Description

Connecting Authentically: A Conversation with Chris Schwalbach

Episode 6 • November 10, 2025

Founder Chris Schwalbach on shifting from head to heart and why authentic relationships are the real ROI.

After building a successful finance firm, Chris Schwalbach realized his leadership needed less logic and more heart. He shares how coaching helped him unlearn family beliefs, ask personal questions, and practice vulnerability at work and home. This inner shift ultimately shaped his company’s culture and the relationships that led to AVL Growth Partners’ acquisition by Ampleo. A story about connection, curiosity, and saying what matters now.

About this episode

Founder and finance leader Chris Schwalbach opens up about shifting from a brain-first, value-proving style to a heart-led, relational approach. The pivot began in 2019 when outward success no longer matched his inner experience. Working with a coach, Chris uncovered an inherited belief that it is impolite to ask personal questions, saw why it served his family, and chose a different path. He practiced new muscles — asking human questions, building emotional vocabulary, and receiving appreciation without deflecting.

We trace how that inner work supported major business moves: hiring a CEO, stepping back in, and ultimately selling AVL Growth Partners to Ampleo. Chris committed to relationship building with no immediate agenda, meeting 100 people across the ecosystem. The eventual acquirer was a relationship planted eight years earlier. His takeaway is simple and practical: relationships are not a tactic — they are the point. We close with a challenge inspired by Walter Green’s “Say It Now” — tell people what they mean to you while you are both here.

Key takeaways

• Authentic leadership is built in practice; expand your emotional vocabulary and reps.
• Question inherited rules — helpful family beliefs may not serve your leadership today.
• Calibrate depth; go one notch deeper while protecting safety and trust.
• Change can disorient colleagues and family — name it, slow down, stay in dialogue.
• Receiving is half of connection; when appreciation arrives, let it land.
• Curiosity is a strategic asset — ask real questions without pre-editing.
• Relationships create outcomes — plant seeds early, nurture often, release the timeline.
• Protect time yet connect — make brief human check-ins part of meetings.
• Keep a reconnection list; reach out to two or three people this month.
• Say it now — express gratitude today rather than saving it for later.

Chapters

00:00 Navigating Personal Growth and Authenticity

03:10 From Head to Heart: Shifting How We Connect

06:01 Unlearning Family Rules About “What’s Personal”

09:02 Asking for Help, Vulnerability, and Early Stumbles

12:06 How Change Lands at Home and Work

15:04 Calibrating Depth and Building Emotional Vocabulary

20:57 Presence, Listening, and Subtle Culture Shifts

21:46 CEO Experiment, Return, and Path to an Exit

22:52 Relationship Mapping: 100 Conversations, No Agenda

25:19 Curiosity and Trusting Your Voice

27:12 The Practice of Receiving Praise

29:05 Time Respect, Human Check-ins, and Team Norms

30:40 Intentionality in Leadership and People Systems

35:07 Relationships as the Point, Not the Tactic

39:29 Say It Now: Expressing Appreciation in Real Time

Guest

Chris Schwalbach is a serial entrepreneur, finance professional, board director, and the founder of AVL Growth Partners, a fractional accounting and CFO firm recently acquired by Ampleo.

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