Entrepreneurs at Scale: Recent Episodes
Neale Lewis
This podcast shares insights from entrepreneurs, founders and CEOs on how they have grown themselves, developed their teams and successfully Scaled Up their organisations.
Cameron Herold is a top business consultant, best-selling author, and speaker. He’s the mastermind behind hundreds of companies’ exponential growth and he’s touched thousands of businesses indirectly through his work.
At age 21, he had 14 employees. By 35, he’d helped build his first two 100 Million Dollar companies. By the age of 42, Cameron had engineered 1-800-GOT-JUNK?’s spectacular growth from $2 Million to $106 Million in revenue in just six years.
Cameron is the author of Vivid Vision, Second in Command and Double Double and we dig into the key learnings from these books as well as the COO alliance during the podcast
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The importance of knowing yourself as CEO and how to find an A player COO who is a compliment to your strengths and can pick up all the areas that takes your energy away
- Use the Mission to Mars exercise to help you discover your core values. Never make your values a single word, instead a short sentence that everone can rescite:
- Deliver What We Promise
- Be Open & Vulnerable
- Show Respect for Everyone
- Grow Big, Act Small
- Have Some Effin’ Fun
- The Four component parts to building your culture: Core Values, Core Purpose ( Your Why) , BHAG, One Year Plan
- The benefits of having a vivid vision, how you see your company three years from today. When everyone can see what you are building every sentence helps alignment and energy.
- Examples of Vivid Vision:
- https://everwandertravel.com/2025-vivid-vision/
- COO Alliance
- The misunderstood role of the COO HBR article
- Contact for Cameron https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronherold/
- Website : https://cameronherold.com/
BEST MOMENTS
- A vision without execution is halucination!
- The power of purpose - The three bricklayers story in building the cathedral in Barcelona.
- The importance of listening to key people around you.
VALUABLE RESOURCESEntrepreneurs at Scale Podcast - https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/scalingup
Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://www.scalingup.co.uk/work-with-a-scale-up-coach
How Scaleable is your business? Discover your Scaleability Score: https://scaleable.scoreapp.com/
In the world of business coaching and leadership development, few names resonate as strongly as Ezra. This innovative company has redefined how executives and professionals grow, not just in their careers but in their personal lives as well.
And the visionary behind this transformative approach? None other than Nick Goldberg, CEO of Ezra. With an unwavering commitment to excellence and a unique insight into human potential, Nick is building a global coaching company that is changing the way that coaching is delivered right across and organisation's talent pool.
In today's episode, we're going to dive deep into the entrepreneurial journey that led Nick to where he is today. We'll explore the challenges, triumphs, and the philosophy that fuels Ezra's success.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Nick's mission to democratise coaching across the world and give opportunities for more people could benefit coaching in a seamless fashion. "Every large employer in the world gives each of their employees an Ezra coach"
- The power that coaching can bring to anyone both in the sports world and the business world. Providing greater confidence, self belief and skills.
- If you culture is not right then people don't develop great products, they are not passionate when they are in front of a customer, they are not promoting your company to friends and family.
- Having a relentless on keeping things as straightforward and easy as possible.
- "We don't know all the answers!", tap into your employees genius to make constant innovation.
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Nick's books and learning resources that he is reading / watching at the moment:
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Why by Simon Sinek
-Amazon Unbound by Brad Stone and Jeff Bezos
- Contact for Nick https://www.linkedin.com/in/goldbergnick/
- Ezra Coaching https://helloezra.com/
BEST MOMENTS
- Treat the interview of a new colleague as importantly as you would seeking to win a new client contract
- We not only give all the members of our team a coach, we also provide them with one licence to allow a friend or a member of their family to access a coach.
- Using his holiday as an opportunity for a total reboot, leaving his mobile phone behind.
VALUABLE RESOURCESEntrepreneurs at Scale Podcast - https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/scalingup
Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://www.scalingup.co.uk/work-with-a-scale-up-coach
How Scaleable is your business? Discover your Scaleability Score: https://scaleable.scoreapp.com/
With a proven track record of success and expertise in executive search and talent acquisition, Roheel Ahmad is a driving force behind Forsyth Barnes, a leading executive search firm specialising in technology, digital, and change leadership.
Throughout his career, Roheel has developed deep industry knowledge across various sectors, including but not limited to technology, finance, and professional services. Forsyth Barnes was launched in 2015 and for the last three years has experienced exceptional growth that has been reflected in being the FT 250 fastest growing business.
In this episode, we will delve into Roheel's insights on the challenges of scaling up an organisation, the evolving landscape of talent acquisition, the importance of leadership in today's fast-paced business environment, and the strategies that organisations can employ to attract and retain top talent.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The work ethic and inner drive that comes from the example demonstrated by Roheel's parents
- Having a frustration with the recruitment industry and the lack of innovation over the past 20 years has fuelled Roheel and the team with the determination to bring about change and new experiences that will benefit their customers
- The importance of caring and looking after team, especially in tough times such as the pandemic and higher inflation.
- The importance of having balance in your life as you grow a fast growth organisation
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Roheel's books and learning resources that he is reading / watching at the moment:
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Winning by Tim Grover
-Masterclass Learning platform
- Masters of Scale podcast
- Contact for Roheel https://www.linkedin.com/in/roheelahmad/
BEST MOMENTS
- The Fear of not achieving his full potential is what drives Roheel's performance
- High Performance definition - "The way you do anything is the way that you do everything"
- Key advise to anyone setting up a business : "Stay true to path, stay true to your focus"
- We all have a dark side
VALUABLE RESOURCESEntrepreneurs at Scale Podcast - https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/scalingup
Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://www.scalingup.co.uk/work-with-a-scale-up-coach
How Scaleable is your business? Discover your Scaleability Score: https://scaleable.scoreapp.com/
Are you ready to achieve a high-value exit? https://extraordinaryexit.scoreapp.com/
Peter Harrison is MD of FGH Security, one of the fastest growing Security businesses across the UK, and according to Pete
one of the finest security companies in the world! And almost definitely the friendliest!!!!
Recognised by the Sunday Times as a Top 100 Big company to work for and the winner of more accreditations and awards than most of the multinational security companies.
What makes them different?
Fantastic Staff, awesome Clients and a desire to put a lot back into the Community at the same time.
All our customers absolutely love us and we love them back. We have 100% client retention and 25% growth year on year.
The FGH team is fantastic, more skills and training than any of our competitors - from front line staff up to the management, we all make sure we remain ahead of all the rest when it comes to knowledge.
What makes this "Entrepreneurs at Scale" podcast extra special is that Neale has been coaching Pete and the team at FGH since 2018 and it that time seen the company scale its revenue growth from £4m to over £20m
Pete joins Neale to discuss the Scale up journey of FH security, how the y had to pivot through the pandemic and how investing in developing a great team has been pivotal in accelerating their flywheel.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The importance of having a clear mission statement - " Keeping People Safe"
- In a industry that was notorious for not looking after its people ... Putting People first has been critical to FGH's growth. " Treat the team fairly and Treat them well"
- Having a balance life.. Getting up Early and keeping fit and healthy in able to achieve Peak performance
- The importance of having a coach and an Advisory Board to keep you on Top of your game
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Peter's books that he is reading at the moment:
-
Scaling Up by Verne Harnish
-Vivid Vision - Cameron Herold
- Contact for Peter https://www.fghsecurity.co.uk/
BEST MOMENTS
- I wouldn't change anything, as everything happens for as reason and you can take learnings from that
- Stay true to yourself
- The importance of Loving what you are doing
VALUABLE RESOURCESEntrepreneurs at Scale Podcast - https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/scalingup
Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://www.scalingup.co.uk/work-with-a-scale-up-coach
How Scaleable is your business? Discover your Scaleability Score: https://scaleable.scoreapp.com/
Are you ready to achieve a high-value exit? https://extraordinaryexit.scoreapp.com/
Scaling Up Tools and Resources : https://scaleups.com/
ABOUT THE HOST
Neale Lewis is a business growth expert and Strategic Exit Coach. He is focused on helping the entrepreneurs that he works with maximise the value of their organisations and when the time is right guiding them to achieve an extraordinary exit
His “Entrepreneurs at Scale” podcast, has more than 10k downloads in over 30 countries.
CONTACT DETAILS
Neale ’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nealelewis/
Neale's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scaleup_coaches/
Scaling Up Coaches website : www.scalingup.co.uk
email: neale@scalingup.co.uk
Alan Miltz highlights the seven levers that are integral to the Power of One designed to help you enhance your Cashflow and Profitability.
On this edition of the Entrepreneurs at Scale podcast we are joined by Alan Miltz.
Alan has dedicated his life to helping business leaders and everyone in their team love the numbers. Revenue is vanity, Profit is sanity and Cash is King (or queen) are usually his opening words.
Alan is a co-author of the global best-selling book by Verne Harnish, Scaling Up (having written the financial component of the book).
Alan believes that running a business is like managing a sports team, everyone needs to know the score. Every business wants to scale up their profit, cash and value. The Power of One developed by Alan and the team at Cash Flow Story is the code of your company. How many 1% or 1-day changes do you need to make to achieve your desired financial results.
Everything Alan has developed has had one common theme – to make the complex simple. As a founder of Inmatrix (known as Optimist software) in 1998, which is now the global standard for over 500 banks in more than 50 countries. And more recently co-founding Cash Flow Story which allows non-financial individuals to easily analyse and improve business Profit, Cash & Value. This has helped 1000’s of businesses to scale 2x Profit, 3x Cash and 10x Business Value.
Alan has been voted best speaker in Australia for TEC (the world’s largest CEO forum) and continues to speak at many CEO conferences globally including: CEO syndicate in Australia, Entrepreneurs Organisation and YPO. He also sits on the boards of 15 well-recognised companies globally.
Some of the Key Takes outs from the Podcast :
- The importance of understanding Cash. Everyone needs to understand the story of cash.
- Simplicity. Remove the jargon and help non financial people love and embrace the numbers.
- The importance of hard work , persistence and never give up ! Have strong belief in yourself.
- Develop the art of listening : Listen and Silent share the same letters !!
- The Power of One is the code to grow your business.
- The business owner talks about Profit, Banks focus on debt service capacity
- The Balance Sheet is as important as the Profit and Loss in your business
- Cashflow is the movement in your bank account.... and is KING!!
Resources :
Cashflow Story software - https://www.scalingup.co.uk/cashflow-story
The Cash Flow Story software delivers unique insights into the financial performance of a business and drives improvement to Profit, Cash and Value using these powerful concepts we have created:
- Power of One
- Business Value Indicator
- The 4 Chapters
- The Big 3 Cash Measures
The Power of One Template
Power of One Blog
Thomas Woodland is a transformational coach who works with elite investor and visionary founders to help them achieve even greater success in life whilst making a permanent shift in their level of energy, efficiency and enjoyment
*Thomas evolved into coaching after more than a decade delivering private equity deals, and so he understands the pressures and struggles his clients face. He also has an MBA from London Business School.
On this episode of Entrepreneurs at Scale Thomas discussed the impact that his transformational coaching has on Founders/ CEOs / Investors and executives. Specifically by helping clients achieve a higher purpose to their life's work and ensuring that they are able to stay fully grounded in the most stressful of situations.
Thomas highlighted : "We are free to achieve extraordinary results when we live life as the creative individual we truly are, as opposed to thinking and acting like we are the victim of our circumstances. When we step out of our fear and limitations, and into our true potential and life's endless possibilities."
For more information and to connect up with Thomas:*
thomas@woodlandcoaching.com
www.woodlandcoaching.com
Mark Carmichael, managing director of STS Capital partners and author of the Intelligent Exit reflects on the 5 key areas to focus on in order to successfully sell your business and achieve a significant exit.
In this episode of Entrepreneurs at Scale we are joined by Steve Beckitt, the founder and CEO of SourceBreaker.
SourceBreaker was created to change the way recruiters search. They are a market leading AI-driven Search & Match technology for recruiters
Today, their cutting-edge technology helps to grow over 600 businesses around the world.
Steve shares some of the key learnings from how he and his fellow founder navigated through the early years of being a Start up to achieving a viable proposition.
He also reflected on:
- Creating an empowering work culture
- How to recruit top talent that are fundamental brought into your values
- The importance of Humility
- Why winning awards are important to building a strong employment brand and team motivation
- The role that systems and processes play as you Scale Up the company
- How to prepare the company to achieve a significant exit
- Some thoughts on how to front up to a challenging trading environment
Key resources and books that Steve referenced on the Podcast:
Black Box Thinking - Matthew Syed
Drive - Daniel Pink
Scaling Up - Verne Harnish
In this episode of Entrepreneurs at Scale, we are joined by John Ratliff.
John is a co-founder and CEO of align5 an advisory and consulting organisations focused on helping growth entrepreneurs establish a strategy for scaling their businesses and preparing for a Strategic Exit.
John is also CEO of the Global Scaling Up coaching organisation.
Prior to founding align5, John was the President and CEO of Appletree Answers, a telephone answering service company he started in 1995 from his two-bedroom apartment in Wilmington, Delaware. John grew the company organically and through a series of acquisitions, growing the company to 24 US- based locations and 650 employees before it was sold to a strategic buyer in June 2012.
In this episode we focus on the key lessons that John learnt as he scaled up and successfully exited the Appletree Answers Business:
- The importance of discovering core values
- Building out a culture that is massively focused around caring about the people in the business
- His acquisition strategy
- Key areas that will add value to your business
- Preparing a business for a strategic exit
- How to discover Rembrandts in your attic
- Strategies to ensure that every client experience is remarkable
Simon Severino is an Author, CEO of Strategy Sprints and Host of the Strategy Sprints podcast. He has interviewed powerhouse entrepreneurs like Rita McGrath, David Allen, Nir Eyal, Perry Marshall, Verne Harnish, Brian Kurtz and hundreds more on business, productivity and growth. He helps business owners in SaaS and Services run their company more effectively which results in sales that soar. He created the Strategy Sprints™ Method that doubles revenue in 90 days by getting owners out of the weeds. Simon leads a global team of Certified Strategy Sprints™ Coaches that help clients gain market share and work in weekly sprints which results in fast execution. As a member of SVBS (Silicon Valley Blockchain Society) he enables cross-stage capital flows and helps minimize execution risks in technology startups. His team is trusted by Google, Consilience Ventures, Roche, Amgen, AbbVie and hundreds of frontier teams. He is a TEDx speaker, and has appeared on over 500 podcasts. He writes for Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine about scaling digital businesses.
Kaihan Krippendorff is a top business strategy, growth and transformation keynote speaker that has helped inspire, motivate, and arm hundreds of thousands of people with the tools and mindset needed to win the future.
An accomplished author, Kaihan has written five books on business strategy, growth, and transformation, including Outthink the Competition and His latest book published in 2019 is Driving Innovation From Within: A Guide for Internal Entrepreneurs.
Kaihan is a member of the prestigious Thinkers50 Class of 2019 Radar group – A global selection of the top 30 management thinkers to follow and hear from in the coming year. The group has been described as a “dream team of researchers, advisers, entrepreneurs, and organisational leaders” that will “intrigue, inspire, and guide” people and organisations with their ideas.
In this podcast we discuss the importance of Strategy, how to think differently, how to develop a culture of innovation across your organisation as well as some of the key take outs from Outthink the competition.
Michael Krajewski CEO Steelo discusses the challenge in starting up and then scaling up his structural steel engineering company.
Tony Hague the CEO of PP Control and Automation, an award-winning provider of strategic outsourcing solutions to many of the most successful and respected machinery builders talks to Neale Lewis on their business growth journey using the Scaling Up business growth tools
Andrew Jenkins shares some powerful tips on embracing Linkedin and other social media sites to develop a compelling Social media communication strategy
Learn how to develop the key traits to grow yourself and your business in challenging times.
Ron Lovett, author of Outrageous empowerment discusses how to build a company cultures that transforms employees into passionate stakeholders.
Desert Island Discs with Charles Gething Lewis MBE. Reflecting on his life and choosing his favourite songs to entertain him on his Desert Island
Dr Craig Overmyer the author of Accelerate thru conflict discusses how to manage conflict in high growth organisations.
The second episode of a new mini-series where I've teamed up with Ben Brain to discuss many solutions to Coronavirus problems...
The first of a new mini-series where I've teamed up with Ben Brain to discuss many solutions to Coronavirus problems...
Verne Harnish the author of Scaling Up discusses 5 key areas of leadership to focus on during a crisis.
How to manage your cashflow during a crisis with Alan Miltz, author of the Cash chapter in Scaling Up
Powerful lessons on entrepreneurship, branding, leadership, company culture, crowdfunding and creating high performing teams with Eric Partaker, the CEO of Chilango.
Chilango run a chain of award winning Mexican restaurants across London.
A deep dive into how Ron Lovett removed bureaucracy and created a culture of empowerment at his security company in Canada