Office Hours: The Human Experience on Scaling Without Breaking through People, Systems, and Financial Freedom

Stephanie Pimentel, a Dominican-American executive and founder of Lumena Global Advisory, brings deep expertise in cross-border leadership, people strategy, and operational clarity. Drawing from her journey as a first-generation professional and working mother, Steph shares how resilience and values-driven leadership have shaped her career across industries including telecommunications, entertainment, manufacturing, logistics, and solar energy. She unpacks why nearshoring is one of the most overlooked growth strategies heading into 2026, dispels common myths about hiring in Latin America, and explains how U.S. companies can avoid costly compliance and payroll mistakes when expanding globally. Rajesh Nagjee, CEO mentor and “business physicist,” tackles the leadership side of scaling, addressing what he calls the “Velocity Crisis”—the widening gap between increasingly complex business systems and a CEO’s personal capacity to lead them. With more than 30 years of experience across 15 countries, Rajesh reframes scaling through a systems-based lens inspired by the Inner Game, emphasizing that sustainable growth requires upgrading both the company’s external systems and the leader’s internal operating system. He introduces his CEO Freedom OS framework, which has helped founders reduce overwhelm, improve decision-making, and unlock sustainable scale, delivering measurable results for global organizations across the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and beyond. Robert Gill brings the financial lens, rooted in his personal story of growing up without financial education and witnessing firsthand the fear and stress money can create. With over two decades of experience and thousands of cash flow analyses, Rob focuses on helping individuals and business owners achieve true financial freedom—not just wealth, but the ability to choose how, when, and why they work. Together, these conversations reveal how clarity in people, leadership capacity, and financial strategy form the foundation for scaling with confidence, integrity, and long-term freedom.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.