Guest: Chris Justice, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Chris is a former CEO with a proven track record of managing business units from $25 million to $700 million across diverse industries, including retail, lodging, automotive, e-commerce, and casino gaming.

Quick Background: Running a business has always been hard. And considering that today's CEOs need to manage complex generational divides, global competition, rapid technological advances, and a constantly evolving economic landscape, leading isn't going to get any easier. But if your company has a clear vision, top talent, and dependable systems, there are very few BIG goals or problems that a CEO can't break down into smaller, more manageable parts. 

On today's show, Chris Justice shares his practical, five-step framework for turning around companies and dealing with complicated business situations.

Guest: Sarah Dusek, the founder of Under Canvas, the leading upscale outdoor hospitality brand that she grew to a value of over $100 million. Today, Sarah is a venture capitalist, a cofounder of a new hospitality company, and the author of the new book, Thinking Bigger: A Pitch-Deck Formula for Women Who Want to Change the World.

Overview: In 2012, Sarah Dusek's "glamping" company was starting its first season at Yellowstone National Park. One fateful afternoon, a huge thunderstorm rolled in and flattened the campsite, and, seemingly, Sarah's dream. 

But Sarah, her husband, her employees, and even her customers rallied. She rebuilt her business model with an eye towards repeatability and scale. And as the company began to get to BIG, Sarah began "thinking bigger" as well. 

On today's show, Sarah Dusek describes her incredible journey from the brink of collapse to building a $100-million industry leader. She also shares lessons from her new career in VC about what makes a business investible.

Guest: Sally Hurley, CEO of VIPdesk, a global leader in remote customer service. Sally is also a client of CEO Coaching International.

Overview: Much of the focus on the AI revolution has been on how businesses can streamline operations and execute certain key tasks around the clock. But any AI implementation that isn't improving the efficiency and quality of your customer experience is going to be a downgrade, no matter how fancy your tech stack is.

On today's show, Sally Hurley explains how to zero in on the unique balance between AI automation and human connection that will Make BIG Happen for your company.

Guest: Jen L'Estrange, Founder & CEO of Red Clover, which offers large-scale, strategic and operational Human Resources support that’s accessible to small businesses.

Overview: When it comes to comp, money is rarely enough -- especially for top talent. The best workers need to feel like their efforts are not just rewarded but recognized as integral contributions towards Making BIG Happen. Your compensation package has to tie all of these motivations together in a way that's clear, equitable, and integral to the company's top goals.

On today's show, Jen L'Estrange shares five key insights on upgrading your compensation package:

1. Increase focus on variable compensation. 

2. Communicate clearly about how compensation is structured.

3. Incentivize both short-term performance and long-term strategic objectives.

4. Provide non-monetary motivation for team members. 

5. Benchmark salaries against market data rather than relying solely on cost of living adjustments.

Guest: Dr. Madan Kandula, a surgeon, entrepreneur, and the founder/CEO of ADVENT, a leading healthcare company providing solutions for people who have had life-long breathing and sleeping challenges. Dr. Kandula is also a client of CEO Coaching International.

Overview: Whether you're running a Silicon Valley tech firm or a nonprofit in your hometown, getting BIG is never just a matter of driving up profits. Money is the fuel that powers the greater mission, which lifts up employees and shareholders as well as customers and community. CEOs have to use that higher purpose as a guide for how to achieve meaningful scale that will also deliver a meaningful impact. 

On today's show, Dr. Madan Kandula discusses how he built ADVENT from a small practice to a thriving organization with over 300 employees and 25 locations across the Midwest. He also shares valuable insights on balancing profit with mission and how to effectively partner with private equity firms without compromising your vision for serving clients and Making BIG Happen.

Guest: Randy Dewey, the President and COO of CEO Coaching International. Randy has over 30 years of experience delivering rapid growth and expansion across various industries and countries.

Quick Background: In order to Make BIG Happen, private equity firms need the companies they invest in to get BIG too. And, in most cases, the sooner the better.

On today's show, Randy discusses how the team at CEO Coaching International works with private equity firms and their portco (portfolio company) CEOs to accelerate growth, improve execution, and maximize returns. Randy shares some insights on the importance of early intervention in newly acquired companies, bridging the gap between private equity expectations and portfolio company execution, and how coaching can help CEOs navigate the increased pressure that often comes with private equity ownership.

Guest: Shelley Van Etten, the president and CEO of WLT Software, a family-owned company that develops software for adjudicating and processing health and medical claims.

Overview: Generational CEOs are inheriting a BIG responsibility when they take over the family business. The new CEO is often filling "big shoes" and has to maintain the best of what got the firm to where it is while also moving forward in certain areas and keeping talent aligned with the business' core values.

On today's show, Shelley Van Etten discusses how she navigated the challenges of leading a second-generation family business, preserving company culture while evolving with the times, and preparing the next generation to keep Making BIG Happen.

Guest: Jon Hyman, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Jon is a four-time entrepreneur, a seven-time CEO, and an accomplished business leader with over 30 years of experience across various industries, including consumer products, construction materials, sports and entertainment, investment banking, and manufacturing.

Quick Background: So you've built, grown, and sold your first company. Ready for your next entrepreneurial adventure? Many aren't. To get back to the top of the mountain, entrepreneurs have to be willing to learn from their failures as well as their successes, and stay focused on the leadership principles that helped them Make BIG Happen in the first place.

On today's show, Jon Hyman explains how he was able to lead an eclectic group of companies towards the same goal: a BIG exit.

Guest: Scott Belsky, Adobe's Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President of Design & Emerging Products. Scott cofounded the online creative community Behance, which was acquired by Adobe in 2012. He's also an author whose works include the Implications newsletter and the book The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture.

Overview: The difference between a BIG idea fizzling out or becoming reality is execution. The CEO has to support innovation at every level of the company while also keeping that innovation organized around driving progress towards annual goals. Following creative ambitions without vision and focus could lead your business astray, or open the door for disruption from a nimble competitor.

On today's show, Scott Belsky discusses how leaders can find the right balance of talent, tech, and innovation to make ideas -- and BIG -- happen.

Guest: Wendy Mather, CEO of RDP Creative. Wendy and her team "bring creative ideas and stories to life through bespoke merchandise that people want to keep for years."

Overview: When you're sitting in the CEO's chair, there's only one step up left in an organization. But opportunities to grab an ownership stake are rare. CEOs who want a BIG piece of the pie have to be personally, professionally, and financially prepared to seize that moment.

On today's show, Wendy Mather explains how she purchased RDP Creative -- with a little help from some very supportive friends. She also discusses how she uses empathetic leadership and the power of positivity to shape a winning culture and Make BIG Happen.

Guest: Curt Gooden, CEO Coaching International's Chief AI Officer. Curt helps CEOs define and realize their AI vision and meaningfully integrate AI into their business strategy and operations by leading CEO AI Roadmap workshops. 

Quick Background: Mastering AI is not the CEO's job. But learning about the fundamentals and identifying potential implementations is a responsibility that no CEO can afford to shrug off any longer. As Peter Diamandis said at our recent Make BIG Happen Summit, "Everyone’s moving towards AI companies. It is happening now, and it is the most important happening that has ever existed.” You simply can't let challenging ideas and an alphabet soup of acronyms prevent your company from catching this wave.

On today's show, Curt Gooden explains important AI concepts and discusses how CEOs can drive innovation and gain a competitive advantage that will Make BIG Happen.

Guest: Greg Coticchia, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Greg is a six-time CEO, award-winning entrepreneur, business leader, professor, and author with over 30 years’ experience in tech products and services.

Quick Background: Innovation is the lifeblood of a growing company. If you're not continuously improving your products and services and exploring new marketplaces, you're putting a cap on your business' potential, and creating an opening that younger, nimbler, and braver competitors will march right through.

On today's show, we explore Greg Coticchia's process for mastering new product development and building a culture of innovation that will Make BIG Happen.

Guest: Jonathan Seliger, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Jonathan is an accomplished Chief Executive Officer, Senior Advisor, and Investor with over 30 years of experience.Having lived and worked in Asia for the last 30years,Jonathan brings a global perspective to the challenges of scaling a business to BIG.

Quick Background: Even if your company is global, business is always local. Your strategies for attracting and retaining customers have to be customized for each individual market. What unites your plan of attack from town to town, state to state, and country to country is the consistency of your company’s values, the strength of its brand, and its ability to execute, no matter what.

On today’s show, Jonathan Seliger shares his strategies for expanding a brand’s reach, effectively managing growth challenges, and ensuring that scaling efforts align with long-term profitability and sustainability goals that will Make BIG Happen.

Guest: Keith Corrigan, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Keith has deep expertise in implementing Lean business practices. As a coach he draws on a proven track record of driving growth, managing through crises, and achieving operational excellence in various industries.

Quick Background: Lean management is a systematic approach to running an organization that focuses on continuous improvement and seeks to maximize customer value while minimizing waste. Essentially, it involves using fewer resources to create more value for customers. The primary goals of lean management are to improve efficiency, reduce waste, and increase productivity and quality by streamlining processes and eliminating any steps in a process that do not create value for the end customer. 

Some companies have faced the threats of high inflation and interest rates by scaling back, well, everything: costs, office space, marketing, people, new products, and perhaps worst of all, ambition. CEOs have to understand that there's a BIG difference between a streamlined, lean company that's ready for anything and a declining company that's cutting too many corners.

On today's show, Keith Corrigan breaks down the true essence of Lean management, including the management system he has implemented to minimize waste and Make BIG Happen.

Guest: Edward Hughes, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Edward is a seasoned entrepreneur and business leader with two decades of experience as a CEO and three decades in senior leadership across Technology, Consumer Products, and Sporting Goods companies. He's also an Adjunct Professor at the University of California, Irvine, teaching General Management and Entrepreneurship in MBA and Executive MBA programs. 

Quick Background: There's no one way to be an effective business leader. But the CEO's unique alchemy of personality, strategy, and vision has to inspire trust from employees at every level of the organization. If your employees don't believe in you, they won't be willing to follow you through the inevitable ups and downs on the way to Making BIG Happen. 

On today's show Edward Hughes discusses his comprehensive leadership philosophy, which emphasizes building trust to drive success and foster a high-growth culture.

Guest: Saari Gardner, the Chief Experience Officer at CEO Coaching International. Saari is responsible for setting the client experience strategy, managing the client journey, and championing client impact. 

Quick Background: While the title "Chief Experience Officer" is relatively new, the executive-level responsibilities that will fall on the CXO's desk are not. Before considering a costly new c-suite hire, your company needs to have a holistic understanding of how touchpoints with customers and employees fulfill needs and exceed expectations. Guided by the CEO's vision, a CXO can raise those standards, maintain consistency across every department, and build a powerful culture that will Make BIG Happen.

On today's show, Saari Gardner discusses the CXO's multifaceted responsibilities, from being a changemaker and a voice for the customer at the executive table to reducing internal friction that impacts customer satisfaction. Saari also highlights the link between employee experience and customer service excellence and how fostering a positive work environment translates into superior customer interactions. We also explore the strategic considerations for integrating a CXO into your company, including when to recognize the need for this role and how to measure its impact on your business's bottom line.

Guest: Randy Koch, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Randy drew on his 11 years of AI and Data experience to build CEO Coaching International’s CEO AI Roadmap Product (AI Strategy for CEOs). He also leads AI Strategy Workshops with our clients and coaches. 

Quick Background: The hype around AI is so BIG that many CEOs struggle to zero in on two-to-three specific, practical, and actionable applications. That's where our CEO AI Roadmap comes in. The combination of our proven best practices and cutting-edge analysis of the latest AI trends will help CEOs develop a comprehensive AI strategy that delivers BIG results.

On today's show, Randy Koch gives an overview of the process CEOs can use to build their own CEO AI Roadmaps, leverage AI to its full potential, and Make BIG Happen.

Guest: Mark Moses, CEO and Founding Partner of CEO Coaching International. 

Overview: The 2024 Make BIG Happen Summit in Miami Beach, Florida is almost here! On April 26th and 27th, 400 of the BIGGEST and best business leaders from around the world will gather at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel to learn, to connect, and to get inspired to Make BIG Happen in their lives and businesses.

And, for the first time in the Summit's 10-year history, we're opening up registration for this one-of-a-kind event to CEOs, entrepreneurs, and executives outside of our coaching community. 

On this special episode, Mark Moses discusses the Four Groundbreaking Event Themes that will define the 2024 Make BIG Happen Summit, our extraordinary lineup of speakers, and what he hopes attendees will take away from their time in Miami Beach.

Guest: Robert Glazer, the Founder and Chairman of the Board of global partner marketing agency Acceleration Partners. Robert is also a serial entrepreneur, an award-winning executive, a bestselling author, a keynote speaker, and the host of The Elevate Podcast.

Overview: Effective marketing is a constantly moving target. Today's hot engagement strategy will be copycatted by all of your competition tomorrow. "Old-fashioned" media like print and radio get rediscovered on the cheap ... until everyone else rediscovers them and drives up the cost of ad buys. In order to maintain a competitive marketing advantage, CEOs need to start looking for synergies and partnerships that can boost your brand's awareness, strengthen your appeal to niche customers, and Make BIG Happen. 

On today's show, Robert Glazer discusses how partnership marketing works, action steps that CEOs can take to augment their current marketing strategies, and some of Robert's key learnings from building a fast-growing company.

Guest: Harold Brand, Chairman of the Board and CEO of CYBRA, a leader in the barcode and RFID technology space. Harold is a client of CEO Coaching International.

Overview: A good CEO understands his company's core competencies. A great CEO also understands his company's weaknesses. And the absolute best CEOs have the humility and long-term vision to get help shoring up those weaknesses so that they can Make BIG Happen. 

On today's show, Harold Brand discusses how working with CEO Coaching International's Jim Weaver helped his technology firm grow into a sales and marketing juggernaut with over 2,700 customers worldwide.

Guest: Bruce Clay, founder and president of Bruce Clay Inc. (BCI), a leading search marketing company providing search engine optimization (SEO) services and consulting, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising management, content development, and social media marketing services.

Overview: Is your digital marketing plan stuck in "The Before Times?" 

Post-pandemic, CEOs need to understand how to get maximum effort, creativity, and service from their marketing teams. 

And as we head into the next iteration of the AI era, CEOs need to understand that tech is never a solution -- it's a tool that needs to be placed in the right hands, in service of clear objectives.

On today's show, Bruce Clay discusses how COVID and AI have accelerated digital marketing's evolution and how to tweak your marketing attack to keep Making BIG Happen. 

Guest: K. Scott Crawford, Partner, New Business Development, Client Prioritization at Preferred CFO, a company that provides outsourced CFO and comptroller services to companies seeking to elevate financial strategy, overcome challenges, maximize profits, and accelerate growth.

Overview: Leveraging your company’s financial data isn’t just a numbers game. Without top talent and clearly defined roles for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting financial data, CEOs won’t have the insight they need to track, measure, and manage KPIs to BIG.

On today’s show, Scott Crawford discusses the CEO’s role in the financial side of the business, the key players to assemble on your financial team, and the six essential financial tools every company needs. 

Guest: Daniel Kim, VP of Product Development and Content at CEO Coaching International, where he oversees the creation of Making BIG Happen tools, methodologies, and skills. Dan also serves as a resource to coaches and clients for challenges related to finance, banking, M&A, PE/VC/IPO, industry benchmarks, and reporting issues. Previously, Dan was VP of Corporate Development at several firms and a head of research and technology analyst in the investment banking industry for 25 years. 

Quick Background: Entrepreneurs and CEOs rarely love managing their business' finances as much as they love running their businesses. But leaders need to have comprehensive data at their fingertips and a team that can use that data to enhance the company's strategic planning and execution.

On today's show, Daniel Kim discusses the critical role of accurate financial data in Making BIG Happen, including real-world examples of how money management can either drive growth or unravel your company's culture.