Eric Stone is the CEO and founder of Clear Path Ventures and the author of Jumpstart Your Workplace Culture.

Eric started as a management trainee at Enterprise Rent-A-Car and spent more than 25 years rising through the ranks to become a senior executive in one of the company’s top-performing regions. Along the way, he led large teams across retail and administrative environments, built high-performance cultures, and developed leaders who went on to succeed at every level of the organization.

In this episode, we talk about:

1. What you learn from building a career inside one organization for decades
2. How to hire and develop great salespeople
3. Why belief is the foundation of effective selling
4. How to build “culture carriers” inside your organization
5. The sequencing of communication during major change

Contact Dino at: dino@al4ep.com

Websites:

clearpathventures.com

al4ep.com

Additional Guest Links:

Website ericdstone.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/eric-stone-clear-path

Facebook Profile

Intagram: @clearpathventures_

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ericdstone1

Authentic Leadership For Everyday People / Dino Cattaneo

Dino on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dinocattaneo

Podcast Instagram – @al4edp

Podcast Twitter – @al4edp

Podcast Facebook: facebook.com/al4edp

Music

Susan Cattaneo: susancattaneo.bandcamp.com

Today's guest is Lily Zheng, a strategist and consultant who has spent the last decade working with organizations of every size — from small nonprofits to Fortune 500 companies — helping them build workplaces that actually work for everyone. In a field often clouded by ideology, misinformation, and polarization, Lily brings something refreshingly different: data, systems thinking, and practical results.

They were a guest on the podcast before, so today we just focus on their new book, Fixing Fairness: Four Tenets to Transform Diversity Backlash Into Progress for All , Lily argues that the conversation around DEI has gone off track — not because fairness doesn’t matter, but because we’ve failed to communicate and implement it effectively. Instead of slogans or superficial programs, they offer FAIR - a framework built around measurable outcomes, systems change, coalition-building, and true win-win solutions.

In this conversation, we explore:

1. Why being “pro-diversity” isn’t the same as creating fair systems
2. The surprising data gap between support for diversity and belief in DEI programs
3. What actually works — and what has failed — over 60 years of workplace reform
4. How leaders can build coalitions across difference
5. And why fairness may be the language that can move us forward

Contact Dino at: dino@al4ep.com

Websites:

lilyzheng.co

al4ep.com

Additional Guest Links:

Lily on AL4EP

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lilyzheng308

Instagram: @lilyzheng308

Lily on Substack

Books:

Fixing Fairness

Reconstructing DEI

DEI Deconstructed

Authentic Leadership For Everyday People / Dino Cattaneo

Dino on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dinocattaneo

Podcast Instagram –...

This is part 2 of our conversation with Thiago Da Costa, serial entrepreneur and founder and CEO of a Datagrid AI, a company that creates agent and connectors to help companies work more efficiently.

In part one we explored Thiago’s journey as a serial founder, and what it takes to scale companies from zero to meaningful revenue.

In this second part, we go deeper into what truly separates great CEOs from dangerous ones. We talk about transparency, capital discipline, customer obsession, and the growing risk of the celebrity CEO—leaders who master distribution and attention before they build real products. Tiago shares candid perspectives on motivation, resilience, and why founders who aren’t deeply anchored to the problem they’re solving will eventually burn out.

We also shift into a broader discussion on AI—why this moment is fundamentally different from past technology waves, where real opportunities still exist, and why so many AI startups are destined to fail.

Contact Dino at: dino@al4ep.com

Websites:

al4ep.com

datagrid.ai

Additional Guest Links:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thiagocosta2

Corporate LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/datagrid-ai/

Authentic Leadership For Everyday People / Dino Cattaneo

Dino on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dinocattaneo

Podcast Instagram – @al4edp

Podcast Twitter – @al4edp

Podcast Facebook: facebook.com/al4edp

Music

Susan Cattaneo: susancattaneo.bandcamp.com