Episodes

Join us for an interview with Daniel Elizalde , who is a Product Advisor for Climate Tech Companies. Daniel talks about moving from corporate to startup to consulting to teaching and the need to understand the world of each organization and their issues to assess how you can provide value. For Daniel, documenting his philosophy helps him share his value related to each context. Since it is so frequent for Catalysts to switch contexts frequently, this is a must listen! For more information, visit...

Join us for an interview with Toby Trevarthen who helps individuals and organizations become aware of and claim their stories, or narratives, as he calls it. We discuss the intersection of having orgs and people share their narratives to assess if there is a fit. He talks about being inspired by a leader who created a 'user manual' and had his employees do the same, helping them work better together. Toby inspires all of us to know ourselves, our values, our purpose and how we work best and comm...

Join us for an interview with Nimesh Jhaveri , the President of Community Pharmacy and Health at McKesson shares his infectious positive energy about his journey helping to transform the pharmacy industry. In his view, truly vulnerable leadership is one of the most important attributes to leading change. It's not enough to talk about "fail fast", as a leader you need to share your past fails and lessons learned to create the safe place for other's to try new things and stumble. If you need a dos...

Join us for an interview with Erica Kuhl , who is the CEO & Strategic Community Consultant at EKC. She tells us all about the early days of 'community' building and how the burgeoning field is a great place for Catalysts to work in. We discuss flying under the radar to build out proof points and how it is the Catalyst's job to help others understand the value of what they've done, not wait for others to notice and understand. In Before the Lock is her podcast, where she talks about community, cu...

Join us for an interview with Jason Putnam , who is the Chief Revenue Officer at Plum. Jason is a true Catalyst leader with an incredibly distinguished career of success after success. His secret? Listen deeply and learn how to communicate to the needs of each individual stakeholder. He mentions the Talent Breakdown Assessment which you can find here . Original music by Lynz Floren .

Join us for an interview with Jennifer Cotie Kangas , a Catalyst with an interesting Hero's journey. In 2020 an accident gave her the gift of a beginners mindset. She had to relearn everything - how to talk, to how to walk, and how the world worked. Her mentor helped her see that she had lost her design bias when she fell. Without the guardrails gleaned from her past experiences she could connect the dots in ways other people couldn’t. The beginners mindset was forced upon her and taught her tha...

Join us for an interview with Justin Lokitz , who is a Catalyst, Entrepreneur, Advisor, Author and Professor. In this episode, Justin shares how he has learned to ask for help to drive success. When he reflects back on things he wished he had known earlier in his journey, he says asking for help would have minimized failures and accelerated wins. As he manages a ton of catalytic projects today, he still has to stop himself and either ask friends for help or hire people to compliment his skillset...

Join us for an interview with Carina Wong, who is the former Deputy Director at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She talks about how stepping out of a managerial leadership position into a Senior Advisor position helped her realize the importance of her role as the only woman of color in senior leadership. She not only started focusing on supporting women of color claim their power, she also thought deeply about exploring a Catalyst succession plan and considering who would take on the man...

Join us for an interview with Dr. Dawnté Early , who is President & CEO of United Way California Capital Region. She is tackling systemic poverty through a data-driven ecosystem approach. She shares about the importance of starting small, focusing on data, and bringing other's along on the journey. Original music by Lynz Floren .

Join us for an interview with Chris Librie , who is a Director of ESG at Applied Materials. He shares about his journey driving sustainability into some of the world's largest companies. Chris shares about the challenges and opportunities of helping his org drive to net zero carbon impact . One of his key learnings is about the importance of listening and patience as a Catalyst, which can unlock understanding of the shared wins for key stakeholder that you need to bring on the journey as you cre...

Join us for an interview with Dr. Jane Craig who led global leadership development at Mars Inc. as she talks about the importance of Catalysts working on themselves to support their external change work. There is a path of personal development that supports our professional path! Check out Jane's company website at otherkind.co.uk . Original music by Lynz Floren .

Join us for an interview with Jacci Johnson . She shares about the role psychological safety has in allowing teams to be creative and innovative, what it feels like to be on both a safe and unsafe team, and how each impacts us as Catalysts. There are 4 levels of psychological safety, and an importance in using intuition for all leaders. A safe environment can allow us each to be in touch with our intuition! Original music by Lynz Floren .

Join us for an interview with Mai Vang , who is a City Council Member for the City of Sacramento. Mai identifies the biggest challenges to be solved and catalyzes the community to make big changes happen. She was the eldest of 16 kids and learned young the power of enlisting others to distribute work. In her work as a councilwoman she tackles the biggest issues by identifying the right groups & organizations to be part of creating the solution. Often there are misunderstandings between those gro...

Join us for an interview with Guido Jouret , who is the Former Chief Development Officer at Plume. Dr. Guido Jouret has had an incredible journey leading change in some of the world's largest organizations. In our conversation, Guido shares about the power of having a "T-career" as a Catalyst; developing deep domain experience in one area early in your career which then sets you up to be able to connect dots across disciplines. He encourages younger Catalysts to lean into your strengths instead ...

Join us for an interview with Tyrome Smith , who has spent almost 20 years honing his skills in enterprise strategy and value clarification. Providing trusted advisorship to senior leadership to assist in organizing problem-solving resources to clarify their thinking and execution. Developing and facilitating learning experiences for organizations to assist promote human development, organizational growth, and customer value and loyalty. Original music by Lynz Floren .

</p Join us for an interview with Trent Cotton , who is the Senior Global Director of Talent Acquisition and Retention at Hatchworks. He is passionate about leading, innovating and engaging the recruiting industry to change how both large and small businesses value the Talent Acquisition discipline. He is the author of the book "Sprint Recruiting: Innovate, Iterate, Accelerate". His blog Sprintrecruiting.com reaches thousands of readers and provides unique insights on a range of recruiting topi...

Join us for an interview with Ryan Clark . For Ryan it isn't just a quick conversation, it is about developing a relationship and really letting people see you like family and finding a way to support Catalysts around you by mentoring & sponsoring them. He is passionate on using entrepreneurship to create change and creating by example. Original music by Lynz Floren

Join us for an interview with Eric West , who's career started on the manufacturing floor of the Black Hawk Helicopter, to DARPA-funded R&D projects. More recently, he is working on external-focused resources across open innovation at Harman, professional services at Samsung & mobility partnerships at Ford. He's been on a technology-led warpath to build new businesses in adjacent frontiers of corporate strategies and is most inspired by collaborative models that help us all work on things that i...

Join us for an interview with Faye Sahai , Partner at Telosity Ventures, investing in digital wellness and behavioral health startups with the Telosity Fund and advising corporations on innovation. She has served an Advisor and Board member to over a dozen companies including UCSF Catalyst, ANA Innovation Advisory, Samsung Emerging Technology Advisory, Innovation Executive Forum, Summer Search, Autonomous ID, Ascend Leadership NorCal Chair, and Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. Original music ...

Join us for a conversation with Giselle Mota , who is a Principal Consultant on the Future of Work. Named a Top 100 Future of Work Thought Leader, she brings simplicity, humanity and innovative perspective to the sometimes abstract and complex world of the future of work. She’s a champion for an inclusive future of work which is reflected in her global speaking, advisory, and service across boards and leadership councils. Her work is focused on Web3 and spatial computing, artificial intelligenc...

Join us for a conversation with Chad Sowash , who is an army veteran and has successfully worked in partnership with hundreds of major Fortune 500 companies, federal, state, and local government to build specialized programs supporting companies' recruitment processes. Many of these programs are focused on connecting great companies with qualified veteran talent. Chad helps organizations fill their skills gaps with qualified military candidates transitioning to civilian life. Original music by L...

Join us for a conversation with Christopher Cravens , who is a Silicon Valley veteran with a quarter century of successes delivering measurable value for high-growth enterprises. He was the first CIO at Zynga and Uber, helping scale them from small startups to major global enterprises in record time. Chris is an active strategic advisor, investor and coach to startups delivering innovative, disruptive technologies to accelerate digital transformation. Hearing him gives us a clear view of how imp...

Join us for a conversation with Navin Kunde , who leads the Open Innovation group at The Clorox Company, a US-based consumer goods company in the Fortune 500. He has over 20 years of research, operations, innovation and strategy experience in a few diverse fields, such as Aerospace & Defense, Business Consulting and Consumer Goods. Let's hear how he navigates his work as a Catalyst! Original music by Lynz Floren .

Join us for a conversation with Ashleigh Brookshaw , who is a Senior Manager of Digital Customer Experience at NICE CXone. She is responsible for the analysis, strategic recommendations, and change initiatives for the digital customer experience and online Customer Community. Ashleigh is a detail oriented and digital change enthusiast with expertise in online community engagement, cultural & transformative change management through DEI, and strategic digital communications to drive business resu...