CEO Coaching International Podcast

Guest: Lloyd Brown, the Co-Founder and Vice Chairman of Smart Chemical Services, which has been named an Inc 5,000 Fastest Growing Company for three years in a row. Lloyd is also the author of a new book, Refined by Failure. Overview: Failure hurts. But according to Lloyd Brown -- who was fired from a company he co-founded -- if a CEO is humble enough to admit mistakes, hold himself accountable, and work on improving blind spots, failure can also grant wisdom that you can use to make BIG happen going forward.

Guest: Matt Shearer, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Matt is a highly motivated business leader and brand management executive with over 23 years of experience building teams and driving results on a global scale. Matt spent over 20 years at Under Armour and played a major role in the early stages of brand and business development, with significant focus on elevating the brand on an international level. Matt is also a member of YPO and a former professional lacrosse player. Episode in a Tweet: In business and sports, aligning the best players with a great gameplan is the only way to win BIG. Quick Background: Business is a team sport. And the very best teams use strong culture and clearly defined goals to put great players in a position to win consistently. On today's show, Matt Shearer explains how his experience as an athlete and sports brand executive influenced his leadership philosophy and team management strategies.

To find the right leaders for your team, you have to separate the true high performers from the pretenders who’ve been bobbing along in the high tide at other stellar companies. And to fill a key chair in your leadership team, you’ll also need to find candidates whose motivations and management styles fit with your company’s most pressing needs.  On today’s show, Gordon Forsythe discusses how to vet and hire talent who will succeed within your culture and execute the tasks that will make BIG happen for your firm.

It's easy for CEOs to get so caught up in taking care of their businesses that we neglect an even more important responsibility: taking care of ourselves. Poor diet and exercise habits get compounded by no sleep and an excess of stress until one day you look in the mirror and can't recognize the person looking back at you. If you're not that lucky, you might not realize that go go go is no way to run a business until you're waking up in a hospital bed. Luis Vargas was 60 pounds overweight and running on empty when he decided he needed to make self-care a BIG priority. On today's show, Luis shares the five elements he says he needed to win in order to transform his body, his mind, his business, and his life.

Guest: Megan Couch, the Chief Experience Officer at Integrity Staffing Solutions. Overview: The millions of jobs lost to the COVID-19 pandemic have created a problem that many companies weren't anticipating: as the world begins reopening, the absolute best displaced workers have lots of options. Your total value proposition has to encompass culture, leadership opportunities, hybrid work models, and, yes, a competitive comp structure if you want to attract top talent.

For the first time in history, a company's workforce could span four generations. Aligning a diverse group of employees with such a wide range of life experiences could be especially challenging if you're also trying to keep your WFH teams connected with in-person staff and salespeople. But in any business challenge there's also opportunity. If you can connect tried-and-true values with a new, more connected worldview, your employees will continually learn from each other, gain new skills and perspectives, and move your company in exciting new directions. On today's show, Lew Jaffe shares how to effectively manage a multigenerational workforce towards BIG.

All CEOs have to grow into their roles. But for Kerry Siggins, becoming a leader has been a lifelong process of learning how to maximize her strengths while overcoming weaknesses that nearly killed her. On today's show, Kerry discusses how she conquered her struggles with substance abuse and started to make BIG happen in her life and work.

Effective annual planning may be the single biggest differentiator between companies that stay small and those that get BIG. But the very best CEOs understand that the building up to your planning session and maintaining your exit velocity afterwards are just as critical to growth. On today's show, Greg Fricks explains how his company implemented the annual planning process, the lessons they learned, and how this ongoing process has set them up for continued success.

Guest: Rafael Paniagua, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Rafael is an experienced global leader and a longtime YPO member who is fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Prior to becoming a coach, Rafael was a CEO and President in the power, automation, and manufacturing industries, where he led ABB Brazil for seven years. He also led several global businesses as Group Vice President, managing more than 5,000 employees, 14 factories, and operating in more than 30 countries. Episode in a Tweet: Going global could jump start your trajectory towards BIG. Quick Background: The smaller your business is, the more vulnerable it is -- to customer attrition, to supply chain disruption, to ambitious competitors, or to fallout from a global pandemic. Now that you've completed your digital pivot, the size of your potential customer base is limited only by the scope and quality of your sales strategy. A little extra bandwidth and an office in an emerging market stocked with triple-A talent might be all you need to grow your business into an international success. On today's show, Rafael Paniagua shares 4 keys to running a global business and how to make BIG happen by expanding geographically.

Many entrepreneurs and C-suite executives think they're ready to take the BIG job as CEO. But until you've sat in that chair and felt the weight of an entire company -- and the well-being of all its employees -- resting on your shoulders, it's hard to appreciate the level of responsibility you're taking on or anticipate how you as a leader will react to that responsibility. On today's show, Douglas DeBoer shares five things every first-time CEO should be prepared to do to set up their company, their team, and themselves for BIG success.