Escape the CEO Doom Loop
Escape the CEO Doom Loop is built for CEOs and leadership teams ready to grow. Each episode delivers practical insights, real-world stories, and tools you can use today to lead with clarity and scale with confidence. We spotlight what’s working—and what’s not—for leaders navigating growth, building culture, and driving accountability.
It’s more than a podcast—it’s a gateway to The CEO Playbook and the next step in becoming the leader your business needs next.
Escape the CEO Doom Loop
Episode 26 Starting over at almost 50 with Mike Amine
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Mike Amine walked away from a corner office, a 26-year run, and a guaranteed paycheck at MetLife to start over from zero at almost 50. No marketing department, no compliance department, no built-in resources. Just a leap of faith and his wife Marcy.
Ten years later he built Wealth Strategies Financial Group into a firm managing close to a billion dollars, ranked number one in his market among 14,000 advisors. Getting there meant learning to let go of control, and accepting that leadership isn't a title. It's the people you choose to bring with you.
Mike talks with Glen and John about the financial stress of bankrolling your own payroll, the hardest decision he's made as a CEO, and why he's still reinventing himself after 36 years in the business. If you've ever wondered whether it's too late to hit reset, this one's for you.
In this episode:
- Why Mike left a 26-year career at MetLife and a corner office to start his firm from nothing
- The financial stress of bankrolling your own payroll after years of someone else guaranteeing it
- The workshop lesson that changed how he leads: "you have to delegate to elevate"
- Why the hardest decision as a CEO is letting go of people he liked and trusted
- How the Peter Principle shows up as a firm scales from a handful of people to dozens
- The line between confidence and arrogance, and why empathy separates the best leaders
- Mike's pitch for the next edition of The CEO Playbook
ABOUT THE PODCAST
Escape the CEO Doom Loop is honest conversation about what it takes to lead a growing company without losing your mind. Each episode, Glen and John sit down with CEOs, the advisors who work alongside them, and the authors who shaped how they think.
The through-line is the Doom Loop. The cycle where capable CEOs carry too much, solve instead of lead, and feel responsible for everything while trusted with nothing. The show is for owners and presidents running companies between $10M and $100M who feel some of that and rarely say it out loud. No theory, no hype. Patterns you'll recognize, and the moves that break the loop.
PODCAST HOSTS
Glen Dall is the founder and CEO of Apex North Business Coaching. He works with growth-stage CEOs on the leadership and structure it takes to scale, using the Apex North Star Way, powered by Metronomics.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glendall/
John Ninkovich is the founder and CEO of John Ninkovich Coaching, based in Detroit, and has spent his career leading and advising growing companies.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-ninkovich-398640/
