Partnering Leadership
Partnering Leadership is a top global podcast designed to help CEOs and senior leaders navigate the complexities of leadership, strategy, culture, and innovation. Hosted by Mahan Tavakoli—a seasoned leadership advisor with over 25 years of experience and recognized as a top thought leader in management—the podcast brings you real-world insights and practical advice to drive meaningful results.
Mahan’s experience as a trusted advisor shapes each discussion, driving deeper insights that challenge conventional thinking and uncover innovative approaches. Drawing from his extensive advisory background, Mahan dives into candid conversations with purpose-driven CEOs and global thought leaders, exploring how they overcame their biggest challenges and achieved transformative success. Each episode provides actionable strategies, real-world examples, and proven approaches to help you navigate change, align teams, and drive lasting impact.
Hear directly from top experts such as Ram Charan, Ken Blanchard, John Kotter, Stephen M.R. Covey, Hal Elrod, Carmine Gallo, Daniel Burrus, Garry Ridge, Jacob Morgan, Emily Field, Jonah Berger, Barbara Kellerman, Rich Diviney, Andrea Sampson, Ajay Agrawal, Dave Ulrich, Jerry Colonna, Renee Cummings, Brian Johnson, Warren Berger, Gustavo Razzetti, Azeem Azhar, David McRaney, Tim Clark, Jim Detert, Gary Bolles, Greg Satell, Robert Wolcott, Alden Mills, Minter Dial, Greg Wooldridge, Pete Steinberg, Joseph Fuller, Paul Roetzer, Whitney Johnson, Ron Adner, Bob Johansen, Leidy Klotz, Paul Smith, Louis Rosenberg, Rob Sadow, Dan Turchin, Steve Robinson, Park Howell, Mark Crowley, Maz Jobrani, LaTonya Wilkins, Rob Cross, Aiden McCullen, Eduardo Briceno, Jan Rutherford, Stephen Wunker, Charlene Li, Jon Levy, Anu Gupta, John Rossman, David Marquet, Tamsen Webster, Jack Phillips, Vanessa Bohns, Patrick McGinnis, Hakeem Oluseyi, Ed Hess, and Carolyn Dewar as well as renowned leaders like David Rubenstein, Jean Case, Tony Pierce, Linda Rabbitt, Paul Daugherty, Richard Bynum, John Veihmeyer, Howard Ross, Bill Novelli, Tien Wong, Stephanie Linnartz, Chuck Robb, Doug Dennerline, Charlene Drew Jarvis, Robert Rosenberg, Diane Hoskins, Deidre Paknad, David Gardner, and Marty Rodgers, and many more!
Their insights, paired with Mahan's expertise, equip you to tackle complex challenges, foster a high-performance culture, and stay ahead in a rapidly evolving world.
Listen today to gain the tools, perspectives, and proven strategies that can transform your leadership journey.
Available on all major podcast platforms or visit https://partneringleadership.com.
Partnering Leadership
456 Different is Better Than Better: The Mrs. Meyer’s Playbook on Category Reinvention with Monica Nassif
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
What does it take to see opportunity where everyone else sees a commodity? In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli speaks with Monica Nassif, founder of Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day and author of I Bottled My Mother: Grit, Grime, and Growing a Business, The Mrs. Meyer’s Story, about building a category-defining brand by challenging the assumptions everyone else accepted.
Monica shares the leadership lessons behind transforming household cleaning from a purely functional category into an experience built around fragrance, design, authenticity, and emotional connection. Drawing from her upbringing as one of nine children, her early career at Target, and her entrepreneurial experience, Monica explores how curiosity, resilience, and a willingness to question industry norms helped her create a brand that stood apart.
In the conversation, Monica discusses the strategic decisions behind scaling Mrs. Meyer’s, including the choice to disrupt her own successful premium brand before competitors could, the importance of preserving culture while adding operational discipline, and why leaders must recognize when the capabilities that got them started are not enough for the next stage of growth.
Monica also reflects on the human side of leadership: learning to communicate the vision more clearly, hiring people who complement your strengths, creating a culture of ambitious goals, and knowing when it’s time to let go. Her insights offer valuable lessons for leaders in any industry who want to build organizations capable of adapting, growing, and reinventing themselves.
Actionable Takeaways
- You’ll learn why “different is better than better” and how leaders can move beyond incremental improvements to create meaningful differentiation.
- Hear how Monica Nassif and her team asked one powerful question that helped them disrupt themselves before competitors had the chance.
- Discover why deep industry experience can sometimes become a barrier to innovation and how outsider thinking can reveal overlooked opportunities.
- You’ll learn how Monica scaled Mrs. Meyer’s by balancing entrepreneurial creativity with the operational discipline needed for growth.
- Hear how leaders can recognize their own strengths and build teams with people who bring the capabilities needed for the next stage.
- Learn why preserving culture during rapid growth requires more than values on a page and how Monica kept Mrs. Meyer’s connected to its identity.
- Discover the communication lesson Monica learned as a founder: why leaders need to make sure others can “see their taillights” rather than assuming the vision is obvious.
- Hear how Monica approached investors, partnerships, and eventually the decision to sell by asking what others could bring that the company couldn’t create on its own.
- Learn why ambitious goals, ownership, and a sense of fun became essential parts of the culture behind Mrs. Meyer’s growth.
Connect with Monica Nassif
Connect with Mahan Tavakoli:
