The Leaders Lab presents The Playbook with Ken Eslick

In this episode of The Playbook Podcast, Ken Eslick and Onika Kwatsha unpack a powerful leadership mindset shift: the 90-Day Challenge - a principle inspired by a lesson Ken learned from Tony Robbins. At its core, this episode challenges one of the most common breakdown points in leadership, business, and relationships: scorekeeping. Most relationships don’t fail suddenly. They degrade slowly. Not...

In this episode of The Playbook Podcast, Ken Eslick and Onika Kwatsha explore how the stories we repeatedly tell ourselves about people, experiences, and the world quietly shape nearly every area of our lives. Most people believe they see reality objectively. But in truth, our minds constantly filter experiences through beliefs formed by past interactions, emotional experiences, and personal assum...

In this episode of The Playbook, Ken Eslick and Onika Kwatsha dive into one of the most overlooked drivers of human behavior and performance: identity. Most people believe their success is determined by goals, discipline, motivation, or talent. But Ken argues that over time, people almost always act in alignment with who they believe they are. Whether it’s leadership, business, finances, health, c...

Tired of the "guessing game" that comes with traditional hiring?. We’ve all been there - you meet a candidate who looks perfect on paper, nails the interview with a sharp suit and a great smile (hello, Halo Effect!), but then struggles to perform two months in. In this episode, Ken Eslick and Onika Kwatsha dive deep into how to move past surface-level impressions by using advanced behavioral asses...

Is your leadership style built to scale, or is it a bottleneck? In this powerhouse episode of The Playbook Podcast, Ken Eslick sits down with Don Weber, a global communication strategist and former international intelligence operative who spent years working in high-stakes environments across Europe, Africa, and South America. Don doesn't just coach leaders; he teaches them how to build trust, com...

In this episode, we go "under the hood" of the most complex machine in the known universe—the human brain. Ken Eslick is joined by guest Dominika Staniewicz (known globally as Coach D). Dominika is a world-renowned elite neuro-encoding specialist who has advised the President of Poland and trained under the legendary Dr. Daniel Amen. If you’ve ever felt like you're fighting yourself—knowing exactl...

Invisible to Influential: Mastering the Corporate Climb with Dr. Ginny Baro In this episode of The Playbook Podcast, host Ken Eslick sits down with Dr. Ginny Baro, a Fortune 500 executive coach, bestselling author, and CEO of ExecutiveBound. Ginny shares her powerful immigrant journey, arriving in the U.S. from the Dominican Republic at age 14 without knowing English, fueled by a dream to break th...

The Investor-Grade Founder: Unlocking 10X Exits with Nick Bradley In this episode, Ken Eslick sits down with "the scale-up guy," Nick Bradley, to pull back the curtain on the world of private equity (PE) and business exits. With a career spanning from starting a personal training business at 18 to serving as a CEO four times under investor backing, Nick shares the "investor-grade" playbooks that h...

Navigating Identity Shifts and "Soft Power" with Katie Shannon What happens when your external success - the titles, the money, and the accolades—leaves you feeling "dead inside"? In this episode of The Playbook, host Ken Eslick sits down with life and leadership coach Katie Shannon to explore the profound identity shifts required to move from high-achieving exhaustion to core-aligned impact. Kati...

"Culture is not what’s written on the wall; it’s what happens in meetings, in hard conversations, and when no one is watching." In this masterclass of intentional leadership, Ken Eslick breaks down his signature framework - a practical tool for building a healthy, high-performance culture intentionally rather than accidentally. Ken and Onika explore why culture starts with the founder’s values, wh...

The Incongruence Trap: Why Success Isn't Enough (with Jerry Colonna) In this profoundly vulnerable and essential conversation, host Ken Eslick sits down with legendary venture capitalist, author, and CEO coach Jerry Colonna (co-founder of Flatiron Partners, author of Reboot and Reunion) to unpack the personal crucible moment that led him to redefine what success truly means. Jerry shares his journ...

On this episode of The Playbook Podcast, Ken Eslick and Onika Kwatsha cut through the noise and get to the core engine of human drive: the Six Human Needs. Your ability to lead others is a direct reflection of your ability to lead yourself. This discussion is about understanding your subconscious strategy for fulfillment and uncovering the 'why' behind your hardest decisions. We dive deep into the...

On this episode of The Playbook Podcast, host Ken Eslick is joined by former NFL Linebacker, speaker, and coach, Anthony Trucks. Anthony Trucks shares the raw, emotional journey from a child in foster care to a professional athlete, detailing the exact internal pivot that changed his trajectory. This conversation is a blueprint for radical ownership, directly addressing the Founders and Enterprise...

Most founders can track their customer acquisition cost down to the penny, yet when it comes to their most expensive asset—their people—they rely on "bad luck" or "personality conflicts" to explain performance issues. In this episode, Ken Eslick and Onika Kwatsha pull back the curtain on TeamCompass, a proprietary diagnostic tool designed to replace hiring guesswork with actionable data. Ken discu...

In this essential episode, Ken sits down with author and talent development expert Andy Storch to tackle the cycle of diminishing returns that traps business owners in the day-to-day operations. Andy, who recently relocated his family and business to Barcelona, Spain, discusses how intentional leadership is the only way to build a company that can truly scale without being dependent on you.   You'...

In the fiercely competitive "war for top talent," many founders are losing before the battle even begins because their interview process exposes a fatal flaw in their business. The truth is, the hiring system acts as a mirror. What it reflects back to a top candidate is a precise preview of what working for your company—and working for you—will truly be like. If your process is plagued by time del...

Most leaders use DISC as a personality test. But what if you’re missing its real power? In this episode, Ken Eslick and Onika Kwatsha reveal how the DISC assessment can become your secret weapon for building stronger teams, improving communication, and leading with precision. Forget surface-level labels—this conversation dives deep into what each style (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Consci...

In this episode, strategist and author Jonathan Bennett—advisor to CEOs, boards, and founders—breaks down exactly how and when to stand up an advisory board, why founders should hire a chair first, and how structure and accountability pull leaders out of isolation. The conversation covers paid vs. unpaid advisors, what to do when disagreements arise, and how quarterly decks become an early-warning...

Stop trying to be indispensable—the business grows the moment you aren’t. You don’t scale by doing more—you scale by replacing yourself in the right seats. In this episode, Onika and I unpack the uncomfortable shift from “I do everything” to “I build the team that does everything,” including the identity and ego traps that keep smart leaders stuck. We walk through the practical side: how to decide...

In this episode of The Playbook, presented by The Leaders Lab, Ken Eslick and co-host Onika Kwatsha go deep into the question every great leader must ask: Who am I, and why do I lead? They break down how your inner drivers define your company’s culture, growth, and eventual legacy — and why leadership isn’t about control or charisma, but contribution, clarity, and connection. Topics covered: Leade...

In this very first episode of The Playbook, presented by The Leaders Lab, host Ken Eslick shares the story behind the show and why it exists. After a five-month break since The Leaders Lab Podcast, Ken opens up about his own journey—from military leadership to entrepreneurship, from corporate executive to diving deep into mergers and acquisitions, and eventually back to entrepreneurship and the wo...