Tom Lenoble’s story is a powerful combination of leadership, resilience, and personal transformation. In this inspiring interview, Tom reflects on his remarkable career leading global customer operations for major brands like MCI, Walmart.com, Palm, and Facebook, where he helped build the company’s first customer operations organization during its explosive early growth.
Beyond his Silicon Valley leadership achievements, Tom opens up about surviving two life-threatening illnesses, living with HIV, and battling metastatic cancer for 13 years while continuing to lead, inspire, and thrive. His bestselling memoir, My Life in Business Suits, Hospital Gowns, and High Heels, reveals the deeply human side of his journey — from corporate success to vulnerability, healing, and purpose. Today, Tom is a sought-after leadership coach, speaker, and CEO of the Academy for Coaching Excellence, helping others discover strength, clarity, and meaning in life’s most difficult chapters. This episode is a powerful reminder that resilience, courage, and authenticity can transform even the hardest experiences into incredible “gifts.”
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After losing control on an icy road in Calgary, Reid Robinson crashed into a tree and suffered devastating injuries to his lower leg. What followed were two and a half years of recovery, 13 surgeries, broken surgical hardware, bone infections, and a difficult decision between amputation and trying once more to save his leg. While recovering, Reid realized that none of the available mobility devices gave him the freedom he needed. So, despite having no welding experience, he taught himself by watching online videos and built his first leg brace from aluminum, crutches, and an IKEA cutting board. That garage-built prototype eventually became the X-Leg, a hands-free knee crutch designed to help people with lower-leg injuries stay active and independent during recovery.
Angie Sandow was born with one hand and Poland syndrome—but that hasn't stopped her from riding motorcycles, playing guitar, performing onstage, and finding plenty of reasons to laugh along the way. In this episode of We’re Not Stumped, Mike Bolland reconnects with Angie for a candid and often funny conversation about growing up with a limb difference, dealing with bullying and unwanted attention, and learning to turn difficult experiences into something positive. Angie shares how music became an important part of her life, including performing with bands and using a custom prosthetic guitar holder. She also talks about becoming a one-handed motorcycle rider and the modifications that allow her to ride, including moving the throttle to the left side.
In this episode of We’re Not Stumped, host Mike Bolland talks with Vincent about his extraordinary recovery—relearning how to walk, talk, eat, and handle everyday tasks most of us take for granted. Vincent shares what it was really like to gradually wake from a coma, the difficult prognosis his family faced, and the extensive damage to his skull that eventually required a custom 3D-printed implant. He also discusses the people who refused to give up on him, particularly his wife and family, who lived through weeks of uncertainty while Vincent was unconscious. Through his recovery, Vincent came to see resilience not simply as something you're born with, but as something you can develop and strengthen. That experience also helped shape the ideas behind his book, Everything Feels Impossible Until It’s Done
