ADAPT or die

On this episode of Adapt or Die: Transformative Leadership Conversations, Andreas Pettersson sits down with Nicolas Pokorny, neuroscientist, global executive, and Founder & CEO of Mammoth Leadership Sciences. With over 30 years of experience leading multicultural teams, Nicolas unpacks a pivotal leap: moving from managing a small group of direct reports to guiding a large, layered organization. His approach—rooted in neuroscien...

When COVID shut down every client contract and wiped out his production pipeline, Graeme Watt—Principal and Lead Strategist of the award-winning agency Anthem Creative—faced an unthinkable leadership moment. On this episode of Adapt or Die: Transformative Leadership Conversations, host Andreas Pettersson unpacks how Graeme chose purpose over panic and commissioned a self-funded storytelling project that became a viral beacon of hop...

On this episode of ADAPT or Die: Transformative Leadership Conversations, Andreas Pettersson speaks with Tom Galido—5x founder, 3x CEO, and heart transplant survivor—about what it really takes to scale businesses and survive life-altering adversity. From collapsing in the CEO seat to rebooting his life during COVID lockdown, Tom shares raw truths about operational risk, startup culture traps, and why resilience is the most underval...

On this episode of ADAPT or Die: Transformative Leadership Conversations, former tech-CEO-turned-executive-coach Andreas Pettersson sits down with Bill Weathersby, 8-time founder and Chairman of Next Stage Trajectory. Bill shares raw, battle-tested lessons from 40+ years of building, scaling, and selling founder-led businesses—offering sharp insight into when to fire a salesperson, how to accelerate go-to-market without a perfect p...

On this episode of ADAPT or Die: Transformative Leadership Conversations, former tech-CEO-turned-executive-coach Andreas Pettersson sits down with Rick Williams—physicist-turned-CEO, board advisor, and author of the Amazon #1 best-seller Create the Future. With decades of cross-industry leadership experience, Rick distills a lifetime of insight into one radical premise: Success is a choice. From boardrooms that fear dissent to entr...

On this episode of ADAPT or Die: Transformative Leadership Conversations, former tech-CEO-turned-executive-coach Andreas Pettersson sits down with Alex Kuhn, founder of Born to Lead®—one of the fastest-growing coaching companies in the world. From NCAA swim coach to serial entrepreneur, Alex shares why most business models crush true leaders—and how ditching $200K worth of “expert advice” helped him scale purpose-driven brands and ...

On this episode of ADAPT or Die: Transformative Leadership Conversations, former tech-CEO-turned-executive-coach Andreas Pettersson sits down with Ryan Schonfeld, a former police officer and the founder & CEO of HiveWatch—a SaaS security platform reshaping how enterprises protect their people and assets. Ryan shares how frustration with outdated security systems pushed him to leave a Fortune 500 role and build a venture-backed ...

On this episode of ADAPT or Die: Transformative Leadership Conversations, executive coach and former tech CEO Andreas Pettersson speaks with Marius Vygantas, founder of Soling Partners and former Project Manager in the Executive Office of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. From Chicago to Dubai and back, Marius shares how trusting his gut—and preserving his integrity—shaped a 20-year global career spanning sovereign strate...

On this episode of ADAPT or Die: Transformative Leadership Conversations, executive coach and former tech CEO Andreas Pettersson sits down with Annette Franz, globally recognized thought leader, author of three books, and CEO of CX Journey Inc. With 30+ years of experience in culture transformation, EX, and CX, Annette shares what most leaders get wrong about customer experience—and why it’s rarely a “communication” issue.

Challenge...

On this episode of ADAPT or Die: Transformative Leadership Conversations, executive coach and former tech CEO Andreas Pettersson sits down with Marina St. Cyr, Partner & SVP of Operations at Access Partners, commercial real estate investor, published author, and mother of four. With a career shaped by complex M&As and cross-functional leadership, Marina brings battle-tested insights on navigating professional reinvention—wi...

On this episode of ADAPT or Die: Transformative Leadership Conversations, former tech CEO turned executive coach Andreas Pettersson sits down with Carolina Hernandez—CEO, real estate investor, and proud Latina leader breaking barriers in construction and beyond. As co-owner of LouisGloria Painting LLC, Carolina runs a 50+ employee luxury painting firm serving the top 1% of Dallas-Fort Worth. But she started as an 18-year-old bookke...

On this episode of ADAPT or Die: Transformative Leadership Conversations, former tech-CEO-turned-executive-coach Andreas Pettersson sits down with Tim McVay, second-generation president of Marco Transport—a 31-truck heavy-haul fleet moving 260-thousand-pound “yellow iron” across the Southwest. Tim recounts how a routine scan in 2023 blindsided him with Stage-4 colorectal cancer and why he still shows up at 6 a.m., greets every nurs...

On this episode of ADAPT or Die: Transformative Leadership Conversations, former tech-CEO-turned-executive-coach Andreas Pettersson sits down with Stella Han, software-engineer-turned-founder of Fractional, the platform letting everyday investors pool small checks into big real-estate deals. Stella traces her journey from “cheap family labor” on Bay-Area flips to hacking a one-page mock-site that drew 2,000 wait-listers and vaulted...

When securities attorney & serial entrepreneur Bethany LaFlam watched her first investment fund implode, she lost more than cash—she lost confidence. In this premiere of ADAPT or Die, host Andreas Pettersson unpacks the exact moment Bethany hit rock-bottom, the mindset pivot that set her free, and the measurable wins that followed.

• Challenge → A brilliantly complex $50 M fund no investor could understand—followed by debt, do...

Serial entrepreneur and technologist Jeff Kunzelman (3 exits out of 6 startups) joins Andreas to unpack why today’s AI wave is “10 × bigger—and faster—than the original internet boom.”

They cover:

• Challenge - Spotting market-shifting tech before it’s obvious—and the risk of waiting even 12 months.
• Adaptation - Using generative-AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Notebook LM) to collapse weeks of research and prototyping into minutes—and th...

Most elite leaders swear by data—but ignore the data their own bodies generate. Neuro-emotional performance coach Leila Entezam joins host Andreas Pettersson to prove that feelings are the missing metric at the top.

• Challenge → High-stakes CEOs, founders, and athletes hit a wall: detachment, compartmentalization, and a nagging sense of emptiness despite record-breaking results.
• Adaptation → Leila blends neuroscience, psychology, ...

Supply-chain whiplash, 40 % ingredient hikes, and an ERP rollout that face-planted—2022 nearly soured Alex Wendling, 28-year-old president of Custom Flavors. In this episode of ADAPT or Die, Alex reveals how scrapping a six-figure system (and 13 months of work) became the catalyst for three straight years of double-digit growth.

• Challenge → COVID demand spikes and runaway costs exposed brittle pricing models while a “can’t-fail”...

In her teens, poet and entrepreneur Ryanna Hammond felt life slipping out of reach. By 28, she’d published seven books, launched the lifestyle brand All With Heart, healed generational wounds—and is now preparing for motherhood. In this episode of ADAPT or Die, Ryanna walks host Andreas Pettersson through the inner work that turned a private journal into a public mission.

• Challenge → Years of depression, disordered eating, and s...

ADAPT or die: Transformative Leadership Conversations is a weekly podcast where former tech CEO and leadership coach Andreas Pettersson sits down with top executives, founders, and change-makers to dissect the pivotal moments that forced them to pivot—or perish.

Each 30-minute episode follows a Challenge → Adaptation → Success framework, offering real-world insights into how leaders navigate disruption.

Episodes also feature a rapid-...