Young operators, real numbers, lessons pulled out loud.
Chris Thompson hosts long, encouraging conversations with students and alumni of the Student Works Management Program about running a business before graduation. Episodes move from personal backstory to the specific habits, sales instincts and accountability systems that made the numbers work.
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There is a specific kind of business podcast that treats a first job as a laboratory, and this is one of them. The Leaders of Tomorrow Podcast records conversations between Chris Thompson, head coach of the Student Works Management Program, and the young people who have run operations inside it. Most guests are students or alumni. Most stories start with someone who did not know what they were doing and had to figure it out in a single season. The format is loose and interview-heavy. Guests get long stretches to talk, and Thompson breaks in when he wants a story turned into a principle. That habit of pausing to link things is the show's structural signature. It also makes the episodes function as coaching rather than journalism. Dylan Puchniak's episode frames money as a tool that unlocks a life, with skydiving gear and travel as the concrete evidence, and Thompson widens it into a conversation about alumni whose real estate earns while they are away. Ashley Ayles came in with no experience leading people or painting homes and found that sales, the part about meeting people and connecting, was her favourite thing in the world. Her episode does not skip the rough patch either, including a job where a client sensed the crew was unsure, and Thompson takes some of that on himself as a coaching gap. Chad Humphrey's conversation is about adversity and accountability. He remembers every operating room he designed that did not work clinically, and he keeps returning to a simple standard for the people he led: own the mistake, learn, move on. His path through Coca-Cola and the company that became Medtronic becomes an argument for chasing great training early. Christian Corben and Mikhail Lopez appear as top rookie operators, describing roughly $50,000 signed in brutal late-winter weather, plus the scaffolding that made it possible. Zoom sessions with accountability partners. Sunday night admin. A coach who asks about their life, not just their numbers. Best-of compilations pull leadership answers from a broader group, including Amir, co-founder of Contracting.com, Will Maloof, director at Valsoft, and Jamie Lee Bongard, owner of three Keller Williams franchises. Eric Fullerton's episode goes somewhere quieter, describing the identity crisis of no longer being an athlete and finding the business became the outlet. The tone across all of it stays earnest, repetitive in a deliberate way, and free of irony. Episodes typically close with an invitation to apply for the coming season, so the recruiting purpose is never hidden. Listeners who want detached analysis of entrepreneurship will find something different here: an in-house program talking openly about how it develops people.
Made for: Students and early-twenties entrepreneurs who want to hear peers describe running a real business, closing sales and leading a team for the first time. It also suits anyone drawn to coaching-style interviews where every story is pushed toward a usable takeaway.
What sets it apart: Most entrepreneurship interviews chase established founders; this one mostly features students and recent alumni of a single program, interviewed by their own head coach. That closeness lets the conversations get specific about failures, coaching gaps and season numbers in a way outside interviews rarely reach.
Are you an ambitious young entrepreneur? Do you consider yourself a role model and leader of tomorrow? If so, this is going to be the show for you. Leaders Of Tomorrow is a show dedicated young and ambitious entrepreneurs looking to forge their own path in this world. Each week, we will bring you an inspiring interview and share with you behind the scenes some of the values and beliefs of our 8-figure business; Student Works Management Program.From interviews with young millionaires and personal anecdotes from our head coach; Chris Thomson, this show will give you everything you need to know to become a Leader Of Tomorrow.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Concrete founder debriefs show how sales, delegation, habits, and accountability turn first-time business experience into durable leadership.
Leaders Of Tomorrow Podcast turns early business experience into a practical debrief, with Chris Thompson asking guests to trace decisions, mistakes, and growth in concrete terms.
A painting client isn't happy; Chris Thompson asks you to see the job from their side.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded reflection on money as the practical cost of a freer life.
Dylan Puchniak frames financial freedom around a useful distinction: money matters less as a scoreboard than as the means to choose a life. He grounds that point in the cost of skydiving, the pull of seeing the world, and the plain fact that freedom usually has a financial price…
A first-time operator turns sales, setbacks, and coaching into a practical $280,000 business lesson.
Ashley Ailes comes through as a first-time operator learning the painting business in public: new to leadership, new to painting homes, and still able to build $280,000 in business.
A grounded career conversation about accountability, hard training, and learning from mistakes.
Chad Humphrey's career story rests on a useful, grounded idea: accountability matters, mistakes happen, and the real separator is whether a person learns from them.
A grounded episode about identity loss, redirected ambition, and choosing responsibility as the next step.
Eric Fullerton's leadership story centers on the moment after a defining identity drops away. After losing the structure and certainty of being an athlete, he found in StudentWorks a place to put his energy, restlessness, and ambition.
Matthew Champagne's second year shows how proof, delegation, and stronger teams can turn confidence into larger work.
An operator's second year is framed as a small, practical study in moving from competence to scale. Matthew Champagne describes a first year spent selling work he had not yet done and was not fully sure how he would deliver.
A practical episode about how sleep, routines, and discomfort shape a first business year.
Habits drive this Leaders Of Tomorrow Podcast episode, with host Chris Thompson, head coach of the Student Works Management Program, guiding two most improved operators through what went wrong, what changed, and what they took from running a first business.
A grounded conversation about getting through bad sales days by putting pressure where an operator can actually act.
The episode frames consistency as a practical business skill, one that has to hold up through bad days, pressure, and early disappointment. Its young operators are judged against real sales results, from over $97,000 booked in Lunenburg as of March 2nd on the painting division…
Rob Walling on bootstrapped SaaS growth, plateaus, and exits — with founders who lived them.
Abbey Ashley's playbook for turning your job skills into a virtual assistant business.
Naval Ravikant on epistemology, startups, and crypto, from David Deutsch to Vitalik Buterin.
Alex Theuma interviews SaaS founders and investors on scaling to $10M-plus ARR.
Guy Raz traces founders' origin stories and fields live advice-line calls from entrepreneurs.
Alex Blumberg interviews guests like Megan Phelps-Roper and Shane McAnally about failure and reinvention.
Host Chris Thompson interviews Joey Vari and Louis Boivin, two young entrepreneurs in the Student Works Management Program.
Mark Cox discusses his book 'Learn to Love Selling' and shares insights on mastering sales for career advancement.
Peter Bendevis shares advice on developing confidence by taking risks early in life, drawing from his entrepreneurial journey and record-breaking success.
Dan Desmarais discusses empowering employees for social impact through leadership and learning from failure.
Host Chris Thompson interviews Callum Lawlor and Mihai Oboroc, top rookie operators in the Student Works Management Program, who have booked $97,000 and $47,000 in sales respectively.
Money starts as a tool.
Ashley Ailes came in green.
Leaders of Tomorrow Podcast episode 454 follows Chad Humphrey from StudentWorks to medical sales and operating-room design.
Top rookie operators Christian Corben and Mikhail Lopez discuss how they use accountability partners and coaching to outperform in their businesses.
A compilation of insights from various leaders on practical leadership, emphasizing ownership, culture, and accountability over theory.
Eric Fullerton says StudentWorks pushed him from biochemistry and a Smith School of Business certificate toward a career where he could "wake up every day and be excited." He describes his first summer as an 18-year-old door-to-door operator who had to trust Chris Thompson, Hannah, and the process while feeling "fake it till you make it." He then explains why Canada Life fit for a year and a half, but Adobe fit better because he wanted an entrepreneurial spirit inside a corporate structure.
Leaders Of Tomorrow Podcast episode 450 with Matthew Champagne focuses on his rise inside Student Works Management Program, from a painter in Montreal's NDG area to a target of $800,000 after a $380,000 year.
Jaden Hauser discusses the importance of consistency and routine for entrepreneurial success, sharing his experience in the Student Works Management Program.
Jordan Pereira discusses overcoming burnout and achieving breakthrough success through personal growth and team culture.