The Steeper Path with Lenn Pryor

Lizzie Parker has walked onto a live QVC set and was beamed into a hundred million households. She built a clothing line, landed on a reality TV show, sold into Nordstrom. She's also been on stage with Bill Gates in front of thousands of people.  Lizzie held senior product roles at Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Cisco. Rich Maddux spent more than twenty years serving his country in the US Arm...

Janet Lee opened the conference room door, showed the founder to his seat, got him water, and watched him set up his laptop. When he looked up, he expected her to leave, assuming she was an admin. Instead, she sat down across the table from him and asked "What would you like to talk about today?" The shock on his face told her everything about the room she was in, and the room she was st...

Dave Streams spent 12 years at Microsoft, then Yahoo, then Disney, then Amazon. He was good at the job. He made money. He moved his family across the country seven times. Then he watched his sister finish an Ironman in Oceanside, California. It was pitch black. Marines were setting up the course. U2 was on the PA. Athletes in wetsuits were walking into the water. He was done before the gun went of...

After a bit of an unplanned hiatus, The Steeper Path is back in your ears. This episode features a guest who embodies the "steeper path" in more ways than one: Xiaolan (Charlene) Kruk . Charlene and I met nearly a decade ago when she was working for Samsung and I was working for Facebook (Meta).  She has navigated a journey that would intimidate the most seasoned travelers, moving from S...

What happens when the thing that defined you is taken away? When the path you were on disappears, and you're forced to discover who you are without it? Joel Burgess was known to everyone around him as a force of nature. A semi-pro rugby player who powered through life with sheer brute force and will. A big man with a big presence.  The last one to leave the pitch or the pub after the match. ...

What happens when a life-threatening health crisis becomes the greatest gift you've ever received? Helen Parker spent 14 years climbing the corporate ladder at O2 in the UK, building award-winning social impact programs while burning out repeatedly. Then emergency brain surgery in 2014 forced a complete stop—and became her portal to transformation. Today, Helen is a clinical hypnotherapist an...

From Ancient Temples to Digital Worlds: Leonardo Benitez's Journey from Archaeologist to Game Engineering Leader What happens when a childhood obsession with Indiana Jones transforms into a career unearthing ancient mysteries and then pivots completely into building some of the world's most successful mobile games? In this episode, I sit down with Leonardo Benitez, Head of Game Engineeri...

What happens when you build your career at the intersection of culture and technology — then walk away to start over? John Bartleson’s journey from MTV and Roc-A-Fella Records to Wall Street and New York’s DJ scene is a story of reinvention, risk, and staying true to yourself. John Bartleson stumbled into an internship at MTV during its cultural peak, bringing early knowledge of the internet to an...

Most founders don’t fail because they lack talent or ideas. They fail because they build on someone else’s playbook. They are chasing speed, scale, and status instead of alignment. James Lucas has lived that reality. A repeat founder with a career spanning companies big and small, he’s helped scale startups, worked hands-on with early-stage teams, and learned the hard way what happens when you bui...

Ukulele virtuoso Andrew Molina joins host Lenn Pryor on the debut of The Steeper Path Podcast. We talk about passion, mastery, and choosing the harder road to create a life of meaning. The Steeper Path Podcast | EP 1 – Andrew Molina Welcome to the very first episode of The Steeper Path Podcast, where we explore what it means to choose the harder road to greater goals in life and how alignment, not...

Join me on The Steeper Path as we explore stories of individuals who defied conventional success to find a different kind of fulfillment. This podcast is a guide for anyone ready to choose a life of flow and meaning over a life of simply chasing the clearer path to lesser goals. Follow The Steeper Path on social media for updates and behind-the-scenes content. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in...