Garry Ridge is the former CEO of WD-40 and the co-author of Any Dumb-Ass Can Do It, a book about building high-performance cultures through servant leadership, emotional safety, and consistent values. In this conversation, Garry shares not just what he learned during his 25+ years at WD-40, but how he lived it—and how other leaders can too. We talk…

DEI is under serious threat in a "post-Woke" world. Is it still relevant? Does it have to lead to shame? Can we promote diversity without creating zero-sum dynamics of winners and losers? Today's guest, Winitha Bonney, takes on DEI challenges with a clear and compassionate worldview grounded in empathy. Which, in her telling, is what DEI is all abo…

Stephen Baxter lives in Tasmania, which has Tasmanian devils which sadly are nothing like the one that gave me nightmares as a little kid watching Looney Tunes cartoons on Saturday mornings. He’s a leadership mentor who promotes a style of leadership very different from the stereotypical command-and-control style of celebrated CEOs and generals: a …

How can we create workplaces that not only support employees and leaders but also contribute positively to the world? Jess Stuart, a former high-achieving burned-out executive turned speaker and leadership coach, shares her journey from corporate burnout to studying with Buddhist monks and nuns around the world. Spoiler: she discovered, and brought…

Tough times for justice, equality, inclusion, and hope these days. With the "anti-woke" attack on DEI, I was wondering how my friend Keith Edwards was doing these days. His practice is one of "aspiring allyship" — how we can all come together to learn and grow, and work for our collective liberation from all forms of tyranny and discrimination. Are…

John Seed was a 3-piece suit tech worker, then a meditating hippie farmer, before stumbling into his lifelong calling as an environmental activist. He participated in the world's first direct action to preserve a rain forest in the 1970s. He co-founded the Rainforest Information Center and raised money and awareness to save the "lungs of the planet…

https://youtu.be/lqbkngcx5Qo Let's talk about persuasion! Whether in the form of sales, or a helpful coaching conversation, or "street epistemology" for a cause you care about, it's very useful to understand how human beings make decisions. Today's guest is Ian Ross, a sales trainer specializing in understanding human psychology and communication. …

Join me on a morning walk as I provide a stream of consciousness introduction to my latest book project while dodging traffic and pitying looks from people noticing me talking to myself with two mics attached to my jacket. The book is about triggers — what causes us to behave in ways we don't like, out of alignment with our goals and values. Like b…

Michael Gelb returns to the podcast to talk about his latest book, Walking Well, co-written with Bruce Fertman. In our conversation, we cover a wide range of topics: the biomechanics of walking how we can powerfully improve the experience of walking through simple mindfulness and imagination exercises why walking is the quintessential human activit…

I've been on a memory reconsolidation mission since I was first introduced to it a couple of years ago. Two missions, in fact. One, to learn as much as I can and incorporate it into my coaching and mentoring. Two, to share it far and wide. Today, we're going to talk about memory reconsolidation and some of the techniques that you can use to help br…

Well, it's getting to be that time of life when I begin to realize that I'm mortal. Next year I turn 60, which, according to the Jewish blessing "May you live to a hundred and twenty," puts me smack dab in middle age. I've been whole food plant-based for decades, and I'm pretty athletic. I meditate, and I keep a journal just in case I ever get the …

One of the things I love about being an executive coach and organizational consultant is how creative I get to be and how many different things I get to try. Every year, at least 10 or 20 pretty significant books on related topics get published. They talk about personal performance, about how to get people to change, how to get teams to become more…

According to climate activist Joanna Macy, there are three stories that explain the world we're living in. The first is Business as Usual. That is, "Don't worry. Everything's fine." For example: "Global warming? No sweat — we're going to figure out how to suck carbon out of the air. No worries. The capitalist system will figure things out and the p…

Doctors Ayesha and Dean Sherzai founded the Healthy Minds Initiative (HMI) to scale their impact on the tragic epidemic of dementia plaguing the world today. The first thing that we have to understand is that the majority of dementias are preventable through diet and lifestyle. The Sherzai's acronym NEURO—nutrition, exercise, unwinding, restorative…

Lewis Bertus was following medical best practices as a physician's assistant when his wife's illness forced him to take a hard look at the limitations of the healthcare industry. The drugs weren't helping her type 2 diabetes, no matter how much her doctors insisted that the pharma route was the only responsible one. So Lewis "did his own research,"…

If What Lights You Up were simply an extremely practical guide to job hunting, I wouldn't have been interested in a conversation with the author, Mary Olson-Menzel. Not that job hunting isn't an important topic — it clearly is, especially if you're out of a job or in one that's making you miserable. It's just that I wouldn't be interested in having…

Just because homelessness is a complex problem doesn't mean that there aren't simple solutions. The obstacles to ending homelessness stem from the "address homelessness" industry itself, which benefits from the persistence of the problem rather than its eradication. What's needed, according to today's guest, Momma Kai Sanders, is affordable housing…

Tom Solid and Paco Cantero are the minds behind the Paperless Movement, a consultancy and educational program for people who aspire to high performance in a fast-changing digital landscape. Which is to say, they're here to help us get shit done in a world of infinite bits and bytes, a world of 24/7 access to information, and a world which will grab…

In the movie There's Something About Mary, there's a scene where Ben Stiller's character picks up a hitchhiker who tries to pitch him on a business idea. There's a popular exercise video called Eight Minute Abs, but the hitchhiker is going to capture market share by making a video called Seven Minute Abs. He explains, "If you walk into the video st…

Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Let's get started because we don't have a lot of time. At least that's the perspective of today's guest, Jodi Wellman. Jodi is an executive coach and speaker, and the author of You Only Die Once. And she's a big fan of Memento mori, Latin for "remember that you will die." Acknowledging the scarcity of our time,…

Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Sarah Davis was a corporate risk manager who began to chafe at the limitations on her life. Sure, she had a safe job and a comfortable income. She ran marathons (3:38 PR — damn!) and was living the dream in Bondi, Australia. But something was missing. When Sarah interrogated herself, she realized that she wasn'…

Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Over the years I've had the privilege of supporting thousands of people to make changes in their lives: entrepreneurs sharpening their focus and implementing their action plans executives growing their leadership and influence chops regular folks adopting healthy habits and uprooting self-sabotaging impulses An…

Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. This is the first conversation that I had with Dr Richard Hodge, and it's the fourth podcast that I've published. That's because after we talked, Richard sent me an email basically saying, "Hey, we covered some pretty advanced stuff, but I think we need to really break it down for folks." So the last three conv…

Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. You don't hear the word joy thrown around a lot in business. And that's why I'm delighted to share this conversation with you with business psychologist Simi Rayat. Simi is the author of the upcoming book Productivity Joy. And her thing is, are you a joy to be around at work, at home, on the streets? It's such …

Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. In this conversation, the brilliant Dr. Richard Hodge (aren't you glad you live in a universe that includes him?) introduces the four quadrant model as a way of clarifying and codifying our approach to complex problems. Before we get into it, I wanna say: This is high-level stuff. It's meaty (ok, seitan-y) and …