The Impact Multiplier CEO

Founders, CEOs: what if the belief that won your first customers is the very thing your next customers won’t buy? What if your reason for building it isn’t their reason for buying it? And what if never giving up on a partner is what’s slowing you down? In this episode of The Defining Move, Richard Medcalf hands Jennifer Holmgren a move she has not made yet: stop signing projects that need a mandat...

Founders, CEOs: what if the energy holding your company together is you? What if the gaps you keep filling are the exact ones your team never gets to grow into? And what if the most valuable thing you could do for your business is prove it does not need you? In this episode of The Defining Move, Richard Medcalf hands Nick Hale, Group CEO of Movera, a move he has not made yet: resign from the role,...

Founders, CEOs: what if the fastest way to hit your goal takes you in the wrong direction? What if the thing that's making you money right now is the exact thing standing in the way of what you actually set out to build? And what if your whole company is organising itself around a smaller, safer version of your vision, and calling it progress? In this episode of The Defining Move, Richard Medcalf...

CEOs, Founders: what do you do when the next big leap isn't happening fast enough? Or when you've achieved more than you ever imagined, but haven't yet recalibrated to what's now possible? Welcome to The Defining Move . Most founders and CEOs respond to the next stage of growth with better strategy, stronger systems, or more capable people. Those things matter, but they rarely solve the real const...

After more than 200 episodes, I'm reinventing The Impact Multiplier CEO . I'm changing the name, the format, and the focus. Not because it failed, but because it succeeded. And success can become the thing that stops you creating your best work. In this episode, I explain: why successful founders and CEOs eventually outgrow the version of themselves that created their current success why "good eno...

You've reached the end of The 10X Reckoning . The question now isn't whether you're capable of more. It's whether you're prepared to act. In this final chapter, Richard Medcalf brings everything together and invites you to make a decision that will shape the next decade of your leadership. Most successful founders and CEOs reach a moment where they know exactly what they need to do, yet hesitate....

What if your greatest achievement isn't behind you? What if everything you've built so far has simply prepared you for the work you're truly here to do? In this chapter of The 10X Reckoning , Richard Medcalf brings together the ideas from the entire audiobook and challenges founders and CEOs to stop managing past success and start creating the future they were meant to lead. Through the stories of...

Have you ever looked around your leadership team and wondered why no one seems to care about the vision as much as you do? In this chapter of The 10X Reckoning , Richard Medcalf explores one of the most frustrating experiences successful founders and CEOs face. You have a compelling vision, a capable team and a clear strategy, yet progress feels painfully slow. Rather than blaming the team, Richar...

What if the reason your vision feels impossible isn't because it's too ambitious, but because you're measuring it against the person you are today? In this chapter of The 10X Reckoning , Richard Medcalf explores the moment every ambitious founder and CEO eventually faces. You catch sight of a vision that could define your career, then immediately wonder whether you're capable of bringing it to lif...

Every founder and CEO eventually reaches a moment where the question isn't "What's the strategy?" It's "Am I really capable of leading at that level?" In this chapter of The 10X Reckoning , Richard Medcalf explores why self-doubt, not strategy, is often the greatest barrier to exponential growth. Through the story of an entrepreneur facing the opportunity of a lifetime, he shows how many successfu...

What if your next breakthrough didn't require more sacrifice, but a completely different way of thinking about success? In this chapter of The 10X Reckoning , Richard Medcalf challenges one of the most common beliefs among successful founders and CEOs: that achieving the next level of impact must come at the expense of your health, relationships or happiness. Instead, he argues that many leaders b...

You've built a successful business. From the outside, it looks like freedom. But inside, you feel trapped by the very success you worked so hard to create. In this chapter of The 10X Reckoning , Richard Medcalf explores why so many founders and CEOs become prisoners of their own success. As your business grows, it's easy to become the bottleneck—the person everyone depends on, the one who carries...

You've built a successful business. People admire what you've achieved. Yet something inside you knows you're capable of far more. This opening chapter introduces the idea of the 10X Reckoning—the defining moment every successful founder and CEO eventually faces. Will you continue expanding your impact, or slowly become trapped by the very success that got you here? Richard Medcalf explores why ma...

Success isn't the finish line. It's the moment many founders and CEOs unknowingly begin to plateau. In this introduction to The 10X Reckoning , Richard Medcalf explains why this audiobook isn't about becoming successful—it's about what comes after success. If you've built an exceptional business but feel there's still a bigger contribution waiting to be made, this chapter introduces the leadership...

What if your life's greatest work isn't behind you, but still waiting to be created? Over the next few episodes, Richard Medcalf is releasing the complete audiobook of The 10X Reckoning , free on this podcast. Written for founders and CEOs who have already achieved extraordinary success, this audiobook explores the hidden CEO leadership challenges that emerge after you've "made it" and asks a simp...

What if the solution to global poverty wasn’t more aid, but more entrepreneurs?   In this episode, Richard Medcalf speaks with Etienne Salborn, founder of the Social Innovation Academy (SINA), a transformative movement turning refugees, orphans, and disadvantaged youth into social entrepreneurs. From a single project in Uganda to 19 communities across Africa, Etienne’s work is redefining...

What if your biggest leadership challenge wasn’t strategy, but self-doubt?  In this episode, Richard Medcalf speaks with Mike Ettling, who recently stepped down as CEO of Unit4 after a transformative six-year tenure. Mike led the company through a complete business model overhaul—from a fragmented, on-premise software provider to a unified, cloud-first organisation. Along the way, he nav...

What if your boldest vision is years ahead of its time—so far ahead that the world laughs you out of the room? In this deeply personal and provocative conversation, Richard Medcalf speaks with  Benjamin Rubin , serial entrepreneur and founder of both Sirenum and Insectika. Benjamin has a rare gift: creating businesses that challenge entrenched paradigms—from transforming the invisible workfor...

Why would an entrepreneur decide that hiring C-grade students is the way forward? Today Richard speaks with Aditya Siripragada, founder of Fountane. Fountane is digital product studio and venture lab changing the traditional consulting model, with 125 people across US and India. The company doubled revenue annually for 6 years and won the Inc. Top 5000 award in 2024. In this conversation, you’ll l...

Do you need to have a super power to be an effective CEO? What happens if you don't? How can you build a pan-continental business with zero experience? And how can you empower your managers to lead effectively? In this episode Richard speaks with Rebecca Harrison, who has spent the last decade building the African Management Institute (AMI), Africa’s leading provider of business and management lea...

How can you build a business that is genuinely global on day one? How do you set up marketing, sales, delivery, recruitment and operations when your local market is not going to be your largest market, and where you want customers to come from anywhere? Today Richard speaks with Fred Plais, co-founder and CEO of Platform.sh, a leading, VC funded Platform-as-a-service for building, running, scaling...

How can you keep lean and efficient despite hyper growth? Welcome to The Impact Multiplier CEO, helping you to 10X your financials, 10X your positive impact and 10X the fun you have along the way! Today Richard Medcalf is speaking with Toms Jurjevs, Founder and CEO of Sun Finance, a 1200-person strong business that was recently recognised as the No.1 fastest-growing fintech in Europe by The Financ...

How can you avoid the common mistakes CEOs make as they scale from £0M to £15M? Today we find out. Richard speaks to Peter Busby, founder of professional services company Grayce that he scaled scaled to £15M in 7 years with 240 people. Peter shares his insights on building a successful business. We’ll explore everything from the lean startup approach and scaling challenges to maintaining growth an...

How do you grow a business that is so innovative it changes how your entire ecosystem needs to work? Today Richard speaks with Karl Andersson, Founder of Matsmart-Motatos, one of Europe's fastest-growing companies according to the Financial Times with a consistent annual growth of some 70%. Matsmart-Motatos is aiding the sustainable reform of the food system by allowing customers to buy products t...

What are the skills you'll need to develop in your business, in an AI world? This is the question Richard explores with today's guest. Tim Smeaton is the CEO and Co-Founder of Kubrick Group, a company that helps organizations realise the value of data, AI, and cloud technology.  In this conversation, you’ll learn: Why Tim recommends you "ignore amazing opportunities." How Tim identified a str...