Driven to Lead

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Michael Swigunski—Founder of Dividends Capital, in St. Louis, Mo.  — shares the details of his journey in building, growing, selling and buying remote online businesses.  Mike is living this reality himself by building multiple six, seven & eight figure remote companies while traveling to more than 100 countries.  Mike shares hard lessons around validating co...

iven-to-lead #Leadership #BusinessLeadership #ExecutiveLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamBuilding #ManagementSkills #LeadershipTips #PersonalGrowth #ProfessionalDevelopment #WorkplaceCulture #CareerGrowth #Entrepreneurship #SuccessMindset #Motivation #DrivenToLead #WayneBrannon #LeadershipPodcast #Inspiration #LeadershipJourney Driven to Lead is a podcast dedicated to inspiring and empowering...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Bryant Grigsby — CEO & Board Member of PDV, Silicon Valley, CA — shares his experience of being acquired by a much larger firm in the medical technology space.  Not only is the new parent company (INDO -MIM) much larger, it is also a non-US company twelve time zones away.  Bryant describes the process leading up to the merger as being one where both INDO -MIM...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Johnathan Grzybowski — Co Founder & CMO of Penji in Philadelphia, PA — shares his experience bootstrapping his business from scratch and growing into an Inc. 5000 player.  Leveraging and coordinating creative talent from around the world to provide the Penji subscription service, his team consistently delivers high-quality creative ideas and assets, with high...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Siobhan James-Alexander — CEO of One Communications, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands — shares her experience around a business transformation during of a difficult period of deep headcount reduction.  Siobhan talks about the challenges for a leader to show genuine compassion and support for those who must leave the team, while also providing encouragement and hope...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Scott Summerville, former President & CEO of Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Chicago, IL — shares his experience of leading his business through the recent COVID crisis.  With the team suddenly working remote and uncertainty abounding with respect to every topic — about the pandemic, about which colleagues have been directly effected, about project statues an...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Kendra Reichenau, CEO of Heartland America, Chaska, MN — shares her experience of being a new CEO and experiencing a business crisis with little or no experience with cash flow management.  With no money in the bank, and no reports tracking cash inflows and outflows, she was flying blind. Rather than becoming frozen by a lack of knowledge or embarrassment, she im...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, John Walsh, Founder & CEO of Endera out of Ottawa, OH shares his perspective about what it takes to survive in a crisis scenario during COVID.  John talks about how he was looking the death of his company right in the face with only a few weeks of cash remaining and a capital market that was very difficult to motivate at that time.  That said, John and his te...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Janet Grondin — CEO of Stellar Solutions out of Los Alamos, CA — shares her perspective about taking full responsibility and ownership as a leader for problems that sometimes occur within our organizations.  Janet talks about the testing and validation necessary to execute complex space projects, and about how even the most rigorous processes can still have issue...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Gino Barbaro — Co-Founder of Barbaro 360, LLC and Jake & Gino, LLC out of St. Augustine. FL — shares his perspective about a strong positive association with money and delivering powerful educational insights about how we all should leverage coaching to improve our lives.  Gino talks about what it takes to be a great teacher & leader using an example of h...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Marti Nyman, President & CEO of New Wave Design out of Eden Prairie, MN - shares his beliefs and values relative to the people in his organization and why it makes so much sense as a leader to show them how much they truly matter.  This conversation goes beyond making statements about how much you care about your staff, and demonstrates real leadership in rea...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Francis Pierrel, CEO & Partner at LR Paris Inc. out of NY, shares his perspective about making your focus on your customers the paramount issue in your business and your brand. You’ll truly enjoy this conversation that has many great leadership insights.  Francis talks about the many global iconic brands he has worked with and the power of staying true to who...

In this episode of Drive to Lead, guest Omer Brookstein, tells a story about how to drive strategic alignment regarding innovation and the need for  standardization.  Both with his company and across client organizations, Omer describes his leadership to bring multiple potential solutions into a more unified set of executional elements.  The key to his success was a focus on the customer and on th...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Michael Pine, CEO of Pine Health Strategies, NY, NY talks about his long, successful career as a Chief Business Officer (CBO)  in the pharmaceutical and bio-tech arena.  His work to support both buy-side and sell-side interests in more than 60 deals distinguishes him as one of the most experienced CBOs in the therapeutic space.  Michael relates a story about how...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Richard Culberson, experienced private equity CEO talks extensively about his approach to build real value in the companies he works with. In this insightful and refreshing conversation Richard discusses how building genuine trust the portfolio company he invests in drives better collaboration between all parties, improves transparency, and in general, drives gre...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Shaffiq Rahim, former CEO & President of Lifetech Resources, tells a story of business transformation which includes the need to completely reassess the team, make hard decisions to transition some team members out of the company, recruit new players, generate a new culture of collaboration, while keeping the business results positive and moving forward.  He...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Jeremy Barker, Founder and CEO of Murphy Door, Inc. out of Ogden Utah shares details of his incredible journey from young entrepreneur to homeless truck driver, to fireman, and now to his now wildly successful leadership of Murphy Door.   Strap in for this fast moving conversation that has a multitude of great leadership insights.  Jeremy talks about how he learn...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Mark Poeschl, CEO & Vice Chairman of Furst-McNess Company out of Rockford, Illinois - shares an inspiring business turn-around story from his days in Europe.  His natural talent for listening and his sincere approach to mutual human respect served as the foundation for a high-velocity business transformation in a culture he had not worked in previously.  His...

In this episode of Driven to Lead our guest Brendan O’Donnell, President and CEO of the DFA of California and of Safe Food Alliance talks about the experiences in his life and leadership journey that help define who he is as an executive.  He recounts experiences from early in his career that helped him establish who he is with respect to his interactions with others and with how he meets adversit...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, host Wayne Brannon speaks with Arjang (AJ) Roshan, the president and CEO of Weiler Abrasives Group. They discuss the intricacies of the abrasive manufacturing industry, AJ's journey to leadership, and the importance of embracing discomfort as a catalyst for personal and professional growth. AJ shares a pivotal story from his career that highlights the challenges...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Henry Charrabé, CEO of Seven Seas Water Group, tells us a story about taking-on the challenge of re-designing, restructuring and rebuilding his leadership team to take the company to the next level.  Henry acknowledges that change of this magnitude is extremely difficult, but also understands that the penalty of not changing can have even greater conseq...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Curtis Collar, CEO of Nanotech Energy tells us a story about investing time and resources into a development project that had a high level of merit, but that was ultimately not going to be supported by key members of leadership.  In this particular situation, Curtis acknowledges that the executing team had developed an appropriate level of energy and pa...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest John Beering, CEO pf Red Dot Corporation tells us a story about his transition into his current role and the key elements that lead to a positive transformation of the company that began at that time, and that continues to pay dividends to this day.  The focus that he placed on culture in his organization is driving the business to highly value everyone...

n this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Adam Gibbs, CEO of OTC Industrials tells us a story about a time when his organization was being challenged to introduce and deliver a powerful new innovation to the company’s customer base.  What had been a very successful sales team was struggling in communicating a new approach to the customers needs.  The solution to this dilemma was the personal eng...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Gary Ramey, CEO of Liberty Ammunition, shares stories with us about the importance of building relationships with your customers and with your team.  In his experience, this sometimes requires that the features and benefits within your product offer take a back seat to the truth and transparency necessary to build true partnerships and strong relationsh...