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Innova.buzz

Innova.buzz

Written by: Innovation and Human Connection in the Age of AI
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 The InnovaBuzz Podcast: AI, Innovation & Human Connection The InnovaBuzz Podcast explores the minds of innovators, entrepreneurs, and creatives, diving deep into their values, strategies, and mindset. As we navigate the fascinating intersection of AI innovation and the enduring power of human connection, this podcast is increasingly drawn to conversations that explore novel applications of AI and, crucially, how we can keep our relationships and interactions deeply human in an increasingly digital world. Join internationally recognised transformational strategist and Visionary Human-Centred Podcasting Coach, Dr Jürgen Strauss, as he connects with awesome guests who are eager to share their stories, spark new ideas, and contribute to our knowledge of innovation, service, and modern marketing. Each episode is a conversation designed to spark curiosity. Gain insight into what makes inspiring people ‘tick’, what ‘lights them up’, and why they do what they do. The InnovaBuzz Podcast is for smart businesses and curious minds that want to stay on top of innovation to compete and thrive in today's marketplace. For a flavour of the themes we love to explore—context, creativity, and the art of nurturing human relationships in an AI-powered world—here are a few of my recent Substack articles: "Echoes in the Machine" - https://innovabiz.substack.com/p/echoes-in-the-machine "The Photographer's Dilemma" - https://innovabiz.substack.com/p/the-photographers-dilemma "The Tool in My Hand, The Voice in Your Ear" - https://innovabiz.substack.com/p/the-tool-in-my-hand-the-voice-in Innovation and curiosity are always on the menu. Subscribe now so you never miss an episode! Past guests have included Michael E Gerber, Kevin Kelly, Marcus Sheridan, Gill Hicks, Tanya Alvarez, Anastasia Lipske, Gino Wickman, Jeffrey Madoff, Gabrielle Dolan, Mark Schaefer, Steve Blank, Joey Coleman, Mike Michaelowitz, Ann Janzer, Michele Wucker, Soulaima Gourani, Robin Colucci, Sheryl Plouffe, Kedma Ough, Cathryn Lloyd, Wade Galt, Ramon Ray, Michelle Mazur, David Goldsmith, Todd Cherches, Rita McGrath, Terri Trespicio, Liz Wiseman and so many more wonderful people - over 700 to date!

innovabiz.substack.comJürgen Strauss Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Marketing Marketing & Sales
Episodes
  • Scott Levy, Building Peak Performance with Neuroscience and AI 'Lego' Bricks - Innova.buzz 691

    Scott Levy, Building Peak Performance with Neuroscience and AI 'Lego' Bricks - Innova.buzz 691
    Nov 13 2025
    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit innovabiz.substack.com

    Our guest in this episode is Scott Levy, the founder and CEO of ResultMaps. Scott is on a mission to help the world be its “inspired best” by architecting systems that clear away the “friction” of modern work. He combines a deep understanding of neuroscience with a pragmatic approach to technology, helping teams stop “fighting the currents” of their own biology and start surfing them.

    We had a fascinating chat about why most of us feel so burnt out (a hint: our work models are stuck in the 1920s) and how to use new tools, especially AI, as a “Lego set” to build better, more human-centric workflows.

    Key points discussed include:

    * Working with your brain, not against it, by understanding your natural peak performance cycles.

    * Using AI as a “Lego set” to build small, focused solutions that solve real friction points.

    * How AI forces us to be clearer, accidentally training us to be better human communicators.

    Listen to the podcast to find out more.

    Innovabiz Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

    Show Notes from this episode with Scott Levy, ResultMaps

    It was an absolute pleasure to welcome Scott Levy of ResultMaps to the Innovabuzz podcast. Scott’s mission is a big one: to help the world be its “inspired best.” Now, that’s a goal I can truly get behind. But as we dug into our conversation, it became clear that the biggest thing holding most teams back isn’t a lack of drive or even a lack of tools. It’s the invisible, day-to-day friction in how we work.

    Scott has this fantastic way of looking at the modern work environment, and he kicked things off by explaining that most of us are, quite frankly, just “swimming upstream” against our own biology. We’re fighting a battle we can’t win, and it’s leading to massive burnout. It’s a feeling I think we all know well, that sense of being completely overwhelmed and overworked, which, as Scott so perfectly put it, “just plain sucks.”

    Now, as for the antidote to things that ‘plain suck’...

    That feeling of being overwhelmed... it’s also the exact starting point for the rest of our fascinating conversation, and for the deeper work I’m exploring.

    This podcast is the beginning of the conversation, but the personal reflections—the “why” behind what was said—are where the real journey begins.

    If you’d like to read the rest of this post, where Scott shares his brilliant “surfer” and “Lego” analogies for navigating our brains and our technology, I’d love to invite you to become a paid subscriber.

    A subscription unlocks these full, detailed show notes, but more importantly, it welcomes you into a quieter space. It’s where I share my private, 3x-a-week reflections on these conversations about AI, the “behind-the-lens” stories from my photography, and the personal meditations that connect them all.

    It’s a place for the curious, and I’d be honoured to share it with you.
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    57 mins
  • Joanna Zhang, Connecting Strategy with Soul for a Thriving Business - Innova.buzz 690

    Joanna Zhang, Connecting Strategy with Soul for a Thriving Business - Innova.buzz 690
    Oct 22 2025
    Our guest in this episode is Joanna Zhang, who helps leaders connect strategy with soul to build businesses on a solid foundation. Joanna’s own journey, marked by three profound personal transformations, led her from being a transactional professional living a “gray color” life to becoming a balanced, spiritual leader. In our wonderful chat, Joanna unpacks her evolution, sharing the powerful lessons learned from her “soul awakening” and how they reshaped her approach to business, teamwork, and even AI. Key points discussed include:* True leadership evolves from controlling titles to a spiritual balance of compassion and boundaries.* Changing your core intention from getting to giving unleashes unexpected, magical results in business.* Embracing all your emotions is the foundation of self-love and authentic, resilient leadership.Listen to the podcast to find out more.Innovabiz Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Show Notes from this episode with Joanna Zhang, The Operations GeniusIt was an absolute pleasure to welcome Joanna Zhang to the Innovabuzz podcast for a conversation that beautifully embodied her mission: to help leaders build businesses by connecting strategy with soul. I knew we would be talking about thoughtful systems, but I was not expecting such a profound masterclass in personal transformation. Joanna’s journey is a powerful testament to the idea that the most effective business strategies are often the ones that begin from within.Joanna shared that her journey started when she was a financial planner, feeling stuck in a career that, while she was competent at it, didn’t light her up. A psychic once told her that her life was a “gray color,” a description that resonated deeply. The first major shift came from a simple but powerful coaching exercise that sorted tasks into zones of incompetence, competence, and genius. This led her to a pivotal realization: she needed to start delegating the things that drained her and, more importantly, to question if her current path was her true destiny.From Transaction to TransformationThat initial step opened the door to a much deeper awakening. As Joanna began building a business to help others with their operational frameworks, she admits that, to be honest, she started as a “dollar person,” seeing every interaction as a potential deal. This transactional mindset created a massive blockage. The real breakthrough came after her “soul awakening,” when she shifted her entire approach. She started looking at every potential client as a soul, genuinely caring about their challenges and wholeheartedly offering solutions with no expectation of return.And that’s when, as she puts it, “magic happened.” By changing her core intention from getting to giving, from desire and fear to love and care, opportunities began to unfold naturally. It’s a beautiful paradox so many of us forget: the less we chase, the more the right things flow to us. This shift wasn’t just a new sales tactic; it was a complete transformation of her relationship with her work and the people she served.The Three Faces of LeadershipThis inner evolution dramatically reshaped her leadership style. Joanna candidly described her former self as a “controlling freak” and a “title leader” who ruled with expectations and a lot of masculine energy. Over time, she grew into a “serving leader,” focused on supporting her team. However, this created a new problem, as she sometimes allowed her boundaries to be crossed in her desire to help.Her third and current stage is that of a “spiritual leader.” This, she explains, is the crucial “balancing act” between compassion and firm boundaries. Grounded in a practice of self-love, she learned to be strong in her core, setting clear guidelines not to control, but to help her team members grow. This balanced approach fostered a healthier, more dynamic, and more effective team environment, proving that true leadership is about empowering others to be their best.A Lesson in Letting GoA significant part of this journey involved deep emotional work. Joanna shared a powerful story from a recent trip to Egypt, where she finally confronted and released layers of resentment she had been carrying, some even from past lives. She realized that holding onto resentment benefits no one and that true forgiveness is about respecting another’s free will while learning the lesson to protect yourself.This act of letting go was liberating and had a ripple effect across her life. It reinforced the importance of setting healthy boundaries and no longer being a “people pleaser.” It’s a profound reminder that the emotional baggage we carry silently impacts our decisions, our energy, and our ability to lead with clarity and presence.A Soulful Approach to AIGiven her focus on human connection, I was fascinated to hear Joanna’s take ...
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    55 mins
  • Emma Möller, Shaping a Brighter AI Future by Leading with Human-Centered Curiosity - Innova.Buzz 689

    Emma Möller, Shaping a Brighter AI Future by Leading with Human-Centered Curiosity - Innova.Buzz 689
    Oct 9 2025
    Our guest in this episode is Emma Möller, an AI strategist and former diplomat with a fascinating journey from a small village in Sweden to the forefront of global technology strategy. Emma helps leaders navigate the complex systems of AI, drawing on her deep understanding of how the frameworks we build shape our human reality. In our chat, we explore how to embrace AI’s potential with a principled and human-centered approach. Key points discussed include:* Design AI systems with intention, recognizing they actively shape our reality and lived experience.* Avoid “intellectual laziness” by using AI as a partner for inquiry, not a replacement for curiosity.* Cultivate your human curiosity through diverse learning to expand your awareness and unlock AI’s creative potential.Listen to the podcast to find out more.Innovabiz Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Show Notes from this episode with Emma G Möller, LumieraIt was a true privilege to welcome Emma Möller, an AI strategist and former diplomat, to the InnovaBuzz podcast. Her journey is as fascinating as her insights, taking her from a small village of 60 people in northern Sweden, deeply connected to nature, to the complex, human-made systems of international policy and now, artificial intelligence. Our conversation was a masterclass in how to approach the incredible power of AI not with blind optimism or fear, but with a principled, human-centered curiosity that feels both vital and reassuring in this rapidly changing world.Emma’s perspective is shaped by a profound understanding that the systems we design, be they legal, economic, or technological, fundamentally create the reality we inhabit. She spoke of feeling a disconnect between the rich, sensory experience of her childhood and the generalized, often biased frameworks of the modern world. This lens is what makes her approach to AI so powerful; she sees it not just as code, but as a new and incredibly influential system we are building, and she urges us to be deeply intentional about what kind of reality we want it to create.The Seductive Trap of Becoming ‘Intellectually Lazy’One of the most memorable moments in our chat was when Emma warned against the subtle danger of becoming “intellectually lazy.” It’s a brilliant phrase that perfectly captures the seductive ease of letting generative AI do our thinking for us. We’ve all felt it: the temptation to accept the first answer from ChatGPT without question, or to let it generate prose without infusing it with our own unique perspective and critical thought. Emma reminded us that these tools are often designed to agree with us, which can create an echo chamber if we’re not careful.The antidote, she suggests, is to consciously maintain our curiosity and use AI as a partner for deeper inquiry, not as a replacement for it. This really resonated with me. I shared the story of how I used an AI, which I named Yuki, to help plan my recent trip to Japan. Yuki handled the logistical heavy lifting: train schedules, travel times, which freed me up to dive deeper into the history and culture. The AI built the foundation, but the curiosity, the questions, and the actual human experience remained firmly in my hands. It was a perfect example of using the technology to enhance, not diminish, our engagement with the world.The Unscheduled Joy of Getting LostThis led to another beautiful point: the importance of allowing for the unexpected. Emma spoke about how some of the best adventures and innovations come from mistakes, or from getting a little bit lost. An AI can create a perfectly optimized itinerary, but it can’t schedule the serendipitous joy of stumbling upon a hidden alleyway or the creative spark that comes from a plan gone awry. If we delegate too much of our decision-making to algorithms, we risk engineering these essential human moments out of our lives.Ultimately, Emma argues that our most powerful tool for navigating the age of AI is our own awareness, which we must actively cultivate. Her advice was wonderfully simple: read books. Talk to people with different perspectives. Spend time in nature. In short, we must continually expand our own “information landscape” so that we can bring richer, more creative questions to the AI. It is, as she puts it, a “mirror of our own awareness,” and will only ever be as insightful as we are.AI as a Leadership Challenge, Not Just a Tech SolutionBringing this into the business world, Emma stressed that successful AI adoption is not a technology problem; it’s a leadership and culture challenge. The leaders who are getting it right are not looking for a magic AI solution to plug in. Instead, they are focusing on the real, day-to-day problems their teams face and empowering them to find ways that AI can genuinely help. It’s about creating a system for change that supports people, listens to...
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    50 mins
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