Off the Rak

Are you prepared for the future of work? Off the Rak welcomes Rishad Tobaccowala, a global business advisor, author, and futurist, to explore what transformative leadership looks like in a fast-moving, AI-enabled world. Drawing on four decades of helping leaders reinvent themselves, Rishad shares insights from his book Rethinking Work on how leaders must evolve to thrive in a dramatically transforming modern age, and how creativity...

Learn what it’s like being a professional female athlete from the recently retired LPGA golfer and two-time U.S. team captain. Lewis announced that she will be stepping away from full-time competitive golf at the end of the 2025 season — let's look back at her conversation. 

Can adversity help you find your greatest strengths? That’s just one of the topics we’re exploring as I welcome one of my favorite professional golfers, St...

How do you make the journey from being given last rites in a hospital bed to founding an organization that has saved thousands of lives through medical innovation? Dr. David Fajgenbaum is a physician-scientist, Castleman disease survivor, and the co-founder of Every Cure. From medical student to patient to leader, David shares how he turned personal health challenges into a driving force for innovative research, drug repurposing, a...

Michael Lee Stallard is president of E Pluribus Partners, and a speaker, teacher, and consultant on leadership, employee engagement, productivity, and innovation. He is the primary author of "Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team's Passion, Creativity and Productivity" and a contributor to The ASTD Management Development Handbook. He joins me to discuss how leaders must fostering more human connection and...

Ready to discover what separates truly effective CEOs from those who just look good on paper?

Seasoned CEO advisor Steve Graves shares hard-won insights from three decades of coaching executive leaders. With 20 books on strategy and leadership under his belt, Steve has developed over 100 frameworks specifically designed for CEOs navigating the complex intersection of personal growth and professional demands. In this episode, Steve b...

“When I think about the value proposition of higher education… I think about the essence of leadership where they call it the knowing, being, and doing.”

Featuring the first female president of Penn State University, Neeli Bendapudi, we discuss what it means to be a Nittany Lion, how to create “customer” loyalty, and three time-tested leadership practices that have served my guest well at organizations like Proctor & Gamble, the...

Let's tackle a broader disease that needs eradicating: entitlement.

Joe Sanders is a thoughtful and focused leader who brings a wealth of experience serving youth to Colorado Uplift as its CEO. Not only is he a retired Air Force Colonel and Director of the Air Force Academy’s Leadership and Character Development activities, but he has also shaped the moral and ethical growth of more than 13,000 cadets and staff. He joins Off th...

In honor of Stacy Lewis' retirement at the end of the 2025 LPGA season, Off the Rak rewinds to a special minisode from September 2024 honoring TEAM USA's win in the Solheim Cup — the first since 2017! You don't want to miss these two inspirational stories from a Season 3 episode about success and influence with team captain Stacy Lewis — LGPA pro and leadership role model.

About the Guest

Stacy Lewis is an American pro...

Two good friends and two icons in the world of baseball talk creating a positive culture

Colorado Rockies legends Clint Hurdle and Dan O’Dowd join Off the Rak to share their experiences leading diverse teams, the Colorado Rockies trip to the 2007 World Series, leadership lessons learned on the diamond and beyond, and more!

About the Guests

Clint Hurdle
The cover of the March 20, 1978, annual baseball preview issue of Sports Illust...

What does it take to build high-trust organizations and cultures through your leadership? The former chairman of JetBlue Airways and professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, Joel C. Peterson tells us that the high trust leader is one who can be influenced. In this look back at season one, Off the Rak features an insightful discussion about being at a critical juncture of trust in our professional lives, in our public an...

Exploring what collaboration and positive influence look like in the workplace with a former P&G executive!

Can collaboration and disruption unite to positively influence a workplace and grow the bottom line? This Off the Rak guest built a venerated career at P&G doing just that. As the sales lead to Walmart, Tom Muccio and his team revolutionized how retailers and their supplies did business together. The story of that rein...

"Some occupational categories might disappear, but many more will simply evolve, requiring new sets of skills over time and providing new opportunities for workers."

Named by Fortune as one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Business,” former Guardian CEO / Board Chair Deanna Mulligan joins Off the Rak in this look back to season one for a chat on purpose, talent, and the work of leadership to foster both for organizational...

You’ll influence approximately 80,000 people in your lifetime, according to this bestselling author, leadership speaker and coach.

World-renowned keynote speaker and bestselling author Tommy Spaulding estimates that you’ll influence about 80,000 people in your lifetime — that’s 2 or 3 people you interact with every day. How you choose to interact with them can have a lasting imprint — good or bad. Tommy joins Off the Rak to explain ...

Bestselling author of “Love Is Just Damn Good Business,” “The Radical Leap,” and “Greater Than Yourself” and founder of The Extreme Leadership Institute Steve Farber talks leadership, empathy,and influence. The Extreme Leadership Institute is an organization devoted to the cultivation and development of extreme leaders in the business, nonprofit and educational communities. He’s one of Inc’s top 50 global leadership and management ...

In this look back from season 2, Off the Rak sits down with the CEOs of Denver Scholarship Foundation and Colorado UpLift to explore what makes their partnership tick, how they’re teaching servant leadership fundamentals and the subtle practices that fuel their motivation every day.

About the Guests

Lorii Rabinowitz is the CEO of Denver Scholarship Foundation and has been with the organization since 2017. With a heart for nonprofits,...

Off the Rak welcomes Cheryl Bachelder, restaurant industry executive and former CEO of Popeyes® Louisiana Kitchen, Inc. She’s the author of “Dare to Serve,” and a passionate advocate of servant leadership. When she took over the company in 2007, the company had been through four CEOs in the previous seven years. And the stock had slid by over 60% during that time. Ten years later, the stock had risen by over 500% under her leadersh...

Garry Gilliam played football for the Nittany Lions, the Seahawks and the 49ers before putting his Penn State degree to work by launching The Bridge Eco-Village, a purpose-driven organization that transforms abandoned commercial properties in urban centers into self-sustainable mixed-use communities. They’re building bridges to opportunity by integrating affordable housing, education, food security and arts and culture. I’m thrille...

As lead solo pilot for the legendary Blue Angels flight team, John “Gucci” Foley mastered the art of flying at an elite level — flying among the top 0.01% of US military pilots and earning recognition as a “Top Ten Carrier Pilot” six times. He brings that same elite energy to his keynote presentations and coaching major organizations on exceptional performance and gratitude. John has helped Fortune 500 companies like Google, Micros...

Clarity is a process that helps make sense of the chaos, change, the ambiguity that we’re leading from. 

We’re joined today by Brad Deutser, the founder and CEO of Deutser, an award-winning management consulting firm and the Deutser Clarity Institute, a think tank, an idea accelerator, and an innovative learning center. He’s helped individuals and organizations navigate through transition and through chaos. And we all know what the ...