Host of the show, Chuck Swoboda, sits down with producer of the show, Kyle Hagge, to discuss the origin story of Innovators on Tap and the lessons learned along the way. You can follow the podcast, Chuck, and Kyle on Twitter for further exploration and discussion on innovation. The episode is also available wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enj…

This episode is a replay of the previously released interview with Leif Abraham, Co-CEO at Public.com. Honesty kills bullshit. You’re an owner, act like one. Enable, don’t direct. No — this isn’t unsolicited advice from me - although it could be. These are actually 3 of the 9 core culture principles for Public.com, an investing app that is making t…

This episode is a replay of the previously released interview with Danny Lange, SVP of AI at Unity. Enjoy! Did you ever wonder how a computer can be trained to beat a human at chess? Or how Amazon seems to anticipate what you’re looking for, before typing your request in the search bar? Or how it is that the Uber app always seems to know the faster…

Gears. Bearings. Conveyors. Drainage systems. Plumbing fixtures. Not what you first think of when it comes to innovation - but areas that maybe even more affected by innovation that all those tech companies that we normally think about. Why? Because while we often associate coming up with a new idea as the hard part of innovation, transforming exis…

Arguably no industry has been impacted by COVID more than healthcare. And because of this disruption, no industry has probably moved as fast to embrace innovation - whether they wanted to or not. For example, telemedicine, which has been around for more than a decade, has suddenly become not only a mainstream option, but also a way to create access…

Have you ever turned down an opportunity because you thought it was too risky? What would you do if you got a second chance? On today’s episode, we talk with Jim Murphy, who has had an over two decade career at Pixar - even though he originally turned them down. That’s right. As a budding animator, he was offered the chance to work for Pixar, but i…

Doing what others say you can’t do is an extremely powerful motivator for most entrepreneurs. And for today’s guest, Phaedra Boinodiris, this mindset has been integral to her story. While she was a graduate student at University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, she was working on a case challenge sponsored by IBM so she decided to create a game tha…

One of the key mindsets that I’ve always looked for in people is their ability to be unafraid of failure, yet unwilling to fail. And today’s guest, Amanda DoAmaral is someone who represents this idea. She is the CEO and founder of Fiveable, a social learning network that helps build confidence, content knowledge & technical skills in high school st…

“Hey Siri” “Ok Google” “Hey Alexa” If I told you 15 years ago that we would all be talking to our electronic devices, would you have believed me? Would you have thought I needed some therapy? Regardless of your answer, it’s clear that speech recognition has become normalized. We now talk to our devices in order to call a friend, to find directions …

It’s been just over one year since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and disrupted nearly every aspect of our daily lives. One of the industries that has been most affected has been Education and more specifically Higher Education. Once the pandemic hit, every college and university was forced to move all classes online, seemingly overnight, and cam…

In 1903, William Harley and the Davidson Brothers built their first motorcycle in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Since that first bike shipped, Harley Davidson has become an American icon and likely the best known motorcycle brand across the world, selling upwards of 300,000 motorcyles each year. But what happens to a business when consumer preferences and …

A Jesuit, a banker, and an author sit down for a podcast. No, this isn’t some ridiculous set-up to a joke, it’s actually how I would describe today’s episode. But if you are expecting 3 guests, I have to tell you, there’s only one. His name: Chris Lowney. Chris has a unique story: He entered a Jesuit seminary after highschool and spent 7 years stud…

If you’re a long time listener of the show, you’ve noticed that many common themes around innovation and leadership emerge from these conversations. Recently, I took these ideas, and the many lessons learned throughout my career, and presented them as a TED Talk at Marquette University. On today’s episode, we are replaying my talk, called the Circl…

When you think of innovation, what comes to mind? It might be a company, like Tesla. A founder, like Steve Jobs. Or even a location, like Silicon Valley. But what is unlikely to come to mind is a religious order that has been around since 1540 and each member takes a vow of poverty. But that is exactly the focus of today’s episode: The Jesuits. A r…

Today’s guest is David Reeves, President of OpenGov — a Silicon Valley company that offers cloud based services to local governments so they can achieve better performance and ultimately create better outcomes for the public. Put another way, they're applying the practices and standards developed by private industry to the public sector … and if yo…

When we talk about innovation, we often focus on disrupting certain industries, but innovation also requires you to embrace personal disruption: your beliefs will be challenged, your direction will be changed, and your responsibilities will be shifted. Today’s guest, Abim Kolawole, has embraced personal disruption throughout his entire career. Star…

Many of you may have heard of the now famous Sand Hill Road - where the first VC firms planted their roots, and where nearly every top technology company received early funding coming - including Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook to name just a few. Today, we speak with one of the original Silicon Valley venture capitalists: BJ Cassin. But BJ’s story…

As I’ve interviewed a number of innovators and entrepreneurs on the show over the last couple of years, it has re-confirmed my belief that innovation is not a process or a recipe, but it is fundamentally about people and their mindset. In the first half of season three, I’ve had a chance to talk with a wide range of incredible guests, who have prov…

Today’s guest is Wafaa Arbash, the founder & CEO of WorkAround — a company helping refugees and displaced populations find sustainable income through data labeling for machine learning algorithms. However, Wafaa’s story goes much deeper than her role as a founder and CEO — she also is a great example of the power of resilience. She originally came …

If you’ve listened to this show before, you know that one of the key premises is that Innovation is fundamentally about people and not process - that’s it requires a unique mindset. This is what I call the Innovator’s Spirit — which are the beliefs that enable the behaviors that make innovation possible. The challenge for many of us is that our lif…

This episode is a replay of the previously released interview with Julie Miller, behavioral scientist. We will be back with new episodes in 2021! Happy New Year! For many businesses that want to innovate, the biggest challenge is not coming up with a new idea, but figuring out how to get consumers to embrace the idea. We dealt with this problem oft…

This episode is a replay of the previously released interview with Lauren Abda, founder of Branchfood. We will be back with new episodes in 2021! Happy New Year! When Lauren Abda was in high school, her grandmother was diagnosed with Leukemia - which led her parents to radically change their approach to food, health & wellness. It also sparked a pa…

As I’ve discussed on this show many times, how you grow up has a tremendous impact on your mindset as an adult - which can be shaped by a multitude of life experiences from your first job, to family dynamics, and even participation in organized sports. For today’s guest, Austin Ramirez, his leadership perspective was shaped by his journey as a comp…

Did you ever wonder how a computer can be trained to beat a human at chess? Or how Amazon seems to anticipate what you’re looking for, before typing your request in the search bar? Or how it is that the Uber app always seems to know the faster route to your destination? All of these technologies rely on the same thing - Artificial Intelligence, or …

Honesty kills bullshit. You’re an owner, act like one. Enable, don’t direct. No — this isn’t unsolicited advice from me - although it could be. These are actually 3 of the 9 core culture principles for Public.com, an investing app that is making the stock market social. Today’s guest, Leif Abraham, is the author of these principles and the Co-Found…

I want you to think of the amount of work you do each day. Now, imagine that you were asked to double it - what would you say? But that’s not all, I now want you to give all that extra work away for free. If you think this sounds unrealistic, you’re not alone. That was also my first reaction.But this isn’t a hypothetical. In fact, it’s the core pri…

How often have you seen a plastic bottle lying on the ground? Did you pick it up? This is the fundamental paradigm at the heart of Plastic Bank, founded by today’s guest, David Katz, in 2013. Plastic Bank is a global network of micro recycling markets that empower the poor to transcend poverty by cleaning the environment. One of the key premises of…

Solving big, hairy problems. That is how today’s guest, Victor Szczerba, describes entrepreneurship. Victor spent much of his career working with some of the largest Data Management Businesses in the world, including SAP and Microsoft. And it was during this time that he saw a customer problem that needed to be solved, which led to him forming his …

This episode is a replay of the previously released interview with Rajesh Vashist, CEO of SiTime. We will be back next week with a new episode with a special guest from California. Most us realize that inside all the great electronic devices, from the mobile phone in your pocket to the tablet on your desk, are a bunch of semiconductor chips that we…

Today’s guest is Dr. Sherry Zhang, a molecular biologist by training and the founder and CEO of GenoPalate, a startup that analyzes your genetics to create a customized nutritional plan for your unique genetic make-up. Sherry not only has entrepreneurship in her DNA, but she’s also gained a lot from her experiences: starting with growing up in Chin…

A lot of people talk about the need for change, but too few people actually do something about it. In today’s episode we talk with Dwayne Killings and Justin Gainey, best known as assistant coaches for the Marquette men’s basketball team, but who decided this summer to use their platform to educate and bring awareness to social injustices by formin…

Today’s guest is Ramzi Hermiz, who recently retired from a long career in the automotive industry, including the last 8 years as the CEO of Shiloh Industries. Throughout this impressive career, Ramzi gained insight not just about cars and the industry, but about leadership and innovation. He developed that philosophy that “Where there is risk of fa…

For many businesses that want to innovate, the biggest challenge is not coming up with a new idea, but figuring out how to get consumers to embrace the idea. We dealt with this problem often at Cree, including when we tried to get customers to switch from incandescent light bulbs to LEDs. The key to driving change is to first understand how humans …

Elmer Moore started his entrepreneurial journey by helping create a comedy troupe in college before going on to a more traditional career. He later shifted his focus to teaching venture creation to others, where he was motivated to put his ideas into practice by starting his own company. Elmer is currently the Executive Director of Scale-Up Milwauk…

Desmond Wiggan started his career like many other aspiring leaders — working for a large company and immersing himself in their management development program. While learning how to manage a team and deliver on his targets were important skills, Desmond comes from a long line of entrepreneurs and wanted something more; He wanted to lead. So he deci…

Mark FitzGerald built and sold a business, then went on to help build multiple other companies as a private equity investor, before starting his latest venture, the MUKC Fund which is designed to help students, faculty, and alumni of Marquette University find capital to grow their business. This fund is on the frontier of what could be the future o…

When Lauren Abda was in high school, her grandmother was diagnosed with Leukemia - which led her parents to radically change their approach to food, health & wellness. It also sparked a passion for her that would define what she would study in college and put her on a path for a career in the food innovation industry. Lauren is CEO of Branchfood — …

On the first episode of this new season, we have an incredible guest. I sit down with John Coyle, an Olympic medalist, sought after speaker, design thinking expert, and a best-selling author. But John’s success has been far from a liner path. After failing to qualify for the 1992 U.S. Olympic Speedskating Team, he decided to quit, abandon what was …

We sit down with Peter Gunder, Chief Business Development Officer, and Ryan Rist, Director of Innovation, of American Family Insurance to discuss innovation inside a legacy company, anchoring yourself to the transformational side of things, and competing with startups.By Innovators on Tap

How does one lead by wandering around? Listen to Dick Leinenkugel, President & Chief Beer Merchant of Leinenkugel Brewing Company, discuss what he learned during his time in the Marines, the story of Summer Shandy, and the future of the craft brewing scene.By Innovators on Tap

Welcome to the last episode of Season 2 of Innovators on Tap! This season explored many of the concepts outlined in Chuck’s new book The Innovator’s Spirit. On the final episode of the season, we reaffirm that innovation is a lifelong journey, not a simple destination, and we distill the 12 previous episodes into the beliefs that make up the Innova…

Welcome to Season 2 of Innovators on Tap! This season will explore many of the concepts outlined in Chuck’s new book The Innovator’s Spirit. On episode 13, we continue our journey to uncover your innovator's spirit as we explore how to focus the mind. We’ll start by debunking the multitasking myth and recognize it for what it really is - the enemy …

Welcome to Season 2 of Innovators on Tap! This season will explore many of the concepts outlined in Chuck’s new book The Innovator’s Spirit. On episode 12, we continue our journey to uncover your innovator's spirit as we explore how to stop waiting for perfection. We’ll help you understand the emotional side of perfectionism, why being directionall…

Episode 11 of season 2 continues our journey to uncover your innovator's spirit as we explore how to go beyond best practice.We start with helping you see the boundary conditions created by conventional thinking, explain how they fundamentally get in the way of innovation, and then we look at how you can keep yourself from getting caught in the tra…

Episode 10 of season 2 continues our journey to uncover your innovator's spirit as we explore how risk and failure relate to innovation. We start by asking you to openly think about failure. We then explore how innovation and risk are fundamentally related and give you some ideas on how to reframe your own perspective on failure. And finally we tal…

On episode 9 of season 2, we explore how to take what others consider impossible, and make it possible. We explain how experts often get in the way of innovation and we’ll show you how you can overcome the three primary obstacles to innovation that are likely to get in your way.By Innovators on Tap

For episode 8 of season 2, we explore how the customer doesn’t really know what they want, how to use customers to identify problems but not come up with solutions, and why you shouldn’t complain about problems because problems are the definition of business.By Innovators on Tap

On episode 7, we explore how the term “think outside the box” came to be, how to avoid the trap of thinking there is a box, and the importance believing anything is possible, getting rid of your backup plans, and being comfortable with different perspectives.Tim Ferriss Podcast w/ Jim Collins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCN8MQ4NWy8David Foster…

For the 6th episode of Season 2 of Innovators on Tap, we explore why innovation is messy, how disorganized environments often inspire creativity, the power of getting your hands dirty, and why making it personal is an incredibly effective motivational tool.By Innovators on Tap

This episode is a replay of a previous episode with Keith Stanley and Rana Altenburg about the Near West Side Partners. We are replaying the episode due to the clear and urgent calls for social change that have happened over the past month and particularly the last week. This episode has a brand new update from Keith on the current state of the Nea…