Maps Are Dead

About Maps Are Dead

Maps Are Dead is a podcast about navigating life when the old plans stop working. Hosted by Mike Dauphinee, this series is a raw, real, and often funny conversation with people learning to move forward without a clear path. It’s not about success formulas or five-year plans. It’s about inner maps—CliftonStrengths, courage, and the grit it takes to keep going when certainty disappears. Mike and his guests explore identity, leadership, parenting, purpose, and the moments that shake our lives loose. Join our community: https://the-fit-forum.circle.so/join?invitation_token=9d72b1d6f49e63892f277b

Publisher

Mike D

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

13 May 2025

Latest episode

29 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

34 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   29 Sept 2026

   The Question Every Buyer Is Asking: with Jacques Spitzer

   SummaryJacques Spitzer started Raindrop as a one-person shop and grew it into a creative agency of about a hundred people. He and Mike get into what it takes to keep your footing when the work, the tools, and the industry keep shifting under you. Jacques makes the case that people buy for only two reasons, that being "anti-niche" is a strength rather than a liability, and that the hard part of AI is not the tool, it's leading a hundred people who all feel differently about it. Along the way: why he turns down most of the companies that want to hire him, and why his proudest result last year was a team survey, not an award. About Jacques SpitzerJacques Spitzer is a 4x Emmy® award-winning creative agency founder who AdWeek (https://www.adweek.com/agencies/2026-agencies-vanguard-defying-the-odds-to-make-work-that-resonates/) recently named one of the Top 20 Advertising Leaders in the country. His agency, Raindrop, has generated billions in campaign sales for powerhouse brands like Dr. Squatch, Native and Grüns and insurgent brands like Good Culture, Hello Panda, Magic Spoon, Dude Wipes and more.Raindrop’s creative force has been showcased by their work on three Super Bowl campaigns and their recent execution of the largest brand launch in Procter & Gamble history for Spruce.As a champion for the next generation of disruptive companies, Jacques serves as a strategic advisor to high-growth CPG brands that Raindrop Ventures has uniquely helped launch and invested in, including Grüns, Laundry Sauce, ForAll, VitaWild and Magic Mind. With a trophy case boasting over 50 advertising awards, Jacques’ work is consistently recognized for its rare blend of viral creativity and massive ROI. His insights have been featured in Forbes, AdAge, and Entrepreneur Magazine. He was recently named one of the “most influential people in San Diego” by the San Diego Business Journal and one of “California’s most visionary CEOs” by the Los Angeles Times, who noted:“Raindrop’s creative success and results have put San Diego on the map for creative work across the country.”In addition to his work in advertising, Spitzer helped produce the full-length documentary Wampler’s Ascent, which won over 38 international film festival awards. (Watch on Amazon Prime Now (https://www.amazon.com/Wamplers-Ascent-Stephen-J-Wampler/dp/B0871729TN)).Know more about Jacques Spitzer⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jspitzer5/)Instagram⁠⁠ (https://www.instagram.com/jacquesspitzer/)Podcast⁠⁠ (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marketing-people-love/id1642420328)Website⁠ (https://raindrop.agency/) Takeaways Nobody buys your mission statement. People buy what reflects who they already are, or who they're trying to become. Often there's no right answer, only an answer you can have conviction in. That's true of AI, of who you hire, and of who you agree to work with. Leading people through a new tool is less about the tool and more about the fact that your team feels every possible way about it at once. A niche can become a cage. Getting clear on your real strength lets you take it anywhere. Saying no protects the work. Turning down most of the demand can be the choice that keeps the quality. A leader leaves a wake whether they notice it or not. The dangerous ones are the leaders who don't. Feedback works best on a disciplined ratio. If people are right most of the time, your feedback should reflect that, not just the corrections. Culture is not a statement on a wall. It's how you show up in every single meeting. The truest measure of a good year might be whether your team still wants to be there next year. Soundbites "People only buy things for two reasons. They believe it's a reflection of who they are already today. Or who they're trying to become. That's it." "Sometimes there's just no right answer. It's just an answer that you have conviction in." "It's how you show up in every single meeting. It is not a vision statement." "This is the most successful year we've ever had, not because we won this external award, but because that was the survey we got back." "Information isn't transformation, and transformation is a human experience." Share this with a founder who can't stop being the one who does everything. Join The Fit Forum (https://the-fit-forum.circle.so/join?invitation_token=16ea8b9138fd44fdfbf36088e37d8b8e8c7883e2-bdec3b91-4d6d-4387-b78c-e1a2cc553cde) Mike's free CliftonStrengths community bring your Top 5 and find your people.

2. 

   15 Sept 2026

   Hope under the Taliban: with Aref Dostyar

   Summary On August 15, 2021, Aref Dostyar was Afghanistan's Consul General in Los Angeles. By the end of the day, the government he represented no longer existed. His map wasn't running out. It was being erased while he stood on it. Aref and Mike talk about what you steer by when the plan disappears in an afternoon. How Aref and his staff wrote a plan on a Friday they didn't yet know they'd need by Sunday. Why he calls taking action his therapy. And what he is learning from Afghan women who refuse the reality that was handed to them. This one is about navigating with no roadmap, and choosing to keep building anyway. About Aref Dostyar Aref Dostyar leads the Afghanistan Dialogue and Visioning Process (DVP), a multi- stakeholder initiative, housed at the University of Notre Dame, that aims to develop a shared vision for a peaceful future in Afghanistan. He is interested in comparative dialogue methodologies, consensus-building, and visioning processes in divided societies. Prior to joining Notre Dame, Dostyar served in senior diplomatic and national security roles for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, including as Consul General in Los Angeles (2020-2022) and as Director General for International Relations and Regional Cooperation and Director of Peace and Reconciliation Affairs at the Office of the National Security Council. Dostyar’s analysis and commentary have been featured in the New York Times, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, The Cipher Brief, Vox, and other publications. His recent essay, “How the UN can turn Afghanistan’s seat into a path forward (https://peacerep.org/publication/how-the-united-nations-can-turn-afghanistans-seat-into-a-path-forward/)” was published by the London School of Economics and Political Science. He posts on social media at @ArefDostyar. But if you ask him, nothing compares to wrestling and giggling with his two little sons in the evenings! Know more about Aref: - https://api-peacebuilding.com/ (https://api-peacebuilding.com/) - https://aptyouth.org/ (https://aptyouth.org/ ) Takeaways When the map is erased, you navigate by a compass. Aref's was simple: people first. Family, colleagues, friends, ahead of services and strategy. A plan you never use isn't wasted. Aref's team wrote one on Friday afternoon. The country fell Sunday. It kept them from starting from zero in the chaos. Action can be therapy. Offered six months to rest, Aref couldn't take six days. Building something was how he processed the loss. The healthiest people in a crisis spend almost no time on how the reality got here. They ask a better question: here I am, what do I do now? Relationship over rules. In the moment that mattered most, what moved people wasn't procedure. It was who you knew and who you kept showing up for. You can't leave a generation in the waiting room of history. Change is generational, but real people need help today. You hold both at once. Guns haven't worked in decades. Set against the cost of fighting, talking is cheap. Peace starts by building constituencies willing to sit down. Everything changes, because it always has. The trap is believing this moment is permanent. Get your insides ready for the change you can't yet see. You can't un-educate a person. Afghan women are learning on their phones with the schools shut, because once something is learned, it can't be taken back. Soundbites "The formulas of the past just do not work." "There's an entire generation that cannot be in the waiting room of history." "This is my therapy to take action." "We have tried the alternative and it has not worked." "They are refusing to accept this imposed reality on them, and they are determined to change that." "You can't un-educate somebody, ever." (Mike) Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to Maps Are Dead with Mike D on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. Share this with someone navigating a season with no roadmap. Join The Fit Forum Mike's free CliftonStrengths community, bring your Top 5 and find your people.

3. 

   1 Sept 2026

   All Our Maps Are Incomplete - with Danny Kim

   Summary Mike sits down with Danny Kim, a classically trained violinist turned pastor turned organizational psychologist who has changed careers about every eighteen months and calls each leap an invitation, not a crisis. Danny grew up without a map. The only Asian kid in a white neighborhood, a first-generation Korean American, he learned to chart his own course before he was old enough to drive. Now, crossing forty and doing the math on how much music he has left to make, the question gets sharper. When the map runs out, what do you steer by? The answer Danny keeps landing on isn't a framework or a hack. It's people. This is a conversation about relationships as the compass, and why admitting your map is incomplete might be the most connective thing you can do. About Danny Kim Includer · Activator · Communication · Command · Self-Assurance Danny Kim, PhD, brings the science of human performance to the art of leadership. An I/O psychologist, CliftonStrengths coach, and team builder, Danny helps organizations discover what they're truly capable of. Danny Kim is the Assistant Vice President of People and Operations at the San Diego Foundation, where he leads people, culture, and operations while also overseeing IT and the organization's AI transformation. His path has run through Raindrop, the award-winning San Diego creative agency, as Head of People, plus Point Loma Nazarene University and consulting work with Centauric and The Dauphinee Group. He holds a BS in biological sciences, a Master of Divinity in transformational leadership, and a PhD in industrial and organizational psychology, with doctoral research on emotional intelligence, problematic smartphone use, and the future of the digital workforce. He is the author of Influx: Finding Purpose in Transition and lives in San Diego. Know more about Danny: www.drdannykim.com Takeaways ● Nobody hands you a map to hurt you, but there comes a point when it stops working, and only you can know that. ● Running off the map isn't failure. Danny reframes the unknown as a threshold, a door opening, an invitation to walk through. ● If life never handed you a map, you learned to chart your own course early, and that becomes a strength instead of a wound. ● Coaching isn't a set of tools. It's presence, paying attention to the person in front of you and finding the real challenge under what they say. ● Behind every door is a possibility, but not every door is an opportunity. Vision is what tells the two apart. ● A building never sings your song. Titles, products, and org charts don't tell the story of your life. People do. ● Information isn't transformation. Transformation never happens alone. It happens in relationship. ● Process and technology are simple. People are complex, and that complexity is where leadership actually lives. ● Before you make a change, ping it. Ask what the relationships you value most would say about the move you're weighing. ● Every map is incomplete. The moment you stop pretending yours is finished, someone can help you fill it in. Soundbites ● “A building never sings your song.” ● “Information isn't transformation. Transformation never occurs alone. It always occurs in relationship.” ● “Process and technology, I'm gonna simplify it, is simple. It's the people that are complex.” ● “All of our maps are incomplete. There is no roadmap. There is no map.” ● “People already have the wisdom within them. My job is to pull it out.” ● “We borrow some of your belief until we find our own.” Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to Maps Are Dead with Mike D on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. Share this with someone who's standing in front of a door, afraid to open it. Join The Fit Forum (fitforum.co) Mike's free CliftonStrengths community — bring your Top 5 and find your people.

Who has been a guest on Maps Are Dead

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

• Skogen Sprang
• Grace Wardle
• Lucy Leonelli
• Kevin Latchayya
• Tanya Lama

Reach and audience

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

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

8 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

8 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 27 / 100

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

Quality

35

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

51

Contact Maps Are Dead

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

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

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