Better Business for Small Business Leaders

Peter Geise Explains Why Revenue Is Up but Profit Is Missing 07.07.2026 23хв

Send us Fan Mail Your revenue can look “fine” and still leave you wondering why the business is not throwing off the profit it should. That frustration is usually a signal that something deeper is happening underneath the numbers. We sit down with Peter Geis, Akron Area President of Focus CFO, a fractional CFO leader and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt who has helped everyone from Fortune-scale teams to Main Street operators find the real drivers behind their results. We get practical about what “...

Heather Terry on Why You Should Start With Your KPIs Before Buying Another AI Tool 23.06.2026 20хв

Send us Fan Mail Your team doesn’t need another shiny AI subscription, they need clarity. We sit down with Heather Terry, CEO and chief content architect of Curious AI, to unpack why so many small businesses feel overwhelmed after buying “all the tools” and still can’t point to real results. The heart of the problem is simple: when you start with platforms instead of priorities, you create noise, tool fatigue, and a culture of random experimentation that never turns into repeatable operations...

CJ Meager on How Proactive Legal Strategy Helps You Catch Risk Early 09.06.2026 21хв

Send us Fan Mail You can make a smart growth move and still create a risk you never saw coming. That is the tension we dig into with attorney CJ Meager of Brennan Mana and Diamond, who works with companies as fractional chief legal counsel. When you are past the startup stage, the margin for error gets smaller, and the goal is not just growth. It is protecting what you have built while you keep scaling. We talk about what “fractional general counsel” actually means inside a business, why pro...

Julie Wheeler Explains Why Promoting Without Training Sets New Managers Up for Burnout 26.05.2026 26хв

Send us Fan Mail You promote your top performer, give them a new title, and expect the team to level up. Instead, sales dip, conflict rises, and your once-reliable employee looks exhausted and unsure. That whiplash is more common than most leaders admit, and it usually has one root cause: we reward technical excellence with a management role, then provide little to no leadership training. Julie Wheeler, HR Business Partner at ClarityHR, joins me to unpack why companies make this mistake and ...

Alice Rhodes Shares How to Replace a Group Plan Without Leaving Your Team Behind 12.05.2026 20хв

Send us Fan Mail Your health insurance renewal hits, and suddenly the math doesn’t work: premiums climb faster than inflation, one big claim can blow up a small group plan, and specialty drug costs keep stacking the deck against predictability. We talk through why this trend is not a quick blip and why more business owners are getting cornered into hard choices that can even block raises. If you’ve ever thought, “Our benefits cost is becoming unsustainable,” you’re not the only one. &n...

Stephanie Smith Talks About Your Best Opportunities Come From People You Trust 28.04.2026 24хв

Send us Fan Mail The next big break in your career probably won’t come from a perfect strategy deck. It’ll come from a person who trusts you, remembers you, and is willing to make an introduction when the moment is right. That’s why we dig into relationship building as a real leadership skill, not a cringe networking chore. I’m joined by Stephanie Smith, Director of Engagement and Impact at Leadership Akron and a certified Gallup CliftonStrengths coach. We talk about what effective net...

Julie Wheeler On The Hidden HR Problems That Show Up When Small Businesses Scale 14.04.2026 29хв

Send us Fan Mail Your business starts growing, and you think the hard part is sales, operations, and delivery. Then the real friction hits: the people side. The mood changes, long-time employees get uneasy, new hires shift the dynamics, and suddenly, “we’ve always done it this way” becomes the loudest voice in the room. We sit down with Julie Wheeler, HR business partner at Clarity HR, to unpack why growth puts pressure on culture and what to do before it turns into turnover, mistrust, or a l...

Alice Rhodes Talks How Small Businesses Cut Health Insurance Costs with Self Funding 31.03.2026 18хв

Send us Fan Mail Your health insurance renewal shows up, and the numbers feel unreal. The cost jumps again, nobody can clearly explain why, and you are left trying to protect your team’s benefits while your budget gets squeezed. We sit down with Alice Rhodes, VP of Benefits at AUI, to unpack the real mechanics of self-funded health insurance for small and mid-sized employers and to explain why “self-funding” is less about going it alone and more about gaining control, clarity, and options. A...

How Jim Barlett Broke The $3M Ceiling With Forward-Looking Finance 17.03.2026 28хв

Send us Fan Mail Growth feels great until it starts to choke your cash and your calendar. We sit down with Jim Bartlett, Navy mission commander turned e-commerce founder and now Area President at Focus CFO, to unpack how owners stop firefighting and start leading with forward-looking finance. Jim’s path from scaling a sporting goods brand on early AdWords to exiting as Amazon rose gives him a rare operator’s lens on what actually moves a business past the $3M ceiling. We dig into the first h...

Sue Grabowski's Take On Why Your Nephew Should Not Run Your Ads 03.03.2026 28хв

Send us Fan Mail Quit a stable job, tell your boss you’re going home, then get asked if they can become your first client—how’s that for a plot twist? We sit down with communications leader Sue Grabowski to chart a three-decade journey from magazine keylining to AI-era strategy, and the common thread is relentless clarity. Sue shares how she built an agency that outlasted trends by shifting from production work to crafting precise specifications that guide both humans and AI toward measurable...

How Zhao Liu Went From Solo Hustle To Scalable Team 17.02.2026 22хв

Send us Fan Mail What if one smart hire could flip your business from constant scramble to controlled scale? That’s the spark behind our conversation with Zhao Liu, the operator-turned-founder of ZL Workforce, who transformed an eight-year solo grind into a data-driven, delegation-first machine after hiring a single virtual assistant. We walk through the pivotal moves: quitting corporate while running a growing product company, joining Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, and confronting t...

Marc Lee Shannon on How Resilience and Systems Transform a Creative Career 03.02.2026 27хв

Send us Fan Mail The myth says a creative life runs on inspiration; the truth is that it runs on timing, resilience, and a reliable system. We sit down with guitarist and former VP of Sales Marc Lee Shannon to map the dirt roads that led from LA session work to corporate leadership and back to a purpose-driven creative practice. Along the way, Mark explains how he learned to read industry headwinds, pivot before ego dragged him under, and rebuild from a humbling retail job into a role leading...

Playing The Long Game: Alicia Jarboe on Values, Community, And Sustainable Growth 20.01.2026 25хв

Send us Fan Mail What if your best marketing isn’t marketing at all, but the way you show up when it costs you? That’s the heartbeat of our conversation with Alicia Jarboe, the Worcester-based realtor and nonprofit leader who proves that relationships, not transactions, build businesses that last. We dive into the practices that turn clients into community: thoughtful follow-up, handwritten cards, and client appreciation nights that feel like family gatherings. Alicia shares how transparency...

Building Unshakable and Intentional Leaders with Janet Kendall White 06.01.2026 28хв

Send us Fan Mail What if the difference between a resilient culture and a fragile one is a single intentional choice? We sit down with Janet Kendal White, author of Unshakable Leadership and founder of Berkshire Group, to unpack how real leadership moves beyond titles, clever slogans, and “crappy wall art.” From a jarring early career story to building a company that equips managers with practical tools, Janet shows why values must be defined in observable behaviors—and how to act when they’r...

Small Starts, Strong Bonds: Why Mutually Beneficial Partnerships Win According to Chris Canova 21.10.2025 25хв

Send us Fan Mail Collaboration only works when both sides win—and when you can prove your value every single day. That’s the lens Chris Canova brings as he walks us through how Jobs for Ohio’s Graduates (JOG) scaled from a small team to 70+ staff across ten counties, serving youth, specialized populations, and now adults in manufacturing, business, and the growing polymer sector. We unpack the hard truth behind the word “collaboration”: it’s overused, under-practiced, and only becomes real th...

Erika Hill on Positioning Self and Closing the Generational Gap 07.10.2025 25хв

Send us Fan Mail Confidence doesn’t show up on command; it grows after courage. That’s the heartbeat of our conversation with Erica Hill, the creator of Positioning Self—a coaching framework that turns soft skills into daily, practiced habits for interns, first-year hires, and emerging leaders. We dig into a two-sided model that pairs early-career professionals with mentors or supervisors who actively make space to practice, so growth isn’t left to chance or squeezed into yet another classroo...

Broker or Broken? Finding the Right Health Insurance Partner with Alice Rhodes 23.09.2025 20хв

Send us Fan Mail Do you know what your health insurance broker actually does? Most small business owners assume their broker simply shops for the cheapest rates, but that's just skimming the surface of what a true strategic benefits advisor should provide. Alice Rhodes from AUI breaks down this misunderstood role, revealing that for businesses with fewer than 50 employees, benefits aren't just about price—they're about protection, retention, and compliance. A great broker doesn't just delive...

Julie Wheeler Breaks Down What Company Culture Really Means 09.09.2025 25хв

Send us Fan Mail Do your employees dread Sunday nights because they have to return to your workplace on Monday morning? That's one of the clearest signs your company culture needs attention, according to HR expert Julie Wheeler. In this eye-opening conversation about workplace culture, Julie cuts through the superficial trappings that many businesses mistake for culture—ping pong tables, pizza parties, and motivational posters. Instead, she reveals what truly matters to employees: feeling sa...

Simple Solutions for Complex Business Problems with Adrienne Wilkerson 26.08.2025 22хв

Send us Fan Mail "There's always a solution. It might be over, might be under, might be around, or straight through." These words of wisdom from Adrienne Wilkerson, co-founder of Beacon Media + Marketing, perfectly capture the mindset needed to navigate what she calls "the messy middle" of entrepreneurship. From her beginnings as Alaska's first full-service digital marketing agency to becoming a specialized partner for mental health and behavioral health businesses nationwide, Adrienne's jou...

When to Hire HR? Julie Wheeler Shares a Better Option for Growing Businesses 12.08.2025 23хв

Send us Fan Mail Reaching that 15-30 employee threshold brings a crucial decision for business owners: is it time to hire a dedicated HR person? Before taking that leap, Julie Wheeler of Clarity HR makes a compelling case for considering fractional HR services as a strategic alternative that could save your business money while providing superior expertise. When businesses cross this growth threshold, they typically face one of two scenarios: either they've experienced a negative event highl...