Welcome to the “Second in Command” Podcast hosted by Cameron Herold, brought to you by the COO Alliance, where top-level COOs share their insights, tactics, and strategies that made them the Chief Behind the Chief. Cameron Herold founded the COO Alliance with one simple goal in mind: to provide COOs with the same professional development and growth opportunities CEOs have enjoyed for many years. COO Alliance is the world's leading network for the Second in Command. Cameron Herold is a top…
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What does it really take to turn a single-family ranch into a thriving, multi-stream meat company that families and top chefs trust? In this episode, Lindsay Smith sits down with Conner Hackett, General Manager of Stemple Creek Ranch , to unpack how a small California ranch grew into a multichannel meat company without ever cutting corners. Conner shares why culture and purpose matter more than…
What does it take to go from astrophysics to running operations at one of the fastest-growing AI companies in the world? In this Fan Favorite episode, Cameron Herold sits down with Victoria Weller, former Chief of Staff and now Lead of Operations at ElevenLabs, to revisit one of the show’s most fascinating conversations. Victoria’s path is rare: astrophysics, space medicine, quantum encryption,…
What if the most important team you lead is not the one you actually run? In this solo episode, Cameron Herold tells the story of coaching a 400-person company that had become the best place to work in its state, then watched politics spread through the leadership team like black mold. Silos, turf wars, and finger-pointing crept in right as the company scaled. His fix starts with one shift: your…
Ever wonder what happens when the COO who scaled a company to $100 million realizes he was the problem? In this episode, Cameron sits down with Mike Wood, COO of Jarrett Companies, who joined a $2 million Nashville construction firm and helped grow it into seven companies doing over $100 million. They get into the machinery behind that growth: meetings from 6 to 9 a.m., five days a week, a double…
What if the smartest move you can make is to disrupt your own company before a competitor does? In this episode, Lindsay Smith sits down with John Durocher, the self-described accidental COO of Calix . John never set out to run operations. He came up through consulting and customer success, never managed a supply chain or an IT org, and that is exactly why his CEO wanted him in the seat. His…
What is a COO actually for, and why do so many CEOs never figure it out? In this solo episode, Cameron Herold tackles a question most CEOs never answer clearly: What is the point of a COO? Working through Chapter 2 of his book Second in Command, he makes the case that there is no single template. The right COO is the one who fits the CEO. Cameron breaks down the traits that set strong…
What if walking away from the CEO seat was the smartest career move you could make in AI right now? Cameron Herold sits down with Alex Triplett, COO of you.com, the company quietly powering web search for AI agents behind brands like Salesforce, Anthropic, and Harvey. Alex turned down the chance to be a CEO to take the second-in-command seat at a fast-moving AI startup, and he explains exactly…
What if the most misunderstood role in business is also the one deciding whether your company scales? In this solo episode, Cameron Herold, founder of the COO Alliance and author of Second in Command, tackles the question every growth-minded CEO eventually faces: what exactly is a COO? Drawing on Bennett and Miles’ research and his own years as second in command at 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, Cameron…
What does it take to keep a brilliant, unpredictable founder from burning down the very thing he built? In this episode, Cameron Herold sits down with Dr. Jeff McNairy, Chief Medical Officer and second in command at Rythmia , the only medically licensed ayahuasca facility in the world. Jeff gave up his psychology license to help build something the medical world said could not exist. He and…
What if the parts of building a $100 million company nobody posts about are the ones you most need to hear? In this recast episode, Cameron Herold drops the highlight reel and tells the truth about scaling. The near-bankruptcy at $100 million. The $9 million fraud. The nervous breakdown on an elevator floor. The stuff entrepreneurs never post about until years later, if ever. Cameron walks through…
