Stepsero

Hosted by Matteo Casini

Business Management

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Episodes

123

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

Modern work is demanding. Even for people who are good at what they do, the human complexity around it can be exhausting. Stepsero is a podcast for professionals who want to feel less overwhelmed by it all. Every episode is a focused, honest conversation on one of the topics that make modern work challenging: leadership, communication, difficult conversations, AI, mental well-being, and more. No filler. No hour-long rambles. One short conversation at a time, towards a little more clarity.

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October 19, 202617 min

#122: Imposter Syndrome at Work: Myths and Misconceptions

Imposter syndrome at work is often reduced to low confidence. In this conversation, executive coach and imposter syndrome specialist Sarah Farmer unpacks that and other common myths, taking a broader view: any mask, from overconfidence to underconfidence, that can stop someone from being as effective as they want to be. She separates imposter syndrome from the normal nerves of doing something new, challenges the idea that it fades with seniority, and looks at why there’s no quick fix. The conversation also covers how to tell when it’s worth working on, through three lenses: mental, physical and financial. Our Guest: Sarah Farmer Sarah Farmer is an international multi-award-winning executive coach, imposter syndrome specialist, bestselling author of Leader Unleashed and host of the Lead Brightly podcast. As Founder of Bright & Brilliant Ltd., Sarah helps senior leaders, leadership teams and business owners develop the right level of confidence, emotional intelligence and people skills to lead themselves and others brilliantly. Blending neuroscience, psychology and practical leadership development, her work helps people challenge the thinking and self-doubt that can hold them back, create lasting behavioural change and take greater control of the future they want to create. Her mission? A brighter future powered by brilliant leaders. References: Sarah Farmer LinkedIn profile www.brightandbrilliant.com

October 8, 202616 min

#121: Remote Work: A Founder’s Lessons

REPLUG launched just weeks before the pandemic. It went remote out of necessity and stayed remote by choice. Co-founder Luca Mastrorocco, who spent years managing teams in person, shares what that shift taught him about running a company where people rarely share a room. The conversation covers why remote work isn’t for everyone, why REPLUG now looks for people who have already worked remotely, and why junior profiles may need a mentor close by to grow. Luca explains why deliverables matter more to him than a 9-to-5 schedule, and how he approaches trust: everyone starts at 100%, backed by written processes and clear quality standards. When work falls short, his first question is whether he communicated expectations well enough. He also questions companies that call people back to the office for the sake of trust and culture, and closes with practical advice for founders and employees considering a remote-first setup. Our Guest: Luca Mastrorocco Luca Mastrorocco is an Italian entrepreneur based in Berlin and co-founder of REPLUG, an agency helping companies grow their app businesses. With over a decade of experience in digital and mobile advertising, he leads the company’s commercial growth and runs an international, remote-first team alongside his co-founder. A father of two, Luca speaks candidly about the practical realities of running a company, leading people, and making work fit around a life that includes more than work. References: Luca Mastrorocco LinkedIn profile www.rplg.io

September 29, 202617 min

#120: Influencing Without Authority

Influencing without authority isn’t just a challenge for junior employees: it follows people all the way to the top of an organization. This episode breaks down what influence actually means, using a simple framework of control, influence, and concern, and explores why pushing too hard, too fast, can trigger pushback rather than agreement. The conversation covers how to identify the people who actually shape a decision-maker’s thinking, why relationships built long before you need them matter more than any tactic, and what it means to manage your own ego when you don’t have formal power to rely on. Our Guest: Costas Kalisperas Costas is the Founder & CEO of In Tune Executive Coaching. His focus is on helping leaders to be in tune with themselves and their environment, tap into their inner resourcefulness and manage their interactions with others more effectively. To know more about Costas, please visit any of the links below. References: Costas Kalisperas LinkedIn profile www.intune-exec.com

September 28, 202619 min

#119: Finding Yourself When Work No Longer Defines You

In this episode, we talk with Geoff Curtis, author of Embracing Your Own Purgatory, about what happens when the identity you built around your work disappears. Geoff describes the armor he built around his career, and how he used work to avoid dealing with harder things in his own life. We talk about destination addiction (always chasing the next achievement without stopping to ask why) and what he thinks the antidote is. Geoff also shares why he believes productivity and progress aren’t the same thing, and how he’d approach a career transition today, in a job market where trust between companies and employees feels harder to build. We close on authenticity at work, and whether most workplace cultures are actually ready for it. Our Guest: Geoff Curtis Geoff Curtis is former executive vice president, corporate affairs and chief communications officer at Horizon Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on researching and developing treatments for rare diseases. During his nearly 30-year health care communications career, he has worked in various roles on both the client and agency side. Geoff is a committed mentor and coach to young professionals and undergraduate college students, and an avid philanthropist committed to education equity and access. He and his wife recently launched Future Voices Collective, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting first-generation college students pursuing careers in public relations and communications. Additionally, Geoff recently published his first book, Embracing Your Own Purgatory. He received a Bachelor of Arts in English from Lake Forest College, a Master of Arts from DePaul University in public relations and advertising and completed the Leadership and Society Initiative fellowship at the University of Chicago. Geoff currently serves on the board of trustees for Lake Forest College, is a member of the board of directors for Hope Chicago and the Illinois Biotechnology Innovation Organization; is a member of the board of advisors for The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations; serves as Vice Chair for the Commission on Public Relations Education; is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council for the DePaul University School of Communications; serves on the advisory committee for the University of Chicago Leadership and Society Initiative and on the Graham Council for the University of Chicago Graham School. References: Geoff Curtis LinkedIn profile Embracing Your Own Purgatory (Amazon Link)

September 8, 202615 min

#118: Can You Build a Personal Brand While Employed?

Giovanni Di Felice talks about what it takes to build a personal brand while representing an employer. He shares why he sees personal branding as helpful rather than necessary, how his following grew organically over just few years, and where he draws the line on authenticity (open about work challenges and opinions, but private about deeper personal moments). The conversation also covers his view that a well-crafted LinkedIn profile can replace a CV, what counts as a red flag on a candidate’s profile, and the tension between being an executive and being a content creator. Our Guest: Giovanni Di Felice Giovanni Di Felice is Director of Talent Acquisition at Statista. He is passionate about talent acquisition and people development and enjoys building high-performing teams of experts, which he leads with a consultative leadership style. Outside of work, he appreciates art and enjoys engaging in conversations on a wide range of topics. References: Giovanni Di Felice LinkedIn profile

September 7, 202619 min

#117: How to Structure a Feedback Conversation

Giving feedback is one of the hardest parts of managing people, and most of us were never taught how to do it. In this conversation, we sit down with Katie O’Brien Ceccarini, Certified Executive Coach and author of Fearless Feedback, to unpack what actually makes a feedback conversation work. We start with mindset (Katie’s reframe of feedback as “food in someone’s teeth,”) and why she stopped calling it feedback altogether, choosing instead to think of it as information that helps someone succeed. From there we move into her “Headline, Observation, Ask” framework, walking through what a good opening line sounds like versus the kind that puts people on the defensive before the conversation even starts. We also get into when feedback is actually worth giving, using her “instance, pattern, and role-fit framework” and how often managers should be sharing it, including her 5-to-1 ratio and the idea of staying “high cadence, low stakes” rather than letting things build up. We close with a quick tip on how to receive feedback better, too. Our Guest: Katie O’Brien Ceccarini Katie O’Brien Ceccarini is the Founder of Endurance Management Coaching, a Certified Executive Coach, and author of Fearless Feedback: Everything Managers Have Never Been Taught About Feedback. Over the last 20 years, she’s managed, trained, and developed thousands of people — from scaling Customer Success at Yelp to leading Learning & Development at Opendoor. Today she works with organizations like eBay, LinkedIn, and AllState to build high-performing teams with the power of feedback. References: Katie O’Brien Ceccarini LinkedIn profile Fearless Feedback: Everything Managers Have Never Been Taught About Feedback (Amazon Link)

July 23, 202616 min

#116: What Are You Being Taught to Believe About Yourself?

In this conversation, leadership and performance facilitator Richard Gordon Kelly explores the invisible beliefs we carry about who we need to be, and how those beliefs, more than the work itself, create pressure and burnout. The discussion covers where these beliefs originate, why pressure acts as “expensive fuel,” and what happens when a thought is noticed rather than believed. It closes on presence and slowing down as a way of staying close to what is actually true in the moment. Our Guest: Richard Gordon Kelly Richard Gordon Kelly is a leadership and performance facilitator working with executives, leaders, and teams across Europe. For more than 25 years, Richard has worked with people and organisations to explore what allows individuals and teams to perform at their best while staying connected to what matters most. He often notices something simple in his work: people are rarely struggling with work itself as much as with how work is being experienced internally — through pressure, thought, and the meaning we attach to what is happening. Through conversations focused on trust, presence, and human connection, Richard helps people see their experience more clearly in real time. And when that clarity emerges, things often begin to shift naturally. Less pressure. More awareness. Better conversations. More sustainable performance. Not because something new is added, but because people reconnect with what was already there. References: Richard Gordon Kelly LinkedIn profile Listen to the next Episode All Podcast Episodes

July 16, 202617 min

#115: Sounding Alike: AI, Research, and the Risk of Convergence

Cecilie Steenbuch Traberg joins Stepsero to discuss her co-authored paper, “AI is turning research into a scientific monoculture.” The conversation covers how reliance on the same AI tools drives convergence in language, methods, and questions, plus a productivity paradox, where individual gains in output create more collective work rather than less. It also touches on leadership overconfidence in AI leading to less oversight, and the risk of losing purpose and skill development when the effort behind work is handed to AI. Our Guest: Cecilie Steenbuch Traberg Cecilie Steenbuch Traberg is a Dr in Psychology from University of Cambridge and an assistant professor of digitalisation at copenhagen business school, where she conducts research on the intersection between psychology and technology. References: Cecilie Steenbuch Traberg LinkedIn profile Listen to the next Episode All Podcast Episodes

July 16, 202618 min

#114: AI at Work: Uneven Adoption, Real Risks

In this episode, Olga Solovyeva explains why AI adoption inside organizations is so uneven, often coming down to leadership. Some leaders give teams freedom and time to experiment; others pause and “park” AI altogether. That caution has a cost. When leadership restricts AI, employees often turn to personal accounts instead (what Olga calls shadow AI use) which strips away any oversight the organization would otherwise provide. The conversation then turns to risk: data leaks from sensitive information entered into AI tools, and hallucinations that have already damaged reputations at major consulting firms. Olga closes on a subtler one: as AI makes longer reports easy to produce, those reports get AI-summarized on the receiving end too, leaving discussions built on content no one’s actually read, and no one’s accountable for. Our Guest: Olga Solovyeva Olga Solovyeva, PhD, works at the intersection of technology governance and strategic communications. She advises boards on AI governance and risk at Chairwell Partners, and writes on the human side of AI adoption. Her doctoral research examined how tech companies wield political power — a thread she’s now pulling through a book on the transformation of one of Russia’s largest tech firms under state pressure. References: Olga Solovyeva LinkedIn profile Listen to the next Episode All Podcast Episodes

July 3, 202620 min

#113: Passion, Skills, and Why so Many People Get Their Career Wrong

Most people approach their careers the same way: skip the thinking, go straight to applying. Hundreds of applications to roles they half-want, hoping something sticks. Alex McCann has spent the last few years trying to understand why, and building something to fix it. In this conversation, he breaks down why so many career decisions get made on autopilot, why the debate between following your passion and following your skills is more nuanced than most career advice suggests, and what it actually takes to find work that fits. Along the way, there are some honest reflections on the entrepreneurial path, including what building Rumbo has taught him, and what he’s still figuring out. Our Guest: Alex McCann Alex McCann is the co-founder and Commercial Director of Rumbo, an AI career coaching platform that helps people understand themselves and the kind of work that suits them before they start applying for jobs. He also writes Still Wandering, a newsletter about careers, work and the changing labour market that reaches more than 18,000 readers. References: Alex McCann LinkedIn profile Listen to the next Episode All Podcast Episodes