Grody & UnPrOfEsSiOnAL

Justin McMenamy
  • 5.0 (24)
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  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Hello and welcome to Grody & UnPrOfEsSiOnAL, my name is Justin McMenamy, and my mission is to share both profitable and painful leadership lessons I have acquired over a twenty-year career as a misfit in corporate America.    Like everyone, I have worked with and for hundreds of leaders across my career. While some leaders are great, and many are good, the vast majority find themselves tossed into leadership and left to figure it out on their own.  Grody & Unprofessional seeks to share leadership stories harvested from my own experiences and from the experiences of others through approachable and candid conversations with the aim of educating and shaping your leadership journey.   Grody & Unprofessional episodes will toggle between focused monologue on specific lessons or mindsets I have acquired from my experiences and conversations with other leaders seeking to understand their convictions and strategies for inspiring, motivating, and maybe sometimes cajoling a group into action.   Grody & Unprofessional is not a memoir, it’s not a forum to gripe or complain about the past or present.  The rules are simple, I aim to convey leadership lessons through storytelling.  If a given story has a hero, we will use proper names, if the story has a villain, a dolt, or if there is the potential for embarrassment, proper names will be removed.  While we do NOT aim to embarrass people or organizations, we do intend to embarrass poor leadership behaviors and mindsets common to many leaders and organizations.    My experience has been that demand for talented leaders outstrips supply by at least tenfold, Grody & Unprofessional is my feeble attempt to improve supply.   I hope you will join me as we seek to uncover people, product, and organizational leadership lessons through the musings of a corporate misfit and his friends.      

  1. Serial Entreprenourship w. Danny Kirk

    1D AGO

    Serial Entreprenourship w. Danny Kirk

    Host Justin McMenamy interviews entrepreneur and marketer Danny Kirk.  The conversation spans topics like defining failure and success, the place for pessimism in business, and leadership lessons drawn from the great philosopher Shaquille O’Neal.   Kirk shares his unconventional background, raised by academics and musicians, a high-achieving classical trumpet player who dropped out of high school, and his entry into entrepreneurship through a scholarship and a startup weekend that led to his first company.   Over the last 15 years, Danny has started 5 revenue-generating businesses, pursues 100–200 ideas annually quickly invalidating most of them, and discusses his latest business in GEO (generative engine optimization) for AI.     Kirk recounts being forced out of a gym business, selling a SaaS venture for scraps due to technical debt and infighting, discusses quit-vs-grit, and the needed priority which should be placed on unit economics within any startup. He explains his marketing approach for small businesses, focus where the “tribe” is, avoid vanity metrics, prioritize revenue, and build trust by disqualifying prospects.   The conversation also covers Kirk’s recent battle with anxiety following a login prompt attack on his business along with the need for routine to keep him grounded.  Justin reflects on experiences navigating stressful times of life, redefining security and success, and protecting health and relationships as life complexity grows.

    1 hr
  2. A Race to the (Liquid) Death w. Andy Pearson

    APR 2

    A Race to the (Liquid) Death w. Andy Pearson

    Host Justin McMenamy interviews Andy Pearson, creative director at Liquid Death.   Through the conversation, Pearson recounts stories, from early in his career, of buying taxidermy squirrels and navigating eBay’s ban on selling human body parts.   Andy then contrasts the philosophies of various ad agencies and stresses the importance of a shared creative vision and engaged leadership, ideally with “a bone to pick.”   Pearson describes Liquid Death’s ethos as making entertainment not marketing, critiquing ads as unwanted interruptions, and questioning industry assumptions both in product and marketing. He then describes Liquid Death as a high ownership, iterative, fast-paced culture that starts with the question “what is the dumbest thing we could do?”.    Finally, Andy shares how his passion for ultra running began amid grueling agency hours and tells of a Strava user who challenged him to a “race to the Death”.

    56 min
  3. Tapping Organizational Creativity w. Jim Weber

    MAR 19

    Tapping Organizational Creativity w. Jim Weber

    Host Justin McMenamy and guest Jim Weber continue their multi-episode discussion around the many ingredients which comprise a successful culture of innovation.    On the topic of brainstorming both Justin and Jim agree that scheduled brainstorming sessions with idea voting and ranking are mostly unproductive. Jim argues effective brainstorming consists of informal, rapid idea vetting with colleagues who try to break ideas and improve them over time.  He then emphasizes the need to ask everyone, from executives to technicians, “what would you do?” to learn technical and organizational constraints, even at the risk of embarrassment.   Justin highlights the need to reduce hierarchy, otherwise creativity is often outsourced to an “innovation manager,” as well as the need to separate idea collection events from idea selection so contributors stay encouraged while a smaller group prioritizes. They discuss creativity as an underused organizational asset, and debate when simulation-first approaches are essential versus an “Edisonian” fast iteration methodology enabled by low-cost prototyping.

    51 min
  4. Hungry, Humble & Smart: A Culture Without Silos w. Kristen Patty

    MAR 5

    Hungry, Humble & Smart: A Culture Without Silos w. Kristen Patty

    Host Justin McMenamy welcomes Kristen Patty to discuss leadership and HR lessons from their time at Precision Planting during a decade of growth from under 100 employees to over 500, including global expansion across more than 15 countries and the acquisition by AGCO. Kristen shares why she left a large multinational retailer early in her career for a startup, emphasizing self-discovery, taking the next right step, and seeking actionable feedback. They cover her transition from Sales Operations to head of HR and her focus on mission-driven recruiting. They discuss balancing HR process with situational care, how policy application affects company-wide trust, and practical ways to protect culture while scaling.    The episode ends with Kristen’s advice for leaders entering new roles, stressing humility, clarity of expectations, honesty about gaps, and building relationships through one-on-one conversations.

    52 min
  5. Building Empathy w. Erin Thorp

    FEB 19

    Building Empathy w. Erin Thorp

    In this episode host Justin McMenamy welcomes fellow leadership podcaster Erin Thorpe.  Across the conversation each discusses formative early-career experiences and how they shaped their mid-career focus on leadership. Both reflect on how not fitting within organizational norms can bleed into lowered self-worth, and they discuss a framework of being “refined” versus “consumed” by adversity, emphasizing that not every bad day warrants resignation and that staying in discomfort can build tenacity.   They explore differences between technical and people skills, contrasting engineering’s black-and-white mindset versus the negotiated nature of relationships.   Erin describes her path into podcasting: authoring a book in 2016 and later starting the “Tactical Empathy" podcast. Erin explains tactical empathy as a practical leadership tool that balances understanding self and others while maintaining high standards and execution, countering the idea that empathy is a mask for weakness or lowered expectations.   She offers ways to build empathy as a muscle: frequent self-check-ins, acknowledging feelings, validating others without necessarily agreeing, and resisting the urge to immediately fix problems.

    58 min
  6. Innovation: Easier Said than Done w. Jim Weber

    FEB 5

    Innovation: Easier Said than Done w. Jim Weber

    In the first episode of the mini-series entitled “Innovation: Is It More Than a Feeling?” host Justin McMenamy and Jim Weber explore the concept of innovation. The episode delves into defining the necessary components of innovation, contrasting it with being merely clever or even foolish.  Jim shares his career experiences as an innovator within a Dow 30 organization and discusses his personal take on innovation, including the idea that there are various levels of innovation. The discussion also touches on the reality that innovation can be seen beyond technology and product development.  Justin provides examples from the tech industry, and offers insights from his experience at Precision Planting, particularly on the company's innovative distribution model. The conversation concludes with reflections on how innovation is perceived and executed in different contexts, including manufacturing, marketing, and sales.

    48 min
  7. Why Teams Rebel & Talent Resigns w. Caleb Schleder

    JAN 22

    Why Teams Rebel & Talent Resigns w. Caleb Schleder

    This episode features host Justin McMenamy and guest Caleb Schleder discussing the Situational Leadership model. They delve into the four leadership styles (L1 through L4) and their applications based on employee competence and confidence. The conversation emphasizes the importance of recognizing and adapting to these styles to enhance team performance. They also explore challenges like managing 'comfortable L1s,' handling team dynamics with varying competence levels, and maintaining effective leadership during organizational changes. The episode concludes with a unique twist, examining how Situational Leadership principles can apply to parenting, ultimately comcluding that the aim of both the leader and the parent is to foster autonomy and strong relationships which foster personal growth and maturation.

    45 min
  8. Situational Leadership w. Caleb Schleder

    JAN 8

    Situational Leadership w. Caleb Schleder

    In this episode, host Justin McMenemy is joined by Caleb Schleder to discuss the framework of Situational Leadership. They delve into the importance of tailoring leadership styles to specific situations and the pitfalls of a one-size-fits-all approach. Justin emphasizes the significance of avoiding the 'because I said so' attitude and introduces Situational Leadership as his go-to advice for new leaders. Caleb shares personal experiences with different leadership styles and highlights the value of empowering employees while avoiding micromanagement. The discussion covers various leadership stages, from Directing (S1) to Delegating (S4), explaining the importance of adjusting strategies based on an employee’s competence and confidence. They also touch on the challenges faced by leaders of leaders and the necessity of maintaining good relationships with employees through these transitions. The episode concludes with preparation for a follow-up episode to continue the discussion, in which Justin and Caleb will spend time discussing edge cases and real-world examples of utilizing the Situational Leadership framework.

    52 min
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Trailer

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About

Hello and welcome to Grody & UnPrOfEsSiOnAL, my name is Justin McMenamy, and my mission is to share both profitable and painful leadership lessons I have acquired over a twenty-year career as a misfit in corporate America.    Like everyone, I have worked with and for hundreds of leaders across my career. While some leaders are great, and many are good, the vast majority find themselves tossed into leadership and left to figure it out on their own.  Grody & Unprofessional seeks to share leadership stories harvested from my own experiences and from the experiences of others through approachable and candid conversations with the aim of educating and shaping your leadership journey.   Grody & Unprofessional episodes will toggle between focused monologue on specific lessons or mindsets I have acquired from my experiences and conversations with other leaders seeking to understand their convictions and strategies for inspiring, motivating, and maybe sometimes cajoling a group into action.   Grody & Unprofessional is not a memoir, it’s not a forum to gripe or complain about the past or present.  The rules are simple, I aim to convey leadership lessons through storytelling.  If a given story has a hero, we will use proper names, if the story has a villain, a dolt, or if there is the potential for embarrassment, proper names will be removed.  While we do NOT aim to embarrass people or organizations, we do intend to embarrass poor leadership behaviors and mindsets common to many leaders and organizations.    My experience has been that demand for talented leaders outstrips supply by at least tenfold, Grody & Unprofessional is my feeble attempt to improve supply.   I hope you will join me as we seek to uncover people, product, and organizational leadership lessons through the musings of a corporate misfit and his friends.      

Information

  • Creator
    Justin McMenamy
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    46
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright Justin McMenamy
  • Show Website
    Grody & UnPrOfEsSiOnAL

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