CEO Coaching International

I’m 5'4”. No pedigree. No connections. Just grit and heart. And somehow, that was enough. When you grow up in a small mining town like Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, you don’t automatically see BIG opportunities. You see hard work. You see uncertainty. You see people doing the best they can with what they’ve got. At 17, when my dad declared bankruptcy, it forced me to grow up fast. It also taught me something I didn’t understand until years later: You don’t need a perfect situation to create a powerful outcome. What you do need is the courage to start. The willingness to ask for help. And the discipline to keep showing up long after the excitement wears off. The world rewards consistency more than confidence. It rewards grit more than gifts. It rewards heart more than height. So if you’re looking at your circumstances and thinking you’re at a disadvantage…think again. If I could make BIG happen from where I started, trust me, you can too. #MakeBIGHappen

CEOs tell me all the time, “If I just had a few more hours in the day, I’d get everything done.” No, you wouldn’t. You don’t need more time. You need more focus. Every CEO on the planet gets the same 24 hours. The difference isn’t the clock. It’s the clarity. What you actually need is: Fewer distractions. Clearer priorities. And the discipline to say no to everything that doesn’t move the needle. Most CEOs don’t fail because of a lack of effort. They fail from divided attention. The highest performers I coach aren’t trying to win by doing more. They win by doing what matters: the activities that drive revenue, build people, and move the business forward. Focus isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the most underrated superpower a CEO has. #MakeBIGHappen

Most CEOs are training harder for a race than they are for their own brain. New research from Dr. Christin Glorioso, MD PHD is a wake-up call: You can boost cognitive performance and reduce dementia risk with five minutes of running or fifteen minutes of fast walking a day. Leaders who build real cardiorespiratory fitness see up to a 40% reduction in dementia risk. The data gets even more interesting: + HIIT can help increase hippocampal volume—the part of the brain responsible for memory and learning. + Resistance training improves executive function—planning, focus, decision-making. + Mind-body practices like tai chi outperform traditional exercise in some studies for cognitive protection. It doesn’t take extreme effort. It takes consistency. Every CEO I coach who treats exercise as a non-negotiable shows up sharper—better decisions, better energy, better leadership. So here’s the question that matters: If a simple daily habit can strengthen your brain and your leadership… why wouldn’t you do it? Check out the full article in the comments.

If you’re the hero of your company, you’re also the biggest problem. The business can only grow as far as your personal capacity allows. As CEOs, we're wired to jump in, fix it, save the day, and look strong. It feels good. It feels responsible. It feels like leadership. But it's actually ego and can create the biggest bottleneck in the business: you. Here’s the truth no one told me early on: A company built around a hero can only grow to the limits of that hero. Those limits show up fast. The shift happened when I finally stopped asking, “How do I solve this?” and forced myself to ask, “Who’s the right person to OWN this?” That question changed everything. A few uncomfortable lessons I now give every CEO I coach: + If you can’t delegate, it’s not a “skill gap.” It’s a trust problem. + If you keep jumping in, you’re not “helping." You’re stealing growth from your team. + If you think nobody can do it as well as you can… you’re proving why you’re stuck. Hero leadership feels good in the moment and destroys scale in the long run. Want a scalable company? Stop trying to be the smartest, busiest, hardest-working person in the room. Start building leaders. Start handing over ownership. Start building a team of A-players that can function without you. The day you stop being the hero is the day your company finally grows up. That’s when the business takes off, and when you do too. That’s how you #MakeBIGHappen.

Your calendar is your real P&L. If you want to know where your life and business are headed, look at where your hours are going. That truth hit me during a stretch of travel when life finally slowed down. One morning, without the usual rush or noise, I had the rare chance to actually feel how my time was being spent. And it struck me how easily we, as leaders, let our calendars fill with obligations instead of intentions. Every hour is either an investment that compounds into clarity, connection, and impact…or an expense that disappears without a trace. Looking back, the highest-return moments weren’t the planned ones. They were the unexpected conversations, the long walks with my wife, Ivette, the chance to experience something new, or meet someone I never would’ve crossed paths with if I’d been rushing. The space to think, breathe, and let new ideas surface. Those were the real dividends. We scrutinize financial capital down to the decimal. But time? We give it away freely, often to the wrong things. So here’s the question to take into your week: Are you investing your time… or merely spending it? Are your hours creating a return… or just filling the day? Time is the ultimate currency. Treat your calendar like the P&L it is, and you won’t just lead BIG— you’ll #makeBIGhappen.

If you think being the smartest in the room makes you a great CEO… you’re already behind. I’ve seen brilliant people struggle in the seat. And I’ve seen “average” people outperform everyone’s expectations. The difference? Mindset. Not IQ. Here’s what great CEOs actually do: + They choose their words intentionally. One sentence can steady a team or send it sideways. + They default to optimism. Not because things are easy, but because leading from fear never works. + They protect their energy. More time with people who lift the room, less with people who drain it. + They stay grounded in gratitude. It keeps ego in check and perspective sharp. + They pause before reacting. Especially when frustration or pressure kicks in. These habits compound. They shape culture. They shape results. What habits would you add to the list? #MakeBIGHappen