On Your Mark, Get Set, Grow!

Culmen International is like a company you'd expect to see in a James Bond movie. They help the government to detect and interdict illicit trafficking of weapons of mass destruction, explosives, narcotics, and other weapons. They train people in counter-terrorism, ordnance logistics, and border security. And a couple years ago, Culmen, founded and led by its long-time CEO Dan Berkon, made a major play to enter a new line of business. Success was immediate, but there was one problem. The company had to raise $11 million--and fast--or they'd lose the contract. You'll learn in today's podcast how they scrambled to raise money, secure the contract, and double the size of the company. You'll also learn how Dan pulled a Jerry McGuire-like exit from his first employer, took one employee with him, and went on to build a $50 million company with offices all over the world.

Brenda Jacobsen started in the family business right out of college and eventually rose to CEO of the company. After a "type-A driven business woman" told Brenda about the coach she was using and raved about the tremendous results she was getting, Brenda decided to contact the coach. Shortly after hiring CEO Coaching International coach Jay Reid, Brenda's company got an unsolicited offer to buy her company. The timing was perfect. Working with Jay and the team at CEO Coaching, Brenda was able to bring in another buyer to the table, play one off the other, and get a much higher sale price--all while negotiating a good payout for herself. This is the behind the scenes story of a business sale that can benefit all small to mid-size companies when it comes time to sell your company.

Sheldon Harris, the former president of Cold Stone Creamery, entrepreneur, and now coach at CEO Coaching International, says meetings don’t have to be a boring waste of time. In fact, he says there’s a specific “cadence” of meetings and a structure that enables leaders at all levels to be highly effective communicators. By following his strategy, you can turn internal communication into a scalable competitive advantage for your company.

The amazing story of how two guys started a revolutionary real estate e-commerce company that has transacted more than $30 billion in real estate--online.   Rob Friedman and his high school friend Jeff started an offline auction company that did reasonably well. But then the internet came along and they decided to put some listings online. Things really took off when, after four years of badgering the owner, they bought the domain Auction.com for $1.7 million and rebranded the company. Today, Auction.com is the country's (and possibly the world's) largest e-commerce seller of real estate. And they hold a world record! The Auction.com platform was used to facilitate the largest verified e-commerce transaction in history based on current Guinness World Records information: The $96 million sale of Manhattan Towers, a two-building, 309,734 square-foot office property in Southern California.

Like great entrepreneurs, Todd and Sean saw a need and built a company to fill it. Sensing that e-commerce was about to explode in the late 1990s, they decided to start a company to supply these firms with fulfillment services. Right on queue, business took off. However, they had to overcome early stumbles in hiring the right people for the leadership team before the business was on solid footing. Today, people, culture, and systems keep the firm on the Inc. 5000 list.

Former COO of Grasshopper shares the three keys and one metric you must optimize as you start massively scaling your business. Don Schiavone, the former COO of fast-growing Grasshopper, "The Entrepreneur's Phone System," was instrumental in leading the company as it optimized its 100% digital marketing growth strategy and its eventual sale to a Fortune 500 company. He brings together an in-depth understanding of technology with a data-driven “test-everything” philosophy: You can’t manage what you can’t measure. While coaching entrepreneurs at CEO Coaching, Don's approach to coaching focuses on three pillars of success: people, process, and systems.

CEOs from around the world gathered in Newport Beach, CA recently for the third annual CEO Coaching International Summit. Guest speakers included bestselling authors, health experts, CEO Coaching's founding partner Mark Moses as well as several of CEO Coaching's clients. By the end of the two days of learning, networking, and socializing, attendees headed home to all parts of the world with new ideas and relationships that will accelerate their business growth for years to come. In today's episode, we discuss many of the key takeaways from the event. 

Josh McCarter led the spinout of a small firm and with great leadership and a big vision, re-focused the company into new markets and the company experienced explosive growth. As a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, Booker’s platform empowers firms such as spas, salons, dance studios, and photographers to manage their appointments, their staff, and their customers, and, importantly, be able to transact with those customers. With a recent acquisition, Booker has become an end-to-end platform that a service-based business can use to both run their operations and grow their sales. In today's show, Josh discusses the keys to the firm's growth and how the SaaS model works. 

What started as a bunch of nerds who got together in downtown LA to share projects they were working on has turned into a brand new genre of entertainment that fuses the physical and digital to create a new world of social amusement. Brent and his friends created an initial interactive high-tech game and installed it at local parties just for fun with no profit motive. After doing about eight parties, big brands began calling and asking if Brent and his colleagues could create an immersive technology experience for their parties. Quickly, the vision expanded. While everybody knows the importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering, math), Brent is passionate about rebranding STEM learning to STEAM with the inclusion of art and creative. He is motivated by the power of group games and interactive media to bring people together in fun and meaningful ways. As a UCLA-trained engineer, he is a hands-on maker who uses rapid prototyping to turn vision into reality--and make money in the process.

Rick Stern, an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year® Award finalist builds a telecom company that lands on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing private companies in America for 7 consecutive years--and counting. He set a goal early in life to start a successful company, and now he's the CEO of a 7-time Inc. 5000 member. Yet he’ll proudly show you pictures of his wife and four kids before he’ll hand you a business card. Because it’s still all about winning one for the team. Here's one of many takeaways from the podcast. 1. Reset your goals BEFORE you achieve them. Most people are happy just to meet their goals. Rick and his business partner Ron Grason have always been very aggressive about what's next. "If we were able to walk a mile, we wanted to run three. When we ran two, we reset the goal to run 10. We've always stretched ourselves from a goal-setting perspective and continue to spread our wings for growth opportunities, whether it be sales, product, network, or something else," said Rick. Are y

Growing up in a working-class family in southwest Sydney, Australia with no entrepreneurs in her family, Jo took the traditional and safe route and became an employee of somebody else’s company. She quickly rose to CEO but by age 32, was bored out of her mind. She quit and eventually started Job Capital, a payroll and migration services firm, and built it to more than $40 million in revenue. More startup companies followed and in 2012, she was named a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Today, Jo still leads Job Capital and she’s also building her newest company, Rare Birds, into a global powerhouse to empower women entrepreneurs around the world. In today’s podcast, Jo shares her inspiring story and the hard fought business lessons that have propelled her career.

In today’s podcast, Ryan Rieches shares a template for enhancing your brand and getting to the essence of your "unique promise of distinction." Coaching Takeaways 1.  Branding is a team activity. Your branding program must be built by a cross-functional team so you can get companywide buy in. 2.  Be intentional about how you position your brand or your competition will do it for you. Claim your space in your prospect and clients' minds and if it's too crowded, create a new category. 3.  If you can't state your brand essence in five words or less, start over. Clarity and emotional power are important components of your brand. Use as few words as possible to guide you in developing and living your brand. A Chicago native, Ryan Rieches moved to SoCal in the 1980s and founded an advertising design studio. Later, he partnered with Ray Baird and built RiechesBaird into one of the nation's foremost B2B brand strategy firms. Under Ryan’s leadership, RiechesBaird received international recognition for its brand strate

Born and raised in Russia, Inna attended college in the U.S and loved it so much she decided to stay. With a love for linguistics and fluent in several languages, Inna met her co-founder, Olga Smirnova, and the two decided to start their own translation company. After initially starting out translating English and Russian, they expanded and now translate more than 100 languages. In today’s podcast, Inna shares her story and business lessons learned as a woman who leaves her home country, comes to the U.S., and lives the American dream.

Cyrus Sigari and his childhood best friend Ben founded jetAviva to help make people's dreams come true. They just happen to do that by selling executive jets--over a billion dollars worth! As an Iranian Muslim and an Israeli Jew, these two men have put aside geo-political differences to build a hugely successful company and remain best friends. Cyrus has an incredibly positive outlook on life and business that is not naively simple, rather, it's refreshingly candid. In today’s podcast, Cyrus shares some true wisdom about life as well as some insightful comments about building and running a successful luxury goods company.

Starting from zero in a small town in Canada, Mark tasted initial success and then decided to pack up the truck and head to southern California. He quickly started his first company and by age 26, had built it up to 250 locations and 3,000 people. Company two quickly followed and in 13 years was doing $1.6 billion in annual volume. Today, he leads a team of highly skilled coaches at CEO Coaching International who are guiding some of the world's leading entrepreneurs on the road to make big happen. In this episode, Mark discusses some of the highlights from his new book, Make Big Happen: How to Live, Work, and Give BIG.

Steve Lockshin founded several FinTech companies including a multi-billion dollar registered investment advisory firm, a wealth management reporting solutions company, and his newest company, AdvicePeriod, which is redefining what it means to be a wealth management firm in the age of FinTech. Along the way he was named the #1 independent financial advisor in the United Sates by Barron’s Magazine in 2011, and he became an investor is several hot startups. In today’s podcast, Steve shares some of the key lessons and insights he learned on the road to becoming a top entrepreneur.

After the tech bubble collapsed in 2000, Sheldon Wolitski’s company went 6 months with zero revenue. Then he got a call from his lender saying they were foreclosing on his house. Suddenly, something clicked. Sheldon started making a few changes, grabbed $12,000 from an unused credit card, and within nine years, grew his professional staffing company from $0 to $10 million in revenue. But wait, there’s more. In the past five years, his business exploded to $110 million in revenue. In today’s podcast, he shares his amazing story and the key business insights that led to this dramatic turnaround.

Sometimes the best opportunities are right under your nose. Steve McLeod became a firefighter in at age 19. After responding to a wide variety of emergencies including house fires, vehicle accidents, rescues, explosions, and mining disasters, he realized there was a woeful lack of training in how to prevent and respond to disasters, particularly in the mining and oil and gas industries. So, at age 23, he started offering training programs to companies on his days off from being a firefighter. Once he hit a million dollars in revenue, he quit his firefighter job, got serious about building a company, and today, Fire and Safety Australia is fast-growing, multi-million dollar company that is “forever changing safety in the world, one experience at a time.”

Just as you work hard to build your company, you should apply that same diligence to managing your financial affairs. Fortunately, you don’t have to become a financial expert yourself. Instead, find a trusted financial professional who can act as the “quarterback” and coordinate the appropriate financial, tax, insurance, and legal pros you need to minimize your taxes and maximize your after-tax results. Long-time financial advisor Brett Ellen has worked with high-net worth entrepreneurs and CEOs for years and in today’s show, he discusses several key tax-saving strategies you might want to consider.

John DiJulius started his first business, John Robert's Spa, 23 years ago. Today, it is consistently recognized as one of the top 20 salons in America. It didn't start out that way, though. As the company opened new salons, service began to deteriorate. Frustrated, John began studying the greatest customer service companies such as Ritz Carlton, Disney, and Nordstrom to discover their secret to embedding a service culture throughout multiple locations. In his research he stumbled upon the formula, codified it, and now spreads this radical customer service revolution message throughout the world. In today's episode, you'll learn the secret formula to use radical customer service to make price irrelevant.