Happy New Year! 2024 is here, and as is our tradition, our team celebrates bringing good companies forward. So to close season four, we’re bringing back some of our favorite guests to talk about one of our favorite topics: how to lead with integrity. Consider this your all-in-one guide to business leadership.

This episode features a variety of short clips where our guests share their depth of experience to help you learn how to communicate better, take challenges in stride, and land on winning strategies. We will see that a human approach bolsters effective leadership and always starts with vulnerability and collaboration. And of course, you will hear from leaders who did everything wrong before finding their way.

Get ready to get inspired with our fantastic guests: Mohammad Anwar, the loving CEO of Softway; Anna Catalano, an impressive advisor and board director, with 40 years of experience in corporate leadership; Dr. Marcus Collins, a powerful speaker and expert in culture and marketing; the wise and inspiring Craig Flowers, an Army veteran and the founder of Sideline Leadership; and born-to lead, former Super Bowl champion, Keith Jackson Sr. To hear more from them, find their episodes linked below.

Let’s wrap up season 4 together and prepare to lead our companies into the new year!

Read the full show transcript.

Meet the Host

Patrick Pacheco, Executive Vice President, President of Cadence Asset Management & Trust, has more than 25 years’ experience in wealth management, in addition to the designing and implementation of tax and related planning strategies.

Pacheco’s background includes years of legal practice and multiple degrees, including an LLM* Taxation from University of Houston, a JD from Southern Methodist University, and both an MBA and BS in Economics from University of Texas at Arlington.

He is also board certified in Estate Planning and Probate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Meet the Speakers

Mohammad is the President and CEO of Softway and Culture+, co-host of Love As A Business Strategy podcast, WSJ Best Selling Author of 'Love as a Business Strategy: Resilience, Belonging and Success,' speaker, and a member of Forbes Business Council. He started Softway as a technology services company with his family at the age of 20 while pursuing his B.S. in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics at the University of Houston.

He is celebrated for creating and sustaining a humanity-centered culture at Softway based on the philosophy that love is a business strategy. However, there was a time when the company culture at Softway was so toxic that it almost caused the enterprise to fold.

He took full responsibility for the problems at Softway and knew that, as the leader, he needed to change for the company to survive. After deep introspection, he eventually turned the company around. From this experience, he also created a sister company of Softway, Culture+, and co-authored a WSJ bestselling book, Love as a Business Strategy.

When Softway began in 2003, it was a small company that created websites for merchants in Houston. Since then, it has grown to a Business-to-Employee solutions company that focuses on bringing technology solutions to others by building high performing teams to build solutions that speak to the human needs of your workforce - and business performance that speaks for itself.

In 2021, he formed Culture+ as a standalone organization fully dedicated to our mission: bring humanity back to the workplace. Culture+ provides Culture-as-a-Service to transform behaviors of employees and leaders - creating high-performing teams capable of achieving any business outcome.

Anna C. Catalano manages an active board portfolio, serving as an independent director for public and private corporations and not-for-profit organizations. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of HF Sinclair Corporation (NYSE: DINO), Frontdoor (NASDAQ: FTDR), Ecovyst (NYSE: ECVT), and Hexion, Inc., (private). Ms. Catalano is a Director of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Corporate Directors Institute, and Chair of the NACD Texas TriCities Chapter. She is Co Founder of The World Innovation Network and has significant experience in the not-for profit sector having served as a board member of the Alzheimer’s Association and the Houston Grand Opera.

With over 40 years of corporate experience including over two decades of service on public boards, Ms. Catalano is an expert on the topics of board governance and leadership, and an outspoken champion of women in business. Her extensive career spanned three continents in marketing, retail operations, and international business development at Amoco, and subsequently, BP plc. She established Amoco’s refining and marketing beachhead in China in the 1990’s, and during her tenure at BP she was Group Vice President of Marketing when the company was rebranded and was the instrumental voice behind its “beyond petroleum” marketing campaign.

Ms. Catalano is a graduate of the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, and has been recognized on Fortune’s ranking of “The Most Powerful Women in International Business”, Directors and Boards “Directors to Watch”, Women Inc “Most Influential Board Directors”, and BoardProspects “Top 30 AAPI Directors in the US”. She is a frequent speaker on a variety of topics including board governance, leadership, innovation, and the advancement of women in business. She advises numerous organizations on leadership, strategy, and organizational effectiveness, and her thoughts on various topics can be found on her blog, www.shades-of-leadership.com. Additional information about Ms. Catalano can be found on her website, www.annaccatalano.com.

Dr. Marcus Collins is an award-winning marketer and cultural translator. He is the former chief strategy officer at Wieden+Kennedy, New York, a marketing professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and the author of the best-selling book, For The Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want To Be.

Collins is a recipient of Advertising Age's 40 Under 40 award and an inductee into the American Advertising Federation’s Advertising Hall of Achievement. Most recently, he was recognized by Thinkers50 and Deloitte among their class of 2023 Radar List of 30 thinkers with the ideas most likely to shape the future.

His strategies and creative contributions have led to the launch and success of Google’s “Real Tone” technology, the “Made In America” music festival, and the Brooklyn Nets, among others. Before his advertising tenure, Marcus worked on iTunes + Nike sport music initiatives at Apple and ran digital strategy for Beyoncé.

J. Craig Flowers is a native Texan originally from San Antonio. His 25 years in the US Army encompassed a decade overseas, including three years in The Kingdom of Morocco. His final military assignment was at West Point where he taught and served as the Director of Cadet Activities and Assistant Baseball Coach.

Craig attended Texas Christian University earning a degree in Economics while playing baseball for the Horned Frogs. He holds a M.A. from Kansas University and is fluent in French. He trained, specialized and operated in the field of Human Intelligence.

Founder of The Sideline Leadership CO., he works with NCAA Coaches, CEO’s and Corporations on Character, Culture and Leadership Development. His corporate clients include Dell (Senior Executives), Sealed Air and The Tudor, Pickering, Holt & CO.

He also works with Horizon Performance LLC assisting in the assessment, selection and development of NASA astronauts, special operators and elite college athletes.

He is often heard on FM 104.9 ‘The Horn’ as a guest co-host for the “B&E Show”; Austin’s most listened to sports talk show. He hosts his own radio show “The Zero 900 Show”, Saturday’s 9-10 am (streamed live at HornFM.com). Craig and his wife Beth have three daughters and live in Austin.

Keith Jackson was born April 19, 1965 in Little Rock, Arkansas. He began playing football at the age of 9 with the Sunset Tigers in his hometown. His love of the game continued throughout junior high school on into high school at Little Rock, Parkview, where he was a Parade All-American and a three-sport letterman. While in high school, Keith played the cello in the orchestra.

Upon graduating from Parkview, Keith attended the University of Oklahoma (1984-1987) on a football scholarship as a tight end. During his college career, he assisted the Sooners to a 42-5-1 record and a national championship in 1985. Also, Keith was selected three times to the All Big Eight team and named two-time Athletic All-American. Keith graduated with academic honors with a BA in Communications in 3 ½ years.

In 1988, the Philadelphia Eagles selected Keith as the thirteenth pick of the first round in the National Football League draft. During his first season in the NFL, he was the NFC Offensive Rookie of the Year and the only first-year player to be selected by the NFL for the Pro Bowl. In his nine seasons (1988 – 1996) with the Philadelphia Eagles, the Miami Dolphins, and Green Bay Packers, Keith was selected to the Pro Bowl 6 times and 3-time All-Pro. In his final season, Keith assisted the Packers to a 16-3 record and a win in Super Bowl XXXI. Keith finished his career with 441 receptions for 5,283 yards and 49 touchdowns.

In 1992, Keith’s vision of helping at-risk youth became a reality with the incorporation of P.A.R.K. (Positive Atmosphere Reaches Kids). P.A.R.K. became a non-profit organization under his leadership as President of the P.A.R.K. Inc. Board.

After retiring from the NFL in 1997, Keith Jackson combined his college degree in communications and his professional playing experience to become a broadcast analyst with TNT, the Oklahoma Sooner football radio network, Fox Sports Network and the Arkansas Razorback Sports Network, and IMG Network as a color analyst.

Some of Keith’s accolades and awards are: the Jaycee's "Outstanding Young Arkansan Award" – 1994, Arkansas torch bearer for the Summer Olympics – 1996, Community Service Award – 1997, Arkansas Black Hall of Fame – 1997, , College Football Hall of Fame – 2001, KARK Channel 4 Boys Club "Man of the Year," Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree - Ouachita Baptist University – 2004, Power Play Magazine 2004 "Power Player of the Year," NCCJ Humanitarian Award – 2005, I.A.B.C. Communicator of the Year – 2005, Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters - Lyon College – 2007, Mayor's Town Spirit Award, NFL top 85 players, NCAA Class of 2013 Silver Anniversary Award, the Little Rock Rotary 2015 Business and Professional Leader Award, One Rock Legends Hall of Famer – 2020, ESPN All-Time All-American Team, 150 Top College Players of All Time, and Athlon Top 50 Players.

Keith is a part of the Cadence, Inc. & Cadence Bank board, Baptist Health Foundation board, and Dun and Bradstreet board where he serves as a Director on each board. He serves as a trustee on the University of Oklahoma Foundation board.

Keith is a family man of Christian values and shares that with his wife, Melanie and sons Keith Jr., Kenyon and Koilan.

This podcast is provided as a free service to you and is for general informational purposes only. Cadence Bank and its affiliates make no representations or warranties as to the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the content in the podcast. The podcast is not intended to provide legal, accounting or tax advice and should not be relied upon for such purposes.

To the extent that this podcast includes predictions about the economy, these predictions are subject to a number of variables and you should confer with your legal, accounting and tax advisors for their input regarding the possible outcomes of any economic subject matter discussed herein. Predictions are forward-looking statements that reflect current views with respect to, among other things, future events. Forward-looking statements are not historical facts, and are based on current expectations, estimates and projections, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and beyond the control of any person or entity. Accordingly, please be aware that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees and are subject to risks, assumptions and uncertainties that are difficult to predict.

The views and opinions expressed by the host and guests in this podcast are solely their own current opinions regarding the subject matter discussed in the podcast and are based on their own perspectives. Such views, perspectives and opinions do not reflect those of Cadence Bank or any of its affiliates, or the companies with which any guest is, or may be, affiliated. The production and presentation of this podcast by Cadence Bank does not imply the expression of any opinion on the part of Cadence Bank or any of its affiliates.