Show Your Value with Lee Benson

Lee Benson has built eight companies from scratch. In this solo episode, he shares the framework that's run through all of them: holistic value creation, built on three buckets, material, emotional energy, and connectedness.

His core argument is that emotional energy is the scarcest commodity on the planet, and the most overlooked lever in leadership. Lee explains why the leaders who deliberately build energising environments consistently get the best results, what that looked like inside his own 500-person company, and how the framework held up when he lost over a million dollars on investments last year.

Take the free two-minute Executive Alignment Diagnostic at etw.com.

For more free videos, tools, and resources about the MIND Methodology go to https://etw.com/

Marty Cagan has spent 45 years building technology-powered products and coaching the companies everyone else copies, Amazon, Netflix, Nvidia. His books are the closest thing product management has to a bible. In this conversation with Lee, he explains why 85% of products still fail in the market, and why AI is making that worse, not better.

The two get into the distinction that separates the best companies from everyone else: building to learn versus building to earn. Lee shares the $27 million software write-off that taught him the difference the hard way, and Marty's response might surprise you: today that same lesson costs about $2,000.

Also in this one: why ROI estimates are nonsense and what good companies demand instead, the SpaceX versus Boeing story and what it proves about culture, how Trainline went from irrelevant to the UK's largest IPO, why stakeholders lie to CEOs about projections, missionaries versus mercenaries, and the AI productivity paradox, why companies are blowing through annual AI budgets in a quarter while the needle doesn't move.

Marty's work is free at svpg.com.

Serious about increasing the value of your business? Take the free two-minute Executive Alignment Diagnostic at etw.com.

For more free videos, tools, and resources about the MIND Methodology go to https://etw.com/

Most CEO peer groups work brilliantly for about six months to two years. Then they quietly stop.

Lee's been in these rooms for over 40 years, Vistage, YPO, EO, all of them. The pattern's always the same. The groups get too big. Nobody knows enough about each other's businesses to get past the surface. Process takes over, and the problem a CEO actually brings to the room is usually a symptom of something deeper that a quick lap of feedback will never touch.

So he built a different kind of room. Eight members. One full day a month. A proper deep dive into every member's business every two months. One number visible to everyone at all times, so the whole group knows whether each business is actually getting more valuable or just staying busy.

Along the way: the three buckets of value creation that earned Lee significantly higher multiples across his exits, why front-line CEO wisdom beats anything from a book, and why he treats his group like a conglomerate he's invested half his retirement in.

Serious about growing the value of your business? Learn more about EXECUTE CEO MasterMIND

For more free videos, tools, and resources about the MIND Methodology go to https://etw.com/

Every business problem is a human problem. The companies that win are the ones that learn to decode it.

In this episode of Show Your Value, Lee Benson sits down with Johanna Faigelman, anthropologist and founder and CEO of Human Branding, a global consultancy trusted by Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Visa, and Logitech. She's spent 25 years studying why humans actually do what they do, and she's built a career taking that lens into the boardroom, where the data ends and the real answers begin.

Johanna explains why surveys tell you everything about the what and nothing about the why, and why the why is where all the value hides. She shares the story of taking a banking executive out of his boardroom and into a customer's living room in New Jersey, sitting cross-legged on the floor in his socks, and the epiphany he still talks about years later. Her iceberg principle runs through the whole conversation: 80 percent of what drives your people and your customers sits below the waterline, invisible to dashboards, and that's exactly where culture lives.

Lee brings the operator's side of the same truth. He built a company of over 500 people with no HR department, no employee lawsuits, and no leader who ever quit, then watched that culture change the moment new ownership set a different tone. He's candid about where he thinks the leadership industry gets it wrong, and why concepts that never connect to measurable value creation are wasted money.

Along the way, they cover:

• What an anthropologist sees in your company within an hour of walking in
• Why leaders hide behind surveys instead of talking to their people
• The living room epiphany that changed how one C-suite leader saw his customers forever
• Why AI gives leaders amazing answers to the wrong questions, and why human wisdom is becoming more valuable, not less
• The most emotional purchase decision you'll ever make (it's not what you think)
• Fulfilment as the most important number, and how intentional value creation earned Lee a 3x exit multiple

Learn more about Johanna's work at humanbranding.com.

Most leadership teams don't have an effort problem, they've got an operating discipline problem.

For more free videos, tools, and resources about the MIND Methodology go to https://etw.com/

What if you could multiply the value of your business without adding a single dollar of new revenue?

In this episode of Show Your Value, Lee Benson sits down with Alex Osterwalder, the mind behind the Business Model Canvas and one of the most influential business thinkers alive, to unpack the part of business most leaders quietly ignore: the business model itself.

Alex explains why the best companies reinvent their business model constantly instead of treating it as a one-time startup decision, and why the kind of revenue you earn matters far more than the amount. Variable revenue tends to be worth two to three times EBITDA. Fixed, locked-in revenue can be worth around twenty times. Lee brings the lived proof, sharing how predictable long-term contracts helped his aerospace business exit at a 21.6x multiple when seven or eight would've been a strong result in that space.

Along the way, they get into:

• How to spot a business model that's quietly dying before it's too late
• The "better revenues" framework, and how to shift income from variable to predictable to fixed
• Why most sophisticated leadership teams can't answer three simple questions about their own business
• The difference between managerial and entrepreneurial CEOs, and why it decides who actually innovates
• The three-part health check that reveals whether a company can innovate at all
• Why "condemning your teams to succeed" kills the bold bets that matter most
• How emotional maturity across a team turns into real business velocity

This is a conversation about the fundamentals that create enterprise value, and the discipline it takes to keep them alive as a company grows.

Learn more about Alex's work at strategyzer.com.

For more free videos, tools, and resources about the MIND Methodology go to https://etw.com/

Bryan Clayton scaled a landscaping company to eight figures, sold it into a private-equity rollup, then built GreenPal into an app used by roughly 300,000 people a week, all without a coding background. He sits down with Lee Benson to argue that AI isn't going to erase jobs, it's going to erase the meaningless busywork inside them, and that the people who refuse to retool are the ones who'll get left behind.

This is a grounded, contrarian conversation about where AI actually creates value, why the blue-collar trades may be the safest work left, and what it takes to lead a team well whether you're in the trenches or running everything off a dashboard.

In this episode:

• Why someone using AI, not AI itself, is the real threat to your job
• The case for plumbers out-earning lawyers
• AI as a backhoe that'll dig the wrong ditch faster if you let it
• The marketplace mechanics that keep GreenPal honest on both sides
• Why a founder gets exactly the culture they deserve
• The one-hour-a-day, 90-day challenge for getting fluent in AI

Find Bryan at greenpal.com and on LinkedIn. Subscribe to Show Your Value for more conversations with operators who've built real things.

For more free videos, tools, and resources about the MIND Methodology go to https://etw.com/

Today, we explore the art of value creation across material, emotional, and spiritual buckets with our special guest, Colin C. Campbell. Colin is a serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience building and scaling internet companies that have collectively reached a valuation of nearly a billion dollars. He is also the Amazon number one best-selling author of Start. Scale. Exit. Repeat.: Serial Entrepreneurs' Secrets Revealed!

In this episode, Colin opens up about the massive wins and devastating losses that shaped his career, including how he lost 98% of his wealth in the dot com crash and exactly what he did to rebuild his portfolio. We discuss the realities of scaling, how to fund your own growth, and why 90% of successful companies on the Inc. 5000 never touch venture capital.

Colin also shares his tactical blueprint for leveraging AI to streamline business operations. He explains how he deployed 19 AI agents to run an e-commerce brand and even used AI to write a highly technical Private Placement Memorandum.

Whether you are launching your first idea or preparing for a major exit, this conversation is packed with practical wisdom to help you navigate the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship.

Key Takeaways:

• The "Time to Sell" Index: Why tracking market liquidity and timing your exit is often more important than trying to build a recession-proof business.
• Customer-Funded Growth: How to avoid the venture capital trap by getting your customers to pay for your startup's expansion.
• Delegating Companies, Not Tasks: The required mindset shift for founders who want to move past the startup phase and truly scale.
• The AI Advantage: How Colin uses AI to automate lead generation, bookkeeping, and legal paperwork to save millions.
• The Founder's Identity: The reality of neurodiversity among entrepreneurs and why your identity should never be tied strictly to your company's success.

Resources Mentioned:

• Read Colin's Book: Start. Scale. Exit. Repeat.: Serial Entrepreneurs' Secrets Revealed!
• Join Colin's Community: https://startup.club/
• Connect with Colin C. Campbell on LinkedIn
• Read Lee's Book: Value Creation Family
• Join Lee's Community: https://www.dinnertable.com/

About the Guest: Colin C. Campbell is a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded and built several internet companies with a combined valuation of over $1 billion. He has successfully navigated major exits with companies like Tucows Interactive, Internet Direct Canada, Hostopia, and .Club Domains. Colin is dedicated to cracking the code on what successful founders do to build lasting wealth.

Follow Show Your Value: If you found value in today's episode, please like, subscribe, and leave a review. Until next time, show your value to the world!

For more free videos, tools, and resources about the MIND Methodology go to https://etw.com/

What if the success you worked so hard to build is the very thing making you feel stuck?

In this episode of Show Your Value, Lee Benson sits down with Whitney Johnson, bestselling author of Smart Growth and one of the leading voices on personal disruption, growth, and leadership.

Whitney explains why high achievers often become restless after reaching mastery, why starting something new feels so uncomfortable, and why comfort can quietly turn into stagnation. She breaks down the S-curve of growth, how to know when it is time to jump to a new curve, and why people, teams, and companies stop growing when they stop being challenged.

Lee and Whitney also discuss why employees do not always want promotions as much as they want growth, how leaders can create environments where people run toward challenge, and why the strongest organizations are built by developing people before they plateau.

This conversation is for founders, executives, parents, and high performers who look successful from the outside but know they are ready for another level of growth.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

•  Why successful people can quietly become miserable 
•  How the S-curve explains growth, boredom, and reinvention 
•  Why mastery can become a trap 
•  The real reason starting over feels so uncomfortable 
•  How leaders can keep their best people growing 
•  Why comfort is not the same as fulfillment

For more free videos, tools, and resources about the MIND Methodology go to https://etw.com/

Did you know that 70% of men report feeling deeply lonely, and over 85% say they don’t have a single "3 a.m. friend" they could call in a true emergency?

In this episode of Show Your Value, Lee Benson sits down with Larry Hagner, founder of The Dad Edge, author, and host of a 1,500+ episode podcast movement. Larry shares his powerful journey from a chaotic, broken childhood to breaking generational cycles and mastering what it actually means to show up as a husband, father, and leader.

If you feel like you are "winging it" in your marriage or parenting, or if you've felt the slow, silent pull of "the drift" taking over your life, this conversation is your blueprint to get back on track.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• The 3 Components of the Marriage Drift: Why only 12% of couples stay happily fulfilled while the other 88% slip into "roommate syndrome" or complete disconnection.
• The Lone Wolf Fallacy: Why going at it alone is a death sentence for a man's growth and how to build a true pack.
• The Power of Generative Questions: How changing your internal and external vocabulary from "Why can't I?" to "How might I?" completely rewires your brain for solutions.
• The Psychological Safety Framework: The exact 3 questions Larry asks his kids every single day to build unbreakable trust (and how to handle their failures without blame, shame, or pain).
• Filtering Fear: How Team Hagner turned the chaos of 2020 into a 100-photo mural of family adventures by choosing a lens of opportunity over a lens of fear.

Connect with Larry Hagner & Get His Free Resources:

• Podcast: The Dad Edge Podcast (Available on all major platforms)
• For Your Marriage: Get the 25 Intimate Conversation Starters PDF at thedadedge.com/25questions
• For Your Kids: Crack the code with teenagers and young kids using the Questions for the Car PDF at thedadedge.com/kidquests

Connect with Show Your Value:

• Subscribe to the channel for more interviews on optimizing your emotional energy, health, and value-creation strategy.
• Leave a comment: What is your biggest takeaway from Larry's story today?

For more free videos, tools, and resources about the MIND Methodology go to https://etw.com/

Businesses do not die. Founders quit.

In this masterclass, we pulled twenty of the most impactful moments from seven incredible guests and packed them into one honest episode. 

This is the unvarnished truth on what it actually takes to scale a company, lead through deliberate discomfort, and avoid the traps that destroy CEOs.

You will learn why high-performing teams actually report more mistakes. 
You will find out why bad news is acceptable while surprises are fatal. 

Featuring insights from:
* Noel Massie 
* Adam Callinan 
* Mark Crowley 
* David Burkus 
* Kass and Mike Lazerow 
* Luke Peters 
* Neri Karra Sillaman 

If you are serious about building a business that lasts, this episode is your blueprint. Hit subscribe so you never miss an episode of Show Your Value.

🚨 Want To Create Value Faster? - https://etw.com/

For more free videos, tools, and resources about the MIND Methodology go to https://etw.com/