RadEO

Most entrepreneurs do not have a board, and the reason is always the same. Every board story they have ever heard is a horror story.

Marc Stöckli takes that apart, and he starts from a place most people would not expect. The first board he ever built was useless. Serious names, no value, for years. Then four founders split two and two, and that same board stepped up, ran an orderly wind down, and made the investor whole when there was no legal obligation to pay anybody back.

We get into the sale that almost happened in 2016, where the buyer vanished two weeks before signing and turned out to have been arrested by the FBI, having hired actors to play employees during due diligence. We get into what it costs a founder to step out of the company they built. And we get into the practical version of all of it, including a way to start that takes one hour a month and two people you trust.

Key takeaways:

• A board that looks impressive on paper can add nothing for years. The test is whether it shows up when the company breaks.

• Stepping out of your own business is an identity event, not a legal one.

• Non-operational is a job with its own craft, and the craft is making room for somebody else to think.

• Average boards get the performance. Great boards get the truth, and that takes structure rather than good intentions.

• Start smaller than you think. One hour a month, two people you trust, three standing questions.

  
  

More about Marc Stöckli

Marc O. Stöckli is the co-founder and former CEO of Totemo, a Swiss cybersecurity company whose products are used by 1,500 corporations and more than 3.5 million licensed users, sold to Kiteworks in December 2021. He was the first investor in Beekeeper and chaired its board through the merger with LumApps. A past Global Chairman of EO and a founding member of the EO Global Bridge chapter, he has prepared for and sat in more than 200 board meetings. His book, Make Boards Work, launched in September 2026. He lives in Zug, Switzerland, and has climbed all 48 Swiss peaks above 4,000 metres.

Links

LinkedIn

Company website

Substack

Book: Make Boards Work: Unleash your Board from Required to Vital

James Perly built a $5-million government advisory firm, watched a policy change wipe out 95% of his revenue overnight, survived a physical breakdown he almost didn’t come back from, and spent 35 years doing the kind of personal work most entrepreneurs find reasons to avoid.

In this episode, he talks about what he learned going through all of it: why the tools that heal you are the same tools that upgrade you, and what he would say to the 22-year-old version of himself standing at the edge of everything falling apart.

Key takeaways:

• The negative voice isn’t permanent and it’s not yours

• The breakdown is a door, not just a story

• Growing too fast can kill you as surely as failing

• Mental infrastructure supports everything else

• Belief is a business tool

  
  

More about James Perly

James Perly is a Canadian entrepreneur with 25 years of experience advising founders and executives. He contributed to the business book Scaling Up and was the earliest mentor to Jayson Gaignard, founder of MastermindTalks. He trained at MIT and West Point, ran the government consulting firm Perly Consulting for over two decades, and now coaches highly successful founders on how to actually live well. He’s based in Muskoka, Ontario.

Links:

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

• Company website: https://www.perlyconsulting.com/

When did the work stop being fun? You’re still showing up, still delivering, still telling everyone you're fine, while something underneath has already gone. Ross sits down with Dr Manuel (Manny) Astruc, a board-certified psychiatrist, EO member, and the founder of Your Next Act, to talk about what burnout actually looks like before it looks like burnout. Manny has lived this. He crashed in 2008, at the end of a decade of twelve-hour days, in the month after his twin sister died of brain cancer. What he found on the other side changed how he thinks about performance and recovery. 

Ross and Manny spend the episode inside that gap: the distance between where you are and where you're capable of being.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Fun is the first thing burnout takes, and the last thing you notice is gone.

2. The “I'm fine entrepreneur” is not okay. They're just not broken yet.

3. Scrolling, drinking, or binge-watching isn’t recovery. Recovery is active and it's small.

4. Burnout steals your ability to see options. The tunnel vision is a symptom. 

5. Three questions track where you are: energy, curiosity, patience. Check them weekly.

More about Manuel Astruc, MD

Dr Manuel Astruc is a board-certified general adult psychiatrist with over 50,000 hours of clinical experience. He is the founder of Your Next Act, a coaching practice for entrepreneurs navigating burnout, and an EO Albany Capital Region member and Accelerator graduate. He is the author of Happiness Rules and a provider of TMS therapy for treatment-resistant depression.

LINKS

LinkedIn

Instagram

Website

Sometimes, you hit a ceiling in your business, and it’s got nothing to do with the market, the team, or the model. And everything to do with you. 

Talie Smith has spent 25 years leading organisations through complex change. When COVID hit, her business came close to going under, and the personal work she did first is what turned it around.

We got into her Design Therapy methodology, which surfaces the misalignment sitting inside an organisation before any brand work can begin. We covered where partnership ends and transaction starts, and what scarcity cost Talie in 2020 against what possibility has opened up since. At one point I brought a live client dispute into the conversation, one I'm working through right now, and we unpacked it together in real time.

This is a forum-level conversation about the real work of building something that matters.

Key takeaways:

• A business can’t outgrow the person running it. Growing yourself is the growth strategy.

• Connecting your personal purpose to your business is a structural, commercial advantage large competitors can’t replicate.

• There’s a line between a partnership and a transaction. The best revenue comes from knowing which side you’re on before you sign anything.

• The mindset you bring to disruption determines whether you ride the wave or watch it from the shore.

• The gold is almost always already inside the organisation. An outside perspective trained to find it is the difference.

More about Talie Smith

Talie is co-founder and CEO of Smith & Connors. She is an EO Portland member and serves on the EO Regional Council as Director. Find her at http://www.smithandconnors.com/

Links:

• LinkedIn

• Instagram

• Website

• All RadEO episodes

Don Hache has started, scaled, acquired, and exited eight companies across North America over three decades. Long before AI was a talking point, he was building industrial automation systems with fuzzy logic and robotic vision. The question driving all of it has never changed: why is it done that way?

In this conversation, Don and Ross explore the framework at the centre of Don's work. Founder. Architect. Steward. Three roles. Three phases. Most businesses never leave the first one, and it’s got nothing to do with talent. The business was built around one person's capacity rather than a structure that can run without them. 

They also get into AI, critical thinking, and what it actually takes to apply automation well inside a real business. Don's view is clear: AI works best in the hands of people who already go deep in their domain. The barrier to execution has dropped. The value of knowing your domain has not.

One of the best conversations this season. If you are building something that’s supposed to outlast you, start here.

Don Hache is a serial entrepreneur, CEO advisor, and business growth strategist. His work focuses on helping founder-led companies evolve into healthier, more scalable organisations through better architecture, clearer execution, and the disciplined application of AI in real business environments. He has facilitated CEO and leadership-team cohorts since 2007 and is writing a series of books on the evolution from founder to architect to steward. At the centre of his work: enterprise value is a decision, made early and deliberately.

Most founders don't have a growth problem. They have a clarity problem.

Dan Grech is a serial entrepreneur who has built six startups, from selling candy at 14 to a $15 million exit. He was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism team, created and sold Miami's first podcast company, testified before Congress on AI and small business, and had a company recognised as a Minority-Owned Business of the Year in 2023. He is the founder of YBYS and creator of the Story-Driven Growth framework. His book, Your Business Is Your Story: The Growth Strategy Your Competitors Cannot Copy, is out with BenBella in 2027.

In this episode, we talk about why your story is the one thing AI can't copy, what founder drift actually costs you before it shows up in the numbers, and why the gap between "I understand this" and "I'm ready to act" is where most founders get stuck.

Key takeaways:

• Your personal story is a strategic growth asset, not a warm-up

• Founder energy is the most under-measured metric in any business

• The 'not yet' objection is a first-use problem, not a timing problem

• Being human is the only competitive advantage that compounds

• Small business is the most trusted institution in the world right now. Most small businesses don't know how to use that

Want to turn your story into a growth engine? Get free resources on the Story-Driven Growth framework and book a call with Dan at: https://ybys.com

Links:

• Website
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• YouTube
• X
• TikTok

Catherine Hover built a multi-location paint-and-sip business from scratch, pivoted through COVID, exited on her own terms, and is now building Palette, a female-focused co-working community in Saratoga Springs, New York. She calls herself a purveyor of fun, and she means it. 

In this episode, Catherine talks about using joy as a competitive advantage, the moment becoming a girl mom of four completely reoriented her identity and ambition, what it actually feels like to watch someone else evolve something you built, and why she thinks the women who are not talking about money are making a mistake.

Key takeaways:

• Fun is structural. Build around what lights you up.

• Your genuine energy is a brand touch point. Nobody can copy it.

• The life shift usually comes first. The business idea follows.

• Letting go of what you built is one of the most important skills you will never be taught.

• Knowing what actually drives you, and being bold enough to say it out loud, is the beginning of real strategy.

More about Catherine Hover

Catherine Hover is an entrepreneur, girl mom of four, and founder of Palette, a female-focused co-working space and community based in Saratoga Springs, New York. She is an EO Albany member and currently the Marcom chair of her chapter.

Morné Smit learned the hard way that the "show up and throw up" approach to pitching is dead.

After an accidental start in a soul-crushing cold-calling job, he realised that actively ignoring traditional sales training was the only way to build real trust. He discovered a simple truth: selling does not work because nobody actually wants to be sold to. Every buying decision is an emotional decision first, and service is what creates the safety needed for a prospect to tell you the truth.

In this episode, we challenge the myth of the unicorn salesperson. Morné and I unpack why you cannot scale charisma and why throwing artificial intelligence at a broken pipeline just creates more noise. Instead, we explore how to build a predictable revenue engine that actually makes it matter. By replacing pushy tactics with genuine curiosity, strong systems, and the "Sales Excellence Wheel," you can build an ecosystem where real human connection drives your growth.

Key takeaways:

• The accidental sales guy: Desperation forced Morné into sales, but actively ignoring traditional training helped him master the craft and build real trust.

• The "show up and throw up" trap is dead: Pitching features and benefits does not win deals because nobody wants to be sold to.

• Service creates safety: Approaching a prospect with a genuine intent to solve their problem builds trust and uncovers the truth.

• Charisma does not scale: Stop hunting for mythical unicorn salespeople and start building a replicable sales ecosystem.

• AI only amplifies fundamentals: Technology will not fix a broken pipeline; it only scales the processes and noise you already have in place.

More about Morné Smit:

Morné Smit is the founder and CEO of Emerse Sales, a consultancy that helps privately owned companies grow their revenue fast, profitably, and predictably. After an accidental start in a London call centre, he spent 17 years mastering the art of sales before building his own firm. He is the creator of the "Sales Excellence Wheel" and a passionate advocate for bringing human connection and predictable systems back to the sales profession.

We often fall into the lazy thinking that family businesses are easy to hand down.

Stephen Shortt lived the messy reality. He grew up in two family businesses and nearly walked away from it all just to save his relationship with his parents.

In this episode, we talk about escaping that trap and surviving succession without burning down the family home. We unpack the "five Ps of successful succession," why the ancient Celtic concept of "fosterage" beats nepotism, and how to build "inside hustles" to innovate safely.

But we also explore what happens past the Give a Shit line.

Building a multi-generational business is not just about keeping the lights on; it is about keeping relationships intact. Stephen and I dig into navigating imposter syndrome, jumping the innovation S-curve before you resent your own company, and making it matter for the next generation.

Key Takeaways:

• The Five Ps: Use Purpose, Pick, Prepare, Promote, and Patience to navigate succession smoothly.

• Change the room: Move hard conversations out of the boardroom to neutralise power dynamics and build a partnership.

• Fosterage over nepotism: Send the next generation out to learn from other businesses before bringing them into yours.

• Inside hustles: Build new projects within the safety of your current business to test new ideas without risking the family home.

• Jump the S-curve: Recognise your wiring and have the courage to jump to the next innovation curve when the work becomes too focused on optimisation.

More about Stephen Shortt: 

Stephen Shortt is a career and talent strategist, family business facilitator, and the founding member of EO Ireland. He helps multi-generational businesses navigate succession and builds tools to help people find fulfilling, rewarding careers.

We are standing at the edge of the biggest technological shift of our lifetimes, and most businesses are reacting with lazy thinking. They adopt shiny new tools without a strategy, leading to a chaotic web of shadow AI and disconnected agents. 

In this episode, I sit down with Jason Rhoades, founder of Meaningful AI, to cut through the noise. We unpack why building mediocre software is a necessary step in innovation and how to transition your team through the three gears of AI adoption, from individual productivity hacks to proactive, multi-agent orchestration.

But this conversation is not just about technology; it is about what technology enables. Jason and I explore how offloading the mind-numbing drudgery of keyboard work gives us the space to be more human. By eradicating the bullshit in our operations, we can finally obsess over every nook and cranny of the customer experience. 

If you want to know how to use AI to cross the ‘Give a shit line’ and build authentic connections that actually make it matter, you need to hear this.

Key Takeaways:

• Focus on value: Building software instantly with AI is useless if it does not solve a real pain point; you must make it matter for the customer rather than just adding to the noise.

• Shift through the three gears: True AI adoption moves from solving individual productivity issues, to team-level workflows, and finally reaches proactive, multi-agent orchestration.

• Establish a lighthouse strategy: Without central guidance, teams will adopt disconnected tools, creating a chaotic web of shadow AI and agentic sprawl.

• Eradicate the BS: AI will eliminate the lazy thinking of moving data between spreadsheets, allowing you to finally obsess over every nook and cranny of the customer experience.

• Make space to be more human: Offloading keyboard drudgery allows you to double down on creativity, curiosity, and empathy, ensuring your ideas actually cross the ‘give a shit line.’

More about Jason Rhoades

Jason Rhoades is the founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Meaningful AI, a consultancy helping companies navigate the change management and implementation of artificial intelligence. An EO Atlanta member, Jason previously founded and successfully exited the UX/UI consultancy Toolbox No. 9, where he led digital experiences for brands such as Amazon, Cartoon Network, and Mercedes-Benz.