Career Episodes

Dan Schlund believes the moments that bring us crashing down can also become the foundation for building something greater. Known around the world as “The Rocketman,” Dan is an entrepreneur, paramedic, stunt performer, author, speaker, and one of the few people to master the extraordinary art of Rocketbelt flight. For more than a decade, he completed hundreds of flights across 26 countries and six continents, taking his career from Hollywood stunt work and live-action productions to major international events. But Dan’s story reaches far beyond the spectacle of flying. His career has crossed professional stunt work, pyrotechnics, film and television production, and emergency medical services, giving him a unique understanding of both high-risk environments and the responsibility of protecting the people working within them. That perspective became deeply personal after Dan survived catastrophic injuries, including severe burns that cost him 185 square inches of skin and a lat…

Stephen Moss on Executive Leadership and Developing Great Leaders | 1,638 Stephen Moss believes great leadership is not only measured by the brands you build, but by the people you develop along the way. A former Chief Marketing Officer and seasoned global brand builder, Stephen has led marketing for organizations including Gilbey Canada, Pillsbury International, Nestlé Ice Cream, and Imation. Throughout his career, he has helped some of the world's most recognizable brands overcome decline, enter new markets, and create sustainable growth. His accomplishments include reversing Smirnoff's decline in Canada and helping position the brand for six consecutive years of growth, authoring Pillsbury's first global brand manual for Green Giant, introducing Häagen-Dazs to China, and revitalizing Drumstick with advertising that was ultimately adopted by Nestlé ice cream businesses around the world. But Stephen's impact extends beyond brands and business results. More than 50 profess…

Dr. Greg Jones on Nonprofit Leadership and Organizational Growth | 1,631 Dr. Greg Jones believes strong organizations are built when mission driven leaders have the operational clarity and support to lead well through change. For more than two decades, Greg has served at the intersection of leadership, faith, and organizational development. His experience includes leading private Christian schools, serving churches, and advising faith based nonprofits through seasons of growth, transition, crisis, and renewal. Today, Greg brings that firsthand leadership experience to organizations as a Fractional COO, helping leaders strengthen operations, navigate complexity, and turn their vision into practical action. His perspective comes not simply from studying organizational leadership, but from having personally carried the responsibility of leading teams and institutions through challenging seasons. Greg understands that mission driven organizations often face a unique tension: s…

Robert Fojo on Career Reinvention and Starting Over in Your 40s | 1,627 Robert Fojo believes starting over is not the end of your story. It can be the beginning of building something you truly own. A former attorney turned payments entrepreneur, Robert's career is a powerful story of reinvention. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he spent 17 years practicing law at major firms and eventually running his own practice. But when that chapter came to an abrupt end in 2021, Robert found himself in his 40s facing the challenge of rebuilding his career from the ground up. He entered the payments industry with no shortcuts, knocking on doors, learning the business firsthand, and developing the skills required to succeed in an entirely new field. Within a year, he became the number one representative on his sales team and eventually founded Max Value Processing. Today, Robert helps business owners use payment technology as a tool for growth while mentoring people who are na…

Matt Estrin on Entrepreneurship, Faith, and Building a Business | 1,626 Matt Estrin believes it is never too late to take a leap of faith and build something meaningful. An entrepreneur, speaker, author, and founder of 477 Distilling, Matt spent 15 years as a pastor before stepping into an entirely new chapter as an entrepreneur. Since making that transition, he has launched seven businesses, created jobs, strengthened communities, and experienced firsthand both the challenges and rewards of building companies from the ground up. In his book, I Know the Owner: From Holy Water to Happy Hour, Matt shares the failures, victories, and unexpected lessons that shaped his journey from ministry to business ownership. Today, he uses those experiences to help aspiring and established entrepreneurs build stronger businesses, develop healthy company cultures, and lead with greater purpose and integrity. Although his career has evolved, Matt's faith remains at the center of how he appr…

Deidre Gestrin on Burnout Recovery and Stress Management | 1,618 Deidre Gestrin believes sustainable success should never require sacrificing your health, purpose, or the people around you. A consultant, speaker, author, and trainer with more than 20 years of experience, Deidre specializes in stress, trauma, burnout recovery, and behavioral health leadership. Her work helps professionals and organizations move beyond simply coping with pressure and create healthier systems that support both human well being and long term performance. Drawing from extensive experience in behavioral health leadership, Deidre has developed high performing teams, strengthened workforce resilience, enhanced clinical supervision, and helped organizations improve the way care is delivered. Her expertise in program design, system optimization, and telehealth allows her to address burnout not only as an individual challenge, but also as an organizational one. As the author of From Burnout to Balanc…

Monique DeMonaco on Emotional Intelligence and Career Success | 1,616 Monique DeMonaco believes career success requires more than technical knowledge. It requires the emotional intelligence and human skills to communicate, adapt, and lead. As the founder of EQ Wize, Coach Monique is helping bridge the gap between education and employment by preparing emerging professionals with the skills today's workplaces demand. An internationally trained Life, Executive, and Career Coach with more than 20 years of experience, she specializes in emotional intelligence, communication, emotional regulation, critical thinking, and professional development. Through Emotional Intelligence and Brain Science based education and CPDSO accredited certifications, Monique helps young professionals understand what employers are truly looking for and develop the confidence and practical skills to become more hirable, promotable, and effective in the workplace. Her work also supports parents, graduat…

Bruce Ashford on The Power of Clarity in Business and Leadership | 1,613 Bruce Ashford believes meaningful growth begins with clarity, not complexity. A strategic advisor, author, and founder of The Ashford Agency, Bruce helps nonprofit leaders and founder led businesses bridge the gap between the impact they are making and the growth they are capable of achieving. By combining clear messaging with practical strategy, he equips leaders to build organizations that are both mission driven and sustainable. Drawing on more than two decades of executive leadership experience, Bruce has advised nonprofits, universities, businesses, and CEOs across local, national, and international organizations. As a certified StoryBrand Guide and Small Business Flight Plan® advisor, he specializes in helping leaders communicate with greater clarity, strengthen their strategy, and lead with confidence. A prolific author of nine books and hundreds of articles, Bruce has also served as a speechwr…

Dr Chidimma Abuka on Shared Leadership and Team Success | 1,583 Dr. Chidimma A. Abuka is rethinking one of leadership's oldest assumptions: that every organization needs just one person at the top. An author, researcher, and leadership consultant, Dr. Abuka is the Executive Director of Global Co-Leadership Development and Change Management at Polymathes Consulting. Through her doctoral research at Pepperdine University, she developed the Dualis Co-Leadership System™, a research informed framework designed to help organizations lead through intentional partnership rather than individual authority. As the author of Co-Leadership: One Role. Two Leaders. and The Workbook for Co-Leaders, she equips executives, organizations, and leadership teams with practical strategies for building trust, strengthening shared accountability, and creating collaborative leadership cultures that thrive in today's complex world. Dr. Abuka's work challenges conventional leadership models with a po…

Rita Rai on Business Strategy and Operational Excellence | 1,582 Rita Rai has spent her career solving the complex challenges that keep organizations from reaching their full potential. A senior executive and strategic advisor, Rita has led high impact transformation initiatives for Fortune 500 companies, helping executive teams navigate growth, operational complexity, and organizational change. Her expertise spans strategic planning, operational excellence, process optimization, technology strategy, program leadership, and change management. Known for her ability to connect big picture vision with practical execution, Rita helps organizations improve performance, streamline operations, reduce costs, and create better experiences for both customers and teams. At the heart of her work is a simple belief: sustainable success comes from aligning strategy, people, and execution. Through thoughtful leadership and a talent for solving complex problems, Rita helps organizations m…

Todd A. Krause on Scaling a Business with Better Systems | 1,572 Todd A. Krause believes businesses don't struggle because they lack opportunity. They struggle because they outgrow the systems that once made them successful. A CPA, MBA, entrepreneur, and business strategist, Todd has spent his career helping organizations scale with clarity and purpose. As the owner of The Cleaning Authority in Fishers, he grew the business from $1.8 million to more than $4 million in revenue while creating an award winning workplace culture built on strong leadership and engaged teams. Today, through Silversun Consulting, Todd helps home service business owners overcome the challenges that prevent sustainable growth. His work focuses on building leadership, creating scalable systems, and developing healthy workplace cultures that allow companies to grow without relying on constant owner involvement. Drawing from decades of experience across finance, banking, entrepreneurship, and operatio…

Cat Markel is the founder of Cat Markel Creatives, a boutique brand and web studio focused on helping women build businesses that feel aligned, sustainable, and real. After building a successful career in marketing and reaching director level roles, Cat made the decision to step away from corporate life in search of more freedom. What she discovered was a different kind of pressure, one that many women face while balancing family, income, and the desire to create something meaningful of their own. That experience now shapes her work. Cat partners with coaches and small business owners to simplify what they are building, clarify their message, and bring their brand to life through thoughtful strategy, content, and design. Her approach is grounded and practical, helping women create businesses that support their lives instead of competing with them. Through coaching, courses, and hands on creative work, she helps clients move out of overwhelm and into clarity, building someth…

1,488 | Ben Millan on Smart Retirement Planning That Works Ben Millan is the President of Serenity Retirement and a Retirement Income and Medicare Planning Specialist focused on helping individuals shift from building wealth to sustaining it with clarity and structure. With nearly 20 years of experience in financial services, his work centers on the critical transition into retirement, where decisions around income, healthcare, taxes, and timing begin to matter more than accumulation alone. He helps clients design coordinated strategies that align retirement income, Medicare planning, Social Security decisions, tax efficiency, and asset protection into one clear direction. Rather than relying on reactive decisions, Ben’s approach is built on disciplined planning and long-term stability. His focus is on reducing uncertainty, helping retirees understand their options, and creating systems designed to hold up through market shifts and rising healthcare costs. His philosophy i…

Kerilie McDowall is a multi disciplined creative force working at the intersection of music, film, and artist development. Based on Vancouver Island, she is a guitarist composer, educator, and industry mentor who has spent decades shaping and supporting the global jazz community. Her career is layered and unconventional. From performing as one of Canada’s early female jazz bandleaders to producing radio for over 17 years, writing for leading publications like DownBeat, and judging major awards including the JUNOs and Polaris Music Prize, Kerilie has operated across nearly every corner of the music industry. Her work in film brought unexpected global recognition. Her jazz documentary In the Zone: Rick Kilburn reached nearly 1.5 billion views on IMDB Pro, placing her on the international stage after years of grassroots creative work as a volunteer TV director and producer. Today, she splits her time between teaching guitar, composing new jazz works, and mentoring artists in are…

Kathy Karneth builds ecosystems where healing, leadership, and impact come together. After more than three decades advising global companies like Intuit, Yahoo, Honeywell, and Kaiser Permanente, she saw a gap that strategy alone could not fill. People needed connection, alignment, and a deeper path to well-being. That realization led her to found Sangha Healing. Sangha Healing is more than a network. It is a platform designed to connect individuals with trusted holistic practitioners and create space for real transformation. Kathy brings her background in systems thinking and team alignment into the wellness world, helping bridge structure with healing in a way that is both grounded and expansive. Her work is driven by personal experience, environmental awareness, and a belief that collective healing starts with individual responsibility and community support. Kathy’s focus is clear. Build communities that heal, empower people to take ownership of their well-being, and con…

1,460 | How Scott Doggett Helps Leaders Build Better Teams Scott Doggett is the Founder and Chief Servant Leader of the National Academy of Leadership Development and author of Priceless! See People Differently. Lead People Better. With nearly 30 years of leadership experience, Scott has seen firsthand how small, everyday interactions quietly shape culture, performance, and the way people see themselves. That insight now drives his work, helping leaders shift from managing tasks to truly valuing people. His message is simple but powerful. When people feel seen, supported, and understood, everything changes. Engagement rises. Trust deepens. Performance follows. Today, Scott is leading a growing movement to rehumanize the workplace, challenging leaders to rethink how they show up and reminding organizations that their greatest asset is not strategy or systems, it is people. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 Love our show? Show some love! 👉 Check out today’s guest: www.national…

1,454 | Justin Ferland on Turning Teams Into Thriving Cultures Justin Ferland is the General Manager of Sales and Operations at Serendipity Labs Costa Mesa, where he drives growth through community focused partnerships and a people first, advisory approach to sales. With more than 15 years of leadership experience across hospitality, consulting, and operations, Justin has built and scaled teams while leading successful operational and cultural turnarounds. He is known for creating environments where professionals thrive through trust, collaboration, and meaningful connection. Guided by the belief that a rising tide lifts all ships, Justin brings a leadership style rooted in partnership and shared success, showing how strong relationships fuel both business performance and personal growth. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 Love our show? Show some love! 👉 Check out today’s guest: www.serendipitylabs.com/us/ca/costa-mesa-pacific-arts-plaza/ 🎬 Need stunning videos, clean audio, o…

1,452 | Brimstone Shares His Journey in Entertainment and Media Brimstone is a multi-talented entertainer and entrepreneur whose career spans more than four decades across a wide range of industries. His work includes professional wrestling, radio and podcast hosting, acting, voice acting, writing, music, philanthropy, food criticism, and appearances in horror, comic books, animation, children’s media, and video games. Often described as a modern Renaissance figure, Brimstone has built a reputation as a seasoned entertainer and dynamic personality who continues to evolve and expand his impact across entertainment and media. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 Love our show? Show some love! 👉 Check out today’s guest: www.therealbrimstone.com 🎬 Need stunning videos, clean audio, or scroll-stopping designs? Check out our media services at https://www.kmmedia.pro/ — Top-tier quality without the agency price tag. Perfect for creators, coaches, and brands ready to level up. 👍 Like t…

1,451 | Mary Lou Panzano on Leading Through Change and Loss Mary Lou Panzano is an award winning communications executive turned leadership coach, advisor, and speaker with more than 35 years of experience guiding organizations through complex change. After a profound personal loss, she stepped away from her corporate career to focus on what matters most to her, helping people grow, adapt, and truly prosper. Today, she works with individuals and leaders to navigate change with clarity, confidence, and resilience, both in business and in life. Mary Lou is a best selling co author of Cracking the Rich Code, Volume 18 and a contributing author to The Art of Connection: 365 Days of Resilience. Her upcoming book, Cementing Change: Cracking the Code for Communications that Work, is set for release in 2026. Deeply committed to service, she is a former board president of her local Habitat for Humanity affiliate and remains active in her church and community. Mary Lou lives in New …

1,416 | Hyacinth Morrison on Growing Leaders Who Drive Results Hyacinth Morrison is a global HR executive, leadership coach, and founder of SDA People Partners, where she helps organizations lead with both performance and humanity. With more than 20 years of senior leadership experience across industries such as manufacturing, banking, education, and consumer goods, Hyacinth advises CEOs and executive teams on building stronger cultures, developing leaders, and aligning people with purpose and results. Her philosophy is simple. When leaders grow, organizations transform. By combining strategic insight with compassion and practical leadership tools, Hyacinth helps companies create workplaces where people feel valued, trusted, and motivated to contribute at their highest level. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 Love our show? Show some love! 👉 Check out today’s guest: https://sda-peoplepartners.com 🎬 Need stunning videos, clean audio, or scroll-stopping designs? Check out our m…

1,412 | Dr. Scott Geise on Leadership Through Service and Sport Dr. Scott Geise is a lifelong supporter of the Niagara County community. A graduate of Newfane High School, he went on to attend Hobart College, where he was a two sport athlete. He earned All American honors in football and played defense for three national championship lacrosse teams. In recognition of his achievements, he was inducted into the Hobart Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002. Dr. Geise received his dental degree from the SUNY Buffalo School of Dental Medicine in 1988 and was commissioned into the United States Army Dental Corps. He served in Germany from 1988 to 1991 before returning home to care for patients throughout Niagara County. In addition to his dental practice, Dr. Geise is a published author and an active contributor to his community. He lives in Newfane with his wife, Larina, and their three sons, Stone, Myles, and Thorne. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 Love our show? Show some love! 👉 Check …

1,398 | Bianca B. King on Turning $700 Into $280M in Revenue With nearly 30 years in business and more than 1.6 billion dollars in transactions, Bianca B. King has built a career defined by resilience. That strength was forged early when she left home at 13 to escape instability and create a future on her own terms. She spent over a decade in commercial real estate on a team that closed 1.4 billion dollars in deals. In 2008, she launched Seven5 Seven3 Marketing Group with just 700 dollars. Seventeen years later, that decision has generated more than 280 million dollars in client revenue. Along the way, Bianca realized that the same strategies that build sustainable wealth can also cultivate sustainable joy. She founded Pretty Damn Ambitious®, a global collective for ambitious women entrepreneurs in expert based service businesses. Through her Joyful Ambition™ framework, she helps leaders build profitable companies while aligning success with personal values and fulfillment. …

1,396 | Jakub Polaczyk on Building an International Music Career Jakub Polaczyk is a Polish American composer, pianist, and educator based in New York City. He is a recipient of the Gold Cross of Merit from the President of Poland and the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture, Gloria Artis. He was also named an Honorary Citizen of Stary Sącz, Poland. Educated at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music, Jagiellonian University, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, and Carnegie Mellon University, Polaczyk has won more than twenty national and international awards, including honors from The American Prize and the Global Music Awards. His works have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Musikverein in Vienna. He has collaborated with leading orchestras and ensembles worldwide, and his music is published and recorded internationally. He previously served as Director of the International Chopin and Friends Festival in New York City. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━…

1,388 | Christopher Rivers on Navigating Ambition Without Losing Yourself Christopher Rivers is a former US Army officer and combat veteran who enlisted at 17 and served in Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Physics with a focus on Nuclear Engineering, along with master’s degrees in Public Policy and Foreign Service from Georgetown University. After his military service, Christopher worked as a policy advisor and strategic problem-solver at the US Department of State and later in the private sector, guiding organizations through complex operational and leadership challenges. His career spans national security, diplomacy, corporate strategy, and a statewide political campaign, giving him a rare, firsthand perspective on how power operates within institutions. His debut book, You Shouldn’t Have to Kill to Get Ahead, draws on that experience to examine ambition, integrity, and the system…