Engineer Your Success

Episode 248 | Guest: Matt Gradados | Host Dr. James Bryant Episode Description Ignorance gets a bad rap. But this week’s guest, Matt Granados, calls it his greatest strategic asset — and once he explains why, you’ll see it too. James and Matt dig into what it actually takes to build a life and a business rooted in intentionality: the difference between truth and personal pref...

Guest: Douglas E. Noll, JD, MA | Host: Dr. James Bryant, P.E. A 22-year trial lawyer who walked away from a seven-figure career to become a peacemaker — and then took his methods into California’s most violent prison yards. Douglas E. Noll, JD, MA joins the show to break down a deceptively simple, neuroscience-backed technique for defusing any tense conversation in under 90 seconds. Jam...

Guest: Hitisha “Tish” Sharma, P.E. | Host: Dr. James Bryant, P.E. | Episode 246 What does it look like when a podcast becomes a coaching relationship before you ever meet the host? Hitisha “Tish” Sharma, P.E. — Associate Principal and Head of Electrical at a Bay Area engineering firm — has been part of the Engineer Your Success community for a long time, and in this episode she traces th...

Guest: Nick Serfass | Host: Dr. James Bryant Episode Description What happens when the skills you built in one profession turn out to be exactly what another field needs — even though you never planned for it? Nick Serfass trained as an architect, spent years designing healthcare facilities, and then accidentally built a career leading one of Richmond’s most impactful tech organizations...

How to stop avoiding the meeting you know you need to have and close the gap between what you intend and what you do. Episode Description There’s a difference between knowing what you should do and actually doing it — and most leaders have felt that gap. In this episode, Dr. James Bryant shares a real coaching story about a high-performing engineer named Debbie who kept deferring one critical lead...

Beyond the numbers on your dashboard lies a metric you can’t easily graph but can’t afford to ignore: love. In this episode of the Engineer Your Success Podcast, Dr. James Bryant continues the RVA Leaders Impact mini-series with Utibe “T-bay” Bassey, Vice President of Customer Experience at Dominion Energy and author of Love as a KPI . Together, they explore why the way people see and treat themse...

Ryland Potter is the U.S. Director at WDM, a company specializing in pavement condition measurement and friction management. Her work helps transportation agencies use friction data and leading indicators to make proactive decisions about their road networks — part of a broader effort to bring asset management thinking to road safety. In this conversation, she traces her own path through managemen...

Most people can name a building. Very few can name the people who made it possible. Crystal Miller is on a mission to change that — and she is starting long before students ever set foot on a job site. As the program director for architecture and AEC programs at Brightpoint Community College, Crystal sits at the intersection of education, workforce development, and mentorship. In this conversation...

Most leaders finish a quarter with a feeling — good or bad — but can’t fully explain why. The problem is usually the same: they never defined what winning looked like. In this Quarterly Review episode, Dr. James Bryant pulls back the curtain on Q1 2026 at Engineer Your Success — what the numbers actually mean, what worked, what didn’t, and what’s being built for Q2. This isn&#821...

Episode 239 Most business owners reach a point where they realize their company depends on them for everything — and that dependency isn’t just exhausting, it’s a ceiling on growth. But knowing that isn’t enough. The harder question is: what do you actually do about it? In this episode, Dr. James Bryant sits down with Laurie Barkman, a business advisor who has spent her career he...

What if exhaustion at the end of the day has nothing to do with how hard you worked — and everything to do with the state you were in while doing it? In this episode, Dr. James Bryant sits down with Deri Llewellyn-Davies, a former chemical engineer who spent decades studying peak performance in both extreme sport and the boardroom, to explore the science of flow state and why most leaders are unkn...

Episode 237 Description What does it look like when an industrial engineer decides that marketing has a measurement problem — and builds an entire business to solve it? Andy Janaitis, founder of PPC Pitbulls, turned his engineering training into a competitive advantage in a field that rarely asks whether the data is actually right. In this episode, Andy breaks down the systematic gap he found in d...

Episode 236: Most engineers and technical professionals are promoted because they’re exceptional at their craft. But nobody tells you that the skills that got you promoted are almost entirely different from the skills you need to lead. If you’ve ever felt underprepared stepping into a management role, this episode will tell you why — and more importantly, what to do about it. Ben Perre...

Episode Description Most leaders are already selling every day. They just don’t call it that. In this episode, Drew Norton — sales trainer, podcast host, and founder of the Everyday Sales Leader — makes the case that influence, discovery, and communication aren’t sales skills or leadership skills. They’re the same skill set, and most engineers are leaving them on the table. Drew...

Episode 234 What if the phrase “psychological safety” has been getting it wrong all along? In this episode, organizational culture expert Hacia Atherton reframes the conversation entirely — it’s not about creating safe spaces. It’s about creating brave spaces. And for engineering leaders navigating high-pressure environments, that distinction changes everything about how yo...

Episode Description: What if you could build an engineering firm where clients actually want to work with you AND top engineers want to work for you? Most firms assume you have to choose – either technical excellence or great relationships. Daniel McCaulley, founder of Ultimus Engineering, proved you can have both. In this conversation, Daniel shares how he went from corporate engineer to bu...

What happens when you’ve maxed out all your retirement accounts and followed every piece of conventional financial advice—but still aren’t sure you’re thinking about money the right way? Dr. Adam Link, founder of Fireweed Capital, brings a rare combination of Silicon Valley engineering leadership experience, multiple company exits, and deep finance expertise to challenge how tech...

Episode Description What happens when the technical skills that fueled your early career stop producing the same results? In this episode, Dr. James Bryant is joined by Dr. Bushra Khan , professor at the University of Ottawa and leadership coach for tech and engineering leaders, to explore why so many engineers hit an invisible career ceiling five to ten years into their careers. This isn’t about...

Episode Description: What if the secret to career advancement wasn’t networking or resume building—but simply doing excellent work right in front of you? In this conversation, nationally recognized lighting designer and electrical engineer Leslie North shares how she built Aurora Lighting Design from a home office into a thriving firm with offices in the Chicago Board of Trade—all through wo...

Episode Description: What happens when an engineer who’s great at solving technical problems suddenly gets told they need to sell? For many technical professionals, the shift from “doer” to “seller-doer” is one of the hardest transitions in their career. In this episode, Jessica Nuncio—VP of Business Development and Marketing at Naranjo Civil Constructors with nearly...

Episode Description: What happens when half of an entire profession retires within a few years? Dustin Gardner, a fourth-generation surveyor, is facing that reality head-on. The average licensed land surveyor is now in their early 60s, and the industry is racing against time to train the next generation before decades of expertise walks out the door. In this conversation, Dustin pulls back the cur...

Episode Description: What if the biggest risk to your project isn’t technical—it’s conversational? Most engineering projects fail not because of flawed plans or inadequate technology, but because teams aren’t having the right conversations about trust, coordination, and care. In this episode, Jason Klous, Principal at Midion with over 30 years in complex construction projects, re...

Episode Description: What happens when a construction leader decides that building people matters more than building projects? In this episode of the Engineer Your Success Podcast Heath Troyer—fourth-generation contractor, business owner, and national mental health advocate—opens up about the hidden crisis facing construction leaders today: managing projects has become easier than leading whole hu...

Episode Overview (EP 225) Struggling to find real success while juggling work and a personal life? In this uplifting episode of Engineer Your Success, Dr. James Bryant speaks with Amrit Dhaliwal , a driven entrepreneur who mastered the art of ‘making it up as he goes’—and still built and sold multiple businesses across diverse industries. Hear how Amrit transformed setbacks into million-pound wins...

🎧 Episode Overview (EP 224) Career paths in engineering are rarely linear—and the decisions that shape our work often ripple into our home lives in ways we don’t always anticipate. In this episode, Dr. James Bryant sits down with Eli May , an engineer who responded to an open call for podcast conversations shared in the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) forum. Eli brings a thought...