Description

About Justin Davis: Justin Davis is a four-time startup founder and AI pioneer with over 22 years in tech. He has helped build and scale infrastructure used by billions of devices worldwide, including early ad tech platforms and AI-powered trust and safety systems that protect online communities. A former executive at companies acquired by Microsoft and Salesforce, Justin has led organizations through rapid growth, cultural transformation, and meaningful exits.

After stepping away from executive life in 2024, Justin embarked on a year-long sabbatical focused on healing, creative expression, and redefining success. Today, he is the co-founder of Eleven Dunbar, a curated community built around deep connection, creativity, and intentional growth. His work centers on helping leaders move from burnout and survival into freedom, peace, joy, and authentic community.

In this episode, Lisa and Justin Davis discuss:

• Justin’s journey from early internet sales at Cisco to building AI systems that scaled to billions of users
• The power of mission, vision, and values in creating thriving company cultures
• Burnout, grief, and the identity crisis that followed stepping down as CEO
• The role of creative expression, nature, and stillness in rediscovering purpose
• Plant medicine, integration work, and confronting self-limiting belief systems

Key Takeaways: 

• Culture is not perks — it’s how people feel and how decisions are made when leadership isn’t in the room. Justin’s companies scaled globally because trust, growth, collaboration, and passion were embedded from day one and reinforced consistently.
• Burnout often hides behind achievement. Even while leading high-performing AI companies, Justin was privately navigating grief, anxiety, and exhaustion — a reminder that external success does not guarantee internal alignment.
• Creative expression and play are not luxuries; they are neurological and emotional necessities. Activities that move us out of our heads and into our bodies can rewire stress patterns and reconnect us to our authentic selves.
• Self-limiting beliefs formed in childhood quietly shape adult ambition and identity. Confronting and releasing those internal narratives can unlock profound freedom and emotional clarity.
• Integration is the real work of transformation. Whether through plant medicine, therapy, or major life shifts, lasting change comes from building daily rituals, habits, and routines that reinforce new awareness.

“The space by which you can expand internally, the spirit, the heart, the mind, is infinite.” - Justin Davis

Connect with Justin Davis:

Website: https://www.elevendunbar.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justindavis/ 

Connect with Lisa Thee:

Website: https://lisathee.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisathee/ 

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/lisa.thee.polvi 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lisa_thee 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisatheepolvi/ 

Lisa’s BOOK: Go!: Reboot Your Career in 90 Days

Show notes by Podcastologist: Francine Poblete

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.