Bestselling author and renowned communication strategist Sam Horn joins Michelle on this week’s episode of The Seismic Shift to share the transformative power of language in leadership and life. Drawing from her latest book Talking on Eggshells, Sam walks listeners through a series of seismic shifts in language that will help reduce tension, boost connection, and strengthen leadership presence. From hospitals to boardrooms, Sam shares real world stories that highlight how common phrases like “yo...
Jun 11, 2025•32 min•Season 3Ep. 22
Global connection strategist Andy Lopata joins Michelle for an eye-opening conversation about the true meaning of networking and why it's undergoing a seismic shift right now. Far from the outdated perception of awkward meet-and-greets and LinkedIn ads, Andy reframes networking as “professional relationship strategy,” a shift that has not only elevated his own career but is also transforming how leaders approach connection. Andy shares how his years of building networking businesses evolved into...
May 28, 2025•33 min•Season 3Ep. 21
On today’s episode of The Seismic Shift, Michelle welcomes Dr. Laura Hambley Lovett, a leading organizational psychologist and authority on workplace wellness, for a candid conversation about toxic leadership and the damage it inflicts on individuals and companies alike. With decades of experience helping people and organizations flourish, Dr. Laura explains how innovation, productivity, and mental well-being all suffer under toxic leadership. During their candid conversation listeners will lear...
May 14, 2025•35 min•Season 3Ep. 20
From being cut in Spain to coaching in the NBA, and from writing cold letters to becoming a bestselling author and global speaker, David Nurse's path defies traditional success playbooks. In this episode, David Nurse, a former professional basketball player and NBA coach turned elite performance strategist, bestselling author, and one of the top 50 keynote speakers in the world, sits down with host Michelle Johnston to unpack the mindset tools and energetic strategies that elevate leaders beyond...
Apr 30, 2025•34 min•Season 3Ep. 19
After a seismic career and life shift, Todd Vande Hei reemerged with a revolutionary take on health. In this powerful conversation, Todd opens up about losing everything during the 2008 economic collapse and how that dark season became the unlikely foundation of his life’s work—building Stark, a human optimization company for elite professionals. Todd discusses the health challenges that plagued him for decades: seizures, chronic migraines, joint pain, and a state of perpetual burnout fueled by ...
Apr 16, 2025•36 min•Season 3Ep. 18
Michael Bungay Stanier doesn’t just write books—he starts movements. In this energizing conversation with Michelle, the celebrated author of The Coaching Habit and How to Work with Almost Anyone shares the seismic shifts that changed how we lead, connect, and collaborate at work. Together, they discuss how effective leadership is moving away from advice-giving toward deeper connection, and why asking the right questions upfront can make or break a relationship. Michael explains the origin of his...
Apr 02, 2025•35 min•Season 3Ep. 17
What’s your next move? Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer joins this week’s episode of The Seismic Shift to help mid-career professionals, especially women, become more intentional about their career paths. In today’s conversation with Michelle, Cynthia shares her journey from corporate leadership to executive coaching, highlighting some key shifts in the modern workplace. Drawing from over 30 years in corporate leadership, Cynthia walks us through her insights on overcoming workplace biases, advocating for...
Mar 19, 2025•34 min•Season 3Ep. 16
What if the key to success, happiness, and fulfillment lies in designing a life filled with connection? Dr. Ruth Gotian and Ayse Birsel bring their expertise in high performance and human-centered design to this episode of The Seismic Shift—exploring the shifts that redefine leadership, collaboration, and friendship. Along with Michelle, Ruth and Ayse recount their journey of meeting through the 100 Coaches group, their mutual mentor Marshall Goldsmith, and how their shared passion for mentorshi...
Mar 05, 2025•36 min•Season 3Ep. 15
AI is transforming the workplace, and leaders must adapt—or risk becoming obsolete. In this episode, Ted Elliott, CEO of Capado, shares how AI is reshaping DevOps, business strategy, and workplace culture. He explains how Capado’s "AI-first" approach helped the company turn a financial deficit into growth, and why AI should be embraced rather than feared. Ted discusses how AI can help leaders become better listeners by summarizing key insights from meetings, ensuring follow-ups, and fostering ps...
Feb 19, 2025•29 min•Season 3Ep. 14
The Super Bowl is more than a game—it’s an opportunity to bring people together and showcase the culture, resilience, and vibrancy of an entire region. In our final Super Bowl episode of the week leading up to the game, Michelle is joined by some of Louisiana’s top leaders who are working behind the scenes to ensure that this event is a success for their entire state. Jill Kidder of Visit Baton Rouge, along with Ben Berthelot (Lafayette Travel), Kyle Edmiston (Visit Lake Charles), and Alana Coop...
Feb 06, 2025•36 min•Season 3Ep. 13
New Orleans isn’t just hosting the Super Bowl—it’s creating an experience like no other. In our second Super Bowl episode of the week, Michelle welcomes Sandra Lindquist, CEO of the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce, to talk about what makes New Orleans "built to host." The conversation touches on the city’s unique ability to bring people together, the impact of small businesses, and the spirit of resilience following recent challenges. Sandra opens the conversation by sharing her journey to leadi...
Feb 05, 2025•29 min•Season 3Ep. 12
Todd Graves, founder of Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, joins Michelle on one of this week’s special Super Bowl episodes of The Seismic Shift! As the King of the Super Bowl Host Committee Parade, Todd is embracing the opportunity to highlight Louisiana as a great place to live, work, and grow a business. During his conversation with Michelle, he discusses his leadership philosophy, the power of connection in business, and how he disrupted the fast-food industry. From launching Raising Cane’s to ...
Feb 04, 2025•17 min•Season 3Ep. 11
For 25 years Bridgett Brown embodied what it meant to be beautiful according to society’s standards. A former Ford model, Bridgett appeared perfect, but in reality she was struggling with everything from eating disorders to suicidal ideation. On today’s powerful episode of The Seismic Shift, Michelle sits down with Bridgett to talk about how this former “it” girl went from the top of the beauty industry to redefining what it actually means to be beautiful through her organization The Beyond Beau...
Jan 22, 2025•29 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Welcome to a whole new year and another truly impactful episode of The Seismic Shift. We’re starting off 2025 strong, talking with serial healthcare entrepreneur, Chantell Preston, all about how to actually achieve that always-elusive work-life integration. Let’s dive in! Chantell has been starting her own companies since she was 27 years-old, and in that time she’s learned a thing or two about what it takes to find fulfillment both at work and at home through building connection with the entire...
Jan 08, 2025•33 min•Season 3Ep. 9
How do we find that fire in our belly to do something truly revolutionary with our lives? Silicon Valley disruptor and current CEO of Corent Technology, Feyzi Fatehi, knows a thing or two when it comes to answering that question. For today’s episode of The Seismic Shift, Michelle sits down with Feyzi to take a look at his meteoric rise through some of the world’s top technology companies—outlining the biggest lessons he’s learned along the way. From spearheading Hewlett-Packard’s global alliance...
Dec 18, 2024•34 min•Season 3Ep. 8
As leaders, it’s essential that we master the art of the delicate conversation to foster connection among the people we lead. But delicate conversations are just that … delicate, and it’s tempting to put them off. Today on The Seismic Shift, Michelle sits down with the world’s no. 1 startup coach, Alisa Cohn, to dive into how to have those delicate conversations we all dread, and how to have them well. To open the episode, Michelle invites Alisa to share her incredible story of reinventing her c...
Dec 11, 2024•30 min•Season 3Ep. 7
For this week’s special, bonus episode of The Seismic Shift, Michelle has the privilege of sitting down with two of her colleagues at Loyola University New Orleans: the university’s new president—and first president of color—Dr. Xavier Cole, and Loyola’s interim dean of the College of Business, Dr. Bobby Savoie. It’s no secret that the value (and price tag) of higher education have come into question in recent years. So together these three dynamic leaders discuss some of the key seismic shifts ...
Nov 27, 2024•36 min•Season 3Ep. 6
The city of New Orleans recently experienced “the Taylor Swift effect”—the whole city coming together culturally and economically for the singer’s Eras Tour weekend. Today on The Seismic Shift, Michelle sits down with GNO, Inc. President & CEO Michael Hecht to talk all about how the city can recreate that sense of joy and belonging during next year’s Super Bowl. As New Orleans natives, Michelle and Michael are both passionate about seeing their city thrive during big events like a Taylor Swi...
Nov 20, 2024•33 min•Season 3Ep. 5
We all have those things that are most important to us, but do our calendars actually reflect those priorities? This week on The Seismic Shift, Michelle is joined by an individual who has personally helped her make some of the biggest shifts of her professional life over the past six months. That person is former NFL coach turned executive coach, Taylor Johnson. Taylor is an expert when it comes to helping others craft that winning formula that will set them on the path towards greater connectio...
Nov 13, 2024•46 min•Season 3Ep. 4
How do we deal with a micromanaging boss? What if you are that micromanaging boss? Can leading yourself well really bring purpose to even the most mundane job functions? On this week’s episode of The Seismic Shift, Michelle sits down with mother-daughter consulting team Lisa McLeod and Elizabeth Lotardo to answer these questions and more—focusing on the power we can all find in being our own best leader. Lisa is an executive coach and the author of Leading With Noble Purpose. Elizabeth is also a...
Oct 30, 2024•33 min•Season 3Ep. 3
When Bart Foster was forced out of the company he founded, he was challenged to think about how to do business differently. In the aftermath his organization, Business Outside, was born—all about disrupting the ways we connect and working to foster those connections in whole new ways. On today’s episode of The Seismic Shift, Michelle sits down with Bart—one of her good friends in business—to talk about all the ways we can think outside the box when it comes to building connections. During their ...
Oct 16, 2024•29 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Welcome to season 3 of The Seismic Shift podcast! This season Michelle is sitting down with 20 bestselling authors—diving into how their work and research is shaking up the way we live and do business. Our first guest is organizational psychologist and chancellor professor, Steven Rogelberg. Steven is an expert when it comes to meetings, specifically how to build a better meeting. During today’s conversation Steven and Michelle take a look at the intention behind meetings, why meetings have beco...
Oct 02, 2024•26 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Welcome back to season 3 of the Seismic Shift podcast!! We're so excited to tell you all that it is launching on October 2nd. The Seismic Shift podcast is sponsored by Loyola University New Orleans and we'll be interviewing 20 best selling authors and they'll be talking about the seismic shifts that are shaking up how we work and how we live. So please tune in, like, subscribe, follow, share, and we'll see you all on October 2nd.
Sep 25, 2024•43 sec
Original Aired Date: 7/13/2022 Every leader has their own story behind them, but do they truly own that same story? If we’re going to lead others through connection, we need to prioritize getting connected with ourselves first. To shed light on this central tenet of connective leadership, Michelle is joined by US Assistant Attorney General, Kenneth Polite, who, having grown up in the highly incarcerated lower ninth ward of New Orleans and since risen through the ranks of the US justice system, i...
Sep 18, 2024•50 min•Season 2Ep. 23
Original Aired Date: 2/8/2023 Ever wonder what takes place behind the scenes of a Super Bowl team? Learn leadership best practices from former Super Bowl Champion, Jon Stinchcomb. Jon played for The New Orleans Saints for 8 seasons and served on the offense with Drew Brews when they won Super Bowl XLIV. According to Jon, the secret sauce is not just skill level, it’s your character, how you treat each other inside and outside of the locker room. Tune in to this episode and learn how to build a c...
Sep 04, 2024•40 min•Season 2Ep. 22
Original Aired Date: 9/7/2022 Robért LeBlanc, Founder and CEO of LeBlanc + Smith, is a true servant leader who built his business around his people. “We want our team to enjoy themselves every day while learning and being really productive, and we want them to have joyful and balanced lives while doing so.” This mentality is not the norm in the hospitality industry, where burnout is high and quality of life is typically low. Listen to Robért talk about why he believes showing care and compassi...
Aug 21, 2024•41 min•Season 2Ep. 21
Original Aired Date: 1/11/2023 Communication and connection are very different. With communication, it’s found to be more transactional getting from A to B. What we find with connecting with our teams in today's work environment now means something different perhaps than it did before. How seen are people? Do they feel heard? Are they cared for? 2022 Businessperson of the Year and the President and Publisher of The Advocate and Times-Picayune, Judi Terzotis exhibits the highest level of these qu...
Aug 07, 2024•36 min•Season 2Ep. 20
Original Aired Date: 10/5/2022 We believe that if you actually listen to your team, they will be more motivated to perform well and generate new ideas. Today we have Boysie Bollinger on the podcast to talk about how to listen to lead. Do you believe that lower-level employees often have observations that higher level leaders cannot see? Listen to learn and transform into a leader that listens! You can pick up a copy of Michelle Johnston's newest book, The Seismic Shift, on her website: https://m...
Jul 24, 2024•39 min•Season 2Ep. 19
Original Aired Date: 3/8/2023 For too long, there have been many experiences underneath the ego-forward leadership umbrella that ultimately have pushed people out the door. Can those past experiences lead to a greater understanding of how to change that narrative in our own leadership? Don McGuire seems to think so. In this episode, Michelle and Don McGuire, CMO of Qualcomm, discuss how empowering employees to rethink the status quo through encouraging connection, ideation, and building trust ca...
Jul 10, 2024•36 min•Season 2Ep. 18
Original Aired Date: 12/8/2022 Juan Martin is an executive who epitomes Kindness and Connection. As the Global President of KIND Snacks and Nature’s Bakery, Juan is genuinely trying to make the world a better place through acts of kindness. Juan believes Success is measured by how kind we are to ourselves, each other, and our planet. Tune in to today’s episode of The Seismic Shift podcast to learn strategies from Juan on how to more effectively connect with your people and your organization. You...
Jun 26, 2024•42 min•Season 2Ep. 17
