ROI’s Into the Corner Office Podcast: Powerhouse Middle Market CEOs Telling it Real—Unexpected Caree... cover art

ROI’s Into the Corner Office Podcast: Powerhouse Middle Market CEOs Telling it Real—Unexpected Caree...

ROI’s Into the Corner Office Podcast: Powerhouse Middle Market CEOs Telling it Real—Unexpected Caree...

By: Brandt Handley
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About this listen

 The road to the middle market CEO corner office is paved with mile markers that guide in surprising, unpredictable, and some might even say “mysterious” ways! But how do you get such a widely coveted position? This is the question often heard during decades of ROI’s executive search interviews, conducted with top-level executives. ROI’s Into the Corner Office podcast is a new inspiration and answer platform which premieres visionary tales of adventure with great endings and highlights, from powerhouse CEOs driving the formidable success of the U.S. economy’s middle market sector. The CEOs behind this impressive growth reveal insights which equipped them to lead their organizations. Showcasing dynamic leadership stories, Into the Corner Office dives into the heart of what informed and formed these CEOs. Guests share their backgrounds, talk about their early years, and explore what shaped them before they were known for their successes in growing, developing, and leading extraordinary mi...Copyright Resource Options International, Inc. | Executive Recruiting | Middle Market | CEO Career Journeys Career Success Economics Leadership Management Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • Jim Carr, President & Owner, CARR Machine & Tool

    Jim Carr, President & Owner, CARR Machine & Tool
    Dec 16 2025
    I started in the family manufacturing company in 1978 after being encouraged by my parents. Shortly after starting I began a formal, two years, machinist apprenticeship. I worked on the manual machines in the factory for about six years when my father tasked me with implementing CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machinery in our company. It was highly successful. For the next decade, I worked and managed the operations of the family business and segued into administrative roles; Procurement, Quoting, HR, Business Development, Sales, Marketing and PR. I literally learned the family business from the back door to the front door. After years of encouraging my father to create a business succession plan, we did, and in 2004 I became President and sole shareholder. Running a small business is challenging as we wear a lot of hats in our day to day. I kept pushing through those roadblocks; recessions, employees, customers, vendors and more and in 2007 we had our most profitable year. But as we all know the Great Recession came along – it hit us in the 4th quarter of 2008 – and we had to layoff 60% of our workforce. It was not pleasant and it was gut-wrenching to one by one tell my veteran employees, who I cared about there was no work for them. I vowed I would never let that happen again so made a decision to start working on the business rather than in it. I reached out to our long-term manufacturing association – the TMA and started learning about marketing and networking. It was out of my comfort zone but knew if I pushed myself the rewards would come and they did. I was encouraged to join committees, peer groups and attend industry-specific networking events around Chicago. I met like-minded people that ironically all shared the same pains and stories of my decades in the business. I became friends with these peers and created a small, personal Board of Directors with them, people that I could trust and could ask anything. It was and still is one of the most rewarding experiences in my business career. I found I had an innate ability and passion for marketing and suddenly found myself mingling with these professionals too. We would share our frustrations, successes and technologies with each other which helped me grow my personal and business brand – which I found out are together as one. As my networking evolved, I was asked to join the exclusive TMA Board of Directors and in my third year was voted by my peers to move into the executive chairs, culminating into Chairman, the highest Board level position. I was humbled and accepted. Through this networking platform, I was presented with an opportunity to be interviewed on a local Chicago AM radio station and share my marketing savvy and wisdom with their audience about how I was using social media to brand my manufacturing company – nobody was doing it at that time. Also at my interview was Jason Zenger, the President of Zenger’s Industrial Supply. My company was a premier vendor who was buying industrial cutting tools from his business for years. We had never met but knew of each other. Jason was there to add to the discussion about what he was doing differently as a third-generation business owner at his company. We hit it off. Shortly after our interview aired he called me to ask if I had heard of or listened to podcasts. I said yes, I knew of that media but was not actively listening. Jason said, “I think we have a deep knowledge of our industry, we are not competitors, are highly connected to the community, have a commanding presence and no one relevant in our industry was in that space.” Suddenly a light bulb in my head went off – that a-ha moment – I had felt that feeling when I started using social. I wanted to be the trailblazer and this seemed like a fairly low-risk proposition. I agreed. The only caveat was I would only do it if it was well structured, thought out and quality was the overwhelming key. We planned for a year doing research on the average American commute, joined online podcast communities to learn tips on what other successful podcasters were doing, hired professional voice talent and sound editors and at the onset of 2015 released our first show. It was immediately well-received and in two weeks we were on the iTunes New & Noteworthy List of Podcasts. A few major trade publications did some articles on us and of course, we used our social media savvy to target our audience. We were on our way. What we didn’t realize is that although our mission was to equip and inspire manufacturing leaders, with the hope that we could garner some thought leadership and interest in our respective manufacturing companies, major brands that sold to our audience started to notice us and inquired about advertising on our show. We were excited but didn’t know how to react. This was strictly a grassroots project and neither of us knew much about this space. Of course, we accepted and the rest is history. We are new an ...
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    45 mins
  • Jeff Greenfield, CEO and co-founder, Provalytics

    Jeff Greenfield, CEO and co-founder, Provalytics
    Dec 2 2025

    Jeff Greenfield is an entrepreneur, advisor, and disruptor with three decades of strategy, growth, and marketing leadership. Jeff is currently building the next generation of AI-Driven Attribution as the co-founder and CEO of Provalytics, which is a 'cookie-less' attribution & measurement solution that enables marketers to prove the impact from upper funnel channels like CTV and grow their budgets.

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    50 mins
  • John Rossman, Managing Partner & Founder, Rossman Partners

    John Rossman, Managing Partner & Founder, Rossman Partners
    Nov 18 2025

    John Rossman the Managing Partner and Founder of Rossman Partners. He is a business strategist, operator, and expert on digital transformation, leadership, and business reinvention. He has consulted with many great brands including Novartis, Fidelity Investments, Microsoft, Walmart, and Nordstrom. He served as senior innovation advisor at T-Mobile and senior technology advisor to the Gates Foundation. He is an operator and builder whose love is diving into business problems and customer needs designing solutions and business opportunities. EXPERIENCE

    Former Amazon Executive Responsible for the launching and scaling the merchant integration team and played a key role in launching and scaling the Amazon marketplace business, which is now over 50% of all units sold at Amazon.com. Also responsible for the enterprise services business with responsibilities for Toys R Us, Target.com, NBA.com and other great brands.

    Media Analyst Sought after expert commentary regarding Amazon as interviewed by New York Times, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg, BBC, Geekwire and many others.

    Author Author of Big Bet Leadership: Your Transformation Playbook for Winning in the Hyper Digital Era. Releases Feb 27, 2024. Author of Think Like Amazon: 50 1/2 Ideas to Become a Digital Leader. Author of The Amazon Way on IoT: 10 Principles for Every Leader from the World’s Leading Internet of Things Strategies. Author of The Amazon Way: Amazon’s 14 Leadership Principles.

    Assignments - Interim chief technology officer for the Gates Foundation - Innovation advisor to T-mobile - Interim CIO for a national retailer

    Speaker Keynote speaker on innovation, leadership and digital transformation. John leads workshops on a wide variety of innovation, internet of things, digital strategy, and creating a culture of agility, trial and error, scaling and accountability. His goal is to give audiences tools they can immediately use to operate differently.

    Advisor Rossman Partners helps it’s clients compete and win in the digital era. I work with my clients to both define strategy and create change for the organization. Bringing a broad range of expertise and trusted partners to the table, I first listen and understand, and then help create a customized approach for your situation.
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    41 mins
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