Podcasts about B2B

What happens when an AI agent does your shopping — and how do you make sure it doesn't order two grills instead of one? In Part 2 of his conversation with Motley Fool CEO Tom Gardner, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach breaks down the company's Agent Pay protocol, explains why machine-to-machine payments could transform B2B commerce, and reveals why Mastercard just acquired the world's largest stablecoin platform. He also gets into what the AI revolution really means for employment, why proprietary transaction data is Mastercard's deepest competitive moat, and how he personally stays sharp running a $500 billion company.  Host: Tom Gardner  Guest: Michael Miebach  Producers: Bart Shannon, Lauren Budabin  Disclosure: Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. The Motley Fool and its affiliates (collectively, “TMF”) do not endorse, recommend, or verify the accuracy or completeness of the statements made within advertisements. TMF is not involved in the offer, sale, or solicitation of any securities advertised herein and makes no representations regarding the suitability, or risks associated with any investment opportunity presented. Investors should conduct their own due diligence and consult with legal, tax, and financial advisors before making any investment decisions. TMF assumes no responsibility for any losses or damages arising from this advertisement. We're committed to transparency: All personal opinions in advertisements from Fools are their own. The product advertised in this episode was loaned to TMF and was returned after a test period or the product advertised in this episode was purchased by TMF. Advertiser has paid for the sponsorship of this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You quote a price and the buyer says its too expensive. But what are they actually comparing it to?

L'IA est désormais partout. Elle a envahit notre quotidien.Et si le vrai enjeu derrière tout cela était aussi d'apprendre à penser ? Retrouver le vide, reconnecter avec le silence et penser à nouveau. Ce n'est pas la première fois que nous parlions d'IA avec Lucie Dhorne. Il y a quelques années, elle nous avait expliqué comment l'utiliser comme un véritable assistant pédagogique. Mais aujourd'hui, en 2026, on va plus loin.On parle de cognition, d'apprentissage, de créativité, et surtout d'un risque encore trop peu adressé : celui de déléguer notre capacité à réfléchir. Parce que oui, utiliser l'IA, ce n'est pas neutre. Est-ce qu'on s'augmente vraiment ou est-ce qu'on s'affaiblit sans s'en rendre compte ? Jusqu'où déléguer sans perdre son esprit critique ? Et surtout : comment continuer à penser dans un monde où tout devient instantané ? Elle nous explique tout !Bonne écoute !À très vite,Prenez soin de vous !Plus d'info :Pour suivre Lucie sur LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/luciedhorne/Pour écouter le premier épisode enregistré ensemble : #84 - Lucie Dhorne - Faire de l'IA son assistant pédagogiqueEt pour en savoir plus sur son podcast Lady WhistleDhorne : https://podcast.ausha.co/lady-whistledhorneSon site web : https://cogniscore.fr/Pour recevoir gratuitement notre sélection hebdo de conseils pratiques pour animer votre équipe, rendez-vous ici : https://newsletter.teambakery.com/subscribeEt n'oubliez pas de laisser 5 étoiles et un gentil commentaire sur Apple Podcast et Spotify si l'épisode vous a plu.CHAPITRAGE00:00:00 — Intro00:01:06 — Présentation de Lucie et de son parcours00:05:32 — Quel est son rapport à l'IA en 2026 ?00:08:40 — Qu'est-ce qui différencie un “bon” usage de l'IA d'un usage passif ?00:11:28 — Que faut-il déléguer et ne surtout pas déléguer à l'IA ?00:15:17 — Quels sont les signes d'un usage toxique de l'IA en équipe ?00:19:24 — Son analogie du “nutri-score” appliqué à l'IA00:26:10 — Comment aider les équipes à mieux utiliser leur esprit critique ?00:33:29 — Qu'est-ce que le “vide fertile” ?00:39:31 — Comment créer du vide dans le travail en équipe ?Vous aimerez cet épisode si vous aimez : Outils du Manager • Happy Work • HBR on Leadership • Le Podcast de la Formation • MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP • Learn & EnjoyHébergé par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

What if the AI tools you bought to make your team faster are quietly making that team harder to coordinate?Agility depends less on how quickly you adopt new technology and more on how well you understand the work that technology is supposed to improve.Today, we're going to talk about:- The operational costs buried inside customer-facing work — and why they're so hard to see, let alone measure.- Why layering more automation onto a coordination problem often makes the problem worse.- What it takes to build AI into core workflows so that efficiency and customer experience improve together instead of trading off against each other.To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Kevin Yang, Director of AI at Front.About Kevin YangKevin Yang is the Director of AI at Front, the only customer operations platform built for B2B complexity, where he leads the company's AI strategy across automation, analytics, and customer insight. His work is grounded in the belief that the most valuable business intelligence lives inside customer conversations. At Front, Kevin is building AI systems that operate within real workflows—helping over 9,000 businesses better understand what their customers are saying and translate those insights into action with full visibilityKevin joined Front through the acquisition of Idiomatic, the AI-powered voice-of-the-customer platform he founded and led as CEO. Earlier in his career, Kevin worked in frontline support while building his first company, EAT Club, a leading virtual cafeteria serving over 1,000 companies, including Google, Netflix, and Tesla. Kevin Yang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yangkevin/---------- Resources ---------- Front: https://www.front.comFront is a customer operations platform that helps organizations manage customer communication across email, chat, voice, SMS, and other channels in one place. The platform is designed for teams handling complex customer relationships, where resolving an issue often requires coordination across multiple people, systems, and departments.We're proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! https://aglbrnd.co/r/7fe458ced0f04658Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/r/491818c79fb1873fChaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).The most influential minds in software, AI, and engineering leadership will be at WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America, September 23-25 in San Jose. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/60a7299222a7bcf1Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716baCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.comThe Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of The Immigration Lawyer's Toolbox® Podcast, host John Khosravi sits down with returning guest Roman Zelichenko, J.D. to unpack what's really happening in the growing wave of immigration law firm M&A: how firms are actually valued, why some attorneys inflate their revenue numbers with filing fees, the difference between a true acquisition and a "merger" that's really more of a hire, why clean books can make or break a deal, and what private equity's track record in dentistry, HVAC, and plumbing suggests about where legal consolidation is headed. Whether you're thinking about selling, buying, merging, or just want to run your firm like it's sellable, this episode is full of practical insight on the business side of immigration law. Sponsor: Get a free website (first 10 sign-ups) and special pricing on marketing for your firm from Constellation at http://immigrationlawyerstoolbox.com/Constellation. Timestamps: 00:00 – Opening 00:33 – Intro 04:24 – How hard is it for practitioners to value and sell their firm? 04:53 – B2B/corporate vs. B2C firms: why recurring revenue is valued higher 05:30 – The filing-fees-in-revenue trick that inflates valuations 06:36 – What sellers actually want: fair price vs. emotional attachment 07:54 – How clean (or messy) books affect due diligence 09:43 – Bookkeepers, GMI Rocket, and staying on top of your numbers 11:29 – Mergers vs. acquisitions: when a "merger" is really a hire 13:12 – Larger firm mergers and fade-out deal structures 13:52 – New fee memos, attorney burnout, and the push toward litigation 16:13 – Consolidation, specialists, and the rise of AI-native law firms 19:00 – Lessons from private equity roll-ups in dentistry, HVAC, and plumbing 20:17 – Community page & Constellation SEO/marketing sponsor break 21:20 – Back to the show: will the free market self-correct? 21:33 – Envoy Global: an example of PE-backed immigration firms done right 24:19 – Scaling without sacrificing service quality 26:15 – The M&A trend among solo and small firm owners who want out 29:01 – Creative deal structures, equity, and the "Built to Sell" mindset 33:13 – Why QuickBooks and clean numbers drive better marketing and growth decisions 36:26 – Outro Spotify | iTunes | YouTube Music | YouTube Follow eimmigration by Cerenade: Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn Start your Business Immigration Practice! (US LAWYERS ONLY - SCREENING REQUIRED): E-2 Course EB-1A Course Get the Toolbox Magazine!  Join our community (Lawyers Only) Get Started in Immigration Law! The Marriage/Family-Based Green Card course is for you Our Website: ImmigrationLawyersToolbox.com Not legal advice. Consult with an Attorney. Attorney Advertisement. #podcaster #Lawyer #ImmigrationLawyer #Interview #Immigration #ImmigrationAttorney #USImmigration #ImmigrationLaw #ImmigrationLawyersToolbox

Send us Fan MailUp to 70% of Amazon sales happen on mobile but many sellers still build listings for desktop. This video shows the Seller Central report that reveals where a brand's traffic really comes from and how that data can help sellers make better choices for listing images, two-part titles, and B2B shoppers.Need help with your Amazon brand? Book a call with My Amazon Guy: https://bit.ly/4jMZtxu#amazonfba  #AmazonBusiness #AmazonListing #SellerCentral #amazonseller Want free resources? Dowload our Free Amazon guides here:Download the 2026 Amazon AI Operating Manual: https://bit.ly/3SLmusPAmazon Receiving Delay Guide: https://hubs.ly/Q04cdD4c0Amazon Catalog Spring Cleaning: https://hubs.ly/Q046BVfp0Amazon Proft Margin Defense 2026: https://hubs.ly/Q042trRH0Amazon SEO Toolkit 2026: https://bit.ly/4oC2ClTAmazon Seller Strategy Report 2026: https://bit.ly/3YN1RME2026 Ecommerce Website & SEO Readiness Checklist: https://hubs.ly/Q04btghf0Amazon 2026 PPC guide: https://bit.ly/4lF0OYXTimestamps00:00 – Amazon Mobile Optimization for Sellers00:41 – Amazon B2B Sales vs. Mobile Shopping01:35 – Find Mobile Traffic in Seller Central Business Reports02:28 – Amazon Mobile App vs. Browser Traffic03:15 – Optimize Amazon Listing Images and Titles-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Follow us:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28605816/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevenpopemag/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/myamazonguys/Twitter: https://twitter.com/myamazonguySubscribe to the My Amazon Guy podcast: https://podcast.myamazonguy.comApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-amazon-guy/id1501974229Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4A5ASHGGfr6s4wWNQIqyVwSupport the show

Send us Fan MailAI is quietly rewriting the rules of marketing, not by “changing SEO” but by changing how buyers choose. When a chatbot can shortlist vendors in a single conversation, visibility is no longer the finish line. Recommendability is. I sit down with Andy Crestodina, co-founder and CMO of Orbit Media, to unpack what it takes to earn AI recommendations and what most brands are missing when they chase rankings without understanding the visitor. We get practical about how AI search optimization is really the overlap of SEO and conversion rate optimization. Andy explains why prompts are longer and more personal than classic queries, how that extra context reveals real decision criteria, and why your website still matters because it is the place you control the depth, proof, and sales answers. We also dig into why AI-sourced visitors can be far more qualified, why traffic growth is a shaky North Star, and how to stop being silently excluded by publishing the questions prospects actually ask before they will take action. Then we go deeper on content strategy in an era of infinite “average” content. Andy makes a clear case for the formats AI cannot truly replicate: thought leadership with a strong point of view and original research rooted in real data. We also talk prompt engineering maturity, from ad hoc prompts to reusable prompts to custom assistants and tools, and what separates the revenue accountable CMO from someone who just manages AI outputs. This episode was recorded through a Descript call on August 3, 2026. Read the blog article and show notes here: https://webdrie.net/train-the-ai-to-recommend-you-with-andy-crestodinaIf you care about B2B marketing, lead generation, buyer intent, and building a brand that gets chosen, this one will sharpen your playbook. Subscribe, share this with a marketer who needs it, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway...........................................................................Metricool is a new official podcast partner of Web3 CMO Stories in 2026. Metricool helps marketers and creators bring structure, clarity, and consistency to their social media workflows through analytics, planning, and reporting. Listeners can try Metricool Premium for free for 30 days using the coupon code JOERI.......................................................................... 

A full calendar can look like discipline, productivity, and control—until something unexpected happens and there is nowhere for it to go. After spending four days running his business from a chair beside a hospital bed, Ray examines the hidden cost of eliminating every open hour: the loss of margin on your time. What You'll Learn in This EpisodeWhy a completely allocated calendar can quietly eliminate your flexibility.How time margin provides the same security, optionality, and head space that financial margin provides.Why time margin can disappear without you noticing until something unexpected lands.Three ways to rebuild it: scheduling below capacity, creating real redundancy, and redesigning your ideal week from a blank calendar.Why automatically filling newly available time with more production can recreate the same problem.//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

Outsourcing podcast Get the full show notes for this outsourcing podcast here: outsourceaccelerator.com/600   Andrew Kokes joins the Outsource Accelerator Podcast after nearly three decades in outsourcing marketing, most of it in senior in-house roles including chief marketing officer. He has now launched Pivot AI Global to help mid-market BPOs solve a fast-growing problem: how to get discovered when buyers ask AI instead of Google. The conversation is a practical look at how search is changing, how AI answer engines actually pick who to recommend, and what outsourcing firms should do about it.   References: Website: https://pivotaiglobal.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pivot-ai-global/   Start Outsourcing Outsource Accelerator can help you transform your business with outsourcing. Get in touch now, or use one of the resources below.   Business Process Outsourcing Get a Free Quote - Connect with 3 verified outsourcing experts & see how outsourcing can transform your business Book a Discovery Call - See how Outsource Accelerator can help you enhance your company's innovation and growth with outsourcing The Top 40 BPOs - We have compiled this review of the most notable 40 Business Process Outsourcing companies in the Philippines Outsourcing Calculator - This tool provides you with invaluable insight into the potential savings outsourcing can do for your business Outsourcing Salary Guide - Access the comprehensive guide to payroll salary compensation, benefits, and allowances in the Philippines Outsourcing Accelerator Podcast - Subscribe and listen to the world's leading outsourcing podcast, hosted by Derek Gallimore Payoneer - The leading global B2B payment solution for the outsourcing industry   About Outsource Accelerator Outsource Accelerator is the world's leading outsourcing marketplace and advisory. We offer the full spectrum of services, from light advisory and vendor brokerage, though to full implementation and fully-managed solutions. We service companies of all sectors, and all sizes, spanning all departmental verticals. Outsource Accelerator's unique approach to outsourcing enables our clients to build the best teams, access the most flexible solutions, and generate the best results possible. Our unrivaled sector knowledge and market reach mean that you get the best terms and results possible, at the best ALL-IN market-leading price - guaranteed.

Who is Allen?Allen Kopelman is the seasoned founder of a forward-thinking payments company, with an impressive professional career spanning over 25 years in the payments industry. Previously involved in the hospitality sector as a restaurant owner and chef, Allen transitioned to the payments industry with a resolve to help business owners optimize their transaction processes. His deep understanding of both sides of the payment equation empowers him to create client-centric solutions that enhance business growth and efficiency. Allen is a problem solver at heart and a respected voice in the industry, also contributing as a writer for the Green Sheet magazine.Episode Summary:Welcome to It's Not Rocket Science: Five Questions Over Coffee, where Stuart Webb engages with Allen Kopelman, the innovative founder of a successful payments company. In this enlightening episode, Allen delves into the intricacies of payment solutions, outlining how tailored payment software can significantly reduce costs for business owners. Through sharing his rich experience, Allen illustrates the transformation from traditional payment setups to today's software-centric approaches. The conversation touches upon key elements that businesses need to consider when scaling their payment operations, with insights into common challenges faced by startups and how his company provides resolute solutions.The discussion highlights practical advice on leveraging payment technologies to maintain cash flow, avoiding the pitfall of becoming a financial buffer for clients. Allen underscores the importance of invoice automation and understanding interchange in order to enhance business operations. His valuable insights and real-world anecdotes underscore the critical role of payment strategies in ensuring business viability. Business owners and payment professionals alike will find this conversation both informative and inspirational, offering actionable strategies for optimizing payment processes and fortifying cash flow.Key Takeaways:* Understanding your payment system is crucial to effective business operations, especially when considering scalability and customer service.* Automated billing systems can significantly improve cash flow and free up resources for core business functions.* Business owners should avoid negotiating long-term payment terms, thereby mitigating cash flow issues by effectively utilizing credit options for customers.* The importance of understanding interchange rates in optimizing payment transactions, particularly as businesses expand.* Transitioning from traditional business approaches to embracing software solutions can improve operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.Notable Quotes:* “Payments is all about software...using the proper technology based on whatever business it is that you have.”* “Your customer already has a bank. You shouldn't really be doing that as a business owner.”* “Cash flow is king...you shouldn't really be doing that as a business owner.”* “You have to make decisions, you can't just wallow around.”* “Don't be the bank. Your customer already has a bank.”Resources:* Allen Kopelman: LinkedIn Profile [Not explicitly mentioned but relevant]* The Green Sheet: Industry magazine where Allen contributes.* Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, a recommended book.* The Five Second Rule by Mel Robbins, another highly recommended book.* Visit It's Not Rocket Science: Five Questions Over Coffee for free resources and more insights from the episode.Dive into the full episode to grasp the depth of Allen's expertise and stay tuned for more discussions that demystify complex topics with simplicity and p

This episode's guests:Melissa Higgins, Director of Customer Advancement at Censis TechnologiesJacob Long, Director of Sales Engineering at Censis TechnologiesOlivia Fistek, Regional Account Manager at Censis TechnologiesSterile processing has become one of the fastest changing environments in the hospital. Instruments that were once straightforward now arrive with multilayered assembly requirements, robotic components and manufacturer instructions for use that change without notice. The technology used to reprocess and sterilize them has grown just as complex. What a technician needed to know five years ago is not what the role demands today, and the list keeps growing. Every new service line, every new specialty and every new device adds to the body of knowledge a department is expected to carry.That pace creates a quiet gap. Departments are held to evolving standards and regulatory expectations while the day-to-day work of keeping cases moving never pauses, which leaves little room for structured learning. Compliance strains first, then confidence. There is also a second gap that receives less attention. Knowing the correct practice is one challenge. Capturing it digitally, configuring software to match a specific workflow and proving it later is a separate one. Education has to close both.How can a sterile processing team turn three days of education into changes that hold up back in the department?Welcome to ConCensis. In this episode, host Daniel Litwin, the Voice of B2B, sits down with Melissa Higgins, Director of Customer Advancement at Censis Technologies, Jacob Long, Director of Sales Engineering at Censis Technologies, and Olivia Fistek, Regional Account Manager at Censis Technologies, to preview CtUC Virtual 2026 and the thinking behind this year's theme, From Experience to Impact. Together, they discuss the three-day tiered track structure, the industry topics shaping this year's agenda, the live question-and-answer format, the peer collaboration that happens between attendees and the first major software refresh Censis has undertaken in years. The conversation offers sterile processing professionals a clear picture of what the September event covers, how to plan their three days and which conversations are worth showing up for.What You'll Learn...Why continuing education functions as an operational requirement rather than a professional perk, as instrument complexity and manufacturer instructions for use change faster than most departments can absorb on their own.How the three-day tiered structure splits into a general track, a leadership track and a technician track so attendees can build an agenda around their actual scope of work.The role water quality is playing in this year's agenda, and why industry experts leading the regulatory conversation were brought in to address it directly.What the first major software refresh in years brings to the platform, including an updated user interface and changes to how CensiTrac Intelligence handles metrics and KPI reporting.How attendees reach Censis expertise during the event, from live question-and-answer sessions and clinical educators fielding questions in real time to one-on-one time with a customer success manager.Why the peer conversation is often the highest-value part of the event, as a nine-tray ambulatory surgery center and a thousand-bed trauma hospital discover they are solving the same problems very differently.About the GuestsMelissa Higgins is Director of Customer Advancement at Censis Technologies, where she leads the clinical education team. Her team delivers Service Plus, the add-on subscription that helps customers examine their workflow and get more out of the software they already own. She treats CtUC as the flagship presentation Censis gives its customers each year, pairing outside industry standards with internal guidance on system utilization.Jacob Long serves as Director of Sales Engineering at Censis Technologies, where he prepares and supports the commercial team and works across clinical education, implementation and product. His earlier work training customers in person gave him a view of departments at every scale, from single-procedure outpatient clinics to thousand-bed trauma centers running thirty rooms and eighty technicians. He watches closely for how customers configure the same software to fit very different worlds.Olivia Fistek is Regional Account Manager at Censis Technologies, working on the sales side with facilities bringing Censis in for the first time and with existing customers expanding their portfolio. She partners closely with the customer success team and focuses on keeping facilities supported as their hospital needs evolve. Her vantage point comes from being in customer doors regularly and hearing which challenges are surfacing right now.

This episode's guests:Melissa Higgins, Director of Customer Advancement at Censis TechnologiesJacob Long, Director of Sales Engineering at Censis TechnologiesOlivia Fistek, Regional Account Manager at Censis TechnologiesSterile processing has become one of the fastest changing environments in the hospital. Instruments that were once straightforward now arrive with multilayered assembly requirements, robotic components and manufacturer instructions for use that change without notice. The technology used to reprocess and sterilize them has grown just as complex. What a technician needed to know five years ago is not what the role demands today, and the list keeps growing. Every new service line, every new specialty and every new device adds to the body of knowledge a department is expected to carry.That pace creates a quiet gap. Departments are held to evolving standards and regulatory expectations while the day-to-day work of keeping cases moving never pauses, which leaves little room for structured learning. Compliance strains first, then confidence. There is also a second gap that receives less attention. Knowing the correct practice is one challenge. Capturing it digitally, configuring software to match a specific workflow and proving it later is a separate one. Education has to close both.How can a sterile processing team turn three days of education into changes that hold up back in the department?Welcome to ConCensis. In this episode, host Daniel Litwin, the Voice of B2B, sits down with Melissa Higgins, Director of Customer Advancement at Censis Technologies, Jacob Long, Director of Sales Engineering at Censis Technologies, and Olivia Fistek, Regional Account Manager at Censis Technologies, to preview CtUC Virtual 2026 and the thinking behind this year's theme, From Experience to Impact. Together, they discuss the three-day tiered track structure, the industry topics shaping this year's agenda, the live question-and-answer format, the peer collaboration that happens between attendees and the first major software refresh Censis has undertaken in years. The conversation offers sterile processing professionals a clear picture of what the September event covers, how to plan their three days and which conversations are worth showing up for.What You'll Learn...Why continuing education functions as an operational requirement rather than a professional perk, as instrument complexity and manufacturer instructions for use change faster than most departments can absorb on their own.How the three-day tiered structure splits into a general track, a leadership track and a technician track so attendees can build an agenda around their actual scope of work.The role water quality is playing in this year's agenda, and why industry experts leading the regulatory conversation were brought in to address it directly.What the first major software refresh in years brings to the platform, including an updated user interface and changes to how CensiTrac Intelligence handles metrics and KPI reporting.How attendees reach Censis expertise during the event, from live question-and-answer sessions and clinical educators fielding questions in real time to one-on-one time with a customer success manager.Why the peer conversation is often the highest-value part of the event, as a nine-tray ambulatory surgery center and a thousand-bed trauma hospital discover they are solving the same problems very differently.About the GuestsMelissa Higgins is Director of Customer Advancement at Censis Technologies, where she leads the clinical education team. Her team delivers Service Plus, the add-on subscription that helps customers examine their workflow and get more out of the software they already own. She treats CtUC as the flagship presentation Censis gives its customers each year, pairing outside industry standards with internal guidance on system utilization.Jacob Long serves as Director of Sales Engineering at Censis Technologies, where he prepares and supports the commercial team and works across clinical education, implementation and product. His earlier work training customers in person gave him a view of departments at every scale, from single-procedure outpatient clinics to thousand-bed trauma centers running thirty rooms and eighty technicians. He watches closely for how customers configure the same software to fit very different worlds.Olivia Fistek is Regional Account Manager at Censis Technologies, working on the sales side with facilities bringing Censis in for the first time and with existing customers expanding their portfolio. She partners closely with the customer success team and focuses on keeping facilities supported as their hospital needs evolve. Her vantage point comes from being in customer doors regularly and hearing which challenges are surfacing right now.

What is your top leadership challenge? A recent informal study gathered data from 23,000 HR professionals, and they identified difficult conversations and feedback as their top leadership challenge. Today's guest walks us through each of the 5 C's of difficult conversations. Join us to learn how to ready your mindset for difficult conversations so you can thrive as a coach and leader!Maren Perry is the founder and CEO of Arden Coaching, a B2B leadership development firm she started in New York in 2007, when coaching was a largely unknown field. Today, Arden is a national firm of 40-plus Professional and Master Certified Coaches serving CHROs, VPs of HR, and directors of leadership and development at mid-market organizations across engineering, construction, finance, healthcare, and tech. Some of their clients include Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft, Mars/Wrigley, ZipRecruiter, BetMGM, and JLL. With a background in cognitive science and thousands of coaching hours at the senior executive level, Maren and her team specialize in developing technically brilliant people into leaders who build high-performing teams.Show Highlights:Maren's journey to clarity about the real problem in having difficult conversations for HR professionalsThe truth: People are desperate for feedback. (and it's kind to offer feedback!)The 5 C's to prepare for difficult conversations:Courage–Have difficult conversations, even when you are fearful about it.Clear–Clear yourself of stories (that might be true or untrue) and emotions first.Collaborative–This mindset is to “sit on the same side of the table.”Certain–Go into the conversation with clarity and certainty, not stubbornness.Curious–Curiosity is key for coaches and leaders; leave space to be wrong.Transformations in using the 5 C's frameworkA key takeaway from Maren: “Practice the 5 C's of difficult conversations. No one gets better without practicing.”Resources:Connect with Maren Perry: Website and LinkedInConnect with Meg:Explore our mentor program! Now enrolling for Fall 2026! Click here for more information!Learn more about the STaR Coach Community. We would love for you to join us!Explore past episodes and other resources at www.STaRcoachshow.com.Mentioned in this episode:Mentor ProgramIf you're working toward your ACC or PCC credential, or if it's time to recertify your ACC mentor, coaching isn't just a requirement on a checklist. It's one of the most transformative investments you can make in yourself and your coaching. I've taught or mentored over 2000 coaches, and I hear the same thing again and again. I came because I had to, and I am so glad that I did. Coaches tell me they walk away with renewed energy, deeper confidence and a community of peers who genuinely support each other. Here's what you need to know right now. Mentor coaching must span a minimum of three months, so the time to start is not when your credential is just about to expire. And if you complete your hours in 2026, you get ahead of the upcoming ICF changes, which means peace of mind along with skill development. My fall cohort is already filling up. Every group is capped at ten. It's small, personal, and powerful. If you've been waiting for the right time, this is it. So head over to Star Coach Show. That's https://starcoachshow.com/mentor/ to grab your spot or to learn more. I'd love to work with you. Now, let's get into today's show.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Have you been hiring people and growing your team without a real plan, only to find yourself with a bigger payroll and a business that still runs through you? Today's featured guest and his partner started out as graphic designers doing packaging work and then pivoted to web when the real estate crash wiped out their client base overnight. After years of taking on everything, they're still figuring out how to build the right team underneath them. He walks through what it looked like to grow to 25 people without a plan, how the co-founder dynamic actually works after two decades, and why he's found that, in a partnership, the disagreements are actually the thing keeping the business alive. Victor Huynh is the co-founder of Ready Artwork, a website-first industrial B2B digital marketing agency. He and his business partner Emily met in graphic design school and started freelancing together, with Victor handling sales and Emily anchoring production. Over 22 years, they pivoted from packaging design to web, grew to 25 people at peak, scaled back down, and have since committed fully to the industrial B2B niche. In this episode, we'll discuss: Learning that clarity outperforms craft in sales The cost of growing without a plan Still dealing with imposter syndrome? Most owners are Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources E2M Solutions:Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service. The Black and White Sign That Rewrote Their Positioning Victor describes the Asian expo as a pivotal moment in his agency's story and one where he and his partner learned what clarity actually does in a sales situation. Day one at the trade show was a day of fancy brochures, a computer with carousels running, and exactly zero sales. Nobody knew what the agency did, and Victor grew frustrated as he listened to people walk past saying they thought the booth was selling colored pencils. On day two, Emily did not come back. Victor taped a black and white letter-sized sheet of paper in the corner of the table that said "website design" in Chinese and sold five websites. The lesson is that clarity outperforms craft in every sales environment. The brochures were beautiful. The carousels were impressive. Neither of those things told a prospective client what the agency did or why they should stop walking. A simple, specific statement of what you offer is not a failure of presentation. It is the presentation. Growing to 25 People Without a Plan and What It Cost After the trade show success, Victor's agency grew fast. The strategy, if it can be called that, was reactive: someone needed something, they hired for it. E-commerce, lead gen, social media: they said yes to all of it because the projects were coming in and the team needed to grow to fulfill them. At 25 people, Victor describes feeling like they were selling a specific number of projects every month just to make payroll, and the agency had become something neither of them had designed. The peak headcount created a structure where Victor never fully stepped out of sales. He had a sales team, but it functioned more like a support team. The direction that would have made the department self-sustaining was not there, and without it the team defaulted to managing up. When the direction is not clear and the founder is always available to fill the gap, the team learns to route everything upward rather than developing the capability to own outcomes independently. What a 22-Year Co-Founder Partnership Actually Requires In their agency partner dynamic, Victor's partner Emily is the efficient executor. She makes sure things get done quickly, decisions get made, and production hums. He is the visionary and the sales front, in charge of new ideas, new opportunities, and new directions. The gas and the brake. Those complementary traits are also the source of real friction. Victor gets impatient when things do not move fast enough. Emily resists new directions until someone answers who is going to do the work. What keeps the partnership functional is the willingness to have the hard conversation rather than let resentment build. Partnerships where disagreement goes unspoken long enough become toxic. Two decades in, he and Emily still go at it. The difference is that they work through it instead of around it. For solo founders, that sounding board does not exist inside the business, which is one of the clearest arguments for finding a peer room where the same kind of honest conversation can happen without the stakes of a co-founder relationship. Imposter Syndrome Does Not Disappear With Experience Victor names imposter syndrome as one of the things he still works on 22 years in. Most agency owners do. You might feel it as you walk up on stage for a talk and wonder for a second if you should really be there. What we should all learn is that the feeling is not evidence of being unqualified. It is evidence of caring about doing the thing well. What imposter syndrome and delegation have in common is that both require the same underlying move: trusting that the outcome will be acceptable even when you are not the one controlling every detail. The practical principle that runs through this entire conversation is that agency owners should remove the things they should not be doing, one at a time, and do it before it feels urgent to. Victor's efficiency instinct is the same instinct that eventually produces real structural freedom. It does not come from working harder inside the current setup, but from spending the hour building the system that removes the five-minute task permanently. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

Sheldon Poon, Founder of Drive Marketing, helps established brands go from Wholesale to D2C through performance-driven advertising grounded in data, technology, and human expertise. He is driven to build a company that reflects his values—one where people enjoy their work, have flexibility and autonomy, and continuously learn from and teach one another. In this conversation, Sheldon introduces The A.I.D.A. Framework—Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. He explains how businesses can eliminate friction across the customer journey, use clean data to improve AI-powered campaigns, and balance automation with human strategy. Sheldon also discusses why genuine relationships are driving B2B growth, how AI is reshaping internships and early-career development, and how Drive Marketing helps successful wholesale brands build direct customer relationships without jeopardizing their valuable retail partnerships — Go from Wholesale to D2C with Sheldon Poon  Good day, listeners. Today, I have Sheldon Poon as our guest. He’s the Founder of Drive Marketing, a Montreal-based paid ad agency specializing in performance-driven marketing with a heavy emphasis on using data to make informed strategic decisions. Founded in 2013, Drive Marketing positions themselves as a technical-first partner that bridges the gap between business goals and technical execution. So they’re not a creative agency. They are a technical agency improving your ads. Sheldon, welcome to the show.  Yeah, thanks for having me, Steve. I’m happy to be here. Yeah. Great to have you here. And my first question is, what is your personal why, and how are you manifesting it in the business? How are you contributing to human flourishing?  That’s a very big question for a small ad agency.  It is.  Yeah. So when I first started the company, I kind of, like a lot of entrepreneurs, right, it came from me kind of looking at my life and where I was in my career and kind of getting frustrated at what I was seeing with my day-to-day job. So I was in a very, very privileged position. I was able to take a bit of a sabbatical from my day job where they held my position, which was great, because if everything went downhill, I could always just jump back to my job.  And I was like, “You know what? Like, I have an opportunity here. I’ve always wanted to start a business.” But because I had been working for somebody else for almost, at that point, I think like a decade and a half, I had a lot of experience, and I saw a lot of things that I was like, “This is what I don’t want.” So when I started my company, my internal mission and vision was to build the company that I would want to work at, to build the company that is kind of true to myself and my values, and something that I would enjoy going into day to day.Share on X And then what does all that mean? So the company that I wanted to work at, as I started working and hiring people, what I found was I wanted to have flexibility in my schedule. We treat everybody on the team as an adult. Everybody’s responsible for their workload. And as long as they meet their deadlines, I don’t care when you’re clocking in, clocking out. I’m a night owl. I like working till like midnight, 1:00 a.m. I don’t like doing mornings, so I’m often coming into the office late.  A lot of my team are doing the same thing. Some of them are early risers, and they like to leave early to have their afternoon free. So as long as everybody’s more or less—everybody’s on top of their tasks and more or less working during the day so that we can have our interactions and meetings, that’s perfectly fine. Another thing I think that's core to what I wanted to build was that I've always been very passionate about learning and teaching. In another life, I was teaching high school.Share on X  And when I started building the company, one of the things that we made very clear when we’re hiring is that everybody on the team learns because they’re passionate about what we’re doing. And everybody on the team teaches. Even if you’re just an intern coming in, we need to know your perspective because you’ll have a different perspective than me, who’s been doing this for like two decades, where I’m kind of blind to maybe some of the newer stuff that’s happening or some of the stuff that’s like on the ground.  And I want to know when I talk to our interns, when I talk to our juniors, like, “Hey, guys, what are you seeing?” Like, you guys are—you guys are like 20 years younger than me in some cases. Like, I want to know what’s going on with the kids. My personal, like, kind of like personal why of this is that it’s not so much about the end goal. I want to make sure that I enjoy my day-to-day, I enjoy what we do, and I’m not going to pull my hair out going into the office. So, like, I think we built something where everybody on the team is excited to work on stuff because they’re doing the work that they would want to be working on.  They’re learning the stuff that they would want to be learning, and then they get to implement it in a way that is impactful for the company, for the client, for what we’re doing. And my challenge as a leader is to figure out, okay, how do we take that exciting stuff and make it so that it generates money for the company so that we can all continue doing this? Yeah, this is very inspirational. I love it. You’re tapping into people’s curiosity, desire. I like the learning organization idea as well. So do you have a framework for this? Because this podcast is all about frameworks.  Yes.  How can someone create something like that? What are the steps to create it?  So it’s not one framework. Like I said, I’m very passionate about a lot of different topics, and one of the things that’s a personal interest of mine is just business. So, like, looking at business case studies, and from that you start seeing what works and what doesn’t. It’s a lot of different frameworks kind of layered on top of each other for various reasons. For the practical ad side, what we do for our clients strategically, there's a framework there that we like to use called AIDA. So attention, interest, desire, action.Share on X  Very standard funnel. The idea is that the reason we like using this is because when you break down the customer journey, this process is just logical. It’s been proven time and time again. If you’re going into Marketing or Business 101, this is one of the first things that you’re going to learn about. Like, what is a funnel? A funnel is, you know, the client’s never heard of you before, and you do something to grab their attention.  Now they’ve heard of you, but that’s not enough. You have to have many touch points, and you have to build interest. So, like, once they’ve heard about you, you got to make sure that it’s a good fit and they’re interested in the pain point or the thing that you’re fixing for them in their lives. And then if you hit them up with that interest message often enough, they’ll start imagining how their life is better with your product or service, and that creates desire. And then once you continue hitting them up at desire, as long as you don’t have any friction between the desire piece and the final call to action, then you’ll get that action at the bottom.  And the thing that people talk about, like, there’s a lot of people that talk about this framework, but I don’t think they’ve studied it properly. Because when you actually look at the history of it, this framework was first introduced in 1898 in a magazine that was talking about ads. This framework arguably predates the term marketing. And when you think about how that framework looks in modern day, it’s changed a lot, right?  When you were running ads in the early 1900s, you could get away with saying whatever the heck you wanted and making whatever wild promises just to get people’s attention. The way that you did it was you maybe had, like, some sort of print or some sort of, like, literally talking to people, getting them to show up to a convention or an expo back in the day, and having those interactions with their audience.  Fast-forward over 100 years, and it looks very different how you grab attention today. Paid ads. People talk about SEO. People talk about viral content. It’s very much changed. What hasn’t changed is the framework. So what that tells us is that human behavior, right? So the framework is based on human psychology: attention, interest, desire. These are all things that are, like, within the human experience. That has not changed. What’s changed is the other end. The technology has changed, so how you implement that.  So the strategy is still the AIDA that we use, right? But our tactics are constantly changing. Now we’re looking at AI. The new thing about ads is that Google just announced that they’ve added an extra option next to PMax, which is the AI option, so that you can actually start showing up in Gemini. So now this has changed our tactics. But our strategy is still based on this human psychology. That's the framework over on kind of the front end.Share on X And then, like I said, we have a bunch of other frameworks. I don’t know how much you want me to get into it, but for hiring, for internal processes, for all sorts of things.  Yeah. No, no, no. I love it. I love the AIDA. It’s been a long time I heard about it, and I love the simplicity of it, and I think it still works. So you mentioned something that really interests me. You said that you grab the attention, interest, building the desire, and as long as there’s no friction in the desire, then you’re going to get—the call to action is going to work. So what do you mean friction, and give me some examples of what it could look like.  So when you’re talking about AIDA and you’re talking about funnels, especially when you’re talking about online, it’s all very, very quick, right? So there’s a couple of terms here. So when you’re at top of funnel, your main thing is—it’s called a funnel because at the top it’s very, very wide in terms of the audience you want to hit up, and you want to try to get out to as many people as possible. So a lot of people, when they’re thinking of marketing, they’re thinking of the top of funnel, whether they realize it or not.  Further down is you’re trying to get a more complex message across. So the practical way to think about it is at the top you’re trying to run ads that’s just very flashy and getting people to stop the scroll. So if they’re on Instagram or something, you literally want them to stop, and you want them to read a quick thing that gets them to click. Once they’ve clicked on it, they’re ending up on a landing page, and that landing page has information that hopefully connects to the audience in a meaningful way, and they’re interested in reading more.  An example of friction would be if you click on an ad that’s purple, and then you end up on a landing page that’s black and white or red. That difference in color, that difference in style creates a friction point that psychologically, it makes the person pause and go, “Wait, did I just end up on the wrong page?” So when you have, like, a very close alignment between each of those levels, it reduces the friction and increases the chances that people will go down.  So the most important friction point that people need to be aware of is, like I just talked about the top of funnel, the opposite end, the bottom of funnel, is where there's the highest intent.Share on X So you can imagine at the top of funnel, because people have never heard of you before, their intention to buy from you is probably very low or very limited because they don’t know you yet. But once you’ve done all that work to get to know them and create a relationship with the brand, you’re at the bottom of funnel, and that point is critical.  You need to make sure that by the time you’ve warmed them up and everything’s ready to go and the target person is very interested in taking that final step, that somebody else doesn’t come and grab them. For example, like, the very real-world example. If you think about some of the biggest marketing companies in the world, so let’s take McDonald’s and Burger King as examples, right? Because everybody knows those brands. If McDonald’s has taken so much effort to be on billboards and be in front of you, and you’ve seen the brand and you know it, and you’re walking down the street and you’re hungry, and then at that moment of intent, as you’re walking around downtown, you’re like, “I could go for a quick burger right now,” and you know that you’re looking for a McDonald’s, but as you’re walking, you come across a Burger King, you’re like, “Yeah, that’s close enough.”  And then you’re going to walk into the Burger King and do the transaction there. Online, what that looks like is when somebody is doing that final search. So let’s say Summit OS is selling T-shirts, and you’ve done a bunch of work and people love the brand and they’re looking for a specific type of T-shirt that you sell, but they can’t remember quite exactly what it is. They’re like, “Oh, I think it was Summit OS something T-shirt.” And then when they type that in, somebody else’s sponsored ad comes up.  Well, now they probably grabbed that traffic that you took all that time to warm up. If you end up on the landing page, when you scroll down to the bottom, okay, I want to buy this T-shirt. I’m happy with everything that I’ve seen, but now you’re asking for an email, you’re asking for, like, a bunch of things. You click on a button, it doesn’t work. Those are extra friction points that prevent a person from taking action. When you’re looking at the entire funnel, you got to make sure that from a technical standpoint, from a user experience standpoint, from a getting-in-front-of-them-in-the-right-moment standpoint, everything hits, especially in this digital economy where everything’s very, very fast.  So anything that goes wrong, anything that creates a question, anything that creates a frustration point or any opportunity for somebody else to come in and grab that traffic at that moment of intent, those are friction points that you want to address and you want to track and you want to find. And you can imagine how there’s a lot of complexity in that. There’s a lot of testing, there’s a lot of work to make sure that that doesn’t happen.  That’s fascinating. Do you have a process for how you do this, how to eliminate frictions?  Yeah. We have a team that does QA and walks through the entire thing and has to do constant testing because what we’ve seen is a lot of other agencies are using AI tools and shortcuts. And lo and behold, a lot of these tools don’t work and they give back false positives, false negatives, and it’s not as good as just taking the time to go through the funnel yourself and make sure everything’s working properly. And it sucks because it’s a lot of work, but that’s how you get the best results, is just by having someone double-check it.  And it’s not to say that we don’t use automation. Like, we use a ton of automation, we use a lot of tools. But the final QA is a lot of the time us and the client going through, like, “Okay, everybody, before we hit go, let’s just all go through this before we spend, like, you know, 10K on this and just make sure that everything’s working properly.”  Yeah. Love it. Love it. So you’re building this ad agency, a technical agency, so you focus on making the flawless experience. What drives growth in your business?  That’s a good question. That’s something that, honestly, we’re struggling with a little bit. So if anybody’s following me on social media, I’ve been doing a short series. I’m probably going to finish it off soon, but it’s called Watch Sheldon Struggle to Grow His Agency. And it’s literally how I’ve been trying to figure out how to crack lead generation for ourselves and our journey through, like, where we were maybe about a year ago to where we are today.  And we’re still trying to answer that question for ourselves in terms of, how do we get more leads and more clients in a very difficult economy, in a very difficult time? And we’re trying to figure that out. And people can look up our case studies. I think we’re quite proud of the work that we’ve been able to do, and having that technical know-how has given us a huge advantage in terms of performance numbers. And that alone, in the past, through my network, was enough to keep us busy because people would just seek me out whenever they had a problem with their technical stack or their ads.  I’d say in the last maybe 18 months or so, like a lot of other agencies, the word-of-mouth stuff has kind of dried up, where people are kind of, like, holding back their spend. We’ve had a bunch of contracts that were put on hold because of the economic situation around the world. Nobody knows what’s going on. Everybody wants to hold back spend. Everybody wants to sit and wait. So even though people are still contacting me, the flow of projects has slowed down because people are more hesitant to pull the trigger and go. It’s also taking longer for us to have these conversations. Because that organic piece kind of slowed down, we’ve been trying to find inorganic pieces.  I’ve been doing more networking. I’ve been trying to figure out building out our own funnel, which we should’ve done years ago. The thing that’s driving growth for us right now is probably the things that are not scalable, right? In the age of AI, when you’re working with a business, you want to be working with a person. Like, nobody wants a partner who’s just a machine. So doing the things that are not scalable means really doing the things that are human, having human interactions, having human conversations, going out for coffee with people, meeting people at conventions and workshops and, you know, like, literally just getting our name out there in a way that is more human and just having real conversations.  And despite all the other testing that we’ve done with the cold emails, with the ads, with this, that, and the other thing, like, that seems to be the thing that’s working the most, is just kind of putting my name out there and saying to people, like, “Hey, if you have a problem, come talk to me. We’re not necessarily going to have a contract together, but hopefully we can have a quick coffee and I can at least get you past a technical hurdle.  I can give you some insight into what you’re struggling with and give you a hand.” And that kind of goodwill has led to more conversations and more contracts and new contracts than anything else that we’ve done. For our clients, because our clients are more direct-to-consumer, so they’re usually bigger brands that are selling a quick product, quick service to the general public. They’re not B2B, they’re B2C. On that front, it’s literally what we just talked about, following the AIDA playbook, making sure the funnel’s good, making sure the ads are firing, making sure the data’s there, and then that’s how we get our crazy numbers, like 12X return on ad spend, you know, 14X return on ad spend.  That’s just following the system and doing the work. So for our clients, we have it under control for their growth. For our own growth, for the B2B side, that’s where I’m realizing that, like, we need to step away from all this AI noise, and people are trying to do these AI BDRs and all these things, and it just doesn’t work because people want to have a real human conversation.  Yeah. No, I totally see the same thing. The easier the automation, the more it just becomes noise.  Exactly. It’s democratized automation, which means that, like, it’s no longer the thing that stands out. You have to do something different.  Yeah. And people are becoming resistant, and they recognize if something is AI-created, and they just tune it out, right?  Yeah, exactly. Exactly.  Yeah. It’s fascinating. How much of your time is actually spent on networking and doing the human things as opposed to running your business?  I’m very fortunate that my team mostly runs the day-to-day at this point, so I’m spending most of my time doing all the other stuff. So, like, trying to do the networking, trying to get our name out there, and then everything else is just admin and paperwork. So in terms of actually running the day-to-day of the company, our head of operations, Brent, does a fantastic job of running the team.  Jack, our head of marketing strategy, does an amazing job of making sure the ads are firing properly. Whenever I get involved in the day-to-day, they get annoyed at me because I’m like, I’m coming in, I don’t know what’s going on, and my hair’s on fire. I’m trying to do X, Y, Z, and then I jump out and I just create chaos. So most of the time they’re telling me, like, “Yeah, listen, go out and talk to people. We don’t want you at the office. We don’t want you doing the work.”  So how fast is your product evolving?  Oh, constantly. I mean, the way that I explain it to people, right? A lot of people right now, especially running ads, right? Because that’s our core product, that’s our core service, is running ads and making sure that we maintain that competitive advantage for our clients. Because of the advent of AI, everything’s constantly changing. Already it was a very technical space because a lot of people seem to think that whether or not your ads do well, they think it’s a creative exercise, and I think it was up until about eight months ago.  But today, I would argue that it’s skewed, and it’s more of a technical exercise. Because these ad platforms are running AI algorithms, the quality of the data that you feed into it now is more important than ever. And like I said, there’s been a lot of changes in the last few months to the point where now it’s no longer about how good your content is. It’s about how good your targeting is, how good the data you’re feeding it is, how good your audience is kind of reacting to it, and then making intelligent tweaks to your content based on the feedback that you’re getting back from the AI.  So these are things that are constantly evolving. Like I said, even though the strategy doesn’t change, the tactics and the technology is a constant change. So the AI thing that I was talking about where Google just released or just opened up the option to do advertising with AI responses, that’s less than, I think, three months old. So that’s the new thing that we’re now testing with our clients to see how is this working, how is this working.  The other thing too is that the way I describe it, a lot of people now—the new thing that we just noticed within the last few months—is that people are saying, like, “Oh, I can just use an AI agent to set up my ads.” But these AI agents are based on large language models, right, the LLMs. And the way that large language models work is that they’re trying to give you a statistically accurate response, which is great for certain things, not so great for other things. So the way I tell people is that if you were to take an LLM, again, which is what most of these agents are based on, you were to graph all the possible responses for accuracy, what you would end up with is a bell curve, right?  And on the bell curve, you have on one end, you have these are all the answers that are definitely wrong. And on the other hand, these are also answers that are, like, they’re novel, but we don’t know how accurate they are. And then in the middle, at the top of the bell curve, right in the middle is the statistical most accurate response that it thinks it can give you. So it’s always going for that statistical middle with these LLMs. So when it’s setting up ads and it’s doing strategy, it’s going for what is most likely the safe result, right?  The least interesting.  It’s the least interesting.  Yeah.  Now, when you’re running ads, right, it’s a race. My background is in software and computer science, so when I’m doing coding and I’m using Claude Code, I want statistical middle. I don’t want it trying new things with my code. I don’t want it to be a bad programmer like a junior, but I don’t want it to be doing stuff that’s so advanced and novel that it’s not tested, it’s going to break. I just want the middle, right?  Engineering middle. But when we’re running ads, it’s a race. And if you’re in the middle of the pack in a race, you’ve lost. So one of our big advantages is that we’re using a lot of AI for automation. We’re using a lot of automation tools to do our day-to-day. But when we’re coming up with a strategy and building out the ads, it’s a human that’s doing that because we want to be at this far end that’s going to be ahead of everybody else. We don’t want to be middle of the pack.  So from that sense, it’s constantly changing to keep on top of these things to figure out what’s new, what’s going on. The ad platforms are changing constantly because, you know, the way that we interact with the internet is changing constantly. So, like, yeah, it’s constant, it’s a constant race.  So, but doesn’t that also bring you back to the creative part?  It does.  How to be creative, maybe not design-wise, but some other way?  It does, but in a way that I think a lot of creative agencies don’t understand. Because a creative agency will focus on the story, and they will focus on, you know, telling a good story, and they are thinking, if I can put it this way, they’re thinking very linearly. So one of the big mistakes that we see, like I talk to a lot of other agency owners, and every once in a while I help consult on the side, just to give them some advice in what they’re doing, what’s working and what’s not.  And one of the things that I see a lot is that a lot of these agencies have not understood how the new PMax campaigns and how the new Advantage+ campaigns work, so they’re working against the AI algorithm. So a lot of these other agencies, they’re more content than they are technical. So what they’re doing is they’re trying to tell a good story from the content, and then what they’re trying to do is they’re trying to find the demographic that they think will match with the content. So they’re content first, right?  So what they’re trying to do is, if they’re putting together a story for a product, they then in their heads think, “Okay. Well, I think I need to go for, you know, women living in suburbs that are between this age and this age and this income range and are interested in XYZ thing, and that’s how I’m going to set up the system, and then they’re going to see my ad, and then there should be a connection there.” That’s not how it works anymore. So in that setup, I can see how it’s super important to understand the story and get all that done.  The modern way that we’re doing things that’s different is that when we’re building out our content, we work with the content agency or we work with the marketing team to say, “What is your interest piece that’s going to get people to stop scrolling? What’s the interest piece that’s going to get people to want to read more? How do we build that desire for them? And then give me those in different assets, different pictures, different videos, different texts, different descriptions, different headers.”  What we then do is we take all of that content, and we put it into an asset library on PMax. So what we do is instead of telling PMax to look for XYZ demographic, we don’t tell it to do any of that. We let it go broad, and it does the opposite. What it does is, and of course, this is after the caveat. We’ve already set up the landing pages. We’re collecting all the data. We’ve tested all that. The data modeling is solid, so the entire funnel, all the micro actions, everything, we know that is being fed cleanly into the system, because that’s important. What the system’s then going to do is it’s going to, like, not just A/B test, but it’s going to take every combination that it can think of with all the different assets, with the videos, the text, the this and that and the other thing, and it’s going to start testing all the different combinations quickly.  And mixed in there is all the interest, attention, desire, everything. The algorithm is then going to figure out, based on all the data points that it has on us, it has, like, 57,000 data points, I think, Meta has on us. When a user has this pattern of data, they seem to resonate with this combination of assets. This pattern resonates with this combination. So bit by bit, what it does is it will start creating audiences for you that resonate with different kind of, like, asset packages. And then lo and behold, what we see is that emergent is the attention content all gets grouped together, and now we have an audience that’s ready for attention.  The interest piece, this is all the content that we had flagged for interest. Here’s our interest audience. And then the AI is basically working to figure out for you, not based on anything other than random data points and patterns, what is the audience for you? And then it’ll be able to then say, “Okay, now that we have a pattern to look for, we have, like, another 100,000 people that match this pattern and we can start advertising to them. And that’s the proper way to do it. But the thing that people are uncomfortable with is that it’s a black box. We don’t know what their demographic is. We don’t know where they live on the internet. We don’t know what their interests are. We don’t know any of that. It’s just random data points and math that has created this audience for us. And if you were to extract those people and put two or three of them next to each other, you’d go, like, “I don’t understand why these people have anything in common.”  But somewhere in the data, the data is signaling that they are going to resonate with your content. So this is what I mean. Like, the content is still important, but I think it’s skewed, like, a little bit. I’d say, like, now it’s, like, 60% data and math and 40% content, whereas before, it was much more heavy on the content side.  Very interesting. And this is how your platforms will find the lookalike audience based on your sample audience?  Exactly. Exactly.  Yeah. That’s fascinating. So other than the lead generation, what’s one thing that you’re actively trying to figure out in your business?  Other than that, we’re just having a lot of fun with all these new AI tools. I’m getting a few members of my team working with Claude. A few of us are working with ChatGPT. We’re trying to see, like, what these platforms can do, what are the things it can automate. I think one of the really cool things is now something that used to take, like, weeks to create code around, it can be done in an afternoon.  So it’s like, as soon as we identify a business problem, something that my team has to do, like, you know, three or four times a week that slows us down, now I can tell my devs, like, “Hey, guys, like, this is a business problem that we have. Can you guys just come up with a quick tool to do?” And we can build it, and we can just have it. So we’re trying to experiment more and more with how we can kind of speed up our development process.  And because we’ve been developing for so long, there’s a few things that are kind of like the—a few of the standard ways to run a development team that are now starting to be questioned because these LLMs are getting better and better at taking over some of these mundane tasks, that we’re starting to revisit what is our QA strategy when we’re actually coding. Like, what’s a more important skill set? One of the things I think that we’re trying to navigate right now is what is our hiring process for interns going forward?  So in the past, when we were looking for juniors and interns, the skills that we were looking for was like, what is your ability to figure out the answer to this question, right? Given a complex question, given a complex task, how are you going to be able to figure out how to solve this? Because of the rise of LLMs, finding the answer is no longer as important as asking the smart question. And the challenge that we’re facing right now is that asking a smart question requires critical thinking. A lot of critical thinking requires experience. The best critical thinkers have decades of experience behind them. How do you get that from an 18-year-old who’s coming from school?  They literally have no experience. That’s why they’re coming to us as interns. So we’re trying to figure out, like, okay, how do we square that? And we’re very proud of the internship work that we do. It’s a way for us to give back to the community. We work with a lot of the colleges and universities in town. Like I said, I myself came from having taught high school, and I’m very passionate about education, so I want to do good by that industry, by those students.  But we’re having a bit of a hard time because we don’t want to necessarily disadvantage them, but we’re also trying to figure out how do you find a good critical thinker among kids with no experience. So that’s probably the thing that we’re trying to figure out right now.  Yeah. That is fascinating. And that is a big issue for young people coming up, how to get those internships. Internships are harder to get, and probably this is the main reason for it, because people use technology to replace the inexperienced people.  The bar has definitely gone much higher. And again, we’ve experienced this as well, where, like, we’ll have a task, and we can ask an intern to do it, and they’ll kind of, you know, grudgingly figure it out and do it. But if it’s a critical task that needs to be done, that same exact task can be handed off to an LLM, and it’ll just get it done. Yeah. It won’t be amazing quality the way that, you know, a senior developer will do it, but it’ll be good enough, and it’ll be probably better than what the intern can do.  So if you’re only looking at the task from a purely productive lens, well, I’ll get a better result from the LLM, so then the intern has no purpose. We’re having to reshape the way we think about this, where if we are truly building an internship program, at that point, it’s not about the productivity, it’s about the learning that the intern gets out of it. So it becomes a teaching thing. So we have to be okay with handing off this task to the intern, knowing that an LLM could probably do a better job.  But they need to learn how to do it first so that they can rise above it. And I think what we’re seeing right now is that companies are not mandated to teach. They don’t care about the learning of the intern. They care about the production of the thing. And in the past, it was cheaper to get the intern to do it because there was no other option. But I think companies are realizing, like, well, we can just have the LLM do it, and it’ll be better and faster. Why do we need the interns? And that’s why these opening early positions are not being handed out anymore. The problem with that is that you don’t get senior-level people without training them up as juniors, and we’re giving all of that learning opportunity to machines.  Yeah.  So what does our future look like with that gap? What does the future look like for these kids coming out of school? Like, these are all obviously much bigger questions than my company can ever answer. This is a bigger societal question, but this is what we’re seeing kind of on the front lines, having a very strong internship program. We’re struggling with this idea, like, where is this next generation coming from?  That’s scary. That’s very scary. So who are the ideal clients that, if they listen to this podcast, you want them to contact you? Yeah. So basically, our biggest successes are with brands that are very strong on the wholesale side and are already in retail stores. So a lot of times what happens is you have a company that does an amazing product. They’re already in Walmart, they’re already in Costco, they’re already at Winners, and they have built up a very successful wholesale B2B business. They then launch a Shopify store, and they want to start getting the brands and start building a relationship directly with their consumers.  And then they’re realizing, like, “Oh, this is a different game, and we’re struggling.” And then at that point, it’s easy for us to come in and help because they have a strong offering already. They have a wholesale side that can drive their growth. And our job is to make sure that we start help building out that direct-to-consumer side by making sure that all of the data is mapped out properly. We like working with companies like that because they already have a very good idea of their marketing, why their product is successful.  They know which products are successful and not, so we can skip a lot of the learning part, and we’re just putting a megaphone on their existing brand and their existing offering in the most efficient way possible to make sure that, you know, right away out of the gate, that their D2C business is going to be just as strong as their wholesale business.  Yeah. Oh, that’s fascinating. So essentially, you pick those companies that have a good product already because it’s tested in wholesale channels and the Costcos and Walmarts and the Amazons of the world, and you help them tap directly the consumers through very targeted advertising.  Exactly, exactly. And then once we have that basic foundation set up, then we start doing interesting things like, how do we get the newsletters out? How do we help them get their marketing team to have more of a direct relationship with their end customer? Because when you go to a Costco or you go to a Walmart and you pick up a product, what happens is that the retailer holds the relationship, right?  It’s a way to help them offset that. And it’s kind of a tightrope that we have to walk because we recognize that the relationship with the wholesaler is still key. So whatever we do, we have to be conscious that we’re not going to upset that balance.  Yeah.  And that everybody’s winning, everybody’s making money, everybody’s growing, nobody’s getting upset with one side or the other. So because we’ve had experience working with national brands, we are positioned to understand what that relationship looks like. We know from our client side what it’s like when they’re talking to the Costco rep, what it’s like when they’re talking to the Walmart rep, what those subtle differences are in culture, and what we need to be aware of because, you know, we want to make sure that nothing that we do on our side jeopardizes that relationship.  Yeah. And then the big companies—what they want is they want to commoditize you, and they want to control the relationship, the brand. They want their white-label brand on top of your product. Yeah.  Which is their right. I mean, they’re the retailers. They’re the big guys.  Yeah. If you don’t build your own brand, then you’re going to slip into the white label because you have no leverage over the big, big stores. But if you have a strong brand, you have leverage, and then the whole relationship works better. So it’s very interesting. Okay.  So if people would like to learn about how they can do that, how they can go from wholesale to D2C, and would like to learn about how you can help them, where should they go and how can they contact you?  Yeah, so there’s a lot of information on our website, so drivemarketing.ca, so the Canadian extension. Yeah. And then I think I’m the only Sheldon Poon that’s really active on LinkedIn. I think there’s one other one that’s maybe in Hong Kong somewhere, but that’s not me. He’s, I think, an older guy. So if people look me up on LinkedIn under Sheldon Poon and just message me, I’m pretty active there and I try to answer everybody.  And what I love is helping people out. Even if people have no intention of hiring us, I’m like, “That’s totally fine.” Send me your questions because I like to be able to help and answer and know what people are struggling with because it helps our work. It just gives me an opportunity to have conversations with people.  Awesome. So if you run a brand that has already cracked the wholesale channels, but you want to build your direct-to-consumer, you know, hit up Sheldon on LinkedIn, Sheldon Poon, and have a chat with him. As you can see, he’s a great person to chat with. And if you enjoyed this show, then stay tuned because every week we have a couple of entrepreneurs who are building great companies who come and share their frameworks with you. So Sheldon, thanks for coming and sharing your wisdom, and thanks for listening.  Yeah. Thank you. This was great. It was my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me on.  Important Links: Sheldon's LinkedIn Sheldon's  website

A two-hour wait in the summer heat. Overpriced churros. A parking lot that takes 45 minutes to escape. And yet - you remember every single ride, every firework, every detail. That's not an accident. That's Disneyland. Disney doesn't create magic through one big moment. They create it through thousands of tiny, intentional details working together. And in this episode, we dig into what that means for B2B marketers with our special guest Kris Lande, CMO at OutSystems. Together, we explore how to design end-to-end customer experiences that people actually remember, why the last impression is the lasting impression, and how to build community into your content strategy in a way no AI-generated campaign can replicate. About our guest, Kris Lande Kris Lande is Chief Marketing Officer of OutSystems, where she leads global marketing strategy and brand growth. With more than two decades of experience driving marketing for high-growth SaaS companies, Kris brings deep expertise in product marketing, category creation, and community-led growth. Before joining OutSystems, Kris spent over 13 years at Salesforce, where she led teams across product marketing, developer relations, and Trailhead. Earlier in her career, she led marketing at Escapia, a SaaS startup later acquired by Expedia. Kris holds a degree in Business Administration and International Business from Washington State University. About OutSystems OutSystems is the Agentic Systems Platform for companies who need to build governed AI apps and agents, fast. Global brands like Heineken and Bosch trust OutSystems every day to build everything from mission-critical life-saving apps to  AI agents that can automate their oldest, clunkiest legacy processes. Essentially, OutSystems gives our customers comprehensive AI tools under one secure roof, turning IT into a fast-moving innovation engine. What B2B Marketers Can Learn From Disneyland: The last impression is the lasting impression. Disney doesn't just nail the opening - they engineer the ending. Kris applies this directly to her event strategy: at OutSystems ONE, their annual conference in Amsterdam, the closing session ended with a full spirit tunnel - staff lining the exit with music, dancing, and high fives. "I want them to walk away feeling gratitude and feeling celebrated and feeling energized as they walked out that door." In B2B, most experiences just... end. The brands that create magic are the ones that design the goodbye. Identify friction points - then design around them, not away from them. Disney doesn't eliminate the wait. They make the queue part of the experience. Kris takes the same approach to events: knowing that European attendees tend to arrive late, her team put a mobile DJ, a saxophone player, and stroopwafels outside the doors before the morning keynote. "We made it a party outside because we knew that was going to be a friction point." The lesson: don't pretend friction doesn't exist. Find it, name it, and design something remarkable around it. Everyone's in marketing - culture is how you deliver on the brand promise. Disney's magic doesn't live in one department. It lives in every cast member, every queue, every trash can placement. Kris ties this to a principle she carries into every team: "Brand is a promise to the customer, and culture is how you actually deliver on that promise." That culture comes through in the SDR call, the webinar, the email copy - everywhere. "I believe everyone's in marketing. As employees, we are representatives of the culture." Quote"When you care and you're passionate about the details, your customers are gonna feel that. They can feel when you care about something. They can feel when you brought fun into something. And if you care, they will care." - Kris Lande Time Stamps [1:35] Meet Kris Lande, CMO at OutSystems [2:08] Why Disneyland? A Non-Disney Adult Makes the Case [4:06] What Is Disneyland? A Brief History of Intentional Experience Design [9:21] The Details That Make the Magic - And What Marketers Can Learn [13:42] Evolving Without Losing What Makes You, You [18:40] The Last Impression Is the Lasting Impression [22:11] Designing Around Friction Points [24:07] Building for the 10th Version, Not Just the First [28:31] Disney's Weenies - And Why Marketers Need Them Too [40:14] Community as Content Strategy [42:38] Authenticity in the Age of AI [45:48] Top Tips for Better Events [48:10] Final Thoughts and Takeaways LinksConnect with Kris on LinkedInLearn more about OutSystems About Remarkable! Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is "Solomon" by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, we break down the latest wild headlines across sports, legal drama, and bizarre investments.​Rewind​Brandon Clarke Updates: Officials release the cause of death for Brandon Clarke, confirming it as an accidental overdose from a combination of heroin and cocaine.​James Harden Off the Hook: Harden avoids a criminal record and jail time after completing an alternative resolution program following his June misdemeanor gun charge.​Kawhi's Phantom Sponsorship: Inside Kawhi Leonard's multi-million-dollar deal with scoreboard manufacturer Daktronics—a B2B company that didn't need a celebrity endorser and reportedly got zero work in return.​Headline News​The Motion Ventures Scam & Mysterious Death: Three NFL players try to recover millions lost in a Shopify e-commerce scheme run by Mohamed Coulibaly—who was recently found dead in a swimming pool. Plus, the eyebrow-raising connection to former Arizona Cardinals GM Steve Keim and a questionable GoFundMe.​Trent Williams' Missing Porsche: The 49ers star is facing a $240,000 lawsuit after allegedly skipping 46 months of lease payments on a Porsche 911 that no one can seem to locate.​Biggest Pickle of the Week​The $10 Million Bat Flying Lawsuit: Yankee fan Stephanie Duluc is suing the team for $10 million after getting struck by Jose Ramirez's broken bat, claiming a traumatic brain injury and severe light sensitivity—despite being active on public job promotions ever since

Running a physical products brand over the last few years has meant navigating supply chain hurdles that no operational playbook could have predicted.   In this episode of Retail War Games, Bobby Djavaheri, President of Yedi Houseware Appliances, breaks down how his family built a 40-year housewares brand from the ground up. Bobby shares the inside story of transitioning from traditional B2B distribution to Amazon marketplace domination, landing on Oprah's Favorite Things list over a dozen times, and fighting through the massive ocean freight crisis that sent container prices skyrocketing to $35,000.  

In this episode of the HR business marketing podcast, A Better HR Business, Ben speaks with Cary Sparrow, Founder and CEO of WageScape, a labor market intelligence company transforming how organizations understand hiring, pay, and workforce trends through real-time AI-powered data. A former U.S. Navy nuclear submarine officer, Cary has more than 35 years of leadership experience spanning engineering, global consulting, and HR analytics, including executive roles at Willis Towers Watson and Cargill. He is passionate about using data, technology, and high-performing teams to solve complex workforce challenges and help organizations make smarter, more confident decisions. WageScape delivers real-time labor market and compensation intelligence through one of the largest continuously updated workforce datasets available. Its AI-powered platform helps organizations gain deeper insights into hiring demand, pay trends, and talent markets across the globe, enabling better workforce planning, business strategy, and AI-driven decision-making with reliable, high-quality data. What You'll Learn in This Episode: A smarter approach to client acquisition by leveraging current labor market insights. The specific consulting use cases powered by real-time wage and hiring data. How Cary Sparrow built WageScape—and why trust and partnerships are at the heart of marketing and business growth. Episode highlights: Cary's career journey: from US Navy officer to HR analytics leader to tech entrepreneur. The inspiration behind founding WageScape and how it answers long-standing HR compensation questions. What WageScape does and the global scale of its labor market intelligence platform. Typical use cases for WageScape's data across HR, consulting, and financial services. The challenge and value of collecting and cleaning real-time pay and hiring data. How WageScape's approach removes the pain of outdated manual compensation research. The importance of curated, high-quality data versus relying on generic AI-generated answers. How consultants and consulting firms use WageScape to improve services, margins, and client retention. Strategies for client retention and delivering consistent value. Marketing & growth: Building awareness through partnerships rather than traditional marketing funnels, and the benefits of value-based co-marketing. Giving away limited data access as a deliberate marketing and trust-building strategy. Advice for HR tech founders on modern marketing, trust, and partnering within the crowded information space. Marketing and Business Growth: Cary explains that WageScape, as a self-funded company, focuses on building targeted partnerships instead of traditional (and expensive) mass marketing. By aligning with industry leaders, providing valuable data, and leveraging the trust that established partners have with their audiences, WageScape efficiently extends its reach and drives growth. Giving away useful sample data through associations and industry channels acts as both a marketing funnel and ongoing brand builder. Resources & Links Mentioned: Company's website: www.wagescape.com Cary's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/carysparrow Thanks, Cary! Check out this B2B podcast launch service. About The A Better HR Business Podcast The A Better HR Business shares strategies, tactics, success stories, and more about marketing for HR consultancies and marketing for HR tech companies, and how to get more clients. Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you don't miss future episodes. For show notes and to see details of our previous guests, check out the podcast page here: www.GetMoreHRClients.com/Podcast HR BUSINESS GROWTH RESOURCES Get the new book - Grow A Successful HR Business Your Way Launch your own business podcast: B2B Podcast Agency VISIT GET MORE HR CLIENTS Want more clients for your HR-related consultancy or HR Tech business? Visit the Get More HR Clients website for articles, newsletters, podcasts, videos, resources, and more at www.getmorehrclients.com.

A 20% appointment show rate might look like a sales failure—until you understand what came before it. This episode examines why sales systems have to be improved one constraint at a time, and why abandoning the process when the next problem appears can erase the progress you've already made.What You'll Learn in This EpisodeWhy a bad metric can still represent meaningful progress.How sales constraints reveal themselves sequentially as the system improves.Why fixing hiring, training, qualification, show rates, discovery, and closing in the right order matters.How quitting when the next constraint appears can create the false belief that outbound sales doesn't work.//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

Welcome back to Good Morning BSS World podcast!What does it take to lead large, international and multicultural organizations effectively? In this episode of Good Morning BSS World, I talk with Peter Ochman, Executive Advisor to Boards and Executive Leadership Teams, about global leadership, transformation, cultural diversity and the human side of running international businesses.Born in Poland and raised in Australia, Peter has built a global career working with large organizations across technology, banking, insurance, consulting and other industries. His experience includes leading complex transformations and international teams across Europe, Asia and other regions.The conversation explores the real challenges of managing multicultural and multinational teams. How should leaders deal with different communication styles, cultural expectations and approaches to hierarchy? How can organizations build trust, respect and integrity across borders? And what can leaders do when cultural differences create misunderstandings or conflict?Peter also shares practical examples from his global leadership experience, including working with teams in countries such as South Korea, Kenya, Japan, Germany and Poland. One of the key messages is that diversity should not simply be tolerated, it can make organizations stronger, more adaptable and better prepared for change.We also discuss leadership development, talent, AI and the future of work. Peter explains why leaders should focus less on the technology itself and more on the business impact technology can create. His advice for emerging leaders is equally practical: surround yourself with great people, embrace opportunities before you feel completely ready, hire for potential and stay curious.A conversation about global business leadership, transformation, multicultural teams, diversity, trust and the human impact of technology.Links:Peter Ochman on Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-ochman/  ****************************  My name is Wiktor Doktór and on daily basis I run Pro Progressio Club - https://proprogressio.com/en/activity/pro-progressio-club/1 - it's a community of many private companies and public sector organizations that care about the development of business relations in the B2B model. In the Good Morning BSS World podcast, apart from solo episodes, I share interviews with experts and specialists from global BPO/GBS industry.If you want to learn more about me, please visit my social media channels: YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/wiktordoktor Here is also link to the English podcasts Playlist - https://bit.ly/GoodMorningBSSWorldPodcastYT LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wiktordoktor You can also write to me. My email address is - kontakt(@) wiktordoktor.pl  ****************************  This Podcast is supported by Patrons:Marzena Sawicka https://www.linkedin.com/in/marzena-sawicka-a9644a23/Przemysław Sławiński https://www.linkedin.com/in/przemys%C5%82aw-s%C5%82awi%C5%84ski-155a4426/Damian Ruciński https://www.linkedin.com/in/damian-ruci%C5%84ski/Szymon Kryczka https://www.linkedin.com/in/szymonkryczka/Grzegorz Ludwin https://www.linkedin.com/in/gludwin/Adam Furmańczuk https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-agilino/Igor Tkach - https://www.linkedin.com/in/igortkach/Damian Wróblewski – https://www.linkedin.com/in/damianwroblewski/Paweł Łopatka - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pawellopatka/Ewelina Szindler – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ewelina-szindler-zarz%C4%85dzanie-mark%C4%85-osobist%C4%85-0497a0212/Wiktor Doktór Jr - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wiktor-dokt%C3%B3r-jr-916297188/Agata Stolarz - https://www.linkedin.com/in/agata-stolarz/Hubert Antczak - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hubert-antczak/  Once you listen, give a like, subscribe and join Patrons of Good Morning BSS World as well. Here are two links to do so:Patronite - https://patronite.pl/wiktordoktor  Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/wiktordoktor Or if you liked this episode and would like to buy me virtual coffee, you can use this link https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wiktordoktor - by doing so you support the growth and distribution of this podcast. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/good-morning-bss-world--4131868/support.

My guest today is Eric Vishria, a General Partner at Benchmark.  Eric has spent his career in software and cloud, and few people know the history of these markets as well as he does. What makes him special is his ability to use that history to make sense of today.  We discuss what the rise of AWS teaches us about AI, what he has learned from investing in Fireworks, Sierra, and Cerebras, and how the criteria for winning have changed for founders and investors.  Please enjoy my conversation with Eric Vishria. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  ----- Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print magazine and private audio experience, including exclusive profiles and early access to select episodes. Subscribe at ⁠colossus.com/subscribe⁠. ----- ⁠Ramp's⁠ mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ramp.com/invest⁠⁠ to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. ----- Trusted by thousands of businesses, ⁠Vanta⁠ continuously monitors your security posture and streamlines audits so you can win enterprise deals and build customer trust without the traditional overhead. Invest Like the Best listeners get a special offer of $1,000 off Vanta when you go to ⁠vanta.com/invest⁠.  ----- WorkOS⁠ is the infrastructure B2B and AI-native companies use to sell to enterprise. It covers everything enterprise security requires: SSO, SCIM, RBAC, Audit Logs, AI governance, and more. Trusted by 2,000+ fast-growing companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor, and Vercel. ----- Rogo is the AI platform for finance. They're building agents for Wall Street that are trained to understand how bankers and investors actually do work: from diligence and modeling, to turning analysis into deliverables. To learn more, visit rogo.ai/invest. ----- ⁠Ridgeline⁠ has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Visit⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ridgeline.ai⁠. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant. Timestamps: (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like The Best (00:02:20) Learning the World Through Fireworks (00:05:42) AWS Was Going to Eat Everything (00:07:40) The Zero-Sum Thinking Trap (00:09:01) Comparing Cloud and AI Adoption (00:11:03) Becoming Enterprise's AI Sherpa (00:13:05) Building Sandcastles (00:14:55) The Return to Being Technical (00:17:13) The Shifting Competitive Frontier (00:22:10) Why the Old Playbook Fails (00:27:53) Energy as the Binding Constraint (00:29:38) The Cerebras Story (00:37:57) The Virtue of Productive Naivete (00:39:19) What Robotics Still Needs (00:45:58) What Makes a Great Board Partner (00:51:13) Raising A Growth Fund (00:55:39) What the Big Winners Taught Him (00:57:37) Hard Work Versus the Hole-in-One (00:58:38) The Best Reasons to Go Public (01:01:09) Debates Inside Benchmark (01:02:16) What If It All Works (01:03:35) What Geoff Hinton Got Wrong

Lola Oyafemi, a messaging strategist who helps B2B founders, entrepreneurs, coaches, and service providers communicate their value in a way that makes them impossible to ignore.Through messaging strategy, positioning, communication coaching, and offer refinement, Lola helps clients uncover the hidden gaps in their messaging, remove confusion, and create clarity, authority, trust, and demand.Now, Lola's journey from taking her expertise out of a 9 to 5 and building a business she has grown for the past ten years demonstrates the power of owning your value, positioning it clearly, and turning what you know into paid programs and premium offers.And while currently launching her group coaching program, Create Evidence, she continues to help people say what they really mean in a way that others understand, trust, and act on.Here's where to find more:Website: http://lolaoyafemi.com/ Facebook: http://facebook.com/lola.oyafemi Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/lolaoyafemihttps://lolaoyafemi.kit.com/cna________________________________________________Welcome to The Unforget Yourself Show where we use the power of woo and the proof of science to help you identify your blind spots, and get over your own bullshit so that you can do the fucking thing you ACTUALLY want to do!We're Mark and Katie, the founders of Unforget Yourself and the creators of the Unforget Yourself System and on this podcast, we're here to share REAL conversations about what goes on inside the heart and minds of those brave and crazy enough to start their own business.From the accidental entrepreneur to the laser-focused CEO, we find out how they got to where they are today, not by hearing the go-to story of their success, but talking about how we all have our own BS to deal with and it's through facing ourselves that we find a way to do the fucking thing.Along the way, we hope to show you that YOU are the most important asset in your business (and your life - duh!).Being a business owner is tough! With vulnerability and humor, we get to the real story behind their success and show you that you're not alone._____________________Find all our links to all the things like the socials, how to work with us and how to apply to be on the podcast here:https://linktr.ee/unforgetyourself

Amazon keeps raising the bar. Steve Dennis and Michael LeBlanc open with the retailer's blockbuster quarter: massive gains in AWS and advertising, staggering AI capex, and retail revenue up 16% year over year, up from 12% last year. Third-party sellers now drive more than 60% of the business, and Citi pegs underlying GMV growth near 10%, roughly double the industry average. Amazon's B2B division alone now tops $60 billion, bigger than all but eleven U.S. retailers. Then the hosts dig into the agentic commerce numbers Amazon disclosed as Rufus folds into Alexa shopping, why sample bias demands caution here, and how grocery momentum is turning Amazon into a mega market-share threat.  Then: Shopify's revenue up 32%, and the tale-of-two-cities reality that a handful of giants now drive nearly all e-commerce growth. A mid-year check on Steve's Prediction #8 — luxury's future won't be evenly distributed. LVMH, Kering, and Capri lag on China softness and war induced Gulf weakness, while Hermès, Ralph Lauren, Richemont, and Zegna keep delivering outsized results. Live from the CommerceNext Growth Show: Kartik Hosanagar. He's Wharton's John C. Hower Professor of Technology and Digital Business, author of A Human's Guide to Machine Intelligence, and co-founder of Bliss Labs. His argument: the biggest shift in retail isn't a new technology or channel. It's a new customer. Treating AI as another distribution channel is the same mistake movie studios made with Netflix. There's no marketing science for AI yet. $9.99 pricing, scarcity, social proof — a model may not respond to any of it. Kartik walks through the Ridge wallet case: invisible in ChatGPT's "gifts for men" results, then the default recommendation within three weeks, complete with a hallucinated promotion. Every retailer faces the same fork: efficiency or meaning. The middle is the most dangerous place to stand. Kartik also details the simulation sandboxes that let brands test counterfactuals in a day instead of eight weeks, why you can't just ask an LLM why it picked a brand, and the three attitudes retailers need now: curious, experimental, collaborative Back in studio: Wayfair's encouraging quarter and Steve's change of heart, Warby Parker's mixed report as store count passes 400, tariff rebates ($100 billion of $160 billion already repaid, more tariffs looming), and whether live selling has hit its tipping point with QVC out of bankruptcy and Whatnot valued at $20 billion. About UsSteve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling author of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 interviews worldwide. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including The Remarkable Retail Podcast, The Voice of Retail, The Food Professor, The FEED powered by Loblaw and the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast. He has been recognized by the NRF as a global Top Retail Voice for 2025 and 2026 and continues to be a ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert for the fifth year in a row.

The hotel industry is undergoing a major transformation—and hotels that continue operating the way they always have may struggle to keep up.In this episode, David Millili sits down with Kathleen Cullen, Executive Vice President of PTG Consulting, to unpack the major shifts disrupting hospitality today. From the rise of AI and changing distribution models to B2B discount stacking, revenue management, technology, and evolving sales strategies, Kathleen shares what hotel leaders need to understand to stay competitive.Kathleen explains why hotels must rethink how they approach revenue, sales, marketing, PR, distribution, and technology—and why profitability, not simply top-line revenue, should be the ultimate goal. She also discusses how AI is changing the way travelers discover hotels, why fast and accurate responses to RFPs are becoming critical, and how independent hotels can use their flexibility as a competitive advantage.In this episode, you'll learn:How B2B distribution and discount stacking are disrupting hotel ratesWhy AI is becoming a new audience hotel must be discoverable throughShould Hotel Leaders Prioritize Profitability Over RevenueThe hotels can rethink sales and RFP response strategiesWhy creating a unique hotel story and customer experience mattersWatch the FULL EPISODE on YouTube: https://youtu.be/uBEODwtL2xYLinks:Kathleen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathleen-cullen-ptgconsulting/PTG Consulting: https://www.ptgconsulting.com/For full show notes head to: https://themodernhotelier.com/episode/317Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-..Join the conversation on today's episode on The Modern Hotelier LinkedIn pageConnect with Steve and David:Steve: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8E...David: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-mil.

What is a venture capitalist??? On today's Back in Business episode of AUIMLB, Jess Schultz, co-founder of the Amplify Group, gives Mary a crash course in turning startup dreams into actual revenue. From banking and SaaS sales to venture capital and now running her own consultancy for early-stage B2B startups, Jess has seen the startup world from just about every angle. Together, she and Mary get into GTM, startup funding, angel investing, and the often-misunderstood world of equity.Need some expert help for your startup? Head to Jess's website: www.amplifyscales.comHave a question or thought for Mary? Leave us a voicemail for your chance to be featured on the show: https://www.allupinmyladybusiness.com/voicemail/Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, then come hang with us on Instagram (instagram.com/allupinmyladybusiness) & Threads (threads.com/@allupinmyladybusiness)!Learn more about A Mary Nisi Production: www.amarynisiproduction.comFind your next DJ at Toast & Jam: toastandjamdjs.comLaunch your DJ business with the Toast & Jam Lab: lab.toastandjamdjs.comOriginally aired April 16, 2024Support the show

A husband-and-wife team bought a senior moving company right before COVID and grew it from 6 jobs a month to 420 projects a year with zero paid marketing.Michael and Tammy Bilek, co-owners of Honoring Aging, Inc., share how they survived a pandemic in an industry serving seniors, grew by showing up with cookies instead of AI funnels, and built a business that runs without them.00:00:00 Introduction00:05:40Q: Should you buy an existing business or start from scratch?A: Michael Bilek and Tammy Bilek decided buying made more sense because Tammy had 13 years of knowledge that would have been lost starting over.00:14:21Q: How do you keep a business alive when COVID threatens your clients?A: Michael Bilek and Tammy Bilek partnered with communities and refused to shut down because seniors still needed to move.00:29:05Q: Does showing up in person work better than AI lead generation?A: Tammy Bilek explains that showing up with cookies and asking about clients generates more business than any automated system.00:49:44Q: How do you build a business that runs without you?A: Tammy Bilek describes the moment she felt caught up for the first time, realizing the team could operate without her.00:59:01Q: Is it okay if your business never makes you super rich?A: Michael Bilek shares that losing a friend at 52 reinforced that living well matters more than wealth.Subscribe and share this with a founder who needs a reminder that relationships beat algorithms.

When I was brand new in my first professional sales position, my manager told me to "Spend 20% of your time planning and preparing for other 80%. You'll accomplish far more than if you don't." I have made that a rule that to live by for 30 years. That doesn't mean that you take every Friday off.  But it does mean that you discipline yourself to adhere to a cycle of planning events and processes.  *************************************************** Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert and a Christian Business thought leader.  He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations.  In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better. The Sales Excellence Club Goal - setting Personal goal setting

En este episodio analizamos cómo ha cambiado el entorno de negocios en Venezuela tras el proceso de apertura económica y las necesidades urgentes de reconstrucción.A pesar del impacto en las proyecciones y de las prioridades inmediatas del mercado, las oportunidades no han desaparecido; han evolucionado. Te explico en detalle las cuatro arenas clave donde empresas, inversionistas, emprendedores y cadenas de suministro pueden enfocar sus estrategias para competir de manera efectiva en el entorno actual:Recuperación de la demanda: Prioridades de consumo y segmentos en crecimiento.Nuevos actores en el mercado: Mayor rivalidad y llegada de nuevos competidores.Transformación de la experiencia: Cómo adaptar la propuesta de valor para clientes más exigentes.La arena de la reconstrucción: Infraestructura, logística, financiamiento y servicios B2B en la nueva dinámica del país.Haz el Test de Habilidades para Competir: https://up9gt9u6u2z.typeform.com/to/Y213pIkYAl completar este test, podrás identificar tus fortalezas y áreas de oportunidad en habilidades clave que te permitirán aportar valor y ayudar a la competitividad de la empresa u organización, sin importar tu rol o función dentro de ella.

In this special milestone episode, we turn the tables on our very own host, Gary Gamp. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of  Smart/Tasking —the boutique business consultancy Gary co-founded with Niall Anderson—George Clode sits down with both co-founders to dissect what it really takes to build an enduring B2B business.Gary and Niall pull back the curtain on their decade-long journey. They discuss how they broke the traditional consulting model by focusing on execution and outcomes rather than just giving advice, how they have kept their co-founder relationship strong over a 25-year working history, and the tough business pivots they had to make along the way.From the realities of "active" consulting to navigating a massive post-COVID restructure, this episode is a raw, practical masterclass in entrepreneurial resilience. Plus, Gary and Niall share the three core pillars required to survive ten years of market changes, and explain why the rise of AI means we must focus on "assistive intelligence" rather than complete automation.Key takeaways from this episode:Outcome Over Activity: Customers don't buy features; they buy results. Building a lasting business means being ruthlessly obsessed with delivering the ultimate outcome, rather than just tracking hours or compiling reports.The Power of Reflective Learning: Those who are reflective learn faster. To survive market shifts, a business must constantly look back at what went well, what could be improved, and make proactive, conscious decisions to pivot.Aligning the Value Stack: A successful partnership or team relies on shared values. You must be prepared to challenge one another without taking it personally, and be selective enough to walk away from clients or associates who don't fit your core culture.AI as an Assistive Motor: Don't treat AI as a magic bullet. Fix your data and process foundations first, then use AI as "assistive intelligence" to automate the mundane so your people can focus on human-centric strategy and relationship building.Send us Fan MailLinks & references: https://www.thecompanydoctor.com/Gary Gamp: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garygampGeorge Clode: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgeclodeGary's new book, Career Catalyst - available online now: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Career-Catalyst-Secret-Skills-School-ebook/dp/B0DFYVG6XY/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

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

How to build a relationship while selling has become one of the biggest challenges in modern B2B sales. Brian Porter believes AI isn't replacing great salespeople. It's making them more valuable. AI can write emails. It can build prospect lists. It can even start conversations. But according to Brian Porter, Chief Customer Officer at Ernest, every new technology makes authentic human connection even more valuable. In this conversation with Harry Kendlbacher, they explore why relationship selling still outperforms automation, why trust is earned through consistency instead of charisma, and why the best salespeople eventually stop relying on cold calls altogether. If every seller has access to the same AI tools, what actually makes someone worth buying from? What We Cover: - Why handwritten notes still outperform many digital outreach tactics - The small consistency mistakes that quietly destroy trust - Why listening is a stronger sales skill than presenting - How great customer relationships become your future pipeline ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 Why relationship selling matters more than ever 01:30 AI vs human connection in modern B2B sales 07:39 The overlooked habit that builds customer trust 11:18 Consultative selling starts with listening, not pitching 15:15 Why elite B2B prospecting becomes networking over time 22:54 The traits every top B2B sales leader shares About Brian Porter Brian Porter is the Chief Customer Officer at Ernest, where he leads customer relationships and commercial strategy for one of North America's leading packaging companies. With decades of experience building high-performing sales organizations, Brian is known for his practical philosophy that lasting growth comes from trust, consistency, and genuine human relationships rather than transactional selling. Connect with Brian Porter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-porter-6422a39/

Christian Lynch went from running a childhood lemonade stand to dropping out of college, but he never lost his entrepreneurial drive. Today, he is the founder of Phase Two Coffee, a private catering mobile coffee cart generating $25,000 to $27,000 a month/cart—all without the massive overhead, debt, or risk of a traditional brick-and-mortar cafe.In this episode of the UpFlip Podcast, Christian breaks down his exact blueprint for launching and scaling a highly profitable mobile coffee cart business. He shares how working for free at a local shop saved him half a million dollars in mistakes, why B2B corporate events make up roughly 94% of his revenue, and how to craft irresistible offers that keep event planners coming back.Whether you love coffee or are just looking for a lucrative, low-overhead business model, this episode is packed with actionable advice on sales, marketing, and avoiding expensive rookie mistakes.What You'll Learn in This Episode:The Power of Free Labor: Why working for free at a coffee shop for two months saved him an estimated $500,000 in expensive business mistakes.The B2B Goldmine: Why corporate events make up 93-94% of his total revenue, and why B2B clients have vastly better budgets than B2C.Targeting the Gatekeepers: Why you should actively market your services to wedding and event planners instead of trying to sell directly to brides and grooms.Crafting Irresistible Offers: How applying principles from Alex Hormozi's $100M Offers helped him perfectly price and position his coffee cart experience.Start-Up Costs: A realistic breakdown of the $2,000 to $15,000 capital needed to build out your own cart, espresso machine, and grinder setup.Stop dreaming about a brick-and-mortar cafe and learn how to take your business on the road!Tags: Business ideas, Entrepreneurship, Business growth, Startup, Side HustleResources:Tired of guessing what business you should start? Before you waste months chasing an idea that doesn't fit you, take the UpFlip Assessment. It's a free tool that asks about your skills, budget, experience, goals, location, and what kind of work you actually enjoy — then matches you with business ideas that make the most sense for YOU. Click the link in the show notes to see your best-fit business ideas in seconds — for free. UpFlip Assessment Tool:  https://accelerator.upflip.com/assessment Follow Our Second Channel Here: https://next.upflip.com/spotify Connect with Christian: https://www.instagram.com/christian.j.lynch/

Most B2B event strategies don't fail because of budgets or venues, they fail because they're built around pitches, decks, and headcount instead of real conversations with the right people. Today's guest, Joseph Fontana, Chief Revenue Officer at Amzai and Chief Growth Officer at Buyer Foresight, has spent over 30 years building sales organizations and leading thousands of sales conversations. He's turned a simple but powerful idea into a scalable model: conversations move pipeline, not pitches. In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Joe breaks down why we're living in a “golden era” for events, even as AI floods the market with low-quality content and buyers become more skeptical than ever. Instead of chasing massive conferences and overproduced webinars, Joe helps B2B brands design one-to-few executive dinners and small-format events where prospects talk honestly about their biggest pain points. No slides. No case study walk-throughs. No “quick demos.” Just carefully curated conversations that build trust, insight, and long-term pipeline. Joe explains where most companies get events totally wrong: talking at prospects instead of with them, making the night about their agenda instead of the buyer's, and pushing decks, collateral, and follow-up sequences that instantly kill trust. He shows how to flip that model by starting with one critical question: “What makes this person sweat the bed at 4 a.m.?” From there, Joe and his team craft tight messaging, smart outreach, and 6–7 sharp questions that get high-value prospects to happily show up, engage with peers, and open up about the real problems they're trying to solve. You'll also hear Joe's philosophy on simple systems that scale, the crucial difference between motivation and accountability, and why even the best event will fail without disciplined, thoughtful follow-up from the actual people in the room (not a random SDR three days later). He shares how his own chocolate-tasting events for marketers and sales leaders double as both a memorable experience and a live demonstration of his methodology in action, no hard pitch required. https://youtu.be/LvNl-OfwKsM?si=v8QDCY_6YZW4b5_d If you're tired of events that “look good” on a slide but don't turn into revenue, this episode will show you a different path. You'll learn how to design small, high-trust experiences that your buyers actually want to attend, how to listen more and talk less, and how to turn authentic executive conversations into predictable, high-quality pipelines. Quotes: “Sales has always been and always shall be a series of conversations that moves you from awareness to consideration, from life as it is today to life as it can be.” “There's nothing easy about a simple process, people see simple and assume they can ‘make it better,' and that's exactly how they break it.” “Your prospect doesn't care about you; they care about themselves, and the only time you enter the equation is if they think you might cost them their job.” Contact Details: Ready to Make Every Event Deliver More? Discover How Amzai Helps Organizations Connect with Joe on LinkedIn to Unlock Your Next Business Opportunity Love a Good Laugh? Subscribe to Joe Fontana's YouTube Channel! Fred Flintstone Selling in a George Jetson World on Amazon Turn Buyer Conversations Into Qualified Pipeline: Connect with BuyerForesight Today

Watch the full episode on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/@mreapodcastVanessa Pollock thinks The Millionaire Real Estate Agent book is missing one model.She spent more than a decade developing and proving what she believes that missing piece should be: a repeatable model for generosity. Today, her team has surpassed $1 billion in career sales while staying grounded in her simple philosophy of putting people first.Vanessa's Care. Serve. Give. framework makes generosity part of how a business attracts clients, serves its community, leads its team, and grows.In this conversation, Vanessa breaks down the framework into one purpose, three guiding principles, and five groups of people: yourself, your family, your team, your clients, and your community. She shares practical ways to put it into action, from replacing traditional closing gifts with donations chosen by clients, to creating community events that strengthen relationships without leading with a sales pitch.She also explains how she launched an arts initiative under an existing nonprofit, allowing her to help thousands of children access music and arts education without building an organization from scratch. You'll leave with a practical way to connect profit with purpose, build deeper relationships, and use your business to make a measurable difference in your community.Resources:Visit: Care. Serve. Give. Pollock Arts Initiative Pollock Properties GroupOrder 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.

We're on summer break and replaying one of our favorite episodes. This episode originally aired on September 22, 2025.A wearable can collect endless data, but it only matters if people trust it enough to change their behavior.In this replay, Oura CEO Tom Hale joins Steve and Michael to explain how the company combines clinical-grade accuracy with a consumer-friendly product. They discuss why the ring's form factor makes overnight tracking so powerful, how Oura turns physiological signals into useful guidance, and why the company is being pulled faster than expected into traditional healthcare.We cover:Why sleep data can reveal changes in the body before symptoms appearHow Oura designed a health product that supports users without judging or nagging themWhy accuracy is the foundation for trust, predictions, and behavior changeHow Oura navigates the boundary between wellness products and regulated medical devicesThe company's expansion into Medicare Advantage, women's health, metabolic health, and clinical care—About our guest:Tom Hale is the Chief Executive Officer at ŌURA and a member of its board. As the CEO he sets the company's business strategy and vision to make health a daily practice for members all over the world. He has over 30 years of experience across the technology and consumer product industry.Before joining ŌURA, Hale was president of Momentive where he drove B2B strategy and led product growth. During his time there he was instrumental in taking the company public in 2018, leading the team in key acquisitions, and driving the evolution and rebranding of the company into a multiple SAAS business. Previously, he held leadership roles at HomeAway and Linden Lab as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer, respectively, and held executive roles at Macromedia and Adobe.Hale has a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University and sits on the boards of Cars.com, RocketReach, and NoiseAware.—If you're enjoying the show, we would so appreciate it if you left us a review!—

In this episode, Stewart Alsop sits down with Mark Quadros, founder of GrowthOG and former link-building agency owner, for a wide-ranging conversation covering the state of Facebook ads and paid marketing, the decline of traditional SEO and backlink building in the age of AI, how Google and Cloudflare are jockeying for position as AI search reshapes the internet, and the messy economics of AI-generated video versus real footage (including Mark's work with Google Omni and Epidemic Sounds). They also get into monetization shifts across YouTube, Substack, and TikTok, the "reality disturbance" thesis behind Stewart's show with his father, and where video content and AI video ads are headed next. Find Mark Quadros on X @dherealmark and at his website, markxquadros.com.Timestamps00:00 Stewart welcomes Mark Quadros, discussing his shift from link building to GrowthOG and diving into Facebook ads and paid marketing.05:00 They explore AI psychosis and how AI-driven discovery is replacing traditional Google search behavior.10:00 Talk turns to bloated b2b ad budgets and why large companies struggle to adapt efficiently to AI.15:00 Mark shares his Bitcoin background, the "every company becomes a bank" theory, and his agency's slow decline.20:00 Deep dive into AEO, llms.txt, Cloudflare, and concerns over AI companies scraping the open internet.25:00 Conversation shifts to video, FFmpeg, open-source tools, and Mark's years living in Thailand.30:00 Mark recounts YouTube demonetization of AI content and pivoting back toward b2b clients.35:00 They unpack ghostwriting, ethical writing tensions, and how backlink value was really priced.40:00 Discussion of Google and YouTube killing old SEO playbooks, tied to shifting interest rates.45:00 Mark details pricing AI video ads, working with Google Omni and Epidemic Sounds, blending real footage with AI.50:00 Closing thoughts on the "reality disturbance" thesis and the value of human connection over AI.Key InsightsLink building is dying but not dead. Mark's SEO agency business peaked around 2022 working with brands like monday.com and HubSpot, but AI has steadily eroded the value of backlinks. There's still budget for links, just far less than during the gold rush years of 2018-2022.Big companies waste money because they can't track it. B2B companies spending $2-500M+ a year in revenue often can't account for where ad and vendor spend actually goes. Once a budget exists, it gets allocated regardless of efficiency, especially in large organizations too bureaucratic to figure out AI.AI is changing product discovery itself. Instead of searching Google and choosing from options, people now get AI recommendations directly, shifting the entire model of how consumers find products, which threatens the search-and-link economy that powered SEO for two decades.The open internet may be closing. Concerns about Anthropic, OpenAI, and China scraping content freely, including old books, have pushed creators like Stewart to restrict access to older podcast episodes. This marks a cultural shift away from the openness that defined the early internet era.AEO and llms.txt are the new frontier, and nobody fully understands them yet. Much like early SEO in 2001, there's a new discipline forming around how AI agents discover and read content, but no established playbook exists, leaving even experienced marketers uncertain.AI-generated video is a high-effort, low-margin trap. Mark found that fully AI-generated ads were nearly unprofitable given the time needed to get results right, while blending real human footage with AI-altered environments (using tools like Google Omni) produced better, faster, more believable results.YouTube's AI demonetization wave hit creators hard. As AI-generated content flooded YouTube, the platform cracked down broadly, devastating even legitimate animators and renderers. This pushed Mark to pivot away from consumer video tools back toward serving his existing B2B client base.

Most deals aren't lost at the end they're lost in the moment you miss what buyers really need. In this conversation, Janice B Gordon sits down with Cheryl Parks, a revenue growth advisor and fractional CRO, to reveal how leaders can eliminate revenue leaks, build buyer confidence, and layer authenticity into go-to-market strategy. What you'll learn: a) Why "inspect what you expect" is the essential motto for sales-focused CEOs b) How to spot and recover deals that stall in real time c) Practical ways to strengthen buyer confidence and clarify ROI Today, Janice B Gordon is joined by Cheryl Parks, a fractional CRO with 25 years of enterprise B2B sales experience and over $25 million in closed revenue, known for pinpointing team misalignment and restoring sales momentum. Timestamps: 05:15 Converting inbound leads to meetings 07:52 Understanding and meeting buyer expectations 11:19 Understanding branding and market perception 17:12 Using social media platforms effectively 19:33 Building an Online Presence 21:21 Staying focused in meetings 25:11 Respect for the sales role   Connect with Cheryl Parks LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ai-value-advisor/   Connect with Janice Book Janice to speak at your next sales or leadership event: https://janicebgordon.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/janice-b-gordon/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janicebgordon Scale Your Sales Podcast: https://scaleyoursales.co.uk/podcast Enjoy the episode? Share your takeaway in the comments and leave a review on Apple Podcasts to help more leaders discover the show.

You can't wave a magic wand and get more leads in today's market. What you CAN do is make sure not a single one gets left behind, and Jen and Melissa lay out a high-impact way to do that with video! Learn the seven moments where it works best, and the tips that keep it from backfiring or getting stale.HousekeepingOnline Sales and Marketing Summit - Oct 1-2 - Austin, TX - Roughly 95% sold out. FOMO no mo. Get your ticket.Online Sales Academy - Oct 28-30 - Live Virtual Event - Join the interest list under Events on the DYC site and you'll be first in line.TITO ShoutoutErin and Aeryn at Tim O'Brien Homes!. Melissa found a 100% personal video email one of them sent to a two-year-old lead, recapping his exact situation and timeline now that a new phase released.Key TakeawaysWhy OSCs Avoid It: "I don't like how I look or sound." "Nobody watches these anyway." Melissa gets honest about her own resistance and what finally got her past it.Video Is Still an Opportunity: When we shopped the top builders last year, more of them were sending video. Out of all of it, only ONE was actually personal. Ten years in to us recommended everyone do this - it is still wide open.Authentic Over Perfect: One take. Don't watch it, wince, and re-record. You'll find a hundred things to fix and only send one video all day!Skills CheckGo send three videos this week. One to a prospect, using the notes in your CRM so it's genuinely personal to them. One to a realtor partner, remembering that a B2B message sounds different than a B2C one! Finally, (and something that is most forgotten) send one internally to a salesperson who did a great job on a handoff or is staying on top of their CRM. You are in a front-facing role. Get out from behind the screen!

⛰️ Try Heights Platform, the all-in-one tool for building your online course and community. Start your 30-day free trial → https://www.heightsplatform.com   In this episode of The Creator's Adventure, we interview Heather Baker, founder of The AI Edit, a B2B lead generation strategy consultancy helping businesses use AI in a smarter, safer, and more thoughtful way.

From Non-Profit to Medical Device Sales in 60 Days with Shannon Donohue | Medical Sales UCan you land a 6-figure medical sales role without a background in B2B sales or healthcare? Yes—and today's guest proves exactly how to do it. In this episode of Medical Sales U, host Dave Sterrett sits down with Shannon Donohue, a former Non-Profit Director who pivoted her career into medical device sales and landed an Associate Sales Representative position at Baxter in under two months. If you are a non-profit worker, nurse, recent grad, or sales professional trying to break into the medical sales industry, Shannon's story shows you how to turn your past experience into your greatest asset. TIMESTAMPS:00:00 - Meet Shannon: Non-Profit to Capital Equipment Sales 01:30 - Shannon's "Why" & Leaving the Non-Profit World 06:57 - How Non-Sales Experience Translates to Medical Sales 09:15 - Making an Impact vs. Making Money (The Corporate Shift) 11:37 - Why Cold Applying Fails & How to Network 16:17 - The Brag Book Strategy That Got Attention 20:51 - Overcoming a Terrible Interview Practice Session 25:32 - The Baxter Interview: HireVue, RSMs & Mock Pitches 27:50 - Final Advice for Job SeekersReady to jumpstart your career in medical device or pharmaceutical sales?

Episode Summary Quiet cracking,  distinct from quiet quitting, describes employees who are still showing up, still performing, sometimes performing really well, but are internally under pressure, uncertain about their job security, or unclear on what's expected of them. They're not checked out. They're just cracking quietly while holding it together on the surface.  In this episode, co-hosts Karen Swim, APR, and Michelle Kane address this trend and how it impacts Solo PR Pros. The Talent Trends 2026 report found 54% of respondents have experienced some level of quiet cracking, with one in five saying they experience it frequently or constantly. Gallup's 2025 engagement data shows only 31% of US employees were actively engaged at work. Karen and Michelle make the case that this is not an HR headline — it's a communications problem that solo PR pros are already standing in the middle of, and one they're uniquely positioned to surface and address. They walk through what quiet cracking looks like in client organizations, the say-do gap it creates between internal reality and external messaging, four objections practitioners will raise (with honest answers to each), a three-question filter for identifying quiet cracking clients, a live scenario drill on handling a client who just went through quiet layoffs, and what to do when the same isolation and uncertainty you help clients name applies to your own practice. Episode Highlights [01:22] Quiet Cracking vs. Quiet Quitting: Why the Distinction Matters: Karen draws the line clearly. Quiet quitting was behavioral — people doing the bare minimum on purpose. Quiet cracking is about people who are still showing up and often performing well, but are internally under pressure, uncertain about job security, or unclear about expectations. They're not checked out. They're holding it together while cracking on the inside. The distinction matters because quiet cracking is harder to see, harder to name, and — for PR practitioners — far more consequential to the external messaging they're being paid to manage. [02:43] The Data: 54% Have Experienced It, Only 31% Are Actively Engaged: The Talent Trends 2026 report found 54% of respondents had experienced some level of quiet cracking, with one in five reporting it frequently or constantly. Separately, Gallup's 2025 data shows only 31% of US employees were actively engaged at work. Michelle notes the real number is probably higher — people were likely reluctant to admit it. Karen and Michelle flag upfront that some regional figures they found alongside these reports are still working through their verification process and will be linked in the show notes as confirmed. [04:07] Why This Is a Communications Problem, Not an HR Problem: Karen's framing lands clearly: when a workforce is quietly cracking, the people experiencing it are also the people who talk — to friends, to Glassdoor, to LinkedIn, to reporters who cover their industry. Meanwhile, the company's external messaging is often saying the exact opposite of what's happening inside. In the past, a scandal or mass layoff was needed to make that gap visible externally. Now it leaks constantly in small ways, because everyone has a publishing platform in their pocket. The say-do gap between internal reality and external narrative is squarely a communications problem. [06:03] Why Solo PR Pros Are Already Standing in This Spot: The most common objection Karen anticipates: 'I'm an external comms person, this is an HR or culture consultant's job.' Her response: if you already do executive communications, thought leadership, or employer brand messaging, you're already standing at the exact intersection where internal reality and external narrative either line up, or they don't. The question to start asking: is what you're telling the outside world about this company's culture and people something that would hold up if anyone looked inside right now? That's a comms function, not an HR function. [09:01] Four Objections — With Honest, Bounded Answers: Karen and Michelle work through four objections the Solo PR Pro community will raise. One: I'll get pulled into HR issues I'm not equipped to fix. Answer: you're doing a narrative alignment check, not a culture overhaul Two: this feels like scope creep. Answer: keep the initial offer narrow and bounded, a message and narrative audit, maybe a leadership communications coaching session, scoped clearly upfront. Three: is quiet cracking just another buzzword? Answer: the underlying data isn't new, Gallup has been tracking disengagement for years, and it keeps getting worse; the label may fade but the problem won't. Four (the quiet one): will raising this insult the client and jeopardize the relationship? Answer: frame it as market context, not a diagnosis — here's a trend I'm seeing across industries; I wanted to flag it and ask a couple of questions. [13:05] How to Raise It Without Blowing Up the Relationship: Karen's approach: never lead with it and never frame it as an accusation. Bring it as market context — a trend showing up across industries that you wanted to flag and ask a couple of questions about. That framing lands completely differently than suggesting the client's organization is falling apart. Karen also names these as her favorite kind of client engagement: rich, layered, strategy-heavy work that uses PR skills in ways that don't always get deployed in day-to-day media relations. [14:33] The Three-Question Filter for Identifying Quiet Cracking Clients: Karen's three questions to run on any current or prospective client. One: is there a visible gap between the external messaging and what you would actually find if you talked to employees? That's the say-do gap check. Two: is leadership communicating clearly right now about anything that will create uncertainty — restructuring, return to office, layoffs, a merger, a rocky quarter? If not, that silence is the opening. Three: would a light-touch audit — not a full culture overhaul, just a message and narrative review — surface something useful? If all three are yes, you have a real offer to bring. [16:53] The Live Drill: A B2B Tech Client with Quiet Layoffs: Michelle runs a scenario: a long-retained B2B tech client just went through quiet layoffs — no public announcement, people disappearing from company Slack — while the careers page still says 'we invest in our people.' Karen runs it through all three questions: the say-do gap is glaring, leadership communication was absent, which created an uncertainty vacuum for remaining employees, and a light-touch audit of the careers page messaging is a completely natural scope conversation. The entry point: 'I noticed the careers page messaging hasn't been updated since before the reorganization. Do you want me to take a look at whether it still reflects where you are?' Not scary. Not confrontational. Exactly in scope. [20:54] Why This Connects Back to Why Solos Went Solo: Karen closes on the thread beneath the whole episode: a lot of solo practitioners went independent partly because they didn't want to be inside a workplace that was quietly cracking. Now they're watching that same dynamic play out for the clients they serve. The isolation and uncertainty they help clients name in their organizations is worth naming for themselves too — and it's a good reminder that none of them should be figuring out how to spot or address this stuff completely alone.   Resources & Additional Information Talent Trends 2026 Report — Quiet cracking research Gallup — State of the Global Workplace 2025 That Solo Life, Episode 349: The 4 Structural Fixes That Protect Solo PR Pros from Burnout Solo PR Pro membership community: soloprpro.com That Solo Life podcast website: thatsololife.com   Host & Show Info That Solo Life is a podcast created for public relations, communication, and marketing professionals who work as independent and small practitioners. Hosted by Karen Swim, APR, President of Solo PR Pro, and Michelle Kane, Principal of Voice Matters, the show delivers expert insights, encouragement, and practical advice for solo PR pros navigating today's dynamic professional landscape. Listen to all episodes and catch up on previous conversations at thatsololife.com. Did this episode inspire you? If you found value in this conversation, please take a moment to leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps us reach more solo pros just like you! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Peter Parsons sits down with Len Ward, Managing Partner of Commexis, for a wide ranging conversation on AI in manufacturing. Len traces his path from Wall Street to digital marketing to leading a company that helps businesses shift from a "search and retrieve" mindset to a "solve my problem" one.They dig into why B2B manufacturers are actually ahead of the curve on AI adoption, the rise of the "AI pilot" role inside factories, and why the best AI hires often come from within your own team rather than an outside resume. Len also shares his take on which jobs are safest from AI disruption (hint: anything tactile, like nursing or skilled trades), where he sees the biggest upside for AI in healthcare, and why he thinks the next wave of two to five person companies could disrupt entire industries.This one covers a lot of ground: AI blueprints, business bottlenecks, the coming shakeup in company size and structure, and what it really means to build an "AI first" company instead of just bolting AI onto old processes.

In this week's episode of the Seven Figure Consultant Podcast, I'm talking about something that doesn't get nearly enough airtime in the consulting world — your nervous system. If you've already landed your first clients, built a business you're proud of on paper, and still find yourself exhausted, guilty, and quietly waiting for the other shoe to drop, this one's for you.  I'm unpacking why so many established B2B consultants build a business that looks successful but doesn't feel sustainable, why guilt is often the real barrier standing between you and your next level, and what it actually takes to scale toward a $100K offer without recreating the burnout you left corporate to escape. Working less and earning more isn't a slogan, it's a nervous-system-informed business strategy — and today I'm showing you how to build it into your business. Quotes:  "If you bring your nervous system into the picture in the way you do your life and your business, you will experience both in a completely different way." — Jessica Fearnley "What if there's actually something very trustworthy in you that means you can highly achieve without overriding your nervous system? What if you can trust yourself to be focused when you need to be, and also rest when you're tired? What if you don't need a punishing daily routine that prescribes when you will feel productive?" — Jessica Fearnley "We know how to ramp up the pressure with high performance, we know how to expect more from ourselves, and how to push ourselves to achieve even more. What I find is the biggest gap that new consultants, and even seasoned consultants have... is that you don't know how to go easy on yourself. You don't know how to get the best out of yourself with nurture, not strict routines." — Jessica Fearnley Useful Links Buy Jessica's book, Too Much, on Amazon Get in touch with Jessica to discuss your consulting business Leave a rating and review for the Seven Figure Consultant Podcast Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn

What happens when an AI agent does your shopping — and how do you make sure it doesn't order two grills instead of one? In Part 2 of his conversation with Motley Fool CEO Tom Gardner, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach breaks down the company's Agent Pay protocol, explains why machine-to-machine payments could transform B2B commerce, and reveals why Mastercard just acquired the world's largest stablecoin platform. He also gets into what the AI revolution really means for employment, why proprietary transaction data is Mastercard's deepest competitive moat, and how he personally stays sharp running a $500 billion company. Host: Tom Gardner Guest: Michael Miebach Producers: Bart Shannon, Lauren Budabin Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jaleh Rezaei, Co-founder and CEO of Mutiny, joins Sam Jacobs, AJ Bruno, and Asad Zaman to explain how she deprecated a thriving 8-figure SaaS business in November 2025, shipped a private preview in February, and GA'd an AI-native product in April that is now used by more than 3,500 organizations including Snowflake, Rippling, Uber, and GitLab. Topics include why running a scaled SaaS business and a zero-to-one AI bet at the same time proved impossible, how to price and defend AI credit consumption when a $5,000 design project now costs 50 credits, and the shift from sales-led outbound to product-led growth for enterprise go-to-market. Plus, why brand is one of the few remaining moats in B2B, an AI raccoon launch video that fooled (some of) the panel, and a bulls-versus-bears debate on quota attainment, AI note-takers, and whether salespeople will ever spend 85% of their time selling. Key Takeaways: - Make the hard decisions FAST. As Jaleh Rezaei, CEO and Co-founder of Mutiny, put it: "I definitely would've said the job of the CEO is you have to make the hard calls. But what I learned in that experience is that it's actually about making the hard calls really fast, which means that you're getting there before everybody else on your team is there." Her test for founders weighing a similar bet is a single question: "is there one really hard decision, maybe one that scares the hell out of you that you don't want to do, that you can make that would make 50 subsequent downstream decisions a lot easier for your company?" - AI budgets get cut because vendors let buyers anchor on the credit bill. Instead, they need to help buyers see the value of the work the credits replace. Jaleh Rezaei, CEO and Co-founder of Mutiny, reframed it with her own before-and-after: "I used to have a designer that I paid $5,000 to, and it would take 2 weeks of back and forth, and I paid $5,000 to get to something that I was pretty happy with. But end to end took a month. Now in 6, 7 hours, I can build that in Mutiny, and maybe that does cost me 50 credits. That's really freaking cheap relative to what I used to pay that designer." She argues the vendor has to build the ROI case for the customer, per rep, or budget conversations default to minimizing every AI bill. - Brand is a durable moat in B2B mostly because so few companies are willing to pay for it in risk. According to Jaleh Rezaei, CEO and Co-founder of Mutiny: "great brand comes when you marry deep customer knowledge and a willingness to take risk … a lot of times people that own brand they don't necessarily either have the deep customer knowledge or they don't have the ability to take that kind of risk inside of the company." Her internal standard is blunt: "anything we do on marketing, like, if it's not different, just stop doing it. It's just not going to matter." - Quota attainment is snapping back hard, and the data has not caught up to the narrative. AJ Bruno, CEO of QuotaPath, brought Q2 numbers to the bulls-versus-bears round: "I just looked at Q2 numbers and they're trending wildly back up. We're actually, the average quota attainment for a QuotaPath customer was 76% in Q2." Asad Zaman pushed back that a jump from roughly 40% to 76% in a single quarter reads more like a bubble signal than a sudden improvement in selling, and AJ offered to run a comp study with Pavilion on the data. Connect with the Hosts & Guests: Host: Sam Jacobs, CEO at Pavilion - https://www.linkedin.com/in/samfjacobs/ Host: AJ Bruno, CEO at QuotaPath - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajbruno3/ Host: Asad Zaman, CEO at STA - https://www.linkedin.com/in/azaman1/ Guest: Jaleh Rezaei, CEO & Co-founder at Mutiny - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jalehr/ Topline is more than a YouTube Channel: Subscribe to Topline Newsletter: https://toplinemedia.substack.com/ Tune into Topline Podcast, the #1 podcast for founders, operators, and investors in B2B tech: https://www.joinpavilion.com/topline-podcast Join the free Topline Slack channel to connect with 600+ revenue leaders to keep the conversation going beyond the podcast: https://www.joinpavilion.com/topline-slack Chapters: 00:00 Introducing Jaleh Rezaei 04:00 Can SaaS Era Companies Go AI Native? 05:01 From Gusto To Founding Mutiny 07:00 When AI Became A Reasoning Engine 11:28 Why Running Two Products Was Impossible 13:32 Shutting Down An 8-Figure Business 16:18 Winning Formula: Speed, No Backup Plan 20:17 The Hard Months After Deprecation 24:47 Acute Pain Versus Chronic Pain 29:17 CEO Has To Be The Bad Guy (Sometimes) 37:17 AI Margins And Credit-Based Pricing 40:10 A $5,000 Deck Versus 50 Credits 47:03 Sales-Led To PLG For Enterprise 50:37 Brand As The Remaining Moat 1:00:34 Bulls and Bears

This week CERULO picks his Up All Night tracks and Flabbergast is on the one's and two's for the guest mix.1. Paso Doble & WAHM - Are You Busy 00:00:432. Max Styler ft. Kuuda - Love Forever 00:04:173. Cloonee, Prospa & Tristan Henry - Good Girl 00:08:034. Kolter - Trapped 00:12:035. Nicola Fasano, Karl8 & Andrea Monta - Shined On Me (Federico Scavo Remix) 00:16:336. Jus' Darko - We Could've 00:20:187. Rafael Cerato & Charles D - Right Now 00:23:038. Anyma & Volkoder - Other Dimension 00:27:039. Wildchild - Bring It Down (Ridney Remix) 00:31:1110. Solomun ft. Inéz - Raider On The Storm 00:35:3911. Kratex - Moovin 00:40:0512. Main Circus - Fetish 00:42:4713. ALOTT, Apophis & CRISH - Fever Dreaming 00:44:2614. Mack Loenz - Follow Me 00:49:3615. Cheyenne Giles - Rave Is Therapy 00:54:1716. CHAPTER & VERSE - Inside The Place 00:57:5617. Daniel Avery - Satisfied 01:02:0118. MESSIE & Juni ft. sbk - B2B 01:04:5319. Eli Brown - It's Like That 01:08:3920. JSPR - My Way 01:10:5521. CHOZEN - Hit You With The 01:14:1422. Clearcast - Again... But Faster 01:18:2723. SHAKING - Get Money 01:22:4124. DEHM & CERULO - Jumpboy 01:27:0525. Flabbergast - Guest Mix 01:30:03

Bonnie Schutz spent nearly three decades as a corporate executive assistant before deciding to bet on herself at 48 and build a business of her own. She is now the founder and CEO of Tandem Resource Solutions, a remote administrative support and recruiting firm, host of Delegate to Elevate, and founder of Preferred Service Pros, a vetted B2B service provider directory. In this episode, Bonnie shares how networking helped her land her first clients, how she overcame imposter syndrome, and why the skills you already have may be more valuable than you realize when starting a business. On this episode we talk about: How Bonnie left a 30-year corporate career at 48 to become an entrepreneur Why networking and never burning bridges helped her land her first clients and grow her business How she overcame imposter syndrome and stopped defining herself by her former corporate role Turning transferable skills from an executive assistant career into a successful virtual assistance and recruiting agency Why investing in communities and surrounding yourself with people who are further ahead can dramatically accelerate your growth How Bonnie's podcast led to the creation of Preferred Service Pros and helped build her personal brand Top 3 Takeaways Your past experience can become the foundation for your next business. Skills you've developed in a traditional career can often be transformed into consulting, recruiting, training, speaking, or service-based opportunities. Relationships can create opportunities years after you build them. Bonnie's decision to maintain relationships and never burn bridges gave her a network of successful people who were willing to refer clients, offer advice, and help her navigate entrepreneurship. Don't let imposter syndrome decide what's possible for you. Bonnie didn't have to become a completely different person to succeed. She built confidence by taking chances, finding her people, and gradually realizing that her experience gave her more capability than she had initially recognized. Notable Quotes "I never burned bridges." "Sometimes it's a bit of delayed gratification. But if you just stick to it and have a little perseverance and stay continuously talking and building the relationships, that's what's always worked for me." "My tip would be think about the corporate skills that you have or had and how they can become consulting, they can be services, recruiting, training, speaking, all the things. And just do it." Connect with Bonnie Schutz: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bonnieschutzea/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bonavitch6886/ Other: Preferred Service Pros — preferredservicepros.com A Word from Our Sponsors: - Go to Leesa.com for 25% OFF select mattresses (through August 23, 2026) PLUS get an extra $50 off with promo code TMM, exclusive for my listeners  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices