(UB007) What one CEO learned about leadership while dangling off the edge of a cliff. Featuring, David Secunda CEO @ WorkBright

David shares a life and leadership lesson that started with a word of wisdom from his mentor and grew new meaning as he was dangling from the edge of a cliff while a storm threatened overhead. Today you’ll hear David’s take on:

• What it was like to take his company through Techstars Boulder

• Leading and inspiring others

• Creating employee engagement

• How to set your company and team up for success when you transition away

• 4C’s cycle which that leads to having confidence

• Why his mic drop moment means so much to him

• Why I believe most leaders would be thrilled to have his mic drop moment

(UB006) Creating a company full of innovators and risk takers. A slew of leadership advice from a guy who got his start at Google. Featuring Sean Knapp, Founder @ Ascend.io

Kicking off your career at Google means learning from the best of the best and being challenged to think bigger every single day. Not only was Sean Knapp part of the team responsible for earning a billion dollars for Google but he learned some amazing leadership lessons that helped shape him into a successful CEO at Ascend.io.

In this episode you’ll hear about:

• The biggest leadership lessons Sean took away from his time working at Google

• The strategy he uses when bringing new employees onto his team to help them gain enough confidence to take risks

• How he helps employees establish relevance that lasts for the entire time they’re on his team

• His views on transparency and not being afraid to tell employees that he’s trying something new and that it may or may not work

• His philosophies on leadership and entrepreneurship

• Their whiteboard to employee ratio. Seriously, you don’t want to miss this nugget. I’ll tell you what, after hearing the number their innovation levels make complete sense

• Why he thinks laptops in meetings is one of the biggest mistakes a company can make

• Why they force some of their best employees to take sabbatical

Photo by Shane Rounce

(UB005) Creating Brand Champions the Zappos Way. Featuring Jamie Naughton, Chief of Staff @ Zappos

There’s no doubt that Zappos has the kind of brand championship most businesses only hope to achieve. Listen in as the Chief of Staff at Zappos Jamie Naughton shares a ton of insider knowledge about how they’ve been able to develop incredible levels of employee, vendor and customer engagement. You'll hear:

• How Jamie is juggling kids and a crazy career

• Disney World continues to create magical experiences

• How the combination of leaders early on at Zappo's led to a culture where Delivering Wow is embedded in everything

• Why the DMV model of service sucks

Show Resources:

This is the article on psychological safety that kicked off this entire show. It's long but a great read. If you'd prefer to have this document in Word format so you can pass it around your office I'm happy to send that over, just click the 'ask a question' tab above and shoot me a note. I'll send it over.

(UB004) It’s lonely at the Top - The Challenges of Being CEO When Life Begins to Spiral. Featuring Rand Fishkin, co-founder @ Moz

Listen in as Rand Fishkin discusses the highs and lows he’s experienced while growing Moz into an SEO and Web Marketing powerhouse, the pressures put on male CEO’s, his struggle with depression and the difficult decision to step down as CEO. You'll hear: 

• How Moz came to be

• Their growth story

• Rand's step-down story and how his interactions with the public changed as the pressures of being CEO and his depression increased

• Why he believes there is a stigma in the business world around men talking about their feelings and why he think this stigma leads to...shit shows.

(UB003) The co-founder of a company named by Forbes as the Next Billion Dollar Startup shares leadership insight. Featuring Matt Pfeil, co-founder @ Datastax

Matt Pfeil has grown his company from a start-up to one valued at more than 830 million dollars in less than six years. Listen in as Matt talks about the early days, the growth and the reason he stepped down as CEO and his current role as Chief Customer Officer. You'll learn: 

• Why he founded Datastax

• What he learned in the process

• The pressure that caused him to step down as CEO

• The advice he would have given himself 10 years ago

• What he learned about employees and employee engagement from Rackspace

• Hiring ambitious employees and watching them grow up and move out of your company

• Matt's opinions on whether engagement belongs with the CEO or an engagement expert

(UB002) The Most Powerful Strategy for Increasing Engagement

UB002: The Most Powerful Strategy for Increasing Engagement. Featuring Scott Ballard, founder @ Confidence Coach

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Scott Ballard is interviewing engagement experts from all over the world trying to discover the number one strategy for increasing engagement within an organization. Find out what I say that surprises him and makes my answer different from others he's heard.

In this episode you'll find out:

• What a career path in the Engagement space looks like

• How to rise through the ranks from HR pro to Engagement expert

• How to connect with other like-minded engagement enthusiasts

• The number one strategy I use for increasing employee engagement and creating brand champions

(UB001) How a CEO with ten million users ensures he stays in touch with what his employees and customers need. Featuring Dave DuPont, CEO @ TeamSnap

Listen in as Dave DuPont talks about the frustration he experienced watching the coach of his son's lacrosse team struggle to manage all of the moving parts required to keep a team running and how this led to TeamSnap being created. You'll also learn how Dave:

• Founded his company to solve a huge problem coaches were having managing their sports teams and is using over 20 years of leadership experience to strengthen the relationships he has with his employees and customers

• Stays connected to his customers as their numbers begin to exceed 10 million

• Gives examples of how he gets his employees to think differently about their responsibilities

• Rallies teams that are located in offices all over the country

• Recruits employees who are naturally good communicators

• Views the ROI debate around spending time getting to know his team personally vs focusing on functional CEO duties

• Uses curiosity to his advantage

• Focuses on spending time with people who care more about his company than they should

• Hires from his customer base

• Built his product for a niche and focuses on meeting their needs (Hint: It might include techno-phobic soccer mom)