Matt Hawksley: Learning in the Open
Leadogo founder Matt Hawksley on leaving a 20-year logistics career, the 40-day road trip that launched his reinvention, learning in the open, and mentoring entrepreneurs in Ghana.
46 episodes of conversations with the people building, leading, and pivoting careers worth talking about. Hosted by Richard Lowe Jr.
Leaders and Their Stories is a long-form podcast about how careers and businesses actually get built. The guests are founders, executives, consultants, authors, and operators who have made the kind of decisions that shape an industry, a company, or a life. Each episode is a conversation, not an interview — what worked, what didn't, what they learned, and what they would do differently.
Episodes range from 30 to 90 minutes. No rehearsed talking points, no canned questions, no rapid-fire host who interrupts every answer. Just two people sitting down to talk about real work.
BusinessLeadogo founder Matt Hawksley on leaving a 20-year logistics career, the 40-day road trip that launched his reinvention, learning in the open, and mentoring entrepreneurs in Ghana.
BusinessTech journalist and ghostwriter Riley Kaminer on writing more than 1,000 startup stories for Refresh Miami, why AI stretches everything to three times its length, and what gets lost when young professionals let AI do the thinking.
BusinessRetired Navy veteran and technology leader Jay Stifflemire on losing a contract two days before Christmas, founding a publishing company by January 2, and the memoir for his children that started it all.
BusinessOrganizational systems architect Georgie-Ann Getton on the story you tell yourself, setting goals as a floor rather than a ceiling, and the morning she missed a turn and realized she had forgotten she could turn around.
BusinessStartup coach Yaron Vorona on coaching deep tech founders through the Series A step up, escaping the supplicant trap, and why can't is almost always a choose not to.
BusinessConsultant Joe Rockey returns with one test for every AI decision: is it a function, or is it replacing a relationship? Get it wrong and AI costs you money and clients.
BusinessLinkedIn strategist Craig Leonard on how the interest-based algorithm decides who sees you, why most profiles read like resumes, and where AI helps and where it wrecks the job.
BusinessInsurance broker and I Know A Guy Iowa host Anthony Markey returns to explain why everybody is worth a coffee, and why the person you let talk is the one who refers you.
BusinessThe first guest this show ever had returns fifty episodes later. Royce Blake on why your voice is an instrument, why you hate the sound of it on playback, and the one technique he would teach if he could only…
BusinessLeadership is driving a school bus while everyone in the back throws shoes and pizza. Mike Merkur on being fired fifteen times, hiding the workshop from the customer, and using neurodiversity instead of fixing it.
BusinessThirty years of IT taught everyone that a system behaves the same way twice. Noah Landow, who founded Macktez in 1996, on AEO, live queries, and the adjustment nobody prepared for.
BusinessBlockSkunk founder Michael Santore joins Richard Lowe to talk no-win scenarios, the elevated paradox, the fantasy sports startup that stopped like a spaceship, sunk costs, and why AI compliance is quietly asking for immutable audit logs.
Leaders and Their Stories welcomes founders, executives, consultants, and authors with real stories worth telling. If that's you, get in touch.
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