In today's episode, we dive deep with Kara Skorepa, a national account manager at Bullhorn.

Kara's journey is nothing short of inspiring—faced with managing a diverse array of 60 customers post-acquisition, she turned challenging situations into success stories with sheer perseverance and compassion. From dealing with upset clients due to previous overselling to leveraging CRM systems like Bullhorn and Salesforce, Kara's adaptive approach and human touch transformed customer relationships.

Join us as Kara shares her strategies for turning negative experiences into positive ones, the value of storytelling in customer management, and the importance of continual learning and self-kindness in the workplace.

We'll also explore how she balances meticulous organization with personal touches, and how she has harnessed the unique strengths of her team to achieve remarkable outcomes.

Sit back and enjoy.

Kara Skorepa LinkedIn
Andrew Barry LinkedIn

Today, we have a special guest, the renowned "Team Whisperer" Lia Garvin, who brings her extensive experience from tech giants like Microsoft, Apple, and Google to the table.

In this episode, we dive into Lia's groundbreaking three-part ops playbook designed to revolutionize team dynamics and business operations. She shares invaluable insights on the importance of implementing this playbook, ensuring team support versus simply focusing on outputs, and fostering an ownership mindset across organizations.

Lia also sheds light on her transition from Google to launching her own business, driven by a mission to support smaller enterprises. Additionally, we'll discuss the critical role of managers as coaches and the power of open-ended questions in driving team success.

Tune in for a conversation packed with practical strategies, real-world examples, and a look at the evolving cultures within tech companies as we navigate the challenges and opportunities in creating a thriving, cohesive team environment.

Andrew Barry LinkedIn
Lia Garvin LinkedIn

Decisions that impact your success are often made without you. Having a personal brand means owning the narrative of what others say about you when you're not around.

This week's Learning Nugget comes from a conversation about owning and honing personal brands with Andrea Wojnicki.

Andrea is a communication coach, Consumer Psychology expert, and self-proclaimed obsessive over understanding "why you said what you just said."

This obsession has driven her career. She worked in marketing at Kraft Foods before earning a Doctorate of Business Administration in Marketing at Harvard Business School (her dissertation was on word-of-mouth!).

Fueled by deliberate practice and her insatiable desire to understand, Andrea created Talk about Talk, a learning platform to help executives boost their confidence and improve their communication skills.

Whether you run your own business or play a vital role on a team, it's important to be in control of your narrative.

Please sit back, relax, and enjoy my episode with Andrea Wojnicki.
Andrea Wojnicki LinkedIn
Andrew Barry LinkedIn

Joining me this week is Jo Wright.

Jo is the firecracker CEO of Coaching Culture. It's a UK-based firm that specializes in the content and platforms to enable cultures of coaching, or as Jo puts it - to scale up coaching conversations.

I initially approached Jo on LinkedIn because I saw something on her website that I thought I disagreed with. And I thought it'd be fun to get into a conversation about the sort of battle between our two viewpoints. But the more I read what she was posting, and the more I dug into the website, the more I realized that we're actually on exactly the same page - that of learning culture and coaching culture. These are all just different names for the same thing, and I think that's the most exciting part of this for me. It's about enabling authentic leaders to have effective conversations by giving each other honest feedback, and building cultures of trust.

I took so many notes from this conversation. I'm sure you will, too.

So please sit back and enjoy my conversation with Jo Wright.

Joining me this week is Paul Millerd.

Paul is the author of a new book called the Pathless Path, as well as a freelance consultant and a Content Advisor to Curious Lion. He has been an indispensable help on a few client projects, assisting in assessing client’s existing Learning Cultures. This is the topic of today’s episode.

Paul spent more than a decade at companies like GE, McKinsey, and BCG as an organizational consultant, assessing, shaping, and cultivating strong organizational cultures.

Much of our conversation in this episode draws upon the work of Edgar Schein, one of the most impressive thinkers on organizational culture from the late 80s and early 90s.

You'll leave this episode knowing what role you can play in establishing and cultivating the culture you want to see at your company.

So please sit back and enjoy my episode with Paul Millerd.

Joining me this week is Ajay Pangarkar.

Ajay is an award-winning Performance and Cost Strategist. He's an expert on training in the workplace, as well as on finance and accounting. He's also an author, and his books bring together his wealth of experience and insight across these various fields. His most recent book, The Trainer's Balanced Scorecard , which he wrote with his co-author Teresa Kirkwood is the starting point for a lot of our conversation. 

We explore the often tricky topic of measuring training ROI, and with Ajay having authored and published multiple courses on these very topics, it was a real privilege to be able to pick his brain and map new insights. .

I know you're going to get a lot of value from this episode, so feel free to share any takeaways or moments that stand out to you.

For now, please sit back and enjoy my conversation with Ajay Pangarkar.

👉Continue the conversation with me: https://twitter.com/Bazzaruto

~ This episode is brought to you by The Learning Culture Experience. Learn more at https://curiouslion.cloud/experience ~

Joining me this week is Steve Bousquet.

Steve is the President of American Landscape and Lawn Science, a lawn care and landscape business based in Connecticut. Reading that, many of you are probably thinking, "That's an interesting guest for a podcast about Learning Culture". I had the same thought when I first met Steve, a self professed learning nerd who never hesitates to hire a coach or to get a certification in something that he thinks could help him in what he sets out to do.

In this episode, we unpack important lessons about the learner path mindset that Steve has installed for his team of 30 people. It covers communication styles, leveraging strengths, the growth mindset, and of course, purpose. Steve shares some very practical tools that you could use to enhance these four areas of your business to promote and enable your people.

Sometimes you have to look at a business entirely different from your own, to learn a new approach that resonates and can be applied to the situation you face. I left my conversation with Steve energized by his fresh perspective, and with a new set of practical ideas that I want to apply at Curious Lion. I have no doubt that you will find gems of your own hidden within this conversation.

So please sit back and enjoy this episode with Steve Bousquet.

Joining me this week is Daniel Quick.

Daniel is the SVP for Learning Strategies at Thought Industries, a platform for customer education. He is also the author of a new book called The Customer Education Playbook, and most of our conversation revolves around the ideas that Daniel and his co-author share in the book.

I went into this conversation prepared, but still with massive blind spots on what customer education truly is. What I learned from speaking to Daniel is that this is to be expected, because the field of customer education is fresh and newly emerging. It's a bit of a mixture of instructional design, marketing,  entrepreneurship and research.

I think of Daniel as an SME for customer education. His book is an incredible resource for anybody who wants to get into the space, whether you are responsible for people development internally or for people development through customers. If you do anything in the field of education or learning, there are deep insights to be gleaned from Daniel's work.

So please sit back and enjoy my conversation with Daniel Quick.

Mark is the founder of Tech Learning Network, one of the leading video-based educational platforms around web development, mobile applications, programming, digital design, and a lot of skills that companies are going through digital transformations need more and more of.

Mark's background in the space goes back to the OG level era.  This was a fun, interesting, engaging conversation where we pushed some spiky points of view. 

So if you're looking for ideas and inspiration on how to make your learning more engaging, more effective, if you're looking for inspiration on what skills you should be thinking about as you start to build the skills architecture within your company, this conversation will give you a lot of great ideas.

So please sit back and enjoy my conversation with Mark Lassoff.

Joining me this week is Angus Fletcher.

Angus is a Professor of Story Science at Ohio State's Project Narrative. Project Narrative is the world's leading think tank for studying the nature of stories and how they work. He's also the author of Wonderworks, a book that explores the rich generational history of authors who laid out narrative and plot techniques that can help us understand how to overcome grief, stimulate joy or increase creativity. 

Ultimately, creativity is about tapping into the potential within. Unleashing hidden creativity is how we transform great companies into unbeatable learning machines. The work that Angus and his team does really pushes the envelope, and hones in on one of the cornerstone skills that we need to make a culture of learning a reality. Teaching creativity.

So if you're ready to join me on this journey, please sit back and enjoy this great conversation with Angus Fletcher.

Joining me this week is Anna Petosa.

Anna is the VP of People Operations at Pelmorex, a Canadian media company. She is responsible for the entire people function at a company of around 500 people. I met Anna through the work that we’re doing around Learning Culture. Anna thinks holistically about people within organizations, from the Operations, to the People Development, to Performance Management, and really everything in between. 

Please sit back, relax and enjoy my episode with Anna Petosa.

👉 Continue the conversation with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

~ This episode is brought to you by The Learning Culture Experience~

Joining me this week is Andy Storch.

Andy is an author, consultant, coach, speaker, and facilitator - best known for helping clients turn strategy into action and getting people to do the best work of their lives. 

Andy and I explore careers. Our conversation focusses on what you can do to get the most fulfillment and enjoyment out of your career.

Andy shared some incredibly valuable tips to build a network and cement a personal brand. So if you're looking to get ownership of your career, definitely give this a listen and see what you can apply right away.

Please sit back and enjoy my conversation with Andy Storch.

👉 Continue the conversation with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

~ This episode is brought to you by The Learning Culture Experience~

Joining me this week is the Senior Director of People Development at PagerDuty, Phylicia Jones.

What PJ brings to the table as a learning professional is a deep understanding of the potential of others, and an incredible passion for the development of that potential. She has incredibly insightful and interesting ideas around releasing that potential. The way she's applied her unique skills at PagerDuty has been visibly effective.

In this conversation, we break down and give some really practical examples of how a lot of these ideas have taken shape among many others. 

So please sit back and enjoy my episode with Phylicia Jones.

👉Continue the conversation with me: https://twitter.com/Bazzaruto

~ This episode is brought to you by The Learning Culture Experience. Learn more at https://curiouslion.cloud/experience ~

Welcome back to the Learning Culture Podcast!

This week’s Learning Nugget comes from a conversation with Karthik Puvvada. KP is a no-code builder, community leader, writer, podcast host, angel investor, and growth advisor for startups.

He has become the famed “Build In Public” expert across the internet, publishing resource after incredible resource on the topic to help founders and creators leverage this framework and build an audience on the internet.

• The Build In Public Podcast features ambitious founders and creators chatting with KP about all things build-in-public.
• The Build In Public Hub is his media site to inspire and teach founders and creators to join the movement.

Our conversation gets to the heart of KP's inspiration and expertise.

There isn’t anybody out there that I’ve met who understands and can talk about these ideas so eloquently. KP packages his years of experience into digestible lessons for those exploring the world of building in public.

Please sit back, relax, and enjoy my episode with KP.

KP LinkedIn
Andrew LinkedIn

Joining me this week is Maya Huber, the CEO of Skillset.

Skillset is a job simulation and AI analysis platform that is seeking to solve the problem of skills-based hiring. In this episode, we unpack the problem of applicant tracking systems that have degree-based filters that have the unintended consequence of rolling out potentially strong candidates from the recruiting pool.

No matter what part of the talent process you focus on, the ideas and principles that Maya brings out in this conversation are applicable to the entire employee life cycle. So there is definitely something in here for everybody.

So please sit back and enjoy my episode with Maya Huber.

👉 Continue the conversation with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

~ This episode is brought to you by The Learning Culture Experience~

Welcome back to another special bonus episode - It's part two of the Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge summary which we started last week!

In the previous episode, we looked at what is crumbling and decaying in our education and management systems. We explored what the future might look like in the form of five learning disciplines, and we ended off part one by discussing the first - Personal Mastery.

In today's episode, we're going to break down the final four pieces of the puzzle, in our pursuit of truly transformational learning organizations.

Please sit back and enjoy my Part 2 summary of The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge.

Continue the conversation with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

~ This episode is brought to you by The Learning Culture Experience ~

Today's episode is a special one - I'm going to share with you a review of a book that I've spent the better part of the last two years with, The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge. 

This process, of applying The Fifth Discipline, rocked my world and turned my whole perspective on learning and work upside down. It reveals the path for us to navigate from a mindset of “crumbling and decaying” to truly seeing the “power that derives from the people.” 

I’ve prepared a deep summary of its chapters and ideas, as a concise entry point to the rich wisdom it shares so that you can begin your own journey of applying these insights and experiencing their rewards.

Please sit back and enjoy my summary of The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge.

Continue the conversation with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

~ This episode is brought to you by The Learning Culture Experience ~

In this episode, Robbie Crabtree will teach us how to be a fantastic facilitator and deliver memorable live sessions. 

The success of rolling out a Transformational Learning Experience greatly relies on you being a confident and inspiring facilitator for the people that come through the program. Main topics covered: 

1. Starting strong. 
2. Do I need to memorize lines?
3. Simplifying and making things memorable. 
4. Don’t overdo it - less is more.
5. Embrace mistakes. 
6. Encouraging all questions. 
7. Eye contact.
8. Finish big.

Continue the conversation with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

~ This episode is brought to you by The Learning Culture Experience ~

Kason is the Head of Learning Experience Design at Salesforce. It's a fairly new role that has seen him work at a number of blue-chip companies throughout the career path that he intentionally designed. 

He brings a deep understanding of design thinking to the work that he does in designing a learning experience. 

We start off our conversation talking about the role that agency plays and how to develop that in an employee population. We unpack what Kason calls “timeless skills” - skills that are both durable and in demand.

Please sit back and enjoy my conversation with Kason Morris.

Continue the conversation with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

~ This episode is brought to you by The Learning Culture Experience ~

Shaunak is the Founder and CEO of a learning platform called Yellowdig which engages hundreds and thousands of students around the world using an approach that they call Gameful Learning. It's kind of like a cross between social learning or collaborative learning and gamified learning.

It's nothing like the sort of icky associations that come with the word gamified, there's actually a lot of intentionality built into the point-scoring and game elements of the system. 

I’m sure you'll find a lot of really good advice and practical tips from this episode.

Please sit back and enjoy my conversation with Shaunak Roy.

Continue the conversation with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

~ This episode is brought to you by The Learning Culture Experience ~

My guest for this episode is Christopher Lind.

Christopher is the Chief Learning Officer for ChenMed, a primary care provider that serves moderate-to-low-income seniors with complex chronic diseases. He's also known for being the LinkedIn Learning Tech Guy under the brand Learning Sharks. 

We go into his current role as a Learning Professional, something that Christopher doesn't talk about often.

In this fascinating conversation, you're going to learn about how to navigate the sometimes tricky terrain of being a new person with big ideas in a new company, how to approach getting leadership buy-in, and much more!

Please enjoy my conversation with Christopher Lind.

Continue the conversation with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

~ This episode is brought to you by The Learning Culture Experience ~

Joining me today is Tameka Harris, a Senior Instructional Systems Designer at Blue Cross Blue Shield. She is also a part-time lecturer at the University of San Diego and an all-around passionate expert in the field of Instructional Design.

We uncover and explore things I believe are the essence of what makes us unique as learning professionals.

And you absolutely have to hear Tameka's answer to the question, "why do you do what you do?"

So please sit back and enjoy my conversation with Tameka Harris.

Continue the conversation with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

~ This episode is brought to you by The Learning Culture Experience ~

In this episode, I talk about a vision I had that we are starting to manifest at Curious Lion. This is the vision for a brand new role in learning, a vision to build a new team for the future.

Join me to unravel what learning should and could look like if we embrace a Learning Culture and the ability to create a learning organization as a central function of a company.

This is a learning organization that shouldn't sit under HR, but rather with its own leader at the table next to the CEO and the rest of the c-suite. That leader? The Learning Culture Officer.

Continue the conversation with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

~ This episode is brought to you by The Learning Culture Experience ~

This podcast explores and pushes the boundaries of what it means to cultivate a Learning Culture. 

By following along, you’ll learn:

• How a shared vision sets the tone for a Learning Culture. 
• How shared assumptions determine our current reality. 
• How shared stories foster commitment to a Learning Culture. 
• How shared experiences, or Cohort Learning Experiences to be specific, instill the practice of a Learning Culture.

Join your host Andrew Barry, the Founder and CEO of Curious Lion, as he interviews learning leaders practicing the cultivation of Learning Culture; experts who tease out critical theoretical components of this idea; and shares learning nuggets from real-world experiences, and our own research and writing.

Stay curious, my friends.

Continue the conversation with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

~ This episode is brought to you by The Learning Culture Experience ~

Welcome back to the Learning Culture Podcast!

This week’s Learning Nugget comes from a conversation with Jeff Gothelf. This is a memorable snippet that captures the importance of storytelling as an essential leadership trait.

Jeff is the co-creator of the methodology for Lean UX, and he’s the author of the award-winning book of the same name (among many others). His work has informed the way thousands of companies approach software and product design.

Our conversation revolved around his book, Forever Employable, which chronicles Jeff’s transition from employee → agency owner → independent operator. 

Jeff applied his storytelling skills at every step of his journey toward thought leadership and the lessons from our conversation show how we can do the same. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this Learning Nugget with Jeff Gothelf.

Jeff LinkedIn
Andrew LinkedIn

Welcome back to the Learning Culture Podcast! This week's Learning Nugget comes from a conversation with Scott Jeffrey Miller.

Scott is an entrepreneur and a Senior Advisor of Thought Leadership for Franklin Covey, a world leader in consulting and training.

His recent years have been dedicated to defining what it means to be recognized as a Thought Leader (hint: it takes more than just declaring yourself one).

He's also a best-selling author and the host of the Franklin Covey-sponsored podcast called On Leadership with Scott Miller - a place from which Scott has been able to mine the wisdom of renowned business titans, authors, and thought leaders.

Master Mentors is Scott's book detailing 30 of those conversations, a key insight for each of them, and prompts to apply them in your own pursuit of mastery.

This conversation is an exploration of how Scott refined all the different transformational insights he has heard in his years interviewing these incredible personalities.

Tune in to learn about:

• How to earn the title of Thought Leader
• Why you should focus on your Smallest Viable Market
• The importance of tough questions
• Distilling transformational insights and sharing them

I guarantee there is something in this episode for you. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this Learning Nugget episode with Scott Jeffrey Miller.

Scott's LinkedIn
Scott’s Website
Andrew Barry LinkedIn

This week's Learning Nugget comes from an episode with Stephanie Dua.

It's all about developing a bias toward action, nurturing latent passions for learning, and creating professional environments for humans to thrive.

Stephanie is the Co-Founder and President of Begin, an early-learning company with products like HOMER, the only learning program proven to increase reading scores with just 15 minutes a day.

Beyond her expertise in learning, education, and entrepreneurship, she has an extensive background in public service:

• Former CEO of NYC Dept. of Education's fund for public schools
• Worked in various non-profit roles with the Carnegie Corporation, Robin Hood Foundation
• Senior advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

She’s also a wife and a mother. So much of our conversation (and her inspiration for HOMER) draws on Stephanie’s career experiences, her upbringing, and her everyday life.

Tune in to learn about:

• Stephanie's decision-making confidence and how to hone your own.
• How to use headwinds and obstacles as inspiration.
• Effective time management and the unsustainability of sprinting.
• The qualities of a successful public servant
• Integrating "work" and "life," not "balancing."

Sit back, relax, and enjoy this Learning Nugget episode with Stephanie Dua!

Stephanie's LinkedIn
Andrew's LinkedIn

Drumroll please 🥁🥁🥁 Welcome to the final episode of Season 1!

I’m joined by none other than Amy Volas to put the cherry on top — in a very special way.

Amy is the founder of Avenue Talent Partners, a business that helps early-stage SaaS startups hire executive sales and CS leaders. She’s an incredible follow on LinkedIn and a dear friend of mine.

Amy also tells it like it is. Unprompted, this episode evolved into a hot-seat… for me.

It’s a vulnerable and constructive conversation about positioning, clarity, and the idea that what you know doesn’t earn trust; how you show up does.

Together, Amy and I Windex-ed the window through which I’ve been looking at my company. You’ll have to tune in to learn more about that reference!

Without further ado, sit back, relax, and enjoy this last episode of Season 1 with Amy Volas!

[P.S. The long-time listeners among us will have realized this podcast season has been 74 episodes long! We’ll move into an exciting and more singularly focused season two after a short break.]

Amy’s LinkedIn
Andrew's LinkedIn

This episode from the vault is with Nat Eliason -- a writer, founder of Growth Machine, and an all-around, self-described internet thinkboi.

He’s also a massive proponent of self-directed, or non-traditional learning.

His career, while starting from a traditional perspective, took a non-traditional and self-directed turn. He and I explore some of the key components of that journey, such as:

• the far transfer of skills,
• constructing your own curriculum,
• learning out loud, and
• proof of work.

Nat is a popular guy; lots of people that are familiar with his work bring up writing, running an online business, or growing his SEO agency. But not many people have picked his brain on the topic of education. And boy, is he a wellspring of knowledge when it comes to education.

Tune in for an in-depth, unfiltered episode on self-directed learning and the future of education. Topics covered:

• The challenges of change and non-attachment
• The innate human desire for certainty and security
• Embracing uncertainty and self-directed learning
• The importance of creating guardrails
• The value of practical experience versus certifications
• Much, much more.

Without further ado, please sit back, relax, and enjoy my episode with Nat Eliason.

Guest Links

• Nat’s Twitter
• Nat’s Website
• Nat’s Youtube
• Growth Machine
• Nat's LinkedIn

Andrew Barry LinkedIn

Today’s episode is about the mental friction that holds back a sale, why sellers struggle with it, and Sean Adams’ approach to overcoming it.

Sean is the Head of Sales and Partnerships at Iorad, a platform that helps you create tutorials quickly and easily. He’s also a big part of the enablement and sales community on LinkedIn.

Selling through Sean’s eyes is about understanding circumstances, not features. For sellers who have never truly been in their customers’ shoes, that’s a tall order.

He and his team at Iorad approach that challenge with the Jobs To Be Done framework. This conversation became a practical discussion of how to apply the framework to the sales process.

This is a Learning Culture Podcast bread-and-butter kind of episode.

It’s filled with stories and tactical insights that you can bring into the fold of your work today.

With that, sit back, relax, and enjoy this episode with Sean Adams.

Sean’s Adams LinkedIn
Andrew Barry LinkedIn

Last week, Paul Slack of Vende Digital walked us through a masterclass on marketing in 2023. Here’s the link to that episode if you missed it.

Today we’re back for part 2, breaking down the barriers between sales and marketing — a challenge that I know hits home for lots of our listeners.

Paul is a former sales guy that now runs a digital marketing and demand generation company, so he is well-informed from both perspectives.

We agree that enablement plays a valuable role in bringing these two functions together for the greater good of the company, and Paul gets incredibly tactical in this episode about how to set up sales and marketing for success.

Please sit back, relax, and enjoy this week’s episode with Paul Slack.

Paul Slack joins the Learning Culture Podcast this week for an episode on how to succeed in B2B marketing in 2023.

Paul is the CEO of Vende Digital, a digital marketing and demand generation company that works with B2B companies.

For the last several months Paul and I have gone back and forth on LinkedIn. I finally got him on the podcast to share his clear and fresh view on marketing.

Here’s a quick glimpse. There is a correct mindset to adopt when creating content for and interacting with buyers:

1. The buyer has access to perfect information
2. They are able to learn what they need on their own
3. They can make rational decisions

Part 1 of this conversation is about deeply exploring this somewhat counterintuitive approach, as well as exploring the spaces where marketing and sales overlap.

Part 2 (tune in next week) will be all about breaking down the barriers between marketing and sales.

Make sure your pen is full of ink — I furiously took notes during this chat, so I’m sure you’ll find lots of practical takeaways, too.

With that, enjoy this Learning Culture Podcast episode with Paul Slack!

Paul Slack  LinkedIn
Andrew Barry LinkedIn

In today's episode, Andrew sits down with Keith Weightman, RVP of Sales at Bullhorn, to dive into the essence of authentic engagement in both social media and sales. 

Keith shares his insights on the detrimental effects of robotic responses and highlights the importance of genuine conversations. Together, they explore the concept of "reps getting reps" – gaining as many experiences as possible to excel in sales – and discuss the challenges of training managers, especially underinvestment in this critical area.

With a focus on active listening and problem-solving, this episode is packed with valuable lessons for sales professionals and leaders alike. So, tune in, as Andrew and Keith unpack the secrets to creating meaningful engagement and driving success.

Andrew Barry LinkedIn
Keith Weightman LinkedIn

Jon Selig is a sales trainer who uses the comedy writing process to help clients deliver memorable messages in sales conversations.

He teaches not a sales methodology … but a way for sellers to more deeply understand prospects and the problems they solve for them, then come up with pattern-interrupting, creative (and funny) ways to get their attention.

This is an invaluable skill for anyone in skills to have.

This episode is about demystifying what Jon does and learning tons from him in an unorthodox way.

It goes without saying that this was a fun one. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this episode with Jon Selig.

Jon Selig LinkedIn
Jon Selig Website
Andrew Barry LinkedIn

This week’s guest is Sheryl Buscheck, the new Director of Global Revenue Enablement at Juniper Networks.

We reflect on Sheryl’s career and the lessons she has learned leading up to this new role – she’s responsible for onboarding and Juniper’s Ramp to Productivity Programs.

Today’s topic is the human challenges of changing your go-to-market strategy. A relevant problem for you listeners, I’m sure.

These are all things that come to mind when I talk about learning culture, so it was thrilling to unpack all of this alongside Sheryl and to hear her perspective as a change management professional.

For new and returning listeners alike, if you’re enthusiastic about helping people navigate change, you’re going to get plenty of actionable insights from this episode.

Please sit back, relax, and enjoy this episode with Sheryl Buscheck.

And if we’re not connected already, head down the page to find links to Sheryl’s and my LinkedIn so we can keep the conversation going.

Sheryl Buscheck LinkedIn
Andrew Barry LinkedIn

This week’s guest is Sheryl Buscheck, the new Director of Global Revenue Enablement at Juniper Networks. She’s responsible for onboarding and Juniper’s Ramp to Productivity Programs.

The topic of our full upcoming episode is the human challenges of changing your go-to-market strategy. A relevant problem for you listening, I’m sure.

These are all things that come to mind when I talk about learning culture, so it was thrilling to unpack all of this alongside Sheryl and to hear her perspective as a change management professional.

But in this "Rapid Fire 5" segment, I gather her first thoughts on five key questions related to learning and enablement.

Sheryl Buscheck LinkedIn

This week's episode features Katie Pariseau, the Head of Enablement at TrustRadius. She landed in that role a year and a half ago and brings to it lessons from a career that began in social marketing.

If you've ever heard Don't Mess with Texas, that's social marketing.

Katie worked at an agency whose job is to come up with those kinds of campaigns - advertising that changes behavior for social causes.

She and I spent our conversation exploring the lessons she extracted from her fascinating career. As an intern, she interviewed smokers and litterers, uncovered and addressed unconscious behaviors, and fed her insights to the copywriting and creative teams to devise powerful ad campaigns.

Tune in for a template- and example-filled episode. Katie and I used our time together to apply her career insights to coaching and enabling people.

This was a really fun one for me and I know you'll enjoy it, too. So please sit back, relax, and enjoy my episode with Katie Pariseau.

Katie Pariseau LinkedIn

Joining me this week is Katie Pariseau.

Katie is the Head of Enablement at TrustRadius. She's been in that role for a year and a half and brings to it lessons from a career that started in social marketing, which  is advertising that changes behavior for social causes. Things like anti-litter campaigns, stopping smoking, and water conservation.

Our full upcoming episode is packed with examples, practical things that you can use, and almost templates, with some specific questions that Katie uses as go-to questions. 

But in this "Rapid Fire 5" segment, I gather her first thoughts on five key questions related to learning and enablement.

Katie Pariseau LinkedIn

Welcome to another first-of-its-kind episode! This is a remixed and edited version of a live virtual event I co-hosted with Nikki Schanzer in April. Nikki is a Senior Leadership Development Sales Performance Consultant at LinkedIn, and a dear friend of mine and the show.

As enablers, we need to know what it’s like to be in the shoes of managers and sales leaders. We need to actually walk a mile in their shoes before we throw just another framework at them.

This wasn’t just another webinar to chop your vegetables to or scroll along on Twitter while you’re listening. This was a nitty-gritty, hands-on experience in which the people who joined left experiencing true transformation.

If you weren’t there with us, this podcast episode is a perfect way to:

• Experience the power of the GROW Model
• Learn how to structure and implement coaching and mentoring
• Learn how to provide managers with the tools they need to create an environment of accountability.

Get your headphones and your notepad ready — we’re going to learn how to scale a culture of coaching at your company together.

I highly recommend you share this episode with a friend or a colleague and work through the recording together, making it as interactive as possible.

It doesn’t have to be a colleague; it can be your partner, your child, your best friend … anybody that wants to learn and grow, and help you do the same.

The last thing to do is to check the Selected Links from the Episode below. You’ll find:

• A link to the presentation slide deck
• A public Google Doc complete with a cheat sheet and our live session attendees’ takeaways (feel free to add to it!)

Please sit back, relax, and enjoy this special GROW Workshop in Sales Coaching with Nikki Schanzer.

Nikki Schanzer’s LinkedIn

• Presentation slide deck
• Collaborative Google Doc

Joining me this week for the first-ever combined panel episode are Kunal Pandya and John Williamson.

• Kunal is a Senior Director of Global Revenue Enablement at UserZoom and the Founder + CEO of Sales Velocity Labs.
• John is a Sales and Revenue Enablement Change Agent with an extensive background in sales, most recently working as a Sales Enablement Leader at Analog Devices.

Treat this episode as a mastermind - these two gentlemen expertly weave their way through this spiky topic from different angles. Ultimately, we all converge on the same vision and strive to work toward the same goal.

This episode went over so well that we're planning to host a live-discussion version of this topic. If that's enticing to you, hop on to my newsletter at curiouslionlearning.com/newsletter.

As soon as you get the first email from me, reply and say I'm interested in a workshop with John and Kunal!

I had the privilege of sitting back a bit and letting John and Kunal do their thing, and it made for a stellar episode with an interesting and open-ended conclusion.

After you listen, head to our newsletter, get that first email from me, and let me know if you're interested in a workshop with these guys.

With that, sit back, relax, and enjoy my episode with Kunal and John.

Kunal’s LinkedIn
John’s LinkedIn

Welcome to part two of Elite Human Performance with Brittany Loney. I urge you to go back and watch if you missed part one.

In it, I spoke with Brittany, Director of Elite Cognition and Human Optimization for Core One (a company that works with the US Military Special Forces) about her remarkable journey into the world of performance psychology and cognitive neuroscience.

We chatted about her origin story and how she ended up working with soldiers that operate in high-consequence arenas to help them develop their potential and work towards elite performance.

In this episode, we explore more deeply the psychology and neuroscience that Brittany brings to her work, namely in her framework, ECHO – Elite Cognition and Human Optimization.

ECHO is an outstanding training model that progressively builds a soldier (or athlete, or any human) to a level of enduring excellence.

• It balances high performance with sustainable practices that manage burnout.
• It considers the underlying physical things (nutrition, habits, productivity, cognitive dominance, integrating with the mission, etc.) we have set as our goal.
• It is designed to help forge elite teams to keep raising the bar of performance.

It's thrilling for me to bring this to you and play a small part in Brittany's expanding influence.

Once again, go check out the first episode before you dive in!

It's time to sit back, relax, and enjoy this episode with Brittany Loney.

Brittany Loney joins me this week for part one of a special two-part episode! We were on such a roll, we recorded for almost two hours! Brittany is the Director of Elite Cognition and Human Optimization at Core One.

She works with the US Military, specifically, soldiers in very high-risk combat situations. She works with them as groups and individuals to develop their:

• brain capacity,
• physical capacity,
• and emotional capacity

to operate at peak performance within those high-risk arenas.

In part one we explore Brittany’s traumatic college basketball background and how it led her along a learning journey about performance psychology and brain science.

She applied her knowledge to other athletes and other sports and eventually found herself working in the US military (where she has been for the past 13 years) and designing an incredible program of packaged expertise called ECHO – Elite Cognition and Human Optimization.

In part two (tune in next week!), we’ll explore the finer details of the ECHO program and how its foundations align with lots of things we talk about on this show.

I recommend getting out a pen and paper or taking notes on your phone, because you’ll come across some practical stuff in here to apply at work for the teams that you’re responsible for developing and for your own work.

This whole episode is about high performance — elite human performance.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy this episode with Brittany Loney.

Brittaney Loney LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittany-loney

On this episode of The Learning Culture Podcast, Meganne Brezina, Senior Director of Field Enablement at Seismic, shares her insights on change management.

Seismic prioritizes one big initiative every year, focusing on cutting through the noise and being proactive in rolling out new initiatives, achieving messaging alignment, cascading information, and all that good stuff.

As a former seller and now an enablement leader, Meganne shares her journey to uncovering the framework for a proper change management approach in enablement and the importance of investing in quality content.

Join us as we dive into the importance of coaching as a frontline management aspect, flexibility and adaptability in fast-paced environments, and the need for a common language to scale businesses.

Please sit back and relax and enjoy my episode with Meganne Brezina.

Meganne Brezina LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganne-brezina

Today, we dive deep with David Hurwitt, founder of Troove, into the evolving landscape of career paths, the pressing need for individualized guidance in educational environments, and the pivotal role of adaptive intelligence in today's workplace.

With a 30-year career that transitioned from traditional roles in large companies to impactful positions in startups focused on renewable energy and now education, David shares his expansive insights on finding meaningful work, the importance of agility, and the power of a mission-oriented approach in business and personal growth.

Today, we’re exploring how David's innovative platform, Troove, aims to radically transform how students connect with their ideal educational and career paths by emphasizing a good social and academic fit, and how these strategies can also inform smarter hiring practices in any field.

Join us as we discuss the necessity of resilience, curiosity, and adaptability in overcoming professional challenges and making visionary decisions that pave the way to success.

Andrew Barry LinkedIn
David Hurwitt LinkedIn

On this episode of The Learning Culture Podcast, Meganne Brezina, Senior Director of Field Enablement at Seismic, shares her insights on change management.

Seismic prioritizes one big initiative every year, focusing on cutting through the noise and being proactive in rolling out new initiatives, achieving messaging alignment, cascading information, and all that good stuff.

As a former seller and now an enablement leader, Meganne shares her journey to uncovering the framework for a proper change management approach in enablement and the importance of investing in quality content.

In this "Rapid Fire 5" segment, I gather her first thoughts on five key questions related to learning and enablement.

Meganne Brezina LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganne-brezina

My guest this week is Allison Sword.

Allison is the Senior Manager of Revenue Enablement at Restaurant365. She has an incredible track record in the industry in sales enablement and has been around since the beginning.

She was a sales leader herself before that, bringing tons of experience to her role.

She's also very involved in the WiSE community in Chicago and learned a lot from meeting and networking with people in the space.

We sat down and unpacked her experiences and reassembled them into a practical format for all of you listening.

Specifically, we talked about onboarding and Alison's take on what she calls “Leader-First Onboarding.”

This conversation had been a long time coming with Allison, and I'm glad we got the chance to record it for all of you.

So please sit back, relax, and enjoy my episode with Allison Sword.

Allison Sword LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-sword

Joining me this week is Allison Sword, the senior manager of revenue enablement at Restaurant365.

She has an incredible track record within sales enablement, and has been been around basically since the beginning.  She was a sales leader herself before that and brings so much unique perspective and experience to the role. She's also very involved with the WiSE community in Chicago and has connected and grown a lot through networking with other women in the space.

In this "Rapid Fire 5" segment, I gather her first thoughts on five key questions related to learning and enablement.

Allison Sword LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-sword/

This week, we have a special episode.

Today, I want to share with you an article that I wrote from a review that I did of my first quarter in 2023. I spent the first quarter doing a lot of journaling; it is a new practice that I have taken a lot more seriously this year. And at the end of the quarter, I go away and lock myself up—in this case, in a farm—for 48 hours. And I review all of my notes from the previous quarter and write a synthesis of that.

What came out of this particular one was identifying five main themes or pathways that I have found, am walking, and will constantly walk for the rest of my life. I think you'll find them valuable. Well, I hope you do, because I think maybe some of them you'll find valuable, and maybe others you won't. But these five were really essential and will continue to be essential for me to continue walking this path.

In the second part of the episode, I talk about how I applied the lessons that I've learned from walking those five pathways to my business. And I share a little bit about our point of view, our purpose, our vision, and a little bit about our strategy too.

If you're interested in how we are building this Revenue Enablement as a Service thing, you're really going to enjoy this episode. If you want to read this article, it's up on our blog.

Go to https://curiouslionlearning.com/criticalpath. You can check out the full piece of what you're going to hear next, as well as some really cool AI generated images and a lot of other good stuff.

With that, it is time for you to sit back, relax, and enjoy this episode with me.

In this special episode, I've invited one of my team members to join me. You're about to hear from Theshel Govender. Theshel is a Senior Learning Architect on our team at Curious Lion and the recent author of a post on our blog that went viral in our corner of the world.

We started a project this year in which everybody on the Learning Architect team started to write articles and publish them on our blog.

Our goal is for the world and our clients to hear from our team and for us to expand our own understanding of our expertise. Theshel has stepped up as a leader of this project.

The article that you'll hear came, at least for me, out of the blue. I didn't even know she was writing it. I hadn't seen an early outline for it; I didn't know anything about it.

And I will never forget this - I was at a brewery with my wife and son. I got a notification on my phone from Slack, saying that an article had gone up on our website. Whenever I see that, I’m immediately drawn to reading them.

So, I quickly asked my wife, who said it was okay, and I just started reading this article while sipping a beer. My jaw just started to drop as I was reading.

I don't want to give too much away, but a big theme of the piece is loyalty. It's an incredibly vulnerable piece in which Theshel shares a difficult period for her creatively and personally that she overcame, and that she feels like she's overcome by working at Curious Lion with the incredible team we have.

It made me think about my style of leadership, which I can best describe as inclusive leadership. I've realized from reading Theshel’s article that inclusive leadership is what inspires loyalty, and loyalty creates massive leverage.

That's ultimately my goal - to create a workplace in which everyone feels like they can bring their best selves to do their best work.

I'll hand over the microphone to Theshel, who's going to read her amazing article. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy this episode with Theshel Govender.

Joining me this week is Stephanie Middaugh, who is the founder of Phoenix GTM Consulting. Stephanie also has an incredible track record and career in enablement. She, as she says in the show, was a victim of the layoffs but had been building Phoenix in the background for a while. So she clearly always had the intention and passion to go out on her own, and that's what she did. We talk a little bit about what that's been like, which is a fun way to start this conversation.

The main episode is about Hackathons. Stephanie has been running these Hackathons with the Sales Enablement Squad that she runs with her partner. It is an incredible format for coming together, and it's in person. Participants fly in and get together for an afternoon of workshopping actual problems that these people want to focus on, that will be super useful. No slides, no presentations - this is just stickies, notebooks, pens, papers, and whiteboards, and off you go. And it's been a really good run that they had last year. They're now running six or seven of these next year.

If you want to find out more about those workshops, you'll learn all about them, how they work, and how to set them up. And then we talk about how you can use Hackathons for sales team training or sales enablement. And this was really cool. It definitely came up with a really helpful, cool, six step framework to help you think about how to do this. And this was not prepared, we didn't plan to come up with that, a testament to how much fun it was to have this conversation.

Please, sit back, relax, and enjoy this long-awaited episode with the meme queen, Stephanie Middaugh.

Stephanie Middaugh LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjmiddaugh/