The Genius Effect

Donnie Tuttle
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Business
  • Daily

Your genius is the work you were made to do. The Genius Effect is the podcast that helps you find your genius, live in your genius, and free others to do the same. Hosted by Donnie Tuttle, executive coach, author, and speaker, each episode explores how to discover your calling and build your work around it, so you get less grind, more flow, and better results. Expect two kinds of episodes. In solo episodes, Donnie teaches the Genius Effect framework and practical tools for aligning your gifts, purpose, and process. In guest episodes, he talks with authors, speakers, coaches, and leaders about how they uncovered their genius and how they help others find theirs. Made for coaches, authors, speakers, entrepreneurs, and leaders who are capable and successful but feel misaligned, and want work that fits who they were made to be. Take the free Genius Quotient quiz at gq.donnietuttle.com/quiz. Formerly the School of Professional Design podcast.

  1. 2d ago

    When Your Plan Gets Blown Up: How to Build a Life That Survives the Worst Day | Dave Howe

    What good is a plan when the worst day of your life just blew it apart? Dave Howe has spent 60 years answering that question — 30 years in the Army (82nd Airborne, Special Forces, full colonel) and 30 more in consulting, including Deloitte. A quarter century ago, watching a partner present strategic planning to a client, he realized he had no written plan for his own life. He wrote one that week, and he has followed it ever since. Today he brings that discipline to transitioning service members, to organizations, and most of all to Gold Star families building a life worth living after an unthinkable loss. In this conversation, Dave lays out the whole framework: build your life on multiple tent poles — never just the career — so one broken pole doesn't collapse the tent. Start at your final day and plan backwards. Keep a written plan (the studies he cites say only 1% of people have one, and they're nine times more successful). And never leave the planning cycle, because no plan survives first contact. Along the way: the AI boogeyman coming for "safe" careers, the people skills that make you AI-proof, why listening is the hardest leadership skill in the room, and the two halves of the soldier mindset — take the hill, and never waste the people taking it with you. For leaders whose plan just got blown up — and for anyone one bad day away from it — this one is the rebuild. Connect with Dave: dhowe@kenruss.com · kenruss.com Curious where your own genius is leaking? Take the free 5-minute GQ quiz:https://gq.donnietuttle.com Follow The Genius Effect for a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday.Find your genius. Live your genius. Free others to do the same.

    When Your Plan Gets Blown Up: How to Build a Life That Survives the Worst Day | Dave Howe

  2. 3d ago

    From Big Idea to Best Seller | Jake Kelfer

    If you've had a successful career and you're looking for the next chapter — have you ever thought about writing a book? Jake Kelfer's first job out of college was with the Los Angeles Lakers, during Kobe Bryant's final season. At 22, sleeping on a friend's couch, he asked himself two questions: What do I know, and how can I help? The answer became Elevate Beyond, published when he was 23 — and the start of a trajectory that made him a four-time bestselling author. In this conversation, Jake lays out the whole playbook: why you only need to be one or two steps ahead of your reader, the loose routine that replaced guru-style habit-stacking, the ROI trifecta of purpose, platform, and profit, the biggest mistake authors make (waiting until the book is done to talk about it), and Project Bestseller — the challenge to write and publish a book in under 90 days, documented daily on about an hour a day. He explains why he'd rather give his book away than sell it, what books actually earn versus what they open, and why human-generated, AI-assisted books — built on personality, experience, and expertise — will stand out in a flood of AI slop. For leaders, coaches, and speakers carrying a message they've been meaning to put into a book — this one is your nudge. Connect with Jake: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakekelfer/ Curious where your own genius is leaking? Take the free 5-minute GQ quiz: https://gq.donnietuttle.com Follow The Genius Effect for a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday. Find your genius. Live your genius. Free others to do the same.

  3. Oct 29

    Stop Asking for Advice—Ask This Instead | Mary Messner

    When you're stuck, do you ask people to give you the answer — or invite them to help you think? Mary Messner spent years climbing inside healthcare, doing exactly what a successful executive is supposed to do. Then something shifted, and she made a U-turn. Today she's a keynote speaker, TEDx presenter, founder of Highline Creative Group, and the author of Help Me Think Through This. Her premise is simple and disruptive: "Tell me what to do" does us a disservice. "Help me think through this" communicates trust, invites contribution, and creates possibilities that didn't appear before. In this conversation, Mary redefines creativity as courage — the courage to keep going in a new and different way — and walks through leaving an executive identity behind, the motherhood chapter that reshaped her priorities, the night she took her hair extensions off on stage, and why your reinvention quietly gives everyone watching permission to change their own life. She closes with the circle: conformity's circle is comfortable, but it isn't yours. Draw your own, and step onto it. For authors, speakers, coaches, and leaders who are successful but not excited about what they wake up to — this one will give you plenty to think through. Get Mary's book, Help Me Think Through This: https://a.co/d/0e31o5ziConnect with Mary: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marymessner · https://www.instagram.com/themarymessner/ Curious where your own genius is leaking? Take the free 5-minute GQ quiz: https://gq.donnietuttle.com Follow The Genius Effect for a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday.Find your genius. Live your genius. Free others to do the same.

    Stop Asking for Advice—Ask This Instead | Mary Messner

  4. Oct 27

    3% Chance to Live: What a 125 MPH Crash Taught Him About Leading | John Ulsh

    Clarity does not come before commitment. Commitment comes — clarity comes second. John Ulsh survived a 125 mph head-on collision that gave him a 3% chance to live. After an 18-day coma, he woke up paralyzed from the waist down and spent eight weeks in a nursing home unable to feed himself — then rebuilt his body and his life one step at a time, all the way back to Spartan obstacle races. Today he coaches leaders on the eight pillars that carried him, starting with commitment. He's the author of The Upside of Down. In this episode, John and Donnie dig into the personal board of directors he built when he couldn't do anything alone, why falling in love with the process beats chasing outcomes, the difference between the pain you can't control and the pain you can choose, the Christmas Eve permission he got to "be positive and still be pissed off," and the obituary exercise that reset his priorities as a father and a leader. For leaders carrying a setback that feels final: this one will get you moving again. Connect with John: https://www.johnulsh.comGet his book, The Upside of Down: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and audio. Curious where your own genius is leaking? Take the free 5-minute GQ quiz: https://gq.donnietuttle.com Follow The Genius Effect for a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday.Find your genius. Live your genius. Free others to do the same.

    3% Chance to Live: What a 125 MPH Crash Taught Him About Leading | John Ulsh

  5. Oct 22

    The Culture Trap Every Leader Builds by Accident | Jenni Catron

    You might be caught in a trap accidentally built by yourself. Most companies run on a default culture — nobody designed it, everybody inherited it, and nobody wants to talk about it. Jenni Catron has spent twenty years watching leaders build that trap by accident. As a leadership coach, speaker, founder and CEO of The 4Sight Group, and the author of Culture Matters, she's helped leaders put feet to vision in the music business, in megachurch executive leadership, and in boardrooms across the country. In this episode, Jenni and Donnie dig into the gap every leader carries: the culture you think you're leading is not the culture your team is living. She explains why ambition has a ceiling, how she went from loving her job to hating it, what Seth Godin's rule — "people like us do things like this" — demands of a leader, why one company was losing nearly $400,000 a year to disengagement without noticing, and why your real job isn't to make people happy but to make them better. She closes with her free 12-question blind spot assessment — the mirror every leader should hold up. For leaders, coaches, and anyone responsible for a team: this one will help you see what your people already feel. Connect with Jenni: https://jennicatron.com/ · https://www.get4sight.com/ · @jennicatronGet her book, Culture Matters: link via her website. Curious where your own genius is leaking? Take the free 5-minute GQ quiz: https://gq.donnietuttle.com Follow The Genius Effect for a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday.Find your genius. Live your genius. Free others to do the same.

    The Culture Trap Every Leader Builds by Accident | Jenni Catron

  6. Oct 20

    You’re Not Broken — You’re Running Outdated Programming | Dr. Tanya Lea

    The thing you're trying to fix about yourself was once something that kept you alive. Dr. Tanya Lea is a Navy veteran, transformational coach, and founder of Consciously Aware, with a PhD in Organizational Leadership, a master's in Mental Health Counseling, and post-doctoral study in Mind-Body Medicine. After 27 years of managing what her body was trying to tell her — and eight major surgeries later — she stopped treating the symptoms and started reading the signals. In this episode of The Genius Effect, Tanya joins Donnie Tuttle to talk about survival versus passion, who we have to become to survive, and the difference between being and endlessly becoming someone else. They dig into why unprocessed emotion shows up in the body, why a trigger is just an unfinished sentence, and why the pattern that made you successful in one season can quietly sabotage the next. Her message throughout: you're not broken — you're a brilliant system running outdated programming, and programming can be updated. Tanya also shares the night she quit her job and didn't sleep for four days, the survival pattern that followed her across the country, and the first move she'd give a high-functioning leader who is quietly fracturing. Connect with Tanya:Take the free body assessment — https://consciouslyaware.comTanya on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanyalea/ Follow The Genius Effect for conversations about bringing out the genius in ourselves and others. Find your Genius Quotient free at gq.donnietuttle.com.

    You’re Not Broken — You’re Running Outdated Programming | Dr. Tanya Lea

  7. Oct 15

    Why Being Busy Stops You From Being Your Best | Shawn Vanderhoven

    Your best people are busy — they are just never at their best. And the reason might be you. Shawn Vanderhoven is the author of Pause and a partner at The Wiseman Group. He measured distraction across 150 companies and found the number one thing holding people back from their very best work: "I'm not clear. I don't really know what success looks like." In this episode of The Genius Effect, Shawn joins Donnie Tuttle to explain why successful teams go 100 miles an hour in the wrong direction — and what leaders can do about it. They dig into the difference between a bias towards action and a bias towards impact, why productivity is a social problem, and the small deliberate pauses that help teams get clearer, protect deep work, and clear out what is stealing their attention. Shawn also shares the story of the workshop attendee who slammed his hand on the table, the 12 performance pauses his research uncovered, and a delegation habit — "tune in before you jump in" — that changes everything. Connect with Shawn:Take the quiz + get the book — https://pausebook.coShawn on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnvanderhoven/ Follow The Genius Effect for conversations about bringing out the genius in ourselves and others. Find your Genius Quotient free at gq.donnietuttle.com.

  8. Oct 13

    Why High Achievers Win Every Battle and Still Feel Empty | Brian Cook

    You can win every battle and still be starving when you are fighting at someone else's table. Brian Cook spent 33 years in the United States Army, graduated from West Point, completed five combat tours, rose to colonel, and helped shape military strategy. Then a medical condition brought that identity to an abrupt end and forced him to reconsider who he was and what he wanted his life to become. In this episode of The Genius Effect, Brian joins Donnie Tuttle to discuss the ideas behind his book, Set Your Table. They explore how high achievers can accomplish impressive goals while drifting away from their values, why our digital environment constantly competes to shape us, and how to build a life that nourishes our personal lives, relationships, professional work, and communities. Brian also shares lessons from four near-death experiences, explains why winning individual battles can cost you the larger war, and offers encouragement for anyone whose current struggle is making them question their worth. Connect with Brian:Set Your Table on Substack — https://setyourtable.substack.com/Join Brian's weekly newsletter — https://setyourtable.kit.com/Get the book — https://books.manuscripts.com/product/set-your-table/ Follow The Genius Effect for conversations about bringing out the genius in ourselves and others. Find your Genius Quotient free at gq.donnietuttle.com.

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Your genius is the work you were made to do. The Genius Effect is the podcast that helps you find your genius, live in your genius, and free others to do the same. Hosted by Donnie Tuttle, executive coach, author, and speaker, each episode explores how to discover your calling and build your work around it, so you get less grind, more flow, and better results. Expect two kinds of episodes. In solo episodes, Donnie teaches the Genius Effect framework and practical tools for aligning your gifts, purpose, and process. In guest episodes, he talks with authors, speakers, coaches, and leaders about how they uncovered their genius and how they help others find theirs. Made for coaches, authors, speakers, entrepreneurs, and leaders who are capable and successful but feel misaligned, and want work that fits who they were made to be. Take the free Genius Quotient quiz at gq.donnietuttle.com/quiz. Formerly the School of Professional Design podcast.

Information

  • Creator
    Donnie Tuttle
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    41
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Donnie Tuttle
  • Show Website
    The Genius Effect

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