In this episode of Daily Influence, Gregg-Brooke Koleno sits down with Bryan Kramer, globally recognized keynote speaker, best-selling author, and a leading voice in human-centered leadership. Known for his powerful “H2H (Human to Human)” philosophy—made famous through his message: There’s no B2B or B2C… it’s H2H—Bryan breaks down what it really takes to lead with empathy and integrity in a fast-paced, noisy, and increasingly automated world.

Together, they explore what responsible influence looks like right now: doing your homework before you share information, choosing honesty over hype, embracing imperfection, and simplifying how you show up so people can actually feel your presence. Bryan also shares how he uses AI as a thinking partner (not a replacement), and why the leaders who win long-term will be the ones who protect trust, deepen connection, and keep the human element at the center.

If you’re building a team, growing a business, or simply trying to show up with more intention—this conversation will remind you that small, human actions still create the biggest ripple.

Connect with Bryan:

• Website: https://bryankramer.com/

• Email: private@bryankramer.com/

Bonus: Bryan is gifting the first three listeners a copy of his H2H book—email him with “HTH book” and Daily Influence in the subject line.

What if the key to happiness isn’t success, wealth, or recognition — but helping someone else?

On this episode of Daily Influence, Gregg-Brooke Koleno sits down with film producer, social entrepreneur, and humanitarian Peter Samuelson to explore how influence, storytelling, and service intersect to create lasting change.

From producing major Hollywood films like Revenge of the Nerds and Return of the Pink Panther to founding global nonprofits including Starlight Children’s Foundation, First Star, and Everyone Deserves a Roof (EDAR), Peter shares the pivotal moments that shaped his life of purpose.

In this powerful conversation, you’ll hear:

• How one teacher’s belief changed the trajectory of Peter’s life

• The deeply personal story that inspired the creation of Starlight

• Why “selflessness can be selfish” — and why that’s a good thing

• How First Star is helping foster youth attend college at 10x the national rate

• Why failure is essential to growth and responsible influence

• The connection between storytelling, philanthropy, and real-world impact

• His perspective on AI, ethics, and protecting young minds

• Why helping others is the most reliable path to long-term happiness

Peter reminds us that influence is not about accumulation — it’s about contribution. It’s about recognizing asymmetry in the world and choosing to apply energy where it’s needed most.

Whether you’re a leader, parent, entrepreneur, or simply someone who wants to make a difference but isn’t sure where to begin, this episode will challenge and inspire you to step outside yourself and take action.

Because as Peter says, the meaning of life isn’t found in what we gather — it’s found in what we give.

Learn more at:

Listen now and be reminded: small actions truly can create extraordinary impact.

Experience is one of leadership’s greatest assets — until it becomes unquestioned.

In Episode 670 of Daily Influence, Brian Smith explores how success quietly hardens assumptions and how past wins can unintentionally block present clarity. While experience builds confidence, speed, and pattern recognition, it can also create rigidity if leaders stop examining what once worked.

In this episode, Brian unpacks:

How success institutionalizes thinking — and why that can become dangerous

Why “we’ve always done it this way” frustrates teams and limits growth

How SMART Six-to-Sixty planning prevents fossilized leadership

Why structured feedback loops are essential to challenge inherited thinking

True leadership maturity is not about abandoning experience — it’s about continuously recalibrating it.

Because experience informs.

It should not imprison.

If you are serious about responsible influence, this episode will challenge you to ask:

Where might my past success be limiting my present clarity?

Find your influence.

Be your influence.

Build your influence — intentionally.

Is neutrality in leadership even possible?

In Episode 669 of Daily Influence, Brian Smith challenges one of the most common — and most dangerous — myths in leadership: the belief that you can stay neutral.

Silence is not the absence of influence.

It is influence without ownership.

When leaders avoid tension, delay difficult conversations, or choose not to clarify standards, they are still shaping culture. Silence communicates values. Silence signals what is tolerated. Silence protects systems — often at the expense of people.

This episode launches a deeper season theme: Influence, Maturity, and Responsibility — moving beyond growth mechanics into consequence, awareness, and legacy.

Because there is no off switch for influence.

There is only conscious or unconscious leadership.

Reflective Question:

Where in your leadership are you calling something “neutral” that is actually a choice?

Understanding our influence allows us to understand that we are all leaders at different times within our areas of influence. Listen to this revisit of Daily Influence episode 74 where we define leadership in a different context.

After three decades of building organizations, systems, and leaders, experience teaches us more than how to lead — it teaches us what leadership requires.

In this episode of Daily Influence, Brian Smith, PhD reflects on how leadership evolves from proving capability to stewarding responsibility. As influence expands, so does obligation — not just to results, but to people, systems, culture, and long-term impact.

This conversation explores why mature leadership is less about speed and ego, and more about judgment, awareness, and intentional influence — especially in times of division, pressure, and constant visibility.

Because influence is always happening. The question is how carefully we choose to use it.

So many high-achieving women quietly carry burnout that goes far deeper than a packed calendar and today’s conversation names what’s really happening underneath it.

Gregg-Brooke Koleno sits down with Dr. Julie Merriman, licensed mental health clinician, counselor educator, burnout researcher, author, and founder of the Soul Joy brand, to unpack what she calls identity burnout: the slow erosion that happens when we keep performing a role (dependable, capable, self-sacrificing) long after it stops being sustainable.

Dr. Julie shares her personal turning point when outward success masked an inner emptiness and how that experience shaped the Soul Joy Method, a body-based path back to wholeness through somatic awareness, nervous system regulation, chakra psychology, and reconnection to purpose and relationships. You’ll also hear why resentment isn’t a character flaw it’s information and how tiny “micro-boundaries” can become the first step toward real change.

Plus, Dr. Julie shares a grounded take on using AI as a support tool not a substitute for connection by clearing mental load so we can return to what makes life feel meaningful.

If you’ve been feeling exhausted, invisible, stuck in obligation, or like you’ve lost yourself under responsibility, this episode will bring clarity, language, and practical first steps—because positive and responsible influence doesn’t start with doing more. It starts with listening more deeply to yourself.

Connect with Dr. Julie:

Website: https://www.juliemerrimanphd.com/

Book: In Pursuit of Soul Joy https://a.co/d/3HJtsnU

Thirty years ago, Individual Advantages began not as a firm with a master plan, but as a vehicle for learning — a place to observe how people behave when technology, pressure, and change enter their world.

In this episode of Daily Influence, Brian Smith, PhD reflects on what three decades of S.M.A.R.T. Management — and a lifetime of learning, mistakes, and evolution — have revealed about leadership, growth, and responsibility.

This conversation moves beyond celebration and into obligation:

Why growth and scaling are not the same — and confusing them causes damage

Why S.M.A.R.T. only works when it becomes a discipline, not a checklist

Why mature leadership requires letting go of what once worked

How influence without awareness becomes harmful, even with good intentions

As Brian reflects on turning 60, this episode challenges leaders to slow down, listen to the present moment, and grow without breaking the people inside their organizations.