The Scaled CEO

EP 87: Why Your Network Is Your Real Growth Strategy (And How to Build One That Actually Works) with Courtney Spritzer

Courtney Spritzer co-founded Socialfly in 2012, scaled it into a Fortune 500-serving agency, and sold it in 2024. But the move that changed everything wasn't the exit — it was the community she built on the side. She's now the co-founder of Entreprenista League, a membership community of nearly 4,000 women founders, and she's watched it generate more real business growth for its members than most paid programs ever will. In this episode, Courtney breaks down what community actually means at the CEO level — why online followers don't replace real rooms, how she keeps 4,000 members genuinely connected, and what she looks for as an angel investor when a founder walks in with a deck. If you've been building your business mostly solo, this one is going to push you to rethink that. Connect: Courtney Spritzer Instagram: @courtspritzer [https://instagram.com/courtspritzer] | @entreprenista [https://instagram.com/entreprenista] Website: entreprenista.com [https://entreprenista.com/]

EP 86: Why Every Online Business Needs a Live Event in 2026 with Daesha Donze

Daesha Donze has planned retreats in castles, coordinated luxury experiences across multiple countries, and built a business almost entirely through in-person referrals — not a single client from Instagram. She joins Sally to talk about the mistake most founders make when planning their first retreat: starting with the logistics instead of the transformation. In this episode you'll hear why the ROI of a live event rarely lives in ticket sales, what it actually costs you to host without proper support, and why Daesha insists on starting with the room's identity before the venue, the catering, or the country. If you've been circling the idea of hosting something in-person, this is the episode that clears the fog. Connect with Daesha Donze: Daesha Donze | @deishadansi [https://www.instagram.com/deishadansi] | DM for a 15-minute discovery call [https://www.instagram.com/deishadansi] | Learn More About Styl’d Events [⁠https://daeshadonze.com/link-in-bio-couture-retreats-and-events⁠]

EP 85: Why Your Low-Ticket Offer Isn't Working (And How Ads Fix That) with Marie Nyman

Marie Nyman has spent nine years inside Meta ads helping multi-six and seven-figure founders stop being the only sales system in their own business. This episode is not a surface-level ads conversation. Marie breaks down why ads will only amplify what's already working — and what actually has to be in place on the back end before you spend a dollar on traffic. You'll walk away knowing the difference between a traffic campaign and a sales campaign, why your low-ticket offer needs to speak to your highest-level buyer (not the person who can't afford you yet), and how a well-built ad funnel takes people from a $27 entry point all the way into your high-ticket container without you manually closing every sale. Connect with Marie: Marie Nyman | @marienymanofficial [https://www.instagram.com/marienymanofficial/] | Free resource — use code SCALE [https://www.marienymanofficial.com/]

EP 84: She Couldn't Find a Premium System Built for Women, So She Built One with Laurel Beard

Laurel Beard is the founder of The Funnel Queens — a done-for-you website, funnel, automation, and email marketing system built specifically for women with established businesses. She ran six online summits, each clearing six figures, figured out exactly what a high-converting backend needed to look like, couldn't find it anywhere, and spent six months building it herself. She takes two custom builds per month. That's not a scarcity play — that's because she's the only client-facing contact on every build, and she won't compromise that. In this episode, Laurel and Sally get into what it actually looks like when an established founder hands over her full backend to be rebuilt right — not patched, not templated, but built for where she's going, not where she started. They also get into why ugly, scattered systems are costing founders more than they realize, and what it means to finally have one place that holds everything. Connect Laurel Beard Instagram: instagram.com/thefunnelqueensofficial [https://instagram.com/thefunnelqueensofficial] Website: thefunnelqueens.com [https://thefunnelqueens.com/] Book a call: book.thefunnelqueens.com/discovery-call [https://book.thefunnelqueens.com/discovery-call]

EP 83: Why Your Meta Ads Aren't Scaling and What To Do Instead With Akshaya Naagar

Akshaya Naagar has scaled brands to six-figure ARR using Meta ads — and her take on why most ad campaigns stall isn't what you'd expect. It's not the budget. It's not the algorithm. It's the creative, and more specifically, how few brands actually understand the person they're talking to before they start spending. In this conversation, Akshaya breaks down how micro-specific messaging outperforms broad targeting, why the farming mindset beats the hunting approach for sustainable growth, and what most product-based businesses get wrong about positioning before they ever touch an ad account. Connect with Akshaya: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/akshayanaagar/ [https://www.instagram.com/akshayanaagar/] Website: https://www.nuehivemedia.com/ [https://www.nuehivemedia.com/]