
A Geek Leader Podcast - inspiring technical and creative leaders around the world
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.
Latest episodes

Mar 25, 2022 • 40min
AGL 253: Steven Dossou
About Steven
Steven grew up in a 2-bedroom house with nine siblings. As a living testimony of his transformation program destined to create a superhuman being capable of instantly overcoming fear, self-doubt, and low self-esteem, he has recreated a new path by elevating himself from poor binding backgrounds from his country of origin (Togo-West Africa) to leadership and impactful roles on a global platform
Founder of Sail Force Catalyst, a personal development, empowerment, and motivational platform which focuses on how to use emotional intelligence to ignite the transformation of individuals and groups. Sail Force is about unleashing people's emotional strength necessary to the fulfillment of their true potential and the cataclysm of their various life and business journeys. He is also founder of Sail Force Marketing, L.U and may other businesses.
Steven founded Sail Force Catalyst after having gone through numerous life challenges from his childhood throughout his adolescence. With a sole purpose to change his circumstances and realize his dreams, he is a powerful speaker, certified life and executive coach and has coached and engaged over thousands of people on subjects such as how to become a better version of yourself, activate your potential, the overcoming mindset, sales habits, Impactful leadership, how to bring drastic growth into your business, how to create a high-performance culture…etc.
He is viewed by his peers as a charismatic dreamer who undoubtedly believes in unleashing the human potential to brake boundaries and consistently redefine People's limits.
Today We Talked About
Steven's background
Psychology and Habits of Great Leaders
Purpose
Alter your Attitude of Mind
Be Transformed
10 Week Journey
3 Demons of Mankind
Fear
Self-Doubt
Self-Esteem
Resilience
The Mindset of Lack
Push-ups
OSAT - One Step at a Time
Myles Munroe - influence others
Be Transformed by the Renewing of your Mind
Connect with Steven
Website
LinkedIn
Speaker Profile
I’ve been using A2 Hosting for several years. They offer state of the art SSD hosting for all of their plans. Their sites are super fast and easy to setup. I rarely need support, but when I was migrating my sites to a larger plan I used their support services and they were phenomenal. I highly recommend A2 hosting for all of your hosting needs. And I also recommend everyone to have a personal website. If you’re in technology and looking for a job and don’t have your own website, I probably wouldn’t hire you. Just sayin’.
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Mar 18, 2022 • 34min
AGL 252: Josh Saterman
About Josh
Josh was born in Miami but now lives in Harlem New York with his amazing husband and cat. His favorite food is pizza––is it bad to eat it everyday?
A proud HMI.org executive Board Member, Josh loves all animals (except snakes), traveling the world and exploring new cultures, and his great hope is for a world that listens better.
His superpower is being a connector and his professional passion is unlocking client’s superpowers and seeing where it takes them. He strongly believes “there’s awakening when you aren’t focused on yourself.”
Favorite quote: “Two roads diverged in a wood and I— I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” – Robert Frost
Today We Talked About
Josh's background
Three questions to ask employees
What motivates you?
what does success look like?
How do you like to be recognized?
Diversity
Equity
Inclusion
Belonging
Culture
Listening with your eyes
Ask Powerful Questions
Recap after meetings
Arrive
Drive
Thrive
Heineken commercial
Connect with Josh
Book
Website
LinkedIn
I’ve been using A2 Hosting for several years. They offer state of the art SSD hosting for all of their plans. Their sites are super fast and easy to setup. I rarely need support, but when I was migrating my sites to a larger plan I used their support services and they were phenomenal. I highly recommend A2 hosting for all of your hosting needs. And I also recommend everyone to have a personal website. If you’re in technology and looking for a job and don’t have your own website, I probably wouldn’t hire you. Just sayin’.
Please use my affiliate link when signing up. https://www.ageekleader.com/a2

Mar 14, 2022 • 37min
AGL 251: Engineering Leadership with Patrick Sweet
About Pat
Patrick Sweet, P.Eng., MBA, PMP, CSEP is a recognized expert in engineering management, productivity, and leadership. He is the president of The Engineering & Leadership Project, which specializes in leadership and management development, training, and consulting for engineers and engineering firms. He also hosts the popular Engineering & Leadership Podcast, a show dedicated to helping engineering leaders thrive.
Prior to launching The Engineering & Leadership Project, Pat spent 13 years in industry. His work focused predominantly on leading and managing engineers through complex systems integration projects in the rail and defence industries. He's worked as a product manager, project manager, systems engineering manager, and as the head of configuration management at a large naval combat systems integrator.
Pat has a bachelor of engineering from Dalhousie University and an MBA from the Royal Military College of Canada. He's also a professional engineer licensed in Nova Scotia, Canada, a Certified Systems Engineering Professional (INCOSE), and a certified Project Management Professional (PMI).
Today We Talked About
Pat's background
promoting engineers to manager
Go Deep or Go Broad
Conferences
Memberships
Delegation
Letting Go
Clarity
Goals
One-on-Ones
Lead People
Manage Performance
What's on your mind?
And What else?
Productivity
Efficiency
Effectiveness
Systems
Connect with Pat
Twitter
LinkedIn
Website
I’ve been using A2 Hosting for several years. They offer state of the art SSD hosting for all of their plans. Their sites are super fast and easy to setup. I rarely need support, but when I was migrating my sites to a larger plan I used their support services and they were phenomenal. I highly recommend A2 hosting for all of your hosting needs. And I also recommend everyone to have a personal website. If you’re in technology and looking for a job and don’t have your own website, I probably wouldn’t hire you. Just sayin’.
Please use my affiliate link when signing up. https://www.ageekleader.com/a2
I'm honored that we were in the top 5 of Technical Leadership Podcasts

Mar 7, 2022 • 41min
AGL 250: Showing Up with Ray Arata
About Ray
Ray Arata is an award-winning leader in the field of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), specifically known for his work in engaging men as allies. In addition to amassing more than 13,000 hours leading workshops for men, Ray is the founder of the Better Man Conference. He is a sought-after speaker, consultant, and trainer, delivering keynotes and facilitating trainings for massive global clients such as PwC, Toyota, Genentech, Verizon, Bloomberg, and many more.
Ray’s Better Man Conference, as seen in Forbes, The Good Men Project, and Fortune, is an international industry-leading event that focuses on the development of healthy masculinity and men as allies and partners. Prior to the pandemic, the conference was held in New York City and San Francisco, drawing almost 200 major organizations annually. Under Ray’s leadership, the organization has attracted an impressive list of sponsors, including Hearst, Moody’s, CBS, Toyota, Intel, HP, Cisco Systems, the New York Times, and others.
Today We Talked About
Ray's background
Why Diversity, Equality and Inclusion focused on Men?
Acknowledge our stuff
Listen with empathy and compassion
Take Responsibility (clean it up)
Commit to new practices and behavior
The man box
Showingupbook.com
Connect with Ray
Twitter
LinkedIn
Book
Website
I’ve been using A2 Hosting for several years. They offer state of the art SSD hosting for all of their plans. Their sites are super fast and easy to setup. I rarely need support, but when I was migrating my sites to a larger plan I used their support services and they were phenomenal. I highly recommend A2 hosting for all of your hosting needs. And I also recommend everyone to have a personal website. If you’re in technology and looking for a job and don’t have your own website, I probably wouldn’t hire you. Just sayin’.
Please use my affiliate link when signing up. https://www.ageekleader.com/a2

Feb 25, 2022 • 47min
AGL 249: Catching up with Steve Yacovelli
About Steve
Dr. Steve Yacovelli (“The Gay Leadership Dude”) is the owner & principal of TopDog Learning Group (LLC) – a learning and development, leadership, change management, and diversity and inclusion consulting firm based in Orlando, FL, USA, with affiliates across the globe.
Steve and TopDog have had the pleasure of working with some great client-partners who they consider to be members of their “pack.” He’s worked with Fortune 500 greats like The Walt Disney Company and Bayer to amazing not-for-profits like The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The American Library Association; large universities like The Ohio State University and The University of Central Florida, to small entrepreneurial rock stars like International Training & Development and GovMojo, Inc. Steve and TopDog have thoroughly enjoyed helping their client-partners grow, develop, expand, and be successful with their corporate learning, change management, diversity and inclusion, and leadership consulting goodness.
With over twenty-five years’ experience in leadership, strategy, organizational learning, and communication, Steve is a rare breed of professional that understands the power of using academic theory and applying it to the corporate setting to achieve business results. Oh, and he’s quite fond of dogs, too.
Today We Talked About
What's new with Steve
The Great Resignation
6 Leadership Competency
Authenticity
Courage
Empathy
Communication
Relationships
Culture
Mindfulness
Biases in recruitment
Zoom Backgrounds
Proximity bias
Connect with Steve
Website
Book
Twitter
I’ve been using A2 Hosting for several years. They offer state of the art SSD hosting for all of their plans. Their sites are super fast and easy to setup. I rarely need support, but when I was migrating my sites to a larger plan I used their support services and they were phenomenal. I highly recommend A2 hosting for all of your hosting needs. And I also recommend everyone to have a personal website. If you’re in technology and looking for a job and don’t have your own website, I probably wouldn’t hire you. Just sayin’.
Please use my affiliate link when signing up. https://www.ageekleader.com/a2

Feb 18, 2022 • 46min
AGL 248: Lead Well with Ken Falke
About Ken
Ken Falke spent twenty-one years in the US Navy as a bomb disposal specialist, leading troops on thousands of high-risk missions. After retiring from the Navy in 2002, Ken started his first company, A-T Solutions, a counter-terrorism company, and in 2008 sold the business. In 2011, Ken started his second company, Shoulder 2 Shoulder, and sold his stock to his business partner in 2017. In addition to Ken’s two for-profit companies, he founded two nonprofit organizations, beginning with the EOD Warrior Foundation to support the families of severely wounded military bomb disposal personnel. This work inspired Ken and his family to donate thirty-seven acres of their estate in Bluemont, Virginia, and millions of dollars to build Boulder Crest Foundation in 2013—the nation’s first privately funded wellness center dedicated exclusively to combat veterans, first responders, and their families—and go on to establish Boulder Crest Arizona and the Boulder Crest Institute for Post-traumatic Growth in 2017.
Today We Talked About
Ken's military career
Life after the Navy
EOD Warrior
Boulder Crest Foundation
Work on yourself first
Opportunity to contribute
opportunity to grow
70% of people hate their jobs
Listen well... best gift you can give
Feedback loop
Trust and Connection
Say what you mean, mean what you say, but don't say it meanly
Attack the issues, not the people
Accountability
Show up everyday
Life and Death jobs
Connect with Ken
LinkedIn
Book
Twitter
EOD Warrior
Boulder Crest Foundation
I’ve been using A2 Hosting for several years. They offer state of the art SSD hosting for all of their plans. Their sites are super fast and easy to setup. I rarely need support, but when I was migrating my sites to a larger plan I used their support services and they were phenomenal. I highly recommend A2 hosting for all of your hosting needs. And I also recommend everyone to have a personal website. If you’re in technology and looking for a job and don’t have your own website, I probably wouldn’t hire you. Just sayin’.
Please use my affiliate link when signing up. https://www.ageekleader.com/a2

Feb 11, 2022 • 37min
AGL 247: Changing from the Inside Out with Erika Andersen
About Erika
Erika Andersen is the founding partner of Proteus, a coaching, consulting, and training firm that focuses on leader readiness. Over the past 30 years, Erika has developed a reputation for creating approaches to learning and business-building that are tailored to her clients’ challenges, goals, and culture. She and her colleagues at Proteus focus uniquely on helping leaders at all levels get ready and stay ready to meet whatever the future might bring.
Much of her recent work has focused on organizational visioning and strategy, executive coaching, and management and leadership development. In these capacities, she serves as a consultant and advisor to the CEOs and top executives of several corporations, including Spotify, Amazon, Revolt TV and Media, Charter/Spectrum, and the Yale School of Public Health. She also shares her insights about managing people and creating successful businesses by speaking to corporations, non-profit groups and national associations.
Erika’s books and learning guides have been translated into Spanish, Turkish, German, French, Russian, and Chinese, and she has contributed to and been quoted in a variety of national publications, including the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and The New York Times. Erika is also one of the most popular leadership bloggers at Forbes.com, and host of The Proteus Leader Show, a popular business and leadership podcast globally ranked in the top 10%. Through her different resources, Erika is committed to supporting workplace leaders.
Erika Andersen is the best-selling author of Change from the Inside Out: Making You, Your Team, and Your Organization Change-Capable (2021), Be Bad First: Get Good at Things FAST to Stay Ready for the Future (2016), Leading So People Will Follow (2012), Being Strategic: Plan for Success; Outthink Your Competitors; Stay Ahead of Change (2009), and Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers (2006).
Today We Talked
Soft Skills
Leadership
Change was slow
Change was historically bad
Safety in the known
Humans haven't evolved for rapid change
Purposed Change
What does this mean to me
Why is it happening
What will it look like afterwards
It's difficult, Costly, and Weird
Change is accepted when the mindset shifts
Must see the rewards
Model and advocate for change
Fear of the unknown is our deepest fear
Listen better
Closer your mouth... then summarize
Make your employees feel psychologically safe
Ask, "What is not working?"
Keep the change going
Being Change Capable
Connect with Erika
Website
LinkedIn
Twitter
Book
I’ve been using A2 Hosting for several years. They offer state of the art SSD hosting for all of their plans. Their sites are super fast and easy to setup. I rarely need support, but when I was migrating my sites to a larger plan I used their support services and they were phenomenal. I highly recommend A2 hosting for all of your hosting needs. And I also recommend everyone to have a personal website. If you’re in technology and looking for a job and don’t have your own website, I probably wouldn’t hire you. Just sayin’.
Please use my affiliate link when signing up. https://www.ageekleader.com/a2

Feb 4, 2022 • 37min
AGL 246: Trench Leadership with Simon Kardynal
About Simon
Simon is a Canadian who retired from the Canadian Armed Forces after 26 years of experience being a follower and leader. He holds a Master of Arts in Leadership degree from Royal Roads University where he found his passion to help emerging leaders create strong foundations as they embark on their leadership journey. Simon is a father and husband who lives in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Today We Talked About:
Simon's background
Military Service
System's Thinking
Things I wish I knew starting out
Communication
Softening the edges
Transparency
SOPs
Inposter Syndrom
Connect with Simon
Podcast
Twitter
LinkedIn
I’ve been using A2 Hosting for several years. They offer state of the art SSD hosting for all of their plans. Their sites are super fast and easy to setup. I rarely need support, but when I was migrating my sites to a larger plan I used their support services and they were phenomenal. I highly recommend A2 hosting for all of your hosting needs. And I also recommend everyone to have a personal website. If you’re in technology and looking for a job and don’t have your own website, I probably wouldn’t hire you. Just sayin’.
Please use my affiliate link when signing up. https://www.ageekleader.com/a2

Jan 28, 2022 • 37min
AGL 245: Alex Murrey from TangoTeams
About Alex
Alex Murrey is the Head of North American Operations for TangoTeams, a startup that's redefining the software development outsourcing industry. When the average digital project runs 45% over budget and 7% over time--and delivers 56% less value than predicted--it's clearly time for a major industry shift. With a background in leading companies through building new practices and navigating massive disruption, Alex is out to prove that there's a better way to build digital products in the post-COVID distributed economy. (website).
Today We Talked About
Alex's background
DevOps
Offshore development
build leaders
ice breakers
Communication
leading off shore teams
empathy muscles
Highlight your team in non-work related ways
Including offshore teams
Ways you learn
Over communication
Connect with Alex
Twitter
LinkedIn
Website
I’ve been using A2 Hosting for several years. They offer state of the art SSD hosting for all of their plans. Their sites are super fast and easy to setup. I rarely need support, but when I was migrating my sites to a larger plan I used their support services and they were phenomenal. I highly recommend A2 hosting for all of your hosting needs. And I also recommend everyone to have a personal website. If you’re in technology and looking for a job and don’t have your own website, I probably wouldn’t hire you. Just sayin’.
Please use my affiliate link when signing up. https://www.ageekleader.com/a2

Jan 24, 2022 • 41min
AGL 244: Sumit Gupta
About Sumit
Sumit started as a techie in 2005 and fit the typical geek profile – good at computers and programming but introverted when it comes to people skills.
He has worked in companies like InfoEdge (Naukri.com) (2005-2008), Yahoo (2010-2011), 91Mobiles (2013), and Booking (2014-2020). In addition, I also incorporated two startups – SaleRaja (from 2007-2010) and CricketRadius (in 2012) and co-founded a non-profit Pick A Fight (2011-12).
As it happens with most people who are good at their job, SumtI was soon leading a team of 14 people. He was 24 years at that time, and had no idea what leadership was all about. To make it worse, he wasn’t even aware that people management and other so-called soft skills can be learned.
For the past decade and a half, Sumit has researched and studied human behaviour and leadership. These years of research led him to Deploy Yourself, which started just as a series of articles and is now a philosophy that I use as a life guide.
Sumit continues to pay attention to details (like body language, emotions, words and tone of voice, etc) yet at the same time being aware of the totally unpredictable nature of human beings.
Today We Talked About
Sumit's background
Leadership
Emotions
Easy and Difficult
Practice
Positive conversations
Listening
Communication
Coaching
People don't you to tell them what to do
Directive
Transparency
Trust vs. Distrust
Invite Feedback
Being Defensive
Walking One-on-ones
Connect with Sumit
LinkedIn
Twitter
Website
I’ve been using A2 Hosting for several years. They offer state of the art SSD hosting for all of their plans. Their sites are super fast and easy to setup. I rarely need support, but when I was migrating my sites to a larger plan I used their support services and they were phenomenal. I highly recommend A2 hosting for all of your hosting needs. And I also recommend everyone to have a personal website. If you’re in technology and looking for a job and don’t have your own website, I probably wouldn’t hire you. Just sayin’.
Please use my affiliate link when signing up. https://www.ageekleader.com/a2