The CEO's Heart for Service | Scaling Business Without Compromise

What if the biggest threat to your clients' life work isn't a bad market — it's a business that simply won't survive due diligence? George Sandmann, founder and CEO of GrowthDrive, has spent decades building companies, crashing a few into the side of the mountain, and coming out the other side with a clear-eyed mission: help financial advisors equip the private businesses they serve to grow, scale...

When everything is moving towards automation and AI in tech, is the human connection even considered? Grant Ekstrom, Managing Partner at Succurri Managed IT and Cybersecurity Services, has built a business around that exact question. An engineer by DNA and instinct, Grant co-founded Succurri with his brother — born from a conversation over a couple bottles of wine in Hawaii — and has since navigat...

What does it look like when customers are the ones driving your growth — not the other way around? That's exactly the story Adam Pattisall, CEO of IncrediTech and iTechFed, brings to this episode of CEO's Heart for Service. Adam built IncrediTech from literally one person working out of the bed of a pickup truck to a company of 80+ people — without investors, a board, or outside backing. His secre...

What if the reason your thought leadership isn't landing has nothing to do with your ideas — and everything to do with the way you're wired to share them? Macy Robison, founder of the Resonant Thought Leader Conservatory, has spent years behind the scenes launching New York Times bestsellers, building massive platforms for other thought leaders, and serving as senior director of StoryBrand's certi...

What does it actually take to build a thriving chamber of commerce from absolute zero — no staff, no members, not even a pad of paper — in under 18 months? Wendy Poischbeg did exactly that, scaling the Greater Everett Chamber of Commerce to 300 members in a year and a half by doing something deceptively simple: listening. Wendy, CEO of the Greater Everett Chamber, joins co-hosts Matt Wolfe and Sar...

What happens when a business built on genuine relationships tries to grow — and nearly loses everything that made it special in the process? That's the honest, behind-the-scenes story we're unpacking today with Brand3 founder and President Orsi Herbein. Orsi shares the real lessons from 10 years of building a branding and marketing agency, including a painful season of chasing the wrong definition...

What you focus on when you start in business has a massive impact on what happens when you grow. Anna Halaburda has been focusing on quality service at scale — not because she stumbled into it, but because she built Be Ready Exit Solutions with the end in mind from the very start. As a CPA, Certified Exit Planning Advisor, and founder of one of the few true exit planning firms in the lower middle...

What does it really take to change the way we think about aging — and build a community that proves it? Bernadette Wagner, founder and CEO of Primetime for Women, has spent years doing exactly that. What started as a mission to bring women 40 and over together around three research-backed pillars — positive social connections, lifelong learning, and healthy lifestyles — has grown into a vibrant, i...

What does it really take to grow a service business without losing the personal touch that made it great in the first place? That tension — between scaling and staying true to your clients — is one every service-based business owner knows. After 28 years of building Gerety Insurance from a one-person operation into a thriving independent agency, Rick Gerety has found a way to do both. His secret?...