11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Breakout Session 1 | How to Grow Enterprise Value to Outpace Inflation

Presenter: Dave Heymann, Senior Mergers & Acquisitions Advisor, Generational Group and Vistage Speaker

Businesses and their value tend to grow to the limit of the available resources. Working harder (or smarter) will NOT grow the business beyond that ceiling. Inflation makes this even worse by reducing resources. This session discusses growing without increasing resources, how to get more resources for growth, and how business value is REALLY determined. If we want to release some or all of that value, how do we do it? Finally, if I want to transfer the business and its value to the next generation, how do I protect my family, my financial future, and the business?

Topic: Merger & Acquisition Advisory

11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Breakout Session 1 | How To Build a Master Plan for Your Business and Your Family

Presenter: Drew McLaughlin, Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA)

As a Certified Exit Planning Advisor, (CEPA), Drew assists family-owned businesses prepare for their financial future. Drew will discuss how to build a Master Plan for your business and your family and dive into various strategies that could increase your odds for long term success. In addition, Drew will go through the FAIR Framework to maximize deal value for all parties involved. This discussion is appropriate for all who understand they need help planning for an eventual transition in the future of their family-owned business.

Topic: Personal Development: Exit & Succession Planning

11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Breakout Session 1 | CEO's Candid Guide to Right People, Right Job, Right Fit To Scale the Business

Presenter: Jeff Ward, Executive Advisor and Jason Williford, Executive Advisor, Culture Index

Join the Culture Index team to reveal the true fit of your executive team and leaders- who is in the right seat and who is not? Do you have the right team in place to scale your business? Not getting the top and bottom line growth by not hiring and obtaining the right team? In this session, you will be prepped to utilize data to make more objective human decisions in securing the right talent in order to drive sustainable growth. Walk away with new insights, tips, and practices to implement into your business and better align your people.

Topic: Leadership: Communication & Alignment

11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Breakout Session 1 | Rocket Fuel - The Two Key Leaders that Help Your Organization Take Off

Presenter: Jeanet Wade, Certified EOS Implementer, Business Alchemist

This workshop looks at the relationship between two main types of leaders who are vital for organizational health and scalability. Learn about proven work rules and tools for seeing your business leadership from a powerful new perspective for greater impact. This workshop is targeted to CEOs, business owners, visionaries, and integrators.

Topic: Talent Management: Performance Management / HR

11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Breakout Session 1 | Critical Post-Covid Legal Traps for Executives and Entrepreneurs

Presenter: Kathleen Bilderback, Managing Member and Brad Crandell, Managing Member, Affinity Law

Covid and its consequences have taught us to prepare for the unexpected. Many executives still fail to anticipate the long-term consequences of seemingly mundane decisions and policies.

What terms can you add to your customer contracts to avoid liability? Do your agreements with vendors and customers adequately allocate risk of a cybersecurity breach? What wealth transfer planning should you be considering before the tax laws change at the end of 2025?

Address worst case scenarios, suggest best practices, and explain what you should be adding to your legal documents and policies now to protect your company from a fall.

Topic: Business Operations: Risk Management

1:00 - 1:45 pm

Breakout Session 2 | Team Trust: The Non-negotiable in Team Performance

Presenter: Kim Baker, President/CEO Vivid Performance Group

The topic of Trust is complex, abstract, and emotionally provocative-which makes building team trust a challenge. Until now!
In this session, you will develop abilities to:

• Identify the Three Dimensions of Trust® and sixteen behaviors that build and break trust


• Discuss the 5 team trust strengths and 5 team trust struggles found to be the most common through team trust research


• Recognize high and low trust behaviors in your team, leader relationships, and organization


• Consider/evaluate the business case for leveling up trust within your team, relationships, or organization

Topic: Leadership: Organizational Values and Culture

1:00 - 1:45 pm

Breakout Session 2 | 2022 M&A Outlook + STL Business Owner Success Stories

Presenter: Patrick Nolan, President, Nolan & Associates

This session will kick off with an update covering the impact of rising interest rates, inflation, supply chain challenges and labor shortages on the 2022 M&A market.
Then, we’ll discuss the latest deals we’ve closed in St. Louis and cover how + why each business owner decided to sell.
We’ll close out by bringing in a guest business owner from one of our St. Louis business deals to discuss the nuances of their own process and take your questions about going through an M&A process.

Topic: Financials: Mergers & Acquisitions

1:00 - 1:45 pm

Breakout Session 2 | Reading Your Prospect's Mind (Create Better Connections to Grow Sales Opportunities)

Presenter: Chris Westmeyer, Owner/President, Digital Strike

Learn about the world’s largest and most accurate database of customer intent data and understand how best to analyze it. This information will allow you to better understand what your prospective customers are looking for and how they are looking for it. Once you understand that, the opportunity to grow sales is amplified.

Topic: Customer Engagement: Sales & Marketing

1:00 - 1:45 pm

Breakout Session 2 | Cybersecurity Is Not Just an IT Risk; It Is a Full-Blown Business Risk

Presenter: Nick Just, VP of Commercial Strategy, Techguard Security

Cybersecurity can’t be seen, heard, smelled or touched, so you may think it’s intangible. However, something deemed intangible has a grip on every aspect of your business. Cybersecurity is not just an IT risk; it is a full-blown business risk and as business owners or decision makers we have a responsibility to not only our employees but also our customers to ensure their information and data is protected.

Topic: Business Operations: Technology

1:00 - 1:45 pm

Breakout Session 2 | I Think We’re Aligned, What do You Think? The 5 Pillars for Strategic Execution

Presenter: Zach Schaefer CEO and Founder Spark The Discussion

During this interactive session with Zach “Dr. Z” Schaefer, Vistage members will discover the hidden vulnerabilities that prevent leadership teams from delivering on their strategy. The engaging discussion will demonstrate how a tool called Line Of Sight helps leaders take an objective look at 5 key areas that create strategic alignment. Healthy companies with high ratings across these areas achieve strategic success more rapidly and consistently than those with low ratings.

Topic: Leadership: Communication & Alignment