Disrupt Yourself Podcast with Whitney Johnson

On this week's show we have Annie Duke, professional poker champion turned decision strategist. She's written the best seller "Thinking in Bets" and  her new book is titled "Quit".

David Epstein is an investigative journalist and author who is fascinated by extraordinary people. Are they born this way? Is it their upbringing? A lot of "hard work?" Modern thinking about this, spearheaded by Malcom Gladwell, points to "10,000 hours" of narrow, focused work. Yo-Yo Ma and Serena Williams have been practicing their craft since the womb. But David discovered a different paradigm:...

Jillian Johnsrud is an author, blogger, podcaster, and coach who covers personal finance. But she's not just providing stock tips and savings plans. Jillian wants us to rethink our relationship to money itself. This passion is personal for her. When she and her family encountered major medical and student debt, she began to study how the language of finance is passed down – often detrimentally – f...

We don't give much thought to consumer packaging — the "stuff" that all our stuff comes in. But the packaging industry has a massive influence on how we perceive products and the companies that make them. It also plays a huge role in what we're doing to our environment. Wes Carter is the president of Atlantic Packaging, which is the largest, privately-held packaging company in North America. Chanc...

Legendary San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young is a Super Bowl champion, an MVP many times over, and a member of the Football Hall of Fame. His level of elite play required the utmost confidence and perseverance. So why was he going days without sleeping and throwing up before taking the field? In this very personal conversation, Steve opens about about his childhood social anxiety that he...

Launching a project, a product, or a work of art that you've spent years creating is terrifying to say the least. That's the space that Becky Robinson thrives in. She's the CEO and founder of Weaving Influence, a marketing agency that specializes in book launches and PR. Her new book is called  Reach , and it codifies 10 years of wisdom she's gained working with brilliant thought leaders from acro...

Trust is a thorny topic. In business and relationships, we're always assessing whether someone is trustworthy. But what about our ability to trust others? To delegate those big projects we are so used to doing ourselves? To relinquish control and face the possibility that someone else might do it differently…do it worse…or even do it better than us? This can be scary, but Stephen M. R. Covey and M...

The only finite resource in our lives and work is time. We always want more, and there's no way to create it. But we can radically rethink how we relate to time. That's the crux of Richie Norton's captivating philosophy. He says the tools of "time management" are designed to squeeze every drop of productivity out of us. The results – as we've discussed – are burnout, career dissatisfaction, and S...

This week we cover the one thing we're ALL bad at: Change. Jason Feifer is obsessed with the moral panic we feel when faced with new technologies, trends, and social norms. 19th century musicians despised record players. Elevators would tear apart our social fabric. And Teddy Bears threatened our very children! What he's learned from these now-laughable examples is that the people who see opportun...

If your family's viewing habits changed a bit during the pandemic, you're not alone! One enormous trend was the rise of Korean dramas on U.S. streaming services. But entertainment journalist Regina Kim says this has actually been happening for years, even decades. She wrote a fantastic piece for  Elle Magazine  called "The K-Drama Renaissance: How South Korean entertainment took over your TV." The...

The outdoor brand Cotopaxi is known for colorful backpacks and athleticwear. But its founder and CEO Davis Smith explains that the origin and mission of the company is about much more. Davis had a unique childhood and a profound experience in South America that compelled him to start a company with social change in mind. But as you'll hear, this was not an overnight success. In fact, it wasn't his...

Money can be one of the hardest things to talk about with your kids. It's emotional, and often tied to feelings of generational self-worth. But just like the "Birds and the Bees," we also need to be honest about "Dollars and Cents." That's where financial journalist, author, and podcaster Bobbi Rebell comes in. She has written extensively about the financial relationship between parents and childr...

Jonathan Johnson became CEO of Overstock.com  in 2019, right before the world was turned upside down by Covid. Like many leaders, he was tasked with difficult choices about how to protect employees and keep the business healthy. But the company was uniquely positioned to re-focus its core business and create a very progressive hybrid work policy that continues to pay dividends. Jonathan and Whitne...

Comparing ourselves to peers is natural, but when that gap creeps into our self-worth, the damage begins. When she was a new mom, Brooke Romney fell into this trap. After a lot of reflection and personal growth, she came out the other side as the author of the book "I Like Me Anyway," which is about knowing yourself, finding your strengths, and empowering your children to do the same. Brooke and W...

Marcus Buckingham is obsessed with challenging common wisdom about human potential. He's a self-described psychometrician, on a quest to find the real data behind how and why we act. He spent so much time studying high-performers at Gallup that he co-created his own Strengths Finder tool, and now coaches executives around the world. But there are some things about human achievement that simply can...

Ken Blanchard is one of the most revered thinkers and writers on business, leadership, and management philosophy. He's authored more than 60 books, consults with Fortune 500 companies, and speaks around the world. You probably know him from his 1982 book "The One Minute Manager," which has sold more than 15 million copies. Ken has no intention of slowing down, despite turning 83 years old this yea...

What IS happiness, really? And what's the difference between biting into a bar of chocolate and a much more sustained contentment that often eludes us? Ph. D. psychologist Emma Seppälä has studied happiness for much of her career. She's a best-selling author who also teaches business leaders at the Yale School of Management. Turns out, achieving career success and wealth doesn't lead to that conte...

Danny Ainge has a storied career in the NBA as a star player, coach, advisor, and executive, currently with the Utah Jazz. To say that sports are Danny Ainge's life is an understatement. The work, the preparation, the visualization, and competition create a meditative focus for him. Sometimes this was all-consuming, and as a husband, father, and now grandfather, he came to a point where he had to...

Back in 2004, the marketing definition of a "gamer" was narrow. It was young, and mostly male, and the video game industry was starting to stagnate. But Nintendo was poised to disrupt the gaming landscape (as it had done previously in the 1980s), and re-open the video game community to everyone. In North America, they had help from an enthusiastic new marketing VP named Reggie Fils-Aimé. Reggie la...

Parenthood is arguably the ultimate S Curve of learning. We read the books, we get advice, and we plan the perfect Pinterest nursery. But we don't REALLY know what we're in for until we hear that first cry. Lindsey Shipley saw this gap in parental preparedness, specifically when it came to breastfeeding. After giving birth to her own kids, she observed the current hospital system wasn't providing...

In 15th century Florence, the Medici family was well-known for patronizing great artists, scientists, engineers, and writers. This investment in cross-disciplinary thinking planted the seeds of the Renaissance, a time of extraordinary growth and enlightenment in Europe. Today, we have other words for this practice: Diversity & Inclusion. Author, speaker, and consultant Frans Johansson wrote "The M...

Getting your "big break" rarely comes down to luck. But it's also hard to engineer a breakthrough moment. Anne Chow believes it's a combination of science and serendipity: Planning ahead so you can seize a lucky moment when it appears. Her career embodies that philosophy. Anne is the CEO of AT&T Business, and a 2nd generation American. As the daughter of Taiwanese immigrant parents, their outlook...

When we spend 50-60 of our waking weekly hours at the office, our "work family" sometimes eclipses our actual one. Companies capitalize on this. Our jobs become our identities. Our work becomes very personal. And this can lead to emotional disaster during career changes, layoffs, and other transactions. What if we valued work differently? What would the world look like if we stopped treating work...

Any career contains thousands of S Curves, large and small, and Russ Wheeler's journey certainly embodies this. He's the CEO of BBQGuys, a retailer for all things grilling, smoking, and camping, but he's worked as an executive in the home improvement business for decades. That means many tough decisions about how to balance the needs of his employees, customers, and himself. But Russ' core values...

Nobody wants to be sad. We actively avoid it, and use all the technology in our power to distract ourselves from it. But Susan Cain says, maybe we should seek sadness out. She knows a thing or two about it. Her books about introversion and quiet reflection are New York Times bestsellers, and her TED talk has been viewed 40 million times. Her latest book, "Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make U...