Podcasts about B2B

In this episode, Steve talks about the 3 ways he grew his business with AI and how both Steve and Dave currently integrate AI in their e-commerce businesses to improve their Shopify stores. They talk about how AI can enhance on-site search, improve product recommendations, identify B2B customers, and maybe even improve customer support.  Steve Chou from My Wife Quit Her Job is back on the podcast!  He's on the podcast to talk about how he incorporates AI into his e-commerce business, how he created custom plugins specifically, and the projects he's working on to increase revenue in his business.  If you're looking into ways you can diversify outside of Amazon, this episode is for you. Sign up for Seller's Summit and catch Mike and Dave in person! You'll be part of an intimate Mastermind session, attending interesting talks with practical strategies and you get to catch up with Mike and Dave in person.   Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction to AI in E-commerce 02:59 - Understanding Traffic Sources and Sales 06:11 - Enhancing On-Site Search with AI 08:54 - Leveraging AI for Product Recommendations 11:53 - Identifying B2B Customers with AI 14:48 - The Future of Customer Support with AI 18:07 - AI's Impact on Amazon and E-commerce 21:08 - Conclusion and Seller Summit Details As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, leave a comment down below if you're interested. Don't forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy content like this. Happy selling and we'll talk to you soon!

Watch the full episode on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/@mreapodcastMost people want change. Very few are willing to follow a model long enough to earn it.In this episode, we sit down with Alison Harris, a real estate agent out of Savannah, Georgia, who made a bold decision in 2021 to relaunch her entire business from the ground up. Forty months later, she crossed the million-dollar GCI mark by committing to a clear model and running it with discipline.Alison walks us through the Six Personal Perspectives and how each one showed up in her real life, not as theory, but as daily behavior. We unpack what it really means to commit to self-mastery, why the 80/20 principle gave her time back, and how moving from entrepreneurial to purposeful changed everything.This is not a story about a magic lead source or a shiny new system. Alison is clear about that. The growth came from magic in the mundane—building a five-star database, running a consistent touch program, holding people accountable, and committing to a learning-based business even when it was uncomfortable.If you've ever felt capped by hustle, stuck under a ceiling, or frustrated that effort isn't translating into freedom, this conversation delivers a conversational framework you can apply immediately.No hype. No shortcuts. Just a proven path, run the right way.Resources:Explore: BOLD at Keller WilliamsLearn: The Six Personal Perspectives by Gary KellerDownload: MREA Podcast Notes and Models at mreanotes.com Order the Millionaire Real Estate Agent Playbook | Volume 3Connect with Jason:LinkedinProduced by NOVAThis podcast is for general informational purposes only. The views, thoughts, and opinions of the guest represent those of the guest and not Keller Williams Realty, LLC and its affiliates, and should not be construed as financial, economic, legal, tax, or other advice. This podcast is provided without any warranty, or guarantee of its accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or results from using the information.WARNING! You must comply with the TCPA and any other federal, state or local laws, including for B2B calls and texts. Never call or text a number on any Do Not Call list, and do not use an autodialer or artificial voice or prerecorded messages without proper consent. Contact your attorney to ensure your compliance.

Show Notes Tarek Matar, founder of Scalar AI, explains the tool's purpose. He describes Scalar AI as an AI engine designed for consultants to build McKinsey level, end-to-end slides and presentations. The tool is differentiated from general AI tools like ChatGPT and GPT-3 by focusing on consulting-grade presentations. The founders include a research scientist from Google Brain and two other experienced professionals. Features and Functionality of Scalar AI Scalar AI automates the entire research, analysis, structure, and visualization process for consultants. The tool can create single slides or entire decks based on user prompts.It offers various modes: AI generation, text to slide, and sketch to slide, allowing flexibility in input methods. The tool includes a custom brand identity feature, allowing users to upload and customize their firm's PowerPoint templates. A Scalar.AI Demonstration Tarek demonstrates the tool by creating a slide and a deck.  Adding Prompts   Adding custom brand identity Tarek creates a waterfall slide showing the top five countries by international tourist arrivals.  Detailed data and insights The tool generates a visually appealing slide with detailed data and insights. Tarek explains the process of editing and refining the generated slides to meet specific needs. The Text to Slide Mode Tarek demonstrates the text to slide mode by pasting a long text about key success factors for post-merger integration in banking.  Data generation  The tool summarizes the text into a concise slide with bullet points and icons. They also show the sketch to slide mode by uploading a hand-drawn image, which the tool converts into a PowerPoint slide. The tool supports various image formats, including JPEG, PNG, and PDF. The Custom Brand Identity Feature Tarek explains the custom brand identity feature, which allows users to upload their firm's PowerPoint templates. The tool can save and apply custom colors, fonts, and slide masters. A prompting guide and video tutorials are available to help users effectively use the tool. Tarek mentions the importance of proper prompting to get the best results from the AI. Pricing and Subscription Details Tarek talks about the pricing and mentions discounts available for annual subscriptions and partnerships. The tool is designed for B2B clients, including consulting firms and independent consultants. Tarek discusses the possibility of working with freelancers and organizations like Umbrex to offer special pricing. The tool is integrated with PowerPoint, making it easy for users to access and use. Security and Data Privacy Tarek addresses concerns about data security and privacy when using Scalar AI. The tool uses enterprise LLMs and follows strict data retention policies, ensuring data is encrypted and anonymized. The tool generates slides on the user's device, not on Scalar AI's servers, maintaining data privacy. Tarek mentions that the tool is compliant with GDPR and can meet the security requirements of government entities. The Genesis Story of Scalar.AI Tarek shares the background of Scalar AI, including his experience as a consultant and his co-founders' technical expertise. The idea for the tool came from the need to automate workflows and create professional slides for consulting clients. The founders spent a significant amount of time in stealth mode, refining and testing the product. The tool is now entering the commercialization stage, with plans to expand its user base and features. Scalar.AI and the Consulting Industry Tarek discusses the potential impact of Scalar AI on the consulting industry. Tarek emphasizes the tool's ability to save time and improve productivity for consultants. They plan to continue refining the tool and exploring partnerships with organizations like Umbrex. Timestamps: 02:21: Features and Functionality of Scalar AI  02:37: Demonstration of Scalar AI's Capabilities  04:11: Text to Slide and Sketch to Slide Modes  22:15: Custom Brand Identity and Prompting Guide  22:36: Pricing and Subscription Details 31:08: Security and Data Privacy  36:14: Backstory and Development of Scalar AI  Links: Website: getscalar.ai  This episode on Umbrex: https://umbrex.com/wp-admin/post-new.php?post_type=unleashed#:~:text=https%3A//umbrex.com/unleashed/240677/   Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com. *AI generated timestamps and show notes.  

When Kathy Guillory started her marketing consulting business, she fell into the same trap most consultants do: saying yes to everyone and working constantly. But a few years in, something shifted. She started blocking off entire days, staggering her clients differently, and asking CEOs a question that completely changed how they saw her. The result? She made more money than ever—and had the time to write and publish a children's book. In this episode, Kathy shares exactly how she did it.   ---   When you're ready to break through to the next revenue level in your consulting business, here are three ways I can help you.   1. Connect with me on LinkedIn for weekly insights on landing better clients and charging for the value you deliver.   2. Get your copy of my Referrals on Repeat guide, and learn five strategies you can implement straight away to take control of the referral process and attract more of the right inquiries – no more sitting around hoping they'll happen. Get your free copy at smartgetspaid.com/referrals   3. Build a repeatable sales and marketing system that gets you better clients, better rates, and less stress in your consulting business. If you're ready to stop leaving your success to chance, learn the proven system women consultants are using to attract ideal clients consistently and get paid for their value. Plus, you'll get help from me and my team every step of the way. If you've been in business for at least two years, you're making at least $120k, and you want to implement a system that's designed specifically for B2B consulting businesses, email team@smartgetspaid.com with "BREAKTHROUGH" in the subject line and I'll get you the details.  

The AI arms race is getting ugly. With top talent bouncing between Thinking Machines and OpenAI, the guys debate a critical question for every leader: Is loyalty dead, or has Silicon Valley just stopped pretending? Sam, Asad, and AJ discuss the ethics and dangers of the "secure the bag" mindset and what it means for building enduring companies. They also pivot to the tactical side of leadership, breaking down why most managers wait too long to fire and the hard truth that "what you allow, you encourage." Key topics: The Thinking Machines exodus: Performance issues or corporate sabotage? Do ethics actually matter when the prize is AGI? The one management mantra every GTM leader needs for a high performing team Quitting the content hamster wheel: The hosts' priorities for the next chapter.   Thanks for tuning in! Catch new episodes every Sunday Subscribe to Topline Newsletter. Tune into Topline Podcast, the #1 podcast for founders, operators, and investors in B2B tech. Join the free Topline Slack channel to connect with 600+ revenue leaders to keep the conversation going beyond the podcast!   Chapters: 00:00 Intro: Top Line, Pavilion Gold, and Today's Agenda 02:28 The Thinking Machines Exodus and OpenAI's Hiring Spree 08:08 Capital Incentives: Why Tech Talent Has Become Mercenary 14:03 The Core Debate: Do Values Matter in Modern Tech? 18:41 The "Get the Bag" Mentality vs. Building Forever Companies 23:00 The Risks of Accelerating into a Future Without Ethics 31:28 Impact on GTM: Shorter Tenures and Transactional Hiring 34:25 Why Swiftly Correcting Underperformance is an Act of Loyalty 45:00 Why Organizational Values Are Useless Without Defined Behaviors 01:00:38 Final Question: What Are You Under-Prioritizing for 2026?  

31.01.2026 – Langsam Gesprochene Nachrichten – Trainiere dein Hörverstehen mit den Nachrichten der DW von Samstag – als Text und als verständlich gesprochene Audio-Datei.

Kathy Floam Greenspan is a veteran B2B marketing expert with over 25 years of experience helping organizations align marketing with real business outcomes. As president of POM Agency, she is passionate about cutting through the noise in fast-moving industries like tech, cybersecurity, and government contracting. Kathy specializes in helping lean marketing teams deliver impactful results despite resource constraints and is a strong advocate of clarity, focus, and practical use of AI to drive growth. In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Kathy Floam Greenspan joins Robert Plank to discuss the growing pressures on marketing teams, rising expectations, limited capacity, and constant change. Based on a survey of over 100 B2B marketers, Kathy reveals why misalignment, resource gaps, and unclear goals hinder performance and shares four strategic shifts to help teams reclaim focus and momentum in 2026. Learn how to partner smarter, clean up your data ecosystem, and use AI as a collaborator, not a crutch. Kathy offers actionable advice for marketers striving to stay the course, protect priorities, and create lasting impact in chaotic times. Quotes: “If everything is a priority, nothing is. Our role as marketers is to protect focus and stay the course, especially these days.” “Marketers are being asked to deliver more impact without more capacity, forcing tough trade-offs and constant prioritization.” “AI is incredibly powerful, but marketing is still very human work. Use AI as a collaborator, not a crutch to walk before you run.” Resources: POM Marketing (official site) Kathy Floam Greenspan on LinkedIn

Joshua (Josh) Hanosh is the Co-founder and Vice President of Three29, a Sacramento-based digital marketing and web development agency that helps B2B companies achieve results through data-driven websites, SEO, pay-per-click advertising, and branding strategy. With over 15 years of experience, Josh has guided Three29 in working with a wide range of clients and successfully grew his agency to a team of 12 before merging with another firm, further expanding the brand's capabilities. In this episode… Getting found online used to be about keywords and rankings. Now, it's about whether AI even knows you exist. So as search behavior shifts from blue links to direct answers, how do businesses make sure they're still the ones being recommended? For Josh Hanosh, the key lies in understanding that AI search isn't just a new channel, it's a new mindset. Drawing from his experience as a digital marketing strategist, Josh explains that people now trust AI like a knowledgeable friend, asking it who to hire and what to do next. The businesses that win are the ones clearly signaling expertise, credibility, and relevance in ways machines can easily understand, which ultimately changes how trust is built online. Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Joshua (Josh) Hanosh, Co-founder and Vice President of Three29, to discuss how to get found in AI search. You'll learn how AI is reshaping buyer behavior, why generative engine optimization matters more than rankings, and how websites need to evolve for humans and bots. Josh also shares advice on using PR and authority signals to boost AI visibility.

Have you ever looked at your marketing spend and thought, where the heck did that money go? If so, you are not alone. If your marketing feels like you're throwing cash into a bonfire, you're not broken, you're not behind. You're just missing the engine that makes everything work.>>> Here are 4 ways we can help you reach your revenue goals faster...#1 Unlock the full potential of your marketing engine. We'll provide you and your team with the direction, insights, and tools necessary to excel in the complex landscape of modern marketing. - Marketing Advisor On Call#2 Discover the marketing strategies & tactics that will guide your next quarter and unlock explosive growth in 90 minutes. - Quick-Start Marketing Strategy Game Plan#3 Discover a tailor-made strategy for unprecedented growth to transform your marketing in 30 days. - Unlock Your Growth Opportunities#4 If you need guidance on the most effective direction for your marketing, then schedule a call with us today! - Get Your Free Discovery Call Now

According to Stripe Profitability Timeline, it often takes two to three years for a startup to become profitable. Fundraising Time Sink: About 25% of founders spend over half their week on fundraising, which directly impacts their ability to focus on revenue-generating activities.   Mark D. Gordon. Known by founders as the “Rebel CRO.” He's scaled companies from $1 million to over $30 million in annual revenue, rebuilt go-to-market engines across SaaS, services, and tech, and built a business around one big idea: most companies don't have a sales problem; they have a clarity and alignment problem. I help B2B founders turn scattered sales and marketing into one aligned, predictable revenue engine. As a fractional CRO, I lead 120-day GTM transformations across messaging, lead generation, sales process, and revenue tech. We build the systems that allow your team to do the best work of their lives. Mark is the founder of Integrated Go-To-Market Solutions, where he helps B2B founders transform from sales hopeful to sales-led by aligning their messaging, lead gen, sales process, and tech into a single system that actually closes. If you've ever felt like your team can't explain what you do, your outbound is getting ignored, or you're still the best salesperson in your company, this conversation is for you. For more information: https://igtms.com/ LinkedIn: @MarkD.Gordon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Katie Jones, EVP of Marketing Operations at PathFactory explains how PathFactory personalizes content delivery for buyers, allowing them to navigate their purchasing journey without traditional barriers like content gating. The discussion highlights significant changes in B2B marketing over the past four years, particularly the advancements in AI capabilities. Katie emphasizes the importance of focusing on pipeline generation rather than traditional lead metrics and the necessity of building strong relationships with sales teams and CFOs to measure marketing success effectively.   About PathFactory Providing the right content to the right individuals at the right time has become essential to enabling B2B teams to hit revenue targets. PathFactory is a content intelligence and personalization platform that enables B2B marketers to create personalized content experiences for both accounts and individual buyers. With PathFactory, go-to-market teams access the industry's deepest and most detailed content engagement analytics to track buyer and content engagement throughout the entire buyer journey.   About Katie Jones Katie Jones is the EVP of Marketing and Operations at PathFactory, responsible for leading the company's marketing strategy and operational execution with a clear focus on pipeline and revenue impact. With more than eight years at PathFactory, she has built and scaled a strong marketing organization grounded in data, personalization, and buyer-centric experiences. Katie lives outside Toronto with her husband, two daughters, and their dog, Hank.   Time Stamps 00:00:17 - Guest Introduction: Katie Jones from PathFactory 00:01:50 - Overview of PathFactory's Services 00:05:43 - Addressing AI Concerns: Hallucinations and Accuracy 00:12:37 - Measuring Performance and Overcoming Delays 00:15:41 - Shifting Towards B2C Marketing Strategies 00:18:50 - Future Trends: The Evolution of Websites 00:21:55 - Key Marketing Advice for Success   Quotes ""You need to build a really strong relationship with your CFO. If your CFO doesn't understand the strategy and the way that you're going to market... then you're never going to be successful in your company." Katie Jones, EVP of Marketing Operations at PathFactory. "You need to really understand your product and how that drives the strategy of the company. If you don't understand your product, you can't market it." Katie Jones, EVP of Marketing Operations at PathFactory. "Understanding the product is huge in order to grow. Tools will keep changing, but the strategy in which your business is built on is the thing that will endure." Katie Jones, EVP of Marketing Operations at PathFactory.   Follow Katie: Katie Jones on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-jones-0188a12a/ PathFactory website: https://www.pathfactory.com/ PathFactory on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pathfactory/   Follow Mike: Mike Maynard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemaynard/ Napier website: https://www.napierb2b.com/ Napier LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/napier-partnership-limited/   If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to our podcast for more discussions about the latest in Marketing B2B Tech and connect with us on social media to stay updated on upcoming episodes. We'd also appreciate it if you could leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform. Want more? Check out Napier's other podcast - The Marketing Automation Moment: https://podcasts.apple.com/ua/podcast/the-marketing-automation-moment-podcast/id1659211547

What happens when wholesale distribution collides with tariffs, AI acceleration, and rising customer expectations?In this episode of Around The Horn Podcast, Kevin Brown and Tom Burton unpack the most important forces shaping wholesale distribution today, from policy shifts and economic signals to e-commerce, automation, and leadership in an AI driven world.This conversation goes beyond headlines to explore what these changes really mean for distributors, manufacturers, and channel leaders who are navigating uncertainty while trying to build resilient, future ready organizations.What You'll Learn:Why tariffs are no longer a temporary disruption and how distributors are adjusting pricing, sourcing, and inventory strategiesHow AI is reshaping marketing, sales, and customer service and where most companies are still getting it wrongWhat the rise of B2B e commerce and next day delivery expectations means for margins, operations, and customer experienceWhy “higher value work” is becoming a core job requirement and not just a leadership sloganHow automation, robotics, and reshoring are influencing long term workforce and supply chain decisionsEpisode Highlights:04:10 – Key takeaways from the NAW Executive Summit and why executive intuition still matters11:45 – Tariffs, trade policy, and why most distributors now assume they are here to stay22:30 – Interest rates, economic signals, and what the Fed's direction means for wholesale demand34:05 – How tariffs are quietly reshaping pricing behavior and product selection across distribution45:40 – The Amazon effect, next day delivery expectations, and whether instant gratification is sustainable58:20 – AI in marketing and sales and why more tools do not always equal more productivity01:08:55 – Higher value work, skill development, and what AI first thinking really looks like in distribution01:20:10 – Leadership, teams, and what high performance organizations can learn from endurance racingTools, Frameworks, or Strategies Mentioned:AI first workflows in sales, marketing, and customer serviceHigher value work and skill developer mindsetAgent assisted commerce and automation in B2B buyingRobotics and reshoring as responses to labor and cost pressureCustomer intelligence platforms and integrated CRM strategyClosing Insight:The future of wholesale distribution is not about reacting faster. It is about thinking differently. Leaders who combine industry expertise with AI capability and disciplined execution will be the ones who create durable advantage in a volatile market.Leave a Review: Help us grow by sharing your thoughts on the show.Learn more about the LeadSmart AI B2B Sales Platform: https://www.leadsmarttech.com/ Join the conversation each week on LinkedIn Live.Want even more insight to the stories we discuss each week? Subscribe to the Around The Horn Newsletter.You can also hear the podcast and other excellent content on our YouTube Channel.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok.

In this episode of the Healthy, Wealthy and Smart podcast, Dr. Karen Litzy interviews Pete Moore, founder of Integrity Square, discussing the evolution of the health, active lifestyle, and outdoor sector, known as Halo. They explore the shortcomings of the term 'wellness', the importance of understanding business valuations and KPIs, and the emotional readiness required for business transitions. Pete shares insights on navigating growth, preparing for exits, and the significance of knowing one's competitors and market position. Takeaways The term 'wellness' is outdated and not serving the industry. Understanding your market position is crucial for business success. Local libraries can be valuable resources for business research. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are essential for evaluating business health. Emotional readiness is as important as financial readiness for business transitions. Knowing your competitors helps in strategic planning. Valuations are driven by more than just revenue multipliers. Founders often overlook the importance of mental preparation for exits. Networking and mentorship are vital for entrepreneurial growth. Continuous learning and adaptation are key to success in the Halo sector.  Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Halo and Wellness 01:49 Navigating Business Growth and Exits 03:22 Understanding Valuations and KPIs 05:54 Emotional Readiness for Business Transitions 06:56 Quickfire Insights for Entrepreneurs More About Pete: Pete is the Founder, Managing Partner and Chief Dream Architect at Integrity Square ("ISQ"), a leading boutique financial advisory firm focused on the $4.7T Health, Active Lifestyle, Outdoor ("HALO") sector.  Since founding ISQ in 2010, the firm has played an active advisory role in 100+ mergers & acquisitions, private placements and advisory assignments across North America. Pete Moore and his team have also invested in passionate entrepreneurs at HigherDOSE, XTEND, and Promotion Vault.  ISQ's media and "live education" properties include HALO Talks, the leading B2B podcast in the sector, Time To Win Again, and the HALO Academy, an Executive Education Bootcamp Series. Prior to ISQ, Pete was Head of the Active Lifestyle & Wellness Group at Sagent Advisors (2003-2010.) Prior to 2003, Pete was co-founder of FitnessInsite, a SasS sales management platform with 1500+ clients (based in AZ.) At FitnessInsite, Pete invested his personal capital, leveraged his credit cards and learned what it takes to manage a startup. Pete built his business and financial acumen on top of the foundation laid at three critical positions early in his career: Senior Associate at Brockway Moran & Partners, the private equity owner of Gold's Gym International, Inc;  worked as an Associate at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette; and an Analyst at Chase Securities. (Now JP Morgan.)  ISQ saw a need for a deeper & more useful level of education in the HALO sector. In response, we launched the HALO Talks podcast, with 500+ completed interviews and over 120,000 downloads. HALO Talks has become a "must listen" for anyone working or investing in the sector.  Pete graduated from Emory University (BBA, 1994) and received his MBA from Harvard Business School (1999.) While at HBS, he co-founded IRON PLANET, the leading B2B auction site for used heavy equipment, which was sold to Ritchie Bros for $758 million.   His hobbies include: Football, basketball, tennis, podcasting, amateur ventriloquism, pro bono DJ and fitness enthusiast.    Notable Stats: Wingspan 76", 33 yard dash at 4.3 seconds. Resources from this Episode: Pete's Website Pete on LinkedIn Jane Sponsorship Information: Book a one-on-one demo here Mention the code LITZY1MO for a free month Follow Dr. Karen Litzy on Social Media: Karen's Instagram Karen's LinkedIn  Subscribe to Healthy, Wealthy & Smart: YouTube Website Apple Podcast Spotify SoundCloud Stitcher iHeart Radio

What does it take to build a profitable, impactful business while empowering more than 100,000 women? Julia Taylor, founder of GeekPack, shares her incredible journey from the intelligence community to building a thriving company with a mission to reach a million women by 2030. In this episode, Julia unveils her "embedded partnerships framework" – a potent strategy that's catapulted 70% of her revenue this year alone by fostering deep, meaningful collaborations with major brands like Verizon and TikTok. Discover how strategic alignment, win-win-win scenarios, custom integrations, co-creation, and robust impact reporting are key to scaling your business and making a true difference.Timestamps:00:00 Introduction02:51 From Intelligence to Entrepreneurship06:23 The Confidence Transfer of Digital Skills09:12 What is GeekPack's Current Business & Mission?12:07 Point 1: Partnership Alignment15:19 Point 2: Win-Win-Win Framework17:09 Point 3: Custom Integration & Ecosystem21:04 Point 4: Co-creation and Delivery24:06 Point 5: Measurement and Momentum27:17 Scaling with In-Person Events30:20 CEO KPI: Public Mission Statements34:02 The Sales Process & Team Empowerment36:06 Hiring for Personality & Mission Alignment40:51 The B2B and B2C Flywheel44:17 Overcoming Bottlenecks: Time and Team48:29 Building a Talent Bench52:16 Audience Growth Strategies56:45 Your Role in Social Content CreationIf you enjoyed this episode, please like and subscribe, share it with your friends, and leave a review. I read every single one.Learn more about the podcast: https://nathanbarry.com/showFollow Nathan:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nathanbarryLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanbarryX: https://twitter.com/nathanbarryYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thenathanbarryshowWebsite: https://nathanbarry.com Kit: https://kit.comFollow Julia:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliathegeekInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/julia_the_geekWebsite: https://geekpack.comFeatured in this episode:Kit: https://www.kit.comSmall Business Digital Ready (Verizon): https://www.verizon.com/about/responsibility/small-business-digital-readyMake: https://www.make.com/enRelay: https://www.relayfi.com SparkLoop: https://www.sparkloop.appHighlights:02:00 – Unpacking the Intelligence Community Past08:00 – The Power of Inspect Tools Confidence13:11 – Verizon and Geographic/Demographic Alignment22:00 – How Impact Reports Drive Momentum32:40 – Nathan's "Four Times a Month" Realization41:30 – Why Predictable Revenue Fuels Creativity54:10 – SparkLoop's Impact on Engaged Subscribers

If you're stuck between having a startup and having something investors actually want to fund, this episode is for you. Our guest, Kevin Nesgoda—CEO of OutPaged and recent Founder Institute grad—dives into the messy middle of startup life, where great ideas often die without the right pressure, feedback, and mindset shift. After years of daydreaming and building but still feeling stuck between "interesting" and "investable," Kevin joined an accelerator to stress-test everything. Hear what broke, what shifted, and what finally clicked—plus his advice on resilience, determination, and what's needed to push through.  Topics Covered; Why most founders aren't actually fundable yet and how accelerators like Founders Institute expose the gap (and what they want in return) What surviving cancer taught Kevin about building a startup  How OutPaged went from "cool product" to investable business The mindset change that happens when you stop pitching and start pressure-testing your model Why early founders misunderstand what investors are really evaluating The B2C vs B2B framing decision that can make or break your raise What mentors and investor reviews reveal that you can't see from inside your own startup Why the solo-founder myth slows momentum and increases risk How team design becomes a signal of scale readiness What rejection teaches you when you treat it like data, not failure How accelerators prepare you for capital, not just Demo Day The difference between building something exciting and building something fundable Guest Bio Kevin Nesgoda is the CEO at OutPaged and a recent graduate of The Founders Institute. OutPaged is the platform that turns books into living, breathing worlds. It uses AI to pull apart character arcs, emotional threads, and world logic, then rebuilds them into immersive experiences through AR and XR. Kevin has talked to over 100 publishers, authors, and media founders. Everyone feels the same thing: it is time for a new chapter in storytelling. Download the app here.    About Your Host Jayla Siciliano, Shark Tank entrepreneur turned real estate investor, excels in building brands, teams, and products. CEO of a bi-coastal luxury short-term rental company, she also hosts the Seed Money Podcast, where she's on a mission to help early-stage entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality!    Connect: Website: https://seedmoneypodcast.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaylasiciliano/ Subscribe and watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@seedmoneypodcast/    Subscribe, Rate, & Review Please rate, follow, and review the podcast on https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/seed-money/id1740815877 and https://open.spotify.com/show/0VkQECosb1spTFsUhu6uFY?si=5417351fb73a4ea1/! Hearing your comments and questions helps me come up with the best topics for the show!   Disclaimer The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener's personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific, individualized financial, legal, or tax advice.    

Anna Anisin is a seasoned entrepreneur, ecosystem builder, and business owner with deep roots in the tech world and a passion for creativity.Starting her entrepreneurial journey at 16, Anna has since achieved multiple successful exits and built a career around scaling brands, building communities, and pioneering new paths in marketing innovation.Today, Anna leads DataScience.Salon, one of the most trusted communities in AI and machine learning, and runs FormulatedBy, a boutique B2B marketing firm specializing in demand generation, experiential strategy, and AI-driven marketing. Under her leadership, FormulatedBy has served over 100 brands including AWS, IBM, Databricks, Oracle, and many of the most influential startups in AI/ML and deep tech.Most recently, Anna launched the

Send us a textDiscovery is moving from search boxes to AI answers, and that shift rewards creators who ship useful content across platforms that language models trust. We sit down with Gary Vaynerchuk for a sharp, no-fluff talk about how to show up where it counts: YouTube and Shorts to feed Gemini, TikTok and Meta for intent-rich search, LinkedIn for underpriced B2B reach, and newsletters and podcasts that anchor your authority with durable text and audio. The plan for the next 30 days is simple: publish more, in more places, with clearer hooks and stronger stories, so both people and machines can find you.We dig into the rising need for provenance as deepfakes blur reality. Gary explains why blockchain-backed verification will matter as a ledger of truth, how signed media and ownership records can restore trust, and where builders might connect web and chain to certify origin and intent. We also unpack the future of AI brand characters: why owned IP will outlast hired faces, where it can backfire in the short term, and how transparent, well-crafted avatars become assets instead of shortcuts.For marketers and founders chasing interest-driven reach, the real skill is cultural fluency: knowing the first three seconds on TikTok, the thumbnail and retention game on YouTube, the long-form cadence and professionalism on LinkedIn, and the conversational spark on X. Gary's blunt takeaway cuts through the noise: make content a core job, not an afterthought, and stop overthinking creative with personal taste—let audience data guide iteration. If you're ready to build authority that AI cites and humans trust, hit play, take notes, and then publish your next piece today.Enjoyed the conversation? Follow the show, share it with a friend who's building, and leave a quick review so more creators can find us.This episode was recorded through a Descript call on January 21, 2026. Read the blog article and show notes here: https://webdrie.net/gary-vaynerchuk-on-creating-everywhere-to-stay-visible-in-an-ai-first-world/——Want to try out Metricool? Go to https://metricool.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=influencer&utm_campaign=20260129_joeri-billast_web3-gary-vee_en&utm_content=audio&utm_term=q1And use the coupon Code: JOERIThis gives 30 days free of any Metricool Premium plan. ..........................................................................

How to Use AI for B2B Storytelling Without Losing Your Brand So many B2B companies and marketing teams waste budget on generic content that fails to resonate or support core business goals. In an era where AI-generated is everywhere, smaller B2B brands often struggle to maintain a unique identity while competing against larger firms with massive content engines. The key to staying relevant lies in a B2B brand’s ability to be authentic, human-centric, and strategically consistent despite the pressure to automate everything. So how can B2B brands effectively integrate AI into their marketing workflows without losing their unique voice and brand integrity? That's why we're talking to Nick Usborne (Founder, Story Aligned), who shared his expertise on leveraging AI through the lens of strategic storytelling. During our conversation, Nick discussed the critical distinction between simple narrative and a brand’s unique story, highlighting a significant gap where only 7% of top AI prompt libraries actually focus on storytelling. He shared actionable advice on building a “story vault,” training staff to avoid “brand drift,” and enforcing consistent AI usage to maintain the trust of the audience. Nick also underscored the importance of keeping human elements at the forefront of content creation to prevent AI from feeling overly mechanical, and advocated for a balanced approach that ensures scalable growth without sacrificing a brand's authenticity. https://youtu.be/dtgvg2-XXoU Topics discussed in episode: [02:53] The “Why” Behind AI Adoption: Why companies must embrace AI not just for efficiency, but to avoid being left behind by competitors who are already scaling their reach.  [04:10] The “Moat” of Storytelling: Why narrative and voice can be easily copied by AI, but your brand's unique “lived story” is the only defensible moat you have.  [11:27] Pitfalls of Inconsistent AI Use: The dangers of “shadow AI” use by employees (e.g., Using personal accounts vs. company custom GPTs) and how it leads to brand drift.  [16:46] The Human Element vs. AI: Nick explains why AI can describe the beach but can't “feel the sand between its toes,” and why human “messiness” is key to connection.  [24:26] Building a Story Vault: Nick provides a practical framework for formalizing your brand's folklore—from founder stories to customer service wins—so they can be systematically used in AI content.  [28:17] Actionable Steps for Marketers: Three immediate steps to take: build your story vault, interview key stakeholders (founders, early employees), and analyze customer service transcripts for sentiment.  [30:11] The Problem with “Killer Prompt” Libraries: Why copying “top 20 prompt” lists is a strategic mistake that leads to generic, non-differentiated content. Companies and links mentioned: Nick Usborne on LinkedIn  Story Aligned  Transcript Nick Usborne, Christian Klepp Nick Usborne  00:00 AI can do a wonderful job in many ways, but it’s never walked down the beach and felt the sand between its toes. It’s read about it. It’s never eaten ice cream. It’s read about that, but it’s never felt it. So that’s what I mean by lived experience. I think that content and stories that truly resonate with people you use those kind of touch points the the deeply human side of being alive. And like, say, I think AI can get close when you prompt it really well, but also, there’s a messiness that makes us recognize one another, the little mistakes we make. That’s what makes us human. We are messy. AI, it’s not very good at being messy. You can ask it to be messy, and it’ll try to figure that out, but it’s really not the same. And like I say, I think people are very sensitive to this kind of nuance. Christian Klepp  00:51 When brands rely on the same AI tools and prompts, they start to sound like everyone else. That loss of voice can hurt trust and lead to something called Brand drift. So how can B2B Marketing teams scale content with AI while staying true to their story? Welcome to this episode of the B2B Marketers in the Mission podcast, and I’m your host, Christian Klepp, today, I’ll be talking to Nick Usborne, who will be answering this question. He’s the Founder of Story Aligned, a training program for Marketing teams that want to scale content using AI while protecting the integrity of their brand story and voice. Tune in to find out more about what this B2B Marketers Mission is. Mr. Nick Usborne, welcome to the show, sir.  Nick Usborne  01:32 Thank you very much. Thank you Christian. Thank you for having me.  Christian Klepp  01:35 Pleasure to have you on the show. Nick, you know we had such a fantastic pre interview call. It was a bit of a you did drop a few hints and clues about what was to come, and I’m really looking forward to this conversation. I’m going to keep the audience in suspense a little while longer as I move us into the first question. So off we go.  Nick Usborne  01:55 Okay. Christian Klepp  01:56 All right, so, Nick, you’re on a mission to equip Marketing teams to scale AI powered content while staying aligned with their organization, story and voice. So for this conversation, let’s focus on the topic of how to use AI for B2B content without losing trust. And it is at the time of the recording, the end of 2025 and of course, we’re going to talk about AI, but we’re going to zoom in on something specific as it pertains to B2B content and a little bit of branding in there as well. But I wanted to kick off this conversation with two questions, and I’m happy to repeat them. So the first question is, why do you believe it’s so important for brands and their Marketing teams to embrace AI so that they can scale? And the second question is, why does this approach require the right prompts and guardrails? I think that’s one thing that you mentioned in our previous conversation, the whole the whole piece about prompts and guardrails. Nick Usborne  02:53 Well, the first question, why do companies need to embrace AI? And the ridiculous answer to that. It’s not a good answer, but it’s true is that because everyone else is, because your competitors are, and they will create content at scale while you are not, and they will achieve reach that you can’t achieve without AI. And in fact, if they do it well, their content, their new content, will be very good, content deeply researched beyond perhaps what you can do. So it’s like everything within AI right now, like, like, Why? Why do all the companies like open AI and Google and Meta, why they all racing? Because if they don’t, someone else will get there first. And it’s, I’m not saying it’s a great reason, but I think it is the fundamental reason for companies to embrace AI, is that you will be left behind if you don’t. This is a transformational moment, and as much as we’d like to have choice, I think in this matter, we don’t have a lot of choice. So that’s my answer to that question. Repeat the second question for me. Christian Klepp  04:00 Absolutely, absolutely so based on, based on that, like, why does this approach require the right prompts and guardrails? Nick Usborne  04:10 As part of my business, I’m constantly researching this, and in particular, I’m researching the prompts people do so when say, could be writers coders, but in our world. Let’s say writers, principally, or marketers, are using AI. They’re using prompts, and they’re generally prompting about two things. One is narrative, like, what should we say? Or, you know, please write us a blog post about x. So that’s the that’s the topic, that’s the narrative. And then they’ll put in something say, oh, please do it in a voice that is authoritative and yet accessible. All right, so now that’s a voice. What they haven’t mentioned is what I think is the foundational layer, which is, which is story. And that’s important, because story is the only thing that is uniquely yours, if you have an narrative, if you, if you have voice, if you talk about something in a particular way, I can copy that with AI. I can copy it at scale. I can, I can look at the transcripts of Christian podcasts, and I can say, oh, I want to do one in exactly. Tell her the same topic. I can, you know, so when you focus on narrative, on what you write about in voice. I can copy it. There’s no moat. The only moat you have is with story, because every company’s story is unique. We can look at origin stories, foundation stories, we can look at customer stories through case studies, things like that. Those are always unique. No one else has Apple’s origin story. No one else has virgin Atlantic’s Founder’s story, etc. But we did some research recently. Actually, we did some research months ago, and I reconfirmed it earlier this week. I ran it. I ran it all again to look at the data. If you look at the top 20 prompt libraries that you know the big, trustworthy companies and organizations that put out prompt libraries for companies. If you look at the top 20 libraries and the 1000s and 1000s of prompts within there, 76% of those prompts are about the narrative. What to say? 17 are about voice. How do you sound? Only 7% relate to story. So this, to my mind, is where we have a problem. We have a disconnect. Everyone is going crazy, prompting for narrative and story, both of which have 0, zero mode, anyone can copy them at scale. And only 7% this very small percentage, are actually focusing on the one thing that is uniquely theirs and cannot be copied or challenged. So that when you say, when you, when you say I’m on a mission, that’s the mission for me to say, Hey guys, wake up. You’re You’re prompting the wrong things in the wrong way. Let’s like, go back and look at story Christian Klepp  07:12 Absolutely, absolutely. It almost sounds like an oxymoron to us to a certain degree, because you’re saying scaling B2B content using AI without losing trust. Because, you know, the narrative that I keep seeing on social media, particularly LinkedIn, is that if people are using AI, there is a bit of a trust factor there. But I think it’s to your point and correct me if I’m wrong, it’s being able to embrace AI and you leveraging it the right way, so it’s not, it’s not, it’s not to replace, it’s not to replace the writers, right, or to replace the Marketers, I hope not. Nick Usborne  07:50 It may replace some. But, yeah, yeah. I mean, I mean, you’re right, and the keyword you mentioned there is trust. I think, I think trust is going to be the most valuable commodity that a company can have in the months and years to come, because people don’t actually don’t if we’re talking about brand. So we’re trying to protect brand with story, right? And brand is something that a lot of companies have spent millions of dollars building and protecting over years or decades and well, one of the things let me come back to trust in a moment. But if I’m looking at brand, and I’m looking at all the stuff goes out there, it either builds brand or it burns brand. And if you burn brand, you lose trust. So if you’re going out with a whole bunch of content that sounds like everyone else is that it’s kind of meh. It’s ordinary. It’s in the middle, which is what AI is really good at. Without the right prompting, it will give you kind of in the middle, mediocre output. So you got to be much better at prompting than just like a, I don’t know, being careless about it, or taking a shortcut, shortcuts, or being lazy about it, because then you get brand drift, and all of a sudden the brand doesn’t sound quite right. And when that happens, you lose trust. And when you lose trust, you lose revenue. I mean, you really do. And people are getting very sensitive to brand of brand trust we saw recently. Was it tracker barrel tried to just change its logo. People freaked out. People freaked out.  Christian Klepp  09:27 It was an awful rebrand, but, yes.  Nick Usborne  09:30 Yeah, but it wasn’t. These weren’t. These weren’t. Saying is, I don’t think the design is up to snuff. It’s like, don’t mess with my tracker barrel. We actually feel very strongly about the brands. Talk to people who are absolute fans of Apple. Doesn’t matter that it costs twice as much, perhaps as not quite as good. It’s Apple. It’s my brand. Don’t mess with my brand. So we’re very sensitive to our loyalty to brands. And in fact, in some sense, it’s brand define us like a football team, a baseball team, in part, we can be defined by the brands that we support, local, Pepsi. You know, it’s like everywhere. So when a company uses AI carelessly at scale and all of a sudden that blog post, it kind of sounds like them, but something’s a tiny bit off. And then that LinkedIn update. Again, yeah, it’s them, but again, it’s, did I say is that the same as they were six months ago? You get the you get these little these little things that sound off, and now you get brand drift. And now you get people feeling uneasy, and the public are sometimes we think we can just make the public believe whatever we want them to believe, or companies to believe whatever we want them to believe, but actually, individuals, in their home lives and in their business lives are very, very sensitive to brand and they’re very, very sensitive to voice and what they hear, and if it’s off, they really don’t like it, and that does translate into loss of trust, and that does directly translate into loss of revenue.  Christian Klepp  11:07 Absolutely. I’m going to move us on to the next set of questions, particularly that one pertaining to key pitfalls that Marketers need to avoid when they’re trying to scale their B2B content using AI without losing trust. So what are some of these key pitfalls they should avoid, and what should they be doing instead? Nick Usborne  11:27 What I’m hearing from inside a number of companies is that there is an inconsistency in how people are using AI and even when systems are in place, that not everyone follows the system. So it’s early days. It is. These are messy times for, you know, working with AI within companies. So I think it’s really important that companies do have some frameworks in place, that people within the organization are using the same tools in the same way, and that they are encouraged to be consistent in what they do. So I’ve heard stories of where companies are set up, you know, they’re using Copilot, or whatever they use, and then some of the manager will walk by someone’s desk, and they’re actually, actually, they’re using Claude on their phone. That person like phone, and it’s like, well, yeah, but no, this is now, you know, you have no control. You also have to get people to do what they ask. I was talking to a Founder the other day. She has a PR (Public Relations) company, plenty of clients, and she’s smart. She’s created custom GPTs for each client. So each custom GPT is trained on with with a kind of database of information on that client and the content, so that you know when you when you ask it to do something else, it’s already has the context and the voice instructions and everything, and you can and it’s great, you get this consistency. But she says, what’s happening is some of her employees come in in the morning, they start work on client X, and they’re using that custom GPT. Then they move on to client Y, but they keep using the original custom GPT and not switching out. So the management has put in the structure in place to be consistent and to output the best, you know, the best content, but the employees are not always playing game, you know, going along with that. So so I do think we’re in a messy period now where companies are not entirely sure how to apply this, how to structure it, what kind of frameworks and guidance to put in place. What guardrails to put in place? Like? Again, I’ve heard horror stories of people grabbing content that should not be shared and putting it into a large language model and then turning that into customer facing or public facing content.  Christian Klepp  13:57 Oh, plagiarism.  Nick Usborne  14:04 So yeah, it is messy. So what I would say is, before you even try to make the best of the use of AI that you do, need to put systems and frameworks in place and educate your staff. So if you want your staff to use AI effectively give them access to training. Don’t just throw them at a tool and say, go for it, because they won’t know what to do with it, or they’ll be able to create stuff, but they won’t be able to create good stuff. So invest in the systems, invest in the frameworks and instructions, and invest in training for the people who are going to be using the tools.  Christian Klepp  14:46 Definitely some relevant points. I wanted to go back to something you said, though, because I think it’s really important. It’s certainly one thing to have the prompts and the guardrails in place and some kind of like, framework and structures. But to your earlier point, how do you enforce that? And I think you gave a really good example about like, if you have a custom GPT, and then they resort to like, using. Um Claude on their personal accounts, and then it’s a little bit like the wild west out there, isn’t it? Nick Usborne  15:06 It is, it is, and it’s and it’s, how do you enforce it? Well, that’s going to be a company by company decision. Like, like the Founder with the PR of the PR company, when she was telling me about how her employees just weren’t doing what they were asked. I was like, part of you is thinking about, why haven’t you kind of cracked down on this? But again, it depends on the company and what options you have when it comes to enforcing stuff like this. But I do think you need to, because then if we circle right back, if you have people who are untrained, and that’s the company’s responsibility to train their employees. If you have people who are untrained and they’re using these tools inconsistently, that is when you far more likely then to see errors for, you know, unforced errors like publishing stuff that you shouldn’t but you’re also going to see more brand drift, because you’re going to get this inconsistency between output and that is a disaster. Like I say, companies have sometimes spent, in a decade, several years in establishing and building a trustworthy brand. And people are very unforgiving. You can, you can lose all that goodwill very, very quickly. So, yeah, training frameworks make sure people are, you know, working within those boundaries, but as a company, it’s your responsibility to help make that happen. Christian Klepp  16:29 Yeah, yeah. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. You kind of brought this up already, but you mentioned that AI can help to scale content, but it can’t replicate your lived story, so please explain what you meant by that, and provide an example. If you can, Nick Usborne  16:46 AI can do a wonderful job in many ways, but you know, it’s never walked down the beach and felt the sand between its toes. It’s read about it. It’s never eaten ice cream. It’s read about that, but it’s never felt it. So that’s what I mean by lived experience. So I think that content and stories that truly resonate with people, you use those kind of touch points, the deeply human side of being alive and like say, I think AI can get close when you prompt it really well, but also there’s a messiness that makes us recognize one another, the little mistakes we make, that’s what makes us human. We are messy, and it’s not very good at being messy. You can ask it to be messy, and it’ll try to figure that out, but it’s really not the same. And like I say, I think people are very sensitive to this kind of nuance and the lived story. It’s the it’s the weird stuff. I think that resonates. So I’ve spent quite a bit of my career doing copywriting for companies, and for a long period, I was doing some freelance, a lot of freelance copywriting. So this is just a little side note, a little side story for you. I used to live on a hobby farm. We had some sheep and pigs and chickens and all that good stuff, the good life. And also had freelance customers. And I went in, and I was and I went, you know, you go out, you feed the animals, you come in, I sit down to work, and my client said, this is just on the phone. This is even before the internet. Client said, Hey, you’re late. I was just out farming the pig and feeding the pigs. And the guy says, what? And this, I hadn’t realized. I never told him that I lived on a farm. He thought somewhere. So anyway, we talked a little bit about the pigs, then we get to work. So the project we’re working on worked out really well, and it won an award. So we fly off to your hometown, Toronto, for the awards ceremony, direct marketing awards ceremony, and he stands up and he says, Thank you very much. Blah, blah, blah. And special thanks to Nick Usborne, the pig farming copywriter. And I’m like, I’m like, in the audience, and I’m thinking, oh, please no. This guy is like, rebranding me constantly in front of all my peers, all my potential clients for next year. Big drama turns out so, so that that’s messy, all right? AI wouldn’t do that, you wouldn’t imagine that it wouldn’t do that. That’s a deeply human moment of my humiliation and him laughing, and everyone slapping me on the back and laughing and asking about my pigs. Turns out, over the next 12 months, I got a few phone calls out of the blue. And I say, Hello, Nick Usborne. I said, Oh, is that Nick Usborne? The cover of James Barber. And I say, why? Yes. And so I actually got work out of that, because it was such a distinct difference from every other copywriter out there. I was the only copywriter who had pigs. So that was just a fun story, but it also speaks to the difference between humans and AI, and it’s a live that’s a lived experience, and it’s a lived anecdote, and I tell the story, and it’s a true story that is really important, I think so, even when we use AI, even when we use it at its best, and it can be really good when you use it well, I think everyone should keep leave space for the human in the loop, as they say, keep that human element in there, big for those stories. So I so I encourage companies to create what I call like a story vault. So there’s the obvious stories, like the Founder story, the origin story, the six original success story, also put in the little quirky stories, like that one I just described, and and make that part of your process. And also go, you know, if you’re creating something with AI and it’s a big project, take the time to go and interview someone, talk to someone, get a human story, put it in just because you’re using AI, doesn’t mean to say that everything you create has to be 100% AI, you can, you can? I do this all the time. I look for it a draft with AI, then I’d go back in and I’ll rewrite the beginning with an anecdote, like the small s story, not a big dramatic story, just a little story. And what it does then is that then connects it with us, because as people, we recognize stories. Story is profound to all of us. I think in every country in the world, parents read their children bedtime stories. It’s something we share in common. It’s how we communicate, and it’s how we recognize our humanity in a sense of like, if you tell me a story, you connect with me, and vice versa. So that’s why I think stories are so important in this world of AI, because if you just go AI, it can get a little cold, and sometimes, as a reader, you don’t quite understand what’s happening and why, but you kind of feel it. There’s an absence. There’s something missing, and that what’s what you feeling is missing is that human touch, that human element, Christian Klepp  21:59 Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, there’s like, there’s like, telltale signs, right? Like em dash being one of them,  Nick Usborne  22:06 em dash Christian Klepp  22:07 Yes, or Yeah. Or it tends to, like, regurgitate the same type of war. It’s like, I find it loves using the word landscape or navigate, you know, things of that nature, right?  Nick Usborne  22:20 Yeah.  Christian Klepp  22:21 Or uses these funny like, you know, the colon or for, for, for titles of episodes, for examples. Nick Usborne  22:30 In titles, even when I give it clear instructions, do not use them. So sometimes, when I create content like that is, I’ll create it in with one model like say, GPT5, and I’ll take it over to flawed, and I’ll say, hey, please edit and clean this up for me, and remove any, you know, repetition or whatever. And sometimes it comes back say, hey, looks pretty clean, pretty good. Other times it’ll change stuff. And then, of course, always I will, you know, I will review. And that’s the other thing that the companies need to think about. Is that, at the moment, content generation at scale within companies, it is a bit like a conveyor belt in a factory of all these boxes flying off the end into the FedEx back of the FedEx van, and without, without any kind of quality control, which, which is actually what you do have with income within you know, if you’re manufacturing, and you do have quality control, and you pick out every 20th item or whatever to make sure that it’s good, a lot of that isn’t happening, that isn’t happening with a lot of people using AI is people don’t even see it. It’s fully automated, like, like a week’s worth of social media is automated, or a month’s work worth, and no one, no human, has read it or reviewed it. It’s just flying out automatically. And that is where at some point you’re inevitably going to have a problem. And it may not be a big problem, it may be lots and lots of small problems, lots of lots of things sounding not quite right, and then all of a sudden, when you’ve got enough little things not sounding right, then you start getting a medium sized problem. Christian Klepp  24:06 Yeah, yeah. No, exactly, exactly. Okay. Now, you talked about it a little bit in the beginning, but talk to us about some of these, these frameworks and these processes that B2B companies can use to help them, you know, organize themselves and reap those benefits of AI without losing trust. Like, what are some of these processes and frameworks? Nick Usborne  24:26 I do some training, and I have done a few rubrics where people can kind of use those to formalize the process. But I think if we talk about story, and I think I already mentioned the idea of each company having a story vault, so be formal and deliberate about it. Everyone can chat about their company’s stories, but if I say to you, hey, is there a folder? Can I can I get a Google folder and find a compilation of all of these stories? And have you graded those stories in terms of how strong and relevant? And they are, and how engaging they might be, or how evocative they might be, and the answer is almost always no, the story is around. But there’s no story vault, and there’s no rubric in place to grade those stories and decide which might be the most appropriate points at which to share those stories. So it’s that, it’s that formalizing the process, and I don’t like being 100% rules based, but I think in the AI world right now, where we are in that kind of messy middle period, I think it’s really important to have some systems in place so that we do have a consistent output, so that when you so that your brand doesn’t suffer from brand drift, and that you don’t make some significant missteps along the way. So somebody within the organization needs to be responsible for this. Maybe it’s the Chief AI Officer, if you have one, or otherwise, somebody in Marketing. So yeah, help people with training, but also help them by giving them some framework, some rubrics and some just a system like, you know, hey, picked up a story from customer service, put it in the story vault, categorize it. Customer service in the story vault says someone else can come back and find it. So it’s not just word of mouth. It’s not accidental. There’s a place where people can go to and then you’re going to do the same with narrative, the things we say. And you have another vault, as it were, and another rubric to to assess voice, how we say it. So it’s just this formalization of the process, and also trying to make sure that people use these systems as you put them in place. So somebody’s got to be walking along behind, behind and sort of, and again, it’s like, I guess, like early days of anything. Not every, not everyone will love the process. Not everyone loves using AI. But it’ll come. It’ll come. People will get in their heart better, not only using AI, but doing it well and following these processes. Christian Klepp  27:02 Okay, fantastic, fantastic. Let me just quickly recap, because I was writing this down. So obviously, having a story vault, grading them if you can, if possible, having systems and frameworks in place, training the team and getting them to familiarize themselves with the systems having a vault for narrative and voice, I think was the other piece. And finally, using, using the systems, once you have them, not letting them collect dust, as it were, right? Nick Usborne  27:32 Like and it is, I get it right now. I get it. It’s hard for a lot of companies, because I think using AI has been very kind of mixed. Some companies have dived straight in. Others are resistant, particularly companies that have compliance issues, financial, medical stuff like that. They’re being very careful, very cautious, and for very good reason. So the rate of adoption is very uneven at the moment, Christian Klepp  28:01 Absolutely, absolutely, all right. Nick you’ve given us plenty here, right? But if we’re going to talk about actionable tips, like something that somebody who’s listening to this conversation that they can take action on right after listening to this interview, what are like some of the top three things you would advise them to do? Nick Usborne  28:17 Well, I guess first is just we’ve talked quite a bit about the story, the story of collecting stories. Just do that because, like I say, I think story is your is your superpower, because it is the only place where you have a moat you don’t in what you say and how you say it. Anyone can copy you, and I can automate copying you through AI as well, but I cannot steal your story, because it’s just not true if, if it’s not my story. So I’d always start there and again, start, start that. Build the vault, select the story and formalize that process. Interview the Founders, if you can, interview early employees, even if they’re retired, interview the first three clients, if you can access them, interview customer service. So often overlooked, customer service in one way or another, so long as that’s not all automated, if there’s still humans in that loop, then have conversations with them. And you can, you can, you can, get transcripts, customer service transcripts, and feed them into AI and say, hey, please analyze and summarize this. What are, what are the most powerful messages we can get from our customer service? Sort of stream of content? Do? Do a sentiment analysis? What are people upset about? What are people happy about? So, yeah, story, I think, is like, I say, it will be your motive, it will be your savior. So first start to formalize that process of getting story and then making sure that it finds a place, somewhere in your automation of, you know, AI generated content, Christian Klepp  29:58 Fantastic, fantastic stuff. Okay, soapbox time. What is the status quo in your area of expertise that you passionately disagree with, and why? Nick Usborne  30:11 I guess again, I’m just going to overlapping. I don’t know what a status quo, but the thing that I passionately disagree with is is every time you see most or a social media title that says top 20 killer, unbeatable prompts.  Christian Klepp  30:31 Oh, yeah. Nick Usborne  30:32 No, no, no, absolutely, just, just no for two reasons. One is that they’re going to be generic. They’re not going to apply to your company in particular, they’ll be generic, and just because they work for someone else does not mean they’re going to work for you. And like I say, we did, I’ve done research on those prompt libraries, and only 7% of them even touch on story. So if I’m writing stories, the most important thing almost all of those prompt libraries are missing out on that. They’re just focusing on narrative and voice and ignoring stories. So not good and and, yeah, so, so that is, I don’t know whether the status quo, but it’s something I keep seeing, and it irritates me when I get it. I understand why they’re doing it, but not helpful for your company. Christian Klepp  31:18 Yeah, you and me both. I mean, those are the those are the pulse they attempt to ignore immediately. I mean, I just skim through it and see the prompts, and I’m like, Nah, but I think it’s human nature too, isn’t it? Like everybody wants to chase the next hack. They want to find that the you know, the shortcut, like the quickest route to get something done. And I get that, but it sometimes does more harm than good. Nick Usborne  31:43 Easy button, but also to be fair and to be a little bit more generous. This is early days, and so people are looking for help. And if it says top 20, this is, oh my goodness, thank you. I’ll take that now. Over time, that’ll change, and people will become a little more sophisticated, I think, but like us, like you. You know, I get it. I understand why those those posts and titles are attractive, and that’s why people create them. But we can do better. We can do better Christian Klepp  32:12 Absolutely, absolutely we can, and we will, hopefully, all right, here comes the bonus question. I’ve been thinking about this one, but Nick Usborne  32:23 I feel strangely nervous. I feel nervous, but it’s a bonus question. Christian Klepp  32:30 Just breathe. Just breathe. I mean, clearly from this conversation, you know, writing is in your blood, right? It’s something that you are passionate about, but it’s also something you’ve done professionally for a long time, I suppose. The bonus question is, if you had an opportunity to meet your favorite writer or author, living or dead, who would it be, and what would you talk about?  Nick Usborne  32:55 One of the people, I really admire, and I’ve already spoken to him, is David Abbott. So David Abbott is a copywriter from from England, and he had an agency called Abbot Mead Vickers, and he was an amazing writer. So I’ve already met him. Who I haven’t met I would like to re write to meet is Susie Henry. She was the copywriter behind a series of advertisements in the UK for an insurance company, and she is just a delightful writer, so I told you, well, no, I hadn’t told you. Maybe I will tell you I’m like, when I started out copywriting, it was at the tail end of the Mad Men period, and creatives were the Kings and Queens, and copywriting was such a craft, it was something to be absolutely proud of, like we’d go through so many drafts, and it was, I was, you know, I was, I was a craftsman, learning from other craftsmen. And David, ever I met, he was in a fantastic writer, just written Susie Henry so good, very, very conversational writer, which was very unusual for that time. So I’d like to meet and talk with her, and I still can’t remember the fiction writer. He’s science fiction writer. I completely lost blank on his name, and I’ve actually met him once briefly, but I’d like to get back to him and chat, but I can’t, because he’s he’s since passed. Christian Klepp  34:19 Oh, I see, I see, I see. All right, well, that’s quite the list of people, but, um, but yeah. No, fantastic. No. Nick, thank you so much for coming on the show and for sharing your experience and expertise with the listeners. And please quick introduction to yourself and how people can get in touch with you. Nick Usborne  34:37 All right. Hi. My name is Nick Usborne, so my business build Story Aligned. So storyaligned.com and what we do there is pretty much, what I’ve talked about today is we train teams within companies to look at story, narrative and voice with a lot of emphasis on story, because that’s where the note is, so if you get a Story Aligned, you’ll find we have a white paper you can download. We have a blog that you can read, the description of the training. So yeah, if this interests you, if you find this an interesting topic, there’s plenty to do when you get there. So Story Aligned, A, L, I, G, N, E, D, yeah. Story Aligned. Christian Klepp  35:21 Fantastic, fantastic. And we’ll be sure to pop that into the show notes so that it’ll be easy for everyone to access. But once again, Nick, thank you.  Nick Usborne  35:28 Sorry, one last thing, if you want to please opening myself up, if you want to just talk to me directly, you can write to me at nick@storyaligned.com. Christian Klepp  35:38 Perfect, perfect. Nick, once again, thanks so much for your time. Take care, stay safe and talk to you soon. Nick Usborne  35:44 Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. It’s been a pleasure. Christian Klepp  35:47 Thank you. Bye for now. You.

325 | Lashay Lewis helps B2B SaaS companies create profit driven content strategies. We talk about why a B2B content strategy should be built from the bottom of the funnel up, why she interviews sales teams to understand "life before using the product" and why she interviews customer success teams to understand "life after using the product" and how that influences content strategy, how writing influences buyers, the power of a strong company POV, training in-house writers and freelancers in a way that scales, where podcasting fits in a B2B content strategy, why search volume can be misleading, and thoughts on how content marketers can use AI. Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Get a free, personalized 45-minute AI workshop to help you identify the best AI use cases for your marketing team and map out where agents can save you time at optimizely.com/exitfive. AirOps - The content engineering platform that helps marketers create and maintain high-quality, on-brand content that wins AI search. Go to airops.com/exitfive to start creating content that reflects your expertise, stays true to your brand, and is engineered for performance across human and AI discovery.Visit exitfive.com/retreat to apply for Exit Five's first-ever, in-person Marketing Leadership Retreat, March 18–20, 2026 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Join 100 CMOs and VPs of Marketing from companies like like Zoom, Snowflake, Manychat, Bitly, G2, HP, and more for two days of thinking bigger around a trusted group of peers in marketing. ***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more

Most founders underestimate how much their thinking, food choices, and daily habits quietly shape their performance– and their health.In this episode of Founder Talk, Alex Sheridan sits down with Dr. Chrystal Ciodyk, founder of Chrystal Clinic, to explore the overlooked connection between mindset, physical health, and long-term decision-making. Chrystal built her clinic after completing advanced training in acupuncture and Chinese medicine—then launched the business during COVID, despite widespread skepticism.This episode examines how founders unknowingly operate in a constant state of stress, inflammation, and mental noise—and how that affects clarity, discipline, and judgment, and explores a core founder problem: running businesses from a depleted body and distracted mind. Founders will hear a practical perspective on how small, consistent changes can restore clarity and energy, and how chronic stress, poor nutrition, and unchecked habits create physical inflammation and mental resistance—often mistaken for lack of discipline or motivation. Q&A-Style Takeaways (Chronological)00:00:00 – Introduction00:01:45Q: Why does mental and physical health directly affect founder performance?A: Chronic stress and imbalance reduce long-term focus, resilience, and decision quality, even when short-term results look fine.00:05:12Q: What everyday habits create inflammation that founders often ignore?A: Excess sugar, dairy, alcohol, processed foods, and lack of recovery quietly compound physical and cognitive stress.00:07:33Q: What does inflammation actually do to the body and mind?A: It disrupts digestion, joints, sleep, and energy, often showing up as brain fog, pain, or chronic fatigue.00:13:45Q: Why do founders struggle to break habits they know are unhealthy?A: Internal mental resistance—the “comfort-seeking psyche”—pushes people to stay in familiar patterns even when they want change.00:17:23Q: How do thoughts and language influence physical health outcomes?A: Negative self-talk can reinforce symptoms through the nocebo effect, while intentional framing supports recovery.00:43:40Q: Is hustle culture silently costing founders their health?A: Many founders trade health and family time for growth, only to face burnout or forced slowdowns later.00:46:20Q: What are simple daily tools founders can use to reset stress?A: Breathing techniques, small rituals, and short recovery practices help regulate the nervous system and improve focus.This episode is especially relevant for founders balancing growth, family, and long-term sustainability. Watch the full conversation to hear how mindset, health, and leadership intersect in ways most operators overlook.Subscribe for more no-fluff, founder-to-founder conversations.

Sun Raghupathi is CoFounder and CEO of Veda.DeFi is living through interesting times: record adoption, proven infrastructure, institutional interest—but low sentiment and struggling token prices. Sun calls this "the enterprise era for DeFi," where protocols that don't have a B2B strategy for the largest financial institutions may not survive. But here's the opportunity: for the first time, DeFi is actually ready for mainstream users. In fact, Kraken just launched new DeFi Earn vaults powered by Veda, giving millions of users instant access to onchain yields without leaving the Kraken app.In this episode, we cover:+ DeFi's enormous future in enterprise partnerships and distribution+ How Veda vaults work: custody, risk management, and yield strategies+ Breaking down Kraken's new DeFi Earn vaults+ Veda's business model and path to profitability------

Radical AI is building scientific superintelligence—AGI for science—through a closed-loop system that combines AI agents with fully robotic self-driving labs to accelerate materials discovery. The materials science industry has a fundamental innovation problem: discovering a single new material system takes 10-15+ years and costs north of $100 million. This economic reality has frozen innovation across aerospace, defense, semiconductors, and energy—industries still deploying materials developed 30 to 100 years ago. In this episode, Joseph Krause, Co-Founder and CEO of Radical AI, explains how his company is attacking the root causes: serial experimentation workflows, systematically lost experimental data, and the manufacturing scale-up gap. Working with the Department of Defense, Air Force Research Lab on hypersonics systems, and as an official partner to the DOE's Genesis mission, Radical AI is focused on high entropy alloys that maintain mechanical properties in extreme environments—the kind of enabling technology that unlocks entirely new product categories rather than optimizing existing ones. Topics Discussed: The structural economics preventing materials innovation: 10-15 year timelines, $100M+ discovery costs, and why companies default to decades-old materials Three fundamental process failures in scientific discovery: serial workflows that prevent parallelization, the 90%+ of experimental data that lives only in lab notebooks, and the valley of death between lab-scale discovery and manufacturing scale-up How closed-loop autonomous systems capture processing parameters during discovery—temperature ranges, pressure requirements, humidity impacts, precursor form factors—that map directly to manufacturing conditions High entropy alloys as beachhead: 10^40 possible combinations from the periodic table, requiring materials that maintain strength and corrosion resistance at 2,000-4,000°F in oxidative environments created by hypersonic flight The strategic rationale for simultaneous government and commercial GTM: government for long-shot applications like nuclear fusion and access to world-class science institutions; commercial customers in aerospace, defense, automotive, and energy for near-term product applications Why Radical AI focuses on enabling technology rather than optimization technology—solving for markets where novel materials unlock new products, not incremental margin improvements GTM Lessons For B2B Founders: Engineer downstream adoption barriers into your initial system architecture: Joseph identified that customer skepticism centered on manufacturability, not discovery speed. Most prospects understood AI could accelerate experimentation but questioned whether discoveries could scale to production without restarting the entire process. Radical AI's response was architectural: their closed-loop system captures processing parameters—temperature ranges, pressures, precursor concentrations, humidity effects, form factors like powders versus pellets—during the discovery phase. This data maps directly to manufacturing conditions, eliminating the traditional restart cycle. The lesson: In deep tech, the adoption barrier isn't usually your core innovation—it's the adjacent problems customers know will surface later. Engineer those solutions into your system from day one rather than treating them as future optimization problems. Select beachheads where problem complexity matches your technical advantage: Radical AI chose high entropy alloys not because the market was largest, but because the search space is intractable for humans—10^40 possible combinations that would take millions of years to experimentally test. This creates a natural moat where their ML-driven autonomous system has exponential advantage over traditional approaches. Joseph explicitly distinguished "enabling technology" (unlocking new products) from "optimization technology" (improving margins on existing products), then targeted markets with products ready to deploy but blocked by materials constraints. The strategic insight: beachhead selection should optimize for where your technical approach has structural advantage and where success unlocks new market creation, not just better unit economics. Structure dual-track GTM to derisk technology while building commercial pipeline: Radical AI simultaneously pursues government contracts (DOD, Air Force Research Lab, DOE Genesis) and commercial customers (aerospace, defense primes, automotive, energy). This isn't market hedging—it's strategic complementarity. Government provides access to the world's most advanced scientific institutions, funding for applications with 10-20 year horizons like nuclear fusion, and willingness to bridge the valley of death that scares commercial buyers. Commercial customers provide clear near-term product applications, faster revenue cycles, and market validation. Joseph views them as converging rather than divergent, since transformative materials apply across both. The playbook: in frontier tech, government and commercial aren't either/or choices—structure them as parallel tracks that derisk each other while your technology matures. Reframe the economics of the innovation process itself: Joseph didn't pitch faster materials discovery—he reframed the entire process from serial to parallel, from data-loss to data-capture, from discovery-manufacturing gap to integrated workflow. This changes the fundamental economics: instead of 10-15 years and $100M+ per material, the conversation shifts to discovering and scaling multiple materials simultaneously with manufacturing parameters already mapped. This reframing unlocks budgets from companies that had stopped innovating because the traditional process was economically irrational. The insight: when industries have stopped innovating entirely, the problem isn't usually that existing processes are too slow—it's that the process itself is structurally broken. Identify and articulate the broken process, not just the speed/cost improvement. Lead with civilizational impact to filter for long-term aligned stakeholders: Joseph explicitly positions Radical AI as "building a company that fundamentally impacts the human race" and tells prospective talent, "if you are focused on a mission and not a job, this is the place for you." This isn't recruiting copy—it's strategic filtering. In frontier tech with 10-15 year commercialization horizons, you need customers, partners, investors, and talent who think in decades, not quarters. Mission-driven positioning attracts stakeholders aligned with category creation over optimization and filters out those seeking incremental improvements. It also provides air cover for decisions that prioritize long-term technological breakthroughs over short-term revenue optimization. // Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co // Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

Rainforest enables vertical software companies to embed payment processing directly into their platforms - solving the complexity that previously forced software companies to direct customers to separate banks or resellers for payment processing. Founded by Joshua Silver, who spent nearly 20 years in payments starting with PatientCo (a healthcare billing company that scaled to process billions for major healthcare organizations), Rainforest now serves as the enabling layer for thousands of vertical software companies. In this episode of BUILDERS, Joshua shares the unconventional GTM decisions that shaped Rainforest's trajectory: from making contracts a product feature to implementing a zero bugs policy, and why he measures podcast success by qualified lead conversion rather than download counts. Topics Discussed: The embedded payments opportunity: why software companies stopped directing customers to banks Building in highly regulated environments where traditional MVP approaches fail The extended foundation-building phase required before processing the first payment Transitioning from 2.5-3 years of founder-led sales to a scalable GTM motion Using contract terms as competitive differentiation rather than negotiation leverage Implementing a zero bugs policy and its impact on service costs and retention Building thought leadership through the Payment Strategy Show and Vertex conference Lead quality metrics over vanity metrics for content investments GTM Lessons For B2B Founders: Hire from the industry and invest disproportionately in technical onboarding: Rainforest maintains one of the highest concentrations of payments talent on a percentage basis—nearly everyone has worked in payments or payments-adjacent roles. But hiring isn't enough. Joshua obsesses over training because in complex sales, prospects ask detailed technical questions and "the moment that you give bad answers or don't know your stuff, they're going to detect that and that's going to detract a lot from the trust." When selling technical infrastructure, surface-level product knowledge kills deals. Every touchpoint—engineers, support, account execs—must understand not just how the product works, but why it works that way. Engineer your standard contract to eliminate negotiation cycles: Joshua inverted conventional wisdom by making Rainforest's standard contract "overly favorable to the client"—no hidden terms, no punitive clauses, no exclusivity provisions. The result: "We don't have to spend a lot of legal time going back and forth. We don't have to invest a lot of time and by the way, burning a lot of goodwill too in contract negotiations." Prospects consistently report the legal process was shockingly easy compared to competitors. This isn't about being naive—it's strategic capital allocation. Joshua's philosophy: "Pick the fights that really matter and everything else is just rounding." Time spent in legal negotiations is wasted time that could be spent onboarding customers. Embed sales capabilities into your customer success function: Rainforest trains their CS team on negotiation tactics, value selling, and objection handling—competencies rarely developed in post-sale teams. Joshua noted the primary goal is customer assistance, but growth is an underlying objective. This isn't about making CS "do sales"—it's about equipping them to have commercial conversations when customers naturally express expansion interest. The key enabler: strong product-market fit means "we don't have to sell it that much. It's really a conversation about solutioning." Enforce a zero bugs backlog in high-stakes environments: Joshua's unofficial core value—"don't f with the money"—manifests in their zero bugs policy. It's not that they never create bugs; it's that "we don't tolerate living with them. We don't have a backlog of bugs to fix." When a bug is validated, they fix it immediately. His head of engineering recently discussed this on a podcast because people find it radical. The payoff: "When you have a higher quality product, you don't have to invest as much in service because the product just works and you have naturally happy customers." For infrastructure products where errors cascade into customer incidents, the accumulated cost of technical debt vastly exceeds the upfront investment in quality. Qualify content success by whether it's converting your ICP: Joshua rejects vanity metrics entirely. When asked about podcast ROI, he said: "I'd rather have 100 highly qualified listeners that are great targets for us than have 100,000 listeners and not have 100 qualified ones." They track this rigorously—every inbound lead is asked how they discovered Rainforest, and an increasing percentage cite the podcast. Prospects explicitly say "we heard the podcast and nobody else is putting this content out there." The metric isn't downloads; it's whether qualified buyers are self-identifying through your content and entering sales conversations pre-educated and pre-sold. Build ecosystem assets without demanding immediate attribution: Rainforest launched Vertex—a curated conference for vertical software founders and operators—that explicitly isn't a Rainforest sales event or user conference. Joshua doesn't track lead conversion from the conference: "That's not one of the key metrics. We actually look at NPS score as one of the key metrics. Did people find value in the conference?" They're running it twice this year because attendees report it's the highest-quality conference they attend annually. His philosophy: "Go create value, legitimate, genuine value for the ecosystem and they will come to us." They deliberately limit attendance to several hundred and choose venues that physically can't accommodate massive scale—maintaining intimacy as a forcing function against growth-for-growth's-sake. Plan for extended pre-market build phases in regulated industries: Joshua's advice for payments founders: "Make sure you know what you're getting into. It's a big build and there's very low tolerance for misses." Before processing their first payment, Rainforest had to achieve PCI compliance, SOC2 compliance, and implement comprehensive security infrastructure. Only then could they begin customer development with close network contacts. He contrasts this with his standard founder advice: build an MVP, sell quickly, get feedback, iterate. In payments, that playbook doesn't work—"you actually have to build so much of the foundation first just to process your very first payment." Founders in regulated spaces need patient capital and realistic timelines that acknowledge compliance infrastructure isn't optional. Institutionalize "ruthlessly simplify" as an operating principle: One of Rainforest's core values is ruthless simplification, which Joshua applies to "the legal contract, the engineering documentation, anything." He asks his team repeatedly when reviewing anything: "Can we simplify it? Can we simplify it? Can we simplify it?" The output quality dramatically improves. He references the Tim Ferriss framing: "What would this look like if it were simple?" When applied consistently, it cuts approximately 50% from plans, strategies, and deliverables—even when the creator thought they were already building simply. // Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co // Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

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Jome built a marketplace for new construction homes by solving a transparency problem most people don't know exists: the vast majority of new builds never appear on Zillow, Redfin, or traditional MLS systems. In this episode of BUILDERS, I sat down with Dan Hnatkovskyy, CEO and Co-Founder of Jome, to unpack how he identified a massive category gap during Austin's pandemic housing boom and scaled from scraping builder websites to partnering with 1,700+ builders including 92 of the top 100. Dan shares the specific market moments that unlocked builder partnerships, how he discovered Google's separate product category for new construction, and why early LLM traffic became a meaningful acquisition channel. Topics Discussed: Why IDX feeds and MLS requirements systematically exclude new construction inventory The three market inflection points that accelerated builder partnerships from 500 to 1,500+ in 12 months How Google's separate new construction product category created an arbitrage opportunity against brand-focused builders The manual MVP: Typeform + text message delivery before building any real product Why the mortgage rate lock-in effect (50%+ of mortgages under 3.5% vs 6-7% prevailing rates) compounds the housing shortage Accidentally discovering ChatGPT and Perplexity were driving closed transactions through analytics instrumentation The decision to optimize entirely for buyers despite builders being the sole revenue source GTM Lessons For B2B Founders: Map structural exclusions in existing distribution systems: New construction homes can't enter MLS because they often lack finished addresses, real images, or completed properties—requirements designed for resale homes. This structural incompatibility created a $400B+ blind spot. Dan didn't just find underserved customers; he identified a category systematically locked out of dominant distribution. B2B founders should analyze whether incumbent platforms have structural requirements that exclude segments of the market, not just underserve them. Exploit paid search category mismatches between buyer intent and seller behavior: Dan discovered Google maintains separate product categories for new construction versus resale homes. Zillow and Redfin competed intensely in resale, but new construction was dominated by individual builders (Lennar, DR Horton) who assumed brand-driven intent—similar to car manufacturers. The reality: buyers search "new construction homes in Austin," not "Lennar homes." This category/behavior mismatch created immediate arbitrage. B2B founders should audit whether buyers search by problem/outcome while incumbents bid on brand terms, creating white space for aggregators. Time enterprise outreach to industry stress events, not product readiness: Jome scaled from 500 to 1,500 builders in one year by capitalizing on three specific moments: (1) pandemic demand surge when builders needed millennial/Gen Z reach, (2) 2022 quantitative tightening when builders feared demand collapse, (3) Zillow's 2023 policy change excluding builders with under 10 communities. Dan didn't wait for product-market fit—he mapped when prospects would be most receptive to any solution. B2B founders should create a calendar of industry stress events (regulatory changes, market corrections, competitor policy shifts) and time outreach to these windows regardless of product maturity. Instrument conversion funnels to detect emergent channels before consensus forms: Jome discovered meaningful lead volume and closed transactions from ChatGPT and Perplexity through analytics, not strategy. Only after seeing the data did they experiment with what Dan calls "reinforcement learning with LLMs"—promoting positive results to train the models. This wasn't about SEO or prompt engineering; it was about measurement infrastructure that surfaced signal before the channel was obvious. B2B founders should track referral sources at the closed deal level, not just top-of-funnel, to catch emerging platforms while unit economics are still favorable. Manually deliver value at zero margin before building product: Before any integrations or platform, Jome ran Google Ads to a Typeform, manually created searches in their agent-facing tool, and texted results to buyers. Dan's framework: "Start with manually creating value...and then step by step, improve it, automate it, make it more efficient." He launched this on a personal credit card and got immediate signal. B2B founders should resist the urge to build scalable product until they've proven someone will pay for (or convert on) manual delivery of the outcome. Optimize for the non-paying side when you're building a two-sided marketplace: Despite 100% of revenue coming from builder commissions, every product decision optimizes for buyer experience. Dan's logic: "If we want to bring value to the builders...we need to start with the buyers. We need to create the best possible home buying journey." This isn't idealism—it's recognition that in transaction-based models, buyer liquidity determines builder participation. B2B founders in marketplace businesses must identify which side is supply-constrained and build obsessively for the other side. // Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co // Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

When Tricia Meyer's name was called as this year's Pinnacle Award winner at Affiliate Summit West, there was a moment of silence. Not because the room disagreed, but because Tricia herself didn't believe it. After two decades of watching her heroes receive that same recognition, the publisher-turned-executive director of the Performance Marketing Association finally earned the industry's most prestigious honor. This conversation explores what it actually takes to reach the top without losing yourself, why being kind isn't a weakness in business negotiations, and how staying curious about industry changes for 20 years reveals patterns that help you stop panicking about AI, zero-click search, and whatever disruption comes next.Talking Points Include:The attorney who left law for affiliate marketing when she realized publishers could earn more than lawyers and built a 20-year career that started with mom blogs and evolved into executive leadershipWhy community platforms fail but weekly calls succeed isn't just about affiliates – the same principles apply to how industry associations create genuine connection versus performative membershipThe shocking truth about affiliate marketing's growth that most brands miss – independent studies prove the channel is outpacing e-commerce itself, not just riding the online shopping waveListen to Find Out More About:Why Tricia created custom tracking tools using AI to solve AI-caused attribution problems, and how small publishers can do the same with vibe coding platforms like LovableThe critical section being added to PMA's retailer agreement guide about AI usage, plagiarism, and disclosure requirements in affiliate terms and conditionsHow Google's constant testing of citations in Gemini (from detailed paragraph attribution to zero citations to YouTube video insertions) reveals nobody knows what's coming nextWhy publishers might strategically rewrite content to feature competitors if brands don't properly value their contribution to LLM-driven trafficThe new AI Council launching to address both publisher optimization for LLMs and technology solutions for brands dealing with compliance and trackingHow fintech and B2B affiliate marketing represent massive industry segments the PMA is finally addressing with dedicated resourcesWhy analyzing five years of industry study data would reveal cyclical patterns that help predict where apparent disruptions actually leadHow Open Attribution is creating free membership opportunities to discuss citation tracking and publisher rewards in the age of LLMsKey Segments of This Podcast and Where You Can Tune In to Go Direct:[06:02] Working from the bottom of PMA working groups to executive director, and why being an attorney made Tricia the perfect fit for part-time leadership[[19:54] Three critical areas where affiliates need preparation for 2025: LLM optimization, proving publisher worth through journey tracking, and staying educated on rapid changes[27:00] Why affiliate program terms and conditions need AI clauses now, covering content generation, plagiarism, and disclosure requirements[30:11] The five-year prediction: fundamentally everything stays the same but with different technical details, just like the last 20 years of disruptionSend me a text with your questions

Most sales trainers will tell you that closing more deals requires a "killer instinct," better "closing techniques," or some fancy psychological methodology. But I just watched an MSP salesperson go from a 13% close rate in 2025 to a 71% close rate in just 45 days, and it had nothing to do with "mindset" or charisma.In this episode, I break down the real-world transformation of Garrick, a seller who closed $17,000 in MRR this month alone. We didn't give him a new script; we gave him a new system for how to think about the sales process. We move past the surface-level "motivational" advice to focus on the tactical shifts that actually bent the curve: stopping the guesswork on ROI by simply asking the prospect how they measure value, practicing the "money ask" until it became boring muscle memory, and learning to lead proposals with the prospect's priorities rather than our own expert biases.If your sales team is working hard but failing to convert, it's likely not a lack of effort—it's a lack of the system underneath the tactics. Let's look at how to stop treating discovery like a checklist and start conducting conversations that actually lead to a close.//Welcome to The Ray J. Green Show, your destination for tips on sales, strategy, and self-mastery from an operator, not a guru.About Ray:→ Former Managing Director of National Small & Midsize Business at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he doubled revenue per sale in fundraising, led the first increase in SMB membership, co-built a national Mid-Market sales channel, and more.→ Former CEO operator for several investor groups where he led turnarounds of recently acquired small businesses.→ Current founder of MSP Sales Partners, where we currently help IT companies scale sales: www.MSPSalesPartners.com→ Current Sales & Sales Management Expert in Residence at the world's largest IT business mastermind.→ Current Managing Partner of Repeatable Revenue Ventures, where we scale B2B companies we have equity in: www.RayJGreen.com//Follow Ray on:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

One of the most powerful strategies for B2B sales organizations is to focus on developing and nurturing a handful of 'partners.'  These are customers who are so committed to you that they form the foundation of your revenue. It is a powerful sales strategy. Dig deeper into the whys and how's with me. ***************************************************************** PIQ Solution:  Setting Personal Goals

SaaStr 839: Why Most SaaS Companies Will Fail at AI (And How to Avoid It) with Intercom's CPO The Brutal Truth About Transforming a SaaS Company into an AI Company Intercom's Chief Product Officer, Paul Adams, shares the unfiltered story of how they transformed from a struggling SaaS company with 5 quarters of declining growth into an AI-first company with a breakthrough product (Fin) that now handles 1M+ customer resolutions per week. What You'll Learn: Why AI transformation requires "refounding" your entire company - not just adding AI features The self-harming decisions you must make to win (including parting ways with ~33% of your team) How to go from 0 to 6,000+ AI customers with 65% average resolution rate Why demos ≠ products and the "marketing overhang" problem The complete shift in how you build software (empirical evaluation vs. traditional product development) Why designers now ship code to production at Intercom How the buyer has changed (hint: it's no longer just the department head) --------------------- This episode is Sponsored in part by HappyFox: Imagine having AI agents for every support task — one that triages tickets, another that catches duplicates, one that spots churn risks. That'd be pretty amazing, right? HappyFox just made it real with Autopilot. These pre-built AI agents deploy in about 60 seconds and run for as low as 2 cents per successful action. All of it sits inside the HappyFox omnichannel, AI-first support stack — Chatbot, Copilot, and Autopilot working as one. Check them out at happyfox.com/saastr   ---------------------   Hey everybody, the biggest B2B + AI event of the year will be back - SaaStr AI in the SF Bay Area, aka the SaaStr Annual, will be back in May 2026.    With 68% VP-level and above, 36% CEOs and founders and a growing 25% AI-first professional, this is the very best of the best S-tier attendees and decision makers that come to SaaStr each year.     But here's the reality, folks: the longer you wait, the higher ticket prices can get. Early bird tickets are available now, but once they're gone, you'll pay hundreds more so don't wait.    Lock in your spot today by going to podcast.saastrannual.com to get my exclusive discount SaaStr AI SF 2026. We'll see you there.

Most revenue leaders chase numbers they can't actually control.The best ones build systems that compound.In this episode of Revenue Leaders, we break down why revenue is a lagging indicator — and how partnerships and ecosystems are becoming the most reliable way to drive predictable B2B growth.Our guest, Brian Williams, shares real-world lessons from building and scaling partner ecosystems, including what worked, what failed, and why most companies misunderstand partnerships completely.You'll learn:Why you can't control revenue — and what you can control insteadHow partner ecosystems drive pipeline, retention, and larger dealsWhy partnerships fail when treated like a short-term sales channelHow revenue leaders should think about 12–18 month growth strategiesHow founders, CROs, and sales leaders can build a partner-led GTM motionThis episode is for founders, CROs, revenue leaders, sales managers, and RevOps teams who want to stop chasing short-term wins and start building durable, scalable growth engines.If you sell complex or B2B deals, manage sales teams, or lead go-to-market strategy, this episode is for you.⭐ Unlock free resources (templates, frameworks & prompts):⁠https://coachpilot.beehiiv.com/⁠Join the community & access 157+ templates, frameworks and mega AI prompts used by top revenue teams.Watch Full Episode on YouTube:⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@revenueleaders⁠⁠Follow us:⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/davidfastuca/⁠

Guest Bio: Ivana Taylor has spent 35 years translating complex marketing into simple, executable strategies. She's the founder of DIYMarketers.com, where she helps entrepreneurs compete without enterprise budgets. She's a self-described AI power user who tests tools for six hours a day. And she's built follow-up systems for everyone from manufacturing companies to consultants.   Key Points: AI has fundamentally changed prospecting and outreach—making it faster, cheaper, and more targeted—but only when combined with clear strategy and direct sales fundamentals. The Old Way Is Broken Cold outreach traditionally means endless spreadsheets, bad or outdated contact data, spray-and-pray marketing (webinars, lead magnets, mass email blasts), and huge time investment with little guarantee of ROI. Buying lists or relying solely on inbound marketing is increasingly ineffective. What Still Works Direct sales and direct outreach remain the most reliable growth strategy. Success starts with absolute clarity on your Ideal Prospect; industry, role/title, geography and specific expertise or problem area. Without this clarity, AI just produces faster garbage. How AI Changes Prospect List Building AI dramatically reduces the manual labor of prospect research. Instead of hours of Googling and data entry AI can find names, companies, websites, social profiles, and sometimes contact info and AI can organize data into usable spreadsheets. AI works best in small-to-medium batches (10–50 at a time). Tools Mentioned for Prospecting & Enrichment General AI platforms (for defining criteria and searching): ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. Spreadsheet & research automation: GenSpark (noted for strong spreadsheet creation) Data enrichment & contact info (especially B2B): Apollo.io, Hunter.io, Clay.com Outreach & CRM tools: Nimble.com (emails sent directly through Gmail for 1:1 feel) Deal-finding for tools: AppSumo (one-time purchase tools) What AI Can (and Can't) Do AI can build targeted prospect lists faster. Find websites, LinkedIn profiles, phone numbers, and some emails. Segment prospects by expertise or role. Reduce human error in outreach sequences. Ai can't guarantee perfect data (bounces still happen). Replace human judgment. Eliminate the need to review and understand each prospect. Best Practices for AI-Powered Prospecting Always review and "get your hands dirty" with the data. Read prospect websites and make personal notes. Expect some bad data—scrubbing is still required. B2B data is far easier to find than consumer data. Free versions of tools are sufficient to test and validate workflows. Outreach Strategy Matters Use AI to support structured outreach sequences, not spam. Follow a 3–5 touch email sequence. Personalization improves responses. Segment based on expertise, role, or interest. Automation reduces mistakes while preserving a personal tone.    Guest Links: FREE GIFT Business by Referral Course: https://diymarketers.trainercentralsite.com/course/business-by-referral  Promo Code "WENDY25"   AI + Sales Tools from the Podcast ChatGPT – Use it to write outreach emails, brainstorm follow-ups, or summarize client notes quickly and naturally. Genspark – Great for researching topics and generating accurate, human-like marketing or sales content fast. Perplexity – Ideal for researching prospects, finding their websites, social links, and key insights before reaching out. Hunter.io – Find and verify professional email addresses so you always reach the right person. Apollo.io – Combines verified contact data with built-in email outreach and engagement tracking in one platform.   Learn More Visit DIYMarketers.com – Simple, actionable marketing strategies for small business owners who want to do marketing on less than $17 a day. Fix Your Marketing Problem in Less Than 24 Hours – Fill out the form, tell me your marketing challenge, and I'll send personalized recommendations in less than 24 hours.   About Salesology®: Conversations with Sales Leaders Download your free gift, The Salesology® Vault. The vault is packed full of free gifts from sales leaders, sales experts, marketing gurus, and revenue generation experts. Download your free gift, 81 Tools to Grow Your Sales & Your Business Faster, More Easily & More Profitably. Save hours of work tracking down the right prospecting and sales resources and/or digital tools that every business owner and salesperson needs. If you are a business owner or sales manager with an underperforming sales team, let's talk. Click here to schedule a time. Please subscribe to Salesology®: Conversations with Sales Leaders so that you don't miss a single episode, and while you're at it, won't you take a moment to write a short review and rate our show? It would be greatly appreciated! To learn more about our previous guests, listen to past episodes, and get to know your host, go to https://podcast.gosalesology.com/ and connect on LinkedIn and follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and check out our website at https://gosalesology.com/. 

Distributors often bemoan the AI "revolution" for its lack of practicality. Fair enough. No one likes an endless loops of recorded prompts or laborious input tasks. Workd helps businesses build AI agents that drive B2B growth in the real world.  Jason caught up with Chris Van Ittersum, CEO and co-founder, and Ryan Carroll, director of development, to learn more. Queue up for the conversation about AI agent solutions for everything from customer relationships to supply chain logistics. Stay for the live AI agent demo! CONNECT WITH JASON LinkedIn CONNECT WITH CHRIS Workd LinkedIn CONNECT WITH RYAN Workd LinkedIn *** For full show notes and services visit: https://www.distributionteam.com Distribution Talk is produced by The Distribution Team, a consulting services firm dedicated to helping wholesale distribution clients remove barriers to profitability, generate wealth, and achieve personal goals.    This episode was edited by The Creative Impostor Studios  Special thanks to our sponsors for this episode: Profit2, helping distributors charge the right price; and INxSQL Distribution Software, an integrated distribution ERP software designed for the wholesale and distribution industry.

In this episode with Rishi Dave, a partner in Bain's Commercial Excellence practice with deep expertise in B2B marketing and digital marketing, he explains the concept of a "Day 1 List" in B2B sales and marketing and the three things that will get a supplier or seller on the list. Rishi also discussed what a "sales play" is, how to build it, institutionalize the knowledge within the company, and get the sales team to adopt the sales play to fulfill their potential and increase their productivity and sales. Rishi Dave partners with CMOs and management teams to drive marketing transformations and build modern marketing capabilities. He serves as an expert on the implementation of Bain's B2B Marketing Diagnostic and Sales Play System. Rishi has held global CMO roles at public technology and cloud companies, including Dun & Bradstreet, Vonage, and MongoDB. Prior to these roles, he served as the global head of digital marketing for Dell's B2B businesses. Rishi started his career at Bain & Company. As a marketing executive, Rishi has built world-class marketing organizations and capabilities that have driven top-line growth leveraging the right marketing technology, data, analytics and content strategy. Rishi has driven major brand and messaging transformations, reimagined digital customer experiences, and built and scaled go-to market models. Rishi earned an MBA in Marketing from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania as well as a BS in Chemical Engineering and an AB in Economics with Honors from Stanford University.    Claim your free gift: Free gift #1 McKinsey & BCG winning resume www.FIRMSconsulting.com/resumePDF Free gift #2 Breakthrough Decisions Guide with 25 AI Prompts www.FIRMSconsulting.com/decisions Free gift #3 Five Reasons Why People Ignore Somebody www.FIRMSconsulting.com/owntheroom Free gift #4 Access episode 1 from Build a Consulting Firm, Level 1 www.FIRMSconsulting.com/build Free gift #5 The Overall Approach used in well-managed strategy studies www.FIRMSconsulting.com/OverallApproach Free gift #6 Get a copy of Nine Leaders in Action, a book we co-authored with some of our clients: www.FIRMSconsulting.com/gift

B2B Influencer Marketing isn't broken, it's just misunderstood. Author and CEO Brianna Doe joins Daniel on The Marketing Millennials to explain why most B2B influencer programs fail before they even start.  From unrealistic expectations to poor internal alignment, Brianna walks through what actually makes Influencer Marketing work, especially in B2B. They cover how to set the right goals, choose the right creators, write effective briefs, track the right metrics, and avoid the trap of one-off campaigns.  And, what does it mean to be authentic? They explore personal branding and how Marketers can stop letting job titles and imposter syndrome define their careers. If you're a B2B Marketer looking to refine your influencer program, set realistic goals, and even build your personal brand, this episode is for you.  Follow Brianna: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianna-doe/ Follow Daniel: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@themarketingmillennials/featured Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Dmurr68 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-murray-marketing Sign up for The Marketing Millennials newsletter: www.workweek.com/brand/the-marketing-millennials Daniel is a Workweek friend, working to produce amazing podcasts. To find out more, visit: www.workweek.com

Most B2B podcasts fail because they skip strategy and jump straight to recording. In this solo episode of Pipe Dream, host Jason Bradwell breaks down B2B Better's Podcast to Pipeline Framework, a six-step system designed to turn a podcast from a “nice content idea” into a revenue-generating GTM asset. Jason's core point is that marketing strategy matters more than microphones. The goal isn't to ship episodes, it's to create commercial momentum. That's why B2B Better positions itself as a podcast marketing agency, not just a production company: a podcast should drive pipeline, create revenue, and ultimately turn a profit. Anything else becomes a vanity project that dies after a handful of episodes. From there, he walks through the six phases: 1) Strategy development (the most skipped step). Instead of asking what gear to buy, brands should define what success looks like, who the audience is, and what messages matter. Jason runs strategy workshops with stakeholders across marketing, sales, product, and leadership to build a “show blueprint” that clarifies the what/why/who/how and prevents random feedback from derailing things later. 2) Funnel mapping. Most companies treat podcasts as top-of-funnel awareness only, but Jason argues podcasts can move buyers through awareness, consideration, evaluation, and conversion when you map content intentionally. He introduces B2B Better's distribution grid to align segments and content to different buyer awareness stages and distribution paths. 3) Pre-production. This is the setup work that makes recording smooth: scripting, guest booking and research, and establishing visual/audio treatments so the show feels consistent and intentional. 4) Creative treatment. Here Jason draws a key distinction: production is editing raw footage into a finished episode, while producing is editorial oversight and strategic control to ensure the episode hits the right messages. Many brands only buy production, but what they really need is a producer who can guide the conversation and keep the content aligned to the goal. 5) Integrated campaigns. Distribution and promotion shouldn't be “repurpose one episode into 100 assets.” Jason pushes back on that trend because it often creates redundant content that doesn't move the needle. Distribution has to match the objective: brand awareness might mean short clips plus paid spend; ABM might mean sales enablement and targeted account plays. 6) Reporting and optimisation. A show isn't static. Someone needs to review performance at the episode, channel, and show level with what's working, what isn't, and what market feedback is signaling and then feed that back into strategy (stay the course, pivot, or double down). If you're launching a B2B podcast or already have one that feels like it's going nowhere, Jason's framework is a practical way to treat podcasting like the GTM asset it should be, align every phase to commercial outcomes, and avoid the “six episodes then abandon it” trap. 00:00 - Introduction: From concept to commercial results 01:30 - Why B2B Better is a podcast marketing agency 03:00 - Phase 1: Strategy development and the show blueprint 06:00 - Phase 2: Funnel mapping and the distribution grid 09:00 - Phase 3: Pre-production essentials 11:00 - Phase 4: Creative treatment - producing vs production 14:00 - Phase 5: Integrated campaigns and smart distribution 17:00 - Phase 6: Reporting and optimisation 20:00 - How to get started with B2B Better Connect with Jason Bradwell on LinkedIn Check out Jason's several tools in building guest lists: HubSpot CRM Clay Apollo Explore B2B Better website and the Pipe Dream podcast 

In this episode of Future Finance, hosts Paul Barnhurst and Glenn Hopper sit down with Kevin A.Thomas and Drew Hyatt, the co-founders of Omniga, to discuss the often-overlooked but critical challenges facing small business finance teams. While enterprise companies get most of the attention, Kevin and Drew are focused on the backbone of the economy, businesses under $30 million in revenue—and the unique struggles they face when it comes to closing the books, managing data, and generating strategic insight.Kevin A.Thomas, CFA, is the founder of Omniga and a seasoned strategic finance leader focused on scaling digital businesses. Kevin is passionate about rebuilding the back office to help businesses make smarter decisions, faster. Drew Hyatt is the Co-Founder and CTO of Omniga. He plays a key role in architecting Omniga's infrastructure, translating complex workflows into scalable technology for finance teams.In this episode, you will discover:Why clean books are the foundation for strong financial decisionsThe hidden risks in small business bookkeeping and how to fix themThe difference between replacing tasks and supporting human judgmentHow to expand from bookkeeping to full finance strategy supportHow to structure a finance workflow that scales with your businessKevin and Drew leave us with a clear message: better finance starts with a stronger foundation. By focusing on clean books and scalable workflows, Omniga is reshaping how small businesses manage finance. It's not about replacing people, it's about empowering them to do more with less.Join hosts Glenn and Paul as they unravel the complexities of AI in finance.Follow Kevin:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-a-thomas/Company: https://www.linkedin.com/company/omniga-ai/Follow Drew:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drew-a-hyatt/Follow Glenn:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gbhopperiiiFollow Paul:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/thefpandaguyFollow QFlow.AI:Website - https://bit.ly/4i1EkjgFuture Finance is sponsored by QFlow.ai, the strategic finance platform solving the toughest part of planning and analysis: B2B revenue. Align sales, marketing, and finance, speed up decision-making, and lock in accountability with QFlow.ai. Stay tuned for a deeper understanding of how AI is shaping the future of finance and what it means for businesses and individuals alike.In Today's Episode:[00:00] –Trailer[03:39] – Why They Started Omniga[07:11] – Drew's Tech Journey[09:28] – What...

After building products at Microsoft (Xbox, Surface), a gaming startup acquired by Disney, Twilio, and Box, Vanessa Larco joined NEA where she led seed investments in Greenlight (debit card for kids), Majuri (C2C jewelry), and Limitless (acquired by Meta). She served on Robinhood's board for five and a half years through IPO and the GameStop crisis. In this conversation, Vanessa breaks down the specific traits that separate top 1% founders from the rest, why venture capital is experiencing structural chaos from simultaneous mega-fund expansion and generational transition, and why technical founders who deeply understand consumer behavior change represent the next wave of breakout companies. Topics Discussed: How customer-focused decision-making at Robinhood during GameStop contradicted public perception The specific paradox great founders must balance: maniacal focus versus recruiting ability Why venture is simultaneously dealing with fund size chaos and generational leadership transition The decision framework for staying in venture versus returning to operating Why consumer is radically underinvested despite users' demonstrated willingness to pay for "magical" experiences How AI tools create internet-scale behavior change by synthesizing information rather than just accessing it The authentic voice problem in VC personal branding and platform-specific challenges GTM Lessons For B2B Founders: Great founders possess maniacal focus on the right problems, not all problems: Vanessa describes exceptional founders as having an "insatiability" where "they pick the thing and they can focus on the thing and not get distracted by anything else and be maniacal about it." This isn't generic persistence—it's the ability to identify which specific problem deserves obsessive attention while ignoring everything else. Employees often push back ("we have these other fires"), but top founders maintain "one track" focus. The implementation challenge: most founders spread maniacal energy across too many initiatives. The best founders are "obsessive compulsive about how they build" on 1-2 things maximum, then deliberately de-prioritize everything else, even when it feels irresponsible. Incentive structure misalignment creates unwinnable scenarios: During GameStop, Robinhood faced retail traders whose incentives were fundamentally incompatible with traditional market participants. As Vanessa notes, "if your team and your company is bound by a certain set of incentives and you're up against someone with a very different set of incentives, that never really ends well." The Wall Street Bets mantra—"we can stay irrational longer than they can stay solvent"—explicitly weaponized this mismatch. For founders: map not just competitor strategies but their underlying incentive structures. Are they optimizing for growth, profitability, strategic acquirer appeal, or something else? When your incentives conflict with a market participant's (customer, partner, regulator, competitor), you cannot win through superior execution alone—you need structural repositioning. Technical founders who ship faster capture AI-era market position: Vanessa specifically seeks "technical founders with an eye for consumer behavior change" because "speed is really important in this era." This isn't about being first to market—it's about iteration velocity. When foundational models improve every few months and user expectations evolve weekly, the team that can "deliver on it faster than anyone else" compounds advantages. Non-technical founders add product/sales/fundraising cycles between insight and deployment. Technical founders collapse these cycles, testing behavioral hypotheses in days rather than quarters. In markets where "what's possible" changes monthly, this velocity differential determines who owns category definition. Behavior change wedges beat feature superiority: Vanessa looks for founders who understand "how this new technology is changing how people behave and changing what people expect of their tools" and can identify "what need can I fulfill better because I can build this thing that couldn't be built before." The critical insight: users don't adopt based on capability—they adopt when technology enables a behavior they already want but couldn't execute. She emphasizes products that are "radically faster, radically cheaper, radically easier" (not 10% better) and founders who understand "how they'll wedge into behaviors." Implementation framework: don't ask "what can this technology do?" Ask "what behavior is currently blocked by cost/speed/complexity that this technology removes the blocker for?" Category creation happens post-problem-solving, not pre-launch: Discussing Robinhood's positioning, Vanessa reveals how the team "stayed focused" on enabling "people to continue participating in the markets" rather than defending an abstract category. The company focused on structural problems (settlement times, capital requirements) rather than category messaging. For founders: solve the acute problem your customer articulates, even if it seems tactically narrow. Category definition emerges after you've solved related problems for enough customers that the pattern becomes obvious. Premature category creation forces you to defend an abstract positioning rather than deepen specific problem-solving. Personal brand building only works at the intersection of authenticity and utility: Vanessa admits "I can't find my authentic voice on Twitter to save my life" and her successful posts are "when I'm on an airplane and it's delayed by like over an hour and I'm angry." Meanwhile, "video and audio, way more my comfort zone" but requires "discipline that I don't think I yet possess." The lesson for founders: audience building helps ("people then know what you are, what you stand for... it helps establish trust faster, it helps people find you") but forced authenticity backfires. Better to own one channel where your natural communication style works than maintain mediocre presence across all platforms. LinkedIn for thoughtful analysis, Twitter for real-time reaction, podcasts for deep conversation—pick the format that doesn't require you to perform. // Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co // Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

Doctronic became the first AI in the world legally licensed to practice medicine through Utah's AI Learning Lab regulatory sandbox in December 2025. In this episode of BUILDERS, I sat down with Matt Pavelle, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Doctronic, to learn how he and his co-founder (a physician) launched an AI-powered primary care chatbot in September 2023, validated demand through Facebook chronic condition groups and minimal Google Ads spend, and navigated uncharted regulatory territory to offer $4 prescription renewals for chronic conditions—targeting the medication non-adherence problem that causes 125,000 preventable deaths and costs $100B annually. Topics Discussed: Why friends with excellent health insurance still couldn't get medical answers quickly Building clinical accuracy into GPT-3.5 when context windows were small and hallucinations were rampant The tactical launch: Google Ads plus Facebook chronic condition groups in September 2023 Architecting safety: RAG with tens of thousands of physician-written clinical guidelines The study: 99.2% agreement rate between AI treatment plans and human doctor reviews across 500 patients Navigating Utah's AI Learning Lab: the only regulatory sandbox that mitigated medical licensing laws Securing AI malpractice insurance through Lloyd's Market—a first in the industry The three-phase oversight model: 100% human review, then 10%, then spot checks Expansion strategy: targeting other state regulatory sandboxes and international governments GTM Lessons For B2B Founders: Launch with the minimum feature set that proves your core hypothesis: Pavelle shipped Doctronic in September 2023 without user accounts—chats disappeared when closed unless users saved them manually. Within days, user requests for persistent chat history validated demand. The insight: your MVP should test one assumption, not solve every user need. If you're hesitating to launch because features are missing, ask whether those features are actually required to validate your hypothesis or just things you assume users want. Use specificity to unlock early adoption in skeptical markets: Rather than targeting "healthcare" broadly, Pavelle posted in Facebook groups for specific chronic conditions, offering a free AI backed by clinical guidelines. Half the groups banned them for commercial activity, but the other half engaged immediately. The lesson: in regulated or skeptical markets, narrow targeting with explicit safety mechanisms (clinical guidelines, physician co-founder credibility) converts better than broad positioning. Identify where your skeptics congregate and address their specific objections upfront. Design system architecture to prevent failure modes, not just tune models: Doctronic's safety architecture separates AI decision-making from prescription execution. The LLM asks questions and determines renewal safety, but deterministic code outside the AI verifies the prescription exists, checks dosage accuracy, and confirms the schedule. Even if adversarial prompting compromises the LLM, the deterministic layer prevents bad outcomes. Founders building high-stakes AI products should architect multiple independent verification layers rather than relying on prompt engineering or temperature tuning alone. Target regulatory pain points with quantified deaths and costs: Pavelle approached Utah with specific numbers: 125,000 preventable deaths annually from medication non-adherence, 30-40% caused by renewal friction, and a $100B economic burden. These statistics—combined with Utah's rural population and physician shortage—made the problem impossible to ignore. When approaching regulators, lead with mortality and cost data that make inaction untenable, not just efficiency gains or convenience improvements. Regulatory sandboxes require proof of safety methodology, not just technology demos: Utah's AI Learning Lab didn't just grant Doctronic permission—they required a three-phase oversight structure where human physicians review 100% of initial prescriptions in each medication class, then 10%, then ongoing spot checks. Pavelle also secured AI malpractice insurance through Lloyd's Market before launch. The insight: regulatory innovation offices want risk mitigation frameworks, not promises. Build and fund your oversight methodology before approaching regulators, and treat insurance underwriting as a third-party validation of your safety claims. Publish clinical validation studies before scaling—they become your regulatory and sales asset: The study showing 99.2% agreement between Doctronic's AI and human physicians across 500 patient encounters became the foundation for regulatory conversations and public trust. Founders in regulated spaces should budget for formal validation studies early—these aren't marketing expenses, they're the permission structure for everything that follows. Work backward from what regulators and enterprise buyers need to see, then design studies that generate that specific evidence. // Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co // Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

aiOla is pioneering speech-to-data technology that transforms unstructured speech into actionable data for enterprise operations. As a serial entrepreneur on his sixth startup, Co-Founder Amir Haramaty built aiOla after witnessing firsthand how traditional AI implementations fail to deliver ROI in enterprise settings. The company has developed proprietary technology that achieves near-100% accuracy in challenging environments with heavy jargon, multiple languages, and difficult acoustics. With strategic investors including a major airline and partnerships with Nvidia, Accenture, and USG, aiOla is addressing the fundamental challenge that 95% of enterprise AI pilots fail to show value by focusing on immediate, measurable ROI through speech-based data capture. Topics Discussed: The genesis of aiOla from consulting work revealing AI's implementation gaps in traditional enterprises Solving the triple challenge of speech recognition: accuracy in jargon-heavy environments, separating signal from noise, and converting speech to structured workflow data aiOla's "jargonic" approach: creating hyper-personalized language models for specific processes without retraining Early customer acquisition through serendipitous encounters and demonstrating immediate ROI Vertical expansion strategy from food manufacturing to aviation, travel, hospitality, and retail Channel partnership strategy refined from previous startups to achieve scale The shift from convincing customers about speech technology to being pulled into diverse use cases Building the aiOla Intelligate orchestration layer to dynamically select optimal speech recognition models GTM Lessons For B2B Founders: Make CFOs your best friend, not IT departments: Amir explicitly targets CFOs rather than IT as primary buyers because "it doesn't matter how small or big you are, you still have to do more with less." While IT serves as facilitators, CFOs control budgets focused on operational efficiency and ROI. B2B founders should identify which executive truly owns the pain point and budget authority, even if IT will implement the solution. Deploy capital strategically to remove obstacles before they emerge: aiOla convinced their airline investor to provide working capital specifically to fund POCs for prospects without existing budgets. This eliminated the "we don't have pilot budget" objection before it arose. B2B founders should proactively identify and neutralize common barriers in their sales process, whether through creative deal structures, proof-of-concept funding, or implementation support. Prioritize instant ROI over long-term transformation promises: Amir explicitly avoids "digital transformation" conversations, instead selecting use cases delivering "biggest impact within shortest period of time with minimum obstacle possible." The airline baggage tracking example saved 110,000 hours immediately, creating momentum for expansion. B2B founders should resist selling comprehensive transformation and instead identify narrow use cases with quantifiable, rapid returns that create internal champions. Replicate proven use cases across customers rather than customizing: Once aiOla achieved success with specific applications like CRM data entry or pre-op inspections, they "stop, print, replicate" rather than reinventing for each customer. This approach reduced a two-hour inspection process to 34 minutes in food manufacturing, then replicated across industries. B2B founders should document successful implementations as repeatable playbooks and resist the urge to over-customize for each prospect. Channel success requires speaking the partner's economic language: When working with telcos, Amir demonstrated that his solution increased ARPU by 34% and reduced churn by 17%—the only two metrics telcos prioritize. He built predictable models showing exactly how many units each channel rep would sell by geography. B2B founders pursuing channel strategies must translate their value proposition into the specific KPIs that drive partner economics and compensation. // Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co // Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

In this episode of Uncover the Human, Phil Conley reminds us that even the most buttoned-up industries—fintech, B2B marketing, e-commerce payments—are still powered by human beings who long for connection, joy, and authenticity. Phil shares how he infuses creativity into spaces where it's least expected, from bringing game-show legends to trade-show booths to designing experiences that spark delight instead of sales fatigue. His approach proves that when people feel safe to laugh, play, and express themselves, they drop their guard—and that's where real relationships and real business impact begin.Phil also dives into why authenticity isn't just a personal ideal but a team game-changer. He talks about the power of leading with empathy, embracing diverse strengths, and creating environments where ideas can flow without judgment. As the conversation expands into AI, trust, and the future of work, Phil brings it all back to one truth: people buy from—and are moved by—other humans. If you want to hear how creativity, humanity, and strategy come together in unexpected ways, this episode will inspire you to rethink what's possible in your own work.

Ep. 195 features Jonathan Baxandall and Gavin Puszczalowskyi, Co-Founders of Bettortainment, for a deep dive into live betting watch-alongs, sportsbook retention, and why most operators still underinvest in in-play engagement.   Hear them discuss: Jonathan's decade-long career in iGaming, B2B data and acquisition teams Gavin's 20+ years in radio broadcasting and early in-play content work with William Hill The origins of Bettortainment and why “live” is the most valuable moment to engage bettors What a betting watch-along really is and why it's more than just commentary Why retention consistently matters more than acquisition, yet remains underserved How sportsbooks lose customers during live play and how to prevent it The balance between data, entertainment, and betting prompts in live content Why community-driven engagement outperforms passive content The limitations of AI in live sports content and the importance of human reaction Bettortainment's white-label approach and making premium content accessible to smaller operators How affiliates can use live content to drive engagement and differentiation Bootstrapping the company, founder risk, and early startup realities Why the 2026 World Cup represents a massive opportunity for live betting content   Catch the video version of this episode here.   Learn more

In this episode of RevOps Champions, host Brendon Dennewill talks with Jennifer Zick, CEO of Authentic and creator of the Authentic Growth Marketing Operating System. With 25+ years in B2B marketing across startups, PE-backed companies, and global organizations, Jennifer unpacks the predictable pattern she's seen as companies scale: founder-led, sales-driven growth eventually leaves behind a trail of “random acts of marketing.”Jennifer explains the “little marketing vs. big marketing” shift, where marketing stops being a sidecar to sales and becomes a strategic, leadership-aligned growth discipline across the full customer lifecycle. The conversation covers why marketing often lacks the right seat in the organization chart, how RevOps becomes the glue for execution and measurement, and why fractional leadership is evolving into a long-term operating model, especially as AI improves tactical efficiency without replacing executive judgment.This episode is essential listening for CEOs, revenue leaders, CMOs, and RevOps professionals who want more predictable growth, clearer ROI, and a scalable marketing system that supports acquisition, retention, and valuation over time. What You'll LearnThe growth lifecycle shift: founder-led → sales-driven → go-to-market strategicLittle marketing vs. big marketingThe evolution of fractional CMOs from a temporary “bridge” to a long-term operating model Why RevOps/Marketing ops acts as the connective tissueThe predictability mindsetThe measurement ecosystem beyond CAC/LTVResources MentionedAuthentic Growth Marketing Operating SystemRandom Acts of Marketing AssessmentFractional is ForeverBow Tie / “Flipped FunnelThe E-MythIs your business ready to scale? Take the Growth Readiness Score to find out. In 5 minutes, you'll see: Benchmark data showing how you stack up to other organizations A clear view of your operational maturity Whether your business is ready to scale (and what to do next if it's not) Let's Connect Subscribe to the RevOps Champions Newsletter LinkedIn YouTube Explore the show at revopschampions.com. Ready to unite your teams with RevOps strategies that eliminate costly silos and drive growth? Let's talk!

Everyone says you need to post "Educational Content" to grow B2B sales. And technically, the data agrees (94% of marketers use it). But if you're reading this, you know the truth. It isn't working for you. The problem isn't the volume of content you post. It's the mechanism. Educational content "teaches"—but it doesn't necessarily "sell." The method that actually built my company to nearly $1M/year—without running real ads—is simple: Demonstration. So today, I'm going to show you how to stop "teaching" and start "showing." We are going to build a high-converting, demonstration-based content asset... without writing a single word from scratch. IN THIS EPISODE: We analyze why "How-To" posts are failing and break down the "Demonstration" logic that drives Ojoy.ai. We then use Project Shepherd to write a script using the famous "South Park Rule" (But... Therefore...) and instantly turn that script into a social carousel. Anyway, here is how we will use AI to stop educating and start demonstrating: Step 1: The "Education Trap." We look at the stats (purchase probability increased by 83.6%) but explain why this advice is outdated for 2026. If you are just teaching, you are attracting students, not buyers. Step 2: The "South Park" Framework (Project Shepherd). We take a raw idea and use the "But / Therefore" storytelling technique used by the creators of South Park to build tension. This keeps viewers watching your demo instead of scrolling past it. Step 3: The "Voice Clone" Protocol. Most AI sounds like a robot. We show how to feed the AI samples of your previous writing (or just you rambling into a mic) so the script sounds exactly like you, quirks and all. Step 4: The "Instant Asset" (Carousel Maker). We take the finalized script and use AI to automatically generate a slide-by-slide social media carousel. This turns one video idea into a multi-platform asset in about 90 seconds. If you want an audience of buyers instead of students, this video shows you the shift you need to make.

#760 What if your favorite form of procrastination could be the key to your next million-dollar business? That's exactly what happened to Jacques Hopkins, an electrical engineer who turned his frustration with traditional piano lessons — and his love for a better, simpler way to play — into Piano in 21 Days, an online course that has generated millions in revenue. In this episode hosted by Kirsten Tyrrel, Jacques shares how he went from building circuits to building a thriving course business in a non-money-making niche. You'll learn how he found his unique value proposition, why you don't need to be the top expert to start teaching, and his three-phase method for creating not just a course — but a full-fledged course business. We also explore how to overcome imposter syndrome, build an audience the smart way, and design a business that supports the lifestyle you want! (Original Air Date - 6/1/25) What we discuss with Jacques: + Turning hobbies into businesses + Unique value proposition importance + Teaching without being an expert + Online course validation strategies + B2B vs. B2C course models + Building a course business + Avoiding the learning loop trap + Audience-first content strategy + Why focus beats many offers + Creating systems for freedom Thank you, Jacques! Check out Piano in 21 Days at ⁠Pianoin21Days.com⁠⁠⁠⁠. Check out The Online Course Guy at ⁠TheOnlineCourseGuy.com⁠. Watch the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠video podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ of this episode! To get access to our FREE Business Training course go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MillionaireUniversity.com/training⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To get exclusive offers mentioned in this episode and to support the show, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠millionaireuniversity.com/sponsors⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joel chats with a trailblazer who doesn't just challenge the status quo-he lights it on fire and hands you the match. His name is Joe Pulizzi, an award-winning B2B strategist who has been rewriting the rules of business for two decades and counting. Known as the Godfather of Content Marketing, Joe is a serial entrepreneur, philanthropist and 10-time bestselling author whose latest work, Burn the Playbook, is a blueprint for freedom on your own terms. Because if the world the rules were written for no longer longer exists…it's time we stop playing by them.Website: https://www.joepulizzi.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joepulizzi/?hl=en Twitter: https://x.com/JoePulizzi Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoePulizziAuthorCheck out the conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-OB-uWJ_Uv0

About Rasmus Holst:Rasmus Holst is the CEO of Zensai (formerly LMS365), where he built a learning management business from $0–30M ARR, bootstrapped, completed three acquisitions, and pioneered the “Human Success” category as a replacement for Human Resources. He has been part of management teams delivering exits just shy of $1bn, raised +$50m for companies like Wire and Huddle, and worked across PE-backed (Carlyle, Warburg Pincus) and VC-funded (General Atlantic, Index, Vertex, Morpheus, Iconical) environments.His experience spans scaling start-ups from zero revenue, operating +$300M Lines of Business at Syniverse, and leading branding and B2B storytelling efforts, including Zensai's Red Dot Award and Great Place to Work recognition. Rasmus has managed global teams across 14 countries, traveled to +100 nations, and lived in Denmark, Luxembourg, and San Francisco, making him a leader with a uniquely international view on culture, growth, and balance. In this episode, Dean Newlund and Rasmus Holst discuss:Turning HR into Human Success and redefining what organizations measureLinking performance, learning, and engagement into one real-time scoreFeedback rituals and kudos culture as engines of team identityMeasuring soft skills through sentiment and peer behaviorAI as a teammate that amplifies human contribution instead of replacing it Key Takeaways:Replace annual HR lag metrics with weekly human success check-ins tied to learning, performance, and engagement.Institutionalize positive feedback (e.g., weekly kudos) to normalize critique, build confidence, and surface soft-skill leaders.Track soft skills through peer sentiment and recognition patterns rather than relying solely on manager evaluations.Use generationally agnostic baselines (showing up as a good human and delivering success) to align multicultural/global teams. "There's a high correlation between people who get a lot of kudos and those who are really good at a lot of soft skills.” — Rasmus Holst Connect with Rasmus Holst:  Website: https://zensai.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasmusholst/    See Dean's TedTalk “Why Business Needs Intuition” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEq9IYvgV7I Connect with Dean:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgqRK8GC8jBIFYPmECUCMkwWebsite: https://www.mfileadership.com/The Mission Statement E-Newsletter: https://www.mfileadership.com/blog/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deannewlund/X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/deannewlundFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/MissionFacilitators/Email: dean.newlund@mfileadership.comPhone: 1-800-926-7370 Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Referrals are often talked about as a “nice to have.” In this episode of Behind The Numbers With Dave Bookbinder, they're treated for what they really are - a measurable, scalable driver of profitable growth. Dave Bookbinder speaks with Brandon Barnum, widely known as the “King of Referrals,” about how referral-driven businesses outperform those that rely on traditional selling. Brandon shares his journey from single dad to referral-based entrepreneur and CEO of HOA.com, and breaks down the numbers behind referrals, including why B2B referrals convert at higher rates, stay longer, and deliver greater lifetime value. The conversation goes beyond theory and into execution. Brandon explains the mindset shift from selling to serving, his three-step referral framework (set the stage, listen for referral triggers, ASK to GET), and how to move referrals from something informal to a repeatable system. They discuss how to build and train referral partnerships, co-marketing strategies that actually work, and how to stand out when a prospect is given multiple referrals. Brandon also covers overlooked referral sources, the KPIs that matter when tracking referral performance, and how to scale referrals without losing the personal connection that makes them effective in the first place. Listeners will walk away with practical, actionable ideas - how to audit your existing relationships, why committing to one referral partner meeting per week can change your pipeline, how to systematize referrals across your team, and how to create a clear referral partner blueprint. About Our Guest: Brandon Barnum, known as the "King of Referrals," is an award-winning entrepreneur, speaker, and business strategist. He is the CEO of HOA.com and the author of four #1 best selling books in the Raving Referrals book series. A referral and sales expert, Brandon 10X'd his income from $20K to $200K in just 18 months. He has since generated over $500 million in referral-based transactions and built networks with over 5 million members in 195 countries and has helped over 250,000 real estate agents grow their businesses. Previously, he served as CEO of Codebreaker Technologies, developing the world's first personality-based AI for sales. Featured in "The Wall Street Journal", "Newsweek", and "Cracking the Millionaire Code", Brandon helps professionals expand their income, influence, and impact through proven referral and sales strategies. https://ravingreferrals.com About the Host: Dave Bookbinder is known as an expert in business valuation and he is the person that business owners and entrepreneurs reach out to when they need to know what their most important assets are worth. Known as a collaborative adviser, Dave has served thousands of client companies of all sizes and industries.  Dave is the author of two #1 best-selling books about the impact of human capital (PEOPLE!) on the valuation of a business enterprise called The NEW ROI: Return On Individuals & The NEW ROI: Going Behind The Numbers.  He's on a mission to change the conversation about how the accounting world recognizes the value of people's contributions to a business enterprise, and to quantify what every CEO on the planet claims: “Our people are this company's most valuable asset.” Dave's book, A Valuation Toolbox for Business Owners and Their Advisors: Things Every Business Owner Should Know, was recognized as a top new release in Business and Valuation and is designed to provide practical insights and tools to help understand what really drives business value, how to prepare for an exit, and just make better decisions. He's also the host of the highly rated Behind The Numbers With Dave Bookbinder business podcast which is enjoyed in more than 100 countries.

What if one focused hour a day could dramatically shorten your sales cycle, increase top-of-mind awareness, and help your entire team generate revenue without burning you out? In this episode, Kelly breaks down the Miracle Hour, a timeless daily sales system she designed to help entrepreneurs acquire customers faster, create consistency, and monetize their teams more effectively. Whether you sell high-ticket offers, run a local business, or lead a multi-department organization, the Miracle Hour can be adapted to fit your goals, your industry, and your growth stage. Kelly walks through real world applications of the Miracle Hour across industries: from car dealerships and dental offices to corporate sales training companies and authors preparing for a book launch, showing why this system works in any economy and on any platform. You'll learn how consistent daily inputs can compress what used to be year-long sales cycles into days, how to organize your Dream 1000 for maximum efficiency, and how to plug your team into a revenue-generating system that gives you back time, freedom, and focus. Plus, Kelly shares an exciting announcement about the upcoming Miracle Hour audiobook, book, and docuseries, and how you can get early access for free.  Timestamps:  0:00 – 0:46 Why the Miracle Hour compresses long sales cycles into days 0:46 – 1:28 What the Miracle Hour really is (and why it creates efficiency and freedom) 1:28 – 2:04 Why the Miracle Hour works in any economy, industry, or offer type 2:04 – 4:30 Real-world example: How a car dealership can use the Miracle Hour to drive repeat and referral sales 4:30 – 5:57 Applying the Miracle Hour in corporate and B2B sales environments 5:57 – 7:22 Why the Miracle Hour is platform-agnostic (and how it worked before social media) 7:22 – 8:13 Using the Miracle Hour to land a book deal, PR, and promotional partnerships 8:13 – 9:09 Local business example: Leveraging the Miracle Hour for reviews and referrals 9:09 – 10:18 How frequency and consistency collapse your sales timeline 10:18 – 11:24 Using the Miracle Hour to sell high-ticket offers directly to market 11:24 – 12:29 Announcement: Early access to the Miracle Hour audiobook 12:29 – 13:31 Why the Miracle Hour is the key to monetizing your team 13:31 – 14:29 How CEOs use the Miracle Hour to reclaim time and step into their zone of genius    Resources Learn the complete Miracle Hour system For FREE: https://accelerator.virtualbusinessschool.com/mhsocial  Get access to our complete daily sales system for generating predictable revenue online inside the Virtual Business School: https://www.virtualbusinessschool.com/  Follow Kelly on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellyroachofficial/  Follow Kelly on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kelly.roach.520/  Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyroachint/ 

Everyone assumes the Super Bowl is strictly for consumer giants with massive ad budgets, but that mindset is a huge missed opportunity for B2B marketers. Jay Schwedelson teams up with Daniel Murray to break down exactly how boring brands can ride the wave of the biggest cultural event of the year without spending a dime on commercials. They share specific keywords that trigger higher open rates during game week and explain why hyper-targeting the cities of the competing teams is the smartest play you can make.ㅤFollow Daniel on LinkedIn and check out The Marketing Millennials podcast for sharp, no-fluff marketing insights. Subscribe to Ari Murray's newsletter at gotomillions.co for sharp, actionable marketing insights.ㅤBest Moments:(01:25) Why Jay eats a "disgusting" salmon salad for lunch every day(02:24) Daniel's diet while playing D1 college football at Cincinnati(03:37) Why even the most boring B2B companies need to lean into the Super Bowl(04:45) How to use X (Twitter) during the game to find relevant memes for your brand(06:00) The specific subject line keywords like "MVP" and "QB" that spike engagement(07:15) A clever strategy to target prospects based on which teams make the big gameㅤCheck out Jay's YOUTUBE Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@schwedelsonCheck out Jay's TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@schwedelsonCheck Out Jay's INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/jayschwedelson/ㅤPre-order Jay Schwedelson's new book, Stupider People Have Done It (out April 21, 2026). All net proceeds are donated to The V Foundation for Cancer Research—let's kick cancer's butt: https://www.amazon.com/Stupider-People-Have-Done-Marketing/dp/1637635206