The 60 Second Podcast
Big insights. One question. 60 seconds.
Hosted by TEDx speaker and 3X founder Matt McCoy, this podcast delivers fast, punchy interviews with the world’s top leaders — from billion-dollar CEOs to bold startup founders.
Each episode asks one powerful question to uncover the mindset, tactics, or story behind game-changing success — all in under a minute.
Perfect for ambitious listeners who want real answers, really fast.
The 60 Second Podcast
Nicole Lawson - President & CEO, Orchards Children's Services
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
What does it take to lead when the problems you’re solving are bigger than any one person or organization?
In this episode of The 60 Second Podcast, Matt McCoy sits down with Nicole Lawson, President & CEO of Orchards Children's Services, to discuss what she has learned from leading through complex challenges across behavioral health, veteran care, and children's services.
Nicole explains why mission and mindset often matter more than process, how strong leaders cut through unnecessary noise, and why teams need the courage to challenge the status quo and “fail forward.”
Her message is simple: when there’s a mountain in your way, climbing over it isn’t always the only option.
00:00 - Matt McCoy:
You've led behavioral health systems, veteran care, and now Orchards Children's Services. What has taught you the most about leading through complexity?
00:09 - Nicole Lawson:
Yeah. So I've learned that the focus on the mission and the mindset of the people on the journey is more important to success than any other factor. When you start breaking down complex issues, a lot of times you'll find out that it's the systems built around the issue that are actually the mountain you're trying to conquer, and it's really easy to get lost in minutia and allow analysis paralysis to set in.
00:31 - Nicole Lawson:
And when I think back on the teams I've been a part of where we've successfully changed complex systems and processes, there were always leaders in the room who had the ability to keep the extra noise to a minimum and help keep the focus on the mission, and the people they brought with them on the journey were never afraid to do something, even if it meant we failed forward.
00:51 - Nicole Lawson:
We worked really hard together to challenge the status quo, and we didn't hesitate to consider going under, around, or through the mountain instead of taking that traditional climb over it to achieve success.
