What I Wish I Knew with Mike Irwin & Simon Daw

As a true serial tech disruptor, Ken Charman successfully built software startups, which Deloitte, IBM, Oracle, and SAP acquired over many decades. He also served as CEO of uFlex Reward, a cutting-edge HR company that creates real-time employee costs and modelling for Unilever Group, which employs over 128,000 people worldwide. Well-versed in AI and as a highly articulate thought provoker on many...

Our usual podcast guests talk about journeys that they chose to embark on: starting a company, solving a problem, creating opportunities, or navigating life and career. In our current series, we’re probing into a trip that none of us opted into but we’re all on board anyway…and that is artificial intelligence. AI influences what we see, hear, buy, and think, how we navigate the world, and how we n...

Our usual guests talk about journeys that they chose to embark on: starting a company, solving a problem, creating opportunities, or navigating life and career. In our current series, we’re probing into a trip that none of us opted into but we’re all aboard anyway…and that is artificial intelligence. AI influences what we see, hear, buy, and think, how we navigate the world, and how we navigate da...

We’ve produced more than 40 episodes of What I Wish I Knew. Our prior guests talked about journeys that they chose to embark on: starting a company, solving a problem, building organizations, creating opportunities, or navigating life and career. In our current series, we’re probing into a trip that none of us opted into but we’re all on board anyway…and that is artificial intelligence. AI influen...

Steve Fleck is the voice many people hear in their hardest moments, when their heart is jumping out of their chest, their mind is crushed, and the finish line is in sight. Fleck is a broadcast commentator for athletics, cycling, endurance, and running competitions. He’s the familiar soundtrack to events streamed on media like CBC, FLOBIKES, Ironman Live, and others. But how does one become the voi...

Is there a secret to success? Absolutely. And it's probably not what you may think.  Bert Thornton spent 40 years shaping careers (including his own) as Waffle House grew from a few restaurants in the American south to become a pillar of communities around the country. As president and chief operations officer, he believed that the growth of the company relied upon the development of its peop...

Josh Hotsenpiller is one of those people you wish you’d known your entire life. And when you meet him, you’ll feel like you did. You see, Josh, devotes a big chunk of his time to building community and he does it with a goal to have a positive impact for all.    He’s done it in as an entrepreneur, leader, and pastor. He’s founder & CEO of JUNO, a rapidly scaling online events platfor...

Ambition is defined as a strong desire to achieve. But what does it really mean, in real life? And how do you turn your ambitions into reality? In this mini episode from What I Wish I Knew with Mike Irwin & Simon Daw, we talk with four people who absolutely can offer insights on how to achieve your ambition. Ann Hiatt was an executive partner to Jeff Bezos during the formative years at Amazon...

Camilla Barnard believes people should be able to feel good about loving food, not guilty. Her starting point was one of those good-for-you foods that may not taste so good: muesli. Trouble is that muesli is a commodity category dominated by big food companies, famous brands, and basic store products. Few would have the audacity to start there. She wasn’t a veteran of the food industry nor an expe...

David Taylor has been named one of the world’s 50 leading marketing thinkers by the Chartered Institute of Marketing. His specialty, however, is in real-world, applied marketing…the sort that delivers growth in revenue and in regard. And whether the brand is a product or the proverbial brand you, Taylor has pragmatic advice shaped by 28 years’ experience leading growth projects for some of the wor...

Jasmine Burton is an industrial designer by training and a social impact designer by choice. She’s a believer that design can help solve important societal problems…and that the next iPhone or app isn’t necessarily one of them. Instead, she’s taking on one of the biggest health problems in the world and one that, ironically, has also had little innovation over the years: sanitation.  In colle...

The world today is deeply divided over politics, covid, race, culture, values, religion, and many other issues. Bridging that chasm is perhaps harder than it’s ever been and yet maybe never more important than it is right now. Dr. Gaye Theresa Johnson of UCLA shares a perspective that fear overhangs much of that discord and recognizing the source of that fear is vital to building cooperation.&nbsp...

Good health has never been more important or as top of mind as it has been this past year. And many folks wish they’d taken care of their health before they lost it.  “Most people think disease is instantaneous,” said Dr. Richard Harris. However, many physical ailments can take years to develop. Lifestyle choices have a profound impact on health and quality of life. While lifespan is a common...

Oli Russell-Cowan was on a mission. It was also his honeymoon. He and his wife were roaming around North, Central, and South America with a plan to surf, see the sights, and experience culture. While surfing and sightseeing were pretty straightforward, they found it hard to find good information about special events like the Day of the Dead in Mexico City. That sparked an idea for a blog, which be...

What brand of blanket do you have at home? If you’re like most people, you have no idea. If you’re Wylie Robinson then you’re out to change that. Wylie is founder and CEO of Rumpl, the brand of blanket that most people will want when they see it. It all started in a blizzard. Stranded in a vehicle that wouldn’t start and – of course out of cellphone range – Wylie was inspired to create blankets ou...

What enables an effective leader? And why do so many fall short? Vanderbilt University’s Patrick Leddin is an expert in helping leaders and teams reach their potential. Dr. Leddin’s expertise is both academic and practical, and forged across a range of organizations. He served as a U.S. Army airborne, infantry, ranger-qualified officer, managed projects at KPMG Consulting, and partnered with his w...

Why is learning another language so difficult? The challenge starts at the beginning…of life. Babies aren’t born with a specific language but they are equipped to learn from what they hear. The sounds and words they hear from parents and caregivers are vital to their development of language. In fact, babies quickly learn to lock in on familiar sounds and those make up the building blocks of langua...

Mat Franken and his wife thought they had parenting all figured out. Having their first child was a breeze. Their second, however, had multiple health issues. Faced with an uncertain diagnosis about the causes of their son’s ailments and unclear direction about how to help, a doctor suggested the Frankens look at chemicals used around their home. Their research revealed two alarming statistics: th...

“It’s true that there’s a cost to addressing environmental problems but it’s also true that there’s a much higher cost to not addressing them.” And in Mark Tercek’s view, everyone can and should play a part. The former CEO of The Nature Conservancy believes that the best outcomes for the planet will come at the intersection of government, corporate, institutional, organizational, and individual ef...

With the Covid vaccine, the entire planet has just had front row seats to innovation of massive importance, urgency, and scale. What looked like chaos has resulted in crunching the vaccine cycle time from 10 years to 10 months. So how did it happen? And what are the factors that lead to creative and innovative leaps? How can innovation occur in daily life? Jeff DeGraff is the person who knows. Jef...

“Purpose is simultaneously absolutely nothing at all and absolutely everything.” How one defines purpose is an individual choice. And it’s all part of their story. Eric Thomas is what happens when you combine a decade of marketing experience, street smarts, and heavy dose of humor to balance it out.  For Eric, storytelling is a business and a way of life. His insights on culture, business, an...

Bob Morais is a go-to person when the goal is to understand human behavior. The business anthropologist has worked with brands such as Coca Cola, Danone, Fairmont Hotels, FreshPet, GlaxoSmithKline, Hain Celestial, Pinnacle Foods, Pfizer, Post, Proctor & Gamble, Sabra, Safeway, Swissotel, and WD-40 to distill customer insights into business strategy. He is a lecturer at Columbia University Busi...

Cody Horton grew up as the oldest of his family’s 10 children in a small town in the Texas panhandle. At an early age, he learned what it felt like to be excluded because of race and skin color.  After high school, his family didn’t have the resources or connections to jump start his life with a job or college, so he enlisted in the Navy. His naval recruiter was intentional about recruiting d...

Steph Barry lives at the intersection of curiosity and growth. From traveling the world as a kid to working around the world in her business, Steph’s inherent curiosity about people and how things work has led her to leading roles in B2B, B2C, public and private companies, higher education, and as an entrepreneur. She has held senior leadership positions with organizations such as Hunter Douglas,...

Nicky Godding is a person of many skills none of which were part of a master plan because she says, “I didn’t have one”. She’s a publisher and has launched award-winning magazines. Publishing, however, is her fourth career. So far.  Before getting into magazines, Nicky ran PR campaigns for clients across Europe. She was equally likely to be flying off to glamor destinations like the South of...