The Leadership That Shines Podcast

Epizodai

• 
  Listening to Understand vs. Reacting: A Leadership Lesson 09.09.2026 1val 1min

  Most hard conversations do not fail because of what was said. They fail because one person was reacting instead of listening.In this episode of Leadership That Shines, host Natalie Davis talks with Dustin Shepherd, a nearly thirty-year military veteran turned leadership coach, about the difference between listening to understand and listening to react. Dustin explains why reacting carries an emotional charge while responding carries cognitive judgment, and why most communication breakdowns on a team start the moment a leader stops listening for the signal and starts waiting for their turn to talk.The conversation also covers what it means to shape an environment instead of controlling every decision, how to tell a real crisis apart from an everyday problem, and a personal story about a roadside breakdown that became a lasting lesson for Dustin's son. He closes with a reflection on moving from survival to recovery, and how he wants to be remembered as a leader.Listen if you lead a team, manage difficult conversations, or want practical language for the moment someone brings you a problem you were not expecting.In this episode:Why reacting and responding are not the same thing, and how to tell which one you are doingWhat gets missed when a leader is only waiting for someone to finish talkingHow shaping the environment around a decision beats making every decision yourselfA simple pressure test for telling a real crisis apart from an everyday problemWhy psychological safety is about willingness to be vulnerable, not the absence of discomfortThe story behind "fifteen extra steps" and what it taught Dustin's son about handling setbacksGuest: Dustin ShepherdCONNECT WITH DUSTIN SHEPHERDPolaris Leadership Academy:https://4pla.org/If this conversation gives you language for a hard conversation you have been avoiding, share it with a leader who needs it, and follow Leadership That Shines so you do not miss the next episode.Join Natalie Live at the Reignite Live 2027 Event in Loveland, CO on January 22, 2027
• 
  Leadership Development: Chris Majer on Team Cohesion, Organizational Transformation, and Nearly 50 Years of Disruptive Leadership Training 02.09.2026 56min

  Leadership development does not happen through remedial programs, compliance checklists, or business school frameworks borrowed from people who have never led anyone into anything that actually mattered.In this episode of the Leadership That Shines Podcast, one of the top rated leadership business podcasts for professionals, entrepreneurs, and executives, host Natalie Davis sits down with Chris Majer, speaker, author of The Power to Transform, and nearly 50-year veteran of human performance, leadership training, and organizational development. Chris Majer coined the phrase team cohesion in 1982. He has applied his holistic leadership development framework with Olympic teams, the United States Army, AT&T, Nike, Microsoft, Cargill, and hundreds of organizations across industries. He has been on the Today Show, in Esquire, in People Magazine, and in boardrooms where he was the most disruptive presence in the room by design.Chris Majer's career began in rugby at the University of Washington, took a sharp turn through a copy of The Ultimate Athlete found in an airport bookstore at 30 years old, and has never followed a straight line since. That is the point. His leadership training philosophy is built on a single belief: the problems organizations think they have are almost always manifestations of one underlying breakdown, and the leaders who solve each symptom separately never fix the actual thing.The Leadership That Shines Podcast brings real leadership development conversations to professionals, founders, executives, and aspiring leaders every Wednesday. This episode is one of the most data-rich leadership training conversations the show has produced.In This Episode:Why the Army was trying to manage soldiers instead of lead them, and how Chris Majer told a room full of officers that their entire leadership approach was the problemThe team cohesion framework Chris Majer built in 1982 that produced a 20% production increase at a Boeing subcontractor statisticians said was already at maximum output, a direct application of leadership training principles to measurable business resultsHow a division of AT&T that was losing 200 million dollars generated a cumulative 3 billion dollars in profit over four years using Chris Majer's organizational transformation and leadership development methodologyWhy the holistic approach to leadership training outperforms symptom-by-symptom remedial programs every time, and what the woven cloth analogy means for every leader building culture and driving performanceHow Chris Majer rebuilt his entire leadership development delivery model after COVID eliminated live programming, and why the fundamental problem every organization faces right now comes down to coordination, not communication toolsChris Majer has been shaking up leadership training and organizational development for five decades. This episode is for every leader who has asked why do we do it that way, received the answer because that is how we always do it, and known immediately that answer was not going to be enough.About Chris Majer:Chris Majer is not just a speaker; he is a catalyst for transformation, a disruptor of conventional thinking, and a guide to unlocking the extraordinary potential within individuals and organizations. As an Amazon best-selling author and founder of the Human Potential Project (HP2), Chris brings a wealth of experience and a proven track record of success.The Power to Transformhttps://humanpotentialproject.com/Join Natalie live at the ⁠Reignite Live 2027: Redefine Success. Plan Your Whole Year. Event in Loveland, CO on January 22, 2027
• 
  Leading Self in Leadership with Parker Gates 20.08.2026 1val

  Leading self comes before leading anyone else, and executive coach Parker Gates spends this episode of Leadership That Shines proving exactly how. Parker walks host Natalie Davis through a leadership journey that started by accident, running a deli kitchen at nineteen, moved through two decades in corporate IT, and landed in a coaching practice built around three daily practices: journaling, meditation, and movement.Parker traces the moment that changed everything, a week at Stanford's design school where he encountered a level of psychological safety and belonging he had never experienced in corporate America. That week led him to quit his job, build a company around design thinking, and eventually start teaching senior leadership teams why smart people in a room don't automatically make a good team.In This Episode:● Why personal development and professional development are the same work● How psychological safety became the missing ingredient on every team Parker built● The three daily practices Parker uses with C-suite clients: journaling, meditation, movement● How a recovery concept called "taking inventory" became a leadership tool● Why "never skip day two" matters more than any single day of disciplineParker also opens up about twenty-four years of recovery, the friend he lost to cancer that led to his first real meditation practice, and the repair work he now teaches leaders to do when they fall short with their teams. This conversation moves through self-awareness, humility, and the practical steps behind showing up as a better leader every day.Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Subscribe to the Flamingo Files newsletter on LinkedIn for a deeper dive into this conversation, published every Monday.Contact: [email protected] | leadershipthatshines.com Guest: Parker Gates, executive coach | parkergates.com | Free practices video: parkergates.com/watch
• 
  Purpose-Driven Leadership: Blake Cooper Griffin on Resilience, Identity, and Building a Life Worth Telling 12.08.2026 48min

  Purpose-driven leadership does not come from a clean story. For Blake Cooper Griffin, it came from bullying in South Carolina, conversion therapy at 16, an agency that told him to hide who he was, and a moment at 22 years old with no money, no representation, and a decision to make about who he was going to be on the other side of all of it. In this episode of the Leadership That Shines Podcast, host Natalie Davis sits down with Blake Cooper Griffin, actor, author, activist, and founder of Brainworks Team, an educational mentorship consultancy helping students build academic growth, confidence, and purpose through service-based learning. Blake's career spans television, film, writing, entrepreneurship, and nearly two decades of advocacy work. His book, The Story of You: A Life Rewritten, available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, is a framework for anyone who has ever needed to rewrite the narrative they inherited and build one worth living instead. This conversation moves between the deeply personal and the practically applicable. Blake talks about the moment his representation called him in and told him to stop bringing his partner to industry events, the decision he made in that crushing moment to reframe the mountain he had already climbed, and how that single shift in perspective became the foundation of every leadership and business principle he now teaches. In This Episode: Why purpose larger than personal success is the only thing that sustains a leader through the seasons when nothing is working and the dark moments feel permanent How Blake reframes rejection and setback as evidence of mountains already climbed, and why that reframe removes the defeat of feeling like you are starting from zero The three-step passion project framework Blake uses with students at Brainworks Team: educate yourself on the real need, make practical impact, then multiply it by educating your community Why Blake's mother's saying, everybody's somebody and everybody counts, became the lens through which he approaches every room, every role, every relationship, and every business decision What it means to write the story of you intentionally, and why the creative capacity every human being carries is not limited to one career, one identity, or one chapter Blake Cooper Griffin has been navigating the intersection of identity, purpose, and leadership for decades. This episode is for every leader who has ever been told to make themselves smaller to fit someone else's comfort, and who is still deciding whether to believe it. Connect with Blake Cooper Griffin: Book: The Story of You: A Life Rewritten, available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble Company: Brainworks Team, educational mentorship and consultancy Connect with Blake directly through his professional platforms Connect with Natalie Davis and Leadership That Shines:Email: [email protected] Website: https://leadershipthatshines.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadershipthatshines?igsh=Z3JkNGZsbTU5bnIyFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1J9yZRGaiW/?mibextid=wwXIfrSubstack: https://lovejoyandnatalie.substack.com/Subscribe so you never miss an episode. New episodes drop every Wednesday.
• 
  Hilary Momberger Powers on Healing Trauma, Finding Joy, and Leading From the Inside Out 05.08.2026 54min

  Resilience in Leadership: Hilary Momberger Powers on Healing Trauma, Finding Joy, and Leading From the Inside OutResilience in leadership does not start with a strategy. For Hilary Momberger Powers, it started at the bottom of everything, and the climb back up became the curriculum she now teaches.In this episode of the Leadership That Shines Podcast, host Natalie Davis sits down with Hilary Momberger Powers, coach, keynote speaker, trauma recovery advocate, and 40-year sobriety veteran, for one of the most honest conversations the show has ever aired. Hilary grew up as a child actress in Los Angeles, voiced cartoon characters, appeared in over 150 commercials, and performed inside a household defined by alcoholism, abuse, and a mother whose ego was never satisfied. By 21, she had hit every wall available. What happened next is the foundation of every coaching conversation she has had since.Hilary has worked in the film industry for decades with over 300 movie credits as a continuity supervisor. She is now a full-time coach and speaker whose work sits at the intersection of trauma recovery, spiritual identity, and the specific kind of resilience that does not come from grit but from genuinely learning to lead yourself from the inside out.This is not a conversation about tactics. It is a conversation about what happens when a human being finally stops performing wellness and starts living it.In This Episode:Why the three trauma responses most people cycle through, people pleasing, isolation, and control, are not character flaws but survival strategies, and what it takes to stop needing themThe difference between happiness and joy, why happiness is fleeting and joy is the permanent hard drive already inside every leader, and how to stop chasing the wrong oneHow Hilary's moment of forgiveness on a beach below Pacific Coast Highway cracked open a perception shift that changed every area of her life including her incomeWhy leading from the outside in always ends in emptiness, and what it looks like to finally flip the direction from the inside outThe body, mind, spirit framework Hilary uses with every coaching client and why skipping the spirit piece is the reason most personal development work does not holdHilary Momberger Powers does not deliver a polished redemption arc. She delivers the real one, with all the detours, the mess, and the moments that only make sense in hindsight. This episode is for any leader who has been performing fine for long enough that they have started to believe it.Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio. New episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe now so every episode lands directly in your feed.About Hilary: Hilary Momberger PowersConnect with Natalie Davis and Leadership That Shines:Website: leadershipthatshines.comEmail: [email protected]: The Flamingo Files, published weekly on LinkedIn
• 
  Building a $700M Beehive Team, Setting Boundaries, and Showing Up as Your Best Self with Adam Touni 29.07.2026 52min

  Real estate team leadership looks completely different when you stop building for production numbers and start building for the person you are becoming. In this episode of the Leadership That Shines Podcast, host Natalie Davis welcomes someone she has known and coached for over six years: Adam Touni, Silicon Valley real estate leader, attorney-turned-agent, and co-founder of a beehive team structure that has produced over 700 million dollars in sales in one of the most competitive real estate markets in the country. This is not a conversation about tactics. It is a conversation about what it actually costs to build something at that level, and what it costs even more to build yourself alongside it. Adam's story spans 16 years in real estate, a law school background that sharpened his ability to issue-spot and anticipate, a business partnership built entirely on complementary strengths, and a personal journey through burnout that finally forced him to put himself first. What came out of that journey, sobriety, daily meditation, a non-negotiable morning routine, and the practice of saying no, became the foundation his business could actually stand on. Natalie and Adam have the kind of conversation that only six years of real coaching relationship makes possible. Direct, specific, and deeply honest about where the gaps were and what it took to close them. In This Episode: The beehive team model: why Adam and his business partner Kat Carroll built a team where every person has a specific role rather than a pool of generalists, and why that structure outperforms traditional team setups Why knowing where your strengths end is as important as knowing where they begin, and how Adam's decision to stay out of operations freed him to do the work only he can do The burnout that finally broke the pattern, and how building a daily non-negotiable morning practice changed everything about how Adam shows up for his team, his clients, and his family Why the ability to say no is a muscle and how to build it starting today, even if the first few reps feel like they are going to cost you everything What it means to be nimble as a leader, why Adam sought out leaders who moved quickly and stayed open to change, and why that same quality is the one most leaders lose the moment they start succeeding Adam also shares what meditation actually is when you strip away the ritual, why he is more proud of his personal growth than any production milestone, and what he tells every agent asking how to retain their value in a market that keeps shifting: start by asking whether you love yourself, because the answer tells you everything about whether you are ready to ask for what you are worth. The Leadership That Shines Podcast brings you real conversations about the whole leader, not just the professional one. This episode is for any leader who has been building the business and quietly losing themselves inside it. Connect with Adam Touni: Real estate team based in Silicon Valley, Bay Area, California Searchable across professional platforms Connect with Natalie Davis and Leadership That Shines:Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠leadershipthatshines.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: Flamingo Files on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio. New episodes every Wednesday.*Natalie Davis is a licensed real estate agent with Keller Williams Downtown, LLC.
• 
  Immigrant Entrepreneur to Private Equity Leader: John Azar on Self-Discovery, Resilience, and Building a Multi-Billion Dollar Vision 22.07.2026 52min

  Immigrant entrepreneur leadership is built differently. When you arrive with no language, no money, and no roadmap, the only option is to build the skill set that no setback can take from you.John Azar arrived in the United States from Syria at 16 years old without speaking English. His family had lost nearly everything. What he brought with him was a mentality his father had embedded early: as long as you have the right education, the right experience, and the right spirit, no one can take anything from you. Decades later, John is the founder of Peak 15 Capital, a private equity platform operating in commercial real estate, president of the board of directors for the college that gave him his first academic foothold, and a leadership coach who works with entrepreneurs, executives, and business leaders across industries.In this episode of the Leadership That Shines Podcast, host Natalie Davis sits down with John for a conversation that moves between personal story and practical framework with the ease of someone who has spent years translating lived experience into usable leadership tools. John does not sugarcoat. He does not deal in five-year plans that measure success in dollar figures. He asks a different question entirely: who are you becoming, and what are you doing right now to show up as that version of yourself?In This Episode:Why John's first coaching question is never about revenue or business size, and what he asks instead to get to the answer that actually changes someone's trajectoryThe reverse engineering framework that helps entrepreneurs and executives start showing up as their future selves today, before the business catches up to the visionWhat the liminal space between finishing one chapter and launching the next actually requires of a leader, and how to stay anchored inside the uncertaintyWhy self-discovery is the only real prerequisite for growth, and what it means to be open to finding out parts of yourself you do not likeHow John went from losing everything in the 2008 financial crisis to building a multi-billion dollar private equity portfolio, and what that rebuild taught him about resilience, timing, and knowing which road to take when it shows itselfJohn Azar also shares why some of the biggest opportunities in business show up not despite downturns but because of them, what he means when he says he wants to lead through inspiration rather than perspiration, and why the best network you could build right now is one you have no reason to think you deserve yet.The Leadership That Shines Podcast exists to bring you real conversations with leaders who have done the hard work, not just the visible work. This episode is a masterclass in what it looks like to lead yourself first so you have something worth offering the people around you.Connect with John Azar:Company: Peak 15 CapitalConnect with John for coaching, mentorship, and private equity inquiries through his professional networkConnect with Natalie Davis and Leadership That Shines:Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠leadershipthatshines.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: Flamingo Files on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠and ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio. New episodes every Wednesday.*Natalie Davis is a licensed real estate agent with Keller Williams Downtown, LLC.
• 
  Embracing Doubt and Building Authentic Leadership with Martin Watts 15.07.2026 1val 8min

  Discover how doubt can be a powerful signal for growth and leadership transformation. In this episode, Martin Watts shares his inspiring journey from instability to building multiple successful businesses, emphasizing the importance of authenticity, core values, and cultivating a positive culture in leadership.In this episode:Martin Watts’ story of overcoming childhood trauma and embracing his entrepreneurial spiritThe role of doubt as an intelligent emotion signaling instability and guiding decision-makingHow to distinguish between lag and lead indicators of doubtPractical ways to measure and shape organizational culture through everyday actionsThe importance of authentic leadership rooted in core values and personal integrityStrategies for building healthy teams and fostering a culture of safety and trustThe impact of humility, celebrating wins, and intentionality in leadershipHow to leave a legacy as a leader who listens and confirms the potential within othersConnect with Natalie Davis:  [email protected]  Leadership That Shines InstagramFacebookSubstack
• 
  Organizational Culture: Maladaptive Patterns Leaders Cannot See 08.07.2026 57min

  Structural burnout is about diagnosing the problem at the right level. Therapist, former arts executive, and founder of Meaning in Practice Ashley Gibson joins Natalie Davis on the Leadership That Shines Podcast to introduce the clinical framework she has built to help organizations finally understand what is actually driving burnout and what leaders are perpetuating without realizing it. What You Will Learn In This Episode: Why wellness spending is up 400% and burnout is still rising, and what that tells us about where we are diagnosing the problem The Maladaptive Organizational Copy Process: what it is, where it comes from, and why it explains patterns that individual interventions cannot touch The two axes of Ashley's framework: affiliation and interdependence, and why the "we're all a family here" culture often scores hostile on both How the nervous system shapes organizational culture , and why leaders model more than they know Why patterns, not one-offs, are what every leader needs to be examining in their team culture right now The questions Ashley's free ten-minute assessment asks, and what the answers reveal about where structural burnout is hiding in your organization Timestamps: 00:00 — Welcome and introduction to Ashley Gibson 01:15 — Hamilton, arts management, and the first lesson in intent vs. impact 05:16 — Why the people who care the most burn out the fastest 08:21 — The career pivot: from executive to therapist and why it made perfect sense 11:01 — You cannot outgrow a broken system — what that statement means and where it came from 15:30 — Pattern-level assessment: what your org says it rewards vs. what it actually rewards 17:21 — The connection between organizational culture and structural burnout 18:19 — Nervous system science and how co-regulation shows up in team culture 23:35 — The Maladaptive Organizational Copy Process explained: affiliation, interdependence, and introject 25:19 — The "we're all a family here" trap and why it scores low on both axes 34:31 — Why the leader sets the behavioral pattern — even when they do not mean to 44:39 — Pattern recognition: when is it a bad day vs. a structural problem? 49:17 — Closing reflection and what leaders can actually do from where they stand 51:10 — How Ashley wants to be remembered as a leader Connect with Ashley Gibson:  Substack: Meaning in Practice, Ashley C. Gibson  Free assessmentConnect with Natalie Davis:  [email protected]  Leadership That Shines InstagramFacebookSubstack Subscribe so you never miss an episode. New episodes drop every Wednesday. 
• 
  Natural Authority in Leadership: Natalie Bouchard on Returning to Center 01.07.2026 55min

  Leading from your center is not a mindset shift. It is a nervous system skill most leaders never learn, and the cost of skipping it shows up everywhere from the boardroom to the home.In this episode of the Leadership That Shines Podcast, Natalie Davis sits down with Natalie Bouchard, mindset coach and former Bob Proctor consultant, for a conversation about what happens when a high-achieving leader's external life collapses and what becomes possible on the other side of that collapse. After three decades of personal development work, twelve healing designations, and a thriving consulting practice, Natalie Bouchard lost a long-term relationship, hundreds of thousands of dollars in a business scam, and her health, all within the same season. What she discovered underneath the wreckage became the foundation of the work she does now.Natalie Bouchard's central distinction is the difference between knowledge and participation. You can study leadership, regulation, and personal development for years and still be fundamentally disconnected from your own internal authority. This episode unpacks what that disconnection looks like, why it shows up disproportionately in high-performing women, and what it actually takes to return to center under real pressure.In This Episode:• Why holding space without making the moment a problem is the skill that separates leaders who stay grounded under pressure from leaders who fragment• The difference between knowledge and participation, and why decades of personal development work did not protect Natalie Bouchard from disconnection• What fragmentation looks like in a leader, where it shows up first, and why it often goes undetected for years• How Natalie Davis's own event was hacked mid-session and the real-time example of holding space versus reacting from fragmentation• Why transparency with the people you lead, including your own children, is one of the most powerful tools for breaking inherited patternsThis conversation moves between the personal and the practical, and listeners walk away with language for something many high-performing leaders feel but have never been able to name.Connect with Natalie Bouchard here.Free resource: Be Unfuckwithable, a free three-day experienceConnect with Leadership That Shines:Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠leadershipthatshines.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: Flamingo Files on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio. New episodes every Wednesday.*Natalie Davis is a licensed real estate agent with Keller Williams Downtown, LLC.
• 
  Community-Driven Leadership with Harrison Beecher 24.06.2026 48min

  Community-driven leadership is not a tagline for Harrison Beecher, it is the operating system behind everything he does. From co-founding Coalition Properties Group, which has served over 2,000 families and surpassed one billion dollars in sales across seven years, to serving as President of the DC Association of Realtors and Vice Chair of the NAR Young Professionals Network, Harrison has built a career on one core belief: nothing bad happens when you make your road bigger.In this episode, Harrison sits down with Natalie Davis to talk about what it actually takes to lead across multiple arenas simultaneously, a growing brokerage with three equal partners, 37 agents, and five full-time staff; a deeply engaged local community in Washington DC; and a national stage inside organized real estate. He does not make it sound easy. He makes it sound worth it.The conversation covers the origins of Coalition Properties Group, the nine-month process of vetting a three-partner structure before signing, and what happened when the 2022 and 2023 markets forced a hard reset. Harrison shares the daily huddle cadence he resisted before he saw it working, the blind copy system that brings his entire team along on real client conversations, and the framing skill he calls his leadership superpower.In This Episode:● Why Harrison calls community a "hack" for accomplishing more, and how to reduce the friction that keeps people from building it● The origin story of Coalition Properties Group: how a Georgetown friendship, a chance meeting at a bar, and a nine-month vetting process became a billion-dollar team● What three equal partners actually looks like in practice: the strengths, the challenges, and how they make decisions when two of three say it's time to move● The daily huddle Harrison resisted and now credits with changing the trajectory of his newer agents● How blind-copying his entire sales team on real client emails has transformed how he trains without adding time to his schedule● What he means when he says his leadership superpower is framing and contextualizing; and where he is still working to get better● How Harrison wants to be remembered as a leaderAbout Harrison BeacherConnect with Leadership That Shines:Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠leadershipthatshines.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: Flamingo Files on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio. New episodes every Wednesday.*Natalie Davis is a licensed real estate agent with Keller Williams Downtown, LLC.
• 
  Belonging in Leadership: Chrysta Bairre on Authenticity, Curiosity, and Showing Up Whole 18.06.2026 55min

  Belonging in leadership is not a policy, it is a practice. And Chrysta Bairre has spent over a decade building the evidence for that, first through her own story as a late-diagnosed autistic, disabled, queer woman who grew up in poverty, and now as the founder of She Goes High, a speaker, and an author working to help women and non-binary leaders show up fully in every room they enter.In this conversation, Chrysta and Natalie go deep on what authentic leadership actually requires, not as a buzzword, but as a daily, sometimes uncomfortable commitment. Chrysta shares what it cost her to mask for years in professional spaces, what changed when her body made masking no longer possible, and what she now knows about the cognitive and human toll of hiding parts of yourself in order to be accepted.This episode is for any leader who has ever left a piece of themselves at the door before walking into a room and for anyone in a leadership role who wants to understand what it truly takes to create an environment where others do not have to.In This Episode:● Why masking and code-switching drain cognitive resources that belong to your growth and your work● The two qualities, vulnerability and curiosity, that every leader needs to build genuine psychological safety on their team● How a leadership fail with a high-performing employee taught Chrysta that curiosity is always the first move, never assumption● Why imposter syndrome and burnout are predictable outcomes of performative leadership and how to interrupt that pattern● Chrysta's challenge to every listener: identify the part of yourself you have been hiding, and find one room this week to let it be presentConnect with Chrysta Bairre: She Goes High Community Live Love WorkConnect with Natalie Davis and Leadership That Shines:Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠leadershipthatshines.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: Flamingo Files on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠and ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio. New episodes every Wednesday.*Natalie Davis is a licensed real estate agent with Keller Williams Downtown, LLC.
• 
  Career Growth in Leadership: Courtney Intersimone on Curiosity, Courage, and Seeing Your People 10.06.2026 1val 5min

  Career growth in leadership does not begin with a title or a plan. For Courtney Intersimone, it began with saying yes to things she was not sure she could do and discovering that figuring it out was the skill all along.Courtney spent 26 years in financial services, ultimately leading a global HR team of 200 people at a 50,000-person organization. She never planned to stay that long. She never planned to lead that many people. And for years, she actively avoided managing others, calling herself, with full self-awareness, a reluctant leader. What changed was not ambition. It was a mentor who refused to let her play small, and a series of assignments that forced her to lead before she felt ready.In this conversation, Courtney shares what it truly takes to lead people well at scale from the non-negotiable practice of the one-on-one meeting to the art of having honest career conversations with people whose aspirations may not match the current moment. She talks about what she learned watching senior executives up close early in her career, why getting curious about human behavior will do more for your leadership than any MBA, and what it cost her to stay out of her own way long enough to finally start her own firm.Four and a half years into running her executive coaching and consulting practice, Courtney works with leaders who have achieved the title, landed the role, and are now asking, now what? She meets them in that exact moment and helps them figure out what comes next.In This Episode:● Why making yourself available in a one-on-one is not optional and what "present" actually means in that room● How to have honest career conversations with ambitious people even when you do not have the answer they want to hear● What Courtney's mentor did that she credits for unlocking her best leadership years and how to apply it to the people you lead right now● The mindset shift that made leaving a 26-year career not just possible but necessary● Why the only real security available to any of us is the belief that we can figure things outConnect with Courtney IntersimoneConnect with Natalie Davis and Leadership That Shines:Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠leadershipthatshines.com⁠⁠⁠⁠Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: Flamingo Files on ⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠and ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio. New episodes every Wednesday.*Natalie Davis is a licensed real estate agent with Keller Williams Downtown, LLC.
• 
  Stop Trying to Feel Like a Better Leader: Matt Johnson on Systems, Structure, and the Autopilot Principle That Builds Teams That Run Without You 03.06.2026 49min

  Systems-based leadership is not a shortcut. It is the only way a team can keep moving when you are not in the room and Matt Johnson has spent over a decade building the proof for that inside his own agency.Matt is the founder of Get Micro Famous, a done-for-you production and strategy firm that helps coaches, speakers, and thought leaders launch and sustain flagship video shows. He runs a remote creative team of 12 to 15 people and leads the entire operation in less than four hours a week. That number is not a flex. It is the result of a decade of systems-building, habit installation, and the willingness to remove himself from every decision that did not require him.In this conversation, Matt brings a genuinely unconventional lens to leadership, one shaped by growing up a preacher's kid, spending his life as a musician, and building a business while managing undiagnosed narcolepsy for 25 years. The result is a framework for leadership that has nothing to do with motivation or recommitment cycles, and everything to do with structure, stability, and showing up the same way every single time.This episode is for every entrepreneur who is still the center of every decision, every communication, and every fire and who knows, deep down, that the business cannot scale from there.In This Episode:● Why good systems matter more than hiring rock stars and what that means for every B and C player on your team● The "I do it, we do it, you do it" model that builds both competence and buy-in without throwing people into the deep end● How Matt dismantled the guilt-recommitment cycle that keeps most leaders stuck on an emotional loop● The musician's mindset that redefined how Matt thinks about leadership: pros practice until they cannot get it wrong● One practical step any leader can take this week to start building systems using the tools already available to themConnect with Matt Johnson at getmicrofamous.comConnect with Natalie Davis and Leadership That Shines:Website: ⁠⁠⁠leadershipthatshines.com⁠⁠⁠Email: ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: Flamingo Files on ⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠and ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio. New episodes every Wednesday.
• 
  Calling, Culture, and Running Your Own Race with Dana Gentry Roach 27.05.2026 55min

  In this episode of the Leadership That Shines Podcast, Natalie Davis sits down with Dana Gentry Roach, USA Today bestselling author, 20-year real estate veteran, multi-market center owner and operator, and Senior Culture Advisor for Keller Williams Realty. Dana's story is one of the most honest leadership journeys you will hear: from spray tanning strangers at the University of Kentucky to becoming one of the most trusted voices on culture, calling, and what it actually takes to build a life that compounds.Dana did not set out to lead. She set out to sell. What changed everything was a moment at a microphone in a room full of 500 Keller Williams agents when a mentor she had never met asked her one question that exposed the ceiling she had been building for herself. From that moment forward, Dana has been in the business of staying in rooms that stretch her, following the Four Cs model before she knew it had a name, and leading from a place of realness over rightness.In This Episode:Dan Sullivan's Four Cs model: why commitment comes before credentials, capabilities, and confidence, and why every leader who has ever jumped before they were ready has been living this modelThe power of proximity and why getting into the right rooms, and staying in them, has compounded Dana's leadership, wealth, and relationships over two decadesWhy companies with strong cultures raise their bottom line by 756% according to the most recent Harvard study, and what that means for every leader building a team right nowThe one question that transformed Dana and her husband Adam's marriage and applies directly to how leaders show up for their teams: do you want me to fix it or feel it?How Dana went from winging everything to hitting number 14 on the USA Today bestseller list with her debut book, Restore: 90 Days of Intentional LivingDana also shares what it means to be the person who figured out how to stay in the rooms, why people leave leaders before they leave companies, and what Craig Groeschel's line, people would rather follow a leader that's real than a leader that's right, has meant to how she leads every day.Connect with Dana Gentry Roach:Book: Restore: 90 Days of Intentional LivingConnect with Natalie Davis and Leadership That Shines:Website: ⁠⁠leadershipthatshines.com⁠⁠Email: ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠Newsletter: Flamingo Files on ⁠Substack ⁠and ⁠LinkedIn⁠Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio. New episodes every Wednesday.
• 
  Losing It All and Leading From Brokenness with Nicole Rueth 23.05.2026 57min

  Faith-led leadership is not a softer way to lead. For Nicole Rueth, it is the only thing that rebuilt her after losing everything.In this episode of the Leadership That Shines Podcast, Natalie Davis sits down with Nicole Rueth, top mortgage lender, real estate investor with 60 doors and two commercial buildings, and one of the most honest voices on what it takes to lead through total collapse and come out with more clarity than you had before.Nicole built her career from the ground up. Raised by a single mom who modeled grit as survival, Nicole climbed from bookkeeping to producing 400 million dollars in mortgage volume. Then, in one of the most turbulent periods in real estate history, she got fired twice in one week, lost her team, lost her brother in a freak accident, and had to face the question every high-performing leader eventually has to answer: if my worth is not in my volume, then who am I?What she found on the other side of that question is the foundation of everything she now teaches.In This Episode:Why tying your self-worth to your production volume is the most dangerous thing a leader can do, and what Nicole rebuilt her identity on after losing bothThe three-step leadership framework Nicole now runs her team, her business, and her life through: mindset, action, and give backHow the emotional economy is shifting and why leaders who lead with empathy and connection are outperforming leaders who still lead with data and volumeThe morning routine Nicole runs starting at 3 a.m. that sets the foundation for every decision she makes as a leader and a lenderWhy saying no to more things is how Nicole went from grinding at 400 million in volume to building something she actually wants to leadNicole also shares the quote inside her Bible that drives everything, why she wants to leave it all on the field, and what that phrase means now compared to what it meant when she was sprinting.Connect with Nicole RuethConnect with Natalie Davis and Leadership That Shines:Website: ⁠leadershipthatshines.com⁠Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠Newsletter: Flamingo Files on Substack and LinkedInListen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio. New episodes every Wednesday.
• 
  Service, Accountability, and Showing Up as Who You Are 13.05.2026 45min

  Authentic leadership does not come from a title, a certificate, or a checklist. It comes from knowing who you are, owning that fully, and showing up in service of others without shrinking. In this episode, Natalie Davis sits down with Jodi Wright — U.S. Navy veteran, case manager, community advocate, author, and MPH candidate at UNC Gillings — for an honest conversation about what it means to lead from your core, no post-nominals required. Jodi has spent her life giving back. From military service to probationary case management to a Safe Roads, Safer Communities initiative launching in Pennants Lane, Virginia, her leadership is not theoretical. It is lived, daily, in the spaces most people overlook. She is also releasing her debut book, Belle Haven — a deeply personal work about awakening, healing, and stepping into who you are meant to be. What makes this conversation stand out is Jodi's unflinching clarity on accountability. In her work with individuals navigating real consequences, she holds a judgment-free space and asks a simple, direct question: who are you, and how do you plan to move forward? That same standard applies to every leader listening. In This Episode: ● Why Jodi believes you do not need post-nominals to lead and the hill she will die on ● What Belle Haven is about, who it is for, and why Jodi pulled it back from publication before it was ready ● The accountability conversation that Jodi facilitates in her classes and why it is always the first step ● How she manages a full life across military service, graduate school, community work, authorship, and motherhood — held together, in her words, with duct tape ● How Jodi wants to be remembered as a leader — and the lane she is creating for others to follow Jodi closes with a message every leader needs to hear: the table is not a four-by-four. It is endless. Grab your chair, fold it out, and take a seat. New episodes every Wednesday. Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and all major streaming platforms.Connect with Leadership That Shines:Website: l⁠⁠⁠eadershipthatshines.com⁠⁠⁠Email: ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: The Flamingo Files on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠ ⁠⁠⁠and ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out the⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Magical Mornings Journal⁠⁠⁠ ⁠
• 
  Leadership Legacy: The One Thread That Connected Every Guest 06.05.2026 26min

  Leadership legacy is not built from titles, products, or platforms. The leaders who have walked through the doors of the Leadership That Shines Podcast so far have made that undeniably clear.In this solo reflection episode, host Natalie Davis pauses to celebrate a milestone, over 5,000 downloads from the first few episodes, and does something more important: she pulls back to examine what the guests have actually been teaching us. Across four conversations with Jim Carlough, Savio P. Clemente, Justin Knoll, and Nicole Johnston, the same qualities and themes keep surfacing. Not because the guests coordinated. Because great leadership runs on the same foundation regardless of the industry, the title, or the story.Natalie walks through the themes she has identified, shares her own honest reflections on self-sabotage, solitude, and showing up, and reveals the one question she now asks every guest at the close of every episode, and the answer that keeps stopping her cold.In This Episode:The difference between builders and operators, and why knowing which one you are changes everything about how you leadWhy your old operating system will not carry you into the next version of your leadership, and what Savio P. Clemente's 29 days in a hospital room taught us about rebuildingHow Nicole Johnston's framework for self-sabotage made Natalie identify the exact moments she has gotten in her own wayThe one thread that connected all four legacy answers, and why not a single guest mentioned what they built, their title, or what they left behindWhat impact, influence, and growth actually look like when they are lived out by real leaders in real circumstancesThis episode is for every leader who has been paying attention and wants to know what it all means.Connect with Natalie Davis and Leadership That Shines:Website: leadershipthatshines.comEmail: [email protected]: Flamingo Files on Substack and LinkedInListen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio. New episodes every Wednesday.
• 
  Leadership Visibility: How Women Stop Being Overlooked and Start Getting Promoted 29.04.2026 52min

  Episode 8Leadership visibility is one of the most misunderstood skills in a woman's career, and Nicole Johnston has spent 30 years figuring out exactly why.Nicole Johnston is a women's excellence and leadership speaker, TEDx speaker, bestselling author of Taboo Topics, and a certified coach who spent three decades in consumer products at companies like Procter and Gamble, Kimberly Clark, and Hershey Foods. She was often the only female sales leader in the room. What she saw there shaped everything she now teaches.In this episode, Natalie Davis and Nicole Johnston go deep on the real reasons women get passed over for promotions, underpaid without knowing it, and burned out before they ever get the recognition they have earned. This is not a surface-level conversation. It is a direct, data-backed, and actionable look at the patterns holding women back and what to do about them.In This Episode:Why promotions are based on the perception of leadership potential, not task completion, and why that distinction changes everything about how you show up at work.The 720 hours per year of invisible, non-promotable work women carry at home and in the office, and why it is directly connected to burnout and career stagnation.How to identify your self-sabotaging behaviors and use role play, journaling, and audio recording to build the muscle memory for difficult conversations before you ever have them in real life.The difference between a coach, a mentor, and a sponsor, and why women who do not build sponsorship relationships are consistently left out of the rooms where decisions get made.Executive communication skills that shift how leadership sees you, including what clear, concise, and compelling looks like in practice and why women are socialized to communicate as doers, not leaders.Nicole Johnston's book, Taboo Topics: Things Women Should Talk About But Don't, is available now. Each chapter addresses a real workplace challenge with practical next steps, including email templates for asking for a raise and tools for identifying the mental load you carry.Connect with Nicole Johnston:Instagram: @nicolejohnstonspeaksLinkedIn: Nicole JohnstonConnect with Leadership That Shines:Website: ⁠www.l⁠⁠⁠eadershipthatshines.com⁠⁠⁠⁠Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: The Flamingo Files on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out the⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Magical Mornings Journal⁠⁠⁠
• 
  Integrity in Leadership: Jim Carlough on the Six Pillars That Build Unshakeable Teams 22.04.2026 1val 3min

  Integrity in leadership is the center pillar. Without it, everything else collapses. In this episode of the Leadership That Shines Podcast, Natalie Davis sits down with Jim Carlough, leadership identity archetype, author, mentor, and speaker, for a direct, practical conversation about the six pillars that define how great leaders build loyal, high-performing teams.Jim has spent over four decades in healthcare and leadership. He has mentored professionals for 25 years. His book, a 164-page, no-theory leadership roadmap built entirely from lived experience, is earning near-perfect ratings on Goodreads and Amazon from readers in countries across six continents. His workshops are helping accidental managers, founders, and executives reduce voluntary attrition and build the kind of psychological safety that makes people want to stay.In This Episode:Why most organizations create accidental managers, and what that costs them within 18 to 24 monthsThe six non-negotiable leadership pillars: integrity, compassion, empathy, stability, focus, and humorThe question Jim has asked himself every night since 1983, and why it has kept his voluntary attrition rate below 5%How to tell the difference between compassion and empathy, and why a leader has to know when to use eachWhy humor is not a soft skill but a strategic tool that humanizes leaders and builds psychological safetyJim's framework is not theory. Every story in this episode is real, every principle is tested, and every one of the six pillars is something a leader can start applying within 14 days.Connect with Jim Carlough:Website: jimcarlough.comBook: The Six Pillars Of Effective Leadership: A Roadmap to Success