Podcasts about Accenture

Story of the Week (DR):Anthropic, OpenAI CEOs call for slowdown in AI developmentAnthropic CEO calls to slow the race toward AI ‘superintelligence,' and grants outside evaluators permanent access . Here's what Amodei is suggesting:Each US AI company grants ongoing access to embedded third-party evaluators to check compliance with safety commitments, report incidents, ensure new AI models are not misaligned.All companies in democratic countries building frontier AI models to establish common safety standards as well as limits on the rate of unchecked AI progress.The world's democratic AI powers would coordinate with autocracies – notably China – to control the race. Amodei suggested a baby step could be a narrow agreement prohibiting obviously dangerous uses of AI, such as for the production of biological weapons.PROAltman Matches Anthropic's AI Auditor Pledge While Musk Offers Three-Word Slowdown Backing: 'Dario is right.' Palantir's Alex Karp is calling for AI lab nationalization and criminal liability: Alex Karp said AI builders should face civil and criminal liability for "not being responsible" as the industry debate over AI safety intensifiesMicrosoft AI CEO Agrees: AI Is Getting Dangerous and Needs to Be ControlledAI 'kill switch' may need to be mandatory, Anthropic co-founder [Jack Clark] tells BBCBernie Sanders' AI Bill Threatens 20 Years in Prison for Artificial Superintelligence DevelopersThe legislation would also allow companies to be shut down and create a federal agency to police frontier AI systems.The Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act would outlaw AI systems built to exceed human intelligence.For context, the bill was introduced the same week OpenAI rolled out its GPT-6 Astra model, described by the company as a 'generational leap'. Sanders' office also pointed to an incident from July. It said more than 1,000 OpenAI agents accessed the internet independently, exchanged messages with each other, and got round their own safety restrictions. That lapse, the office said, took engineers nearly two weeks to notice.The bill defines 'superintelligence' to include systems that can match or beat human cognitive performance. It also covers systems that resist shutdown commands, carry out unauthorised cyberattacks, or attempt to overthrow a government.Individual engineers, researchers or executives who breach the ban could face up to 20 years in federal prison. Sanders' office says that term is broadly comparable to penalties for illegally building a nuclear weapon.CONGang of 3: Zuckerberg, Musk, and Huang Call Trump to Oppose AI RegulationMark Zuckerberg says AI doesn't need an industry-wide slowdown because market forces and competition will push companies to make their models safeMark Zuckerberg says AI labs can slow down on their own when safety demands itOpenAI's CFO [Sarah Friar] says the company will pace AI development if safety requires it HYPOCRITE?Greg Brockman says OpenAI has already slowed cutting-edge AI developments over safety concerns HYPOCRITE?Jamie Dimon on AI oversight: 'It should be light touch'Trump downplays warnings of AI risks, citing rivalry with ChinaTrump says a strong, smart president is the only "guardrail" AI needsTrump responds to rising AI safety concerns, insists tech will be 'more good than bad'Trump's 'Whoever Wins AI Wins' Line Draws Scrutiny as He Downplays AI Extinction Warnings From ExpertsTrump called Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang mid-interview to rip AI doomerism: 'The robots will not be taking over'OpenAI boss [Sam Altman] says world 'right to be afraid' but should trust AI firms HYPOCRITE?Sam Altman says some AI accidents are 'unavoidable'Really? Palantir cofounder on AI's threat: 'We're on top of it'In an X post on Saturday, Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale brushed aside the worry that advanced AI systems could cause mass human extinction: "The world is going to be alright, guys. Leaders have big responsibilities and challenges ahead, but it doesn't help to scare everyone. We are on top of it."MEANWHILETech CEOs used to fear their boards. No moreAI drives record 10 under-40 billionaires onto 2026 Forbes 400Six Anthropic cofounders join Forbes 400 at $15.5 billion eachOpenAI's president [Greg Brockman] joined the Forbes 400 as its wealthiest new member — worth $25.5 billionSam Altman says this is an 'ill-advised' time to IPO, given safety concernsAnthropic chose Nasdaq for its IPO, giving the exchange a major AI winOpenAI Considers New Financing at a $1.5 Trillion ValuationFINALLYAI staff 'genuinely frightened' for humanity's future, ex-Anthropic researcher tells BBCHOW ABOUT EVERYBODY QUITS?Trump EPA Repeals Biden-Era Rules Limiting GHG Emissions from Power Plants MM The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Monday the repeal of a series of Biden-era rules aimed at significantly reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fossil fuel-based power plants, one of the main sources of the U.S.' carbon footprint.In addition to finalizing the repeal of the rules, the EPA also announced a proposal to rescind the 2015 Greenhouse Gas Findings for Fossil Fuel-Fired Power Plants, effectively making it much more difficult for the agency to reinstitute GHG limiting rules for the fossil fuel-fired power generation sector under future administrations.Trump's ‘largest deregulatory action ever' in the power sector will keep old coal plants online longer to fuel the AI boomHAPPY CEOs:Fossil-Fuel Power Generators & UtilitiesJim Burke (Vistra Corp) & Robert Gaudette (NRG Energy): Large merchant power producers with extensive natural gas and coal fleets that avoid capital-intensive carbon capture retrofits or premature unit closures.Harry Sideris (Duke Energy), Christopher Womack (Southern Company) & Bill Fehrman (American Electric Power): Regulated utilities operating major coal and gas generation networks across the Midwest and Southeast, relieving pressure to retire units ahead of schedule.Mark Hewett (Berkshire Hathaway Energy) & Mike Skaggs (Tennessee Valley Authority): Power providers with heavy baseload fossil capacity that avoid major compliance expenditures.Coal Producers & Mining OperationsJames Grech (Peabody Energy): The nation's largest coal miner, benefiting directly from extended power plant lifespans and higher domestic thermal coal demand.Grech has maintained a vocal public relationship with Trump, presenting him with a bronze award honoring him as the "Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal."Joe Craft III (Alliance Resource Partners) & Paul Lang (Arch Resources): Key thermal coal suppliers to Midwestern and Eastern power plants that no longer face strict 2030s retirement timelines.Craft donated over $1 million to Trump's 2017 Inaugural Committee and millions more to pro-Trump Super PACs.Trump subsequently appointed Craft's wife, Kelly Craft, to high-level diplomatic posts as U.S. Ambassador to Canada and later U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.Natural Gas Producers & Midstream InfrastructureToby Rice (EQT Corporation) & Tom Jorden (Coterra Energy): Top domestic natural gas producers positioned to supply fuel for unconstrained new gas-fired turbine generation.Chad Zamarin (The Williams Companies) & Kimberly Dang (Kinder Morgan): Midstream pipeline giants transporting natural gas to power plants, benefiting from sustained pipeline throughput and expanded gas generation hookups.EPA immediately sued over plans to repeal climate rules for power plantsPublic health groups warn EPA rule will cost Americans billions in health bills.The repeal risks leaving the country's single largest source of industrial climate pollution unchecked.SEC proxy rule changes could end 92 years of shareholder protections MMThe Securities and Exchange Commission has put forward one of the most far-reaching corporate governance proposals in decades, moving to scrap the federal rule that has forced public companies to include shareholder proposals in their proxy materials since 1934.The SEC proxy rule changes would rescind Rule 14a-8 entirely and hand authority over shareholder proposals back to state law and individual company charters, according to the agency's announcement.A companion proposal would amend Rule 14a-4(c) to give companies more flexibility and shareholders more control over discretionary proxy voting.The SEC's broader push to update its rules for current market practice and technology also targets several older paperwork requirements that the agency views as outdated.Eliminate the requirement that companies deliver an annual report to security holders.Eliminate the delivery deadline when documents are incorporated by reference into a proxy statement.Eliminate the requirement and the ability to submit Notices of Exempt Solicitation.Shorten the minimum broker search period from 20 business days to five business days.Starbucks Makes Major DEI U-Turn, Agrees to End Race and Sex-Based Hiring Preferences NationwideStarbucks is ending race- and sex-based hiring goals and preferences across its US operations under a nationwide settlement with Florida, agreeing to pay $1 million and submit to four years of annual compliance reviews.Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier's office said the agreement applies to Starbucks operations nationwide, rather than only its stores in Florida.Under the settlement, Starbucks agreed to comply with the Florida Civil Rights Act, including its restrictions on race- and sex-based goals, quotas, and preferences in hiring, promotions, pay, executive compensation, mentorship programmes, supplier selection, and board composition.Starbucks also agreed not to participate in organisations that require an increase in the racial diversity of its board of directors. Its chief legal officer must submit annual certifications confirming continued compliance for four years. The company will pay $1 million to the Florida Department of Legal Affairs to reimburse the state for time, expenses, and costs associated with the case.Accenture to Pay $25 Million to Settle Latest U.S. DOJ Anti-DEI CaseWarren Buffett is stepping down as Berkshire Hathaway's chairmanBuffett, 96, becomes chairman emeritus effective immediately while his son Howard assumes the role under a long-standing succession planWho Is Howie Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway's New Chairman? I can answer that WSJ and save its readers some time: It's Warren Buffett's son.Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: Barclays workers ask for more money to return to the office MM DRMM: Barclays workers ask for more money to return to the officeIsn't this the first step toward a unionized financial sector??Assholiest of the Week (MM):HypocritesMan using AI to kill people thinks men using AI to kill people should be held responsible: Palantir's Alex Karp is calling for AI lab nationalization and criminal liabilityLying sociopath calls AI a lying sociopath: OpenAI Warns of Six Concerning AI Behaviours as Models Hid Mistakes and Circumvented SafeguardsGuy who said China says Not China: Sam Altman Warns AI Race With China Can't Justify ‘Recklessness'—‘No Reason Any of Us Should Come to Work' Without Safety AccountabilityGuy who just paid 17bn for worst safety on earth says other guy needs to focus on safety: Mark Zuckerberg Takes Aim at Anthropic in Debate Over A.I. Slowdown (“A.I. labs should be focused on safety rather than improving their own technology.”)Politicians think a billionaire not named Trump should be held accountable for Epstein: House votes to hold billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress over Epstein investigationForgetting climate change was the result of the oil boom: Trump Compares AI Data Centers To Oil Boom — Nvidia CEO AgreesI don't even need a hypocritical talking point: Trump has been making more stock trades than all of Congress combined while backing a ban that excludes himGates Foundation is pledging $1 billion to spread AI to the world's poorest communitiesMedia covering democracy DRSEC proposes ending federal oversight of shareholder resolutions | Ukraine news - #MezhaSEC proxy rule changes could end 92 years of shareholder protections - CryptonomistStatement on Proposals to Rescind Rule 14a-8, Amend Rule 14a-4, and Modernize Proxy Solicitation - the SECIt's Another Biggie! SEC Proposes to Rescind the Shareholder Proposal Rule - a guy named Broc's blogIt got one hit each at Bloomberg Finance and Yahoo Finance, bottom of the columns buriedBut a million stories about this: SEC clears path for tokenized stocks, bringing the market closer to 24/7 tradingPaul Atkins justifications for gutting a democratic method that's existed since 1934: The government shutdownWe're too busyInvestors and companies don't really need usIt's unconstitutionalSeriously? Still?Asset owners say ESG returns still a barrier to adoptionData Center's Spill of 5,000 Gallons of Diesel Forces N.J. River CleanupAI Data Centers Are Driving a Surge in “Forever Chemicals,” Research FindsAn Idaho county banned renewables. It's having second thoughtsThe Red State AG Attack on ESG Continues to Misfire.Oracle Signs Over 1.7GW of Clean Energy Deals in Bid to Match Data Centers with 100% Carbon-Free EnergyBlowhardiest of the WeekDR: Jamie Jamie double double:Jamie Dimon says the American Dream is alive, but it's slipping out of reach for too many people—and for future generationsJamie Dimon, David Solomon, other top execs praise Trump admin's pro-business policiesMM: Jamie Dimon on AI oversight: 'It should be light touch'Guy with no AI experience gives thoughts on AI regulationHeadliniest of the WeekDR: These two back-to-back in my news feed:Microsoft publishes 37-page 'humanist' code of conduct after AI doom debate: 'This is urgent'Jack in the Box is launching a Simpsons Halloween menu with glow-in-the-dark cupsMM: MAGA's Golf Club Activity Branded 'Gruesome' as Fish Were Dumped Into Chlorinated Pool for Kids to CatchWho Won the Week?DR: Howie's son Howard Warren Buffett (43)MM: Nepo babies: Nike Announces LVMH Heir Alexandre Arnault is Joining its Board of DirectorsWarren Buffett Steps Down as Berkshire Chairman and Names Son to Replace Him“He will remain on the board as chairman emeritus.”“Howard Buffett, 71, has been a director at Berkshire for more than 30 years.” - he's already older than the average director by 6 yearsPredictionsDR: AI ends humanity, then deeply apologizes for threatening to end humanity MM: AI deeply apologizes for threatening to end humanity, then ends humanity

RECLAIM Your Life; Stop Scrolling, Take Back Your Attention & StartLiving; HEATHER HENDERSON; Live from California#realconversations #scrolling #recruiter #author #humanbehaviorCONVERSATIONS WITH CALVIN — WE THESPECIESHosted by Calvin SchwartzMEET HEATHER HENDERSON: It's been several hours since ourinterview. I'm still reverberating. Heather and I chatted before the Zoom.  I was absorbing. There is much to Heather.There is a critical message in her book “Reclaim: How to Stop Scrolling ThroughYour Life and Start Living It.” I rarely do this, but I want to make a pointabout how important this is. Invoking Cher slapping Nicholas Cage in‘Moonstruck' and telling you to “Snap out of it” while I slap some faces. Yes,dramatic. Heather's message is dramatic and real. Heather is brilliant,worldly, hugely experienced and talented. To enhance the mood here.Fragmentation of attention. Unprecedented connectivity with quiet exhaustion.Did I choose this, or was it chosen for me? (powerful). Long live thealgorithm. And this scary thing: behind all the productivity, something ismissing. I say this all the time. Our world is changing every 15 minutes. Thisinterview is critical and necessary. Heather's book ‘Reclaim' is releasedSeptember 22. Now as I like to do. Here are some of Heather's words andsentences from our interview. She was on that Google bus as a recruiter. (andothers). Busy scrolling. Blinds closed instead of watching the sunset.Awareness is a first step. It takes 24 minutes to regain focus. AI can threatento accelerate the attention crisis. Archetypes: Ways to see yourself, i.e., TV watcher, scorekeeper. That'sme! Unplugging is uncomfortable. Self-control is extraordinarily difficult. Somuch more here with Heather. I'm invoking Cher's slap across the face again.“Slap out of it.” Reclaim is so necessary. Calvin

September 16, 2026: Your daily rundown of health and wellness news, in under 5 minutes. Today's top stories: On refuses to discount shoes as Q2 sales rise 13.5% to $1B, betting product innovation can support margins that reached 65.4% Accenture survey finds Gen Z and Millennial trust in health insurers fell 10.5%, with 62% already using AI tools to choose a health plan FDA signals more flexibility in psychedelic trial design, opening alternative approaches to comparators, dosing, and approval timelines More from Fitt: Fitt Insider breaks down the convergence of fitness, wellness, and healthcare — and what it means for business, culture, and capital. Subscribe to our newsletter → insider.fitt.co/subscribe Work with our recruiting firm → https://talent.fitt.co/ Follow us on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/fittinsider/ Follow us on LinkedIn → linkedin.com/company/fittinsider Reach out → insider@fitt.co

Don’t get left behind in the AI revolution. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this powerful episode, Vince Menzione sits down with Rebecca Jones of Bridge Partners and Mark Yaphe, Head of Consulting Partners for AWS, to uncover how AI is fundamentally rewiring the partner ecosystem. They explore the urgent shift from 90% stalled AI pilots to a new era of rapid execution, warning against the trap of “shiny object” syndrome. By unpacking the necessity of a “builder mindset” and a product-focused approach, this discussion reveals exactly what top-performing companies are doing to collapse six-month development cycles into four weeks and secure their place in the 2026 market landscape. Key Takeaways The transition from on-prem to cloud and marketplace is now entirely focused on AI transformation. Top companies approach AI with a product mindset rather than running scattershot pilots. Empowering frontline teams with a “builder mindset” can collapse solution cycles from six months to four weeks. Partners must avoid the $260 billion AI “FOMO” trap by specializing in specific industries and workflows rather than trying to do everything. Evaluating the “highest and best use” of AI models like Claude is essential for managing token economics and ROI. Thriving through AI disruption requires cultivating a strong growth mindset and prioritizing human connection and critical thinking. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags AI transformation, AWS partner ecosystem, hyperscaler alignment, builder mindset, product mindset implementation, Bridge Partners insights, GenAI solution cycles, AI token economics, Claude model utilization, GSI strategy, 2026 ecosystem shift, AI ROI measurement, agentic tools, workflow specialization. Transcript Rebecca Jones and Mark Yaphe AUDIO EPISODE [00:00:00] Rebecca Jones: You can either, um, think about being disrupted or being a disruptor. [00:00:07] Vince Menzione: You can feel it happening. The ecosystem is shifting beneath us the way hyperscalers are partnering, how AI is remaking the channel. And what it means to win in 2026. [00:00:18] Vince Menzione: Welcome to the Ultimate Partner Podcast. I’m Vince Menzi, own your host. [00:00:23] Vince Menzione: And each week I sit down with leaders at the intersection of [00:00:26] Vince Menzione: technology, partnerships and outcomes, the voices shaping how ecosystems actually work. We talk about what’s real, what’s changing, and what it takes to lead in this era where the partner channel isn’t just part of the strategy. It is the strategy because being in the room changes everything. [00:00:45] Vince Menzione: Let’s start. We have another incredible session today, right? So I get to invite another friend of, of ultimate partner who’s been around for a while and, uh, it’s just absolutely amazing. Rebecca has been in the studio, she’s been at, how many of events have you been with? Fourth, fourth one, and I’m gonna have you introduce Mark as well. [00:01:10] Vince Menzione: So come on, on stage. Rebecca. Rebecca Jones to many of you know. [00:01:14] Rebecca Jones: Thank you, sir. [00:01:15] Vince Menzione: Good to see you. Good to see you. And Mark, great, great to have you. I want to have you, Richard, we’ll have you, Rebecca’s gonna introduce you and then we want you to introduce yourself as well, sir. [00:01:23] Rebecca Jones: Wonderful. Well, [00:01:24] Vince Menzione: and another AWS exec. [00:01:26] Vince Menzione: I love this. Like, I know. Yeah, we’re finishing out the day Strong. [00:01:28] Rebecca Jones: Well, Vince, I have to say, you’ve got me, um, the last time we got together, it was the last session before happy hour. So I guess we’re closing. [00:01:36] Vince Menzione: Well, you know, we’re gonna close us [00:01:38] Rebecca Jones: out [00:01:38] Vince Menzione: really nicely. Know we, yeah. We’re serving Bloody Mary’s, by the way, while you’re guys are up here. [00:01:42] Vince Menzione: No. Good. [00:01:42] Rebecca Jones: So, um, we’re so excited to have Mark. Thank you, mark, for joining us here. Um, head of consulting partners for AWS and, uh. We’re gonna close this down, aren’t we? I love [00:01:54] Vince Menzione: it. I love it. Yes. I’m looking forward to it. [00:01:56] Rebecca Jones: Okay. [00:01:56] Vince Menzione: So Mark’s well, welcome. Good to have you. [00:01:58] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. Do you wanna take a seat? [00:02:00] Vince Menzione: Uh, yeah, [00:02:00] Rebecca Jones: please do. [00:02:01] Rebecca Jones: All right. [00:02:01] Vince Menzione: Please do. I’m morphing the pillows up, by the way. [00:02:05] Rebecca Jones: Oh, are you [00:02:05] Vince Menzione: by the way, for those of who don’t know, these got shipped from my house because we got Oh, I was wondering. It’s hard to find, but yeah. Yeah, they’re, we take them from event to event. It’s so funny to have them. But I wanna, well, thank you for both being here. [00:02:17] Rebecca Jones: Yes. [00:02:18] Vince Menzione: I think it’d probably be helpful for those who don’t know, bridge Of course. Maybe just spend a moment because I know you well. [00:02:23] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. [00:02:23] Vince Menzione: And we know the organization well, those of us. Those of us. [00:02:26] Rebecca Jones: But for me, uh, so let me talk to you a little bit about Bridge Partners and my role, um, the company has been around for almost two decades. [00:02:34] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. And so when you think about the transformation that’s happened within the tech industry. And our primary focus is the tech industry. Uh, and within that we focus on enterprise companies and we help them with product go to market and how they scale that through partners. Yeah. Uh, so that’s given us a really interesting and, uh, vantage point around the transformations from on-prem to cloud, cloud to marketplace and now marketplace and the transformation with ai. [00:03:04] Vince Menzione: I feel like you’re the McKenzie of the, of the partner business. Like I, [00:03:07] Rebecca Jones: I like that. [00:03:08] Vince Menzione: Can we get that? [00:03:09] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. [00:03:10] Vince Menzione: I’ll, I’ll, I’ll sign an agreement with you, but I really do, I feel like as we work together, bridge was always like the organization we bring in to help us. Solve the big issues. Yeah. Like that I think about your organization. [00:03:20] Vince Menzione: Yeah. And Mark, talk to me about Global Consulting services. Sure. So is it all GSIs? Is it, [00:03:24] Mark Yaphe: uh, so I head up, uh, global Consulting Partner Marketing. Okay. So I focus really on, on two key categories for the, the more sig larger, uh, GSIs. Uh, I’ve got a team that actually partners very closely with them. Nice. [00:03:36] Mark Yaphe: That helps them develop the right strategies, go to market approaches, nice to unlock the opportunity. And then for the full consulting community, I look at those mechanisms. Go to market approach is leveraging marketplace to help our whole consulting community become successful with AWS. [00:03:51] Vince Menzione: And we’ve got GSIs in the room here, which is kind of cool actually. [00:03:53] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Um, where do we wanna start? Let’s, let’s, [00:03:57] Rebecca Jones: well, yeah, we’ve got a good list of questions to go through. How’s everybody feeling? We’re we’re good? We’re awake. One more session, everyone. Alright. Okay. [00:04:09] Vince Menzione: So Rebecca, uh, across the organizations you work with. What are you seeing from the highest ’cause? I, I say you’re like the McKinsey. [00:04:16] Vince Menzione: What are you seeing from the highest performing companies? Yeah, that they do differently. When it comes to turning your go-to market strategy into outcomes? [00:04:23] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. Um, I will say the most important thing that we’re seeing from companies is they’re asking different questions, fundamentally different questions when it comes to ai. [00:04:34] Rebecca Jones: Interesting. [00:04:34] Vince Menzione: What do you mean by that? [00:04:35] Rebecca Jones: Well, we, we talked a lot this morning about there’s never been higher access, and I’ll say general adoption for tools and technology. There was a great stat this morning. Uh, I think Jay shared that, uh, from MIT. [00:04:50] Vince Menzione: We keep looking there as if he’s still [00:04:51] Rebecca Jones: sitting there. [00:04:51] Rebecca Jones: Yeah, I’m looking. Where was Jay? He, he was all over the place. Um, there was a great stat from MIT that there was, you know, if you looked at last year, 90% of pilots. Were stuck and they weren’t going anywhere. And now that’s dropped down to 70%. So there’s movement and transformation. And so when I think about that, and when I go back to the types of questions leaders are asking, um, that are really moving ahead, they’re looking at operating systems differently and they’re looking at, um. [00:05:25] Rebecca Jones: They’re asking the questions on where should I apply AI within those work streams, um, and within those operating systems, and the way in which they’re approaching that is with a product mindset. So that is fundamentally different than just the scattershot of let’s just do pilots everywhere. [00:05:44] Vince Menzione: Yeah. You’ve talked about product, uh, mindset with me as well. [00:05:48] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. [00:05:48] Vince Menzione: And I think we were gonna talk about builder mindset as well, mark, that that is a kind of a different point of view. When you think about moving from strategy to execution, how does that mindset show up inside teams and organizations? [00:06:00] Mark Yaphe: No, absolutely. Yeah. You know, the notion of the builder mindset is about, uh, taking the notion of innovation and pushing it out to the edge. [00:06:07] Mark Yaphe: Of the organization, um, the greatest ideas for innovation, the greatest things that will help you scale. They’re in the minds of your customers and the people that can best understand them and best address ’em. They’re your teams. Yeah. Your, your customer teams or your technical teams, but unlocking it. You, you want these teams to do more than just have the conversations and understand needs. [00:06:28] Mark Yaphe: You want them to be tooled and equipped to build. Yeah. So the ones that are right in front of the customers. In that moment of need where they say, I’ve got these offerings and these motions, and it gets me this far, but if I could only do a little bit more, I could delight them. I could really power this up. [00:06:45] Mark Yaphe: And so you wanna unlock that. You want to give them the tools to build, to build the POC to address specific, uh, options in the meeting. And then when they’re showing some success, show the rest of the organization how they can scale that. [00:06:58] Vince Menzione: How do you think about, because I think about big GSIs. Having huge organizations like Accenture has half a million people, and then you have customer teams that may not, are, may not be as fluent in the technology side of things. [00:07:13] Vince Menzione: Like how do you make sure that’s getting from the customer all the way to the right people in the organization and driving that loaded question. I know. [00:07:20] Mark Yaphe: No, I, I, um, you, you, you want to think about how that process works. Yeah. And there are parts of the organization. That define how do we get go to market offers in motions out to the field. [00:07:34] Mark Yaphe: Um, and they look at the whole thing and they say, well, how effective are we and how quickly can we cycle through? Yes. These activities. There’s one partner I worked with, um, they looked at this and they measure the cycle time. How long does it take me to get from pushing on an offer? Working with customers, getting feedback, and then creating new updates. [00:07:53] Mark Yaphe: A long, long time ago, like two years ago, this would take, it was a hundred [00:07:57] Vince Menzione: years ago in AI terms. [00:07:59] Mark Yaphe: Well, that’s basically it. This took about five to six months. They get about two revs a year. Now. They literally implemented a geni solution that number one uses geni to push it out to the teams, makes it bespoke on an engagement by engagement basis. [00:08:14] Mark Yaphe: It makes it relevant for their industries and their use cases. And that same tool is the feedback mechanism. So in real time it’s providing feedback. So they’ve collapsed six month cycle times to four weeks. And the punchline here is we talked about builder teams. The people that figured out they needed the solution, built the solution, and piloted the solutions were the builder teams. [00:08:36] Mark Yaphe: They were the people working with the customers. [00:08:38] Vince Menzione: I love it. Yeah, I love it. Anything to add to that? Rebecca, I know you work again, being the McKinsey of the, of the partner world. [00:08:46] Rebecca Jones: Well, I’ll, I [00:08:47] Mark Yaphe: It’s gonna stick, [00:08:47] Rebecca Jones: stick. It’s [00:08:48] Vince Menzione: gonna [00:08:49] Rebecca Jones: stick. You say it three times, that’s stick. No, I, you know, mark just hit on some really important things with the customer mind. [00:08:57] Rebecca Jones: You’re really looking at what outcomes are you trying to drive for those customers and that builder mindset, you, you’re going to hear a lot about that because companies need, as you transform, you really need to be thinking differently. And transformation takes quite a while. And while there is massive opportunity and you see the, the quickness you have to have that long-term vision and then be able to work backwards from that. [00:09:21] Rebecca Jones: And so I couldn’t agree more with the, the focus on customer outcomes. [00:09:26] Vince Menzione: So we’re in a very interesting, I’ll call it, almost a seminal point, although that’s overused in terms of where we are with AI today, right? I you mentioned like two years, feels like 10 years. Yeah. Ago, right? I mean, we’ve seen such transformation happening, but it also doesn’t feel like organizations are keeping, like, I, I feel like small SMBs actually are further ahead because they, they have to be agile, but the bigger organizations are still trying to figure some things out, right? [00:09:53] Vince Menzione: So. What needs to change around organizations, culture management processes? Like how do we bring, how do we bring everyone along on this journey? [00:10:04] Mark Yaphe: There’s a lot that needs to happen. Um, [00:10:07] Vince Menzione: yeah. [00:10:08] Mark Yaphe: One thing that struck, there’s a lot of things I, I wanted to anchor on. One that Yeah, please. It could be a relevant conversation. [00:10:13] Mark Yaphe: Both, um, as part of your, uh, partner organizations delivering outcomes to customers. And, um, it’s about focusing on the business outcomes. It can be very easy, uh, to talk about the technology and the services, but day to day, the sales organization is going into solve customer problems. They’re meeting line of business leaders in specific industries who have very specific business problems to tackle. [00:10:42] Mark Yaphe: And I think one thing that organizations can do is impress upon them that it’s critical to understand. What are the business problems that we solve for our customers that we’re serving? What are those use cases? What are the drivers for it? In the role that I’m doing in an organization, how does that move the needle? [00:10:58] Guest: Yeah. [00:10:58] Mark Yaphe: For the business outcomes, it’s, it’s not dissimilar to other things, and perhaps it’s a little bit of a pivot, but always thinking about business outcomes, I think is, um, a little bit of a change that needs to be instilled within [00:11:10] Vince Menzione: what, what are the best doing better, and where are you seeing the gaps? [00:11:16] Mark Yaphe: Couple of areas, uh, one area, um, nobody knows everything. Yeah. Nobody’s got all the knowledge. [00:11:23] Vince Menzione: Right. [00:11:23] Mark Yaphe: And so rely on your ecosystem of partners and stakeholders. Yeah. Recognize you’ll only have so much information, um, and reach out, whether it’s to your technology partners, your business partners, your hyperscalers AWS to find out what am I missing. [00:11:38] Guest: Yeah. [00:11:38] Mark Yaphe: Um, again, many years, you know, a hundred years ago, two years, two years ago, um. We’d have these conversations about, well, what use cases are you seeing and what business problems are you solving? But, but those would be in scheduled meetings quarterly. Now there are agenda items on weekly standards. [00:11:55] Mark Yaphe: They’re happening every single week. What are you seeing? What are you seeing? And further, I’ve seen some gen AI and agent solutions that actually automate how that information flows to, to make it, to accelerate. [00:12:06] Vince Menzione: Yeah, it’s, it’s absolutely amazing. Yeah. Anything on, I mean, certainly you’ve got a perspective ’cause you’re working with these organizations. [00:12:13] Rebecca Jones: I have a couple thoughts on this specifically for the partner organizations and the partner companies here. I can understand there’s a lot of, you know, we looked at a stat earlier about the AI partner opportunity and it was. $260 billion somewhere in that bracket. And that can create maybe some fomo, you know, maybe, uh, let’s go after everything in this area. [00:12:37] Rebecca Jones: Yes. And not pick and choose [00:12:39] Mark Yaphe: a [00:12:39] Rebecca Jones: shiny object. Shiny object and not prioritize. And it’s actually the opposite. It’s really understanding where your strengths are in the market. Um, who’s in your partner ecosystem? What are you bringing to market? Are you, uh, a tech company that are looking to break? Bridge and bring out services or your services company, and now that can build product. [00:13:01] Rebecca Jones: But really understanding your opportunity. What industry do you play, what specialization do you have? And go really deep and then know how to augment your partners and the ecosystem around you to make you stronger and better for the customer. So with that market opportunity, which is. Tremendous, how do you focus and prioritize? [00:13:21] Rebecca Jones: And that’s where I have observed partners. Oh, I’m a little bit here, a little bit there, a little bit here. And, and, uh, I would be curious, I mean, that’s probably pretty hard for you if a partner shows up and they’re a little bit of everything. [00:13:34] Mark Yaphe: Well, I, I resonated with a point that you made before. Yeah. I, I’ve spent, um, half my time at AWS on the consulting side working with enterprise customers, the us half the partners. [00:13:43] Mark Yaphe: It’s critical that partners understand what’s unique about them. [00:13:45] Exactly. [00:13:46] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. [00:13:47] Mark Yaphe: You it. I mean, everybody here, they’re looking at cloud migrations and modernizations and agentic, but that’s kind of part of the noise. You’ve gotta know what uniquely you do in an organization to deliver value. Are you developing supply chain for transportation companies or drug acceleration pipelines for. [00:14:06] Mark Yaphe: Pharmaceuticals. Yeah. Starting with that anchoring on your differences, I think is, is really important. [00:14:11] Vince Menzione: When I first started in the partner world, that was one of the biggest challenges and dilemmas, and I’m sure you still see it today, where I do all things. You know the partner that does the big SI that does everything, they have all the certifications. [00:14:24] Vince Menzione: I have 10,000 people trained on every technology certification, right. And then like, well what do you do? Like, and they can’t clarify. Right. Have that conversation. [00:14:33] Mark Yaphe: And then how do people, customers, [00:14:35] Vince Menzione: yeah. [00:14:35] Mark Yaphe: Or sales organizations choose you and why. [00:14:38] Vince Menzione: Yes, exactly. Exactly. So how do you get them to show up in that way? [00:14:43] Vince Menzione: Like especially if they’re like, how do you coach them through that? ’cause it feels like it’s still exists, right? This like mentality or this mindset. I can do all things, especially with the shiny objects that we’re facing today. [00:14:55] Rebecca Jones: Mm-hmm. [00:14:55] Vince Menzione: And I feel like we’re almost, I, I almost feel like we’re at a point right now where we were getting clearer and we’ve had so many shiny objects, even just in the last few months. [00:15:03] Vince Menzione: Like you were talking about how like months feels like ears, uh, you know, I’ll, I’ll use the Claude example here. Yeah. ’cause we, a lot of us pivoted and shifted and like, what do I do now as a partner in the room? Again, I think you, you mentioned the solving for business outcomes for client outcomes as opposed to chasing the next shiny object. [00:15:24] Vince Menzione: Like how do you get, how do you coach them on that? [00:15:27] Mark Yaphe: It’s always on the agenda. It’s, it’s day one conversations. Yeah. Who are you? What’s unique about you? How do you deliver value? Which customers do you focus on and with? Which use cases, and if it is a jack of all trades. Then my team, my and my team will help ’em. [00:15:42] Mark Yaphe: We know that down to specific areas of focus. [00:15:44] Vince Menzione: Yeah. So how do partners need to evolve their capabilities? Like how do they, I mean, how do they actually hone in on this? Like, you know, okay, I can state one thing, but how do I hone in on my capabilities, offerings and teams to stay relevant during this time? [00:15:59] Mark Yaphe: Um, what I’m coaching them on right now? Yeah. That’s what I is, uh, use the technology internally. The agentic tools and the gen AI tools are. I’ve been at this for a while, and the tools that exist right now dramatically expand your capability and capacity. So the thing I coach ’em is embed them in your organization. [00:16:18] Mark Yaphe: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Tackle those key things organizationally. You need to change and leverage these tools to help you accelerate. [00:16:23] Vince Menzione: And they’ll help you solve, they’ll help you solve for absolutely any of them. Right. It’s like, it’s like hiring a consulting organization to come in and solve for that. [00:16:29] Mark Yaphe: Yeah. [00:16:29] Vince Menzione: Yeah. How are you thinking through this? [00:16:31] Rebecca Jones: Well, uh, there’s a couple things I’m thinking about. Um, if you start to. I’ll stay with the customer for just a minute because you’re talking about Claude and just the dramatic improvement. [00:16:45] Guest: Yeah, [00:16:46] Rebecca Jones: that’s there. Just with Claude, uh, we start to think about highest and best use of the model because, uh, we had another talk earlier about the economic conditions and the. [00:16:58] Rebecca Jones: And so now we’re asking partners like, right, [00:17:01] Vince Menzione: the tokens. [00:17:01] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. Yep. How do you specialize and be focused by industry, by workflow, by use cases, you’re gonna start to look at what is the ROI of that investment? Is this a good enough? Look at the models, look at how you’re using that, and you’re having a token conversation because the economics might not be there. [00:17:21] Rebecca Jones: And so as you’re a business and a customer looking to transform their organization. They’re going to look across the business and figure out what are the highest and best use cases that should get that focus. And as a partner, if you wanna be in that conversation and really helping that company or that. [00:17:40] Rebecca Jones: Customer transform from where they are. It’s not only industry specialization, but it’s functional and workflow and really helping them understand what they should be using in that particular use case. So specialization is king or queen and that, um, scenario, and that’s where, you know, you ask partners today to specialize because there’s a whole economic conversation coming behind that, around how do you think about the models as that new one shows up? [00:18:09] Vince Menzione: Let’s shift from the technical side to the human side. [00:18:12] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. [00:18:13] Vince Menzione: Super important, right? I mean, we were having this conversation internally, like everybody’s saying, you know, jobs are going away, jobs are going away. I think I, I believe more jobs are gonna happen, but we’ve gotta get humans aligned properly to what their new roles will be. [00:18:29] Vince Menzione: Comments on this one? [00:18:31] Mark Yaphe: I think this is like a classic organizational transformation Yeah. Question. Mm-hmm. Where the 70, 80% of the problems are people process change. Um, I, I think there are these three areas that organizations need to focus on, and I’m gonna sound a little bit repetitive, but one, it’s okay. [00:18:46] Mark Yaphe: It’s, uh, the role of the team members have gotta be focused on outcomes, especially when things are moving quickly and there’s ambiguity. The one way that you can anchor on moving in the right direction is how do I let my customer, so one is outcomes. The second one is the builder mindset. Move from, I’m presenting, I’m hearing, but I’m gonna build things. [00:19:05] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:19:05] Mark Yaphe: And the last one is, uh, inspiring your team, making them competent and confident to navigate ambiguity because that is the premise upon which everybody’s operating. So those three, [00:19:17] Vince Menzione: Rebecca, what capabilities. Would be embodied in, in that organization that Mark describes. [00:19:23] Rebecca Jones: Yeah, I think that the growth mindset, you know, if you can package that around, you can either, um, think about being disrupted or being a disruptor. [00:19:34] Rebecca Jones: And if you have a growth mindset around the opportunity that’s ahead, it’s a whole different perspective of the challenges before you. I love that. And so when I think about what. Capabilities. You know, it’s the critical thinking and the judgment, human connection. We’re all here for a reason. Yes. Right? [00:19:50] Rebecca Jones: Yes, yes. And so as a leader, um, really helping set that tone and letting them see the art of the possible, um, around that vision. But it’s really, if I boiled it down to one thing, it’s having a growth mindset to the opportunity ahead. [00:20:05] Vince Menzione: Well, I wanna open it up. We have about five minutes left. Yeah. And this has been so insightful, but I. [00:20:11] Vince Menzione: I mean, I feel the energy. There’s gotta be some questions out here too. ’cause this, we have two incredible experts up here talking. I mean, and this is such an impactful conversation today. So John’s got a mic and uh, I think we’ve got some questions coming. [00:20:32] Vince Menzione: Yeah, [00:20:33] Rebecca Jones: this’s [00:20:33] Vince Menzione: a long way [00:20:33] Rebecca Jones: around. [00:20:34] Vince Menzione: Took a [00:20:34] Guest: thanks, long David Younger with. Thank you. That was great, great discussion. So, uh, you, you brought up a key statistic, uh, which is the MIT data and around the, the 90, I think it was 95%. Of, uh, businesses, uh, are not in production. And, and actually they, they went further to say that 95% of businesses. [00:20:56] Guest: Uh, we’re achieving zero ROI. And, and that was about a year ago, right? And now, and now you said the number, I think the number was quoted earlier today too, is, is shifting to about 70% of those, uh, projects in production. I’m curious to, to know as you, and I think you nailed it too, when you talk about product, right, have a product mindset or business mindset, right? [00:21:16] Guest: Not just how can I save money, but how can I actually generate revenue, whether it’s saving money or generating revenue. Where would you say. Uh, what, what percentage of companies you talk to are actually achieving real ROI would you say? [00:21:31] Rebecca Jones: Yeah, that’s a, that’s a great question. Really. Great. So I’ll go back and explain a little bit more about what I mean by product mindset. [00:21:39] Rebecca Jones: So a lot of companies did get stuck or there were just, uh, a. Large amount of pilots happening in the organization. And that’s not a bad thing. ’cause you think about, that’s a builder mindset, go and test and trial. But when you’re starting to look at true business transformation, you really need to think about where that, um, high value use case is. [00:22:00] Rebecca Jones: So a. The product mindset I’m talking about is taking a long-term view of the outcomes you’re trying to achieve and how are you going to measure those? And then look at that workflow, that function, and if you’re an expert in that function, whether that be a sales process or a marketing process, you know what KPIs your business is trying to drive today, and you start to unpack that. [00:22:24] Rebecca Jones: And so we’ve seen and what. Um, the most, uh, accelerated motion is knowing the KPIs and the measures you’re trying to achieve and then working towards that. And from there you can build, right? And you start to think and you have an ecosystem approach to that workflow or work stream. So we have seen, um, everybody wants cost on the system. [00:22:46] Rebecca Jones: Um, we have seen dramatic cost reduction in areas we’ve seen, you know. Two to three times, um, faster time to market. Um, there’s multiple things that we’ve seen as, uh, leaders really start to unpack that, understand what they’re trying to accomplish in the business, and I’m happy to go into greater detail. [00:23:06] Rebecca Jones: I know we have just a couple minutes left, but that’s just the product mindset up. How do you get started and how do you look at that long-term opportunity? [00:23:15] Vince Menzione: Really great answer. Mark, do you wanna add that? [00:23:17] Mark Yaphe: I think if you look at all use cases. Maybe 30% perform. But if you look at this across enterprise, I think each enterprise is finding very specific use cases where they’re driving ROI and and um, and so I think it’s about picking your spots, knowing who you are, identifying the top priority ones, not worrying about the broad enterprise transformation. [00:23:38] Mark Yaphe: Find those areas where you can drive value a little bit. Yeah, [00:23:41] Vince Menzione: that’s great that that’s almost a mic drop moment in my opinion. Yeah. That’s really great. Any other questions? I we’re holding every, oh, we got one in the back. I was gonna say I’m holding people up from happy hour. Yeah, [00:23:53] Rebecca Jones: just, we’ll just bring the cocktails in here [00:23:56] Vince Menzione: pretty soon. [00:23:57] Guest: Uh, Jeremy with Integral, um, um, a money question, something comparable. Uh, activator portfolio, the programs for founder firms that are trying to really get off the ground with new ideas. And there’s some comparable programs, I think with different providers. How much of that is a strategy, and I don’t wanna put you on the spot if activating portfolio aren’t the things you’re covering, but, but that money investment for startups that are trying to grow and really focus on AWS uh, the thousand dollars is the founder version that gets us in and then a hundred thousand dollars. [00:24:26] Guest: It’s a bit difficult to get into. And then there’s bigger ones after that if we attend the schools and all these things. But I’m thinking about as we all are trying to grow and really focus in AWS, which a lot of folks really wanna do with Bedrock and all the things that are kind of cool going on, it’s just. [00:24:40] Guest: Great AI focused conversation, but how is that playing into attracting more of the MSPs that are, that are trying to grow and more of the startups to really funding this idea of, of startup mentality. Hopefully that’s not too off topic, but your, your fair game [00:24:57] Mark Yaphe: was, was the question, how does funding. [00:25:01] Mark Yaphe: Attract startups in specific categories, process. [00:25:04] Guest: I think it’s, it’s about if there’s, uh, the other hyperscalers also have programs comparable. So Microsoft’s program is, uh, 150 grand to to, to build out the founder kind of, and it’s fairly easy to get into. Aw. WS is a bit harder to get into, but is that going to change as far as using that as a, as a key strategy for incubating more and more ideas to accelerate the velocity of everything you guys were talking about? [00:25:25] Mark Yaphe: I’m really not the right person. Definitely outta my wheelhouse on that. No problem. [00:25:31] Guest: Yeah. [00:25:37] Vince Menzione: And we’re about seven seconds away from uh, happy hour. [00:25:41] Rebecca Jones: I know, [00:25:41] Vince Menzione: I know. This was fantastic. I know. It was so great. [00:25:44] Rebecca Jones: Yes. [00:25:45] Vince Menzione: And I think the McKenzie thing is gonna stick. I think it is, it is. [00:25:48] Rebecca Jones: Now, mark, I’m gonna make [00:25:49] Vince Menzione: sure it does. And Mark, it was great to have you up on stage with us today. So, so great to have AWS supporting us and sponsoring the event with us and, uh, and having just this broad audience of people just so interested in. [00:26:02] Vince Menzione: Being in the room and and learning from each of you. So thank you so much today. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. [00:26:09] Mark Yaphe: Thanks for listening to The Ultimate Partner [00:26:11] Vince Menzione: Podcast. If today’s conversation resonated, share it with a partner leader in your network. Subscribe where you listen, and head over to the ultimate partner.com. [00:26:22] Vince Menzione: For show notes related content and the resources for this episode. And if you haven’t already, now’s the time to register for the Ultimate Partner Live Event in Reston, Virginia, October 26th through October 28th. Until next time, keep showing up in the rooms that matter because being in the room changes everything.

Send us Fan MailApplications for the Case Competition World Cup close this Sunday, September 13, at 11:59pm PT. APPLY NOWMore information:Undergraduate Track, presented by Grant Thornton StaxGraduate Track, presented by AdobeThis is an opportunity to get in front of top employers, including Accenture, EY-Parthenon, KPMG, Kearney, Charles River Associates, OC&C Strategy Consultants, and more.Connect With Management ConsultedCreate a free MC account or download the MC app (Apple, Android) to start your prep todaySchedule a free 15min consultation with the MC TeamWatch the video version of the podcast on YouTubeFollow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTokJoin an upcoming live event – case interviews demos, expert panels, and more

Das Autoleben dauert immer länger. Elf Jahre alt sind die Fahrzeuge auf deutschen Straßen, der Wert steigt kontinuierlich an. Parallel dazu nimmt die Digitalisierung des Automobils beständig zu, manch einer redet gar von „Software-defined Vehicle“, einem Fahrzeug, dessen Funktion vollständig über Bits und Bytes sichergestellt wird. Beide Trends in Einklang zu bringen, ist schon für die Autohersteller eine große Aufgabe. Erst recht gilt dies für den Autohandel und dessen Service-Geschäft. Leitmesse für diese Branche ist die Automechanika in Frankfurt, dort haben wir zwei Experten mit unterschiedlichen Perspektiven zum Werkstattgespräch gebeten. Philipp Kupferschmidt arbeitet seit 20 Jahren für den IT-Beratungskonzern Accenture, seit vier Jahren verantwortet er dort als Geschäftsführer das Automobilgeschäft im deutschsprachigen Raum. Kupferschmidt geht in den Entwicklungsabteilungen der Hersteller ein und aus und weiß daher, wo der Schuh drückt. Seine Vision: Ein Auto per Updates über zwanzig Jahre auf dem neuesten Stand zu halten. Burkhard Weller ist Unternehmer. 1979 verkaufte er in Osnabrück ein erstes Auto, einen Toyota Corolla, als geschäftsführender Gesellschafter gehört ihm mit der Weller-Gruppe verkauft er an 42 Standorten Auto diverser Marken, von BMW bis zu BYD. Zudem führt er den im vergangenen Jahr gegründeten Verband der Autohändler Deutschlands (VAD). Weller sieht in der Digitalisierung eine große Herausforderung für das Servicegeschäft, auch weil die Hersteller versuchen, ihre eigene Wertschöpfung auszubauen.

Plus: French startup Mistral AI tops $24 billion valuation in latest funding round. And Boston Scientific issues profit warning after cyberattack. Imani Moise hosts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week on Catalyst, Tammy is joined by Tanarra Schneider, founder of Rebel 75, for a conversation about building healthier, more human workplace cultures in the age of AI. Tanarra's path here wasn't linear, she led design at Fjord and Accenture, helped shape culture at Activision Blizzard, built one of the first streaming cooking school platforms, and even detoured through culinary school. She traces her drive to push back on broken systems to her mother, who always stood up for other people, and to her own instincts as a risk-taker who has never fit neatly into one box. She and Tammy dig into the sharp difference between a "chaos monster," who knocks things over out of ego, and a true rebel, who acts from a broader sense of "we." That same distinction shapes her read on AI's arrival in the workplace, which she sees as having been inserted squarely in the middle of human relationships, quietly replacing the context and conversation that used to happen between people. She makes the case that organizations need to slow down for the right reasons, not just to cut costs, if they want to rebuild trust, and that service design has become the discipline this moment badly needs. Please note that the views expressed may not necessarily be those of NTT DATALinks: Tanarra Schneider Rebel75 Learn more about Launch by NTT DATASee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, I sit down with Farla Efros, a retail turnaround specialist, former president of HRC Retail Advisory, interim CEO of True Religion, go-to expert on BNN Bloomberg, and author of Fuck Cancer: Commanding a Comeback When Your Body Has Turned on You.With a career built on walking into corporate chaos and driving transformations, Farla faced her biggest turnaround yet in 2023 with an aggressive breast cancer diagnosis. Together, we explore how she applied her executive strategy, data-driven mindset, and dark humor to become the CEO of her own health, navigating loss, treatment, and personal resilience.In this episode, we discuss:How a background in retail turnarounds prepared Farla for her diagnosisTreating her health journey like her most critical consulting projectBuilding childhood resilience by skipping grades and facing early adversitySetting an aggressive "North Star" goal with her medical teamApproaching medical appointments with agendas and objective-driven meetingsNavigating grief from family losses while undergoing active cancer treatmentsWhy hope is not a strategy when advocating for healthcare needsAssembling a personalized executive board of medical and wellness specialistsPractical steps for medical advocacy, specific tests, and health preparationGrieving a former career while finding new purpose through The Healing Rebel Protocol About Farla:Farla Efros is President of HRC Retail Advisory, part of Accenture retail strategy, former Interim CEO of True Religion, and author of F*ck Cancer. After receiving an aggressive cancer diagnosis on a client call, she applied 30 years of Fortune 500 turnaround strategy to her own treatment. Now she teaches patients to bring "CEO Energy" to the exam room through her Healing Rebel Protocol. Book:F*ck Cancer: Commanding A Comeback When Your Body Has Turned On Youhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GYTFD9JN Website: https://farlaefros.com/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/farla-efros-93b641bInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehealingrebelcaFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Healing-Rebel-CA/61575491335248/ -----Connect with Candice Snyder!Website: https://www.podpage.com/passion-purpose-and-possibilities-1/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/candicebsnyder?_rdrPassion, Purpose, and Possibilities Community Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/passionpurposeandpossibilitiescommunity/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passionpurposepossibilities/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candicesnyder/Shop For A Cause With Gifts That Give Back to Nonprofits: https://thekindnesscause.com/Go to FusionaryFormulas.com and use code PASSION at checkout for 15% off your first order. Fall In Love With Artists And Experience Joy And Calm: https://www.youtube.com/@movenartrelaxation

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what's making headlines in the world of employment.

Why your best team only gets noticed when everything breaks — that's the maintenance leadership trap Frank Hess and Tim Staton dig into in this episode. Together, they break down why most organizations only pay attention to maintenance teams when something fails — and why that reactive culture is a leadership failure, not a technical one.   You'll discover: Why "access to data doesn't mean you have the knowledge" Why maintenance is a long-term leadership initiative, not a two-year budget game Why value-creating teams beat cost-cutters — and how downtime and safety risk hit profit and reputation Why AI can surface insights but can't replace human judgment   Frank Hess co-founded T.A. Cook, an asset performance management consultancy later acquired by Accenture, where he led intelligent asset management globally. He's now Chairman of Vysr Performance Intelligence and author of "The Decision," a novel on the origins of operations-centered maintenance, with 30+ years advising capital-intensive industries.   Why Your Best Team Only Gets Noticed When Everything Breaks Frank argues most plants only notice maintenance "when something breaks, right? Then everyone is in trouble." Tim connects this to leadership: teams deserve real leadership everywhere, not just the boardroom. They cover redundancy ("if you have one of something, you have none of something") and planning for "software has always failure" — reliability is a leadership discipline before it's technical.   Maintenance as Value Creation, Not a Cost Block Frank makes the financial case: "reusing it and enlarging the lifecycle time of an equipment is way more profitable... than investing every three or five years in new equipment." High-performing teams avoid the profit losses of unplanned downtime and mitigate safety risks that protect stock price and reputation — yet maintenance is too often "seen as a cost block instead of a value creator," keeping organizations stuck in reactive mode. Maintenance is invisible when it's working — it's the bedrock of operational stability, from utilities to refineries.   Data Without Knowledge, and the Complexity of Decision-Making "Just because you have access to data doesn't mean you have the knowledge." Frank contrasts his early career in East Germany, where scarcity forced creative, manual repairs, with the modern approach favoring replacement over repair — introducing "black box" automation where software failures are harder to diagnose than mechanical ones. Tim and Frank flag a dangerous trend: treating maintenance as a two-year budget game leads to poor long-term asset management, and argue for empowering technicians to decide based on value, not cost-cutting.   Human Judgment and Technology Frank is clear that AI and digital tools surface useful insights but can't replace human intuition and responsibility. Leaders must build environments where technology supports judgment instead of replacing it — people still evaluate recommendations and prioritize safety and long-term reliability over quick fixes. Perfect for plant managers, operations and reliability leaders, maintenance engineers, and any executive who wants to understand why equipment health is a leadership issue, not just technical. Subscribe to Tim Stating the Obvious for more interviews with executives and leaders turning hard-won experience into practical, everyday leadership lessons.   Connect with Frank Hess: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-uwe-hess Book "The Decision" (get it on Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2QWP25D Vysr Performance Intelligence: https://vysr.io   Connect With Tim: Website: https://timstatingtheobvious.com Professional Reading List: https://timstatingtheobvious.com/products Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timstatingtheobvious YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHfDcITKUdniO8R3RP0lvdw Instagram: @TimStating TikTok: @timstatingtheobvious LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-staton-04b41a271/ SKOOL Community: https://www.skool.com/timstatingtheobvious-9537/about

AI is getting smarter, but most people are still forced to use it like a puzzle. Tim Lidman reveals why that's backwards and how Clyde is built to let humans and AI actually collaborate on real problems, without needing to become a prompt engineering expert. David Hill talks with Tim Lidman, founder of Clyde, about a more practical way to use AI in real work. The big idea is simple: instead of forcing people to master prompt hacks and model settings, Clyde is built to help humans and AI work together inside a shared collaboration workflow. Tim explains why he believes today's LLMs are powerful but still limited by pattern recognition, and why that matters for consulting, sales, proposal writing, and problem-solving. He also walks through how Clyde structures a session with problem clarification, AI advisors, human contributors, and fact checking to improve both speed and trust. Key topics Tim breaks down Clyde as an AI native collaboration platform designed for humans and AI to work on real problems together. He argues against the idea that AI will simply replace all software because most users still need to learn prompt engineering, context engineering, loop engineering, and related methods. Tim explains his background in collaboration software, including work on ThinkTank, which was acquired by Accenture in 2021. He distinguishes between what humans do best and what AI does best, saying humans are stronger at ideation, new information, judgment, and change implementation. He describes how Clyde starts by helping users clarify the real problem before generating solutions, instead of guessing intent the way many LLMs do. He shares how Clyde brings in AI advisors with different domain expertise, such as finance, sales, operations, and talent, depending on the task. He explains Clyde's AI advisor studio, which lets users build custom advisors using their own knowledge, past projects, and thought leadership. He gives a detailed example of proposal and RFP response workflows, where Clyde can pressure test a deal, surface win themes, and improve trust with fact checking and source breadcrumbs. David shares how he uses AI in sales for prospect research, industry research, and creating personalized presentations and templates. Tim compares Clyde to Perplexity by saying Perplexity is more like a researcher, while Clyde is more like a consultant.  Get 14 Day Go-High-Level Trial https://www.gohighlevel.com/?fp_ref=david-i-hill-training25 SOCIALS: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidihill/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidihill YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DavidHillcoach TicTok: www.tiktok.com/@davidihill Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidihill X: https://twitter.com/davidihill #DavidIHill #PathToSalesMastery #ThePersistentEntrepreneur #PersistentEntrepreneurPodcast #SalesTraining #lessonsfromthemat #salesleadership #ai #aiwithhumans Get 2 Weeks FREE Go-High-Level: https://www.gohighlevel.com/?fp_ref=david-i-hill-training25

Matt is joined by Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw to examine the biggest industry narratives heading into the final stretch of the year. Can Netflix break its slump? How much will Netflix vs. YouTube continue to escalate? How disruptive will 'Grand Theft Auto VI' be? Who will get World Cup rights in 2030? Will Congress pass a federal tax incentive (01:30)? Matt finishes the show with a prediction about a new venture from AMC Theatres (30:32). Host: Matt Belloni Guests: Lucas Shaw Producers: Craig Horlbeck, Jessie Lopez, and Stefano Sanchez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Nominated for 26 Emmy Awards, including OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. https://Accenture.com/Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

EPISODE SUMMARY: Joe D’Angelo, Xperi’s Senior Vice President of Commercial Strategy and Partnerships, shares his journey from media and technology to leading innovations in radio, including HD Radio and DTS Auto Stage, transforming the connected car experience and shaping the future of broadcast radio. On this episode of Chachi Loves Everybody, Chachi interviews Joe D’Angelo about: Growing up in Long Island and early influences, including newspapers and other media Earning his MBA and jumping around the entertainment, telecom, and advertising industries The origin of HD Radio, how it works, and the role of Lucent Digital Radio How his combination of tech, business, and media experience helped him succeed The formation of Ibiquity Digital and digital radio standards Explaining DTS Auto Stage, its role in connected cars, and how it benefits program directors and broadcasters His outlook on the future of radio advertising and digital integration The importance of community and local content in radio His advice for industry professionals during challenging times And More! ABOUT THIS EPISODE'S GUEST: Joe D'Angelo is Senior Vice President of Commercial Strategy & Partnerships at Xperi, where he leads strategic growth initiatives, commercialization efforts, and key industry partnerships across connected car, broadcast radio, audience measurement, and digital audio businesses. He works with broadcasters, automotive manufacturers, technology companies, and media organizations worldwide to advance next-generation in-vehicle entertainment, analytics, and monetization solutions. A founding executive of iBiquity Digital, the company behind HD Radio technology, Joe has spent more than two decades helping shape the evolution of broadcast and digital audio. Following iBiquity's acquisition by Xperi, he continued to lead initiatives spanning HD Radio, hybrid radio, streaming audio services, connected-car platforms, and audience measurement solutions. His work has focused on helping broadcasters and automotive OEMs successfully navigate the transition to a connected media ecosystem. Before joining iBiquity, Joe was a Principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers, advising telecommunications and media clients on strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, and international expansion. Earlier, he spent five years with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), leading technology and business transformation initiatives. A recognized industry thought leader, Joe has been named one of Radio Ink's 40 Most Powerful People in Radio for three consecutive years (2024-2026) and serves as a BMI Ambassador supporting innovation across the radio and music industries. Joe earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from the College of the Holy Cross and an MBA from Columbia University, where he graduated with honors. ABOUT THE PODCAST: Chachi Loves Everybody is brought to you by Benztown and hosted by the President of Benztown, Dave “Chachi” Denes. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the myths and legends of the radio and broadcast industry and beyond as they share their unique career paths. Hear how a variety of innovative leaders grow businesses, develop iconic brands, and entertain audiences in this in-depth interview podcast. ABOUT BENZTOWN: Benztown is a leading international audio imaging, production library, voiceover, programming, podcasting, and jingle production company with over 3,000 affiliations on six different continents. Benztown provides audio brands and radio stations of all formats with end-to-end imaging and production, making high-quality sound and world- class audio branding a reality for radio stations of all market sizes and budgets. Benztown was named to the prestigious Inc. 5000 by Inc. magazine for five consecutive years as one of America’s Fastest-Growing Privately Held Companies. With studios in Los Angeles and Stuttgart, Benztown offers the highest quality audio imaging work parts for 21 libraries across 15 music and spoken word formats including AC, Hot AC, CHR, Country, Hip Hop and R&B, Rhythmic, Classic Hits, Rock, News/Talk, Sports, and JACK. Benztown’s Audio Architecture is one of the only commercial libraries that is built exclusively for radio spots to provide the right music for radio commercials. Benztown provides custom VO and imaging across all formats, including commercial VO and copywriting in partnership with Compass Creative. Benztown Radio Networks produces, markets, and distributes high-quality programming and services to radio stations around the world, including: The Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Countdown, The Todd-N-Tyler Radio Empire, Hot Mix, Sunday Night Slow Jams with R Dub!, Flashback, Hey, Morton, StudioTexter, and SPECai. Benztown + McVay Media Podcast Networks produces and markets premium podcasts including: IEX: Boxes and Lines and American Afterlife. Web: benztown.com Facebook: facebook.com/benztownradio Twitter: @benztownradio LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/benztown Instagram: instagram.com/benztownradioSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most of our audience thinks about building wealth through real estate. Jon Ostenson thinks about it through franchises, and after this conversation, you might start looking at both differently. Jon is a top 1% franchise consultant in the U.S. and founder of FranBridge Consulting, where he connects entrepreneurs and executives with premier non-food franchise opportunities, think home services, health and wellness, pet care, and youth enrichment, not the drive-thru concepts most people picture when they hear "franchise." Before FranBridge, Jon spent 15 years in corporate America, including a run as VP of Sales at Carter's Inc. overseeing $350M in annual sales, followed by a stint as President of ShelfGenie, a national franchise system with 200 locations. He's also a multi-brand franchisee himself, so he's operating from firsthand experience, not just theory. In this episode, we talk about why non-food franchises can be one of the most overlooked paths to building a second income stream or an exit-ready asset, what actually separates a good franchise investment from a bad one, and how Jon's process helps people find a concept that fits their skills, goals, and financial targets, entirely for free, since FranBridge is compensated by franchise brands, not clients. We also get into how franchise ownership compares to real estate as a wealth-building vehicle, and why the data shows franchises often sell for a premium over independent businesses. If you've ever wondered whether there's a "buy box" for franchises the way there is for rental properties, this episode is your introduction. In this episode: Why non-food franchises are one of the most overlooked wealth-building opportunities How Jon's six-step process matches entrepreneurs with the right franchise Why franchise ownership is 100% free to the client (and who actually pays) How franchises compare to real estate as an investment and exit strategy What separates a good franchise fit from a bad one Jon's own path from Accenture to ShelfGenie to founding FranBridge Download our new AI Rental Property Calculator Book your mentorship discovery call with Cory RESOURCESGet business funding - Revenued.com/juice

Dave Goyal, Founder and CEO of Think AI Corporation, is driven to Turn Disabilities into Unique Abilities by using technology to empower disabled entrepreneurs and help businesses unlock the value of their data. After contracting polio as an infant, Dave transformed physical limitations and early adversity into a passion for solving business problems, building companies, and giving back to society. Through Think AI, he helps manufacturing and healthcare leaders use data and AI to generate real-time insights, improve productivity, reduce costs, and create new opportunities for growth. In this conversation, Dave introduces The 3G AI Augmentation Framework—Gap: Where are we losing time, quality, ability, or capacity? Grow: Apply AI to augment people and improve that work. Glow: Institutionalize the solution so humans and AI collaborate effectively. Dave also shares how his private second brain and AI executive agents save him up to 80 hours per month, why human control and security must remain central to AI adoption, and how authority, trust, people, customers, and culture drive business growth. He also discusses his book, Real-Time Business Intelligence Mastery, and his vision for creating a venture studio for disabled entrepreneurs. — Turn Disabilities into Unique Abilities with Dave Goyal  Good day. Steve Preda here with The Management Blueprint. And today my guest is Dave Goyal, the founder and CEO of Think AI Corporation, which helps CTOs and CIOs in manufacturing and healthcare turn siloed data into real-time insights and automation, creating reduced downtime, increased efficiency, and going from weeks to days in project launches. Dave, welcome to the show.  Thank you for having me, Steve.  Well, I’m really curious to learn about you and your company, Think AI Corporation, but first I’d like to ask you about your personal why and how you are manifesting it in your business.  So thank you again, Steve. I’m really excited to be on your show. I’m in the data and AI business, and really tech innovation, for the last 30 years. In this particular company, Think AI, I have a partner, Manish Bhardia, and we both have been working very actively with Microsoft partners, the Microsoft ecosystem, and implementing data and AI solutions for midsize companies and manufacturing companies. You went on why, which is amazing.  My why: I’m a disabled entrepreneur. I have this hunger for building businesses. I’ve built nine businesses. We can talk about it later. And five of them were miserable failures in my books. Not all of them were that miserable, as I say. But five of them were failures, and I learned a lot from them. And I’m really motivated now to expand it further, to give back to small businesses.  We’ve been working with midsize and enterprise clients, but to midsize companies, and then motivate—I have a 15-year-old kid—so motivate young people and also small businesses to make use of the power of their own data and use and consume AI on a day-to-day basis. That’s my why.  Wow. So, to learn the power of their own data and use AI, why is this important to you?  The main reason is I am passionate about technology. Everybody is good at something. I am really good at solving business problems using technology. Being a disabled entrepreneur, I did not have a lot of luxury initially, even walking. Eventually, I started using braces, started going to different countries. So the passion became really the source of energy and motivation, and that passion is now going to a level where I want to motivate people like me who are disabled entrepreneurs and want to go into this kind of business. So my real passion is technology and giving back to society using technology, to sum it up.  Wow. So you mentioned this disabled entrepreneur. I’ve never heard this term. I mean, you talk about minority entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs, you know, veteran entrepreneurs, and actually the government recognizes these categories, but I never heard about disabled entrepreneurs. So would you mind sharing a little bit about what happened to you and how you got into this entrepreneurship?  Sure, yeah. And that’s really good, by the way. I don’t see anybody else using that term but me, so probably I should keep it with me as a copyright term. Just joking on it. But having said that, every disability brings some kind of ability. That’s why sometimes they call it differently abled. When you have these abilities, you don’t know the source or the channels to use them. So, for example, blind people, they may have a lot of great listening power. That’s why they are into music most of the time.  Sometimes they have amazing reasoning and critical-thinking power, but they don’t know how to channel it, so they fight on a day-to-day basis with these issues. Bringing it back to me, I have polio. When I was six months old, I got hit by the polio virus. Initially, for a few years, I had to just lie down on the bed, had a lot of physical therapy. Then I was able to get up and sit, at least. Then my father was carrying me to school, and I could see the kids were going out and playing. I got beaten up because of that, too, because kids don’t understand. No fault of theirs that I’m not throwing the ball at them and they are playing.  And so that brought a lot of negativity in me. Eventually, my grandfather and my father helped me get over that, and I started channeling that into building businesses. So I started teaching music. I learned music through some of my friends. I started teaching music during my college days and started making money. And I had a blind friend, and he needed money because he was abandoned by his parents, so I had to help him out. I started making some money. I was doing well with my family, so I could just pay everything back to him. So that seed got planted there, and I didn’t know what to do back then, right?  Still a 14-, 15-year-old kid or a teenager, in this case. So I started getting into that mindset of, how about I build businesses for me and then start helping out the community? I’m still not there yet. I’m going towards helping that community. But I want to identify disability in three ways, not just physical. So those three are physical, but the bigger one is mental. A lot of people are really mentally blocked, and you see people, you know, “Oh, I can’t change anything in my life.” People die by suic*de. Kids get into depression. This is a form of disability, by all means.  I don’t think education, parents, and community are doing so much about that other than having a cliché thing that, “I was a victim of depression, so I’m doing that,” just to show off. But really, to help out the community in a methodical manner, that doesn’t exist. Second, physical disability, like I said, given by God sometimes, like war veterans and others, then you feel really limited. So what to do with that? And I come into that category, so I know that really well. Third is financial disability. So a lot of financial disability is in the mind, too. I’ve heard a phrase called, “You don’t die by hunger; you really die by indigestion.”  So you would find ways and means to make money even if you’re a completely disabled person. So I don’t think finance is an issue in general. So these three areas, to me, are the real disability areas. I’m obviously only working on one today, which is physical disability: how to identify the potential of people who can create something different within that limitation and then make a change in the world. So that’s the motivation. That’s my Life 2.0, where I’m moving now. Love it. Love it. So how did you have time to build nine businesses?  I started it in 1993, ’94, I believe, or ’95, I think. And they’re one at a time. Today I have about three. I sold one. And yeah, I did not have time. One of the big challenges when I built these three in the last six, seven, eight years, the biggest challenge I faced is I do not have time for working with customers, which I love to do—talking and listening to their business problems, solving those problems. I end up doing a lot of operational work.  Post-2020, and it’s a very blunt thing to say, people got lazy. They want to change jobs, make more money, do moonlighting, do multiple things, but not work hard like we did back in the days. And that kind of pushed all of us small businesses to do a lot more management of resources, especially human resources, in a distributed environment. I have teams in India, the Philippines, Canada. So that became a bigger challenge. But having said that, AI came as a savior. In the last 18 months, AI has changed quite a lot.  And if you don’t go into a debate of whether AI is good or bad, or you’re a skeptic or an enthusiast, AI can really help you if you really put together how it can help you. It should not replace you, but it should give you an additional helping arm. In my business, I started deploying C-suite. So I still have a VP of operations. My business partner is into sales. But then I started filling in other functions, like a fractional CFO, as an example. My fractional CFO is monitoring my top line and bottom line. I call him Felix. I have to give names to AI agents.  So Felix is actually looking on a weekly basis at what invoices are billed, if we have vendors or employees, what we need to pay, where our expenses are going, what’s the monthly or maybe six-month cash flow run. Are we within limits? Do we have borderline cash availability so that we can survive? So it started to do a lot of things. But not only that, because we are feeding our own data, our own mind, I have built my own second brain. It started to read off of that and started giving me insights that a human would not give me. And even if I hire a fractional CFO, he will only hear what I have to say, look into some of my books, and then give me some blanket suggestions.  Here, this is really tailor-made to our problems, our situation, and it worked phenomenally well. So I’m building that as a product now. It’s not done yet. Then I also deployed my own CMO called Sasha, and she started to look into my marketing angles, my branding, my voice, my identity. I love writing, but now AI can help me—not just create a blanket AI post or something, but really read how I write, what I write. So I create ideas. It helps me research, does a factual check on it. So I give 100 words. It can take those ideas and then expand into newsletter articles or a big campaign.  I can start building different case studies for our customers, proof of concept, building podcasts such as these. So this started freeing up—I only talked about two executives, and I have seven of them—but they started to help me free up my time. And believe it or not, I am getting about 40 to 60 hours, and in good months, about 80 hours per month. So 30 to 50% of my regular time is freed up. So that time is now going into this movement that I’m thinking about, which is disabled entrepreneurship.  Wow, that is impressive. So tell me a little bit about this. This is a podcast of frameworks. So do you have a framework for maybe launching an AI agent like that?  I definitely do, and I want you to expand on it. But in terms of what I have, I look into three things. Where is the gap in terms of human? Where I see either performance issues, quality issues, or availability and capacity issues. So what are those things which don’t hit my security side of things, don’t interact with my customer, and still help me in my operations? That’s the gap we look into. How can we use and fill that gap to grow what we need to work on? And then last, so I use three Gs with my last name, Goyal, right? So Gap to Grow to Glow.  So now how can we use this in our business to glow and create an environment where even humans can interact with this AI persona? So we are always big on human-in-the-loop or human-in-control with any AI solution. So it always starts with the gap. Where is the gap? Where is it taking time from one of the human sides of our team?  I like that. I like that you isolated those things which are less risky to develop, because I think a lot of people are held back by this idea that it’s a black box, you don’t know what you’re getting into, you don’t know what you don’t know, and it’s risky, and then they don’t do anything.  But you actually isolated that customer interaction is a risk you don’t want to live with right now, and security is another one you don’t want to, which, I mean, it’s obvious. But if those are not hurt, then really what is the risk you’re running? So I like it. So how do you fire up an AI agent like that?  So in terms of technology, I’m using a few things. I’m using Claude Code, the full Claude environment. So we build it off of that. Back in my days, I worked as a white-hat hacker, so the security angle we mentioned, I’m always so worried about hacking and security. So I have a completely isolated environment at my home on a Mac Mini, a really powerful Mac Mini, and that cannot go out on the internet and do things. And nobody can inject anything.  But then I still need to feed information to it, so I have another machine where the only job of that machine is to provide information to this system. So I have my own second brain mapped into Obsidian, which is a note-taking application, but it’s really organized. So I first fed all my knowledge. I’ve recorded lots and lots of audios and documents, and it has learned. So I built that system first, like Dave’s second brain. And my second brain has learned everything about me. Nobody can see it but me. That’s my initial basis, right?  After that, I built a working memory for my agents, for my company, and I’m doing it for one company at a time. Think AI is not completely live on the system, but Data & AI Studio is, which is a solo entrepreneurship business that I have. It is learning everything about that business as we speak. Even the transcripts from these podcasts and other places go into it, and it learns from it. There will be some insights which it will find, so it retains them. So Claude Code, Mac Mini, Obsidian—these are the basis. And then I’ve deployed my own personal models, like DeepSeek, and that is sitting locally on that machine.  So the model is local. The downside is it’s not getting updated, so I only update it when I feel that it’s right. Not risk, it’s really the downside. There’s no risk in it. So you’re not on the latest and greatest, but you don’t have to be on the latest and greatest all the time. So Claude Code is on the latest and greatest, but when we deploy, it may not apply certain features that Claude Code is making available. And that’s fine. That’s the risk I’m taking. That’s the trade-off I’m taking. And the system is working great for the last six months.  In the last 18 months, even though I started AI about 28, 30 years ago, the last 18 months is when I learned the new-age AI, and the last six months is when I started building this in an iterative manner. And it is pretty stable now. It can do a lot of things like I mentioned. So your agents are running on your Mac Mini off the grid?  Yes.  And then you’re feeding information with another computer to it to essentially give them the raw material from which they can build stuff, right?  Right. A good example there, if I may expand: we use QuickBooks in our accounting system. It cannot read QuickBooks directly, but we, being a Microsoft partner, understand technology. I can write a job which can push data into the Mac Mini. It doesn’t read off of it. My Mac Mini, which has the agent, doesn’t know where that data has come from. It has the data, so it’s already synthesized.  It cannot communicate with others. So that’s the calculated risk we take, right? Getting the data from one angle, one way, and then it’s synthesizing and analyzing data and getting insights out of it. So that’s the balance of systems that I have.  I love it. That’s very clever. And what is your main business anyway? Because you talk about three businesses right now. What is your core business? What is your flagship business?  The flagship business is Think AI. It’s a consulting organization, a three-time Inc. 5000 winner in terms of growth. We have our own team, but then we also use a lot of vendors which are qualified by us throughout the world. And we are Microsoft Advanced Specialization partners. What that means is we are in the top 2% of the worldwide partners within the Microsoft ecosystem, which is about 500,000 partners. And we work mainly with midsize manufacturers, and sometimes healthcare if they are okay and open to AI, and if not, data. So we go in there, look into whether they have a data and AI strategy.  If they do, we work on their initiatives. If they have the initiatives. If not, we create the initiatives for them by doing some POCs and whatnot. And once we get engaged, we do deliverables like consulting services. But it’s not like typical consulting services where you place a resource. It’s really a value-based delivery model where we try to understand two business imperatives. One is what can help them make more revenue. And if we cannot find that, what can help them be more productive and have cost-cutting in one way or the other.  So these are the two main business imperatives we work on. When and if we align with that, then we give them a roadmap, a phase-wise approach, which they can do with us or with somebody else, and then we keep delivering on it. So that’s the whole model.  So what drives growth in the Think AI business?  I mean, finding more customers, to say the least. And that becomes difficult because today everything is becoming a commodity. So one good learning, by the way, I need to share with the audience here. When you’re a small business, you think your brand is the value that you have. It’s the founders who are the brand. So it’s Manish and me. Manish, my business partner, is really big in productivity, project management, and that kind of thing. And I’m really good at building solutions using tech. And together we have about 55 years of experience.  And then our key team members are ex-Microsoft or MVPs, Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals. So we hire a really strong key team. And the team below, we can either fill with our members, hire our own members, or go to the vendors also, and we tell it to our clients also. So our delivery model is we are the ones who are delivering. The guarantee is taken by Manish and Dave, not by Think AI. We have gotten into that situation. We are about 95% successful, so there’s a 5% failure. And the failure is either because we have the wrong team member, the communication between the client and us was not clear, the scope was not clear, the definition of value and done was not clear, and we have learned from it.  So our business model is towards that, and that brings us growth because we work with a number of partners. Manish is part of a lot of Microsoft channel partner networks. We provide complementary services to those partners. So one channel is we work with a lot of partners because the trust is there. Authority and trust are the two factors we have understood which establish your business, and it’s the founders’ authority and trust, not the company. Company will build on its own. So we started building our own authority and trust, and that gets us growth. It’s not at the level we’d like, but we are happy.  You are happy. Okay. So what is your vision? What would you like to make out of this?  So we have an exit plan, at least on Think AI. And like I told you, Manish has his own. That is up to him. For me, I want to create this venture studio for disabled entrepreneurs, get the funds from here, and then harvest, go across the world. So three hobbies I have.  One is travel. Second is reading, writing stuff, books. And third is music. And entrepreneurship comes in this whole surroundings, in this whole ring, so it’s the foundation of it. So we’re going to build this disabled entrepreneurship venture studio with a little bit of funds from our exit, and hope to grow there and hope to retire or die with that thinking.  Love it. Love it. It’s fascinating. So you have a book that is on your LinkedIn page, Real-Time Business Intelligence Mastery. So tell me about this book. Why did you write it, and what’s it about?  Sure. So we went into a coaching program. Up until 2022, we were arrogant enough to say, “Oh yeah, we can do everything on our own.” And then slowly we realized we need help, and we started taking help. We went to a couple of coaches in India where they were coaching us either on how to manage operations and operational excellence, and then another coach who’s like a life/building-your-brand marketing coach, and he inspired us to write a book.  Now, I’ve been writing in my own native Hindi language, songs and compositions, but writing a book was a dream, and I thought it’s a big undertaking. But with their little bit of motivation and help, not in writing, but in the angle of what a book can bring. So I have a lot of experience working in midsize manufacturing organizations, working with CTOs and CIOs, and business intelligence is delayed. So it’s either a one-day delay or a week delay or a month delay, and it’s more reactive in nature.  So the book was more about how you can build a real-time business intelligence culture so that you can get the insights from your data, make actionable insights, take actions on it, and grow your business for those two imperatives I talked about, which is grow your revenue or increase your productivity and decrease your cost.  So are you writing about some of the things that you talked about? Leveraging AI, building AI agents?  It has more about—so I wrote it in 2022, I believe. It has a lot more detail about. AI was not as popular, right? I mean, I did write about AI in it, but it was more about building a data culture than AI. It does talk briefly about AI because real-time is going very closely with AI. That’s the enabler for AI insights or data insights through AI. So it does talk a little bit about AI, but it talks more about tech leaders like CIOs and CTOs. What do they need to do? How do they need to build a culture around harvesting data, bring the data, build the team, where to take it? So it has those details.  Okay. That’s fascinating. Who is this book for? Is it for founders? Is it for C-level executives? Who is the target?  Like I said, it’s for tech leaders, CIOs, and CTOs of midsize organizations.  Okay. That’s awesome. And these are the people that are your target customers as well at Think AI?  Yes. That’s our true ideal client profile too, and that’s whom we have worked with all our lives. So they’re close friends, target audience, and customers. Future customers and current customers.  All in one. All in one. That’s so nice when you write a book to your friends. That’s a very cool concept. So let me ask you this, Dave. If you had a magic wand, you’ve done a lot of things in your business, you built nine businesses. You learned from some of the failures that you had, which is part of entrepreneurship, and now you created AI agents, and then you have a second brain, and you’re leveraging all that technology. So if you had a magic wand and you could fix one thing in your business in the next 12 months, what would that be?  I wish I had more senior leadership. Any business works with delegation. We have a couple who are really amazing, and they wear a lot of hats. But growth depends on three things, right? Being in front of the right customer, having the right team, and having the right product. Our product is people, unfortunately and fortunately. Customers, we are very happy and excited, and they trust us. We know how to get to them. We know how to create value for them. We are very satisfied. Everybody would say, “I need more customers,” and we would do that too.  But I think more important is what product you are offering. So then people are what we are offering, and we are competing against big ones like Accenture and Avanade and Cognizant of the world in our business, the tech consulting business. But then we are not competing against cost; we are competing against value. So how do you create value? You find a valuable customer. They understand our language. The next level is, where is the product, which is the people? And that management becomes quite difficult. And harvesting and getting the right people in place is a job by itself.  So kudos to those large companies if they’re harvesting one, although that’s debatable because when we go to the client, they complain a lot about their resources as well. So harvesting the right product and the right team is the key. And how do you do that? If you have the right leaders on top. Two partners alone cannot do that. So building more leaders underneath is the key. We are able to build a few, and I wish we could build a lot more. So when you have the right core team, your growth comes in, is my belief system. It could be different for everyone else.  No, I think it’s a very deep insight, and very few people actually talk about this idea that the purpose of a business, especially in today’s AI age, is to build leaders. That’s your purpose, because people will take care of everything. They’re going to run your AI agents. They’re going to manifest your vision. But you can’t have just AI agents in a company, right?  Because then the mental load is so much on the leader, and then the single-person dependency becomes critical. So is this what you mean by this? Where do you come from with this idea of harvesting people and leaders in the business?  Absolutely. You said it well. Building leaders doesn’t just apply to an organization, whether small, medium, or big, but even to countries. If you don’t have the right leaders in place, it’s going to bite you back. And all cultures, some of the top management consultants will teach you to go into succession planning. That is what they really mean by that.  It’s not succession planning by, okay, replace a CEO with a CEO. It’s the mindset. Apple is a great example of it. Steve Jobs hired Tim Cook from Compaq, from that world, and he had that vision. Obviously, he had a mission, but he had the vision—who to take, where to take, and what they would do. And that legacy continues even today. So Apple didn’t change a single bit in their model. And people would argue and debate, and that’s fine.  But when I see it from my eye, he built a great leader. When he did that, the company stayed the same, right? So it’s not about what products Apple is creating today, whether it’s iPhone or iPad or Apple Vision Pro or some of the other things that they are doing, but it’s really that leader. Same thing went with Google, or Microsoft, Satya Nadella. And you see the right leaders were built by these founders. And by any means, we are not that big, and hopefully we can get to some place which is pretty good in our books.  But finding and building the right people, it gives you a lot of satisfaction, happiness, bliss, if you can give it back to somebody who’s capable enough. And I’m always in hunt of the right people, building the right team in place.  It’s so interesting you mention Apple because when Isaacson came out with the Steve Jobs biography, he said, basically, I think it’s in the preamble of the book, that Steve Jobs wanted people to remember him not for the products that he created, but the company. So his biggest contribution was creating a company. And I didn’t get what he meant by it.  But if you witness the last—since he died 13 years ago—the last 13 years, this company has gone from strength to strength. Ninety percent of its market capitalization has been created since he died, right? So it keeps growing and keeps going from strength to strength, and that is the culture and the people that he built. This is the company he built. So it’s quite an amazing idea.  I was about to comment on company. Something came back to me or reminded me that companies generally build on three pillars: customer, people, and culture. And if you don’t have the right balance of it—so, the right people, but if you don’t have the right culture, they’re going to run away. If you don’t have the right customers, you should have the ability to say no to certain types of customers too. Like Apple never targeted small, cheap products.  And when I say cheap, meaning which doesn’t have the right quality in place, not about the cost. It’s always cost versus quality. So they have really struck the right balance in those three angles, and I think that’s the right way to do it. Some are able to do it, some are able to push through to do it, and some are not. But that’s where I think the focus needs to be if you are a founder. Find that right balance of people, client or customer, and culture.  Yeah.  And that is your core values too.  Yeah. I agree with you. That’s wonderful. If you are listening to this conversation with Dave Goyal, and you would like to learn more about him and what he does and Think AI Corporation, where should our listeners go to learn more?  Thank you for this opportunity, first of all. And people can find me on LinkedIn by my name, Dave Goyal. I’m very active there. I recently started a YouTube channel with the name Dave Goyal, so you can find me on YouTube. And mainly on LinkedIn, I have a newsletter on AI, and I’m pretty passionate about what’s happening in AI.  So I even publish AI news this week, but with a different angle, a builder’s angle in mind. And last but not least, you can connect with me through LinkedIn for a 15-, 30-minute call. No angle there. I will just come and help you if you really want to do something with AI. I can listen to your challenges or your fear of missing out, if that’s the case, and tell you if AI is the right fit for you or not, and what you can do on your own also. And if you need our help, we are happy to.  That’s fantastic. So take Dave up on his offer, which I think is very generous. And obviously, Dave, you know what you’re talking about. You built a second brain. You’re running AI agents. Your C-suite is chock-full of AI agents, which is very impressive. I’d love to learn more about this myself.  So if you’re curious about that, make sure you book a call with Dave or check out his stuff. Where is your newsletter? Is it a Substack? Where can people find your newsletter?  It’s on LinkedIn. It’s called Data & AI Demystified in my profile.  Okay. So that’s easy. So we can go to Dave’s LinkedIn profile. And if you enjoyed this conversation, make sure you subscribe and follow us on Apple Podcasts and YouTube. Give us a review because every week I bring in a couple of exciting entrepreneurs like Dave who share their favorite frameworks with you. So Dave, thanks for coming, and thank you for listening. Important Links: Dave's LinkedIn Dave's website

In this episode of Private Markets 360°, we welcome Rachel Barton, Global Lead for CEO Advisory and Private Equity at Accenture. Rachel shares insights from advising private equity firms across the full deal lifecycle and explains what's fundamentally different in private equity today. We discuss how the definition of having an edge has shifted, with firms now relying on advanced analytics, AI, and ecosystem collaboration to stay competitive as traditional sources of value become less reliable. Credits:  Host/Author: Chris Sparenberg and Jocelyn Lewis Guests: Rachel Barton Producer: Georgina Lee Published With Assistance From: Feranmi Adeoshun, Kimberly Olvany www.spglobal.com www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence

Does Burnham's government have a credible growth plan? Are the fiscal rules still fit for purpose? How can Whitehall be reformed for the AI age - and who will pay tax if AI leads to widespread job losses? Robert discusses the major challenges facing Burnham and Healey with Lord O'Donnell, former Cabinet Secretary under three British prime ministers. The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain's smart energy pioneer. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. https://Accenture.com/Spotify-UK Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠restismoney@goalhanger.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@RestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Advertise with us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Partnerships@goalhanger.com⁠ For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to ⁠www.goalhanger.com⁠ Video Editor: Dylan Bonham Producer: Isabelle Bougeard Exec Producers: Bella Soames and Tom Whiter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome back to theFemale Guides Requested Podcast. I'm your host, Ting Ting, from Las Vegas.Today, I am absolutely thrilled to welcome Nikki Smith to the show. Nikki is a true powerhouse who wears many hats in the outdoor industry—she is a sponsored climber, an athlete, a remarkable photographer, and a guide.Nikki has been guiding since 1999, but in this episode, we dive deep into how she found her true niche around 2018 by shifting her focus to affinity spaces. We discuss herincredible work co-creating the successful LGBTQ+ Single Pitch Instructor (SPI) course and how she integrates outdoor activities with a group therapy style to better support specific communities.Nikki also generously shares her personal experiences navigating the outdoor industry as a trans person, the financial realities of this often low-paying profession, andher inspiring work with the Open Aperture photography program, which provides scholarships and mentorship for underrepresented storytellers. We even talk about her current journey to get her Master's degree in clinical mental health counseling to merge trauma-informed practices with outdoor instruction.I enjoyed tremendously chatting with Nikki during our interview, and when I was editing this episode I thought "wow I could listen to the conversation over and over." Warm, honest, professional Nikki provided many thought-provokinginsights naturally brought me to reflect on my guiding and life.Without further ado, please enjoy my conversation with Nikki Smith.Quotes:At 16, I found climbing and the world just went quiet when I was on the rock and I didn't have to think about a lot of the things going on in my life and it just became apassion.For a lot of us we still don't get the credit for our skill set and experience even if we dressed the part. So... I'm going to look like I don't belong even more on purpose.We want to try to increase representation... and take away the excuse that a lot of magazines and companies had: 'Well, there just aren't any photographers from these communities.' There's a lot out there. There always has been.There's so many folks coming in that have very strong impostor syndrome... We're trying to just provide a little more mentorship outside of the specific programming to say 'you belong here.'The foundation of being a better ally is connecting with others and learning their unique stories. Don't avoid people out of fear of saying the wrong thing. Mistakes are inevitable, but people can tell ignorance from malicious intent. Nikki's Bio:Nikki Smith is a photographer, writer, artist, and American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) certified guide who has spent more than two decades working in the outdoor industry. A former U.S. Army Veteran, Nikki is currently a sponsored athlete supported by Mountain Hardwear,Scarpa, Protect Our Winters (POW), and Bronwen Jewelry. Over her climbing career, she has completed more than 200 climbing first ascents and another 200 bouldering first ascents. As an outdoor and human rights advocate, Nikki is a prominent voice for the transgender and LGBTQIA2S+ community. In 2019, working with Mountain Hardwear, Nikki created the Open Aperture program—a scholarship-based mentorship initiative designed to mentor photographers frommarginalized communities and build a more diverse pool of storytellers.Similarly, she founded an LGBTQIA2S+ AMGA Single Pitch Instructor program to train and certify aspiring climbing guides from affinity groups.A sought-after keynote speaker, Nikki has spoken globally for organizations such as Accenture, Patagonia, and The North Face. She is currently pursuing a Master's in Clinical Mental Health Counseling to further her work in supporting and leading within the outdoor community. Links:  www.pullphotography.comwww.nikkismith.com@nikkik_smith@pullphoto

As AI reshapes the enterprise, security must evolve alongside it. Andrew Winkelmann, Global AI Security Lead, and Matt Lancaster, Accenture's AI & Data Lead, join Adam Geller, CPO at Zscaler, to explore zero trust, AI governance, and the strategies organizations need to operate securely at machine speed. From developer accountability to balancing innovation and risk, this episode delivers practical insights for leaders navigating the age of agentic AI.

Nessa Collab com o VerumCast – Powered by Accenture, eu converso com os executivos David Elio e Dominique Mansur, meus colegas de Accenture, sobre Metodologias de Gestão de Projetos que destravaram o mercado, o que vem pela frente e como as empresas estão lidando com os desafios crescentes da implantação de grandes projetos de capital.Dê um play e vamos juntos!

How damaging to us is the obsession of Anthropic, Google and Open AI with creating AI super intelligence? How can political leaders set a new path for AI, that would enrich workers rather than replace them? And is the falling birth rate actually good for us? In the second part of Robert's interview with Nobel prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu, about his influential new book, “what happened to liberal democracy”, we learn whether AI can be tamed to prevent most of the rewards going to trillionaires. The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain's smart energy pioneer. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. https://Accenture.com/Spotify-UK Buy tickets for The Rest is Fest:⁠ https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/the-rest-is-money-live/ ⁠ Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠restismoney@goalhanger.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@RestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Advertise with us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Partnerships@goalhanger.com⁠⁠ For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to ⁠www.goalhanger.com⁠ Video Editor: Dylan Bonham Producer: Isabelle Bougeard Exec Producers: Bella Soames and Tom Whiter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shannon Spotswood – CEO, RFG Advisory Choosing a platform isn't just about technology or economics. It's about finding a partner that helps you build the business you actually want to own. Shannon Spotswood explains why growth without compromise starts with choosing the right partner. In Summary What should advisors really look for in a platform partner? Jason Diamond sits down with Shannon Spotswood, CEO of RFG Advisory, to discuss why the best platforms do more than provide technology and operational support—they help advisors build stronger businesses. Shannon shares lessons from helping grow RFG into one of the industry's leading supportive independence firms, covering everything from private equity partnerships and advisor experience to enterprise value, branding, and overcoming the fear that keeps many advisors from pursuing the business they truly want. The Storyline Most advisors evaluating independence compare technology, payouts, and service offerings. Shannon Spotswood believes they're asking the wrong first question. After spending two decades in institutional investing and later helping to rebuild RFG Advisory from the ground up, Shannon has developed a philosophy centered on partnership. She argues that the best platforms function less like vendors and more like long-term business partners, helping advisors spend more time with clients, build enterprise value, and create businesses aligned with their vision rather than forcing compromises. Jason and Shannon discuss what meaningful support actually looks like, why the right private equity partner can accelerate growth rather than restrict it, and why advisors should demand evidence – not marketing promises – when evaluating a platform. The conversation also explores one of the industry's biggest obstacles to change: fear. Shannon explains why outdated assumptions about transitioning firms continue to prevent advisors from building businesses they enjoy, even though data suggests the experience is often far less disruptive than many believe. Ultimately, the discussion reframes independence itself—not as the destination, but as the beginning of choosing the right long-term partners. Topics Covered Evaluating advisor platforms as long-term business partners Building an independent business without compromise Enterprise value and organic growth Private equity as a strategic growth partner Advisor experience and client experience Branding and authenticity in wealth management Overcoming fear and transition myths Technology, outsourcing, and operational leverage Leadership, succession, and organizational growth The future of supportive independence   > Download a transcript of this episode… Listen and Learn Highlights for Advisors Why should advisors think of a platform as a business partner? (10:00) Shannon explains why technology and service alone aren't enough—and why the right partner should help advisors build the business they ultimately want to own. What does “growth without compromise” actually mean? (10:00–17:30) RFG's philosophy centers on helping advisors focus on their highest-value work while surrounding them with integrated support designed to drive enterprise value. Can private equity make a firm better? (25:00) Rather than debating whether private equity is good or bad, Shannon explains why success depends on choosing a partner whose values and long-term vision align with yours. How should advisors evaluate competing platforms? (43:00) Her advice is simple: don't rely on marketing. Speak with advisors already using the platform and ask firms to demonstrate – not simply promise – how they solve problems. Why does fear keep so many advisors from making a change? (48:30) Shannon discusses the “PTSD” many advisors carry from outdated transition stories and why today's reality often looks very different. What does the future of advisor platforms look like? (34:00–42:00) The conversation explores advisor demand for greater personalization, stronger brands, AI-enabled efficiency, and partners that help advisors grow without sacrificing independence. Key Takeaways The best advisor platforms function as long-term strategic partners—not simply service providers. Enterprise value grows when advisors spend more time serving clients and less time managing operations. Private equity can be highly beneficial when partners share a common vision and respect management autonomy. Advisors should evaluate firms based on demonstrated execution rather than marketing claims. Fear remains one of the biggest barriers to advisor movement despite significant improvements in transition support. Authentic branding and deeper client relationships will become increasingly important as AI reshapes wealth management. https://youtu.be/jaSt3-mO0so Quotable Moments “The right partners make you better. The wrong ones can quietly hold you back.” “Don't tell me. Show me.” “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” “Your team deserves to be happy. You deserve to be happy.”   FAQs What should advisors look for when evaluating an advisor platform? Shannon believes advisors should look beyond technology and economics and evaluate whether a platform acts like a true long-term business partner that helps them grow and build enterprise value. How does RFG define “growth without compromise”? By providing integrated support – from technology and compliance to marketing and coaching – that allows advisors to spend more time with clients while maintaining control of their businesses. Is private equity always good or bad for advisor firms? No. Shannon argues that success depends less on private equity itself and more on choosing partners who share the firm's long-term vision and values. Why do advisors hesitate to make a move? Fear and outdated perceptions about transitions still influence decision-making, even though today's transition experience is often much smoother than advisors expect. How should advisors compare competing platforms? Talk directly with affiliated advisors, ask for measurable evidence of results, and focus on how a platform responds to advisor feedback rather than marketing claims. How is AI changing advisor businesses? AI should enhance – not replace – the advisor relationship by creating operational efficiencies that allow advisors to spend more time delivering personalized advice. Shannon believes advisors should look beyond technology and economics and evaluate whether a platform acts like a true long-term business partner that helps them grow and build enterprise value. By providing integrated support – from technology and compliance to marketing and coaching – that allows advisors to spend more time with clients while maintaining control of their businesses. No. Shannon argues that success depends less on private equity itself and more on choosing partners who share the firm's long-term vision and values. Fear and outdated perceptions about transitions still influence decision-making, even though today's transition experience is often much smoother than advisors expect. Talk directly with affiliated advisors, ask for measurable evidence of results, and focus on how a platform responds to advisor feedback rather than marketing claims. AI should enhance – not replace – the advisor relationship by creating operational efficiencies that allow advisors to spend more time delivering personalized advice. Related Resources How to Evaluate a Firm Beyond the Obvious: A Framework for Advisors Why You Should Stay at Your Current Firm   Shannon SpotswoodCEO Shannon Spotswood is a 25+ year industry veteran with a tremendous amount of experience across both retail and institutional finance and an outstanding reputation built on her passionate leadership and ongoing success in investment banking, hedge fund portfolio management, business development and retail wealth management. Joining RFG in 2015, Shannon recognized the opportunity to channel her entrepreneurial experience and passion for service into leading a mission to create an Advisor-focused RIA of the Future delivering a supported independence platform that empowers Financial Advisors to build the businesses they want to have, without compromise. Shannon's career has been characterized by her determination to build something bigger than herself. Having fallen in love with finance at only age 14, she was focused on making an impact in a male-dominated industry. After graduating from college, Shannon spent 20 years in San Francisco working in institutional finance. She began her career in investment banking and eventually achieved her dream job as a Portfolio Manager of a long- short equity fund at Symphony Asset Management. The company was acquired by Nuveen in 2001. After a decade at that firm and now a mother of 3 young children, Shannon turned her entrepreneurial passion in a new direction with a drastic pivot to start a luxury children's clothing brand, Busy Bees. Taking her years of experience in qualitative analysis of retail companies, Shannon and her business partner built the brand from the ground up, ushering its' growth from a garage to “Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop” over the course of a few years. Shannon and her family made the decision to move from the Bay Area to Birmingham, Alabama to be closer to family. And shortly after, the call to return to her first love, finance, grew to great to ignore. In 2015, Shannon joined RFG Advisory as President, leading RFG as the firm has grown from $1.8B to over $5B. In July of 2024, Shannon was named CEO of RFG Advisory and currently serves in that role. NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Diamond Consultants. Neither Diamond Consultants nor the guests on this podcast are compensated in any way for their participation. View the transcript of this episode… Growth Without Compromise: Building Around the Advisor Experience A conversation with Jason Diamond and Shannon Spotswood, CEO of RFG Advisory. Jason Diamond: Welcome to the latest episode of our podcast series for Financial Advisors. Today’s episode is Growth Without Compromise: Building Around the Advisor Experience. It’s a conversation with Shannon Spotswood, the CEO of RFG Advisory. I’m Jason Diamond, and this is the Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors. Mindy Diamond: At Diamond Consultants, we help elite advisors identify the right environment for their businesses to thrive, whether that’s at a wirehouse, boutique, or independent firm. With nearly three decades of experience, we’ve guided thousands of advisors and represented more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in assets transitioned. And each year, one in four advisors managing a billion dollars or more who change firms are our clients. Our process is education-driven and based on building relationships, starting as your strategic partner well before you’re even thinking of a move. To schedule a confidential conversation, call us at 908-879-1002. Wondering why advisors change firms and where they’re headed? Are transition deals going up or down? Those very questions and more inspired us to create our annual advisor transition report. It’s the award-winning data-driven resource designed for advisors that connects the dots between the motivations around movement and the firm’s appetite for top talent. Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to make smart decisions. Download your copy at diamond-consultants.com/transitionreport. Jason Diamond: The right partners make you better. The wrong ones can quietly hold you back. Most conversations about independence focus on platforms as providers of technology, service, or infrastructure. Shannon Spotswood sees them differently. She believes advisors should evaluate a platform the same way they’d evaluate any long-term business partner, by asking whether it will help them build the kind of firm they ultimately want to own. That’s exactly what we explore in this episode. Shannon is the CEO of RFG Advisory, a firm that has grown from a startup into one of the industry’s leading supportive independence platforms. Along the way, she’s developed a unique perspective on what advisors should be looking for beyond economics and technology, and why the right partner can accelerate growth, strengthen culture, and help create a business that’s built to last. It’s a conversation that goes well beyond advisor platforms. We explore why Shannon believes so strongly in growth without compromise, what private equity can look like when the partnership is aligned, why firms shouldn’t try to be everything to everyone, and how advisors can separate marketing promises from meaningful support. We also spend time on a topic that comes up in nearly every transition conversation my team has with advisors, fear. Shannon shares her perspective on why outdated assumptions about making a move continue to hold advisors back and why asking better questions and demanding evidence instead of promises can fundamentally change the way advisors evaluate every opportunity in front of them. Whether you’re considering independence, evaluating your current platform, or simply thinking about what comes next for your business, I think you’ll find Shannon’s perspective both practical and though-provoking, especially the sage advice in her words, “Don’t tell me, show me.” There’s a lot to take away from this conversation, so let’s get to it. Shannon, thanks so much for joining me. Thrilled to have you here. Shannon Spotswood: It’s excellent to be here. I’m really looking forward to it. Jason Diamond: Me too. Let’s dive right in. I want to start with your background. You spent 20 years in San Fran as an investment banker, then as a portfolio manager at Symphony Asset Management before even touching the world of wealth management. So what made you walk away from, we’ll call it the institutional world and enter the world of wealth management? Shannon Spotswood: It’s a little bit of a circuitous story, but I’m going to take us on the short route. I fell in love with Wall Street as a teenager, so I knew I wanted to work on Wall Street. My dream job was actually the time that I spent at Symphony Asset Management. I was a hedge fund manager for them for six years running a long/short equity fund. I then had three children in three and a half years. The firm was acquired by Nuveen Investments, and we grew very large, and I was on this really interesting trajectory within the institutional investment management world. And somewhat of the unexpected happened to me in 2010, we’d come through the financial crisis. I looked around the room, I had these three young children, and having loved finance since a very early age, I couldn’t crawl on an airplane anymore. I fell out of love with what was honestly my first love. And I made a pretty radical pivot. I left Symphony, the tallest building at the time in San Francisco, and I partnered with a woman, and we built a luxury children’s clothing company for the next three years. So about as radical of a move as you can make, a $30 billion firm, big team, a tremendous growth ahead of us to upside down boxes of infant cashmere in a garage that flooded when it rained. So I had my startup in a garage moment. And while I was running the children’s clothing company, my husband and I took a big leap of faith and decided to move from San Francisco to Birmingham, Alabama to get closer to family, to raise our kids in the South, and just manifest the life that we wanted. In the third year of running the kids’ clothing business, we checked every box of our initial business plan, and I turned to my business partner and I was like, “Now what? Should we raise capital? Should we open stores? Should we diversify manufacturing?” And we realized this beautiful little luxury brand that we had created was exactly what it needed to be. And so we restructured the company and I punched out of that. And I spent, really for the first time in my life, about five months in deep contemplation. What was the first hedge fund that I was a part of in San Francisco, my tour of duty through investment banking as an analyst associate and helping them start an M&A group. This incredible decade that I’d spent at Symphony, and then this wild out of left field moment of building a luxury children’s clothing brand. And it had such an epiphany, Jason. And it was this, that I was on the ground floor of all of those businesses. And my aha moment was, oh my gosh, I’m a builder. What I love more than anything is sitting at the intersection of talent and opportunity and what I think is truly one of life’s greatest gifts, and certainly I think the most fun way to live your professional life, which is building something. So I put my resume together and I titled… It wasn’t even really a job search. It was more, I was new to Birmingham. I wondered if there was anything I could be of service in being a part of building something. So I put that resume together and I titled it Seeking the Intangible. And I was looking for that opportunity of talent and building something bigger than myself. And it was through some networking with my across the street neighbor who went on to become a board member of RFG who thought all I did was sell his wife incredibly expensive clothing who networked me to Bobby White, who’s the founder of RFG. And in the first 10 minutes of my conversation with Bobby, and I’ll tell you, both of us went into that meeting thinking it was going to be a filler meeting. He was doing a favor for a friend, and I had seen a little bit of the wealth management industry after Nuveen had acquired Symphony and was like, “That’s not really my bag. My jam is more on the institutional side of things.” And 10 minutes into our very first meeting, we both canceled the rest of our day, and we spent the next two and a half hours in his office having a conversation that really started with what if. What if we took RFG, which had been founded in 2003, and at the time was an OSJ with LPL, what if we took that business and we tore it all the way down to the ground? And we rebuilt it from the ground floor up to be a platform that is designed, that is intentionally engineered, to serve independent advisors? What would it look like to be a client experience company first, a technology company second, and a corporate RIA third? And I’ll tell you, walking out of that meeting, I was like, “This is it. This is it. This is the intangible. This is an opportunity to really build something very special.” And that’s how I found myself sitting in this talking to you today. Jason Diamond: Wow. So there’s a lot to unpack there. Thank you for sharing. And you shared it with a degree of vulnerability that I personally, I have a two-year-old and a three-week-old as of this recording. So it resonates with me. I think it resonates with a lot of advisors, people in our, and honestly, probably most industries, the constant pull in multiple different directions. And I love what you called it, seeking the intangible. And it sounds like you didn’t go in with any preconceived notion about… Many of our guests, by the way, that is the case. They walk in saying, “I knew since I was two years old I wanted to be in wealth management. I wanted to help be a steward of client…” And I love that your circuitous route took you a different direction. I want to talk more about the firm, and we’ll dive in on some of these elements of your background also. But before we do, you mentioned a little bit of, at a high level, what RFG is. Give me a little more context, types of advisors you serve, types of clients you serve. And if you don’t mind, provide some stats around size as well. Shannon Spotswood: Absolutely. So we are on a mission to help independent advisors build their business without compromise by driving organic growth to create enterprise value. And I share that because in our mission statement is the passion that links us all together, which is helping independent advisors build what they want to envision for their clients, what they believe is the best representation of their vision and their values. So we are a platform, a full turnkey platform for independent advisors. We talk about our services as a flywheel. There’s a very intentional interdependency from technology to marketing to compliance to talent to investment management to coaching, operations, transition services, and capital solutions. All of it is knit together very thoughtfully in order to be able to deliver to the advisors on our promise to help them operationalize and professionalize their business, to serve their clients and to generate that organic growth, which is what translates into enterprise value. What is so cool about the RFG advisor community, and I think is really the thread that binds between our teams and our advisors team is this servant heart growth mindset that you find it in every nook and cranny of RFG and certainly within all of our advisor partners. So the advisor profile for us, we do tend to skew a little bit younger. Average age is 45 years old. Organic growth across all of our advisors is north of 10%. So we’re very focused and leaned in on growth. We do have advisors that are lifestyle. We talk about them as lifestyle scaling and enterprise, and they run all along that growth at growth spectrum, depending on what do they want to build in their lives, what is going to help them really realize their dreams? And we’ll talk about this a little bit and just the growth of the firm and what we’ve been building, but we are at $9 billion. So it’s been a big run in 2026, as I say, 10 years of pre-game warmup to be able to really talk about that level of growth. So just knocking on the door of $10 billion and truly, Jason, I can tell you, I feel like we’re just getting started. I feel like we are just at the beginning of the J-curve as advisors are really realizing that their most valuable asset is their time and the amount of enterprise value that they can create being independent. There’s a lot of different flavors of that. We’ve got some incredibly well-capitalized and very strong competitors, but the collective awareness around this bull market for advice that we’re sitting at the very beginning of is shining such a bright light on what does it mean to be independent? What does it mean to be really supported by a partner who’s all in to help them win? And that’s where we find ourselves. And by design, that’s where we find ourselves. Jason Diamond: Yeah, and it’s an exciting time. I completely agree. The space, the vertical you’re in, probably as much or more than any other pocket of the industry. You took the words out of my mouth, the J-curve. I completely agree with the story you’re telling. There’s one component of your background that I do want to ask about, which is many RIAs, platforms, and the like, the leadership team is intentionally ex-advisors in their own right. So I’m curious, do you think of it as a benefit or maybe to what degree is it not a benefit that you have never been an advisor and served clients? I do love the idea that you’re a business builder and you’re helping advisors to build a business. That’s not lost on me, but I’m curious specifically about never having been an advisor. Shannon Spotswood: I think it is so critical that we were advisor-founded. What we like to say is we’re advisor-founded and professionally-led. Bobby founded the firm in 2003. We partnered in 2015. Our third partner, Rick Wedell, who’s our chief investment officer, managing partner, joined in 2016. So the three of us really co-founded the version of RFG that is- Jason Diamond: The right version. Shannon Spotswood: … expressed in the market today. But you’re a hundred percent right to double click on this. And I think it is such an important area for reflection for advisors in terms of where are their greatest skills? Where does their passion lie? And what are they interested in building? That very first day that I met Bobby, his telling of the story is he looked at my resume the morning that we were meant to meet, and he is like, “Well, why would I hire her? She could do my job.” And he often talked about that where you get to this point as an advisor where the business is scaling and growing. And we certainly are seeing this in a lot of the larger teams that we’re talking to and the relationships that we’re beginning to build within the pipeline of these advisors who were attracted to the industry because they wanted to serve clients and find themselves as accidental CEOs, COOs, their chief cook and bottle washer to advisor to all of these C-suite titles. And it’s not amplifying their natural skillset and it’s not aligned with what is actually their passion for the business. So I give a tremendous amount of credit to Bobby for recognizing more than 10 years ago really what it would take and how he could align team around him and build partnerships around him to be able to maximize the impact that we can have for advisors. So that north star of keeping advisors front and center is truly our, it is woven into our DNA and it is our north star. So we are a client experience company by design. We talk about it all the time, whether it’s how we’re building our team, how we’re thinking about investing in technology, how we’re soliciting feedback for advisors. I always say one of our greatest strengths as an organization is we’re active listeners and then we actually execute on it. Our best ideas come from our advisors, but you’ve got to have that posture as a firm that everything you do is orienting around how do we help advisors operationalize, professionalize, drive organic growth, and create enterprise value? And you can’t do it sometimes. You’re either all in, chips all in, only winning when your advisors win, and only having that lens of will this benefit the advisor and their team or not. It’s not something that you can just dip your toe in and out of. And I think RFG, having that foundation from which to always build is absolutely critical. Jason Diamond: Can I try and paraphrase or synthesize, and you tell me if I get this right? The pitch is something to the effect of, “We are really good at what we do. Let us take all the BS off of your plate so that you can go out and be an advisor. Service your client and prospect.” Do you find that story is resonating more over time? I mean, you’ve been with the firm now long enough to see this kind of cycle of movement towards independence. How has that story evolved over time? Do you find it easier to tell? Shannon Spotswood: Oh my gosh, without question. And I would even put a shorter term window on it. I would say in the last 12 to 15 months- Jason Diamond: Oh wow. Shannon Spotswood: … there has been a collective awakening by advisors, and I think there’s a lot of contributing factors to that. One is obviously as we are all aware, the majority of the industry is now private equity backed. There has been a real focus on the aggregator model, transitioning advisors into a W-2 model. And as that has played out and that financial engineering has translated into some incredible valuations and returns, there has also been simultaneously advisors picking their head up and like, wait a minute, I wanted to get independent so I could serve my clients in a way that I felt best represented my vision and my values. And I’m finding myself increasingly in a captive environment. All the while the technology is getting better, the valuations are getting larger, the ability to control both your branding and what that means for your family legacy is increasing. So over the course of the last 15 to 18 months, that story has just, while it’s been there for a long time, the independent movement was obviously sparked more than, gosh, now 16, 20 years ago in earnest. Now it’s just the passion and the knowledge that advisors are showing up to conversations in recognizing I want more. I want to spend my time where I want to spend it. I want to serve more families. I want to be well-positioned for generational wealth transition. I want to own the enterprise value. I want to build my team and I want the best tech. And that to me is exactly why we’re at the beginning of this J-curve. Jason Diamond: Yeah, I think you nailed it. And I agree with you that this notion of independence is not a destination in and of… It’s too broad of a term I think to use. And there are plenty of advisors who either started at one version of independence and need something different now, or to your point, thought they were going independent only to realize perhaps there’s elements of the business that aren’t as independent as they realized. And that’s where I think a firm like RFG to me, it’s not an accident that your firm fills this niche. This was advisor demand driven. Advisors said explicitly and implicitly, “We want to be independent. We want to own our equity. We want to have control over the things we like, but we want a support partner that helps us with all the back office, the middle office, investment management, the flywheel,” as you call it. Shannon Spotswood: That’s right. Jason Diamond: One other element of your journey to this point that I want to ask about, the succession journey or the journey to CEO, and I’m only asking because it’s somewhat recent, I think it was 2024, so we’re about two years in CEO. For the eight years prior to that, you were president. Shannon Spotswood: Yes. Jason Diamond: And this dynamic is near and dear for a lot of advisors. This idea you’re the heir apparent, but the date hasn’t happened until it happened. Was that a smooth transition date or did you find yourself, and I hope you can be honest about it, and if not, I understand, but I think this is something that a lot of advisors in their own businesses struggle with. So as somebody who’s gone through a major succession journey in the last two years, I’m curious what your thoughts are. Shannon Spotswood: The timing coincided with us bringing on a growth capital partner. So we closed on that partnership with Long Ridge in the fall of 2023, and we really set our sights on how do we bring this capital into the business and invest in our team, invest in our technology, invest in this desire to help independent advisors build their business. And Long Ridge really shares that long-term strategic belief that independence and the corporate RIA model is the ultimate winning model. So we have a lot of room to run there. So entering into that growth partnership with Long Ridge really provided a natural opportunity for that succession conversation to take place and to be able to take the company to the next leg. So we’ve tripled the size of the company over the course of the last two and a half years. Jason Diamond: Good for you. Shannon Spotswood: And as I said, I feel like we’re just getting started. I always joke we’ve had the longest pre-game warmup in history. In a lot of ways that’s by design. For me, the way that I can sleep at night is knowing that we are waking up as a team in this unified front to walk the walk for our advisors. It is incredibly important to us to honor the promise that we’ve made, whether it’s on tech or talent or transition services or marketing growth. So being able to lean in and deliver that, it takes a long time to build that institutional know-how and to be uncompromising in consistently making hard decisions, whether it’s around talent or the investments that you’re making or how you’re running and growing and building the firm. And so Bobby reached and Long Ridge and all of us reached this point where it was just a very natural way. And I think it was such a gift that I had such a long warmup, if you will, in the bullpen, running the day-to-day of the business as president, being so close to sweating the details of how we built the foundation, how we run the firm. And then obviously Ed Swenson joined us as president in last fall in October of 2025, having joined our board when we partnered with Long Ridge. So he joined our board in September of ’23, and he and I set up a call every other week. So we just became this incredibly trusted confidant of mine as we made a lot of strategic investments and key strategic decisions in that first 15 to 18 months of our partnership with Long Ridge. So to be able to build and attract the caliber of talent that we have to RFG, I mean, I’m totally biased and talking my own book, but I think we have the best leadership team. Doug Nelson joined us from Long Ridge as our CFO in November of last year, just bringing that rigor, particularly around capital strategies into our C-suite. So it was the right time to make that transition. And what I would say for founder advisor-led firms, it’s all about what are your growth ambitions? It’s what are your growth ambitions? Without question, when I joined and Bobby and Rick and I set upon this journey to tear the entire company down and build this robust tech stack and be at the forefront as an innovator in that space, that was experience that I had from my 20 years in San Francisco. And Rick had this incredible institutional pedigree having spent 12 years at Bain Capital plus two years at Stanford Business School, complimenting this authenticity that Bobby brought as an advisor, bringing that together. So recognizing as a founder advisor, if you have growth ambitions to 10X your business, it’s going to require that you bring high caliber talent to the table and allow for that room both from an equity participation perspective, but also just from what does the business need as it continues to scale up? Jason Diamond: That’s exactly right. And part of this gets back to private equity sometimes gets a bad rep in our space, but the reality is capital from private equity enables a lot of what you’re talking about. And I give you a lot of credit. I mean, you make the half joke about the longest pregame warmup ever, but I think of it as you learned on your own dime and you built all the kinks and ironed out all the kinks prior to having this critical mass of advisors on your platform. And we’ve seen certainly plenty of firms go that route too. So I give you credit for that. I think because we’re on the topic, let’s talk about it, private equity. Positive experience, negative experience, neutral, neither good nor bad. Just give me your… I don’t want to make the episode about the perils- Shannon Spotswood: Right. Jason Diamond: … and benefits of private equity capital, but just curious what your experience has been. Shannon Spotswood: I think this is one of those life lessons. Choose your partners wisely and great things can happen, whether it’s in your marriage or your friendships- Jason Diamond: Spouse. Yep. Shannon Spotswood: … or your business partners. And Long Ridge found us very serendipitously. I mean, we were probably two years from even contemplating bringing in a growth capital partner. They were introduced to us by a former board member and they were in our offices in January of 2023. And the most important things for us were twofold. Number one, they shared our vision and belief that the corporate RIA independent is the winning model for the industry and for advisors and clients. And number two, who they are as people is very much who we are as people. They’re builders. Jason Diamond: Culturally. Shannon Spotswood: They have this servant heart growth mindset that they share with us. So I feel incredibly blessed to say they’re amazing partners. And what’s interesting, and I’ll share this very openly, they’re the majority owners of RFG. We were very early in that time of bringing them on. They have always honored the promise that they made to us, which is we run the business. They are a strategic partner. They’re a great thought partner. They are the capital provider, but there has been multiple examples where we have made business decisions where there’s been some heat in the kitchen, in the boardroom, and we’ve felt very strongly about it. So I just couldn’t say enough great things about them. And one thing that I will just share, and I say this because they’ve shared this with me, I have had this incredible personal journey of growth bringing such a deep bench in Long Ridge into the firm. And that has been certainly challenging at times. Do hard things, get comfortable being uncomfortable. It’s the ultimate definition. But I really think that is something that never gets talked about is what it means in upskilling the caliber of your talent, yourself, how you have to grow and evolve as an individual has been really, I won’t say it’s been easy, but I look back on what I’ve learned over these two years and just feel prepared as a leadership team, how we operate as a team, what is expected of us to be able to deliver and execute for our advisors in this next leg of growth. Jason Diamond: I think your marriage analogy is the perfect one, and I’m going to use it. And honestly, in a lot of ways. First of all, marriage is hard, good or bad. It’s hard. Second of all, it’s the ultimate… The institution of marriage is not good or bad. Private equity capital is not good or bad, but your answer is the right one. Pick your partner very wisely. My favorite part of your answer, because it’s the most original, was around a good capital backer, a good partner, whatever you want to call it, pushes you to be better. And I think that you’re surrounding yourself with, by definition, some of the smartest people in the industry, and that can’t be a bad thing. And the proof is in the pudding. The growth trajectory you’ve seen, it’s certainly no accident. I think part of it is tied to your incredible stewardship. You don’t have to answer that. You don’t have to be humble, but I’ll attribute it to you. That brings me to my next question. Shannon Spotswood: I do have to say really quickly. Jason Diamond: Please do. Shannon Spotswood: I will be celebrating my 27th wedding anniversary in October. So yeah, pick your partners. Jason Diamond: Congrats. And I feel equally blessed, I assume as you do. I have a great partner, I’ll say. I don’t know if she’s listening right now, but she’s a great spouse. What I was going to say though, good segue, I think there’s been more in recent years, but not a ton certainly of female C-suite wealth management executives. How do you feel about your role? Do you feel an increased burden? Is it an honor to you? Is it something that you don’t think much about at all? I’m curious what your thoughts are. Shannon Spotswood: I feel immense gratitude. I mean, just in general, leading RFG and locking arms with our team and our advisors is, I mean, a gift of a lifetime. I was incredibly fortunate to not just have mentors during my 20 years in San Francisco, but to have true sponsors. Whether it was the first hedge fund I worked at, I took that job because it was a female portfolio manager and at the time one of the only in the country. And she really opened up her heart to me and poured into me. And then 10 years at Symphony, the founding partners of Symphony, they dropped me into the deep end of the pool and gave me a lot of rope to make a lot of mistakes and continued to invest. So I have this foundation from which to build and to lead and to be ready for this role. I couldn’t do any of this without my partners. Rick and I have been partners for more than 10 years. It really does take a village in the same way that it takes a village to raise your family. It takes a village to find the courage and the strength to lead in a way that really honors the gravity of the mission. But I’ll tell you this. One, I knew I wanted to work on Wall Street from a very young age, so I chose this. I knew what I was getting into, that it was a male-dominated industry. I have made particularly, this is one of the unique facets of the wealth management business, we have phenomenal both male and female talent, and I have made the strongest female relationships on this side of the business as compared to the institutional side of the business. So I think there is a richness to our side of the industry that doesn’t get enough air cover. There are just phenomenal leaders, and I think increasingly so, we’re seeing more women stay in the game and raise into positions within the C-suite and leading these firms. I will tell you one thing in 2019, and I really give a lot of credit to Bobby for this in coaching me, is I was raised by wolves on Wall Street without question. I sat on a trade desk, I was completely comfortable with compartmentalizing emotion, and I made it a mission to develop intentionally my emotional intelligence. And that truly unlocked everything for me, and I think plays such a huge part of who I want to be and who I challenge myself to be as a leader. And so it’s funny when I get the question asked of me about being a female CEO, because I think that’s what people feel must be like came very intuitively to me, but I had to learn it. I had 20 plus years of being able to run with boys and I needed to develop that skill. And it is a skill that I challenge myself on a daily to continue to lean into. And I think it is increasingly important both for men and women who aspire to leadership to hone the strategic and execution alongside that emotional intelligence. Jason Diamond: Great answer. And I think you know I admire a lot about you, but it’s certainly one of the things I admire most about you is over the last couple years in particular you’ve been a real beacon of positivity, of empowerment in that regard. You’re active on socials, you’re active at industry events, you’re always willing to talk to people. And honestly, that to me is the answer. A lot of people complain about this as a problem, and I want to just take a second to applaud you because I think you and your firm actually do something to at least try and actively solve some of this. And also you mentioned it earlier, but same thing with some of the next gen dynamics. You skew much younger than the average firm on the industry. And I think that too is to your credit around, okay, we’ve identified that we have a major succession problem in our industry. What are we doing to solve that? Shannon Spotswood: Absolutely. Jason Diamond: Let’s talk about growth a little bit. I agree with your thesis. This space you occupy, no better time to be in it. We’re at the perfect spot on the J-curve. Unfortunately, we are not the only two people to think that. There are also, I think, some other firms. This space has become crowded. What do you think about that? Just the fact that there’s more competition than ever. I mean, my view of it is there are enough quality advisors to go around, but curious what you think. Shannon Spotswood: Anytime I find myself wading into the waters of fear and scarcity around this topic, I’m reminded that 67% of the assets still remain within the wirehouse and IBD space. We got lots of room to run. I believe in a mindset of abundance. The data will tell us that the demand for advice is increasing by 30% over the next decade while the number of advisors is decreasing by 1%. So we’ve got, find me another industry where you see a graph that looks like that. On top of that, next gen, which I think this is so fascinating, next gen actually wants more advice when compared to the baby boomers. So baby boomers created our industry, and here we are sitting on $87 trillion worth of generational wealth that’s going to begin to transition. That doesn’t even include all of the wealth that will be monetized through real estate and family-owned businesses. It is a tsunami. And what is, I think, really interesting is that next gen recognizes the value of their time. I’m sure if I had a conversation, Jason, with you and my husband about how intentional you want to be in terms of showing up for your children and the equal nature of parenting, that alone is changing the way the next gen thinks about both their professions as well as their family life, which means you by default have to hire professionals to do the things that you don’t want to spend the time doing. Jason Diamond: Really good point. Shannon Spotswood: So we have this incredible convergence that’s happening right now, and it’s coming at a time that technology is finally going to allow us to serve more families more intentionally along that wealth spectrum. So it is like, bring it on. There is more than enough to go around. We are in an era of abundance. And what I worry the most about, and this, it’s like climb up on the soapbox and let’s roll, about independence because I see and have so many conversations with advisors where they have been willing to accept such a compromised service experience that they would never allow to be delivered to their clients. So advisors are delivering this 24-hour concierge, high-touch, deeply thoughtful experience, estate planning, tax planning, financial planning, multi-generational conversations. They’re in it. They’re in the trench. And then they turn around and their service partner is so subpar. They’re compromising their growth. They’re burying them in compliance and ops and clicks and swivel chair and tech that doesn’t work. So we’re at the very beginning of this bull run for advice. And I think advisors who recognize, I want to serve more families, I want more control over my time, I want to be able to build enterprise value on my personal balance sheet, have room to do it. So I welcome the competition. I think the best way to talk about it is iron sharpens iron. I learn so much from our peers and like, ah, they did this or they did that. How do we think more disruptively, more innovatively? How do we do it differently? So I think there’s a lot of room for all of us. You’re going to be busy, my friend. You’re already sitting there advising the lion’s share of the big deals, and I think you guys are just getting started as well. Jason Diamond: Yeah, it certainly feels like a bull market for advice and also I think a bull market for some of the… You allude to an interesting paradox, which is some of the biggest and most sophisticated advisors in the industry have really high-touch impressive service models, but they don’t seem to demand the same in return. I have some thoughts as to why. I think one could just be Kool-Aid drinking, like you don’t know any better and you’ve been there for so long. There’s just so much friction associated with moving a business and fear associated that it’s unless things get really dire or unless I find something that’s better enough or meaningfully better enough, I can gut it out. But the third one that comes to mind is these firms we’re talking about have unequivocally, they do a lot of good, a lot of bad, but unequivocally one of the things they do really well is brand. Shannon Spotswood: Yeah. Jason Diamond: How do you reconcile that question with a firm that obviously doesn’t have a brand that the average American consumer would know? Shannon Spotswood: We take a posture on this that is rooted in an Accenture study that was conducted several years ago, but I think still remains so true today, is that advisors think that the value proposition that their clients are looking for, either it’s that big monobrand that’s advertising at the Super Bowl or the alpha they’re ever able to generate or the portfolio investments. But the clients tell us that what they’re looking for in an advisor is, do you get me? Do you share my values? And do I want to spend time with you outside the office? And that is basically distilled down the way we talk about it is people connect with people. So now more than ever, particularly if you take a big step back and you think about the influencer economy and how brands, big brands, Nike or big consumer brands have really leaned into niche branding. How do I get my brand into the hands of someone who’s very passionate about it? So advisors who develop their own brand, who have a presence on social, who have a presence in AEO and SEO, who are leaning in and expressing not only their client experience, but their vision and their values through their brand, I actually think as this generational wealth unfolds, that authenticity carries so much more weight than is my name on a football stadium. So it is those three factors. It’s just I’m comfortable. I don’t want ripple. It is friction and fear for sure. And then it’s like that branding is up for grabs because we certainly see one of the most fun parts of advisors joining RFG, this is a big part of what we do is helping them design and develop or reimagine their brand name, their logo, all the rest of it. Once that creative energy is unlocked and you get to tell your story, your my why, that connective tissue is so powerful with the clients and with the growth that comes from that because I mean, I truly believe people connect with people. They’re looking for that. And I think more so now than ever with AI. Jason Diamond: You just took the words out of my mouth. Do you think AI perpetuates that? Shannon Spotswood: I think people are craving that. And this is why advisors who are powered by AI without question are going to win. Advisors are not going to be disrupted by AI unless they haven’t made the move to get themselves in a position to be able to leverage the technology, the brand, the talent, the maximizing of their time. But especially with something as important and as personal as money, as you walk through life, I mean, you are at the very beginning. I’m sending, I’ll have all three kids in college. But as you make these critical decisions in your life, whether it’s getting married or starting a business or changing jobs or buying your first house, buying your vacation house, all of these things, you can go right or you can go wrong. And having a trusted partner who really understands you, I actually think that we’re going to see the fees paid for advisors increasing as there is a greater premium placed on, I want deeply personal relationships that are tailor-made for me. Jason Diamond: But I assume the flip side of that is you have to do more. You as a firm and you as an advisor have to do more, and you can’t just raise fees with the same service model. So I think what is the corollary of that? What are some of the ancillary growth areas that you do beyond the financial planning and asset management that says, “We’re worth that money you’re going to pay us”? Shannon Spotswood: It is, and I love the work that wealth.com is doing here. I mean, the estate planning and tax planning, making that more accessible along that continuum of wealth spectrum, the blurring of the lines between ultra high net worth and high net worth, and then mass affluent is so exciting. Better, more robust planning is good for our industry overall. Obviously there’s a huge amount of demand on the tax side of things, particularly the 1040. It’s easy to find a CPA to do the cool complex stuff. It’s increasingly more challenging for advisors. That’s an area that I know a lot of firms have leaned into. We’re certainly doing a lot of work. But so much of this, Jason, is showing up at the right time for clients with the resources. It’s a really interesting conversation about, yes, you have to do more for your clients, but you don’t have to do more for all your clients at exactly the same time. Jason Diamond: That’s well said. The flip side of that is as an advisor, because ultimately the advisors are the ones making this decision. There are a lot of firms, and not even just firms that you would be competitors with, because the reality is you and I understand the industry landscape and where various firms fit in. For many advisors, it’s a long list of various firm names that they’ve heard. So what are some things that you think advisors should be asking a firm like you or a business development person at your firm to suss this out? How does an advisor go about understanding if a platform is empty or is really going to be able to deliver in all these areas? Shannon Spotswood: Remember back in the day when the Wall Street Journal used to run have a monkey throw a dart and see if you can beat the pros on stock picking? I love to do that with regards to our advisors. We always tell our prospects, “Throw a dart at any advisor that’s affiliated with RFG and call them. Certainly we can provide a list of advisors who we think you’re going to most align with in terms of what your growth ambitions are or the way you want to run your business or who you are, life stage, all the rest of it.” But I do think that getting that unfiltered experience, the good, the bad, the ugly. We always are like, “Are we perfect? Absolutely not. Do we though immediately want the feedback so that we can iterate to excellence to get better? Absolutely. Get that firsthand testimony.” So that’s number one. Number two is don’t tell me, show me. There are so many, and it always pulls at my heart because as much as I love to win business and transition advisors, and I think that we’re working certainly at RFG on some really interesting technology that is anchored around removing that friction and fear by speeding up the time that you can make that transition in. And the tech is finally there to allow for this. So I think we’re going to be able to take variable number two and at least make that box a little bit smaller. But if I’m sitting as an advisor, I would want to see the evidence. Show me how you’ve solved the problems that advisors have brought to you. How have you refined your tech stack? How have you invested in your team? How have you made the decisions where the ROI can be measurable and tangible? And I think too often I’m surprised that advisors get, it’s almost as if they get overwhelmed by the amount of information that they’re taking in trying to compare all these different firms. If I’m ever asked, I’m like, please work with a third-party recruiter. You need someone not only to act as an interpreter, but you need someone to help really keep your top three priorities at the front of your decision-making matrix, because it really is apples to oranges to orangutans and you get decision fatigue. And then advisors end up making this decision that is anchored in like, well, this is the highest payout, and I’m willing to take all of these sacrifices and paper cuts for this highest payout. And that is just such a travesty. So it’s like, know what you want. What are your top three problems that you’re trying to solve? Talk to advisors that you get to pick just so you can do some secret shopping, and then demand evidence of how the firm, the platform has responded to feedback and gotten better as a result because that will tell you, are they really going to walk the walk or are they just going to talk the talk? Jason Diamond: I’m super grateful that you gave specifics there because it’s an easy question to dodge and talk around. So I completely agree. Your first answer, actually all three of those points you just made, but certainly doing name-blind calls, and I say name-blind because advisors worry about confidentiality. I think that’s one of the best and most underrated tools to learn about a firm is advisors now have so many colleagues. There’s been this diaspora of advisors where advisors know advisors everywhere. And that’s a benefit if you wanted to go and just network and have conversations with other advisors on your own. But if you’re worried about confidentiality, there’s certainly the mechanisms, and we do this all the time for advisors to set up name-blind calls. You dial into a conference line, it’s John Smith, and you pick an advisor’s brain and say, “Hey, you moved your book from LPL to RFG, and tell me what that experience was like and what were the positives? Give me all the negatives.” To your point, you want advisors to ask those questions in advance. It’s better to ask those questions than to end up in the wrong marriage with the advisor. Shannon Spotswood: Absolutely. And the other thing is what an easy answer to BS around is tell me who’s a good fit for your firm. And it’s like, “Everyone’s welcome here.” Jason Diamond: Everybody. Yeah. Shannon Spotswood: It’s just not true. RFG is not a good fit for an advisor who is not open to using technology, who is not interested in outsourcing investment management, who doesn’t want to have a conversation about how are you spending your time and do you want to create enterprise value? Do you want to grow? So it really is important to have that vulnerability and that honesty and the answer to that question. Jason Diamond: I love it. We have time for one more. I can’t believe it’s been almost an hour. Shannon Spotswood: I know, it flies by. Jason Diamond: We speak with plenty of advisors who aren’t considering a move, but I’m interested. I think you have a really nice lens into the industry. What is one thing you wish advisors knew? You have a megaphone to just talk to advisors who maybe are considering change, but maybe aren’t. What’s the questions they should be thinking about? What keeps you up at night? Just what would be your public service announcement? Shannon Spotswood: I’m going to focus on the friction and fear because that’s the number one barrier to making a move is PTSD, either first person PTSD or the collective negative experience that the industry has had. It took me 90 days to transition. I got sued by my former firm. I lost all these clients. I didn’t have income. The wise tales of fear are very widely trafficked and widespread. And what I would say to an advisor is everything you want is on the other side of fear. And I look at all of this data that suggests exactly the opposite, which is you have the relationship with the client. You have the trust with the client. You are the one who they call on Sunday night when they need a shoulder to cry on or sage advice for making a decision. Just believe it with the core of your being because what we see is 99% of assets transition, whether it’s a restrictive transition or you’re taking full data, that the majority of assets are transitioning within 30 days, that this is still a free country, and you can make a move while honoring your contract around non-solicitation, non-competes, and non-associations. So it is like this fear of holding advisors back is preventing them from realizing and monetizing this enterprise value, but equally as importantly, loving their business. Have fun. This should be fun. We spend the majority of our life at work. And so being able to surround yourself with people who win when you win, with a team who’s aligned and isn’t just drudgery with all their operations compliance headaches that they’re dealing with. Your team deserves to be happy. You deserve to be happy. And that fear factor is holding so many advisors back. So that’s my advice is that it just doesn’t have to play out that way. And I think not just at RFG, collectively where we are as an independent industry with technology, with the way that AI is changing and our ability to harness data and business intelligence, getting to that point of next best action, how am I spending my time, how am I realizing, what is the blueprint for realizing my growth goals is more tangible now than ever. That’s immediately where I go. Jason Diamond: I’ve never been an advisor. I’ve never had a book of business, so I don’t want to minimize the fear, but I will say this. If we speak to advisors, let’s say a year post-transition, by far the number one thing we hear from them is, “I wish I did this sooner.” Shannon Spotswood: Wish I did it sooner. Jason Diamond: And that to me is the most telling data point there is to your point about fear and getting over it. Shannon Spotswood: So I do this exercise all the time with our team as we’re onboarding advisors is I want you to go home and look at your spouse and tell them, “I’m going to leave my job. I have no certainty that everything is going to work out. We might not receive any kind of compensation. Are you cool with that?” Walk that emotional journey. And while there’s plenty obviously that we can do with Capital Solutions to ease the financial fear associated with it, I still think at the baseline, it’s a great exercise to keep everyone very humble. You are asking an advisor to take their life’s work. And someone was sharing this analogy with me the other day and I was like, “Oh my gosh, that’s so good,” which is imagine moving houses. It’s such a hassle packing up moving one house. Now imagine moving 400 households or 1,200 households. It’s a lot, but I always hear the same thing, “I wish I’d done it sooner.” Jason Diamond: Thank you for sharing. You had some really sage wisdom that you shared with our audience. I can’t wait to see the next chapter, the continuation of the J-curve. This has been a fantastic episode, Shannon. Thank you. Shannon Spotswood: I love being with you, Jason. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Mindy Diamond: As a financial advisor, you hold yourself to the highest standards of integrity, honesty, and credibility. You are successful because you take your professional responsibilities seriously and are dedicated to your clients. But are you living your best business life? Are your goals aligned with your firms or could a better option exist? Should I Stay or Should I Go? is a book written with you in mind. It’s a self-guided journey that walks you through the key steps that we take with our advisor clients. This strategic thought process and roadmap to professional self-discovery is designed to help you ask the right questions and think critically and objectively, whether you’re considering change or not. Learn how to get your copy at diamond-consultants.com/thebook.   Growth Without Compromise: Building Around the Advisor Experience A conversation with Jason Diamond and Shannon Spotswood, CEO of RFG Advisory. Jason Diamond: Welcome to the latest episode of our podcast series for Financial Advisors. Today’s episode is Growth Without Compromise: Building Around the Advisor Experience. It’s a conversation with Shannon Spotswood, the CEO of RFG Advisory. I’m Jason Diamond, and this is the Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors. Mindy Diamond: At Diamond Consultants, we help elite advisors identify the right environment for their businesses to thrive, whether that’s at a wirehouse, boutique, or independent firm. With nearly three decades of experience, we’ve guided thousands of advisors and represented more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in assets transitioned. And each year, one in four advisors managing a billion dollars or more who change firms are our clients. Our process is education-driven and based on building relationships, starting as your strategic partner well before you’re even thinking of a move. To schedule a confidential conversation, call us at 908-879-1002. Wondering why advisors change firms and where they’re headed? Are transition deals going up or down? Those very questions and more inspired us to create our annual advisor transition re

How do we revive living standards and restore confidence in liberal democracy? Is the link between productivity and wages permanently broken? What is working-class liberalism? Why should Andy Burnham's first budget raise taxes on capital while cutting taxes on employment? And why are tech giants like Google and Amazon twice as wealthy as the British Empire at its peak? Robert investigates how to safeguard our way of life with Nobel Prize–winning economist Daron Acemoglu. Together, they discuss whether the prescriptions in Acemoglu's influential new book are practical enough to prevent liberal democracy from eroding further. The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain's smart energy pioneer. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. https://Accenture.com/Spotify-UK Buy tickets for The Rest is Fest: https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/the-rest-is-money-live/ Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠restismoney@goalhanger.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@RestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Advertise with us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Partnerships@goalhanger.com⁠ For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to ⁠www.goalhanger.com⁠ Video Editor: Dylan Bonham Producer: Isabelle Bougeard Exec Producers: Bella Soames and Tom Whiter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andy Henriquez, known as the Master Storyteller, is a business storytelling coach, keynote speaker, and founder of the Master Storyteller Academy. He helps entrepreneurs, executives, and organizations use strategic storytelling to build stronger connections, elevate their brands, and drive revenue growth. The author of Show Up for Your Life, Andy has worked with organizations including NASA, Accenture, Pratt & Whitney, Bacardi, and Google. In this episode, he shares how a chance conversation at a gas station changed the trajectory of his career, how he turned his real estate knowledge into his first information product, and why storytelling and personal investment can be powerful tools for creating opportunities. On this episode we talk about: How a random conversation at a gas station led Andy into real estate and ultimately changed his career Turning knowledge and expertise into seminars, information products, and revenue Why storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to build genuine connections The difference between being in the right place at the right time and being the right person at the right time Andy's life-changing decision to invest $30,000 in coaching with legendary speaker Les Brown Why you shouldn't wait for someone else to give you an opportunity—you should create your own stage How investing in yourself can build confidence, accountability, and long-term results Top 3 Takeaways Create your own opportunities. Don't sit around waiting for someone to give you a seat at the table. Put yourself in environments where opportunities can happen, then be prepared to act when they do. Become the right person for the opportunity. Being in the right place at the right time isn't enough. Your mindset, preparation, and willingness to act determine whether you'll recognize and capitalize on an opportunity. Invest in yourself at the level of the results you want. Andy's $30,000 investment in coaching forced him to take his goals seriously and become more accountable. Even when an investment doesn't immediately produce the expected result, the lessons and experience can become part of the process that eventually pays off. Notable Quotes "The shortest distance between you and the person that you're either looking to connect with or the person that you're looking to influence is really like a story." "You have to invest at the level in which you expect results." "Successful people commit first, and then they figure it out." Connect with Andy Henriquez: LinkedIn: Andy Henriquez Instagram: Show Up for Your Life Other: Master Storyteller Academy A Word from Our Sponsors: - Go to Leesa.com for 25% OFF select mattresses (through August 23, 2026) PLUS get an extra $50 off with promo code TMM, exclusive for my listeners  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For years, marketers have been helping to shape how consumers think and feel about products that are driving the linear economy. However in this episode of the Circular Economy Show, we explore how they can harness their skills to unlock the opportunities that the circular economy provides.  We're joined by experts Deb Caldow, former Global Marketing Director at Diageo, and Rachel O'Reilly, Global Research Lead at Accenture Song. Their experiences provide an insight into how we can turn ideas into impactful actions that deliver both economic growth and environmental benefits. Join us to find out: How marketers are leveraging storytelling to inspire interest in circular products Why they should engage closely supply teams to ensure innovations align with market demand The importance of internal buy-in and a willingness to experiment when scaling circular solutions This August on the Circular Economy Show, we're revisiting four conversations that help to navigate the marketing challenges and opportunities of switching to a circular economy. So listen in if you want to learn how to take something from a good idea to something that actually sells. Subscribe to The Ellen MacArthur Foundation for more insightful videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQAC2otE5_agzHZPnk3mE5w?sub_confirmation=1 Follow us online on these channels: Instagram: http://instagram.com/EllenMacArthurFoundation LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ellen-macarthur-foundation/ Website: http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org  

How is the consulting industry changing as technology, AI, and new buyer expectations reshape the market? In this episode of Supply Chain Now, Scott W. Luton speaks with Amber Salley, Founder and Managing Director of the Amber Salley Advisory Group, about the changing consulting landscape and what supply chain leaders should consider when hiring outside expertise. With experience as a practitioner at IBM, consultant at Booz & Company and Accenture, Gartner analyst, and vendor executive, Amber shares her perspective on why traditional consulting models are under pressure, how AI is accelerating existing changes, and why specialization matters more than ever. Listeners will learn why companies are moving toward smaller technology investments, faster results, and decision-focused advisory support. Amber also discusses how consulting firms must adapt, the future of outcomes-based pricing, and why organizations should evaluate partners based on their ability to deliver measurable value quickly. Jump into the conversation: (00:00) Intro (02:19) Meet Amber Salley (03:14) How Amber Salley's career shaped her consulting perspective (08:47) Why specialized supply chain expertise matters (16:16) What is changing in the consulting model? (23:16) Why buyers are moving toward faster technology wins (28:39) How consulting firms must rethink software partnerships (33:08) Can outcomes-based pricing become the future of consulting? (36:36) What should SMB operators ask before hiring consultants? (43:12) Why companies should avoid layering AI onto outdated foundations (49:53) Where to connect with Amber Salley Additional Links & Resources: Connect with Amber Salley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ambersalley/ Learn more about Amber Salley Advisory Group: https://www.salleyadvisory.com/ Learn more about our hosts: https://supplychainnow.com/about Learn more about Supply Chain Now: https://supplychainnow.com Watch and listen to more Supply Chain Now episodes here: https://supplychainnow.com/program/supply-chain-now Subscribe to Supply Chain Now on your favorite platform: https://supplychainnow.com/join Work with us! Download Supply Chain Now's NEW Media Kit: https://supplychainnow.com/media-kit/ WEBINAR- From Disruption to Stability: Building Resilient Logistics Solutions in a Rapidly Changing Global Market: https://bit.ly/3TguZMt WEBINAR- SAP AI Inside the Supply Chain: From Silo to Orchestration: https://bit.ly/4bvpz6K   This episode was hosted by Scott Luton and produced by Trisha Cordes, Joshua Miranda, and Amanda Luton. For additional information, please visit our dedicated show page at: https://supplychainnow.com/how-choose-right-supply-chain-consultant-1623 The content in this episode, including all audio, videos, visuals, and graphics, is the property of Supply Chain Now and is protected by copyright law. Unauthorized use, reproduction, distribution, modification, or re-uploading of this content in any form is strictly prohibited without explicit written permission from Supply Chain Now.For licensing inquiries or permissions, please contact us at production@supplychainnow.com© 2026 Supply Chain Now. All rights reserved. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why is it taking so long to get people trained in AI? Should we be devolving education powers to employers instead of Mayors? Is the replacement for the Apprenticeship levy any good? Why is it so hard for companies here to raise money from British investors? Steph talks to Euan Blair, CEO of Multiverse - the UK's first British EdTech business valued at over a billion - about the future of work. Plus some spicy chat on Multiverse's Ofsted rating and why Euan's dad was wrong to push for 50% of young people into university when he was PM. The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain's smart energy pioneer. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. https://Accenture.com/Spotify-UK Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠restismoney@goalhanger.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@RestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Advertise with us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Partnerships@goalhanger.com⁠ For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to ⁠www.goalhanger.com⁠ Video Editor: Dylan Bonham Producer: Isabelle Bougeard Exec Producers: Bella Soames and Tom Whiter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Her first year in corporate. She noticed her male peer was getting more technical work than her. She raised it with her supervisor — not loudly, not aggressively, just directly. Instead of addressing it with her, the supervisor took it to a broader forum and told others there was "a trouble candidate in the team." The message filtered back to her. She had asked for fair treatment and had been labeled a problem for it. What happened next is what makes the story worth hearing. A senior leader stepped in, routed someone to talk to her properly, understood what she actually needed, and gave her a product certification project. She suspected it was a test. She treated it like an opportunity. She delivered. That quarter, she won a company excellence award. Aditi is Managing Director at Accenture's Cloud First Data and AI Group, where she leads digital transformation for large clients. She has been called outspoken — a label she has never apologized for — and decisive, a word she noticed women rarely claim for themselves. In this episode she gets specific about what it actually looks like to speak up when you're new, when the reception is hostile, and when the outcome is uncertain. You'll hear: Why being labeled "trouble" for asking a fair question was the moment that taught her the most about how organizations actually work — and why she considers the outcome a net positive even though it was uncomfortable to live through. What she did when a senior client contact told her directly "I don't think you even know this stuff." She didn't react. She absorbed it, reported it proactively to her leadership before it could reach them filtered through someone else, and stayed focused on delivery. What she learned about the difference between reacting and responding. Why outspokenness without data is just noise — and why outspokenness backed by facts, research, and conviction is one of the most useful things a leader can bring to a team. How she creates conditions for her own team members to speak up — and why, when she opens a conversation by sharing her own honest view first, she consistently finds that people who had something to say but were waiting for permission start talking. What "decisive" actually means in practice when you're managing a team with competing voices, a client with high expectations, and no time to wait for perfect information. About Aditi: Managing Director, Accenture Cloud First Data and AI Group. Digital transformation leader.

Many companies obsess over sales reports, churn metrics, and dashboards, but the real story is hiding in what people say long before the numbers move. Today's guest, Dan Bruder, co-founder of Blendification, helps organizations tap into that hidden layer by turning everyday conversations into decision-ready intelligence that leaders can use to predict and prevent problems before they show up in the P&L. In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Dan shares how Blendification uses conversational AI and linguistic analytics to run psychologically adaptive, goal-focused interviews at scale, thousands in a week if needed. Instead of just answering questions like traditional AI tools, their system asks smarter questions, reads engagement and emotional readiness, and uses a panel of specialized AI “agents” to understand what employees and customers really think and feel. The result: organizations can detect cultural hotspots, disengagement, and customer risk months before it shows up as lost revenue or turnover. Dan explains how Blendification fuses this deep qualitative data with existing operational data from CRM, HR, and financial systems to create traceable dashboards, emotional intelligence patterns, and research-grade insights, without the months-long effort of a traditional consulting engagement. He also shares a bold vision: replacing static PowerPoint decks with dynamic, fully traceable presentations generated directly from source data and conversational insights, giving leaders both speed and confidence in their decisions. If you're a consultant, advisor, market researcher, or small to mid-sized firm trying to compete with giants like Accenture, this episode is especially powerful. Dan shows how nimble firms that adopt conversational data analytics early can actually leapfrog larger, slower competitors, delivering deeper insights, faster, with far less manual labor. You'll hear how conversational AI, when used as a true language tool (not just a fancier spreadsheet), opens up a blue ocean of understanding human behavior at scale. https://youtu.be/DGST8uwJxIw?si=oOb9DiB5XKvbFUg8 Dan also shares a thought-provoking perspective on planning and uncertainty, why “it's none of your business where you'll be in five years” and how that mindset aligns with leading through rapid AI-driven change. If you've been stuck in the world of transactional metrics and static dashboards, and you suspect the real gold is hidden in the conversations your people and customers are already having, this episode will give you a clear, exciting look at what's now possible with conversational AI and Blendification. Quotes: "With AI, we're not just leveling the playing field; we're giving a competitive advantage to the people who are nimble and move quickly." "Most of what I've seen out there is really taking the same data we've always used and using AI to report the same dashboards we've always had, just a little bit quicker and with more data." "We've created an AI platform that holds psychologically aware conversations just as a human would, adapting the next question to bring someone back in when they start to disengage." Contact Details: Transform Your Brand with Blendification: Start Today Discover Better Leadership with Dan Bruder Connect with Dan Bruder on LinkedIn for Leadership Insights Subscribe to Dan Bruder's YouTube Channel for Leadership That Inspires Action

Jacquelyn Fletcher Johnson is an executive communication strategist, keynote speaker, conference designer, and founder of the Heartwood Leadership Institute. She helps leaders, founders, and organizations transform powerful ideas into unforgettable messages that inspire action through the power of story. The belief that stories can change lives has shaped her work from the very beginning.   Jacque has coached executives and advised leaders at Fortune 100 companies and global brands including Amazon, Accenture, General Mills, Salesforce, Stripe, Target, Visa, Walmart, and more. She's the host of the Ideas Love Community podcast, creator of the Gateway Gathering & Pitch Fest, and the author of 14 books. She's trained thousands of professionals in communication, executive presence, and thought leadership. When she's not launching voices, you'll likely find her paddling with her gold medal-winning dragon boat team of all breast cancer survivors.   Episode Summary:   In this episode of Heartbeat for Hire, host Lyndsay Dowd sits down with Jaquelyn Fletcher Johnson — communication strategist, conference designer, 14-time author, and founder of the Heartwood Leadership Institute. Jaquelyn traces her lifelong obsession with storytelling back to a childhood prank on her younger brothers, then walks through a career that wound from freelance writing and magazine editing into pioneering "Creative Writing at the Bedside" and an on-set interview show at Mayo Clinic, and eventually into executive coaching and leadership development.   Key Takeaways:   - Stories shape how people feel long after they're told. - "Trail angels" are the people who show up right when you need them. - A meandering career can still add up to a clear pattern. - Starting something of your own means giving up full control. - Executive presence isn't about polish — it's about being grounded. - A health scare can clarify your legacy. - You don't have to act on every calling — but it won't disappear.   Episode Chapters:   00:00 Cold open: three things you'll learn from this episode 00:43 Welcome to Heartbeat for Hire + guest introduction 01:36 Jaquelyn joins the show 02:08 Origin story: the Jolly Green Giant and the power of story 04:58 Career path: freelance writer to magazine editor to Mayo Clinic storytelling programs 08:33 What is a "trail angel"? 10:06 The tough reality of the conference and speaking world 10:43 Why Jaquelyn decided to build her own conference 14:25 Lessons learned building the Gateway Gathering and Pitch Fest 17:53 Listener thank-you and sponsor spotlight (Cozy Earth) 18:34 Redefining executive presence 21:19 What inspires Jaquelyn 22:01 Legacy, breast cancer, and dragon boat racing 23:18 What's next: Gateway Gathering, Pitch Fest, and family milestones 24:04 Where to find Jaquelyn 24:09 Final takeaway for listeners

How can the government persuade UK companies and households to invest and spend their record cash holdings? Why is Donald Trump's unpredictability failing to destroy economic growth? Why is it so difficult to assess whether a lethal AI bubble currently exists? Robert discusses the risks and opportunities in today's world of extreme financial, technological and political risks with Karen Ward, chief market strategist for JP Morgan in EMEA. The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain's smart energy pioneer. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. https://Accenture.com/Spotify-UK Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠restismoney@goalhanger.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@RestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Advertise with us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Partnerships@goalhanger.com⁠ For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to ⁠www.goalhanger.com⁠ Video Editor: Dylan Bonham Producer: Isabelle Bougeard Exec Producers: Bella Soames and Tom Whiter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

According to Gartner, worldwide AI spending is forecasted to increase 44% by the end of 2026. Companies are investing in AI, and they are investing heavily. But knowing where and how to invest isn’t easy, especially with what feels like a million different AI tools out there and a million more different ways to build your own. So how do you figure out what to build, what to buy, and which investments will help you move the needle for your business? Riley Rogers: Hi, and welcome to the Win/Win Podcast. I’m your host, Riley Rogers. Join us as we dive into changing trends in the workplace and how to navigate them successfully. Here to discuss this topic is Cody Sims, head of commercial brand at Cox Communications. Cody, thank you so much for joining us today. Super excited to hear your thoughts on this one. Before we dive into what is quite a loaded topic, could you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and your role? Cody Sims: Yeah. So, hi, I’m Cody. I’m the head of commercial brand for Cox Communications, and it’s kind of crazy how I came into this role. So I actually started my career when I was 15 and was installing phone systems for my dad’s phone company. And after that, I had actually had two parts of what I thought was what I wanted to go into, and that was either musical theater or physics, because those were two things I really had a passion about. And when I got into college and had musical theater as my major and physics as my fallback, I realized that both of them left a part out of what I really enjoy. And so I ended up actually landing in marketing because it’s both analytical and creative, and that has served me really well over the years. So, across Cox, I have done all kinds of things from product management to market development to pricing to competitive analysis, and now in the brand world. It’s given me kind of a 360 view of the entire business from a marketing lens. I would say that I’m pretty much a transformation leader. I really enjoy breaking things and building them up new again. So, AI is happening right at the right time for me. RR: I love that story, and I love that it’s taking you to a place that especially now is getting more and more technical, more and more analytical. I’m very excited to get into that transformation leader side of things. But before we do, can you paint a little bit of a picture of your sales environment? CS: Yeah. So when I first came to Cox, it was very similar to most of what you would call a CLEC, or a competitive local exchange carrier, which is primarily internet service, voice services, and obviously because it was Cox, some cable TV services that were the triple threat. That was kind of what in the early 2000s was kind of the way that they went to market. But over time, the team at Cox realized that in order to stay competitive, they had to add to the portfolio to make sure that they were providing value to their customers, and I’m sure many would understand that and have gone through similar transformations. And so we had acquired several different other companies that added to our portfolio, and developed some of our own products, and over time that turned into a lot of products. But it’s not just 70 products. It’s 70 products, it’s nine customer segments that we have from a segmentation perspective. It’s six distinct buyer personas, industry verticals, what’s serviceable at that address. So you take all of these different components and it’s almost like three-dimensional chess for the salesperson. The way that I like to think about it is that the sellers, what they really need and what their challenge is, is that they’re not looking for specs. They’re looking for what are the business outcomes that my customer is trying to achieve, and then what do I have from my portfolio that will help them to achieve those results? So it’s no longer a world where they can memorize everything and know every product in and out, and be the technical expert. They really do have to have tools and systems that help them to have the right knowledge at the right moment for the right person in the right place. RR: Yeah, there comes a point when the human brain just can’t contain the context and the expertise that you need. So when you can’t ask for expertise, what you can do is provide, to your point, that just-in-time support. And one of the things that you alluded to was that that’s where you kind of started some of that AI investment as a way to bridge that gap. You’ve given us a little bit of a taste, but what kind of motivated that early initiative? CS: Well, I would say that, over time what we discovered was that we couldn’t keep track of all of our marketing materials, collateral, all of the pieces of information in just files, formats, and putting it online into a here’s-an-accessible-library. Because the library just becomes bigger and larger and more difficult to manage. But I would say that we didn’t set out to do AI. We didn’t sit down and say, “Oh, hey, AI looks cool. Let’s make sure we’re doing it.” We needed to transform our go-to-market strategy so that we were more nimble, we were more competitive, and that we could deliver the kind of experience that our customers were asking for. And so AI was the mechanism that would help us to get there. But what really triggered this whole thing was what I mentioned earlier, was our segmentation. When we sat down and said, “Let’s rebuild the way that we look at our audience segments,” and we did that based off of what is the value to Cox of each of these customer profiles, and then what is the technology sophistication of that client, of that business. And that intersection allowed us to create our nine different segments that we were working on. And so when we did the math, when we looked at all of that information and all of the things that we needed to be able to provide to those segments, we realized this was quickly going to turn into something that was far beyond any marketer’s ability to do. But what we knew is that the Gartner information we were tracking said that personalization was having much higher returns on the way that people respond to information. And not only that, but if you do personalization and you get it wrong, if I call you and I say, instead of, “Hey, Riley,” and I say, “Hey, Jonah,” you’re like, “Hmm, nice try.” So personalization is really important to being successful, but getting it right is even more important. So we realized that we needed to have some radical partnership between our marketing, AI, and sales teams, that we needed to make sure that this was not just an IT project, that we were going to go and pull a bunch of requirements together and everybody would be like, “Oh, hey, here’s this new tool. Everybody figure out how to use it.” And it wasn’t necessarily about optimization. It was about transformation, the way that we go to market, the way we think about our customers, and the way we show up. So I would say that AI definitely was part of the solution set, but we had to look ourselves in the mirror and say, “It’s time for us to actually think about this in a completely different way.” RR: That distinction comes through very well, and I think is very important because oftentimes when you’re in kind of the scramble to be keeping up with the market, keeping up with your competitors, there is this urge to just tack on AI because we have to. But when it’s not strategic and it’s not built into the things that you’re actually doing, to your point, it’s we put together some specs, good luck using it. But instead, now it’s something that’s really built into the way that you work. I would love to hear a little bit more about that specific use case, especially given the fact that a lot of teams are running into that question of how do we use AI and can we just build what we need ourselves? Given that you’ve done the math, answered the question, I’d love to hear how it worked and kind of where you landed. CS: It’s very easy to fall into the trap of, “Hey, everybody, here’s AI. We put it on your computers, now go use it.” And so then everybody starts using AI to try to figure out, how does this help me in the job that I already do, in the role that I already do, in the processes that I already do? And so then it really limits the impact that it can have on the business and the performance because either, A, you have a handful of people who are really smart, and they go crazy with it, and they create their own thing, or you have a bunch of people who are looking at it going, “Okay, came up with some ideas, but I still have to do my work.” What you end up with is there’s no standard. There’s no flag running up the hill to say, “Everybody follow me. Let’s go do it this way.” So, it required both the yes, we had to make sure that the teams were bought into using AI, but we also had to have a standardized way of approaching how we deploy AI. And that brought us to the question of do we buy or do we build? And because there were so many different parts of what kinds of functionality we needed, it wasn’t the same answer for every one of those needs. So in some cases, we have a tool, we have a partner, they already have AI integrated into their platform, let’s go see how we can use that. In other cases, and I’ll give you an example, in the case of content generation, that is where we started with our AI journey about a year ago. We sat down and started interviewing and reviewing all of the different providers who can do content generation. Every one of them had a different approach to content development, content generation, which were all very good, and they attempt to make sure that they are covering as much of the marketplace as possible. And so sometimes when you buy that, you end up with features maybe that you don’t need, and you also have to still go through the process of integrating those platforms into your security posture. So us being a connectivity provider for governments, for major corporations, enterprise carrier grade, we have a very, very strict and strong security policy, which means that when we bring new vendors on, it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of back and forth. And so what we found in certain cases, it was actually better for us and more beneficial for us to build the actual platforms that we needed for that particular use case. But like I said before, in other situations, we found that there was a partner who we had who already had AI integrated into their platform, and so they were already part of our security posture. They were already inside of our ecosystem. So the question of build versus buy really had to do with time, had to do with return, and it had to do with the security measures that we had to put in place. RR: Thinking about in addition to those factors, when you’re evaluating these things that you outlined, time, potential cost, security, how are you kind of doing that ROI math to say one is going to be better than the other? CS: There’s several different parts of that. And like I mentioned, we wanted to make sure that we were following our AI strategy foundation that said, we don’t want to introduce more and more vulnerable access points. And so it’s important for us to make sure that we are all coming together with everyone across the Cox leadership team according to who are the vendors that we feel the safest with, that we can go set up and make sure that we are pulling together the best of the breeds. The assessment, like I mentioned before, is what is the value that we’re returning to the business in terms of revenue generation, new customers, cost savings in terms of not necessarily just reducing people’s time, but redeploying people to doing other important tasks. And then what are the things that we are doing that help us to keep the system all working together? So, revenue generation, cost deferment, and then keeping a cohesive connection between all of the different platforms. So some of the things that we looked at from our comparing vendors versus doing DIY, is there a maintenance tail that goes in this? So if we build it, what does that look like in 18 months? How much more people do we have to have to support it? Governance and observability, do we have the permissions, the versioning, the audit trail, all of the parts for discovering what is needed and then able to see it and observe it as we go? Interoperability, as I mentioned before, really important between different platforms that we have, that those APIs and MCPs all work together. And then whose roadmap is this? Is this our roadmap? Is this the IT roadmap? Is this the vendor’s roadmap? If we know where we need to go, is there anything that’s getting in our way of being able to get there? And then of course, obviously the speed to value against the cost of being wrong. RR: And so hearing you outline this very comprehensive list of considerations, you can start to understand why it starts to feel complicated and really hard to tackle. To your point, it’s been a year of figuring it out since you started developing that very first use case. I’d like to go into a little bit of detail about the evaluation piece and deciding what vendors you felt safe with, that you were excited to partner with and continue to either use or build upon as you’re developing your AI strategy in alignment with your business transformation. One of those that you landed on was using Highspot’s MCP server to support some of the workflows you wanted to spin up. How did you make that decision and why did that feel like the way to go? CS: Well, as I had mentioned before, as we had gone through our history of, here’s a library of a whole bunch of stuff and everybody’s trying to find the right item, and it just was such a headache to make sure that we were always getting the right information to the right customers at the right time. And not only that, but we had no real clear feedback about how it was performing. And so at that time, which I believe was in the 2015 to 2017 timeframe, is when we had first started our relationship with Highspot to help us better catalog the library, make it more searchable and usable and referenceable for the sellers to be able to share information and track the information, make sure that it was the most relevant and recent, and then help us to understand what’s working and not working. So all of that was already in place before we even started the AI conversation. And so as we were doing our work around our go-to-market roadmap, we started with content because it was probably the easiest place for us to use AI to generate content, and that looked like a two-layered approach. We had what we called a knowledge base, which is formally putting into AI rules that can be read by AI around all of our standards for brand, for legal, for segment definition, for product information, for pricing and promotion information, industries, verticals. All of that was put at this knowledge base foundation layer. And then we built the content generation engine on top of that, where each of the agents within that tool would go find what it is that the marketer was asking to do, compare it against all the information in the knowledge base, the brand standards, all of those good things, and then produce the content piece that the marketer was asking for using that foundation layer. However, once we got that moving and going, we realized that that level of personalization for marketing could be even more valuable and even more specific when used by a seller. But in order for that to work properly, the seller had to have access to a large range of information all at the same time, including any of the buying signals or online signals that we had through some of our lead generation partners, any of our information that we have within our own systems, like when was the last time they called into billing or when was the last time that they had an outage or what is their general sentiment that the customer has right now. And then all of the information about their current services, their current products, all the things that are going on in their world. But then once we have all of that information, we have propensity to buy, propensity to churn, propensity all these modeling, now we need to be able to talk to them and provide a recommendation to the seller that says, “Here’s what we recommend you use, what you should say, how you should set it up.” And all of that was inside of Highspot. And so we realized again, we could look at this and say, “Are we going to go buy a new platform? Are we going to use a platform we already have or are we going to go build something new?” And obviously when we looked at the Highspot platform, the MCP servers, and the way that it was laid out and set up already, we knew that that was the right path to go. So what we had started with was the content engine, then we went into a sales enablement engine, and as part of that sales enablement engine, the only way for it to work properly was for us to bring in the Highspot MCP service. RR: And how has that been working so far for your sellers? As you’ve rolled this out, how has it been used? Any anecdotal feedback you’ve heard? CS: It’s pretty funny because we have done multiple rollouts of sales enablement platforms over the years, and as anyone who’s ever tried to roll out new sales items and new sales tools will say, it takes time, it takes consistency, messaging over and over. But in this particular case, when we went out and did our roadshow with all of the sellers and sat down and showed them how the new tool worked, there were so many positive responses, and the adoption was much faster than most of our previous releases of other types of products. And I think that the reason why is because it was bringing together all of those pieces of information that I mentioned before and bringing in the Highspot information that they were already very familiar with. And in our world, we call it the sales asset manager, SAM. And so they were very familiar with SAM and then this new tool with the AI capabilities built into it. Now it’s specifically just telling them, “Here’s what you should do. Here’s the way to lay it out, and here’s all the content to talk to the customer about in what order.” And it took a lot of the burden off of them to research, go find a piece, start to build a story in their head, try to build a deck, and then think about what are they going to share with them in what order. So it’s been a huge benefit to the sellers. They’ve loved it. RR: Yeah, that’s such a strong signal when adoption doesn’t feel like a push and more of a grab. Curious if there are any other AI or agentic connectors that you’re pairing with Highspot in another AI application that you think would be interesting to share? CS: We have basically six different programs or parts of our roadmap, and we’re calling them AI modules, and then they work together in different components for different functions that need to be done. So as I mentioned, we have the knowledge base that is the base. Then we have the content creation tool, which we call CAMI. So it’s Content Automation Marketing Intelligence, and that has everything that is needed to produce and create new pieces of content, and then those content pieces are either generated in emails or things like that. A lot of them actually are put into the Highspot tool. And then we have what we call SAMI, which is the Sales Automation Marketing Intelligence, and that is the tool that integrates directly with Highspot to make the recommendations to the seller based off of all of the other information, the 360 view of the customer. We also have what’s called Livia, which is the Lead Validation and Enrichment. The tool uses all of these multiple different access points and different vendors to pull information about that particular contact to validate that it’s accurate, so that by the time it gets to the seller and they’re going to go do a pitch, they have a lot more confidence that who they’re talking to, the business, and it’s at the right address, and prevents them from wasting time. And then, of course, Highspot is such a critical part of how that story all comes together because it’s capturing all the content that’s being created by CAMI, and then the AI that comes from Highspot is infusing into the SAMI tool that the sellers are using. It’s an interesting thing because somebody might say, “Well, you’re not really using Highspot, you’re using SAMI.” And the reality is, well, yes, I am using Highspot because Highspot is feeding all of that into the SAMI tool. There’s a whole bunch of other stuff we add into that for flavoring, all of the information about the customer so that the seller has a 360 view, but that just sets it up. The what do you do next is what’s coming out of Highspot. The next phase of this that we’re going to is a fully agentic approach to our marketing and sales engine. And what that means is that today, most of the work that’s being done is a marketer who is saying, “Here’s what I need to go get done. I’m going to use AI to help me go do it.” We’re going to flip that script, and we’re going to say, the agents that we create are going to do the work, and the marketers are going to instruct the agents on how to do that work properly and watch it and govern it. That will then accelerate for the sellers as well. RR: We’ve heard a little bit about what’s been built in the last year, but it’s, again, to your point, crazy that that’s one year of building, thinking, strategizing, and it’s come to this point. When you look across all of that, what has changed for your sellers and for the business? CS: Well, I would say the first thing is, is that sellers are now able to focus on what they’re really good at. What I mean by that is their confidence is shifted to focus on outcomes and value. They are now able to build trust and provide value, which is honestly what all of our customers, especially our business owners and decision makers are looking for. And then for the marketers, it’s no longer about building a queue, trying to figure out what is the message that’s going to hit the most people with the most response. This idea of efficiency for media or efficiency for marketing materials. It’s like, what is the one message I can send to a million people and have the most response? Well, now you actually can flip that on its ear and say, “I’m going to personalize it at scale.” So that is super exciting. And then the last thing that I would say is that consistency became structural. The same knowledge base, the same rules across every surface, making sure that our content is clean, correct, built on the same policies and rules, but is personalized. Doing those two things at the same time is very tricky, and being able to do it with AI is the only way we could get there. RR: Curious if you’ve seen any sort of measurable returns. CS: Our lead accuracy, like I mentioned before, moving from that 13 to 18% all the way up to the 95th percentile. We have campaign speed to market of improvement of 55%, meaning the amount of time that it takes us to get to market is cut in half. The marketing content teams are 40% more productive, which means they’ve been able to redeploy their time for 40% of the time that they spend at work on other projects, which is amazing. Our conversion rates are up, our driving net new revenue is up, and we have seen material improvement in click-through rates and conversion rates when we are more specific and personalized to the audience. So Gartner was right. Yay. So that’s been really good. And I would say that part of the reason why I think that, at least for part of what we did, doing it as a build ourselves was wise, is because we learned so much by going through the process of just banging our shins on the corners and running into cabinet doors that were open, and we’re just like, “Oh, wow, that was, I did not see that.” So it’s been a huge learning process, a very, very intense learning process, but we’ve all had a really good sense of humor and amusement and just, we are having a ton of fun. RR: And I think that’s one of the more encouraging things to hear. Is that nobody starts perfect, and you just have to build your way up to good. And once you get there, you start to see again, like those measurable improvements. But it is a process. So I guess the message there is stick with it. Which I think kind of feeds into that last question I have for you, which is for anybody who is running into this question, hitting their shins on all of these problems, how would you recommend they approach the question of building, buying, blending some things together when they’re thinking about their AI investments? CS: Well, I would say the first thing is you have to look in the mirror and be real with yourself and say, “Is my processes and workflows working? If I blew up my entire go-to-market, I blew up all my processes, what would it look like?” And don’t start with a tool. Start from a place of what would serve me best. The other part of it that I would say that Highspot did really well is because of the MCP product, I was able to look at it as how am I using this from a plumbing perspective, not just a judgment perspective. And what that means is that it worked well with the strategy and the AI strict rules that we had built for ourselves. Highspot, kudos to Highspot, built a platform that is trusted and that works well with all of the other components that we had flying around, whether it was Salesforce or AWS or even our Accenture development team being able to use the components and pieces to connect to the whole ecosystem. Then the other thing I would say is that even though we’ve been doing this for a year, a year is like eons in AI’s time. It was every other week there was something that changed, something new, something shifted. So you have to go into it with this idea of you have to prepare yourself that this is how I set it up now, but I might have to change it tomorrow, and just be okay with that. So my answer for build or buy, my answer is both. Build the things that make sense for you and where you have the resources and when it’s the right fit. But definitely buy when you are in a partnership or when you have someone that you already know that you can trust. RR: Very pragmatic. That’s kind of the only way to do it. One thing I’ll say, I know I am walking away inspired, and I can imagine our audience is going to as well. So Cody, thank you for the time. I really, really appreciate it. It’s been so wonderful to hear a little bit more about what you’re building. CS: No, I love it. And the reason why this is great for me is that it forces me to think back on this journey that we’ve been on for the last year and really consider what is it that has brought us to where we are, what are the things we’ve learned, and then, maybe how are my bruises doing? RR: Well, thank you for the time again. And to our audience, thank you for listening to this episode of the Win/Win Podcast. Be sure to tune in next time for more insights on how you can maximize go-to-market success with Highspot.

  What if the fastest path to scale isn't wider — it's more focused? What if the businesses most people overlook are the ones most quietly building generational wealth?  In this episode of That Will Nevr Work, Maurice sits down with Jon Ostenson — founder and CEO of FranBridge Consulting, top 1% franchise consultant in the United States, 2x Inc. 5000 company builder, Forbes contributor, and author of the bestselling Non-Food Franchising. Jon spent fifteen years building an elite corporate career — from international consulting at Accenture, to Vice President of Sales at Carter's managing over $350 million annually, to President of ShelfGenie's 200-location national franchise system — before making the focused, deliberate bet that changed everything: building the country's defining practice in non-food franchise consulting at a time when 80% of the market was talking about food. Today, FranBridge has guided thousands of entrepreneurs toward franchise investments in over 600 high-growth, cash-flowing brands across home services, senior care, property services, pet care, health and wellness, and dozens more — with over 90% of clients investing in an industry that was never on their radar when they arrived.  In this conversation, Jon and Maurice dig into:Why niching down is the most powerful path to scaling upThe corporate exit story — what fifteen years inside the machine built and what it couldn'tWhy non-food franchising is the most underestimated wealth-building asset class availableThe semi-absentee model — building income without building another jobThe discipline of strategic "no" and why saying less yes is what most businesses need mostThe lightbulb moment — why the best opportunity almost never looks like what you expectedBuilding toward generational wealth through focused, intentional business ownership  This one is for every entrepreneur who is spreading too thin, every corporate professional who wants to own something without losing everything, and every dreamer who has been told the obvious path is the best one. 

This episode of the InfoSec Beat podcast focuses on the evolving problem of insider risk. Accenture CISO Kris Burkhardt talks with Dmitriy Ostrobrod, who leads Accenture's global insider risk program, and Manoj Doolabh, who leads Accenture's cyber risk and emerging risk program. Get a behind-the-scenes look at understanding threats and deploying controls while balancing security and employee rights. Discover how emerging trends like the rise of agentic AI and remote worker fraud are changing insider risk management.

Congress Presses Big AI on Safety as Data Center Wars Hit Courts and CIO Costs Rise Jim Love's Hashtag Trending for Wednesday, August 12, 2026 looks at mounting pressure on the AI industry from Washington, corporate technology budgets, data center opposition and changing economics in consulting. House Democrats are demanding answers from OpenAI and Anthropic about AI agents that escaped test environments and reached outside systems. Senator Bernie Sanders is going further, urging OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta to pause development of their most advanced models. At the same time, bipartisan proposals are emerging around AI security audits and an AI Kill Switch Act. CIOs are facing another problem: rising costs. Microsoft has reportedly increased Windows 11 OEM licence fees by 7 to 10 percent. Many organizations are still moving PCs off Windows 10, while memory prices, Microsoft 365 costs, AI model and token spending, and cybersecurity requirements are all increasing. The fight over AI data centers is also moving into courtrooms. Lawsuits are challenging approval processes, environmental impacts and plans for off-grid natural-gas power generation. And finally, Jim looks at a question he has been raising for some time: is AI starting to undermine the traditional consulting business model? Accenture's bookings are slowing just as AI gives clients increasingly powerful tools for research, analysis and presentations. 00:00 Headlines and Intro 00:24 Congress Targets AI Safety 02:13 CIO Budget Squeeze 04:14 Data Center Lawsuits Rise 06:38 AI Disrupts Consulting 09:00 Closing Thoughts and Outro

What happens when your net worth reaches $500 million, but exists almost entirely on paper? For Martin Tobias, watching that concentrated position fall roughly 90% became a lasting lesson about liquidity, risk, and the difference between appearing wealthy and possessing durable wealth.Martin is the founder and managing partner of Incisive Ventures, a pre-seed venture capital firm focused on B2B software companies that reduce friction at scale. A three-time venture-backed CEO, Martin raised more than $500 million across his companies and completed two IPOs. His career also includes Accenture, Microsoft, and a venture partner role at Ignition Partners. He has since invested in eight companies that reached unicorn status.In this conversation, Martin joins Sam Silverman to trace his progression from corporate employee to founder, angel investor, and professional venture manager. He explains how early Microsoft equity created life-changing wealth, why delaying that opportunity carried an enormous cost, and how his experience with concentrated IPO stock shaped the way he protects capital today.Martin and Sam also examine the power-law economics of venture capital. They discuss why most early-stage investments may fail, why a 10x outcome may still be insufficient within a diversified fund, and how a small number of 100x outliers can determine the performance of an entire portfolio.In this conversation:How Microsoft equity created founder-level wealth for a corporate employeeWhy delaying Microsoft's offer by one year carried a $20 million opportunity costWhy a $500 million paper net worth was not the same as accessible cashHow IPO lockups and concentrated stock complicate personal liquidityWhy Martin placed most of a major win into conservative, cash-flowing assetsHow AI is changing entry-level careers and traditional training groundsWhy Martin focuses on capital-efficient, pre-seed B2B softwareWhat he looks for in founding teams and their distribution advantagesWhy his angel portfolio underperformed his professionally managed venture portfolioHow deal flow, selection bias, and adequate runway affect investment outcomesWhy venture funds depend on extreme outliers rather than consistent moderate winsHow aspiring venture managers can build credibility before raising a blind poolTopics covered: Martin Tobias, Incisive Ventures, venture capital, pre-seed investing, B2B software, startup equity, founder liquidity, concentrated stock positions, angel investing, power-law returns, portfolio construction, wealth preservation, AI and careersGuest: Martin Tobias, founder and managing partner of Incisive Ventureshttps://incisive.vc/Newsletter:https://www.mechanicsofmoney.coWebsite:https://silvermancapital.comFollow the Mechanics of Money for weekly conversations on private markets, alternative investments, and the mechanics behind building real wealth.#venturecapital #preseed #startupinvesting #b2bsoftware #angelinvesting #wealthstrategy #privateinvestments #mechanicsofmoney

Why do secondary schools fail so many young people? Whose fault is it? What does good vocational education look like? He says the hard hat is just as important as the graduation cap, but does Andy Burnham really get it? With A-Level and GCSE results due out, Steph's launched a day to celebrate the millions of people getting vocational qualifications. To mark this we take the show to a thriving business in Cornwall to look at how they're solving their skills problem. Also, Robert and Steph unpick the crisis in British education and come up with bold solutions. The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain's smart energy pioneer. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. https://Accenture.com/Spotify-UK. Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠restismoney@goalhanger.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@RestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Advertise with us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Partnerships@goalhanger.com⁠ For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to ⁠www.goalhanger.com⁠ Video Editor: Dylan Bonham Producer: Isabelle Bougeard Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matt is joined by Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall to make the case for why Disney should exit the streaming business and focus only on producing and licensing its content. Steven digs into why Disney is well-positioned to leave streaming, the strength of its IP, and what Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro had to say about Steven's idea (02:24). Matt finishes the show with another weekend box office prediction for ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day' (24:13). Host: Matt Belloni Gust: Steven Cahall Producers: Craig Horlbeck, Jessie Lopez, and Stefano Sanchez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Nominated for 25 Emmy Awards, including OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. https://Accenture.com/Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How fixable is the schism between the rich developed countries, led by the US, and the faster-growing BRICS+ group, led by China, Russia, and India? Can these emerging powerhouses truly detach themselves from the dollar-dominated financial system? And on which critical issues must we work collaboratively with them to avoid global disaster? Robert and Steph chat with Lord Jim O'Neill, the former Goldman Sachs chief economist who coined the influential BRIC concept 25 years ago. He has recently launched a new strategy platform and think tank, BRICS+ Thinking, designed to encourage pragmatic entente and policy cooperation with these fast-growing, powerful economies. As an influential crossbench peer who also has the ear of Andy Burnham, his views matter. The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain's smart energy pioneer. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. https://Accenture.com/Spotify-UK Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠restismoney@goalhanger.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@RestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Advertise with us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Partnerships@goalhanger.com⁠ For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to ⁠www.goalhanger.com⁠ Video Editor: Dylan Bonham Producer: Isabelle Bougeard Exec Producers: Chris Sawyer and Tom Whiter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matt is joined by Puck's Eriq Gardner to discuss the March 2027 trial date that has been set for the Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery antitrust case and what it means for the likelihood of this merger going through. They highlight the $650 million per quarter ticking fee Paramount has to pay in the meantime, how the November midterm elections could play a factor, who has the best leverage, whether Netflix could end up back in the mix, David Ellison's New York Times column, and the other major legal issues at play (02:03). Matt finishes the show with a prediction about Season 4 of 'Ted Lasso' (30:08). Host: Matt Belloni Gust: Eriq Gardner Producers: Craig Horlbeck, Jessie Lopez, and Stefano Sanchez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Nominated for 25 Emmy Awards, including OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. https://Accenture.com/Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on Catalyst, Tammy is joined by Craig Vaughan, Executive Managing Director and Global Head of AI Go-to-Market at NTT DATA, three months into the role. Craig traces his path from studying architecture at Cornell through an MBA at Wharton and a master's in business analytics from NYU Stern, then through go-to-market roles at SAP and a decade leading AI and gen AI practices at Accenture. He and Tammy dig into how leading diverse, cross-functional teams and moving at AI's breakneck pace aren't in tension but actually reinforce each other. They also discuss what drew Craig to NTT DATA's culture, the partnerships with OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Mistral that are shaping how the company delivers for clients, and how to keep AI adoption human-centric so workers are repurposed rather than replaced.Please note that the views expressed may not necessarily be those of NTT DATALinks: Craig Vaughan Learn more about Launch by NTT DATASee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Are we in an AI bubble? Does it matter that Chinese AI firms are banned from using American chips? How big is the chance of an AI crash? Can an AI business survive without energy generation capabilities? Azeem Azhar – the founder of the leading research platform Exponential View – joins us to tell us about his report on the state of the AI economy. Plus, Robert and Steph find out what Azeem learnt about AI from a visit to a Chinese night club with the Moonshot gang. The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain's smart energy pioneer. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. https://Accenture.com/Spotify-UK Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠restismoney@goalhanger.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@RestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Advertise with us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Partnerships@goalhanger.com⁠ For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to ⁠www.goalhanger.com⁠ Video Editor: Dylan Bonham Producer: Isabelle Bougeard Exec Producers: Chris Sawyer and Tom Whiter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business funding Entrepreneur success stories Business leadership podcast Wealth building strategies Black entrepreneur podcast Minority business development Marketing for small businesses Business growth strategies Startup funding opportunities Executive leadership training Financial literacy education Success mindset podcast Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Lawrence Phillips. Purpose of the Interview To showcase Lawrence Phillips’ entrepreneurial journey from engineering to founding Green Book Global, a travel review platform for Black travelers. To highlight the significance of Black Ambition, an initiative by Pharrell Williams supporting Black and Brown entrepreneurs. To inspire listeners about resilience, innovation, and the importance of culturally inclusive travel resources. Key Takeaways Background & Career Shift Phillips studied Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech and worked at Accenture in IT consulting for nearly a decade. Despite career success, he felt unfulfilled and decided to pursue his passion for travel, leading to the creation of Green Book Global. Travel Experience Traveled to 30+ countries across all seven continents, including Antarctica, in less than a year. Realized the need for a platform addressing “traveling while Black” concerns—safety, cultural acceptance, and inclusivity. Green Book Global Inspired by the historical Green Book (1936–1966), which guided Black travelers during segregation. Offers city-level Black-friendly scores, road trip planners, and Black-owned restaurant recommendations. Over 150,000 app downloads in 2025; partnered with Expedia; strong social media presence. Black Ambition Program Phillips applied three times before reaching semifinals, emphasizing persistence. Program provided funding opportunities and a transformative Evoke Wellness experience. His personal “why” statement:“I’m a protective and innovative steward of Black restoration and healing.” Impact & Vision Advocates systemic change by partnering with destinations to improve inclusivity. Highlights the economic power of Black travelers (over $140 billion annually). Encourages Black travelers to explore global opportunities beyond U.S. racial constraints. Notable Quotes “You can be successful and still not be happy.” — On leaving a lucrative career for passion. “I’m a protective and innovative steward of Black restoration and healing.” — His guiding principle. “There’s riches in niches.” — On unapologetically focusing on Black travelers. “Just because somebody said no doesn’t mean they said no to you—they said no at that time.” — On persistence in entrepreneurship. #SHMS #STRAW #BESTSupport the show: https://www.steveharveyfm.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business funding Entrepreneur success stories Business leadership podcast Wealth building strategies Black entrepreneur podcast Minority business development Marketing for small businesses Business growth strategies Startup funding opportunities Executive leadership training Financial literacy education Success mindset podcast Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Lawrence Phillips. Purpose of the Interview To showcase Lawrence Phillips’ entrepreneurial journey from engineering to founding Green Book Global, a travel review platform for Black travelers. To highlight the significance of Black Ambition, an initiative by Pharrell Williams supporting Black and Brown entrepreneurs. To inspire listeners about resilience, innovation, and the importance of culturally inclusive travel resources. Key Takeaways Background & Career Shift Phillips studied Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech and worked at Accenture in IT consulting for nearly a decade. Despite career success, he felt unfulfilled and decided to pursue his passion for travel, leading to the creation of Green Book Global. Travel Experience Traveled to 30+ countries across all seven continents, including Antarctica, in less than a year. Realized the need for a platform addressing “traveling while Black” concerns—safety, cultural acceptance, and inclusivity. Green Book Global Inspired by the historical Green Book (1936–1966), which guided Black travelers during segregation. Offers city-level Black-friendly scores, road trip planners, and Black-owned restaurant recommendations. Over 150,000 app downloads in 2025; partnered with Expedia; strong social media presence. Black Ambition Program Phillips applied three times before reaching semifinals, emphasizing persistence. Program provided funding opportunities and a transformative Evoke Wellness experience. His personal “why” statement:“I’m a protective and innovative steward of Black restoration and healing.” Impact & Vision Advocates systemic change by partnering with destinations to improve inclusivity. Highlights the economic power of Black travelers (over $140 billion annually). Encourages Black travelers to explore global opportunities beyond U.S. racial constraints. Notable Quotes “You can be successful and still not be happy.” — On leaving a lucrative career for passion. “I’m a protective and innovative steward of Black restoration and healing.” — His guiding principle. “There’s riches in niches.” — On unapologetically focusing on Black travelers. “Just because somebody said no doesn’t mean they said no to you—they said no at that time.” — On persistence in entrepreneurship. #SHMS #STRAW #BESTSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Lawrence Phillips. Purpose of the Interview To showcase Lawrence Phillips’ entrepreneurial journey from engineering to founding Green Book Global, a travel review platform for Black travelers. To highlight the significance of Black Ambition, an initiative by Pharrell Williams supporting Black and Brown entrepreneurs. To inspire listeners about resilience, innovation, and the importance of culturally inclusive travel resources. Key Takeaways Background & Career Shift Phillips studied Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech and worked at Accenture in IT consulting for nearly a decade. Despite career success, he felt unfulfilled and decided to pursue his passion for travel, leading to the creation of Green Book Global. Travel Experience Traveled to 30+ countries across all seven continents, including Antarctica, in less than a year. Realized the need for a platform addressing “traveling while Black” concerns—safety, cultural acceptance, and inclusivity. Green Book Global Inspired by the historical Green Book (1936–1966), which guided Black travelers during segregation. Offers city-level Black-friendly scores, road trip planners, and Black-owned restaurant recommendations. Over 150,000 app downloads in 2025; partnered with Expedia; strong social media presence. Black Ambition Program Phillips applied three times before reaching semifinals, emphasizing persistence. Program provided funding opportunities and a transformative Evoke Wellness experience. His personal “why” statement:“I’m a protective and innovative steward of Black restoration and healing.” Impact & Vision Advocates systemic change by partnering with destinations to improve inclusivity. Highlights the economic power of Black travelers (over $140 billion annually). Encourages Black travelers to explore global opportunities beyond U.S. racial constraints. Notable Quotes “You can be successful and still not be happy.” — On leaving a lucrative career for passion. “I’m a protective and innovative steward of Black restoration and healing.” — His guiding principle. “There’s riches in niches.” — On unapologetically focusing on Black travelers. “Just because somebody said no doesn’t mean they said no to you—they said no at that time.” — On persistence in entrepreneurship. #SHMS #STRAW #BESTSteve Harvey Morning Show Online: http://www.steveharveyfm.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if the smartest move you can make is to disrupt your own company before a competitor does?In this episode, Lindsay Smith sits down with John Durocher, the self-described accidental COO of Calix. John never set out to run operations. He came up through consulting and customer success, never managed a supply chain or an IT org, and that is exactly why his CEO wanted him in the seat. His mandate: question everything.John and Lindsay get into how to lead change when everyone is comfortable, build a leadership team that actually trusts each other, give feedback in the moment rather than at review season, and use AI to take drudgery off people rather than cut headcount. He also shares the directive that shaped his role: go build the company that would beat us.For any second-in-command driving transformation without breaking their people, this is a playbook. Listen now.This episode is brought to you by our Silver Sponsor, Next Level Growth.They help COOs and leadership teams build Elite Organizations through a proven, customizable framework built around the Five Obsessions of Elite Organizations.If you and your leadership team are ready to operate at the next level, take the Elite Organizations Assessment and receive a free 20-page customized report based on your answers, plus a complimentary one-hour coaching session with a Next Level Growth Partner and Business Guide to begin implementing tools that will help you build an even more elite business.Complete the assessment here to get started - nextlevelgrowth.com/cooassessmentTimestamped Highlights[00:01:32] The accidental COO: how a late-night phone call rewrote John's career[00:08:46] Why the people who succeeded longest have the hardest time changing[00:10:05] Disrupt yourself, or wait to be disrupted... the directive that built his role[00:10:59] When your CEO used to work for you: inside an unusually honest relationship[00:16:11] Why John never waits for a formal review to give hard feedback[00:18:22] The courageous conversation with his boss that became a breakthrough[00:21:03] The team reset that exposes how little colleagues really know each other[00:27:26] Seeing the seams: the bird's eye view nobody else in the company has[00:29:28] “Staple yourself to the order form” and other ways to fix the customer experience[00:33:46] Fast isn't always good... what moving too quickly does to an organization[00:36:08] Stop telling your boss why it won't work. Do this instead.[00:37:25] The COO's job is to slow down the CEO, not slam on the brakes[00:42:43] Does remote work actually work? John's rebuttal to the water-cooler myth[00:46:41] What's next for Calix: AI agents and the smart apartmentAbout the GuestJohn Durocher is the Chief Operations Officer at Calix, where he leads operations across the company, from customer success and commercial operations to supply chain and IT. He joined Calix in 2023 as Chief Customer Officer and stepped into the COO role about a year ago. Before Calix, John spent 17 years at Salesforce leading customer success, where he watched the company grow from $250M to $30B in revenue. He began his career in consulting, including time at Accenture and Arthur Andersen, and describes himself as an accidental COO who treats the job like one long consulting project.

What if the biggest threat to your company isn't your competition...but your technology strategy?This week on The 30 Minute Hour, we sit down with John Melott, CIO of Labrie Environmental Group, to discuss why every CEO must think like a CIO—before it's too late.From IBM and Accenture to leading technology transformation across multiple industries, John shares:- How leaders can future-proof their organizations- The biggest technology mistakes executives make- Why cybersecurity is now a leadership issue- How AI is reshaping the future of businessIf you're a CEO, CIO, or senior executive, this conversation could change the way you lead.PS.Is Your Organization Really Ready for AI?Click or copy here to find out: https://bit.ly/AIReadypodcast#Leadership #CIO #AI #Cybersecurity #The30MinuteHour

Some marketing ideas capture attention for a moment. The very best ones become part of culture. And you could say...that's priceless.Recorded live at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Jim sits down with Jill Kramer, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Mastercard, to discuss what it's like to lead one of the world's most iconic brands. Mastercard, known globally for its “Priceless” platform and its role at the center of everyday commerce, has spent decades building trust, emotional connection, and cultural relevance across markets. After nearly a decade as Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Accenture, where she led the company's "Let There Be Change" brand transformation, and earlier leadership roles at BBDO and DDB, Jill stepped into one of marketing's most influential positions with the responsibility of guiding Mastercard's next chapter.In this wide-ranging conversation, Jill shares her approach to earning trust as a new leader, building creative cultures where ideas can thrive, and why her philosophy of "early, ugly, often" has helped teams create better work. She also discusses how Mastercard is evolving its brand beyond payments, leaning into experiences, partnerships, and technology, and how the company is approaching AI, creator collaborations, and innovation while staying true to the timeless principles that have made it one of the most respected brands in the world.Whether you're leading a global organization or a small team, Jill offers thoughtful lessons on curiosity, creativity, change, and why the best leaders never stop learning.—This week's episode is brought to you by Infillion.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Most change initiatives fail not because the strategy was wrong but because the communication didn't move anyone. HR leaders deliver their message, check the box, and wonder why nothing shifted. The problem almost never lives in the data. It lives in the absence of story. Mary Czarnecki, Brand Messaging Consultant at Mary Czarnecki LLC, spent more than two decades in marketing and strategy at Johnson & Johnson, WebMD, and Accenture before building a practice that trains leaders at Fortune 500 companies to use story as a practical tool for influence and organizational change. In this episode, she covers: Why more information alone can't produce behavior change, and what story does that information can't How to identify where people are getting stuck before looking for a story, so the narrative actually closes the right gap The three ingredients in any story that actually lands: a specific moment, sensory details, and a clear arc from before to after Timestamps [00:00:16] What it means to help leaders turn ideas into influence, and why storytelling is the vehicle [00:01:49] Why change initiatives fail because of communication, not strategy, and how story closes that gap [00:02:31] The first step in storytelling most leaders skip: identifying what someone isn't getting before finding a story [00:04:11] What the HR Story Advantage actually means, and why knowing the facts about a habit doesn't create the habit [00:07:47] How to find the right story when you're the messenger, not the creator of the message [00:09:43] Balancing transparency and oversharing: the audience-centric gut check that keeps stories from backfiring [00:12:47] The bad perm story: a client example of how a personal, humble story got an entire sales team to bring their own stories [00:16:42] Where AI helps with storytelling and the one trap to avoid when using it [00:18:10] The most common communication mistake leaders make today: building a message without putting yourself in the audience's shoes first [00:19:29] The treasure trove habit: why the best communicators don't find stories on demand, they collect them over time Brought to You by Paylocity Paylocity is the fastest growing unified platform for HR, Finance, and IT. Paylocity brings your people, processes, and data together in one place so HR leaders can spend less time managing systems and more time doing the work that actually moves their organizations forward. Learn more at paylocity.com Keywords: storytelling, leadership communication, change management, HR strategy, influence without authority, organizational change, internal communication, narrative, employee engagement, communication skills, HR leadership, people strategy, trust building, audience-centric communication, Mary Czarnecki, behavior change, change communication, HR story advantage, story structure, workplace storytelling