Driven to Lead

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Theodore “TJ” Perlick Molinari, Chief Executive Officer of Perlick Corporation, shares leadership lessons from a fifth-generation family-owned manufacturing company with more than a century of history. Perlick, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has helped shape the beverage refrigeration, beer dispensing, underbar, and premium residential refrigeration categories through generations of innovation, craftsmanship, and customer focus. TJ reflects on the responsibility of stewarding that legacy, honoring the generations that came before, and preparing the company for the generations still to come. The heart of the conversation is TJ’s story about family alignment inside a family-owned business. He explains that if the family is not healthy, aligned, and operating from shared facts, the business will eventually feel the strain. After years of difficult family dynamics, differing perspectives, and challenges around trust and communication, the fifth generation brought in outside help, worked through the facts, became more open and vulnerable with one another, and reached a much stronger level of alignment. TJ connects that work directly to better business leadership, stronger decision-making, continued innovation, and a renewed ability to pursue opportunities with confidence. His story is a powerful reminder that leadership is not only about strategy, products, or performance. It is also about relationships, trust, shared truth, courage, and the willingness to do the hard work that allows a business — and the people behind it — to thrive across generations. Give it a like, share, and subscribe to not miss the content coming your way weekly. – Wayne and the Driven to Lead podcast teamContact Wayne here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-brannon-792b0536/Visit the gr8road website here: https://www.gr8road.com/Listen to Driven to Lead on these podcast platforms:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/161InPnNaM5p1H1zERQrxmApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/driven-to-lead/id1819958647 Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/582480a2-36bc-42ab-b010-f57d9c9279fe/driven-to-lead#Leadership #BusinessLeadership #ExecutiveLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamBuilding #ManagementSkills #LeadershipTips #PersonalGrowth #ProfessionalDevelopment #WorkplaceCulture #CareerGrowth #Entrepreneurship #SuccessMindset #Motivation #DrivenToLead #WayneBrannon #LeadershipPodcast #Inspiration #LeadershipJourneyDriven to Lead is a podcast dedicated to inspiring and empowering business leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs to reach their full potential. Hosted by Wayne Brannon, each episode dives deep into leadership strategies, personal growth, team management, and real-world business challenges. Whether you’re leading a startup or a large organization, Driven to Lead offers actionable insights to help you build strong teams, develop your leadership skills, and create a positive impact in your workplace. Tune in weekly to unlock your leadership potential and drive success.

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Brook Jay, Founder and CEO of All Terrain, shares lessons from building one of the first women-owned experiential marketing agencies in the United States. Brook founded All Terrain in the late 1990s, before experiential marketing was widely recognized as its own category and went on to work with major brands by helping them create meaningful live experiences, cultural moments, and measurable connections with consumers. The heart of the conversation is Brook’s story of leadership, culture, and reinvention. After years of growth, the company reached a point where outside professional leadership seemed like the right next step. But over time, the business moved away from the culture, values, relationships, and creative energy that had made it successful. Brook ultimately faced a difficult decision: continue down a path that no longer reflected the company she had built, or make a bold reset and rebuild around what mattered most. She chose to protect the relationships, trust, creativity, and people-first spirit that had always been at the center of All Terrain. Her story is a reminder that a company’s greatest assets are not necessarily its structure and processes. Sometimes the real assets are the trust a founder has earned, the culture people believe in, and the relationships strong enough to bring a business back to life. Give it a like, share, and subscribe to not miss the content coming your way weekly. – Wayne and the Driven to Lead podcast teamContact Wayne here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-brannon-792b0536/Visit the gr8road website here: https://www.gr8road.com/Listen to Driven to Lead on these podcast platforms:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/161InPnNaM5p1H1zERQrxmApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/driven-to-lead/id1819958647 Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/582480a2-36bc-42ab-b010-f57d9c9279fe/driven-to-lead#Leadership #BusinessLeadership #ExecutiveLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamBuilding #ManagementSkills #LeadershipTips #PersonalGrowth #ProfessionalDevelopment #WorkplaceCulture #CareerGrowth #Entrepreneurship #SuccessMindset #Motivation #DrivenToLead #WayneBrannon #LeadershipPodcast #Inspiration #LeadershipJourneyDriven to Lead is a podcast dedicated to inspiring and empowering business leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs to reach their full potential. Hosted by Wayne Brannon, each episode dives deep into leadership strategies, personal growth, team management, and real-world business challenges. Whether you’re leading a startup or a large organization, Driven to Lead offers actionable insights to help you build strong teams, develop your leadership skills, and create a positive impact in your workplace. Tune in weekly to unlock your leadership potential and drive success.

In this conversation, Wayne Brannon interviews James Keyes, a seasoned executive and author, discussing his experiences in leadership, the importance of embracing change, and the lessons learned from his time at Blockbuster. Keyes emphasizes the need for confidence, preparation, and clarity in navigating uncertainty in business, while also sharing insights from his new book, 'Education is Freedom.' In this conversation, the speakers delve into the importance of understanding consumer behavior, the challenges posed by global competitors, and the evolving role of human skills in an increasingly automated world. They discuss the balance of faith and reason in leadership and the significance of sharing knowledge to inspire others. The dialogue emphasizes the need for adaptability in business and the value of personal connections in a technology-driven landscape. Give it a like, share, and subscribe to not miss the content coming your way weekly. – Wayne and the Driven to Lead podcast teamContact Wayne here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-brannon-792b0536/Visit the gr8road website here: https://www.gr8road.com/Listen to Driven to Lead on these podcast platforms:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/161InPnNaM5p1H1zERQrxmApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/driven-to-lead/id1819958647 Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/582480a2-36bc-42ab-b010-f57d9c9279fe/driven-to-lead#Leadership #BusinessLeadership #ExecutiveLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamBuilding #ManagementSkills #LeadershipTips #PersonalGrowth #ProfessionalDevelopment #WorkplaceCulture #CareerGrowth #Entrepreneurship #SuccessMindset #Motivation #DrivenToLead #WayneBrannon #LeadershipPodcast #Inspiration #LeadershipJourneyDriven to Lead is a podcast dedicated to inspiring and empowering business leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs to reach their full potential. Hosted by Wayne Brannon, each episode dives deep into leadership strategies, personal growth, team management, and real-world business challenges. Whether you’re leading a startup or a large organization, Driven to Lead offers actionable insights to help you build strong teams, develop your leadership skills, and create a positive impact in your workplace. Tune in weekly to unlock your leadership potential and drive success.

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Jeroen Kraaijenbrink shares his journey from academia to consulting and now to leadership coaching and mentoring, where his work focuses on helping leaders move beyond traditional, ego-driven models of leadership toward what he calls “eldership.” Jeroen describes eldership as a more mature, responsible, and integrated form of leadership — one that looks beyond short-term performance, reduces the dominance of ego, and helps leaders bring their whole self into their work. The conversation explores the difficulty of real behavior change, the importance of daily reflection, and Jeroen’s simple but powerful coaching framework: “face it, feel it, fix it.” He also shares a striking story from a manufacturing company where his culture assessment revealed a serious leadership problem, but the CEO’s defensive response ended the engagement. The story is a reminder that leadership growth requires courage, humility, self-awareness, and a willingness to hear the truth — especially when the truth is uncomfortable. Give it a like, share, and subscribe to not miss the content coming your way weekly. – Wayne and the Driven to Lead podcast teamContact Wayne here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-brannon-792b0536/Visit the gr8road website here: https://www.gr8road.com/Listen to Driven to Lead on these podcast platforms:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/161InPnNaM5p1H1zERQrxmApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/driven-to-lead/id1819958647 Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/582480a2-36bc-42ab-b010-f57d9c9279fe/driven-to-lead#Leadership #BusinessLeadership #ExecutiveLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamBuilding #ManagementSkills #LeadershipTips #PersonalGrowth #ProfessionalDevelopment #WorkplaceCulture #CareerGrowth #Entrepreneurship #SuccessMindset #Motivation #DrivenToLead #WayneBrannon #LeadershipPodcast #Inspiration #LeadershipJourneyDriven to Lead is a podcast dedicated to inspiring and empowering business leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs to reach their full potential. Hosted by Wayne Brannon, each episode dives deep into leadership strategies, personal growth, team management, and real-world business challenges. Whether you’re leading a startup or a large organization, Driven to Lead offers actionable insights to help you build strong teams, develop your leadership skills, and create a positive impact in your workplace. Tune in weekly to unlock your leadership potential and drive success.

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Sebastian Di Grande, CEO of PCX Markets, shares leadership lessons from a career that has taken him from global consulting and digital transformation to a mission-driven effort to protect nature from plastic waste. Sebastian discusses the scale of the plastic sustainability challenge, including the reality that only a small percentage of plastics are recycled and many are not even practically recyclable. He explains how PCX Markets is working to address the issue through plastic credits, access to recyclable materials, responsible intelligence, and performance-based education. Sebastian also shares a leadership story about entering an organization and beginning to change the culture by shifting how people approached problems, used data, and made decisions. Early changes were accepted, but as the transformation became more fundamental, senior leadership resistance emerged. His story is a reminder that meaningful change is not only about data, strategy, or good intentions. Leaders must also understand culture, anticipate resistance, and bring people along when the work begins to challenge the way an organization has always operated. Give it a like, share, and subscribe to not miss the content coming your way weekly. – Wayne and the Driven to Lead podcast teamContact Wayne here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-brannon-792b0536/Visit the gr8road website here: https://www.gr8road.com/Listen to Driven to Lead on these podcast platforms:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/161InPnNaM5p1H1zERQrxmApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/driven-to-lead/id1819958647 Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/582480a2-36bc-42ab-b010-f57d9c9279fe/driven-to-lead#Leadership #BusinessLeadership #ExecutiveLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamBuilding #ManagementSkills #LeadershipTips #PersonalGrowth #ProfessionalDevelopment #WorkplaceCulture #CareerGrowth #Entrepreneurship #SuccessMindset #Motivation #DrivenToLead #WayneBrannon #LeadershipPodcast #Inspiration #LeadershipJourneyDriven to Lead is a podcast dedicated to inspiring and empowering business leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs to reach their full potential. Hosted by Wayne Brannon, each episode dives deep into leadership strategies, personal growth, team management, and real-world business challenges. Whether you’re leading a startup or a large organization, Driven to Lead offers actionable insights to help you build strong teams, develop your leadership skills, and create a positive impact in your workplace. Tune in weekly to unlock your leadership potential and drive success.

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Chad Altbaier, Co-CEO of Standard Fiber, shares a powerful story about being accelerated into his first CEO role during a period of disruption, pressure, and uncertainty. Chad explains how he was originally recruited as Chief Commercial Officer with the expectation that he might eventually step into the CEO seat, but that transition happened much faster than expected. Soon after, the former CEO became a competitor and took several strong people with him, creating a difficult leadership challenge at the very moment Chad was trying to stabilize the business, transform the culture, and move the company forward. Chad describes the experience as a form of “wartime leadership,” requiring him to listen carefully, lead with empathy, communicate a clear vision, manage up to owners and board members, and stay hands-on with the team. The conversation also explores the emotional demands of leadership, including the importance of self-regulation, health, vulnerability, and even love in the workplace. Chad’s story is a reminder that great leadership is not just about strategy and results — it is also about belief, presence, resilience, and the ability to help people keep moving forward when the path gets difficult. Give it a like, share, and subscribe to not miss the content coming your way weekly. – Wayne and the Driven to Lead podcast teamContact Wayne here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-brannon-792b0536/Visit the gr8road website here: https://www.gr8road.com/Listen to Driven to Lead on these podcast platforms:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/161InPnNaM5p1H1zERQrxmApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/driven-to-lead/id1819958647 Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/582480a2-36bc-42ab-b010-f57d9c9279fe/driven-to-lead#Leadership #BusinessLeadership #ExecutiveLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamBuilding #ManagementSkills #LeadershipTips #PersonalGrowth #ProfessionalDevelopment #WorkplaceCulture #CareerGrowth #Entrepreneurship #SuccessMindset #Motivation #DrivenToLead #WayneBrannon #LeadershipPodcast #Inspiration #LeadershipJourneyDriven to Lead is a podcast dedicated to inspiring and empowering business leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs to reach their full potential. Hosted by Wayne Brannon, each episode dives deep into leadership strategies, personal growth, team management, and real-world business challenges. Whether you’re leading a startup or a large organization, Driven to Lead offers actionable insights to help you build strong teams, develop your leadership skills, and create a positive impact in your workplace. Tune in weekly to unlock your leadership potential and drive success.

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Fay Niewiadomski, Founder and CEO of ICTN, shares a powerful story about courage, identity, and the decisions that shape a life. Fay reflects on a defining moment from her years in Beirut, when she was serving as dean of a university during a long period of civil war. One morning, she arrived at the beautiful office that had become a symbol of her professional accomplishment, only to find that it had been destroyed by a bomb overnight. In that moment of shock and loss, Fay faced a choice: remain defined by the disaster or use it as a decision point for transformation. She chose to rethink, reimagine, and reset her life. That turning point led her to leave the comfort of academia, confront needed changes in her personal life, build new businesses, and ultimately expand her work as a leadership coach and transformation consultant. Fay’s story is a reminder that leaders do not control every circumstance, but they do have the power to decide how they will respond. With courage, grit, identity, and purpose, even moments of devastation can become the beginning of an exciting new path toward transformation.  Give it a like, share, and subscribe to not miss the content coming your way weekly. – Wayne and the Driven to Lead podcast teamContact Wayne here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-brannon-792b0536/Visit the gr8road website here: https://www.gr8road.com/Listen to Driven to Lead on these podcast platforms:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/161InPnNaM5p1H1zERQrxmApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/driven-to-lead/id1819958647 Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/582480a2-36bc-42ab-b010-f57d9c9279fe/driven-to-lead#Leadership #BusinessLeadership #ExecutiveLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamBuilding #ManagementSkills #LeadershipTips #PersonalGrowth #ProfessionalDevelopment #WorkplaceCulture #CareerGrowth #Entrepreneurship #SuccessMindset #Motivation #DrivenToLead #WayneBrannon #LeadershipPodcast #Inspiration #LeadershipJourneyDriven to Lead is a podcast dedicated to inspiring and empowering business leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs to reach their full potential. Hosted by Wayne Brannon, each episode dives deep into leadership strategies, personal growth, team management, and real-world business challenges. Whether you’re leading a startup or a large organization, Driven to Lead offers actionable insights to help you build strong teams, develop your leadership skills, and create a positive impact in your workplace. Tune in weekly to unlock your leadership potential and drive success.

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Eric Corey Freed, Director of Sustainability at Cannon Design, shares a powerful story about how sustainability can become much more than an environmental initiative. Eric describes working with a major children’s hospital in California that had asked for help developing its first sustainability plan. What began as a conversation about recycling, environmental impact, and responsible operations became something much deeper. During a retreat with senior executives, department leaders, and key partners, the team began sharing data, ideas, and insights that normally lived in separate parts of the organization. As the conversation unfolded, the sustainability planning process helped break down silos, reconnect the team to its mission, and spark a broader discussion about innovation, health, hope, and the lives of the children they serve. One of the most memorable outcomes was Eric’s idea of a “North Star metric” — not just a financial or operational measure, but a human one that captures what the organization is really trying to create. For this hospital, that metric became the sound of laughter in the hallways. Eric’s story is a reminder that leadership, innovation, and sustainability all begin with asking better questions, bringing the right people together, and reconnecting the organization to the mission that matters most. Give it a like, share, and subscribe to not miss the content coming your way weekly. – Wayne and the Driven to Lead podcast teamContact Wayne here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-brannon-792b0536/Visit the gr8road website here: https://www.gr8road.com/Listen to Driven to Lead on these podcast platforms:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/161InPnNaM5p1H1zERQrxmApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/driven-to-lead/id1819958647 Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/582480a2-36bc-42ab-b010-f57d9c9279fe/driven-to-lead#Leadership #BusinessLeadership #ExecutiveLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamBuilding #ManagementSkills #LeadershipTips #PersonalGrowth #ProfessionalDevelopment #WorkplaceCulture #CareerGrowth #Entrepreneurship #SuccessMindset #Motivation #DrivenToLead #WayneBrannon #LeadershipPodcast #Inspiration #LeadershipJourneyDriven to Lead is a podcast dedicated to inspiring and empowering business leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs to reach their full potential. Hosted by Wayne Brannon, each episode dives deep into leadership strategies, personal growth, team management, and real-world business challenges. Whether you’re leading a startup or a large organization, Driven to Lead offers actionable insights to help you build strong teams, develop your leadership skills, and create a positive impact in your workplace. Tune in weekly to unlock your leadership potential and drive success.

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Stephen Pridmore of Crenlo Engineered Cabs shares a powerful leadership story from an earlier chapter in his career, when he was serving as COO of a manufacturing company facing major post-COVID challenges. With several operations under financial pressure, supply chain disruptions affecting the automotive industry, and one large manufacturing unit losing significant money, the leadership team made the difficult decision to close one of its plants. Stephen traveled to the location to inform the team and begin the shutdown process. But after spending time with the people on site, listening carefully, and understanding facts that had not been fully visible from a distance, he became convinced the decision was wrong. Despite the momentum already behind the closure and the personal career risk involved, Stephen reversed course, kept the plant open, and helped put it on a path back to profitability. The business recovered, employees returned, and the operation is still running today. His story is a powerful reminder that leadership requires more than making tough decisions — it also requires humility, listening, courage, and the willingness to change direction when better information reveals a better path. Give it a like, share, and subscribe to not miss the content coming your way weekly. – Wayne and the Driven to Lead podcast teamContact Wayne here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-brannon-792b0536/Visit the gr8road website here: https://www.gr8road.com/Listen to Driven to Lead on these podcast platforms:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/161InPnNaM5p1H1zERQrxmApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/driven-to-lead/id1819958647 Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/582480a2-36bc-42ab-b010-f57d9c9279fe/driven-to-lead#Leadership #BusinessLeadership #ExecutiveLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamBuilding #ManagementSkills #LeadershipTips #PersonalGrowth #ProfessionalDevelopment #WorkplaceCulture #CareerGrowth #Entrepreneurship #SuccessMindset #Motivation #DrivenToLead #WayneBrannon #LeadershipPodcast #Inspiration #LeadershipJourneyDriven to Lead is a podcast dedicated to inspiring and empowering business leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs to reach their full potential. Hosted by Wayne Brannon, each episode dives deep into leadership strategies, personal growth, team management, and real-world business challenges. Whether you’re leading a startup or a large organization, Driven to Lead offers actionable insights to help you build strong teams, develop your leadership skills, and create a positive impact in your workplace. Tune in weekly to unlock your leadership potential and drive success.

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Danny Schnaars, CEO of AmeriGlobe tells a leadership story about how a customer-facing product demonstration sparked an idea from someone in another industry, creating a potential major growth opportunity. The leadership lesson is that innovation does not always start in the boardroom. It often starts with people close to the customer noticing something, connecting dots, and bringing ideas back to a team that can act. Give it a like, share, and subscribe to not miss the content coming your way weekly. – Wayne and the Driven to Lead podcast teamContact Wayne here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-brannon-792b0536/Visit the gr8road website here: https://www.gr8road.com/Listen to Driven to Lead on these podcast platforms:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/161InPnNaM5p1H1zERQrxmApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/driven-to-lead/id1819958647 Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/582480a2-36bc-42ab-b010-f57d9c9279fe/driven-to-lead#Leadership #BusinessLeadership #ExecutiveLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamBuilding #ManagementSkills #LeadershipTips #PersonalGrowth #ProfessionalDevelopment #WorkplaceCulture #CareerGrowth #Entrepreneurship #SuccessMindset #Motivation #DrivenToLead #WayneBrannon #LeadershipPodcast #Inspiration #LeadershipJourneyDriven to Lead is a podcast dedicated to inspiring and empowering business leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs to reach their full potential. Hosted by Wayne Brannon, each episode dives deep into leadership strategies, personal growth, team management, and real-world business challenges. Whether you’re leading a startup or a large organization, Driven to Lead offers actionable insights to help you build strong teams, develop your leadership skills, and create a positive impact in your workplace. Tune in weekly to unlock your leadership potential and drive success.