Leadership measured by care.
Something Extra brings leaders and service-minded guests into reflective conversations about what gives leadership its moral weight. The show favors personal turning points, practical values, and stories where care for people becomes the measure of impact.
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Something Extra is a leadership conversation series built around the belief that influence starts with how people are seen and cared for. The show’s center is not tactics alone. It is character in motion. Lisa Nichols speaks with guests whose stories connect business, service, faith, family, resilience, and responsibility. The conversations usually move patiently, giving guests room to explain the path behind the principle. A bakery leader can become a guide to company culture. A technology leader can become a teacher on emotional intelligence. A former military and financial services professional can speak about the painful gap between outward success and inward despair. The show is comfortable with success stories, but it is more interested in what success asks of a person once the applause fades. Episodes return often to the work of building cultures where people know what matters and see those values practiced. Josh Allen’s conversation focuses on companions, customers, community, company, safety, and the need to make values visible as an organization scales. Larry Bonfante’s episode pushes technical leadership beyond competence into passion, results, integrity, patience, and self-awareness. Brandon Bettis’s story brings a grave and vulnerable note, naming suicidal thoughts and the search for purpose after every visible goal had been reached. Bob Chapman’s tribute episode reinforces the show’s deepest theme: people-first leadership as a calling rather than a slogan. Rachael Lampa’s appearance brings questions of identity, validation, faith, and worth beyond performance. Betsy Cohen’s conversation looks at futurism, philanthropy, reinvention, mentorship, and the courage to live in uncomfortable territory. Jeff Thomas connects purpose, biblical conviction, entrepreneurship, and service beyond the bottom line. Michael Smith’s episode reflects the show’s larger interest in empathy, agility, and the personal qualities leaders carry into their work. Something Extra is polished but not distant. It is sincere without becoming vague. Its best moments turn biography into a usable lesson about leading with care.
Made for: For listeners who prefer reflective leadership conversations over quick-fix management advice. It especially suits founders, executives, team leaders, and service-minded professionals who connect business impact with personal character.
What sets it apart: Something Extra stands apart by treating leadership as a relational and moral practice, not just a performance discipline. The show draws lessons from business, technology, philanthropy, music, faith, family, and personal hardship without losing its steady people-first frame.
My name is Lisa Nichols, and I have spent the last 30 years as both the CEO of Technology Partners and as the mother to Ally, our daughter with Down syndrome. Down syndrome occurs when someone is born with an extra chromosome, but for Ally, her “something extra” goes beyond her DNA. She is one of the funniest, kindest, mostly joyful people you have ever met. Learning from Ally has taught me to look for the “something extras” in everyone I encounter. Join me as I interview leaders from around the world as they share their stories and show us what it takes to influence, encourage, and be a true leader in our daily lives. Welcome to Something Extra.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It makes leadership practical by connecting operating decisions with emotional intelligence and care for people.
Something Extra turns leadership interviews toward the human choices behind operating a business. Lisa Nichols asks guests to connect management ideas with lived experience, moving naturally between workplace practice and the convictions that shape their decisions.
Agile gets a car factory test drive; your leadership questions get Lisa Nichols at the wheel.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear-eyed conversation about helping founder-led values survive growth.
Josh Allen treats culture as something a company does each day, not something it prints on a wall. At Companion Baking, care for people, customers, community and company once traveled through his own relationships and time alongside the team. Growth changed that.
A practical conversation about why emotional intelligence becomes central as IT leaders move beyond technical mastery.
Larry Bonfanti's conversation with Lisa Nichols looks at the point where technical skill and business fluency no longer carry an IT leader by themselves.
A candid conversation about the crisis that can follow a life organized around achievement.
Brandon Bettis's story turns a familiar success narrative inside out. As Director of Client Enrichment at Epic Holistic Partners, he reflects on leaving the military for financial services, building two careers he loved, reaching financial independence, and sharing life with a…
Betsy Cohen presents future-facing philanthropy as thoughtful preparation, backed by modest resources and the courage to keep moving.
Betsy Cohen treats philanthropic futurism as a habit of preparation, not prediction. Futurists watch for changes in business, technology, the environment and new ideas, imagine possible scenarios, then commit a little money, time or other resources to prepare.
Jeff Thomas links faith-shaped business ambition with service, purpose, and leadership beyond the balance sheet.
The episode frames business ambition as a test of purpose, not just execution. In conversation with Lisa Nichols, Jeff Thomas describes a faith-shaped assignment to help scale a wealth management idea rooted in biblical knowledge.
A car-factory metaphor turns agile into a clear lesson in adjustable delivery.
Greg Smith makes agile easier to grasp by following a car through a factory, where change can still happen before the work is too far gone. A customer can adjust the color before major investment, choose different seats before installation, or upgrade the radio after realizing…
A grounded look at creative service as a way to make customer moments last.
Leah frames creative service as a practical way to make retail moments feel personal. At live events, she engraves messages on fragrance bottles, turning a gift with purchase into something customers say they will keep.
Leadership balance before burnout takes over.
A midweek reset for school leaders.
Lisa Nichols introduces a compilation of the best moments from 2025, starting with Jay Chung discussing surrendering fear, shame, and guilt to find restoration in God's love.
Lisa Nichols interviews Leah Spiros, a calligrapher and owner of Wrapped and Written.
Lisa Nichols interviews Greg Smith, an enterprise Agile coach who has led over 100 Agile transformations for companies like Microsoft and JPMorgan Chase.
Four C's carry the work.
Larry Bonfante frames leadership around three adjectives - passion, results, and integrity - and ties each one to how teams perform.
A former Army officer and financial-services executive says his "perfect life" still left him suicidal.
A tribute episode honoring Bob Chapman's life and legacy, focusing on his belief that everybody matters and his commitment to building people-first cultures.
Rachael Lampa discusses her struggle with identity and worth beyond external validation, particularly from music and faith.
Betsy Cohen describes her path from 33 years at Ralston Purina to the St.
"I was holding that as more of an idol than I wanted to admit."
Lisa Nichols interviews Michael Smith about leading with empathy and agility, drawing from her experiences as a CEO and mother to a daughter with Down syndrome.
Lisa Nichols introduces her podcast about leadership and the 'something extra' in people, featuring an interview with Bill Tingle.
Lisa Nichols introduces her podcast about the 'something extra' in leaders, featuring an interview with Susan Flippen, CEO of The Flippen Group.
Lisa Nichols introduces the concept of 'something extra' in people with Down syndrome and leaders, then interviews Leah Spiros, a calligrapher and artist, about her work and connection to the podcast's theme.