

A Geek Leader Podcast - inspiring technical and creative leaders around the world
John Rouda: technical leader, author, speaker, educator
The ultimate podcast for aspiring leaders in the creative or technology fields. John Rouda discusses leadership topics, interviews some of the greatest minds today and teaches you practical leadership tips, techniques, tricks and hacks to improve motivation, negotiation, and other much needed skills for leaders today.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 17, 2025 • 38min
AGL 439: Jimi Gibson
About Jimi
Jimi Gibson’s been in the game for over 25 years, helping businesses figure out what to say and how to say it so people actually listen—and take action. He’s the VP of Brand Communication at Thrive Agency, a TEDx speaker, and a Forbes Agency Council member. Before all that, he was a professional magician, which makes a weird amount of sense once you hear how he thinks about messaging. He created something called The Magic Script™, a framework that helps brands connect with people in a real, human way. He’s one of those rare folks who can make marketing feel less like noise—and more like a conversation worth having.
Today We Talked About
Jimi’s background
Magic
Zero Click World
Thank a Thriver Thursday
Culture
Honor Chair
Core Values
Be part of Creating the Culture
Magic to Marketing
Magic Brain Chemicals
5 Fingers – Authentic Connection
pinky promise
ring finger relationship (passion)
middle finger – save from the villian
pointing finger – point to your avatar
thumbs up
Connect With Jimi
LinkedIn
Website
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#1 in Technical Leadership

Oct 10, 2025 • 34min
AGL 438: Big Bet Leadership with John Rossman
About John
John Rossman is a business strategist, operator, and expert on digital transformation, leadership, and business reinvention. He has consulted with many great brands including Novartis, Fidelity Investments, Microsoft, Walmart, and Nordstrom. He served as senior innovation advisor at T-Mobile and senior technology advisor to the Gates Foundation. He is an operator and builder whose love is diving into business problems and customer needs designing solutions and business opportunities.
Today We Talked About
Background
Outcomes
Michelangelo Quote – “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.”
Create Clarity
Maintain Velocity
Accelerate Risk and Value
Define the Future State
AI affecting Digital Transformation
Test plans
Active Skeptic
Communication
Craft a story, Repeat
Connect With John
LinkedIn
Website
Twitter
Book
Leave me a tip $
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I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even one sentence will help spread the word. Thanks again!
#1 in Technical Leadership

Oct 3, 2025 • 0sec
AGL 437: Noam Krasniansky
About Noam
Noam Krasniansky is a serial entrepreneur and innovator with a diverse background in product development, sales, and technology. He is widely recognized for his appearance on the television show “Shark Tank,” where he and his wife, Irene, secured a deal for their company, Bambooee.
Krasniansky’s entrepreneurial spirit began early in life, with ventures ranging from selling orange juice in Costa Rica to hawking products on TV shopping channels. His passion for building companies from a simple idea led him to co-found Bambooee with his wife. Bambooee is an eco-friendly brand of reusable bamboo paper towels, and their success on “Shark Tank” propelled the company to significant sales and national recognition. However, this success also brought a new challenge: widespread counterfeiting and imitation of their product.
The experience with Bambooee’s intellectual property being compromised led Krasniansky to a new and innovative solution. He realized that traditional patents and legal protections were often insufficient in the face of a global counterfeit market. This challenge became the catalyst for his next venture, Komposite Blockchain.
As the founder of Komposite, Krasniansky has focused on using blockchain technology to create a cutting-edge platform for brand protection. Komposite’s solution aims to safeguard products from counterfeiting and imitation by linking physical goods to unique digital fingerprints and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This system provides a decentralized and verifiable way to prove a product’s authenticity, giving brands and consumers peace of mind.
Krasniansky’s journey from a traditional product entrepreneur to a Web3 innovator highlights his ability to adapt and find solutions to complex problems. He is a frequent speaker and podcast guest on topics related to entrepreneurship, blockchain, and the future of brand protection in a digital economy.
Today We Talked About
Background
Blockchain
Shark Tank
Copycats
Patents, Trademarks, oh my
Ooonimals
Connect with Noam
Komposite
LinkedIn
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#1 in Technical Leadership

Sep 26, 2025 • 38min
AGL 436: Dream Culture with Dane Espegard
About Dane
Dane Espegard, a division manager at Vector Marketing, has nearly two decades of experience training and managing thousands of young professionals in networking, interpersonal communication, and leadership skills. His mentorship has helped individuals realize their personal and professional goals, and he is now revolutionizing corporate cultures with his innovative “dreams program.” Dane resides outside Minneapolis with his wife, Brookelynn, and their two daughters, Elin and Izzi.
Today We Talked About
Dane’s background
Cutco Cutlery
Dreams
Purpose
Culture
Be the Change you wish to see
Dreams workshop
Being proactive and not reactive
Live life by design
People over process
Positivity
Leaders need to Live it
Authenticity
Connect with Dane
LinkedIn
Website
The Dreams Vault
Book
Leave me a tip $
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#1 in Technical Leadership

Sep 19, 2025 • 42min
AGL 435: Garrett Rice
About Garrett
Garrett has a 25-year track record of building innovative products and leading successful marketing campaigns. At Apple, he led product management teams and drove strategic partnerships with major tech companies like Adobe, Microsoft, and VMware. Before Callings.ai, he was Global Head of Products & Alliances at Maxon Computer, where he played a key role in expanding the company’s global reach. His ability to craft compelling products and bring teams together around a vision has been instrumental in shaping Callings.ai’s mission
Today We Talked About
Time at Apple
Product Management
Job Market Changes
Modern Job Hunt is workflow
Use AI to help applying to jobs
My Insights
Networking
Coaching
https://callings.ai/geek/
Connect with Garrett
Website
LinkedIn
Leave me a tip $
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I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even one sentence will help spread the word. Thanks again!
#1 in Technical Leadership

Sep 12, 2025 • 0sec
AGL 434: The Vale by Abigail Wen
About Abigail
Abigail Hing Wen is an author, film producer and director, as well as former tech executive. She is the New York Times best-selling author of multiple novels for young people, including Loveboat, Taipei, which has been adapted as the movie Love in Taipei, now on Netflix. Abigail served as an executive producer and on set during production. Her novel Kisses, Codes and Conspiracies, a thriller and romantic comedy novel featuring three teens on the run through the Bay Area, is an instant national bestseller, USA Today bestseller and Amazon Editor’s Pick for YA Book of the Month. Abigail is directing her first short film starring Lea Salonga, a prequel to her middle grade debut The Vale, coming September 2025, and featuring an inventor family that builds an AI generated virtual world. She serves on the board of Harvardwood and is a member of Dan Lin’s Rideback Rise Circle.
In 2025, she served as a judge for the Golden Trailer Awards, recognizing the industry’s most outstanding film trailers. Abigail is a frequent keynote speaker for young people, including Y’Allfest, US Presidential Scholars, and the Los Altos High Writer’s Week, as well as libraries, colleges, high schools and bookstores around the country. She’s also given keynotes and fireside chats for the National Conference of State Legislatures, Meta, Google, Paramount, Paypal and other tech and entertainment companies, and spoken on panels at venues such as SDCC, LACC, LA Times Festival of Books and ALA. For more, visit AbigailHingWen.com.
Today We Talked About
Abigail’s background
Tech Lawyer
The Vale
Neurdivegent
Bias
The Vale is good…
AI is all about the inputs
Film
Connect with Abigail
LinkedIn
Website
Book
Leave me a tip $
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I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even one sentence will help spread the word. Thanks again!
#1 in Technical Leadership

Sep 5, 2025 • 34min
AGL 433: Pam Buchanan
About Pam
Pam Buchanan founded Quantum Sense in May 2023 and is pioneering Soul Health innovations. With a remarkable 40 years of self-optimization experience, Pam’s journey began with an introspective look at her career, where she thrived in the fast-paced environment of Silicon Valley. Recognizing that her successes were attributed to more than just physical and mental health, she embarked on over a decade of research and self-examination, ultimately defining it as Soul Health.
Pam’s personal and professional life is marked by her innovative mindset. In the 80s, she was among the first to introduce mutual funds to the banking industry and played a key role in identifying unicorn startups for public markets. Her career highlights include serving as a Managing Director at Nasdaq for 15 years, where she built and maintained relationships with pre-IPO companies, founders, c-level executives, and venture capital and private equity firms. This role placed her in the boardrooms and minds of some of the world’s greatest innovators, including Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
Before her tenure at Nasdaq, Pam spent nearly 20 years at Deutsche Bank, managing financial institutions and independent representatives in mutual fund transactions. Her extensive experience also includes climbing the corporate ranks at firms such as Scudder Investments, Shearson Lehman, and Merrill Lynch. Through these experiences, Pam has witnessed the evolution of the corporate mindset and is now leading the next evolution through Soul Health.
Now, as the Founder of Quantum Sense, Pam draws from her wide-ranging expertise and her ability to distill and convey complex concepts to bring Soul Health to the masses. She has developed programs and services designed to help companies empower their employees by reducing anxiety, increasing energy, enhancing focus, boosting creativity, and improving overall satisfaction both in the office and in life. Pam’s approach includes bringing together experts from neurologists to designers to sound engineers and more to deliver these sensory solutions.
Pam’s journey has been one of personal empowerment and positivity. She has elevated her own energy to excel in the new paradigm, leading with positivity and letting go of the shame associated with the old ways of thinking. By recognizing that Soul Health encompasses more than just mental and physical well-being, she has created an approach that is set to transform the way we understand and achieve overall health.
Pam Buchanan is ready to guide you through the next evolution of health, bringing her unparalleled experience and passion for Soul Health to create lasting positive change in both personal and professional realms.
Today We Talked About
Pam’s Background
Mind, Body and Soul
Love Based
Thrive Mode
What does your soul look like?
Be positivity – love
Gratitude
Bring positivity into the workplace
Start with the positive
Jocko – Good Video
Small steps
Ground, Elevate, Evolve
Connect with Pam
LinkedIn
Website
Leave me a tip $
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I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even one sentence will help spread the word. Thanks again!
#1 in Technical Leadership

Aug 29, 2025 • 47min
AGL 432: ADHD with Frankie Berkoben
About Frankie
Frankie Berkoben is an executive coach and sought-after speaker whose clients include engineering, product, and design leaders at Google, Airbnb, and the White House.
Known for her work at the intersection of leadership and executive functioning, she helps intellectually brilliant professionals move from cycles of overwhelm and inconsistency to clarity, confidence, and sustainable success. Frankie’s process blends design thinking, the scientific method, positive psychology, and ADHD-specific expertise to help her clients do their best work (and scale their professional impact) without relying on grit, shame, or heroic acts of willpower.
Executive functioning (the brain’s ability to prioritize, plan, and execute those plans) and systems thinking take equal billing in Frankie’s work. She translates the complexity of how our brains manage decisions, focus, and prioritization into practical tools that resonate with high performers. Taking a systems approach, she moves beyond quick fixes and productivity hacks, diving into neuropsychology and environmental dynamics in order to help clients understand the “why” behind not only what causes them friction and heartache, but also how to elegantly address those underlying needs.
An unapologetic behavioral psychology nerd, Frankie combines intellectual rigor with a gift for making complex ideas accessible. She’s fascinated by how context (stress, social dynamics, or even internalized beliefs) shapes our capacity and impact, especially at work. These themes are woven throughout her coaching, speaking, and writing: instead of focusing on what’s wrong, let’s understand what makes it feel or go “right”, and optimize for conditions that make success more likely, rather than aiming for rigid definitions of success.
Today We Talked About
Fankie’s background
ADHD
Executive Function
Phsychological Safety
Prep-work
Advocating for yourself
Experiements
Take an Iterative Approach
Without Awareness you can’t change
Reflection – We learn from reflecting on experience
Imposter Syndrome
Identity Shift
Who am I to be here?
ANTs – Automatic Negative Thoughts
Focused on Solving Problems
Working Memory
What’s the thought?
What is the belief that causes that thought?
Blending Emotion and Strategy
Coach the person… not the problem
Connect with Frankie
Website
LinkedIn
Leave me a tip $
Click here to Donate to the show
I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even one sentence will help spread the word. Thanks again!
#1 in Technical Leadership

Aug 22, 2025 • 50min
AGL 431: Scott Alldrige
About Scott
Scott Alldridge holds an M.B.A. in Cybersecurity and is a Certified Chief Information Security Officer (CCISO), ITIL Certified expert, and Harvard Certified in Technology and Privacy, and is a nationally renowned expert. Scott is a distinguished leader with over 30 years of experience in IT management and cybersecurity, specializing in protecting critical IT systems that businesses rely on today. As the CEO of IP Services, Scott has played a pivotal role in delivering advanced managed IT and cybersecurity solutions across various industries. His strategic use of the TotalControl™ framework aligns technology investments with business goals, ensuring enhanced security, operational excellence, and resilience.
Today We Talked About
His Background
Cyber Security Today
Book
ITIL
ZeroTrust
Assume Breach
Least Privileged Concept
Visible Ops
Change Management
Configuration Management
DevOps
CMDB
Leadership
BuyTheBreach
People over Process
The Phoenix Project
Visible Ops Exec. Companion Guide
The special offer is: A free e-copy (pdf) of either my VisbleOps Cybersecurity Book or a e-copy of the VisibleOps Executive Companion Edition.
Also, I am willing to offer up a no-cost Penetration Level 1 test by a third-party (not IP Services) for qualified businesses ($2K – $5k value)
TEXT “SECURE 25” to 541-359-1269 and my team will be in touch to get you copies of the book or schedule you for a PEN Test Consult/Qualification.
Connect with Scott
Website
IP Services
Book
Leave me a tip $
Click here to Donate to the show
I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even one sentence will help spread the word. Thanks again!
#1 in Technical Leadership

Aug 15, 2025 • 40min
AGL 430: Kevin Dean
About Kevin
Kevin Dean has over two decades of experience in business process automation, CRM, and intelligent automation, driving substantial growth for enterprises. He holds a degree in Data Science and Analytics, and his data-driven approach has optimized sales, marketing, and customer service processes, making ManoByte a trusted partner for enhancing customer experiences. Kevin is a renowned keynote speaker on automation and digital transformation.
Today We Talk About
Automation
AI
Spreadsheets and Dos… oh my
AI for Automation
Success Stories
AI at the Doctor’s office
Privacy
Assume you’re being recorded
AI for Software Engineers
Data Security
Connect with Kevin
LinkedIn
Website
Leave me a tip $
Click here to Donate to the show
I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even one sentence will help spread the word. Thanks again!
#1 in Technical Leadership


