The Culture Coach

Send us Fan Mail What if your employees are your most important audience? In this episode of The Culture Coach Podcast , Wendy Brand sits down with marketing and culture strategist Lori Castillo to explore the powerful connection between internal culture and external brand. Drawing from her leadership experience at organizations including Procter & Gamble, CoverGirl, and NatureSweet, Lori shar...

Send us Fan Mail What does it look like to build a career that's more than one thing, and do it out in the open? In this episode, Wendy sits down with Jennifer Doty, a former Fortune 100 vice president who spent nearly 20 years at MetLife before her role was eliminated and she was forced to reimagine everything.  Today, Jennifer is thriving with a portfolio career that includes a leadership r...

Send us Fan Mail Building a successful business is one challenge. Building one that maintains strong values, accountability, and a healthy culture as it grows is another. In this episode of The Culture Coach Podcast , Wendy Brand sits down with Shannon Badger , co-founder of Badger CPA , to talk about what it really takes to grow a firm while staying true to the values that matter most. Shannon sh...

Send us Fan Mail What actually makes a culture real —not just aspirational? In this episode, Wendy Brand sits down with Sabrina Parsons , CEO of Palo Alto Software , to talk about what it takes to build an intentional culture that holds up through growth, change, and hiring challenges. Sabrina shares the turning point that led her team to articulate their culture (after several “perfect resume” hi...

Send us Fan Mail February is American Heart Month—a reminder of the importance of cardiovascular health and the signals our bodies send us every day. In this deeply personal conversation, Wendy sits down with her dear friend Julie Habelmann—founder of Noble Tones, integrative sound healing practitioner, and women’s heart health advocate—to explore how a heart attack became a catalyst for profound...

Send us Fan Mail There’s a moment in leadership that's that in-between phase where, on the outside, everything looks fine… but internally, something feels off. In this solo episode, Wendy shares a personal story from her leadership journey—one where success, responsibility, and recognition continued to rise, while alignment quietly slipped away. She reflects on what happens when leaders sacri...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Culture Coach Podcast , Wendy Brand sits down with former CEO Barry Moline to explore what truly drives high-performing teams — and why connection, trust, and community matter more than strategy alone. With nearly three decades of leadership experience, Barry shares real-world stories of early leadership mistakes, building intentional culture, strengthening...

Send us Fan Mail Leadership isn’t supposed to feel this heavy. Yet so many capable, driven leaders are exhausted. Carrying everything, fixing everything, and feeling constant pressure just to keep things moving. In this episode of The Culture Coach Podcast , Wendy Brand breaks down the real root cause behind burnout, team friction, and fragile workplace culture: misalignment . Drawing from her own...

Send us Fan Mail Fresh off a week in Reno and Lake Tahoe working with Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) leaders, Wendy reflects on conversations with founders, CEOs, and franchise leaders navigating growth, change, and transition—and why alignment, not reinvention, is the real work leaders are being called to do in 2026. Building on her recent newsletter and Substack article, “2026 doesn’t need a n...

Send us Fan Mail In this solo episode of The Culture Coach Podcast , Wendy Brand is bringing awareness to leadership habits that may be quietly draining your culture — and holding your organization back. If you feel like everything is urgent, you’re constantly stepping in to do work that isn’t yours, or every decision still has to run through you, this episode is for you. Wendy breaks down three c...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Culture Coach Podcast , Wendy Brand sits down with Steven Puri —former senior executive at major motion picture studios, startup founder, and the creator of Sukha , a platform designed to help knowledge workers access flow state and protect deep work. Steven makes a bold case: companies don’t win because TPS reports are filed on time or everyone hits inbox z...

Send us Fan Mail Greetings! This is a replay of an episode from this past summer on my CORE Culture™ Framework. Happy Holidays and I hope you enjoy. ____________________________ This week, I'm diving deep into my signature CORE Culture™ Framework, a proven model for helping leaders stop culture from happening by accident and start building one that drives retention, productivity, and purpose....

Send us Fan Mail Today on The Culture Coach Podcast , Wendy sits down with Erika Sinner , Founder & CEO of Directorie , a $15M healthcare commercialization company and two-time Inc. 5000 honoree. Erika also serves as the Chief Empathy Officer of TinySuperheroes , a nonprofit empowering critically ill children through play and courage, and is the bestselling author of Pets Are Family . Erika is...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode of The Culture Coach Podcast , Wendy sits down with tech executive and author Kae Williams for a candid conversation about the invisible barriers women and marginalized leaders face at work—and the strategies that actually help you navigate them with confidence, clarity, and impact. Kae has spent decades leading in male-dominated environments across startups, sc...

Send us Fan Mail In this week’s episode of The Culture Coach Podcast , Wendy sits down with Farrah Mitra — executive coach, former Bain consultant, Cornell alum, and one of only fifteen Radical Candor™ coaches worldwide. Farrah's career has been built at the intersection of people, performance, and communication, and she brings a rare blend of strategic clarity and deep humanity to the conver...

Send us Fan Mail In this week’s episode of The Culture Coach Podcast , Wendy Brand unpacks the power of conscious leadership —a philosophy popularized by John Mackey (Whole Foods), Steve McIntosh, and Carter Phipps—and how it connects directly to the CORE Culture™ pillars of Clarity, Energy, and Ownership . Wendy explores what it truly means to lead above the line —where fear is acknowledged but n...

Send us Fan Mail This week on The Culture Coach Podcast , Wendy sits down with Dave McDonald , founder of the Better Together Group and host of the WTF Podcast , to talk about the unconventional path that led him from being “fired from every good job he ever had” to running a thriving family of staffing agencies dedicated to feeding families one shift at a time . Dave’s story is full of humility,...

Send us Fan Mail What’s the real difference between a strong leader and a tough one? In this solo episode, I’m unpacking one of the biggest shifts in leadership today — moving from command-and-control to human-centered leadership. After 30 years in corporate leadership, I’ve seen both styles up close. The truth? The leaders who build loyalty, trust, and high performance aren’t the ones barking ord...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Culture Coach , Wendy sits down with Janelle Miller Moravek , a nonprofit leader and mental health advocate who has led Youth & Family Counseling as Executive Director since 2009. Janelle’s leadership journey offers a masterclass in balancing compassion with strategy. She shares how trust is built over time — and how that trust becomes the foundation for...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Culture Coach podcast, I sit down with Grant Harris to explore neurodiversity and inclusion in the workplace. Grant shares his journey of discovering his own neurodistinct identity, the strengths that come with it, and how leaders can create more inclusive cultures that unlock hidden brilliance on their teams. We cover: - The difference between being neurodi...

Send us Fan Mail What does it really take to lead with confidence in the age of AI? And how can leaders embrace innovation without burning out themselves—or their teams? In this episode of The Culture Coach Podcast , Wendy sits down with Victoria Mensch , Founder and CEO of the Silicon Valley Executive Academy , to explore the intersection of AI, leadership, and workplace culture . Victoria shares...

Send us Fan Mail What can leaders learn from comedians? As it turns out—quite a lot. In this episode of The Culture Coach Podcast , Wendy Brand sits down with Kevin Hubschmann, founder of Laugh. Events and author of the Laugh Rx newsletter, to explore how laughter and improv translate into powerful leadership and culture skills. Kevin shares his journey from being one of the first employees at a S...

Send us Fan Mail What does it take to keep your people’s fire alive—and build organizations where everyone can thrive? In this episode of The Culture Coach Podcast, Wendy Brand sits down with Telle Whitney —computer scientist, co-founder of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, former CEO of the Anita Borg Institute, and author of Rebooting Tech Culture: How to Ignite Innovation and...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Wendy Brand unpacks why clarity and focus are the quickest wins for CEOs and culture leaders. Without them, even the best teams slip into misalignment, decision fatigue, and constant firefighting. With them, leaders reclaim their energy, teams align around what matters, and culture becomes the system that drives results. You’ll hear: Why clarity is the foundation...

Send us Fan Mail This week, I break down each of the five biggest reasons culture transformations fail—straight out of the latest Harvard Business Review article and echoed in my own work with organizations. Learn practical ways leaders can avoid these pitfalls and build an intentional culture that actually sticks. And if you’re ready to go deeper:  👉 Join the Culture Strategy Lab ($57/month comm...