The RebelRebel Podcast

In this episode, Michael Dargie sits down with Noelle Labrie, a learning and development professional who helps restaurant owners and their teams lead better. Calling in from Miramar Beach on the Emerald Coast of Florida, Noelle explains that she doesn't walk into a kitchen and tell anyone they're bad at leadership. Instead she looks at turnover, staff culture, and online reviews, then works with management and chefs to figure out how they can serve their staff so their staff can serve their guests. Her favourite people to work with are the newly promoted, young not in years but in experience. The awesome line cook or standout server who suddenly gets a supervisory role and has no idea how to hold yesterday's drinking buddies accountable, read a P&L, or control food and labour costs. Nobody teaches them, and that gap is exactly where Noelle likes to work. Her eight-week Carpe Diem Leadership program breaks that learning into small, digestible tasks with an in-theory, in-practice, in-review rhythm each week. Then there's the streak. As of the recording, Noelle had run at least a mile every single day for 3,792 days, roughly ten and a half years. It started almost by accident. A marathon fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society took her to Dublin for her 30th birthday, where she promptly fell in love with Ireland. Years later, wrapping up a work contract in Costa Rica, she decided to run a mile a day until her flight home. Forty days became a hundred, and she simply never stopped. What began as physical health has become far more about her emotional, spiritual, and mental wellbeing, the way she clears her head and sets her intention each morning. The conversation wanders happily, the way the best ones do. Noelle has run six marathons, most recently New York City for her 50th birthday. She's run in a Tahiti airport in flip-flops while crossing the date line, and she's lived and worked in Kuwait for four years, opening a restaurant in Istanbul, a city she'd move to tomorrow if she spoke the language. A quiet moment outside her Kuwait apartment, two single women dressed head to toe in black, one in a hijab, left her with a lasting thought: are we really that different? That thread carries into her answer for the one thing she wishes the world knew, that we are far more alike than we are different, and that a little more compassion and empathy would go a long way. Her advice for rebels is just as human. Be gentle with yourself. Show yourself grace. Know that your best will look different every day, sometimes 100 percent and sometimes 14, and that both are fine. You can find Noelle on LinkedIn and at Tri-Skill Consulting. Episode Highlights [00:34,000] The Emerald Coast | Noelle calls in from Miramar Beach, Florida, where she followed her retired parents to white sugar sand and crystal-clear water. [01:36,000] What she actually does | A learning and development pro who helps restaurant leaders with turnover, staff culture, and reviews, not by telling them they're bad at leadership. [02:30,000] Serve the staff first | Her whole approach: help management and chefs serve their staff so the staff can serve their guests. [03:52,000] Her favourite people | The newly promoted, young in experience, who were great servers or cooks and now have to lead without anyone teaching them how. [06:19,000] 3,792 days and counting | Noelle reveals her run streak: at least a mile every single day for over ten years. [07:16,000] How it started | A marathon fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and an $8,000 goal, pulled a non-runner into the sport. [08:12,000] Dublin and coming home | She ran her first marathon in Dublin for her 30th birthday and felt she'd come home the moment she stepped off the plane. [09:41,000] Costa Rica turns 40 into 100 | A mile a day to close out a work contract became 40 days, then 100, then a habit she never broke. [11:01,000] More than physical | Over the years the streak became about emotional, spiritual, and mental health, a daily reset and intention setting. [11:38,000] Six marathons | From Dublin at 30 to New York City in 2023 for her 50th birthday. [14:09,000] Carpe Diem Leadership | Her eight-week program turns everyday moments into small, manageable leadership lessons for busy restaurant teams. [17:43,000] Running in Tahiti | Crossing the date line with a short layover, she ran between the seats of an open-air airport in flip-flops to keep the streak alive. [20:43,000] Falling for Istanbul | Living in Kuwait and opening a restaurant in Istanbul, she fell so hard for the city she'd have stayed if she spoke the language. [23:21,000] Two women in black | A quiet morning outside her Kuwait apartment left her asking whether we're really that different from one another. [25:02,000] The one thing she wishes | That we're more alike than different, and that a little more compassion and empathy would help. [30:33,000] Advice for rebels | Be gentle with yourself, show yourself grace, and remember your best looks different every day, sometimes 100 percent, sometimes 14. Links From This Episode Tri-Skill Consulting Noelle Labrie on LinkedIn Leukemia and Lymphoma Society TCS New York City Marathon Dublin Marathon Full show notes, transcript, and more: https://rebelrebelpodcast.com/episodes/streaking-into-self-discovery-with-noelle-labrie

In this episode, Michael Dargie sits down with Dr. Karen Koepp, a reinvention and IP strategist who splits her time between Los Angeles and the mountains of Utah. Karen helps people who have reached the end of a chapter, a layoff, a sold business, or a career upended by AI, figure out what comes next, and then actually bring it to life. Karen's own path was anything but tidy. She did everything right out of college, landing a management consulting role at a big four firm, only to find something missing. Burned out and travelling constantly, she switched jobs, then spent six years volunteering, taking self-assessments, and trying part-time work before a master's program brought her face to face with a thesis that nearly broke her. A single hour of structured feedback from a second advisor finally made it click, and she rewrote three chapters in an afternoon to graduate on time. A week later, a friend called in a panic, four hundred pages of unfinished manuscript, a smashed laptop, and a deadline closing in. Karen flew across the country, and over three days the two of them wrangled the mess into a complete draft. He graduated, and Karen realized there was a market for what she does. That was more than twenty years ago. The heart of the conversation is a quiet myth-buster: finding your direction is not the finish line. Karen argues that our purpose lives in our own stories, the moments we have come fully alive, and that clarity is only the first stage. The second is overwhelm, which she treats not as failure but as a predictable signpost. Her readiness retrofit diagnoses where people stall and designs systems around it, whether that means prosthetic systems for a would-be author who hates writing, developmental systems for genuine skill gaps, or reward systems when the work simply costs too much. Along the way, Karen makes the case that procrastination has been unfairly vilified, she wrote her thesis on it, calling it a wise feedback mechanism worth listening to. There are lighter turns too: a roller-skiing mishap that left her with a black eye and a ready-made metaphor, a childhood spent writing stories about her stuffed animals in Wisconsin, a love of Fiji, and a Bolivian village whose joy reframed everything she thought she wanted. Her advice for rebels in waiting: uncover your stories, expect the overwhelm, and build a new future through low-stakes reps. Episode Highlights [00:41,000] What Reinvention Really Means | Karen defines her work as a reinvention and IP strategist for people facing a layoff, a sale, or an AI-upended career. [01:34,000] The Secret Is in Your History | The key to what's next lives in the stories of when we've come fully alive. [02:55,000] Doing Everything Right | A big four consulting job looked perfect, but something was missing and burnout followed. [03:54,000] A Six-Year Search | Self-assessments, volunteering, and part-time work before a master's program changed things. [05:06,000] The Thesis That Nearly Broke Her | Two years of agony with no structure and feedback that simply said try again. [06:35,000] One Hour That Changed Everything | A second advisor's structured feedback made it click; she rewrote three chapters in an afternoon. [07:04,000] Rescuing a 400-Page Thesis | A smashed laptop and an unfinished manuscript became a three-day rescue mission. [08:02,000] Finding the Market | The clouds parted and Karen realized there was a market for what she does. [09:51,000] The Myth of Direction | Finding your direction is not the solution, and that's the big misunderstanding. [10:23,000] The Answer to How Is Yes | Karen references Peter Block and the idea that purpose is unique to each of us. [12:19,000] A Black Eye as Metaphor | A roller-skiing face plant becomes a fitting image for reinvention. [13:37,000] Mission Isn't Enough | Clarity is stage one; overwhelm is the natural second stage of any mission. [14:40,000] The Readiness Retrofit | Diagnosing where people stall and designing the systems to move through it. [15:09,000] Prosthetic Systems | If you hate writing, build a system that extracts your ideas without a keyboard. [16:35,000] Procrastination Is Wise | Karen's thesis argues procrastination is a useful feedback mechanism, not a flaw. [25:49,000] Advice for Rebels in Waiting | Uncover your stories, expect the overwhelm, and build through low-stakes reps. Links From This Episode Dr. Karen Koepp's website The Answer to How Is Yes by Peter Block Full show notes, transcript, and more: https://rebelrebelpodcast.com/episodes/from-overwhelm-to-action-with-karen-koepp

In this episode, Michael Dargie speaks with Dr. Bruno Roque Cignacco, a university professor, researcher, and author based on the outskirts of London. Bruno teaches at postgraduate level, runs a consultancy in international marketing and import-export, and has spent the last few years building a business unit that helps companies become both more profitable and more human. His book, The Art of Compassionate Business, now in a second edition, is the throughline of the conversation. Bruno traces his shift from traditional marketing to compassionate business back to a Harvard Business Review article, "The Human Moment at Work." It wasn't about strategy or tactics, but about building long-lasting relationships and connecting with people on an emotional level. That idea sent him into the research, where he found a body of science-based studies on compassion, generosity, gratitude, and forgiveness in business. His conclusion is simple and firm: the building brick of any business is the human being, a meta resource that generates every other resource. The pair land quickly on a shared belief. Michael frames it as P2P, person to person, no matter whether the label says B2B or B2C. Bruno backs it with research: give customers two near-identical products and they stay loyal to the company that treats them as a person rather than a number in a database. Care for people and they reciprocate; treat them harshly and customers withdraw, employees disengage, and communities push back. Bruno's favourite part of the work is watching resistant companies change their minds. Show a business the research on autonomy, delegation, and psychologically safe workplaces, and the coin drops. He points to Patagonia as an exemplar, a company that calls the planet its shareholder, uses organic cotton, and runs childcare on site at no cost to employees. A loving, supportive workplace, he notes, tends to produce higher satisfaction, lower absenteeism, and a healthier bottom line. The conversation widens into travel, cultural sensitivity, and learning. Bruno reads several books a week, believing that many leaders are readers, and that learning keeps him humble. He dreams of two unhurried weeks in Egypt. He picks Spiderman and Batman as childhood favourites, and, half Italian and Argentinian, he settles the coffee-or-tea question firmly on the side of tea. To the show's rebels in waiting, Bruno offers one word: immersion. Fear is the biggest obstacle in any endeavour, and you are the obstacle, so get out of your own way. Start small, gather advice, gain confidence step by step, like easing into the shallow end of a pool before the deep. Scientists call the feeling self-efficacy; Bruno calls it the quiet certainty that you can do this. Episode Highlights [00:43,000] Home on the outskirts of London | Bruno introduces himself from Watford, a short hop from London, where he has lived for over 17 years. [01:11,000] Professor, researcher, consultant | Three decades of teaching and consulting in international marketing, plus a new unit on compassionate business. [02:19,000] Why the traditional model falls short | Focusing only on profit and closing deals ignores the human side of long-lasting relationships. [03:37,000] The article that changed everything | A Harvard Business Review piece, "The Human Moment at Work," pointed Bruno toward compassion research. [05:31,000] The human being as meta resource | Not tech or money, but people generate business models, products, and services, everything else. [06:55,000] Two identical products, one loyal customer | Given a choice, customers stay with the company that personalizes and humanizes its approach. [08:33,000] When the coin drops | Bruno's favourite moment is watching resistant companies see the research and change their minds. [09:38,000] Micromanagement backfires | Treat employees like naughty children and they disengage; autonomy and trust do the opposite. [11:32,000] Patagonia: the planet as shareholder | Organic cotton and on-site childcare show a company caring for people and the environment wholeheartedly. [13:31,000] The loving workplace study | Psychologically safe workplaces see higher satisfaction, lower absenteeism, and a better bottom line. [16:01,000] Cultural sensitivity | Bruno travels to learn, respecting other cultures and imagining the world through their lens. [22:12,000] Egypt on the bucket list | Two unhurried weeks among the pyramids is Bruno's plan for next year, done deeply, not superficially. [23:01,000] Readers are leaders | Several books a week keep Bruno humble and learning, like Buffett and Gates who read constantly. [26:34,000] The tea verdict | Half Italian and Argentinian, and 17 years in England, Bruno lands firmly on tea. [27:13,000] Advice for rebels: immersion | Start small, gain confidence gradually, and get out of your own way; fear is the real obstacle. [30:01,000] Where to find Bruno | The Art of Compassionate Business, his website, and LinkedIn, where he posts articles and interviews. Links From This Episode Bruno Cignacco, Official Website The Art of Compassionate Business (2nd edition) on Amazon Dr. Bruno Roque Cignacco on LinkedIn "The Human Moment at Work" by Edward M. Hallowell, Harvard Business Review Patagonia Full show notes, transcript, and more: https://rebelrebelpodcast.com/episodes/the-art-of-compassionate-business

In this episode, Michael Dargie sits down with Mark Gillilan, founder of Kyoto Botanicals, a botanical wellness company built on hemp-derived, THC-free CBD and, as of recently, functional mushrooms. Mark never set out to work in cannabis. A self-described introvert and former wildlife biologist, he grew up in Dallas riding his bike into the woods and wandering creeks from sunup to sundown, turning over rocks and catching anything that moved. That childhood love of nature became a biology degree, years of fieldwork, and eventually a career in consumer packaged goods marketing at companies like Nestle. The turn toward botanicals came out of the blue. An old boss recruited him to Charlotte's Web, the brand that helped create the whole CBD category alongside Charlotte Figi and the original patient families. Mark had real reservations. He had never been a cannabis guy and carried the same negative perception of weed that a lot of people did. But from week one he was hooked. Seeing firsthand how the plant changed people's lives was eye-opening, and he decided to dedicate himself to growing awareness and acceptance for it. Along the way the two get into the science and the soul of the work. Mark explains terpenes, the chemical defence mechanism plants use to fend off bugs and animals, and how those same compounds carry health and wellness benefits for us. He makes the case for a shift from treating illness to baseline maintenance and prevention, from curing ourselves down the road to caring for ourselves day to day. The conversation is honest about the founder's life too. Mark describes the roller coaster nobody warned him about: highs like no other high, and lows that can drop you to rock bottom in a heartbeat. His way through it is the same thing that has grounded him since childhood, getting outside, walking the dog, sitting in the sun for three minutes to reset. The heart of the episode is Mark's decision to stop hiding. For years he ran Kyoto Botanicals by the rigid marketing playbook he had learned, suppressing the nagging feeling that his real differentiator was himself, his voice, and why he cared. A few months ago he finally turned the camera on, forced himself through thirty days of YouTube videos, rewrote his own blog posts, and redesigned his homepage around a simple question: what do I want people to feel when they meet me and the brand? His advice to rebels in waiting is disarmingly simple. Don't hide yourself. That's the reason what you're doing matters, and eventually why it will matter to the world. You may not reach a hundred million people, but you'll reach a hundred thousand of the right ones. Woven through it all are camping trips with his kids, a love of baking bread, a hard-won lesson about giving yourself grace, and a book recommendation that reframes how we see the world entirely. Episode Highlights [00:57,000] Meet Kyoto Botanicals | Mark introduces himself as founder of Kyoto Botanicals, a botanical wellness company focused on THC-free, broad-spectrum hemp CBD, recently expanded into functional mushrooms. [01:50,000] Why 'Botanicals' | He explains the name was deliberate, always meant to reach beyond one plant into the many plants that support our wellbeing. [02:10,000] Terpenes 101 | Terpenes give wine its full body and show up across the pepper family. Mark, a former wildlife biologist, breaks down what they actually are. [02:39,000] A Plant's Defence | Terpenes are the plant's chemical defence mechanism against bugs and animals, and many of them are beneficial for human health. [04:47,000] The Cottonmouth Bite | At about ten, Mark picked up a baby water moccasin that bit him. Luckily it was a dry bite, and he still has the fang scars to prove it. [06:39,000] Recruited To Charlotte's Web | An old boss pulled him into Charlotte's Web, the company that helped create the CBD category. Mark had serious reservations about working in cannabis. [07:38,000] Hooked From Week One | Meeting Charlotte Figi and the original families, and seeing the plant change lives firsthand, turned his skepticism into a calling. [09:03,000] Care, Don't Just Cure | Mark argues for a shift from treating illness to daily wellness and prevention, and senses that culture is finally starting to change. [10:15,000] The Founder Roller Coaster | Nobody warned him about the highs and lows: euphoria one moment, the terror of feeling like a failure the next, sometimes within the same day. [12:19,000] How He Resets | Getting outside is his regulator. A walk, a run, or even three minutes in the sun helps him catch himself sliding too far up or down. [19:13,000] A Little More Grace | Asked what he wishes the world knew, Mark lands on giving ourselves and each other more grace, a lesson he's trying to model for his kids. [25:02,000] An Immense World | Mark recommends Ed Yong's book on how animals sense the world differently, a humbling read that ties back to his message about grace and patience. [27:48,000] Advice To Rebels In Waiting | The nagging itch he suppressed too long: his real differentiator was himself. Don't hide from what made you want to do it in the first place. [29:36,000] Turning The Camera On | He put his name and face everywhere, filmed YouTube videos, wrote his own blog posts, and rebuilt his homepage around how he wants people to feel. [31:55,000] Thirty Days Of Reps | Super introverted, Mark forced himself to film daily for a month. By day five or six the fear was gone and it became routine. [33:47,000] Where To Find Mark | Kyoto Botanicals dot com and the Kyoto Botanicals channel on YouTube, where he brings his one-on-one market conversations to scale. Links From This Episode Kyoto Botanicals Kyoto Botanicals on YouTube Charlotte's Web An Immense World by Ed Yong Nestle Full show notes, transcript, and more: https://rebelrebelpodcast.com/episodes/care-before-you-cure

In this episode, Michael Dargie sits down with Manuel Prinz, a co-founder of the AI e-commerce startup Keep Converting, calling in from a sunny Friday in California. Manuel spends his days between product management, opening new markets, and pointing cutting-edge AI at the sort of thorny problems that keep e-commerce brands up at night. But the conversation quickly leaves the boardroom and heads somewhere more interesting: how a kid from rural Germany ended up building companies half a world away. Manuel grew up near Stuttgart, in the shadow of Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Bosch, where becoming an engineer for a car manufacturer was less a dream than a default. A hands-on internship, all tooling and hard labour, quietly closed that door. He pivoted to business and economics, and there he found a one-sided exchange with UC Santa Barbara buried at the bottom of his university's agenda, so overlooked that nobody had used it in years. He drilled down, made contact, and made it happen. Landing in California was, in his words, all explosions and fireworks. The polished SUVs at the airport, the investment banker, skateboarder, and homeless person sharing a single block in San Francisco's financial district. For someone raised where everyone lived the same levelled, middle-class life, watching people chase their own individual dreams cracked something open. He wanted in. That curiosity turned into a career. Manuel joined an early payments startup, Paymentwall, an early answer to what Stripe would become, and helped grow it across nearly every continent. He reckons he's now been to more than a hundred countries. He talks warmly about Vietnam, a Hanoi office, and a local chef who served the team fish soup at eight in the morning, and about the balut he bravely tried on a beach in the Philippines. Woven through the travel stories is a quiet philosophy. Manuel shares his move for any new city: get the rundown from a talkative taxi driver, then find a local bar that first night and go with the flow. He talks about needing two or three days to settle before a holiday actually feels like one, because sitting still makes him anxious. And he lands on the thing he wishes the world knew, that the journey is the goal, that there's no end state where complete happiness finally arrives. For the rebels in waiting, the ones stuck between wanting and doing, Manuel's advice is plain: if an idea won't leave your head, even when you try to talk yourself out of it, that persistence is a signal. Get a solid read on it, then go. You might run into a wall. It happens. His own motto sits underneath all of it: never stop running. It's a warm, funny, well-travelled conversation about daring to chase the thing you can't stop thinking about. Episode Highlights [01:16,000] No two days the same | Manuel describes life as a co-founder of an AI e-commerce startup, splitting his days between product, new markets, and hard problems. [02:12,000] Out of stealth | He reveals the company name, Keep Converting, launching after a stretch in stealth mode. [02:54,000] A Stuttgart childhood | Growing up near Mercedes, Porsche, and Bosch, where becoming an engineer felt like the default future. [04:23,000] The internship that redirected him | A hands-on tooling internship shows him mechanical engineering isn't his path, and quietly opens a new one. [05:22,000] The hidden exchange | He unearths a forgotten UC Santa Barbara exchange buried in his university's agenda and makes it happen. [07:16,000] First taste of Silicon Valley | Roommates pull him to San Francisco, where he sees tech and the Valley for the first time. [07:57,000] Fireworks off the plane | Polished SUVs at the airport and a city block holding an investment banker, a skateboarder, and a homeless person at once. [10:09,000] What gets him up | His favourite part of the work: talking to other founders and brands to see what's left and right. [10:58,000] A hundred countries | Joining Paymentwall put him on the front line of global growth, and passport stamps in more than a hundred countries. [12:24,000] Vietnam and the fish soup | A Hanoi office, a chef at the market by 5am, and being served unforgettable fish soup at eight in the morning. [16:22,000] The landing playbook | His move for any new city: a long taxi ride for the rundown, then a local bar that first night. [19:24,000] The bravest bite | The craziest thing he's done, trying balut on a beach in the Philippines, and feeling great after. [24:12,000] Can't sit still | Doing nothing makes him anxious; it takes two or three days before a holiday actually feels like one. [27:09,000] The journey is the goal | The one thing he wishes the world knew: there's no end state, so embrace the working-toward. [30:08,000] For the rebels in waiting | If an idea won't leave your head, that's a signal. Get a solid read, then just go for it. [32:59,000] Never stop running | Manuel shares his personal motto and where to connect with him afterward. Links From This Episode Manuel Prinz on LinkedIn Keep Converting Paymentwall UC Santa Barbara Full show notes, transcript, and more: https://rebelrebelpodcast.com/episodes/the-journey-is-the-goal