Success Beneath the Surface
Episodes
4 days ago
4 days ago
In our last episode, Deborah interviewed Kyle Buckett, a retired member of the elite US Navy SEALs. Today, she focuses on one specific segment from that conversation where Kyle shares his insights on building high-performing teams and the parallels between military leadership and the business world.
As a CEO, your role is to define a clear mission and assemble a team of leaders who can work together to achieve the impossible. Kyle's unique perspective, drawing from his experiences in both military and civilian settings, offers valuable lessons for anyone looking to create a culture of excellence in their organization.
Listen to the full interview here:
EP57: Lessons from a SEAL - Culture Improvement with Culture Fit to Build Your Elite Team
Links from this episode:
Kyle Buckett's book
Culture Force
Kyle Buckett on LinkedIn
Deborah Fell on LinkedIn
Chief Outsiders
About Kyle Buckett:
Kyle Buckett is an unshakable idealist who believes in a bright future and our ability to build it together through developing strong cultures.
Kyle’s WHY is to refine and create positive cultures that attract great people. He believes great people working together make elite teams. Elite teams make organizations elite. And when you have elite organizations striving for excellence in their missions, the world is a much better place!
With a vision to change the way businesses think, act, and operate, Kyle and his team work with leaders and organizations in nearly every industry to help transform company culture and create a better working world.
As a retired Navy SEAL leader, board member, and former COO and CHRO of a publicly traded company, Kyle has discovered remarkable patterns in how some of the greatest movements in history were led by self-lead teams. He is fascinated by the people and organizations that make the greatest, lasting impact on the world. He has devoted his life to sharing his thinking, and leading movements to inspire people to do the things that inspire them.
Tuesday Apr 09, 2024
EP56: From ThighMaster to Trampolines: Tailoring Customer Experiences
Tuesday Apr 09, 2024
Tuesday Apr 09, 2024
In this commentary, Deborah Fell reflects on her conversation with Joe Grace from the previous episode. She relates Joe's insights to her experience working with a trampoline park client in Canada whose business was threatened by new competitors. Deborah describes how she helped the client segment their customer database, tailor messaging and offers, and improve the customer experience, ultimately allowing them to recover lost revenue and grow the business. She emphasizes the importance of deeply understanding the customer and focusing on the details of the 360-degree experience. Deborah then highlights a clip from the Joe Grace interview where he discusses his success with direct-to-consumer marketing of the Thighmaster in the 80s and 90s, and how the insights he gained about marketing to women proved valuable in later turning around WebMD's struggling business.
Links from this episode:
[email protected]
Joe Grace on LinkedIn
Chief Outsiders Profile page
Wednesday Mar 20, 2024
EP54: Inspire Unity and Focus Through Simplifying Complexity
Wednesday Mar 20, 2024
Wednesday Mar 20, 2024
In episode 49 of Success Beneath the Surface, host Deborah Fell spoke with Torey Carter Conneen, CEO of the American Society of Landscape Architects. One key theme was simplifying complexity. As the leader of a trade association with diverse constituents, Torey sees his role as uniting everyone around a shared mission.
Deborah reflects that whether in complex organizations like Torey's or simpler ones, complexity can quickly arise from a lack of listening and leadership. Without the air of inspiration, problem-solving focus, and commitment to achieving better outcomes together, complexity takes over.
Torey shares how his roles have been driven by a deep connection to organizational missions and purposes that align with his own values.
About Torey Carter-Conneen
An accomplished executive leader with over 20 years of experience, Torey Carter Conneen formulates strategies and plans to drive organizational success. As COO of AILA, he oversees operations, education, conferences, publications, finance, and more to support the 15,000+ immigration attorney members. He led the development of strategic and operating plans and ensured accountability against goals. As SVP, Finance, and CFO at the Center for American Progress, he oversaw accounting, administration, and IT for the $50M organization and advised the President & CEO as part of the executive team. As Acting President & CEO of the Victory Fund and Institute, he partnered with leaders and the Board on strategic, operating, and financial plans during the CEO’s sabbatical. He excels at managing deadlines and challenges while delivering immediate results. Skilled at cultivating engaging work environments to promote performance excellence.
Torey Carter-Conneen on LinkedIn
Deborah Fell on LinkedIn
Chief Outsiders
Wednesday Mar 13, 2024
EP53: Scaling Culture: DataArt's Secrets to Employee Loyalty
Wednesday Mar 13, 2024
Wednesday Mar 13, 2024
In this insightful commentary episode of Success Beneath the Surface, host Deborah Fell shares her key takeaways from her conversation with Alexei Miller, Managing Director of DataArt. Discover the secrets behind DataArt's impressive employee referral and loyalty metrics, which have remained strong over decades of growth. Alexei emphasizes the importance of a culture-based organization, where informal ties, trust, and freedom fuel employee longevity and willingness to refer others. However, as the company scales, maintaining this culture becomes increasingly challenging. Alexei candidly discusses the difficulties of passing on the company's culture to new hires as DataArt expands rapidly. Despite these challenges, DataArt's employee loyalty metrics remain high compared to industry standards. To dive deeper into Alexei's masterclass on building culture and retaining people, be sure to listen to the full episode:
EP52: Humble Beginnings to Global Success - The DataArt Story
Links from this episode:
Alexei Miller on LinkedIn
DataArt
Deborah Fell on LinkedIn
Chief Outsiders
About Alexei Miller:
Alexei Miller is a Managing Director at DataArt. He leads strategic sales and client engagement efforts for global technology consultancy, focusing on IT strategy, new system development, and technology innovation. Alexei joined DataArt when the company was founded, in 1997, and was elected to the Board of Directors in 2002. Over the past two decades, he has been overseeing product and service development, delivery, sales and management of key accounts and has built DataArt’s Finance practice. Alexei has been instrumental in establishing DataArt’s position as a global technology leader dedicated to service excellence and helping to significantly grow the company's operations on a global scale.
Tuesday Feb 27, 2024
Tuesday Feb 27, 2024
In this episode, Deborah shares her anticipation for the upcoming Chief Outsiders National Conference, where she will be recapping the event and conducting insightful interviews. Reflecting on the growth and success of Chief Outsiders over the years, Deborah emphasizes the importance of vision casting and fostering a culture of collaboration. As we look forward to the conference highlights, Deborah encourages listeners to revisit Art Saxby's full episode for valuable insights on strategic growth. Stay tuned for exciting recaps and interviews from the conference on "Success Beneath the Surface"!
EP25: Scaling Your Business - Curiosity and Leadership
Tuesday Jan 02, 2024
EP44: The Fuel of Positive Purpose
Tuesday Jan 02, 2024
Tuesday Jan 02, 2024
We return to our conversation with Nancie McDonnell Ruder, CEO and founder of Noetic Consulting, to highlight her uplifting perspective on bringing passion and purpose to her work. As Nancie shares, she derives “peace of mind” and “happiness” from leading a company focused on “dynamic positivity” in supporting clients. She explains how Noetic aims to provide both conceptual guidance and practical implementation to drive real change, fueling her motivation.
Nancie’s outlook exemplifies the kind of meaningful impact we seek to create through our conversations - where leaders can connect and learn from each other's experiences in growing thriving, values-driven organizations. Her words are an inspiration for staying centered on what drives us individually while creating value for others.
Listen to her full episode here.
Noetic Consultants is a women-owned marketing and leadership consultancy strengthening brands and the people who build them. Noetic’s work is a unique combination of market research, brand strategy, training, and coaching. Noetic educates, equips, and empowers organizations from within, leading to accelerated growth and organizational transformation. Learn more at NoeticConsultants.com
Links from this episode:
https://noeticconsultants.com/
Nancie's book, "How Senior Marketers Scale Heights"
Wednesday Dec 20, 2023
EP43: Progress Demands Pragmatism
Wednesday Dec 20, 2023
Wednesday Dec 20, 2023
In this Success Beneath the Surface commentary episode, host Deborah Fell reflects back on her conversation with Brad Waid, a Futurist and AI expert also known as "The Curious Pragmatist." Brad embraces new technologies quickly due to his innate curiosity. He then brings these learnings into his work - originally as a teacher engaging students, and now as a global speaker informing audiences of AI's potential benefits as well as areas needing thoughtful consideration. Deborah and Brad highlight his ability to balance optimism about progress with pragmatism about potential pitfalls. His diverse use cases and emphasis on improved lives and humanity exhibit this dual perspective.
To learn more about Brad's views on augmenting our world through technology, be sure to check out the full interview.
The full episode is here:
EP41: Augmented Worlds Beckon the Curious Pragmatist
Links from today's episode:
Brad Waid on LinkedIn
Website
Chief Outsiders
Wednesday Nov 29, 2023
EP40: Gratitude Sets the Tone for Success
Wednesday Nov 29, 2023
Wednesday Nov 29, 2023
There are patterns we see for successful CEOs. The underlying factor for true success, meaning that the company grows, people want to work there and want to give it their all seems to be grounded in gratitude. Deborah is focusing on four successful CEOs in this episode with highlights of the gratitude that was loud and clear in their full episodes. Today she is highlighting Tien Wong, Lena Petrova, Amy Bielski, and Charles Dobens. We hope you enjoy this short commentary, "Gratitude Sets the Tone for Success."
Here are the links to the full episodes with each of these guests:
TIEN WONG EP38: Organic Relationship Building Over Forced Initiatives
LENA PETROVA EP36: AI Ignites a Creative Content Renaissance
AMY BIELSKI EP32 Keep People at the Center and Your Company Will Grow
CHARLES DOBENS EP28: LEGACIES CREATED - Multi-family Triumphs and Reimagining Hotels
Wednesday Nov 15, 2023
EP39: Funding 500 Startups Through Connections
Wednesday Nov 15, 2023
Wednesday Nov 15, 2023
Last week on Success Beneath the Surface, host Deborah Fell spoke with Tien Wong about the power of connections. Wong started ConnectPreneur over a decade ago to facilitate more regular forums for investors, entrepreneurs, and professionals in the DC/Mid-Atlantic area to connect and collaborate. A key insight Wong shared is that an engaged, diverse network structured for open interaction has emergent value - it can catalyze growth beyond what any individual could design. ConnectPreneur has enabled over 500 companies to receive funding through its community. As Wong emphasized, leveraging networks is not about personal gain, but enabling collective growth. Thriving innovation ecosystems arise from diverse people coming together, not closed circles.
Links from this episode:
Full episode
CONNECTPreneur
Tien Wong on LinkedIn
Deborah Fell on LinkedIn
Chief Outsiders
Wednesday Oct 18, 2023
EP35: Practical Perspectives for Growth-Focused Leaders
Wednesday Oct 18, 2023
Wednesday Oct 18, 2023
In this week's episode, we explore an insightful conversation about partnerships and adapting business models during economic uncertainty. Host Deborah Fell reflects on key takeaways from her discussion with Keith Scandone, founder of O3, regarding the power of collaborative partnerships. Scandone shares how his company has pivoted to offer smaller, "wedge" offerings that provide value to clients with tighter budgets. He emphasizes being creative, thoughtful and embracing new ways of doing business during turbulent markets. Tune in to glean wisdom on building meaningful partnerships and pragmatic approaches to navigating challenges. This commentary provides practical perspective for leaders seeking to strengthen relationships and position their organizations for growth.
You can listen to the full episode here.
Keith Scandone: O3 Co-FounderAs O3’s Co-Founder, Keith focuses on the consultancy’s strategic goals and leading the company's venture initiatives. After 18 years as O3’s acting CEO, Keith’s current role enables him to focus on new growth areas and opportunities for the brand to expand its footprint and position in the market. Whether organic growth through O3’s service offerings, or inorganic growth through partnerships and investments, Keith is always looking at strategic ways to continue to differentiate the company.
Keith thrives on bringing people together and leveraging other’s connections and strengths to help each other, the industry and the community move forward. From spearheading the Forge Conference, Innovation Day, and the 1682 Conference to co-founding the Philadelphia chapter of the Awesome Foundation and Pay It Phorward, these are just some ways in which Keith likes to combine his network with his passion for innovation. His commitment to consistently craft and curate the O3 culture has led the consultancy to be recognized as one of Entrepreneur’s “Top Company Cultures” and “Best Entrepreneurial Companies."
Keith has also sat on several boards and continues to mentor several companies, most notably through the Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies Mentor Connect program. Living in Philadelphia and D.C. has given him a unique network and perspective to grow the O3 brand.