Success Beneath the Surface
by Deborah S. Fell
Latest episode
EP126: Why the Best CEOs Treat Every Employee Like a Volunteer
EP126: Why the Best CEOs Treat Every Employee Like a Volunteer
About this podcast
This podcast is aimed at helping CEOs dig beneath the surface to find new pathways to increased profitability and value. Host Deborah Fell will seek to unlock unexpected insights in each episode that can become questions and approaches to challenge and inspire leadership teams and provide immediately actionable solutions to unlock growth.
With so many voices offering “hot tips” and “how to’s” for growing your business and team, it’s hard to know what’s worth listening to. Deborah brings simple, immediately actionable strategies and growth hacks through inspirational stories and real-world experiences that can help design enduring profit into any business plan.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 126 episodes
- EP126: Why the Best CEOs Treat Every Employee Like a Volunteer · 33 min · Episode 126CEO John D. Smith on corporate transformation, leading through change, and building a culture people want to be part of.
- EP125: Ravi Venkatesan on Moonshots, Disruption, and the AI Threshold · 32 min · Episode 125Ravi Venkatesan, CEO of Cantaloupe, on moonshot leadership, business model disruption, and why AI is a bigger threat than most CEOs admit.
- EP124: Two Companies, One Marriage, and a Book About Almost Losing It Al · 35 min · Episode 124Nancy and Ron Bogart built two companies, raised four kids, and figured out what actually makes a business last. Real talk from 36 years in.
- EP123: Strategy Without Empathy Is a Wasted Idea · 26 min · Episode 123Brian Garish, Global Chief Client Officer at Mars Veterinary Health, on why strategy without empathy is a wasted idea and what it takes to lead at scale.
- EP122: Every Four or Five Years Something Will Try to Break You · 23 min · Episode 122Gene Holtzman built Mitchell Martin from a Wall Street startup to an ESOP staffing firm. He shares 40 years of resilience, succession planning, and AI.
- EP121: The Loneliest Job in the World and How to Thrive in It · 27 min · Episode 121David Johnson, Vervent CEO, on building a fintech powerhouse, no-excuses leadership, and why the CEO role is the loneliest job in the world.
- EP120: Trade Schools Died and Manufacturing Is Paying the Price · 27 min · Episode 120CEO Kevin Stevick reveals why investing in people like equipment drives profit, lowers turnover, and solves manufacturing’s hiring crisis.
- EP119: The Jagged Edge of AI and Why 95% of Pilots Fail and How to Beat the Odds · 31 min · Episode 119AI consultant Dan Hou on why mid-market strategy beats enterprise bloat, the cultural shifts that make pilots succeed, and what world models mean for robotics.
- EP118: The Venture Studio Model That Launched 285 Companies · 37 min · Episode 118Michael Poisel left a successful venture capital career in the United States to become Executive Director of the Melbourne Entrepreneurial Centre. His mission is transforming…
- EP117: How One CEO Cleaned Up His Cap Table in Six Months · 25 min · Episode 117Thomas Jensen explains how Alarity Therapeutics uses precision medicine to predict cancer treatment outcomes and why he cleaned up his cap table in six months.
- EP116:The $100 Million Decision - Choosing Patient Outcomes Over Private Equity · 44 min · Episode 116Detroit nurse builds world’s largest perfusion company, turns down millions to keep investing in better surgery outcomes. You’d want him in the OR if you or a loved one needed it.
- EP115: Beyond Recruiting: How One Family-Run Staffing Firm Evolved into Global Workforce Solutions · 37 min · Episode 115Staffing industry CEO Brett Howroyd shares succession insights and how multi-generational leadership navigates economic challenges at ActOne Group.
- EP114: The Red Tape Crisis: A Cancer Care CEO's Fight for Patient Access · 27 min · Episode 114CancerCare CEO Christine Verini shares 30 years of purpose-driven leadership lessons, from personal tragedy to transforming healthcare access.
- EP113: The 90% Rule - How Much of Yourself to Show as a Leader · 30 min · Episode 113CEO Ticki Favaroth reveals how to lead authentically, build legacy, and focus on what you control in uncertain times. Transform your leadership.
- EP112: How Great Leaders Create More Footprints, Not Bigger Shoes · 44 min · Episode 112The golden thread of great leadership: 8 CEOs share why empowering others beats controlling everything. From humble succession to radical transparency - discover the common…
- EP111: Why the Key to Rapid Growth is Subtraction · 9 min · Episode 111From Jeff Grass’s story: The key to rapid growth is subtraction. Deborah Fell on focus, culture & defying market trends when times get hard.
- EP110: From 95% Revenue Loss to $100M - A Comeback Blueprint · 27 min · Episode 110How do you survive losing 95% of your business overnight? Hungry Marketplace CEO Jeff Grass shares his playbook for crisis innovation & growth.
- EP109: Activities vs. Outcomes: Why Most Teams Miss the Mark · 9 min · Episode 109Why your hardest workers might be missing the mark—and the one cultural shift that transforms both businesses and lives.
- EP108: The Process Approach to Leadership · 28 min · Episode 108Fix the process, not the person.” How one CEO’s philosophy created a thriving remote company decades before virtual work was accepted
- EP107: Not the Shoes, But the Footprints: Redefining CEO Leadership · 11 min · Episode 107Deborah Fell reflects on CEO Jonathan Moody’s radical humility, which involves building an executive team instead of trying to be the central driving force.
