Disrupt Yourself Podcast with Whitney Johnson

Writer, investor, and entrepreneur Chris Yeh joins on this episode of Disrupt Yourself. He has been in the world of startups for 25 years and shares amazing insight and wisdom he has gained along the way including going faster than you might be comfortable with; deciding what you are willing to go "all in" on; how to realize that you need to discover the new rules, and others. For a complete trans...

Play to your strengths and play where no one else is playing These are the first two of the Seven Accelerants for Growth™ on the S Curve of Learning™. Sarah Feingold is a great example of both. She former General Counsel of Etsy, and general counsel of Vroom.com, and co-founder of Fourth Floor that helps women become ready for the Board Room—and her stories provide guidance and inspiration for all...

Scott O'Neil is head of the organization that owns the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team, the New Jersey Devils hockey franchise, and the Prudential Center in Newark New Jersey. He's just written a new book, Be Where Your Feet Are and we talk about jumping to new S Curves of Learning™, how to encourage other people to take new risks, how to be present where you are, and the importance of dreaming...

Justin Osofsky, Chief Operating Officer at Instagram, shares some of his hard-won insights about Building an A Team. The five takeaways from the episode can help any manager be more engaged and supportive of their team.

When you combine the human spirit and technology all sorts of great things start to happen. Aicha Evans, CEO of the autonomous vehicle company Zoox, is our guest. There are six big takeaways from this conversation including understanding everyone's importance in a company's value chain, how complaints can help reveal truth, how to add value to a team by not just focusing on individual output. For...

Innovation and transformation are never easy. Aidan McCullen, author of Undisruptable , talks how giving failure its due can help lead to personal transformation, leaving the old way of doing things to move forward, and how resistance is often the marker that we are near our goals. For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit: https://whitneyjohnson.com/ aidan-mccullen /

Author, speaker, and activist Julie Lythcott-Haims helps people find their true north. A New York Times bestselling author, her latest book, Your Turn , is how to be an adult. We discuss a number compelling topics including how being adult is not about accomplishing some sort of checklist, rather growing through the process. For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit: http...

In this episode I talk with Erica Dhawan. She is an author and advisor on 21st century teamwork and today, we are discussing her latest book, Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance. In the past, we humans have drawn heavily upon body language to connect and build trust. But now a significant, if not majority, of our interactions occur in a digital medium....

Our guest today, Ellen Bennett has created a roadmap of sorts for young entrepreneurs in her appropriately titled book, Dream First, Details Later . Bennett is the CEO & Founder of Hedley & Bennett. Their mission: To make the hardest working, best looking aprons, and kitchen gear in the world. Bennett's belief in herself, her company and nearly everyone she connects with , is truly inspiring. She...

James Altucher is a serial entrepreneur, chess master, prolific writer, successful investor and stand-up comedian. James is a lot of things, but maybe most of all, he is an experimenter. His latest book, Skip the Line , provides a roadmap for those of us looking to do the same. He has frequently appeared on CNBC and on many podcasts, including one hosted by yours truly (see episode 06 ). James als...

Today our guest is Stephen M.R. Covey , the best-selling author of the critically acclaimed book, The Speed of Trust. He is the son of Stephen R. Covey of  7 Habits of Highly Effective People  and co-founder of Covey Link and the Franklin Covey Global Speed of Trust practice. And today, he is here with us. Stephen's work shows us that trust is a valuable lever, one that makes organizations more pr...

Today our guest is Ed Catmull . Ed is the co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios (along with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter) and former president of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation. He has received five Academy Awards, and his work as a computer scientist has contributed to groundbreaking developments in computer graphics. As if all that weren't enough, Ed is also the author of the New York Time...

Today, our guest is Dr. Meghan Rothenberger, an infectious disease doctor specializing in HIV and AIDS, formerly a professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Meghan wants to disrupt the stigma around physicians talking about their mental health and we are here to help. From the outside looking in, one might assume that Meghan's life is an idyllic one. After all, she is happily marrie...

Bob Proctor is a towering figure wherever the mention of self-help comes into discussion. For more than 40 years, Bob has focused his entire agenda around helping people create enriched lives, full of rewarding relationships and spiritual awareness.  In 1960, he was a high-school dropout who had worked a string of dead-end jobs. Crippled by debt, he struggled to find a path forward. However, his l...

Money is a resource, and yet many of us are not comfortable talking about money, let alone talking about building a wealth. Fortunately, today I am speaking with Ashley M. Fox. Ashley, a former Wall Street analyst and expert at financial education, is her to help us disrupt our view of money. As part of her mission, she founded Empify, an organization dedicated to changing the mindset of communiti...

Our guest today is Charlene Li, a New York Times best-selling author and founder of Altimeter Group, acquired by Prophet in 2015. Charlene and a handful of partners disrupted the industry analyst world in 2008, via their unique business model – FREE. As Charlene put it, "You couldn't buy us." In this episode we discuss Charlene's path to disruption and why she ultimately chose to sell Altimeter. W...

Like a bee to honey, so goes Sumeet Shetty with books. His love affair with the written word began when he was a young man, growing up in India, competing in Quiz Bowls. The experience taught him the value of hard work and helped him develop into a gifted speed reader. Now, Sumeet Shetty is the Development Manager for Enterprise Software Solutions at SAP India and the founder of Literati, India's...

Tragedy often brings unwanted change, pushing us onto new and unfamiliar S Curves. What do you do when faced with the unthinkable? Do you back up? Do you freeze? Or do you rise up and scale the curve before you? Our guest today, Lewis Howes, was faced with the unthinkable. In 2001, while just a senior in college, his family was thrust into a life altering experience that would eventually set Lewis...

When I think of our guests this episode, I am reminded of the Turkish proverb, "No road is long with good company." Jamie and Melbourne O'Banion are on a disruptive journey and have most certainly found themselves, in good company. Jamie is the CEO and founder of Dallas-based BeautyBio which has more than US$100 million in annual sales. Her initial beauty care line on the HSN channel in June 2011...

Today our guest is Shawn Stevenson, the host of the #1 Nutrition and Fitness podcast in the U.S., The Model Health Show . He's the author of Sleep Smarter, and now most recently Eat Smarter , which at the time we spoke, was one of the top ten selling books on Amazon. Shawn's passion for empowering individuals to take control of their health and wellness is apparent to all who connect with him. Dia...

Laughing lowers stress – so much so – that simply the anticipation of laughter, just thinking about it , decreases cortisol (stress hormone) and epinephrine (our flight hormone) by 39 and 70% respectively. Our guests this episode, Dr. Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas , understand this better than most. The two teach "Humor: Serious Business", at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. This course...

In this episode we discuss the complicated role failure plays in our lives... today, we give failure its due . This, the sixth accelerant in our personal disruption framework, is possibly the most instructive. Yet , because of the pain and shame associated with the experience, we often blow past the lessons, missing out on the gold mine of data revealed to us in the process. However today, we take...

Our guest this week is a New York Times bestselling author and champion humanizer, Martin Lindstrom. His latest book, The Ministry of Common Sense , releases today. Martin is passionate about business culture and the customer experience. Today, we discuss his methodology of persistence - what can only be described as an above and beyond, up close and personal, all in, every time radical approach t...

Today we are joined by Margo Georgiadis. Margo is currently the President and CEO of Ancestry.com . Her career exemplifies the power of the S curve, in particular, the launch point. In this episode, we discuss forging your own path and not being afraid to be the " only ". Margo shares the importance mentors have played in her life and tells us about her incredibly impressive mother – a tenacious w...

In this episode, we are joined by John Mackey. In 1980 he co-founded small supermarket in Austin, Texas. Over the years the company has grown a bit. It now has more than 500 stores in North America and seven in the United Kingdom. You may have heard of it. It's called Whole Foods. In 2017, the company was acquired by Amazon for $13.7 billion. We discuss what it means to be a conscious leader and h...