Hi,
I asked 100 CEOs this question, and here are the top 5 answers.
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Olivia Hanlon, Forbes 30 Under 30, speaker, founder of Girls in Marketing and Passata, an AI productivity startup. |
“You don’t build a global business from one person or one viral moment. You build it from hundreds of tiny ones: the unsexy, often overlooked decisions most people skip. That’s where the magic happens.
In 2024, I was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 for Marketing and Advertising. But honestly, the moments I’m proudest of came from sweating the small stuff.
One small but significant change came from a single sentence on the Girls in Marketing homepage, shifting the focus to who we really are: a community, not just a learning provider. As a result, not only did we get more sales, we got the right kind of sales and leads. In a world where products look the same, the difference is often a single phrase that makes people feel seen.
We deliberately designed our emails according to this mindset. They now look like messages from a friend and that authenticity drives 65% open rates and hundreds of replies.
Another small change came from when I first started posting on LinkedIn, I thought one strong opening line was enough. But it’s not. People’s attention drifts unless you keep earning it, so I changed how I write: hook, story, hook, payoff, CTA. That tiny shift doubled engagement and shares. It taught me that attention is earned.
Those tiny, deliberate tweaks compound over time. Growth doesn’t always have to mean doing more. Sometimes it means doing small things well, over and over again.”
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Bill Ready, CEO of Pinterest, the visual search and discovery platform. |
“During my first months at Pinterest a few years ago, I made a single, very specific change that ended up reshaping the company’s trajectory: making Pinterest accounts private-only for users under 16.
Back then, the industry narrative was that Pinterest was “aging up and aging out," and many believed making under-16 accounts private would only make that worse. Even our own senior leadership warned me that the change would alienate young users, hinder growth, and make it harder for Pinterest to compete with other platforms.
But what I saw – both as a leader and as a parent – was that no level of engagement metric was worth compromising safety for kids. After a series of disturbing revelations across the broader industry about child safety on social platforms, one thing became clear to me: social media, as currently configured, is simply not safe for kids under 16. Giving minors a public profile and the ability to be found or contacted by strangers was not only risky, but unacceptable. Our best future, I believed, lay in doubling down on wellbeing and trust, not chasing short-term wins.
The reaction was intense. Our stock dropped sharply and critics warned we risked losing relevance with Gen Z. But we stood by our decision. Fast forward to today and Gen Z is our fastest-growing and largest demographic at over 50% of our users. They consistently tell us that one of the primary reasons they come to Pinterest is that they see it as an oasis away from the toxicity they encounter elsewhere on social media.
This experience reaffirmed for me that leadership sometimes means taking an unpopular stance – even against pushback from within. Short-term pressures may feel harsh, but doing the right thing for our users and the next generation always wins in the end.”
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Tim Fung, founder and CEO of Airtasker, a marketplace that allows you to outsource everyday tasks. |
“Instead of assuming the next stage of growth needed a new set of “grown-ups” from other companies who were where we wanted to be, one change that felt small at the time, but ended up being really significant, was deciding to promote people from within whenever we could.
When you’re scaling, it’s tempting to hire with the perfect CV in mind. But what I kept noticing was that the people already in the business had something harder to teach: context. They understood the history of our customers, the trade-offs, and the values we were trying to protect. So we built a simple habit into our leadership discussions: who on the team could grow into this? And then we backed them with real responsibility and clear expectations.
It sounds like a people decision (and it is), but it changed the business. It sped up decisions because fewer things needed re-explaining. It strengthened accountability because people felt genuine ownership. And it positively shaped our culture: if you do great work here, you can grow quickly.”
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Victoria Prew, CEO and founder of HURR, a rental and resale fashion marketplace. |
“I recently introduced a daily four-hour calendar block called “Founder Flow” that's completely changed how I work. I do this every Monday to Friday, 9am to 1pm. That means no meetings, no calls and zero notifications. I leave my phone in a different room and simply focus on deep work, strategy, writing and big-picture thinking.
I used to start the day reacting to other people’s priorities: emails and never-ending Slack messages. It felt like I was being productive, but it was chaotic, and I'm most productive in the mornings. I still kick off each day with a quick team huddle beforehand, so everyone’s aligned or projects are signed off, before heading into my alone time.
I’d say I stick to the Founder Flow 95% of the time – occasionally, calls or interviews are impossible to move, but that’s rare.
Those four hours are now where my best ideas come from. It’s been game-changing – I’ve realised just how distracted I get by every notification. I try not to just sit at my laptop, but instead use a notepad and pen to brainstorm ideas. I learned that, with constant context-switching, productivity drops 40%, and it takes 23 minutes to refocus every time. So this approach really helps. You have to protect your highest-value hours like they’re gold!”
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Max Henderson, co-Founder and CEO of Hotpod Yoga, a chain of hot yoga studios across the UK. |
“Working with a business coach completely changed my thinking. I’m a bit slow on the uptake of this kind of thing and have always, probably to my detriment, been someone who largely just gets on with it. Nick, my co-founder, is much more focused on personal development. Back in 2020, he suggested we consider working with a coach, and I've been doing that ever since.
What was extraordinary for me was that it became clear how I best shape my thinking: generally, by talking. Leading a business, it’s obviously key that you listen – and that you allow that to shape your thinking. But, equally, it’s critical you find your own way of honing and refining your own views and thoughts – whether it’s tackling a specific challenge or question, or shaping a view on the wider strategic direction. Some people go for a walk or lock themselves in a quiet room; others arrange workshops or strategy sessions. For me, I need to talk things over.
As a CEO, if you’re airing your thoughts with your team while they’re being formed, this can cause confusion and inconsistency. And so, while I’ve always lent heavily on others in the business to discuss things, I’ve found there’s a huge amount of value in discussing it with someone at a distance, with objectivity, and sometimes no context and no real opinion on the matter. That allows me the space to sharpen my views and lead more effectively.”
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Talk soon,
Steven