In this thought-provoking conversation, Erik and Alli explore a noticeable shift in how people are setting goals in 2026. Instead of laser-focused metrics and traditional SMART goals, more people are choosing intentions, directions, and feelings as their compass. Why? And what does it mean for how we measure success?

Together, they unpack the value of vector-based goals, the emerging trend of process over outcome, and why many high achievers are intentionally ditching rigid measurements in favor of something more sustainable—and possibly more effective.

❓ The Big Question

Are rigid goals still useful, or is it time to rethink how we measure success?

💡 Key Takeaways

• SMART goals aren’t dead—but they’re no longer the only path to growth. Many are shifting to qualitative, process-based goals that align with values rather than numbers.
• Process integrity > Outcome obsession. Focusing too hard on the end result can blind you to the meaningful work already being done.
• Goals as vectors. Picking a direction and tracking momentum may serve us better than defining a fixed destination.
• Experiments over expectations. Viewing goals as hypotheses allows you to learn, iterate, and adjust—rather than feeling stuck or like a failure.
• High-achievers are redefining success. For many, especially those running businesses or on the edge of new growth, clarity and confidence come from feeling aligned—not just hitting numbers.

🧠 Concepts, Curves, and Frameworks

• Vector Goals: Choosing a direction and measuring acceleration, not just arrival.
• Process Integrity vs. Outcome Integrity (Deborah’s concept): Not all success is about the result—sometimes it’s about how you show up along the way.
• Hypothesis-Driven Leadership: Every initiative is a test—learn to treat your strategy as a living system.
• Blinders of Quantification: Rigid metrics can distract from emerging opportunities.
• Creative Constraints: New habits, products, or businesses often defy neat measurement—especially early on.

🔁 Real-Life Reflections

• Alli shared how she intentionally didn’t set numeric goals in 2026 for her business, favoring creativity and sustainability over spreadsheets.
• Erik reflected on how, as a founder, forecasting too early can create false precision—so he now leads with qualitative goals and lets quantification come later.
• Both recognized this as a trend among their mentees and clients, noting that more people are choosing how they want to feel or how they want to work as the real goal.

🧰 Put This Into Practice

1. Start with a direction, not a destination. Ask: “If I moved this way, what would feel aligned?”
2. Run your goals like experiments. What hypothesis are you testing?
3. Replace ‘How much?’ with ‘How meaningful?’ Try tracking presence, ease, or momentum.
4. Review your process, not just results. Did you show up the way you said you would?
5. Ditch what doesn’t serve you. If SMART goals feel restrictive, try something else—and own it.

🗣️ Favorite Quotes

“If you marry yourself too early to an outcome, it takes away your ability to adapt to the humbling reality that might be showing up.” – Erik

“For the recovering high achiever in me… this is forcing me to think differently in a way I wouldn’t have expected.” – Alli

“The clearer you are on the direction you want to move, the more powerfully you can simplify the steps to get there.” – Erik

“You’re the only one who knows you best. Pick what works for you and get rid of the noise.” – Alli

“Let’s go run the test. Let’s see if we’re right.” – Erik

🔗 Links & Resources

• Listen to other episodes co-hosted with Alli&

 🧠 Erik’s Take 

In this post-interview reflection, Erik revisits key insights from his conversation with Brett Jesson, Chief Growth Officer at DDC Group. What stands out isn’t just Brett’s strategic clarity—it’s the way he pairs operational rigor with a deeply human approach to leadership. Erik dives into three standout themes: the underestimated power of fiction in leadership, the rise of small powerhouse teams, and the brutal honesty required for better hiring. This is a thoughtful unpacking of how leadership evolves when you're willing to look inward first.

🎯 Top Insights from the Interview

• Fiction builds empathy. Reading novels helps leaders see the world through others’ eyes—and leads to stronger “off the pitch” relationships.
• Small, high-powered generalist teams outperform bureaucracies. Versatility + trust = agility.
• Hiring well starts with knowing yourself. If you don’t understand your team’s strengths and gaps, you can’t pick the right puzzle piece.
• Speed matters in hiring recovery. Catching a wrong hire in 30–60 days is healthy. Waiting 12–24 months is a costly culture problem.
• Generational shifts are leadership tests. Leading millennials and Gen Z is no longer optional—and it’s not their fault, but it is your responsibility.

🧩 The Personal Layer

Erik reflects on how Brett’s love of fiction and leadership intersect in surprising ways. From Ender’s Game to Project Hail Mary, storytelling helps leaders build empathy and see patterns in human behavior—both in real life and on their teams. It’s not just intellectual—it's emotional. Brett’s commitment to leveling up as a human, not just a title, is a model Erik finds both refreshing and necessary.

🧰 From Insight to Action

• Read fiction. Not as escape, but as a tool for emotional fluency.
• Build generalist-heavy teams and reduce "connective tissue" friction.
• Redesign your hiring process to test for culture, not just competence.
• Normalize admitting a hire isn’t working—faster, not later.
• Reflect: Are you adapting your leadership style to the team you have—or the one you wish you had?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“You can't walk in someone’s shoes if you've never imagined them.”

“Friction often lives in the connective tissue—small teams cut that out.”

“Hiring starts with knowing what you can and can’t train.”

“The wrong person can demolish a small, high-powered team.”

“By 2030, millennials and Gen Z will be the majority—it’s not their fault, but it is your responsibility.”

🔗 Links & Resources

• Listen to Brett Jesson's Episode

🧠 Erik’s Take

In this reflection episode, Erik revisits his powerful conversation with therapist, designer, and leadership coach Monique Lecomte, spotlighting three resonant themes: adaptive leadership, the art of zigging when others zag, and the radical courage to own your origin story.

Monique’s journey—from rural Alabama to the boardrooms of design and organizational leadership—offers more than inspiration. It models a way of seeing leadership not as performance, but as personal evolution. Her ability to turn hardship into artistry, and pattern into purpose, leaves Erik asking himself—and all of us—what buried story we might need to feature instead of hide.

🎯 Top Insights from the Interview

• Adaptive leadership starts with unlearning. Monique’s work centers on resisting the “one-size-fits-all” playbook and staying present with the humanity in the room.
• Zig when others zag. Whether in design, career choices, or facilitation, Monique consistently chooses the less obvious path—and creates leverage by doing so.
• Origin stories hold power. The parts we want to skip are often the parts others most need to hear.
• Her book is a metaphor. The Expert General Generalist doesn’t just tell a story—it is the story: nonlinear, beautiful, layered, and unconventional.
• Leadership is design. And Monique sees space, systems, and power dynamics like a designer—revealing what's usually hidden in plain sight.

🧩 The Personal Layer

Monique’s honesty around her upbringing made Erik reflect on how much of our work, curiosity, and style comes from early experiences we may not even realize are driving us. He doesn’t have a book about his story—but this episode helped him consider what it might include. It’s an invitation to all listeners: if you traced your leadership back to its roots, what would you find? And more importantly—what would you do with it?

🧰 From Insight to Action

• Identify where you're applying a "one-size-fits-all" approach—and pause. Could you be more curious?
• Revisit your own career “zags.” What made you different—and how has that paid off?
• Spend 10 minutes journaling about a formative experience from childhood. What skill or sensitivity did it give you?
• Flip through The Expert General Generalist (if you have it)—not for answers, but for structure. How could you tell your story in a nonlinear way?
• Consider how you’re designing your leadership—not just practicing it. What patterns are you reinforcing without realizing it?

🗣️ Notable Quotes from Erik

“She doesn’t just tell her story—she features it. And that’s leadership.”

“Monique’s book is her strategy: beautiful, nonlinear, and completely outside the box.”

“The willingness to turn a hard story into a usable asset? That’s courage in action.”

“Adaptive leadership isn’t a theory. It’s a decision made over and over, in real time.”

“Her whole life has been a masterclass in zigging when others zag.”

🔗 Links & Resources

• Listen to Monique Lecomte's Episode

In this reaction episode, Erik unpacks the deeply resonant conversation he just had with Tim Whitmire, co-founder of F3 Nation. What starts as a personal reflection on F3's impact morphs into a vulnerable and strategic look at leadership, sustainability, and what it really means to see the people we lead clearly. From the power of micro-origin stories to the gift of context-aware leadership, Erik distills the conversation into actionable insights anchored in both experience and empathy.

🎯 Top Insights from the Interview

• Organic beginnings can lead to transformational outcomes. F3 was a simple response to a real need. Now it's a nationwide movement impacting tens of thousands of men.
• Sustainable effort beats constant hustle. Tim’s “91% Rule” is a powerful counterpoint to burnout culture—and Erik adds his own twist: even 80% effort, consistently, from the right people is a win.
• People don’t fail—contexts do. Sometimes the job changes. Sometimes they change. Either way, hanging on too long helps no one.

🧩 The Personal Layer

Erik reflects candidly on his own leadership journey—how he nearly became toxic in a job he’d once thrived in, and how his perspective shifted from “fixer” to “founder.” He connects Tim’s philosophies to his own experiences running a sales team, where stepping back meant creating space for others to grow. He also shares the story of a group he once started—Potentially Productive Shenanigans—as a what-if moment that mirrored F3’s humble origin.

🧰 From Insight to Action

• Audit Your Expectations: Are you expecting 100% effort from someone who’s living through a 60% season?
• Create the Off-Ramp: Don’t delay difficult transitions. Instead, plan for them with empathy, transparency, and dignity.
• Lead with Context: What has changed in this person’s world? How can you adapt without lowering the bar for excellence?
• Human > Heroics: Show your team that you see them and that leadership isn’t about squeezing more, but unlocking better.

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“Maybe they're a rockstar, you just can't see it because they're in the wrong seat.”
“You can build an off-ramp that earns undying respect and still protect your company's needs.”
“If you're not willing to adapt your expectations to someone's season, you're not leading them, you're managing a machine.”

🔗 Links & Resources

• 🌐 CXN Advisory – Book a Call
• 🏋️‍♂️ F3 Nation Website

In this powerful conversation, Erik sits down with Tim Whitmire, co-founder of F3 Nation and a seasoned leader across journalism, finance, consulting, and operations, to unpack what it takes to build decentralized leadership, sustain impact at scale, and lead with humility and purpose. From the sweaty roots of a Saturday workout in Charlotte to the formation of a nationwide brotherhood, Tim shares timeless insights on human development, organizational growth, and what it really means to step back so others can step up.

👤 About the Guest

Tim Whitmire is the co-founder of F3 Nation, a grassroots network of free, peer-led workouts that emphasize Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith. He is Executive Vice President of Growth and Strategic Development at the Doeswell Operating Group and the Founder & CEO of CXN Advisory. With a background in journalism (15 years with the Associated Press), Tim brings a rare blend of storytelling, operational thinking, and values-based leadership to every endeavor. He’s also co-author of Freed to Lead, the foundational book on F3’s leadership ethos.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• Why everyone should be expected to lead (even just once).
• F3’s core idea: Fit and friended men naturally turn outward.
• The Starfish vs. Spider model: How decentralized leadership created a global movement.
• The 91% Rule: Why we should never expect 100% effort all the time.
• What it takes to actually replace yourself as a leader and why many organizations fail at it.

💡 Key Takeaways

• Leadership is contextual: The same person can be a rockstar in one environment and toxic in another.
• Decentralization wins: Pushing tools and ownership to the edge builds resilience and scale.
• Effort ≠ burnout: Peak performance requires sustainable pacing—not constant 100% output.
• Letting go is leadership: The greatest test of a leader is their ability to walk away well.
• Seasons matter: Acknowledging life phases (like parenthood, grief, or burnout) creates humane leadership cultures.

❓ Questions That Mattered

• What does it take to lead something that outgrows you?
• How do you know when it’s time to step back?
• What happens when you stay in a leadership role too long?
• How can you help someone transition out of the wrong role without harming them?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“If you're not developing your replacement, you're probably blocking your own promotion.”
“We’re not wired to go 100% all the time. I want 91%—and the ability to peak when it counts.”
“Fitness is the magnet. Fellowship is the glue. Faith is the dynamite.”

🔗 Links & Resources

• 🌐 CXN Advisory – Book a Call
• 🏋️‍♂️ F3 Nation Website

In this solo episode, Erik takes us deep into one of the most deceptively simple and misunderstood questions in leadership: What does it mean to be a leader? This is not about personality traits or lofty vision statements—it’s about one clear, powerful definition that transforms how you show up, lead, and grow others. If you’ve ever felt the tension of being too nice, too controlling, or just unsure how to unlock your team's potential this one’s for you.

❓The Big Question

What does it truly mean to lead someone and how can we know if we’re doing it well?

💡 Key Takeaways

• Leadership is a verb: to lead is to influence someone toward an advantage.
• Influence means being the proximal cause of change. You disrupt the status quo in service of growth.
• Advantage must be defined by the person being led, not the leader.
• Many leaders fail by being overly relational, overly rational, or by simply “leading by example.”
• Great leadership lives in adaptability, tuning your approach to the individual, not your preference.

🧠 Concepts, Curves, and Frameworks

• F3 Definition of Leadership: To lead is to influence someone toward an advantage.
• The Influence + Advantage Matrix: 
  • Relational Leader: Kind but ineffective; avoids discomfort.
  • Rational Leader: Logical but uninspiring; misses buy-in.
  • Lead-by-Example Leader: Hardworking but misaligned; leads only themselves.
• Golden Rule 2.0: Don’t lead others how you want to be led, lead them how they need to be led.
• Leadership as Conversation: Leadership emerges in everyday conversations whether they’re verbal, written, asynchronous.

🔁 Real-Life Reflections

• Erik shares a personal leadership fail: giving team members heads-up messages he thought were helpful, only to find they eroded trust.
• He recounts how discovering the F3 leadership definition reshaped his entire approach to coaching and accountability.
• Sports coaches like Nick Saban and Steve Kerr illustrate that the best leaders unlock, not overpower.
• You should aim to be the worst individual contributor on your team, that’s how you know you’re empowering others.

🧰 Put This Into Practice

• Audit Your Conversations: Were you talking or listening more? Did you ask open-ended questions?
• Ask This Question Today: “What can I do to be a better leader for you?”
• Shift to Influence Mode: Identify one person on your team and ask yourself, “How can I influence them toward their advantage today?”
• Ditch the Traits Checklist: Focus on practicing the skill of asking powerful, open-ended questions.
• Identify Your Bias: Are you too relational, too rational, or defaulting to “lead by example”? Adjust accordingly.

🗣️ Favorite Quotes

“If all you’ve got is a hammer, every problem looks suspiciously like a nail.”
“Nice bosses keep people happy until the layoff list hits. Kind bosses care about long-term good.”
“Leadership isn’t about how you want to lead. It’s about how they need to be led.”

In this launch episode of I Have Some Questions…, Erik Berglund sets the stage for a podcast built on one radical belief: that great leadership begins not with answers, but with better questions. He shares the personal journey that led him to this insight, the mission behind the show, and what listeners can expect from future episodes—interviews, solo deep dives, and a whole lot of leadership exploration.

❓ The Big Question

What if asking better questions is the most powerful leadership skill no one ever taught us?

💡 Key Takeaways

• Curiosity, not charisma, is the underrated cornerstone of great leadership.
• Most pivotal leadership moments begin with a powerful question—not a polished answer.
• Many essential leadership skills (like balancing empathy with accountability) aren’t taught, but they can be explored through inquiry.
• Lead with Questions will blend interviews with solo explorations to uncover the “why” behind powerful leadership decisions.

🧠 Concepts, Curves, and Frameworks

• Language of Leadership: A business Erik founded to help leaders refine what they say and how they say it.
• Speechcraft: A tool using AI roleplay to enhance soft skills like leadership and difficult conversations.
• The Unspoken Curriculum: The leadership lessons no one teaches—like how to unlock others’ potential or what “accountability” really means.

🔁 Real-Life Reflections

• Erik’s leadership journey began at 18, managing a house painting crew, which planted the seeds of his curiosity-driven approach.
• He later scaled to leading sales teams and eventually left corporate to coach and build leadership-focused ventures.
• Key turning points often came from internal questions, not external accolades.

🧰 Put This Into Practice

• Reflect on your own leadership journey: What moments were shaped by powerful questions?
• Ask yourself: What have I been told to do as a leader that no one actually taught me how to do?
• Identify one question you’d love to hear answered on the podcast and send it Erik’s way.
• Challenge your team with a curiosity-driven prompt this week—see what emerges.

🗣️ Favorite Quotes

“I think curiosity and good questions is the core skill for leadership.”
“I can’t guarantee we’ll always get to the bottom of an answer. But ideally, we’ll build better frameworks—and better questions.”

In this episode, Erik sits down with sales and leadership strategist Monique Lecomte for a raw, generous conversation on the dynamics of leadership, healing, and relational growth. Through the lens of her experience—from working with incarcerated teams to coaching senior executives—Monique reveals how personal wounds, cultural systems, and relational patterns show up in our work, and what it really means to lead with presence rather than performance.

👤 About the Guest

Monique Lecomte is a keynote speaker, leadership expert, and facilitator with a career spanning 20+ years in global business for iconic brands– Herman Miller, Knoll, and Hightower. Growing up in rural Alabama, she learned resilience and adaptability—skills that shaped her journey from small-town life to the boardroom. A recognized Expert Generalist, she has built high-performing teams, driven cultural change, and helped organizations thrive by balancing innovation with a human connection.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• The subtle (and not-so-subtle) trauma responses that shape how leaders show up
• Why the “fixer” instinct often creates disconnection and resentment
• What leaders can learn from others—and what they absolutely shouldn’t copy
• How systemic inequality shapes interpersonal dynamics at work
• The difference between “holding space” and avoiding discomfort
• A practical exercise for exploring relational patterns using you <--> me language
• Why every team has a collective nervous system—and how to listen to it
• The real role of somatics, not as a trend, but as a signal of what’s unspoken

💡 Key Takeaways

• Fixing is often a disguised need to reduce your discomfort—not meet their need.
• Every interaction is shaped by what’s in the system—past stories, power dynamics, and unspoken rules.
• Language matters: even small shifts (“you <--> me” structures) can expose entrenched roles and change a conversation.
• Unprocessed trauma or identity harm doesn’t stay personal—it shows up in leadership.
• Your body often knows the truth before your mind will admit it.

❓ Questions That Mattered

• “What are you protecting when you keep trying to fix things?”
• “What happens in the space between two people when one always performs and the other always disappears?”
• “What’s the cost of leadership that avoids conflict in the name of harmony?”
• “How do we lead when our nervous system is still recovering from old wounds?”
• “What shifts when we treat power as relational, not positional?”

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“Fixing makes the other person disappear. It assumes they’re broken and you know better.”

“A lot of what we call leadership is just a well-trained trauma response.”

“The room is always full of ghosts—of systems, of stories, of history. The work is learning how to see them.”

“There’s a difference between being regulated and being controlled. One leads to connection. The other leads to shutdown.”

“I’m not here to optimize you. I’m here to help you tell the truth in the room.”

🔗 Links & Resources

• Check out Monique's Website: moniquelecomte.com
• Monique's LinkedIn
• Monique's Instagram
• Read or Listen to 'The Expert Generalist', Monique's Book

In this candid, co-hosted conversation, Erik Berglund and Alli Murphy dive into the trending workplace phenomenon of ghost growth—where employees are handed more responsibilities without more compensation. They unpack where this trend is coming from, how it shows up in real teams, and what both leaders and employees can do to navigate it without burning out or blowing up. With plenty of real-life examples, frameworks, and tactical scripts, this episode is a masterclass in setting boundaries, negotiating expectations, and turning tension into growth.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• The rise of ghost growth: what it is, how it differs from scope creep, and why it’s hitting workers hard right now
• How leaders can frame tough asks without sounding manipulative
• Smart, non-monetary ways to reward extra effort—and why money isn’t always the most effective motivator
• Why “yes or no” isn’t the only response to being handed more work
• How to build capacity through systems, not just effort
• Scripts for pushing back without burning bridges
• The power of “start, stop, continue” when reevaluating your workload
• Why most job descriptions are broken—and what that says about expectations

💡 Key Takeaways

• Ghost growth is real—but it can be leveraged for meaningful development if handled with care.
• Leaders must co-own the problem, not just hand it off. It’s not just “here’s more work”—it’s “how do we solve for this together?”
• Scope creep without strategy leads to burnout, not growth. Honest, upfront conversations are essential.
• Employees have more agency than they think. The key is negotiating from curiosity and alignment—not reactivity.
• Incentives don’t always mean raises. Promotions, ownership, and time off often hold more value.

❓ Questions That Mattered

• Where does ghost growth actually come from—and how should leaders address it?
• What options exist beyond “say no” or “accept and drown”?
• How can middle managers protect their team’s well-being while navigating top-down pressure?
• What frameworks help employees reframe overwhelming asks as growth opportunities?
• Why do leaders default to “adding” instead of “subtracting”—and what’s the cost?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“Growth happens under tension. But if you're not careful, you're just creating stress—not development.” —Erik

“There’s this false binary: say no and be punished, or say yes and drown. There are at least 17 other options.” —Alli

“Most people are more motivated by personal brand growth than a few extra dollars.” —Erik

“You don’t have to respond right away. You’re allowed to pause, reflect, and come back with a plan.” —Alli

“We’re wired to add, not subtract. But real leadership sometimes means removing more than it means adding.” —Alli

🔗 Links & Resources

• Listen to other episodes co-hosted with Alli

🧠 Erik’s Take

This episode is Erik’s reflection on the electric, vulnerable, and revealing conversation with performance coach Ann Rivera—a woman whose origin story as a rebellious underdog athlete reads like a masterclass in bootstrapped entrepreneurship. Erik connects Ann’s volleyball hustle to the startup journey: making yourself visible in a market that doesn’t know it needs you, adapting your offer mid-flight, and staying grounded in the uncomfortable yet exhilarating reality of growth.

At its core, this review is about how sports, grit, and flow are not metaphors for business—they are business when done right.

🎯 Top Insights from the Interview

• Her story is a startup. Ann's journey from overlooked 5'9" volleyball player to European pro is the perfect entrepreneurial parable—scrappy outreach, market rejection, product pivot, and relentless execution.
• Flow state is not an accident. Ann’s self-designed rituals—journaling, music, visualization—weren’t indulgences; they were systems. A blueprint.
• Sports reveal what business forgets. Things like preparation, internal competition, and honest feedback are baked into athletics—but go missing in most professional environments.
• Coaches see what you can’t. The best leaders in business should take cues from athletic coaching: notice patterns, provide feedback loops, and challenge people to show up sharper.
• Your flow might surprise you. For Erik, the conversation helped reveal that his flow lives in real-time problem-solving with others—not in isolation or over-prep.

🧩 The Personal Layer

Erik reflects on the discomfort and clarity of being asked about his own flow state live in the moment. It prompted a deeper recognition that he's at his best when he's “thinking out loud alongside someone”—not when he’s locked away in solo prep. That moment of unexpected self-awareness becomes a model of how coaching actually works: not prescriptive, but revealing.

🧰 From Insight to Action

• Revisit your pre-performance rituals. Are they accidental… or are they engineered to get you into your best zone?
• Ask yourself: What’s my position on the team? And are you playing the right one… or one you settled for?
• Audit your leadership like a coach. Can you see what your team can’t? Do you help them train with feedback and rigor?
• Build a “flow formula.” What sound, space, movement, or dialogue helps you tap in? Then reverse-engineer it.
• Stop expecting excellence from people who don’t have feedback loops. Add one. Even if it’s simple.

🗣️ Notable Quotes from Erik

“She had to pivot her product in real time just to stay in the game. That is entrepreneurship.”

“We admire athletes because they have what we hope for in our teams—grit, feedback, and stakes.”

“There’s no benching someone in business. But there is spotlighting where they’re not bringing it.”

“Flow isn’t magic. It’s math. Figure out your formula.”

“The best leaders are watching the film. You’re not in the play. You’re seeing the pattern.”

🔗 Links & Resources

• Listen to Ann Rivera's Episode

In this episode, Erik sits down with coach and former pro athlete Ann Rivera for a wild, gritty, and deeply human conversation on what it really takes to perform at your peak—when the odds are stacked, the rules don’t fit, and you have to reinvent the game to stay in it. From cold-calling European volleyball teams in the pre-internet 90s to coaching executives in Spanish boardrooms, Ann’s story is an unfiltered look at how survival mode, punk rock rebellion, and sheer audacity became her personal playbook for leadership, coaching, and building high performers in business.

👤 About the Guest

Ann Rivera is a former professional volleyball player turned performance coach who works with high-performing athletes, executives, and teams to cultivate flow, resilience, and purpose. Drawing from years of real-world grit—from competing overseas to teaching English to corporate leaders—Ann’s coaching centers on emotional honesty, systems of accountability, and activating untapped potential. She’s known for her deep listening, bold truth-telling, and ability to help even the most resistant high-achievers transform.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• How punk rock rebellion, rage, and being told “you’re not worth it” forged Ann’s performance mindset
• Writing 100 letters to European volleyball teams as her own agent—and why it worked
• Performing tryouts in foreign languages with no GPS, no phone, and a Walkman-fueled mindset routine
• The hidden traps of flow state when transitioning from performer to leader
• The coaching skill that changes everything: radical, reflective listening
• Why most companies fail to replicate the stakes and feedback loops of elite sports
• What happens when grit gets built from survival mode—and how to coach through it
• How Ann responds to resistance and sabotage in the room with curiosity and courage

💡 Key Takeaways

• Grit isn’t glam—it’s often forged in fear, rage, and rebellion. And that’s okay.
• Performance in sports and business breaks down the same way: expectations, comparisons, and fear of consequence.
• Your job as a leader isn’t just to chase outcomes. It’s to build rituals and systems that support the process.
• Coaching works when it meets someone at their edge—and holds them there with love and rigor.
• The best coaches don’t tell you what to do. They listen so deeply that you hear yourself more clearly.

❓ Questions That Mattered

• “Where did that rage and rebellion come from—and how did it become your rocket fuel?”
• “How do you help high-performers identify their mindset glitches and recalibrate their process?”
• “Why do we abandon performance routines in business that we know are essential in sports?”
• “What does it really mean to hold someone accountable—without breaking them?”
• “How do you coach someone who thinks they already have it all figured out?”

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“Every match felt like a tryout. So I wrote a letter to the opposing coach saying, ‘watch how I play—I might be a player for your team next year.’ That’s sales.”

“The world doesn’t tell you to be who you are. It tells you to fit the mold. That was never gonna work for me.”

“A lot of people are already high performers. What they need is help with their edge—the part of them that’s afraid to be uncomfortable.”

“The Walkman. The playlist. The candle. That was how I got in flow. That was the difference between drowning and dominating.”

“Coaching is not about having the answers. It’s about seeing clearly, listening deeply, and being brave enough to hold space for the truth.”

🔗 Links & Resources

• Read all about Ann's work at www.coachannrivera.com

In this sharp and insightful conversation, Erik Berglund is joined by leadership coach and facilitator Alli Murphy to explore a question that came straight from the field: How do I navigate tough conversations with honesty—without sugar-coating or throwing people under the bus? Together, they unpack the emotional and strategic layers of diplomacy, drawing on real-world leadership scenarios, coaching insights, and personal stories.

Whether you’ve ever felt stuck between being too soft or too sharp, this episode will give you language, frameworks, and permission to do both—kindly and powerfully.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• The unspoken emotional cost of sugar-coating
• Why diplomacy without candor is self-sabotage
• Alli’s framework for separating facts from fiction
• What to do when new leadership joins—and you have hard truths to share
• The difference between being a “nice boss” vs. a “kind boss”
• How to ask for permission to tell someone the hard thing
• Managing perception vs. managing outcomes as a leader
• Real-world scripts for talking to senior leaders (without throwing others under the bus)

💡 Key Takeaways

• Sugar-coating isn’t diplomacy—it’s self-protection
• Kindness requires clarity, not avoidance
• Effective leaders name the fear, then name the truth
• Diplomacy is a co-creative act, not a performance
• You can be candid and compassionate—those are not opposites

❓ Questions That Mattered

• “What’s the thing you’re afraid to say—and why?”
• “What are the facts here, and what’s the fiction I’m telling myself?”
• “How do you want me to challenge you—in public or in private?”
• “What’s possible if we tell the truth about what’s not working?”
• “Am I trying to manage someone else’s emotions, or lead with clarity?”

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“Sugar-coating isn’t for them—it’s for you. It’s self-sabotage dressed up as diplomacy.” – Erik

“You can be both diplomatic and direct. There’s a rainbow between silence and bulldozing.” – Alli

“Kind bosses tell the truth. Nice bosses make people feel better. Don’t confuse the two.” – Erik

“The story I was telling myself was: He might hate my idea. The truth was: He didn’t even know the program existed.” – Alli

“Diplomacy starts with getting people bought in on the opportunity—not just the issue.” – Erik

🔗 Links & Resources

• Listen to other episodes co-hosted with Alli

🧠 Erik’s Take

In this review episode, Erik zooms out from his conversation with Craig Dunaway—President of Penn Station East Coast Subs—to reflect on what makes a franchise truly scalable in today’s business climate. Drawing from Craig’s 40+ years in QSR franchising, Erik breaks down the realities of leading at the intersection of labor, tech, culture, and margin.

This isn’t just about restaurants—it’s about leadership clarity, precision thinking, and building systems that don’t collapse under pressure. Whether you lead a team, a business unit, or a multi-location operation, this episode helps you rethink where your actual risks are—and how to lead with ROI at the center.

🎯 Top Insights from the Interview

• Tech adoption isn’t about innovation—it’s about ROI. If your franchise can’t see a clear path to payback, the “cool” tech is just noise.
• Every ketchup packet counts. Scalability breaks when leaders dismiss the impact of small inefficiencies.
• Labor has changed—and so must your leadership. Gen Z and younger workers aren’t less capable—they’re differently conditioned.
• The restaurant industry is fragile—but the restaurant model is anti-fragile. That paradox shapes how successful franchises grow.
• Franchisees must be detail-obsessed. Culture is what makes or breaks consistency at scale—not SOPs alone.

🧩 The Personal Layer

For Erik, this episode stirred reflections on how easy it is to ignore “invisible leakage” in business—whether it’s financial (like an extra 2 ketchup packets) or cultural (like hiring misalignment). He admired Craig’s unapologetic clarity around ROI, culture fit, and not being seduced by shiny tools. In a world full of tech-first headlines, this was a grounded, systems-first masterclass in responsible leadership.

🧰 From Insight to Action

• Audit your adoption curve. Are you chasing tech too early—or ignoring it for too long?
• Look for your ketchup packets. What tiny leaks are compounding across your org or team?
• Revisit your hiring process. Are you selecting for alignment, not just skills?
• Clarify your North Star. What does ROI look like for you—and is everyone aligned to it?
• Challenge performative clarity. Can your team explain decisions with Craig-level simplicity?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“If you give out two extra ketchup packets with every order, that’s $10,000 a year. Now do that five more times—and you’re out of business.” — Erik, reflecting on Craig’s example

“Tech in QSR isn’t about being cool—it’s about being stable enough to return capital.”

“The best operators are obsessed with unsexy details. That’s how you scale.”

“Hiring for cultural alignment is more powerful than adding new rules.”

“Franchising is unforgiving—but it’s not impossible. You just have to know where the edge is.”

What does it really take to thrive in the hyper-competitive world of quick-service restaurants? Erik sits down with Craig Dunaway, President of Penn Station East Coast Subs, to unpack the operational DNA of successful franchises, the post-COVID evolution of the restaurant industry, and what many leaders get wrong when scaling through franchising. With nearly four decades of experience in the franchise world (from Papa John's to Penn Station), Craig drops hard-earned wisdom on leadership, operations, and why a 6¢ ketchup packet might be more important than you think.

👤 About the Guest

Craig Dunaway is the President of Penn Station East Coast Subs, where he oversees over 300 franchise locations across the U.S. With a background in public accounting and decades of leadership in franchising, Craig brings a systems-driven, ROI-obsessed lens to running and growing franchise businesses.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• The difference between thriving and failing QSR brands during COVID
• Why customers now dictate how food is served—and how restaurants must adapt
• The real cost of labor inflation and how it’s impacting the restaurant model
• What private equity often gets wrong about franchising
• How Penn Station evaluates tech and why they don’t chase trends
• What prospective franchisees must understand before they buy in
• Why setting expectations is the secret to culture and performance

💡 Key Takeaways

• The franchisor-franchisee relationship must be built on trust, alignment, and a shared obsession with ROI
• Don’t underestimate labor costs or customer experience—small gaps lead to massive losses at scale
• Successful franchise systems prioritize replicability and clarity over novelty
• Vetting franchisees is just as important as supporting them
• The best leaders set expectations and hire for alignment, not just experience

❓ Questions That Mattered

• “How do you lead a workforce that’s been changed by social media and remote work?”
• “What should franchise candidates look for in an FDD?”
• “How do you scale culture across hundreds of locations?”
• “Is it better to be an early adopter of tech—or let others take the risk first?”
• “What’s the difference between a good product and a good business?”

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“You can hire an idiot and train them. But at the end of the day, you’ve got a well-trained idiot.” — Craig Dunaway

“The guest only cares about their $14 meal. And you’ve got to deliver for them—every single time.” — Craig Dunaway

“If a concept like Chipotle isn’t doing it, what makes us think we’re smarter than they are?”— Craig Dunaway

“Don’t get into franchising if you want to change the franchisor. Follow the model or don’t join.” — Craig Dunaway

“As a franchisor, we have two customers: the guest and the franchisee. We serve both.” — Craig Dunaway

🔗 Links & Resources

• Craig’s email: cnd@pennstation.com
• Penn Station East Coast Subs

In this honest and energizing conversation, Erik and Alli dive into one of the most essential (and overlooked) truths of leadership: You don’t have to be the fixer to be effective. Through vulnerable stories and sharp insights, they explore what it takes to step away from performative leadership and into deeper influence—especially when your calendar, culture, and conditioning are telling you to do the opposite.

Whether you’re leading a team, managing up, or trying to rewire the habits that got you here, this episode offers a grounded, practical lens on what modern leadership really requires.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• The identity trap of being the “fixer” leader
• How Alli used a one-hour morning experiment to rewire her leadership defaults
• Erik’s broken “bullshit meter” and what it taught him about trust and manipulation
• The tension between presence vs. preparation in leadership culture
• Why leaders must move from inherited habits to intentional frameworks
• A powerful parable about ham, history, and unnecessary habits

💡 Key Takeaways

• Responsiveness is not the same as leadership
• Being needed can feel good—but it can also create dependency
• Coaching your team isn’t about fixing—it’s about letting them figure it out
• Showing up everywhere isn’t leadership; preparing others to shine is
• Many leadership habits are inherited, not chosen—and that’s fixable

❓ Questions That Mattered

• What belief about leadership are you still unconsciously carrying?
• Where is your calendar performative vs. purposeful?
• What would happen if you stepped back for one hour a day?
• Are you reacting from reward-conditioning… or leading with intention?
• Whose leadership playbook are you still running?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“I thought being a fixer made me valuable. Turns out, it made me unavailable to do the deeper work.” — Alli

“Preparation over presence changed everything for me.” — Erik

“They weren’t just managing the customer—they were managing me. And I didn’t know it.” — Erik

“The truths that got you here don’t have to go with you. They served you… until they didn’t.” — Alli

“You’re not broken. You’re probably just cutting the ends off the ham.” — Erik

🔗 Links & Resources

• Listen to other episodes co-hosted with Alli

🧠 Erik’s Take

In this follow-up to his interview with Eric Collett, Erik shares his personal reflections on the most powerful takeaways—especially the deceptively simple IA/E framework (inflammation over energy). He explores how this model shifted his thinking around brain fog, burnout, and everyday performance, and why brain health isn't about trying more—it's about understanding more.

From metaphor-rich science to real-life health pivots, Erik distills a dense interview into a lens that makes brain optimization feel actionable, not abstract.

🎯 Top Insights from the Interview

• IA/E is a game-changer: Brain health can be reframed as a ratio—how much immune activation (inflammation) are you generating per unit of energy you're using?
• Exhaust isn't just emotional—it’s biological: External and internal “exhaust” (smoke, alcohol, poor fuel, heat) can derail your performance without you realizing it
• Diagnosis ≠ understanding: Many “mental health” diagnoses may actually be hardware issues like nutrient absorption or inflammation
• Wearables can help—but not alone: Data is only helpful if you know how to interpret it; most people don’t have a system or guide for translating biofeedback into action
• Small tweaks can lead to massive clarity: From swapping a B-vitamin format to using glutathione to clear toxic load, the right interventions create real results fast

🧩 The Personal Layer

Erik reflects on how this conversation activated the "science brain" he rarely gets to use, connecting it to years of high-level leadership and performance coaching. He shares how wearables helped him reframe his relationship with alcohol and why more data isn't always more useful—unless you're guided by the right framework.

This episode isn't just about health—it's about owning your agency.

🧰 From Insight to Action

• Reframe symptoms like fog, fatigue, or forgetfulness as a signal, not a flaw
• Ask: Am I experiencing an IA/E imbalance right now?
• Identify your sources of exhaust (e.g., smoke, poor sleep, glucose spikes, alcohol)
• Choose one wearable or diagnostic tool—and pair it with interpretation support
• Experiment with one biological intervention (e.g., upgraded supplements) and track how you feel

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“The next time I feel foggy, I’ll ask: what inflammation am I not seeing?” — Erik

“Wearables can tell you what happened, but not what to do about it.” — Erik

“We’re swimming in diagnostics. But you still need a guide to navigate the data.” — Erik

“Exhaust isn’t just metaphorical—it’s literal. And it’s making your brain underperform.” — Erik

“IA/E gave me a whole new lens for thinking about mental sharpness.” — Erik

🔗 Links & Resources

• Free Brain Health Assessment: amindforallseasons.com/energy
• Text OPTIMIZE to 72000 for a free intro video series

In this episode, Erik sits down with Brett Jesson, a strategic leader driving growth at a global business process management enterprise. What unfolds is a conversation that transcends business talk and drills into trust, culture, and the very human side of leadership. From career pivots to hiring with humility, Brett shares how he’s learned to lead small, high-performing teams in big, complex systems—without losing sight of what makes people thrive. It’s a masterclass in emotionally intelligent leadership for scale.

👤 About the Guest

Brett Jesson is a senior executive at The DDC Group, where he leads commercial operations for the EMEA region. His career spans client growth, team building, and market origination in highly diverse environments. Brett is known for his strategic clarity and people-first approach—balancing rigor with reflection and operational excellence with emotional insight. He brings both humility and hard-won wisdom to this conversation on leading at the intersection of culture, trust, and performance.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• Why small, high-performing teams are often the engine behind outsized impact.
• The hiring challenge: balancing instinct, bias, and trust in fast-scaling environments.
• “Pressure without expectation”—how Brett was raised and how it shapes his leadership style.
• What makes culture more than just words on a wall—and how to make it live in the work.
• Navigating imposter syndrome and identity across roles, geographies, and seasons of life.

💡 Key Takeaways

• Trust scales faster than any other strategy. Brett unpacks how shared values and high-trust teams create momentum in uncertain markets.
• Culture must live in the day-to-day. It’s not defined by a slide deck, but by what your team defends, promotes, and expects in real time.
• Hiring is about alignment, not perfection. You won't get it right every time—but the faster you admit and adjust, the better.
• Great leadership is not knowing all the answers—it's asking better questions. Brett models humility and intellectual curiosity.
• The best leaders own their blind spots. Self-awareness isn’t a luxury; it’s a multiplier.

❓ Questions That Mattered

• How do you build trust in distributed, multicultural teams?
• What kind of pressure leads to growth—and what kind shuts people down?
• Why is “click” in hiring both powerful and dangerous?
• How do you make sure your culture lives beyond the onboarding deck?
• What does it take to lead in ambiguity without needing to control?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“The best cultures are validated by clients—not just internal slogans.”

“Sometimes hiring is a bet. It’s a feeling. And sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.”

“We’re a small team, so we have to pick the right targets, the right people—and then go get it done.”

“It’s not about being right—it’s about staying in alignment.”

“Imposter syndrome isn't the enemy. It’s often the sign that you’re stretching into something real.”

🔗 Links & Resources

• Connect with Brett Jesson on LinkedIn
• Check out The DDC Group's Website

In this deep-dive conversation, Erik sits down with brain health expert Eric Collett to expose one of the biggest blindspots in leadership and longevity: your brain is not fixed—and it might be failing you in ways you can’t see. From inflammation and energy production to cognitive performance and misdiagnosis, this episode unpacks a radically empowering view of brain health as a strategic tool—not a static trait.

If you’ve ever struggled with focus, burnout, mood swings, or “fog,” this episode delivers scientific clarity, actionable diagnostics, and an entirely new way to approach your energy, leadership, and longevity.

👤 About the Guest

Eric Collett is a National Speaker and the Founder of A Mind For All Seasons, a brain health consultancy dedicated to helping people radically improve their cognitive function, mood, and longevity. With a background in clinical work and executive coaching, Eric merges science, systems, and human insight to make cutting-edge brain health research incredibly practical. He’s on a mission to help people realize: you’re not stuck with the brain you have.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• Why your brain's “hardware” might be the silent killer of your productivity
• The surprising link between inflammation, executive dysfunction, and emotional control
• What NFL players, foggy mornings, and French toast teach us about brain optimization
• The real reason modern medicine misses the root cause of so many mental health issues
• Glucose spikes, wearable tech, and why sleep matters more than you think
• How Erik used food, data, and curiosity to overhaul his own brain performance

💡 Key Takeaways

• IA/E (Immune Activation over Energy) is a powerful framework for understanding brain function
• Inflammation and poor fuel delivery—not personality flaws—often underlie anxiety, fog, and burnout
• Wearables offer useful data—but only if you know how to interpret them
• Optimal brain health is measurable, improvable, and deeply personalized
• Standard medical diagnostics often miss root causes by focusing on symptoms over systems

❓ Questions That Mattered

• Are you trying to fix a software problem… with broken hardware?
• Could your “mental health” actually be a brain fuel or inflammation issue?
• What if the supplements you’re taking are based on symptoms, not root causes?
• How do social habits, glucose crashes, and French toast affect your cognition?
• Are we solving the wrong problem with the wrong playbook?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“You are not stuck with the brain you have. You can absolutely improve it.” – Eric Collett

“Most people think they need better productivity systems. What they really need is better mitochondria.” – Eric Collett

“We’ve confused ‘common’ with ‘normal.’ But your bloodwork being in range doesn’t mean you’re functioning optimally.” – Eric Collett

“I started thinking differently about food when I realized: my diet should serve me, not the other way around.” – Erik Berglund

“Fixing your brain isn’t about trying everything—it’s about measuring the right things, then adjusting wisely.” – Eric Collett

🔗 Links & Resources

• A Mind for All Seasons
• Follow Eric Collett on LinkedIn

As Q4 drags on and burnout hits hard, Erik and guest co-host Alli Murphy explore what it really takes to finish the year with clarity, energy, and intention. From mindset shifts to calendar control to a radical idea called “Minimum Viable December,” this episode offers a refreshingly honest, funny, and practical take on how to navigate the end of the year without losing your momentum—or your mind.

Whether you’re sprinting toward deadlines or tempted to tap out early, this is the episode to help you pause, reset, and lead yourself (and others) more intentionally.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• Why December isn’t the time to start fixing the year—and what to do instead
• The emotional weight of unfinished goals and how to triage what really matters
• Alli’s concept of “Minimum Viable December” and why it’s a radical act of clarity
• How gamifying your tasks can help fight Q4 fatigue
• What it means to optimize for future-you (and why that’s different from hustling)
• The tradeoffs of adding vs. subtracting—and the unexpected ROI of doing less
• When empathy becomes a leadership crutch, not a strength
• How to shift from disconnection to gratitude when motivation is low

💡 Key Takeaways

• Less is a leadership strategy: Doing fewer things with clarity often leads to better results than forcing more effort.
• Finish the year for January, not December: Closing loops now sets you up to hit the ground running after the break.
• Your calendar is your energy engine: Block your time with intention and say no to anything that doesn’t serve your focus.
• Gamify to survive: Rewarding yourself (or your team) with small incentives can spark motivation and make big tasks more bearable.
• Empathy needs a boundary: Compassion is critical, but without a clear standard for accountability, it becomes a trap.

❓ Questions That Mattered

• What do we actually need to get done before the end of the year—and why?
• How do you tell the difference between important and urgent when you’re tired?
• What happens when you give yourself permission to subtract instead of add?
• Why do high performers feel guilty for doing less—even when it’s the right move?
• How can we build rhythms that honor rest and results?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“There’s no efficient way to do something that doesn’t need to be done.” – Erik

“I’ve done less… and things are working better. It’s wild.” – Alli

“This is the first time in seven years that I’m not sprinting through December—and I’m watching what unfolds.” – Alli

“If it matters, I’ll find the motivation. If it doesn’t, I need to be honest.” – Erik

“Minimum Viable December is about honoring the season, not fighting it.” – Alli

“Doing something future-you will thank you for—that’s the game.” – Erik

🧠 Erik’s Take

In this episode, Erik reflects on his recent interview with legendary sales consultant Gene McNoughton, extracting the most meaningful lessons about leadership, process, and growth. Gene’s clarity around sales process and change management not only reinforced Erik’s own experience but also re-anchored his commitment to building systems that scale through truth, repetition, and strategic design.

This review pulls back the curtain on the mindset and mechanics of high-impact organizations—and the hard truths they must be willing to face.

🎯 Top Insights from the Interview

• All change starts by telling the truth. That requires courage and clarity—especially in messy orgs.
• The best salespeople aren’t smooth talkers. They’re process machines. Discipline > charisma.
• Most underperforming orgs don’t have a sales process. The absence of clarity is the enemy of performance.
• Incremental wins across key metrics beat big swings. Optimize the machine, not just the outcome.
• Role play is the secret weapon nobody uses. Teams that train like pros outperform those that wing it.

🧩 The Personal Layer

Erik shares why he chose not to build a sales consulting business—because people like Gene already do it best. This reflection isn’t about competition; it’s about clarity. Knowing your lane, your value, and how to contribute without ego is a leadership move in itself.

There’s also a candid reminder here: telling the truth, especially to ourselves, is the precursor to real progress. That applies in business, relationships, and the mirror.

🧰 From Insight to Action

• Audit your “truth infrastructure.” Where are the blind spots in your data, conversations, or CRM?
• Revisit your process (or lack thereof). Could someone new join your org and succeed just by following it?
• Map 5–7 KPIs that matter. Track the levers that move the machine—not just the final output.
• Make role play normal. Normalize practice as preparation, not punishment.
• Lead with honesty. Whether you're giving feedback or designing systems, truth is the starting point.

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“All change starts by telling the truth.” — Gene McNoughton

“Most salespeople are just using what they picked up along the way. That’s the problem.”

“You can’t optimize what you can’t measure. Process gives you the levers.” — Erik Berglund

“People say they want change. But most people want to be comfortable more than they want to grow.”

🔗 Links & Resources

• 💻 Gene McNoughton on LinkedIn
• 🌐 The Sales Edge
• 🎧 Listen to the Interview with Gene McNoughton
  
  

In this powerhouse episode, Erik sits down with renowned sales leader and consultant Gene McNaughton to break down what it really takes to turn around underperforming teams and drive scalable growth. From Gateway to Tony Robbins to 160+ consulting clients, Gene shares the exact frameworks he uses to ignite sales orgs—plus the truth about why most change efforts fail.

This is a masterclass on sales leadership, self-investment, and building organizations that actually execute.

👤 About the Guest

Gene McNaughton is the founder of The Sales Edge, a growth consultancy with a flawless track record: 160+ companies, 100% success rate. Formerly a sales leader at Gateway Computers and VP of Sales for Tony Robbins, Gene now helps companies design and execute sales systems that scale. He’s also a voracious reader, passionate journaler, and high-energy speaker known for blending mindset, metrics, and leadership at every level.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• The life-changing moment Gene couldn’t afford a $6 book—and how that launched his sales career
• Why companies fail to scale their sales orgs, even with access to unlimited training content
• Gene’s exact playbook for fixing broken teams and leading change without direct authority
• What separates high-performing leaders from the pack: pain, pattern recognition, and preparation
• The psychology behind behavior change: the “cheese vs. cat urine” experiment and what it reveals about motivation
• The real reason most sales presentations suck—and how to fix them
• Why 0% of Gene’s clients have a clearly defined sales process when he shows up (and what happens when they do)

💡 Key Takeaways

• Access is not the problem—application is. You can Google your way to greatness, but most don’t.
• The best leaders don’t just tolerate discomfort—they train for it.
• All change starts by telling the truth. That applies to leadership, CRM data, and yourself.
• Sales success = mindset + process + measurement. Companies that ignore any one of those fail.
• Marginal gains over multiple KPIs are more powerful than one massive win. Aggregation is the unlock.

❓ Questions That Mattered

• How do you transform information into performance at scale?
• What do world-class consultants do differently when diagnosing a business?
• Why do most companies struggle with change—and how can leaders actually fix it?
• What motivates people more: the promise of cheese or the smell of cat urine?
• What’s the real cost of not having a defined sales process?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“When you pay, you pay more attention.” – Gene McNaughton

“All change starts by telling the truth.” – Gene McNaughton

“Most salespeople are just doing what they picked up along the way. And that’s the problem.”

“If you don’t have a clear sales process, you’re not scaling—you’re surviving.”

“Leadership is painting the picture of a future worth running toward.” – Erik Berglund

🔗 Links & Resources

• 🌐 Gene on LinkedIn
• 📸 Gene on Instagram
• 🧠 TheSalesEdge.co – Gene’s consulting firm

In this refreshingly honest episode, Erik and returning co-host dive headfirst into the unspoken expectations of professionalism—how we dress, how we show up, and who gets to decide what “looking the part” really means. What begins with a t-shirt story becomes a deep, nuanced look at power, performance, self-expression, and cultural bias in the workplace.

From tattoos and team meetings to hammocks and sweatpants, they ask the real question: Are we showing up with intention—or just following outdated rules?

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• The t-shirt that sparked a whole conversation on internalized expectations
• Why Erik’s decision to wear a hat is really about casual competence
• Tattoos, team calls, and the myth of the “professional” Zoom square
• How Alli used a hammock to model culture—and what happened next
• Why intentionality might matter more than polish

💡 Key Takeaways

• Professionalism is made up. If it’s not serving your team, change it.
• We all run an internal playbook every morning. The question is: whose rules are you playing by?
• Your appearance is a signal—make sure it’s intentional.
• Trust is earned by consistency, not clothes.
• Leading with purpose beats dressing for perception.

❓ Questions That Mattered

• What are you wearing for you—and what are you wearing to appease an expectation?
• Who decided what professional should look like?
• How much does your outfit actually impact your performance—or just your perception?
• What would change if you led your team from a hammock?
• Are you dressing for power—or proving you don’t need it?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“I don’t need a particular type of clothes to do my job well.” — Erik Berglund

“What are your preconceived ideas of what ‘professional’ looks like—and are they actually serving you?” — Alli Murphy

“If you're going to show up in gym clothes, you better bring it. But if you do—who cares?”

“The world was built around a very narrow definition of professionalism. Maybe it's time to question it.”

🔗 Links & Resources

• 👤 Alli Murphy on LinkedIn
• 🧠 The Elevate Lab
• 💌 Subscribe to The Thrive Report

 🧠 Erik’s Take 

In this reaction episode, Erik revisits his interview with parenting expert Cassandra Asleson, not just as a host but as a dad who's lived the transformation she helps create. With signature candor and strategic insight, Erik reflects on how Cassie’s approach reframes what’s “normal” in parenting—and how accepting support can radically shift the emotional and logistical weight of raising young children. This episode unpacks why working families feel crushed and what’s actually available on the other side of overwhelm.

🎯 Top Insights from the Interview

• It doesn’t have to be this hard — We accept too much pain in parenting as normal. Cassie’s work shows there’s another way.
• Regulation is everything — Emotional dysregulation isn’t just a kid thing. It’s a whole-family system challenge.
• Support isn't weakness — Asking for help isn’t failure. It’s how functional families get built.
• YouTube won’t solve this — In-the-trenches guidance beats fragmented, piecemeal internet advice every time.
• It’s okay to say it sucks — Naming the exhaustion and impossibility of modern parenting isn’t complaining. It’s liberating.

🧩 The Personal Layer

Erik brings raw honesty to the reality of parenting two young girls. He speaks openly about how his kids have thrown public tantrums, how exhausting the logistics can be, and how the myth of “figuring it out on your own” holds families back. From teaching his daughter to scream into a pillow at three years old to recognizing how much structure helps his family thrive, Erik shows what leadership looks like at home—not through control, but through emotional intelligence and humility.

🧰 From Insight to Action

• Normalize asking for help — Whether it’s a sleep consultant or a parent coach, bring in allies early.
• Create regulation rituals — Start small. A consistent bedtime, food schedule, or “calm-down” space makes a huge difference.
• Shift your mindset — Challenge the belief that hard equals noble. Instead, ask: What would make this easier for everyone involved?
• Invest where it matters — Don’t be afraid to spend on support that changes your family’s daily quality of life.
• Talk about it — Name the challenge in your circles. Make it okay for other parents to say, “This is brutal.”

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“It doesn’t have to be this hard to be a parent. We just don’t know what we don’t know.”

“The word regulation wasn’t even in my vocabulary until Cassie came into our lives.”

“You might find these resources on Reddit or YouTube, but let’s be honest—you won’t pull it together in the middle of sleep deprivation.”

“If you want your kid to be a functional member of their community, it starts with learning to regulate emotion at home.”

“It’s not complaining to say parenting is hard. It’s the first step toward doing something about it.”

In this grounded, friendly and insightful conversation, Erik talks with Cassandra Asleson — a seasoned newborn care specialist and postpartum consultant who helps families move out of chaos and into confidence during one of life’s biggest transitions. They unpack how leadership shows up in home life and work, how guiding others in their most vulnerable moments mirrors leading teams, and why support systems matter just as much as systems. If you’re a leader, parent, or both — this episode gives you a fresh perspective on influence, care, and presence.

👤 About the Guest

Cassandra Asleson is the founder of Cassandra & Co., a firm focused on newborn consulting and postpartum support. Based in Tulsa but serving families regionally and beyond, she brings nearly two decades of experience as a certified newborn care specialist and professional nanny. Her mission: simplify and support the early parenthood journey so families can bond, sleep well, and avoid the overwhelm of decision‑fatigue, conflicting advice, and isolation. 

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• Cassandra’s journey: from nanny to trusted advisor for families preparing for and recovering from birth.
• The connection between the “first 90 days” of a baby’s life and establishing strong foundations in any high‑stakes environment.
• How parenting systems (registries, nurseries, routines) parallel leadership systems in organizations.
• The value of support, delegation, and presence — whether for a baby or a team.
• What happens when you lead without the script: embracing uncertainty, creating calm from chaos.
• How the “helping role” in family life sharpens insights about culture, care, and influence in work life.

💡 Key Takeaways

• Support isn’t a luxury — it’s a strategic advantage. Whether in a household or a business.
• Clarity under pressure matters more than intensity. In those early parenting weeks and in leadership transitions.
• Delegation builds trust. The same way a parent relies on a skilled consultant, a leader relies on a capable team.
• Systems + heart = sustainable impact. You need both the structures and the care to thrive.
• The foundation phase is leadership practice. If you can lead through grief, change, and sleepless nights — you’ve built real capacity.

❓ Questions That Mattered

• “What did you learn about influence from your time as a nanny and newborn care specialist?”
• “How do you build systems that create calm — not just control?”
• “What’s the leadership parallel in helping a family prepare for a baby?”
• “How do you help people trust their own decisions when the options overwhelm them?”
• “What does ‘presence’ look like when everything else is spinning?”

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“I’m not just helping with gear — I’m helping families trust they’ll find themselves in the fog.”

“The choices you make in the first few weeks determine more than the sleep schedule — they shape presence.”

“Systems aren’t rigid — they’re the container that allows connection, care, and clarity.”

“You don’t wait until stabilize — you lead while it’s unstable.”

“When you support someone who’s terrified and exhausted — you learn more about leadership than any boardroom ever could.”

🔗 Links & Resources

• Connect with Cassandra & Co.: cassandraandcobaby.com

This episode is a much-needed intervention on the culture of busy. Erik sits down with Alli Murphy, leadership coach, founder of The Elevate Lab, and creator of The Thrive Report, to unpack the toxic myths of productivity, the glorification of hustle, and how to actually define what matters most.

Together, they explore what it looks like to lead with intention, how to give yourself permission to rest, and why the high performers we admire (from LeBron to airline pilots) build recovery into their systems—not as an afterthought, but as a strategy.

This isn’t just a conversation about burnout—it’s a roadmap out of it.

👤 About the Guest

Alli Murphy is a leadership and team development expert with a bold mission: help people and organizations actually thrive. Through her work with The Elevate Lab and The Thrive Report, Alli equips mission-driven leaders to step back, refocus, and redesign how they lead—with more permission, more clarity, and more joy. She brings warmth, humor, and serious strategy to the conversation on how we work and live.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• Amy Poehler, 104-degree fevers, and the productivity myth that just won’t die
• When Erik kicked a rep out of a sales meeting for showing up sick—and why Alli did the same remotely
• How to break the reflexive “just get it done” mindset that keeps us exhausted
• The hidden brilliance of asking, what really has to happen today? (and then asking it again)
• A nervous system “recess” as a productivity tool
• Why elite performers like LeBron James and airline pilots treat rest as non-negotiable strategy

💡 Key Takeaways

• Urgent and important are not the same thing. And 95% of “urgency” is human-made chaos.
• Rest isn’t a reward—it’s part of high performance.
• Clarity beats hustle. Ask: “What actually has to get done today?” Then ask it again.
• Permission is leadership. Especially for yourself.
• High-functioning teams normalize recovery, not overextension.

❓ Questions That Mattered

• What does it actually mean to take a sick day—and why is it so hard for leaders to do it?
• Is our obsession with urgency just a distraction from strategic work?
• What would it look like if rest was baked into your calendar like a meeting?
• Who are we really trying to impress by staying busy?
• Can two priorities a day be enough?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“You have permission to use your sick days.” — Alli Murphy

“Rest isn’t a reward. It’s part of the strategy.” — Erik Berglund

“Most urgent things at work? Human manufactured.” — Alli Murphy

“If everything’s on fire, nothing’s on fire.”

“Busy isn’t impressive. Clarity is.”

🔗 Links & Resources

• 👤 Alli Murphy on LinkedIn
• 💌 The Thrive Report Newsletter
• 🧠 The Elevate Lab

🧠 Erik’s Take

In this deeply reflective debrief, Erik unpacks the powerful themes that emerged from his conversation with Michael Bostarr—especially the tension between performing and leading. Drawing from his own experience coaching high achievers, Erik dives into how identity, trust, and team dynamics shape the evolution of a leader. This episode gets personal, strategic, and practical as Erik reveals the emotional undercurrents of leadership that often go unspoken.

🎯 Top Insights from the Interview

• High performance can become a trap: When your identity is built on being the best doer, letting go becomes terrifying.
• Trust isn’t about belief—it’s about action: If you’re over-functioning, your team will under-function.
• The hardest shift for leaders is internal: Moving from control to collaboration requires unlearning old success patterns.
• Unspoken agreements breed stagnation: Without challenging team norms, even great performers can plateau.
• You don’t rise to leadership—you grow into it: And that growth often begins with letting go.

🧩 The Personal Layer

• Erik shares the quiet toll of being the “go-to” person for everything—how it feels validating but ultimately unsustainable.
• He reflects on moments when he realized his leadership habits were rooted more in proving than empowering.
• The vulnerability of trusting your team before they’ve “earned it” is real—and necessary.

🧰 From Insight to Action

1. Audit your leadership identity: Are you still winning by doing, or have you made space for others to rise?
2. Practice “trust reps”: Give away responsibility before you're comfortable—and hold the space as they grow.
3. Watch where your team looks: If every head turns to you in meetings, your system still centers you.
4. Challenge your team norms: What's unspoken but holding performance back?
5. Name the fear: What are you afraid will happen if you truly let go?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“The more a leader over-functions, the more a team under-functions.”

“Your identity is not your output. But if no one’s ever told you that, you’ll keep chasing validation in the doing.”

“Letting go isn’t passive. It’s a radical act of leadership.”

“Don’t just trust your team. Train them. Then trust them.”

In this candid and energizing conversation, Erik sits down with Michael Bostarr — a coach, creative, and former sales leader who made a bold pivot from performance-driven achievement to values-based leadership. Together, they explore how to shift from chasing external validation to living and leading with clarity. Michael shares the real story behind walking away from big roles, the surprising weight of “almost” success, and what happens when you build your identity from the inside out. Whether you’re mid-career, mid-pivot, or just feeling the grind, this episode is a permission slip to do things differently.

👤 About the Guest

Michael Bostarr is a leadership coach, poet, and former sales leader with a talent for helping high-performers turn inward to unlock deeper clarity and meaning. His path has spanned sales leadership at early-stage startups, coaching work that centers wholeness and humanity, and creative expression that invites others to slow down and pay attention. He brings the rare ability to pair deep introspection with grounded business experience — and isn’t afraid to challenge hustle culture while still pursuing excellence.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• What it really feels like to "almost" make it — and why it can be more painful than failure
• The mental gymnastics of being in the top 10% but feeling like you're underperforming
• Why "performer energy" breaks down in leadership — and what to do instead
• Michael’s moment of clarity: leaving a prestigious job without the next step lined up
• Why identity work is central to sustained success — and how Michael helps clients do it
• The difference between leading from essence vs. leading for optics
• Why poets and entrepreneurs have more in common than you'd think

💡 Key Takeaways

• Performing and leading are different sports. You can’t outwork your way to leadership presence.
• The pain of “almost” can keep you stuck longer than failure. Until you get honest, it lingers.
• Identity clarity is underrated. When you know who you are, you stop needing every win to prove it.
• Letting go of the plan creates space for what actually wants to emerge. But that’s terrifying.
• Coaching isn’t about having answers — it’s about expanding the questions.

❓ Questions That Mattered

• “When did you realize the cost of performing had gotten too high?”
• “What’s the difference between coaching someone’s role and coaching someone’s soul?”
• “How do we lead when we’re still in the fog?”
• “What did it feel like to step away from something everyone else wanted?”
• “Where do you notice people outsourcing their clarity?”

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“Being 95% of the way to your goal can be more brutal than failing.”

“There’s a moment in every leader’s journey where they realize performing no longer works.”

“I realized I was playing a game I didn’t even want to win.”

“I’ve coached founders, artists, sales leaders… The thread is always the same: they want to be more themselves.”

“Sometimes the scariest leadership move is choosing not to fill the space with answers.”

🔗 Links & Resources

• Follow Michael on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/michaelbostarr
  
  
• Read More about 'Happy We Met' at www.happywemet.com

In this energizing co-hosted conversation, Erik and Alli kick off 2026 by exploring a subtle but powerful leadership challenge: how to support (rather than sabotage) someone’s attempt to change. Whether it’s a colleague trying to break a habit, a teammate aiming higher, or a loved one shifting patterns, change can unintentionally threaten the status quo—and trigger our resistance. The duo break down why that happens and how to respond with intention, empathy, and influence.

❓ The Big Question

How do you avoid accidentally undermining someone’s momentum when they’re trying to change?

💡 Key Takeaways

• Most people want to be supported, not scrutinized, during change. Knowing someone’s goals helps you avoid being the person who kicks the metaphorical “sucker” out of their mouth.
• Change feels threatening because it disrupts predictability. We subconsciously rely on others being consistent so we can feel safe.
• Encouragement matters more than perfection. Letting people know you’ll still believe in them—even if they stumble—can make all the difference.
• Leaders need to watch their own habits too. It’s easy to overstep, micromanage, or “rescue” someone—robbing them of growth.
• Discomfort is a feature, not a flaw. The right amount of stretch helps people step into their next level.

🧠 Concepts, Curves, and Frameworks

• The “Loop Disruption” Effect – Humans live in narrative loops. When someone changes, it disrupts that loop, which creates uncertainty.
• Supportive Failure Framing – Communicating that failure is expected and recoverable (“Don’t fail two days in a row”) helps sustain effort.
• The Confidence-Crush Trap – Leaders often jump in too early when someone falters, inadvertently killing their confidence.

🔁 Real-Life Reflections

• Erik shared a moment from his leadership past when he dismissed an employee’s self-directed goal—and only realized later how much damage that moment caused.
• Alli recalled a pattern of jumping into meetings to “save” direct reports, which short-circuited their learning and visibility. She now uses a physical cue (sitting on her hands) to let others lead.
• Both highlighted how change requires not just action from the individual, but space and belief from those around them.

🧰 Put This Into Practice

1. Ask what someone’s working on changing—at work or beyond—and how you can support them.
2. Reinforce that failure is expected and doesn’t disqualify them from your belief in their potential.
3. Resist the urge to rescue. Let your people stretch through discomfort and find their own footing.
4. Use reflection questions, like: “Where do you usually stumble when trying to change something?” and “What helps you recover?”
5. Choose curiosity over critique when someone does something differently than usual.

🗣️ Favorite Quotes

“We want people to be predictable… because that makes us feel safe.” – Alli

“The person who best knows how they need to change is usually them.” – Erik

“When you fail, I still believe in you.” – Erik

“Sometimes you just have to go through it, feel the discomfort, and wrestle your way out.” – Alli

“Make your people uncomfortable… the right way.” – Erik (with a grin)

🔗 Links & Resources

• Listen to other episodes co-hosted with Alli

In this episode, Erik unpacks one of the most overused and under-examined words in leadership: trust. But instead of vague advice, he gives a direct, no-fluff framework for how to build trust that actually scales — across teams, organizations, and even families. He breaks it down into three specific behaviors that any leader can start modeling today. This is an episode for leaders ready to stop guessing and start earning trust that lasts.

❓ The Big Question

How do you build real trust in a team — not just hope for it?

💡 Key Takeaways

• Trust breaks down when leaders don’t know what their real job is.
• Two non-negotiables for any leader: hold people accountable and develop their talent.
• How you handle stress and failure shows people what kind of leader you really are.
• Confidentiality is a secret superpower for building trust — or destroying it.
• “Nice” doesn’t build trust — consistency does.

🧠 Concepts, Curves, and Frameworks

🔹 The Trust-Building Trio

1. Know Your Real Job
   • Your job as a leader isn’t to be liked — it’s to:
     • Hold people accountable to a high standard.
     • Develop their talent in ways that help them grow.
   • Leaders who avoid both? They lose trust fast.
2. Show How You Handle Stress + Failure
   • Do you own mistakes?
   • Do you react or respond?
   • Do you show up consistently under pressure?
   • People trust leaders whose emotional posture is predictable in the tough moments.
3. Protect Confidentiality, Uphold Respect
   • Leaders who gossip, vent, or complain downward erode trust instantly.
   • Don’t pretend everything’s perfect — just don’t turn your team into your therapist.
   • Call a ball a ball, and a strike a strike — but do it with integrity.

🔁 Real-Life Reflections

• Teams with low trust protect themselves — not the mission.
• You’ve probably worked for the “too nice” boss who avoids accountability — and felt unsafe because of it.
• Every leader builds trust — or breaks it — with how they respond to conflict and pressure.
• You’re always modeling behavior: if you gossip down the chain, your team will too.

🧰 Put This Into Practice

• ✅ Ask yourself: Am I holding everyone (including myself) to a high standard?
• 🧭 In your next 1:1, ask “What skills do you want to grow this year — and how can I support that?”
• 🔍 Watch how you respond to stress: document it, reflect, and adjust.
• 🤐 When tempted to vent down, stop — and find a peer, coach, or journal instead.
• ✍️ Write down how you define leadership trust — then hold yourself to that.

🗣️ Favorite Quotes

“Nice isn’t what builds trust. Consistency does.”

“The best leaders don’t just hold others accountable — they hold themselves to the same standard.”

“If you’re complaining about someone to your team, your team assumes you’re doing the same about them.”

“When leaders avoid stress, they create it for everyone else.”

“You don’t have to be perfect. But you do have to be predictable.”

🧠 Erik’s Take

In this solo reaction, Erik distills three powerful insights from his recent interview with culture expert Chris Dyer. As the pace of change continues to accelerate—fueled by AI and organizational upheaval—leaders are being called to step into a very different kind of role. Erik explores what it really means to lead when you don’t have all the answers, how to unburden your team from unnecessary meetings, and how to start building real culture with two simple questions.

This is an honest and strategic debrief from a coach who’s walking the walk.

🎯 Top Insights from the Interview

• The CEO must fire themselves. Today’s leaders need to become enablers of experimentation, not just managers of execution.
• Kill the meetings. Do a meeting audit, eliminate unnecessary one-on-ones, and give people their time back.
• Email is a trap. Move comms to Slack or Teams to build transparency and turn off after-hours pressure.
• Create a team charter. Clear rules of engagement reduce assumptions and build psychological safety.
• Culture = Norms. How your team reacts when things go wrong tells you everything.

🧩 The Personal Layer

Erik’s reaction goes beyond a summary—it’s a reflection on what leaders owe their teams in times of rapid change. His big aha: leadership today isn’t about direction-setting as much as it is about removing friction, making space, and helping people feel seen. From asking “how are you showing up today?” to ditching rigid email norms, this is a personal and tactical challenge to every leader who wants to matter in the future of work.

🧰 From Insight to Action

1. Do a meeting audit this week: What can be cut, combined, or canceled?
2. Switch your default communication to a platform with visibility and off-hours boundaries.
3. Build or revisit your team charter with clear rules around feedback, response times, and communication norms.
4. Start your next meeting with “How are you showing up today?”
5. End your next meeting with “How are you leaving?” and actually listen.

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“You want your team to say: this is the best place I’ve ever worked and the best work I’ve ever done.” – Erik Berglund

“Your people don’t need you to solve everything—they need you to get out of the way and help them move faster.” – Erik Berglund

“Culture is just the norms. What do people expect will happen when something goes wrong?” – Erik Berglund

“We don’t have the discipline to ignore email after hours. That’s why the system has to change.” – Erik Berglund

In this episode of I Have Some Questions..., Erik sits down with culture strategist and bestselling author Chris Dyer to unpack the hardest leadership question of our time: how do you lead through relentless, accelerating change? From the elephant sitting on your chest to the myth of perfect AI adoption, this conversation dives into practical, human-first strategies for thriving in chaos. Chris challenges CEOs to fire themselves from the job they think they have and step into a radically different role—one that empowers experimentation, transparency, and better work for everyone.

👤 About the Guest

Chris Dyer is a global authority on company culture, leadership, and remote work. As a keynote speaker, podcast host, and founder of several successful businesses, Chris has advised countless executives on how to build workplaces where people actually want to show up. He’s the author of The Power of Company Culture and Remote Work, and has been featured by Forbes, Inc., and the BBC. His work is grounded in real-world leadership, not theory—and it shows.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• Why most CEOs feel like an elephant is sitting on their chest 🐘
• The real reason change feels so overwhelming today
• Why “fire yourself” is the first step toward better leadership
• The meeting audit that can change your company overnight
• What most leaders misunderstand about AI adoption

💡 Key Takeaways

• Leadership isn’t about direction—it’s about orchestration. Instead of knowing exactly where to go, leaders must run experiments that help the organization figure it out.
• Most meetings are a tax on productivity. Auditing and eliminating them is one of the fastest ways to boost effectiveness.
• You can't AI your way out of inefficiency. Automating broken processes just makes brokenness faster.

❓ Questions That Mattered

• Is this the most stressful business climate we’ve ever faced—or are we just experiencing change differently?
• Where does thriving in change begin: clarity of direction, or clarity of value?
• What does it actually mean to "fire yourself" as a CEO—and how do you start?
• How do we give people time to do their best work, instead of trapping them in meetings and emails?
• Can empathy become a crutch for leaders, and if so, how do you balance it?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“You are always at war with mediocrity. That’s what will creep back in if you don’t lead.” —Chris Dyer

“The future CEO isn't a chief executive officer. They're a chief experimentation officer.” —Chris Dyer

“Every company needs AI. But plugging in a tool without a culture to support it will fail.” —Chris Dyer

“We have to start creating the best place to work—right now. Not after AI. Not after the next wave.” —Chris Dyer

“Transparency isn’t about sharing everything—it’s about stopping people from filling in the gaps with fear.” —Chris Dyer

🔗 Links & Resources

• 📚 The Power of Company Culture. Check it out on Amazon
• 🌐 Check out Chris's Website ChrisDyer.com
• Follow Chris on TikTok

In this solo episode, Erik maps out the leadership lifecycle — from the moment you step into a new leadership role to the point where you’re building your replacement. It’s a powerful framework for self-awareness and strategic leadership, especially for those stuck in “Chief Problem Solver” mode. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, over-involved, or unsure of your next leadership move, this episode delivers the clarity you need.

❓ The Big Question

Why do so many capable leaders get stuck — and how do you break the cycle?

💡 Key Takeaways

• Your leadership lifecycle isn’t about age — it’s about stages.
• Most new leaders fall into the “prove it” trap and over-function.
• If your team depends on you for everything, you’re the bottleneck.
• The next level of leadership is earned by building trust, autonomy, and capacity in others.
• You can’t truly move on until you’ve built your replacement.

🧠 Concepts, Curves, and Frameworks

• The Leadership Lifecycle
   A 5-phase progression every effective leader must go through:
  1. The Mental Game – Overcoming doubt, imposter syndrome, and the “why me?” question.
  2. Digging the Hole – Becoming overly involved, solving all the problems, creating dependence.
  3. Filling the Hole – Unraveling unhelpful patterns, resetting expectations, shifting accountability.
  4. Solid Ground – Your team runs without you; you’ve built competence and trust.
  5. The Launch Pad – Visioning, scaling, and identifying your successor.
• Leadership as Influence Toward Advantage
   Not manipulation, not control — but helping others move forward, for their benefit.
• Replacing Yourself Is a Growth Strategy
   Promotions stall when companies don’t see a ready backfill. No replacement = no next role.

🔁 Real-Life Reflections

• Leaders often don’t realize they’re in the hole until they hit burnout or stagnation.
• Erik shares candidly how he once micromanaged deals and unintentionally limited a capable team.
• He also names the quiet pride and clarity that comes from recognizing you’re no longer in damage control.

🧰 Put This Into Practice

• ✏️ Reflect on which phase you’re in — honestly.
• 🧩 Identify where you've created dependencies and start shifting ownership back to your team.
• 🛠️ Use the phrase “Here’s what I did that made this harder for us — and here’s how I want to change it” to reset expectations.
• 🚀 Spot the transition point where damage control ends and strategic growth begins — don’t miss it.
• 🔍 Begin developing your replacement before you need to — not after.

🗣️ Favorite Quotes

“You don’t owe anyone an answer for why you got promoted — you didn’t make the hire.”

“The more you solve problems for your team, the more you’ll keep solving problems for your team.”

“If you’re still leading like you’re in damage control, you’re going to lose your best people.”

“Leadership isn’t about proving you belong — it’s about building trust and making others better.”

“The final step in leading well is creating your replacement. That’s how you earn your next leap.”

🧠 Erik’s Take

In this solo reflection, Erik recaps and wrestles with the high-stakes conversation he had with Dr. Helmut Love — a guest who isn’t afraid to bring politically charged topics to the table. From socialism and wealth inequality to the role of capitalism in solving human problems, Erik walks through his own reactions, questions, and moments of discomfort.

This episode isn't about endorsing policies — it’s about staying in the room with hard ideas. Erik unpacks what it felt like to challenge a mayoral candidate on nuanced economic claims, the surprising clarity he found in Helmut’s thinking, and how we might actually do something better with the systems we have, if we had the courage to rethink how they work.

🎯 Top Insights from the Interview

• "Where socialism worked" isn’t about economic models — it’s about trust and proximity in small communities
• The wealth gap becomes a moral issue when its existence is paired with ineffective mechanisms for redistributing or repurposing wealth
• Capitalism can do better — but only if incentives are aligned toward the outcomes we actually want
• Nonprofits, while well-intentioned, often fail to solve problems at scale — and businesses might be better equipped to take on that challenge
• The private prison conversation reveals how easily good ideas can be corrupted by bad incentives — and why that's a design flaw, not a moral indictment

🧩 The Personal Layer

• Erik admits he rarely talks politics on the show — but he leaned in because the conversation demanded it.
• His willingness to stay curious even when he disagrees shows how hosts can challenge without condemning.
• The phrase “Why is the wealth gap bad?” wasn’t rhetorical — it was an invitation to dig beneath slogans and get to real meaning.
• This episode reflects Erik’s deeper coaching philosophy: that we grow by naming tensions, not avoiding them.

🧰 From Insight to Action

1. Question your reactions. When you hear a charged word like “socialism,” pause and ask what the speaker actually means.
2. Evaluate incentives. Whether it’s a prison, nonprofit, or business — follow the reward structure to understand the behavior.
3. Use “why” as a tool, not a weapon. Asking “Why is the wealth gap bad?” opened up more truth than assuming everyone agrees.
4. Talk across difference. Growth lives in respectful tension, especially in leadership conversations.
5. Design for the outcome you want. Whether in systems or relationships, align structure with intention.

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“The closer we are to someone, the more socialistic we behave. That’s true in families. That’s true in tribes.”

“Why is the wealth gap bad? I wasn’t saying it’s not bad — I just wanted a real answer.”

“Wealth itself isn’t the problem. It’s the ineffectiveness of how we’re using it that breaks trust.”

“It’s easy to make a strawman out of capitalism. It’s harder to admit that we haven’t tried to do it well.”

“We don’t need to agree — we just need to stay in the conversation.”

Erik sits down with Dr. Helmut Love—entrepreneur, spiritual thinker, and former Atlanta mayoral candidate—for a bold conversation about the future of capitalism, personal responsibility, and what it means to lead with love in a fractured political system. From incarceration reform to the failures of socialism, they explore what a “responsible capitalism” might look like in practice—and what’s keeping us from building it. Dr. Love offers provocative insights rooted in faith, data, and lived experience, challenging the left/right binary and inviting listeners into a bigger conversation about systems, incentives, and human dignity.

👤 About the Guest

Dr. Helmut Love is a former mayoral candidate for Atlanta, founder of a human performance business, and host of the podcast Wake Up to Your Life Magic. Known for blending spiritual depth with economic insight, he advocates for “responsible capitalism” and has spoken out across political lines about the moral and systemic breakdowns in America’s institutions—from education to incarceration. 

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• Why Helmut calls capitalism a “blessing”—but insists it needs an upgrade
• The perverse incentives behind private prisons and how to restructure them
• Why socialism only worked in culturally homogenous societies
• What the wealth gap really reveals about moral stewardship
• The trap of “fighting against” vs. building something better
• Proposing a new public-private model for social services
• What Helmut learned running for office as a Republican in a blue city
• The spiritual undertones of believing something better is possible

💡 Key Takeaways

• Capitalism’s flaw isn’t greed—it’s misaligned incentives and lack of moral clarity.
• America must innovate a new form of “loving capitalism” to avoid collapsing into extremism.
• The wealth gap is not just an economic issue—it’s a spiritual and moral one.
• Social programs can be redesigned for efficiency, impact, and dignity by applying business principles.
• We cannot abdicate personal or collective responsibility if we want a better future.

❓ Questions That Mattered

• What happens when profit becomes the only metric of success in social systems?
• Is it possible to restructure capitalism without losing its drive for innovation?
• Who bears the real responsibility for systemic change—government, business, or individuals?
• Can we hold compassion and accountability at the same time?
• How do we move from judgment to problem-solving as a culture?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“You can teach a man to fish, but if there are no fish in the sea, he still can’t eat.” – Dr. Helmut Love

“What if the problem isn’t capitalism—it’s irresponsible capitalism?”

“We optimize everything in business—but our prisons, our schools, our foster care systems? We just let those rot.”

“Responsibility isn’t just for the rich. It’s for all of us. But the rich have more tools to act on it.”

“The only place this new model can be built is in America—because we’re the messiest, most diverse tribe. And we have the creativity to do it.”

🔗 Links & Resources

• Dr. Helmut Love’s Political Platform
• Wake Up to Your Life Magic – Dr. Love’s Book & Podcast
• Follow on Instagram: @drhelmutlove

In this solo episode of I Have Some Questions..., Erik flips the script on a widely held belief: that being “nice” makes you a better boss. With characteristic fire and clarity, he challenges listeners to stop aiming for short-term emotional safety and start choosing long-term leadership impact. Erik introduces the sharp distinction between niceness and kindness—and why the latter is essential to leading high-performing teams.

❓ The Big Question

Is your need to be liked quietly killing your leadership impact?

💡 Key Takeaways

• Being “nice” often protects the leader, not the team.
• Kindness requires courage, clarity, and short-term discomfort for long-term benefit.
• Nice leaders avoid conflict and, in doing so, rob their people of growth.
• You’re not doing your team any favors by holding back hard truths.
• Real leadership means choosing to say what needs to be said—before someone else has to.

🧠 Concepts, Curves, and Frameworks

• Kind vs. Nice:
   Nice = self-protection.
   Kind = other-person prioritization through honest feedback.
• Emotional ROI Framework:
   Short-term comfort vs. long-term career benefit.
• Kinetic Commitment Practice:
   Writing names + truth beside them to prompt follow-through.
• Two Seconds of Courage:
   The minimum threshold of bravery required to start a hard conversation—and the key to building the muscle of leadership.

🔁 Real-Life Reflections

• Erik breaks down how a "nice boss" unintentionally sets people up to be blindsided—by layoffs, missed promotions, or accountability they never saw coming.
• He shares examples from clients navigating real-world scenarios like maternity leave, time-off boundaries, and emotional trauma—and how kind leadership helps prevent confusion or resentment.
• Personal stories of leaders transforming “avoidance guilt” into honest connection—and getting promoted people, not just happy ones.

🧰 Put This Into Practice

• Mindset Shift: Say or write the phrase: “I’m going to be kind, not nice.”
• Name Exercise: List your direct reports and write down one truth they need to hear—from kindness, not frustration.
• Plan the Conversation: Reflect on the last time you were “nice” instead of kind. What will you do differently next time?
• Use Courage + Conviction: Remind yourself: If you don’t tell them, you’re holding them back.
• Revisit Episodes 4, 5, and the upcoming one for conversation starters and scripts to help you follow through.

🗣️ Favorite Quotes

“A nice boss will prioritize their own short-term emotional comfort over your long-term success.”

“Being a nice boss is lazy. It's inconsiderate. It avoids the real responsibility of leadership.”

“Kind bosses get people promoted—not because they give things away, but because they help their people earn them.”

“If you don’t tell them the truth, you are the block in their success. And that should be unbearable.”

“You don’t need to be fearless. You just need two seconds of courage.”

🧠 Erik’s Take

In this follow-up to his powerful interview with Sandy Cohan, Erik reflects on how grit, standards, and parental presence intersect across sports and leadership. With stories from the soccer field and frameworks from the professional world, he distills the conversation down into three big insights that matter just as much at home as they do in the office.

🎯 Top Insights from the Interview

• Grit is built by winning today. It’s not about toughness—it’s about consistent action in the face of resistance.
• Competition teaches standards. It reveals that there are better performers, which is essential to understanding direction, humility, and growth.
• Clear expectations define strong cultures. Whether in youth sports or corporate teams, the best organizations articulate and live their standards from the start.

🧩 The Personal Layer

Erik shares how this episode hit close to home as a father coaching his daughter's soccer team. He reflects on the tension between supporting your kids and pushing them, and how easy it is to forget your role as a parent, not a coach. The line “Be the constant, not the coach” struck a chord, reaffirming the power of simply being present and loving, especially after loss or failure.

🧰 From Insight to Action

• 🧭 Clarify your team’s (or family’s) North Star. Whether in business or parenting, define what you’re about—and follow through.
• 🏆 Use competition as a feedback loop. Let it help you or your team learn how to improve, not just win.
• 💬 Adopt the phrase “I love watching you play.” It’s the most powerful, non-coaching affirmation a parent can give.
• 🔄 Practice being consistent. Your presence matters more than your advice—especially when emotions are high.
• 📚 Get curious about standards. Where in your life are expectations clear? Where are they missing?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“Grit is the muscle of ‘I can do hard things.’ And that muscle gets built one day at a time.”

“Competition is the feedback loop that reveals standards. That’s why it matters.”

 “You don’t get to complain about playing time on a rec team—or a club team—if you don’t understand what you signed up for.”

 “The best organizations make their intentions known and follow through on them.”
 “Your job is to be the constant, not the coach.”

In this powerful conversation, Erik sits down with mindset coach and author Sandy Cohan to dig into what grit really is—and what it definitely isn’t. From youth sports to corporate leadership, Sandy breaks down the habits, standards, and mental frameworks that shape resilient, high-performing individuals. Whether you're raising a gritty kid or trying to become a more disciplined leader yourself, this episode will shift how you think about perseverance, pressure, and personal development.

👤 About the Guest

Sandy Cohan is a mindset development coach, speaker, and the author of 99 Rules Every Athlete Needs to Know and 99 Rules Every Sports Parent Needs to Know. A former high-level athlete turned educator, Sandy helps athletes, parents, and professionals develop the habits and belief systems that fuel performance under pressure. His work emphasizes grit, discipline, and leadership—on and off the field.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• Why grit isn’t about intensity, but consistency and belief
• How youth sports reveal (and build) character
• The dangerous difference between expectations and standards
• Why “fun” and “development” aren’t the same thing in sports (or work)
• Coaching advice for leaders: don’t expect excellence—teach it

💡 Key Takeaways

• Grit is built, not born—it’s the sum of belief, purpose, and perseverance.
• Control, impact, or let it go—everything falls into one of these three buckets.
• The best leaders and athletes succeed by focusing on controllables, not outcomes.
• Standards are internal, expectations are external—and excellence lives in standards.
• Great leaders are made through repetition, reflection, and uncomfortable conversations.

❓ Questions That Mattered

• What actually builds grit in a person?
• How do kids learn to handle loss in a healthy way?
• Are youth sports about fun, development, or competition—and can it be all three?
• Why do so many leaders struggle to enforce standards?
• What does it mean to lead with both love and the sword?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“It’s never about the fall—it’s always about the rise.” — Sandy Cohan

“Confidence is what you see above the ground. Belief is the roots underneath.” — Sandy Cohan

“Most kids don’t need to be protected from failure. They need to be taught how to rise.” — Sandy Cohan

“The behavior tolerated becomes the behavior encouraged.” — Sandy Cohan

“Leadership isn’t a title. It’s influencing someone toward an advantage.” — Erik Berglund

🔗 Links & Resources

• Sandy's Website: sandycohan.com
• Books:
  • 99 Rules Every Athlete Needs to Know. Check it out here.
  • 99 Rules Every Sports Parent Needs to Know. Check it out here.

In this solo episode of Leadership Unplugged, Erik breaks down the myth that great teams are hired—and reveals the truth that they’re built. If you’ve ever felt stuck with an underperforming team or unsure how to level up your people, this is your blueprint. Erik lays out the three types of “team-building work” every leader must master, challenges the traditional approach to feedback, and introduces a deceptively simple tool that can revolutionize how your team thinks, acts, and grows. It’s practical, high-impact, and deeply human leadership—unplugged.

❓ The Big Question

What if the team you need isn’t something you hire—but something you build?

💡 Key Takeaways

• You can’t draft a team of rock stars—you have to develop them.
• The three pillars of building great teams: Training, Development, and Retention.
• Feedback loops must be intentional and consistent—or they don’t work.
• The most organic way to develop talent is through real-time support conversations, not just performance reviews.
• “60-second coaching” is the fastest path to unlocking someone’s potential.

🧠 Concepts, Curves, and Frameworks

• The Three Modes of Talent Work:
   → Training = Info transfer
   → Development = Unlocking potential
   → Retention = Aligning skills with personal vision
• Three Feedback Entry Points:
  1. You observe something
  2. They ask for feedback
  3. They come to you for help
• 60-Second Coaching Framework:
  1. Affirm that you do have ideas
  2. Build them up (“you’re probably closer to this than I am”)
  3. Ask warm, open-ended questions to elevate their thinking
• Feedback Loop Acceleration:
  • The fastest development happens before someone takes action, not after.

🔁 Real-Life Reflections

• Erik reflects on his own journey managing a team of 16 slippery sales guys—and how the best job description he ever had forced him to become a talent builder.
• He explores the trap of thinking training is enough, when in reality, most companies are already decent at that part.
• He shares how consistency in small feedback moments transformed his team’s performance and retention.

🧰 Put This Into Practice

• Set a rhythm for feedback. Don’t wait for it to happen—schedule it.
• Try “60-second coaching” this week. When someone asks for help, pause and say:
• “I have a few ideas, happy to share—but you’re probably closer to it than I am. What’s your opinion?”
• Audit your talent strategy. Are you only training? Or are you also developing and retaining?
• Prepare for the hard conversations. The better you prep, the easier it is to coach with calm and clarity.

🗣️ Favorite Quotes

“If you’re better than anyone on your team at what they’re supposed to be doing—you have work to do.”

“Training is how you transfer knowledge. Development is how you unlock potential. Retention is how you keep that potential aligned with their life goals.”

“If all you do is develop talent, they’ll leave you. If you train and develop and retain? That’s how you build rock stars.”

“Real leadership happens before the moment—not just after it.”

“You don’t need to have all the answers—you need to help them level up their own.”

🧠 Erik’s Take

Coming out of this conversation, Erik was struck by one thing: this company actually walks the walk. From creative hiring filters to deep leadership development, G Adventures isn’t just saying the right words—they’re building the infrastructure that backs them up.

Jeremy Brady didn’t just describe innovative leadership. He embodied it. In this reflection, Erik explores how much the company’s values-based systems reshaped his own thinking on hiring, culture fit, and generational leadership. It’s a genuine "whoa" moment that reshuffled some of Erik’s assumptions and opened up new angles on what great leadership can look like in 2025.

🎯 Top Insights from the Interview

• Hire to Disqualify: G Adventures intentionally builds a process that helps candidates opt out if their values don’t align—with respect, clarity, and honesty.
• Culture Fit Isn't Fluff: Their hiring filters are rooted in systems (like the “Backstage Pass” or values exercises) that detect misalignment early, without relying on gut feel.
• Millennials and Gen Z Aren’t Hard to Lead—They’re Different to Lead: Erik reframes the narrative around this “difficult generation” and explores how Jeremy’s team taps into their deeper drivers.
• Leadership Is a Team Sport: Even hiring decisions are democratized. If 2 out of 3 employees red-flag a candidate, that person doesn’t get hired—period.
• “If We Look the Same in 5 Years, We F*ed Up”**: A simple quote from G Adventures’ CEO that captures the bold embrace of change embedded into their culture.

🧩 The Personal Layer

Erik reflects on his own evolution as a leader—particularly how his past approach to interviewing, team development, and performance conversations might have looked different if he’d had systems like this in place. He names the emotional experience of witnessing a company that takes “people-first” seriously in a way that’s not lip service, and how that makes him feel surprisingly optimistic about corporate culture.

He also shares his admiration for how G Adventures invests in developing future leaders through a real leadership pipeline—not just high-level development but week-long immersive C-suite mentorships. It reminded him that we often undervalue how much people want to contribute, and that real leaders are the ones who build pathways for that contribution to happen.

🧰 From Insight to Action

Want to apply what you heard in this interview + review? Here’s where Erik would start:

• Audit your interview process: Are you hiring based on skills... or alignment?
• Let your team help you hire: Create opportunities for non-leaders to weigh in on candidates.
• Stop over-indexing on closers: Look for process-oriented thinkers, disruptors, and “silent leaders.”
• Challenge your own assumptions: Is your culture attracting only one type of person?
• Build (or rebuild) your leadership development pipeline: Who are your next leaders—and how are you investing in them?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“If we look the same in five years, we f***ed up.”
 —Jeremy Brady quoting G Adventures' CEO

“So often when someone doesn’t get the job, they feel like they weren’t good enough. But maybe they’re just not what we need—and maybe that’s a good thing for both of us.”
 —Erik Berglund

“You might be a rock star wide receiver, but we need someone who can hit home runs.”
 —Paraphrased insight from Jeremy Brady

“Millennials and Gen Z aren’t harder to lead. They’re just different. And that difference is an advantage—if you’re paying attention.”
 —Erik Berglund

🔗 Links & Resources

• Listen to Jeremy Brady's Episode

🧠 Erik’s Take

In this personal reflection on the interview with Alan Bell, Erik unpacks the hidden dynamics behind one of the boldest career moves he’s heard: a 14-person walkout, where nearly 80% of a team left a company at once. But this isn’t just about a big exit—it’s about the leadership patterns that cause them, the people-centered values that prevent them, and the internal compass each of us needs to follow to get where we’re meant to go. This episode is a cautionary tale for leaders and an empowering reminder for anyone feeling stuck at work.

🎯 Top Insights from the Interview

• Mass exits rarely come out of nowhere—they're the result of mismanaged signals and ignored pain points.
• If you're not listening to your people, you're creating a recruiting opportunity for someone else.
• The best and brightest often leave first—and when they do, others will follow.
• Alan didn’t leave for a better company. He left for better people.
• Energy matters—being around people who sharpen you isn't optional, it's survival.

🧩 The Personal Layer

Erik opens up about how often leaders dismiss early warning signs, overestimating the goodwill they’ve stored up. He reflects on the responsibility leaders carry to not just build systems and scale—but to stay close to the humans who power them. This episode pushes leaders to ask: Who’s getting overlooked? Whose energy are you building with—or draining?

🧰 From Insight to Action

• Leaders: Audit your team’s energy. Who’s tired? Who’s invisible? Who’s carrying more than they signed up for?
• Employees: Ask yourself not just what you want, but who you want to be around. That clarity matters.
• Everyone: Don’t settle for proximity. Surround yourself with people who grow you.
• Teams: Don’t wait for the walkout moment. Bring up the hard stuff before the dam breaks.
• Culture builders: Your people are your brand. Lose them, and the brand goes with them.

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“Ignore your people at your own peril.”

“Alan didn’t follow opportunity. He followed someone he’d already seen in the storm.”

“Sometimes companies ask their people to put lipstick on a pig—and then act surprised when they leave.”

“You don’t need to know the whole map. But you better know who you trust to walk the road with.”

“The recruiters can smell blood in the water. If your top performers are looking, the sharks are coming.”

In one of the most gripping interviews yet, Erik sits down with Alan Bell—mortgage expert, former film lab engineer, and team-builder extraordinaire—to dissect a rare and bold professional move: the collective exit of 14 team members from one company to another. This episode explores leadership, loyalty, team dynamics, and how to know when it’s time to make a leap—not alone, but together.

👤 About the Guest

Alan Bell is the founder of Ring the Bell Home Loans, a mortgage professional with a rich background in high-stakes film post-production, and a systems thinker with a rare blend of grit, empathy, and self-deprecating humor. His leadership style is grounded in loyalty, nuance, and knowing how to build the kind of trust most teams only dream of.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• How Alan transitioned from a family film lab business into the mortgage world during the refi boom
• What it was like to grow up in a high-pressure, analog, pre-digital business—and how that shaped his leadership
• The subtle art of vetting people you want in your foxhole
• Why personality and presence often matter more than industry experience
• A behind-the-scenes look at how (and why) 14 people left a company… in one coordinated move

💡 Key Takeaways

• Leadership is deeply personal: Alan followed people he admired, not logos he respected.
• Family business breeds detail-orientation: Running payroll with a typewriter at 16 teaches you things you don’t forget.
• Culture shift kills momentum: Poorly executed mergers often lose the talent, not just the vibe.
• Empathy needs a sword: Care deeply, but don’t get steamrolled—that's Alan’s way.
• You can’t fake a good team: If your teammates won’t razz you back, can you trust them when it’s hard?

❓ Questions That Mattered

• What early experiences built your tolerance for chaos and stress?
• How do you know when to leave good people for great ones?
• What signals tell you someone is worth betting on?
• What does it mean to test a teammate’s chemistry before trusting them?
• How do you collectively leave a company without blowing it all up?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“I can hear you getting fatter.” (Alan’s new teammate’s perfect razz—aka the test passed.)

“It's easy to be friends when you're skipping in the sunshine. What about when you’re starving in a storm?”

“The sticker doesn’t matter. I don’t care what the banner says—I care about who’s in the trench.”

“There’s no mojo if it’s just me giving. I need the loop to feed me back.”

“Most people don’t know they’re running a test to see if they can trust someone. I do.”

🔗 Links & Resources

• Ring the Bell Home Loans Instagram
• Alan's Facebook Page

In this solo episode, Erik confronts the quiet crisis of preparation—or more often, the lack of it. He takes listeners through a bold reframing of how to prioritize prep time, not based on urgency or frequency, but on consequence of failure. This is a mindset shift episode: provocative, clear, and full of systems-thinking strategy for anyone looking to level up their performance.

❓ The Big Question

How much time should you actually spend preparing—and how do you know what’s worth it?

💡 Key Takeaways

• Most people don’t prepare—not because they’re lazy, but because they don’t have a prep process.
• You should allocate prep time based on consequence of failure, not gut feel or convenience.
• Just 30 minutes of undistracted prep can dramatically change your results.
• “Winging it” is often a disguise for disorganization, not confidence.
• A life without high-consequence moments may be a sign you’re coasting—and that might be the real problem.

🧠 Concepts, Curves, and Frameworks

• Consequence of Failure Lens: A simple audit system to identify what’s worth preparing for.
• Prep Prioritization Loop: Calendar scan → High consequence filter → 30-min block → Focused thinking.
• Prep Minimum Viable Effort: Even sitting in silence for 30 minutes beats last-minute scrambles.
• Systems > Instinct: Build preparation into your operating system instead of relying on reaction.

🔁 Real-Life Reflections

• Erik shares how leading sales teams made “consequence” easy to quantify—but in most roles, you have to build your own model.
• A self-aware moment: coaching first-grade soccer doesn’t require prep because the consequence is low—and that’s okay.
• The sobering flip side: if nothing in your calendar has high consequence, that may be why you're feeling stagnant or burned out.

🧰 Put This Into Practice

• Pull up your calendar and highlight 3–5 things with the highest consequence of failure.
• Block 30 minutes for each of those in the next 7–14 days.
• During that time: no phone, no Slack, no email—just you, your brain, and a blank doc.
• Ask: What does success look like? What could go wrong? What matters to the other people involved?
• Still not sure how to prep? Look it up. YouTube, books, coaching—it’s all there. Don’t hide behind ignorance.

🗣️ Favorite Quotes

“The things you need to be preparing for are the things that have the highest consequence of failure.”

“You don’t have a prep problem—you have a prioritization problem.”

“If all you did was sit with yourself for 30 minutes and think clearly, you'd already be ahead.”

“If you look at your calendar and nothing feels worth prepping for… that might be the real issue.”

“Not prepping isn’t a badge of honor—it’s a recipe for being forgettable.”

🧠 Erik’s Take

This conversation with Tulio Siragusa left a deep imprint. Here’s a guy who’s both deeply competent in business and deeply rooted in service, and that rare blend made this conversation one of the most fulfilling I’ve had on the show. This reaction dives into three standout themes:

1. The tension between who we are and who we think we are
2. How service creates self-awareness
3. Why AI isn’t a savior—it’s a spotlight

Tulio’s story is a masterclass in what it means to lead from experience, not ego. His honesty about failure, transformation, and emotional intelligence revealed the kind of wisdom that only emerges from walking through fire—and choosing to learn from it.

🎯 Top Insights from the Interview

• You can’t grow from a lie. The gap between your aspirational identity and your real starting point keeps you stuck—until you’re honest about where you actually are.
• Self-awareness is teachable—but only through humility. Service, not self-help, is the path to honest self-discovery.
• True maturity means knowing your limits. Admitting what you’re not good at builds more trust than pretending you’ve got it all handled.
• AI will break your org before it saves it. If your company is siloed, bloated, or fragile, AI will just expose the fault lines faster.
• Business that ignores humanity won’t last. Empathy isn’t a buzzword—it’s a performance lever.

🧩 The Personal Layer

Erik reflects on the way Tulio described the painful collapse of his first startup—and how that moment became the catalyst for real change. That resonated deeply. Most high performers don’t transform when things are fine. It’s collapse, failure, or identity loss that cracks us open—and that crack is where wisdom starts to seep in. That’s also where Erik connects Tulio’s story with his own observations about leadership maturity, coaching, and the inner work leaders often avoid.

🧰 From Insight to Action

• Practice radical self-honesty. Ask: What am I pretending to be good at?
• Volunteer in an uncomfortable space. Go serve in a context where you’re not the expert. Watch what it reveals.
• Revisit your org structure through the lens of AI. Where does AI highlight your friction points? That’s where to evolve.
• Coach for awareness, not performance. The best leaders draw out truth before pushing for results.
• Turn collapse into curriculum. Like Tulio, document what broke and why. There’s gold in there.

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“You can’t grow if you’re lying to yourself about where you’re starting from.” – Erik

“Service is the soil that self-awareness grows in.” – Erik

“AI won’t fix your org—it’ll reveal what’s broken.” – Erik

“Vulnerability is power. It’s how you earn trust, and how you earn your own growth.” – Tulio (paraphrased)

“Maturity is owning your parameters.” – Erik

Tullio Siragusa has led in New York, London, Silicon Valley, and Latin America—and his leadership philosophy is rooted in empathy, not ego. In this conversation, Tulio and Erik dive into the real mechanics of emotional intelligence, self-awareness, intention-based design, and how adversity reshapes who we become. From losing it all in the 2008 crash to reshaping how leaders think, this is a vulnerable and high-level look at what it really takes to evolve as a human being and a leader.

👤 About the Guest

Tullio Siragusa is a seasoned technology executive, leadership coach, and the founder of the EmpathIQ framework and Intention-Based Design. With a background spanning some of the world’s most influential markets—including New York, Silicon Valley, London, India, and Latin America—Tulio brings a rare, multi-market perspective to leadership. His work focuses on embedding empathy, wisdom, and emotional intelligence into business and life.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• How living and working in diverse global markets shaped Tullio’s leadership lens
• The difference between conviction and wisdom—and why letting go of being “right” matters
• Tullio’s 2008 collapse, bankruptcy, and how it shattered his identity (in a good way)
• Why volunteering in a dusty warehouse changed his life
• The epidemic of low self-worth and how it blocks growth and empathy
• Creating the EmpathIQ framework: the blend of design thinking, empathy, and intentionality
• Can self-awareness be taught? And what’s the best way to start?
• Why leaders should run from false certainty—and choose grounded honesty instead

💡 Key Takeaways

• Adversity is a catalyst for empathy. Often, a breakdown is what opens the door to wisdom and emotional depth.
• Self-awareness starts with self-honesty. You can’t grow if you’re lying to yourself about where you really are.
• Empathy is more than kindness—it's wisdom in action. It’s about considering human emotion in every decision you make.
• Design your leadership. Tullio’s Intention-Based Design invites leaders to act with purpose and empathy, not just efficiency.
• You can’t fake your way to trust. Influence comes from presence, clarity, and owning both your strengths and your shadows.

❓ Questions That Mattered

• “Can you teach self-awareness? And if so, how the heck do we do it?”
• “Where did your global perspective on leadership come from?”
• “What caused you to become obsessed with empathy?”
• “What does a collapse reveal about your sense of self-worth?”
• “How do we activate grace—for others and for ourselves?”

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“Conviction is dangerous. It stops you from learning.” — Tullio Siragusa

“Self-awareness starts with accepting that you are capable of both incredible grace and terrible mistakes.” — Tullio Siragusa

“You can’t grow from where you think you are. You have to grow from where you actually are.” — Tullio Siragusa

“Volunteering in a dusty warehouse taught me more about leadership than my biggest wins.” — Tullio Siragusa

“Empathy isn’t soft. It’s the foundation of wisdom.” — Erik Berglund

🔗 Links & Resources

• Learn more about Tullio’s work: LinkedIn
• Tullio’s framework: EmpathIQ and Intention-Based Design
• Mentioned in the episode: Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions by Keith Rosen. Find it on Amazon

In this episode, Erik tackles one of the most frequently asked leadership questions he gets in coaching: “How do I change my company’s culture?” Drawing from real stories, industry frameworks, and his own systems-thinking approach, he breaks down the four-part process every leader needs to architect intentional culture—without fluff or jargon.

This is a direct, no-BS solo masterclass on what culture actually is, how it's built (even when you're not trying), and the real reason most cultural initiatives fail. If you've ever said "our culture needs to change," this one’s for you.

❓ The Big Question

How do I change my company culture—intentionally and sustainably—without relying on hype, luck, or another failed memo?

💡 Key Takeaways

• Culture is always happening. If you’re not driving it, someone else is.
• It’s not about slogans. Culture is the gap between what gets said and what gets done.
• You must create the storm. Culture forms in the extremes—adversity and celebration.
• There’s a 4-step system for this. Decide → Tell → Demonstrate → Reinforce.
• Reinforcement is the real game. Without a mechanism, nothing sticks.

🧠 Concepts, Curves, and Frameworks

• The 4-Step Culture Playbook:
  1. Decide what kind of culture you want
  2. Tell your people clearly and directly
  3. Demonstrate it yourself—no exceptions
  4. Reinforce it with recurring mechanisms (post-mortems, AARs, wins/losses)
• Culture Forms in the Extremes:
  • Celebration → Recognition and morale
  • Adversity → Ownership and norms
  • The mundane flows from how you show up in those moments
• Mechanism ≠ Motivation:
  • Great cultures don’t rely on hype. They have structures that pull culture through consistently.

🔁 Real-Life Reflections

• A PM who pulled a client team off a job to defend his people—and then rebuilt trust.
• Medical “M&M” reviews: a high-stakes, high-honesty tool for collective learning.
• Construction post-mortems that actually work (vs. blaming the vendor).
• Why soldiers, sales teams, and sailors don’t trust each other until they’ve struggled together.

🧰 Put This Into Practice

• Run a team-wide post-mortem this month. Celebrate wins, own losses—out loud.
• Write your culture down in 5 bullets. Then ask: where am I not demonstrating this?
• Implement one reinforcing mechanism—weekly wins call, fail-forward Fridays, etc.
• Tell your team what you expect and how you’ll know it’s working.
• When something goes wrong, name it and own it—in public.

🗣️ Favorite Quotes

“Culture is not what you write on the wall—it's what happens when things go sideways.”

“If you’re not intentionally building culture, it’s still being built—just probably not the way you want.”

“You can’t outsource culture. It flows from the top, or it falls to the bottom.”

“Culture is built at the extremes. The mundane just mirrors how you handled the storm.”

“Decide what you want, tell your team, demonstrate it, and then create a damn mechanism.”

🧠 Erik’s Take

In this post-interview reflection, Erik breaks down his conversation with Kim Willis, exploring what makes someone truly excellent at sales—and why that matters for leadership. Rather than glamorizing charisma or relying on old tropes, Erik digs into the deeper attributes: curiosity, storytelling, feedback loops, and the relentless pursuit of truth. This reaction feels part tactical, part philosophical, and wholly committed to real leadership growth—especially for those building teams, shaping offers, or selling visionary ideas.

🎯 Top Insights from the Interview

• Sales is a truth-finding process. The best salespeople aren’t manipulators—they’re curious investigators trying to discover if they can really help.
• Coaching matters more than charisma. One pivotal mentor changed the trajectory of Kim’s career by listening to his calls and offering real-time feedback.
• Storytelling is a differentiator. Facts alone won’t close the deal. A coherent, compelling narrative creates the bridge from “problem” to “possibility.”
• Failure is a leadership tool. You can’t develop top performers if you’re always rescuing them. Let people fail—then use feedback to help them rise.
• Great salespeople create markets. They don’t wait for demand—they name a problem, offer a path, and generate value out of thin air.

🧩 The Personal Layer

Erik doesn’t just admire Kim’s expertise—he relates to it. His own leadership journey has involved both leading sales teams and wrestling with the tension between delivering results and developing people. His reflection reveals a genuine respect for craft, a belief in the power of well-told stories, and a growing conviction that truth, not performance, is the real currency of leadership.

🧰 From Insight to Action

• Ask yourself: Are you performing... or being curious?
• Re-listen to a recent client/sales conversation—where did you follow a script, and where did you find truth?
• Create space for your team to fail. Then give them meaningful feedback—not a rescue.
• Audit your sales story. Is there a clear arc from pain to transformation?
• If you're in leadership, take one active step toward coaching someone this week—not just managing them.

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“Sales is about getting to the truth—not just getting the yes.”

 “The best salespeople are obsessed with the problem, not the product.”

 “You can’t develop someone if you won’t let them fail.”

 “Facts don’t sell. Stories do.”

 “The most exciting kind of entrepreneurship is creating value where there wasn’t any before.”

In this episode, Erik sits down with Kim Willis, a speaker coach and story mentor who helps founders, creatives, and entrepreneurs reclaim their voice by getting radically honest about the stories they tell—and the ones they avoid. In this conversation, Kim shares how years of being a high-performing communicator eventually led him to disconnection, what it took to find his way back, and why story isn’t just a tool for influence—it’s a path to self-recovery, alignment, and leadership that actually lands.

👤 About the Guest

Kim Willis is a story strategist, speaker coach, and creative mentor known for helping leaders become more truthful, resonant, and embodied through their storytelling. With a background in performance, corporate facilitation, and brand consulting, Kim now works at the intersection of personal narrative, leadership presence, and nervous system awareness, guiding clients to lead not just with polish—but with presence.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• Why “good on paper” storytelling often falls flat
• The cost of leading with a polished persona instead of your full self
• How nervous system awareness makes you a better communicator
• Why some people lead louder when they feel less secure
• Kim’s turning point: from performance-driven storytelling to embodied truth
• Story as a path to healing—not just influence
• Letting go of frameworks to find your real voice on stage

💡 Key Takeaways

• Storytelling is leadership. The stories we tell—about who we are, what matters, and where we’re going—are shaping every room we walk into.
• You can’t lead others from a place you’ve abandoned in yourself. If you’re disconnected from your own story, people will feel it.
• Polish without presence is noise. The most magnetic leaders aren’t the most practiced—they’re the most honest.
• The body keeps the story. Nervous system regulation isn’t extra—it’s foundational to telling resonant stories and holding space.
• There’s no story without risk. If your story doesn’t cost you something, it’s probably not the one you’re meant to lead from.

❓ Questions That Mattered

• “What story are you still trying to perform that no longer feels true?”
• “How do you speak from your body—not just your branding?”
• “What happens when your story is over—but you’re still trying to lead from it?”
• “Can you hold power without being performative?”
• “How do we invite more truth into the way we show up as leaders?”

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“I used to get hired for how I could hold a room. Now I get invited in for how I can hold a truth.”

“Leadership is a storytelling game—but the most compelling stories are the ones you’re still living.”

“People feel you before they believe you. That’s nervous system storytelling.”

“When I dropped the polished version, the real work—and real connection—started.”

“I’m not here to give people their voice back. I’m here to help them stop leaving it behind.”

🔗 Links & Resources

• Kim Willis Website: https://casestudymonkey.com/
• Kim's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimjwillis/

In this thought-provoking solo episode, Erik unpacks a major second-order consequence of AI: the collapse of the entry-level talent pipeline. As AI increasingly absorbs the "grunt work" across industries, we risk losing the slow, steady process by which professionals build context, mastery, and leadership skills. This looming talent glut isn't just about job displacement—it's about long-term strategic gaps in leadership. Erik calls on leaders to start planning now for a future where developing and redeploying human potential will be more critical—and more difficult—than ever.

❓ The Big Question

What happens to leadership pipelines when AI eliminates the work that used to train future leaders?

💡 Key Takeaways

• The traditional path to strategic leadership—starting with menial tasks—will be disrupted by AI automation.
• AI will fulfill entry-level functions across industries, eliminating key opportunities for experiential learning.
• This shift creates a second-order problem: a future shortage of strategic talent with real-world context.
• Most companies don’t have systems in place to develop internal talent and rely on others to do it for them.
• If we don’t build better systems for training and redeploying people, we’re heading toward a long-term leadership drought.

🧠 Concepts, Curves, and Frameworks

• Osmotic Learning: The slow, immersive absorption of context through repeated exposure to low-stakes work.
• First-Order vs. Second-Order Problems: First is job displacement; second is the absence of future-ready talent.
• Fractional Expertise Model: A potential solution where skilled professionals port across industries for high-leverage work.
• AI-Augmented Training: Tech like VR/AR simulations or AI roleplay can accelerate skill development in the absence of traditional paths.
• Talent Reliance Matrix: If your company relies on others to train your future hires, you’re especially vulnerable to this shift.

🔁 Real-Life Reflections

• Erik highlights how most strategic contributors today were shaped by years of “doing the work” in junior roles.
• He cautions leaders who celebrate efficiency gains without considering the downstream costs to their talent pipeline.
• Companies that depend on poaching talent rather than developing it are particularly exposed.

🧰 Put This Into Practice

• Ask yourself: Does our company actually develop talent—or do we rely on others to do it for us?
• Begin documenting what osmosis-based learning used to look like in your org. How could you simulate that now?
• Experiment with AI tools and simulations (like roleplay or VR) for real-time, skills-based learning.
• Think ahead: what roles might disappear in your industry, and what strategic consequences will follow?
• If you're a leader, start networking with others who are wrestling with the same questions. The answers won’t come solo.

🗣️ Favorite Quotes

“We’re about to lose the mechanism by which people become qualified to lead.”

“The second-order problem isn’t job loss—it’s the collapse of strategic thinking capacity five years from now.”

“If you kill the entry-level rung, you don’t just save money—you stall the ladder.”

“Most companies don’t build leaders. They just hope to hire ones someone else trained.”

“AI is changing the value stream—and we’re not ready for what comes next.”

🧠 Erik’s Take

After interviewing Cortney Harding, Erik reflects on how VR, AI, and immersive learning are reshaping the way we train people—especially in communication. But beyond the tech, this episode is about mindset shifts: from teaching to training, from knowing to doing, and from buying solutions to solving real problems. It’s a direct and thoughtful take on why so many AI and training initiatives fail—and what to do differently.

🎯 Top Insights from the Interview

• Don’t start with the tech—start with the problem. Buying AI solutions without knowing the core business issue is a fast track to wasted money and disillusioned teams.
• Immersive VR training is a game changer. People pay attention differently when they can’t multitask. They feel, not just observe, the learning.
• Failing safely is key to real learning. VR creates an environment where people can make mistakes without consequences—something real life rarely allows.
• Communication skills are still the power skill. As AI takes over more functions, human interaction remains the differentiator.
• Our system doesn’t train people to communicate well. Most professionals were never taught how to lead conversations—and it shows.

🧩 The Personal Layer

Erik admits to previously believing that vertical-specific training was the only way forward with AI and VR. But Cortney’s pushback made him reconsider: almost every organization stands to benefit from training people on core conversational competencies. He also unpacks how many leaders mistakenly assume communication is common sense—when it’s actually a trained, practiced skillset most never receive.

🧰 From Insight to Action

• ✅ Audit your training programs. Are they truly immersive and skills-based—or are they just compliance-driven content dumps?
• ❓ Ask better questions before adopting AI. What problem are you solving? Who needs to change? How will you measure progress?
• 🧠 Level up communication at scale. Invest in practical frameworks for listening, influence, and empathy—before the performance gaps get wider.
• 🎧 Get curious about failure. Safe environments to fail are rare. VR creates them. How are you providing that for your people?
• 🗺️ Broaden your definition of learning. Not everything that matters can be tested on a quiz. Start designing experiences, not just courses.

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“There’s a real cost to doing it wrong—not just failed projects, but AI fatigue.”

“You can’t multitask in VR. That’s the brute-force magic of it.”

“The future belongs to those who can influence with words. That’s not going anywhere.”

“We don’t train people to communicate—we just hope they figure it out. Most don’t.”

“If you're just throwing the AI fruit basket at the wall hoping something sticks… good luck.”

In this bold and honest conversation, Erik sits down with Jeremy Brady, National Sales Manager at G Adventures, to explore what it really takes to lead high-performing teams in 2025. They unpack why the old sales playbook doesn’t work anymore, how to build a values-driven hiring process, and why “culture fit” isn't just a buzzword—it’s a strategic advantage. Jeremy shares hard-earned insights from leading through COVID, reinventing hiring practices, and learning how to create psychological safety during interviews. It’s a masterclass in modern leadership, hiring with intention, and building cultures that last.

👤 About the Guest

Jeremy Brady is the National Sales Manager at G Adventures
, a global adventure travel company known for its commitment to community tourism and values-driven leadership. With a background in hustle culture sales and over a decade of experience, Jeremy now helps shape a future of leadership that prioritizes authenticity, alignment, and long-term impact.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• From “boss to friend” tension: Jeremy’s journey becoming a leader among former peers
• The radical shift from hustle culture to intentionality in hiring
• How G Adventures uses a "G Factor" (now “Backstage Pass”) to detect culture alignment
• Designing interview processes that prioritize core values over credentials
• Leveraging “Working Genius” and hedgehog concepts to build balanced sales teams
• How COVID forced a rethink on team engagement, fulfillment, and purpose
• The power of letting top performers fail (and why you shouldn't rescue them too early)
• Turning travel sales into meaningful social impact work

💡 Key Takeaways

• Hire for alignment, not just performance: Core values are a better predictor of success than previous results.
• Disruption reveals truth: Swearing, surprises, or even a ball pit interview can surface real insights about a candidate.
• Let them fail forward: Growth comes from patterns of reflection, not perfection.
• Sales isn’t about closers: Balanced teams with varied strengths perform better long-term.
• Create psychological safety: The best interviews feel like conversations, not interrogations.

❓ Questions That Mattered

• How do you build trust with candidates while still vetting them honestly?
• What’s your process for uncovering a candidate’s core values?
• How can companies avoid hiring “brilliant jerks”?
• What signs reveal that someone is thriving—or just coasting on past wins?
• How do you push a top performer to grow without deflating them?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

“You're gonna f*** up—just don't do the same f*** up twice.”
 —Jeremy Brady

“If we look the same five years from now, something's wrong.”
 —Jeremy on constant reinvention at G Adventures

“The candidate isn’t applying to prove they’re good enough. We’re seeing if we’re a fit for them.”
—Jeremy Brady

“When you’re in charge, take charge. When you’re not, stop trying to be.”
 —Erik Berglund

“Empathy is a superpower—but without the sword of accountability, it can become a crutch.”
 —Erik Berglund

🔗 Links & Resources

• Follow Jeremy on LinkedIn
• Check out Jeremy's Instagram