Innovation and transformation are never easy. Aidan McCullen, author of Undisruptable , talks how giving failure its due can help lead to personal transformation, leaving the old way of doing things to move forward, and how resistance is often the marker that we are near our goals. For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit: https://whitneyjohnson.com/aidan-mccullen/
Author, speaker, and activist Julie Lythcott-Haims helps people find their true north. A New York Times bestselling author, her latest book, Your Turn , is how to be an adult. We discuss a number compelling topics including how being adult is not about accomplishing some sort of checklist, rather growing through the process. For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit: https://whitneyjohnson.com/julie-lythcott-haims/...
In this episode I talk with Erica Dhawan. She is an author and advisor on 21st century teamwork and today, we are discussing her latest book, Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance. In the past, we humans have drawn heavily upon body language to connect and build trust. But now a significant, if not majority, of our interactions occur in a digital medium. This new reality has made it challenging for many of us to connect and build trust. Erica helps guid...
Our guest today, Ellen Bennett has created a roadmap of sorts for young entrepreneurs in her appropriately titled book, Dream First, Details Later . Bennett is the CEO & Founder of Hedley & Bennett. Their mission: To make the hardest working, best looking aprons, and kitchen gear in the world. Bennett's belief in herself, her company and nearly everyone she connects with , is truly inspiring. She truly leaves one feeling we can dream first and save the details for later. For a complete t...
James Altucher is a serial entrepreneur, chess master, prolific writer, successful investor and stand-up comedian. James is a lot of things, but maybe most of all, he is an experimenter. His latest book, Skip the Line , provides a roadmap for those of us looking to do the same. He has frequently appeared on CNBC and on many podcasts, including one hosted by yours truly (see episode 06 ). James also hosts his own podcast the James Altucher Show , a top-rated show since 2014. Altucher is talented,...
Today our guest is Stephen M.R. Covey, the best-selling author of the critically acclaimed book, The Speed of Trust. He is the son of Stephen R. Covey of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and co-founder of Covey Link and the Franklin Covey Global Speed of Trust practice. And today, he is here with us. Stephen's work shows us that trust is a valuable lever, one that makes organizations more profitable, people more promotable and relationships more energizing. In this episode we learn how, in th...
Today our guest is Ed Catmull. Ed is the co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios (along with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter) and former president of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation. He has received five Academy Awards, and his work as a computer scientist has contributed to groundbreaking developments in computer graphics. As if all that weren't enough, Ed is also the author of the New York Times best-selling book, Creativity Inc. His list of accomplishments is long and are enough to fill more ...
Today, our guest is Dr. Meghan Rothenberger, an infectious disease doctor specializing in HIV and AIDS, formerly a professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Meghan wants to disrupt the stigma around physicians talking about their mental health and we are here to help. From the outside looking in, one might assume that Meghan's life is an idyllic one. After all, she is happily married with two sons and a daughter, and Meghan's husband is also a doctor. She has a great family, a gre...
Bob Proctor is a towering figure wherever the mention of self-help comes into discussion. For more than 40 years, Bob has focused his entire agenda around helping people create enriched lives, full of rewarding relationships and spiritual awareness. In 1960, he was a high-school dropout who had worked a string of dead-end jobs. Crippled by debt, he struggled to find a path forward. However, his life changed dramatically when a friend gave him a revolutionary book, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon...
Money is a resource, and yet many of us are not comfortable talking about money, let alone talking about building a wealth. Fortunately, today I am speaking with Ashley M. Fox. Ashley, a former Wall Street analyst and expert at financial education, is her to help us disrupt our view of money. As part of her mission, she founded Empify, an organization dedicated to changing the mindset of communities across the United States through financial empowerment and education. They have reached thousands...
Our guest today is Charlene Li, a New York Times best-selling author and founder of Altimeter Group, acquired by Prophet in 2015. Charlene and a handful of partners disrupted the industry analyst world in 2008, via their unique business model – FREE. As Charlene put it, "You couldn't buy us." In this episode we discuss Charlene's path to disruption and why she ultimately chose to sell Altimeter. We also break down learnings from Charlene's most recent book, The Disruption Mindset . Join us for a...
Like a bee to honey, so goes Sumeet Shetty with books. His love affair with the written word began when he was a young man, growing up in India, competing in Quiz Bowls. The experience taught him the value of hard work and helped him develop into a gifted speed reader. Now, Sumeet Shetty is the Development Manager for Enterprise Software Solutions at SAP India and the founder of Literati, India's largest corporate book club. Through his work with Literati, Sumeet is helping others to discover th...
Tragedy often brings unwanted change, pushing us onto new and unfamiliar S Curves. What do you do when faced with the unthinkable? Do you back up? Do you freeze? Or do you rise up and scale the curve before you? Our guest today, Lewis Howes, was faced with the unthinkable. In 2001, while just a senior in college, his family was thrust into a life altering experience that would eventually set Lewis on a crash course with a new future as the founder of the School of Greatness. Lewis is relentless ...
When I think of our guests this episode, I am reminded of the Turkish proverb, "No road is long with good company." Jamie and Melbourne O'Banion are on a disruptive journey and have most certainly found themselves, in good company. Jamie is the CEO and founder of Dallas-based BeautyBio which has more than US$100 million in annual sales. Her initial beauty care line on the HSN channel in June 2011 and it immediately sold out . Her products remains a top seller on the network to this day. In 2016,...
Today our guest is Shawn Stevenson, the host of the #1 Nutrition and Fitness podcast in the U.S., The Model Health Show . He's the author of Sleep Smarter, and now most recently Eat Smarter , which at the time we spoke, was one of the top ten selling books on Amazon. Shawn's passion for empowering individuals to take control of their health and wellness is apparent to all who connect with him. Diagnosed with a debilitating degenerative bone disease at just 20 years old, Shawn found himself overw...
Laughing lowers stress – so much so – that simply the anticipation of laughter, just thinking about it , decreases cortisol (stress hormone) and epinephrine (our flight hormone) by 39 and 70% respectively. Our guests this episode, Dr. Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas, understand this better than most. The two teach "Humor: Serious Business", at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. This course is designed to help the business minded serious folk experience, through humor, more joy in their li...
In this episode we discuss the complicated role failure plays in our lives... today, we give failure its due . This, the sixth accelerant in our personal disruption framework, is possibly the most instructive. Yet , because of the pain and shame associated with the experience, we often blow past the lessons, missing out on the gold mine of data revealed to us in the process. However today, we take it all in - we discuss failure openly and learn together how to ditch the shame. We do this by firs...
Our guest this week is a New York Times bestselling author and champion humanizer, Martin Lindstrom. His latest book, The Ministry of Common Sense , releases today. Martin is passionate about business culture and the customer experience. Today, we discuss his methodology of persistence - what can only be described as an above and beyond, up close and personal, all in, every time radical approach to organizational transformation. Martin's methods produce results and awaken cultures. He's been nam...
Today we are joined by Margo Georgiadis. Margo is currently the President and CEO of Ancestry.com . Her career exemplifies the power of the S curve, in particular, the launch point. In this episode, we discuss forging your own path and not being afraid to be the " only ". Margo shares the importance mentors have played in her life and tells us about her incredibly impressive mother – a tenacious woman that served in three separate presidential administrations. We learn how it looks to step back ...
In this episode, we are joined by John Mackey. In 1980 he co-founded small supermarket in Austin, Texas. Over the years the company has grown a bit. It now has more than 500 stores in North America and seven in the United Kingdom. You may have heard of it. It's called Whole Foods. In 2017, the company was acquired by Amazon for $13.7 billion. We discuss what it means to be a conscious leader and how this shows up in everyday leadership. John and I explore how outside events can push us to a new ...
Before you can be an agent of disruption, you first become its subject by disrupting yourself. Keeping this in mind, today's podcast is a bit different. If you've been a long-time listener, this will probably come as no surprise (disruption is what we do, after all)! Join as Disrupt Yourself host Whitney Johnson coaches you, our listeners! Today we discuss: The top 5 reasons you might want to disrupt yourself. Disruption – what does it truly mean? How do we get started? How do I disrupt? For a c...
Today we discussing the new book called Missing Each Other: How to Cultivate Meaningful Connections, with its co-authors Edward "Ted" Brodkin and Ashely Pallathra. In Missing Each Other, they argue that we need to tune back into each other. Especially now. Because of COVID, we've all been pushed to a new S Curve, one that increasingly involves digital forms of connection, making it possible to miss each other even more. Ted is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and has b...
In this episode we talk with Roger L. Martin , Professor Emeritus of Strategic Management, and former Dean at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. In 2017 Roger was named the world's #1 management thinker by Thinkers 50, a global ranking of management thinkers. He's written 28 articles for the Harvard Business Review and has published 11 books. Roger's latest book, When More Is Not Better , analyzes society's increasing inequality and the impact it has on democratic-capitalis...
Our guest this week, Sandy Stelling, is fluent in the language of growth. She started her career with Boeing, fresh out of college. After nearly eight years and rising to the level of Senior Engineer, Sandy took a leap and accepted a position with Alaska Airlines as a Project Manager. Twenty years and six titles later, she became the Vice President of Strategy, Analytics and Transformation. This may seem like an unexpected rise for someone who was hired on to manage projects, but Sandy's approac...
Our guest this week is Ryan Westwood, the CEO and founder of Simplus. Ryan, a serial entrepreneur and disruptor, began creating a bit younger than most – and he has never looked back. At just eleven years old Ryan discovered he had an ability to create wealth. Several years and a few tough lessons later, he is a wildly successful creator. Simplus, his most recent venture co-founded with his brother, has grown to 600 employees on four continents and was recently acquired by Infosys. In this episo...
Our guests this episode are Bettina Hein and Andreas Goeldi, a husband and wife duo. Bettina is the founder and CEO of juli Health, a company that helps people manage their chronic diseases with an AI powered app. Andreas is a partner in btov , a European venture capital firm. This couple understands the s curve of learning™ uniquely well and are gracious enough to share their learnings with us. In this episode we discuss their approach to running companies and their marriage. We learn about Bet...
"Disruption," as a word, has always had an explosive sound to me. Disruption causes your world to shift and change—an earthquake in the making. However, every once in a while, I'm reminded that disruption does not have to be earth shattering. Sometimes, the smallest changes can have a long-lasting impact on your life, especially when those changes become habits. Our guest this episode is James Clear author of the New York Times bestseller, Atomic Habits, An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habi...
Few things are as terrifying as vulnerability. Yet, when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, we allow ourselves to be free. Free from shame, free from fear and free from the untrue stories we tell ourselves. That is why I am excited for this episode. Our guest, Dr. Brené Brown has spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy and is the author of five #1 New York Times bestsellers: The Gifts of Imperfection, Daring Greatly, Rising Strong, Braving the Wilderness,...
At just 20 years old, Marcus Whitney was a young father with another child on the way. He had dropped out of college, was working as a waiter and living in an efficiency hotel. But as Marcus, a now successful Entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist explains, what you do when your back is against the wall makes all the difference. Listen as we discuss: Overcoming poverty, depression and past trauma to become a thriving individual and successful entrepreneur. How success can camouflage unaddressed tra...
This week, our guests are Syd and Shea McGee of Studio McGee. This power couple run and are the sole owners, no outside capital, of one of the most successful and fastest growing interior design businesses in the country. Shea graduated from college with a degree in public relations but quickly realized that her passion was to create… she wanted to be an interior designer. Syd started his career building a startup for digital marketing but found himself unfulfilled in the mechanics of the busine...
