I’ll be honest, when we started talking about cereal preferences twenty minutes into our conversation with Ben Morrison, I wondered if we’d lost the plot. Brandon was making his case for Boo Berry (which I’d never even heard of), our guest was defending Raisin Bran’s substance over Lucky Charms’ flash, and I was sitting there thinking: how did we get here?
But that ridiculous debate about breakfast cereals? It perfectly captured what makes him different. While most CEOs would pivot back to metrics and market share, he leaned into the absurdity with us. Because sometimes the most profound conversations about leadership start in the most unexpected places.
The CEO Who Chose People Over Profits
Ben Morrison went from a starving window cleaner to a restaurant consultant to an AI innovator. Each pivot came from the same place: watching small businesses get crushed by a system built for giants, until he decided to do something about it.
As CEO of Made Simpler, he’s built something remarkable, a company that combines cutting-edge AI with something even more revolutionary: genuine care for the humans using it. His guiding principle? “People before profits.” That philosophy drives every decision they make.
When Desperation Becomes Education
His entrepreneurial baptism by fire came when a friend sold him a window-cleaning business, promising he’d “make money hand over fist.” The reality? He was starving from day one.
“Because I had no other choice, I had to just start figuring out the business. And I had to figure out how to go sell new accounts, and I had to get really scrappy, really fast.”
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That desperation became his education. Working with struggling restaurants at Sysco, he watched small business owners “dying on the vine” because every system favored their larger competitors. Where others saw failing customers, Ben saw an opportunity to level the playing field.
The Dark Chapter That Created “Be the Better”
The story that stopped our conversation cold came when Ben described his time as an embedded CMO for a leader who was, in his words, “brutal.” After helping 5x the company’s revenue, this CEO would berate the successful team to the point of tears, then demand he fire people for no reason.
“He would be like, ‘Hey Ben, you’ve got to go fire three people.’ I’m like, why am I firing three people? The team is rocking and rolling.”
Instead of becoming complicit, he created Be the Better, a moral framework to protect his team from the darkness above. He couldn’t control the CEO, but he could control his corner of the world.
Rewriting the Rules of Performance Management
This is where the approach moves beyond typical corporate solutions. Instead of accepting traditional PIPs (Performance Improvement Plans), which we all know are usually just paperwork for firing someone, he created the Success Acceleration Plan.
“People believe when you tell them they can succeed and you really reinforce that on a daily basis, they believe it.”
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At MarketStar, his positive approach achieved remarkable improvements in performance and retention. Why? Because it was built on a fundamental truth: “People become who you tell them that they are.”
Two Crazy Guys in an Afghan Restaurant
My favorite moment came when he described meeting Brandon:
“Two crazy guys that got together in an Afghan restaurant, and we literally just said, ‘Hey, we want to build a better world.’ We don’t really know how we’re going to do that… but we know we have the same value system.”
That was it. No elaborate business plan. No slide deck. Just two people who decided that blessing lives mattered more than maximizing profits.
Redefining What Success Really Means
When I asked Ben about success, his answer revealed everything:
“This isn’t about building wealth for Ben. This is about building wealth for our team members.”
He talked about creating scholarships for small businesses and about measuring impact by how many other impactful people they could help become more impactful, success measured in ripples, not just revenue.
How This Conversation Changed My Perspective
Sitting across the table, I kept thinking about my own journey, from coaching to education to Gladly Network. In every role, the greatest victories came from believing in people before they believed in themselves.
The moment he admitted he doesn’t have time for all the one-on-ones he wants anymore, so he brought in help, it struck me as real wisdom. Leadership, at its best, means knowing when to trust others to carry the mission forward and giving them space to do it well.
This conversation reinforced why I said yes to Gladly. Sometimes you have to build the environment you wish existed. And when you put people first, really first, not just in mission statements but in daily decisions, business doesn’t just survive. It finds its soul.
Ready to Join Us?
Your business doesn’t have to choose between purpose and profit. This conversation proved that the most successful companies are built by protecting and empowering the people who build them.
Want the full story, including the great cereal debate and that unforgettable confession about never visiting IKEA?
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