The Closing Bell 10/5/2026

Heather Ditillo, MSW, is a TEDx speaker, leadership speaker, facilitator, and founder of Lead The KIND Way™. For more than 30 years, her work has explored how we navigate hard things without losing ourselves—or one another—along the way. From her early work alongside Mister Rogers’ team on the child-abuse prevention initiative OneKindWord to her years leading teams and organizations, Heather has returned again and again to a simple idea: kindness isn’t weakness. It’s how we find our way through hard things—and back to one another. In her upcoming TEDxBoulder talk, Are We Getting Kindness Wrong?, Heather challenges the idea that kindness means keeping people comfortable and explores what kindness asks of us when honesty, courage, and difficult conversations are required. You can find out more at

Website: LeadtheKINDWay.com

There’s a growing national conversation about men being left behind — in education, work, relationships and social connection. .

Joshua Aranda, co-founder of UNRATIONED, a national community helping men build stronger lives at work, at home and in their relationships, is seeing it firsthand.

Since 2022, Joshua has led men through 14,000-foot summits, ultramarathons and wilderness expeditions, while helping them address the challenges many men aren’t talking about openly.

Michelle Clarkson is an Executive Leadership Strategist, Professional Speaker, and Founder & CEO of Meaningful Moments of Power. With more than 25 years of corporate leadership experience, including two decades with Honeywell, Michelle has led large-scale global teams, customer experience operations, continuous improvement initiatives, and organizational transformation. Today, she brings that executive experience into her work developing leaders from the inside out.

Through Meaningful Moments of Power, Michelle works with high-achieving women who are ready to strengthen their self-trust, confidence, voice, boundaries, and decision-making, while also partnering with organizations and leadership teams through corporate leadership training, leadership development, speaking, coaching, and transformational experiences. Her philosophy, Permission Granted™: Lead Yourself First, challenges people to stop waiting for external permission and recognize that how they lead themselves directly impacts everything and everyone they lead.

Have you ever needed some food for thought to enlighten your day? Thought Menu by JoAnn Joyner Kisler (delivers a daily message of positive, enlightening, motivational, and fulfilling messages that support you in your journey of life whether you need a pick-me-up or you are searching your soul for a better way of thinking and living. You are and have always been a bright light in our world. You just don't know it or have ever been told that. Step into that vibration and receive the inspiration you need at this time in your life. I invite you to be consistent and set your intention to read the daily messages each day for 365 days. The vibration you will build from this energy will shift you to a better place of being in your life. It all begins with you and ends with you if you do the work and make the time for yourself to change. (A book that is a great addition to anyone's library or a gift for someone you love to give them the support to get through each day.)

Ankur Dhawan is the co-founder and CEO of Zero to 1, an applied-AI company that builds, deploys, and operates AI for mid-market businesses. A two-time founder, he built data and product systems at Amazon, Audible, and American Express before starting Zero to 1 with three fellow Amazon alumni.

Zero to 1 puts AI into production inside a company’s own environment in weeks not days, expanding margin and revenue while the client’s data stays theirs. The company works with large PE firms and their portfolio companies. Ankur writes a weekly AI newsletter on LinkedIn and speaks on how everyday businesses can adopt AI that produces real, measurable results.

For more, go to zeroto1.ai

At a time when networking has become increasingly shallow, automated, and transactional, entrepreneur, investor, and master connector Jeffrey W. Meshel says the most important question is no longer how many people you know. it is whether you truly understand the people already in your life and whether they understand you.

In his new book, Know Who You Know: Connect Deeply, Succeed Fully, Meshel offers a powerful and deeply human exploration of the relationships that shape our opportunities, decisions, reputations, and future. Drawing on decades of experience and a network of more than 15,000 relationships, Meshel argues that success is determined by the depth, trust, discernment, and integrity embedded in the relationships we choose to build.

Kimberly Yates is a professional actress and acting coach to A-list clients including A$AP Rocky, Jack Whitehall, 2 time Emmy winner Tamara Braun, the writers of SNL, The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers and more.

Coaching celebrities from fields like writing, comedy and music showed Kimberly that acting training benefits everyone from every walk of life. The Yates Method is her Online and In Person Acting Studio that focuses on optimizing each client’s physical behavior, emotional life and thought patterns whether an award winning actor, a C suite executive or a parent who wants to live playfully, listen deeply and lead effectively.

To claim a private 15 min voice & presence evaluation, follow @yates_method on Instagram and comment “Raleigh Radio” on any post

For more info on classes and private coaching, go to: www.theyatesmethod.com