Work From The Inside Out

Dr. Michelle K. Johnston has life-long experience in embracing and accessing the power of connections. Growing up as a “corporate brat,” Michelle’s family moved every few years. Her father’s job at General Motors required relocation as his career advanced. He promoted their moves as adventures. She always found a way to fit in, and skilled at being the new kid.  As she began her professional caree...

With an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and an engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Rimi Chakraborty swiftly worked her way "to the top" from cutting deals on Wall St. to the epicenter of the Boston technology hub in strategy and management consulting roles. Yet, her life could have gone very differently.  Born in Alabama, the only child of immigrant Indi...

Claudia Miller was the first person in her family to be educated beyond the eighth grade. She was determined to check off all the boxes: excel in school, attend a good university, land a great-paying job, and live the American dream. Unfortunately, it did not go exactly as she had planned. When she graduated college, Claudia had no job offers waiting for her. She ended up just taking a job that wa...

Do you believe that some people are just luckier than others even though they have not done anything special to create their good fortune? According to my guest this week, NYU Professor Christian Busch, good luck doesn’t happen purely by chance. He says it can be learned and leveraged.  In his book, The Serendipity Mindset: The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck , Christian explains that serend...

As a child growing up in England, Octavia Goredema was always reading. At age 7, she wrote a letter to the publisher Penguin Random House and asked how she could become an author. To her delight, she received a formal, personalized letter response from the publisher. For many years Octavia aspired to become a children’s book author.  Upon entrance to a competitive exam school and surrounded by man...

Shira Miller knows a lot about getting unstuck. As an author, a two-time TEDx speaker , a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, and Chief Communications Officer of a $2 billion corporation, she teaches and coaches people to do the same for themselves. Shira has transitioned from financial ruin to prosperity, chronic health challenges to a constant state of wellness, obesity to sustaining a healt...

Alain Hunkins is an executive coach, leadership and team development facilitator, and keynote speaker who helps leaders, teams, and companies achieve performance goals easier. He is also the author of the book CRACKING THE LEADERSHIP CODE: Three Secrets to Building Strong Leaders .  From a young age, Alain was a keen observer of people. He noticed the differences between his life at home, being ra...

What was your first paid job? Do you recall the training you received to perform your duties? This week’s podcast guest, Susan Spero, vividly remembers the training she got at 18 when she worked at a summer camp. The owners trained the staff on how to understand and manage groups so they would bond as a team and recognize camper group dynamics. They wanted counselors to help campers’ social and em...

This week’s podcast guests are Dr. Jim Loehr and Dr. Sheila Ohlsson Walker, the co-authors of Wise Decisions, A Science-Based Approach to Making Better Choices . While the book draws on research, it is a highly accessible, practical guidebook for anyone seeking to refine their approaches to making a variety of decisions. The authors bring a fascinating combination of experiences, vast knowledge, a...

How many people can say they’ve never worked for anyone else? Selling eggs door-to-door at 14 years old began a lifetime of self-employment for speaker and small business consultant Jeffrey Shaw. Jeffrey helps self-employed and small business owners look through different lenses to build strategies and compose the often-chaotic pieces of life and business into sustainable success. Jeffrey grew up...

David Lancefield is a catalyst, strategist, and coach to senior executives, professionals, and entrepreneurs. He also is a speaker, facilitator, and host of the Lancefield on the Line podcast. David enjoys helping leaders and their organizations achieve greater strategic clarity, enhanced resilience, breakthrough performance, and sustainable impact.  David grew up in modest surroundings with his s...

On paper, Katie McDonald had it all. She was an international sales rockstar who beat the competition and crushed her goals in the U.S., Europe, and Canada. But Katie’s relentless drive for productivity came at the expense of everything that mattered: her relationships, her time, her health, and her emotional well-being. The demands of her corporate career occupied her every waking moment. Then, o...

Kay Allison has been living alcohol-free since 1999. She is a successful entrepreneur, author, and leader of an alcohol-free community. Through her company, Juicy A.F. Kay helps woman transform their lives by stopping the drinking spiral and creating a rich, rewarding, joyful future to get free – free from booze, shame, and anxiety. Growing up, Kay felt like she was the fifth wheel in a family of...

Dr. Gena Cox is the CEO of Feels Human, LLC. She is an organizational psychologist, executive coach, and award-winning author. After a decades-long career advising leaders in some of America’s largest companies, Gena felt that the pace of progress in workplace inclusion was unacceptably slow. She harnessed her experiences, expertise in organizational psychology, executive coach insights, and under...

Etta Jacobs is an executive career transition coach and facilitator who supports mid-level and senior managers to become more effective, confident leaders. Powered by 20 years of senior-level corporate experience and an intuitive insight into her clients’ strengths, she guides them to navigate the ambiguities and complexities of their organizations and the world around them. Etta inspires her clie...

Grant Tate helps people learn how to thrive in our unpredictable world. He is a servant leader, transformational coach, and business consultant who challenges leaders and emerging professionals to answer the questions: Who am I? What am I called to do now? Who am I going to work with to get it done? Grant is the CEO of Bridge Business Transformations and the author of Hand on the Shoulder: Binding...

Alicia Butler Pierre is the CEO of Equilibria, Inc, an operations management firm she founded 17 years ago. She designs scale-ready business infrastructures for fast-growing small businesses. At Equilibria, she invented the KasennuTM System for business infrastructure and software by the same name. Alicia has successfully applied this system in over 30 different industries. She is also an adjunct...

Author, futurist, and speaker George Chanos served as Nevada's 31st Attorney General from 2005 to 2007. As a young child, George was struck by the outpouring of admiration and grief when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. From that moment onward, he was determined to serve, and during his most formative years, he aimed for the highest office in the land. His role as Attorney General w...

For most of his career, Nir Eyal has worked in the video gaming and advertising industries, where he learned and applied (and sometimes rejected) the techniques used to motivate and manipulate users. He helps companies create behaviors that benefit their users while educating people on how to build healthful habits in their own lives. Nir is the author of two bestselling books, Hooked: How to Buil...

In her late 50’s, Barbara Pagano and her daughter Elizabeth set out for a six-month sailing adventure on a 42-foot sailboat. Even though neither woman was an experienced sailor, they sailed alone for more than 2,000 miles. Two weeks prior to their departure, Barbara failed navigation school. Fortunately, Elizabeth earned her certification from a one-week sailing school. Pushing a little boat throu...

Resilience expert Deborah Gilboa, MD, aka “Dr. G,” works with families, organizations, and businesses to turn stress into an advantage. Known for her contagious humor, Dr. G works with people across generations to rewire their attitudes and beliefs to create resilience through personal accountability and a completely different approach to adversity. She is the author of the recently released book...

At age 18, Richard Newman started his mission to discover core communication principles. He took a gap year after high school and went to the foothills of the Himalayas to teach English to Tibetan monks, who spoke no English. They had to communicate non-verbally to understand each other. Richard had to learn it all from scratch as he is highly introverted. As a young child, he was painfully shy. R...

Annie Leib was born an empath. As early as her toddler years, she felt things from other people. She even found adults relatable. It was not until years later that Annie realized the other kids did not experience people in the same way. To be so attuned to other people’s feelings could be draining, yet Annie always enjoyed meaningful connections with people. For many years, Annie worked in sales a...

Growing up in Portugal, Ana Melikian was always curious about personal development, trying to understand herself and the rest of the world. In college, she studied psychology and spent two years in England learning English. After earning her master's degree in Spain, she returned to England for her Ph. D. in Psychology and became a psychotherapist. Several years later, Ana moved to the US, pro...

This week I hit a milestone in my podcast journey, reaching episode 200! My friend, trusted advisor, and accountability buddy, Jenny Lisk joined me this past Friday for a live stream broadcast of today’s podcast episode. Jenny and I have been on this journey together since we started our podcasts on the same exact day four years ago in November 2018. We have supported one another as we developed o...