Most workplace advice treats people as the problem. Growth Hacking Culture starts from the opposite premise: if your best people are disengaged, burned out, or leaving, the system is broken, not them.
Hosted by Ivan Palomino, this top 5% global podcast brings you unfiltered conversations with the people rewriting the rules of work: executives from Apple, Goldman Sachs, and Zappos, organizational psychologists, neuroscientists, and founders who've built cultures that perform without burning people down.
No corporate wellness fluff. No recycled leadership clichés. Just the behavioral science, psychology, and uncomfortable truths behind workplace culture, employee engagement, and leadership that actually works.
For HR leaders, CHROs, founders, and executives who suspect the standard playbook is the problem.
Quiet Contributors and the Recognition Gap: What Companies Keep Getting Wrong | Greg Roche
Quiet contributors deliver results. But corporate recognition programs, performance reviews, and promotion criteria were built around visibility, not value. The recognition gap between introverts and extroverts in the workplace is costing companies their best talent, and most HR leaders cannot even see it happening.
Greg Roche is a total rewards and compensation expert with 20+ years at Fortune 500 scale, former VP of Compensation at UnitedHealth Group, and founder of Retention and Rewards Partners. He is also a self-described introverted networker who built his entire consulting practice on the introvert-friendly career strategies he teaches.
In this conversation, Ivan and Greg break down how employee retention, engagement surveys, and reward systems consistently overlook quiet performers, and what leaders need to change to close the gap.
In this episode:
Why compensation committees picture "charisma" when they read words like executive presence and stakeholder influence, and how that filters out quiet high performers
The feedback Greg received multiple times in his career: "you don't talk enough in meetings," and the specific technique he developed to turn that around
Why interview performance correlates almost nothing with job performance, and what hiring processes should look like instead
How disengagement in introverts looks identical to their default mode, and why traditional engagement surveys miss it entirely
Greg's 5-leader method: a concrete, introvert-friendly framework for building career visibility through one-on-one conversations
The case for fractional and consulting roles as a legitimate career path for introverts who are exhausted by the "work around the work"
Why discretionary effort is a better measure of engagement than activity, and how confusing the two costs companies billions
This one is for the quiet contributor who delivers results but feels invisible, and for the HR leader who suspects their best talent is slipping through a system that was never built for them.
Connect with Greg Roche
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregsroche/ Free resource: 5 Tips to Create a Culture of Connections https://www.retentionandrewards.com/gift
Book: The Fast and Easy Guide to Networking for Introverts https://a.co/d/09epBrT2
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Ivan's latest article: Am I Ready to Start a Business After 45? A Behavioral Scientist's Self-Test https://www.ivanpalomino.net/post/am-i-ready-to-start-a-business-after-45-a-behavioral-scientist-s-self-test
Growth Hacking Culture is a top 5% global podcast exploring the neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral science behind leadership and workplace culture. Hosted by Ivan Palomino
15 Oct 2026
Good Delegators Make the Best AI Users | Fractional CAIO, Judgment & AI Adoption ft. Sean Campbell
Most companies hand AI adoption to IT. That is the wrong call. Sean Campbell, CEO of Cascade Insights and AI professor at George Fox University, explains why the real AI skill is delegation, not technical knowledge, and why organizations need a different kind of leader to own AI strategy.
Sean introduces the concept of fluid intelligence: the ability to delegate well to humans is what predicts who will delegate well to AI. He breaks down the fractional Chief AI Officer role, why 84% of organizations still have not redesigned their workforce for AI, and what ”agentic washing” looks like in practice. The conversation covers fear as the real barrier to adoption, why Gen X professionals may be the generation best positioned for AI, and why judgment and critical thinking remain the skills no machine can replace.
12 Oct 2026
Grit vs Grip: The Body Signs You’ve Crossed the Line | Burnout, Rest & Nervous System ft. Pauline Nguyen
Grit turns self-destructive when you can’t put it down. Pauline Nguyen on grit vs grip, body signs of leadership burnout, and rest that restores performance.
Pauline ran Red Lantern, the most awarded Vietnamese restaurant in the world, for 25 years. She also worked 80 to 100 hour weeks until stress made her hair fall out. Her way out was not to try less. It was to learn the difference between grit, a fire you choose, and grip, a fear that has you and never switches off.
Pauline escaped Vietnam by boat at three years old. Today she coaches CEOs and founders on conscious leadership and nervous system regulation, and is the author of The Way of the Spiritual Entrepreneur. In 2026 she was named Global Transformational Leader of the Year.
In this episode:
Grit vs grip: why one has an off switch and the other does not
Three body signs your drive has turned self-destructive: jaw, breath and sleep
Why companies promote the leader who never stops, and what it costs the team
Why rest is a weapon, and the seven types of rest most leaders skip
How to build nervous system regulation from micro moments, with no extra hour
What to strip out of grit (martyrdom) and what to keep (the fire)
This one is for the high performer who cannot stop, and the HR leader watching their best people run on fumes.
Key moments:08:46 Grit has an off switch, grip does not18:32 Three body signs that grit has turned to grip28:28 Rest is a weapon, not a spa day30:52 The seven types of rest41:28 What to strip out of grit
🔗 Connect with Pauline Nguyen
Website: https://pauline-nguyen.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulinenspeaks/ (DM the word ACTION to get the Sovereign Leader System)
Book: The Way of the Spiritual Entrepreneur: https://pauline-nguyen.com/product/the-way-of-the-spiritual-entrepreneur/
Ivan’s book, Expired? The Science of Staying Indispensable in a World Obsessed with New, is live now: https://a.co/d/0e29LDC9
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Growth Hacking Culture is a top 5% global podcast exploring the neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral science behind leadership and workplace culture. Hosted by Ivan Palomino
Who has been a guest on Growth Hacking Culture
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Natasha Todorovic
Oscar Trimboli
Matthew Oleniuk
Dave Reynolds
Dr Lincoln Stoller
Reach and audience
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YouTube views
410,368
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 61 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
87
Social presence
0
YouTube
86
Engagement
0
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Guest appearances
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Ivan host the show. Published by Ivan Palomino.
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