The Executives' Lounge: Redefining Leadership, One Story at a Time

Nikki Gianni was active military for 10 years and spent another 15 years as a civil servant working for the Department of Defense. She rose quickly into leadership positions and has a passion for learning and implementing tools and strategies that can transform teams and organizations. She is the president and leadership coach of The Leadership Architect and she supports women newly entering leade...

Thomasina Schmitt is a musician at heart and a 20+ year veteran in the non-profit world. She is the executive director of Seattle Neighborhood Group, a non-profit organization that educates, organizes, and collaborates with residents, businesses, government entities and other organizations to create safe communities through equitable engagement, with a focus on underserved populations. Thomasina i...

Sylvia Bruner is the Director of the Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum in Buffalo, Wyoming. You’ve never heard of Jim Gatchell? Me either. But once you learn his story and why there is a museum with his name on it, you’ll be blown away. Our country has a complex history with individual stories of the people that bring color to those black and white photos we come across every now and then. Sylvia Brune...

Amy Satkiewicz is the Senior Sales Director at Honey Stinger. If you are an athlete, outdoor adventurist, or someone that just loves energy snacks when working out, then you probably already know Honey Stinger. Amy has a diverse work background, starting in 1993 as an Assistant Buyer at Spiegel Inc. and then worked at Nike from 1995 to 2006, holding various roles in sales and moving multiple times...

Just coming back from a hiking trip in the Grand Canyon...you can tell I was struggle bussing getting the titles and experience of the amazing Dr. Deb Davies OUT of my mouth!

Dr. Deb Davies is a clinic supervisor and is also a mentor at PUSH professionals (where she trains acupuncturists to become experts in pregnancy, birth, and post-partum journeys) and is a best selling co-author of the book, “(In)Fertility: Secrets, Struggles, & Successes.” After passionately following her calling by supporting thousands of families naturally throughout their pregnancy, birth,...

Lauren Bartolozzi is the Vice President of Development for RepresentUs and she has dedicated her career to expanding equity and providing philanthropic guidance that creates impact through community-centered fundraising. For nearly two decades she has worked to build trust-based relationships with donors and doers to create lasting change in communities across the country. An Ohio native, Lauren l...

Leigh Vadas is the Director of Customer Success for Green Check Verified - a banking and business company focused on helping those in the cannabis industry operate and have a safe and legitimate place to bank with all that  cash.  What I loved about talking with Leigh is her voracious desire to continuously learn and the way she expresses true care for her team. Leigh’s Book Recommendation: The Cu...

Alicia Lifrak is the Executive Vice President of The Pursuant Group. With more than three decades of philanthropic leadership experience, Alicia has built an entire career in marketing and branding for non-profit organizations throughout the U.S. She is passionate about helping organizations build capacity and is committed to philanthropic support to make impact on the world around her. Alicia and...

Tracy Bradshaw has spent two decades developing, implementing and evaluating programming primarily with women and youth. She is an expert in team development, leadership, group dynamics, and experiential learning. Tracy is the CEO of the Boys and Girls Club Collaborative of Western New York and is the co-founder at Women Gathering & Growing with TEA, a women's empowerment business and comm...

What does it look like to get into the head of founder, Christine Fonner, at 7am in the morning? We go existential into the "Why am I doing this??" in the beginning of my podcast conversation with Tracy Bradshaw!

Taylor Swope started Little Hippie in 2002 at the age of just 24 - starting from her tiny apartment in New York City. She started creating children's clothing inspired by her love of music, awe for the wonderment of children, and a deep faith in the value of playing outdoors. Taylor and I connected over our love of Phish (the band) and the yin yang of having a passion for something while also...

Hillary Gramm has been empowering youth since 2006 through her work in the non-profit sector. Growing up, Hillary experienced home life issues, which inspired her to delve into the issues children face that may hinder their chances of success. Hillary is the Executive Director of Higher Up Texas, a non profit organization that is dedicated to teaching life skills to young adults and guides them to...

Sarah Umles and I get into discussion about the cheats you can do for your appearance when you haven't showered and don't want to wear pants!

Bethany Rucker is a high powered, high level executive people leader in the corporate world who cares deeply about her teams. We discuss her three pillars of leadership, the challenges of leading up as a black woman, and her strategy for prioritizing her family life in alignment with her whole self. Bethany's book recommendation: Crucial Conversations by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, Ron McM...

Sarah Umles is the founder and director of The Residency Project (TRP). She has committed her career efforts to developing an organization that provides time and space in support of creative research and artistic experimentation, with an emphasis on creating opportunities for practitioners who are traditionally underrepresented in the arts—women, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ artists, artists with disabilities...

Annie Giagni is the Interim Director of Nursing at Exceptional Community Hospital in Maricopa, AZ. Annie grew up in West Los Angeles, and lived the quintessential west coast dream as a surf instructor, aquatic athlete and ultimate beach girl. After moving away from LA, completing 2 bachelor's degrees in 2 different states and working an array of interesting jobs Annie landed in rural Arizona w...

Dr. Marielle Reataza and I sit down and talk about some pretty serious stuff in this episode. SENSITIVE TOPIC WARNING: We talk about suicidal thoughts, substance abuse, and depression. Please listen with care to this episode. This episode is also a little longer than normal because there’s a lot of good information, reflective thought that goes into some of these issues, and there are just some bi...

Before Marielle Reataza, Executive Director of the non profit organization NAPAFASA ,and I even got started on sitting down for this podcast episode, we found ourselves diving into the symbolic and cultural significances of cutting all of our HAIR off. I just had to share this outtake with our listeners and ask, "HAVE YOU EVER CUT OFF ALL YOUR HAIR?!"

Joanne Zannoni has been an executive director in the non-profit world for over 20 years. The real influence that Joanne has had in bringing light to the advocacy needs of marginalized populations of women in our country, and recognizing that she has spent her entire career focused on how to get teams of people helping to make changes in these spaces is nothing short of amazing. Joanne is a "q...

Elysa Walk, Chief Business Officer of Burton Snowboards worldwide, has a long history as a leader in the outdoor and athletic industry. She continuously challenges herself to get out of her comfort zone and is committed to fostering Burton's lifetime relationship with consumers in promoting their love for snowboarding and the mountains worldwide. Elysa and I met over a decade ago and we have r...

Des Caminos, Owner and Founder of The Interconnected Self, specializes in helping her clients with their inner child work, limiting beliefs, anxiety and overcoming trauma. Despite a thousand technical difficulties and restarting our conversation three or four times, Des and I had an amazing conversation about healing, trauma, overworking, lack of balance, burnout, and how to reset your life to you...

Aimee Ansari is the Chief Executive of CLEAR Global, an organization that helps get information about global issues into the hands and minds of billions across the globe. The world's population is 8 billion people. Half of those people - four billion people - don't speak any of the major colonial languages and therefore they are not part of the global conversations about topics that direct...