The Perfect Route

Are you investing in training and still not seeing people change how they work? Most organizations don't have a content problem. They have a follow-through problem. The course gets built, the completions get logged, and then people drift back into their old habits because nothing in their daily work holds the new behavior in place. In this episode of The Perfect Route, I sit down with Stephanie Cr...

What does it take to lead an idea the market isn't ready for yet? Most leaders I work with can spot a problem in seconds. Fewer can see the opportunity sitting inside it, and fewer still have the patience to sell that opportunity through a long, skeptical buying cycle. In this episode of The Perfect Route, I sit down with Jonathan Jakubowski, co-founder and CEO of SmartSolve, the Bowling Green, Oh...

Why does your personal brand sound like everyone else's? Scroll LinkedIn for five minutes and you'll see it: different faces, different industries, same story, same buzzwords. Most professionals don't have a talent problem. They have a visibility problem, and the shortcut they're reaching for is making it worse. In this episode of The Perfect Route, I sit down with Tiyon L. Simpson, a London-born...

What does leadership look like when every mistake costs capital? Most leaders I work with have more room for error than they realize. A pharmaceutical startup doesn't. The team is small, the specialists can't cover for each other, and a single drug can take a decade to reach the finish line, with no guarantee it gets there. In this episode of The Perfect Route, I sit down with Isaiah Shalwitz, Sen...

What if the questions you ask are actually shaping the future of your organization? In this episode of The Perfect Route , I sit down with Dr. Lindsey Godwin , professor at Champlain College and Academic Director of the Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry , to explore how leaders can create meaningful change by focusing not only on what is broken, but on what is already working—and what is...

Ever wonder why some franchise brands scale into empires while others stall out for good? Most franchisors do not fail because the business model is bad. They fail because they never solve the harder problem: finding the right partners and building systems that do not depend on the founder to hold everything together. In this episode of The Perfect Route, I sit down with Luke Frey: 20-year franchi...

Your leadership problem isn't the problem you think it is. Most leaders come to the table asking for help with change management, team bonding, or meeting efficiency. My guest today says none of that is ever the real issue. The real issue is always something closer to the leader themselves. In this episode of The Perfect Route, I sit down with Zaher Ibrahim, founder of Eclarity, a leadership devel...

Would you judge a tree for the way it grew around a rock? Most leaders I talk to think a good coach is someone who gets in the trenches with them, another player on the field calling shots. That is not what coaching is, and getting that distinction wrong is exactly why so many coaching relationships fail to deliver. In this episode of The Perfect Route, I sit down with Robin Piccione, a business c...

Is your business built on partnerships that boost the numbers but quietly cost you trust? If your calendar is full and your revenue looks fine, but something still feels off, you're not alone, and you're not imagining it. Your organization might be missing one critical filter: mission alignment. In this episode, Julia Hage, CEO of The Hage Co, and I unpack: Why financially attractive partnerships...

Ever feel like your career and your inner life are running on two completely separate tracks? Most executive coaches steer clear of the word spirituality. My guest this episode built an entire second career around it. Rich Strilowich spent more than forty years in IT leadership, most of it inside IBM, climbing from computer science into project and program management, HR, and eventually a director...

Is your HR team still measuring activity instead of impact? If your training calendar is full but your turnover isn't moving, you're not alone, and you're not doing it wrong. You might just be tracking the wrong signals. In this episode, I sit down with Heather Mallette, president of Nora and a 20-year HR veteran across healthcare, manufacturing, and private equity, to unpack: Why "activity withou...

If you think of HR as paperwork, compliance, and a necessary cost, you're not alone, and you're not wrong to want more from it. But most companies are missing the bigger opportunity: HR as a strategic growth partner. In this episode, Dr. Michelle Griffin, founder of Griffin Resources and a PhD in industrial organizational psychology, joins me to unpack: Why HR gets treated as a "necessary evil" in...

Is your HR team working harder than ever, but still being left out of the room where strategy happens? You are not alone, and you are not doing it wrong. But there is a gap between where most HR leaders are operating and where the C-suite actually needs them to be. In this episode, I sit down with talent strategy leader Kelly Turow to unpack exactly what that gap looks like, and more importantly,...

Is your best employee struggling now that they are a manager? If your newly promoted managers are overwhelmed, your teams are disengaging, and you cannot figure out why, you are not alone. And the answer is probably not who you promoted. It is how you prepared them. In this episode, we are unpacking: Why promoting without preparing is one of the costliest mistakes a growing company makes What mana...

Is your culture actually what you think it is, or just what you've written down? You've got the values statement. The mission on the wall. But if the behaviors in your meetings don't match it, your real culture is somewhere else entirely. In this episode, HR veteran and executive coach Sheila Eason joins The Perfect Route to unpack: Why your best performer might struggle the moment you promote the...

Is your business one audit away from a lawsuit you never saw coming? If you think HR is just paperwork and payroll, you're not alone, and you're not wrong to be concerned. Most business owners don't discover their compliance gaps until it's too late. In this episode, we're unpacking: Why HR must be a strategic partner, not a back-office function The #1 place plaintiff's attorneys look first when a...

Here is a podcast description in that style: Is your team clicking through safety training and remembering nothing? If your employees roll their eyes every time a mandatory course hits their inbox, you're not alone — and it's not their fault. But it might be costing you more than you think. In this episode, we're unpacking: Why most workplace safety training fails before it even starts How to buil...

Are you working harder than ever — and still feel like something's off? Most leaders I work with don't have a motivation problem. They have a rhythm problem. They're putting in the hours, but the effort isn't grounded in real self-awareness. And without that foundation, no strategy, no new hire, and no productivity system will fix what's actually broken. In this episode of The Perfect Route, I sit...

What happens when a chemical engineer spends 35 years working with people and teams across the globe, then decides to become a business coach? You get someone who sees organizational problems the way an engineer sees a broken system: find the constraint, fix the flow, and measure the result. In this episode of The Perfect Route, I sit down with Luis Perez , Focal Point Business Coach and longtime...

Is your team staying silent when they should be speaking up? If your surveys keep surprising you, your best people are quietly disengaging, and you're not sure why, you're not alone. But the answer might not be what you think. It's not a skills gap. It's a safety gap. In this episode, I sit down with Sasha Thompson, founder of The Equity Equation, to unpack: Why leaders unknowingly destroy psychol...

Is your team sitting through AI training and walking out with nothing to show for it? If you are watching your organization adopt AI tool after AI tool with no real change in how people work, you are not behind. You are just missing the right conversation. In this episode, I sit down with Tom Bush, founder of Actual Reality Technologies and one of the driving forces behind the largest AI conferenc...

Are your leaders making decisions based on instinct, or on clarity? If your executives are trained but still can't connect their choices to business outcomes, the problem isn't effort. It's financial visibility. In this episode, we're unpacking: Why most leadership programs miss the most important executive skill The difference between a training gap and a decision-making gap How one CEO avoided d...

In this conversation, Leigh Dobbs, the Chief Human Resource Officer at Gypsum Management Supply, shares insights into the evolving role of HR, emphasizing its transition from a personnel-focused function to a strategic business partner. Leigh discusses the importance of learning and development, the challenges of engaging employees in self-learning, and the critical leadership capabilities needed...

In this conversation, Iraya Corley discusses her extensive experience in HR and the importance of viewing HR as a strategic partner in organizations. She emphasizes the need for HR to be proactive rather than reactive, the significance of creating environments where employees can thrive, and the critical leadership capabilities that HR should focus on developing. Iraya also highlights the importan...

In this conversation, Dr. Bill Sodeman and Devi McFadden explore the evolving landscape of leadership and executive coaching. They discuss the importance of resilience, the role of AI in coaching, and the need for a trusted advisor in navigating complex challenges. Devi shares her journey into coaching, emphasizing the significance of creating a safe space for clients and the necessity of aligning...