Eric Thurber: Create a "Life Well Lived" | #215
Most financially successful people eventually ask a deeper question: after the money is made, how do I build a life that actually feels worth living? Eric Thurber, founder of Three Bridge Wealth Advisors, spent 30 years helping first-generation entrepreneurs and venture capitalists answer it. In this conversation he shares how farm-bred work ethic, deliberate self-awareness, and a team aligned around excellence, partnership, and integrity create the conditions for both wealth and meaning. The episode…
How Beliefs Shape Our Thinking, Planning and Experiences with Owen Fitzpatrick | #214
If your thinking gets hijacked by certainty, emotional reactions, or untested assumptions, better plans and better outcomes become harder to reach. This conversation unpacks a practical way to understand belief formation so you can make stronger decisions, communicate with more influence, and build visions people actually commit to. At the center is the idea of inner propaganda: the mind does not simply present neutral thoughts; it constructs a version of reality that often feels unquestionably true.…
Andrea Kates: Strategies to Get Unstuck to Scale Your Growth | #213
Promising ideas rarely fail because the original concept was weak. More often, they stall because leaders misread what the market needs, cling to an outdated identity, or assume building something is enough to create adoption. This episode breaks down how organizations can diagnose why momentum fades and how to systematically create a new path to growth before a good idea dies on the vine. A central theme is that early success often creates the very blind spots that block future scale. What made a…
Marc Emmer: Strategic Planning That Actually Drives Execution | #212
If your company’s “strategy” is really just budgeting, reacting, or holding an offsite that produces vague ideas, this episode shows how to build a planning process that leads to real decisions and better execution. The core problem discussed is that many leadership teams confuse strategy with discussion. They gather smart people in a room, skip the preparation, leave without clear priorities, and fail to translate the work into goals, accountability, and communication across the organization. …
Pete Logan: Building Resilience in High-Stake Situations #211
When stakes are high, most teams don’t fail because they lack effort. They fail because they lack clarity, rehearsal, trust, and emotional control when pressure rises. This conversation breaks down how high-performance teams prepare for uncertainty before it arrives, and why those same principles apply far beyond combat or special operations. A central idea is that strong execution starts with a clear shared vision. In military planning, that vision is captured through “commander’s intent,”…
Trent Hein: Leading with Intention in a Fast-Changing Tech Environment #210
Cybersecurity leaders face a paradox: the pace of technological change accelerates daily, yet teams need stable direction to perform. In this episode, Trent Hein, three-time founder and co-author of the Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook, explains how organizations can set a clear vision without constantly pivoting toward every new trend. The core framework Hein advocates is design thinking applied to strategy. Rather than chasing technical minutiae, leaders should start by mapping the…
Scott Eblin: Leadership Presence: Reclaiming Attention Through Mindfulness and Intentional Routines | #209
Leaders at every level feel the crush of constant demands, overflowing calendars, and the pressure to push harder. The problem isn't a lack of ambition—it's a lack of presence. When you're trapped in chronic fight-or-flight mode, judgment erodes, relationships become purely transactional, and the very behaviors that made you successful start to hold you and your team back. This episode delivers a practical blueprint for breaking that cycle. Executive coach and author Scott Eblin joins Simon to unpack…