The Strategy and Leadership Podcast with Anthony C. Taylor

Lawrence Armstrong joined Ware Malcomb in 1984 as a designer, when the firm was one office and about 30 people in Irvine, California. In 1992 he and his business partner bought it in the middle of a real estate recession. That year the firm billed just over $3 million. By the time he handed over the CEO role 28 years later, it was billing $139 million. This year, with Lawrence as chairman, it will pass $240 million, with 30 offices and close to 1,000 people.

In this episode of the Strategy & Leadership Podcast, Lawrence explains that the growth came from developing people. He describes Ware Malcomb as a leadership academy, modelled on what Jack Welch built at GE. He walks through the leadership meetings, mentoring and business reviews that keep 30 offices operating as one company. He also talks about how his work as an artist shaped the philosophy in his USA Today bestselling book, Layered Leadership.

In this episode:

• Why client requests to open new offices became the core growth strategy
• How a leadership meeting of six people grew to more than 100, held three times a year for over 30 years
• What Lawrence tells people who ask him how to get promoted
• How the “whole brain” demands of architecture carry over into running a business
• His work as board chair of Orange County United Way, including United to End Homelessness, which has housed more than 1,300 people

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:43 Ware Malcomb and Lawrence’s start in 1984
02:04 One office, 30 people, and running the new LA office
03:26 Buying the firm during a recession
04:12 From $3M to $240M
05:02 Art, architecture and whole-brain leadership
10:17 The foundational growth strategy
12:53 From the building business to the people business
13:37 The GE inspiration and Ware Malcomb’s leadership academy
16:06 Caring for the whole person
18:03 “The company needs you to be promoted”
18:50 Orange County United Way and ending homelessness
21:14 Where to find Lawrence and the book
22:28 Key takeaways

About Lawrence Armstrong
Lawrence is chairman and former CEO of Ware Malcomb, an international architecture, interior design and engineering firm headquartered in Irvine, California. He is the author of Layered Leadership and board chair of Orange County United Way.

Links
Lawrence: https://lawrencerarmstrong.com
Layered Leadership: https://layeredleadershipbook.com
Ware Malcomb: https://www.waremalcomb.com
SME Strategy: https://www.smestrategy.net

#Leadership #LeadershipDevelopment #StrategicPlanning #CEO #BusinessGrowth #Architecture #StrategyAndLeadership

Nate Bennett has spent twenty years studying the COO role. His book Riding Shotgun: The Role of the COO, co-written with Stephen Miles, is now in its third edition from Stanford Business Books.

In this conversation: why the right question is what makes a great CEO and COO pair, not what makes a great COO; why founders pushed by their board to hire a number two often never empower that person; the seven types of COO and the three kinds of fit to test before you hire; and why average COO tenure has dropped from five years to about two and a half.

Blog post and full notes: https://www.smestrategy.net/blog/michael-dell-put-a-glass-wall-between-himself-and-his-coo.-heres-why-it-worked
Connect with Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604
Work with SME Strategy: https://meetings.hubspot.com/anthony930

Jim Weiss built Real Chemistry from one person to 2,500 employees by refusing to do marketing work that didn't move a number the client's CEO cared about. Media impressions were never the measure. Patients on therapy, revenue and stock price were.
Jim is the founder and chairman of Real Chemistry (formerly W2O Group), an integrated marketing and communications firm that helps healthcare companies launch new medicines, vaccines and treatments. Over 25 years he grew the company into a global firm, and he now advises a range of companies and organizations while hosting the Get Real podcast.
In this conversation, Jim and Anthony talk about what actually drove that growth: hiring people with shared values, letting clients pull the firm into new services, and building ownership into the business so people share in the wins. Jim also explains what changed when he moved from CEO to chairman and had to lead through influence instead of authority.
Key takeaways:
- Alignment is what keeps a growing company flying in formation. Without coordination, more people just means more noise.
- Let clients pull you into new work. When a client asked "can you also do this?", Jim hired or bought the capability and grew alongside them.
- Measure against your client's business objectives. If the work doesn't support something the C-suite cares about, don't do it.
- As chairman or advisor, your influence works like the moon on the tides. Advice lands best when it becomes their idea.
- Real ownership, or at least a sense of it, changes how people show up. Jim's advice to owners is to give people stock where they can.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction: Jim Weiss and Real Chemistry
01:04 Growing up in Honesdale and what Real Chemistry does
02:33 Business lessons learned by age eight
03:46 Alignment and the flying formation
06:32 Clear roles, great hires and picking the right clients
09:28 Growing with clients: "Can you also do this?"
11:25 Values as hashtags and the "no assholes" rule
11:47 Tying the work to the client's business KPIs
17:17 From CEO to chairman: direct impact to influence
18:39 Why ownership matters
20:28 Be like water
21:33 Get Real podcast and the Music and Medicine program
24:30 Closing takeaways

Want to talk about your organization's strategy? Book a conversation with Anthony: https://meetings.hubspot.com/anthony930
Prefer to start on your own? Take the One Destination Alignment Scorecard: https://www.smestrategy.net/one-destination-scorecard
Connect with Anthony C. Taylor at https://www.smestrategy.net

#Leadership #Strategy #ScalingABusiness #HealthcareMarketing #StrategyAndLeadership

Eighty percent of your people using Copilot does not make you an AI company. In a lot of mid-market organizations it means AI is everywhere and strategy is nowhere.

John Rudd built SolutionsIQ into North America's largest Agile consultancy, sold it to Accenture, and went on to run Accenture's global Agile practice and its North America technology M&A program. A former turnaround CFO and current private equity board member, he is co-founder of LightSight and author of The Age of the Speedboat: How Middle Market Leaders Can Win the AI Era.

Anthony and John talk about why license counts are the wrong measure of AI progress, what a CEO should put in place before chasing use cases, and why the leaders who win this era will be the ones who stop pretending to have every answer.

Book a conversation with Anthony: https://meetings.hubspot.com/anthony930
Take the One Destination Alignment Scorecard: https://www.smestrategy.net/one-destination-scorecard
More from SME Strategy: https://www.smestrategy.net
Get John's book: https://speedboatbook.com

Keith Wyche has spent his career inside companies in the middle of a transformation. He was at AT&T before the 1984 breakup, at IBM during its shift to services, at Pitney Bowes looking for life beyond mailing, and at Walmart as it moved from brick and mortar to e-commerce. He was also President of Cub Foods and ACME Markets for SuperValu, and he now serves as an independent director on the board of Brink's.

In this episode, Keith explains the 4 R's he uses to drive change: relevance, readiness, responsiveness, and robustness. He tells the story of growing a grocery chain with no grocery background by tailoring 15% of each store to its community. He also describes the Sears story he used to get long-tenured Walmart teams behind e-commerce, and he shares his equation for trust: character × competency × consistency.

His new book is Uncommon Leadership.

CONNECT WITH KEITH
Website: keithwyche.com
Instagram: @therealkeithwyche
Book: Uncommon Leadership, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, and wherever books are sold

WORK WITH ANTHONY
Anthony Taylor facilitates strategic planning and alignment sessions with leadership teams, and speaks at conferences and events as a keynote speaker, trainer, and working-session facilitator on strategy and leadership.
Contact: smestrategy.net/contact
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604

#Leadership #ChangeManagement #Walmart #BoardGovernance #StrategyAndLeadership

Glenn Kaufman runs KEH Camera, North America's largest pre-owned camera and video equipment reseller, founded D Cubed Group, and previously chaired the Finance Committee on the board of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers. In this conversation he explains why he treats himself as reporting to his own board even as CEO, the line he uses to build real alignment with the leaders he backs, and how he tells a company that's genuinely healthy from one that's been dressed up to sell. If you sit on a board, report to one, or want to, this is a masterclass in building trust before you need it.

🔗 Read the full write-up: https://www.smestrategy.net/blog/glenn-kaufman-keh-camera-ceo-board-accountability

🔗 Strategic planning facilitation with Anthony: https://www.smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator

🔗 Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604/

Alan Walsh is President of Sentient Jet, the company that invented the private jet card. Before that, he spent 20+ years at Dell and EMC, including leading the 4,500-person Global Support Center team through the EMC-Dell merger across 12 locations and six continents.
In this episode, Alan shares the leadership credo he's carried since his EMC days ("if there's no precedent, you can't be wrong"), what it actually takes to communicate change to thousands of people at once, and the operational discipline behind Sentient Jet's commitment to answering every phone call in 15 seconds or less, 24/7.

00:00 Intro: Meet Alan Walsh, President of Sentient Jet
01:12 From Cork, Ireland to the U.S. — Alan's path
02:06 The first rule of leadership: "It's never about me"
03:33 Alan's credo: "If there's no precedent, you can't be wrong"
05:15 Communicating "the why" across a 4,500-person global team
07:38 Inside the Dell-EMC merger integration
10:45 The failure that changed how Alan leads
13:17 How applied physics shaped his leadership style
15:02 A day in the life as President of Sentient Jet
18:08 Where AI fits in private aviation (and where it doesn't)
20:51 The 15-second rule: Sentient Jet's service philosophy
22:46 Close

Learn more about Sentient Jet: https://sentient.com
Want strategic clarity like this in your own organization? Work with SME Strategy on your strategic plan: https://www.smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator
Or connect with Anthony directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604/

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and subscribe wherever you listen. It helps more leaders find the show.
#Leadership #PrivateAviation #ChangeManagement #CustomerExperience #ExecutiveLeadership #BusinessPodcast

Most franchise CEOs chase the wrong number. Mike Rotondo — who's led Tropical Smoothie Cafe, Edible Arrangements, and Altitude Trampoline Parks, and now runs pet care franchise Skiptown — explains why the real measure of a healthy system isn't new franchise agreements, it's the "second signature": whether the franchisees you already have want to do it again.

Anthony and Mike dig into unit-level economics, when to innovate versus when to protect your core (and why "we'll never do that" often doesn't age well), and the three traits that separate franchisees who thrive from ones who burn out. A candid, practical conversation for anyone building a business — franchise or not — that depends on other people executing well.

ABOUT SME STRATEGY
SME Strategy helps organizations around the world create and execute their strategic plans through expert facilitation, leadership training, and organizational alignment. We work with leadership teams to make strategy implementation easier, faster, and more effective.

Learn More About Our Strategic Planning Facilitation Services:
https://www.smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator

Visit SME Strategy Consulting:
https://www.smestrategy.net

Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604/

Ron Johnson built the Apple Store from scratch. He was also CEO of JCPenney and led the design-for-all era at Target. In this episode of the Strategy and Leadership Podcast, he walks Anthony Taylor through the specific counterintuitive bets that made Apple retail the most successful launch in the history of the category.

The list is longer than most people realize. He hired baristas and librarians instead of technology experts, because he could train product knowledge in a week but couldn't train warmth. He killed sales commissions, so customers would buy when they were ready and not when a rep needed a number. He invented the Genius Bar as a visible promise of service at the back of every store. He put Apple on the world's most expensive real estate. And he built the Fifth Avenue store underground, so rent landed at roughly 1% of sales while the store did $350 million in its first year.

The through-line for CEOs and senior operators: the strategies that separate you from your competitors are the ones that look counterintuitive on paper, and they come from your own lived experience, not from copying what's already been done.
If you're a CEO, president, or senior operator running a mid-market business and trying to build a strategy that actually differentiates you, this conversation is for you.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Ron Johnson: Apple Store, JCPenney, Target
01:05 Starting at the bottom, unloading trucks at Mervyn's
03:25 Why he hired baristas and librarians instead of tech experts
06:07 The real future of retail: 85% of sales are still physical
09:25 Why customers want to be approached in stores
10:42 Killing sales commissions at the Apple Store
11:47 Designing a store so the service is visible from the door
13:41 What made the Apple Store concept so counterintuitive
15:42 Personal geography: the edge nobody can copy
17:16 The Fifth Avenue store, the fifth most photographed site in NYC
19:52 $350M in year one at 1% rent: the underground bet
21:15 What courage in strategy actually looks like
22:22 Ron's new book and where to find him

ABOUT THE GUEST
Ron Johnson is the former Senior Vice President of Retail Operations at Apple, where he built the Apple Store from concept to global rollout and created the Genius Bar. He was previously Executive Vice President of Merchandising at Target, where he led the design-for-all strategy that reshaped the brand, and later served as CEO of JCPenney.
His new book, Shop Different: How Retail Revealed Apple's Genius, is out from HarperCollins.
Learn more: https://ronjohnsonshopsdifferent.com

ABOUT THE PODCAST
The Strategy and Leadership Podcast is hosted by Anthony Taylor, Managing Partner at SME Strategy, and features conversations with CEOs and senior operators about the strategic bets, frameworks, and decisions that separate great companies from average ones.

Work with SME Strategy on your next planning session:
https://www.smestrategy.net
Subscribe for a new episode every week.

#RonJohnson #AppleStore #StrategicPlanning #RetailStrategy #BusinessStrategy

What does it take to lead 24,000 people through the largest telecom merger in US history — during COVID — and come out the other side with a stronger team?

In this episode of the Strategy & Leadership Podcast, Anthony Taylor sits down with Tracy Nolan, SVP at Humana and board member at Dress for Success. Tracy has driven $31B in revenue through a $6B operating budget across a Fortune 100 career that includes leadership roles through the Sprint/T-Mobile merger, the Verizon/Alltel merger, 9/11, and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

Tracy shares the six ingredients she looks for in every team she builds, why "if your name is on the invite, you've earned the right to be in the room," and the story of a goose in a parking lot that reshaped how she thinks about listening as a leader.

Whether you're leading a mid-market company through change or building your first executive team, the fundamentals in this conversation apply.

What you'll learn:
• The six success ingredients Tracy uses to evaluate any team (trust, integrity, commitment, execution, teamwork, right people)
• How to build two-way trust before you need it
• The "open bridge" method Tracy used to lead 12,000 people through a merger during COVID
• Why vulnerability at the executive level accelerates transformation
• The concept of "full circle leadership" — managing your team, peers, boss, and customers as one system
• The most overlooked element of transformation plans (and why decisiveness beats consensus)
• How Dress for Success helps women re-enter the workforce

Chapters:
00:00 – Introducing Tracy Nolan
01:11 – Heart + leadership: how Tracy defines her MO
03:09 – The six success ingredients
05:14 – Building trust during major transformation
06:11 – The Sprint/T-Mobile merger & the goose in the parking lot
10:59 – Being the first woman in the boardroom
14:39 – Driving results and full circle leadership
20:49 – What most leaders miss in transformation
22:46 – Dress for Success and giving back
25:15 – Where to connect with Tracy

Connect with Tracy Nolan:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tracy-nolan

Learn more about Dress for Success: dressforsuccess.org

About the host:
Anthony Taylor is the founder of SME Strategy Consulting and host of the Strategy & Leadership Podcast. He helps mid-market leadership teams get aligned on one destination and execute on it. Learn more at smestrategy.net.

If you got value from this conversation, leave a review and let us know your biggest takeaway.

#Leadership #StrategyAndLeadership #Transformation #ChangeManagement #ExecutiveLeadership

Dr. Justin Anderson CEO of Premier Sport Psychology and Premier Performance Advising Justin’s work has supported Hall of Famers, All-Pros, world and national champions, and organizations across the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, WNBA, NWSL, Olympic sports, collegiate athletics, and executive leadership spaces.He shares insights on how elite performers achieve their success through mental frameworks, attention management, and intentional focus. Discover practical strategies to enhance your performance and leadership by understanding the mind's role in overcoming challenges.Key Topics-The importance of attention in performance-Breaking through mental barriers-The five personal attributes for success-The role of biases, fears, and insecurities-The intentional attention framework-Managing pressure and stress effectively-The concept of amnesia and forgetting the past-Renewal strategies for high performers-The impact of routines and language on mindset-Practical tips for leaders and athletes

What if resistance to change isn't stubbornness or rebellion, but biology? Travis Hahler has spent nearly two decades sitting between great strategies and the people who have to adopt them, and he has a startling answer for why so many transformations stall: change signals threat to the human brain, and most leaders have no idea they are triggering it.

In this episode of the SME Strategy and Leadership Podcast, host Anthony Taylor sits down with Travis Hahler, Senior Director of Global Strategy and Transformation at Salesforce, former Global Change and Transformation Lead at Google, and founder of The Neurological Nomad. Drawing on a background that spans neuroscience research, an MBA, and change leadership at Google, Salesforce, and Deloitte, Travis brings a rare fusion of brain science and boardroom experience to the question every leader eventually faces: how do you actually get people to move?

Together they unpack why 70 percent of change initiatives fail to achieve their expected ROI, how the brain interprets organizational change as a loss of competence, relationships, or control, and why urgency and free rein so often backfire. Travis shares the practical shift that separates the successful 30 percent from the rest, including why your program manager gets a project live but your change manager is the one who actually delivers the return.

What You Will Learn in This Episode

How the brain interprets organizational change as a threat, and what leaders consistently misread when teams push back

Why every change equals loss, and how to lead through the three types of loss people experience at work: competence, relationships, and control

Why "just go play with it" is the wrong way to roll out AI, and what people actually need before they will engage

The difference between program management and change management, and why underinvesting in the second one quietly kills your ROI

How to think about adoption in terms of ROI, and why 20 percent adoption rarely justifies the investment

About Travis Hahler

Travis Hahler is Senior Director of Global Strategy and Transformation at Salesforce and the founder of The Neurological Nomad. Over more than fifteen years he has guided over one hundred companies through organizational transformation, earning the nickname "Resistance Fortune Teller" for his ability to predict where change efforts will fail. His signature keynote, The Neuroscience of Change, has reached over 25,000 leaders across 150 global events. His book, Rethink Resistance: Embracing Neuroscience to Lead Transformational Change, is forthcoming from Fast Company Press. Travis has held change and transformation roles at Google and Deloitte, studied neuroscience at Harvard and conducted EEG research at Aalborg University in Denmark, and holds an MBA from the University of South Dakota.

Connect with Travis Hahler

Website: https://www.theneurologicalnomad.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travisdhahler/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneurologicalnomad/

About the Podcast

The SME Strategy and Leadership Podcast is where leaders come to sharpen their thinking on strategy, execution, and the human side of moving plans forward. Hosted by Anthony Taylor, each episode brings candid conversations with executives and experts who help teams get aligned and turn strategic plans into action.

Strategy Resources

Get help facilitating your strategic plan: https://www.smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator

Connect with Anthony Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604

Learn more about SME Strategy: https://www.smestrategy.net

Produced by Rednyne Productions: https://www.rednyne.com

The global ocean economy is doubling in size to three trillion US dollars. Canada, a country with the longest coastline in the world and the fourth largest ocean territory, sits at roughly fifty billion. Kendra MacDonald calls that gap the opportunity of a generation, and she left one of the largest professional services firms on the planet to go after it.

In this episode of the SME Strategy and Leadership Podcast, host Anthony Taylor sits down with Kendra MacDonald, CEO of Canada's Ocean Supercluster and former Chief Audit Executive of Deloitte Global. After twenty five years at Deloitte, Kendra stepped out of a 275,000 person organization to become the first employee of a not for profit built to grow Canada's ocean economy. She talks candidly about why she made the leap, what it takes to align competing industries and countries around a shared goal, and why leadership in this moment looks different from what most people picture.

The conversation moves from the raw economic case for the ocean economy to the messy reality of collaboration at national and international scale. Kendra explains how a supercluster functions as a network of networks, why the devil is in the details when it comes to budgets and intellectual property, and how she keeps fishing executives, oil executives, researchers, and government partners focused on a common objective instead of the friction between them. She also shares a personal turning point that shaped her whole career, and makes the case for stepping into leadership even when you do not feel ready.

What You Will Learn in This Episode

How Kendra frames the size of the ocean economy opportunity and why Canada is significantly undersized relative to its coastline. Why collaboration is harder in practice than it sounds, and where partnerships tend to break down. How to keep diverse stakeholders aligned by returning to shared purpose rather than fixating on friction points. What it takes to lead a national initiative that spans four Atlantic provinces, coast to coast to coast, and nine countries. How technology, from sensors and autonomous platforms to AI, is being used to instrument the ocean and solve real problems. Why one moment should never be allowed to become career defining, and why the current moment needs more people to step into leadership.

About Kendra MacDonald

Kendra (she/her) is the CEO for Canada's Ocean Supercluster (OSC), responsible for driving the sustainable growth of Canada's Ocean Economy. Along with the OSC team, Kendra is passionately committed to raising awareness of Canada's ocean opportunity and role as an ocean nation.

Connect with Kendra

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kendramacdonald-40b574

Canada's Ocean Supercluster: https://oceansupercluster.ca

Saltwater Signals on Substack: https://substack.com/@saltwatersignals

About the Podcast

The SME Strategy and Leadership Podcast brings you conversations with leaders and thinkers from around the world on strategy, leadership, and building organizations that last. Hosted by Anthony Taylor, founder of SME Strategy Consulting and strategic advisor to leadership teams across North America, each episode gives executives practical perspective they can bring back to their own teams.

Strategy Resources

Looking to align your leadership team around a clear strategic plan? Learn more about strategic planning facilitation with Anthony and the SME Strategy team: https://smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator

Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604

Produced by Rednyne Productions: https://rednyne.com

Note: This episode contains some strong language.

When a recruiter called George Barrios about a CFO job, George was treasurer of The New York Times Company. His verbatim reaction when he heard the company was WWE: "are you fucking kidding me?" He took the role anyway. Twelve years later, the stock had gone from $15 to $100, and he had helped engineer the largest acquisition in sports entertainment history.

In this episode of the Strategy and Leadership Podcast, Anthony C. Taylor speaks with George Barrios, former Co-President and Board Member of WWE, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Isos Capital, and author of Sometimes Wrong but Never in Doubt, about how deep preparation builds the conviction to act when everyone says you are wrong. George and his business partner Michelle Wilson took WWE from a roughly $1 billion North American event business to the company that anchored the $9.3 billion merger with UFC to form TKO Group.

Anthony and George explore the insight that the entire industry rejected, why being right when everyone else is wrong is the only kind of right that matters, how over 1,100 meetings in three and a half years changed the market's mind, and what it takes to rebuild after being fired in front of your whole industry. The conversation also goes deep on the research method behind every decision George makes, the partnership dynamic with Vince McMahon, and how he now applies the WWE playbook across La Liga, Ligue 1, and the WTA.

What You Will Learn in This Episode

- How George and Michelle Wilson took WWE from roughly $1 billion to a $9.3 billion valuation

- Why deep preparation, not self-confidence, is the real source of conviction

- The insight about live content that the entire industry insisted was wrong

- Why being right when everyone else is wrong is where the value lives

- What over 1,100 meetings in three and a half years actually accomplished

- How George rebuilt after being fired publicly and then called back to finish the deal

About George Barrios

George Barrios is a business leader, investor, and operator working at the intersection of sports, media, and technology. He is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Isos Capital, where he invests across sports, entertainment, and media. He is also an investor in and Director of Global Sport Group (GSG), a CVC-backed sports investment platform whose portfolio includes La Liga, Ligue 1, the WTA, and Equine Network, and serves as a Trustee of the University of Connecticut.

George is best known for his tenure as Co-President and Board Member of WWE, where he helped transform the company into a global, multi-platform entertainment business and lead its merger with UFC to form TKO Group. Earlier in his career, he held senior executive roles at The New York Times Company, Time Warner, HBO, and Praxair. He holds an MBA from the University of Connecticut School of Business. A first-generation Cuban American raised in Queens, New York, he is the author of Sometimes Wrong but Never in Doubt.

Connect with George Barrios

Website: https://georgebarrios.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgebarrios/

About the Strategy and Leadership Podcast

The Strategy and Leadership Podcast is hosted by Anthony C. Taylor, a strategic advisor to mid-market leadership teams ($30M to $300M) across North America. He works directly with CEOs and senior leaders to align their teams, clarify priorities, and execute strategy in complex organizations, interviewing founders, executives, and industry leaders about what actually works when strategy has to survive execution.

Strategy Resources for Leaders

Work with a Strategic Planning Facilitator: https://www.smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator

Connect with Anthony Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604/

Produced by Rednyne Productions: https://www.rednyne.com

Three computers, no fridge, and 15 employees. That was Nuheat when John Rose walked in. Sixteen years later it was the North American leader in its industry, and John says culture is the reason why.

In this episode of the Strategy and Leadership Podcast, Anthony C. Taylor speaks with John Rose, former President and CEO of Nuheat Industries, advisor, investor, and board director, about what 16 years at the helm of a market leader taught him about culture, alignment, and building a company people are proud to work for. John took Nuheat from 15 staff, three computers, and humble beginnings to the North American industry leader in electric radiant floor heating, with 120 full time employees and roughly 4,000 distribution partners before its sale to Pentair in 2015.

Anthony and John explore why culture is a precondition for performance rather than a perk, how celebrating 24 nationalities on staff galvanized the team, why alignment is the most important thing a leader can build, and how to define what winning actually looks like. The conversation also covers family business succession, the relationship between an executive and their board, and the two interview questions John used in nearly every hire at Nuheat.

What You Will Learn in This Episode

How John transformed Nuheat from 15 employees into the North American market leader

Why culture is a precondition for performance, not a perk

How celebrating 24 nationalities on staff galvanized the team and drove results

Why alignment is the most important thing a leader can build

How to define what winning looks like for your organization

Why hope is not a strategy and how accountability keeps a plan alive

How to structure family business succession so the next generation can lead

Why an executive should own the conversation with their board

The two interview questions John used in 90% of his hires

About John Rose

John Rose believes a strong corporate culture is the key ingredient for long-term success. Leaders create the culture, and the culture creates results.

John spent 13 years in his family business, Kirkland and Rose, a bakery and grocery supplier across Western Canada, before it sold to a Dutch company in the early 90s. He then served as President and CEO of Nuheat Industries for 16 years. His focus on culture earned Nuheat Platinum Status as a 10 time winner in Canada's Best Managed Companies Program, a Cultural Diversity Award for employing staff from 24 countries, recognition as one of BC's Best Places to Work, and BC Exporter of the Year. The company grew from 15 staff to the North American leader in electric radiant floor heating, with 120 full time staff and roughly 4,000 distribution partners before its 2015 sale to Pentair.

John is also an engaged community leader. He served as a Director and later Chair of Canuck Place Children's Hospice, and Chair of the Board of Mackay CEO Forums. He currently works with companies on Leadership, Succession, and Transition, and sits on the Boards of VanAir Design, Highgate Senior Living, Travelers Financial Group, and Tap & Barrel Restaurants.

Connect with John Rose

Website: https://www.johnroseconsulting.com

Instagram: @johnrose1

About the Strategy and Leadership Podcast

The Strategy and Leadership Podcast is hosted by Anthony C. Taylor, a strategic advisor to mid-market leadership teams ($30M to $300M) across North America. Anthony works directly with CEOs and senior leaders to help them align their teams, clarify priorities, and execute strategy in complex organizations. He interviews founders, executives, and industry leaders about what actually works when strategy has to survive execution.

Strategy Resources for Leaders

Work with a Strategic Planning Facilitator https://www.smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator

Connect with Anthony Taylor on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604/

Produced by Rednyne Productions https://www.rednyne.com

What does it actually take to lead when the stakes are life and death, and what happens when those same pressures show up in a boardroom? According to Jenn Donahue, the answer starts not with strategy or skill, but with the voices inside your own head.

In this episode, Anthony C. Taylor speaks with Jenn Donahue, PhD, PE, retired U.S. Navy captain, international keynote speaker, business coach, and USA Today bestselling author of Becoming the Warrior: Harnessing Your Inner Strength to Silence Self-Doubt. Jenn commanded an 800-personnel battalion in Afghanistan, built a bridge across the Euphrates River during the Iraq War, survived enemy fire and a contract on her life, and led teams through decisions where the cost of hesitation was measured in lives, not quarterly results.

Anthony and Jenn explore the two inner voices that quietly undermine leaders at every level, why self-doubt gets louder the higher you climb, how military preparation maps directly to business leadership, and what a 360 review revealed about her own leadership that changed everything.

What You Will Learn in This Episode

The two inner voices that hold leaders back, what they are, how they work, and why one is harder to catch than the other.

Why self-doubt gets proportionally louder as the stakes get higher, and what neuroscience says about rewiring that response.

How military briefing and debriefing practices translate into business leadership and why most organizations skip the step that matters most.

What Jenn learned when a subordinate called her out for not trusting her team under stress, and how that feedback transformed her command.

Why trust determines how well an organization actually performs, and what it looks like when leaders build it versus let it erode.

How to mentally prepare for high-pressure conversations so you stay grounded instead of falling into fight, flight, or freeze.

The Warrior Framework Jenn developed from combat training: perceive, assess, ready, act, and how leaders can use it to move from stuck to decisive.

About Jenn Donahue

Jenn Donahue, PhD, PE is an international keynote speaker, retired U.S. Navy captain, business coach, and one of North America's leading voices on leadership and personal growth. Over a 27-year military career, she commanded an 800-personnel battalion in Afghanistan, built a bridge across the Euphrates River during the Iraq War, and led the construction of combat outposts in hostile terrain. Her USA Today bestselling book, Becoming the Warrior, draws on her battlefield experience to build a four-part framework that helps leaders move past self-doubt and take decisive action.

Connect with Jenn Donahue: https://www.jenndonahue.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenndonahue-phd-pe/

Instagram: @iamjenndonahue

About the Strategy & Leadership Podcast

The Strategy & Leadership Podcast is hosted by Anthony C. Taylor, a strategic advisor to mid-market leadership teams ($30M to $300M) across North America. Anthony works directly with CEOs and senior leaders to help them align their teams, clarify priorities, and execute strategy effectively in complex organizations.

Work with a Strategic Planning Facilitator: https://www.smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator

Connect with Anthony Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604/

Produced by Rednyne Productions: https://www.rednyne.com

What happens when you build a global brand, sell it for $200 million, and realize it's not what you want? According to Mark Rampolla, the real lesson isn't about the exit or buyback. It's about understanding that growth isn't something you do. It's something you become.

In this episode of the Strategy & Leadership Podcast, Anthony C. Taylor speaks with Mark Rampolla, founder and CEO of ZICO Coconut Water, co-founder and managing partner of GroundForce Capital, and author of An Entrepreneur's Guide to Freedom. Mark spent nine years building ZICO into one of the fastest-growing beverage brands in the world, sold it to Coca-Cola in 2013, and later bought it back for a fraction of the sale price when the company was divested.

What Mark has learned from backing nearly 100 companies at GroundForce Capital, sitting on 40+ boards, and helping raise over $1 billion in capital changes how you think about what separates founders who break through from those who don't. Anthony and Mark explore why self-reflection and curiosity are the most powerful indicators of future success, why the founder to CEO transition breaks most people, and what it really means to treat people the way they want to be treated.

What You Will Learn in This Episode

• Why growth is an inside job and what that means for founders
• The surprising pattern across nearly 100 companies that separates high performers
• Why strategy and execution matter far less than people think
• How to spot real indicators of someone's future success
• What Mark learned building Zico twice and why the second time was different
• The founder to CEO transition and what determines who makes it
• How to identify the niche that makes your brand resonate
• Why the platinum rule changes how you lead
• What a $600 million asset management firm looks for in founder teams

About Mark Rampolla

Mark is co-founder and managing partner of GroundForce Capital, a $600 million institutional asset management firm. He has backed nearly 100 companies, served on 40+ boards, helped raise over $1 billion in capital, and contributed to creating over $5 billion in enterprise value. Before GroundForce, Mark founded and led ZICO Coconut Water from 2004 to 2013, selling it to Coca-Cola before buying it back years later as ZICO Rising. His investment portfolio includes Liquid Death, Osoba, Vive Organic, OWYN, Flying Embers, and Partake Brewing. Mark holds an MBA from Duke University and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Central America.

Connect with Mark Rampolla

Website: https://www.markrampolla.co/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marksrampolla/
Instagram: @markrampolla
Book: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Freedom

About the Strategy & Leadership Podcast

The Strategy & Leadership Podcast is hosted by Anthony C. Taylor, a strategic advisor to mid-market leadership teams ($30M to $300M). On this show, he interviews founders, executives, and industry leaders about what actually works when strategy has to survive execution.

Strategy Resources

Strategic Planning Facilitator: https://www.smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator
Anthony Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604/
Produced by Rednyne Productions

What separates teams that chase perfection from those that settle for good enough? According to Jason Richardson, it comes down to three things: the culture you build from the roots up, the trust you earn before you need it, and the ownership every leader takes for the environment their team lives in.

In this episode of the Strategy and Leadership Podcast, Anthony C. Taylor speaks with Jason Richardson, a former Royal Australian Air Force fighter pilot, Cathay Pacific captain, and performance consultant who has worked inside a Formula One team, about what high-performance culture actually looks like when lives and championships are on the line.

Jason flew F/A-18s with No. 77 Squadron, earned his command on the A330 and A350, and during COVID brought his aviation expertise into Formula One. He now runs Richardson Human Performance Solutions, helping organizations build the foundational conditions for sustained high performance.

Anthony and Jason explore the tree model of organizational performance, why trust, psychological safety, and culture are the root structure everything else depends on, and how aviation's 7,000-page operating manual is a masterclass in delegation. They dig into what it took to align an entire F1 team around a single mission, why trust cannot be enforced, and the counterintuitive move that builds it fastest.

What You Will Learn in This Episode

Why high performance is a mindset before it is a method, and how that mindset is built, not inherited

The tree model of organizational performance: what belongs in the roots, the trunk, and the leaves

How aviation systemized delegation and emergency response, and what business leaders can take from it

What Jason's work inside a Formula One team revealed about aligning large organizations to a single mission

How to build trust quickly, and why acting against your own self-interest is the most powerful move

Why high performers want challenge more than money, and how leaders can use that

The leadership fractal: why you own the operating environment at every level of the organization

Why culture change has to start at the roots before anything else will stick

About Jason Richardson

Jason Richardson is a former Royal Australian Air Force fighter pilot, qualified flying instructor, and current Cathay Pacific captain on the Airbus A330 and A350. He served with the RAAF from 1992 to 2007, flying F/A-18s with No. 77 Squadron before transitioning to commercial aviation.

In 2024 and 2025, Jason worked exclusively with a Formula One team on a culture and identity project, during which time the team climbed two positions in the constructors championship. He founded Richardson Human Performance Solutions in 2019 and is an ICF accredited organizational coach.

He is the author of Fighting for Flawless: A Fighter Pilot's Manual for Leading in High-Stakes Environments, available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.

Connect with Jason

Website: https://www.richardsonhps.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardsonhps/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@richardsonhps

About the Strategy and Leadership Podcast

The Strategy and Leadership Podcast is hosted by Anthony C. Taylor, a strategic advisor to mid-market leadership teams ($30M to $300M) across North America. Anthony works directly with CEOs and senior leaders to help them align their teams, clarify priorities, and execute strategy in complex organizations. On this show, he interviews founders, executives, and industry leaders about what actually works when strategy has to survive execution.

Strategy Resources for Leaders

Work with a Strategic Planning Facilitator: https://www.smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator

Connect with Anthony Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604/

Produced by Rednyne Productions: https://www.rednyne.com

What separates the leaders who scale from the ones who stall? According to Jim Remley, it comes down to three things: the expectations you set, the people you develop, and the financial discipline you build before you need it.

In this episode of the Strategy & Leadership Podcast, Anthony C. Taylor speaks with Jim Remley, founder of the largest independent real estate brokerage in Oregon and nationally recognized coach at eRealEstateCoach.com, about what it actually takes to build and lead a high-performance organization through growth, adversity, and market disruption.

Jim brings 36 years of experience scaling to 17 offices, 3,000 annual transactions, and $1.4 billion in sales volume, having navigated 9/11, the dot-com crash, the Great Recession, and COVID. He breaks down why most leaders are operating with dangerously low standards, how to differentiate in a commoditized market, and why speaking to the self-interest of the people you lead is not a compromise — it is the strategy. He also shares the 4-month war chest rule, how proprietary value and people training protect a business from competing on price alone, and why a leader's composure sets the performance ceiling for the entire organization.

What You Will Learn in This Episode

• Why leaders and managers are fundamentally different and which one your business actually needs
• How to create proprietary value in a commoditized industry
• Why your people are the most important competitive differentiator you have
• How to recruit top talent by speaking directly to their self-interest
• The 4-month war chest rule and why building it should be a non-negotiable priority
• How to lead calmly through market shocks when everything around you is uncertain
• Why world-class expectations produce world-class results
• How to personalize automated outreach using video so it actually gets watched

About Jim Remley

Jim Remley is a nationally recognized real estate broker, coach, and author whose career began at age 19. He quickly ranked in the top 1% of REALTORS® nationwide, listing over 150 properties in his first year. At 24, he founded his first real estate company, which grew to 17 offices and became the largest independent real estate brokerage in Oregon, closing 3,000 transactions annually with a sales volume exceeding $1.4 billion.

Jim is a sought-after instructor for the National Association of REALTORS, co-founder of the Luxury Home Council, and author of the Accredited Luxury Home Specialist (ALHS) designation and three bestselling books, including Sell Your Home in Any Market. He has appeared on CNN's Open House and now coaches office leaders and brokers nationally through eRealEstateCoach.com.

Connect with Jim

Website: https://erealestatecoach.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-remley
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@eRealEstateCoach
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@erealestatecoach
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erealestatecoach

About the Strategy & Leadership Podcast

The Strategy & Leadership Podcast is hosted by Anthony C. Taylor, a strategic advisor to mid-market leadership teams ($30M–$300M) across North America.

Anthony works directly with CEOs and senior leaders to help them align their teams, clarify priorities, and execute strategy effectively in complex organizations.

On this show, he interviews founders, executives, and industry leaders about what actually works when strategy has to survive execution.

Strategy Resources for Leaders

Work with a Strategic Planning Facilitator: https://www.smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator
Connect with Anthony Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604/
Produced by Rednyne Productions: https://www.rednyne.com

What if the secret to building a company that lasts over a century isn't disruption, technology, or even capital — but the discipline to put relationships before transactions, every single time?

In this episode, Anthony C. Taylor speaks with Jonathan Iger, CEO and President of Sage, a 102-year-old commercial real estate company that has outlasted every recession, market shift, and industry disruption since 1924. Jonathan shares how Sage has stayed relevant by reading macro shifts before they hit, doubling down on what makes the office irreplaceable, and treating every tenant relationship like a long-term partnership rather than a lease agreement.

Anthony and Jonathan explore how elevated consumer expectations are reshaping the workplace, why the best office environments take cues from the hospitality industry, and how a 102-year track record is built not on grand slam moments but on consistently hitting singles across every customer touchpoint.

What You'll Learn

• Why relationship always trumps transaction, even in transactional businesses
• How to read macro shifts before they disrupt your industry
• Why competing with remote work is the wrong strategy — and what to do instead
• How customer journey mapping drives better experiences at every touchpoint
• Why the best office environments are built on the hospitality model
• How Sage has retained tenants for over 30 years through deep partnership thinking
• Why time is the most valuable commodity you can give your customers
• How a 102-year-old company thinks about long-term bets and strategic focus

Connect with Jonathan Iger

Website: https://sagerealty.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathaniger/

Strategy Resources for Leaders

Download the Strategic Alignment Toolkit: https://www.smestrategy.net/toolkit
Book a Strategic Alignment Review: https://www.smestrategy.net/contact
Learn more about SME Strategy: https://www.smestrategy.net
Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604/

Produced by Rednyne Productions