CEO.com | Dispatches from the frontiers of leadership

On this episode of the For Leaders, Michael Walrath joins Clint to talk about his entrepreneurial journey of founding Right Media, selling to Yahoo, and eventually becoming the chairman and CEO of Yext. They dig into some of Michael's most valuable lessons learned from running companies at scale and how they've helped him maneuver throughout his career. For example, moving slowly in larger organizations can actually be an asset, rather than scaling too big too fast. He talks about finding balance in his life again and being eager to get involved in investing in startups. Not only is Michael a CEO and businessman, he also co-founded Atlas Films which is known for their hit documentary, Fed Up. "You learn a lot about how many things can break and you can still succeed. So that's probably one of the great lessons is that as long as you're fall tolerant and as long as you are paying attention to what's not working, you can actually break a ton of stuff and still overall, have tremendous growth and tremendous success."

Andrew Farah, the CEO of Density, joins Clint on this episode of For Leaders. He talks about prioritizing consumer privacy and why it's so important to stay transparent so your brand attracts your ideal users. A major part of the founder's journey is raising capital and Andrew shares his experience going through raising rounds and how he changed his tactics over time to be more efficient. Good leaders are no strangers to change and should be reflecting on their past decisions to evaluate what worked well, what didn't, and what strategies they can employ to better lead their teams in the future. Teams should be made up of people who bring various cultures to the table, but who all fundamentally agree on the company's mission and values so they can work together for a common cause. "As a company's CEO, you can choose sort of a place to spike, but you can only go as deep on that spike as you have covered your weaknesses. And you cover your weaknesses by hiring for them...Your job, what you don't know, is always the constitution and construction of a team."

On this episode of For Leaders, Clint meets with Liz Wiseman who is a best-selling author, leadership coach, and the CEO of the Wiseman Group. Having an extensive background in tech, research, and development, she shares the most common qualities of great leaders who know how to be effective and make their teams smarter as a whole. She explains how viewing leadership through the lens of the customer puts things into perspective and allows us to see how leadership can have a direct impact on the customer and where changes are necessary. Good leaders understand they have a choice in the culture they create: they can choose to have a trickle down effect of negativity stemming from the top, or choose to be a positive influence on their teams regardless of how higher up leaders may act. They speak about the importance of authenticity as a leader and why it's so important to be as authentic as possible in this role. "I think a different way, and maybe a better way, to look at leadership is to look at the effect leaders have on other people."

Not only is Matt Hulett our guest on this episode of For Leaders, but he's also the CEO of PetMeds, a seasoned pro in the tech space, and is a leader in both world-class private and public companies. Matt shares 5 questions from his book every leader should be asking themselves that help to score where their company is within its growth journey. They talk about the major differences between leading a private company and a public company, and tactics he's adopted in his approach to both. There's a science to hiring the right talent and Matt boils it down to two things: to not lose money, and to make more money, which can be achieved through hiring solid talent aligned with the company mission. They also touch on the subject of AI and how it will impact employee roles and creativity, but ultimately, how we can stay human-focused. "Whatever you decide to do, make sure you're elite at it. You're the best at it."

On this episode of the CEO.com Show, Clint is joined by the esteemed Michael Hyatt, the bestselling author, business coach, and Founder of Full Focus. In this inspiring conversation, Michael delves deeper into the principles of audience understanding and obstacle removal, shedding light on the keys to entrepreneurial success. They talk about the impact of his work and how he built a successful business from blogging to writing his book, and now, selling products at Full Focus. Michael has spent years researching productivity and goal setting, discovering exactly how he can help people achieve their dreams and actualize even their most unattainable goals in business and leadership. A major part of goal achievement is learning how to lead yourself because it takes a self-aware person to positively lead others and Michael is an advocate for helping leaders become aware of their impact on the world. "If you can figure out the people in your target audience, what they aspire to, what they dream about accomplishing, what they wish they had, and then if you can figure out what are the obstacles that are keeping them from getting at, and if you can help them remove those obstacles and make progress toward their goals, you can build any kind business."

The CEO of Arctic Wolf, Nick Schneider, joins Clint on this episode of For Leaders for an in-depth conversation about cybersecurity and modern solutions for modern threats in this space. They discuss how AI is being used for nefarious reasons to scam and bait unsuspecting people, and how security is evolving to fight against it. Leveraging new technology is key to keeping customers secure and Nick's on a mission to use it for good. Nick talks about his experience going to market and how he navigated scaling in a repeatable way. Explaining your 'why' as a leader is key to finding the right talent and integral to the success of a company and its teams. "The role of a leader is not necessarily to be the most popular person in the room, it's to make the decision that they feel is best for the organization as a whole."

Esteemed actor and retired United States Marine Officer Rob Riggle joins Clint on this episode of For Leaders for an insightful conversation about his career as an actor and an officer, and how he juggled the two responsibilities. Rob's list of acting accomplishments is long, including classics like The Lorax, 12 Strong, The Hangover, and 21 Jump Street. Family is what ultimately drove Rob to seek a drastic career change, starting him on the path to stardom. They talk about seeking constant growth and changing how you respond to failure because adversity is a necessary part of life and it's important to stay strong when your character gets tested. Rob is hugely inspired by Teddy Roosevelt and strives to be reliable and authentic, just as he was. "I love entrepreneurship and I love entrepreneurs because in my opinion, small business, business owners, innovators, people that think and do and build, those are the people I want to be around."

Raj De Datta joins Clint Betts on this episode of For Leaders for a conversation about understanding what your customers are seeking and delivering beyond their expectations. Companies are always on the hunt for authenticity and this requires reflection and inspection to discover exactly what to stand for as a brand. They talk about training AI to represent brands individually because AI doesn't know what to do automatically, likening it to training a new employee. Additionally, modern business demands creating the best customer experiences possible, so consumer data is an extremely effective tool that every leader should be optimizing. Raj talks about the underappreciated attributes of failure and celebrating overcoming difficulty just as much as we celebrate success. Tune in to learn more! "People agonize over the what. Like what do we stand for? What is the brand about? But more important is that you stand for something."

Ted Elliott, who is the CEO of Copado, joins Clint for a conversation about leveraging AI in the workplace and what a fascinating time it is to be a part of the tech industry. With the recent advancements of modern AI, people are understandably afraid of what this could mean for their jobs in the future, especially in fields like technical writing. Ted explains how this new technology is becoming so widespread that it's actually increasing productivity and will be a tool used for boosting technical writing and similar jobs in the coming years. Family is the main tenet in how Ted operates in life and business. He shares important lessons learned as a CEO and family man, and how family can be your biggest driver for success. "That's a big lesson that my dad was really great at was stepping back and letting me fail on my own. And that's a hard one to learn."

David Alvo Verdugo joins Clint on this episode of For Leaders to share his story of investing and how he's making a positive impact in his community and the world. His story proves that one person's words can forever change your life and it's up to you to learn, grow, apply, and evolve with new information. They discuss the twists and turns of the entrepreneur's journey and dealing with the unexpected along the way, particularly for tech startups. David advises entrepreneurs to not be afraid to ask for help from other leaders because they've likely experienced the same hardships and can provide feedback. They talk about the common traits of great leaders and how building up a community is so important for the success of startups. Tune in to learn more!