275: The Path to Authentic Leadership: Exploring Kristi Turner’s Journey

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Kristi Turner is a true embodiment of leadership with heart – she not only leads by example, but as you’ll hear throughout this episode, she is someone that is truly grateful to be able to lead others and takes pride in doing it the best way she can. Get ready to be inspired as she shares her insights on leadership throughout her leadership journey.

More about Kristi Turner

Kristi Turner is a bestselling author, CEO of Kaizen Consulting, Strategic Marketing Advisor to Sixth Street Global Investment Firm and is currently serving as Interim CMO of NWSL Bay Area Soccer Expansion Team. She also happens to be mother of two, aunt to 14, sister, friend, daughter, and wife. By honoring every role and recognizing the relational benefits between them, she shares stories of her climb to Chief Marketing Officer in the heavily male-dominated PE and VC funded technology industry. Her 30 year career is a lesson of courage, resilience, perseverance, and integrity.

Turner provides counsel to executive teams, investment firms, and boards on leadership, marketing, operations, and shares her Rethink Everything mindset to drive more servant leadership and employee fulfillment. She has worked with some of the top retail, telecom, financial and sport brands including Target, Walmart, Apple, T-Mobile, AT&T, American Express, Visa, NFL, NHL, and the Senior PGA. Turner has managed multiple companies through high growth, mergers, acquisitions, and crisis management. Turner is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award for Top Women in Restaurant Technology as well as a Bronze Winner for promoting diversity at the 15th Annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business.

The Listening Guide

Create a listening culture that elevates the employee experience with The Listening Guide.

Discover 3 approaches to listening inside an organization and ensure those you lead feel heard.

  • Understand why listening is key to employee engagement
  • Learn how the Cycle of Listening contributes to strong workplace relationships
  • Get a practical framework for creating a bidirectional, responsive, and supportive listening culture

Download it here. 

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Becoming Unshakeable Podcast

With Heather R. Younger

Becoming Unshakable is the podcast for leaders, creators, and changemakers who know TRUE LEADERSHIP starts from within.

Each episode explores what it takes to lead with resilience, compassion, and purpose while staying human through it all.

Through candid conversations with executives, frontline leaders, coaches, and everyday heroes, Heather uncovers the real stories behind growth, compassion, setbacks, and transformation.

From navigating change to creating emotionally safe cultures, Becoming Unshakable reveals what it really takes to create leaders—and organizations—that can’t be shaken.

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Hi, I'm Heather

I've been through every type of
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
you can think of.

Layoffs, reorgs, mergers, acquisitions and major technology shifts. More than 20 years leading teams through high-stakes situations where results mattered, people depended on me, and decisions couldn't wait.

Those years taught me how to lead. But they also showed me the hidden cost of always being the one who holds it all together.

During our second reorg in less than a year, I walked out of a meeting with no say in what was happening, just marching orders. When my team asked how the meeting went, I should have said, “Give me 15 minutes to process this.” But I didn't. Instead, I let them absorb every ounce of my frustration.

Then I saw their faces.

The people who looked to me for stability had just watched me unravel. What was that teaching them about their ability to handle the pressure?

That moment changed how I saw my role as a leader. Leading teams isn't only about grit or resilience. It's about how your presence builds the trust your team needs to function when things get hard.

Today, I help organizations build unshakable leaders, teams, and cultures. Because when leaders become the calm teams can count on, organizations don't just survive change, they come out strong enough to handle what’s next.

Book Heather >
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The Cycle of Active Listening

Create a listening culture that elevates the workplace experience for everyone.

Through this guide, uncover how to ensure those in your care at work feel heard and valued, resulting in increased loyalty and satisfaction.

  • Understand why listening is the key to improved engagement
  • Learn how the Cycle of Active Listening contributes to strong workplace relationships
  • Get a practical framework for creating a listening culture that is bidirectional, responsive, and supportive

Contact Heather Today!
+1 403-398-8488

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Contact Heather Today!
+1 403-398-8488

Contact
Contact

I'm really interested in...

(select all that apply)*

I can be reached at...

Additional Comments