

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

5 days ago
5 days ago
“Work smarter, not harder”, they say – but what does that mean exactly? Especially in growing businesses, leaders know what they know, but don't know what they don’t know…
Topics include:
↳ Is “getting ahead” a myth?
↳ How will AI impact how we work?
↳ How can we prepare for disruption?

Tuesday Sep 02, 2025
Pivoting Your Organization: How and When to Change Directions Part 2
Tuesday Sep 02, 2025
Tuesday Sep 02, 2025
Our 2nd segment on how and when to pivot.
↳ Should organizations buckle down or take more risks when there is uncertainty?
↳ When is an “inspiration to pivot” wise vs a distraction from testing the current business model?
↳ Organizational pivot.... or create a new business?

Tuesday Aug 26, 2025
Pivoting Your Organization: How and When to Change Directions Part 1
Tuesday Aug 26, 2025
Tuesday Aug 26, 2025
In business, there is always change, particularly when you are chasing product-market fit. How do we decide to stay the course or look for new opportunity?
Topics include:
↳ Proactive pivots vs reactive pivots
↳ The role of "weak signals", and how to identify them?
↳ Predicting the future vs creating it

Tuesday Aug 19, 2025
Achieving Work-Life Balance for Leaders and their Teams: Part 2
Tuesday Aug 19, 2025
Tuesday Aug 19, 2025
Going deeper into work-life balance for leaders, including frameworks from Randall’s bestseller Personal Balance Sheet.

Tuesday Aug 12, 2025
Achieving Work-Life Balance for Leaders and their Teams: Part 1
Tuesday Aug 12, 2025
Tuesday Aug 12, 2025
A perspective on work-life balance that incorporates the realities of leadership and team dynamics (finally!).
Topics include:
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Managing by minute vs managing by objectives
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What should leaders share (or not share) with teams when trying to role-model work-life balance?
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Perceptions of work-life balance for younger employees who prefer a flexible schedule.
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And understanding the difference between work-life imbalance vs burnout.

Tuesday Aug 05, 2025
Digital Strategy and Inbound Marketing Part 2
Tuesday Aug 05, 2025
Tuesday Aug 05, 2025
We continue exploring digital strategy with live website feedback, questions on Google Adwords, and how to scale a tech startup.

Tuesday Jul 29, 2025
Digital Strategy and Inbound Marketing Part 1
Tuesday Jul 29, 2025
Tuesday Jul 29, 2025
One of the biggest drivers of business growth is Digital Strategy… so are your digital investments actually yielding the results you expect? Or is there a better way?
Let’s talk about:
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Is your tech working together to actually drive business? Or are there disconnected silos of technology?
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Will AI be just another “bolt-on”, like social media and other shiny digital objects from the past?
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And how does what you have now build your reputation as a thought leader, improve engagement, and improve trust in your brand?

Tuesday Jul 22, 2025
Delegation Skills, Leadership and Business Growth Part 2
Tuesday Jul 22, 2025
Tuesday Jul 22, 2025
We continue with more on delegation as a key skill for leaders of growing organizations.
Topics include:
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Making the decision to do it yourself or delegate to others
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Empowering your team and employee over-reliance
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Developing trust
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Letting go of the outcomes, and more.

Tuesday Jul 15, 2025
Delegation Skills, Leadership and Business Growth Part 1
Tuesday Jul 15, 2025
Tuesday Jul 15, 2025
This session will address delegation as a lever for business growth. Catch the full episode.
Topics include:
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Proper way of delegating
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Obstacles and the flip side of delegation
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Impact of delegating to managers and employees
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Setting boundaries and expectations, and much more.

Tuesday Jul 08, 2025
Getting the Most from Your Learning and Development Budget Part 2
Tuesday Jul 08, 2025
Tuesday Jul 08, 2025
We continue with more ideas on how to upskill your team and retain the learning.
Topics include:
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New Management Teams: What are good professional development topics to start with a new team coming together?
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Improving the impact of professional development for senior leaders.
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Professional Development Priorities: Build deeper expertise or train on skill gaps?
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When professional development topics are rejected by the team: Where is the disconnect?

Tuesday Jul 01, 2025
Getting the Most from Your Learning and Development Budget Part 1
Tuesday Jul 01, 2025
Tuesday Jul 01, 2025
New ideas on generating alignment while upskilling your team.
Topics include:
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ROI: Getting the most out of your learning and development budget?
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How to leverage (and improve the impact) of your team’s professional development.
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What is the most efficient and effective approach: external trainer, internal dedicated resource, or other?

Tuesday Jun 24, 2025
Getting the Most from an Advisory Board Part 2
Tuesday Jun 24, 2025
Tuesday Jun 24, 2025
More on how to set up an advisory board to successfully support organizational leaders.
Topics include:
↳ Advisory board compensation: cash, or equity?
↳ Advisory board diversity vs “cohesive” culture?
↳ Building trust between board members (and with the leader).

Tuesday Jun 17, 2025
Getting the Most from an Advisory Board Part 1
Tuesday Jun 17, 2025
Tuesday Jun 17, 2025
Many leaders don’t fully take advantage of their Advisory Board… or even know why they should have one.
Topics include:
↳ Key considerations when setting up an advisory board.
↳ Recruitment, engagement, and Setting the meeting agenda?
↳ Keeping it fresh: board succession planning (and how to off-board “stale” advisory board members?

Tuesday Jun 10, 2025
Conference Planning Part 3
Tuesday Jun 10, 2025
Tuesday Jun 10, 2025
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.

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.