Pivot Point - Strategy for Change with Nik Michael

Think about the hardest stretch of your life. Not the story you tell about it now, but what was happening inside you while you were actually living through it. In this episode of Pivot Point: Strategy for Change, Tom Thorndike shares an honest and deeply personal look at how he found his way through loss as a boy, and what that boy carried into the rest of his life. On Pivot Point, we look at chan...

What happens when the career path you were taught to follow no longer seems to lead where you expected? In this episode of Pivot Point: Strategy for Change , Nik Michael continues the Gen Z Launch Gap series with Ron Hetrick, Principal Economist at Lightcast, for a wide-ranging conversation about what young adults are facing as they try to enter today’s labor market, and what parents, educators, a...

We usually tell the story of change afterward. That’s when I left. That’s when I changed careers. That’s when I finally said no. But I’ve always been more interested in something else: what happened before that sentence begins? In this episode, I take you back to an afternoon more than thirty years ago that became my pivot point. I was working in airline sales when the director of reservations sta...

People forget your failure. They remember how you recovered. Executive leadership coach Jen Coken, the "velvet sledgehammer," explains why imposter syndrome is a protection strategy, built early and still running in even the most successful leaders. Then she turns to Gen Z and the question at the center of this series: what decides whether a young person recovers from failure or gets swa...

Jason Kuperman has spent two decades building and leading marketing teams, so his read on Gen Z doesn't come from a research report — it comes from performance reviews, hiring decisions, and the daily work of managing them. He's also made one of the sharper career pivots you'll hear on this show, walking away from an architecture degree to become employee number one at a digital advert...

Is Gen Z actually lazy — or has nobody taught them the difference between being managed and being mentored? In this episode of the Gen Z Launch Gap series on Pivot Point: Strategy for Change, host Nik Michael sits down with executive coach and leadership consultant Erin Treacy — an employer, a workplace strategist, and the parent of five Gen Z kids — for an honest look at the perceptions shaping h...

What Parents Get Wrong About College Admissions | Gen Z Launch Gap - Darren Meyers For many families, college has become one of the biggestfinancial and life decisions they will ever make. Yet much of what parents believe about admissions, standardized testing, scholarships, college rankings, and career preparation may no longer reflect today's reality. In this episode of Pivot Point: Strategy...

Leading Gen Z: Setting the Sandbox and Stepping Back | Gen Z Launch Gap Series There's a generation walking into the workforce right now that never knew a world without a screen in front of them — and they watched the institutions around them wobble in real time. Academia. Sports. Trust in leadership itself. So when they show up skeptical of the conventional path, that's not a character fl...

There’s a gap opening up between what an entire generation was promised and what they’re actually finding when they enter the workforce — and almost nobody is naming it clearly. In this episode of the Gen Z Launch Gap series, I sit down with Shirish Agarwal, author of Gen Z to Gen Zero , to examine a difficult reality: the entry-level job market wasn’t simply disrupted by AI. It was redesigned. An...

What if the biggest obstacle facing Gen Z at work isn't their degree, their GPA, or the economy — but the gap between what they think employers want and what actually gets someone hired? In this episode of Pivot Point: Strategy for Change , Nik Michael revisits a candid conversation with veteran recruiters Kim Steiner and Amy Krause of Fource Recruiting, who've spent 20+ years on the hirin...

What do you do when your life is going exactly as planned —and that's the problem? In this episode of Pivot Point: Strategy for Change, I sitdown with Aurora Wenters, co-founder and COO of Evermind Labs, who walked away from a stable, well-paying corporate career for a role that paid negative $5,000 a month. Two years. No beta users. No market validation. Just belief. We talk about what it act...

In this episode of Pivot Point: Strategy for Change , Nik Michael sits down with Dr. Ilona Koti , AI researcher, entrepreneur, and founder of Hyperreal and Azarial AI, for a thought-provoking conversation about identity, innovation, and the courage to trust the way you think. Dr. Koti's story isn't about a single defining moment. It's about a series of pivots that gradually revealed wh...

Dr. Ilona Koti joins Pivot Point to trace the moment she stopped translating her own mind for everyone else's comfort. A career built in governance, cybersecurity, privacy, and AI ethics became something more personal: a reclassification of identity, and a pivot from advisor to founder, from interpreter to author. She opens up about the exhaustion of softening her expertise to be understood, a...

What does it take to leave everything behind and build alife from scratch? In this powerful episode of Pivot Point: Strategy for Change , host Nik Michael sits down with Jackson Greene , founder of ARK (ArkSphere) , for an honest conversation about resilience, identity, entrepreneurship, and the courage to reinvent yourself. Jackson's story isn't simply about launching a successfulstartup....

In this episode of Pivot Point: Strategy for Change , Nik Michael explores cognitive dissonance—the quiet psychological tension that arises when our actions no longer align with our values. Most people assume change begins with a dramatic moment. In reality, it starts much earlier, in the subtle discomfort we often explain away. Instead of changing behavior, we rationalize, justify, and postpone—t...

Nik Michael sits down with Shirish Agarwal to unpack a critical shift in today’s job market—why entry-level roles haven’t disappeared, but have been fundamentally redesigned. Shirish explains how AI and automation are not simply eliminating jobs, but reshaping the very starting point of a career. Using the legal field as a powerful example, he describes how traditional entry-level roles like paral...

The Gen Z Launch Gap: College Admissions, Career Readiness, and What Families Need to Know | Featuring Darren Meyers. College is one of the most significant financial and lifedecisions a family will make—but much of what parents believe about admissions,testing, scholarships, and career outcomes is outdated. In this episode of Pivot Point: Strategy for Change, hostNik Michael sits down with colleg...

What if the biggest obstacle to happiness isn't failing to reach your goals—but believing they'll finally make you feel complete? In this solo episode of Pivot Point: Strategy for Change , Nik Michael explores the concept of the Arrival Fallacy —the belief that lasting fulfillment begins only after achieving the next milestone. Drawing on decades of experience as a psychotherapist, Nik exp...

In this episode of Pivot Point: Strategy for Change , host Nik Michael sits down with Jason Kuperman , veteran growth executive, fractional CMO, and founder ofKuperman Advisors, for a powerful conversation about career reinvention, change, and leading through uncertainty. Jason shares how he transitioned from architecture into digital marketing, what he learned building a career duringthe rise of...

The Gen Z Launch Series - In today’s competitive job market, many recent graduates find themselves feeling lost about what truly matters in the hiring process. When I spoke with Kim Steiner and Amy Kraus, partners at Force Recruiting, they shared valuable insights that can help job seekers better understand what employers are really looking for. In this post, we’ll explore the keydisconnects betwe...

In this conversation with Kim Steiner and Amy Krause of Fource Recruiting, I wanted to pull back the curtain on what the hiring process actually looks like from the recruiter’s side, especially for Gen Z candidates and the parents trying to help them. What came through clearly is that getting hired is not just about having a degree or a polished resume. It is about preparation, communication, self...

What if the discomfort you feel isn't dissatisfaction—but a sign you've outgrown your current life? In this episode of Pivot Point: Strategy for Change , Kim Costa shares how a quiet realization in her 50s led her to reinvent her life, redefine success, and create a path rooted in authenticity. Through her personal journey and the development of the Wheelhouse Method, Kim explores how our...

In this episode of Pivot Point: Strategy for Change ,Nik Michael welcomes executive coach, leadership consultant, and organizational strategist Erin Treacy for a thoughtful exploration of one of the most important challenges facing families, employers, and young adults today: thegrowing gap between preparation and reality as Gen Z transitions into adulthood and the workforce. As part of the Gen Z...

Kim Costa built a life that looked exactly right — and then had to admit it wasn't hers. In this episode, she shares how a quiet internal discomfort, ignored for years, became the signal that changed everything. Kim is the creator of the Wheelhouse Method, an author, speaker, and top-performing realtor serving North America. Her framework treats your life like a house: four foundational pillar...

What if the discomfort you feel isn't dissatisfaction, but a signal that you've outgrown your current life? In this inspiring conversation, Kim Costa shares how a quiet realization in her 50s led her to reinvent her life, redefine success, and create a path rooted in authenticity. Through her personal journey and the development of the Wheelhouse Method, Kim explains how our environments o...