SPEAK LIKE A CEO

This week's podcast guest holds an impressive list of credentials.  She is an investor, board member, speaker, and co-founder and managing director of 2hearts. She was also awarded the title Impact Entrepreneur of the Year in Germany in 2023.  Gülsah Wilke shares her unique journey in the tech & startup industry as an immigrant's granddaughter with Turkish roots. She has a simple but impactful mission: to build tomorrow's tech society with cultural diversity. To this end, she co-founded Europe’s largest platform in the tech space for talent with a migration background.  2hearts is a success story of community building. Grown solely based on reputation and word of mouth, they have yet to spend a single euro on marketing. On this week's episode, Gülsah shares how the team at 2hearts grows and expands the community, and what we can learn from it about connecting, communities, and the future of tech.  *** Subscribe to the Message Machine newsletter and become an unstoppable founder yourself.  https://www.eoipsocommunications.com/newsletter/

As a CEO, you want to own your message. Thanks to technology and social media, this has never been easier.  This is according to Oliver Kaltner, the former CEO of Leica, the iconic camera brand, and current CEO of Cherry - a leading manufacturer of computer equipment. Both are listed companies at the forefront of technology and engineering.   His mantra is that business is not about talking, but about doing - so how does that fit in with communications? Leading in a hybrid work environment is all about over-communicating and making sure everyone is onboard with the messaging.  Only when your people are with you, can you get sh** done. In this week's podcast episode he talks about the importance of being relevant, transparent, and not overpromising.  Subscribe to the Message Machine newsletter and become an unstoppable founder yourself.  https://www.eoipsocommunications.com/newsletter/

Erik Podzuweit is a former German Rugby Champion, and co-founder and co-CEO of Scalable Capital - one of Europe’s leading FinTechs. In this week's podcast episode he talks about how he leads and communicates with his gut!  Developing and trusting your gut feeling takes dedication and tenacity, but in turn you will have a team and clients who trusts you and a thriving business.  His approach is always keeping it simple and straightforward, and that honesty pays off in the long run. Check out my conversation with Erik to find out how he leads a fast-growing unicorn, and how he turned it into a European finance powerhouse over the last decade.   *** Subscribe to the Message Machine newsletter and become an unstoppable founder yourself.  https://www.eoipsocommunications.com/kontakt/

Founderland is Europe’s fastest growing community of women founders of colour. In this week's episode of Speak Like a CEO, Oliver hosts Stephanie von Behr, Managing Director of Founderland.  Founderland is not your average community. Stephanie, together with experienced founders Deborah Choi and Alina Bassi (our guest in E94) have been highly intentional about building the brand, deepening the community and making a real-life impact. Stephanie urges everyone to branch out and to hire from different segments, rather than just sticking to warm connections. One of the reasons: diverse leadership teams tend to be better at communications.  Diverse teams are challenging because of cultural nuances you need to consider, and demand a more vulnerable and self-aware team. This improves culture, communications and the business at large.  To find out more about the incredible work at Founderland, check out https://www.founderland.org Heres the link to the Personal Operating Manual TEMPLATE: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z7D9U3b5CPZsbZ2C4wu1x5vgjKJUKZGkDMkkucXx1wM/edit

We have a special episode of Speak Like a CEO for you: an Ask Me Anything session with Oliver Aust.  Oliver answers five of the most frequently asked questions. How to deal with the transparency dilemma, how to make something boring sound interesting, common communications mistakes, how to inspire an audience, and the changing trends of founder communications.  Subscribe to the Message Machine newsletter and become an unstoppable founder yourself.  https://www.eoipsocommunications.com/kontakt/

His company has dressed 41 out of 46 US presidents, is the oldest apparel brand in America in continuous operation, and was the first brand to introduce ready-to-wear.  Brooks Brothers is nothing short of a legendary brand, and Ken Ohashi is the man behind its revival. He took over as CEO after the company had to file for bankruptcy during Covid. After an impressive turn-around, the company had a record year in 2022 and paid out bonuses to its employees for the first time in over a decade.  What is the recipe for success? According to Ken, he has an inside-out and a 360 degree approach to branding, marketing and communications. Instead of first focusing on the customer, his focus is on the company culture. The customer will buy if you practise what you preach. You also need to be everywhere at all times.  In this week’s episode, Ken talks us through how he transformed Brooks Brothers and revived the brand, how change is not about abandoning the past but building on it, and the importance of listening. Subscribe to the Message Machine newsletter and become an unstoppable founder yourself.  https://www.eoipsocommunications.com/kontakt/

Most people abhor change. But without change, your business will never succeed. This is why Jörg Hellwig puts change at the centre of everything he does – from digitalising companies, building new businesses, and adapting communication processes.   Jörg is the former CDO of multi-billion Euro revenue company LANXESS, founder of CheMondis, and angel investor.   According to Jörg, any success should be followed by change. When things are going well you are in the best position to change because it leaves room for failure. Fail fast, adapt, and keep the pressure on to become successful.   And how does he convince people of change? He tells stories to motivate his teams to come with him on the journey, and he gives them the licence to prompt him to change him too.    In this week’s episode, Jörg talks us through how he transformed a massive company, why the 2008 financial crisis was the best thing that could have happened to him, and the importance of having fun to succeed. Subscribe to the Message Machine newsletter and become an unstoppable founder yourself.  https://www.eoipsocommunications.com/kontakt/

Has a speech ever changed the way you see the world? Now imagine being able to write a speech that has this effect on people. That is what Simon Lancaster does. As one of the best speechwriters in the world, author of several books, and multiple TedX speaker, Simon knows all the secrets to captivate an audience with words. And the secret dates all the way back to ancient Greece and Rome, and the rhetoric art of ethos, pathos, and logos. It is all about establishing credibility, portraying emotion, and using logical arguments.  In this week’s episode, Simon talks us through the crisis in corporate communication, how to communicate to the instinctive and emotional brain, and the key to relaxing when you speak.  Simon also shares the challenges and trends in speech writing and communications, and how he uses TikTok and ChatGPT to great effect.  Subscribe to the Message Machine newsletter and become an unstoppable founder yourself.  https://www.eoipsocommunications.com/kontakt/

How many digital tools do you use? Chances are you’ve already used at least a dozen by the time you got to the office today. Now imagine managing the digital tools for a company of several thousand people… As the company and team grow, so does the number of tools we use and need to manage. Software is now in the top 3 of expenses for many companies.  This is the problem Sven Lackinger is solving with his company, Sastrify, that just raised a €30m Series B round. He helps companies make sense of the software they have within their enterprise.  When Sven and his co-founder Max sold their first company to a large corporation, they realised the challenge big businesses face when managing their software stack. From this realisation, Sastrify was born – a scale-up that helps companies make sense of their software. How did Sven and Sastrify successfully navigate the rapidly changing world of software? By knowing their customers and being everywhere where their customers are. According to Sven, it is all about reaching the correct people and putting all sales efforts towards this select group.  Today Sastrify is a global brand with around 150 employees based in over 18 countries. Thanks to focus on transparency, company culture, and hiring good people they are just getting started.  Subscribe to the Message Machine newsletter and become an unstoppable founder yourself.  https://www.eoipsocommunications.com/kontakt/

80% of the global workforce are deskless employees.  They don’t have email or Slack, they don’t respond to calendar invites and won’t attend conference calls. But they are the biggest part of the workforce. Keeping them informed, engaged and aligned is a major challenge for businesses.  While working at Porsche, Benedikt Ilg noticed how hard it was to reach his colleagues in production. The solution that Benedikt and his co-founder came up with is Flip – an app that allows deskless employees to receive information and connect. Their goal: to change the future of deskless work.  Your workforce is the heart of the company. In times of crises or times of rapid change, it is the labour force that drives the positive change. This cannot happen if they are not engaged.  Flip aims to make engagement easy. With a roster of impressive clients such as Porsche, Rossmann, McDonalds, Flip under the leadership of Benedict Ilg is changing the future of deskless work.  In this week's episode of Speak Like a CEO you can listen to Benedikt talk about the future of internal communications, the importance of honesty, and why you should always keep it simple.  Subscribe to the Message Machine newsletter and become an unstoppable founder yourself.  https://www.eoipsocommunications.com/kontakt/