Shows
Between Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextYou've Got AI Everywhere and Nothing to Show For It with Arvita TripatiWhat happens when your organization has AI running across the business, but no one can explain whether it’s actually improving performance?In this episode of Between Fires and Futures, Tonya sits down with Arvita Tripati, founder and CEO of Vahana Labs AI, to unpack one of the biggest challenges facing organizations investing in artificial intelligence: the growing disconnect between AI adoption and measurable business value. Drawing on 18 years of experience in highly regulated technology environments, including medical devices, gene and cell therapy, and clinical research, Arvita explains why implementing more AI tools doesn’t automatically create oper...
2026-10-1934 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextThe Breach Was Just the Beginning: How Criminals Turn Your Data Into Real-World Crime with Rivka TadjerWhat happens when the biggest cybersecurity threat to your organization starts outside the network your security team is actually protecting?In this episode of Between Fires and Futures, Tonya sits down with Rivka Tadjer, CEO of Zero Hack, to unpack a growing blind spot in enterprise cybersecurity: criminals are no longer just targeting corporate networks, endpoints, and infrastructure. They’re researching executives, exploiting personal devices, home networks, email accounts, and even family members to find ways into financial accounts and company systems. Drawing on decades of experience across technology, privacy, identity theft, cybercrime prevention, and forensic investigation, Ri...
2026-10-1244 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextSome of Your Vendors Need to Be Put on a PIP: The Vendor Performance Review Most CIOs Have Never Done with Knit.Ai’s Matt GlennWhat happens when your technology vendors are underperforming, but your organization doesn’t have the data to prove it?In this episode of Between Fires and Futures, Tonya sits down with Matt Glenn, co-founder and CEO of Knit AI, to unpack a blind spot hiding inside many IT organizations: companies hold employees accountable for performance, but often spend millions of dollars with technology vendors without applying the same level of scrutiny. Drawing on experience from both sides of the vendor relationship, Matt explains why support quality can decline as technology providers prioritize growth and operational efficiency, and wh...
2026-10-0550 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextYou Hired a Thousand Agents and Skipped Onboarding with Sumeet VaidyaWhat happens when AI helps your engineering team write code faster than your organization can actually test, validate, and safely ship it?In this episode of Between Fires and Futures, Tonya sits down with Sumeet Vaidya, co-founder and CEO of Crafting, to unpack a growing challenge inside AI-powered engineering organizations: coding velocity has accelerated, but the infrastructure needed to test, review, and validate that work hasn’t necessarily kept pace. Drawing on nearly a decade of engineering leadership experience at companies including Uber and Discord, Sumeet explains why adopting AI agents isn’t simply about giving teams new...
2026-09-2841 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextHackers Just Went Machine-Speed, Your Defense is Still Human with Cyberhoot’s Craig TaylorWhat if the biggest cybersecurity threat facing your company is about to move faster than your team can respond?In this episode of Between Fires and Futures, Tonya sits down with Craig Taylor, co-founder of CyberHoot, to unpack a rapidly changing cybersecurity landscape where AI can discover software vulnerabilities at machine speed, dramatically shrinking the amount of time businesses have to protect themselves. With nearly three decades of cybersecurity experience and a background in psychology, Craig explains what this shift means for IT leaders, MSPs, and mid-market organizations trying to prepare without creating panic or burning out...
2026-09-2149 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextWhy Your IT Provider Keeps Letting You Down And Why It's Probably Not Their Fault — with Scott Raymer, Get IT SenseWhat if the IT provider you trust isn’t actually the problem—but the way IT support is structured is setting your company up to stay reactive?In this episode of Between Fires and Futures, Tonya sits down with Scott Raymer, founder of Get It Sense, to unpack why so many IT departments and managed service providers are stuck in constant firefighting mode—and what business and IT leaders should be looking for if they want to move from reactive support to proactive IT management.With more than two decades of experience consulting businesses on their...
2026-09-1446 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextThe Cost of Intelligence: Why Your AI Bill Exploded While Tokens Got Cheap — with Dell's Allen ClingermanWhat happens when the cost of artificial intelligence keeps dropping, but your company’s AI bill keeps climbing?In this season three premiere of Between Fires and Futures, Tonya sits down once again with Alan Clingerman, Chief Technology Strategist and Partner AI Officer at Dell Technologies, to unpack the rapidly changing economics of enterprise AI and what IT leaders need to understand as they plan for the future.Alan explains why cheaper AI tokens aren’t necessarily translating into cheaper AI deployments. Longer context windows, agentic AI, data processing, cloud infrastructure, and increasingly complex workloads are...
2026-09-0750 min
CEO School with Suneera MadhaniHow to Build a Sales Machine That Closes Without YouTonya said it best: "You've curated this community where you can see every possibility and be inspired in any direction." That's the Millionaire Founders Club. And this October, we're taking that to NYC for our fall retreat. Only 20 spots open for new members. Apply here: https://bit.ly/MFCApplicationWelcome back to CEO School! In today's inspiring episode, Suneera Madhani sits down with powerhouse entrepreneur Tonya Turrell, founder and CEO of Technology Match. With nearly 30 years of experience revolutionizing how technology is bought and sold, Tonya shares the highs, lows, and pivotal moments of her journey...
2026-08-1953 min
The Customer WinsTransforming IT Buying: Authentic Matches With Tonya TurrellTonya Turrell is the Founder and CEO of TechnologyMatch, a buyer-first platform that connects IT leaders with technology providers through AI-powered matchmaking and demand generation. A three-time founder with two successful exits, she is known for challenging traditional lead-generation models and creating trust-based alternatives that prioritize buyer intent. Tonya has earned Inc. recognition on both the Inc. 5000 and Female Founders 250 for leadership and innovation. She also hosts the Between Fires and Futures podcast, where she explores IT leaders' changing role amid AI's growing influence. In this episode… Technology buyers today are inundated with sales outreach, making...
2026-07-1335 min
Talk Wealthy To Me80. What Women Need to Hear About Failure, Money, and Starting Over with Tonya Cox TurrellIn this episode of Talk Wealthy to Me, Michelle sits down with entrepreneur and Technology Match founder Tonya Cox Turrell for a conversation about reinvention, resilience, and what it really looks like to bet on yourself.After experiencing the collapse of a business, a failed partnership, and bankruptcy, Tonya made the kind of decision most people only talk about: she started over. What followed was the launch of a new company, a successful exit less than four years later, and a completely different relationship with money, risk, and entrepreneurship. But this conversation goes far beyond business strategy.
2026-07-0246 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextThe Cheapest Decision in IT Is the Most Expensive One: Why Mid-Market Tooling Choices Are Quietly Capping Your AI Strategy with Corey WisdonWhat if the technology decision that saved your company money three years ago is the very thing slowing your growth today?In this season two finale of Between Fires and Futures, Tonya sits with Corey Wisdon to unpack one of the biggest hidden problems in mid-market IT: the long-term cost of “cheap and fast” infrastructure decisions.Corey shares the story of a $3 million enterprise deployment that took eight months before users could even log in, and how that experience completely changed the way he approaches IT strategy, ServiceNow implementations, and AI adoption today. They...
2026-05-2539 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextEveryone’s Talking About AI, But No One’s Saying This with Raheela NanjiAI is moving fast, but most leaders aren’t talking enough about the human side of what this moment is actually creating inside organizations: fear, uncertainty, imposter syndrome, and the pressure to adapt in real time. In this conversation, Tonya sits down with leadership coach and business strategist Raheela Nanji to unpack what leadership really looks like in the AI era and why the biggest challenge organizations face right now isn’t the technology itself. It’s how leaders guide people through the uncertainty surrounding it.Drawing on more than 25 years of experience across technology, marketi...
2026-05-1848 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextAI Is Exposing Security Gaps Most Companies Don’t See: Why Reactive Security is Failing And What IT Leaders Need To Do Next with John FraserAI is accelerating cybersecurity threats faster than most organizations are prepared for, and this episode will challenge the way you think about security, visibility, and prevention in the age of AI.In this conversation, Tonya sits down with cybersecurity strategist John Fraser to unpack how AI is exposing security gaps inside organizations and why traditional “detect and respond” models are no longer enough. With experience spanning Department of Defense programs, enterprise IT environments, and high growth SaaS ecosystems, John brings a practical perspective on what’s actually happening inside modern security teams and where companies are falling behind...
2026-05-1137 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextYour Employees Already Work From Anywhere, Your Infrastructure Doesn’t with Jess JorgensenIf flexible work feels like the future but your infrastructure still feels stuck in the past, this episode is going to challenge how you think about connectivity, security, and control.In this conversation, Tonya sits down with Jess Jorgensen, founder and CEO of Go Roam Tech and Blush Technology Group, to unpack what’s really happening as work becomes untethered from place. From RVs and remote canyons to enterprise environments, Jess shares what breaks when people move faster than infrastructure and why most organizations are still operating on systems that were never designed for this reality....
2026-05-0450 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextWhat IT Leaders Still Get Wrong About Data in the AI Era with NetApp’s Ray LaMarcaIf AI feels like the right move but you’re still not seeing results, this episode reframes where the real problem is.In this conversation, Tonya sits down with Ray LaMarca, Director of Solutions Engineering at NetApp, to unpack why most AI initiatives stall out before they ever deliver value. It’s not the tools. It’s the foundation underneath them.They break down what’s actually going wrong behind the scenes, from siloed data and security risks to misalignment between business and IT. Ray shares what he’s seeing across enterprise teams, where companies are oversp...
2026-04-2739 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextAI Isn’t a Tool. It’s a Coworker: Why data and autonomous development will define the next era of software with Rich WalkerIf AI feels like the biggest opportunity (and risk) in your business right now, this episode reframes the conversation in a way most leaders are missing: it’s not an AI problem, it’s a data problem—and more importantly, it’s a thinking problem.In this conversation, Tonya sits down with Richard Walker, founder and CEO of Quick, to unpack what’s really driving outcomes in the AI era. Drawing on decades of experience structuring and scaling data across millions of forms, Richard challenges the default way most companies approach AI—as a tool—and introduces a far more pow...
2026-04-201h 04Between Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextTelecom Is Quietly Draining Your IT Budget. Here’s How to Fix It with Socium IT’s Stephen HancockIf telecom sits underneath everything in your business but rarely gets attention, this episode pulls back the curtain on why that invisibility is exactly where cost, inefficiency, and risk quietly accumulate.In this conversation, Tonya sits down with Stephen Hancock, founder and president of Socium IT, to unpack why telecom is one of the most overlooked (and under-optimized) layers inside IT. They explore how unmanaged vendor ecosystems, lack of visibility, and outdated documentation create compounding inefficiencies and why most organizations don’t realize the scale of the problem until they audit it. Stephen shares how tel...
2026-04-1340 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextYour AI Strategy Is Already a Cyber Risk with Scott AlldridgeIf last week’s conversation challenged the way you think about cybersecurity discipline, this episode pushes that conversation into even more urgent territory: AI.In this continuation, Tonya sits down again with Scott Alldridge to unpack what happens when innovation outpaces governance. As organizations rapidly adopt AI tools—often without oversight—new risks emerge beneath the surface. From hidden data exposure to autonomous systems interacting in unpredictable ways, Scott reframes AI not as a technology problem, but as a leadership, governance, and operational discipline challenge. This conversation goes beyond hype and into reality—where AI expands a...
2026-04-0641 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextThe Zero Trust Illusion: Why Most Organizations Aren’t There Yet with Scott AlldridgeIf your organization believes it has “implemented zero trust” but things still feel uncertain beneath the surface, this episode challenges that assumption and reveals why cybersecurity gaps are often rooted in discipline, not tools.In this conversation, Tonya sits down with Scott Alldridge to unpack what he calls the “zero trust illusion” and why most organizations overestimate their cybersecurity maturity. They break down how breaches often stem from internal gaps, not just external attacks, and why zero trust is a philosophy that must span multiple layers, not a single product or quick fix. Scott also shares th...
2026-03-3050 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextWhy IT Projects Stall. Talent Decisions That Quietly Derail Delivery with Limitless Staffing’s Clayton DingerIf your IT initiatives keep stalling even with the right strategy, this episode pulls back the curtain on what’s really happening underneath and why talent decisions, not technology, are often the root cause.In this conversation, Tonya sits down with Clayton Dinger, a specialist in enterprise IT staffing who works behind the scenes with leaders navigating high-stakes delivery gaps. Drawing from years of experience sourcing niche, high-demand talent, Clayton unpacks why even well-funded, well-planned initiatives can quietly derail when the wrong people are in the wrong roles at the wrong time. Together, they explore the...
2026-03-2347 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextThe Unspoken Rules of Women Leading in Tech: Power, Bias, and Advancement with Jossie HainesIf you are a woman in tech leadership quietly wondering why success still feels exhausting, this episode names the invisible forces shaping that experience and what it actually takes to rise without burning out.In this conversation, Tonya sits down with engineering leader and leadership coach Jossie Haines, whose career includes leadership roles at Apple, Tile, and American Express. Today, she helps women in tech navigate leadership, influence, and career advancement through her Awakened Leadership System.Together, they unpack why so many high-performing women feel stuck despite delivering exceptional results. From subtle bias and invisible “gl...
2026-03-161h 09Between Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextThe IT Buyer Has Changed. What IT Leaders Really Want from Tech Partners with Global Consulting Group’s Lara Mayes & Leslie BonsettIf you are selling to IT leaders and wondering why your outreach is getting ignored, this episode explains the real shift happening inside enterprise buying: the modern IT buyer no longer needs a pitch. They need a partner.In this conversation, Tonya sits down with Global Consulting Group’s Lara Mayes, April Armijo, and Leslie Bonsett to unpack how enterprise technology buying has changed and why traditional sales motions are increasingly misaligned with how IT leaders actually make decisions. Drawing from decades of experience working directly with CIOs, CTOs, and enterprise technology teams, they share what today’s bu...
2026-03-0956 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextYour AI ROI Lives or Dies on Adoption with Robyn AndersonIf you are a CIO, CTO, or IT leader who secured the AI budget but still are not seeing meaningful ROI, this episode names the real issue: adoption is the constraint.In this conversation, Tonya sits down with Robyn Anderson, AI adoption strategist and founder of JM AI, who has spent more than 20 years leading sales-driven growth and digital transformation. Robyn brings a practical operator’s lens to one of the biggest blind spots in AI transformation. Tools do not create impact. Behavior does.She reframes AI adoption as both a change management challenge and a...
2026-03-0235 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextThe Human Blindspot: Why Employees Still Fall for Scams with Cybersecurity Expert Robert SicilianoIf you are a CISO or IT leader who has invested in tools, training, and compliance programs yet still feels exposed, this episode confronts the uncomfortable truth: security doesn’t fail because of technology. It fails because of trust.In this conversation, Tonya sits down with Robert Siciliano, security expert, private investigator, and bestselling author with more than 30 years studying how criminals exploit human behavior. Robert has been featured on major national media including CNN, Fox News, and The Today Show, and he brings a deeply human lens to cybersecurity. His core message is simple but disruptive: we...
2026-02-2345 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextLeading IT Without Panic: Decisions, Security, and AI in a High-Pressure Era with Manuel RuizIf you are an IT leader feeling buried under nonstop urgency, executive AI mandates, rising security risk, and shrinking capacity, this episode speaks directly to the tension you are carrying. In this conversation, Tonya sits down with Manuel Ruiz, a seasoned technology leader with decades of experience across enterprise environments including IBM and Sony, to explore how IT leaders can move fast without losing clarity, authority, or humanity. Rather than defaulting to hype or fear, Manuel breaks down what it actually looks like to design calm inside chaotic systems. Drawing from ye...
2026-02-1649 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextThe Invisible Load of IT Leadership: Pressure, Clarity, and Decision-Making in the AI Era with Dave ZaronIf you are an IT leader carrying constant urgency, invisible pressure, and expectations that keep shifting faster than your organization can stabilize, this episode names what most leaders are experiencing but rarely talk about. In this conversation, Tonya sits down with Dave Zaron, founder of Sovereign Leadership, to explore the human side of leadership under sustained pressure. Rather than focusing on tools or tactics, Dave breaks down why burnout, reactivity, and decision paralysis are usually signs of internal misalignment, not leadership failure.Drawing from his experience leading a technology firm through extreme disruption, D...
2026-02-091h 04Between Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextAI Grew Up Fast: Reasoning Models, Agents, and What Leaders Do Next with Dell’s Allen ClingermanIf you still think AI is something your organization can “watch for another year,” this episode will change your mind.To open season two of Between Fires & Futures, Tonya welcomes back Allen Clingerman, Chief Technology Strategist at Dell, for a grounded, no-hype conversation about what has actually changed in AI since last spring and why 2026 is the year experimentation officially gives way to enterprise reality.Allen brings nearly four decades of experience across mainframes, cloud, infrastructure, and AI to explain why AI is no longer a side project or innovation lab experiment. In just nine mont...
2026-02-021h 05Between Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextToxic MSPs: The Silent Threat Inside Your IT Strategy with Z7’s Zack AleksicIf you’ve ever renewed an MSP contract while thinking, “This partnership isn’t working…but I don’t have the energy to fix it,” this episode is the one you’ve been waiting for. In today’s conversation, Tonya sits down with Zack Aleksic, CTO and Principal Solutions Architect at Z7 Solutions, a firm trusted by public and private sector organizations for enterprise-grade cybersecurity, cloud, disaster recovery, compliance, and endpoint management. With certifications across ISO, NIST, CMMC, HIPAA, and more, Z7 pairs the rigor and resources of a large integrator with the responsiveness IT leaders actually...
2025-12-0132 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextCool Again: What IBM’s Reinvention Signals for IT Leaders Right Now with IBM’s Josh KropfIf you think you know IBM, this conversation will change that. In this episode, Tonya sits down with Josh Kropf, Director for IBM Americas (Arrow), for a candid, energizing, myth-busting look at what it really takes for a 114-year-old tech giant to reinvent itself and why IBM’s transformation is one of the most compelling stories in enterprise technology right now. From AI to hybrid cloud to automation to quantum, Josh pulls back the curtain on how IBM went from “legacy giant” to a fast-moving, partner-centric, SaaS-first innovation engine and why industry...
2025-11-2454 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextStop the AI Chaos: How to Start Where It Actually Matters with Sciata CEO, Michelle TinsleyIn this episode, Tonya sits down with Michelle Tinsley, CEO of Sciata, to cut through the noise and finally get honest about what it really takes to do AI right inside a modern organization. With 30 years of experience across Intel, startups, private equity, fundraising, M&A, and deep technical leadership, Michelle brings one of the most grounded, practical, and operationally experienced perspectives you’ll hear in the AI conversation today. Instead of hype, Michelle offers a playbook for how IT leaders can start small, sequence smart, and build AI initiatives that actually move the...
2025-11-1738 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextInside the Hacker’s Mind: How IT Leaders Can Stay Ahead of Cyber Threats with Z7’s Zack AleksicIn this episode, Tonya sits down with Zack Aleksic, Founder and CTO of Z7 Solutions, to explore the evolving battlefield of cybersecurity—and what it really means to lead when attackers are already inside the walls. With more than 30 years of experience designing mission-critical infrastructure for government, defense, and enterprise organizations, Zack brings a rare dual perspective: a former teenage hacker turned cybersecurity leader. From his early days exploring IRC servers and system vulnerabilities to his work now leading modernization and operational resilience programs, Zack has seen the threat landscape from every angle. He joins Ton...
2025-11-1040 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextGetting Started with AI: What to Do First, What to Avoid, and How to Win Quick with Josh Einstein, ConResIn this episode, Tonya sits down with Josh Einstein, Cloud Architect, Software Developer, and AI Engineer at ConRes IT Solutions. With over two decades of experience spanning the dot-com boom, telecommunications, and now artificial intelligence, Josh has built solutions for emerging technologies long before they hit the mainstream. Today, he helps organizations design and deploy the next generation of AI-powered systems—and he’s here to share how IT leaders can take the first real step toward practical, measurable AI success. Together, Tonya and Josh tackle one of the most urgent quest...
2025-10-1342 min
Legacy's JourneyBreaking Rules in BusinessIn this episode of Legacy's Journey, host Cameron Williams sits down with Tonya Turrell, founder and CEO of technologymatch.com. They discuss the evolution of her business ventures, the impact of AI on the tech industry, and the importance of balancing professional success with personal fulfillment. Tonya shares insights from her journey, including lessons learned from past business exits and the innovative ways her company is leveraging AI to scale. Tune in for an inspiring conversation about entrepreneurship, technology, and the power of taking risks.
2025-10-1030 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextCybersecurity Won’t Save You. Resilience Will with CTO Justin YoungIn this episode, Tonya sits down with Justin Young—Chief Technology Officer at Commercial Tool Group. With more than 25 years in IT leadership, Justin has navigated both large enterprise environments and mid-size manufacturing—where the risks are just as big, but the resources are often much smaller. He’s built his career on one central belief: cyber resilience isn’t about the latest tools—it’s about people, process, and preparation. Together, Tonya and Justin dive into what “resilience” really means in practice, why it must be seen as a business function (not just an IT concer...
2025-10-0633 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextLeadership vs. Management: What IT Leaders Must Master with Maxwell Leadership's Mike LylesIn this episode, Tonya sites down with Mike Lyles—Head of IT at Maxwell Leadership, keynote speaker, certified coach, and author of The Drive-Thru Is Not Always Faster. With more than 30 years of experience leading Fortune 50 IT teams, Mike has built organizations from the ground up and coached leaders across the globe. But what sets him apart isn’t just his credentials—it’s the way his people describe him: “the best boss I’ve ever had.”Together, Tonya and Mike unpack one of the most common mistakes in IT: confusing leadership with management. They reveal why inspiration wi...
2025-09-2946 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextLeading with Presence in the Age of AI with Leslie Ann KeelerIn this episode of Tonya sits down with leadership visionary Leslie Ann Keeler to explore what it means to lead in an era defined by rapid AI innovation and constant change.With nearly two decades of experience guiding founders, executives, and teams through complexity, Leslie blends neuroscience, psychology, and ancient wisdom to help leaders embody the qualities AI cannot replace: presence, emotional intelligence, trust, and human connection.Together, Tonya and Leslie dive deep into why traditional models of speed, control, and optimization are no longer sustainable—and why the future of leadership lies in balancing st...
2025-09-221h 03Between Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextStop the Budget Bleed: How IT Leaders Can Unlock Hidden Dollars with Leslie BonsettIs your IT budget quietly bleeding while you’re too busy putting out fires to notice?In this episode, Tonya welcomes back Leslie Bonsett of Global Consulting Group for a deep dive into IT cost optimization. If you’ve ever said, “We don’t have the budget for that,” this conversation will open your eyes to how much hidden spend is draining your resources.From runaway cloud costs to copper lines quietly ballooning into million-dollar invoices, Leslie reveals real-world examples of overspend that left companies stunned—and the simple steps that helped them reclaim millions. Tune in...
2025-09-1541 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextPower Is the New Currency: AI Adoption vs. Infrastructure Reality for CIOs with Joel St. GermainAI is moving faster than the infrastructure that powers it. While headlines focus on breakthrough models and business outcomes, CIOs and IT leaders are running into the real bottleneck: data centers, power capacity, and sourcing.In this episode, Tonya sits down with Joel St. Germain, founder of Global Consulting Group and CEO of DataCenters.com, the world’s largest marketplace connecting enterprises, hyperscalers, and investors to over 6,500 facilities worldwide.Tune in to hear:The hidden bottleneck shaping AI adoption: why power is now the limiting currency.The million-dollar mistakes CIOs make when sourcing data ce...
2025-09-0947 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextWhy Women Are Essential to Transforming IT Leadership in the Age of AI with Leslie Bonsett, April Armijo, Lara MayesIn this powerful and candid conversation, host Tonya Turrell sits down with three trailblazing women from GCG — Lara Mayes, April Armijo, and Leslie Bonsett — to explore how female leaders are reshaping the future of tech. Together, they unpack the shifts happening in leadership today, why traditional models are breaking down, and how empathy, adaptability, and emotional intelligence are becoming essential leadership skills in the age of AI.From navigating male-dominated boardrooms in the ’90s to mentoring the next generation of leaders, Lara, April, and Leslie share their personal journeys, hard-earned lessons, and the unique strengths women bring to the...
2025-08-131h 09Between Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextFrom Firefighting to Forward Thinking – Automation for the Modern IT Leader with Chris Miller, AdvizexWant to know what automation strategies are actually working for real enterprise teams?Automation may be one of the most overused buzzwords in IT—but it’s also one of the most underutilized solutions. In this episode, we sit down with Chris Miller, CTO of Advizex, whose journey from building an ISP at 19 to leading enterprise automation strategy has given him rare, hands-on perspective on what actually works. If you're stuck in firefighting mode but want to build a system that scales and sustains your team, this conversation is your roadmap.We break down what inte...
2025-07-1444 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextThe IT Leader Has Evolved – Are You Still Just a Technologist? with Jason Frame, Southern Nevada Health DistrictIs your IT leadership evolving fast enough to meet the demands of today’s human-first, AI-driven future?In this episode, Tonya sits down with Jason Frame, CIO of the Southern Nevada Health District, to talk about what it truly means to lead IT in a post-COVID, AI-driven world. Jason brings decades of experience and a radically human-centered approach to IT leadership. From rethinking how we define value in IT, to implementing psychological safety and building cross-functional trust, Jason shares how modern CIOs must move beyond technology jargon and become experience-driven, empathetic leaders.Whether you’re faci...
2025-07-0740 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextThe Cost of Complexity – How IT Leaders Can Rein in Cloud Spend without Killing Innovation with Martin Hauskrecht, Labyrinth LabsIs your cloud bill out of control—despite doing “all the right things”? You’re not alone.In this episode of Tonya sits down with Martin Hauskrecht, Head of Engineering at Labyrinth Labs and curator of the TLDR DevOps newsletter, to unpack the cloud cost dilemma. With over 1.25 million readers, Martin is a trusted voice in the DevOps space, known for designing scalable cloud infrastructures and cutting through complexity with actionable insights.Together, they explore why cloud costs are skyrocketing—even for companies with strong tech teams—and how IT leaders can reduce spend without stalling inn...
2025-06-3033 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextIT Can’t Do it Alone – Solving the AI Adoption Gap with Steve Grosso & Danny Jones, AdvizexAre your AI pilots technically successful—but still not going anywhere? You’re not alone. So what’s really holding back AI adoption in enterprise environments?In this episode of Between Fires and Futures, we sit down with AI transformation experts Danny Jones and Steve Grosso from Advizex to unpack one of the biggest challenges IT leaders are facing today: the AI buy-in gap. Spoiler—it’s not the technology. From stalled pilots to cross-functional resistance, this conversation is a masterclass on navigating the political, cultural, and strategic realities of enterprise AI. You’ll learn why smaller, low-risk spr...
2025-06-2443 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextThe Tech Buying System Is Broken—Here’s What I’m Doing About ItEver wonder why tech buying feels broken—and what could actually fix it?In this episode, host Tonya Turrell, founder and CEO of TechnologyMatch.com, pulls back the curtain on the legacy lead generation system that’s failing tech leaders—and shares the bold vision behind the company she built to change it. Tonya recounts her journey from tech sales and marketing to launching an agency just weeks before the global pandemic, and how her frustration with sales-driven models inspired her to reimagine tech matchmaking from the ground up. If you're tired of cold calls, spammy vendors, and fe...
2025-06-0621 minBetween Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s NextAI at the Speed of Light: Allen Clingerman on Data, Infrastructure & the New Era of Tech LeadershipIn this premiere episode of Between Fires and Futures, host Tonya Turrell sits down with Dell Technologies’ Chief Technology Strategist, Allen Clingerman, to cut through the AI noise and get clear on what tech leaders actually need to know. With over 30 years of enterprise tech experience, Allen shares what’s really happening in the field—from major fires IT leaders are putting out daily to the critical infrastructure and mindset shifts required to lead through this next era of rapid AI adoption.They explore the practical use cases every org can start with, the biggest misconceptions holding teams...
2025-05-1644 min
Entrepreneurship LabTransforming Bankruptcy Into a TriumphIn this podcast episode of Entrepreneurship Lab, my guest is Tonya Turrell is an accomplished entrepreneur and visionary leader, recognized for her groundbreaking ventures and transformative impact in the tech industry. As the Founder and CEO of The Launchpad, she has captured the attention of investors seeking to back disruptive innovations that redefine market landscapes.
Tonya's entrepreneurial journey took flight when she skillfully transformed bankruptcy into a springboard for her subsequent triumphs. Her startup, Leads OnDemand, not only soared to an outstanding position as #209 on the prestigious Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America list in 2015 but also...
2024-05-1640 min