CEO Tradecraft

About CEO Tradecraft

CEO Tradecraft is a podcast about the work behind the title. What it really means to lead a company when the stakes are high and the answers aren’t obvious. Each episode, your host, Jason Radisson, talks with CEOs and senior operators about how they make decisions under pressure, scale teams, and navigate power, performance, and politics. You’ll hear real stories, not the official narrative. The wins, losses, pivots, and all the messy parts in between. The plays that really matter in business, as in life, they rarely get talked about, or passed down. That's what this show is for.

Publisher

Jason Radisson

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

8 May 2025

Latest episode

17 Dec 2025

Latest episodes

6 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   17 Dec 2025

   Why Boards Mis-Hire CMOs | Mike Linton, 5x CMO (eBay, Best Buy, Farmers Insurance)

   Mike Linton has been CMO of eBay, Best Buy, and Farmers Insurance. He's run billion-dollar marketing budgets and minted more CMOs than an academy company. In this episode, we dig into why CMO hires go wrong, and why the root cause is usually that boards don't understand their customer well enough to articulate customer strategy, and then hire to it. When you can't define customer strategy, you can't define outcomes. When you can't define outcomes, you default to hiring a channel specialist: "I need a Facebook person" or "I need an email marketer who can run agencies." That's how mis-hires happen. We cover: Why boards default to hiring channel specialists instead of hiring for outcomes CMOs are like football players, they're not interchangeable The Cosmopolitan Problem: what happens when you optimize channels instead of customer experience The UVA research showing 50% of CMO roles are misaligned from day one Decision rights: the levers you must control or don't take the job Why personal preferences in the C-suite are a terrible proxy for what customers want Scale mindset: the difference between managing $10M and $500M How Best Buy bet big on Geek Squad when it was just 11 people A/B testing billboards at Uber/99 Brazil, and why it worked Building an audience: lessons from CMO Confidential's path to 100K YouTube subscribers Mike is the host of CMO Confidential, one of the best podcasts for marketing leaders and the executives who work with them. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:50 The Decentralized Media Landscape 03:00 Anyone Can Create, But Who Can Aggregate an Audience? 06:01 The Cocktail Analogy: What You Can't Measure Still Matters 07:17 The Cosmopolitan Problem: CAC Obsession Kills the Drink 08:35 A/B Testing Billboards at Uber/99 Brazil09:35 Just Because I Don't Like It Doesn't Mean It Works 10:44 Being CMO Is Like Managing a Baseball Team 11:44 Scale Mindset: 100 Loans vs. 20,000 Loans 15:14 Best Buy's Big Bet on Geek Squad 17:56 Why Boards Mis-Hire: They Default to Channel Specialists 19:12 50% of CMO Roles Are Misaligned (UVA Research) 19:54 Decision Rights: The Levers You Must Control 21:16 Why You Shouldn't Show Creative to Your Board 21:56 How Boards Set CMOs Up to Fail 23:38 The Board Member Who Derails the Search 24:12 Does Every CEO Need to Be a Creator? 25:47 Building CMO Confidential to 100K Subscribers 28:39 Parting Advice: Know Customer Strategy Before You Hire 30:30 Outro Links: Mike's show, CMO Confidential: ⁠⁠https://www.cmoconfidential.co/⁠⁠ (https://www.cmoconfidential.co/) Mike Linton on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/milinton/⁠⁠ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/milinton/) Keywords/Tags: CMO, Chief Marketing Officer, CMO hiring, mis-hired, customer strategy, marketing leadership, executive hiring, channel specialist, decision rights, marketing ROI, CAC, customer acquisition cost, marketing measurement, brand building, scale, Best Buy, eBay, Farmers Insurance, Geek Squad, Uber, 99, rideshare, B2B marketing, marketing strategy, board governance, CEO, CMO Confidential, Mike Linton, Jason Radisson, CEO Tradecraft

2. 

   29 Oct 2025

   Dr. Ken Holmen — Making Rural Life Healthier | Clinician‑Led Health Systems, AI & Cost Curves

   Ken Holmen leads a $2B health system with 12,000 employees across rural Minnesota. After 30 years as an anesthesiologist, he's now managing 70% government revenue growing at 2-3% while costs climb 5-7% annually. That 4-5% gap compounds every year. This conversation covers the shift from clinician to CEO, why technology hasn't bent the cost curve despite massive investment, what AI is actually doing in imaging and diagnostics, and how Minnesota's collaborative health culture produces different outcomes. We also get into rural workforce strategies, group purchasing leverage, and the structural math every health system CEO is navigating. If you're leading through structural headwinds, managing stakeholders with opposing interests, or building long-term infrastructure in short-term policy cycles—this one's for you. Key Takeaways:• Why clinician CEOs have an edge (and why it doesn't guarantee success)• The high-tech vs. high-touch paradox: Epic delivered features, not savings• AI in production: DAX Copilot smart rooms, imaging inference, diagnostic algorithms• The "Cadillac problem": patients demanding care that isn't best practice• US vs. nationalized systems: different cost buckets, different outcomes• Minnesota's secret: collaboration + public health investment Chapters:00:00 Intro & rural roots01:05 Small-town hurdles & "bumper bowling" mentors03:23 Path to CentraCare: becoming CEO05:00 Do clinician-CEOs have an edge?07:42 Leading the "parts & the whole" of an integrated system09:34 Scale vs. personal care; today's healthcare headwinds10:50 Rural labor & demographics: the double whammy12:41 Building the pipeline: colleges, training, staying local13:35 Beyond the hospital: community health & rural economy14:58 North Star: "Making rural life healthier"15:59 Minnesota outcomes, collaboration & "Minnesota nice"17:48 Fighting complacency: change management & urgency18:33 Has tech delivered? EHRs, vaccines, robotics19:15 High-tech vs. high-touch—and why costs haven't fallen20:37 AI examples: imaging, labs & EHR inference21:25 Smart rooms & DAX co-pilots in clinic22:08 Consumer demand vs. best practice (the "Cadillac" problem)25:16 Comparing systems: U.S. vs. nationalized care26:37 Panda Health & CAPTIS: buying tech and "stuff" better27:30 5-10 year outlook: workforce first29:52 How the CEO role changed: ambiguity & discernment31:05 Career advice for future clinicians & administrators32:23 Wrap-up & takeaways Guest:Dr. Kenneth Holmen — President & CEO, CentraCareLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-holmen-26149a10/ About CEO Tradecraft:Real operator stories. No coaching, no hype, no media-trained narratives. Jason Radisson (founder-CEO of Movo, operator behind five unicorns across three continents) talks with CEOs and senior leaders about decisions under pressure, scaling teams, and navigating power, performance, and politics. The plays that actually matter—the ones that rarely get talked about or passed down. Subscribe & Follow:• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ceotradecraft• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ceo-tradecraft/id1813247648• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0FYJ70l99fRrw9S1oWWRzf #HealthcareLeadership #CEOTradecraft #HealthSystems #RuralHealth #HealthTech

3. 

   2 Jun 2025

   Eileen Moore Johnson’s Playbook for PE-Backed Hospitality and Winning on the Las Vegas Strip

   Eileen Moore Johnson reveals her playbook for private equity-backed hospitality and winning on the Las Vegas Strip, discussing data-driven strategies and revenue optimization in this interview.

4. 

   23 May 2025

   Mary Brainerd — HealthPartners CEO & Minneapolis Fed Chair on Alignment, Governance, and Empathy | CEO Tradecraft Ep 03

   HealthPartners CEO Mary Brainerd discusses alignment, governance, and empathy with Jason, revealing insights on culture and leadership at scale in this interview.

5. 

   17 May 2025

   Rich Williams on Hypergrowth, Product Obsession, and CEO DNA

   Rich Williams (former CEO of Groupon) joins Jason Radisson to talk about the realities of hypergrowth, what it takes to become a product-driven CEO, and why curiosity, conflict, and decision speed are non-negotiables in leadership.This episode of CEO Tradecraft breaks down what most leadership conversations gloss over—operational scars, inflection points, and the actual skill set behind the title.🔗 Links📺 Subscribe for new episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@ceotradecraft🔗 Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ceotradecraft/🎧 Listen on Spotify: [your link]📱 Connect with Jason: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-radisson/Chapters:00:00 - Intro01:44 - Welcome + Why Groupon Was a Hot Mess (in a Good Way)06:46 - Inside the Founding Team: Andrew, Eric, and the Samwers08:32 - IPO, Chaos, and the Three-Legged Stool Problem11:28 Is Hypergrowth Just What Tech Does?14:56 - Operational Rigor, Manual Systems, and Scaling Pain17:56 - Forward-Deployed Teams and the Future of Work23:05 - Reflections on the CEO Skillset Groupon Built25:36 - Seeking Out the Hard Stuff: Intentional CEO Pathing28:28 - Becoming a Product Leader (Even If You Start in Marketing)31:33 - What Great Product Managers Actually Do34:34 - From Technical Co-Founder to CEO: The Next Generation37:36 - CEO DNA: Curiosity, Conflict, and Rapid Decisions43:40 - Outro CEO Tradecraft goes deep with founders, operators, and executive decision-makers. Real stories. Real tactics. No fluff.

6. 

   8 May 2025

   Trailer

   Most CEO podcasts sound like coaching sessions or pop psych. This one’s not. CEO Tradecraft is about the work behind the title, what it really means to lead a company when the stakes are high and the answers aren’t obvious. In this short trailer, host Jason Radisson shares why the show exists, who it’s for, and what you’ll hear: the playbooks, hidden levers, and sharp edges of the top job in business. The plays that really matter in business, like in life, rarely get talked about or passed down. That’s what this show is for.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 44 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

74

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32

Contact CEO Tradecraft

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.