Life As Leadership

Jennifer Peek provides clients with key strategic insights while helping them develop plans to profitably execute their visions. At Peek Advisory Group as well as through private mentoring, she consults with business owners identifying business gaps and opportunities to increase value and prepare them for the next stage of business evolution – from growth to varied exit strategies.

Tony Martignetti is an executive and leadership coach with a specialty in working with leaders and their teams to navigate through change and unlock their true potential. He supports leaders in gaining clarity so they can make well-informed decisions, improve their leadership skills, and ultimately increase their impact. Tony is known for supporting leaders in finding clarity so that they are energized, unstoppable, and able to lead with a strong presence. When leaders unlock their potential and lead from a place of inspired purpose, their positive impact and powerful leadership are amplified.

Craig Lemasters is an author, entrepreneur, investor, and board member with more than two decades of success in executive leadership positions. He’s now dedicated to helping senior leaders get unstuck on the major growth challenges to their businesses. Craig previously served as the CEO of the Atlanta-based Assurant Solutions, a subsidiary of the Fortune 500 Assurant, Inc. During his tenure, he led Assurant’s digital transformation and expansion into a global enterprise with a presence in 25 new markets around the world. He has a new book called Unstuck that will be released this summer.

David R. Koenig has served on both for-profit and non-profit boards and as a chief executive officer. He created corporate risk management programs at three different companies and has managed complex financial portfolios in excess of tens of billions of dollars in size. He serves on the advisory board of the Center for Advancing Corporate Performance and the editorial board of the Journal of Risk Management in Financial Institutions. David has also founded two global professional associations and is the award-winning author of two books: Governance Reimagined: Organizational Design, Risk, and Value Creation and the recently released The Board Member’s Guide to Risk.

Theresa Līna has over twenty years of experience as a recognized Silicon Valley thought leader and strategist. She is the CEO of Līna Group, Inc., which specializes in market dominance strategy. She has been involved at Stanford University since 2006 and has served as chief strategy and marketing officer for several technology startups. She began her career at Accenture, where she helped found, lead, and grow what is now a multibillion-dollar business unit within the company. She has just released a new book called Be the Go-To: How to Own Your Competitive Market, Charge More, and Have Customers Love You for It.

Steve Herz is a well-regarded talent agent and career advisor. He is the President and Founding Partner of IF Management as well as the President of The Montag Group, which is a premier agency that focused on talent, consulting, content, media, and speaking. The Montag Group represents over 250 of today’s top journalists, broadcast executives and media personalities. His new book is called Don't Take Yes for an Answer: Using Authority, Warmth, and Energy to Get Exceptional Results.

Maya Hu-Chan is the founder and president of Global Leadership Associates and is a globally recognized management consultant, executive coach, and speaker. She a columnist for Inc. and is the co-author of Global Leadership: The Next Generation. Her newest book is called Saving Face: How to Preserve Dignity and Build Trust.

When it comes to trusted advisors, Charles Green literally wrote the book. He co-wrote The Trusted Advisor and its follow-up The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook, and he also authored Trust-Based Selling. He has built trust-based business relationships of all types. Now, Charles works with clients in accounting, consulting, wealth management, investment banking, commercial banking, systems development, law, and commercial real estate using his unique tools and insights to build and maintain trusting and trustworthy relationships.

Jim McKelvey is a serial entrepreneur, inventor, philanthropist, artist, and perhaps most notably the co-founder of the financial services juggernaut Square. He served as the chairman of its board until 2010 and still serves on the Board of Directors. In 2011, his iconic card reader design was inducted into the Museum of Modern Art. In 2016, McKelvey also founded Invisibly, an ambitious project to rewire the economics of online content. He is a Deputy Chair of the St. Louis Federal Reserve and is the author of the recently-released book entitled The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time.

Chala Dincoy is the CEO and Founder of The Repositioning Expert. She’s a Marketing Strategist who helps professional service companies change their messaging to attract more decision makers. In her former life, Chala was an award-winning marketer at companies such as Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Frito Lay, Playtex and BIC Inc for 20 years. Now she is a marketing consultant. She is the author of Gentle Marketing: A Gentle Way to Attract Loads of Clients, and How to Win Friends the Way Apple Wins Customers. Chala is also a regularly featured expert on major television networks such as ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox, as well as a popular speaker at International conferences. Check out Chala's special offer here. LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS - A business will not heal your own wounds. - The pain and the purse have very different outlooks. Be very aware of who you are messaging to. - Identify everyone you can serve, then consider them in light of access, funds, and fit. QUESTIONS TO INSPIRE US TO ACTION - What is some lesson, saying, or

Kit Pang is the founder of BostonSpeaks and a public speaking coach at Harvard Business School. He has worked with speakers ranging from NFL Players and Three Star Michelin Chefs to Fortune 500 CEOs and TEDx Speakers. He is on a mission to help individuals become exceptional speakers and communicators.

John Futterknecht is the president and co-founder of Optimum Associates, a global leadership development and training company focused on equipping leaders with essential skills to optimize performance. John specializes in helping orgnizations and their leaders excel in complex, highly integrated Matrix structures. He has recently released a new book, Leading in the Global Matrix: Proven Skills and Strategies to Succeed in a Collaborative World.

Todd Davis is FranklinCovey’s Chief People Officer, a 7 Habits expert, and co-author of The Wall Street Journal bestseller, Everyone Deserves a Great Manager. Todd has more than 30 years of experience in human resources, talent development, executive recruiting, sales, and marketing. He has been with FranklinCovey for more than two decades, where he led the development of many of FranklinCovey’s core offerings and world-renowned content. Currently, he is responsible for global talent development of employees in over 40 offices reaching 160 countries.

Danessa Knaupp is an executive coach dedicated to shifting the global conversation on leadership. She has supported executives across every major industry and has developed a reputation as a candid, compassionate and courageous leadership partner.  She regularly addresses C-suite audiences on how to harness the power of real authenticity (not #authenticity) to drive measurable business results. She is the author of the recently released and already best-selling leadership manual, Naked at Work: A Leader’s Guide to Fearless Authenticity. Find Danessa's book here. Check out another episode on psychological safety here. LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS - Authenticity is a paradox: It can work for or against you. - If you show up as authentic outside the bounds of your organization, or if you are authentic in service to yourself (i.e., “I am who I am… take it or leave it”), there’s no good there. - When considering how to be authentic, ask yourself if it will distract from or reinforce your message; if it is appropriate f

Chuck Swoboda is the Innovator-in-residence at Marquette University, President of Cape Point Advisors, and the retired Chairman and CEO of Cree, Inc. At Cree, Chuck helped lead the company from $6 million in revenue to over $1.6 billion as they started the LED Lighting Revolution that led to the obsolescence of traditional light bulbs. Chuck is a co-inventor on 25 patents covering LED and Lighting related technology. He is the host of the Innovators on Tap podcast and has just released his new book, The Innovator’s Spirit: Discover the Mindset to Pursue the Impossible.  LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS - Leadership is about showing someone why what you want them to do is in their best interests. - People’s behaviors are a function of their beliefs. If you want to help people, you have to understand the belief that is getting in their way and help them to discover it as well. - Put yourself in situations where failure or near failure is inevitable to force you to grow. - Once you have a culture, hire people to fit that c

Timothy R. Clark is the founder and CEO of LeaderFactor, a leadership consulting and training organization that works with executive teams around the world. He is an Oxford-trained social scientist and sought-after international authority on organizational change and the author of five books on leadership, including his newest release, The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation.

Ryan’s mission is to cut decades off of your sales learning curve so that you can rapidly scale your results and create time freedom and a lifestyle of your own design. He has rapidly scaled sales professionals’ income and revenue by landing new contracts from some of the largest private and publicly traded companies in the world. Creator & founder of the Whale Selling System™, Ryan’s innovative, disruptive, and highly profitable sales system continues cutting through the noise to deliver results regardless of age, experience, solution or vertical.

Julian Hayes II thought he wanted to be a doctor but left after one year of medical school to pursue an even bigger dream. Now he helps busy entrepreneurs and leaders create more energy and maximize their longevity and human performance without the guesswork by leveraging their genetics, technology, and systems-based thinking. His work has frequently appeared in publications such as Inc., Entrepreneur, Business Insider, Chief Learning Officer, SUCCESS, and many more.

Thom Shea is the CEO of Adamantine Alliance, a unique leadership and human performance training organization. Before founding Adamantine Alliance, Thom served 23 years with distinguished Valor as a Navy SEAL. He is the author of the best seller Unbreakable: A Navy SEAL's Way of Life and co-hosts the Unbreakable podcast. In his newest book, Three Simple Things: Leading During Chaos, Thom shares his transition from the SEAL teams and lays out a detailed formula approach to setting up a six-hour, non-negotiable baseline of activity every day, which any person brave enough can apply to their life and business.

Edward Segal has more than 30 years of experience as a crisis management expert, CEO, public relations consultant, journalist, communications director, and press secretary for members of Congress and political candidates. He is the former marketing strategies columnist for The Wall Street Journal’s startupjournal.com and the author of two public relations handbooks. He managed internal and external crisis situations as the CEO of two trade associations, advised and helped others to get through a variety of crisis situations, and has conducted crisis management and communication training for hundreds of CEOs and other top company officials. His newest book, Crisis Ahead: 101 Ways to Prepare for and Bounce Back from Disasters, Scandals and Other Emergencies, has just been released.