Building Impact by Leading With Heart Today: A Conversation With Erika Sinner

Feb 9, 2026

Erika Sinner, CEO of Directorie and Chief Empathy Officer of TinySuperheroes, advocates empathy-driven leadership and generational impact. She discusses building businesses from financial insecurity, leading with empathy and accountability, transforming pet bereavement into workplace policy, and reframing childhood illness into resilience-building superhero care.

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ANECDOTE

Made-Up Project Led To A Career Break

Erika Sinner fabricated a marketing project as a receptionist to get noticed and won the job she wanted.
That stunt launched an 11-year pharma career and led to founding Directorie.

INSIGHT

Money As A Core Value For Safety

Financial safety drove Erika to build Directorie after surviving repeated pharma layoffs.
She designed the company to provide dependable commercial teams for small to midsize pharma firms.

ADVICE

CEO's Job: Secure The Work Pipeline

CEOs must own forecasting and business development to ensure team job security.
Deliver consistent revenue so you can promise stable employment to high performers.

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What happens when leaders design cultures around safety and trust?

This episode will challenge you to rethink what success really means and how impact is created. Suneera sits down with Erika Sinner to explore building eight-figure businesses, leading with empathy, and turning profit into purpose.

Erika Sinner is the CEO of Directorie and the Chief Empathy Officer of TinySuperheroes. She is also the author of the book Pets Are Family and a passionate advocate for empathy-driven leadership and generational impact.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

(02:25) How creating your own opportunities early in your career can change everything.

(04:39) Why financial safety is a powerful motivator for building scalable businesses.

(06:45) How leading with empathy and accountability fuels sustainable growth.

(08:19) Why grief, vulnerability, and leadership are deeply connected.

(10:22) How pet bereavement policies can transform workplace culture.

(15:24) How reframing childhood illness through mindset creates resilience and hope.

(18:25) Why mindset work matters just as much for children as it does for CEOs.

(26:15) How business success creates the freedom to pursue passion-driven impact.

Lock in your spot for the Unicorn CEO Summit today at https://theceoschool.com/ceo-school-summit

Thank you to Erika Sinner for being on our show!

Learn more about Erika: https://www.erikasinner.org/

Erika on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikasinner/

Erika on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erika_sinner/

Learn more about Directorie: https://tinysuperheroes.com/

Learn more about TinySuperheroes: https://www.directorie.com/

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This episode was produced by Story On Media: https://www.storyon.co/