Mark C. Crowley is a bestselling author and leadership expert. With twenty-five years in the competitive financial services industry, he rose to national roles, earning Leader of the Year for his heart-centered approach. His book Lead from the Heart, challenges conventional management practices that undermine employee success. In Mark’s latest book, The Power of Employee Well-Being, he emphasizes that thriving teams drive organizational success. Mark’s Lead From the Heart Podcast is ranked in the top 2 percent globally, reaching 175+ countries. Mark is also a sought-after speaker, Fast Company contributor, and organizational culture consultant shaping modern workplaces.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• I love Mark’s message, that the best leaders lead from the heart. They care about people, they support people, they trust people, and they have their best interest at heart.
• I thought Mark made a really interesting point that we admire coaches who show that they love their players. But the conventional business leaders shy away from this type of heart-led leadership.
• When we think about the best leaders we know, the ones who we’ll run through a brick wall for, they’re the ones who truly love us. The best leaders lead from the heart.

Adam Wowak is a Professor of Management & Organization in the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame where he teaches strategic management to MBA and Ph.D. students.

Adam's research focuses on strategic leadership and corporate governance. His work has appeared in top-tier academic journals, including Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, and Organization Science. His research has also been profiled in media outlets such as The Atlantic, Financial Times, Forbes, NBC News, New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, among others.

Adam received both his bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. from Penn State University.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• When Adam graduated college, he had a prestigious job as an investment banker. It paid well. It was intellectually challenging. He liked the people he was working with. But he wasn’t excited to work every day. He didn’t have autonomy. And he didn’t have creative outlets. So he thought about the tradeoffs he was making by staying. He then considered the tradeoffs he would make by leaving. By thinking about tradeoffs, Adam gained clarity on what mattered most to him. He ultimately chose to leave banking and found his way to academia, which has its own set of tradeoffs, but ones that Adam is happier with.
• As Adam tells his students, there are three types of careers people can have. One they love. One they hate. And one they’re okay with, in the murky middle. And it’s this third kind of career that people need to watch out for so that they don’t drift, and wake up 20 years later realizing they should have thought more carefully about the tradeoffs they were making.
• Remember to think about the tradeoffs we’re making, both when we stick with the status quo and when we decide to change.

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Brad Johnson is the Co-founder of Triad Partners, an organization that helps financial advisors grow their businesses. Before co-founding Triad, Brad spent 13 years at Advisors Excel as a VP of Advisor Development, coaching top financial advisors who managed over $1.5 billion in assets. Brad is also the host of the podcast, Do Business. Do Life, where he interviews thought leaders and helps financial advisors integrate their work and personal lives. Raised on a farm in Kansas, Brad’s personal interests include CrossFit, bass fishing, collecting red wine, and supporting children's charities.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• I love the Stoic lesson Brad shared about the prized cup. If we expect our prized cup to never break, we’ll be devastated when it does. But if we’ve already been through the mental exercise of the cup breaking, it can be much easier to stay calm and confident when our prized cups do break.
• Being an entrepreneur is constantly dealing with broken, prized cups.
• I loved hearing how Brad tries to apply Jocko’s advice for dealing with setbacks by responding with a simple “Good.”
• Brad’s emphasis on seeking out mindset coaching stood out. The best athletes get the most coaching. So it makes sense that we too need regular feedback and mindset coaching to reach our potential.
• By jumping into the trench himself, Brad is giving himself more opportunities to deal with broken cups. And I love his advice for how we can deal with the broken cups in our lives.

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Vivek Viswanathan is one of the brightest, kindest, most thoughtful individuals I have ever known. A son of immigrant parents, Vivek excelled in school attending Harvard, Cambridge, and Stanford. He then excelled in business, working for McKinsey (kind of) and Kleiner Perkins. Then Vivek excelled in politics working for Governor Brown, Governor Newsom, Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and eventually serving as Special Assistant to the President of the United States. In this episode we walk through Vivek’s career progression as well as some of the lessons he learned along the way. We also discuss the following:

• While I was intrigued by so many things in this interview, starting with how high-school Vivek preferred policy camp to sports camp, I was especially intrigued by Vivek’s perspective on living an integrated life: combining our values and passions, and then spending time with people who reflect those values.
• Vivek is a master at building and maintaining relationships, and then constantly striving to learn all he can from others.
• While Vivek's professional achievements are remarkable, I’m most impressed by his commitment to doing good in the world.
• As Vivek reminded us, to achieve anything worthwhile in life, we have to work really hard, all the while accepting the uncontrollable.

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Marianne Lewis is dean of the University of Cincinnati College of Business, and she previously served as dean of Bayes Business School at City, University of London. Marianne researches organizational paradoxes, including the tensions surrounding leadership and innovation. She has been recognized among the world’s most-cited researchers in her field, having won numerous academic awards, and her work also appears in media outlets, such as Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and Newsweek. Her latest book, Both/And Thinking is published by Harvard Business School Press.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• I love Marianne’s insight that the best leaders are not tough or kind, but rather both. Toughness and kindness are not opposite ends of a spectrum but rather two sides of the same coin. And any leader who pushes too hard on one, while ignoring the other, will not reach their potential.
• And I thought it was especially interesting to hear about the creative geniuses who also appreciated tension and paradoxes: motion vs rest, particle vs wave, harmony vs discord, light vs. dark, life vs death. The magic is in the tension.
• When it comes to leadership the best leaders are both tough and kind.

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Darren Heitner is a nationally recognized attorney who specializes in sports and entertainment law. And most recently Darren has become one of the nation’s experts on NIL (name, image, and likeness). His client list is a who’s who of professional sports, including athletes and coaches such as Terrell Owens, Johnny Manziel, Randy Moss, Tyreek Hill, Manny Ramirez, Draymond Green, and Rick Pitino, to name just a few.

Darren earned both his BA and JD from the University of Florida, where he was also a Valedictorian.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• Darren’s goal to remember why he’s doing it: to help his clients. And one way he does that is by continually challenging himself to be a student. When NFTs exploded onto the scene, Darren learned all he could and became an NFT expert. As NIL transactions ramped up, so did Darren, becoming one of the go-to attorneys for everything related to NIL. Rather than fear new technologies, Darren gets excited by them and then learns all he can about them.

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Martin Dubin is a clinical psychologist, serial entrepreneur, business coach, and adviser to C-suite executives and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Marty is also the author of the book Blindspotting: How To See What’s Holding You Back as a Leader.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• It’s interesting to hear Marty describe how leaders’ weaknesses are often just the flip side of their strengths. The leader who works hard, and sends emails at 2 am, might be unintentionally modeling a standard that isn’t possible for others to achieve. I also loved Marty’s advice for leaders to prioritize the things that only they can do. And lastly, I was especially intrigued by Marty’s point that the most elite performers get the most coaching.

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Saxon Baltzer, from Huntington Beach California, is a surfer, musician, and skateboarder. And Saxon recently won the National Scholastic Surfing Association Championship. In this episode we discuss the following:

• I’m truly inspired by Saxon’s drive and commitment. Though he started to surf at age two, it was his commitment in high school that set him up for his national championship. Waking up early each weekday to first attend seminary, and then get to the beach, Saxon refined his skill while also learning to surf all kinds of waves. And he was also flexible, willing to focus on long boarding to get on his high school team.
• And what a wild story about his national competition: forgetting his board, borrowing his coach’s, nailing a buzzer beater on Saturday, saying a prayer to find his board, finding it with Dimitri, and then landing another clutch buzzer beater on Sunday for the national championship.
• And most remarkably, Saxon is now giving up surfing for two years and moving across the country to share a gospel message in hopes of helping others.
• As Saxon so perfectly demonstrates, sacrifice, persistence, and passion are key to success.

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