Highland

Location: Whitefish, Montana

Sweetspot: Founders and CEOs of startups with $1 million to $10 million-plus in revenue

Style: Straightforward, candid, conversational

Impact work: Has several B corps and impact-related companies in his program, e.g., Dollaride, Boost My School, B Generous

C-level experience: Founded Classy (acquired by GoFundMe) and served as CEO for 10-plus years; founded Haskill Creek and nonprofit Save Farmland

Published media: Newsletter and blog at scotchisholm.com, regular columnist in Real Leaders magazine (see page 24)

Connect: hello@joinhighland.com

Challenge: “Not understanding how to scale themselves and their company at the same time”

Fix: “Really know how to scale yourself and your team.” —Scot Chisholm

ScalePassion

Location: Jupiter, Florida

Sweetspot: Supporting founders and their teams as they scale purpose-driven businesses

Style: Plugged-in, truthful,curious, bold

Impact work: As CEO, led the certification of two B Corps: Garden of Life and MegaFood; clients are all high-integrity and impact-minded; company purpose is to radically evolve capitalism

C-level experience: A CEO for over two decades, including formerly for Garden of Life, New Organic Ventures, and MegaFood; sits on the board of or is a board advisor to Findaway Adventures, De Lune, Holmes Mouthwatering, Hustle Clean, OK Capsule, Whipstitch

Book: Scale Passion (coming February 2025)

Podcast: Scale Passion

Connect: scalepassion.com, info@scalepassion.com

Challenge: “Improperly balancing their organization’s overarching purpose and mission with the day-to-day operational demands and pressures. This often leads to a disconnect between the company’s vision and its execution, resulting in a loss of focus, team burnout, and stagnation in growth.”

Fix: “Establish clear alignment around the company’s core purpose, foster a culture of responsibility and transparent communication, and invest in leadership development programs. By maintaining clarity, alignment, and sustainable pacing, leaders can create a cohesive and resilient organization capable of achieving its purpose and scaling its impact.” —Rob Craven

Inspiring Cowgirl PBC

Location: Greenwich, Connecticut

Sweetspot: Works with leaders ready to invest in the 3D impact of their careers and lives, enhancing outcomes for Me (themselves as individuals), We (their teams and organizations), and World (the communities beyond those immediate affiliations); takes on clients who are curious about immersive experiences in nature and with horses (equine-assisted learning)

Style: Direct, curious, quick-thinking, pragmatically optimistic, believes deeply in the power of humor; holistic, considering the whole person (intellectual, mental, physical, emotional, spiritual) in their whole lives (work, personal, and community)

Impact work: Worked for international nonprofits for the first 10 years of career (headquartered in Rome, then the West Bank); first company was a certified B Corp (and recertified three times); coaching company is a public benefit corporation and pending B Corp; on the board of B Local Connecticut; taught purpose-driven/conscious business at New York University, Columbia University, Harvard University, and Parsons

C-level experience: PurposeFused and Purposeful Growth Institute; previously Inspiring Capital, Tomorrow’s Youth Organization

Books: Going First: Find the Courage to Lead Purposefully and Inspire Action and the companion Purpose Party Playbook

Connect: nell@nelldd.com (copy katie@nelldd.com)

Challenge: “Trying to do too much and equating purpose with more“

Fix: “Map your current investments of time, energy, attention, and money, and analyze how you are contributing to the outcomes that matter most to you — or not. Then make a to-don’t list (download a worksheet from nelldd.com to see what that looks like), and cut out a few things before trying to add any back in.” —Nell Derick Debevoise

Erica Dhawan LLC

Location: Tampa, Florida

Sweetspot: Mastering the art of leadership influence and crafting a compelling public presence across the digital, global, and multi-generational marketplace

Style: Challenge and support with no judgment

Impact work: Driving sustainable growth and ensuring global impact for clients including Habitat for Humanity, World Bank, and Microsoft

Books: Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence; Digital Body Language

Connect: ericadhawan.com/coaching

Challenge: “Not creating a distinct personal brand“

Fix: “Articulate your vision with authority, engage with confidence, and leave a lasting impression on every audience, from the boardroom to the global and digital stage.” —Erica Dhawan

Deliberate Directions

Location: Boise, Idaho

Sweetspot: From startups valued at $1 million to established enterprises worth $1 billion, helps create great places to work, which fosters employee satisfaction and productivity; over 25 years of ownership and executive experience in manufacturing and professional services

Style: Supportive, insightful, transformative with a knack for understanding the unique needs and challenges of each individual, providing tailored guidance that fosters growth and development; warm, empathetic; creates a safe, encouraging environment; combines practical strategies for achieving work-life balance

Impact work: Because International, B1G1 Business For Good

C-level experience: Serves as Chief Strategic Thinking Partner for several dozen clients; previously served Nobis Group Inc., Duncraft Inc., Brook Design Associates

Podcast: Deliberate Leaders

Connect: deliberatedirections.com, linkedin.com/in/allisondunn

Challenge: “Work-life integration and the well-being of leaders as they bear the brunt of increased pressures”

Fix: “Become more self-aware of personal limitations, explore innovative strategies in every aspect of your life, and foster a coaching culture within your organization. The goal is to alleviate some of the burdens and promote a healthier, more sustainable approach to leadership.” —Allison Dunn

With Enthusiasm Coaching Inc.

Location: Austin, Texas

Sweetspot: Leadership and business coaching

Style: Didactic, knowledgeable, hilarious

Impact work: Coached former Real Leaders Impact Award winners such as Beyond Capital Fund and other companies pledging to focus on making a positive impact with vast ESG-focused initiatives including Nike, Louis Vuitton-Moet Hennessy companies, The Estée Lauder Companies, J.P. Morgan

Previous C-level experience: Co-founder of The Nineties (marketing agency), C-level leader of IWC Schaffhausen, publisher of Surface Magazine

Podcast: Coached, with Coach Keren

Book: GILDED: Breaking Free from the Cage of Ambition, Perfectionism, and the Relentless Pursuit of More (coming January 2025)

Connect: keren@kereneldad.com

Challenge: “Managing their mindset and minding their goals in spite of overwhelming pressures and responsibilities especially during times of change (which can also mean times of scaling up)”

Fix: “Navigate complex organizational dynamics, drive strategic initiatives, and maintain a balance between professional and personal lives. The only way to do it? A chill, focused mindset. Executive coaching helps by providing leaders with tailored support and guidance. It offers a confidential space to explore challenges, develop self-awareness, and refine leadership skills.” —Keren Eldad

Owl & Key

Location: Columbus, Ohio

Sweetspot: Executive coaching, emerging leadership coaching, group coaching/facilitation

Style: Leverages Strategic Planning for Life™, a proprietary framework and methods of guidance

Impact work: Looking to launch a partnership with Cotopaxi in 2025 (in the works)

C-level experience: Own and operate a multidisciplinary design studio specializing in brand and digital work; previously, partner, CCO/CPO of a digital agency in the Midwest later bought by Telus International

Book: Strategic Planning for Life

Podcast: Unlocked

YouTube channel: Owl & Key

Connect: phil@owlandkey.co, krista@owlandkey.co

Challenge: “Aligning what’s authentic and true while also supporting your well-being, health, and vitality with the work you’re doing day-to-day”

Fix: “Gain a better understanding of yourself.” —Phil and Krista Franks

PurposeFused Ltd.

Location: Boulder, Colorado

Sweetspot: Purpose and energy coachingfor performance, well-being, and impact

Style: Dynamic, compassionate, engaging, thoughtful; focus on reframing perspectives, grounding in possibilities, supporting priority practices, activating leader’s network to provide support and accountability for ongoing behavior change (stakeholder-centered coaching)

Impact work: Founder and CEO of two sports-based, youth-development impact companies; a number of clients, partners, and collaborators come from B-Corp and impact sector; awarded a medal from the Queen of England for contributing to youth development in the U.S.

C-level experience: founder and previous CEO of Play Rugby USA and Vita Sports Partners; previous chief commercial officer of USA Rugby

Podcast: Connecting with Purpose

Connect: mark@purposefused.com

Challenge: “Burnout and work-life harmony”

Fix: “Deeper self-awareness to reframe priorities within a whole-self, whole-life perspective” —Mark Griffin

Hunter Consulting

Location: Boulder, Colorado

Sweetspot: Supports founders and CEOs at a range of stages in growing their businesses, becoming great leaders, and building winning cultures. Leadership development, conflict mediation, strategy, fundraising, enterprise sales, culture building, managing, recruiting, and navigating mental health as a leader; trained with and inspired by the Harvard Negotiation Project, Ivey Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Nonviolent Communication, The Enneagram, The Hoffman Process, Conscious Leadership Group, Katie & Gay Hendricks, Co-Active Training Institute, Buddhism, Men’s Work, and The Inner Game

Style: Integrates years of athletic training in college basketball, tournament golf, and ultra-endurance events into coaching

Impact work: Led Founders Pledge from 2017–20, an organization for high-impact giving that has raised over $10 billion for charity from startup founders

C-level experience: 15 years founding and leading companies, most notably co-founding Turnstyle (acquired by Yelp) and as president and CEO of Founders Pledge

Newsletter: The Unlock

Connect: hello@matthunter.co

Challenge: “The need to embrace toughness. The recent prevailing narrative emphasizes consciousness, empathy, and balance. While valuable, this message is incomplete. The pendulum has swung too far. Conversely, they hear stories of Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos and wonder, ‘Do I need to be a jerk to be successful?’”

Fix: “Tease out what is tough, strong, and useful while leaving behind what’s negative and toxic. Learn to develop toughness while maintaining kindness and fairness. You do not need to be a jerk to be successful, but you do need to be tough.” —Matt Hunter

Sagatica

Location: San Diego, California

Sweetspot: C-suite executives of established and growing firms

Style: Spirit-focused, committed to results

Impact work: Sagatica is a Benefit Corporation listed for B Corp certification

Previous C-level experience: Board member at Dr. Bronner’s, Vistage chair, board chair at Emerald Village Oasis, president of the board of trustees at San Diego Zen Center, board member of the San Diego Leadership Alliance

Books: Leadership as a Hero’s Journey, The Four Virtues of a Leader,
Leadership Breakdown

Connect: eric@sagatica.com, 619-668-8500

Challenge: “Uncertainty”

Fix: “Reduce ego-myopia by applying practices of conscious leadership, and double down on having meaningful, real-time conversations about topics that matter within your team.” —Eric Kaufmann

Samantha Kris & Co.

Location: Montreal, Canada

Sweetspot: TEDx and keynote speaking

Style: Approachable and friendly, but not afraid to tell it like it is

Impact work: Featured on the Ones to Watch list for the 2023 Real Leaders Top Keynote Speakers; worked for Goalcast as the head of people and culture for the three years it was recognized as a Real Leaders Top Impact Company

C-level experience: Previously head of people and culture at Goalcast

Book: Bossing Up

Connect: samantha@samanthakris.com

Challenge: “Leaders’ teams, family, and friends are typically unwilling to give them constructive criticism or are untrained to assess their blind spots. The feedback they’re receiving is biased at worst, incomplete at best.”

Fix: “Engage someone whose sole purpose is to find holes in your speech, fill you with value, and empower you to amplify your impact.”
—Samantha Kris

Numina

Location: San Francisco, California

Sweetspot: Self-realization for CEOs

Style: Deep, personal work

Impact work: Many clients are involved in high-social-impact companies; previous executive director of nonprofits; founded EvokeFlow

Previous C-level experience: CEO of Lesser Group of Companies, executive director of Emissary Foundation

Published media: Numina Blog

Connect: david@numina.team

Challenge: “Inspiring people to bring their best”

Fix: “Once a week, practice thinking about your people’s unique gifts.” —David Lesser

Enterprise Growth Structures

Location: Fort Worth, Texas

Sweetspot: Growth advising for $10M+ companies, improving profitability and EBITDA, establishing predictable and scalable revenue models, and embedding purpose at their core; vast experience in building and exiting businesses

Style: Results-driven, intentional

Impact work: Integrates net-positive best practices to simultaneously drive profit and purpose; champions business as a force for good, guiding companies toward rapid growth with significant impact, aligning closely with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

C-level experience: Concertina Team; previously with Beusail Academy

Podcast: Brunch with Billionaires

Book: Balance is B.S.: How to Have a Work. Life. Blend.

Learning Event Series: If You’re Not AGILE, You’re FRAGILE

Connect: concertina.team/book-assessment

Challenge: “Responding to AI and market uncertainties with agility and growth; help with execution and implementation”

Fix: “Strategically transform your workforce to be global with the inclusion of ethical offshoring. This provides the flexibility and affordability to be agile. Prioritize the creation of teams that are not only trained in AI but are high-performing and sustainable.” —Tamara Loehr

Less Doing

Location: Princeton, New Jersey

Sweetspot: Productivity, automation, delegation, time management, work/life integration

Style: Pragmatic, tailored; focuses on optimization, automation, and outsourcing techniques to free up time and mental space

Impact work: Engaged with purpose-driven companies; has extensive experience in sustainable development and community-focused initiatives, notably through work
with Meisel Development focusing on sustainable properties

C-level experience: Liontex, TEK, Menus-To-Go.com, Arise Development, Leverage; previously with Princeton Kaizen, Meisel Development

Books: Less Doing, More Living; The Art of Less Doing; Idea to Execution; The Replaceable Founder; On Productivity

Podcast: The Less Doing Podcast

Connect: voxwithari.com

Challenge: “Managing overwhelming workloads effectively”

Fix: “Implement a system to automate and delegate non-core tasks to focus more on strategic decisions.” —Ari Meisel

Boss In Heels LLC

Location: Miami, Florida

Sweetspot: Revenue generation, leadership, keynote speaking

Style: Supportive, encouraging, visionary

Impact work: Sat on the board of City Year Miami for nine years, works with various charities throughout the country to give back through keynote speaking

C-level experience: HealthLynked Corporation board member, previous Beasley Media Chief Revenue Officer

Books: Confidence Creator, Overcome Your Villains

Podcast: Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan

Connect: heathermonahan.com/one-on-one-coaching-sessions

Challenge: “Fear — fear of jumping into an environment where they feel they aren’t qualified, intimidated by AI, feeling as though they aren’t savvy enough in social media, or that their time has simply passed. All of these are not true.”

Fix: “Take messy action, but action nonetheless. Surround yourself with people who have done the things you want to do. Enlist an accountability partner to push you through the low moments. Realize that at other points in your life, you were a beginner, but you didn’t stop there. Leverage past beginner-to-expert experiences as insight into what can happen next in this environment and opportunity.” —Heather Monahan

Eric Partaker & Company

Location: London, England

Sweetspot: Mentoring and helping CEOs scale their companies and leadership while unlocking their full potential

Style: Direct, empathetic, practical

C-level experience: Advised Fortune 50 CEOs while with McKinsey & Company; was a CEO for most of career, creating and growing a restaurant chain for 13 years.

Book: The 3 Alarms

Connect: ericpartaker.com

Challenge: “Scaling successfully. CEOs fail to: sequence, focus properly, zero-in on their zone of genius, and build high performers focused on results.

Fix: “Answer this question: ‘If everything were to stay as it is today, where would change have the greatest impact?’” —Eric Partaker

The Courage of a Leader

Location: Chicago, Illinois

Sweetspot: Empowering others to have the courage to be authentic, say what’s needed, trust their legacy, and boldly create the extraordinary

Style: Acknowledging, strength-based, bias for action

Impact work: Believes everyone has ESG responsibility, not just those who have ESG in their title; coaches leaders about the impact they are having ethically, socially, fiscally on their organization, their communities, their stakeholders, and their teams; coached C-level leaders and facilitated strategic planning sessions in purpose-driven organizations

C-level experience: Shoop Consulting Group Inc.

Book and podcast: The Courage of a Leader

Connect: courageofaleader.com, linkedin.com/in/amyshoopriley

Challenge: “Making progress on desired priorities when unexpected circumstances — such as supply chain issues, changing legislation, key position turnover — become priorities”

Fix: “Encourage critical thinking and articulate solutions, which creates a sense of ownership and gets more problems addressed.” —Amy L. Riley

Marquis Leadership

Location: Bellevue, Washington

Sweetspot: C-suite executives across all sectors with a specialty in clinical and administrative healthcare leadership; impact company founders and social entrepreneurs

Style: Engaged listener, question asker, and master storyteller; guides from the side with humor, attention, and perspective; unlocks possibilities that can lead to positive change

Impact work: Worked with hundreds of impact leaders, investors, social entrepreneurs, and philanthropists; helps accelerate the things people and organizations are doing to make a positive difference in the world

Op-ed: Coaching as a Strategy to Reduce Burnout in Healthcare Workers

Connect: glen.stewart@marquisleadership.com

Challenge: “Creating and communicating a clear North Star, setting strategy, managing through change, and building high-performing teams to deliver results”

Fix: “Lead with awareness and intention, and include others along the way — ensure people feel heard.”
—Glen Stewart

SUMMi7

Location: Dallas, Texas

Sweetspot: Strategy development, execution with team, employee engagement for scaling businesses

Style: Empowering — good listener, ideator with a growth mindset, dynamic presenter; engaging — focuses on execution and engaging teams, rolls up sleeves with you and your team, synthesizes the complex into plans, process- and solutions-based

Impact work: B Corp checklist is part of core programming to help companies build sustainability into their business model from the start

C-level experience: CEO of Molecular Testing Labs, previous president and CEO of Aviall, previous vice president of strategy and market development for Boeing Global Services

Books: The Frontline CEO, Business Scaling Method

Connect: eric@summi7.com, info@summi7.com

Challenge: “When leaders hit a plateau in their growth journey”

Fix: “Get comfortable letting go of what’s not working, and explore new ways to grow. Start by talking with your customers to see what’s working and what you could do to better meet their needs, and build that into your product roadmap.” —Eric Strafel

The Center for Respectful Leadership

Location: San Diego, California

Sweetspot: Leaders seeking to transition away from outdated leadership styles (command-and-control, carrot-and-stick) into respectful leadership

Style: Practical, upbeat, direct, supportive, respectful

Impact work: Supports leadership and organizational transformation through the positive power and measurable impact of respect; assists numerous organizations, including startups based in San Diego and elsewhere, to develop actively respectful cultures

Previous C-level experience: President/CEO of Orlando-Ward & Associates, producing artistic director of Plays for Living

Books: The Respectful Leader; Restoring Respect; Bad Behavior, People Problems, and Sticky Situations

Connect: collective@respectfulleadership.org

Challenge: “Understanding that today’s workplace requires a completely different leadership skill set than it did just a few years ago”

Fix: “Learn how to create actively respectful cultures.” —Gregg Ward