Create the Future

Rick Williams
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The Create the Future Podcast™ is hosted by Rick Williams, keynote speaker and author of Create the Future – your essential leadership guidebook for making difficult decisions. The Create the Future Podcast is a community forum for leaders to share their stories about making difficult choices in an engaging and entertaining way so others will learn from their experiences. When you listen to the Create the Future Podcast, you will learn how to be a more successful leader who makes the difficult decisions. You will hear how inspiring leaders have faced similar challenges. You will hear about courage, fear, determination, and hope. Executives, entrepreneurs, aspiring leaders, board members, nonprofit leaders, public-sector leaders, and mission-driven professionals share their stories about leadership challenges and making tough choices that shaped the future of their organization and their own careers. If you have a compelling story to tell about making a tough call for your company, or any organization – what went right, what went wrong, and lessons learned – share your story with the Create the Future Podcast audience. Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://podcast.rickwilliamsleadership.com/podcast-guest.

  1. 4d ago

    Ep#29 - How to Reinvent a Business When Your Original Model Disappears | Sam Eitzen, CEO & Co-Founder Snapbar | Rick Williams

    What if building a bigger business isn't the same as building a better one? Sam Eitzen, CEO and Co-founder of Snapbar, knows what it means to make difficult decisions when the future of a company is at stake. Sam and his brother started Snapbar in 2012, building a photo-booth business that grew into a multi-location operation with 45 employees. Then COVID-19 shut down in-person events almost overnight. Revenue disappeared, customers needed refunds, and the company faced an urgent question: how could it survive when its core business had effectively stopped? Sam and his team didn't make just one pivot. They experimented with a corporate gifting business supporting small businesses, developed virtual photo-booth software, and eventually moved further into software and AI-powered photo and video experiences. But one of the most important decisions came later. As Snapbar evolved, Sam and his brother had to decide whether to return to their original business model or commit to a different future. That meant selling off their physical equipment, closing the door on the old model, and accepting the uncertainty of building something new. It also led Sam to question a common assumption in entrepreneurship: that success always means growing bigger, hiring more people, and pursuing the largest possible business. In this episode of Create the Future Podcast with Rick Williams, Sam shares the difficult decisions that helped reshape Snapbar—and the lessons he learned about leadership, business pivots, risk, and defining success on your own terms. 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐋𝐋 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐍 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄: 👉 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐢𝐯𝐨𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬: How to recognize when your existing business model may no longer be viable. 👉 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞: What happens when revenue disappears and the clock is ticking. 👉 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐚 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐩𝐢𝐯𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭: How Sam and his brother made the deliberate choice to sell their equipment and avoid falling back into their old business. 👉 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: Why not every pivot works—and how testing ideas can help reveal a better path forward. 👉 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: How listening to customers helped Snapbar identify new opportunities. 👉 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞: Why a larger company isn't automatically a better company for its founder. 👉 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫: Sam explains why he thrives in the early stages of building something new and why scaling a business can require a different skill set. 👉 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐬: Why founders should think carefully about the kind of company—and life—they actually want to create. 👉 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲: How Snapbar evolved from physical photo booths to software and AI-powered experiences. If you're a CEO, entrepreneur, business owner, or executive facing a major strategic decision, this conversation offers practical insights into navigating uncertainty, reinventing a business, and deciding what success should look like for you. Because sometimes the most important leadership decision isn't how to grow bigger—it's deciding what kind of business is worth building. ------------------------- 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐒𝐀𝐌 𝐄𝐈𝐓𝐙𝐄𝐍: Sam Eitzen is the CEO and co-founder of Snapbar, an experiential marketing technology company he started with his brother in 2012. Snapbar began with photo booths for weddings and events before expanding into corporate experiences. When the pandemic disrupted in-person gatherings, Sam and his team reinvented the business through corporate gifting, virtual photo-booth software, and eventually AI-powered photo and video experiences. Today, Snapbar develops technology that helps brands create interactive experiences for audiences at events and marketing activations. Sam's entrepreneurial journey offers lessons in business model innovation, resilience, customer discovery, strategic pivots, and the importance of understanding what kind of company you truly want to build. Learn more about Snapbar: https://snapbar.com/about Connect with Sam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-eitzen 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐌𝐒 & 𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐓: Rick Williams hosts Create the Future Podcast, a podcast exploring the difficult decisions that shape organizations, careers, and lives. Through conversations with experienced leaders, Rick examines what made their decisions challenging, how they evaluated their options, what worked, what didn't, and what other leaders can learn from their experiences. The goal is to help leaders make better decisions today so they can create a better future tomorrow. Learn more about Rick Williams: https://www.RickWilliamsLeadership.com Subscribe to Create the Future Podcast with Rick Williams for more conversations about leadership, decision-making, business strategy, and the choices that shape the future.

    Ep#29 - How to Reinvent a Business When Your Original Model Disappears | Sam Eitzen, CEO & Co-Founder Snapbar | Rick Williams

  2. Sep 27

    Ep#28 - Leaving the C-Suite: Choosing Impact Over Corporate Identity | Joe Patneaude, Founder & Executive Coach | Rick Williams

    What happens when the career you spent 25 years building no longer feels like the future you want? For Joe Patneaude, the answer required one of the hardest leadership decisions of his career: stepping away from the corporate world after decades in financial services, including senior C-suite leadership roles, and redefining what success and identity meant to him. Joe began his career in the mailroom of a mutual fund company and worked his way into senior leadership, eventually serving in roles including Chief Operating Officer and Chief Compliance Officer. Along the way, he also built financial practices, an insurance agency, an adult education business, and other ventures. But eventually, something changed. Joe realized that what energized him most throughout his career wasn't the title, the paycheck, or even the business itself. It was helping other people learn, grow, and become more successful. The difficult part was recognizing that the corporate identity he had built over 25 years had become part of how he defined himself. 𝐒𝐨 𝐉𝐨𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: 👉What do I actually want from the next 20–25 years of my career? 👉What are my values? 👉What does success really look like? 👉And who am I if I no longer have the C-suite title? In this episode of Create the Future with Rick Williams, Joe and Rick explore the leadership decision to leave corporate life and build a career around broader impact. 𝐉𝐨𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐞: 👉 Went from the mailroom to the C-suite in financial services 👉 Recognized that his corporate career was no longer aligned with his personal values 👉 Faced the fear of giving up financial stability and professional identity 👉 Evaluated the financial and practical risks of leaving corporate employment 👉 Learned that sometimes the hardest part of a major decision isn't the financial risk—it's letting go of who you have been 👉 Discovered that his greatest motivation was helping other leaders grow 👉 Reframed success around impact rather than title 👉 Uses regular values assessments to make sure his work continues to align with what matters most 👉 Encourages leaders to distinguish between simply inflating a business and creating sustainable growth 👉 Talks about delegation, structure, values, leadership development, and creating organizations that don't depend entirely on the leader One of the most powerful ideas in this conversation is that a career decision isn't always about choosing between two jobs. Sometimes, it's about deciding who you want to become next. ------------------------ 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐉𝐎𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐓𝐍𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐃𝐄: Joe Patneaude is a Certified Financial Educator (CFEd®), Certified Executive Coach and Mentor (CECM), and founder of JP Coaching. After approximately 25 years in financial services—including a journey from the mailroom to C-suite leadership—Joe now works with business owners and leaders to help them achieve meaningful, sustainable growth. His work includes executive coaching, leadership development, delegation, team development, operational improvement, and business scalability. His STAR Scalability℠ Method focuses on Strategy, Team, Assets, and Rewards, with an emphasis on building stronger teams, creating effective systems, and scaling without burnout. Joe's LinkedIn profile describes his focus as helping financial practice leaders “scale without losing what matters.” Learn more about Joe and JP Coaching: https://jpcoachingnow.com/ 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐌𝐒 & 𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐓: Rick Williams is the host of Create the Future Podcast with Rick Williams, a podcast focused on leadership, decision-making, and the difficult choices that shape organizations, careers, and lives. Each episode explores the real-world decisions leaders have faced—what made the decision difficult, how they evaluated the risks and opportunities, what they learned, and what other leaders can take away from the experience. The goal is simple: help leaders make better decisions today so they can create a better future tomorrow. Rick Williams is also an author and speaker focused on leadership and decision-making. Learn more about Rick Williams and Create the Future Podcast: https://rickwilliamsleadership.com/ Subscribe to Create the Future with Rick Williams for more conversations about leadership, difficult decisions, business growth, and the choices that shape the future.

    Ep#28 - Leaving the C-Suite: Choosing Impact Over Corporate Identity | Joe Patneaude, Founder & Executive Coach | Rick Williams

  3. Sep 25

    Ep#27 - How Pressure Changes Your Leadership—and How to Take Back Control | Claire Hayek, NeuroLeadership Expert, Pressure-Proof Leadership™ Architect | Rick Williams

    What if the pressure driving your success is also holding you back as a leader? For more than 20 years, Claire Hayek worked in high-stakes engineering environments where decisions carried serious consequences. She learned how to perform under pressure, lead teams, and manage complex challenges. But after moving into entrepreneurship, she reached a turning point: she realized that pressure wasn't simply motivating her—it was influencing how she thought, reacted, and viewed herself. That realization sparked a personal transformation and ultimately led her to develop Pressure-Proof Leadership, a neuroscience-based approach to helping leaders perform with greater clarity, resilience, and calm under pressure. In this episode of Create the Future with Rick Williams, Claire shares how she changed her relationship with pressure, challenged the negative stories she told herself, and learned to pause rather than react automatically. Together, Rick and Claire explore an essential leadership question: Are you in control of your response to pressure—or is pressure controlling you? 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐥𝐥 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞: 👉 The hidden cost of pressure: How the habits that help you succeed can eventually get in the way of your leadership. 👉 Recognizing your triggers: How to notice when stress is influencing your reactions, communication, and decisions. 👉 The neuroscience of leadership: Why awareness of your mental and emotional state matters when making difficult decisions. 👉 Changing your inner dialogue: How Claire learned to challenge self-criticism, rewrite negative thoughts, and treat mistakes as opportunities to learn. 👉 Pause before you react: Why taking a few minutes to reset can help you respond more thoughtfully instead of falling into fight-or-flight reactions. 👉 Leading with calm authority: How small changes in your presence, listening, and communication can influence the people around you. 👉 Turning failure into learning: How to use difficult experiences to grow rather than remain stuck in frustration or self-doubt. 👉 Aligning behavior with purpose: How to clarify the impact you want to make and begin acting like the leader you aspire to become. 👉 Making better decisions under pressure: Why recognizing your current state—and knowing when to step back—can help you make clearer, more deliberate choices. Claire's story is a reminder that becoming a stronger leader isn't always about acquiring another skill, working longer hours, or pushing harder. Sometimes, the most important change begins with understanding what's happening inside your own mind. If you're a CEO, executive, entrepreneur, or business leader navigating high expectations, difficult decisions, or constant demands, this conversation offers a different way to think about leadership performance: learn to manage your response to pressure before it manages you. Watch to the end for Claire's perspective on self-awareness, personal growth, and the small behavioral changes that can make a meaningful difference in how you lead. ----------------------------- 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐊: Claire Hayek is a NeuroLeadership Expert, TEDx speaker, and creator of Pressure-Proof Leadership™. She is the founder of Mind. Soul. Purpose. Teambuilding and brings more than 20 years of experience in engineering and high-stakes project environments, alongside her work in neuroscience-based leadership development. Her work focuses on helping leaders and teams strengthen decision-making, communication, resilience, and performance when the stakes are high. Her Pressure-Proof Leadership approach connects neuroscience and real-world leadership experience to help people recognize unhelpful patterns, regulate their responses, and lead with greater clarity. Claire also hosts The NeuroLeadership Edge podcast. Learn more about Claire and her work: https://clairehayek.com/ Connect with Claire on LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/clairehayek 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐌𝐒 & 𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐓: Rick Williams hosts Create the Future Podcast with Rick Williams, a leadership podcast exploring the difficult decisions that shape organizations, careers, and lives. Through candid conversations with leaders, Rick examines the challenges they faced, how they made consequential decisions, what they learned, and how those lessons can help other leaders make better choices. The goal is to help leaders think more clearly, navigate difficult situations, and create a better future through the decisions they make today. Learn more about Rick Williams: https://www.RickWilliamsLeadership.com Subscribe to Create the Future Podcast with Rick Williams for more conversations about leadership, decision-making, personal growth, and the challenges that shape successful leaders.

    Ep#27 - How Pressure Changes Your Leadership—and How to Take Back Control | Claire Hayek, NeuroLeadership Expert, Pressure-Proof Leadership™ Architect | Rick Williams

  4. Sep 16

    Ep#26 - How Leaders Make High-Stakes Decisions Before They Have All the Answers | Stephanie Oestreich, Managing Director, Myeloma Investment Fund | Rick Williams

    What would you do if you had the opportunity to fund a potentially transformative cancer treatment—but the science wasn't proven yet? For Stephanie Oestreich, PhD, MPA, this isn't a hypothetical question. As Managing Director of the Myeloma Investment Fund, she helps evaluate early-stage biotech companies developing innovative approaches to multiple myeloma. The challenge is balancing scientific potential, financial risk, due diligence, and—above all—the fund's ultimate mission: helping accelerate a cure for patients. In this episode of Create the Future Podcast with Rick Williams, Stephanie explains how she approaches some of the most difficult decisions in high-stakes investing. She shares why the fund's "North Star" is so important, how she evaluates opportunities when there is still significant uncertainty, and why the goal isn't simply to eliminate risk—but to understand, make it transparent, and find ways to mitigate it. Stephanie also takes us inside the investment process: analyzing the landscape, bringing in scientific, medical, legal, intellectual-property and financial expertise, conducting extensive due diligence, and ultimately bringing the information together for a composite decision by the investment committee. One of the most compelling leadership lessons comes from Stephanie's experience as a violinist. She describes the leader as a conductor—someone who doesn't need to personally play every instrument, but must understand enough about each contribution to bring the entire team together and create something greater than any individual could produce alone. You'll also hear how this approach applies to emerging technologies such as in vivo CAR-T, where the potential impact could be enormous but important questions remain unanswered. Stephanie explains how leaders can evaluate that kind of opportunity without pretending the risk doesn't exist. This conversation is ultimately about much more than biotech or investing. It's about decision-making under uncertainty, managing risk, aligning a team around a North Star, and having the courage to pursue opportunities where the outcome is not yet proven. ------------------------------ 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐏𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐄 𝐎𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐈𝐂𝐇: Stephanie Oestreich, PhD, MPA, is Managing Director of the Myeloma Investment Fund (MIF), the venture philanthropy arm of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. She leads the fund's investment strategy and brings more than two decades of experience across biopharma, biotech, business development, strategic alliances, venture investing, and healthcare innovation. Stephanie earned her PhD in biochemistry from Harvard Medical School and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School. She has held leadership roles at companies including Novartis, Roche/Genentech, Galecto, Mnemo Therapeutics and Evotec, and has also worked in venture investing. She is additionally a faculty member at MIT and a semi-professional violinist who has performed with orchestras at Carnegie Hall and other international venues. The Myeloma Investment Fund invests in promising companies, clinical assets and technologies with the goal of advancing new therapies for multiple myeloma. It uses a venture-philanthropy model in which returns are reinvested into the fund to support future research and development. 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐌𝐒 & 𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐓: Create the Future Podcast with Rick Williams is a leadership podcast for executives, entrepreneurs and leaders who are making difficult decisions that shape the future of their organizations—and sometimes their own lives. Host Rick Williams explores the real-world decisions behind leadership, growth, innovation, risk, culture and organizational change. Each episode features leaders who have faced consequential choices and shares the lessons, frameworks and experiences that can help other leaders make better decisions. Because the future isn't something we simply wait for. We create the future by the decisions we make today. Learn more about the Create the Future podcast at RickWilliamsLeadership.com

    Ep#26 - How Leaders Make High-Stakes Decisions Before They Have All the Answers | Stephanie Oestreich, Managing Director, Myeloma Investment Fund | Rick Williams

  5. Sep 9

    Ep#25 - From Burnout to Purpose: How Mary Grothe Made the Decisions That Changed Her Life | Mary Grothe, Founder & CEO of Sunday Salon | Rick Williams

    How do you make difficult decisions as a leader when your career, company, health, family, or future is at stake? In this episode of Create the Future with Rick Williams Podcast, Mary Grothe shares the difficult leadership and life decisions that took her from burnout, relentless business success and a painful company exit to a new life built around faith, family, service, purpose and freedom. Mary Grothe is the Founder & CEO of Sunday Salmon, a nonprofit in Castle Rock, Colorado, and the author of "Destination; Remarkable: Surviving the Dark Side of Success". She has built and scaled multiple companies, served as a chief revenue officer, and experienced firsthand the pressure that comes with high achievement and executive leadership. Her story raises an important question for every leader: How do you know when it is time to make a difficult decision—and how do you make that decision wisely? In this conversation, Mary explains the decision-making framework she now uses to evaluate difficult choices. She writes down the possible decisions, considers the potential short-term challenges and long-term outcomes, visualizes what life will look like after each decision, considers who else will be affected, and ultimately asks herself one critical question: Does it give me peace? Mary and Rick also explore the connection between leadership, burnout, personal identity, organizational responsibility and purpose. Mary shares why she believes leaders should not confuse who they are as individuals with their role as CEO or founder—and how building a strong leadership team helped her move away from carrying everything herself. In this episode, you'll learn: • How to make difficult decisions when the stakes are high • A practical decision-making framework for leaders and CEOs • How to evaluate the short-term challenges and long-term consequences of a decision • Why leaders should visualize the possible outcomes before making a major decision • How to recognize when success is coming at the expense of your well-being • How burnout can force leaders to reconsider what success really means • Why leaders should separate their personal identity from their company or job • How trusted advisors, spouses and leadership teams can improve decision-making • Why successful leaders don't try to make every decision alone • How delegation and a strong leadership team can reduce executive burnout • The role of faith, service and purpose in Mary's new leadership philosophy • How difficult seasons can ultimately lead to personal growth and a more meaningful life ------------------------------------------------------------- About Mary Grothe: Mary Grothe is a faith-based leader, Founder & CEO of Sunday Salmon, bestselling author, keynote speaker and host of the Fearless Faith Radio Show. Her work focuses on leadership, faith, purpose, personal growth and using marketplace talents in service to others. Her book Destination; Remarkable: Surviving the Dark Side of Success explores the darker side of achievement and the journey toward a more meaningful definition of success. Learn more about Mary Grothe: https://www.marygrothe.com/ Connect with Mary on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marygrothe ------------------------------------------------------------- About Create the Future with Rick Williams Podcast: Create the Future Podcast with Rick Williams is a leadership podcast about the decisions, experiences and lessons that shape leaders and organizations. Rick Williams speaks with business leaders, entrepreneurs and other accomplished professionals about the difficult decisions they have faced—and what those decisions taught them about leadership, business, resilience and creating the future. If you're a CEO, business owner, senior executive, entrepreneur or aspiring leader, subscribe to Create the Future Podcast with Rick Williams for conversations about making better decisions and becoming a more effective leader.

    Ep#25 - From Burnout to Purpose: How Mary Grothe Made the Decisions That Changed Her Life | Mary Grothe, Founder & CEO of Sunday Salon | Rick Williams

  6. Sep 2

    Ep#24 - The Courage to Choose More When Life Is Already Full | Lisa Woodruff, Founder & CEO of Organize365 | Rick Williams

    What do you do when your life is already full—but you still have a dream worth pursuing? In this episode of the Create the Future Podcast, Rick Williams sits down with Lisa Woodruff, Founder and CEO of Organize 365, author, speaker, and business leader, to explore the courage it takes to make a life-changing decision when you already have a career, a business, and a family to care for. Lisa shares the story behind her decision to pursue a PhD while continuing to lead her business and manage the many responsibilities of family life. The conversation goes beyond time management and organization—it explores ambition, priorities, personal growth, and the difficult choices we have to make when something truly matters to us. In this episode, you'll learn: • How to make difficult life-changing decisions • Why you sometimes have to create space for what matters most • How to pursue meaningful goals when life is already busy • The importance of choosing your priorities intentionally • How leaders balance ambition, responsibility, and personal growth • Why courage often means choosing the harder path • How a major life decision can change your perspective and your future Whether you're an entrepreneur, executive, parent, business owner, or simply at a crossroads in life, this conversation offers valuable insights into making courageous decisions, finding purpose, and creating room for the things that matter most. Guest: Lisa Woodruff Founder & CEO of Organize 365 Author | Speaker | Business Leader Learn more about Lisa: https://organize365.com Learn more about Organize 365: https://organize365.com Subscribe to the Create the Future Podcast for inspiring conversations with entrepreneurs, executives, founders, and leaders who share the decisions, challenges, and experiences that shape their future.

    Ep#24 - The Courage to Choose More When Life Is Already Full | Lisa Woodruff, Founder & CEO of Organize365 | Rick Williams

  7. Aug 26

    Ep#23 - How Leaders Make Better Decisions When the Future Is Uncertain | Tom Doorley, CEO of Sage Partners | Rick Williams

    In this episode of Create the Future with Rick Williams Podcast, Tom Doorley shares powerful lessons from decades of leadership, strategy, entrepreneurship, consulting and corporate governance—including difficult decisions he made in his own career and the strategic decisions he helped major companies navigate. Tom Doorley is the CEO of Sage Partners, a strategy and governance advisory firm, and an experienced entrepreneur, advisor to senior leadership teams, board member and operating manager. He previously co-founded Braxton Associates, which ultimately became part of Deloitte Consulting. His career has focused on helping leaders identify the “Big Things” facing their organizations and turn strategy into action and value. This conversation is about something every CEO, founder, business owner and senior executive faces: making important decisions when you don't have all the answers. Tom explains why leaders need to slow down, challenge their assumptions, seek advice from people with different perspectives, understand what is really driving their business, and recognize when what worked yesterday will not work tomorrow. He also shares a fascinating story from his work with Howard Schultz and Starbucks, when the company was considering expansion into Japan. The question appeared to be whether the Japanese partner and locations were right. But Tom discovered that the more important question was whether Starbucks had a business model and value proposition that could successfully travel beyond its existing market. The lesson: before making a big strategic move, make sure the thing that made you successful can actually scale. In this episode, you'll learn: • How leaders can make better decisions when the future is uncertain • Why slowing down can lead to better strategic decisions • How to challenge your own assumptions before making a major decision • Why leaders should seek advice from trusted people inside and outside the organization • How to protect yourself against the downside when making a major career or business move • The strategic lesson Tom learned from advising Starbucks and Howard Schultz • How to determine whether a business model or value proposition can scale • Why leaders need to distinguish between a real opportunity and a “shiny object” • Why growing companies sometimes need to “jump the chasm” to reach their next stage of growth • How resource allocation decisions can determine the future of a business • How experienced advisors can help leaders navigate complex strategic decisions • How leaders can use their teams, advisors, values and risk preferences to find the best path forward • Why the future is something leaders can actively create through the decisions they make today A powerful leadership lesson One of the central ideas in this conversation is that a leader's job is not to have every answer. A leader's responsibility is to bring the right people together, listen carefully, challenge assumptions, understand the organization's goals and risk preferences, and work with others to discover the best path forward. As Rick Williams puts it, leaders create the future through the decisions they make today. That is the heart of Create the Future Podcast with Rick Williams. About Tom Doorley Tom Doorley is the CEO of Sage Partners and has extensive experience as an entrepreneur, strategy advisor, senior leadership advisor, board member and operating manager. He co-founded Braxton Associates, which grew into a global consulting business before becoming part of Deloitte Consulting. Tom has also served in senior board and governance roles and authored Value-Creating Growth. Tom's work focuses on strategy, governance, growth and helping leaders turn important ideas into action and measurable impact. Learn more about Tom Doorley and Sage Partners through the links below. https://www.sagepartners.net/thomas-doorley https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomdoorley/ About Create the Future with Rick Williams Podcast Create the Future with Rick Williams Podcast is a leadership podcast for CEOs, founders, business owners, senior executives and aspiring leaders. Rick Williams speaks with leaders about the difficult decisions, challenges, failures, turning points and experiences that shaped how they lead. The goal is simple: learn from the decisions other leaders have made so you can make better decisions yourself. If you're responsible for leading a company, growing an organization, managing people or making decisions that will shape the future, subscribe to Create the Future with Rick Williams Podcast. Remember: You create the future by the decisions you make today.

    Ep#23 - How Leaders Make Better Decisions When the Future Is Uncertain | Tom Doorley, CEO of Sage Partners | Rick Williams

  8. Aug 19

    Ep#22 - Leading with Grace: How One HR Executive Transformed Adversity into Opportunity | Bobby Humes, Lead Consultant/CEO, BH Consultancy | Rick Williams

    In this episode of Create the Future, your host Rick Williams speaks with Bobby Humes, CEO of BH Consultancy and former HR Director for the City of Seattle. Bobby shares his leadership journey, including receiving anonymous critical letters while modernizing Seattle's HR department, battling imposter syndrome, and navigating resistance to change. He discusses how executive coaching transformed his perspective, leading him to launch his own consulting business. Bobby emphasizes the importance of building a trusted support network, slowing down to bring others along during change, and prioritizing self-care to lead effectively. Check out Bobby's work HERE. Connect with Bobby on LinkedIn HERE. Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply HERE.

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The Create the Future Podcast™ is hosted by Rick Williams, keynote speaker and author of Create the Future – your essential leadership guidebook for making difficult decisions. The Create the Future Podcast is a community forum for leaders to share their stories about making difficult choices in an engaging and entertaining way so others will learn from their experiences. When you listen to the Create the Future Podcast, you will learn how to be a more successful leader who makes the difficult decisions. You will hear how inspiring leaders have faced similar challenges. You will hear about courage, fear, determination, and hope. Executives, entrepreneurs, aspiring leaders, board members, nonprofit leaders, public-sector leaders, and mission-driven professionals share their stories about leadership challenges and making tough choices that shaped the future of their organization and their own careers. If you have a compelling story to tell about making a tough call for your company, or any organization – what went right, what went wrong, and lessons learned – share your story with the Create the Future Podcast audience. Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://podcast.rickwilliamsleadership.com/podcast-guest.

Information

  • Creator
    Rick Williams
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    28
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Rick Williams
  • Show Website
    Create the Future