Innovators on Tap
89 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 69 ratingsInnovators on Tap is a podcast that encourages you to challenge the status quo, think about what’s possible, and pursue the impossible.
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Episodes
Innovators on Tap Finale!
June 10, 2021 05:50 - 37 minutes - 42.6 MBHost of the show, Chuck Swoboda, sits down with producer of the show, Kyle Hagge, to discuss the origin story of Innovators on Tap and the lessons learned along the way. You can follow the podcast, Chuck, and Kyle on Twitter for further exploration and discussion on innovation. The episode is also available wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!
BONUS: The Power of Principles w/ Leif Abraham
May 26, 2021 13:17 - 36 minutes - 41.5 MBThis episode is a replay of the previously released interview with Leif Abraham, Co-CEO at Public.com. Honesty kills bullshit. You’re an owner, act like one. Enable, don’t direct. No — this isn’t unsolicited advice from me - although it could be. These are actually 3 of the 9 core culture principles for Public.com, an investing app that is making the stock market social. Today’s guest, Leif Abraham, is the author of these principles and the Co-Founder and CEO of Public.com. Leif develope...
BONUS: The Future of AI w/ Danny Lange
May 06, 2021 19:14 - 38 minutes - 43.5 MBThis episode is a replay of the previously released interview with Danny Lange, SVP of AI at Unity. Enjoy! Did you ever wonder how a computer can be trained to beat a human at chess? Or how Amazon seems to anticipate what you’re looking for, before typing your request in the search bar? Or how it is that the Uber app always seems to know the faster route to your destination? All of these technologies rely on the same thing - Artificial Intelligence, or more specifically Machine Learnin...
Do Things For The Right Reason w/ Todd Adams
April 29, 2021 12:48 - 32 minutes - 37.2 MBGears. Bearings. Conveyors. Drainage systems. Plumbing fixtures. Not what you first think of when it comes to innovation - but areas that maybe even more affected by innovation that all those tech companies that we normally think about. Why? Because while we often associate coming up with a new idea as the hard part of innovation, transforming existing industries can be even harder. It’s the real world for most of us. Today’s guest, Todd Adams, is the CEO of Rexnord, one of the real w...
It's All About People w/ Peggy Troy
April 21, 2021 16:19 - 24 minutes - 28 MBArguably no industry has been impacted by COVID more than healthcare. And because of this disruption, no industry has probably moved as fast to embrace innovation - whether they wanted to or not. For example, telemedicine, which has been around for more than a decade, has suddenly become not only a mainstream option, but also a way to create access that wasn’t possible before. On today’s episode, we speak with someone with intimate knowledge of the healthcare industry: Peggy Troy, who i...
Passion, Problem-solving, & Pixar w/ Jim Murphy
April 14, 2021 04:53 - 29 minutes - 33.5 MBHave you ever turned down an opportunity because you thought it was too risky? What would you do if you got a second chance? On today’s episode, we talk with Jim Murphy, who has had an over two decade career at Pixar - even though he originally turned them down. That’s right. As a budding animator, he was offered the chance to work for Pixar, but it was only a 6 month contract with no guarantees. He decided that was too risky and so he said no…... and then something incredible happen...
Developing Trust in AI w/ Phaedra Boinodiris
April 08, 2021 02:42 - 28 minutes - 32.7 MBDoing what others say you can’t do is an extremely powerful motivator for most entrepreneurs. And for today’s guest, Phaedra Boinodiris, this mindset has been integral to her story. While she was a graduate student at University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, she was working on a case challenge sponsored by IBM so she decided to create a game that taught “business process management to non-technical people.” She remembers one of her classmates telling her “games are for kids and IBM isn...
Making Learning Social w/ Amanda DoAmaral
April 01, 2021 04:37 - 27 minutes - 31.2 MBOne of the key mindsets that I’ve always looked for in people is their ability to be unafraid of failure, yet unwilling to fail. And today’s guest, Amanda DoAmaral is someone who represents this idea. She is the CEO and founder of Fiveable, a social learning network that helps build confidence, content knowledge & technical skills in high school students trying to earn college credit. While Fiveable today has more than 200,000 users and looks like it is destined for continued success ...bu...
The Power of Non-Linearity w/ Igor Jablokov
March 24, 2021 09:07 - 35 minutes - 40.4 MB“Hey Siri” “Ok Google” “Hey Alexa” If I told you 15 years ago that we would all be talking to our electronic devices, would you have believed me? Would you have thought I needed some therapy? Regardless of your answer, it’s clear that speech recognition has become normalized. We now talk to our devices in order to call a friend, to find directions to a local restaurant, and even, when we are really bored, to tell us a joke. On today’s episode, we talk with Igor Jablokov, a pioneer in voi...
The Future of Higher Education w/ Kris Ropella & Tim Hanley
March 18, 2021 04:47 - 32 minutes - 37.4 MBIt’s been just over one year since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and disrupted nearly every aspect of our daily lives. One of the industries that has been most affected has been Education and more specifically Higher Education. Once the pandemic hit, every college and university was forced to move all classes online, seemingly overnight, and campus life, normally centered on close, personal interactions, became a socially distanced affair. Beyond the challenges associated with transiti...
The Serial 1 E-Bike Story w/ Jason Huntsman & Hannah Altenburg
March 11, 2021 04:54 - 28 minutes - 32.4 MBIn 1903, William Harley and the Davidson Brothers built their first motorcycle in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Since that first bike shipped, Harley Davidson has become an American icon and likely the best known motorcycle brand across the world, selling upwards of 300,000 motorcyles each year. But what happens to a business when consumer preferences and behaviors change? While motorcycles continue to sell well to their traditional customer base focused on the open road, a new segment of consumer...
Everyone Can Be A Leader w/ Chris Lowney
March 03, 2021 15:12 - 34 minutes - 38.5 MBA Jesuit, a banker, and an author sit down for a podcast. No, this isn’t some ridiculous set-up to a joke, it’s actually how I would describe today’s episode. But if you are expecting 3 guests, I have to tell you, there’s only one. His name: Chris Lowney. Chris has a unique story: He entered a Jesuit seminary after highschool and spent 7 years studying to become a priest, but then left the seminary and went on to an incredibly successful career as an investment banker at JP Morgan, and now...
The Circle of Innovation
February 24, 2021 15:30 - 16 minutes - 18.9 MBIf you’re a long time listener of the show, you’ve noticed that many common themes around innovation and leadership emerge from these conversations. Recently, I took these ideas, and the many lessons learned throughout my career, and presented them as a TED Talk at Marquette University. On today’s episode, we are replaying my talk, called the Circle of Innovation, which is a summary of how you can implement behaviors in your life that will make you a more innovative leader. I even include s...
What The Jesuits Can Teach Us About Innovation w/ Father Nicky Santos
February 17, 2021 15:12 - 27 minutes - 31 MBWhen you think of innovation, what comes to mind? It might be a company, like Tesla. A founder, like Steve Jobs. Or even a location, like Silicon Valley. But what is unlikely to come to mind is a religious order that has been around since 1540 and each member takes a vow of poverty. But that is exactly the focus of today’s episode: The Jesuits. A religious order of the Catholic Church founded by Ignatius of Loyola, who today are often most known for their focus on education and the fo...
The Power of Intellectual Curiosity w/ David Reeves
February 10, 2021 14:19 - 30 minutes - 34.6 MBToday’s guest is David Reeves, President of OpenGov — a Silicon Valley company that offers cloud based services to local governments so they can achieve better performance and ultimately create better outcomes for the public. Put another way, they're applying the practices and standards developed by private industry to the public sector … and if you’ve ever waited 2 hours at the DMV to update the address on your drivers license, you know that it’s not a minute too soon. David has had a lon...
Personal Disruption w/ Abim Kolawole
February 03, 2021 14:04 - 28 minutes - 32.6 MBWhen we talk about innovation, we often focus on disrupting certain industries, but innovation also requires you to embrace personal disruption: your beliefs will be challenged, your direction will be changed, and your responsibilities will be shifted. Today’s guest, Abim Kolawole, has embraced personal disruption throughout his entire career. Starting out as a lawyer for the SEC, he pivoted into running the claims business at Northwestern Mutual, and then pivoted again to his current role ...
Venture Philanthropy w/ BJ Cassin
January 27, 2021 06:40 - 23 minutes - 27 MBMany of you may have heard of the now famous Sand Hill Road - where the first VC firms planted their roots, and where nearly every top technology company received early funding coming - including Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook to name just a few. Today, we speak with one of the original Silicon Valley venture capitalists: BJ Cassin. But BJ’s story doesn’t end with the impact he had as a venture capitalist, it goes far beyond it. Prior to his investing career, BJ co-founded the technolog...
The 10 Principles of Innovation
January 20, 2021 06:22 - 11 minutes - 13.4 MBAs I’ve interviewed a number of innovators and entrepreneurs on the show over the last couple of years, it has re-confirmed my belief that innovation is not a process or a recipe, but it is fundamentally about people and their mindset. In the first half of season three, I’ve had a chance to talk with a wide range of incredible guests, who have proven that there is no one particular way to successfully innovate. And while people have different styles, and describe their strategies and philo...
Building Resilience w/ Wafaa Arbash
January 13, 2021 05:46 - 22 minutes - 25.9 MBToday’s guest is Wafaa Arbash, the founder & CEO of WorkAround — a company helping refugees and displaced populations find sustainable income through data labeling for machine learning algorithms. However, Wafaa’s story goes much deeper than her role as a founder and CEO — she also is a great example of the power of resilience. She originally came to the United States from Syria in 2013, with a plan to stay 8 weeks. However, shortly after arrival, a crisis emerged in her home country which ...
Unconventional Wisdom
January 06, 2021 14:33 - 18 minutes - 21.7 MBIf you’ve listened to this show before, you know that one of the key premises is that Innovation is fundamentally about people and not process - that’s it requires a unique mindset. This is what I call the Innovator’s Spirit — which are the beliefs that enable the behaviors that make innovation possible. The challenge for many of us is that our life experiences have created beliefs that actually get in the way of innovation. We have seen things, done things and have been told things tha...
BONUS: The Science of Behavior w/ Julie Miller
December 30, 2020 17:22 - 30 minutes - 25.6 MBThis episode is a replay of the previously released interview with Julie Miller, behavioral scientist. We will be back with new episodes in 2021! Happy New Year! For many businesses that want to innovate, the biggest challenge is not coming up with a new idea, but figuring out how to get consumers to embrace the idea. We dealt with this problem often at Cree, including when we tried to get customers to switch from incandescent light bulbs to LEDs. The key to driving change is to first unde...
BONUS: Disrupting The Food Industry w/ Lauren Abda
December 23, 2020 17:52 - 27 minutes - 21.1 MBThis episode is a replay of the previously released interview with Lauren Abda, founder of Branchfood. We will be back with new episodes in 2021! Happy New Year! When Lauren Abda was in high school, her grandmother was diagnosed with Leukemia - which led her parents to radically change their approach to food, health & wellness. It also sparked a passion for her that would define what she would study in college and put her on a path for a career in the food innovation industry. Lauren is...
Practical Innovation w/ Austin Ramirez
December 16, 2020 13:35 - 35 minutes - 40.6 MBAs I’ve discussed on this show many times, how you grow up has a tremendous impact on your mindset as an adult - which can be shaped by a multitude of life experiences from your first job, to family dynamics, and even participation in organized sports. For today’s guest, Austin Ramirez, his leadership perspective was shaped by his journey as a competitive swimmer, where he learned how to overcome early failure and to keep striving for better. He competed as a college athlete, and eventua...
The Future of AI w/ Danny Lange
December 09, 2020 10:00 - 38 minutes - 43.5 MBDid you ever wonder how a computer can be trained to beat a human at chess? Or how Amazon seems to anticipate what you’re looking for, before typing your request in the search bar? Or how it is that the Uber app always seems to know the faster route to your destination? All of these technologies rely on the same thing - Artificial Intelligence, or more specifically Machine Learning, where computers are able to not only use past information, but to also test future possibilities to find ...
The Power of Principles w/ Leif Abraham
December 02, 2020 08:47 - 36 minutes - 41.5 MBHonesty kills bullshit. You’re an owner, act like one. Enable, don’t direct. No — this isn’t unsolicited advice from me - although it could be. These are actually 3 of the 9 core culture principles for Public.com, an investing app that is making the stock market social. Today’s guest, Leif Abraham, is the author of these principles and the Co-Founder and CEO of Public.com. Leif developed these principles through a successful career as a creative director before founding his first two comp...
Defining Success On Your Own Terms w/ Matthew Manos
November 25, 2020 12:54 - 34 minutes - 39.1 MBI want you to think of the amount of work you do each day. Now, imagine that you were asked to double it - what would you say? But that’s not all, I now want you to give all that extra work away for free. If you think this sounds unrealistic, you’re not alone. That was also my first reaction. But this isn’t a hypothetical. In fact, it’s the core principle behind today’s guest, Matthew Manos, company “verynice”. His company is a collaborative design strategy practice that specializes ...
Becoming Who You Are w/ David Katz
November 18, 2020 13:43 - 31 minutes - 35.6 MBHow often have you seen a plastic bottle lying on the ground? Did you pick it up? This is the fundamental paradigm at the heart of Plastic Bank, founded by today’s guest, David Katz, in 2013. Plastic Bank is a global network of micro recycling markets that empower the poor to transcend poverty by cleaning the environment. One of the key premises of David’s business model is that you’ll never clean the oceans by trying to clean the oceans, instead you have to not pollute them in the first ...
Unbridled Curiosity w/ Victor Szczerba
November 11, 2020 09:06 - 32 minutes - 37.8 MBSolving big, hairy problems. That is how today’s guest, Victor Szczerba, describes entrepreneurship. Victor spent much of his career working with some of the largest Data Management Businesses in the world, including SAP and Microsoft. And it was during this time that he saw a customer problem that needed to be solved, which led to him forming his company, Yeti Data - a virtual marketing data warehouse. But Victor isn’t all about data, throughout his successful career, he’s learned the ...
BONUS: Philosophies of Innovation w/ Rajesh Vashist
November 05, 2020 14:32 - 41 minutes - 46.9 MBThis episode is a replay of the previously released interview with Rajesh Vashist, CEO of SiTime. We will be back next week with a new episode with a special guest from California. Most us realize that inside all the great electronic devices, from the mobile phone in your pocket to the tablet on your desk, are a bunch of semiconductor chips that we really don’t understand. You’ve may have heard about Intel and the microprocessor thanks to all their advertising, But what you probably don’t...
The Power of Passion w/ Dr. Sherry Zhang
October 28, 2020 13:59 - 26 minutes - 30.4 MBToday’s guest is Dr. Sherry Zhang, a molecular biologist by training and the founder and CEO of GenoPalate, a startup that analyzes your genetics to create a customized nutritional plan for your unique genetic make-up. Sherry not only has entrepreneurship in her DNA, but she’s also gained a lot from her experiences: starting with growing up in China and coming to Milwaukee in 2001, then helping create two other startups before GenoPalate, and most recently educating future generations as a ...
Coaches For Action w/ Dwayne Killings & Justin Gainey
October 21, 2020 14:07 - 33 minutes - 38.4 MBA lot of people talk about the need for change, but too few people actually do something about it. In today’s episode we talk with Dwayne Killings and Justin Gainey, best known as assistant coaches for the Marquette men’s basketball team, but who decided this summer to use their platform to educate and bring awareness to social injustices by forming Coaches for Action, alongside 19 fellow Big East coaches. We'll hear more about their work with CFA, and also go behind the scenes of Marquett...
Defining Yourself as a Leader w/ Ramzi Hermiz
October 14, 2020 14:06 - 26 minutes - 29.9 MBToday’s guest is Ramzi Hermiz, who recently retired from a long career in the automotive industry, including the last 8 years as the CEO of Shiloh Industries. Throughout this impressive career, Ramzi gained insight not just about cars and the industry, but about leadership and innovation. He developed that philosophy that “Where there is risk of failure, that means there is a problem to be solved. If you embrace that risk, you are embracing the opportunity to change.” During his time as CE...
The Science of Behavior w/ Julie Miller
October 07, 2020 13:58 - 30 minutes - 34.9 MBFor many businesses that want to innovate, the biggest challenge is not coming up with a new idea, but figuring out how to get consumers to embrace the idea. We dealt with this problem often at Cree, including when we tried to get customers to switch from incandescent light bulbs to LEDs. The key to driving change is to first understand how humans behave. I recently had a chance to talk with Julie Miller, who is a behavioral scientist, a researcher at Dan Ariely’s Center for Advanced Hindsi...
Becoming Yourself w/ Elmer Moore
September 30, 2020 06:39 - 33 minutes - 38 MBElmer Moore started his entrepreneurial journey by helping create a comedy troupe in college before going on to a more traditional career. He later shifted his focus to teaching venture creation to others, where he was motivated to put his ideas into practice by starting his own company. Elmer is currently the Executive Director of Scale-Up Milwaukee, a professor at Marquette University, and the founder of the Milwaukee Denim Company. These experiences have given Elmer a unique and powerfu...
Charging Ahead w/ Desmond Wiggan
September 23, 2020 13:06 - 30 minutes - 35.2 MBDesmond Wiggan started his career like many other aspiring leaders — working for a large company and immersing himself in their management development program. While learning how to manage a team and deliver on his targets were important skills, Desmond comes from a long line of entrepreneurs and wanted something more; He wanted to lead. So he decided to pivot, gave up his job at a Fortune 500 company and moved to China to dive into their tech and startup scene. In a new country without any...
Work Is A Verb w/ Mark FitzGerald
September 16, 2020 06:08 - 31 minutes - 36.2 MBMark FitzGerald built and sold a business, then went on to help build multiple other companies as a private equity investor, before starting his latest venture, the MUKC Fund which is designed to help students, faculty, and alumni of Marquette University find capital to grow their business. This fund is on the frontier of what could be the future of Higher Ed philanthropy. Despite Mark’s many successes, when he was in college he described himself as a C student, at best. This gave him a uni...
Disrupting The Food Industry w/ Lauren Abda
September 09, 2020 10:00 - 26 minutes - 30.4 MBWhen Lauren Abda was in high school, her grandmother was diagnosed with Leukemia - which led her parents to radically change their approach to food, health & wellness. It also sparked a passion for her that would define what she would study in college and put her on a path for a career in the food innovation industry. Lauren is CEO of Branchfood — a food innovation and entrepreneurship hub — and the founder of Branch Venture Group — an angel investor network — focused on developing food ent...
Maximize Your Strengths w/ John Coyle
September 02, 2020 10:59 - 35 minutes - 42 MBOn the first episode of this new season, we have an incredible guest. I sit down with John Coyle, an Olympic medalist, sought after speaker, design thinking expert, and a best-selling author. But John’s success has been far from a liner path. After failing to qualify for the 1992 U.S. Olympic Speedskating Team, he decided to quit, abandon what was considered best practice at the time, and instead he trained by himself in a completely different way. Instead of working to better manage his we...
BONUS: Legacy Company, Startup Culture w/ Peter Gunder and Ryan Rist
August 26, 2020 14:26 - 40 minutes - 46.3 MBWe sit down with Peter Gunder, Chief Business Development Officer, and Ryan Rist, Director of Innovation, of American Family Insurance to discuss innovation inside a legacy company, anchoring yourself to the transformational side of things, and competing with startups.
BONUS: Leadership By Wandering Around w/ Dick Leinenkugel
August 19, 2020 14:15 - 37 minutes - 42.6 MBHow does one lead by wandering around? Listen to Dick Leinenkugel, President & Chief Beer Merchant of Leinenkugel Brewing Company, discuss what he learned during his time in the Marines, the story of Summer Shandy, and the future of the craft brewing scene.
A Journey, Not A Destination
August 12, 2020 13:16 - 15 minutes - 17.3 MBWelcome to the last episode of Season 2 of Innovators on Tap! This season explored many of the concepts outlined in Chuck’s new book The Innovator’s Spirit. On the final episode of the season, we reaffirm that innovation is a lifelong journey, not a simple destination, and we distill the 12 previous episodes into the beliefs that make up the Innovator’s Spirit. If you have an opinion on these topics, please feel free to email us through the contact page. The best ideas often stem from the...
Focus The Mind
August 05, 2020 09:58 - 12 minutes - 14.7 MBWelcome to Season 2 of Innovators on Tap! This season will explore many of the concepts outlined in Chuck’s new book The Innovator’s Spirit. On episode 13, we continue our journey to uncover your innovator's spirit as we explore how to focus the mind. We’ll start by debunking the multitasking myth and recognize it for what it really is - the enemy of the focus needed for innovation. We’ll help you see how a crisis can help focus your team and give you some ideas as to how you can create a...
Don't Wait For Perfection
July 29, 2020 12:20 - 14 minutes - 16.2 MBWelcome to Season 2 of Innovators on Tap! This season will explore many of the concepts outlined in Chuck’s new book The Innovator’s Spirit. On episode 12, we continue our journey to uncover your innovator's spirit as we explore how to stop waiting for perfection. We’ll help you understand the emotional side of perfectionism, why being directionally correct is good enough, and how to use perfect as inspiration - but not a destination. If you have an opinion on these topics, please feel f...
Go Beyond Best Practice
July 22, 2020 10:00 - 14 minutes - 16.4 MBEpisode 11 of season 2 continues our journey to uncover your innovator's spirit as we explore how to go beyond best practice. We start with helping you see the boundary conditions created by conventional thinking, explain how they fundamentally get in the way of innovation, and then we look at how you can keep yourself from getting caught in the trap created by these practices.
Be Unafraid Of Failure
July 15, 2020 11:53 - 14 minutes - 16.8 MBEpisode 10 of season 2 continues our journey to uncover your innovator's spirit as we explore how risk and failure relate to innovation. We start by asking you to openly think about failure. We then explore how innovation and risk are fundamentally related and give you some ideas on how to reframe your own perspective on failure. And finally we talk about how creating a crisis might be the best way to inspire your team to embrace risk.
Do What They Say You Can't
July 08, 2020 14:20 - 14 minutes - 16.4 MBOn episode 9 of season 2, we explore how to take what others consider impossible, and make it possible. We explain how experts often get in the way of innovation and we’ll show you how you can overcome the three primary obstacles to innovation that are likely to get in your way.
The Customer Doesn't Know
July 01, 2020 13:44 - 13 minutes - 15.6 MBFor episode 8 of season 2, we explore how the customer doesn’t really know what they want, how to use customers to identify problems but not come up with solutions, and why you shouldn’t complain about problems because problems are the definition of business.
There Is No Box
June 24, 2020 11:57 - 14 minutes - 16.2 MBOn episode 7, we explore how the term “think outside the box” came to be, how to avoid the trap of thinking there is a box, and the importance believing anything is possible, getting rid of your backup plans, and being comfortable with different perspectives. Tim Ferriss Podcast w/ Jim Collins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCN8MQ4NWy8 David Foster Wallace "This is Water": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms2BvRbjOYo
Innovation Is Messy
June 17, 2020 10:00 - 12 minutes - 14.3 MBFor the 6th episode of Season 2 of Innovators on Tap, we explore why innovation is messy, how disorganized environments often inspire creativity, the power of getting your hands dirty, and why making it personal is an incredibly effective motivational tool.
BONUS: The Power of Social Innovation w/ Keith Stanley and Rana Altenburg
June 10, 2020 15:57 - 26 minutes - 30.1 MBThis episode is a replay of a previous episode with Keith Stanley and Rana Altenburg about the Near West Side Partners. We are replaying the episode due to the clear and urgent calls for social change that have happened over the past month and particularly the last week. This episode has a brand new update from Keith on the current state of the Near West Side Partners. Enjoy! --------------------------------------------------------------------- We sit down with Rana Altenburg, President, an...