S01 E52 Transferable Skills Beat Industry Expertise In The Race To The C Suite 1 | Jenna Cantwell

S01 E52 Transferable Skills Beat Industry Expertise In The Race To The C Suite 1 | Jenna Cantwell

From endangered species biologist to COO of SWIVEL®, Jenna Cantwell built a career that defies every conventional rulebook by mastering the one skill most executives overlook: transferable expertise. What if your most unlikely career chapter was actually your greatest leadership asset? Jenna Cantwell, Chief Operating Officer at SWIVEL®, crossed three radically different industries, survived Big Tech layoffs, became a new mom, and still arrived at the C-suite with sharper instincts than most executives twice her tenure. 📋 The Transferable Skills Blueprint: Career Diversity as Your Unfair Advantage 📋 Culture Eats Strategy: What Toxic Teams and Bad Bosses Really Cost 📋 The EQ Edge: Why Emotional Intelligence Predicts C-Suite Success 📋 Self Advocacy Wins: Why "Be Patient" Is Career Advice You Should Reject Website: https://www.getswivel.io You can get in touch with Jenna Cantwell here on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennacantwell/ Website: https://www.avenuewest.com — Meg Connect with Meg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megpoag/ Or via email: meg@missionsquared.com Visit the Mission Squared website here: https://missionsquared.com/ Listen to It’s Not You… But Sometimes It Is!, on these podcast platforms:  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0sXianujhOPcs1C4mKiFjv Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-not-you-but-sometimes-it-is/id1785669837 Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f9f9031d-74d9-4a65-9dc3-3aa34ef9fde8/it's-not-you-but-sometimes-it-is #leadershippodcast #teammanagement #resilientleadership #workplacecommunication #managertraining #emotionalintelligence #conflictresolution #leadershipdevelopment #teambuilding #authenticleadership #professionalgrowth #organizationalculture #leadershipchallenges #managerlife #leadwithpurpose It’s Not You (But Sometimes It Is!), hosted by Meg Poag, is the go-to podcast for managers, team leads, and emerging leaders navigating real-world workplace dynamics. Each episode features honest conversations with experienced professionals on leadership challenges—from building resilient teams and fostering authentic connections to managing change, enhancing communication, and balancing ambition with well-being. Whether you’re steering through conflict, scaling a team, or seeking clarity in your leadership style, Meg brings actionable strategies, personal stories, and expert advice to help you lead with confidence and compassion.

S01 E51 Delegation Is the Difference Between Growth and Burnout | Angela Healy

Angela Healy built Avenue West into one of Denver's most trusted corporate housing companies, lost everything to COVID in a single phone call, and came back with a leadership philosophy the business world was not ready for. When fully furnished corporate rentals became ghost properties overnight, Angela did not just survive. She dismantled her own blind spots, rebuilt her leadership from the inside out, and discovered that radical self awareness is the most underrated business strategy in any market. 🏛 The Overnight Collapse: When COVID Erased Avenue West Completely 🧭 The Selflessness Trap: Why Giving Everything Is Destroying You 🔑 The Delegation Revolution: How Releasing Control Unlocked True Performance 🤖 AI Without Losing Soul: The Future Angela Healy Is Building at Avenue West Website: https://www.avenuewest.com — Meg Connect with Meg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megpoag/ Or via email: meg@missionsquared.com Visit the Mission Squared website here: https://missionsquared.com/ Listen to It’s Not You… But Sometimes It Is!, on these podcast platforms:  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0sXianujhOPcs1C4mKiFjv Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-not-you-but-sometimes-it-is/id1785669837 Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f9f9031d-74d9-4a65-9dc3-3aa34ef9fde8/it's-not-you-but-sometimes-it-is #leadershippodcast #teammanagement #resilientleadership #workplacecommunication #managertraining #emotionalintelligence #conflictresolution #leadershipdevelopment #teambuilding #authenticleadership #professionalgrowth #organizationalculture #leadershipchallenges #managerlife #leadwithpurpose It’s Not You (But Sometimes It Is!), hosted by Meg Poag, is the go-to podcast for managers, team leads, and emerging leaders navigating real-world workplace dynamics. Each episode features honest conversations with experienced professionals on leadership challenges—from building resilient teams and fostering authentic connections to managing change, enhancing communication, and balancing ambition with well-being. Whether you’re steering through conflict, scaling a team, or seeking clarity in your leadership style, Meg brings actionable strategies, personal stories, and expert advice to help you lead with confidence and compassion.

S01 E50 Emotionally Safe Teams Outperform Talented Teams In Modern Workplaces | Stacy Winsett

She was on her own at 15, survived mob violence, had her home burned to the ground, and rose to become one of the most influential Chief People Officers in America. Stacy Winsett, CPO at RATP Dev USA and author of From Ashes to Influence: Leadership Forged by Fire and Faith, did not just survive the fire. She built her entire leadership philosophy out of it. 🎬 Ashes to Authority: When Trauma Becomes Your Leadership Forge 🎯 The Survival Mode Trap: The Grit That Quietly Breaks Leaders 🧠 Psychological Safety vs Toxic Culture: The War No One Talks About 🔥 Emotional Intelligence at the C Suite: Frameworks That Actually Last 00:00 Why does childhood adversity secretly rewire your leadership identity? Connect with Stacy Winsett here on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacywinsett/ Website: https://www.stacywinsett.com The most powerful leaders are not the ones who never fell. They are the ones who finally chose themselves. If this conversation sparked something for you, like, subscribe, and share so you don’t miss future episodes. — Meg Connect with Meg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megpoag/ Or via email: meg@missionsquared.com Visit the Mission Squared website here: https://missionsquared.com/ Listen to It’s Not You… But Sometimes It Is!, on these podcast platforms:  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0sXianujhOPcs1C4mKiFjv Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-not-you-but-sometimes-it-is/id1785669837 Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f9f9031d-74d9-4a65-9dc3-3aa34ef9fde8/it's-not-you-but-sometimes-it-is #leadershippodcast #teammanagement #resilientleadership #workplacecommunication #managertraining #emotionalintelligence #conflictresolution #leadershipdevelopment #teambuilding #authenticleadership #professionalgrowth #organizationalculture #leadershipchallenges #managerlife #leadwithpurpose It’s Not You (But Sometimes It Is!), hosted by Meg Poag, is the go-to podcast for managers, team leads, and emerging leaders navigating real-world workplace dynamics. Each episode features honest conversations with experienced professionals on leadership challenges—from building resilient teams and fostering authentic connections to managing change, enhancing communication, and balancing ambition with well-being. Whether you’re steering through conflict, scaling a team, or seeking clarity in your leadership style, Meg brings actionable strategies, personal stories, and expert advice to help you lead with confidence and compassion.

S01 E49 Great Leaders Stop Managing Tasks and Start Managing Human Energy at Scale | Brynn Michelich

Most leaders obsess over strategy. Brynn Michelich, COO of Jellyvision, built an 18-year career proving the most powerful growth lever in any company is understanding how your people actually think. From project manager to Chief Operating Officer, Brynn has been the architect behind one of the most daring company reinventions in HR tech, guiding Jellyvision through every pivot, talent storm, and cultural overhaul along the way. If you lead teams, manage change, or are navigating the AI disruption reshaping every industry right now, this episode will rewire how you think about leadership accountability and people operations. ◼️ The Reinvention Blueprint: How Jellyvision pivoted from agency chaos to scalable product dominance ◼️ The Energy Unlock: Why your team is disengaged and exactly how to fix it ◼️ The Pilot Moment: When great leaders stop seeking consensus and make the call ◼️ Keep Your Flame Lit: The internal discipline separating good leaders from great ones If your leadership style is still running on what made YOU successful, this conversation will be your most important wake up call this year. You can get in touch with Brynn Michelich here on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brynnmichelich/ Website: https://www.jellyvision.com If this conversation sparked something for you, like, subscribe, and share so you don’t miss future episodes. — Meg Connect with Meg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megpoag/ Or via email: meg@missionsquared.com Visit the Mission Squared website here: https://missionsquared.com/ Listen to It’s Not You… But Sometimes It Is!, on these podcast platforms:  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0sXianujhOPcs1C4mKiFjv Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-not-you-but-sometimes-it-is/id1785669837 Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f9f9031d-74d9-4a65-9dc3-3aa34ef9fde8/it's-not-you-but-sometimes-it-is #leadershippodcast #teammanagement #resilientleadership #workplacecommunication #managertraining #emotionalintelligence #conflictresolution #leadershipdevelopment #teambuilding #authenticleadership #professionalgrowth #organizationalculture #leadershipchallenges #managerlife #leadwithpurpose It’s Not You (But Sometimes It Is!), hosted by Meg Poag, is the go-to podcast for managers, team leads, and emerging leaders navigating real-world workplace dynamics. Each episode features honest conversations with experienced professionals on leadership challenges—from building resilient teams and fostering authentic connections to managing change, enhancing communication, and balancing ambition with well-being. Whether you’re steering through conflict, scaling a team, or seeking clarity in your leadership style, Meg brings actionable strategies, personal stories, and expert advice to help you lead with confidence and compassion.

S01 E48 Emotional Intelligence Is The Real Reason Teams Lose Momentum | Audra Palakodety

Most leaders are quietly failing their teams not because they lack strategy but because they have never been taught that clarity is kindness, and silence is not respect. The uncomfortable reality no business school will tell you is that the most dangerous leader in any room is the one who avoids hard conversations and calls it being nice. Audra Palakodety, COO at APOORVA Corporation, has built her leadership philosophy across one of the most diverse career paths in the industry spanning tourism, entertainment, energy, and custom software development across multinational teams. What she discovered along the way will challenge everything you think you know about executive leadership, emotional intelligence, and what it actually takes to scale a company without breaking the people inside it. Audra does not talk theory. She talks transformation forged in real boardrooms, cross cultural teams, and the kind of hard conversations most leaders keep postponing until it is too late. Chapters: 0:00 ◼️ The Windy Road — From Tourism To Tech COO 5:20 ◼️ The Momentum Killer — When Teams Don't Understand The Why 10:45 ◼️ Clarity Is Kindness — What Bad Bosses Taught Her 16:30 ◼️ Setting Intentions — The Emotional Intelligence Weapon 22:10 ◼️ The Let Them Shift — Escaping The Fixer Trap 27:40 ◼️ Refinement Not Reinvention — The C Suite Growth Blueprint 32:15 ◼️ Speaking Up Is Respect — Rewiring Multinational Culture 37:00 ◼️ The Time Machine — Advice To Her Younger Self If you are a COO, founder, senior executive, or emerging leader navigating team dynamics, cross functional collaboration, or the messy human side of scaling a business, this conversation is your blueprint. You can get in touch with Audra Palakodety here on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/audra-palakodety/ Website: https://www.apoorvacorporation.com If this conversation sparked something for you, like, subscribe, and share so you don’t miss future episodes. — Meg Connect with Meg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megpoag/ Or via email: meg@missionsquared.com Visit the Mission Squared website here: https://missionsquared.com/ Listen to It’s Not You… But Sometimes It Is!, on these podcast platforms:  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0sXianujhOPcs1C4mKiFjv Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-not-you-but-sometimes-it-is/id1785669837 Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f9f9031d-74d9-4a65-9dc3-3aa34ef9fde8/it's-not-you-but-sometimes-it-is #leadershippodcast #teammanagement #resilientleadership #workplacecommunication #managertraining #emotionalintelligence #conflictresolution #leadershipdevelopment #teambuilding #authenticleadership #professionalgrowth #organizationalculture #leadershipchallenges #managerlife #leadwithpurpose It’s Not You (But Sometimes It Is!), hosted by Meg Poag, is the go-to podcast for managers, team leads, and emerging leaders navigating real-world workplace dynamics. Each episode features honest conversations with experienced professionals on leadership challenges—from building resilient teams and fostering authentic connections to managing change, enhancing communication, and balancing ambition with well-being. Whether you’re steering through conflict, scaling a team, or seeking clarity in your leadership style, Meg brings actionable strategies, personal stories, and expert advice to help you lead with confidence and compassion.