The Innovation Meets Leadership Podcast

"Automation is not just automation just for automation's sake. Automation has to be meaningful." – Andrew Cohen

In this episode of Innovation Meets Leadership, host Natalie Born talks with Andrew Cohen, the CEO and Managing Partner of Evoke, an award-winning digital transformation company specializing in modern workplace solutions. Andrew discusses how to help small businesses scale through automation and streamlining processes. They explore the benefits of reducing application stacks, connecting technologies, and providing real-time data, as well as the importance of a unified strategy and roadmap when implementing automation in small business environments. Andrew details his career journey from being an athlete to becoming a technology entrepreneur, highlighting the strategic vision he brings to the table. They also discuss how Netsurit offers a range of services to help companies automate traditionally manual efforts such as accounts payable and receivable, HR onboarding, and sales, track their success for accurate ROI guarantees, and ensure executive buy-in for digital transformation initiatives.

Since 1997, Andrew Cohen has been the CEO and Managing Partner at EVOKE, an award-winning Digital Transformation company that partners with their clients to build modern workplace solutions for nearly every common organizational and technological challenge imaginable. In 2019, Andrew launched the EVOKE Engage division, which focuses on automation and streamlining processes. He joined Netsurit at the beginning of 2022, and this now allows Netsurit to provide their clients with guidance and solutions on using technology to maximize ROI.

Key Takeaways

Transformation and Automation

Unlocking Innovation Through Data and Collaboration

Key Quotes:

"Automation has to connect these systems together to bring those real-time insights and outcomes for these companies as they start driving their business decisions going forward.” – Andrew Cohen

Connect with Andrew

"It's possible to achieve both fulfilling career and happy life, and it's what I want for people. So, go for it. You deserve it." – Randi Roberts

In this podcast episode, Innovation Meets Leadership host Natalie Born interviews executive and career life coach Randi Roberts. Randi shares her journey from corporate to coaching, emphasizing the importance of introspection and self-awareness in personal development. The conversation centers on the benefits of coaching in navigating career challenges and personal growth, with both speakers sharing personal experiences. You will gain insights into using an eight-pillar tool for self-assessment and the importance of culture, feedback, and vulnerability in personal development. The episode concludes by Randi encouraging you to seek formal and informal coaching relationships to aid their growth and achieve career satisfaction.

Randi Roberts, MBA, PCC, is an Executive and Career-Life Coach, President of Corlin Roberts Coaching, LLC, and founder of the Fulfilling Career, Happy Life community. With 30+ years of successful experience as a Pharmaceutical Executive and two businesses of her own, Randi helps people achieve their career goals while exploring new possibilities that truly fit their framework. She skillfully combines business leadership experience with exceptional coaching skills.

Key Takeaways 

Unlock Your Highest Potential

Navigating Career Changes and Finding Fulfillment

The Importance of Personal Values 

Key Quotes:

"Look at experiences as an opportunity to learn and grow. Mine them for all the knowledge you can, but always ask yourself: What can I do differently next time? How can I handle this situation in a bigger, better, and more productive way?” – Randi Roberts

Connect with Randi

"Experience transformation is the next frontier of digital transformation for companies." – Satyam Kantamneni

In this podcast episode, Innovation Meets Leadership host Natalie Born talks to Satyam Kantamneni, Chief Experience Officer of UX Reactor. He joins us to discuss the importance of being user-centric in business. Satyam emphasizes understanding user pain points and suggests techniques like empathy maps, persona exercises, and experience roadmaps to achieve this. He explains the role of a Chief Experience Officer and how it can improve overall user experience. The guests also discuss the importance of experience transformation and how companies can focus on user-centered practices to innovate and solve current problems.

Satyam is the Chief Experience Officer at UXReactor. In less than 7 years, UXReactor has become the fastest-growing specialized experience design firm in the US, with a team of 50+ employees spread over three continents. Satyam (_ is passionate about user-centered innovation, and he has recently released a book, User Experience Design: A Practical Playbook to Fuel Business Growth. 

The Importance of User-Centered Design

The Paradox of Digital Transformation

Key Quotes:

"Every time your user should feel that somebody thought about me and solved a problem, and that's magic. And any company that can ship magic on a consistent basis is only going to win.” – Satyam Kantamneni.

Connect with Satyam

"Facilitation is a key leadership skill." – Marsha Acker

In this podcast episode, Innovation Meets Leadership host Natalie Born talks to Marsha Acker, a skilled facilitator can identify hidden dynamics in conversations and guide participants towards actionable outcomes. Marsha emphasizes that following good facilitation principles in meetings is crucial for success, even without a facilitator present, to avoid wasted time, lack of clarity, and missed opportunities. The conversation centers around the cost of repeated and unproductive meetings in organizations, and the speakers identify warning signs of ineffective meetings, such as impulsive eye rolls and unclear decisions. Key skills for effective facilitation are neutrality, intentional planning, clear design, engaging all voices, and knowing when to provide input. Facilitation is a skill that takes practice and maturity, and staying present and curious when things get difficult is key to successful meetings. 

Marsha Acker is an executive & leadership team coach, author, speaker, facilitator, and the host of Defining Moments of Leadership Podcast. She is the author of The Art and Science of Facilitation: How to Lead Effective Collaboration with Agile Teams and Build Your Model for Leading Change, coming in early 2023. Marsha is the founder and CEO of TeamCatapult, a respected and sought-after leadership development firm that equips leaders, at all levels, to facilitate and lead sustainable behavioral change.

Key Highlights:

The Power of Facilitation 

The Importance of Effective Facilitation in Meetings 

Mastering the Art of Facilitation 

Key Quotes:

"As a facilitator, the beauty is in standing back, looking at the lay of the land, and cutting right to the heart of what we're really trying to say. It's about bringing focus to the discussion and preventing things from going off in different directions." – Marsha Acker.

Connect with Marsha

"Our peace self in us knows that we are always loved, always learning. It's always a constant". – Amy Balog

Looking to unlock your true potential as an innovator or leader? In this podcast episode, Innovation Meets Leadership host Natalie Born talks to Amy Balog about the concept of 'peace over performance': how inner peace can be the catalyst for true and lasting success. Amy explains how this paradigm shift can help innovators and leaders alike by establishing a secure self-identity and understanding that failure isn't a reflection of one's worth. Through this conversation, you will gain insights into creating a feedback loop to recognize and manage risk, as well as learn practical tips on being open to learning, owning up to mistakes, and telling a powerful story. With these tools, you can harness your power and use it for innovation.

Amy Balog is a senior executive coach, facilitator, writer, and speaker. With 15 years of coaching experience, she helps global leaders discover their peaceful selves and grounding identities to achieve peak performance. Amy challenges the paradigm that peace and performance are mutually exclusive and instead advocates for their powerful duet. She developed the Peace Over Performance journey to combat self-limiting narratives and self-rejection in leaders.

Key Highlights:

Peace Over Performance and Fueling Innovation

Acknowledging the Learning Curve and Admitting Risks 

Feedback Loops and The Imposter Syndrome.

Key Quotes:

"Peace is the true fuel to performance." – Amy Balog.

Connect with Amy

“It's not only listening to the customer. It's really taking action, being proactive to talk to your customers, inviting them for specific interviews where the agenda is really to talk about their needs. That is really important for innovation”. – Stefan Debois

In this episode of the podcast, Innovation Meets Leadership host Natalie Born invites Stefan Debois, the founder, and CEO of Pointer Pro, an assessment software platform that helps professional services companies automate their advisory processes. Together, they discuss how to optimize consulting strategies, leverage skills and outsource tasks to subcontractors, democratize knowledge and access free information on the internet, utilize an advice engine to provide relevant recommendations to clients and use a structured methodology like Jobs to be Done to understand customer needs and translate them into successful products or services. Listeners will gain insight on how to efficiently charge for outcomes instead of time in order to incentivize efficiency improvements and encourage innovation from consultants. Tune in to this engaging conversation between two real innovators as they discuss the importance of listening to customers, taking action, and asking specific questions.

Stefan Debois is the founder and CEO of Pointerpro, an assessment software platform that helps professional services companies to automate their advisory processes. Stefan is passionate about the use of technology to build professional relationships with people, at scale.

Key Highlights:

Outcome-Based Innovation

The Importance of Customer Feedback in Innovation

The Value of Structured Conversations

Key Quotes:

"Don't charge for time, charge for value.” – Stefan Debois

Connect with Stefan

“"Don't take goal setting in your life too seriously. Goals are guideposts along the journey.” – Matteo Grassi

In this episode of the podcast, Innovation Meets Leadership host Natalie Born interviews Mateo Grassi, co-founder and CEO of the funded startup Popup. Through his remarkable journey from street performer to successful entrepreneur, Mateo shares his experience bootstrapping a business until it was ready for funding, as well as the difficulties and opportunities that come with being an entrepreneur. They discuss Mateo’s experience of scaling an e-commerce store from zero to 4 million in two weeks, only to have all profits lost due to disputes and fines from credit card providers. Additionally, they compare the pre-tech bubble landscape to today's remote work opportunities which have opened up possibilities of living and working abroad without language barriers. Finally, they speak about the importance of self-regulation when it comes to technology and social media use, setting boundaries for oneself when it comes to media consumption and finding one’s big “why” - a goal that can never be achieved - in order to stay motivated throughout life.

Matteo Grassi is co-founder of Popup, a no code eCommerce platform for the next generation, has also founded 7 direct-to-consumer brands, an NGO/DAO, and an anonymous support group for founders. Prior to this, they were a professional break-dancer and circus performer who also produced and performed music. Matteo now creates documentaries, interviews, and shows for YouTube. Known to share either a lame joke or intriguing trivia upon meeting in person.

Key Highlights

Key Quotes:

"People should embark in a journey of being an entrepreneur the same way you embark in a journey where like in an adventure. And you don't go in an adventure because you necessarily want to reach a destination. You go in an adventure because you love the adventure.” – Matteo Grassi

“Sometimes you have to be pushed to the limits to realize that maybe a problem was small before it got really, really big. But then once you solve it, you solve it." – Matteo Grassi

Connect with Matteo

“Look for the impact that you want to have, and then prioritize based on impact rather than market.” – Esther Gons

In this episode, the founder and CEO of GroundControl, Esther Gons discusses how innovation accounting can help organizations measure success when launching high-risk projects. She explore the need to start multiple ventures in order to predict success, and the importance of implementing formalized processes for innovation in order for an organization to create a culture of innovation. Esther also provides insight into how to measure performance metrics before beginning any project, fail fast and use learnings from failed experiments to inform future projects, and celebrate those who have saved the company money.

Esther Gons is the CEO and founder of GroundControl, an innovation software company that helps corporate startup teams develop new business models. The company has clients such as Euler Hermes, DHL, and ABN Amro. Gons is a speaker on corporate innovation, innovation accounting, and startups, and was named to Inside Outside's 2022 Watchlist: Women in Innovation.

Main Highlights:

Key Quotes:

" To do innovation within an organization, you need multiple teams trying to validate multiple ideas.

You need to understand if your teams are doing well and if they're moving forward.” – Esther Gons

“Look at the impact you want to make, because otherwise you're never gone make that change." – Esther Gons

Connect with Esther

“A lot of skillsets you can teach, but the culture you can't.” - Marc Reifenrath

Is a company’s culture critical to achieving and maintaining success? In this episode, the CEO of Spinutech, Marc Reifenrath encourages leaders to invest more time in building culture and core values for better retention and growth. He breaks down key strategies for onboarding new team members, creating an environment of trust, and understanding the importance of cultural alignment between clients and employees. Tune in now to learn how culture can be used to hire and retain top talent!

Marc has seen Spinutech grow from a college start-up to one of the premier full-service digital marketing agencies in the country. He would be the first to tell you that Spinutech would not be what it is today without a team of people who are as invested in each other’s growth and success as they are in delivering the best for their clients.

Main Highlights:

Key Quotes:

"You just gotta capitalize on every learning opportunity, whether it came from a great situation or a bad situation." - Marc Reifenrath

"Job descriptions aren't restrictions.." - Marc Reifenrath

Connect with Marc

“The more people you have thinking about the problem you're trying to solve, the further you're going to get as an organization.” - Sohail Abbasi

Are you adapting to digital transformation and continuous change? In this episode, Sohail Abbasi, the VP of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Hamava Innovation Factory, discusses how to overcome the not invented here syndrome - a tendency to avoid using or buying products research, or knowledge from external sources - and how organizations can leverage outside processes and resources to innovate and create value. Tune in and discover why embracing open source is essential for business growth and success!

Main Highlights:

Key Quotes:

"Diversity basically is one of the key things contributing to innovation." - Sohail Abbasi

"We don't transform by our own group think we transform by other ideas and other thoughts by expanding our knowledge and ability. That's how we transform." - Natalie Born

Connect with Sohail

“Think about some people you can pull alongside you to help you be a zero gravity thinker, to think outside the box and to look differently at problems that you're trying to solve.” - Natalie Born

What is holding back explosive growth and breakthrough ideas? In this episode, Natalie and Aaron Born disclose the importance of innovation and how to foster it in an organization. They break down the 3 principles that kill innovation and explain how innovation looks different for everyone. Natalie talks about how she enjoys doing podcasts, her experiences with podcasting, and some of their favorite conversations. Listen and enjoy!

Aaron is a father of two daughters, the husband to  Natalie, and the owner of a runaway circus dog named Bear. They currently live in Sugar Hill, Georgia. When he is not with his family, he is the Lead Pastor of House Churches for Victory Church, a multi-site church made up of about 20,000 households from 142 people groups based in the Metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia.

Main Highlights:

“Self-ownership of issues or mistakes is huge because that's where that's where I learn and I know that's where other people learn.” - Bob Hasson

Are you ready to gain courage and clarity on how to achieve the life you dream of? In this episode, Bob Hasson stresses the importance of having a strong character be seen as an asset and a value to your company during difficult times. He discusses how a culture of love should not coexist with fear, and encourages you to work for companies where innovation is celebrated and new ideas are embraced. Let’s dive in!

Bob Hasson is a businessman, Author, Consultant, and Podcaster. He is both the Founder and CEO of HPCI, a painting subcontractor, which he founded in 1978. For over thirty years, he has been active as a consultant and board member for churches, ministries, nonprofits, and school boards.

Main Takeaways:

“Just because an idea's not original doesn't mean it's not effective.” - Michael F. Schein

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, we are catching up with Micahel F. Schein.

Michael is the founder and president of MicroFame Media, a company that specializes in making consultants and coaches famous in their fields. Some of his clients have included eBay, Magento, The Medici Group, University of Pennsylvania, Gordon College, University of California Irvine, United Methodist Publishing House, Ricoh, LinkedIn, and Citrix. His writing has appeared in Fortune, Forbes, Inc., Psychology Today, and Huffington Post, and he is a speaker for international audiences spanning from the northeastern United States to the southeastern coast of China. His book The Hype Handbook: 12 Indispensable Success Secrets From the World’s Greatest Propagandists, Self-Promoters, Cult Leaders, Mischief Makers, and Boundary Breakers, published by McGraw Hill, appears where books are sold.

[00:16] Building a Secret Society

[13:31] Applying The Idea of a Secret Society to Our Business

[22:50] What is Core to Innovation

[25:23] Closing Segment

Key Quotes:

“If you create something that people would do anyway because it's an adventure. Business gets done as a side effect.” - Michael F. Schein

“So the trick is to base your stuff on psychological principles that work, but even more importantly, conduct very small experiments that just give you the data you need to know if you should go bigger and kill the losers very, very quickly.” - Michael F. Schein

Connect with Michael

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, Kathya Acuña of Change Strategy at LOCAL focuses on the human aspect of change. She discusses the importance of communication and bringing people along in the process. By effectively engaging employees, organizations can have faster adoption and establish a healthy work culture.

Kathya is the Director of Change Strategy at LOCAL, a Change Marketing™ consultancy helping some of the world's best companies make change stick by treating their employees as an audience worth winning. She is a business transformation consultant passionate about human-centered storytelling. Over the past 12 years, Kathya has worked in various roles, from helping non-profits define their vision, mission, and values to launching a brewery in Bogota, Colombia.

Main Takeaways:

Key Quotes:

“When it comes to change, everything comes back down to adoption, which comes back down to people. It's not so much about managing change as it is about marketing change and making sure that the change is very much human-centered.” - Kathya Acuña

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, we welcome Shea Gerhardt. Shea talks about how to develop an effective product that could compete with the bigger players in the market. She reiterates the importance of focusing on the customer needs and being a solution to a problem and that product development never stops.

Shea Gerhardt is the Founder and CEO of Buderflys Technologies, Inc. Prior to Buderflys Tech, Inc – she spent nearly two decades in executive roles in the mobile, gaming, and music industries. Having worked with major music labels, including Universal, Sony, EMI, and Warner Bros., as well as some of the world’s largest mobile wireless companies, including VZW, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Vodafone, Shea built her career on the ability to develop a clear and focused path to cutting through the noise in crowded and stale industries and growing business where user-centric products are king.

Main Takeaways:

Key Quotes:

“I also had to find people who knew what they were doing. That took a long time. But I have an incredible team that is so much smarter than I am in that regard. And they are on this journey with me.” - Shea Gerhardt

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, Helene Cahen talks about innovation and collaboration in organizations. She explains how fear of failure can prevent us from innovating and why it’s important to create a culture that allows for risk-taking and creativity. She also shares insights on design thinking principles and ideation, and how teams can collaborate more effectively by putting clear processes in place and being open to each other’s opinions and preferences.

Born and raised in Paris, France, Helene graduated with a business degree from the elite Sciences-Po Paris and earned a Master of Sciences degree in Creativity and Change Leadership from the State University of New York. she is an Innovation Consultant, Trainer, Facilitator, Coach, and Speaker with over 20 years of experience helping companies navigate innovation challenges. She guides Fortune 500, small businesses, and non-profits to have a better understanding of innovation and innovation processes, create new products/services, build effective teams, and support a user-centered culture. Prior to founding her consulting practice, Strategic Insights, Helene held executive and management positions in advertising, marketing research, HR, finance, and sales as well as VP of Innovation for a start-up. Most recently, she was a TedX Talk speaker at TedX Seattle and has been a speaker on Design Thinking and Creativity at various conferences including the American Creativity Association, Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI), Creativity Expert Exchange (CEE), and the Design Thinking Unconference.

Main Takeaways:

Key Quote:

“What I'm encouraging is actually to see the value in people thinking differently and appreciating that. See others for who they are and embrace the differences in thinking.”  - Helene Cahen

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, we welcome Alex Castro of M Corp. He discusses how to identify and address the root causes of failed strategic initiatives to make future attempts at execution more successful. He also shares his thoughts on recognizing and overcoming cognitive bias, utilizing data in decision-making, and being adaptive to change as an organization.

Alex Castro is an aligner of execution to strategy for digital transformation & innovation, best-selling author, and creator/founder of ReM Score™ Alex believes that the gap between ideas (strategy) and execution is a persistent problem that is sidelining too many high potential digital transformation and innovation growth opportunities.

Main Takeaways:

Key Quote:

“There's a hair's difference between the top team in a league and the bottom team. And it's really how well can they put the execution component together, right? You can have the best playbook in the world but if you don't know how to really tune that play in, it's kind of useless.” - Alex Castro

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, Sunny Han discusses Fulcrum’s mission to transform the manufacturing industry with technology. He talks about how outdated software and processes can hinder an organization's ability to scale. However, he reminds us that newer doesn’t always mean better and there is always value to the mundane. He also digs deep into why companies should constantly evaluate their values and why they should never lose sight of their customer’s needs.

Sunny Han is the CEO and Founder of Fulcrum, a manufacturing ERP platform dedicated to helping manufacturers build a better future. He led Fulcrum to raise a $3.1M seed round of venture capital in 2020. Sunny is dedicated to delivering a connected future where frictionless manufacturing production and supply chains lead to faster and better product innovations.

Main Takeaways:

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, Payitoff Founder and CEO Bobby Matson talks about turning a problem into a business possibility. Frustrated by his own student loans, he founded a debt infrastructure company to bring more transparency to the repayment process. He details how to dig deep into a personal pain point and discover the demand for a solution on a broader scale. Bobby also gives advice to people who are looking to begin their startup journey.

University of Michigan grad obsessed with building better infrastructure for all borrowers: Bobby led engineering teams at Carbon Five, where he built technology for Groupon, Fandango, and Stitchfix and shipped software to millions of users. After managing six-figure student debt in his own life, he's working on Payitoff to create better outcomes for every borrower.

Main Takeaways:

● All Borrowers Want Clarity

● Driven by Customer Demand

● Success Breeds Passion

● Nailing Your Niche

Key Takeaways:

“There are a lot of moments in company building where you'll say to yourself, am I doing the right thing? Are we working on the right thing? Knowing the personal need that you had, in the beginning, is the anchor that helps you answer that question.” - Bobby Matson

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, William Santana Li of Knightscope discusses the importance of innovation in public safety and why robotics is the solution to crime and terrorism. ASRs provide real-time surveillance across multiple locations and are designed to help law enforcement be a lot more effective at doing their job. He also offers insights on where the technology is heading and encourages us to pursue our passions and focus on adding value to society.

William Santana Li is an American entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience and has a broad and deep range of expertise gained from several global assignments in the automotive sector and a number of startups. He is presently the Chairman and CEO of Knightscope, a developer of crime-fighting Autonomous Security Robots (ASRs).

Main Takeaways:

Key Quotes:

“In order to fix the problem, which is crime and terrorism, it has to be software plus hardware plus humans. You need the machines to do the monotonous and computationally-heavy stuff that no human can do, and you need the humans to do the decision-making and enforcement.” - William Santana Li

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, Bryan Clayton started by mowing his neighbor’s lawn as a side hustle and ended up founding a multimillion-dollar lawn care business. From customer-centricity to self-improvement, he joins us to share his secrets to success.

Bryan Clayton is CEO and co-founder of GreenPal, an online marketplace that connects homeowners with local lawn care professionals. GreenPal has been called the “Uber for lawn care” by Entrepreneur magazine and has over 200,000 active users completing thousands of transactions per day.

Main Takeaways:

Key Thought:

“As a founder, you're doing three things at once at all times. You're working in the business. You're trying to develop some kind of systems, processes, and routines. And then you're working on yourself.” - Bryan Clayton

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, we share a conversation about self-discovery. Karen Hardwick, the author of The Connected Leader, joins us to talk about how leaders must first connect deeply with themselves in order to connect with others in a healthy way. We also focus on empathy, one of Karen’s 7 strategies to empower our true selves, and the power it holds in transforming relationships.

With master's degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary and Rutgers and decades of front row experience, Karen is a spiritually and psychologically trained leadership consultant, speaker, author, podcast host, and lover of connection. Her in-depth clinical training, along with her tenured business acumen, sets her apart and matters a great deal in a world where anyone can be a “coach”; her expertise allows her to understand, name, and address what is getting in the way of people and organizations performing at their best. Her wisdom helps her to guide individuals, teams, and entire organizations to navigate the complexities of human nature

and organizational dynamics so they can move into a culture of empowerment, inspiration, and transformation.

Main Takeaways:

Key Takeaways:

“We are not leaders having a leadership crisis. We're leaders having a human being crisis. So when we let that sink in and wash over us, what does that mean? What I believe it means is that leaders can no longer MBA their way into leadership, what we need to do is show up more fully human with the power of our stories.” -  Karen Hardwick

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, Kevin Mills takes us behind the scenes of podcasting, the pitfalls and benefits of starting your podcast, and how you can use this powerful tool to your advantage.

Kevin Mills is a co-founder of Streamlined Podcasts, a full-scale podcast production agency. Streamlined Podcasts helps its clients edit and produce their podcasts consistently for an affordable price. With industry-leading turn-times, technologies, and teams, you'll have trouble finding a better value anywhere else. Kevin's entrepreneurial journey began in direct-to-consumer sales. He now spends his time and efforts helping podcasters focus on what they do best - producing content. He is passionate about making it as easy as possible for content creators to get their message to their audience.

Main Takeaways:

● There is No “Recipe” to Success, Just Consistent Action

● How To Avoid the Pitfalls of Podcasting

● Can I Make Money with my Podcast?

● How to Start Your Own Podcast

Key Quotes:

“If you’re not using a podcast right now to network, drive more leads into your business, and build thought leadership or brand awareness, you might regret it three years from now. Podcasting is here to stay and the exponential growth has just begun.” - Kevin Mills

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, Thomas Watkins breaks down the ins and outs of effective design. He emphasizes the need to consider the user experience and that the process of design development must be centered around it. The key is making people’s lives easier and avoiding over-complicated systems.

Thomas Watkins is a thought leader, speaker, and industry practitioner located in Houston TX. Thomas has made it his career’s focus to combine technology with design psychology in order to drive business success. He specializes in helping his business partners bring their own brilliant ideas to life, by translating complexity into simplicity.

Main Takeaways:

● Where Apps Go Wrong and How to Address Them

● Curating a User-Friendly Design to Establish Connection

● Utilizing Psychology to Understand the Customer

Key Quotes:

“Anytime a user has to think about your software, usually, that's not a good thing… If it's something that's easy to learn and for you to operate in, that's where the win is.” - Thomas Watkins

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, Shaunak Roy discusses innovation in education through technology. Backed by evidence, it goes to show that active and engaged learning results in better outcomes. By being aware and taking part in the dialogue, the future of better education can become clearer and more feasible.

Shaunak Roy is the founder and CEO of Yellowdig. Yellowdig is a community-driven active learning platform adopted by over 130 colleges and universities, K12 schools, and corporate training clients. Yellowdig’s mission is to transform every classroom into an active, social and experiential learning community.

Main Takeaways:

● The Most Effective Method of Learning for Better Engagement

● The Spike of Innovation and Utilizing Technology for Education

● Create the Dialogue for Future of Education

Key Quote:

“We have to really start to question whether the time the students are spending in the classrooms, and the value they're getting out of the education system… [are] adding up… in terms of the effort that is getting into it.” - Shaunak Roy

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, Brad Smith talks about blind spots and how we can better address these issues through self-awareness. Without recognizing our natural tendencies, we tend to refuse proper delegation and thus, lack exponential growth. By understanding ourselves and our capacities to learn, we can stay intentional with what we do.

Brad Smith is the founder and CEO of Stellar Insight Inc. a business growth consulting and coaching company. Brad has been a chemist, production plant and equipment designer, a business manager, a business consultant, and an executive coach for CEOs and business owners among other things. He pursues insight and understanding into the convergence of business success, organizational excellence, and the practical actions it takes to consistently achieve significant business growth. In his words, “Everything is a theory until you experience it and can consciously repeat the experiment.” He has coached CEOs, business owners, and legislators for organizational growth and excellence for more than twenty years.

He has worked extensively with a variety of industries. Those companies who commit to the work find the specific results rewarding and significant. His passion is working with ambitious CEOs, business owners and their teams who are committed to their company’s excellence and growth.

Main Takeaways:

● Thinking For Yourself to Get Rid of Dependence

● Recognizing Who You Are and Where You Fit

● How Organizations Can Address the Blind Spots

Key Quote:

“If you're in pain, stop, step back, look at it and say, ‘What's the purpose that I wanted to create that created this instead of what I wanted?’ There's purpose in pain.” - Brad Smith

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, Michael Sahota discusses what it entails to unlock the creative potential of people in the organization. He reveals the oppression behind the traditional systems and how leaders must make the daily choice of evolving. By prioritizing people over process, it is possible to create an agile space.

Michael K Sahota is a Speaker, Trainer, & Consultant on Evolutionary Leadership. He is the founder and CEO of SHIFT314 Inc - a boutique training and consulting organization that specializes in the organizational, cultural and leadership shifts needed to unlock success with Agile, Digital, Lean, etc. Michael is the co-creator of the SHIFT314 Evolutionary Leadership Framework™ (SELF) that provides practical step-by-step for the inner and outer shifts needed to unlock Business Agility, Teal and other new ways of working. Michael has trained thousands of leaders worldwide through his highly accoladed Certified Agile Leadership Training.

Main Takeaways:

● Building Engaging Frameworks in the Digital and Agile Space

● Eradicate Oppression and Make the Shift to Challenge the System

● People Over Progress - Harnessing The Power of Agility

Key Quote:

“The truth of the matter is, all those transformation programs are done with the same traditional mindset… They're actually huge acts of oppression… Wake up, stop oppressing the people.” - Michael Sahota

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, Rosemary Rein tackles hybrid work and how companies adapt. By effectively utilizing technology, applying positive reinforcement, and providing an avenue for collaboration, organizations can enable a better employee experience.

Rosemary is an author, consultant, and international speaker on leadership, employee engagement, and innovation. She has received the Beyonder Award for her contributions to creativity and was Vice-Chair of the Creative Problem Solving Institute. She was Head of Learning and Development for Wikipedia before moving to Ecuador, where she currently resides.

Main Takeaways:

● Mapping Out the Employee Experience for Hybrid Work

● Imprinting Positive Reinforcement for Ownership and Innovation

● The Formula to a Culture of Creativity

Key Quotes:

“Innovation really can't be put on the back burner. It has to happen today. And your employees are the key secret ingredient - employee experience with innovation.” - Rosemary Rein

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, Paula White joins us to expound the concept of music as a metaphor in leadership. She highlights the importance of recognizing the different roles and tapping into your whole self to pivot while being in the metrics-driven world of sales.

Paula White has an unwavering passion for music that she applies in order to bring new perspectives and open new possibilities for leaders. Her one-of-a-kind, forward-thinking approach starts with a foundation of heart and mind. A globally recognized sales leader, Paula has leveraged her talents to scale Inside Sales Teams into multi-million stand-alone sales channels. She has helped organizations achieve 8% - 10% yearly compounded growth, demonstrating success in a wide variety of industries to include travel and tourism, investments, veterinary, and healthcare distribution.

Main Takeaways:

● How Music Composition is Similar to Leadership

● Understanding Side A’s and B’s in the Metrics-Driven World of Sales

Key Quotes:

“When you leave a positive legacy, it's really about being real. It's being relational and helping somebody rather than demanding.” - Paula White

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, Sangram Vajre from Season 1 is back! He discusses what the go-to-market means and why low retention rates translate to the death of organizations. He expounds on the four leaky buckets to consider when solving the common problems businesses face.

Bestselling author Sangram Vajre co-founded Terminus in 2014 and ever since has been teaching the business of marketing with his signature frameworks. He’s an international keynote speaker, was named one of the top twenty-one B2B marketing influencers in the world, and is the host of a top-fifty business podcast called FlipMyFunnel. Bryan Brown is Chief Strategy Officer at Terminus and a SaaS visionary in the marketing and sales tech industry. From co-founder to scale with multiple exits, he has envisioned and brought to market software that has shaped the way thousands of businesses grow and communicate with their customers. All resources, templates, scorecards, and frameworks from this book can be found on www.themovebook.com.

Main Takeaways:

● Embracing our Business Journey by Exploring the Go-To-Market

● How Retention Rate Translates to the Company Valuation

● Solving the Problem by Targeting the Retention Angle

Key Quotes:

“You can't solve all of it at one go… Really get into that and say, we're gonna pick this first problem, or the second, or the third.” - Sangram Vajre

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, we have Carol Seymour who will be differentiating sponsorship and mentorship. Throughout the times in the workforce, we have been experiencing biases and some forms may not even be obvious. As we dig into these, there came the need to heavily consider sponsorship as the way to elevate our profiles as women leaders.

Carol Seymour is a sought-after business leader and catalyst for growth. As an executive advisor to businesses and executives around the globe, she has a passion for helping leaders perform at maximum potential in their professions and lives.

Carol founded Signature Leaders in 2013 at the request of a dozen global heads of HR, and now runs multiple leadership-focused offerings FOR women, not about women, including Signature Premier, Signature Select, Strive, and Surge. Today, more than 1,600 global executives in the Fortune 1000 are part of Signature Leaders, which also partners with more than 130 market-leading companies for their selective investments, including Eastman, ADP, Ahold Delhaize, Ingersoll Rand, ServiceNow, Cardinal Health, Merck, UPS, Nestle, Southern Company, AT&T, and Cigna. She is also a top-rated speaker, named one of the Top 40 Women Keynote Speakers for 2020 by RealLeaders Magazine, spending most of her speaking time with women’s forums, industry conferences, and client leadership forums.

Main Takeaways:

● The Sobering Reality of Economic Parity for Women

● Bridging the Gap: The Critical Role of Advocates

● Inviting Opportunities for Sponsorship through Exposure

Key Quotes:

“Your direct supervisor is typically not going to be a sponsor, right? That's their job to kind of help develop you, what you want to do is get some visibility by people who actually don't know that much about you… Being part of those allows visibility into some of the other things that you're capable of.” - Carol Seymour

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, Mike Krass discusses what it takes to build a business that lasts for centuries, the considerations in this evolving society to make it happen, and the way to cultivate leadership in this values-led organization.

Mike Krass is the CEO of MKG Marketing, a digital marketing agency that gets tech and healthcare brands found online through transparent, measurable digital marketing. Over the last ten years, Mike has grown MKG Marketing into a 7 figure business not only by specializing in data and analytics but by embracing a “people first” philosophy that promotes a strong work-life balance while systematically holding employees as well as clients accountable. Mike takes this philosophy with him as he sits on the Board of Directors of the global Entrepreneur’s Organization, as well as mentoring other businesses through organizations such as Idea Village and General Assembly. 

The genesis of MKG Marketing came when, at a creative agency, Mike was caught completely flat-footed by a client’s question - “How much money did we make from your campaign?” Realizing the importance of analytics, Mike and his business partner, Kerry Guard, set out to found an agency that could both perform creatively and provide hard numbers in order to quash the frustration that companies can often feel when navigating the digital marketing landscape.

Main Takeaways:

Key Quote:

“It [the leadership plan] exists. It's communicated. It's communicated regularly. Those are two separate things, right? You didn't just say it once, and then put it in the drawer. It's communicated regularly, and it's understood. And I use the word understood very intentionally.” - Mike Krass

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership! I’m your host, Natalie Born. In this episode, Michael F. Schein redefines the effective manner of marketing or getting the hype. Why is it that those who do not consider themselves marketers turn out to have a bigger following? From this conversation, Michael points out the power of utilizing psychology and how it should be used responsibly by keeping our motives in check.

Michael F. Schein is the founder and president of MicroFame Media, a company that specializes in making consultants and coaches famous in their fields. Some of his clients have included eBay, Magento, The Medici Group, University of Pennsylvania, Gordon College, University of California Irvine, United Methodist Publishing House, Ricoh, LinkedIn, and Citrix. His writing has appeared in Fortune, Forbes, Inc., Psychology Today, and Huffington Post, and he is a speaker for international audiences spanning from the northeastern United States to the southeastern coast of China. His book The Hype Handbook: 12 Indispensable Success Secrets From the World’s Greatest Propagandists, Self-Promoters, Cult Leaders, Mischief Makers, and Boundary Breakers, published by McGraw Hill, appears where books are sold.

Main Takeaways:

Key Quotes:

“We let our emotions get in the way. And that's a good thing. The problem with that is some of the best people with the best ideas, they throw the baby out with the bathwater, they willfully reject driving attention and emotion around what they're selling, what their messages are.” - Michael F. Schein

In this episode, we have Howard Tiersky joining us to discuss how companies can position themselves in the digital world by acknowledging your identity in the industry, recognizing the needs of customers, and becoming relevant in this digital age.

Howard Tiersky has been named one of the Top 10 Digital Transformation Influencers to follow today by IDG (International Data Group). As an entrepreneur, he has launched two successful companies that help large brands transform to thrive in the digital age. His dozens of Fortune 1000 clients have included Verizon, NBC, Avis, Universal Studios, Facebook, Spotify, and Amazon.

Main Takeaways:

● Movement towards Thriving in the Digital Age

● Staying Relevant and Recognizing Digital Transformation

● The Ideal Positioning in Finding Digital Customers

Key Thoughts:

“Do not try to invent the future, just try to improve on the future. I think that that is a much more predictable and effective strategy than thinking you can sit there and create the complete future by yourself.” - Howard Tiersky

In this episode, Ken Lundin joins us to talk about the invaluable journey of going through hardships, failure, breaking the cycle of passive accountability, and how we can get back up and show up stronger.

Ken Lundin, the founder of Ken Lundin & Associates and creator of the Sales Alpha Roadmap, found his mission while standing in his front lawn in Atlanta in 2011. He learned from the people who had purchased it that his house had been sold by the bank. With his business - and the last 6 years of his life - up in smoke, he took a mid-level sales position and over the course of the next 2 years was offered 2 promotions attaining the role of SVP of Sales within two years. With his unique perspective on thriving during difficult times and his considerable sales acumen, he soon became a consultant in order to bring his systematic process to other companies, helping them adapt to difficult changes and to thrive in uncertain times.

Main Takeaways:

Key Quote:

“I'm very protective of my emotional energy, you know, and so from that perspective, if it doesn't come into my three-foot circle, which is representative of things that I can actually influence change, and I put zero emotional energy into it.” - Ken Lundin

In this episode, we have two guests, Jennifer Wilde and Dan McClure, to share their insights on the holistic approach in redesigning systems in the organization, how leadership impacts the platform for innovators, and how to encourage agility for choreographers to take the realm.

Jenny Wilde is currently serving as Managing Director at Innovation Ecosystem, an organization offering practical tools and support to deliver a step-change in innovation effectiveness. A leader in System Innovation, they enable organizations to solve challenging problems, and find the right solutions to build high impact change.

Dan McClure is a systems strategist and agile product manager. Dan helps organizations envision and create high-impact innovations. He has over 30 years of hands-on experience shaping systems-level initiatives that combine business + technology in tumultuous environments.

Main Takeaways:

● Reimagine the Norm with System Innovation

● Creating Impact through Innovative Ecosystems

● The System Innovator Choreographers in the Making

Key Quote:

“Choreographers are chased out of traditional organizations. So part of the goal here is to rather than chasing them away, identifying them, bringing them in and embracing them as part of the creative process.” - Dan McClure

In this episode, we have Eb Ikonne joining us to share his story of taking a leap towards product development, the concept of leadership in the lens of mentality, and the power of communication as an adaptive leader.

Ebenezer Ikonne is a practitioner-academic (pracademic) with over 20 years in product development. He is currently a product and engineering leader at Cox Automotive. Ebenezer started his technology career as a network engineer and software developer. He later transitioned into product development leadership and management and has held middle- to senior-level leadership and management positions in large organizations, small corporations, and startups.

Main Takeaways:

Quote:

“Can we expect our leaders to have the answers and to come up with a game plan that will just make sure things work out? But we have so much evidence in front of us that shows us that it's not true, it never happens. And when things get done in any organization, it's not just the leader who did it. I can guarantee that.” - Eb Ikonne

In this episode, Nora Herting joins us to discuss the ways visual communication impacts organizations and how storytelling can influence our mental mapping towards our goals.

A pioneer of visual strategy, Nora Herting is passionate about expanding peoples’ definition of creativity and believes the best way to meet the demands of business today is to take a visual approach that blends strategic thinking and creative expression.

Nora’s skill and impact with businesses, and her own entrepreneurial prowess founding ImageThink has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fox Business, Entrepreneur, and INC.

She leads a compelling conversation around the power of visual thinking as a catalyst for personal and organizational change. As a sought-after speaker and thought leader, Nora has inspired global audiences with her creative keynotes at Cannes Lions, SXSW Interactive, WBENC

Nora’s first book, Draw Your Big Idea, has inspired thousands to think visually and access their own creativity.

Main Takeaways:

● How Visual Thinking Helps in Collaboration and Communication

● Cultivating the Habit of Visual Planning

● How the Power Visual Thinking Refashions Organizations

Quote:

“How do you get from where you want to go? The desired future to where you are right now? And then that's where you start filling in what are the action steps, what are the plans, but also articulating the challenges, and you can have fun with those things.” - Nora Herting

In this episode, I will be discussing the case study of practicing innovation for growth in organizations and the ideal methods to sustain the culture of productive ideation.

Main Takeaways:

Key Thoughts:

“Innovation is freedom within a framework. Some people think that innovation is just a free for all and people can do whatever they want and go wherever they want to go. And I would disagree because oftentimes, it’s boundaries that actually help us innovate. Not endless pools of money.” - Natalie Born

In this episode, Maulik Parekh joins us to talk about digital disruption and how businesses can take advantage of this phenomenon through innovation and digital transformation.

Based in Singapore, Maulik is an avid entrepreneur, highly sought-after keynote speaker, and bestselling author of Futureproof Your Career and Company. Over the years, with his popular leadership seminars and workshops, he has inspired over 10,000 leaders and prepared them for the increasingly disruptive future.

Prior to his entrepreneurial and literary ventures, Maulik was an award-winning CEO of global companies such as Inspiro and SPi Global. Under his leadership, these companies won over 100 awards, including Best Company of the Year, Best Employer of the Year, and Best Leadership Team of the Year.

Main Takeaways:

● How Digital Disruption Shaped the Decade

● Rise of the Digital Generation Reshaping the Workforce

● Taking the Digital Disruption Phenomenon as an Advantage

“Now, employers do not just have to worry about other employers when it comes to attracting the right talent. They're also fighting against people's innate desire to be the masters of their own destinies.” - Maulik Parekh

In this episode, Gabrielle Dolan joins us to talk about authentic leadership and how you can connect with customers and engage employees through magnetic storytelling.

Gabrielle Dolan is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker and educator on real communication and business storytelling. Her clients include the Obama Foundation, Telstra, EY, Accenture VISA, Australia Post, National Australia Bank, Amazon, and Vodafone just to name drop a few.

Gabrielle is the best-selling author of six books including Real Communication: How to be you and lead true, a finalist in the Australian Business Leadership Book Awards 2019. Bringing humanity to the way business people communicate isn’t just a career, it’s a calling. Her dedication to the industry was recognized when Gabrielle was awarded the 2020 Communicator of the Year by the International Association of Business Communicators Asia Pacific region.

Main Takeaways:

● How Authentic Leadership Makes Leaders More Effective

● The Superpowers of Storytelling

● The 5 Stories That Companies Should Consider Sharing

Key Quote:

“In business, we try to communicate through logic, facts, and figures. And of course, you need the facts and figures, but all logic does is inform people. It doesn't influence people. And so you've got to think about what stories you can share that will tap into emotion because as humans, we're emotional beings.” - Gabrielle Dolan

In this episode, Shawna Schuh and I cover groundbreaking leadership principles, how we can encourage critical thinking in leaders, and why we don’t need to have all the answers, we just need to ask the right questions.

Shawna Schuh, CSP helps leaders evolve into their higher potential. With over 3 decades of working with remarkable professionals, Shawna uses her expertise in leadership, business ownership, and life with animals to cut to the essence of how someone can shift their thinking for better and better results.

Main Takeaways:

● The Best Leaders Are The Best Questioners

● Critical Thinking in Leadership Requires a Healthy Environment

● Steps Leaders Can Take Towards Problem Solving

In this episode, Dr. Katrina Burrus discusses Brilliant Jerks. Communication is more than just our words so we talk about how we can help brilliant jerks.  Also, find out how to create a work environment that doesn’t foster brilliant jerks.

Dr. Katrina Burrus, CEO/founder of Excellent Executive Coaching LLC, is known for "Fast-tracking leaders to the C-Suite and Beyond" and for "Transforming Brilliant Jerks into Inspiring Leaders."

She is a keynote speaker and published, “Managing Brilliant Jerks" and, "Global Leadership" a body of work used by Nestle, Novartis, the World Health Organization, the International Labor Organization, the United Nations, and many more. She was most recently featured in Mexico, India, the U.S., Kazakhstan, and Russia. Dr. Burrus has 18 years of experience as the first Master Certified Coach and Founding Board Member from the (ICF) International Coaching Federation in Switzerland.

Main Takeaways:

● What is a Brilliant Jerk?

●  How Good Work Environments Can Encourage and Sustain Behavioral Change

In this episode, Nancy Murphy, the Founder & President of CSR Communications, talks about what an intrepreneur is, how we can disrupt and make impactful change within organizations and established systems, and swaying change-resistant powers.

Main Takeaways:

● What is an Intrapreneur?

● How we can affect change and work with leaders who seem overly change-resistant

In this episode, Roger Hardy and I discuss how Roger has helped build Canada's most successful vertical integration e-commerce company and achieved one of Canada's largest e-commerce exits.

Roger Hardy is the CEO of KITS online eyewear retailer. Roger’s entrepreneurial journey began with a single phone line, a 14k modem, and a credit card, building an online company, and selling it to a San Francisco-based More.com at the height of the Dot Com Boom all before the age of 30. An original disruptor, he and his sister next launched Coastal.com owners of Clearly. Under Roger’s leadership, the company became the world's leading digital eyewear retailer, going public on NASDAQ before being acquired by Essilor for $450 million cash.

Main Takeaways:

●  Building a Digital Marketplace vs. A Brick and Mortar

●  KITS’ Catalyst for Innovation in the Eyecare and Eyewear Industry

●  Learning to Stay Innovative

In this episode, Jonathon Hensley is joining me to have a conversation about his new book, and discuss what causes digital product failure, the root causes of failure, and how organizations internally sabotage themselves.

Jonathon is the Co-Founder & CEO of EMERGE, a digital product consulting firm that works with companies to improve operational agility and customer experience. For more than two decades, Jonathan has helped startups, Fortune 100 brands, and technology leaders transform their businesses by turning strategies into valuable digital products and services. Jonathan just released his new book, Alignment: Overcoming internal sabotage and digital product failure.

Main Takeaways:

● The Root Causes of Failure

● Leadership Problems Equals Digital Product Failure

● Are Organizations Actually Effective at Learning From Their Failures?

In this episode, Céline Williams discusses everything culture-related. How do we start leading our organizations with culture by design, not by default?

Céline Williams (ACC, CCUG) is an international speaker and the founder of reVisionary, a boutique consulting firm providing executive coaching, leadership development, and culture services to human-focused businesses around the world. She also has her own leadership podcast called Leading Through Crisis.

Main Takeaways:

My guest, Parker Stevenson, and I talk all about finance. We talk about the biggest financial mistakes entrepreneurs are making, what numbers and metrics matter when growing your business when it’s financially responsible to quit your job to pursue your business, and more!

Main Takeaways:

In this episode, my guest, Jennifer Chapman, and I talk all about creating a sustainable work-life, not just for yourself, but for your team. Jennifer Chapman used to be a workaholic, known as the go-to person for getting things done and managing the most difficult clients at a Fortune 500 consulting firm. She thrived in challenging situations, proving to others time and time again that she was invincible. Eventually, Jennifer’s mental and physical health began to suffer, so she decided to create a new professional and personal life that aligned with what she valued most. 

Main Takeaways:

● Creating Healthy Boundaries

● How to Give Yourself Permission to Create a New Path

● Teaching Your Team Good Work Boundaries

In this episode, my guest, Jim Van Over, and I talk about the necessity of failure for innovation. We discuss how human innovation inherently coexists with failure, the ways organizations and leadership can approach failure for growth, and how Elon Musk gamifies innovation.

Main Takeaways:

● The Intersection of Innovation and Failure

● Setting Up Learning Through Failure in Organizations and Leadership

● How Elon Musk Has Gamified Innovation Through Incentivisation; Does it Work For Everyone?

Welcome to Innovation Meets Leadership. On this episode with my guest and my dear friend, Loretta Edmond, we discuss personal reinvention through mental focus and prioritizing what really matters in life.

Main Takeaways:

● How Crisis Can Be a Catalyst for Transformation

● How To Reinvent Yourself Despite Fear

● Having The Right Mindset And Changing The Fear Narrative In Our Heads

Denelle Dixon is the CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation, a non-profit organization using blockchain to unlock the world’s economic potential by making money more fluid, markets more open, and people more empowered.

Denelle previously served as COO of Mozilla, one of the most successful mission-driven open-source organizations. During her tenure at Mozilla, she led the organization’s business, revenue and policy teams including the ongoing fight for Neutrality and the global effort to ensure that people can control their personal data. She also pushed Mozilla to understand how to partner with commercial entities while staying true to its core mission of openness, innovation, and opportunity on the web.

Main Takeaways:

● How Leaders Can Practically Introduce Diversity Into Their Company

● The Ways Fintech Can Improve the Lives of Minorities Who Have Been Excluded

Eric Gibbs serves as President for Ouriginal, a text-similarity detection software that assists K-12 districts and higher education institutions in safeguarding their academic integrity initiatives. Eric is an accomplished business executive with over 20 years of experience in the education technology industry. He creates innovative and successful go-to-market strategies within K-12 and higher education markets.

Main Takeaways:

● How Ouriginal is Safeguarding and Promoting Academic Integrity

● Innovation in Detecting Plagiarism and Verifying Authenticity

● The Future of Educational Software and Technology

Katie Mares knows first-hand the challenges brands have when launching & maintaining their brand from customer acquisition through in-person interaction. Using her experiences as a Chief Operational Officer, building company infrastructure, and designing customer experience programs, Katie is now a leading voice inspiring positive, actionable change for Permashield USA.

Main Takeaways:

Matt Kopko is DailyPay's Vice President of Public Policy, where he manages DailyPay's interactions with regulators, legislators, other government officials, and stakeholders. Matt was drawn to DailyPay because he has a passion for focusing on emerging technologies that help improve the lives of millions of working individuals.

Main Takeaways:

● How DailyPay is Helping Employees Get Out of Living Paycheck to Paycheck

● How Empowering Employees With Financial Peace of Mind Benefits Employers

● The Future of Employee Salary Platforms

As CEO and co-founder of AutoLeadStar, Aharon Horwitz is passionate about bringing cutting-edge technology solutions to the forward-thinking dealership. He leads a team committed to increasing dealership sales through improved efficiency, scalability, and personalized customer experience. He regularly speaks and writes about automotive innovation, contributing to industry publications including Dealer Magazine and Dealer Marketing. A long-time entrepreneur, Aharon’s drive for developing useful technology with tangible results has garnered coverage by Inc. Magazine, The Next Web, and LifeHacker, Mailchimp, Infusionsoft, and major automotive publications.

Main Takeaways:

● How AutoLeadStar is changing the way dealerships do marketing

● Flexing and pivoting in 2020

● The future innovation of the Automotive Industry and what to look forward to

Dr. Kendra A. Momon is Interim Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, GA, where she also serves as Chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Taskforce and Director of the Rich Foundation Urban Leadership Program.

She is an expert on a variety of intersectionalities within American Politics, Leadership, The Black Church, Women in Politics, and Hip Hop Culture. She is the author of African American Politics, and her most recent book, Being As Leading: Your Roadmap To Shaping Culture Through Life’s Disruptions.

She is an in-demand public speaker, intellectual, guest commentator, and lecturer whose voice and perspective has been shared on a variety of local, national, and international platforms including NPR, CNN, CNNI, The Associated Press, The AJC, The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Rhode Island College, The University of California, San Francisco, UGA, and LSU.

Main Takeaways:

Jason Chlipala, the COO of the Stellar Development Foundation, started his career as a tax and corporate attorney but then made the switch to the tech world when he joined Palantir. There he led teams of engineers, data scientists, and designers building custom solutions to data problems at large companies. Before joining SDF, Jason was the COO of Interstellar, where he worked on all areas of the business. Jason attended Cornell University, where he earned a BA in Mathematics and received his JD from Yale Law School in 2009.

Main Takeaways:

● What is The Stellar Development Foundation?

● The Stellar Network (Similar to Blockchain)

● Blockchain (and other similar systems) and how it affects the FinTech Industry

As we continue to celebrate Women’s Month, we are joined today by two female Superstars Laurie Halter & Ilana Shabtay from season one.

Jim Kalbach is an author, speaker, and instructor in design. Jim has authored the books Designing Web Navigation, Mapping Experiences, and the most recent one, The Jobs To Be Done Playbook, which we will be talking about in this episode.

Jim is currently the Chief Evangelist at MURAL, the leading online whiteboard. He is responsible for advocating for imagination work, remote collaboration, creative teamwork, design thinking, and more.

Main Takeaways:

● Explanation of The Jobs To Be Done Playbook

● Customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than companies that focus on the customer

● How Outcome-Driven Innovation differs from other methods of innovation

● Find the unmet market needs before the market finds them

● Why Job Maps are important

Stacey Speller is an accomplished leadership and personal development professional with over 15 years of delivering results. After being personally mentored by New York Times best-selling author and INC Magazine’s “leadership guru” Dr. John C. Maxwell, her specialty is working with high-performing world leaders, government officials, CEOs, and their teams, looking to impact their bottom line through results-oriented training. Through the John Maxwell Company, Stacey has worked globally with Fortune 500 Corporations, including Coca-Cola, Sasol Oil, Walmart/Mass Mart, World Bank, Standard Bank, Woolworth’s, and Planet Fitness.

Main Takeaways:

● Being a woman leader is hard and got even harder because of the situations brought upon by the pandemic

● The pandemic has brought opportunities for women leaders to step up

● Women are innovators – don’t underestimate yourselves!

● Women are naturally curious, and curiosity is the birth of a possibility thinker, and being a possibility thinker is the foundation of innovation

Jeremy is a designer, strategist, and consultant for Territory Global. He uses human-centered design and expert facilitation to help leaders and their teams to tap into their innate brilliance to solve fuzzy problems.

Jeremy is a gifted strategist, and every moment working with him is a continuous learning experience. In today’s episode, Jeremy and I talk about being a generalist. Are you one of us? Then this episode is for you!

Main Takeaways:

● What makes someone a generalist

● The dilemmas of being a generalist

● Why being a generalist can be a superpower

● Advice from one generalist to another

Let’s welcome the first-ever returning guest from season one, Aaron Born. Previously, he walked us through leading volunteers in crisis. Today, we’ll be talking about a book that has made such a big impact on our leadership.

Aaron Born is the Men’s Ministry Director for Victory Church, a multi-site church of over 20,000 households and 140 nations based in the Atlanta area.

Main Takeaways:

Today’s guest is Shawn Richards. He is the owner of Blue Sky Business Consulting. For over 25 years, Shawn has worked with and for small businesses, startups, and leadership positions. Currently, he specializes in teaching leadership principles centered on employee and team engagement. He is also the author of the Thrive Engagement System and the host the Team Engagement Podcast.

Main Takeaways:

● The 3 components to building a high-performing team

● The critical roles of a team leader

● How to engage with your nonhigh-performing team members

● Advice on how to become a better leader

Tamara Laster is the Vice President of Global Sales Strategy at InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG). As Vice President of Global Sales Strategy, Tamara leads a team responsible for driving IHG's B2B sales strategy, programs and initiatives for IHG's corporate, groups and meetings, and small and medium-sized enterprises, including the IHG Business Edge program.

Tamara is no ordinary leader; she approaches leadership in a non-traditional way. Being exposed to different leadership types and learning from the leaders she met along her journey helped shape the leader she has become.

Main Takeaways:

● Become your own version of a leader

● Be your true authentic self

● Leadership is a constant opportunity to learn and grow

● The fundamentals of Tamara’s leadership style

● Tamara’s advice for leaders

Eric Lent is the Global Chief Marketing Officer for World 50. As a key senior leader, Eric runs the marketing function globally, where he has strategic and tactical responsibility for the development and delivery of overall marketing performance and brand strategy.

Outside of work, Eric is an advisor to 48in48, an organization dedicated to building websites for non-profits. Previously, he served as Board Chairman for the Towson University College of Business and Economics, where he received the Dean’s Recognition Award for his lifetime of career successes.

Main Takeaways:

● Eric’s Journey

● As leaders, you need to model the change you want to see

● You grow the most when you step into a mess

● Eric’s advice for people afraid of failure

● How the pandemic helped shape the future of leadership

● What qualities a leader should have

Are you Interested in starting your podcast but don’t know where or how to start? Then, this episode is the one for you! Join me for the final episode of Innovation Meets Leadership Season 1, where I talk about all things podcasting. From how to start, the things you need, and other factors involved. Tune in as I help you create a plan for building your podcast.

Main Takeaways:

● The FOUR Main Areas in Starting Your Podcast

● Advice for when to move the needle on audience growth and monetization

Be sure to check out full show notes at https://innovationmeetsleadership.com/resources

Territory’s Persona Mapping Activity: https://territory.co/tool/aoo-persona-mapping-activity/

Throughout 2020 and due to COVID-19, a record number of podcast shows have been launched. Not only has the number of podcasts increased, so has the amount of listenership. With the boom of the podcasting industry, have you ever wondered why it has become so popular? What value does it bring to its audience? Join me as we talk about what podcasting can teach you.

Main Takeaways:

Principles I learned through podcasting

Melanie Borden has spent the majority of her 14+ year marketing career in the automotive tech industry. Melanie has worked in various atmospheres, from social media startups to a public tech company in consulting, marketing, and business development roles. She has driven marketing efficiencies for her clients along the eastern seaboard from NYC to Burlington, VT. Melanie is the driver for the marketing vision and strategy from inception to execution for the clients she has worked with. Presently, she is the Vice President of Marketing for Celebrity Motor Cars, a franchised Highline auto group based out of the New York and New Jersey Metropolitan area. Melanie develops and implements every single facet of the marketing and advertising strategy and single-handedly built the in-house advertising agency.

Main Takeaways:

● You need a plan of intent when building your social media presence and brand

● How to decide what platforms to focus on

● How to monitor the growth of your brand

● Things you can do the old-fashioned way (offline)

● There is no one size fits all plan for building your social media presence and brand

● Patience is a big part of growing your social audience.

Jodie Charlop founded Exceleration Partners, dedicated to helping professionals build career resiliency and successfully evolve to positions of leadership. Jodie helps her clients transform into powerful leaders by tackling blind spots that may be stealing their leadership power. Jodie has served as a full-time executive coach since 2004.

Main Takeaways:

● What is Leadership Agility?

● How to define your Leadership Agility moving into 2021  

● Creating a life that matters

● Moving through the struggles of life

With nearly 30 years of experience coaching in both private and non-profit sectors, John helps individual organizations clarify who they are, why they’re here, and where they should invest their time and energy.

John is a successful entrepreneur, business owner, and offers business coaching and group coaching, and he is the host of the Relationships & Revenue podcast.

Main Takeaways:

● Selling and leadership is serving, and marketing is storytelling.

● Three questions that John asks people interested in starting a business

● Three things that are important when you are starting a business or creating a product

● The difference between FAILING and FAILURE

● Our pain is not for us. Our pain is actually for other people.

Be sure to check out full show notes at https://innovationmeetsleadership.com/resources

You can connect with John @johnhulen on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter, and @john.hulen on Facebook.

Resources Mentioned:

Gianni Quintana is the founder and CEO of DigiTechy, an inbound marketing services, and conversational marketing platform. He is also the host of Smart Chickens Diversity Drives Innovation & Growth Show, and he has over 15 years of experience in strategic marketing. Gianni is a firm believer that where we come from shapes who we become both in life and our career.

Main Takeaways:

● What is Marketing Automation

● Innovations in Marketing Automation

● Metrics for good Marketing Automation

● The roles of Marketing Automation Consultants

David Turetsky serves as a managing consultant and is responsible for consulting with clients on people analytics, total rewards, and other HR data governance issues at Turetsky Consulting. In his role, David consults with clients worldwide and is focused on improving their usage of data, analytics, and HR processes in support of their business. David and his team partner with their clients to provide ideas, insights, and best practices to optimize people insights.

Main Takeaways:

● Innovation in HR Data & Analytics

● Improve your HR Data & Analytics Team

● Best practices for innovation in the HR data & analytics space

My guest today is Ron Hayman Sr.. Ron is a disabled veteran who served in the Army during the Vietnam war, where he was deployed to Korea. While in Korea, Ron was a communications tech. Recently retired from AT&T, after 19 years as a Sr. Network Support Analyst. He is now the founder of I Honor Your Service To America, a 501c3 Charity.

Main Takeaways:

● Bringing honor, support, and courage to our deployed personnel

● I Honor Your Service To America’s mission

● Continuing their mission even in adversity

● How you can get involved in I Honor’s cause

Be sure to check out full show notes at https://innovationmeetsleadership.com/resources

You can follow Ron Hayman Sr. on the following platforms:

Today’s guest is the Senior Vice President of If/Then, Dave Rickett. Dave is a creative visionary in digital strategy and user interface. He is also a strong proponent of user-first methodologies. He helped shape the user experience for brands such as Coca-Cola, The College Board, and ING.

Dave strongly believes that User-First Innovation is key to a successful, scalable, long-term business. If you don’t focus on your customers, you will end up being left in the dust of your competition.

Main Takeaways:

● User-First Innovation, what it truly means for your business

● How to step-up your User-First Innovation game

● Going beyond User-First Innovation

Nagini Indugula is a product leader with a lifelong passion for bringing user value to the forefront of strategy and decision making. She has vast experience in digital marketplaces, consumer, and enterprise SAAS products at startup to mid-sized companies. Most recently, as the VP/Head of Product, she oversaw the Product, Platform, and Design team at NCSA Sports. Before NCSA Sports, she was a Product Director at CareerBuilder and launched several new products – Semantic Search, Talent Network, and Work@ (patent pending). She also serves as a product advisor to several startup companies. She graduated from Kellogg School of Management with an MBA in Strategy and Entrepreneurship. She also holds a Master's in Computer Science from K-State.

Main Takeaways:

● Innovation for product leaders

● Creating a culture of performing tests and experimentations when you have an idea

● How to pitch your ideas to your team leader or boss

Resources Mentioned:

● CareerBuilder

● Why Test and A Framework for Testing Methods by Nagini Indugula and Amy West

Dave Allen is a product executive who spent the last 25 years leading multiple innovation teams at various start-ups and fortune 500 organizations. Within those roles, he has launched a host of market-leading solutions for small and large financial institutions. You can find him speaking at various conferences and even at the Federal Reserve, focusing on how technology can bring greater financial inclusion for the underbanked. Currently, he is the co-founder and CEO of PayDN, a payment and data network focusing on expanding the underbanked community's digital payment options.

Main Takeaways:

● Innovation in Financial Technology

● What PayDN is all about

● Banking transactions through the cloud

● Advice for entrepreneurs trying to get the ball rolling on their ideas

Today my guest is Abdel Tefridj. Abdel is the CEO and CPO at Data Bid Machine, designed to optimize companies' traffic acquisition. He is a technology and product executive with an extensive background in eCommerce, data science, and software development. He is advising several growing companies in their digital transformation and scaling their data science initiatives.

Main Takeaways:

● Customer-driven innovation

● Customer-centric business framework

● Abdel’s advice on how you can be more innovative and become a “think outside of the box” person

Matt Morasky is back for round two of our discussion. If you missed the first discussion, I urge you to go back to the previous episode titled "Innovation and Design Thinking with Matt Morasky - Part 1" before listening to this episode.

Through the Growth Initiative Brief process, one idea spiders into three ideas: spiders into five ideas and then spiders into more and more ideas. In this episode, Matt walks us through the growth initiative brief that you surely wouldn't want to miss!

Main Takeaways:

The Growth Initiative Brief - Link to Resource: https://bit.ly/3coYJgE

Matt Morasky has been a practitioner of design thinking and visual thinking for more than a decade. In the course of designing and delivering scores of programs throughout Europe and North America, Asia, and Africa, Matt established the Amsterdam Visual Thinking School and has written, taught, and spoke on the topic around the globe. Matt is also co-author of The Art of Opportunity, a practical guide to identifying, developing, and launching new business opportunities through strategic innovation.

Let’s dive into part one of this interview and talk about the idea behind “big innovation” vs. “practical innovation”?

Main Takeaways

● Big Innovation vs. Practical Innovation

● Having the freedom to advance your ideas and tackling limitations within an organization

● Tips for leaders on how to get their people to think more innovatively

● How to improve the flow of ideas in an organization

With the advancement of technology comes the rise of its applications to businesses. Joining us today is Ron Hayman, the COO & Chief Cloud Officer of AVANT Communications. Ron is an experienced global executive, having worked in 25 countries with a talent for managing turn arounds, start-ups, and growing departments to scale. He is here to talk about why the demand for “Cloud” is continuously increasing for large organizations and start-ups.

Main Takeaways:

● What is a “Cloud” and why companies are moving towards this technology

● Ways that a Cloud allows for innovation

Be sure to check out full show notes at or click the "Episode Website" below.

Today we are starting a series on Innovation. This episode is all about The Art of Corporate Innovation. I want to talk to you today about how to build a culture that focuses on innovation and how to look for this when you are potentially checking out a new company. Furthermore, I want to demystify the word innovation. Sometimes this word can feel lofty and disconnected from the day to day work we know we must do to keep the business afloat.

Stick around until the end, and I will tell you how you can access my free innovation assessment.

Main Takeaways:

1.) How to Create a Culture Focused on Innovation

2.) The Innovation Starter Guide

Joining us today is the Director of Marketing at AutoLeadStar and "growth hacker," Ilana Shabtay. Ilana believes that what brought her to where she is today is her ability to apply and take constructive criticism. As a team leader, she promotes not just her growth but also the growth of all her team members and believes that to succeed as a team, you have to understand your member's strengths and weaknesses and play off them.

Main Takeaways on this episode:

1.) How to Evolve Your Career

2.) How Cultural Differences Play a Role in Teams

3.) Call Your Shots

Today I am joined by author, international keynote speaker, host of FlipMyFunnel Podcast, and co-founder of Terminus, Sangram Vajre. Sangram is passionate about being a positive impact on people’s lives. He believes that a clear sense of belonging must exist within your community to be a successful organization.

Main Takeaways in this episode:

1.) Sangram’s thought leadership idea - belongship

2.) Sangram’s PEAK Framework

Today we are speaking with an accomplished engineer, businesswoman, and the founder & CEO of Capstone Performance Solutions, Dr. Tina Woodard. Dr. Tina is an accomplished HR leader that aids in implementing innovative organizational effectiveness and leadership development. She emphasizes that to be a good leader, you have to lead with empathy, patience, and communication.

Main Takeaways on this episode:

1.) Right Talents, Right Capabilities of Leaders

2.) How to Hire the Right People

3.) Pushing Your Leadership Skills to the Next Level

Today we are speaking with entrepreneur, speaker, software engineer, and founder of 7Factor Software, Jeremy Duvall. Jeremy believes that it’s both an art and a science when hiring technical talents and that good culture is essential within your company to create an environment where people can enjoy themselves yet still deliver desired results.

Main Takeaways on this episode:

1.) Hiring for Culture

2.) The Toxic Subcultures in Start-Ups

3.) Bad Code Kills

Our guest today, Dr. Dawn Marie Kier is affectionately known as the “heart doctor.” She is the founder of New Dawn Consulting and has spent the last 22 years helping leaders, franchisees, and organizations in the fast-casual, franchise, and retail space. She helps leaders identify and remove the root problems that keep teams and organizations from achieving desired outcomes.

Main Takeaways from this episode:

1.) How Should We Start To Cultivate Influence

2.) A Leader’s Influence

3.) “Results Through Relationship” vs. “Relationships Through Results”

Today we are speaking with the technology executive, investor, venture capitalist, and the SVP of Equifax, Lo Li. Lo is very passionate about spotting high potential leaders. She puts more emphasis on choosing leaders that are resilient and are comfortable with failure. Leaders will fail, and that’s perfectly fine as long as they learn from it and grow over time.

Main Takeaways on this episode:

1.) Spotting High Potential Leaders

2.) The Process Of Doing "The Shift"

3.) How Do You Spot Resiliency In Someone?

Today we are speaking with the author, coach, and founder of TalentRevolution.me, Kene Iloenyosi. Kene Iloenyosi teaches his clients how to discover their purpose and work in their Career Sweet Spot. This process starts with identifying their innate abilities, and how best to use them in a fulfilling and engaging career.

Main Takeaways on this episode:

1.) Maximizing Your Natural-Given Talents

2.) Talent Revolution

3.) Your Leaders' Role On Your Growth

Today we are speaking with a writer, speaker, and founder of ConnextionPoint, Amy Balog. Amy designed a comprehensive coaching approach that allows leaders to harness their most significant internal leadership asset, their center. The experience of Amy's clients is a journey to find their peace as the ultimate source of their potential and performance.

Main Takeaways on this episode:

1.) Peace Over Performance

2.) Discovering our Dark Side and Self-Awareness

3.) Choosing Humility Over Pride

We have started a series focused on the most important assets in our businesses, people, and what they bring to the table every day which is their talent. In this episode, we will talk about identifying the right people to hire and promote and how we should think about our own talent and the talent in others.

Main Takeaways on this episode - The X Factor on Talent:

1.) Humility

2.) Teachable

3.) Failure

This is the last episode in this series “Leading in Crisis” and I’m taking this moment to talk about the racial injustices that have resurfaced to headlines upon the George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery deaths, amongst countless others. Leaders, it’s about time to end the silence. How does race play a role in business and on our teams? What can we do? Where do we begin? Let’s talk about it.

Main Takeaways on this episode:

Today we caught up with Theresa Ward, founder of The Fiery Feather. Theresa’s clients are brought peace of mind through her expertise in training, communications, project management, relationships, and overall culture development. She embraces work that involves both big-picture strategies and rigorous roll-up-the-sleeves tasks. She ensures that her clients will continue to compete at a high level in any circumstance.

Main Takeaways on this episode:

1.) How To Maximize Your Productivity During Crisis

2.) The importance of intentional living

AVP of Product and Engineering at Cox Automotive, Ebenezer Ikonne, helps teams develop and deliver software solutions that are transforming the automotive industry. He is a champion of Agile and Lean practices that solve the challenges of a dynamic business landscape. He is passionate about evolving how work gets done and wants people to experience “Joy At Work”.

Main Takeaways on this episode:

1.) How the Auto Industry, and Engineering Teams Adapt to the “New Normal”

2.) Opportunities That We Can Take Advantage of During Crisis

3.) Eb’s New Content Called “Joy At Work”