Leadership Unlocked: How Leaders Win in the Era of AI

Dusty sits down with David Stupay, five-time CEO, executive recruiter, and founder of Platinum Search Partners, for a deeply human conversation about the relationships, experiences, and values that shape exceptional leaders. Drawing from an unconventional career that spans leading a homeless shelter, serving communities in East Africa, building organizations that support children with special need...

Dusty sits down with George Bryant for a deeply personal and thought-provoking conversation about identity, faith, leadership, and the lifelong pursuit of becoming who you were created to be. Drawing from a journey that includes military service, addiction, childhood trauma, entrepreneurship, suicidal struggles, and spiritual transformation, George challenges the conventional view of leadership as...

Dusty goes solo to challenge one of the biggest misconceptions leaders have about AI: that it should be managed like software rather than led like a person. Building on the themes of recent episodes about identifying opportunities and revealing hidden insights, he argues that the disappointing results many leaders experience with AI have less to do with the technology and more to do with the leade...

Dusty goes solo to explore a leadership skill that becomes exponentially more valuable in the age of AI: the ability to reveal insight rather than provide answers. Building on a conversation with a highly respected CEO who described his role as “handing people a blacklight,” he argues that great leaders are not the source of solutions—they are the source of clarity. Through stories from his own le...

Dusty goes solo to challenge the growing obsession with AI tools and argues that the leaders who will thrive in the next decade are not the ones chasing every new platform, but the ones who remain relentlessly focused on the problems that actually matter. Using Archimedes’ famous lever metaphor as the foundation, he reframes AI as an extraordinary source of leverage rather than a strategy in itsel...

Dusty sits down with Jessi Beyer for a deeply human and highly tactical conversation about suicide prevention, emotional awareness, and the leadership responsibility to truly see the people around you. Drawing from her experience as a crisis mental health professional and SWAT negotiator, Jessi reframes a staggering reality—roughly 4% of people are actively considering suicide at any given time—an...

Dusty goes solo for the one-year anniversary to tackle one of the biggest misconceptions leaders are facing in the age of AI—that better tools automatically create better organizations. Drawing from conversations with CEOs, research from McKinsey and BCG, and years of leadership coaching, he argues that AI doesn’t replace the fundamentals of leadership; it ruthlessly amplifies whatever leadership...

Dusty sits down with Alex Goldfayn for a practical and mindset-shifting conversation about proactive growth, everyday discipline, and why most leaders dramatically underutilize the opportunities already sitting inside their existing relationships. Drawing from his work helping companies generate millions in organic revenue, Alex challenges the default reactive posture that dominates sales and lead...

Dusty challenges one of the most ingrained—and damaging—habits in high-performing leaders: carrying everything themselves. Sparked by a blunt moment with a mentor who reframed not asking for help as “stealing opportunities” from others, he exposes three hidden stories that keep leaders stuck and overwhelmed—the Hero Myth (stepping in equals leadership), Imposter Syndrome (fear of being exposed), a...

Dusty sits down with Mike Milan, widely known as “Cashflow Mike,” for a high-impact conversation on leadership, communication, and the hidden power of financial clarity in business. From an unconventional start as a Missouri state trooper—where he mastered “verbal judo” and learned to meet people where they are—to building and advising more than 14 companies, Mike shares how his career has been sh...

Dusty goes solo to confront a subtle but damaging misconception at the heart of servant leadership—the belief that focusing on yourself somehow takes away from serving others—and argues the opposite: failing to lead yourself is the most selfish thing you can do. Drawing from personal experience and a powerful leadership session with a high-performing team, he exposes how neglecting self-leadership...

Dusty sits down with Jacob Karnes—leadership coach, author of Master Your First Job , and former Chick-fil-A leadership development professional—for a conversation about turning early career opportunities into the foundation for long-term leadership impact. Drawing from his journey from a reluctant teenage Chick-fil-A employee to corporate learning and development and ultimately entrepreneurship,...

Dusty goes solo to dismantle one of leadership’s most persistent myths—that work-life balance is something you can achieve and maintain—and replaces it with a more honest and actionable model: balancing as a daily discipline. Sparked by a question about staying present amid competing demands at work and home, he introduces a practical operating system built on three decision “gates” and two critic...

Dusty sits down with Eric Collette, CEO of A Mind for All Seasons, for a wide-ranging and deeply practical conversation on how leaders can optimize brain health to sustain performance, extend longevity, and lead more effectively. Grounded in both research and real-world case studies, Eric challenges the fatalistic belief that cognitive decline is inevitable, instead outlining a “system of systems”...

Dusty goes solo in an AMA-style episode to break down how leaders can actually implement the Rules of Engagement framework introduced in episode 27, turning a powerful concept into a practical operating system for clarity and alignment. Drawing on years of leadership experience and real client stories, he frames the guide as a “leadership decoder ring”—a living document that makes implicit expecta...

Dusty sits down with Garland and Dorothy Vance—co-founders of Unleashed Leadership—for a candid and insightful conversation about the difference between being remembered as a hero or a villain in the lives of those you lead. Drawing from decades spent researching, testing, and refining leadership development—from running a 15-year “leadership laboratory” inside a nonprofit to building their own fi...

Dusty goes solo to unpack the invisible forces silently sabotaging even the most capable leaders—overwhelm, reactive schedules, and misaligned priorities. Anchoring his discussion in the stark warning from Levi Lusko—“if nothing changes, future you will be an exaggerated version of present”—he reveals how constant busyness without clarity only amplifies stress, burnout, and lost impact. Through th...

Dusty sits down with Dawn Grooters—founder of Broken Vessel Sales Solutions—for a deeply personal and practical conversation about servant leadership, resilience, and the power of authentic connection in sales. After building a successful career as a field sales rep in the gift and home industry, Dawn’s life was forever altered when her 11-month-old son, Kale, passed away while she was on the road...

In this milestone 50th episode, Dusty flips the mic toward the community and tackles the most persistent questions leaders have been sending his way—ranging from work-life balance and delegation to AI strategy, ownership culture, and CEO fundamentals. Rather than offering abstract theory, he delivers practical frameworks drawn from personal experience and real client work: why “balancing” beats th...

Dusty sits down with Mo Fathelbab—former CEO, executive coach, and author of Forum —for a candid conversation about the transformative power of vulnerability in leadership. Drawing on his experience leading YPO forums and coaching high-level executives, Mo challenges the traditional command-and-control model, arguing that real influence is built not on authority, but on authenticity. Together, he...

Dusty sits down with Liesl Chang—entrepreneur, systems thinker, and founder of Comeback Goods—for a wide-ranging conversation that explores how self-awareness, curiosity, and disciplined systems thinking shape meaningful leadership. Tracing her path from studying Russian history to building logistics infrastructure at high-growth startups like Zimments and Casper, Liesl reflects on the formative m...

Dusty goes solo to reframe one of leadership’s most misunderstood concepts—trust—arguing that leaders get stuck because they treat trust as something to earn or demand rather than something to build deliberately. Drawing from real coaching conversations, including a revealing case study of a newly promoted CEO who was burning out by staying too involved, Dusty shows how leaders often focus on whet...

She built her dream career, but then walked away. Dusty Holcomb sits down with Maricella Herrera—former COO and CEO of Elevate Network and host of the podcast Oh Shit, I Just Quit My Job —for an honest, deeply human conversation about identity, integrity, and the courage required to walk away from a life that no longer fits. From her early career in finance in Mexico to business school at Columbia...

Dusty sits down once again with Dr. Lani Jones—clinical psychologist and executive coach—for a practical, no-nonsense conversation about turning good intentions into systems that actually produce lasting change. Building on their prior discussion about vision and planning, Lani introduces a clinically informed framework that begins with acknowledging your design: understanding your humanness, neur...

Dusty welcomes back Dr. Lani Jones—clinical psychologist, executive coach, and expert in behavior change—for a timely and deeply reflective conversation on how leaders can intentionally design success rather than defaulting to familiar but ineffective goal-setting habits. Moving beyond the fleeting appeal of New Year’s resolutions, Lani reframes planning as an exercise in clarity, alignment, and s...