A Geek Leader Podcast - inspiring technical and creative leaders around the world

About Justin For over 20 years, Justin has been architecting software, leading teams and sharing his knowledge.  Justin is the founder of Let Your Nerd Be Heard, creator of the Ultimate Presentation Formula for Nerds, an Award Winning Entrepreneur,  an Amazon #1 Best Selling Author, and a Microsoft MVP.  He is hired by nerds to take their public speaking skills from zero to hero so they can speak...

Tricia has more than twenty years of experience in software development and is passionately focused on facilitating high-performance software development environments. Her leadership at all levels of an organization helped lay the groundwork to shift teams from one-year product cycles to feasible, daily delivery of quality software and services. Tricia openly shares stories from her firsthand expe...

2018 has been a great year.  I rebooted the podcast with both solo shows and more interviews than ever before.  The number of listeners and total downloads have blown my mind.  The number of platforms where you can get A Geek Leader has grown remarkably as well. I learned a lot of valuable information that I can apply to my day job and my life outside of work.  I met and talked to some of the cool...

Today on the show we’ve got Mike Sarraille, EF Overwatch Co-Founder, Managing Partner & CEO.  Mike is one tough guy.  Being a Marine wasn’t tough enough for this guy, so he became a Navy Seal.  We talk about leadership and ownership in this interview.  Its a must listen! About Mike Mike Sarraille  is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL officer, founder and board of director for the VETTED Fou...

About Carl Over the past decade Carl Kinghorn has had the opportunity to grow as a leader within EFC Systems. He has championed changes to culture, processes, and development techniques that has enabled scaling the company’s ability to deliver quality software to its clients in the agricultural space. During this time, he’s seen the company triple in size; and in his role as VP of the...

About Mike Mike Cohn is the author of three of best-selling books on agile ( User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development , Agile Estimating and Planning , and Succeeding with Agile ). He is one of the world’s most sought-after and respected Certified Scrum Trainers, a keynote speaker, and an in-demand coach to companies throughout the United States and around the world. As the founder of M...

Today on the show we’ve got Mike Burrows.  Mike is a leader in the lean, agile and project management community.  He’s a well known speaker and consultant. About Mike  Agendashift founder Mike Burrows is the author of  Kanban from the Inside  (2014) and  Agendashift: Outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation  (2018); his third book  Right to Left: the digital leader’s...

About Thom: (Ret.) Navy SEAL Thom Shea is the founder and CEO of Adamantine Alliance, a Leadership training organization. Thom works directly with executives and high performance individuals who want to master the Five Pyramids of Human Performance® to achieve the next level results. Thom is a renowned Keynote speaker, presenting dynamic topics of Leading in Chaos, Forging Leaders, and the Culture...

Just another #1 world ranked video game player turned philosopher turned Navy SEAL turned   non-profit startup CEO. John Allen  is the CEO of  Elite Meet , a Non-Profit organization he co-founded along with Jordan Selleck that connects high performing, transitioning veterans, like Navy SEALs and Fighter Pilots, with companies who are looking to hire. He started out at the University of Massachuset...

About Jeff Jeff Haden is speaker, ghostwriter, Inc. Magazine contributing editor, and author of the bestselling The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to WIn . Before changing careers he spent 20 years in manufacturing, starting as an entry-level shop-floor employee, climbing the ladder through a variety of customer service, human resources, production control, and multi-...

About John “How were you able to pull that off?” John has made a habit of creating seemingly impossible outcomes, whether transforming a struggling team to become the top performer, or engaging an audience with his playful, interactive, life-changing style. His belief is simple: we are each endowed with one unique genius, different than any other person on the planet. John uses his genius to creat...

Bobby Allen serves as Chief technology officer (CTO) for  CloudGenera  and as Stewardship Pastor for  Wellspring Church . He brings the unique perspective of being a thought-leader in Cloud Computing while helping lead a Gospel-centered, multi-ethnic church in Charlotte, NC. Bobby is a veteran of Intel, Bank of America and multiple startups.  He went into corporate America after being an Intel fel...

As CISO for Webroot , Gary Hayslip advises executive leadership on protecting critical information resources and oversees enterprise cyber-security strategy. His mission includes creating a “risk aware” culture that places a high value on securing and protecting customer information entrusted to Webroot. Hayslip’s career in the fields of enterprise information security and network security spans m...

Today on the show I have Marin Wolfe (Marty). Marty is a systems engineer, creator of new solutions and innovations, a leader and motivator of the best and brightest, and focused on delivering solutions to the most complex challenges and supporting key goals. Marty is an IBM Distinguished Engineer and CTO, a technical executive of which there are only 600 across IBM’s entire global enterprise. Mar...

Today on the show we have Heather Wilde.  She was the eighth employee of Evernote, where she oversaw the company’s growth from thousands to 100 million customers. She’s published popular video games, trained Fortune 500 brands, advised hundreds of startups, and managed some major nonprofit programs. Now, as a fractional CTO through her own company ROCeteer , her award-winning work keep...

I heard a story on the Accidental Creative Podcast once about pruning grapes in a vineyard.  Todd said that many times healthy vines that are bearing good fruit need to be pruned off.  The reason is that the vine cannot grow new, more productive branches until some of the other branches are pruned.  So cutting out good and fruit-bearing branches may be necessary in order for the vine to increase i...

About Francesca Francesca Gino is an award-winning researcher and the Tandon Family Professor of Business Administration in the  Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit  at Harvard Business School. She is also affiliated with the  Program on Negotiation  at Harvard Law School, the  Mind, Brain, Behavior Initiative  at Harvard, and the Behavioral Insight Group at Harvard Kennedy School. Her c...

About Patty Patty Hatter is a multiple award-winning technology, business and operations leader who drives digital transformation and growth for global companies. Patty currently advises early stage technology companies, focused on key technologies such as cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and blockchain-enabled enterprise applications. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Barrick Gold...

No matter how good you are, at some point in time, you will fail.  It’s inevitable. Failure is not a problem, its promise.  How we respond to failure is crucial to how we is the most important part of failing.  It’s not the failure that stops us, it’s the inability to learn and move forward that stops us. I’ve failed at many projects, on tests in school, at sports and about...

Today on the show I’m honored to have Michelle Dennedy, VP and Chief Privacy Officer at Cisco Systems.   About Michelle Dennedy Michelle Finneran Dennedy is Vice President and Chief Privacy Officer at Cisco, where she works to raise awareness and create tools that promote privacy, quality, respect, trust, and asset-level possibilities for data. She is a unique visionary in the field of...

Last week I was honored to have Tom Rath on the show to talk about some of his books and how they impact leaders. Today I want talk about some of the take aways that I had from Tom’s books and how they have impacted my life. Eat Move Sleep Walking Meetings 10,000 steps Standing no sugar in coffee cut out fruit juices cut down on bread SLEEP!!!! Are You Fully Charged? Work in bursts Pomadora...

Today on the show we have Kevin Griffin, owner, trainer and consultant at Swift Kick.  Kevin was gracious enough to have me on his show, the Swift Kick Show a few months back.  Here’s a link to that episode . As a software professional with over ten years of experience, Kevin Griffin has had the fantastic opportunity to work with a variety of industries ranging from Military to Health Care t...

I’m honored to have multiple time #1 New York Times best selling author Tom Rath on the show today.  At one point, prior to writing best selling non-fiction books, Tom was a technical project manager.  He offers great insight into his life and work during this interview.  We talk about ways to increase health, well-being and happiness in general. We discuss focusing on your strengths and Tom...

Today on the show we’ve got Kahlia Braswell, executive director of INTech Camps for girls.  We talked mostly about INTech Camps and diversity in the technology fields.  Kahlia mentioned the NC WIT as a resource for writing job descriptions  and more. About Khalia Khalia Braswell received her first computer in the 4th grade and was instantly hooked. As a result of her early interest in tech,...

About Dave Dave Bittner is the producer and host of the CyberWire podcast, a top-rated daily cyber security news program produced in Baltimore. He’s been tinkering with electronics practically his whole life, cobbling together a computer system to dial in to pre-internet BBS systems at the age of ten with the money he saved from his paper route. After college (University of Maryland, Radio TV and...