Jeff Andrews (performing as J Alan Andrews) and I met in college 36 years ago. He has been one of my closest friends ever since. Long before I met him, and throughout all the years that I have known him, Jeff has been making music, even as he has nurtured his family and built a career in technology.

Jeff's music career includes 10 years as a full-time professional musician out of Athens, GA in a touring band called The Fountains. He has written hundreds of songs, is a multi-instrumentalist, and much of what he creates he also records and produces himself.

I especially wanted Jeff on The Change Resilient because of something he decided to do this year. In 2026, Jeff committed himself to releasing one new song every single week.

Jeff is doing something many of us strive to do. Each week he looks fear in the eye and pushes the button, submitting his art into the world. Some of the music he is releasing this year has been held for 10 to 20 years. In our conversation we discuss his creative and production process, how he deals with fear and self-criticism, and how he finds the resilience and grit to keep releasing music, week after week.

Episode #7 gets deep into building, transforming, and growing software-centric businesses. Dan Van Tran is the CTO of Collectors, a technology company that helps people authenticate, grade, vault, and sell collectibles.

Dan is a technology executive, engineering leader, and CTO advisor who has spent his career building and evolving complex software organizations and production systems.

At Collectors, Dan has led engineering through a period of significant growth and modernization, balancing the realities of legacy technology with the need to move quickly, improve reliability, and build for the future. He also advises CTOs and technology leaders on architecture, organizational design, engineering effectiveness, and navigating large-scale change.

I’ve had the good fortune to work with Dan twice as a customer and I’ve always appreciated his combination of deep technical judgment, pragmatism, curiosity, and willingness to get into the deep details of how software systems—and the teams behind them—actually work.

This is an episode packed full of pragmatic wisdom for the realities of building and operating software systems here in late 2026. Yet, even if you're not a technologist, you'll enjoy Dan's stories of his family's migration from Vietnam, his approach to leadership, and how he finds resilience in the face of AI-fueled change.

For episode six, we riff through a multi-dimensional, deeply human conversation with my friend and former colleague Jason Baer. Jason is the CEO of SYPartners, a transformation consultancy that has spent more than 30 years helping leaders and organizations navigate moments of consequential change.

Jason joined SYP in 2013 and became CEO in 2026 after serving as Managing Partner, Chief Client Officer, and President. He has advised senior leaders at organizations including AARP, NBCUniversal, Alphabet, Coach, Verizon, and Paramount.

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In our broad and fluid conversation we discuss purpose, organizational resilience, leadership, the pace of change, some of the books and ideas that have shaped Jason—and what he’s learning now that he’s sitting in the CEO chair himself.