Disrupt Yourself Podcast With Whitney Johnson

Carter Cast is brilliant, blending intense insight with the heart of a teacher (although it took him years to uncover this truth). Having been a marketing manager early in his career at PepsiCo Food Service International, he appeared to be on the fast track for promotion—until he was transferred to the Frito Lay division, an abrupt change from his previous work.  In Carter’s words, he did not react well. “I did not respond well to the different…culture. I was always itchy and I was trying to move quickly and I didn’t understand how to grease the skids with the other departments and…align with other functions.” This self-reflection did not come voluntarily: Carter was called into the office of his boss, who told him he was insubordinate, difficult to work with, recalcitrant, and while he was not technically fired, his boss had no interest in having him on his team. It took a long time for Carter to “resuscitate” his career, and the experience made him realize that weaknesses, even more than strengths, can dete

Disrupting yourself is a way of life around here, so it’s only natural that it is my turn to be disrupted. Today is Launch Day for my new book, Build an A-Team: Play To Their Strengths and Lead Them Up the Learning Curve, and I couldn’t be more excited! To celebrate, we’re doing things a bit differently on the podcast. Macy Robison, my fabulous project manager, is interviewing me to help break down what my listeners can expect from my new book, and how the information I’ve gathered can help them in not only their career but in life. Since releasing Disrupt Yourself in 2015 I have had the opportunity to interact with many managers, leaders, executives, and employees who have embraced the idea of disruption, but who have asked me, “How can I get my people to disrupt themselves?” or “How can I get my boss to let me disrupt myself?” Employers and employees want to experience the growth that can come from disruption, but it’s not happening in many organizations out of fear of “losing” valued leaders or team memb

Today’s guest is Tom Peters, best-selling author of the groundbreaking book In Search of Excellence, which changed the way the world viewed the connection between corporate culture and the success of a business. His newest book, The Excellence Dividend, is likewise original, commanding, and cutting-edge.  Forty years ago, Tom was tasked with creating a last-minute presentation for a client after a computer failure wreaked havoc on his company’s original plans. Not wanting to disappoint his wife, who had tickets to the San Francisco ballet that night, Tom delayed working on the presentation until after watching what he describes as a “mesmerizing” performance. After returning home, Tom couldn’t get what he considered the “excellence” of the performance out of his head and began wondering why that word—which is so often associated with artists, dancers, and even sports teams—was never associated with business.  “[I]t’s not that I was off to the races. Nobody took it seriously. The skies did not part. But…it jus

My guest today is Dave Meltzer, entrepreneur, speaker, author, and CEO of Sports 1 Marketing. His personal objective in life is to “make a lot of money, help a lot of people, and have a lot of fun.” After spending only a few minutes in his company, it is apparent that having “lots of fun” is not difficult for Dave. Dynamic and engaging, Dave was told as a child that he could sell ice to an Eskimo, and his career path indicates that he might have succeeded had he ever been put in that situation. His first job out of law school was selling legal research online for West Publishing, a position intended for individuals with at least four years of litigation experience. Years later, he was made the CEO of Leigh Steinberg Sports & Entertainment, the world’s most notable sports agency, only 48 hours after meeting Leigh Steinberg himself.   But while success appears to come naturally to Dave, he admits that his priorities became skewed over time, resulting in financial ruin and an emotional plea from his wife for

My guest today is Marisa Thalberg, Chief Marketing Officer of Taco Bell, founder of ExecutiveMoms.com, and listed as one of the top 25 Most Influential CMOs in the World by Forbes. The idea of “playing where no one is playing” appears to be second nature to Marisa. While a student at Brown University, Marisa actively sought out development opportunities, even going so far as to call up New York City communication companies to tell them that she wanted an internship. By graduation, Marisa had cultivated a resume interesting enough that she was noticed by the marketing agency Saatchi & Saatchi.   Takeaways from this Episode: Do you lack a support group? Create it. See a void in TV programming? Produce it. Marisa Thalberg was unafraid to play where no one was playing and created many of her “next” opportunities. We often discuss executives that come in and “save” failing companies or brands, but sometimes your greatest challenge is figuring out how to keep an already successful endeavor successful. Think ab

Nick Gray thought museums were boring. As a business-minded individual, he couldn’t understand why anyone would be fascinated by the contents and just wanted the physically (and emotionally) cold places to “get to the point.” After a date turned into a private tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Nick began to be curious. He spent weekends learning more about the museum and the art, trying to understand the new world that had opened before him. “I said look, I could go and drink and hang out with my friends at a dive bar in Brooklyn, which is what I was usually doing, or I could go drink and hang out at the Metropolitan Museum.” Wanting to share this new passion with friends, Nick began inviting them on private tours and gradually expanded his reach from “friends” to “friends-of-a-friend” and beyond. Now the Chairman and Founder of Museum Hack, Nick’s company leads renegade tours and team building activities at some of the best museums on Earth. “I was so adverse to making it a business. I

Today’s guest is Alison Levine, a former Goldman Sachs investor-turned-mountain climber who has climbed the highest mountains on every continent. She’s the author of the NY Times bestselling book On the Edge, and is the executive producer of The Glass Ceiling, a documentary about the first Nepali woman to climb Mt. Everest. Takeaways from this Episode:  You don’t always have to be “better” than others to achieve something; you can simply be different. Alison found a way to stand out from the crowd while seeking an internship with Goldman Sachs and doing what she loved (climbing mountains). Play where no one else is playing. Show up. We put a lot of emphasis on preparation, and while preparation is certainly important, if you never show up you’ll never accomplish your goal. Sometimes taking the leap and figuring out how to make things work in the moment is the only way you’ll get moving. The journey is often worth more than the destination. A mountain is just a pile of rocks, but the journey to the top can ch

Today’s guest is Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, a book that has sold over a million copies. He’s also the author of The Startup Way, a nuts-and-bolts, dollars and cents, how-to-do-the-math guide that shows how to make entrepreneurship a core discipline of your business. Takeaways from this Episode: No one gets things done in your organization the way “the process” says they get things done. The only way to find out how the company actually works is to run experiments and identify the real levers being pulled to create success (or a lack thereof) in your projects. If someone has been with you for a few years, it’s likely that what they do is very different from what their job description says they do. As they’ve discovered problems that need solving, they’ve stepped in. Are these people being rewarded for just how much they’re contributing? Are you? Also, as you analyze the jobs they’re actually doing, you will discover that this breach that they’ve walked into can signal opportunities for your organi

My guest today is Patty McCord, former Chief Human Resources Officer at Netflix, author of the unabashedly bold book, “Powerful,” and a rocket ship of a disrupter. Although Patty describes herself as a serial entrepreneur, she started her career at very large companies and worked her way backward, with each company getting progressively smaller. Now a prized speaker and consultant, Patty works with companies that want the innovative spirit and agility of a start up, and she’s not afraid to ask the tough questions to get them there. Show Notes: https://whitneyjohnson.com/patty-mccord  

Benjamin Hardy was going nowhere. After barely graduating high school, he admits that he spent 12-15 hours a day playing World of Warcraft while living at his cousin’s house with no job. He wanted to be better, but didn’t know how to take that desire and transform it into action. It wasn’t until Benjamin’s environment changed that he realized he had the capacity to be different. Years later, Benjamin is a foster parent to three children, one of the top contributors on Medium, a PhD candidate in psychology, and author of the powerful and compelling book, Willpower Doesn’t Work. In our conversation, Benjamin shares that even though he is an avid consumer of self improvement books, the popular concept that all change comes from within is at odds with what psychology studies have long shown—environment influences behavior. If an individual truly wants to change, they need to address environmental factors that encourage their existing behavior patterns. Benjamin is generous in this interview, not only in his advic

Today I am excited to introduce you to Richie Norton, a new friend that I am excited to be collaborating with on the video course UNSTUCK45. Google “Stupid Richie” and you may just see his name at the top of the results—he is an innovative social entrepreneur and the author of “The Power of Starting Something Stupid,” which encourages everyone to Live to Start and Start to Live. This podcast is a deliberate disruption to my usual format. An accelerant of managing change is being discovery driven, and in that spirit Richie and I decided to get to know each other on the podcast—asking questions, exchanging ideas, and discovering what we have in common as well as what strengths we each bring to the table. No scripts, no teleprompters, just discovery. I was surprised and delighted by how much fun I had, but even more so by how much great CONTENT came out of the process.  If you’d like a sneak peek into what Richie and I have been creating together, click here. Show notes and links on my site at http://whitneyjohn

Kare Anderson is an Emmy award-winning former journalist for NBC and the Wall Street Journal, as well as the author of “Mutuality Matters,” which was inspired by her TED talk “The Web of Humanity: Become an Opportunity Maker.” She believes passionately that individuals need to connect and make “unexpected allies,” where it’s okay to strongly disagree about some issues but still come to trust one another through shared interests. This mutuality allows us to find and recognize our strengths while interacting with those that have complementary skills. The more we interact and work together, the stronger we all become.   Kare inspired me, and I hope she inspires you, too. Click here to download the complete transcript of our conversation.  

Focus. And be lazy. Seemingly incongruous, these two ideas permeate Michael Bungay Stanier’s disruption of the professional coaching model.  Michael is the founder of Box of Crayons, a training company dedicated to coaching managers and leaders “in ten minutes or less.” He is the author of five books, including “The Coaching Habit,” which has sold almost 300,000 copies and spawned an accompanying podcast. After years of listening to friends talk about their “angsty teenage life,” Michael realized that he had a gift for listening and decided it was something he wanted to pursue. Gaining education, experience, and some basic counseling training, he boldly opened his own coaching practice—and then dismantled it. Read more on the website: https://whitneyjohnson.com/michael-bungay-stanier/

People often ask––is it really possible to disrupt yourself inside of an organization?  If you, like Karen S. Carter, today's guest on the Disrupt Yourself Podcast, are determined, willing to risk, and hire the right boss, the answer is yes. What started as a summer internship to pay for college transformed into a two-decade long career path for Karen, who goes to work every day believing that her focus should be making a life rather than just making a living. The result? Eighteen months ago Karen was asked to become the first Chief Inclusion Officer for Dow Chemical, a powerhouse company with over 50,000 employees worldwide. See the Show Notes for this Episode at  https://whitneyjohnson.com/karen-s-carter/

Vala Afshar, my guest on the Disrupt Yourself podcast, is here to answer the burning question: What is a Chief Digital Evangelist? For starters, that’s the role Vala fills with Salesforce, the dominant player in the sphere of CRM technology. Vala, with his prior company, was an early Salesforce customer. He used Salesforce and innovated with it for years before he went to work there. He became “the first evangelist hired at Salesforce, so it was new territory.” In addition to all things Salesforce, Vala talks about this—the nontraditional job search, and the nontraditional candidate vetting. His insights into how savvy, forward-thinking companies will be hiring in the future is worth a listen too. Download the complete transcript and links in the show notes at WhitneyJohnson.com.

For Episode 40 of the Disrupt Yourself Podcast, I'm trying a little experiment. For the first time, I'm hosting a podcast interview with myself - so to speak. I'm answering several questions that came from podcast listeners and loved having a chance to think through them and try something new for the podcast. If you have any questions for future episodes, I'd love to have you submit them at whitneyjohnson.com/contact For show notes for this episode, click here.

Join me for a lively conversation with best selling author Daniel Pink for the inside scoop on the research that went into his new book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing and the discoveries that came out of it. Who knew that our biological clock and circadian rhythm, internal ticking unheard and pendulum swinging unseen, were so influential in the decisions we make, and the outcomes of initiatives we undertake? Download the complete transcript and view show notes at https://whitneyjohnson.com/daniel-pink/

Deb Dugan is the CEO of [RED], founded by U2 front man, Bono, in partnership with Bobby Shriver. [RED] has the ambitious goal of eradicating AIDS in our lifetime, and pursues this noble objective through a variety of disruptive social media and marketing initiatives. Download a transcript of Whitney & Deb's conversation and view the show notes by clicking here.

Hear what Peter Sims, author of Little Bets, a Founder of Parliament, Inc., BLK SHP, Silicon Guild and more, has to say about stepping back, the value of collaboration and the miracles of the people we encounter in our path on the Disrupt Yourself podcast. Show Notes: https://whitneyjohnson.com/peter-sims-power-collaboration/

This week’s podcast episode is an experiment. It’s my first solo episode—no victim in the hot seat, being interviewed. Instead, I talk about my own journey up the learning curve, spend some time reminiscing with the ghost of episodes past, as well as calling out some episodes favorited by my team. Show Notes: https://whitneyjohnson.com/2017-in-review/