The People Behind EPIC21®
EPIC21 is shaped by the people who built it, support it, and keep it moving forward.
Meet the founder and team behind the strategy, operations, culture, and continued growth of EPIC21.
Jim Naleid
Founder, CEO, & Executive Driver
At the highest levels of business, decisions rarely stay inside the boardroom. They affect employees, families, customers, suppliers, and the communities around them. In smaller Midwest communities especially, business is personal. I have understood that responsibility throughout more than 50 years in business.
My career has taken me from the trading floor to the boardroom, working across construction, agriculture, banking, and IT services. I have helped guide organizations from startup through growth, mergers and acquisitions, and major transitions. Those experiences taught me plenty about business strategy, but even more about people, judgment, and what it means to carry responsibility when the answers are not obvious.
That thinking became the foundation of EPIC21® Executive Peers in Conference 21st Century Leadership and the philosophy I call Work Hard and Work Happy. Success should not require sacrificing everything else that gives life meaning.
EPIC21 is a high-trust executive peer group where business owners and C-suite leaders can bring the questions they cannot always discuss inside their own organizations. It is a place to test assumptions, hear candid perspectives from experienced peers, and make better decisions with greater clarity.
Confidentiality, trust, and vulnerability are the foundation of those conversations. They create the conditions for executives to move past polished answers and talk about what is actually happening. We build rooms that change how leaders think and develop the people who lead them.
My own work has included serving as a fiduciary advisor, hosting The Robert James Exchange radio program for 15 years, and providing business commentary for Bloomberg and ABC networks. I am also certified in Working Genius® and Peernovation®, frameworks that continue to shape how I think about peer leadership, group dynamics, and the value a well-led room can create.
I also believe leadership requires remaining a student. Recently, that meant enrolling in a weekend writing class in Denver and finishing the manuscript for a book written specifically for the next generation of leaders. Much of what I know came from people willing to share their experience with me. The book is one way I can pay some of that forward, including lessons from both the successes and mistakes I have accumulated along the way.
That is where I find the greatest meaning in this stage of my career: helping experienced people keep growing, helping wisdom move from one generation to the next, and helping create stronger businesses and communities in the process.
If you are looking for an executive peer advisory group where the conversations go deeper than networking, I would welcome the conversation.
“During the 12 years of my EPIC21® membership- I have had the privilege to work with exceptional leaders and visionaries within the business community, while receiving exceptional and personally tailored coaching from the group Chair, Jim Naleid.”
Matt Binsfeld, CEO,
J.F. Brennan Company Inc., regarding Long Term Growth
Michele Elliott
Sr. Marketing Strategist & Digital Advisor
I bring more than two decades of customer experience, brand messaging, and digital strategy experience to EPIC21®, helping ensure the experience outside the room reflects the trust and quality leaders experience inside it.
My background includes work with organizations ranging from UnitedHealthcare to the U.S. Department of Defense, along with businesses across a variety of industries. Those experiences taught me that strong brands are built through more than good marketing. What a company promises and what people actually experience have to match.
At EPIC21, I work behind the scenes on brand strategy, website experience, communications, email marketing, SEO, and digital initiatives that make it easier for prospective Drivers and Crew members to understand who we are, what makes EPIC21 different, and where they fit.
I also help EPIC21 think beyond the immediate marketing task. That means looking at the full experience, identifying gaps, strengthening relationships, and making sure our growth never comes at the expense of the high-trust culture that makes these rooms work.
My goal is simple: help EPIC21 communicate clearly, grow thoughtfully, and create an experience worthy of the relationships at the heart of the organization.