{"podcast":{"title":"Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts)","slug":"lead-the-team-top-2-of-podcasts-1064768","podcast_index_feed_id":1064768,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/leadtheteam/","website_url":"HTTPS://benfanning.com/blog","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/10af0b95-04e6-42cc-b03d-73690ea3bb8a/QKJ4Hxs4kaKpd554m1ArvK6B.jpg","author":"Ben Fanning","episode_count":465,"summary":"Real CEOs. Real Stories. Hosted by Ben Fanning—2025 Gold Stevie Award winner for Best Business Podcast and ranked in the Top 2% globally—Lead the Team draws on over 600 CEO interviews to take you inside the minds of leaders from brands like Honeywell, HP, IBM, Dunkin’, and L’Oréal. In each episode, you’ll hear raw, unfiltered stories of leading through rapid growth, high-stakes decisions, and make-or-break moments—plus the CEO-tested tools and strategies they use to build high-performing teams. From turning around billion-dollar brands to sparking innovation at scale, these leaders share lessons you can put into action right now to lead your own team better. Subscribe now. ------------- https://www.benfanning.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/benfanning/","last_synced_at":"2026-07-23T04:21:29.253817+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/lead-the-team-top-2-of-podcasts-1064768"},"episode":{"title":"From Team USA to CEO (Bluebeam CEO Usman Shuja)","slug":"from-team-usa-to-ceo-bluebeam-ceo-usman-shuja","published_at":"2026-03-10T15:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/lead-the-team-top-2-of-podcasts-1064768/from-team-usa-to-ceo-bluebeam-ceo-usman-shuja","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/lead-the-team-top-2-of-podcasts-1064768","url":"http://www.benfanning.com/theceosessions/the-belief-elite-ceos-and-record-holding-athletes-share","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/6ebfe051-37c0-4eb3-9328-4346c53b68b5.mp3","summary":"Elite CEOs and athletes share a belief. Usman Shuja, CEO of Bluebeam, learned it long before the boardroom, representing the USA national cricket team and becoming one of the top wicket-takers in U.S. history. Talking with him made me think about how differently pressure shows up across seasons of life. In sports, the pressure is loud and public. In leadership, it even heavier....Board expectations. Team decisions. Real consequences. For most of my career, I thought confidence was what carried leaders through those moments. Loved how Usman reframed it for me: Pressure is a privilege. It’s PROOF that what you’re doing actually matters. That belief was forged for him in a hostile away game in Nepal with 20,000 fans cheering against him and everything on the line. They even rioted❗ Years later, he taps into that perspective everyday as CEO. Leadership isn’t about avoiding pressure. It’s about learning to INTERPRET IT differently than everyone else. 👉 Is pressure the cost of leadership or the reward? ----- Connect with Usman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/usmanshuja/ Learn more about Bluebeam: https://www.bluebeam.com/resources/ebooks/aec-tech-outlook-2026)/ ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning Speaking and Training inquires Subscribe to my Youtube channel LinkedIn Instagram Twitter","meta_description":"Elite CEOs and athletes share a belief. Usman Shuja, CEO of Bluebeam, learned it long before the boardroom, representing the USA national cricket team and…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2636,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/lead-the-team-top-2-of-podcasts-1064768/episodes/from-team-usa-to-ceo-bluebeam-ceo-usman-shuja/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/lead-the-team-top-2-of-podcasts-1064768/from-team-usa-to-ceo-bluebeam-ceo-usman-shuja.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}