Frontier Academy Book Club

Transparency. Serving people and not selling people. Making the process fun. Aaron Montgomery is the COO of CarLotz, and he’s changing the way people buy and sell cars. "Basically, where they zig, we zag.” You don’t want to miss this insightful conversation about the defining moments that inform our values, and how values can shape organizational culture. Aaron Montgomery received his MBA from Harvard Business School and his undergraduate education from Harvard University. Along with fellow CarLotz co-founders Michael Bor and Will Boland, he recently received the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2019 Mid-Atlantic Award. Outside of work Aaron enjoys spending time with his family and good 90s sitcom.To learn more about CarLotz visit https://www.carlotz.com/To book Aaron as a keynote speaker visit https://www.frontierprojectlive.com/aaron-montgomery

Kim Scott's book Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing your Humanity has been on both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times bestseller lists. Over the course of her career, Kim has led YouTube, AdSense, and Double Click Online Sales and Operations at Google. Then she joined Apple to build and facilitate leadership seminars. She has also been a CEO coach for some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley. Kim received her MBA from Harvard Business School and her BA from Princeton University. She and her husband Andy Scott are parents of twins and live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Follow Kim on Twitter @kimballscott and learn more at radicalcandor.com.

Are the most powerful moments in our lives always random, or can we actually create the moments that define us? Why do we always seem to remember the best or worst moment of an experience? And why do we need to beware of the soul-sucking force of reasonableness? In this episode, guest Caitlyn Weaver joins Hannah Walden and Grant Millsaps to discuss a book that’s become a true Frontier favorite.

In this podcast Ryann and Clay discuss author Paul Bloom’s book Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion. Joined by special guest Kelly King Horn, Executive Director of Homeward, the planning and coordinating organization for homeless services in the greater Richmond region, they examine how empathy can hijack our judgment and keep us from making rational decisions that actually do more good for more people.

In this debut episode of our revamped podcast, The New Frontier, we sit down with our very own CEO, Ryann Lofchie, for some real talk about the changes we’ve made as a company over the last year. Along with lead consultants Lauren and Grant, Ryann shares her perspective on our new company vision, empowering a highly-accountable culture, and the challenges we’ve overcome as a team. You'll also hear the inside scoop on what it’s like for an organization that specializes in navigating change to undergo a transformation itself. Hint - it's not easy, even for the pros.

Organizations thrive on strong, respectful working relationships—yet we report being more afraid to disagree or debate with friends, family, and colleagues than ever before. Why? Lack of cultural civility and tolerance. In Braving the Wilderness, Brené Brown argues humans want to experience real connection with others, but not at the cost of our authenticity, freedom, or power. In this episode, we welcome special guest and diversity and inclusion strategist Suzanne Cardwell to explore the concept of the wilderness with us and discuss how to brave it.

What if almost everything we've been told about learning is wrong—and what if there's a way to achieve MORE with less effort? Our brains are powerful learning machines, yet we've collectively villainized naturally-enjoyable learning tools like distractions, daydreaming, and sleeping. In this episode we explore Benedict Carey’s How We Learn: The Surprising Truth about When, Where, and Why It Happens. Tune in and learn how to make learning more a part of your everyday life—and less of a chore.

What does the company of the future look like? How can you build one? How can you transform an existing company into one? Eric Ries came up with great answers to those questions in his book, The Lean Startup, and elaborated on practical applications in The Startup Way.The momentum of these ideas also gave rise to a business, Lean Startup Company. We sat down with CEO and Co-Founder of Lean Startup Co., Heather McGough, and their Director of Business Development, Stacy Conlon.We discussed how to apply entrepreneurial practices to drive innovation, how to make entrepreneurship a core function of every organization, and the importance of a startup mindset.

Ever wonder if today’s most successful people see or know something that you don’t? According to author Joshua Cooper Ramo, they do. In his book The Seventh Sense: Power, Fortune, and Survival in the Age of Networks, he names this ability to keenly navigate today’s fast-paced, highly networked world “the seventh sense.” He argues that all of us must develop this instinct if we want to survive in a new, hyper-connected reality where the network—not governments, businesses, or anything we've known before—is the new locus of power. Listen in on a conversation about how the nature of networks has changed, how they are concentrating and distributing power in new ways, and why it's important for everyone to recognize and respond to this new environment.

On this episode we are joined by our brain crush and New York Times bestselling author Cy Wakeman to talk about her book No Ego: How Leaders Can Cut the Cost of Workplace Drama, End Entitlement, and Drive Big Results. A trained social worker and therapist turned thought leader and the world’s only drama researcher, Cy shares her wisdom, practical approach to ending unproductive emotional waste, and the power self-reflection can offer us once we stop believing everything we think.

The first and most important discipline in creating a healthy company is building a cohesive leadership team at the top—and that entails overcoming The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Listen up and be ready to capture the many tactical tips and tricks we discuss with our guest Steve Schelhammer, a successful CEO with an impressive track record of building and leading high-performing teams.

We were thrilled to be joined by Heather Winkle, VP of Design for Capital One for the latest Frontier Project Book club to discuss the story of Pixar as told in Ed Catmull's terrific book Creativity, Inc. Between Catmull’s hard-earned wisdom from Pixar’s genesis and gargantuan growth, and Heather’s own storied experience leading creative teams - from Apple and Adobe, to Ebay and Yahoo - you'll pick up techniques for fostering and managing creativity for yourself and your team.

For this installment, the Frontier Academy team considers two of our recent favorite reads in a lively, moderated mash-up. Listen in as we dive into Angela Duckworth’s Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance and Sydney Finklestein’s Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent.

Our coverage of Charles’ Duhigg’s Smarter Faster Better continues—this time from an altitude of 40,000 feet. Commercial airline pilots are the subject of an accumulating stack of human behavior research. So we decided to interview one. Host Ryan Mauter speaks with pilot Katina Malliarakis about her experience up in the air, and how it connects to research on human performance. Pilots manage both the complexities of actual flight and the demands of a varied team, so there’s plenty of opportunity for human error. And even when things go wrong, the black box doesn’t hold all the answers; the learned wisdom of the people who execute flight plans is crucial for improving aviation industry performance and safety. Malliarakis identifies one key to a productive and good life, and it's one that you wouldn't expect: we must care about each other, deeply, every day. It just so happens that Duhigg's research points to the same thing.

In part one of a two-part journey into Duhigg's latest book, Smarter, Faster, Better, we hone in on one of productivity's most critical elements: focus. But, how do we focus in a world full of distractions? People, our technology, and a wide array of possibilities confront us everyday, disrupting our lives and complicating our work teams. That's why, in this episode, we're answering that question. With Duhigg's help, we demystify what makes the best teams the best. And we explain how mental models can help you to win (or avoid total disaster).

You've read the headlines. You know the trends. People are stressed, sick, and frustrated. It's an almost universal cultural norm that digital connectivity, work pace, and yesterday's habits pummel us along our personal and professional journeys. So, what's love got to do with it? In our latest podcast, Dr. Sandra McLanahan shares hard science answers to this seemingly soft question. She sat down to share her decades of wisdom with our host, Ryan Mauter, and reflect back on Dr. Dean Ornish's 1987 book, Love and Survival. She's a nationally recognized practitioner and expert in the field of lifestyle medicine, who worked alongside Dr. Ornish for over 20 years, exploring meaningful and enduring pathways to health. She co-authored the book Surgery and Its Alternatives, and has also contributed to the books Dr. Yoga and After Cancer Care. We've collected her tips, tricks, and personal story. Listen in and take them with you. And be prepared for her to challenge

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson In our latest podcast, we’re digging deep into Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson’s game-changing biography, with someone who’s seen it all: Khalil Smith, who spent 14 years inside the company managing a global team of training professionals. He’s offering up insightful answers to the questions we’re most curious about. Did Steve Jobs' ruthless leadership style permeate throughout Apple's entire culture? Is there something positive to be gained from having a tough (and even manipulative) edge? Along with our host and facilitator, Ryan, and Frontier Academy CEO, Ryann, Khalil explores answers to these questions and more, providing key takeaways from the epic life of one of our culture’s biggest icons. About Khalil Smith You probably wouldn't hire an engineer who didn't know how machines function, would you? But we go to work, put ourselves in groups, and hope for the best as we stumble through interactions. We're people who don't know how people function. And that’s why Khalil

In this episode, Ryan Mauter hosts Mark Smith, owner of Midas of Richmond, and Ryann Wayne, CEO of Frontier Academy, in a discussion of Clayton Christensen's New York Times bestseller How Will You Measure Your Life? Listen in as they share their experience with the concepts and insights shared in the book - what works, what doesn't, and other ways each of them practice and measure their own lives.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Book: Setting The Table w/ Danny Meyer Special Guest: Allan Ng / Mid- Atlantic Area DIrector of Shake Shack