Waste No Potential artwork

Waste No Potential

15 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 2 years ago -

Potential. It's around us all the time, but its power is often left untapped. Waste No Potential is a podcast dedicated to revealing the secrets behind success stories — and how pinpointing and maximizing potential is most often the root cause of these triumphs.

Join host Alexandra Samuel, a business journalist and researcher, as she shares incredible human stories of success (and struggle), and uncovers the clever ways people make the most of potential — for themselves and for their businesses. Discover how tiny process adjustments result in major game-changers, and hear how dismantling traditional ways of working can lead to unbelievable results. 

The Waste No Potential was created by Traction on Demand, a company acquired by Salesforce in April of 2022. Discover how to optimize your success with Salesforce products by partnering with the experts on the Salesforce Professional Services team.

Management Business Education Self-Improvement
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Episodes

The End is Always the Beginning: Dan Mangan, Singer-songwriter and side door | Waste No Potential

April 22, 2022 07:00 - 37 minutes - 34.2 MB

On his journey through the music industry, Dan Mangan has experienced his fair share of metaphorical doors close in his face. Instead of seeing this in a negative light, he decided to build his own door. After a particularly challenging year in 2015 — artistically, spiritually, personally — Mangan started Sidedoor, a platform for burgeoning musicians to connect with alternative venues and hosts to book shows and tours. All was going well until the covid-19 pandemic hit and the whole premise ...

Perfect Enough: Ken Davenport, Broadway Executive Producer | Waste No Potential

April 08, 2022 07:00 - 33 minutes - 30.3 MB

“Sometimes the difference between the unfinished painting and the finished painting is as simple as finding the right frame.” — Rick Rubin A plumber knows when a job is complete. Water turns on. Water turns off. But when we plumb the depths of our soul to create an original idea, how do we know when the idea is complete? When do we stop putting the finishing touches on something and let it breathe a life of its own? When did Michelangelo put down his chisel and claim David was perfect enou...

Cultivate the Habit of Good: Mark Brand, The Better Life Foundation | Waste No Potential

March 18, 2022 07:00 - 29 minutes - 27 MB

When you have nothing, you appreciate everything. Mark Brand would know. He had everything going for him: successful careers as a DJ and chef, a home, a loving partner. He was living the dream. But when a medical condition dashed his chances of staying in his adopted country of Australia, he was forced to leave everything behind and come back to Canada, the place he was born. It became a rebirth. Even though life had taken a turn, Brand focused on what he knew he was good at — and good thi...

Learn the Way of the Ladybug: Rahaf Harfoush, Digital Anthropologist | Waste No Potential

March 04, 2022 08:00 - 32 minutes - 30.1 MB

Hustle. Rise and grind. Fake it till you make it. Today’s work culture believes the only way to get ahead is to put your nose to the grindstone and maximize the hours in the day. The harder you work, the more successful you become, right? On the flip side, burnout rates are on the rise — people’s bodies are physically revolting in a desperate attempt to tell them to rest. No one knows this better than our guest, author, and digital anthropologist, Rahaf Harfoush. Her concept of “productivit...

Speak Up: Nakuset, The Native Women's Shelter of Montreal | Waste No Potential

February 18, 2022 08:00 - 31 minutes - 29 MB

Nakuset, Executive Director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal, has seen how the stuffy rooms of institutions and officials perpetuate a cycle that discludes the voices of marginalized groups. That’s where she has planted herself. She stands between the forces that would continue the cycle and acts as a beacon for others. Her work — her voice — is creating positive momentum. And it is just the beginning. Nakuset was taken from her Cree family as a toddler during the Sixties Scoop, a...

Lead from Behind: Sabino Marquez, Allocadia Software | Waste No Potential

February 04, 2022 08:00 - 30 minutes - 27.9 MB

James Bond has nothing on Sabino Marquez. The latter is stealth. Covert. Marquez works in the shadows. And he intimately understands the minds of the world’s most potentially dangerous criminals: hackers. Bond may be able to ride a motorbike through a wall of flames, but can he penetrate a network firewall to steal a list of client names? Didn’t think so. In the encrypted world of data security, Sabino Marquez is a big deal. Corporations of all sizes depend on people like him to trust their ...

Lead From Behind: Sabino Marquez | Waste No Potential

February 04, 2022 08:00 - 30 minutes - 28.2 MB

James Bond has nothing on Sabino Marquez. The latter is stealth. Covert. Marquez works in the shadows. And he intimately understands the minds of the world’s most potentially dangerous criminals: hackers. Bond may be able to ride a motorbike through a wall of flames, but can he penetrate a network firewall to steal a list of client names? Didn’t think so. In the encrypted world of data security, Sabino Marquez is a big deal. Corporations of all sizes depend on people like him to trust their...

Two Ways Forward: Chris Wilson, The Master Plan & Cuttlefish | Waste No Potential

January 21, 2022 08:00 - 33 minutes - 30.6 MB

Incredible is a word that’s used so often it can lose its meaning. But in the case of our guest, Chris Wilson, his impossible-to-believe story offers insight into the power of resilience, understanding self-worth, and manifesting your own destiny. Your eggs benny isn’t incredible — this story is. We believe there are two ways to move forward with decisions in life: agree and get on with it; or disagree and make it better. Sounds reasonable, right? But at 17 years old, Wilson faced a choice ...

Collect Scars: Lilian Umurungi-Jung, Mumgry | Waste No Potential

January 07, 2022 08:00 - 28 minutes - 25.7 MB

Scars. We all have them. But do we see them as reminders of mistakes or marks of progress? At Waste No Potential, we are infinitely curious how people push their limits to find out what they are truly capable of. The thing is, when we push ourselves to the edge sometimes we end up falling off. Good, now we know how far we can go. We pick ourselves up, put on a bandage, and carry on with a new scar — little or big — to add to the collection of lessons learned. Lilian Umurungi-Jung has had pl...

Don’t Fit In: Gavin Armstrong, Lucky Iron Fish Enterprise | Waste No Potential

December 17, 2021 08:00 - 31 minutes - 28.8 MB

Ever seen a fish in a suit? They don’t fit in — but you sure do notice them. Gavin Armstrong spent university trying to “fit in”. He thought getting a suit-&-tie job in finance was the secret to success — and a way to inflict retribution on his high school bullies. But Armstrong’s career path hit a snag: he was miserable. It took an unexpected and eye-opening trip to Botswana to change his perspective towards his goals. Being a fish-out-of-water made him realize trying to fit in wasn’t wor...

A.B.O (Always Be Optimizing): Nir Eyal, NirAndFar.com | Waste No Potential

December 03, 2021 08:00 - 28 minutes - 25.8 MB

Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of "Hooked" and "Indistractable," Nir Eyal is fascinated with how companies get us ‘hooked’ on their products and services. From the endless scroll on social media to the fatty foods we love (something Nir says he struggles with himself), how do companies optimize themselves to suck us in? On this episode of Waste No Potential, Nir wonders, “Can we optimize ourselves to take our attention back from those companies?” Join Alexandra Samuel and Traction on...

Be Four Forever: Kristina Libby, Hypergiant | Waste No Potential

November 19, 2021 08:00 - 24 minutes - 22.8 MB

Kristina Libby is acting like a 4-year old — and she couldn’t be happier about it. In a world where we often convince ourselves we can’t do certain things, Libby is giving herself permission to follow the weird impulses that pop into her brain, much like a child would. Even though this fresh approach to life came to her unexpectedly, Libby discovered she is becoming the truest version of herself. At Traction on Demand, the mantra “Be Four Forever” is used often. After all, the brain of a 4-...

Save Screws

November 05, 2021 07:00 - 24 minutes - 22.7 MB

Greg Malpass saves screws. Why? As a successful CEO, he knows every screw, idea, code snippet, or passion has the potential to be useful, it’s just a matter of having it when you need it. That’s why “Save Screws” is a popular motto at his company, Traction on Demand. Entrepreneur Derrick Emsley knows the same. When his first business venture didn’t get off the ground, he didn’t scrap the idea completely. He took the valuable lessons he learned and applied them to a different concept. While ...

Save Screws: Derrick Emsley, tentree | Waste No Potential

November 05, 2021 07:00 - 25 minutes - 23.1 MB

Greg Malpass saves screws. Why? As a successful CEO, he knows every screw, idea, code snippet, or passion has the potential to be useful, it’s just a matter of having it when you need it. Entrepreneur Derrick Emsley knows the same. When his first business venture didn’t get off the ground, he didn’t scrap the idea completely. He took the valuable lessons he learned and applied them to a different concept. While still in high school, Emsley and his brother started a company that maximized ...

Trailer: Welcome to Waste No Potential

October 29, 2021 15:47 - 2 minutes - 2.67 MB

Waste No Potential is all about the not-so-secret stories of success. Find out how certain people saw opportunities when others didn’t -- and how pinpointing and maximizing potential is most often the root cause of their triumphs.