Fight Less, Win More: Leadership, Strategy, and Negotiation with Jonathan Smith
Release Date: 10/21/2025
Founder Transition: The Hidden Pressure Founders Carry Before an Exit
Connecting With Purpose
Founder transitions are often framed as financial or structural events. But long before a succession plan, ownership evolution, or exit is announced, founders carry a hidden layer of pressure that few people see. In this solo episode of Connecting With Purpose, I continue the conversation from last week’s episode, Founder Transition: Identity Before the Deal. While that episode explored the identity shift from operator → owner → steward, this episode focuses on another critical dimension of founder transition: The weight founders carry while navigating the future of their business. Even...
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Founder Transition: Identity Before the Deal
Connecting With Purpose
Ownership transition isn’t just a financial event. It’s an identity shift. In this episode, I explore the part of founder transition that rarely gets discussed — the internal evolution required before structure changes. Whether you’re considering succession, employee ownership, partial liquidity, or long-term exit planning, the most important work doesn’t begin with valuation models or legal structures. It begins with identity. In this episode, we cover: - Why ownership transition is primarily an identity event - The evolution from operator → owner → steward - How unexamined...
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Impact, Trust, & Ownership: A Founder’s Bold Succession Strategy with Miren Oca
Connecting With Purpose
In this episode of Connecting with Purpose, Mark Griffin sits down with Miren Oca, founder of Ocaquatics Swim School and founder of Ripples of Impact — a nonprofit expanding access to life-saving swim education in Miami-Dade County. Since 1994, Miren has grown Ocaquatics into a multi-location swim school built on culture, ownership, and purpose. In 2024, she made a bold move: transitioning 100% of the company to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT), protecting its mission while creating long-term wealth-building opportunities for her team. But this conversation goes...
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Sustainability as a Performance Strategy
Connecting With Purpose
You can be aligned. You can be executing. And still be quietly running out of gas. In this solo episode of Connecting with Purpose, Mark explores one of the most overlooked drivers of sustainable performance: capacity. Most leaders focus on strategy and execution. Few pay attention to the nervous system behind their leadership. Capacity isn’t just about time. It’s about energy. When capacity erodes, leaders narrow their perspective, default to hero mode, become the bottleneck, and slowly drift toward burnout — even while appearing successful on the outside. In this...
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Vulnerability, Resilience & Results with Sara Jensen: Building Through Adversity
Connecting With Purpose
In this Season 4 episode of Connecting with Purpose, Mark Griffin sits down with Sara Jensen, CEO and co-founder of Hugh & Grace, to explore how vulnerability becomes a leadership advantage and how purpose fuels sustained performance at scale. Sara shares the defining moments that shaped her leadership identity, from navigating 14 years of unexplained infertility to making high-stakes decisions under pressure while building one of the fastest-growing mission-driven wellness companies in the U.S. This conversation goes beyond origin stories and into the real...
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From Belief to Alignment: The Missing Link in High-Performing Teams
Connecting With Purpose
High-performing teams don’t stall because they lack talent or effort. They stall when belief doesn’t turn into alignment. In this solo episode, we explore the often-overlooked bridge between belief, identity, alignment, and trust — and why teams can be full of capable, values-driven people yet still struggle to move forward together. Belief lives inside individuals. Alignment and trust live between them. That distinction changes everything. You’ll learn: • Why shared belief does not automatically create shared understanding • The simple exercise that instantly reveals whether your...
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Regenerative Finance Explained: How Purpose-Driven Leaders Change Business with Jasper van Brakel
Connecting With Purpose
Welcome back to Season 4 of Connecting with Purpose — where we put founders first and share the stories of the humans behind the business. In this episode, Mark sits down with Jasper Van Brakel, President & CEO of RSF Social Finance (Regenerative Social Finance), to explore what happens when purpose, capital, and systemic change come together. If you’re an impact-driven founder or leader navigating growth, funding, culture, and the messy middle of leadership, this conversation will resonate deeply. Jasper shares three defining “magic moments” that shaped his journey — from an...
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Belief, Identity, & Ultimate Performance: Re-Anchoring After the New Year
Connecting With Purpose
If you’re listening to this in mid-January, you may recognize this moment. You set goals. You clarified priorities. You stepped into the year with intention. And now… you’re back in meetings. Back in execution. Back in the reality that can quietly pull you away from what mattered most just weeks ago. In this solo episode, Mark explores why January is not a motivation problem — it’s an alignment moment. As the noise increases and familiar patterns re-emerge, leaders often begin to drift. Not because they lack discipline or drive, but because something deeper has gone quiet. That...
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A Leadership Journey: From Empty Achievement to Regenerative Impact with Keith Bearden
Connecting With Purpose
In this episode of Connecting with Purpose, Mark Griffin sits down with Keith Bearden, CEO of Alter Eco Foods—the company behind some of the cleanest, greenest (and frankly, most addictive) chocolate bars, truffles, granola, and quinoa on the planet. Keith shares how a childhood shaped by a small Tennessee farm and a grandfather who quietly practiced servant leadership set the foundation for a career defined by courage, empathy, and impact. From becoming Dow Chemical’s youngest expat in Antwerp, to walking away from executive roles that no longer aligned with his integrity, to eventually...
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Belief, Identity, and the Quiet Foundations of Ultimate Performance
Connecting With Purpose
As we step into a new year, most leaders are refining goals, strategies, and growth plans. But beneath all of that sits something far more fundamental — and far less discussed. Belief. and Identity. In this solo episode, Mark Griffin explores the quiet foundations of Ultimate Performance and why so many founders and senior leaders feel growing pressure even when the business is succeeding. Drawing from his work with growth-stage founders, CEOs, and leadership teams, Mark unpacks: —Why belief is not optimism or motivation, but a decision grounded in purpose —How outdated leadership...
info_outlineIn this episode, host Mark Griffin sits down with Jonathan Smith, author, negotiation instructor with the Black Swan Group, and Expert EOS Implementer®, for a powerful founder-first conversation on strategy, negotiation, and leadership at the intersection of purpose and performance.
Jonathan has spent his career helping high-achieving founders and CEOs navigate the growth curve without losing themselves in the process. As one of the top EOS Implementers in the world, he’s worked with over 150 companies in more than 1,500 sessions, helping leadership teams sharpen strategy, strengthen execution, and align around a shared vision. He’s also a negotiation instructor with the Black Swan Group, working alongside former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss, and co-author of the upcoming book Fight Less, Win More—available January 2026.
From early lessons in resilience to defining moments of self-discovery and service, Jonathan reflects on three pivotal “magic moments”—high school football, his time at JPMorgan, and an experience in Abu Dhabi—that shaped his approach to leadership and life.
— The Catalyst: Recognizing the power of belief—helping others see what’s possible when they think it’s not.
— The Pivot: Learning that failure and feedback are often the same teacher.
— The Mission: Realizing that influence begins with empathy—whether in business, negotiation, or life.
These moments reflect a purpose rooted in growth, service, and empowering others to lead and communicate more effectively.
What You’ll Learn:
— How to identify and navigate the “Performance Precipice” before burnout sets in
— The five levels of listening and how empathy unlocks better outcomes
— Practical takeaways from Fight Less, Win More to strengthen leadership and negotiation skills
— How purpose and self-awareness drive sustainable high performance
— Why great leaders focus on clarity, connection, and consistent improvement
Whether you’re a founder, CEO, or team leader, this conversation will challenge how you think about negotiation, purpose, and the kind of leader you want to become.
👉 Learn more about Jonathan Smith and his work: https://staycuriousjbs.com/
👉 Pre-order his upcoming book, Fight Less, Win More (January 2026): https://staycuriousjbs.com/fight-less-win-more/
👉 Subscribe to Connecting with Purpose for more conversations with leaders and entrepreneurs who are shaping the future through clarity, resilience, and purpose: /@connectingwithpurpose-est2021
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