Make BIG Happen podcast with Mark Moses

Guest: Aakash Shah, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Prior to joining us, Aakash was the CEO of his family's chemical company, which he grew from $3 million to $100 million in sales. Aakash is also an active YPO member. 

Quick Background: Any business that wants to get BIG needs cash. And while taking on private equity investment can help the CEO accelerate a growth trajectory, streamline ownership positions, and prepare for an exit, don't underestimate the amount of work that goes into finding the right investment partner. Your whole company might not be for sale, but your company should always be salable. The investments you make now in your leadership team, infrastructure, and long-term strategic planning will only improve your value when you sit down with interested parties.

On today's show, Aakash Shah reflects on how his efforts to stabilize and grow his family's business paid off with two private equity rounds and a BIG a nine-figure exit.

Quick Background: Anybody can be a critic, especially when times are tough and a business is struggling to find its footing in an uncertain economy. But, to paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt, not everyone has what it takes to stand in the arena and lead a company to BIG.

On today's show Angela Korompilas explains how she led her hotel operating supplies and equipment provider to 10X growth and $1 billion in revenue.

Guest: Frank de Jong, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Frank spent 33 years leading customer-centric growth and profit planning strategies for hundreds of business units and companies all over the world. He spent 20 years as an expatriate in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia, learning regional business practices, unique market opportunities, and local culture with Emerson Automation Solutions. 

Quick Background: Learning to unplug from your company and separate life from business is an essential CEO skill. But how does a leader continue to lead through a loss so catastrophic that it completely upends your responsibilities, your priorities, and your very sense of self?

On today's show, Frank de Jong discusses what he learned about resilience, fatherhood, friendship, and leadership while coping with the loss of his wife.

Guest: Steve Patterson, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Steve spent more than 35 years as a successful executive and entrepreneur in a variety of areas, including professional sports, college athletics, finance and construction, media, branding, and crisis communications.

Quick Background: An effective brand fills customers with positive vibes and projects crystal clarity about what a company does and what it stands for. Whether a company is starting up, scaling rapidly, or recovering from a stumble, that brand also has to maintain a careful balance between consistency and adaptability so that customers want to stick with the business on its journey to BIG.

On today's show, Steve Patterson details the specific brand initiatives he executed for four professional sports teams and a university, and how CEOs can apply the lessons from his experiences to make any brand better.

Guest: Meghan Watkins, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Meghan has over 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, and supply chain management in the wine and spirits industry. 

Quick Background: There are no shortcuts to getting BIG faster. CEOs who scale ahead of schedule follow the same tried-and-true best practices that support any effective annual plan. But the best CEOs also know which buttons to push to keep motivation high and how to leverage talent and systems to achieve just a little bit more every single day.

On today's show, Meghan Watkins reflects on the 5 factors that helped her quickly scale her businesses from startup to $100M+ in revenue.

Guest: John Fadool, a coach at CEO Coaching International. In his 35-year career as a senior executive, John worked with three best-in-class companies: Darden Restaurants, Novartis Consumer Health, and Procter & Gamble. He has a proven track record of growing revenue and profit in businesses ranging from $10M to $2B in revenue.

Quick Background: Great leadership balances confidence in your company's current reality with a hopeful vision for the future that inspires the best from your team.

On today's show, John Fadool shares his five keys to providing the kind of inspiring leadership that drives massive growth, attracts top talent, and keeps Making BIG Happen.

Guest: Randy Dewey, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Prior to becoming a coach, Randy assisted Blackstone in numerous turnarounds, worked in a private family office and in other public markets, raised several hundred million in debt and equity financing, and participated in 15 M&A transactions.

Quick Background: Our proven Making BIG Happen System combines BIG vision with an actionable plan. You can't have one without the other and expect to grow. And the foundation of effective planning is a battle-ready balance sheet that will ground your goals and keep your company from growing broke. 

On today's show, Randy Dewey discusses how to identify the KPIs, the obstacles, the opportunities, and the team members you need to build your best balance sheet.

Guest: Shep Moyle, a coach at CEO Coaching International. Before coaching, Shep was the owner, chairman, and CEO of Shindigz party supplies and the International Chairman of YPO.

Quick Background: The true measure of a CEO's strategy isn't if his or her plan leads to BIG growth in a year or two. It's if the CEO's combination of vision, processes, people, and discipline can snowball into sustained growth year after year after year.

On today's show, Shep Moyle explains how he led his company to average 20% growth for 20 consecutive years.

Guest: Sean Magennis, the President of CEO Coaching International. Sean was the Global President and COO of YPO for more than seven years. He is a seasoned international business executive specializing in scaling professional services firms and has over 30 years of extensive growth, acquisition, turnaround, and international experience.

Overview: As CEO, it's a given that you have tremendous influence over your employees.  But many CEOs never reflect on how they're using that influence. True leadership isn't throwing your weight around and creating a culture ruled by fear of failure. Leadership is how the CEO expresses his or her purpose, values, and vision to the entire organization. The more inspiring that leadership model is, the more motivated your team will be to Make BIG Happen. 

On today's show, Sean Magennis shares his five pillars for effective leadership, whose complementary themes will help you integrate the hard skills of running a company with the art of leading effectively.

Guest: Jennifer Gressman, the CEO of Site Impact, a company that specializes in multichannel direct marketing services. Their clients range from Fortune 500 corporations to locally owned and operated small businesses.

Overview: No CEO is ever just handed the top job at a BIG business. Founders put all of their time, effort, and resources on the line. Successful hired guns spend years earning their reputations as fixers. And ambitious leaders who pursue a path to promotion have to set clear targets that build win-by-win towards that dream job. 

On today's show, Jennifer Gressman talks about how she purposefully navigated her transition from Vice President of Operations to become Site Impact's first female CEO.