Vistage helped me realize that regardless of the industry you’re in, that you really share more with other business communities than you think. It gives you a little bit of confidence and a little bit of a boost knowing that you are not in this alone.

My Vistage group holds me accountable.

There is no other way to say that. You have to set the goals, you have to say the goals out loud, and the goals keep coming back. So what you told the group you are going to do, you better do. If not you better have a good reason why not. I appreciate that, because it is not just a group of my friends who are sitting around telling me I am wonderful, it is not that at all. It is people who are also in business who will question some of my decisions and who may ask different questions about that and who will really hold me accountable about things that I have said I am going to do.

 Light. Camera. Vistage.

After more than a decade working in television news, Carrie Ferenac was ready for a change.  

She quit her job at the NBC affiliate and was working as a freelance video producer when she met Marcelo Zolessi.  The two would become business partners and began creating video content for tradeshows and conventions.  They formed Convention News Television (CNTV) in 2007 when online video was still new.

“I was a new business owner, and didn’t know what I didn’t know”, she said.  After several years, they had more than a dozen employees, and were trying to figure out how to manage the growth.

That’s when one her closest friends recommended Vistage.  

“As a producer it was easy to get caught up in the details.  That is, after all, what producers do.  I needed Vistage to learn how to work ON the business instead of continuing to work IN the business”, Ferenac says.  “Vistage helps me stay at 30,000 feet to see the business as a whole, instead of getting caught up in the day to day grind.”

CNTV now produces video content at more than seventy events a year and has 28 employees.

Even though she travels often to conventions around the country, Ferenac makes sure to be in town for her monthly Vistage meetings and one-to-one meetings with her Chair.  CNTV has implemented the Entrepreneurial Operating System, created new compensation plans, and created culture fundamentals based on advice from members and speakers.

One of the speakers was especially impactful for Ferenac.  Jason Williford spoke on the importance of Culture, and how to manage a team effectively.  He asked Vistage members to take the Culture Index before his presentation and offered analysis for each individual.

The experience helped Ferenac understand her own strengths as a leader.  Once these strengths were identified, she found ways to implement them through one-to-one conversations with her Chair, Linda Pfister.  

“There’s no doubt I’m a stronger leader because of my experience with Vistage.  Our company is also stronger. There’s something really powerful about having a group of people who understand the challenges I’m facing and help me find ways to overcome those challenges.  I wouldn’t trade that for the world”.