What CEOs Talk About

Nicholas Longano is a leading entrepreneur, and video game and Fintech expert with over 28 years of experience launching successful consumer brands, Fintech products, ground-breaking games, and startups. Starting his career in the beauty and beverage arena, Nicholas has launched highly successful brand campaigns, including Pepsi, L’Oreal, Evian, Sunkist, and Calvin Klein. After working on the consumer side, Nicholas entered the gaming space as the Senior Vice President of Publishing and Marketing with Vivendi-Universal Games/Blizzard, heading worldwide franchises, including Diablo, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and more. Most recently, Nicholas’ passion for gaming and consumer brands launched Scuti, the world’s first in-game advertising network and GCommerce platform. With a team of video game veterans, Longano brings gamified advertising to the metaverse and beyond to best service players, game makers, and brands alike.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Where Nicholas Longano grew up and went to school
• The various corporations that Nicholas worked for in fashion and beauty
• Milestones of Nicholas’ career
• The games Nicholas worked on through Blizzard
• The moment when Nicholas felt like a master of the universe
• Why respect for customers is so important
• How Nicholas founded Scuti partly based on respect and ads done right
• Nicholas’ advice to his son on following his passion
• Why Nicholas considers the way some ads are done as disrespectful
• The value of choice
• How finding the right team is also about hiring minds

In this episode…

Nicholas Longano claims that his successful and storied career thus far has been the product of a kind of luck, of being in the right place at the right time. As he moved through the corporate world from beverages (launching Pepsi in Australia) to beauty (launching Excellence in the US for L’Oreal), to Calvin Klein (launching Calvin Klein cosmetics globally) it seems that it is far more than luck at work. When Nicholas left those industries for video games in 2000, he realized similar success with Vivendi Universal.

Now the Founder and CEO of Scuti, the world’s first g-Commerce platform, Nicholas understands keenly that customers are the drivers of success behind every venture. In beverage, fashion, beauty, and gaming, the takeaway lesson for him is that customers and consumers should be respected above profit. 

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and guest Nicholas Longano break down what respecting customers looks like, from asking permission to gather their information to presenting ads into their game in a non-disruptive or reward-driven manner. Nicholas shares the impetus behind Scuti and how they work to offer customers choice and he draws on examples gleaned from organizations throughout his career. Martin introduces the question of whether a company is transactional or transformational and he and Nicholas discuss being a David company among Goliaths, finding the right team members, and why leaders need the ability to iterate and bend. 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• Nicholas Longano on LinkedIn
• Nicholas Longano on Wikipedia
• Scuti
• ‘Atlas Shrugged’ by Ayn Rand

Sponsor for this podcast...

This podcast is brought to you by URGEO, Operational excellence in action through the Are you Ready Program!

https://www.urgeo.com/

Are you READY to free up your time?

Optimize your Organization?

Grow revenue and reduce costs?

Build your leadership team?

Partnering with organizations like yours, we work with you to implement our proven methodology designed to transform your operations, while providing accurate advice and support for real success.

Translating strategy into frontline operations, URGEO helps leaders and the people within their organization excel at safe, on-time, on-budget and on-spec delivery. Let’s touch base so we can learn how we can level up your business. Contact us today: https://www.urgeo.com/contact

Kevin Lang is the Director of Operations and a partner at URGEO. Kevin is a 25+ year entrepreneurial veteran. Kevin has developed and sold multiple businesses holding deep experience in industrial manufacturing and processing and strong team development. As a 14-year member of EO, including sitting on the Regional Canadian Board, he is a seasoned and sought-after expert in EOS implementation with a wide scope of entrepreneurial businesses. Kevin also continues to develop a real estate investment portfolio of single-family homes, condos, and industrial buildings.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Kevin’s 20-year career in the manufacturing business and why he left
• How remote work enabled Kevin to become a better leader
• Why Kevin considers himself less of a doer and more inclined to work through people
• What Kevin and Martin identify as each other’s strengths
• What prompted Kevin’s move to Vancouver
• Kevin’s advice regarding perfectionism
• What Martin identifies as the four cardinal rules of leadership
• Why a high EQ, emotional intelligence, aids Kevin in listening and management success
• The book that Kevin finds so useful, he has taught pieces of it to his children
• Kevin’s views on positive capitalism and how profit can be maintained with dignity and grace

In this episode…

Kevin Lang grew up in Edmonton, Alberta and moved to Vancouver in 2010. After 20 years managing the business he took over from his parents, 3 years running an entirely different business on his own, and traveling the world after that, he met Martin in 2021 and through that meeting and interview became part of URGEO.

Kevin and Martin realized they had similar mindsets and complementary skills that would work well together in a business environment. Kevin has an innate ability to keep to scheduling timetables, to stay on track, and resilience in how he works. Kevin shares what he has learned about managing through people as his career has unfolded and part of it has to do with allowing people to learn and grow.

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and guest Kevin Lang discuss the nuances of leadership. Kevin maintains that there is no failure if you lead people correctly: if you manage risk and allow people to grow on their own - and to have room to fail - then failure becomes fundamental to success. They talk about Martin’s four cardinal rules of leadership, Kevin’s identification of the value of emotional intelligence, how to work in ways that serve you, and Kevin’s passions in life which, besides leadership, include parenting. The insights found in this episode are not to be missed.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• Kevin Lang on LinkedIn
• Contact email: [email protected]
• ‘The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership’ by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Klemp
• “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” - quote attributed to Theosophist Mabel Collins

Sponsor for this podcast...

This podcast is brought to you by URGEO, Operational excellence in action through the Are you Ready Program!

https://www.urgeo.com/

Are you READY to free up your time?

Optimize your Organization?

Grow revenue and reduce costs?

Build your leadership team?

Partnering with organizations like yours, we work with you to implement our proven methodology designed to transform your operations, while providing accurate advice and support for real success.

Translating strategy into frontline operations, URGEO helps leaders and the people within their organization excel at safe, on-time, on-budget and on-spec delivery. Let’s touch base so we can learn how we can level up your business. Contact us today: https://www.urgeo.com/contact

Starting his career in finance and acquisitions, Peyton Jenkins pivoted in the midst of 2008’s tumultuous financial market to pursue his passion in suiting and custom wear. Attributing his drive to his own need for custom fitting, Peyton co-founded Alton Lane, a leader in premium custom menswear that brings luxury craftsmanship and personal style to suiting, formalwear, sportswear, footwear, accessories and more. Creating a unique process that celebrates individual style and pioneering a virtual custom fit algorithm, Peyton and his team at Alton Lane turn customers into designers with “Made For You” trimmings, fabrics and fits—precisely tailoring down to the millimeter and servicing clients from the comfort of their homes. Peyton is a proud Virginian and loves exploring the rich history and happenings of his home in Richmond, where he lives with his wife and kids.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Peyton Jenkins’ formative years in Virginia
• The things Peyton learned teaching in England in his early twenties
• The course Peyton taught in England on the Reality of Warfare Through Film and how it led to a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau
• Mental health struggles Peyton went through with depression in college
• How finding a psychologist contributed to Peyton’s mental health stability
• Why suffering is important in refining who we are
• How COVID reshaped what people wear
• How Peyton’s clothing company, Alton Lane, is shifting to meet custom clothing needs remotely
• Why a good blazer is a key item of clothing for men
• The book inspiring Peyton right now and why

In this episode…

Content Warning: Discussion of the Holocaust, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and child deaths in war.

Peyton Jenkins has experienced many things that inform how he approaches his business now. From his start in Virginia and through formative experiences in his early twenties teaching history overseas, he has a very thoughtful approach to entrepreneurship.

Peyton Jenkins shares his struggle with mental health and how he views suffering through a lens of positivity as a result. It is through suffering that the most important skills are learned. Peyton speaks candidly about the very clear view his therapist gave him at the start of therapy and how it anchored his progress.

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and Peyton Jenkins discuss exactly how COVID shifted clothing expectations and how Peyton’s company Alton Lane is rising to meet the new expectations. Peyton shares clothing design perspectives, Alton Lane’s advances in custom fitting, how a blazer works for any occasion, and why understanding your needs is so important, both personally and professionally.  

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• Peyton Jenkins on LinkedIn
• Alton Lane
• Alton Lane on Instagram
• Enoshima Island
• Auschwitz-Birkenau
• ‘His Truth Is Marching On’ by Jon Meacham

Sponsor for this podcast...

This podcast is brought to you by URGEO, Operational excellence in action through the Are you Ready Program!

https://www.urgeo.com/

Are you READY to free up your time?

Optimize your Organization?

Grow revenue and reduce costs?

Build your leadership team?

Partnering with organizations like yours, we work with you to implement our proven methodology designed to transform your operations, while providing accurate advice and support for real success.

Translating strategy into frontline operations, URGEO helps leaders and the people within their organization excel at safe, on-time, on-budget and on-spec delivery. Let’s touch base so we can learn how we can level up your business. Contact us today: https://www.urgeo.com/contact

Alinka Rutkowska is the CEO of Leaders Press, a USA Today and Wall Street Journal best-selling press, where she creates books for entrepreneurs from scratch and launches them into best-seller with a 100% success rate. She runs a hybrid publishing house with traditional distribution (via Simon & Schuster) through which more than 500 entrepreneurs have been able to share their stories with the world. 

Alinka has been featured by Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, Entrepreneurs on Fire, and numerous other outlets. Her mission is to help 10,000 entrepreneurs share their wisdom with the world by 2030.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• The success of Alinka’s primary school newspaper venture
• The influence and support Alinka’s scholarly family imparted
• What the impetus for leaving the corporate world was for Alinka
• How self-publishing worked for her first book
• Why you should decide to tell your own story
• The process Leaders Press takes a book idea through
• Insights into bestseller list selections
• The difference between lead generation and lead conversion
• How explosive growth was a challenge for Alinka at the start of this year

In this episode…

Alinka Rutkowska, a five times USA Today bestselling author, is originally from Poland and she recalls her first entrepreneurial venture in primary school there: putting together a school newspaper to compete with the existing paper she didn’t like. That likely signaled her ultimate future in books and authorship. 

Though Alinka went through business school and worked in multinational corporations to great success, she ultimately returned to her founding passion of books and publishing. Today she is the CEO of Leaders Press which has 198 authors on the USA Today bestseller list. Alinka aligns her passion for entrepreneurship with her publishing savvy by largely launching and promoting books on business and publishing. 

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and Alinka Rutkowska discuss how Alinka came to self-publish her first book and how its success allowed her to step away from the corporate world to start her business. She details exactly how her company, Leaders Press, assists entrepreneurs in taking their books from idea to bookstore success, why it’s important to tell your own story, how books are chosen to be on bestseller lists, and how lead generation from books works. You will want to hear Alinka’s story and the insights she has on how you could be an author.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• Alinka Rutkowska on LinkedIn
• Leaders Press
• Leaders Press Blog: ‘Who Is The Highest-Paid Author?’
• Leaders Press / Discover
• Leaders Press: ‘How to Write a Book’
• Leaders Press: ‘How to Get a Book Published’
• ‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill
• ‘The first draft of anything is s**t.’ - Ernest Hemingway

Sponsor for this podcast...

This podcast is brought to you by URGEO, Operational excellence in action through the Are you Ready Program!

https://www.urgeo.com/

Are you READY to free up your time?

Optimize your Organization?

Grow revenue and reduce costs?

Build your leadership team?

Partnering with organizations like yours, we work with you to implement our proven methodology designed to transform your operations, while providing accurate advice and support for real success.

Translating strategy into frontline operations, URGEO helps leaders and the people within their organization excel at safe, on-time, on-budget and on-spec delivery. Let’s touch base so we can learn how we can level up your business. Contact us today: https://www.urgeo.com/contact

Cassandra Hui, founder, and CEO of Heal Mary, has a background in data science and 10+ years in marketing and community building, Cassandra was also part of the Scotiabank financial hackathon winning team in 2016. Heal Mary, a digital health platform using AI to close the gap in clinical trial participation was started after Cassandra began looking into treatment options when her mom and two sisters were diagnosed with cancer.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Cassandra Hui’s childhood in Calgary, Alberta, and Toronto, ON
• When she first fell in love with tech as a career
• The impact Cassandra’s mother’s cancer diagnosis had on her family
• The reality of clinical trials and how many are currently running
• How to connect with clinical trials and why options are so important to patients
• The memory of the first patient Cassandra was able to help
• The KPIs that are useful in Heal Mary’s business model
• Cassandra’s goals for her company’s future
• How diversity metrics are underrepresented in clinical trials
• The books Cassandra is drawing inspiration from this month

In this episode…

Cassandra Hui was inspired to found her company, Heal Mary, after her mother and two sisters were diagnosed with cancer. Her mother’s diagnosis with stage four breast cancer came when Cassandra was just ten years old. Then in 2017, two sisters were diagnosed with cancer within months of each other, right around the age their mother had been, and Cassandra decided there had to be a better way to approach options and maintain optimism.

Cassandra founded Heal Mary to make clinical trials available to patients. She explains that more than 370,000 clinical trials are happening globally today and to expect doctors to be versed in all of them is impossible. She wants to provide options for patients to find potential trials themselves that they can then bring to their health care practitioners.

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and Cassandra Hui discuss the reality of how short life is and what matters most to you in using the time you’re given. They address how what you fear can answer the question of what you should focus on, and they dig into the details of KPI on Heal Mary, what qualifies as outstanding success for Cassandra’s app, pursuing studies and scientific breakthroughs, and how the company is set up to be compensated. This is both an emotional and detailed conversation you won’t want to miss.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• Cassandra Hui on LinkedIn
• Heal Mary
• Heal Mary app
• ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear
• ‘Scaling Up’ by Verne Harnish
• ‘Mastering the Rockefeller Habits’ by Verne Harnish
• Master and Commander
• ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ by Stephen R. Covey

Sponsor for this podcast...

This podcast is brought to you by URGEO, Operational excellence in action through the Are you Ready Program!

https://www.urgeo.com/

Are you READY to free up your time?

Optimize your Organization?

Grow revenue and reduce costs?

Build your leadership team?

Partnering with organizations like yours, we work with you to implement our proven methodology designed to transform your operations, while providing accurate advice and support for real success.

Translating strategy into frontline operations, URGEO helps leaders and the people within their organization excel at safe, on-time, on-budget and on-spec delivery. Let’s touch base so we can learn how we can level up your business. Contact us today: https://www.urgeo.com/contact

Dylan Jones is the Head of Growth at URGEO. He is a serial entrepreneur, mentor, and outdoorsman who loves launching new products and businesses. He is an advocate for a more efficient and more effective transition to the green economy. He is an entrepreneur-in-residence with the Canadian cleantech accelerator program, Foresight.

Dylan’s philosophy of balancing operational excellence, problem-solving, and need development began with his previous career in the mineral exploration industry. He worked on the development of mining projects to incorporate considerations for both environmental and First Nations groups. Dylan transitioned from the field to finance operations, raising money for mining projects, advising on M&A opportunities, and developing innovative investment channels for the largest private land-holder in the Yukon and Northwest Territories.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Which five things Dylan Jones advises considering for recession planning this year
• Why number one is employee transformation and growth
• How to be innovative in maintaining employees through a recession
• How numbers two and three are both about marketing and why it’s not the first to be cut
• How to consider value and investment when making purchases
• Dylan’s thoughts on managing number four, supply chain management
• The intrinsic value of Excel, even in larger companies
• Dylan’s strategies for what he calls “demand planning”
• Why number five, cash flow management, is the base of every consideration
• The book Dylan recommends you read

In this episode…

Dylan Jones is Martin Hunter’s business partner and the Head of Strategy for URGEO. Dylan started in operations in the mining industry before switching to finance and building projects in that same industry. He tired of the corporate world, however, and switched to being an entrepreneur where he was in tech CPG and now consulting. He has a vast knowledge base and shares from this on the topic of recession.

Dylan outlines five key things to think about for recession planning and discusses how they factor into business health and help sustain a company through recession. Recession, market collapse, lean times, these are all things that will happen, not might, and Dylan believes it’s vital to have a strategy for weathering that outlined now.

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and Dylan Jones talk about the vital business ingredient of employee value and growth, why marketing should be sustained in some form during a recession, how to approach fiscal savings measures, supply chain issue preparation, and the through-line of cash flow management in this episode. Dylan imparts logical, sound advice on how to work towards recession-proofing your business today.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• Dylan Jones on LinkedIn
• Simon Sinek
• “Give away the best of the best of your information, and charge well for its implementation.” - Lucas Rubix
• Peter Drucker
• Harvard Business Review
• ‘Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion’ by Robert B Cialdini, PhD

This podcast is brought to you by URGEO, Operational excellence in action through the Are you Ready Program!

https://www.urgeo.com/

Are you READY to free up your time?

Optimize your Organization?

Grow revenue and reduce costs?

Build your leadership team?

Partnering with organizations like yours, we work with you to implement our proven methodology designed to transform your operations, while providing accurate advice and support for real success.

Translating strategy into frontline operations, URGEO helps leaders and the people within their organization excel at safe, on-time, on-budget and on-spec delivery. Let’s touch base so we can learn how we can level up your business. Contact us today: https://www.urgeo.com/contact

Ryan Weiss is a global executive with decades of experience spanning the Americas, Europe, and Asia. He has successfully founded three companies and worked as a global executive leading hundreds of people, managing a $500 million product portfolio, and developing a passion for organizational change. As an author, speaker, founder, CEO, and consultant, he serves on multiple boards of educational, profit, and non-profit institutions.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• The first business Ryan created at age 15 and how it’s thriving now
• How many places Ryan and his family moved for his job
• The personal moment that helped Ryan decide to return to entrepreneurship
• The wild story of orangutan Fu Manchu
• What the three legs of the stool are in terms of success
• How hiring good people isn’t enough if the culture is poor
• The business Ryan started for himself
• Ryan’s book ‘From Orangutan to Rocket Scientist’ and where the rocket fits in
• The importance of morale

In this episode…

Ryan Weiss started a lawn care business at fifteen that he passed down to his younger brothers - that business has expanded and is still thriving today. Meanwhile, Ryan worked for a multinational that moved him and his family seven times in seventeen years, including to Asia and back twice. It was after a proposed move to Germany that Ryan decided it was time to start his own business again and dove back into entrepreneurship. 

Ryan details the personal impetus that prompted his decision and also tells the story that inspired this episode’s title. The story involves an orangutan named Fu Manchu that acted like an epiphany for Ryan, revealing three vital things any person or company needs to be successful in any venture.  

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and Ryan Weiss discuss the qualities that define good leadership in terms of creating a mindset of success within employees. Ryan shares personal stories that taught him how key it is to foster good morale, what entrepreneurial tools to develop, how to foster unity of purpose amongst diverse staff, and the truth about showing up as yourself to your team.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• Ryan Weiss on LinkedIn
• Effective Performance Strategies
• ‘From Orangutan to Rocket Scientist’ by Ryan Weiss
• ‘Ingredients for Success: 10 Best Practices for Business and Life’”by Joseph James Slawek

Sponsor for this podcast...

This podcast is brought to you by URGEO, Operational excellence in action through the Are you Ready Program!

https://www.urgeo.com/

Are you READY to free up your time?

Optimize your Organization?

Grow revenue and reduce costs?

Build your leadership team?

Partnering with organizations like yours, we work with you to implement our proven methodology designed to transform your operations, while providing accurate advice and support for real success.

Translating strategy into frontline operations, URGEO helps leaders and the people within their organization excel at safe, on-time, on-budget and on-spec delivery. Let’s touch base so we can learn how we can level up your business. Contact us today: https://www.urgeo.com/contact

Celeste Berke Knisely, a B2B Consultant, Growth Strategist, and Trainer, is a natural collaborator and partner to executives who easily pinpoints gaps in strategy, and creates road maps to implement plans and achieve targets. She is passionate about creating cross-functional collaboration, team development, and delivering results across top-performing teams.

Celeste and her team have a two-fold focus; consulting with high-performing teams to create robust employee advocacy and social selling programs and coaching Executives to tap into the digital landscape to scale their business. She is known in many circles as a LinkedIn Expert and prides herself on her ability to power network.

Celeste has over nineteen (19) years of experience within the non-profit and for-profit arenas; holding both a B.S and M.S. degree. In her last corporate role, Celeste held the position of Regional Director of Sales and Marketing for a privately held hospitality management company overseeing 19 properties, a sales team of 50+, and $105M in annual sales. Her accolades include: the Director of Sales of the Year award, 2x Manager of the Year, named 40 under 40 for the Triad Business Journal, and she holds certified sales designation from Marriot International.

In early 2020, Celeste branched out on her own to scale her own business and pursue JV partners and Fractional Projects. Celeste resides in Colorado with her husband and daughter and spends her free time with family and friends - poolside with margaritas and lots of chips and salsa.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• How Celeste Berke Knisely’s family of professionals drove her competitive spirit
• What inspiration and lessons Celeste drew from her father
• How as a child Celeste was encouraged to put 3% from every paycheque away, and how Martin encourages his kids to put 10% away
• Why Celeste felt a drive to reinvent herself near age 40
• The way Celeste’s partner inspired the title of this episode
• Why people should be a CEO’s most valued asset
• What percentage of B2B leads LinkedIn drives
• What percentage of traffic to your company website LinkedIn drives
• Some specific LinkedIn tips Celeste shares

In this episode…

Celeste Berke Knisely, a partner in consulting firm TLR Consulting Group, works with executives on boosting their visibility, primarily on the LinkedIn platform. She has nineteen years of corporate experience in executive-level sales and marketing in the hospitality industry, is frank about the hard work business requires, and is hitting her stride at age forty.

Celeste has always been driven and competitive, drawing inspiration from her MD father who, at 77 years old, just completed his last Ironman. She applies that drive to juggling motherhood and entrepreneurship, marriage and health goals, setting her sights on helping others, especially women, break the mold and advance in their marketing effectiveness.

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and Celeste Berke Knisely discuss why CEOs need to be approachable and view people as their most valuable asset. Celeste shares impressive statistics about the effectiveness of LinkedIn for business leads and breaks down exactly how to use it to your organization’s greatest advantage. 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• Celeste Berke Knisely on LinkedIn
• TLR Consulting Group
• What CEOs Talk About Episode 26 ‘Put Your Mask On First’ with Ryan Hindmarsh
• Field of Dreams
• Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
• Kalidasa, The Supreme Poet

Sponsor for this podcast...

This podcast is brought to you by URGEO, Operational excellence in action through the Are you Ready Program!

https://www.urgeo.com/

Are you READY to free up your time?

Optimize your Organization?

Grow revenue and reduce costs?

Build your leadership team?

Partnering with organizations like yours, we work with you to implement our proven methodology designed to transform your operations, while providing accurate advice and support for real success.

Translating strategy into frontline operations, URGEO helps leaders and the people within their organization excel at safe, on-time, on-budget and on-spec delivery. Let’s touch base so we can learn how we can level up your business. Contact us today: https://www.urgeo.com/contact

Kevin Tighe is the Founder & CEO of San Diego-based Beachly Brands, which builds subscription and digitally native brands rooted in beach, outdoor and active lifestyles. Under Kevin’s leadership, Beachly has been selected twice to the INC 500 – INC Magazine’s annual list of the fastest growing private companies in America. Kevin is a passionate entrepreneur, startup mentor, and non-profit volunteer. 

Born in Washington DC, Kevin migrated to the West Coast to attend the University of Southern California. While at USC, he started his first business and has been a serial entrepreneur ever since. He has over 15 years of experience in digital marketing, eCommerce, subscription commerce, and entrepreneurship. Kevin is among the select few who qualify as both a visionary and integrator. This quality gives him the unique ability to dream big and then distill his vision into an actionable and achievable plan. 

Kevin serves on the Board of Directors of Sustainable Surf, a non-profit focused on promoting and restoring ocean ecosystems. He also serves on the Board of Advisors of San Diego Sports Innovators. During his free time, you will likely find Kevin at the beach or in the ocean, surfing, paddle boarding, or racing outrigger canoes.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• How surfing and entrepreneurship were in Kevin’s blood from a young age
• What Kevin loves about surfing and the ocean
• The alignment between the idea of the next big wave and life’s next opportunity
• Kevin’s two failed businesses and what they taught him
• How much the right people and values matter to a solid business
• Why Kevin says “authenticity is extremely important to build brand”
• Why Kevin chose a self-funded launch for Beachly Brands
• The angel investors and subscribers who made the difference for Kevin
• Why Kevin is targeting healthy growth over the “growth at all costs” mindset

In this episode…

Kevin Tighe is an entrepreneur, passionate surfer, and Co-Founder/CEO of Beachly Brands. He is doing well, living in a home near to his thriving business, which is similarly near to the ocean. But Kevin’s message is that good business takes patience, and he learned through failures that the people you choose and the values you share matter to choosing your next wave of opportunity. 

Kevin gives Martin insight into his two entrepreneurial ventures that failed in his mid-twenties, opportunities he thought were really going to work. When he made his next move into his current business, he focussed more on building around his passions and finding the right partner who would share his focus on building authenticity into the brand.

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and Kevin Tighe discuss the details of how Kevin funded Beachly Brands and why he felt strongly about putting his own money in after the experience of losing other people’s money with his earlier companies. They break down Kevin’s choice of investors, his mindset on sustainable growth, and what he sees in his company’s future. This episode gives invaluable insight into a seasoned entrepreneur’s path to success.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• Kevin Tighe on LinkedIn
• Beachly Brands
• Mark Healey
• Blue Startups
• Hawaii Angels
• Lighter Capital
• Vessi
• ‘The Hard Thing About Hard Things’ by Ben Horowitz
• ’The Man in the Arena’ quote

Sponsor for this podcast...

This podcast is brought to you by URGEO, Operational excellence in action through the Are you Ready Program!

https://www.urgeo.com/

Are you READY to free up your time?

Optimize your Organization?

Grow revenue and reduce costs?

Build your leadership team?

Partnering with organizations like yours, we work with you to implement our proven methodology designed to transform your operations, while providing accurate advice and support for real success.

Translating strategy into frontline operations, URGEO helps leaders and the people within their organization excel at safe, on-time, on-budget and on-spec delivery. Let’s touch base so we can learn how we can level up your business. Contact us today: https://www.urgeo.com/contact

Chris McPhee is a Professional EOS Implementer®. He implements the Entrepreneurial Operating System® to help entrepreneurs get what they want from their businesses. EOS® is a management operating system that harnesses human energy — delivering better results for businesses and more fulfilling lives for the people who run them.

Chris’ passion is helping entrepreneurial, growth-oriented business leaders connect their visions with day-to-day operations to take their company to the next level. He has experienced first-hand the ups and downs of a high-growth entrepreneurial business and how difficult it can be to balance dedication to employees, family, and customers. He has used EOS® with great success and has seen the results in businesses when these simple, practical tools are applied. You have vision and passion, but you also need structure and organization to truly see your vision come to life.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Chris McPhee’s foundation in an entrepreneurial family
• How EOS implementation made a difference to Chris’ business
• How Chris was noticed for living out the core value of customer service
• Why Martin says “traction before vision” stands out in EOS
• What is meant by “rocks”
• Chris’ explanation of the visionary integrator mindset
• How Chris breaks down risk
• What is meant by a “lagging indicator”
• How to approach the question “what do you want from your business?”

In this episode…

Chris McPhee emerged from an entrepreneurial family and, in time, started his own consulting company. Throughout his business career, he came across the book “Traction” and the Entrepreneurial Operating System, and the implementation of that system made the eventual sale of his company more attractive to the acquiring buyer. Today he works as a Professional EOS Implementer, bringing his wealth of experience and knowledge to assist other entrepreneurs.

Chris has learned that customer service, the people in any business, are what really matter and it has become part of both his EOS and personal journey to coach and mentor young entrepreneurs. He leans into how growth is important but not just growth for the business, but personal growth as well. What are the goals you personally want to reach through your business?

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and guest Chris McPhee talk about the tools of EOS and how those tools affect a business positively if the implementation is something an entrepreneur leans into. They discuss risk, results, being people-driven, being visionary, and how entrepreneurship can benefit from the three practical tools found in EOS, identified as vision, traction, and health. This is a key episode for all entrepreneurs.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• Chris McPhee on LinkedIn
• EOS Worldwide - Chris McPhee
• ‘Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business’ by Gino Wickman
• Seth Godin

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