Ronderings

Ron Rapatalo
  • 5.0 (6)
  • CAREERS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

In RONderings, Ron talks to his guests about their superpowers, including career advice, diversity, mindset, wellness, and leadership. Ron grew up in New York City, and has been coaching and leading executive searches for the last five years, taking what he has learned from 15 years in corporate, higher education, government, and non-profit contexts. He and his wife are obsessed with reality television, and Ron also moonlights as a men's personal stylist and group fitness instructor. Ron says, "I believe in the power of intuition and deepening one’s self-awareness and impact on others. I believe in the power of connection and transparency. I believe that we must dismantle systems of oppression and racism to recover our fullest humanity. Most of all, I believe our power to change the world starts from changing ourselves first."

  1. Safe Rooms for Leaders: Revenue, Emotional Regulation, and the Business You're Growing Into with Amirah Raveneau-Bey

    2D AGO

    Safe Rooms for Leaders: Revenue, Emotional Regulation, and the Business You're Growing Into with Amirah Raveneau-Bey

    Revenue strategist and third-generation entrepreneur Amirah Raveneau-Bey has spent 25 years inside Citibank, Zillow, Trulia, NerdWallet, and Opendoor. The truth she keeps coming back to: you cannot scale a business you are not personally growing into. In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Amirah, founder of Grow Scale Develop, to talk about why what looks like a revenue problem is almost always a leadership problem. Amirah traces the entrepreneurial line that runs through her family. Her grandparents built a business on Long Island. Her father became a Broadway drummer who turned arts education into a calling when New York public schools started cutting music. She thought she wanted a nine to five and went to Citibank, where her boss told her to stay in the box. Tech said the opposite, so she built what wasn't there. It made her discover something she could never go back from. Leadership is 10% strategy and 90% emotional regulation. Ron and Amirah dig into why every sales problem is really a trust problem, why bosses who cannot regulate themselves are the bosses people quit, and how Amirah talks to her clients about rest. Rest is not a reward. It is a requirement for the level of leadership we are asking people to step into. And she lands on a Rondering that stops Ron mid-conversation. Every strong leader needs a space where they do not have to be strong. Coaching and mentorship are not luxuries. They are protection. Tune in to hear what 25 years across finance and tech taught Amirah about scaling a business while scaling the leader inside it. Chapters:🌱 00:36 Meet Amirah Raveneau-Bey: third-generation entrepreneur and revenue strategist📚 01:50 Publish your book at www.leveragepublishinggroup.com🎶 03:44 Nineties R&B, Jodeci, and the music that shapes who we become🏝️ 07:17 Long Island grandparents, a Broadway drummer father, and the entrepreneurial line she could not outrun💡 10:19 Saying no to entrepreneurship and getting in trouble at Citibank for thinking too creatively🚀 13:28 What tech taught her that a big bank could not: build the thing that is not there yet✍️ 18:46 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org🤝 19:20 Why every revenue problem is really a leadership problem in disguise👋 23:33 People do not quit jobs, they quit bosses who cannot regulate🧠 26:48 Autonomy is the leadership move most leaders skip 🪞 35:22 Who you were as a leader five years ago is not who you need to be today🌟 37:29 If you are a leader or a changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org😴 43:19 Rest is not a reward: it is a requirement for the leadership we are asking people to step into🛋️ 49:38 Every strong leader needs a space where they do not have to be strong🎧 56:35 Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com Links: Website: https://www.growscaledevelop.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirahraveneaubey Substack: https://amirah.substack.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grow.scale.develop Connect with Amirah on LinkedIn or visit Grow Scale Develop to follow her work helping founders and executives turn revenue problems into leadership breakthroughs. Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo Check Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473 Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com Publish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.org Start a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.com Go from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org For more great podcasts like this one, visit: https://podcaststhatmatter.org

    58 min
  2. Leading Without Hardening: Identity, Neurodivergence, and Education Leadership with Jameelah Stuckey

    APR 29

    Leading Without Hardening: Identity, Neurodivergence, and Education Leadership with Jameelah Stuckey

    Education leader Jameelah Stuckey has built a career across finance, classroom teaching, school founding, and national education research, and she did it without losing the softness her father told her to protect. In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Jameelah, senior manager at TNTP and education chair of the Greater Tulsa Area African American Affairs Commission, to talk about identity, neurodivergence, advocacy, and what it actually takes to lead without hardening. Jameelah grew up in South Central LA, the ninth of ten siblings, raised between mosque and church by three parents who each taught her something different about how to move through the world. She started in finance, working her way up from a high school teller program at Washington Mutual to Bank of America to a stint at the White House during the Obama administration. That ended when she was sent home for two days for being too passionate about the people the policy was supposed to serve. The redirect pointed straight at education. She taught, became a founding principal of a non-traditional high school in Compton, and eventually landed in Tulsa, a city she describes as small enough to dream and implement in the same week. Now she serves nationally through TNTP while leading community work across Tulsa Young Professionals, the Tulsa Area United Way, and a few other tables in town. Ron and Jameelah get into the difference between assertion and aggression, how neurodivergence shaped the way she works and leads, and why her father's line, the same people you see going up you will see coming down, has carried her across every sector she has worked in. Tune in to hear why becoming who you are meant to be does not have to mean losing your softness along the way. Chapters: 📚 01:40 Publish your book at www.leveragepublishinggroup.com 🌴 02:30 Meet Jameelah Stuckey: South Central, TNTP, and the Ed homie connection 🕌 04:03 Mosque, church, and three parents: an early lesson in inclusion 🤝 11:33 The leadership ethic her father taught her: respect, assertion, and never the big I or little U 💵 13:39 From Washington Mutual teller to Bank of America: a finance career that started in eighth grade 🏛️ 16:38 Sent home from the White House for being too passionate 🏫 19:02 How a substitute gig in Compton turned into founding a school ✍️ 20:22 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org 🎓 21:03 Building a non-traditional high school for non-traditional students 🌆 24:18 Why Tulsa is the place where dreams actually get implemented 🏘️ 27:13 Black Wall Street, social capital, and what makes Tulsa different 🌊 33:33 Be like water: the leadership ethic that meets the moment 🧠 35:36 Why neurodivergence works better in remote, autonomous environments 🤖 43:04 How AI became a real accommodation tool for ADHD leaders 🌟 43:56 If you are a leader or a changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org 😊 47:02 Where Jameelah finds joy: progress, new things, and a purple suede coat 🔁 48:43 Think, believe, release, receive: the mantra she lives by 🎧 59:52 Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com Links: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jameelah-stuckey-mba TNTP: tntp.org African American Leadership Academy: aalatulsa.org Connect with Jameelah on LinkedIn to learn more about her work in education, leadership, and community impact across Tulsa and beyond. Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapataloCheck Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473  Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.comPublish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.orgStart a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.comGo from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org

    53 min
  3. Authenticity Is a Privilege: Identity, Gratitude, and Love as Strategy with Dr. Abiodun Durojaye

    APR 22

    Authenticity Is a Privilege: Identity, Gratitude, and Love as Strategy with Dr. Abiodun Durojaye

    Dr. Abiodun Durojaye arrived in the United States at nine years old from Nigeria, and by fourth grade she had learned two things: she was Black in America, and the name her father gave her would not fit in the spaces she was trying to enter. In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Dr. Abiodun Durojaye, founder of AsidaLove and former CEO of Urban Alliance, to talk about identity, gratitude, motherhood, and why love belongs in leadership conversations that usually leave it out. Abiodun grew up the daughter of a Nigerian mother raising four children alone in a new country. Every one of those children now holds at least a doctorate. She went on to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, joined Delta Sigma Theta, and after graduation packed her bags for Nigeria to serve in the National Youth Service Corps. That year in camp, fetching water for a bath in front of thousands of strangers, is where she learned the line she still lives by. Authenticity is a privilege. Check yourself at the door. She also met her husband there. Then came the part of her story most people do not see. Two of her three daughters were born micro-preemie, one at 24 weeks and one at 23, each weighing about a pound. Five-month NICU stays. Holidays in the hospital. She finished her dissertation in those rooms because work became the only thing that kept her upright. Ron and Abiodun talk about what that kind of endurance costs, and the day she pulled her oldest out of school at 11 a.m. to go bra shopping because grace matters too. Now Abiodun is building AsidaLove, a movement rooted in the belief that love is a strategy, not a sentiment. She is planning a For Her, By Her convening in Chicago for women of color navigating transition, and writing a memoir about her NICU years and what kept her going. Tune in to hear why empathy is strength, why presence is the real work of leadership, and what it means to check yourself at the door.  Chapters: 📚 01:44 Publish your book at www.leveragepublishinggroup.com 🌍 02:36 Meet Dr. Abiodun Durojaye, first-generation Nigerian 🏫 07:22 Fourth grade at Reavis Elementary and the day Abiodun learned she was Black 👩🏾 11:13 The women whose shoulders Abiodun stands on 🎓 13:38 UIUC, the Deltas, and her line sisters ✈️ 15:11 Bags packed for Nigeria at the end of college 🏕️ 15:42 A year in the NYSC camp, pay little to nothing 💍 16:41 The Nigerian man she swore she would never marry ✍️ 19:21 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org 🚪 22:25 Authenticity is a privilege, so check yourself at the door 📖 27:03 Three daughters, two NICU babies, and the book she is writing ⏰ 30:34 Twenty-three weeks, one pound, and the decision no mother should make 🏥 33:23 A mother's fight when the medicine cracked her daughter's ribs 💪 34:39 The dissertation as a distraction from the NICU 💗 40:02 AsidaLove: a movement rooted in community and love 👩🏾‍🤝‍👩🏾 41:48 For Her, By Her, the Chicago convening Abiodun is dreaming up 🌟 43:32 If you are a leader or changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org 🍲 46:13 Asida, the warm dish that sticks to you 🙏 49:23 Her year of yes and being obedient to what is next ✨ 53:18 Love as strategy and empathy as strength 🎧 01:03:27 Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com Links: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/adurojaye Instagram: www.instagram.com/duro_itsabi  Abiodun is someone you want in your corner. Follow her for AsidaLove, the For Her, By Her convening in Chicago, and the memoir that is coming.  Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapataloCheck Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473  Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.comPublish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.orgStart a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.comGo from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org

    1h 5m
  4. From Special Education Teacher to Corporate Philanthropy: Why Relationships Are the Only Legacy That Matters with Nicholas Pascale

    APR 15

    From Special Education Teacher to Corporate Philanthropy: Why Relationships Are the Only Legacy That Matters with Nicholas Pascale

    From a special education classroom in West Philadelphia to corporate philanthropy at Vanguard, Nicholas Pascale has spent two decades building his career the same way he builds everything: through relationships.  In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Nicholas, a former SPED teacher, principal, district leader, and nonprofit consultant who now works on Vanguard's Community Stewardship team. Nicholas grew up in a working class Italian family in New York with a twin brother and parents who both worked at JFK Airport. When he was a year and a half old, his father was diagnosed with terminal leukemia and given six months to live. He fought for ten and a half years.  That early confrontation with loss shaped everything. Nicholas knew by first grade he wanted to be a teacher after Mrs. Kennedy knelt beside him on his first day apart from his twin brother and told him it was going to be okay. As a principal, he built school culture around reconciliation, insisting that adults model the same forgiveness they ask of thirteen year olds. When he pivoted to HR at a startup and got laid off, the relationships he had been building for years carried him into consulting with Bellwether, Albuquerque Public Schools, and DCPS.  Ron and Nicholas also go deep on what it means to maintain relationships over time, why financial literacy belongs in schools alongside health education, and how a volunteer role at Vanguard led Nicholas back to education through corporate philanthropy.  Tune in to hear why the only legacy that lasts is the way you make people feel.  Chapters: 📚 01:44 Publish your book at www.leveragepublishinggroup.com  🤝 02:34 Meet Nicholas Pascale: relationships as a way of life  🇮🇹 08:20 Growing up in a working class Italian family in Queens  🏥 09:55 Dad diagnosed with leukemia at one and a half: ten years of fighting  👩 14:12 Mom held the load as a single parent after dad passed  💰 16:45 Mentor, financial literacy, and how mom retired at 55  ✍️ 17:44 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org  🍎 18:44 Mrs. Kennedy in first grade: deciding to be a teacher at seven years old  🏫 23:36 Building school culture around reconciliation: kids come first  🔄 33:27 From schools to ed consulting: Bellwether, DCPS, and Albuquerque  🌟 35:53 If you are a leader or changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org  🏢 42:32 How a volunteer role at Vanguard led back to education through philanthropy  📱 48:25 The simplest relationship strategy: just reach out and tell people you love them  💛 52:55 The Ronderings: life is measured in love and kindness through relationships  🎧 57:17 Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com  Links: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-pascale-ab1701137 Connect with Nicholas on LinkedIn to follow his work in corporate philanthropy at Vanguard and his continued commitment to education and community.  Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapataloCheck Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473  Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.comPublish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.orgStart a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.comGo from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org For more great podcasts like this one, visit: https://podcaststhatmatter.org

    58 min
  5. They Want Your Work but Not Your Voice: Ed Reform, Leadership, and Reclaiming Space with Dr. Maya M. Faison

    APR 8

    They Want Your Work but Not Your Voice: Ed Reform, Leadership, and Reclaiming Space with Dr. Maya M. Faison

    Leadership coach and former statewide education CEO Dr. Maya M. Faison knows what it looks like when organizations want your brilliance but not your voice, and she is done staying quiet about it.  In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Maya, founder of Faison Advisory Group and creator of the UNMUTED coaching experience, to talk about what it actually costs black women to lead inside systems that were never designed for them.  Maya grew up in Philadelphia, where a classmate once told her she was not smart enough to get into Masterman, the top-ranked magnet school in the state. Her parents went to the school to apply. The counselor hesitated. But a principal who chose to see her potential advocated for her admission. What Maya found out later was that her older sister had been turned away years earlier. Different principal, different outcome. One block separated Masterman from a school where a third grader could not read the words "press enter to start." That gap set everything in motion.  She went from the University of Pennsylvania to Harvard to the classroom, then into policy work as one of the original teacher ambassador fellows at the US Department of Education. She eventually led a statewide charter school advocacy organization for nearly a decade, passing legislation at rates most policy shops only talk about. But behind those wins, the personal cost was compounding. Board members suggesting she hire a white man to run the organization she was already running. Colleagues undermining her team. The quiet, constant pressure to shrink.  When Maya started attending EdLoC convenings and connecting with other black women in nonprofit ed reform, she realized her story was not an individual one. It was systemic. Women hospitalized from stress. Women blackballed for speaking up. Women who left the country entirely. That pattern is now the foundation of her research project, I Survived Ed Reform, and the reason she coaches women to stop muting themselves and start leading from wholeness.  Tune in to hear why Maya believes your job will never love you back, and what it looks like to lead without giving away your soul.  Chapters: 📚 01:36 Publish your book at www.leveragepublishinggroup.com 🎒 02:42 Meet Dr. Maya M. Faison: Philly kid, educator, truth teller 🏫 06:19 The little girl who said "you're not smart enough" and the gloves came off📖 08:24 Tutoring a third grader who couldn't read the screen one block from the best school in the state 📻 13:33 Mavis Beacon, summer spelling lists, and a nerdy family dinner radio show 🎓 17:26 Traditional teacher licensure, Harvard, and the long route into policy ✍️ 21:45 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org 😤 23:10 "There's this other guy": being told to hire someone to do the job you were hired for 🤝 26:19 Walking into EdLoC spaces and finding out it was all of us 📓 28:35 Interviewing women across the country for I Survived Ed Reform 🏥 30:23 Hospitals, Ghana, and the physical cost of leading under fire 💔 37:12 The biggest regret: putting off families for organizations that moved on without them 🌟 38:19 If you are a leader or changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org 📉 41:16 A love letter on LinkedIn and what 300,000 layoffs mean for black women 🧭 44:19 Negotiate from abundance, not desperation 💎 47:54 Maya's Rondering: you don't owe them your soul 👕 50:47 The shirt says healing over hustle and she means it 🎧 58:37 Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com  Links: Connect: www.linkedin.com/in/mayabfaison  Website: www.mayafaison.com Faison Advisory Group: www.faisonadvisorygroup.comI Survived Ed Reform: www.isurvivededreform.com  Instagram: @mayabfaison Connect with Maya on LinkedIn or visit mayafaison.com to learn more about her coaching work with women in leadership and her upcoming book, I Survived Ed Reform.   Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapataloCheck Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473  Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.comPublish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.orgStart a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.comGo from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org

    59 min
  6. From Rupture to Aperture: Peace, Justice, and the Art of Community-Driven Education with Hector Calderón

    APR 1

    From Rupture to Aperture: Peace, Justice, and the Art of Community-Driven Education with Hector Calderón

    Hector Calderón grew up watching the South Bronx burn, taught himself English through Gilligan's Island tapes, and went on to co-found the first Human Rights High School in the nation.  In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Hector Calderón, co-founder and former principal of El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, educator, racial justice facilitator, and leadership coach with over 25 years of experience building liberatory spaces for leaders and communities.  Hector traces his path from a childhood split between a burning South Bronx block and a one-room schoolhouse in the Dominican Republic, to landing at the epicenter of hip hop's birth on Banana Kelly Street, to finding his calling at El Puente in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 1993. El Puente was not a school dropped into a community. It was a community deciding what kind of school it deserved. He shares the three founding tenets that shaped it: education as liberation, disciplines in service of community needs, and integrated curriculum that mirrors how the real world actually works.  The conversation moves into what Hector does today, coaching leaders through the eighteen inches between the brain and the heart, and holding firm to the Frantz Fanon charge he lives by: every generation must find its destiny, fulfill it or betray it.  Tune in to hear how Hector Calderón turns every rupture into an aperture, and what that means for the rest of us.   Chapters: 📚 01:49 Publish your book at www.leveragepublishinggroup.com  🌎 02:39 Hector Calderón's story: from the South Bronx to the Dominican Republic and back  🏫 08:55 Navigating dangerous schools and the move to Queens  🗣️ 10:06 Teaching himself English through Gilligan's Island tapes  🎵 15:18 Growing up at the birth of hip hop on Banana Kelly Street  🏗️ 19:45 Co-founding El Puente Academy: a community building its own school  ⚖️ 22:58 The three founding tenets of El Puente  ✍️ 25:29 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org  🧬 29:42 Student asthma research published in JAMA and a vaccination clinic that beat the Department of Health  🔥 36:47 Coaching leaders today: the eighteen inches between brain and heart  🌟 42:35 If you are a leader or changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org  📖 44:29 Frantz Fanon and keeping justice alive right now  🎤 45:35 Hector's poem: in the beginning was the word  💡 52:10 Learn to turn ruptures into apertures  🎧 01:00:05 Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com  Links: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/hector-calderón-602b4124  Connect with Hector on LinkedIn and keep an eye out for his upcoming book of poetry, art, and educational reflections.  Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapataloCheck Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473  Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.comPublish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.orgStart a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.comGo from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org

    1h 1m
  7. Issues in Our Tissues: Mindfulness, Burnout, and Conscious Leadership with Amanda Muhammad

    MAR 25

    Issues in Our Tissues: Mindfulness, Burnout, and Conscious Leadership with Amanda Muhammad

    Mindfulness coach and professional development consultant Amanda Muhammad knows what burnout looks like from the inside, and she built a company to help organizations do something about it.  In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Amanda, founder of Mako Mindfulness, to explore workplace stress management, psychological safety, and what it genuinely takes to build a culture where people can show up at their best.  Amanda grew up in Kansas City in a family rooted in movement and faith. Her father ran a karate dojo, her mother became a certified yoga instructor, and a purple yoga mat from TJ Maxx is where her own practice began. She studied HR and organizational leadership, planned the corporate climb, but every workplace she moved through told the same story: people were quietly burning out, and no one was talking about it. When she finally decided to make the leap into entrepreneurship, she didn't announce it. She quit her job, told nobody, and spent a full year building Mako Mindfulness in the trenches before her family even knew she'd left. What carried her through was a daily faith practice and a prayer book she kept re-reading from the start. Every time she hit the halfway point, a new contract landed.  Ron and Amanda dig into the gap between what organizations say about well-being and what their policies actually create, and why generational tension gets worse when leaders stop thinking beyond their immediate needs. They also get personal about why making your life bigger than your job might be the most underrated thing a leader can do.  Tune in to hear what Amanda's story says about what conscious leadership actually demands.  Chapters: 📚 01:50 Publish your book at www.leveragepublishinggroup.com  🌱 02:41 Amanda Muhammad's Story: From Kansas City to Conscious Leadership  🧘 04:06 A Yoga Class, a Purple Mat, and a Practice That Stuck  🙏 10:20 Leaving Corporate, Telling Nobody, and Trusting the Leap  ✍️ 22:15 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org  💼 23:04 What Mako Mindfulness Actually Does  🪞 27:05 Collective Care vs Self Care: What Organizations Get Wrong  👥 31:52 The Leadership Mirror Check  🔄 32:52 Generational Tension at Work and Who Has to Move First  🚀 35:08 The Future of Work and the Gig Economy  🌟 39:39 If you are a leader or changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org  🎨 40:23 Art, Play, and Why Amanda Goes to Museums to Do Her Emails  🌍 51:35 Making Your Life Bigger Than Your Job  🎧 01:00:29 Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com  Links: Website: www.makomindfulness.comInstagram: www.instagram.com/makomindfulness  LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/amandamuhammad Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn or visit Mako Mindfulness to learn more about her work in stress management, psychological safety, and professional development for schools and organizations.  Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapataloCheck Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473  Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.comPublish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.orgStart a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.comGo from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org  For more great podcasts like this one, visit: https://podcaststhatmatter.org

    1h 2m
  8. Rethinking the Brain and Human Potential with Ellen Petry Leanse

    MAR 18

    Rethinking the Brain and Human Potential with Ellen Petry Leanse

    From Silicon Valley innovator to neuroscience educator, Ellen Petry Leanse explores what happens when we stop separating creativity from analytical thinking and begin using the full capacity of the human mind. In this episode of the Ronderings podcast, Ron Rapatalo speaks with Ellen about her unusual path from a curious child interested in both science and art to a decade-long career at Apple during the company’s early years. She reflects on how curiosity, unstructured time, and even frustration with traditional schooling shaped her lifelong interest in the brain and human behavior. Drawing on more than 35 years of studying neuroscience with thinkers such as Dr. Iain McGilchrist and Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, Ellen explores how the brain’s hemispheres shape the way we pursue goals and make sense of the world. She also reflects on how modern technology may be reshaping attention and cognition in what she calls “mental climate change.” The conversation moves into leadership, habits, and intentional living. Ellen connects neuroscience with older traditions of wisdom, including Taoist philosophy and Indigenous perspectives, to explore how people can move beyond reactive thinking and develop a more integrated way of responding to challenges. If you are interested in neuroscience, leadership, and the deeper questions of how humans think and create, this episode offers a thoughtful perspective. Listen to the full conversation to hear how Ellen connects brain science, creativity, and lived experience to help us better understand ourselves and the world we are shaping.  Chapters: 📚 02:03 Publish your book at www.leveragepublishinggroup.com  🧠 02:54 Ellen’s Story: Curiosity, the Brain, and an Apple Break 🌟 21:25 If you are a leader or a changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org  💡 33:07 What Neuroscience Teaches Us About Leadership  🎯 36:16 Habits, Focus, and Training the Brain  🕊️ 38:44 When Brain Science Meets Something Deeper ❤️ 43:29 From Heartache to Hope  ✍️ 51:05 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org  🔮 01:00:35 Ellen’s Big Idea: We Are More Than We Think  🎙️ 01:05:03 Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com  Links:Personal Website: www.ellenleanse.comPodcast Website: www.thebrainandbeyond.comInstagram: www.instagram.com/chep2mFacebook: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093194381038LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ellenleanse If something in this conversation sparked your curiosity, explore more of Ellen Petry Leanse’s work through the links above. Her podcast The Brain and Beyond is a thoughtful place to keep exploring neuroscience, creativity, and what it means to be human.  Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapataloCheck Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473  Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.comPublish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.orgStart a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.comGo from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org  For more great podcasts like this one, visit: https://podcaststhatmatter.org

    1h 7m
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

In RONderings, Ron talks to his guests about their superpowers, including career advice, diversity, mindset, wellness, and leadership. Ron grew up in New York City, and has been coaching and leading executive searches for the last five years, taking what he has learned from 15 years in corporate, higher education, government, and non-profit contexts. He and his wife are obsessed with reality television, and Ron also moonlights as a men's personal stylist and group fitness instructor. Ron says, "I believe in the power of intuition and deepening one’s self-awareness and impact on others. I believe in the power of connection and transparency. I believe that we must dismantle systems of oppression and racism to recover our fullest humanity. Most of all, I believe our power to change the world starts from changing ourselves first."

Information

  • Creator
    Ron Rapatalo
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    92
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2023-2025 Ron Rapatalo
  • Show Website
    Ronderings

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