Leveraging Thought Leadership
Hear from the people whose ideas shape the business world. Learn what their public stories leave out. Our beat: the business of thought leadership and the people who take ideas to scale. Fortune 500 CEOs. New York Times bestselling authors. Thinkers50 honorees. NSA Hall of Fame speakers. Top business school professors. First-time authors. Emerging keynote speakers. Their support: publishers, speaking coaches, PR experts. We ask thought leaders to share generously. And they don't hold back. How did they get here? What nearly stopped them? What did they learn? And what keeps them going? Your co-hosts, Peter Winick and Bill Sherman of Thought Leadership Leverage, bring two decades of experience working with thought leadership practitioners. We've woven stories from 700+ episodes, our frameworks, and the tools we use every day into The Thought Leadership Handbook. Learn how the experts take their big ideas to scale—and how you can too.
Episodes
Why Focus Is a Team Problem, Not a Personal One | Shawn Vanderhoven | 743
A leader stands up in the middle of a 200-person workshop, slams his hand on the table, and says out loud what everyone in the room is feeling: I can't do great work here anymore. That moment helped start Pause: How to Lead Brilliant Work in a Busy World, and it's where this conversation gets interesting. Shawn Vanderhoven leads the executive development practice at the Wiseman Group and collabo
How to Scale Executive Coaching Across an Entire Organization | Billy Hoogterp | 742
Ask professionals at the world's biggest companies whether they have a plan for their own learning and growth, and Bill Hoogterp says the answer is almost never yes. He built LifeHikes around that gap, and in this episode he shows how a happy accident turned into a scalable model. Bill's career reads like a series of rivers rather than a roadmap: a decade of living cashless and keyless, nonprofits
How to Stand Out When AI Makes Content a Commodity | Jack Myers | 741
What if the one thing you've spent your career building, your expertise, is about to become the least valuable thing you own? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick sits down with Jack Myers, a media ecologist, futurist, and author of Your Third Brain: Powering a Future of Unimagined Possibilities. Jack launched The Myers Report as a fax newsletter in 1984, founded MediaVil
Building Trust Between Humans and AI in R&D| Jayshree Seth| 740
What does it take for a corporate scientist with zero direct reports to land on a list dominated by business school professors and bestselling authors? That's the question Jayshree Seth had to answer for herself when she was named to the Thinkers50 Radar in 2025 — and her answer became a framework. In her third appearance on the show, Jayshree Seth, 3M's Chief Science Advocate and now-published t
Why Your Book's ROI Isn't Book Sales | Zach Kristensen | 739
Here's an uncomfortable truth for anyone thinking about writing a book: the profit from the book itself is usually a rounding error. The real return shows up somewhere else entirely — and this episode, featuring publishing strategist Zach Kristensen, is about figuring out where. Zach has spent 15 years inside the thought leadership publishing world, first at FranklinCovey helping build out titles
Translating Academic Research Into Real Business Impact | Nathan Bennett | 738
What actually happens when academic research meets the boardroom? Peter Winick sits down with Nate Bennett — professor of management and faculty director of the Executive MBA program at Georgia State University's J. Mack Robinson College of Business — for a candid look at the gap between what business scholars know and what business leaders actually use. Bennett has spent his career straddling
Leading Through Uncertainty: What Crisis Really Reveals | Tom Kolditz & Mariana Khomitska | 737
What separates a leader from someone who just holds a title? This episode goes looking for the answer with two people who've watched that question get answered under real pressure: retired Brigadier General Tom Kolditz, who spent 40 years building leaders at West Point, Yale, and Rice, and Mariana Khomitska, a Ukrainian leadership development expert who has spent the last several years watching le
Rivers, Rocks, and Rubies: A New Career Model | Dan Pontefract | 736
Here's an uncomfortable question: if you replaced "Gen X" with a racial or ethnic label in a hiring conversation, would anyone tolerate it? Dan Pontefract — leadership and corporate culture strategist, six-time author, and former Chief Learning Officer at SAP and TELUS — thinks the answer says a lot about how casually organizations discriminate by age. In this conversation, Dan traces the arc
How Career Pivots Really Happen | Mary Olson-Menzel | 735
What does it actually take to build a coaching methodology that thousands of people rely on? According to Mary Olson-Menzel, Founder and CEO of MVP Executive Development and author of the national bestseller What Lights You Up? Illuminate Your Path and Take the Next Big Step in Your Career, it wasn't a strategic plan. It was fourteen years of watching. This episode traces Mary's career from loca
The Difference Between Opinion and Real Thought Leadership | Lisa Bodell | 734
She was skeptical about writing a book for years. Not because she lacked ideas — because she'd watched too many people write books for their ego rather than for their reader. In this episode, Bill Sherman sits down with Lisa Bodell, CEO of futurethink and bestselling author of Kill the Company and Why Simple Wins, to talk about what actually happens between "I should write a book" and "I finally d
Why Personal Branding Isn't About You At All | Vanessa Errecarte | 733
"Personal brand" might be the most cringe-inducing phrase in business vocabulary. Say it out loud to a room of accomplished professionals and watch the shoulders tense — it sounds like self-promotion, follower counts, and algorithm-chasing. Vanessa Errecarte, Founder of Marketing Simplified, the UC Davis Graduate School of Management lecturer who built one of the nation's only for-credit MBA cour
Turning Unpredictable Referrals Into a Predictable Pipeline | Mark McIntosh | 732
Every founder-led advisory firm knows the feeling: business comes in waves. Referrals and word-of-mouth are lovely — until the pipeline goes quiet for three months and nobody can explain why. In this episode, Mark McIntosh, founder of RevGrow, joins the show to break down why that unpredictability isn't a mystery to solve, it's a system to build. A CPA by training, Mark spent years watching talen
The Business Case for Giving Your Best Ideas Away | Dr. Ivan Misner | 731
"We hated your books." That's what a European competitor once admitted to Ivan Misner — years after trying to build a rival networking organization and watching his own members ask, "How come we don't have books like BNI's?" It's a story that gets at the heart of this conversation: sometimes the most competitive thing you can do is give your best thinking away. Bill Sherman sits down with Dr. Iva
The Business Model Behind a Financial Movement | Carrie Joy Grimes | 730
Here's an uncomfortable truth: most people will tell a total stranger about their weird rash before they'll tell their best friend how much debt they're carrying. That contradiction sits at the center of this episode. The guest is Carrie Joy Grimes, founder and CEO of WorkMoney — a nonprofit she describes as "the AARP for everyday people's money." She built it in 2020 after years as a union organ
Turn Podcast Appearances Into a Referral Flywheel | Dustin Riechmann | 729
Book the podcast. Do the interview. Move on to the next one. That's the default playbook for most podcast guests — and according to this week's guest, it's leaving most of the value on the table. Dustin Riechmann, founder and CEO of 7 Figure Leap, and host the the 7 Figure Leap Podcast, has spent the last four years helping coaches, consultants, and agency owners turn podcast guesting into a genu
Building A Leadership Framework Backed By Data | Benjamin Granger | 728
Why do we size up a rude stranger in seconds and decide they don't belong in our "tribe"? Dr. Benjamin Granger has a term for it: the evolutionary hangover — his phrase for the cognitive biases our brains evolved for savanna survival and never quite retired. As Chief Workplace Psychologist at Qualtrics, Granger spends his days distilling billions of data points on how employees and customers real
Why Thought Leadership Needs Real Experience, Not Theory | John Winsor | 727
What happens when the person telling your success story wasn't actually in the room? That's the moment that pushed John Winsor — Founder and Chairman of Open Assembly, Harvard Business School executive fellow, and author of six books including the bestselling Open Talent — to write a widely discussed piece questioning the entire thought leadership industry. In this conversation with Peter Winick
Why Your Book Launch Is Just the Beginning | Sandy Smith | 726
You just spent two years writing a book. Now what? That's the question at the center of this conversation about book publicity, expectations, and the long game of building a body of work. Bill Sherman sits down with Sandy Smith, CEO of Smith Publicity, to unpack what a smart book launch actually looks like — and why most of the excitement (and anxiety) authors feel in the 60 days around publicati
The Marketing Dilemma Every Author Faces | Rand Selig | 725
What happens when the metrics you were taught to chase — title, bonus, prestige — stop adding up to a life that feels good? In this episode, Peter Winick sits down with Rand Selig, a Stanford MBA, former Wall Street investment banker, and founder of The Selig Capital Group, to trace his path from a jarring first job at Lehman Brothers to a self-defined version of success built on peace, gratitude
Why Your Expertise Is the Only Content That Converts | Ghazenfer Mansoor | 724
What happens when a software CEO stops thinking like a marketer and starts thinking like a thought leader? You get a content flywheel that ranks #1 on Google, ChatGPT, and Claude — without hiring an SEO firm. Ghazenfer Mansoor, Founder and CEO of Technology Rivers, didn't set out to become a thought leader. He set out to grow a business. But as referrals gave way to inbound and conference convers
From In-House Analyst to Independent Thought Leader | Charlene Li | 723
This episode is a companion to the upcoming Thought Leadership Handbook — part of a series where Bill speaks with exemplars featured in the book about how they actually practice thought leadership. There are plenty of books explaining what AI is. This one is about the person who decided to write a book that tells you what to do about it instead — and who's spent 25 years turning disruption into f
Mental Health at Work Is Smart Business | Melissa Doman | 722
Most professionals who make the leap from clinical therapy to the corporate world stumble on the same obstacle: they speak the wrong language. They know the science cold. They understand what's happening beneath the surface in any dysfunctional team, toxic culture, or burned-out leadership group. But if they can't connect those insights to the metrics that actually keep executives up at night — re
From Attorney to Speaker: The Identity Shift That Changes Everything | Wani Iris Manly, Esq. | 721
What happens when you're wildly successful at a life you didn't consciously choose? Wani Iris Manly, Esq., grew up groomed for one thing: the law. She did the work, built the firm, drove the Porsche. And then, on New Year's Eve in 2010, she sat alone and took an honest look at the gap between the life she had and the life she actually wanted. What followed was one of the more audacious pivots you
Cracking the Greatness Code in Professional Services | Alan Guarino | 720
What does it look like when someone making $10 million a year calls you and says, "Get me out of here"? For Alan Guarino, Vice Chairman of CEO and Board Services at Korn Ferry, it happens more than you'd think — and it's exactly what pushed him to write The Greatness Code: The Formula Behind Unstoppable Success. Alan has spent decades at the intersection of executive search, C-suite coaching, an
Why Authentic Stories Matter More Than Ever in an AI World | Gabrielle Dolan | 719
What do you do when you've found a powerful idea — but the market thinks it's silly? Gabrielle Dolan (known to almost everyone as "Ral") noticed something in the corridors of corporate Australia: the leaders who moved people, who made change land, who made ideas stick — they all told stories. The data nerds and slide-deck merchants were losing the room. The storytellers were winning it. So she d
The Opus Way: Fueling Ambition Without Burnout | Janine Mathó | 718
What if ambition is not the problem—but the way we fuel it is? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick speaks with Janine Mathó, author of "Live Your Opus", about the Opus Way: a framework designed to help high achievers build healthy, meaningful careers without lowering their ambition. Janine challenges the old tradeoff between success and sustainability. Her message is c
How to Find Agency in Times of Instability | Suzan Song | 717
What if suffering is not a detour from life, but one of the places where meaning begins? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Bill Sherman speaks with Dr. Suzan Song, MD, PhD, about instability, agency, and the human search for groundedness when life breaks open. Her work spans clinical care, global systems, conflict zones, and executive leadership. Her core question is simple and ur
Founder Readiness: Measuring the Leadership Risk Investors Miss | Logan Yonavjak | 716
What if the biggest risk in a company is not the strategy, the product, or the market—but the leader's ability to grow fast enough to match the business? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick sits down with Logan Yonavjak, founder of the Founders Readiness Institute, to explore a bold idea: leadership capacity can be measured, developed, and used to reduce business risk.
The Economics of Getting What You Want | Judd Kessler | 715
What if luck is not random, but designed? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick sits down with Judd Kessler, Wharton professor and author of "Lucky by Design: The Hidden Economics You Need to Get More of What You Want." Judd's work brings market design out of the academic journal and into daily life. He studies the hidden systems that determine who gets access, who gets
Permanence: How Leaders Sustain Success Without Losing Themselves | Lisa Broderick | 714
What if success is not the hard part? Lisa Broderick, Managing Partner of Conversus Group, and co-author of Permanence with Marshall Goldsmith, brings a practical answer to one of leadership's most overlooked problems: how to stay the person you want to be after success arrives. Most leadership advice focuses on achievement. Hit the goal. Grow the company. Build the platform. Scale the impact.
The Business Behind the Keynote | Andy Freed | 713
What separates a paid speaker from a true professional in the thought leadership business? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick sits down with Andy Freed to unpack what it really takes to build a sustainable speaking business. Andy brings the perspective of a speaker bureau veteran, entrepreneur, founder of Virtual Inc, and author of Lead Like the Boss. His lens is pract
Why Great Speakers Need More Than a Great Talk | Martin Perelmuter | 712
What separates a great speaker from a true thought leadership business? In this episode, Peter Winick sits down with Martin Perelmuter, co-founder of Speakers Spotlight and a longtime leader in the professional speaking industry, to unpack what it really takes to build a sustainable speaking platform. Not just a great talk. Not just a strong stage presence. A real business. Martin makes the case
From Executive Role to Leadership Philosophy | Ahmet Bozer | 711
What happens when a global executive finally has the freedom to say what matters most? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Bill Sherman sits down with Ahmet Bozer, former global business executive and author of Soulgery, to explore what comes after a career of leading at scale. Retirement gave Ahmet something rare: time, perspective, and the freedom to turn decades of leadership exp
Turning Positivity Into a Thought Leadership Business | Ramon Ray | 710
What happens when positivity becomes more than a personality trait—and turns into a business asset? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick sits down with Ramon Ray, founder of ZoneofGenius.com, author of "The Celebrity CEO", How Entrepreneurs Can Thrive by Building Community and a Strong Personal Brand", speaker, event producer, business coach, and advisor to small busines
Building The Personal Brand Is the Trojan Horse| Kait LeDonne | 709
What makes a thought leader's message impossible to ignore? In this episode, Peter Winick sits down with Kait LeDonne, a personal branding expert who helps aspiring thought leaders sharpen the message behind their work. Kait's view is clear: without radically clear messaging, everything else becomes a house of cards. Content, books, speaking, social media, and sales all weaken when the core idea
Building Thought Leadership That Sells | Paul Falcone | 708
What does it take to turn deep expertise into a scalable thought leadership platform? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick talks with Paul Falcone, bestselling author and leadership expert, about how practical ideas become powerful market assets. Paul has built his body of work around hiring, performance management, leadership development, and workplace ethics. His edge i
How Leaders Build Character Under Pressure | John Lentini | 707
What does it take to turn crisis into a leadership framework others can actually use? In this episode, Bill Sherman talks with John Lentini, Founder and President of BOLD Training Corp and a partner of Crestcom International, about how defining moments can become disciplined thinking, practical models, and a mission that is bigger than one person's story. John's path to thought leadership did no
Why Business Books Should Build Your Business | Lucy McCarraher | 706
What if your book was never meant to make money on the shelf, but to make money in the business? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick talks with Lucy McCarraher, co-founder of Rethink Press, founder of the Business Book Awards, and author of 17 books, about what business books are really for. Lucy makes a clear case that for entrepreneurs, consultants, and experts, a boo
Punks and Pinstripes, Reinvention, and the Future of Leadership | Greg Larkin | 705
What happens when success no longer feels like enough? In this episode, Peter Winick sits down with Greg Larkin, author of "This Might Get Me Fired" and founder of Punks and Pinstripes, to explore what it really takes to reinvent yourself when the old rules of work, loyalty, and leadership no longer apply. Greg's thought leadership is centered on a challenge many high achievers face but rarely t
From High-Stakes Flying to High-Impact Leadership | Merryl Tengesdal | 704
What does it take to lead when the plan breaks, the pressure spikes, and failure is part of the mission? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick talks with Colonel (Ret.) Merryl Tengesdal, author of "Shatter the Sky: What going to the stratosphere taught me about self-worth, sacrifice, and discipline" about the ideas that drive her work today: adaptability, resilience, auth
How To Turn Books into Thought Leadership Assets | Kevin Anderson | 703
What does it really take to turn a book into a business asset instead of a vanity project? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick sits down with Kevin Anderson, CEO of Kevin Anderson & Associates to unpack what authors get wrong about publishing, platform, and the real role a book plays in growing authority. Kevin makes the case that a strong book is not just about writing
Are You Solving the Right Problem? | 702 | Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg
What makes thought leadership actually travel? Not a bigger platform. Not louder marketing. A sharper idea that solves a real problem. In this episode, Peter talks with Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg, coauthor of Innovation as Usual: How to Help Your People Bring Great Ideas to Life and author of What's Your Problem?: To Solve Your Toughest Problems, Change the Problems You Solve. Thomas's work sits at
How Top Sales Performers Think | 701 | Bob Kocis
What separates average sellers from elite performers? In this episode, Peter Winick sits down with Bob Kocis, author of The President's Club Mindset, to unpack the ideas, behaviors, and disciplines that turn sales expertise into real thought leadership. Drawing from interviews with top performers who have earned more than 150 Presidents Club wins combined, Bob shares a sharper view of what high p
Well, This Is Awkward: We Wrote a Book | 700 | Bill Sherman & Naren Aryal
What does it really take to turn expertise into influence that lasts? In this special episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, host Peter Winick is joined by Bill Sherman and Naren Aryal to announce their book, The Thought Leadership Handbook published by Amplify Publishing Group. This is not a conversation about writing a book for the sake of writing a book. It is a conversation about building
Rethinking Executive Coaching for Modern Leaders | 699 | Kendra Dahlstrom
What if the leadership issue in front of you is not strategy, but an old wound you have never fully resolved? In this episode, Bill Sherman talks with Kendra Dahlstrom an executive coach and host of "The Unworthy Leader" podcast about the deeply personal path that led her into thought leadership, and why she believes the future of leadership development must go far beyond traditional coaching.
Stop Closing Deals. Start Winning Consumption. | 698 | Art Fromm
What happens when the real "close" isn't the signature—but the customer's commitment to consume? In this episode, Peter Winick talks with Art Fromm, a keynote speaker and sales enablement leader focused on what many B2B organizations still miss: the costly gap between pre-sales and sales. Art's thought leadership centers on building seamless partnership, not a messy handoff, so clients win soone
Leading From the Heart in a High-Speed Culture | 697 | Claude Silver
What would change in your culture—and your revenue—if people didn't have to put on "work armor" just to show up? In this LinkedIn Live edition of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick sits down with Claude Silver, the world's first Chief Heart Officer at VaynerX, to unpack the contents of her new book "Be Yourself at Work" and what it looks like when the pace is fast, the stakes are high, a
Deinstitutionalizing Your Expertise | 696 | David Lancefield
What happens when you walk away from the big logo—and discover that your thought leadership gets sharper, not smaller? In this episode, Peter Winick sits down with David Lancefield, host of Lancefield on the Line podcast, a strategy coach to CEOs, C-suite leaders, and founders who has advised more than 50 CEOs and hundreds of executives over three decades. David writes on strategy, leadership, an
Story Precision: The New PR Advantage | 695 | KJ Blattenbauer
What if "getting PR" isn't about hype at all—but about engineering trust at scale? In this episode, Peter Winick sits down with KJ Blattenbauer, founder of Hearsay PR and author of Pitchworthy: The No-Fluff Playbook to Publicity That Pays Off, who helps founders, creatives, and experts turn clear storytelling and smart media strategy into real authority—without the fluff. She breaks down what
The Big Decision That Changes Everything | 694 | Apollo Emeka
What if the biggest lever you have today isn't another action plan—but one decision? In this episode, Bill Sherman talks with Apollo Emeka, who calls himself "the big decisions guy," and traces how that identity started early—when Apollo was effectively handed the power to choose school or not as a kid, and felt the real-world consequences of deciding either way. Apollo's path is anything but line
The Tech Humanist Playbook for Responsible AI | 693 | Kate O'Neill
What happens when your AI strategy moves faster than your team's ability to trust it, govern it, or explain it? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick sits down with Kate O'Neill—Founder & CEO of KO Insights, author of "What Matters Next", and globally recognized as a "tech humanist"—to unpack what leaders are getting dangerously wrong about digital transformation right no
Be Who You Came to Be | 692 | Tara Renze
What happens when a keynote doesn't just inspire your people…but actually changes how they show up at work and at home? In this episode, Peter Winick sits down with Tara Renze—author, keynote speaker, podcaster, and an emotional intelligence + positive intelligence practitioner—whose message is as simple as it is disruptive: "Be who you came to be." This conversation is about more than motivation.
From Book to Business: Building Thought Leadership That Lasts | 691 | Martha Lawrence
What does it look like when a leadership legend actually lives the principles he teaches? In this episode, Peter Winick sits down with Martha Lawrence, author of the new biography "Catch People Doing Things Right", and longtime collaborator with Ken Blanchard—the leadership icon behind "The One Minute Manager". Martha offers a rare behind-the-scenes view of how Blanchard's ideas became timeless,
Agency, Strategy, and the Science of Thriving | 690 | Jon Rosemberg
What if "thriving" isn't a soft concept—but a measurable performance advantage? In this episode, Peter Winick sits down with Jon Rosemberg, Founding Partner of Anther and author of "A Guide to Thriving: The Science Behind Breaking Old Patterns, Reclaiming Your Agency, and Finding Meaning", to break down what thriving really is, what it is not, and why leaders should care right now. Jon draws a sha
Lead From Within: The Operating System of High-Performing Leaders | 689 | Nina Urman
What if the real leadership advantage isn't another tactic—but the way you lead yourself when nobody's watching? In this episode, Peter talks with executive coach and facilitator Nina Urman about her core framework found in her book: "Lead From Within." She reframes "mindset" as heartset—getting crystal-clear on what you're saying yes to, what you're saying no to, and why that decision discipline
Best of 2025: The Ideas That Scaled | 688
What did the best thought leaders do differently in 2025—and what can you learn for your own work in 2026? This "Best of 2025" episode looked back at standout moments from prior conversations and pulled one clear thread through them: ideas don't scale by accident. They scaled when leaders treated communication, authorship, and development as skills to build—not traits you either "had" or didn't. W
How Top Thought Leaders Stayed Relevant in 2025 | 687
What did "great thought leadership" look like when the market wouldn't sit still, the C-suite couldn't sleep, and yesterday's playbook was already obsolete? In this Best of 2025 compilation, we pulled together four standout conversations that got brutally practical about relevance, differentiation, and turning ideas into outcomes. Keith Ferrazzi broke down the real challenge behind "evergreen" ide
The Stakeholder Alignment Advantage | Frankie Russo | 686
What if the real growth problem isn't strategy… but misalignment? In this episode, Frankie Russo, the Founder of The Growth Co and bestselling author of "Breaking Why", breaks down what it takes to create growth that compounds—without relying on charisma, hustle, or a one-time "big moment" on stage. Frankie makes a clean distinction: a book is a platform, not the mission. Thought leadership is
The Performance Paradox: Why High Achievers Stop Growing | Eduardo Briceño | 685
Are your top performers actually holding back your organization's growth? Today on Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick talks with Eduardo Briceño, global keynote speaker, CEO of Growth.How, and author of "The Performance Paradox". Eduardo is one of the leading voices on growth mindset in organizations, building on 16+ years of work with Carol Dweck as co-founder of Mindset Works and two T
The Apple Effect: Turning Hard Lessons Into Scalable Systems | Apple Levy | 684
What if every hard-earned lesson in your business came with a simple mandate: how dare you do nothing with what's been given to you? In this episode, Bill Sherman talks with serial entrepreneur and systems strategist Apple Levy, author of "The Apple Effect". Apple has spent decades in construction, manufacturing, home flipping, and retail. She combines operational grit with financial discipline t
Mindsets, Not Maps: Rethinking Corporate Innovation | Richard Braden | 683
What if innovation wasn't reserved for a handful of "geniuses" in hoodies and turtlenecks? What if every person in your organization could solve real problems in bold new ways? Today's episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, I'm joined by Richard Braden to explore how to democratize innovation inside the enterprise. We dig into his practical framework from "Innovation-ish: How Anyone Can Create
Designing the Long Tail of Thought Leadership | Tom Ziglar | 682
What if your thought leadership wasn't just inspiring for 40 minutes on stage, but life-changing for years after the keynote? In this episode, Peter Winick talks with Tom Ziglar, CEO of Ziglar, Inc., about how he's evolving his father Zig Ziglar legacy into a modern, scalable thought leadership business. They dig into how to turn big ideas into programs, tools, and revenue streams that deliver rea
AI, Executive Coaching, and the Future of Thought Leadership | Alisa Cohn | 681
What if your most valuable business asset isn't your product, but the way you think? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick sits down with Alisa Cohn—one of the world's top startup coaches, Thinkers50 and Marshall Goldsmith award winner, author of "From Startup to Grown Up", and host of a podcast by the same name. Together, they unpack what it really takes to turn expertis
Why Pressure—not Power—Breaks Leaders: | Sabina Nawaz | 680
What happens when pressure—not power—shapes the way leaders show up? That's the question at the heart of this conversation with executive advisor, keynote speaker, and bestselling author Sabina Nawaz. Sabina's thought leadership centers on a bold idea: pressure can squeeze the humanity out of even the best leaders. And in today's high-velocity business environment, every manager—from first-line su
The Playbook for Scaling Thought Leadership | Daniel Harkavy | 679
What does it take to transform leadership into a calling — and build a business that transforms others? Today, Peter Winick sits down with Daniel Harkavy, founder and CEO of Building Champions, a pioneer in executive coaching and leadership development. Daniel shares how he turned the lessons from his early career in mortgage banking into a structured, scalable system for growing leaders — and wh
How Rituals (Not Routines) Transform Leadership and Life | Erin Coupe | 678
What if you could stop running on empty—and still perform at your best? That's the question Erin Coupe, author of "I Can Fit That In" (and host of a podcast by the same name), invites leaders to ask. She challenges the old "time management" mindset that rewards burnout and box-checking, replacing it with a human-centered strategy of presence, choice, and renewal. Her message? Productivity doesn't
The Power of the Pause: Why Slowing Down Fuels Stronger Leadership | Melissa Gonzalez | 677
What happens when life forces you to stop—and that pause changes everything? Melissa Gonzalez, Principal at MG2 Design and author of "The Purpose Pivot: How Dynamic Leaders Put Vulnerability and Intuition into Action", knows firsthand. A medical crisis made her rethink what success truly means. Once a Wall Street professional turned retail design expert and author of "The Pop-Up Paradigm", Meliss
The DPD Framework: How to Decide Faster and Lead Smarter | Dr. Geoffrey Mount Varner | 676
What happens when life-and-death decision-making meets the boardroom? Today our guest is Dr. Geoffrey Mount Varner—a physician, author of "FAST DECISIONS: Think Fast. Be Bold. Be Fearless", and leadership expert—shares how his experience in emergency medicine led him to develop a powerful framework for decision-making under pressure. As the former head of Washington D.C.'s emergency Ebola respons
The Power of Women's Stories in Tech | Miri Rodriguez | 675
What happens when a storyteller from Microsoft turns her lens on the women shaping technology's past, present, and future? Today on Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick sits down with Miri Rodriguez, CEO of Empressa AI, best-selling author, storyteller at Microsoft, and co-author of "The Women of Microsoft" (Wiley). Miri reveals how a simple Teams message from a colleague in Poland sparked
How Thought Leaders Win the Publishing Game | Ken Lizotte | 674
What's the real ROI of a book? That's the question Peter Winick poses to Chief Imaginative Officer of Emerson Consulting, author of "The Expert's Edge: Become the Go-To Authority People Turn to Every Time" and publishing expert Ken Lizotte, in this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership. Ken has helped more than 350 thought leaders turn their ideas into published works—books, blogs, and articl
How Great Thought Leaders Use Podcasts to Scale Influence | Ryan Estes | 673
What makes a podcast truly powerful — and worth your time? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick sits down with Ryan Estes, co-founder of Wildcast and Kitcaster, to unpack what separates a great podcast guest — and host — from the rest. Ryan's work connects CEOs, founders, and thought leaders to the right audiences through strategic podcast placement. His mission: to turn
Why the Best Idea Isn't Enough | Gavin McMahon | 672
What if the world didn't reward the best ideas — but the best-packaged ones? That's the question at the heart of this conversation between Bill Sherman and Gavin McMahon, CEO of fassforward and author of Story Business. Once an engineer designing submarines, Gavin discovered that technical brilliance alone doesn't move ideas forward — storytelling does. Now, he helps leaders use story as a tool f
The Power of Peer-to-Peer Leadership | Ken Banta | 671
What happens when senior executives step into a room and speak with radical candor? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, host Peter Winick sits down with Ken Banta, Founder and CEO of the Vanguard Network, to explore how real leaders grow stronger through dialogue—not monologues. Ken doesn't just advise on leadership—he builds ecosystems where executives learn directly from each oth
The Power of Discipline and Candor in Executive Leadership | Des Hague | 670
What happens when a CEO treats thought leadership as essential as strategy? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, host Peter Winick sits down with Des Hague, an acclaimed executive who has led global brands like PepsiCo, IHOP, and Centerplate, and now advises startups, nonprofits, and private equity firms. He's also the author of "Think Your Way to the Top" and "15 Minutes of Shame",
The Currency of Time | John Coyle | 669
What if time wasn't fixed, but something you could stretch, compress, and reframe? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, host Bill Sherman sits down with John Coyle—Olympian, design thinking expert, and author of "Design for Strengths". John has spent his life chasing the meaning of time, from hundredths of a second on the ice to decades in thought leadership. His work asks us to reco
From Notebook to Transformation | Klint Guerry | 668
What if the key to transformation isn't a new app, a coach, or a seminar—but a 99-cent notebook? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick sits down with Klint Guerry, Group Vice President at Sewell Automotive Companies and author of "A Guide to Self Disruption". Klint reveals how a simple daily practice evolved into a powerful system for accountability, focus, and lifelong l
Building Authority Through the Boardroom | Erik Hanberg | 667
What does it take for a self-published author to turn a niche book into a best-seller—and then hand it over to a traditional publisher for its second edition? Erik Hanberg did just that with "The Little Book of Boards: A Board Member's Handbook for Small and Very Small Nonprofits". His journey offers lessons in entrepreneurship, publishing strategy, and the business of thought leadership. In thi
The Power of Saying Yes: How Curiosity Fuels Thought Leadership | Dan Ariely | 666
What if gambling with your time was the smartest investment you could make as a thought leader? Today on Leveraging Thought Leadership, host Peter Winick sits down with Dan Ariely—renowned behavioral economist, three-time New York Times bestselling author, and one of the sharpest minds in decision science. His work has influenced companies like Google and Apple, guided governments, and sparked m
Why Safe Teams Fail—and How to Lead for Real Innovation | Stephanie Chung | 665
What happens when every member of your team thinks, works, and communicates differently? Do you see chaos—or do you see opportunity? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick sits down with Stephanie Chung, bestselling author of "Leading People Who Are Not Like You" and a pioneering executive in the aviation industry. Stephanie challenges leaders to move beyond surface-level
Why "Letting Go" Could Be Your Best Growth Strategy | Cary Prejean | 664
Are you the bottleneck in your own business? Many entrepreneurs wear every hat—CEO, sales, R&D, even accounts receivable—yet still feel stuck. Cary Prejean, founder of Strategic Business Advisors and author of three books, has spent 40 years helping business owners shift from operator to visionary leader. In this episode, we explore why entrepreneurs don't need to become great managers—and why tr
Recommended
Busted Open
Deadline: White House
Crickets Corner
History of the Earthquake and Fire in San Francisco
Fox news
K-Drama Obsessed Mamas | Beyond “Just One More Episode!”
True Crime Classics
The Healer Revolution
Becoming: HER with Nikki Spoelstra
Booked, Blonde & Busy w/ Olivia Ponton
McKinsey on Consumer and Retail
megahired.com
