Matt Hines welcomes Pete Sadowski to season three of Hines On Air to return to the show’s motivational roots for entrepreneurs and leaders. Sadowski, a former CEO/COO with 20 years of experience and author of Lead With Empathy, Build Kick Ass Teams, and The Small Business Playbook, explains the common pattern he sees among executives: despite outward confidence, many privately admit they don’t know what they’re doing and lack a playbook, making leadership lonely. He describes his Level Up Your Leadership training as a step-by-step framework focused on structure, vision, strategy, and accountable execution to stop “rudderless” decision-making that causes team whiplash, emphasizing that vision can be short-term (weekly or monthly) with KPIs and proactive incentives. They also discuss the role of coaching, luck versus preparation in business, Pete’s background across multiple industries, and self-publishing versus traditional publishing economics and distribution.

00:00 Season Three Welcome

00:21 Meet Pete Sadowski

01:50 No One Has a Playbook

03:45 CEO Ego and Loneliness

05:46 Why Startups Feel Hard

07:36 Luck and Preparedness

08:51 Structure Vision Strategy

13:40 Stress and Flying Blind

14:41 Short Term Vision Systems

16:23 Targets Incentives KPIs

17:16 Leading Metrics Mindset

18:55 Knowing What Good Looks Like

19:27 Why Coaches Matter

21:03 Ego Costs Real Money

21:47 Thinking Bigger Targets

22:47 Airplane View Strategy

24:22 Small Business Playbook

26:59 CEO COO Background

28:58 Failures And Scar Tissue

32:39 Coaching Model In Practice

34:52 Where To Find Pete

35:37 Self Publishing Economics

39:27 Final Wrap And Callouts

Sponsor by Hines Law https://hineslaw.org/

Sponsor by Bravos Leadership https://bravosleadership.com/#