Dawn Hunter sits down with Alex Jack, executive coach who specializes in nurturing resilient, emotionally intelligent leaders through his Quiet Influence (QI) leadership program. The two first met in the back row at Disrupt HR Tampa, and this conversation covers a lot of ground: growing up between the Netherlands and St. Martin, what belonging really feels like, judgment-free curiosity, and a gratitude journal challenge that retrains your attention.

In this episode, Dawn Hunter and Crystal Stutler, founder of Crystal Clear Coaching, talk about setting boundaries one small step at a time, why clear expectations reduce pushback, and how long-term stress can quietly become our default setting. Crystal shares how she redefined success around meaning and values, why she believes forward movement isn't always up, and a simple storytelling technique for anyone feeling stuck about what they're good at.

In this episode of Work Is Third, host Dawn Hunter sits down with Michael Tennant, founder and CEO of Curiosity Lab, creator of Actually Curious, and author of The Power of Empathy, for a conversation about grief, felt values, and what it takes to build empathy as an actual skill.

In this episode of Work Is Third, host Dawn Hunter sits down with BJ Talley, Founder and President of the strategic communications firm Gladius, to talk about what actually builds trust on a team. BJ shares how his fully remote company opens its books to every employee, why he believes leaders should help people find work elsewhere if it's a better fit for their strengths, and how redefining balance around equal investment changed the way he leads.

Emily Adams left the Amish community at 17 with no roadmap—jumping out of a two-story window in the middle of the night with no plan. She went on to manage production lines for Ford, GM, and BMW, save millions in operational gaps inside a global tech company, bootstrap a tech platform from scratch, and help lead Tampa Bay Tech Week to a profitable 40-event week as COO.

On this episode of Work Is Third, Dawn Hunter talks with Jonathan Cave about daring to become that person instead. Jonathan is the author of The Tree and the Mountain – Dare to Become where he shares his journey to redefine himself.

Brooke Dukes has built four companies in 24 years, and she's found the same problem inside every one of them: the founder becomes the bottleneck. Brooke Dukes is the founder of Success by Design, a leadership operating system for founders and CEOs of small and mid-sized businesses and the author of Burn On, Not Out. In this episode, Brooke and Dawn get into what that bottleneck really is: control and fear, dressed up as "just being hands-on," and why it's often the same pattern showing up at home and at work.