Culture Creators Culture Creators is a podcast for executives who own culture outcomes—engagement, performance, trust, and retention—featuring real leadership stories and practical playbooks you can apply immediately to make your culture your greatest strategic advantage. Each episode unpacks a real culture challenge a leader faced, what was driving it beneath the surface, and the specific actions that helped them turn it around. Culture isn’t built with slogans. It’s built (and protected) through decisions: what leaders tolerate, what they reinforce, how they communicate, and how they respond when pressure of growth, change, conflict, burnout, or churn hits. Culture Creators goes past commentary and into the mechanics: the frameworks, habits, tools, mindsets, and operating rhythms that create clarity, alignment, and momentum in the top-performing cultures. You’ll hear: - High-stakes culture stories from executives and people leaders - Step-by-step playbooks for rebuilding trust and raising performance - Practical frameworks for communication, alignment, and retention - Lessons from the CEO–People Leader relationship that you can translate to your own leadership team If you’re responsible for culture, and you want more than inspiration, Culture Creators is where you’ll find repeatable playbooks for building a workplace people want to stay in and do their best work. https://www.culturecreators.show/ en © 2026 Nectar HR 019d6f4a-58f6-7e52-9510-96590c6a3266 no podcast https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/7f515636-60b9-45b0-b90c-f8fa491afc2a/Culture_Creators_Podcast_Thumbnail_FINAL.png?t=1775692450 Culture Creators https://www.culturecreators.show/ false episodic Nectar HR Culture Creators is a podcast for executives who own culture outcomes—engagement, performance, trust, and retention—featuring real leadership stories and practical playbooks you can apply immediately to make your culture your greatest strategic advantage. Each episode unpacks a real culture challenge a leader faced, what was driving it beneath the surface, and the specific actions that helped them turn it around. Culture isn’t built with slogans. It’s built (and protected) through decisions: what leaders tolerate, what they reinforce, how they communicate, and how they respond when pressure of growth, change, conflict, burnout, or churn hits. Culture Creators goes past commentary and into the mechanics: the frameworks, habits, tools, mindsets, and operating rhythms that create clarity, alignment, and momentum in the top-performing cultures. You’ll hear: - High-stakes culture stories from executives and people leaders - Step-by-step playbooks for rebuilding trust and raising performance - Practical frameworks for communication, alignment, and retention - Lessons from the CEO–People Leader relationship that you can translate to your own leadership team If you’re responsible for culture, and you want more than inspiration, Culture Creators is where you’ll find repeatable playbooks for building a workplace people want to stay in and do their best work.

]]> Nectar HR nate.bagley@nectarhr.com Wed, 24 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0000 Wed, 24 Jun 2026 16:30:57 +0000 beehiiv Why This CEO Sacrificed Growth to Save His Culture https://www.culturecreators.show/podcast/s/culture_creators/why_this_ceo_sacrificed_growth_to_save_his_culture When Populus Group hit about 100 employees and was growing fast, founder and CEO Bobby Herrera did something his team revolted against: he intentionally slowed the company down. They came at him "with pitchforks," asking why he was hitting the brakes m... Wed, 24 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0000 3524 Nectar HR false full 4 1 When Populus Group hit about 100 employees and was growing fast, founder and CEO Bobby Herrera did something his team revolted against: he intentionally slowed the company down.

They came at him "with pitchforks," asking why he was hitting the brakes mid-growth. His answer was that they had been building on a shallow foundation, and to build something that lasts, they first had to dig deep into culture, purpose, and values.

Herrera, a U.S. Army veteran, former Disney cast member, and author of The Gift of Struggle, runs his business on one belief: trust is the single most important asset a company owns, and the more of it you have, the faster things move and the less they cost.

This episode is his playbook for how a CEO and an HR leader build a healthy culture together, and the consistency that makes it stick.

What you'll learn:

  • Why great cultures select, welcome, and develop instead of hire, onboard, and train

  • The first-week "welcome" that gives new hires "one day to be new" before any job work

  • How to reframe the ROI conversation with a CFO around keeping people inspired, interested, and involved

  • Why Herrera calls the HR leader the "unsung hero" of every business, and what CEOs owe them in return

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. [GAP — episode links]
📕 Bobby's book, The Gift of Struggle: https://a.co/d/0hcdz9bd

Culture Creators is produced by Nectar in partnership with SHRM.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

04:38 The "era of slow": why he slowed a growing company on purpose

07:00 Consistency, trust, and the chaos at 100 employees

10:15 "We select, we don't hire": select, welcome, develop

12:55 "One day to be new": the first-week welcome

23:00 Why the HR leader is the unsung hero

32:00 The first-week ROI argument (50% lower attrition, 3x NPS)

44:30 Selling the ROI of culture to a CFO

49:15 Culture Crush, and offering people back to the marketplace

]]> Why The Customer Doesn't Come First at the Arizona Diamondbacks https://www.culturecreators.show/podcast/s/culture_creators/why_the_customer_doesn_t_come_first_at_the_arizona_diamondbacks Derrick Hall has spent 35 years in baseball, more than two decades of it running the Arizona Diamondbacks. He’s managed to produce incredible results in one of the most competitive industries on earth — and the most important ones aren’t on the field:M... Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0000 2635 Nectar HR false full 3 1 Derrick Hall has spent 35 years in baseball, more than two decades of it running the Arizona Diamondbacks. He’s managed to produce incredible results in one of the most competitive industries on earth — and the most important ones aren’t on the field:

Multiple Top Workplaces awards under his tenure
→ $100 million in community giving since 1998
→ Roughly 70% of the front office staying 10 to 15 years
→ United Nations “Most Positive Team In The World” award
→ A 2023 National League Pennant

So when he says something that breaks what some would view as a basic rule of business, it's worth slowing down to take a listen.

🕐 TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Welcome to Chase Field
02:00 $100M in community giving since 1998
05:30 BUILD: the 5-letter values acronym
10:30 The First Impression Specialist and the hallway walls
12:45 70% retention: the path from intern to VP
14:30 His father's advice at 24 and the Vero Beach years
21:30 The 2020 furlough decision he openly regrets
24:15 Why the customer doesn't come first
25:30 The Leadership Academy + Nectar
29:15 Going public about his cancer
34:15 What he expects from his head of People
37:00 Culture Crush: His father and Peter O'Malley
38:30 The 2023 NLCS trophy moment
42:45 The President's Council

📈 Find out how top leaders create high-performance company culture: http://culturecreators.show

🚨 Take a virtual demo of Nectar, and see how we can help you bring out your team's best work by bringing out the best in your people: https://bit.ly/4nTYLSu

]]> Why This $3.5B Founder Made His CHRO His Most Trusted Advisor https://www.culturecreators.show/podcast/s/culture_creators/why_this_3_5b_founder_made_his_chro_his_most_trusted_advisor What does a CEO actually want from their CHRO? Aaron Skonnard, the founder and former CEO of Pluralsight, has a more specific answer than most. Aaron co-founded Pluralsight in 2004, scaled it past $600M in revenue, took it public on Nasdaq, and sold it... Wed, 27 May 2026 16:00:00 +0000 3765 Nectar HR false full 2 1 What does a CEO actually want from their CHRO? Aaron Skonnard, the founder and former CEO of Pluralsight, has a more specific answer than most. Aaron co-founded Pluralsight in 2004, scaled it past $600M in revenue, took it public on Nasdaq, and sold it to Vista Equity Partners in 2021 at a $3.5B valuation. He hired Anita Grantham as the company's first CHRO, and in this rare episode, the two of them sit on opposite sides of the table to break down the partnership that ran the business for the next decade.

This is the only Culture Creators episode where Anita interviews a CEO she actually built something with. The conversation is candid, specific, and full of the kind of operating detail HR leaders rarely get on camera, including the interview question that filtered Aaron in, the weekly coaching commitment that reshaped the executive team, and the moment Aaron realized he was the bottleneck.

What you'll learn: 

  • The interview question that tests whether a CEO is coachable (and whether they deserve a CHRO who tells them the truth)

  • Why Aaron treats vision and culture as a sequence, not a stack, and how Pluralsight built a multi-page five-year picture

  • The confidentiality contract that lets a CHRO be a peer to the C-suite and an advisor to the CEO at the same time

  • How to get in front of an executive's exit before the resignation is already written

Chapters:

0:00 Cold open

4:00 The "most trusted advisor" framing

8:15 The interview question: "Are you willing to be coached?"

12:00 Weekly coaching for every C-suite executive

18:00 Why a vision statement is not a vision

32:00 The arm's-length CHRO problem

35:15 The confidentiality contract

43:30 "I actually am the problem."

50:00 Get in before they quit

54:15 Aaron's biggest regret as a CEO

]]> 30% of CEOs Avoid Their HR Leader with Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. https://www.culturecreators.show/podcast/s/culture_creators/30_of_ceos_avoid_their_hr_leader_with_johnny_c_taylor_jr When you're an HR leader and your CEO doesn't trust you, you feel it before anyone says it. The meetings you weren't in. The decisions made without you. The growing sense that your title is bigger than your influence. Johnny C. Taylor has been there. H... Wed, 13 May 2026 16:00:00 +0000 3456 Nectar HR false full 1 1 When you're an HR leader and your CEO doesn't trust you, you feel it before anyone says it. The meetings you weren't in. The decisions made without you. The growing sense that your title is bigger than your influence.

Johnny C. Taylor has been there. He's also been on the other side of it — as the CEO who didn't trust his own CHRO.

In this conversation with Anita Grantham, the President and CEO of SHRM unpacks the trust gap that quietly breaks the CEO–CHRO relationship at most companies. He shares the informal poll he ran in a room of 50 Fortune 250 CEOs (10% love their CHRO, 60% tolerate them, 30% actively avoid them), and the three brutal truths from the late Doug Lebda — former CEO of LendingTree — that turned a failing relationship into the most important one of Johnny's career.

In this episode:

  • Why HR has no attorney-client privilege, and what that means for what your CEO will and won't tell you

  • The "lockbox" moment: when the easy answer is to fire two people and the right answer is to change the policy

  • The three things Johnny's CEO said over a three-hour dinner that changed his career: "you're too judgmental," "you don't know our business," "you're competing with your colleagues"

  • Why Mike Milken believes the next generation of CEOs will come from the CHRO ranks

  • The simplest act of servant leadership Johnny ever performed (it involved a massage)

  • What nobody tells you about holding "the lives we insure"

Time Stamps: 

00:00 Cold open

01:38 The room of 50 Fortune 250 CEOs

02:35 10% love. 60% tolerate. 30% avoid.

05:13 Misplaced, not bad: when a CHRO should leave 1

1:25 HR has no attorney-client privilege

13:47 Inside the lockbox: fire him or change the policy?

24:02 The three-hour dinner with Doug Lebda

28:23 "You're too judgmental."

29:49 "You don't know our business."

31:53 "You're competing with your colleagues"

33:50 Why CHROs are the next CEOs (per Mike Milken)

38:38 Why I booked my CEO a massage

40:14 "How many lives do you insure?"

49:08 The world of work is changing

53:46 One message — build mutual trust

]]>