Podcasts about CRM

Stevie Case breaks down how modern sales leaders can use AI, clean CRM data, and human judgment to inspect pipeline, improve sales forecasting, and rethink outbound strategy. Learn how to separate real pipeline from automated outreach “slop,” uncover what your best reps are doing differently, and build practical AI sales workflows without waiting on engineering.

The word that kept popping up with Josh Lyles on the Recruiting Stories Podcast this week? Mindset. As a founder. As an Athlete. As a person. As a member of your family. Your mindset changes everything and how you attack your life, setbacks, good days and bad days matters. In this episode we talked about how Josh landed in the #transportationindustry and how he is building Salesdash CRM to be the top CRM solution for #freight leaders everywhere. Salesdash website:https://salesdashcrm.com/

Do you think you need an expensive tech stack and fancy AI tools to close six-figure wholesale deals? Think again! In Part 2 of this live cold-calling masterclass, Brent Daniels proves why picking up the phone and mastering your sales skills will always outperform lazy automation. Listen in as Brent dials real estate agents live on the air, negotiating distressed properties and uncovering true seller motivation. You will learn his "5, 10, 50" rule for structuring unbeatable seller-finance terms, the only six responses you will ever get on a cold call, and the simple paper-and-folder system he used to make his first million dollars. Stop falling into the trap of creative avoidance and start finding real deals today. Be a part of the TTP training program now.---------Show notes:(0:00) Beginning of today's episode(2:50) Live Call #1 Brent negotiates with a listing agent in Coolidge whose sellers are testing the market(9:45) The "5, 10, 50" rule for structuring highly profitable wholesale seller finance terms(11:00) How to track hot leads using a physical accordion binder instead of an expensive CRM(15:30) The only six responses you will ever get when cold calling a property owner(17:00) Using PropStream to identify distressed properties owned by individuals rather than corporations(23:32) Live Call #2 Brent calls an agent in Bakersfield about an industrially zoned 1925 fixer upper(30:45) Why you must adopt the mindset of a deal finder rather than a deal creator(32:20) The harsh truth about relying on AI, VAs, and text automation instead of building real sales skills(34:25) How creative avoidance and shiny new software tools quietly destroy real estate businesses----------Resources:Wholesalinglaunch.comTTP DataREI PulseMojo DialerBatch DialerCallRailTo speak with Brent or one of our other expert coaches call (281) 835-4201 or schedule your free discovery call here to learn about our mentorship programs and become part of the TribeGo to Wholesalingincgroup.com to become part of one of the fastest growing Facebook communities in the Wholesaling space. Get all of your burning Wholesaling questions answered, gain access to JV partnerships, and connect with other "success minded" Rhinos in the community.It's 100% free to join. The opportunities in this community  are endless, what are you waiting for?

VC experts on why Physical AI funding is heating up | E2333 This Week In Startups is made possible by: partner 1 - link partner 2 - link partner 3 - link   Today's show: Are we one step closer to data centers in space? Katelin Holloway of Seven Seven Six and Paige Doherty of Behind Genius Ventures break it down what it would take. Plus investor interest is surging in Physical AI companies. Paige explains why she backs applications of physical AI over general-purpose robotics, and how her thesis on multimodal AI led to the largest check she's ever written. We then dive into the Pentagon's rollout of ChatGPT Mil and Grok for Government. And Katelin gives us her insight into how VCs are investing in Europe and the regulations behind the scenes. Guests: Katelin Holloway on X: https://x.com/katelin_cruse Seven Seven Six: https://sevensevensix.com/ Paige Doherty on X: https://x.com/paigefinnn Behind Genius Ventures: https://www.behindgeniusventures.com/ Full Transcript and Summary, powered by Plaud https://web.plaud.ai/s/pub_772dbc9f-cd78-4de7-911e-8d3ee2883fbb::AF3ncHtIZkSyKKL-K-XUZBAUBEdoQQBEGCQSsja3gXsll8Dm6-Xbrrlhk7g8U-xwIW9kHyYwaB0dBuoC Related Links: Department of War adds ChatGPT Mil and Grok for Government: https://fortune.com/2026/09/01/pentagon-chatgpt-grok-government-military-ai-members-pete-hegseth-defense-department/ OpenAI for Government: https://openai.com/global-affairs/introducing-openai-for-government/ Starshield — SpaceX's government/defense arm: https://www.spacex.com/starshield/ UN work on LAWS (Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems): https://disarmament.unoda.org/the-convention-on-certain-conventional-weapons/background-on-laws-in-the-ccw/ European Commission designates ChatGPT a VLOSE: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-designates-chatgpt-reddit-roblox-under-digital-services-act Commission press release: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_1772 Euronews on why a chatbot that searches the live web counts as a search engine: https://www.euronews.com/next/2026/08/31/eu-places-chatgpt-reddit-and-roblox-under-strictest-digital-safety-rules Entrepreneur First: https://www.joinef.com/posts/introducing-the-bridge/ Henrick Johansson, the European VC persona: https://x.com/compliantvc Starcloud — orbital data centers: https://www.starcloud.com/ Starcloud raises $250M at a $2.3B: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260821884035/en/Starcloud-Raises-$250-Million-at-$2.3-Billion-Valuation-to-Scale-AI-with-Orbital-Data-Centers "From Sputnik to Starship: Estimating the experience curve of space launch technology" https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/5/7/pgag217/8732400 Cambridge Bennett Schoo: https://www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/blog/is-space-trade-the-next-global-transport-revolution/ Crunchbase News: physical AI startups raised $47.4B across 521 deals in H1 2026: https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/physical-ai-funding-startups-robotics-aerospace-h1-2026/ Crunchbase News on record defense-tech funding: https://news.crunchbase.com/defense-tech/startup-venture-funding-all-time-record-ai-anduril/ Jensen Huang's prediction: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/executive-insights/ Zipline: https://www.flyzipline.com/ Nox Metals: https://www.noxmetals.com/ CNBC: Anthropic changes its data retention policy: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/01/anthropic-data-retention.html Bloomberg on the plan to let enterprises hold the 30-day window: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-20/anthropic-plans-to-change-data-retention-policy-for-advanced-ai Plaud — sponsor; the wearable AI note-taker → **https://plaud.ai/twist** (code TWIST for 10% off) Harmonic: https://harmonic.ai/ Timestamps: 0:00 Why making it to Fund IV is when it gets real 9:24 Pentagon rolls out ChatGPT Mil and Grok for Government 10:49 Sentry - Your team should be focused on shipping features — not chasing down bugs. New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST 11:53 Paige on defense tech and three years at Northrop Grumman 13:40 Katelin: The bottleneck used to be winning the contract, now it's surviving one 16:13 Autonomous weapons, robot dogs, and the Boston Dynamics conversation in Paris 19:07 Lightfield - Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you — it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app 22:03 EU designates ChatGPT a "very large online search engine" under the DSA 24:54 Katelin's contrarian take: Europe is undercapitalized 29:56 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist 31:07 Starcloud raises $250M at a $2.3B valuation 53:06 Competing with Elon: the single point of failure for the whole space economy 57:49 Physical AI raised ~$47B in the first half of 2026 1:03:42 Jason's Zipline regret and the death of "hardware is hard" 1:07:07 Is "unc" a compliment? A Gen X / millennial / Gen Z / Gen Alpha 1:09:39 Anthropic reverses its data retention policy after enterprise pushback 1:12:18 Katelin on data custody: "That's not a procurement question" 1:15:31 Back to on-prem: Go.AI, the Go1, and vertical LLMs Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp   Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons   Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis   Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/   Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland   Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis   Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

What happens when decentralized blockchain technology meets artificial intelligence's reasoning capabilities? In this throwback episode from 2025, we sit down with Jonathan King, Principal Investor at Coinbase Ventures.JK breaks down the origin story of Coinbase Ventures, from its lean, ecosystem-indexing beginnings in 2018 to managing over 500+ investments and deploying capital via the Base Ecosystem Fund. He provides a deep dive into Coinbase Ventures' flagship thesis on the convergence of crypto and AI.Discover why Jonathan believes autonomous AI agents using crypto rails (like stablecoins and self-custody wallets) will become the primary drivers of economic activity. He also highlights portfolio breakouts like Vana Network and Sapien, shares how AI developers like Devin and Cursor will spark an on-chain app explosion, and reveals what he looks for when evaluating technical co-founders.Support us through our Sponsors! ☕ Want to make content like ours? Sign up with Castmagic to make your creative process easy: https://bit.ly/CastmagicReferral Work smarter, grow faster. Automate your SEO, get AI insights, and manage all your clients in one place with Helm. Start today 50% off your first month at helmseo.comDouble your team's efficiency with COCO. Hire dedicated AI employees for copywriting, research, and CRM. Use code REF-W8CBVH for an exclusive 5% off your first order: https://coco.xyz/dashboard/hire/plan?ref=REF-W8CBVH Do you want to grow a business? Go from an idea to livebusiness in minutes. Use our Referral code: edgeof to 50% off your first month at https://www.willo.ai/When you purchase through these links, we may earn a commission. ____

In today's episode, How One Agent Built AI Tools to Transform His Business, I sat down with Peter Macdonald, REALTOR® with Coldwell Banker Hearthside in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, to discuss how curiosity and AI helped him go from software user to software builder. Without a background in software engineering, Peter shares how he created Chrome extensions, automated MLS workflows, and began building his own AI-powered CRM, all to eliminate repetitive tasks and spend more time serving clients. We also explore how to identify the best opportunities for automation, why reducing friction creates a better client experience, and how AI is giving agents the ability to build custom solutions instead of waiting for someone else to create them. If you've ever wished there was a tool that solved a problem in your business, this conversation will show you that building it may be more achievable than you think. Contact Scout -  https://contactscout.app/ Chrome Web Store - https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/contact-scout/lchiinknigmjngohddiebbbcppfambfn Video review - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QMu9MrO_XHjh0uwYwC23SGbKh_5bMD_L/view?usp=sharing  Market Scout: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GKTSDTqB8FViEtCCTzH1j73ClOBts5mu/view?usp=sharing Handout for Market Scout: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12D3XTQTQbF0lAz4WvPqENwBKoECkEZQx/view?usp=sharing   Host: Rajeev Sajja Website: http://www.realestateaiflash.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rsajja Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/rajeev_sajja LinkedIn: http://www.linkedIn.com/in/rsajja Rajeev's Resources:  Join our Instagram Real Estate AI Insiders Channel - https://ig.me/j/AbZCJG37DqBPPtxi/ Get 14 days Wispro Flow Pro Free Trial - https://ref.wisprflow.ai/rajeev-sajja  Subscribe to our weekly AI Newsletter: https://realestateai-flash.beehiiv.com/subscribe   

Schedule Your Free 1:1 Audit for Realtors NOW: https://go.stefanielugo.com/infoHere's exactly what you'll get in 30 minutes:→ A clear picture of what gaps you need to fix in your real estate workflows right now→ Honest feedback on what is working in your market right now, and what needs to go→ The first steps you can take TODAY, not tomorrow, not next week→ The fastest path to closing 2-4 deals per month working 25-30 hours a week

How do you know you're ready for a change in your career? In this episode of UNITED State of Women, Julie Deem sits down with Robyn Whaley at Global Leadership Summit. Robyn is the executive director at Cross America Community Center.Julie and Robyn talk about what it looks like to lead while still figuring things out, why our previous experiences often prepare us for opportunities we never saw coming, and how leaders can create space for younger generations to use their gifts and influence.Robyn also shares how she is helping Cross America expand its reach by empowering youth, experimenting with new ideas, and finding creative ways to connect with more people. With a mission to send crosses and messages of salvation to every household in the United States, Cross America is thinking big, trying new things, and learning along the way.What You Will Learn:How surrender can create space for unexpected leadership opportunities.Why patience is an important part of discerning your next step.How previous experiences can prepare you for leadership in unexpected ways.Why effective leaders need to remain willing to learn and grow.How leaders can empower younger generations to contribute their gifts and ideas.Why experimentation and flexibility are essential when pursuing a big mission.How to recognize when an idea isn't working and know when to shift directions.Why staying positive doesn't mean dismissing someone's difficult experience.How empathy can strengthen relationships within a team.Ways leaders can keep their teams focused on the bigger picture.FAQ:What is Cross America Community Center?Cross America Community Center is a ministry with a mission to send crosses and messages of salvation to every household in the United States. The organization also has a coffee shop, gift shop, podcast studio, and other community resources.How can past experiences prepare you for an unexpected leadership role?Previous jobs can develop skills that become valuable in future roles, even when the connection isn't obvious at the time. Experience working with international students and teaching PE helped develop communication, relationship-building, adaptability, and the ability to connect with young people.How can leaders empower younger generations?Leaders can create opportunities for young people to contribute, invite them into the mission, listen to their ideas, and give them meaningful ways to use their gifts. CrossAmerica is intentionally working to bring more youth and youth groups into its mission.Thank you Crossroads for hosting Global Leadership Summit in Kokomo and for inviting UNITED State of Women to record live at the conference!!Crossroads Community Church:https://ecrossroads.org/Learn more about Cross America Community Center:https://crossamerica.net/Global Leadership Summit:https://www.globalleadership.org/summitLearn more about the latest tool for dynamic professionals in the self-improvement industry, LyfQuest. A mobile CRM platform that's uniquely made for you!Learn more at: https://lyfquest.io/Instagram:USW Podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@uswkokomo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kalena James ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@yesitskalenajames⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Julie Deem ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@indymompreneur⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠--------------------------------------------------USW Kokomo ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Production by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Business Podcast Editor⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Send us Fan MailMost sales reps are lucky to get coaching once a week. What's lost in all the conversations nobody sees? Malcolm Walker-Hendricks, Enterprise Sales Executive at SalesAsk, joins Anya Chrisanthon to talk about AI-powered conversation intelligence built specifically for home building, home renovation, and home improvement - recording every sales appointment, generating follow-up, syncing to your CRM, and giving every rep a personal coach.The flashlight versus the light switch A mystery shop or ride-along is a flashlight in a dark room - a snapshot in time. Continuous coaching hits the light switch on the way in: you see the habits, the patterns, and the path to improvement. Unbiased feedback with full context, after every single conversation.Trained on the industry, not generic AI Handing a generic AI your sales conversations is like eating soup with a fork. SalesAsk's model is trained on over 250,000 successful conversations in home building, home reno, and home improvement - it knows the terminology and what good looks like before it ever learns your company.Multi-session tracking for a 300-day purchase cycle New home sales isn't one conversation - it's OSC to sales agent to design center over months. SalesAsk stitches every conversation together so the buyer never has to say "I want green tile in the washroom" three times. Plus a context brief before every meeting: CRM history, past objections, and what actually matters to this buyer - on your phone or Apple Watch before they walk in.Meet CoachDean (soon to be Agent Dean) The all-knowing personal assistant and sales coach - named for legendary North Carolina coach Dean Smith. Follow-up help, reports from past conversations, and role-playing through Rep Lab, where practice scenarios are scored the same way as game day. As one top-100 builder put it during a slow season: instead of waiting for a mystery shop report, reps practice, practice, practice.The recording question, answered How do reps feel about being recorded? Change the mindset: if you could convert more deals without changing anything in your workflow, would you? And for buyers, Malcolm keeps it simple in any state: "Do you mind if I record our conversation so I don't miss anything in our notes?" The result: a +37% average close rate improvement - driven by speed, follow-up, and sales process adherence.The motorcycle story A buyer went MIA. The rep searched his recorded conversations, found a through-line about an upcoming motorcycle trip, referenced it in a P.S. - and closed the house. We're salespeople, but before that, we're humans.Where it's heading Agentic AI: follow-up done on your behalf, context delivered in a click or two, and the mundane automated so reps spend their time where it matters - closing.Connect with Malcolm on LinkedIn or email malcolm@salesask.com. Learn more at salesask.com and replab.ai - and catch the SalesAsk team (and Malcolm's top 20 sneakers) at CoLab in San Antonio this September, where Anewgo and SalesAsk are mutual sponsors.About Anewgo Anewgo is an all-in-one new home sales and marketing platform. We equip builders with AI-ready homebuilder websites, interactive design tools, floorplans, sitemaps, AI Sales Assistants, and data analytics to create personalized buyer journeys. Learn more at anewgo.com or find every episode at anewgo.com/podcast.Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anewgo-of-new-home-sales/id1602564768

Key account management (KAM) is one of the most impactful strategies for driving sustainable business growth, particularly in professional services and technology sectors. In this episode of the show, I welcome bestselling author and LinkedIn Top Sales Voice, Amy Franko, to discuss best practices and common pitfalls in key account management. We explore how sales professionals can strategically differentiate key accounts, build robust relationships, and design actionable plans that propel long-term organizational success.   Outline of This Episode  00:00 Building mutual value with clients 05:27 Account strategy versus selling tactics 08:33 Importance of stakeholder mapping 11:43 Choosing and using CRM tools 14:15 Emphasizing simplicity and accountability 16:22 Advisory intelligence and client focus 19:31 Strategic account planning at trade show   Defining Your Key Accounts Limiting the definition of a key account to revenue figures is short-sighted, your key accounts should be identified by a blend of factors such as strategic fit with your business, alignment to your ideal client profile (ICP), influence in the market, growth potential, and—crucially—mutual value creation. This last component is often missed, it's not enough to deliver value to the client; the engagement should have reciprocal benefits that strengthen the partnership. A frequent organizational misstep is treating all customers as key accounts, which Amy warns only dilutes the effectiveness of key account management and adds unnecessary complexity. Focusing your energy and resources on accounts that are genuinely key to your organization drives profound impact.   Strategic Upleveling The move from an individual seller to a strategic account manager demands a fundamental shift in approach. While sales motions and traditional deal-closing actions retain importance, KAMs have to elevate their focus to see the bigger picture — developing multi-faceted relationships, engaging in more sophisticated conversations, and aligning more deeply with the client's broader business objectives.    Building a Key Account Strategy Anchored in the ICP An actionable key account strategy is predicated on having a well-defined ideal client profile. Organizations should first understand what their best customers look like before aligning accounts to that blueprint. This strategic groundwork enables clarity in which accounts warrant intensive resource allocation and which do not. Only after this strategic foundation is laid should tactical sales and marketing motions come into play. Integrating both functions ensures your organization is not only selling effectively but also shaping market perception and continually nurturing the account for long-term partnership.   Stakeholder Mapping is the Linchpin of Success Knowledge of stakeholders across multiple layers and departments within a client organization is non-negotiable. You need to be mapping who the decision makers, influencers, and advocates you interact with are. Advocates, or champions, are vital because they support your initiatives internally, provide access and intelligence, and help de-risk account dependency by ensuring that you're not reliant on a single relationship. Sometimes, your team's understanding of a client can be limited by assumptions or blind spots. Bringing in external perspectives—whether from a coach or a fresh pair of eyes—can help uncover missed relationships and figure out where the real decision-making power lies.   Resources & People Mentioned  Myke Macapinlac on LinkedIn  The Modern Seller by Amy Franko    Connect with Amy Franko Amy Franko  Amy Franko on X    Connect With Paul Watts  LinkedIn Twitter    Subscribe to SALES REINVENTED Audio Production and Show notes by PODCAST FAST TRACK https://www.podcastfasttrack.com  

AI adoption is often treated as a technology challenge: choose the right tools, train people to use them, and drive implementation. Dr. Gleb Tsipursky argues that this framing misses the harder problem. Unlike previous technology shifts, AI can trigger fear about job security, challenge professional identity, and create social stigma around how work gets done. For organizations trying to move from experimentation to meaningful business impact, understanding those human dynamics may matter as much as the technology itself.In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Gleb Tsipursky joins Mahan Tavakoli to discuss his new book, The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work: From Resistance to Results. Drawing on behavioral science research, thousands of survey responses, focus groups, and more than 100 consulting engagements, Gleb explains why traditional approaches to technology adoption often fall short with AI. The conversation examines the very different reasons employees resist, quietly embrace, or even hide their use of AI, and what those behaviors reveal about organizational culture.The discussion moves beyond adoption to a deeper question facing CEOs and senior executives: what happens when AI changes not only how quickly work gets done, but also how people understand the value they bring? Gleb explores professional identity, shadow AI, the critical role of middle managers, and why organizations may need to rethink where they begin their AI efforts. He also challenges the instinct to start by automating the highest-value activities, offering a counterintuitive approach designed to build trust, experimentation, and broader adoption.Mahan and Gleb also explore a growing leadership challenge: AI can dramatically increase output while making judgment more important. If AI increasingly generates reports, analysis, presentations, and other knowledge work, the differentiating human capability may shift from producing the first draft to evaluating whether the output is actually good. That raises important questions about how organizations develop early-career talent, redesign onboarding and apprenticeships, and build judgment when AI performs more of the work through which judgment was traditionally developed.Finally, the conversation looks ahead to an emerging workplace in which employees may increasingly manage AI agents rather than perform individual tasks themselves. Managers, in turn, may need to manage people who manage agents while coordinating increasingly complex human-machine workflows. The result is a conversation not simply about getting employees to use AI, but about the capabilities, culture, management practices, and continual learning organizations will need as AI becomes embedded in how work gets done.Actionable TakeawaysYou'll learn why AI adoption creates psychological challenges that traditional technology implementations often do not, and why treating AI like another CRM, ERP, or software rollout can lead organizations to misdiagnose resistance.Hear how fear, professional identity, and social stigma can produce very different forms of AI resistance, requiring more nuanced responses than simply mandating adoption or providing additional training.You'll discover why some employees may already be using AI extensively while deliberately hiding that use from colleagues and managers, and what this “shadow AI” behavior can cost organizations in shared learning and business impact.Hear why starting with the highest-value work may not always be the smartest path to AI adoption. Gleb explains why beginning with tasks employees actively dislike can create an unexpected path toward broader experimentation and acceptance.You'll learn why executive behavior matters in establishing the social norms around AI use, including how openly sharing successful AI applications can help shift AI from something employees conceal to something teams learn from together.Hear why middle managers may become one of the most important leverage points in AI adoption, translating executive intent into the everyday behaviors, experimentation, reinforcement, and learning that determine whether adoption actually takes hold.You'll explore why judgment may become more valuable as AI becomes better at producing work. The conversation examines the difference between generating an answer and knowing whether that answer is good enough to act on.You'll hear why AI creates a significant challenge for developing younger professionals, particularly when technology begins performing the work through which previous generations accumulated experience and learned to recognize quality.You'll learn how the role of employees and managers could change as AI agents become more capable, moving from personally executing individual tasks toward directing agents, evaluating their output, managing handoffs, and improving human-machine workflows.Hear why there may be no final state of “AI maturity.” Instead, organizations may need to build the capacity for continual learning as AI capabilities, workflows, and the skills required to manage them keep changing.Connect with Gleb TsipurskyDisaster Avoidance Experts WebsiteDr. Gleb Tsipursky LinkedInConnect with Mahan Tavakoli:Mahan Tavakoli Website Mahan Tavakoli on LinkedIn Partnering Leadership Website

Most real estate agents are using AI for the easiest possible tasks. The real opportunity is putting AI to work inside the actual operation of your real estate business. In this episode, Tim and Julie Harris explain how AI can help agents manage repetitive tasks, organize CRM activity, prepare seller updates, analyze business information, monitor systems, support listing marketing, and stay accountable to their business plan. But there's an important line agents shouldn't cross. AI should create more time for human relationships, not replace them. The core job of a real estate professional remains the same: generate leads, prequalify, present, negotiate, and close. AI can support nearly everything surrounding those activities, but agents still need to talk with prospects, advise clients, handle objections, negotiate deals, and build genuine relationships. You'll learn how to think about dedicated AI responsibilities inside your business, where AI can save time, how it can support CRM and seller communication, why human interaction becomes even more valuable as technology improves, and how Tim and Julie are incorporating AI implementation into Premier Coaching through their AI Business Lab. This isn't about becoming an AI expert. It's about using technology to become more consistent, better prepared, and more productive at the things that have always mattered in real estate. Free training: HarrisRealEstateDaily.comCoaching: PremierCoaching.comJoin eXp + Libertas: WhyLibertas.com/HarrisText Tim Direct: 512-758-0206Opinions are my own and not the views of eXp Realty.

Karen Ahrens is the CEO and co-founder of Wait4me, a Los Angeles-based platform reimagining how people can reclaim time. It's the first "time broker" allowing people to buy and sell time, connecting clients with trusted, local personal assistants while also offering a concierge-style service tier. Karen's journey has been anything but linear — from working in industrial parts departments in Wisconsin to leading global digital transformation and CRM initiatives for Fortune 100 brands as a President within Omnicom. A former expat in Paris, street photographer, single mother, and avid trail runner, Karen finds balance on the canyon trails of the Santa Monica Mountains while building a company rooted in the idea that time is the most valuable commodity.

What if the biggest thing holding your dealership back isn't the market, the leads, or even the competition... but the habits happening inside the store every single day? "The biggest bad habit you have is that you allow your employees to run your dealership." - Sean V. Bradley In this episode of the Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast, Sean V. Bradley and LA Williams take a hard look at the small, repeated behaviors that can quietly limit performance across every level of a dealership, from salespeople to leadership. "You've got to expect greatness from yourself." - LA Williams The conversation explores how complacency, inconsistent follow-up, underused technology, negative thinking, and drifting away from proven processes can slowly become part of the culture if they are not addressed. Sean and LA also challenge automotive professionals to think bigger about ownership, accountability, and personal growth, including what it really means to maximize the tools, training, opportunities, and resources already available to you. "If you don't know the tools inside and out, you're only using 10% or 20% of the potential value of it." - Sean V. Bradley If you are serious about becoming sharper, more disciplined, and more intentional in your career, this conversation will definitely make you look at your daily routine a little differently! Key Takeaways: ✅ Many sales professionals fail to fully utilize the advanced tools and systems available at their dealerships, thereby limiting their potential success. ✅ Developing a proactive mindset and treating car sales as an entrepreneurial endeavor can significantly enhance individual and dealership success. ✅ Effective training and personal development go beyond learning sales tactics, encompassing mastery of digital marketing, customer relationship management, and personal branding. ✅ Managers and dealer principals need to enforce accountability and ensure their teams adhere to proven processes, instead of allowing complacent behaviors. ✅ Reflecting on personal weaknesses and embracing continuous improvement can lead to personal and professional transformation.   About Sean V. Bradley Sean V. Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and CEO of Dealer Synergy, a company specializing in training and consulting automotive dealerships to improve sales and operations. With over two decades of experience in the automotive industry, Sean is a celebrated author and is recognized for his innovative strategies in digital marketing and customer relationship management.   About LA Williams LA Williams, also known as the Blind Master, holds the position of Vice President at Dealer Synergy. He is the co-creator of the Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast and an acclaimed author. Despite being totally blind, LA has achieved significant success by leveraging his unique frameworks to inspire and educate automotive professionals to overcome adversity and maximize their potential.     Harnessing Success: Dissecting Effective Strategies from Automotive Sales Titans Key Takeaways Understanding and leveraging tools and technology is imperative for maximizing success in the automotive sales industry. The mindset of treating automotive sales as your own business can lead to unparalleled growth and innovation. Leadership rooted in authentic practice and constant self-improvement sets the groundwork for dealership excellence.   In the high-octane world of automotive sales, the difference between mediocrity and greatness isn't just about product knowledge or charismatic sales pitches. As illuminated in a vibrant exchange between industry veterans Sean V. Bradley and LA Williams, the path to monumental success encompasses mindset mastery, strategic tool utilization, and transformational leadership. With Sean's no-nonsense approach to self-empowerment and LA's captivating advocacy for greatness, automotive professionals are invited to embrace a revolutionary perspective on sales, management, and personal development.   Mastering Technology in Automotive Sales One of the most pertinent themes discussed is the underutilization of technology and resources within dealerships. Sean V. Bradley emphasizes the necessity for employees to fully engage with their available tools, stating, "You are only as strong as your weakest link." This indicates that even the most advanced technologies, akin to the latest iPhone features, yield little value if only used for basic functions. In dealerships where resources like CRM systems, AI integration, and data mining tools are abundant, the challenge is not in their availability but in their effective utilization. As Sean elaborates using the analogy of a ninja equipped with an arsenal of weapons, the expertise lies not in possessing tools but in mastering them: "Can you imagine if you only were able to use it basic or rudimentary?" The implications of this extend beyond individual success, reflecting on the dealership's profitability and competitive edge. With every employee maximizing their toolset, the collective efficacy of the dealership multiplies.   Adopting an Entrepreneurial Mindset Transitioning from technology to mindset, Sean and LA underscore an entrepreneurial approach to automotive sales, treating it as one's own business. Many salespeople fall into the trap of dependency, leading to complacency and stagnation. Instead, Sean encourages a paradigm shift, "You are building your business within the dealership's business." This self-starter attitude circumvents any limitations posed by the dealership's supply of leads or market fluctuations. By pursuing eight varied strategies for car sales—ranging from walk-ins to referrals and beyond—sales professionals can expand their influence and multiply opportunities. This entrepreneurial mindset not only fuels personal income growth but fosters an environment where innovation thrives, setting apart top performers like Cody Carter, who achieved remarkable earnings by mastering these principles. The broader impact of this theme reveals a market characterized by agile, autonomous professionals poised for optimum success.   Transformative Leadership and Accountability Effective leadership, as addressed by Sean, emerges as the backbone of all transformative practices within a dealership. Critically, he observes a pervasive issue: leaders allowing employees to dictate the pace and quality of operations. "You allow your employees to run your dealership," Sean firmly states, highlighting a common pitfall among dealers. For an organization striving for excellence, leadership rooted in authentic practice and unwavering accountability holds the key. The narrative implores leaders to embody the values and discipline they wish to instill in their teams. "Are you the personification of what you're trying to articulate to your people?" Sean challenges. By doing so, they ensure that processes are adhered to and that strategic goals are not just theoretical ideals but operational realities. This approach to leadership extends beyond immediate organizational benefits, fostering a culture that values integrity, dedication, and continuous improvement. As these qualities permeate through all organizational levels, the dealership elevates its standing and success in the competitive automotive landscape.   In examining the dynamic dialogue and intricate strategies shared by Sean V. Bradley and LA Williams, automotive professionals are invited to transcend conventional practices and embrace transformative methodologies. From mastering cutting-edge technologies to adopting an entrepreneurial spirit, and executing authentic leadership, the road to monumental success is paved with conscious decisions, self-mastery, and community empowerment. This profound discourse draws a blueprint not merely for immediate gain but for enduring excellence and innovation in the automotive sales industry.       Resources + Our Proud Sponsors:   ➼ Podium: The AI Platform Powering the Modern Dealership. From instant lead response to seamless test drive scheduling, Podium's AI Employee Jerry works 24/7 to turn every lead into a conversion, so your team can focus on closing. Trusted by thousands of dealerships nationwide and proudly featured on the Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast. Learn how Podium can help you sell more cars, book more service appointments, and grow your dealership. Discover how Podium's innovative AI technology can unlock unparalleled efficiency and drive your dealership's sales to new heights. Visit www.podium.com/mcs to learn more!   ➼ The Millionaire Car Salesman Facebook Group: Join the #1 Automotive Sales Mastermind Facebook Group with over 29,000 automotive professionals worldwide. The Millionaire Car Salesman Facebook Group is the go-to community for car salespeople, BDC agents, sales managers, general managers, and dealer principals looking to increase performance, income, and leadership skills. Inside the group, members collaborate daily on automotive sales strategies, lead handling, phone scripts, closing techniques, CRM best practices, dealership leadership, and accountability systems. Learn directly from top automotive trainers, industry mentors, and high-performing sales leaders who are actively winning in today's market. If you're serious about growing your automotive career, increasing car sales, and building long-term success, join The Millionaire Car Salesman Facebook Group today!   ➼ Dealer Synergy: Dealer Synergy is the automotive industry's #1 Sales Training, Consulting, and Accountability Firm, with over 20 years of proven dealership success nationwide. We specialize in helping car dealerships increase sales, improve processes, and build high-performing Sales, Internet, and BDC departments from the ground up. Our expertise includes automotive phone scripts, rebuttals, CRM action plans, lead handling strategies, BDC workflows, Internet sales processes, management training, and accountability systems. Dealer Synergy partners directly with dealership leadership to align people, process, and technology, ensuring consistent results and scalable growth. From independent dealers to large dealer groups and OEM partnerships, Dealer Synergy delivers measurable performance improvements, stronger teams, and sustainable profitability.   ➼ Bradley On Demand: Bradley On Demand is the automotive industry's most advanced interactive training, tracking, testing, and certification platform for car dealerships — built to develop top-performing teams across Sales, Internet Sales, BDC, CRM, Phone Skills, Leadership, and Management. In addition to LIVE virtual automotive training classes and a library of 9,000+ on-demand dealership training modules, Bradley On Demand now includes AI Phone Roleplaying and Coaching to help salespeople and BDC agents practice real dealership conversations before they ever get on the phone with customers. This AI-powered roleplay technology strengthens phone scripts, objection handling, appointment setting, lead follow-up, and closing skills, while providing measurable coaching feedback for continuous improvement. Bradley On Demand empowers dealerships to train faster, coach smarter, improve call performance, increase closing ratios, and sell more cars more profitably — all through structured, trackable, modern automotive training.

Mike Wood, COO at Jarrett Companies, shares his journey in the construction industry, highlighting the growth and structuring of the company, including its expansion into full-service MEP and new divisions. He discusses building successful teams, leadership evolution, and fostering self-awareness to avoid burnout. Mike emphasizes the importance of honesty, respect, and trust in leadership, as well as navigating difficult conversations. He outlines the benefits of a double check system, enhancing client relationships, and the significance of clear communication and documentation. The episode also covers investing in technology, such as CRM implementation, and reflects on two decades of business experience.

What if trying to look perfect is the exact thing costing you the sale?  In this episode of Sales Lead Dog, Christopher Smith sits down with Todd Caponi, author, keynote speaker, and one of the most respected voices on transparency in sales, to discuss why honesty closes faster than perfection and how modern negotiation should actually work.  Drawing on behavioral science, decision science, and decades of sales history, Todd explains why buyers trust the negative, why we buy when we can predict rather than when we are convinced, and how leading with your flaws can speed up sales cycles and raise win rates.  If you are a founder, sales leader, revenue executive, or seller who wants to build trust faster and negotiate without the games, this conversation is full of ideas you can use right away.  What You'll Learn  Why a perfect five-star pitch actually slows down the sale  Why buyers seek out the negative before they say yes  The behavioral science behind why we buy when we can predict  How leading with what you are not great at builds instant trust  Why your first sale is the most expensive one you will ever make  How the Four Levers of Negotiating replace discounting with collaboration  Why transparency from leadership keeps teams engaged and loyal  How honest pricing kills sticker shock and shortens sales cycles  About Todd Caponi  Todd Caponi is an award-winning sales leader, keynote speaker, and author whose work has reshaped how organizations think about sales, leadership, and negotiation. After leading sales organizations through multiple high-growth exits, including serving as a worldwide Vice President of Sales of the Year, Todd founded Sales Melon, where he helps revenue teams apply behavioral science, decision science, and sales history to build trust, improve buyer confidence, and drive stronger outcomes.  He is the author of the acclaimed books The Transparency Sale, The Transparent Sales Leader, and Four Levers Negotiating, and is the host of The Sales History Podcast. Recognized as one of the industry's leading voices on transparency in selling, Todd works with revenue organizations around the world to transform the way they message, negotiate, lead, and grow.  Connect with Todd Caponi  LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddcaponi/  Website  https://www.toddcaponi.com  Todd's Books  The Transparency Sale: https://a.co/d/0iBWFEai  The Transparent Sales Leader: https://a.co/d/0hOf1W4K  Four Levers Negotiating: https://a.co/d/0aaRnw4k  The Sales History Podcast  https://saleshistory.buzzsprout.com  About Sales Lead Dog  Sales Lead Dog is hosted by Christopher Smith, CRM technology and sales process expert, and founder of Empellor CRM. Each episode features sales leaders who have separated themselves from the rest of the pack, sharing how they achieve success with their teams and their CRM strategy.  Unless you are the lead dog, the view never changes.  Connect and Learn More  All episodes and show notes:  https://empellorcrm.com/salesleaddog/  If this episode brought you value: 

Kim Box has said before that spotting talent is one of the few things she'll claim to be good at. This week, she gets to prove it. Katie Lamb, longtime TMA mentor and educator, has officially joined the team as Director of Education, and the two sit down to talk about what she has already built, what members have been asking for, and where TMA education is headed next. In This Episode Why Katie said yes, and what a dedicated education role makes possible that no one person can do alone The redesigned member dashboard: seven years of education, now searchable by topic, mentor, and need The shift from selling information to delivering results, and why "less, but better" is the goal What it means for a membership to feel like home, from the community to the education library The education members are requesting most right now, including behind-the-scenes sessions, Fresh 48, product-based business transitions, and CRM workflows How the community itself has become one of the most valuable parts of the $49 membership A peek at what the team is exploring for members who want smaller groups, accountability, and support beyond the basics Katie's vision is simple: you focus on the art you're making, and TMA makes sure you always know what you need to know. If you're already a member, she wants to hear what you're stuck on. That feedback goes straight into what she's building. If you've been thinking about joining, enrollment opens quarterly, and you can add your name to the waitlist at themotherhoodanthology.com/photography-mentoring/. Connect with Katie Lamb Katie Lamb is a photographer, educator, and longtime mentor inside The Motherhood Anthology, now serving as TMA's Director of Education. Website: https://www.katielamb.com/ Instagram: @katiebethlamb Connect with TMA: Website | Membership | Courses: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.themotherhoodanthology.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Free Community: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/themotherhoodanthology ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/themotherhoodanthology⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with Kim: Site: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://kimbox.com ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ IG ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/kimbox ⁠⁠⁠⁠

There is no all-in-one software that does everything well. Every single one of them makes you give something up. The only real question is whether you're okay with what you're giving up.This one is for the photographers. Every time I open Threads, someone is asking how to consolidate their tech stack down to one tool — fewer logins, fewer subscriptions, one connected experience for their clients. I get it. But I'm also going to tell you why gallery software that added CRM features and a CRM that added gallery features are two very different things, and why that difference should decide what you do next.In this episode:The three reasons photographers try to consolidate their tech stackWhy I'm fine with Sprout Studio when I'm not an all-in-one personThe one thing Pixieset would have to fix before I'd stop steering people away from itWhat HoneyBook and VSCO (formerly Táve) just quietly added to their platformsThe type of photographer who should not touch either one of them yetLinks mentioned:The all-in-one software blog post (kept updated as features release) → https://coliejames.com/photography-all-in-one-software/Episode 297: Three Ways Business Systems Can Generate More Revenue → https://coliejames.com/generate-more-revenue-with-systems/What Pixieset will and won't give you → https://coliejames.com/dubsado-vs-pixieset/Systems in Session → https://coliejames.com/systemsLooking at a new tool and want the Colie seal of approval before you jump? Come drop it in my DMs — or if you'd rather stop shopping and start using what you already pay for, that's Systems in Session: coliejames.com/systems

Guest: Tom and Karen Belko — Owners, Vector Services Guest Links: Website: https://callvector.comHow this HVAC and plumbing company went from $3M to over $10M in two years. Three moves did it.Tom and Karen run Vector Services in the Twin Cities doing HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and drains. In 2023 they were nine employees running white vans out of their houses. Now they're pushing $12.5 million and hiring a sales director. They break down the three moves that got them there: going deep on Service Titan instead of treating a CRM like a bolt-on (2:38), the Kick Charge rebrand with Dan Antonelli that put their wraps all over the metro (18:44), and hiring people smarter than them and actually getting out of the way (19:54).You'll learn:How to get technicians to actually adopt new softwareThe follow-up dashboard and daily report that holds salespeople accountableWhy your CRM setup IS your business process, not an add-onThe difference between a high performing salesperson and a real sales leader (25:06)Why family owned beats PE-backed when you're recruitingThe yard sign and wrapped bus strategy for cities that ban billboards

Your law firm leads aren't broken; your intake process is. In this episode, Molly and Ron Latz (founder of LegalFenix) expose the real reasons qualified leads leak out of your pipeline before cases get signed. Most law firms blame their marketing agency or claim they're not getting quality leads. But Ron's framework reveals the truth: the problem is almost always failures in people, processes, and technology hidden within your firm, not in your lead generation. Key Takeaways: Why blaming your marketing agency kills your business (and how to diagnose the real problem)   The 5-minute rule: why speed to lead is your #1 competitive advantage in 2026   How to align your intake and marketing teams (weekly meetings, not quarterly ones)   What your intake coordinator is actually worth ($25K/month for true solos)   How to set shared KPIs with agencies BEFORE you sign anything   The technology audit Ron runs first (call routing, form submissions, CRM tasks)   How to replicate what elite law firms do differently.   Ron Latz is the founder of LegalFenix and has spent 15+ years in legal marketing. He works as a fractional CMO, helping law firms transform lead generation into actual signed cases, not just vanity metrics.   Connect with Ron: Website: https://legalfenix.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronlatz/ Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/legalfenixmarketing Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LegalFenix Newsletter: https://legalfenix.com/newsletter/   Links: Website: https://hiringandempowering.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hiringandempowering Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hiringandempowering LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hiring&empoweringsolutions/ The Law Firm Admin Bootcamp + Academy™ : https://www.lawfirmadminbootcamp.com/ Get Fix My Boss Book: https://amzn.to/3PCeEhk Ways to Tune In: Amazon Music - https://www.amazon.com/Hiring-and-Empowering-Solutions/dp/B08JJSLJ7N Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hiring-and-empowering-solutions/id1460184599 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/3oIfsDDnEDDkcumTCygHDH Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/hiring-and-empowering-solutions YouTube - https://youtu.be/evdvi9D0SRs 

Are you loving yourself, others, and your life in a way that truly serves you? In this episode, I sit down with Matthew Hussey, who has spent over 15 years helping millions of people raise their standards, build meaningful relationships, and navigate the challenges that come with finding love. We talk about how your past experiences shape your relationships, why you may chase the wrong things, and how the stories you tell yourself can make heartbreak even harder. Get ready to raise your standards and build the kind of love and life you truly want. Check out our Sponsors: Shopify - Try the ecommerce platform I trust for Glōci. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at http://Shopify.com/happy. Monarch Money -  Get your first year of Monarch Core for half off at http://Monarch.com with code EYH. Northwest Registered Agent - Visit http://northwestregisteredagent.com/EarnFree and start using free resources to build something amazing. Fabric - Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. Apply today in just minutes at http://meetfabric.com/earn. Indeed - Indeed is giving Earn Your Happy listeners a $75 SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to help get your job the premium status it deserves. Just go to http://Indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on Earn Your Happy. Momentous - If you want to try Momentous Signature Spec Creatine, head to http://livemomentous.com and use code EARN for up to 35% off your entire first order. Brevo - Meet Brevo…the all-in-one marketing and CRM platform built to help you connect with customers, boost engagement, and grow your business smarter. Get started for free today—or use code HAPPY50 to save 50% on Starter and Standard Plans for the first three months of an annual subscription. Just head to http://www.brevo.com/happy HIGHLIGHTS 00:00 The one shift that changes how you love yourself, others & your life. 04:45 Why understanding your love languages can strengthen your relationships. 10:30 The 3 relationships that determine the quality of your life. 16:15 Do you really need to “fix yourself” before finding love? 21:00 The red flags people miss and finding love again after heartbreak. 25:00 Rewriting the stories you tell yourself that can make heartbreak even harder. 34:30 Are you chasing the wrong things in relationships? 40:00 Tips to overcome the fear of rejection and have more vulnerable conversations. 48:45 How to create deeper and more genuine connections. 53:00 The Daniel Radcliffe story that changed Matthew's perspective on pain. 57:00 Can your “baggage” become the thing that makes someone love you more? 01:04:15 The book for anyone struggling to find love and feel worthy of it. 01:08:15 There's nothing shameful about wanting to find love. RESOURCES Get your copy of Matthew's Book “Love Life: How to Raise Your Standards, Find Your Person, and Live Happily (No Matter What)” HERE Learn more about Loop at loriharder.com/loop Get on the waitlist for Mentor Collective Mastermind HERE! Try glōci for 40% off your first order with code HAPPY at checkout - head to getgloci.com FOLLOW Follow me: @loriharder Follow glōci: @getgloci Follow Matthew: @thematthewhussey

You probably don't need more real estate leads. You need more appointments. If your CRM keeps growing but your calendar doesn't, the problem may not be lead generation at all. It may be what happens after the lead arrives. In this episode, Tim and Julie Harris break down why fast personal follow-up, strong prequalification, better questions, and consistent database conversations are often more valuable than simply buying another batch of leads. They explain why experienced agents can accidentally talk themselves out of appointments by giving away too much information too early, why delegating new-lead follow-up can damage conversion, and why a large database isn't valuable if you're not actually talking to the people inside it. You'll learn how to track the numbers that matter from conversations to appointments, agreements, contracts, and closings; why past clients and your center of influence require consistent follow-up; how to avoid hiding behind automation and drip campaigns; and why communication skills remain one of the strongest ways to differentiate yourself as a real estate professional. Before you decide you need more leads, find out what happened to the opportunities you already generated. Free training: HarrisRealEstateDaily.comCoaching: PremierCoaching.comJoin eXp + Libertas: WhyLibertas.com/HarrisText Tim Direct: 512-758-0206Opinions are my own and not the views of eXp Realty.

Learn how to use AI to answer the marketing questions that actually matter. Join our free live Masterclass → https://www.passetto.com/ai-marketing-kpi-masterclassShowing up in AI search isn't a ranking game. It's a category-level eligibility problem.In this episode, Carolyn and Amber sit down with Gaetano DiNardi, the GOAT of SEO, to break down what actually gets a brand recommended by an LLM: entity association, AKA the model's pre-existing, trained-in belief that you belong in a category. It takes months, sometimes years, to build. No schema markup or "LLMs.txt" trick shortcuts it.Then they go after the citation obsession running the GEO conversation. Gaetano has clients getting cited constantly and still not getting recommended, because a citation and a recommendation aren't the same thing.Topics covered:Why GEO is a category eligibility problem, not an SEO ranking problemWhat "entity association" is, how long it realistically takes to build, and why some brands shouldn't even try yetThe citation myth: why getting cited everywhere doesn't mean getting recommended, and why the "95% third-party" stat is misleadingWhat it actually takes to get recommended by name when a buyer asks an AI tool for a shortlistWhy top-of-funnel content is dying on owned domains and moving to "rented land" (YouTube, LinkedIn, Substack)Who should prioritize SEO/GEO right now, and who's still too early to botherSkip to 47:00 to watch a live walkthrough: Gaetano reverse-engineers a ChatGPT recommendation in real time, asking it directly how it landed on an answer and which sources it actually pulled from.-----------------------------------------------------Measure marketing beyond leads and last-touch attribution.Passetto unifies CRM and marketing data into one clean, governed model, to finally help marketing leaders measure the KPIs they actually need.See how marketing influences pipeline, how marketing changes win rates and deal size, which programs are actually working, and where to invest next. Then query it all through AI, on demand.

Your year-end plan is actively insulting a segment of your donor file. It's September and that plan is nearly locked, so let's fix it before it goes out.When I was a baby ED, we'd get a $7,500 check from Schwab Charitable in December and I'd code it to Schwab. Not to Susan, who actually made the gift. In my file, Susan looked like she'd bought a gala ticket. She was a major donor and I never once treated her like one, because I didn't know what a DAF was and neither did the person doing my data entry. You probably have Susans right now, sitting in your database dressed up as corporations.Here's what most fundraisers miss: a DAF donor already took her tax deduction the day the money went into the fund. February and December are the same day to her. So every countdown clock and midnight-tonight email you send that segment is factually wrong, and she knows it. It makes you look like an amateur.In this episode I give you the CRM screen to run this week, the four behavioral signals that flag someone holding a DAF who's never given you one, and why I'd rather run this play in January. Everyone decided December was the Super Bowl. January is the empty field. Keep your annual fund calendar exactly as it is, your major gift calendar is a different animal.Important Links:My Big Ask Gifts ProgramMy Book, Get That Money HoneyMy NewsletterJoin the Free Webinar

#FenceFam... Now is the perfect time to take FULL advantage of this "Starter Version" of Elite Technique, the fence pros choice for CRM solutions! Matt has made this simpler version easier to digest and get started for your fence company! Get started now and be 100% in the spring!!! Cheers! Remember to like, share, comment and REVIEW! The Fence Industry Podcast Links: IG @TheFenceIndustryPodcast FB @TheFenceIndustryPodcastWithDanWheeler TikTok @TheFenceIndustryPodcast YouTube @TheFenceIndustryPodcastWithDanWheeler Visit TheFenceIndustryPodcast.com Email TheFenceIndustryPodcast@gmail.com Central Fence Supply:  Visit centralfencesupply.com Gopherwood & Expert Stain and Seal IG @stainandsealexperts  FB @ExpertProfessionalWoodCare YouTube @Stain&SealExperts  FB Group Stain and Seal Expert's Staining University  Visit RealGoodStain.com Visit Gopherwood.us Log Cabin Fence IG @Log_Cabin_Fence FB @LogCabinFence Visit LogCabinFence.com Elite Technique Visit https://www.getelitetechnique.com/ Greenwood Fence Visit https://greenwoodfence.com/ Ozark Fence & Supply promo code: TFIP15 for 15% off! Visit https://www.ozfence.com/ Benji with Clever Fox for all your FENCE website, SEO & marketing needs! Visit https://www.cleverfox.online/ Stockade Staple Guns Visit https://www.stockade.com/us/ mySalesman Visit mySalesman.com Orlando Hinge Company Visit swanhinge.com   The Fence Industry Podcast is Produced by CleverFox.Online https://www.cleverfox.online/  

"No data, no agent. Bad data, bad agent. Good data, good agent." Cris Mendes thinks data readiness is the number one reason the agentic enterprise fails, and he has the receipts — he ran the experiment on his own team before he sold it to anyone else.He's VP of Revenue at Momentum.io, acquired by Salesforce in large part because of the go-to-market motion he built there. Before that: Drift, Airtable, and LogMeIn. Before all of it, U.S. Navy search and rescue swimmer. I've known him almost twenty years and introduced him to LogMeIn myself, so take the enthusiasm here with whatever salt you need.His argument is that everyone is buying agents on top of a data layer that was never built. The average customer conversation moves about eight thousand words; maybe eight of them make it into the CRM. Companies don't have a first-party data layer, they have a human-input data layer — and that's what every agentic project quietly runs aground on.The story worth the listen: Momentum had a brutal drop-off after the first call. Rather than sampling a few calls and guessing at messaging or ICP, Cris pushed 800 first calls through deep research and got one answer back — the reps weren't prescribing a next step. So he had Momentum listen to the last ten minutes of every call and fire a clip into Slack whenever an AE either didn't prescribe or tried and missed. With humor, so it didn't read as surveillance. Prescription went through the roof. As he puts it: a team respects what you inspect, but you can't inspect everything — unless the inspecting is automated.WHAT WE COVER- Selling shovels in a gold rush, and why structured data was the bet- Why "not everything called an agent is an agent" — deciding vs. automating- The last ten minutes of a sales call as sacred ground, and how to enforce that at scale- Bringing AI into QBRs: "it got so real so fast" — no more recency bias and self-preservation dressed up as a forecast- 10x growth six quarters running, zero attrition, 95% of the team over quota — and why he credits hiring over product- Whether AI cuts headcount: expands capacity, thins middle management, and the ~10% of companies that are actually AI-forward are hiring hardest- Auto-advancing pipeline stages on deal milestones instead of trusting a rep's guess — "otherwise you're just buying something like Clari to miss your forecast very expensively"- His IDEC hiring model, and why he'd trade relevant experience for intrinsics every timeCONNECT WITH CRISLinkedIn: Cris Mendes — Cris with no H, Mendes with an SMomentum.io---The GOATS of Growth has two Founding Sponsor slots open — category exclusive, $1,250/mo, in front of GTM leaders and founders who don't answer their phones. Includes personal introductions where guests opt in. jay@thegoatsofgrowth.aiSubscribe, rate, and review — and send this to whoever on your team is being asked to "roll out agents" this quarter.CHAPTERS00:00 Twenty years, and a Navy rescue swimmer03:39 Selling shovels in a gold rush04:13 "No data, no agent"05:33 Is it deciding, or just automation?07:07 Running Momentum on Momentum08:33 800 first calls, one missing skill10:27 You respect what you inspect14:46 Does AI actually cut headcount?20:41 Killing hype in the QBR22:05 Zero attrition, 95% over quota25:57 8,000 words spoken, 8 reach the CRM31:43 Auto-advancing deal stages on milestones35:44 Orchestrate, or get orchestrated out38:39 IDEC: how Cris hires40:53 How to reach Cris

AI is about to replace bloated SaaS, and most businesses are still only playing with chatbotsSean G Muller says the next wave of AI is not about better prompts or prettier copilots. It is about rebuilding business around context, agents, and what actually creates value - before your software stack becomes the expensive middleman.Mark Smth and Sean unpack why the last six months have been a genuine shift: agentic loops are now good enough to handle real business work, not just experiments. Sean explains how he moved from traditional technical architecture into building full application pipelines, MCP servers, and background agents that review email, track social signals, draft responses, and keep business moving without adding more human overhead.You'll discover why context is the missing ingredient in almost every failed AI project, how Sean uses a simple meal-planning example to explain it, and why companies that scatter knowledge across laptops, SharePoint, Google Cloud, and people's heads are sitting on hidden risk. Sean also breaks down the difference between AI as a feature and AI as a business transformation engine, including the mistake many firms make when they bolt chat onto old workflows and call it progress.We also get into the coming SaaS pocalypse - the idea that tools like HubSpot, Salesforce, Xero, Slack, and Atlassian may face a serious reckoning as businesses realize they can build leaner, custom, agent-first systems for less than the cost of endless licenses and modules. Sean shares how he built a headless, agent-driven CRM and why he thinks greenfield builds will replace expensive transformation projects much sooner than most executives expect. This conversation matters if you lead a business, run operations, own a small or mid-sized company, or simply suspect your current software is forcing you to work the wrong way. If you want to understand where AI is actually delivering leverage right now - and how to avoid wasting money on shallow pilots - this episode is essential listening.Mark Smth hosts the conversation and brings the enterprise and product lens, pushing Sean to get specific about what success looks like for real businesses in New Zealand.Sean G Muller is an AI and enterprise architecture specialist based in New Zealand, known for helping organizations build practical AI systems, implement agentic workflows, and rethink business process from the ground up.Resources1. The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage - https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0385249462?ref_=mr_referred_us_au_nz2. Gemini: A Family of Highly Capable Multimodal Models — 2312.11805.pdf ⁠https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.118053. On the Measure of Intelligence — 1911.01547.pdf - https://arxiv.org/pdf/1911.01547Support the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

A $4 million roofing contractor is busy and short on cash. He thinks he needs more leads. But once we examine the whole business, the real problems are somewhere else.A roofing contractor calls me and says:Dave, we're doing $4 million a year. We're busy, but there's never enough cash. I think we need more leads.Maybe he does.But what if leads aren't the problem? What if spending more money on marketing actually makes things worse?In this episode, I walk through a fictional $4 million roofing company using the same whole-business approach behind my new Roofing Business Health Check.We examine all three legs of a healthy roofing business:• Sell Work• Do Work• Keep ScoreThe owner thinks he needs more leads, but we find missed calls, estimates nobody followed up on and old opportunities sitting untouched in the CRM.Then we look at production. Sales promises aren't making it into the job package, change orders aren't always collected and completed jobs aren't being properly job-costed.Finally, we examine the numbers. Gross profit is slipping, overhead is growing and the owner is running a $4 million company without a clear financial scorecard.More leads won't fix those problems. They could make them worse.In this episode, you'll learn:Why revenue doesn't tell you whether your business is healthyHow poor follow-up wastes leads you already paid forWhy more sales can make a weak production system worseHow a seven-point gross profit drop can cost a $4 million company $280,000Why leadership, ownership and accountability matterHow to use the Two-Week Vacation testThe three priorities I would give this contractorWhy you need to diagnose the real problem before deciding on the solutionROOFING BUSINESS HEALTH CHECKThe Roofing Business Health Check is a whole-business examination with me, Dave Sullivan.We'll look at:Financial HealthSales and MarketingOperationsLeadershipSystemsWe'll spend up to two hours looking at the business. I'll identify the three things I believe should be addressed first.Within two business days, the contractor will receive a personalized Roofing Business Health Record and written 90-Day Action Plan.Financial statements are strongly recommended, but they are not required.The cost is $495.This isn't a big program, a long-term commitment or a promise to 10X the business. It's about finding the real problems, getting the basics right and building a strong foundation to grow on.Go to TheRooferCoach.com, click on Roofing Business Health Check and book a quick 15-minute call with me.There is no obligation. We'll discuss what is happening in the business, answer any questions and decide whether the Health Check makes sense.LINKSRoofing Business Health Check:https://theroofercoach.com/health-check/ProLine CRM:https://theroofercoach.com/prolineSMA Support:https://theroofercoach.com/smasupportLinked Episodes#489: Is Your Roofing Business Healthy?#490: Why Your Roofing Company Has Plenty of Work But No Money#491: Sell Work with John DeLaurier of ProLine#492: Do Work with Chris Diroll of SMA Support

Keenan, founder and CEO of A Sales Growth Company and the bestselling author of Gap Selling, joins Sam Jacobs, AJ Bruno, and Asad Zaman to make the case that two companies with identical revenue can be valued 3 to 4 times apart, depending entirely on how that revenue got made. Topics include the four sales org archetypes (heroic, random, peacock, and compounding), the valuation discount investors quietly apply to revenue produced by heroics, why quota attainment fell from 60% to 23% while enablement spend went up 7x, and the difference between a sales system and sales structure. Plus, what revenue leaders can learn from how Sequoia, Blackstone, and CAA actually run their people, why Keenan is done with the phrase go-to-market, and the story behind the one-name brand.   Key Takeaways: - How you produce revenue changes what the market will pay for it: investors are buying your ability to repeat the number, not the number itself. Keenan puts a figure on it in his paper Not All Revenue Is Created Equal: "the discount could be as much as 15 to 20% discount on the valuation." Heroics hides the cost; nobody opens a CRM and sees "we closed a $2 million deal and nobody saw that that $2 million deal started at $2.6 million." - Systems are not structure. A system defines the outputs it wants and stays agnostic about how each rep gets there, which is what separates it from a script. "Making people do everything the same is structure," Keenan said. He runs it through golf: "I focus less on what your swing looks like, and I'm asking myself, are you able to hit a draw when you need to hit a draw?" - Sales teams over-invest in training the behavior (structure) and under-invest in understanding the buyer, which Keenan calls sales physics: "nobody buys anything unless their current state is untenable and intolerable." A good system helps the buyer realize that state, which will allow a deal to close. - The spending trend is going the wrong way, and Keenan closes the episode with the numbers: "In 2012, depending who you ask, 60% of reps made quota… now 23%… And the spend has gone up 7x… But win rates declined by 29%. Sales cycles extended by 37 days… What we're investing in isn't working." It persists because no CRO gets room to rebuild: "It's the boat's got a hole in it… You got to fix it. But by the way, you cannot dry dock the boat." And yes: AJ Bruno is buying the book for the first 20 listeners who reach out. Send AJ a direct message on LinkedIn or in the Pavilion Topline Slack and he will buy you a copy of Gap Revenue Performance.   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: Keenan, CEO & Founder at A Sales Growth Company - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimkeenan/   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 Keenan And Gap Selling 03:08 A Dollar Of Revenue Is Not A Dollar 03:46 The Four Sales Org Archetypes 06:59 The 15 To 20% Valuation Discount 08:58 The MEDDIC Definition Problem 12:47 The Left Tackle Analogy 18:24 Can Heroics Be Predictable? 23:10 Structure Is Not A System 28:32 What VC Firms Get Right 42:09 The Physics Of Selling 50:16 Awareness First, Then Pipeline 51:55 Tired Of The Word Go-To-Market 1:00:23 AI, Product Velocity And Enablement 1:04:26 Is Sales A Power Law? 1:12:09 The Story Behind One Name

Don’t get left behind in the AI shift! Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this critical conversation, Vince Menzione sits down with Shannon Sigmon, Marc Harpster, and Jeff Mesnik to uncover how the rapid pace of change in the Google Cloud Marketplace and AI agent integration is forcing organizations to completely rethink their go-to-market strategies. They break down why traditional three-year business plans are dead, replacing them with agile 100-day sprints to keep up with the shifting ecosystem. The panel reveals that leveraging your Adaptability Quotient (AQ) and turning data patterns into actionable co-sell motions are the only ways to survive the upcoming “agent age” and maintain a competitive edge. https://youtu.be/xIaABKU1jmM Key Takeaways Consistent messaging is required to gather actionable data and build trust with channel partners. Three-to-five-year business plans are obsolete, and leaders must now operate in 100-day sprints to keep pace with hyperscaler changes. Google Cloud Marketplace uniquely supports channel partners by allowing them to own the customer relationship and recognize top-line revenue. The rise of AI agents is shifting discovery away from traditional SEO, requiring ISVs to adapt how they provide access to their tools. Creating interactive content variations from a single asset helps train AI agents to discover and prioritize your solutions. Despite rapid digital transformation, human connection remains the ultimate deciding factor in enterprise software purchases. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags Adaptability Quotient, Google Cloud Marketplace, agentic age, co-sell motion, digital sales hub, private offers, propensity to buy, AI pattern analysis, hyperscaler CRM, interactive trivia content, product-led discovery. Transcript Shannon – Marc – Jeff AUDIO Podcast [00:00:00] Vince Menzione: That becomes the core of your data analysis because if you’re not submitting consistent content and submit, you know, consistent information, then you’re not gonna get information back. [00:00:13] Vince Menzione: You can feel it happening. The ecosystem is shifting beneath us. The way Hyperscalers are partnering, how AI is remaking the channel and what it means to win in 2026. [00:00:25] Vince Menzione: Welcome to the Ultimate Partner [00:00:26] Vince Menzione: Podcast. I’m Vince Menzione your host. And each week I sit down with leaders at the intersection of technology, partnerships and outcomes. The voices shaping how ecosystems actually work. We talk about what’s real, what’s changing, and what it takes to lead in this era where the partner channel isn’t just part of the [00:00:46] Vince Menzione: strategy. [00:00:47] Vince Menzione: It is the strategy because being in the room changes everything. Let’s start. [00:00:57] ——-: We have another incredible group of leaders coming up here and, uh, and friends of ultimate partner and, uh, Susan, do you need me for, okay, good. Come on up. So I’m gonna, I’m gonna invite you up and then have you each. Introduce yourself, uh, to this conversation. Shannon, it has been a great to see you. Yeah, great friend. [00:01:18] ——-: Been in, it was in Boca. Mark. Great to have you. Good to see you, sir. Jeff, great to have you. Uh, this is incredible. I’m, I’m excited for this conversation. So, uh, yeah, we talked about aq. We talked a little bit about AQ in this last session. Don’t, didn’t we? Yeah. [00:01:34] Shannon Sigmon: A little. [00:01:34] Vince Menzione: Why don’t we go, why don’t we have you, I wanna have you each introduce yourself, your role, your company mission, and, and, and everything here. [00:01:40] Vince Menzione: So why don’t we start with Shannon. [00:01:41] Shannon Sigmon: Um, hey, thank you Vince for having us again, um, here in Bellevue. It’s been great to meet with everybody and see some old friends. Uh, I’m at Software One, so Shannon Sigman, um, based on the East Coast, but I work at Software One I’m responsible for. Um, in my sales role, I’m responsible for our channel and digital sales organization in North America. [00:02:00] Shannon Sigmon: And then I also have, um, responsibility supporting Regina Ma and Freddie and our leadership team as the chief of staff. Um, and we’re focused software one, if you haven’t worked with us before, we’re focused on helping, um, helping our customers and partners deliver real financial impact in their business so they can afford some of the, the cool to do some of the cool stuff you were talking about in the earlier session. [00:02:20] Shannon Sigmon: And it’s, for us, it’s really about coming in on the front end and helping, um, our customers and our partners understand what they’re doing in their software stack, their cloud stack, and then how to, um, optimize that, rationalize the strategy and, and the implementation of of solutions. [00:02:36] Vince Menzione: And a global leader in the marketplace in [00:02:38] Shannon Sigmon: That’s right. [00:02:39] Shannon Sigmon: The, the number one Microsofts, um, we [00:02:41] Vince Menzione: used to say re reseller or ls. We used to all these different, [00:02:44] Shannon Sigmon: yeah. We, um, it’s funny, I was speaking last night. We fall into the scale solution provider. We’re d with Google and AWS. But, um, we operate very differently on the, on the North America market as a more of a boutique, uh, personalized experience than what a traditional dity is. [00:02:59] Shannon Sigmon: I’m less about the transaction and more about the impact and the, the outcomes and, and helping partners with their go-to-market strategy. [00:03:07] ——-: Awesome. Yeah. And sitting next to you, Marc I’ll let you introduce yourself ’cause this kind of ties in very nicely in [00:03:13] Marc Harpster: Yeah. [00:03:13] ——-: In terms of the work you do. [00:03:14] Marc Harpster: Uh, thanks Vince. [00:03:15] Marc Harpster: Uh, hi everyone. I’m Mark Harpster. I am part of the Google Cloud Marketplace organization. So, uh, guy who you just heard from on the last panel is my boss. Uh, I run strategic initiatives within the marketplace team. So this includes our channel program. Uh, so everyone who is. Uh, the partners who like to resell, uh, ISV software out our marketplace. [00:03:38] Marc Harpster: Uh, I have a team who works with, uh, all of you, and that includes distribution. Uh, and uh, then I also, we run, um, the, some of our, like the go to market strategic initiatives. So we have a. Uh, customer credit program that ISVs can take advantage of to help incentivize deals going through marketplace, uh, propensity to buy, uh, data that we can share. [00:04:02] Marc Harpster: Mm-hmm. Uh, a number of different programs along those lines. Uh, basically, uh, we’re we’re helping. You know, customers find the solutions that they want to buy and helping them buy from the who they wanna buy from. [00:04:14] ——-: Yeah. And you were out early. I mean, you’ve been in the, the, I I feel like Google was leaned in very early on the channel. [00:04:20] Marc Harpster: Yeah. [00:04:20] ——-: And it was a couple years now, right? [00:04:22] Marc Harpster: Yeah. I joined Google about two and a half years ago. Uh, I was, you know, at, at another, worked for another cloud marketplace before that. So I’ve, I’ve been in the marketplace space for, uh, over a decade now. Uh, I’m really passionate about it. And with the, to touch on your point, Vince, I think the one key advantage of Google is, you know, within the, our channel partners, uh, we have a huge, uh, partner network, uh, of, of, you know, channel resellers and, uh, system integrators. [00:04:52] Marc Harpster: Uh, and we actively want those channel partners to, you know, own the customer relationship, including all of the billing. Uh, channel partners tend to love this because we’re the only cloud marketplace that really supports sort of the ability to recognize top line revenue for the channel partners. Uh, and so that’s been a real, uh, you know, distinguishing factor. [00:05:11] Marc Harpster: And one thing I’m really excited about within our marketplace. [00:05:14] Vince Menzione: You got it right. Awesome, Jeff. Good to see you, sir. [00:05:17] Vince Menzione: Good to see you. Thank you. Thank you for having [00:05:19] Jeff Mesnik: me. Good to have you. [00:05:20] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:05:21] Vince Menzione: Tell us a little bit about your organization, about content amx. [00:05:24] Jeff Mesnik: Well, I’m honored to be here with, uh, these two. Yeah. [00:05:27] Jeff Mesnik: You know, and, and Vince obviously [00:05:29] Vince Menzione: Thank you. [00:05:29] Jeff Mesnik: But you know, our organization is really about coming back, and I’m not trying to plug tackle by you saying this, but we’re doing the blocking and tackling for organizations another. [00:05:40] Vince Menzione: That’s why I named the tackle. [00:05:41] Jeff Mesnik: Yeah, I know. It’s, it’s, it’s part of my every conversation now and I have to think about it, but we basically believe in the idea that trust is starting by consistency and expectation. [00:05:55] Jeff Mesnik: So a few years ago I was listening to, um, an event where Tim Couch and, um, Michelle Ragusa, McBain were talking and they said, partners respond to. You meeting and greet, you know, exceeding expectations. So one of those expectations should be consistent messaging to them and consistent messaging for them to send out to their customers. [00:06:15] Jeff Mesnik: And then the next step is that becomes the core of your data analysis, because if you’re not submitting consistent content and submit, you know, consistent information, then you’re not gonna get information back. So that information back then turns into sales opportunities because you’re not looking at. [00:06:34] Jeff Mesnik: Clicks or having a marketing person say, Hey, you know, this person just stopped by my booth. Or Hey, they downloaded a white paper. It’s patterns using AI to analyze and address and look at patterns and turn those patterns into actions. So, you know, we’ve been talking Shannon and Mark and I about those patterns and how to. [00:06:55] Jeff Mesnik: Respond to them to maybe do a co-sell motion if that’s what’s necessary, or to make sure that the partner is ready for the next step. We’re doing a program for Microsoft. Whoops. So we’re doing a program for Microsoft. Do I still have it? [00:07:11] Marc Harpster: Yeah, you’re [00:07:11] Marc Harpster: good. Um, that en enables the partners to learn about AI and then we can understand where they are in their AI path. [00:07:22] Vince Menzione: Awesome. So Shannon, uh, Regina, man. Freddy. Yeah. Also a great friend of, ultimate Partner. Been on stage, was on stage here a couple years ago. We talked about adaptability quotient. Uh, we, we took that, we took that back. Now we use it all the time. And I, you know, I want, I wanna cover with you what that means to your organization. [00:07:40] Vince Menzione: A lot has changed. [00:07:41] Shannon Sigmon: Yes. Still. Yeah. [00:07:42] Vince Menzione: Still changed. Yeah. And you work with multiple hyperscalers, so take us through like, how, how, how does. What is now Software One used to be crayon, now it’s software one Crayon, or it’s just software one. Now let’s talk about all the change and how you’re absorbing it, and then how are you taking it to market and being successful. [00:08:00] Shannon Sigmon: Yeah, it’s interesting. We spent time, gosh, two, three years ago now, um, talking about adaptability being the next superpower [00:08:07] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:08:07] Shannon Sigmon: Uh, of workforce, right? That it wasn’t just about having the experience, but with the rate at which. The pace at which change was happening, having, uh, uh, employees foundationally focused on curiosity and learning and con constant development. [00:08:23] Shannon Sigmon: Um, and my goodness, uh, this year alone, right? We we’re. We, it’s hard to keep up. Right? So this idea of creating a full three to five year plan, we’re, we’re creating sprints plans. Yes. Right. And sprint strategies. And so I do think when we look at our integration of the two companies as Crayon and Software one come together globally, um, that has been a critical mass. [00:08:47] Shannon Sigmon: Uh, issue for us to overcome, but also to get our employee base one feeling comfortable with the pace of change because it can, for those people who are, are not change agents, it can be really uncomfortable and, and stress inducing. Um, but also giving them space to, to try things, fail fast and learn from it. [00:09:07] Shannon Sigmon: And. Um, it, it, it infuses that adaptability quotient, infuses entrepreneurial spirit within the organization a bit. Um, but it has become, it is the superpower of the next generation is how, how quickly can you adapt to change, but not just adapt to it as it’s coming, but stay ahead of it, um, and stay ahead of what’s happening in the industry through communities like this so that you’re skating towards the puck, not waiting for the puck to hit you in between the eyeballs. [00:09:34] Vince Menzione: Yeah. How long are these sprint. I can’t even imagine doing a three-year plan any, any longer. Right. [00:09:39] Shannon Sigmon: I mean, we, there’s some intentionality behind it for us. So my, um, partner in crime, Sean, uh, er, who leads our rev ops, uh, function in North America, we, we sprint pretty fast. So we do leadership offsite every three months. [00:09:52] Shannon Sigmon: Um, and it’s not like it does, we don’t sit in a meeting conference room like this quite often. There’s. We’re running an Airbnb and we’re living and breathing and talking and tumbling rocks together in a real productive way. Um, and it forces our leadership team to not just work at an operational level, but like really down in the trenches at a personal level together to solve problems for our people. [00:10:15] Shannon Sigmon: For our culture, for our business future. And I think that has helped us stay ahead of what’s coming at us from both the hyperscaler community, from the economy, uh, and global, some of the global trends that we’re seeing. It helps us stay ahead of that. And I mean, as leaders, we can, we can conflict and, and, uh, debate in a closed, safe space to get to work through some of that. [00:10:38] Vince Menzione: Mark, what are you seeing? I mean, we were just talking to D about all the significant advances Yeah. In your organization and you work with all these amazing top resellers in the industry. Mm-hmm. Uh, Tony Voya is an old friend of mine’s. Been on the podcast a hundred times. Yeah. Ran another organization’s one of [00:10:54] Marc Harpster: Yeah. [00:10:54] Vince Menzione: Also one of the large, yeah. [00:10:57] Marc Harpster: Yeah. Tony’s great. Um, it’s interesting you mentioned working in sprints. We, we ourselves are even adapting into sort of the notion of like. What are you doing in the next a hundred days? [00:11:07] Vince Menzione: Mm-hmm. [00:11:07] Marc Harpster: Right? You can’t, that six months, a year is too long. It’s too long. So, you know, that’s just internally, uh, within Google Cloud. [00:11:14] Marc Harpster: But, uh, our, you know, I see this across, if, if we go back a decade ago, uh, you know, ISVs had to learn how to change to, to just to, to list a PayGo product in a marketplace. [00:11:28] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Yeah. [00:11:28] Marc Harpster: Right. A whole new business model. Uh, and then, then we. Introduced the notion of like, Hey, it doesn’t have to just be pay, right? [00:11:36] Marc Harpster: It’s, yeah. Now we’re going to introduce the concept of a private offer, right? And how does that work? Right? And so you heard a lot of, uh, insights in the last panel about some of the changes you need to make to your sales organization and how do you adapt to that, right? And then there’s the change of like, well, what about the channel partners? [00:11:52] Marc Harpster: Right? Yeah. So every channel partner. Uh, in that I’ve been working with for the last eight, nine years, make the pivot to like, oh, we still have a place here. We have all these customer relationships and connections and hey, we can sell these things too. Right? But they have to figure out how the channel private offers feature works, right? [00:12:10] Marc Harpster: Um, distribution. Right. Then suddenly we’re, we’re, we’re bringing distributors back into the cloud marketplace world, you know, and they’re actually pushing us for like brand new things, like, Hey, we wanna, we want more APIs, right? And so I, I’ve seen. The entire community of partners. Be, be able to adapt to meet the customer where they are. [00:12:30] Marc Harpster: Right. And, and take advantage of the customer benefits of buying through marketplaces. And so now we’ve got another, another moment of great change, right? As we head kind of into the agent age. And every one of us is gonna have to, to be adaptable again. Yeah. And I think the notion of like. Whatcha gonna do in the next a hundred days? [00:12:47] Marc Harpster: Or like, what, what, what is the first thing that we, what are our priorities? How do we focus on, this is going to be key, right? ISVs need to, to understand, hey, how do, how do agents change the way we, uh, allow customers to access our tools and our software? Right? Uh, the channel needs to then understand like, well, what are we reselling agents? [00:13:07] Marc Harpster: Are we creating our own agents? Yes. Like, how does this change us? Right? And so it’s across the board, uh, and it’s gonna be a really. Fun, you know, rest next few months. [00:13:16] Vince Menzione: What are you seeing with regards to that? I was thinking about that as well. Like does the ISV create the agent or does the, the, the, the channel partner, the reseller, the Gs, I mean the GSIs [00:13:25] Marc Harpster: are involved here as well. [00:13:26] Marc Harpster: Certainly are, are, are, you know, I think DI mentioned this in the last panel. They, they’re, they’re creating agents, uh, you know, all over the place right now. But a lot of ISVs are as well. They recognize that they need to adapt. Right. And so I think we’re getting. Um, we’re getting really good participation, uh, from. [00:13:46] Marc Harpster: All sorts of partners and even, you know, the, the kind of traditional, uh, like what I call a reseller, they’re starting to figure it out as well. Right? Like, do I need to list my own agent? How do I do that? Right. And they’re coming to us seeking some guidance right now. Yeah. Are [00:14:01] Vince Menzione: you? [00:14:01] Shannon Sigmon: Yeah, I mean, I think we look at ourselves as customers. [00:14:03] Shannon Sigmon: You already heard that yesterday. Yeah. A lot on, from some of the Microsoft community. Um, we we’re starting to see pockets and um, we’re, we’re actually running our own company-wide hackathon in June. Um, specifically to intersect with copilot, Gemini, Claude, how do we get our teams on the ground level? Um, I loved what was said earlier, but it’s gotta be a, a bottoms up, tops down approach. [00:14:28] Shannon Sigmon: And the good thing for us is we have leadership support at the top down on, on the tinkering, on the learning, on the implementation. And now we’re working to build the skillset from the bottom up so that we can take some of those use cases to our customers and our partners and, and start to learn and adopt along the way. [00:14:45] Vince Menzione: So Jeff, you’ve been working with channel partners on the marketing side for many years on their go to market strategies. What are you seeing on your side of this aq? Or how are, how is AQ being absorbed and how are you thinking about this new world that we’re living in today? [00:14:58] Jeff Mesnik: Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, we work with 10,000 different types of channel partners and whether it’s through education or passing through and driving demand for them, and what we’re finding is there’s a little bit sometimes also a whiplash. [00:15:12] Jeff Mesnik: I mean, it’s like first it’s like, okay, we gotta go to the marketplace. Now we have ai, and now, oh wait, there’s these ISVs that can add value on top, and how do I do it together? So. Well, we’re, when we’re talking to these partners, we are trying to learn from the customers also who are bringing, because they’re adjusting their, you know, notions like, right? [00:15:34] Jeff Mesnik: You know, Shannon, you’re doing it every three months, [00:15:36] Shannon Sigmon: right? [00:15:36] Jeff Mesnik: So these poor partners, right? They’re trying to communicate and engage and work with the customer, and then all of a sudden it changes on a dime. So you need to have that instantaneous access to the. Information about what a customer is researching, what they’re doing, what they’re most interested in, and that’s really the important part to help with the, you know, adaptability quotient for these partners. [00:16:00] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:16:00] Jeff Mesnik: And for them to learn, they have to be pushed into it through a customer. Not just pushed into it from the vendor’s perspective. Also on the distributors are saying, Hey, let’s you know, go to my marketplace. Don’t go to Google’s marketplace. We are, we are Google’s marketplace. And it’s very, it can be very confusing. [00:16:18] Jeff Mesnik: So using AI you can understand what the customer’s needs are. You can enrich it by pulling in data from the different sources of information, whether it’s a CRM system or third party piece, and then use AI to actually define the next step that each partner can take so that they’re adapting faster and their sales team understands what to do next, and then go through some micro learnings or whatever it might be. [00:16:44] Jeff Mesnik: Mm-hmm. I love that. [00:16:45] Shannon Sigmon: Yeah. Yeah, and I was gonna say, Jeff and I are actually working together on a pilot. One of the things, and Vince, we talked about it, um, our teams internally are so consumed with the integration. [00:16:56] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:16:56] Shannon Sigmon: I was scared. There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes. We pulled the plug really early on, at least getting our frontline sales force integrated last year. [00:17:04] Shannon Sigmon: So, at least to the market and to our customer and partner community, we were one company, but there’s a lot of system integration that’s still to come. And so, um, we, we’ve been partnered with Jeff and, and the content MX team because, um, a part of our cycles of getting our message out to market to our partners and helping them with their customer messaging is just the nurturing, the insights and leading the customer, leading the sellers through that sales Next. [00:17:27] Shannon Sigmon: Best step conversation. And so we’re, um, we’ll leverage some of the, the tools and the resources that that Jeff’s team is bringing to bear for us, because our marketing team has got integration work to go do. We’ve got rebranding and new websites to build and new processes to implement. And so for us that adaptability means realizing we can’t do it all ourselves. [00:17:48] Shannon Sigmon: And so we leveraged this community to connect with partners in the ecosystem who can help us. With our own solutioning of, of how we go to market and making sure we’re not missing the beat in those a hundred day sprints. [00:18:00] Vince Menzione: And you’re truly global. That’s right. As an organization. Right. So Switzerland is now the new headquarters that is right. [00:18:05] Vince Menzione: Nor was it Norway before and [00:18:06] Shannon Sigmon: yeah. [00:18:07] Vince Menzione: And then of course you’ve got the Americas [00:18:09] Vince Menzione: and [00:18:09] Shannon Sigmon: Yeah, we have our headquarter office here in Milwaukee and they’ve got a digital sales hub in Nashville, Tennessee. [00:18:13] Vince Menzione: Yeah. So. Bringing all those resources and then having all these people that have to adapt to change and then drive and go to market. [00:18:20] Shannon Sigmon: Yeah. [00:18:20] Vince Menzione: On top of that, [00:18:21] Shannon Sigmon: look, it just allows us to focus on what matters most, which is our customers, our partners, and our people. Um, and so leveraging our partner community, leveraging this network of folks that you’ve built helps us. We’ll continue to focus our team on the things that matter most for driving the business our results. [00:18:38] Shannon Sigmon: Um, we just announced earlier this week we had a bang up, um, Q1 and looking forward to that momentum carrying through the rest of the year. And, and it’s because of the partnerships and, and helping us to, to manage that adapt adaption of our business, um, going forward. [00:18:54] Vince Menzione: Mark, anything else from your side? [00:18:56] Marc Harpster: Uh, I just, I, I think, you know, platforms like yours are, are super exciting to me, and there’s a number of them that we’ve heard from over the last couple days. [00:19:06] Marc Harpster: You, you help all of us, every partner in the room, including the hyperscalers, you know, meet the customer where they are. And I think that’s increasingly important because as complicated as it’s for all of us to figure this out, it still has to be the customers at the center of it all. Right? And so we need to meet ’em where they are. [00:19:22] Vince Menzione: So what does real AI credibility look like for those partners? [00:19:27] Marc Harpster: Yeah, it’s, it’s a great question. Um, you know, it’s, it’s, uh, I’m fortunate to, to get to be at Google right now and we have, uh, uh, you know, we’re obviously working on a lot of things. Um, you know, we’ve been talking a lot about agents and, and, uh, you know. [00:19:45] Marc Harpster: What does it mean to, to listen agent and what’s that gonna do for the customer? Um, you know, I think it, it’s, it’s gonna have a big impact on how we co-sell. Right. I think we touched a little bit on this in the last panel. Uh, I think that, um, you know, customers, uh, are going to find their way to agents and it’s a different type of customer who’s gonna find it. [00:20:08] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:20:08] Marc Harpster: Uh, and I think that, you know, this opens up a real opportunity. Uh, for us to, you know, us as hyperscalers in the marketplace, to, um, kind of flip how things have been. Where traditionally it’s like, oh, you know, the ISV or, or the channel reseller sources the deal, and then we’re gonna register a deal in the, in the CRM, it’s gonna go over to, uh, you know, the, the, the hyperscaler CRM and then the sales rep’s gonna get involved. [00:20:34] Marc Harpster: I mean, that stuff is still gonna happen, still gonna be important, but now customers are gonna find their way to agents and now it’s, oh. The marketplace. [00:20:43] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:20:43] Marc Harpster: To get that information back out. Right. Or maybe they’re finding the content through a platform like Jeff’s, uh, and they go try something out and suddenly that’s the signal. [00:20:53] Marc Harpster: Right? And so we need to find a way to communicate that, I think a little more nimbly than we have in the past. Um, you know, so that’s a really big one. Um, and I think that like, uh, you know. The next, the next decade is really gonna be like, a little bit like the last decade was, uh, just as you know, in the last decade, really all these, all of the businesses that, you know, all of you guys in this room found a way to grow these astounding businesses, you know, in cloud. [00:21:21] Marc Harpster: And now I get to do the whole thing again in, you know, in the age of AI and agents. So I’m super excited for it. [00:21:27] Vince Menzione: Well, it, I think about SEO and product-led growth, almost like, oh, the agent’s gonna discover mm-hmm. Yeah. The solution in the marketplace, right? [00:21:35] Marc Harpster: Yeah. [00:21:35] Vince Menzione: So how do you think about go-to market strategies around that, right? [00:21:39] Vince Menzione: Yeah. ’cause, ’cause marketing changes dramatically, [00:21:41] Marc Harpster: right? [00:21:42] Vince Menzione: We were talking about that yesterday. [00:21:43] Marc Harpster: Yeah. Like when the agent is the one, finding [00:21:45] Vince Menzione: the agent is the one finding it, and it, it better be able to find it. ’cause then it’s gonna go search other places if it doesn’t. Yep. As if it’s not discoverable. [00:21:52] Vince Menzione: I think we all get to figure that out together. [00:21:54] Vince Menzione: Right. [00:21:54] Vince Menzione: Jeff, you’re, you’re the go-to-market expert, [00:21:57] Jeff Mesnik: I mean, [00:21:57] Vince Menzione: in the panel here. So how do you think about that? [00:22:00] Jeff Mesnik: We think about it the same way, kind of in your video, right? Yeah. Where it’s basically there’s a few ways that you need to be, um, reaching out so that you’re discovered by the AI agent. [00:22:10] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:22:10] Jeff Mesnik: So exactly the, you know, for example, you, you know, people here we are all writing white papers and case studies and, you know, doing all that work. [00:22:18] Jeff Mesnik: But what really triggers it is when you create more content from that one piece. So that’s more interactive. So for example, like, you know, you guys were talking about the short, the video shorts. [00:22:29] Shannon Sigmon: Yeah. [00:22:29] Jeff Mesnik: You can instantaneously, like we have a system that’s connected that instantaneously creates these video shorts from the PDF. [00:22:36] Jeff Mesnik: Or some of you may have seen I created a trivia night, which is an interactive element, so it enables people to then share and engage, and that starts to have, you know, some effect with the SEO, which is now. AI agents who are looking out to see, okay, what are the responses? What are the other people saying? [00:22:57] Jeff Mesnik: You’re spearheading that motion. [00:23:00] Jeff Mesnik: Yeah. [00:23:00] Jeff Mesnik: And then as you said, kind of the, kind of the triggers or the, you know, the, for the data insights that come back mm-hmm. From that are the ones that can trigger a co-sell motion where you’re working together with. Other partners you can be, you know, if you’re a vendor and you use us and you see that information, then maybe partner tap comes in and you can basically find which partner is the right one, and the systems can then target and have a co-sell motion together. [00:23:27] Jeff Mesnik: Yeah. [00:23:27] Jeff Mesnik: Right. So that’s the power that’s available now. [00:23:30] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Shannon, you mentioned about skating where the puck is going. Yeah. Famous. What, by the way, Wayne Gretzky lives in Jupiter, Florida. For those who dunno, uh, all the famous athletes, but of course that’s his, his quote. [00:23:42] Vince Menzione: And Joe Namath. Right. [00:23:43] Vince Menzione: And Joe NamUs. [00:23:44] Vince Menzione: Yeah, he’s in the, he’s in that one picture though slide. I have. Let’s talk about that a little bit. ’cause you, you’re navigating quite a bit of change. One of the most trusted resellers in the market working with the hyperscalers. Tell us how you’re adapting to that puck, where that puck is going. [00:24:01] Shannon Sigmon: Yeah, I, I think one of the things that we encourage and we talk about it, we, um, have a regular standing, uh, meeting where we talk about going out in the wild. [00:24:09] Shannon Sigmon: And so I think the, the most important thing that I would leave you all with and something that we are, um, fostering and learning along the way too, is your people in this whole A-E-O-G-E-O world. Your people have to have an opinion. It’s not just enough for them to share the content, click on the content, read the content, but they have to show up with a perspective or an opinion. [00:24:30] Shannon Sigmon: I don’t, I don’t need to be Jay McBain, but my goodness, I’m gonna follow him. I’m gonna learn from him, and I’m gonna share some of the learnings that I read from him because. He’s doing the work and, and getting the research together for us. But it is important that they do that and the, and the learning and adapting to where the puck is going, doesn’t happen behind a pane of glass. [00:24:47] Shannon Sigmon: They have to be out in front of it, in front of their customers, in front of partners, having a cup of coffee down the street with the neighbors. Because everybody is now consuming information in a much more personal way. It’s not, uh, just a corporate feed, uh, trough of AI slop that, um, somebody I was at an event last week they talked about, but to, to really understand it, to know it to be customer zero. [00:25:13] Shannon Sigmon: You have to be in it. And that doesn’t happen behind the pane of glass. So I would say that was probably the first one. And I think, um, one of the things that, uh, sparked, you know, a fire yesterday for me, Vince, was just really this conversation around the marketplace. Um, and especially in our, our, our community and what we do is how do we, this convergence of SaaS. [00:25:34] Shannon Sigmon: This convergence of consumption in the marketplace. Um, how do we as resellers help our customers optimize how they procure, um, their software in a much more modern way, um, and manage that along, along this journey so that they can take advantage of things coming up in ai. But I think those are like the two. [00:25:53] Shannon Sigmon: The one thing is just being curious, getting out in front of it and building your perspective. And you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room, but you do need an opinion. Um. And then showing up at events like this so that you can learn. [00:26:06] Vince Menzione: So Mark, uh, largest go to market shifts happening. I mean, the, the, the, the growth is astounding. [00:26:12] Vince Menzione: What about from your perspective? [00:26:14] Marc Harpster: Yeah, I think, um, you know, how you go to market, uh, in, in this new age is gonna change based on the type of partner that you are, right? Uh, if you’re an AI native startup, then you know that is your go to market. Like, like the AI is who you are, right? It’s part of your identity. [00:26:35] Marc Harpster: Versus if you’re a a, you know, a, a, an incumbent, a, a large ISV, you need to figure out how to wrap AI around your existing solutions, right? Mm-hmm. But if you may have a SaaS solution, and now do you have agents that are talking to that SaaS solution? You know, and are you building that? Where are you building that? [00:26:50] Marc Harpster: How are you running it? And how are you partnering with, you know, the hyperscalers? Uh, how are you partnering? You know, it could be, uh, philanthropic or open ai, right? Mm-hmm. Like we all have to, you know, you have to think about. How each of these different types of partners can help you go to market, right? [00:27:08] Marc Harpster: And really come up with that strategy. [00:27:13] Vince Menzione: Former. Any comments on that? [00:27:14] Jeff Mesnik: Yeah, well, I mean, I’ll just add, I, I just was thinking about this, uh, I’m gonna butcher this Bueller quote, but things are changing really fast, and you gotta take a moment to listen and understand what’s going on out there. So the data coming in is always going to drive everything else that you do. [00:27:30] Jeff Mesnik: So I butchered that quote, but imagine I said it right? [00:27:33] Vince Menzione: Yeah. I, I love Shannon, what you said it, and I’ll. Paraphrase it. The analog is the new digital. [00:27:42] Shannon Sigmon: It is, yeah. [00:27:43] Vince Menzione: Because we need rooms like this. We need to be in the room with other listen experts like [00:27:48] Shannon Sigmon: yourselves. Yeah. I mean, I say quite often human connection still matters, and at the end of the day, people are gonna use AI tools to do the research, to find the information, to surface the video training, but they’re not gonna make the decision until they know the person they’re buying from. [00:28:03] Shannon Sigmon: Yeah. And so that whole adage of people buy from people they like and trust. Is even more important in this, in this day and age. Yeah. [00:28:12] Vince Menzione: Any last comments or go tos for the, for this community? In front of us today. [00:28:17] Jeff Mesnik: I’ll just say that because of this community, you know, Shannon and I met, so we have yeah. [00:28:21] Jeff Mesnik: Great business that we’re gonna be doing together and I met the team at ISSI and we’ve got a great partnership that’s brewing. And, you know, I’m looking forward to other, you know, people that I’ve met here, um, Andrew who’s out there. Um, we’re gonna do some work together. So thank you, Vince. Thank you. I mean, this community has really been fabulous for me personally and for my business. [00:28:39] Jeff Mesnik: It’s been great meeting [00:28:40] Vince Menzione: and I didn’t pay you to say that, by the way. [00:28:42] Jeff Mesnik: No, I paid you. [00:28:44] Vince Menzione: That’s right. You did. You. Okay. Well, alright, mark, anything, any last comments from [00:28:52] Marc Harpster: Yeah. You know, um, don’t be afraid of the change, right? Like, if you have that hour a week, just go play around with play, play with all of the different, uh, AI. [00:29:02] Marc Harpster: Technologies that are out there, right. And just, uh, get to know them, right? The more comfortable you are with them, the easier this whole thing’s gonna be. So dedicate an hour a week, just go, you know, and that’s your time to, to learn how these things work, right? So [00:29:15] Vince Menzione: yeah, [00:29:15] Marc Harpster: I say don’t be afraid of it. [00:29:16] Vince Menzione: Awesome. [00:29:17] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Thank you so much. What a great panel. Great conversation. What do you think? Everyone? Thank you. Thank you so much. [00:29:25] Vince Menzione: Thanks for listening to the Ultimate Partner Podcast. If today’s conversation resonated. Share it with a [00:29:31] Vince Menzione: partner leader in your network. Subscribe where you listen, and head over to the Ultimate partner.com for show notes related content and the resources for this episode. [00:29:42] Vince Menzione: And if you haven’t already, now’s the time to register for the Ultimate Partner Live event in Reston, Virginia, October 26th through October 28th. Until next time, keep showing up in the rooms that matter because being in the room changes everything.

Ryan Dohrn, Mr. Revenue™, shares practical sales advice on why the old-school elevator pitch is dead and what salespeople should do instead. In this episode of The Ryan Dohrn Business Show, Ryan explains why canned pitches often fail, why prospects tune out and how to create better sales conversations that are relevant, valuable and focused on the buyer. You'll learn how to move beyond generic pitch language and use smarter questions, stronger positioning and practical sales strategy to open more doors. These sales training tips are built for salespeople, media sales teams, ad sales professionals and business owners who want to improve prospecting, create better conversations, strengthen customer retention and close more deals. For more sales training, media sales training, ad sales training, corporate sales training, prospecting tips, CRM tips, AI sales tools, customer retention ideas and real-world sales advice, visit http://RyanDohrn.com. #SalesTraining #MediaSalesTraining #AdSalesTraining #CorporateSalesTraining #SalesAdvice #ProspectingTips #SalesStrategy #CRMtips #CustomerRetention #RyanDohrn #MrRevenue If you follow sales experts like Grant Cardone, Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Jeffrey Gitomer, Jeb Blount or Tom Hopkins, you'll enjoy Ryan Dohrn's practical, no-fluff sales training style.

STOP TRACKING EVERYTHING: THE KPIs THAT ACTUALLY GROW YOUR PEST CONTROL BUSINESSPest control companies have access to more marketing and sales data than ever before—but more data does not always lead to better decisions.Google Ads, Local Services Ads, website analytics, call tracking, social media, HighLevel, and pest control management software can generate hundreds of reports and measurements. The challenge is determining which numbers genuinely matter and how to use them to grow your business.In this episode of The Pest Control Marketing Domination Podcast, Casey Lewis explains how to separate meaningful key performance indicators from vanity metrics and irrelevant data. The objective is not to build the biggest dashboard. It is to identify the numbers that reveal what is working, where opportunities are being lost, and what action should be taken next.IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN:• The difference between a metric and a meaningful KPI• Why more website traffic does not necessarily mean more customers• How to work backward from your revenue and growth goals• Which marketing, sales, operational, and retention KPIs matter most• Why qualified opportunities are more important than raw lead totals• How to calculate cost per qualified opportunity and customer acquisition cost• How response time and missed calls affect your closing rate• How to identify sales and follow-up problems inside your pipeline• Why every new opportunity needs a clear source, status, value, and outcome• How HighLevel can track an opportunity from the initial inquiry through the completed sale• How Google Looker Studio can combine information from multiple marketing platforms• Why dashboard information must lead to decisions, accountability, and actionTHE NUMBERS THAT MATTERA practical pest control business scorecard should help management monitor:• Marketing spend• Qualified opportunities• Cost per qualified opportunity• Speed to first response• Missed-call rate• Appointments or inspections scheduled• Sales closing rate• New customers acquired• Customer acquisition cost• Average initial sale• New recurring revenue• Customer retention and cancellationsHighLevel can help track what happens to each opportunity throughout the sales process. Google Looker Studio can bring information from HighLevel, Google Ads, Google Analytics, Search Console, call-tracking systems, social advertising, and other platforms into a more useful executive dashboard.However, technology alone cannot solve the problem. Accurate reporting requires consistent pipeline management, proper lead-source tracking, clearly defined stages, and accountability from everyone who handles new customer opportunities.The real purpose of data is to help you answer five questions:What happened?Why did it happen?What needs to change?Who is responsible for making that change?When will the results be reviewed?You do not need more reports. You need a small group of reliable numbers that tells you whether your business is moving toward its goals—and where you need to take action.ABOUT CASEY LEWISCasey Lewis is the host of The Pest Control Marketing Domination Podcast and the founder of Rhino Pest Control Marketing. Casey and the Rhino team help pest control, wildlife control, and lawn care companies improve their websites, digital marketing, lead generation, CRM systems, sales follow-up, and customer-acquisition strategies.CONTACT RHINO PEST CONTROL MARKETINGWebsite: https://rhinopestcontrolmarketing.comEmail: casey@rhinopros.comLearn more about SMART® Pest Control Websites, HighLevel CRM and automation, Google Ads, Local Services Ads, SEO, reputation management, and complete pest control marketing programs.If your company is generating leads but struggling to track, follow up with, and convert those opportunities, contact Rhino Pest Control Marketing to discuss building a more measurable customer-acquisition system. Call Casey at (925) 464-8383

Ryan Dohrn, Mr. Revenue™, shares practical sales advice on why the old-school elevator pitch is dead and what salespeople should do instead. In this episode of The Ryan Dohrn Business Show, Ryan explains why canned pitches often fail, why prospects tune out and how to create better sales conversations that are relevant, valuable and focused on the buyer. You'll learn how to move beyond generic pitch language and use smarter questions, stronger positioning and practical sales strategy to open more doors. These sales training tips are built for salespeople, media sales teams, ad sales professionals and business owners who want to improve prospecting, create better conversations, strengthen customer retention and close more deals. For more sales training, media sales training, ad sales training, corporate sales training, prospecting tips, CRM tips, AI sales tools, customer retention ideas and real-world sales advice, visit http://RyanDohrn.com. #SalesTraining #MediaSalesTraining #AdSalesTraining #CorporateSalesTraining #SalesAdvice #ProspectingTips #SalesStrategy #CRMtips #CustomerRetention #RyanDohrn #MrRevenue If you follow sales experts like Grant Cardone, Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Jeffrey Gitomer, Jeb Blount or Tom Hopkins, you'll enjoy Ryan Dohrn's practical, no-fluff sales training style.

Imagine doubling your close rate and cutting your sales cycle in half. That's not a hypothetical. It's exactly what Pieter Leenhouts and his team did at Tax Guard, a Cogency Global company that sells to banks and financial institutions. Pieter walked me through exactly how they pulled it off, and it wasn't magic. It was math, structure, and a relentless focus on the front end of the pipeline.Why Their Sales Cycle Was So Long To Begin WithTax Guard's solution was new to the financial institutions they sold to, so reps had to spend real time educating buyers before those buyers even understood why they needed it.That education requirement, combined with deals that stalled out with the wrong contacts, created a long sales cycle and a lower close rate.Fixing it started with the pipeline itself, not with pushing reps to work harder.Give Every Rep the Right Size Pipeline, Not Just More DealsPieter's team found that around 120 opportunities was the right pipeline size for most of their account executives, though the number flexes based on how efficient a rep is.Instead of leaving reps to self source every opportunity, the team loads a portion of that pipeline for them, so reps spend more time working real opportunities and less time hunting for net new business.Their market of five to ten thousand financial institutions is well defined, which makes it possible to plan pipeline size with real precision instead of guessing.Split the Pipeline: 70 Percent Pre-Handraiser, 30 Percent Post-HandraiserOf those 120 opportunities, about 70 percent sit in the pre-handraiser stage, where reps are still working to connect with people.The remaining 30 percent sit in the post-handraiser stage, where there's already an active, ongoing conversation with the customer.That split keeps reps focused on outreach without starving the deals that are already moving.Marketing and Sales Load the Pipeline TogetherPieter is careful to point out that loading the pipeline isn't a sales-only effort. It's a collaboration between sales leadership and marketing leadership.Marketing helps identify and prioritize which accounts and departments actually fit where Tax Guard's solution applies.That partnership is part of why the team can hand reps a healthier mix of fast cycle and slow cycle opportunities instead of leaving it to chance.Why They Kept AEs on the Full Buyer Journey Instead of Handing Off to BDRsBecause their solution requires ongoing education, Pieter's team decided against using BDRs or SDRs to book appointments and hand off to AEs.The same person a buyer starts talking to needs to stay with them as a trusted advisor through the entire education process.Pieter is clear that this only makes sense because of how complex and unfamiliar their solution is. A more transactional sale can absolutely work with a BDR handoff.The Cadence: 17 Touches Over 70 DaysEach opportunity in the pipeline follows a defined cadence, roughly 17 touches over 70 days, with three to five contacts tied to each account.That structure turns follow-up into a math exercise. Once you know the number of opportunities, steps, and contacts, you know almost exactly how many activities a rep needs to complete each day.The cadence isn't automated. Reps still show up and do the work themselves, which keeps the process personal instead of robotic.Personalization Is What Makes the Math WorkPieter gets five to six hundred pitches a day himself, so he knows exactly what gets ignored: generic, unpersonalized outreach.His team uses AI to gather background information quickly, but the personal touch, referencing where someone went to school or what they care about, still has to come from the rep.That combination of structure and personalization is what actually breaks through the noise instead of just adding to it.How They Catch Reps Who Are Gaming Activity NumbersTo catch reps who rack up huge activity numbers without real substance, like hanging up before voicemail or blasting the same email to everyone, Pieter's team looks past raw activity totals.They review call recordings and email engagement to see whether real conversations are actually happening, not just whether the activity got logged.The goal isn't to catch people doing something wrong. It's to find the reps who are getting real engagement and figure out what they're doing differently so the whole team can replicate it.Weekly and Monthly Rhythms Keep the Team AccountableEvery rep gets a weekly one on one that covers both big strategic issues, like what's happening in the market or with competitors, and specific opportunities that need a plan to close.Once a month, Pieter's team reviews the front end metrics as a group: how many people are in cadence, how many emails are opening, how many real conversations are happening.They also track Net Promoter Score to measure how the sales experience actually felt to the buyer, not just whether a deal closed.Their Tech Stack: Salesforce, Gong, Gong Flows, and DelightedSalesforce is their core CRM, and Pieter says most of what makes it powerful is what gets plugged into it.Gong records and analyzes sales conversations, which lets the team track things like how often pricing objections come up and coach reps faster than they could otherwise.Gong Flows adds structured outreach sequences with AI built in, and Delighted measures NPS so the team can see how the buying experience felt from the customer's side.The Numbers Pieter's Team Watches Every WeekClose rate and pipeline velocity are the two headline numbers Pieter checks first, since they show whether the whole system is working.Underneath those, his team tracks how long deals sit in each of their seven pipeline stages, with alerts when something sits too long.They also watch the quality of the opportunities reps are given and how well each rep prospects into the right people, since strong activity numbers mean nothing if they aren't pointed at the right accounts."Activities create opportunities, opportunities create sales. The only thing we control is our activity level." — Pieter LeenhoutsResourcesConnect with Pieter Leenhouts on LinkedIn.Learn more about Tax Guard, a Cogency Global company.Keep track of your sales activity and boost your results with the Prospect Pro sales tool.Step up your sales game with Sales Mastermind. Get accountability, stay motivated, and tackle the blockers keeping you from hitting your goals.Visit Blue Mango Studios for help creating podcast production content.Join our LinkedIn cohort and learn to prospect the right way.Sponsorship OffersThis episode is brought to you in part by Hubspot.With HubSpot sales hubs, your data tools and teams join a single platform to close deals and turn prospects into pipelines. Try it for yourself at hubspot.com/sales.This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn.Are you tired of prospective clients not responding to your emails? Sign up for a free 60-day trial of LinkedIn Sales Navigator at linkedin.com/tse.This episode is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Foundation.Improve your connection on LinkedIn and land three or five appointments with our LinkedIn prospecting course. Go to the salesevangelist.com/linkedin.CreditsAs one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We'd love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast,

A $250M NYC broker admits her team has no CRM, and explains why psychology closes deals instead.Ashley Reidy Quinn is a partner at Asset Advisory Team in New York City, where she and her business partner Nick Montebano have closed over a quarter billion dollars across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Hamptons. She started in the industry at 22 with a psychology degree and no real estate background, won her firm's Deal of the Year in her first year, and has spent the twelve years since building a six person team from scratch.In this episode, Ashley talks with Jack about what actually scales a real estate business, and it is not always what you would expect. She admits her team still doesn't run on a CRM, and explains why she considers that her biggest operational weak spot even as the business keeps growing. She also breaks down how a psychology degree shapes the way she manages clients and teammates, why the word no has become one of her most useful business tools, and how her team is using AI in ways that help and in ways that work against them with clients.This conversation is for any investor or agent trying to figure out whether systems or relationships are what actually scales a business. Ashley makes the case that in a people-first industry, the relationships come first, and the systems catch up later.Key topics:Scaling a real estate team without a CRM, and why that's a problem she's fixingHow a psychology degree shapes client and team managementThe operational differences between Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the HamptonsHiring lessons from her team's first hire to her most recent oneWhy silence, not rejection, kills a real estate dealWhere AI is helping her team, and where it's working against themAbout Ashley Reidy Quinn:Ashley is a partner at Asset Advisory Team, closing over a quarter billion dollars across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Hamptons alongside business partner Nick Montebano.Links:

SaaStr 875: Who Owns Your Data Now? Agents vs. System of Record, ServiceTitan vs. Podium, Headless Salesforce, and Agentic Renewals on The Agents #013 The agents are writing data faster than any human ever could - and systems of record aren't ready for it. This week on The Agents, Jason and Amelia dig into the biggest meta-theme of 2026: what happens when your AI agents become the primary user of your CRM, your MAP, and every other system you've built your business on? Together, they unpack the ServiceTitan vs. Podium blowup, where an agentic lead gen tool slowly became a competing system of record until ServiceTitan shut them off with 30 days' notice, and why this is just the first of many fights like it coming across SaaS. Then Amelia pulls back the curtain on how SaaStr actually runs Salesforce headless through 10K, what it means that their agents have written 40 gigabytes of data into Salesforce without either of them logging in, and why the storage math is going to force a reckoning for every vendor jacking up API prices right now. Plus: the renewal agent Amelia built that generates a fully custom, hyper-personalized pitch deck for every single customer, using headless Salesforce, Gamma, social data, podcast mentions, and Gmail. And why Clay plus ZoomInfo plus Cowork turned out to be the best enrichment stack their agents have found yet. If you're building on top of systems of record, selling to companies that are, or just trying to figure out how agents change the economics of SaaS data, this one is essential listening. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 02:00 - ServiceTitan cuts off Podium: what happened and why it matters 10:00 - 40 gigs in Salesforce and neither of us logged in 16:00 - The API pricing reckoning coming for systems of record 22:00 - How SaaStr runs Salesforce headless with 10K 30:00 - The renewal agent: no account left behind 42:00 - Narrative-first pitching: getting the agent to sell 50:00 - Clay + ZoomInfo + Cowork: the enrichment stack that actually worked 58:00 - What comes next: agentic inbound proposals SaaStr hosts the world's largest community for B2B software founders and executives.

Your CRM should help your team turn relationships, activity, and data into predictable revenue. Too many companies choose a platform before they really understand the process it needs to support, which leads to poor adoption, messy data, and missed growth opportunities. In this episode, we'll explore the most common CRM mistakes, what to prioritize when choosing or implementing one, and how to tell whether your CRM and revenue process are actually working. You're going to leave with a clearer picture of how to make your CRM a growth tool, not just another software expense. >>> Whenever you are ready, here are 4 ways we can help you reach your revenue goals faster...#1 Unlock the full potential of your marketing engine. We'll provide you and your team with the direction, insights, and tools necessary to excel in the complex landscape of modern marketing. - Marketing Advisor On Call#2 Discover the marketing strategies & tactics that will guide your next quarter and unlock explosive growth in 90 minutes. - Quick-Start Marketing Strategy Game Plan#3 Discover a tailor-made strategy for unprecedented growth to transform your marketing in 30 days. - Unlock Your Growth Opportunities#4 If you need guidance on the most effective direction for your marketing, then schedule a call with us today! - Get Your Free Discovery Call Now

In this episode, David and Mitch break down some points about marketing and why the problem is you just not answering your phone when it rings! Answer the phone, book the call, make a sale, and capitalize to the fullest extent of the opportunity you have in front of you. FieldPulse is the Official Field Service Management Software of The Void Podcast. Their software is ideal for you and your business. For more information about how FieldPulse can benefit you, check them out here: FieldPulse Summer Promotion: Until the end of August, 20% of the base price for a year and 50% off of Premium Support for a year. https://landing.fieldpulse.com/thevoid-tradewins TW Job Calculator APPS Not ready for a full blown CRM but need to invoice from your phone? This is the APP! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tradewinsconsulting.jobcalculator https://apps.apple.com/us/app/trade-wins-job-calculator/id6744992264?platform=iphone If you have questions you'd like us to answer, please feel free to email them to askmitch@mitchsmedley.com Thanks for listening and thanks for sharing! Enjoy the show! If you'd like more insight from Mitch and David, you need to check out Trade Wins. Trade Wins can help you start your business or take your newer business and get it to a very healthy level. For more information about Trade Wins, check out https://www.tradewinsconsulting.com/ Empower Payments: Need a better credit card processor? These guys are it http://empowerpayments.com/TheVoid Contact us: askmitch@mitchsmedley.com David Hilton mitch@tradewinsconsulting.com Jeremy Senior Go Fund Me: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-jeremy-get-urgent-medical-care?cp_src=m

AI can accelerate your business, but if the foundation is broken, it may only accelerate the chaos. In this episode of the Marketing Boost Solutions Podcast, Captain Marco Torres sits down with Elias Curtis, Founder and CEO of Transformed Design Inc., to reveal what businesses truly need before AI and automation can deliver meaningful results.Drawing from more than 17 years in digital marketing, Elias shares how to generate qualified leads, connect your website and CRM, track the numbers that matter, and build systems that support sustainable growth. You'll also discover why AI still requires human oversight and why the businesses that master both technology and strategy will have the advantage.This conversation was a powerful reminder that building a successful business is about having the right systems in place. It's about working smarter, not just harder. Listen to the full episode and walk away with a clearer roadmap for your marketing and a renewed sense of control over your business growth.⏱ Episode Highlights02:05 – Building a digital agency over 17+ years06:20 – Why marketing fundamentals still matter10:45 – The biggest mistakes businesses make when scaling15:30 – Generating qualified leads without wasting your budget20:40 – Why lead quality matters more than lead volume25:15 – How AI is changing marketing and small business30:10 – The truth about AI and human oversight34:55 – Where entrepreneurs should begin with automation39:40 – Connecting your website, CRM, ads, and follow-up44:25 – The KPIs every growing business should track49:05 – SEO, GEO, and visibility in AI-powered search53:50 – Breaking through a business growth plateau58:15 – Building systems for sustainable long-term growth01:01:20 – Complimentary AI & Website Growth AssessmentConnect to Elias Curtis  belowWebsite: https://www.transformeddesign.comBusiness Platform: https://www.businesslaunchos.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eliascurtisFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/transformeddesignincInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/transformeddesignYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TransformedDesign7

What if more visibility isn't actually what your business needs to make more sales? In this episode, I break down why getting in front of more people won't move the needle if your messaging isn't clear enough to make the right person immediately think, “That's for me.” I share how to communicate the specific problem you solve, why being authentic doesn't mean showing up unprepared, and the mistake that causes people to hear what you do without understanding why they need it. Get ready to simplify your message, become known for the ONE thing you want people to remember, and turn the attention you're already getting into more followers, clients, and sales. Check out our Sponsors: Shopify - Try the ecommerce platform I trust for Glōci. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at http://Shopify.com/happy. Monarch Money -  Get your first year of Monarch Core for half off at http://Monarch.com with code EYH. Northwest Registered Agent - Visit http://northwestregisteredagent.com/EarnFree and start using free resources to build something amazing. Fabric - Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. Apply today in just minutes at http://meetfabric.com/earn. Indeed - Indeed is giving Earn Your Happy listeners a $75 SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to help get your job the premium status it deserves. Just go to http://Indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on Earn Your Happy. Momentous - If you want to try Momentous Signature Spec Creatine, head to http://livemomentous.com and use code EARN for up to 35% off your entire first order. Brevo - Meet Brevo…the all-in-one marketing and CRM platform built to help you connect with customers, boost engagement, and grow your business smarter. Get started for free today—or use code HAPPY50 to save 50% on Starter and Standard Plans for the first three months of an annual subscription. Just head to http://www.brevo.com/happy HIGHLIGHTS Why more visibility won't lead to more sales if your messaging isn't clear. The messaging mistake that makes the right people scroll past your content. How to communicate what you do so your ideal client instantly knows it's for them. Why “showing up authentically” without a clear message can hurt your conversions. The difference between talking about what you do and communicating the problem you actually solve. How to make your podcast appearances and content lead people toward your offer. The ONE thing you want your ideal client to remember after hearing you speak. Why simplifying your message can help you cut through the noise and become known for what you do. RESOURCES Clarify your messaging, stand out on podcasts, and turn guest appearances into revenue! Get on the waitlist for Million Dollar Guest now at milliondollarguest.com/waitlist. Learn more about Loop at loriharder.com/loop Try glōci for 40% off your first order with code HAPPY at checkout - head to getgloci.com FOLLOW Follow me: @loriharder Follow glōci: @getgloci

Chris Wands shares how he built a powerhouse Miami luxury real estate business by embracing the fundamentals: hard work, showing up, answering the phone, and treating every client and transaction as an opportunity. Chris explains why rentals have been a major driver of his team's growth, how a $1,000 rental can eventually lead to a multimillion-dollar client, and why agents should never underestimate the value of smaller deals. Last, Chris also opens up about building a team, using AI and CRM systems to improve operations, becoming a trusted advisor rather than simply a salesperson, and maintaining client relationships long after the transaction is over. If you'd prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube! Chris Wands can be reached at 561.420.9610 and christopher.wands@elliman.com. This episode is brought to you by RealGeeks and Courted.io.

Adam Coupe, owner of a New York-based landscaping company discusses the operational philosophies of running a high-volume service business, including how his single crew manages 150 weekly mowing properties through route density. Coupe shares his preference for staying in the field rather than focusing on administrative tasks, emphasizing that owners should build a business structure that aligns with their personal happiness. The conversation also covers the importance of client screening, using specific equipment for finished property work, and maintaining a debt-free financial model. Additionally, Coupe reflects on the economic lessons learned during the 2008 recession and the value of professional CRM systems for growth.  Key Takeaways: Focus on accumulating small, consistent wins to build your overall success instead of constantly chasing high-stress, high-risk projects. Learn to comfortably say "no" to opportunities that do not align with your geographic boundaries or target audience to keep your daily schedule highly efficient. Build your career or business around the day-to-day work you actually enjoy rather than forcing yourself into administrative roles just to follow standard industry advice. Adopt a rainy-day financial mindset by actively saving for future replacement costs and avoiding debt so you can start every workday with a completely clear mind. Recognize that running an organization and managing people are two completely different jobs that require entirely separate skill sets and mindsets to master. Connect with Auman Landscape

383: What Nonprofit Leaders Get Wrong About Growing Fast (Steve Isom)Episode SummaryNonprofit professionals often come to the sector craving mission, not metrics, and the discomfort that creates around money, growth, and hard numbers can quietly limit how far an organization goes. Steve Isom, Chief Operating and Financial Officer at Bloomerang, has spent nearly six years professionalizing the finance, operations, and customer functions behind the giving platform that now serves more than 24,000 nonprofits, and in this conversation he draws a direct line between his own path from Wall Street investment banking to nonprofit-adjacent leadership and the mindset shifts he sees separating scarcity-minded organizations from ones that grow without losing themselves. He talks candidly about scaling Bloomerang from 114 employees to roughly 600 without sacrificing the culture that built it, why hiring the “great people” leaders think they can't afford is usually the real unlock, and the three principles now guiding Bloomerang's approach to AI: mission is the metric, the relationship stays human, and your data stays yours. Listeners will walk away with a clearer case for treating fundraising and finance as fuel for the mission rather than a distraction from it, and a practical framework for growing fast without losing what made their organization work in the first place.About SteveSteve Isom is the Chief Operating and Financial Officer at Bloomerang, an Omaha, NE-based giving platform that unifies CRM, fundraising, and volunteer management for more than 24,000 nonprofit customers. He began his career in investment banking on Wall Street before moving into private equity investing in technology companies, then ran FP&A and finance for high-growth tech companies. He joined Bloomerang nearly six years ago, brought in by JMI Equity to professionalize the company's finance, accounting, legal, and IT functions, and earlier this year expanded his role to lead Bloomerang's customer organization as well, overseeing support, onboarding, and customer success. Isom serves on multiple nonprofit boards and has met with more than 100 Bloomerang customers in person over the past five years. Outside the office, he's a self-described “Type A” list-maker who still writes everything on scrap paper before consolidating it each night, and a devoted LEGO collector who runs his own LEGO fan account on Instagram.ResourcesSteve's LinkedInBloomerangBloomerang's three AI principles: mission is the metric, the relationship stays human, your data stays yoursBonus: Steve's LEGO fan account, @lego_doug_not_dad on InstagramBook recommendation: The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz (not a past guest)Join the Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy! www.institutepl.orgFollow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership — and please leave a review!Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire — ArmstrongMcGuire.com

Are you growing your business and making more money, but still wondering if you're building the wealth and freedom you want? In this episode, Chris and I sit down with Phil and Trish Calandra, CEO and Co-Founder of TruWealth Advisors, to talk about the difference between generating revenue and building long-term wealth. They break down the “revenue trap,” why having multiple financial experts doesn't always mean you have a unified strategy, and how entrepreneurs can create a clearer path toward their personal wealth freedom number. We also talk about the money stories that can shape your financial decisions, why women entrepreneurs can put their own wealth goals last, and what it means to become work optional. Tune in to learn how you can make your business work toward the freedom you want. Check out our Sponsors: Shopify - Try the ecommerce platform I trust for Glōci. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at http://Shopify.com/happy. Monarch Money -  Get your first year of Monarch Core for half off at http://Monarch.com with code EYH. Northwest Registered Agent - Visit http://northwestregisteredagent.com/EarnFree and start using free resources to build something amazing. Fabric - Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. Apply today in just minutes at http://meetfabric.com/earn. Indeed - Indeed is giving Earn Your Happy listeners a $75 SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to help get your job the premium status it deserves. Just go to http://Indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on Earn Your Happy. Momentous - If you want to try Momentous Signature Spec Creatine, head to http://livemomentous.com and use code EARN for up to 35% off your entire first order. Brevo - Meet Brevo…the all-in-one marketing and CRM platform built to help you connect with customers, boost engagement, and grow your business smarter. Get started for free today—or use code HAPPY50 to save 50% on Starter and Standard Plans for the first three months of an annual subscription. Just head to http://www.brevo.com/happy HIGHLIGHTS 00:00 Why making more money doesn't always mean building more wealth. 02:45 The lesson Phil learned from having just $0.08 in his business account. 06:00 The decision that pushed Trish to take a major career risk and move to Atlanta. 09:45 What is the “revenue trap” and why does it keep entrepreneurs stuck? 15:00 What is your “wealth freedom number”? 22:30 The financial savings that come from having a coordinated strategy. 24:00 Why women entrepreneurs often put their own wealth goals last. 25:30 How time makes compounding work in your favor. 28:15 How your money story influences your financial decisions. 35:00 What should parents teach their kids about money? 38:00 The lesson Phil learned from his grandfather about finding a financial advantage. 40:00 What does it really mean to be “work optional”? 42:45 What financial levers can help you move toward work-optional freedom? 45:15 How the Wealth Creation Scorecard can help you identify financial gaps. 49:30 Can your financial situation be fixed if you've made major money mistakes? 53:45 Why the best time to start building wealth is now.  RESOURCES Take the Wealth Creation Scorecard HERE! Find your Wealth Freedom Number HERE! Learn more about the Wealth Ascension System HERE! Learn more about Loop at loriharder.com/loop Get on the waitlist for Mentor Collective Mastermind HERE! Try glōci for 40% off your first order with code HAPPY at checkout - head to getgloci.com FOLLOW Follow me: @loriharder Follow Chris: @chriswharder Follow glōci: @getgloci Follow Trish: @trishcalandra1 Follow Phil: @philcalandra1

In this special turned-tables episode, my incredible Director of Operations, Erin Lindstrom, drops into my living room and interviews me on everything from how my lens for messaging was formed, to the frameworks I walk clients through inside the Revenue Accelerator, to the personal side of my life that I rarely talk about publicly. Erin asks me questions I've genuinely never been asked before and I share openly about my Human Design, my journalism background, why I believe none of us are reinventing the wheel, and the "fifth-grade language" test I run every framework through before I teach it. We go into the depths of Mirror Messaging vs. pain point marketing, why the real work of the Revenue Accelerator is a reclamation of who you are at your core, and why women often get stuck when they refuse to slow down enough to feel what their next-level really requires. I share what I've learned about being at the "higher level" (spoiler: the problems don't disappear, they magnify), the Contrary Action framework I use for visibility, the wildflower-versus-oak-tree analogy that's shaping how I think about quality over quantity, and the concept of loving detachment and stewardship that runs through both my business and my home life. If you've ever wondered what it really looks like behind the scenes of a Julie Solomon business, and life, this episode is for you. Liked this episode? Make sure to subscribe to our podcast and leave a review with your takeaways, this helps us create the exact content you want!  KEY POINTS:  00:00 Show Intro 00:49 Erin Takes Over 02:18 How Julie Got Her Lens 04:51 Building Signature Frameworks 08:01 Mirror Messaging Explained 09:33 Client Process and Identity Work 12:24 Where Clients Get Stuck 16:53 Julie Practices the Work 19:51 Higher Level Challenges 24:46 Fear of Being Seen 25:34 Depth Over Formulas 28:52 Contrary Action Method 30:59 Quality Over Quantity 33:29 Choosing Containers 37:43 Retreats and Real Life 43:33 Stewardship and Detachment 44:52 Closing and Next Steps QUOTABLES: “ So many people think it's about adding in all of the different pieces, but this concept of what are we actually taking away so that what you actually want is what's left is brilliant.” - Erin Lindstrom “  You have to be willing to receive compliments and accept the gifts that you have. If you can't receive them, you can't give them.” - Julie Solomon GUEST RESOURCES: RESOURCES: [UNSCRIPTED RETREAT 2027] Where your voice, your message, and your identity become one. February 3–5, 2027 • Nashville, Tennessee APPLY HERE [THE REVENUE ACCELERATOR] Book a strategy call to explore whether The Revenue Accelerator is the right next step for your business and leadership. Apply and schedule your call today. [ORDER] my book or Audible, Get What You Want: How to Go From Unseen to Unstoppable so you can leverage the power of your own influence. Follow Julie on Instagram! MUST HAVES THIS MONTH: [BOOST YOUR SALES WITH SMART TOOLS]This platform's AI tools help you write product descriptions, enhance photos, and create campaigns that boost engagement. Find out how. [YOUR ALL-IN-ONE MARKETING SOLUTION] From email and SMS marketing to CRM and automation, Brevo gives you everything you need to build stronger customer relationships in one place. Start for free at https://www.brevo.com/woman, or use code WOMAN50 for 50% off your first three months.

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lightfield https://lightfield.app Northwest Registered Agent https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Rippling https://Rippling.ai/twist   Today's show: *Bill Gates dropped a 6,000 word warning: AI will be "the greatest equalizer ever invented, or the worst sort of injustice." The Microsoft icon has an AI agenda for the US: new national institutions, AI use taxes, and jobs legally reserved for humans only. Our VC roundtable guests — Sheel Mohnot (Better Tomorrow Ventures), Dave McClure (Practical Venture Capital), and Hussein Kanji — push back hard. Is taxing profits a better fix for AI taking jobs than taxing the tokens themselves? PLUS: Meta's $17B kids safety settlement… does it go far enough? Why does Stripe want OpenRouter? A peek at the VC's actual portfolio mark-ups. AND begun, the AI agent wars have. Our panel chooses between OpenClaw, Instinct, and Grok Bot. Guests Sheel Mohnot on X: https://x.com/pitdesi Better Tomorrow Ventures: https://www.btv.vc/ Dave McClure on X: https://x.com/davemcclure Practical Venture Capital: https://practicalvc.com/ Hussein Kanji on X: https://x.com/hkanji Hoxton Ventures: https://hoxtonventures.com/ Relevant Links GatesNotes: "The turbulent AI era is here": https://www.gatesnotes.com/a-turbulent-ai-era-and-critical-choices-to-make NPR: Meta settlement coverage: https://www.npr.org/2026/08/26/nx-s1-5944781/meta-settlement-child-safety-lawsuit TechCrunch: Stripe agrees to buy OpenRouter: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/16/stripe-will-reportedly-acquire-ai-gateway-startup-openrouter-for-7b/ Skild AI S1 Demo: https://www.skild.ai/blogs/s1 Instinct AI agent (waitlist): https://instinct.co/ TechCrunch: Instinct coverage: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/24/instincts-powerful-ai-assistant-is-raising-privacy-and-security-concerns/ CNBC: OpenAI CFO says IPO is coming in 2027: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/19/open-ai-ipo-timing-2027-friar.html Basis: https://www.getbasis.ai/ TaxGPT: https://www.taxgpt.com/ Cusp AI: https://cusp.ai/ Abacus: https://goabacus.co/ Micro1: https://www.micro1.ai/ Mottu: https://mottu.com.br/ EquityBee: https://equitybee.com/ Kiva: https://www.kiva.org/ Timestamps: 0:00 It's Hussein's first time on the VC Roundtable! 2:09 Gates says "turbulent era" for AI is here 8:56 Microloans, Kiva, and "universal basic income" 9:23 Thanks to our partner, Lightfield, the AI-native CRM that updates itself, so you never have to! Try it for free at https://lightfield.app 13:00 Why sole proprietorships may be AI's biggest beneficiary 20:29 Got a new business idea? Northwest helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more, with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain 21:00 Should the gov't take a stake in AI labs? 30:24 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist to get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business. 32:44 Meta's $17.1B settlement 45:14 Is anything still fundable outside of AI? 46:29 Stripe and SpaceX deals 55:54 Skild AI's pancake flipping demo 59:49 Sheel's Hottest Takes 1:04:37 Dave's Charts 1:09:07 Who loses money when there are no IPOs? 1:16:49 The Agent Wars heat up 1:24:56 Everyone's favorite investments   Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp   Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons   Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis   Thank you to our partners: (0:00) PARTNER - AD BLURB (0:00) PARTNER - AD BLURB (0:00) PARTNER - AD BLURB Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/   Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland   Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis   Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

How does a traditional fine artist go from painting oil canvases in Scotland to pioneering Web3, augmented reality, and multi-million-dollar NFT drops? In this classic throwback episode of The Edge of NFT, host Josh Kriger sits down with world-renowned artist Trevor Jones.Trevor shares his unconventional journey from failing as a young bassist in Vancouver to studying fine art at Edinburgh College of Art in his 30s. He details his earliest experiments with hand-painted QR code canvases in 2012, his shift to augmented reality (AR) storytelling, and his early 2017 entry into Bitcoin.Discover the story behind his legendary Bitcoin Angel open edition drop, which grossed $3.2 million in seven minutes and how it funded his iconic, philanthropic Castle Parties. Trevor also reflects on collaborating with Web3 legends like Pak, Jose Delbo, and Alotta Money, while offering invaluable advice on maintaining authenticity and long-term vision as an artist.Support us through our Sponsors! ☕ Want to make content like ours? Sign up with Castmagic to make your creative process easy: https://bit.ly/CastmagicReferral Work smarter, grow faster. Automate your SEO, get AI insights, and manage all your clients in one place with Helm. Start today 50% off your first month at helmseo.comDouble your team's efficiency with COCO. Hire dedicated AI employees for copywriting, research, and CRM. Use code REF-W8CBVH for an exclusive 5% off your first order: https://coco.xyz/dashboard/hire/plan?ref=REF-W8CBVH Do you want to grow a business? Go from an idea to livebusiness in minutes. Use our Referral code: edgeof to 50% off your first month at https://www.willo.ai/When you purchase through these links, we may earn a commission. ____

You Might Not Have an AI Problem—You Might Have an Operating System ProblemI've spent a lot of time teaching AI this week, and I noticed something that completely changed the way I think about AI in business.Almost everyone is using AI—but very few entrepreneurs are actually building with it.If you're using ChatGPT or Claude to write emails, brainstorm content, research ideas, or help with a random task, you're not doing anything wrong. I do those things too. But there's a much bigger opportunity hiding beyond the one-off prompts.In this episode, I'm breaking down the four levels of using AI in your business: from simply chatting with AI, to giving it context, building repeatable systems, and ultimately integrating AI into the way your business actually operates.And if you've been feeling like you're “behind” on AI, I want you to hear this: you probably aren't behind. You may just be using AI at the wrong level.Things I Cover:Why most entrepreneurs don't actually have an AI problem—they have an operating system problemThe 4 levels of AI in business: Chat → Context → Systems → IntegrationWhy giving AI better context can be more powerful than searching for the “perfect prompt”How to turn AI from a tool you occasionally use into a role within your businessThe difference between using AI for a single task and building a repeatable AI systemHow AI can support your calendar, inbox, CRM, meetings, content, team, and client follow-upWhy chasing every new AI tool could actually be slowing you downThe one question I want you to ask before hiring another person or adding another toolHow to identify ONE repetitive process in your business that AI could help you build once and use repeatedlyWhy the biggest AI advantage may not belong to the entrepreneur who knows the most tools—but to the one who knows where AI belongsYour ChallengePick one thing you do over and over again in your business.Instead of asking, “How can AI help me do this today?”Ask: “How can I build this once so AI helps me do it every time?”That shift—from using AI to building with AI—could completely change the way you operate.If this episode gave you a new perspective on how you're using AI, share it with another entrepreneur who needs to hear this.And if you're ready to start building AI into your actual business, connect with me on Instagram at @itsraquelq for resources, workshops, and ways to start building the systems behind your business.Build better. Live bigger. Play Bigger.

Are you holding on too tightly to people, opportunities, or business strategies that have already run their course? In this episode, Chris and I talk about why life and business are always changing, and how much of the pain comes from expecting things to stay the same. We share how friendships, income streams, and business chapters have evolved throughout our lives and why learning to enjoy what you have while you have it is just as important as knowing when to pivot. Get ready to rethink how you handle change and start seeing what could be waiting around the corner. Check out our Sponsors: Shopify - Try the ecommerce platform I trust for Glōci. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at http://Shopify.com/happy. Monarch Money -  Get your first year of Monarch Core for half off at http://Monarch.com with code EYH. Northwest Registered Agent - Visit http://northwestregisteredagent.com/EarnFree and start using free resources to build something amazing. Fabric - Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. Apply today in just minutes at http://meetfabric.com/earn. Indeed - Indeed is giving Earn Your Happy listeners a $75 SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to help get your job the premium status it deserves. Just go to http://Indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on Earn Your Happy. Momentous - If you want to try Momentous Signature Spec Creatine, head to http://livemomentous.com and use code EARN for up to 35% off your entire first order. Brevo - Meet Brevo…the all-in-one marketing and CRM platform built to help you connect with customers, boost engagement, and grow your business smarter. Get started for free today—or use code HAPPY50 to save 50% on Starter and Standard Plans for the first three months of an annual subscription. Just head to http://www.brevo.com/happy HIGHLIGHTS Why life and business are always a revolving door. How to enjoy people and opportunities while you have them. Why friendships often change as your life and priorities evolve. How to backfill what changes instead of getting stuck in the past. Why your next opportunity may come from a completely different direction. How the right rooms can help you find new people, ideas, and opportunities. RESOURCES Want to join me for four days up the Southern California coast? DM Chris on Instagram at @chriswharder Learn more about Loop at loriharder.com/loop Get on the waitlist for Mentor Collective Mastermind HERE! Try glōci for 40% off your first order with code HAPPY at checkout - head to getgloci.com FOLLOW Follow me: @loriharder Follow Chris: @chriswharder Follow glōci: @getgloci

Does your business still need you to make every decision, solve every problem, and make sure everything gets done? In this episode, I sit down with former Google, Apple, and Microsoft team expert Lia Garvin to talk about how to stop being the bottleneck and build a team that actually helps your business make more money. Lia shares the simple systems that can free up your time, make delegation easier, eliminate unnecessary meetings and expenses, and give your team the clarity to take real ownership. We also talk about how to know whether you have the wrong person or they simply haven't been led well, the conversations too many founders avoid, and how to create a culture of clear expectations without becoming a micromanager. If you're ready to get out of the weeds, stop carrying your entire business on your shoulders, and build a team that can grow with you, this episode is for you. Check out our Sponsors: Shopify - Try the ecommerce platform I trust for Glōci. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at http://Shopify.com/happy. Monarch Money -  Get your first year of Monarch Core for half off at http://Monarch.com with code EYH. Northwest Registered Agent - Visit http://northwestregisteredagent.com/EarnFree and start using free resources to build something amazing. Fabric - Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. Apply today in just minutes at http://meetfabric.com/earn. Indeed - Indeed is giving Earn Your Happy listeners a $75 SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to help get your job the premium status it deserves. Just go to http://Indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on Earn Your Happy. Momentous - If you want to try Momentous Signature Spec Creatine, head to http://livemomentous.com and use code EARN for up to 35% off your entire first order. Brevo - Meet Brevo…the all-in-one marketing and CRM platform built to help you connect with customers, boost engagement, and grow your business smarter. Get started for free today—or use code HAPPY50 to save 50% on Starter and Standard Plans for the first three months of an annual subscription. Just head to http://www.brevo.com/happy HIGHLIGHTS 00:00 How to turn your team from an expense into a revenue driver. 03:00 How Lia became the “team whisperer” at Microsoft, Apple, and Google. 06:10 What Lia learned about creating value when she felt like she didn't belong. 09:40 How to address team problems without putting people on the defensive. 12:00 The team problems Lia saw repeatedly inside some of the world's biggest companies. 16:10 Why Lia left Google to help entrepreneurs build better teams. 18:00 The leadership struggles business owners face when they start hiring. 20:15 The biggest misconception that keeps founders from creating systems sooner. 22:25 Where to start when you're already too busy to build systems. 24:55 How doing everything yourself is limiting your team and your growth. 26:10 How getting out of the weeds can directly impact your bottom line. 29:10 The simple weekly system that gives you visibility without micromanaging. 31:25 The delegation trap that keeps founders doing everything themselves. 32:50 The conversations that can save you from losing your best employees. 35:20 How to reset your company culture when expectations haven't been clear. 39:15 The first thing to fix when your founder and team are blaming each other. 41:40 Do you have the wrong employee, or are they being led the wrong way? 43:00 The 3 questions to ask before deciding a team member isn't working out. 46:00 How to give clear feedback without feeling like the “bad guy.” 49:15 How simple operational changes can save thousands and unlock more revenue. RESOURCES DM Lia the word “HAPPY” to get access to the Snippets app and create a simple weekly system for tracking your team's wins, blockers, and priorities. DM Lia the word “HAPPY” or head to liagarvin.com/happy to get her free guide for navigating sticky team conversations and having your own “sit down.” Learn more about Lia's Team Ops Playbook and fractional COO support at liagarvin.com Learn more about Loop at loriharder.com/loop Get on the waitlist for Mentor Collective Mastermind HERE! Try glōci for 40% off your first order with code HAPPY at checkout - head to getgloci.com FOLLOW Follow me: @loriharder Follow glōci: @getgloci Follow Lia: @lia.garvin