Community Spotlight: C12 & Tony Ponsiglione

From Bowling Alleys to Boardrooms: Tony Ponsiglione's Path to C12

It's an unusual combination: Fortune 500 leadership experience paired with the day to day grind of owning a small business, one he's still in the middle of. And it's exactly that combination that shapes how Tony leads today as a Chair with C12 Business Forums.

We asked him what running a car wash taught him that shows up in how he coaches the CEOs in his forum. His answer wasn't about the variety of industries he's worked in. It was simpler than that. Owning the car wash means making payroll himself and covering the mortgage himself, carrying the weight that every small business owner carries. That firsthand experience, not just the executive resume, is what lets him sit across the table from a CEO and actually understand what they're up against.

Tony found C12 the way a lot of people do: he heard an ad. What he found on the other side of it was a group built around two things, curriculum based coaching and an annual, in depth business review, designed to help Christian business owners grow their companies without losing sight of why they're building them in the first place.

Ask Tony what guides him and he'll point you to Philippians 2:3-4. "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others." It's carried him through 35 years in corporate America and seven years of national nonprofit leadership, and it's the same posture he brings into every coaching conversation: put the other person's interests on the table, not just your own.

That's also where Tony and Needle's Eye overlap. Both organizations exist to connect Christian business owners with each other and with leadership development that actually moves their businesses forward, while keeping Jesus at the center of it all. Tony's own journey shows what that looks like in practice: business growth and spiritual growth aren't separate tracks. They're the same road.

We're grateful for partners like Tony who are willing to bring their whole story, the bowling alleys, the boardrooms, and the car wash, into the work of building businesses that honor God.

To learn more about Tony & C12, click here.