# A CEO’s Blueprint for Career Success: Leading with Love to Drive Performance and Culture

By Mike McCalley · Published 2026-03-10 · Updated 2026-05-19 · Professional AV on MarketScale
Canonical: https://www.marketscale.com/industries/pro-av/ceo-career-success-leading-with-love
Creator hub: Get Vertical with Mike McCalley

> Leadership right now feels heavier than it did just a few years ago. Teams are stretched, expectations are high, and many employees are quietly disengaged. In fact, Gallup’s 2025 U.S. data shows that only about 31% of employees are actively engaged at work, leaving the majority feeling disconnected or indifferent. For CEOs and senior…

## Key points

- Robby Humble's 'leading with love' philosophy—combining nurturing and tough love—drove 20% YoY growth in Q3 cash collections at Penn Warranty without new products or marketing.
- Creating psychological safety encourages teams to surface problems early, enabling faster resolution and stronger organizational performance.
- Career breadth across six industries and a difficult period outside corporate America shaped Humble's resilient, people-first approach to leading complex turnarounds.

Block Field

Leadership right now feels heavier than it did just a few years ago. Teams are stretched, expectations are high, and many employees are quietly disengaged. In fact, [Gallup’s 2025 U.S. data](https://www.gallup.com/workplace/701486/employee-engagement-declines-2020-peak.aspx) shows that only about 31% of employees are actively engaged at work, leaving the majority feeling disconnected or indifferent. For CEOs and senior leaders, that’s not just a cultural issue—it’s a performance risk. And in many cases, it’s the difference between a “storybook” career success narrative and the harder, messier reality of leading when it counts.

So what does it actually take to re-engage a workforce and drive meaningful growth at the same time? And can something as unexpected as “leading with love” become a serious business strategy?

On this episode of [*Get Vertical!*](https://marketscale.com/shows/get-vertical-with-mike-mccalley/), host [Mike McCalley](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelmccalley) sits down with [Robby Humble](https://www.linkedin.com/in/robby-humble/), Chief Executive Officer of [Penn Warranty](https://www.pennwarranty.com/) and [Preferred Warranties](https://preferredwarranties.com/), to explore an unconventional leadership philosophy that has fueled a company turnaround. Humble shares how leading with both nurturing and tough love helped reinvigorate a struggling automotive warranty business, delivering 20% year-over-year growth in Q3 cash collections—without introducing new products, services, or marketing initiatives.

**Key highlights from the conversation…**

- **How redefining accountability through “nurturing” and “tough” love transformed leadership dynamics** inside the organization.
- **Why creating psychological safety allows teams to bring problems forward early**—and solve them faster.
- **How career breadth across six industries—and a hard-earned detour outside corporate America—reshaped Humble’s definition of career success** and prepared him to lead a complex turnaround.

Robby Humble is a CEO and investor with leadership experience spanning seven industries and every major go-to-market model, including B2B, B2C, B2G, and D2C. He has held C-level roles in public and private equity–backed companies, helped lead a $720 million company sale, driven a 40%+ EBITDA CAGR through an eight-acquisition roll-up strategy, and overseen more than $1 billion in annual sales as Chief Revenue Officer. He is currently CEO of Penn Warranty and Preferred Warranties, where he is leading a multi-year transformation centered on performance and culture, and is the author of the forthcoming book [*Love & Leadership*,](https://robbyhumble.com/book) a blend of memoir and leadership framework drawn from real experiences inside high-pressure organizations.

*Article written by MarketScale.*

Tags: automotive industry, business turnaround, CEO leadership, company culture, employee engagement, Growth Strategy, leadership development, Preferred Warranties, Robby Humble

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