The Honest Mic

Before anyone becomes a leader, they're first influenced by someone else. In this episode of The Honest Mic, Fortune sits down with U.S. Marine Officer, author, mentor, and founder of Parent-Child-Connect, Olaolu Ogunyemi, for a conversation about leadership, fatherhood, mentorship, and the quiet power of influence. Olaolu reflects on growing up believing he "had every opportunity to become a stat...

Most people think leadership begins at work. Mylena Sutton believes it begins long before you step into the office. In this episode of The Honest Mic, Fortune sits down with leadership consultant, speaker, and host of The Leadership Drives to explore why leadership isn't a title, a promotion, or a corner office. It's a reflection of who you already are. From driving across 24 states interviewing l...

What if the biggest thing holding you back isn't your circumstances... but the story you've been telling yourself? In this episode of The Honest Mic, Fortune sits down with transformational coach and author Lynda Leonce to explore how our beliefs, emotional patterns, and sense of identity quietly shape every decision we make. Lynda shares her own journey from searching for something she couldn't q...

You can look successful from the outside and feel completely wrong on the inside. The title, the money, the respect — it's all there. And somehow, something is still off. Chris Woods knows that feeling intimately. He rose from a tough upbringing in Boston to become a four-time global C-suite executive and former Google sales leader. From the outside, everything looked like success. Then, at 40 yea...

You can be doing everything right and still not land the way you think you are. You can work harder than everyone else. You can have the skills. And somehow, the promotions don't come, the trust isn't there, and you can't figure out why. Leslie Ferry hit that wall at the top of her career. She was leading a function. Excited. Eager. And then she found herself driving home one night thinking, "I've...

Most people think writing a book is about becoming an author. Danielle Hutchinson argues it's about becoming an authority. In this episode of The Honest Mic, bestselling ghostwriter and editor Danielle shares what she's learned after helping more than 1,100 entrepreneurs turn their ideas into published books that create opportunities far beyond Amazon. We talk about why so many people never finish...

Most companies treat technology like a cost to manage rather than an advantage to build. They buy software, hire developers, and hope everything works out. When it doesn't, they're often left guessing why. Rob Broadhead has spent more than three decades helping organizations navigate exactly those problems. As a developer, architect, director, consultant, and founder of RB Consulting, he's seen th...

About a year ago, Ryan Drumheller unexpectedly lost a leadership role that had become a huge part of his identity. Not because he was bad at his job. Not because he failed. Just because that's how corporate life works sometimes. In this episode of The Honest Mic, Ryan, an extroverted IT leader, Fractional CIO, and host of the Decline Invite Podcast, gets honest about what that loss felt like in re...

For over a decade, Mitesh Jani wrote constantly. Reflections, observations, philosophies about life and achievement. And he never showed any of it to anyone. Not even his family. It all sat in a folder on his computer called "New Folder." Then he hit a low point, business, physical health, and mental health all crashing at once. When he finally opened that folder, he was overwhelmed by what he fou...

Tom Fox has done two major business pivots since 2010. The first came when he was laid up from a bicycle accident and built an entire international consulting business in anti corruption compliance from his bedroom while on a walker. The second came during the pandemic and led him to create a whole new business model as a podcast network guru. Today, Tom is the Compliance Evangelist. He's won 33 a...

Most businesses say people matter. But what happens when profits become the priority and people become an afterthought? In this episode of The Honest Mic, Fortune sits down with Glenn Bostock, founder of SnapCab and author of A Human Business, to explore why traditional management often fails, what leaders misunderstand about motivation, and how businesses can grow without sacrificing their humani...

In this episode of The Honest Mic, we sit down with Wes Towers, founder of Uplift 360 and a digital strategist who’s spent more than twenty years helping builders and trades get found, trusted, and chosen online. We talk about why so many construction companies struggle online despite doing great work, the website mistakes quietly killing leads, whether SEO still matters in the age of AI, and how...

What makes people say yes? Why do some leaders create momentum while others create resistance? In this episode of The Honest Mic, we sit down with Joe Rockey to unpack the psychology behind sales, leadership, incentives, recruiting, and building businesses that actually grow. Joe shares lessons from founding 29 companies and making over 2,500 media appearances, breaking down what separates average...

You finish school thinking life is finally about to begin. Then suddenly… you’re sending applications, watching time move, questioning yourself, comparing your life to everybody else’s, and trying to stay hopeful while nothing feels certain. In this episode of The Honest Mic, we talk honestly about the first year after graduation... the pressure, the silence, the job search, money struggles, self-...

Dropping out is usually seen as failure. But what if it’s not that simple? In this episode, we talk about the decision to walk away from school... what led to it, what people don’t understand about it, and what comes after. No sugarcoating. Just the reality behind a choice most people are too afraid to make… or too quick to judge. This is for anyone questioning the “normal” path.

Let me ask you something… When was the last time someone actually told you the truth about life after school, career pressure, or trying to figure things out? This isn’t another polished podcast full of safe answers. The Honest Mic is where real conversations happen... the kind people usually keep private. In this introductory episode, I’m opening the door to what this podcast is really about… and...