The Breakout CEO

The Breakout CEO podcast brings you candid conversations with scaling CEOs at leadership & strategic inflection points. Each episode is a curated interview that explores the mindset, strategy, and pivotal decisions driving breakthrough success for high-growth companies ($5MM-$50MM+). Jeff Holman is the host of The Breakout CEO podcast and the founder of Intellectual Strategies, where he works closely with CEOs and leadership teams of scaling companies on strategy, governance, and risk during periods of rapid growth. Jeff has spent years inside the decision-making rooms of growth-stage companies, helping leaders navigate moments when complexity increases, tradeoffs become unavoidable, and the cost of misalignment rises. He brings a peer-level perspective shaped by that experience, focusing conversations on the inflection points that materially change a company’s trajectory. The Breakout CEO podcast reflects his approach with candid, operator-level discussions centered on real decisions rather than retrospective storytelling or promotion. Guest Participation - We feature a limited number of CEOs leading scaling companies with meaningful, first-hand breakout moments. If you believe your story would add value for an audience of scaling CEOs, please apply here: https://go.intellectualstrategies.com/ Media & Event Partnerships - For press access, on-site recording, or event collaboration inquiries, please contact us. We record a limited number of on-site conversations at select events with CEOs and founders whose stories align with the podcast’s focus on leadership, strategy, and execution.

The Breakout CEO is a business podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 0 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts The Breakout CEO, a business show with 0 episodes published.

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  Episode #94

  94 - Why Presence Is the Multiplier That Determines How Far You Rise

  Sep 15, 202641 minS4

  Most CEOs assume they're judged on execution — results, competence, getting things done. Executive communication coach Mike Acker argues that's only half the equation. Presence, he explains, doesn't just support execution; it multiplies it, and the gap between the two can quietly cap how far a leader rises, or open doors execution alone never could. In this conversation, Mike traces that idea through his own path from a childhood speech impediment to executive director at 26, and into the pattern he now sees across the CEOs and founders he coaches: high performers who can run a company but not a room, and what actually closes that gap. Mike Acker built his career on the opposite end of the spectrum from where he now coaches from. A speech impediment as a child, then years of being mocked after a move to Mexico, gave way — almost by accident, through a college debate team — to a communication skill set that later got him hired into a Fortune 500 company despite having no relevant experience or education. That firsthand experience of presence outweighing credentials became the foundation for the framework he now uses with CEOs and executives. As an advisor working across corporate training engagements (General Electric, among others) and one-on-one executive coaching, Mike's insight isn't a single client story — it's a pattern he sees repeatedly: leaders whose execution is strong but whose fear of speaking actively limits their business, often without them realizing that's what's happening. His diagnostic lens centers on two questions: where is this person's actual starting point, and how committed are they to closing the gap. Key Takeaways Presence functions as a multiplier, not a bonus. High presence with low execution can open doors execution alone cannot — and the reverse is also true: strong execution without presence caps how far a leader rises. The higher you rise, the more a presence gap costs you. A widening disparity between a leader's execution level and their speaking level becomes more visible and more costly the more senior they become. Confidence and bravado look identical from the outside — until they're tested. Confidence is grounded trust earned through real capability; bravado is the same display without the substance behind it. The opposite of fear isn't confidence — it's action. Waiting to feel confident before speaking up keeps leaders stuck; taking action is what actually closes the gap. Most feedback loops are broken by design. Asking people who aren't equipped to evaluate you produces false confidence — CEOs need to benchmark against the level they're trying to reach, not the room they're standing in. 00:00 Why CEOs Need Communication 03:03 The CEO’s Core Responsibility 04:09 Mike Acker’s Communication Journey 05:19 Execution Versus Executive Presence 07:22 What Presence Really Means 11:22 Confidence Versus Empty Bravado 12:50 Understanding the Roots of Fear 15:44 Why Action Defeats Fear 19:54 Communication Requires a Process 24:18 Consistency Beats Intensity 26:23 Transforming a Fearful CEO 34:40 Getting Honest Communication Feedback Mike Acker Executive communication coach; founder, Up Level Communication Up Level Communication https://uplevelcommunication.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeackerdotcom/

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  Episode #93

  93 - How a $30,000 Monthly Loss Forced a Founder to Rethink His Leadership

  Sep 1, 202659 minS4

  In 2015, a currency shock pushed the Canadian dollar from parity to $1.46 against the US dollar in eighteen months — a 46% jump in costs for Solpak, the packaging distribution company David Salerno had spent years building. At the worst point, the company was net-losing $30,000 a month, with hundreds of thousands in outstanding payables piling up at the same time. David Salerno, founder of Solpak Packaging Solutions and Entrepreneur Sherpa, joins The Breakout CEO to walk through what that crisis forced him to confront: a pricing model that couldn't move fast enough, a team that needed the truth instead of silence, and a mindset shift that changed how he saw his role in the business entirely. Episode Description David built Solpak more than twenty years ago, importing a Michigan-sourced packaging solution and turning it into an all-in-one distribution service for meals-on-wheels programs and school caterers across Canada. By 2015, the business was growing — until a currency collapse outside his control threatened to undo it. This episode is about what happened next: the decision to tell his team everything rather than absorb the pressure alone, the operational changes that followed, and the deeper realization that he needed to treat the business itself — not any single client or product — as the thing he was building. That reframing became the foundation for Entrepreneur Sherpa, the coaching practice and book he later built to help other founders detach from the day-to-day grind of their own companies. Key Takeaways A pricing model built for stability can break under a shock you don't control. Solpak's 46% cost increase in eighteen months showed how exposed a cross-border cost structure can be — and why relying on incremental price increases alone wasn't a fast enough fix. Transparency with your team can be the decision that gets you through a crisis. Rather than absorbing the financial pressure privately, David laid out the full situation and the turnaround plan to his team — a decision he credits with preserving trust during the hardest stretch. Detachment from the day-to-day isn't avoidance — it's a leadership tool. David's shift toward treating "the business as my product" rather than staying embedded in daily operations reframed how he made decisions under pressure. A crisis can force a founder to confront an all-in bet made earlier. David had already told his wife he was willing to risk bankruptcy to succeed — the currency crisis became the real test of that commitment. Team trust is built long before the crisis that tests it. David points to years of above-market pay and profit sharing as the reason his team stayed with him through a four-day workweek and a 20% pay reduction during the turnaround. In 2015, a currency shock pushed the Canadian dollar from parity to $1.46 against the US dollar in eighteen months — a 46% jump in costs for Solpak, the packaging distribution company David Salerno had spent years building. At the worst point, the company was net-losing $30,000 a month, with hundreds of thousands in outstanding payables piling up at the same time. David Salerno, founder of Solpak Packaging Solutions and Entrepreneur Sherpa, joins The Breakout CEO to walk through what that crisis forced him to confront: a pricing model that couldn't move fast enough, a team that needed the truth instead of silence, and a mindset shift that changed how he saw his role in the business entirely. David built Solpak more than twenty years ago, importing a Michigan-sourced packaging solution and turning it into an all-in-one distribution service for meals-on-wheels programs and school caterers across Canada. By 2015, the business was growing — until a currency collapse outside his control threatened to undo it. This episode is about what happened next: the decision to tell his team everything rather than absorb the pressure alone, the operational changes that followed, and the deeper realization that he needed to treat the business itself — not any single client or product — as the thing he was building. That reframing became the foundation for Entrepreneur Sherpa, the coaching practice and book he later built to help other founders detach from the day-to-day grind of their own companies. Key Takeaways A pricing model built for stability can break under a shock you don't control. Solpak's 46% cost increase in eighteen months showed how exposed a cross-border cost structure can be — and why relying on incremental price increases alone wasn't a fast enough fix. Transparency with your team can be the decision that gets you through a crisis. Rather than absorbing the financial pressure privately, David laid out the full situation and the turnaround plan to his team — a decision he credits with preserving trust during the hardest stretch. Detachment from the day-to-day isn't avoidance — it's a leadership tool. David's shift toward treating "the business as my product" rather than staying embedded in daily operations reframed how he made decisions under pressure. A crisis can force a founder to confront an all-in bet made earlier. David had already told his wife he was willing to risk bankruptcy to succeed — the currency crisis became the real test of that commitment. Team trust is built long before the crisis that tests it. David points to years of above-market pay and profit sharing as the reason his team stayed with him through a four-day workweek and a 20% pay reduction during the turnaround. 00:00 - Meet David Salerno 04:22 - Building the Right Team 09:06 - Innovating Food Packaging 10:50 - Escaping the Founder Trap 16:26 - Solving Critical Client Problems 21:07 - Business as the Product 25:19 - Surviving a Financial Crisis 29:13 - Leading Through Transparency 35:10 - Business Lessons Beyond Business 39:18 - Finding Clarity Through Detachment 44:57 - Building a Business for Freedom 53:50 - The Entrepreneur’s Drive to Create Guest: David Salerno Title: Founder & President, Solpak Packaging Solutions / Founder, Entrepreneur Sherpa Company: Solpak Packaging Solutions LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davidvsalerno

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  Episode #92

  92 - How OneMeta's Stalled Six-Figure Contract Grew into Eight-Figure Revenue

  Aug 27, 202654 minS4

  When one of OneMeta's first major enterprise contracts went quiet — right after signing, right after the prepaid revenue was recorded — nothing happened for six months. Saul Leal, CEO of OneMeta, walks through why the deal stalled, how his team learned to diagnose the real cause instead of assuming failure, and what changed when a board member reframed the entire situation. This episode follows the decision to hold steady, communicate openly with a cash-strapped team, and treat enterprise bureaucracy as a solvable problem rather than a dead end — a choice that eventually turned a frozen six-figure contract into an eight-figure client relationship. Saul Leal founded OneMeta roughly four years ago, about a year before large language models entered the public spotlight, focusing early on training data for underserved languages and dialects before building real-time translation technology now used by the Vatican, the United Nations, the Department of Defense, and in partnership with Nvidia. This episode centers on a specific test of that growth: a signed, prepaid enterprise contract that produced no revenue for six months. Saul explains why the stall wasn't a failure of execution, how his team diagnosed the actual cause, and the tradeoffs he faced as a CEO balancing shareholder expectations, employee trust, and cash flow during the delay. Key Takeaways A signed contract with prepaid revenue doesn't guarantee delivery — verify what the client actually has in place, not just what they've promised, before assuming a deal is done. When an enterprise relationship stalls, the cause may be a canceled internal roadmap on the client's side — not a failure in your product or process. Large organizations can unintentionally stall or kill vendor relationships through sheer bureaucracy; treating that as a diagnosable pattern, rather than a personal failure, changes how a CEO responds. Transparency with a team during a cash flow crunch — including asking employees to hold salaries — can build trust rather than break it, when the reasoning is shared honestly. 00:00 The CEO’s Ultimate Accountability 04:54 Entering AI Before the Boom 07:49 The Meaning Behind OneMeta 10:48 Creating a More Understanding World 15:54 Choosing the B2B Market 18:55 Real-Time Translation Use Cases 29:29 When Traction Falls Short 32:56 How Corporations Kill Startups 36:52 Leading Through Radical Transparency 42:53 The Formula for Failing Fast 45:13 Reaching Fifteen Billion Minutes 49:59 Finding Joy in Missing Out Guest: Saul Leal Title: CEO, OneMeta Company: OneMeta Website: https://www.onemeta.ai/ Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saul1/

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  Episode #91

  91 - Why George Hartley Built Nitrosend Without a Dashboard

  Aug 25, 20261h 1mS4

  Most founders spend years perfecting a dashboard. George Hartley — who built and sold SmartrMail (acquired by Relay Commerce in 2022) and co-founded Bluethumb, Australia's largest online art marketplace — is betting his third company on removing it entirely. Nitrosend runs from inside Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT, with AI agents doing the majority of the work. In this episode, George walks through the decision to rebuild an email company from scratch with the same team, the acquisition deal that nearly collapsed under a stalled LOI, and why he now believes the addressable market for email isn't measured in people — it's measured in agents. George Hartley has spent over a decade building and scaling companies — Bluethumb, an online art marketplace he co-founded in 2012, and SmartrMail, an e-commerce email platform he built, grew, and sold to Relay Commerce in 2022. Both experiences shaped the decision behind his current company, Nitrosend: an agent-first email platform built for a world where AI agents, not humans, do most of the operating work. This conversation covers what it's like to reassemble a founding team for a third company, the tradeoffs between staying capital-efficient and being able to seize an opportunity, and why George now thinks about total addressable market in terms of AI agents rather than people. Key Takeaways A signed LOI doesn't guarantee a deal. George's SmartrMail acquisition was locked into an exclusive agreement for weeks before the buyer walked — a reminder that exclusivity protects the buyer's optionality, not the seller's certainty. Being too capital-efficient can cost you the upside. George names "well capitalized" as a top value for Nitrosend specifically because running lean in prior companies meant sometimes not having the resources to seize a real opportunity. Planning assumptions fail — build a workaround, not a delay. When Nitrosend's official AI-platform app store listing stalled, the team shipped an agent-onboarding skill instead of waiting on approval. Total addressable market may need to be recalculated around AI agents, not just people. George reframes Nitrosend's TAM from "half the internet" to potentially "a hundred billion agents" as autonomous agents begin operating businesses. A high failure rate on new ideas is normal, even for a repeat founder. George estimates roughly two-thirds of his own initiatives don't move the needle — the discipline is in testing quickly, not being right the first time. George Hartly is the founder of Nitrosend, an AI-native can find George and Nitrosend at https://nitrosend.com 00:00 The Hundred Billion Agent Market 01:29 Building a Game With AI 05:15 The Drive to Keep Creating 08:05 Turning Rejection Into Opportunity 12:46 Building Australia’s Largest Art Marketplace 16:55 Launching SmarterMail 19:01 Selling the SaaS Company 25:07 The Birth of NitroSend 29:58 Finding the Ideal Customers 32:51 Lessons From Previous Startups 44:13 Preparing for an Agentic Future 53:22 Practical Advice for Founders Guest: George Hartley Title: Founder, Nitrosend (also founder, SmartrMail — acquired by Relay Commerce, 2022; co-founder, Bluethumb) Company: Nitrosend Website: https://nitrosend.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gthartley/

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  Episode #90

  90 - The 90-day Reset Framework Advisors Use to Get Stalled Companies to Version 2.0

  Aug 21, 202653 minS4

  Most scaling companies don't fail because they stop trying — they fail because they keep doing more of what already isn't working. In this episode, Jeff Holman talks with Diane Moura, Founder & CEO of ZenChange Marketing, about what actually separates companies that break through a growth ceiling from those that stay stuck. Diane has spent decades working with Fortune 500 companies and now advises scaling businesses through a structured diagnostic reset — not more hustle, more headcount, or more tools, but a clear-eyed look at strategy, structure, and the people problems that quietly stall growth. She also unpacks how CEOs should think about personal branding as a scaling requirement, and where AI genuinely helps versus where it can quietly send a business down the wrong path. Episode Description Diane Moura built her advisory practice, ZenChange Marketing, after years working inside large, well-resourced corporate environments — an experience that gave her a front-row seat to how things operate at scale before she began applying those patterns to smaller, growing companies. Her perspective isn't theoretical: it comes from repeated engagements diagnosing why established or fast-growing businesses hit a wall, and from a specific reset methodology she uses to get them unstuck. This conversation focuses on the diagnostic lens Diane brings to scaling CEOs — how she distinguishes a "bad break" (stalled growth, aging strategy) from a "happy break" (growth outpacing capacity), why the real bottleneck is almost always people-related rather than technical, and how she thinks about AI as a tool that only works as well as the expertise behind it. Key Takeaways A stall in growth often isn't a strategy problem — it's a structure problem. When hiring outpaces process, companies can operate fine for a while, but eventually the gap between how the business runs and how it's organized becomes the actual constraint. The reset framework starts with strategy, not tactics. Diane's process revisits go-to-market, positioning, and competitive dynamics before touching execution — because doing more of the wrong tactics faster doesn't solve a strategic misalignment. Most transformation stalls are people problems, not process problems. Loyalty to long-tenured team members, unclear ownership of results, and internal politics derail resets far more often than the systems or SOPs themselves. Personal branding is now a scaling requirement, not an option. Leaders don't need to become mass influencers, but staying invisible has a real cost — clients and referral partners are increasingly evaluating leaders directly, not just their firms. AI is only as good as the expertise directing it. Diane's operating principle is that domain context — not the tool itself — determines whether AI output is genuinely useful or quietly wrong. Guest: Diane Moura Title: Founder & CEO, ZenChange Marketing Company: ZenChange Marketing Website: zenchange.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dianemoura

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