44. Letting Go of Control, with John Starkweather, VP of Advertising, AT&T

What do you learn about yourself when you're alone in the mountains for a month with no plan and no one to impress? John Starkweather is the VP of Advertising at AT&T, but this conversation isn't really about advertising. It's about what happens when you get quiet enough to actually hear yourself, and what changes when you stop being so rigid about everything. This week, host Lauren Douglass sits down with John to talk about the breakthroughs that only come from long stretches in nature, why being flexible might be the hardest thing to learn, and what he realized about himself when his plan went completely off the rails. They get into the tension between AI and humanity, why real connections still matter, and how John's thinking about leadership shifted after he stopped trying to make everyone conform to him. John opens up about being his own worst enemy, what it means to actually listen, and why he introduces himself as a dad first, not by his job title. This is a conversation about slowing down, letting go of control, and figuring out what you actually want to leave behind.