What happens when the business owner is the reason the business can't grow? Heidi Schalk sits down with Avigail Schondorf, founder of Alisto Executive Support, a mom of two with AuDHD who built a fractional executive support team in the Philippines after relocating from Israel to Georgia in February 2020.

Avi is refreshingly unapologetic. She explains why cloning yourself doubles your weaknesses along with your strengths, how to spot when you've become the bottleneck, and why you should delegate what you don't enjoy instead of what you're bad at. She also shares her five part communication framework, where AI fits (and where it doesn't), and how a deliberately spicy brand helps the right clients find her while the wrong ones keep walking.

Bio:

Avigail (Avy) Schondorf is a social worker turned entrepreneur who built two companies around the way her brain actually works. She's the founder of Alisto Virtual Workforce, a team of Distant Assistants who specialize in supporting neurodivergent entrepreneurs — and AvyHD, her strategy and thought leadership brand where she gets real about ADHD, delegation, and building a business without burning out.

With a background rooted in the nonprofit sector, Avigail believes the right support doesn't just get things done — it changes what's possible. When she's not running her team or hosting the AvyHD Podcast, she's lifting weights, reading, or wrangling two very energetic daughters.

To connect with our guest, click on the links below:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/avyhd/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/avy.hd/?hl=en

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@avy_hd

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1D3nQ7xwShHn6fk0NdZ5BQ

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@avy-hd

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/avyhd-podcast/id1896797392

Website: https://avyhd.com/

🎁https://alistova.com/alisto-service-quiz/

Connect with me:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidischalkcoaching/

Website: https://hlhgrowthsolutions.com

🎁Spotlight to Scale Blueprint: https://spotlighttoscale.com/blueprint

🎁AI Visibility Assessment: https://visibilitygrowthindex.com/assessment

What happens when a company grows faster than its foundation can handle? In this episode of the Business Growth Spotlight, Heidi Schalk sits down with Erik Davison, CEO of DBV Solutions Inc., a consulting firm that has spent more than two decades helping organizations in financial services, insurance, banking, and healthcare redesign how they operate. Erik shares why you cannot grow your way out of a poor organizational structure, the early warning signs that your operating model is breaking, and why so many companies reach for outsourcing or new technology when the real issue is their processes.

Erik also opens up about where business owners get AI wrong, why change management is far from “fluff,” and how DBV doubled its own growth by applying the same discipline it brings to clients. If you are a CEO feeling pressure to grow while navigating AI, rising costs, and uncertainty, this conversation gives you a clear place to start.

Bio:

As founder and CEO of DBV Solutions, Inc., I lead advisory and execution engagements focused on complex transformation, BPO, and operating‑model redesign for insurers, brokers, and financial services firms. I partner with executives as a senior‑level advisor and program leader when they need measurable margin improvement, disciplined delivery, and change that sticks.

To connect with our guest, click on the links below:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dbvsolutions/

Website: www.DBVSolutions.com

Connect with me:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidischalkcoaching/

Website: https://hlhgrowthsolutions.com

🎁Spotlight to Scale Blueprint: https://spotlighttoscale.com/blueprint

🎁AI Visibility Assessment: https://visibilitygrowthindex.com/assessment

In his first ever podcast interview, Ken Christie, Chief Operating Officer of VTS Consultants, joins Heidi Schalk on the Business Growth Spotlight. With twenty years in aseptic manufacturing and twenty five years in consulting, Ken helps regulated manufacturers prepare for FDA inspections, respond to observations, and keep pace with expectations that rise as technology and equipment design evolve.

Ken shares why clients choose a consulting partner for honesty, a real understanding of their business, and a fair scope of work, and why he personally vets every consultant before they reach a client site. Drawing on more than 250 supplier audits worldwide, he explains how an audit reveals the truth about leadership commitment and how a company operates when the FDA isn’t at the door. His clearest sign of a healthy quality culture is leadership with manufacturing experience that thinks problems through instead of reaching for a quick fix. Quality, as Ken puts it, starts at the top.

About Ken:

EXPERIENCE:

1998 – Dec. 2025Chief Operating Officer

Directed company’s growth strategies, managed multiple client projects, assured client’s satisfaction of services and consultants placed on projects, along with acting as a material subject expert on the qualification of manufacturing equipment, utilities, processes, and sterile products produced through aseptic processing.

Routinely performed vendor/supplier and GxP quality system audits (GMP, GLP, ISO, tissue banks (AATB) and GCP), and evaluated regulatory compliance needs for clients. Provided senior level reviews of quality systems relating to pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, APIs, medical devices processes and cosmetics. Provides compliance direction for addressing regulatory issues associated with FDA 483 audit observations, CAPA investigations, warning letters and consent decrees. Accomplishments include working on consent decree remediation issues for aseptically produced products, assisting clients in Japan, Dubai, Spain, China, and India by addressing audit observations and corrective actions dealing with sterilization. Performs PAI’s (pre-approval inspections) against current standards as found in the FDA’s ‘Pre-Approval Inspection Compliance Program #7346.832. Performed over 250 supplier audits ranging from slaughterhouses, tissue banks, clinical trials to testing laboratories for verification of meeting cGMPs, ISO standards, 21 CFR regulations (210-211, 820, 1271, Part 11, etc.) and corporate expectations.

Seasoned industry speaker and trainer at professional conferences on a global basis on various cGMP issues along with being an “industry trainer” for various professional organizations such as ISPE, the Institute of International Research (IIR) in the US, IPA and AAPS of Canada and Shanghai NovoSciences. Topics covered include cGMPs for sterile products, Role of QA Professionals, Change Control, Environmental Monitoring and Quality Systems for Medical Devices to name a few. Author of several articles dealing with the Challenges of Aseptic Processing.

To connect with our guest, click on the links below:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-christie-4980135/

Website: www.vtsconsults.com

Connect with me:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidischalkcoaching/

Website: https://hlhgrowthsolutions.com

🎁Spotlight to Scale Blueprint: https://spotlighttoscale.com/blueprint

🎁AI Visibility Assessment: https://visibilitygrowthindex.com/assessment