Are you managing your money in a way that actually increases your business worth and helps you start building wealth—or just riding the market rollercoaster and hoping for the best?

You already know money impacts everything—from your stress levels to your long-term freedom—but most advice out there still pushes outdated strategies that leave you exposed when markets shift. In this episode, you'll hear how the "smart money" thinks differently, so you can protect what you've built while still growing it with confidence.

By listening, you'll learn how to:

• Build a stronger financial foundation that protects your downside during market swings
• Shift from outdated investment models to smarter, more strategic wealth-building approaches
• Use legal, strategic tax planning to keep more of what you earn and accelerate wealth growth

Hit play now to discover how to start building wealth with smarter strategies that help you grow and protect your money at the same time.

Check out:

• (02:30) – Why money is the #1 source of stress—and how improving your financial strategy can directly impact your quality of life
• (11:45) – The truth about the "60/40 portfolio" and why relying on it could be putting your wealth at risk
• (24:10) – How the wealthy legally minimize taxes—and the missed opportunities that could be costing you millions

About Mark Miller

Mark Miller, known for his work with Lead Every Day, is a highly respected leadership expert, longtime corporate executive, and best-selling author recognized for his practical, research-driven approach to leadership. He spent more than four decades at Chick-fil-A, starting as an hourly team member and ultimately serving as Vice President of High Performance Leadership, where he played a key role in building and scaling the company's leadership culture through proven, heavily invested development practices. Today, he is the co-founder of Lead Every Day, a platform dedicated to delivering daily leadership insights, coaching, speaking, and content—including a podcast and books focused on actionable leadership frameworks. As a Wall Street Journal and international best-selling author with over one million books sold in more than 25 languages, Miller is known for emphasizing simple, consistent leadership disciplines that drive performance at every level of an organization.

Are you fully tapping your company's growth potential, or are hidden gaps in talent, culture, and client strategy quietly holding you back?

If you're leading a services-based business, or any company where people are the product, you know how hard it is to scale without burning out your team or losing your edge. This episode hits right at that tension: how to grow sustainably when hiring is tough, AI is reshaping roles, and your culture has to do more than just sound good; it has to work. You'll hear how a CEO is navigating these exact challenges in real time, so you can pressure-test your own approach.

Here's what you'll walk away with:

• A clearer way to think about sustainable growth by focusing on clients as long-term partners—not just one-off revenue

• Practical insight into retaining top talent and building a culture people actually want to stay in

• A grounded perspective on how AI should augment your team without undermining your future workforce

Press play now to uncover a smarter, people-first approach to scaling your business—and start unlocking your true growth potential today.

Check out:

• [00:03:00] Employee ownership & culture as a growth driver
  Why putting employees first—and giving them ownership—directly fuels retention, engagement, and long-term growth potential.

• [00:11:00] AI's real impact on productivity and hiring
  A practical breakdown of how AI is reducing task time (hours → minutes) and what that means for staffing, efficiency, and future roles.

• [00:16:00] Managing utilization in an employee-owned firm
  A candid look at how to balance profitability, transparency, and team buy-in when your people are also your shareholders.

About Carrie Stokes

Carrie Stokes, PE, is the Chief Executive Officer and President of Barge Design Solutions. With nearly three decades of leadership experience, she is committed to fostering collaboration, innovation, and growth that empowers employees, strengthens client relationships, and enhances communities.

Stokes began her career at Barge as a student intern and steadily advanced through key leadership roles, including serving as the firm's inaugural Chief of Staff. She has led Barge's largest division, played a key role in shaping its five-year strategic growth plan, and has served as a member of the board of directors since 2015. In 2025, she was appointed CEO, becoming the first woman to lead the company in its 70-year history. As CEO, she is focused on strengthening enterprise systems, expanding leadership development, fostering innovation, and enhancing the company's employee-owned culture.

Are you building an AI workforce that actually increases your business worth—or just adding more complexity to your team?

You're probably feeling the pressure to adopt AI, but the real challenge isn't the technology—it's figuring out how to use it effectively without exposing your data, slowing your team down, or making costly hiring mistakes. This episode flips the script by showing you how AI isn't just a tool—it's something you need to manage like a team. If you've ever wondered why AI initiatives stall or why your team struggles to get value from it, this conversation will hit close to home.

By listening, you'll walk away with:

• A smarter way to think about managing an AI workforce using the same skills you use to lead people

• Practical insight into protecting your data while still moving fast with AI adoption

• Real-world lessons from scaling companies on hiring, leadership, and avoiding costly mistakes in high-growth environments

Hit play now to learn how to turn AI from a confusing experiment into a managed asset that actually drives results.

Check out:

• 00:04:30 — How AI moved from analytics to real business applications
  Bethany shares her early experience with AI, from voice analytics to pricing and supply chain use cases, and explains where AI creates measurable business impact.

• 00:14:30 — The hidden data risk behind AI adoption
  A strong section on over-permissioning, Copilot/Gemini/Claude readiness, and why messy access controls can quietly derail your AI workforce plans.

• 00:31:00 — Why managing an AI workforce requires management skills
  One of the best takeaways in the episode: Bethany explains why delegation, context, feedback, and expectation-setting matter just as much with AI as they do with people.

Bethany Ayers has helped raise over $200M and built the go-to-market engines that transform startups into market leaders. As the CEO at Metomic, an AI cybersecurity company (previously COO @ Peak.ai) and board member for cutting-edge AI companies, she's the executive who turns innovative ideas into revenue-generating machines.

She's not just another executive—she's the leader who's been in the trenches, made the mistakes, and cracked the code on sustainable scaling. When your audience needs real talk about building businesses that last, Bethany delivers.

Are you overcomplicating your path to growing your business worth—when the real advantage might come from a simple focus on people, not processes?

If you've ever struggled to align your team, improve sales conversations, or make better leadership decisions, this episode hits close to home. You're constantly balancing performance, personalities, and priorities—and it's easy to get lost in complexity. What you'll hear here is how simplifying your approach—especially through understanding people—can unlock better results faster.

By listening, you'll gain:

• A clearer way to use personality insights to improve communication, sales, and team performance

• A practical framework for building stronger, more balanced teams that actually work well together

• A mindset shift toward simplicity, practicality, and focus that cuts through noise and drives better decisions

Hit play now to discover how a simple focus on understanding people can immediately improve how you lead, sell, and grow your business.

Check out:

• 00:06:30 – Tony's early door-to-door sales story and how it shaped his career in selling and communication

• 00:18:45 – The pivotal moment he chose simplicity, practicality, and focus as his core philosophy

• 00:32:10 – How assessments (like DISC) can transform team performance and decision-making in real business scenarios

About Dr. Tony Alessandra

Dr. Tony Alessandra has a street-wise, college-smart perspective on business, having been raised in the housing projects of NYC to eventually realizing success as a graduate professor of marketing, Internet entrepreneur, business author, and hall-of-fame keynote speaker. He earned a BBA from Notre Dame, an MBA from the Univ. of Connecticut and his PhD in marketing in 1976 from Georgia State University.

Tony is Founder & Chairman of Assessments 24x7 LLC, a company that offers a variety of online assessments, including the widely used DISC profile, the Emotional Intelligence 360 assessment, the Motivators (Values/PIAV) assessment, and several 360º leadership and sales-effectiveness assessments.

What if the biggest risk in workforce transformation isn't AI replacing people—but leaders failing to adapt fast enough?

If you're leading a company today, you're navigating one of the fastest workplace shifts in decades. AI is putting data, insights, and answers at everyone's fingertips, which means the traditional leadership playbook is quickly becoming outdated. In this episode of The CEO Project, you'll hear why workforce transformation isn't just about adopting new technology—it's about changing how you lead, communicate, and motivate teams in a world where analytics are instant but human leadership matters more than ever.

By listening to this episode, you'll learn how to:

• Understand how AI is reshaping leadership expectations and what workforce transformation means for CEOs today.

• Adapt your leadership style so you can move faster, make better decisions, and lead teams effectively in an AI-driven workplace.

• Balance data, technology, and human intuition to motivate teams and stay competitive as the pace of change accelerates.

Play the episode now to discover how forward-thinking leaders are navigating workforce transformation—and why the CEOs who adapt fastest will gain the biggest advantage.

Check out:

• 06:40 – Why many young professionals enter the workforce unprepared and the practical career habits leaders should be teaching the next generation.

• 16:10 – The core idea behind Rewired Leadership: how AI is forcing leaders to rethink how they make decisions, motivate teams, and communicate.

• 23:30 – Why empathy, intuition, and human leadership skills are becoming more valuable as AI makes analytics and information instantly available.

About Mark Zides

Mark Zides is a seasoned business leader, CEO, investor, and leadership advisor with more than 35 years of experience helping organizations perform at a high level as leadership, strategy, talent, and artificial intelligence continue to converge.

A two-time bestselling author of The #PACE Process for Early Career Success and Rewired Leadership™, Mark focuses on the human side of AI-driven transformation. His work challenges a common assumption in the market—that better technology automatically produces better outcomes. Instead, he argues that sustained performance comes from leaders who think clearly, listen deeply, and make better decisions as AI becomes more embedded in how work gets done.

What if AI engines could drive 10–15x more traffic to your online store—and most businesses don't even realize it's happening yet?

If you run an online store or sell products through e-commerce channels, AI engines are quickly becoming the new gateway to customer discovery. Instead of relying solely on traditional search or marketplaces, companies are now seeing massive traffic surges simply by optimizing their sites for how AI answers questions and recommends products. In this episode, you'll hear how one e-commerce CEO is leveraging AI engines to dramatically increase visibility—and how you can apply the same ideas to grow your own online store.

By listening, you'll discover how to:

• Position your website so AI engines recommend your products when customers ask buying questions.

• Use simple AI-driven content strategies—like FAQs and structured answers—to dramatically increase organic traffic.

• Navigate the rapidly changing e-commerce landscape where AI, Amazon advertising, and global competition are reshaping growth.

Play the episode now to learn how CEOs can tap into AI engines to unlock the next wave of online store growth.

Check out:

• 03:45 – From One Used Book to a Global E-Commerce Business
  Rupesh shares how a single online sale sparked the idea that eventually grew into a company partnering with over 1,500 brands across 40+ countries.

• 10:40 – How AI Engines Are Driving Massive Website Traffic
  A deep dive into how optimizing websites for AI-driven questions—through FAQs and structured content—can generate dramatic traffic increases.

• 22:15 – The Two Big Changes Reshaping Amazon Sellers
  Rupesh explains how advertising and Amazon's AI tools are changing the rules of visibility—and why brands must adapt quickly to stay competitive.

Rupesh Sanghavi is the founder and CEO of Ergode, an e-commerce-first, omni-channel brand growth company that has partnered with over 1,500 brands, expanded reach to 40+ countries, and acquired over 15 consumer brands. His entrepreneurial journey began with reselling a single used book and has since grown into leading a global portfolio of businesses across categories.

Under his leadership, Ergode has scaled into a trusted name with 18+ years of experience, 96% lifetime positive feedback, and a 250+ member workforce worldwide. Twice a finalist for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year, Rupesh is known for blending resilience and vision with a hands-on, relatable style.

Outside of business, he writes a blog called Cloverbites, where he shares reflections on leadership and life. An avid traveller who has visited 100+ countries, he draws inspiration from diverse cultures and experiences that shape both his business outlook and personal growth.

Are you building a profitable company — or a business that actually proves capitalism can be a force for good through conscious capital?

As a CEO, you feel the tension every day: grow the business, deliver profit, develop your people — and do it in a way that's socially responsible and sustainable. Meanwhile, capitalism itself faces a perception problem. Your employees want meaning. Your customers expect integrity. And the market punishes anything that smells short-term or exploitative.

In this episode of The CEO Project, you'll explore how conscious capital isn't about soft ideals — it's about building a company that earns trust, scales profitably, and strengthens its moral authority to exist.

By listening, you'll learn how to:

• Build a high-growth company rooted in trust behaviors that actually change stakeholder perception

• Balance profit and purpose without falling into coercive "check-the-box" stakeholder models

• Lead through crisis with accountability and culture intact — even when tough financial decisions must be made

Press play now to discover how conscious capital can help you grow your business and elevate its impact — without sacrificing performance.

Check out:

06:45 – The Perception Problem in Business
Curtis shares the eye-opening CEO summit moment that exposed the trust gap in the IT industry — and why changing perception became his company's mission.

18:30 – Conscious Capitalism vs. Stakeholder Capitalism
A powerful breakdown of classic capitalism, stakeholder models, and the "big tent" philosophy of conscious capital — including why inspiration beats coercion.

32:15 – Leading Through Crisis Without Losing Culture
A real-world example of navigating COVID, protecting profitability, and strengthening trust when 90 executives voluntarily gave up compensation to keep the company strong.

About Curtis Hite

Curtis Hite is the CEO of Improving – an international software consulting and training company which he founded in 2007. With a focus on Conscious Capitalism, the company has grown to 2000+ employees across 19 offices and greater than $280 million in revenue. Improving has been named 15 times to the Inc. 500/5000, consistently being recognized as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in the U.S. The company has also received more than 100 local and national best place to work recognitions.

Are you leaving deals on the table because your LinkedIn presence isn't backed by proven strategies that actually build credibility and authority?

If you're leading a company, driving growth, or building your personal brand, LinkedIn isn't optional anymore—it's where buyers, partners, recruits, and even AI engines go to decide if you're legit. And here's the problem: what used to work on LinkedIn (post and hope, chase likes, blast press releases) doesn't work now. The platform has shifted. Reach is down. Algorithms are smarter. And if you're not showing up as a true topic authority, you're invisible—sometimes before you even get the meeting.

This episode breaks down what's actually happening behind the scenes and how you can adapt using proven strategies that align with the new AI-driven reality.

By listening, you'll discover how to:

• Position yourself (and your company) as a credible topic authority that LinkedIn's algorithm wants to reward

• Create content that sparks real conversations instead of getting ignored or "thumbed" into oblivion

• Leverage your team to multiply reach and influence without relying on expensive ads or outdated tactics

Hit play now and learn the proven strategies that will help you turn LinkedIn from a passive profile into a powerful growth engine for your business.

Check out:

• 08:45 – The moment Richard explains why LinkedIn completely changed its algorithm in 2025—and how it now evaluates your credibility before showing your content to anyone.

• 18:30 – A powerful breakdown of why company pages struggle with reach and how to use your people (not just your brand page) to multiply authority and visibility.

• 33:15 – The eye-opening shift from selling to humans to selling to AI engines—and what that means for your LinkedIn content and overall digital strategy.

Richard Bliss is the CEO of BlissPoint Consulting and author of Digital-First Leadership, He helps C-suite executives and sales teams transform digital hesitancy into market authority. He is a global speaker across 22 countries, and former Army Artillery Officer. Richard builds scalable influence systems that turn leaders into recognized voices in their markets.

Your LinkedIn presence should work harder than you do — building authority, attracting opportunities, and making you top of mind in your market. Richard works with executives who understand that in the 21st century, influence isn't just earned in the boardroom — it's built in the feed.