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CEOs and ABCs

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by Kevin Rice

43 episodes

Updated Daily

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Podcast Overview

CEOs & ABCs is the podcast for high performers who lead at work and show up at home. Hosted by Kevin Rice, this show features candid conversations with executives, founders, and rising leaders about how they’ve advanced their careers while staying present for the moments that matter most... raising kids, building strong partnerships, and prioritizing their health. Each episode dives into executive career advice, leadership development, work-life balance, and the realities of parenting while managing demanding professional lives. Whether you’re navigating promotions, team growth, toddler tantrums, or time management, you’ll find insights and inspiration to lead with intention - both at work and at home. ️ New episodes weekly Topics: Career growth, executive mindset, parenting, burnout prevention, productivity, and more ‍‍‍ For working parents, driven professionals, and leaders building meaningful lives Subscribe now and join the journey from "boardrooms to bedtime stories."

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Publishing Since

7/19/2025

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Recent Episodes

Episode thumbnail for Jeanniey Walden (Liftoff Enterprises, Rakuten, Rite Aid) The Sole Breadwinner Who Quit Her Job on a Gut Feeling and Why the AIR Method Works at Home Too #43

July 28, 2026

Jeanniey Walden (Liftoff Enterprises, Rakuten, Rite Aid) The Sole Breadwinner Who Quit Her Job on a Gut Feeling and Why the AIR Method Works at Home Too #43

In this episode of CEOs & ABCs, Kevin sits down with Jeanniey Walden, CEO of Liftoff Enterprises, bestselling author of The Trust Threshold, and TV host reaching 81 million households, to explore what a substitute teacher turned CMO learned about earning attention, building trust, and why the same principles that grow businesses are the ones that keep families together. Jeanniey's career defies a straight line. From JCPenney to email marketing pioneer to CMO at Mercer, Rite Aid, and Rakuten, she kept jumping toward whatever was new, uncomfortable, and unproven. She did not have a business degree. She had a teaching credential and the instinct that if you can earn the attention of a room full of kids who do not want to listen to you, you can earn it anywhere. That instinct became the AIR framework: authenticity, inspiration, relatability. And she applies it everywhere including at home with a blended family of five. The stories in this episode are the ones that stick. Her eight-year-old raising her hand at a packed industry conference to tell the room she had no idea what her mom just said, but she was really proud of her. The Walden Weekends, built to turn ordinary Saturdays into adventures worth remembering. The birthday chair. The red plate. The dollar store scavenger hunts. And the moment she came home as the sole breadwinner and told her family she was quitting her job to try something she had never done before. This is a conversation about traditions, trust, and the quiet belief that when you open yourself up to good things, good things tend to come. In This Episode, You'll Learn: What the AIR framework is and why authenticity, inspiration, and relatability build trust faster than any strategy Why Jeanniey's teaching background became the foundation of every campaign, keynote, and leadership decision she has ever made How she brought her kids into her work world and what it gave them both Why she quit her job as the sole breadwinner to chase an opportunity she was not sure would work What Walden Weekends are and how one family turned ordinary time into lasting tradition How to stay connected with kids across distance, different ages, and unpredictable schedules Why empathy and strategic thinking are the two skills that will matter most in an AI-driven world What it looks like to take risks when you have a family counting on you Top Takeaways: Trust builds belief and belief builds business. That sequence does not change whether you are selling a product or raising a kid. Your kids are not an excuse. Make thoughtful commitments at work and honour them. Ask for support at work before you desperately need it. Most people want to help. Do not let having a family talk you out of a risk worth taking. The world opens up when you do. Traditions are not just rituals. They are proof that your family is worth showing up for, every single time. It does not get easier when your kids get older. It gets better. And they still need you. Take the adventure path. Turn the ordinary thing into the one they will talk about for years. About Jeanniey Walden: Jeanniey Walden is CEO of Liftoff Enterprises, host of Liftoff with Jeanniey Walden reaching 81 million households, and bestselling author of The Trust Threshold. She has held CMO roles at Mercer, Rite Aid, and Rakuten, and has spoken at the World Economic Forum and TEDx. She lives in New Jersey with her husband Vince and is mom to a blended family of five, grandmother to one, and celebrates every weekend with a Walden Weekend. If this episode made you rethink leadership, career growth, work-life balance, or working parenthood, subscribe to the CEOs & ABCs Podcast for more conversations with CEOs, founders, and global exe...

Episode thumbnail for Linda Bethea (PepsiCo, Frito-Lay, Danone) The Leadership Style Used to Build High Performing Teams, Work-Life Integration & Starting a Business with your Daughter #42

July 21, 2026

Linda Bethea (PepsiCo, Frito-Lay, Danone) The Leadership Style Used to Build High Performing Teams, Work-Life Integration & Starting a Business with your Daughter #42

In this episode, Linda Bethea shares her journey of balancing a successful executive career with motherhood, emphasizing the importance of authenticity, vulnerability, and intentionality in leadership and parenting. She discusses her experiences with work-life integration, supporting working parents, and fostering strong relationships with her daughter. From Frito-Lay to PepsiCo to Diageo to CMO of Danone, Linda built one of the most decorated careers in food and beverage marketing while navigating divorce, single motherhood, and the quiet pressure to keep her personal life out of the office. She refused. She became the role model she never had, openly leaving early for school pickups, bringing her daughter to the office when childcare fell through, and taking a three-month sabbatical at the height of her divorce because her daughter needed her more than the business did. She also went through fertility treatments to have that daughter. Then spent 133 days on the road the year she turned one. The reckoning was inevitable. And when it came, it changed how Linda led, how she built teams, and how she thought about what success was actually for. Now she and her daughter Finley co-host a podcast together, speak on stages together, and just got back from Cannes. This is a conversation about work-life integration, asking for help before you desperately need it, and what it looks like when vulnerability stops being a risk and starts being the point. In This Episode, You'll Learn: Why work-life integration outperforms work-life balance for ambitious parents How vulnerability became Linda's greatest leadership asset What it cost her to keep her divorce private and why she eventually stopped How bringing her daughter into her work world built their relationship Why parental leave and flexibility policies need to change and what leaders can do now What the four burners theory gets wrong about how to think about a full life Top Takeaways: Vulnerability is a superpower. Hiding your struggles does not make you look stronger. Ask for help early. People want to help you. Let them. Your kids mirror your behaviors. The standards you hold yourself to are the ones they will absorb. Think in seasons, not balance. Priorities shift and that is not failure. Work-life integration made Linda a better marketer and a better mom at the same time. About Linda Bethea: Linda Bethea is a former CMO of Danone and has held senior marketing roles at Diageo, PepsiCo, and Frito-Lay. Named a Forbes Top 50 Entrepreneurial CMO in 2025, she sits on the board of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and co-hosts the Brand New Perspectives podcast alongside her daughter Finley. If this episode made you rethink leadership, career growth, work-life balance, or working parenthood, subscribe to the CEOs & ABCs Podcast for more conversations with CEOs, founders, and global executives. Share this episode with a colleague navigating work-life balance, and comment below with the biggest lesson you took from Linda Bethea. Follow Linda Bethea:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-bethea/ Brand New Perspective Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@brandnewperspective3 Follow our host Kevin Rice on: LinkedIn: LinkedIn/KevinMRiceWebsite: ceosandabcs.comInstagram: Instagram/ceosandabcs Follow the CEOs & ABCs Podcast and stay updated:Newsletter: CEOs and ABCs NewsletterLinkedIn:

Episode thumbnail for Isabelle Brenton (IPG Media Brands, Meta & Razorfish) A Conversation on: How to Navigate Professional Growth While Embracing Personal Identity and Resilience.

July 14, 2026

Isabelle Brenton (IPG Media Brands, Meta & Razorfish) A Conversation on: How to Navigate Professional Growth While Embracing Personal Identity and Resilience.

In this episode of CEOs & ABCs, Kevin sits down with Isabelle Brenton, former Chief Communications Officer at IPG Mediabrands and recipient of the 2026 Working Mother of the Year award from She Runs It, to explore what it actually costs to hide a part of yourself at work and what becomes possible when you finally stop. Isabelle spent the early years of her career in fast-paced agency and media environments, motivated by external validation and driven to prove herself at every level. When she became a mother, she did not slow down. She had two children 20 months apart, returned from both maternity leaves as quickly as she could, traveled to Asia when her son was five months old, and spent years removing her wedding ring before job interviews and moving family photos out of her background on calls so no one could tell she had children. She was not hiding her family because anyone told her to. She was hiding them because of a story she was telling herself about what ambition was supposed to look like. The shift came slowly, then all at once. A culture change at Meta where colleagues openly led meetings by talking about their kids. Then COVID, which put her children literally in the background of every Zoom call and made concealment impossible. Then a layoff, right after receiving one of the most meaningful professional honors of her career, which forced a different kind of reckoning entirely. Kevin and Isabelle trace the full arc: from people-pleaser to senior executive, from compartmentalized mother to someone who told her kids she was laid off the same night it happened, cried through the conversation, and made it a lesson in resilience. This is a conversation about identity, the hidden cost of not bringing your whole self to work, and what it means to model the things you most want your children to learn. In This Episode, You'll Learn: Why high-achieving women often feel pressure to conceal their identity as parents and what that concealment actually costs How external validation drove Isabelle's early career and why the shift to intrinsic motivation changed everything What it was like to step into one of the most senior roles of her career at the same moment she was becoming a mother Why the culture at Meta became a turning point in how she saw herself as a working parent How COVID made it impossible to keep her two identities separate and why that turned out to be a gift What she told her children the night she was laid off and why her husband told her she did not have to How she is using her career transition to model resilience, self-worth, and healthy decision-making for her kids Why being present is not about being available, it is about actually listening when you are in the room What she is looking for in her next role now that she is no longer willing to leave her whole self at the door Why parenthood became her greatest professional asset once she stopped treating it as a liability Top Takeaways: Hiding your identity as a parent does not make you look more committed. It just means you are carrying the weight alone. The shift from external to intrinsic motivation is when careers stop feeling like performance and start feeling like purpose. Parenthood made Isabelle more ambitious, not less. Embracing it is what accelerated her career, not what slowed it down. Your kids do not need you to be perfect. They need to see you navigate something hard and come out the other side. Being present is a choice you make in the small moments. Your daughter knows whether you heard what she just read to you. A layoff is not just a professional event. It is a parenting moment. How you handle it is what your kids will remember. Culture change happens in the opening of a meeting. When l...

43 total episodes available

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What is CEOs and ABCs?: CEOs & ABCs is the podcast for high performers who lead at work and show up at home.

Hosted by Kevin Rice, this show features candid conversations with executives, founders, and rising leaders about how they’ve advanced their careers while staying present for the moments that matter most... raising kids, building strong partnerships, and prioritizing their health.

Each episode dives into executive career advice, leadership development, work-life balance, and the realities of parenting while managing demanding professional lives. Whether you’re navigating promotions, team growth, toddler tantrums, or time management, you’ll find insights and inspiration to lead with intention - both at work and at home.

️ New episodes weekly

Topics: Career growth, executive mindset, parenting, burnout prevention, productivity, and more ‍‍‍ For working parents, driven professionals, and leaders building meaningful lives

Subscribe now and join the journey from "boardrooms to bedtime stories."
How often does this podcast release new episodes?: This podcast updates daily.
Where can I listen to this podcast?: This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
Does this podcast accept guests?: Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.

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