Episode 33 | Part One: Yael Averbuch

David and Yael Averbuch discuss her evolving perspectives on team dynamics and culture-building, as she moves up from player to team captain to general manager. Yael reflects on the challenges of setting up a young team to be ‘sustainably successful,’ and the two things she wished she had known as a younger athlete.

David welcomes to the show Yael Averbuch, owner of the training app Techne Futbol and general manager for NJ/NY Gotham FC. Yael has been in soccer teams since the age of seven — most notably, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels and the US Women’s National Team. In this episode, Yael shares her experiences of good and bad team cultures, and weighs in on the value of rituals and predictability in the humanly unpredictable world of sports.

In this second part of their conversation, David and Richard Kopelman discuss the value of the Aprio Way during recent mergers, acquisitions, and overseas expansion. Richard reflects on how having a structured company culture has helped to overcome mistakes made along the way.

David welcomes Richard Kopelman — CEO and managing partner of the business advisory and accounting firm Aprio. In this first of a two-part conversation, Richard recounts the pivotal moments that introduced him to leadership, the formalization of their company culture through the creation of the Aprio Way, and the story behind his company’s focus on kindness.

With Festival Foods coming up on its first decade of practicing the Boomerang Basics, David and Mark Skogen talk about the role that culture has played in the company’s recent history. Mark shares the advice he would give to his 25-year-old self.

In this episode, David sits down with Mark Skogen — CEO and president of the Festival Foods supermarket chain in Wisconsin. Mark is a third-generation grocer, his family having been in the grocery business since 1946. With him at the reins and their Boomerang Basics as their guide, the company has come to be recognized as a leader in innovation, growth, ethics, and of course, culture. 

David and Chris Deaver discuss how bravery ties into the co-creative approach. Chris weighs in on the idea that, amidst generational differences and constant disruptions around the world, culture may be a company’s best and most enduring product.

David welcomes to the show Chris Deaver — leadership coach, co-founder of BraveCore, and co-author of Brave Together: Lead by Design, Spark Creativity, and Shape the Future with the Power of Co-Creation. Armed with a background in animation and two decades of experience shaping Fortune 500 companies from the inside, in this episode Chris explains how organizational culture-building in this day and age is headed towards co-creation and collaboration.

David resumes his conversation with Roberta Matuson on what goes into building organizations that inspire employee loyalty. In this second part, Roberta also shares her insights on the evolution of the workforce, and reflects on her early start with corporate leadership.

Roberta Matuson, the Talent Maximizer, was introduced to corporate leadership at the age of 24. In 1997, she went on to found Matuson Consulting — and by the 2010s, she had established herself as a top author on leadership and talent optimization. In this first of a two-part conversation, David and Roberta revisit this decades-long journey, as well as the experiences behind her latest book Suddenly In Charge: Managing Up, Managing Down, Succeeding All Around.