Innovation Nation Podcast

In this podcast, we Speak with top executives and industry experts, harnessing their expertise and sharing their insights to empower our listeners to grow

You’ll hear stories of grit, determination, experimentation, and core creative solutions to help embrace innovation. This podcast will help you innovate in practice. We’ll focus on industry trends and how certain companies stay ahead of the curve by driving their own innovation and building a safer and more sustainable future.

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Episode 33: Risk Management, Not Risk Averse with Amanda Hunt

Innovation is where every company should be headed, but finding out what innovation means to your company is crucial. Hear how coming up through underwriting has created a unique path in risk management for Amanda Hunt, and what innovation means to her team. Listen to the conversation with Amanda Hunt, Senior Risk Manager at Wilbur Ellis, to learn more about:

• Coming up through underwriting to a successful path in risk management
• The benefits of incremental change
• Fostering innovation through communication

Episode 32: How Product Design Innovation Prevents Consumer Injury & Death w/ Marc Schoem

Safety and sustainability have to be built into the design of consumer products from the ground up. Learn how innovation is making products safer and more sustainable. Hear our conversation with Marc J. Schoem, Executive Director at ICPHSO:

• The vision and goals of ICPHSO
• Attaining more preventative design best practices
• Promoting a regulator community for consumer wellbeing

Episode 31: Innovation Through Teamwork & Collaboration

Innovation only happens with a strong foundation built from collaboration and a drive for success. Creating that drive is where the challenge lies. But can it be acquired? In this episode, I speak with Rick Bullota, Advisor and Mentor for various companies - Founder of ThingWorx, about how working with founders and making a difference in a company to set it up for success. Join us as we discuss:

• The importance of the customer
• Advising founders and the importance of teams
• Real world examples of success and failure in startups

Episode 30: How Dale Carnegie Stays Innovative a Century Since Founding

At its core, true innovation is about more than just futuristic technologies or industry disruptors — it’s about the human component. If you want to truly innovate, start with people, connection, and purpose. If you do, you’ll foster a culture of innovation that will outlive you.

Just ask Dale Carnegie…

Today, I’m speaking with Joe Hart, President & CEO at Dale Carnegie & Associates, about how he’s helping the legacy of creativity and innovation Dale Carnegie left behind live on. Join us as we discuss:

• What makes Dale Carnegie such an inspiring innovator
• Why psychological safety is key to creating a culture of innovation
• Why everyone can be creative and innovative if they just let themselves.

Episode 29: Stressed at Work? There is an app to address that

Wellness apps have exploded in popularity in recent years — and that’s a good thing. We all need support, because we are all human. But none of them have tackled one of the biggest root-causes of stress in most people’s lives: the workforce.

Well, none until now.

In this episode, Steve Glaser, CEO of ComfortZones Digital, explains how he’s helping to innovate away workplace stress and make sure people can return to their loved ones without hauling home their stressful office baggage.

Episode 28: Paying Forward Positivity w/ Innovation & Authenticity

Innovation isn’t always flashy gadgets or software. Sometimes, it’s making an effort to meet your employees where they’re at through authenticity and patience. As a leader, innovation can be as straightforward as reevaluating pay structures to address the needs of your team. In this episode, I speak with Chris Bower, CEO of Endurance Federal Credit Union, about how building positive company culture comes from authenticity and paying it forward in your community. Join us as we discuss:

• Community impact
• Innovation and inspiration
• Building company culture
• Navigating change through the pandemic

Episode 27: Bringing Value To Customers By Listening to Understand

Are you having trouble navigating the rapidly changing landscape of technology? Not sure how to adapt your methods to new expectations?

The crux of the matter comes down to analyzing your customers' behaviors and learning their pain points like the back of your hand. Listen to them. Seek understanding.

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Hajo Rapp, SVP Strategic Account Management and Sales Excellence at TÜV SÜD, about how tech and sales are changing and what to do to embrace those changes.

Join us as we discuss:

• Digital transformation
• Customer connections
• Top salesperson traits 

Episode: 26: Choosing Growth: Innovation in Leadership w/ Tammy Bohen

What can leaders do today to keep the innovative juices flowing and support their teams during a state of flux? Take a strong listening strategy to understand what challenges and struggles your team, staff, and organization are facing. Leverage the soft skills of empathy, kindness, and caring to speak to the basic need for health and wellness that is the foundation for innovation.

In this episode, I speak with Tammy Bohen, CHRO at SVP Worldwide, about how leaders can both stay innovative and foster innovation in their teams with continual growth, networking, and soft skills like empathy. Join us as we discuss:

• Learning from positive and negative experiences
• Championing for your teams with listening and empathy
• Keeping up a high energy with international travel
• Advocating for parity and equity for women in business

Episode 25: How To Navigate Change With Innovation & Keeping Communications Human w/ Bruce Tulgan

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic began, the world saw the beginning of big changes in regards to tech and work norms. Now, having the whole transition expedited, leaders everywhere are dealing with the aftermath. And if they want to maintain those high-level employees, they’ll need to know how to navigate through the change.

In this episode of Innovation Nation, I interview Bruce Tulgan, Founder and CEO of Rainmaker Thinking, about setting manager expectations, the technological transformation, and how to innovate when the stakes are high. Join us as we discuss:

• Innovations that every manager should be focusing on
• How to keep communications & interactions more human
• Finding innovation through troubling situations
• Bridging the soft skills gap

Episode 24: Think beyond Compliance – Think Security w/ Edward Chandler

Over the years, the focus of cybersecurity professionals has switched from breach prevention to breach response. Most now agree that it’s unlikely you’ll be able to avoid a breach these days, so the next best thing is to be prepared when one happens.

In this episode of Innovation Nation, I interview Edward Chandler, Account Executive at TÜV SÜD, about the steps companies can take to prepare for the negative innovations of cyber criminals.

Join us as we discuss:

• The three elements of a successful security program
• How to prepare for a security breach
• How cybersecurity plays into the viability of the supply chain
• Compliance versus security

Episode 23: What to Do When Innovation Stops Being Enticing w/ Robyn M. Bolton

Some companies want to innovate, but it’s a struggle. That’s because innovation is hard. Find ways to actively encourage curiosity. At the beginning of an innovation journey, you’ll have to make an effort to highlight curiosity, reward it, and make it an unquestionably good thing within your culture. In this episode of Innovation Nation, I interview Robyn M. Bolton, Founder & Chief Navigator at MileZero, about how she coaches companies that desire to innovate but feel disillusioned about what it will take. Join us as we discuss:

• When town hall enthusiasm becomes company-wide disillusionment
• Creating incentives and motivation beyond the scope of employee tenure
• The importance of risk management while taking action
• As Michaelangelo is to marble, Robyn is to PowerPoint
• Embracing curiosity

Check out these resources we mentioned: Francesca Gino on curiosity

Episode 22: Baking Innovation Into Your Company’s DNA w/ Maria Fagan

When you’ve grown from three people in 2008 to just about 500 today, you need a way to scale the innovation you had as a startup. You have to bake innovation into the very DNA of your company from core values to automation. In this episode of Innovation Nation, I interview Maria Fagan, President at RQM+, about the evolution of innovation during her company’s explosive growth. Join us as we discuss:

• The close relationship between growth and innovation
• How innovation informs core values, culture statements, and corporate vision
• Trust, onboarding, and the people component of innovation
• Measuring your critical processes and getting rid of the ones that don’t work

View All Podcast Episodes on Sounder.fm