Most founders underestimate one of the most powerful assets they have: Their presence. You can walk into a room with the right message, but if your energy is rushed or tense, the team feels that before they hear anything you say.
I learned this the hard way. For years, I assumed clarity of message would carry the room. But the room wasn’t just listening to my words. It was reading my breathing, my posture, where my hands were, and whether I was grounded. When a business depends heavily on its founder, the founder’s emotional state becomes the company’s emotional state.
If you show up stressed, the team contracts. If you show up centred, the team expands.
The turning point came when I stopped treating communication as persuasion and started treating presence as part of the strategic CEO role. Simple shifts changed everything: arriving centred instead of hurried, keeping my hands visible and open, pausing before responding, and holding the room rather than trying to convince it.
None of this is performance. It’s signal clarity. A founder who communicates with intention sends one message: The business is in steady hands.And a steady business is more stable, more scalable, and ultimately more valuable.
If you want a company that doesn’t rise and fall with your emotional bandwidth, the work begins with the CEO you’re becoming.
This is exactly what we develop inside next year’s Future-Proof Business cohort. The shift from operator to architect, grounded in presence, clarity, and leadership maturity.
Highlights:
00:00 The Importance of Presence
00:07 Personal Experience and Realization
00:24 The Impact of a Leader's State
00:40 Shifting to a Strategic CEO
00:50 Practical Changes for Better Communication
01:07 The Value of Intentional Communication
01:23 Building a Future-Proof Business
01:38 Join the Future Proof Business Cohort
Links:
Website: https://www.marcogrueter.com/