106: Turning Our Creativity Into a Leadership Force, with Laverne McKinnon

Thank you for listening to our Finding Brave show, ranked in the Top 100 Apple Podcasts in Careers!

“I very much think of myself as the leader behind, or the leader beside. I love to help people across their finish line, so get rid of that mistaken belief and realize that we can define leadership in so many different ways.” - Laverne McKinnon

Leaders come in all different shapes and sizes, and the “old school” notion of being an extrovert and telling people what to do and how to do it is not effective, productive or sustainable. Today’s Finding Brave guest shows us that we are all leaders of some kind, and part of her mission is to inspire and challenge each of us to step into our leadership potential and make a positive impact on the world.

Laverne McKinnon is the Executive Producer of the Netflix series Girlboss, and the co-founder of K&L Productions, a film & television company created with Kay Cannon (writer of the Pitch Perfect franchise and director of Blockers). K&L has a first-look production deal at Sony Television with multiple projects sold including Amazon, Quibi, Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC and TBS. Laverne and Kay are passionate about championing underdog and underserved stories. Laverne is also a leadership and personal coach, certified grief counselor, and an adjunct professor at Northwestern University’s MS Leadership for Creative Enterprises program. For a significant part of her career, she was a successful programming executive with stints as SVP Drama Development at CBS and as EVP Original Programming & Development at EPIX. Laverne holds a Masters in Business Administration from Pepperdine University, is the former co-chairman of the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (the longest-running and most prestigious Asian American & Pacific Islander non-profit) and is a passionate advocate for adoption and foster care programs.

The world is in desperate need of a new type of leadership, and Laverne is a glowing example of someone who connects all the dots of who she is and what she stands for, in order to leverage her creativity fully and make a positive impact in the world.

To learn more about today's guest, visit: https://www.lavernemckinnon.com/