

You know your business better than anyone: your strategy, priorities, and business risks. But you don’t know what you don’t know. To help you make better informed high-stakes decisions, INFORMED DECISIONS shares new ideas, been-there-before advice, and sometimes, a reality check. Each episode focuses on one pressing leadership or strategy topic. In 30-60 minutes, gain strategic perspective, along with practical (and tactical) ideas that can help. Informed Decisions with Randall Craig is not “just another podcast” – go behind the scenes and listen in for yourself what it’s like working with a proven business growth coach, serial entrepreneur, and Hall of Fame speaker.
Episodes

3 days ago
Conference Planning Part 3
3 days ago
3 days ago
Wrapping up this three-parter on planning impactful conferences with a focus on lessons we can learn from our conference planning efforts.
Topics for part 3 include:
↳ Reinvent the program anew or rinse and repeat what previously worked?
↳ How do we measure if a conference was a success?
↳ Conference post modems (and what if a conference falls flat…)

Tuesday May 27, 2025
Conference Planning Part 1
Tuesday May 27, 2025
Tuesday May 27, 2025
You are planning a conference and want it to be as successful as possible. This episode will offer some fresh ideas and insider perspectives to help you create a truly memorable conference.
Gain insights about:
↳ Who does it best? Association events vs the corporate world
↳ How long?: The one-day summit vs the multi-day conference
↳ Building the agenda: Networking time vs content
↳ Free Speakers vs Paid Speakers: Why pay when so many will speak for free?

Tuesday May 20, 2025
Driving Change, Impact, and Growth in Your Organization: Part 3
Tuesday May 20, 2025
Tuesday May 20, 2025
Wrapping up with part 3 on creating change that sticks.
Topics include:
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What is the appropriate timing and method of acknowledging the negative impact of a change?
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Incremental changes vs transformative change?
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Partner Dynamics: How can partners set up their relationship to avoid conflicts and allow for necessary change to roll out?

Tuesday May 13, 2025
Driving Change, Impact, and Growth in Your Organization: Part 2
Tuesday May 13, 2025
Tuesday May 13, 2025
Continuing with part 2 of 3 on driving meaningful and sustainable change towards a more successful organization. C
Topics include:
↳ What happens to objectives and performance reviews when an organization pivots?
↳ Incremental changes vs transformative change?
↳ When and how should an organization communicate change?

Tuesday May 06, 2025
Driving Change, Impact, and Growth in Your Organization: Part 1
Tuesday May 06, 2025
Tuesday May 06, 2025
How can we drive impact throughout the organization, and have it stick? Let’s go beyond traditional change management, and explore a number of additional concepts.
Topics include:
↳ The impact and role of a multi-modal approach to change management: Communication/Coaching/Training/Monthly reinforcement/Events/etc.
↳ Internal vs external execution: When to use – and not use – external resources.
↳ Getting to neutral vs getting ahead: Using change management to drive competitive differentiation, impact, and growth.

Tuesday Apr 29, 2025
Pricing Strategy for Service Businesses: Part 2
Tuesday Apr 29, 2025
Tuesday Apr 29, 2025
Does this sound like you: “Are my rates too low… or too high?” “Is it too soon to raise my fees?” “How do I justify my rates?…. And should I have to?”
Topics include:
↳ Pricing per participant
↳ Subcontracting
↳ The connection between pricing strategy and marketing strategy, and
↳ How to communicate that your organization is a high-end brand (and worth high-end pricing)

Tuesday Apr 22, 2025
Pricing Strategy for Service Businesses: Part 1
Tuesday Apr 22, 2025
Tuesday Apr 22, 2025
Does this sound like you: “Are my rates too low… or too high?” “Is it too soon to raise my fees?” “How do I justify my rates?…. And should I have to?”
Topics include:
↳ Demystify pricing strategies
↳ Explore the tactical parameters, and
↳ Getting clear on the value your organization offers

Tuesday Apr 15, 2025
Business Development for Firms: Part 3 or 3
Tuesday Apr 15, 2025
Tuesday Apr 15, 2025
More fundamental marketing frameworks to focus your business development strategy.
Topics include:
↳ How to measure the success of your business development initiatives, and when change may be needed?
↳ Is the juice worth the squeeze when it comes to your bus dev investments?
↳ How might an emphasis on (or lack thereof on) in-house training investment impact the firm brand?
↳ DEI, ESG, and other trends on bus dev.

Tuesday Apr 08, 2025
Business Development for Firms: Part 2 of 3
Tuesday Apr 08, 2025
Tuesday Apr 08, 2025
Building from last week, more fundamental marketing frameworks to focus your business development strategy.
Topics include:
↳ Business development goals and accountability.
↳ Client experience, client touch points, and referrals.
↳ New geographies, virtual offices, and cultural fit with clients.
↳ The Price/Expertise/Trust Model, and
↳ How IP and thought leadership collateral can be used within the business development process.

Thursday Apr 03, 2025
Conference Planning Part 2
Thursday Apr 03, 2025
Thursday Apr 03, 2025
Continuing on with more ways to design, market, and host a stand-out conference.
Topics include:
↳ Conference marketing: Attracting the right audience
↳ Panel discussions: Is there a way to make them more engaging?
↳ Conference profits: Reinvest in the conference… or a honeypot for other purposes?
↳ Conference Speakers: What should you be asking speakers to find best-fit talent?

Tuesday Apr 01, 2025
Business Development for Firms: Part 1 of 3
Tuesday Apr 01, 2025
Tuesday Apr 01, 2025
Firms are built through relationships and thought leadership, but can we be more strategic with our efforts?
Topics include:
↳ Growing your firm through thought leadership
↳ The time investment required to create thought leadership vs billable hours
↳ The shared responsibilities of Marketing, HR, and IT in the bus dev process, and
↳ Business development training opportunities for professional services

Tuesday Mar 25, 2025
Developing Your Culture with Work-from-Home Teams Part 2 of 2
Tuesday Mar 25, 2025
Tuesday Mar 25, 2025
Completing our Q&A on corporate culture and work-from-home teams.
Topics include:
💡The impact that recordings of virtual meetings have had on working relationships.
💡Repurposing the “savings” from work-from-home employees to employee perks.
💡The impact and ethics of “moonlighting” by both employees and organizational leaders.

Tuesday Mar 18, 2025
Developing Your Culture with Work-from-Home Teams Part 1 of 2
Tuesday Mar 18, 2025
Tuesday Mar 18, 2025
Hybrid and work-from-home are here to stay, but how can leaders build a strong culture, and ensure that team members are accountable?
Topics include:
💡 How to create your desired corporate culture.
💡 Hiring for work-from-home roles.
💡 How to teach the right habits and behaviors to work from home employees (and more).

Tuesday Mar 11, 2025
Business Growth Coaching: Worth it or Waste of Time? Part 2
Tuesday Mar 11, 2025
Tuesday Mar 11, 2025
We continue with part 2 on demystifying the coaching industry.
Topics include:
↳ How to find the right fit coach
↳ How to get the most out of that coaching relationship, and
↳ Who should decide what to work on: the client or the coach?

Tuesday Mar 04, 2025
Business Growth Coaching: Worth it? Or Waste of Time? Part 1 of 2
Tuesday Mar 04, 2025
Tuesday Mar 04, 2025
Today, it seems everyone is a coach. So in this session, we are calling out the “coaching industry”… on its proliferation, value, and fees.
We see cheap coaches aplenty, and then there are also exceptionally expensive ones –but are they effective? Let’s put Randall in the hotseat and explore the differences in approach and value, and how clients can get the best from their coaching relationship.

Tuesday Feb 25, 2025
Marketing and Competitive Advantage Part 3 of 3
Tuesday Feb 25, 2025
Tuesday Feb 25, 2025
We wrap up part 3 this week on marketing strategies for competitive advantage. Catch the full episode 👉 https://www.braintrustprofessionalinstitute.com/marketing-and-competitive-advantage
Topics include: Frameworks to refresh your marketing, how to use IP in your marketing strategy, and how our content can compete with the AI “junkification” of the internet.

Tuesday Feb 11, 2025
Marketing and Competitive Advantage Part 2 of 3
Tuesday Feb 11, 2025
Tuesday Feb 11, 2025
We continue this week with how to differentiate yourself and your organization in a complex marketplace. Catch the full episode 👉 https://www.braintrustprofessionalinstitute.com/marketing-and-competitive-advantage
In this episode we touch on building trust, reputation, and content. How to become the “preferred” provider, and how does experimentation fit into the picture.

Tuesday Feb 11, 2025
Marketing and Competitive Advantage Part 1 of 3
Tuesday Feb 11, 2025
Tuesday Feb 11, 2025
Marketing takes time, costs money, and it doesn’t exist in a vacuum... So how can you differentiate? 🤔 Catch the full episode 👉 https://www.braintrustprofessionalinstitute.com/marketing-and-competitive-advantage
In this episode we explore marketing approaches that build competitive differentiation for your organization.

Tuesday Feb 04, 2025
Recession-Proofing Your Organization Part 2 of 2
Tuesday Feb 04, 2025
Tuesday Feb 04, 2025
Closing up our Q&A on recession proofing strategies and cash management best practices.
Topics include:
💡Improving efficiencies
💡Scenario planning
💡Back-pocket options to consider if a situation is dire. (And more.)

Tuesday Jan 28, 2025
Recession-Proofing Your Organization Part 1 of 2
Tuesday Jan 28, 2025
Tuesday Jan 28, 2025
Many leaders are feeling the challenge of steering their ship through recession, inflation, and economic uncertainty.
Topics include:
💡The question of cash: What can you do to preserve it?
💡How do you cut your burn rate, while still investing in critical areas?
💡And when things are very tight, what things can you do, right now, to “find” needed cashflow? (And more.)

Tuesday Jan 21, 2025
Powerful Leadership Retreats Part 3 of 3
Tuesday Jan 21, 2025
Tuesday Jan 21, 2025
Here’s our discussion on this important investment in team alignment: leadership retreats, part 3. Catch the full episode 👉 https://www.braintrustprofessionalinstitute.com/braintrust-institute-powerful-leadership-retreats
Topics include:
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Getting a better ROI from your retreat investment.
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What to do when key employees aren't able to attend a leadership retreat?
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Preparing for what could go wrong… (and more!)

Tuesday Jan 14, 2025
Powerful Leadership Retreats Part 2 of 3
Tuesday Jan 14, 2025
Tuesday Jan 14, 2025
Continuing with part 2 on running a truly impactful leadership retreat. Catch the full episode 👉 https://www.braintrustprofessionalinstitute.com/braintrust-institute-powerful-leadership-retreats
Topics include:
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Managing poor attitudes and conflict going into a leadership retreat
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Retreats, ESG, and your corporate brand
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When leaders don't have 100% confidence in team members who are at the retreat
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Is a “luxury experience” necessary for impact?

Tuesday Jan 07, 2025
Powerful Leadership Retreats Part 1 of 3
Tuesday Jan 07, 2025
Tuesday Jan 07, 2025
Today we are talking about leadership retreats. “The offsite.” “The team-building getaway.” Whatever your organization calls it, it is a HUGE investment of time and money – the planning, the coordination – not to mention time away from work.
In theory, they are a tremendous opportunity to generate alignment and motivate your team, but why are some retreats transformational, yet others yield no significant impact?
To talk about this gap is hall of fame business speaker Randall Craig who has presented at countless retreats as speaker, and has participated in countless others in his leadership roles.

Tuesday Dec 31, 2024
Driving Your Leadership Performance Part 3 of 3
Tuesday Dec 31, 2024
Tuesday Dec 31, 2024
Rounding out with the final instalment of our 3-parter on Driving your Leadership Performance.
Topics include:
💡 What do it if you “fall out of love” with your business?
💡 When should key performance indicators be changed (and are we measuring the right things)?
💡How to have more effective meetings, and more.

Tuesday Dec 24, 2024
Driving Your Leadership Performance Part 2 of 3
Tuesday Dec 24, 2024
Tuesday Dec 24, 2024
This week we get vulnerable: How can we improve our performance, and what supports can we put in place to get the best from ourselves?
Topics include:
💡What to do when our motivation has waned?
💡How do your key hires impact your leadership?
💡How can you create peer accountability, and how to prevent burn out? (And more.)

About Randall Craig
Randall has held a long-time position at KPMG, was an executive at an American public company, and founded (and exited) two of his own companies. He has served over 100 organizations as an advisor or board member, leads the Braintrust Professional Institute, and is a venture partner at a VC. Randall has written 8 books and has built a library with over 1100 resources. Randall delivers C-suite coaching, facilitates high-stakes meetings, and speaks at leadership retreats.
Randall has been inducted into the Professional Speaking Hall of Fame, and earned a Black Belt in Karate. He holds an FCMC, CFA, MBA, CSP, and is a certified Basadur Simplexity facilitator.