Quick Background: Anybody can be a critic, especially when times are tough and a business is struggling to find its footing in an uncertain economy. But, to paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt, not everyone has what it takes to stand in the arena and lead a company to BIG.

On today's show Angela Korompilas explains how she led her hotel operating supplies and equipment provider to 10X growth and $1 billion in revenue.

Guest: Frank de Jong, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Frank spent 33 years leading customer-centric growth and profit planning strategies for hundreds of business units and companies all over the world. He spent 20 years as an expatriate in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia, learning regional business practices, unique market opportunities, and local culture with Emerson Automation Solutions. 

Quick Background: Learning to unplug from your company and separate life from business is an essential CEO skill. But how does a leader continue to lead through a loss so catastrophic that it completely upends your responsibilities, your priorities, and your very sense of self?

On today's show, Frank de Jong discusses what he learned about resilience, fatherhood, friendship, and leadership while coping with the loss of his wife.

Guest: Steve Patterson, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Steve spent more than 35 years as a successful executive and entrepreneur in a variety of areas, including professional sports, college athletics, finance and construction, media, branding, and crisis communications.

Quick Background: An effective brand fills customers with positive vibes and projects crystal clarity about what a company does and what it stands for. Whether a company is starting up, scaling rapidly, or recovering from a stumble, that brand also has to maintain a careful balance between consistency and adaptability so that customers want to stick with the business on its journey to BIG.

On today’s show, Steve Patterson details the specific brand initiatives he executed for four professional sports teams and a university, and how CEOs can apply the lessons from his experiences to make any brand better.

Guest: Meghan Watkins, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Meghan has over 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, and supply chain management in the wine and spirits industry. 

Quick Background: There are no shortcuts to getting BIG faster. CEOs who scale ahead of schedule follow the same tried-and-true best practices that support any effective annual plan. But the best CEOs also know which buttons to push to keep motivation high and how to leverage talent and systems to achieve just a little bit more every single day.

On today's show, Meghan Watkins reflects on the 5 factors that helped her quickly scale her businesses from startup to $100M+ in revenue.

Guest: John Fadool, a coach at CEO Coaching International. In his 35-year career as a senior executive, John worked with three best-in-class companies: Darden Restaurants, Novartis Consumer Health, and Procter & Gamble. He has a proven track record of growing revenue and profit in businesses ranging from $10M to $2B in revenue.

Quick Background: Great leadership balances confidence in your company's current reality with a hopeful vision for the future that inspires the best from your team.

On today's show, John Fadool shares his five keys to providing the kind of inspiring leadership that drives massive growth, attracts top talent, and keeps Making BIG Happen.

Guest: Randy Dewey, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Prior to becoming a coach, Randy assisted Blackstone in numerous turnarounds, worked in a private family office and in other public markets, raised several hundred million in debt and equity financing, and participated in 15 M&A transactions.

Quick Background: Our proven Making BIG Happen System combines BIG vision with an actionable plan. You can't have one without the other and expect to grow. And the foundation of effective planning is a battle-ready balance sheet that will ground your goals and keep your company from growing broke. 

On today's show, Randy Dewey discusses how to identify the KPIs, the obstacles, the opportunities, and the team members you need to build your best balance sheet.

Guest: Shep Moyle, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Before coaching, Shep was the owner, chairman, and CEO of Shindigz party supplies and the International Chairman of YPO.

Quick Background: The true measure of a CEO's strategy isn't if his or her plan leads to BIG growth in a year or two. It's if the CEO's combination of vision, processes, people, and discipline can snowball into sustained growth year after year after year.

On today's show, Shep Moyle explains how he led his company to average 20% growth for 20 consecutive years.

Guest: Sean Magennis, the President of CEO Coaching International. Sean was the Global President and COO of YPO for more than seven years. He is a seasoned international business executive specializing in scaling professional services firms and has over 30 years of extensive growth, acquisition, turnaround, and international experience.

Overview: As CEO, it's a given that you have tremendous influence over your employees.  But many CEOs never reflect on how they're using that influence. True leadership isn't throwing your weight around and creating a culture ruled by fear of failure. Leadership is how the CEO expresses his or her purpose, values, and vision to the entire organization. The more inspiring that leadership model is, the more motivated your team will be to Make BIG Happen. 

On today's show, Sean Magennis shares his five pillars for effective leadership, whose complementary themes will help you integrate the hard skills of running a company with the art of leading effectively.

Guest: Jennifer Gressman, the CEO of Site Impact, a company that specializes in multichannel direct marketing services. Their clients range from Fortune 500 corporations to locally owned and operated small businesses.

Overview: No CEO is ever just handed the top job at a BIG business. Founders put all of their time, effort, and resources on the line. Successful hired guns spend years earning their reputations as fixers. And ambitious leaders who pursue a path to promotion have to set clear targets that build win-by-win towards that dream job. 

On today's show, Jennifer Gressman talks about how she purposefully navigated her transition from Vice President of Operations to become Site Impact's first female CEO.

Guest: Hillel L. Presser, Esq., Managing Partner of The Presser Law Firm, P.A.

Overview: CEOs who lead a company to BIG aren't just growing a business. Your success is also creating a better life for yourself and your family. Without proper asset protection planning, a single slip up or frivolous lawsuit could jeopardize everything you've earned, everything you've built, and everything you're hoping to preserve as part of your legacy.

On today's show, attorney Hillel Presser explains what a comprehensive asset protection plan is and why all CEOs need one. 

Guest: Bill Betts, President of Betts Company, which has been owned and operated by Bill's family since 1868.

Overview: Think COVID was rough? When your company is strong enough to survive for 150 years, a pandemic (or two) is just one blip on a timeline that includes Reconstruction, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, two World Wars, the Great Depression, and everything since. That kind of longevity is only possible when a company knows how to use its values as both an anchor to its heritage and a catalyst for keeping pace with BIG changes. 

On today's show, Bill Betts talks about the values that have guided his family business for six generations. He also shares some practical advice on maintaining ownership and succession planning that have helped the family business stay in the family's hands. 

Guest: Andy Harris, Managing Director of STS Capital Partners. STS guides companies through the journey to achieving an extraordinary exit by selling to a strategic buyer.

STS Capital Partners is a Strategic Partner of CEO Coaching International. Learn more. 

Overview: When it's time to sell your company, what are your options? What can you do to ensure you get the best possible exit?

Step one: put the best possible team together. A deal this BIG and this important requires a CFO who's been down this road before, an investment banker who knows how to get the best possible valuation for your company, and a CEO who is crystal clear on what his/her goals are for the exit. 

On today's show, Andy Harris explains how owners can prepare their company for a sale, present it in the best possible light, and sell it to a strategic buyer who might pay a significant premium over a financial buyer.

Quick Background: BIG growth isn't an accident or a stroke of good luck -- it's a process. And committing to that process through intentional planning and continuous review is the only way to sustain growth while staying true to your company's culture and values. 

On today's show, Chris Mellon explains the 4 things he focused on as a hired gun CEO leading a family-run business from $300 million in revenue to almost $4 billion.

 Guest: Frank Buonanotte, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Frank has been a founder, chairman, and/or CEO at several highly successful companies within the commercial real estate, retail, and franchise industries, including Party City. 

Quick Background: Working with a CEO coach gives you access to decades of top-level knowledge from business leaders who have been there and done that. And while no two companies are exactly alike, combining tried-and-true best practices with discipline and accountability is a formula that leads to winning, exponential growth, and Making BIG Happen.

On today's show, Frank Buonanotte shares the 7 Smarts to CEO Success that he used to lead companies in multiple industries to BIG.

Quick Background: Did you wake up this morning wanting to lead a single-digit growth company? Didn’t think so. Exponential growth is the product of an empowering sales culture that stokes competitive flames and rewards top performers who aren’t content to clear the low bar.

On today’s show, Ken Eissing discusses six ways CEOs can assemble, manage, and motivate a top sales team that will drive fast growth and Make BIG Happen.

Guest: Juergen Rochert, a coach at CEO Coaching International. As an innovative and driven leader, Juergen has been highly successful in various executive roles for the Mercedes-Benz and Daimler Truck Financial Services Companies around the globe, including Mexico, Canada, the United States, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand. 

Quick Background: According to a study by McKinsey & Company, the top 10% of the largest companies in the world earn nearly 90% of the economic profit created. Meanwhile, the bottom 20% are coping with steep losses. That translates into a BIG opportunity for small-to-medium-sized companies that can leverage speed and creativity to compete with larger incumbents.

On today's show, Juergen Rochert identifies five areas where smaller firms can compete and win market share if they follow an effective plan.

Quick Background: Every new remote worker you hire, every smaller company you acquire, and every international office you open thinks the same thing: "We're different. We have a unique way of doing things, and it works."

Maybe. But when it comes to setting targets and measuring progress, a growing company needs to establish a baseline of consistency to ensure that every level of the organization is working towards the same goals.

On today's show, Mateo Romano explains the four elements of alignment that will keep a BIG decentralized team progressing towards your BIG vision.

Guest: Andres Molano, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Andres has led diverse, high-performing teams and grown international sales and operations throughout North America, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. 

Quick Background: No company gets BIG by staying the same. At those moments when momentum is stalling and growth is plateauing, struggling CEOs often start chasing shiny objects or throwing money at the wall to see what sticks. Effective leaders face those same challenges by going back to square one and reassessing what's essential to the company's culture.

On today's show, Andres Molano shares a five-part framework CEOs can use to drive a BIG culture transformation that will kick off a promising new chapter for their companies.

Guest: Erno de Bruijn, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Erno was the president and chief operating officer of the international division for a global manufacturer of building materials. He has also been an active YPO member since 2008.

Quick Background: Optimizing how to effectively communicate in a decentralized workforce world should be near the top of every CEO’s to-do list for the remainder of the year. Many of your best workers consider WFH a non-negotiable now. Your next key hire might live on the other side of the world from your headquarters. And if you’re contemplating an international expansion, you’ll need to keep your whole team Making BIG Happen across time zones, language barriers, and cultural differences.

Guest: Francisco D’Angelo, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Francisco has extensive experience growing revenue in outsourcing supply chain management services in procurement, contract manufacturing, logistics, and 3PL environment across 13 countries in the Americas.

Quick Background: The pandemic showed many CEOs that they were taking their supply chain management for granted. To keep your business growing through the next disruption, CEOs need to reassess their core competencies and identify strategies that will keep their warehouses stocked and their customers happy.

On today’s show, Francisco D’Angelo explains how companies can make their supply chains more resilient, more efficient, and more profitable.

Guest: Kelly Wade, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Kelly has nearly 30 years of sales, marketing, and management experience. She spent the last decade with one of the largest commercial roofing companies, where she helped transition the company to an ESOP as the COO and led the company through a highly successful sale to private equity as the first female CEO in the national roofing industry.

Quick Background: For many entrepreneurs, becoming the CEO is a natural -- and often necessary -- extension of leading a new company from startup to BIG. For others, becoming a CEO is the culmination of a journey from the ground floor of a business all the way up to the C-suite that develops character, skillsets, perseverance, and a unique appreciation for how high-performing teams work.

On today's show, Kelly Wade discusses the accumulation of work and life experience that helped her grow into a successful and trailblazing CEO. 

Guest: Pascal Brochier, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Pascal has over 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, and general management roles at some of the world’s biggest consumer products and technology companies, including Gillette (now part of Procter & Gamble), Vivendi Universal, and Electronic Arts.

Quick Background: The pandemic forced many companies to accelerate their online pivots. Now, it's time to start preparing for the next phase of your digital transformation. Web 3.0 could decentralize pieces of the global economy and create rapid advances in AI and data acquisition. And however you want to define "metaverse," there's no denying that your customers are going to increasingly live, shop, and play online. On today's show, Pascal Brochier reflects on lessons he learned during the first wave of online growth in the early 2000s to point CEOs towards a BIG digital future.

Guest: Ron Carson, founder and CEO of Carson Group, and Paul West, Managing Partner of Carson Wealth Management. Carson Group is a client and strategic partner of CEO Coaching International. 

Strategic Partner: Carson Wealth is a Strategic Partner of CEO Coaching International. To learn more, visit here. 

Overview: You’re spending countless hours thinking about your business, working in your business, but how much time are you spending on effectively managing all the money that you’re earning from your business or from that windfall that could come from a significant exit? Much like a good executive coach can help CEOs develop better business plans, Ron and Paul discuss how to think about your income and wealth, how to put it in perspective, and how to make sure you have a proactive wealth plan for your money so you don’t have to worry about it. 

Guests: CEO Coaching International's Mark Moses, Don Schiavone, Craig Coleman, and Christopher Larkins.

Quick Background: In 2016, Mark Moses' book Make BIG Happen asked CEOs four questions that can transform businesses:

What do you want?
How do you get what you want?
What could stand in the way of you getting what you want?
How do you hold yourself accountable?

Now, Mark and three of his colleagues at CEO Coaching International have expanded upon that framework and detailed the proven system that we use to help CEOs achieve exponential growth.

"Our clients kept asking us, what is it that leads some firms to sell their businesses for nine figures or more," Mark says. "We wrestled down the rhythms and concepts of this execution framework to help companies perform at the highest level."

Their new book, Making BIG Happen, debuted at #5 on The Wall Street Journal hardcover business bestseller list and hit #1 on Porchlight Book Company's best seller list. On today's show, Mark, Don, Craig, and Chris dig into how the Making BIG Happen System works, client success stories, and the leadership mindset that separates so-so companies from the ones that grow BIG.

Guest: Chris Hurn, the founder and CEO of Fountainhead Commercial Capital. Fountainhead is a nationwide non-bank direct commercial lender that specializes in funding commercial real estate projects and providing growth financing for business owners. The company was recently named to the Inc 5,000 list of the fastest growing companies in America. Chris is also an executive coaching client of CEO Coaching International.

Overview: BIG growth sometimes requires spending BIG cash. And if you don't want to give up equity to get the cash, what are your options? On today's show, Chris Hurn explains the debt financing options CEOs should explore before they start breaking off chunks of equity that they may regret parting with in the future.