Ego, F*ckups and Walking the Talk with Tony McGrath

<p><strong>Host: Carrie Tuttle</strong></p><p><strong>Guest: Tony McGrath</strong></p><p><br /></p><p>Most entrepreneurs treat failure as something to hide. Tony McGrath lives his life around embracing and learning from it. </p><p>Tony McGrath, an entrepreneur, business leader, speaker, and strategic advisor with experience spanning financial and legal services, business development, and the arts in Canada and the United Kingdom, joins Carrie for a deep conversation about building, losing, and rebuilding, and why he believes good people, not perfect plans, make a business work. </p><p>A former senior banking executive and past CEO of Calgary's The Grand theatre, Tony has led organizational transformation and helped build high-growth businesses, including Arch Title, a significant player in the Canadian title insurance market, and today, he is founding partner of Surge Strategies Group. </p><p>Tony shares the ride of building a Canadian title insurer with his wife Marcy, from landing major pension fund backing to watching the stock market collapse weeks later. From there, they co-founded Fuckup Nights Kelowna, where local entrepreneurs gather and break the taboo of failure!</p><p>We dig into ego as the biggest obstacle to good decisions under pressure and how 28 years in recovery from alcohol addiction taught him to spot denial in life and in leadership, and the important role of mentorship. </p><p>Whether you're leading your first team or carrying every decision on your own shoulders, this conversation is an honest reminder that asking your team for input is part of the job, and that people notice whether you walk the talk.</p><p><br /></p><p>QUOTE-WORTHY MOMENTS:</p><ul><li>“If you can put yourself and your ego to one side, you're going to get a more informed process to help you with decisions.”</li><li>“Learn the lesson or you get to relearn the lesson.”</li><li>“I've always been of the opinion that if I hire really good human beings and find a job for them, our business thrives.”</li></ul><p><br /></p><p>EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:</p><ul><li>Sharing failure stories builds real community among entrepreneurs.</li><li>Hiring for character first opens doors for people who don't interview well.</li><li>Luck and timing play a bigger role in entrepreneurial success than most founders admit.</li><li>Ego and the need to know everything weaken a leader's decisions.</li><li>Consulting your team lowers the odds of failure, even when the leader makes the final call.</li><l