Hot Mess Hotline

A little-discussed asset class known by rich leaders is to have rich relationships. Jack Gibson is a leader who values trust over money; friendship over revenue. Just a few short years ago, he was feeling hot, hot, hot about real estate investing with a business partner. He referred his friends to this person. Everything was great while everyone was making money together. Until it wasn't and t...

Have you ever wanted insights into uncomfortable race conversations at work but didn't know who to ask? Our guest, Danielle Meadows-Stinnett, is generous enough to share a hot mess she found herself in as the CEO of her marketing company. She describes what it felt like when a client said to her teammate, "Do you even speak English?" For those of us in more privileged positions in ou...

Big change is created by small tweaks. One of our faculty members, Nikki Evans, reminds us that change happens in small steps. Our brains are wired for overwhelm when we try to prioritize, do, plan, think through too much. Coaching reminds us to use our human superpowers of focus, critical thinking, and taking one step at a time. Nikki shares her coaching perspective, why you might want to work wi...

Critical thinking in leadership teams is not the norm. Too many meetings are focused on who's winning, who has the best idea, who's talking the loudest, etc. Steve Pearlman, a critical thinking expert, makes the analogy to poker. We hold our cards close and jockey to win. But then tell everyone else to show their cards so the team can win. I learned so much about how critical thinking is a...

Change feels hard when we try to use old habits to drive new results. No one knows that better than our very own faculty member, Tedra White. On this episode of the Hot Mess Hotline, we talk through big career transitions; how bad employees create amazing results and how to turn them into great employees that create amazing results; what gets us stuck during transformation; and the power of coachi...

There is a critical difference between managing complexity and micromanaging that all leaders need to know about. Our Hot Mess Hotline guest, Bill Murphy, breaks down how to know when you've reached a ceiling of complexity that requires you to step back into the details of the work. This is different from micromanaging, however. And if you're seeing the same mistakes over and over, yet your team i...

What's the Difference Between Orientation and Onboarding? And why does it matter? With turnover and retention being very painful and expensive problems (especially right now!), leaders need every tool at their disposal to help the right people stay. Onboarding is an incredibly powerful tool and we have the stats to back it up!! Plus it's not really about the expense, it's about welcoming people in...

Stronger leaders are made through multiple hot messes. Jerry Jones, former president of Cannon IV, shares his decisionmaking, sleepless nights, and strategy pivots during some tumultuous times. In this Hot Mess Hotline episode, he shares how 50% of their revenue evaporated in 90 days because of a supplier's switch in sales strategy. This episode is powerful for those leaders who feel fatigued by c...

What do you do when you lose your job and it's your whole identity? Steve Spiro has been there and has some words of advice! Almost every successful leader I know has been fired from a job and/or had a crisis of conscious. They often go hand-in-hand because we over invest our happiness in the role we play at work, the title, the salary, the perks. It's great to find purpose in our jobs. Our work c...

You've probably spent your entire life believing that you should do what you're good at. Surely, if you're a natural at something, then it's your life's calling, right? But what if you've been wrong all along? Gary Hobbs, electrical engineer turned entrepreneur, believes it's the challenges you face, doing what you love, and doing what you're GREAT at will drive your success. In this episode of th...

There's a balance in leadership success between being nimble and controlling the right kind of controllables. Karen Mangia is that leader who has found personal and professional success because she decided to prioritize — and control — what that looks like on a daily basis for her. You'll hear in this interview how Karen was letting other people's definitions of contribution, meaning, and boundari...

High-performing teams are built when individuals go through challenges together. Sean Murray and Doug Beal bring us the real-life story of a gold metal Olympic team from the 80s who could barely work together in the beginning. In today's episode you'll learn that you actually don't need the smartest, most talented, highly skilled players for your business team to be high performing. During much of...

Chris Clews, speaker and author, bring us rules to live by for good and bad leaders straight from the 80s! Again! He has such a valuable perspective to share (and we have laugh so much when we're together), I just had to have him back. This time we're talking about Road House and other 80s favorites. Plus if you're thinking about pivoting your career or there's a creative idea you keep thinking an...

Tony Newcome, CTO at ActiveCampaign, creates long-term growth plans with his team and has everyone working in the details, including himself. It's been instrumental to ActiveCampaign's success and certainly his track record as an award-winning technology leader. In this episode listen for Tony's leadership perspective and how he keeps cultures going in hyper growth mode while also staying focused....

Charlie Garcia, president of C Garcia and Associates, has learned that every project management problem really needs a people-focused solution. He grew up in the construction industry and learned early on to take responsibility for what's broken AND what's going right. In this episode, you'll hear Charlie describe a problem completely caused by other people but making him look bad. Like losing mil...

Joe Topinka, founder of CIO Mentor, shares his experiences learning that leaders don't judge and how to really lead by example through a tough moment in his career. A new CEO came in and he was removed from the executive leadership team. An average leader will let their ego take over. An exceptional leader will take another route. Listen in this episode for Joe's top lessons, his source of inspira...

Whynde Kuehne, founder and managing director of S2E Transformation Inc., teaches us how to lead through a crisis from her firsthand experience. She was having a normal, fabulous day when she receives a call from the big boss saying her boss was out immediately and she's now in charge of a 100-person team. Gulp. In a matter of days she came up with a way forward for the entire team. Listen in for t...

​Chris Clews, speaker and author, brings us the top leadership lessons from the 80s in this Hot Mess Hotline episode. Combining his marketing leadership experience and love of Gen X culture, he's written a books series, "What 80s Pop Culture Teaches Us About Today’s Workplace." He travels the country sharing what we can all learn from our childhood favorites: movies that play on Saturday afternoon...

​David Fischer, chief revenue officer at Gregory & Appel Insurance, has always sought out challenges. As a marine, he learned the ultimate humble leadership style: leaders eat last. He continuously strives to grow himself, the companies he works for, and the people he leads. That hard work is rewarded with increasingly complex challenges to face, however. He's a wizard when it comes to creating sa...

Blair Milo, founding director of the Center for Talent and Opportunity, took on a huge career opportunity, drove innovation, and then confronted a problem she couldn't outwork. One minute into this episode and you'll know how hard Blair works. She went from distinguished naval officer to city mayor before the age of 30. Like you, she's an ambitious, go-get 'em tiger, high achiever who does. not. s...

Emil Ekiyor, CEO of Innopower, learned some tough lessons before finding his purpose. He came to America from Nigeria in high school, never having played football. He learned the game and earned his way into the NFL. He put his head down and got to work. Every. Single. Day. Working on his mind and body to always be competing against himself and the league's best with his speed, strength, and endur...

Jason Weddle, CEO of Hamilton, has been successful precisely because he's willing to answer the hard questions and have the tough conversations. Even with himself. For this episode of the Hot Mess Hotline, he shares the confusion that existed in the 6 inches between his ears and describes why mental clarity is more important than the business plan at certain times. His willingness to answer these...

Jeff Ton has risen through the ranks of IT from manager to director to CIO. He's now bringing the wisdom he's learned to current IT leaders through a CIO networking group in Central Indiana. On this episode of the Hot Mess Hotline, he shares how to overcome mistakes at work through a gut-wrenching management and leadership experience. He faced his 150-person team to explain himself and explain why...

This episode is a replay of an IT panel that Stefanie Krievins moderated in April 2021 with successful IT leaders who also have remarkably diverse perspectives of this world and in their companies. Diversity is strength. Strength is resilience. IT leaders and consultants will be responsible for ever-increasing results because of the rate of change during the pandemic: our adoption of technology ad...

Leslie Murphy is the owner of an association management firm with tenured experience in managing people, teams, volunteers, and herself. She shares her stories about learning more about herself and how to navigate and negotiate change with others. Leslie shares how her lack of emotional intelligence earlier in her career didn't taken into account others' perspectives or needs. And a few interactio...