Irna Hutabarat Athans had an MBA from MIT, connections to VCs, and a front-row seat to the startup world. But technology felt soulless to her, so she walked away -- for years. She became a tango dancer, a poet, a world traveler. Anything but tech.

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That decision cost her years of income and impact. The turning point came at a conference where she asked a room full of hotel and restaurant entrepreneurs what would happen to the families whose jobs AI would eliminate. Most couldn't answer. But one woman told her, "The fact that you asked that question is the very reason you have to lean into AI -- because AI is now driven by people who do not ask those questions."

From there, Irna started using AI not as a search engine but as a thinking partner. She applied chain of thought reasoning to surface limiting beliefs she had carried for years -- about money, about success, about whether someone who loves Greek tragedies belongs in technology. Through those conversations, she arrived at a personal mission: to be a creator, creating something she enjoys, that people will pay for, and that makes the world a better place.

We also talk about what blockchain actually is beyond crypto, why only 6.4% of blockchain VC goes to women-led companies, and why AI, blockchain, and quantum computing need more diverse voices building them.

Andy Freed has seen Bruce Springsteen perform 95 times. Somewhere along the way, he stopped just enjoying the shows and started studying them -- how Springsteen prepares a set list, reads an audience, paces energy across a four-hour performance, and makes every musician on stage feel like the most important person in the room.

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Andy is CEO of Virtual Inc. and author of Lead Like the Boss: The Bruce Springsteen Framework to Elevating Your Leadership. His favorite mistake goes back to 2006, when his team created an Uncle Sam-style "We Want You" marketing campaign for a global organization -- then got a call from their Japanese partner pointing out that American World War II propaganda doesn't exactly resonate in Tokyo. The campaign was already far along, forcing a sharp pivot and a lasting lesson about what happens when you view your audience through a single cultural lens.

From there, we dig into the ideas at the heart of his book: why communication isn't just a leadership skill but is leadership itself, the "think, feel, do" framework for making sure your message actually lands, and why a well-intentioned company cafeteria policy once drove employees to quit. Andy also shares why Tom Peters was right that leadership is a performance, how self-awareness matters more than fixing every weakness, and what it means when Springsteen shakes every band member's hand at the end of every show.

Dr. Julia Garcia -- psychologist, author, and host of The Journey with Dr. J -- built two businesses that didn't survive.

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The first was a performing arts collective that grew to 20 people before the economics collapsed. The second was a mental health app for young girls experiencing harassment on social media -- grant-funded, scrappy, and gaining real traction -- until a cross-country move, a young son, no childcare, and an eroded sense of self-worth made it impossible to continue. She never set up a single investor meeting. That one, she says, was the hardest to recover from.

What she learned from both failures shaped her book, The Five Habits of Hope -- and a sharp distinction she draws between hope and resilience. Resilience, as she sees it, has been co-opted by a push-past-it culture that encourages people to power through without addressing root causes. Hope is different. It's a cognitive science with measurable predictors of success: more collaboration, better problem-solving, greater willingness to adapt. Hopeful teams outperform resilient ones -- and leaders who build emotionally safe environments are the reason people stay.

Dr. Garcia also turns the tables mid-episode, walking host Mark Graban through a live coaching exercise on honesty, self-worth, and the feelings we suppress instead of process. It's one of the more candid moments the show has had.