How do you scale culture, lead through chaos, and keep people at the center? Tim Banick, President of Entegra Procurement Services Canada, joins Jason to share the leadership principles behind his 30+ year career across PepsiCo, Entegra, and beyond. We dig into self-awareness, creating psychological safety (“tops & flops”), leading large teams without silos, staying available to your people, and why diversity + candor beats consensus every time.

What you’ll learn

• Building culture with transparency, cadence, and follow-through
• Why patience (and bringing people along) accelerates results
• How to create a safe room for real talk and learning
• Leading through crises (COVID, tariffs) without losing your people
• Spotting future leaders: passion, attitude, and influence (title ≠ leadership)

On this episode of The People Playbook Podcast, host Jason Taylor sits down with Jason Wentzell - a Board Certified Oncology Pharmacist, past president of CAPhO, and founder of Extend Pharmacy - to explore how oncology expertise can be brought closer to home. Jason shares why community-based cancer care matters, how the Extend Cancer Pharmacy Network (ECPN) trains and supports independent pharmacies, and what leaders should look for when building mission-driven healthcare teams.

You’ll learn:

• Burnout safeguards for high-empathy oncology teams
• How Extend Pharmacy grew from a hospital insight to a community model
• Collaboration > competition: empowering local pharmacists with specialty oncology care
• Traits Jason hires for as he scales beyond Ontario
• Practical hurdles with take-home cancer drugs—and how to solve them
• The future of oncology: immunotherapy, targeted therapies, and care at home

What makes a culture durable - and a team unstoppable? Jason sits down with Jeff Clark (ex-President, Kitchen Partners; now President & CEO, Jeff Clark Consulting) to unpack four decades of building high-performing teams in food manufacturing and multi-unit restaurant supply. Jeff shares the “get the best people” play, how to coach A-players and strugglers, leading through COVID, and why purpose, values, and clear metrics turn “people-first” into performance.

You’ll learn:

• Hiring to a bar, not a vacancy
• Coaching the top 10% to move the middle
• Communicating under pressure (even when you don’t have all the answers)
• Embedding purpose/values so growth strengthens culture
• Keeping innovation alive with “always improving” habits

Maple Ridge Living’s president, Tim Sieders, joins Jason to unpack 20+ years of building a client-first construction company across landscaping, hardscape, and renovations in Southern Ontario. Tim shares the leadership plays behind scaling from a one-man operation to a 21-person team: hiring for character, creating real career paths, giving people ownership, open financials, and building trust through communication and vulnerability. He also walks through their client experience (why they start with design), team-building rituals, and the biggest lessons he wishes he’d learned a decade earlier. If you lead people - or plan to - this one’s loaded with practical nuggets.

In this episode of The People Playbook Podcast, Jason Taylor sits down with Todd Belliveau, President of Primexecutive Inc. and former CEO of 214 Carson Company, to unpack over 40 years of leadership experience across the beverage, retail, and manufacturing sectors.

Todd shares his 3P Leadership Model – Purpose, Passion, and Persistence, and explains how leaders can inspire belief, fuel intrinsic motivation, and keep culture intact through mergers, transformations, and challenging times.

From avoiding the trap of accountability without empowerment, to balancing entrepreneurial thinking with disciplined execution, Todd offers practical, battle-tested advice for leaders at every stage.

Whether you’re an emerging leader or a seasoned executive, this conversation will leave you with a sharper playbook for building trust, developing your people, and leading with clarity.

In this episode of The People Playbook Podcast, Jason Taylor sits down with Tony Gareri, CEO of Roma Moulding and self-proclaimed “Chief of WOW.” Tony shares how he built a culture where workplace happiness is a right, not a privilege - and why the true differentiator in today’s commoditized world is how you make people feel.

From his lessons at Zappos to creating global all-hands meetings and mission trips that inspire teams, Tony reveals practical insights on leadership, culture, and why success leaves clues. Whether you’re leading a fast-growing company or building a small but mighty team, this conversation will challenge you to think bigger, act bolder, and lead with purpose.

In this episode of The People Playbook, Jason Taylor sits down with veteran entrepreneur, leadership coach, and President of Landscape Ontario, Ed Hansen. From humble beginnings cutting neighbors’ lawns to leading a multimillion-dollar business and coaching CEOs across the country, Ed shares hard-earned lessons on leadership, resilience, and empowering people.

You’ll hear stories about breaking the “right” rules, learning from failure, and why the best leaders sometimes lead from behind. Ed also dives into building a strong team culture, embracing innovation without losing tradition, and creating a work-life rhythm that lasts.

Whether you’re a seasoned CEO or an entrepreneur just starting out, this conversation will challenge how you think about leadership - and inspire you to lead with care, curiosity, and courage.

In this episode of The People Playbook, host Jason Taylor sits down with Neil Nicholson, CEO of Powerhouse Controls, to talk about leading through trust, building teams that thrive under pressure, and creating a culture that scales with growth. With nearly three decades at Powerhouse and a career that took him from employee #5 to CEO of a global automation leader, Neil shares hard-earned lessons on transparency, succession planning, leadership empathy, and what it really takes to empower people to lead.

Whether you're a CEO, manager, or aspiring leader, this episode is packed with practical insights on how to build teams that run with integrity - even when you're not in the room.