Episodes

Chris Williams first remembers becoming aware of race when his brother was stabbed several times in the back. His brother survived, but it gave Chris a lifelong passion of working for equity. As Global Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at CBRE, Chris is igniting change in a 68,000 person organization that operates in over 100 countries. To lead change on this scale, Chris talks about the importance of effective communication and collaboration. In order to create change with such a divers...

In this episode, Jess Harvie , Global DEI and Social Impact Leader (formerly at Snap and Justworks), highlights how trust and curiosity underpinned the work she did bringing The Action to Catalyze Tech Report (ACT Report) to life. The ACT report is an initiative to get the entire tech industry to collaborate around DEI work to 10x DEI results. This initiative stemmed from the realization that tech companies have been trying for years to solve systemic DEI on their own, while the reality was that...

In this episode, Blair Taylor , Former N America DEI Practice Leader, Accenture & Former DEI Lead Partner N. America, PwC, speaks from his deep experience driving massive change as a Catalyst in very large roles including as the Chief Executive Officer of My Brother’s Keeper Alliance (MBKA), a nonprofit launched by then President Obama. Blair shares that though we face a lot of big problems in this world, we need to focus on the fact that the problems are actually solvable. But Blair points out ...

In this episode, Krishna Manda , Vice President of Corporate Sustainability at Lenzing Group doesn't just talk about his commitment to slowing down to bring people along leveraging empathy, he embodies it. Krishna shares his simple framework: coherence, co-creation, co-elevation. Coherence is about finding shared value. Co-creation is necessary to both leverage everyone's expertise around the business, which is critical when driving company-wide sustainability initiatives, and helps people feel ...

Gloria Caulfield is an ultra Catalyst, creating change in so many venues as the VP of Strategic Alliances for Tavistock, the President of the Lake Nona Institute and Founder of ⁠Lake Nona Impact Forum⁠ just to name a few. In this episode, Gloria shares the importance of strong communication skills. If you're just starting to realize your vision and don't have any data or testimonials, you have to paint a clear picture of the vision in a way that makes your potential partners want to come along o...

Dave Zaboski is the ultimate storyteller, having worked as a Senior Animator at Disney during the Second Golden Age of Animation on films including “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King,” “Pocahontas,” “Aladdin,” “Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Hercules,” and “Fantasia 2000.” In this episode he shares the power of telling the story of the storyteller. When you think of the stories about iconic Catalyst leaders like Yvon Chouinard, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk or Satya Nadella, you quickly get a sense, for...

In this episode, the magical Kalifa Oliver , PhD, guides us on a journey to understand how listening, data, storytelling and speaking in your audiences' language (plus an infusion of humor!) is the formula to inching change forward. She explains that it is not data itself that helps people move toward change, but rather building a bridge from data to help people understand how things will be better if they act on that data. In our discussion she walks her talk - sharing rich and informative stor...

Our podcast guest Whynde Kuehn brings a piquing frame to Catalysts - while we set big, hairy goals, we spend most of our time on the journey to achieve those goals. And yet many of us suffer through resistance and burnout on that path. As an ultramarathoner and mountaineer Whynde sees her most important catalytic skill as 'taking a journey'. While climbing Aconcagua she spent only 0.12% of the time on the summit, while 99.88% was the journey to get there and back down. In this podcast she helps ...

In this episode, Brandon Powell , founder and CEO of HatchWorks Technologies, shares that his journey of self-exploration with coaches, therapists and fellow entrepreneurs has been the key to his success. Through this work he has transformed from a need to be the smartest person, to a desire to be the dumbest person in the room to ensure he is learning from others at all times which allows him to tackle challenges he never imagined possible! Check out this Mathew McConaughey Texas football speec...

Join us for an interview with Susan Lindner , who is CEO at Innovation Storytellers. In this episode world famous innovation storyteller, Susan Lindner, helps us understand the power of story - first how it is the essence of dreams, how it can shift mindsets and how it unlocks the future. Then she shares how taking time to understand other people's stories - in the form of their values, purpose and motivation - is the key to bringing people along. Join us as we explore the skill of storytelling!...

Join us for an interview with Sara Fenske Bahat , who is CEO at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. As Sara took her interim role as CEO of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, an employee asked her “Why should I invest in someone who is only here as interim CEO?” In this episode, Sara talks about the opportunities around coming in as an interim CEO and how she has chosen to focus on creating a culture of care for the leadership team and organization. She says it is about creating a culture that ca...

Join us for an interview with Amy Butchko , Vice President, Talent Acquisition at Maximus, helps us understand the power of intuition and how it allows her to tap into the energy behind what people are saying to give us signals on if the wind will have our back, or if resistance is on the horizon. In this episode we deep dive into how self-care actitivites are the way to cultivate our intuition, but there is no one set of activities - we need to experiment and find what works for each of us. In ...

Join us for an interview with Wendy Lea , CEO at Energize Colorado. The Sanskrit definition of tantra means "woven together." Wendy uses the notion of tantra to find threads in ambiguity and move that tantra tension from restrictive energy into something freeing. The ability to recognize it, sit with it, explore and bring in externalities while not run too fast towards solving the problem in front of her, has underpinned her incredibly successful career. She's been a change leader in large enter...

Join us for an interview with Helen Whitehead , who is Customer & Experience Design Associate Partner at IBM. In this episode we hear from design leader, Helen Whitehead about the importance of slowing down to speed up. Slowing down helps us check our bias, triggers and intent and cultivates our compassion and ability to listen deeply. And listening deeply allows us to develop better, critical solutions that brings diversity of experience and thought into the problem-solving process to help make...

Tiffani Bova , the Wall Street Journal best-selling author of Growth IQ , shares her personal journey of changing job roles and using feedback as the vehicle to identify, and hone her super powers. She calls on all of us to boldly ask questions and for feedback to guide our careers and protect our time. Be sure to check out her new book "The Experience Mindset: Changing the Way You Think About Growth". Original music by ⁠Lynz Floren⁠ .

Join us for an interview with Chris Schembra , who is the Founder of 7:47 Gratitude Experience ™. In this episode, Chris who is the "gratitude guru" and WSJ best-selling author of " Gratitude Through Hard Times ," shares his very personal story about how gratitude has gotten him through his toughest life challenges. The conversation ranges from Stoic philosophy to leveraging gratitude to reduce resistance to change. He has used his gratitude to spark over 500,000 individuals around the world. It...

Join us for an interview with Paul Delbar , who is Product Marketing Manager at OMP. In applying the Catalyst superpower of clarity and the learned skill of self-observation, Paul developed profound insights about how to move through the world as a Catalyst with less friction. One of the moments of clarity he came to was on page 66, paragraph 3 of our book Move Fast. Break Shit. Burn Out. "If it's not, then it's time to leave." Listen to this sage Catalyst as he outlines how clarity and self-ob...

Join us for an interview with Janice Fraser , who is a Partner at Seneca VC. In this episode, Janice who is an investor, speaker, author and expert in emerging management practices shares about how her superpowers as a Catalyst - all processor, no storage - can be a double-edged sword. She explains how she has developed the tools and capacities to work around it. So many of us Catalysts have been told that we're too intense or too blunt. We see visions of how things can be better so keenly and s...

Join us for an interview with Steve O'Brien , SVP of Talent at Syneos Health. He shares his left-brain, right-brain approach to catalyzing change. He shares concrete steps about the importance of bringing people on the journey. "If you win the argument but lose the person, you've still lost." He also talks about the importance of leveraging the power of beauty as a key component to creating change. If you're curious about the power of leveraging a philosophy degree in business, this conversation...

Join us for an interview with Robin Fleming , who is Chief Executive Officer at Evolv Tech. She may have uncovered the secret to overcoming, even avoiding imposter syndrome - admit when you don't know things and lean on the expertise of others to help make decisions. In this episode, Robin shares how learning on the fly and embracing all it entails can allow Catalysts to avoid our frequent brushes with imposter syndrome. Original music by Lynz Floren .

Join us for an interview with Karen Mangia , Vice President, Customer & Market Insights at Salesforce. In this episode, you can experience the laugh out loud highs, and the heartbreaking lows of being a Catalyst in one short episode. Karen is one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in the world. She is a Wall Street Journal best-selling author, host of the Success From Anywhere podcast and a Salesforce Executive. She is a Catalyst who uses curiosity and creativity to empower individuals, t...

Join us for an interview with Amy Radin who is Executive Advisor at Pragmatic Innovation Partners LLC. Amy explains why no CEO she has ever talked to has said that they aren't customer focused. To find more information, check out her website and her book . Original music by Lynz Floren .

Join us for an interview with Chad Sowash , who is the Co-Founder and Co-Host of Chad & Cheese Podcast. As Catalysts, our ability to connect dots and see brighter futures is one of our superpowers. But if we don't slow down, develop our patience and our ability to foster trust with those we need to bring on the journey, we will ultimately fail. In this episode, Chad Sowash, podcaster extraordinaire and HR leader shares how his time in the Army and his kids helped him develop these two key Cataly...

Join us for an interview with Aidan McCullen , who is Principal at Edge Behavior. Aidan has reinvented his life and career many times over - from rugby player to innovation specialist. The critical skills he has leveraged are a constant focus on not just transforming the world around him but transforming himself. In our discussion Aidan shares stories from his life about reframing failure as learning, and allowing Catalysts to constantly evolve so we don't burn up. He brings the poignant call to...