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:
Mid-career and senior professionals stepping into greater influence
Executives seeking clarity without performance or ego
Leaders navigating complexity, growth, and change
Anyone who wants to lead well without losing themselves in the process
New episodes are released twice a month and offer thoughtful insight, grounded reflection, and practical perspective you can apply immediately.
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:
Mid-career and senior professionals stepping into greater influence
Executives seeking clarity without performance or ego
Leaders navigating complexity, growth, and change
Anyone who wants to lead well without losing themselves in the process
New episodes are released twice a month and offer thoughtful insight, grounded reflection, and practical perspective you can apply immediately.
003: Kindness Is Not a Soft Strategy. How Simona Costantini Builds Businesses That Actually Care
Episode 3
Wednesday, March 25, 2026 • Duration 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:
Why burnout is often misidentified misalignment
The identity shift required to move from employee to entrepreneur
Why overgiving is one of the biggest risks in leadership
The role of self-awareness in building a sustainable business
Setting boundaries without losing kindness or connection
How corporate environments shape behavior and what to unlearn
Why emotional regulation is a critical leadership skill
Creating a culture where people feel seen, heard, and valued
We talk about:
00:00 Intro
02:00 The reminder that life can change at any moment
04:00 Entrepreneurship, leadership, and holding both life and business
09:00 Becoming the leader you needed
10:30 Building a business rooted in kindness, care, and connection
14:00 Language, leadership, and removing hierarchy
18:00 Unlearning overgiving and redefining “enough”
23:00 Emotional regulation and perspective
26:30 Creating cultures where people feel seen and heard
33:00 Choosing yourself and building a life on your terms
002: Success Isn't Built Alone. What Two Decades of Exec Search Taught Nadia Caira About Leadership
Episode 2
Wednesday, March 25, 2026 • Duration 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:
Why values-driven leadership creates stronger, more sustainable outcomes
How great leaders slow down when everything around them speeds up
How to navigate uncertainty with conviction instead of hesitation
Why trust and transparency are foundational in leadership and hiring
The importance of creating environments where people feel seen and heard
How to balance high standards with empathy and care
Why discipline in your values matters more than discipline in your schedule
How to build long-term partnerships instead of transactional relationships
We talk about:
00:00 Introduction to Nadia Caira and Beacon Talent Group
02:00 Leadership, community, and why success isn’t built alone
09:00 Navigating misalignment and defining the right hire
13:00 Understanding growth stages and leadership needs
17:30 Values, boundaries, and making aligned decisions
21:30 Unlearning control and leading through uncertainty
24:30 Effort vs impact and how leaders truly stand out
001: I Called Myself an Entrepreneur Out Loud for the First Time. Here's What Happened Next.
Episode 1
Wednesday, March 25, 2026 • Duration 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:
Why leaving corporate is often driven by clarity, not burnout
The identity shift required to move from employee to entrepreneur
How corporate environments shape leadership behaviors without teaching the skills behind them
What emotional containment and self-regulation actually look like in leadership
Why inner work is essential to leading others effectively
How to separate your identity from your job to make clearer decisions
The moment that defines whether you are building a career or a business
Why “blending in” limits growth, impact, and authenticity
How unlearning corporate habits creates stronger, more human leadership
The role of gratitude, awareness, and intentional thinking in leadership
Why you always have control over how you show up, even when you cannot control your environment
We talk about:
00:00 Why this episode is different and personal
01:00 The moment that sparked Laurie’s shift after leaving corporate
005: When Leadership Feels Stuck. What's Really Happening Beneath the Surface | Numrah Irfan
Episode 5
Wednesday, April 22, 2026 • Duration 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:
Why progress that feels stuck is often a signal, not a failure
What leaders are really saying when they go silent in the room
Why human dynamics - not strategy - are almost always the real blocker
How to build confidence as a leader without needing to have the answer
The difference between having the answer and helping build the path
Why the relationships you invest in now will come back tenfold
We talk about:
00:00 Intro
04:30 Letting go of perfection and redefining priorities
08:30 Why leadership is messy, and why that matters
12:00 Reframing “stalls” as opportunities for alignment
16:00 The human side of transformation and decision-making
20:00 Taking risks and building confidence without certainty
24:30 You don’t need all the answers to lead effectively
28:00 The power of relationships, mentorship, and community
32:00 Leadership lessons from experience, both good and bad
36:00 Defining impact, results and human connection
004: The Best Leaders Don’t Have the Answer. Here’s What They Do Instead | Hannah Yardley
Episode 4
Wednesday, April 8, 2026 • Duration 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:
Why the best leaders don’t rely on having all the answers
How a strong leadership mindset is built through curiosity, not control
Why perfection is one of the biggest barriers to effective leadership
How to create clarity and structure without micromanaging your team
The role of emotional intelligence in modern leadership
How to build trust and psychological safety within your organization
Why strong leadership skills require letting go of control
We talk about:
00:00 Leadership starts with how you think
02:30 Finding perspective and staying grounded as a leader
04:00 Curiosity vs judgment in leadership
05:30 The importance of flexibility in leadership roles
08:30 The shift from giving answers to asking better questions
11:30 Decision-making and leadership clarity at the executive level
007: You Don't Build Trust in Easy Moments. On Leadership & Finding Your People | Michael Murphy
Episode 7
Wednesday, May 20, 2026 • Duration 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:
Why the leaders who admit failure build more trust than the ones who pretend they don't have it
Why the entry-level consulting path looks fundamentally different in the AI era
The General McChrystal decision-making approach
What "finding your people" has to do with followership, retention, and the kind of legacy worth leaving
Why humour is a trust-building tool and how to use it deliberately without losing the room
We talk about:
00:00 Where Michael and Laurie started
05:00 The pressure cooker of early consulting life and the bad behaviors it breeds
10:00 Learning to have the trade-off conversation: saying no without losing credibility
12:00 The "Consulting Scared Straight" deck: what it is, who sees it, and why Michael built it
15:00 Why the apprenticeship model is broken in a virtual world and what replaces it
20:30 Modeling vulnerability, running retros, and the social contract of rolling up your sleeves
006: You Can't Lead From Empty. What Burnout & the Nervous System Are Telling You | Caroline Baird
Episode 6
Wednesday, May 6, 2026 • Duration 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:
Why the exhaustion most leaders are carrying isn't a workload problem and what it actually is
What your body signals before your mind has words for it
The cost of burnout
What white space actually looks like
How to reclaim your calendar
How to push back on an organizational culture that runs on urgency and availability
What agency actually looks like when you don't love your options
We talk about:
00:00 Introduction
05:00 Showing up with abundance in entrepreneurial spaces and why it matters
07:00 The legacy question: what kind of leader do you want to be?
11:00 The cost of "do" culture and what it takes to stop
15:00 The nervous system, fight-or-flight, and what it means to feel safe as a leader
17:00 Shifting beliefs, not just behaviors
24:00 White space as strategy and what it looks like in practice
009: Intentional Leadership: Are You Living the Life You Want or Just Planning To | Robin Bailey
Wednesday, June 17, 2026 • Duration 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:
Why two deaths in one week became Robin's most clarifying lesson on intentional leadership and how he sees time
The single belief that drives everything Robin does in business and in life: everything starts with one
How Success Leaves Clues went from a branding exercise to a 300-episode community of senior leaders and CEOs
The Stoplight Strategy Report: the green, yellow, red client tool Robin built directly from 300 podcast conversations
What Robin did 14 months before his mother passed away, and why pressing record is one of the most important leadership decisions he has ever made
The Gene Bailey Legacy Award: what it means to name something after the person who showed you what kindness looks like
How a breast cancer diagnosis at 35 permanently changed Robin and his wife's relationship with time, travel, and each other
The moment Robin stopped trying to be in every client meeting and what it unlocked for his business and his life
We talk about:
00:00 - When Two Deaths in One Week Change How You See Time 03:34 - Why Robin Leads With Generosity and No Agenda 06:15 - How Success Leaves Clues Was Born From One Branding Problem 14:12 - The Podcast Awards and the Legacy of Jean Bailey 20:48 - How the Podcast Became a Business Development Engine 22:33 - The Stoplight Strategy Report: Honest Client Conversations at Scale 27:15 - The Leadership Shift: Letting Go and Trusting the Right People 31:12 - His Wife, Breast Cancer, and a 20-Year Lesson on Living Now
008: The Thing Holding You Back Is You. On Delegation, Letting Go and Scaling | Debbie Lariviere
Wednesday, June 3, 2026 • Duration 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:
The difference between a job and a business
What "transfer of ownership" really means (and why delegation isn't the same thing)
How to hire for who you actually are, not who you think you should be
We talk about:
00:00 - The thing that built your business is now capping it 02:30 - Debbie's background: from agent to CEO to coach - and why it was never really a real estate story 04:00 - Is this a business or is it a job? The question that changes everything 06:00 - When the person who can do it all becomes the person standing in the way 07:30 - Holding on is a disservice: the reframe that shifts how leaders see letting go 09:00 - The financial fear behind not hiring and Debbie's practical 60-day framework 11:00 - Hiring to your weaknesses isn't enough. 17:30 - Delegation vs. transfer of ownership - what the difference actually looks like in practice 19:30 - The 30-60-90 ownership model: how Debbie builds accountability from day one 21:00 - Building confidence in your team 24:30 - The early warning signs a leader has become the bottleneck 26:00 - Progress over perfection: when a 90 is an A and you need to let it go 30:00 - What leaders are most resistant to letting go of 34:00 - The walk-and-talk method and why clearing your head is a leadership strategy
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