The Courage Effect

#91: Suzanne Weller speaks with Siamak Namazi about the eight years he spent detained in Iran, and how he turned an extreme loss of freedom into a set of practical decision-making tools. This conversation is equal parts survival story, systems thinking, and unexpectedly funny reflection on how to create leverage when you seem to have none.
 
Siamak shares how he used routine, distance, humor, and deliberate problem-framing to stay mentally intact, advocate for himself, and eventually build allies inside and outside prison. The episode also explores what freedom means after captivity, and why it has to be chosen again every day.
 
Key Topics:
In this episode, Siamak recounts how a four-day trip to Iran in 2015 turned into 2,898 days of captivity, and how that experience reshaped his life and identity.
He explains why he reframed himself as two separate roles - hostage me and consultant me - so he could create distance, stay analytical, and solve problems instead of spiraling.
Siamak breaks down the first major leverage win of his captivity: negotiating for showers and shaving rights after using his own smell as pressure against an interrogator.
He explains how allies emerged once he began writing letters, studying prison law, and making his case with persistence, conviction, and help from other prisoners, lawyers, journalists, and filmmakers.
They touch on Siamak’s plea for help in a live interview with Christine Amanpour on CNN from Evin prison in 2023 (watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXLjM-Z_dHo )
Siamak describes the difficult return to ordinary life after release, including relearning technology, banking, work, and relationships after eight years away.
Connect with Siamak Namazi:
➡️ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siamaknamazi/
➡️ Twitter: https://x.com/sianamazi
 
Connect with The Courage Effect:
➡️ Host: Suzanne Weller / Weller Collaboration
➡️ Website: https://wellercollaboration.com/thecourageeffect
➡️ Social Media: https://linktr.ee/suzanneweller
➡️ Substack: Sign up for Suzanne’s Reimagine Growth newsletter at https://suzanneweller.substack.com/about
 
If this conversation resonated, share it and leave a review on your podcast platform. That's how this show grows — one courageous conversation at a time.

#90: Suzanne Weller sits down with Jessie Swisher Spiers (Executive Director of Seattle Humane) to talk about leading lived inside a high-stakes, mission-driven organization. Jessie traces her leadership back to a service-oriented upbringing in West Virginia and a career in nonprofit fundraising, and gets candid about the cultural shifts she's driven at Seattle Humane, the emotional weight of animal welfare work, and why trust, self-compassion, and adaptability matter so much in both leadership and life.
 
Key Topics:
Seattle Humane's scale: nearly 100,000 pets and people served each year, almost a million meals through the pet food bank, over 10,000 surgeries, and more than 5,000 adoptions annually.
Leadership as an ongoing practice, not a destination — compared to yoga and gardening, and the discipline of letting go of what no longer serves growth.
Being underestimated as a young woman leader, criticism about how she dressed, and choosing authenticity over a narrow leadership mold.
Why trust, self-compassion, and adaptability matter as much in life as in leadership.
Connect with Jessie Swisher Spiers:
➡️ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessie-swisher-spiers-533a695/
➡️ Seattle Humane: https://www.seattlehumane.org
 
Connect with The Courage Effect:
➡️ Host: Suzanne Weller / Weller Collaboration
➡️ Website: https://wellercollaboration.com/thecourageeffect
➡️ Social Media: https://linktr.ee/suzanneweller
➡️ Substack: Sign up for Suzanne’s Reimagine Growth newsletter at https://suzanneweller.substack.com/about
 
If this conversation resonated, share it and leave a review on your podcast platform. That's how this show grows — one courageous conversation at a time.

#89: Suzanne sits down with Julie Averill (author of Chief Impact Officer and founder of Gold Thread LLC), who spent nearly three decades in retail technology, most recently as Global CIO at lululemon, where she helped scale the company from $2 billion to over $10 billion. Julie started out as the only woman in her college computer science classes, and this episode traces what that cost her: a mask she didn't know she was wearing until a mentor stopped her mid-pitch and asked how she was going to get her team to follow her when nobody knew the real Julie.
Julie makes the case that culture isn't a soft skill, it's infrastructure – and Julie shares why she believes AI makes human leadership more important, not less.
Highlights:
The mentor question that cracked her open: "Nobody knows the real Julie"
Why she believes culture isn't a soft skill, it's infrastructure
Why AI makes human leadership more important, not less
Resources & Links:
The Courage Effect #85 with Brent Robertson: Unpacking Courage, Blasphemy, and Organizational Narratives: https://youtu.be/9DdLZ_r-QJc?si=qM79MC97Ng1sF0nl
Julie’s recent New York Times article “I Helped Run Lululemon. Companies Need to Stop Kidding Themselves About A.I.”: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/opinion/ai-hype-tech-layoffs.html
LinkedIn post with the video documenting her son Ermias’ return to Ethiopia and reconnect with his biological family: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/julieaverill_ethiopia-adoption-family-activity-7421985912537907200-NLug?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAAYHHoBt_VDu18iZffDR7GAWQMQkClXARw
Connect with Julie Averill:
➡️LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julieaverill/
➡️Her book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GM1KT1V5?lv=shuf&bestFormat=true&social_share=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_VN2CAYAH8JEG3FSP0NG7&channelId=704&ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_VN2CAYAH8JEG3FSP0NG7&plpRedirect=mhFallback
➡️ Her company: www.goldthreadllc.com
Connect with The Courage Effect:
➡️ Host: Suzanne Weller / Weller Collaboration
➡️ Website: https://wellercollaboration.com/thecourageeffect
➡️ Social Media: https://linktr.ee/suzanneweller
➡️ Substack: Sign up for Suzanne’s Reimagine Growth newsletter at https://suzanneweller.substack.com/about
If this conversation resonated, share it and leave a review on your podcast platform. That's how this show grows — one courageous conversation at a time.

#88: Discover how slowing down can revolutionize your leadership approach and help your team excel amidst constant distractions. Shawn Vanderhoven shares his journey, insights from research, and practical tools to implement deliberate pauses for improved focus, impact, and well-being. He talks with Suzanne Weller about his book Pause: How to Lead Brilliant Work in a Busy World (which he co-wrote with his wife Anne).
In this episode:
The moment that changed the direction of his work
Why the highest-scoring leadership behaviors were all forms of "tapping the brakes"
Permission to focus vs. sponsoring it
Why environment — not personal productivity — decides whether deep work is possible
Shawn is a Partner at The Wiseman Group, a collaborator on the NYT bestseller Multipliers, and co-host of Leadership Matters with Liz Wiseman.
A question to sit with: Where are you unknowingly training your team to stay "always on"?
Resources & Links:
Pause: How to Lead Brilliant Work in a Busy World: https://www.pausebook.co/
Leadership Matters Podcast : https://thewisemangroup.com/leadershipmatters/
Liz Wiseman's Multipliers research and book: https://thewisemangroup.com/books/multipliers/
Connect with Shawn Vanderhoven:
➡️ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnvanderhoven/
➡️ Website: https://www.pausebook.co/
➡️ Book Shawn to speak : https://www.pausebook.co/keynotes
Connect with The Courage Effect:
➡️ Host: Suzanne Weller / Weller Collaboration
➡️ Website: https://wellercollaboration.com/thecourageeffect
➡️ Social Media: https://linktr.ee/suzanneweller
➡️ Substack: Sign up for Suzanne’s Reimagine Growth newsletter at https://suzanneweller.substack.com/about
If this conversation resonated, share it and leave a review on your podcast platform. That's how this show grows — one courageous conversation at a time.

#87: Suzanne Weller talks with Sharon Gillenwater; a four-time founder navigating one of entrepreneurship's hardest moments: rebuilding from scratch after her previous company (Boardroom Insiders) was unexpectedly shut down following its sale. In this episode, she shares how she turned that setback into her current venture, ExecutiveIQ, an AI-driven platform helping go-to-market teams engage the C-suite.
Sharon opens up about the emotional and practical realities of starting over - leaning on transparency with her team and customers, rejecting the myth of founder perfection, and choosing focus over funding to compete with larger, better-resourced rivals. She also makes the case for a different kind of startup culture: one that rejects toxic "996" grind norms in favor of trust, work-life balance, and sustainable growth.
Drawing on lessons from storytelling and her outsider's perspective on the industry, Sharon offers a grounded take on what it really means to lead lived, and why long-term sustainability beats rapid scaling every time.
Resources & Links:
🔹 Sharon’s book Scaling with Soul: How to Build a Tech Company Without Losing Humanity: https://www.sharonkgillenwater.com/scaling-with-soul-how-i-built-sold-a-25-million-company-without-being-an-asshole
🔹 Executive IQ platform: https://www.executive-iq.com/
Connect with Sharon K. Gillenwater:
➡️ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharonkgillenwater/
➡️ Website: https://www.sharonkgillenwater.com/
➡️ TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@sharonkgillenwater
Connect with The Courage Effect:
➡️ Host: Suzanne Weller / Weller Collaboration
➡️ Website: https://wellercollaboration.com/thecourageeffect
➡️ Social Media: https://linktr.ee/suzanneweller

#86: In this episode, Emily Parkhurst talks with Suzanne Weller about her inspiring journey from classical musician to Founder and CEO of Formidable Media, an organization dedicated to amplifying women's voices in media, leadership, and healthcare. Discover how she challenges industry norms and advocates for more inclusive, impactful storytelling. 
Main Topics:
The origins and mission of Formidable in transforming media coverage of women’s issues
Addressing women’s reluctance and misconceptions about media engagement
Building a sustainable, multi-revenue model for a purpose-driven media company
Leadership development through unconventional career paths and mentorship
The importance of women sharing their health stories and advocating for themselves
 
Connect with Emily Parkhurst:
➡️ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyparkhurst1/
➡️ Formidable: https://beformidable.com/
➡️ Formidable Women’s Health Summit on October 30th, 2026: https://beformidable.com/p/new-event-brings-actionable-health-info-to-everyday-women
 
Connect with The Courage Effect:
➡️ Host: Suzanne Weller / Weller Collaboration
➡️ Website: https://wellercollaboration.com/thecourageeffect
➡️ Social Media: https://linktr.ee/suzanneweller
➡️ Substack: Sign up for Suzanne’s Reimagine Growth newsletter at https://suzanneweller.substack.com/about
 
If this conversation resonated, share it and leave a review on your podcast platform. That's how this show grows — one courageous conversation at a time.