The Insurgent Mindset

In this episode of  The Insurgent Mindset , Matt and Rondo unpack one of the biggest paradoxes shaping business today: why cheaper AI is leading to larger AI bills. They explore token economics, the governance challenges facing boards and CFOs, the risks of uncontrolled AI adoption, and why many organizations are focusing on efficiency while missing the much larger opportunity of value creation. ...

Every year, leadership teams and boards invest significant time and resources into strategy offsites, planning sessions, and executive retreats. Yet many of these workshops produce little more than incremental improvements, recycled assumptions, and plans that struggle to keep pace with a rapidly changing market. In this episode of  The Insurgent Mindset , Matt and Rondo challenge conventional thi...

In this episode of  The Insurgent Mindset , we sit down with Julie Toma to explore why innovation often dies inside established organizations, how boards can either accelerate disruption or completely block it, and why curiosity, courage, and psychological safety are becoming essential leadership traits in a rapidly changing world. Julie shares insights from her experience across healthcare, marke...

What if the future of learning isn’t about better content—but better design? In this episode, Jamie Engel, founder of Neutopia, breaks down the “architecture of learning” and why most organizations get it wrong. Drawing from a career spanning film, storytelling, and education, he reveals how the convergence of platform, program, and people creates transformational learning experiences—and why stor...

What happens when your next customer isn’t human? We sit down with Katja Forbes (author of  Machine Customers ) and break down the rapid rise of agentic commerce and what it means for business strategy, customer experience, and competitive advantage. With AI agents already making purchasing decisions and retail agent traffic surging by thousands of percent, the shift is already here, and most lead...

In a world defined by constant disruption, the ability to distinguish between signal and noise has become one of the most critical leadership skills. In this episode of The Insurgent Mindset, the conversation explores how mid-market leaders are navigating uncertainty, identifying meaningful trends, and making faster, more confident decisions in an increasingly complex environment. Joined by Managi...

Most mid-market CEOs believe they’re building valuable businesses, but when private equity shows up, they quickly discover how much value they’ve left on the table. In this episode, we break down the critical difference between two types of leaders: those who manage for performance, and those who architect for enterprise value. Using a simple example of two identical $5M EBITDA businesses with dra...

In this timely bonus episode of  The Insurgent Mindset , Matt and Rondo unpack the economic, political, and military impacts of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. From rising fuel costs and inflationary pressure to tightening capital and increasing recession risk, the conversation explores how early shockwaves are already affecting global markets and business decision-making. The episode als...

Too often, companies treat efficiency as the goal, focusing on cutting costs and eliminating waste. But productivity is something different entirely: it’s about creating more value for customers and the market. The discussion unpacks how organizations frequently become highly efficient at the wrong things, leaving significant value on the table.    Matt and Rondo explore the strategic tension betw...

In this episode of  The Insurgent Mindset , we sit down with Renae Hanvin, Founder and CEO of Resilient Ready, to explore why resilience is emerging as one of the most critical capabilities for modern organizations. Drawing on her background in crisis management, corporate responsibility, and disaster recovery, Renae shares how her work now focuses on helping small businesses, governments, and ent...

What does insurgent leadership really look like when the responsibility sits squarely in the CEO seat? In this episode of  The Insurgent Mindset , Rob Lawrence, CEO of Otelier, breaks down the realities of leading through disruption in a laggard industry facing rapid technological change.  The conversation explores how hospitality technology is evolving, why SaaS is undergoing a long-overdue recko...

Government systems are often seen as slow, complex, and resistant to change. This episode explores what happens when an insurgent mindset is applied inside those structures — not from the outside, but from within. The discussion focuses on how individuals and teams in the public sector can challenge norms, rethink processes, and pursue meaningful change even in environments shaped by regulation, h...

2026 is shaping up to be a volatility-rich year and for insurgent leaders, that means opportunity. In this episode of  The Insurgent Mindset , Matt and Rondo look ahead at what CEOs and leadership teams need to be preparing for as uncertainty becomes structural rather than cyclical. From geopolitical risk and economic pressure to shifting consumer behaviour and political polarisation, the old play...

As 2025 comes to a close, the biggest risk for leaders isn’t missing the next trend, it’s misunderstanding the ones that already reshaped the landscape. This episode is a strategic debrief on the patterns that quietly defined the year, separating short-term noise from signals that are still unfolding. The conversation reflects on what 2025 revealed about productivity, technology adoption, cost pre...

For years, Netflix defined what it meant to be an insurgent: rewriting the rules of distribution, attention, and pricing while legacy media scrambled to keep up. But as the battle for Warner Bros heats up, the lines between insurgent and incumbent are blurring fast. This episode unpacks what happens when the disruptor becomes the dominant force and why that shift matters far beyond Hollywood. We e...

This episode explores the creation of  Make It Easy , an emerging AI tool designed to simplify the world for people with low literacy, intellectual disability, or anyone overwhelmed by complexity. Sam and Jon Paior share how the app began with one powerful insight: if AI could decode dense content instantly for them, it could transform accessibility for millions who navigate the world with far gre...

In this episode of  The Insurgent Mindset , we take a closer look at what it really means for sales and marketing teams to operate like challengers in fast-moving, disrupted markets. Explore why high activity levels don’t automatically translate into insurgent behaviour, and how organizations can instead focus on differentiated customer engagement, smarter operating models, and creative approaches...

What happens when a construction leader applies lessons from manufacturing and technology to one of the world’s most traditional industries? In this episode of  The Insurgent Mindset , Ben Rijnbeek, founder and managing director of Beek Build, shares how he’s redefining construction through agility, digital transformation, and AI. Ben explains how Beek Build’s agile model replaces rigid project hi...

In this episode of  The Insurgent Mindset , Matt and Rondo explore what it really takes to build an insurgent culture: one where teams move fast, challenge bureaucracy, and stay relentlessly focused on the customer. From Amazon’s “Day One” mentality to stories of non-profits innovating with limited resources, we unpack how organizations can learn to punch above their weight by reducing friction, e...

Everyone’s talking about productivity but few truly understand it. In this episode of  The Insurgent Mindset , we unpack the global “productivity paradox”: why advanced economies like Australia are stagnating while the U.S. continues to surge ahead. From the hidden drivers behind America’s innovation boom to the structural and cultural barriers holding others back, this conversation cuts through t...

In this episode of  The Insurgent Mindset , we’re joined by  Rita McGrath , Columbia Business School professor, best-selling author, and one of the world’s foremost voices on strategy and innovation. Rita takes us inside her groundbreaking concept of  discovery-driven planning , the idea that in times of uncertainty, leaders should plan to learn, not plan to be right. She shares stories from her f...

In this episode of The Insurgent Mindset, hosts Rondo Moses and Matt Tice sit down with Randall Makin a self-described “cowboy” of engineering and entrepreneurship. From his humble beginnings in rural Australia to building and selling RedEye, a cloud-based software company that disrupted the mining and energy sectors, Randall shares the highs, lows, and lessons of being a challenger founder. Expec...

Construction is one of the few industries where productivity has remained flat for decades, with thin margins, cost overruns, and persistent labor shortages holding it back. In this episode of  The Insurgent Mindset , we explore why the industry is so resistant to change—and what CEOs can learn from the disruption already reshaping the sector. From orchestration challenges to the promise of modula...

After 17 years inside one of the world’s largest banks, Guy Dickinson traded ribbon-cutting for real impact, moving from talking to 10 people in the boardroom to influencing 10,000 in the market. In this episode of  The Insurgent Mindset , Guy shares how he built BetaCarbon and Climer to bring business strategy, financial markets expertise, and climate action together. From developing a blockchain...

In this episode of  The Insurgent Mindset , Matt Tice and Rondo Moses take Ezra Klein’s popular “abundance agenda” and run it through the lens of modern enterprise leadership. They reveal how a scarcity mindset, marked by internal focus, rigid structures, and risk aversion, is sabotaging innovation and slowing growth in even the most sophisticated organizations. Real-world stories, sharp diagnosti...