Roar with Lakecia Gunter
by Lakecia Gunter
We all have a hidden power inside us… it is a fire that is often suppressed by fear. That power is your ROAR and it is waiting to be unleashed! ROAR is a weekly dose of inspirational stories, candid insights, and indispensable tips, tools, and resources that will lead you to achieve more. Whether at work or in life, it’s time to Fear Less and reach your highest potential. Learn from a powerful lineup of leaders, authors, industry experts, executive coaches, and successful entrepreneurs from around the globe. Lakecia Gunter, your Podcast Host, is a Fortune 50 business and tech executive, and #11 on Business Insider’s Top 26 Most Powerful Women Engineers, and she is here to help you release your ROAR.
Episodes
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Reinvention, Bold Leadership & Becoming the Architect of Your Own Impact with Cherizza Lundy
In this episode of ROAR, host Lakecia Gunter sits down with Cherizza Lundy, Founder and CEO of Kneed Health, for an inspiring conversation about leadership, reinvention, and building a life of purpose. From her early beginnings as an intern at Intel to serving as Chief of Staff for top executives...
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The Power of Resilient Leadership with Lieutenant General Gwen Bingham
In this unforgettable episode of Roar, host Lakecia Gunter sits down with trailblazing leader Lieutenant General Gwen Bingham. A retired three-star general and the first woman to serve as the Army’s Quartermaster General, General Bingham reflects on her 38-year military career and the values that...
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Turning Grit Into Growth: Laurel Mintz on Leading, Branding & Backing Diverse Founders
In this dynamic episode of the Roar podcast, host Lakecia Gunter sits down with Laurel Mintz—marketing powerhouse, founder of Elevate My Brand, and General Partner at Fabric VC. Laurel shares her unexpected leap into entrepreneurship when she was called to take over her father’s business at just…
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Radical Self-Acceptance: The Secret to Transformational Leadership with Dr. Laura Gallaher
In this enlightening episode of ROAR, host Lakecia Gunter sits down with organizational psychologist Dr. Laura Gallaher to explore how self-acceptance is the often-missing link in strong, effective leadership. Drawing on her work with NASA in the wake of the Columbia tragedy, as well as with...
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Grabbing the Dragon by the Tail: NASA’s Holly Ridings on Leading Under Pressure
From a young girl in Amarillo, Texas watching the Challenger launch in her school cafeteria, to becoming NASA’s first female Chief Flight Director, Holly Ridings has lived a life defined by bold moves, deep expertise, and visionary leadership. In this episode of ROAR, host Lakecia Gunter sits…
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Brand Like You Mean It: How To Turn Storytelling Into Career Currency with Monique Hayward
In this episode of ROAR, Lakecia Gunter sits down with branding powerhouse, entrepreneur, and corporate executive Monique Hayward for an unforgettable conversation on personal brand, purpose, and power. Monique, who's been Lakecia's go-to brand strategist for over 15 years, shares the pivotal…
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The Real Rules of Power: How to Lead, Influence, and Rise—Without Waiting for Permission
In this power-packed episode of ROAR, Lakecia Gunter sits down with world-renowned Stanford professor and leadership expert Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer to unpack the truth about power—what it is, how it works, and why it’s essential to your career success. Together, they break down the misconceptions…
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Challenging the ‘No’: Redefining Leadership, Legacy, and Embracing the Future with Stephanie LeBlanc-Godfrey
In this powerful episode of ROAR, host Lakecia Gunter sits down with Stephanie LeBlanc-Godfrey, tech executive at Google and founder of Mother AI. Together, they dive deep into what it means to challenge societal narratives, embrace cultural roots, and rewrite personal and professional scripts....
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Intentional Attention: The Power Move That Can Transform Your Life and Career
In this powerful episode of the ROAR Podcast, Lakecia Gunter sits down with Shelmina Babai Abji—bestselling author, former IBM VP, and founder of ShowYourWorth.ai—to explore the transformative concept of intentional attention. From humble beginnings in Tanzania to becoming a global thought…
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Mentorship in the Age of AI: The Power of Connecting for Career Growth
In this powerful episode of ROAR, host Lakecia Gunter sits down with Rachel Skaff—Head of North America Partner Sales at AWS and a longtime champion for mentorship and inclusive leadership. From her roots in civil engineering to driving cloud innovation at one of the world’s most influential tech...
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The Power of AI and Authentic Human Connection with Jenna Lange
In this insightful episode of ROAR, I sit down with communication expert Jenna Lange to explore the intersection of AI and authentic human connection. They delve into the art of high-stakes communication, the critical role of storytelling, and how leaders can adapt in an AI-driven world while...
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Breaking Barriers in Leadership & Tech: My Conversation with Merline Saintil
In this powerful episode of ROAR, I sit down with the inspiring Merline Saintil—a tech trailblazer and Fortune 500 board director—to explore how breaking barriers, authentic networking, and redefining leadership can transform careers. We dive deep into her journey from a software engineer...
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Roar is Back!
Roar is back, everyone! I'm Lakecia Gunter and I unveil our upcoming season centered on the transformative power of connection. Let's explore how building authentic relationships and harnessing innovative technologies like AI can unlock doors to unprecedented opportunities in our rapidly evolving...
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The Power of Modern Mentorship
Only 37% of professionals have a mentor. This statistic is surprising, as mentorship is the secret behind so many successful people. Modern mentoring and the power of mentorship can help you achieve your goals—both personally and professionally. We should all be seeking to develop our skills,...
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Flipping The Switch And Moving From Employee to Entrepreneur
If you’ve ever thought about becoming an entrepreneur, the uncertainty of success can often be the biggest obstacle holding you back. Fear and doubt are inevitable, but allowing them to dictate your professional life could mean missing out on fulfilling your dreams. Sometimes it takes recognizing...
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The Wonder-Twin Powers of Recovery and Resilience
When we meet obstacles in our lives and careers, how do we move forward? After such a tumultuous year, we’ve learned to expect the unexpected with greater frequency. This has allowed us ample opportunities to test our ability to recover from adversity, and it’s built up our resilience to weather...
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Rising Up and Making Your Voice Heard
Success is something that builds up over time, making early influences fundamental. Having a strong support system of people who champion you and unbridled access to recreational and educational opportunities plant the seeds for strong, smart, and bold leaders. My guests today are Cyreena Boston...
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Building an Inclusive Space for the Future
If you can see it, you can be it, right? We know from history that it’s not always easy to become something when you’ve never seen your face reflected in the stories we’re taught. March is Women's History Month, and it’s an important time to recognize the trailblazers who have led the way. Their...
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Cultivating Greatness through Resilient Leadership
Throughout 2020, organizations have been tested as the pandemic quickly swept across the globe. Despite the rapid pace of change, some companies were able to meet their operational challenges head-on and actually thrived. These organizations share one trait in common. They were able to…
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Making it Work: How Dual Career Couples Can Thrive in Love and Build Successful Careers
Having a handful of professional role models to look up to is important for anyone climbing the corporate ladder. But, we all know that work isn’t everything. When it comes to measuring the level of fulfillment in our lives, personal relationships are an important source of comfort and strength.…
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How to Develop a Personal Innovation Strategy to Ignite Your Career & Life
We’re living in changing times, and we’ve certainly seen how true that is with the disruption that’s been caused by Covid over the past year. We’ve all had to stay resilient through changing work, life, and family situations. It’s required us to think differently. It’s required us to be…
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The Art of Communication, and Why it’s Your Most Indispensable Skill
How much do you think about your role as a communicator? For leaders at every level, effective communication is what distinguishes the most impressionable leaders from the rest of the pack. Investing in this “soft” skill is not an elective in business; it’s an absolute necessity if you want to…
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Intelligent Risk Taking and Taking the Path Less Travelled
There comes a moment in everyone’s career where a unique opportunity presents itself. Whether it’s through an unexpected job offer, the chance for a complete career pivot, or a big move, change always involves a varying degree of risk. Understanding our comfort level with risk, and knowing…
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Turning Tragedy into Triumph: Transforming the Lives of Others
When tragic, life-altering events take place, it’s hard to see beyond the immediate horizon. If you’ve lost someone close to you, that loss leaves a permanent mark. Responses to such cataclysmic personal events can understandably be tumultuous. But, the nature of your response has strength…
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Leading with Purpose - How Bold & Brave Leadership Can Help Your Business Become a Force for Good with Lisa Osborne Ross
In any competitive work environment, you can show off financial progress reports, and you can demonstrate impressive metrics of success to shareholders. However, what we’re seeing more and more across the spectrum of the corporate world today is that a true leader is more than an embodiment of…
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Leading through Crisis—The Importance of Mindset, Self-Care, and Resilience with Vikki Mueller-Espinosa
“Resiliency is the strength required to successfully navigate change. It's the ability to successfully master the consequences of change, and it's the ability to renew oneself, and integrate new learning to become more effective than before.” How many times have you paused in the past 8 months…
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How to Thrive in a Disruptive Economy and Spark your Passion with Lisa Thee
“Getting to a place of power and authority, it was important to me to not only focus on the problems that have already been looked at, but to shift the attention and change the conversation to the bigger issues that I really cared about.” - Lisa Thee As we progress in our careers, it’s natural…
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Lessons From The Top: Unleashing Your Roar with Michael C. Hyter
“It's our actions that we take to achieve the outcomes we want that matters.” -Michael C. Hyter How many times in your life and career have you waited to be noticed? You know you’re more than qualified for that promotion, but somehow you keep getting overlooked. Maybe this scenario has some of…
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Trust is Your Most Valuable Currency
Where would we be without trust? In our personal lives, it’s an important factor in building relationships. It’s not always at the top of our list of priorities when running a business, but it should be. Business is all about relationships. Trust is a social currency in the corporate realm, and…
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The Power of Coaching, and Leveling Up in Life and Career
“Success is when I add value to myself. Significance when I add value to others.” -John C. Maxwell Would you describe yourself as successful? Think for a moment about that word. Consider what it means to you. Try to define it. When you really start to unpack it, success rarely looks like a...
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The Power of Perseverance with George Tinsley
When you possess an unshakable will to win, no obstacle has the power to derail you. This level of perseverance is in the DNA of great leaders. Rather than allow poverty, misfortune, or lack of support to determine who you are, it’s possible to take the reigns and steer yourself towards…
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Entrepreneurship: The Art of the Itch
“When you have an itch, there is an ART to how to approach it. The A is for ask, R is for research, and T is for test. “ Choosing to leave the comfort of stable, well-paying work in order to pursue our passions is an intimidating prospect. For many out there, making that transition can be a...
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Owning Your Seat at the Table
“When things are uncertain, that is the time for black women to step into being information centers and nodes, because then you have an opportunity” Black women are the most educated demographic in the United States, yet very few of us are seated at decision-making tables across the corporate...
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The Power of Leadership Communications
“Communication is the one leadership quality that will make you or break you.” Being an effective communicator is possibly the most important quality in any leader, but it’s easier said than done, and the two skill sets don’t always come in the same package. For some, it takes work. Leadership...
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How to Secure a Seat at the Table
“If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” - Shirley Chisolm In 1968, conventional precepts came tumbling down when Shirley Chisolm became the first black woman elected to Congress. Shattering that glass ceiling wasn’t easy, particularly at the height of the Civil Rights...
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The Remarkable Power of Asking
“You create your opportunities by asking for them” Norman Vincent Peale said “Change your thoughts and you can change your world.” Think about a time in your life when you had an idea or an opportunity that really excited you, something that would require you to push beyond the borders of your...
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Changing the World by Changing the Game
“It’s great that I’m the first, but what’s most important is that I’m not the last.” If you’re a wine lover or a visionary, you are going to adore my guest today! Bertony Faustin is a philosopher, thought-provoker, and change-maker, and his spirit is one that will endure all obstacles and…
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How to Build Winning Teams
Success is a result of navigating challenges and overcoming obstacles on the way to achieving your dreams, and everyone who has reached it in different stages of their lives can tell you that it doesn’t happen by accident. There’s a pattern, a template, a formula that all the accomplishments have...
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Taking Risks and Leaps of Faith
When was the last time you took a leap of faith in your career? What benefits did you reap out of that jump? There are moments in our lives when our inner voice is asking us to make a change in our careers. At the same time, fear will cross our road, preventing us to take on opportunities that...
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Justice For Us All
Education is the main pillar of a thriving society and is at the forefront of our evolution as leaders and game-changers. It expands our minds and opens up our world to infinite possibilities, and it helps us grow into anything we want. My guest, Justice Adrienne Nelson, is a pioneer and a...
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How to Build Your Network in a Virtual Environment
Currently, due to the global pandemic, most of us are working from home with minimal contact with the outside world because all gatherings and daily social activities have been put on hold, to keep us safe. As a result, numerous natural networking events have evaporated. So how do we cultivate…
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The Leap to Your Creativity
At the moment, we’re navigating our work and personal lives in a very different and uncertain way, and given this ambiguity, it can be difficult for many of us to hold on to our creativity. According to my guest, times of uncertainty and turmoil are particularly designed for creativity because…
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Harnessing the Power of Reflection
In the fast-paced world that we live in, with so many opportunities knocking on our doors, it seems like we are ready to say ‘yes’ to everything that comes our way, sometimes without reflecting on whether it moves us in the direction of our goals or not. Before rushing into taking any action…
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The Map to Self-Discovery
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” This is one of the hardest questions we all have to answer at some point in life because there isn’t a guidebook to life that suits every individual. Making the right decision on what college to go to, what career to pursue, or what business ventures to...
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The Mindset that Helps You Thrive
You can steer your career and life toward success or failure, and that is determined by the mindsets developed throughout your journey. You can either believe in a fixed way of thinking, meaning that you are required to accept the hand life has dealt you with and draw inside the lines, or you can...
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How to Successfully Rebrand Yourself
As leaders, we sometimes feel the pressure of having to know it all, and it’s important for us to realize that we don’t have to be the expert in the room every time and that it’s okay to give ourselves permission to just be a learner and ask questions we don’t know the answer to. As a matter of...
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Thriving in Disruption
One of the greatest qualities I have seen in leaders is their ability to quickly adapt and pivot whenever a disruption calls for a radical change. That requires courage to take leaps of faith trusting your instincts, knowledge, and values, regardless of the fears or internal insecurities that…
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Getting Comfortable with the Uncomfortable
A few years ago, I was presented with an opportunity to leave the engineering career field and lead a product marketing team for one of Intel’s largest businesses. On top of that, I was given the chance to work for a leader who was on my dream sheet of leaders I always wanted to work for, in the...
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Indispensable Lessons for Inspirational Leaders
A few years ago, I took a class at work called, “Executive Inspirational Leadership” – and as luck would have it, Adam Bryant, my guest today, was the instructor. The class was centered around inspiration and how to optimize your leadership voice to accelerate growth in the company. I was so...
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Unleash Your Superpowers to Empower Others
Time after time, opportunity is born out of great adversity and all of your experiences help you not only develop your Roar but also tap into it and use it as one of your superpowers. When you step into the unknown, take risks, and embrace new adventures, you can create successful outcomes that...
About this show
We all have a hidden power inside us… it is a fire that is often suppressed by fear.
That power is your ROAR and it is waiting to be unleashed!
ROAR is a weekly dose of inspirational stories, candid insights, and indispensable tips, tools, and resources that will lead you to achieve more.
Whether at work or in life, it’s time to Fear Less and reach your highest potential. Learn from a powerful lineup of leaders, authors, industry experts, executive coaches, and successful entrepreneurs from around the globe.
Lakecia Gunter, your Podcast Host, is a Fortune 50 business and tech executive, and #11 on Business Insider’s Top 26 Most Powerful Women Engineers, and she is here to help you release your ROAR.
Hosted by
Lakecia Gunter