We recently connected with Michael Frino and have shared our conversation below.

Michael , appreciate you joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

The universe works in very interesting ways! When I decided to get my MBA and Ph.D. in Organizational Learning and Leadership, I had no clue the path it would take me. I didn’t know the people I’d meet or the lessons I’d learn. I was never a great student growing up, and my quest to earn a graduate and terminal degree was something that I needed to do to prove to myself; it was more about focus than ability.
It still pains me to look at my transcripts from undergrad! While I don’t regret the experiences I had in college, the friends I met, the social skills gained, I do sometimes wonder if I had done better in undergrad, would it have changed my inspiration to go on and do better in my MBA and Ph.D.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Becoming an author was something I had always wanted to do! It started as something for fun and became an outlet to tap into my creativity. I remember writing a poem in the early ’90s and submitting it for publication. To my delight, it got published! Then, I had a vision of writing a children’s book series, and I spent years soliciting publishers to no avail. I ended up self-publishing due to the countless objections.

You see, though, this is another example of how I wanted to do better! I wanted to get picked up by a larger publisher and write something that would inspire the masses. Going to graduate school, writing the poem, and then the children’s book were great experiences, but I knew those were just scratching the surface of my true potential.

Certainly, it’s difficult to do things alone, and that’s why I’m grateful that all the moments in life lead to something. When I decided to go back to get my Ph.D., I met a colleague and now friend, Katie Desiderio, who was also passionate about writing. We spent decades publishing in performance improvement journals and later decided to put our energy into writing a leadership book! We knew that writing a leadership book would fuel us intellectually and give us a platform to teach others. This sparked a whole new world of delivering keynote addresses, facilitating leadership trainings, and sharing inspiring messages with a diverse group of individuals, teams, and organizations.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

As traditional researchers, unlearning how to write academically and pivoting to a leadership fable was an interesting challenge. As Katie and I discussed the direction for our books, we knew that a leadership fable was the path we wanted to take. Storytelling in organizations was resonating with us, and we wanted to capitalize on this concept in truly meaningful ways.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When you start writing a story and putting your ideas down, it’s so rewarding! As someone who publishes—from academic papers to books—reflection is common. In the academic space, you’ll have reviewers tell you your paper needs a lot of work, edits, or didn’t make the cut. This type of peer review process is grueling. However, it also builds resilience and helps you see things you may not have considered.

This happened with our first leadership fable too! When we were writing The Berleeper: Pollinating Your Organization for Transformative Growth, our editors similarly gave us lots of constructive and tough feedback. We were accustomed to this and welcomed it. Then, while writing The Stargazer: Unleashing the Brilliance of Building Brighter Teams (launching March 2025), we have learned and grown in our writing, so each piece of constructive feedback makes us better. Feedback is truly a gift!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.leadershipfables.com
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@leadershipfables?si=S7EYRG5Loe4py0IU
• Other: https://linktr.ee/leadershipfables

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