From the operator’s seat

Madeline Ricci

Founder and Strategic Business Advisor

CEO of BNN Services. Co-founder of Trustedpreneurs with David Ricci. Creator of F.R.E.E.D.

I build and lead businesses, advise founders, and write about the systems and decisions that help a company grow beyond its founder.

Explore my workRead my thinking
Madeline Ricci, operator and strategist, in a cream blazer against a charcoal backdrop

The operating record

An operating record behind the advice.

I founded BNN Services in 2008 and I am still its CEO. It is an eight-figure national services firm working through a network of 40,000+ agents. Before that, 18 years in corporate leadership.

Read the full backgroundSee both companies

Selected work

Two engagements, in short.

Deliverable completed

Varsity Orthopedics

Advisory work continues, ongoing since January 2026.

Scheduling, hiring and every exception ran through Dr. Quatro Ott. Delivered so far: an operating library at version 2.0, in daily use, covering the standard operating procedures, the manuals, the HR and onboarding system, performance frameworks, and a structured hiring system.

I built and operate the hiring function. Two roles have been filled through it, one front desk and one medical assistant, both within 60 days. The leadership search is in its final stages.

This is delivered work and live work, not a finished result. Outcomes are still being tracked.

There are no excuses anymore.

Dr. Quatro Ott, Varsity Orthopedics
Dr. Quatro Ott at her desk holding two binders from the Varsity Orthopedics operations library
The Varsity Orthopedics operations library, version 2.0, in the practice

Delivered

Steady Bridge Consulting

Five months in, the firm had three offer ladders that contradicted each other and no single sentence describing what it did. We built one framework, one offer ladder, and a live assessment around the through-line the founder had been repeating without seeing it.

Positioning and offer structure, delivered. Kevin Smith describes the change in his own words below.

See the full record
Kevin Smith, founder of Steady Bridge Consulting

Madeline read everything I’d sent and gave me the one word I’d been writing over and over without noticing: SPACE. Now I have one framework, one offer ladder, a live assessment on my site, and a ten-second answer that’s the same every time. Deciding what fits used to run on anxiety. Now it runs on the framework.

Kevin SmithFounder, Steady Bridge Consulting
Read the full account

The ideas behind my work

F.R.E.E.D., and what I think AI is for.

F.R.E.E.D. is the five step method I created for reducing founder dependency: the pattern where authority, decisions and standards still route through one person. It is the shape I keep finding in founder-led companies, and it is the sequence I work in.

  1. 01

    Find

    Locate every decision that still routes through the founder.

  2. 02

    Redistribute

    Move authority and accountability together, to the same person.

  3. 03

    Engineer

    Build the systems that hold the work when nobody is watching.

  4. 04

    Embed

    Make the new way survive contact with a busy quarter.

  5. 05

    Develop

    Grow leaders who carry it forward without being pushed.

See what F.R.E.E.D. is

BUILT AROUND YOU

Built around you: every line terminates at the founder at the centre.HIRINGPRICINGQUALITYVENDORSCLIENTSSALESYOU

Every decision terminates at one person.

BUILT BEYOND YOU

Built beyond you: the same work distributed across three named owners, with the founder no longer the only termination point.HIRINGPRICINGQUALITYVENDORSCLIENTSSALESOPSREVENUEDELIVERYYOU

The work sits with named owners.

Left: every line terminates at the founder. Right: the same work distributed across named owners.

Where AI fits

My view is simple: AI does not fix operational dysfunction. It accelerates whatever operating system a company already has. So the useful question is which processes are sound enough to be worth speeding up, and which need rebuilding first.

How I approach AI in a business

Writing and conversations

Written and recorded while running the company.

Read all insights

Build Beyond You

The podcast I co-host with my husband David Ricci, CEPA, currently published as Trustedpreneurs: The Podcast. Same subject as the advisory work: what it takes for a company to keep its standard when the founder steps back.

Listen to Build Beyond You

In the public conversation

Where the record has been checked elsewhere.

Television appearances and published features, each with a direct link to the original.

Madeline Ricci with the Office Hours with David Meltzer panel on the Season 6 set
On the panel, Office Hours with David Meltzer, season 6 taping

  • Broadcast appearance

    Apple TV

    Named in the season 6 announcement for Office Hours with David Meltzer, alongside BNN Services.

  • Published feature

    CIO Views

    Named in a 2024 list of entrepreneurs redefining success in business.

  • Published feature

    Moguls of Business

    BNN Services was built to eight figures, starting in 2008.

  • Published writing

    Living Magazine

    Published thinking on direction and focus for business owners.

See all coverage

Where the work lives

Two companies, both running.

BNN Services

The operating company. A nationwide real estate signing execution and coordination firm, working through a network of 40,000+ agents. I founded it in 2008 and I am the current CEO.

Visit BNN Services

Trustedpreneurs

Co-founded with my husband David Ricci, CEPA, in 2023. This is where the advisory work and the F.R.E.E.D. method are applied with founders, and where Build Beyond You is published.

Visit Trustedpreneurs
How the two companies relate

Continue the conversation.

If founder-led leadership, operating systems, or where AI genuinely helps is on your mind, I am glad to talk it through.

Talk with Madeline