On Your Mark, Get Set, Grow! 58103m

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.

Guest: Mike Morris, a Principal at Kettle Hole Partners, a company that helps you optimize your marketing results based on detailed tracking of the numbers. Previously, Mike headed up Customer Acquisition and Retention at Grasshopper, The Entrepreneur’s Phone System, where he tripled the customer acquisition rate and doubled revenue in 3 years.  Overview: When a company falls short of its goals, sales and marketing teams tend to point fingers at each other. Sales complains that marketing isn't delivering enough qualified leads. Marketing complains that sales isn't closing enough leads. And perceptive CEOs see a significant misalignment that threatens to drag down profits. On today's show, Mike Morris discusses structural and analytical strategies CEOs can use to keep sales and marketing focused on reaching your target customers and Making BIG Happen. Mike also uses his time at Grasshopper as a case study in identifying a sales niche and firing test bullets to identify new opportunities for growth.

Guest: Chris Dyer, a company culture and remote work expert. He's also a former CEO who has managed thousands of people, and his companies were consistently named a "best place to work." Chris' new book is The Power of Company Culture: How Any Business Can Build a Culture That Improves Productivity, Performance and Profits. Overview: Recently, the tech and entertainment sectors have given us some high-profile examples of what happens when a company's culture degrades from a strength into a liability. CEOs have to be intentional and specific about building a culture that will generate value for all stakeholders, keep the company moving toward its targets, and, ultimately, Make BIG Happen.  On today's show, Chris Dyer discusses what culture is, how leaders cultivate it, and how culture can drive or destroy growth.

Guest: Jeffrey Pfeffer, the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, where he has taught since 1979. Prof. Pfeffer is the author or co-author of 16 books, including his latest, 7 Rules of Power: Surprising--but True--Advice on How to Get Things Done and Advance Your Career. Overview: The tools that allow business leaders to gain, increase, and retain their power are neutral. It's how you use those tools that determines how far others will be willing to follow you and how BIG your company will get.  On today's show, Jeffrey Pfeffer discusses his 7 Rules of Power, how power is and isn't distributed through successful organizations and societies, and the choices we all have to make as we strive to Make BIG Happen. 

Guest: Mark Miller, the CEO of Connective, a community-based social services nonprofit operating in British Columbia and the Yukon to create safe, healthy, and inclusive communities for all. Overview: A nonprofit may not have the exact same goals as a for-profit business. But the principles of success are no different for a nonprofit CEO: have a vision that benefits all stakeholders, track, measure, and manage progress towards milestones every day, and assemble a team of people who care about your mission and will work hard to Make BIG Happen.  On today's show, Mark Miller explains how he professionalized his nonprofit and grew the organization by more than 700% in seven years.

Guest: Christian Stang, Vice President Of Business Development at GINCOR Werx, a leading company in the custom manufacturing of vocational vehicles. Overview: It's common for the top salesperson to get promoted to lead the sales team. But there's a big difference between being a top salesperson and being a great leader. How do the best sales people cross the chasm into leadership and lead their team to BIG results? On today's show, Christian Stang discusses how his experience as a top-performing salesperson informs how he builds and manages collaborative sales teams. 

Guest: Fred Joye, Co-founder of Arcanys, a premier Swiss software development outsourcing firm based in the Philippines. Fred's firm specializes in building and maturing highly skilled, dedicated teams of developers for startups and established businesses. Arcanys is also a Strategic Partner of CEO Coaching International.  Overview: The best companies hire the best people, period. That means even if your tech firm isn't directly competing with Facebook and Google, you're still competing with Facebook and Google for top talent. To win that battle, growing companies need to get creative about how they build, compensate, and motivate their teams. On today's show, Fred Joye discusses how companies can use outsourcing to scale their development teams with top software engineers and compete against BIG tech companies that have more resources. 

Guest: Siddhartha Agarwal, the founder of Bhoruka Park Pvt. Ltd, one of the leading commercial real estate developers in Bangalore, India.  Overview: Thinking BIG is a mindset that, with practice, coaching, and follow-through, can become a powerful habit. Apply the same systems and processes to your business that you apply to sports, hobbies, personal challenges, and relationships, and there's no limit to what you can accomplish.  On today's show, Siddhartha Agarwal discusses why he set a goal of swimming across the English Channel, how he worked with a coach and a partner on a year-long plan to achieve that goal, and what the whole process taught him about Making BIG Happen in both business and life.

Guest: Jonathan Cronstedt, the CEO and Chairman of The Cronstedt Company and its broadly diversified investment portfolio. JCron was recently the President (now board director) of Kajabi, a double-unicorn global SaaS platform. Overview: CEOs can win the battle for top talent but still lose the war with their competitors if they don't have systems in place where A players can thrive.  On today's show, Jonathan Cronstedt shares some contrarian takes on the relationship between the external and internal purposes of a business and the that employees need to Make BIG Happen. 

Guest: Kurt Wilkin, Co-Founder and former CEO of HireBetter and a Managing Partner of Bee Cave Capital. Kurt is also the author of a new book, Who’s Your Mike? A No-BS Guide to the People You’ll Meet on Your Entrepreneurial Journey. Overview: A fast-growing company will only keep accelerating towards BIG if it has the right people working the right jobs. Sometimes CEOs can maintain that alignment with a mission and values system that inspires good performers to become great. In other cases, CEOs need the courage to make difficult decisions and the EQ to help folks exit the company as gracefully as possible.  On today's show, Kurt Wilkin discusses how CEOs can avoid some common people challenges and assemble next-level teams that will Make BIG Happen. 

Guest: Ahmed Hassan, a coach at CEO Coaching International with 30-plus years of global expertise in operations, strategy, leadership, and business development. Quick Background: Saving a failing business is never just about driving up profit. A successful turnaround starts with recalibrating the company's ability and its belief in Making BIG Happen together.  On today's show, Ahmed Hassan discusses the three-step process he used to rescue distressed businesses all over the world, as well as a major personal challenge that forced him to redefine what success means in business and in life.

Guest: Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Professor Kanter holds the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship at Harvard Business School, specializing in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. She is the author or co-author of 20 books, including her latest, Think Outside the Building: How Advanced Leaders Can Change the World, One Smart Innovation at a Time. She is the former chief editor of Harvard Business Review and has been repeatedly named to lists such as the 50 Most Powerful Women in the World and the 50 Most Influential Business Thinkers in the World. Overview: Business management fads come and go. But truly effective leadership applies tried-and-true principles in innovative ways that solve complex problems, inspire team , and Make BIG Happen for the whole company. On today's show, Prof. Cantor discusses the enduring qualities of great leadership and how to deal with the BIG challenges facing companies today.  

Guest: Ryan Iwamoto, President and Co-Founder of 24 Hour Home Care. Ryan's company has been on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies for nine consecutive years. In 2017, Ryan won EY Entrepreneur of the Year, Los Angeles. Overview: A scrappy entrepreneur who works hard and has a clear vision can take a company far. But he can only get the company to BIG if he learns how to scale his skills and the skills of key team as the business continues to grow.  On today's show, Ryan Iwamoto explains how he and his business partner bootstrapped their company for 13 years, navigated a profitable sale, and remained President and CEO under the new owners.

Guest: Asha Saxena, a serial entrepreneur, Columbia University professor, CEO coach, international speaker, and the best-selling author of The AI Factor: How to Apply Artificial Intelligence and Use Big Data to Grow Your Business Exponentially. Overview: AI is poised to be the most disruptive business technology since the internet went mainstream. If your company doesn’t have a plan to harness the transformative power of AI, you risk falling far behind your competition. On today’s show, Asha Saxena provides a practical, four-point framework that will help CEOs develop an ethical AI strategy and gather the data they need to win BIG in the latest leg of the tech arms race.

Guest: Lionel Marumahoko, an action-oriented authority on emerging markets, global projects, and people management. Lionel developed his expertise over a 25-year career that included working as a senior executive for Coca-Cola in Africa. Overview: Delegation and communication are two essential skills that young leaders often struggle to master. Working with a seasoned CEO coach can open a new CEO's eyes to these blind spots sooner so that they can Make BIG Happen faster. On today's show, Lionel Marumahoko opens up about how coaching helped him grow from a cocky 25-year-old into an effective senior leader at one of the most respected brands in the world.