High Octane Leadership

We have a guest host for this bonus episode, as Ciera Thompson sits down with two generation z-ers based in Canada. Kaia Counter is pursuing her Master's degree in International Affairs and Ben Codrington is a recent Queen's University graduate who is breaking into the tech industry. These three young professionals discuss what they look for when choosing a place to work, the importance of diversi...

Akinwole Garrett has been super successful in his education and career, having gone to the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and leading divisions of ABC, CBS, SheKnows Media, and now Lenovo.  As a black man, Aki is no stranger to being the only one in the room. Today he talks about what that's like, the value of higher education, networking, what it's like to build a podcast network fr...

Joe Colopy is the founder and former CEO of Durham-based Bronto , which sold to NetSuite in 2015 for $200M. Joe is now involved in the Triangle startup scene, running both Colopy Ventures and Jurassic Capital , and he has an online tech startup newsletter – Grepbeat – which a lot of you probably read in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday. With a $200M exit, you might expect Joe to have a huge e...

Gary Salamido is the CEO of the NC Chamber , and he wants to know why Donald Thompson created The Diversity Movement , how NC businesses can create a more diverse and inclusive workplace, what can be done about white guilt, and how he can sign up to be a Certified Diversity Executive. The Donald Thompson Podcast is hosted by Walk West CEO, mentor, investor, and Diversity and Inclusion Consultant D...

Sonya Hopson is "The Lady with The Pink Hard Hat", but she's so much more than that. She's an African American woman working primarily in the construction industry, and she's overcome so many challenges - bias, mistakes, imposter syndrome, racism, and her own personal struggles - to build HIRE Strategies into one of the preeminent job recruitment firms in North Carolina. The Donald Thompson Podcas...

David Gardner is a serial entrepreneur (7X founder, exits over $100M) turned angel investor (FilterEasy, Archive Social) turned venture capitalist (Cofounders Capital, raised over $40M for NC tech companies). At this fireside chat at American Underground in Durham NC, David talks about his book, "The Startup Hats: Master the Many Roles of the Entrepreneur", what North Carolina can do to help the s...

Ashlyn Sanders was super successful academically and on track to become a doctor. She graduated from UNC a year early, interned in the Obama White House, and went to grad school at Duke. But while at Duke, a life altering diagnosis steered her to the path of entrepreneurship and an eventual investment from NBA legend Charles Barkley. NeuroVice WRAL Techwire: NBA Legend Charles Barkley Invests in C...

What are the leaders of tomorrow looking for in companies they're working for? What brands to they admire (or not)? What do they want Boomers and Gen X to know about them?  Join us in our virtual roundtable discussion with 4 future leaders from Gen Z - Tea Blumer , Gaven Kerr , Ciera Thompson , and Jalen Hatton . The Donald Thompson Podcast is hosted by Walk West CEO, mentor, investor, and Diversi...

Jen Hoverstad is a cancer survivor, attorney, Tedx speaker, marketer, mom, wife, podcaster, all around amazing person, and now the Director of Community Engagement at the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. On the show, Jen talks about her cancer journey, what it truly means to be an influencer, how she does it all, and her new role with Kay Yow. Jen's Tedx Talk, How to Change the World by Being an Influencer Ka...

Hassan and Meleata Pinto are rockstar parents and professionals. All three of their children are on full scholarships playing soccer - at Elon then transferring to Duke, at UNC to play for the legendary Anson Dorrance, and at Princeton - all elite schools both academically and athletically. Hassan is now the Senior VP of Business Development at Creative Allies , and Meleata is the Global Marketing...

As my company was getting used to this new work-from-home reality, I noticed that some people on the team – and it was usually women – were opting not to show their faces. And it got me to wondering, why do we put so much pressure on women in the workplace to look a certain way? I wrote about it in a LinkedIn post , and I hit on something that people wanted to talk about. My guest today, Loren Shu...

The Startup Hats: Master the Many Roles of the Entrepreneur , by serial entrepreneur turned venture capitalist David Gardner, is now available on audiobook. On this feed is Chapter 1: The Entrepreneur Hat. The entire audiobook is available on Google Play . David is a 6X successful startup founder who now runs Cofounders Capital, which has now invested over $40M in North Carolina tech startups.  In...

We wrap up Season 2 by talking about a topic that all professional leaders need to have knowledge of and take action on if they want employees to be happy, if they want to have the best ideas, and if they want their companies to grow the right way; diversity and inclusion . Hosted today by Jason Gillikin with guest (and normal host) Donald Thompson is extremely passionate about Diversity and Inclu...

Donald Thompson talks to guest host Meghan Hockaday about what it takes to succeed in business, who his mentors are and what they taught him, why he doesn’t like the term work-life balance, some of the strategic partnerships at Walk West, and the craziest thing he’s done for a client.  Hustle Unlimited is (usually) hosted by Walk West CEO, mentor, investor, and hustler himself, Donald Thompson. Mu...

Pete McEntegart, managing editor of Grepbeat.com has had quite the windy career path, starting as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs, then going back to college, then writing at Sports Illustrated – if you ever read SI.com in the 2000’s, Pete was the guy who wrote The Ten Spot, which was a daily column on 10 funny things in sports that day. During his time there, he was rudely interrupted by a s...

As Director of Entrepreneur Initiatives at Wake Tech in Raleigh NC, Katie Gailes has been able to help thousands of entrepreneurs with networking, funding, mentoring, and training. But she also says that entrepreneurship does NOT necessarily mean starting a business.  On today's episode, Katie talks about what being an entrepreneur actually means, some of the amazing things she's doing with Wake T...

Hustle Unlimited is hosted by Walk West CEO, mentor, investor, and hustler himself, Donald Thompson. Music for this episode provided by Jensen Reed from his song, “You Can’t Stop Me”. Hustle Unlimited is edited and produced by Earfluence . For more on the Earfluence Podcast Network, visit @EarfluenceMedia on any social media platform. High Octane Leadership is hosted by The Diversity Movement CEO...

“A lot of people become a CEO for the first time with no experience. It’s kinda like becoming a parent. There’s not really qualifications to be a CEO. You can print a business card, you can start a business, then you are in charge of something and really responsible for taking something from a concept to a commercial being. And a lot of times when people start a brand new company, they have an ide...

Tim McLoughlin is a Trianlge native and partner at Cofounders Capital , a Cary NC based venture capital firm that has raised over $30 million to invest in tech startups. On the show today, you’ll hear how Tim and David Gardner (founder of Cofounders Capital) got connected, why the Triangle is such a special place for Tim and his family, why not all businesses are investable businesses, and why the...

Molly Demarest is the General Manager of American Underground Startup Hub in Durham NC. Throughout her career, she has grown into leadership of the American Underground team and mentorship of aspiring entrepreneurs.  But when she was growing up, she could never have guessed she’d be this successful.  With a learning disability and ADHD, Molly knew she had a different way of learning.  But unfortun...

Javier Leiva is a creative director at Red Hat and former Emmy winning TV producer. But today, we talk to Javier about his podcast side hustle, Pretend , which now has over a million downloads. We talk about how Pretend started, its successes and opportunities, sacrificing sleep, keeping priorities straight, and advice for all the side hustlers and podcasters out there. Hustle Unlimited is hosted...

Heather Chandler literally wrote the book on how to make a video game, and was the senior producer on the most popular game in the world, Fortnite .  She chats with Donald Thompson on this episode of Hustle Unlimited about her career as a trailblazing woman in gaming, why she wrote the book on how to make a game, her time at Epic games making Fortnite, mentorship, and now transitioning into entrep...

In this episode, your host, Donald Thompson is interviewed by podcaster and producer, Max Trujillo, about his second recently released eBook, All Hats On Deck.  Max and Donald discuss his journey to success and this eBook, where Donald shares his perspective on using the Six Thinking Hats methodology in multiple businesses to get a competitive edge in communication, decision making and problem sol...

In this episode, the host becomes the guest as podcast producer, Jason Gillikin, interviews Donald Thompson on the first of two recently released eBooks, Driving Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace which tackles this topic from both sides providing insights for c-suite leaders and minority professionals. Learn what inspired Donald to write this book and what he hopes to impart on its readers....

Hailing from Durham, NC, Greg Boone has gone from being a leader as a college athlete to becoming the 2018 NC Technology Executive of the Year. Greg leads a growing technology firm, he shares his wisdom with you on getting the best from his team and how he identifies exceptional talent. Overcoming some personal health issues in the past gave him the hunger to fight even harder for others around hi...