The Partnership Playbook: Lead with Clarity, Create Leverage & Reclaim Time
Helping leaders grow with clarity, create leverage through partnerships, and bring real meaning to their teams. The Partnership Playbook is for CEOs, founders, and go-to-market leaders who want to grow without noise, scale without burnout, and build partnerships that actually matter. You’ll hear clear thinking on: - How to become a great CEO - How distribution, supply chain, and product partnerships create resilience - How leaders use partnerships to simplify strategy, not add more work Hosted by Phil Hayes-St Clair - CEO coach and partnerships advisor with 20+ years of experience across healthcare, biotech, aerospace, and eCommerce. Each episode blends pr...
220: RE-RELEASE FlightStory’s Georgie Holt on leadership, obsession, and the long hard path
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What if growth isn’t about better ideas—but better choices?
Most leaders chase shortcuts—faster growth, easier wins, predictable playbooks. But real growth, especially through partnership, doesn’t work like that.
In this episode, Georgie Holt, CEO at Flightstory, home of the second largest podcast in the world, Diary of the CEO, breaks down what actually separates good from exceptional—and why most peopl...
219. Before buying another AI tool, ask these 3 questions
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Can this AI tool genuinely improve how we sell, or are we just being shown a very impressive demo?
AI sales tools are arriving faster than most GTM teams can properly evaluate them, making it harder than ever to distinguish real leverage from expensive novelty.
Learn the three questions that reveal whether an AI tool will actually change...218. The AI question most leadership teams are missing
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When someone says, "We need an AI strategy," are they talking about a tool decision or a business design decision?
Many leadership teams are treating those as the same conversation—and that's creating expensive mistakes.
In this episode, Phil explores:
Why AI adoption and business transformation are fundamentally different leadership decisionsHow to tell whether AI is...217. CEO Dan Pallister-Coward on turning organisations around: How values, relationships and partnerships create lasting impact
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What separates organizations that thrive through disruption from those that struggle to adapt?
In this conversation, Wellington Free Ambulance CEO Dan Pallister-Coward shares hard-earned lessons from emergency services leadership, Christchurch earthquake recovery, health sector transformation, and community reintegration programs.
You'll discover:
How great leaders drive growth by helping people understand the "why" behind change.Why...216. Human selling in the AI era: What's actually changed?
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If AI can now do so much of what salespeople used to do, where does human value actually come from?
In this episode, Phil explores what has genuinely changed in sales, where AI creates leverage, and why trust, judgment, and insight are becoming more valuable rather than less.
Why the biggest AI shift isn't persuasion — it's preparationThe new co...215. How CEOs grow their business by doing less not more
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What's the one thing that would grow your business fastest right now — and are you absolutely certain you're working on it?
Most CEOs aren't short of growth ideas. They're short of concentration.
Why growth is usually constrained by a single bottleneck, not a lack of effortThe reason leadership teams spread attention across five initiatives instead of pulling on...214. Tim Curtis on resilience, leadership and when there is no margin for error
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What if resilience isn't something you're born with, but something you can deliberately build?
Most leaders are trying to navigate growth while balancing uncertainty, pressure, team dynamics, family responsibilities, and constant change. The challenge isn't avoiding adversity—it's learning how to perform through it.
In this conversation, Tim Curtis shares lessons from special operations, crisis leadership, re...
213. Why your CEO keeps questioning your revenue plan
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Why does your CEO keep asking questions about your revenue plan that you thought you'd already answered?
The answer is usually not in the plan itself, it's in how the plan is being framed. In this episode:
Learn the difference between presenting a revenue strategy and helping a CEO make a confident decision.Understand the five questions CEOs...212. The 3 questions every CEO should ask about AI
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How do you make confident AI decisions without pretending to know more than you do?
In a world full of confident AI predictions, the leaders who make the best decisions aren’t the most certain—they have the best filters.
Learn the three questions that separate signal from hype.Avoid making strategic decisions based on confidence rather than...211. Rear Admiral Lee Goddard CSC on the human side of trust, accountability, and leadership
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What does it take to lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher?
From commanding warships and joint-agency taskforces to advising some of Australia’s most innovative defence, aerospace, and technology companies, Lee Goddard CSC has spent his career operating in environments where leadership, trust, and decision-making truly matter.
In this episode, Lee joins Phil to shar...
210. The leadership skill that keeps GTM leaders relevant
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What if the GTM motion you're most confident leading is the very thing limiting your future growth?
Many GTM leaders plateau not because they lack ability, but because they keep applying a playbook that no longer matches what the business needs next.
Why success in one GTM environment can create blind spots in another.How growth stages change...209. How experienced CEOs recover client trust when things go wrong
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What do you do when your organisation breaks trust with a client or partner?
In this episode, Phil Hayes-St Clair shares the EARN framework — a practical leadership approach for recovering damaged relationships with integrity, structure and long-term trust.
Why most leaders move into solutions too quickly — and how that weakens confidenceThe four-step EARN framework: Expose, Ask, Rebuild, Name...208. Five CEO Insights: Time to think, leadership leverage and the one that matters most
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In this episode, you'll hear:
Insight 1 — How to create time to think Most CEOs are too close to the work to think clearly about it. This insight gives you a practical way to create the conditions that accelerate both your thinking and your growth.
Insight 2 — How CEOs create leadership leverage without becoming the bottleneck The higher you go, the more your team...
207. How experienced GTM leaders adapt when markets tighten
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What actually keeps a GTM engine moving when the market slows down?
When budgets tighten and buying cycles lengthen, most GTM teams increase activity instead of increasing precision, and that’s usually where performance starts breaking down.
Why downturns expose the difference between broad-market positioning and real buyer urgencyThe 3-part filter for identifying the buyer profile most likely to...206. The four-pillar infrastructure behind long-term CEOs
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What actually allows a CEO to lead well for ten years without slowly eroding underneath the pressure?
This episode explores why long-term resilience at the CEO level is not about burnout prevention or recovery; it’s about building the psychological and physical architecture capable of sustaining leadership over a decade.
The four pillars that determine sustainable CEO pe...205. Jake George on why partnerships become MORE valuable with AI
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What if the biggest opportunity in AI isn’t automation… but making your people more human?
In this conversation, Jake George of Agentic Brain breaks down what’s actually happening inside modern businesses and why the future of growth belongs to leaders who combine AI with stronger partnership, coaching, and human connection.
Inside this episode, you’ll learn...
204. How toxic sales cultures start without anyone noticing
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How do you know your sales culture has become toxic before the numbers tell you?
Pressure cultures in GTM teams rarely arrive dramatically — they emerge gradually through what leaders celebrate, tolerate, and protect.
Why high-performing sales teams can still be quietly losing trust underneath the surfaceThe three early warning signs leaders miss before attrition and customer damage appearHow cu...203. The CEOs winning with AI aren’t chasing certainty
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What if the biggest AI risk isn’t moving too fast — but waiting too long for certainty that never arrives?
Most CEOs are trying to build a complete AI strategy in a market changing faster than their planning cycle can keep up.
Why adaptive capability is becoming more valuable than long-range certaintyThe hidden organisational cost of waiting for...202. Ben Pronk on leading through uncertainty and what it takes to be happy
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What if leadership growth isn’t about certainty but about learning to lead through ambiguity?
In this deeply reflective conversation, Ben Pronk unpacks leadership, resilience, happiness, stoicism, and the hidden pressures facing modern executives. From special operations leadership lessons to redefining success beyond money and status, this episode explores what sustainable growth truly looks like—both professionally and pers...
201. How smart GTM leaders enter markets they don’t yet own
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What if the fastest way into a new market isn’t building your own presence but borrowing someone else’s trust?
This episode explores how GTM leaders use partnerships to enter markets faster by aligning with the people buyers already trust.
Why trust, not awareness, is the real barrier to market entryHow to identify the partners who already shap...200. How to lead through acquisition without losing culture
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What actually destroys culture during an acquisition — the deal itself, or the way leadership handles the first 90 days?
Most M&A failures aren’t operational failures. They’re confidence failures caused by unmanaged identity loss inside the organisation.
Why culture integration fails when it’s treated as a post-close HR exercise instead of a pre-close strategic priorityThe leadersh...199. How Andrea Culligan thinks about growth, awareness, AI and partnerships
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What if the greatest unlock for leadership growth wasn’t strategy… but self-awareness?
In this deeply candid conversation, Andrea Culligan shares the failures, identity shifts, business losses, relationship lessons, and leadership realizations that shaped her approach to growth through partnerships, innovation, and servant leadership.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
How self-awareness becomes a competitive advant...198. How to build a GTM team that survives leadership change
Get the Partnership Kickstart: In less that 30 minutes learn how to identify your best partnership opportunity, start the right conversations, and close deals.
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What happens to your GTM team when you’re not in the room?
Most performance dips during leadership change aren’t about people, they’re about how the system was built. In this episode learn:
Why GTM teams often depend on one leader’s judgement without realising itHow relationship concentration quietly creates performance riskA simple way to test whether...197. Why your best people leave before you notice
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What if your most important people have already started to leave… and you just can’t see it yet?
Most CEOs don’t lose their best people in a moment — they lose them in the quiet months before anyone notices.
Why your biggest retention risk isn’t your top performers — it’s your quiet load-bearersHow disengagement starts with uncertain...196. Wayne Gerard on how partnership-led growth drives scale in B2B businesses
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What if your biggest growth opportunity isn’t inside your business, but outside it?
Most leaders are stuck trying to scale in isolation: Hiring more, building more, pushing harder. But growth doesn’t happen in silos. It happens through partnership, ecosystems, and aligned incentives and today’s guest, serial entrepreneur and venture investor, Wayne Gerard has lived it.
I...
195. From updates to influence: Changing how your CEO sees growth
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Why does your CEO still not fully understand how your revenue engine actually works?
Because most GTM leaders either over-explain or under-communicate and both leave the system unclear.
In this episode learn how to:
Reframe your role from “reporting up” to shaping how your CEO sees growthIdentify the one GTM concept that’s quietly driving misalignmentUse a simp...194. How to lead the strategy pivot conversation with your board
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Are you changing strategy when the real problem is execution?
One of the most expensive mistakes CEOs make is misdiagnosing performance issues — pivoting too early or pushing harder on the wrong plan.
A simple 3-part diagnostic to separate strategy problems from execution gapsThe “three-quarter rule” to avoid premature pivotsClear language to lead high-stakes board conversations with confidence193. CEO Nick Astwick on claiming back New Zealand’s lost health span
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Nick Astwick is one of those leaders who feels deeply grounded in purpose and never disconnected from performance. He’s spent more than 25 years across financial services and healthcare — from National Bank to UBS Warburg, through to becoming COO at Kiwibank and then CEO of Southern Cross Health Society in 2017.
And what makes his story so compelling is that...
192. Why every “Stalled Deal” looks different (but isn’t)
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Why does a full pipeline still fail to convert?
Most GTM teams misdiagnose pipeline problems — and apply pressure in the wrong place.
The one question that reveals why deals really stallHow to separate ICP, champion, and positioning issues fastA 90-minute diagnostic to uncover the real pattern in your top dealsBefore your next pipeline review, shift th...
191. What your last three hires say about you as a CEO
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Are you hiring the best person — or the one you feel safest leading?
The moment a candidate makes you slightly uncomfortable might be the most important signal in your hiring process.
Why discomfort in senior hiring is often a sign of capability, not riskHow unclear leadership design turns strong hires into “control problems”A simple 3-question framework to sep...190. FlightStory’s Georgie Holt on leadership, obsession, and the long hard path
What if growth isn’t about better ideas—but better choices?
Most leaders chase shortcuts—faster growth, easier wins, predictable playbooks. But real growth, especially through partnership, doesn’t work like that.
In this episode, Georgie Holt, CEO at Flightstory, home of the second largest podcast in the world, Diary of the CEO, breaks down what actually separates good from exceptional—and why most people quit before it compounds.
You’ll learn:
How consistent decision-making drives long-term partnership growthWhy obsession—not balance—is often the real differentiatorHow to build a culture that sustains high-pe...189. Why most partner programmes can’t prove revenue
Can you clearly tie every active partner to revenue in the last 90 days?
Most partner programmes look productive — but they’re built on activity, not revenue design.
Why partner programmes default to relationship management (and how to spot it)The structural difference between activity and revenue architectureThe 90-day test to reset your programme around pipeline and dealsPick your top three partners and define one time-bound revenue action for this quarter.
New episodes Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
More from Phil Hayes-St Clair
Subscribe to my weekly Leadership Letter (and...
188. The CEO Moment: How to prepare before failure becomes public
What do you do when failure becomes visible — and you’re the one everyone is watching?
How a CEO shows up in public failure defines confidence faster than the failure itself. In this episode you’ll learn:
Why clarity builds confidence faster than control in high-pressure momentsThe three leadership moves that stabilise the system when things go wrongA simple framework to prepare for failure before it happensWrite your response to your most likely public failure scenario — before you need it.
New episodes Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
More from Phil Hayes-St...
187. How to drive growth through partnership by fixing leadership blind spots with Logan Yonavjak
What if your biggest growth bottleneck isn’t your market—but your mindset?
Most founders focus on product, pitch decks, and partnerships… but ignore the one factor that determines whether growth actually happens: leadership readiness.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to unlock growth through better self-awareness, stronger partnerships, and smarter execution.
How coachability and identity flexibility determine whether your company scales or stallsWhy most go-to-market strategies fail—and how customer discovery fixes itHow to build partnerships that actually multiply growth instead of adding complexityIf you want to accelerate growth through be...
186. How GTM leaders protect their reputation in a tough quarter
What do your stakeholders believe about your leadership when the quarter goes off plan?
This episode is about how strong GTM leaders protect and strengthen trust when results are mixed.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Why hard quarters become confidence tests, not just performance reviewsThe three things stakeholders are really looking for when numbers are under pressureA practical way to make your leadership more visible before results recoverListen now and identify the three things you are making visible in this period: diagnosis, point of view, and disciplined execution.
New...
185. Why your culture probably isn’t what you think it is
Do you actually know what it feels like to work in your company or do you only know what it feels like to lead it?
Most CEOs think they understand culture, but what reaches the top is often cleaner than what people are actually living underneath.
In this episode you’ll learn:
Why seniority distorts your view of cultureThe hidden gap between intended culture and lived experienceA simple quarterly practice to hear what your business really feels likePick three people two levels below you and ask them what it actually feels li...
184. The HRT patch story that’s being rewritten by Raisa Monteiro PhD and Johanna Wicks
What if one overlooked healthcare problem could unlock billions in growth?
Most leaders underestimate how broken systems quietly kill opportunity. In women’s health, particularly in hormone replacement therapy and the transdermal patches that deliver this medication, outdated innovation, supply chain failures, and misaligned incentives have created massive gaps, and even bigger opportunities for those who see them.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
How partnership-driven innovation can unlock exponential growth in overlooked marketsWhy outdated business models create hidden opportunities for founders and leadersHow to identify and act on systemic gaps before the market catc...183. Are you still the right GTM leader for this stage?
Are you still leading GTM in ways that your business actually needs?
The playbook that made you successful can quietly become the reason you plateau.
In this episode Phil shares:
Why strong GTM leaders often stall not because they’re underperforming, but because they’re over-attached to an old commercial modelHow to spot the gap between the motion you’re confident leading and the one the business now needsA practical framework to help you identify the one capability you need to build nextListen now, run the Relevance Gap Audit, and identify the on...
182. How to manage your board before your board starts managing you
What happens when your board starts shaping the company more than you do?
In this episode, Phil breaks down why boards begin to overreach, what’s really driving the pressure, and how CEOs can lead the relationship before the room starts leading them.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
How to identify what each board member needs to feel confident — and what triggers their interferenceWhy the hardest board conversations should happen before the board meeting, not inside itHow to create a pre-meeting rhythm that protects your authority and improves decision-makingListen now to lea...
181. The Problem With ‘Owning It All’ in Partnerships
What if global growth was less about money—and more about mindset?
Larry Namer, co-founder of E! Entertainment, reveals the story behind launching a global media giant with just $2.5M—and the playbook he used to scale into post-Soviet Russia, China, and beyond.
Learn how to build partnerships that last decades (not just deals)See why respecting culture beats imposing strategy—every timeHear what most founders get wrong about capital, control, and creative freedomListen to this masterclass in partnership and growth—you’ll rethink how your next venture should scale.
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