Season 1 Highlights
A Call to Lead
That’s a wrap! Season 1 of A Call to Lead is in the books.
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Michelle Yeoh
A Call to Lead
This new episode of A Call to Lead has me in Singapore, sitting down in front of a live audience with one of the world’s most respected and popular global movie stars. Michelle Yeoh grew up in Malaysia and England, gained her early fame in Hong Kong action films, and went on to star in mega-hits such as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha, Star Trek: Discovery, and Crazy Rich Asians.
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Mercedes Abramo
A Call to Lead
This latest episode features one of the smartest women in retail. Mercedes Abramo is the President and CEO of Cartier North America, and I had the opportunity to sit down with her at Cartier’s Hudson Yards boutique in New York City this past April. Growing up in a retail household (her dad was a senior executive at Lord & Taylor), Mercedes had her sights set on becoming a lawyer. She majored in political science, worked at a law firm, couldn’t stand it, got a job in a hotel—and found her calling.
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Sylvia Acevedo
A Call to Lead
Whether you're a Girl Scout or not (I am—once a Scout, always a Scout), my conversation with Sylvia Acevedo, the CEO of the Girl Scouts, is worth a listen. Sylvia has a remarkable path to success: As a young woman, she was discouraged from pursuing her interest in engineering. So what did she do? She went to school for engineering and became a rocket scientist at NASA. After stops at IBM and Apple and Dell, Sylvia is leading millions of Girl Scouts to places they've never gone before.
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Sarah Hauser
A Call to Lead
On this new episode of A Call to Lead, I sit down with someone out of my world, and probably out of your world too. Sarah Hauser is a champion windsurfer who knows a lot about leadership and navigating your ideal career. Sarah talks about how a missed deadline forced her to delay her plan to pursue a math degree and gave her an unplanned year off to pursue windsurfing, which turned out to be her true calling.
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Tony Blair
A Call to Lead
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently sat down with me at A Call to Lead in Orlando. And on this week's podcast, we bring you the enlightening conversation. When the Prime Minister, who urged me to call him Tony, talks about the world or recalls his own experience as PM, he dispenses loads wisdom about leadership.
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Karlie Kloss
A Call to Lead
On this episode of A Call to Lead, you'll meet Karlie Kloss, a 26-year-old wonder who is building on her success as one of the world's top fashion models to expand her leadership platform and scale her social impact. She is teaching young women how to code at Kode with Klossy, her tech summer camps across the U.S. She is helping to discover the next generation of fashion designers on Project Runway, where she is the new host and executive producer.
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Adam Grant
A Call to Lead
We got a lot smarter after talking with Adam Grant on this new episode of A Call to Lead. You may know Adam from his best-selling books including Give and Take and Originals, and his hit podcast, WorkLife. Professor Grant's classes at Wharton are also wildly popular, which isn't surprising because he is one of today's smartest, freshest, and, yes, most original thinkers on leadership and success. Adam and I tackled these topics from all angles.
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Laura Dern
A Call to Lead
Today on A Call to Lead, you'll meet Laura Dern, one of the world's great actors. Laura knows leadership. In films like Jurassic Park and Wildand TV shows like Enlightened and Twin Peaks, she has captured the complexities and vulnerabilities of strong women. In HBO's Big Little Lies, Laura's award-winning performance as Renata Klein is a study of a tech CEO who is also a fierce and frightened mother. Laura and I covered a lot of ground including leadership, parenthood, and gender equity in the workplace.
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Jen Rubio
A Call to Lead
Today on A Call to Lead, I talk with Jen Rubio, the inspiring co-founder, president, and chief brand officer of Away. Jen co-founded Away on the notion that luggage—holding many of life's most important things when we travel—had become commoditized. Away injects style and community into travel.
info_outlineIn this week's episode of A Call to Lead, I sit down with Bobbi Brown, who started a cosmetics business in her home three decades ago, sold it to Estee Lauder, and stayed on board to build Bobbi Brown Essentials into a billion-dollar global brand. So Bobbi knows how to lead inside a giant corporation and, since she left Estee Lauder and is now back on her own, she is a serial entrepreneur. These days, Bobbi is innovating in the wellness space, with her startup called JustBOBBI, and in the hotel business. Bobbi Brown is a model of constant innovation and reinvention. Here are five key things that my team and I took away from our conversation:
1. I like to be able to have an open dialogue. I would call people in and I'd say, “Okay, tell me the truth. What's going on? Why is this not happening the way it's supposed to?...No one's ever gonna get fired over “my bad." They're gonna get fired if they don't tell the truth and they try to cover it up.
2. I watch women trying to be heard, and sometimes they're sitting on the edge of their seat and they're talking over. I see the men pushing back and just talking when they need to say something. If the women could visualize that, you could say whatever you need to say, but you need to say it from a sign of strength. Less words, calm down, and just say it. Just don't let those men in suits intimidate you.
3. It's the best time to create a business, and now is the time for reinvention.
4. When I started the cosmetics company so many years ago, people said, “Why does the world need another cosmetics company?” There's a white space if you have a different idea.
5. Stop thinking about it, stop planning for it, stop writing it down, just do it. And if you can't afford it, figure out a way you can.