Disrupt Yourself Podcast with Whitney Johnson

Before you can be an agent of disruption, you first become its subject by disrupting yourself. Keeping this in mind, today's podcast is a bit different. If you've been a long-time listener, this will probably come as no surprise (disruption is what we do, after all)! Join as Disrupt Yourself host Whitney Johnson coaches you, our listeners! Today we discuss: The top 5 reasons you might want to disr...

Today we discussing the new book called Missing Each Other: How to Cultivate Meaningful Connections, with its co-authors Edward "Ted" Brodkin and Ashely Pallathra. In Missing Each Other, they argue that we need to tune back into each other. Especially now. Because of COVID, we've all been pushed to a new S Curve, one that increasingly involves digital forms of connection, making it possible to mis...

In this episode we talk with Roger L. Martin , Professor Emeritus of Strategic Management, and former Dean at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. In 2017 Roger was named the world's #1 management thinker by Thinkers 50, a global ranking of management thinkers. He's written 28 articles for the Harvard Business Review and has published 11 books. Roger's latest book, When More Is...

Our guest this week, Sandy Stelling, is fluent in the language of growth. She started her career with Boeing, fresh out of college. After nearly eight years and rising to the level of Senior Engineer, Sandy took a leap and accepted a position with Alaska Airlines as a Project Manager. Twenty years and six titles later, she became the Vice President of Strategy, Analytics and Transformation. This m...

Our guest this week is Ryan Westwood, the CEO and founder of Simplus. Ryan, a serial entrepreneur and disruptor, began creating a bit younger than most – and he has never looked back. At just eleven years old Ryan discovered he had an ability to create wealth. Several years and a few tough lessons later, he is a wildly successful creator. Simplus, his most recent venture co-founded with his brothe...

Our guests this episode are Bettina Hein and Andreas Goeldi, a husband and wife duo. Bettina is the founder and CEO of juli Health, a company that helps people manage their chronic diseases with an AI powered app. Andreas is a partner in btov , a European venture capital firm. This couple understands the s curve of learning™ uniquely well and are gracious enough to share their learnings with us. I...

"Disruption," as a word, has always had an explosive sound to me. Disruption causes your world to shift and change—an earthquake in the making. However, every once in a while, I'm reminded that disruption does not have to be earth shattering. Sometimes, the smallest changes can have a long-lasting impact on your life, especially when those changes become habits. Our guest this episode is James Cle...

Few things are as terrifying as vulnerability. Yet, when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, we allow ourselves to be free. Free from shame, free from fear and free from the untrue stories we tell ourselves. That is why I am excited for this episode. Our guest, Dr. Brené Brown has spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy and is the author of five #1 New York...

At just 20 years old, Marcus Whitney was a young father with another child on the way. He had dropped out of college, was working as a waiter and living in an efficiency hotel. But as Marcus, a now successful Entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist explains, what you do when your back is against the wall makes all the difference. Listen as we discuss: Overcoming poverty, depression and past trauma to...

This week, our guests are Syd and Shea McGee of Studio McGee. This power couple run and are the sole owners, no outside capital, of one of the most successful and fastest growing interior design businesses in the country. Shea graduated from college with a degree in public relations but quickly realized that her passion was to create… she wanted to be an interior designer. Syd started his career b...

My guest this episode Kara Goldin, is the CEO and founder of Hint, Inc., a healthy lifestyle brand based in the United States, in San Francisco, California. Kara is a textbook disruptor. Although she never intended to be an entrepreneur, she has become just that. On a quest to improve her own health, Kara was struck with the realization that her go-to beverage, was holding her back. This realizati...

The ability to pivot well during a time of crisis is crucial. When the pandemic hit last spring spurring a global crisis, chef, entrepreneur and philanthropist Ben Shewry did this and more. At a time when many, if not most restaurants are struggling to stay in business, Ben and his team have thrived through disruption . Since taking over Attica in Melbourne, Australia in 2005, chef Ben Shewry had...

Some people wait for life to happen and then there are those who make it happen. Our guest this episode, Shelly Archambeau, is definitely the latter. Blazing trails seemingly her entire life, Shellye is one of the first African American women to be named CEO of a Silicon Valley company. Through a combination of sheer will and the strong, guiding influence of her parents, Shellye learned to perseve...

Disruption helps us grow, stretching and developing us in ways that comfort cannot. Our guest this episode, Zaza Pachulia, is a great example of this truth. He is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and former professional basketball player. Born in Georgia, when it was still part of the U.S.S.R., Zaza moved to Turkey to play basketball when he was just 14. A year later, he made the Turkish national...

Experiencing pain and fear can shape us in good, and bad ways. We can recoil, avoiding that which inflicted the pain, or we can let it drive us to positive change. Our guest this week is a prime example of the latter. Mikaila Ulmer, through the thoughtful guidance of her parents, transformed a painful childhood experience of being stung by bees into a thriving and growing business with a purpose....

In business, we often talk about the value of learning from our own and other organization's mistakes, but what about learning from what is going well? What might we gain if we open ourselves up to a new way of working? If we did, could work actually be fun ? Our guest today is Pim de Morree, Co-founder of Corporate Rebels , an organization dedicated to making work more fun. In January of 2016, he...

In Episode 80 of our podcast, we started a series, on our seven-point framework of personal disruption. In Episode 100, we took a deep dive into accelerant #1, take the right risks. We moved to play to your distinctive strengths in Episode 120 and then on to embrace your constraints in Episode 140. In Episode 160 we confronted battling our entitlement––the S Curve Killer. Which brings us to today,...

Most of us desire to be more intentional in our personal and professional lives. We want to steer life rather than have it steer us – but where do we start ? Our guest this episode believes we start by defining our core values. "One of the things about core values I've come to understand is I think they've been there since you were little. You just don't get the instruction manual, you know, when...

Our guest this week Mark Metry, is as he puts it, a 22-year-old trying to do his best during his limited time on planet earth. Mark is a genuine and driven individual with a list of impressive accomplishments already behind him. He is a successful entrepreneur and the host of Humans 2.0, an iTunes top 100 podcast. Mark is the founder of VU Dream, a virtual reality tech company based in Boston. At...

Our guest today Darrell Rigby, is an expert in the philosophy called Agile. According to Darrell, "Agile always begins thinking from the customer backward. What is the customer's problem? What is the customer's dilemma?" Basically, identify the issue and solve for it. Agile, when practiced correctly, is like an operational superpower - helping employees and organizations outperform their capabilit...

Open google, type a word or a phrase, any phrase... red car, modern couch, dog, and a slew of results will populate your browser window. Who is responsible for the avalanche information that lies just a few keystrokes away? Are there downsides to this world of information accessibility? Our guest this week, Mary L. Gray lives to answer these questions and attempts to do so in her new book, Ghost W...

Conflict is becoming an ever more present reality in our lives, yet most of us try desperately to avoid it. The widening gap between the world in which we live and our lack of ability to navigate conflict, is showing up in our personal and professional spaces. Given our discomfort and conflict avoidance bend, how do we address this? Is there a way back? Can we face conflict head on, hash it out an...

Leaping to a new S-Curve of learning can be an overwhelming experience. As we transition from being at the top of our field into a new and less experienced trajectory, our emotions and anxieties can get the best of us. Our guest this week believes science, specifically the discipline of rocket science, can help us better navigate personal and professional disruption. Ozan Varol is a rocket scienti...

Organizational change can be a disorienting experience. We all have bristled against it at one time or another, unnerved by the unknown. However, leaning into change and following the path of disruption can be a liminal moment for organizations and the individuals involved. Our guest this week, a self-described change junkie, knows all to well the discomfort and rewards of disruption. Michelle McK...

Mindsets are foundational to everything we do. Improving our mindsets can improve our success across life, work, and leadership. Our guest today Ryan Gottfredson , Ph. D., takes us on a deep dive into the power of mindsets. In his book, Success Mindsets: Your Keys to Unlocking Greater Success in Your Life, Work and Leadership , Ryan blends the latest in mindset research and practice to present the...