MPWR Podcast | Become The Leader YOU Want To Follow

People don't quit jobs, they quit bad leaders.We've all been there. Working under a leader who made every day feel like a battle, where communication was lacking, vision was unclear, and pressure felt like a crushing weight rather than a challenge to rise to. But what if you could be the leader who changes that?The MPWR Podcast is here to help you do just that. Hosted by Eric Pfeiffer, CEO of MPWR Coaching, this podcast is for leaders who want to show up stronger, smarter, and more resilient in an increasingly high-stakes world.Because let's face it, leadership isn't easy. 83% of companies say leadership development is crucial, yet most leaders are left to figure it out on their own. And when leadership fails, the consequences are massive:• Toxic cultures• Disengaged employees• High turnover and burnoutBut when leadership thrives? Everything changes.• Teams feel empowered and engaged• Communication is clear and trust is strong• Productivity and performance soarLeadership is

MPWR Podcast | Become The Leader YOU Want To Follow is a business podcast hosted by Eric Pfeiffer, with 72 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Eric Pfeiffer hosts MPWR Podcast | Become The Leader YOU Want To Follow, a business show with 72 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #72

  #72: The Leadership Vacuum, Why the Next Generation Is Saying "No Thanks"

  Aug 17, 202651 min

  The Leadership Vacuum, Why the Next Generation Is Saying "No Thanks" By 2030, ten thousand people will hit retirement age every single day; many of them sitting in the senior leadership seats of today's organizations. At the same time, only 30% of the workforce says they even want to become managers. That's not a coincidence. That's a vacuum. And in this episode, Eric Pfeiffer and Dawn Neldon name exactly why it's happening and why blaming "unambitious" young leaders is missing the real story entirely. Eric lays out the core insight early: "People aren't rejecting leadership per se. They're rejecting the version of it that they've been watching the current leaders live out and experience." That single line reframes the whole conversation. This isn't about laziness or entitlement — it's about a generation watching burnout, broken marriages, and 70-hour weeks get handed down as "the cost of success," and deciding the math doesn't work. As Eric puts it plainly: "If the cost of taking a promotion and stepping into a leadership role is greater than the benefits, it doesn't make sense." Dawn pushes the data further, pointing out that 71% of middle managers report feeling burned out and under-equipped — not because they're weak, but because they were promoted without ever being trained. Eric compares it to sending someone to war without boot camp: all rank, no readiness. That gap, he argues, is the real root of the "imposter syndrome" epidemic showing up in leaders as young as 25 and as seasoned as 60. The conversation doesn't stop at diagnosis — it moves into what actually shifts this. Eric shares a hard truth about inherited leadership habits, including the "FITFO" mentality (figure it out) so many leaders default to simply because it's what was modeled for them. His challenge to listeners: "We cannot give to others what we have not first cultivated within ourselves." And in one of the episode's most quotable moments, Dawn reframes the whole opportunity in front of current leaders — that the real work isn't capitulating to a younger generation's preferences, but becoming "the type of leader that they needed." If you're a leader looking behind you and wondering who's going to step up next; or if you're the one quietly deciding leadership isn't worth the cost you've watched it take — this episode gives you language for what's happening and a real starting point for what to do about it. Listen now, and if this lands, share it with a leader who's ready to close the gap instead of widening it. Ready to Go Deeper? If this episode challenged you, join Eric and Dawn for a live virtual masterclass at mpwrcoaching.com/masterclass, where they unpack leadership tools to help you build a culture worth being part of. Want more tools to accelerate your growth? Head over to mpwrcoaching.com where you'll find free resources, game-changing books, and programs designed to elevate your mindset, build resilience, and transform the way you lead from the inside out. Subscribe to the MPWR Podcast on your favorite platform. Follow Eric Pfeiffer across social media (links available on the website). Access our free mini course here! Check out our Leadership Framework System Enjoyed today's episode? If this conversation challenged or inspired you, we'd love for you to help us spread the impact. Share it with a fellow leader, subscribe so you never miss an episode and leave us a quick review on Apple ! Your reviews help more leaders discover the MPWR Podcast and step into the influence they were made for. Be the leader YOU want to follow. See you next time. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

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  Episode #71

  #71: Why 93% of People Never Say Thank You (And What It's Costing Us) | Dr. E. Scott Geller

  Aug 10, 202648 min

  He's Spent 56 Years Studying What Actually Motivates Human Behavior Dr. E. Scott Geller isn't your typical psychologist. As Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Virginia Tech and founder of the Actively Caring for People (AC4P) Movement, he's spent over five decades proving that gratitude, leadership, and self-motivation aren't soft concepts — they're science. His TEDx talk on self-motivation has been watched by more than 12 million people, and he's authored over 55 books on applied behavioral science. Why Most Leaders Get Feedback (and Motivation) Completely Wrong In this episode, Dr. Geller breaks down the ABC model of behavior (Activators, Behavior, Consequences) and reveals why most managers rely on negative reinforcement without realizing it's quietly killing motivation on their teams. He introduces the COACH method — Care, Observe, Analyze, Communicate, Help — as a practical framework for giving feedback that actually changes behavior, whether you're leading a team, coaching a client, or raising kids. You'll also hear the research-backed difference between managers who control behavior and leaders who inspire self-motivation, and why humility is the starting point for both. What You'll Walk Away With If you've ever wondered why some people show up energized and others just show up, this conversation gives you the answer. Dr. Geller unpacks the three C's of self-motivation — Choice, Competence, and Community — and explains why interpersonal gratitude (not just feeling grateful, but expressing it) is one of the most underused leadership tools available. You'll leave with a clear framework for building a culture of actively caring, whether that's in your workplace, your home, or your own leadership development. Ready to Lead with More Humility, Gratitude, and Self-Motivation? Listen now to learn how applied behavioral science can transform the way you lead, coach, and connect and subscribe to the MPWR Coaching Podcast for more conversations at the intersection of leadership, culture, and human potential. Ready to Go Deeper? If this episode challenged you, join Eric and Dawn for a live virtual masterclass at mpwrcoaching.com/masterclass, where they unpack leadership tools to help you build a culture worth being part of. Want more tools to accelerate your growth? Head over to mpwrcoaching.com where you'll find free resources, game-changing books, and programs designed to elevate your mindset, build resilience, and transform the way you lead from the inside out. Subscribe to the MPWR Podcast on your favorite platform. Follow Eric Pfeiffer across social media (links available on the website). Access our free mini course here! Check out our Leadership Framework System Enjoyed today's episode? If this conversation challenged or inspired you, we'd love for you to help us spread the impact. Share it with a fellow leader, subscribe so you never miss an episode and leave us a quick review on Apple ! Your reviews help more leaders discover the MPWR Podcast and step into the influence they were made for. Be the leader YOU want to follow. See you next time. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

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  Episode #70

  #70: You Get What You Tolerate: How to Reset Your Team's Culture Starting Today

  Aug 3, 202636 min

  You Get What You Tolerate: How to Reset Your Team's Culture Starting Today Is one negative teammate quietly reshaping your entire office? In this final episode of our culture series, Eric Pfeiffer and Dawn Neldon reveal an uncomfortable truth: whatever attitudes and behaviors you allow on your team, you're actively choosing — whether you meant to or not. As Eric puts it, "leaders define culture for better and for worse," and most of us are shaping it far more than we realize. Eric and Dawn unpack why most leaders have a rigorous process for evaluating whether someone can do the job — but almost no process for evaluating whether they're making the culture better or worse. They introduce the idea of two parallel layers running through every team: organizational culture (how work actually gets done) and individual culture (the personal playbook everyone quietly brings with them). Left unaddressed, that second layer is what erodes trust, breaks down communication, and drives out your healthiest people; long before anyone can pinpoint why. Dawn shares a moment that captures the tension every leader eventually faces — a manager insisting a toxic team member "does everything we ask," even while describing how much damage that person was doing to everyone around them. It's a pattern Eric and Dawn say they see constantly: teams mistaking productivity for permission. Using real coaching conversations and two iconic culture case studies — In-N-Out and Chick-fil-A — Eric and Dawn show what it looks like when a company clearly defines expected attitudes and behaviors, not just job duties. You'll hear the exact two-step framework for turning a struggling culture around: setting a Radical Minimum Standard for behavior, and holding people accountable to it through consistent, positive reinforcement instead of punishment and policing. As Eric says, it comes down to two deceptively simple moves — "we communicate the expectation, and then we hold people accountable." If you lead people — at work, at home, or anywhere else — this episode gives you the language and framework to stop tolerating what you'd never actually choose. Listen now, then head to mpwrcoaching.com to take the free culture assessment and explore the Leadership Operating System toolkit mentioned in this episode. Ready to Go Deeper? If this episode challenged you, join Eric and Dawn for a live virtual masterclass at mpwrcoaching.com/masterclass, where they unpack leadership tools to help you build a culture worth being part of. Want more tools to accelerate your growth? Head over to mpwrcoaching.com where you'll find free resources, game-changing books, and programs designed to elevate your mindset, build resilience, and transform the way you lead from the inside out. Subscribe to the MPWR Podcast on your favorite platform. Follow Eric Pfeiffer across social media (links available on the website). Access our free mini course here! Check out our Leadership Framework System Enjoyed today's episode? If this conversation challenged or inspired you, we'd love for you to help us spread the impact. Share it with a fellow leader, subscribe so you never miss an episode and leave us a quick review on Apple ! Your reviews help more leaders discover the MPWR Podcast and step into the influence they were made for. Be the leader YOU want to follow. See you next time. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

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  Episode #69

  #69: The Culture Series: 7 Episodes, One Hard Truth About Leadership

  Jul 27, 202626 min

  THE CULTURE SERIES RECAP A 7-part deep dive into what's actually breaking your team — and what fixes it Over the last seven episodes of the MPWR Coaching Podcast, Eric Pfeiffer and Dawn Neldon went all in on one topic: culture. Not the free-snacks, ping-pong-table version of culture. The real one — the one that decides whether your team performs under pressure, stays when things get hard, and actually believes in what you're building. Here's what came out of it. #60 — Why Your "How" Is Undermining Your "What" You can have the right mission, the right goals, the right numbers on the board — and still lose your team, because how you're leading them is quietly working against everything you're trying to build. This episode breaks down the gap between what leaders say they value and how they actually operate day to day, and why that gap is where culture goes to die. #61 — Culture Isn't Ping-Pong Tables Perks aren't culture. Free lunches aren't culture. Culture is what people experience when no one's watching — how decisions get made, how mistakes get handled, whether people feel safe telling the truth. Eric and Dawn dismantle the idea that culture can be bought with amenities and point to what it's actually built from. #62 — The Hidden Culture Problems Destroying Team Performance The most damaging culture problems are rarely loud. They're the unspoken tension, the quiet disengagement, the "that's just how it is here" resignation that never shows up in an engagement survey until it's already cost you your best people. This episode names the patterns leaders miss because they've normalized them. #63 — Culture Is Your Greatest Competitive Advantage Strategy can be copied. Pricing can be matched. Culture can't. This episode makes the business case for treating culture as a growth lever, not a soft HR initiative — and what changes when leadership actually starts running the company that way. #64 — Why Your Best Culture Playbook Fails Without This You can have the framework, the values on the wall, the onboarding deck — and still watch it fall apart, because none of it works without the leader living it first. As Eric and Dawn put it: "We can only give to others what we first cultivate within ourselves." Culture isn't installed. It's modeled. #65 — We've Seen Hundreds of Companies Try to Fix Culture. Here's What Actually Works. After years of sitting inside organizations trying to turn culture around, Eric and Dawn share the patterns that separate the teams who actually shift their culture from the ones who just talk about it. Fewer initiatives, more ownership — and a much clearer definition of where change has to start. #66 — The Real Cost of Staying the Same: The Hidden Bill for Never Changing Standing still feels safe. It isn't. This closing episode puts a price tag on the culture you're avoiding fixing — the turnover, the disengagement, the talent you never even got the chance to hire — and makes the case that "we'll get to it eventually" is the most expensive decision a leader can make. The through-line across all seven episodes: culture isn't a project you launch. It's a reflection of what leadership is actually doing — or avoiding — every single day. Catch up on the full Culture Series wherever you listen to the MPWR Coaching Podcast. Ready to Go Deeper? If this episode challenged you, join Eric and Dawn for a live virtual masterclass at mpwrcoaching.com/masterclass, where they unpack leadership tools to help you build a culture worth being part of. Want more tools to accelerate your growth? Head over to mpwrcoaching.com where you'll find free resources, game-changing books, and programs designed to elevate your mindset, build resilience, and transform the way you lead from the inside out. Subscribe to the MPWR Podcast on your favorite platform. Follow Eric Pfeiffer across social media (links available on the website). Access our free mini course here! Check out our Leadership Framework System Enjoyed today's episode? If this conversation challenged or inspired you, we'd love for you to help us spread the impact. Share it with a fellow leader, subscribe so you never miss an episode and leave us a quick review on Apple ! Your reviews help more leaders discover the MPWR Podcast and step into the influence they were made for. Be the leader YOU want to follow. See you next time. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

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  Episode #68

  #68: Inside Coca-Cola Consolidated: The Culture Behind 17,000 Employees

  Jul 20, 202643 min

  Inside Coca-Cola Consolidated: 17,000 Employees, One Culture, 25 Years of Excellence He spent 8.5 years in federal prison as the highest-ranking corporate whistleblower in U.S. history; the man Matt Damon portrayed in the Hollywood film, The Informant! Today, Mark Whitacre leads culture for the largest Coca-Cola bottler in America. In this episode, Mark takes us inside Coca-Cola Consolidated — 17,000+ teammates, over 100 plant sites, and a purpose statement "To Honor God In All We Do, To Serve Others, To Pursue Excellence, To Grow Profitably" that hangs on the wall of every location. As Mark puts it, culture doesn't just trump strategy — "culture trumps everything." Every plant site has a chaplain (or "care coach"). A benevolence fund helped nearly 700 families during COVID. And it's all built on a framework Mark calls LEADS — Listen, Empathize, Advocate, Develop, Self-reflect. t-Factor Mark draws a hard line between two paths every leader eventually chooses: "that's selfish leadership"; chasing what the job can do for you versus servant leadership, where "the best leaders are the ones that are serving." He shares why servant leadership is "the only way to live a life of significance," and the mentorship principle he lives by: "show me your mentors, I'll show you your future." You'll also hear how Coca-Cola Consolidated's t-Factor program exists to transform workplace cultures around the world for good, for God, for growth and how any leader, in any company, can start applying the same principles this week. Learn more about Mark's work at t-factor.com Go Deeper If this episode challenged you, join Eric and Dawn for a live virtual masterclass at mpwrcoaching.com/masterclass, where they unpack leadership tools to help you build a culture worth being part of. Want more tools to accelerate your growth? Head over to mpwrcoaching.com where you'll find free resources, game-changing books, and programs designed to elevate your mindset, build resilience, and transform the way you lead from the inside out. Subscribe to the MPWR Podcast on your favorite platform. Follow Eric Pfeiffer across social media (links available on the website). Access our free mini course here! Check out our Leadership Framework System Enjoyed today's episode? If this conversation challenged or inspired you, we'd love for you to help us spread the impact. Share it with a fellow leader, subscribe so you never miss an episode and leave us a quick review on Apple ! Your reviews help more leaders discover the MPWR Podcast and step into the influence they were made for. Be the leader YOU want to follow. See you next time. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

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