EXM Certified Business Coach · Mandeville, LA · Serving the Southeastern US

Craig Sweeney

Certified Business Coach · Exit Momentum

I make $10M–$50M+ owners' growth repeatable: the systems, rhythm, and clarity that let a business scale instead of cracking under its own weight. I didn't read about this. I built it, more than once.

18 years staffing & recruiting · Franchise of the YearCo-founder · The Louisiana Marathon (22 events · 6 states)Self-implemented an operating system to 25%+ net profit

Book a call with Craig → Take the 3D Self-Diagnostic — free · 10 min

Craig Sweeney, Certified Business Coach · Exit Momentum

Who Craig works best with

Let me save us both some time: I'm not for every business. I'm for a specific kind of owner.

I work best with owners of $10M, $20M, $50M-and-up companies who are genuinely good at this and have slammed into the exact wall I slammed into: the business gets bigger, and it gets harder, not easier. More volume, more people, more moving parts, and the systems that got you here start buckling. I'm not guessing about that feeling. When we were scaling the marathon and the recruiting firm, growth wasn't a victory lap, early on it was cash-flow pressure and things breaking faster than I could patch them. That's your ceiling. And I'll tell you straight: you will not out-work it. You've already tried. The fix isn't more hours, it's building something that can actually carry the load.

You're my kind of client if:

You're Craig's kind of client if:

You're scaling a real company, $10M and climbing toward $20M, $50M, and beyond, with a team and real revenue, and every win lately seems to light three new fires.
You've been running on hustle and instinct, and you already know it won't stretch much further. You don't need more effort. You need structure.
You want a coach who has actually sat in the chair, felt the cash-flow squeeze, made the hard people calls, built systems that hold when the whole team turns over, not a theorist with a binder.
You're building something that creates real opportunity and dignity for your people, not just a bigger number at the bottom of the page.

How Craig coaches

Here's the truth most owners dodge: you don't have a people problem or a sales problem, you have a repeatability problem. You can do it. You just can't do it the same way twice without standing in the middle of it. That's the thing I fix.

Here's where I earned that. When we built The Louisiana Marathon, we went straight to the Ironman organization, they run hundreds of events all over the world and do it flawlessly, and we learned how to systematize from the best in the world at it. Because events are brutal: every single one has to be identical for the participant, but it's pulled off by a completely different group of volunteers every time. The team turns over top to bottom, and the result still has to be perfect. So the system had to be absolutely airtight. Make something repeatable when the people running it keep changing, that is the whole game in business, and most owners have never built it. I have. That's what I help you see.

So when I coach you, you're not getting a binder of theory. You're getting a lot of questions first, I'm curious by nature, and the questions are how we find exactly where the business is leaking. Then we build the structure that plugs it: systems anyone on your team can run, the rhythm that keeps everyone pointed the same way, and the visibility that lets you decide on real numbers instead of gut feel. I've lived the cash-flow squeeze, the people calls, the systems snapping under growth. I'm not learning alongside you. I've already been there and built the way out.

The whole model, every coach: every EXM coach works the full 3D Momentum Model: Direction, Design, and Dynamic. Craig goes deepest on repeatability: the systems, rhythm, and clarity that make growth hold. See the 3D Momentum Model →

Craig's background

I didn't learn this from a textbook. I learned it the hard way, by building things that could've broken, and making sure they didn't.

My entrepreneurial roots run deep. I grew up around innovation and ownership, and I learned early that nothing good happens without initiative, discipline, and a stubborn refusal to quit. I put that to the test at LSU, where I sold books door-to-door four straight summers, routinely 80+ hours a week. It put me in the top 1% of college sales performers in the world, and forget the ranking, what it really built was the grit and execution habit that have driven everything since.

After college I joined the family recruiting business, and that's where I learned to respect human capital, the right person in the right seat changes everything. Under my watch the firm grew from labor and clerical placements into full professional and executive search, and we took Franchise of the Year inside a 300M+ Talent Tree franchise group. Then I co-founded The Louisiana Marathon, and that's where the leadership really got stress-tested. We took our cues from world-class events like New York and Boston, learned to systematize from the Ironman organization, and pushed straight through real operational and financial strain to build a profitable, multi-state endurance portfolio: 22 events across 6 states, 40,000+ participants from all 50 states and more than 20 countries. Along the way I self-implemented EOS® and a disciplined operating system to get out from under early cash-flow constraints, and we finished with 25%+ net profit in the last two years, while the complexity and footprint were still growing. That's not a story. That's a before-and-after.

18 years in staffing & recruiting, independent operator and franchise owner; grew a labor-focused firm into full-scope recruiting across accounting, technology, and executive search.

Co-founder of The Louisiana Marathon, scaled from an idea to a nationally recognized endurance brand (22 events, 6 states), including strategic buyouts and acquisitions.

Self-implemented EOS®, installed the operating system myself to beat cash-flow constraints and hit 25%+ net profit while scaling.

Top 1% global college sales performer, four summers, door-to-door, 80+ hour weeks. That's where the work ethic was forged.

Childhood friend of Cullen Talley, we go back to a football field at St. George in Baton Rouge in grade school; we ran track together and have circled in the same world ever since.

What working with Craig looks like

No mystery and no pressure. Here's exactly how it goes.

We start with a conversation

You book a call with Craig, and you get honest, fast, about whether the fit is right. If it isn't, Craig will say so.

The 3D Diagnostic

A focused session, just you and Craig, digging into your Direction, Design, and Dynamic. You can't see how big the mountain is while you're climbing it.

The Leadership Lab

Your leadership team in the room. Momentum is a team sport. You walk out with a clear, honest picture of exactly what to fix first.

Ongoing coaching

A steady rhythm: clarity of direction, systems and cadence, and the leadership development that sharpens you and your team.

Questions people ask about Craig

Straight answers.

Who does Craig Sweeney work best with?

Owners of $10M–$50M+ companies who are good at what they do but have hit the point where growth is creating more chaos than reward, more volume, more people, more fires. Craig's specialty is making growth repeatable: the systems, rhythm, and visibility that let a business scale without cracking. He's lived it himself, scaling a multi-state event portfolio and a recruiting firm through real cash-flow strain. Industry matters far less to Craig than whether the owner is ready to trade hustle for durable structure.

Where is Craig based, and who can he coach?

Craig is based in Mandeville, LA, and serves clients across the Southeastern US. Coaching runs on a rhythm that fits a busy owner's schedule.

What is Craig's coaching style?

Curious, grounded, and practical. Craig leads with questions, "I just generally ask a lot of questions because I'm curious", because that's how he finds where a business is actually leaking before prescribing the fix. He's an operator who's sat in the chair, not a theorist with a binder, so the work is always tied to real execution.

What framework does Craig use?

EXM's 3D Momentum Model, a triangle of Direction, Design, and Dynamic that all have to hold. Craig is strongest on the Design side: systems, rhythm, visibility, tracking, and the process discipline that makes growth repeatable. His core lesson comes from systematizing 40,000-participant events executed by a brand-new team every time: the system has to be airtight, and that discipline translates straight to business.

What happens on the first call?

A straight, no-pressure conversation about where your business is, where you want to take it, and whether Craig is the right coach for the job. Expect a lot of good questions. If he's not a fit, he'll tell you. If he is, he'll walk you through how he'd approach your situation, starting with the 3D Diagnostic.

Does Craig have client testimonials?

Craig is newer to the Exit Momentum team, and client-specific results from his coaching are being gathered and will be published here as they come in. In the meantime, the firm he coaches with has a 4.97 average across 189 Google reviews, one of the strongest review profiles in its category, and his own operator track record (a multi-state portfolio scaled to 25%+ net profit) speaks to the standard he holds.

If any of this is hitting close to home, let's talk.

The owners Craig works with are usually doing the work only they can do, because the business still runs straight through them. That's the real ceiling, and it does not break by working harder.

(225) 351-7878

Book a call with Craig.

A straight, no-pressure conversation about where your business is and whether Craig is the right coach for the job.