CEOs and ABCs

In this episode of CEOs & ABCs, Kevin pulls together seven conversations with executives who learned what it costs to expect perfection from yourself at work and at home at the same time. It starts with a phrase most leaders grew up on, good is the enemy of great, and asks what happens when a high-pressure job and kids flip it around, so that chasing great becomes the thing that keeps you from being good at either.

The first half is the cost. Anncy Rowe, Chief Commercial Officer at Rodan + Fields, looks back on flying red-eyes between London and Paris to be home for her son's birthday, and what she'd tell herself now. Jeff Jenkins was leading a private equity turnaround as a CMO when his five-year-old assumed Dad would just work all weekend. Cameron Herold, founder of COO Alliance, describes breaking down in an elevator and going back to work the next morning, still convinced he was fine.

The second half is what changed. Jennie Magiera of Google explains how accepting that she couldn't be 100% everywhere made her better in every arena. Melissa Grady Dias, former CMO of Cadillac, trades a rigid plan for a clear outcome and one question: how much do you care? Doug Zarkin, former CMO of Pearle Vision and Take 5 Oil Change, shares the 80/20 rule he uses for creative work and for his kids. And Brent Cooke, CMO of Driven Brands, recalls the question his therapist asked about his daughter that changed how he talks to himself.

Kevin closes with a challenge for the week: pick one thing at work and one thing at home where you're asking yourself to get everything right. What would actually be enough?

Chapters
00:00 Great can become the enemy of good
01:01 Anncy Rowe: carrying every role at once
03:14 Jeff Jenkins: the question from his five-year-old
04:24 Cameron Herold: "In my head, I thought I was fine"
05:47 Jennie Magiera: why letting go made her better at both
07:40 Melissa Grady Dias: focus on the outcome, not the process
09:29 Doug Zarkin: the 80/20 rule at work and at home
11:09 Brent Cooke: the compassion you'd give your kids
12:22 What would be enough?

Full episoded features:
Anncy Rowe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anncy-rowe?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios 
Jeff Jenkins: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffmjenkins?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios Cameron Herold: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronherold?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios 
Jennie Magiera: https://www.linkedin.com/in/magiera?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios 
Melissa Grady Dias: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gradymelissa?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios 
Doug Zarkin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougzarkin?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios 
Brent Cooke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brent-cooke-mktg?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios 

In this episode of CEOs & ABCs, Kevin sits down with Amber Wendover, Founder & President of Thinking People, to explore why capable, high-performing people keep sacrificing themselves for work long after the cost outweighs the reward, and why that pattern shows up in a boardroom exactly the same way it shows up at the dinner table.

Before starting her own coaching practice, Amber held leadership roles at Microsoft and Whole Foods and was part of the team that helped launch Amazon Go. She now works with executives and leadership teams at Fortune 100 companies and startups pushing toward an IPO. The thread that connects all of it is simple: she doesn't coach from theory, she coaches from having lived the exact tradeoffs she now asks her clients to examine.

Nine days before she went to the ER, Amber noticed blood in her stool and told her husband she'd make a doctor's appointment. That appointment came after a three-day business trip to San Jose, three holiday parties, and a flight to New York to deliver a keynote. She collapsed in her kitchen in front of her 17-year-old daughter before she ever made it to the doctor. The same math plays out at a smaller scale every night a parent logs back online after dinner instead of closing the laptop.

Amber's most useful reframe isn't a productivity trick, it's a question: what's the cost? She asks it of every executive she coaches, and she's direct about the fact that it took her three years and a hospital visit to ask it of herself. It's the same question behind her "five is an A" exercise: rating every role in your life, from mother to HOA committee member, on a scale where a five, not a ten, is the passing grade.

This is a conversation about identity, burnout, and the cost of being indispensable, and why the version of success that actually holds up at home starts with deciding what "enough" looks like before anyone else gets to weigh in.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN:

- Why Amber waited nine days to see a doctor after noticing a symptom she now says she can't believe she ignored

- The real story behind the Amazon executive offer she turned down, and why she still keeps the framed offer letter

- Why Amber asks every executive she coaches "what's the cost of this decision" before anything else

- How to tell whether a 6 a.m. email response is a real emergency or a habit built on feeling needed

- The "five is an A" exercise Amber uses to stop leaders from grading every role in their life against a 10

- Why her 23-year-old son's approach to fitting in a workout after work is the legacy she actually wanted to leave

- The five-second pause one Microsoft executive built into his pocket, literally, to interrupt a spiral before a meeting

- Why Amber believes most people don't need an ER visit to reprioritize, just a clear line for their own "enough"

TOP TAKEAWAYS:

- Burnout doesn't always look like a collapse. Amber's was physical. Kevin's was an emotional disconnect his kids could sense long before his colleagues ever noticed anything was wrong.

- "I don't have time" is usually a habit, not a fact. Amber's own 6 a.m. inbox routine was built on the feeling of being needed, not on any actual emergency.

- A five out of ten is a passing grade. Amber's coaching exercise argues that chasing a ten in every role in your life is the fastest way to lose all of them.

- The biggest decisions rarely come with a framework. Amber turned down a life-changing Amazon offer on instinct, and only built her "facts versus assumptions" tool for clients afterward.

- Small physical rituals interrupt a spiral faster than a vacation can. One executive sewed corduroy fabric into his pocket. Amber engraved "it starts with you" onto a bracelet.

ABOUT AMBER WENDOVER:

Amber Wendover is the Founder & President of Thinking People, a leadership development and executive coaching firm where she works with executives and leadership teams at Fortune 100 companies and high-growth startups. Before starting her own practice, she held leadership roles at Microsoft and Whole Foods and helped launch Amazon Go. She's spent the last nine years building her business around one philosophy: it starts with you. Amber lives with her husband, Jeff, and is the mother of two adult children, whom she credits with teaching her what her own non-negotiables actually are.

Share this episode with the executive on your team who hasn't taken a real day off in months, and comment below with the biggest lesson you took from Amber.

FOLLOW AMBER WENDOVER:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/awendover 
Website: thinkingpeople.com 
Newsletter: thinkingpeople.substack.com 

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In this episode of CEOs & ABCs, Kevin sits down with Kipp Bodnar, Chief Marketing Officer at HubSpot, to explore what ambition actually costs and what it takes to stay present in spite of it, and why that discipline matters just as much at home as it does in an industry that's changing faster than ever.

Kipp joined HubSpot running the company blog and was named Chief Marketing Officer five years later, growing the business twenty times over and helping define an entire category of marketing along the way. But while his career kept accelerating, something else was happening at home. Kipp is divorced and sees his son, Bo, every other week.
During the weeks he has him, he says no to nearly everything else, projects, speaking opportunities, work he estimates would add up to hundreds of things over the years, so that time stays protected. It's the same instinct that shaped his career: decide what's essential, then let go of the rest without guilt.

Kipp doesn't pretend the balance always worked. He says there were early years at HubSpot when he got lost chasing problems and missed time with Bo that, in hindsight, would have gotten him to the same lessons about presence years sooner. If he could redo those years knowing what he knows now, he says that's the one thing he'd change.

This is a conversation about what ambition can build, what it can cost, and what it means to stay present when the world, and your industry, is changing faster than ever.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN:
• Why Kipp says no to nearly everything that isn't essential
• How Kipp went from running HubSpot's blog to Chief Marketing Officer in five years, and the one instinct behind every step
• The exact reason HubSpot's marketing engine broke once AI changed how people search, and the four-stage Loop framework he built to replace it
• How Kipp separates his identity from his job title, and what he'd do the day after losing it
• The specific lesson about presence Kipp's son taught him that has nothing to do with marketing at all
• Why Kipp says it gets a little easier every year, and what's changed for him as Bo has gotten older

TOP TAKEAWAYS:
• Protecting time costs something real. Kipp says no to hundreds of opportunities every year and he's clear that's a real trade-off, not a shortcut.
• Delay has a price, even when you catch up eventually. Kipp admits getting lost in work early on pushed back lessons about presence he wishes he'd learned years sooner.
• Clear expectations build resilience faster than help does. Stating what's expected instead of stepping in, is the model Kipp credits most for raising a capable kid.
• Purpose can survive a title change.
• AI didn't tweak the old marketing playbook, it broke it. Losing over 100 million visits in a year forced Kipp to rebuild HubSpot's approach instead of patching the old one.

ABOUT KIPP BODNAR:
Kipp Bodnar is the Chief Marketing Officer of HubSpot, where he has led marketing through the company's growth to twenty times its size since joining to run its blog. He co-hosts the podcast Marketing Against The Grain with Kieran Flanagan, and the two just co-wrote the book Loop: Outlearn. Outmarket. Outgrow. Kipp is divorced from Bo's mother, and shares custody – he has Bo every other week. He's remarried to Kimberly, and he mentions having "an amazing stepdaughter" through that marriage.
Share this episode with a parent who's trying to lead well at work and still show up fully at home, and comment below with the biggest lesson you took from Kipp.

FOLLOW KIPP BODNAR ON:
LinkedIn: ⁠linkedin.com/in/kippbodnar⁠
Podcast: Marketing Against The Grain — ⁠marketingagainstthegrain.com⁠
Book: ⁠https://www.hubspot.com/loop-marketing-book⁠

FOLLOW OUR HOST KEVIN RICE ON:
LinkedIn/KevinMRice · ceosandabcs.com · Instagram/ceosandabcs

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In this episode of CEOs & ABCs, Kevin pulls together six conversations he's had with CEOs and CMOs over the past year to answer one question almost none of them answered directly: how do you actually manage a career and a family without one costing the other? Instead of one new interview, this is the chorus, and then the answer that finally clicked once Kevin heard all six side by side.

Deena DePhilips, CTO of Red Robin, spent a decade as a self-described "corporate athlete," working eighty-hour weeks and sleeping under her desk, before becoming a parent forced her to rebuild how she worked entirely. Kyle Lacy, CMO of Docebo, doesn't pretend he's solved anything, and says so on camera. Jennifer Prince, who leads commercial strategy for the LA Rams, replaced the word "balance" with "rhythm" after a single moment with her daughter changed how she thought about her career. Anthony Valletta, CEO of Bartaco, runs his calendar like a second job. And Linda Bethea, former CMO of Danone, built her entire leadership philosophy around integration after raising her daughter as a single mom.

None of them agreed to sound the same. They just did anyway. Deena calls the term "work-life balance" something she hates saying out loud. Kyle says he doesn't have it, full stop, no fix attached. Jennifer swapped the word for "rhythm." Linda swapped it for "integration." Different companies, different industries, same conclusion, reached without hearing each other say it first.

This is a conversation about intentionality, presence, and integration, and why the executives who've actually built something that works stopped trying to balance their lives and started designing them instead.

TOP TAKEAWAYS:

- Balance implies a fixed point. Rhythm and integration allow for movement, and movement is closer to how real careers and families actually work.

- Intentionality means deciding what's non-negotiable before the week starts, not finding time for it after.

- Presence isn't complicated, it's just hard. It means giving something up in the moment instead of holding onto everything at once.

- Integration isn't a compromise between work and family. Done right, each one makes you better at the other.

- Perfection isn't the goal. The goal is staying committed enough to recalibrate when you get it wrong.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 — The Claim: Why ""Balance"" Is the Wrong Goal

1:02 — Kevin's Framing: Three Things That Actually Work

1:50 — Real Stories From Boardroom to Bedtime

2:01 — A Decade of Sleeping Under Her Desk

3:44 — The CMO Who Stopped Apologizing

5:33 — The Airport Moment That Changed Everything

7:15 — What Replaces Balance

7:34 — The Calendar System Built Like a Traffic Light

8:45 — Presence in Three Words

10:07 — Why She Puts Her Phone in a Box

10:52 — The Thread: What Six CEOs Agree On

12:58 — Where to Find the Full Conversations

FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE:

- Jennifer Kattula, CMO, Microsoft Advertising — https://youtu.be/xSBI9XM6CA8

- Deena DePhilips, CTO, Red Robin — https://youtu.be/-yd7sw75hqk

- Kyle Lacy, CMO, Docebo — https://youtu.be/tpBVzqI6114

- Jennifer Prince, Commercial Strategy, LA Rams — https://youtu.be/eP7AOjjfp7w

- Anthony Valletta, CEO, Bartaco — https://youtu.be/gOTRtqL1g-4

- Linda Bethea, CMO, Danone North America — https://youtu.be/dMvOE1xF0Dw

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If any of these six conversations hit home, comment below with which one you needed to hear today.

In this episode of CEOs & ABCs, Kevin sits down with Barbara Perry and Harry Hutson, co-authors of Hope at Work, to explore why hope isn't a soft, passive emotion but an active, strategic capability, optimism combined with agency, and why that same combination is what moves a leader, a team, or a family from merely surviving to truly thriving.

Barbara Perry is a cultural anthropologist who has spent 35 years running ethnographic research inside companies like Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and Johnson & Johnson, uncovering possibilities those organizations couldn't see from the inside. Harry Hutson spent 25 years as a senior HR and organizational development executive at Cummins, Avery Dennison, Global Knowledge, and Devon Energy before becoming an executive coach profiled by Inc Magazine, and now teaches at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School. Their research together spans five decades and lands on one throughline: hope only functions as a strategy when optimism is paired with agency, the gritty, actionable belief that you can actually influence what happens next.

The clearest proof of that distinction shows up in a story Barbara tells about a company that had just been sold to a private equity firm. The leadership team wasn't short on optimism, people kept telling themselves things would work out, but they had quietly given up their agency: everyone backed off, decided the situation was too big to touch, and started acting like victims of circumstance instead of people who could still shape what happened next. That's optimism without agency, and Barbara and Harry are clear that it isn't hope, it's just waiting. Harry ties the same mechanic straight to parenting with a memory of teaching his son to drive on narrow New England roads, gripping the door handle and resisting the urge to grab the wheel, because agency a person never gets to use isn't agency at all. Give a team or a kid the belief that things could work out with no real room to act, and you get exactly what that private equity company got: people who quietly stop trying.

Barbara doesn't dress this up. She still carries a specific memory of missing her son's third grade play because she was traveling for work, and at fifty-one, he still brings it up. She calls it a way for him to stick the knife in mother once in a while, not a lifelong wound, just proof that showing up has a real cost and the ledger doesn't disappear because your intentions were good. That's the honesty running under the whole conversation: grace for yourself doesn't mean the missed moments didn't happen.

This is a conversation about the difference between hoping for the best and building the capability to act on it, and why that same combination, optimism plus agency, is what decides whether a struggling team, or a struggling family, ends up surviving or actually thriving.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN:

TOP TAKEAWAYS:

ABOUT BARBARA PERRY & HARRY HUTSON:

Barbara Perry, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist who has spent 35 years helping Fortune 500 companies, including Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and Johnson & Johnson, uncover new markets and cultures through ethnographic research. Harry Hutson, PhD, spent 25 years in senior HR and organizational development roles at Cummins, Avery Dennison, Global Knowledge, and Devon Energy, and now coaches C-level executives after being profiled by Inc Magazine. Together they are the co-authors of Hope at Work: 5 Principles to Breathe Life into Your Organization, with a foreword by former Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley, and the earlier Putting Hope to Work, which Harvard Business Review named one of its breakthrough ideas of 2007. Barbara is a grandmother watching her grandson's passion for electrical engineering unfold in real time, and Harry is a father who still remembers teaching his son to drive on narrow New England roads.

Share this episode with a leader who stopped saying the word hope out loud a long time ago, and comment below with whether your team or your family is running short on optimism or short on agency right now.

FOLLOW BARBARA PERRY & HARRY HUTSON:
Barbara Perry: barbaraperryassociates.com
Harry Hutson: harryhutson.com
Book, Hope at Work: https://www.amazon.com/Hope-Work-Principles-Breathe-Organization/dp/1963271688

FOLLOW OUR HOST KEVIN RICE ON:
LinkedIn/KevinMRice · ceosandabcs.com · Instagram/ceosandabcs

Follow the CEOs & ABCs Podcast and stay updated:
Subscribe to the CEOs & ABCs Podcast
Newsletter: ⁠CEOs and ABCs Newsletter⁠
LinkedIn: ⁠LinkedIn/ceosandabcs
⁠Website: ⁠ceosandabcs.com
⁠YouTube: ⁠Youtube/ceosandabcs
⁠Spotify: ⁠Spotify/ceosandabcs
⁠Apple Podcasts: ⁠Apple/ceosandabcs⁠

In this episode of CEOs & ABCs, Kevin sits down with Adam Vasallo, chief marketing officer of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, to explore what actually happens when you set out to mentor someone, and why the person doing the giving so often ends up changed the most.

Adam has spent his career building stories that move people, from local television news, to the Home Shopping Network, to leading brand strategy across more than 230 Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies serving 5,000 communities nationwide. His campaign, It Takes Little to Be Big, earned recognition from Fast Company, PR Week, and the Engage for Good Golden Halo Award, and he was named Nonprofit Marketer of the Year for his work. The through line across all of it traces back to a single sentence: a colleague once stuck her head over his cubicle wall and told him he'd make a great mentor. He signed up that week, and has been matched with a little brother, in one form or another, for the better part of two decades.

The centerpiece of this conversation is what Adam calls the two-way street of mentorship, the idea that showing up for a young person you've never met ends up teaching you as much as anything you learned in a boardroom. He talks about Adrian, his first little brother, matched when Adam was in his twenties, now a father of two who referees flag football games in Adam's own son's league. He talks about Giovanni, matched for eight years, about to start his senior year of high school. And he traces it back to his own father, who at thirteen left Cuba alone, lived in an orphanage in Madrid, and made it to the United States because adults who weren't his family made sure he was safe along the way. That same thread runs through Adam's house today, down to a school project his oldest daughter brought home years ago that turned into a nightly question at the dinner table: what were your three favorite things that happened today?

Adam also gets specific about the discipline behind showing up, including the manager who once pulled him aside and called his own ambition insane, the answer he gives his team when a school pickup collides with a deadline, and what changed the year his oldest daughter asked him, for the first time, to coach her flag football team instead of just his son's.

This is a conversation about mentorship, legacy, and why the people you pour into rarely leave you the way they found you.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

Top Takeaways:

About Adam Vasallo:

Adam Vasallo is chief marketing officer of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, where he leads brand strategy and fundraising across more than 230 local agencies serving 5,000 communities nationwide. Before joining Big Brothers Big Sisters, he built his career in brand marketing at the Home Shopping Network after a brief run as a television reporter. He has been a mentor to two little brothers Adrian and Giovanni, providing mentorship for close to two decades, and is a husband and father to three children.

Share this episode with a colleague who's thinking about becoming a mentor, and comment below with the biggest lesson you took from Adam Vasallo.

Follow Adam Vasallo:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamvasallo/
Big Brothers Big Sisters: bbbs.org

Follow our host Kevin Rice on:
LinkedIn: LinkedIn/KevinMRice
Website: ceosandabcs.com
Instagram: Instagram/ceosandabcs

Follow the CEOs & ABCs Podcast and stay updated:
Newsletter: CEOs and ABCs Newsletter
LinkedIn: LinkedIn/ceosandabcs
Website: ceosandabcs.com
YouTube: Youtube/ceosandabcs
Spotify: Spotify/ceosandabcs
Apple Podcasts: Apple/ceosandabcs

In this episode of CEOs & ABCs, Kevin sits down with Doug Zarkin, former CMO of Pearle Vision and Take Five Oil Change, to explore what happens when you stop arriving with a playbook and start arriving with a notebook, and why that shift matters just as much at home as it does in the boardroom.

Doug has led transformational marketing agendas at some of the most recognisable brands in America. Avon. Victoria's Secret Pink. Pearle Vision for over a decade. The through line across all of it is the same: understand the people before you draw the strategy. You cannot run a pass offense without a quarterback. You cannot parent a sixteen-year-old the same way you parented a six-year-old. And you cannot build brand love by treating every customer like a transaction.

Doug also gets honest about navigating life after a restructuring, working harder than he ever has, and still carving out barbecues and Sunday brunches because his daughter and son are only home for the summer and the clock is moving fast.

This is a conversation about brand love, leadership, the 80/20 rule applied to parenting, and why there is no right or wrong way. There is just a way.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

Top Takeaways:

About Doug Zarkin:
Doug Zarkin is a transformational marketing leader and the author of Moving Your Brand Out of the Friend Zone. He has served as CMO at Pearl Vision, where his work became a Harvard Business Review case study, and as the first-ever CMO of Take Five Oil Change. Earlier in his career he helped grow Victoria's Secret Pink nationally and reinvented direct selling at Avon. He is a TED speaker, keynote speaker and proud husband and father to his wife and two children.

If this episode made you rethink leadership, career growth, work-life balance, or working parenthood, subscribe to the CEOs & ABCs Podcast for more conversations with CEOs, founders, and global executives.

Share this episode with a colleague navigating work-life balance, and comment below with the biggest lesson you took from Douglas Zarkin.

Follow Douglas Zarkin:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougzarkin/ 

Website: https://www.dougzarkin.com/

Book: https://www.dougzarkin.com/

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In this episode of CEOs & ABCs, Kevin sits down with Jennie Magiera, Global Head of Education and Impact at Google, to explore the six years she spent trying to become a mother while ascending through some of the most demanding roles in education technology, and what that journey taught her about presence, purpose, and raising children in an AI world.

Jennie went through multiple rounds of IVF across three different jobs, cancelling keynotes for egg retrievals, writing substitute lesson plans every night not knowing if she would need them, and fielding questions from colleagues who did not understand why she could not reschedule a surgery. When Lucy was finally born, Jennie had to write apology letters in her head to every parent she had ever dismissed as overreacting. She finally understood what was at stake.

The conversation also goes somewhere harder. Jennie shares the postpartum depression she experienced with her second daughter Nora, the years she felt she was looking at someone else's baby, and the therapy and one-on-one time that eventually brought them to where they are now. Besties.

Kevin and Jennie also get into what intentional presence looks like when you spend a hundred nights in hotels a year. Broadway shows on a Tuesday with Lucy. Nail salon trips with Nora. IHOP at 3am in pyjamas because nobody can sleep. And the moment Lucy told Jennie she was not upset about the travel because when her mum is home, she does more than other mums who never leave.

This is a conversation about IVF, postpartum, AI for kids, and what it means to be fully present in the pockets you actually have.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

Top Takeaways:

About Jennie Magiera:
Jennie Magiera is Global Head of Education and Impact at Google, leading a team that supports educators and students across the world. A former classroom teacher, school district CTO, and contributor to the US Department of Education's Education Technology Plan, she was recognised with the Obama White House Champion for Change Award. She is the author of Courageous Edventures and a TEDx speaker. She lives in Chicago with her husband and two daughters, Lucy and Nora.

If this episode made you rethink leadership, career growth, work-life balance, or working parenthood, subscribe to the CEOs & ABCs Podcast for more conversations with CEOs, founders, and global executives.

Share this episode with a colleague navigating work-life balance, and comment below with the biggest lesson you took from Jennie Magiera.

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In this episode of CEOs & ABCs, Kevin sits down with Cameron Herold, the COO who helped scale 1-800-GOT-JUNK from $2 million to $106 million, to explore what happens when someone who built their identity around business finally decides to build a life instead.

Cameron did not slow down quietly. He left 1-800-GOT-JUNK and spent four months not returning a single email. He journaled every day, made lists of everything he was good at and everything he was not, and came out the other side knowing exactly what he loved. Five years ago, he and his wife sold the house, the cars, and the furniture, packed two carry-on bags each, and have been living as nomads across 80 countries ever since.

But the more honest part of this conversation is what came before all of that. The stress score of 435 on a scale where 250 means a 90 percent chance of a heart attack. The second son he barely connected with in the early years because a toddler was easier to take skiing than a newborn. The long road back to a relationship where that same son now texts him every few hours and spent the whole day with him in London this week.

Kevin and Cameron also get into the moment Cameron realised he did not want his kids to describe him by what he did to make money. He wanted them to talk about his hobbies, his cooking, his travels, his sense of adventure. That reframe changed everything.

This is a conversation about burnout, bucket lists, building real relationships with your kids, and why your business is not your hobby.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

Top Takeaways:

About Cameron Herold:Cameron Herold is the founder of the COO Alliance, a global community of second-in-commands operating across 17 countries. As COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK, he helped scale the company from $2 million to $106 million. He is the author of seven bestselling books including Vivid Vision and Second in Command, and has been paid to speak in 30 countries over 800 times. He lives nomadically with his wife, travels with a bathroom scale in his carry-on, and wants his sons to describe him by his hobbies.

Share this episode with a colleague navigating work-life balance, and comment below with the biggest lesson you took from Cameron Herold.

Follow Cameron Herold:

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronherold/ ⁠

Website: ⁠https://cameronherold.com/about/⁠

Books: ⁠https://cooalliance.com/camerons-books/⁠

Company: ⁠https://cooalliance.com/ ⁠

⁠Cameron's Bucket List⁠

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In this episode of CEOs & ABCs, Kevin sits down with Jeanniey Walden, CEO of Liftoff Enterprises, bestselling author of The Trust Threshold, and TV host reaching 81 million households, to explore what a substitute teacher turned CMO learned about earning attention, building trust, and why the same principles that grow businesses are the ones that keep families together.

Jeanniey's career defies a straight line. From JCPenney to email marketing pioneer to CMO at Mercer, Rite Aid, and Rakuten, she kept jumping toward whatever was new, uncomfortable, and unproven. She did not have a business degree. She had a teaching credential and the instinct that if you can earn the attention of a room full of kids who do not want to listen to you, you can earn it anywhere. That instinct became the AIR framework: authenticity, inspiration, relatability. And she applies it everywhere including at home with a blended family of five.

The stories in this episode are the ones that stick. Her eight-year-old raising her hand at a packed industry conference to tell the room she had no idea what her mom just said, but she was really proud of her. The Walden Weekends, built to turn ordinary Saturdays into adventures worth remembering. The birthday chair. The red plate. The dollar store scavenger hunts. And the moment she came home as the sole breadwinner and told her family she was quitting her job to try something she had never done before.

This is a conversation about traditions, trust, and the quiet belief that when you open yourself up to good things, good things tend to come.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

Top Takeaways:

About Jeanniey Walden:
Jeanniey Walden is CEO of Liftoff Enterprises, host of Liftoff with Jeanniey Walden reaching 81 million households, and bestselling author of The Trust Threshold. She has held CMO roles at Mercer, Rite Aid, and Rakuten, and has spoken at the World Economic Forum and TEDx. She lives in New Jersey with her husband Vince and is mom to a blended family of five, grandmother to one, and celebrates every weekend with a Walden Weekend.

If this episode made you rethink leadership, career growth, work-life balance, or working parenthood, subscribe to the CEOs & ABCs Podcast for more conversations with CEOs, founders, and global executives.

Share this episode with a colleague navigating work-life balance, and comment below with the biggest lesson you took from Jeanniey Walden.

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