After three decades of running a family dental practice, Dr. Greg Gilbaugh was ready to plan his transition out of clinical dentistry so he could focus on developing his team and build a sustainable future for the practice. But as he compiled his 10-year plan, he realized that he didn’t have many examples to follow in dentistry. Greg knew he didn’t want to sell his practice and take a leisurely retirement like his peers were doing, but he wasn’t sure how to pave a different way forward.

In 2015, Coastal’s CEO, Buzz Wheeler, faced several new business challenges. As a founder, Wheeler had grown his company over fifty years from a single store to a major player in the Northwest. The company had recently completed an acquisition, increasing sales volume by 40 percent, and adding several new stores and dozens of employees in just a few weeks. Wheeler was concerned that the company’s big changes would impact its unique culture.

Chick-fil-A franchisee Nathan Buchanan had already been running a successful restaurant for five years when he decided to buy a larger franchise. But the higher volume franchise and larger team turned out to be more work than he’d bargained for, and soon he was floundering. He realized that if he wanted to run the business well, he needed to grow his ability to lead his team and manage the competing priorities in his work and life.

As America’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturer, Daimler Trucks North America has been engineering innovation in the commercial trucking industry since 1942. Daimler’s leaders realized that while they were heavily investing in the business, they weren’t making the same investment in leadership development. As a result, their culture was starting to suffer with a dip in employee satisfaction and engagement. They knew that if they invested in creating dynamic, effective leaders now, they’d be in a better position to weather market shifts in the future.

As a Southern Division Manager for Lehman-Roberts Co., Michael Ellis knows the fast-paced roadway construction industry well. But a few years ago, he found that he was so bogged down by day-to-day issues that he barely had time for strategic work. With many of his 65 employees planning to retire in the coming years, he needed to build up new leaders and develop an overarching strategy for the division’s success.

Alicia Alpenfels had been working in the mortgage industry for more than a decade when she decided it was time to grow her business further. But to do so, she knew she would need greater accountability to help her track her progress toward goals and give her a broader perspective on her business.

Phoenix real estate broker Christy Walker started her RE/MAX Signature franchise on the eve of the Great Recession in 2007 and managed to keep her team afloat through several tough years. But her business still wasn’t growing the way she wanted it to, and she was working long hours and missing out on time with her family. She wanted more direction and a coach who could help her take her business to the next level.

Tarbell Management Group CEO Brandon Tarbell has been proud to be part of his family’s business since he graduated from high school. But after leading the company for two decades, he realized that the way he was living his life didn’t match up with the way he wanted to be remembered. He wanted to build a better legacy through his life and leadership, so he sought an outside perspective from someone who had the experience and expertise to help him get there.

Four years after founding The Cupcake Girls, Joy Hoover was burning out. Determined to serve everyone in need of her nonprofit organization’s services, she was working herself to exhaustion and landing in the hospital on a regular basis. She could see that the work she loved was taking a toll on her health and her time with her family, and she knew something needed to change. She had to find a way to balance her passions and build a more sustainable organization.