The Ambition Lab

What happens when being good at your job is no longer enough to move your career forward? Christina DelliSanti-Miller, founder of Full Potential Realized and creator of the Maverick Inflection Point™ framework, has spent nearly two decades helping women advance in male-dominated industries. Having worked on both sides of talent and advancement decisions, she understands what happens when technical...

What if becoming a better speaker isn't about becoming someone else but learning how to amplify who you already are? Tom Elliott has spent 15 years on the front line of corporate entertainment, hosting galas, conferences, and awards ceremonies for organizations including Deloitte, Atomicon, and the Chartered Governance Institute. He's performed for audiences of up to 2,000 people, worked alongside...

What happens when your ambition isn't the problem but the way you're operating is? Alli Murphy spent more than a decade in corporate leadership, eventually becoming a Managing Director. From the outside, she had built an impressive career. But behind the success, she was becoming increasingly absent from her own life. In this episode of The Ambition Lab, Alli shares the moment a friend's comment t...

What happens when you stop chasing every opportunity and start choosing only the ones that truly align? Bev Hampson, Founder & CEO of Category3 Media and a media growth strategist, has spent more than a decade helping health experts and purpose-driven entrepreneurs turn podcasts into profitable media businesses. Her work has included partnerships with leading names in health and wellness, but her...

What happens when you're doing everything right at work but leadership still doesn't see the full value of what you're creating? Rosie Zilinskas spent 32 years in corporate America and experienced that gap firsthand. After years of delivering results and waiting to be recognized for the next opportunity, a senior executive told her, “You never said anything.” That moment changed how she understood...

What happens when you refuse to accept the story other people have written for your life? Frank McKinney was asked to leave three high schools, spent seven stints in juvenile detention, and graduated with a 1.8 GPA. He eventually left Indiana with $50 in his pocket and went on to build an unconventional career as a real estate artist, author, philanthropist, and ultramarathoner. In this episode of...

What happens when the stories you turn to for survival eventually become the stories you use to help other people? Thomas R. Wilson is a writer, advocate, community leader, educator, business owner, and Sensory Friendly Events Specialist whose work is rooted in storytelling, empathy, and creating more inclusive communities. Drawing from his own experiences, Thomas has spent more than three decades...

What happens when we stop designing learning for people and start designing it with people in mind? Jackie Pelegrin is an award-winning instructional designer, college professor, consultant, author, and podcast host with nearly two decades of experience across higher education, corporate learning, and adult education. Through her work and her podcast, Designing with Love, she explores what happens...

What if the reason your business feels chaotic isn’t that you need to work harder but that you need better systems? Marianne Page spent almost 30 years as a senior manager at McDonald’s, one of the world’s most systemised businesses. She went on to spend 15 years working with scale-up businesses, helping owners build clear standards, stronger teams, and simple, repeatable ways of working. In this...

What happens when the career that defined you suddenly disappears and you’re left wondering who you are without the title? Sean Pieri spent nearly four decades building a successful career in professional fundraising, including leadership roles at the United States Air Force Academy, William & Mary, and the U.S. Olympic Committee. But after losing the career that had become such a big part of his...

What if the conversation itself could become the art? David Deighton spent seventeen years running an art gallery before moving in a very different direction. Through Triptych Dialogue, he uses art, questions, active listening, and face-to-face encounters to create spaces where strangers can have meaningful conversations across political differences. In this episode of The Ambition Lab, David shar...

What happens when the life you've built no longer feels like the life you're being called toward? Ellen Edmondson had built a successful career as a senior government executive before a profound spiritual awakening in 2013 changed the direction of her life. She eventually walked away from that career and became an award winning author, intuition mentor, and founder of Highly Intuitive Kids. In thi...

What happens when professional success doesn't translate into personal financial clarity? Sagar Nagda is the founder of Nimap Infotech, an entrepreneur, angel investor, and technology leader who has built a global business from the ground up. But his experience has also shown him a gap that many high-achievers overlook: being successful in business doesn't automatically mean knowing how to build,...

What if the thing keeping you stuck isn't a lack of intelligence, effort, or information but the mind you've grown up with? Lincoln Stoller is a quantum physicist, neuropsychologist, hypnotherapist, clinical counselor, author, and educator whose work explores the intersection of the brain, consciousness, behavior, and personal change. His unconventional path has taken him from fundamental physics...

What happens when you combine chess, gothic storytelling, improv, game design, and AI? Daniel Leeson, creator of Chessferatu, took a familiar problem learning chess openings and turned it into something designed to be experienced through play. Drawing from his background in improv, immersive entertainment, hospitality, podcasting, and creative work, Daniel approaches learning as something people u...

What if the biggest factor in business growth isn't the tactic you use, but the person you become while building the business? James Kaatz, Co-Founder and CEO of Illumination Marketing and founder of SoloCMO, has taken a path that looks anything but conventional. From professional wrestling and firefighting to marketing, entrepreneurship, and technology, each chapter has shaped the way he thinks a...

What if the cash your business needs isn’t missing it’s already sitting in your customers’ accounts? Bill Ferrier, founder of Ready Set Collect, has spent nearly four decades in credit and collections. He helps companies train their teams to collect outstanding payments faster while protecting the customer relationships that matter. In this episode of The Ambition Lab , Bill explains why good cust...

What happens when you stop performing for God and finally bring Him the parts of yourself you've been taught to hide? Jeff Dalton is an author, poet, and speaker who has experienced church rejection, mental health struggles, loss, financial setbacks, and a crisis of faith. After years of feeling disconnected from Jesus, Jeff returned to the Gospels and discovered a different kind of faith—one buil...

What if the experience that changed how you define success had nothing to do with business? Scott Roberts has spent more than 35 years building, buying, and leading businesses, including owning and operating five automobile dealerships. But one of the experiences that most profoundly shaped his understanding of leadership and success happened far from the boardroom while helping build an orphanage...

What happens when achievement becomes a way of proving that you're worthy? In this episode of The Ambition Lab, Brigitta Dau shares her journey from struggling with self worth and eating disorders in childhood, to becoming an actress, moving to Los Angeles, and eventually finding a new path through coaching, Reiki, creativity, and personal growth. Brigitta is a life coach, Reiki Master, author, sp...

What happens when a one-hit wonder loses his record deal and has to reinvent his entire career? John Taylor went from performing on stage to building a career in digital marketing, eventually launching a successful podcast and discovering a problem many podcasters face today: great content doesn't always mean great discoverability. In this episode of The Ambition Lab, John shares how his experienc...

What happens when social media stops feeling social? In this episode of The Ambition Lab, Ross Thorpe, CEO of Rooverse and a founding member of the AI Trust Council, joins us to explore what happens when AI generated content, bots, and synthetic identities begin to blur the line between real people and machines. Ross is building Rooverse around a simple idea: there should always be a real human on...

What does it mean to keep living when the person you built the dream with is no longer here? In this deeply personal episode of The Ambition Lab, Wisdom sits down with Jonathan Brandt, founder of Brandt Performance Health Coaching and host of the GoOutLiving Podcast. Jonathan and his wife, Kristie, faced cancer back to back. After Kristie's cervical cancer diagnosis, Jonathan was diagnosed with Ho...

What happens when you spend 25 years inside the financial system and then step into rooms where the numbers tell only a fraction of the story? In this episode of The Ambition Lab, Wisdom sits down with Connie Davis, Director of Card Services, founder of Maiden Explorations, host of Unlocking Commerce in Business, and creator of the Sacred Ledgers framework. Connie spent decades working in fintech...

What if the hero's journey isn't just something we read about in fantasy but something we're all living? In this episode of The Ambition Lab, Tom Cladis, award winning fantasy author, financial planner, adventurer, and former flight attendant, shares how a life filled with unconventional experiences has shaped the way he thinks about courage, purpose, and growth. From wrestling alligators and perf...