Adam Torres and Ken Eslick, Dr. Kate Lund, Glenn Akramoff discuss leadership.
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Show Notes:
Listen to the Mission Matters PodCon 2024 coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Ken Eslick, Host of The Leaders Lab, Dr. Kate Lund, Host of The Optimized Mind, Glenn Akramoff, Host of The Human Side of Work, explore leadership and Mission Matters PodCon 2024.
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Full Unedited Transcript
All right, so when I was when I was putting together these panels, I was thinking about who should be on a panel with who? Like, I was like, ah, it’s kind of like my dinner party. I’m like, who belongs where? Where do I sit them? How are they gonna go? How is this gonna mesh? When I thought about these hosts, we have two really consistent rock stars, and then we have two from Seattle as well, and then, and Glenn is newer to the network.
How many, how many episodes now, Glenn? Three. So, So, so my aim here really and the aim of the way we put these panels together is I want to get you know Insights from people that have both just started some intermediate and then also some people that are a little bit more advanced as well So the idea is that we want everybody to take something away from this and to take some knowledge away So first off Ken Eslick, host of the Leaders Lab.
First off, tell us about your show and what you do as well, your day job. Sure. So the Leaders Lab is actually as a company is a leadership talent acquisition company. So we place leaders with other companies. The whole idea of putting together a podcast around it was to enhance that brand, right.
To make us experts in our space kind of an omni presence on social media, And yeah, that’s what we do. So that’s the revenue driver and the show has been a great contributor to the main business. How many episodes now? I don’t, I think it’s like 120, but we probably recorded the record, by the way. So he’s one of the first and he has the most amount.
Well, Matt’s not lying when he said and yourself too, when everybody was like, you know, just every week, every week, every, and I was like, All right, it’s every week, you know what I mean, like it was just ingrained in my head that we just never miss no matter what and to be honest, it was a little stressful at the beginning because you don’t know who you’re going to talk to or what you’re going to talk about and then you do find a flow and it gets very easy, especially I think if you’re doing interview style shows, once guests start coming to you and you have a backlog, it’s, it’s, it gets a lot, you guys make it streamlined too from the, you know, administrative side, which is nice.
And you, and you come from the speaking space and the teaching space, so it’s a little bit different behind the mic, but you weren’t exactly shy, right? I wasn’t shy, but it’s funny that I way overthought all of the first episodes. You know, I remember writing them out. As we all do. Yeah, here’s how it’s gonna go, and Matt’s not lying either about the monologue thing, you know, you guys encouraged us to do it.
I think like show intro, that was my toughest and worst episode ever. It was only 10 minutes long talking to someone for an hour. It’s not a problem, but scripting out 10 minutes of what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it, that was like death. And so I prefer the interview style, for sure, you know.
We do that on purpose to torture everyone, because I’ve never done a monologue, hon, just so you know. Ever? Not even once. Out of all 6, 000, so there you go. There you go. That’s training, Corey. No, he just finished it. Dr. Kate Lunn. Welcome, welcome. So good to see you out from Seattle. The Optimized Mind. So talk about who you are, what you do, and your show, please.
Absolutely. So yep, I’m Dr. Kate and I’m a clinical psychologist. And my show, The Optimized Mind, our goal with it is to really look at the human experience of resilience. And how we’re working through and beyond challenge, but more than that, it’s how we’re building a resilient mindset within our own unique context.
And that’s sort of really what the show focuses on. I interview folks across domains authors, entrepreneurs, corporate folks, doctors, lawyers, just anyone you can think of. Big focus on parents because it’s, it’s an interest of mine clinically as well as in a coaching space. We’ve got a book on resilient parenting coming out, and so most of my guests are also parents just by chance, and so we go down that road, but that’s the big idea.
I absolutely love it. Thank you. Glenn Ackermoth, the, the human side of work. Talk about who you are, what you do in your show. Thank you. We’re we’re a workplace rehab consultancy. And as you hear laughing, everyone kind of needs that at this point. How we got into it is I developed a program.
I found that in the workplaces where I was a leader and I created a program and it worked. And so we’ve refined it and now we make a business of it. So why do we choose podcasting? Well, I was a guest on about 40 or 50 podcasts which is a lot of fun. Is that how we met? That’s exactly how we met.
There we go. And so, and, and I had a couple of them ask me afterwards. Should you, do you have one then? No. And, and so I looked into it and I, I just couldn’t find the right, right place for me. And then I did Adams, he asked me afterwards, and then we set up a meeting and here we are. And I get the consistency part.
The challenge I’ve had is making the transition from what I’m doing to adding it into the, into the workload. Yeah. And, and one of the things I talk about often is you just have to make it part of your lifestyle. So for Matt, I mean Matt’s super technical. He’s super like on point, which is his job, right?
That’s who you want running the agency But on my side of things like I tell people Like do the show that you can do in your sleep like it takes so much time and effort to find your voice I like I listen to and I you know, I studied the industry. So I remember reading a interview between Howard Stern and It was between Howard Stern and Seinfeld, and they’re talking about, like, how, you know, it was a blessing for Howard Stern, whether you like him or not, or his content, he’s still one of the most known media people in the world.
So, he was talking about those early days in radio, when nobody heard him, or nobody knew who he was, or any of that, when he’s playing these small towns, all this other things, he said, it was a blessing. Because it gave him time to find his voice so that he would be worth listening to. And so that’s something that always stuck to me and that’s why some of the things that we’re talking about, even that Matt said before, like listening to your episodes, taking out ums, ahs, I don’t think I’ve ever listened to a full episode of mine either.
That’s another thing I’ve never done. I can’t hear myself talk. It doesn’t sound right to me. I don’t know. I don’t, I don’t enjoy that. So there’s different processes. So I’m just, I’m saying these things, and you’re going to hear other people’s processes as well, just because there’s no one size fits all.
Like, there’s, everybody’s show is unique, and everybody’s audience is unique. Like, some people are going to like my show, and maybe not like Ken’s, or some people are going to like Ken’s, and then be like, I’m not listening to Adam, like, are you kidding me? Like, I need somebody else. So, it doesn’t matter, there’s plenty of audience, but really it is what Matt was talking about earlier too, about finding your voice, and finding your reason for why you do what you do.
So, this is an open question for the panel. This will be, so, Ken Dr. Kate, you know, over a hundred episodes in, your original vision for the show versus now, many, you know, a year and a half, two years later, has anything changed? And Glenn, I know you’re just getting started, so maybe you can just take, handle that question from your vision for the show in general.
Sure, I’ll start out. You know, for me and Ken, we were talking about this earlier it’s definitely an evolving process, right? And so I tend to listen back to all of my episodes prior to, Submitting them to the team and she’s so brave like twice you do it, right? I was like, oh my gosh How do you do that?
I would not talk about that on your on your show the other day, right? and it’s it’s it’s it’s a good thing, but yet it’s a it’s not a great thing because it’s It causes me to become quite critical of myself in the interview and cut small things where we were talking about this kind of You know, is that really necessary are people really going to hone in on that?
You That too many, you know, that kind of thing. So I’d like to get to the point where I’m just submitting, but I guess the bottom line is it’s an evolving process. And none of us are going to sound the same, look the same, and it’s a, it’s a question of designing or developing our show within our own unique context.
Who are we? Who do we want to be as hosts? And what do we hope the show is going to do in terms of how it’s going to get out there and help people with various needs. And for you, I was just sticking with Dr. Kate a little longer, for you, I mean, your journey of becoming a podcaster, you were interviewing people and doing, you know, big things in media even earlier on in your career.
Maybe talk about that a little bit, because this has been a journey. Right, yeah, it’s definitely been a journey. I mean, I feel like the podcast, in a sense, has brought things full circle to me, for me. I was really, really interested in radio in college, and I was very fortunate in that I had a a job at local radio station in Connecticut Patrice, WGCH, and I, I worked there for years while I was in college and that kind of translated into a radio show in college and then beyond college, a little bit of work there as well, but had some really cool opportunities.
I was able to interview Barbara Bush, for example. When she put that book out in the mid nineties and just super fun stuff. And so I feel like the podcast has kind of brought all that full circle. And I always knew that I wanted to bring that media side back into my life. While working as a psychologist at the same time.
So just, yeah. Yeah. I had to think about this a little bit as you were asking it, but I would say the original intention for the show again was to kind of support this ecosystem that we had already built. But then as I started doing it you know, what I’m really trying to find, I guess is the vulnerability and, and the tough stories that got people to where they are now.
And when I don’t get it, I, I get pissed, you know what I mean? At either myself or the guest. I’m like, really? You’re just like mailing it in. And so I want to know when they fail, like they’re on the show because they succeeded, but everybody already knows that, right? They wrote a book, they made a million dollars, whatever.
But like, I want to hear when they ate shit. You know what I mean? Like, that’s what interests me. And so Do you ever tell them that? Do you ever tell them that? Right before they get on it, I always say like, you know, Hey, I like to focus on real stuff. I’ll get real. How deep can we go? They all say like, Yeah, we’re gonna do it.
Yeah, we’re fine. And then there’s just certain people who are like, they’re just sticking to the script. You know what I mean? But I think we’ve done a pretty good job, like, 80 percent of the time. You know, I can’t get, I can’t, we end up, you know, Like they’re coming out to promote a book and then, you know, five minutes in we’re talking about their father who was an alcoholic and how they felt like they were never going to be loved and I’m like, perfect.
Like, you know what I mean? Not that that happened, but that they’re saying it in the show. Right, right. I wasn’t rooting for that. But yeah, but, but it’s, it’s, it makes it interesting, right? And it makes people actually get some value of it. Otherwise they could just read the person’s Wikipedia page, you know?
Connecting with the human experience, right? Totally, yeah. Which is what it’s all about. I love that. Glenn, talk to us about your vision. Well, the vision is to, to, you know, make workplaces and make the world more human focused. I mean, that’s, every business is set up to focus on humans in one way or the other.
So that’s kind of where we’re going. So we don’t mind going deep either. That’s, and I will share and be deep personally to bring that out and guess. I also don’t find the monologue as hard. And it’s, maybe it’s a lot of the speaking I’ve done over the years. And a lot of one on one stuff in my work, so I don’t mind doing that.
So I will have some of those episodes. That’s the first couple I put out were just monologues. So, for me, the vision is to touch people’s hearts. That’s really what I’m trying to do, whatever that means. So it’ll mean something different to me than it will to the people who are listening. That’s really what our vision is.
I don’t anticipate that changing how we do it and how I message is what’s going to help all. And I love the process. That’s why I love doing new things. I like creating that new process for myself and then helping others find theirs. So, I’ll tell you my process and how I just, how I get deeper when I choose to or when I want to.
So, I, I, I’m kind of repetitive on the same question, but why? But why? Or, or I’ll take their easy answer away. For anybody that’s been on this show, I’m like, Oh, and lots of people on this show are like, I’m not going to go on a show with this guy he’s talking about. I, I can vouch for that. So, then, then, then what I’ll do is kind of take the outs away too.
So, it’ll, so, you already said this, this, and this, and this, but what else? And then normally at some point, if there, if there’s something there, but if they’re just so surface level that you’re just like, all right, like, come on. I’ve noticed if they’re talking in a chronological order and they skip a big gap of time, I’m just like, what?
So, did you go to college? Yeah, exactly. What happened between 1987 and 1991? What’s going on? Like, what are you avoiding? You have a gap in your LinkedIn profile. Tell me about that. Tell us about the dark days. Like, that’s what I want to know. Yeah. Oh, that’s great. So, each of you come from different backgrounds.
Different professions. I’m curious about, and I, and by the way, so when I think about like what Dr. Kate said, who says that she, you know, always wanted to be in media or was in media in one way or another, I’m the complete opposite of that. I never wanted to be in media. I never had any idea of even what it was really.
I was a financial advisor. So what brought me into this was really Chirag saying, and Matt saying, you gotta, you gotta launch a podcast and Chirag eventually saying, come on, do it, Adam, do it. I’m not launching a podcast. We’re a book publishing company. This guy, he’s like, we’re gonna sell more books if you have a podcast.
I’m like, all right, then I’ll do it. Fine. He knows how to talk my language, right? So, so then we finally did it. But I only bring that part out because there’s some people that maybe have never thought about doing it, or they may not want to be in here. They’re not even, and all I would say is that is, is Chirag is going to do a presentation in a little bit, talk about branding and some other things.
And I just say personally, Like, so many things, even just, when I say Glenn, we met on our podcast, there’s just so many other things that are even, that come into your life when you’re doing podcasting. Friends, networks, experiences, like, invitations, just very interesting the way your world can open up through the world of podcasting, in my opinion.
I’ve been in other forms of social media, other forms of entertainment, we’ll say, through the years, and for me, the podcast community, there’s just nothing else like it. So that’s not the question but, for you, not the question, but each of you have different backgrounds, whether, I don’t know, from psychologists, from workplace rehab, from leadership in a platform that’s already built and thriving in the leadership niche.
How does what you do at work fuel your content? Like, how does that happen? Like, how does it affect and how does it fuel it? Yeah, so, for us yeah, quick background on me. So, dropped out of college, went in the military due to lack of options, not because I’m a patriot necessarily, but just that was, that was the option, right?
And, again, having no options without a college degree, started my own company when I was younger and ended up doing well with that and ended up really, you know, from the army on, like really being interested in studying leadership and stuff like that. We got bought by a fortune 500 company, spent 14 years in corporate and then got out and got into recruiting and development of like leadership people, got involved with Tony Robbins and the trainer with him.
And so that’s just kind of been my world for a long time. And, sorry, go back to the original question real quick. So, how does it fuel it? How does it fuel your show content? Like, I’ll tell you where this question came from, really briefly. So, our original show was called Money Matters, because I was a financial advisor.
And that’s what fueled the content. I thought I was going to teach people about money. And my vision and Chirag’s vision changed, and we saw that there was just a lot more to it. We were in a certain niche that through mission. So mission made sense for both of us being aligned. So I’m just curious for you, like, how does your day, like back to Kate, everybody has different backgrounds.
Everybody in the audience has different backgrounds, businesses, interests. How does your business fuel your content? That question I was talking about earlier around vulnerability actually comes, it’ll relate back to this question because What I learned was, so every day we speak with leaders, right, about their jobs, about the thing that they want, about their next career move, or we’re talking to founders about, you know, how tough it is to be a founder and now the companies are like outgrowing your leadership and you’ve got to find a CEO, and we’ve got to go find that person.
And what I found was that nobody gets any value again out of the the, our LinkedIn pages, our Instagram posts, right? It’s all about vulnerability. And so that’s been driven by the people that I talk to every day in our normal business, right? Where like to, to, to really be successful in our other business, we have to get personal.
We have to understand what drives people. And that’s driven the content on the podcast as well. You know what I mean? It’s kind of a two way street, but they complement each other. Awesome. Yeah. So for me, it’s really about understanding the human experience and understanding where people are coming from, you know, as a psychologist and trying to help them solve their problems, move forward, maximize potential.
And that really is driving my content on the show as well. It’s really my core interest. It’s authentic to me, and it’s just another platform for sharing you know, people’s stories with the world, and hopefully as folks listen to the episodes, my guests on the podcast, they’ll be able to take something away which will help them in some way.
So, it’s actually broadening in a sense, my, Bye bye. work as a psychologist from a different angle, through a different lens, if that makes sense. Well, I would say my work fuels all of my content. And it’s interesting, you picked a, I’m appreciative of being on this panel, because I have so much in common with both of them.
I throw good dinner parties. Yeah, you do. I started, too, I dropped out of college. I went to work in a local government. And I worked my way up through the years. And that can be a tough environment to succeed in. It’s actually not meant to succeed. You’re meant to be put where you are supposed to be and stay there.
And so I didn’t do that, and I was finding a level of success, and I realized that if I can do it, anyone can do it. I have no college degree. I don’t have all these big things. And so I really, and I watched people fail. And so I really, and I watched people fail. And fail to, and failure for someone’s favor.
And for me, I did not want to see that anymore. So I realized, and this is a core belief of mine, that if you can do it, you should do it. And so I started working on it. And that’s how the program got developed. And, when we’re doing that, I’m, I’m talking to people in the, in the background. Or I’m talking about people who are on my show about experiences that people are having that I’m working with right now.
So, it’s real relatable. And that’s really what I want to do, is be able to be relatable to, to the audience. And share what I’m learning, but also what the people are learning. That I’m working with, because it’s not all about me, right? It’s actually nothing about me. It’s about the people that we’re working with.
And as they progress and find their way in the world, I want them to be guests, because they will be vulnerable with me, because they already have them to get to where they are. So I think when you’re, that’s really what feeds my content, that’s what my content will be about, again, how it looks. Three episodes, I really don’t know yet.
That’s great. It’s a journey. Thank you. So, this is my last question for the, for the panel. I’m gonna, and I’m gonna go one by one, and then have some questions. We got time for maybe two, three maximum questions, but don’t worry. I know even when Matt was up here and I was interviewing him, there were a lot of hands up and, and people that wanted to ask questions that didn’t get a shot.
We intentionally at the end of this program left, like the programming’s done about three, we left two hours there because all the hosts are going to stick around, hang out by the boots, and you got plenty of time to ask them questions directly about their shows and otherwise. So that’s intentionally in the programming.
So if you, if your question doesn’t get answered now, no big deal. The hosts are all going to be around hanging out. So favorite episode, favorite episode, quick, rapid fire. Like our own episodes? Yes. I had a guy, I had a guy on that you might have heard of his name is Jerry Kalana and he wrote a book called Reboot.
io and that guy just blew my mind. When you’re talking about like vulnerability, he talked about standing, getting to a point in his life and he was mega successful. Words like that. I think hundreds of millions of dollars at this point in the financial crisis of 2001 found himself standing on the edge of a platform in front of New York City Subway ready to jump.
And like that whole episode, I was just like, I, I was like forgetting to ask questions, you know what I mean? I was just like, oh my God. Sounds my favorite one. That’s great. So I, I have a lot, but I’m gonna pick, I think captain Sandy Ya from Below Deck Mediterranean and she. You know, I was a little bit nervous to reach out and to ask her to be on the show.
I had seen that she was putting out a book on the human side of leadership. And so I, I contacted her and she was so gracious, so lovely, and came on and it was a wonderful interview. And I really think she shared really, really important aspects of the human side of leadership, leading within your own unique context, and And how that really helps those she’s leading to maximize their potential.
But it was, it was a fantastic experience and I, I, it stands out to me. Let me guess your monologue, the first one. No, actually mine is in the future. I’m looking for the episode that we have a great conversation with someone who, We connect the audience can feel it and that at the end we we can give our each other a high five Knowing that we hit the mark.
Mm hmm. It’s great. I like that answer. I love that
Authentic human connection, right? I love that