Who You Are at Work Shouldn’t Cost You Who You Are at Home with Joel Manby

12/12/2025 52 min
Who You Are at Work Shouldn’t Cost You Who You Are at Home with Joel Manby

Listen "Who You Are at Work Shouldn’t Cost You Who You Are at Home with Joel Manby"

Episode Synopsis

What if the way you lead at work didn’t cost you your soul at home?That’s the question that kept coming up for me in this conversation with Joel Manby. And honestly, it’s one of the most meaningful conversations I’ve had on Keep the Change.Joel’s resume is impressive on paper. Harvard. General Motors. Saturn. CEO of Saab North America at 34. Chairman and CEO of Herschend Enterprises, the company behind brands like Silver Dollar City and Dollywood. But this episode isn’t about titles. It’s about the moment when success stopped being enough and significance started to matter.In this episode, Joel and I talk about what it really looks like to lead with love without losing results. We dig into his journey from growing up poor in Michigan, to navigating toxic corporate cultures, to discovering a radically different way of leading that actually produced better employee engagement, higher customer satisfaction, and stronger long-term returns.We talk about Saturn and what made it different. We talk about failure, including a painful startup collapse that left Joel questioning everything. We talk about the phone call that changed his life, when Jack Herschend invited him into a company that believed people came first, not last. And yes, we talk about Undercover Boss, the letters that poured in afterward, and why that experience pushed Joel to write Love Works. If you’re a leader who’s tired of choosing between results and relationships, this episode is for you. If you’ve ever felt that tension between who you are at home and who work seems to require you to be, this conversation will hit close to home. And if you believe there has to be a better way to lead without becoming someone you don’t recognize, you’ll want to hear every minute of this one. Enjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast players!Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/keep-the-change/id1622521488Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2xcQk7kNGNOnWuZ14aDkWCConnect with Joel ManbyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-manby-3850b911b/Connect with Bart Nollenberger:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bart-nollenberger-4949405a/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BartNollenbergerCoaching

More episodes of the podcast Keep The Change