Fearful Giants

Fearful Giants Season 1 was an absolute blast with so many great guests. Season 2 is just around the corner with a lineup of amazing leaders ready to share their stories and lessons. Before we get into the season and the guests we have lined up for you there, this episode takes a look back at the impactful moments and inspiring takeaways from Season 1.

This highlight reel pulls together some of the moments and insights from this past season's conversations with founders, executives, investors, and leaders. They were willing to talk honestly about fear, identity, and what leadership costs. Each clip comes from a full episode that's waiting for you in Season 1. 

If you're new to the show, this is a good place to start. If you've been listening since the beginning, it's a chance to go back to the episodes that stayed with you and catch the ones you missed before we dive into Season 2.

Connect with Clay Stelzer:

Website: https://15sixty.com/

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/claystelzer

Email: [email protected]

Red Wing Shoe Company has been an American icon for over 120 years. The kind of brand people grow up with, pass down to their kids, and feel something real when they put on. This week I'm sitting down with Dave Schneider, Chief Marketing Officer of Red Wing Shoe Company.

Dave leads the global marketing practice for Red Wing, overseeing brand management, digital and traditional marketing, ecommerce, retail experience, and corporate communications across a portfolio of purpose-driven brands. Before Red Wing, Dave held senior leadership roles at top marketing and corporate firms serving brands like MillerCoors, Dell, State Farm, Lowe's, McDonald's, and AT&T. He's been with Red Wing for over 12 years and says he expects to retire there. That alone tells you they are doing something right.

But this conversation goes far beyond brand strategy. We get into what that taught him about the difference between commitment and self-sacrifice, why he thinks culture is a two-way street, how Red Wing balances 120 years of heritage with staying relevant, and the leadership definition he's carried for 25 years.

In this episode, we explore:

- What it actually looks like to contribute to company culture (hint: it’s not just a poster in the break room!)

- The two moments Dave's leaders gave him "permission" to step away from work, and what that did to him as a leader

- How Red Wing balances 120 years of heritage with staying relevant in a fast-moving world

- What Dave means when he says "speed beats perfection" (+ when that rule doesn't apply)

- The leadership definition Dave has carried for 25 years and why it still holds

Connect with Dave Schneider:

- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/daveschneider 

- Email: [email protected] 

Connect with Clay:

- Website: https://15sixty.com/ 

- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/claystelzer 

- Email: [email protected]

Resources Mentioned:

- Red Wing Shoe Company

- Red Wing Foundation

- Will Your Wings Campaign 

🎵 Music License: CMUVN6N0WHFMBOOL

Thinking about selling your business? Most business owners spend years planning what it takes to get there. Almost none of them plan for what happens after they cross the finish line..

The money hits your account, the deal is done, and then... the real fear starts. 

In this episode of Fearful Giants, Clay Stelzer sits down with Michael Schodrof, CEPA, CFA, a private wealth advisor and exit planning specialist at Alex Brown, Raymond James, to talk about what business owners really need to know before and after a business exit.

75% of business owners who sell are disappointed with the outcome, and it has nothing to do with the sale price. It has everything to do with identity, preparation, and the personal questions that never get asked before the deal closes. Michael has spent 25 years in financial services working with ultra-affluent individuals and business owners navigating major liquidity events and wealth planning after a sale.

In this episode you'll hear about:

- The reasons most business owners aren't emotionally or financially ready to exit

- The two tracks every business owner needs to be working on before they exit

- What exit planning actually involves beyond valuing your business

- What happens to your identity, your family, and your wealth after the transaction closes

- The one conversation about family wealth few have before the deal is done

- How to find and work with a wealth advisor who understands the full picture of an exit

Connect with Michael Schodrof:

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelschodrof/

- Email: [email protected]

Connect with Clay Stelzer:

- Website: https://15sixty.com/

- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/claystelzer

Resources Mentioned:

- Exit Planning Institute

- BOSS Events: Business Owner Strategy Summit

🎵 Music License: CMUVN6N0WHFMBOOL

Building a company from nothing and selling it is the entrepreneurship dream. But Bobby Achettu’s story isn’t just about growth, grit, or a successful exit. It’s about the fear, family, and longing for safety that shaped the whole journey.

Bobby came to the United States at four years old. His dad, a qualified engineer in India, started over by sweeping factory floors. Bobby watched that, absorbed it, and built a mindset around it: never give up.

What followed was a 13-year entrepreneurial journey building Accelerated Growth Advisors from a storage closet to a successful acquisition by Sikich in 2022. But this conversation goes so much deeper than the exit.

In this episode we explore:

- Why Bobby's relationship with money was never really about money

- How imposter syndrome followed him from childhood into the boardroom, and what he did with it

- The formula he's been living his entire career: vulnerability leads to trust, trust leads to accountability, accountability leads to performance

- What he had to let go of to fully show up as a leader after selling his company

- What legacy actually looks like to an entrepreneur 27 years in

Connect with Bobby: 

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbyachettu

Connect with Clay Stelzer:

- Website: https://15sixty.com/

- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/claystelzer

Resources: 

- Sikich

- Accelerated Growth Advisors

🎵 Music License: CMUVN6N0WHFMBOOL

What do you do with the hole left behind when someone you love dies? Brian Floriani planted a seed in it.

Brian is the founder of Bernie's Book Bank, a literacy nonprofit he named after his father Bernie who passed away in 2005 on the same day as his Grandma. Brian delivered two eulogies in one day, and it left him thinking about what his own eulogy might say one day and what that meant about his purpose and how he lived his life. 

What started as a dream to make books and literacy more accessible has grown into a metro-scale children's book bank model now serving 315,000 children across Chicago, Milwaukee, and the Florida Suncoast.. To date, Bernie’s Book Bank has placed 31 million books into the homes of under-resourced children. The goal: 20 million children served annually by 2045.

Brian is also the founder of Buku Branded, a social enterprise that uses branded products to fund literacy work, giving 100% of profits to literacy causes across the country.

Brian’s perspective on finding purpose and how to carry a massive mission without letting it carry you is one I believe every leader needs to hear.

In this episode, we explore:

- How losing his father and grandmother on the same day in 2005 redirected his entire life

- Why eulogies aren't about success, they're about significance, and the three questions Brian asked himself that changed everything

- The dark side of chasing legacy when identity gets tangled up in the mission

- How Brian navigated stepping back from leading the organization he founded

- His brother Little Bernie's final words before choosing to end his life on a ventilator, and what they reveal about the only real choice any of us have

Connect with Brian:

- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brianfloriani

- Website: berniesbookbank.org

Connect with me, Clay:

- Website: https://15sixty.com/

- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/claystelzer

🎵 Music License: CMUVN6N0WHFMBOOL

What does it actually take to go from chasing titles at a publicly traded company to leading one of the most beloved food brands in the world, and feeling truly happy and fulfilled?

In this episode of Fearful Giants, Clay Stelzer sits down with Lindsay Brady, President of Ornua Foods North America, the company behind Kerrygold butter and cheese. Lindsay has spent more than two decades building and leading major food brands at ConAgra, Campbell Soup, Tyson Foods, General Mills, and Heinz. Before Ornua, she led a billion-dollar portfolio at ConAgra. Today, she's guiding Kerrygold through its next bold chapter of growth, and calling this the happiest and healthiest chapter of her life.

In this episode we explore:

→ How winning became a fear-based pattern, and what it cost her before she noticed

→ The mentor relationship that changed everything (and why the 7 Habits hit differently at 35)

→ What it took to go from intense competitor to leader who leads with empathy and abundance

→ Why purpose is what gets you out of bed on a Wednesday when your body says no

→ The systems, rituals, and mindset shifts that got her to happy and healthy

Connect with Lindsay Brady:

→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsayobrady/

Connect with Clay: 

→ Website: https://15sixty.com/ 

→ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/claystelzer 

Resources Mentioned:

→ The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

→ Ornua Foods

→ Kerrygold 

🎵 Music License: CMUVN6N0WHFMBOOL

The happiest, most fulfilled leaders I meet all have two things in common and once you see the pattern, you can't unsee it.

In this solo episode of Fearful Giants, Clay Stelzer breaks down what he calls "the recipe" - a two-part formula he keeps noticing in CEOs and leaders who are deeply grounded in their work and their lives. He shares the personal story of losing two major clients in three weeks early in his coaching career, the scarcity spiral that followed, and the unexpected practice that pulled him out of it.

In this episode we explore:

• The two ingredients every fulfilled leader has in common

• Why Gay Hendricks' "zone of genius" matters more than zone of excellence, and how to tell which one you're operating in

• Helping someone the way you needed to be helped, and why it's such a powerful antidote to a scarcity mindset

• A practical recipe for getting out of a rut - useful whether you're a CEO, a founder, or just a human having a rough week

• Why "the world shows up when you show up" isn't woo - it's a real practice

If this episode resonates, share it with a leader who could use a reset. And don't forget to hit follow or subscribe wherever you're listening for more honest conversations about the human side of leadership.

Connect with Clay: 

Website: https://15sixty.com/ 

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/claystelzer 

🎵 Music License: CMUVN6N0WHFMBOOL

For a lot of high achievers, the hardest part isn’t success. It’s figuring out who you are without it.

In this episode of Fearful Giants, Clay Stelzer sits down with Janell Pittman, a marketing and transformation leader who spent decades driving growth at some of the most recognized organizations in the country. After serving as Chief Marketing and Digital Strategy Officer at MercyOne - a 230-location, 18,000-colleague health system, and VP and General Manager at Meredith Corporation, supporting brands like AllRecipes, Martha Stewart, and Better Homes & Gardens, Janell made a deliberate pivot to fractional executive work with Chief Outsiders, where she now partners with mid-size company CEOs to build data-backed growth strategies.

In this episode we explore:

• Why excellence that starts as fun can become a fear-based trap, and how to tell the difference

• What it really takes to lead culture change across 18,000 people without imposing it from the top

• The terrifying decision to take a career break and intentionally not be busy

• How Janell shed a decades-old identity tied to titles, achievement, and busyness,  and what she found on the other side

• Why "the process is more important than the outcome" changed how she thinks about every major initiative

If this conversation resonates, share it with a leader who's running hard and hasn't stopped to ask what they're actually running toward. And follow or subscribe wherever you listen for more honest conversations about the human side of leadership.

Connect with Janell Pittman: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janellpittman/

• Website: https://www.chiefoutsiders.com

Connect with Clay: 

• Website: https://15sixty.com/ 

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/claystelzer  

Resources Mentioned: 

• Excellence Through Leadership Conference (University of Missouri) 

• Chief Outsiders (chiefoutsiders.com)

🎵 Music License: CMUVN6N0WHFMBOOL

Building something that lasts is supposed to feel like winning. Nobody warns you about the fear that comes with it.

In this episode of Fearful Giants, Clay sits down with Ashley Murphy, co-founder and CEO of Neat Method - the company that pioneered professional home organization as a scalable franchise business. Ashley started Neat Method in 2010 after discovering, while working as an in-home personal trainer, that a well-organized living space could transform the overall wellbeing of her clients. What started as a vision for the "Neat Life" grew into the largest organizing network in North America - nearly 100 locations, a full product line launched in 2020, and a brand that serves everyone from busy families to celebrities to politicians to at least one confirmed CIA operative.

She did the thing. She built a business, and she built it big, but somewhere along the way it got scary.

Not the building part - the leading part. The enforcing-the-rules part. The what-if-I'm-the-ceiling part. The who-am-I-if-this-isn't-mine-to-run part.

Ashley says out loud what most founders only think: maybe the person steering the ship is holding it back, and she says it not from defeat but from the kind of honest, clear-eyed courage that makes great leaders worth listening to.

What You'll Hear:

• When love for a business can start to get in the way of its growth

• The fear underneath being "bad cop" with her franchise owners

• What it actually feels like to ask yourself if you're the ceiling of your own company

• How Ashley is learning to separate her identity from the brand she's spent her whole adult life building

• Her craziest home organization stories (hint: it involves guns, passports, and the CIA. Yes, really.) 

When leaders get this honest, it changes something - for them and for everyone watching.

Connect with Ashley Murphy:

• Website: https://www.neatmethod.com

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neatmethod 

Connect with Clay Stelzer: 

• Website: https://15sixty.com/ 

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/claystelzer 

Resources Mentioned:

• Neat Method: www.neatmethod.com 

🎵 Music License: CMUVN6N0WHFMBOOL

It takes a particular kind of bravery to walk away from something wildly successful. Not because it failed, but because you realized you were no longer the right person to lead it.

In this episode of Fearful Giants, Clay Stelzer sits down with J Schwan - founder of Solstice, former CEO of Kin + Carta (the first publicly traded B Corp on the London Stock Exchange), and current CEO of Gladiator Tennis. J scaled a socially responsible digital engineering firm from a solo venture to over 2,000 employees across four continents. Then he walked away. What he found on the other side, and what drove him there, is what this conversation is really about.

This week, instead of a traditional interview, we did something different. We played three games, all centered around fear. We explored questions like:

• What’s scarier - failing publicly, or succeeding and feeling empty?

• What part of your success actually hurt you?

• What are you afraid to admit out loud?

We ended up talking about what it actually looks like to walk away from a wildly successful machine, name the thing that drove you there, and choose a second mountain that means something to you personally.

In this episode we explore:

• The "ghost" - the relentless internal force that drove J's success and nearly cost him his happiness
• What the "second mountain" really means and how J chose which one to climb next
• Why J spent the first 25 years of his career putting people on screens and now wants to spend the next 25 getting them off
• How tennis literally saved his life in London, and why he's now building a national league around that experience

• The shift from ego-driven success to something far more meaningful: 100,000 people finding their game

The best second acts aren't really about starting over. They're about going back to what made you come alive in the first place, and doing it with everything you've finally learned about yourself along the way.

Connect with J Schwan:

• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/schwan
• Website: www.gladiatortennis.com

Connect with Clay:

• Website: https://15sixty.com/
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/claystelzer 

Resources Mentioned:

• Rockefeller Habits (Verne Harnish)
• Gladiator Tennis: www.gladiatortennis.com

🎵 Music License: CMUVN6N0WHFMBOOL