The Bigger Stage w/ Matt Stone

Matt Stone Enterprises
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The Bigger Stage w/ Matt Stone is a conversation series about leadership, relationships, and the stories that expand influence. Matt Stone sits down with CEOs, founders, leaders, and creatives to explore the human moments behind growth—how trust is built, how visibility changes responsibility, and how storytelling becomes a leadership skill as stakes rise. This show is for entrepreneurs and leaders stepping into bigger roles, bigger audiences, and bigger impact—who want to lead with clarity, credibility, and connection, not performance.

  1. 13h ago

    Gokce Sezgin & Ryan Walker: Nobody Knows This Version of You

    A fractional CMO and a PR firm founder explain what marketing and PR actually mean today, and how founders in the middle of a pivot can get the market to see who they are now.--Everywhere you look, accomplished people are starting over. Corporate leaders are becoming founders, executives are going fractional, and founders are stepping into a whole new stage of their business. They all run into the same truth: nobody knows this version of you yet. In the first of a recurring series, Matt sits down with two people who explain marketing and PR plainly. Gokce Sezgin is a fractional CMO with Chief Outsiders and has spent 25 years building growth in healthcare, health tech, and consumer products. Ryan Walker left corporate PR in 2018 to start RJ Walker & Co., which helps small and early-stage companies in tech, fintech, and financial services tell their stories. They start with their own leaps. Gokce left a global giant for a much smaller company, while her husband asked whether they could even pay her salary. Ryan went out on his own the same year he bought his first house and had his first kid. Then they get practical: what marketing and PR really are, why AI has made earned media matter more, how to know you’re ready for outside help, and why the story behind your company matters more than the tools you use to tell it. Plus, the story of how Ryan’s team brought a cowboy to Wall Street to lasso the Charging Bull. In this episode: Why marketing is more than advertising, and why clarity and consistency are the hard partPR as the art of getting other people to talk about youWhy old-school long-form SEO is dead, and what AI search rewards nowSigns you’re ready for a fractional marketer or a PR firmPersonal narrative and the founder’s “why”Why your own team is your first audienceThree questions to ask before your next phase of growthGot a question for Gokce and Ryan? They’re coming back to answer questions from founders. Send yours to matt@mattstone.co. Watch the full conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3bfHlFyPIVc Connect with the guests Gokce Sezgin, Chief Outsiders: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gokcesezgin/Ryan Walker, RJ Walker & Co.: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-walker-a80348a/

    Gokce Sezgin & Ryan Walker: Nobody Knows This Version of You

  2. Oct 10

    Jason Durkee: Why Ideas Are the Easy Part

    Most founders don’t have an ideas problem. They have an action problem. Jason Durkee, President of Idea Development in Tokyo, shares what it really takes to grow a business past its first success. Jason Durkee moved to Japan for university, joined a corporate training startup while still in college, and in 2003 founded Idea Development in Tokyo. More than 20 years later, his firm serves 130+ clients a year, including many of Japan’s best-known companies. He named his company after ideas, then learned the ideas were never the hard part. In this episode, Jason and Matt talk about: • Why action comes before the plan, not after• How to get unstuck when your signature offer has become a hamster wheel• Why existing clients give you the chance to build something new• How to sell a service clients can’t see yet• Casting a team of specialists instead of hunting for the perfect hire• Losing 90% of a year’s revenue in two weeks, and rebuilding• What non-Japanese managers at Japanese-owned companies need to know about headquarters About Jason DurkeeJason is President of Idea Development, a workplace learning and performance consulting firm in Tokyo, and a director of ATD Japan. Since the 1990s he has designed and delivered innovation, communication, and cross-cultural programs for more than 40,000 participants across Asia. Connect with JasonIdea Development: http://www.ide-development.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-durkee-idea-development/ The Bigger StageConversations with founders and builders about what it takes to step onto a bigger stage.https://thebiggerstage.com

    Jason Durkee: Why Ideas Are the Easy Part

  3. Sep 26

    Stop Fixing Your People. Fix the Work. | Mylena Maulepes

    Everyone told Mylena Maulepes not to bother applying to Harvard. She applied anyway. Now she helps companies beat burnout by fixing how the work is designed, not by asking people to be more resilient. -- Everyone told Mylena Maulepes not to bother applying to Harvard. She was Brazilian, English wasn't her first language, and she already had offers from other schools. She turned them down and applied anyway. A few months later, an email arrived at work: "Welcome to Harvard." Mylena started out as a mechanical engineer on a truck engine line, went on to earn a master's in industrial-organizational psychology at Harvard, and came home to Brazil with a better question. Companies keep asking how stressed their people are. She asks what's making them stressed in the first place. In this episode:- The night she gave up the sure thing to take a shot at Harvard- Why an engineer's habit of asking "why" became her edge in psychology- Why well-being spending isn't moving the needle, and what does- Crocodiles in the pond: fix the environment, not the swimmer- What younger generations want from work, and why founders should pay attention- Selling culture work to numbers-first buyers- What her eight-month-old son is teaching her about leadership- The mentor who believed in her before anyone else did Chapters00:00 Cold open00:46 Meet Mylena Maulepes04:28 The girl who wanted to fix engines08:01 Why engineering wasn't enough to lead11:08 When everyone says your dream is too big13:25 "Welcome to Harvard"18:06 An engineer in a psychology world23:25 Stop fixing people. Fix the work.25:46 Crocodiles in the pond28:18 What's actually working29:13 What clients ask for vs. what they need32:20 Selling culture work with numbers36:05 Becoming a mom, and a new lens on work40:13 Why you need a mentor45:35 Advice for your bigger stage47:12 Where to find Mylena Follow MylenaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mylena-maulepesInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/mylenamaulepesTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maulepes If this episode was useful, share it with a founder who's trying to build a team people want to stay on.

    Stop Fixing Your People. Fix the Work. | Mylena Maulepes

  4. Aug 22

    T.J. Winick: Why AI Made Earned Media Matter More, Not Less

    A former ABC News correspondent explains why AI didn't kill earned media — it made it the asset most founders are ignoring. T.J. Winick on how ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity now decide how you're described, the reporter's playbook for getting covered, and how to turn a crisis around in a single news cycle. SHOW NOTES  For twenty years, T.J. Winick built stories from the inside — six of them as a correspondent for ABC News. Now he helps founders survive the same machine he used to run. His argument in this episode cuts against the grain: AI didn't make earned media less important. It made it the asset most founders are ignoring at exactly the wrong moment. For decades, being found meant ranking on Google — SEO, a clean website, owned channels, with press coverage treated as a bonus on top. That's flipped. The people you want are now asking ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity the questions they used to type into a search bar, and those tools don't crawl your website or read your press release. They synthesize answers from published, credible, third-party coverage — which is earned media, and it's now the raw material AI uses to describe you to the world. T.J. calls it GEO: generative engine optimization. From there, he opens the reporter's playbook from the other side of the desk — why a story that can't answer "why should anyone care?" in the first ten seconds dies on the spot, how to build a hook reporters can't ignore, and why authenticity beats polish every time. We get into the crisis case study at the heart of his book — the employee fired for using a weapon against a robber — and what it takes to turn a story like that around without spinning. We close on how any founder can become a genuine thought leader, and exactly how to vet and hire the right PR partner. In this episode: Why AI search made earned media more valuable, not less (GEO explained)The client who moved a $20K/month Google Ads budget into PR — and whyHow reporters actually choose stories in the 10 a.m. editorial meetingThe hook: timeliness, tension, data, and finding a "real person"The rule of seven and building an omni-channel narrativeNewsjacking with a contrarian take to get picked up fastA crisis case study on empathy, truth, and the one-news-cycle goalHow to find, vet, and hire the right PR partnerAbout the guest: T.J. Winick is the founder of Essex Strategies, a Boston-based strategic and crisis communications firm, and the author of Reputation Capital: How to Navigate Crises and Protect Your Greatest Asset (Berrett-Koehler), winner of a 2023 Independent Publisher Book Award. Before crossing over, he spent two decades in broadcast news, including as a correspondent for ABC News across Nightline, World News, and Good Morning America. —📘 Reputation Capital: https://a.co/d/0dTRDwvl🌐 essexstrategies.com🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tjwinick/📱 TikTok @tjwinick · Instagram @essexstrategies🎙️ The Bigger Stage — conversations with founders and builders. Subscribe wherever you listen.

    T.J. Winick: Why AI Made Earned Media Matter More, Not Less

  5. Aug 8

    Jacqueline Wales — Fearless Is a Fantasy: Reading Fear as Data

    Jacqueline Wales stopped believing in "fearless" a long time ago. After a financial collapse at 54 wiped out the life she'd built, she excavated a different idea — fear isn't something to kill or outrun, it's data. In this conversation she breaks down Fear Intelligence, the F.E.A.R. framework, the TEDx talk that nearly broke her, and the one question she puts to CEOs that nobody else asks. For any founder staring down a bigger stage, this is about making the fear the thing that moves you forward.--Jacqueline Wales built a career on a move most people never learn: don't kill the fear, read it. At 54, she watched the life she'd built vanish in the 2008 crash — fortune gone, four kids still looking to her. Most people would call that the end. She called it research. What she excavated became Fear Intelligence, the work she now brings to founders, CEOs, and executive teams worldwide. In this episode, Jacqueline and Matt get into the difference between being fearless and being fear smart, and why she now calls the first one a fantasy. She walks through her F.E.A.R. framework — Face, Explore, Act, Rise — and the idea underneath all of it: fear is data, not disaster. Read it, and it becomes the sharpest signal you have. We also get into: - The TEDx talk ("Unleash the Power of Fear") that nearly broke her — the dress-rehearsal that fell apart, and what she did the morning of- Why "what other people are thinking is none of your business"- The four fears every founder carries: inadequacy, rejection, uncertainty, and loss- The question she puts to CEOs that stops them cold: what decision are you avoiding right now?- The 90-second rule for catching yourself before fear runs the show- Why the world feels more afraid now — and where to point your attention instead- Black belt at 49, CrossFit at 63, and the driver behind all of it Her closing message is the whole episode in one line: analyze the fear, notice the fear, and do it anyway. — CHAPTERS —00:00 Cold Open00:00 Welcome to The Bigger Stage02:47 The Signature Red03:23 Fearless Is a Fantasy04:16 Fear as Data — The F.E.A.R. Framework06:40 You Weren't Born Afraid11:21 The TEDx Talk That Nearly Broke Her19:20 The Physical Tells of Fear29:14 Black Belt at 49, CrossFit at 6330:30 The Question CEOs Never Get Asked36:32 The 90-Second Rule40:07 Why the World Feels More Afraid Now46:18 Where to Find Jacqueline51:00 Analyze the Fear. Do It Anyway. — ABOUT JACQUELINE WALES —Four-time author, TEDx speaker, and a black belt who earned it at 49. She teaches Fear Intelligence not from theory, but from the floor she had to climb up off of. Website & free Fear Intelligence Assessment: https://fearintelligence.coDaily Insights email: sign up at https://fearintelligence.coLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelinewales/ — ABOUT THE SHOW —The Bigger Stage is a show for founders, operators, and builders — conversations about the moves that get them to bigger stages. Hosted by Matt Stone. New episodes on a rolling basis. Follow the show so you don't miss one.

    Jacqueline Wales — Fearless Is a Fantasy: Reading Fear as Data

  6. Jul 25

    Eric Light — He Left 20 Years in Banking to Buy an HVAC Company

    A 20-year banker walked away from a senior VP title to buy a 33-year-old mom-and-pop HVAC company that wasn't even for sale. Eric Light on calculated risk, a brutal first year, and the rule he's built two careers on. -- Eric Light spent nearly two decades in banking, working his way up to senior vice president, embedded in the Chester County, PA business community — exactly where he was supposed to stay. Then he bought an HVAC company. It wasn't a detour. Eric took everything he'd built — the relationships, the trust, the front-row view of how hundreds of businesses actually work — and bet it all on Precision Air Heating & Cooling, a 33-year-old shop in West Chester that technically wasn't for sale. In his words: "One day I was a banker, and the next morning I woke up president of this company." He and Matt get into the calculated-risk framework Eric used to coach owners for years and now lives himself, the brutal first 90 days, why he still gets out of bed "a little bit scared" four years in, and the rule he's built two careers on since 2008: chase honest, passionate, successful people, and the business follows. If you're a founder sitting on a leap you haven't taken yet, start here. --CONNECT WITH ERICEmail: elight@precisionairhc.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericlight/Precision Air: https://precisionairhc.com ABOUT THE SHOWThe Bigger Stage is the show for founders, operators, and builders chasing a bigger vision. Follow in your podcast app so new episodes land automatically.

    Eric Light — He Left 20 Years in Banking to Buy an HVAC Company

  7. Jul 11

    The Night I Walked Off a TEDx Stage | Bobby Umar (5x TEDx Speaker)

    Bobby Umar has done TEDx five times. In this episode, he breaks down how to actually get accepted, what makes a talk land, and the leverage move almost nobody makes after the applause dies down — plus the night he walked off the TEDx stage mid-talk and why he did it on purpose. SHOW NOTES: He walked off the TEDx stage mid-talk — slides broken, screen blank, audience watching. Then he went back out and delivered the talk that became one of his best. Bobby Umar has stood on the TEDx stage five times, coached founders and executives on how to turn their story into stage-ready authority, and built a 25-year speaking career out of four careers that didn't fit. In this episode, he walks through what actually gets a TEDx application accepted, why most pitches get rejected, how to mine your own life story for the idea worth pitching, and the three-part framework almost no one completes: land it, deliver it, leverage it. You'll hear: What separates a TEDx idea that gets accepted from one that gets ignoredHow to turn your life story into a pitch-ready TEDx conceptWhy the application itself is where most people lose the opportunityThe full story of the night Bobby walked off a TEDx stage — and whyHow to build buzz around a talk before it's even liveWhere founders should be putting their energy beyond TEDx in 2026Bobby Umar is a 5x TEDx speaker, Inc. Magazine Top 100 Leadership Speaker, and two-time LinkedIn Top Voice with 1,000+ keynotes across four continents. Connect with Bobby Umar:Website: https://raeallan.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbyumar/Substack: https://substack.com/@bobbyumar

    The Night I Walked Off a TEDx Stage | Bobby Umar (5x TEDx Speaker)

  8. Jun 27

    Jeremy Sirota — The Lawyer Who Worked His Way Into Music (Suno, Merlin, Warner)

    From tech lawyer to Warner, Meta, and CEO of Merlin — now Chief Commercial Officer at Suno. Jeremy Sirota on never being the smartest person in the room, the book he'd never talked about, and why AI can't help you if you've got nothing to say. FULL DESCRIPTION  "I've never been the smartest person in the room. So I've always had to pull at something else." Jeremy Sirota has a career that refuses to sit on a straight line. Tech lawyer at Morrison & Foerster. Record exec at Warner Music. Global licensing deals at Meta. CEO of Merlin, where he took annual revenue from $900M to $1.8B. Now Chief Commercial Officer at Suno, one of the most-watched generative AI music companies on the planet. But he didn't talk his way in — he worked his way in. The through-line was never the title. It was a way of operating: build the room where genius happens instead of trying to be the genius in it. It took his ten-year-old daughter cutting him off mid-lecture — "Dad, no more TED Talks today" — to make that click. In this conversation, Jeremy gets into the class that nearly ended his law career, the book he'd never talked about publicly until now, why he keeps a "captain's log" of half-formed ideas, the "make this worse" game he uses to break a room open, and the one thing AI can't do for you: have something to say. For founders, operators, and builders working the move from operator to authority to icon — this one's worth your time. — Guest: Jeremy Sirota, Chief Commercial Officer at Suno Host: Matt Stone

    Jeremy Sirota — The Lawyer Who Worked His Way Into Music (Suno, Merlin, Warner)
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About

The Bigger Stage w/ Matt Stone is a conversation series about leadership, relationships, and the stories that expand influence. Matt Stone sits down with CEOs, founders, leaders, and creatives to explore the human moments behind growth—how trust is built, how visibility changes responsibility, and how storytelling becomes a leadership skill as stakes rise. This show is for entrepreneurs and leaders stepping into bigger roles, bigger audiences, and bigger impact—who want to lead with clarity, credibility, and connection, not performance.

Information

  • Creator
    Matt Stone Enterprises
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    36
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Matt Stone Enterprises LLC
  • Show Website
    The Bigger Stage w/ Matt Stone

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