The Leadership That Shines Podcast

The Leadership That Shines Podcast exists for the leaders who are done waiting to feel ready. Every week, Natalie Davis delivers leadership training built around three core values: impact, influence, and growth. The leaders who change their organizations, their businesses, and their communities are the ones who commit to growing themselves first. From professionals managing complex teams to solopreneurs building something from the ground up, this is where clarity becomes action and action becomes legacy.

The Leadership That Shines Podcast is a business podcast hosted by Natalie Davis, with 23 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.

Natalie Davis hosts The Leadership That Shines Podcast, a business show with 23 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.

• 

  Episode #23

  Purpose-Driven Leadership: Blake Cooper Griffin on Resilience, Identity, and Building a Life Worth Telling

  Aug 12, 202649 minS1

  Purpose-driven leadership does not come from a clean story. For Blake Cooper Griffin, it came from bullying in South Carolina, conversion therapy at 16, an agency that told him to hide who he was, and a moment at 22 years old with no money, no representation, and a decision to make about who he was going to be on the other side of all of it. In this episode of the Leadership That Shines Podcast, host Natalie Davis sits down with Blake Cooper Griffin, actor, author, activist, and founder of Brainworks Team, an educational mentorship consultancy helping students build academic growth, confidence, and purpose through service-based learning. Blake's career spans television, film, writing, entrepreneurship, and nearly two decades of advocacy work. His book, The Story of You: A Life Rewritten, available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, is a framework for anyone who has ever needed to rewrite the narrative they inherited and build one worth living instead. This conversation moves between the deeply personal and the practically applicable. Blake talks about the moment his representation called him in and told him to stop bringing his partner to industry events, the decision he made in that crushing moment to reframe the mountain he had already climbed, and how that single shift in perspective became the foundation of every leadership and business principle he now teaches. In This Episode: Why purpose larger than personal success is the only thing that sustains a leader through the seasons when nothing is working and the dark moments feel permanent How Blake reframes rejection and setback as evidence of mountains already climbed, and why that reframe removes the defeat of feeling like you are starting from zero The three-step passion project framework Blake uses with students at Brainworks Team: educate yourself on the real need, make practical impact, then multiply it by educating your community Why Blake's mother's saying, everybody's somebody and everybody counts, became the lens through which he approaches every room, every role, every relationship, and every business decision What it means to write the story of you intentionally, and why the creative capacity every human being carries is not limited to one career, one identity, or one chapter Blake Cooper Griffin has been navigating the intersection of identity, purpose, and leadership for decades. This episode is for every leader who has ever been told to make themselves smaller to fit someone else's comfort, and who is still deciding whether to believe it. Connect with Blake Cooper Griffin: Book: The Story of You: A Life Rewritten, available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble Company: Brainworks Team, educational mentorship and consultancy Connect with Blake directly through his professional platforms Connect with Natalie Davis and Leadership That Shines: Email: themagic@leadershipthatshines.com Website: https://leadershipthatshines.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadershipthatshines?igsh=Z3JkNGZsbTU5bnIy Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1J9yZRGaiW/?mibextid=wwXIfr Substack: https://lovejoyandnatalie.substack.com/ Subscribe so you never miss an episode. New episodes drop every Wednesday.

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #22

  Hilary Momberger Powers on Healing Trauma, Finding Joy, and Leading From the Inside Out

  Aug 5, 202655 minS1

  Resilience in Leadership: Hilary Momberger Powers on Healing Trauma, Finding Joy, and Leading From the Inside Out Resilience in leadership does not start with a strategy. For Hilary Momberger Powers, it started at the bottom of everything, and the climb back up became the curriculum she now teaches. In this episode of the Leadership That Shines Podcast, host Natalie Davis sits down with Hilary Momberger Powers, coach, keynote speaker, trauma recovery advocate, and 40-year sobriety veteran, for one of the most honest conversations the show has ever aired. Hilary grew up as a child actress in Los Angeles, voiced cartoon characters, appeared in over 150 commercials, and performed inside a household defined by alcoholism, abuse, and a mother whose ego was never satisfied. By 21, she had hit every wall available. What happened next is the foundation of every coaching conversation she has had since. Hilary has worked in the film industry for decades with over 300 movie credits as a continuity supervisor. She is now a full-time coach and speaker whose work sits at the intersection of trauma recovery, spiritual identity, and the specific kind of resilience that does not come from grit but from genuinely learning to lead yourself from the inside out. This is not a conversation about tactics. It is a conversation about what happens when a human being finally stops performing wellness and starts living it. In This Episode: Why the three trauma responses most people cycle through, people pleasing, isolation, and control, are not character flaws but survival strategies, and what it takes to stop needing them The difference between happiness and joy, why happiness is fleeting and joy is the permanent hard drive already inside every leader, and how to stop chasing the wrong one How Hilary's moment of forgiveness on a beach below Pacific Coast Highway cracked open a perception shift that changed every area of her life including her income Why leading from the outside in always ends in emptiness, and what it looks like to finally flip the direction from the inside out The body, mind, spirit framework Hilary uses with every coaching client and why skipping the spirit piece is the reason most personal development work does not hold Hilary Momberger Powers does not deliver a polished redemption arc. She delivers the real one, with all the detours, the mess, and the moments that only make sense in hindsight. This episode is for any leader who has been performing fine for long enough that they have started to believe it. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio. New episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe now so every episode lands directly in your feed. About Hilary: Hilary Momberger Powers Connect with Natalie Davis and Leadership That Shines: Website: leadershipthatshines.com Email: themagic@leadershipthatshines.com Newsletter: The Flamingo Files , published weekly on LinkedIn

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #21

  Real Estate Team Leadership: Adam Touni on Building a $700M Beehive Team, Setting Boundaries, and Showing Up as Your Best Self

  Jul 29, 202653 minS1

  Real estate team leadership looks completely different when you stop building for production numbers and start building for the person you are becoming. In this episode of the Leadership That Shines Podcast, host Natalie Davis welcomes someone she has known and coached for over six years: Adam Touni, Silicon Valley real estate leader, attorney-turned-agent, and co-founder of a beehive team structure that has produced over 700 million dollars in sales in one of the most competitive real estate markets in the country. This is not a conversation about tactics. It is a conversation about what it actually costs to build something at that level, and what it costs even more to build yourself alongside it. Adam's story spans 16 years in real estate, a law school background that sharpened his ability to issue-spot and anticipate, a business partnership built entirely on complementary strengths, and a personal journey through burnout that finally forced him to put himself first. What came out of that journey, sobriety, daily meditation, a non-negotiable morning routine, and the practice of saying no, became the foundation his business could actually stand on. Natalie and Adam have the kind of conversation that only six years of real coaching relationship makes possible. Direct, specific, and deeply honest about where the gaps were and what it took to close them. In This Episode: The beehive team model: why Adam and his business partner Kat Carroll built a team where every person has a specific role rather than a pool of generalists, and why that structure outperforms traditional team setups Why knowing where your strengths end is as important as knowing where they begin, and how Adam's decision to stay out of operations freed him to do the work only he can do The burnout that finally broke the pattern, and how building a daily non-negotiable morning practice changed everything about how Adam shows up for his team, his clients, and his family Why the ability to say no is a muscle and how to build it starting today, even if the first few reps feel like they are going to cost you everything What it means to be nimble as a leader, why Adam sought out leaders who moved quickly and stayed open to change, and why that same quality is the one most leaders lose the moment they start succeeding Adam also shares what meditation actually is when you strip away the ritual, why he is more proud of his personal growth than any production milestone, and what he tells every agent asking how to retain their value in a market that keeps shifting: start by asking whether you love yourself, because the answer tells you everything about whether you are ready to ask for what you are worth. The Leadership That Shines Podcast brings you real conversations about the whole leader, not just the professional one. This episode is for any leader who has been building the business and quietly losing themselves inside it. Connect with Adam Touni: Real estate team based in Silicon Valley, Bay Area, California Searchable across professional platforms Connect with Natalie Davis and Leadership That Shines: Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠leadershipthatshines.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠themagic@leadershipthatshines.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Newsletter: Flamingo Files on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio. New episodes every Wednesday. *Natalie Davis is a licensed real estate agent with Keller Williams Downtown, LLC.

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #20

  Immigrant Entrepreneur to Private Equity Leader: John Azar on Self-Discovery, Resilience, and Building a Multi-Billion Dollar Vision

  Jul 22, 202653 minS1

  Immigrant entrepreneur leadership is built differently. When you arrive with no language, no money, and no roadmap, the only option is to build the skill set that no setback can take from you. John Azar arrived in the United States from Syria at 16 years old without speaking English. His family had lost nearly everything. What he brought with him was a mentality his father had embedded early: as long as you have the right education, the right experience, and the right spirit, no one can take anything from you. Decades later, John is the founder of Peak 15 Capital, a private equity platform operating in commercial real estate, president of the board of directors for the college that gave him his first academic foothold, and a leadership coach who works with entrepreneurs, executives, and business leaders across industries. In this episode of the Leadership That Shines Podcast, host Natalie Davis sits down with John for a conversation that moves between personal story and practical framework with the ease of someone who has spent years translating lived experience into usable leadership tools. John does not sugarcoat. He does not deal in five-year plans that measure success in dollar figures. He asks a different question entirely: who are you becoming, and what are you doing right now to show up as that version of yourself? In This Episode: Why John's first coaching question is never about revenue or business size, and what he asks instead to get to the answer that actually changes someone's trajectory The reverse engineering framework that helps entrepreneurs and executives start showing up as their future selves today, before the business catches up to the vision What the liminal space between finishing one chapter and launching the next actually requires of a leader, and how to stay anchored inside the uncertainty Why self-discovery is the only real prerequisite for growth, and what it means to be open to finding out parts of yourself you do not like How John went from losing everything in the 2008 financial crisis to building a multi-billion dollar private equity portfolio, and what that rebuild taught him about resilience, timing, and knowing which road to take when it shows itself John Azar also shares why some of the biggest opportunities in business show up not despite downturns but because of them, what he means when he says he wants to lead through inspiration rather than perspiration, and why the best network you could build right now is one you have no reason to think you deserve yet. The Leadership That Shines Podcast exists to bring you real conversations with leaders who have done the hard work, not just the visible work. This episode is a masterclass in what it looks like to lead yourself first so you have something worth offering the people around you. Connect with John Azar: Company: Peak 15 Capital Connect with John for coaching, mentorship, and private equity inquiries through his professional network Connect with Natalie Davis and Leadership That Shines: Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠leadershipthatshines.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠themagic@leadershipthatshines.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Newsletter: Flamingo Files on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio. New episodes every Wednesday. *Natalie Davis is a licensed real estate agent with Keller Williams Downtown, LLC.

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #19

  Embracing Doubt and Building Authentic Leadership with Martin Watts

  Jul 15, 20261h 9mS1

  Discover how doubt can be a powerful signal for growth and leadership transformation. In this episode, Martin Watts shares his inspiring journey from instability to building multiple successful businesses, emphasizing the importance of authenticity, core values, and cultivating a positive culture in leadership.In this episode: Martin Watts’ story of overcoming childhood trauma and embracing his entrepreneurial spirit The role of doubt as an intelligent emotion signaling instability and guiding decision-making How to distinguish between lag and lead indicators of doubt Practical ways to measure and shape organizational culture through everyday actions The importance of authentic leadership rooted in core values and personal integrity Strategies for building healthy teams and fostering a culture of safety and trust The impact of humility, celebrating wins, and intentionality in leadership How to leave a legacy as a leader who listens and confirms the potential within others Connect with Natalie Davis: themagic@leadershipthatshines.com Leadership That Shines Instagram Facebook Substack

  ListenShow Notes

Recent guests on The Leadership That Shines Podcast. Study who booked and why before you pitch.

Based on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:

Industry fit is computed by PitchCentric using vector embeddings of the show's episode catalog.