Worthy to Lead

Episode 43: How Coaching Changed Everything About How I Lead

For once, I'm not the host – I'm the guest. My friend and fellow coach Laurie Hall flips the script and interviews me about my own path: small-town Minnesota roots, unglamorous first jobs, and getting thrown into leadership with zero training. My early stumbles led me to coaching – the moment that changed how I lead for good – and into 23 years of building teams and inventing new roles for myself inside corporate. We talk about why I left a job I loved at Amazon at the start of 2025, the "human-centered leadership flywheel" behind my membership community now, and the mindset shift I keep coming back to: your work is not your worth. If I could create my own role inside four different companies, why couldn't I build the one I actually wanted outside of all of them? I hope this gives you permission to ask the questions you've been putting off. Be the first to know about new episodes, insights, and resources. Join my email list at https://www.WorthyToLead.co/subscribe [https://www.WorthyToLead.co/subscribe] CONNECT WITH KRISTIANA: Website: https://www.worthytolead.co/ [https://www.worthytolead.co/] LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kristianacorona [https://linkedin.com/in/kristianacorona] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worthytolead/ [https://www.instagram.com/worthytolead/] Substack: https://worthytolead.substack.com/ [https://worthytolead.substack.com/] 🎧 LISTEN TO LAURIE'S EPISODE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-40-from-nasa-engineer-to-leadership-coach-navigating/id1748949789?i=1000768552476  [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-40-from-nasa-engineer-to-leadership-coach-navigating/id1748949789?i=1000768552476] CONNECT WITH LAURIE: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriehallformerlypeterson [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriehallformerlypeterson] Website: https://newhorizonstrategies.com/ [https://newhorizonstrategies.com/]

Episode 42: From Fear to Fluency: VP Andy Vitale on How to Lead AI Innovation with Confidence

Andy Vitale has been building with AI since 2015, across healthcare, banking, mortgage, marketing, and now tax software, long before it became a leadership talking point. He was auto-suggesting medical codes at 3M before most people knew what machine learning was. He helped increase loan volume at Rocket Companies by billions of dollars through conversational AI. And now, as VP and Head of Product Design and AI Center of Excellence at TaxWell, he is shipping AI-powered features within a single tax season while spending 75% of his week in AI-related work, at the VP level, hands-on. In this conversation, we trace that full arc: what it looked like to build with AI before it was a trend, how product teams are working differently now, why design systems have become a competitive moat, and what separates the leaders who will thrive in this moment from the ones who quietly become speed bumps. If you have been feeling the pressure to get fluent in AI and lead your team through a transition you are still figuring out yourself, this episode is worth a listen. REFERENCES: Claude: https://claude.ai [https://claude.ai] Wisprflow: https://wisprflow.ai [https://wisprflow.ai] Figma Make: https://www.figma.com/make/ [https://www.figma.com/make/] Cursor: https://cursor.com/ [https://cursor.com/] CONNECT WITH ANDY: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyvitale/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyvitale/] Website: https://www.andyvitale.com/ [https://www.andyvitale.com/] Design Executive Council: https://www.designexecutivecouncil.com/ [https://www.designexecutivecouncil.com/] CONNECT WITH KRISTIANA: Website: https://www.worthytolead.co/ [https://www.worthytolead.co/] LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kristianacorona [https://linkedin.com/in/kristianacorona] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worthytolead/ [https://www.instagram.com/worthytolead/] Substack: https://worthytolead.substack.com/ [https://worthytolead.substack.com/]

Episode 41: The Phrase That Changed Everything: "I Can Fit That In" with Erin Coupe

Erin Coupe spent over 17 years inside high-performance corporate environments: Goldman Sachs, CBRE, Fortune 140 companies. She was commuting 10 to 12 hours a week, working 60-plus hours, and building a career that looked impressive from the outside. Then her body started breaking down. Fainting in elevators. Stress rashes treated with steroids. A quiet but persistent sense that something was deeply wrong. What followed was a years-long process of unlearning: not just habits, but beliefs she had never consciously chosen in the first place. Beliefs shaped by a childhood marked by poverty, a terminally ill father, and a survival mode that followed her straight into the boardroom. Erin is now an international keynote speaker, executive advisor, and bestselling author of I Can Fit That In, named a 2026 Next List Selection by JP Morgan. She works with leadership teams to expand capacity, increase sustainable performance, and shift the energy of entire organizations, starting with the individuals at the top. In this conversation, we get into what it cost her to live inside hustle culture for so long, what helped her to start owning her own energy, the importance of daily rituals (not just routines), and what actually moves the needle towards a sustainable work culture. If you have ever felt like you are carrying too much, or quietly wondering how long you can keep operating at your current pace, this conversation is for you. CONNECT WITH ERIN: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-coupe/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-coupe/] Website: https://www.erincoupe.com/ [https://www.erincoupe.com/] Instagram: https://instagram.com/authenticallyec [https://instagram.com/authenticallyec] I CAN FIT THAT IN: https://www.erincoupe.com/i-can-fit-that-in [https://www.erincoupe.com/i-can-fit-that-in] CONNECT WITH KRISTIANA: Website: https://www.worthytolead.co/ [https://www.worthytolead.co/] LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kristianacorona [https://linkedin.com/in/kristianacorona] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worthytolead/ [https://www.instagram.com/worthytolead/] Substack: https://worthytolead.substack.com/ [https://worthytolead.substack.com/]

Episode 40: From NASA Engineer to Leadership Coach: Navigating Life's Chaos with Authenticity & Purpose with Laurie Hall

Laurie Hall spent years working on space exploration and the International Space Station. She was a chemical engineer at NASA and Lockheed Martin, doing exactly what she had dreamed about since she was a kid growing up in Kansas. And then, around year ten, a nagging question started to emerge: Is this still what I’m meant to be doing? What followed wasn't a clean pivot. It was a five-year transition, grief she hadn't anticipated, and a slow process of figuring out who she actually was outside of the identity she had spent her whole career building. When Laurie lost her sister to suicide, something shifted. Her soul needed to see the difference she was making in people's lives directly and up close. That's what led her to found New Horizon Strategies in 2011, where she now leads a global team of coaches and facilitators helping leaders navigate change with clarity and confidence. She also shares the "lifeline" exercise she uses with organizations to help people reconnect with what has shaped them, why she considers "should," "ought to," and "supposed to" red flag words in any coaching conversation, and what she wishes someone had told her when she was beating herself up for caring more about people than problem sets. CONNECT WITH LAURIE: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriehallformerlypeterson/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriehallformerlypeterson/] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lauriehallformerlypeterson [https://www.facebook.com/lauriehallformerlypeterson]  CONNECT WITH NEW HORIZON STRATEGIES: Website: https://newhorizonstrategies.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newhorizonstrategies [https://www.facebook.com/newhorizonstrategies] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/new-horizon-strategies-llc [https://www.linkedin.com/company/new-horizon-strategies-llc] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX9Yj-Amk7drvg8uaaZzG0g [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX9Yj-Amk7drvg8uaaZzG0g] CONNECT WITH KRISTIANA: Website: https://www.worthytolead.co/ [https://www.worthytolead.co/] LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kristianacorona [https://linkedin.com/in/kristianacorona] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worthytolead/ [https://www.instagram.com/worthytolead/] Substack: https://worthytolead.substack.com/ [https://worthytolead.substack.com/]

Episode 39: Why Creativity Is Your Most Untapped Leadership Tool — Van Lai-DuMone on Curiosity, Innovation, and the $8.3B Story You've Never Heard

Powerful leadership skills go beyond your strategy and experience. One of the most untapped sources of potential is your team’s creativity and curiosity. Here’s why that matters: Van Lai-DuMone has spent over a decade proving that creativity isn't just an art class activity. It's a thinking tool, a problem-solving tool, and one of the most underused levers in leadership today. She's brought it into organizations like Google, LinkedIn, and NBC, and she's seen what happens when leaders finally stop treating it like a nice-to-have. The story that started it all begins in a refugee camp in 1975. Twenty Vietnamese refugee women noticed their teacher, movie star Tippi Hedren's, red manicured nails. Instead of moving on, they got curious. That one pause sparked what would become an $8.3 billion industry in the US. In this episode, Van breaks down her three-step framework for turning curiosity into action, what LEGO® Serious Play® looks like inside a real organization, why psychological safety and creativity are more connected than most leaders realize, and how she finally stopped ignoring the idea that had been tapping on her own shoulder for six years. Creativity is more than just arts and crafts; it’s a fundamental element of how the most successful leaders approach problem-solving and strategy. ADDITIONAL REFERENCES: Van’s Speaker Reel: https://youtu.be/3QaUb8srP-0?si=KKe13kM6AxrSO4Bk [https://youtu.be/3QaUb8srP-0?si=KKe13kM6AxrSO4Bk] What if Pigs Can Fly? Intro: https://youtu.be/GGQoAVlg8ME [https://youtu.be/GGQoAVlg8ME] Strategic Play Podcast: https://www.strategicplay.com/podcast_van-lai-dumone [https://www.strategicplay.com/podcast_van-lai-dumone] General Assembly: https://generalassemb.ly/instructors/van-lai-dumone/21492 [https://generalassemb.ly/instructors/van-lai-dumone/21492] The Honor Foundation: https://www.honor.org/our-tribes/van-lai-dumone/ [https://www.honor.org/our-tribes/van-lai-dumone/] CONNECT WITH VAN: Website: www.worksmartadvantage.com [http://www.worksmartadvantage.com] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanlaidumone/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanlaidumone/] TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLixzTazp2U [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLixzTazp2U] Book "What If Pigs Can Fly": https://www.amazon.com/What-Pigs-Can-Fly-Possibilities/dp/1953183433 [https://www.amazon.com/What-Pigs-Can-Fly-Possibilities/dp/1953183433] Creative Problem Solving Tools: https://www.worksmartadvantage.com/creative-problem-solving-building-blocks/ [https://www.worksmartadvantage.com/creative-problem-solving-building-blocks/] CONNECT WITH KRISTIANA: Website: https://www.worthytolead.co/ [https://www.worthytolead.co/] LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kristianacorona [https://linkedin.com/in/kristianacorona] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worthytolead/ [https://www.instagram.com/worthytolead/] Substack: https://worthytolead.substack.com/ [https://worthytolead.substack.com/]