Disrupt Yourself Podcast with Whitney Johnson

Tim Harrison knows a thing or two about growth. At a young age, doctors said Tim would be physically behind all his peers. He outgrew every single one. During his time playing basketball in college, Tim faced significant  on and off court challenges, propelling him to…grow. Today, Tim strives to instill that same growth mentality into underserved high school students via his non-profit organization, EPOG Academy.  

Mauro Porcini was the first Chief Design Officer at both 3M and PepsiCo. He’s also  author of the book, The Human Side of Innovation: The Power of People in Love with People On this week's show, Mauro shares with us his insights on how we can identify and deal with  hidden rejection, as well as how companies can cultivate a Unicorn Culture. 

Stewardship. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Servant leadership. Not the first things that come to mind when thinking about leadership in the corporate world, but our guest today sees these as indispensable core values that served as guides throughout her career. Angela Ahrendts is the former C.E.O. of Burberry, former head of retail at Apple, and is currently chairwoman of the board at Save the Children.  

Joining us this week is Tina Opie, author of “Shared Sisterhood: How to Take Collective Action for Racial and Gender Equity at Work”. My conversation with Tina was a tough one, but I hope it’s just as meaningful for you as it was for me.  

Victor Frankl once said, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In that response lies our growth and freedom”. Our guest this week seeks to help us optimize that space. Carol Kauffman, founder of the Institute of Coaching at Harvard Medical School, and co-author of the soon to be released Real-Time Leadership: Find Your Winning Moves When the Stakes Are High, joins us to talk about the new book, her super power, and so much more!   

Andre Menezes is the CEO of Next Gen Foods. On this week’s episode, Andre will share insights from his  journey of becoming a visionary in the world of sustainable food production. We’ll also learn how Andre developed a broader perspective about the world and how he learned at an early age to be the protagonist of his  story and not succumb to the victim mentality. In Andre’s words, “There’s no way to solve death. For all the other things in life, there’s something we can do about it.”  

What is special about you and what you know how to do, and how  do you scale yourself ? How do you make sure you spend most of your time doing that thing? Jennifer Smith, C.E.O. and co-founder of Scribe joins Whitney to discuss this and so much more.

Happiness...at work. A novel concept? An oxymoron? Far from it. Jon Clifton is the CEO of Gallup, and author of Blind Spot: The Global Rise of Unhappiness and How Leaders Missed It. Jon joins Whitney this week to discuss how happiness in the workplace is not elusive as some may think.

Joining Whitney this week is Mbali Maseko, Head of Well Being at Sasol South Africa, a global chemical and energy company. Mbali has a Masters in Public Health, a Masters in Business Administration and an Honors degree in Dietetics, attained through grit, hard work,  and the support and sacrifice of her family.

This week Whitney shares a portion of one of her recent LinkedIn Live sessions.  Joining Whitney this week is  NY Times best-selling author, Seth Godin – his most famous books being This is Marketing and Linchpin. In this episode, Whitney and Seth talk about one of his latest projects, The Carbon Almanac, the idea of imposter syndrome, and of course, marketing.