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The Pivotal Leader

The Pivotal Leader podcast, hosted by Gina Trimarco, Chief Results Officer of Pivot10 Results, features 30-minute interviews with modern and pivotal business leaders who share their experiences and anecdotal success stories to inspire rising leaders to shift their own organizational cultures to higher success.
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Now displaying: August, 2018
Aug 23, 2018

It’s better to invest in what you can track.”

- Jake Baadsgaard

On this episode of The Pivotal Leader Gina Trimarco interviewed Jake Baadsgaard, CEO of Disruptive Advertising. After growing one of his first PPC clients from 25 to 250 employees, Jake realized he had a gift for using pay-per-click marketing to drive dramatic business results. To help more companies succeed online, Jake founded Disruptive Advertising, a PPC, and CRO management agency that has helped hundreds of companies realize unprecedented growth and profitability from the online advertising.

In the four years since its founding, Disruptive Advertising has grown from two employees working in Jake’s basement to a flourishing agency with more than 90 employees and a run rate of over $12 million - putting it at #145 on the 2017 Inc 500 list!

Podcast Topics Include:

  • How Jake got started in PPC advertising
  • Jake walks us through the moment he decided to create Disruptive Advertising in his basement and the transition out of the basement
  • How to scale a business quickly
  • Getting past founder-based selling
  • What Disruptive Advertising focuses on, who they serve and how they maximize the results for their clients
  • The biggest challenge in the PPC and advertising industry, plus Jake’s biggest business challenge
  • Finding and developing talent: some of the ways Jake is finding, developing and keeping talent, including his approach to top performers - “We don’t penalize top performers.”
  • How Jake deals with perception of industry problems by using case studies and quantifiable data
  • Some of the ways to measure marketing results, blended customer acquisition costs and analytics
  • Customer acquisition advice straight from Jake
  • Why Jake dislikes the phrase, “Let me know what I can do to help,” and what you can do to put a different spin on it
  • Jake’s advice to rising CEOs and entrepreneur who are growing or starting their businesses

FULL SHOW NOTES

Aug 14, 2018

We as leaders and entrepreneurs have a responsibility to make sure that if the ‘what-if’ does happen, the prudent planning and prudent steps are in place.”

Patrick Ungashick

On this episode of The Pivotal Leader, Gina Trimarco interviewed Patrick Ungashick, CEO of NAVIX Consultants. For more than twenty-five years Patrick has provided exit advice and solutions to business owners with companies as small as several million in revenues to more than half a billion. Patrick is the author of two books helping business owners prepare for exit: Dance in the End Zone: The Business Owner’s Exit Planning Playbook, and the award-winning A Tale of Two Owners: Achieving Exit Success Between Business Co-Owners. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Week and other media. He speaks to several dozen business groups per year on how to achieve successful exits. As CEO of NAVIX Consultants, Patrick leads a national team of exit planning consultants located in nearly two-dozen US cities.

Outside of work, even though he cannot juggle nor play a musical instrument, Patrick is a proud member of the Atlanta Distinguished Clown Corps, a group of full-time CEOs and part-time clowns that have raised about $1.5 million for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the largest pediatric hospital in the U.S.

Podcast Topics Include:

  • What inspired Patrick to help businesses plan for successful exits
  • Some challenges Patrick faced early on in his business
  • The effects of exiting on home life and relationships
  • Immediate steps and strategies for creating an exit plan
  • 15-year plan for exiting a business, plus determining which of the four possible exit strategies to choose
  • Differences between the four exit strategies, plus some advantages and disadvantages
  • Steps to take if a business is being “given” to you
  • Co-owners and exit plans: what you need to know
  • Risk management: what to consider if the business owner dies or becomes incapacitated 
  • Patrick offers a free Emergency Guidance Letter template every owner should have

FULL SHOW NOTES

Aug 4, 2018

“If you’re going to start a business,

you have to be willing to grind.”

- Nate Lawrie

On this episode of The Pivotal Leader, Gina Trimarco interviewed Nate Lawrie, CEO, Brazyn Life. Nate played 8-years of professional football in both the National Football League (Buccaneers, Saints, Bengals) and United Football League (Sacramento Mountain Lions), before retiring after the 2011 season. 

A self-described “NFL Grinder,” Lawrie fought through numerous injuries throughout his pro-career which led him to rethink many of the products he was using to take care of his body - wanting tools that were more convenient to use without compromising functionality. 

In 2015 Nate launched a new business called Brazyn Life. Brazyn Life is dedicated to helping people achieve their fitness and health goals through innovative, high-quality, and travel-ready recovery and fitness tools. Brazyn’s launch product is The Morph Collapsible Foam Roller, a premium foam roller that folds flat making it easy to use at home, the office, the gym, or on the road.  

  • Service providers or professional athletes are their own product
  • How Nate developed, created and released his first product
  • The benefits of using of using a foam roller
  • Nate takes up through the process of how he went from just having an idea to creating a collapsible foam roller for mass production
  • The nuances of launching a successful Kickstarter campaign
  • Nate’s shares his experience on Shark Tank and the aftermath following the episode airing
  • The challenges of launching a new project; raising capital, taking risks and manufacturing of a physical product
  • Finding the right people for your team and also relying on a little bit of luck
  • How startup life can be extremely overwhelming, but yet so rewarding
  • Pulling from peer groups for support, valuable knowledge and guidance
  • Being an “NFL grinder” and how it’s applicable to starting a business

Full Show Notes

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