Biz-Souls

About Biz-Souls

Welcome to the BizSouls podcast! We talk about the business of everything and we get to the heart, soul…and humor… of business and the people who make it happen.

Publisher

Jeffrey Hansler & Rona Lewis

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

16 Jan 2022

Latest episode

2 Nov 2026

Latest episodes

254 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   2 Nov 2026

   Episode 243: Throwing Spaghetti at the Wall Is Not a Strategy!

   We’ve been told to celebrate failure. Fail fast! Fail forward! Fail better! Fail gloriously! Apparently, failure has become the participation trophy of business. What if failure is just… failure? In this episode of Biz-Souls, Rona Lewis and Jeffrey Hansler take on a surprisingly uncomfortable idea that failure is not always your friend. And for Rona, that’s saying something, because her work with purposeful play actually uses failure as part of the learning process. The problem isn’t failure itself. The problem is failing without a reason, without learning, and without even checking whether the thing you’re doing makes any sense. The conversation dives into Amy Edmondson’s distinction between intelligent failure and preventable failure. Intelligent failure comes from genuine experimentation and uncertainty. You tried something for a reason, you had a hypothesis, and you learned something from the result. Preventable failure? That’s the ‘let’s throw spaghetti at the wall,’ and then take credit when some of it sticks approach. Rona and Jeffrey talk about why organizations have become so eager to celebrate failure in the name of innovation and how that pendulum can swing a little too far. Removing the fear of failure can encourage experimentation. Removing critical thinking along with it is probably not the innovation strategy you want printed on the conference-room wall. They get into emotional intelligence, critical thinking, pattern recognition, executive function, experimentation, insecurity, fear, and the importance of actually learning from your mistakes. There’s also a little Thomas Edison confusion. Jeffrey briefly promotes Einstein to the “failed 1,000 times” club before remembering who he was actually talking about. Which is, of course, an intelligent failure, for anyone except Jeffrey. The episode also takes a trip through podcast production, where Jeffrey admits that when Biz-Souls started, he knew enough about lighting, cameras and editing to be ‘completely dangerous,’ and early episodes apparently provided some excellent experimental data. And then there’s Hollywood, where the economics of failure explain why we keep getting sequels, franchises, remakes and John Wick 12. If you’re experimenting, have a reason. If you fail, learn something. If you make the same mistake repeatedly, maybe stop calling it experimentation. And if you’re going to throw spaghetti against the wall, at least make dinner first. Right after you follow, watch, subscribe, and share another episode of Biz-Souls. Fun and related Biz-Souls’ Episodes: Episode 2: Failure Is the Path to Success • https://open.spotify.com/show/5QZkzexampleBizSouls • https://www.youtube.com/@BizSoulsPodcast Episode 5: Critical Thinking • https://open.spotify.com/show/5QZkzexampleBizSouls • https://www.youtube.com/@BizSoulsPodcast Episode 22: The Holy Trinity of Innovative Organizations • https://open.spotify.com/show/5QZkzexampleBizSouls • https://www.youtube.com/@BizSoulsPodcast Episode 31: A Serious Discussion About Play's Importance to Business • https://open.spotify.com/show/5QZkzexampleBizSouls • https://www.youtube.com/@BizSoulsPodcast Episode 73: Marketing Plan Fail? Don't Blame Marketing. Blame Your Marketing Operations Systems. • https://open.spotify.com/show/5QZkzexampleBizSouls • https://www.youtube.com/@BizSoulsPodcast Episode 125: How to Retrain Your Brain • https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Sl8zVZB6Jx5DMHg8lN9aH • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA4P9HvbKVI Episode 139: Play for Better Living! • https://open.spotify.com/episode/5EOyx44QYvEkrzE6Fg6fA8 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdUd8cU1JXg #BizSouls #Failure #IntelligentFailure #Innovation #Leadership #CriticalThinking #LearningAndDevelopment #LAndD #BusinessLeadership #OrganizationalDevelopment #PsychologicalSafety #Creativity #PurposefulPlay #BusinessHumor #WorkplaceCulture #Experimentation #LearningFromFailure #Entrepreneurship #RonaLewis #JeffreyHansler #BizSoulsPodcast

2. 

   26 Oct 2026

   Episode 242: Work Anywhere. Think Everywhere. Stay Engaged.

   Should your employees work from home? In the office? In a hybrid arrangement? From Italy? Switzerland? Botswana? Apparently, the modern workplace has become less about where you work and more about how many countries you can name when asking for permission to work remotely. In this episode of Biz-Souls, Rona Lewis and Jeffrey Hansler wade into one of the workplace’s favorite arguments remote versus hybrid versus in-person work. And naturally, they don't exactly leave the subject where they found it. Because the real question is whether they're engaged in the work at all. The conversation takes a surprisingly human turn. Remote workers can be productive. They can be highly engaged. They can also be lonely. The discussion gets into the difference between engagement and well-being, the importance of connection and mentoring, the difficulty of managing and coaching remotely, and the increasingly strange idea that an employee's physical location is somehow a better measure of performance than whether they actually get the job done. Rona and Jeffrey agree on one simple management philosophy, ‘We don't care when or where you work if you get the work done, the numbers work, and you're happy.’ Imagine that and then imagine liking, sharing, following, and subscribing to Biz-Souls. Because the conversation then wanders - because this is Biz-Souls - into robotics, AI, repetitive work, changing jobs, education, the future of entry-level positions, and why the next generation may need to become something of a Renaissance employee: someone with multiple skills, curiosity, adaptability and the ability to do more than one thing well. If machines can handle the repetitive, mind-numbing work, perhaps humans get more opportunities to do work requiring creativity, judgment, variety and actual thinking. Of course, that assumes we know how to manage humans once they're allowed to think. That's where this episode gets especially interesting because flexibility isn't automatically engagement. Remote isn't automatically better. In-office isn't automatically better. Hybrid isn't some magical workplace unicorn. And giving someone permission to work from Iceland doesn't necessarily solve the problem if they spend the entire day staring at a laptop wondering whether anyone remembers they exist. The bigger challenge for leaders is figuring out what makes people productive, connected, challenged, curious and engaged. Stop asking if employees are working, and start asking if they are engaged, productive, learning, and connected. Related Biz-Souls Episodes: Episode 158: Return to Office or Not! • https://open.spotify.com/episode/ • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFA1Dgw7P3Y Episode 178: Beyond Borders — Talent, Travel & Global Business • https://biz-souls.com/ Episode 147: Discover the Future of Work • https://biz-souls.com/listen-now/ Episode 159: White Collar Jobs on the Chopping Block! • https://biz-souls.com/listen-now/ Episode 180: Besting AI With Soul • https://open.spotify.com/episode/22f04196-7020-4241-887a-12fc540ab810 • https://www.youtube.com/@biz-souls3926 Episode 167: From Ikigai to AI — Surviving the Modern Madness • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq1W_EExVfU #BizSouls #RemoteWork #HybridWork #FutureOfWork #WorkplaceCulture #EmployeeEngagement #Leadership #Management #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #WorkplaceWellbeing #EmployeeExperience #Productivity #WorkplaceInnovation #HumanCenteredLeadership #TalentDevelopment #LearningAndDevelopment #OrganizationalDevelopment #WorkFromAnywhere #RonaLewis #JeffreyHansler

3. 

   19 Oct 2026

   Episode 241: The Outrage Economy – Bigger Drama, Bigger Audience, Bigger Problems

   Welcome to Biz-Souls, where two people sit down to talk about business and somehow end up discussing the WNBA, soap operas, hockey fights, social media, dictatorships, Canadian violence, Hollywood explosions, potato chips, and Jeffrey’s apparently magnificent legs. Basically, a normal episode of Biz-Souls. This time, Rona and Jeffrey tackle ‘the business of outrage’ and the uncomfortable possibility that outrage has become one of the most successful products in the modern attention economy. It starts with the media frenzy surrounding the WNBA, Caitlin Clark, Sophia Cunningham and all the apparent ‘us versus them’ drama. Is the league deliberately creating controversy? Not necessarily. But the media certainly knows conflict gets attention. And attention, as we all know, is where the money lives. The hosts point out that WNBA viewership has been soaring, raising a deliciously awkward question: if outrage works, why would anyone in the attention business stop selling it? And then the conversation gets considerably more complicated, because this isn't just about sports. Rona and Jeffrey wonder whether we're becoming so accustomed to outrage, violence and sensationalism that yesterday's shocking event barely registers today. So, turn up the volume. The conflict gets bigger. The explosions get louder. The body count gets higher. Hollywood does it. Social media does it. News media does it. And all of this seems to be affecting people in a terrible way. The episode takes the particularly interesting turn when the hosts ask whether social media is actually influencing behavior rather than simply showing us more of the behavior that has always existed. And that's where the Biz-Souls prescription arrives: Critical thinking. Before sharing the outrage, ask why you're being shown it. Before jumping into the fight, ask what happens next. Before believing the headline, ask whether there's another explanation. And perhaps most importantly, ask whether history has anything useful to say about the brilliant new idea currently screaming at you through your phone. The hosts also admit something refreshingly human: they've gotten things wrong, jumped onto trends and been susceptible to the same forces they're talking about. Because apparently even professional commentators occasionally discover that the internet has opinions. Lots of them. And then, because this is Biz-Souls, the solution to the outrage economy apparently involves being polite, wearing dresses, abandoning hoodies and flip-flops, and possibly putting Jeffrey in a kilt permanently. Whether this is critical thinking or not that’s your call. The bigger takeaway, though, is serious. If outrage becomes normal, outrage has to keep escalating to get our attention. What shocked us yesterday becomes background noise today, which means tomorrow needs to be even louder. Until eventually we're all sitting around covered in metaphorical fake blood wondering, ‘Was that supposed to upset me?’ So, tune in, think critically, question the algorithm, and remember… Just because it is on the internet doesn't mean it is true. Still like, follow, share, and subscribe. Related Biz-Souls Episodes: Episode 201: Bayes, Brains, and the Breakdown of Internet Illusion** • https://open.spotify.com/episode/13dd3134-f399-48e8-bd34-1c7027fe191e • https://www.youtube.com/@biz-souls3926 Episode 151: Bias in the Media • https://www.youtube.com/@biz-souls3926 • https://open.spotify.com/search/Biz-Souls%20Episode%20151%20Bias%20in%20the%20Media Episode 126: The Truth About Lying • https://open.spotify.com/search/Biz-Souls%20Episode%20126%20The%20Truth%20About%20Lying • https://www.youtube.com/@biz-souls3926 Episode 139: Play for Better Living! • https://open.spotify.com/episode/5EOyx44QYvEkrzE6Fg6fA8 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdUd8cU1JXg Episode 125: How to Retrain Your Brain with Kelley Raleigh • https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Sl8zVZB6Jx5DMHg8lN9aH • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA4P9HvbKVI

Who has been a guest on Biz-Souls

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Daren Margolin
• William "Bill" Welser IV
• Toluwa Oyeleye

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

245,322

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

5 ratings

Spotify

4.7 / 5

3 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 72 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

83

Social presence

0

YouTube

82

Engagement

68

Contact Biz-Souls

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about Biz-Souls