Most founders walk around convinced everyone else has it figured out — this episode proves otherwise and shows why naming that feeling is the first step toward better leadership.

In the debut episode of C-Suite Chronicles, co-hosts Jeremy and Wendy share how they reconnected after nearly a decade apart and why they decided to build a podcast rooted in honest conversation about what it actually takes to run a business. Jeremy walks through his origin story — growing up in a family automotive shop, facing crippling anxiety as a door-to-door salesperson, navigating depression and loss in his early twenties, and eventually finding his footing as a fractional COO and integrator. Along the way, they explore how imposter syndrome shows up at every stage, why entrepreneurship is fundamentally a relationship game, and how community and vulnerability can replace isolation and fear.

With AI reshaping how businesses operate and founders feeling more pressure than ever to have all the answers, this conversation is a grounding reminder that the human side of leadership — connection, honesty, and showing up even when it's uncomfortable — still drives the outcomes that matter most.

Jeremy brings years of hands-on experience as a fractional COO working with small and mid-size businesses, while Wendy draws on decades of leading peer-to-peer seminars and coaching business owners through growth and transition. Together, they bring complementary perspectives shaped by real operating experience, not theory.

Listeners will hear why tracking relationships like a KPI can transform your business development, how failure and anxiety became catalysts for career clarity, what it looks like to use AI in a human-centered way, and why the most powerful thing a founder can do is admit they don't have it all figured out.

Topics: founder isolation, imposter syndrome, origin stories, fractional COO path, relationship tracking and behavior metrics, sales anxiety, family business dynamics, community building, human-centered AI adoption, SOP creation with AI, lead generation and conversion, entrepreneurial identity.

Resources: EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System), Catalyst (fractional integrator network), Keith Ferrazzi's relationship management system, Chamber of Connection by Aaron Hurst, Wayne Dyer.

Subscribe and follow along as we bring more founders to the mic to share their real stories — because the best way to feel less alone in business is to hear someone else say what you've been thinking.

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Produced by Riggg Productions