For You Leaders - Business And Leadership Podcast Featuring Kirk Dando

This is the second half of our interview with tech entrepreneur Mellie Price. Mellie is an experienced investor and a startup innovator. She has an impressive resume and you can read her full bio here. Most importantly, she is a leader that cares deeply about the people she comes in contact with and her own personal accountability. She is constantly reflecting on her life and decisions and is actively becoming a better leader. In Part 1, Mellie provides some great insights into being a leader and a woman leader. If you missed that amazing episode, listen to it now. We started to talk about the concept of work-life balance in the last episode. Mellie really latched onto Kirk’s idea of seasons (not balance) and she even took it a step further. Kirk and Mellie also discuss advice she would give to a new entrepreneur, how she says "no" to good opportunities and the power in the edges of a bell curve. Today’s Topics Include: How Mellie struggled with not always being on 110% of the time, she realized that humans

MELLIE PRICE - PART 1 Today our guest is award-winning tech entrepreneur, Mellie Price. She is currently the Executive Director of Technology Innovations at the Dell Medical School. She is a Founder and Managing Director of Capital Factory and a co-founder of SoftMatch. Additionally, she is an experienced investor and fund manager, an eight-time entrepreneur and has managed explosive growth in large and small companies. I'd encourage you to read her full bio here. Her accomplishments are remarkable. Even with all of her accomplishments, Mellie still feels like she is learning new things. She still feels like a "pup," as you'll hear in this episode. Today, you'll hear from Mellie that leadership is less about the hard skills and more your authenticity and the soft skills. She shares her personal definitions of leadership that led to her success. I believe there are too few women leaders in the workplace. Over my career, some of the best leaders I've worked with were woman leaders. I asked Mellie her thoughts o

Today we continue our conversation with Charles Thornburgh, the CEO of Civitas Learning. Civitas Learning partners with higher education leaders to bring together the best of new leading-edge technology, design thinking and data science on a mission to help a million more students. It’s a huge mission that we talked about in detail in the last episode - make sure you listen to part one.  In this episode, we wrestle with the issues that growth causes. Charles is quick to point out that what many times looks like a finish line, is usually just another starting line. Civitas Learning has been fortunate enough to raise a large amount of money, recently raising $60 million. Fundraising brings added pressure on the business, as you are now working with others’ money. From a CEO’s perspective, you are now responsible for fulfilling many more promises. The pressure is tough, but Charles shares how he copes with a growing company, investors and a family in this episode. Today’s Topics Include: How do you deal with ra

  One unique person can reshape generations. For Charles Thornburgh, CEO of Civitas Learning and today's podcast guest, it was his great grandmother. As a woman in the early 1900s, she earned a graduate degree - practically unheard of in that time. That decision was a true force multiplier. You'll learn about the force multiplier and how Charles uses it as CEO in this episode. Civitas Learning partners with higher education leaders to bring together the best of new leading-edge technology, design thinking and data science on a mission to help a million more students each year learn well and finish strong. Charles shares more about how they are accomplishing this on the podcast. Listen to this episode to learn more about Charles's incredible grandmother, her influence, the million student problem and how you can be a force multiplier.  Today’s Topics Include: The unique (and huge) mission of Civitas Learning.  How Civitas Learning is going to solve the million student problem. How Citivas Learning helps stude

Attend several parenting seminars and they will all offer you conflicting advice. Most agree that discipline plays a major role in a child’s development. Today we talk about a controversial topic - discipline. We even discuss spanking. When does it work? When does it not work? We also investigate time-tested methods of how to discipline a child. As you might recall I turned the reigns for the next podcasts to Chip Hanna, my VP of Product and Marketing, while I’m on vacation. He’s going to be a new dad in August. He took my vacation as a chance to interview the dads in his life and learn about the most important leadership position - being a parent.   Today’s Topics Include: - How to handle a crying kid. - The parenting method used and endorsed by two of the dads. - Letting your kids be responsible for their actions. - The role of communication and consequences. - How to ensure your kids know what you expect from you. - Spanking - did “the dads” use it? Did it work? - The two takeaways from “the dads” around d

I've had many titles after my name. COO. CFO. Author. Investor. The list goes on and on. However, there is one role that will always be at the top of that list - Father. I’m the proud father of three beautiful girls. It’s the greatest leadership role in the world. Leadership starts in the home and it can start with you. I have a confession to make: I’m on vacation right now with my girls. Traditions and time with my family are part of the non-negotiables you’ll hear me talk about in the upcoming podcasts. I turned the reigns for the next podcasts to Chip Hanna, my VP of Product and Marketing. He’s going to be a new dad in August. He took my vacation as a chance to interview the dads in his life and learn about the most important leadership position - being a parent. Part One - Meet "the Dads" in Chip’s life. They set the expectations for how life changes with a new one in the home. Today’s Topics Include: - You’ve probably heard about the imposter syndrome with leadership, but how does that relate to being a

You may have heard about Brett Hurt, he has started numerous tech companies, invested in even more and serves on many prestigious boards. But you probably don't know the whole story of Brett and his newest endeavor, data.world. You can read more about Brett and his work at his Lucky7 blog. Here's what's most important to know about Brett. He didn’t set out to be a great leader, he set out to be a great person. In this podcast, you'll hear that he's committed to a lot more than just starting and growing companies. He wants to change the world for the better through technology. He also talks in-depth about all the accomplishments that happen through business. Learn more about this incredible entrepreneur and his unique insight.   Today’s Topics Include: The three primary roles of a CEO The secret to developing an incredible startup culture The family atmosphere he was able to create at Bazaarvoice The motivation behind his new startup, data.world data.world's very young (and influential) first investor The imp

Family in the business. When does it work? What does it not? We're talking again to Rocky Turner, co-founder and CEO of LPR Construction. Make sure you listen to Part One, where we talk about Rocky's leadership style. Today, Rocky has all three sons working in the business. One son, Linc, is the President. However, LPR didn't always have a favorable view of family in the business. In fact, at one point, it was outlawed. We asked Rocky what changed and how he now views family in the business. His answers may surprise you. In todays' episode: The sticky situation of family in the business. When does it work? When does it not work? How Rocky holds people accountable - including family. What Kirk was originally hired for...and what he ended up doing. Who made the biggest influence on Rocky's leadership.  

In this episode, we're talking to Rocky Turner, co-founder and CEO of LPR Construction. They are one of the largest steel erector and heavy industrial construction companies in the US. While we talk to many startups, Rocky brings the unique prospective of building a construction business from the ground up. You'll love the different style of leadership he brings and the wisdom from many years of experience. In this episode, you'll learn: What exactly is a "For You" Leader. It's not just the name of this podcast. Rocky's model for leadership. The role humility and instincts play in his role. How he takes drama out of the business. The most difficult decisions he has to make. The one piece of leadership advice he'd give to his kids. The importance of earning "benefit of doubt." How to handle people that make mistakes.  

Today we are talking again (listen to part one here) to Peter Lehrman, Founder and CEO of Axial. Axial helps companies plan, grow, or exit by connecting business owners to buyers, leaders, investors and advisors. Imagine, you’re in the city that never sleeps. It’s your first time being a CEO. You’ve got a growing family. You’ve founded a company that has a really large purpose. How do you manage being a founder of a company and lead a growing family? Peter Lehrman, CEO of Axial, provides some great insight into how to lead a company - and a family. Topics covered in this episode: The three ways he manages being a father and a founder. How you can use mindfulness. What Peter loves about being a leader, especially in the company he founded. His secret sauce for being a leader AND founder. What a mattress has to do with success.

Today we are talking to Peter Lehrman the Founder and CEO of Axial. Axial helps companies plan, grow, or exit by connecting business owners to buyers, leaders, investors and advisors. Peter is an incredible first time CEO. Even though his journey is and will continue to be difficult, he really believes in his company. He believes in the vision and purpose that they are serving. In this episode, Peter is introspective and transparent about the struggles of being a CEO. He believes that leaders need to have people to confide in that they can trust. Today we talk about the hard lessons learned while being an effective, decisive, and yet empowering leader. Today’s Topics Include: Finding people that a CEO can trust and confide in. The difficulty of starting a company, and how the difficulty increases as the business grows. The air gets thinner at the top. If you are only doing this for money, it is not sustainable. You really need to believe in what the company does. Knowing when to flex the different aspects of