Liftoff Journeys
Her daughter wanted to bathe people for money. His parents sent him to study volcanoes.
That’s Liftoff Journeys.
It’s me sitting down with really interesting people and letting the conversation go where it actually goes. Not the résumé stuff. Not the polished story. The parts you only get when people stop editing themselves.
The conversations always drift into the stuff that usually gets skipped; the wrong turns, the awkward pauses, the decisions that felt risky but were really ultimately smart. People talk the way they talk when they’re being honest with a friend.
As you’re listening, you’re not sitting there thinking about them, you’re thinking about you. You realize the choice you’ve been putting off and the part of your life that feels like it’s waiting for a move is ready to be unleashed.
This is the podcast for people who don’t need context. People who don’t need to “learn” anything. People like you, who just listen, and somehow things start clicking.
Put this podcast on while you’re doing literally ...anything... and end up more invested than you meant to be, because the conversations are that good.
If you like stories that unfold in real time, without a script or a clean ending, Liftoff Journeys will pull you in.
Liftoff Journeys
Why Studying Volcanoes Changed How Stephen Gee Thinks About Leadership, and What Most Executives Get Wrong
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
I’m sitting down with Stephen Gee, CEO and co-founder of Blend, expecting him to give me a common story of his background, and at some point he casually says, “I actually went to college to become a volcanologist.”
Volcanoes.
Lava.
Remote islands.
No friends. (His words, not mine.)
And somehow… that explains everything about how he sees leadership today.
This episode of Liftoff Journeys is very much about Stephen’s journey, not the polished LinkedIn version, but the real one where he followed curiosity instead of a title and ended up exactly where he was supposed to be.
Stephen walks through how studying volcanoes ; systems under pressure, unseen fault lines, sudden eruptions , shaped the way he now spots what’s broken in modern leadership. Why siloed executives feel productive but miss what’s actually building beneath the surface. Why pressure narrows perspective instead of expanding it. And why the most dangerous leaders aren’t the ones who fail, they’re the ones who stop questioning.
We laugh a lot in this conversation. About awkward rooms. About walking into spaces where you have no idea what anyone does. About realizing, decades into your career, that the most growth happens when you’re willing to say, “I don’t know, tell me more.”
We also get real about:
- how Stephen accidentally found his way into the human side of leadership
- why community and cognitive diversity matter more than playbooks
- how Blend was built by intentionally breaking industry boundaries
- and why curiosity — not certainty — is what actually makes leaders better
Without trying to, this conversation brings The AIR Method™ to life:
- Authenticity — being willing to admit what you don’t know
- Inspiration — letting unfamiliar perspectives reshape your thinking
- Relatability — realizing no one’s path is as linear as it looks
If you’ve ever wondered how someone really ends up where they are, or if you’ve felt that quiet nudge that says there might be more growth outside your usual lane, this journey will stick with you.
Because sometimes the very thing that seems like a detour…
turns out to be the training ground for everything that comes next.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Watch the TV show "Liftoff with Jeanniey Walden"
Follow us on X
Follow us on Instagram
Talk to us on Facebook
Meet Jeanniey live - see where she will be next.
Podcasts we love
Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.
