Work 20XX with Jeff Frick

Let me re-read the transcript to nail the details and get Nick's language right.Here's the Libsyn description, built to match the Bobbi Wegner template:

Nick Francis: Calibration, War Council, High Agency Investment | Work 20XX Ep 62

Nick Francis co-founded Help Scout in 2011 and ran it as CEO for 15 years before stepping into the Chairman role in late 2025. Today he coaches founders, facilitates a CEO peer group, and speaks o...

Bobbi Wegner: Culture Is Relationship at Scale | Work 20XX Ep 61

Bobbi Wegner is a clinical psychologist, Harvard lecturer, and Founder and CEO of Groops — a psychology-based coaching platform built on a simple, solid premise: people are social beings, hardwired for connection. "Animals in suits" was her phrase.

In this episode, Bobbi makes the case that culture is relationship at scale. Not the posters on the wall. Not the v...

Gianna Driver didn't come to Running Remote 2026 as a remote work evangelist. She came as a Chief People Officer who believes, deeply, that how you design the spaces where people gather, physically, culturally, organizationally, determines everything about the kind of company you actually become. Not the kind you say you are. The kind you are.

And that conviction didn't come from a business school case study. It came from growing u...

Nadia Vatalidis flew 10,000 miles, almost halfway around the world, to share her insights at Running Remote 2026 in Austin. And the distance is more than geographic. She doesn't live in the US, Europe or Asia. Her vantage is from South Africa, which povides a unique look 'back' ...

Liam Martin joined me fresh off the stage at Running Remote's 10th event, a milestone that puts into sharp relief just how much the landscape has shifted since that scrappy little secret called remote work became the world's crash course in 2020. What started as documentation, async, and trust has evolved into some...

Indiana went 16-0 and won the national championship with 7 blue-chip recruits. Their opponents had 110+. What does Curt Cignetti's talent evaluation strategy teach us about the future of work?

It's not about return to office. It's not about hybrid schedules. It's about creating an environment that enables people to do the best work of their lives—finding the best talent, empowering them with AI and modern tools, and building ...

Welcome to 2026!

After four years and 50+ episodes of Work 20XX, it's time to evolve the conversation. The return-to-office debates? We've covered them exhaustively. The real action now is in AI adoption, continuous learning, and building the skills that matter for distributed work.

In this episode, Jeff shares his vision for Work 20XX in 2026, including why he's shifting focus away from retur...

Liam Martin shared his full circle moment with me at Running Remote, almost 5 years to the day he was forced to cancel Running Remote's last visit to Austin, April 2020. With prior stops in Lisbon and Montreal, Running Remote's return to Austin was a community fest. 

Remote first organizations focus more on in-house retreats than anyone outside of the actual travel industry. Industry leaders needed th...

Mike Melen took a college side hustle, and built it into a growing global digital marketing agency. After starting full remote, Mike opened an office in Bergen County, New Jersey. Covid closed the office, and SmartSites is back to being fully remote to stay.

Remote hiring opened up the available talent pool beyond his Bergen County, New Jersey. Suddenly, Mike could hire people with the special skills neede...

Melinda Stallings brings the power of positivity to the workplace and stage. Founder of The Positive Consultant and curator of DisruptHR Austin, Melinda promotes the "infinite power of positivity," consulting with individual organizations and extending her reach as the force behind DisruptHR Austin, where she builds programs such as the 2025 theme, Envision, Empower, Elevate, helping people thrive in the workplace.

Robert Phelps helps keep remote teams secure, often before they even know they're at risk. As President of Creative IT, Robert and team provide IT services for companies that are too small to build an in-house department, or those that need a little assist. 

Robert and I spoke at Running Remote 2025 Austin, before his keynote, 'The Hidden Bottleneck: Why Remote Teams Struggle to Scale (and How to Fix ...

Karrie Sullivan has been on the edge of digital transformation since the earliest days of digital media, with a stint at Cars.com during the late '90 internet boom. She knows about getting people to change behavior, to adopt the new, to do things differently. 

As she said, people won't change behavior just because you ask them. People will change behavior to fit in. Especially if you hand them proven ...

Henrik Järleskog, has been on my radar for some time. He's an active member of the 'future of work' community on LinkedIn, frequently contributing articles, keynotes, posts, panel discussions, podcasts appearances and more. I knew I'd have him on eventually….

And then he dropped the post … 'Not one hand went up'

And went on to describe his team of AI agents, working for him.
...

Brian Robertson' leadership philosophies are based on empowering the system, not the people. With clear limits, an 'act don't ask' permissive mindset, the culture seeks to foster more entrepreneurial leadership, when people can exercise authority and autonomy, rather then sitting around, waiting to be told what to do. 

As the founder of Holacracy and a veteran entrepreneur, Brian brings a new model fo...

Mindy Honcoop helps people grow, one micro dose at a time. As the founder of Agile in HR and a seasoned people leader, Mindy brings a unique lens as her path started in the juvenile justice system, working with kids, and figuring out how happiness, and being one's best self at work, contributed to a child's well being. 

At Running Remote, Mindy emcee'd the outside stage for two days, absorbing insight...

Justin Harlan wants you to move to Tulsa. But not just for the $10,000 check. He wants you to consider building your life in Tulsa. As Managing Director of Tulsa Remote, Justin leads a groundbreaking initiative to attract talented, remote workers to diversity Tulsa's economic base beyond oil and gas with more knowledge workers. To grow greater Tulsa, as well as the newly transplanted community.

Tulsa is al...

Zach Boyette got a business class view of the world and decided to build a life, and company around the freedom to design one's own life, not only for Zach the traveler, but all the employees, regardless of the design they choose, living anywhere in the world. As co-founder and CEO of Galactic Fed, Zach leads a 100% remote, 150-person global marketing agency. They designed the company from the bottom up around the prin...

Phil Kirschner returns to Work 20XX with a fresh perspective on how we actually get work done, and exploring a concept he calls "vibe officing." And yes, it's a verb. As Phil puts it, "technology should help us be more human," navigating between spaces, people, and pulse moments with greater flow and fewer barriers.

Sitting face to face from Running Remote in Austin, Phil shares practical insights for lead...

Sophie Wade returns to Work 20XX with a powerful reminder, the future of work is digitalized, multi-gen, and human-first. And that's not a typo, it is a process of work being broken down, and digitalized, and to quote Sophie, 'the tech driven world and operations is changing how we work, not the other way around." In person, from Running Remote in Austin, Sophie shares deep insights on how empathy, adaptability, and tr...