I’m very blessed and fortunate to have Charles [Marino].
Randy [Fields] has been a great leader. I’ve learned a lot from Randy… He’s the number #1 board Chair in the world for good reasons and we know we’re lucky to have him. It’s something we’re really proud of and I’m very proud of him. Randy, if you’re hearing this, I love you buddy. Thank you for all you’ve done for me.
Julie [Reinganum] is mind-blowingly talented and has been a gift beyond belief. And she has also taken this extraordinary team of 16-ish CEOs and created an institution that I was able to walk into and share all of my concerns.
My Vistage CE group that I’m in is absolutely amazing. Dale Robinette is probably one of the best Chairs anybody could ever dream of having. He holds us really very accountable to what we set out to do, and he’s always challenging us to do more. I love the issue processing that we have within our Vistage group and always know that I will have unfiltered feedback that’s coming from a very good place.
[I have changed as a leader] in part because of what I’ve learned through Vistage and some of the coaching I’ve gotten through Nancy [Babine Kucinski], which is ‘don’t hesitate to be decisive and sometimes learn to let go.’
Vipon [Kumar] is challenging me more today than I have been challenged in years. And I’m using what he’s challenging me on to sit with the other leaders in the organization, challenge them, help them look at things differently and expand our business, expand our growth and be more innovative.
I had an introductory phone call with my Chair, Julie [Heisey], and she just became one of my great friends. And the group itself…They’ve helped with that collaboration piece. They ask the tough questions; I ask tough questions. Vistage just makes us all better people overall. I’ve grown as a husband, father, business owner, chef, and community member over these past three years.
Claire [Bonilla] is just a rockstar!
With Stephanie [Geisler], the one-to-ones have just been awesome. She’s somebody who holds me accountable and gets new ideas. The group is awesome too. I love that there are some people in my industry who understand it, and then people completely outside that give their insights too. It’s just a great combo.
I had said to Laura [Langehaug] as I came into this space, I’m just a nonprofit. What am I going to lend in this space to these for-profit businesses? And she said to me, ‘You run one of the most complex businesses because you really run businesses within a business.’. And I realized at that point in time I add value here in this space for these people. I’ve learned so much through Vistage, and it’s really opened my eyes a lot in terms of what executive coaching looks like versus what I had before.
What Robin [Stanaland] brought to the table was really accountability. She just finds this really nice, pleasant way of squeezing you and molding you to do what you should be doing. Between the group itself and Robin, I get to see examples of what leadership is and when it works. So my journey in leadership is really staying in touch with who I really am and drawing on Robin’s experience, the experience of the group and getting stuff done by being accountable.