Disrupt Yourself Podcast with Whitney Johnson

Today I am excited to introduce you to Richie Norton, a new friend that I am excited to be collaborating with on the video course UNSTUCK45. Google “Stupid Richie” and you may just see his name at the top of the results—he is an innovative social entrepreneur and the author of “The Power of Starting Something Stupid,” which encourages everyone to Live to Start and Start to Live. This podcast is a deliberate disruption to my usual format. An accelerant of managing change is being discovery driven, and in that spirit Richie and I decided to get to know each other on the podcast—asking questions, exchanging ideas, and discovering what we have in common as well as what strengths we each bring to the table. No scripts, no teleprompters, just discovery. I was surprised and delighted by how much fun I had, but even more so by how much great CONTENT came out of the process.  If you’d like a sneak peek into what Richie and I have been creating together, click here. Show notes and links on my site at http://whitneyjohnson.com/richie-norton

Kare Anderson is an Emmy award-winning former journalist for NBC and the Wall Street Journal, as well as the author of “Mutuality Matters,” which was inspired by her TED talk “The Web of Humanity: Become an Opportunity Maker.” She believes passionately that individuals need to connect and make “unexpected allies,” where it’s okay to strongly disagree about some issues but still come to trust one another through shared interests. This mutuality allows us to find and recognize our strengths while interacting with those that have complementary skills. The more we interact and work together, the stronger we all become.   Kare inspired me, and I hope she inspires you, too. Click here to download the complete transcript of our conversation.  

Focus. And be lazy. Seemingly incongruous, these two ideas permeate Michael Bungay Stanier’s disruption of the professional coaching model.  Michael is the founder of Box of Crayons, a training company dedicated to coaching managers and leaders “in ten minutes or less.” He is the author of five books, including “The Coaching Habit,” which has sold almost 300,000 copies and spawned an accompanying podcast. After years of listening to friends talk about their “angsty teenage life,” Michael realized that he had a gift for listening and decided it was something he wanted to pursue. Gaining education, experience, and some basic counseling training, he boldly opened his own coaching practice—and then dismantled it. Read more on the website: https://whitneyjohnson.com/michael-bungay-stanier/

People often ask––is it really possible to disrupt yourself inside of an organization?  If you, like Karen S. Carter, today's guest on the Disrupt Yourself Podcast, are determined, willing to risk, and hire the right boss, the answer is yes. What started as a summer internship to pay for college transformed into a two-decade long career path for Karen, who goes to work every day believing that her focus should be making a life rather than just making a living. The result? Eighteen months ago Karen was asked to become the first Chief Inclusion Officer for Dow Chemical, a powerhouse company with over 50,000 employees worldwide. See the Show Notes for this Episode at  https://whitneyjohnson.com/karen-s-carter/

Vala Afshar, my guest on the Disrupt Yourself podcast, is here to answer the burning question: What is a Chief Digital Evangelist? For starters, that’s the role Vala fills with Salesforce, the dominant player in the sphere of CRM technology. Vala, with his prior company, was an early Salesforce customer. He used Salesforce and innovated with it for years before he went to work there. He became “the first evangelist hired at Salesforce, so it was new territory.” In addition to all things Salesforce, Vala talks about this—the nontraditional job search, and the nontraditional candidate vetting. His insights into how savvy, forward-thinking companies will be hiring in the future is worth a listen too. Download the complete transcript and links in the show notes at WhitneyJohnson.com.

For Episode 40 of the Disrupt Yourself Podcast, I'm trying a little experiment. For the first time, I'm hosting a podcast interview with myself - so to speak. I'm answering several questions that came from podcast listeners and loved having a chance to think through them and try something new for the podcast. If you have any questions for future episodes, I'd love to have you submit them at whitneyjohnson.com/contact For show notes for this episode, click here.

Join me for a lively conversation with best selling author Daniel Pink for the inside scoop on the research that went into his new book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing and the discoveries that came out of it. Who knew that our biological clock and circadian rhythm, internal ticking unheard and pendulum swinging unseen, were so influential in the decisions we make, and the outcomes of initiatives we undertake? Download the complete transcript and view show notes at https://whitneyjohnson.com/daniel-pink/

Deb Dugan is the CEO of [RED], founded by U2 front man, Bono, in partnership with Bobby Shriver. [RED] has the ambitious goal of eradicating AIDS in our lifetime, and pursues this noble objective through a variety of disruptive social media and marketing initiatives. Download a transcript of Whitney & Deb's conversation and view the show notes by clicking here.

Hear what Peter Sims, author of Little Bets, a Founder of Parliament, Inc., BLK SHP, Silicon Guild and more, has to say about stepping back, the value of collaboration and the miracles of the people we encounter in our path on the Disrupt Yourself podcast. Show Notes: https://whitneyjohnson.com/peter-sims-power-collaboration/

This week’s podcast episode is an experiment. It’s my first solo episode—no victim in the hot seat, being interviewed. Instead, I talk about my own journey up the learning curve, spend some time reminiscing with the ghost of episodes past, as well as calling out some episodes favorited by my team. Show Notes: https://whitneyjohnson.com/2017-in-review/