Liftoff Journeys

Send us Fan Mail Most companies overlook a game-changing ingredient that drives success, trust, and innovation — love. Owen Burns reveals how leading with love in business isn’t just a feel-good cliché, but a proven strategy that can transform your organization, boost performance, and even improve the bottom line. Imagine a world where fear, not hate, is the root of most workplace conflicts, stagn...

Send us Fan Mail It's true, you can make your story your path to success!  Aaron Golub was born legally blind, and he still walked onto a Division I football field at Tulane, became a team captain, and later signed as an NFL free agent. That isn’t a feel-good headline to us, it’s a blueprint for how identity gets rebuilt through daily reps, honest self-talk, and the decision to stop letting a...

Send us Fan Mail In a world drowning in synthetic content, algorithmic noise, and shiny new tech tools, what actually still matters? This episode digs into the tension between where business is racing toward and what it can't afford to leave behind: real human connection. I sit down with three powerhouse leaders Lou Paskalis, CEO, AJL Advisory, Kirk McDonald, CEO, Sundial Media and Lana McGil...

Send us Fan Mail Commerce is shapeshifting right in front of us, and if you blink, you might miss the moment everything clicks into place. This special edition of Liftoff Journeys is all about what's really happening at the intersection of retail, media, and AI, and why the smartest leaders in the room are rethinking everything from how customers discover brands to how retailers build entirel...

Send us Fan Mail Here's the thing about AI that nobody wants to admit: everyone's talking about it, but most people still can't tell you exactly how it's changing the game right now, today, in real and tangible ways. This episode fixes that. In this special edition of Liftoff Journeys, I'm bringing together four conversations with leaders who aren't just theorizing ab...

Send us Fan Mail What if the way we've been thinking about media, audiences, and even healthcare marketing is fundamentally broken... and the fix is already here? In this special edition of Liftoff Journeys, I'm taking you aboard a mansion yacht in Miami (yes, you read that right) for three back-to-back conversations with some of the sharpest minds in media, healthcare, and advertising....

Send us Fan Mail Ashley Miles is the kind of person who makes you want to go rethink your entire business strategy and then actually do something about it before the day is over. She walked away from the corporate world with all its resources, the big teams, the trade events, the ability to snap your fingers and mobilize, and built Franklin West from scratch. Self-funded. No VCs. No safety net. Ju...

Send us Fan Mail There's an entire workforce out there, millions of women, who have been told for decades that their career has a ceiling. Francis Tesmer decided that was done. She didn't just talk about it, she built the first ever college degree pathway for beauty professionals in partnership with L'Oréal and then put over $1 million in scholarships behind it so that money would n...

Send us Fan Mail This conversation made me hungry AND inspired, which honestly is the best combination. James Mazzuto spent 20 years in the corporate world, earned an MBA from Tulane, lectured at universities, ran a nonprofit, launched a solar startup, and was literally about to go to LAW SCHOOL on a chancellor's scholarship at Seton Hall when something completely unexpected happened. He walk...

Send us Fan Mail I have been looking for someone who lives at the intersection of creativity and business strategy and Paul Koslowski is exactly that person. He's an award-winning architect and co-founder of Dunn Koslowski, a firm that's spent nearly 24 years creating spaces that don't just look beautiful, they make people FEEL something. We're talking restaurants where you don...

Send us Fan Mail This one is personal for me. Over 10 years ago, Stan Rosenberg was my intern, and watching where his career has gone since then honestly makes me so proud. While he was still in HIGH SCHOOL, this guy started a nonprofit called Trip of a Lifetime that has now raised over a million dollars and sent more than 350 students on transformational travel experiences. Since then, he's...

Send us Fan Mail So I've been a little obsessed with Ross Simmonds ever since I came across one of his presentations and this conversation did NOT disappoint. Ross is a global thought leader and entrepreneur who helps brands scale through content, but the way he thinks about content is completely different from what most marketers are doing right now. He says things that honestly make a lot o...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Bennett started washing dishes at his parents' restaurant at 16, and by 25, he was running the whole place. But then life threw him some curveballs: a divorce, a master's degree he couldn't use at the worst possible time, and a career pivot most people wouldn't see coming. And somehow, all those detours led him to write a historical fiction trilogy about b...

Send us Fan Mail Imagine taking your child to a therapist for help with their behavior, only for the therapist to basically call you a bad parent and tell you it’s your fault they act the way they do? I sat down with Karen Thomas, the founder and CEO of Naturally Recovering Autism, and what she shared about her journey had my jaw drop. This mom spent over a decade and more than $100,000 of her own...

Send us Fan Mail Sergio has one of those journeys that sounds almost unbelievable. He came to the US as a refugee, grew up in real poverty in Brooklyn, got into some serious trouble as a kid, and somehow turned it all around to become a vice president at a multinational consulting firm who's spoken in front of Congress. It’s like a mix of West Side Story meets an episode of The Americans with...

Send us Fan Mail Trust is the invisible line between momentum and stagnation. Cross it, and teams move faster. Miss it, and nothing works the way it should. In this episode of the Snarketing Podcast, hosts Matt Wurst and Valerie Vespa welcome back their first-ever repeat guest, Jeanniey Walden, for a wide-ranging, candid conversation about trust, leadership, attention, and growth in an AI-shaped w...

Send us Fan Mail Hopefully you know by now that I didn’t just wrote a book (The Trust Threshold) - but this took me on a journey I never expected. I didnt just write it - I “vibe-Authored” it. And during that process I realized I created the way I lead when I was a little girl (WHAT?!?!) This episode came from sitting down with Vanessa and Keith Bell for an unexpected, unfiltered, no-prep conversa...

Send us Fan Mail I don't know about you, but 2025 wasn't the best year for me. I lost my mom, my former company liquidated in bankruptcy and most people I know lost their jobs. That had to be more than a coincidence, and after chatting with Letao Wang, now I know why and I am super psyched for this new year- the year of the Fire Horse! All I have to say is THANK goodness Letao didn'...

Send us Fan Mail Famous author and great guy, Gareth Russell Dreamt about being the Czar of Russia when he was little. WHAT?!?  I wasn’t expecting this conversation to go where it did, and honestly, that’s my favorite kind. In this episode of Liftoff Journeys, I sit down with author and historian Gareth Russell to talk about how he became the writer he is today… and it turns out that journey start...

Send us Fan Mail I’m sitting down with Stephen Gee, CEO and co-founder of Blend, expecting him to give me a common story of his background, and at some point he casually says, “I actually went to college to become a volcanologist.” Volcanoes. Lava. Remote islands. No friends. (His words, not mine.) And somehow… that explains everything about how he sees leadership today. This episode of Liftoff Jo...

Send us Fan Mail Some kids learn how to speak up early. Others learn how to disappear. Scilla Andreen learned how to disappear. Bullied as a child and conditioned to keep her voice small, Scilla grew up believing that staying invisible was safer than being seen. That belief followed her into adulthood until the moment she realized that silence was no longer an option. In this episode of Liftoff Jo...

Send us Fan Mail “When I grow up, I want to be a bubble bather .”  At three years old, my daughter didn’t know what a career was, but she knew exactly what mattered to her: helping people, having fun, and creating happiness. That moment stayed with me. What’s remarkable is that those same values have guided every chapter of her life since, through different paths, different choices, and now, worki...

Send us Fan Mail Join us on this episode of Liftoff Journeys as we dive into the inspiring story of Keith and Vanessa Bell, a dynamic couple who transitioned from traditional careers to successful entrepreneurs.  Discover how they turned their passion for storytelling into a thriving business, helping others become published authors. From professional careers, to their initial steps into real esta...

Send us Fan Mail Two new moms turned a teether mishap into Cheeky Chompers—a global brand reshaping parenting essentials. Hear their journey. On Liftoff Journeys , we go deeper than the headlines—you’ll hear the real, behind-the-scenes stories that leaders rarely share. In this episode, Jeanniey Walden sits down with Amy Livingstone and Julie Wilson, the co-founders of Cheeky Chompers, who transfo...

Send us Fan Mail Summary In this engaging conversation, Marc Roberge of O.A.R. discusses the importance of authenticity in music, the joy of living a work-life blend, and the deep connections formed with fans over decades. He shares insights on the music industry, the significance of having a clear vision for growth, and offers valuable advice for aspiring artists. The discussion highlights the tr...