All Episodes
Episodes
Episode 50: Stop Overselling: A 30-Year Investor on What Actually Builds Confidence in a Pitch Conversation | with Rayna Lesser Hannaway
Leaders often walk into a pitch ready to defend their idea. The big market. The happy customers. The risks that are all "manageable."
Kristiana sat down with Rayna Lesser Hannaway, founder of Pure Path Ventures, who...
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Episode 49: Was It Designed Or Just a Default? How Multiplayer Built a Company Around Happiness with Gianmichael Di Lallo
Every company has a process nobody can explain. A meeting that runs long. A form that takes 20 minutes. An approval chain with 15 names on it.
Kristiana sat down with Gianmichael “GM” Di Lallo, Chief Design Officer...
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Episode 48: 5 tips for making your high-stakes pitch feel relaxed
Kristiana recently sat down with a small business banker to talk through funding for her business, and something unexpected happened. Instead of feeling like she was walking into a test, the whole conversation felt...
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Episode 47: Executive Influence and Strategic Storytelling
Kristiana has spent the past twenty years leading innovation for design and technology teams at Fortune 500 companies, and there is one pattern that keeps showing up no matter the company or the team.
Brilliant...
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Episode 46: FRICTION: How Tension, Emotion, and Change Reveal Better Leaders | with Dr. Maggie Sass and Dr. Ross Blankenship
Dr. Maggie Sass and Dr. Ross Blankenship are consulting psychologists and executive coaches who have spent decades working with executives and senior leaders, and they came to a conclusion that changed how I think...
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Episode 45: Building Company Culture That Thrives with AI | with Dr. Kevin Sakamoto
Dr. Kevin Sakamoto and I go way back. We worked together at Target, we've spent years comparing notes from our different corners of the world (he's a professor and product leader, I'm a design leader), and we enjoy...
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Episode 44: INTEGRITY is NOT a Liability in the C-Suite. It’s Your Competitive Edge | Interview with Rusty Atkinson
Rusty Atkinson spent twenty-five years climbing into the highest levels of corporate technology, including time as a CIO, and he vowed not to stop caring about his people in order to get there.
In this Worthy to Lead...
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Episode 43: How Coaching Changed Everything About How I Lead
For once, I'm not the host – I'm the guest. My friend and fellow coach Laurie Hall flips the script and interviews me about my own path: small-town Minnesota roots, unglamorous first jobs, and getting thrown into...
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Episode 42: From Fear to Fluency: VP Andy Vitale on How to Lead AI Innovation with Confidence
Andy Vitale has been building with AI since 2015, across healthcare, banking, mortgage, marketing, and now tax software, long before it became a leadership talking point.
He was auto-suggesting medical codes at 3M...
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Episode 41: The Phrase That Changed Everything: "I Can Fit That In" with Erin Coupe
Erin Coupe spent over 17 years inside high-performance corporate environments: Goldman Sachs, CBRE, Fortune 140 companies. She was commuting 10 to 12 hours a week, working 60-plus hours, and building a career that...
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Episode 40: From NASA Engineer to Leadership Coach: Navigating Life's Chaos with Authenticity & Purpose with Laurie Hall
Laurie Hall spent years working on space exploration and the International Space Station. She was a chemical engineer at NASA and Lockheed Martin, doing exactly what she had dreamed about since she was a kid growing...
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Episode 39: Why Creativity Is Your Most Untapped Leadership Tool — Van Lai-DuMone on Curiosity, Innovation, and the $8.3B Story You've Never Heard
Powerful leadership skills go beyond your strategy and experience. One of the most untapped sources of potential is your team’s creativity and curiosity. Here’s why that matters:
Van Lai-DuMone has spent over a decade...
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