Bart McCollum has spent his career as the operator founders call when a business is ready to grow up. He started as an attorney, moved to a bank bond desk, helped build a health savings account startup into a national brand over 14 years, and four years ago joined Lime Media Group, the largest mobile experiential marketing company in the country, to help founder Heath Hill scale it. Lime builds custom vehicles, LED trucks, and brand experiences for the Super Bowl, Coachella, and South by Southwest, work with seven-figure budgets and deadlines that never move. In this conversation with Christine Watts and Kris Snyder, Bart explains what he calls corporate puberty, the awkward stage between startup and enterprise, and why a company built entirely of problem solvers had to learn to become problem preventers. He talks about running EOS® when the loudest person in the room used to win every argument, using AI to pressure-test quarterly goals, and a concept he calls wildebeesting: the way anxiety propagates through an organization and quietly makes everyone worse at their jobs.

In this episode:

About Bart McCollum:
Bart McCollum is the President of Lime Media Group, the largest mobile experiential marketing company in the United States. He is co-author of You Before Me, a book on the behavioral science of leadership, and a Managing Partner at Adlerian Capital. Learn more at lime-media.com.

Mentioned in this episode:
The Anxious Organization: Why Smart Companies Do Dumb Things by Jeffrey Miller
You Before Me by Bart McCollum and Gerald Hannah
Oak Hills Retreat (oakhillsretreat.org)

Impact Moments is produced by ninety. Learn more at ninety.io.

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Jonathan B. Smith, known as JBS, was one of Gino Wickman's first clients. He met Gino at an EO event before EOS® even had a name, and that early bet turned into an Inc. 500 business and a career as an EOS® implementer with more than 1,500 sessions. JBS also spent a decade training with Chris Voss, the former lead FBI hostage negotiator behind Never Split the Difference, and co-wrote Fight Less, Win More to bring tactical empathy into the leadership room. In this conversation with Christine Watts and Kris Snyder, JBS makes the case that team health, not the tools, is 70% of what makes EOS® work. He shares how he reads a room, when he goes off-script with what he calls EOS® freestyle, and the stories behind it: the bird-catching business he helped scale from two states to fifty, the family screaming match he defused by pretending the neighbors complained, and his 93/7 rule for knowing when a session can be saved and when it can't.

Key topics:

About Jonathan B. Smith:

Mentioned in this episode:

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Jay Tankersley spent 18 months trying to self-implement EOS before admitting it wasn't working. Six months with a professional implementer outpaced everything he had done on his own, and the experience launched a decade as an EOS implementer and the founder of Meritage, a private investment fund built specifically for companies running on EOS. In this conversation with Christine Watts and Kris Snyder, Jay recounts the moment early in his implementer career when he asked a leadership team whether anyone trusted a specific colleague sitting in the room. The 30-second silence that followed changed that company's trajectory and, years later, set up the largest acquisition of their career. Jay also walks through the recognition moment that led him to build one of the first EOS-focused investment funds, and reflects on the mistakes that come from trying to lead as a democracy instead of making the call.

Key topics:

About Jay Tankersley:

Mentioned in this episode:

Connect:

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Jamie Munoz spent four years as a full-time integrator at a large format printing company in Phoenix, helping grow the team from 60 to 100 people on EOS. When her visionary decided to become an EOS implementer, Jamie found herself at a crossroads and started doing fractional integrator work before the term even existed. That led her to founding Catalyst Integrators, a firm that matches experienced integrators with visionaries who need them. In this conversation with Christine Watts and Kris Snyder, Jamie talks about the moment she realized she had become a visionary sitting in both seats, the tension between structure and emotion in EOS meetings, and the termination story she still carries with her: the day she walked into a meeting trusting that the coaching had been done, only to discover it hadn't.

Key topics:

• How fractional integrator work was born before anyone had a name for it
• The tension between EOS implementers and fractional integrators, and why there is room for both
• Transitioning from integrator to visionary and learning a completely different skill set
• Why things happen for you, not to you: bringing the human element back into structured meetings
• The termination that went wrong and what it taught her about due diligence

About Jamie Munoz:
Jamie is the founder of Catalyst Integrators, a fractional integrator firm that matches experienced integrators with visionaries running on EOS. Before founding Catalyst, she spent four years as a full-time integrator at AZPro in Phoenix, where she helped grow the company from 60 to 100 team members. She is also part of the Visionary Forum community.
Connect with Jamie: LinkedIn
Learn more about Catalyst Integrators: catalystintegrators.com

Mentioned in this episode:

• Stutz (Netflix documentary on Phil Stutz)
• Positive Intelligence (mental toughness training)
• Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters

Connect & Subscribe:
Subscribe to the 90xEOS newsletter: ninety.io/impact-moments
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Connect with Kris: LinkedIn
Connect with Christine: LinkedIn
Try Ninety free: bit.ly/3Q99NXr

Impact Moments is produced by ninety. Learn more at ninety.io.

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Amy Morin grew a construction company from $0 to $40 million and exited it after 22 years. Then she bought and turned around a fly fishing resort in Montana, exited that one too, went to graduate school, and became an EOS implementer. By every outside measure she had done it right. And yet, she will tell you she got the most important part wrong. In this conversation with Christine Watts and Kris Snyder, Amy walks through the exit-planning concept she ran headlong past the first time around: the three legs of the stool. She had business readiness in spades. She had no plan for financial readiness or personal readiness, and that gap reshaped what came next for her family. Amy now combines EOS implementation with work as a Certified Exit Planning Advisor, helping owners build companies that are valuable to sell and lives that are ready for what comes after.

Key topics:

• The three legs of the exit-planning stool, and why business readiness alone is not enough
• Why 75% of owners regret selling their business one year later
• How identity loss shows up after an exit, especially for the founder who built the thing
• Going to market through connectors with a real reason to connect, not just an intro
• The cost of ego, and what Amy would tell her younger self

About Amy Morin:
Amy is an EOS implementer and Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA). She previously built and exited a $40M construction company and ran a fly fishing resort in Montana. She also hosts the Exit Velocity podcast (formerly the Mastery Partners Podcast).
Connect with Amy: LinkedIn

Mentioned in this episode:

• Multipliers by Liz Wiseman
• Start With Why by Simon Sinek
• Exit Velocity podcast (hosted by Amy)
• Value Acceleration Methodology (Walking to Destiny by Christopher Snyder)
• Exit Planning Institute (EPI) and the CEPA designation

Connect & Subscribe:
Subscribe to the 90xEOS newsletter: ninety.io/impact-moments
Read the 90xEOS blog: ninety.io/eos/blog
Connect with Kris: LinkedIn
Connect with Christine: LinkedIn
Try Ninety free: bit.ly/3Q99NXr

Impact Moments is produced by ninety. Learn more at ninety.io.

🔗 Check out our episodes on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@90xEOS

🔗 Learn more about Ninety: https://www.ninety.io 

After 13 years as an EOS implementer and nearly 950 sessions, Jim Wardlaw picked up David Hawkins' book on the map of consciousness and found a framework that reframed everything he thought he knew about leadership teams. Hawkins places courage at the midpoint of human emotional states, calling it the line between negative and positive. Jim started seeing that line everywhere in his work: the teams that muster the courage to face hard truths consistently come out stronger, while the teams that stay below the line stay stuck in anxiety, politics, and avoidance. In this episode, Jim shares how that insight changed his approach to facilitation, tells the story of a single moment of vulnerability that transformed an entire leadership team, and explains why he believes AI is a bridge to better human thinking, not a replacement for it.

Key topics:

• How Jim met Gino Wickman before EOS existed
• David Hawkins' map of consciousness and the courage line at 200
• The three questions exercise that broke a senior executive and transformed a team overnight
• "Give me the 20% that's real": a conflict resolution technique from Hank O'Donnell
• Why AI might be a stepping stone to higher human cognition, not a threat

About Jim Wardlaw:
Jim is an EOS Expert Implementer based in Western New York with about 125 implementations and 950 sessions under his belt. He started as an ad agency owner in East Lansing, Michigan, where Gino Wickman was his first implementer. After selling the agency, he earned a master's in Creativity and Organizational Change Management from the Center for Applied Imagination at Buffalo State, the oldest organization in the world focused on creative problem-solving. He is currently writing a book called Entropy exploring the relationship between AI and human imagination. He can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].

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Jared Stein's career path reads like a choose-your-own-adventure: five CrossFit gyms in New York, a stint at the NBA, teaching spin at Flywheel, and running operations at a wellness resort. Now he is the COO and integrator at Strategy Financial Group, a wealth management firm helping retirees protect their families and their legacy. In this conversation with Christine Watts and Kris Snyder, Jared talks about what happened when he stopped keeping EOS inside the leadership team and rolled it out to every department and every person in the company. He shares the moment a nervous team rated their first meeting a 10 out of 10, how he went from thinking core values were "psychobabble BS" to seeing them completely change how teams operate, and the million-dollar gym deal with a friend that went sideways because he skipped the paperwork.

Key topics:

• Rolling EOS out beyond the leadership team to every department in the company
• The moment a nervous team gave their first structured meeting a 10 out of 10
• Going from "core values are psychobabble BS" to making every decision through them
• A million-dollar CrossFit deal that fell apart because the paperwork was skipped
• Why the integrator seat is about removing obstacles, not doing everything yourself

About Jared Stein:
Jared is the COO and integrator at Strategy Financial Group.
Connect with Jared: Instagram
Website: strategyfinancialgroup.com

Connect & Subscribe:
Subscribe to the 90xEOS newsletter: ninety.io/impact-moments
Read the 90xEOS blog: ninety.io/eos/blog
Connect with Kris: LinkedIn
Connect with Christine: LinkedIn
Try Ninety free: bit.ly/3Q99NXr

Impact Moments is produced by ninety. Learn more at ninety.io.

🔗 Check out our episodes on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@90xEOS

🔗 Learn more about Ninety: https://www.ninety.io 

Kevin Stoller built Kay-Twelve into a 16-year school furniture business, but the real turning point came when he sat alone in a conference room, filled out an accountability chart, and realized every single seat had his name in it. In this conversation with Christine Watts and Kris Snyder, Kevin talks about what it took to let go, why finding the right integrator is a journey (not a one-time hire), and how discovering his company's mission in a fourth-grade classroom changed everything. He walked in to deliver furniture and walked out knowing that Kay-Twelve was not about selling stuff. It was about transforming how students learn. That realization led Kevin to start the Education Leaders Organization and build FASCO, a student-centered operating system that brings EOS principles into schools. He also shares the marketing campaign he probably wishes he could take back.

Key topics:

• The accountability chart moment: every seat had his name in it
• Finding the mission in a fourth-grade classroom that changed everything
• Why finding the right integrator is a journey, not a destination
• Building FASCO: an EOS-style operating system for school districts
• The morning routine that starts with 50 free throws and a podcast at 5:30 AM

About Kevin Stoller:
Kevin is the founder of Kay-Twelve (KAY-12) and the Education Leaders Organization, where he is building FASCO.
Connect with Kevin: LinkedIn

Connect & Subscribe:
Subscribe to the 90xEOS newsletter: ninety.io/impact-moments
Read the 90xEOS blog: ninety.io/eos/blog
Connect with Kris: LinkedIn
Connect with Christine: LinkedIn
Try Ninety free: bit.ly/3Q99NXr

Impact Moments is produced by ninety. Learn more at ninety.io.

🔗 Check out our episodes on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@90xEOS

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T.J. Gliha and his partners acquired a wealth management firm that served professional golfers and grew it from $250 million in assets under management to over $1.4 billion in four years, going from 4 employees to 26. But the moment that changed everything for Journey Wealth was not a number. It was a client sitting across from T.J., freshly off his third private equity exit, with more money than he would ever need, who was miserable. His health was failing, his relationships were broken, and T.J. realized that managing a balance sheet was not enough. That conversation led Journey Wealth to build an entire wellness offering alongside their financial services: executive life coaching, precision healthcare, family counseling, nutrition, and fitness. In this episode, T.J. talks about the comedy of trying to self-implement EOS, why being too nice to your partners will hold the business back, and how he learned to fire clients who were not the right fit. He also shares why he believes employees are the number one asset, not the clients.

Key topics:

• The client conversation that turned a financial firm into a wellness company
• Self-implementing EOS as a comedy show, and what changed when they got serious
• Being too nice to each other: why uncomfortable conversations are the unlock
• Firing a client who was a friend, and why it made the relationship stronger
• "No entrepreneur goes undefeated": building resilience into the culture

About T.J. Gliha:
T.J. is the president and CEO of Journey Wealth, an independent RIA and full-service wealth planning firm in Cleveland, Ohio.
Website: journey-wealth.com
903 Collective: 903collective.com

Connect & Subscribe:
Subscribe to the 90xEOS newsletter: ninety.io/impact-moments
Read the 90xEOS blog: ninety.io/eos/blog
Connect with Kris: LinkedIn
Connect with Christine: LinkedIn
Try Ninety free: bit.ly/3Q99NXr

Impact Moments is produced by ninety. Learn more at ninety.io.

🔗 Check out our episodes on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@90xEOS

🔗 Learn more about Ninety: https://www.ninety.io 

Mark Abbott is the founder and CEO of Ninety, the platform powering this podcast. He was EOS Implementer number 33 back when there were only a handful of coaches in the community. He has spent decades obsessing over vision, culture, and what it takes to build companies that last. So when he looked around his own company last year and realized the culture had drifted, it hit hard.

In this episode, Mark opens up about one of the most difficult years in Ninety’s history. The company had grown fast, maybe too fast. Leaders were over-indexing on taking care of their teams instead of doing what was right for the company. People were quietly sitting on work they did not need to do and not escalating it. And when it came time to make hard decisions, the first attempt did not go the way Mark would have done it. He let it happen anyway. And he has regretted it ever since.

We dig into:

• How Mark discovered EOS in 2010 and became implementer number 33
• Why vision and culture are the foundation of everything else
• The two co-founders in Naples who were ready to break up until one conversation changed everything
• Leadership changes on the ones and threes, and why good people still end up in the wrong seats
• The three levels that matter for senior leadership: ego development, time span capacity, and levels of thinking
• What “succeed or escalate” means and why it became a mantra at Ninety
• The difference between the first reduction in force and the second, and why founder mode matters
• His three biggest mistakes: the first RIF, the Paddle/Stripe decision, and the new commercial model

Mark also shares the moment he told Christine, vulnerably, that he was not happy with the culture of his own company. For someone who has built his career around helping others get culture right, that admission carries weight.
If you are a founder wondering whether you have let things drift too far, or a leader trying to figure out when to step back in and when to let go, this one is for you.

🔗 Check out our episodes on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@90xEOS

🔗 Learn more about Ninety: https://www.ninety.io