Latest Episodes
Season 1
Joseph Kopser, Entrepreneur, President at Grayline and Chief Growth Officer at The Mentor Method
Episode 21: Joseph recently stepped into the Trap for a wide-ranging, free-flowing discussion on the challenges of leading with humility and self-awareness. His breadth of experiences in the military, entrepreneurial tech, politics, and academia combine... More & Listen...
Ron Carucci, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Navalent
Episode 20: Ron Carucci stepped into the Trap in support of his recently released book: "To Be Honest: Lead with the Power of Truth, Justice, and Purpose". He starts with a simple premise – tell... More & Listen...
Ray Areta, Co-Founder of Better Man Movement
Episode 19. Ray Arata joined the Trap to discuss his passion to heighten expectations for what we should expect of male leaders in the workplace. He’s a writer, speaker, and business leader – pressing a... More & Listen...
Laura Kilcrease, CEO of Alberta Innovates, founder of Triton Ventures, Austin Technology Incubator, Startup Advisor and Investor
Episode 18. Laura Kilcrease joined the Trap having made her mark in shifting Austin from an economy with a history of oil dependency to high-tech prosperity – ultimately putting it on the map as one... More & Listen...
Gordon Daugherty, best-selling author, executive, entrepreneur, startup advisor and investor
Episode 17. Gordon Daugherty joined the Trap with deep expertise in guiding early-stage entrepreneurs and their companies through the challenges of building companies of worth. As co-founder and chairman of Austin’s Capital Factory, Gordon is... More & Listen...
Heather McKissick, EVP Community Impact, Communications & Marketing at UFCU
Episode 16. Heather McKissick joined the Trap for a focus on the work of organizations for social good and how leaders can be agents for the ‘good’. Her thoughtful views on how organizations (non-profits, for-profits,... More & Listen...
Kay Mellish, Humorist, Keynote Speaker, Author based in Copenhagen, Denmark
Episode 15. Kay Mellish joined the Trap recently for a well-timed reflection on how other cultures view their relationship to work. Kay’s expertise in Danish social and business cultures is smartly reflected in this episode.... More & Listen...
Amii Barnard-Bahn, Executive Coach, Speaker and Author
Episode 14. This is one of those episodes that should be bookmarked as required, repeated listening for emerging and current leaders at all levels. Amii Barnard-Bahm covers a wide range of leadership topics, essential to... More & Listen...
Manoj Saxena, Executive Chairman Cognitive Scale
Episode 13. In this week’s Trap, Manoj Saxena shares his lessons learned from years of growing entrepreneurial companies – balancing the demands of assertive investors, skeptics, and high-believer employees trying to earn their keep. His... More & Listen...
Ed Burger, President and Chief Executive Officer of St. David’s Foundation
Episode 12. In this week’s Trap, Dr. Edward (Ed) Burger reflects on his significant career shift at the beginning of 2020, moving from President of Southwestern University to President & CEO of St. David's Foundation.... More & Listen...
Eric Spencer, The Corporate Bartender
Episode 11. In this week's Trap, Eric Spencer provides years of experience guiding leaders in expanding their knowledge, behaviors, and approach to running high-performance teams. He references the all-too-common trap leaders fall into of avoiding... More & Listen...
Rob Lynch, Founder and Managing Director of Burst Consulting, Former CEO
Episode 10. In this week's Trap, Rob Lynch shares his perspectives as a ‘serial entrepreneur’, having been the CEO of four start-ups that were all successfully acquired. Rob addresses his maturation as a CEO and... More & Listen...
Pilot Season
Special thank you to these guests for their time, feedback, and patience with us as we went through the growing pains of developing a podcast. Their feedback and support made it possible for us to evolve the show and overcome the barriers that come with trying to produce worthwhile content for our listeners.
Jimmy Treybig, Startup Advisor, Former CEO
Episode 8. In this week's Trap, Jimmy Treybig stopped by for a quick chat. If you don’t know Jimmy, you don’t know tech. So...it’s time for a quick bit of education on a key chapter... More & Listen...
Farnaz Wallace, Author, Consultant, Former CMO
Episode 7. In this week's Trap, Farnaz shares her perspectives on the emerging global cultures reflected in the reshaping of US demographics and the implications for how companies position their products to this emerging marketplace... More & Listen...
Joel Trammell, CEO and Founder, Khorus Software
Episode 6. In this week's Trap, Joel shares lessons learned from moving to the CEO when formerly the head of a given discipline, 3 types of employees and the impact of each employee’s departure, hiring... More & Listen...
David Altounian, Associate Dean of Academic Programs and MBA Program Director, St. Edward’s University
Episode 5. In this week's Trap, Dr. Altounian discusses first-time entrepreneurial traps, taking mentoring advice too literally, traps that founder's make with their first hires, taking risks at Dell, and hiring for diversity - traps... More & Listen...
Lisa Blanton, Consultant, Author, and former COO, CFO, CHRO
Episode 4. In this week's Trap, Lisa shares her perspectives on hiring the "whole person," absolute power, defining where a company thrives when it may be struggling in key metrics, limiting perks to the family... More & Listen...
Catherine Morse, Employment Law
Episode 3. In this week's Trap Catherine provides an employment law perspective on how leaders enter the trap zone. Topics range from social movements' impact in the workplace, rogue leaders, "the naive hugger" and more.... More & Listen...
Shawn Freeman, COO Phlur
Episode 2. In this week's Trap Shawn shares his perspectives as an entrepreneurial leader. Listeners will hear Shawn's learnings on building a socially conscious company, tying scent to memory (that's right!), balancing investor interest and... More & Listen...
Ron West, Speaker, Executive Coach, Trainer, Author
Episode 1. In this week's Trap, Ron explores ingrained behaviors of leadership, psychological safety for the coach/leader relationship, leading vs. managing, the trap of getting stuck, and much more. His vast range of experience as... More & Listen...