The Human Connection Podcast

"If everything's a priority, then nothing is a priority. It's a one-word oxymoron." — Tina Collins

You're not burning out because you're not working hard enough. You're burning out because you never stopped to ask who you actually are — and whether the way you're showing up is getting in your own way. Tina Collins, Certified Professional Coach and founder of Rethink Re, joins Karl for a conversation that goes deeper than strategy, because vision without self-awareness is just chaos with a roadmap.

With 25 years of coaching leaders across government, the Armed Forces, finance, and energy, Tina has...

"You can't call in favors from transactional relationships. No one's going to want to help you." — Larry Kaufman

You've been showing up and throwing up. Pitching before connecting. Selling before listening. And wondering why your relationships don't convert. Larry Kaufman — bestselling author of The NCG Factor, global speaker, and one of the most well-connected rainmakers in the business — sits down with Karl to get brutally honest about what authentic relationship building actually looks like, and why most professionals are doing it completely backwards.

Larry's approach is simple, human, and surprisingly rare: stop trying to be intere...

"It's not a leadership problem — it's a design problem." — Rory Sylvia

If your manager is the glue holding everything together, you don't have a team — you have a bottleneck wearing a title. Rory Sylvia, founder of The Ways We Work, joins Karl to break down why so many scaling companies are quietly suffocating under the weight of leader-dependent teams — and what to do about it without blowing everything up.

Rory's B-Ride framework gives leaders a practical path from operational chaos to team-driven momentum. In just 60 days, one executive team went from "everyone escalates everything to the CEO"...

"As soon as I start to say 'we made it' — that's when I know it's over." — Greg Workmon, Founder & CEO, Load Up Technologies

Greg Workmon built Load Up Technologies from the ground up over 11 years — and the biggest lessons he learned had nothing to do with logistics or junk removal. They had everything to do with the relationships he wasn't ready to build.

In this conversation, Greg gets refreshingly honest about the mindset shifts that unlocked real growth: from thinking he knew everything in his mid-20s, to building an unpaid advisory board full of people...

"The simpler we can make our concepts, and the more that person can absorb and understand it — that's the success right there." — Christine Blosdale

You've spent years mastering your craft. But if you can't communicate it in a way that makes people feel something, you're leaving influence — and revenue — on the table.

In this episode, Karl sits down with Christine Blosdale, the Expert Authority Coach, five-time #1 bestselling author, and award-winning media personality. Christine has spent 25+ years helping entrepreneurs and thought leaders stop hiding behind their expertise and start building the kind of magnetic presence that gets the...

"The barista at Starbucks often gets more training than people in leadership roles — and we wonder why teams are struggling." — Laurie Maddalena

What if the thing quietly killing your company's growth isn't your product, your market, or your strategy — it's how your leaders are leading people?

In this episode, Karl sits down with Laurie Maddalena, CEO of Envision Excellence, keynote speaker, and author of The Elevated Leader, to explore why the business world desperately needs to stop treating leadership as a perk of technical performance and start treating it as a true profession.

Laurie...

"If you reverse that — if you make it a psychologically safe situation where people feel like they belong, have a voice, and feel like their ideas matter — productivity can really skyrocket." — Andy Procter

What if the thing quietly destroying your team's performance isn't strategy, tooling, or headcount — it's loneliness? Andy Procter is a health psychology PhD student, certified Positive Psychology practitioner, and host of the More Happy Life podcast, whose research has been featured in The New York Times, ABC News, USA Today, and Teen Vogue. He studies one thing with rare precision: how social connection shapes our heal...

"If you're not doing something that lights you up, why not? You've got one trip around this track called Life — and it might end at any moment." — Adrian Jones

Adrian Jones has died twice. Not metaphorically. Two Widowmaker heart attacks forced a 25-year financial services executive to stop performing success and start actually living it. Now, as the founder of MORE and host of the Code Three: Life Reinvented podcast, AJ helps accomplished professionals strip away the masks, ditch the borrowed goalposts, and rediscover what they actually want from their one shot at this.

This epis...

"The reason why we spend time in small talk is not because we want to waste time — it's because that's where trust is being created." — Sylvia Rhode-Liebenau

What happens when a delegation of very upset Russian officials shows up in your office? If you're Sylvia Rhode-Liebenau, you don't get defensive — you get human. With over 25 years of experience coaching senior executives and leading cross-cultural teams across Russia, Ukraine, the Balkans, Northern Africa, and beyond, Sylvia brings a rare blend of embodied leadership wisdom and hard-won diplomatic experience to this week's episode.

Karl and Sylvia dig into w...

"People are everything. They're your brand protectors—those are the people we need to support and empower so they're giving that great experience to your customers." Shmuel Saklad brings a decade of B2B contact center wisdom that most executives are ignoring: your customer experience is only as good as your employee experience, and there's no shortcut around building real human connection.

As a senior manager at Being Follow, Shmuel has watched relationships make or break entire teams. This conversation exposes the hidden cost of assumptions in the workplace, why behavioral science proves our brains spiral without tw...

"There is no hack to building relationships. It's just simply leaders that care more win more." Josh Kosnick cuts through the noise with a truth most leadership podcasts won't touch: your team can smell when you're faking connection, and it's costing you everything.

As a bridge builder who's built and exited three successful businesses, Josh brings hard-won wisdom on why most leaders fail at accountability—they're trying to hold people to standards without building the relationship first. This conversation unpacks the uncomfortable truth about men's mental health, why self-discipline is the foundation of authentic leadership, and the on...

"I expect your best every day you show up here, but I don't expect your best to be the same every day." Jesse Stafford drops truth bombs about why your highest performers are secretly burning out—and it's not because they're working too hard. It's because they're working on assumptions you never asked them to make.

After 18 years leading global teams in casino gaming, Jesse now coaches tech and systems leaders who are great at their work but invisible when it comes to recognition. This conversation unpacks the hidden communication gaps that turn motivated employees into burned-out sh...

"People think acting means to pretend—but actors don't pretend to be the role. They become the person and become the role. I'm not looking for you to pretend to be vice president of your company. I want you to BE the vice president."

Michael Allosso went from directing high school theater to coaching Fortune 500 CEOs—and the skills that make great actors are exactly what make great leaders. In this episode, the master communications expert breaks down why authenticity beats pretense every time, reveals the Latin roots of "acting" (hint: it means "to do," not "to fake...

"The way to stand out today is to give yourself the ability to free your people up to be able to spend that 80% of their time face to face. How rare is that today? To actually get to speak with someone—not on a virtual thing, but actually get in front of somebody. There's something really beautiful about that. There's also something really smart about it."

Jonathan De Collibus has founded 16 companies and sits on the board of 30+ more—and he's seen the same mistake over and over: companies automating chaos at scale. In this episode, the entr...

"When I was a little girl, it was like you got a book on how to be human. And when I opened mine, it was blank. That led to decades of broken relationships, misunderstandings and heartbreak."

Jennifer K. Hill didn't get the manual on human connection—so she spent 20 years writing her own. In this episode, the entrepreneur, executive coach, and self-proclaimed "recovering asshole" breaks down the Golden Triangle of Connection and why most leaders confuse activity for awareness. She shares her nightly "spiritual accounting" practice that transforms reactive rumination into proactive self-improvement, explains why allowing a br...

"A happier person is a more productive person, and a more productive person is a happier person." – Leslie Shreve

Your leadership isn't failing because you lack skills—it's drowning in scattered tasks, partial lists, and the constant ping of notifications. Leslie Shreve, founder of Productive Day and creator of Task-ology, has spent 22 years helping corporate leaders across 30+ industries solve the problem killing both productivity and human connection: workday chaos.

The epidemic isn't complicated. Leaders are checking ten different sources for tasks (email, Slack, texts, CRM, meetings, hallway conversations) while frantically scribbling on legal pads that only...

"People don't hire us for the scripts we can use mostly. Usually they hire us for who we are. Do they want to work with us? Is this the person we want in the office with us, or to be online with every single day?" – Dylan Cornelius

The conformity that kept you safe in school is killing your career. Dylan Cornelius, career coach with 20+ years at Oracle, IBM, and Charles Schwab, reveals why professionals who script themselves into invisibility get overlooked—while those who show up authentically land better offers faster.

In a world obsessed with...

"There's a huge difference between networking and business development. Networking is I went to this event, I got 40 cards. Business development is I met my target. I'm in a position to win." – Joel Bash

Stop wasting time at networking events that don't move the needle. Joel Bash, a master connector with over 17,000 business professionals in his network, reveals why most entrepreneurs are networking all wrong—and the simple shift that turns random handshakes into revenue-generating relationships.

Using his signature "Chinese restaurant" framework, Joel breaks down how to stop hoping you'll meet the right people and star...

"We all buy products, and when we get that product, we're on our own to kind of unbox it. We may hear like, 'hey, would you leave us a review?' But really, what I needed at that moment was some nurturing and support around product ownership." – Ken Rapp

Ken Rapp, CEO and co-founder of Blue Stream, shares the heartbreaking story of how his new guitar cracked because no one guided him through proper care—and how that experience sparked a company reshaping post-purchase customer relationships. Ken reveals the concept of "silent churn" where over 93% of struggling cust...

"Do you have a wins list?" – Gordon Sheppard

Gordon Sheppard, business advisor and host of the Executive Wins Podcast, reveals why most leadership teams spend hours complaining but go silent when asked how they celebrate success. In this conversation, Gordon breaks down his "anatomy of a win" framework—a five-bucket structure (strategy, work plan, people, operations, results) that helps leaders reverse-engineer past wins to solve future problems. We explore why strength-based leadership creates more impact than problem-focused management, and how his simple framework cascades through entire organizations without requiring an MBA to understand.

What you'll lear...

"My intuition and my body were literally screaming no! But I was saying yes." – Chelsea Fournier

Chelsea Fournier, former lawyer turned intuitive business mentor, shares her powerful journey from burnout to building businesses aligned with actual fulfillment. In this conversation, we tackle the hidden cost of data-driven leadership that's left executives unable to trust their own judgment. Chelsea breaks down why the metrics that look good on paper often lead to chronic health issues, anxiety, and unsustainable growth—and introduces her framework for "welcoming intuition into the boardroom" to create decision-making processes that balance strategy with self-leadership.

"When you are on purpose, you don't need to be as good as somebody on the left or right. You just need to be operating in the purpose of you."

Hanna Bauer learned about sustainable performance the hard way—through heart disease. Now as founder of Heart Nomics, she helps leaders achieve transformation without burning out by distinguishing between delegating tasks and transferring purpose. The difference? One keeps you trapped in micromanagement; the other frees your team to own the vision.

In this conversation, Hanna breaks down why burnout isn't just about working too much—it's...

"When things are equalized, when everything suddenly can be good, there's something that makes it feel a little bit different, that makes it feel great. And that's what you're looking for."

Jason Michael Perry doesn't sugarcoat it: AI is making phishing emails as polished as legitimate ones, and your clients can't tell the difference anymore. As founder of Perry Labs and author of The AI Evolution, Jason argues that attention has become the world's most valuable resource—and in an AI-saturated landscape, human connection is the only filter that matters.

In this conversation, Jason breaks do...

"Your heritage is already yours, and it only takes one small piece to connect."

Tami Garcia knows something most executives miss: you can't build authentic connections with others until you understand who you are. As a heritage reconnection coach and author of Rediscovering Your Roots, Tami helps professionals reclaim their cultural identity through "fragments"—small pieces like photos, artifacts, or family sayings that unlock deeper self-awareness.

In this conversation, Tami breaks down why cultural disconnection creates workplace friction and how leaders who create space for cultural expression see measurable results: higher trust, better communication, improved re...

"If you're going to get to know your people better, just get to know them better. The minute you transactionalize it, you start losing the relational aspect and the human humanization of it." – Seung Paik

Your leadership strategy is commodifying the people you're supposed to inspire. Seung Paik, retired Air Force colonel and author of Leadernomics, reveals why economics—the study of human behavior—is the missing framework for leaders who want results without sacrificing relationships.

Most leaders treat their teams like inputs on a spreadsheet: labor and capital. Seung discovered that the same economic princi...

"Nobody wants to be sold on LinkedIn. But most people are willing to be educated on LinkedIn, especially around pain points that they have." – Colin Hirdman

You're burning bridges on LinkedIn and don't even know it. Colin Hirdman, founder of Rainmaker and co-founder of Monkey Island Ventures, reveals why your connection requests are getting ignored—and the counterintuitive strategy that generates 24x more engagement than regular posts.

Most founders treat LinkedIn like a spray-and-pray sales tool. Colin built a platform that helps companies grow their networks and revenue by flipping the script: education before selling, rela...

"When you connect the right person with the right skillset, with the right environment, everybody wins." – Alex Bowden

Most scaling companies are bleeding talent because they've automated the wrong parts of hiring. Alex Bowden, founder of People First Talent and Retention Consulting, breaks down why your ATS system is sabotaging your culture—and how to fix it with human-first hiring strategies that actually work.

Think of hiring like dating: if you lead with a checklist of requirements, you'll kill the connection before it starts. Alex reveals the framework that helped her clients save upwards of $100,000 per...

"Focusing on the things that are within your control—how you communicate, your tonality, getting your voice heard in meetings—that's what creates real change."

Lori Potts knows that women face a likability trap men rarely encounter: be too warm and you're dismissed as incapable; show too much competence and you're labeled aggressive. As a public speaking and career coach who helps mid-level women advance their careers, Lori teaches the communication skills that break through internal biases and external discrimination. In this conversation, she reveals why up-talking destroys your credibility even when you know your stuff, how one...

"Listen so much that you're paying attention to what's not being said, what's not being heard—those wells of energy and wisdom guide the path forward."

Rick Cram knows that resilience isn't just about surviving challenges—it's about transforming through them. As a resilience coach and creator of the Plan to Be Your Best method, Rick helps leaders navigate organizational stress and personal hardship by matching their level of pain with an equal level of intentionality. In this conversation, he reveals why most leadership strategies fail during crisis (they focus on outcomes instead of process), how communication beco...

"The less confident I feel in my ability, the more time I'm reacting out of defensiveness and self-criticism—all of those things take me away from being an effective leader."

Tim Smith knows that leadership transitions can make or break scaling companies. As a leadership strategist and succession planning consultant at Baron Ridge Consulting, Tim helps organizations identify leadership gaps before they become crises. In this conversation, he breaks down why listening is the most underrated leadership skill, how to support newly promoted leaders through their transition struggles, and his powerful "Start-Stop-Continue" framework for giving feedback that ac...

"They're disconnected from other people. They're disconnected from themselves. So how do you lead yourself first? How do you get reconnected with yourself in a way that helps you understand what your values are, how you make decisions, how you're choosing to show up?"

As AI takes over administrative tasks, the real competitive advantage isn't in technology—it's in how leaders connect with their teams. Jennifer Nash, executive advisor to Google, Ford, IBM, and McDonald's, reveals why self-awareness is the foundation of transformational leadership.

In this powerful conversation, Jennifer shares a breakthrough coaching moment where a...

"People really make decisions on emotion, and then they justify it with logic."

Ever wonder why your expertise isn't translating into closed deals? Danny Bobrow, creator of the Persuasion Blueprint, reveals why technical competency alone isn't enough—and what actually builds trust in human-to-human business relationships.

In this episode, Danny breaks down the Three C's of persuasive communication: Caring, Connection, and Collaboration. You'll discover why slowing down (yes, really!) can dramatically improve your conversion rates, why silence is your secret weapon in negotiations, and how a dental practice converted 12 major cases in just four weeks by...

"When people call us, we don't go straight into 'What's your name? What county?' We say thank you for calling us today. We understand what you're going through."

What if the legal industry's biggest problem isn't bad law—it's bad relationships? Jimmy Lai, founder of Lion Turner Law Firm, knows this firsthand. After watching too many clients get treated like case numbers, he built his firm on a radically simple belief: people in crisis deserve lawyers who actually give a damn about their story.

In this episode, Jimmy shares how he transformed his firm's ap...

"When AI is applied correctly, it allows your human beings, your frontline people, arguably the most important people in your company because they're the ones who are dealing directly with customers, to be more human."

Join host Karl Pontau for an insightful conversation with Rick DeLisi, co-author of Digital Customer Service and The Effortless Experience, and creator of the Customer Effort Score metric. Rick shares how AI is revolutionizing contact centers—not by replacing humans, but by making them better at what they do best: connecting with customers.

Discover how virtual assistants can handle routine ta...

"Every mission statement, purpose, destiny, vision, calling comes from our life experiences."

Ever wake up "successful" but feeling like something's missing? You're not alone.

This week, Karl sits down with Greg Stewart—telehealth counselor, executive coach, and author of the AI Cubed trilogy—to unpack why so many high-achievers feel empty despite crushing it on paper.

Greg breaks down the difference between executives who just execute and leaders who actually lead (hint: it's all about the heart). He introduces the "Iron Man Core" concept—that inexhaustible energy source that protects you from life's shrapn...

"Step one is actually focusing and actually considering the customer for the first time."

Ever wonder why your customers seem confused by your "improvements"? Ryan Rael breaks down the uncomfortable truth: as companies grow, decision-makers lose touch with what customers actually want.

In this eye-opening conversation, Ryan shares why that shiny new AI chatbot might be solving the wrong problem (spoiler: if 80% of inquiries are about order status, maybe focus on better order updates first!). He reveals the elegantly simple metric that can unite your entire team—from finance to marketing to support—and explains why...

"Production workers don't just need to know how they do something—they need to know WHY they're doing it."

Ever wonder why some companies can't keep employees past their first few months? Danielle Suprick knows exactly why—and how to fix it.

As a workplace engineer blending mechanical engineering with industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology, Danielle has transformed chaotic onboarding experiences into streamlined success stories. In this episode, she shares how she tackled a jaw-dropping 50% turnover rate by doing something radical: actually talking to employees.

What you'll learn:

"Money moves toward a certain kind of energy. It does not move toward energy that is victim energy or energy that doesn't have agency or choice." – Amy Kemp

Ever feel like you're wearing a backpack full of bricks as you move through your workday? You might be trapped in subconscious thought habits that are holding you back.

In this episode, certified Habit Finder coach Amy Kemp reveals how the invisible patterns running 80% of our thinking can either propel us forward or keep us stuck. She shares powerful insights on why the hustle mentality that launched yo...

"Everybody has a story. You just never know who needs that connection at that moment." - Steve Fales

In this heartwarming episode, host Karl Pontau sits down with Steve Fales, founder of AD Services, Inc., to explore the art of building genuine friendships in the workplace. Steve shares his refreshingly simple philosophy: ask questions, actually listen to the answers, and avoid the dreaded "conversation poker" where people just try to one-up each other's stories.

Discover why the barista at your local coffee shop isn't just "the barista," how a simple compliment can change someone's entire...

"How can you buy a company that's been around for 70 years, and you're selling one day and you're closing the door the next day? That means you're a business. You don't care about people."

When a beloved 70-year-old Minnesota window company sold to a PE firm and shut down overnight—leaving customers with unfulfilled $50K contracts—it sparked an important conversation about what really matters in business.

This week, Karl sits down with Kevin Juza, a succession planning consultant on a mission to help family businesses beat the 70% failure rate when passing the torch to the...