business
Hosted by Mike McDonnell · business · EN-US
The ceiling on your leadership isn't external. It never was. Mike McDonnell is a three-time CEO and former Jesuit. In CEO Exercises, he makes the case that developing your interior life is the highest-leverage investment a leader can make — and offers practical tools drawn from five-hundred-year-old Ignatian spirituality and The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius to help you do it. No spiritual background required.
Required Pod Score for this podcast. PitchCentric checks your profile against host openness, topical fit, and audience signals before you generate a pitch.
Contact path
Public web form
Booking probability
27%
Guest openness
Selective
Sign up to generate a grounded pitch for CEO Exercises.
Signup to Generate a PitchThe ceiling on your leadership isn't external. It never was. Mike McDonnell is a three-time CEO and former Jesuit. In CEO Exercises, he makes the case that developing your interior life is the highest-leverage investment a leader can make, and offers practical tools drawn from five-hundred-year-old Ignatian spirituality and The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius to help you do it.
CEO Exercises is hosted by Mike McDonnell. The show has published 13 episodes to date.
Recent episodes include "Ask Me Anything: Closing Out Season 1" (17 July 2026, 45 minutes), "Imaginative Contemplation - The Leadership Instrument Hiding in Plain Sight" (11 July 2026, 49 minutes), and "What Have You Actually Let Go Of?, The Two Questions That Test a Leader's Inner Freedom" (4 July 2026, 35 minutes).
CEO Exercises publishes roughly weekly, with episodes averaging 31 minutes across 13 episodes.
Booking probability for CEO Exercises is 27%, and the host is rated Selective on guests. CEO Exercises requires a Pod Score of 80 or higher. CEO Exercises's contact route on record: public web form.
The strongest fits for CEO Exercises are Business & Management Consulting and Religion & Faith. CEO Exercises has a business audience.
Mike McDonnell hosts CEO Exercises, a business podcast with 13 episodes published.
Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.
Episode #13
In this season finale, host Mike McDonnell closes Season 1 of CEO Exercises by answering seventeen listener questions gathered throughout the season. He explains why he created the podcast — primarily to share practices...
Episode #12
In Episode 12 of CEO Exercises, Mike McDonnell steps back from adapting individual Ignatian meditations to reveal the engine that has powered the last several episodes: imaginative contemplation. He opens with a...
Episode #11
Episode 11 of CEO Exercises tackles the most stubborn failure in leadership development: the gap between knowing and doing. Many leaders can speak fluently about ego, attachment, and inner freedom, yet lead exactly as...
Episode #10
Episode 10 adapts one of the most psychologically sophisticated meditations in Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises — the Meditation on the Two Standards — into a practical leadership tool. At its core is a single...
Episode #9
<p>Episode 9 continues the Second Week of CEO Exercises, picking up directly from Episode 8's examination of Jesus as a leader. Host Mike McDonnell guides listeners through an adaptation of Ignatius of Loyola's...
Episode #9
Episode 9 continues the Second Week of CEO Exercises, picking up directly from Episode 8's examination of Jesus as a leader. Host Mike McDonnell guides listeners through an adaptation of Ignatius of Loyola's...
Episode #8
<p>Episode 8 marks a turning point in CEO Exercises. After seven episodes devoted to self-awareness and inner freedom — the "First Week" of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises — Mike McDonnell pivots into new territory...
Episode #7
<p>Leaders often move from crisis to crisis and success to success without ever stopping to ask a harder question: What are the actual patterns in how I lead? In this episode, Mike McDonnell introduces the The Field...
Episode #6
<p>Episode 6 of CEO Exercises serves as both a capstone and a deepening. Host Mike McDonnell opens by revisiting the four foundational questions posed at the end of Episode 5 — questions about ultimate purpose, identity...
Episode #5
<p>Every leader operates from a foundation — a largely unexamined cognitive operating system that shapes how they filter information, assess risk, and make decisions, often invisibly and without their awareness. Drawing...
Episode #4
<p>The Ignatian Examen is the one practice Ignatius wouldn't give up. I thought it might be helpful to provide you with a guided Examen for your use as you begin the practice. The podcast will move into other tools...
Episode #3
<p>This episode provides a perspective on the fundamental questions that underlie the claims made so far in this podcast: that there is a dimension of human experience that is meaningfully called spiritual, and that...
Episode #2
<p>Ignatius of Loyola founded the Jesuits, one of the most intellectually rigorous and globally impactful organizations in the history of the Catholic Church — and at the center of his own life was a single daily...
Episode #1
<p>Mike McDonnell introduces the CEO Exercises podcast, arguing that the developing your interior life is the highest-leverage investment a leader can make. The ceiling on leadership isn't external, it is internal. Most...
Recent guests on CEO Exercises. Study who booked and why before you pitch.
PitchCentric classifies CEO Exercises under these industries. Guests from them are the closest fit, and each links to the best podcasts in that industry.
Shows with the most semantically similar episode content. Pitch one, pitch all; producers cluster.
The Leadership Telos: Pursuing purpose through virtue, faith, and formation
Upsize Your Leadership
CEO CORNER 360°
Infinitum Leadership: Unlock Your Potential
The Inner Chief
The Inner Edge with Shane Cradock
Is this podcast yours and you'd like to remove or correct details? Request removal or email privacy@pitchcentric.com.
Questions about the free trial? See the pricing FAQ