Unbossing

Latest episode

18 Aug 2026 · 47 min

Marian Goodell on Leading Burning Man and Why Collaboration and Consensus Are Not the Same Thing

In 1995, a project manager at a San Francisco software company drove twelve miles into a Nevada dry lakebed because a man in a bed sheet holding a plastic flamingo told her to. She never went back. That woman was Marian Goodell. Nearly thirty years later, she is the first and only CEO of Burning Man Project. In this episode of Unbossing, hosts Rishad Tobaccowala and Drew Ianni talk with Marian Goodell about what it means to lead an organization built on radical decentralization and no bosses — when you are, in fact, the boss. Marian arrived as a command-and-control project manager,…

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Earlier episodes 9 most recent

1. 

   S1 · E8 · 21 Jul 2026 · 47 min

   Ann Mukherjee on Crashing the Super Bowl, Embracing Your Weaknesses, and Why the CEO of Today Has to Be All Learning

   When Ann Mukherjee joined Doritos in 2006, the brand was in freefall. It had gotten so bad that Frito-Lay's own truck drivers refused to stock it. She turned it around by crashing the Super Bowl with a $5 million budget—against Anheuser-Busch's $100 million—by handing the ads to consumers and trusting them to do it better. In this episode of Unbossing, hosts Rishad Tobaccowala and Drew Ianni talk with Ann Mukherjee—former Chairman and CEO of Pernod Ricard North America—about thirty years of walking away from what she'd just mastered to learn something entirely new.…

2. 

   S1 · E7 · 23 Jun 2026 · 31 min

   Janet Foutty on Knowing When to Leave, Separating Who You Are From What You Do, and the Beginner's Mindset

   For 33 years, Janet Foutty helped the world's largest companies reinvent themselves. Then she had to do it herself. When she stepped down as Executive Chair of Deloitte US, she didn't walk into a plan. She walked into a blank page she didn't know how to fill. In this episode of Unbossing, hosts Rishad Tobaccowala and Drew Ianni talk with Janet Foutty, former CEO of Deloitte Consulting and former Chair of Deloitte US, about what it means to unlearn the thing you were best at. Janet spent three decades at one firm. She knew every hallway, every decision, every person to call. Then she left and…

3. 

   S1 · E6 · 9 Jun 2026 · 41 min

   Sarah Personette on Leading with Balance, Reframing Imposter Syndrome, and Building Media's Future

   At seven years old, Sarah Personette told a stranger she wanted to be a CEO. She spent the next three decades making it happen. Days after Elon Musk closed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, she resigned — walking away from a role she'd spent four years building, and stock she hadn't fully vested, to protect what she stood for. In this episode of Unbossing, hosts Rishad Tobaccowala and Drew Ianni talk with Sarah Personette — CEO of Puck, the media startup the New York Times called "Vanity Fair for the Substack era." Sarah's career ran through advertising agencies, Facebook,…

4. 

   S1 · E5 · 26 May 2026 · 44 min

   Jim McCann on His First Flower Shop, 1-800-Flowers, and Firing Himself

   Everything changes - except your brand and your story. Fifty years after buying his first flower shop, Jim McCann did something almost no founder does voluntarily: he fired himself. In this episode of Unbossing, hosts Rishad Tobaccowala and Drew Ianni talk with Jim McCann - founder and Executive Chairman of 1-800-Flowers - about what five decades of building, adapting, and letting go actually teach you. In 1986, Jim heard a radio ad for a struggling flower shop in Texas. He bought their telephone number, rebranded his company around it, and turned a 14-store flower shop chain into one of the…

5. 

   S1 · E4 · 12 May 2026 · 32 min

   David Kenny on Leading Through Uncertainty, Managing vs. Governance, and Why Curiosity Beats Expertise

   What do you hold onto when almost everything is changing? David Kenny — co-founder of Digitas, former CEO of Nielsen, and one of the most sought-after board members in tech and media — has a simple answer: find your true north and don't deviate from it. In this episode of Unbossing, hosts Rishad Tobaccowala and Drew Ianni go deep with David on the leadership questions that are defining this moment: how to manage fear within teams, why AI makes curiosity more valuable than expertise, and the difference between managing and governance as a member of a board. He also makes a…

6. 

   S1 · E3 · 28 Apr 2026 · 45 min

   Jim Lesser on Craft, Taste and Going From Fun Uncle to the Responsible Parent

   Jim Lesser started his career as a receptionist at a New York ad agency. His last role in that same industry was CEO of BBDO San Francisco — one of the few creative directors in advertising to ever make that leap. Now, as Chief Brand Officer at ServiceNow, he's doing something nobody expected: turning a B2B enterprise software company into a brand people actually know and feel something about. This week on Unbossing Jim Lesser talks with Rishad and Drew about what he had to unlearn to go from receptionist to CCO, from CEO to CMO. Jim opens up about the unlearning that comes with every…

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