Jean Moncrieff

I’m an entrepreneur, community builder, and trusted advisor dedicated to helping leaders build exceptional, purpose-driven businesses that choose to be great — not just big.

As the leader of the Small Giants Community, I steward a network of values-driven CEOs and founders who believe business can be a force for good. Together, we navigate the challenges of growth while staying anchored in what matters most: our people, our purpose, and our communities.

My journey includes founding, scaling, and successfully exiting multiple companies in the 7 and 8-figure range. But what I’ve learned — and what Small Giants has taught me — is that true success isn’t just about revenue or an exit event; it’s about building organizations where people thrive, cultures are strong, and legacies last far beyond the founder.

Through my work, I bring a blend of hard-won strategic insight, practical operating frameworks, and a deep commitment to human-centered leadership. Whether I’m coaching CEOs, convening Small Giants gatherings, or creating spaces for authentic connection, my goal is to help leaders clarify their vision, lead with intention, and grow businesses that serve their families, employees, and communities for generations to come.

If you’re a purpose-driven leader who wants to join a community of peers on the same path, or you’re exploring how to grow and steward your business with intention, let’s connect.

Zurich is home for me and my partner Sinem, while most of my professional work takes me to the US. Cape Town is where I go to slow down and recharge.

Part-Time Marketing Director

The Marketing Centre is a UK market leader in offering part-time CMOs and Marketing Directors for SMEs. The portfolio businesses we work with are often early-stage high-growth ventures and much of our work involves close co-operation with private equity firms and venture capitalists to ensure rapid growth while creating value and optimum returns. With us, entrepreneurs can access a wealth of experienced and commercially minded marketing leaders who know how to make businesses grow, but who operate on a part-time basis and therefore more cost-effectively.

Typically I work with businesses who recognise themselves in at least two of the following: 

- have ambitious growth plans and want to capitalise on this growth
- may have stalled and need a fresh review of the business
- have a business owner is running out of hours in the day to do everything
- have sales pipeline needs more and better quality leads to achieve your growth plans
- need their online strategy reinvigorating
- need to re-evaluate and develop their proposition 
- are building towards an exit and want to maximise return
- has a turnover between £3m and £50m

If you are interested to know more, please contact me on 0792 638 1370 or email me at jean.moncrieff@themarketingcentre.com, and we can talk about your business.

What’s the best part of leading the Small Giants Community?

Sharing a meal with group of purpose-driven leaders. 

Having meaningful conversations about the challenges we’re navigating personally and professionally.

Sharing stories that make your belly ache with laughter and sometimes bring a tear to your eye.

Thanks for a great evening Brad Herrmann, Rane Butler, Ana Smelley, Sarah Lawson, Rachel Harner

CEO Small Giants Community | Keynote Speaker | Host Growing with Purpose Podcast | Author Finding Freedom | Connecting and Developing Purpose-Driven Business Leaders

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If you’re always the smartest person in the room…

you’re probably in the wrong room.

Growth rarely happens when everyone agrees with you.

It happens when you surround yourself with people who know their craft.

People who challenge you.
People who see what you can’t.
People who raise your standards.

I’ve just wrapped up a two-day intensive to level up my keynote.

A great reminder that if we’re doing life right, we never stop learning.

I’ve been fortunate to have Davin Salvagno walking alongside me on this journey — helping sharpen my keynote and refine the message behind the book.

Grateful for the people in the room this week and for the generosity of those willing to share what they’ve learned:

Conner Krizancic, Ivy Gustafson, Aaron Knipp, Quinn Conyers, Paul Epstein, Meta Jane Nelson, Margarita Kilpatrick, Amy Taylor, Kelly (Caffrey) Bjorseth and the whole SpeakrBrand team thanks for a phenomenal couple of days!

Davin — thank you for the guidance, the challenge, and the support as this next chapter takes shape.

Here's a subject a lot of founders balk at: navigating their exit strategy.

But having a well-paced, well-communicated, and purposeful exit strategy is one of the most important decisions you'll make as a business owner.

At the 2023 Small Giants Summit, Ryan Tansom took us through not just the different paths, but also the mindset of exiting.

He should know - he's exited a business the wrong way, and has learned from his mistakes.

I've spoken with Ryan numerous times - on his podcast, on my podcast- and it's always a fruitful discussion. He has a way of making hard truths approachable, and delivering concepts that can sometimes feel heavy with upbeat energy.

If you're a business owner, I highly recommend you check out Ryan's content. And if you'd like to hear more discussions about navigating leadership, then join us at the Small Giants Community Summit next month.

I asked ChatGPT how old I am. 
I’m at that age where I genuinely can’t remember.

It looked me dead in the digital eye and said: 
“𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘨𝘦.”

For a moment, I thought: 
Good. The machine isn’t keeping tabs. 

We still have some control.

Then I told it: 17 March 1973.

And just like that…
 
"𝘏𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵-𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘥𝘢𝘺, 𝘑𝘦𝘢𝘯...🍀"

So much for anonymity.

Next, I asked it for my horoscope.

Apparently, I’m a Pisces. A water sign. Intuition, creativity, empathy… and (this is where it got interesting):

A “𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿.”
 
According to the algorithm...
 
Pisces leaders tend to: 
• Be 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲-𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻 
• See the 𝗯𝗶𝗴 𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 
• Build through 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 
• Create things that matter 𝗯𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝘁

And the shadow side? 
• Too many ideas 
• Not enough structure
• Avoiding hard decisions a little too long

(…no comment 😅)

But this line struck a chord: “𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝘂𝗻 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗳𝘂𝗹.”

Which is exactly why I’m drawn to the 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗚𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 ethos.
 
Because building something meaningful beats building something big.
 
It’s about creating a business that actually means something—to you, your team, and the people you serve.

Anyway… 53.

Still building. Still experimenting. Still slightly suspicious of AI.

Feels about right.

- Jean

P.S. Happy St. Paddy's Day y'all ☘️

At the 2023 Small Giants Summit, Elizabeth Glasbrenner told of her transition to becoming the CEO of her family's business.

She's the first to admit she wasn't the first choice for the role after her father stepped down. Smiley Technologies, Inc. is a technology company, and she didn't have the deep tech knowledge she thought she needed to be at the helm.

But after some initial resistance, and some team disruptions, she stepped up to the challenge, found her footing, and drove the company towards newfound success.

Elizabeth was able to do all of this because the harnessed her strength: 
People.

She couldn't handle a coding issue on her own, but she could handle people and relationships.

And that, no matter the industry, is crucial.

Elizabeth's story was a reminder to quiet the noise of doubt (both external and internal) and lean into your authenticity and strengths. 

If you'd like to hear more stories like Elizabeth's then join us at this year's Small Giants Community Summit, happening April 28-30 in Detroit, MI.

CEO Small Giants Community | Host Growing with Purpose Podcast | Speaker | Author Finding Freedom (due April 2026) | Connecting and Developing Purpose-Driven Business Leaders

With each step of the publishing journey, it feels a little more real that my book will soon be hitting bookshelves and held in strangers' hands.

But this one might be the greatest milestone I've reached so far.

Seeing the cover of my book makes it feel real in a way I couldn't imagine before.

No longer is it an endless scroll of a document on my laptop.
Or a stack of papers from my exhausted printer, marked with pen notes and coffee rings.

Now, it has a face.
Now, I can visualize it alongside other books that have inspired me.

And if my book can impact even one business leader in how they run and identify with their business, then it'll all have been worth it. 

Thank you to Scott Jeffrey Miller and Davin Salvagno and everyone else who's had a hand in bringing this book to life. I'm thrilled to be a Maison Vero author and for my title to be the first within the Small Giants Press imprint. 

Stay tuned - it won't be long until this long-held dream becomes reality.

The first official book out of Small Giants Press - the first imprint of Maison Vero!

So many buisiness owners start with a clear purpose and passion for the difference they want to make in the world, but all too often, as the business starts to grow, it starts to own them.

The world is full of daring entrepreneurs who were once filled with purpose and passion, who now feel trapped and even embittered by the personal sacrifices they have had to make. 

How does one build a valuable company and a meaningful life at the same time? 

Jean Moncrieff in this beautiful book reveals how business owners can build and scale a valuable business, and find the freedom to exit without sacrificing the purpose, culture, and impact of what they spent most of their lives building. 

Releasing April 21st from Small Giants Press!

Yesterday I spoke to engineers at Fermilab, the premier particle physics and accelerator laboratory in the US.
 
These are people working on some of the most exciting projects in the world, experiments that could fundamentally change how we understand the universe.
 
Let that sink in.
 
And yet, what we spoke about wasn’t physics.
 
It was emotional intelligence.

Because whether you’re powering a particle accelerator…
or leading a Small Giant…
 
The real breakthroughs don’t just come from intellect.
 
They come from how we work together.
 
Fermilab is a diverse institution, with engineers and scientists from countries, around the world, all contributing to experiments far bigger than themselves.
 
Brilliant individuals.
Complex systems.
Interdependent teams.
 
And in environments like that, team emotional intelligence can be a tough order.

• The ability to listen.
• The ability to regulate ego.
• The ability to collaborate across differences.
• The ability to align around purpose.
 
What struck me most?
  
These engineers, operating at the edge of human knowledge, chose to spend their time talking about how to become better teammates.
 
That humility.
That curiosity.
That commitment to growth.
 
It was a true honor to spend time with them.

Whether you’re building particle accelerators or purpose-driven companies…

 The future belongs to emotionally intelligent teams.

Anyone who attended the 2024 Small Giants Summit was given a real gift:

Hearing scott harrison on stage.

Towards the end of his captivating talk, he shares his favorite quote:

“𝗗𝗼 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝗮𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗻𝗼 𝗲𝗻𝗱.”

He spoke about service. 
About suffering. 
About the uphill battle of getting people to care.

And what struck me is how much this applies — not only to the nonprofit world — but to those of us leading 𝗳𝗼𝗿-𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀.

Because if you’re building a purpose-driven company, the work also has no end.

There is no moment when you say:  
“We’ve built enough culture.”  
“We’ve cared enough about our people.”  
“We’ve aligned profit and purpose perfectly — job done.”

There’s no finish line for integrity.  
No final milestone for trust.  
No retirement from being intentional.

But like Scott said — this endless cycle shouldn't feel paralyzing. It should be energizing.

You may never drop the mic and say, “I’ve done enough.”
But that's the point. Your motivation isn't to hit a certain number in revenue. It's to build a business that's a force for good. 

And there's no cap to that.

If you want more inspiring stories like Scott's, then join us at this year's Small Giants Community Summit, happening April 28-30 in Detroit, MI.

It’s not just inspiring stories + leader journeys at the Small Giants Summit.
 
It’s practical takeaways you can bring back to your business immediately.
 
In this clip from the 2023 Summit, Tracy Bech breaks down a financial truth that too many leaders overlook:
 
We tend to focus on top line and bottom line…  and ignore everything happening in the middle.
 
But that middle is where the health of your business lives.
 
As Tracy explains, direct expenses rise with revenue. The more you sell, the more you spend to deliver. And if those costs quietly outpace your margins, growth won’t save you.
 
In fact, you can “grow broke.”
 
For leaders building people-first businesses, understanding your financials isn’t optional. It’s stewardship. It’s clarity. It’s what allows you to invest in your team with confidence.

Tracy is a fountain of knowledge, and her mission is to help leaders exercise their financial muscles for empowerment. 
 
Give this a watch — and pay attention to the middle.

And don't forget to register for the 2026 Small Giants Community Summit, happening April 28-30 in Detroit, MI.

One of the Freedom Factors I write about in my upcoming book Finding Freedom is this:

Letting go of control.

It sounds simple.

For many business owners… it rarely is.

Because the truth is, the very thing that helped you build the business in the early stages is often the thing that eventually holds it back.

I know this because I lived it.

In the early days of my business, I was involved in everything.

Every decision.
Every customer issue.
Every opportunity.

That intensity helped us grow.

We expanded.
Acquired companies.
Revenue climbed.

From the outside it looked like momentum.

Inside… it felt like I was feeding a machine that never stopped demanding more.

Then one day it hit me…

I hadn’t built a business that gave me freedom.

I had built something that depended on me for almost everything.

My team waited on me.

Decisions bottlenecked.

Frustration surrounded us.

What I thought was leadership was clinging onto control.

And control, over time, becomes a trap.

That’s when I started to understand something important.

Freedom doesn’t come from tightening control.

It comes from letting go of control.

That means shifting from being the hero at the centre of it all to recruiting a leadership team capable of taking you toward your goal.

Growing leaders.
Building systems.
Creating a business that can move forward even when you step back.

That’s when something surprising happens. Something I wish I’d paid attention to earlier in my business journey…

The business becomes more valuable.

And the owner finally starts to feel a little more freedom again.

#FindingFreedom #FreedomFactors

Alysa Liu just showed the world that there's power in protecting your personhood.

We should all stop and let that sink in. Especially leaders.

Alysa was a prodigy.  
An Olympian at 16.  

And then — at that same young age — she retired.

Not because she couldn’t compete.  
But because she needed space.

Space to hang out with friends.  
To go on vacation for the first time.  
To get her driver’s license.  
To figure out who she was — separate from medals, rankings, and expectations.

She took time to become a whole person.

And in that process, she discovered something powerful:
She could return to figure skating — but this time on her own terms.

Not because the world expected it.  
Not because her identity depended on it.  
But because she loved the thrill. The artistry. The craft.

And with that clarity, that lighter grip on identity, she rose above the noise and pressure of the global stage — and won gold.

There’s a leadership lesson here.

When we tie our entire identity to our work, everything feels heavy.  
Every setback feels personal.  
Every metric feels existential.

But when we allow ourselves to be more than our title…  
We lead differently.
Calmer, clearer, and more grounded.

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do isn’t to push harder.
It’s to give yourself permission to live a full life — separate from your work.

Because paradoxically, when the pressure lifts, performance often follows.

Work matters.
But it isn’t all of who you are.

Alysa knows that, and has a gold medal to prove that protecting who you are is a source of strength.

Most business owners think they need to be the smartest person in the room.

Early in the journey, that’s often true.

You know the product.
You know the customers.
You make the decisions.

That’s how the business gets off the ground.

But then something happens.

The company grows.
The team grows.

And suddenly…

Every decision still runs through you.

Your team waits.

The business slows.

Without realizing it, the very thing that made the business successful — you being the smartest person in the room — becomes the bottleneck.

This is where many companies plateau.

I’ve just come back from a workshop with a group of professional keynote speakers.

Everyone there had the same mindset.

Put yourself in rooms where you’re not the smartest person.

Rooms where you’re learning.

Rooms where you’re stretched.

Great business owners eventually realize something important:

Your job is no longer to be the smartest person in the room.

Your job is to build a room full of people smarter than you.

That’s when the real growth begins.

Next week I’m in Dallas for the 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗨𝗽 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲...
 
It’s rare that I go back to the same event twice. But this one is different.
 
The first time I attended, I wasn’t looking for more content. I’ve been speaking for years. I know how to structure a talk. I know how to hold a room.
 
What I wanted was refinement.
 
What I found was a small group of people who were serious about their craft. No hype. No big egos. Just a tight circle of speakers willing to put their work out there and let others challenge it.
 
That close environment changes everything. You do the work. You test ideas. You adjust language. You get honest feedback. You try again.
 
I walked away with sharper messaging, stronger stage presence, and real clarity about what I want to say when I’m standing in front of a room of leaders.
 
And now, with a book coming out, that clarity matters even more.
 
When you’re distilling years of experience into pages — and then into keynotes — every word counts. The message has to be tight. It has to be true. And it has to land.
 
The real value last time was the shift in confidence that came from knowing my message had been pressure-tested.
 
So I’m going back.
 
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝟱–𝟲 𝗶𝗻 𝗗𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗮𝘀, with a group that’s intentionally kept small. My good friend Davin Salvagno will be there again, breaking down stage presence in a way that’s both practical and powerful.
 
For me, this isn’t about becoming a “better speaker.” It’s about continuing to sharpen the craft — because if I’m going to stand in front of an audience, especially with a book behind me, the message needs to land.
 
– Jean 

👉 w͟w͟w͟.͟l͟e͟v͟e͟l͟u͟p͟s͟p͟e͟a͟k͟i͟n͟g͟.͟c͟o͟m͟/͟e͟v͟e͟n͟t͟s͟

SpeakrBrand

During a recent conversation, the wonderful leader and OG Small Giant Jay Goltz came up with this phrase for us to use when promoting the Small Giants Community:

"𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲, 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲."

That phrase ties perfectly back to my conversation with Ashish Kothari for my latest Growing with Purpose episode.

Sometimes, when two incredible leaders are telling you the same thing in quick succession, it means you should take note. 📝

🎙️ Check out this new episode with Ashish for more grounding insights: https://lnkd.in/eybckv_K

Rob Dube is so intuitive, he unknowingly mentioned the theme of this year's Summit in a podcast episode before it was announced!

Jokes aside, if you want to learn about intuition, mindfulness, and self discovery from a well-respected leader, you go to Rob. His presence is positive and calming, and his presentations are always actionable and emotionally resonant. 

And this April, anyone who's in Detroit for the Small Giants Community Summit has the opportunity to do just that.

Rob will be leading his SHINE Workshop on April 28 before the Summit kicks off. It'll be the perfect primer for you to feel re-centered and energized.

Spaces are limited, and workshop tickets are separate from Summit tickets. Don't miss out on this great event.

Many entrepreneurs think they’re building a business.

In reality… they’re building a monster.

I know because I did it.

Years ago I built an eight-figure company. From the outside it looked like success.

Inside, it felt like I was Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors.

Every day the monster needed feeding.

More deals.
More customers.  
More growth.

And if you stopped feeding it…

everything started to fall apart.

The business depended on me for everything.

And the uncomfortable truth was this:

I had never defined what winning actually looked like.

Like many founders, I was chasing growth without asking a much more important question.

What kind of life is this business supposed to create?

Freedom Factor #7: Choose Your Future

Because if you don’t define success…

your business can easily become a monster you have to feed.

- Jean

---

🚨FYI Business Owners — I’m sharing short videos on the Freedom Factors from my upcoming book Finding Freedom Experience.

#FindingFreedom #FreedomExperience

A pilot who trusts their instincts in a cloud… risks crashing.

When I was learning to fly, I once flew into a cloud.

Instantly I lost my sense of orientation.  
I couldn’t tell up from down.

Pilots call it spatial disorientation.

Your body lies to you.

The only way out is to trust your instruments.

Business is no different.

When the world outside your company shifts—AI, new technology, changing markets—leaders lose their bearings.

Everyone has an opinion.  
Instinct kicks in.  
Ego gets loud.

That’s when you need instruments.

Your instruments are the signals from the outside world:
• customers  
• frontline teams  
• suppliers  
• thought leaders  

Without those signals, strategy becomes guesswork.

And history is full of companies that ignored their instruments.

First it was the cloud.  
Now it’s AI.

Freedom Factor #4: Build and trust your instruments.

Build the dashboard that tells you what’s really happening outside your business.

Because when the clouds roll in (and they always do)…

Your instruments keep you flying.

- Jean

——————

🔔FYI Business Owners — I’m sharing short videos on the Freedom Factors from my upcoming book Finding Freedom, hit the follow button for daily #FreedomFactors

I had a small observational epiphany today.
 
When many leaders join Small Giants Community, what they often find isn’t just programming, resources, or networking.
 
They find 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲.
 
Language to describe how they’ve always wanted to lead.  Language to articulate what’s felt intuitive but hard to explain.
 
Values that guide decisions — not just decorate walls.
Hiring for culture add, not just skill set.
People at the center of the business.
Mission and vision driving culture.
Psychological safety.
 
Individually, these are just phrases.
 
But together?
 
They form an identity.
 
I’ve heard leaders say, “I knew I was doing something different — or at least wanted to — but I didn’t have the words for it.”
 
Until they read Bo Burlingham's book 𝘚𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘎𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴.  
Until they attended the Summit.  
Until they sat in a room and heard someone else describe leadership in a way that finally clicked.
 
There’s power in having language.
 
It gives clarity.  
It builds confidence.  
It connects you to others who see the world the same way.
 
So if you’ve ever felt like your approach to business is a little different from the status quo — a little more heart-driven, a little more mission-focused — you’re not alone.
 
And you’re in very good company.
 
Join us in the movement of building businesses as a force for good.

***

👋 Hi, I'm Jean. I'm on a mission to bring leaders together who see business as a force for good. 

If that's you, I'd love to connect.

Imagine your leadership team walking into your office and telling you this:

“Your leadership style has to change… or we’re leaving.”

That moment happened to Tom Walter, founder of Tasty Catering.

And it became the turning point that transformed how he led the business.

In today’s video I share that story and why it illustrates one of the key Freedom Factors in my upcoming book Finding Freedom.

The shift founders eventually have to make:

From hero… to builder.

#FindingFreedom #FreedomFactors

Opportunity is one of the most dangerous forces in entrepreneurship.

Especially for visionary founders.

Because we see opportunities everywhere… and we genuinely believe we can turn them into something.

Sometimes we can.

But the problem is that opportunity rarely arrives one at a time.

A customer asks for something new.  
A partner suggests an idea.  
A new market appears.  
A product opportunity shows up.

Each one sounds exciting.

But together they pull you away from what your business should really be focused on.

I learned this the hard way.

Instead of designing my business with intention, I jumped from one opportunity to the next.

Before long I wasn’t running one business.

I was running a plantation of little monsters.

A software company.  
A recruitment business.  
A document storage company.  
Offices in multiple cities.  
Even co-working spaces.

All competing for the same time, energy, and resources.

That’s the danger of opportunity when it isn’t filtered through a clear plan.

Freedom Factor #8: Build your business with intention.

Know your purpose.  
Know where you want to be in 10 years.  
Define the 3-year path to get there.

Then have the discipline to say no to the opportunities that pull you away from it.

Because if you don’t design your business deliberately…

opportunity will design it for you.

And most of the time you won’t like the result.

- Jean

---

🔔FYI Business Owners — I’m sharing short videos inspired by ideas from my upcoming book Finding Freedom.

#Leadership #FindingFreedom #FreedomFactors

Over the last 10+ years, I’ve worked exclusively with more than 30 Australian Boards, CEO's and C-suite teams across NSW Government, corporates and NFP’s focused on one thing: getting greater ROI from their teams.

In that time, I’ve delivered 10,000+ hours of hands-on leadership and performance work across the country. 

What we consistently find is that underperformance rarely comes from laziness or lack of skill it comes from structural issues like:
●	Misaligned collaboration
●	No real accountability loop
●	Avoidance of hard, necessary conversations

We help leadership teams fix these exact problems through a customised, embedded strategy tailored to specifically to each organisation.

We’re not a volume-based consultancy. We work with a maximum of 3 clients at a time so we can go deep, not wide, and actually move the needle.

If you're an Aussie executive who’s serious about building high-trust, high-performance teams (without adding more complexity), give me a call: 0466 997 717.

We’re based in Sydney and Orange, and regularly work with clients across Australia.

Rex Wood

CEO: "The team's solid... we've just got some alignment issues." 
ME: "What do you mean 'alignment issues'?"
CEO: "...well... they're not really getting on?."
 
Nobody walks in and says "my C-team sucks." 
They cover it up with 'coach speak'

What they mean is the team is at loggerheads
• Revenue stalling
• Decisions dragging
• The CEO refereeing?

They just need to talk TO each other — not ABOUT each other.
You sort that out with trust
That's not coach speak, that's a fact
 
Hard to do? Nope!
Give me an hour and watch the shift.
 
DM me TEAM to find out how.

CEO: “The team’s just not firing.” That’s typically where the conversation starts. Sydney based $5M-$50M businesses. You’ve outgrown your team and and the numbers aren’t following.

I sat down with a Sydney based CEO last month, running a $60m business.
 
Done everything he's 'supposed' to.
 
Built a strong senior team. Hired well. Put structure around the business. Even brought in consultants to sort out his strategy.
 
On paper, he's nailed it. Revenue growing. Team in place. Board happy enough.
 
But here's the problem — he's still the one doing the heavy lifting
 
His senior team wait for him to make a call.
 
His strategy? Great on the slide deck. Nobody's executing it without him pushing.
 
His week? Back-to-back from 7am. Laptop open again after the kids are in bed. Every night.
 
He told me something I hear constantly: "I built this team, so I could have freedom. Now I can't take a week off without it falling apart."
 
And for the first time, he realised the issue wasn't his team's capability. It was that nobody around him was stepping up — because the business had been built around expecting him to answer all the questions.
 
This is the conversation I have almost every week with CEOs running $5M–$50M businesses. They're not failing. They just haven't built the leadership layer that lets them actually do less and lead more.
 
The business doesn't need a better CEO. It needs the CEO to stop doing everyone else's job.
 
If that sounds familiar — I'm running a small, in-person CEO session in Sydney mid year. No fluff. Real challenge. DM me "FIT" and I'll send you the details.

CSL's CEO is out

$60 billion in shareholder value gone

The Board says he "didn't have the skills for the future."
 
3 yrs and $60 billion dollars ago, everyone was bullish
And nobody said anything until it was too late.
 
That's not a CEO problem. That's a culture problem.
 
The CEO didn't destroy that value on their own, albeit they're accountable for it
They had a board, a C-suite, and a leadership team around them.
 
Why the silence...?
• Fear
• Groupthink
• Hero worship
• Board capture
 
I see this too often, the team stays quiet - most often 'fear'
A high performer in the C-team  deciding it’s not worth the career risk
And by the time someone speaks up, the damage is done.
 
The most valuable person in any business
Is the one who's prepared to say what needs to be said, when it needs to be said.
 
If nobody in your business is doing that — you've got a problem 

So who is the 'truth teller' in your business?

HEAD OF OPS: "3 down... 4 to go!"

ME: "Brilliant... tell me how your 1:1's have gone?"
 
HEAD OF OPS: "Great! Pay rises and bonuses all set for this year!
And I'm off on holiday as of next week"

Text book stuff, till I asked how his boss had gone, with hers!
HEAD OF OPS: "She got hers emailed to her and told to email it back!!"

You don't need to hear the rest of the story
It was filled with expletives and disbelief

So here we have a 10/10 case of 'cultural hypocrisy'
A completely public, lack of modelling from the top
 
Culture doesn’t cascade. It mirrors.
So I was asked the rhetoric question by the Head of Ops...

"Why the hell is it so important that I have to do all this ...
When the C-team doesn't give a sh*t about it"

Good question
How yould you answer that?

In 2026 'hero' leadership is just plain dumb

Here's why:

I used to:
1 Know all the answers [at least I thought I did] 
2 Lead the 'discussion' [I was just filling dead air... not much discussing]
3 Have all the best ideas [that's what I told myself]
4 Never listened to feedback [why would I - nothing to 'fix']

It took me a while, but it eventually clicked

Now I:
1 Encourage others to provide their answers
2 Ensure that everyone speaks up - it ensures an even share of voice
3 Get everyone else's ideas first - mine are well superseded by then 
4 Share the feedback I've received and where I'm working for improvement - the team will model that

The best leaders now understand that vulnerability is a superpower - not a weakness 
It only comes with self confidence and a healthy ego
Only then, are you comfortable to leave both at the door.

Hero leadership complex, will cost you time, cred and money
Waste it or fix it - you decide

DATE: June 30, 2030 - Five years ago, we were asking

"Will AI replace leaders?"
  
Turns out that was the wrong question.
The right question was: "Will leaders learn to ask better questions?"
  
Because here's what I've seen working with executive teams over the last five years:

The leaders who thrived didn't resist AI. They didn't blindly adopt it either. They did something harder — they got curious about what it revealed about their own leadership.
  
AI didn't replace decision-making
It exposed how poor most decision-making already was.
  
When your team can generate a strategy paper in 90 seconds, 
the leader who just curated information lost their value overnight. 

But the leader who could look at that paper and ask
"What's missing? Who haven't we spoken to? What are we afraid to say out loud?"
That person became indispensable.
  
Here's what changed:
•  Execution speed stopped being the differentiator. Everyone got fast. The edge moved to judgement, context, and courage.

• The leaders who hoarded knowledge became irrelevant. AI democratised information. Influence shifted to those who could build trust, navigate ambiguity, and hold the room when there was no clear answer.

• Coaching became the leadership skill, not a nice-to-have. When AI handles the "what," leaders had to get much better at the "why" and the "who." The best ones became coaches — not because it was trendy, but because it was the only way to unlock the human capability that AI couldn't replicate.

• Self-awareness went from soft skill to survival skill. AI held up a mirror. Leaders who couldn't sit with what they saw didn't last.
  
The irony? 
The technology that everyone feared would make leadership obsolete 
actually raised the bar on what great leadership looks like.
  
Less telling - more asking
Less controlling - more trusting
Less knowing - more learning.
  
Five years on, the leaders I work with aren't competing with AI.
They're competing with the version of themselves that refuses to grow.
  
That was always the real competition.

What will your history written from the future, look like?

How is Elon going to earn his $1tn bonus?

Not on his own that's for sure!!

Business is a team sport - that relies on team players not 'rockstars'
But you get what you pay for

And when you incentives someone with $1tn 
It's pretty bloody obvious where all the focus is!

It takes a special type of individual not to sacrifice the team on the 'bonus altar'
You get what you pay for - follow the money and you'll find out what that is

Robyn Denholm said there is  no “Elon Mark 2” 
If the board is forced to try to replace him...
So they are happy with the revolving door for top talent?

Telling, n'est-ce pas?

What is your board incentivising?

CHAIR: "Have you seen that $40bn?? It was here somewhere."
CEO: "Nah... it's gone... whooshka!"

Can you imagine the conversation in November in CSL's head office?
I can imagine it would have gone something like that.

It's the latest - and most incredulous example - 
Of an Aussie company watching shareholder value disappear down the drain
In just a few months

As a case study in accountability, it's a cracker
Ignoring how it happened for a moment[if that's even possible]
• who wasn't paying attention
• and who's being held accountable

A whole division of people must have been sitting in the bleachers 
[𝘐𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘌𝘖, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴] 
...with nobody taking action

Who is being held accountable?
McKenzie is already under the bus, but who else?
One scalp does not accountability make, on a cock-up of this magnitude.

If accountability stops at the CEO - it's not really accountability
The Board needs to take some of the heat 
Or perhaps those CSL values are just marketing

So on a scale of 1-10 [10 being the max], what score would you give the CSL C-suite and Board, for
ACCOUNTABILITY?

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