SPEAK LIKE A CEO

“I'm a former academic and psychologist. Our answer to everything is ‘it depends’. But in the business world, that's just not how things work,” says Darja Gutnick, the co-founder and CEO at Bunch.  She is on the Business Punk Watchlist, a “rebel psychologist” (Forbes) & podcast host.  Her Berlin & NYC-based startup is on a mission to unlock the potential in every professional. Their aim: help you become a better leader in 2 minutes a day with AI-powered coaching that is personalised and scalable.   Darja is no stranger to challenges, quipping that the company deserves the “cockroach medal” for surviving many crises.  What helped Bunch overcome challenges has been strategic agility and effective communications. “Messages have to be boiled down to simplicity. And it's still like a big challenge for me personally.”  Her best communications advice? Simplify, simplify, simplify. And she says it “as an entrepreneur who has always struggled with simplicity.”  Bunch follows a freemium model and is free to download. It is kicking off in the US big time where 70% of their premium customers are based.  *** Free book chapter: Sign up to our newsletter via this link and get a free chapter from ‘Message Machine’: https://www.eoipsocommunications.com/#machine

In this special Easter episode, we give you eggs without chickens.  Tanja Bogumil is the CEO and founder of Perfeggt, a food innovation startup that changes what people eat by taking the animal out of the food system. They created plant-based eggs that may do for eggs what Oatly did for milk - provide a true alternative and create a new product category.    Their approach is remarkable for several reasons:  Perfeggt builds hardware with the speed of software by applying the lean startup approach of continuous optimisation. “Even in food, speed is of the essence.”  Their go-to-market is also truly innovative. Instead of getting a new food product on supermarket shelves hoping that it will sell, they opted for food services such as restaurants.  This allows them to use storytelling to explain a product and category consumers are not familiar with. “With our partners, we work out the best fitting story for their guests so it is seamlessly integrated with multiple touchpoints to understand what works best, so that guests actually get it,” Tanja Bogumil says.   “It’s all about telling the right story that’s not only catching people’s brains but also touches their hearts. Food is so emotional, we can’t just talk about numbers.”   Perfeggt is positive and uplifting at the point of sale. But the team also learnt to talk openly about what’s wrong.  “It’s ok to communicate in a way that will also p*ss people off. It’s ok that some people will never understand that we need to change what’s on our plates. What matters is the increasing number of those driving the change.”  When it comes to fundraising, Tanja’s advice is to focus on answering three questions: “Why this? Why us? Why now?” Investors need to sense “this unapologetic determination to do what it takes - this is part of good and strong communication.”  *** Free book chapter: Sign up to our newsletter via this link and get a free chapter from ‘Message Machine’: https://www.eoipsocommunications.com/#machine

“Communication is so important for us because communication is part of the treatment. What we don’t want to do is take an old, grumpy doctor and sit him in front of a camera and treat our patients,” says this week’s guest Florian Semler, co-founder and CEO of Formel Skin.  Formel Skin is a telemedicine scale-up that treats skin conditions. They are on a mission to make medicine approachable and accessible thanks to digitalisation and state-of-the-art communications between doctors and patients.  Florian founded the Berlin-based company two and a half years ago with Dr Sarah Bechstein, a trained dermatologist, and product and marketing expert Anton Kononov. Formel Skin’s success formula? “We want to provide our patients with a dermatology 3.0 experience where doctors are very friendly, thoughtful and approachable - a combination of a digital patient experience and a physical patient experience with a doctor.”  This hasn’t always been straightforward. “It was a journey for me and Sarah how to communicate to the patients and how to develop these skills. Also from a company perspective. It is much more sophisticated and much simpler today.” The interaction between doctors and patients is the key to Formel Skin’s success. “We have a training curriculum for all doctors on how they communicate with a patient. The most important thing is that you are honest with the patients and that you communicate with the patient.” Research suggests that patients can only remember 30% of what their doctor shared with them and don’t dare to ask many questions. “This is something we want to change. We want patients to remember 100%. And we want to take their fear of asking questions.” Formel Skin has already raised over 35 million from well-known VCs and has now set its sight on the Brazilian market. Free book chapter: Sign up to our newsletter via this link and get a free chapter from ‘Message Machine’: https://www.eoipsocommunications.com/#machine

Valerie Bures is a serial entrepreneur, and founder, CEO, investor, board member, and a mom of three with an incredible track record.  Over the past 20 years, she founded and scaled Mrs.Sporty, Pixformance and VAHA - successful businesses at the intersection of fitness, health and technology.  Mrs.Sporty is a Europe-wide chain of fitness clubs that Valerie helped to scale to around 300.000 members in 550 Clubs and 10 countries with revenues of more than 80 Million EUR during this time period.  The insights gained at Mrs.Sporty led her to found Pixformance, which offers digitally-enhanced movement therapy and is now entering the US market.  In 2019, she also founded VAHA, a smart fitness mirror company that offers live and on-demand classes from yoga to strength and aims to be the best alternative to a gym. Last year, Bioniq acquired VAHA, and Valerie joined their board.   Valerie’s view is that “you are not building companies. You are building teams. Teams who want to create and change the world together. That’s what I learnt from sports. It is more about the team than the company. You have to fail again and again to eventually score.”  Part of her extended team has been athletes turned investors in her companies such as Steffi Graf, who was one of the early investors in Mrs.Sporty, and German football star Manuel Neuer who backed Vaha.   In this wide-ranging conversation, Valerie explains how Mrs.Sporty built a sales machine, and predicts which companies will win in the health & fitness space in the future. 

“Make it a story people remember. That’s the great thing about startups. Startups have great stories to tell. That’s what founders should use.” Our guest is the accomplished entrepreneur Jan Reichelt. He built and sold two massively successful ventures, Mendeley and Kopernio, before bringing 10x Founders into existence in 2021. In a short period of time, 10x Founders has become one of the top funds in Europe with the vision to boost the European entrepreneurial ecosystem. Jan and the team raised 160 million from 200 individual investors who are also entrepreneurs. It truly is “the entrepreneurs' VC”, boasting a huge network. Scaling two companies, Jan knows that “your communications can be a complete game changer. That's what sets you apart, that’s what gets people excited.” His advice to founders: “Take communications seriously and think about your communications strategy. It is such a huge opportunity and you and your team want to shape it. You don’t want it to be shaped by others.“

Sophie Chung is back on the podcast! She is the founder & CEO of Qunomedical where she is building a much-needed CRM for hospitals to improve patient care. A force of nature, Sophie was our guest on Episode #9, “No Bullshit”, and she still lives by that mantra - now more than ever. Sophie and Oliver discuss how especially in tough times, “No BS” really counts. But you often see the opposite, argues Sophie. “You just know they are bullshitting.” “It’s misleading, it’s not helpful. I’m trying to be different. Whenever I say something, I want to be genuine, truthful, value-adding. Not saying something you have heard a hundred times before.” People who are listening to you are not stupid, they want true leadership. Sophie & Oliver also dive into Qunomedical’s shift in focus from a B2C service for patients to a B2B software suite for hospitals. With patients, digital marketing & SEO ruled. That’s different for a B2B software product. “No one googles patient relationship management software.” Now it’s about bringing the content to the people who are interested. “Talk about the cause, the why. This is where you can start a conversation.” This can happen on LinkedIn or at events.

“We knew that if we didn’t jump, we’d regret it for the rest of our lives.” It was a leap into the unknown that paid off. Jochen Engert is the founder and former long-time CEO of Flix, a German startup best known for Flixbus that has grown into a global tech and transportation company with more than 60m passengers per year - a journey he describes as “absolutely crazy”. Jochen led Flix for 11 years, from knowing little about trains and buses to expanding globally and taking over the iconic Greyhound brand. He is now a member of the supervisory board and an active investor. Jochen and the founder team executed a highly effective communications, branding and marketing strategy centred around a core idea of ‘being the perfect host’ and a brand purpose of allowing people to travel sustainably. As a leader, Jochen is clear that “crisis is nothing you can delegate”, and that “authenticity is the basis for credibility. That’s the most important thing you have as a leader.”

Storytelling is bloody difficult. It is only easy if you don’t know how it is done. Fortunately, Communications Designer Jeremy Connell-Waite breaks it down for us. He leads IBM’s "Wild Ducks" industrial storytelling programme, where he coaches partners to create compelling pitches and presentations. Stories are how you move people to action as a leader. But not random ones. Effective stories and speeches have structure. Following the structure gets you to into the top 20% of communicators. But structure doesn’t move people to action. Emotions do. And the one emotion that can change people’s minds and get them to act is surprise. So ask yourself: How can I surprise this audience? “We need to become students of emotions. If the purpose of a great communicator is to let the audience feel something, the only way to get really good at communicating is to learn how emotions work.” Only emotions move people to action, and the key emotion is surprise. More about Jeremy: https://jeremy.earth Take a look at his one pagers: https://issuu.com/jeremycw/docs/the_art_of_the_one_pager_isuuv2 

“The role of the CEO is to tell stories and make sure that they become true.” Josef, who has two nine figure exists under his belt, is a serial founder, successful entrepreneur, and investor. But success didn’t come easy. Starting out at the age of 16, he dropped out of school to build his first company which he sold only two years later to buy his parents a house. Since then, Josef, who loves to spend his weekends hiking in the alps, has climbed many entrepreneurial mountains. Among others, he is the founder of JouleX, which was acquired by Cisco, and relayr, which was acquired by MunichRE. Recently, he was instrumental in a funding round for StartUpInsider. In his book “Follow the Pain”, he describes his entrepreneurial journey. In today’s episode, Josef gives us insights into the thinking of an exceptional entrepreneur who considers communications and storytelling as fundamental to what great CEOs do. Tune in, and find out: 💊 Why pain is a great driver to success. 🎹 How to scale mentoring 📈 How to distinguish transformations from trends ⚫️ The beauty of simplicity 📣 How to approach thought leadership 🖖 Why personal relationships and trust matter in investing We don’t run ads on Speak Like a CEO, but would appreciate if you support the podcast by sharing it with a founder who may benefit from it or by posting a review on Apple Podcasts.

Hybrid working is here to stay. What’s harder to figure out is how CEOs and founders can lead, communicate and make an impact in this brave new work. Top international executive coach Bettina Hausmann and Oliver Aust both see opportunities in communicating in a hybrid world - if done right. In this episode, they give leaders the roadmap to be more impactful and avoid the spectre of mediocre communications that no organisation can afford in a rapidly changing world. Tune in a find out: 🎨 How to draw up a hybrid plan for your organisation in 3 minutes 🌵 The pitfalls of leading in a hybrid environment 📖 How to tell stories and present with impact now We don’t run ads on Speak Like a CEO but would appreciate if you support the podcast by sharing it with a founder who may benefit from it or by posting a review on Apple Podcasts. Podcast Oliver mentions: School of Hiring. Staying Hybrid or Back to the Office. Konstanty Sliwowski With Jessica Kafka: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/staying-hybrid-or-back-to-the-office-and-the/id1546484127?i=1000596532545