The Pivotal Leader

Jim Cavale is an entrepreneur who starts, invests in and leads disruptive brands, with a passion for social impact. When I first met Jim, he was President and partner of Iron Tribe Fitness, a national fitness brand with more than 40 gyms from Seattle to Miami, and in between. He sold his ownership in Iron Tribe and stepped down in September 2016 to work with multiple brands and begin building a new company in the sports world again.

At the time of our interview, Jim continues to serve as Entrepreneur-In-Residence for the Velocity Accelerator Fund, a $3mm accelerator fund that helps startup CEOs in Birmingham, Alabama.

In this episode, we talked about his passion for starting and scaling businesses, customer acquisition and the importance of supporting Gen Y professionals, like him, in making things happen.

Podcast Topics Include:

• How to be a legacy brand
• Creating systems to represent a company's vision for growth
• Purpose and Mission as boundaries to build a culture
• "Having a baby and giving it to someone else to raise" - the hurdles of franchising
• Customer & Employee Acquisition Strategies
• The importance of "story" in business and how to leverage it
• Relational Capital vs Transactional Interactions
• Building success by knowing what's next and what's most important
• What most investors want to know about your company
• How Gen Y / Millennials will transform businesses

Jim's involvement in helping entrepreneurs launch in Birmingham

Shownotes: http://pivot10results.com/episode-17-pivot…eader-jim-cavale/

Kevin Garber is the CEO and Co-founder of http://ManageFlitter.com – a product that layers a set of search, filtering, sorting and follow tools on top of your Twitter account. In this episode, I talked to Kevin about customer acquisition, employee retention and business growth.

A great reminder he provided is that "You're not Google, Facebook or Twitter – you still have to do marketing to raise awareness about your business". And when it comes to employees in his tech world, Kevin believes that "tech people are highly intelligent and motivated by challenging problems to solve."

Kevin is also the co-host of the weekly http://itsamonkey.com Podcast that talks to thought leaders in the tech and entrepreneurship world. Kevin is obsessed with avocado and the TV series Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Podcast Topics Include:

• Mastering the "art of being a CEO"
• Avoiding "gimmicks" in your employee retention strategy
• "Casting a wider net" to find the best team
• The benefits and necessity of highly diverse teams
• The REAL reason why you're micromanaging everyone
• The best marketing tool
• What you need to prepare for company growth
• The upcoming launch of ManageSocial.com (and how to get in on their alpha test)

Show Notes: http://pivot10results.com/episode-16-pivotal-leader-kevin-garber

"You need a great brand to propagate a culture. It's hard to keep everything aligned without a strong brand," says Mario Natarelli, managing partner of MBLM, the brand intimacy agency which is brands and technology. In this episode, Mario and I talked about the power of brand intimacy to create emotional connections with customers and how great brands build great cultures. According to MBLM's Brand Intimacy 2017 Report, which is the largest study of brands based on emotions, top ranked intimate brands continued to outperform the S&P and Fortune 500 indices in revenue and profit over the past 10 years.

Mario's career started as an architect where he learned how to balance art with science. In his perspective, in architecture you need a strong theory, focus and belief system and this parallels what it takes to be a great brand and culture.

Podcast Topics Include:

• The definition of brand intimacy and why it matters
• Building stronger bonds with customers
• The role emotions play in ranking brands
• The top ranking brands based on brand intimacy
• The brand that ranks highest with Millennials
• What takes priority? A strong culture or a strong brand?
• How the short term "fix" can hurt your brand and culture
• The partnership model for leading a multidisciplinary, multicultural and multigenerational team looking to expertly solve problems

Show Notes: http://pivot10results.com/episode-15-pivotal-leader-mario-natarelli

Before becoming a certified hypnotherapist with a PhD in Clinical Psychology, Dr. Elizabeth Bonet was a yoga teacher and founder of Yogafairy Prenatal Yoga. She won the 2014 Top 100 Leading Moms In Business Award, grew an international community of mothers and ran the company for 15 years before selling it to focus on her psychology practice. And before all of that, she worked in tech as a project manager where she launched the first website to do online trading of international securities.

Podcast Topics Include:

• The number one thing that your business needs to succeed
• Knowledge is power: How to find out what your customers really want
• Strategies for overcoming "jerk leaders" or becoming one
• How to recognize and manage employee anxiety to improve productivity
• Culture-based employee manuals
• Attracting talent that fits your culture and leadership style

Show notes: http://pivot10results.com/episode-14-pivotal-leader-dr-elizabeth-bonet/

Cathey Petkash, is a Franchise Specialist who assists people identify and research franchise models that meet their personal and business goals and objectives. She joined FranNet after 18 years in the "corporate world" of Hewlett-Packard. Her professional consulting career at HP involved building strategic relationships with HP customers by implementing IT solutions to meet their business goals and objectives. Cathey also is a seasoned business owner. She achieved her "business ownership" dream with the purchase a floral business. Cathey applied the business principle of "absentee ownership," executing the business end of the business, while her Floral Designer ran the everyday floral shop activity. She successfully grew the business for over four years, and then profitably sold the business. From control freak and directive to relaxed and collaborative, Cathey's transition from "Corporate America" resulted in her being a leader who prides herself on listening and thinking more.

Podcast Topics Include:

• The secret to being a successful business. Hint: Your Employees
• Knowing how to interact with people and knowing your management style
• How to avoid the loneliness of being the boss
• The Passion Factor: why you need to be more passionate about running a business more than being passionate about the "what" of your business
• Understanding what motivates people
• The advice Cathey would give to struggling businesses, including HP

Show notes: http://pivot10results.com/episode-13-catheypetkash

Michael Schein always wanted to be a rock star, as in a real, musician rock star. A true creative and artist, who admittingly hates making cold calls, he turned his talents into a business that elevates the statuses of other business people.Michael is CEO of MicroFame Media, a marketing agency that turns consultants into celebrities in their fields when they don't have the time to do it themselves. He has created or facilitated the production of content for companies such as eBay, Linkedin, Avectra, TESLA, Inc., SEER Interactive, The Medici Group, Arise Virtual Solutions, Interiors by Steven G., and Citrix. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with Honors and got his start at Spin the Bottle, Inc., the production company behind VH1 hit show Pop Up Video. He is an Inc columnist, the leader and moderator of New York Technology Council's (NYTECH) Interactive Marketing Panel Series, and the author of Teenage Roadhogs (MacMillan).

Podcast Topics Include:

• Michael's journey from blogging to writing for Inc. to turning consultants into celebrities
• Harnessing and encouraging creativity to fulfill purpose for employees
• Being a niche thought leader
• Using content effectively in the "Google Wilderness"
• Following a process to eliminate fear
• Understanding the core principles of Hype & Connection in business
• Knowing what you stand for

Show notes: http://pivot10results.com/episode12/

Greg Marcus, CEO of The Marcus Corporation, is a charismatic leader (and secret agent) that not only earned accounting and law degrees but went to film school before returning to the family business, his grandfather started in 1935. Also known as Agent BB, Greg has led the company to its newest entertainment ventures – Safe House Chicago and Escape House. In this podcast he narrates the company's journey "From The Sopranos to the Game Of Thrones" and shares his pivotal moments as leader of a publicly traded lodging and entertainment organization that is considered one of Forbes Magazine's Most Trustworthy Companies, Listen in to find out why he believes that "Make sure you stop and look around" is a great metaphor for great leadership.

Podcast Topics Include:

• Family sayings as core values to live by
• Scaling a business through diversification
• The importance of debt control to leverage opportunities
• Creating first class experiences at coach seating prices
• Treating employees like family
• Pivotal strategies for leaders
• The "high class problem" of making good people great
• The history of The Marcus Corporation

Show notes: http://pivot10results.com/episode11

Carey Cranston, the inaugural president for the new American Writers Museum in Chicago shared with us his passion for the written word and his journey to launching the only American Writers Museum in the United States. What resonated the most during this interview was his approach to earning the trust and respect of his newly acquired working board of directors. There's a vast difference in transitioning from a for-profit academic institution to a non-profit artistic organization. His approach: "I go to them. I'll even go to their house to meet with them. I want my board to feel appreciated."

Prior to his new role, Carey most recently served as President of Fox College, a private career college in Chicago, where he spent the last 12 years.

Podcast Topics Include:

• Adapting as a leader to a new industry
• Transitioning from a for-profit to NPO environment
• Creating culture from the ground up in a start-up
• Engaging and managing governance and working boards of directors
• Acquiring top talent based "being the right fit" for the company mission
• Managing team members who may not share the similar core values, such as as "hard work pays off", respect and openness
• Best practices for effective communications: in person versus virtual
• Being a leader who is passionate about the purpose of an organization

Show notes: http://pivot10results.com/episode10

Steve Bernas, President & CEO for the Better Business Bureau of Chicago and Northern Illinois, Inc. and the President of the Better Business Bureau Educational Foundation, grew up wanting to be a policer and helping people. When he came to the conclusion that he might have to shoot someone with a gun, he took another direction by joining the Better Business Bureau of Chicago and has been there for the past 29 years, growing in the ranks from the top up "with nowhere left to go internally". In a different kind of way, he's still living his dream by policing businesses to protect consumers.

In this episode, the most obvious common denominator for him is trust. "Trust is the currency of today's marketplace," he says. Learn more about his leadership style.

Podcast Topics Include:

• Employee career development for retention
• Continuous development for CEOs to be effective leaders
• need to continuously develop themselves to develop others
• The importance of instilling the values of loyalty and dedication
• Learning from and learning to love Millennials
• The "secret sauce" for attracting top talent
• "Setting the table" to find the right mentors, at all levels in one's career
• Steve's recommended list of books to read and development suggestions

Show notes: http://pivot10results.com/episode-9

"Timesheets are a culture killer," is only one of the many insights that Jody Padar shared with me in this episode. Listen in to hear how this leader is transforming the accounting industry by being "radical". She recently took over the family practice that her father founded and has changed the way clients are served and how the industry regards her as a change agent.

Podcast Topics Include:

• How to be "radical" in a conventional industry
• Changing a business model to adapt with the times and technology
• Serving clients the way they need and want to be served
• Becoming a subject matter expert for competitors
• Recognizing that most non-Millennials want to be Millennials
• The value of telling employees to "Come back again" with their ideas
• Succession planning in family owned businesses

Show notes: http://pivotal10results.com/episode-8