Healthcare Isn’t Weather: How Employers Can Fix a Broken System | Ep. 71 w/ David Silverstein

Healthcare Isn’t Weather: How Employers Can Fix a Broken System | Ep. 71 w/ David Silverstein

Healthcare is broken. But treating it like an unavoidable force of nature is not leadership. In this episode of Is Anything Real?, Adam W. Barney [https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwbarney/] is joined by David Silverstein [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsilverstein/], founder and CEO of Amaze Health [https://amazehealth.com/] and author of The Lean Health Plan: How American Businesses Can Fix Our Broken Healthcare System [https://amzn.to/4vSyR51], for a systems-level conversation about healthcare, employer responsibility, and the leadership cost of learned helplessness. David’s argument is direct: American businesses are not just victims of healthcare complexity. They are active sponsors of the system their employees live inside. And if employers are funding the system, selecting the vendors, sharing the cost with employees, and carrying fiduciary responsibility, then they cannot keep pretending healthcare is “just how it works.” They have to understand it. They have to question it. They have to manage it like the major business system it is. In this episode, we unpack: * Why employers became central to the American healthcare system * Why many leaders treat healthcare like weather, taxes, or annual bad news * How complexity creates learned helplessness inside the C-suite * Why self-insured employers have more responsibility than they may realize * The hidden administrative machine behind claims, networks, TPAs, PBMs, and pricing opacity * Why businesses tolerate healthcare complexity they would never accept in payroll, procurement, travel, or supply chain * What “active sponsorship” means for leaders managing health benefits * Why the government is unlikely to rescue employers from this system * How AI and blockbuster drugs may accelerate healthcare cost pressure * The Broken System Audit leaders can use on healthcare or any recurring operational migraine One of the clearest takeaways: Complexity does not excuse inaction. Leadership is not the search for perfect answers. It is the discipline of taking responsibility inside imperfect, complex systems. Guest: David Silverstein - Founder + CEO, Amaze Health * Author of The Lean Health Plan: How American Businesses Can Fix Our Broken Healthcare System [https://amzn.to/4vSyR51] * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsilverstein/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsilverstein/] * Amaze Health: https://amazehealth.com/ [https://amazehealth.com/] * Email: david.silverstein@amazehealth.com [david.silverstein@amazehealth.com] Host: Adam W. Barney - Transition Leadership Coach | Creator of EnergyOS | Author of Make Your Own Glass Half Full [https://amzn.to/4aHrwwr] * Website: https://adamwbarney.com/ [https://adamwbarney.com/] * Book: https://makeyourownglasshalffull.com/ [https://amzn.to/4aHrwwr] * 👉 Book your 20-min Exploration Call: https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/explorationplugin-20min [https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/explorationplugin-20min]

Visibility Is Infrastructure: How Wednesday Women Built a Global Movement | Ep. 70 w/ Leslie Greenwood & Melissa Moody (Wednesday Women)

Visibility is not vanity. It is infrastructure. If people cannot be seen, they cannot be funded, promoted, hired, followed, or supported. In this episode of Is Anything Real?, I sit down with Leslie Greenwood [https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-greenwood/] and Melissa Moody [https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissammoody/], co-founders of Wednesday Women [https://www.wednesdaywomen.org/], a global movement designed to amplify the visibility of executive women and make leadership more accessible, visible, and connected. What began as a single LinkedIn post and a simple spreadsheet has grown into: * 20,000+ supporters * a global visibility network * and an executive community of 200+ leaders But the real story is not growth. It is system design. We explore: * Why visibility is infrastructure, not ego * How movements begin with refusal, not strategy * Why sharing wins is actually cultural architecture * The myth that visibility equals bragging * What real allyship looks like in practice One of the clearest truths from this conversation: You cannot promote, fund, hire, or follow someone you cannot see. 👥 Guests Leslie Greenwood LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-greenwood/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-greenwood/] Melissa Moody LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissammoody/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissammoody/] Wednesday Women https://www.wednesdaywomen.org/ [https://www.wednesdaywomen.org/] 🔌 Host Adam W. Barney Transition Leadership Coach | Creator of EnergyOS | Author of Make Your Own Glass Half Full Website: https://adamwbarney.com/ [https://adamwbarney.com/] Book: https://makeyourownglasshalffull.com/ [https://makeyourownglasshalffull.com/] Book a 20-min Exploration Call: https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/explorationplugin-20min [https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/explorationplugin-20min]

Strategy Won’t Save You: The Adaptive Leadership Skills Complexity Demands | Ep. 69 w/ Max Martina (Cambridge Leadership Associates)

The hardest leadership problems are rarely solved by another strategy deck. They are solved by changing how people behave, decide, learn, and lead when the old playbook stops working. In this episode of Is Anything Real?, I’m joined by Max Martina [https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-martina-41396715/] of Cambridge Leadership Associates [https://cambridge-leadership.com/] & The Nofsinger Group [https://nofsingergroup.com/] for a reality-first conversation about adaptive leadership, executive energy, productive tension, and the human work hiding underneath complex organizational change. Max challenges one of leadership’s most persistent myths: that the right expert, system, or strategy will make uncertainty settle down. Sometimes the problem is technical. You need expertise, execution, and a clear answer. But adaptive challenges are different. The answer does not already exist. The people involved must learn, change behavior, absorb loss, and build the solution together. That distinction changes everything. In this episode, we unpack: * Why leadership is a practice, not a title or identity * How technical fixes fail when the real challenge is behavioral * Why growing organizations eventually outgrow the behaviors that made them successful * What it means to create a holding environment where people can learn and fail forward * Why innovation is often born from restriction * How executives can operate inside the “zone of productive disequilibrium” without burning out their teams * Why work-life balance is mostly fiction—and integration requires discernment * How leaders run out of usable energy before they run out of time * Why executive self-care is a performance requirement, not a soft perk * The 10-minute Adaptive Challenge Audit leaders can run this week * Why difficult problems need better behavior, boundaries, and bravery—not prettier slides One of the biggest takeaways: Adaptive leadership is not having the answer. It is holding the room while the answer gets built. Connect with Max Martina LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-martina-41396715/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-martina-41396715/] Cambridge Leadership Associates: https://cambridge-leadership.com/ [https://cambridge-leadership.com/] The Nofsinger Group: https://nofsingergroup.com/ [https://nofsingergroup.com/] Email: mmartina@cambridge-leadership.com [mmartina@cambridge-leadership.com] Connect with Adam W. Barney Adam [https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwbarney/] is a Transition Leadership Coach, creator of EnergyOS, and author of Make Your Own Glass Half Full. 👉 Book your 20-minute Exploration Call: https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/explorationplugin-20min [https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/explorationplugin-20min]

Can Leaders Actually Change? The Stress Pattern Behind Identity and Security | Ep. 68 w/ Alex Moses (Identisophia)

Stress isn’t caused by what’s happening to you. It’s the internal chain reaction you run under pressure — and once you can see it, you can interrupt it.  In this episode of Is Anything Real?, I’m joined by Alex Moses [https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-moses-/], creator of Identisophia [https://identisophia.carrd.co/] (The Wisdom of Identity), to unpack why smart leaders repeat the same patterns — at work, at home, and in high-stakes moments. The core model (the “sticky” takeaway) Stress spikes when something feels like a threat to identity or security — and your conditioned protection response kicks in.   What you’ll learn in this episode * The myth: “stress is caused by the situation” — and the real truth behind it   * Identity threat vs security threat (and how leaders confuse them)   * Why AI is accelerating identity and security crises for humans (and why stress rises with it)   * A simple weekly practice: Interrupt the Chain (in under 60 seconds)   Connect with Alex * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-moses-/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-moses-/] * Identisophia: https://identisophia.carrd.co/ [https://identisophia.carrd.co/] More from Adam I’m Adam W. Barney [https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwbarney/], Transition Leadership Coach. Book a 20-min Foundation Call: https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/foundation-call-20min [https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/foundation-call-20min]

Your Relationship Is a Leadership System | Ep. 67 w/ Katarina Polonska (The Successfully in Love® Method)

High performers love one dangerous belief: “If I can lead a team, I can figure out my relationship.”   But relationship drift doesn’t stay at home. It shows up as shorter patience, worse decisions, lower focus, and a leadership edge that dulls over time.   In this episode, I’m joined by Katarina Polonska [https://www.linkedin.com/in/katarinapolonska/] — executive relationship strategist, gender dynamics social scientist, and founder of the Successfully in Love® method — to pressure test the myth that relationships are “separate” from leadership. What we cover: * Why high performers can’t “logic” their way out of subconscious patterns   * Why communication isn’t the only lever (patterns and nervous system work matter)   * The truth about blind spots: if it was an intellectual problem, you’d have solved it already   * Why many men don’t lack love — they lack language and permission for support   * The “needle test”: lots of conversations, but nothing changes? You’re stuck in the head   * One move you can run this week: identify the need under the behavior (yours and theirs)   If you’re crushing it publicly but drifting privately, this is your wake-up call — and a path forward that isn’t fluff. Links Katarina’s site: https://www.katarinapolonska.com/ [https://www.katarinapolonska.com/] Katarina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katarinapolonska/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/katarinapolonska/] Work with Adam (Transition Leadership Coaching) Book a 20-min Foundation Call: https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/foundation-call-20min [https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/foundation-call-20min] Learn more: https://adamwbarney.com/ [https://adamwbarney.com/]