100 - Celebrating 100 Episodes with a Spotlight on Amazing Friends and Guests

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This marks the Centennial Episode of Ultimate Guide to Partnering with a unique podcast, celebrating 100 episodes with a spotlight on amazing friends and guests. I am beyond grateful for their generosity, their grace, and their willingness to help shape the dialogues on both what makes partnerships successful as well as how we can make a positive impact on our world.

As I approached this 100^th episode, I couldn’t help but reflect on how we got here and why. It all started in the fall of 2016 when I left the tech giant and opened my heart to new possibilities and let forces – and wonderful friends like you – help shape what was next.

There was the friend who turned me onto the podcast medium, which I became an immediate fan of.

There was another friend that suggested that I do my own podcast on partnering. And it made me realize that there was a huge gap that I might be able to fill with my experience and expertise.

You see, I knew from my nine years as General Manager of Partner Strategy at Microsoft, that partners often struggled to successfully navigate their work with the tech giants. There were a small handful of technology organizations that had the decoder ring and had gotten it right. But most were falling short. So I started the podcast to help the many thousands of partners in the Microsoft ecosystem better optimize for success and deliver during this time of intense technological transformation. From the beginning, I was incredibly blessed to have so many incredible friends and industry leaders as guests on the podcast.

At times, there were doubts. Has this really been worth it? Spending dozens of hours each week to perfect the process and reach the audience who would most benefit from it? And just when I needed it, a third friend coached me about consistency. So I plodded along for 60 episodes, and learned so much along the way. And it wasn’t just about the principles of successful partnering; it was also the personal and professional journey – the grit, determination and resolve to overcome and to do and to be more.

But after 60 episodes, I strayed from my path and put the podcast on the shelf to pursue what I thought would be the dream gig leading the alliance at a billion-dollar Microsoft partner. And in some ways, it was because it gave me new insight from a completely different perspective. When I relaunched the podcast in June of 2020 , I was convinced more than ever that partnerships could accelerate growth and be a catalyst for survival during this time. I now had experience from both sides: at Microsoft as a channel chief, and also as a partner to a tech giant. Not only did I know intuitively what was required to make partnerships successful for both parties, I had also seen firsthand why they often failed, and how culture, mindset, commitment and maniacal focus were pivotal to both success and failure.

When I brought the podcast back last summer at the height of the pandemic, the country was in agony. And so I relaunched with a personal conviction – one that I’ve held in my heart and soul for some time – that we in the tech sector could and SHOULD be a force for good. That to manifest the change we wish to see in the world requires that we as leaders address deep-rooted issues in our society.

What you have seen in the 40 episodes I’ve recorded over the last ten or so months is that the podcast is much, much more. Yes, this is the Ultimate Guide to Partnering where business leaders come to share the strategies, business principles and leadership required for successful partnerships. But more than just a podcast on partnering, it has become a forum for leaders to tell their stories about overcoming adversity, driving change in business and making a difference in our society and our world. So many incredible leaders, so many great stories, so much to learn from these trailblazers in the industry.

Now, here’s the hard part…how do I sum this up for you in one concise podcast episode? I can’t, so I invite you to listen along with me to some of the best interviews of the past year.

When I relaunched in June, the country literally and figuratively was on fire. Lani Phillips and Rodney Clark, both Microsoft execs, were two of my first guests at the height of the unrest last summer surrounding George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others. Both Lani and Rodney shared some of their experiences rising through the Microsoft executive ranks. But more importantly, we had authentic conversations that reminded me of my white privilege and helped me – and hopefully my listeners as well – understand a bit more about the challenges of growing up Black in America.

I’ve had many other fantastic guests from diverse backgrounds come and share their stories. And they have shared many great pearls of wisdom, especially for those professionals that are early in their careers. I often find it remarkable what these leaders had to conquer to get to this point in life.

If you look at the guest list over the last year, you will notice that many extraordinary female leaders joined this forum and shared their stories of overcoming fear, self-doubt, imposter syndrome and a predominantly white male-dominated technology business culture. I am still touched by the conversations I had with leaders like Linda Rendleman of Microsoft, Sharan Hildebrand of Hitachi, and Gavriella Schuster, Microsoft’s former Channel Chief who joined me in November 2020 at the time of her TedTalk with a call to action to make a difference and drive change.

I’ve had masters in their craft come and teach us: Miri Rodriguez, the most powerful of storytellers; Tiffani Bova an industry-acclaimed business sales growth leader; Dux Raymond Sy, an extraordinary social brand builder; Linda Rose, a successful serial entrepreneur; and my dear friend Don Yaeger who joined us just after suffering and recovering from COVID to help us understand what makes great teams.

One of my most extraordinary guests this year was Dr. Michael Gervais, the high-performance coach to Fortune 100 leaders like Satya Nadella, as well as MVPs, Olympians and other athletes at the pinnacle of their careers. In this special two-part series (found here and here), we discussed “first principles” and why they are so fundamental to successful partnering in business as well as personal and professional fulfillment.

I consider all of these incredible guests to be my friends and I am beyond grateful for their generosity, their grace and their willingness to help shape the dialogues on both what makes partnerships successful as well as how we can make a positive impact on this world. We now have a body of work – 100 amazing episodes with key learnings, insights and aha moments from the best in the business.

As I close this milestone 100^th episode with you, I’m reminded of my own journey. I left a high-powered GM role to chart a new course. There are many different paths that I could have taken. But I took the road less traveled, and it has made all the difference. There were naysayers, skeptics and critics along the way. Many of my closest family members and friends still don’t understand why I chose this path.

The journey hasn’t been easy – I’ve had my own self-doubt and imposter syndrome at times, and I’ve dealt with extreme personal loss, including the death of my mom recently to COVID. Yet, as I reflect on the path that brought me to this 100^th episode, and the knowledge I hope to share through this podcast, I’m reminded of a quote from one of my favorite authors, the remarkable Nazi concentration camp survivor, Dr. Viktor Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning. “The last of one’s freedoms, is to choose one’s attitude.”

If we have seen anything over the past year, it is that transformation is coming whether we like it or not. I firmly believe that holding an attitude that embraces change will lead to more successful outcomes for each of us individually, for our business partnerships and for a more positive impact on our world and society.

RESOURCES

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Titles speak volumes – links to these incredible leadership conversations below: