Companies that want to grow understand the need for investing in employees. Leaders of these companies make the hard decision to put money and time into skills training that lift their employees to a new level. One mistake that is common, not investing beyond just new skills. Gordon Vanscoy is today's guest. He is the CEO of Panther Speciality Pharmacy, #31 on the 2018 Inc 5000 list. Gordon shares why investing in employees is necessary. He also gives reasons why it is more than just new skills....
Sep 18, 2019•25 min•Ep. 460
Creating an agile culture gives you speed and results. Agile is the norm in development teams. They have proven the value of small incremental growth that evolves the technology quickly. Some companies are embracing an agile culture across the whole company to improve growth. Think that each team has a new project that is the prime focus every two weeks. They learn to complete projects instead of just ongoing work. Our guest today is Andrew Paradise, Co-Founder of Skillz. Skillz was the #1 faste...
Sep 16, 2019•27 min•Ep. 459
Maintaining a culture with a remote team requires intention. The culture of an organization is the cornerstone of how work gets done. It is easier when the people show up to the same building and gather face-to-face to maintain culture as the company grows. As companies have embraced virtual workers, the idea of maintaining a culture with a remote team has become more critical. Today's guest is Jeff Kupietzy, CEO of PowerInbox, who shares how they have to see a culture with their remote team. Po...
Sep 11, 2019•27 min•Ep. 458
Discover the rules of making a partnership work from two fast-growth c-founders. Partnerships can be hard. Most tend to end in frustration and turmoil. Partnerships are much harder when you don't have a framework for making the partnership work. Today's guests are Sam Khorramian and Oliver Graff. These two co-founders started Big Block Realty with the right frameworks to guide their growth. Big Block Realty ranked on the Inc. 500 list between 2016 and 2018, ranked 26th, 31st, and 33rd, respectiv...
Sep 09, 2019•27 min•Ep. 457
The journey of increasing team confidence requires that you lead by example. This means your confidence level has to rise higher than your team. The energy that you have when your confidence level is high will give you a chance to increasing team confidence. My guest today is Mark Ellis, co-founder of Liftoff. Liftoff was #8 on the 2017 Inc 500 List. Mark gives the critical principles of getting a team firing on all cylinders. Increasing team confidence will provide you with a team that shares t...
Sep 04, 2019•24 min•Ep. 456
People first leadership is rare. Putting your team before your clients are tough. After hundreds of interviews with fast-growth leaders, I see that most of these leaders know the value of their people. They are willing to invest in their people and create an employee experience that drives a customer-centered workforce. People first leadership is a way to ensure that your people know you care about them and raises their loyalty to the company. Our guest is Jeff Knauss, co-founder of Digital Hyve...
Sep 02, 2019•27 min•Ep. 455
Vulnerability is often seen as a weakness. When it comes to leadership vulnerability, it is a strength. Those that dare to have leadership vulnerability will say I don't know the answer. They will share from their heart. My guest today is Thomas Donohue, founder of Level Agency. Level Agency ranked #190 on the 2014 Inc List. Thomas shared his challenges with leadership vulnerability during the interview. Being a great leader requires that you build trust. Trust requires authenticity. Join us tod...
Aug 28, 2019•35 min•Ep. 454
Getting your employees to want to do the work is very different than just getting them to do the work. You may think it is semantics, but getting your employees to want to do the work has tremendous power. Leadership is a journey of getting your employees to see their highest potential and live their best lives. I find that employees that want to do the work when they feel that that work will align with their personal goals. They also want to create value for the organization that gets them reco...
Aug 26, 2019•27 min•Ep. 453
One of the most important jobs for you as a leader is getting employees to think for themselves. You want them to see the challenges of the organization internally and externally. You want them to think for themselves instead of following the playbook. The reason is that the steps in the playbook are likely to change. When they think for themselves, you will see their work proactively and innovatively. Today's interview is with Mark Gallagher, Founder, and CEO of GForce Solutions. This company w...
Aug 21, 2019•30 min•Ep. 452
Employees with an entrepreneurial spirit have the capability to be more resilient, resourceful, and innovative. Those with the entrepreneurial spirit have the ability to create new areas for growth. This interview is with Kyle Goguen, founder of Pawstruck. This company was #87 out of 5,000 on the 2018 Inc List. They grew at 3,891 percent in the previous three years. Kyle gives us the real reason why he encourages the entrepreneurial spirit within his company. I love this interview because it giv...
Aug 18, 2019•26 min•Ep. 451
Developing entrepreneurial employees may scare you. This is more than just embracing intrapreneurs. Entrepreneurial employees have the ability to create massive value for the organization. Today's guest is Sean Elan, President of Affordable Luxury Group. This company was #55 out of 5,000 on the 2018 Inc List. They had a growth rate of 4,797 percent in the previous three years. Sean and I talk about getting employees to shift to being proactive. Entrepreneurial employees are also able to contribu...
Aug 14, 2019•27 min•Ep. 450
I remember exactly where I was when I heard the term "operationalize your values." A speaker asked the audience of more than a thousand if they had done the work beyond creating values. The process of operationalizing your values will take the company values from a project to a way of living the values. Today I am talking to Zach Smith, CEO of Funded Today about the steps to operationalize your values. We will talk about why it matters and what you can do to avoid mistakes in your journey to ope...
Aug 12, 2019•24 min•Ep. 449
Most leaders don't think about how to make work fun. A few evolved leaders do think about adding fun into the work environment. Today's interview is with Adham Yusupov, founder of Ecology Mir Group. Adham gives the reasons behind making work fun especially important when you have such a critical mission. When you make work fun, you give your team a way to connect to more than just the work. They relate to each other on a deeper level. Discover new ideas about how you can make work fun. Get the s...
Aug 07, 2019•25 min•Ep. 448
Companies want better communication. They really want to improve collaboration amongst their team members. You hire smart people so they can create amazing results. When they collaborate, you see terrific contributions and buy-in. Today's guest is Brad Griffith, co-founder with GameTime.co. Brad shares with me a specific strategy that aligns his team together and improves collaboration. Tune-in to the interview so that you can improve collaboration within your culture. Get the show notes for Imp...
Aug 05, 2019•31 min•Ep. 447
In the start-up world, there is a famous saying, "move fast and break things" that comes from the speed of action and their comfort with failure. This is the same mantra that Mark Zuckerberg used to align the Facebook team to the early days of growing to more than 1 billion users and beyond. Today, I am talking to Shay Berman, President of Digital Resource. Shay shared with me why move fast and break things is something that has impacted their growth. We look at the courage that it takes and the...
Jul 31, 2019•23 min•Ep. 446
Every leader thinks about how to improve the process of communicating with your team. The word and the tone of our communication have so much to do with how we interact together. Teams that communicate well will outperform those that don't. Today I am talking Nir Polak, the CEO of Exabeam. Exabeam was #12 on the Inc 5000 list in 2018. They had a 14,032% growth rate in the three years prior. Exabeam develops security intelligence products to help companies of all sizes protect their information. ...
Jul 29, 2019•27 min•Ep. 445
Having a nimble culture is a requirement when you want to have a fast-growing company. A nimble culture is one where people move fast, break things, and challenge the old way. Being nimble becomes a way of doing everything. Fast decision and quick pivots are natural. Today I am talking to Jan Bednar, Founder, and CEO of ShipMonk. ShipMonk has exploded in growth to reach 29th out of 5000 on the 2018 Inc list. Jan shares with me how to internalize the core elements of a nimble culture. Discover th...
Jul 24, 2019•28 min•Ep. 444
When you have a fast-growth culture, you have a team that will move with agility and one that embraces change. Culture is often claimed to be important to company stability. It is critical to company growth. Today, I talk with Kevin Lustig, CEO of Scientist.com to discuss the power of a fast-growth culture. Kevin shares details about leadership and team that will help you develop your fast-growth culture.
Jul 22, 2019•27 min•Ep. 433
Discover how to hire the best employees with one of the fastest-growing companies in the 2018 Inc Magazine List. Founder and CEO, Ben Wright, shares how Velocity Global grew so fast. He decided only to hire 10s. He wanted a culture of the best employees. Get the details on how to hire the best employees in this interview with Ben. He shares the five steps and why he does not start with looking at the employee's resume. Get the show notes for How to Hire the Best Employees with Ben Wright at Velo...
Jul 17, 2019•29 min•Ep. 442
Growth Think Tank is the new name. Welcome to the podcast. For five years this show has been called, Leaders in the Trenches. The change to Growth Think Tank is to represent significant changes happening. Tune in to this episode to see what is different and what is the same. Growth Think Tank is here to help you grow your company and grow as a leader. Get the show notes for New and Improved - New Name is Growth Think Tank Click to Tweet: Listening to an amazing episode on Growth Think Tank with ...
Jul 15, 2019•11 min•Ep. 441
Flexible working arrangements are the new craze. Employees want to work from home or coffee shops on their time. Employers want to embrace flexibility and yet get the work done too. Beyond flexible working, arrangements are the notion of working less than 40 hours in a week. I found Natalie Nagele, co-founder of Wildbit. They are a digital agency that has embraced the idea of a standard 32 hours work week. We talk about flexible working arrangements and how they came to fit the work into four da...
Jul 10, 2019•29 min•Ep. 440
Mental barriers for leaders can stop even the strongest most committed. We all have mental barriers or if you prefer psychological obstacles. We can do the work to go beyond them, or we can let those mental barriers prevent us. I sought out someone that has pushed past many mental barriers and who has helped millions do the same. Today we have the founder of Spartan, Joe De Sena. Spartan is the world’s largest obstacle race and endurance brand. Each year more than a million people participate in...
Jul 08, 2019•19 min•Ep. 439
Creative ideas are necessary for companies that are evolving quickly and innovating in their market. Creative ideas don't come from just the good ideas. You have to have bad ideas too. I talked with Zvi Band, co-founder of Contactually, the CRM that provides unique features to enhance relationships. Zvi shared with me how bad ideas become creative ideas. He shared that some of those bad ideas are his. He wants his team to feel safe to contribute to the creative ideas of the company strategy. Dis...
Jul 03, 2019•21 min•Ep. 438
Discover how to create team alignment that improves your company growth. One critical factor for a leader is to create team alignment so that each person is going in the same direction. Most companies find it easy to alignment when they are small (less than five employees) and tend to struggle in creating team alignment as the team grows. Our guest today is Diedre Paknad, co-founder of WorkBoard. Diedre’s company creates software to help an organization with their OKRs (Objectives and Key Result...
Jul 01, 2019•22 min•Ep. 437
Improving your leadership skills is required in today’s professional world. The pace of change drives us to think of new ways to activate people. Improving your leadership skills will make you more valuable to your company. Joel Beasley is the founder of Leader Bits, a company that creates bite-sized training that aims to improve your leadership skills. The company mainly focuses on technical employees that want to move into a leadership role. Discover new insights on how to improve your leaders...
Jun 26, 2019•23 min•Ep. 436
Leading a turnaround will challenge even the best leaders. The momentum is going the wrong way, and there is never just one thing off. In my decades of leadership, leading a turnaround for a company is hard. Today I’m talking with Steve Lucas, former CEO of Marketo. Adobe acquired Marketo in late 2018. Steve is now SVP, Business Development, Digital Experience at Adobe. Steve led the turnaround of Marketo when retention was soaring, and the people had lost the desire to contribute meaningful wor...
Jun 24, 2019•22 min•Ep. 435
Developing a content strategy is often overlooked. Either we become reactive and create content when we feel like it. Or we fail to create content that aligns with our goals and leads people through the customer journey. I generate a ton of content. Over the years, I have discovered the power of developing a content strategy. Today’s guest is Michael Brenner, who is an expert in content strategy for B2B companies. Tune-in to today’s interview where Michael shares his wisdom on developing a conte...
Jun 19, 2019•21 min•Ep. 434
Better 1 on 1 meetings with your direct reports starts with a better understanding of the person that you are talking too. If you understand what they want to accomplish, the progress they have made lately, and the challenges they are facing, your 1 on 1 meetings with each employee will improve. There are many ways to tune in to them before the meeting. Today's guest is David Hassell, CEO of 15five.com. Their software enables you to tune-in to what is going on with your people and creates powerf...
Jun 17, 2019•20 min•Ep. 433
Operationalizing Your Values is a process that takes understanding and application of values to the deepest levels in the company. When you operationalize your values, you create a way for the people to live and work according to the values of the company. Operationalizing your value is often skipped. Most of the time it is overlooked. Entrepreneurial leaders are often optimistic. They are so optimistic that they believe once the values are created, that everyone will change the way they behave ...
Jun 12, 2019•22 min•Ep. 432
Leading a rebrand is a challenge no matter what the business. But when you have a brand with a legacy in their market the biggest challenge is aligning people inside and outside the company to this new change. Our guest today is David Marine, Chief Marketing Officer for Coldwell Banker. David shares his strategies so you can learn from the process. where he positively influences consumers and the brand's global network on a mass scale from his management of world-class, award-winning advertising...
Jun 10, 2019•21 min•Ep. 431
