Steven Glod

Adopted from Korea as an infant, I built my first landscaping and snow removal business at age twelve—and sold it when I was twenty. I grew up in a suburb of Chicago surrounded by ‘lifers’ at Fortune 500 companies, and knew early on I wanted my career to look different. 

After graduating from Indiana University with a degree in Chemistry and a stint in derivatives trading, I dove into the world of startups. I co-founded the Rent Nest in 2012 (‘Evernote’ for apartments), which led me to a six-month stint living in Romania and a whole lot of learning. We wrapped up the business in 2014 (key takeaway: your tech infrastructure needs to be flawless), and I joined Machinio later that year.

During my time at Machinio (world’s largest search engine for used industrial assets), I helped scale the organization from a startup of 3 to a company of 100+ spanning the U.S., Europe, and Asia. I relocated to Berlin in 2016 to further scale international operations, and oversaw Machino’s acquisition by Liquidity Services in mid-2018.

I’m now investing a lot of my time into helping startups scale across multiple different continents and I’m always looking to network and connect with anyone passionate about startups, crypto, and SaaS sales.

Advisor & Investor

Next generation piggy banks - Educating our youth in crypto

What makes a work life well-lived? Is it purpose? Growth? Flexibility? Achievement? Work-life harmony? Or maybe belonging? I asked 1000s of employees through my quantitative research to get to the truth, and it will surprise you. I cut through the noise and b.s. with cutting-edge insights that challenges conventional wisdom and popular opinion circulating on the internet. 

✨My research shows only 16% of people are thriving at work, I'm on a mission to change that.✨

Motives Met is redefining what it means to thrive at work with a science-backed human-centered platform that helps teams and leaders meet the 28 human motives that drive well-being and performance. 

Everyone talks about improving culture, leadership, and well-being - yet no one is actually personalizing it. That’s the gap Motives Met fills. We empower people to shift from "one-size-fits-none" with personalized insights from our Motives Met Human Needs Assessment, to make a real impact.

👋  CEO & CoFounder @ Motives Met ---> Creating happy, healthy, high-performing teams through the science of human needs. 

🔥 Check out the Motives Met Human Needs Assessment™ that uncovers each person's top 5 motives out of the 28 they need met to live their best work life--> bit.ly/mm-assessment

⚡️ DisruptHR San Diego Organizer & Licensee --> /bit.ly/disrupthrsd

📚 Best-selling Author of "Work Life Well-Lived" --> motivesmet.com/book

🎤 Keynote Speaker  --> view my speaker page kelly-mackin.com

🎉 Team workshops, offsites, and engaging experiences --> motivesmet.com/workshops

📊 Quantitative Researcher 👉 Download the free work well-being research & culture roadmap https://bit.ly/MM_Wellbeing_Research

📩 JOIN THE WORK LIFE WELL-LIVED NEWSLETTER 👉 motivesmet.com/subscribe

Kelly Mackin

The speaker lineup for DisruptHR San Diego just dropped, and it's 🔥!

12 speakers. 5-Minute Bold TED-Style Talks about culture, leadership, and the future of work. Slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds. 🎤

So many amazing voices, disruptive ideas, and epic speakers ready to take the stage.

Only two weeks left for early-bird tickets 👇

Human Motives ​> One-Size-Fits-None Leadership | CEO, Motives Met | Award-Winning Author of “Work Life Well-Lived” | Keynote Speaker| Human Behavior Researcher

DisruptHR San Diego is back on April 23 at Quartyard, and the full speaker lineup just dropped!

We’re bringing together an incredible group of leaders, authors, founders, and culture builders who are ready to challenge how we think about work, leadership, and the future of HR.

Meet the speakers taking the stage.

🎤 MC

Nakisha Hicks, MBA
Chief People Strategist, Motives Met | President, ElevateHer | Keynote Speaker

⚡ Speakers

Steve Cadigan
LinkedIn’s First CHRO | Talent Strategist | Author
“Retention is Dead: Growth is the New Loyalty”

Catherine Mattice, MA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
CEO, Civility Partners | TEDx Speaker | Author
“They Lied to You”

Melissa Doman, M.A. 
Founder, The Workplace Mental Health Method™ | Organizational Psychologist | Former Therapist | Author
“Why Leadership Mental Health Is a Strategic Business Priority”

Kelly Mackin
CEO, Motives Met | Author | Human Behavior Researcher
“Work-Life Harmony Is Overrated. And Purpose Won’t Save You.”

Gary Ware
Founder, Breakthrough Play | Author | Creative Catalyst
“Stop Proving. Start Playing.”

Dr. Lola Adeyemo
Workplace Inclusion Strategist | Founder, EQImindset
“Global Talent. American Rules.”

Sara Schairer
Founder & Executive Director, Compassion It | Author | TEDx Speaker
“Compassion Is Not Cute. It’s Critical.”

Benj Gershman
Founder, What Could Be Bad | Original Bassist, O.A.R. | TEDx Speaker
“The Band Effect: How Great Teams Create Harmony”

Allyson Carr
Chief People Officer, Cybereason
“Your Calendar Isn’t the Issue. Your Energy Is.”

Charley ‘Sparkle’ Lapomardo 
Founder, Sparkleworks | Speaker | Singer | Facilitator
“Mycelium, Not Cogs: Why Waste Our Human Competitive Advantage?”

Shawndrell Lynch
Founder & CEO, SLX Solutions Group | VP, Sony Pictures
“Stop Putting Lipstick on a Pig: AI Won’t Fix a Broken Org Design”

Anju Choudhary
Chief People Officer, Xoxoday
“Why High Performers Quit (and Your Metrics Never Told You)”

📍 April 23 @ Quartyard
🎟 Grab your early-bird ticket, only 2 more weeks!
📣 Follow the DisruptHR San Diego page to stay in the loop.

Want to sponsor and put your brand in front of HR and people leaders?

✨ Event details here: https://bit.ly/disrupthrsd ✨

#DisruptHR #DisruptHRSD #FutureOfWork #HRLeadership #PeopleAndCulture

Looking forward to speaking at the Chief CEO Summit about the science behind building happy, healthy, high-performing teams!

What actually drives people to stay engaged, focused and committed at work?

Kelly Mackin has spent years studying that question. As the author of Work Life Well-Lived, her work explores the psychological, emotional and social motives that shape how people perform, connect and contribute at work.

At CEO Summit, Mackin will introduce you to the science behind those motives and explain why traditional, one-size-fits-all leadership approaches often fall short. Her research identifies 28 core drivers that influence engagement and performance and what you can do to create conditions where your team performs at their best.

For leaders navigating constant change, the value is practical: when you understand what motivates people, you can build teams that stay aligned, energized and performing at a high level.

Join us April 7–8 to hear Kelly Mackin’s perspective. Secure your spot: https://lnkd.in/g_dFXCdb

You can’t always have work-life balance and achieve big dreams at the same time.

I know that’s not the message people love to hear. But building something meaningful is rarely glamorous.

It’s early mornings. Late nights. Weekends.
Big dreams take time. 

Through my research, I discovered there are 28 human motives that drive us, and they don’t always play nice with one another. For example, the WORK-LIFE HARMONY motive can create real friction with the FUTURE SUCCESS motive.

One wants space, balance, and restoration.

The other wants progress, momentum, and building toward something bigger.
Both are valid. Both require different things. 

Much of our stress at work lives in two different human needs pulling us in different directions. The real work is learning how to live well inside that tension.

For me right now, the drive toward FUTURE SUCCESS and building something meaningful is louder.

That doesn’t mean WORK-LIFE HARMONY doesn’t matter to me. It does.

But the Motives Met Human Needs Assessment made something clear: FUTURE SUCCESS is more important in this season of my work life to thrive. 
Yes I actually thrive working more and seeing the impact than working less.
 
Because thriving isn’t about having every need perfectly met all the time.
It’s about understanding which ones matter most in this season of your life and making intentional choices around them. 

That’s what the Motives Met Human Needs Assessment helps people and leaders uncover. 

When you know what motivates you and the people around you, the path to health and happiness becomes, not perfect, but clearer. And clarity is power. 

Curious what you or your team's top motives are right now?

Check out the assessment 👉 https://lnkd.in/dYemYG8H

#workwellbeing #worklifebalance #assessment

Announcing our first 3 speakers for DisruptHR San Diego! An amazing lineup of speakers taking the stage April 23rd. 🔥

Speaker applications open through February 27th 👉 https://lnkd.in/gRTtGc6X

We’re kicking off our first round of speaker announcements for DisruptHR San Diego 7.0… and we’re starting strong! 🎤

Meet the first 3 Disruptors taking the stage:

 ⚡️ Catherine Mattice, MA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP - CEO, Civility Partners | TEDx Speaker | Author

“They Lied to You”

 ⚡️ Melissa Doman, M.A. - Founder, The Workplace Mental Health Method™   Organizational Psychologist | Former Therapist | Author 

“Why Leadership Mental Health is a Strategic Business Priority”

 ⚡️ Allyson Carr - Chief People Officer, Cyberreason | Global HR Executive

“Your Calendar Isn’t the Issue. Your Energy Is.”

5-minute TED-style talks.
Bold ideas.
Zero corporate fluff.

We’re accepting speaker applications through Feb. 27 and looking for more voices who want to share their disruptive ideas around culture, leadership, & the future of work!

🔗 Check out event details & speaker application
https://lnkd.in/gRTtGc6X

🗓️ April 23 @ Quartyard
🎟️ Purchase your early-bird tickets now!
📣 Follow the DisruptHR San Diego page to stay in the loop

#DisruptHR #DisruptHRSD #WorkPlaceWellbeing #FutureOfWork #HRLeadership #PeopleandCulture

"I'm playing volleyball right now because I scheduled my emails to send at 4 pm so my boss doesn't think I'm slacking."

Oof. Performative productivity.

Someone told me this last Friday.
They had already worked overtime.
Their work was done. And done well.

But the culture they’re in made them feel like they had to perform productivity instead of just be productive.

So they scheduled emails to send later…
Just to look busy.

Meanwhile, I was at the volleyball courts at 2 pm that day. 
But I was also up working at 5 am.
And yes, I worked a little bit Sunday morning too. But I prefer to work early when my brain is sharp and be at the beach at 2 pm.

The point isn’t when the work happens.
The point is:
Is the work getting done?
Is it high quality?
Are we supporting each other as a team?
That’s it.

If people feel like they have to fake being busy, your culture has a trust problem.
And when trust is missing, people stop focusing on impact…and start focusing on optics.
Great cultures reward outcomes.
Not performative productivity.

#workwellbeing #culture #flexibility

Stress is what happens when our needs aren’t met. 👇

So do we avoid stress at work? Don’t go to work.
Kidding. (Kind of.)

Stress is both a biological and psychological response to a gap, a gap between what we need and what we’re experiencing.

When we need autonomy but get micromanaged.
When we need belonging but feel like an outsider.
When we need clarity but get confusion.

And as that gap grows… so does stress. ⬆

We experience 8–15 unmet needs a day. 🤯

Stress isn’t abnormal.
It’s human.

But when stress lingers for you or your team, that’s the signal to look deeper at the real root cause. To shift from:

STRESS MANAGEMENT → STRESSOR MANAGEMENT

 We have to identify what are the unmet needs, or motives, that are the stressors. And our research at Motives Met discovered there are 28 of them. 

Less treating for the surface-level symptoms with Band-Aids, because self-care days, wellness apps, and walking breaks are great, but they don't treat for deeper work wounds.

#stress #burnout #wellbeing #leadership

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Steven Glod

Kelly Mackin

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The Battle

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Kelly Mackin's LinkedIn Performance

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