When I was a kid, I used to dread gym class. My Physical Education teacher was fond of picking two captains for opposing teams, typically the most athletic kids in the grade, and then they’d hand select their team members. I was typically picked at the bottom of the list because I just wasn’t that good at sports. It was embarrassing to always be picked last, or close to last, and it really impacted my desire to go to school. Kids can be mean, plain and simple.
My guest today, Rob Volpe, knows exactly what I mean. Our interview started off by him telling me about a painful experience he had in grammar school but, as I came to learn, everything happens for a reason and Rob learned a very valuable lesson that day, even if he didn’t realize it until decades later.
Rob Volpe is an astute observer of life and a master storyteller who brings empathy and compassion to the human experience. As CEO of Ignite 360, he leads a team of insights, strategy, and creative professionals helping the world’s leading brands across a range of industries release untapped potential.
As a thought leader in the role of empathy in marketing and the workplace, Rob frequently speaks on the topic at conferences, corporations, and college classes, and he has been quoted in Advertising Week, Mashable, Huffington Post, TheStreet.com, Gourmet Retailer, and the Chicago Tribune, among others.
More conversations
Becoming Your Own Best Friend
Janice Erlbaum left home at 15 for New York City's shelter system. Twenty years after Girlbomb, she talks about owning her part of the story, the teachers who saw her, and why she tells everyone to keep writing it down.
Listen →
When Small Towns Censored Hollywood
Novelist Glenn R. Miller on the small-town ministers who once censored Hollywood's silent films, the family note cards that inspired his satire Rough Cuts, and why censorship is never black and white.
Listen →
Living Your Own Truth
Singer Machan Taylor, who toured with Pink Floyd and Sting, on the loneliness behind a glamorous life on the road, writing a memoir she never meant to write, and why holding the finished book finally let her let go.
Listen →