Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Impact List
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trailer | Welcome to The Impact List | 17 Mar 2026 | 00:01:13 | |
The Impact List is a leadership podcast for professionals who want more than soundbites and surface-level advice. Hosted by Laurie Fainer, CEO of Dynamic Alchemy Advisors, The Impact List features candid conversations with leaders shaping the future, not by titles, but by how they show up. Each episode explores the real moments behind leadership, the decisions made under pressure, the conflicts that demand clarity, and the practices that create lasting impact. This show cuts through leadership noise to focus on presence, integrity, and human-centered leadership in modern organizations. Guests include executives, founders, operators, and people leaders who share hard-won lessons on navigating responsibility, building trust, leading through uncertainty, and creating cultures that actually work. The Impact List is for:
New episodes are released twice a month and offer thoughtful insight, grounded reflection, and practical perspective you can apply immediately. Website: https://amplified-authenticity.com/ | |||
| 003: Kindness Is Not a Soft Strategy. How Simona Costantini Builds Businesses That Actually Care | 25 Mar 2026 | 00:34:37 | |
What if you’re not burnt out… you’ve simply outgrown the life you built? In this episode of The Impact List, Laurie Fainer sits down with Simona Costantini, Founder and CEO of VOLT Productions, to talk about what it actually looks like to build a business rooted in values - not as a mission statement, but as a daily operating decision. Simona's values are kindness, care, and connection. She doesn't just say that. She turns away clients who don't reflect them. She doesn't care when her team works as long as the work gets done. She leads a podcast production agency supporting more than 20 shows a week from a place of genuine investment in the people around her. This conversation gets into the leadership she wished she'd had, what she unlearned from corporate, and the question she comes back to constantly: are you adding more good into the world, or more noise? The answer shapes everything. In this episode, you’ll discover:
We talk about:
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Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions | |||
| 002: Success Isn't Built Alone. What Two Decades of Exec Search Taught Nadia Caira About Leadership | 25 Mar 2026 | 00:40:15 | |
What if the strongest leaders aren’t the loudest… but the most grounded? In this episode of The Impact List, Laurie Fainer sits down with Nadia Caira, Co-Founder of Beacon Talent Group, to explore what grounded leadership actually looks like in practice — inside the high-pressure, high-stakes world of executive search. Nadia brings a coaching lens to everything she does. She asks better questions before offering answers. She creates alignment before going to market. She builds partnerships, not transactions. And when things get loud around her, her instinct is to slow down, not speed up. This conversation covers the moment that defined her leadership, the unlearning that came with building Beacon from scratch, and the advice that stopped her in her tracks: cherish the relationships and recognize your cheerleaders. Because success, as Nadia sees it, is never built alone. In this episode, you’ll discover:
We talk about:
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Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions | |||
| 001: I Called Myself an Entrepreneur Out Loud for the First Time. Here's What Happened Next. | 25 Mar 2026 | 00:10:04 | |
What happens when you stop blending in… and start building something that actually reflects who you are? In this solo episode of The Impact List, Laurie Fainer shares the story behind the show and the turning point that led her to leave corporate and step into entrepreneurship. After years in executive HR and Chief of Staff roles, Laurie found herself asking a different question. Not “what’s next?” but “what actually matters?” The answer wasn’t another role. It was ownership. This episode is about what it actually takes to leave corporate — not the logistics, but the unlearning. How to decouple your identity from your title. How to stop shrinking to fit other people's idea of who you're supposed to be. And why the inner work isn't optional if you want to lead other people without losing yourself. She's recording this one scared. Which means it was time. In this episode, you’ll discover:
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Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions | |||
| 005: When Leadership Feels Stuck. What's Really Happening Beneath the Surface | Numrah Irfan | 22 Apr 2026 | 00:42:39 | |
Most leaders are trained to treat a stall as a failure signal - something to push through, smooth over, or explain away. Numrah Irfan sees it differently. In this episode of The Impact List, Laurie Fainer sits down with Numrah Irfan, founder of Wren Ave Consulting and former Deloitte leader with over two decades of experience inside large-scale transformation. Numrah makes a case that the moments where progress seems to stop are often where the most important work is actually happening - if you're willing to name what's underneath rather than keep moving. This conversation is practical and honest. It covers what actually blocks transformation (hint: it's rarely the strategy), how Numrah has built confidence without needing to have all the answers, and why she believes relationship building is the golden key to everything. In this episode, you'll discover:
We talk about:
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Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions | |||
| 004: The Best Leaders Don’t Have the Answer. Here’s What They Do Instead | Hannah Yardley | 08 Apr 2026 | 00:33:59 | |
The best leaders don’t have all the answers, and the ones who think they do often hold their teams back. In this episode of The Impact List, Laurie Fainer sits down with Hannah Yardley - who has spent two decades advising Fortune 500 companies, leading people strategy at a global SaaS platform, and earning a seat at some of the most consequential executive tables in tech - to explore the leadership mindset shift from expert to leader, and what great leaders do instead. She’s also back in school, in a room with 47 strangers: defense workers, oil refinery managers, school teachers, people who are - right now - shaping how she leads today. That’s not a contradiction. That’s the point. As your career grows, so does your experience. One of Hannah's most important discoveries is that the more experience you accumulate, the more intentional you have to be about when to use it - stepping back, asking better questions, and trusting others to think, decide, and lead. This is the shift from being the smartest person in the room to building rooms full of capable people. In this episode, you’ll discover:
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Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions | |||
| 007: You Don't Build Trust in Easy Moments. On Leadership & Finding Your People | Michael Murphy | 20 May 2026 | 00:32:05 | |
You know the person who's working against you? The one where the tension is real, the dynamic is off, and neither of you is saying it out loud? Michael Murphy was that person for Laurie. And instead of letting it become permanent, they named it. What happened next shaped the kind of leader Michael became and the kind he now deliberately builds around him. Michael Murphy is a Partner and AI Operating Model Lead at ADAPTOVATE, a global consultancy helping large organizations build the agility to drive transformation. He spent two decades inside some of the most complex change environments in North America and Europe, including senior roles at Deloitte's Human Capital practice where he led agile transformations across Canada, the US, and Germany and co-authored Deloitte's Global Adaptable Organization Methodology. In this episode, they get into his "Consulting Scared Straight" framework, what the apprenticeship model looks like when AI is reshaping the entry-level path, and why the legacy that actually matters has nothing to do with the PowerPoints. In this episode, you'll discover:
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Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions | |||
| 006: You Can't Lead From Empty. What Burnout & the Nervous System Are Telling You | Caroline Baird | 06 May 2026 | 00:39:04 | |
What if the most powerful thing a leader can do... is stop? In this episode of The Impact List, Laurie Fainer sits down with Caroline Baird, HR executive, leadership strategist, and holistic coach with more than 30 years of experience inside some of the largest organizations in North America. Caroline has held senior HR leadership roles inside multi-billion dollar companies, sat at the table for complex culture challenges, and now runs her own practice working with executives and leadership teams at the intersection of strategy, culture, and what she calls somatic leadership. This conversation gets into what's actually happening to leaders right now - the exhaustion that gets misread as burnout, and why we've spent decades training people to carry more without teaching them how to lead without losing themselves. Caroline breaks down what the body signals before the mind has words for it, what white space actually looks like inside a real calendar, and why the leaders who slow down are often the ones who lead best. Because leadership, as Caroline sees it, is always a choice, even when the choices are hard. In this episode, you'll discover:
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Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions | |||
| 009: Intentional Leadership: Are You Living the Life You Want or Just Planning To | Robin Bailey | 17 Jun 2026 | 00:42:59 | |
Intentional leadership is not a framework you learn in a course. It is a decision you make every single day about how you show up, who you trust, and what you do with the time you have. This episode is about what that actually looks like in practice. Robin Bailey, Managing Partner of Aria Benefits, host of the award-winning Success Leaves Clues podcast, and the person who, about a year ago, looked at Laurie after she had been a guest on his show and said: you should start your own podcast. In this episode, Laurie and Robin get into what it actually looks like to build a business on trust as a daily operating decision. They talk about the podcast community Robin built almost by accident, the Stoplight Strategy Report he developed from 300 conversations with senior leaders, the award he named after his mother, and the moment 20 years ago that permanently changed how he sees time. This one stayed with us, and we think it will stay with you too. In this episode, you'll discover:
We talk about: 00:00 - When Two Deaths in One Week Change How You See Time Subscribe so you don't miss who's coming next. Connect with Robin
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Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions | |||
| 008: The Thing Holding You Back Is You. On Delegation, Letting Go and Scaling | Debbie Lariviere | 03 Jun 2026 | 00:34:15 | |
You know that leader who does it all - makes every decision, holds every piece, approves everything before it goes out the door? This week on The Impact List, Laurie sits down with Debbie Lariviere, the founder and head coach of Monter Coaching and host of the Real Estate Leadership Unlocked podcast. They talk about what it costs to keep doing everything yourself, how to tell the difference between delegating a task and actually transferring ownership. In this episode, you'll discover:
We talk about: 00:00 - The thing that built your business is now capping it Connect with Debbie
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Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions #DelegationSkills #ScalingYourBusiness #RealEstateLeadership | |||
| 013: The Therapist Turned Executive Recruiter on What Confidence Actually Looks Like. | Angela Bond | 19 Aug 2026 | 00:34:08 | |
Stop asking for permission is the practice of trusting your own judgment enough to act before someone signs off on it, and it is the idea running underneath this conversation with executive recruiter Angela Bond, Partner and Head of the Real Estate Practice at Odgers. If you have spent years explaining a decision you already knew was right, or softening a call so nobody can push back on it, this episode names where that habit comes from and what it is quietly costing you. Angela trained as a therapist before she ever placed an executive, and that background shapes how she evaluates candidates, coaches hiring managers past their need for certainty, and rebuilds her own confidence every time her career shifts direction. In this conversation with Laurie Fainer, Founder and CEO of Dynamic Alchemy Advisors, Angela names the moment she stopped seeking permission and adopted a simple rule instead: beg forgiveness, not permission. She has never had to ask for forgiveness since. In this episode, you'll discover:
We talk about: 00:00 The moment that gave Angela pause this week 01:32 From a real estate search to a trusted advisor 02:18 Starting in psychotherapy before executive search 03:53 Why self-awareness matters more than expertise 05:50 How she helps hiring managers see what they cannot 07:36 Can a recruiter ever promise certainty about a hire 09:07 What happens when a candidate does not fit the box 10:45 Why she stopped seeking permission and started moving 12:23 Building confidence by staying congruent with herself 16:00 Rebuilding her identity after her Olympic dream ended 21:03 Her advice for anyone who cannot see their own potential 26:31 Recognizing your team as whole people not job titles Ready to build the kind of self-trust Angela talks about? The Alchemy Practice at Dynamic Alchemy Advisors works with leaders on exactly this. Learn more at https://amplified-authenticity.com/contact Connect with Angela:
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Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions | |||
| 012: Your Team Isn't Afraid of AI. Here's What They're Actually Afraid Of | Diana Mohan | 05 Aug 2026 | 00:28:47 | |
AI change management is the work of leading a burned out team through disruption it did not choose, not just rolling out new tools. If your organization is asking people to adopt AI while they are already stretched thin from years of restructuring, budget cuts, and shifting expectations, this episode is for you. Resistance to change rarely means people reject the technology itself. It usually means they do not understand why the change is happening to them, or they feel like they have lost all agency and control. Laurie Fainer, Founder and CEO of Dynamic Alchemy Advisors, sits down with Diana Mohan, Executive Director of Transformation and Change at Seneca Polytechnic, whose career runs through Deloitte and PwC. Diana shares the framework she uses to explain burnout: a high level of uncertainty paired with a low level of control, and why celebrating small wins, including one team member's first Excel macro, moved an entire AI rollout further than any polished business case. She also opens up about the belief her mother gave her that still shapes how she leads today. If you are responsible for bringing a tired team through change, this conversation will change how you lead the next rollout. In this episode, you'll discover:
We talk about: 00:00 Why leaders misread resistance to change 01:29 Diana's moment of gratitude amid parenting chaos 03:05 How Diana and Laurie built trust years before this conversation 05:00 What makes higher education so disrupted right now 07:00 Why is burnout really about lost control, not workload 09:11 Starting small, how Diana built AI momentum with senior leaders 12:10 How do you keep a resistant team feeling like they still matter 15:07 Being vulnerable instead of certain as a leader 17:01 Why data and good intentions were never enough 20:00 The difference between getting the work right and the experience of it 22:29 The belief her mother gave her that still drives how she leads 27:17 Where to connect with Diana Mohan Subscribe so you don't miss who's coming next. Connect with Diana:
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Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions | |||
| 011: What Grief Taught This Marketing Leader About Trust, Teams, and Letting Go | Lauren Posesorski | 22 Jul 2026 | 00:33:21 | |
What if resilience was never about becoming who you were before? Most leadership advice treats recovery as the goal. Get through the hard thing, return to baseline, pick the plan back up. Lauren Posesorski's experience says otherwise. In this episode of The Impact List, Laurie Fainer, Founder and CEO of Dynamic Alchemy Advisors sits down with marketing leader Lauren Posesorski, a marketing leader with seventeen years of experience building teams from the ground up for one of the most candid conversations this show has featured. In 2021, Lauren went into preterm labour at 28 weeks. Her daughter Eleni lived for 60 days. As Lauren puts it, when Eleni went, a version of herself went too, and that version never came back. What she rebuilt in the space that followed is the reason she is on this list. A different way of asking her team how they are doing. A different definition of what she owes the people who report to her. And now, a deliberate pause instead of a reach for the next title. This conversation is about what leadership looks like when you stop trying to return to who you were. In this episode, you'll discover:
We talk about: 00:00 Meet Lauren Posesorski and her leadership story 01:46 What gave Lauren pause this week 04:07 Going into premature labor at 28 weeks 05:02 What did her team do while she was away 07:41 What must a leader believe to fully let go 09:42 Returning to work after unimaginable loss 10:25 Losing the version of yourself grief takes 12:12 How she leads differently since coming back 14:43 What people actually need from a leader 16:31 Why she is taking an intentional career pause 25:15 The leadership belief she had to unlearn 28:24 The leader who shaped her career the most Subscribe so you don't miss who's coming next. Connect with Lauren: Connect with me
Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions | |||
| 010: Great Employees Make Bad Leaders. Here's Why Promotions Backfire | Amber Johnson | 08 Jul 2026 | 00:33:39 | |
Most bad hires aren't skill problems. They're fit problems. In this episode of The Impact List, host Laurie Fainer, Founder and CEO of Dynamic Alchemy Advisors, sits down with Amber Johnson, CEO of Forge Performance Group. Amber has spent over a decade helping companies in energy, construction, oil and gas, and healthcare hire and keep strong teams, and she breaks down why chasing the resume instead of the person is where most hiring processes go wrong. Amber shares how she uses core values conversations and DiSC profiles to spot real fit before a resume tells the story, why promoting a top individual contributor into leadership without a coaching plan is one of the costliest mistakes a growing company makes, and the story of her very first client, whose advice changed the trajectory of her business. In this episode, you'll discover:
We talk about: 00:00 Amber Johnson introduces Forge Performance Group and her hiring philosophy 02:09 The client story that shows why core values beat a perfect resume 04:06 What leaders miss about themselves in the hiring process 07:00 How to give a candidate an honest picture of a role 09:01 What to do when a candidate stops showing up as themselves 12:00 What it takes to stay authentic across every environment 14:07 What Amber had to unlearn from her early oil and gas career 16:52 Why leaders assume everyone should operate exactly like they do 22:55 Why promoting your best individual contributor can be an expensive mistake 27:08 Who is Sean Stinson and how he shaped Amber's leadership 32:06 How to connect with Amber Johnson and Forge Performance Group Subscribe so you don't miss who's coming next. Connect with Amber:
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Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions | |||