by Bianca Barbieri | Jan 2, 2026 | COO, Team Building
At the early stages, it works. The CEO sells, hires, manages, decides, and fixes problems.Speed is high. Communication is direct. Nothing gets lost. But what helped the company survive early on becomes the very thing that limits its growth. When CEOs continue running...
by Bianca Barbieri | Dec 26, 2025 | Business, COO
Most companies don’t struggle with ideas. They struggle with execution. The strategy deck is clear. The goals make sense. The leadership team is aligned, at least on paper. And yet, progress stalls. Priorities drift. Teams stay busy but outcomes don’t move. That’s not...
by Bianca Barbieri | Dec 19, 2025 | COO
Most leaders don’t fail because they lack drive but because they stay operators long after the business needs a strategist. In the early stage, being the operator is your superpower: you see everything, fix everything, and keep the company alive through sheer...
by Bianca Barbieri | Dec 11, 2025 | COO
Behind every great founder is a Second in Command who makes it all work.And behind the COO Alliance® — there’s Meridith Kuba. In this special 500th episode of The Second in Command Podcast, Cameron Herold (our CEO and Founder) sits down with Meridith Kuba, his...
by Bianca Barbieri | Dec 9, 2025 | COO, Performance
Every great company has two engines. One drives vision. The other drives execution. When those two stay in sync, growth feels effortless. When they don’t, everything slows down. That’s why the CEO–COO relationship is the most powerful (and most fragile) partnership in...
by Bianca Barbieri | Nov 27, 2025 | 2nd in Command, COO
Most COOs feel like they’re building the plane while flying it.They’re expected to execute flawlessly, scale systems, and keep culture intact — all while solving problems only another COO would understand. The truth? Even the best Second in Command can’t do it alone....