A founder was about to make a £2 million project decision.

Chris March told him not to attend the meeting.

Why?

Because every important decision still depended on the founder.

Chris spent nearly two decades in travel leadership before becoming an executive advisor, helping founders build businesses that can operate without depending on them.

His leadership philosophy was shaped by much harder experiences.

When Covid shut down the travel industry, the company he was leading had to let go around 90% of its staff.

One conversation has stayed with him ever since.

A woman who was about to go on maternity leave begged him to keep her job. Chris stayed on the phone with her for around two hours, listening, explaining and trying to help her process what was happening.

That experience changed how he thinks about leadership.

In this conversation we explore founder dependency, delegation, decision making, hiring, leadership systems and why the desire to be indispensable can become one of the biggest constraints on growth.

The more valuable you are to the daily operation of your business, the less valuable the business may be without you.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:39 Removing the founder from a £2M decision
03:26 The decision that accelerated Chris's career
07:05 Laying off 90% of the team during Covid
08:30 The hardest phone call of his career
14:15 From operator to executive advisor
16:42 Why founders become the bottleneck
19:40 The ultimate test: can you take a month off?
20:52 When being indispensable damages business value
23:33 How to hire people you can genuinely delegate to
25:02 Chris's exact ExecDNA
27:05 Closing

Join the ExecDNA community and get early access to the platform:
https://www.execdna.com/join/community

Mario Rivas
Founder of ExecDNA
Host of ExecDNA Podcast

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

Chris March
Executive Advisor
Founder of Chris March Advisory

Website:
http://christophermarch.com/

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

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/chrismarchadvisory/

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@chrismarchadvisory/

Listen on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/3804Om0XrGG1gNRsev6DlU?si=ce622db462c84839

Listen on Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/execdna/id1847157416

#execdna #leadership #founder #delegation #businessgrowth

He was at Broadcast.com before its $5.7 billion sale to Yahoo. A few years later he was out of work with two young children, and two days a week of consulting became a fractional executive career across more than 25 companies.

Join the ExecDNA community:
https://www.execdna.com/join/community?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=episode&utm_campaign=ep-eric-grafstrom&utm_content=description

Eric Grafstrom has spent 30 years in technology as a CEO, COO, founder and fractional executive, and his biggest lesson is that knowledge is getting cheaper while judgment is getting more valuable.

He started out making more than 50 cold calls a day selling webcasting when many computers had no speakers, watched Broadcast.com grow from an early internet experiment into a multibillion dollar acquisition, and went on to work for Yahoo in London and Silicon Valley, where his landmark deal was the messaging interoperability agreement between Yahoo and Microsoft.

In this conversation we cover why AI can make experienced executives more valuable, what human judgment gives leaders that technology cannot, why every future executive needs to learn sales, the mistakes smart CEOs keep repeating, why investor and founder priorities can conflict, what it takes to make layoff decisions, and why building something valuable matters more than building something impressive.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:09 Is the traditional executive career changing?
02:26 Does AI make experienced executives more valuable?
03:32 Why human judgment still matters
04:50 Broadcast.com and selling the early internet
06:46 From startup chaos to a $5.7B Yahoo acquisition
09:06 The Microsoft and Yahoo deal that raised the stakes
10:40 Losing his job with two young children
11:24 How he became a fractional executive
12:46 The hardest decisions leaders have to make
14:35 The mistakes smart CEOs keep repeating
17:13 Building something impressive versus something valuable
18:23 Why life experience matters in leadership
20:45 Eric's ExecDNA in three words
22:17 Closing

Listen on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/3804Om0XrGG1gNRsev6DlU?si=ce622db462c84839

Listen on Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/execdna/id1847157416
Also available on Amazon Music.

Follow ExecDNA on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/execdna/

Mario Rivas
Founder of ExecDNA and host of the ExecDNA Podcast
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariorivassanchez/

Eric Grafstrom
Fractional Executive and Startup Coach
Website: https://ericgrafstrom.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericgrafstrom/
Startup Coaching: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startupcoacheric/

New episodes every Tuesday at 17:00 UK.

#execdna #fractionalexecutive #executivecareer #careerreinvention #futureofwork

How do you become Head of Finance at just 27, keep progressing through senior leadership, and later build a seven figure business without sacrificing your life to work?

I sat down with Guinevere Ellis, Founder of Guinevere Ellis International and The Mind Director Institute, to understand the patterns behind career progression, ambition, self belief and exceptional performance.

At 27, Guinevere applied for a Head of Finance position at British Aerospace despite being told she did not have enough experience.

She got the job.

Throughout her corporate career she continued pursuing bigger roles, greater responsibility and higher earnings while refusing to accept that success required increasingly longer hours.

Then her career changed completely.

After becoming a parent, Guinevere left corporate life and built a technology startup. The business initially gained traction, but the platform crashed under demand and rebuilding it would have required tens of thousands of pounds.

She eventually reached a point where she had to borrow £5,000 from her father to pay the mortgage.

That failure became one of the most important pivots of her career.

Guinevere rebuilt around the work she actually wanted to do and went on to create a seven figure business. She says she built her first £1 million in three years while working largely around school hours and without relying on social media, advertising or traditional marketing.

We explore why highly capable people can still operate below their potential, how beliefs influence commercial decisions, and what Guinevere calls false logic, the assumptions we inherit about money, ambition, work and success.

We also discuss career progression, confidence, risk, failure, parenthood, professional identity and why the structures we build earlier in our careers sometimes need to be challenged later.

For Guinevere, success is not simply about working harder. It starts with what you believe is possible for you.

In this episode:
01:36 Why overwork is overrated
05:23 Becoming Head of Finance at 27
09:55 Why she expects things to work out
16:43 Moving to Sydney and starting again
18:59 Why brilliant people still underperform
25:06 Leaving corporate life to become an entrepreneur
28:41 Borrowing £5,000 from her father to pay the mortgage
32:13 The false logic holding people back
37:09 Building a £1M business around school hours
40:33 Guinevere's exact ExecDNA
42:55 The thought pattern limiting your success

Join the ExecDNA community and get early access to the platform:
https://www.execdna.com

Guinevere Ellis
Founder of Guinevere Ellis International
The Mind Director

Website:
https://guinevereellisinternational.com/home

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

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/guinevereellis

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@guinevereellis

Mario Rivas
Founder of ExecDNA
Host of ExecDNA Podcast

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

#execdna #leadership #careergrowth #entrepreneurship #businessgrowth

I sat down with Kenny Whitelaw Jones, Co Founder of Gridlines, after more than twenty five years in finance, senior roles at KPMG and Deloitte, building a business of around 140 people across four continents, and training tens of thousands of professionals.

Then his career took a very different turn.

Kenny describes what he calls a midlife awakening. A period where the identity he had built around career, money, status, business and being a provider was no longer the whole story.

We talk about the personal crisis that forced him to look at himself differently, why he became a psychotherapist, what shadow work taught him about leadership, and why success can never fully solve questions of identity and self worth.

We also explore fear, anger, ego, childhood patterns, relationships, AI, executive performance and the parts of ourselves we often abandon while trying to become successful.

00:00 Introduction
01:00 From finance entrepreneur to psychotherapist
03:11 When success stopped feeling like the whole story
05:32 Who Kenny was at eighteen
08:37 What success meant in his twenties
09:57 The first promotion that made him feel successful
11:15 Why he walked away from the Big Four path
13:22 Building Gridlines differently
15:45 Growing to around 140 people across four continents
17:44 The career chapter that made him miserable
18:58 The business mistake that changed how he thinks about ownership
20:45 Learning to back himself
21:39 The personal crisis that transformed him
24:43 What he abandoned while becoming successful
26:46 Why business growth could never define his self worth
28:00 The death of his mother and rethinking how to use his remaining time
31:42 Shadow work and the five principles of acceptance
35:26 Why acceptance matters in leadership and company culture
37:26 Fear, control, insecurity and ego in senior leaders
39:47 Why anger is one of the most misunderstood emotions
42:14 AI, leadership and why human skills matter more
46:33 The advice Kenny gives leaders about accepting themselves
48:45 Kenny's exact ExecDNA
49:09 Closing

Join the ExecDNA community and get early access to the platform.

👉 Join the community and waiting list:
https://www.execdna.com

Founder of ExecDNA
Host of ExecDNA Podcast

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

Co Founder of Gridlines
Psychotherapist

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

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/theshadowatwork/

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

Deep Process Therapy:
https://www.deepprocesstherapy.com/

The Shadow at Work:
https://www.theshadowatwork.com/

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/3804Om0XrGG1gNRsev6DlU?si=ce622db462c84839

Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/execdna/id1847157416

#execdna #leadership #executiveleadership #personalgrowth #psychology

I sat down with Mike Saraswat, Co Founder and CEO of Stoa, an entrepreneur who went from building a marketing agency to taking on one of the hardest challenges in fintech.His latest chapter took almost 30 months of fundraising, around 2,000 investor approaches and 300 meetings before Stoa closed its $2.4M pre seed round.But that resilience was built much earlier.Mike tells the story of spending nine days at Cannes being rejected while trying to finance a film, nearly losing his life in a motorway accident, then getting back into the car, driving to his meeting and winning the project.We also explore what years of chasing difficult problems taught him about failure, momentum, founder obsession and coming back faster when things go wrong.Today, he is building Stoa, a fintech challenging the way people think about idle cash and giving customers a different way to get value from money sitting in their accounts.Timestamps00:00 Introduction00:38 Raising $2.4M after 30 months of fundraising01:09 2,000 investors, 300 calls and mostly rejection03:33 Who Mike was before becoming an entrepreneur06:15 Why he has always chased difficult problems08:39 Starting his first agency in his early 20s09:23 Why raising money for a movie nearly broke him12:33 What he learned from successful fintech founders14:58 Why founder obsession matters17:21 Why success is not only about money21:02 The difficult moments that shaped Mike23:01 Facing serious illness in his early 20s24:03 Nine days of rejection at Cannes26:00 How to shorten the window of despair28:10 Resilience, momentum and coming back faster31:19 The motorway crash he walked away from34:10 He survived the crash and still won the project34:29 Why defeat only becomes defeat when you stop35:00 From agency owner to building Stoa36:00 The enormous problem of idle cash39:22 How Stoa actually works41:13 More than 200 benefits and the future of the platform42:44 ClosingJoin the ExecDNA community and get early access to the platform.👉 Join the community and waiting list: https://www.execdna.comMario RivasFounder of ExecDNAHost of ExecDNA PodcastLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariorivassanchezMike SaraswatCo Founder and CEO of StoaWebsite: https://stoa.moneyWatch ExecDNA Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3804Om0XrGG1gNRsev6DlU#execdna #entrepreneurship #fintech #founderstory #businessmindset

Alan Shang's career has taken him from running restaurants to becoming an Airbnb executive, building startups, navigating extreme financial pressure, completing an acquisition and exit, and starting again in FinTech.

In this episode of ExecDNA, Alan shares the decisions, failures and transformations that shaped him as an entrepreneur and leader.Most founders struggle when their role shifts from day-to-day operator to global leader. In this conversation, Alan breaks down the reality of scaling a business, from building 50 restaurants to expanding Airbnb across Asian markets.

You will learn the specific leadership lessons he gained from nearly missing payroll by less than two business days and how that pressure changed his approach to business growth.

We discuss the difficult decisions involved in a founder journey, the mistakes that nearly cost him everything, and the strategy behind his eventual exit. Whether you are currently navigating financial pressure or planning your next venture, these insights into the reality of entrepreneurship are essential for anyone scaling a team.

Subscribe for more weekly leadership breakdowns.

Timestamp for you:

00:00 Trailer

01:03 Introduction

01:36 The Payroll Problem

04:01 Growing Up in a Family Restaurant

06:33 Building 50 Restaurants

12:19 From Restaurants to Airbnb

14:17 Expanding Airbnb Across Asia

17:16 From Operator to Global Leader

20:30 The Biggest Business Mistake

24:54 Growing Out of Cash

26:59 What the Crisis Changed

30:51 The Exit

34:39 Building Patch

38:15 Turning a Crisis Into an Inconvenience

38:53 Alan’s ExecDNA

Join the ExecDNA community and get early access to the platform.

👉 Join the community & waiting list: https://www.execdna.com

#MarioRivas – Founder of ExecDNAHost of ExecDNA

PodcastLinkedln: / mariorivassanchez

Alan Chang – Co-Founder & CEO of Patch

SystemsLinkedln:https://www.linkedin.com/in/changalang/Company

LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/patchsystems/

Company website: https://trypatch.com/

Watch 'ExecDNA' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/3804Om0...

#businessgrowth #execdna #businessmindset #careergrowth #ukpodcast

Building a sustainable cybersecurity career path requires more than just technical certifications and initial training.After 26 years in the industry, Robby Tyrie joins us to discuss how he navigated the complexities of information security management. This interview moves past entry-level advice to examine the mindset needed to maintain relevance when industry standards evolve. We analyses the practical reality of professional growth, focusing on how a seasoned practitioner adapts to shifts in technology and corporate requirements over nearly three decades.Throughout our discussion, we look specifically at the ISO 27001 certification and how it functions as a pillar for senior roles. If you are aiming to transition into high-level security management, this conversation provides a realistic roadmap for long-term endurance. You will learn why a cybersecurity expert must balance tactical skills with strategic planning to avoid burnout and stay competitive in a crowded market.Timestamp for you00:00 Why were you risking by starting again?01:16 What do you think you would be by thirty?01:52 How was Robbie like at school?02:30 What was your first proper job?03:25 Three decisions that accelerated his career 04:05 Story of JPMorgan's software security06:00 How to lead others07:41 He is only been in cybersecurity for the last 15 years.08:05 THE TWO BIGGEST MISTAKES OF HIS CAREER09:14 THE HARDEST 12 MONTHS OF HIS CAREER10:30 REINVENTION12:00 LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY13:50 When he move from corporate to be an entrepreneur15:49 BUSINESS GOALS16:44 AI + CYBERSECURITY18:22 How can weak security put a six or seven figure contract at risk?19:12 Will AI take over the Cybersecurity work?20:21 Three Important AI cyber numbers 21:30 Dynamic with the C-suite team23:17 How to grow in 202624:07 HOW HE BECAME C-SUITE27:36 THE NEXT VERSION OF ROBBIE28:24 Robbie's EXEC DNAJoin the ExecDNA community and get early access to the platform.👉 Join the community & waiting list: https://www.execdna.com#Mariorivas – Founder of ExecDNAHost of ExecDNA PodcastLinkedln: / mariorivassanchez Robbie Tyrie – Founder of Torridon CyberLinkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyrie/Watch 'ExecDNA' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/3804Om0...#businessgrowth #execdna #businessmindset #careergrowth #cybersecurity #technology