Speaking

The operating record, on stage.

I built an eight-figure company that runs without me at the center of every decision, and I still run it. That is what I talk about.

Every talk comes from the operating seat at BNN Services and from the advisory work at Trustedpreneurs. No slides full of frameworks nobody has run. The audience leaves with the shape of founder dependency, the order it comes apart in, and one thing to do on Monday.

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

Topics

Four talks, each with a Monday action.

The founder bottleneck is an architecture problem.

Why the calendar fix, the new system, and the new hire each bring the bottleneck back, and what is holding the company in place. Drawn from the work at BNN Services and in client engagements.

AudienceFounders and owner-operators of companies past the start-up stage.

Takeaways

  • A map of every decision that still routes through you.
  • The difference between moving tasks and moving authority.
  • The first decision to hand over, and how to make it stick.

Build Beyond You: the five-step sequence.

F.R.E.E.D. as it runs in a real company: Find, Redistribute, Engineer, Embed, Develop. Why the order matters and which step most companies skip.

AudienceLeadership teams, peer groups, and founder communities.

Takeaways

  • The sequence and why skipping step two undoes step one.
  • What done looks like: thirty days away with the numbers holding.
  • How to tell a system from a document.

AI accelerates whatever operating system you already have.

Two companies buy the same tools. One gets leverage, the other gets faster mess. The difference is decided before the tools arrive, and this talk shows how to decide it.

AudienceOwners and operators evaluating AI for a process-heavy business.

Takeaways

  • Which processes are worth speeding up and which need rebuilding first.
  • Where AI fails in service businesses, from experience.
  • A simple test before any AI spend.

Building a 40,000-agent network without being the only decision-maker.

The operating story of BNN Services: how a solo founder from 2008 built a nationwide distributed network that holds a standard without her in every exception. For audiences who want the record, not the theory.

AudienceIndustry conferences, operations and services audiences, women-in-business events.

Takeaways

  • How standards travel through a distributed network.
  • Named ownership as the unit of scale.
  • What I would do earlier, and what I would never do again.

Formats

Keynote, panel, fireside, workshop.

Keynote
30 to 45 minutes, one talk from the list above, tailored to the room.
Panel
Operator seat on founder, operations, services, and AI panels.
Fireside
A moderated conversation on the operating record and the method.
Workshop
90 minutes to a half day. The room maps its own founder dependencies and leaves with named owners.

Virtual delivery is available for all four.

On the record

Where I have been on camera and in print.

The live speaking record is being built. Here is the adjacent proof, each linked to the original.

See all coverage

Booking

Book Madeline for your event.

Based in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. Travels, and delivers virtually. Four weeks lead time for a keynote; panels and firesides can move faster.

Send the event, date, audience, and format, and I will reply with the topic fit and a speaker one-sheet.

mricci@themadelinericci.com
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Contact

Advisory work, writing and public appearances.

For inquiries, write to mricci@themadelinericci.com or use the contact page.

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