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Explore every episode of the podcast The Learning To Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff

Dive into the complete episode list for The Learning To Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff. Each episode is cataloged with detailed descriptions, making it easy to find and explore specific topics. Keep track of all episodes from your favorite podcast and never miss a moment of insightful content.

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TitlePub. DateDuration
#76 Why 95% of AI Implementations Fail (And How to Be the Exception) with Ben Tasker15 Sep 202600:50:30


Episode Summary

What if the biggest obstacle to AI adoption isn't the technology at all — it's the humans who have to trust it, learn it, and choose to use it? In this episode, Mark sits down with Ben Tasker, an AI capability and workforce transformation expert, to unpack why AI success has almost nothing to do with the algorithm and everything to do with people.

Ben shares his journey from chasing patient volume data with a clipboard in a hospital hallway to leading AI transformation at a FTSE 100 company — and the hard-won leadership lessons along the way. You'll hear his framework for leading AI change (hint: it involves cake), why 95% of organizations fail to implement AI successfully, and practical, no-jargon steps anyone can take to start using AI today — whether you're a new grad, a seasoned leader, or a small business owner just trying to keep up.

About Ben Tasker

Ben Tasker is an AI capability and workforce transformation expert who leads a Data & AI Academy upskilling 36,000 employees at a FTSE 100 company. Formerly Dean of AI at Southern New Hampshire University, he launched applied AI certifications supporting more than 225,000 learners. Ben helps organizations prepare for the future of AI-enabled work.

Connect with Ben:

What You'll Learn in This Episode

  • Why Ben believes AI problems are really human problems — trust, fear, judgment, adoption, and communication
  • The hospital "stone tablet" story that shaped Ben's human-centered approach to technology
  • How to know when you've crossed from individual contributor into leadership
  • The "capability scale" concept from John Kotter's Leading Change — and why leading at a 5 when your audience is at a 1, 2, or 3 kills adoption
  • The difference between AI skills and human skills (and why you need both)
  • Ben's "Cake" framework for leading AI change:
    • Clarity — Why are we doing this, and what's the roadmap?
    • Capability — Building learning pathways so people can actually use the tool
    • Co-Creation — Letting teams build something together with AI
    • Comfort — The "frosting": psychological safety to experiment and fail
  • Why 95% of organizations that skip the capability step fail to implement AI successfully
  • The real story of a car dealership chatbot that sold a car for one dollar — and what it teaches about risk planning
  • Overblown AI fears vs. real risks worth taking seriously
  • What it actually means to "train" an AI, and why your prompting habits matter more than you think
  • Simple ways to start using AI today — starting with a hobby, not your job
  • Advice for new college grads: attach yourself to skills, not job titles
  • Practical, low-cost AI wins for small business owners and nonprofit leaders
  • How Ben personally stays current — including free courses from Anthropic (Claude), Google, and others

Memorable Quotes

  • "Math doesn't change. That's the only thing that hasn't changed in our story today."
  • "Just because you have an AI tool doesn't mean you have an AI strategy."
  • "Any change has risk to it, but especially with AI, because it can touch so many areas of your business."
  • "AI doesn't have to be technical. It doesn't have to be hard. You can slowly roll it out over time."

Resources & Mentions

  • Good to Great by Jim Collins
  • Leading Change by John Kotter
  • The Art of Explanation (the "knowledge gap" concept)
  • World Economic Forum — AI skills vs. human skills framework
  • Vibe coding tools mentioned: Lovable, Replit
  • Free AI courses: Anthropic (Claude), Google

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#75 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Katie Neal12 Sep 202600:08:13
Leadership Insights from My Conversation with Katie Neal

 
If you don't tell your story, someone else will.
 
Let that sink in for a second. If you don't tell your story, someone else will tell it for you. That single truth is the heartbeat of this episode, and it's why I wanted to sit back down with you—just the two of us—to unpack the leadership gold from my conversation with Katie Neal.
 
If you haven't listened to Episode #74, Own Your Own Story: Communication, Confidence, and the Courage to Pivot with Katie Neal, go back and give it a listen first. This episode builds directly on that one.

Meet Katie Neal
 
Katie was my first Wake Forest alum guest on the show, and as a fellow Wake Forest grad, that meant a lot to me. Katie and I were both communications majors, and she's spent the years since building a career most leaders would love to have:
 

  • Certified executive coach
  • Award-winning communications leader
  • Founder of Katie Neale Consulting and Coaching
  • 20+ years in journalism, PR, and strategic communications
  • Senior roles at TimelyCare and Wake Forest University


Katie has built her career helping leaders find clarity, confidence, and purpose in their communication—and it shows in every insight she shared.
 
What We Explored
 
Our conversation covered a lot of ground, but here's the practical wisdom we dug into:
 

  1. Why communication is the through line between trust, hope, compassion, and stability
  2. Preparing for a crisis before it happens, instead of reacting in the moment
  3. Reading the difference between real problems and isolated noise
  4. Using values clarification exercises to get unstuck in your career
  5. Sharpening executive presence through language
  6. Recognizing perfectionism and imposter syndrome in high achievers
  7. Delivering authentic messages instead of scripted ones
  8. Betting on yourself and navigating the fear that comes with it


My 5 Key Takeaways

1. If you don't tell your story, someone else will
 
Katie's journalism background taught her something every leader needs to internalize: silence is never neutral. When leaders don't proactively communicate, people fill in the gaps with their own doubts, judgments, and biases.
 
Here's how Katie put it:
 

"If you don't fill in the blanks for other people, then people can crowd that with their own misperceptions, their judgments, their doubts, and their biases."


Leadership lesson: Proactive communication isn't optional. If you don't own your narrative, someone else will write it for you.

2. Preparation is what separates calm leaders from reactive ones
 
Katie pointed to American Airlines' CEO response to the tragic midair collision as a model of calm, transparent crisis leadership. The difference wasn't in-the-moment talent—it was a playbook built long before the crisis hit.
 

"You cannot outsource human judgment. Anytime you're leading from a place of fear, from a reactive place, that has a really high likelihood of going awry."


Leadership lesson: Practicing your response before a crisis is what makes composure possible during one.

3. Getting unstuck starts with knowing your core values

When Katie coaches a leader who feels stuck, she doesn't start with the job market, LinkedIn, or resumes. She starts with a values clarification exercise. Our core values rarely change over a lifetime—they simply need to be named.

As Katie explains it, when you realize what really motivates you and guides your decision-making, it becomes easy to say no to what doesn't align—including an unrealistic version of success.

Leadership lesson: You can't move forward with clarity until you know what actually matters to you.

4. Small language shifts build executive presence

Katie coaches leaders on techniques like flagging language, bridging, and the ABC model—Acknowledge, Bridge, Conclude—for answering hard questions without ever saying "no comment." These small shifts consistently make a leader sound more confident and credible.

Leadership lesson: Confidence isn't just what you know. It's how clearly and directly you say it.

5. High achievers need to be led differently
 
Katie describes high performers as swans gliding across the water—calm and polished on the surface, paddling fiercely underneath. Perfectionism, imposter syndrome, and burnout often hide behind the very people leaders trust most with high-stakes work.
 
Her go-to coaching question for leaders wrestling with imposter syndrome:
 

"What is the evidence that you don't belong in this room?"


Leadership lesson: Don't assume your strongest people are fine just because they look that way. Ask.

Connect with Katie:

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#74 Own Your Story: Communication, Confidence, and the Courage to Pivot with Katie Neal03 Sep 202600:54:57
Episode #74: Own Your Story — Communication, Confidence, and the Courage to Pivot with Katie Neal

 
Episode Overview

If you don't tell your story, someone else will tell it for you.

That's the thread running through my entire conversation with Katie Neal — communications leader, certified executive coach, and my first-ever Demon Deacon guest. Katie has built a career on helping people and organizations own their narrative, and in this episode, she brings that same wisdom to us: how to lead through crisis, communicate with confidence, and navigate the fear that comes with betting on yourself.
 
Whether you're leading a team, building a business, or standing at a career crossroads, this episode will give you language and tools you can use today.

Key Takeaways

  • Own your story before someone else writes it for you. Proactive communication builds trust; silence invites speculation.
  • Preparation is the foundation of calm leadership. Crisis response isn't improvised — it's rehearsed.
  • Your language shapes your credibility. Small shifts — flagging, bridging, cutting jargon — dramatically change how you're perceived.
  • Clarify your core values to get unstuck. They've likely been guiding you since childhood, whether you've named them or not.
  • High achievers need to be led differently. Ask them what energizes and drains them — then act on what you hear.
  • Confidence is built through repetition. Practice isn't optional. Do the reps.

 
About Katie Neal

Katie Neal, ACC, is a certified executive coach, award-winning communications leader, and sought-after speaker and facilitator. As CEO and principal of Katie Neal Consulting & Coaching, she helps high achievers lead with intention and advance their careers. She brings more than 20 years of journalism, PR, and strategic communications experience, having held senior communications roles at TimelyCare and her alma mater, Wake Forest University. Today, through coaching, keynotes, and workshops, she develops leaders and empowers them to show up with clarity, confidence, and purpose.
 

What We Cover in This Episode

Katie's Leadership Journey

From nearly becoming a doctor, to falling in love with public speaking at Wake Forest, to a year in broadcast journalism, to building a career across PR agencies in Sacramento, San Francisco, and Singapore — Katie shares how a leap of faith with her now-husband set her career in motion, and how another leap, this time to Lexington, Kentucky, eventually led her to launch her own coaching practice.

Why Every Leader Needs to Be a Storyteller

Katie unpacks a striking Gallup statistic: across 56 countries, people said they want four things most from their leaders — hope, trust, compassion, and stability. The through line connecting all four? Communication.
 

"If you don't tell your story, someone else will tell it for you."


The Traits of Truly Great Leaders

  • They are exceptional listeners
  • They collaborate before they decide
  • They communicate the decision and rally people around it
  • They lead with high emotional intelligence
  • They stay connected to both their purpose and their people

Crisis Communication: What Separates Calm Leaders from Reactive Ones

Katie breaks down why preparation is the difference-maker in a crisis — using the American Airlines/Army helicopter tragedy as a case study in calm, transparent leadership. She also addresses a threat leaders couldn't have imagined a decade ago: deepfakes of senior leadership, and why every organization — especially nonprofits — needs a crisis communications plan and the discipline to practice it.

Key steps for building a crisis-ready organization:

  1. Budget time and resources toward a communications plan
  2. If you don't have in-house expertise, bring in someone who knows your market
  3. Update your plan regularly — does it account for today's threats (like AI-generated misinformation)?
  4. Run crisis communication drills, not just written plans
  5. Prepare a communications cascade so every audience-facing team has an aligned message

Navigating a Career Pivot

Katie walks through how she coaches people who feel stuck — starting with a values clarification exercise to identify the five or six core values that have guided you since childhood. She shares her own: trust, responsibility, relationships, communication, achievement, and fun.
 

"When you realize what really motivates you and guides your decision-making, it's easy to say no to what doesn't align — including an unrealistic version of success."


She also encourages listeners to ask: Who's on your personal board of directors, and what do they see in you that you don't see in yourself?

Telling Your Own Story (Without Sounding Boastful)

Katie shares her framework for a strong elevator pitch — who you are, what you do, and why it matters to the organization in front of you — and why that pitch should flex depending on your audience.

The Hidden Struggles of High Achievers
 
Katie describes the "swan on water" phenomenon — high performers look calm on the surface while paddling furiously underneath. Common struggles include:

  • Perfectionism and unreasonably high self-expectations
  • Imposter syndrome — constantly wondering, "When will they figure out I don't belong here?"
  • Burnout, often because high achievers get handed more work, not less

Katie's go-to coaching question for imposter syndrome:

"What is the evidence that you don't belong in the room?"


 The Power of Language in Leadership
 
This is one of the most practical parts of the conversation. Katie introduces three techniques for sharpening executive presence:

  • Flagging language — "If you remember one thing, it's this..."
  • Bridging language — moving confidently from a hard question to your key message
  • The ABC method — Acknowledge, Bridge, Conclude — for answering questions you don't have full answers to, without saying "no comment"

She also names two common communication mistakes leaders make: leaning on jargon instead of real language, and speaking too much instead of listening.

What Authentic Leadership Communication Looks Like

Katie shares practical, tactical advice for leaders — especially on video: eye contact with the camera, open-hand gestures, strong posture, and above all, practice. She reflects on preparing for her TED Talk at Bellarmine University and the discipline it took to deliver a scripted message that still sounded like her.

Betting on Herself

Katie opens up about leaving a stable VP role at TimelyCare to build her coaching practice from scratch — and how she manages the very real, everyday fear that comes with entrepreneurship without letting it steal her sleep.

Advice for Young Professionals Entering the Workforce

  1. Lean into your network — including relationships you haven't even considered yet
  2. Show up and connect — at networking events, on LinkedIn, through thank-you notes — and treat networking as relationship-building, not transaction
  3. Polish your communication — handshake, eye contact, asking good questions, and cutting words like "just" and "I'm sorry"

Resources & Recommendations from Katie

Connect with Katie:

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#73 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Adam Roach31 Aug 202600:07:40


What does it cost you to keep chasing success once it stops feeling like enough?
 
That's the question sitting at the center of this episode. Last week, Adam Roach joined the show for a candid, story-filled conversation in Episode #72, From Success to Significance: The Beach Chair Moment. 

Adam is the founder of the I Love Coaching community, where he helps established coaches build businesses rooted in clarity and ownership. Before that, he built and sold a real estate franchise, owned a SaaS technology company, and even ran the Beverly Hills Tennis Club in his twenties.
 
By every outside measure, Adam had already won. Then his father, a Hall of Fame Olympic swim coach, passed away in 2019. Standing in front of hundreds of people his father had shaped over a lifetime, Adam had a realization that would change everything: he had spent years building success, while his dad had quietly built significance.

In this episode, I'm sharing the five biggest leadership insights I took from that conversation, and I'm challenging you to sit with them the same way I did.


5 Key Takeaways from My Conversation with Adam Roach

1. Success and Significance Are Not the Same Thing
 
Adam spent years chasing success. Franchises. A software company. A comfortable lifestyle. It wasn't until he lost his father that he saw the difference clearly. In Adam's words:
 

"Significance should be coming from your leadership, and if you focus on significance first, success will always follow."


Success alone eventually hits a ceiling. Significance is what outlasts you. It's what filled the room at Adam's father's funeral, decades after some of those relationships began.
 
Success can build your name. Only significance builds your legacy.

2. Leadership Is Caught, Not Taught

Adam's father and grandfather never sat him down to teach him leadership theory. They simply lived it — hard work, consistency, showing up — and Adam absorbed it by watching.

The people you lead are absorbing your example far more than your instructions. What are you modeling when you don't realize anyone's watching?

3. Every Leader Is Wearing a Pose

This might be the most piercing idea Adam shared. He offered a simple framework: a wound creates a lie, the lie creates a vow, and the vow becomes the pose you perform every day — often without realizing it.
 
For Adam, it looked like this:
 

  • The wound: watching his father find validation from the outside world
  • The lie: he was inadequate
  • The vow: win at everything
  • The pose: a performer who had to achieve in order to feel worthy


Until you name the wound driving you, you're likely leading from a mask instead of your true identity.

4. Trust Is Built Through Invitation, Not Persuasion

Adam's Real Coach method — Relevant, Experiential, Authentic Leader — is built on one idea: when you're clear on who you are and the outcome you offer, you never have to sell. You invite.

Clarity removes the need to convince anyone of anything.

5. Standards Outlast Presence

When Adam ran his real estate offices, his team recited their vision statement every week and answered one question: "What's the one thing you did to move us closer to it?" Two simple rules governed everything: no one says "it's not my job," and no one has more fun than we do.

That kept the team aligned even when Adam wasn't in the room.

A team that only performs when the leader is watching doesn't yet have real standards. It's just supervision.


The Beach Chair Moment

One of the things that stuck with me most is how much quiet reflection shapes Adam's life. He takes a morning walk every day just to get his mind right. And then there's the beach chair moment he shares in the full episode — sitting on the beach with his Bible, some water, and a notebook, working through where his life was headed next.

That reflection is what's driving Adam's clarity and purpose today, as he works to help coaches around the world reach and impact 100 million people.

So let me ask you what I'm asking myself: What is your mission? What is your vision? Where are you actually headed in this next season of your life?

If you haven't listened to the full conversation yet, go back to Episode 72 and hear Adam tell the beach chair story in his own words.

A Quick Thank You

The Learning to Lead Show has now been downloaded in 431 cities, across 65 countries and 42 U.S. states. That growth is because of listeners like you sharing the show.

If you haven't already, subscribe so every new episode lands in your podcast app automatically — and if today's episode (or any episode) added value to your leadership journey, a rating helps us reach more leaders with these conversations.

Now go out and learn, grow, and lead. Take your leadership to the next level.


Related: Episode 72 — From Success to Significance: The Beach Chair Moment with Adam Roach

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#72 From Success to Significance: The Beach Chair Moment with Adam Roach25 Aug 202600:58:14

#72 From Success to Significance: The Beach Chair Moment with Adam Roach

You can check every box success is supposed to give you — the businesses, the income, the lifestyle — and still feel like something's missing. That's exactly where my guest today found himself.

Adam Roach built three real estate franchises, a SaaS technology company, and ran a Beverly Hills tennis club in his twenties. By every outside measure, he'd made it. Then his father — a Hall of Fame Olympic swim coach — passed away in 2019. Standing in front of hundreds of people whose lives his dad had shaped, Adam realized he'd spent years chasing success while his father had quietly built something far more lasting: significance.

That realization sent him to a beach chair with a Bible, a journal, and one prayer. Within weeks, he'd sold three businesses in a single day and started over with nothing but a calling he couldn't yet see the shape of. Today he leads the I Love Coaching community, helping coaches on four continents build businesses rooted in clarity and ownership — all pointed at a North Star he received in that very beach chair moment.

In this episode, we talk about:

  • The difference between success and significance, and why success alone always leads to a dead end
  • The beach chair moment that led Adam to sell three businesses in one day
  • The W + L + V = POSE framework for uncovering the wound, lie, and vow driving your identity
  • Why leadership is "caught, not taught"
  • How Adam learned to stop being self-reliant — including forgiving a $250,000 debt mid-negotiation
  • The REAL Coach Method for building trust without ever having to sell
  • Why a silent, phone-free morning walk is his most important daily discipline 
  • What he's learned about leadership from his friendship with John Maxwell

If you've ever felt the itch that there's something more waiting for you, even in the middle of success, this conversation is for you.

Connect with Adam Roach: 

Adam's Free Resources:

  1. Grab a free Copy of the 6 Things You DON'T need to be a World Class Coach (these are the 6 things I had to learn the hard way)
  2. Serious about becoming a coach? Learn more on the I Love Coaching Community Discovery Page.  If the copy and the video on that page Resonates with you.. Take the next step (see no. 3)
  3. Become a member and get unstuck from your current situation. Build a 6- and 7-figure coaching business using The REAL Coach Method.


Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#71 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Greg Gerber21 Aug 202600:07:14
Episode 71: Leadership Insights from My Conversation with Greg Gerber


The Question Behind This Episode

What happens when the career that once defined you disappears?

That's the question at the heart of this episode. It's my follow-up reflection on Episode 70, Stories of Reinvention, Forward from 50: How to Rediscover Purpose, Passion, and Possibility with Greg Gerber — and I wanted to sit with it a little longer, because I think a lot of us are closer to this moment than we realize.

Meet Greg Gerber

Greg spent nearly 20 years as a journalist covering the RV industry, building his own daily publication to 16,000 subscribers. Then he did something almost unheard of in his field: he sold everything, bought a motor home, and lived in it full-time for three years — traveling to all 48 lower states to report from inside the industry he'd spent two decades covering.

What he found on the road led to a series of editorials that cost him nearly two-thirds of his revenue within weeks, and eventually, the business itself.

That loss became the foundation for Forward from 50 — Greg's platform helping people over 50 discover that meaning and purpose don't end at retirement. They just change shape. Nearly 200 interviews later, he keeps hearing the same story: people stepping out of careers that no longer fit and into work that finally does.

The truth we kept coming back to: You don't retire from your purpose. You retire from your job.

What We Talked About

  • Recognizing apathy creep before it drains your passion
  • Separating the job you had to do from the purpose you're meant to do
  • Turning pain and loss into a new direction
  • Identifying your natural talents through honest self-evaluation
  • Overcoming imposter syndrome when starting something new
  • Using curiosity to stay sharp and engaged at any age
  • Finding purpose by helping someone else, not just yourself

5 Key Takeaways

1. Your Purpose Doesn't Retire When Your Job Does

Greg lost nearly two-thirds of his income within weeks, and within a couple of years, the business he'd spent 20 years building was gone. But here's what he told me:

"You don't retire from your purpose because your purpose has changed. You want to do something that makes an impact. And once you discover what it is that you want to do, you pick up that baton, and you run that race."


Leadership lesson: A job ending is not the same as your purpose ending. The role changes — the mission doesn't have to.

If you're in a career transition, a season of change, or you're just not sure what's next, take a moment to ask yourself what your purpose really is, separate from the title you've been holding. You've been given gifts and talents for a reason. There's still a race for you to run.

2. Apathy Creep Is Real, and It's Quiet

Greg names something I think a lot of high achievers will recognize. Boredom sets in. Results feel less satisfying. A quiet sense of being pushed aside starts to erode the enthusiasm you once had.

Leadership insight: Disengagement rarely announces itself. It creeps in through routine — and you have to interrupt it on purpose.

3. Purpose Isn't Purpose Unless It Helps Someone Else

Greg was direct about this one. Recreation and hobbies are enjoyable, but they aren't the same as purpose. What turns an activity into a calling is using it to help someone else.

"I personally don't believe you can have a purpose without helping other people."


Leadership lesson: If you want your next chapter to feel meaningful — not just busy — build it around who it serves, not just what you enjoy.

4. You Don't Need All the Answers to Guide Someone Else

Greg admitted he wrestled with imposter syndrome when he first started Forward from 50. What freed him wasn't expertise — it was reframing what guidance actually requires.

"You don't need to know everything and have all the answers. You just need to be a step or two ahead of the person seeking assistance."


Leadership insight: You don't have to take someone from A to Z. You just have to get them to point B and connect them to what's next.

5. Curiosity Is What Keeps Leaders Sharp

This might be my favorite part of the conversation. Greg points to curiosity — not recreation — as the real driver of sustained energy and sharpness over time. It reminded me of Dan Sullivan's Laws of Lifetime Growth, where the very first law is: always make your future bigger than your past.

"The people who remain curious, who are always looking and learning and asking questions, they are the ones that their minds tend to remain sharp."


Leadership lesson: Growth isn't a phase of life. It's a daily habit of staying curious enough to keep learning.

Leaders who keep asking questions keep growing. Leaders who stop, stay comfortable — and eventually stall.

Final Word

You don't retire from your purpose. You retire from your job.

Wherever you are in your journey — whether you're navigating a career transition, feeling that quiet apathy creep in, or just wondering what's next — I hope this episode reminded you that your best contribution might still be ahead of you. Pick up the baton. Run your race.

Thank You

We've now been downloaded in 423 cities, across 65 countries, and 42 states in the U.S. Thank you for helping us spread the word.

  • Subscribe so every new episode hits your podcast app the moment it's published
  • Leave a rating and let us know what you think of the conversations we're having
  • Download Leader Notes for a comprehensive summary of the topics and resources covered in this episode

Now go out and learn, grow, and lead — and take your organization to the next level.

— Mark Cundiff, Host, Learning to Lead


Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#70 Stories of Reinvention, Forward from 50: How to Rediscover Purpose, Passion, and Possibility with Greg Gerber16 Aug 202600:52:33

#70 Stories of Reinvention, Forward from 50: How to Rediscover Purpose, Passion, and Possibility with Greg Gerber 

What happens when the career that defined you for 20 years disappears, not slowly, but all at once? 

That's exactly what happened to my guest today, Greg Gerber. For nearly two decades, Greg was the voice of the RV industry, building a daily publication that reached 16,000 subscribers. Then he sold everything, bought a motor home, and lived in it full time for three years, reporting from inside the industry he covered. What he uncovered led to a series of editorials that cost him almost two-thirds of his revenue within weeks, and eventually, the business he'd built his identity around. 

That loss became the doorway to Forward From 50, the platform Greg founded to help people over 50 rediscover purpose, not just recreation, in the years ahead of them. Nearly 200 interviews later, he's heard the same story again and again: people stepping away from careers that no longer fit, and into work that finally does. 

In this episode, we talk about: 

🔹 What "apathy creep" looks like, and why so many high achievers drift into it without realizing it 

🔹 The real difference between retiring from your job and retiring from your purpose 

🔹 How losing nearly everything forced Greg to rebuild his identity from scratch 

🔹 Why purpose isn't real purpose unless it's helping someone else 

🔹 The story of an engineer who traded MRI machines for balloon animals, Olympic officiating, and quieter pickleball courts 

🔹 The 22-question guide that can help anyone who feels stuck find direction 

🔹 Why curiosity — not recreation — is what keeps us sharp as we age 

If you've ever wondered what comes next after the title, the paycheck, or the identity you built your life around, this conversation is for you. 

Connect with Greg Gerber:

🌐 Website: forwardfrom50.com 

📱 Community: Forward From 50 on Facebook 

🎧 Podcast: Forward From 50 Podcast 


About Greg: Greg Gerber is the founder of Forward From 50, a Wisconsin native who moved to Arizona in 2009. A journalist by trade, he created the RV industry's first entirely online news site and its first business-related podcast before founding Forward From 50 in 2021 to help people over 50 pursue lives of purpose. Learn more: forwardfrom50.com/about 

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#69 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Hanna Bauer10 Aug 202600:09:51
Episode #69: Leadership Insights from My Conversation with Hanna Bauer

 
What if the crisis you're dreading isn't actually your biggest problem? What if it's simply the spotlight that finally shows everyone what was already there?
 
That's the question I couldn't stop thinking about after my conversation with Hanna Bauer in Episode #68, "The Great Recession of Trust: How Leaders Can Rebuild What's Been Lost." In this episode, I'm unpacking five key takeaways from that conversation — insights I believe every growth-minded leader needs to hear.
 
Meet Hanna Bauer

Hanna is the founder of Heartnomics, a Maxwell Leadership Certified Facilitator, a Six Sigma Black Belt, and a Baldrige Examiner who has guided leaders and organizations across 29 states and 7 countries.

But here's what makes Hanna's story different: her framework didn't come out of a business school case study. It came from a childhood spent fighting a life-threatening heart condition — surviving two heart attacks before the age of 10, and becoming part of a pioneering 1992 heart surgery that has since saved more than 3,000 children.

Years later, as a CEO, Hanna nearly broke her own company by mastering strategy and systems while letting go of the thing she knew best: her people. That collapse — and the industry-wide disruption that followed — taught her a truth she's built her entire career on:

Crisis doesn't create culture's problems. It reveals the ones that were already there.
 
What We Talked About
 
Throughout our conversation, Hanna unpacked why we're living through what she calls "the great recession of trust." We talked about why love is the foundation beneath empathy and accountability — not a soft skill leaders can afford to skip. And we explored why resilience has to be built long before a crisis ever arrives.
 
Here are the topics we covered:
 

  1. Why crisis doesn't stop you — it reveals you
  2. Why love is the foundation of trust, not a soft skill
  3. Why building resilience before you need it is imperative to your success
  4. Diagnosing organizational misalignment before it costs you your best people
  5. Balancing love with accountability without losing credibility
  6. Understanding trust as the true currency of leadership
  7. Measuring the cost of lost human potential
  8. Leading transformation at the individual, organizational, and national level


If you haven't listened to Episode #68 yet, I'd challenge you to go back and take in the full conversation. Hanna speaks from her heart — she named her business Heartnomics for a reason — and it comes through in a deeply authentic way as she walks all the way back to her childhood and the battle she fought just to stay alive.
 
Five Key Takeaways for Growth-Minded Leaders

1. Crisis Doesn't Stop You — It Reveals You
 
When Hanna's industry faced total disruption, she realized the crisis wasn't creating new problems. It was bringing to light the ones that had been tolerated all along.
 
Leadership insight: The culture that shows up under pressure was already there in good times — it just wasn't being tested yet. Ask yourself: what would a crisis reveal about my team right now?

2. Love Is the Foundation of Trust — Not a Soft Skill

Hanna pushes back hard on the idea that love is fluff. She connects it directly to empathy, authenticity, confidence, and the genuine ability to value people. As she puts it, you cannot have a valued workforce without also having a loved workforce.

Leadership insight: You can't ask your team for empathy, authenticity, or engagement without first giving them love. It's the root — not the extra.

3. Resilience Is Built Before You Need It
 
Just like cardiovascular endurance, resilience isn't something you can summon in the middle of a crisis. Hanna says it has to be trained in the calm. Here's how she describes it:

"Resilience is really the result of the leadership, the result of learning from failures, the result of being able to debrief. It's basically that bank account so that when those times require you to use resilience, you have something to pull from."


Leadership insight: If you're waiting for a crisis to start building resilience in your team, you're already behind.

4. Misalignment Shows Up in Patterns, Not Single Events

Hanna outlines the early warning signs of a misaligned organization: high turnover, no succession plan, constant bottlenecks, and — above all — a meeting culture where you need a meeting before the meeting, and another one after it, just to solve the same issues.

Leadership insight: Misalignment rarely announces itself. It shows up first in your calendar and your org chart — long before it ever shows up in your numbers.

5. Trust Is the Leader's Currency

According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, over 64% of people don't trust the organizations they work with. Hanna connects that deficit directly to a leader's ability to drive change.

Think about your own organization for a moment. What's your trust rating? How would your people describe the trust they have in you as a leader — and in the organization as a whole?

I've seen this play out time and again in coaching and consulting engagements: low trust between levels and departments is almost always at the root of a struggling culture.

Leadership insight: You can't spend trust you haven't built. Every ask for change is a withdrawal from an account leaders have to fill first.

The Bottom Line
 
Trust is the currency of leadership, and it has to be built before it's spent. Great leaders don't demand trust because of their title — they build it through love, consistency, and systems that keep people at the center.
 
So here's my challenge to you this week: go build that trust. Show your team you have their back. Love and care for them well enough that when the ask comes, they already know the answer.

Connect with Hanna:

 
Resources Mentioned


Take Action
 
If this episode resonated with you, here's how you can help:
 

  • Subscribe to the Learning to Lead Show so every new episode lands right in your podcast app
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Until next time — go out this week and learn, grow, lead, and take your organization to the next level.


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🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#68 The Great Recession of Trust: How Leaders Can Rebuild What's Been Lost with Hanna Bauer (John Maxwell Faculty Member)06 Aug 202600:49:51

#68 The Great Recession of Trust: How Leaders Can Rebuild What's Been Lost with Hanna Bauer

Episode Summary
 
What do you do when the very system you built to create clarity ends up costing you the heart of your organization? That's the question Hanna Bauer had to face — and it's the question we're wrestling with together in this episode.
 
Hanna's story starts long before her career in leadership development. At just four years old, she was diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition. What followed was a childhood spent in and out of hospitals, enduring two heart attacks by age 10, failed treatments, and a groundbreaking heart ablation surgery that hadn't been tried before, a surgery her doctor compared to finding one light switch in a pitch-black, spinning room. It worked. And twenty years later, that same procedure had saved 3,000 more children.
 
That's a miracle. But it's also, as Hanna discovered, a masterclass in leadership, one she didn't recognize until decades later, when she found herself as a results-driven executive who had gotten so good at strategy and systems that she'd let go of what she knew best: the heart. The people.
 
In this conversation, we talk about:

  • The four leadership lessons Hanna learned as a child — courage, the language of love, empathy without answers, and reframing failure as part of the process
  • Why she believes "crisis doesn't stop you — it reveals you" and what that means for the culture you're building right now, in the calm before the storm
  • Her HEART framework and BEAT methodology, born not from a whiteboard session but from her own lived experience of survival
  • Why love isn't a soft skill — and how she connects empathy, authenticity, confidence, and trust directly back to it
  • How to balance love with accountability without losing credibility as a leader
  • The signs of a misaligned organization — from meeting-about-the-meeting culture to the silent cost of lost human potential
  • Why we're living through what Hanna calls "a great recession of trust" — and what leaders can do to start rebuilding it
  • What it's been like serving on the John Maxwell faculty, including leading full-country transformation initiatives in the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Panama

 
Key Quotes from the Episode
 

"Strategy's great, we need it. Processes are great, they give us clarity. But without people, without the heart, you really don't have anything."


"Crisis really doesn't... the crisis is not there to stop you. The crisis there is there to reveal you."


"Resilience is really the result of the leadership, the result of learning from failures, the result of being able to debrief. It's basically that bank account... so that when those times require for you to use the resilience, you have something to pull from."


"You cannot have a valued workforce without also having a loved workforce."


"Once you've tasted significance, success is never enough."


 
Takeaways You Can Apply This Week
 
If you walk away from this episode with nothing else, let it be this:

  1. Audit your own alignment. Are your systems clear, but your people quietly disengaged? Misalignment often hides behind productivity, until it doesn't.
  2. Build resilience before you need it. Like cardiovascular endurance, resilience is trained in the calm, not summoned in the crisis. Where are you investing in your team's capacity today?
  3. Redefine accountability as a byproduct of community. You can't hold people accountable to a culture they don't feel safe in. Proximity and trust come first.
  4. Start measuring what actually matters. Are you tracking satisfaction, belonging, and meaning — or just deadlines and deliverables?
  5. Remember: service is leadership. Hannah didn't set out to become a leader. She simply started serving. Sometimes that's exactly where leadership begins for you too.

About Hanna Bauer

Hanna Bauer is a leadership consultant, John Maxwell faculty member, and Six Sigma Black Belt who helps individuals and organizations align strategy, systems, and people so they can navigate crisis and seize opportunity with resilience. She is the creator of the HEART framework and BEAT methodology, and has led leadership and transformation initiatives across multiple countries, including the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Panama.

Connect with Hanna:
 

 
A Question to Sit With

Before you close this out and move on to the next thing, ask yourself: Where in my leadership have I let systems replace people? You don't have to have all the answers today. You just have to be willing to be there and to lead from the heart, like Hanna's grandmother once did for her.
 
If this episode moved you, share it with a leader in your circle who needs to hear it — and subscribe to The Learning to Lead Show so you never miss what's next.

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🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#67 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Neill Marshall & Kurt Mosley02 Aug 202600:06:54

#67 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Neill Marshall and Kurt Mosley

Guests: Neil Marshall & Kurt Mosley, HealthSearch Partners

Episode Overview

What if the most important leadership decisions you'll ever make happen before you've even earned the right to lead?

In this episode, I sit down with Neil Marshall and Kurt Mosley of HealthSearch Partners — an executive search firm that has guided more than 700 executive-level searches in hospitals and healthcare. Across all that experience, they've uncovered a pattern that holds true no matter the industry: the first 90 days aren't about strategy. They're about trust.

Get that window right, and everything else accelerates. Get it wrong, and you could spend the next year trying to recover credibility you never built in the first place.

Neil and Kurt share story after story — from a CEO who replaced worn-out mattresses in a hospital residence the same day he heard about them, to a leader who quietly climbed a ladder to fix a light bulb instead of delegating it away. Small acts. Enormous credibility.

At the heart of it all is one simple, powerful truth:

Trust is earned before it is given.

Great leaders don't walk in the door and announce who they are. They show it — one consistent, credible action at a time.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

  1. Building trust before you try to lead change
  2. Using symbolic acts to set the tone for a new role
  3. Listening well enough to understand culture before changing it
  4. Creating an early win that builds lasting credibility
  5. Separating real problems from isolated complaints
  6. Avoiding the most common first 90-day mistakes
  7. Turning early wins into sustainable systems
  8. Resetting with integrity after a misstep

Whether you're stepping into a brand-new role or you're a season into your current one and need a reset, this episode will help you:

  • Build trust faster — without rushing your decisions
  • Read culture accurately before trying to change it
  • Create early wins that actually matter
  • Lead with consistency instead of big declarations
  • Recover credibility after a misstep

5 Key Takeaways for Growth-Minded Leaders

1. Trust Is Earned in the First 90 Days — Not Given by Title

Most new leaders assume their title has already earned them a followership. Neil and Kurt see it differently: it's not your strategy people need to trust first — it's you.

The first 90 days are a momentum phase. Build trust early, and everything that follows accelerates. Skip that step, and you'll spend the next year trying to recover credibility you never built.

Leadership Lesson: Your title gives you authority. Your first 90 days determine whether you've earned the right to lead.

2. Small Symbolic Acts Build Lasting Credibility

One CEO moved into a hospital's residence dorms for his first 90 days. When a resident mentioned the mattresses were worn out, he had them replaced that same day. Another leader quietly climbed a ladder to fix a burned-out light bulb rather than pointing it out to someone else.

Neither leader gave a speech. Both built credibility that outlasted their tenure.

Leadership Insight: One symbolic act is worth more than a hundred emails or edicts.

3. Listening Has to Come Before Declaring

New leaders are often expected to move fast. Neil and Kurt caution against mistaking motion for progress. The leaders who last diagnose before they prescribe — they ask before they act.

Four questions to ask early in any new role:

  1. What's working that I shouldn't mess up?
  2. What's getting in your way?
  3. What are people not saying out loud, but everybody knows?
  4. If we're successful in 90 days, what's different?

Leadership Lesson: Ask before you act. People trust leaders who understand them before they try to change them.

4. Culture Is the Multiplier

As Kurt put it plainly: misreading culture can undo a leader's best work.

"Culture is the multiplier. It'll take ten of your big wins away from you if you misread it."

A leader has to earn the right to change a culture by first understanding it. Otherwise, even good decisions land as tone-deaf ones.

Leadership Insight: You can't lead what you don't understand.

5. Ownership Turns Mistakes Into Trust

Even the best leaders stumble in their first 90 days. What separates leaders who recover from those who don't is simple: ownership.

People forgive mistakes — but they won't forgive you for being disingenuous. The leaders who reset well go back to their team, and often their board, and say plainly what they got wrong, what they learned, and what they're changing.

Leadership Lesson: Accountability isn't weakness — it's how credibility is rebuilt.

Bringing It Home

Whether you're starting a brand-new role or you need to reset where you currently stand, these five principles are practices you can put into place right now — and take your organization to the next level.

Resources Mentioned

  • Leader Notes — Download your free summary and outline of every topic covered in this interview.

Connect & Subscribe

  • Subscribe so every new episode of Learning to Lead arrives in your favorite podcast player as soon as it's published.
  • If this episode added value, a 5-star rating helps more leaders find the show — we'd be grateful for yours.

Now get out there this week and learn, grow, and lead — and take your organization to the next level.

— Mark Cundiff, Host, The Learning to Lead Show


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🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#66 The First 90 Days: Building Trust, Earning Credibility, and Leading Well from Day One with Neill Marshall & Kurt Mosley27 Jul 202600:42:08

Guests: Neill Marshall (Board Chair) & Kurt Mosley (Associations Practice Leader), HealthSearch Partners Host: Mark J. Cundiff — The Learning to Lead Show

Episode Summary

What if the first 90 days in a new role mattered more than your strategy, your resume, or even your title?

That's the question at the heart of this episode. Neill Marshall and Kurt Mosley have been part of more than 700 executive searches in healthcare, and they've watched leaders walk into new roles thousands of times. The pattern they keep seeing is simple: the leaders who win the first 90 days build momentum that carries them for years. The leaders who don't spend the next year trying to earn back trust they never built in the first place.

In this conversation, Neill and Kurt share the framework they coach executives through before they ever set foot in the building — from negotiating a win before accepting the job, to the small, symbolic acts that build lasting credibility, to the questions every new leader should be asking their team. Along the way, they tell some unforgettable stories: the CEO who moved into the hospital's resident dorms, the executive who quietly fixed a mattress problem on day one, and the leader who picked up trash in the parking lot before he ever walked through the front door.

This episode isn't just for healthcare executives. It's for anyone stepping into something new — a role, a team, a season of leadership — and wanting to get it right from the start.

What You'll Learn

  • Why trust — not strategy — is what people are actually evaluating in your first 90 days
  • The most common mistake new leaders make, and why it costs them credibility fast
  • How to "negotiate a win" before you even accept the job
  • Why one small, symbolic act can build more trust than 100 emails
  • The four questions every leader should ask their team in the first 30–60–90 days
  • How to tell the difference between a real problem and one person's opinion
  • Why restructuring or judging people too early backfires
  • John Wooden's principle for new leaders: "Be quick, but don't hurry"
  • How to turn early wins into lasting systems and rhythms
  • What to do — and say — when you get the first 90 days wrong

Topics Discussed

  • Neill and Kurt's personal leadership journeys, from a college entrepreneurship club to the baseball diamond
  • Why the first 90 days function as a "momentum phase" for every new leader
  • The Dunkin' Donuts story — and what it teaches about reading culture before acting
  • Negotiating a win before taking the job
  • The mattress story: how one act of listening built a CEO's credibility for his entire tenure
  • Impressing people vs. earning authority — and why they're not the same thing
  • The four questions to ask your team early on
  • How to separate signal from noise when gathering input
  • Building your own "influence org chart" instead of relying on titles
  • The risk of moving too fast — and the risk of moving too slow
  • Turning early wins into repeatable systems and leadership rhythms
  • Developing leaders at every level of the organization
  • How to reset with integrity after a misstep in the first 90 days
  • Why writing things down — and turning lessons into stories — sharpens you as a leader

Memorable Quotes

"Impressing is talking. Credibility is behavior. You don't announce culture, you demonstrate it." — Kurt Mosley

"You become a trusted leader when people stop watching you and they start believing in you." — Neill Marshall

"Be quick, but don't hurry." — John Wooden, as shared by Neill Marshall

"Culture is the multiplier. It'll take ten of your big wins away if you misread it." — Kurt Mosley


About the Guests

Neill Marshall is Board Chair of HealthSearch Partners and an executive search veteran with more than 30 years of experience, having led more than 600 senior-level assignments. He co-founded HealthSearch Partners in 2017 and previously held leadership roles with major search firms including Witt/Kieffer. Neill earned his degree in Business Administration & Management from Texas A&M University, where he helped build the Society for Entrepreneurship and New Ventures (ENVE). He and his wife, Mary, live in Coppell, TX.

Kurt Mosley is the Associations Practice Leader at HealthSearch Partners, bringing more than 30 years of healthcare industry experience. Before joining HealthSearch Partners, he spent 31 years with AMN Healthcare and Merritt Hawkins, most recently as Vice President of Strategic Alliances. Kurt's insights have been featured in USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Modern Healthcare, and HealthLeaders, and he has spoken to more than 90 healthcare organizations, reaching over 6,500 leaders in the past two years. He and his wife, Deborah, live in Dallas, TX.

Connect

  • Website: HealthSearchPartners.com
  • LinkedIn: Search Neill Marshall or Kurt Mosley
  • Email: neillm@healthsearchpartners.com | kurtm@healthsearchpartners.com

The Learning to Lead Show is hosted by Mark J. Cundiff. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and if this episode challenged or encouraged you, share it with someone who's about to lead something new.


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🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#65 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Boaz Gilad22 Jul 202600:08:39

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#64 Productive Discomfort: The Price Every Great Leader Must Be Willing to Pay with Boaz Gilad author of The Zenith Code16 Jul 202600:58:03

Have you ever noticed that some of the most successful people you know have it all figured out in one area of life... and are quietly falling apart in another?

The CEO who can close a nine-figure deal but can't stick to a diet for two weeks. The entrepreneur who built an empire from nothing but hasn't had a real conversation with his own kid in months. We've all seen it. Maybe you've lived it.

This week, I sat down with Boaz Gilad — former real estate CEO turned performance coach and author of The Zenith Code — to talk about why this happens, and what it actually takes to break the pattern.

Boaz's story is one of the most unconventional paths to leadership I've featured on this show. He grew up in Jerusalem, served as a paratrooper in the Israeli army, then moved to New York at 22 to chase a completely different dream — acting. He trained at the Stella Adler Conservatory, studied Philosophy at Hunter College, and waited tables to make ends meet. A real estate side hustle turned into a 20-year career that took him to CEO of a public company and made him a driving force in Brooklyn's real estate resurgence. Then he lost it all in a hostile takeover.

That collapse became the foundation for everything he teaches today.

This conversation will challenge how you think about goals, discipline, and what it really means to perform at a high level — not just in one part of your life, but in all of them.

What We Cover in This Episode

  • Boaz's leadership journey — from acting in New York, to building and taking a real estate company public, to losing everything in a hostile takeover
  • Life as a series of games — why every area of your life has its own rules, scoreboard, and time limit, and why that framework changes everything
  • Why top performers plateau — the real reason high achievers double down on their strengths instead of confronting their blind spots
  • The "inspiration junkie" trap — why waiting to feel motivated is keeping you stuck, and what to do instead
  • The 90-day framework — why 90 days is the sweet spot for building real, lasting change
  • Productive discomfort — why success was never meant to feel comfortable, and how to make peace with that
  • Trust and accountability — how misaligned goals quietly destroy trust on a team, and how to fix it
  • Why even the best need a coach — the humbling truth behind Steph Curry's shooting coach and what it means for the rest of us

Key Quotes to Remember

"You don't need inspiration to do the work. You need to decide, and then you need a system that makes the decision for you."

"The scoreboard doesn't care how you feel. It tells you if you're winning or losing — and that's the starting point for getting better."

"You cannot change the rules in the middle of the game. You can adjust. You can get better. But the rules are the rules."

"Success is not comfortable. Understand that, and then decide if you actually want it."


A Few Questions to Sit With

Boaz doesn't just hand you answers — he hands you better questions. Here are a few worth carrying into your week:

  1. What game am I actually playing right now — and is it the one I say I'm playing?
  2. Where am I doubling down on a strength instead of confronting a blind spot?
  3. If a camera followed me for a week, would it capture the life I say I want?
  4. Who's on my team right now — and are they built for the level I'm trying to reach next?

About Boaz Gilad

Boaz Gilad is an entrepreneur, author, and performance coach known for his work with high-achieving individuals and organizations. Born in Jerusalem, he served as a paratrooper in the Israeli army before moving to New York, where he studied acting at the Stella Adler Conservatory and philosophy at Hunter College. He went on to serve as CEO of several New York real estate development firms, playing a key role in Brooklyn's real estate resurgence and taking his company public. He's the author of The Real Estate Millionaire (McGraw-Hill) and The Zenith Code, has guest lectured in NYU's MBA program, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He hosts the podcast Unmask and leads Zenith Clubhouse, a program for high performers pursuing growth across both business and life.

Connect with Boaz:

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#63 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Jennifer Doty13 Jul 202600:09:01

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🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#62 You Don't Need All the Answers: Leading with Courage, Curiosity, and Confidence with Jennifer Doty06 Jul 202600:41:52

What if the biggest obstacle to your leadership isn't your experience—but the story you're telling yourself?

In this episode of The Learning to Lead Show, Mark Cundiff sits down with Jennifer Doty, former Fortune 100 executive, speaker, author, and leadership coach, to explore how leaders can overcome self-doubt, embrace uncertainty, and create meaningful career and life pivots.

Jennifer spent nearly two decades at MetLife, rising through multiple executive leadership roles. Along the way, she discovered that the best leaders aren't necessarily the smartest people in the room—they're the ones willing to ask better questions, learn quickly, and help others succeed.

Together, Mark and Jennifer discuss overcoming imposter syndrome, leading outside your expertise, navigating career transitions, developing a resilient mindset, building powerful networks, and why changing your thinking is often the first step toward changing your leadership.

If you've ever questioned whether you're ready for your next opportunity, this conversation will remind you that growth rarely begins inside your comfort zone.

In this Episode You Will Learn

  • Why leadership is about influence—not expertise.
  • How Jennifer overcame months of imposter syndrome after taking on a role she knew nothing about.
  • The importance of mentors during seasons of rapid growth.
  • Practical strategies for navigating layoffs and major career transitions.
  • Why your identity should never be tied solely to your job title.
  • How daily mindset practices shape long-term leadership success.
  • Why asking better questions often matters more than having better answers.
  • The power of leading with gratitude and possibility thinking.
  • How customer-focused organizations avoid drifting away from what matters most.
  • Why limiting beliefs quietly sabotage leadership potential.
  • How leaders can reframe negative self-talk into empowering beliefs.
  • Why networking should begin long before you need your next opportunity.
  • Simple daily habits that build confidence, resilience, and emotional strength.

Key Leadership Takeaways

1. You Don't Need Expertise to Lead Well

2. Growth Lives Outside Your Comfort Zone

3. Your Experience Is More Valuable Than You Realize

4. Ask Better Questions

5. Never Let Your Job Become Your Identity

6. Career Pivots Begin Long Before You Need Them

7. Be Clear About What You Really Want

8. Mindset Is a Daily Practice

9. Stop Believing Every Thought You Think

10. Put the Customer in the Room

Memorable Quotes

  • "You don't need to be the expert. You need to know the right questions to ask."
  • "If I can do that, I can do anything."
  • "Your relationships are one of the most valuable assets you'll ever have."
  • "Your identity should never be your job title."
  • "It's not happening to you. It's happening for you."
  • "You get paid the same amount to be miserable as you do to be happy."
  • "If you're going to make up a story, make up a good one."
  • "Leadership is shining your light on others so they can see theirs."
  • "It's always working out."

Connect with Jennifer Doty

Jennifer Doty is a former Fortune 100 vice president, speaker, author, and leadership coach who helps leaders and teams break through limiting beliefs, strengthen their mindset, and create meaningful, measurable change. Drawing from more than twenty years of executive leadership experience and her own career reinvention, she equips organizations and leaders with practical tools that transform confidence into action and mindset into lasting results.

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#61 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Jon Dario29 Jun 202600:09:03

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#60 Execution Beats Intention: How Great Leaders Turn Plans into Results with Jon Dario27 Jun 202600:47:11

Execution is not about having better intentions. It is about building better systems, stronger follow-up, clearer behaviors, and a culture where accountability helps people win.

In this episode of The Learning to Lead Show, Mark Cundiff sits down with Jon Dario, author, speaker, management skills trainer, and creator of the AIM Framework: Action Item Management. Jon brings decades of leadership experience from major retail and service organizations, including Macy’s, Gap, Bank of America, and Travelex, and currently leads a real estate management company in the New York-New Jersey market. 

Episode Summary

What separates leaders who make plans from leaders who actually get results?

That question sits at the center of this conversation with Jon Dario. Jon shares how his leadership journey began in retail management and how one honest conversation with an employee changed the way he saw leadership forever.

Early in his career, Jon told a team member he did not have to work the same long hours Jon worked. The employee’s response was direct: “You can tell me that all day long, but your actions are what drives my behavior.”

That moment helped Jon realize leadership is not just what you say. It is what you model.

Throughout the conversation, Jon and Mark discuss the difference between management and leadership, why consistency builds credibility, why execution is often undervalued, and how leaders can use follow-up, feedback, and focused action to create more reliable results.

This episode is a practical conversation for leaders who are tired of strategy sitting in binders, action items dying in meetings, and teams struggling with unclear priorities.

About Jon Dario

Jon Dario is an author, speaker, management skills trainer, and the creator of AIM, which stands for Action Item Management.

His leadership background includes roles with some of the world’s most recognizable retail and service organizations, including:

  •  Macy’s 
  •  Gap 
  •  Bank of America 
  •  Travelex 

Jon’s AIM system helps managers and organizations improve execution by clarifying actions, external influences, and desired results.

His work focuses on helping leaders build systems, routines, follow-up rhythms, and cultures of accountability that produce consistent results over time.

Key Ideas Discussed

1. Leadership Is Influence, Not Just Authority

2. Your Actions Drive Your Team’s Behavior

3. Follow-Up Is Foundational to Execution

4. Consistency Builds Credibility

5. The AIM Framework: Actions + External Influences = Results

6. When the Plan Gets Punched in the Face

7. Deciding Is Not the Same as Doing

8. High-Performing Teams Use the Same Language

9. Behaviors Fall Into Three Buckets

10. Accountability Is a Shared Obligation

📚 Resources Mentioned

🎯 Connect with Jon Dario

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#59 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Jonathan Milligan22 Jun 202600:08:36

In this Leadership Insights episode, Mark Cundiff reflects on his conversation with entrepreneur, author, speaker, and coach Jonathan Milligan from Episode #58, Consistency Beats Talent: The Secret Hiding in Plain Sight.

Jonathan has spent more than a decade helping experts, coaches, and entrepreneurs clarify their message, build businesses around their expertise, and create meaningful impact. But before becoming a successful entrepreneur, he was a school teacher searching for a greater outlet for his gifts and talents.

In this episode, Mark unpacks five powerful leadership lessons from their conversation—lessons on confidence, clarity, consistency, community, and taking action before you have all the answers.

If you're a growth-minded leader looking to increase your influence, build momentum, and lead with greater confidence, this episode is packed with practical wisdom you can apply immediately.

Five Leadership Takeaways

1. You Don't Need Certainty—You Need the Next Step

2. Clarity Is Kindness

3. Confidence Is Built Through Action

4. Consistency Beats Talent

5. Success Happens in Community

Memorable Quotes from the Episode

"Progress creates clarity."

"Clarity is kindness."

"Fear thrives in big-picture thinking. Fear dies in small-step action."

"Consistency beats talent every single time."

"People trust leaders they can depend on."

"Community doesn't just support growth—it multiplies it."


Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#58 "Consistency Beats Talent: The Secret Hiding in Plain Sight" Leadership Lessons with Jonathan Milligan18 Jun 202600:53:56


What happens when a burned-out school teacher decides to bet on himself? In this episode, I sit down with my longtime mentor and friend, Jonathan Milligan — author, online business coach, and the very person who taught me how to build the blog and podcast you're listening to right now.

Jonathan has spent over a decade helping creative professionals turn their story, message, and expertise into a business they love. We talk about his winding journey from teaching to flipping houses to recruiting and finally into coaching, the hardest leadership decision he ever made (cutting his team from 15 people down to two), and why he believes consistency — not talent — is the real secret to lasting influence.

If you've ever struggled with self-doubt, shiny object syndrome, or wondering whether your story is even worth telling, this conversation is for you.

About Jonathan Milligan

Jonathan Milligan is an author, blogger, speaker, and online business coach who has spent the last decade guiding creative professionals toward meaningful work. Since 2009, he's run his own portable lifestyle business online, and he's the author of 17 books (with another on the way). His book, Your Message Matters, has inspired thousands of people to get their story out into the world — whether through writing, speaking, or teaching. I've had the privilege of being coached by Jonathan for over a decade; he's the one who first taught me how to blog, and most recently, how to launch this very podcast.

Key Topics Discussed

  • Jonathan's leadership origin story growing up as a coach's son in Indiana
  • Why he left teaching and what he learned bouncing between house flipping, recruiting, and entrepreneurship
  • The hardest leadership decision of his career: shrinking his team from 15 to 2
  • How his definition of leadership has evolved from "having the answers" to providing clarity
  • The story behind his book Your Message Matters and why it starts with self-development, not strategy
  • Why "broken focus" is the number one enemy of growth-minded leaders
  • Practical steps for working through fear and self-doubt
  • His "Five Ones" filter for cutting out distractions and noise
  • Why consistency is the "secret hiding in plain sight" of long-term influence
  • How to rebuild confidence after a setback — one rep at a time
  • The lies leaders tell themselves that quietly hold them back
  • Leadership lessons he learned from his father, a longtime basketball coach
  • His daily and weekly habits, reading rhythms, and why he believes in always having a coach

Memorable Quotes

  • Consistency does not require talent. It just requires showing up.
  • You don't need certainty. You just need clarity on what the next step is, and then you take that step.
  • A confused leader creates confused followers, so clarity is essential... clarity is kindness.
  • Confidence isn't the absence of doubt. It's the decision to move forward while the doubt is still talking.
  • Your story's unique. Your combination of experience, pain, and perspective is unrepeatable, so focus on that."


Connect with Jonathan:

📚 Resources Mentioned

Action Items for This Week

  1. Run your next decision through a filter. Borrow Jonathan's "Five Ones" approach — ask whether a new idea or opportunity serves your one person, one product, one path, and one platform right now. If not, let it go.
  2. Shrink the window. If fear or doubt is loud this week, don't think about the whole year. Identify just the next small step you can take today.
  3. Protect one block of deep work. Block off a recurring window (mornings, if you can) where you create before the rest of the day's demands pull you away.
  4. Start wrestling your message onto paper. Journal, dictate your thoughts, or start outlining — even rough writing builds the clarity Jonathan talks about

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#57 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Preston Zeller11 Jun 202600:06:40

5 Leadership Takeaways from Preston Zeller: Empathy, Trust, Storytelling, and Sustainable Growth


Host Mark Cundiff welcomes listeners to Learning to Lead episode 57, reflecting on his prior conversation with Preston Zeller from episode 56, “The Art of Empathy in Leadership.” He highlights themes of empathy, resilience, grief, storytelling, trust, leadership, and business growth, including Preston’s journey after losing his brother and creating a daily painting for 365 days that became the documentary The Art of Grieving. 

Cundiff emphasizes that people need leaders who listen and care, then shares five takeaways: empathy as a leadership superpower; small daily actions compounding into big results; using stories to inspire beyond facts; building trust through alignment between intentions and the employee experience; and recognizing that many growth problems are operational issues. He encourages listeners to watch the documentary, download leader notes, subscribe, and leave a rating.

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#56 The Art of Empathy in Leadership with Preston Zeller03 Jun 202600:39:36

Grief, Growth, Storytelling, Operations, and the Future of AI

What happens when personal tragedy forces you to slow down, reflect, and rebuild?

In this episode of The Learning to Lead Show, Mark Cundiff sits down with entrepreneur, consultant, filmmaker, and storyteller Preston Zeller to explore how one of the most painful seasons of his life transformed the way he leads, serves others, and helps organizations grow.

After the loss of his brother, Preston embarked on an extraordinary journey—creating a painting every day for 365 days as a way to process grief. That experience eventually became the documentary The Art of Grieving and fundamentally changed his perspective on empathy, leadership, and human connection.

The conversation also explores storytelling as a leadership skill, building trust inside organizations, operational excellence, AI adoption, and the habits that fuel long-term growth.

Whether you're leading a team, growing a business, or navigating a difficult season of life, this episode offers practical wisdom and powerful reminders about what matters most.

Listen now and discover how great leaders combine empathy, vision, trust, and execution to create lasting impact.

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#55 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with M. K. Palmore29 May 202600:10:58



What separates good leaders from truly great leaders?

According to M.K. Palmore, it's not strategy, authority, or expertise.

It's people.

In this episode of The Learning to Lead Show, Mark Cundiff shares key leadership insights gained from his conversation with M.K. Palmore, Founder and CEO of Apogee Global RMS, former FBI executive, U.S. Marine Corps officer, U.S. Naval Academy graduate, and cybersecurity leader with Google Cloud and Palo Alto Networks.

Drawing from more than three decades of leadership experience across the military, federal law enforcement, and corporate America, M.K. shares powerful lessons on trust, integrity, accountability, resilience, mentorship, and why leadership is ultimately about investing in people.

M.K. explains why risk is fundamentally a leadership challenge, how great leaders build cultures of trust, and why the small moments of encouragement and mentorship often have the greatest impact.

Whether you're leading a team of two or an organization of thousands, this conversation will challenge you to think differently about leadership and the lasting legacy you leave behind.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

  •  Why do the best leaders focus on people before mission 
  •  The leadership lessons M.K. learned at the U.S. Naval Academy, the Marine Corps, the FBI, and Silicon Valley 
  •  How mentors helped him beat the odds and build an extraordinary career 
  •  Why trust is built through integrity, transparency, and accountability 
  •  The hidden ways leaders unintentionally damage trust 
  •  How to rebuild trust after it's been broken 
  •  Why high-performing teams practice before pressure arrives 
  •  The role of reflection and self-awareness in leadership growth 
  •  How leaders can create cultures of psychological safety 
  •  Why every leader has a responsibility to develop future leaders 

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#54 "Never Tell Me the Odds" Leadership Lessons from the Naval Academy, Marine Corps, FBI, and Silicon Valley with M. K. Palmore24 May 202600:45:27

What separates good leaders from truly great leaders?

According to M.K. Palmore, it's not strategy, authority, or expertise.

It's people.

In this episode of The Learning to Lead Show, Mark Cundiff sits down with M.K. Palmore, Founder and CEO of Apogee Global RMS, former FBI executive, U.S. Marine Corps officer, U.S. Naval Academy graduate, and cybersecurity leader with Google Cloud and Palo Alto Networks.

Drawing from more than three decades of leadership experience across the military, federal law enforcement, and corporate America, M.K. shares powerful lessons on trust, integrity, accountability, resilience, mentorship, and why leadership is ultimately about investing in people.

M.K. explains why risk is fundamentally a leadership challenge, how great leaders build cultures of trust, and why the small moments of encouragement and mentorship often have the greatest impact.

Whether you're leading a team of two or an organization of thousands, this conversation will challenge you to think differently about leadership and the lasting legacy you leave behind.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

  •  Why do the best leaders focus on people before mission 
  •  The leadership lessons M.K. learned at the U.S. Naval Academy, the Marine Corps, the FBI, and Silicon Valley 
  •  How mentors helped him beat the odds and build an extraordinary career 
  •  Why trust is built through integrity, transparency, and accountability 
  •  The hidden ways leaders unintentionally damage trust 
  •  How to rebuild trust after it's been broken 
  •  Why high-performing teams practice before pressure arrives 
  •  The role of reflection and self-awareness in leadership growth 
  •  How leaders can create cultures of psychological safety 
  •  Why every leader has a responsibility to develop future leaders


📚Books Mentioned

Connect with M.K. Palmore

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#53 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Patrick Erwin21 May 202600:07:58

In episode 53 of Learning to Lead, host Mark Cundiff recaps his conversation with Patrick Erwin, author of I Love This Place, Director of Content and Training at the Maxwell Leadership Foundation, and a former Hillgrove High School band director who built a nationally respected program. 

🔑 5 Key Takeaways for Growth-Minded Leaders

1. Leadership Is More Than Skills

2. Your Response Shapes Your Culture

3. The Best Leaders Are Both Tough and Tender

4. Younger Generations Need Filters More Than Funnels

5. Culture Is Built Through Small Moments

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#52 Tough and Tender Leadership with Patrick Erwin, Director of Content & Training at The Maxwell Leadership Foundation16 May 202600:58:17

In this episode of The Learning to Lead Show, Mark J. Cundiff sits down with Patrick Erwin, author of I Love This Place, leadership educator, former high school band director, and Director of Content & Training at Maxwell Leadership.

Patrick shares the leadership lessons he learned while building a high-performing high school band program from the ground up and how those lessons apply to every organization—from schools and nonprofits to manufacturing plants and corporate teams.

This conversation dives deep into leadership culture, trust, influence, generational leadership, and the balance between driving results while genuinely caring for people. Patrick’s stories are authentic, practical, and filled with wisdom for any growth-minded leader who wants to create a workplace where people truly say, “I love this place.”

Key Topics Discussed

Patrick Erwin’s Leadership Journey

  •  Starting a brand-new school and band program from scratch 
  •  Leading over 300 students while building culture intentionally 
  •  How early overconfidence became a catalyst for growth 
  •  Lessons learned transitioning from education to Maxwell Leadership 

The Humbling Feedback That Changed Everything

  •  The anonymous student review that challenged Patrick’s leadership 
  •  Why technical skills alone are not enough 
  •  Moving from proving yourself to genuinely leading others 

Why Leaders Miss Their Biggest Blind Spots

  •  The danger of self-assurance without self-awareness 
  •  How limited circles limit leadership growth 
  •  “We lead as we were led,” and why mentorship matters 

The Conversation That Redirected His Leadership

Patrick’s wife delivered a powerful truth:

“You spend a lot of time talking about leadership and not a lot of time leading.”

That moment launched a complete shift in how he viewed influence, relationships, and authentic leadership.

Leadership Books Recommended

Connect with Patrick Erwin

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#51 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Jeff Brown14 May 202600:08:19

Host Mark Cundiff welcomes listeners to episode 51 of Learning to Lead, sharing key leadership insights from his conversation with Jeff Brown of the Read to Lead podcast and co-author of the book Read to Lead. 

Mark highlights Jeff’s background as an early leadership podcaster with nearly 600 episodes, his career reinvention after losing a 26-year broadcasting job, and his story of going nearly 12 years without reading before it transformed his confidence, leadership, and life trajectory. 

The episode emphasizes that growth is intentional—requiring protected time, habits, focused learning, and consistent action—and that reading provides a competitive advantage by expanding thinking, accelerating careers, and improving leadership. Other takeaways include that implementation drives change, that great leaders demonstrate self-awareness and generosity, and that small daily habits like reading 10 pages a day compound over time.

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#50 The Read to Lead Blueprint for Personal, Professional, and Leadership Growth with Jeff Brown09 May 202600:56:46

Episode #50: The Read to Lead Blueprint for Personal, Professional, and Leadership Growth with Jeff Brown

In this milestone 50th episode of The Learning to Lead Show, Mark Cundiff sits down with Jeff Brown, founder of the Read to Lead Podcast, to explore how reading, lifelong learning, intentional growth, and leadership development can transform your career and life.

Jeff shares his journey from traditional radio broadcasting to becoming one of the most respected voices in leadership podcasting, interviewing world-class authors like Seth Godin, John Maxwell, Simon Sinek, Liz Wiseman, and Dr. Henry Cloud.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

  • Why “leaders are readers.”
  • How reading accelerated Jeff’s career growth
  • The mindset shifts required for reinvention and personal growth
  • Why intentional learning separates great leaders from average leaders
  • The difference between intention and implementation
  • How to build leadership habits that actually stick
  • The power of note-making vs. note-taking
  • How to create a personal growth system

Books & Authors Mentioned:

About Jeff Brown:

Jeff Brown is the creator and host of the award-nominated Read to Lead Podcast and co-author of Read to Lead. After a 26-year career in radio broadcasting, Jeff reinvented himself as a leadership podcaster and lifelong learning advocate.

Connect with Jeff Brown:

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#49 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Trent McJunkin04 May 202600:08:28

Host Mark Cundiff opens Episode 49 of the Learning to Lead Show with an update on a brief publishing gap due to attending his son Elijah Cundiff’s wedding, previews Episode 50 featuring Jeff Brown of the Read to Lead Show, and thanks listeners for helping the podcast reach 53 countries and 326 cities. 

He reflects on his conversation with frontline leader Trent McJunkin, who rose from technician to senior leadership, sharing hard lessons about shifting from driving results and fixing problems to developing people. 

Cundiff highlights five takeaways: 

  1. Leadership starts before a title
  2. Being the hero creates dependency
  3. A leader’s role is to develop others
  4. Clarity reduces frustration by defining “good” and “done.”
  5.  Communication multiplies influence because reception matters as much as intent. 

He directs listeners to download leader notes, subscribe, share, and rate the show.

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#48 Stop Leading Like a Bulldog: The Shift That Builds Real Influence with Trent McJunkin (John Maxwell Certified Coach)24 Apr 202600:39:25

Trent McJunkin shares his journey from shop floor technician to leadership coach, revealing the mindset shifts, mistakes, and leadership principles that helped him grow—and now help others lead with consistency, discipline, and influence.

📌 Key Topics Covered

  • Transitioning from technician to leader
  • Leading without authority
  • The mindset shift from doing the work → developing people
  • Why “hero culture” hurts organizations
  • Communication breakdowns and how to fix them
  • Influencing across teams and up the organization
  • Building trust and credibility as a leader
  • The importance of personal growth in leadership

🧠 Key Takeaways

  • Leadership starts before the title — you’re already influencing others
  • Your role shifts as a leader — from getting results to developing people
  • Poor communication creates chaos — clarity is everything
  • What gets rewarded gets repeated — celebrate proactive behaviors
  • Influence requires empathy — understand what matters to others
  • Growth is non-negotiable — your leadership sets the ceiling for your team

⚠️ Common Leadership Pitfalls

  • Leading with frustration instead of clarity
  • Assuming people understand expectations
  • Overvaluing “firefighting” vs. prevention
  • Failing to adapt communication styles
  • Relying on authority instead of influence

🛠️ Practical Leadership Applications

  • Define “what good looks like” and “what done looks like.”
  • Ask better questions before reacting
  • Recognize and reward preventive actions
  • Tailor communication to the individual
  • Focus on solving problems that matter to others
  • Invest in daily, consistent personal growth

📖 Influential Resource Mentioned

🔗 Connect with Trent McJunkin


Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#47 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Adam Nemer23 Apr 202600:10:06

Leadership Insights on Mental Health: The Power of a Five-Minute Conversation (Learning to Lead Show Ep. 47)


Host Mark Cundiff shares leadership insights from his conversation with Adam Nemer, author of Simple Mental Health and former Kaiser Permanente CFO, describing it as his most compelling and challenging episode due to Nemer’s 20-year struggle after his father’s death by suicide and a pivotal “five-minute mental health first aid” conversation with a leader named Dave. 

Nemer explains his shift from nearly two decades at Kaiser to founding Simple Mental Health to help leaders create safe, stigma-free workplaces, noting that 25% of U.S. adults experience a mental health issue annually and stigma can delay help-seeking for up to 10 years. 

Key discussion topics include leading while battling mental illness, unprocessed trauma, mental health literacy, culture and psychological safety, treating mental health like physical health, and the business impact of investing in mental health, with takeaways emphasizing action, normalization, and performance effects.

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#46 Breaking the Silence: Leadership and Mental Health with Adam Nemer20 Apr 202601:10:25

Breaking the Silence: Leadership and Mental Health with Adam Nemer

In this powerful episode, Mark Cundiff sits down with Adam Nemer to discuss the often-unspoken reality of mental health in leadership—and the life-changing impact of one courageous conversation.

Adam shares his personal journey of leading at a high level while silently struggling, and how a simple 5-minute conversation with a leader changed everything.

🔑 Key Topics

  •  Why mental health is still one of the most avoided conversations in leadership 
  •  Adam’s personal story of silent struggle while leading at an executive level 
  •  The 5-minute conversation that helped change—and save—his life 
  •  How to recognize when someone on your team may be struggling 
  •  What holds leaders back from speaking up (and how to overcome it) 
  •  The role of stigma—and why it keeps people from getting help 
  •  How leaders can create a culture of psychological safety and support 
  •  The connection between mental health, performance, and team effectiveness 
  •  Simple, practical ways to support your people starting today 

💡 Why This Episode Matters

If you lead people, this conversation will challenge how you think about leadership, awareness, and responsibility.

Because sometimes…


 The most important leadership moment is a 5-minute conversation.

Resources Mentioned:


Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#45 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Erin Treacy18 Apr 202600:07:54

Host Mark Cundiff recaps Episode #44 of the Learning to Lead Show featuring leadership coach and former Alpine ski racer Erin Treacy, focusing on how to lead effectively without burning yourself or your team out.

Drawing on her experience in ski racing, broadcast news, business ownership, and coaching, Erin argues that growth comes from leading better, not doing more, and that long-term success is built by investing in people over systems. 

Key topics include:

  • Discipline and resilience
  • Internal growth versus external solutions
  • Communication gaps that create bottlenecks
  • Staying connected to frontline teams
  • Trust built through consistency and clarity
  • Process over outcome (including Nick Saban’s approach)
  • Supporting middle managers
  • Simple intentional check-ins
  • Reframing feedback as a growth tool
  • The value of having a coach or mentor

Cundiff’s five takeaways emphasize developing current teams, addressing burnout through clarity and communication, prioritizing people, building trust daily, and using brief check-ins for big impact.

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#44 From Alpine Ski Racing to Leadership Coaching with Erin Treacy14 Apr 202600:41:30

🎙 Episode Summary

In this episode, Mark sits down with leadership coach Erin Treacy to explore how leaders can grow their teams without burning them out. They discuss sustainable leadership, investing in people, and why clarity beats hustle every time.

🔑 Key Topics Discussed

  • Erin’s leadership journey (4-H, athletics, business ownership)
  • Lessons from competitive skiing: discipline, resilience, and mental toughness
  • Why leaders must stop chasing “more” and start developing people
  • The hidden cost of burnout in teams and organizations
  • Internal growth vs. external solutions (hiring, tech, systems)
  • How poor communication creates bottlenecks
  • Why training is the best investment (4–7x ROI)
  • The importance of staying connected to frontline teams
  • Trust vs. productivity: building long-term results
  • Nick Saban’s “process over outcome” leadership approach
  • Supporting and developing middle managers
  • The power of simple, consistent check-ins
  • Feedback vs. criticism: shifting the leadership mindset
  • Why every leader needs a coach or mentor

💡 Key Takeaways

  • Invest in people first—growth starts internally
  • Burnout is not a badge of honor
  • Clarity and communication solve most problems
  • Trust is built through consistency and explanation
  • Small check-ins create big impact
  • Feedback fuels growth when framed correctly

📚 Resources Mentioned

  • Leaders Eat Last – Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek

🔗 Connect with Erin Treacy

  • Website: coacherintreacy.com
  • Social: @CoachErinTreacy

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#43 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Joey Cantrell10 Apr 202600:09:26

Host Mark Cundiff welcomes listeners to Episode #43 of the Learning to Lead Show, and thanks the audience for helping the show reach 278 cities in 36 countries and 39 U.S. states. 

He shares key leadership insights from prior guest Joey Cantrell, an operations manager leading a large aluminum mill machine shop, who brings 40 years of maintenance and industrial leadership experience rooted in early mentorship. 

The central theme is that continuous learning fuels effective leadership and directly impacts team performance, culture, and long-term success. Topics include trust through consistency and honesty, spending time with people on the floor, safety and accountability, using data to drive alignment, developing future leaders with support, and shifting from directive leadership to a coaching mindset.

 Cundiff’s five takeaways stress leader growth as the team’s ceiling, leadership’s “double-edged sword,” and the responsibility to train and develop others.

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#42 From Machinist to Mentor: Why Your Team Will Never Outgrow You as a Leader with Joey Cantrell05 Apr 202600:36:31

🎙️ From Machinist to Mentor: Why Your Team Will Never Outgrow You as a Leader with Joey Cantrell

What separates great leaders from average ones?

They never stop learning.

In this episode, Mark Cundiff sits down with Joey Cantrell—an operations leader with 40+ years of experience—to talk about leading on the front lines, building high-performing teams, and why your growth as a leader determines your team’s success.

From starting in a machine shop at 13 to leading one of the largest aluminum rolling operations in North America, Joey shares practical, no-nonsense leadership lessons you can apply immediately.

🔑 Key Takeaways

  •  If you stop learning, you stop leading 
  •  Your team reflects your level of growth 
  •  Trust is built through action, not words 
  •  Don’t set people up to fail—develop them 
  •  Great leaders spend time with their people, not just in the office 
  •  Safety, honesty, and consistency are non-negotiable 

💡 Final Thought

If you want a better team, start by becoming a better leader.

👤 About the Guest

Joey Cantrell is an accomplished maintenance and operations leader with over four decades of experience across industrial manufacturing, reliability, engineering, and asset management.

He currently serves as General Manager of Operations at Constellium Aluminum’s Central Service Center in Muscle Shoals, Alabama—supporting one of the largest aluminum rolling mills in North America.

Joey is known for:

  •  Building high-performing teams 
  •  Driving operational excellence 
  •  Developing leaders from the ground up 
  •  Creating a culture of continuous improvement

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#41 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Debbie Simmons02 Apr 202600:09:19

In this episode of The Learning to Lead Show, Mark Cundiff reflects on his powerful conversation with Debbie Simmons, exploring a fresh and challenging perspective on leadership and trust.

Debbie introduces the idea that trust is not just relational—it’s structural. Under pressure, leaders don’t rise to the occasion—they fall to their defaults. And those defaults reveal what we truly trust.

Through both practical insight and personal experience—including her journey as a mother of nine adopted children—Debbie shows how pressure exposes gaps in our leadership foundation and why sustainable leadership requires rebuilding trust from the inside out.

🔑 Key Takeaways

  • Pressure reveals your true leadership foundation
    What you trust shows up when things get hard. 
  • Trust is more than a value—it’s a structure
    Strong leadership depends on what you rely on internally. 
  • Your default patterns are shaping your leadership
    Control, urgency, overfunctioning, and silence often drive behavior under stress. 
  • Healthy organizations don’t depend on one leader
    Sustainable teams are built on shared responsibility and clear structure. 
  • Performance gets results—structure sustains them
    You can hustle to succeed, but you need alignment to last. 

💡 Why This Episode Matters

If you’re a leader who is:

  •  Performing well but feeling stretched 
  •  Respected but internally exhausted 
  •  Carrying more than you should 

This episode will challenge you to rethink how you build trust—and help you create a leadership foundation that holds up under pressure.

🎧 Be sure to check out the full conversation in Episode 40 and download the LeaderNotes for practical application steps.

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#40 The Architecture of Trust: Redefining Leadership and Legacy with Debbie Simmons27 Mar 202600:50:42

In this episode of The Learning to Lead Show, Mark Cundiff sits down with Debbie Simmons—CEO, author, and creator of the Architecture of Trust—to explore a powerful shift in how leaders understand trust.

Debbie challenges the common belief that trust is just a virtue or relational skill, reframing it as a structural foundation that determines how leaders perform under pressure. Because the truth is simple—and a little uncomfortable: what you trust in is revealed when things get heavy.

Together, they unpack how high-capacity leaders often default to patterns like control, urgency, over-functioning, or silence—habits that may produce short-term results but quietly erode long-term effectiveness. Debbie shares how these patterns show up in organizations, families, and personal leadership, and why many successful leaders are actually operating with hidden structural gaps.

You’ll also learn what a healthy “trust structure” looks like inside a team, how to rebuild trust without blowing everything up, and why sustainable leadership requires more than performance—it requires alignment.

If you’re successful but stretched, respected but tired, or leading at a high level but feeling the strain underneath, this episode will help you identify what’s really holding you up—and what needs to change to lead with strength that lasts.

Contact Debbie:

Debbie's Free Books

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#39 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Paul Thornton21 Mar 202600:14:47

From Being Liked to Being Respected: Five Leadership Takeaways from Paul Thornton

Host Mark Cundiff shares leadership insights from his conversation with Paul Thornton (Episode 38, “From Being Liked to Being Respected”), drawing on Thornton’s 35+ years as a teacher, coach, and leadership expert. The episode emphasizes that leadership is not about being liked but about credibility, consistency, and accountability that build trust. 

Thornton’s practical framework highlights three adaptable leadership styles—directing, discussing, and delegating—and emphasizes choosing the right approach for the situation without micromanaging or causing analysis paralysis. 

Cundiff outlines five takeaways: 

  1. Trust is built through consistent follow-through
  2. Leaders must shift from people-pleasing to principled standards
  3. Strong leaders flex between directing, discussing, and delegating. 
  4. Asking and listening develop thinkers, while telling creates dependence. 
  5. Effective delegation requires clear expectations, defined outcomes, and strategic check-ins, illustrated by lessons from “The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey.”

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#38 From Being Liked to Being Respected: The Leadership Shift That Changes Everything with Paul B. Thornton20 Mar 202600:44:12

Make sure to download LeaderNotes.

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.

In this episode of The Learning to Lead Show, Mark sits down with Paul B. Thornton to explore how trust is built through credibility and consistency—and why it’s the foundation of effective leadership.

Drawing from decades of experience, Paul breaks down his practical framework of three leadership styles: directing, discussing, and delegating, and explains how great leaders adapt their approach based on the situation and the person they’re leading.

They also unpack common leadership pitfalls—like micromanaging, poor communication, over-delegating, and avoiding accountability—and how these behaviors quietly erode trust.

If you want to lead with greater clarity, build stronger relationships, and develop your people more effectively, this episode gives you a simple, actionable roadmap.

Key Topics
  • Why trust depends on credibility and consistency
  • The 3 leadership styles: Directing, Discussing, Delegating
  • Situational leadership and adapting your approach
  • Common leadership mistakes that weaken trust
  • How to balance accountability without micromanaging
  • Why great leaders develop people—not just results
Key Takeaways
  • Consistency builds trust. Inconsistency breaks it.
  • There is no one-size-fits-all leadership style.
  • Clear communication and deadlines drive accountability.
  • Delegation requires trust and follow-up—not abandonment.
  • Great leaders focus on developing people, not just managing tasks.

Connect with Paul Thornton:

Paul's Books:

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#37 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Coach Jim Johnson 16 Mar 202600:12:14

In this episode of The Learning to Lead Show, Mark Cundiff shares powerful leadership insights from his conversation with legendary basketball coach Jim Johnson, best known for the unforgettable story of Jason “J-Mac” McElwain—the autistic team manager who stunned the world by scoring 20 points in four minutes on senior night.

Beyond the miracle moment, Coach Johnson reveals the deeper leadership lessons forged through adversity, vulnerability, and perseverance. He explains how authentic leadership can unite a struggling team, why great leaders ask more questions than they give answers, and how preparation positions people for breakthrough moments.

Coach Johnson, a highly accomplished coach with more than 400 career wins, reflects on the leadership principles that shaped his teams and now guide his work as a motivational speaker and leadership teacher.

Mark highlights five key takeaways for growth-minded leaders, including:

  • Vulnerability builds unity. When leaders admit they don’t have all the answers and create space for honest conversation, teams can overcome division and move forward together.
  • Great leaders ask better questions. Becoming the “Chief Question Asker” builds trust, uncovers truth, and strengthens relationships.
  • Preparation creates breakthrough moments. J-Mac’s historic performance wasn’t luck—it was the result of relentless practice meeting opportunity.
  • Culture is built through daily behavior. Leaders build trust by aligning their words and actions, telling the truth with respect, and recognizing people for doing the right things.
  • Leaders must grow first. Sustainable success comes when leaders commit to continuous personal development and apply what they learn.

Coach Johnson also shares his guiding philosophy: “Leave a profit everywhere you go.” In other words, leave every relationship, team, and situation better than you found it.

This inspiring conversation reminds leaders that passion, preparation, humility, and continuous growth are the ingredients that create both great teams and unforgettable moments.

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#36 Leadership, Perseverance, and the Miracle of J-Mac with Coach Jim Johnson11 Mar 202600:50:00

Leadership, Perseverance, and the Miracle of J-Mac with Coach Jim Johnson

In this inspiring episode of The Learning to Lead Show, Mark Cundiff sits down with Coach Jim Johnson to explore powerful leadership lessons forged through adversity, trust, teamwork, and perseverance. Coach Johnson shares his journey as a high school basketball coach, the challenges of leading through a divided season, and the pivotal moment when vulnerability helped unite his team.

The conversation also highlights the unforgettable story of Jason “J-Mac” McElwain—an autistic team manager whose four miraculous minutes on senior night became one of the most inspiring moments in sports history. Along the way, Coach Johnson unpacks practical lessons on passion, mission, goal setting, servant leadership, team culture, trust, and personal growth.

This episode is a moving reminder that great leadership is not just about winning games—it is about believing in people, bringing teams together, and leaving every place better than you found it.

If this episode encouraged you, be sure to share it and leave a rating so more leaders can discover The Learning to Lead Show.



Connect with Coach Jim Johnson:

Coach Johnson mentioned several authors and thinkers who influenced his leadership journey:


Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#35 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Dr. Ken Wagner11 Mar 202600:09:12

Leadership culture doesn’t change through slogans, motivational speeches, or another poster on the wall.

It changes through behavior.

In this episode of The Learning to Lead Show, host Mark Cundiff shares exciting updates on the podcast's growth and introduces a powerful conversation with behavioral science expert Dr. Ken Wagner. 

In just five months, the show has been heard in 214 cities across 24 countries and 33 U.S. states—a sign that leaders around the world are hungry for practical wisdom they can apply immediately.

Mark and Dr. Wagner explore how behavioral science can help leaders strengthen culture, improve performance, and create lasting organizational change. Instead of relying on vague leadership advice, this conversation focuses on observable actions leaders can take to influence the behaviors that drive results.

If you want to build a stronger culture, align your team, and create real accountability, this episode offers a framework grounded in research and real-world leadership.

Key Insights from the Episode

1. Positive Reinforcement Drives Behavior

2. Culture Is the Pattern of Behavior Over Time

3. Accountability Works Best When It Is Clear and Measurable

4. Beware of “Helicopter Leadership.”

5. Most Change Initiatives Fail Because Leaders Skip the Momentum Phase

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#34 Intentional Leadership: Turning Behavior into Results with Dr. Ken Wagner04 Mar 202600:49:38

Download LeaderNotes Here

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.

#34 Intentional Leadership: Turning Behavior into Results with Dr. Ken Wagner

In this episode of The Learning to Lead Show, Mark Cundiff sits down with Dr. Ken Wagner, founder of Daylight Advisory and a globally respected expert in behavioral science and organizational performance.

Drawing on more than 30 years of experience working with leaders across six continents, Dr. Wagner explains how the science of behavior can transform leadership, culture, and performance. He challenges common leadership myths—especially the idea that motivation comes primarily from praise or financial rewards.

Instead, Wagner explains that positive reinforcement is anything that increases the likelihood a behavior will be repeated. The most powerful reinforcement, he argues, is often natural reinforcement—when people clearly see that their actions make their work easier, more successful, or more meaningful.

Throughout the conversation, Wagner shows how great leaders intentionally design cultures by shaping the behaviors they encourage or discourage within their organizations. He shares practical examples from manufacturing plants and other industries that illustrate how small leadership behaviors—such as what managers write down in meetings or follow up on during the day—can quietly shape culture.

Dr. Wagner also explains why many change initiatives fail, why vague expectations weaken accountability, and why recognition systems like “Employee of the Month” often create unintended competition instead of collaboration.

The key to sustainable performance, he says, is intentional leadership—leaders who clearly define the behaviors that drive success, reinforce them consistently, and create environments where people experience meaning and small wins that build momentum.

If you want to build a culture of accountability, engagement, and consistent high performance, this episode will give you a powerful framework grounded in the science of behavior.

Contact Information for Dr. Ken Wagner:

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#33 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Tim Harmon02 Mar 202600:10:34

5 Leadership Takeaways from Tim Harmon

Host Mark Cundiff shares key leadership insights from his conversation with Tim Harmon (Episode 32) for Episode 33, highlighting Harmon’s 20+ years of experience from the US Army Rangers to industrial manufacturing with companies like AK Steel, Stanley Black and Decker, and Cooper Tire. 

Key takeaways include:

  1. Lead By Example
  2. Be The Filter, Not The Firehose
  3. Build trust through Care, Competence, and Reliability
  4. Stop Being the Fixer, Start Being the Listener 
  5.  Influence beats Authority 

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#32 Reliable Leadership with Tim Harmon26 Feb 202600:43:24

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Lead from the Floor: Tim Harmon on Trust, Listening, and Real-World Influence

In this episode, Mark Cundiff sits down with Tim Harmon, a seasoned maintenance and reliability leader and U.S. Army veteran, to unpack what it really takes to lead in high-pressure industrial environments. 

Tim shares lessons from his early days in JROTC, through Army and Ranger leadership, into corporate roles at organizations like AK Steel, Stanley Black & Decker, and Cooper Tire, and into consulting in reliability transformation.

This conversation is loaded with practical leadership wisdom for leaders who are trying to build trust, reduce chaos, and influence across departments—especially when you don’t have positional authority.

About Tim Harmon

Tim Harmon is a maintenance and reliability leader with 20+ years of experience building high-performing teams and driving operational excellence. 

He served in the U.S. Army, including overseas deployments, and later transitioned into leadership roles in industrial manufacturing and global reliability implementation. Today, he serves as a senior leader in facilities, maintenance, and reliability at Liebherr Logistics USA.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

1) Lead by Example on the Shop Floor

2) The Leader’s Role as a Filter

3) Trust Comes Down to Credibility and Follow-Through

4) Listening Is a Leadership Superpower

5) Influence Matters More Than Positional Authority

6) Change Management Requires Voice + Feedback Loops

7) Continuous Learning for Leaders

Memorable Quotes

  • “My schedule should never be so busy that I can’t engage somebody.”
  • “If you’re not 100% sure you can deliver, don’t make the commitment.”
  • “People don’t leave because they don’t like the work—it’s usually because of bad leadership.”
  • “Don’t respond in haste. Digest it first.”
  • “It’s not an individual—it’s a team effort.”

If you got value out of this episode:


✅ Subscribe to your favorite podcast app
✅ Share the episode with a friend
✅ Leave a 5-star rating to help spread the word

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#31 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Jay Jacobson21 Feb 202600:05:41


Host Mark Cundiff shares five leadership insights from his conversation with Jay Jacobson, a longtime funeral home director, entrepreneur, and leadership consultant, centered on Jay’s book "Lead by Legendary Example." 

The takeaways include: leadership is demonstrated through daily behavior rather than titles; integrity is revealed in quiet moments and in crises through truth-telling and owning mistakes; effective boards and teams surface disagreement to reach better decisions; true presence requires turning down distractions and giving full attention; and collaboration multiplies wisdom while control isolates it, illustrated by contrasting medical experiences at the Mayo Clinic versus a local hospital.

 Mark encourages listeners to download the episode leader notes, check out Jay’s book, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a five-star rating.

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#30 Lead by Legendary Example with Jay Jacobson18 Feb 202600:50:04

Episode Summary – Jay Jacobson | Lead by Legendary Example

Mark Cundiff welcomes Jay Jacobson—funeral director, entrepreneur, bakery owner, and leadership consultant—to the Learning to Lead Show. Drawing from his book Lead by Legendary Example, Jay shares six pillars of leadership shaped by real-life experiences across business, crisis response, and community leadership.

Jay reflects on his journey from childhood entrepreneur to funeral service leader and national board member, emphasizing that leadership is not declared—it is lived. He highlights defining moments, including the United 232 crash response in Northwest Iowa, where competing funeral directors united to serve families and coordinate disaster efforts—demonstrating integrity, collaboration, and leadership under pressure.

The conversation explores:

  • Living with integrity through daily actions, especially in crisis
  • The power of constructive disagreement in effective leadership and governance
  • Vision that goes beyond short-term results to truly serve people
  • Presence—giving undivided attention at work and at home
  • Servant leadership shaped by personal hardship, family challenges, and empathy
  • Collaboration in medicine, disaster response, and community leadership
  • The difference between adaptability and compromise—holding values steady in changing times

Jay also discusses mentoring young people, building character early, and creating environments where future leaders can grow. He shares how continuous learning—through books, experience, and evolving tools like AI—remains essential for leaders who want to stay effective and relevant.

His book combines powerful stories with a practical 10-week leadership development framework, built to help leaders live their values, serve others, and lead with lasting impact.

Key message: Never stop learning. Leadership is lived one decision, one action, and one example at a time.


Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#29 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Dr. Matt Willmington17 Feb 202600:08:55


Host Mark Cundiff shares five takeaways for growth-minded leaders from a prior Learning to Lead Show episode with Dr. Matt Wilmington (Episode 28), a longtime mentor known for asking probing questions. 

The episode theme is “Leading Inside Out,” emphasizing that leading from external pressures and performance leads to burnout, especially mid-career, while the real mission flows from the inside out. 

Cundiff highlights lessons from leading volunteers at Thomas Road Baptist Church: in volunteer environments, you must motivate rather than manipulate and focus on the currency of mission, meaning, belonging, and clarity (and in corporate settings, respect, growth, purpose, flexibility, recognition, and trust). 

He reinforces that leaders never outgrow the fundamentals—mission, values, strategy, and role clarity—and that “vision leaks,” so repeating the vision is necessary. 

Wilmington also stresses recruiting as critical: slow down hiring or pay later, using The 6 Cs

  1. Christ Life
  2. Character
  3. Creed
  4. Calling
  5. Competence
  6. Chemistry

He uses a red/yellow/green interview debrief tool; desperation hires become expensive organizational debt. 

Finally, Cundiff shares Wilmington’s onboarding insight: new hires should be trained not only on tasks but also on the leader’s communication style, rhythms, expectations, and what success looks like, to avoid unnecessary mistakes. 

Cundiff encourages listeners to download the episode and leader notes, subscribe, share, and leave a five-star rating.

00:00 Welcome + Why Dr. Matt Wilmington’s Questions Matter
01:16 Takeaway #1: Lead Inside-Out (Avoid Mid-Career Burnout)
02:27 Takeaway #2: What Volunteers Teach—Motivate, Don’t Manipulate
03:24 Takeaway #3: The Basics Never Graduate (Mission, Values, Strategy, Clarity)
04:32 Takeaway #4: Recruiting Is the Game—Slow Down Now or Pay Later
06:42 Takeaway #5: Onboarding That Works—Train Them to the Leader
08:25 Wrap-Up: Episode 28 Resources + Subscribe/Share

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#28 Inside-Out Leadership with Dr. Matt Willmington11 Feb 202600:56:29

In this episode of 'Learning to Lead Show', host Mark Cundiff interviews Dr. Matt Willmington, the Executive Pastor of Ministries at Thomas Road Baptist Church and Head of the Pastoral Training program at Liberty University. 

Dr. Willmington shares his leadership journey, emphasizing the importance of living 'inside out' to avoid burnout. He discusses his leadership philosophy, particularly in the context of a large church with numerous volunteers, and explains how biblical principles guide his approach. 

Dr. Willmington also delves into recruitment, training, and coaching strategies, offering practical advice and book recommendations for leaders. He concludes with reflections on balancing productivity and fruitfulness, the importance of self-awareness, and the evolving challenges leaders face today. 

This episode is packed with actionable insights and tips for both seasoned and aspiring leaders.

00:00 Understanding the Inside-Out Mission

00:27 Introduction to Dr. Matt Wilmington

02:04 Matt's Leadership Journey

03:24 Current Roles and Responsibilities

05:23 Leading Volunteers vs. Paid Staff

09:42 Blending Corporate and Church Leadership

12:06 Recruitment and Team Building

25:17 Onboarding and Training New Leaders

28:55 The Importance of Staff Mentorship

29:45 Onboarding and Training New Employees

31:33 Coaching Future Church Leaders

31:59 Biblical Foundations for Leadership

34:48 Practical Lessons from the New Testament

37:16 Self-Awareness and Early Leadership Lessons

43:29 Balancing Productivity and Fruitfulness

49:33 Continual Learning and Personal Growth

51:22 Current Leadership Challenges

55:27 Conclusion and Final Thoughts


Dr. Matt Willmington's Contact Information:

📚 Books Mentioned

Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

#27 Leadership Insights from my conversation with Bobby Allen06 Feb 202600:09:11

Leadership Insights from my conversation with Bobby Allen

In this episode of the Learning to Lead Show, Mark Cundiff highlights key insights from his conversation with Sergeant Major Bobby Allen, focusing on building trust and inspiring leadership. 

The discussion emphasizes five key takeaways for growth-minded leaders: knowing your people as a strategic leadership priority, taking responsibility, valuing influence over position, staying calm under pressure, and fixing root causes rather than symptoms. 

These lessons, drawn from Bobby Allen's extensive experience in both the Marines and industrial manufacturing, provide practical applications for effective leadership. Listeners are encouraged to revisit the full conversation in episode 26 for deeper insights and to download the related Leader Notes for additional resources.

00:00 Introduction to the Learning to Lead Show

00:32 Key Takeaway 1: Knowing Your People

03:23 Key Takeaway 2: Seek Responsibility

04:52 Key Takeaway 3: Influence Beats Position

05:37 Key Takeaway 4: Remain Calm Under Pressure

06:57 Key Takeaway 5: Fix Root Causes, Not Symptoms

07:47 Conclusion and Call to Action



Free Learning To Lead Resources

🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

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