Rise To More

Former Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton joins Jasna Burza on Rise to More for a candid interview about his memoir, Perseverance, his political legacy, and finding purpose after leaving public office. Minnesota’s 40th governor and a former U.S. senator reflects on choosing public service over the family business behind Dayton’s department stores and Target, the advice Ted Kennedy gave him after an el...

AI is changing the way we work. But I’ve been thinking about what happens to us when the things we’ve spent years becoming good at begin to change . What happens when you’ve spent twenty years becoming exceptional at something, and suddenly a machine can do a good portion of it in seconds? What happens to the designer, the writer, the lawyer, the business owner who has built an entire identity aro...

What if some of the sleep advice you’ve been following isn’t actually right for your body? Neurologist and sleep specialist Dr. Michael Howell joins Jasna Burza for a fascinating conversation about what we’re getting wrong about sleep—and why understanding your own biology may matter more than following the latest sleep rules. They explore the biggest sleep lie Dr. Howell sees, why your chronotype...

What if the thing you think is helping you get ahead is actually keeping you stuck? After spending time with two extraordinary women recently, I started noticing a pattern I couldn’t stop thinking about. It made me question how we create, where our best ideas actually come from, and whether some of our most useful modern tools might have an unexpected downside. In this solo episode, I’m sharing wh...

Are travel sports, elite teams and expensive training actually helping our kids succeed—or are parents being sold a version of youth sports they don’t need? In this episode of Rise to More , recorded at Grand Casino Arena, home of the Minnesota Wild, Jasna Burza sits down with Mike Snee, Vice President of Foundation and Community Relations for the Minnesota Wild and creator of Skate It Forward , f...

What if the thing people keep telling you to soften is actually one of the reasons you’re so good at what you do? I kept thinking about that while reading Bobbi Brown’s Still Bobbi . Throughout her career, there were plenty of people with bigger titles and more traditional credentials telling her what she should change. Sometimes she listened. But often, she trusted herself—and some of the things...

What does it look like when one of the most recognizable sports organizations in the country uses its influence for something bigger than football? In this episode of Rise to More , Jasna Burza sits down at TCO Performance Center with Brett Taber, Vice President of Social Impact for the Minnesota Vikings , for a conversation about leadership, service, community, and what it really means to use you...

What if the life you’re supposed to want isn’t actually the life you want? After spending nearly a month in Europe, I came home with a realization that surprised me: I couldn’t wait to work. I missed my clients, Rise to More , creating, building—and instead of questioning why I couldn’t simply relax longer, I realized how deeply I love the life I’ve built. In this solo episode, I’m talking about w...

Recorded live at Target Field, this conversation goes far beyond baseball. Nancy O'Brien has spent more than two decades building the Minnesota Twins' community impact work — girls baseball teams, adaptive sports clinics, youth development programs, and a free community clinic tradition that started in 1961 and hasn't stopped since. Jasna and Nancy talk about what real leadership looks like when n...

I used to walk into every room and scan it first. What do they need from me? How do I come across as credible without coming across as too much? I built a real career that way. I was also exhausted in a way I couldn't name. In this episode I'm being honest about something I don't talk about enough - the performance. The softening. The slow, quiet habit of making yourself smaller so other people fe...

Guest: Tony Sanneh — Former U.S. National Team soccer player, 2002 World Cup veteran, 2026 National Soccer Hall of Fame inductee, and founder of the Sanneh Foundation Episode Description There's a version of Tony Sanneh's story that ends with the World Cup. Boy from St. Paul makes it to soccer's biggest stage, wins, lives well. The end. That's not his story. In this conversation, Tony and Jasna ta...

Most people wait until they’re ready. Greta Siedow raised her hand when she was 80% there, and ended up leading one of the largest women’s sporting events in the country. In this episode of RISE TO MORE, Greta — VP at Optum Rx and General Chair of the 2026 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Hazeltine, shares what happens when you stop waiting for permission and start trusting what years of showing u...

Hey beautiful humans, this week, I did a solo episode for you all. One thing keeps coming up over and over again in my conversation with incredible women - they don’t trust themselves fully. And yet - I believe that inside of us is this magic power that is our superpower. And this is something I teach all my clients. Today, I am sharing it with you. You were not given a brain and a body. You were...

Some people have a career. Some people have a calling. Very few get to live both. Christine (Christy) Sovereign is one of them. For decades, she built her career at the highest level, and quietly, something else was always there. Her sister. In this week’s Rise to More, Christine shares what it looks like when a career and a calling finally become one, not by leaving one behind, but by bringing bo...

In this episode of RISE TO MORE, Megan Tamte, co-founder and CEO of EVEREVE, opens up about entrepreneurship, identity, faith, fulfillment, and the real emotional cost of building one of the most beloved retail brands in the country. From the moment she stopped watching other people chase their dreams and decided to pursue her own, to the challenges that came with success, this is a conversation a...

She showed up to this interview the day after foot surgery. That alone tells you everything you need to know about Wendy Blackshaw . The president and CEO of Minnesota Sports and Events sat down with Rise to More this week and delivered one of the most honest, warm, and genuinely inspiring conversations this show has ever had. Over the course of our time together, Wendy didn’t just talk about the...

When I sit down with people on Rise to More , I am always looking for more than a good résumé or an impressive title. I want to understand who they are when they walk into a room. I want to know what kind of energy they bring to other people. I want to know whether their success has made them more human or less. That is exactly why my conversation with Florian Riedel stayed with me. Florian is the...

When I sat down with Beth Benike on Rise to More , I expected we’d talk about business, tariffs, entrepreneurship, and the challenges she’s faced as the founder of Busy Baby . And we did. But what stayed with me wasn’t just her business story. It was who she is underneath all of it: the woman, the mother, the inventor, and the person who keeps showing up no matter what. Beth is an Army veteran, a...

Over the past few weeks I have had the same conversation with many different people. Friends, clients, parents at school events, strangers who stop me after a talk. The topic is always the same: the state of the world. Another war appears in the news. Political tensions rise. Economists warn about instability. The questions people ask me are simple and sincere. Is the world falling apart? Where ar...

There are certain stories that do not simply inform you — they rearrange you. In 2003, a healthy thirty-seven-year-old man kissed his wife goodnight and went to sleep. He had just begun a dream job at a startup company. He and his wife were planning in vitro treatments to start a family. He was disciplined, responsible, a runner, deeply loved. He did not have a history of depression. He was not sp...

It started the way so many iconic things do: quietly, improbably, and with no one’s permission. An empty brick warehouse in Minneapolis’ North Loop. Two guys. No investors. No outside money. And a vision that sounded almost absurd in 2008—build the most beautiful store in America. Not a boutique. Not a showroom. Not “retail” the way we’ve been trained to think about it. Something else. Something t...

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. In a world of endless scrolling, relentless news cycles, and the constant hum of “not enough,” what does it really mean to come home to ourselves? That’s the question I explored with my dear friend and spiritual teacher Betsy Weiner in the latest episode of Rise to More . For more than 25 years, Betsy has been guiding...

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. What does it mean to live fully—not someday, not when things calm down, not when the stars finally align—but now, in this lifetime? That question sat at the heart of my recent Rise to More conversation with my dear friend, writer, and kindred spirit, Jill Palmquist . Jill’s stunning book, In This Lifetime , is part co...

When we see public figures, we rarely see the human being. We see a policy, a headline, a viral moment. What we don’t often glimpse is the person—the father fixing his daughter’s tiara, the husband leaning on his wife, the runner who finds peace by railroad tracks after a long day. In my recent Rise to More conversation with Minneapoli s Mayor Jacob Frey , I set aside politics entirely. I wanted t...

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. I believe love is the most powerful force in the world. It steadies us. It expands us. It’s the one thing success can’t replace. That’s why today’s story matters. I brought my dear friend and now business partner, Julie Spangler, onto Rise to More because she’s quietly changed thousands of lives—with a craft most peop...