Machen MacDonald is a business and life coach and the founder of ProBrilliance Leadership Institute. He's been a repeat guest on the Gold Mine Podcast and has worked with Cody directly in a coaching capacity. In this episode, Machen returns to talk about his role as a Vistage Chair — leading a local peer advisory group for business owners and CEOs in the Gold Country region.
Machen MacDonald is a business and life coach and the founder of ProBrilliance Leadership Institute. He's been a repeat guest on the Gold Mine Podcast and has worked with Cody directly in a coaching capacity. In this episode, Machen returns to talk about his role as a Vistage Chair — leading a local peer advisory group for business owners and CEOs in the Gold Country region.
Vistage is a peer advisory organization with over 45,000 members across the country. Local groups meet once a month for a full day — typically 8:30 AM to around 3:30 or 4 PM. The day is split into two parts:
One of the most important things Machen's group does is slow people down before jumping to solutions. Members often think they know what their issue is — but nine times out of nine, it turns out to be something different. The group uses a disciplined inquiry process to peel back the layers before anyone starts offering advice. As Machen puts it, if everyone rushes to solve the wrong problem, you've just wasted the room's best thinking.
A powerful example: a member was stuck on whether to let go of a long-tenured employee. The group reframed it with one question — "Imagine your family, your staff, and your customers are all sitting in a theater watching a movie of your life up to this point. What is the audience screaming at the screen for you to do?" He knew the answer immediately. Sometimes you don't need more information — you need a different vantage point.
Machen has observed that 95% of small business success or failure comes down to the mindset of the owner. The challenges almost always fall into one of five buckets:
A thread that runs through the conversation is the idea that some of the best business decisions have nothing to do with growth — they're about eliminating waste, reducing complexity, and freeing up mental bandwidth. Cody shares how implementing a structured task-scheduling system (the app Motion) helped his team visualize workload clearly, reduce decision fatigue, and actually create space for things like bike rides. The takeaway: when you clean up how you operate, growth often follows naturally — whereas chasing growth without operational clarity tends to create more chaos.
Vistage is not a leads group or a chamber mixer. The distinction matters. Leads groups are great for building early business relationships and referrals — but Vistage is built for depth. It's long-form, recurring, and designed to create the kind of trust where members will tell you the hard thing your employees won't. The biggest objection Machen hears is "I can't take a full day away from my business once a month." His response: if that feels true, it's probably the exact reason you need to go.
Machen introduces a tool called ask formations — a reframe on traditional affirmations. Instead of forcing yourself to repeat "I am a great leader" until you believe it (which often just triggers your BS detector), you ask "Why am I a good leader?" The brain goes looking for evidence. It's a gentler on-ramp that gets you to the same place without the internal resistance. Cody notes it's become his default internal language — a way of staying curious about yourself rather than issuing verdicts.
Machen welcomes anyone curious about the group to reach out directly. Prospective members can attend the morning speaker session openly, and if interested in the full experience, can sign an NDA and participate in the afternoon issue processing as well. Reach Machen through ProBrilliance Leadership Institute.
