The Learning To Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff

The Learning to Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff Helping Good Leaders Become Great—One Practical Insight at a Time You’re busy. The demands are real. But your desire to grow as a leader hasn’t gone anywhere. That’s why The Learning to Lead Show is designed for leaders like you—driven, growth-minded, and always on the go. Hosted by Executive Leadership Coach Mark J. Cundiff, this podcast delivers practical leadership insights you can use today, not someday. Each week, you’ll get: Short, focused teaching episodes packed with real-world lessons from decades of leadership experience, bestselling books, and proven frameworks. Authentic interviews with front-line leaders who share how they’re navigating challenges, building teams, and leading with purpose, right where they are. Whether you’re commuting, working out, or grabb

The Learning To Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff is a business podcast hosted by Mark J. Cundiff, with 70 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.

Mark J. Cundiff hosts The Learning To Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff, a business show with 70 episodes published.

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  The Learning To Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff

  #70 Stories of Reinvention, Forward from 50: How to Rediscover Purpose, Passion, and Possibility with Greg Gerber

  Aug 15, 202653 min

  #70 Stories of Reinvention, Forward from 50: How to Rediscover Purpose, Passion, and Possibility with Greg Gerber What happens when the career that defined you for 20 years disappears, not slowly, but all at once? That's exactly what happened to my guest today, Greg Gerber. For nearly two decades, Greg was the voice of the RV industry, building a daily publication that reached 16,000 subscribers. Then he sold everything, bought a motor home, and lived in it full time for three years, reporting from inside the industry he covered. What he uncovered led to a series of editorials that cost him almost two-thirds of his revenue within weeks, and eventually, the business he'd built his identity around. That loss became the doorway to Forward From 50, the platform Greg founded to help people over 50 rediscover purpose, not just recreation, in the years ahead of them. Nearly 200 interviews later, he's heard the same story again and again: people stepping away from careers that no longer fit, and into work that finally does. In this episode, we talk about: What "apathy creep" looks like, and why so many high achievers drift into it without realizing it The real difference between retiring from your job and retiring from your purpose How losing nearly everything forced Greg to rebuild his identity from scratch Why purpose isn't real purpose unless it's helping someone else The story of an engineer who traded MRI machines for balloon animals, Olympic officiating, and quieter pickleball courts The 22-question guide that can help anyone who feels stuck find direction Why curiosity — not recreation — is what keeps us sharp as we age If you've ever wondered what comes next after the title, the paycheck, or the identity you built your life around, this conversation is for you. Connect with Greg Gerber: Website: forwardfrom50.com Community: Forward From 50 on Facebook Podcast: Forward From 50 Podcast About Greg: Greg Gerber is the founder of Forward From 50, a Wisconsin native who moved to Arizona in 2009. A journalist by trade, he created the RV industry's first entirely online news site and its first business-related podcast before founding Forward From 50 in 2021 to help people over 50 pursue lives of purpose. Learn more: forwardfrom50.com/about Free Learning To Lead Resources Free Book: The Trust Gap The Learning To Lead Newsletter LeaderNotes About LeaderNotes LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show . In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one. Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

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  The Learning To Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff

  #68 The Great Recession of Trust: How Leaders Can Rebuild What's Been Lost with Hanna Bauer (John Maxwell Faculty Member)

  Aug 5, 202650 min

  #68 The Great Recession of Trust: How Leaders Can Rebuild What's Been Lost with Hanna Bauer Episode Summary What do you do when the very system you built to create clarity ends up costing you the heart of your organization? That's the question Hanna Bauer had to face — and it's the question we're wrestling with together in this episode. Hanna's story starts long before her career in leadership development. At just four years old, she was diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition. What followed was a childhood spent in and out of hospitals, enduring two heart attacks by age 10, failed treatments, and a groundbreaking heart ablation surgery that hadn't been tried before, a surgery her doctor compared to finding one light switch in a pitch-black, spinning room. It worked. And twenty years later, that same procedure had saved 3,000 more children. That's a miracle. But it's also, as Hanna discovered, a masterclass in leadership, one she didn't recognize until decades later, when she found herself as a results-driven executive who had gotten so good at strategy and systems that she'd let go of what she knew best: the heart. The people. In this conversation, we talk about: The four leadership lessons Hanna learned as a child — courage, the language of love, empathy without answers, and reframing failure as part of the process Why she believes "crisis doesn't stop you — it reveals you" and what that means for the culture you're building right now, in the calm before the storm Her HEART framework and BEAT methodology , born not from a whiteboard session but from her own lived experience of survival Why love isn't a soft skill — and how she connects empathy, authenticity, confidence, and trust directly back to it How to balance love with accountability without losing credibility as a leader The signs of a misaligned organization — from meeting-about-the-meeting culture to the silent cost of lost human potential Why we're living through what Hanna calls "a great recession of trust" — and what leaders can do to start rebuilding it What it's been like serving on the John Maxwell faculty , including leading full-country transformation initiatives in the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Panama Key Quotes from the Episode "Strategy's great, we need it. Processes are great, they give us clarity. But without people, without the heart, you really don't have anything." "Crisis really doesn't... the crisis is not there to stop you. The crisis there is there to reveal you." "Resilience is really the result of the leadership, the result of learning from failures, the result of being able to debrief. It's basically that bank account... so that when those times require for you to use the resilience, you have something to pull from." "You cannot have a valued workforce without also having a loved workforce." "Once you've tasted significance, success is never enough." Takeaways You Can Apply This Week If you walk away from this episode with nothing else, let it be this: Audit your own alignment. Are your systems clear, but your people quietly disengaged? Misalignment often hides behind productivity, until it doesn't. Build resilience before you need it. Like cardiovascular endurance, resilience is trained in the calm, not summoned in the crisis. Where are you investing in your team's capacity today? Redefine accountability as a byproduct of community. You can't hold people accountable to a culture they don't feel safe in. Proximity and trust come first. Start measuring what actually matters. Are you tracking satisfaction, belonging, and meaning — or just deadlines and deliverables? Remember: service is leadership. Hannah didn't set out to become a leader. She simply started serving. Sometimes that's exactly where leadership begins for you too. About Hanna Bauer Hanna Bauer is a leadership consultant, John Maxwell faculty member , and Six Sigma Black Belt who helps individuals and organizations align strategy, systems, and people so they can navigate crisis and seize opportunity with resilience. She is the creator of the HEART framework and BEAT methodology, and has led leadership and transformation initiatives across multiple countries, including the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Panama. Connect with Hanna: Website: heartnomics.com LinkedIn: Hanna Bauer A Question to Sit With Before you close this out and move on to the next thing, ask yourself: Where in my leadership have I let systems replace people? You don't have to have all the answers today. You just have to be willing to be there and to lead from the heart, like Hanna's grandmother once did for her. If this episode moved you, share it with a leader in your circle who needs to hear it — and subscribe to The Learning to Lead Show so you never miss what's next. Free Learning To Lead Resources Free Book: The Trust Gap The Learning To Lead Newsletter LeaderNotes About LeaderNotes LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show . In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one. Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

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  The Learning To Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff

  #66 The First 90 Days: Building Trust, Earning Credibility, and Leading Well from Day One with Neill Marshall & Kurt Mosley

  Jul 26, 202642 min

  Guests: Neill Marshall (Board Chair) & Kurt Mosley (Associations Practice Leader), HealthSearch Partners Host: Mark J. Cundiff — The Learning to Lead Show Episode Summary What if the first 90 days in a new role mattered more than your strategy, your resume, or even your title? That's the question at the heart of this episode. Neill Marshall and Kurt Mosley have been part of more than 700 executive searches in healthcare, and they've watched leaders walk into new roles thousands of times. The pattern they keep seeing is simple: the leaders who win the first 90 days build momentum that carries them for years. The leaders who don't spend the next year trying to earn back trust they never built in the first place. In this conversation, Neill and Kurt share the framework they coach executives through before they ever set foot in the building — from negotiating a win before accepting the job, to the small, symbolic acts that build lasting credibility, to the questions every new leader should be asking their team. Along the way, they tell some unforgettable stories: the CEO who moved into the hospital's resident dorms, the executive who quietly fixed a mattress problem on day one, and the leader who picked up trash in the parking lot before he ever walked through the front door. This episode isn't just for healthcare executives. It's for anyone stepping into something new — a role, a team, a season of leadership — and wanting to get it right from the start. What You'll Learn Why trust — not strategy — is what people are actually evaluating in your first 90 days The most common mistake new leaders make, and why it costs them credibility fast How to "negotiate a win" before you even accept the job Why one small, symbolic act can build more trust than 100 emails The four questions every leader should ask their team in the first 30–60–90 days How to tell the difference between a real problem and one person's opinion Why restructuring or judging people too early backfires John Wooden's principle for new leaders: "Be quick, but don't hurry" How to turn early wins into lasting systems and rhythms What to do — and say — when you get the first 90 days wrong Topics Discussed Neill and Kurt's personal leadership journeys, from a college entrepreneurship club to the baseball diamond Why the first 90 days function as a "momentum phase" for every new leader The Dunkin' Donuts story — and what it teaches about reading culture before acting Negotiating a win before taking the job The mattress story: how one act of listening built a CEO's credibility for his entire tenure Impressing people vs. earning authority — and why they're not the same thing The four questions to ask your team early on How to separate signal from noise when gathering input Building your own "influence org chart" instead of relying on titles The risk of moving too fast — and the risk of moving too slow Turning early wins into repeatable systems and leadership rhythms Developing leaders at every level of the organization How to reset with integrity after a misstep in the first 90 days Why writing things down — and turning lessons into stories — sharpens you as a leader Memorable Quotes "Impressing is talking. Credibility is behavior. You don't announce culture, you demonstrate it." — Kurt Mosley "You become a trusted leader when people stop watching you and they start believing in you." — Neill Marshall "Be quick, but don't hurry." — John Wooden, as shared by Neill Marshall "Culture is the multiplier. It'll take ten of your big wins away if you misread it." — Kurt Mosley About the Guests Neill Marshall is Board Chair of HealthSearch Partners and an executive search veteran with more than 30 years of experience, having led more than 600 senior-level assignments. He co-founded HealthSearch Partners in 2017 and previously held leadership roles with major search firms including Witt/Kieffer. Neill earned his degree in Business Administration & Management from Texas A&M University, where he helped build the Society for Entrepreneurship and New Ventures (ENVE). He and his wife, Mary, live in Coppell, TX. Kurt Mosley is the Associations Practice Leader at HealthSearch Partners, bringing more than 30 years of healthcare industry experience. Before joining HealthSearch Partners, he spent 31 years with AMN Healthcare and Merritt Hawkins, most recently as Vice President of Strategic Alliances. Kurt's insights have been featured in USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Modern Healthcare, and HealthLeaders, and he has spoken to more than 90 healthcare organizations, reaching over 6,500 leaders in the past two years. He and his wife, Deborah, live in Dallas, TX. Connect Website: HealthSearchPartners.com LinkedIn: Search Neill Marshall or Kurt Mosley Email: neillm@healthsearchpartners.com | kurtm@healthsearchpartners.com The Learning to Lead Show is hosted by Mark J. Cundiff. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and if this episode challenged or encouraged you, share it with someone who's about to lead something new. Free Learning To Lead Resources Free Book: The Trust Gap The Learning To Lead Newsletter LeaderNotes About LeaderNotes LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show . In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one. Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

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  The Learning To Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff

  #65 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Boaz Gilad

  Jul 21, 20269 min

  Free Learning To Lead Resources Free Book: The Trust Gap The Learning To Lead Newsletter LeaderNotes About LeaderNotes LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show . In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one. Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

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  The Learning To Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff

  #64 Productive Discomfort: The Price Every Great Leader Must Be Willing to Pay with Boaz Gilad author of The Zenith Code

  Jul 16, 202658 min

  Have you ever noticed that some of the most successful people you know have it all figured out in one area of life... and are quietly falling apart in another? The CEO who can close a nine-figure deal but can't stick to a diet for two weeks. The entrepreneur who built an empire from nothing but hasn't had a real conversation with his own kid in months. We've all seen it. Maybe you've lived it. This week, I sat down with Boaz Gilad — former real estate CEO turned performance coach and author of The Zenith Code — to talk about why this happens, and what it actually takes to break the pattern. Boaz's story is one of the most unconventional paths to leadership I've featured on this show. He grew up in Jerusalem, served as a paratrooper in the Israeli army, then moved to New York at 22 to chase a completely different dream — acting. He trained at the Stella Adler Conservatory, studied Philosophy at Hunter College, and waited tables to make ends meet. A real estate side hustle turned into a 20-year career that took him to CEO of a public company and made him a driving force in Brooklyn's real estate resurgence. Then he lost it all in a hostile takeover. That collapse became the foundation for everything he teaches today. This conversation will challenge how you think about goals, discipline, and what it really means to perform at a high level — not just in one part of your life, but in all of them. What We Cover in This Episode Boaz's leadership journey — from acting in New York, to building and taking a real estate company public, to losing everything in a hostile takeover Life as a series of games — why every area of your life has its own rules, scoreboard, and time limit, and why that framework changes everything Why top performers plateau — the real reason high achievers double down on their strengths instead of confronting their blind spots The "inspiration junkie" trap — why waiting to feel motivated is keeping you stuck, and what to do instead The 90-day framework — why 90 days is the sweet spot for building real, lasting change Productive discomfort — why success was never meant to feel comfortable, and how to make peace with that Trust and accountability — how misaligned goals quietly destroy trust on a team, and how to fix it Why even the best need a coach — the humbling truth behind Steph Curry's shooting coach and what it means for the rest of us Key Quotes to Remember "You don't need inspiration to do the work. You need to decide, and then you need a system that makes the decision for you." "The scoreboard doesn't care how you feel. It tells you if you're winning or losing — and that's the starting point for getting better." "You cannot change the rules in the middle of the game. You can adjust. You can get better. But the rules are the rules." "Success is not comfortable. Understand that, and then decide if you actually want it." A Few Questions to Sit With Boaz doesn't just hand you answers — he hands you better questions. Here are a few worth carrying into your week: What game am I actually playing right now — and is it the one I say I'm playing? Where am I doubling down on a strength instead of confronting a blind spot? If a camera followed me for a week, would it capture the life I say I want? Who's on my team right now — and are they built for the level I'm trying to reach next? About Boaz Gilad Boaz Gilad is an entrepreneur, author, and performance coach known for his work with high-achieving individuals and organizations. Born in Jerusalem, he served as a paratrooper in the Israeli army before moving to New York, where he studied acting at the Stella Adler Conservatory and philosophy at Hunter College. He went on to serve as CEO of several New York real estate development firms, playing a key role in Brooklyn's real estate resurgence and taking his company public. He's the author of The Real Estate Millionaire (McGraw-Hill) and The Zenith Code , has guest lectured in NYU's MBA program, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times . He hosts the podcast Unmask and leads Zenith Clubhouse, a program for high performers pursuing growth across both business and life. Connect with Boaz: Book: The Zenith Code Substack Podcast: Unmask LinkedIn Learn more: zenithclubhouse.com Free Learning To Lead Resources Free Book: The Trust Gap The Learning To Lead Newsletter LeaderNotes 🔎 About LeaderNotes LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show . In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one. Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

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