Disrupt Yourself Podcast with Whitney Johnson

Learn how Carol Fishman Cohen disrupted her career after a company collapse and 11-year break to raise her children. Explore the evolution of return ships and career relaunch programs, highlighting the value of individuals returning to work. Discover the importance of community support in navigating career transitions and embracing professional reinvention.

When we talk about robots, machines, artificial intelligence, it’s usually within the context of something theorists call the singularity. That’s the moment when AI figures out how to upgrade itself, and leaves us in the dust. After all, it can learn a library in an instant – the AI doesn’t need to stop for a snack and a nap.  In the world of the Terminator, it took Skynet a single day to become self-aware, destroy most of human life, and then send Arnold back in time to make sure no one could stop it. But in the end, The Terminator is one person’s vision of the future – a vision that’s also designed to sell well at the box office. Isn’t it just as possible to write a different version? Our guest today is spending his time doing just that. Paul Allen, the co-founder and former CEO of Ancestry.com, is asking instead – what if we saw AI as an ally, not an arms race? With his new venture, Soar, Paul is writing a different story, one where the robots aren’t sent back in time to strip away our humanity, but rather – they exemplify everything that’s unique about being human.  

“If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” Famous words by Bruce Lee, sure, but when we’ve felt like a stone our whole lives, what does becoming water actually look like? How do we learn to be more malleable in difficult situations? And how can we be confident we’re flowing in the right direction? Samantha Cooprider is the senior director of global leadership development at Meta – formerly Facebook. Today, Sam’s shaping leaders at a corporate level, but her path to the top has been anything but straightforward. She’s had to learn how to flow from a Midwestern childhood, through the non-profit world, and into the C-suites of Tesla, Meta and Google.  So how does Sam keep her mission top of mind when she’s moving from one cup to another?  

After 49 days fasting under the Bodhi tree, Siddhartha Guatama was struck by an idea. We suffer because we are attached to things, to people, to desires. When we can’t have it, we feel an emptiness. But what if we never wanted it in the first place? Guatama taught his philosophy for the next few decades, and centuries after that his followers would give him a new name – the Buddha. Total, complete elimination of your yearnings was called Nirvana. In our networked world, where we broadcast on social media what we want others to see of us, Nirvana can seem far away. But our guest today says that the yearning to belong shapes our behaviors in ways we’re not often conscious of. Dr. Michael Gervais is host of the podcast Finding Mastery, where he pulls on his experience as a high-performance psychologist to draw out what makes these top athletes and board room professionals tick. He’s out with a new book – The First Rule of Mastery, Stop Worrying About What Other People Think Of You.

Robert Sutton discusses the concept of friction in organizations and how to treat it. They explore the idea of 'gunk people' in the workplace and the need for self-awareness. The importance of embracing difficulty and complexity in creative processes is highlighted. Strategies to eliminate jargon in communication are discussed. The combination of love and logistics in the workplace is explored. The concept of the S curve and being mindful of others' time is also discussed.

Gov. Spencer Cox, the Republican Governor of Utah, talks about inclusive leadership and the importance of bipartisan collaboration. They discuss their initiative 'disagree better' and the need to find common ground. The speaker reflects on their journey to leadership and the impact of disruption. They also highlight the influence of farming on their leadership skills and share anecdotes about a viral ad promoting civil discourse.

Keith Allred, working to instill the idea of meeting folks halfway back, discusses the importance of compromise in our society. They explore cutting in the cowboy lifestyle, a pilot project in Idaho promoting bipartisan policy, engaging Congress to pass crucial legislation, addressing lopsided allocation of education funds, and finding common ground for meaningful change.

Discussions on the significance of dance as a means of communication and self-discovery, involvement with the NBA and philanthropic efforts towards cancer research, collecting data and making plans for change, the power of music in their life, emotional connection evoked by attending a jazz game with family, and the importance of gratitude, energy flow, and potential.

Do you know that feeling when you’re cooking, and you’ve got all your ingredients chopped and ready to go, spices measured, oven pre-heated? All that’s left is for you to spin your magic as a cook. In the kitchen, the French call it mise en place, everything in its place. In that same vein, to disrupt yourself, your strategy and support need to be in place. You need to give yourself the room to roam, so to speak, to realize your full potential.  Our guest today is all about creating spaces that let you realize that potential. Chip Conley is the former founder of Joie De Vivre, a boutique hotel chain. He’s worked with AirBnB as a quote unquote modern elder, and now Chip’s turning his attention to the potential of midlife – a word so laden with stigma, he’s building regenerative horse ranches to change that. His new book, "Learning To Love Midlife", is out January 16th.  

Isn’t it frustrating when we feel like a passenger to our own thoughts and actions? In Buddhist thought, we’re supposed to watch our thoughts pass by like clouds in the sky… but that’s the ideal, after all. It’s a hard truth to swallow, that the human mind is much more mysterious than we’d hope it to be. So for today’s episode, we wanted to bring back a conversation I had back in 2020 with the neuroscientist and author Dr. Tara Swart. She’s spent her career tinkering with our brains, as both a doctor and an executive advisor, figuring out how we can harness this mysterious power we have. The machinery of our minds might be unknowable, but the way it adapts is not.  So what can we learn about not being a passenger to our own thoughts, about taking the wheel? I hope you enjoy.