Entrepreneurs United

Kyle York (CEO/Co-Founder, York IE) leads a vertically integrated strategic growth and investment firm helping reshape the way companies are built, scaled, and monetized. Kyle works closely with entrepreneurs, operators, and investors to help them realize their shared ambition to build good companies, create new jobs, grow generational wealth, and impact the world around them. Prior to joining York IE, Kyle was an executive with Dyn since 2008, primarily as Chief Revenue Officer. During his years there he spearheaded corporate strategy, growth, and go-to-market, scaling to $100M annual recurring revenue, 5000 enterprise customers, one million paid users, $100M fundraised, 500 global employees, and 11 executed M&A transactions, which led to its strategic acquisition by Oracle in 2016. Advising and investing in over 100 startups over the past decade and shares his biggest learnings with us here today.

Employees vs. Intrapreneurs - Companies of the future must learn how to empower their teams in entrepreneurial ways so that their level of commitment and ownership for the goals of the organization provides them the drive to scale and build the business. Control strategy builds obedient but not committed workforce. Commitment strategy builds loyal and committed long term partners in building the enterprise In this episode, Rich and John discuss the major differences between Control and Commitment run organizations and help entrepreneurs think of ways they can create a more committed organization.

Dennis Markway (Founder/President,  Iron Horse Wealth Management, LLC) is a fee-only Certified Financial Planner and Adjunct Professor of Personal Finance at Drake University who is responsible for teaching the Ethics class that all Certified Financial Planners must take in the state of Iowa.  Dennis's experience in Financial Services with Fortune 500 Companies both domestically and internationally has armed him with the ability to make a difference in the lives of families and business owners.   In this episode, we discuss the learnings and tools he developed and hear about the advice that he would provide entrepreneurs after also having run 4 businesses himself.

Ryan Walter (Owner/President, Heads Up Communications), is a former National Hockey League player that played many seasons with the Montreal Canadiens.  Ryan was one of the youngest team captains in NHL history back in 1979 with the Washington Capitals when he was only 21 years old, he won a Stanley Cup in 1986 with the Canadiens, became the VP of NHL Players Association, a Colour Analyst, an actor in the film “Miracle”, and has become an inspiring speaker, author and leadership expert. Ryan helps executives and their teams to lead effectively, work as a team and achieve their performance goals through specialized training that melds science and lessons learned from 17 years in the NHL. His "THINKING TENDENCIES" Model is on the cutting edge of helping Corporate Cultures increase their performance.

Monte Wyatt (CEO, AddingZEROS) is a best-selling author and an organizational & executive development facilitator. AddingZEROS is a company that works with executives to achieve exponential growth, helping them grow in multiples rather than small percentage increases. AddingZEROS provides organizations with the tools and the guidance to add zeros in every aspect of the business – revenue, margin, profit, customer acquisition, customer retention, employee engagement, employee retention, and community involvement. Monte’s book "Pulling Profits Out of Hat" reached best-seller status in May of 2019 and his 5 Disciplines of Exponential Growth and 5 Constituents that every business must satisfy is a key message for growing every organization.

Curtis Zimmerman (Founder, Curtis Zimmerman Group) is a keynote speaker, best-selling author, and podcast host.   Curtis's first career for over 25 years was as a mime (think Marcel Marceau) and for the last 20 years, Curtis has been sharing his message with over 1 million people at Fortune 500 corporations, universities, and organizations.  He has spoken at over 1,000 campuses and has worked with the world's largest brands; Proctor and Gamble, Coca Cola, Walt Disney World, Kroger, Bacardi, Universal Studios Orlando, McDonald’s, and the U.S. Air Forces.  Curtis is also the host of the podcast, "The Next 24 Hours"  focused on helping listeners change their lives one day at a time!

Julian Hayes II (Founder, The Art of Fitness & Life), is an author, a human performance advisor, an epigenetic coach, and the host of Optimal Health for Busy Entrepreneurs. His initial journey began in the pursuit of becoming a doctor. However, he left after one year to pursue an even bigger dream. Now, he's the founder of The Art of Fitness & Life, where the mission is to help entrepreneurs and executives become superhuman in life and business without the guesswork. Julian has also written nearly 200 columns at Inc, along with frequently being published over at Entrepreneur, SUCCESS, Chief Executive, Business Insider, Bodybuilding.com, and many more of the world's largest publications. Today Julian talks to us about how we, as Entrepreneurs, can become superhuman in our lives and our businesses! Let’s jump right in!

Eric Hoffberg (Founder, Coach it Forward), is a former hockey coach turned business and life coach. Eric spent 16 years coaching college and professional hockey with his longest tenure as the head coach of Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, NY.  For many years now Eric has also worked in the NHL (National Hockey League) as a resource for culture building and mental toughness training. As a Mental Toughness Trainer for athletes that are committed to being the best version of themselves when it matters most, particularly when they feel under pressure. Something all us entrepreneurs need these days as well. Eric has also brought his experience and passion to his role as a Corporate Coach for leaders and executives that are committed to building High-Performance Team Cultures. Eric is the author of two great books for training attitude and mindset, THINK STRONG for Athletes and THINK STRONG Reminders.

Shane Ram (CEO and Founder of Go For 10), is a Life and Leadership Coach, Author & Educator. Shane works with CEOs, Senior Executives, corporations, 6-7 Figure business owners, and entrepreneurs to increase revenue, become better leaders, and live more fulfilling lives. He is the author of Future Ready Leadership, a book that provides the 8 Must-Have Strategies for Leaders to Thrive in an uncertain and volatile future.  From Shane’s years of experience training and coaching senior leaders and entrepreneurs, he found that most people are playing at a level way below their potential and are settling for less than they deserve, Shane created Don’t Settle for 7, Go for 10! The program provides a much-needed blueprint for leaders and entrepreneurs to increase their wealth, and build global businesses, create confidence and reach their highest potential emotionally and financially.  We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did!

Rande Somma is the author of the business book “Leadershit” - yes you read that right, replace the "P" in leadership with a "T" - "Leadershit".   In the book, Rande talks about the incredibly broken systems we have in corporate America where CEO’s, boards, and private equity groups are motivated to do bad things and create short term results that have incredible impacts on the people and integrity of the organization.    Rande was an intrapreneur within Johnson Controls where he rose the ranks of what was an $800M manufacturing company when he began, to 15 years later where he was the President of the company that had grown to $20B in global revenues, in 26 countries, and with 75,000 people.  What he witnessed as he rose the ranks and has sat on many boards since has really disturbed him and he wrote the book "Leadershit" to articulate how our systems are badly broken and provide the wrong incentives.   This is certainly an opening conversation where we truly come to understand that all we can control is what we do ourselves, AND certainly that we need to be careful with the types of people we associate ourselves with.