TruthWorks

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Are you ready to dive deep into the world of work, culture and leadership? Join Jessica Neal and Patty McCord each week as they chat with expert guests and explore the issues affecting the workplace — from AI and mental health, to making layoffs and combating toxic cultures. Featuring global industry leaders and specialists that are passionate about reshaping the way work today. Listen in as we redefine the rules to work for us, not against us. Episode 1 of TruthWorks launches March 19! Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 

  1. 2 DAYS AGO

    HBO to $50,000,000: How I Built a Fortune, Lost Everything, and Reclaimed My Life | James Altucher

    James Altucher is a name that carries both the weight of massive success and the scars of public collapse. He has built and sold companies for millions, lived the life of the elite, and then—through a series of "stupid" decisions and a warped psychology of money—watched it all evaporate. In this episode, James sits down with Jessica Neal for a masterclass on the human ego. He takes us back to the "least respected" basement office at HBO, where he was just an IT guy with a secret dream of making TV, and explains how he accidentally stumbled into a $50 million fortune. But the real story is what happened next. James opens up about the "sickness" that strikes when you reach the top—the belief that if you aren't making $100 million, you're failing. He reveals the visceral shame of lying to business partners while his house was being foreclosed on, the depression that followed, and the radical "Four Bodies" framework he used to crawl back to the light. This isn't just about money; it’s about the "blood flow" of creativity, the danger of being a salesperson who is too easily sold, and the 1% compounding rule that can change your life in 20 days. If you feel like you’re treading water, or if you’ve achieved success only to feel more anxious than ever, this conversation is for you. In this episode, we cover: 00:00 The HBO basement: Where it all started.05:12 Having $50M and losing it all: The psychological "sickness."12:45 The "Four Bodies" Framework: Physical, Emotional, Creative, Spiritual.18:20 Why you must write 10 bad ideas every single day.25:30 Being a "Human Lie Detector": Detecting BS in the startup world.33:15 The future of Humanoid Robots and the next trillion-dollar shift.42:10 Why "Freedom" is often scarier than "Failure."

    50 min
  2. 27 JAN

    The Work Expert: Why Your Obsession With Speed Is Destroying Your Team | Bree Groff

    Why do 70% of organizational transformations fail? It isn't because of bad strategy, poor funding, or a lack of talent. It is because we have fundamentally misunderstood the psychology of change. In this episode, we sit down with Bree Groff, a Senior Advisor at the global transformation consultancy SYPartners and the former CEO of NOBL Collective, to discuss the counter-intuitive truth about innovation: you cannot build the future until you mourn the past. Bree explains that what leaders often label as "resistance" or "laziness" is actually a form of grief. Drawing on her unique background—which spans cognitive psychology research, a tenure as a high school physics teacher, and over a decade advising C-suite leaders at companies like Google, Pfizer, and Calvin Klein—she breaks down the "Six Types of Loss" employees experience during a pivot. We dive deep into why the "move fast and break things" era is ending and why the most successful modern companies are those that allow teams to "metabolize" the loss of their old identities. Bree also previews insights from her book, Today Was Fun, challenging the toxic positivity of corporate culture and offering a scientific framework for why we need to stop forcing agility and start designing for closure. About Bree Groff: Bree Groff is a renowned expert in organizational psychology and transformation. Currently a Senior Advisor at SYPartners, she previously served as the CEO of NOBL, a global change agency known for pioneering new ways of working. She holds a Master’s in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University and a B.A. in Psychology and Biology from the University of Pennsylvania. Before entering the corporate world, Bree explored human behavior from two very different angles: as a psychology researcher studying decision-making and as an actor and math teacher—experiences that shaped her belief that work should be designed for humans, not just efficiency.

    51 min
  3. 6 JAN

    Behind Duolingo's Multi-Billion Product Strategy, Scaling to 100M users - Cem Kansu

    How do you take a free language app and turn it into a multi billion juggernaut that users are literally addicted to? In this episode of TruthWorks, Jessica and Patty sit down with Cem Kansu, the Chief Product Officer at Duolingo. Cem has spent nearly a decade architecting the product strategy that grew Duolingo from a struggling startup into the world’s #1 education app. This isn’t just a conversation about "product-market fit." It’s a raw look at the operational culture required to run thousands of A/B tests a year without losing your soul. Cem pulls back the curtain on Duolingo’s famous "unhinged" marketing, the reality of managing a "freemium" model that actually makes money, and why they decided to make their AI mascot, Lily, a depressed teenager. Key topics discussed include: The "Mini-CEO" Mindset: Why Duolingo empowers product managers to run their own P&Ls and how that changes the culture of accountability.Monetization vs. Mission: The hard conversations and trade-offs involved in making money while keeping the core product free for millions.The Truth About Gamification: How to use streaks, leaderboards, and "passive-aggressive" notifications to drive retention without burning out your team (or your users).Hiring for Taste: Why data is critical, but product intuition is what actually builds a brand people love.Navigating the AI Shift: How Duolingo is integrating GenAI to teach effectively, not just efficiently.Whether you are scaling a product team or trying to build a culture that embraces experimentation, Cem offers a transparent look at the machinery behind the owl.

    49 min

About

Are you ready to dive deep into the world of work, culture and leadership? Join Jessica Neal and Patty McCord each week as they chat with expert guests and explore the issues affecting the workplace — from AI and mental health, to making layoffs and combating toxic cultures. Featuring global industry leaders and specialists that are passionate about reshaping the way work today. Listen in as we redefine the rules to work for us, not against us. Episode 1 of TruthWorks launches March 19! Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 

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