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ML268: William A. Adams (Leader)
William A. Adams is an award-winning D&I innovator, engineering trailblazer, and philanthropist. After rolling out critical XML code globally in many of Microsoft's core products, he was named the first Technical Advisor to the CTO of Azure, Kevin Scott.
William has founded and overseen global initiatives that revolutionize how underserved communities access jobs and build careers at the company. As co-founder of the LEAP apprenticeship program – named Microsoft’s D&I Program of the Year in 2020 – he helped launch the training of more than 26 cohorts around the world. Today, 98% of LEAP participants have jobs in Microsoft or other high-tech companies. His most recent collaboration is with the U.S. Virgin Islands to establish and train a technical talent pool and build critical technical infrastructure.
Early in his 30-year career in software engineering, William was one of the first Black entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Through his company, Adamation, he developed mission-critical custom enterprise apps for Steve Jobs’ NeXT computers and pioneered a network instant messaging service purchased by the CIA. He holds two patents.
Today, in addition to his role at Microsoft, William is the philanthropic founder of The EV3NT, a collaborative, community-based hackathon designed to solve real-world problems. When he’s not tinkering with bits and bytes, the husband and father of three builds kitchen cabinets, knits, and tries to recapture the exhilaration of riding a motorcycle in India.
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ML294: Morgan Taylor (Co-Founder of Jolly SEO)
18:43Morgan Taylor is the Co-Founder of Jolly SEO, a HARO (Help a Reporter Out) link-building service that helps businesses increase brand awareness, find their audience, and build their executives' authority online. They specialize in getting high DR backlinks (60+) from publications like Business Insider, Ask Men, Forbes, and HuffPost, and have placed 3000+ backlinks for their clients, who include $100M annual recurring revenue companies and founders with $1B+ exits. The big difference between them and other link-building services is that they only charge you when they place a DR50+ link for your business. Nobody else comes close to this! Morgan has worked in marketing with a focus on SEO for 6+ years and, together with his Co-Founder at Jolly SEO, was among the first to truly productize journalist outreach for link-building purposes on platforms like HARO.He is also the Co-Founder of Pitch Response the first SaaS tool designed to help DIY HAROers achieve greater success in their link-building efforts.More Info: Jolly SEOSponsors: Master Your Podcast Course: MasterYourSwagFree Coaching Session: Masterleadership.orgSupport Our Show: Click HereLily's Story: My Trust ManifestoML293: Caren Kenney (CEO of Evolve Leadership)
35:50Leaders today have more resources, training, and support than they have ever had in history, yet leadership failures, dismissals and resignations are at an all-time high. Likewise, employees are receiving more benefits, resources, and flexibility than they’ve ever had before yet we are seeing alarming rates of depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues among employees, and many are quitting their jobs with an attitude that it’s just not worth it.For years Caren Kenney, CEO of Evolve Leadership, C-suite executive coach, and former Executive Director at the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute, has recognized the link between mental and physical wellbeing and leadership and human performance. Her work in this area began in 2001 as the co-founder of a company that developed the world’s first direct-to-consumer digital behavioral health coaching programs – which were ultimately acquired by Johnson & Johnson.Six years ago, Caren led the creation of the world’s first whole-person, whole-life C-suite executive coaching and development programs and today leads a global team of executive coaches, physiologists, dietitians and other leadership and human performance experts who are training leaders, teams and organization to develop higher levels of physical wellbeing, mental and emotional resilience, and character-centered leadership – which she sees as the key to developing strong, sustainable leaders who will thrive in allareas of their lives.More Info: Evolve LeadershipSponsors: Master Your Podcast Course: MasterYourSwagFree Coaching Session: Masterleadership.orgSupport Our Show: Click HereLily's Story: My Trust ManifestoML292: Stephen Goldberg (CEO of Harper DB)
22:02Stephen Goldberg is the Co-founder and CEO of Harper DB, a fast distributed database platform for developers looking to quickly build apps and save companies millions. They have 100K+ users and have raised $7.2M. Founded in 2017, they've also been able to scale rapidly with a small team of fewer than 20 people and are currently doing $6M+ in sales. The platform reduces the complexity and cost of database management while saving developers time with app development, data stores, ETL processes, and IoT projects. Before HarperDB, Stephen worked as a CTO and CEO of several other startups, held roles at larger organizations like IBM subsidiary software company Red Hat, and led digital transformation projects at several Fortune 500 companies across many verticals. He has been published on sites such as Tech Target and quoted in many articles and publications, including Forbes and ZDNet. Stephen has also been a speaker at IoT World, SAP's Sapphire, and Salesforce.com's Dreamforce. More Info: Harper DBSponsors: Master Your Podcast Course: MasterYourSwagFree Coaching Session: Masterleadership.orgSupport Our Show: Click HereLily's Story: My Trust ManifestoML291: Sara Sabin (Leadership Coach)
29:49Sara Sabin calls herself a Career Chameleon. After nearly 10 years in the corporate world, she left for good in 2016. After leaving, she became the founder of two start-ups (one successful, one not), where she learned about the importance of great leadership the hard way through mistakes, successes, and trials. Since leaving the start-up world, she has built a multi six figure coaching practice, working with successful leaders and entrepreneurs of high-growth 6 and 7 figure businesses. She believes that a new type of leader is necessary for businesses to achieve long term sustainability, in an exponentially changing business world. Being technically brilliant is only the start. Balanced leadership is a delicate dance. For a leader to be truly successful, they have to understand how to motivate, inspire and push people to achieve more than they ever thought possible and approach business growth and challenges in a strategic, focused way, so that they become more influential, and effective, ultimately increasing their impact.Sara also writes regularly for Entrepreneur Magazine, as part of their Leadership Network, and The Fast Company and is a regular guest podcast speaker.MORE INFO: Sara SabinLinkedIn: Sara SabinSponsors: Master Your Podcast Course: MasterYourSwagFree Coaching Session: Masterleadership.orgSupport Our Show: Click HereLily's Story: My Trust ManifestoML290: Lisa Druxman (Founder & CEO of FIT4MOM)
27:53Lisa Druxman is the founder of FIT4MOM, the nation’s leading company for pre and postnatal health, wellness, and fitness programs for every stage of motherhood. FIT4MOM has created business opportunities for moms nationwide, with more than 300 franchisees and 1,000 locations across the U.S. In addition to leading her team at FIT4MOM, Lisa is a noted speaker, author, podcaster and powerhouse of energy. A self-proclaimed mom boss, Lisa is passionate about paying it forward and empowering other women in life and business. Druxman is also the author of a new book with life strategies for moms—The Empowered Mama: How to Reclaim Your Time and Yourself While Raising a Happy, Healthy Family.Druxman earned her Master's degree in psychology with an emphasis in exercise adherence and weight control from San Diego State University. She created the weight management program, L.E.A.N. Mommy® (Learn Eating Awareness and Nutrition), which is also the name of her first book.Druxman has written on business for Entrepreneur and on motherhood for magazines such as Fit Pregnancy, Shape and more. Recognizing her entrepreneurship, Druxman has also been nominated for and received numerous honors from organizations such as the National Association of Women Business Owners for creating one of the most desirable businesses for moms in the country.Druxman has appeared on the Today Show, CNN, Access Hollywood and Home & Family, to name a few. She has also been featured in print publications including Entrepreneur, Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, Self, Fit Pregnancy, American Baby, and more. Druxman lives and relishes the FIT4MOM mission statement every day, “Helping moms make strides in fitness, motherhood and life.” She resides in San Diego with her husband, son and daughter.More Info: FIT4MOMSponsors: Master Your Podcast Course: MasterYourSwagFree Coaching Session: Masterleadership.orgSupport Our Show: Click HereLily's Story: My Trust ManifestoML289: Amelia Wilcox (Founder & CEO of Nivati)
27:30Amelia Wilcox is the Founder and CEO of Nivati, a platform designed to make access to mental health solutions easier for employees. They have been recognized as one of the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies in the US twice and have raised $5.7M to date. Nivati also provides flexible work to 1200 practitioners, including counselors and coaches, across North America and is used by 11,000+ employees in 60+ companies. Before Covid, Amelia ran Incorporate Massage, one of the fastest-growing companies in the US multiple years in a row, providing onsite massage services to 4,000+ corporate clients. Within ten days of the pandemic and their clients shutting down, Incorporate Massage revenues went from $6M to $0, and she had to think fast and find a new need to serve. After talking to Incorporate massage clients, she realized there was an enormous need around mental health, which her company was uniquely positioned to solve better and faster than anyone else, and that's how Nivati was born. Amelia has received many entrepreneurship awards, including being named one of the 2021 Women in Business to Watch by Startup Weekly.More Info: NivatiSponsors: Master Your Podcast Course: MasterYourSwagFree Coaching Session: Masterleadership.orgSupport Our Show: Click HereLily's Story: My Trust ManifestoML288: Emmanuel Kulu, Jr. (Leader & Author)
21:08Emmanuel Kulu, Jr. is an African American author and writer of Cameroonian descent. His father, Emmanuel Kulu, Sr., was a Career Engineer and his mother, Betty Kulu, was a Career MD History Educator. As a Career Social Worked, Kulu also had a deep passion for history and creative arts.Kulu tapped into film writing and acting with films like “The Rize and Fall of Tephlom Ent”, “Bug Love”, and “The 1st Purge.” In more recent years, Kulu turned his focus to embracing African linage. Upon deep study and research of Great African Kingdoms, he set his heart on Ancient Egypt as his first project as an author.Kulu questioned the validity of prior novel and film depictions of the imagery of the Ancient Egyptians who were in fact, African people. Based on his study and research, Kulu created a mythological story based off true events: I Black Pharaoh: Rise To Power.Contact Phone: 716-507-2694 / Contact Email: ibpmediagroup@gmail.comMore Info: AAARIASponsors: Master Your Podcast Course: MasterYourSwagFree Coaching Session: Masterleadership.orgSupport Our Show: Click HereLily's Story: My Trust ManifestoML287: Karl Hughes (Founder of Draft.dev)
26:46Karl Hughes is the Founder of Draft.dev – where they create technical marketing content for companies. Within 2 years, they’ve hit: $250k MRR 15 full-time, 200 contract writers 90+ clients. They run their company in a rather unique way. They don’t use Slack or other real-time communication tools. They are all remote and 90% asynchronous (meaning work can be done on employees’ schedule/preferred time).More Info: Draft.devSponsors: Master Your Podcast Course: MasterYourSwagFree Coaching Session: Masterleadership.orgSupport Our Show: Click HereLily's Story: My Trust ManifestoML286: Michael Trezza (Founder & CEO of Giant Leaps Learning)
22:33From as early as he can remember, Michael Trezza's world revolved around art, engineering and learning. He studied fine art and painting in college, still plays guitar every day and turned an early passion for programming and technology into his first business while still in college. Michael spent the next two decades as a technology entrepreneur, creating powerful software solutions and working with businesses from midsize to Fortune 500 companies to position them for exponential growth.Everything changed in 2017 when he found out he and his wife were having a baby girl. Michael immediately began to think differently, and to think about the world he was bringing her into. He began to wonder if today’s educational system was really going to prepare her for what he imagined the future to look like. He wondered what the world was going to look like when she was his age... Being a technology innovator for his entire career, Michael has seen firsthand how rapidly the world has changed and specifically where the current educational system is no longer keeping pace. He believes that we're not preparing our children to be leaders in this increasingly dynamic world.Over the last 3 years, Michael shifted his entire life’s work and mission to better prepare teens with self-awareness, global-awareness and 21st century critical thinking skills. His work and his company, Giant Leaps Learning, is fulfilling his promise to his daughter, to leave the world a better place than when he found it.More Info: Giant Leaps LearningSponsors: Master Your Podcast Course: MasterYourSwagFree Coaching Session: Masterleadership.orgSupport Our Show: Click HereLily's Story: My Trust Manifesto