Disrupt Yourself Podcast with Whitney Johnson

It’s okay to end up in a place you didn’t expect. Just ask Eric Schurenberg. As with most of our guests, Eric’s path was not a linear one. His post-collegiate occupation was acting, but after finding some success he realized that the lifestyle no longer matched his ideals. Pivoting, he went back to school and launched himself into the world of journalism. His career continued to be punctuated by strategic pivots, with the end result being that Eric is now the CEO of Mansueto Ventures, the media holding company that is home to Inc. and Fast Company. I’m excited for you to hear more about Eric’s incredible journey, as well as the amazing stories of others who have gone before. Hopefully, this will serve as a reminder: as you take the right risks and play where no one is playing, you’ll figure things out as you go, and it’s okay to end up in a place you didn’t expect. Complete Show Notes and Links: https://whitneyjohnson.com/eric-schurenberg

When picturing disruptive innovators, many people picture the lone genius entrepreneur: Steve Jobs or Bill Gates in a garage, working outside of The System to get their product to market. But is this really how great innovations are created and incubated? In Driving Innovation From Within, Author Kaihan Krippendorff delves deep into the 30 most transformative innovations of the last 30 years. What he found was that despite the stereotype it is actually employees that push the boundaries of innovation, and we do a disservice to employees everywhere when we perpetuate the notion that you have to be an entrepreneur to make an impact on the the world. Join us as we discuss Kaihan’s new book, his framework for internal innovation, and what makes a company truly transformative and encouraging of employee innovators. Transcript and show notes: https://whitneyjohnson.com/kaihan-krippendorff

For the past few weeks, we have been taking a deeper dive into the seven-point framework of personal disruption in anticipation of my book Disrupt Yourself being re-released by Harvard Business Press on November 12. If you stick around to the end of this episode, we’ll talk about a special opportunity for those of you who pre-order the book. So, today’s deep dive is on accelerant number five. Step back to grow.  Though we always want to be moving forward in growth, this accelerant addresses the idea that our greatest progress almost always involves some type of step back: we crouch to jump, bring a fist back to punch, land lies fallow, we rotate crops. And while we’ve looked at stepping back in your career to facilitate that growth - one great example being Dan Shapero’s story in episode 97 - we haven’t talked much about the importance of rest. Our guest for this episode is filmmaker, Webby award founder and newly minted author Tiffany Shlain. She recently released her book 24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week exploring her family’s decade-long, transformative practice of turning off screens one day each week for what they call Technology Shabbats. 

In anticipation of the re-release of my book, Disrupt Yourself with Harvard Business Press - available for pre-order now - we are continuing our look at the seven-point framework of personal disruption. Today our interview focuses on accelerant number four - battle entitlement. What do I mean by battle entitlement? There are a number of definitions that I use, but one of them is the belief that the more successful we are, the more we think we deserve that success. Buying into this mindset might look like thinking that because things have always been one way, they will always be this way. It could be forgetting, because we’ve worked really hard to get where we are––that there are always, always people upon whose shoulders we stand. Or it could be dismissing the voices of people who we work with because of their age, education, or experience––all of these things can become huge roadblocks if you want to become a high growth individual.  Our guest today, Buster Scher, has worked extraordinarily hard to get where he is. He’s built a huge multimedia platform called Hoops Nation. He regularly rubs shoulders with and is hired by NBA players and hip-hop legends. Rather than let this success go to his head though, he just keeps looking for what’s next on the horizon and moves toward it. Buster’s finding success by battling his own entitlement, and the fact that he’s building a successful media empire at age 19 helps other people battle theirs. Links and complete transcript available at https://whitneyjohnson.com/disrupt-yourself-podcast/

In anticipation of the re-release of my book, Disrupt Yourself with Harvard Business Press on November 12, 2019, we are continuing our look at the seven-point framework of personal disruption. Today, we will be examining accelerant number three - embrace constraints. This accelerant can be tricky for people at first. It’s tricky because we think we need limitless resources to be successful. We think we can’t launch that company until we have an investor with deep pockets or think we can’t start that project until we have 4-hour blocks of time available to really focus. We somehow believe that in order to create the life we want to create we need to have nothing but blue skies and rainbows ahead. But in reality, embracing constraints - whether they be lack of time or money or expertise - can actually help us gain momentum more quickly as they force us to bootstrap and focus on what is essential.  Our guest today is an expert in embracing constraints - Jonathan Mendonsa. Jonathan is the co-host of the popular Choose FI podcast and co-author of the new book Choose FI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence.

Playing to your distinctive strengths is vital to personal disruption. We covered this accelerant in episode 120, and I hope you’ve taken the time to consider your own “superpower.” Today’s episode is focused on distinctive strengths, but with a bit of a twist—instead of focusing on your own, we’re going to discuss the inherent value of the distinctive strengths of others. My guest today is CV Harquail, author, consultant, speaker, and self-proclaimed “change agent” whose life’s mission is to create a world in which all people flourish. CV wants to help leaders think differently about the relationships between business outcomes, organizations, and the individuals that inhabit the systems we create. Her new book, Feminism: A Key Idea in Business and Society, examines the role that feminism could and should play in the organizations and businesses. This episode is the second part of a seven-episode series celebrating the re-release of Disrupt Yourself by Harvard Business Press on November 12, 2019.

With today’s episode, we’re starting something new. On November 12, 2019, Harvard Business Press will be releasing a new version of my book Disrupt Yourself. As a countdown of sorts, we’re going to spend the next seven episodes focusing on the seven-point framework of personal disruption. These seven accelerants help you manage through – even embrace change - whether at work or at home. Today, we’ll be talking about accelerant one - taking the right risks. We covered this in-depth in episode 100, and we’ll link to that in the show notes, but in short, we take the right risks when we take on market risk instead of competitive risk and play where others aren’t playing. My guest today is a great example of a person taking on market risk - Adela Mizrachi, founder of the Podcast Brunch Club. Links and free resource available at https://whitneyjohnson.com/129

Nancy Duarte is a communication and persuasion expert whose firm, Duarte, Inc., is behind some of the most influential visual messages in business and culture. She’s worked with 25 of the world’s top 35 brands, helping them incorporate story patterns into business communications. Nancy has been featured in Fortune, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. She’s written five best-selling books, four of which have won awards. Her most recent book, DataStory, is available today. Show notes and links at https://whitneyjohnson.com/nancy-duarte

Today’s guest is David Bray, and hearing his life story is like hearing the movie “War Games” brought to life. At the age of 15 he began working on computer simulations for the US Military. By the year 2000 he was working as the IT Chief for the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response program for the US Centers for Disease Control, and in 2001 he lead the response to the horrible anthrax attacks that followed 9/11 as well as the SARS outbreaks in 2003 and other public health emergencies. Join us as we discuss his unusual “high school job”; the impact of cognitive easing; and what is more important than the desire to always be right. Complete show notes and links at https://whitneyjohnson.com/david-bray

My guest today is Rita McGrath, and she literally wrote the book on inflection points for businesses. These moments when the assumptions about your business change or become irrelevant are not always easy to spot, but, as Rita explains, they can make or break you. Rita gives some great insights into how organizations can plan for the future, as well as how they can avoid the pitfalls of short-sightedness. Join us as we discuss why big ideas sometimes fail; how to spot inflection points; and what may be around the corner for American businesses. Full show notes and transcript available at https://whitneyjohnson.com/rita-mcgrath