#538- Ashley Bright is a former advertising creative director turned entrepreneur and co-founder of Makertank, a platform designed to help founders build sustainable businesses with the right systems and support.

After spending 15 years in the agency world working with major brands like Microsoft and Amazon, Ashley began to question the traditional path of success, especially after a pivotal career setback and the perspective shift that came with becoming a parent. That turning point led to a deeper exploration of storytelling, communication, and ultimately entrepreneurship, where Ashley has spent over a decade navigating the highs and lows of building a business.

In this conversation, Ashley shares honest insights on identity, emotional intelligence, and what it really takes to move from external success to meaningful, self-directed work.

#537- Leila Entezam is a neuroemotional intelligence expert, executive coach, and author of The Heart of Peak Performance. With a unique background in neuroscience, business, and psychology, she helps high performers understand the deeper patterns behind their behavior so they can make more intentional decisions and perform at a higher level.

#528: Sigute Zitikyte is a passionate advocate for multi-potentiality, helping ambitious individuals embrace their diverse interests and build careers that evolve with them. After spending a decade in the "multi-passionate shame cycle," feeling constrained by traditional career expectations, she broke free from a linear path and turned her creative pursuits into a thriving business. Through personal experience, she understands the struggle of balancing ambition with societal norms and now empowers others to confidently forge their own paths, integrating passion, purpose, and financial success.

Sigute's journey from the tech industry to entrepreneurship was fueled by a desire to live life on her own terms—one that values experiences as much as achievements. She now coaches multi-passionate professionals on building an online presence and expanding their income streams with clarity and confidence. By unlearning the need to conform and tuning into their inner voice, her clients gain the courage to create fulfilling careers beyond the conventional 9-to-5. Through her writing, coaching, and personal brand framework, Sigute inspires others to step boldly into their ambitions and craft a life they truly love.

#440: Should you ever go backwards in your career? If you're a long term listener of the podcast, you know I think the answer is absolutely yes. Sometimes the quickest way to get out of a problem and get oriented on a solution is to go back up.

 But it's not for the faint of heart. You have to have some faith and confidence in yourself and the path you choose.

 Here to help us understand all of this and share her own stories is Kelli Rae Thompson.

#439: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Adam C. Bandelli. Founder & Managing Director of Bandelli & Associates, Dr. Adam C. Bandelli is an organizational psychologist and seasoned leadership advisor with over twenty years of corporate consulting experience. Adam's calling and purpose in life is to help the leaders identify, embrace, and unleash their true authentic selves. In his latest book Relational Intelligence, he details the five essential skills he has found to create life-changing relationships.

#438: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Sara McElroy. Sara McElroy is an ex-chief marketing officer and former hustle culture devotee who reinvented her career and reimagined the way she works after unexpectedly becoming The Wall Street Journal's poster girl for pandemic burnout. 

Tune in to leanr how to quit a job that's taking more than it's giving! 

#437: I have a tough time with expertise, I'm betting you do too.

Last week I did an overview of the Advantage Mapping Strategy. I view this exercise as fundamental to choosing what you do and how you spend your time for the greatest chance of success.

In short, Advantage Mapping is integral to designing your work-life.

Deeply understanding where your advantages lie, set you up for success and focus your energy on activities that have the highest odds of success.

This week I dive into the first source of advantage - your expertise.

#436: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Rebekah Bastian. Rebekah is a creator. She's created a startup, a tech movement, a book, multiple written, visual and aerial art pieces, and two humans. She is the CEO & co-founder of OwnTrail and was previously vice president of product and vice president of community and culture at Zillow. Rebekah is the author of the award-winning book Blaze Your Own Trail, a board member of JPEG Morgan and Bellwether Housing, a contributor to Forbes and an investor and advisor to AuthenTech and Web3 companies.

#435: One of the biggest lessons I learned as a trader is that great traders, gamblers and investors only play - or only bet big - when they have an advantage.

Sometimes they win, and sometimes they lose, but over the long term, if they adequately understand their advantage, they will win.

Taken to personal development, the key to investing in yourself is understanding where your competitive advantage lies, then using that advantage for growth.

It needs to be your life's mission to understand your advantage, no matter how small, and press it.

Tune in to learn more!

#434: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Joel Bein. Joel Bein is passionate about self-driven learning, creativity, personal growth, and human consciousness. Joel is the CEO at Career Hackers and Founder of New Orleans Chamber Players.

#433: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Alex Oliveira. In this episode we track Alex's career. We discuss how he found his superpower, and how he leveraged that power to make leaps into completely different industries. We also dissect how he transitioned his business to fit into his life instead of sucking the life out of him. 

Finally, we discuss what skills he is trying to teach his 4 kids for the future. Heads up! These are important for anyone to have now and into the future.

#432: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Tareka Wheeler. Tereka Career & Mindset Strategist that helps ambitious Women of Color and Working Parents advance in their careers, and learn how to discover their defined natural abilities to level up professionally while achieving work life harmony.

#431: Theres a natural progression in how we frame choices or "options" as I tend to call them (it's the finance guy in me).

Welcome to decision overload, or what I call option overload.

In the context of any change, option overload is a killer zapping your mental energy, motivation and limited willpower.

The ones who make it through option overload, and successfully navigate a BREAK from traditional work learn how to manage the Paradox of Options.

Tune in to this episode to learn more!

#527: Kasey Jones is a renowned personal brand consultant, business growth strategist, and advocate for personal and professional empowerment. She specializes in transforming overworked and underpaid solopreneurs into profitable CEOs of businesses they love, using a bespoke blend of strategy, branding, systems, and mindset development.

With nearly two decades of experience in early-stage growth strategy, B2B sales, demand generation, personal brand development, and relationship building at scale, Kasey excels at helping CEOs and C-suite executives amplify their unique strengths to drive business growth and build impactful brands.

Over the years, Kasey has collaborated with startups like Sila, Ripcord, and Dealpoint (acquired by Clari), and has worked alongside brands such as Gwen Stefani's GXVE, accelerators like PIE, and venture capital firms like True Venture Partners. Her expertise has guided hundreds of entrepreneurs, executives, and teams in finding their authentic voice, building authority, and reshaping their professional journeys to achieve more income, meaning, and purpose.

Kasey's guiding principles—empathy, generosity, resilience, honesty, and a commitment to doing the hard work—are at the core of her coaching philosophy. She believes in the power of authenticity and vulnerability, encouraging her clients to embrace their unique stories and transform them into powerful tools for connection and growth.

#430: Why do most people (including me) fail to stick with a change or even start something new?

I try to make changes every single day of my life. It's a constant fight.

I mostly fail.

But I sometimes succeed.

Tune in to this episode to learn how to make a change and stick to it. 

#429: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Matt Doan. Matt Doan is the Founder and CEO of Transcendent Media. He's passionate about helping people live "Uncaged," which means taking control of your work situation to unlock your dream lifestyle. He does this as a coach, course instructor, and content creator.

Before becoming an entrepreneur, he spent over 15 years consulting with executives at Global 2000 companies and national security agencies on their technology and cybersecurity strategies. His writing has appeared in Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, and The Atlantic. He's also the host of the Uncage Yourself podcast and a frequent speaker.

#428: You don't need to make a major change today. You just need to be open. Start thinking of your income source as revenue, and a world of possibilities will open up.

#427: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Barry Shore. Known as the "Ambassador of JOY," Barry Shore is a mental wellness activist, philanthropist, multi-patent holding entrepreneur, speaker, author, podcaster, and former quadriplegic who is now swimming around the world!

After a rare disease paralyzed Barry from the neck down, he created the JOY of LIVING Community™, The Keep Smiling movement that has reached multiple celebrities and distributed millions of "Keep Smiling" cards worldwide, and a philanthropic platform featured in Oprah's Magazine.

#426: Success is a tricky subject. Life, health wealth, family. I'm not going to define it here, other than to say, for me, all of it matters. That's why I've rejected the corporate ladder and 9-5 rat race. But no matter how you define success, there's really only a handful of things that ever make up the lions share of progress. I've found there's only 3 levers that determine your ability to succeed in any way you define success. If we focus on these three levers, understand how they work and how they work together, we can succeed at anything we want.

Tune in to learn the 3 levers that determine success! 

#425: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Manoj Jonna. Manoj Jonna is the Co-Founder & CEO of Ramped, a skills-based hiring platform that is revolutionizing the job search. Prior to Ramped, Manoj served as Chief Strategy Officer of Reservations.com and as Vice President and Founding Team member at YayPay. Before YayPay, he worked as an investment banker at Deloitte Corporate Finance where he focused on mergers & acquisitions. Manoj holds a JD from Georgetown Law School.

#424: I'm in constant re-evaluation mode. Stuck floating between seeing the field and playing on the field.

At least every 6 months I hit a "reset" moment where I question everything I'm doing.

Here are the 5 questions that you need to ask to take ownership of the changes that you want to make.

#423: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Susan Hamilton Meier. Susan is a personal branding expert who helps women untangle the zigzags of their careers to find a clear, shiny thread of their story and design the next steps for the professional journey.

For more than 20 years, Susan has helped Fortune 500 companies define brand strategy and create distinctive messaging. She uses these tools, along with what she's learned on her own zig-zag career path across business, art, and parenting, to empower women to craft their personal brand and discover a roadmap toward a life of purpose.

An alum of Harvard Business School and the Boston Consulting Group, Susan is on a mission to empower professional women to own their stories and unlock their promise.

#422: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Grant Baldwin. Grant made a career change when his wife was 5 months pregnant with their first child. It was scary, but he set himself on an unmistakable path toward a meaningful and rewarding career.

As founder and CEO of The Speaker Lab, Grant Baldwin has helped thousands of people build successful and sustainable speaking businesses.  Over the last 15 years, Grant has become a sought-after speaker, podcaster, author, and accomplished entrepreneur. Featured on the Inc. 5000 list, Forbes, Inc. Entrepreneur, and The Huffington Post, he has committed his expertise and insight to equip others to share their meaningful message with the masses. His leadership and dedication to creating a one-of-a-kind organizational culture are evidenced by the impact of the team he leads. Grant lives near Nashville, Tennessee with his wife, Sheila, and their three daughters.

#421: Investment in loss simply means that we often need to take a step back in order to make a giant leap forward, and that step backward is an investment. 

Keep listening to learn more!

#526: Dr. Benjamin Ritter, founder of Live for Yourself (LFY) Consulting and award-winning author of "Becoming Fearless," is an international leadership and career coach, Sr. Talent Management Consultant, Top LinkedIn Voice, global speaker, and host of The Executive, and the Live Fearlessly Podcasts.

Ben has coached over 500 leaders with a strong focus on senior-level executives across multiple industries and geographic regions, within organizations that varied in scale from 50 to over 250,000 employees and have included names such as Amazon, Coursera, DoorDash, Google, Fiserv, Northwestern, Mayo Clinic, Pinterest, Yelp, and more.

Ben's passions include working with Better for You CPG organizations, small business founders and minority-owned companies, for which he offers pro-bono coaching services.

Ben possesses a Doctorate in Organizational Leadership with focus on value congruence and job satisfaction, an MBA in entrepreneurial management, and an MPH in health policy administration.

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Ben now resides in Austin, Texas, with his partner, Tiffany, Squirt, a "rebel in a shell" turtle, Elwood, a scruffy rescue pup, and Sima, the kitty queen of their kingdom.

#420: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Tom Brunskill. Tom Brunskill is the co-founder and CEO of Forage, a job simulation platform that helps students bridge the gap between education and work opportunities. On a mission to make education-to-workforce pathway more equitable, Tom co-founded Forage in 2017 to provide the ability to preskill through virtual job simulations produced by the world's top companies, including J.P. Morgan, Lyft and Walmart, to name a few. By breaking down barriers to gaining workplace-specific skills, Tom hopes to level the opportunity playing field and empower anyone to pursue their dream career. Tom started his career as a corporate lawyer at a multinational law firm in Australia before moving to San Francisco and has been featured in Business Insider, Financial Times and TechCrunch, among others.

#419: Right now we're experiencing the highest inflation in 40 years which is impacting our wallets, our companies' profit margins and our jobs.

Technology changes fast rendering entire industries obsolete. The stock market is in the tank.

But we can still succeed - and that's not coming from a natural optimist.

How?

By adapting and methodically setting up our lives to weather the storm. Keep listening to learn more!

#418: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Mike Podesto. Mike Podesto is the CEO & Founder of Find My Profession, Inc. After years in sales and recruiting roles, Mike knew that it was time to begin his journey with Find My Profession. On October 3rd, 2015 Find My Profession was born. The inspiration came from a lack of satisfaction in the recruiting industry and the huge need for help on the job seeker side. Having job candidates come second and hiring managers come first always seemed backward. With more "recruiting rules" than ever, Find My Profession evens the playing field by using their recruiting knowledge to benefit job seekers. With the job seeker in mind, Mike quit his job as a recruiting manager to devote his full attention to providing a solution exclusively for job seekers.

#417: Learn how to network with the people you admire! Your network determines your level of success - your ability to find a better job, pivot careers or find clients. Tune in to learn how to network with anyone on the internet! 

#416: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with David Kline. Dave is a former Chief Operating Officer of several different divisions at Bridgewater Associates, the worlds largest hedge fund with over $200M of assets under management headed by Ray Dalio, whose book Principles is a must read.

I met Dave on Twitter (@dklineii) and was fascinated by his career pivot. He successfully transitioned out of the high stress world of high finance, and is currently the owner of Skillscouter, a website that helps people find the best courses for upskilling their abilities. Dave also teaches cohort classes for growing managers. Having hired, trained and managed hundreds of high performers in the high stakes jobs of finance, Dave has seen it all, and he's codified his management principles in what he calls the Management Accelerator.

#415: Your runway is basically the amount of time you have to complete whatever pivot you are trying to execute.

Learn the best ways to extend your runway in this episode! 

I want more people to choose to change rather than be forced.

Whether you want to change jobs, change companies or blow it all up and work for yourself, change takes some thought and planning.

How you go about breaking your career depends on your risk profile, just like with investing. The more risk tolerant you are, the bigger, faster change you can make. If you have more obligations, children, expenses, the slower and more planned out this should be.

Listen to learn more about the anatomy of a career pivot. 

#413:

In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Dave Fano. David Fano is a serial entrepreneur, former WeWork executive, and ex-architect who has made it his mission to help people navigate their careers with confidence. His latest venture, Teal, helps people optimize their job search by providing the level of tooling and infrastructure that companies have but for the individual professional. In just over a year, Teal has grown to a community of over 40,000 users committed to advancing their careers.

In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Mark Herschberg. Mark Herschberg is the author of The Career Toolkit, Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You. From tracking criminals and terrorists on the dark web to creating marketplaces and new authentication systems, Mark has spent his career launching and developing new ventures at startups and Fortune 500s and in academia. He helped to start the Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program, dubbed MIT's "career success accelerator," where he teaches annually. At MIT, he received a B.S. in physics, a B.S. in electrical engineering & computer science, and a M.Eng. in electrical engineering & computer science, focusing on cryptography. #412: At Harvard Business School, Mark helped create a platform used to teach finance at prominent business schools. He also works with many non-profits, currently serving on the board of Plant A Million Corals. He was one of the top-ranked ballroom dancers in the country and now lives in New York City, where he is known for his social gatherings, including his annual Halloween party, as well as his diverse cufflink collection.

Jeff's story starts with his own thirst for knowledge on how to manage money. He became a certified financial planner, got into blogging in order to differentiate himself in his practice and wound up building an online media site (GoodFinanciaCents.com) that made him way more than his practice, which he had been grinding at for over five years. None of it happened on purpose yet. None of it happened by chance either. Jeff's story proves the point that you don't have to have it all figured out as long as you stay curious and make decisions to continuously invest in yourself.

#525: Nicole Greene is a Business and Lifestyle Strategist for badass women founders and executives who are committed to high performance in multiple non-negotiable roles (think executive, founder, mom, caretaker). Her actionable strategies and systems help these women step out of survival mode and achieve success, in life and business.

Nicole's passion for this work comes from her own experience making herself small (and eventually burning out) across a highly successful career, from defense intelligence to artisan chocolates, CPG and Health Tech, during which she founded three companies and built several others from Seed to Series B.

Nicole describes herself as a recovering workaholic and forever high performer. She's a classically-trained pastry chef, perpetual learner and dedicated mentor, as well as a mom of two boys (and an Australian Cattle Dog), living in Miami, FL. Nicole has a BA and MA from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University and is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Miami.

#410: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Ty Reed. Many individuals escaping the adverse circumstances of addiction, homelessness, and past criminal justice involvement have difficulty finding employment, a key component of rebuilding lives. Ty Reed offers no-cost career coaching to individuals working to overcome these challenging backgrounds through his nonprofit, Recovery Career Services. He also educates employers and the public about the importance of providing second-chance employment opportunities.

In addition to walking his own journey in recovery, Ty has an MBA from the University of Washington and holds credentials in human resources and workforce development. He has been a featured speaker for Amazon, Comcast, The University of Washington, and many more.

#409: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Ross Dzikovsky. Ross is a native of Kyiv, Ukraine and is the co-founder of Bilberrry, a software development firm with its development team based in the Ukraine. Mike and Ross briefly worked together back in 2013-14, and have kept in touch ever since. Mike wanted to catch up with Ross to chat about the software development path, how he evaluates talent, the team's approach to remote work and of course, his perspective on how things are going in Ukraine. Ross has over 15 years of experience in the IT industry with a strong background in Software Engineering, Product Management and Business Analytics. As a co-founder of Bilberrry Ross oversees the team of 40 engineers and has led several large scale development engagements for brands such as Deloitte, Impinj and David's Bridal.

#408: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Will Smith. Will founded Acquiring Minds in 2021 shortly after discovering acquisition entrepreneurship, a love-at-first-sight moment. Prior to Acquiring Minds, Will ran partnerships & business development at two SaaS companies in the Bay Area. Earlier in his career he founded multiple online businesses, some of which were acquired, some of which continue to thrive.

#407: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Sonja Price. Sonja "Dynamo" Price has 15+ years of experience in Career and Leadership consulting. She has worked with a wide range of clients including Amazon, AT&T, Facebook, Google, HBO, Microsoft, Nordstrom, Starbucks, T-Mobile, and numerous other organizations.

#406: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Matthew Kennedy Stewart.

Matthew is co-founder and CEO of National Service Group (NSG), which operates College Works Painting, Empire Community Construction, Home Genius Exteriors, and SMJJ Investments. NSG has grown from a small Southern California-based business into an international company located throughout the United States and Canada.

#405: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Lisa Gevelber. Lisa founded and leads Grow with Google (grow.google.com), which is Google's $1 billion commitment to economic opportunity for all. Since 2017, Grow with Google has helped over 6 million Americans and tens of millions globally grow their skills, careers, and businesses. One of her most significant contributions is the creation of Google Career Certificates, which provide access to in-demand, high paying jobs for people without college degrees. These certificates have provided significant upward mobility to tens of thousands and counting. Lisa also leads Google for Startups, which levels the playing field for underrepresented founders and helps startups thrive across every corner of the world. 

#404: In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Patrick Tannous. Patrick is the co-founder and President of Tiesta Tea Company. Tiesta Tea is a tea company inspired by a passion for great-tasting loose leaf tea beverages. Tiesta Tea was started in 2010 while Patrick and Dan Klein (CEO & Co-Founder) were seniors in college. Since starting the business, Tiesta Tea has become the fastest-growing company in the specialty tea industry with over 8000+ points of distribution (according to Nielsen). In 2018, Patrick and Dan were featured by Inc. Magazine as 30 Under 30 Rising Stars. In 11 years at Tiesta Tea, Patrick has worked with or currently works with companies like Costco, Safeway, Target, Meijer, Amazon, Office Depot, Walmart, Kroger, Whole Foods and many other Fortune 500 companies. Patrick has secured four rounds of equity financing totaling $5.2mm. Patrick is a people-focused business person and believes in doing business with high respect, morals, and values. He has a strong passion for entrepreneurship and loves helping other people chase their dreams. Patrick believes anyone can do anything if they truly care and put the effort into it.

#403: Teresa Sande Author of Find Your Fierce: Interrupt Imposter Syndrome and Own Your Success has some insightful research from studies and hundreds of interviews that transform this topic into a book. Host Justin Dux reveals his biggest fear as a podcast host and Teresa shares her story as well feeling like the biggest imposter to set out to write a book about imposter syndrome. 

#402: In this episode, Michael Gardon chats with Dr. Amy Beacom and Sue Campbell.

Dr. Amy Beacom is the Founder and CEO of the Center for Parental Leave Leadership, the first consultancy in the US to focus exclusively on parental leave. Drawing on over 25 years in executive leadership development and coaching, Amy consults with Fortune 100 companies, international organizations, and working parents, transforming the way our companies and our country engage with the parental leave transition.

Amy created the first evidence-based parental leave transition coaching model and distilled it into this book, the first of its kind to provide step-by-step guidance for navigating this complex life transition. She has trained and supervised parental leave coaches both in the US and Australia and the manager-focused training program she created can be found in over 80 countries around the world. She regularly appears on expert panels, conferences, and podcasts and has been quoted in such publications as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Working Mother. Amy holds a BA in Sociology/Anthropology with a minor in Gender Studies from Lewis and Clark College, an MA in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University, and a doctorate, also from Columbia University, combining Organizational Psychology, Women's Leadership, Work/Family, and Applied Anthropology. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and their son and daughter.

Sue Campbell is a writer, author, and coach who has worked with the Center for Parental Leave Leadership since its early days, helping to communicate the transformative impact of their core mission. Her professional background includes twelve years in public service, seven of those as a business systems analyst leading projects and teams to deliver process improvements through technology. Her writing, often focused on issues important to parents, has been published in many outlets, including Prevention, Good Housekeeping, Scary Mommy, and Mamalode. She is also the author of, The Cat, the Cash, the Leap, and the List, a novel for middle grade readers. Sue lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two children.

#401:

In this episode, Justin Dux chats with Noa Shaw. Noa Shaw is a certified life coach who guides his clients to become better versions of themselves by helping them identify and understand their purpose and achieve what they want in life. Whether you're searching for more meaning or fulfillment in your personal life and relationships, or seeking to establish the confidence and accountability to realize your business, career and leadership goals, Noa can help you chart your path and develop the tools you'll need to grow. With over 20 years of experience working in addiction treatment and helping clients rebuild their lives in the aftermath of trauma, Noa specializes in helping guide his clients from the depths of darkness into a life filled with beauty and light.

#524: Brian Ondrako is, first and foremost, a dedicated Dad to an amazing young boy who keeps him energized and young at heart. As the host of the Just Get Started Podcast for over six years, Brian has built a platform for meaningful conversations and personal growth. Alongside his podcasting journey, he writes blogs three times a week, has published two children's books with a third on the way, and serves as a Sales Mentor to B2B Founders and their teams.

The past several years have been transformative for Brian, looking very different from the life he once knew. His current pursuits are rooted in a pivotal decision to take control of his life. Overcoming childhood challenges of poor confidence, low self-esteem, and a fear of judgment, Brian reshaped his path by embracing bravery, delayed gratification, and connecting with influential people.

Through these steps, he discovered a sense of purpose that realigned his life's direction. Brian identifies as a NAVIGATOR, with his "North Star" guiding him to help others take control of their own lives. He believes that true fulfillment begins from within, by understanding that happiness is only achievable when we fully discover ourselves.

As we explore who we are, Brian emphasizes, we uncover a COMPASS within us, one that guides us toward a more appreciative and purposeful life. This inner compass, according to Brian, forms the foundation for a happier and more fulfilling existence.

#400: In this episode, Justin Dux chats with Kelly McClellan. Kelly is a Career and Leadership expert with over 20 years of experience in training and developing people, leaders, and teams. With more than 3000 coaching hours, she is on a mission to help people create a life and career they love.  

Equal parts coach, consultant, and cheerleader, Kelly works with clients in financial services, healthcare, CPG, and technology who are looking to take themselves and their teams to the next level.  

#399: In this episode, Michael Gardon chats with S. Chris Edmonds. S. Chris Edmondshelps leaders create and sustain purposeful, positive, productive work cultures. He is a speaker, author, and executive consultant who is the founder of The Purposeful Culture Group. He's one of Inc. Magazine's 100 Top Leadership Speakers and was a featured presenter at South by Southwest.

Chris is the author of the Amazon bestseller The Culture Engine and is co-author of the new title, Good Comes First. Chris' blog, podcasts, and videos are at DrivingResultsThroughCulture.com.

Chris' short, rich Good Comes First and Culture Leadership Charge video episodes can be found on YouTube.

#398: In this episode, Michael Gardon chats with Mark Babbitt. Mark S. Babbitt is President of WorqIQ, a community and change management consultancy that helps organizations understand leadership's impact on culture and the company's collective level of Workplace Intelligence (WQ).

Mark is also CEO and Founder of YouTern, a career-focused community enables college students, recent graduates, and young professionals to find their first or next internship or job with the right organizational culture for them. In addition to writing the upcoming Good Comes First (September 28, 2021 | Matt Holt and BenBella Books), Mark co-authored the bestseller A World Gone Social: How Companies Must Adapt to Survive. Followers also find Mark's advice in Entrepreneur, Inc., Forbes, and many other publications. An in-demand speaker, Mark was named one of Inc. Magazines' Top 100 Leadership Speakers.