
243. “Where Are Your Internal Gaps” with Carol Schultz
Send us Fan Mail Dawn talks with Carol Schultz, founder and CEO of Vertical Elevation, who shifted from executive recruiting and coaching to serving as an organizational strategist for mostly privately held SMB companies (roughly 5M–300M) and typically exits within three to six months after backfilling with roles like chief of staff or COO. Schultz explains how she identifies business “gaps” through separate discovery meetings with executives, boards, and select contributors, listening for what is said and unsaid to build a roadmap. She says the most common root issue is ineffective communication, which often reveals missing internal structures such as SOPs, employee handbooks, org charts, leadership teams, and predictable feedback loops—problems that can keep companies stuck (e.g., at $5M). The conversation highlights that funding or hiring alone won’t fix issues without CEO buy-in, behavior modeling, and patient change implementation, and emphasizes bringing in experts rather than founders doing low-value work. Who Is Carol Schultz And Whom Does She Serve? (00:47) Gap Analysis Discovery (01:56) Communication As Root Cause (03:09) Wild West Operations (04:00) Founder Leadership Bottleneck (04:42) VC Money Isn’t Competence (05:16) Buy In And Accountability (09:41) Change Takes Time (11:41) Building Leaders And Language (15:12) Multigenerational Communication (17:21) Feedback Loops And SOPs (19:32) Fractional HR Fixes (19:50) Building Feedback Loops (20:23) Leading Across Generations (22:01) Founders Need Experts (23:19) Carol Schultz’s Information: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolbschultz/?isSelfProfile=false Website: https://verticalelevation.com/ Support the show Thanks for listening. If you liked what you heard and want more, please visit and subscribe: Subscribe to our Youtube Channel: https://youtube.com/@dawnkkennedyxo?si=DcRcjv7H0KN5_vFP Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/dawnkkennedyxo Follow us in Tiktok: https://tiktok.com/dawnkkennedy For weekly in-depth articles, tips, and strategies: https://getinweredoingbusiness.substack.com Dawn’s Website: https://dawnkkennedy.com/ Links and Freebies: https://dawnkkennedy.com/resources New Book: Before You Decide: The Field Manual for Durable Decisions Under Pressure https://dawnkkennedy.com/byd/ Read: Strategic Intelligence Articles, Insights, and Resources Support the show SUPPORT THE SHOW O...















