SPEAK LIKE A CEO Oliver Aust

“Make it a story people remember. That’s the great thing about startups. Startups have great stories to tell. That’s what founders should use.”

Our guest is the accomplished entrepreneur Jan Reichelt. He built and sold two massively successful ventures, Mendeley and Kopernio, before bringing 10x Founders into existence in 2021.

In a short period of time, 10x Founders has become one of the top funds in Europe with the vision to boost the European entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Jan and the team raised 160 million from 200 individual investors who are also entrepreneurs. It truly is “the entrepreneurs' VC”, boasting a huge network.

Scaling two companies, Jan knows that “your communications can be a complete game changer. That's what sets you apart, that’s what gets people excited.”

His advice to founders: “Take communications seriously and think about your communications strategy. It is such a huge opportunity and you and your team want to shape it. You don’t want it to be shaped by others.“

Sophie Chung is back on the podcast! She is the founder & CEO of Qunomedical where she is building a much-needed CRM for hospitals to improve patient care.

A force of nature, Sophie was our guest on Episode #9, “No B******t”, and she still lives by that mantra - now more than ever.

Sophie and Oliver discuss how especially in tough times, “No BS” really counts. But you often see the opposite, argues Sophie. “You just know they are bullshitting.”

“It’s misleading, it’s not helpful. I’m trying to be different. Whenever I say something, I want to be genuine, truthful, value-adding. Not saying something you have heard a hundred times before.”

People who are listening to you are not stupid, they want true leadership.

Sophie & Oliver also dive into Qunomedical’s shift in focus from a B2C service for patients to a B2B software suite for hospitals.

With patients, digital marketing & SEO ruled. That’s different for a B2B software product. “No one googles patient relationship management software.”

Now it’s about bringing the content to the people who are interested. “Talk about the cause, the why. This is where you can start a conversation.” This can happen on LinkedIn or at events.

“We knew that if we didn’t jump, we’d regret it for the rest of our lives.”

It was a leap into the unknown that paid off. Jochen Engert is the founder and former long-time CEO of Flix, a German startup best known for Flixbus that has grown into a global tech and transportation company with more than 60m passengers per year - a journey he describes as “absolutely crazy”.

Jochen led Flix for 11 years, from knowing little about trains and buses to expanding globally and taking over the iconic Greyhound brand. He is now a member of the supervisory board and an active investor.

Jochen and the founder team executed a highly effective communications, branding and marketing strategy centred around a core idea of ‘being the perfect host’ and a brand purpose of allowing people to travel sustainably.

As a leader, Jochen is clear that “crisis is nothing you can delegate”, and that “authenticity is the basis for credibility. That’s the most important thing you have as a leader.”

Storytelling is bloody difficult. It is only easy if you don’t know how it is done.

Fortunately, Communications Designer Jeremy Connell-Waite breaks it down for us. He leads IBM’s "Wild Ducks" industrial storytelling programme, where he coaches partners to create compelling pitches and presentations.

Stories are how you move people to action as a leader. But not random ones. Effective stories and speeches have structure.

Following the structure gets you to into the top 20% of communicators. But structure doesn’t move people to action. Emotions do. And the one emotion that can change people’s minds and get them to act is surprise. So ask yourself: How can I surprise this audience?

“We need to become students of emotions. If the purpose of a great communicator is to let the audience feel something, the only way to get really good at communicating is to learn how emotions work.”

Only emotions move people to action, and the key emotion is surprise.

More about Jeremy: https://jeremy.earth

Take a look at his one pagers: https://issuu.com/jeremycw/docs/the_art_of_the_one_pager_isuuv2 

“The role of the CEO is to tell stories and make sure that they become true.”

Josef, who has two nine figure exists under his belt, is a serial founder, successful entrepreneur, and investor.

But success didn’t come easy. Starting out at the age of 16, he dropped out of school to build his first company which he sold only two years later to buy his parents a house. Since then, Josef, who loves to spend his weekends hiking in the alps, has climbed many entrepreneurial mountains.

Among others, he is the founder of JouleX, which was acquired by Cisco, and relayr, which was acquired by MunichRE. Recently, he was instrumental in a funding round for StartUpInsider.

In his book “Follow the Pain”, he describes his entrepreneurial journey.

In today’s episode, Josef gives us insights into the thinking of an exceptional entrepreneur who considers communications and storytelling as fundamental to what great CEOs do.

Tune in, and find out:

💊 Why pain is a great driver to success.

🎹 How to scale mentoring

📈 How to distinguish transformations from trends

⚫️ The beauty of simplicity

📣 How to approach thought leadership

🖖 Why personal relationships and trust matter in investing



We don’t run ads on Speak Like a CEO, but would appreciate if you support the podcast by sharing it with a founder who may benefit from it or by posting a review on Apple Podcasts.

Hybrid working is here to stay.

What’s harder to figure out is how CEOs and founders can lead, communicate and make an impact in this brave new work.

Top international executive coach Bettina Hausmann and Oliver Aust both see opportunities in communicating in a hybrid world - if done right. In this episode, they give leaders the roadmap to be more impactful and avoid the spectre of mediocre communications that no organisation can afford in a rapidly changing world.

Tune in a find out:

🎨 How to draw up a hybrid plan for your organisation in 3 minutes

🌵 The pitfalls of leading in a hybrid environment

📖 How to tell stories and present with impact now

We don’t run ads on Speak Like a CEO but would appreciate if you support the podcast by sharing it with a founder who may benefit from it or by posting a review on Apple Podcasts.

Podcast Oliver mentions: School of Hiring. Staying Hybrid or Back to the Office. Konstanty Sliwowski With Jessica Kafka: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/staying-hybrid-or-back-to-the-office-and-the/id1546484127?i=1000596532545