The Business Thorcast: Business Improvement | Business Strategy | Leadership | Business Agility | Continuous Improvement | Team Building
Business & Economics Podcasts
A podcast for business leaders looking for new ways to accelerate their team’s performance and improve their organization’s results. Listen as former F-15 Fighter Pilot turned business improvement expert, Joel “Thor” Neeb, shares his lessons learned in creating organizational alignment and developing a culture of disciplined execution to improve business performance. He will also interview other business leaders, industry experts and inspiring individuals that will motivate you to get out of your comfort zone to create lasting change within yourself, your team and your organization. Thor leads Afterburner’s team of elite military professionals who accelerate business execution performance for organizations from Fortune 100 companies to NFL teams. He has personal experience of operating in a high-stakes environment, during his military career he escorted the U.S. President through the sky and flew missions to ensure the safety of the United States after the attacks of 9/11. He is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, a former F-15 fighter pilot and a graduate of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas.
Location:
United States
Description:
A podcast for business leaders looking for new ways to accelerate their team’s performance and improve their organization’s results. Listen as former F-15 Fighter Pilot turned business improvement expert, Joel “Thor” Neeb, shares his lessons learned in creating organizational alignment and developing a culture of disciplined execution to improve business performance. He will also interview other business leaders, industry experts and inspiring individuals that will motivate you to get out of your comfort zone to create lasting change within yourself, your team and your organization. Thor leads Afterburner’s team of elite military professionals who accelerate business execution performance for organizations from Fortune 100 companies to NFL teams. He has personal experience of operating in a high-stakes environment, during his military career he escorted the U.S. President through the sky and flew missions to ensure the safety of the United States after the attacks of 9/11. He is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, a former F-15 fighter pilot and a graduate of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas.
Language:
English
Episodes
Accelerating Growth and Innovation with Tiffani Bova
12/13/2018
Tiffani Bova is a legend in tech sales. She spent 10 years working at Gartner and is now using her skills to get people to think differently about how they interact with their customers as the Global Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce.
As an executive at one of the hottest companies across the globe, Tiffani has captured many of her best practices and recently released the Wall Street Journal Bestseller, Growth IQ.
Tiffani shares more on her career and her incredible experiences as she catches up with Thor in this episode of The Business Thorcast.
Duration:00:43:11
Leading Corporate Transformations with Sujith Abraham
11/29/2018
The market is moving faster than ever before, and that requires corporate teams to constantly evolve to keep up.
It’s human nature to resist change; even change that is positive and desperately needed. So how do you overcome this challenge as the leader?
Our guest, Sujith Abraham, Group VP at Oracle, shares his experience leading transformations, initially in the automotive industry, and now at the tip of the innovation spear in technology with Oracle.
Sujith successfully grew the Oracle sales organization by 1,000 new reps. From the start of this initiative, his objective was to hire and onboard new team members that would grow and be successful in their own careers at Oracle.
Learn more about Sujith’s success and the importance of leadership alignment and buy-in from the existing team.
Duration:00:43:23
Freediving with Allan Young and Beau Durham
11/15/2018
“The meaning of extreme is relative to the people you hang around with.”
Progress happens behind the scenes. It’s getting out of your comfort zone and going on the journey marked with pain, failure, and struggle – the moments that didn’t make the “highlight reel”.
Recently, Thor dove out of his comfort zone and went on a freediving trip to Bonaire with his fellow YPO members. These individuals were able to push themselves to hold their breath for 3 and even 4 minutes reaching depths of over 100 feet on a single breath.
These incredible accomplishments were not achieved without struggle. What you may not see are the times they dove down only 20 feet, panicked, and came back up for air.
By using discomfort as a tool, this group faced their fears and pushed themselves to achieve success. This growth mindset directly translates to business and is the reason Allan Young, Beau Durham, and many others make bolder decisions (and bolder mistakes) in business and have achieved such high levels of success.
Duration:00:43:28
The True Currency of Success with Fred Kofman
11/1/2018
What magnet pulls you towards success? In this episode of The Business Thorcast, Fred Kofman, the Advisor of Leadership Development at Google and former VP of Executive Development at LinkedIn, shares his insight on the meaning of success with examples from money as currency to the art of spearfishing.
Duration:00:55:01
Developing Elite Teams with John Allen
10/18/2018
As a SEAL on active duty in Afghanistan, John Allen’s unit was under a full-blown ambush. The result? The most spectacular performances of executing under absolutely imperfect and terrible conditions. This was an elite team executing their mission and saving the lives of everyone on the team. Now, as the CEO of Elite Meet, John pairs up elite military members with the leaders of elite business corporations to show both sides the unique skill sets each brings to the table in the corporate world.
Duration:00:56:48
Bringing Your Passion to Your Profession with Michelle “Sonic” Ruehl
10/4/2018
Michelle “Sonic” Ruehl was flying combat missions at night and teaching English to the men in the Afghan village that she was protecting by day. At first, the men rejected her as an instructor and warrior based on her gender, but she used music in a war zone to reach beyond the cultural barriers of prejudice that separated them. It’s a story you’ll have to hear to believe.
Duration:00:25:49
Iterating to Achieve Success with Matthias “Super Frenchie” Giraud
9/20/2018
If you haven’t heard of Matthias “Super Frenchie” Giraud, I guarantee that you’ve seen him. He’s a Pro Skier and B.A.S.E. Jumper – the ones that get dropped off at the top of a mountain by a helicopter, skis down the mountain, and looks for a cliff to jump off. Matthias understands what it’s like to operate in a high-stakes, zero tolerance for error world. In this episode, Matthias tells Thor about the methodology he applies behind the scenes to stay safe and succeed in one of the harshest environments in the world.
Duration:00:43:55
Leading through a Transformation with Jeff Mitchell of VMware
9/6/2018
What’s the most hotly contested and disruptive market today? End User Computing. In this episode of The Business Thorcast, we talk to Jeff Mitchel, the Senior VP of EUC Sales for VMware. As a leader, Jeff had his back against the wall with multiple challenges in a marketplace that was moving faster than anybody in the sector could keep up with. In a short period of time, Jeff turned that situation into one of the biggest success stories that I've seen. Hear how he did it and what tools and processes behind the scenes were critical to this successful transformation.
Duration:00:35:08
Capture and Standardize Lessons Learned with John Hunter
8/23/2018
John Hunter, CFO of Buffalo Construction, Inc., tells Thor how his teams use Debriefs to identify Lessons Learned and standardize best practices to positively impact each of their future projects. John breaks down how the effects of the Debriefs can be seen across the organization (and with their clients!) and is responsible for 15% profit increase.
Duration:00:22:41
Stop Aligning Your Team to Drive Yesterday’s Value
8/10/2018
In this episode of The Business Thorcast, Thor discusses how you can align your desperate teams – or even two companies that compete with one another – around a common goal and execution process. The result? Elevated success that is more than any group could ever have individually.
Duration:00:17:57
Mt. Kilimanjaro: Taking Flawless Execution to the Summit
7/26/2018
This episode of The Business Thorcast is unlike any before. Instead of diving into business initiatives and flying airplanes, Thor recounts his experience of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro with an elite team of executives. Thor and VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger, SVP of Customer Experience, Scott Bajtos, and Global Accounts Leader, David Kluzak apply Afterburner’s Flawless Execution methodology not only in the business world but in situations outside of the office. Thor describes how the team used Afterburner’s methodology of Plan, Brief, Execute, and Debrief to reach the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro and reach their goal of raising funds to build schools for the impoverished girls of Kenya.
Duration:00:22:29
How to Take Advantage of Your Diverse Team through Inclusion
7/24/2018
These days you hear a lot of talk about diversity and inclusion. It seems like every company we work with has some sort of initiative around creating a more diverse environment and leveraging the diversity of their team members through a more inclusive culture. But how do you create that inclusive culture? In this episode of The Business Thorcast we bring back Tracy “JackieO” LaTourrette, one of the first female fighter pilots, to talk with us about what she learned about diversity and inclusion in elite military teams and helping corporations across the globe succeed with Afterburner.
Duration:00:29:43
Building Inspired Alignment with Changing Sales Team Dynamics
6/21/2018
Joel “Thor” Neeb sits down with Mark Paske of VMware for this week’s episode to discuss how Flawless Execution brought success to the tech company’s sales team and culture. In a marketplace where the expectations are changing every day, you have to keep your team one step ahead of the competition and rate of change. Understanding the importance of alignment and team communication became the backbone for VMware’s sales team that allowed them to thrive in a turbulent environment.
Duration:00:32:10
A Case for Culture
6/7/2018
An often-overlooked component to any team’s success is their long-term vision, also referred to as the High-Definition Destination. Many leaders are too distracted by the problems they face in the present to focus on the future. In this episode, Joel "Thor" Neeb discusses the importance of creating a pull culture in order to engage your team towards success. Thor acknowledges the opposite theory of a push culture or compliance and admits its successful on occasion, however, he uses his personal experience of working with a $40 billion tech company along with other experiences and examples to prove “action without engagement is a nightmare.”
Duration:00:23:57
How to Debrief Your Leader or Boss
5/24/2018
You hear a lot about Job Security and how to ensure your employability in a volatile and uncertain job market. But how often do you hear about Job Insecurity? In this tell-all exposé, Executive Consultant, Otis “Hoop” Hooper, publicly Debriefs the big-boss here at Afterburner. Hoop still can’t believe Thor is moving forward with launching this episode of The Business Thorcast… Can you? Subscribe and listen now!
Duration:00:28:49
When Will YOU Need a Contingency Plan?
5/10/2018
In pilot training, the first thing you had to do before you ever left land was practice in an emergency simulator. You would be put in the most catastrophic situations and have to figure out how to keep yourself safe. How were we always able to stay safe and calm in these situations? By using our checklist and contingency plans.
Business can also use contingency plans to build confidence with their team. To keep the team focused on the goal instead of wondering if the worst will happen. In this episode, we bring back Will “Q” Duke to talk about the critical role checklists and contingency plans play on elite military teams and in business.
Duration:00:24:48
What the Digital Transformation Means for You - Interview with James D. Murphy
4/26/2018
Everyone is talking about technology as a strategic resource. In this episode, Thor and Murph discuss the trends they see and what you need to know in order to lead through the disruption of the digital transformation.
Duration:00:34:04
Changing Organizational Culture with a Strategic Business Plan – Interview with Jamie Temple
4/12/2018
Organizational culture is a hard thing to change. It’s not enough to say you are going to change it, you need to have a strategic business plan behind the goal. In this episode, Jamie Temple, EUC Program Manager VMware, shares how her organization utilized strategic business planning to merge two cultures to create a successful team.
Duration:00:37:46
Aligning Your Team with a Common Purpose – Interview with Fred Kofman Part 2
3/29/2018
In the second part of his interview, Fred Kofman, Vice President of Executive Development at LinkedIn, shares with The Business ThorCast host, Joel “Thor” Neeb, why he thinks the key to a successful team is the alignment of your team around a common purpose and a set of shared standards.
Duration:00:24:35
Motivating Your Team with a Common Purpose - Interview with Fred Kofman Part 1
3/15/2018
Doing the best for the team doesn’t always mean doing the best for yourself. In part one of his interview, Fred Kofman, Vice President of Executive Development at LinkedIn, discusses why it’s important to connect your team to a higher purpose to achieve company goals.
Duration:00:41:30