Uncensored CMO: "Uncensored Renegades: Why We Need to Embrace Failure"

Host: Jon Evans ("Jonny Boy")
Guest: Kory Marchisotto ("K Boss")
Date: January 26, 2026

Episode Overview

In the premiere of the "Uncensored Renegades" series, Jon Evans and Kory Marchisotto dive head-first into the concept of failure — why it’s stigmatized, how it’s critical for growth, and the role it plays in leadership and business success. Sharing personal stories, cultural perspectives, and leadership lessons, this fast-paced 20-minute episode explores why openly talking about failures supercharges learning and innovation.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Social Stigma and Branding Problem of Failure

• [00:42] Jon notes how rarely people discuss failure, referencing a venture capitalist who asks potential founders about their biggest flop — and if they don't have one, the meeting ends.
• Kory: "I actually love the word failure... Why does failure have a branding problem?" (01:39)
• Jon: “Everyone swarms around a success and claims it as their own... but the moment something goes wrong, it’s like a bomb has been dropped... ‘That wasn’t me.’” (02:47-03:26)

2. Learning from Failure: The Black Box Analogy

• Jon shares the story behind his internal company seminar titled “My Most Epic Failures,” inspired by the book Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed.
• In aviation, crash black box data is shared industry-wide, significantly reducing future accidents: “There’s a close correlation between the more information about failure they give away and the reduction in airline crashes, which I thought was brilliant.” (04:29)
• Demand for Jon’s failure storytelling far exceeded expectations, and he found people were desperate for “permission” to talk about their own stumbles.

3. Failure as Foundational to Success

• Both Jon and Kory highlight that every significant success was preceded by key moments of failure and self-examination.
• Jon: “The end of the meeting, I said my five biggest successes immediately followed those failures. That’s the thing we forget, isn’t it?” (06:19)
• Kory: Shares her company’s new employee onboarding process, where C Suite tells personal stories, and how new hires always ask about failure stories.
• Kory (citing Billie Jean King): “Failure is feedback.” (07:13)
• Uses the skiing analogy: “The beauty of skiing is the pause and reflection on the lift... What did I do right that run? What did I do wrong?... At the end of the day, you’re a much better skier, and the progress is tangible.” (07:29-08:16)

4. Lessons from Elite Performers: Tennis & Football

• Jon highlights Roger Federer’s statistics: Federer has won 80% of matches, but only 54% of shots — the tiniest edge separates “the greatest of all time and being a kind of circuit player.” (09:54-10:12)
• They discuss the relentless repetition behind success (like David Beckham practicing free kicks alone after training), emphasizing the labor behind triumph.

5. Cultural Practice: Celebrating Failure in Teams

• Kory describes her leadership practice at ELF of regular “wins and fails lightning rounds”:
  • The focus isn’t on the failure itself, but on what was learned.
  • “Your failure might be somebody else’s win, because you caught them before they were going to make the same fail… and we celebrate it among our team and we celebrate it in our company.” (11:24)
• ELF’s transparency and open discussion of mistakes are credited as key contributors to company success.

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Kory: “Nothing good happens when fear is in the driver’s seat.” (21:53)
• Jon: “In desperate times, [failure] set me up for the success that followed.” (06:26)
• Kory (on feedback): “‘Failure is feedback.’” (07:13)
• Jon (on company culture): “Permission to talk about failure is one of the most valuable things you can give someone.” (05:28-06:19)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:42] — The stigma and avoidance of talking about failure.
• [02:47] — “Success has many fathers, failure is an orphan.”
• [04:29] — The “black box” story and learnings from aviation failures.
• [06:19] — “Five biggest successes immediately followed those failures.”
• [07:13] — Billie Jean King’s “failure is feedback” and the importance of reflection.
• [09:54] — Roger Federer: winning 54% of shots, the edge of greatness.
• [11:24] — ELF’s lightning round on wins and fails; team transparency.
• [13:02] — Jon’s detailed story of the juice brand relaunch disaster and turnaround.
• [16:25] — The learning: “This job was the other 90%... I was in charge of quality control for the first time.”
• [19:05] — Kory’s biggest failure: her first investor meeting at ELF, making a forward-looking statement accidentally.
• [21:53] — “Nothing good happens when fear is in the driver’s seat.”
• [22:37] — Coaching others through failure: “We are tough in victory and gentle in defeat.”

Personal Failure Stories

Jon’s Story: Juice Brand Meltdown & Turnaround

[13:02—16:36]

• Left corporate safety for a private-equity scale-up with huge ambitions and minimal team support.
• Relaunched the brand in a frantic 16-week sprint (normally 18 months’ work).
• Catastrophe: mold found in juice bottles after launch during an epic heatwave, requiring a complete recall in peak season.
• “We lost a third of our entire business. This wasn’t just someone else’s money. This was my life savings, private investment; I was a shareholder.” (14:24)
• Painful but transformative: forensic root-cause analysis led to 96 documented learnings. The company became the fastest growing soft drink in the UK for two years after.
• Key learning: “I was used to being responsible for about 10% of what happens on a brand... This job was the other 90%.” (16:25)

Kory’s Story: Investor Meeting Fiasco

[19:05—21:53]

• Early at ELF, thrown into her first U.S.-style investor meeting, immediately broke the cardinal rule against “forward-looking statements.”
• CEO calmly handled it, then called her out later for losing her authentic voice due to fear: "Where is the person I hired... you’re a robot."
• CEO’s advice: “When somebody asks you a question about the future, you just tell them a story about the past.” (21:38)
• Transformation: Kory learned to manage fear, reclaimed her confidence, and now thrives in investor relations.

Leadership Lessons

• "Failure is feedback." True learning and improvement require honest self-examination.
• Leaders must create safety to talk about failure; this inspires openness, faster learning, and strong cultures.
• The margin between top performers and “good-enough” is often the willingness to learn from the 46% lost points, not the 54% won.
• “Tough in victory, gentle in defeat.” — A leader’s response to failure should be supportive, not punitive; people know when they’ve messed up.

Notable Quotes & Attribution

• Kory Marchisotto [11:24]: "Your failure might be somebody else's win, because you caught them before they were going to make the same fail and, and we celebrate it among our team and we celebrate it in our company."
• Jon Evans [13:02]: “I did everything... I was the Twitter handle, I was the designer, I designed our logo... But we relaunched and within about a week... mold was growing inside the bottle.”
• Kory Marchisotto [21:53]: “Nothing good happens when fear is in the driver's seat.”
• Jon Evans [22:37]: “We are tough in victory and we are gentle in defeat.”

Conclusion

The episode makes a compelling case for why failure should not only be normalized, but embraced and leveraged as a core growth driver — for individuals, teams, and entire organizations. Both Jon and Kory model vulnerability and reflection, illustrating how honest dialogue about failure is the secret sauce behind future wins.

Cliffhanger: Next time, Kory might share the story of getting fired from Chili's...