Ed will be interviewing accomplished business professionals and successful thought leaders who have years of experience to share. His mini-casts are packed with short, practical and straight-to-the-point business advice that you can use today.

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Extending our personal network is one of the best ways we can create more opportunities and more options for our business. In this minilog I discuss the approach I&#39;ve taken in my career to create an environment where the people I meet become genuinely interested in me. More importantly, they come away from our initial interaction seeing me as different, in a positive way, than almost all of the other people they meet. If you want to know one of my &#34;secrets to success&#34;, this minilog is for you!

How Can I Help You?

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Brian Ciota is the President of Co-Owner of McClurg Remodeling and Construction in upstate New York. I have watched Brian and his executive team define and then refine their strategy so they can continue their profitable growth. It seemed only natural to include Brian in our series of podcasts on Strategy. Brian has literally grown up in this business, starting when he was 14 and living across the street from the founder, Scott McClurg. He shares how in the early days, their ideal customer was essentially &#34;... someone who needed something done that we could do.&#34; That tendency to never say &#34;no&#34; enabled the business to survive and grow. It also started to become a constraint on the business as it grew. There are numerous lessons in Brian&#39;s story. You&#39;ll really enjoy this podcast about Brian&#39;s journey to appreciating the importance of strategy.

The Importance of Strategy (cont'd)

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There are a couple of books that have had the most impact on my practice as a consultant. The first two are The Advantage by Pat Lencioni. The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker. The latest addition to my hall of fame is Mighty Midsized Companies; How Leaders Overcome The 7 Silent Killers of Growth, by Robert Sher. This book is powerful in making it very clear that the problems holding back your mid sized company are very predictable. In this minilog I share why I love this book and how it can help you and your company!

7 Silent Killers of Growth

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What&#39;s the best way to use your top talent? We only have so many truly high potential people. Where do they bring the greatest return? Where do they help the business the most? There are arguments for different approaches and in this podcast I discuss the one I prefer.... putting our best people on the opportunities or situations that have the greatest potential for the business. In this minilog I share my thoughts about how we can best use our best people. Hope you appreciate Peter Drucker as much as I do!

Put Your Best People on Your Biggest Opportunities

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Jeb Zoller never thought about leadership until he ended up at West Point, ironically on a golf scholarship. After finishing his education, he served his country as an officer in the 82nd Airborne where jumping out of airplanes, at night, from 800 feet above the ground became the norm. Today, he runs a tremendously successful financial planning business. Having seen great and equally poor leadership in his career, no one is more qualified to share their ideas about how each of us can be a better leader than Jeb. You&#39;ll enjoy this episode and get to meet someone I&#39;m proud to call my friend!

Lessons in Leadership Continued

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UPIC Solutions business is built to serve not-for-profit United Way agencies. Their success is proof that when you know your ideal customer and provide value they can&#39;t find from your competitors, you&#39;ve defined and executed a great strategy. J.R. Howard is UPIC&#34;s CEO and he shares some great insights about how their success has made them redo their strategy. He explains the surprising benefit of how their new strategy has energized UPIC&#39;s staff. Even more interesting is how changing the way they run meetings has made a big difference in their ability to execute. This is the most for-profit-like, not-for-profit business I&#39;ve ever seen. If you want your strategy to be more effective, this is the podcast for you!

Not For Profits Need Strategy Too

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If you have plans to scale your business, you need to listen to this podcast! This is one of several that discusses the power of getting your executive team to be more aligned and cohesive, creating a better balance between Smart &amp; Healthy. Cody Granneman and Tommy Rowlands are Co-CEO&#39;s of R.S. Hanlines Group. (If you&#39;ve eaten a Wendy&#39;s baked potato, then you know part of what they do.) No structure is perfect. You&#39;ve heard me say that more than once. But a structure with co-CEOs requires even more work than normal for an executive team to show up as fully aligned and cohesive to the rest of the organization. And these two young executives are proof that not only can co-CEO&#39;s work, but that the business can thrive. You will hear how they have changed when they have meetings and how they conduct them. And how much impact can come from putting a clear name to each group of executives that lead your business.

Smart AND Healthy AND Better Business Results

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This is one of several podcasts dedicated to the professional management discipline of Strategy. Ron Schuller is a farm boy who brings a wonderfully practical approach to the often &#34;squishy&#34; world of strategy. We discuss the importance of defining both the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of your ideal customer and how many strategic initiatives you can reasonably attempt in any given year. You will love his description of &#34;not no, just not now&#34; way to prioritize your initiatives and &#34;to get your team to buy in they need a chance to weigh in&#34; when it comes to their involvement in developing your strategy. This is 30 minutes that can help you take your strategy to another level!

From the (Red) Barn to Bed, Bath and Beyond

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Mickey Leech became the CEO of Schumacher Electric shortly after they were acquired by private equity. He&#39;s rebuilt his leadership team, changed the strategy and rebuilt his executive team again. If anyone has earned the right to speak about leadership, it&#39;s him! In this podcast he shares the importance of having executive team members who have similar core values; the critical importance of emotional intelligence, and the need at critical times to be courageous. You&#39;ll like Mickey and enjoy his insights to leadership!

Leadership: Why it Matters More Than Ever #3

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This is the next in our series of podcasts on Leadership. Blair Cook is the CEO of Agrisolutions. His company makes an integral part of the equipment that farmers use literally around the world to feed us. I&#39;ve been fortunate to watch Blair move from being a functional leader to becoming the CEO of Agrisolutions. His growth as a leader has been significant. He&#39;s learned to temper his remarks; the importance of emotional intelligence and the various kinds of motivation that drive his individual C-suite members. I found his awareness of how much time he spends on clarifying the direction of the business and communicating with others astounding. Blair&#39;s comments and practical perspective about his journey to becoming a better leader will make you think about your own leadership journey.

Leadership: Why it Matters More Than Ever #2

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This is one of several podcasts on what effective leadership looks like, how to develop it and why it matters more than ever. Chris Halapy is the CEO for Shook Construction. Based in Dayton, Ohio his company has seen their profitability grow significantly under his leadership. He won&#39;t take credit for that success but he&#39;s earned the right to share some very proven methods and how he&#39;s elevated his leadership during his career. You&#39;ll especially enjoy his take on &#34;What I&#39;m afraid of...&#34; comments that so often show up in executive team meetings. Listen and learn from one of the successful leaders I&#39;m fortunate to work with.

Leadership: Why it Matters More Than Ever #1

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Now more than ever we need heroes. But there is one kind of hero no company needs. That&#39;s a destructive hero. In this episode I discuss the reasons why we tolerate these most damaging kinds of employees. Don&#39;t let yourself or your business be held hostage by this dangerous high-level performer!

Heros We Can Do Without

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This is the first of several podcasts on why truly great businesses find a way to strike the right balance between being Smart (right finance, technology, strategy, structure, etc.) AND Healthy (minimal levels of confusion, politics, meetings-after-the-meetings and high productivity and retention of high performing talent). Jeff Tibitts is the SVP of Operations for CESO Inc. Jeff shares why CESO&#39;s executive team has decided to take on the work to create a truly aligned and cohesive executive team. You&#39;ll appreciate Jeff&#39;s energy, passion and practical approach to this work. You&#39;ll thoroughly enjoy learning how this approach can help you and your business and executive team.

Why Smart and Healthy Really Matter

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If you want to have highly engaged people, you need to build in each person a sense of loyalty. &#34;A strong feeling of support or allegiance.&#34; Loyalty to either you as their boss or to the company. The secret lies in Maslow&#39;s Hierarchy of Needs. In this 5 minutes I&#39;ll share how you can get the very best from people for the long haul!

Secrets of Engagement

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Building the best and most valuable business you can is the best insurance you can have to be able to exit the business on your terms, rather than someone else&#39;s. In this quick 4 minutes learn the 4 things you should prioritize to make your business worth the most!

Four Pillars to Maximizing the Value of Your Business

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Meet Dan Barczak one of the owners of STA and the Chief Creative Officer of Hyperquake, STA&#39;s sister company. Dan shares what makes us different, what an ideal client might be and how his vision for the business actually exceeds mine! This creative provocateur will tap into your passion for leadership and his eagerness to lean into &#34;the hard stuff and difficult&#34; conversations that make a team great.

The Last Episode of People Who Kept Me Working

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Several Thousand Alliance (STA). As we are primarily a group of consultants that help businesses and CEO&#39;s find the best answers to the seemingly difficult questions that haunt them, we also have a couple of key people who help us run our business as a business. In this episode you will meet Lee Kersting, STA&#39;s CFO. He brings a decidely practical approach to the financial aspects of our business. Most importantly, like all of us at STA, he&#39;s extremely curious about the behaviors that drive the individuals and executive teams we serve. You&#39;ll enjoy hearing Lee&#39;s perspective about why he joined STA and what he sees for our future.

Meet the People Who Got Me to Keep Working -Part 4

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This is another in our series of podcasts to introduce the audience to people with whom I work and learn more about what we do at Several Thousand Alliance. Marty Kersting is the Chief Business Officer for STA. That means he gets to deal with all the details and paperwork that the business needs in order to satisify their clients and other stakeholders. As such, Marty brings a unique perspective about our work and how it impacts our clients. You&#39;ll enjoy his observations and his insights!

Meet the People Who Got Me to Keep Working-Part 3

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What do airlines, ski resorts, and organizational health have in common? Jeff Daniels! People often ask me how I came to do this work. It&#39;s very likely that had I not met Jeff, my journey would have taken a much different path. In this episode you will hear Jeff&#39;s story about how he impacted my journey, as well as, how he became part of Several Thousand Alliance. From planes, to ski lifts, to the C-suite, you will enjoy learning more about Jeff and STA!

Meet the People Who Got Me to Keep Working - Part 2

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I recently joined forces with Several Thousand Alliance and am eager to tell you all about it! Kicking off this new podcast series, I&#39;ll be introducing you to my new team at Several Thousand Alliance (STA), beginning with its Founder, Colin Crotty. You&#39;ll learn how our lives have been connected for over 20 years, and how our interactions have impacted the trajectory of my career. It is without a doubt that my passion has only been fueled because of him, and in this episode, you&#39;ll get an understanding of why I have aligned myself with Colin and STA. My guess is by the end of the podcast, you will see why I&#39;m so lucky to call him both my colleague and my friend.

Meet The People Who Got Me to Keep Working-Part 1

Where executives, consultants, and business owners learn how to build a Smart and Healthy business that is truly sustainable.

Ed will be interviewing accomplished business professionals and successful thought leaders who have years of experience to share. His mini-casts are packed with short, practical and straight-to-the-point business advice that you can use today.