Many leaders rely on goals and KPIs to measure success, yet how often do those numbers reveal what’s actually working? In this episode, Maartje van Krieken talks with Radhika Dutt, the author of Radical Product Thinking: The New Mindset for Innovating Smarter, about why so many organizations get caught chasing business growth metrics that don’t always translate into real progress. Radhika shares how “product diseases” like obsessive sales disorder, strategic swelling, and hypermetricemia quietly take root when teams lose sight of their vision and let measurement drive decisions instead of insight. She unpacks the tension between OKRs vs puzzle solving, introducing a model of actionable measurement that helps leaders replace rigid goal-setting with thoughtful reflection. How clear is your company’s vision? Do your metrics inspire smarter choices or just more activity? This conversation invites a deeper look at what it means to lead with clarity and curiosity, turning purpose into something that guides decisions instead of decorating a mission statement.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Diagnosing Product Diseases in Business

02:02 Meet Radhika Dutt and Radical Product Thinking

07:45 Why a Clear Vision Matters More Than Metrics

11:37 The Problem with OKRs and Traditional Goal Setting

17:07 Puzzle Setting: A New Approach to Business Growth

23:03 Actionable Measurement and the Three Key Questions

25:21 Turning Insight into Real Progress

Connect with Radhika Dutt:

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Explore Radical Product Thinking

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Radhika Dutt is the author of Radical Product Thinking: The New Mindset for Innovating Smarter, a book translated into Chinese and Japanese and adopted in more than 40 countries. An entrepreneur, speaker, and product leader, she has built products across industries including media, telecom, consumer apps, robotics, and government, and has been part of five acquisitions—two from companies she founded. Radhika currently serves as Advisor on Product Thinking to the Monetary Authority of Singapore and works with organizations worldwide to help them create products that drive meaningful change. A graduate of MIT with degrees in Electrical Engineering, she speaks nine languages and is now writing her second book on why goals and targets backfire—and what actually works instead.

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Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Most businesses don’t crumble from bad strategy but from the hard conversations their leaders never have.

Maartje van Krieken takes an honest look at why conflict avoidance shows up in leadership communication and how it quietly eats away at trust, focus, and performance. Why do so many leaders hesitate to speak up when something feels off? What happens when tension is ignored for months or even years? Through her experience guiding organizations through chaos, Maartje shares how avoiding difficult conversations can cost teams more than money - it costs them momentum and morale.

Maartje breaks down the five places where silence does the most damage: personal conflicts that never get addressed, hierarchy barriers that stop honest feedback, deals that no longer make sense, long-time employees who have outgrown their roles, and a lack of accountability at the very top. Each one offers a mirror for leaders who want to see where communication has gone quiet.

From there, Maartje offers an invitation: have the conversation now. She walks through how to create space for honesty, speak with clarity, and end every discussion with decisions that move people forward. This episode challenges leaders to rethink what courage looks like at work and to see difficult conversations as the starting point of real leadership, not the obstacle to it.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Why Businesses Fail in Silence

01:29 The Cost of Avoiding Difficult Conversations

04:04 Signs Your Team Is Avoiding Hard Conversations

07:01 The Five Conversations Leaders Avoid Most

18:34 Why We Avoid Difficult Conversations

20:31 How to Have Difficult Conversations Effectively

26:31 Courageous Communication in Leadership

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

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The Chaos Games Consulting

The Business Emergency Room

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Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

When a business starts to stumble, the real problem usually isn’t hidden—it’s just misread.

Maartje van Krieken talks with Elisabeth Vealey, founder of Sophius LLC, about how business diagnostics reveal what’s really happening inside a struggling company. With decades of experience in accounting, CFO leadership, and turnaround strategies, Elisabeth explains how following the cash flow exposes not just financial issues but the inefficiencies, blind spots, and miscommunication that quietly drain performance.

They discuss how financial data reflects overall financial and operational health, why leaders wait too long to ask for help, and how to build a culture that values clarity over blame. Elisabeth shares insights from her Sophius Method for “chasing the cash” to find what’s blocking growth, while Maartje connects those lessons to the operational side—where process, people, and profit intersect.

This conversation offers a clear, grounded look at how to spot early warning signs, restore trust, and bring a company back to health before problems turn into full-blown emergencies.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 The Power of Business Diagnostics

00:38 Meet Elisabeth Vealey, Founder of Sophius LLC

05:00 The Sophius Method and Turnaround Strategies

07:50 When to Bring in Outside Help

10:30 Beyond the Numbers: People, Process, and Performance

14:20 Breaking the Blame Cycle and Rebuilding Trust

17:10 Leadership Blind Spots and Honest Feedback Loops

21:30 Board Dynamics and Shared Accountability

22:20 Restoring Team Trust and Removing Emotion from Problem-Solving

25:40 Finance and Operations: The Power of Partnership

29:20 Final Thoughts and Where to Find Elisabeth Vealey

Connect with Elisabeth Vealey:

To learn more, visit Sophius LLC to download the Sophius Method whitepaper or to schedule an exploratory call.

Elisabeth Vealey is the founder of Sophius LLC and the architect of The Sophius Method, a proven plug and play framework that takes organizations from distress to sustainable growth. Known as a trusted strategist for business turnarounds, she bridges finance, operations, technology, and leadership to help organizations stabilize under pressure, build high-performing teams, and redirect energy towards mission and lasting growth. Elisabeth holds an MBA and is a CPA with more than 20 years of experience in finance, sales, wealth management, mergers and acquisitions and executive coaching. Today, she advises CEOs, boards, and high-net-worth families with business and leadership strategy creating impact that lasts with authenticity, vision, and fire.

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Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Remote leadership works best when people have the space to enter flow states that spark ideas and move projects forward.

In this episode, Maartje van Krieken talks with Academy Award winner and entrepreneur Steven Puri about what it really takes to lead distributed teams with purpose. How do you build trust when you can’t walk the halls together? What makes the difference between a team that only trades emails and a team that shows up with insights that shift the direction of a company? Steven shares lessons from his years in Hollywood and tech, showing how vision, culture, and the right conditions allow people to do their best work no matter where they are.

The conversation explores why leaders should pay attention to chronotypes, how simple practices like timeboxing and deep work hours create space for breakthroughs, and why creativity often comes from unexpected places. If distributed teams are your reality, this episode offers a thoughtful look at how remote leadership can help people thrive rather than just get by.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Introduction to Remote Work and Flow States

00:44 Steven Puri’s Background in Film and Startups

03:29 How Leaders Create Flow in Distributed Teams

07:10 Conditions That Unlock Peak Performance

14:22 Chronotypes and Protecting Deep Work

20:25 Misconceptions About Remote Leadership

21:16 Timeboxing as a Strategy for Productivity

23:25 The Real Source of Creativity

29:47 AI, Communication, and the Future of Work

33:06 Final Thoughts and Where to Find Steven Puri

Connect with Steven Puri:

The Sukha Company

Email Steven

Steven Puri is the Founder and CEO of The Sukha Company, a focus app designed to help people achieve more while maintaining a healthy work life. His career began as a youth news show host in the DC/Baltimore market and later as a Thomas J. Watson Scholar at IBM before moving into film production, where he produced Academy Award–winning visual effects for Independence Day and 14 other films. At 28, he sold his first tech company, Centropolis Effects, to Das Werk and went on to hold senior roles at 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks, working on franchises like Die Hard, Wolverine, Star Trek, and Transformers. Today, he combines his experience in film and tech to build tools that support focus and productivity. Steven lives in Austin, TX.

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Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Business valuation is more than a price tag at exit. It’s a running assessment of your company’s health, credibility, and resilience.

Maartje van Krieken shows how valuation can serve as a practical management tool for everyday decision-making. Drawing on lessons from mergers and acquisitions, she explains why external perceptions matter just as much as internal metrics and how they shape financing terms, customer trust, and even employee morale.

Using ten lenses, Maartje unpacks the questions outsiders bring to the table: Are people loyal to the business or just its leaders? Is culture sustainable beyond a founder’s presence? Do the numbers hold up under scrutiny? Would evidence convince a skeptic? This is operational due diligence turned inward, helping leaders stress-test their assumptions and identify the gaps that weaken long-term value.

Framed as risk-based prioritization, the process reveals not just what’s broken but where the biggest opportunities lie. A quarterly review through these lenses creates a roadmap for practical improvements that strengthen operations, safeguard against risk, and build value worth defending, whether or not a sale is ever on the horizon.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Business Valuation as a Daily Tool  

02:18 Why External Evaluations Matter  

06:03 Risk, Evidence, and Defensibility  

09:55 The 10 Lenses of Operational Due Diligence  

28:06 Risk-Based Prioritization for Strategy Reviews  

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

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Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Leadership isn’t always loud, and sometimes the quietest voice in the room is the one that steadies the ship.

Maartje van Krieken sits down with Greg Weinger, SVP of Product Management at SheerID and host of The Powerful Introvert Podcast, to rethink what leadership looks like when a company faces real pressure. Greg shares the story of an introverted CFO who stepped in during a crisis and rebuilt trust through calm, steady presence rather than charisma. Why do so many organizations still assume that the loudest voice is the most effective one? And how much strength gets overlooked when we discount quieter styles of leadership?

Greg points to the qualities that actually help businesses scale: adaptability, honesty paired with kindness, and the discipline to face reality as it is. He explains how great leaders design meetings and team structures that bring out every perspective, especially from introverts who contribute most when given the space to prepare. Could your team be missing its sharpest ideas simply because the setup doesn’t make room for them?

This conversation shows that resilience often comes from unexpected places, and that leadership worth following grows out of trust, clarity, and intention.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Extrovert vs. Introvert Leadership Styles  

02:55 Case Study: Introverted CFO Leading Through Crisis  

06:54 Key Ingredients for Scaling a Business  

08:07 Listening, Adaptability, and Avoiding Hubris  

12:11 Balancing Brutal Honesty with Kindness  

14:46 Creating Space for Every Team Member to Contribute  

17:01 Structuring Meetings for Inclusivity  

18:12 Why Mindfulness Matters for Leaders  

Connect with Greg Weinger:

Connect with Greg on LinkedIn

Subscribe to The Powerful Introvert Podcast

Greg Weinger has spent over 20 years proving that introverts and unconventional thinkers can thrive in leadership. A seasoned product and technology executive, he has helped scale startups 10X to $70M+ in revenue, leading teams that build market-leading digital products and drive business growth. A Stanford graduate, he studied English literature, creative writing, and software engineering—giving him a unique ability to blend technical expertise, storytelling, and strategic thinking to make complex ideas accessible and actionable.

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The Business Emergency Room

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Subscribe to Maartje’s Substack

Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Most business emergencies don’t appear out of nowhere. They build slowly through overlooked financial red flags that leaders often miss until it’s too late. How do you know if your books are truly in order, or if the numbers you’re seeing are hiding deeper issues? In this episode, Maartje van Krieken talks with Ryan McGarghan, founder of Synergy Solutions, fractional CFO and certified exit planning advisor, about the habits and warning signs that reveal the real health of a company. Ryan explains why consistent bookkeeping and payment practices are non-negotiable, how to recognize when your finance team isn’t giving you straight answers, and why a clear money trail is essential for strong decision-making. He also shows how finance can play the “bad cop” role that protects vendor and customer relationships, and why exit planning belongs in everyday business continuity rather than at the last minute. With his perspective on the “five Ds” that trigger unexpected exits, Ryan points out how thoughtful planning protects value and gives leaders more choices when it matters most. What conversations about finance are you not having yet and what might they reveal?

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Introduction 

02:13 Financial Emergency Example

06:10 Key Financial Red Flags Leaders Miss

09:35 Finance as the Bad Cop in Business

15:41 Exit Planning Essentials for Business Owners

20:37 Business Continuity and the 5 Ds of Exit Planning

22:20 Why Hire a Fractional CFO

Connect with Ryan McGarghan:

Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn

Synergy Solutions

Ryan McGarghan is the founder of Synergy Solutions, serving as a Fractional CFO and Certified Exit Planning Advisor with more than 25 years of experience helping small and mid-sized businesses strengthen their finances, grow profitably, and plan for long-term success. A Profit First Professional, speaker, and mentor, he specializes in guiding companies between $1M and $25M in revenue to build lasting value while giving entrepreneurs greater freedom, stability, and purpose.

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Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Most business exits fail not because of flawed numbers but because the hidden value of people, culture, and legacy is overlooked. In this episode, Maartje van Krieken explores why exits are among the most personal and emotionally charged moments in business and how treating them as purely financial transactions often leads to broken trust and dissatisfaction. She offers clear strategies to change that outcome, from bringing in trusted support to balance negotiations, to recognizing how relational risk shapes valuation, to addressing “phantom clients” that don’t hold transferable worth. By focusing on hidden value alongside financial metrics, leaders can create exits that are fair, sustainable, and truly win-win.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 The Human Side of Business Exits

02:30 Why Deals Derail: Hidden Value and Culture

07:42 Creating Win-Win Exits That Preserve Legacy

08:23 Tip 1: Get Trusted Support

09:06 Tip 2: Relational Risk and Valuation

13:33 Tip 3: Address Phantom Clients

17:28 Tip 4: Unlock Unrealized Opportunities

21:15 Tip 5: Use an Independent Negotiator

24:05 Protecting Legacy Beyond the Deal

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

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The Chaos Games Consulting

The Business Emergency Room

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YouTube

Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Most leaders spend far too much of their day answering questions, and Atiba De Souza believes that habit is holding businesses back. How much more progress could you make if your time went into vision and strategy instead of micromanagement?

Joining Maartje van Krieken in this episode, Atiba, a CEO strategist and team productivity expert, shares why he refuses to answer his staff’s questions and how that decision reshaped the way he leads. He explains why delegation skills matter more than many leaders realize, how empowered teams grow stronger when given clarity and autonomy, and why relying on ego to stay “indispensable” often leads to burnout.

This episode also takes a close look at AI leadership. Can technology actually raise productivity, or does it reveal the gaps in the way we already manage people? Atiba argues that delegation is the common denominator. If you cannot communicate expectations and outcomes clearly to your team, the same issues will surface when you try to delegate to AI. Both require vision, boundaries, and consistency.

The larger takeaway is that leadership is not about being available to answer every question. It is about creating the conditions where questions get answered without you. That starts with setting a strong vision, teaching people how to think instead of what to do, and establishing frameworks for accountability. For leaders, this means reclaiming time to focus on long-term growth. For teams, it means greater confidence, creativity, and ownership. And for organizations, it opens the door to scaling without the constant drag of bottlenecks and dependency.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Atiba De Souza: CEO Strategist & Team Productivity Expert

02:05 Why Leaders Should Stop Answering Questions

04:49 Escaping the Delegation Trap

05:12 Vision as the Core of Leadership

07:23 Empowering Teams with Autonomy

10:11 Teaching People How to Think

16:32 AI Leadership and Productivity Myths

19:02 Asking Better Questions with AI

25:06 Final Insights and How to Connect

Links

Connect with Atiba de Souza:

LinkedIn

Client Attraction Pros

Get Atiba’s Book: “The Delegation Trap”

Atiba De Souza is a CEO Strategist and Team Productivity Expert who helps leaders turn underperforming teams into high-performing, empowered organizations. Known as the “Business Ninja” and “Build Your Team” Guru, he delivers tactical strategies that remove delegation bottlenecks, boost efficiency, and streamline operations. His book The Delegation Trap offers a practical blueprint for leaders ready to elevate their teams. Beyond business, Atiba is a man of faith, a husband, and a father, committed to living the values he teaches.

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

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The Chaos Games Consulting

The Business Emergency Room

Substack

YouTube

Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

More leads won’t save your business if your revenue systems, lead quality, and sales pipeline health aren’t working the way they should.

Maartje van Krieken talks with Mark Osborne, a fractional chief revenue officer for boutique professional services and B2B firms, about what really drives sustainable growth. If your team is chasing volume, are you missing the chance to focus on the opportunities that truly matter? Have you ever celebrated a deal only to realize later it cost more in time, energy, and margin than it returned? Mark shares why building strong revenue systems matters more than stacking up tools, how focusing on lead quality shifts the way you allocate resources, and why sales pipeline health is a vital sign that reveals the truth about your business. This episode encourages you to step back from the noise, take an honest look at the systems behind your revenue, and make the kind of deliberate choices that protect margins, strengthen customer relationships, and set your business up for long-term resilience.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 The Importance of a Healthy Revenue System

01:52 Mark Osborne’s Early Career and Internet Marketing

05:01 Transition to Strategy and Process in Marketing

07:52 The Pitfalls of Chasing Quantity Over Quality in Leads

11:04 Symptoms of a Broken Revenue System

16:06 Key Metrics for Healthy Revenue Systems

21:21 Adapting to New Tools and Technologies

26:03 Focused Execution vs. Chasing New Tools

Connect with Mark Osborne:

LinkedIn

Get Mark’s Book: “Are Your Leads KILLING Your Business?”

The B2B Growth Blueprint Podcast

Mark Osborne is an award-winning marketing and sales strategist with over 25 years of experience driving hundreds of millions in revenue for startups, scale-ups, and global enterprises. Named by AdAge as one of the Top 25 Marketing Technology Trailblazers, he combines brand strategy, product marketing, and sales leadership into revenue systems that boost both EBITDA and enterprise value. A Certified Exit Planning Advisor and #1 best-selling author, Mark leads Modern Revenue Strategies with a bold “10X ROI Growth Guarantee,” hosts The B2B Growth Blueprint podcast, and holds an MBA from USC’s Marshall School of Business. Outside of work, he enjoys sport fishing in Cabo and mixing craft cocktails at his tiki bar in Los Angeles.

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

LinkedIn

The Chaos Games Consulting

The Business Emergency Room

Substack

YouTube

Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm