Built On Purpose

Danielle Harlan - Founder & CEO, Center for Advancing Leadership & Human Potential

Danielle Harlan is the author of “The New Alpha: Join the Rising Movement of Influencers and Changemakers who are Redefining Leadership.” She's also the Founder & CEO of the Center for Advancing Leadership & Human Potential.

Growing up in a small oceanside town in California, Danielle’s perspective was slowly shaped by the conglomerate of open-minded, thoughtful people surrounding her, inciting her to question how she can go above and beyond individual success to truly benefit her community. Before pursuing a masters and PhD, Danielle worked for Teach for America and taught special education in a fairly under-resourced area of San Jose. She feels like she derived purpose and also gave back to her community through this area of strenuous, yet rewarding, work.

Danielle says leadership and human potential have been woven into everything she’s done, right down to her doctorate-level dissertation for a Stanford PhD in political science. After earning several degrees as the first person in her family to graduate from college, Danielle wrote and published her book, as well as founded The Center for Advancing Leadership and Human Potential. Danielle’s work as both an author and CEO focuses on what our responsibilities as human beings are to others, and how we can maximize our impact on others and the world through leadership.

Aaron Hurst - Co-Founder & CEO of Imperative

Today we're interviewing Aaron Hurst, the co-founder & CEO of Imperative, and the author of The Purpose Economy. Aaron has been wired to challenge the status quo from a very early age. He sees opportunity and potential in every direction, and by his own admission is a bit of a troublemaker. During Aaron’s childhood, he moved around a lot and, as a result, he developed the important skill of pattern recognition, a trait that has served him well throughout his entrepreneurial efforts. Early in Aaron’s career, he founded the Taproot Foundation, a pro-bono community of professionals who volunteered their time and expertise to helping mission-driven nonprofits with the marketing, PR, and other important services they need to achieve maximum impact. This community blossomed into a $15 billion marketplace. 

Perhaps the most interesting takeaway was the power of purpose that emerged. Aaron would constantly hear about the sense of meaning the participants would feel from helping the nonprofit community. This theme continues today; Aaron and his team at Imperative are focused on unlocking and measuring the power of purpose inside of organizations, not only for the organization, but helping the individual employees inside of organizations to connect their individual purpose to the purpose of the organization. In 2014, Aaron published his book, The Purpose Economy, which predicts the next economic wave will be known as the Purpose Era.

Brett Hurt - Co-Founder & CEO of data.world

Today, we are interviewing Brett Hurt, the co-founder and CEO of data.world. To say Brett has accomplished a lot at a relatively young age would be an understatement. Brett has been a part of launching five start-ups, and, with the help of three co-founders, has just launched his sixth. Brett grew up in a household of entrepreneurs. His dad was the inventor of the first-ever halogen fishing light. At age seven, Brett was given his first computer and began programming. This was the beginning of what would become a lifelong pursuit of Brett Hurt seeking to understand how things work.

Between ages 7 and 21, Brett spent close to 40 hours per week programming. He credits his parents, in particular his mom, with supporting him and helping him find his true passion. This passion led him to the co-founding of Bazaarvoice where he served as the President & CEO for 7 ½ years and the eventual IPO in 2012 — rated one of the top five IPOs in 2012 by the Wall Street Journal. Brett’s current project, data.world, is squarely focused on building the most meaningful, collaborative, and abundant data resource in the world. This episode with Brett Hurt is full of meaningful life lessons and a series of great stories everyone will appreciate.

For this and other Built On Purpose Podcast episodes, visit http://yscouts.com/podcast/.

Corey Michael Blake - CEO, Speaker, Storyteller

Today, we're interviewing Corey Michael Blake. It's difficult to put a label on Corey — he's many things: an entrepreneur, an actor, a director, a storyteller, a CEO, and an all-around great guy. I might add — I''m giving him the title of having the most contagious laugh of all time, something you'll get a taste of during the podcast. Corey is a soulful human being, full of deep insights and someone who is constantly pushing himself to learn and grow. He’s a student of the power of Vulnerability, and we dive into a tour of his life and the many experiences and lessons that have led him to where he is today. Corey’s guiding principle of life is to Lead with Love — a learned skill that requires consistent practice. Whether you're a CEO looking to up-level your leadership, or you're searching for a more meaningful existence at this thing we call life, this episode is loaded with authenticity and realness. Enjoy this episode featuring Corey Michael Blake.

Gavin Armstrong - Founder & CEO of Lucky Iron Fish

Today, we’re interviewing Gavin Armstrong, Founder & CEO of Lucky Iron Fish.

As a young kid, Gavin was bullied extensively, and he channeled those negative experiences into a strong drive to become a success in the world of high finance. During his university experience, he volunteered in refugee camps in north Kenya and saw firsthand the level of abject poverty, malnutrition and hidden hunger that existed in the world. Determined to make a difference, Gavin decided to channel his drive and energy into addressing this problem. And from that, the Lucky Iron Fish was born--an iron ingot that's making a massive difference in helping cure the iron deficiency that roughly half the world’s population suffers from.

Gavin was recognized as the first Canadian to receive the William Jefferson Clinton Award for International Work Against Hunger. His story is one of inspiration, perseverance and hope. Enjoy this eye-opening conversation with Gavin Armstrong.

Brian Walker - CEO of Herman Miller

Today we're interviewing Brian Walker, the Chief Executive Officer at Herman Miller. Most of you are likely familiar with Herman Miller because of the success of the Aeron Chair. In fact, you might be sitting on one right now.

A deeper dive into the world of Herman Miller reveals quite a few special stories. In this engaging conversation with Brian, who has been the CEO of Herman Miller since 2004, we touch on a variety of topics. Those include: some of the high-impact leadership lessons Brian learned at an early age through his involvement in youth sports, his deep focus on always taking advantage of the experiences life has to offer, and an emphasis on spending time with people—which is interesting, because Brian comes from the accounting and finance world prior to taking over as CEO of Herman Miller.

Another topic we touch on is how it's often easy for leadership teams to reject the feedback from employees until the leadership team is actually a part of that firsthand experience, in perhaps losing a deal. Brian also shares the importance of staying in front of the customers, the importance of keeping communication lines open within an organization, especially as it grows larger—because the best ideas can bubble up from those who may surprise you. (Everyone on your team has a special gift, if you just pay attention.)

Given that Brian Walker is the CEO of Herman Miller, we'll talk about the power of design in the workplace—and how we've moved from the Industrial Revolution, where work was designed in a linear fashion, to the world we live in today: the knowledge economy, where serendipity rules.

Finally, we cover how Herman Miller, a publicly traded organization, balances the needs of all of their stakeholders and ensures that they're building something successful from a long-term perspective.

Enjoy this great interview with Brian Walker.

Listen to this interview and more episodes from the Built On Purpose Podcast at yscouts.com/podcast.

Tucker Max - Author, Entrepreneur & Public Speaker

Today we're interviewing Tucker Max, writer, entrepreneur, father, husband, and an ever-evolving human being. But even Tucker would be the first to say he doesn’t want to label himself; that’s one of the topics of conversation we get into. This is a guy who has written four books, and three of them have gone on to become New York Times bestsellers. He has produced a movie, and has started five companies. He’s done a lot in a short period of time. The other fascinating thing he’s done is essentially evolved who he is as a human being. He wrote a blog series that talks about how he went from—these are his words, not mine—"from an asshole to the CEO." (And now, how he has "fired himself" as the CEO.) We cover so many interesting topics in this conversation, from meditation to Buddhism to divorcing your ego from your business dealings, to what it’s like to start all these businesses. Hiring people, firing people, books he recommends, and much more. For those of you who know about Tucker Max or have read any of his books, I can assure you this episode is absolutely engaging from start to finish.

Della Simpson & Kari Brizius - CEO & President of Relan

Today we are interviewing Della Simpson and Kari Brizius.

Della and Kari share a common passion for sustainability. Their passion comes from a lifetime of living consciously and making choices with the philosophy of ‘leaving the earth a little bit better than the way they found it’. The company they purchased in 2011, called Relan, takes old billboards and other vinyl banners and repurposes them into bags, backpacks, wallets and other consumer products. They work with some of the most well-known brands and sports teams on the planet, helping them climb aboard the sustainability train. 

In addition to Della and Kari serving as the CEO and President, respectively, they happen to also be mother and daughter. In this episode, we explore the power of sustainability, the impact of providing jobs to those who need it most, the responsibility we all share in making our world a better place, and what it takes to work with family. I know you’ll find Della and Kari to be as engaging as I did - so enjoy this great episode!

Listen to this podcast interview and more episodes from the Built On Purpose Podcast at http://yscouts.com/podcast

Amelia Newbury - Chief Operating Officer, Authentic Leadership Institute

Today we're interviewing Amelia Newbury, the Chief Operating Officer at the Authentic Leadership Institute.

The Authentic Leadership Institute is focused on helping leaders discover and tap into what makes them unique. It’s a program designed to harness the power of purpose and deploy it into the business world, so that we can tackle the biggest, hairiest problems we are all facing. In this episode, Amelia shares:

• The institute’s definition of authentic leadership

• Why authentic leadership and purpose matter now more than ever

• Stories and examples proving that purpose drives profitability, positively impacts health and well-being, and creates stronger organizations, especially as we race towards a more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world

• And finally, a powerful question you can ask yourself if you desire to discover and tap into your own unique purpose

Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy this interview with Amelia Newbury.

Listen to this podcast and more episodes from the Built On Purpose Podcast at

http://yscouts.com/podcast/.

Boyd Tinsley - Violinist for Dave Matthews Band

Boyd Tinsley is the violinist and a founding member of one of the most well-known bands in the world: the Dave Matthews Band. In this conversation we talk about the 25-year journey of DMB, and the “very open process” Boyd takes when it comes to creating music, making a movie, or recruiting members from around the world to form a new rock band. This episode is full of entertainment for any fan of Dave Matthews Band or music in general.

Listen to this podcast and more episodes from the Built On Purpose Podcast at http://yscouts.com/podcast/.