To better understand why your business isn’t meeting its full growth potential, you sometimes have to look from the outside in. Getting an outside perspective into your business can give you helpful insights to make decisions that accelerate growth. Venture capital firms often perform deep dives into prospective businesses during due diligence, which helps uncover a company’s strengths and weaknesses. After examining so many businesses, investors understand what separates a successful business from its competitors.

Missy Kelley and Dave Hartley, co-hosts of But Who’s Counting? were joined by Tim Spihlman, Managing Director of Lewis & Clark Ventures and Lewis & Clark Capital to discuss how business leaders can fuel growth and company value and what steps they can take to build a business investors want to partner with. The free-flowing conversation also included actionable tips to improve accountability within your workforce, identifying your biggest barriers to growth and the following:

• Traits the best leaders have in common
• The key tenants of retaining the right employees
• Where Tim sees AI’s biggest impacts on businesses
• Why it’s important to adopt an “innovation mindset”

“You have to be equal parts empathetic, strong emotional IQ, with equal parts accountability. Your employees need to know that what they do matters. They need to know that you value them and you treasure them as humans, but that doesn't mean you get a pass when you don't perform.” - Tim Spihlman

Resources to Count On

Want more insight into the conversation? Check out these additional resources:

• Connect with Tim on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Lewis & Clark Ventures
• Get to know Lewis & Clark Capital
• Check out ChatLingual, the AI customer service translator

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How does a 70-year-old PBS station evolve new approaches to public media to remain relevant and impactful even as the media landscape around it changes? Through innovative new approaches and a commitment to its community! Nine PBS is a St. Louis cornerstone with a long history of adapting to fit the changing times, and that constant evolution helped it become the most watched PBS station in the country, as a percentage of households watching.

But Who's Counting? hosts Dave Hartley and Missy Kelley chatted with Amy Shaw, President and CEO of Nine PBS, about the remarkable journey of public media in St. Louis. Amy shared the origins of Nine PBS, highlighted the pioneering St. Louis Plan and discussed the significance of her journey to becoming the first female President and CEO of the station. The conversation also covered:

• How Nine PBS built a financially-healthy not-for-profit
• Human-centered leadership approaches all businesses can learn from
• Why the station refused to downsize staff during the pandemic
• The history behind how PBS became a powerhouse of community, content and connection
• How Nine PBS found success on social media and the gap they fill

“We are not just doing things that are human and interesting and community-based, we’re also finding ways to make it sustainable at the same time.” – Amy Shaw

Resources to Count on

Check out these additional resources for more insight into the conversation:

• Celebrate Nine PBS’ 70th anniversary
• Sign up for Nine PBS Passport
• Watch the Emmy Award-winning short, Drawn In: Brave Hero, Part 2
• Learn more about Carl the Collector, premiering November 14, 2024
• Discover all the ways to support Nine PBS

Make sure to never miss an episode by subscribing on Spotify, Pandora or Apple Podcasts and let us know what you think by rating and reviewing. Keep up with more Anders insights by visiting our website and following us on social media:
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Innovation in the workplace doesn’t happen spontaneously; it needs to be encouraged and cultivated for change to truly take place. Before your company can make transformative use of emerging technologies such as AI, you must carefully examine your organization’s culture and leadership’s reaction to failure to make the jump to the next level not just feasible but inevitable.

Missy Kelley and Dave Hartley, hosts of But Who’s Counting?, welcomed Stefanie Thelen, Chief Innovation Officer for Object Computing, Inc., to discuss ways businesses can empower inventive new approaches to resolve pain points with real-world use cases of AI and automation. Stefanie urges leadership to “mind the soil” to create a more fruitful environment for workers to take on new initiatives courageously and mindfully. She explains approaching AI by asking “where does it hurt” and thinking big to address it. The conversation also touched on:

• Where companies should start when implementing AI into business processes
• How an organization’s reaction to failure directly corresponds to its ability to innovate and how she recovered from a $2 million mistake
• Acknowledging biases and systems that need to change
• Putting AI in the hands of people before it’s needed and how to identify those individuals
• Tangible examples of AI and automation
• Stefanie’s work with Arch Grants to help build the future economy in St. Louis
• The impact Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) has on innovation and what it means to “innovate from the edges”

“AI, in some ways, is unlike any other technology evolution or advancement. In a lot of ways, it’s exactly like every other technology evolution or advancement… Continue to ask why and continue to try to pull back and broaden your lens so that you understand that it’s a phenomenal tool, but it’s just another tool.” - Stefanie Thelen

Resources to Count On
Check out these additional resources for more insight into the conversation:

• Connect with Stefanie on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Object Computing, Inc.
• Check out Arch Grants
• Read the transcript of this episode

Make sure to never miss an episode by subscribing on Spotify, Pandora or Apple Podcasts and let us know what you think by rating and reviewing. Keep up with more Anders insights by visiting our website and following us on social media:
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