One of the biggest challenges companies face is how to hire great people at a reasonable price in one of the tightest labor markets on record. There's simply not enough qualified talent to fill everybody's needs, especially if your company is early in its growth journey and trying to catch the giants in your field.
Smart companies are thinking more broadly and more globally about how to solve this pain point. But lingering misconceptions about offshoring can discourage CEOs from investigating what could be a talent gold mine.
On today's episode, Chris Van Vladricken answers all your questions about offshoring including: service options, the hiring process, costs, and how the nuts-and-bolts infrastructure works to keep your local employees and remote workers in sync.
The battle for the best talent is as fierce right now as it’s ever been. The best performing companies spare no expense when it comes to recruiting top performers. And young companies just starting down the road to BIG need to make sure they’re not stuck settling for second-best.
How?
One: make sure your employee compensation package is stellar.
Two: make sure you’re not so busy shopping in the same crowded talent pool that you’re overlooking other ways to hire the best performers for the jobs you need done.
Mastering number two is a BIG reason Jim Bennett grew Unishippers from 0 to $120 million. In this conversation, recorded live at the 6th Annual CEO Coaching International Summit held in Santa Monica, CA, Jim and coach Don Schiavone discuss how Jim recruited unconventional employees and then trained them up into a major differentiator between his company and the competition.
One of the reasons that I started the annual CEO Coaching International Summit is that I wanted our clients and friends to have a forum where they could learn about what’s next. Our speakers have talked about new products, emerging markets, outside-the-box problem solving, and some really mind-blowing tech.
Thanks to Cyrus Sigari, we can add flying cars to our list. And if you think that sounds far-fetched, think again. According to Cyrus, heavy hitters like Google, Uber, Boeing, and Airbus are all battling to be first to market with small, affordable aircraft that are as easy to drive as a car. This space is going to explode sooner rather than later, and the implications for all businesses could be huge.
But I’m so proud that our Summit is also a place where CEOs can learn from leaders like Cyrus, whose personal story is maybe more amazing than the work he’s doing. His family fled the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and as he grew up in the States, Cyrus fell in love with aviation. He learned to fly while he was a teenager and started his company right out of college.
Then, a series of personal challenges led Cyrus on a spiritual journey that’s helped him redefine everything he does in business and in life.
In this presentation, recorded live at the 6th Annual CEO Coaching International Summit held in Santa Monica, CA, Cyrus Sigari talks about how he arrived at his Most Transformative Purposes, and how all CEOs have to step outside of their businesses if they truly want to make BIG happen.
Some CEOs were surprised when Business Roundtable redefined the purpose of a corporation to include promoting “An Economy That Serves All Americans.”
But some of the most successful companies that we work with at CEO Coaching International are the ones that have a vision beyond profit. They’re the companies that are actively asking employees what’s important to them. They’re turning down huge cash infusions from celebrity investors because they believe their products can improve the environment. They’re finding innovative new ways to let employees earn ownership and grow their personal wealth. And they’re being intentional about how they build their legacies.
On today’s show, we welcome back Kerry Siggins to discuss the grassroots efforts she’s undertaken to promote a global safety movement in her industry. Starting a movement definitely isn’t for every CEO. But it’s leaders like Kerry who are leading their employees and their businesses towards BIG things beyond the business.
The BIGGEST and best businesses are about more than just business. They’re an expression of the CEO’s professional and personal values that can impact the world for generations. Building that kind of enduring legacy takes clear vision and intentional planning. That’s why Mark Moses and the CEO Coaching International team have developed a series of exercises that CEOs can use to clarify goals and create missions that transcend profit.
On today’s episode, Mark Moses walks us thorough those six exercises and explains how his own responses have shaped his approach to legacy planning. Mark also shares FREE tools that CEOs and entrepreneurs can download right now that will help you think about how you are living your life and what you may want to do differently to create a lasting legacy.
A good CEO is always looking for ways to inspire his team and encourage employees to take ownership of their work.
One way to do that? Let your employees earn some real ownership.
Top young talents want to feel like they’re a real part of the companies they work for. More and more CEOs are setting up Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) to provide that incentive, that motivation, and that feeling of being a part of something BIGGER than profit.
On today’s show, Adam and Jason Svet discuss the business and culture fit issues that CEOs who are interested in an ESOP should consider. They also talk about the nuts and bolts process of setting up an ESOP and how going through the process helped them to put their company’s values in action and get their employees thinking and working BIG.
Most companies get customer service all wrong. They make a big show of designing shiny apps, building amazing showrooms, and rolling out cutting edge products. But they forget to put a laser focus on who actually pays for all that—the customer! When you deepen your customer relationships and focus on creating a memorable experience, you can charge a premium price and retain clients for life.
“Technology is only 10% of the experience,” says customer service expert John DiJulius, while your person who delivers the service is the other 90%. “Technology can never build a rapport, show empathy, or make a brilliant comeback when we drop the ball, but you can,” he said.
Many businesses are trying to de-emphasize the importance of the employee and replace them with chat bots and AI. But that technology will never outperform a well-trained human who steps in when your customer needs personalized help.
In this presentation, recorded live at the 2019 CEO Coaching International Summit, John DiJulius explains how you can train your team to own every problem, make meaningful connections with every customer, and create a world-class customer experience that will drive BIG business.
If Emma Cohen and her collapsible, reusable straws sound familiar, you probably caught her appearance on the TV show “Shark Tank.” After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Emma stood face-to-face with sharks Mark Cuban and Mr. Wonderful himself, Kevin O’Leary, to try to secure an investment. And not only did Emma field multiple offers from the sharks … she actually turned them down!
On today’s episode, recorded live at the 6th Annual CEO Coaching International Summit held in Santa Monica, CA, Emma Cohen and her coach, Chris Larkins, discuss where she got the courage to make such a difficult call and stand her ground against the sharks. Fans of “Shark Tank” are going to enjoy Emma’s behind-the-scenes peek at how the show really works. But the lessons Emma learned are going to help all entrepreneurs who are fine-tuning their pitches and deciding how much an injection of much-needed cash is really worth.
Ron Carson’s family lost everything in the 1980s farm crisis. Instead of preparing to follow in his father’s footsteps, Ron had to watch his father cry for the first time and move into a trailer.
Then, when he was studying at the University of Nebraska, Ron read a magazine article about becoming a Certified Financial Planner®.
Thirty years later, Carson Wealth is one of the BIGGEST names in finance. And I’m proud to say that my good friend Ron Carson is a person who runs his business and his life with a passion we should all try to emulate.
In this special episode, recorded live at the 2019 CEO Coaching Summit, Ron Carson discusses how his family’s hardships motivated him to push past fear, figure out his “Why,” and dedicate himself to things he loves doing.
Hiring the best people is always critical. Right now, it’s also very challenging. According to the staffing pros at Integrity Staffing Solutions, unemployment is near the lowest figure in decades. That translates to around 7 million open jobs, and only 6 million people looking. Add in the retiring baby boomer generation and the rise of the millennial workforce and it’s absolutely imperative that your firm is doing everything it can to make open positions as attractive as possible.
On today’s show, Todd Bavol and Megan Couch of Integrity Staffing Solutions give some important tips on how to make your company a preferred destination for top talent.
About ten years ago, Josh McCarter was running a struggling SaaS business in New York. His company was generating about $700,000 in annual revenue, but burning through $350,000 a month. He didn’t have enough cash on hand to cover next month’s payroll. His customer base had flatlined. And just when it seemed like relief was on the way, a terrorist attack disrupted a critical investment. Not even his YPO forum mates thought Josh was going to make it.
I should know – I was in that forum!
Fast forward to 2019, and Josh is in charge of a company that was recently purchased for $2 billion.
In this conversation, recorded live at the 2019 CEO Coaching Summit, Josh and I talked about how he kept cool during all this adversity and focused on a plan that pivoted his company to BIG. Josh also describes how turning around his original company and zeroing in on one key strategy prepared him to run a billion-dollar business.
Cole Zucker turned a sudden job loss into a BIG opportunity. He booked an eight-week stay at a hostel in China that turned into a three-year fact-finding and networking mission. Eventually, Cole spotted a market that he thought was ready to explode in the US: LED lighting. Green Creative was born, and five years later, Cole was riding a rocket ship from $0 to $40 million in growth that landed him a significant exit.
On today’s show, Cole Zucker discusses those early years of explosive growth in terms of what he learned and what he would do differently. He also shares a couple of great insights on what he did to overcome a major challenge that he hit in the company's early days.
In 2017, Sarah Dusek came to CEO Coaching International looking for some guidance on how to get her glamorous camping (“glamping”) company to the next level. Two years later, thanks to some courageous decisions and a commitment to our processes, Under Canvas has grown BIGGER than Sarah dreamed, and recently secured a major private equity investment that will help expand its operations across US National Parks.
In this special episode, recorded live at the 2019 CEO Coaching Summit, Sarah Dusek talks with her coach, Sheldon Harris, about her incredible journey, the importance of resilience, and how staying true to her company’s values helped her guide Under Canvas around some potential potholes and stay on course for BIG.
Blockbuster. Xerox. MySpace. And, yes, Kodak. These businesses are long gone, but they endure as cautionary tales to any CEO who’s complacent. But dealing with disruption isn’t just about planning ahead: it’s about cultivating a culture and a mindset within your team that prioritizes innovation, experimentation, and above all, BIG thinking.
On today’s show, Jaime Szulc shares the steps you can take to position your company so it's on the giving end of disruption, not the receiving end. Jaime also discusses some warning signs he spotted during the end of his tenure at Kodak that all CEOs should be on the lookout for if they want to avoid a similar fate.
Government contracting can be lucrative, but it can also be a cutthroat competition between companies trying to outsmart and under-bid each other. Winning major contracts requires a detailed proposal strategy that balances innovative thinking with a clear-eyed understanding of what your company can and can’t bring to the table.
On today’s show, Rafe Wilkinson shares three key steps to accelerate your growth in the government contracting space – including an ingenious acquisition strategy that Rafe has seen get BIG results.
Branding has never been more important to successful businesses. The number of choices that your customers have multiplies every single day. Companies with strong brands are able to stand out from that crowd and make clear, direct value propositions to the public. Companies with weak, or worse, inauthentic brands are never going to separate themselves and will just get swept away in the non-stop marketing din buzzing across our screens every day.
On today’s show, Mike Marchi discusses how building and maintaining a strong brand can lead to higher profits for your company. He also shares some key lessons on leadership he learned from working under Jack Welch.
There’s more than one way to get BIG. If your company is really firing on all cylinders, hitting its targets, and keeping you in the black, an acquisition might be just the thing to take you up to the next level.
But whether you’re looking to buy or sell, it’s critical that you and your team don’t get too caught up in the excitement of the opportunity. CEOs who chase acquisitions like they’re shiny new things to collect risk stretching themselves too thin. A smaller business that wants to sell quick might be too focused on a payday and not as attentive to all the fine print that’s attached to it. A careful consideration of strategy, partner fit, and your long-term goals either inside or outside of this new entity should be what drives this process.
On today’s show, Jim Weaver outlines a well-planned, seven-step acquisition process that will help ensure proper execution, strong growth, and BIG profitability.
Today’s best-seller will be in tomorrow’s bargain bin. The companies that avoid this fate always have one eye on what’s next. They’re creative, they’re innovative, they’re willing to experiment, and they’re prudent about how they expend time and resources when it comes to refreshing their product lines.
On today’s show, Alberto Carvalho outlines a four-step process to product development that he honed while working for some of the world’s biggest businesses. Alberto’s process won’t just get you from prototype to finished product – it will get you there with minimal waste and with a maximum shot at hitting BIG returns with your customers.
In her 30+ year career, Cynthia Cleveland has driven significant growth at major companies like Universal Studios, Mattel Toys, and Teleflora. And while these companies all had their unique challenges and opportunities, Cynthia found a recipe for success by focusing on three key drivers that she believes are essential to getting any business BIG.
On today’s show, Cynthia discusses her “3 P’s” and how CEOs can master these essentials to build a great business.
The absolute best companies don’t get BIG by accident. They grow fast and achieve meaningful scale because their CEOs are rigorous in their planning, committed to working with top talent, believers in the culture they’ve built, and dedicated to learning and growing every single day.
On today’s special episode, we dig into our archives to see what some of our past guests have to say about these four key traits that the CEO Coaching International team helps its clients cultivate.
No, Amazon and the other tech giants have not wiped out family-run businesses. In fact, one third of Sheldon Harris' coaching clients are family-run businesses that feature multiple family members in various roles. And in Sheldon’s experience, that arrangement can be just as complicated as it sounds. “It's hard to find a business that doesn't have challenges,” he says, “and it's hard to find a family that doesn't have challenges. So those things are just amplified in the case where you've got both of those dynamics going on.”
On today’s show, Sheldon Harris discusses how family-run businesses can learn to keep their family issues from running the business into the ground.
Entrepreneurial inspiration can strike at any time. In Brian Scudamore’s case, he was sitting in a McDonald’s drive-through, trying to figure out how to pay for college, when he noticed a beat-up old pickup truck with plywood sides built up around the bed.
“I looked at the truck and I went, ‘Aha, that's my ticket,’” Brian remembers. “I took a $1,000 investment, $700 into a truck, the rest into flyers and business cards. Within a couple of weeks, I had a business that actually paid for itself. It was ironic because what funded my college education also inspired me to drop out.”
On today’s show, Brian Scudamore discusses the 3 key mindsets he used to grow 1-800-GOT-JUNK into the core business of an organization that now generates more than $300 million in annual revenue. We also discuss a really tough and really courageous staffing decision Brian made early on that allowed him to regroup, reorganize, and refocus on making BIG happen.