The Talent Forge: Shaping Workforce Behaviors with Jay Johnson

Hosted by Jay Johnson

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Jul 2026

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About the show

Welcome to The Talent Forge: Shaping Workforce Behavior with Jay Johnson — the podcast where behavioral science meets the day-to-day challenges of leadership and talent development. Each week, Jay Johnson, behavioral architect, two-time TEDx speaker, and corporate trainer, brings you bold conversations and tactical insights to help organizations develop better managers, improve communication, and shape workplace behavior that drives results . Whether you're an emerging leader, a C-suite executive, an operations manager, or an individual seeking growth, this show delivers behavior-based strategies that stick. Jay and experts in the field come together to share a behind-the-scenes look at the tools that build high-performing teams , reduce burnout, and foster cultures of accountability and trust . From leadership development and management coaching to behavioral intelligence and culture transformation, you'll walk away with actionable tools to improve your people, processes, and performance. This isn’t theory. This is real-world behavior, transformed. Welcome to the Forge. Interested in being a guest? Please contact Madison Bennett via email (madison@coeuscreativegroup.com).

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60 recent

August 14, 202619 min

The Little White Lie: "I'm Fine"

“I’m fine” might be the most polished sentence in the workplace and one of the least honest. We dig into the quiet reality behind that answer: it’s often a containment strategy that helps us avoid conflict, stay “professional,” and keep moving even when something actually landed wrong. The problem is simple and brutal: what we refuse to name doesn’t disappear. It leaks into behavior. Emails get shorter, cameras stay off, meetings go silent, sarcasm gets sharper, and high performers start over-functioning their way toward burnout. You’ll leave with practical scripts and leadership tools you can use immediately: cleaner, smaller truths like “I’m still processing,” “I’m overloaded,” or “I need clarity,” plus a clear distinction between valid feelings and accountable behavior. If you lead a team, we also share ways to notice mismatches gently, create an opening without interrogation, and build shared language that makes repair easier under pressure. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a teammate, and leave a review. What’s a better alternative to “I’m fine” that you wish your workplace normalized? Meet the Host Jay Johnson works with people and organizations to empower teams, grow profits, and elevate leadership. He is a Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements® , a two-time TEDx speaker, and a designated Master Trainer by the Association for Talent Development. With a focus on behavioral intelligence, Jay has delivered transformational workshops to accelerate high-performance teams and cultures in more than 30 countries across four continents. For inquiries, contact jay@behavioralelements.com or connect below! LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayjohnsonccg/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jayjohnsonccg/ Speaker Website - https://jayjohnsonspeaks.com

July 24, 202624 min

The Intellectualization Reflex and How To Break It

You can be brilliant at patterns and still be terrible at presence. We’re naming a common trap for leaders, coaches, and high performers: the intellectualization reflex, that lightning-fast move where something hurts and we respond by explaining it, analyzing it, and turning it into a neat framework we can hold at a safe distance. It sounds like emotional intelligence, but it often functions like armor and it quietly blocks the connection we say we want. We dig into what this looks like in leadership communication, feedback, and conflict. When a team is anxious or exhausted, more logic and more context can actually make the room colder, not calmer. The shift is simple but hard: acknowledgement before explanation. People don’t feel seen by a strategy slide; they feel seen when we name the emotional weight of what’s happening. That’s how trust and psychological safety get built, and it’s also how our message finally becomes hearable. If this hits close to home, share it with someone who leads people (or someone who leads with solutions, and subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next. Meet the Host Jay Johnson works with people and organizations to empower teams, grow profits, and elevate leadership. He is a Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements® , a two-time TEDx speaker, and a designated Master Trainer by the Association for Talent Development. With a focus on behavioral intelligence, Jay has delivered transformational workshops to accelerate high-performance teams and cultures in more than 30 countries across four continents. For inquiries, contact jay@behavioralelements.com or connect below! LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayjohnsonccg/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jayjohnsonccg/ Speaker Website - https://jayjohnsonspeaks.com

July 17, 202632 min

Behavioral Contagion At Work

Culture can shift in a single meeting and not because you delivered a better speech. It shifts because someone’s behavior spreads quietly, fast, and often without permission. We break down behavioral contagion, the leadership idea that explains why calm, clarity, and accountability can ripple through a team, and why panic, sarcasm, and chronic lateness can do the same. If you’ve ever walked into a room and felt the mood hit you before a word was spoken, you already understand the stakes. To help you redesign what spreads, we walk through the SPREAD framework: signal, permission, reward, ease, adoption, durability. You’ll learn how to spot the signals you send, what you’ve unintentionally tolerated, what rewards are paying for the wrong patterns, and how to make better habits friction-light using scripts and simple phrases. We close with a practical seven-day challenge to become a behavior spotter, install a replacement behavior, reinforce it in real time, and protect it when pressure hits. If this hits home, subscribe and share the episode with a manager or teammate, then leave a review so more people can find practical tools for leadership, workplace culture, and behavior change. What behavior are you making contagious this week? Meet the Host Jay Johnson works with people and organizations to empower teams, grow profits, and elevate leadership. He is a Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements® , a two-time TEDx speaker, and a designated Master Trainer by the Association for Talent Development. With a focus on behavioral intelligence, Jay has delivered transformational workshops to accelerate high-performance teams and cultures in more than 30 countries across four continents. For inquiries, contact jay@behavioralelements.com or connect below! LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayjohnsonccg/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jayjohnsonccg/ Speaker Website - https://jayjohnsonspeaks.com

May 22, 202643 min

Design Training That Builds Real Business Tools with Rose Benedicks

Most training is built to transfer knowledge. That’s not enough anymore. If we want learning and development to survive budget cuts and earn real influence, we have to build training that produces workplace outputs people actually use. Jay Johnson sits down with talent development leader Rose Benedicks to unpack a practical model: design learning around the deliverable, not the content. We walk through concrete examples that make this click fast, like onboarding technical facilitators by having them create a facilitator guide as the outcome, or building risk management plans, business continuity plans, performance plans, sales follow-up strategies, and even full marketing campaigns during the learning process. Rose explains why this is harder than traditional training, how it forces you to embed the real way of working into the program, and why evaluating the actual work product is the cleanest measurement you can ask for. Then we take the same thinking into AI transformation. What does it mean to work with a digital coworker? Where should humans stay in the loop? How do future-built organizations move beyond AI for productivity and into AI that creates business value? We also get specific about AI risk and reliability, including hallucinations, model drift, governance, picking the right model for the task, and how individuals can “train” their AI with source rules, citation checks, and named research protocols. If you’re serious about training ROI, performance improvement, and using AI without multiplying chaos, this one will give you a clear next step. Subscribe to Talent Forge, share this with your L&D or ops team, and leave a review with the workplace output you want your next training to produce. About Rose Benedicks: Rose Benedicks works in the people-plus-operations space, most recently as a VP of Ops. Her background in corporate L&D led to her most inspired work improving the top line for all kinds of organizations, from Fortune 50 to startups. She has also taught in UT, Knoxville's graduate ID program and is currently earning an executive education certificate in AI Transformation and Leadership at Chicago Booth. Rose also has a lifelong passion for mental health as it applies to workplace relationships. Connect with her: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosebenedicks/ Interested in being a guest on The Talent Forge? Contact our producer, Madison Bennett, via email: madison@coeuscreativegroup.com. Meet the Host Jay Johnson works with people and organizations to empower teams, grow profits, and elevate leadership. He is a Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements® , a two-time TEDx speaker, and a designated Master Trainer by the Association for Talent Development. With a focus on behavioral intelligence, Jay has delivered transformational workshops to accelerate high-performance teams and cultures in more than 30 countries across four continents. For inquiries, contact jay@behavioralelements.com or connect below! LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayjohnsonccg/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jayjohnsonccg/ Speaker Website - https://jayjohnsonspeaks.com

May 15, 202638 min

Solo Mission Series: Relationship Management at Work

A single vague message can kick off a week of tension, not because anyone is incompetent, but because the brain hates uncertainty and relationships strain under pressure. Our host, Jay Johnson, takes a solo deep dive into relationship management at work and shows how two common stress patterns, anxious and avoidant attachment behaviors, quietly hijack communication between managers and employees. We walk through what “anxious” and “avoidant” look like in real workplace moments: the employee who keeps following up for reassurance, the manager who goes quiet and calls it efficiency, the status update that feels like micromanagement, and the short reply that gets read as rejection. You’ll hear why these are patterns, not labels, and how anxious pursuit and avoidant withdrawal create a predictable loop that hurts engagement, retention, and performance. Then we get practical. Jay shares a clear leadership toolkit with scripts you can use immediately: how to name the loop without blaming the person, how to install a calming clarity cadence, how to use a pause phrase when the heat rises, and how to replace assumptions with the “fact, story, ask” framework. We also cover repair scripts, bounded reassurance, and a directness with dignity rule that protects psychological safety while keeping standards high. If you want less drama and more traction in your manager-employee relationships, subscribe, share this with a leader on your team, and leave a review with the one script you’re going to try first. Meet the Host Jay Johnson works with people and organizations to empower teams, grow profits, and elevate leadership. He is a Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements® , a two-time TEDx speaker, and a designated Master Trainer by the Association for Talent Development. With a focus on behavioral intelligence, Jay has delivered transformational workshops to accelerate high-performance teams and cultures in more than 30 countries across four continents. For inquiries, contact jay@behavioralelements.com or connect below! LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayjohnsonccg/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jayjohnsonccg/ Speaker Website - https://jayjohnsonspeaks.com

May 1, 202638 min

From Paralympic World Record to Daily Growth: The 1% Method with Mikael Avatar Stjernvall

A Paralympic world record doesn’t come from hype; it comes from tiny choices repeated for years. That’s where this conversation with Mikael Avatar Stjernvall goes: into the real mechanics of resilience, focus, and the kind of leadership habits that hold up when motivation disappears. We talk about Mikael’s journey from childhood training and early coaching instincts to elite Paralympic performance, and how passion becomes the “glue” that makes setbacks feel smaller. From there, we get practical about behavior change and mindset: curiosity, testing, repetition, and the daily reflection that keeps you pointed at the right goal. If you’re searching for leadership development that isn’t fluffy, you’ll hear a clear model for building consistency, strengthening your growth mindset, and staying aligned with what actually makes you happy. Mikael also shares unforgettable stories that make the lessons stick, including his months-long mission to earn a wild cat’s trust through small, steady actions. We dig into the 1% concept as a chain reaction: choose one priority, take one small step, and let momentum build. Along the way, we talk about the loneliness of high performance, how to create real support systems outside your field, and why “almost committed” can quietly sabotage your results. If you found value here, subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review with your biggest 1% takeaway. What will you commit to this week? About Mikael Avatar Stjernvall: Mikael Avatar Stjernvall is a resilience coach, Paralympic world-record holder (long jump, Atlanta 1996), and creator of The Mikael Avatar Method – daily 1% pauses that turn life’s chaos into joyful legacy. Born dead for 45 minutes with cerebral palsy, he defied odds: sailed the Atlantic at 20 with an “impossible” crew, coached 1,000+ clients (Hilton, Save the Children), inspired 300,000 through keynotes, and painted 1,000+ artworks. Since 2009 in Thailand, he’s pain-free and thriving, blending 40+ years of mental training with laughter and fire. Connect with Mikael: mikaelavatar.com Interested in being a guest on The Talent Forge? Contact our producer, Madison Bennett, via email: madison@coeuscreativegroup.com. Meet the Host Jay Johnson works with people and organizations to empower teams, grow profits, and elevate leadership. He is a Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements® , a two-time TEDx speaker, and a designated Master Trainer by the Association for Talent Development. With a focus on behavioral intelligence, Jay has delivered transformational workshops to accelerate high-performance teams and cultures in more than 30 countries across four continents. For inquiries, contact jay@behavioralelements.com or connect below! LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayjohnsonccg/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jayjohnsonccg/ Speaker Website - https://jayjohnsonspeaks.com

April 24, 202642 min

Neuroscience Tools For Leadership and Change with Dr. Lisa Riegel

Your smartest plan can fail if the brain thinks it’s under threat. That’s why we brought on Dr. Lisa Riegel, a neuroscientist and author of Aspirations To Operations and NeuroWell, to translate brain science into leadership behaviors you can actually use when pressure is high and change is nonstop. We start with Lisa’s “quarter-life crisis” reset and the moment she realized success on paper can still feel like failure inside. From there we get practical about choice, acceptance, and why “there’s no wrong step” if you stay curious and learn from the dots on your timeline. Then we go deep into the human operating system: how unconscious processing drives most of our behavior, how the amygdala fires fast, and how identity and old associations can hijack the present. Lisa’s “Bob” and “Harold” model makes complex neuroscience clear without watering it down. If you’re leading through uncertainty, AI disruption, or fast organizational change, we connect the brain to implementation. Lisa shares her 8C commitment framework, including culture and belonging, collective identity, clarity, coherence, cadence, collaboration, coaching, communication, and celebration. We also cover quick vagus nerve and breath practices you can use to improve self-regulation, so you can make better decisions and help your team do the same. Subscribe for more conversations on workforce behavior, share this with a leader who’s navigating change, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. What’s one trigger or change you want to handle better this month? About Lisa: Lisa Riegel started her career in education, driven by one goal: to help people reach their potential. Over time, she realized that fulfillment—whether in a classroom, company, or community—comes from understanding how the brain drives behavior and how systems shape success. That discovery became the foundation for her life’s work. As an educator, researcher, and author, she has spent two decades helping leaders and organizations align brain science with human systems—creating cultures where people feel connected, capable, and in control of their growth. She delivers keynotes, workshops, and individual leadership coaching that helps people connect the science of behavior, motivation, and fulfillment to their organization's strategic goals. Her counsel and support improves happiness, health, and success for individuals and organizations as a whole. Connect with Lisa: https://lisariegel.com/ Interested in being a guest on The Talent Forge? Contact our producer, Madison Bennett, via email: madison@coeuscreativegroup.com. Meet the Host Jay Johnson works with people and organizations to empower teams, grow profits, and elevate leadership. He is a Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements® , a two-time TEDx speaker, and a designated Master Trainer by the Association for Talent Development. With a focus on behavioral intelligence, Jay has delivered transformational workshops to accelerate high-performance teams and cultures in more than 30 countries across four continents. For inquiries, contact jay@behavioralelements.com or connect below! LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayjohnsonccg/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jayjohnsonccg/ Speaker Website - https://jayjohnsonspeaks.com

April 17, 202626 min

Solo Mission Series: Turn Vague Criticism Into Usable Behavior Change

Most leaders think the hard part is “giving feedback.” I think the real challenge is clarity. When we say things like “be more proactive” or “watch your tone,” we’re usually handing someone a foggy request they can’t translate into action, or we’re accidentally aiming at their identity instead of their behavior. No wonder people get defensive and nothing changes. Join Jay in this week's Solo Mission Series as he walks through why feedback fails in predictable ways: it’s too general, it lands like a character judgment, it shows up late, or it tells people what to stop without offering a replacement behavior. You’ll leave with practical tools you can use the same day: the SBI method (Situation, Behavior, Impact), a simple way to add the “why” so feedback feels future-forward, and an “ask” that turns a monologue into a real conversation. I also share replacement behavior examples that include a clear trigger and measurable output, plus a 2x2x2 map to adjust your approach based on intent and skill. Try the seven-day challenge at the end, and if it helps, subscribe, share the show with a leader who needs it, and leave a review with the tool you’re going to test first. Interested in being a guest on The Talent Forge? Contact our producer, Madison Bennett, via email: madison@coeuscreativegroup.com. Meet the Host Jay Johnson works with people and organizations to empower teams, grow profits, and elevate leadership. He is a Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements® , a two-time TEDx speaker, and a designated Master Trainer by the Association for Talent Development. With a focus on behavioral intelligence, Jay has delivered transformational workshops to accelerate high-performance teams and cultures in more than 30 countries across four continents. For inquiries, contact jay@behavioralelements.com or connect below! LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayjohnsonccg/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jayjohnsonccg/ Speaker Website - https://jayjohnsonspeaks.com

April 3, 202633 min

From White Knuckling to Thriving with Trauma-Informed Recovery Coaching with Jeanne Foot

Work performance problems rarely live only in a spreadsheet. They live in bodies, nervous systems, habits, and the quiet stories people carry into meetings. We sit down with Jeanne Foot, CEO of The Recovery Concierge, to talk about behavior change through the lens of addiction recovery, trauma-informed care, and what actually helps people move from coping to thriving. Jeanne shares her own turning point: sobriety brought clarity, but not immediate peace, because the real issue was missing tools and unresolved trauma. From there, we unpack addiction as a spectrum, not a single stereotype, and we connect it to patterns many professionals recognize: overworking, compulsive phone use, social anxiety “numbing,” and the dopamine-driven cue and reward loop. We also dig into why shame-based labels can keep people stuck, and why self-compassion is not fluff but a practical skill that supports real change. Then we go deeper into modern recovery coaching and behavioral health: nervous system regulation, somatic experiencing, and why talk therapy can have limits when trauma is stored in the body. We talk heart, gut, and brain, the impact of sleep, exercise, and nutrition on mental health, and how families and workplaces can unintentionally reinforce the very behaviors they want to change. If you lead people, coach people, or simply want to understand yourself better, this conversation offers a grounded roadmap. About Jeanne Foot: Jeanne Foot is the founder and CEO of The Recovery Concierge , a premier service for mental health, addiction recovery, trauma healing, and peak performance. Between her own lived experience, credentials as an International Certified Alcohol & Drug Counsellor, and trainings in Hypnotherapy, Neurolinguistic Programming, and Somatic work, Jeanne is often called the “best kept secret” in the world of recovery. She brings a unique, holistic, 360-degree approach to treatment, guiding individuals and their families through the complex journey of addiction and healing. Learn more about Jeanne and her team at: https://therecoveryconcierge.com/ Interested in being a guest on The Talent Forge? Contact our producer, Madison Bennett, via email: madison@coeuscreativegroup.com. Meet the Host Jay Johnson works with people and organizations to empower teams, grow profits, and elevate leadership. He is a Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements® , a two-time TEDx speaker, and a designated Master Trainer by the Association for Talent Development. With a focus on behavioral intelligence, Jay has delivered transformational workshops to accelerate high-performance teams and cultures in more than 30 countries across four continents. For inquiries, contact jay@behavioralelements.com or connect below! LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayjohnsonccg/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jayjohnsonccg/ Speaker Website - https://jayjohnsonspeaks.com

March 27, 202659 min

Part 2: The Creativity Advantage with Steven Puri

Your calendar can be full and your team can still be stuck. We get into the real reason: creativity doesn’t die from lack of talent, it dies from lack of safety and lack of uninterrupted focus. Steven Puri returns to The Talent Forge and shares two unforgettable Hollywood stories that land on a practical leadership lesson: when the room feels safe, people offer more ideas, iterate faster, and the best idea can win, no matter where it comes from. We connect that to the neuroscience behind insight, including the default mode network versus the executive mode network, and why your brain often solves the hard problem when you stop staring at it. From there, we bring AI and large language models into the picture. If LLMs can repeat patterns at scale, what’s the human advantage? Steven’s answer points to relationships, original thinking, and deep work that moves your craft forward. We also break down flow state using Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s research, what it feels like, why multitasking is really context switching, and how leaders can design schedules that allow 20+ minutes of ramp-in time to reach real focus. We also get surprisingly tactical: focus music, rain loops, coffee shop ambience, white noise and green noise, and why the right audio cue can pull you back into productive concentration. If you want more innovation, better execution, and less burnout, this is a blueprint you can test immediately. About Steven Puri: Steven is one of the few people on Earth who has been a senior executive at two motion picture studios and also raised over $20MM in venture capital. He’s produced the digital effects for Independence Day, which won the Oscar for Visual Effects, and in addition to his film work, he’s founded 3 start-ups - one successful exit and two failures. Steven lectures now on the lessons in sustainable high-performance he learned working alongside some of the world’s more productive people. Interested in being a guest on The Talent Forge? Contact our producer, Madison Bennett, via email: madison@coeuscreativegroup.com. Meet the Host Jay Johnson works with people and organizations to empower teams, grow profits, and elevate leadership. He is a Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements® , a two-time TEDx speaker, and a designated Master Trainer by the Association for Talent Development. With a focus on behavioral intelligence, Jay has delivered transformational workshops to accelerate high-performance teams and cultures in more than 30 countries across four continents. For inquiries, contact jay@behavioralelements.com or connect below! LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayjohnsonccg/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jayjohnsonccg/ Speaker Website - https://jayjohnsonspeaks.com