Leadership & Success with Coach BZ

S5:E191🎙️ LIVE | 🇺🇸 AMERICA 250: Leadership Through Adversity
What America’s Most Marginalized Leaders Teach Us About Resilience, Courage, Character & Hope
Mark your calendars for the Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ, Season 5, Episode 191!
This episode is based on my latest LEAD article:
🇺🇸 AMERICA 250: Leadership Through AdversityWhat America’s Most Marginalized Leaders Teach Us About Resilience, Courage, Character & Hope
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leadership-through-adversity-bob-fabien-bz-zinga--kkcff
📅 Monday, September 21, 2026⏰ 3:30 PM PT (San Francisco) | 6:30 PM ET (Washington, D.C.)📍 LIVE on LinkedIn → [RSVP & Join the Discussion]
💡 What You Will Learn
America’s history reminds us that extraordinary leadership is rarely forged in comfort.
Across generations, leaders have encountered barriers they did not create, circumstances they could not control, and institutions that did not always recognize their full potential. Yet many chose to respond with resilience, courage, character, excellence, service, and hope.
In this episode, we will explore:
⚓ Why adversity can reveal and develop leadership character.
🌱 How resilient leaders transform hardship into purpose rather than bitterness.
💪🏾 Why perseverance is not simply enduring difficulty, but continuing to serve, grow, and lead through it.
🚪 Why being the “first” matters—but ensuring you are not the last may matter even more.
🤝 How mentorship, sponsorship, and service can turn one leader’s breakthrough into opportunities for generations.
🧭 Why character matters most when circumstances are hardest and our values become most expensive to uphold.
🕯️ Why hope is not denial of reality—it is the disciplined courage to keep moving forward while working to make reality better.
And perhaps most importantly, we will ask:
What will the people coming behind us inherit because of how we choose to lead today?
Leadership through adversity is not simply about surviving difficult seasons.
It is about allowing those seasons to strengthen our character without surrendering our humanity, our purpose, or our hope.
🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, region, or country in the comments!
🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?
💬 Got a leadership question for Coach BZ? Type it below—I will answer LIVE during the show!
❤️🙏🏾 Tag someone who might benefit from this conversation.
And after the episode, share your three biggest takeaways. What did you learn—or rediscover—that you will put into practice this week?
Please share your insights below so someone else can learn from you.
Adversity may shape the circumstances of our leadership.Character determines what we do with them.
This too shall pass. I believe in you. Keep the faith. ❤️🙏🏾🇺🇸
#America250 #LeadershipThroughAdversity #LEAD #Leadership #ResilientLeadership #Resilience #Courage #Character #Hope #Mentorship #ServantLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #MilitaryLeadership #Legacy #LeadershipAndSuccess #CoachBZ

S5:E191🎙️ LIVE | 🇺🇸 AMERICA 250: Leadership Through Adversity
What America’s Most Marginalized Leaders Teach Us About Resilience, Courage, Character & Hope
Mark your calendars for the Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ, Season 5, Episode 191!
This episode is based on my latest LEAD article:
🇺🇸 AMERICA 250: Leadership Through AdversityWhat America’s Most Marginalized Leaders Teach Us About Resilience, Courage, Character & Hope
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leadership-through-adversity-bob-fabien-bz-zinga--kkcff
📅 Monday, September 21, 2026⏰ 3:30 PM PT (San Francisco) | 6:30 PM ET (Washington, D.C.)📍 LIVE on LinkedIn → [RSVP & Join the Discussion]
💡 What You Will Learn
America’s history reminds us that extraordinary leadership is rarely forged in comfort.
Across generations, leaders have encountered barriers they did not create, circumstances they could not control, and institutions that did not always recognize their full potential. Yet many chose to respond with resilience, courage, character, excellence, service, and hope.
In this episode, we will explore:
⚓ Why adversity can reveal and develop leadership character.
🌱 How resilient leaders transform hardship into purpose rather than bitterness.
💪🏾 Why perseverance is not simply enduring difficulty, but continuing to serve, grow, and lead through it.
🚪 Why being the “first” matters—but ensuring you are not the last may matter even more.
🤝 How mentorship, sponsorship, and service can turn one leader’s breakthrough into opportunities for generations.
🧭 Why character matters most when circumstances are hardest and our values become most expensive to uphold.
🕯️ Why hope is not denial of reality—it is the disciplined courage to keep moving forward while working to make reality better.
And perhaps most importantly, we will ask:
What will the people coming behind us inherit because of how we choose to lead today?
Leadership through adversity is not simply about surviving difficult seasons.
It is about allowing those seasons to strengthen our character without surrendering our humanity, our purpose, or our hope.
🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, region, or country in the comments!
🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?
💬 Got a leadership question for Coach BZ? Type it below—I will answer LIVE during the show!
❤️🙏🏾 Tag someone who might benefit from this conversation.
And after the episode, share your three biggest takeaways. What did you learn—or rediscover—that you will put into practice this week?
Please share your insights below so someone else can learn from you.
Adversity may shape the circumstances of our leadership.Character determines what we do with them.
This too shall pass. I believe in you. Keep the faith. ❤️🙏🏾🇺🇸
#America250 #LeadershipThroughAdversity #LEAD #Leadership #ResilientLeadership #Resilience #Courage #Character #Hope #Mentorship #ServantLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #MilitaryLeadership #Legacy #LeadershipAndSuccess #CoachBZ

S5:E190🎙️ LIVE | Leadership Lessons from the Life & Legacy of Doris Miller
🎙️ NEXT EPISODE — LIVE TODAY! 🇺🇸⚓🫡
📣 Mark your calendars!
Join me for Season 5, Episode 190 of the Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ, as we explore the extraordinary life, courage, service, and leadership legacy of Doris “Dorie” Miller, USN.
📅 Monday, September 21, 2026⏰ 2:30 PM PT (San Francisco) | 5:30 PM ET (Washington, D.C.)📍 LIVE on LinkedIn — RSVP & join the discussion!
This episode is based on my LEAD article:
MAN THE GUN: Leadership Lessons from the Life and Legacy of American Hero Doris Miller 🇺🇸⚓Leadership Is Not the Position You Are Given. It Is the Responsibility You Are Willing to Accept.
Read the LEAD article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lead-man-gun-leadership-lessons-from-life-legacy-hero-mjqpc
🎯 WHAT WILL WE LEARN?
On December 7, 1941, Miller was not an officer or ship's captain. He was serving aboard USS West Virginia in a segregated Navy that severely restricted opportunities available to Black Sailors.
But when Pearl Harbor was attacked, the moment exceeded his assignment—and his character determined his response.
We will explore timeless leadership lessons from his example:
⚓ Leadership begins before permission arrives. You don't need the title to lead.
❤️ Take care of your people. Before Miller manned the gun, he helped his mortally wounded commanding officer. Mission FIRST, People ALWAYS.
🔥 MAN THE GUN. When the mission requires responsible action, don't hide behind “That's not my job.” Bring excellence wherever it is needed.
🫡 Courage requires action before certainty. Leadership often means moving toward the problem when others are moving away.
💡 Never confuse rank with leadership. Titles provide authority; character, competence, initiative, and service build influence.
🚪 Great leaders recognize potential others overlook. Who are we failing to see because of their rank, title, background, education, or current assignment?
🌱 Leadership creates possibilities for people you may never meet. Our greatest legacy may be the doors we open for those who come after us.
And ultimately:
Take care of your people.Move toward the problem.MAN THE GUN.LEAD. 🇺🇸⚓
🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, region, or country in the comments!
🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?
💬 Got a leadership question for Coach BZ? Type it below, and I will answer it LIVE during the show.
❤️ Tag someone who might benefit from this conversation.
After the episode, share your three biggest takeaways. What did you learn—or what were you reminded of—that you will actually put into practice this week?
See you LIVE! 🎙️🇺🇸⚓🫡
#LeadershipAndSuccess #CoachBZ #DorisMiller #DorieMiller #Leadership #MilitaryLeadership #NavyLeadership #USNavy #PearlHarbor #NavyCross #MissionFirstPeopleAlways #Courage #Character #Initiative #ServantLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #LeadFromWhereYouAre #BlackMilitaryHistory #BlackHistoryIsAmericanHistory #AmericanHero #LEAD

S5:E190🎙️ LIVE | Leadership Lessons from the Life & Legacy of Doris Miller
🎙️ NEXT EPISODE — LIVE TODAY! 🇺🇸⚓🫡
📣 Mark your calendars!
Join me for Season 5, Episode 190 of the Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ, as we explore the extraordinary life, courage, service, and leadership legacy of Doris “Dorie” Miller, USN.
📅 Monday, September 21, 2026⏰ 2:30 PM PT (San Francisco) | 5:30 PM ET (Washington, D.C.)📍 LIVE on LinkedIn — RSVP & join the discussion!
This episode is based on my LEAD article:
MAN THE GUN: Leadership Lessons from the Life and Legacy of American Hero Doris Miller 🇺🇸⚓Leadership Is Not the Position You Are Given. It Is the Responsibility You Are Willing to Accept.
Read the LEAD article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lead-man-gun-leadership-lessons-from-life-legacy-hero-mjqpc
🎯 WHAT WILL WE LEARN?
On December 7, 1941, Miller was not an officer or ship's captain. He was serving aboard USS West Virginia in a segregated Navy that severely restricted opportunities available to Black Sailors.
But when Pearl Harbor was attacked, the moment exceeded his assignment—and his character determined his response.
We will explore timeless leadership lessons from his example:
⚓ Leadership begins before permission arrives. You don't need the title to lead.
❤️ Take care of your people. Before Miller manned the gun, he helped his mortally wounded commanding officer. Mission FIRST, People ALWAYS.
🔥 MAN THE GUN. When the mission requires responsible action, don't hide behind “That's not my job.” Bring excellence wherever it is needed.
🫡 Courage requires action before certainty. Leadership often means moving toward the problem when others are moving away.
💡 Never confuse rank with leadership. Titles provide authority; character, competence, initiative, and service build influence.
🚪 Great leaders recognize potential others overlook. Who are we failing to see because of their rank, title, background, education, or current assignment?
🌱 Leadership creates possibilities for people you may never meet. Our greatest legacy may be the doors we open for those who come after us.
And ultimately:
Take care of your people.Move toward the problem.MAN THE GUN.LEAD. 🇺🇸⚓
🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, region, or country in the comments!
🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?
💬 Got a leadership question for Coach BZ? Type it below, and I will answer it LIVE during the show.
❤️ Tag someone who might benefit from this conversation.
After the episode, share your three biggest takeaways. What did you learn—or what were you reminded of—that you will actually put into practice this week?
See you LIVE! 🎙️🇺🇸⚓🫡
#LeadershipAndSuccess #CoachBZ #DorisMiller #DorieMiller #Leadership #MilitaryLeadership #NavyLeadership #USNavy #PearlHarbor #NavyCross #MissionFirstPeopleAlways #Courage #Character #Initiative #ServantLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #LeadFromWhereYouAre #BlackMilitaryHistory #BlackHistoryIsAmericanHistory #AmericanHero #LEAD

S31:E27AI RECAP🎙️ LIVE AWLL From Proverbs — Chapter 27🚨 LIVE AI RECAP — 15-Minute Leadership Breakdown 🚨
🎙️ Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ📘 Season 31, Episode 27AI RECAP
Ancient Wisdom & Leadership Lessons from the Book of Proverbs — Chapter 27
This powerful episode is based on my latest LinkedIn article:👉 “Ancient Wisdom & Leadership Lessons from the Book of Proverbs — Chapter 27”(https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ancient-wisdom-leadership-lessons-from-book-proverbs-bob-fabien-bz--oqboc)
⸻
🧠 Hosted by AI Agents: Joe AI & Beth AI🎯 Your 10-Minute Highlight Breakdown — Built for Busy Leaders
⏰ Busy schedule? We’ve got you.📅 Date: Monday, September 21, 2026⏰ Time: 2:00 PM PT (San Francisco) | 5:00 PM ET (Washington, D.C.)📍 LIVE on LinkedIn
⸻
🎯 What You Will Learn — Proverbs Chapter 27
In this episode, we will explore:✅ Why humility is essential for navigating uncertainty✅ How honest feedback strengthens leadership credibility✅ Why emotional intelligence protects influence under pressure✅ How accountability accelerates personal and professional growth✅ Why daily stewardship—not charisma—sustains long-term leadership success
“Proverbs 27 reminds us that leadership is refined through humility, strengthened by truth, and sustained through faithful stewardship. Leaders who invite accountability and tend their responsibilities daily build influence that endures.”
⸻
💬 Join the Conversation LIVE!
🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, state, or country below!🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?
💬 Got a leadership question for Coach BZ?Type it in the comments — I’ll answer it LIVE during the show!
⸻
👇 Your Turn:
➡️ What are your three takeaways from this episode?➡️ What’s one leadership insight you will apply this week?
Share your thoughts below so others can learn and grow with you.
⸻
❤️ Tag a leader who needs this message.
Let’s grow together — from the deckplates to the boardroom to the digital battlefield.
#Leadership #Proverbs27 #CoachBZ #ServantLeadership #MilitaryLeadership #CyberLeadership #ExecutiveLeadership #DecisionMaking #Integrity #GrowthMindset

S31:E27AI RECAP🎙️ LIVE AWLL From Proverbs — Chapter 27🚨 LIVE AI RECAP — 15-Minute Leadership Breakdown 🚨
🎙️ Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ📘 Season 31, Episode 27AI RECAP
Ancient Wisdom & Leadership Lessons from the Book of Proverbs — Chapter 27
This powerful episode is based on my latest LinkedIn article:👉 “Ancient Wisdom & Leadership Lessons from the Book of Proverbs — Chapter 27”(https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ancient-wisdom-leadership-lessons-from-book-proverbs-bob-fabien-bz--oqboc)
⸻
🧠 Hosted by AI Agents: Joe AI & Beth AI🎯 Your 10-Minute Highlight Breakdown — Built for Busy Leaders
⏰ Busy schedule? We’ve got you.📅 Date: Monday, September 21, 2026⏰ Time: 2:00 PM PT (San Francisco) | 5:00 PM ET (Washington, D.C.)📍 LIVE on LinkedIn
⸻
🎯 What You Will Learn — Proverbs Chapter 27
In this episode, we will explore:✅ Why humility is essential for navigating uncertainty✅ How honest feedback strengthens leadership credibility✅ Why emotional intelligence protects influence under pressure✅ How accountability accelerates personal and professional growth✅ Why daily stewardship—not charisma—sustains long-term leadership success
“Proverbs 27 reminds us that leadership is refined through humility, strengthened by truth, and sustained through faithful stewardship. Leaders who invite accountability and tend their responsibilities daily build influence that endures.”
⸻
💬 Join the Conversation LIVE!
🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, state, or country below!🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?
💬 Got a leadership question for Coach BZ?Type it in the comments — I’ll answer it LIVE during the show!
⸻
👇 Your Turn:
➡️ What are your three takeaways from this episode?➡️ What’s one leadership insight you will apply this week?
Share your thoughts below so others can learn and grow with you.
⸻
❤️ Tag a leader who needs this message.
Let’s grow together — from the deckplates to the boardroom to the digital battlefield.
#Leadership #Proverbs27 #CoachBZ #ServantLeadership #MilitaryLeadership #CyberLeadership #ExecutiveLeadership #DecisionMaking #Integrity #GrowthMindset

S5:E189🎙️ LIVE with MAJ Christopher M. Boss, U.S. Army Green Beret
GROW | LEAD | DEVELOP: From Green Beret to an Outstanding Life 🟢🇺🇸
Mark your calendars! Join me LIVE for the next episode of the Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ as I welcome MAJ Christopher M. Boss, U.S. Army Green Beret—Special Forces officer, philosopher, educator, strategist, leadership developer, founder of American Leader, husband, father, and forthcoming author.
⁠Connect with MAJ Christopher Boss on LinkedIn⁠
📅 Date: Saturday, September 19, 2026 ⏰ Time: 10 AM PT (San Francisco/Los Angeles, CA) | 1 PM ET (Washington, D.C.) 📍 LIVE on LinkedIn → RSVP & Join the Discussion!
🟢 GROW | LEAD | DEVELOP: From Green Beret to an Outstanding Life
Chris has spent more than 15 years serving in the U.S. Army, progressing from Infantry Platoon Leader and Executive Officer to Special Forces Detachment Commander, instructor for the Army Special Operations Forces Captains Career Course, and Multi-Domain Special Operations Company Commander. Today, he serves as an Exercise Control Officer supporting Special Operations Forces training at the National Training Center. 
But Chris brings something particularly fascinating to leadership: before leading Green Berets, he studied and taught philosophy. His journey brings together philosophy, Stoicism, Special Forces, high-consequence leadership, fatherhood, self-mastery, and the responsibility to develop others.
And his leadership philosophy can be captured in three powerful words:
GROW | LEAD | DEVELOP.
🌱 GROW yourself. 🫡 LEAD others. 🌳 DEVELOP a legacy.
Chris believes leadership begins with an inward audit: “You cannot give what you do not have.” Leadership then turns that discipline outward in service of others, while development ensures that leadership continues by building people who go on to build others. 
📚 A Book That Began as a “Death Letter”
One of the most powerful parts of our conversation will explore the deeply personal origin of Chris's forthcoming book, GROW | LEAD | DEVELOP: A Green Beret’s Framework for an Outstanding Life, arriving March 2027.
⁠Learn about GROW | LEAD | DEVELOP⁠
Before his 2013 deployment to the Horn of Africa, Chris began writing a letter for his two sons in case he did not return home. He did not simply want to leave them advice. He wanted to leave them a framework for living.
That “death letter” eventually became something much bigger—a philosophy for how Chris leads Soldiers, shows up as a husband and father, and thinks about what an outstanding life actually requires. 
💡 What You Will Learn…
✨ Why Chris believes the difference between being good, excellent, and outstanding is found in deliberate daily decisions.
✨ What becoming a Green Beret taught him about leadership, trust, uncertainty, and decision-making under pressure.
✨ Why he defines leadership as “freedom, not control.”
✨ What Stoic philosophy can teach today's military, business, technology, and organizational leaders about self-mastery—and where Chris believes Stoicism must go further.
✨ Why leaders must continually close the “say-do gap” between the values they profess and their behavior under pressure. 
✨ Why GROW begins with the question: Who are you becoming?
✨ Why LEAD challenges us to ask: Do people become better because they are led by you?
✨ Why DEVELOP ultimately asks: Who is becoming a leader because of you?
✨ Why Chris believes “A purpose that dies with you was never fully alive.”
✨ What fatherhood has taught a Green Beret about humility, presence, love, and perhaps his most important leadership assignment.
And we will explore one of Chris's quotes that has already stuck with me:
“Either I show up. Or I show up. Or I show up. There is no other option.” — Christopher Boss 
That will preach! 🔥
💬 Join the Conversation!
🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, region, or country in the comments!
🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?

S5:E189🎙️ LIVE with MAJ Christopher M. Boss, U.S. Army Green Beret
GROW | LEAD | DEVELOP: From Green Beret to an Outstanding Life 🟢🇺🇸
Mark your calendars! Join me LIVE for the next episode of the Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ as I welcome MAJ Christopher M. Boss, U.S. Army Green Beret—Special Forces officer, philosopher, educator, strategist, leadership developer, founder of American Leader, husband, father, and forthcoming author.
⁠Connect with MAJ Christopher Boss on LinkedIn⁠
📅 Date: Saturday, September 19, 2026 ⏰ Time: 10 AM PT (San Francisco/Los Angeles, CA) | 1 PM ET (Washington, D.C.) 📍 LIVE on LinkedIn → RSVP & Join the Discussion!
🟢 GROW | LEAD | DEVELOP: From Green Beret to an Outstanding Life
Chris has spent more than 15 years serving in the U.S. Army, progressing from Infantry Platoon Leader and Executive Officer to Special Forces Detachment Commander, instructor for the Army Special Operations Forces Captains Career Course, and Multi-Domain Special Operations Company Commander. Today, he serves as an Exercise Control Officer supporting Special Operations Forces training at the National Training Center. 
But Chris brings something particularly fascinating to leadership: before leading Green Berets, he studied and taught philosophy. His journey brings together philosophy, Stoicism, Special Forces, high-consequence leadership, fatherhood, self-mastery, and the responsibility to develop others.
And his leadership philosophy can be captured in three powerful words:
GROW | LEAD | DEVELOP.
🌱 GROW yourself. 🫡 LEAD others. 🌳 DEVELOP a legacy.
Chris believes leadership begins with an inward audit: “You cannot give what you do not have.” Leadership then turns that discipline outward in service of others, while development ensures that leadership continues by building people who go on to build others. 
📚 A Book That Began as a “Death Letter”
One of the most powerful parts of our conversation will explore the deeply personal origin of Chris's forthcoming book, GROW | LEAD | DEVELOP: A Green Beret’s Framework for an Outstanding Life, arriving March 2027.
⁠Learn about GROW | LEAD | DEVELOP⁠
Before his 2013 deployment to the Horn of Africa, Chris began writing a letter for his two sons in case he did not return home. He did not simply want to leave them advice. He wanted to leave them a framework for living.
That “death letter” eventually became something much bigger—a philosophy for how Chris leads Soldiers, shows up as a husband and father, and thinks about what an outstanding life actually requires. 
💡 What You Will Learn…
✨ Why Chris believes the difference between being good, excellent, and outstanding is found in deliberate daily decisions.
✨ What becoming a Green Beret taught him about leadership, trust, uncertainty, and decision-making under pressure.
✨ Why he defines leadership as “freedom, not control.”
✨ What Stoic philosophy can teach today's military, business, technology, and organizational leaders about self-mastery—and where Chris believes Stoicism must go further.
✨ Why leaders must continually close the “say-do gap” between the values they profess and their behavior under pressure. 
✨ Why GROW begins with the question: Who are you becoming?
✨ Why LEAD challenges us to ask: Do people become better because they are led by you?
✨ Why DEVELOP ultimately asks: Who is becoming a leader because of you?
✨ Why Chris believes “A purpose that dies with you was never fully alive.”
✨ What fatherhood has taught a Green Beret about humility, presence, love, and perhaps his most important leadership assignment.
And we will explore one of Chris's quotes that has already stuck with me:
“Either I show up. Or I show up. Or I show up. There is no other option.” — Christopher Boss 
That will preach! 🔥
💬 Join the Conversation!
🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, region, or country in the comments!
🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?

S5:E188🎙️LIVE with LT Ian A. Clark, US Navy Chaplain
Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ — Season 5:Episode 188
“Can We vs. Should We: Moral Courage, Cyber Warfare & Leadership in the Age of AI” 🤖⚓️🧭💻
I am excited to welcome my shipmate LT Ian A. Clark, USN for our next LIVE conversation on the Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ!
📅 Date: Friday, September 18, 2026 ⏰ Time: 11:00 AM PT (San Francisco) | 2:00 PM ET (Washington, D.C.) 📍 LIVE on LinkedIn → RSVP & Join the Discussion
⁠Connect with LT Ian A. Clark, USN⁠
⚓️ MEET MY GUEST
LT Ian A. Clark is an active-duty U.S. Navy Chaplain, military ethicist, theologian, researcher, writer, and Ph.D. candidate in theological ethics at the University of Aberdeen. His research examines the ethical dimensions of cyberwarfare and emerging military technologies, alongside interests including International Humanitarian Law, deception, moral injury, and the evolution of military ethics.
Ian's scholarship includes “Aquinas’ Malware: How Old Theologies Can Shape the Ethical Use of New Weapons,” “The Ethical Character of Russia’s Offensive Cyber Operations in Ukraine,” “International Research Cooperation in The Tallinn Manual,” “Gen-Z Will Fight: But First, They Need to Know Why,” and “Cyberwarfare and the Challenge of Post-Conflict Accountability.” 
But Ian doesn't study these questions only from a classroom. As a Navy Chaplain, he serves alongside the warfighters confronting the human consequences of military decisions. His powerful sermon “Necessary Wounds: Reframing Moral Injury” reminds us of something increasingly important as technology transforms warfare:
“And yet, we are not machines.” 
🧭 WHAT YOU WILL LEARN…
Tomorrow we're going beyond technology to examine the human being responsible for the technology.
💻 CAN we vs. SHOULD we? — Why technological capability does not automatically establish moral justification.
🤖 AI & Autonomous Warfare — As machines become faster and more capable, where must human judgment remain non-negotiable?
⚖️ Cyberwarfare & Just War — Can centuries-old ethical principles still guide leaders confronting malware, cyber weapons, critical-infrastructure attacks, and digital warfare?
🎖️ Leadership Under Combat Conditions — What happens when academic discussions about war, ethics, sacrifice, and moral responsibility become operational realities?
🧠 Moral Injury — Can leaders make the right decision and still carry a moral wound afterward?
🙏🏽 Faith & the Profession of Arms — How does a military chaplain reconcile service, peace, human dignity, moral responsibility, and the potential necessity of lethal force?
🧑‍✈️ Leading Gen Z — Ian coauthored the provocative Proceedings article “Gen-Z Will Fight: But First, They Need to Know Why.” What are senior leaders misunderstanding about the next generation?
And perhaps our biggest leadership question:
Are we developing our CHARACTER as quickly as we are developing our TECHNOLOGY?
This conversation matters far beyond the military.
If you lead in cybersecurity, AI, technology, government, business, academia, ministry, or national security, sooner or later you will confront a decision where the question isn't merely:
“Can we?”
It is:
“Should we?”
And that is where character, judgment, ethics, accountability, and moral courage become leadership competencies.
💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION!
🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, region, or country in the comments!
🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?
⸻
👇 YOUR TURN:
➡️ What are your three biggest takeaways from this episode?
➡️ What's one leadership insight you're applying this week?
➡️ Where should humans draw the line between what technology CAN do and what we SHOULD allow it to do?
➡️ Tag a colleague, Sailor, Marine, junior officer, cybersecurity professional, technologist, or teammate who could benefit from this conversation. ❤️🙏🏾

S5:E188🎙️LIVE with LT Ian A. Clark, US Navy Chaplain
Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ — Season 5:Episode 188
“Can We vs. Should We: Moral Courage, Cyber Warfare & Leadership in the Age of AI” 🤖⚓️🧭💻
I am excited to welcome my shipmate LT Ian A. Clark, USN for our next LIVE conversation on the Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ!
📅 Date: Friday, September 18, 2026 ⏰ Time: 11:00 AM PT (San Francisco) | 2:00 PM ET (Washington, D.C.) 📍 LIVE on LinkedIn → RSVP & Join the Discussion
⁠Connect with LT Ian A. Clark, USN⁠
⚓️ MEET MY GUEST
LT Ian A. Clark is an active-duty U.S. Navy Chaplain, military ethicist, theologian, researcher, writer, and Ph.D. candidate in theological ethics at the University of Aberdeen. His research examines the ethical dimensions of cyberwarfare and emerging military technologies, alongside interests including International Humanitarian Law, deception, moral injury, and the evolution of military ethics.
Ian's scholarship includes “Aquinas’ Malware: How Old Theologies Can Shape the Ethical Use of New Weapons,” “The Ethical Character of Russia’s Offensive Cyber Operations in Ukraine,” “International Research Cooperation in The Tallinn Manual,” “Gen-Z Will Fight: But First, They Need to Know Why,” and “Cyberwarfare and the Challenge of Post-Conflict Accountability.” 
But Ian doesn't study these questions only from a classroom. As a Navy Chaplain, he serves alongside the warfighters confronting the human consequences of military decisions. His powerful sermon “Necessary Wounds: Reframing Moral Injury” reminds us of something increasingly important as technology transforms warfare:
“And yet, we are not machines.” 
🧭 WHAT YOU WILL LEARN…
Tomorrow we're going beyond technology to examine the human being responsible for the technology.
💻 CAN we vs. SHOULD we? — Why technological capability does not automatically establish moral justification.
🤖 AI & Autonomous Warfare — As machines become faster and more capable, where must human judgment remain non-negotiable?
⚖️ Cyberwarfare & Just War — Can centuries-old ethical principles still guide leaders confronting malware, cyber weapons, critical-infrastructure attacks, and digital warfare?
🎖️ Leadership Under Combat Conditions — What happens when academic discussions about war, ethics, sacrifice, and moral responsibility become operational realities?
🧠 Moral Injury — Can leaders make the right decision and still carry a moral wound afterward?
🙏🏽 Faith & the Profession of Arms — How does a military chaplain reconcile service, peace, human dignity, moral responsibility, and the potential necessity of lethal force?
🧑‍✈️ Leading Gen Z — Ian coauthored the provocative Proceedings article “Gen-Z Will Fight: But First, They Need to Know Why.” What are senior leaders misunderstanding about the next generation?
And perhaps our biggest leadership question:
Are we developing our CHARACTER as quickly as we are developing our TECHNOLOGY?
This conversation matters far beyond the military.
If you lead in cybersecurity, AI, technology, government, business, academia, ministry, or national security, sooner or later you will confront a decision where the question isn't merely:
“Can we?”
It is:
“Should we?”
And that is where character, judgment, ethics, accountability, and moral courage become leadership competencies.
💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION!
🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, region, or country in the comments!
🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?
⸻
👇 YOUR TURN:
➡️ What are your three biggest takeaways from this episode?
➡️ What's one leadership insight you're applying this week?
➡️ Where should humans draw the line between what technology CAN do and what we SHOULD allow it to do?
➡️ Tag a colleague, Sailor, Marine, junior officer, cybersecurity professional, technologist, or teammate who could benefit from this conversation. ❤️🙏🏾

S5:E187🎙️ LIVE with Tiffany Deans
TOMORROW LIVE — Building Workplaces People Genuinely Love: Where Culture, Clarity & Purpose Meet
Mark your calendars for the next Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ — Season 5:Episode 187
📅 Date: Friday, September 16, 2026⏰ Time: 9:00 AM PT (San Francisco, CA) | 12:00 PM ET (Alexandria, VA)📍 LIVE on LinkedIn → RSVP & Join the Discussion
🌟 MEET MY GUEST
Tiffany Deans is the Founder, CEO & Executive Strategist of GroundingWork, a People Strategist, Culture Builder, Board Member, and HR leader with more than 20 years of experience helping organizations create workplaces where people genuinely want to belong. Her expertise spans workplace design, people and culture, HR operations, talent, organizational development, and employee experience.
Before becoming an entrepreneur, Tiffany served in significant federal HR leadership roles, including supporting the Chief Human Capital Officer at HUD and serving as Human Resource Manager for the Department of the Interior's Office of the CIO.
And Tiffany doesn't just talk about results. At Interior, she developed an onboarding program that included orientation, an employee website, checklist, and comprehensive guide. After one year, turnover had decreased by 50%.
Tomorrow, we're going beyond HR.
We're talking about LEADERSHIP. PEOPLE. CULTURE. CLARITY. PURPOSE.
🎯 WHAT YOU WILL LEARN…
✨ CULTURE: How do leaders build workplaces people genuinely love—while maintaining high standards and accountability?
✨ CLARITY: Why Tiffany believes leaders need clarity before hiring, including the GroundingWork principle: “Clarity first. Hiring second.”
✨ BELONGING: Why Tiffany describes her leadership superpower as creating environments where people want to belong—and why belonging matters to organizational performance.
✨ FEEDBACK: Why great leaders and employees shouldn't wait for annual reviews—and how curiosity can transform difficult feedback into professional growth.
✨ ACCOUNTABILITY: How leaders can create psychological safety without sacrificing performance, standards, or results.
✨ HIRING: Why your hiring process is already communicating what it will be like to work for your organization.
✨ PURPOSE: We'll discuss Pour: The Self-Emptying Truth About Fulfilling Your Purpose by Merrick Deans, for which Tiffany wrote the introduction, and explore what it means to move beyond success toward service, purpose, and significance.
💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION!
🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, region, or country in the comments!
🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?
💬 Got a leadership, workplace culture, hiring, feedback, HR, or purpose question for Tiffany? Post it below — we'll answer as many as we can LIVE!
⸻
👇 YOUR TURN:
➡️ What are your three biggest takeaways from this conversation?
➡️ What's one leadership insight you're applying this week?
➡️ What would make YOUR workplace somewhere people genuinely love to work?
➡️ Tag a colleague, junior officer, senior enlisted leader, founder, executive, HR professional, or teammate who could benefit from this conversation. ❤️🙏🏾
🎙️ Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZS5:E187 — “Building Workplaces People Genuinely Love: Where Culture, Clarity & Purpose Meet”
#LeadershipAndSuccess #CoachBZ #Leadership #TiffanyDeans #GroundingWork #WorkplaceCulture #PeopleAndCulture #HumanResources #EmployeeExperience #PeopleOperations #LeadershipDevelopment #FutureOfWork #Purpose #Hiring #Feedback #Culture #FITS

S5:E187🎙️ LIVE with Tiffany Deans
TOMORROW LIVE — Building Workplaces People Genuinely Love: Where Culture, Clarity & Purpose Meet
Mark your calendars for the next Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ — Season 5:Episode 187
📅 Date: Friday, September 16, 2026⏰ Time: 9:00 AM PT (San Francisco, CA) | 12:00 PM ET (Alexandria, VA)📍 LIVE on LinkedIn → RSVP & Join the Discussion
🌟 MEET MY GUEST
Tiffany Deans is the Founder, CEO & Executive Strategist of GroundingWork, a People Strategist, Culture Builder, Board Member, and HR leader with more than 20 years of experience helping organizations create workplaces where people genuinely want to belong. Her expertise spans workplace design, people and culture, HR operations, talent, organizational development, and employee experience.
Before becoming an entrepreneur, Tiffany served in significant federal HR leadership roles, including supporting the Chief Human Capital Officer at HUD and serving as Human Resource Manager for the Department of the Interior's Office of the CIO.
And Tiffany doesn't just talk about results. At Interior, she developed an onboarding program that included orientation, an employee website, checklist, and comprehensive guide. After one year, turnover had decreased by 50%.
Tomorrow, we're going beyond HR.
We're talking about LEADERSHIP. PEOPLE. CULTURE. CLARITY. PURPOSE.
🎯 WHAT YOU WILL LEARN…
✨ CULTURE: How do leaders build workplaces people genuinely love—while maintaining high standards and accountability?
✨ CLARITY: Why Tiffany believes leaders need clarity before hiring, including the GroundingWork principle: “Clarity first. Hiring second.”
✨ BELONGING: Why Tiffany describes her leadership superpower as creating environments where people want to belong—and why belonging matters to organizational performance.
✨ FEEDBACK: Why great leaders and employees shouldn't wait for annual reviews—and how curiosity can transform difficult feedback into professional growth.
✨ ACCOUNTABILITY: How leaders can create psychological safety without sacrificing performance, standards, or results.
✨ HIRING: Why your hiring process is already communicating what it will be like to work for your organization.
✨ PURPOSE: We'll discuss Pour: The Self-Emptying Truth About Fulfilling Your Purpose by Merrick Deans, for which Tiffany wrote the introduction, and explore what it means to move beyond success toward service, purpose, and significance.
💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION!
🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, region, or country in the comments!
🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?
💬 Got a leadership, workplace culture, hiring, feedback, HR, or purpose question for Tiffany? Post it below — we'll answer as many as we can LIVE!
⸻
👇 YOUR TURN:
➡️ What are your three biggest takeaways from this conversation?
➡️ What's one leadership insight you're applying this week?
➡️ What would make YOUR workplace somewhere people genuinely love to work?
➡️ Tag a colleague, junior officer, senior enlisted leader, founder, executive, HR professional, or teammate who could benefit from this conversation. ❤️🙏🏾
🎙️ Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZS5:E187 — “Building Workplaces People Genuinely Love: Where Culture, Clarity & Purpose Meet”
#LeadershipAndSuccess #CoachBZ #Leadership #TiffanyDeans #GroundingWork #WorkplaceCulture #PeopleAndCulture #HumanResources #EmployeeExperience #PeopleOperations #LeadershipDevelopment #FutureOfWork #Purpose #Hiring #Feedback #Culture #FITS

S5:E186🎙️ LIVE with Coach Gabrielle “Gab” Bosch
🎙️ Season 5, Episode 186 —Purpose Is Your Permission: Stop Waiting. Start Becoming.
🔥 What if the permission you have been waiting for has already been given?
Mark your calendars for the next Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ:
📅 Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2026⏰ Time: 9:00 AM PT (San Francisco) | 12:00 PM ET (Atlanta)📍 LIVE on LinkedIn → RSVP & Join the Discussion
🌟 INTRODUCING MY GUEST
Coach Gabrielle “Gab” Bosché is a purpose, positioning, and persuasion expert, entrepreneur, executive, two-time TEDx speaker, and bestselling author whose work challenges people and organizations to move from uncertainty to clarity—and from clarity to ACTION.
Gab is the co-author, with Brian Bosché, of the bestselling book The Purpose Factor: Extreme Clarity for Why You’re Here and What to Do About It. Their methodology moves beyond simply telling people to “find their passion.” It helps people understand their Natural Advantage, Acquired Skills, Pull-Passion, and Origin Story—and translate that clarity into the people they can help, the problems they can solve, and the solutions they are uniquely prepared to deliver.
Gab has also brought her message to the TEDx stage. In “Why Your Purpose Is Your Permission,” Gab and Brian challenge us to stop waiting for parents, peers, partners, programs—or anyone else—to validate what we already know we are called to do.
Their powerful conclusion:
🔥 “Your purpose is your permission.”
And there is another part of Gab’s journey that I especially appreciate. Her audiobook The Millennial Solution was published by Nightingale-Conant, one of the legendary names in personal development. As a young girl, Gab was already listening to thought leaders including Earl Nightingale, Jim Rohn, and Tony Robbins after her mother brought home personal-development tapes, CDs, and books.
Talk about coming FULL CIRCLE! 🔄🎯
🎯 WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
✨ Why purpose is different from passion—and why “follow your passion” may not be enough.
✨ How to discover the four elements of your Purpose Factor: Natural Advantage, Acquired Skills, Pull-Passion, and Origin Story.
✨ Why your Origin Story can become your Overcomer Story—and how what you have overcome can equip you to serve others.
✨ Why successful people can still find themselves asking, “What’s next?”
✨ How waiting for permission can keep talented people trapped by fear, validation, and indecision.
✨ How purpose creates greater clarity, ownership, confidence, and action.
✨ Why purpose matters to leaders trying to inspire, develop, engage, and retain great people.
✨ How military and high-tech leaders can help people connect their individual strengths and purpose to the larger MISSION.
💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION!
🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, region, or country in the comments!
🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?
💬 Got a leadership, purpose, career, speaking, coaching, or “What’s Next?” question for Coach Gab? Post it below—we will answer questions LIVE!
And here is the question I want YOU thinking about before we begin:
🔥 What are you still waiting for permission to do?
⸻
👇 YOUR TURN AFTER THE EPISODE:
➡️ What are your three biggest takeaways?
➡️ What is one leadership insight you are applying this week?
➡️ What will you finally give yourself permission to START?
➡️ Tag a colleague, junior officer, mentor, mentee, or teammate who needs this conversation. ❤️🙏🏾
Stop waiting. Start becoming. Your purpose is your permission. 🎯🔥
#LeadershipAndSuccess #CoachBZ #GabrielleBosche #PurposeIsYourPermission #ThePurposeFactor #Purpose #Leadership #LeadershipDevelopment #ExecutiveCoaching #Mentorship #PersonalDevelopment #MilitaryLeadership #HighTechLeadership #FutureOfWork #TEDx #NightingaleConant #StopWaiting #StartBecoming

S5:E186🎙️ LIVE with Coach Gabrielle “Gab” Bosch
🎙️ Season 5, Episode 186 —Purpose Is Your Permission: Stop Waiting. Start Becoming.
🔥 What if the permission you have been waiting for has already been given?
Mark your calendars for the next Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ:
📅 Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2026⏰ Time: 9:00 AM PT (San Francisco) | 12:00 PM ET (Atlanta)📍 LIVE on LinkedIn → RSVP & Join the Discussion
🌟 INTRODUCING MY GUEST
Coach Gabrielle “Gab” Bosché is a purpose, positioning, and persuasion expert, entrepreneur, executive, two-time TEDx speaker, and bestselling author whose work challenges people and organizations to move from uncertainty to clarity—and from clarity to ACTION.
Gab is the co-author, with Brian Bosché, of the bestselling book The Purpose Factor: Extreme Clarity for Why You’re Here and What to Do About It. Their methodology moves beyond simply telling people to “find their passion.” It helps people understand their Natural Advantage, Acquired Skills, Pull-Passion, and Origin Story—and translate that clarity into the people they can help, the problems they can solve, and the solutions they are uniquely prepared to deliver.
Gab has also brought her message to the TEDx stage. In “Why Your Purpose Is Your Permission,” Gab and Brian challenge us to stop waiting for parents, peers, partners, programs—or anyone else—to validate what we already know we are called to do.
Their powerful conclusion:
🔥 “Your purpose is your permission.”
And there is another part of Gab’s journey that I especially appreciate. Her audiobook The Millennial Solution was published by Nightingale-Conant, one of the legendary names in personal development. As a young girl, Gab was already listening to thought leaders including Earl Nightingale, Jim Rohn, and Tony Robbins after her mother brought home personal-development tapes, CDs, and books.
Talk about coming FULL CIRCLE! 🔄🎯
🎯 WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
✨ Why purpose is different from passion—and why “follow your passion” may not be enough.
✨ How to discover the four elements of your Purpose Factor: Natural Advantage, Acquired Skills, Pull-Passion, and Origin Story.
✨ Why your Origin Story can become your Overcomer Story—and how what you have overcome can equip you to serve others.
✨ Why successful people can still find themselves asking, “What’s next?”
✨ How waiting for permission can keep talented people trapped by fear, validation, and indecision.
✨ How purpose creates greater clarity, ownership, confidence, and action.
✨ Why purpose matters to leaders trying to inspire, develop, engage, and retain great people.
✨ How military and high-tech leaders can help people connect their individual strengths and purpose to the larger MISSION.
💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION!
🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, region, or country in the comments!
🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?
💬 Got a leadership, purpose, career, speaking, coaching, or “What’s Next?” question for Coach Gab? Post it below—we will answer questions LIVE!
And here is the question I want YOU thinking about before we begin:
🔥 What are you still waiting for permission to do?
⸻
👇 YOUR TURN AFTER THE EPISODE:
➡️ What are your three biggest takeaways?
➡️ What is one leadership insight you are applying this week?
➡️ What will you finally give yourself permission to START?
➡️ Tag a colleague, junior officer, mentor, mentee, or teammate who needs this conversation. ❤️🙏🏾
Stop waiting. Start becoming. Your purpose is your permission. 🎯🔥
#LeadershipAndSuccess #CoachBZ #GabrielleBosche #PurposeIsYourPermission #ThePurposeFactor #Purpose #Leadership #LeadershipDevelopment #ExecutiveCoaching #Mentorship #PersonalDevelopment #MilitaryLeadership #HighTechLeadership #FutureOfWork #TEDx #NightingaleConant #StopWaiting #StartBecoming

S5:E185🎙️ Live with Laura Byrd
The Right Talent, Right Now: Building Winning Teams at the Speed of Business 🚀
Mark your calendars!
The Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ Season 5:Episode 185 goes LIVE with my friend Laura Byrd, Principal-Owner of Elite Sales Search!
📅 Date: Friday, September 4, 2026 ⏰ Time: 9 AM PT (San Francisco, CA) | 11 AM CT (Austin, TX) | 12 PM ET (Washington, D.C.) 📍 LIVE on LinkedIn → [RSVP & Join the Discussion]
🌟 Meet My Guest: Laura Byrd
What if one of the greatest barriers standing between your organization and its next stage of growth isn't your strategy, technology, or capital—but having the right people to execute the mission?
Laura Byrd has spent more than 25 years finding those people.
Laura is the Principal-Owner of Elite Sales Search, a woman-owned placement and HR consulting firm specializing in finding best-in-class talent from entry level through the C-suite across cybersecurity, software, cloud, SaaS, AI, sales, engineering, operations, finance, and other critical disciplines.
Her philosophy is powerful:
“Acquiring the right talent is the most important driver for growth. Do it right the first time.”
Before becoming an entrepreneur, Laura built an extraordinary career recruiting and developing talent across companies including BMC Software, EMC, Intel Security/McAfee, Blue Coat Systems, and Symantec. Her experience includes executive recruiting, enterprise sales organizations, Sales Engineers, Professional Services, Federal teams, and highly cleared talent. 
And Laura and I discovered an interesting connection: we both spent part of our careers inside the EMC ecosystem. She worked for EMC, while I later worked for Pivotal Software, part of the EMC Federation.
Tomorrow, we are going to compare notes! 😊
🎯 What You Will Learn…
✨ Why talent is a business strategy. What separates an A-player from someone who merely interviews well?
✨ How to recognize the “right talent.” After 25+ years evaluating candidates and watching careers unfold, what has Laura learned about character, potential, performance, and leadership?
✨ How Laura finds hard-to-reach talent FAST. We'll unpack the relationships, processes, industry knowledge, and network that allow Elite Sales Search to move at the speed of business.
✨ A masterclass for OEMs and Federal contractors. Laura specifically wants to share how she supports these organizations from a placement-services perspective—including reaching specialized consultants, engineers, sales professionals, and other difficult-to-find talent quickly. 
✨ Lessons from EMC, McAfee, Blue Coat & Symantec. What did some of technology's legendary high-performance organizations teach Laura about recruiting, sales, culture, and winning teams?
✨ The entrepreneur's journey. What happens when someone who spent decades building teams for major corporations decides to bet on herself and build her own company?
✨ AI and the future of talent. As AI transforms how organizations work, which capabilities become less important—and which uniquely human qualities become even MORE valuable?
✨ What leaders get wrong about hiring. Laura has spent a career watching leaders make talent decisions. What does she wish every CEO, CRO, CHRO, hiring manager, and candidate understood?
💬 Join the Conversation!
🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, region, or country in the comments!
🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?
💬 Got a leadership, recruiting, career, cybersecurity talent, Federal contracting, AI, or building-winning-teams question for Laura? Post it below—we will answer as many as we can LIVE!
⸻
👇 Your Turn:
➡️ What are your three takeaways from this episode?
➡️ What's one leadership insight you're applying this week?
➡️ Tag a CEO, CRO, CHRO, hiring manager, entrepreneur, Federal contractor, technology leader, colleague, or teammate who could benefit from this conversation. ❤️🙏🏾
#LeadershipAndSuccess #CoachBZ #LauraByrd
 

S5:E185🎙️ Live with Laura Byrd
The Right Talent, Right Now: Building Winning Teams at the Speed of Business 🚀
Mark your calendars!
The Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ Season 5:Episode 185 goes LIVE with my friend Laura Byrd, Principal-Owner of Elite Sales Search!
📅 Date: Friday, September 4, 2026 ⏰ Time: 9 AM PT (San Francisco, CA) | 11 AM CT (Austin, TX) | 12 PM ET (Washington, D.C.) 📍 LIVE on LinkedIn → [RSVP & Join the Discussion]
🌟 Meet My Guest: Laura Byrd
What if one of the greatest barriers standing between your organization and its next stage of growth isn't your strategy, technology, or capital—but having the right people to execute the mission?
Laura Byrd has spent more than 25 years finding those people.
Laura is the Principal-Owner of Elite Sales Search, a woman-owned placement and HR consulting firm specializing in finding best-in-class talent from entry level through the C-suite across cybersecurity, software, cloud, SaaS, AI, sales, engineering, operations, finance, and other critical disciplines.
Her philosophy is powerful:
“Acquiring the right talent is the most important driver for growth. Do it right the first time.”
Before becoming an entrepreneur, Laura built an extraordinary career recruiting and developing talent across companies including BMC Software, EMC, Intel Security/McAfee, Blue Coat Systems, and Symantec. Her experience includes executive recruiting, enterprise sales organizations, Sales Engineers, Professional Services, Federal teams, and highly cleared talent. 
And Laura and I discovered an interesting connection: we both spent part of our careers inside the EMC ecosystem. She worked for EMC, while I later worked for Pivotal Software, part of the EMC Federation.
Tomorrow, we are going to compare notes! 😊
🎯 What You Will Learn…
✨ Why talent is a business strategy. What separates an A-player from someone who merely interviews well?
✨ How to recognize the “right talent.” After 25+ years evaluating candidates and watching careers unfold, what has Laura learned about character, potential, performance, and leadership?
✨ How Laura finds hard-to-reach talent FAST. We'll unpack the relationships, processes, industry knowledge, and network that allow Elite Sales Search to move at the speed of business.
✨ A masterclass for OEMs and Federal contractors. Laura specifically wants to share how she supports these organizations from a placement-services perspective—including reaching specialized consultants, engineers, sales professionals, and other difficult-to-find talent quickly. 
✨ Lessons from EMC, McAfee, Blue Coat & Symantec. What did some of technology's legendary high-performance organizations teach Laura about recruiting, sales, culture, and winning teams?
✨ The entrepreneur's journey. What happens when someone who spent decades building teams for major corporations decides to bet on herself and build her own company?
✨ AI and the future of talent. As AI transforms how organizations work, which capabilities become less important—and which uniquely human qualities become even MORE valuable?
✨ What leaders get wrong about hiring. Laura has spent a career watching leaders make talent decisions. What does she wish every CEO, CRO, CHRO, hiring manager, and candidate understood?
💬 Join the Conversation!
🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, region, or country in the comments!
🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?
💬 Got a leadership, recruiting, career, cybersecurity talent, Federal contracting, AI, or building-winning-teams question for Laura? Post it below—we will answer as many as we can LIVE!
⸻
👇 Your Turn:
➡️ What are your three takeaways from this episode?
➡️ What's one leadership insight you're applying this week?
➡️ Tag a CEO, CRO, CHRO, hiring manager, entrepreneur, Federal contractor, technology leader, colleague, or teammate who could benefit from this conversation. ❤️🙏🏾
#LeadershipAndSuccess #CoachBZ #LauraByrd
 

S5:E184🎙️ LIVE with SGT DeMario M. McIlwain, L.H.D. (h.c.), USA (Vet.)LIVE: Train the Human, Deploy the AI — Leading with Humanity in the Age of AI 🤖🇺🇸Mark your calendars!Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ — Season 5:Episode 184 
📅 Thursday, September 3, 2026⏰ 1:00 PM PT (San Francisco, CA) | 4:00 PM ET (Fort Mill, SC)📍 LIVE on LinkedIn → RSVP & Join the Discussion
What happens to leadership when our machines become smarter?I believe the answer is not that humans become less important. We become MORE important.That is why I am excited to welcome SGT DeMario M. McIlwain, L.H.D. (h.c.), USA (Vet.) to the Leadership & Success Podcast for a conversation I am calling:🔥 “Train the Human, Deploy the AI: Leading with Humanity in the Age of AI”
🪖 From Sergeant to AI StrategistDeMario spent 10 years serving in the United States Army, where he learned to lead people, manage logistics, solve complex problems, and build systems that had to perform when the consequences were real.Today, he is an AI strategist, entrepreneur, educator, author, and CEO & Co-Founder of Skilldora®, helping leaders and organizations understand something critically important:AI is the tool. Humanity remains the advantage.He is also the author of TRAIN THE HUMAN, DEPLOY THE AI: A Human-First Guide to Mastering the Age of AI—a timely challenge to organizations racing to deploy increasingly powerful technology:Are we investing as much in preparing our PEOPLE as we are in acquiring the TECHNOLOGY?
🧠 What You Will Learn…✨ How 10 years of Army leadership shaped DeMario’s approach to technology, systems, entrepreneurship, and execution.✨ Why organizations should train the human before deploying the AI.✨ How leaders can use AI to augment human intelligence instead of outsourcing human judgment.✨ Why judgment, ethics, empathy, creativity, accountability, and leadership may become more valuable—not less—as AI advances.✨ How leaders can determine what should be automated, augmented, or remain fundamentally human.✨ Why DeMario believes the future belongs not simply to organizations with the best technology—but to those with the best-prepared PEOPLE.And I am going to ask him a question that I believe every leader should be considering:If AI becomes exponentially more intelligent, what must we deliberately preserve and develop so that our leaders become MORE human—not less?That is a conversation worth having. ❤️🙏🏾
💬 Join the Conversation!🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, region, or country in the comments!🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?💬 Got a leadership, AI, entrepreneurship, or future-of-work question for DeMario? Post it below—we will answer as many as possible LIVE!⸻👇 Your Turn:➡️ What are your three takeaways from this episode?➡️ What is one leadership insight you're applying this week?➡️ Tag a colleague, veteran, entrepreneur, technologist, junior officer, or teammate who could benefit from this conversation. ❤️🙏🏾Before we build smarter machines, we must develop wiser humans.Mission FIRST. People ALWAYS. 🇺🇸
#Leadership #LeadershipAndSuccess #CoachBZ #DeMarioMcIlwain #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #AILeadership #HumanCenteredAI #TrainTheHumanDeployTheAI #FutureOfWork #Skilldora #ArmyVeteran #MilitaryLeadership #VeteranLeadership #Entrepreneurship #LeadershipDevelopment #Humanity #FITS

S5:E184🎙️ LIVE with SGT DeMario M. McIlwain, L.H.D. (h.c.), USA (Vet.)LIVE: Train the Human, Deploy the AI — Leading with Humanity in the Age of AI 🤖🇺🇸Mark your calendars!Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ — Season 5:Episode 184 
📅 Thursday, September 3, 2026⏰ 1:00 PM PT (San Francisco, CA) | 4:00 PM ET (Fort Mill, SC)📍 LIVE on LinkedIn → RSVP & Join the Discussion
What happens to leadership when our machines become smarter?I believe the answer is not that humans become less important. We become MORE important.That is why I am excited to welcome SGT DeMario M. McIlwain, L.H.D. (h.c.), USA (Vet.) to the Leadership & Success Podcast for a conversation I am calling:🔥 “Train the Human, Deploy the AI: Leading with Humanity in the Age of AI”
🪖 From Sergeant to AI StrategistDeMario spent 10 years serving in the United States Army, where he learned to lead people, manage logistics, solve complex problems, and build systems that had to perform when the consequences were real.Today, he is an AI strategist, entrepreneur, educator, author, and CEO & Co-Founder of Skilldora®, helping leaders and organizations understand something critically important:AI is the tool. Humanity remains the advantage.He is also the author of TRAIN THE HUMAN, DEPLOY THE AI: A Human-First Guide to Mastering the Age of AI—a timely challenge to organizations racing to deploy increasingly powerful technology:Are we investing as much in preparing our PEOPLE as we are in acquiring the TECHNOLOGY?
🧠 What You Will Learn…✨ How 10 years of Army leadership shaped DeMario’s approach to technology, systems, entrepreneurship, and execution.✨ Why organizations should train the human before deploying the AI.✨ How leaders can use AI to augment human intelligence instead of outsourcing human judgment.✨ Why judgment, ethics, empathy, creativity, accountability, and leadership may become more valuable—not less—as AI advances.✨ How leaders can determine what should be automated, augmented, or remain fundamentally human.✨ Why DeMario believes the future belongs not simply to organizations with the best technology—but to those with the best-prepared PEOPLE.And I am going to ask him a question that I believe every leader should be considering:If AI becomes exponentially more intelligent, what must we deliberately preserve and develop so that our leaders become MORE human—not less?That is a conversation worth having. ❤️🙏🏾
💬 Join the Conversation!🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, region, or country in the comments!🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?💬 Got a leadership, AI, entrepreneurship, or future-of-work question for DeMario? Post it below—we will answer as many as possible LIVE!⸻👇 Your Turn:➡️ What are your three takeaways from this episode?➡️ What is one leadership insight you're applying this week?➡️ Tag a colleague, veteran, entrepreneur, technologist, junior officer, or teammate who could benefit from this conversation. ❤️🙏🏾Before we build smarter machines, we must develop wiser humans.Mission FIRST. People ALWAYS. 🇺🇸
#Leadership #LeadershipAndSuccess #CoachBZ #DeMarioMcIlwain #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #AILeadership #HumanCenteredAI #TrainTheHumanDeployTheAI #FutureOfWork #Skilldora #ArmyVeteran #MilitaryLeadership #VeteranLeadership #Entrepreneurship #LeadershipDevelopment #Humanity #FITS

S5:E183🎙️ LIVE with Coach Tarek Taha
🏔️ Choose Your Mountain: From Success to Significance
 
Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ — Season 5, Episode 183
 
What happens when you’ve climbed the ladder, earned the title, achieved the success…and begin wondering whether you’ve been climbing the right mountain?
Join me LIVE for a powerful leadership conversation with fellow Maxwell Leadership Certified Coach Coach Tarek Taha.
 
📅 Wednesday, September 2, 2026
⏰ 6:30 AM PT (San Francisco, CA) | 8:30 AM CT (Greater Fayetteville, AR) | 9:30 AM ET (Washington, D.C.)
📍 LIVE on LinkedIn → RSVP & Join the Discussion
 
🌟 Meet My Guest
Tarek spent 31 years climbing the corporate ladder, including more than two decades at J.B. Hunt, where he ultimately served as Senior Director of Engineering & Technology. Along the way, he led teams, solved complex problems, and helped approximately 130 engineers launch and develop their careers.
Then, in 2018, everything changed.
An infection affecting his brain led to emergency brain surgery and a confrontation with mortality that no promotion, title, or résumé could answer.
That experience forced Tarek to wrestle with a deeper question:
Who am I underneath the title?
He didn't immediately walk away from corporate America. Instead, he began a deliberate journey of faith, growth, leadership, and purpose. At the end of 2025, he stepped away from his Fortune 500 career and into his next chapter as a full-time leadership coach. Today, he helps high achievers build a runway toward what's next—without gambling everything they've spent decades building.
 
🏔️ What You Will Learn…
Tarek uses a brilliant metaphor:
“You were handed a ladder at 22 and told to climb. Nobody asked which mountain was yours.”
During our conversation, we'll explore:
✨ How to move from success to significance
✨ Why your title is not your identity
✨ What 31 years in corporate leadership taught Tarek about people, influence, and purpose
✨ How his 2018 near-death experience transformed the way he thinks about faith, time, health, leadership, and legacy
✨ Why successful leaders can become trapped by the very success they worked so hard to achieve
✨ How to recognize when you've outgrown your current chapter
✨ Why asking better questions may be one of a leader's greatest superpowers
✨ What fellow Maxwell Leadership coaches have learned about adding value to people and living a life of significance
🎓 SPECIAL SEGMENT: “DON’T QUIT YOUR JOB (YET)”
We'll also unpack Tarek's masterclass, “Don't Quit Your Job (Yet)”—created for accomplished professionals caught between:
“I can't leave…”
and
“I can't keep doing this.”
This isn't about recklessly quitting your job.
It's about refusing to let fear make the decision for you.
We'll explore Tarek's four-part journey:
✨ The Pack: Is it really about the money?
✨ The Ladder: Who are you without the title?
✨ The Rope: Who's on your rope?
✨ The Mountain: What were you made for?
Perhaps the most important question isn't:
“How high can I climb?”
Maybe it's:
“Am I climbing the mountain that is actually mine?”
 
💬 Join the Conversation!
🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, region, or country in the comments!
🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?
💬 Got a leadership, purpose, career transition, or networking question for Tarek? Post it below—we'll answer as many as we can LIVE!
⸻
👇 Your Turn:
➡️ What are your three takeaways from this episode?
➡️ What's one leadership insight you're applying this week?
➡️ Are you climbing the ladder—or have you chosen your mountain? 🏔️
➡️ Tag a colleague, leader, junior officer, or teammate who needs this conversation. ❤️🙏🏾
Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ
🎙️ S5:E183 — “Choose Your Mountain: From Success to Significance”
 
#LeadershipAndSuccess #CoachBZ #TarekTaha #ChooseYourMountain #Leadership #MaxwellLeadership #SuccessToSignificance #Purpose #AuthenticLeadership #ExecutiveCoaching #CareerTransition

S5:E183🎙️ LIVE with Coach Tarek Taha
🏔️ Choose Your Mountain: From Success to Significance
 
Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ — Season 5, Episode 183
 
What happens when you’ve climbed the ladder, earned the title, achieved the success…and begin wondering whether you’ve been climbing the right mountain?
Join me LIVE for a powerful leadership conversation with fellow Maxwell Leadership Certified Coach Coach Tarek Taha.
 
📅 Wednesday, September 2, 2026
⏰ 6:30 AM PT (San Francisco, CA) | 8:30 AM CT (Greater Fayetteville, AR) | 9:30 AM ET (Washington, D.C.)
📍 LIVE on LinkedIn → RSVP & Join the Discussion
 
🌟 Meet My Guest
Tarek spent 31 years climbing the corporate ladder, including more than two decades at J.B. Hunt, where he ultimately served as Senior Director of Engineering & Technology. Along the way, he led teams, solved complex problems, and helped approximately 130 engineers launch and develop their careers.
Then, in 2018, everything changed.
An infection affecting his brain led to emergency brain surgery and a confrontation with mortality that no promotion, title, or résumé could answer.
That experience forced Tarek to wrestle with a deeper question:
Who am I underneath the title?
He didn't immediately walk away from corporate America. Instead, he began a deliberate journey of faith, growth, leadership, and purpose. At the end of 2025, he stepped away from his Fortune 500 career and into his next chapter as a full-time leadership coach. Today, he helps high achievers build a runway toward what's next—without gambling everything they've spent decades building.
 
🏔️ What You Will Learn…
Tarek uses a brilliant metaphor:
“You were handed a ladder at 22 and told to climb. Nobody asked which mountain was yours.”
During our conversation, we'll explore:
✨ How to move from success to significance
✨ Why your title is not your identity
✨ What 31 years in corporate leadership taught Tarek about people, influence, and purpose
✨ How his 2018 near-death experience transformed the way he thinks about faith, time, health, leadership, and legacy
✨ Why successful leaders can become trapped by the very success they worked so hard to achieve
✨ How to recognize when you've outgrown your current chapter
✨ Why asking better questions may be one of a leader's greatest superpowers
✨ What fellow Maxwell Leadership coaches have learned about adding value to people and living a life of significance
🎓 SPECIAL SEGMENT: “DON’T QUIT YOUR JOB (YET)”
We'll also unpack Tarek's masterclass, “Don't Quit Your Job (Yet)”—created for accomplished professionals caught between:
“I can't leave…”
and
“I can't keep doing this.”
This isn't about recklessly quitting your job.
It's about refusing to let fear make the decision for you.
We'll explore Tarek's four-part journey:
✨ The Pack: Is it really about the money?
✨ The Ladder: Who are you without the title?
✨ The Rope: Who's on your rope?
✨ The Mountain: What were you made for?
Perhaps the most important question isn't:
“How high can I climb?”
Maybe it's:
“Am I climbing the mountain that is actually mine?”
 
💬 Join the Conversation!
🗺️ Where are you tuning in from? Drop your city, region, or country in the comments!
🙏🏽 What is one thing you are grateful for today?
💬 Got a leadership, purpose, career transition, or networking question for Tarek? Post it below—we'll answer as many as we can LIVE!
⸻
👇 Your Turn:
➡️ What are your three takeaways from this episode?
➡️ What's one leadership insight you're applying this week?
➡️ Are you climbing the ladder—or have you chosen your mountain? 🏔️
➡️ Tag a colleague, leader, junior officer, or teammate who needs this conversation. ❤️🙏🏾
Leadership & Success Podcast with Coach BZ
🎙️ S5:E183 — “Choose Your Mountain: From Success to Significance”
 
#LeadershipAndSuccess #CoachBZ #TarekTaha #ChooseYourMountain #Leadership #MaxwellLeadership #SuccessToSignificance #Purpose #AuthenticLeadership #ExecutiveCoaching #CareerTransition