From Founder To CEO

Kirk Drummond, Co-founder & CEO - Drumroll

Do teams that eats pancakes together perform better? Kirk Drummond thinks so. He and his team celebrate their 10th anniversary this year, and throughout those 10 years it has had an average client tenure of over 4 years.  In the advertising industry, that is a long time and a great benchmark of success. 

He attributes this great success to focusing on creating an amazing team. And, along the way on his journey from co-founder to CEO he also learned about:

• The isolation of being a CEO when you need to extract yourself from the teams doing client work.
• The importance of building networking skills, earlier.

Christopher Myers, Co-founder & CEO - BodeTree

Do you have someone on your team who manages your books and manually inputs data into a financial bookkeeping software? Chris Myers wants you to know that that task may no longer be necessary. His company inverts the entire small business financial management system on its head and makes it MUCH easier. 

As a regular contributor to Forbes Magazine and The Wall Street Journal, Chris writes regularly about leadership, entrepreneurship, and the shift from Founder to CEO. In fact, he caught my attention when he wrote this piece for Forbes: Learning To Let Go: How I Evolved From Founder To CEO. 

This was well written and I asked Chris to come on the show and talk in greater detail about his 3 points and his personal connection with each insight. He gets candid about:

1. Why it was hard for him to let go and trust his team.
2. How he learned to embrace accountability.
3. How he shifted from a directive leader to become a servant leader.

He also breaks some news about BodeTree's next evolution!

Chris is super smart. How has his interview impacted you?

Many of you have asked me about the benefits of joining a CEO peer group. They go by many names. Sometimes they are called mastermind groups, roundtables, and self-directed development groups. They all basically meet very similar needs. In this episode I run through the 17 most common benefits for joining a CEO peer group. Please let me know what you think.

Mark Sears, Founder & CEO - Cloud Factory

Mark will inspire you with the story of how his integrates his company's mission with important work for many companies. He is also a fairly candid man about the journey from Founder to CEO. In this interview he talks about:

• The challenge of a "product Founder" shifting to "product CEO"
• Tackling the cultural challenges when you have a global startup
• The importance of finding a chief revenue officer
• Why having clarity of purpose is so important for you as a CEO, personally

In an age of algorithms, automations, and artificial intelligence, Michael Sacca is leading the company that is proud of their personal approach to connecting people working on projects with hand-picked, screened creative professionals in the mobile & web industry. 

Michael is full of leadership wisdom for every Founder & CEO. He is very candid about the challenges he experienced with his co-founder in his first startup and how it led to him to leave the company he started. He also shares some pretty specific advice to help you avoid similar circumstances.

In the financial services world, any time I hear about organizations that are growing by another team member every 2 months, I take notice. This is especially true in the accounting, bookkeeping, and tax areas. Robby Mathis talks about the secret to growing his company and his own growth as a leader as he scales himself and The Robby Group. I think many of you can also relate to the fear he has about one component of business. 

Brad and his team make it easier for any metropolitan area to create more entrepreneurs and more healthy food all year round without shipping food thousands of miles. And, as a leader, Brad speaks candidly about several important topics:

1. He explains how he was able to let some things go as the company grew.
2. He discusses his personal challenge around remaining emotionally connected to his team.
3. He talks about Friday "AMA" (As Me Anything) meetings to increase engagement and reconnect everyone to the mission and values of the company.

Ryan Denehy, CEO & Founder - Electric AI

It was great to speak with a fellow Hofstra alum, Ryan Denehy, in this episode. Ryan was the youngest executive at the mighty media company, Gannett, when he decided strike out and become a Founder. His stories about founding SWARM Mobile and now Electric AI will really inspire because of the sacrifices he made to make both companies happen. What really impressed me in this interview was his big insight about the need for Founding CEOs to simply take the time to think through the direction of the company as it grows. Let me know what you think: [email protected]

FREE DOWNLOAD: "63 Productivity Hacks From 50 Top Founding CEOs"

As many of you know, the odds that you will remain the CEO of the company you founded are relatively daunting. Bob Coughlin has not only beat those odds but he has done so with grace and skill since he founded one of the top #hrtech companies in the world, Paycor.

Bob was very generous with his personal insights during this interview. He shares:

• What led him to momentarily lower his hiring standards when the company hit the 50 employee mark
• What his says to fellow CEOs when they ask him why he didn't get involved in building his new, multi-million dollar building
• How he handles strategy sessions with his team

He was fascinating in this interview. He can talk about neuroscience in one moment, pop music in the next, and all the challenges shifting from founder to CEO in the next moment. He's truly a very talented man. In this interview you'll learn about:

• The two resources he believes are key for Founding CEOs
• What role he wishes he filled when he started focus@will
• How you can use music to become more productive