Georgie Dickins - The C-Suite Confidant: Lessons from Stratospheric CEOs

Georgie Dickins is a C-suite coach, confidant, and author who works behind the scenes with Fortune 50 executives and founder-CEOs building multi-billion-dollar companies. Her book, Stratospheric CEOs (Rethink Press, 2024), distills the lessons of seven elite founder-CEOs into one collection of hard-won wisdom.

In this episode of Book the Business, Georgie tells Joe Gregory:
– Why she left 20 years in corporate banking to become a C-suite advisor
– How a single conversation with a founder became the spark for her book
– Why ghostwriters and AI clip-generators couldn’t capture the nuance she needed
– The leadership aphorisms she’s collected from stratospheric CEOs: “raise the bar, widen the gap,” “if it ain’t broke, break it,” and “two ears, one mouth”
– Why storytelling — not strategy — might be the #1 skill of top leaders today
– How her book became a “living, breathing CV” that opened doors she never had to ask for
– The launch of her upcoming Stratospheric Leadership Institute

🔗 Find Georgie: georgiedickins.com
🎧 Listen to Stratospheric Leaders on Spotify & Apple Podcasts
📖 Georgie’s book: Stratospheric CEOs (Rethink Press)

Chapters
00:00 Intro: Meet Georgie Dickins
00:48 Why she wrote Stratospheric CEOs
02:46 Leaving 20 years of corporate banking
04:34 Choosing the niche: founder-CEOs in fintech
06:01 The “pinch me moment” that got Lance Iglor on board
07:24 The mission: democratizing CEO-level wisdom
09:42 Why “stratospheric,” not just “successful”
11:07 Why ghostwriters (and AI) couldn’t write the book for her
12:43 Writing 50% of the book on a rainy family holiday
13:39 What actually drives billionaires who “have it all”
16:15 “Raise the bar, widen the gap” — Lance’s leadership motto
16:52 “If it ain’t broke, break it” — Henry Fernandez’s philosophy
18:09 Curating bespoke leadership books (Raise the Bar)
21:08 The 2024 NYC book launch with 120 global leaders
23:14 The book as a “living, breathing CV”
24:09 Writing before AI was on anyone’s radar
25:37 More nuggets: “wombats,” “common sense isn’t common practice”
26:47 Why execution — not ideas — separates top CEOs
27:23 “Two ears, one mouth”: the listening discipline of top leaders
29:24 Why storytelling is the #1 leadership skill
32:05 Where AI can’t go: real stories, real trust
33:25 Appropriate vulnerability vs. oversharing
35:01 Inside the coaching room: advisory + coaching hybrid
39:18 Convening CEO circles and Women in Leadership events
42:00 Shout-out: her son Arthur’s Rugby Legends Podcast
44:37 Where to find Georgie and Stratospheric Leaders