Posts in Leadership
Episode 70 - Entrepreneurs Who Create their Own Category with Trae Stephens of Founders Fund

Today’s episode features Trae Stephens, one of the Partners at Founders Fund. As a venture capitalist, Trae provides excellent insight into what investors are looking for in entrepreneurs. As Trae explains, “we’re looking for outliers.” Find out what that entails and also how Trae measures value by the ability to create abundance and decrease competition. Trae bounces effortlessly between business, theology, and philosophy as he speaks, and we really think you’ll enjoy listening to what he had to share!

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Episode 69 - "One Million Followers Wasn’t in My Obituary" with Sanyin Siang of The Coach K Center on Leadership and Ethics

We are so excited to get to share today’s interview with Sanyin Siang. She is the executive director of The Coach K Center on Leadership and Ethics, and in addition to sharing what makes Coach K such an excellent coach and leader (hint: it has to do with enabling greatness instead of chasing it), she also told us why having 1 million followers on LinkedIn isn’t the thing she wants to be remembered for. It was so encouraging to hear her share how her identity and value is found first and foremost in what God says is true of her—that she is a beloved child of God. We think her energy and passion is contagious and hope you get a chance to listen in!

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Episode 67 - Stewarding the Journey of an Accidental Entrepreneur with Mark McClain, CEO and Co-founder of SailPoint (NYSE: SAIL)

Join us outside of Austin, Texas where we are connecting with Mark McClain. Mark likes to refer to himself as an accidental entrepreneur. He didn’t grow up as the lemonade stand kid but has since gone on to start two different companies. Today, he leads SailPoint, an identity management business started in 2005 that is publicly traded with a market cap around $2 Billion and 1,200 team members across 33 different companies. Hear Mark share his powerful story of being an “Accidental Entrepreneur” and find out how that path might be more common than you think.

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Episode 66 - The Faith Driven Investor with Henry Kaestner and Aimee Minnich

Today’s episode marks the start of something new. We’re launching a brand new website and podcast for the Faith Driven Investor. This episode, and the entire Faith Driven Investor podcast series, is for fund managers, investors, business owners and pastors who believe that God owns it all and who care deeply about how we steward our investments for financial return and gospel-centered transformation. Listen in to hear Henry Kaestner and Aimee Minnich share what God has been doing in this movement and what’s to come.

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Episode 64 - God of the Second Shift with Jeff Haanen from the Denver Institute for Faith and Work

Join William and Henry in the Mile-High city as they talk to Jeff Haanen from the Denver Institute for Faith and Work. His article, God of the Second Shift, made waves in the faith and work world, and we’re excited to have him on our podcast today to talk more about how we can move this conversation around theology and business from the corner office to the manufacturing floor. Tune in to hear what Jeff has to share about what a theology of work means for those in the working class.

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Episode 62 - When did Corporations Grow a Conscience? with Lake Lambert, President of Hanover College

It’s common to think of corporate values as a concept that has always been around, but Lake Lambert, President of Hanover College in Indiana, is here to educate us and show that this isn’t actually the case. Lake is the author of Spirituality, Inc—a book that examines the history of religion in the American workplace—and he joins Henry, William, and Rusty to share what he’s learned about workplace spirituality from the past and what we might expect for the future.

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Episode 61 - The Scoreboard of the Monday Church with Tom Nelson of Made to Flourish

Today, we’re in Kansas City with Tom Nelson. Tom is the visionary pastor of a multi-site church called Christ Community, and he’s been widely recognized in the Faith Driven Entrepreneur community for his book, Work Matters. He also serves on the board of The Gospel Coalition and is President of Made to Flourish—a network of pastors trying to establish what it looks like to be a Monday church. What we love about Tom, and why we had him on today, is that he is working on a replicable model for what it looks like for the average church to affirm and encourage entrepreneurs. Join Henry, William, and Rusty to hear how Tom’s work could affect the way you worship, the way you work, and even the way you live.

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Episode 59 - Saying No to Sam Walton and other Entrepreneurial Stories with Drayton McLane of the Houston Astros

Today we learned that Sam Walton was persistent (very persistent), that you don’t have to know a lot about baseball to successfully own a Major League Baseball team, and that stories are best told by the one who have lived them. And that’s exactly who Drayton McLane is—a serial entrepreneur with a knack for storytelling. Pull up a chair, get comfortable, and prepare to hear story after story of what it’s like to be an entrepreneur for over half a century.

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Episode 56 - The Entrepreneurial Journey of the Museum of the Bible to the US Capital: Steve Green, President of Hobby Lobby

In this episode we’re on the road in Oklahoma City, connecting with Steve Green, President of Hobby Lobby. He shares with us the story behind the Museum of the Bible—a 430,000-square-foot museum just three blocks from the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Hear what brought about this world class exhibit, as well as the entrepreneurial lessons Steve learned along the way.

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Episode 50 - Doing Good by Gaming the System – Yu-Kai Chou, Pioneer of Gamification and Creator of Octalysis Prime Framework

Today we’re talking with one of the pioneers of Gamification, Yu-Kai Chou, author of the book Actionable Gamification and creator of the Octalysis Framework which encompasses 8 core drives of motivation that govern human behavior. He's a speaker on gamification and behavioral design at places like TED, South by Southwest, Google, Stanford and consulted with governments like UK, Singapore and South Korea. His work has affected over 1 Billion users experiences across the world.

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Episode 47 - The Science of Building and Managing Hall of Fame Teams - Phil Olsen, President of Know Your Strengths

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In this episode, Henry sits down with former NFL player and first round draft pick Phil Olsen, currently President of Know Your Strengths, a human resource consulting firm that guides clients and executive-level management through processes for talent discovery, training and people management.

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Episode 46 - Sunday Night Blues: Toxic Work Environments

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Toxic people, toxic environments and all other possible permutations of how toxicity can be expressed in an organization is the subject of today’s episode. Rusty rests the responsibility of toxic organizations firmly on the shoulders of the founder and William believes that faith driven leaders can still be guilty of making a mess of culture.

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Episode 45 - How to Shorten Your Time in the Desert: Julie Barrios, Founder of Nuos Foundation

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We find the team chatting with Julie Barrios, of Nuos Formation, a spiritual formation enterprise focused on helping the entrepreneur develop healthy inner lives as part of purposeful living as a faith-driven entrepreneur.

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Episode 42: Fighting for the Highest Possible Good: Steve Cochram and Jeremie Kubicek of 5 Voices Systems/GiANT Worldwide

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Steve Cochram and Jeremie Kubicek of 5 Voices Systems, a leadership assessment tool that helps you define, understand and leverage your communication style for optimal influence joins the FDE team this week. 

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Episode 40 - Mission Ready: Part Two with David Morken, CEO of Bandwidth

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In Part Two with David Morken, the team discusses more thoroughly about what it means to be mission ready both individually and corporately. David talks about the importance of obedience to God and avoiding the pitfalls of both willfulness and passivity and Henry leads the discussion into practical applications of how their company’s HR policies intentionally reflected kingdom values as they target the whole person for impact.

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Episode 39 - The Partnership Factor: Part One with David Morken, CEO of Bandwidth

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In this edition of the FDE Podcast, we get a peek into the longtime friendship and partnership (let’s just call it what it is – a bromance) between David Morken and Henry Kaestner, co-Founders of Bandwidth and Republic Wireless. They share with us the divine origins of their relationship (Henry was a direct answer to David’s prayer) and how their relationship translated into a successful business where people are promoted as much as the product.

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Episode 37 - Hey Kid, Wanna Test Something on the Space Station? - Valley Christian Schools Entrepreneur Program

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The team spends some time with the students and teachers from Entrepreneur Program and Valley Christian School (VCS) in San Jose, CA. Spearheaded by Hannah Kim and Danny Kim, entrepreneurs in their own right, the program has launched high school students into the world of entrepreneurship in the midst of a community invested in seeing biblical values and principles impacting the world.

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Episode 35 - God Loves Idiots too: John Marsh of Marsh Collective

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The team sits down with John Marsh of Marsh Collective, Opelika AL to discuss storytelling, what it’s like to run 10+ businesses (the collective part of Marsh Collective) and how to be the steward of 10 square city blocks for the glory of God and Kingdom while being totally unqualified to do so.

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