regions I've lived in or frequently visited. Over time, I'll update the grades based on what you've told me.This is our bridge between our Black August series on what I can control as a Black queer feminist disabled urbanist, the elders that guide me spiritually, and the on-the-ground facts of what is and isn't present in a city that tickles my Black queer feminist disabled urbanist spidey senses!Now let's get to those things I'm grading on!What's On The Report CardJotform will not let me give cities zeros in its automatic grade setting. It's very similar to my retired middle school teacher mom, who always stopped her Fs in her classroom grades at a 60. Her logic is that a 0 is hard to recover from, but a 60 is fixable. 0.5 signals fixable, but needs fixing.As I mentioned at the beginning, no city achieved a perfect score. The highest grade achieved was a 78, a low C, and the lowest grade was a 67, a high F. The average grade is a 73, which is a low D. Not failing, but barely passing. You'll have to come back in subsequent weeks to find out which cities failed and why. But I will tell you this week what I graded them on, in no special order of importance:Art and creative spaces for all skill and desire levels2- Both amateur and professional artists have somewhere to go that fulfills their need for creativity and a livelihood for their work.1- Only amateur or only professional artists have somewhere to go to practice their art and craft. There's also no real pipeline between the two types of artists, and professional artists are often not homegrown.0.5- No art at all, at least not in visible spaces.Thriving entrepreneurship and gainful employment are available to more than white, straight, abled, wealthy people.2- Both thriving entrepreneurship and gainful (above a living wage based on the MIT calculator) employment are present in folks who aren't straight, white, cis, male, and have family wealth1- Only one or the other is present in non-straight, white, cis, male, and family wealthy folks. Tokens are made of the few people who stand out, because it's not normal; it's extraordinary.0.5- Nobody is working or owning businesses besides the straight white cis male with family wealth. Or others are working, but for under a living wage.Wraparound medical care2- Yes, with a care center that's not a hospital, with all specialties present or able to be referred in-house, an urgent care and pharmacy that are open 24 hours, and accept all insurances and genders.1- Yes, the care center is there, but it's not all inclusive of hours, specialties, genders, and insurances. Or there's just a hospital.0.5- No hospital, no care center.Culturally competent non-medical hair and body care2- You have hair salons for all textures, hair care for all textures in all of your beauty supply stores, and you have practitioners of all types of non-medical or quasi-medical body care sensitive to all skin types and tones and sizes.1- You have these spaces, but they have documented issues with diverse hair types, skin tones, and body sizes0.5- No spaces will even accept a non-white, skinny, straight-haired person into their establishmentsFood that provides both joy and basic nutritional needs in all neighborhoods2- The food is fun and nutritious1- The food is fun or nutritious, not both0.5- There's no food at all. This is not a food desert; this is apartheid.Public transit exists for more than just paratransit users2- Public transit of all types runs for 24 hours a day1- Public transit exists, but outside of paratransit, there are restrictions on its timing, where it takes people, and what type of vehicles/trains there are.0.5- Even disabled folks can't get transportationSpiritual spaces of all faiths that affirm and delight in Black, disabled, feminist and/or queer lives2- All faiths have somewhere to go where their gender, sexual orientation, skin color, size, national origin, and their politics are affirmed and loved in the pursuit of good morality or a divine presence. These places also honor that there are different faiths, or lack thereof, and that's ok. These places respect a gray area, but have clarity on right and wrong that doesn't dehumanize people.1- Some houses of faith behave like the above, but they are few and far between, making it harder for people to plug in and for the communities to have a positive impact on the community.0.5-Houses of faith are all hateful, dogmatic, and even actively terrorizing those that don't believe in their tenets.Schools that affirm Black children K-12, no matter their ability level or perceived behavior.2- Every school, no matter who runs it or how much that might put a target on their backs, believes that Black children can thrive. This investment in Black kids reaps across all children, as in many schools, they are the most marginalized.1- Only a handful of schools, and they are ones you have to apply to and/or pay for, are affirming of Black children.0.5- No schools affirm Black children, and they may be terrorizing them and contributing directly, without shame, to the school-to-prison pipeline.Bookstores and libraries that affirm all authors and all readers.2- Specialized bookstores and libraries exist, and the regular ones honor books that aren't written by white, straight, cis, and male authors.1- Only specialized bookstores and libraries exist, or the regular ones are hostile to readers that aren't white, cis, straight, or male.0.5- No bookstores or libraries exist at all, except for maybe an aisle in Walmart, Target, Dollar Tree, or Dollar GeneralParks, playgrounds, waterfronts, and other natural resources/outdoor activities are not closed off to the public.2- These resources and activities are free and open to the public.1- These outdoor resources have a price tag, or they are partially operated by private entities.0.5- They don't exist at all or are all privatized with no kind of public accessBlack, LGBTQ, disabled, feminist, and other community centers and community events.2- All community centers and events understand that communities overlap and could need support services and culturally competent activities and vendors. They also provide safety for their primary audience of people, while being welcoming.1- Community centers and events for specific groups exist, but they don't serve others or understand intersectional identities or the need for core community safety.0.5- No community centers at allBasic housing that doesn't exceed 30% of one's income at the poverty level and for those under the area median income.2- Housing that meets and exceeds these standards, happily and fully.1- Housing that meets these standards, but begrudgingly and with an outside emphasis on mixed-income areas and market rate areas, without ensuring those who need housing and have no or low income are housed.0.5- People who can pay for housing are unhoused, and of course those who can't are unhoused by default.A way to get out of town that's not your personal vehicle (if you even have one).2- You have an airport that flies internationally, a train station that can take you to all corners of your country and possibly into others, and you have rental cars, rideshares, bikeshares, and trails connected to other cities.1- You have a handful of the above, but not everything0.5- You have none of this besides private vehiclesWhat else stood out with these cities and their initial gradesMost cities had perfect scores on the following measures:* Art and creative spaces for all skill and desire levels* Culturally competent non-medical hair and body care* Spiritual spaces of all faiths that affirm and delight in Black, disabled, feminist and/or queer lives* Bookstores and libraries that affirm all authors and all readers.* Parks, playgrounds, waterfronts, and other natural resources/outdoor activities not closed off to the public.This is not surprising in that these are the easiest things for any city to provide, often without political pushback, although some libraries are under fire for being so diverse, equitable, and inclusive.This is also in line with how movements and lifestyle changes that emerged and became more mainstream during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic have affected and stuck with certain sectors of society, like houses of faith and arts spaces.No city scored above 0.5 on housing, because most cities, even the most progressive ones in the spaces above, meet the standard that warrants a 1. This is a measure I am most looking forward to your feedback on. Same with community centers. I've heard some community centers really struggle with how to be in community and properly handle conflict resolution and intersectional identity. This might actually go down because of things you share with me.In the meantime, Greensboro, my beloved hometown, is up first on a deep dive analysis. I'll be sharing its scores and sharing specific places that fill in the gaps, along with city-specific ways the gaps that aren't filled can be filled.Your city might be a failure now, but by the end of this, it will be a winner!Before you go…I'm bringing classifieds back! All you need to know about how this will work, plus an order form, is right here in the application. All ads will follow my announcements in this section of the newsletter and can start running as soon as the next newsletter. I also have a solid editorial calendar in place through the end of the calendar year, so we can talk about ideal placement too!I am currently in Greensboro for a panel on my colleague and friend Marrianne LeGrecco's book on food justice in Greensboro, Everybody Eats. We'll be at Scuppernong Books on Elm Street this afternoon from 4-6 pm.If you want my guidance on anything, especially on how to respond to ads in the classifieds, I'm booking 90-minute strategy sessions! This is a great way to have me help you plan something, namely your career or funding strategy, and they are rebookable!Thanks to everyone who came to the inaugural Making New Fantasies: A Defying Gentrification Workshop, which we decided to do on every third Thursday as a virtual journaling workshop around processing what cities do and don't do for us. Registration is free, and you can register at this link. Join us in September if you want encouragement to write your own stories and make your own plans to make your community better.Get The Defying Gentrification Playbook full-color PDF for just $19.99Finally, for one last time, grade your city!Until next time,Kristen Get full access to Defying Gentrification with Kristen Jeffers at theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe

If you've ever felt pressure to “look like a leader” instead of actually leading, this conversation will land. I sit down with executive coach and author Frans Campher (Dynamic Leadership in a Disruptive World) to talk about the masks we inherit, the behaviors we copy, and the quiet cost of bending ourselves out of shape to fit an old leadership template.We get practical fast. Frans shares his head, heart, and gut framework for decision-making and why ignoring intuition and emotion can push smart people into the wrong roles for the wrong reasons. We also challenge the way we talk about imposter syndrome, reframing it as imposter thoughts and exploring how authenticity grows through small, deliberate experiments rather than big performative leaps. Along the way, we unpack what it really means to “be yourself” at work without using authenticity as an excuse to be unfiltered or careless.The deeper thread is identity. If you don't know who you are, you'll default to mimicry, technique, and performance. Frans lays out reflective practices like life story work, values inventories, and daily journaling to build self-awareness and a grounded leadership signature. We also talk about leading people dynamically as they evolve, meeting them fresh instead of relying on old mental files, and how presence and listening to understand can change the quality of trust in every conversation. Finally, Frans' orchestra analogy makes the shift clear: leadership growth often means moving from expert to conductor, creating results through others.Subscribe for more conversations on authentic leadership, leadership development, executive coaching, and leading through disruption, and if this sparks an insight, share it and leave a review so more leaders can find it.

In this episode, I chat with Alper Donmez, VP of Quality Assurance at Jotform, about how the platform is building accessibility into every layer of the form creation and form filling experience. You'll also hear what Jotform's built-in accessibility checker catches that you might not expect, how the team supports users who rely on screen readers and keyboard navigation, and why accessibility should be the starting point of your process rather than a final checklist. If you want to learn more about making forms accessible for your school community, this episode has you covered! Show notes: https://classtechtips.com/2026/08/21/making-forms-accessible-bonus/ Sponsored by Jotform: http://jotform.com/education Follow Alper Donmez on social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alper-donmez/ Follow Monica on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/classtechtips/  Take your pick of free EdTech resources: https://classtechtips.com/free-stuff-favorites/   

A team full of smart, capable people can still feel slow, stressed, and stuck and the reason usually isn't effort. It's the system. Dr. Ron Friedman, award-winning psychologist and author of Super Teams, joins me to challenge the way we think about high performance and to explain why “busy” often hides broken coordination, unclear roles, and incentives that pull people in different directions.We get practical about what separates elite teams from the rest, starting with the basics of a real team mindset: a shared goal everyone is pushing toward, clear roles that prevent turf wars and dropped balls, and true interdependence where we genuinely need each other to win. From there, Ron shares the three strengths super teams build: managing time, energy, and attention; making each other better through peer accountability and credit sharing; and continuously improving through feedback seeking, experiments, and innovation.We also tackle a modern workplace trap most leaders miss: individual productivity hacks can backfire at the team level. When one person batches email or disappears into deep work alone, they can become a bottleneck for everyone else. Ron explains how super teams fix this with collective focus blocks, meeting guidelines like “no decision, no meeting,” and trust behaviors rooted in competence, caring, and consistency. You'll also hear a simple, future-focused approach to feedback that avoids defensiveness and actually improves performance.If you want a calmer, faster, more resilient team culture, hit subscribe, share this with a leader or teammate, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

The clearest idea usually wins, even when it isn't the smartest one and that reality quietly shapes careers, meetings, and entire strategies. I'm joined by Antoniette Roze, founder and CEO of WPC Speakers Global and host of the Speak Pact Podcast, to get practical about how leaders communicate complex ideas so people actually understand them, remember them, and act on them.We dig into why executive communication is not about delivering more information, but creating understanding. Antoniette shares how to design for “one micro transformation” so your audience leaves with a single meaningful insight and a clear next step, instead of 36 steps they'll forget by lunch. We talk about speaking at a “fifth grade level” without dumbing anything down, how to reverse engineer a big project into base-camp actions, and why repeating the message and having people reflect it back can prevent costly misalignment.Then we go beyond presentations and into real-time leadership moments: brainstorming sessions, town halls, and high-stakes meetings where ideas compete. Antoniette explains why positioning comes before clarity, how connection is built through truly listening, and how leaders create buy-in by building on others' ideas rather than broadcasting their own. We also unpack why brilliant experts sometimes stay hidden, how to create safe spaces for imperfect thinking, and how humility and visibility can coexist when you stay human and relatable.If you want better leadership communication, stronger stakeholder buy-in, and clearer public speaking skills, hit play, then subscribe, share the episode with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more leaders can find the show.

You can have the right strategy and still walk into a room and lose it with one comment. You can mean well and still “fill the space” so completely that your team stops thinking out loud. That gap between intention and impact is where most leadership pain lives and it's usually not a skill issue, it's an autopilot issue.We pull together four big ideas from recent conversations with Susan Drumm, Brad Semmens, Dre Baldwin, and Robert Kennedy III, and we land on one shared thread: intentionality. Susan helps us notice the leader's playlist, the thoughts and emotional loops shaping our state before we speak. Brad gives us clean language for choosing our stance in the moment: step in, step back, step up, step down, or lead from center. Dre pushes the uncomfortable truth that motivation is unreliable and that standards are built on the “third day,” when the shine wears off and discipline has to carry the work. Robert shows how storytelling turns raw moments into meaning, using a simple tool: moment, meaning, message.We make it practical with a 60-second reset you can use before any meeting, feedback conversation, or hard talk: check your state, choose your stance, live the standard, and tell or challenge the story. Small moves repeated consistently become leadership identity, and leadership identity becomes culture.If you want more intentional leadership, better team communication, and a culture people can trust, listen now, share it with someone you lead, and subscribe so you don't miss what's next. What's the one lever you need most right now: state, stance, standards, or story?Send us Fan MailSupport the show✅ Follow The Leadership Project on your favourite podcast platform and listen to a new episode every week!

You can have the right strategy, the right numbers, and the cleanest slide deck in the world and still fail to move anyone. That gap is not about intelligence or effort. It is about meaning. I sit down with Robert Kennedy III (RK3), keynote speaker and communication strategist, to talk about storytelling as a leadership skill that cuts through noise and turns information into understanding.We unpack one of the biggest myths holding people back: “I'm not a storyteller.” Robert explains why that is often an identity story, not a talent issue, and how choosing a new agreement with yourself changes what you attempt and what you avoid. We also dig into public speaking fear and nervous energy, including Robert's unforgettable line about not getting rid of the butterflies but getting them to fly in formation, plus the mindset shift that turns anxiety into excitement.Then we get practical. Robert shares his Moment, Meaning, Message framework for business storytelling and leadership communication. We explore how ordinary moments can become powerful stories, why relatability beats drama, and how stories create vivid mental images, emotional connection, and trust in a way data rarely can. You'll also learn what a signature story is, how to find yours, and when personal stories build credibility better than third-party examples.If you want to become a clearer communicator, a stronger leader, and a more persuasive speaker, listen now, then subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Day one is exciting. Day two still feels fresh. Day three is when the “new car smell” is gone and the work gets real, and that's where most goals quietly die. We talk with Dre Baldwin (Dre All Day), former pro basketball player and founder of Work On Your Game, about how to push through that moment without waiting for motivation to magically return.We get practical about the difference between motivation and discipline, why you can't build a career on feelings, and how to create execution reliability through structure, habits, and standards. Dre shares the mindset that helped him go from Division III basketball to the pros through personal initiative, cold calls, and proof, then translate the mental game of sport into business, leadership, and life. We also break down confidence as “competence minus interference,” why “fake it till you make it” backfires, and how identity drives behavior when no one is watching.For leaders, we dig into accountability that doesn't feel like a personal attack. Instead of vague expectations and late performance reviews, we explore a simple “scoreboard” approach that measures execution early, catches drift before results fall apart, and makes feedback easier to hear and easier to give.If you're chasing a big goal, leading a team, or trying to build real consistency, hit play, then subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a third day reset, and leave a review with the standard you're raising next.

The fastest way to derail a team is to lead on autopilot. Walk into a meeting, speak first, “set direction,” and watch everyone quietly align to your opinion, even when they see a better answer. Step back too far, though, and the same team can feel abandoned, unclear, or unsupported. That tension is exactly where Brad Semmens lives. Brad is the founder of Objective Consulting and Employee Yield, and he brings a rare mix of real-world leadership experience and organizational psychology to a framework he's developed called the Five Stances of Leadership.We dig into what it really means to step up, step down, step in, and step back and how those moves create an immediate power dynamic whether we intend it or not. Brad explains leadership through two practical lenses: authority (directive vs distributive) and influence (direct vs indirect). From there, we explore “leading from your center” as the skill that helps you shift from reactive protection to responsive presence, especially when pressure spikes and your default stance kicks in.One of the biggest takeaways is the difference between filling the space and holding the space. We talk about why some leaders accidentally crowd out ownership by solving too quickly, and how a simple pause plus better questions can unlock psychological safety, clearer thinking, and real accountability. We also get into how strengths can become weaknesses when overused, why complementary styles can either create conflict or balance, and how the “Swiss army knife” leader becomes truly adaptive.If you want a practical way to build self-awareness, take Brad's leadership assessment and reflect on your primary and stress stances. Subscribe, share this with a leader who needs a reset, and leave a review so more people can find the conversation.

That thought you can't stop replaying isn't just annoying. It quietly shapes how you walk into meetings, how you speak under pressure, and how safe other people feel around you. Susan Drumm, bestselling author of The Leader's Playlist and founder of Meritage Leadership, joins me to unpack a powerful idea: every leader has a playlist. Some of it is literal music that shifts your energy fast. Some of it is the internal soundtrack of beliefs, doubts, old wounds, and reflex reactions that can end up leading on your behalf.We dig into pattern recognition and pattern disruption, from Susan's own unlikely career pivots to the everyday leadership traps of sunk cost fallacy and social expectation. We also get specific about the inner critic and imposter syndrome, including how to create separation from that voice so it stops acting like the only truth in the room. Susan brings nuance too: this isn't about suppressing anger, grief, or frustration. Emotions carry information, like anger signaling a crossed boundary. The goal is to feel what's real without getting stuck in an eight-lane neural highway that keeps pulling you back into resentment or self-doubt.Then we make it practical. Susan shares how music can act as a “pattern interrupt,” why it has such a strong neuroscience effect, and how leaders can build intentional playlists tied to new “I am” or “I create” identity statements. You'll hear a workplace example of a leader stuck in the story “I am left out” and how shifting state, attention, and behavior changes collaboration outcomes over time. If you want to lead with more emotional regulation, presence, and intention, this will give you a concrete starting point. Subscribe, share with a leader who needs a reset, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Two people can face the same change and walk away with totally different stories: one feels opportunity, the other feels threat. That gap is where leadership lives. We step back and synthesize three conversations into a simple but demanding framework for modern leadership: Adapt, Care, Connect and the deeper idea underneath it all that leadership is helping people make sense of their world. We talk about adaptive leadership as your context shifts: startup to scale up, stability to disruption, expert teams to developing teams. Instead of replaying the style that made you successful last year, we explore how to create the kind of environment where people can learn through experience, scrape their knees, and build judgment while still being protected from real danger. The question that keeps coming back is simple: what does this person need from me right now? We also dig into caring leadership and why well being and performance are inseparable. We unpack self care, crew care, and red zone care, plus the small, everyday moments that build psychological safety and trust. Then we turn to change leadership and the crucial distinction between communication and conversation. Emails, decks, and town halls may broadcast the plan, but dialogue helps people work through what the change means for their identity, status, certainty, and belonging. If you want practical prompts you can use this week and a challenge to create one real conversation where meaning gets made, hit play. Subscribe, share with a leader who is navigating change, and leave a review so more people can find the show.Send us Fan MailSupport the show✅ Follow The Leadership Project on your favourite podcast platform and listen to a new episode every week!

Real talk from two massage therapists who've been in the trenches — this week Ali kicks things off literally locked out of her own office, and it only gets more relatable from there.We're getting into the honest conversations that massage school never covered: how many clients is actually too many, what working 8-to-8 in your 20s costs you in your 40s, and why setting physical limits early might be the single best thing you can do for the longevity of your career.Plus — intake forms. Paper vs. digital, JotForm vs. Google Forms, and why making the switch is easier (and cheaper) than you think.And we close out with Ali's ongoing communal bathroom saga, the Febreze confession letter, and a product recommendation that might just save your workplace relationships.

Most change initiatives don't fail because the plan is flawed. They fail because leaders confuse communication with conversation and then wonder why people feel anxious, resistant, or checked out. We sit down with returning guest Huw Thomas, author of Change Anything, to move beyond individual psychology and get practical about organizational change management that actually sticks.We dig into why “overcommunicate” often backfires, how one-way announcements create confusion, and what it looks like to replace broadcasting with dialogue. Resistance gets a full reframe: it's frequently a rational response to perceived loss of certainty, control, competence, identity, or status. We also talk about the real-world consequences of poorly led change, including psychosocial risk, and what care and dignity look like in high-stakes moments like reorganizations and redundancies.From there, we get tactical about building agency. When people feel coerced, they push back even if they agree with the logic. When they're invited to help shape the “how” within clear guardrails, they bring better ideas and real ownership. We also tackle change fatigue and change overload, focusing on change governance, sequencing, and why doing a few priorities exceptionally well beats running dozens of initiatives into gridlock. Finally, we land on the deeper truth behind transformation: it's habit change, not system change, and adoption improves when leaders design around real “day in the life” workflows and build a learning habit across teams.If this helps you lead with more clarity and humanity, subscribe, share it with a colleague, and leave a review. What's one change you'll turn into a conversation this week?

What if the leadership skill your team needs most is not sharper strategy or faster execution, but a leader who genuinely cares and knows what to do when things get hard? I sit down with Graeme Cowan, a leading voice on workplace mental health, resilience, and leadership, and a founding director of R U OK Day. Graeme also shares his own lived experience of depression and the long road back, plus the purpose that came from turning struggle into service. We dig into why caring leadership is not soft and not in conflict with performance. It is how you create sustainable results without losing good people to burnout. We talk about “mood contagion” and why your energy sets the tone, then get practical with Graeme's moodometer framework so you can notice early warning signs while you are still in the amber zone. If you lead a team, support leaders, or work in HR, you will hear clear ways to protect your own wellbeing while still showing up for others. From there, we move into crew care: belonging, psychological safety, and growing together. Graeme shares simple rituals that build trust fast, including a powerful approach used in elite teams. We also cover red zone care and Graeme's I CARE framework so you can support someone in distress with empathy, without trying to be their therapist, and know when to guide them toward EAP, a GP, or helplines like Lifeline and Beyond Blue. If you want practical tools for burnout prevention, employee wellbeing, and building resilient teams, hit play. Then share this with a leader who needs it, subscribe on your favorite podcast app, and leave a review so more people find these conversations. What is one small act of care you will practice this week?

The leadership style that got you promoted can quietly become the thing that holds you back. When you move from building great work to leading people, the rules change fast, especially for technical founders and high-performing individual contributors who suddenly wake up running a business instead of writing code.We sit down with Mike Krupit, a serial entrepreneur and executive coach who has lived the journey from software engineer to CTO, COO, and CEO across eight startups. Together, we break down why humans are not deterministic, why “best performer” promotions often fail, and why not everyone should be pushed into people management. We also dig into smarter organizational design: building roles around real strengths and creating dual career ladders so experts can grow without becoming reluctant managers.Then we tackle the pressure cooker topic leaders cannot avoid: AI disruption. Mike shares how to lead through uncertainty when technology moves faster than people can grow, why overcommunication beats silence, and how to run real two-way dialogue that addresses fear without pretending you have perfect answers. We close with a practical lens for situational leadership: knowing when to go into founder mode, when to step back into trust mode, and how to let teams learn through safe mistakes that build ownership.If you're focused on leadership development, change management, founder to CEO growth, or navigating AI at work, you'll leave with clear questions to ask and moves to try this week. Subscribe, share this with a leader who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

What if the real job of a leader isn't to get people to do what you want, but to create the conditions where people can do their best work? I'm reflecting on the biggest leadership lessons from this month's conversations and pulling the common thread that ties them together: stop chasing control and start designing an environment where clarity, trust, and ownership can actually grow.We start with communication and culture, because every culture begins with what people hear, understand, and believe enough to act on. I walk through the head, heart, and hands framework to help you communicate change without triggering confusion or resistance: make the facts clear, make the meaning real, and make the next action obvious. Then I add the piece leaders often skip: communication as dialogue. When you open a loop for response, you don't just “inform” your team, you build alignment and shared ownership.Next, we zoom in on people and performance through strengths, role fit, psychological safety, and neurodiversity at work. Every person has peaks and valleys, and “different” never means “deficient.” I share simple prompts for a low-stakes strengths conversation you can have this week to reduce friction and help someone flourish without lowering the bar.Finally, we look forward to the future of leadership as co-creation. Think conductor, not hero: your job is to create the room, ask better questions, and make space for perspectives you don't own. If you want a practical challenge, pick one condition to improve this week, then turn it into a concrete action. Subscribe, share this with one leader who needs it, and leave a review with the condition you're choosing to improve.Send us Fan MailSupport the show✅ Follow The Leadership Project on your favourite podcast platform and listen to a new episode every week!

Aytekin Tank, the founder and CEO of JotForm, shares his journey of getting his first customers and the strategies he used to grow his business. He emphasizes the importance of making the product free, leveraging technology for PR, and building a community around the product. He also discusses the significance of AI in today's market and the value of customer feedback in product development.TakeawaysFree product launchLeveraging technology for PRBuilding a community around the productImportance of AI in today's marketValue of customer feedback in product developmentChapters00:00 Getting the First Customers: Making the Product Free and Leveraging Technology for PR06:52 Transitioning to a Premium Version and Building a Community Around the Product19:37 Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs: The Role of AI and Marketing StrategiesReferencesCompany website: JotFormAytekin Tank's Book: Automate Your Busywork

If your leadership strategy still depends on being the smartest person in the room, AI is about to make that a painful game to play. We sit down with Chris Deaver, culture shaper, leadership coach, former HR leader with experience at Apple, Disney, and Pixar, and co-founder of Brave Core, to talk about what actually scales now: bravery, co-creation, and the skill of leading with questions. We unpack why fear is normal in a fast-changing world and how the “loss equation” fuels resistance to new technology, layoffs, and disruption. Chris shares how great leaders flip that script by focusing on purpose, stacking uniquely human strengths, and treating AI as augmented intelligence that clears the busywork so teams can do deeper creative work. We also get practical on what brave space really means: emotion is contagious, connection creates courage, and shared flow is possible even in everyday meetings when ego gets parked at the door. Along the way, we use memorable metaphors like the Avengers and the orchestra conductor to rethink what leadership looks like when your job is to bring out heroes around you. If you want a clear next step, start here: be the last one to speak, ask one better question, and invite the quietest voice in the room into the conversation. Subscribe, share this with a leader who needs it, and leave a review so more people can learn to lead with curiosity, courage, and care.

What if the person you're frustrated with at work isn't lazy, careless, or “not leadership material,” but simply stuck in an environment that works against how their brain operates? That question sits at the center of my conversation with Wainwright Yu, a senior technology executive and leadership coach who specializes in neurodiversity and cognitive diversity. We get personal quickly, starting with the moment an employee disclosed ADHD during a performance conversation, and the gut-punch of hearing the same possibility raised about his own child soon after.From there, we move into practical, strengths-based leadership. We talk about why the Golden Rule breaks down at work, especially when attention, executive function, and processing styles differ, and how the Platinum Rule helps us lead people as they are. Wainwright shares a powerful example of role fit: a struggling employee becomes highly successful when his work shifts from process compliance to complex problem solving. The lesson is bigger than ADHD at work. Every human is “uneven,” and the best managers learn how to align tasks to strengths, values, and energy rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all standard.We also unpack how to find hidden strengths, how to reframe traits like impulsivity, mind-wandering, and anxiety into courage, creativity, and foresight, and how to build team norms that support differences without turning them into a spotlight or a stigma. You'll leave with concrete ideas for psychological safety, better conversations outside performance reviews, and small adjustments that remove friction while keeping standards high.If this sparks an insight, subscribe, share the episode with one leader who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What's one strengths conversation you'll have this week?

Co-living is one of the most overlooked strategies in real estate investing. While most investors chase single-family rentals generating $200 a month per door, a small group of operators is filling houses with multiple residents, charging per bed, and clearing $5,000 or more on a single property. In this episode, co-living investor and coach Katrina Robinson breaks down exactly how this model works, who it serves, and how she runs three properties in San Antonio, Texas from Los Angeles. About Katrina Robinson Katrina Robinson is the founder of the Group Home on Autopilot coaching program and operator of Roundtable Living, a San Antonio-based co-living company with three properties housing low-income residents including people with disabilities, working-class adults, elderly tenants, and reentry individuals. A former Air Force officer deployed to Iraq, she manages her portfolio remotely and coaches investors nationwide on how to build and run co-living businesses profitably. What We Cover in This Episode What co-living is and how it differs from assisted living and adult foster care Why Katrina targets low-income, disability, elderly, and reentry residents How she went from $200 a month per door to $5,000+ per property The economics of co-living: beds, pricing by market, and the $2,000 monthly target How to choose the right property: bedrooms, bathrooms, layout, and amenities Why she avoids HOAs and how the Fair Housing Act protects her business How to segment residents by house to reduce conflict The systems she uses to manage properties remotely: Rent Ready, Jotform, Calendly, and Google Sheets The operations manager model and how she structured it as an independent contractor Real horror stories from the field and what they taught her about screening and systems Key Insight Katrina's first co-living house has 15 beds at $560 a month each. Gross income: $8,400. Her take-home after expenses: over $5,000 a month on one property. That single result convinced her to open a second house, then a third, and eventually build a coaching business around the model. The math works because the per-bed rate, even at an affordable price point, stacks in a way that single-family cash flow never does. Why This Episode Matters Affordable housing is one of the most pressing problems in the country and also one of the least understood opportunities in real estate. This episode gives investors a clear look at a model that addresses both, with real numbers, real systems, and real stories from someone who built it from the ground up and teaches others how to do the same. Find Out More Website: grouphomeonautopilot.com LinkedIn: Katrina E. Robinson YouTube: youtube.com/@grouphomeonautopilot Sponsors Today's episode is brought to you by Green Property Management, managing everything from single family homes to apartment complexes in the West Michigan area. livegreenlocal.com And RCB & Associates, helping Michigan-based real estate investors and small business owners navigate the complex world of health insurance and Medicare benefits. rcbassociatesllc.com

If you can't find or keep good employees in your home service business, the problem isn't the labor market — it's your system. In this video I'm walking you through the exact framework I use to attract, filter, and retain quality A-players in my house painting business, and how you can install the same model in yours.We cover the two non-negotiables (provisions + hiring funnel), why paying through Cash App and 1099s is repelling the people you actually want, how I structure my Indeed ads to be 70% character and 30% skill, the JotForm question that filters out 80% of low-quality applicants, and the sushi menu story that shaped how I think about friction in hiring.If you're trying to build a real kingdom business — not just a one-man show — this one is for you.

If you have ever walked out of a town hall thinking “we were crystal clear” only to hear your team say “we still don't get it,” you're not dealing with a motivation problem. You're dealing with a communication and trust problem. Mick Spiers sits down with Alejandra Ramirez, internal communication strategist and founder of Ready Cultures, to show why leadership communication shapes organizational culture, and why culture is not a noun you describe but a verb you practice.We dig into what makes internal communication actually work inside modern, multicultural workplaces: listening as a leadership responsibility, closing the feedback loop, and responding to dissent in a way that builds trust even when people disagree with the decision. Alejandra explains how employees become your brand ambassadors, why ignoring feedback makes it fester, and how leaders can create clarity without pretending change is easy. We also talk about the messy middle of change management, where fear of loss, fear of the unknown, and even identity threats show up when new tools, AI, or new systems roll out.You'll get a practical framework you can use immediately: Head, Heart, and Hands. What do people need to know, why should they care, and what do they need to do next? We also unpack the illusion of transparency, the need for repetition across multiple touchpoints, and how manager toolkits, FAQs, and smart check-ins help strategy messages finally land.Subscribe for more conversations on leadership, internal communications, employee engagement, and building high-trust cultures, then share this with one person who needs clearer communication at work and leave a review so more leaders can find the show.

The hardest leadership problems rarely announce themselves as “leadership problems.” They show up as weight you carry in silence, conversations you keep postponing, success that still feels empty, and a loud inner voice that says you're not ready.I step back and connect the biggest lessons from this month of The Leadership Project into one practical thread: leadership is human before it is tactical. We talk about the pressure that builds quietly over time and how strength is not carrying everything but knowing when to share the load. We dig into the “last 8%” moments where culture is truly made the hard conversations you avoid, the feedback you soften, the expectations you leave unclear and how balancing courage with connection builds trust, psychological safety, and real performance.Then we go deeper: what are you really chasing? If your happiness depends on outcomes you can't control, you'll always feel behind. I share a simple shift from outcomes to meaning, from control to contribution, plus a short daily prompt you can use immediately. We finish with the story you tell yourself: doubt and imposter syndrome may not disappear, but you can reframe them, find evidence, and rewrite the narrative that shapes the leader you become.If this sparks something, pick one action and do it today. Subscribe, share the episode with one person who needs it, and leave a review so more leaders can find this work.Send us Fan MailSupport the show✅ Follow The Leadership Project on your favourite podcast platform and listen to a new episode every week!

Mostly Easy EdTech This Week  - FAAF 259In this 259th episode, I share my reflections from April 27th - May 1st, 2026. Check out the WHOLE SPOTIFY PLAYLIST I put together with all the listens mentioned below:>>> https://bit.ly/E259FreshAirAtFivePlaylist

In this episode, I welcome back Tim Needles, STEAM teacher, K–12 Technology Integration Specialist, and ISTE author, to explore the intersection of art, technology and student voice in the classroom. You'll also hear why concepts should drive tool selection, how digital tools democratize creativity, and ways technology supports faster iteration, critique, and reflection. If you want practical strategies for using tech to amplify student storytelling and advocacy without losing the heart of the creative process, this episode has you covered! Show notes: https://classtechtips.com/2026/05/01/technology-and-student-voice-bonus/ Sponsored by Jotform: http://jotform.com/enterprise/education/ Follow Tim Needles on social: https://x.com/timneedles Follow Monica on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/classtechtips/  Take your pick of free EdTech resources: https://classtechtips.com/free-stuff-favorites/   

That quiet voice saying “I'm not good enough” shows up for almost every leader, even the ones who look the most confident from the outside. Mick Spiers sits down with world-renowned leadership coach Marc A. Pitman, author of The Surprising Gift of Doubt, to unpack why self-doubt and imposter syndrome are so persistent and how they can actually point you toward growth, alignment, and better leadership decisions.We dig into the stories we tell ourselves and how confirmation bias turns those stories into “proof.” Mark shares practical ways to rescript self-talk with simple language shifts that move you from fixed labels to a growth mindset, plus the pattern-interrupt questions that help you stop reacting on autopilot. We also talk about fear of loss, why it blocks action, and how reframing rejection through a “Go for No” mindset can make hard calls and bold moves feel more doable.From there, Mark maps the Leader's Journey through four quadrants, showing why copying others only works for so long and how authentic leadership emerges when you integrate internal signals like values, emotions, and lived experience with external inputs like books, mentors, and training. We also cover strategic vulnerability, the fear of judgment in social settings, and how to help team members who doubt themselves by giving specific feedback they can actually believe and repeat.

In this episode, I welcome back Dr. Chaunté Garrett, CEO and Founder of Empowering Learners and Leaders to Excel, to discuss supporting the whole child through academic, social, and physical safety in a tech-heavy world. You'll also hear practical insights on choosing technology intentionally, amplifying student voice, and approaching AI with a mindset of growth instead of pressure. If you want clear strategies for supporting the whole child while balancing innovation with human-centered teaching, this episode has you covered! Show notes: https://classtechtips.com/2026/04/24/supporting-the-whole-child-bonus/ Sponsored by Jotform: https://jotform.com/enterprise/education/ Follow Dr. Chaunté Garrett on social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drncgarrett/ Follow Monica on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/classtechtips/  Take your pick of free EdTech resources: https://classtechtips.com/free-stuff-favorites/   

What if the promotion, the praise, and the “big win” you're chasing isn't actually the thing you're looking for? We sit down with Anthony (a professor and leadership researcher focused on relationships, loneliness, and sustainable leadership) to challenge a stubborn assumption in modern work culture: that success and outcomes are the path to happiness.We dig into why leaders get trapped by results, even though results live outside our control. Anthony offers a practical shift: focus on the process you can control, accept the reality you're operating in, and invest in the quality of relationships that make teams thrive. Along the way, we explore his framework that moves from acceptance to forgiveness to gratitude to love, and why resentment can quietly paralyze leaders and poison culture. We also talk about the difference between goals and values, why “respect” is deeper than politeness, and what compassionate, meaningful, sustainable relationships look like in real organizations especially in a hybrid and remote world.You'll hear stories and research that connect personal well-being to leadership effectiveness, including how solitude and presence help us stop living an inherited life of “shoulds” and start building a life of meaning. If you're wrestling with burnout, disengagement, or that nagging feeling that achievement still isn't enough, this conversation will give you language and tools to reset your compass.

In this episode, I'm joined by Elana Leoni, founder of Leoni Consulting Group and host of the All Things Marketing and Education podcast, to explore what makes an educator community truly thrive. You'll also hear why trust, co-creation, and member ownership matter more than platforms, and how strong communities support educators in ways traditional PD often can't. If you want to better understand how educator communities foster connection, innovation, and sustained growth, this episode has you covered! Show notes: https://classtechtips.com/2026/04/17/educator-community-bonus/ Sponsored by Jotform: https://jotform.com/enterprise/education/ Follow Elana Leoni on social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elanaleoni/ Follow Monica on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/classtechtips/  Take your pick of free EdTech resources: https://classtechtips.com/free-stuff-favorites/   

Your culture isn't what you say in calm moments. It's what your team experiences when tension rises, deadlines slip, and someone has to tell the truth.We sit down with returning guest Bill Benjamin, co-author of The Last 8%, to move from individual stress behaviors to the bigger question leaders wrestle with: what happens to your culture when things get hard? Bill shares a simple, powerful way to diagnose any team culture using two dimensions that decide everything people do under pressure: courage and connection. We unpack what it looks like when courage shows up without care (transactional, results-first, often unsustainable) and when care shows up without courage (the “family” vibe that can quietly breed frustration, slow decisions, and protect underperformance). We also name the fear-based culture many people recognize and the real costs of silence.From there, we focus on the target: high care with high accountability. We talk about why connection comes before courage, how leaders can create psychological safety without lowering standards, and how to handle the last 8% moments that define trust. You'll also get highly practical tools for leadership communication, including a two-step feedback approach that reduces defensiveness, helps you stay specific, and ensures the hard message actually lands. We close on why culture is the operating system for strategy, execution, engagement, and retention.If this helps you see your team more clearly, subscribe, share the episode with one person who needs it, and leave a review with the quadrant you think your culture lives in today.

In this episode, I welcome back Allison Rodman, educator, founder of The Learning Loop, and ASCD author, for rethinking professional development in the age of AI and moving beyond one-size-fits-all PD. You'll also hear how AI can support more personalized, high-impact professional learning through better pre-session insights, intentional prompt design, and thoughtful guardrails. If you want professional development that respects educators' time and leads to meaningful changes in practice, this episode has you covered! Show notes: https://classtechtips.com/2026/04/10/rethinking-professional-development-bonus/ Sponsored by Jotform: http://jotform.com/enterprise/education/ Follow Allison Rodman on social: https://x.com/thelearningloop Follow Monica on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/classtechtips/  Take your pick of free EdTech resources: https://classtechtips.com/free-stuff-favorites/   

Leadership has a hidden cost we do not talk about enough: the quiet pressure of being the person everyone leans on while you wonder who you can lean on. Hank Minor joins me for a deeper conversation about the inner world of leadership, the emotional load leaders carry, and the moment the role starts consuming the person. Hank brings a rare mix of experience as a former counseling psychologist, a longtime CEO in a multigenerational manufacturing business, and a leadership mentor who now works with leaders at their threshold.We dig into a problem every manager recognizes: people “download” their stress onto you, and if you do not have the right mindset and tools, you go home carrying a sack full of other people's problems. Hank explains why perspective is the senior principle. He shares a practical mental model he calls bifocal vision: staying grounded at street level while also holding a wider context so you do not get lost in the weeds. We also talk about stress release and recovery, from mindfulness and meditation to hobbies, nature, and relationships, because sustainable leadership requires a way to offload pressure.Then we take on reframing and presence. What if the hard conversation is not just a problem, but a gift and even a form of leadership training? What if giving and receiving are simultaneous, turning “transactional” interactions into relational trust? We explore how presence creates psychological safety, strengthens culture, and unlocks courageous conversations where people finally tell the truth about what is really going on.If you take one thing away, let it be this: culture can start with one person, and that person can be you. 

In this episode, I welcome back Caroline Haebig, ISTE author and Coordinator of Teaching and Learning, for a chat about practical and responsible examples of AI in education that support teachers and students. You'll also hear concrete classroom use cases, guidance on acceptable AI use, and strategies for designing AI prompts through a cognitive science lens. If you want to move beyond the hype and apply examples of AI in education to strengthen instruction and student learning, this episode has you covered! Show notes: https://classtechtips.com/2026/04/03/examples-of-ai-in-education-bonus/ Sponsored by Jotform: https://jotform.com/enterprise/education/ Follow Caroline Haebig on social: https://www.facebook.com/caroline.haebig Follow Monica on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/classtechtips/  Take your pick of free EdTech resources: https://classtechtips.com/free-stuff-favorites/   

Have you ever looked at a team that's working hard and still thought, “Why are we not moving?” That gap rarely comes down to talent. I'm reflecting on the biggest leadership lessons I heard across three very different conversations this March and the pattern is blunt: what holds people back is usually interference. Fear. Hesitation. Labels that shrink what someone thinks they're allowed to try. Assumptions nobody has challenged in years.I connect the dots between innovation, cognitive science, and frontline firefighting leadership to show how real progress happens. We talk about why creativity isn't reserved for “the gifted few,” how leaders can remove the friction that suppresses ideas, and why innovation is not mainly a process problem. Yes, simple structure helps, but breakthroughs often start when someone steps off autopilot and asks a better question: Are we even solving the right problem? Who is this really for? What have we normalized without noticing?We also dig into deep listening as a performance advantage and why presence matters more than control. Listening isn't weakness or indecision. It's awareness, trust-building, and the skill that helps you know when to step in and when to step back. I also reframe “fail fast” into something more useful for culture and learning: learn fast, so teams stay focused on discovery instead of ego.If you want stronger leadership, better team culture, and more innovation without piling on more process, hit play. Then subscribe, share this with one leader who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find the show.Send us Fan MailSupport the show✅ Follow The Leadership Project on your favourite podcast platform and listen to a new episode every week!

In this episode, I'm joined by Heather Turbeville, education-focused team member at Jotform, to unpack what's working, what's not, and where AI is headed in education based on new EdTech trends data. You'll also hear insights on how educators are using AI for productivity, why tool integration matters more than ever, and what teachers want from digital tools moving forward. If you want to make smarter decisions about EdTech and AI that actually support your workflow and your school community, this episode has you covered! Show notes: https://classtechtips.com/2026/03/27/edtech-trends-bonus-2/ Sponsored by Jotform: http://jotform.com/enterprise/education/ Follow Monica on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/classtechtips/  Take your pick of free EdTech resources: https://classtechtips.com/free-stuff-favorites/     

When leadership gets real, titles stop mattering and habits take over. Fire Captain Mark Andrew joins me to share what he's learned leading in the fire service, where trust, communication, and decision making aren't abstract leadership ideas. They are the difference between a smooth operation and a dangerous one. We dig into why so many people are promoted without real leadership training, then fall back on outdated models they inherited from the leaders before them.Mark walks me through a practical way to learn from “horrible bosses” without carrying bitterness, and how to turn those memories into a clear personal leadership standard. We spend a lot of time on active listening as a critical leadership skill, not just for morale but for better situational awareness and smarter calls under pressure. If you've ever wondered why teams stop speaking up, or why problems “suddenly” blow up after months of warnings, this will hit home.We also unpack the leadership trap of swinging from micromanagement to delegation that turns into abdication, then land on the middle path Mark emphasizes: presence. You'll hear concrete examples of delegating with follow-up, confirming understanding so people don't leave with different interpretations, and building trust through empathy plus accountability. If you lead people in any field and want stronger leadership habits, better team culture, and clearer decision making under stress, you'll take a lot from this conversation.

In this episode, I sit down with Julie Willcott, STEM/AI Education Specialist, to unpack the most important emerging AI trends in education for 2026 and what educators should keep on their radar. You'll also hear what's shifting beyond classroom lessons—like how AI is reshaping teacher communication, increasing "human-in-the-loop" vetting of AI-created materials, and accelerating more natural, conversational tutoring experiences. If you want to stay ahead of AI's fast-moving changes with practical insights you can use right away, this episode has you covered! Show notes: https://classtechtips.com/2026/03/20/ai-trends-bonus-2/ Sponsored by Jotform: http://jotform.com/enterprise/education/ Follow Julie Wilcott on social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-willcott/ Follow Monica on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/classtechtips/  Take your pick of free EdTech resources: https://classtechtips.com/free-stuff-favorites/   

Most innovation programs don't fail because people lack talent. They fail because people hesitate. That hesitation is subtle: the moment someone decides they're “not creative,” the moment a team rushes to certainty, the moment a leader rewards only the safe answer and accidentally trains everyone to stop trying.I'm joined by Rich Braden and Dr. Tessa Forshaw, co-authors of Innovation-Ish, to break down why everyday creativity gets trapped behind limiting beliefs, social fear, and a handful of stubborn neuromyths. We talk about the “creativity gap” we see in classrooms and boardrooms alike, and we use stories like Apollo 13 to show why analytical work and creative thinking are inseparable in real problem solving.Then we get practical for leaders: how to build psychological safety without lowering standards, how to celebrate learning (even when an experiment fails), and how to start meetings by aligning the mindset you want people to use. We also challenge the way teams use design thinking and templates, treating tools as prompts that spark better questions rather than recipes that shut down human judgment.We close with a timely conversation on AI and innovation. AI can lift the floor, but it doesn't automatically raise the ceiling. The real edge comes from “active metacognition” checking how the work is going while you're doing it, not just reflecting after the fact, so the team stays intentional, curious, and in control.

In this episode, I chat with Dr. Robert Dillon, educator and author, about what play-based learning really looks like and why curiosity, exploration, and playful energy matter at every grade level. You'll also hear concrete examples of how learning environments, reflection, and guided play can support academic goals, student engagement, and social-emotional growth without over-structuring the experience. If you want to rethink learning spaces and bring more joy, focus, and discovery into your classroom or school, this episode has you covered! Show notes: https://classtechtips.com/2026/03/13/play-based-learning-bonus/ Sponsored by Jotform: http://jotform.com/enterprise/education/ Follow Dr. Robert Dillon on social: https://x.com/drrobertdillon Follow Monica on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/classtechtips/  Take your pick of free EdTech resources: https://classtechtips.com/free-stuff-favorites/   

Want more than buzzwords and brainstorms? Mick Spiers sits down with innovation authority Bruce Vojak to explore how real breakthroughs actually happen. His message is clear: innovation is a human act first. It comes from curious people who challenge assumptions and reframe problems.From the evolution of the carrot peeler to a billion-dollar innovation at Procter & Gamble, this conversation shows how deep user understanding drives real change. Bruce also shares a practical playbook for leaders: create internal alignment, keep processes simple, empower your innovators, and focus on learning fast.We also tackle the harder question of unintended consequences and why leaders must ask: What can we make possible, and what have we just made possible?

In this episode, I chat with Kim Marie Kefalas, an elementary technology teacher and owner of Kimmersive Technology, about designing meaningful schoolwide projects and using collaborative platforms to build community and student voice. You'll also hear practical strategies for scaffolding collaboration with young learners, including student-led roles, clear expectations, and creative ways to connect classrooms across a school. If you want to create engaging, inclusive schoolwide projects that strengthen collaboration and independence, this episode has you covered! Show notes: https://classtechtips.com/2026/03/06/schoolwide-projects-bonus/ Sponsored by Jotform: https://jotform.com/enterprise/education/ Follow Kim Marie Kefalas on social: https://x.com/kefalastech Follow Monica on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/classtechtips/  Take your pick of free EdTech resources: https://classtechtips.com/free-stuff-favorites/   

In this episode, I'm joined by Nasser Jones, founder of the nonprofit Bending the AI Curve, for a powerful conversation about equitable innovation and what AI ethics looks like in practice for education and beyond. You'll also hear how bias, access, policy decisions, and tool overload shape who benefits from AI—and how schools and communities can take a more proactive, inclusive approach. If you want to help students and educators engage with AI thoughtfully, responsibly, and with equity at the center, this episode has you covered! Show notes: https://classtechtips.com/2026/02/20/ai-ethics-bonus/ Sponsored by Jotform: http://jotform.com/education/ Follow Nasser Jones on social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nasserkjones/ Follow Monica on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/classtechtips/  Take your pick of free EdTech resources: https://classtechtips.com/free-stuff-favorites/   

In this episode, I'm joined by Richard Colosi, Instructional Technology Specialist and founder of EdTech Hustle, to explore low- or no-cost ways technology can save teachers time. You'll also hear how thoughtful automation, organization, and accessibility features can reduce daily friction and free up mental space for what matters most. If you want to work more efficiently while staying focused on students, this episode has you covered! Show notes: https://classtechtips.com/2026/02/13/save-teachers-time-bonus/ Sponsored by Jotform: http://jotform.com/education/ Follow Richard Colosi on social: https://x.com/RichardColosi Follow Monica on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/classtechtips/  Take your pick of free EdTech resources: https://classtechtips.com/free-stuff-favorites/   

In this episode, I welcome back Naomi Church, founder of Growing Minds Consulting, to discuss how on demand professional development can simplify and strengthen professional learning using flexible, on-demand tools. You'll also hear practical strategies for moving beyond one-size-fits-all PD by building professional learning ecosystems that support educators when the need is real. If you want to design professional learning that's accessible, actionable, and actually leads to changes in practice, this episode has you covered! Show notes: https://classtechtips.com/2026/02/06/on-demand-professional-development-bonus/ Sponsored by Jotform: https://jotform.com/enterprise/education/ Follow Naomi Church on social: https://www.instagram.com/growingmindsconsulting/ Follow Monica on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/classtechtips/  Take your pick of free EdTech resources: https://classtechtips.com/free-stuff-favorites/