634: Tom Nolan (CEO of Kendra Scott) - 2% Moments, Setting Big Goals, Being Unbalanced, Moving Fast, Coaching High Performers, & Going Through Hard Things Together
The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk
Release Date: 05/11/2025
The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk
Go to for full show notes The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk gives you direct access to some of the most respected coaching minds in the world. Led by HOFer Sherri Coale, Brook Cupps, Geron Stokes, and Eli Leiker. Leaders who have built winning programs, led at the highest levels, and shaped the next generation of elite performers. The Arena is a Learning Leader Circle for Coaches only. We are opening applications now for our first cohort. If you'd like to be part of it, . Once the cohort is full, we will be pausing applications. This is brought to you by . If you need to hire 1...
info_outlineThe Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk
The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk Go to for full show notes This is brought to you by . If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver. Katie Gatti Tassin is the author of the "Money with Katie" newsletter and podcast, both acquired by Morning Brew in 2022. Katie provides fresh personal finance advice with a unique outlook, coupled with deep, self-taught knowledge. Before founding Money with Katie in 2020, she...
info_outlineThe Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk
Go to for full show notes This is brought to you by . If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver. Kirk Herbstreit is the voice of college football. A former Centerville High School and Ohio State University Quarterback, Kirk has been the lead Analyst for ESPN’s College Gameday since 1996. He calls the biggest games in college football on Saturday nights, and he broadcasts the college National Championship. Beyond college...
info_outlineThe Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk
The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk Go to www.LearningLeader.com for full show notes This is brought to you by . If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver. Tom Ryan is the head wrestling coach at Ohio State University. In college, he wrestled for perhaps the greatest wrestling coach of all time, Dan Gable, at Iowa, where he was a two-time Big Ten champion and a two-time NCAA All-American. As a coach at Ohio State, he’s...
info_outlineThe Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk
Go to for full show notes This is brought to you by . If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver. Go to William von Hippel grew up in Alaska, got his B.A. at Yale and his PhD at the University of Michigan, and taught for a dozen years at Ohio State University before finding his way to Australia, where he is a professor of psychology at the University of Queensland. He’s the author of multiple books. A few months ago, he...
info_outlineThe Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk
Go to for full show notes This is brought to you by . If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver. Go to Rich Gotham is the President of the Boston Celtics. He is responsible for all aspects of the Celtics' business operations. In addition, he works closely with Celtics ownership, basketball operations staff, and the NBA on basketball-related matters, as well as team and league initiatives. He succeeds “Red” Auerbach as...
info_outlineThe Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk
The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk Go to for full show notes. This is brought to you by . If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver. Go to Notes "Average players want to be left alone. Good players want some coaching. Great players want the truth." It is not a company’s job to give work-life balance to someone. And he is not balanced. He’s on 24/7. It was refreshing to hear the real story from someone who is...
info_outlineThe Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk
The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk Go to for full show notes This is brought to you by . If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver. Go to Stanley McChrystal is a retired four-star general. Stan is the former commander of the nation’s premier military counter-terrorism force, Joint Special Operations Command (also known as JSOC). His command included more than 150,000 troops from 45 allied countries. Since he retired...
info_outlineThe Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk
The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk Go to for full show notes This is brought to you by . If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver. Go to Episode #632: Nick Huber is an entrepreneur who owns stakes in 11 companies, including a real estate private equity firm and several agencies. His portfolio of companies employs over 325 people living all over the world. Nick lives with his wife and 3 children in Athens, Georgia. He’s...
info_outlineThe Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk
The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk Go to for full show notes This is brought to you by . If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver. Bert Bean is the CEO of Insight Global. Insight Global is a 4.3-billion-dollar, industry-leading talent and technical services firm based in Atlanta, GA. Bert started with Insight Global in 2005 as a Recruiter and has since worked his way up within the company, exemplifying Insight Global’s...
info_outlineThe Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk
Go to www.LearningLeader.com for full show notes.
This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver. Go to www.InsightGlobal.com/LearningLeader
Notes
- "Average players want to be left alone. Good players want some coaching. Great players want the truth."
- It is not a company’s job to give work-life balance to someone. And he is not balanced. He’s on 24/7. It was refreshing to hear the real story from someone who is running a company. As Dr. Julie Gurner said on episode #538, “People will tell you in books that you have to live a 'balanced life,' but if we are completely honest, almost all great things are born from periods of imbalance.”
- Make the most of your 2% moments. 98% of the time, life is just happening… But every once in a while, you’ll have the 2% opportunities. Like when he met his wife, or interviewed with Kendra Scott. It’s on us as leaders to be ready to make the most of those 2% moments.
- Tom's relationship with Kendra: “We’ve been through so many hard things together.” Those hard times can forge a strong relationship, or they can break you. Remember that the next time you’re going through something tough with someone else. It’s an opportunity to fortify a relationship.
- Hiring - Play your position well. Know what you're good at. Don't have to like teammates, but do need to love them. Learn from mistakes.
- Work is like family. But you don't fire your family... Discipline comes from a place of love.
- Read: The Way of the Shepherd
- Goal maniac - After failing at his first job interview, he asked for another shot and showed up the next day with pages of goals.
- Tom's Strengths - immediate urgency, insatiable need to win, good problem solver, better when things are hard.
- How do you navigate slow walkers? It's hard. Need patience and thoughtfulness too.
- What are the must-haves to be hired as a leader with Tom? Good human. Win + Kindness + Compassion.
- Tom claims that he is not a good interviewer. Gets help from the team. It is a rigorous process.
- He wants people who have gone through hard things. "Living through struggle makes people better." Grit.