Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with John Donahoe, President & CEO of NIKE, Inc., world's leading designer, marketer and distributor of authentic athletic footwear, apparel, equipment, and accessories for a wide variety of sports and fitness activities. 

John dove into his own career transitions and the deeper sense of purpose that guides him. He shared some of the inner challenges he has navigated throughout his career, insights from “wisdom conversations” he had with peers and mentors during a sabbatical, how he and his wife, Eileen, built a dual-career family, and so much more.

This podcast was recorded on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023. References to events or facts are true up to that point but might have changed between the recording and release of this episode.

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org. If you’re interested in exploring partnerships with BreakLine, please visit https://breakline.org/partners/partner-signup/.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Lenore Karafa, Partner at First In – an early-stage investment firm focused on empowering entrepreneurs on a mission. First In invests in companies at the forefront of modern security for enterprises and for society, including cybersecurity software and defense technology companies.

Lenore brings us along on her journey, from the Naval Academy to a prestigious career on Wall Street to surrounding herself with teams that exemplify her values. She details the growth mindset that helps her reframe challenging situations into opportunities, her experience being the only woman in the room, and the importance of building a supportive and strong professional network.

“My failures prepared me for the challenges that were to come. I went from being brittle to being resilient, setting me up well for the rest of my career.”

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org. If you’re interested in exploring partnerships with BreakLine, please visit https://breakline.org/partners/partner-signup/.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Jessica Nordell, journalist, and author of  The End of Bias: A Beginning.

In our conversation, she shares practical and research-backed approaches for addressing the habits of mind and action that prevent leaders from building and retaining outstanding teams. Among other topics, she describes the power of having an “existence proof,” the stabilizing and uplifting role that mentors play for up-and-coming professionals, and how to prevent “shadow requirements” from blocking one’s path to success. 

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org. If you’re interested in exploring partnerships with BreakLine, please visit https://breakline.org/partners/partner-signup/.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Jen Sovada, President of Public Sector at SandboxAQ. SandboxAQ is harnessing the power of AI + Quantum technology to develop products for computationally-intensive industries including the public sector, healthcare, and telecommunications.

Jen dives into her experience working on emerging technology while bridging the public-private sector gap, as well as her mentality around being a lifelong learner. She also shares some tips for building effective teams, managing imposter syndrome, and building a career in national security.

“When building a team, don’t look just at the qualities and skillsets that they bring. Look at how interested they are in learning, how inquisitive they are, and whether or not they want to grow and build.”

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org. If you’re interested in exploring partnerships with BreakLine, please visit https://breakline.org/partners/partner-signup/.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Dan Streetman, CEO of Tanium, a company developing innovative technology to manage complex security and IT environments.

Dan dives into his professional journey and describes the challenges he overcame as a CEO. He provides insights into what cultivates a successful leader and outlines the desired qualities of potential talent. All while revealing his framework for making the tough decisions that arise along the way.

“[The] trick is not just to be a good leader, but a leader of leaders.”

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org. If you’re interested in exploring partnerships with BreakLine, please visit https://breakline.org/partners/partner-signup/.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with William Treseder, Senior Vice President at BMNT, a company transforming how governments deliver new capabilities at speed and at scale.

William dives into all things defense tech, including the evolutions he has seen over the past decade and the current state of the market. He also shared the story of his non-linear career path and the essential insights he gained along the way. 

“There’s more defense startup-related activity now on any given day than there was in an entire year, ten years ago.”

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org. If you’re interested in exploring partnerships with BreakLine, please visit https://breakline.org/partners/partner-signup/.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a Conversation with General H.R. McMaster, Former US National Security Advisor, seasoned military strategist, and author of Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World.

In this episode, General McMaster analyzes the shifting tides of global threats since his tenure at the White House. He dives deeper into strategies aimed at reclaiming America's shared sense of identity, shares insights into what the U.S. public should keep in mind as we navigate current conflicts, and explores the collaboration between government and tech for enhanced national security. It's a thoughtful reflection on the collective consciousness of a nation amid strategic geopolitical challenges and the broader global impact.

“A lot of [US defense policies] are underpinned by implicit flawed assumptions and because they’re implicit, they never get challenged.”

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org. If you’re interested in exploring partnerships with BreakLine, please visit https://breakline.org/partners/partner-signup/.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Richard Coleman, President of Axon Federal, a technology company delivering critical public safety solutions to the nation’s top security, law enforcement agencies, and military departments.

Richard shares what attracted him to the public sector and national security as a young engineer, the importance of “breakthrough moments” in your career,  Axon’s work protecting lives and building trust between law enforcement and the community, and the importance of building a diverse team.

“Mission-driven people are typically the most passionate people, and oftentimes I find that they’re the most productive. It’s critical to make sure that you find something that you’re passionate about. Find something where every single day you wake up and go to sleep thinking about it. It becomes less like work and more like your why – why you exist, why you do what you do.”

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org. If you’re interested in exploring partnerships with BreakLine, please visit https://breakline.org/partners/partner-signup/.

Tyler Sweatt, CEO of Second Front Systems | Defense Tech: Transforming Government Software Delivery 

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Tyler Sweatt, CEO of Second Front Systems, a software startup building the first of its kind DevSecOps platform that accelerates delivery of commercial technology to U.S. warfighters and national security professionals.

Tyler shares what drew him to the defense tech space, ositions in the tech industry that are well aligned to veteran skill sets, and how Second Front is “the lattice that stitches the defense tech revolution together.” He talks about the importance of mission when it comes to attracting talent into the space, the value of building a team that is both intellectually and experientially diverse, and his advice for tech companies looking to create what he calls a “human capital flywheel.”

“If you’re creating space as a leader to enable good ideas, new expectations, and new ways of doing [things] to come up and ultimately get operationalized or institutionalized, that’s a human capital flywheel that’s pretty magical.”

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org. If you’re interested in exploring partnerships with BreakLine, please visit https://breakline.org/partners/partner-signup/.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Brett Granberg, Co-founder and CEO of Vannevar Labs, a defense tech startup delivering state-of-the-art technology to people on the front lines of national security.

Brett shares his perspectives on the opportunities for how to fundraise for and build a defense technology company, how their team ensures excellent product-market fit, why a mission-driven organization is magnetic for prospective employees, and some essentials of world-class leadership. 

“Our team is so outstanding - we are up-leveling all the time. I'm pushing hard every day to be worthy of working alongside them.” — Brett Granberg

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org. If you’re interested in exploring partnerships with BreakLine, please visit https://breakline.org/partners/partner-signup/.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Ethan Schmertzler, Co-founder and CEO of Dispel, a computer and network security company revolutionizing the Zero Trust and network security space.

Dispel started in Ethan Schmertzler’s New York City apartment nine years ago and today the company is well on its way to becoming the gold standard in industrial scale moving target defense technology. In this episode of the BreakLine Arena, Ethan shares the factors that are foundational to Dispel’s culture; including the flat hierarchy, the emphasis on “good expedition behavior,” and the prioritization of life outside of work. He digs deeper with the core mission of Dispel, their approach to hiring talent, and some fun stories from their early days in business!

“What Dispel focuses on is really enabling secure access to industrial control systems and all the components around that. We succeed as a company because we get really in the technical weeds on the market that we serve.“

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for another conversation within our “How do I tell you…” series. These discussions aim to foster healthy work relationships and collaborative professional environments by leveraging data-driven insights from our community, best practices that we role model here at BreakLine, and a few personal experiences and stories as well. 

In this episode of the BreakLine Arena, Mack and Bethany unpack the topic of microaggressions in the workplace and how to address them. They share personal examples of these experiences as well as reactions they’ve witnessed when others have been targeted. They offer a framework on how being specific, outcomes-oriented, and gracious can drive toward productive conflict resolution. 

To learn more about how to handle difficult situations in both high-trust and low-trust environments, what you can do when you are on the receiving end of clumsy, hurtful, or unkind language, and why having a low ego and high tolerance are vital in receiving and giving feedback, be sure to tune in! 

“BreakLine’s perspective is that the level of responsibility for addressing an insult or an offensive remark rises along with your positional authority, your safety, and your stature within the organization.” — Mack Gladney

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for the first conversation within our “How do I tell you…” series. These discussions aim to foster healthy work relationships and collaborative professional environments by leveraging data-driven insights from our community, best practices that we role model here at BreakLine, and a few personal experiences and stories as well. 

BreakLine Senior Customer Success Manager, Mack Gladney, joins Bethany to unpack the topic of conditional support in the workplace and how to address it. Conditional support refers to the common experience of perceiving psychological safety and belonging as long as you continue to show up in a particular way, often a way that is prescribed by your coworkers or the company at large.

They discuss their own experiences of conditional and unconditional support, leading with love instead of fear, building trust, and remaining outcomes-oriented. They also provide some real-world examples of how to successfully implement BreakLine’s problem-solving framework before Mack offers some inspirational parting words of wisdom. 

“Doing hard things with your teammates is how you build trust, and part of the hard thing is being vulnerable together.” — Mack Gladney

“Unconditional support is not about solving someone else's problem; it’s about standing alongside another human being who is feeling something deeply.” — Bethany Coates 

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Aishatu Fatima Dozie, Founder and CEO of Bossy Cosmetics, a mission-driven women’s empowerment company operating through the beauty industry. 

In this episode, Aisha explains what it means for women to have economic power and her approach to changing the power structure through cosmetics. She shares insights from her interdisciplinary and multicultural experiences, the importance of feedback, how she builds resiliency, and how to grow and maintain a great support network. 

“Go out and give something a try. If it works, great. If it doesn’t work, learn. There is no failure. Failure is not doing it at all.”

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Andy Rachleff, Executive Chairman of Wealthfront, Co-Founder of Benchmark Capital, and faculty member at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Andy shares his perspective on why Silicon Valley Bank collapsed (including the 'monstrous mistake' that led to a bank run), the actions that regulators took, and how these circumstances might affect the employment landscape and the broader economic environment. 

“Cash is oxygen and oxygen is life. This became a crisis for startups and young companies.”

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Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Anilu Vazquez-Ubarri, Partner and CHRO at TPG, a leading global alternative asset management firm investing across five multi-product platforms: Capital, Growth, Impact, Real Estate, and Market Solutions.

Diversity is synonymous with performance, especially when aligned with business outcomes. Anilu joins the BreakLine Arena to talk about her leadership experiences overseeing all-things people related, including diversity. She shares insights related to the importance of diverse boards of governance, why language surrounding diversity matters, why mentorship is vital, and how we can handle feedback with grace. 

“Being different is an asset… but make sure you’re not the only one who looks like you forever. Diversify the rooms you enter and then pay it backward for those who follow.” — Anilu Vazquez-Ubarri

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Wyc Grousbeck, Lead Owner of the Boston Celtics!

Wyc Grousbeck shares stories of determination, humility, kindness, insight, and respect. He recounts finding purpose through rowing - a lifelong pursuit that became a key driver of his success with the Boston Celtics. He also dives into the long-term plan he implemented together with Team Celtics to win the national championship in 2008.

Beyond his interests and talents at the Celtics, Wyc explains why service, and in particular, Massachusetts Eye and Ear is dear to his heart. He further illustrates how he views young leaders in high-visibility roles, and why he will always cherish lasting relationships.

“We know what the right thing to do is, all of us, and the more we can do it, the better.” — Wyc Grousbeck

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with John Taylor, the Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of Economics at Stanford University, and the George P. Shultz Senior Fellow in Economics at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Professor Taylor, developed the Taylor Rule, and is widely known for his expertise in fiscal and monetary policy, and international economics.

According to Professor Taylor, monetary policy is the primary muscle behind inflation rates. In order to understand why simplicity in policy has never been more necessary, Professor Taylor discusses the Federal Reserve System (the Fed), their decision-making methods, inflation rate formulas, the macroeconomic environment in the US, and his predictions for the near future.

Professor Taylor dissects the current inflation rate in the United States, where it is heading, the roadmap of a healthy economy, and why "2%" is the number to watch.

“Simplification is becoming more and more attractive. The more that the monetary policy can focus on something simple the better.”

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Roxanne Petraeus, CEO and Co-founder of Ethena, a compliance training platform with intuitive and powerful admin tools, built to make training easy, engaging, and effective

In today’s episode, Roxanne shares how Ethena is providing a new and improved take on compliance training, emphasizing the importance of action-oriented goals across the company and the need for driving measurable outcomes. She shares experiences of overcoming perfectionism and how her Army service translated to success in entrepreneurship. 

“Leadership matters. I lead with humility. I ask questions, probe for first principles to better understand the situation. That’s how I leverage and benefit from my teammates' incredible expertise.”

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org.

Join us in the BreakLine Arena for a conversation with Special Operations Veteran, musician, and BreakLine participant, Chris Bickel.

Chris shares his life story, opening up about how the diagnosis of a rare autoimmune disease recalibrated and ultimately improved his life. He discusses the complexity of living with and healing from invisible disabilities and the reluctance some people have, especially some veterans, towards claiming disability support. He also shares inspiring insights on leadership and the value of supporting those around you. 

“Not identifying as an operator or as a soldier, but just as me was one of the most valuable experiences of my entire life...Transcending is overcoming the reality of a situation. It’s enduring, preserving, and learning about yourself” 

Please like, rate, subscribe, or review our show if you’ve liked what you’ve heard! We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re interested in joining our community, please visit www.breakline.org.