The CEO Shift

Most leaders who avoid hard conversations think they are protecting the relationship, and Joel Molitor will tell you they are usually doing the opposite. Joel spent 15 years in the financial advising industry, building a practice and then moving into leadership, before he and his wife felt called to make a big pivot in 2023 and return to his family business. Today he is a Partner at Molitor Brothers Farm in southeast Minnesota, where he has found that every leadership lesson still applies, because leadership is always about people. In this conversation, Joel explains why mentorship is a two-way street that requires a learner's heart, and how the law of the lid means a leader who stops growing puts a ceiling on everyone watching them. He opens up about an early leadership role where he was afraid of conflict, buried his head in the sand, and hurt people, and the board meeting feedback that made him decide to turn that weakness into a strength. He shares his approach to hard conversations, from building relational equity long before you need it, to preparing through the other person's lens, to making your intentions clear before you speak the truth, and he talks through what changes when you have to deliver hard feedback to someone you do not know well. If you are a CEO who keeps treating symptoms instead of root causes, this conversation is a practical guide to becoming the truth teller your team needs. Connect with Joel at molitorbrothersfarm.com or on the Molitor Brothers Farm Facebook page. The CEO Shift is hosted by Shawndel Spader of Spader Group. Find every episode, and sign up to have new ones delivered to your inbox, at spadergroup.com/ceo-shift.

What does it look like to lead yourself first? Kim Hanson, CEO of LearningRx, joins Shawndel Spader to talk about taking the reins of the global brain training company her father founded, and what she had to learn about the CEO role, and about herself, along the way. Kim explains what brain training actually is and why you aren't stuck with the brain you were born with, then turns to her own leadership: the moment she realized that being a great leader meant learning to lead herself, the hard habits she took on as a result, and the pre-decided weekly rhythm that keeps her focused on vision, relationships, and her quarterly rocks instead of her inbox. It is a practical and honest conversation for CEOs who want to spend their time and energy where it matters most. Catch every episode of The CEO Shift at https://spadergroup.com/ceo-shift, where you can also sign up to receive new episodes by email each month. Connect with Kim HansonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-hanson-cfe-bccs-2903729/ Speaker page: https://www.learningrx.com/speaker-kim-hanson/ LearningRx: https://www.learningrx.com The Purpose Directed Business (free download): https://www.purposedirectedbusiness.com/ Unlock the Einstein Inside (free download): https://unlocktheeinsteininside.com/ The Brainy Moms Podcast: https://www.thebrainymoms.com/ LearningRx on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/learningrx Connect with The CEO Shift and Spader GroupWebsite: https://spadergroup.com/ceo-shift Shawndel Spader on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spadergroup/ Spader Group on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/spader-group-llc Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spadergroup Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpaderGroup  

What if the suffering you feel as a CEO is not a sign that you are failing, but a sign that your business is trying to help you heal? In this episode of The CEO Shift, Shawndel Spader talks with Sarah Stokes, founder of The Juicy Good Life, Business Joy Coach for the over-giver, and author of Worth the Squirm: How Our Business Helps Us Heal. Sarah has scaled three companies to multiple millions and has helped thousands of women build more sustainable and successful businesses. She shares the story of a successful CEO who thought she was being negative when she was really being strategic, explains why over-giving founders often want more for their team members than those team members want for themselves, and describes how Brené Brown's reminder that clear is kind can reset expectations on both sides. Sarah also walks through her Two Doors exercise, a nine-minute guided vision practice that helped one client move from heart palpitations and a pitch-black first door to the lake house and grandbabies she had only imagined, and Shawndel reflects on what came true after she did the exercise herself. Get Sarah's free Breakthrough: The 2 Doors exercise at https://the-juicy-good-life.mykajabi.com/opt-in-59f963ec-d297-46a3-bbd5-8600dca815ee and learn more about her work at https://www.thejuicygoodlife.com. Find every episode of The CEO Shift and sign up for monthly episode delivery at https://spadergroup.com/ceo-shift.   Connect with Sarah Stokes Website: https://www.thejuicygoodlife.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-juicy-good-life Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheJuicyGoodLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juicygoodlife Connect with The CEO Shift and Spader Group Website: https://spadergroup.com/ceo-shift Shawndel Spader on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spadergroup/ Spader Group on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/spader-group-llc Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spadergroup Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpaderGroup

About 80% of businesses fail, and David Guttman will tell you it is almost never the market that killed them, it is leadership. David has spent a 35 year career building, scaling, and exiting 8 and 9 figure companies. He has bought and sold 15 businesses, raised more than $25 million across fintech, edtech, crypto, and health tech, and worked in more than 45 different industries as an operator, mentor, and consultant. He is a 3x Inc. 500 entrepreneur, a 2x TEDx speaker, and the founder and CEO of Guttman Media, and he mentors CEOs ranging in age from 18 to 47. In this conversation, David makes the case for servant leadership as the most effective approach available to the rest of us, and then gets specific about what it looks like in practice. He explains the equity mistake almost every growing company makes, which is guarding ownership while the business is worth very little and giving it away once it is worth a lot, and he walks through how phantom equity, four year vesting, and a one year cliff let a CEO share real upside without giving up control or handing the team a tax bill. He explains why a team with ownership roots for an exit instead of working against it, why he tells CEOs to run the business from day one as if they are going to sell it, and why he calls running a company without a budget financial malpractice. David also shares the two moments that shaped how he leads. At 24 he was misdiagnosed with terminal cancer and told by three doctors that he had six months to live, and years later his chief operating officer told him something after a meeting he handled badly that he describes as a cold bucket of water in the face. What came out of both is the rule he now teaches every CEO he mentors, which is to absorb as much blame as humanly possible and deflect as much credit. Connect with David Guttman Website: https://www.guttmanmedia.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/realdaveguttman X: https://x.com/realdaveguttman Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realdaveguttman Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drguttman YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RealDaveGuttman TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@realdaveguttman Titan Arc: https://www.titanarc.com 30 Acts of Kindness: https://www.30actsofkindness.org Connect with The CEO Shift Website: https://www.spadergroup.com/ceo-shift Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpaderGroup Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spadergroup LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/spader-group-llc Shawndel Spader on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spadergroup/

Most CEOs have a dashboard full of warning lights they have learned to drive right past. In this episode of The CEO Shift, Shawndel Spader talks with Kashonna Marrow, President and CEO of Simply Kashonna LLC, about authenticity, rest, and the vision you were never meant to carry alone. Kashonna is a speaker, coach, author, and corporate trainer who works with people on showing up as one person across their whole life instead of a different version in every room. She explains why pretending is a lot like telling a lie, what changes when you stop looking for permission, why the root of the word executive is execute and what that does to a leader over time, how rest builds capacity rather than costing momentum, and why great CEOs hire great people so the company keeps running when they step away. If you have ever felt the loneliness that comes with the CEO role, this conversation is a reminder that the work you have been putting off might be you. Connect with Kashonna Marrow Website: https://www.leadersmoveforward.com Website: https://www.simplykashonna.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simplykashonna Instagram: https://instagram.com/kashonnamarrow Newsletter: sign up at either website for her twice-monthly encouragement emails   Watch on YouTube or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Find every episode and subscribe for monthly email delivery at spadergroup.com/ceo-shift.