The Impact List

Laurie Fainer, Executive Advisor to Founders and Leadership Teams
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The Impact List is a podcast for founders and leaders about the people side of building a company: hiring, leadership teams, pay, culture and the hard conversations that usually happen behind a closed door. There’s a day every founder hits. You look around your own company and realize you don’t know everyone’s name anymore. Host Laurie Fainer, founder and CEO of Dynamic Alchemy Advisors and a former Chief People Officer, spends her days inside other founders’ hardest people decisions. On the show, she sits down with founders and the advisors who work beside them to talk about what really happens when a business outgrows the way it started.  Expect real conversations about: The hard people calls founders put off, then have to make anywayPay structures made up along the way, and what happens when they catch up with youThe leadership team that got you here but can’t take you furtherMaking your first HR hire, and what it should fixBuilding a team where people actually speak up before problems get expensiveWhat has to change in the founder before the business canLeading a team inside a bigger company? You’ll recognize most of this. Expect rapid-fire questions, straight answers and more laughing than you’d think. Nobody here is telling you to wake up at 5 a.m. and dream bigger.  The Impact List is for founders and business owners who’ve built something real, from real estate teams to trades to service firms, and are figuring out how to lead the people who help them grow it. New episodes twice a month YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Brought to you by Dynamic Alchemy Advisors. We help growing companies build the team they’re meant to build. Learn more about how we can help your team at dynamicalchemyadvisors.com   Connect with us: Dynamic Alchemy Advisors: dynamicalchemyadvisors.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dynamicalchemyadvisors/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dynamicalchemyadvisors/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61592450590459

  1. 3d ago

    Trailer: The Part Nobody Puts in the Pitch Deck

    There’s a day every founder hits: you walk through your own company and realize you don’t know everyone’s name anymore. That’s where this show lives. I’m Laurie Fainer. I’m a founder, and I spend my days inside other founders’ hardest people decisions. Twice a month on The Impact List, I sit down with founders and the advisors who work beside them to talk about the stuff that never makes the pitch deck. Expect rapid-fire questions, real answers, and more laughing than you’d think. No 5 a.m. wake-up lectures. The hard people calls founders put off, then have to make anywayPay you made up as you went, and what happens when it catches up with youWhen the leadership team that got you here can’t take you any furtherMaking your first HR hire and what it changesWhat has to change in the founder before the business canSubscribe to The Impact List so you don’t miss the next episode. Connect with us: Learn more about working with us: dynamicalchemyadvisors.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dynamicalchemyadvisors/Subscribe to The Impact List newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7445069201012330496

  2. Sep 16

    015: The Moments You'd Never Post About Are the Ones That Change You | Laurie Fainer

    Over the past six months on The Impact List, Laurie Fainer, founder of Dynamic Alchemy Advisors and leadership advisor to founders, sat down with fourteen leaders and asked them to go past the polished version. Nine of those conversations surfaced a moment that shifted something. Not a framework, not career advice, but the kind of honest leadership stories that don't make it into a keynote or a LinkedIn caption. This episode pulls those nine moments together into one conversation about what real leadership actually looks like. If you're a leader, a founder, or someone in the middle of a career pivot, listen for the one that lands. We talk about: 00:00 What actually changes a leader underneath the surface 00:39 Hannah Yardley on the 47 classmates who reshaped her identity 02:35 Caroline Baird on the report nobody was reading 05:18 Michael Murphy on the mentor who spotted his missing spark 07:25 Angela Bond on rebuilding her identity three separate times 09:05 What Diana Mohan tells her team about being replaced by AI 10:35 Why can you only control how you show up, not the outcome 13:32 Robin Bailey on recording his mother's voice before she died 15:42 Lauren Posesorski on the version of herself she lost 17:03 Numrah Irfan on leaping into consulting with no safety net 20:12 What nine conversations taught Laurie about her own leadership Connect with our guests: HannahCaroline Michael  Angela  Diana  Nadia Robin LaurenNumrah Connect with me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dynamicalchemyadvisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dynamic-alchemy-advisors/Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriefainer/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61592450590459Website: https://amplified-authenticity.com/ Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions

  3. Sep 2

    014: Leadership Isn't Loud: The Case for the Quietest Person in the Room | Jillian Perkins

    You know the person who changed the direction of your career without ever raising their voice.  That is quiet leadership, and it works through listening rather than volume. Most workplaces still reward whoever speaks first and loudest, which means the people quietly redirecting careers rarely get named for it, rarely get promoted for it, and often do not see themselves as leaders at all. Jillian Perkins is one of them, and she still resists the word. Laurie Fainer, Founder and CEO of Dynamic Alchemy Advisors, sits down with Jillian Perkins, an alumni career counsellor at McMaster University’s Student Success Centre with a master's in counselling psychology and more than twenty years spent across the table from students and alumni at the exact moment they are deciding what comes next.  Twenty years ago Jillian was across that table from Laurie in a Starbucks, and that conversation is part of why Laurie went and did her master's. Learn how she unlearned the belief that leadership has to be loud, how her listen first approach turns introversion into an advantage, what she does when she misses her turn in a room full of louder voices, and how she uses planned happenstance theory to help people choose when the future will not hold still.  In this episode, you'll discover: What introversion actually gives a leader, including the pattern recognition that comes from observing a room first.The real cost of staying quiet at work, including missing your turn in a meeting.Planned happenstance theory made practical: the traits of optimism, flexibility, persistence and reasonable risk taking.The difference between managing a room and caring about the people in it.We talk about: 00:00 Why quiet leadership changes careers 01:28 The moment this week that gave her pause 04:27 Why she won't call herself a leader 06:50 Unlearning that leadership has to be loud 08:17 The first manager who changed everything 12:34 What does listen first actually mean 14:48 How introverts lead in loud rooms 17:11 The real cost of staying quiet 19:43 From career counsellor to career instructor 22:25 The student who finally felt cared about 31:26 Advice for anyone at a crossroads If this conversation surfaced the gap between how you are leading and how you want to be leading, that is the conversation worth having. Reach out to Laurie at https://amplified-authenticity.com/contact  Connect with Jillian: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillianmperkins/ Website: Student Success Centre | McMaster University Connect with me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dynamicalchemyadvisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dynamic-alchemy-advisors/Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriefainer/ Website: https://amplified-authenticity.com/  Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions

  4. Aug 19

    013: The Therapist Turned Executive Recruiter on What Confidence Actually Looks Like. | Angela Bond

    Stop asking for permission is the practice of trusting your own judgment enough to act before someone signs off on it, and it is the idea running underneath this conversation with executive recruiter Angela Bond, Partner and Head of the Real Estate Practice at Odgers.  If you have spent years explaining a decision you already knew was right, or softening a call so nobody can push back on it, this episode names where that habit comes from and what it is quietly costing you. Angela trained as a therapist before she ever placed an executive, and that background shapes how she evaluates candidates, coaches hiring managers past their need for certainty, and rebuilds her own confidence every time her career shifts direction.  In this conversation with Laurie Fainer, Founder and CEO of Dynamic Alchemy Advisors, Angela names the moment she stopped seeking permission and adopted a simple rule instead: beg forgiveness, not permission. She has never had to ask for forgiveness since. In this episode, you'll discover: The exact moment she stopped seeking permission and started operating on one rule instead: beg forgiveness, not permission, and why she has never once had to use it.Angela breaks down what she is actually solving for when she puts a candidate in front of a hiring manager who cannot yet see what she already sees.Trained originally as a marriage and family therapist, Angela explains how that clinical background changes what she notices in every executive interview she now runs.We talk about: 00:00 The moment that gave Angela pause this week 01:32 From a real estate search to a trusted advisor 02:18 Starting in psychotherapy before executive search 03:53 Why self-awareness matters more than expertise 05:50 How she helps hiring managers see what they cannot 07:36 Can a recruiter ever promise certainty about a hire 09:07 What happens when a candidate does not fit the box 10:45 Why she stopped seeking permission and started moving 12:23 Building confidence by staying congruent with herself 16:00 Rebuilding her identity after her Olympic dream ended 21:03 Her advice for anyone who cannot see their own potential 26:31 Recognizing your team as whole people not job titles Ready to build the kind of self-trust Angela talks about? The Alchemy Practice at Dynamic Alchemy Advisors works with leaders on exactly this. Learn more at https://amplified-authenticity.com/contact Connect with Angela: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tucker1/ Website: https://www.odgers.com/ Connect with me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dynamicalchemyadvisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dynamic-alchemy-advisors/Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriefainer/ Website: https://amplified-authenticity.com/ Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions

  5. Aug 5

    012: Your Team Isn't Afraid of AI. Here's What They're Actually Afraid Of | Diana Mohan

    AI change management is the work of leading a burned out team through disruption it did not choose, not just rolling out new tools.  If your organization is asking people to adopt AI while they are already stretched thin from years of restructuring, budget cuts, and shifting expectations, this episode is for you. Resistance to change rarely means people reject the technology itself. It usually means they do not understand why the change is happening to them, or they feel like they have lost all agency and control. Laurie Fainer, Founder and CEO of Dynamic Alchemy Advisors, sits down with Diana Mohan, Executive Director of Transformation and Change at Seneca Polytechnic, whose career runs through Deloitte and PwC. Diana shares the framework she uses to explain burnout: a high level of uncertainty paired with a low level of control, and why celebrating small wins, including one team member's first Excel macro, moved an entire AI rollout further than any polished business case. She also opens up about the belief her mother gave her that still shapes how she leads today.  If you are responsible for bringing a tired team through change, this conversation will change how you lead the next rollout. In this episode, you'll discover: Why employees resist AI adoption is rarely about the technology itself, and what leaders miss when they treat change as a communication problem.The framework Diana uses to explain burnout.How Diana rebuilt momentum for an AI rollout inside a resource constrained public institution by starting small with senior leadership instead of mandating adoption top down.The difference between being right and being effective, and why data and good intentions alone rarely move a resistant team toward change.Why vulnerability, not certainty, is what builds trust when leaders are asking people to adopt a technology that could change their own role.We talk about: 00:00 Why leaders misread resistance to change 01:29 Diana's moment of gratitude amid parenting chaos 03:05 How Diana and Laurie built trust years before this conversation 05:00 What makes higher education so disrupted right now 07:00 Why is burnout really about lost control, not workload 09:11 Starting small, how Diana built AI momentum with senior leaders 12:10 How do you keep a resistant team feeling like they still matter 15:07 Being vulnerable instead of certain as a leader 17:01 Why data and good intentions were never enough 20:00 The difference between getting the work right and the experience of it 22:29 The belief her mother gave her that still drives how she leads 27:17 Where to connect with Diana Mohan Subscribe so you don't miss who's coming next. Connect with Diana: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diana-mohan/ Connect with me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dynamicalchemyadvisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dynamic-alchemy-advisors/Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriefainer/ Website: https://amplified-authenticity.com/ Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions

  6. Jul 22

    011: What Grief Taught This Marketing Leader About Trust, Teams, and Letting Go | Lauren Posesorski

    What if resilience was never about becoming who you were before? Most leadership advice treats recovery as the goal. Get through the hard thing, return to baseline, pick the plan back up. Lauren Posesorski's experience says otherwise. In this episode of The Impact List, Laurie Fainer, Founder and CEO of Dynamic Alchemy Advisors sits down with marketing leader Lauren Posesorski, a marketing leader with seventeen years of experience building teams from the ground up for one of the most candid conversations this show has featured.  In 2021, Lauren went into preterm labour at 28 weeks. Her daughter Eleni lived for 60 days. As Lauren puts it, when Eleni went, a version of herself went too, and that version never came back. What she rebuilt in the space that followed is the reason she is on this list. A different way of asking her team how they are doing. A different definition of what she owes the people who report to her. And now, a deliberate pause instead of a reach for the next title. This conversation is about what leadership looks like when you stop trying to return to who you were. In this episode, you'll discover: Why the trust Lauren experienced from her team while she was on leave taught her more about real leadership than any framework could, and how to build that kind of trust before you ever need it. The exact question Lauren changed when she returned to work, why simply asking someone how they are doing stopped being enough, and what she asks instead. Why losing a former version of yourself is a normal part of leading through crisis, not a sign that something has gone wrong. What Lauren says every leader gets wrong about mentorship, and why cross functional relationships often teach you more than the person you report to ever will. Why Lauren stepped off a linear seventeen year career path to take an intentional pause.We talk about: 00:00 Meet Lauren Posesorski and her leadership story  01:46 What gave Lauren pause this week  04:07 Going into premature labor at 28 weeks  05:02 What did her team do while she was away  07:41 What must a leader believe to fully let go  09:42 Returning to work after unimaginable loss  10:25 Losing the version of yourself grief takes  12:12 How she leads differently since coming back  14:43 What people actually need from a leader  16:31 Why she is taking an intentional career pause  25:15 The leadership belief she had to unlearn  28:24 The leader who shaped her career the most Subscribe so you don't miss who's coming next. Connect with Lauren: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-posesorski-kerhoulas-54a2b220/ Connect with me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dynamicalchemyadvisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dynamic-alchemy-advisors/Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriefainer/ Website: https://amplified-authenticity.com/ Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions

  7. Jul 8

    010: Great Employees Make Bad Leaders. Here's Why Promotions Backfire | Amber Johnson

    Most bad hires aren't skill problems. They're fit problems. In this episode of The Impact List, host Laurie Fainer, Founder and CEO of Dynamic Alchemy Advisors, sits down with Amber Johnson, CEO of Forge Performance Group. Amber has spent over a decade helping companies in energy, construction, oil and gas, and healthcare hire and keep strong teams, and she breaks down why chasing the resume instead of the person is where most hiring processes go wrong. Amber shares how she uses core values conversations and DiSC profiles to spot real fit before a resume tells the story, why promoting a top individual contributor into leadership without a coaching plan is one of the costliest mistakes a growing company makes, and the story of her very first client, whose advice changed the trajectory of her business. In this episode, you'll discover: Why promoting your best individual contributor into a leadership role without a coaching plan is one of the most common and costly startup hiring mistakes.Why authenticity in an interview, on both sides, uncovers whether someone is the right fit instead of just skilled at selling themselves.Why trusting your recruiter or hiring process, even when it feels uncomfortable, is often the real skill a first time founder needs to build.We talk about: 00:00 Amber Johnson introduces Forge Performance Group and her hiring philosophy 02:09 The client story that shows why core values beat a perfect resume 04:06 What leaders miss about themselves in the hiring process 07:00 How to give a candidate an honest picture of a role 09:01 What to do when a candidate stops showing up as themselves 12:00 What it takes to stay authentic across every environment 14:07 What Amber had to unlearn from her early oil and gas career 16:52 Why leaders assume everyone should operate exactly like they do 22:55 Why promoting your best individual contributor can be an expensive mistake 27:08 Who is Sean Stinson and how he shaped Amber's leadership 32:06 How to connect with Amber Johnson and Forge Performance Group Subscribe so you don't miss who's coming next. Connect with Amber: Email: amber@forgeperform.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/forgeperformanceservicesLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/forge-performance-group/people/ Website: https://www.forgeperformancegroup.ca/Connect with me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dynamicalchemyadvisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dynamic-alchemy-advisors/Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriefainer/ Website: https://amplified-authenticity.com/  Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions

  8. Jun 17

    009: Intentional Leadership: Are You Living the Life You Want or Just Planning To | Robin Bailey

    Intentional leadership is not a framework you learn in a course. It is a decision you make every single day about how you show up, who you trust, and what you do with the time you have. This episode is about what that actually looks like in practice. Robin Bailey, Managing Partner of Aria Benefits, host of the award-winning Success Leaves Clues podcast, and the person who, about a year ago, looked at Laurie after she had been a guest on his show and said: you should start your own podcast. In this episode, Laurie and Robin get into what it actually looks like to build a business on trust as a daily operating decision. They talk about the podcast community Robin built almost by accident, the Stoplight Strategy Report he developed from 300 conversations with senior leaders, the award he named after his mother, and the moment 20 years ago that permanently changed how he sees time. This one stayed with us, and we think it will stay with you too. In this episode, you'll discover: Why two deaths in one week became Robin's most clarifying lesson on intentional leadership and how he sees timeThe single belief that drives everything Robin does in business and in life: everything starts with oneHow Success Leaves Clues went from a branding exercise to a 300-episode community of senior leaders and CEOsThe Stoplight Strategy Report: the green, yellow, red client tool Robin built directly from 300 podcast conversationsWhat Robin did 14 months before his mother passed away, and why pressing record is one of the most important leadership decisions he has ever madeThe Gene Bailey Legacy Award: what it means to name something after the person who showed you what kindness looks likeHow a breast cancer diagnosis at 35 permanently changed Robin and his wife's relationship with time, travel, and each otherThe moment Robin stopped trying to be in every client meeting and what it unlocked for his business and his lifeWe talk about: 00:00 - When Two Deaths in One Week Change How You See Time 03:34 - Why Robin Leads With Generosity and No Agenda 06:15 - How Success Leaves Clues Was Born From One Branding Problem 14:12 - The Podcast Awards and the Legacy of Jean Bailey 20:48 - How the Podcast Became a Business Development Engine 22:33 - The Stoplight Strategy Report: Honest Client Conversations at Scale 27:15 - The Leadership Shift: Letting Go and Trusting the Right People 31:12 - His Wife, Breast Cancer, and a 20-Year Lesson on Living Now Subscribe so you don't miss who's coming next. Connect with Robin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robin-bailey-a8157b15/ Website: https://www.ariabenefits.ca/ Connect with me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dynamicalchemyadvisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dynamic-alchemy-advisors/Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriefainer/ Website: https://amplified-authenticity.com/ Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions

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About

The Impact List is a podcast for founders and leaders about the people side of building a company: hiring, leadership teams, pay, culture and the hard conversations that usually happen behind a closed door. There’s a day every founder hits. You look around your own company and realize you don’t know everyone’s name anymore. Host Laurie Fainer, founder and CEO of Dynamic Alchemy Advisors and a former Chief People Officer, spends her days inside other founders’ hardest people decisions. On the show, she sits down with founders and the advisors who work beside them to talk about what really happens when a business outgrows the way it started.  Expect real conversations about: The hard people calls founders put off, then have to make anywayPay structures made up along the way, and what happens when they catch up with youThe leadership team that got you here but can’t take you furtherMaking your first HR hire, and what it should fixBuilding a team where people actually speak up before problems get expensiveWhat has to change in the founder before the business canLeading a team inside a bigger company? You’ll recognize most of this. Expect rapid-fire questions, straight answers and more laughing than you’d think. Nobody here is telling you to wake up at 5 a.m. and dream bigger.  The Impact List is for founders and business owners who’ve built something real, from real estate teams to trades to service firms, and are figuring out how to lead the people who help them grow it. New episodes twice a month YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Brought to you by Dynamic Alchemy Advisors. We help growing companies build the team they’re meant to build. Learn more about how we can help your team at dynamicalchemyadvisors.com   Connect with us: Dynamic Alchemy Advisors: dynamicalchemyadvisors.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dynamicalchemyadvisors/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dynamicalchemyadvisors/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61592450590459

Information

  • Creator
    Laurie Fainer, Executive Advisor to Founders and Leadership Teams
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    17
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Laurie Fainer, Executive Advisor to Founders and Leadership Teams
  • Show Website
    The Impact List