The Bob Johnston Podcast

Despite a global pandemic, it’s been a remarkable year for the markets, both public and private. The Dow and NASDAQ reached (and are still reaching) record highs and the number of private equity and venture capital deals has been at a fever pitch.  My guest today, Jon Korngold, has a front row seat from the world’s largest investment firm – Blackstone. Jon is the Global Head of Blackstone Growth (...

Imagine if you could tap into your own energy supply to feel better. Dr. Barry Morguelan will teach you just how to do that, and more. “Dr. B.” has spent the past 25 years teaching a special approach to using energy for success, which is a 5,000 year old approach that he learned in China. Dr. B. Is the fist English-speaking person to be trained in this methodology. Simply put, his thesis is that w...

Bob Johnston and his PR guru, Robert Dowling, riff on current events in the first (and maybe the last!) "Bob Robert Podcast."  In the immortal words of Monty Python, now for something completely different…my guest today is Robert Dowling, who might win an award for being the most interesting person. He also happens to be one of the most accomplished and connected PR execs on the planet,...

One of the major seismic shifts in the markets since last Summer has been the increasing (and massive) adoption of Bitcoin by financial institutions, corporations, family offices, and retail investors (i.e. you and me). My guest today is Michael Saylor, Chairman & CEO of MicroStrategy. MicroStrategy has purchased more than $2Bn in Bitcoin since last Summer, using both cash and sales of convert...

Will A.I. eat the world, as Elon Musk and others are predicting? My guest today is Barak Turovsky, Director of Product for Google A.I.. He’s been working on “A.I.” for so long that there was no name for it during his days doing video and audio surveillance in the Israeli Military Intelligence Corps. The numbers are, indeed, staggering and you can see how A.I. is truly taking over the world ever da...

Creating something out of nothing is a mystery for many of us, particularly if you’ve worked in the corporate world for many years. In today’s podcast. I sit down with Zach Garippa, Co-founder and CEO of Negotiatius, to look under the hood and discuss life inside a startup. We dig into the business and personal sides of launching a startup and de-bunk myths about the entrepreneurial mindset. Count...

Each of us has an ‘origin story’ about our childhood, family and their effect on our adult lives and career. In the case of today’s guest, who is considered to be the “father of impact investing,” I walked away from our conversation with tremendous admiration and respect for how his early years have influenced his life’s work. At age 11, Sir Ronald Cohen’s family fled Egypt during the Suez crisis...

One of the  big issues that’s top of mind right now for all businesses is the ability to innovate around meaningful customer experiences. Not just because they lead to customers who are ‘delighted' (bow to Tony Hsieh at Zappos) – but also because they  drive massive loyalty and lifelong engagement. My guest today is Stephen Revetria who, as President of San Francisco Giants Enterprises, is on...

There’s a lot of scuttlebutt about Bitcoin these days. Perhaps its most prominent proponent is former Goldman Sachs executive and RealVision founder, Raoul Pal. I’ve been eager to have Raoul on the podcast to discuss his vision for Bitcoin because he’s not a tech or diehard Bitcoin person – instead, he comes from the world of finance and has a more objective and surgical thesis on Bitcoin, which h...

Q: Why do we love brands like Apple, Yeti (love a cooler – yes!) and Vespa? A: Because we feel them. The leaders at these companies have figured out how to decipher what feel and look good to them and mobilize teams to embed it in the products. This is pure magic. My guest today is Pauline Brown, former chairman of LVMH and author of the book, Aesthetic Intelligence . She also worked at Bain, Este...

It’s probably safe to say that we’ve all had firsthand experience with telehealth over the past seven months. Even my ol’ Mom is an expert at Zooming with her doctor. Where are we as a society with telehealth? Which ailments are best suited for telehealth? My guest today is Yulun Wang, Ph. D., who is a Teladoc Fellow and sold his company, InTouch Health, to Teladoc in January, 2020 (yes, good timi...

With the exception of cybersecurity (i.e. protecting remote employees), the topic on the minds of nearly every enterprise CEO and board these days is…wait for it…Workplace Management. Today’s guest is Dan Teran, founder of Managed by Q – a leading workplace management technology platform, which was sold to WeWork last year. We are all social animals – sitting in front of a computer at home isn’t t...

My guest today is Dr. Joey Mattina who, at the age of 33, is the head chiropractor for the LA Clippers. He also works with legendary chiropractor, Dr. Dennis Colonello, at Peak Wellness in Los Angeles, whose patients include athletes from the NBA to the NFL. Joey has a sixth sense for how to heal the body, whether you're a pro athlete or just been sitting too much like most of us nowadays.

Boxed has established itself as a major force in the world of online commerce with a brand that has a highly curated and artful shopping experience, yet thankfully no signs of hubris. After talking with CEO Chieh Huang, I can see why they are crushing it but remain humble. He embodies the brand and, frankly, no easy feat to pull off this balance in such a highly competitive industry.

It’s safe to say that you’ve probably been living under a rock if you’ve never heard the Andretti name, which has  been synonymous with auto racing for decades. What you may not know is the personal story behind racing legend, family scion, and  current Andretti Autosport CEO, Michael Andretti. First, Michael may be one of the winningest athletes in all of sports – he turned pro at 17 and has 42 w...

Today’s podcast dissects the inspiring story of Saeju Jeong, co-founder and CEO of Noom, arguably the most important weight loss app on the market. Saeju is a witty, soulful, exceptional leader. It was such a pleasure talking with him and hearing about his humble beginnings, from coming to NYC from South Korea and selling 99¢ trinkets on the streets, to meeting his co-founder and building Noom.

Today we’re sitting down with Jim Van Stone, who is President and Chief Commercial Officer at Monument Sports – Jim oversees the Washington Wizards, Capitals, WNBA Majestic, several venues and e-sports properties. There's a lot of lessons on leadership and tenacity from sports, which is why I love talking with and interviewing sports execs. Out of all of them, Jim Van Stone might have the mos...

We’re covering a topic today that has been getting a lot of press attention – online voting. The media often presents either the left or right view, but as it turns out the majority of citizens don’t fall squarely into one camp or another. As with a lot of things in life, most people just want to collect as many data points as they can to make an informed decision. That’s what we hope to accomplis...

Peter J. Solomon is a prominent banker and founder of PJ Solomon, one of the country’s first independent investment banks. But, I bet very few of you know him as a keeper of bees, an avid birder, or as a collector of children’s books. At risk of being called an “underachiever”, Peter recently authored the book, “Wasting Time Constructively: A Guide to a Balanced Life”, in which Peter documents his...

If you've ever tried to secure a student loan, you know all too well how frustrating it can be. After experiencing the trying process firsthand, David Klein, CEO of CommonBond, set out to change things. His goal was simple - - launch a digital startup to automate the archaic student loan industry. Fast forward eight years, and CommonBond has facilitated more than $6 billion in student loans v...

St. Louis Blues CEO, Chris Zimmerman, discusses what lessons in storytelling, trust and how you behave can be gleaned from running a sports team (Tim cut his teeth in advertising and c-level roles at Nike and Saatchi & Saatchi). We also cover the amazing ‘story’ of how the Blues came all the way from last place and won the Stanley Cup, his time as a player and coach at the collegiate level, th...

The head of the first venture fund dedicated to investing in the Space industry discusses getting the typical citizen-tourist to space in just a few years from now, the partnership between SpaceX and NASA (and NASA's suddenly-sexy brand), why the early days of human space flight resembles the early days of humans in airplanes...the roughly $400 billion being invested in Space-related startups...

I was lucky enough to riff with Zeel CEO, Samer Hamadeh, and tennis great, Venus Williams. Zeel provides health and wellness services (both in person and virtually), to consumers and businesses. Venus, in addition to being one of the world’s all-time greatest athletes, is a Zeel board member. We covered a lot of topics ranging from what they each do to keep a calm head during times of crisis, to k...

Atlanta Falcons CEO, Steve Cannon, discusses his leadership style and approach, serving as CEO the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United soccer, plus his days at West Point (and why it breeds leaders). We also discuss his living and working in Germany, military lessons in leadership, working for the Arthur M. Blank Group (owner of Falcons) and, last but very much not least...having 9 kids!

Seattle Storm's CEO Alisha Valavanis talks leadership, reimagining the team the past several years which led to a WNBA championship in 2018, the force of Force 10 (her sports management firm), coming fro ma family with two identical sets of twins (of which she is one)...and lots more!