Gaining the Technology Leadership Edge

Divorce used to be about dividing assets. Today, it’s also about defending your digital life. Jonathan Steele—family attorney and founder of Steele Fortress—joins Gaining the Technology Leadership Edge to explain how cybersecurity, privacy, and digital hygiene now play a critical role in high-stakes divorce cases. From reused passwords to shared devices and cloud accounts, Jonathan outlines how ev...

This episode explores what it actually takes to turn around broken IT organizations inside large enterprises. Nick Cappello, CEO of 404 Network Ninjas, shares a practitioner’s view of transformation—one grounded less in hardware and more in people, communication, and context. Nick explains that the first failure point in most IT turnarounds is treating systems in isolation. His approach starts wit...

Jimmy Burroughs—former military officer and global leadership coach at JBL High Performance—joins GTLE to unpack why so many high-performing leaders burn out, and what actually prevents it. Drawing on his experience leading military units of up to 800 soldiers, Jimmy explains why constant “race pace” execution fails in high-stakes environments. Marching troops for 15–18 hours in extreme heat might...

This episode is for CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and senior leaders responsible for scaling teams, capability, and change across regions. Nellie Wartoff, founder of Tigerhall, explains why most learning, transformation, and change efforts fail—not because of strategy, but because activation and culture are ignored. The core problem is that organizations still rely on one-way communication and static...

Thomas Troutmann, founder of Happy Brains, joins GTLE to explain why logic-driven leadership, marketing, and sales strategies consistently fall short—and what brain science reveals about how people actually make decisions. With a background spanning IBM, HP, artificial neural networks, and neuromarketing, Thomas breaks down a simple but uncomfortable truth: people do not make rational decisions fi...

Ben Albert—founder of Albert Marketing and the Real Business Connections Network—joins GTLE to unpack what real success looks like when there is no universal formula. In this conversation, Ben shares his journey from sales executive to “accidental entrepreneur,” and how that path shaped his mission to impact one million lives. He introduces a powerful metaphor for growth: success is not a magic pi...

Justin Fortier, CEO and CTO of FYC Labs, joins GTLE to break down what it actually takes to build a company that can scale—and be acquired. Justin shares the story of growing FYC Labs from a small boutique agency into a business that was successfully acquired in 2020. While the company was never intentionally built for sale, Justin explains that he always operated with enterprise value in mind: cl...

Lisa Shore, founder of Shore Success, joins GTLE to break down why technical excellence alone no longer differentiates IT organizations—and what leaders must do instead. Lisa shares the moment her own managed services company lost a 10-year client, not because of technology failures, but because the client felt unrecognized and processed like “just another ticket.” That experience reshaped how she...

John Waldman, co-founder of SBS CyberSecurity, joins GTLE to break down how a handful of graduate students working out of basements built a national cybersecurity firm with roughly 90 employees across 27 states—without outside investment. John shares the early realities of advising banks as a 24-year-old, learning how to earn credibility with regulators, and navigating the uncomfortable shift from...

Brian Walsh joins GTLE to make a case most organizations overlook: if you want better outcomes, start by supporting your managers. Brian shares his experience helping grow a consulting firm from about 20 people to over 200, eventually operating across seven offices. As the company scaled, so did the complexity—new offices, shifting org structures, and growing interpersonal challenges. Through role...

Whitney Hahn joins GTLE to dismantle one of the most accepted myths in leadership: that being busy means you’re doing something right. As CEO of Provoke Better, Whitney helps business owners outgrow busyness while still growing healthy, profitable companies. She explains how years of networking events revealed a common pattern—when asked how they’re doing, leaders almost always answer, “I’m busy.”...

Mike from Focus-Biz joins GTLE to break down what AI actually looks like when it’s used responsibly inside a real business. Starting from his background running an award-winning wedding DJ company, Mike shares how automation, marketing systems, and AI tools allowed him to work fewer hours while improving output. Today, those same principles guide his work helping small businesses improve lead gene...

Peter Voss, founder of IGO.AI and co-originator of the term Artificial General Intelligence, joins the show to explain why today’s AI breakthroughs still fall short of real intelligence—and what technical leaders should understand before betting their organizations on them. Peter shares his unconventional path from leaving high school at 16 to building and exiting a 400-person software company, th...

Richard Clark, co-founder of SecretSource, joins the show to break down what actually drives employee retention in tech—and why perks, culture slogans, and “being nice” aren’t enough. After running IT teams in India for five years, Richard believed there had to be a better way to build software. He founded SecretSource on a simple idea: happier teams build better software. But a few years in, an i...

Robert Karloff, founder of Cyber News Live and a cybersecurity leader with experience across Fortune 500 companies and government organizations, joins the show to unpack what’s actually driving today’s cyber risk—and why many organizations are still reacting too late. Robert shares how he entered IT during the Y2K era, worked his way through help desk and infrastructure roles, and eventually speci...

Andrey Kudievsky, founder and CEO of Distillery, joins the show to share hard-earned lessons on scaling a global software services company, developing leaders, and adopting AI without losing focus. Born and educated in the former Soviet Union, Andrey discovered entrepreneurship early through his father’s small business and technology through his first computer at age eight. After graduating with t...

Steven Pope, founder of My Amazon Guy, joins the show to break down what it actually takes to build a profitable Amazon business—and why most sellers fail by chasing shortcuts. Steven’s path wasn’t linear. After being repeatedly laid off despite driving growth at multiple startups, he hit a breaking point at age 30. Within 48 hours, he built a business plan, signed his first client via LinkedIn, a...

Cybersecurity breaks down when it’s imposed instead of coached. In this episode, Chris Foulon—founder of CPF Coaching LLC and an experienced vCISO—explains why most security programs fail and what leaders can do differently. With a background spanning healthcare, education, and nonprofit work, Chris brings a human-centered approach to security that prioritizes resilience over rigid control. Chris...

AI isn’t replacing SAP professionals—it’s making them better. In this episode, Chris Carter, CEO of App Royal and a pioneer behind the first SAP cloud and SAP HANA production cloud, shares how AI is transforming SAP environments through practical, incremental adoption rather than sweeping overhauls. Chris walks through his unconventional journey—from early experiments with Commodore computers to a...

Data silos, manual workflows, and unclear ROI are holding many organizations back from real AI adoption. In this episode, Ronak Patel of Sunflower Lab explains how companies can use AI, RPA, and business intelligence to drive measurable outcomes—without overcomplicating the journey. Drawing from hands-on experience across industries, Ronak shares how his team helps organizations consolidate scatte...

Cybersecurity failures rarely start with hackers. They start with gaps in planning, culture, and leadership. In this episode, Adam Gordon—cybersecurity expert and educator at New Horizons—explains how today’s threat landscape has evolved and why many organizations are still dangerously exposed. From high-profile casino breaches to ransomware attacks on hospitals and infrastructure, Adam breaks dow...

Most marketing fails for a simple reason: companies guess what customers want instead of testing it. In this episode, Robert Brill, founder of Brill Media, explains how precision marketing replaces assumptions with data through control-and-variable testing. Rather than spending tens of thousands on unproven ideas, Robert’s team runs small, disciplined sprint tests to uncover the exact language, pr...

Scaling a business isn’t just about better strategy—it’s about becoming a different kind of leader. In this episode, Bogdan Rossu, a former Wing Chun martial arts instructor and mindset coach, explains how entrepreneurs can scale without burning out by integrating both execution and inner work. Drawing from martial arts principles, Bogdan introduces his Warrior Shaman framework, which balances dec...

Many tech leaders think their sales problem is talent. In reality, it’s a lack of predictable prospecting. In this episode, Sean Malone, co-founder of Flowchat, explains how most SaaS founders build sales teams before building a reliable system to feed them leads—and why that mistake creates constant stress. Sean shares the real story behind Flowchat, from early sales agencies and a $25K mastermin...

Career growth doesn’t always mean staying in the same industry—it often means staying true to how you solve problems. In this episode, Angela Gill Nelms, CEO and COO of Atos Imaging, shares her journey from biomedical engineering and healthcare software into the world of facilities management and 3D imaging. Angela reflects on returning to school at 29 as a single mother of a special needs child,...