Scot Chisholm & Co. 

Every week I tackle management, operations & startup topics that are helping 100,000+ people become better leaders.

Scot’s Newsletter

Highland

Highland is a “school” & community for founders. If you're a founder/CEO, we should talk!

Founder & Chief Professor

Tall Timbers Holding Co.

A family office and holding company with wholly owned businesses, private investments, and property holdings.

Managing Director & Founder

GoFundMe

After the merger of Classy and GoFundMe, I’ve taken on a strategic advisory role to the CEO & executive team, mainly focused on longer-range product strategy and M&A

Strategic Advisor, GoFundMe & Classy

Classy

Founder & Strategic Advisor (Acq. by GoFundMe, 2022)

Founder & Chairman

Classy is a SaaS giving platform that powers the fundraising of over 10,000 nonprofit organizations. Classy is a certified B-Corp, has a team of 300+ people and has raised over $5 billion for social good since 2011.

CEO & Founder

In Classy’s earliest days, we hosted large scale fundraising events with the goal of connecting millennials with local nonprofits in the San Diego area.

CEO & Founder (pre tech company)

Haskill Creek

Haskill Creek is a new type of self-care store. Imagine a healthier & more holistic version of a Walgreens or CVS. Family owned business.

Co-Founder

ALBION SC

Albion Soccer Club is one of the top youth soccer franchises in the United States with over 10,000 players and hundreds of teams across the country.

Co-Owner

Save Farmland

Save Farmland is a nonprofit organization with a mission to protect and promote small farms in Flathead Valley, Montana, and beyond.

Abundant Montana

Board Member

AERO Montana

Abundant Montana (a program of Aero), makes it easy for anyone to find and choose local food in Montana.

Advisory Board

CEO, Highland & Haskill Creek • Founder of Classy (acq. by GoFundMe) • Founder of nonprofit, Save Farmland

Multi-time founder but operator at heart. 

Industrial engineer and lean six sigma nerd by training. 

Now I write about management, operations & startup topics that are helping 200,000+ people become better leaders.

scotchisholm.com/newsletter


MY BACKGROUND ————— 

🚀 Founder of Classy, a SaaS platform for 10k+ nonprofits raising billions per year. 

🎗️Acquired by GoFundMe in ‘22 to create the largest giving platform in the world. Together we’ve raised over $30 billion for individual & nonprofit causes. 

🏔️ Founder of Highland, a private community & leadership “school” for high-potential founders. 

🏡 Co-founder of Haskill Creek, a much healthier version of a Walgreens or CVS. 

🧑🏼‍🌾 Founder of Save Farmland, a nonprofit protecting local farmland. 

⚽️ Co-owner of Albion Soccer Club, top youth soccer club in country

❤️ Board experience: Nature Conservancy, Abundant Montana, Team Rubicon, Street Soccer USA, Montana Pediatric Cancer Foundation 


👇 WAYS TO CONNECT —————

→ Podcast / speaking oppty? email: partner@scotchisholm.com

→ Join my free newsletter: https://scotchisholm.com/newsletter-linkedin-profile

→ Check out my private community for founders: www.joinhighland.com

Scot Chisholm

Sh*tty managers ruin lives. 
Great managers change them. 

I’ve managed hundreds of people over the last 20 years. 

One of my biggest takeaways is the massive difference between an average manager and a truly great one. 

But, here’s the truth:

No one starts out as a great manager (literally no one). 

And, becoming a great manager can be learned by anyone. 

Just focus on these 12 habits:

1/ Provide business context
2/ Set high standards
3/ Take full ownership
4/ Focus (then focus again)
5/ Create operating cohesion 
6/ Lead with data
7/ But be decisive 
8/ Let your team make decisions
9/ Don’t give sh*tty feedback
10/ Take feedback like an adult
11/ Listen more than you talk
12/ Always be learning

The gap in quality managers is large, but the right behaviors are simple. 

Focus on these 12 habits daily and you’ll be ahead of 99%. 

What habits resonated most?
Let me know in the comments 👇

⁂

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Operator & Investor • Founder of Classy (acq. by GoFundMe) • Building Highland, Just, Haskill Creek

12 insanely simple habits to become a high performing mana

Leadership is misunderstood.

Building Classy taught me that the best leaders aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest titles, or the ones who can charm a room.

Some of the best leaders in our 300+ person company were individual contributors at the very bottom of the org chart. Young managers. First-time team leads.

Over the years I started noticing what made these unlikely leaders so effective. They had traits that, quite honestly, my executives lacked at times. Including me.

Over time I boiled them down to 10 core traits that our best leaders always exhibited. It’s no surprise they rose fast within the company. Many are still there today, 15 years later.  

The very best leaders: 

• Clarify - Never assume everyone understands
• Believe - Push forward when everyone doubts
• Adapt - Evolve rapidly without ego
• Anticipate - Solve problems before they explode
• Persist - Get kicked in the teeth, get up anyway
• Empower - Create leaders, not followers
• Own - Own failures without excuses
• Hold the line - When quality dips and others compromise
• Always Learn - Learn and grow faster than the company
• Lead by Example - Live values when no one's watching

Most leaders start off strong in a few, but not all of these traits. You must intentionally develop them over time. It's a lifelong thing. 

But many executives forget this. Maybe they were great once. But they start slipping. They stop learning. They get cocky. I've seen this too many times. 

I don't care where you’re at in your career. Keep these traits in mind. And never stop developing them. 

⁂

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Top 10 traits of the very best leaders:

Every high performance culture starts with this… 

I recently asked a founder about his culture. And he started talking about free lunches and other perks. 

This is not culture. 

He was a coaching client of mine, so I nicely explained… 

Here's what real culture looks like: 
→ A shared purpose. Everyone understands and resonates with the 'Why'.

→ Excitement about the future. The vision is clear to all and it creates an almost kid-like excitement about the future.

→ Strong empathy and trust. Great orgs know if you neglect empathy, trust evaporates.

→ The correct level of accountability. People know you're building a championship team.

→ Mutual respect and encouragement. High performers have admiration for each other.

→ Hunger to learn and improve. Without being asked. That's the diet of champions.

→ Aligned financial incentives. Compensation that's aligned to the organization's top goals.

→ Career mobility. Lots of opportunity, with clear expectations around advancement.

→ Work-life balance. Clear boundaries that are enforced across the org.

→ Pride in the work. Numbers one through nine create an amazing sense of pride. You'll find yourself bragging about work to complete strangers.


When you get the culture right, people are excited to show up, employees self-manage, and retention is extremely high. 

And great business results naturally follow.

 ⁂

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10 signs of great culture.

Most people waste their leadership meetings. 

Do this instead: 

When I was building Classy I got this meeting wrong for years. We’d talk about everything BUT the important stuff. Too much time wasted on low-level “issues”. Too many tangents and distractions. Everyone left feeling:

• Confused
• Misaligned 
• Unaccountable

I talked to advisors and scoured the internet for help. But it took loads of trial and error to land on a meeting structure that actually worked. We stuck with it for nearly ten years. 

One of the major improvements was focus. Teams spend months setting goals only to let them collect dust. Your leadership meeting should be your #1 checkpoint for progress. 

Once we got “tight at the top” as a leadership team, everything started to change. More results, less talk. It became the tip of the spear of our entire operating rhythm.

To this day, I call it your most important meeting. If I only had one, it’d be the leadership meeting. 

The entire leadership team meeting structure is in the carousel. Copy it for your own company and let me know what you think. 

⁂

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How to nail your  leadership meeting every time:

Most people think goals fail because the team screwed up. 

They’re wrong. 

99% of goals fail because of poor leadership.

It doesn’t matter what framework you use…

→ OKRs
→ Rocks
→ SMART

If you’re sloppy with your approach, the company won’t hit its goals. 

That’s on you. 

I learned this the hard way, running a company with hundreds of people. 

Now I see it working with nearly 100 CEOs across all industries. 

Here are 7 non-negotiable rules that will make your goal-setting 10x better…

(regardless of your framework) 

⁂

Rule 1 –  
Focus (then focus again):

• Maximum three goals, period
• Goals aren't task lists
• Everything priority = nothing priority

Rule 2 – 
Always be measurable: 

• Three metrics maximum per goal
• Measure outcomes, not tasks
• "$1M ARR" beats "update deck"

Rule 3 – 
Challenging but realistic: 

• Impossible goals kill momentum
• Stretch without delusion
• No sandbagging, mutual accountability

Rule 4 – 
Never forget the ‘why’: 

• No context leaves team guessing
• Each goal deserves a 'why'
• 1-3 sentence rationale

Rule 5 – 
Track consistently:

• Break annual into monthly
• Weekly red/yellow/green updates
• Never leave dashboards stale

Rule 6 – 
Create accountability:

• Use leadership meeting
• Address every yellow or red
• 20% status, 80% solving

Rule 7 – 
Align incentives:

• Pay goals to comp
• Ignore the OKR purists
• Bonus plan is perfect for this

Does this resonate? 
What rules would you add?
Let me know in the comments 👇

 ⁂

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How to actually achieve your company goals in 2026

If there's one thing you do on Linkedin today... 

I'd be forever grateful if you'd consider applying, or sharing this role with someone you really respect. 

Christopher Himes & I started dreaming up this company about a year ago.  Now the dream has turned to reality. 

With a fresh round, a tiny team of insane talent, and a massive opportunity in front of us... 

We. are. ready. to. go!

Who wants to join us? 

p.s. We're not listing this company as "stealth" because that's dumb. But you'll learn way more about the market, opportunity and product when you apply. Trust me its badass. 

🔥

Level Agency

Chief Executive Officer

Managing Partner & President

President

Senior Vice President of Operations

Developed product and market strategies that positioned the company to achieve long term growth, while meeting annual revenue and profitability goals. Continually identified and assessed new markets, product and technology opportunities and ensured resources were in place to drive marketing strategy and capitalize on opportunities. 

• Served as a key and active member of the senior management operating team
• Provided leadership for the development of global strategic marketing plans including objectives and strategy for targeted markets
• Drove efforts with product and business development to define an overall product and technology portfolio strategy to drive the long term growth of the organization
• Ensured the development of all strategic product roadmaps and corresponding marketing plans
• Continuously evaluated trends and adjusted strategy to capitalize on shifts in the marketplace. 
• Analyzed existing product and markets in terms of the ability to compete, gain market share, grow revenue and sustain or grow profitability
• Monitored business metrics in regard to revenues, profitability, market share and product portfolio mix. 
• Established metrics for the measurement of marketing program effectiveness
• Developed and manage the marketing budget
• Responsible (in collaboration with sales) for the development of the company’s revenue forecast
• Responsible for the overall management of the marketing team providing coaching, leadership and assistance with resources and strategy development

Vice President of Technology and Product

Member

Vistage Worldwide, Inc.

CallerReady LLC

Responsible for developing and implementing a product roadmap for the company that ensures development and testing of high quality, high value products/services that can be successfully marketed to consumers. Also responsible for leading the development of strategies to migrate customer service and sales onto a completely self service platform. 

• Drive the implementation of a Product roadmap within the company.
• Manage the existing stable of products and lead the ongoing development of enhancements to support increased value to customers.
• Gather and analyze feedback from sales, marketing, operations and partners/prospects to set the strategic vision for existing products and development of new products.
• Manage the execution of consumer research to further support rationale for product development and positioning within the marketplace.
• Direct our internal process to define the product strategy, roadmap and priorities.
• Research, develop & implement a best processes strategy for new product development, launch and analysis.
• Develop requirements documents and use cases for new product features.
• Monitor the status of development projects supporting new features
• Become an expert on other products in the marketplace
• Product life cycle & profitability management.
• Provide guidance and direction to the team on developing new products and managing the lifecycle of existing products
• Build a team to support rapid growth expectations.
• Develop & implement strategy to drive product and customer service onto the web.

Director of Interactive and Product Development

EDMC

As a member of EDMC Online Higher Education marketing department, the Search Manager is responsible for leading and executing search engine strategy for all OHE brands. This position entails development & management of search marketing plans, keyword campaigns, SEO, search inclusion and interactive advertising programs; negotiating contracts, monitoring results and making necessary adjustments in order to generate high-quality, cost-effective student inquiries. 

•	Direct and coordinate multiple “cross-platform” projects while working within established deadlines. 
•	Develop and implement strategy for Internet advertising campaigns designed to increase web site visitors, generate quality student inquiries, and strengthen all EDMC online brands. 
•	Manage and administer EDMC brands’ online budgets.
•	Ensure accuracy (BPC compliance) and quality of all electronic advertising and marketing creative.
•	Develops a collaborative relationship with EDMC to assure online marketing initiatives are in sync with EDMC philosophies and procedures.
•	 Adhere to budget constraints and adjustments while continuing to increase inquiries and web site traffic through the respective EDMC brands’ online marketing campaigns. 
•	Remain current with and possess a thorough understanding of available online advertising, SEO and marketing vehicles as well as measurement tools. 
•	Analyzes current procedures and processes to assure optimal utilization of web-based and email marketing initiatives. 
•	Monitor/track results of online marketing vehicles purchased.

HIGHLIGHTS
•	Launched 3000+ page online education directory portal site from concept to completion in 3 months (2010)
•	Directly managed $20+ million marketing budget to drive year over year growth and drive direct response initiatives (2008-2010)

Search Marketing & Display Advertising Manager

• Analyze Web traffic using Omniture, Google Analytics, and other data collecting sources to support the analytic needs of the business
• Lead driving core insights from the data to suggest, create and execute multivariate or a/b/c tests that drive fundamental improvements to the site experience
• Develop and implement data strategy across multiple “listening posts” (websites, surveys, testing, CRM systems, market research etc) to provide a comprehensive view of students, faculty, and prospects across the online web experience 
• Work  with the Web Strategies team to identify gaps in the data capture strategy and implement enhancements  Improve and document processes for gathering metrics and data analysis

HIGHLIGHTS
•	Implemented multiple analytics software packages throughout web experience to facilitate creation of executive dashboards and reports (2007-2009)

Web Strategies Analyst

• Ownership for operational results of recruitment websites.  Personally manage and drive daily performance of metrics against internal requirements as well as competitive positioning
• Web strategy development including ensuring the brand experience by combining the convenience of on-line education with the experience of a top traditional school and making it come to life through our recruitment websites to support a consistent web-based end to end student experience.   Creates web environments to support the student recruitment goals and provide automation that supports growth and scale to the organization. 
• Provide leadership on web solutions development for the OHE organization.  Develop and manage scope, resources and project plans to deliver appropriate web solutions.
• Partner with OHE Marketing organization to implement marketing strategies.

HIGHLIGHTS
•	Introduced Landing Page Optimization and MVT testing to company leading to 100-300%+ increases in conversion across three different brands (2007-2010)
•	Successfully oversaw implementation of new student recruitment initiatives including: marketing site redesigns, microsite launches, online student tours, and admissions tools (2008-2010)

Web Producer, Student Recruitment

Recruit new students to meet new student plan. Develop and maintain positive relationships with students. Provide creative solutions to complicated admissions problems. Contribute to a positive results driven professional work environment. Serve as a job knowledge expert, trainer, and mentor for new hire and veteran ADAs.

Director Of Admissions

The Dinner Pantry, Inc

Developing and executing the go-to-market strategy for a food service startup. Creating and fully developing company network infrastructure and e-commerce website. Responsible for the content and publication of said website by coordinating, designing, and monitoring electronic publications for distribution. Developing and implementing strategies to improve group marketing.

Head of Marketing & Product

In his tenure as president & CEO of Level Agency, Patrick Patterson oversaw its transformation from a pioneering, fast-growing higher education shop into the performance-marketing powerhouse it is today. Under his leadership, the agency’s revenue grew 30% or more annually; its profit margin increased 4X; its marketing spend now tops $50M annually, and its capabilities have broadened to offer more complementary services for more industries.

Great marketing starts with asking great questions. From the outset of his career, Patterson applied his background in computer science and math to the challenge of reaching and engaging audiences (and carefully measuring every result). In an industry increasingly driven by automation and machine learning, he excelled, ultimately managing a $30+ million budget for Education Management Corporation. Patrick then took his passion for creating value to product development, implementing lean methodology at a technology startup that focused on using data to drive efficient sales enablement.

His drive for efficiency, performance, and continuous improvement led him to join agency founder Thomas Donohoe in 2012 to oversee Level’s operations and strategic direction - eventually purchasing the company in 2021 with his partner, Patrick Van Gorder.

Patterson’s vision for Level Agency is to be the go-to performance marketing agency when clients want real, measurable results. Reaching this goal requires an uncompromising commitment to performance: platform excellence, compelling creative, client partnership, growth mindset, and constant innovation. By surrounding himself with talented, adaptable colleagues, he knows he’s set the agency up for success.

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Patrick Patterson

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