Talent Acquired

StudioPod Media

Welcome to Talent Acquired, a Chris Edward Consulting podcast hosted by its Founder, Chris Nakiso. Whether you are a company looking to hire, a professional looking to improve your career or a recruiter helping people connect, this podcast was designed to help us understand how we can improve talent acquisition in the modern era. Join us on this journey through the talent acquisition landscape! We’ll bring you stories, strategies and viewpoints of candidates, hiring managers and recruiters that will help you find the right talent for your team. Talent Acquired is produced by StudioPod Media. For more information about Chris Edward Consulting services please visit their website.

  1. 09/25/2025

    Rick Hill | Sales Leadership - What They Don't Tell You

    Dive deep into the essence of leadership in our latest podcast episode where Rick Hill, an experienced sales leader, shares transformative lessons that challenge traditional notions of success. With years of wisdom and experience, Rick offers a perspective guaranteed to shift how you approach leadership, influence, and collaboration. Why You Can’t Afford to Skip This Episode: ✅ Do you want to be right or rich? 🌟 Rick delivers an eye-opening piece of advice from one of his early mentors that strikes at the heart of decision-making in leadership: "Rick, do you wanna be right or do you wanna be rich? You can choose one or the other, but you can't choose both." This poignant moment acts as a guidepost for anyone seeking collective success rather than personal validation. ✅ Humility Matters 🤝 Ever wrestle with maintaining influence and productivity while keeping your ego in check? Rick highlights critical examples of how humility shapes effective leaders. He contrasts his approach with a mistake he witnessed firsthand—a hyper-controlling leader who sabotaged team meetings, deaf to input and collaboration. ✅ The Power of Reflection 🔍 Rick leaves listeners pondering a powerful reminder for those navigating the challenges of leadership: "Remember why you started." This episode is packed with actionable wisdom and relatable anecdotes, perfect for aspiring leaders, seasoned executives, and anyone striving to balance ambition with teamwork. You’ll Learn: How to prioritize collective success without compromising authenticity.Key strategies for fostering collaboration and flexibility within teams.The dangers of ego-driven leadership and how to avoid these pitfalls.

    25 min
  2. 08/14/2025

    Curtis Heath | Building A Winning Culture

    💡 Most leaders think culture is about perks, pizza parties, or slogans on the wall. The truth? Culture shows up in how your team communicates when no one’s watching. I sat down with Curtis, a seasoned organizational leader, and here’s what stuck with me: 👉 Communication is the baseline. “If I’m 100% and you’re 100%, that makes 300%. The invisible entity is teamwork. And that all starts with making sure our words mean the exact same thing.” 👉 Red flags in culture are always visible. Watch for inconsistent actions, lack of shared ownership, or behavioral drift in how teams interact. 👉 Ego-driven leadership kills trust. Curtis said it best: “If you come in forcing your will over what’s already existing, you’re not gonna get the result.” Observation before action builds buy-in. 👉 Empowered leaders own their results. “I don’t set goals for my leadership team. We’re the leaders. Why would I try to do something I have 100% control of? I expect it.” 👉 Culture must outlast the leader. The ultimate win? When the team can “call their own plays and still score touchdowns” without you. For executives in hardware, software, or tech integration companies, this isn’t just philosophy—it’s survival. High performers won’t stick around in a broken culture. Neither will your customers. The challenge for leaders isn’t building culture for today. It’s building culture that lasts beyond you.

    14 min
  3. 08/11/2025

    Larry Satterfield | Leading Sales Orgs Through Transformation

    🚨 Most sales leaders underestimate how brutal transformation really is. The truth? You can’t wait for people to get on board; you’ll lose the race before it starts. In our latest conversation, I sat down with Larry and Paul to unpack what it takes to lead effective sales team transformations, especially in private equity-backed businesses. Here’s what stood out: 👉 Impatience is a strategy. “The biggest mistake is not being impatient. You have to be impatient.” Waiting for people to adapt costs time and kills momentum. 👉 Team transformation is the hardest job in sales leadership. Shifting teams—whether inherited or rebuilt—to align with new goals is where most transformations stall. 👉 Frontline leaders reveal the truth. If your frontline managers resist, your sellers will too. That’s the first red flag of deeper misalignment. 👉 Sometimes you have to let go of top performers. Larry put it bluntly: “You may have to move away from high performers if they don’t buy into where the company needs to go.” Yesterday’s results can’t outweigh tomorrow’s vision. 👉 Succession planning is a blind spot. 90% of companies lack it. Which means when transformation hits, they lose talent they can’t afford to lose. 👉 Compensation drives behavior. Shifting from hardware to software models? Incentives must reward the new direction—or the team won’t follow. Transformation succeeds not by strategy alone, but by talent, urgency, and the strength of your leadership.

    10 min

About

Welcome to Talent Acquired, a Chris Edward Consulting podcast hosted by its Founder, Chris Nakiso. Whether you are a company looking to hire, a professional looking to improve your career or a recruiter helping people connect, this podcast was designed to help us understand how we can improve talent acquisition in the modern era. Join us on this journey through the talent acquisition landscape! We’ll bring you stories, strategies and viewpoints of candidates, hiring managers and recruiters that will help you find the right talent for your team. Talent Acquired is produced by StudioPod Media. For more information about Chris Edward Consulting services please visit their website.