Endeavor Accelerator: Liz Brigham

What happens when ever-increasing leadership roles, from Disney to Morningstar, bring you back to where it all began? For Liz Brigham, it looks like 26 years of making deposits into a vision she could not yet fully name, until one day a tweet changed everything.

In this episode of Mode to Joy, host Monica Lyle sits down with her longtime friend and coaching client Liz Brigham, Executive Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Jay Hurt Hub at Davidson College. Liz is a builder by nature and by calling, and this conversation is a masterclass in what it means to lead with curiosity, invest in people first, and build something from scratch that genuinely serves a community.

Whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur, a seasoned leader looking to evolve, or someone trying to figure out what comes next, this one will stay with you.

Listen below, or via your favorite podcast player.

In This Episode, You'll Hear:

  • How Liz went from negotiating a $50,000 concert contract as a 19-year-old at Davidson to running the college's innovation and entrepreneurship center 26 years later

  • Why she describes herself first and foremost as a builder, and what that throughline looks like across Disney, Jive, Morningstar, tech, and now higher education

  • The journal entry she wrote over Christmas break that became her entire management ethos

  • What it takes to break into product marketing or product management, including the counterintuitive advice she gives every student who asks

  • Her prediction for the future of leadership in the age of AI, and why she believes coaching will become the most important managerial skill of the next decade

  • The Scout-inspired legacy she is working toward to leave every place better than you found it

Key Takeaways

→ Make deposits before the window opens. Liz spent 26 years showing up for Davidson College as an alumna before the right role appeared. When it did, she was ready. Consistent investment in the things and places you love pays dividends in ways you cannot always predict.

→ Know whether you are a builder or a maintainer. Liz is clear-eyed about where she thrives: the zero-to-one phase, the startup phase, the place where there is nothing yet and everything is possible. Knowing this about yourself is not a limitation. It is a superpower.

→ Fall in love with the people, then the problem, then the solution. This is Liz's product marketing philosophy and her leadership philosophy. Start with the humans you are trying to serve. Everything else follows.

→ Write down your management ethos. Liz took Christmas break to articulate by hand what she believed about coaching and leading people. That document became the foundation of a culture her team still references today. Most leaders never do this work. The ones who do build teams that outlast them.

→ The role of the manager is becoming the role of the coach. As AI takes on more routine tasks, the human skills of developing people, building stretch opportunities, and cultivating high-performing teams will become more valuable, not less. Liz is already building for that future.

About Liz Brigham

Liz Brigham is the Executive Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Jay Hurt Hub at Davidson College, where she has spent six years building a thriving entrepreneurship ecosystem from the ground up.

A Davidson alumna, Liz brings more than two decades of product marketing and product management experience from organizations including roles at Disney, in tech and politics and at Morningstar, where she led product marketing for a global software portfolio and was head of the direct & reporting solutions software business unit. She is also the co-founder of a new venture studio building AI-powered products, including 24-Hour PR, an agentic platform for startup press and media outreach. Liz has managed more than 100 people directly across her career and remains a committed builder, mentor, and connector.

Resources and References Mentioned

  • The Jay Hurt Hub for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Davidson College

  • Davidson College Consulting Group

  • Lean Startup methodology

  • 24-Hour PR (agentic platform for startup press and media outreach)

  • Morningstar, Inc.

About Monica Lyle

With over 30 years as an executive coach, Monica is on a mission to help more

people do what they love and love what they do. Each episode of Mode to Joy features a guest who

has found a way to make their life's work feel like their life's calling. 

If this conversation resonated with you, whether it was Liz's journey, her thoughts on leadership in the age of AI, or simply the idea that your career could feel more aligned with who you actually are, we would love to support you in that.

Monica Lyle and the Renewal Fuel executive coaching team work with leaders and professionals who are ready to get clear on what is next. The first step is simple: book a Spark Session. It’s a focused conversation about your career, your goals, and what it might look like to move forward with real intention.

Book your Spark Session here.

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