Unlocked with Skot Waldron
What if there was one place to gain short, powerful insights from leaders and influencers worldwide? Join communication strategist Skot Waldron as he interviews people like John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneurs on Fire, Ann Hiatt, who worked directly with Jeff Bezos, Marissa Mayer, and Eric Schmidt, former CIA agent Marc Polymeropoulos, and Matt Doherty, Michael Jordan's former coach, and mines the gold inside each of their heads. Unlock the potential of you and the people you do life with by listening to every episode!
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Unlocking Micromanagement With Colin Fisher
<p>In this episode of Unlocked, Skot Waldron talks with Colin Fisher, author of The Collective Edge, about improvisation, leadership, creative work, and why teams often struggle when the work gets messy, invisible, or hard to measure. They unpack the difference between checking in and checking up, why leaders need to make their intentions more explicit, and how even good leaders can start behaving badly inside broken systems.</p> <p>If you lead people, work on a team, or have ever said, "I was just trying to help," this conversation will give you a smarter way to think about trust...
Thoughts Unlocked - I Wish I Could Be More Like Them
<p>A deep dive into the misdiagnosis of work behaviors and the value of different thinkers.</p> <p>During coaching sessions, I've heard a lot of different emotions from clients, particularly frustration and hopelessness. Yet, one phrase I hear too often is, "I wish I could be more like them." This sentiment speaks volumes about how we perceive ourselves in the workplace. Often, those expressing this wish are comparing themselves to colleagues who appear to glide through their tasks with ease.</p> <p>You are constantly reaching for something you were never designed to be, which means you are always...
Unlocking Why Smart People Still Make Bad Decisions With Dr. Ricardo Valerdi
<p>In this episode of Unlocked, Skot sits down with Dr. Ricardo Valerdi, engineer, sports scientist, University of Arizona professor, and author of *The Five Tool Team*, to unpack the psychology behind decision-making, and why judging a decision by its outcome is one of the most common leadership mistakes.</p> <p>We get into the tug-of-war between "me" and "we," why the best hitters in baseball fail 70% of the time and still make the Hall of Fame, when your gut should outvote your data, and the Costanza Effect – the surprising case for doing the exact opposite of what feels obvious. Ri...
Unlocking Why Smart Leaders Weaponize Resilience With Nikki Langman
<p>In this episode of Unlocked, Skot sits down with international speaker and emotional intelligence expert Nikki Langman to unpack what psychological safety really means (and what it doesn't). Nikki shares the remarkable story of a 12-month emotional intelligence program she ran inside a high-risk maritime company, one that cut lost-time injuries by 86% and doubled near-miss reporting, proof that trust and safety directly move the needle on real business outcomes.</p> <p>From there, the conversation goes deep: why leaders sometimes weaponize resilience, why emotional intelligence without integrity becomes manipulation instead of leadership, and why charisma is too often mistaken...
Unlocking Why Leadership Is Lonelier For Women With Lindsay Pinchuk
<p>Why does leadership feel lonelier for women and what does community actually fix?</p> <p>In this episode of Unlocked, host Skot Waldron sits down with award-winning entrepreneur and Dear FoundHer... founder Lindsay Pinchuk to unpack why the right community changes everything for women leaders and founders over 40. They dig into the mental load women carry at home while leading at work, why burnout from corporate America is pushing women into entrepreneurship, and the simple but powerful difference between having a network and having real people in your corner.</p> <p>Lindsay shares her journey from building Bump Club...
Thoughts Unlocked - How Stress Breaks Trust
<p>Stress doesn't create cracks in your culture. It reveals them.</p> <p>When teams are under pressure, trust can quickly turn into blame, assumptions, longer email threads, and people protecting themselves instead of solving problems.</p> <p>In this episode of Thoughts Unlocked, I break down why stress can break trust and what leaders can do about it.</p> <p>The answer isn't more communication. It's more curiosity.</p> <p>Instead of jumping to conclusions, ask better questions. Instead of assuming incompetence, assume confusion. And instead of asking, "Who's responsible?" ask, "What made this problem possible?" Because trust grows...
Unlocking The Secret Behind The Apple Store With Ron Johnson
<p>Most people think the Apple Store succeeded because of great design. Ron Johnson says that's only half the story. The real secret was something much more personal. In this episode, Ron Johnson, the man who built the Apple Store alongside Steve Jobs and later became CEO of JCPenney, breaks down the invisible forces that shape how leaders make decisions. He introduces a concept called personal geography, the idea that every choice we make as a leader is filtered through our own lived experience, whether we realize it or not. Ron traces how his mother's simple belief that everyone deserves...
Thoughts Unlocked - You Have Enough Time
<p>"I don't have time."</p> <p>We say it all the time. But what if time isn't actually the problem?</p> <p>In this episode of Thoughts Unlocked, I'm challenging the idea that we don't have enough time. The real issue is often ownership.</p> <p>When your calendar belongs to everyone else, your priorities get pushed aside. Strategy, thinking, relationships, rest, and the things that matter most become whatever time is left over.</p> <p>You don't need to find more time. You need to claim it.</p> <p>I'll share a simple challenge: find one hour on...
Unlocking Why Work-Life Balance Might Be The Wrong Goal With John Azar
<p>Building a business, coaching practice, or consulting career can feel like a constant tug-of-war between ambition and balance. You want to grow, serve clients, make the thing work and also not become the person everyone quietly avoids at dinner.</p> <p>In this episode of Unlocked, Skot Waldron talks with John Azar about why "work-life balance" might not be the real goal, what healthy seasons of imbalance can look like, and how to pursue big goals without accidentally turning your life into a motivational poster with Wi-Fi.</p> <p>They also dig into fear, failure, and the difference between...
Unlocking The Bias Every Leader Has (And How To Fix It) With Mark Miller
<p>Mark Miller spent almost 45 years at Chick-fil-A, rising to VP of High Performance Leadership, and along the way he accidentally co-wrote a book with Ken Blanchard that's now in 34 languages. He's back on Unlocked to talk about the newly re-released edition of THE SECRET: What Great Leaders Know and Do, a third of it rewritten, with a research-backed free assessment and facilitator's guide added.</p> <p>We get into why "servant leadership" has become a tarnished brand, and why buying donuts and walking dogs is service, not leadership. Mark shares data from a global survey of 4,000 leaders across six...
