Real Leaders

Jim Dethmer and Diana Chapman – co-founders of the coaching and consulting business Conscious Leadership Group – are working to shift the mindset and level of self-awareness in global companies and organizations. Jim and Diana have been at the forefront of this movement, launching their bestselling book 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership in 2015 with Kaley Klemp.In this episode of the Real Leaders podcast, Sue Heilbronner leads an intimate interview with her long-time friends and fellow Conscious Leadership advocates Jim and Diana about why, how, and when they co-founded CLG. Combining their individual experience, skills, and resources, Jim and Diana decided to join forces to increase their impact. Jim’s passion for continued growth in consciousness and Diana’s practical approach to communication are what enable them to make change happen for their clients and coaches-in-training. CLG now comprises a talented group of coaches, trainers, and consultants who work with thousands of leaders and companies inte

Chapter 2 in our series Conscious Leadership AMA ("Ask Me Anything") with Sue Heilbronner, CEO of MergeLane Fund and Leadership Camp.Conscious Leadership AMAs are open to alumni of MergeLane programs and camps at Leadership.camp. Leaders ask about their challenges and opportunities in implementing conscious leadership into their daily work and life.This episode features a heavy focus on unconscious commitments, including how to spot clearly the patterns that we are using in our leadership and how those patterns can make us more and less effective.Raw, real and revealed inquiries and live executive coaching from Conscious Leadership Coach Sue Heilbronner on the Real Leaders Podcast.

First episode in our series Conscious Leadership AMA ("Ask Me Anything") with Sue Heilbronner, CEO of MergeLane Fund and Leadership Camp. Hear from MergeLane portfolio fund CEOs and previous attendees of Leadership.camp about their challenges and opportunities in implementing conscious leadership into their daily work and life.Part of a new, occasional series from the Real Leaders Podcast.

Mat Vogels is an extremely zestful CEO. And it's no surprise that he's founded a high-momentum startup called Zestful -- which is setting the standard for the next generation of employee perks -- with the tagline "live full." Because Mat Vogels lives fully. And behind his extraordinary attitude, full-time smile, and easy way of being stands a tenacious startup founder committed to making his company a winner.In this episode of the Real Leaders podcast with Sue Heilbronner, Mat shares his two-year journey in great detail -- the big wins like a berth in Y-combinator and funding from Bessemer -- and the long and arid valleys in between. He also opens up about how his personality traits make him the best and the worst CEO of a growth company and how he is managing that self-awareness to create the best version of himself and his company.Learn about the real story behind a fast-moving startup and its all-in founder in this telling episode of Real Leaders.

This is the third and final episode (so far) of our series on living kidney donation. Here seasoned donor coordinator Neshiyqah Nash tells you everything you need to know to consider being a non-directed donor or a donor to any of the 100,000 Americans (and plenty in your country if you're not American) awaiting a donor kidney right now.Learn about the process, the donor requirements, the timelines and your next steps to become a living kidney donor in this episode of the Real Leaders Podcast with Sue Heilbronner.If you like this episode, go back to hear episode 36 with Patty Graham, a successful altruistic donor who kicked off a huge chain of donations, and episode 35 with Mike Heilbronner, the recipient of a living kidney donation.

There are only slightly more than a hundred of people each year that make a "non-directed donor" kidney donation. Patty Graham is one of them. This means that Patty voluntarily donated a kidney not knowing who would receive it, and with her decision, she sparked a chain of kidney recipients getting their life-saving organ.Hear what motivated Patty and how her sister laid the groundwork when years ago she donated a kidney to their stepfather. Patty is an inspiring force of altruism in the world. Hear her story and all the wonderful things that have flowed from her decision to donate on this episode of the Real Leaders Podcast with Sue Heilbronner.

This is the first in a 3-part Real Leaders series on living organ donation. Our focus is on living kidney donation and the 100,000 people in the United States alone who are waiting for a life-saving kidney donation.In this episode, 50-year-old Mike Heilbronner talks about his need for a new kidney in his late forties and how he navigated the questions around asking for a living donor to step forward. He also discusses the process by which he ultimately decided to do a "marketing campaign" for a new organ and how an altruistic donor whom he didn't know stepped forward to fill his need.Learn about voluntary, in-life donation and how it affects recipients in this unique episode of the Real Leaders podcast with Sue Heilbronner.

Robyn Knowlan joined her two best friends from elementary school to start a business. Instead of trying their hands at a scalable tech business and targeting a high-multiple exit, they chose a cold-pressed juice retail operation that counts thousands of techies as its biggest fans in Boulder, Colorado.Wonder Press Juice is a business built with and from love, and as well as anyone I've met, Robyn explains how heart (and a massive amount of work) can create a fast-growing, values-aligned company bent on enhancing its customers' health.Hear about the journey of Robyn as a founder, then a CEO, and about Wonder Press, both the highs and the lows in this episode of the Real Leaders Podcast with Sue Heilbronner.

Perhaps you've heard of the mission-critical first 100 days in a new role. If you're looking at a new position and wanting to ensure your success -- or if you are making a key hire and want to ensure the same for that person -- Dennis Adsit of Adsum Insights has some great insights.Dennis has been coaching through his First 100 Days program, optimizing that key stage for new hires starting from before Day 1 in a new role. Hear his thoughts on this episode of the Real Leaders Podcast with Sue Heilbronner.

Alex Canter was born with a stainless steel spoon in his mouth, and on that spoon was a really excellent matzoh ball.Alex is among the fourth generation of Canter family members who learned about business early by working at the 87-old deli institution in Los Angeles. Canter's Deli is a Jewish-style restaurant that has been open 24 hours a day for the last 87 years. There is no lock on the door.When Alex began working at the restaurant, he saw that online ordering and food delivery were becoming a major part of the future opportunity for the business. Walk-in customers were down, and Alex wanted Canter's to triumph in this new age. He signed up for nine ordering services and saw the impact of the new revenue stream. He also saw the perils, with separate, non-integrated tablets behind the counter for Seamless, Grubhub, Uber Eats, and more. Orders were being lost, customers were having to wait when they arrived to pick up their food, the staff was confused.In this chaos, Alex Canter saw an opportunity

Lisa Weinstein had reached a point in her career where she'd covered most of the ground in advertising, from executive positions in global advertising firms to leading a major roll-up in the ad-tech space. After grabbing a number of brass rings in her industry, Lisa made a huge jump to lead a company she had been advising, Curiosity.com.Hear about her move, her ramp in this new role as a startup CEO, and her thoughts on where digital advertising and ad tech are headed on the Real Leaders Podcast with Sue Heilbronner.

When Vlada Bortnik arrived in the United States from the Ukraine at age 10 knowing very little English, her family settled in Kansas. Vlada was immersed in the language and in American culture, but she has never forgotten many of the things many Americans take for granted -- food in the grocery stores and enough money to buy it. From the time she was a kid, the founder of Joya (known best for the widely popular video communication app Marco Polo) has charted an intentional life. She landed at Northwestern University with a meaningful scholarship (which she needed), she majored in art and computer science, she successfully navigated from intern to product manager at Microsoft, and then she went out on her own (alongside her husband and co-founder) and built businesses that addressed market gaps or, with Marco Polo, solved a real problem.Vlada tells her inspiring entrepreneurial journey and her motivation for focusing on Marco Polo to help people feel close. Hear the intimate conversation on the Real Leaders Po

Luke Saunders broke into entrepreneurship selling plants in elementary and middle school. After college, facing a poor economy and with a less-than-stellar academic record, he took the helm at his family's business, manufacturing and selling grease and lubricant to industrial producers.Luke was a dedicated sales road warrior, and he struggled with getting anything close to healthy food during weeks that he was driving 1000 miles to meet with accounts. How does someone with early exposure in logistics, manufacturing, and bad fast food end up leading a fast-growing, venture-backed, Chicago-based company that sells fresh and healthy meals through vending kiosks? It makes perfect sense as Luke tells the story on this episode of the Real Leaders podcast with Sue Heilbronner.

Seth Levine, partner at Boulder-based venture capital firm Foundry Group, was dismayed to hear the news coming out of Silicon Valley about the sexual harassment and sexual assault claims connected to veritable luminaries in the venture world. Seth and Foundry did what they often do on issues that matter. They moved quickly beyond thought and words to action. Yet this is a complex issue for a firm run by (his words) four middle-aged white guys. They stayed curious, moved carefully, sought extensive input, and continued to ask themselves tough questions about the "right thing" to do. Hear Seth's thoughts in the aftermath of these difficult disclosures and his views on what venture firms must do to not only be fair and decent but also leverage the meaningful investment opportunities with women-led startups.Listen in to an intimate conversation with MergeLane co-founder and CEO Sue Heilbronner on the Real Leaders podcast.

Mentoring has become a ubiquitous "should." You should be a mentor. You should have mentors. You should listen to the insights of your terrific mentors. This is certainly the byword in the startup world, and fantastic accelerators like Techstars are "mentor-driven" specifically nodding to the value that a diverse and engaged team of mentors can provide to an early-stage company.So if you're outside of this world and want to hear more about what a real-life mentor deep dive with a startup sounds like, this podcast is for you. If you're inside this world and want to hear what a mentor meeting sounds like with Techstars Boulder company Monday, here's your chance. This intimate conversations covers the usual business dynamics of the company and touches on the personal dynamics of the founders. Actually all of that counts as critical "business" dynamics.Evan Walden and Raul San Narcisso are the founders of Monday, at JoinMonday.com. Monday wants to connect engaged peopl

You know that time when you ended up at a bar with one of the smartest, most future-focused engineers you've ever met and you asked him (or her) a bunch of pretty basic questions about AR, VR, and AI? This episode of the Real Leaders podcast is a bit like that, except I get to feel like the neophyte asking the questions, both speakers stayed sober, and you get to be in awe of the way the complex mind of Vikas Reddy -- co-founder of spatial computing company Occipital -- can operate at the highest and most relatable levels in the highly complex space his company is charting.It's a great listen. A wonderful startup founder. A really nice and generous guy. A story of true long-term devotion to finding the nexus between the power of technology and pragmatic ways to use it to make human lives better.

Eric Friedenwald-Fishman was raised in a family of hippies (his words). His upbringing rendered him a change agent and a force for justice, as early as elementary school. In this transparent conversation with Real Leaders host Sue Heilbronner, Eric explains how his core values built and still permeate the mission at his social change communications firm, the Metropolitan Group.

Jason Eckenroth is coming off a terrific exit for the company he founded 17 years ago and ran for the entirety. Jason and ShipCompliant is a story about passion, perseverance, patience, and paving the way to building a great life through the creation and nurturing of a company that articulates your values.Jason's latest project is building a community for self-funded entrepreneurs. If you haven't raised venture capital, and are building a durable, profitable and meaningful business, visit www.sovereignty.com to learn more.

Devin Hibbard is changing the world, by radically enhancing the financial lives and self worth of women in its second largest continent. Devin could have chosen an easier path -- with talents perfectly suited to do just about anything -- but she has devoted her entire professional life to enriching the lives and prospects of women in Africa through the vehicle of BeadforLife. Hear how and hear why in this Real Leaders podcast with Devin Hibbard, the nonprofit's CEO.

You should know that Margaret Miner's companies generate way more revenue than you think, and way more than many of the tech companies you read about daily in TechCrunch. A completely different angle for this week's episode.Do you spend time and energy thinking about how to retain your top talent? How to give them growth opportunities in the business to keep them engaged? So does Margaret Miner, founder and CEO of Colorado-based Rags Consignments and ten20, a nail and waxing spa. Given how things have worked out in her decades of growing not one but two businesses founded to solve a need Margaret herself had, she's pretty much got this figured out.Take the fact that Ten20 has had retained at least one waxing technician -- growing her to one of two managers -- since the first days the company opened its doors 12 years ago. How about the fact that parents of the college-aged kids that staff the multi-unit Rags business regard the job as "finishing school" for their children.Margaret ear