Leadership Unlocked: How Leaders Win in the Era of AI

Dusty sits down with Forrest for a practical conversation about scaling founder-led businesses, developing leaders, and building the systems that allow owners to finally get out of the middle of everything. Drawing from more than 25 years in operations and his experience with EOS, Forrest explains his “techability chart” framework for mapping an organisation’s technology stack, eliminating unneces...

Dusty goes solo to confront the “qualification lie”—the belief that leaders need deep technical expertise to lead effectively in the age of AI. Drawing from his lifelong “magnificent obsession” with leadership, nearly three decades of experience, and his own hesitation to enter the AI conversation, he explains how treating AI assistants like people—providing clear roles, expectations, context, mea...

Dusty goes solo to explain why he shelved a finished leadership manuscript and started over with Ancient Intelligence, a book built around a realization he had spent more than a year resisting: leaders do not need to become technologists to succeed with AI—they need to become better leaders in an environment where work is being done differently. Sparked by a blunt conversation with his friend Alex...

Dusty goes solo to make the case that the leaders who thrive in the age of AI will not be the ones chasing every new tool, but the ones who apply timeless leadership principles with greater focus and intention. Prompted by a CEO’s candid fear that she may not be “good enough” in this new era, Dusty introduces the central argument behind his upcoming book, Ancient Intelligence : AI is the fulcrum,...

Charlene Li joins Dusty to explore what decades of navigating disruption can teach leaders about the rapidly evolving age of AI. Drawing on her experience at Forrester, founding Altimeter, and advising executives through successive waves of technological change, Charlene argues that leaders should stop chasing every new AI tool and start with the problems they actually need to solve. She explains...

Dusty challenges leaders to rethink the way they protect and use their time, arguing that time blocking is only the first step and that the real return comes from defining the outcome before the clock starts. He introduces the concept of outcome blocking—taking 60 seconds at the beginning of a meeting, work session, or calendar block to decide exactly what “done” looks like, how the work connects...

Stepping into a larger leadership role can expose gaps in confidence, clarity, and execution—even for experienced operators. Rodney Binger shares how intentionally sharpening his leadership capabilities transformed the way he leads more than 80 people across MotorWorks, helping him move from leading in fear to leading with confidence, clarity, and purpose. From establishing rules of engagement and...

Marcel Schwantes’ journey into human-centered leadership began with a toxic workplace that pushed his body to its breaking point and ultimately led him to discover the power of servant leadership. In this conversation, Marcel and Dusty explore why caring about people is not a soft alternative to accountability, but the foundation for creating high-performing teams, strong cultures, and sustainable...

Shane Foye joins Dusty for a thoughtful conversation about the kind of leadership that can't be rushed. As the second-generation president of DW1, Shane shares how leading a growing family business has taught him that the best decisions rarely come from urgency—they come from creating space to think deeply, wrestle with difficult questions, and balance data with intuition. Drawing on lessons from...

Dusty sits down with Dave Garrison, former multinational CEO, board director, and author of The Buy-In Advantage , to explore why most organizations are leaving enormous human potential untapped. Dave explains the critical distinction between employee engagement and true buy-in, arguing that buy-in is the discretionary energy, creativity, and ownership people willingly bring to a shared mission—th...

Dusty sits down with Kurt Luidhardt, entrepreneur, political strategist, and co-founder of a firm that has helped elect more than 100 members of Congress, 15 senators, 14 governors, and a president. Kurt shares the leadership lessons he has learned from building a business around solving urgent client problems, emphasizing that successful companies are built by identifying existential needs rather...

Dusty sits down with Bryan Wish for a thoughtful conversation about personal branding, authentic leadership, and why every professional—not just entrepreneurs or executives—needs to intentionally shape how they show up in the world. Bryan challenges the misconception that personal branding is an exercise in self-promotion, arguing instead that it's the process of distilling your expertise, experie...

Dusty sits down with David Stupay, five-time CEO, executive recruiter, and founder of Platinum Search Partners, for a deeply human conversation about the relationships, experiences, and values that shape exceptional leaders. Drawing from an unconventional career that spans leading a homeless shelter, serving communities in East Africa, building organizations that support children with special need...

Dusty sits down with George Bryant for a deeply personal and thought-provoking conversation about identity, faith, leadership, and the lifelong pursuit of becoming who you were created to be. Drawing from a journey that includes military service, addiction, childhood trauma, entrepreneurship, suicidal struggles, and spiritual transformation, George challenges the conventional view of leadership as...

Dusty goes solo to challenge one of the biggest misconceptions leaders have about AI: that it should be managed like software rather than led like a person. Building on the themes of recent episodes about identifying opportunities and revealing hidden insights, he argues that the disappointing results many leaders experience with AI have less to do with the technology and more to do with the leade...

Dusty goes solo to explore a leadership skill that becomes exponentially more valuable in the age of AI: the ability to reveal insight rather than provide answers. Building on a conversation with a highly respected CEO who described his role as “handing people a blacklight,” he argues that great leaders are not the source of solutions—they are the source of clarity. Through stories from his own le...

Dusty goes solo to challenge the growing obsession with AI tools and argues that the leaders who will thrive in the next decade are not the ones chasing every new platform, but the ones who remain relentlessly focused on the problems that actually matter. Using Archimedes’ famous lever metaphor as the foundation, he reframes AI as an extraordinary source of leverage rather than a strategy in itsel...

Dusty sits down with Jessi Beyer for a deeply human and highly tactical conversation about suicide prevention, emotional awareness, and the leadership responsibility to truly see the people around you. Drawing from her experience as a crisis mental health professional and SWAT negotiator, Jessi reframes a staggering reality—roughly 4% of people are actively considering suicide at any given time—an...

Dusty goes solo for the one-year anniversary to tackle one of the biggest misconceptions leaders are facing in the age of AI—that better tools automatically create better organizations. Drawing from conversations with CEOs, research from McKinsey and BCG, and years of leadership coaching, he argues that AI doesn’t replace the fundamentals of leadership; it ruthlessly amplifies whatever leadership...

Dusty sits down with Alex Goldfayn for a practical and mindset-shifting conversation about proactive growth, everyday discipline, and why most leaders dramatically underutilize the opportunities already sitting inside their existing relationships. Drawing from his work helping companies generate millions in organic revenue, Alex challenges the default reactive posture that dominates sales and lead...

Dusty challenges one of the most ingrained—and damaging—habits in high-performing leaders: carrying everything themselves. Sparked by a blunt moment with a mentor who reframed not asking for help as “stealing opportunities” from others, he exposes three hidden stories that keep leaders stuck and overwhelmed—the Hero Myth (stepping in equals leadership), Imposter Syndrome (fear of being exposed), a...

Dusty sits down with Mike Milan, widely known as “Cashflow Mike,” for a high-impact conversation on leadership, communication, and the hidden power of financial clarity in business. From an unconventional start as a Missouri state trooper—where he mastered “verbal judo” and learned to meet people where they are—to building and advising more than 14 companies, Mike shares how his career has been sh...

Dusty goes solo to confront a subtle but damaging misconception at the heart of servant leadership—the belief that focusing on yourself somehow takes away from serving others—and argues the opposite: failing to lead yourself is the most selfish thing you can do. Drawing from personal experience and a powerful leadership session with a high-performing team, he exposes how neglecting self-leadership...

Dusty sits down with Jacob Karnes—leadership coach, author of Master Your First Job , and former Chick-fil-A leadership development professional—for a conversation about turning early career opportunities into the foundation for long-term leadership impact. Drawing from his journey from a reluctant teenage Chick-fil-A employee to corporate learning and development and ultimately entrepreneurship,...

Dusty goes solo to dismantle one of leadership’s most persistent myths—that work-life balance is something you can achieve and maintain—and replaces it with a more honest and actionable model: balancing as a daily discipline. Sparked by a question about staying present amid competing demands at work and home, he introduces a practical operating system built on three decision “gates” and two critic...