Behind the CXO Title: Nick Sherrard on Engineering the Win-Win-Win

In this episode, I talk with Nick Sherrard, Chief of Staff at Thermal Shipping Solutions and a member of the CXO Fellows Program. Nick shares how an internship at a Shore portfolio company showed him just how quickly he could make a measurable difference in a microcap business, and what it means to be Chief of Staff in a fast-growing, family-founded company. An engineer by training, he reflects on thinking in inputs, outputs, and bottlenecks, finding the root causes behind recurring fire drills, and driving change without authority by making every solution a win-win-win. Nick also describes the role of the CXO cohort, part joint therapy and part best practice sharing, and shares the best advice he's ever gotten: don't confuse urgency with importance.

Key Takeaways:

In a microcap business, you can make a measurable difference fast, and the impact is clearly yours.Nobody else in your company is living the same highs and lows as the CXO. The cohort is part joint therapy and part best practice sharing.Thinking in inputs, outputs, and bottlenecks turns recurring fire drills into root causes you can actually fix.When you can't mandate anything, change happens by making every solution a win-win-win. If you can't make that case, you're probably solving the wrong problem.Don't confuse urgency with importance. This job is a marathon, not a sprint.

Chapters:

00:00 – Introduction05:41 – The Cohort and the Operator Path17:00 – An Engineer's Mindset22:20 – Playing the Libero30:02 – Urgency vs. Importance

Listen to our podcasts at:

https://www.shorecp.university/podcasts

You’ll also find other Bigger. Stronger. Faster. episodes, alongside our Microcap Moments and Everyday Heroes series—highlighting the people and stories that make the microcap space unique.

Other ways to connect:

Blog: https://www.shorecp.university/blog

Shore University: https://www.shorecp.university/

Shore Capital Partners: https://www.shorecp.com/