What if your workload isn't actually the reason you're overwhelmed? The real problem may be your thought load.

CEOs can spend an entire day moving from meeting to meeting, making decisions, switching between priorities, and managing other people's problems, yet still wonder what they actually accomplished. In this episode, Jim Schleckser talks with teamwork expert and author Liane Davey about thought load, the invisible combination of cognitive demands, emotional burdens, and depleted energy that's quietly undermining leadership performance.

By listening to this episode, you'll learn how to:

• Recognize the difference between workload and thought load and identify what's actually draining your capacity.
• Reduce unnecessary meetings, distractions, decision fatigue, and emotional burdens that prevent you from focusing on your most important work.
• Use a practical framework to decide what to delete, delay, distribute, or diminish so you can spend more time where you provide unique value as a CEO.

Listen now to learn how to manage your thought load, reclaim your attention and energy, and create the space you and your team need to do your best work.

05:35 | It's Not Your Workload. It's Your Thought Load.
Liane Davey breaks down the concept of thought load and its three components: cognitive demands, emotional burdens, and depleted energy reserves. She explains why leaders can feel completely overwhelmed even when workload itself isn't the real problem.

19:40 | Shrink Your Teams and Strengthen Your Communities
Liane explains how oversized teams, endless meetings, and cross-functional complexity increase thought load. Her solution challenges leaders to create smaller core teams while building stronger communities around them for support and expertise.

38:45 | Four Questions to Get Your Time Back
One of the most actionable parts of the episode: Liane shares a four-question triage framework for CEOs. Is it important? Is it urgent? Is it uniquely you? Is all of it essential? The answers help leaders decide what to delete, delay, distribute, or diminish.

About Liane Davey

Liane has spent more than 25 years researching and advising teams on how to perform at their best. Known as the "teamwork doctor," she works with teams from the frontlines to the boardroom, across industries and around the world, from Boston to Bangkok. Through her work with hundreds of teams, including 26 Global Fortune 500 companies (and counting), she has developed a practical, research-backed approach to solving the challenges that prevent teams from working effectively together.

Liane is a New York Times bestselling author of You First: Inspire Your Team to Grow Up, Get Along, and Get Stuff Done and The Good Fight: Use Productive Conflict to Get Your Team and Organization Back on Track. She is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review and a sought-after expert for media outlets including CNN, NPR, USA Today, The Globe & Mail, and Forbes. Her work focuses on increasing productivity, strengthening engagement, developing leaders, and helping teams navigate conflict in healthier, more effective ways.

The next big innovation in the grocery industry isn't happening inside the store. It's changing how families shop before they ever walk through the door.

The grocery industry has experienced rising prices, dynamic pricing, and changing consumer behavior, leaving many families searching for better ways to stretch their budgets. In this episode, Jim Schleckser talks with entrepreneur Andy Ellwood, founder of Stretch, about using AI and technology to bring greater transparency to grocery shopping while sharing lessons from building and scaling multiple successful startups.

By listening to this episode, you'll learn how to:

• Discover how technology is reshaping the grocery industry by helping consumers make smarter purchasing decisions.
• Learn why the best startup ideas begin with solving real customer problems instead of chasing technology trends.
• Hear Andy's philosophy of "Make Room for Many" and how an abundance mindset can help entrepreneurs build stronger businesses and lasting communities.

Listen now to hear how innovation in the grocery industry is creating new opportunities for consumers and entrepreneurs, while learning practical lessons about AI, startup growth, and building businesses that solve meaningful problems.

Check out:

03:50 | Bringing Transparency to the Grocery Industry

Andy Ellwood explains how rising prices and dynamic pricing in the grocery industry inspired him to build Stretch, an AI-powered platform that helps families compare grocery prices across multiple retailers before they shop.

16:20 | AI Show and Tell: A Simple Idea Every CEO Should Copy

Andy shares how his team holds a weekly AI Show and Tell session where employees demonstrate new AI use cases they've discovered. It's a simple practice that accelerates learning, sparks collaboration, and builds an AI-first culture.

22:45 | The Power of "Make Room for Many"

Andy discusses his leadership philosophy of abundance over scarcity, explaining why helping others succeed has been one of the biggest drivers of his entrepreneurial journey and long-term success.

Andy Ellwood is the founder of Stretch, a new AI platform reimagining how families navigate the grocery aisle. A serial entrepreneur behind companies acquired by Facebook and Google, Andy has built everything from global learning communities to purpose-driven tech startups. His philosophy—Make Room For Many—guides his work as he uses technology to create more access, clarity, and opportunity for everyday consumers.

Most AI deployment initiatives don't fail because of the technology. They fail because CEOs start in the wrong place.

AI is transforming business, but buying the latest tool won't create better results on its own. In this episode, Jim Schleckser talks with Christa Hill, Chief AI Learning Officer at Learnit, about why successful AI deployment begins with solving real business problems, preparing your team, and building the right mindset before choosing a single platform.

By listening to this episode, you'll learn how to:

• Discover why successful AI deployment starts with identifying business challenges instead of chasing the newest AI tools.
• Learn how to prepare your organization for AI by improving workflows, training employees, and creating sustainable adoption.
• Understand the common mistakes CEOs make during AI deployment and how to avoid wasted investments while achieving meaningful business results.

Listen now to learn the AI deployment strategies that help organizations move beyond the hype, solve real business problems, and build a competitive advantage with AI.

Check out:

05:15 | Stop Chasing AI Tools and Start Solving Business Problems

Christa Hill explains why successful AI deployment doesn't begin with the latest software. It starts by identifying the biggest challenges in your business and letting those problems determine which AI solutions you actually need.

19:45 | Why Most AI Deployments Fail Before They Begin

One of the episode's biggest insights is that organizations often automate broken processes. Christa explains why mapping and improving workflows before introducing AI dramatically increases the chances of a successful AI deployment.

40:30 | Building an AI-Ready Workforce

As AI reshapes the workplace, Christa shares how CEOs should think about hiring, training, and developing employees who can use AI as a thinking partner rather than simply another software tool.

Christa Hill helps serious leaders think, decide, and lead well in an AI-shaped world. She is the Chief AI Learning Officer at Learnit, where she leads the design of AI education delivered to organizations across North America, and the CEO of Tacit Edge North America, where she builds AI literacy programs for CEOs, executives, boards, and the operators who run their companies. A product leader and educator with more than 20 years across banking and tech, Christa has educated thousands of professionals and is the author and facilitator of more than 20 programs delivered around the world. Her work centers on a simple conviction: AI leadership is not about tools; it is about judgment, and the leaders who build that judgment now will set the pace for everyone else. Christa will take the stage as keynote speaker at The CEO Project Summit in Dallas in February.