Filed Under: Humanistic Marketing
Chris Ronzio
Founder and CEO
Trainual.com
On Thursday, February 3, 2022, at 4:00 p.m. CT, we will talk with Chris Ronzio, Founder and CEO of Trainual, a leading SaaS platform that transforms the way small businesses onboard, train and scale their teams. Serving businesses in over 170 countries, Trainual has been recognized on Inc.’s 2021 Best Workplaces list and landed #1 on AZ Central’s inaugural top workplaces list for 2021.
A two-time EY Entrepreneur of the Year Mountain Desert Region Award finalist and Phoenix Business Journal 40 Under 40 Awards recipient, Chris is on a mission to help business leaders document and delegate so they have more time to focus on the things they love. Chris is the host of “The Fastest Growing Companies” and “Organize Chaos” podcasts as well as the author of the best-selling book, “The Business Playbook – How to Document and Delegate What You Do So Your Company Can Grow Beyond You.“
Q: Who are you and what do you do?
Chris Ronzio, Founder and CEO of Trainual
Q: What do you enjoy most about being a leader and having a personal brand?
I love the sense of community that we have been able to instill with our brand, both among our employees and our customers. It helps to make our brand more human and it allows people to see the inner workings of the business when there’s a face to attach to it. It humanizes you to employees as well, which makes the company more relatable.
Q: What do you find most challenging as a leader with a public, personal brand?
By default, I want to share everything that’s going on in my world. But, as Trainual grows, and I’m one or two or three steps removed from certain people that work here, I realized that I have to pay closer attention to filtering what I post, and making sure that everything is properly communicated through company channels first. Our team jokes that my Instagram is the official company newswire 🙂 There can also be sensitive or confidential scenarios happening behind the scenes that I’d love to share live, but need to wait until after we get PR or Legal approval. So, deciding what’s OK to share has gotten increasingly challenging as we’ve grown.
Q: Do you have a mindfulness practice? If so, what are some of your rituals?
Last year I hit a 300 day meditation streak! My discipline goes in waves, but meditating and journaling, or just sitting and reading for a little while when I wake up helps me to organize my thoughts and get into a good headspace for the day, before jumping straight into email. I also compete in races and triathlons, so I have a lot of time to unplug and think when I’m out running or on the bike. I like having the space to let my mind wander – that’s when I get my best ideas.
Q: Do you have any consistent branding practices (social media, video, blogging, etc.) you do?
I’m not necessarily involved in Trainual’s social media profiles on the day to day, but I think the biggest thing we do across the board both for Trainual and my personal brand is sharing authentically. Being human and relatable and not posting things that are TOO polished is much easier to relate to. We’ve also added regular time to my schedule a few times per month to sit and record videos about the most recent and relevant topics on my mind, and having the time on the calendar helps ensure that it happens.
Q: Leadership (and branding) today requires so much of ourselves. How do you show up authentically and also keep your battery charged?
Work-life balance is extremely important to me. Making sure I protect family time with my wife and kids, as well as time to exercise are two top priorities for me. My family also recently got a cabin up north where we can all go to disconnect and have family time, which has been great.
Q: What one difficult lesson continues to regularly guide and inform your career?
Before I started Trainual, I remember taking on a consulting client that I knew from the beginning would be a bad fit. I convinced myself that the job would be over quickly – but it carried on for months. The lesson here was to trust my gut, and NOT cash the check when I see a red flag. That has helped guide me over and over, whether it’s making a hiring decision, or even a simple thing like replying to a social invitation. I don’t do things that I don’t want to do.
Q: What has been the most satisfying victory in your career? Lessons from that?
I get the most satisfaction out of setting goals that seem really far away, and hitting them. I’ve set financial goals, like hitting our first $1M in revenue, and family goals, like purchasing our house in the mountains, and fitness goals, like completing an IRONMAN 70.3, and personal goals, like writing The Business Playbook. All of these are satisfying in different ways, but the commonality is putting something on paper, and having the discipline to make it happen.
Q: What sort of questions would you love for our guests to ask you on Being Marketers?
- Why do you think business leaders have such a hard time delegating? Why is this such a universal problem?
- How can business leaders determine the profile for their business? What is “the profile formula”?
- Tell us the story of how Trainual’s core values emerged.
- If a CEO has no marketing background and needs to take on those responsibilities, how could they go about that?
Q: What are you reading or listening to (podcasts or audiobooks) right now that you would recommend?
Who Not How by Dan Sullivan
Never Split The Difference by Christopher Voss and Tahl Raz
Powerful by Patty McCord
Masters of Scale Podcast
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