qWelcome to Narrow Lanes, I'm Greg Sobiech. This week, I spoke with Bob West, a leadership expert with an impressive career, including roles as Chief Strategy Officer at Palo Alto Networks and Executive Director at Deloitte. Bob is also the co-creator of the Medalist Mindset framework, which brings principles from elite athletics into leadership and team dynamics.

This conversation is all about what business leaders can learn from high-level sports. With the Olympics recently concluded, I was struck by how many winners credited visualization for their success. Bob opened my eyes to how visualization and goal-setting can be powerful tools for achieving business success, something I haven’t fully embraced until now.

Bob shares examples from his career and personal life, illustrating how leaders can unlock peak performance through his “Narrow Lane” approach. This includes key principles like mental toughness, authenticity, continuous improvement, and visualization.

If you’ve ever wondered how to bring Olympic-level focus to your business, this episode is for you.

From Delve Deeper, this is Narrow Lanes.

Today, I had a conversation with Peilin Corbanese, a powerhouse in digital transformation and business strategy.

Her accolades speak volumes about her knack for optimizing businesses through data, tech, and leadership.

Peilin's mission? To drive performance by linking data to technology and cutting through the noise with relevant truths.

She firmly believes that while chasing perfect data is important, businesses should keep making decisions with the data they have—even if it's not perfect.

Building deep relationships and empathy is key, pairing business savvy with data insights for better outcomes.

A successful strategy hinges on two elements:

Business optimization—the emotional side, focusing on team engagement and empowerment, and data-driven results—the logical side, emphasizing hard metrics like ROI and tech advancements.

As a performance marketer, I’ve always viewed business through the ROI lens. But I’ve learned that when you fuse business optimization with data-driven results, you unlock outsized success.

From Delve Deeper, this is Narrow Lanes.

Today, I had a compelling conversation with Gary Tickle, the former President and CEO of Nestlé Nutrition North America.

This guy is one of the sharpest marketers and leaders I've ever encountered. What struck me most was his emphasis on fostering a culture of experimentation within marketing teams. He put it bluntly: “We need to innovate and constantly add value to the customer, but to do that, you must give everyone permission to fail.”

Failure? It’s tough. Especially in marketing, where the stakes can feel sky-high. But here’s the kicker: success and real value are born from failing hundreds of times. Personally, I’ve learned far more from my failures than from my successes. Each misstep has been a stepping stone to something greater.

From Delve Deeper, this is Narrow Lanes.