October 2024 Member Spotlight – Mary McGlynn, Owner and President, and Carrie Beckstrom, Chief Executive Officer, PowerSpeaking, Inc.
-A member conversation with Shannon Minifie, Box of Crayons
This past March at the ABR, I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with David Dye and, as part of the new Business of the Year Showcase, diving into a reflective conversation with three of my key team members in product and marketing on the evolution of Box of Crayons since the departure of its Founder, Michael Bungay Stanier.
The feedback on the session was instantaneous and definitive: people said it was one of the most useful sessions of the retreat, and expressed a desire for more conversations like it: conversations about how to prepare, evolve and sustain a business for and in the post-Founder stage.
Someone once told me that the failure rate of first-time CEOs succeeding the Founder is especially harsh: somewhere upwards of 80%. I recently entered my fifth year in this role since Michael stepped away from the business, a success that I so far attribute much less to my own hard work (though there’s been plenty of that!) than I do to the groundwork Michael and his team laid, the support he and others have given me along the way, and the stunning successes of my colleagues.
And so it was lovely and inspiring to sit down with Mary McGlynn and Carrie Beckstrom, and see some of the same dynamics play out: the support for Carrie and respect of Mary, a shared passion for the business, and an enduring friendship outside of work.
Because David’s questions were so great, I decided to just riff off of them—and I’m excited to share this conversation with all you ISA-ALPers.
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SM: Set the stage for us. What’s the story of PowerSpeaking’s evolution up to the present day?
MM: The story comes in chapters. Chapter I starts in 1985, when Rick Gilbert started the presentations skills company. Initially, PowerSpeaking was primarily the Rick Show. That chapter went from from ‘85 to about 1990. The next chapter was the Rick and Mary Show going from 1990 to 2014, when we were both integral to the business. Chapter 3 began when Rick retired in 2014 and my intention and dream was to grow the business and to bring on a future CLO and a CEO. That’s where Carrie came in. The stars were aligned. She came on as our CLO in 2018 and she became an obvious choice for CEO. Chapter IV began in 2020 as the Carrie Show. I’ve never doubted the decision.
PowerSpeaking has always been focused on presentation skills and communication skills. We work internationally with facilitators around the globe.
CB: I’d add a few notable things about that trajectory. Mary did two things really intentionally when she took over.
The first thing she did by design in the early 90s was to change the name of the company. See, the brand was Rick’s name, and she wanted the focus on the value PowerSpeaking brings to the market. This of course has helped aid each chapter, each succession process—to de-link the brand from the individual.
The second thing Mary did was reset the vision and ambition for PowerSpeaking. Rick was clear and intentional about wanting to run a small, boutique business. Mary, on the other hand, was clear about wanting to grow the business, which also dictated the kind of leader she wanted to line up to succeed her. And a key deciding factor for me during the interview process was determining the degree to which Mary was prepared to truly empower me and give me some autonomy to honor the legacy and great organization that’s been built—but to also put my stamp on it.
It was very clear to me that Mary was prepared to give me the level of autonomy I needed to be successful.
SM: I once heard Simon Sinek’s CEO describe that as being able to create her own room in the house.
CB: Yes, exactly.
SM: Based on your experience, what are some of the most important things for founders to focus on as they consider transitioning their business?
MM: I’ll throw out several. One is: be psychologically prepared to leave. Get your psychological head space together. Don’t play a cat and mouse game. When you’re talking to your LT and saying, “I’ll be stepping out in a year,” you better start making it real and following through! Don’t put that mouse out there and then do nothing! Don’t leave people wondering what’s going on; how long is it going to be; should I still be hanging on? Make a line in the sand, and then follow through on it.
Be completely transparent with your leadership team. We used a RACI model. (Who will be Responsible? Accountable? Consulted? Informed?) Initially I wrote down every single thing I touched within the business on an Excel sheet. By the time I finished, the list included about 100 individual items. It was easy to go through the list and completely off-load the items I no longer wanted to touch.
Another critical factor of success was working with our trusted coach. We had had a history of working with her for over five years. When we had our retreat to finalize our final RACI decisions, we came down to just one or two items that I felt I still needed to be a part of. One involved personnel decisions. For me that brought more than a little angst because everyone on the team was a friend. Some people had been there for over 25 years. I felt like I needed to make that final call. That heart-to-heart discussion led me to stepping back and realizing that if I was really trusting Carrie to be at the helm, that meant that personnel was under her auspices. In the end, I walked away with two primary items: Carrie’s comp and fiduciary/equity responsibilities. Certainly, we set up an organizational structure for monthly meetings to go over financials and goal setting.
CB: And Mary honored the decision-making protocol, which was really key.
MM: I had to go deep, and just lean into the trust I have in Carrie to run this entire company. I needed to let go. If someone comes to me with anything to discuss, it’s “Go to Carrie.” No back-talking. There’s a point where you have to embrace the decisions, and then mind your own damn business.
And it helps to have a strong support system.
CB: Yes, I was going to add that in addition to the coach, having a really strong advisory board helped us. That had already been established before I joined.
SM: Oh, interesting. Tell me more about your board.
MM: The Board, for me, is this wise team that supports us, elevates us—asks us the wise questions. I can go to them and Carrie can go to them to just get perspective. I always feel supported by them. Rick and I put a Board in place the Saturday before the doors opened in our business.
CB: I’d also say that this idea of being a “PIP” [Previously Important Person] did not apply to Mary. She has an incredible network, cultural interests, travel … she put a lot of thought into her next chapter and what she wanted to get out of it. She was genuinely ready to leave, with no ego to get in the way.
Plus, I’d add another key point, which is: you need to have real clarity on the profile of your successor. It starts with shared values. If you don’t have that level of trust and respect and mutual care to honor the legacy and culture that had been cultivated for decades, I don’t think it’ll work.
SM: What would you recommend founders do to help create a successful transition with the folks who write/design/implement your programs?
MM: So, I had already started stepping out of that area, very strategically. I had touched finance, sales, content, and training. I had strategically taken myself out of almost everything. I was still involved, but I wasn’t involved in training.
CB: Mary is a very thorough and comprehensive planner, and this contributed to a fairly smooth transition. She’d already made steps to transition out of program development, and when I joined, Mary was wrapping up PowerSpeaking’s latest offering, and after that, was pretty hands off since her last swan song of the women’s program she created.
MM: I’m a very good networker and connector. I stay connected and keep in contact and send notes to people I care about: my ISA friends; to facilitators; to clients. Actually, the care of the facilitators and staff has always been a top concern of mine.
CB: And prior to me joining, Mary did a monthly bulletin to the facilitators, and I just didn’t have the capacity to continue that practice. So, there was a void and a concern around retaining top talent. So, we created a Lead Facilitator role and that person stepped in and now does those comms. The model is fantastic and the individual in the role is highly respected.
Whether it’s thinking about transition of marketing, sales, ops, design, the three things that stand out for me are:
(1) Role clarity: and this is where the RACI really came in handy.
(2) Process: as detailed as thinking through how to transition Mary not only out of the day to day, but the longer term strategic planning. For example, Mary was part of the first year’s strategic planning process and now only steps in periodically as needed to serve as a sounding board.
(3) Support: I always know that Mary is there as a mentor to me. We have a bi-weekly meeting, half of it personal, but of course some time is devoted to business as well.
SM: One of the challenges organizations face in a founder transition is separating the organization’s identity from the founder and building your own credibility. Carrie, you mentioned earlier the name change. How else have you tried to make that transition at Power Speaking?
CB: The ability to make the transition internally went really well. That’s a strength of mine: to get to know people individually and earn their respect. My leadership experience helped me there as well. I had been on the job a week and a half, and was attending the annual facilitator’s event, which served as my first opportunity to see me in action. I made it very clear that I had no intention of trying to fill Mary’s shoes. Mary is one-of-a-kind and is clearly irreplaceable. I shared that instead my intention was to preserve the incredible culture that had been built while striving to grow and enhance the business in my own way.
As it relates to externally, this was partly design, and part accident. The first 3 years of my 6 years at PowerSpeaking had been focused on upgrading and refreshing the company’s brand and positioning: completely redoing the website, broadening from presentation skills to include communication and facilitation, etc. And the marketing person who helped lead that effort said: once we complete this, we need you to step into being the brand ambassador. People buy from the person, not the company. So, the last few years have been focused on positioning myself as the thought leader for PowerSpeaking.
MM: Through the interview process, we brought four trainers, staff members, and two Board members in to see Carrie’s final interviews. Her final presentation was “My First 90 Days.” With a smile I say, everyone was blown away! Well in advance of her hire, people heard about that presentation! She was psychologically hired and accepted which made her transition pretty smooth. Carrie served two years as CLO before the opening of the CEO. When there is such internal respect for a leader, the team just sat back and applauded the decision.
SM: That’s such a great argument for building strong bench strength within the business, to resist the desire to necessarily conduct an external search for your successor.
SM: What do you wish you would have known – lessons learned – and what would you do differently next time?
CB: A big one for me is that I came from a massive organization with a team of 100 people: a global org, endless resources and experts at the ready. I underestimated what a big change that was going to be, and how lonely I was going to feel. When you’re coming into a new org you are naturally sort of focused inward because you’re hanging so hard onto the learning curve. But if I had to do it all over again, as part of my transition from big to small I would be much more intentional about my personal board of advisors who I wanted to get help from. I was more reactionary as opposed to proactive. I’d insist on finding time to be looking up and out, and asking what I should be thinking about.
MM: I love the word serendipity: the development by chance. By chance, Carrie applied for this position at PowerSpeaking.
CB: I knew about PowerSpeaking for several years before I left ADP. I first learned about them when I was reading an ASTD article about how to hold your own with the c-suite. The piece really resonated with me because the advice was so spot on! That prompted me to research the author, Rick Gilbert, which led me to PowerSpeaking and Mary.
Then when I left ADP, I did some soul searching. I knew I wanted to devote my next chapter to helping people be better communicators in some leadership capacity. As a first step I had planned on reaching out to Mary for some advice. So, I went on Linkedin to find her and saw the CLO posting. Over 300 people had already applied for the job, and I didn’t even have my resume updated but I knew I wanted the job! So, I stayed up all night updating my resume and completing the application and that’s how it came to be.
MM: What’s the chance she would apply, coming from this big company? I read her resume and said to my former CEO, Gary, “This is my gal.” After we had her narrowed down as one of the finalists, we took her out to lunch and at the end Carrie said, “Any yellow flags?” And I said “None, none at all.” I’d lost all my negotiating power. And, I still feel that way.
CB: As do I. It’s a big lovefest.
SM: Well it’s a reflection of what you said earlier: that if you choose someone with the same values, who will steward the company and its culture and values, then you’re choosing rightly.
And it’s also a reflection of Mary’s thorough planning and intentionality, with a humbling lesson worked in, too: you can plan and you can be intentional (and you should be), but you also need to hold some space for chance—for that serendipity—to allow for the world to work in the mysterious ways that it will, against the contours of your plan.
