Jeremy and I had a great time with this interview. He has a great combination of wit, warmth, smarts, and transparency. I learned a lot from Jeremy. In this revealing interview he charts his path from 3 years of barely making by as an entrepreneur to his most recent success. He also talks about:
It was hard for me to interview Betsy. I have known her ever since I first interviewed her in July of 2015 on this podcast. We have stayed in touch since then and she was even a member of Trail Team 10. But, it was hard to interview her because I knew she was suffering through a life threatening disease and I worried how her recent treatment would work.
Betsy is a VERY strong person. Your can hear the determination in her voice while also sensing the compassion in her heart.
Listen through this entire interview. I don't think you'l be disappointed. You will learn what she did to build her company so she could even take 3 months to save her life.
When feel like you can't go on...listen to this interview and you'll be inspired by Betsy's unstoppable spirit...the very work she used as the title of her new book.
Culture...that hard to define thing on the tip of every Founder's tongue. As a Founder, you know how important culture is, but what is it, really? Ryan and Scott share their journey of culture discovery and share their minefields around shaping it. And, they share how their work helping others building a culture in their company has changed them as leaders.
Just in time for Father's Day weekend in the United States comes an incredible Founder named Lyden Foust whose candid admissions about his own challenges as a Founder are balanced by the wonderful lessons and attributes he has received from his own Father.
Lyden and his team are at the cutting edge of data science. Just learning about what the Spatial team is doing with location data science is fascinating enough. But, it's Lyden's journey to integrating both challenge and invitation into the culture at Spatial where we as Founders can pick up some significant insights.
I very much appreciated Lyden's very personal sharing. Please let me know what you learned and how you might apply what you have learned in your startup.
It's rare when we have the same guest twice on this podcast. And, when we do it is usually for a good reason. Laura is a great reason. We last spoke with Laura in 2015 when she had a team of 13 and she was experiencing lots of success with her social media management too, Edgar. She is back and we had a GREAT conversation.
Not only does she dish about the current and upcoming social media changes, but she also talks extensively about:
Laura is an open and honest Founder who shares a great deal about herself, her team, and the journey From Founder To CEO.
Can meditation make you a better Founder, CEO, and leader? Rob thinks so. He attributes his many year practice of meditation to better listening, more presence, and greater growth for himself personally as a leader and for the growth of his company. How did it all begin? Listen and he'll tell you his interesting story.
I feel so fortunate to be able to speak with so many wise people...Shane is one of them. Shane's knowledge about all things SaaS is extraordinary. When he marries that up with a love of Founders and a spiritual approach to business, growth happens. In this interview you'll hear lots of wisdom from Shame including the importance of Founders understanding more deeply about the lives of their team members and why alignment with Sales, Marketing & Technology is so crucial to startup success.
Alexis Dean is a highly successful Founder who was left feeling disappointed that the entrepreneurial events and conferences she attended rarely had successful female founders up on the stage. So, she decided to change that. Here's what you will learn from this candid interview:
After founding Varsity Books, going public, and then selling the company, Eric Kuhn knows the ups and downs of startup life. That's why he started FoundersCard. He wanted to created a community and membership platform that served entrepreneurs. Eric shared some powerful stories and nuggets of wisdom in this longer than usual version of the podcast. Eric talks about:
Regina and her team are bringing together tech, in-home services, and professional consultation at scale for women of color looking to simply their lives. This former Macy's leader is bolding going where no one has really gone before. And, and along the way she has learned many lessons that she shares with you in this revealing interview:
My favorite quote: "The path to pretty should be easy for everyone."
Larry is one of those guys you can hang out and talk with forever. He is a walking fountain of wisdom with such rich stories and experiences that you find yourself drawn in to hear more. I really enjoyed interviewing Larry. He shares some very interesting points about:
My favorite quote: "I'm not a startup, I'm a kick-start."
What a treat it was to interview Seth Godin. We cover a lot of territory over a short time period:
My favorite quote: “The act of forward motion is not how do I make the fear go away, it’s how do I dance with the fear?”
Obviously Seth is a wealth of knowledge, wisdom, and insight. Let me know what you thought of the interview.
If you have spent an even a little bit of time on LinkedIn, you have seen Tom Goodwin. Tom has been awarded "#1 Voice in Marketing" on LinkedIn 2017 & 2018 with over 550,000 followers. He is a self-described marketing provocateur who asks great questions about how tech is enhancing and detracting from our lives. He is sort of an "anti-guru" who really captures the attention of any audience he is in front of.
Bouzha is full of wisdom. She and her team have worked with fast-growth Founders for many years. And, she details the pitfalls you should and can avoid as you pass through the 4 Phases of Growth.
After a big exit with his French company, Ludovic has another hit with Shapr. He really is an inspiring Founder. His optimism is infectious. And, his story and advice about what to do when you lose confidence in yourself is quite helpful.
In our previous episode I spoke about the three questions Founders must answer. The first one had a lot to do with you and your self-awareness and self-management. This week's episode was born out of this first question.
We all have leadership fears. Nathan Chan and the team at Foundr Magazine asked me to write about this for their platform and I thought you would like to hear it. These are the 6 actions YOU can take to overcome your fear of leadership. Let me know what you think.
This is our three year anniversary. Yep, three years of of the honor and privilege to be with you week after week. I am so grateful to all of your for your continued support. And, I am grateful to all our Founder guests who have allowed us to peer into their lives and more deeply explore their personal leadership transformation from Founder to CEO.
In celebration of our three year anniversary, I had wanted to attempt to distill all the insights and wisdom that so many of our guests have shared over the years. Truthfully, I struggled with this task.
But, as you will hear in this episode of the podcast, some great colleagues and friends helped me come up with The 3 Questions All Founders Must Answer In Order To Grow. I invite you to share your thoughts about these questions. Send me an email, and I promise to respond.
Imagine this scene...you are at your favorite big box store and you just bought a TV. The sales person is pressuring you to buy a warranty that is much more than you imagined. Well, Clarence Bethea knows this scene all too well and is changing it. Clarence and his team are changing the warranty world with 25% month-over-month growth.
And, while the company grows, Clarence is also learning to shift his leadership style from a "strong arm" style to one where he is an advocate for thinking through challenging decisions over 24 hours. He also have a novel time for his meetings. Clarence is an inspiration and a grounded Founder who will make you think about more deeply about being a CEO.
Back in January 2017, Dr. Joseph Picken wrote an informative piece that caught my attention. It was titled, "From founder to CEO: An entrepreneur’s roadmap." It appeared in Business Horizons.
As you might imagine, the piece caught my attention and I wanted to make sure we had Dr. Picken on the show to speak more about his research. More specifically, Dr. Picken details the "Eight Hurdles" that Founders must overcome on the journey From Founder To CEO.
It's an interview chock full of insight, wisdom, practical advice, and stories and examples that I know you will relate to.
Ask your self this question, which hurdle do you need to overcome? Email me and let me know your answer.
From Ukraine, to Germany, to New York City, Olga has traveled far for her entrepreneurial dreams. And, she has created a very unique experience for women in a growing number of cities. Turning the traditional dance class into a multimedia experience at major sporting events has brought Olga both success and challenges on the trail from Founder to CEO.
Olga tells a harrowing travel story that led to physical exhaustion, sage advice from her father, and an awakening about the type of CEO she needs to be in order to grow her unique company. Plus, her philosophies around hiring are definitely worth a listen.
I really enjoyed speaking with Olga and I know you'll enjoy this interview.
Imagine having WalMart as your very first customer? Yes, that is what happened to Natasia and her team. Even with that great achievement, the trail from Founder to CEO is riddled with challenges.
No one knows that more than Natasia. Her startup story will inspire you and her leadership lesson will school you. Sometimes we think we are solving one problem, but we end up learning it is a different issue. Natasia shared a very interesting story about hiring, that turns out to be a story about filtering advice from well intentioned stakeholders like...investors.
Plus, you'll learn about how she is using artificial intelligence and gamification to bring survey technologies to the next level. Take a look at the demo on her website and you'll see what I mean.
If you art not aware that a big part of a modern day sales strategy includes affiliate marketing, then this interview may interest you. Robert Glazer shares some key insights about this rather murky marketing world and how he and his company excel at being the good guys in this area.
Plus, Robert talk at length about the time he had to shift 1/3 of his team out of their roles when the company reached about 30 employees. He gets very candid about what he did wrong, how he would do it differently, and what you need to know as a Founder in order to proactively disrupt your team and keep the business growing.
I have coached and interviewed hundreds of founders. There are patterns that emerge in a number of areas. One of those patterns relates to morale.
When you are having a bad week, month, or quarter, you yourself might be feeling a bit discouraged. But, hey, you are the Founder and CEO and that means you are a leader. What do you do when you feel this way and your realize your team is feeling the same way? How do you encourage your team when you are feeling discouraged? Listen to these 7 tips and you'll get through it with great success.
If you are looking for a smart and savvy Founder to give you some personal advice about delegation and the path to scaling your startup, you are in the right place. Jenna is THE boss when it comes to green smoothies and scaling her fast-growth breakfast delivery company, GreenBlender.
In this interview she'll share the 3 questions she asks herself when deciding to delegate one of her responsibilities to a team member. Plus, you'll just love her enthusiastic, can-do personality.
I first learned of Alexander through his candid blog post a few months ago. It was entitled, "The Transition From Founder To CEO." Since Alexander helps small business leaders grow their businesses, I took note of his own sharing on the struggle from Founder to CEO and thought it would be great to have him on the show. He did not disappoint. He's a smart, savvy leader who also shares the struggle many of us have...delegation. Let me know what you think.