Off the Rak

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 ...

Finding and recruiting talent is an art. Mollie Plotkin founded her namesake keynote speaker and entertainment booking agency in Philadelphia in 2005 within a day of discovering a gap in the market. She cultivated that art into a successful business representing some of the biggest names in the sports, media, and entertainment industries. With innovative strategies for cultivating talent and using a team approach to connect speaker...

On radar, mentors, and accountability with the world’s premier expert on women’s leadership

Cited in Forbes as the world’s premier expert on women’s leadership, Sally Helgesen is the bestselling author of “How Women Rise.” She has been inducted into the Thinkers 50 Hall of Fame, which honors those whose ideas have shaped the field of leadership worldwide. She is credited with bringing the language of inclusion into business and in t...

“My life’s purpose has been to improve the lives of others.” Bob McDonald spoke those words after being nominated to become the 8th U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Bob’s career exemplifies service-driven leadership as a distinguished graduate of West Point, a U.S. Army captain, and the former Chairman, President, and CEO of Procter & Gamble through and beyond the Great Recession. Join us for a deep dive into the pursuit of ...

Filmmaker Elliot V. Kotek first came to our attention by being the writer and director of “The Hidden Power of Purpose,” a moving documentary that affirms living with purpose can improve your health and longevity. Since then, we’ve learned about a career that’s stretched from mergers and acquisitions law to tech innovation and storytelling, driven by the idea that purpose, passion and meaning align to bring about real impact. Ellio...

For the last few years Off the Rak podcast interviews have ended with the same question: What in life are you most grateful for?

The answers have been so revealing, encouraging, inspiring, and thought-provoking that they led to a new capstone question for all Off the Rak as a new season launches: What purpose are you most passionate about pursuing?

For Walt Rakowich, gratitude and purpose aren’t just ideas—they’re the guiding princip...

Walt Rakowich's passion to help shape a generation of leaders who lead with honesty, humility and heart inspired him to launch Off the Rak: Conversations on Transformative Leadership. Featuring rich and raw conversations with notable leaders across different industries, every episode inspires curious leaders to embrace challenges, seize opportunities and become positive influences in their world.

After three seasons a...