[EO San Francisco] Resilient Leadership Across Business Generations With Taryn Bozzo

Taryn Bozzo is the CEO of AV Images, a California-based full-service audio-visual production company delivering high-impact event solutions for over 40 years. Under Taryn’s leadership, AV Images has weathered significant industry shifts, including the pandemic, and continues to serve a national client base with multimillion-dollar revenues and a strong presence in the Las Vegas event market. Having stepped into the CEO role as a second-generation leader, Taryn brings a unique perspective shaped by her early career in public service and her deep roots in the company founded by her father.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [01:57] How Taryn Bozzo grew up alongside her family’s AV business
• [03:55] The unexpected events that led Taryn to step into the CEO role 
• [05:06] What it’s like to lead after an abrupt leadership transition
• [07:35] Tough choices Taryn made to stabilize the business
• [11:42] How Taryn navigated the event industry shutdown during the pandemic 
• [15:18] The “secret sauce” behind managing large-scale national event logistics
• [17:23] Why Taryn sees AI as an opportunity rather than a threat to her industry

In this episode…

Stepping into a leadership position is hard enough, but what happens when the transition is sudden, emotional, and layered with family history? This episode explores how resilience is built when leadership is inherited, rather than chosen, and tested by uncertainty at every turn.

For Taryn Bozzo, the key lies in facing discomfort head-on and staying grounded in people-first values. Drawing from her experience as a second-generation leader shaped by public service, grief, and crisis, she explains that real leadership growth happens in the hardest conversations and quiet moments of self-reflection. Her story shows how resilience is less about having a perfect plan and more about the willingness to adapt, stay vulnerable, and keep moving forward.

In this episode of the Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast, John Corcoran is joined by Taryn Bozzo, CEO of AV Images, to discuss resilient leadership and navigating generational leadership transitions in business. They explore stepping into a family company unexpectedly, rebuilding trust and culture after years of instability, and leading through the pandemic in the live events industry. Taryn also talks about embracing vulnerability, adapting to industry change, and finding confidence as a second-generation CEO.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• EO San Francisco
• EO Accelerator
• Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO)
• John Corcoran on LinkedIn
• Rise25
• Taryn Bozzo on LinkedIn
• AV Images: Website | Instagram | TikTok | Facebook | LinkedIn

Quotable Moments

• “I knew that I had to pivot and, and come here and at least try to clean everything up and do right by the team.”
• “I had to make some really tough decisions as far as, you know, cutting people and making decisions that I really didn’t want to make or, or anticipated making.”
• “Growing as a leader is just constantly trying to face those really uncomfortable moments.”
• “I really took that opportunity during the pandemic to focus internally, learn the business, understand our accounting.”
• “I think people were excited and hopeful, and that just really ignited me more to really commit and go all in.”

Action Steps

1. Embrace uncomfortable conversations early: Facing difficult discussions helps leaders make clearer decisions and build long-term trust.
2. Lead with vulnerability during transitions: Being open about uncertainty creates connection and stability during periods of change.
3. Take time to deeply learn the business: Understanding operations and finances strengthens confidence and improves strategic decision-making.
4. Prioritize people when making tough decisions: Lead with values and respect to preserve company culture, even during difficult transitions.
5. Use disruption as a reset opportunity: Pauses caused by crisis can become powerful moments to rebuild systems and leadership habits.

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Episode Transcript:

Intro: 00:02

Welcome to the Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast, where we feature top founders and entrepreneurs and their journey. Now let’s get started with the show.

John Corcoran: 00:12

All right. Welcome everyone. John Corcoran here I am, the host of this show. And every week we interview smart CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs from all kinds of companies. And if you check out the archives, got lots of great episodes for you to check out there.

And today is no exception. And before we get into that, this episode is brought to you by EO San Francisco, which is the Bay area chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization, which is a global peer to peer network of more than 20,000 influential business owners across 200 chapters, 60 plus countries. And if you’re the founder, co founder, owner or controlling shareholder of a company that generates over $1 million a year in revenues, and you want to connect with other like minded, successful entrepreneurs, EO is for you. And if you want to learn more about it, you can go to our website, eonetwork.org or eonetwork.org/SanFrancisco. Either of those will take you to learn more about our program. 

 All right. My guest here today is Taryn Gavagan Bozzo. She’s the CEO of AV Images. It’s a full service audio visual production company that’s been delivering high impact event solutions for 40 plus years. She stepped into the CEO role after spending a number of years in public service at the city level. 

 She’s since led AV Images through a lot of changes. We’ve had Covid, we’ve had, you know, changes with AI and things like that, pandemic, hybrid and virtual events. And so it’s been a really interesting time to be in this line of work. So we’re going to hear about what that was like and taking over the business from the next generation basically. And so Taryn, such a pleasure to have you here today. 

 And first tell me the story. You were a your only child and your dad started the company the same year you were born. So you kind of grew up around this business that you now lead, which has got to be an interesting perspective.

Taryn Bozzo: 01:57

Yeah, I was an only child. Unexpected for my parents. My dad started the company about three months before I was born in 1985, so I think it’s always been a sort of sibling for me in a way. I did, I grew up with AV Images, you know, always a huge part of my life.

I mean, he grew the company from, you know, just renting out projectors to local companies in San Ramon to becoming a multi-million dollar business in the 1990s, mostly through the trade show industry. So it’s always had a place in my heart, and it’s always been familiar to me as well as the team that makes it. And I think it’s, you know, the universe’s way of sort of making sure that we’re solidified for the rest of our lives.

John Corcoran: 02:54

And I want to hear that story. But first, you you didn’t go into the family business. You went into something very non entrepreneurial. You went to go work for a city.

Taryn Bozzo: 03:03

Yeah. I had no plans. I did take some, you know, jobs here and there over the summer. My first job was answering phones after school at, you know, the, the front desk in Dublin. So I knew enough to be dangerous.

But when I graduated high school, took a couple years to kind of figure out what I wanted to do. Local government seemed like a good bet for me. Right. Great benefits, great pay. I could learn and I really found like growth potential there. 

 I did really, really well. I also worked for the city I grew up in, so everything was familiar to me and my trajectory there was, I mean, through the roof. It was it was a really, really great place for me for 12 years.

John Corcoran: 03:51

And so what changed?

Taryn Bozzo: 03:55

You know, my dad died in 2010 unexpectedly. And with that, no directives, no will, kind of nothing to let us know what could happen. After that, his brother took over CEO position because he was the CFO of the company at the time and unfortunately wasn’t doing right by the company, wasn’t running the company the way that someone should. And so from 2010 to 2018, really, I was working through being the board chair, just trying to get things back on track. He decided to leave in 2018, and on the day I was due with my second child, my son, I was in the conference room with all the employees saying, our CEO has left and I will be stepping in in the interim.

John Corcoran: 04:59

So this also wasn’t an orderly transition. Kind of like when your father died. So he just decided to leave suddenly. Yeah.

Taryn Bozzo: 05:06

Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So I took over, had my son.

John Corcoran: 05:11

So you weren’t at that point. You you were. Other than being on the board chair, you weren’t planning on getting stepping into the business? No.

Taryn Bozzo: 05:19

Not at all. Wow. It was a very quick progression. But I also, you know, things align sometimes and I think that I just, I knew that I had to pivot and, and come here and at least try to clean everything up and do right by the team. My dad was all about his team.

He was from Hawaii, was, you know, the epitome of the aloha spirit. And so I felt that it was, I guess I felt sort of obligated to come in and try to continue that for everybody.

John Corcoran: 05:56

And to step in. And how many employees did it have at that time in 2018?

Taryn Bozzo: 06:02

I think we had 21 or 22.

John Corcoran: 06:04

And they you said you said that many of them have been around for at this point have been around for 25 years. So they knew you as a little.

Taryn Bozzo: 06:13

Yes.

John Corcoran: 06:14

What was that like when young Taryn, the baby, steps in as the boss? That can be a little awkward sometimes.

Taryn Bozzo: 06:21

Yeah, I think, you know, I wasn’t surprised that the welcoming was so warm. I think with what everyone had been through between, you know, AV Images growing to this multi-million dollar company, the.com bust, 2001, like, you know, just the 2008 recession there. It had gone through a lot. It was still surviving. And so I think at least what I tell myself is it was sort of this opportunity of like, okay, someone’s coming back.

who is a lot like our founder. Same right. Same same genetics, same kind of personality. I think people were excited and hopeful and that just really ignited me more to really commit and and go all in.

John Corcoran: 07:15

But there must have been some hard parts too, right? You know, usually you hear these horror stories when a second generation steps in that, you know, there’s some tensions and things like that and some growing pains, and you have to exert a little authority to show them that you’re the boss now. There must have been some of that.

Taryn Bozzo: 07:35

Yeah, there was definitely I think the first year especially, I had to make some really tough decisions as far as, you know, cutting people and making decisions that I really didn’t want to make or or anticipated making. But, you know, I came in and had to make sense of things. I had to make it make sense. And so I did those things. And unfortunately it’s not.

I mean, as every business owner knows, it’s not fun to have those conversations. It’s not fun to let go of people or have to explain to the team, right? The context behind it, and especially having to let go of people who want have been with the company for 20 plus years, two people I’ve known my entire life. It’s incredibly uncomfortable. But then, you know, once it’s done, you realize, okay, that was the best thing I could have done for the company for for where we’re going. 

 And you just kind of move on.

John Corcoran: 08:38

Tell me more about this awkward period the eight years before your uncle leaves. That must have been incredibly hard to have it be a family member. An uncle who was holding the company back. Not, you know, that was in the role of CEO and the company wasn’t thriving. What was that like for you?

Taryn Bozzo: 09:01

I was so young. I was 25 when my dad died. I had just gotten married a month and a half prior. I think that, you know, especially because my dad and I were so close, it was a severe loss. I was really in a period of immense grief for a good, you know, five years of those eight years.

And had it not been for my husband really pushing me to like, you know, there’s something here with this company, don’t just let it go, like, stay involved. He was really just a huge piece of me being here today, even because he could see outside of the of the grief, right outside of the trauma. But it was I mean, it was eight years of just feeling like, you know, there was weird stuff going on, but I didn’t know the questions to ask. You don’t know what you don’t know. And just trying to really claw through grief and understanding what was going on with the company. 

 What should we be asking? Just it was a really a really, really awful time, actually.

John Corcoran: 10:14

How have you tried to grow as a leader since you stepped into this role as the CEO of the company?

Taryn Bozzo: 10:25

You know, to me, growing as a leader is just constantly trying to face those really uncomfortable moments. That, right, are the small moments in our everyday and then the big moments right of of having really hard conversations with people. I’m just I’m constantly talking to my team and I’m constantly asking how we can do things differently, how we can do things better. You know, trying to better understand my blind spots and trying to better understand what I’m doing right, what’s working, and just, you know, being willing to adjust and pivot as needed. And what it always comes down to just being vulnerable.

John Corcoran: 11:16

Yeah. Two years into your becoming CEO, then the pandemic hits, which of course hit event industry businesses particularly hard. Restaurants and event industry companies. Looking back on it now are probably two of the most hard hit. Yeah, take me back to that period of time and and what you did what did you do when that started to unfold?

Taryn Bozzo: 11:42

Yeah. It was it seems like a blur now, thank God.

John Corcoran: 11:47

Trying to, like, force it out of your head.

Taryn Bozzo: 11:49

Yeah, just that’s a trauma we don’t ever want to think about anymore. You know, it was crazy because I came in. I cleaned things up, you know, we had. Our books were a mess. Our entire accounting of the company was a mess. And so that was my focus for two years, was just cleaning up, getting everything back up to a proper place, getting our books clean, and making sure that our profits were in the bank.

I did that as of beginning of 2020. I mean, we were like, cool, we’re ready to go. Like the right, the world’s our oyster. The pandemic is right after our last big show in Q1. And, you know, just like everybody, right? 

 We’re thinking, oh, we’ll be shut down for a couple weeks. Three weeks at the most. No big deal. We were scrambling. We didn’t know what was going on. 

 Everything. I mean, our revenues went from right, The $2 million projection in the next couple months to nothing. I mean, everything was just canceled. And it was scary. We had no idea what was going to happen or what was going on. 

 So like most businesses, right, we furloughed. We were trying to thank God, with the help of EO and the community of entrepreneurs, figuring out PGP and how that worked. And just kind of clamoring for for support. But fast forward, we were shut down for two years. Solid. 

 And did you.

John Corcoran: 13:30

Pivot to hybrid events or virtual events or anything?

Taryn Bozzo: 13:33

We did and we had always had the capability, but obviously it was something we needed to, you know, kind of expedite what that process was. We had a few jobs in those two years that really helped us through. Some were live events, right, with a lot of regulation and whatnot. Some were virtual events or hybrid events. But, you know, I think at that time, because I was still so new and I was still figuring out my place in the company, I really took that opportunity during the pandemic to focus internally, learn the business, understand our accounting.

I mean, had we not had the opportunity to slow down and give me a chance to go, okay, how do we do things the way we do? Definitely wouldn’t have come out of it and been as successful as we have been. So I, I took advantage. I took advantage of the downtime to really just go, okay, if we make it through this, which I hope we do, if we make it through this, I’m going to do things differently. Yeah. 

 And it worked.

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