Voice Of Success with Sophie Hedestad

In this episode, we sit down with Alina Vandenberghe, the fearless co-founder and co-CEO of Chili Piper. In 2016, she sold her house to fund the launch of a company with one clear mission: to fix the broken B2B buying experience. Fast-forward six years, and Chili Piper is now a near-unicorn, helping GTM teams at companies like Gong, and Verizon convert demand like pros. Alina opens up about building a business with her husband and co-founder Nicolas, lessons from hypergrowth, and juggling startup life with raising two young boys in Brooklyn. This episode is all about bold moves, smart scaling, and what it means to lead with purpose in the modern startup world.

We're joined by Fanny Wallér, a seasoned executive and board professional with over two decades of leadership experience in strategic communications, sustainability and corporate transformation. Together, we explore the board's crucial role in goal setting and how frameworks like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) can be effectively. Fanny shares practical insights on aligning strategy with execution, driving transformation, and how boards can go beyond oversight to actively shape an organization's future. Whether you're a board member, executive, or just curious about how high-level strategy comes to life — this episode is packed with value.  

Welcome to Ready Set Goal! I'm Sophie Hedestad, the CEO and founder of NOQX, a leading performance platform for companies aiming to win in their industries. I am beyond excited for this episode. Joining me is Professor Lukas Goretzki from the Stockholm School of Economics. Lukas is a renowned expert in the field of management and control systems, with extensive research and insights that are reshaping how we think about leadership and organizational goals. In this episode, we'll explore the delicate art of balancing transformational goals with the more routine, yet essential, business-as-usual objectives that every company faces. In my conversations with leaders, this is often the most challenging area they grapple with—striking that perfect balance can feel like an uphill battle. Lukas is here to shed light on this issue and share his perspective on how leaders should approach this. His suggestion is nothing short of brilliant, and I can't wait for you to hear it.

Welcome to today's episode! I'm Sophie Hedestad, and joining me is Andreas Johansson, CEO of SSE Business Lab, the startup incubator at the Stockholm School of Economics. And just recently, he announced that he will start a new venture. It's not official quite yet, but he wrote something about fintech the other day on LinkedIn, so let's see what he comes up with! Since 2019, Andreas has spearheaded innovative programs like Activate, Incubate, and Ideate at SSE Business Lab, nurturing over 200 companies with a focus on entrepreneurship and sustainability. He also has experience with the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce in New York, including the launch of Gateway, a hub for Scandinavian businesses in the U.S. Today, we will talk about Andreas passion for merging entrepreneurship with setting and achieving visionary goals through purpose-driven OKRs. Join us as Andreas shares insights on transforming visions into tangible achievements and the strategies behind SSE Business Lab's impressive goal-setting journey.

Welcome to Ready, Set, Goal the 15-minute podcast where we dive into the art of goal-setting at work! Join host Sophie Hedestad, CEO of NOQX, a leading performance platform, as she uncovers how top leaders achieve their goals. In today's episode, Sophie chats with Jenny Rundbladh, CEO of SPP, who will reveal the secrets behind their "Must Win Battles" strategy, a powerful approach to achieving clarity and focus in goal-setting. Tune in for an inspiring conversation that will help you master your own goals. Are you ready? It's time for Ready, Set, Goal!

In this episode of Ready, Set, Goal, Sophie Hedestad is joined by Martin Weibull, the esteemed CEO of Intelliplan, who generously shares insights into his company's remarkable journey towards success. Together, they explore Intelliplan's innovative use of OKRs to not only drive growth but also to realize their vision of becoming industry leaders. Join Sophie and Martin as they uncover the intricacies of Intelliplan's OKR methodology and learn how it can inspire and guide listeners towards their own triumphs. Get ready to set your goals and make them a reality with Ready, Set, Goal!  

Step into the world of goal-setting and OKRs with "Ready, Set, Goal," a fun 15-minute podcast hosted by Sophie Hedestad. Sophie works at NOQX, a cool platform that makes goal-setting enjoyable for everyone. Today, Sophie chats with Jeff Gothelf, who's really good at helping big companies with their goals. Jeff shares his "aha" moments about setting objectives and key results (OKRs). Get ready to learn some cool stuff about reaching your goals! Tune in and Ready, Set, Goal!

Welcome to Ready, Set, Goal, the 15-minute podcast delving into the fascinating realm of goal-setting strategies. I'm your host, Sophie Hedestad, here to spark inspiration for achieving ambitious growth goals within organizations. Proudly representing NOQX, a platform dedicated to making goal setting enjoyable for both employees and leaders. In today's episode, I have the privilege of conversing with Johan Oljeqvist, the CEO of Fryshuset. Fryshuset adopts a distinctive decentralized and value-driven approach to goal setting. Does this unconventional method lead to success? Join us as we explore and unravel effective goal-setting strategies with Johan Oljeqvist. Are you ready to gain some goal-setting insights? Ready, set, goal!  

In this episode, we're joined by Kim Swing, the HR Director at Ahlsell, the top distributor of installation products in the Nordic region. Kim handles People and Culture at the company. We're talking about why diversity and inclusion matter when setting goals. Plus, we'll chat about how Ahlsell sets and grows its goals over the years.

In this episode you have the opportunity to listen to Heidi Rundt, CEO of Hyper Island she has an amazing track record in commercial roles. She joined HyperIsland in 2017 and Hyper Island is a digital creative business school. As the CEO she is responsible for the overall results at Hyper Island, we will explore her insights on goal-setting strategies for maximum success. Since Hyper Islands uses the famous framework OKR we will dig into how they use the framework, how it developed over time and potential pitfalls start using it.  

Join us in this episode of 'Ready Set Goal' as host Sophie explores the inspiring journey of Helene Auramo, founder of the Slush tech event in Helsinki. Helene shares her entrepreneurial experience, from co-founding various organizations to leading her current startup. Delving into the inception of Slush in 2008, Helene unveils the vision that guided its evolution into a global phenomenon. Discover the unconventional goal-setting strategies that fueled Slush's success and gain valuable insights on effective teamwork and communication. Whether you're a startup enthusiast or a seasoned entrepreneur, this episode offers a compelling narrative on building and sustaining excellence in the tech event landscape.

In this episode, we delve into the world of strategic goal setting with Giles Whiting, former COO at Forsta and Operating Advisor at Verdane. Giles shares invaluable insights gained from his role in leading Forsta's go-to-market strategy and his involvement with Verdane. The conversation explores the significance of clear, consistent, and aligned goal setting for both professional and personal success. Giles outlines a structured approach to goal setting within organizations, emphasizing the use of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to ensure alignment across teams. He highlights the importance of simplicity, consistency, and regular communication in achieving and surpassing goals. Join us for a compelling discussion on mastering the art of goal setting with a seasoned leader in the field.  

Kristin Berg, from Mestro, provides insights into her role and the company's approach to goal setting and alignment. Mestro's vision and mission are also discussed, with Kristin sharing her involvement in shaping these key elements. When it comes to goal setting, Kristin describes the framework used at Mestro, including the frequency and quantity of goals set. She highlights the importance of aligning these goals throughout the organization, ensuring that they cascade from the top down. Enjoy!

We just thought the pandemic was over and then war hit us and with that comes crazy energy prices and inflation. What happens in the world around us for sure affects the tech-scene and SaaS companies in the Nordics. Companies have for many years focused on growth instead of profitability and we have been forced to face a new reality with tighter budgets and letting go of people. The first department the CFO and CEO takes a closer look at is marketing and what they are looking at is revenue and spend, what can really be attributed towards marketing? Every dollar that can not be proven ROI will be cut out. We will talk about going back to basics in marketing and how to setup your marketing organisation for success in uncertain times.

Very welcome to the Voice Of Success with myself Sophie Hedestad. In this episode I will be talking about building a kick ass brand with my guest Gwen Lafage. What defines a strong brand and can all companies build a strong brand? In companies and especially in marketing we talk about you cannot manage what you cannot measure. What is Gwens point of view on measuring brand? We will also talk about defining your brand category and why that is important. Gwen works for hyper-growth company Sinch, they went from 800 people to 4000 in a year. With this hyper growth, what challenges might that cause a brand? Enjoy!

Very welcome to the Voice Of Success with myself Sophie Hedestad. In this episode I have an interesting guest with me, her name is Laura Erdem. She is working for the danish SaaS company Dreamdata. Dreamdata and Laura is particularly good in Social Selling on LinkedIn. This is a platform many B2B companies want to understand to drive demand. We will dig deep on how to create success for your company as well as you as an individual. Why should you work with Social Selling? Whats the benefits? What type of content drives engagement and what is the recipe for success? Let´s figure it out!

Welcome to #VoiceOfSuccess with myself Sophie Hedestad and my guest Gianna Driver. Gianna Driver is the Chief Human Resource Officer at Exabeam. She is located in sunny California and today we will talk about her experience and journey working with people and culture. As always, we talk about why Gianna have been successful in life and really how she defines success. She will talk about how she ended up working in Human Resource and the journey behind ending up at Exabeam. We will also talk about NUMBERS! What metrics should HR peeps report on and why? We will talk about preconceptions, are there any towards people working in HR? Why? We talk about diversity and inclusion and the best advice to create a kick ass company culture.

Do not forget to subscribe to this podcast! Very welcome to the #VoiceOfSuccess and in this episode I talk to Kim Scott. She is passionate about helping companies develop healthy feedback cultures and build cohesive teams. She have written a bunch of books for example Just Work – Get shit done and also Radical Candar. As always we talk about success and what success means to Kim. We also talk about workplace injustice, discrimination and Kims experience and research around this. How you can fight this? How should companies work? I read that Kim said somewhere that the more competent a woman is, the less people, include her and like her, including her boss, why is that? We will sort this out in the episode.

Welcome to the #VoiceofSuccess. Today I have Customer Experience Rockstar James Dodkins with me. He is a Customer Experience Evangelist at Pega systems. But what is a CX Rockstar, this will is something James will explain today. As always in #VoiceOfSuccess, what is James drive? We also talk about: How you create a magnetic brand and stand out from the crowd? How do you get new happy customers? How do you deliever a kick as customer experience Do you believe that Happy Employees drives Happy Customers, why? Are you ready? Listen to the Voice of Success!

Today I am talking to Siri Chilazi about equality and inclusion. Most companies are not very good at this unfortunately. There is a connection between equality and modern performing businesses. In our conversation we will explore if we are going in the right direction or what needs to change in order for us to do so. Even if we have an equal board or management team, are woman and marginalized groups really included and can they speak up? Listen to Siri and hear her thoughts.

In this episode I get the opportunity to talk to marketing guru Sangram Vajre. He has launched a book called MOVE that is one of the best selling business books at the moment. It is a go to market framework that all businesses that wants to launch it´s products successfully could and should use. He is also passionate about marketing and today we will talk about being a CMO and what to focus on to be successful. What should a CMO report on and what should a successful CMO/CEO relationship look like? Fasten your seatbelts.

Meet Bjorn Radde, Head of Digital Marketing at T-systems International. In this episode of Voice of Success Bjorn will talk about Social Selling and LinkedIn. He will also talk about how to enter the German market successfully and how to get the most out of your digital marketing efforts. Enjoy!

Matt is an award-winning author, speaker and consultant on Customer Experience and strategy. As a speaker, he has addressed industry leaders at every kind of organization imaginable, from Microsoft to the FBI. In this episode we talk about how businesses out there are constantly trying to predict the future, to what results? Listen to Matts reflections on how to create a predictable strategy. 

This is #TheVoiceOfSuccess with Sophie Hedestad. In this episode I am speaking to Pratik Thakker who is Israel's Tech Ambassador to India. He found love, he followed his heart and moved to Israel. He left his homeland India and he explains how tough the first year was leaving his family and friends for a new culture and language. Of course, as always in Voice of success, we also talk about success and how Pratik defines being successful. He shares why he has been really successful at LinkedIn! He tells us how he came up with the crazy idea to post something on LinkedIn for 1000 days and how you create engagement by the ones that follows you. Since Pratik is a successful marketer, of course we also touch a little bit upon how businesses should do their marketing these days and what competence is mot valuable for marketing departments if you can only recruit one person.

Meet Kristine Hofer Næss. She is the Chief Customer Officer at Amesto and she is located in beautiful Oslo, Norway.  Kristine is customer obsessed, a very good thing since most companies strive to build a customer obsessed culture and would not survive without paying customers. We will talk about the Customer Experience program Kristine built and how Amesto are gathering feedback from customers to make data driven decisions.   She has previous experience from tech giant Microsoft and also started the network “ODA”. ODA is the leading meeting place for women in tech in the Nordics with more than 10.000 members and more than 50 strategic partners across various industries.   She will share why she has been successful in life as well as how to make data driven decisions based on insights from customers.

Companies must simplify their strategies and focus on two things only: Employee Experience and Customer Experience. Often can companies can create complexity that is confusing for the employees. Strategies can sometimes even be conflicting and overwhelms employees. Listen to Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee from Harvard Business School and get inspired how you can simplify your strategies. By aligning strategies leaders will improve both Employee Experience and Customer Experience.

Mikkel Drucker is newly appointed CEO of the successful SaaS-company Netigate. He gives a background to himself and why he has been successful in life. He shared what the most inspiring workplaces been like and his way of viewing leadership.  Research shows that Employee Experience drives Customer Experience, but how do you build a successful and strong company culture? Mikkel has the answers, do not miss out.

In this episode I am talking to Natalia Brzezinski she works as Head Of Strategy at fintech company Klarna. Did you know how Natalia got Barack Obama to her Brilliant Minds event in Stockholm or what Hillary Clintons last words to her where before moving to Sweden? Listen to the #VoiceOfSuccess! If you work within any technology or SaaS-company Natalia is supporting you, she is building bridges between US and Europe. She lived many years in Stockholm, Sweden and got to know many tech entrepreneurs in Scandinavia at the time. We are also talking about what role your childhood plays in being successful and what the differences would be for her children compared with herself. This is the voice of success with myself, Sophie Hedestad.

In this episode I am talking to Catherine De La Poer. She is Putting Emotional Intelligence at the heart of Leadership Development. She is a keynote speaker within digital transformation, and she is passionate about human sustainability. Of course this is also the topic, we will talk in depth about emotional intelligence. I was fascinated when Catherine talked about how trust is created, which is key, if you are working with leadership! Trust is actually a chemical process in the brain, when you trust someone you are releasing oxytocin. When you fear someone on the other hand you release cortisol. When you release cortisol you freeze and are not able to contribute and produce the results needed. That is why every leader need to practice emotional intelligence, it is not too late. Let Catherine de la Poer inspire you. This is the voice of success with myself, Sophie Hedestad.  

Blake Morgan is Customer Experience Futurist, Bestselling Author, Keynote Speaker. She is also a working mom, balancing life and career. Life is full of opportunity and options. Would it not be great to take part of this? We talk about how your childhoos has a part of you beeing succesful In this episode Blake share her best tips on beeing succesful. She is also great at Customer Experience and will guide you on what are the big no-no´s, what are the right thing and how you can build a strong culture.  

In this episode Sophie Hedestad is interviewing Morgan J Ingram about how to be successful in life and in sales. Morgan shares his best insights in how to prospect, how to cold call, how to pitch and how to conduct meetings. This is the ultimate guide if you want to be better at sales. After this episode you will instantly get motivated to do sales calls and to pursue a career. Enjoy!

Sophie Hedestad is interviewing Matt Burns. Matt Burns is the founder of Global HR Summit and “Thinking Inside the Box” Podcast. He is an expert in Work Experience and in Human Resources. He is awarded with several prices: “HR Team of the Year 2018” and “Most Innovative Use HR Tech 2017”. In this episode of #VoiceOfSuccess we will discuss the future of the HR-department and how to increase employee engagement during times of pandemic. Matt will share why knowledge based companies is the winners and why they will survive long term. Enjoy, this is the #VoiceOfSuccess!  

Sophie Hedestad is interviewing Jeannie Walters about Customer Experience (CX) and how to build a customer centric organisation. For more than 20 years, Jeannie Walters has been dedicated to creating meaningful moments and real results. As the Founder and Chief Experience Officer of Experience Investigators, Jeannie has helped organizations -- from small businesses to Fortune 500s like Verizon and Allstate -- create fewer ruined days for customers. She is a TEDx speaker, a founding member of CXPA, co-host of the top-rated Crack the Customer Code podcast, and a four-time Linkedin Learning instructor whose courses have been watched by more than 200,000 online learners. Links to Linkedin Learning courses: Jeannie's instructor page: https://bit.ly/jeannie-lil  Creating a Positive Customer Experience: http://bit.ly/lilpositivecx  Customer Experience: Journey Mapping: http://bit.ly/liljourneymap  Customer Service Blueprinting: http://bit.ly/lilblueprint  Journey Mapping: Case Study in Action: http://bit.ly/lilcasestudy    Links to Year of CX resources: Overview: YearofCX.com CX Success Statement Workbook: https://bit.ly/cx-success-workbook  CX Mission Statement Workbook: https://bit.ly/cx-mission-workbook  SMIRC Goals Checklist: https://bit.ly/smirc-checklist  Employee Journey Mapping Template: https://bit.ly/ejmtemplate  Customer Journey Storyboarding Template: https://bit.ly/journey-storyboard 

Very welcome to Voice of Success with Sophie Hedestad. This is a must follow show if you are looking for business success as well as personal success. Sophie will interview some of the most influential business people and influencers to make them share the recipe for success.