Scaling Up Business Podcast

Build the fort! Ideas that seemed simple when you were a kid may seem insurmountable as an adult, but scaling up and building out your dreams really doesn’t have to be that hard.   Dubbed “The Startup Whisperer” by startup community enthusiasts, Christopher Heivly is a life-long entrepreneur and multifaceted investor who spent forty years working as, for, and with entrepreneurs. Prior to becoming a successful startup community builder and consultant, Chris co-founded MapQuest — which sold to AOL for $1.2 billion. He currently serves as a managing director of The Startup Factory and is a highly sought-after public speaker. Building a fort is a metaphor for all of the things that are required to hack away at a vision. Get rid of the noise, stop overanalyzing, and simplify your approach. How would you have tackled a project as massive as building a fort when you were 10 years old? Whether you’re building a startup or scaling up your business, Chris takes an approach that feels as simple as building a fort. Chr

Great execution has a great rhythm. It’s all about proactive talking, planning, and making things happen.   Years ago, Bill had to create annual plans and quarterly reviews on a corporate job that worked beautifully. With his own business, he would often forget his annual plans and so added in a mid-year check-in. Even then, they still forgot about the plans. A quarterly review combined with weekly meetings and daily huddles, and Bill now knows the power of executing plans proactively with a regular rhythm that works. The key to success here is to consider when each plan is going to take place. Keep it consistent, keep it regular, and watch the progress happen. Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube Recruiter.com Shortlist (use code scaleup) Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scaling Up Coaches (formerly Gazelles). We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so m

What is stakeholder capitalism and why should you care about it? If the work that you’re doing doesn’t help you sleep better at night, there just might be some room for improvement in your efforts in stakeholder capitalism.   Kent Gregoire is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of Stakeholder Business. He is on a mission to help entrepreneurs transform their companies for maximum impact. In his consultancy work, he is known as the “CEO to CEOs” who focuses on a win-win approach that delivers exponential value to all stakeholders. Kent’s efforts over the years have evolved from conscious capitalism into stakeholder capitalism, which focuses on building a socially and environmentally sustainable world. When companies begin to create value and optimize that value for their stakeholders — not just their shareholders — they become stronger, more resilient, and more profitable. Stakeholders are a 360-degree group, including the customers, investors, employees, community, environment, suppliers, business part

We all view ourselves and the world around us in either optimistic or pessimistic ways, but really, we need both views to get a clear picture of reality.   Planning for what is most likely to go wrong has great benefits because things are going to go wrong. Focusing on what might go wrong doesn’t guarantee that thing will happen, it just gives you the opportunity to prepare for that possibility. Bill once made a mistake by not preparing for what could go wrong and ended up wasting several million dollars on materials and production that he wouldn’t need for years. Don’t make the same mistake he did, just consider what could go wrong and what you can do to prepare for it. Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube Recruiter.com Shortlist (use code scaleup) Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scaling Up Coaches (formerly Gazelles). We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed

What can we learn from sports about making the right calls? Sally Jenkins has been a Washington Post columnist and feature writer for nearly 30 years. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2019 and the winner of the Associated Press Red Smith Award for Outstanding Contributions to Sports Journalism in 2021.   For sports fans, business leaders, and anyone who wants to elevate their game — whatever that game may be — Sally has joined the podcast today to share what it takes for ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results. Sally’s new book The Right Call highlights how people make the right decisions under pressure. Sally grew up with a front-row seat to some of the greatest sporting events of all time and watched how leaders make decisions in real time. Her book examines the commonalities of decisions made under stress and the methodologies that lead to making the right call. Making the right call starts with approaching each day with an organized method. Too often we drift through our days witho

Where is the best place to look to do great planning? Too often businesses look only at the here and now of the problems and issues they’re facing.   Bill worked with a contractor a few years ago who had a well-developed cadence of weekly “issue discussion” meetings. While they were solving a lot of short-term issues, they made little progress on their bigger, strategic goals. If you only focus on present issues, you’ll never have a chance to make progress in the future. Start with the end in mind. What is your BHAG? Break it down and figure out what you can do this year to reach it. When you put your intentions further out, you are far more likely to reach your biggest goals. Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube Recruiter.com Shortlist (use code scaleup) Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scaling Up Coaches (formerly Gazelles). We share how the fastest-growing companies su

Whether or not you consider yourself a risk taker, life requires taking risks every single day. From relationships and parenting to the financial and careers we pursue, we all take risks, bet big, and hopefully win often. We are surrounded by risk, and how we look at it, relate to it, and leverage it makes all the difference.   Angie Witkowski is the NY Times best-selling author of the business books SPARK, Bet on You, and Leading From the Front. She’s been a coach inside the world’s best businesses and has shared a keynote stage with some of the most influential leaders of our time. Angie served as an officer in the Marine Corps and holds a BA and MBA from the University of Michigan. Too often we celebrate overnight successes while overlooking the years of hard work and risk that went into making the success happen. Taking your time, fully understanding your financial situation, and relying on your ability to make good decisions will all have a major impact on the outcome of the risks you take. Consider fi

What happens when you hear “no’”? How do you handle that rejection?   Bill once coached a woman named Debbie who was in conflict with her business partner. She wasn’t handling the rejection very well, and it was clear that she hadn’t considered what her business partner possibly thought about her. When she was able to think more openly about the other side of the conflict, she realized that she was also contributing to the tension. At Bill’s recommendation, when she showed more interest in her partner’s project, she got the results she wanted. With just one shift in her actions, the partner magically changed. Simply put, if you can shift the way you handle rejection, change can happen. Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube Recruiter.com Shortlist (use code scaleup) Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scaling Up Coaches (formerly Gazelles). We share how the fastest-growing com

Real connections win out over canned messages every single time, but wow can you amplify your brand narrative through organic content that makes those meaningful connections?   Morgan Ingram is the founder behind Ascencion Media Productions (AMP). He’s a sales educator and content creator and has been named one of the Top 50 Sales Leaders to Follow by LinkedIn, a Top 25 Sales Development Thought Leader by Inside Sales, and a Four-time LinkedIn Top Sales Voices. Technology has enabled people to be lazy at scale, which can have a massive negative impact on your potential audience. Consider the thousands of emails you have sent out without doing your homework first, and how many of those recipients marked your unwanted email as spam. Or the impersonal connections you’ve tried to make on LinkedIn without even reviewing a person’s profile first. These impersonal efforts are not only a waste of your time, they have the potential to damage any future opportunities you might have otherwise had. Personalization is k

Something always seems to get in the way of a perfect pitch. What you are worried about is tripping you up more than what’s going on with the other party. What gets in the way of a perfect pitch is YOU.   Bill coached Nick through setting his worries aside so that he could more effectively focus on his pitch. He was able to pause his worries, the board loved his pitch, and the company was improved by his input. Stop worrying, set yourself aside, and think more about your client than you are about yourself. That is the key. Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube Recruiter.com Shortlist (use code scaleup) Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scaling Up Coaches (formerly Gazelles). We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the show, is an international business coach who works with C-Suite leaders to ac

What makes great marketing? Marketing that is efficient, cost-effective, and memorable isn’t easy to come by, but it can make all the difference in growing your business.   Brandon is CEO of Win BIG Media, and formerly, as the COO, Brandon is a leader in the marketing world. He is SPHR Certified and is an experienced operations professional who has worked with various teams to improve processes, advance team engagement, and create winning cultures with great success. The data about a company reveals the story that the marketing needs to tell. Off-cycle marketing might be the ticket to changing the message altogether, and the creative components of company branding can help pinpoint the information the customer needs to see. Many companies today are tightening their budgets in preparation for an impending recession, but whether another recession arrives or not, the lessons learned from the recession of 2009 can benefit businesses today. Studies have revealed that many companies that cut or eliminated marketi

How can you hear more “yes”? Be more engaging. When someone is engaged with you, they will then commit to action.   Hearing “yes” in action has less to do with how effective your pitch is and much more to do with how effectively you are listening for what matters to the other person. If you really pay attention to what they are saying, it will be much easier to find a way in your proposal to meet their needs. So listen carefully. Because when you do, you’re much more likely to hear “yes.” Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube Recruiter.com Shortlist (use code scaleup) Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scaling Up Coaches (formerly Gazelles). We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the show, is an international business coach who works with C-Suite leaders to achieve breakthrough growth. We help

Just as professional pilots, doctors, and golfers regularly return to the fundamentals, it is just as essential in the business world to continually return to the basics of the performance platform. Going back to the basics is far more effective than constantly seeking new techniques.   This week, Bill talks with Verne Harnish, a world-leading expert, speaker, author, and entrepreneur in the field of business growth. Together they offer insights into Altman’s Maxims, Jobs’s doers vs. dreamers, the power of asking, daily routines, remote work, and much more. Everyone will tell you it’s important to focus, but Sam Altman, founder of ChatGPT, advises in his 13 Maxims that we would do well to step back and determine what it is that we should focus on. You don’t really have a strategy if you’re not doing everything differently anyway. The key is that the ambitious goals are not simply linear, they are exponential. Have overconfidence in yourself. Be bold in your goals. Surround yourself with people who challenge

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. As a child, Bill lived on the north shore of Oahu and was invited to surf Waimea Bay. He was brave enough to paddle out but then talked himself out of every wave as it came along. He was lit up by the bold audacity of being able to say he had surfed these famous waves, even though he never actually caught a wave.   Being bold can also mean being frightened. There is power in going for what you really want. A BHAG (big hairy, audacious goal) is not a small thing, it’s a thing that is meant to frighten you into action! Of course, there is a balance between ridiculous and extraordinary, but when you strike that balance, you will find success. Being scared (in a good way) is key to powerful boldness that inspires. Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube Recruiter.com Shortlist (use code scaleup) Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scalin

The future of health matters to every one of us. From biotech to the latest innovations, we are all impacted by the rapid transformations that are happening in healthcare.   Neil is the Founder & CEO of Bioverge Ventures, an investment platform democratizing access to enable individuals to diversify their portfolio with private biotech and healthcare investments for the purposes of long-term wealth creation. Between surviving a plane crash and watching helplessly as his grandmother battled cancer, Neil realized that biotechnology was the perfect way to create more tools for more doctors to help more patients. He highlights his experience with an almost sci-fi-like cure for a genetic disease with the use of novel biotechnologies and recognizes that the future of biotech is happening today.  But what does this mean for investors? The pandemic proved that when biotech needs to move fast it is entirely capable of doing so. Neil points out that the loss ratios in biotech aren’t as high as it is for software

Do you have a range of emotional expressions? We’re often taught to keep our emotions in check and not be expressive, but there is power in sharing your emotions. Even if you’re having a bad day, you can express yourself as a leader and leave people with an inspiring thought about your stand on an issue.   Bill had an experience with a man named Alex who was ready to quit his job as a CEO. He decided it was time to move on after a setback on a project, but after an effective coaching session, he found the strength to share his experience and emotions with his team. When he did, he found even better solutions and engaged his team in a way that he wouldn’t have been able to if he hadn’t had the courage to express his emotions. All leaders experience a full range of emotions; the best ones are those who are willing to express themselves in ways that engage and inspire others. Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube

How can bad language enhance the way you connect with others? There is power in language. As a leader, the way you articulate your company’s value and vision matters. There is power in using language intentionally and connecting with others with the words you use.   Professor Valerie Fridland is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Nevada, Reno. She received her Ph.D. in Linguistics, with a specialization in Sociolinguistics, from Michigan State University. As a sociolinguist, Professor Fridland’s main focus is on varieties of American English. The goal of her research is to better understand how variability in speech production relates to variability in speech perception and how social identity affects speech. The pattern of our speech has a huge impact on our behavior toward others, how persuasive we are, and how we are perceived by others. Often we use language not simply to fit in, but more impactfully, to stand out. Novel speech draws others in, in ways that basic words simply don’t have the

Inspiring leaders are the best kind of leaders to be around, and all of us have room to be more inspiring. What inspires you? And what will inspire other people? Ask yourself what you care about, and the answers will come easily.   Bill heard a captivating story from an inspiring leader who did a beautiful job of articulating his future vision. The formula here is simple — share what your story is, how you got started, and why you care about the work you’re doing. Paint a picture of scalability and what the world would look like if your vision was carried out. Sharing your vision is a simple powerful way to captivate your audience and, more importantly, inspire them as a leader. Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube Recruiter.com Shortlist (use code scaleup) Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scaling Up Coaches (formerly Gazelles). We share how the fastest-growing companies

How do you build something cool enough that it becomes a disruptor? It starts with a vision for the future and is carried out by leaders who are both strong and vulnerable.   Charlene Li is an expert on disruptive transformation, leadership, customer experience, and the future of work. Her perspectives from advising hundreds of companies ranging from Adobe to Southwest Airlines and 14 of the Dow Jones Industrial 30 companies provide insights to support a winning strategy for disruptive growth, and a plan to identify and seize an opportunity no one else has the audacity or confidence to reach for. Charlene rode the wave of the disruption back in the 90s  as journalism was majorly disrupted by the revolution of the Internet.  Traditional media as we knew it would never be the same.  Charlene knows that disruption has to be viewed as a positive force, no matter how hard it might be. Leaders who can see disruption as growth are the ones who will benefit from all that stands to be gained by the change.  The key

You’re already strong, but what’s missing from your life and your leadership? Bill highlights the four critical skills that can make all the difference for leaders.   The first skill is knowing your purpose. What is the why for you and the why for your business? Second is engaging people with effective proposals and offers, but more importantly, being able to listen to people so that you can help them commit and act. The third skill is planning and the fourth and final skill is coaching. Coaching keeps people in the game, even when they get discouraged or want to quit. Figure out where your strengths are and where you have room to develop and go deeper. When you do, you have the potential to level up and combine those strengths with what fulfills both your personal and life’s purposes. Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube Recruiter.com Shortlist (use code scaleup) Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Ver