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Breaking into investment banking from a non-target university isn't easy — especially after 150+ applications, months of rejection, and zero connections. In this student testimonial, Kitty shares how she went from studying politics at the University of Birmingham to landing offers from UBS, Lazard, and Rothschild. From struggling with confidence to facing non-target fears head-on, this is the real story behind breaking into investment banking as a student. Segments  01:19 – Music vs Finance  03:04 – Why University of Birmingham?  03:34 – Switching from Politics to Finance  04:05 – When Banking Became Real  05:27 – Why She Joined Academy  06:55 – Networking Strategy  07:45 – 150+ Applications  08:33 – First Interview Breakthrough  10:44 – Offers from UBS, Lazard & Rothschild  11:58 – Advice to Students Check out WSO Academy — the prep that has helped thousands break into high finance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ The Shift from Attention to Trust In this compelling episode, Ashleigh Vogstad, CEO of Transcends, joins Vince Menzione to discuss the tectonic shifts occurring in the global partner ecosystem. Ashleigh shares her firsthand experiences studying AI at Oxford, the rise of the “Trust Economy,” and the controversial Amazon vs. Perplexity lawsuit. They dive deep into the practicalities of becoming a “Frontier Firm,” the importance of building proprietary AI agents, and the ways Gen Z and AI-driven marketplaces are revolutionizing the buyer journey. Whether you are looking to win Microsoft Partner of the Year or navigate the demise of traditional SaaS, this conversation provides a strategic roadmap for leading through the AI revolution. Key Takeaways The economy is shifting from a focus on human attention to a foundation of verified trust. Future commerce will involve “selling to machines” as AI agents begin making purchasing decisions on behalf of humans. Microsoft is prioritizing “Frontier Firms” that integrate AI into every customer interaction and internal process. Gen Z buyers are prioritizing product value and “dupes” over traditional brand names, with 75% of buyers expected to be Gen Z by 2030. To win Partner of the Year, organizations must publicly celebrate “better together” stories with validated customer wins. Modern leaders should transition from a “growth mindset” to a “frontier mindset” to keep pace with rapid technological change. https://youtu.be/xJmd43NvfnI 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 Trust Economy, Selling to Machines, Amazon vs Perplexity Lawsuit, Frontier Firm, AI Agents, Copilot Studio, Anthropic Claude, Microsoft Partner of the Year, B2B Marketplaces, Gen Z Buyer Behavior, Digital Freedom, AI Therapy, Ray Kurzweil Singularity, Substack Growth, Co-selling Partnerships, MCI Funding, Azure Accelerate, Agentic AI, Transcending Tech, Ashleigh Vogstad. Transcript Asleigh Vogstad Audio Podcast [00:00:00] Ashleigh Vogstad: The attention economy is about selling to human beings. Now, if you look at something like the Amazon versus Perplexity lawsuit, the whole underlying premise is around the shift of no longer selling to humans directly, but of selling to machines. [00:00:19] Vince Menzione: We just finished Ultimate Partners Winter Retreat here in beautiful Boca to a sold out crowd. Today I’m joined by Ashley Waad. The CEO of transcends for this compelling discussion. Ash, welcome back to the podcasts. [00:00:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: It’s so good to be here, Vince. Thank you. Uh, [00:00:37] Vince Menzione: so well, we’re back in Boca again and we were just here yesterday for the Ultimate Partner Executive Winter Retreat in person. [00:00:44] Vince Menzione: What a great event we had together. [00:00:46] Ashleigh Vogstad: It was phenomenal. Thank you so much for having us there and on stage and, and genuinely the community is like a family, so seeing so many familiar faces and spending some quality time was just great. [00:00:57] Vince Menzione: It has really, truly become like family. It really, I’m, I’m, I’m having so much fun with this and getting to watch. [00:01:04] Vince Menzione: Not just our business grow and our community grow, but to see all of our friends and, uh, organizations like Transcends that have been with us since the beginning, since the very first ultimate partner acting even before the first ultimate partner. And, uh. We were just talking about. I’d love to catch up with what you’ve been doing. [00:01:22] Vince Menzione: Like you just came, you’ve been on a whirlwind. I mean, you’re always, every time like it’s, where’s Ash? She’s, uh, she’s on a plane again, or she’s on, she’s on the slopes. But tell us where you were just this week. [00:01:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. The week started in a snowstorm, actually transporting myself from Whistler. I didn’t know if I would make it to the airport, but then down to Silicon Valley and [00:01:45] Vince Menzione: Nice. [00:01:46] Ashleigh Vogstad: Wow, that place is just inspiring and eyeopening. I mean, seeing the Nvidia campus, a MD, it’s really just other worldly and it had me reflecting on, it’s [00:02:00] Vince Menzione: not Whistler. Yeah, it’s [00:02:02] Ashleigh Vogstad: definitely not Whistler. Definitely not Whistler [00:02:05] Vince Menzione: about, [00:02:06] Ashleigh Vogstad: um, yeah, it just had me reflecting on being down there. I used to spend a lot of time in the Valley around 2017 and. [00:02:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: In this theme of AI and kind of what’s really coming, I was, I was thinking about, I had met this woman, Julia Moss Bridge, who’s a neuroscientist studying ai. She had a project called Loving Ai, and I was down there when they had borrowed Sophia, this humanoid robot from S and Robotics. [00:02:32] Vince Menzione: Oh yes. Yes. [00:02:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: Really interesting. [00:02:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: Sophia’s actually a citizen of Saudi. Mm-hmm. First, first robot to actually be made citizen of a country. So they had Sophia set up and the part that was just mind boggling at the time was that Sophia was hosting in real life therapy sessions with actual human beings sitting across the table. And what really struck me as. [00:02:59] Ashleigh Vogstad: Kind of just, you know, that was only eight, nine years ago. And that was esoteric. Wacky and [00:03:05] Vince Menzione: eerie. [00:03:05] Ashleigh Vogstad: Weird. [00:03:05] Vince Menzione: Eerie at the time. [00:03:06] Ashleigh Vogstad: Incredibly eerie. Yeah. I mean, a, a human getting, uh, you know, therapy sessions from a robot sitting across the table. Yeah. And it just had me thinking how far we’ve come today. In 2025, Harvard Business Review said that therapy is actually the number one use case for ai. [00:03:26] Vince Menzione: I’ve heard that. That is striking. I go back to COVID. We were having this conversation last night at at the dinner for the Ultimate Partner event, and I think that COVID allowed us to transcend, [00:03:42] Ashleigh Vogstad: mm-hmm. [00:03:42] Vince Menzione: No pun intended there, but actually accelerate where we are today, that the acceptance of AI and the acceleration, or the ability to accept change so quickly. [00:03:56] Vince Menzione: Started with COVID because we were so, so we were forced on whatever it was, March 10th I think, here in the United States to shut down everything and move to this remote life. [00:04:08] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm-hmm. [00:04:09] Vince Menzione: And I think we’ve been shocked by that. I think our systems have all been shocked by that. And then here comes chat GBT in November of 2022 and we’re like. [00:04:20] Vince Menzione: Shocked in some respects, but like really everyone has embraced it in such a strong way, and now we’re getting. It’s almost daily update. You know, we’re gonna talk, I know we’re gonna talk about Anthropic and some of the things that’s been happening just in this last month that are striking and changing that have a lot of organizations trying to navigate, which is what, you know, you, you help organizations do. [00:04:43] Vince Menzione: But it feels like this is happening so fast and will continue to happen so fast. And as I said yesterday, I don’t know what this world’s gonna look like by 2030. [00:04:53] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, and I think the thing is, is that nobody knows what the world is gonna look like in 2030. I’ve been reading Ray Kurz Well’s, the Singularity is nearer, so the original book, the Singularity is near and he’s known to be a very accurate predictionist on the future. [00:05:11] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. But even with someone like that, you know, there, there nobody really knows what the world is gonna look like. And when you talk about COVID. At transcends, we have a value of digital freedom. So I founded the business in 2018, which was pre COVID. I as a fully remote organization, and at the time that was, you know, more groundbreaking, but then very quickly with CI that, that became the so-called new normal. [00:05:37] Ashleigh Vogstad: But we’re always thinking about. You know, remote first doesn’t mean remote only, and I think in this tide of what you’ve talked about, technological change being more acceptable and the pace of change. One of the interesting things that we see as a go-to-market agency is that in-person events are increasing. [00:05:56] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:05:57] Ashleigh Vogstad: People want and crave the face-to-face. Just like with the ultimate partner series. [00:06:02] Vince Menzione: I felt it. So it was striking yesterday. It, it seems like it’s, again, this was event number nine for us, but to see the, um, uh, receptiveness isn’t the right term, but it was this, uh, people, the, the embracing. Of seeing each other and hugging each other and being in the same room with each other. [00:06:22] Vince Menzione: And even people that didn’t know each other, like by the, the, as the day evolved, this, uh, connection that they all seemed to have with one another during the sessions and participating, everyone actively participated in the sessions. And, um, I said this in the beginning, we’re not a Slack channel and we’re not like some post on LinkedIn. [00:06:43] Vince Menzione: Uh, we’re there, there’s no playbook that’s set today around partnerships or even go to markets and marketing that we could espouse and say, this is the playbook for the next year. Right. It’s, it’s changing so rapidly. [00:06:55] Ashleigh Vogstad: So rapidly, [00:06:57] Vince Menzione: and you’ve embraced it. And I, and what we’re gonna talk about right now, I mean, I, I, you know, you’ve embraced AI in such a strong way. [00:07:04] Vince Menzione: Um, personally and with your business, I want to, I wanna dive in here a little bit. First of all, a couple things For those of those who are listening who don’t know you, I think maybe just a moment about transcends and your role, and then I wanna dive in on how you’re thinking about ai because I know you’re doing some things personally. [00:07:22] Vince Menzione: I want you to share that with, with our listeners and viewers today. [00:07:25] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, great. And I just wanna comment that it was a cool moment yesterday being up on stage with yourself and Mark Monday from ServiceNow and having the audience so engaged and active and Nina Harding from Microsoft stepping up and entering the conversation. [00:07:40] Vince Menzione: So cool. [00:07:41] Ashleigh Vogstad: It just made for such a collaborative experience, which was a cool moment, but yeah. Um, so. I founded this business, transcends a go-to-market agency after being at Microsoft myself. And really our differentiation is deep strategic partnerships with hyperscalers, whether that’s AWS, Google, Microsoft, and you know, that. [00:08:03] Ashleigh Vogstad: It comes with a challenge to be on the leading edge of technology. [00:08:08] Vince Menzione: Yes, [00:08:09] Ashleigh Vogstad: it, it’s really an imperative for our business and we are an AI first firm. Microsoft talks a lot about Frontier Firm, and I’ll take a, a different kind of angle on it. You know, when I think about Frontier. I now think about it as instead of the growth mindset, I now think about a frontier mindset. [00:08:28] Vince Menzione: Frontier mindset. You have to change my principles. [00:08:32] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, maybe, like you said, the world is changing so rapidly. Yeah, it’s [00:08:36] Vince Menzione: changing rapidly. [00:08:36] Ashleigh Vogstad: And what a frontier mindset means is that as we’re approaching work for our clients, we are thinking about AI innovation in every single customer. Interaction, customer innovation. [00:08:49] Ashleigh Vogstad: So today we’re building AI agents into much of the work that we’re delivering for clients. And as a business owner and leader, I’ve been challenged to also think critically around how I’m choosing to run the company. And right now we’re going through a huge overhaul of where we have data sitting in silos and different applications. [00:09:09] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yep. And getting that into one place with one view so we can start layering on more insight. AI innovation. [00:09:17] Vince Menzione: Yeah. And data’s such an critical part, part of this, as we, we talked about yesterday. But you know, even the, what you said, which is, would, would’ve been striking a year ago to say, we’re an AI first, uh, agency isn’t as striking anymore. [00:09:32] Vince Menzione: Uh, we heard Nina when we were having this conversation on stage yesterday, say that it’s an imperative at Microsoft that the agencies that they choose to work with, the third party vendors that they work with have to be an AI first organization. I have to be a frontier firm, and so I’m a, I am sensitive to the word frontier firm. [00:09:53] Vince Menzione: I understand why Microsoft uses it and I understand the value of what we used to call, you know, customer zero or back in the day we used to say eating your own dog food, but essentially being an organization that has leaned in, in a way, and with ai. Even more so, so important to do it. So tell us, I know you’ve done some things personally as well, but tell, tell us what you’ve done with the organization. [00:10:18] Vince Menzione: Uh, you talked about data and making data available and having, having a true data state as opposed to silos of data, but then you also made some personal investments and sacrifices. I would say. [00:10:30] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. [00:10:30] Vince Menzione: Yeah. In terms of what you’re doing around ai, [00:10:32] Ashleigh Vogstad: so I mean, let’s start on the personal side. I’m the CEO of my organization, and you can read in books or news articles that it is critical for AI transformation to start at the C-suite and specifically in the CEO seat. [00:10:46] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:10:46] Ashleigh Vogstad: And that really. Landed for me and so I’m personally leading in About two weeks ago, I built an agent, just end-to-end on my own, got into copilot studio. Wow. Got comfortable with the interface. You know, I was clunky moving around in there at first, chose my model. You know, I went with one of the anthropic Claude models for this particular project and built up an agent that can deliver executive communications like. [00:11:14] Ashleigh Vogstad: Thought leadership blogs, uh, LinkedIn posts, but in a particular human being’s voice by ingesting things like their social profiles, their SharePoint sites, where they live and work. And it has been so surprising doing an ab test between just what a chat GBT or a copilot could produce. [00:11:32] Yeah. [00:11:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: In comparison with the authenticity of the voice coming from the agent. [00:11:37] Ashleigh Vogstad: Uh, it was just a really cool experience to roll up the sleeves and get in there. But also I think the, the investment that you’re referring to is, I made a big decision to return to school and uh, got accepted to go to Oxford. [00:11:52] Vince Menzione: Wow. [00:11:52] Ashleigh Vogstad: And I’m studying artificial intelligence there. [00:11:54] Vince Menzione: That is incredible. That is incredible. [00:11:57] Vince Menzione: Oxford, uh, we’ve heard of that school before here in the United States. [00:12:03] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, it’s been a really great experience. It’s in person, so I’m traveling there about every 60 to 90 days and living on campus. I mean, really, Oxford isn’t. Formally a campus, it’s sort of a, a city and a university all, all ruled into one and the experience has been really powerful. [00:12:21] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yes. One of the things I wanted to get outta the program was a more global perspective, and it’s been fascinating to me that about half the faculty so far, or or professors, guest lecturers that have been coming into the program have been from China or very direct experience working in the Chinese market. [00:12:38] Vince Menzione: That is fascinating. [00:12:39] Ashleigh Vogstad: It’s been a completely different view. Or for example, you know, really digging into some of the legal cases that are driving precedence for how AI is interacting with corporations. [00:12:51] Vince Menzione: Mm. [00:12:51] Ashleigh Vogstad: One of the big ones for me has been looking at Amazon versus p perplexity. This is still a live case that’s happening right now. [00:12:58] Ashleigh Vogstad: And you know, I think it was Forbes magazine that the headline was the End of Commerce for this case because it’s really about. How human beings are being replaced with machines and hearing some of the world’s leading thinkers, leading AI researchers on these topics has just been really expansive. [00:13:19] Vince Menzione: It’s fascinating. [00:13:20] Vince Menzione: I mean, it’s, this started a couple years ago with, uh, Hollywood, in fact. Suing the industry or suing the technology companies with regards to, uh, employment, right? Mm-hmm. About the, the, uh, copyright infringement and what’s gonna happen in the entertainment industry. And I think that was just a one very small example. [00:13:40] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, voice people think about DeepFakes. Yeah. And they think about video, but actually voice is a big issue. And you look at the, um, you know, the what happened between Scarlett Johansson and her voice in her, and then open AI rolling out a voice that sounded identical. Sounds like her. [00:13:59] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:13:59] Ashleigh Vogstad: To Scarlett Johansen and, and where that went. [00:14:01] Ashleigh Vogstad: It’s, it, this is a new ground for, for everybody that we’re going through right now. [00:14:07] Vince Menzione: It is. We can dive and go in so many different directions, but let’s talk about marketing and advertising since that’s kind of. Transcends core, and a lot of the people that watch and listen to us are in the partnership world. [00:14:22] Vince Menzione: They’re leading organizations, they own organizations, the the chief executives or CVPs of organizations. Let’s talk about advertising and where that’s going. [00:14:32] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, great. [00:14:33] Vince Menzione: Yeah, [00:14:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: I mean, uh, I love Marshall McCluen. He’s a Canadian theor, uh, media theorist, and in 1964, he very famously said, the medium is the message. [00:14:43] Ashleigh Vogstad: And what that really means when you peel back the layers is that every type of communication medium has these inherent biases. And I think what we’re experiencing right now is this new medium of artificial intelligence, and I’m really interested in exploring what that means for the media world. So. If I gonna take you back to 1997, there’s this really famous, the Innovator’s Dilemma. [00:15:10] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yes. Kind of a classic business 1 0 1 type book by Clayton Christensen. Yes. And he talks about this theory of disruption where new technologies, emerging technologies start at the low end of the market. They gain this momentum and they eventually displace incumbents. And you know, sometimes seemingly out of nowhere. [00:15:28] Vince Menzione: Yeah. And Microsoft was a good example of this at that time. [00:15:32] Ashleigh Vogstad: Def, [00:15:32] Vince Menzione: yeah. [00:15:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: All the big players. All the big players. I mean, Google go for search as well, right? So that’s one of the classic examples. And so. If we look at storytelling technology, you have things like chat, GBT and Sora entering the scene. And in the beginning, you know, they’re producing a shitty first draft. [00:15:51] Ashleigh Vogstad: Uh, you know, it’s things like post-apocalyptic dogs with five finger human beings. Yeah. Things like this. But, you know, and they really lacked emotional resonance. But as we all know. That’s not the case anymore. No, it’s [00:16:05] Vince Menzione: not. [00:16:06] Ashleigh Vogstad: AI is increasingly producing content that is very powerful and is starting to resonate with people. [00:16:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, I’m definitely not a neuroscientist, but if we, we look into the neuroscience, it’s your cortical sal circuit that. Kind of is responsible for pattern recognition and it compares what you’re seeing in the real world with what you expect to see. So when you take this into a space of advertising, you know, if there’s an ad that is AI generated, that is just weird and kind of. [00:16:38] Ashleigh Vogstad: Tweaking for you. [00:16:39] Vince Menzione: Like that robot we were talking about earlier, [00:16:41] Ashleigh Vogstad: like the robot we were Exactly, yeah. Like Sophia, you enter what psychologists call the uncanny valley, so it’s like what you’re looking at isn’t exactly what you’re expecting to see and the Spidey sense is, is tweaking. You know, that’s a low place of emotional resonance. [00:16:58] Ashleigh Vogstad: This world is changing really, really quickly and we’re seeing AI generated media make huge impacts in the market Now, tools like Luma Dream Machine, I mean, it’s incredible what they can achieve today. [00:17:11] Vince Menzione: It’s fascinating. We see it in, you know, I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. That’s sort of the world of our business community, and you can very easily detect when someone is doing a post. [00:17:22] Vince Menzione: Or they’re writing an art, whatever they’re doing. Right. Some type of draft of something. Uh, and you can tell when it’s ai, I mean, it’s so easy to tell, and even people are generating reports and claiming that their research papers or studies or whatever they call them, uh, and it’s AI generated and it’s just the authenticity isn’t there. [00:17:39] Vince Menzione: The, the sense that this is real. That it can be trusted is not there. And I think trust is what we’re talking about here too, as well. [00:17:47] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. I mean, let’s go to authenticity ’cause that’s super important. Yeah. And I know a lot of your listeners, you come from the hyperscaler world of partnerships. You need to have that differentiated, better together story. [00:17:59] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. It’s really important to have an authentic voice in market. And I think about that also in terms of platforms and channels. We’re seeing a decrease in certain major social media platforms, and yet Substack spiked 48% in monthly active users last month. [00:18:15] Vince Menzione: That’s [00:18:16] fascinating. [00:18:16] Ashleigh Vogstad: Um, you know, and I think that one of the reasons is it’s viewed as a more authentic channel where you’re getting thought leadership from people that you’re, you know, genuinely interested in hearing their, their points of view. [00:18:28] Ashleigh Vogstad: And I think that’s really an important piece in here. [00:18:31] Vince Menzione: Yeah, you mentioned this yesterday and you had me thinking about it as well because we have used LinkedIn for everything internally, our newsletter, which has been around for six or seven years now. But that Substack is really, and I go to Substack too, to, if I really wanna dig in on a topic. [00:18:47] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm. [00:18:47] Vince Menzione: And there’s a particular author that I like their point of view, I’ll follow, I’ll follow them on Substack. [00:18:53] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. I mean, and this comes, maybe brings us around to who is the buyer and who is the audience, and who do we need to be thinking about when we’re designing sales and marketing programs. And really we’re, we’re shifting into the place of the Gen Z buyer by 20 30, 70 5% of buyers are gonna be Gen Z. [00:19:12] Ashleigh Vogstad: They’re gonna control 12 trillion in. Spend [00:19:16] Vince Menzione: by 2030. ’cause we, we’ve been, we’ve been saying that the millennial is the new buyer the last three years. I think Jay said it right here at this stage. [00:19:23] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm. [00:19:24] Vince Menzione: Um, so now it’s Gen Z. [00:19:27] Ashleigh Vogstad: And they’re buying online. Yeah, they’re buying in marketplaces. Yeah. So a stat recently was that roughly half of them made purchases on the social platforms of YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok in the last month. [00:19:39] Ashleigh Vogstad: I mean, that buyer behavior of being inside. Social type application and directly making a purchase. And I think in the B2B world, we need to take lessons from here and start thinking more front and center than we even have been around marketplaces. I mean, part of my reason for being in Silicon Valley this week was to celebrate a $12 million transaction that happened via Marketplace and two years ago that would’ve been a huge deal. [00:20:06] Ashleigh Vogstad: Huge, [00:20:07] Vince Menzione: huge. [00:20:07] Ashleigh Vogstad: And, and it still is a really big deal, but these things are becoming. More and more common experiences. Very much so. We need to be there and in that conversation. [00:20:16] Vince Menzione: So how are you thinking about it? How are you directing your clients to behave or act around it? What are you, what are you doing exactly that we could take to this community perhaps and share with them. [00:20:28] Ashleigh Vogstad: I’ll bring it back to the authenticity piece because you need to have a product that delivers value first and foremost. There is, there is no substitution for that. Yeah, and what I would say is. One of my professors at Oxford, Eric Zow, he has this theory that I’m really digging into and finding very fascinating, which is that for the last several decades we’ve been in the attention economy, and that’s shifting to the trust economy. [00:20:55] Ashleigh Vogstad: Now the attention economy is about selling to human beings. Yeah. It’s about the, the business model is essentially that you need human being eyeballs on lists of recommendation links. Yeah. Whether that’s from Google or from, you know, searching, shopping on Amazon, you get this list of recommendation links and the economic engine that drives that business model is advertising. [00:21:19] Ashleigh Vogstad: Now, if you look at something like the Amazon versus Perplexity lawsuit, the whole underlying premise is around the shift of no longer selling to humans directly, but of selling to machines, or in other words, agents who are making purchases, s on behalf on your behalf. And an agent isn’t going to be razzle dazzled by some inauthentic story. [00:21:44] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:21:44] Ashleigh Vogstad: They’re gonna be looking for third party validation on Exactly. You know, they need to be sure that they’re making the right decision. [00:21:51] Vince Menzione: They’re gonna look at surveys, they’re gonna look at customer comments. Like if I went through my Amazon site and I was looking to see what people said about the purchase or the product and specifically Exactly. [00:22:01] Vince Menzione: The agent’s gonna do this on my behalf, is what you’re saying. [00:22:04] Ashleigh Vogstad: This is what I’m saying. Yeah. And, and. I believe that to layer on top of, you know, Eric Z’s philosophy, I’ve been thinking about this in terms of the hyperscaler world, and I think that this is the time to lean into co-selling partnerships. [00:22:18] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, because being third party validated by somebody like AWS Microsoft and having all that co-sell data, what are your recent wins? Yes, that’s really high integrity, trusted data source for an agent to make a purchasing decision, and marketplaces are a key part of that. [00:22:35] Vince Menzione: So we’ll move from AI will take a, a more active role in the marketplace. [00:22:40] Ashleigh Vogstad: I definitely believe so. [00:22:42] Vince Menzione: Which makes total sense. I, you know, we’ve been doing this for nine or 10 years now, and when I was at Microsoft, we started co-selling. In fact, it was, uh, Aaron Feiger was up on stage yesterday talking about it. Right? January of 2016, co-selling began. [00:22:55] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm. [00:22:56] Vince Menzione: And there were only a few companies doing it. [00:22:59] Vince Menzione: Right. So she worked with one of the very first ones that were doing it. Uh, the challenge we have today is there are tens of thousands of partner organizations in the marketplace that are all trying to get the attention of the Microsoft sellers. Hmm. As, or the Google sellers or the AWS sellers and tell their story. [00:23:19] Vince Menzione: And a seller only has so many minutes in a day, they have a quota that they have to hit. These quotas are tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars of annual quota of cloud consumption. And I wanna sell my $50,000 widget, whatever it is. Yeah. Right. And I, I don’t understand why I’m not getting a callback. [00:23:38] Vince Menzione: And this, this is the dilemma we’ve faced because of, because of this, uh, scarcity of time and this over overwhelming of tech, you know. Tech, tech buyers trying to make this all happen, so now the AI can come in and help me solve for it as a seller, right? [00:23:55] Ashleigh Vogstad: The AI is definitely acting as an interface to make recommendations to field sellers in different organizations and. [00:24:04] Ashleigh Vogstad: To, to kind of take this on a, a tangent. Dupes. So a dupe. I know people of my generation, we’d think about this like a knockoff Right. You know, a knockoff handbag. [00:24:15] Vince Menzione: Yep. [00:24:15] Ashleigh Vogstad: Dupes have exploded. [00:24:16] Vince Menzione: Fake. Fake Rolexes. [00:24:18] Ashleigh Vogstad: Exactly. The fake Rolex for sure. And I think it was in December, P WC rolled out a survey. 81% of Gen Z were planning to purchase a dupe this holiday season. [00:24:29] Vince Menzione: That’s wild. [00:24:30] Ashleigh Vogstad: Dupes can be, you know, we gave luxury, good examples, but Louis [00:24:34] Vince Menzione: Vuitton and yeah. So, [00:24:35] Ashleigh Vogstad: but furniture, these sorts of things. And the important takeaway here for tech is the same principle will land, is that people are looking for value out of a product, not necessarily a name brand. AI is accelerating this whole process, and agents are gonna be looking at the same thing. [00:24:56] Ashleigh Vogstad: They’re looking for that authenticity in terms of the actual product value. So, you know, beware there’s lots of disruption happening in the market right now with this dupe mentality, which is actually a cultural shift talking about I appreciate value over a superficial. Brand name. In some cases, there’s also a, a small contrary trend where certain luxury goods are rising because yes, things are never that simple. [00:25:22] Vince Menzione: So you work with a lot of these tech companies, a lot of SaaS companies, is we, we call them ISVs, we also call them, uh, software development companies. Now we keep changing these acronyms around. Uh, there’s been a lot of, uh, consternation in that segment, I would say, around ai. Right, because a lot of them are getting told that they’ll be outta business in a few years. [00:25:43] Vince Menzione: Mm-hmm. I think Satya Nadella famously said this last year that SAS will go away. Right? He’s predicting the demise. How do you help some of these organizations to differentiate? And there’s some of these are huge value organizations. We have have them in the room with us, ServiceNow and Veeam and Adobe. [00:26:01] Vince Menzione: Um, how do you help them achieve their results? ’cause that’s what you, you know, your organization is really helping these organizations to achieve their pinnacle as a partner. What do you, what do you say to them now and how do you help them through this time? [00:26:16] Ashleigh Vogstad: I’m on the side of the fence that I really can’t see an organization ripping out something like Salesforce, Adobe, ServiceNow. [00:26:24] Vince Menzione: Agreed. [00:26:24] Ashleigh Vogstad: I mean that the amount of change management and. The extent to which these, these platforms are embedded, actually running and operating organizations. I personally, if, if we’re calling those companies, SaaS companies, I don’t agree that that layer is gonna go away. I mean, we’re seeing these organizations lean into AI in a huge way to borrow Microsofts. [00:26:50] Ashleigh Vogstad: Term, you know, they’re all becoming frontier firms. [00:26:54] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:26:54] Ashleigh Vogstad: So where I would go to, to answer that question, we do work with many, you know, organizations on that caliber, on things like their marketplace strategy on how to light up the fields of different hyperscalers. It really does come down to things like having a strong drumbeat with the Microsoft field, celebrating your win stories. [00:27:15] Ashleigh Vogstad: Maybe that’s where I’ll land as Please do the marketer, because it sounds so simple, and I don’t know why we kind of continue to come back to this, but we’re talking about that third party validation and really, um, in order to have that, like what the hyperscalers want is you jointly celebrating success. [00:27:36] Ashleigh Vogstad: Here’s the kicker. Publicly. [00:27:38] Vince Menzione: Publicly, [00:27:39] Ashleigh Vogstad: you know, you need a customer story on your website, a press release that contains a quote from your customer. Ideally, also a quote from an executive at one of the hyperscalers. Like, actually lean in to live the value of your better together story. And when you do that, when you, when it comes around to partner of the year time, and we talk to you about, okay, what client stories are we gonna feature? [00:28:03] Ashleigh Vogstad: We’re even gonna know because when we Google you, we can see the public press of the joint wins that you’ve been celebrating. And I can tell you that that is a huge indicator on whether or not you’re well-placed to be in the 4% of partners who actually win Partner of the Year award’s. [00:28:20] Vince Menzione: Fascinating to me. [00:28:21] Vince Menzione: ’cause to me it would feel like table stakes maybe ’cause where we sit is ultimate partner and where this room sits with all the top partners that I just assume that everybody follows that. That, that guidance. [00:28:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm. [00:28:34] Vince Menzione: And so this is really impactful and I want to get here because I know you spent a lot of time here and we’ve talked about it before, but I think the partner of the year awards, when we first met many years ago, that was a you, you’ve expanded the business, but that’s still a core mission and and value that you bring to the community and to the partner ecosystem is helping them through this process. [00:28:55] Vince Menzione: So I know that that’s gonna be coming up soon, so I thought maybe we’d spend a couple moments on that. [00:29:00] Ashleigh Vogstad: Partner of the Year awards, regardless of which partner, I mean, Salesforce has their own awards there. There’s more and more award programs coming out, and they’re a great way to celebrate the incredible work that your organization has done. [00:29:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: Jay McBain is brilliant on this. He’ll talk a lot about the increase in valuation. Yeah. The, the increase in stock valuation or the likelihood that if you’re looking to be acquired, that you’re acquired within 12 months of a partner of the year win it. It’s really impressive. There is strong business value there. [00:29:33] Vince Menzione: He like, he likes, he likes to tell the story of that when the award is handed to them and they go back into the audience, that the private equity people are all over them right then and there and making offers. I mean, that’s the visual that you get [00:29:47] Ashleigh Vogstad: and it’s very powerful. Yeah. Very powerful. It’s very powerful and it, it can make it worthwhile to invest in the process, but don’t invest in the process if you haven’t been investing in the process for the 12 months. [00:29:57] Ashleigh Vogstad: Prior, [00:29:58] Vince Menzione: exactly. [00:29:58] Ashleigh Vogstad: The Microsoft field or you we’re talking about Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards. They need to know about your win that that needs to be top of mind for them. Yeah. How much Azure revenue is it driving? Was it a huge marketplace? Build sales and. You know, one of the questions I get asked a ton, everybody wants to know how do we get money out of the hyperscalers? [00:30:20] Ashleigh Vogstad: How do I get access to marketing development funds or all these different programs? Yeah. You know, at Microsoft, some of these programs are like EI and customer investment funds or Azure Accelerate, you know, and there’s millions and millions and millions of dollars in these, these buckets of funds, but. [00:30:36] Ashleigh Vogstad: An interesting point of view is that it’s actually a scorecard metric for many people at Microsoft who have partnership roles for you to be drawing down those funds. [00:30:45] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:30:45] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, your interests are actually aligned here, and so again, when it comes to Partner of the Year awards, how much money have you pulled down? [00:30:54] Ashleigh Vogstad: How much have you been an activating partner of key Microsoft programs that they’re pushing? What are you doing with marketplace rewards? How are you resing? Those into your business. These are the types of things that you really wanna be thinking about. Sitting it. You know, this time of year we probably will get the awards were likely be due in July. [00:31:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: They haven’t officially announced timelines, but you’ve got a few months to start moving these pieces into place. [00:31:18] Vince Menzione: And there are quite a few of them. And to your point, Nina, when she was up on stage here yesterday, there were at least 10 or 12 award. Uh. Funding categories that were on her, that were on her slide. [00:31:31] Vince Menzione: Her partner, her partner slide. So, [00:31:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: and what great looks like for a partner is that you understand your end-to-end funnel as it is mapped to Microsoft’s SEM model, the Microsoft customer Engagement model. Mm-hmm. The first stage there, inspire and design. That’s really the marketing space of lead generation. [00:31:50] Ashleigh Vogstad: So how are you generating leads with webinars, in-person, event activations, digital campaigns, and then at the very end, in the fifth column, you have the Microsoft outcomes that you’re driving. Yes. Whether that’s Azure consumed revenue, marketplace build sales, co-pilot, monthly active usage, these sorts of things. [00:32:10] Ashleigh Vogstad: And in each of those SEM swim lanes. There’s Microsoft funding associated to it. And that’s one of the things that Nina Harding was showing yesterday. When and where does it make sense to make requests for EA funds versus Azure accelerate the MCI funding? There’s different workshop proof of concept funding, and those all fall at specific stages in that EM model. [00:32:33] Vince Menzione: And what you’re also pointing out in this conversation is that the co the partners need to understand that mm, they need to understand MM. We talked about it years ago. I’ve had, haven’t had anybody on stage recently talk about m You could probably take us through that if we wanted to devote some time here, uh, and then understand all of those categories and how to access those funds. [00:32:52] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, it’s critical and. The number one place we point partners, if you want a quick overview of what that looks like is to Microsoft’s FY 26 solution playbooks. Nice. They’re available on the web for download. There’s, well, there used to be three, but they’ve added a few agen being, being one. So, so there’s a handful of, they had [00:33:11] Vince Menzione: simplified it, now they’re, now they’re expanding it back again. [00:33:14] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, exactly. I think there’s now a breakout for security as well. Yes. So take a look at those playbooks. It will map programs and incentives very specifically to each solution area and to each sales play that are gonna be available to you. And then we’re always happy to guide people through the details [00:33:32] Vince Menzione: as well. [00:33:32] Vince Menzione: I love that. I love that. And reach out to the. Ashley is just amazing at this process. I’ve, I’ve watched her for years now, work with some of the top, what have become the pinnacle partners of Microsoft and with the award season coming up. So we wanna make sure we have a plug there. But I also wanna talk about like, podcasts with you. [00:33:50] Vince Menzione: Um, you’ve been on this podcast multiple times, been in the studio before doing this, and I understand you have your own podcast now. So tell us about that. [00:33:58] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, Vince, I just wanna say. As a friend and a mentor. You’ve been so inspiring. Thank you. And I think from years ago when we met, there was this seed in my brain of, you know, I, I should really get out there. [00:34:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: And you talk a lot about growth mindset and fear setting is, is one of Tim Ferriss’s terms? Yes. And models. [00:34:21] Vince Menzione: I love Tim Ferris. I’ve been, been a fan of his for 10 years now. So that’s settled. We all got started with this. Sorry. Sorry, I [00:34:26] Ashleigh Vogstad: interrupt. No, no, not at all. [00:34:27] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:34:28] Ashleigh Vogstad: And. I think it’s just been, it’s been back there. [00:34:31] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. That I’m really passionate around having voice is how I think about it. And as a marketing agency, we’re really amplifying the voice, um, or helping companies to find their voice, particularly in hyperscaler partnerships. And what better way to assist, you know, authentically the amazing people in our network, in our community and our clients than with our own channel where we can celebrate their stories and success? [00:35:00] Vince Menzione: Very cool. [00:35:01] Ashleigh Vogstad: So the podcast is called Transcending Tech. It’s about [00:35:06] Vince Menzione: very cool transcending tech. Just so you don’t [00:35:08] Ashleigh Vogstad: transcending tech. [00:35:08] Vince Menzione: It’s out there now. [00:35:10] Ashleigh Vogstad: It, we just released our first episode. Okay. I think two days ago. [00:35:13] Vince Menzione: So by the time we’re live, yes. We’ll, we’ll be able to access it. Good. [00:35:17] Ashleigh Vogstad: You will be able to access it. [00:35:18] Ashleigh Vogstad: The first episode is with Alyssa Fit. Patrick from Elastic. [00:35:21] Vince Menzione: Oh my goodness. [00:35:22] Ashleigh Vogstad: And the concept of the podcast, it’s long form and it’s really about getting to the people behind the platforms. [00:35:29] Vince Menzione: Very cool. [00:35:29] Ashleigh Vogstad: And to the stories that transcend technology. So we’re here to get to know the human beings behind. Agents. [00:35:38] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:35:38] Ashleigh Vogstad: And taking the time to, to go in deep and really explore that. [00:35:43] Vince Menzione: So I am excited to see all the developments here with the, with the podcast. And you’re gonna be joining us again. You were just here, you in Boca. But you’ll be joining us again in Bellevue. Not too far a little bit. Closer ride or travel, uh, for you to come to Bellevue. [00:35:57] Vince Menzione: We’re gonna be hosting the first ultimate partner live, which is our larger events in this beautiful facility, this new Intercontinental hotel, which is fabulous. And, uh, you’re gonna be taking a more active role. Your leadership around AI is. Palpable and we’re gonna love to have you on stage and talking through some of the changes. [00:36:17] Vince Menzione: I, I suspect by the time we get to Bellevue we’ll have a lot more to talk about. That hasn’t even happened yet. [00:36:23] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, I’m really excited. I’ll have been through my next cohort at at Oxford, kind of coming out hot from there back to the Pacific Northwest, and really excited to just share the learnings and Awesome. [00:36:35] Ashleigh Vogstad: Genuinely. It’s also helping me in my own research, really formulate particularly around the role of ag agentic AI in hyperscaler partnerships. [00:36:43] Vince Menzione: That’s so cool. And then what I’ll say is this, and I don’t know, we on the space perspective, and I’ll, the team will probably hang me for this because we haven’t done it yet, but if you wanna bring the podcast along with you, there might be, we’ll see if we can find an extra room for you to set up. [00:36:58] Vince Menzione: If you wanna do some interviews while you’re. In, at the event. So [00:37:02] Ashleigh Vogstad: you’re so generous, Vince. [00:37:03] Vince Menzione: That’s [00:37:04] Ashleigh Vogstad: amazing. [00:37:04] Vince Menzione: Thank you. Again, I can’t say for certainty yet, but, uh, let’s see, let’s see what happens with that. So, uh, let, let’s, uh, you know, I always, we, we have known each other for years and I just assume everybody knows this amazing Ashley sda. [00:37:19] Vince Menzione: But, um, we always, I like to ask this question because it helps us kind of dig in a little bit about you personally. And it’s my favorite question. I ask all my guests this question now, and it’s, um, you’re hosting a dinner party, Ashley, you are, pick a pace, place, you wanna have this dinner. We could talk about parts of the world. [00:37:36] Vince Menzione: You’ve traveled all extensively. Uh, and you can invite any three people, guests from the present. Or the past to this amazing dinner party you’re throwing. Whom would you invite and why? [00:37:52] Ashleigh Vogstad: It’s a beautiful question, Vince and. Instantly I go to a place in terms of the location, since you asked that part, which was surprising. [00:38:01] Ashleigh Vogstad: I, I like that is my home. I, I love where I live up in Whistler, Canada and [00:38:08] Vince Menzione: I hear it’s beautiful. I haven’t been yet, [00:38:10] Ashleigh Vogstad: it’s so gorgeous and it’s, it’s my own sanctuary. You know, I live on a plane 75% of the time and coming back to that place is really grounding for me. Yes. So, so I would love to have it at, at my home and to invite. [00:38:24] Ashleigh Vogstad: Pippa Malrin would be one. She, Pippa [00:38:26] Vince Menzione: Malrin. [00:38:27] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. She’s sure. I get an advisor to the White House for many administrations. Okay. She’s an economist and she just has really interesting perspective on geopolitics. Uh, I follow her on Substack ’cause she’s a big substack. Okay, now [00:38:41] Vince Menzione: I need to look. This is awesome. [00:38:42] Vince Menzione: The [00:38:43] Ashleigh Vogstad: mal, she’s fantastic. I would say Dr. Lisa Sue, the CEO, Dr. Lisa of a md. [00:38:49] Vince Menzione: Okay. Yes, yes. I know a little bit about her. [00:38:51] Ashleigh Vogstad: So she was one of Time Mag, I think she was the only woman in Time Magazine’s, group of people of the year, which was basically this AI cohort in including, you know, the Elon Musks of the world. [00:39:03] Ashleigh Vogstad: Uh, it’s just so impressive what she’s doing with leadership in a MD. I don’t think it’s as public as. Anybody else who is on the cover of that magazine, but it’s incredibly powerful. [00:39:14] Vince Menzione: Yeah, they’ve made a com uh, turnaround’s probably not the right word, but it seems like they’ve made a tremendous, uh, gains turnaround probably in the last few years. [00:39:23] Ashleigh Vogstad: I would say that many would say turnaround. And then lastly is Dr. Fefe Lee, who. For those in the AI space, particularly AI research space. I mean, she’s arguably number one. Um, she’s leading at Stanford currently. [00:39:37] Vince Menzione: Wow. This is gonna be a heady conversation, but you know, I love conversations. So if you don’t mind, maybe I’ll bring dessert and come, come in for a few moments, maybe do some podcast interviews there. [00:39:48] Vince Menzione: How’s that? [00:39:49] Ashleigh Vogstad: That sounds absolutely perfect, Vince, [00:39:50] Vince Menzione: so, so good. So good to have you here today. So great. Good to have you in the studio again, and, uh, excited for transcends and all the great work you’re doing. Um. This time with ai. I think you, uh, we talked about this a little bit last night. I think you’ve made some really wise, personal and professional decisions about how to lead and how to take this forward and not kind of rest on your laurels, which you see so many organizations do People fear change [00:40:17] Ashleigh Vogstad: Hmm. [00:40:18] Vince Menzione: And you embrace it, which is just, it’s astounding to me that you do that and, um. I look forward to working with you in the future and for years and years to come. So I will ask you one more question though, because we are still at the precipice of these tectonic shifts and we’re still early in 2026. And so for our listeners and our viewers today, what would be the one thing you would tell them that they need to go do now that possibly they haven’t done yet as they prepare for 2026 and beyond? [00:40:52] Ashleigh Vogstad: The generic phrase would be, be curious, but if we want an action, it would be go build an agent. [00:40:59] Vince Menzione: Go build an agent [00:41:00] Ashleigh Vogstad: if, if you haven’t already. Yeah. And, and I’m, yeah. Speaking hopefully to like a business audience, you know, to, to anyone. Yeah. Really, um, find something that is interesting that you’re passionate about. [00:41:12] Ashleigh Vogstad: A, a use case that it doesn’t have to be some big thing. It could be quite mundane, but just something that’s gonna help you in your role. It’s, you know, what is creativity is an interesting question, and I can tell you that sitting down and hands-on keys and actually creating something is, is a beautiful, powerful experience. [00:41:32] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Awesome. All right. We’re all gonna go create agents this weekend, so thank you for listening. Thank you for viewing the Ultimate Guide to partnering on our YouTube channel, ultimate Partner, and on each end of your platforms at the Ultimate Guide to partnering. Thank you for being with us and supporting us all these years. [00:41:50] Vince Menzione: Thank you. Don’t forget, ultimate Partner Live is coming soon, May 11th through the 13th in beautiful Bellevue, Washington. I hope to see you there.

Max Hastings reports that conflicting orders and the absence of General Rommel paralyzed the 21st Panzer Division, delaying a decisive counterattack against Allied forces until the British armor landed. 10.1944 SWORD

Empathy is pioneering bereavement care as an enterprise benefit, transforming how employers and financial institutions support employees during life's most challenging transitions. Working with 9 of the top 10 life insurance carriers in the US and Canada—covering over 40 million people—Empathy created a new category by combining grief support with practical logistics like probate navigation, account deactivation, and estate settlement. In a recent episode of BUILDERS, we sat down with Ron Gura, Co-Founder & CEO of Empathy, to learn how the company went from testing five verticals simultaneously to dominating life insurance, then leveraged the group life/employer overlap to expand into employee benefits. Topics Discussed: Testing five enterprise verticals simultaneously to find product-market fit Landing New York Life through their venture arm and innovation team Why life insurance carriers need to be risk-averse (and how to work with that reality) The strategic overlap between group life insurance and employee benefits Investing in brand at seed stage when your barrier to entry is psychological aversion Navigating dual audiences: decision-makers in their workday versus end users in crisis Expanding from loss to adjacent life transitions like disability leave and estate planning GTM Lessons For B2B Founders: Run parallel vertical tests with focus constraints, not sequential exploration: Ron identified 10+ potential verticals but intentionally tested exactly five simultaneously—hospices, funeral homes, employers, and two others before life insurance emerged as the winner at position five. This parallel testing with artificial constraints forces prioritization while dramatically compressing time-to-insight. Sequential testing would have meant potentially cycling through five failed pilots before discovering their strongest market. B2B founders with horizontal platforms should pick their top 3-5 verticals and run focused pilots in parallel, accepting that this burns more resources upfront but eliminates the risk of quitting before finding your wedge. Map the ecosystem overlap between buyer personas before choosing your wedge: Empathy's expansion from life insurance to employers wasn't growth strategy—it was recognizing an architectural reality. Half their carriers sell group life, meaning MetLife doesn't sell to consumers at metlife.com but exclusively to employer groups. When Amanda at Paramount loses her sister (not covered by insurance), she calls Paramount HR. When her husband dies (covered by MetLife group policy), the beneficiary calls MetLife. Same end user, two different enterprise entry points into the same moment. B2B founders should map these triangular relationships before choosing their wedge vertical. The question isn't just "who has budget?" but "who else touches this user in adjacent contexts?" Brand investment at seed stage is product strategy when fighting cognitive aversion: Ron's insight: "The barrier to entry isn't regulatory and isn't technology. It's us humans trying really hard not to think about our own mortality." This isn't a marketing problem—it's a fundamental go-to-market blocker. The company made what most would consider Series A investments (premium domain, design system, tone/voice framework) at seed stage specifically because brand reduces psychological friction to adoption. Contrast this with Monday.com starting as "daPulse" and rebranding years into success. B2B founders addressing taboo topics (death, mental health, financial distress, relationship issues) should model brand as a core distribution lever, not post-PMF polish. In deeply human categories, buyer's lived experience is your demo: Enterprise buyers at Citibank, MetLife, or Google aren't experiencing crisis during the sales cycle—they're evaluating ROI in their normal workday. But as Ron noted, "Everyone we're talking to...they're humans. They have parents, they had loss, they went through probate." The most common response after seeing the product: "Damn, I wish you called me a few months ago. I needed this a year ago with my mom." This turns product demo into personal recognition. B2B founders in universal human experience categories (caregiving, bereavement, parental leave, financial stress) should structure discovery and demo to activate buyer's memory of their own experience, not just their budget authority. Category creation is a resource-attraction strategy that trades speed for competitive exposure: Ron explicitly acknowledged: "There's pros and cons to defining a category. It's helpful when you attract resources, talent, capital. It also creates very fertile ground for a number two sympathy.com to come along and learn from this podcast...what to go after." Category leadership accelerates recruiting and fundraising by providing narrative clarity, but it simultaneously publishes your playbook. Every hiring blog post, podcast appearance, and positioning document teaches future competitors which verticals to target and which to avoid. B2B founders should treat category creation as a conscious bet: trade competitive opacity for talent/capital velocity. If you're not ready to defend your position, stay in stealth longer. Bridge new categories to existing budget lines through analogous benefits: When entering new verticals beyond life insurance, Ron doesn't educate from zero. With employers, he positions bereavement care alongside caregiving solutions, fertility programs, and parental leave: "This is a life transition happening in my own intimate house. Just like a new baby. I have new duties now." This isn't metaphor—it's budget mapping. Bereavement care gets evaluated against existing family benefits spending, not created from scratch. B2B founders in new categories should identify which existing line item their solution logically extends, then structure ROI narratives around reallocation, not net-new budget creation. // Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co // Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

In this livestream-style episode, Michael LaFido shifts from interviewing service providers to spotlighting a real-world success story from one of his Luxury Mastery coaching students, Felita, a Houston-based agent with 24 years of experience. Michael frames the conversation around opportunities—explaining the difference between cold opportunities (people who don't know/like/trust you yet) and warm opportunities (your sphere, CRM, and people who already know you). The main case study: Felita challenged her own limiting beliefs by hosting an open house at a $1.95M listing—nearly 3x higher than the most expensive open house she'd ever hosted (previously ~$650K). Despite little prep time (she hadn't toured the home in advance and didn't deploy as many signs as recommended), she generated strong traffic across the weekend and proved to herself that luxury buyers are “no different than everyone else”—they still respond to confidence, professionalism, and great questions. Michael and Felita unpack why this worked: the listing had been on the market for about 18 months, meaning the listing agent and seller likely felt pressure and welcomed fresh activity. Felita approached the listing agent with a win-win solution, hosted the open house, and used a clear sign-in requirement to maintain control and professionalism. The biggest breakthrough came from her ability to adapt quickly—after noticing visitors cared heavily about schools, she returned the next day with a portfolio/binder of nearby sold homes in the school zone, which helped her build authority fast. That preparation paid off: Felita built rapport with attendees and earned the opportunity to show a couple a $3M home, expanding her confidence and pipeline in higher price points—even though she hadn't personally sold above ~$600K before. The episode closes with Michael encouraging viewers to step out of their comfort zone, leverage OPP (Other People's Properties) with permission, and use simple video before/during/after open houses to position themselves as a trusted authority. Michael also promotes upcoming LUXE Designation training (including an April 16 Houston event) and ends with his signature motivational theme: “Prove them wrong.” Key Takeaways Luxury growth starts by chasing opportunities, not just closings. Hosting higher-end open houses can be a fast path to new relationships and confidence. Stale listings can be a strategic opening for a win-win pitch to the listing agent. Asking great questions + listening creates trust quickly, even in luxury. Adaptation wins: bring value that matches buyer motivation (ex: school-specific portfolio).      

Ridepanda turned the failed unit economics of shared micro-mobility into a viable B2B model by eliminating operational costs that drove Lime's per-minute pricing from $0.15 to $0.55. After working at Lime and seeing firsthand why rebalancing, charging, vandalism, and theft made profitability impossible, Co-founder Chinmay Malaviya built a subscription model where employers subsidize personal e-bikes and scooters for employees. The insight: commuting is planned travel with validated enterprise budgets already allocated to parking, shuttles, and transit. Ridepanda now works with Amazon, Google, and County of San Mateo, achieving 5-15% employee adoption—triple San Francisco's 2-4% bike commute rate—with 85% being net-new riders who've never regularly used bikes or scooters before. Topics Discussed: Why shared micro-mobility's cost structure (rebalancing, charging, vandalism) made $0.55/minute pricing inevitable Targeting enterprise transportation teams versus mid-market HR benefits buyers as distinct ICPs Subscription economics: $50-$250/month with employer subsidies only triggering on employee sign-ups Converting non-riders to daily commuters: 85% adoption from people who previously didn't bike/scooter Enterprise-first strategy: going where dedicated teams and budgets already exist for employee transportation Vertical expansion into manufacturing, law firms, hospitals, and universities GTM Lessons For B2B Founders: Target existing budget holders, not net-new spending: Enterprises already fund parking facilities, shuttle services, van pools, and commuter benefits through dedicated transportation and facilities teams. Ridepanda didn't create a new expense category—they repositioned within existing line items. This meant selling to buyers with validated pain, allocated budget, and quarterly goals tied to employee transportation. When entering established markets, map where your solution fits in current spending patterns rather than forcing buyers to carve out new budget. Structure pricing to eliminate perceived risk: The subsidy only applies when an employee signs up—there's no upfront commitment or wasted spend on unused capacity. This removed the enterprise objection of "why am I paying when I'm not getting anything." For a new category where adoption rates are unproven, usage-based pricing aligned incentives and made pilots trivial to approve. When selling unproven solutions, architect your commercial model so the buyer's risk scales linearly with actual utilization. Segment ICP by buyer motivation, not just company size: Enterprise buyers (transportation/facilities teams) optimize for modal shift, carbon reduction, and getting employees out of single-occupancy vehicles. Mid-market buyers (HR/benefits managers) optimize for return-to-office adoption, wellness metrics, and benefits competitiveness. Same product, completely different value props and sales conversations. Don't assume company size determines buyer psychology—map the org chart to understand who owns the problem and what they're measured on. Attack broken unit economics, not just user experience: Lime's pricing increase from $0.15 to $0.55 per minute wasn't greed—it was fundamental business model failure. Shared services require rebalancing fleets, charging distributed assets, and absorbing vandalism/theft losses. Personal ownership via subscription eliminated every operational cost that made shared mobility unprofitable. When incumbents are struggling financially despite strong demand, the opportunity isn't better execution—it's a structural model shift. Prove behavior change at enterprise scale, not just product-market fit: Achieving 5-15% employee adoption when the city baseline is 2-4% demonstrates that subsidized access plus personal ownership drives 3x penetration. More critically, 42% daily usage from an 85% net-new rider base proves the model creates new commuting behavior rather than capturing existing cyclists. Enterprise buyers focused on emissions and modal shift care about conversion metrics, not vanity usage numbers. Define the transformation metric that proves you're changing behavior systemically, not incrementally. // Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co // Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

He landed in the US with $50 and quickly realized he had about a week to figure everything out. With a 60-day clock hanging over his head and no guarantee he could stay in the country, Gaurav Dutta had two options: build leverage fast or get sent home.   What followed was a relentless path through janitorial jobs, visa lotteries, layoffs, and closed doors, including a moment where he applied to nearly 10,000 jobs just to keep his life in the US alive. Instead of playing defense, Gaurav began studying money, ownership, and real estate, eventually using house hacking, partnerships, and long-distance investing to build a 55-unit portfolio from more than 8,000 miles away.   This episode breaks down what it's really like to build wealth when the system isn't designed for you. We talk about the visa trap most people never see, why ownership became his only real leverage, and how creating systems and teams allowed him to invest passively and legally while working a demanding W2. We also unpack the mindset shift that happens when your back is truly against the wall and why pressure can either break you or force you to build something that lasts.   If you've ever felt stuck, boxed in by rules you didn't create, or unsure how to build freedom without quitting your job, this conversation will change how you think about leverage, risk, and what's actually possible when you refuse to let the clock decide your future. Book your call with Neo Home Loanshttps://www.neoentrepreneurhomeloans.com/wealthjuice/ Book your mentorship discovery call with Cory RESOURCES

The Kouri Richins murder trial begins February 23rd in Summit County, Utah — nearly four years after Eric Richins was found dead with more than five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in his system. Prosecutors say Kouri mixed it into a Moscow Mule and watched her husband die. The defense says the state's case has been bleeding out before it even reaches a jury.Defense attorney and former felony prosecutor Eric Faddis joins Hidden Killers to break down what might be the defense's strongest hand heading into trial — and it starts with the man who was supposed to be the state's key link in the drug supply chain.Robert Crozier, the alleged fentanyl source, has now signed a sworn affidavit saying he sold OxyContin — not fentanyl — to housekeeper Carmen Lauber. He claims he was detoxing and disoriented during his 2023 police interview. The pills were never recovered. They were never tested. Prosecutors dropped their drug distribution charges in October 2025 after that recantation. For the defense, that's not just a win — it's a hole in the murder weapon theory that may never be filled.But it doesn't stop there. Weeks before jury selection, the defense released text messages allegedly showing lead Detective Jeff O'Driscoll threatening a witness with arrest and bringing "a catch pole for the dog" if she didn't cooperate. A second witness reportedly said investigator Travis Hopper warned their immunity could be revoked if they didn't meet with prosecutors again. If those allegations stick in jurors' minds, the credibility of the entire investigation could be in play.Then there's what the jury won't hear. Judge Mrazik excluded the prosecution's domestic violence expert and limited FBI profiler Molly Amman's testimony after defense criminologist Bryanna Fox called the "pathway to violence" framework disconnected from science. The judge also denied — twice — the prosecution's attempts to bring Kouri's 26 separate financial crime charges into the murder trial to prove motive. That means the jury won't hear about mortgage fraud, money laundering, or bad checks unless the prosecution finds another door.Eric Faddis walks through every one of these rulings and explains what they mean for reasonable doubt, jury perception, and the defense's ability to keep this trial laser-focused on one question: can the state prove Kouri Richins poisoned her husband beyond a reasonable doubt?With 85 percent of Summit County residents saying they'd heard of this case, jury selection wrapped in two days instead of five, and the defense lost two venue change motions. Faddis breaks down whether rapid jury selection in a media-saturated county helps or hurts Kouri — and what the defense's single biggest card is heading into opening statements.#KouriRichins #EricRichins #RichinsTrial #FentanylMurder #SummitCounty #RobertCrozier #ReasonableDoubt #EricFaddis #HiddenKillers #TrueCrimePodcastJoin Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspodInstagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodListen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

Sos’ big trip is FINALLY upon us and we’re making our bold predictions for what’s about to go down! Plus what does “Après-ski” mean? All that and more with Intern John & Your Morning Show's Leftovers for the week! Make sure to also keep up to date with ALL of our podcasts we do below that have new episodes every week: The Thought Shower Let's Get Weird Crisis on Infinite Podcasts See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Meet Alex, a former hospitality manager who spent 8 years in the service industry before deciding to make a massive pivot into technology. In this episode, Adam Hewitt - CEO of Cyber Revolution, sits down with Alex to discuss how he transitioned from bartending to landing his first IT Help Desk Engineer role just 10 days after finishing his certifications.You will learn how to overcome the fear of a career change without a university degree and how to balance intense study schedules with major life events like becoming a first-time father. Alex shares honest insights on the interview process, the importance of consistent study habits (even just 20 minutes a day), and how the "Job Ready" program helped him secure a position at Techwell on the Gold Coast.Key Takeaways• You don't need a university degree to land a role at top tech companies anymore.• Consistency beats intensity; studying 20 minutes every day is better than cramming.• Major life changes, like becoming a parent, can be the perfect motivation to upskill.• Soft skills from industries like hospitality transfer well into IT interviews.• Utilising a 'Job Ready' placement program can significantly shorten the time to hire.Chapters00:00 Introduction and Teaser01:30 From Bartending to Career Change03:15 Fatherhood as a Catalyst for Growth05:00 Why Cyber Revolution vs. University07:45 Landing the Job at Techwell in 10 Days09:50 Crushing the Interview Process11:30 Studying for Exams with a Newborn Baby13:40 The Power of Consistency15:30 Advice for Aspiring Tech ProfessionalsConnect with Adam:Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://cyberrevolution.com.au⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/cyberrevolutionaus⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@cyberrevolutionaus⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/cybrevolution_aus/

In this episode of the Federal Help Center Podcast, Eric Coffie sits down with logistics leaders Demetrius Walker (Fhito Logistics LLC) and Chris Facey (TForce Worldwide, Inc) to answer one of the biggest questions minority transportation businesses ask: Where are all the trucking and freight contracts? The conversation reveals a hard truth—most logistics opportunities never hit SAM.gov because they fall under the micro-purchase threshold, meaning the real work is won through market research, relationships, and being positioned before the bid ever drops. Eric also shares a powerful (and painful) reminder about execution in GovCon after missing out on a $200M IDIQ due to a submission error—proof that systems matter at every level. From small "hidden" trucking wins to major IDIQ contracts worth $21M+, this episode breaks down how logistics businesses can grow step-by-step by partnering with primes, responding fast, and becoming the trusted solution buyers call first. Key Takeaways: Most transportation contracts are relationship-driven, not publicly posted on SAM.gov Micro-purchase + simplified acquisition is the fastest entry point for small carriers Bigger wins come from teaming, responsiveness, and trust, not just chasing bids If you want to learn more about the community and to join the webinars go to: https://federalhelpcenter.com/  Website: https://govcongiants.org/  Connect with Encore Funding: http://govcongiants.org/funding Watch the Youtube Live here: https://www.youtube.com/live/_KK4x1Cmz0M?si=WvUkbnxdHplTrCTV 

If your freelance strategy is “wait and hope a client emails me,” this episode is your wake-up call. Rebecca Kendall was in that exact spot—an experienced freelancer with great work under her belt, but relying too heavily on her network. That changed when she sent a simple visual follow-up to a past client... and it turned into a $4,000 project. We talk about the mindset shift that helped her get intentional, the niche pivot that made her more confident, and why you don't need a giant audience to grow—you just need a plan. Let's get into it.About Rebecca:Rebecca Kendall runs a creative and conscious textile design studio specializing in original print design, production ready placement prints and repeats with a focus on natural fibers and ethical production. Woven and printed checks are a speciality with florals, textures and playful illustration also featuring heavily. Fiber and sustainable sourcing, direction and advice is a passion and future focus for the studio.Connect with Rebecca: Follow her on InstagramConnect on LinkedIn   Download my Freelance Price List just for fashion (it's free!): sewheidi.com/price

Indulge in the best-of from the live, weekly Brunch-Hour with Two Brunettes & A Gay. Perfect for unwinding any time of the day, accompanied by your favourite bubbles. Follow us on Instagram. Give us a like on Facebook. Check us out on TikTok. CREDITS: Hosts: Aaron Collis, Celeste La Scala & Deanna Carbone. Panelist: Mark Watson Content Warning: None. Two Brunettes & A Gay is recorded LIVE every Saturday @ 11am (Adelaide Time) on Radio Italia Uno 87.6FM.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Indulge in the best-of from the live, weekly Brunch-Hour with Two Brunettes & A Gay. Perfect for unwinding any time of the day, accompanied by your favourite bubbles. Follow us on Instagram. Give us a like on Facebook. Check us out on TikTok. CREDITS: Hosts: Aaron Collis, Celeste La Scala & Deanna Carbone. Panelist: Mark Watson Content Warning: None. Two Brunettes & A Gay is recorded LIVE every Saturday @ 11am (Adelaide Time) on Radio Italia Uno 87.6FM.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BBC Woman's Hour presenter Nuala McGovern on how to enjoy an extremely stressful career, getting up at 5.45am and how she stayed sane during the toughest of times. One the eve of Woman's Hour's 80th anniversary Nuala, 54, gives us a peek behind the scenes and chats about her remarkable journalism career that landed her the job two years ago. In a rare interview, Nuala also opens up about her childhood growing up in a Dublin pub, the impact of witnessing the Twin Towers attack & the raft of other ‘history in the making' moments she has had a ringside seat at. She also shares how she met her hubby, living in the now tips & why you'll always find her on a dancefloor. Plus: Trish & Lorraine's list of new fun things to do with friends and 3 controversial novels to get your book club talking. Contact: hello@postcardsfrommidlife.comInstagram: @postcardsfrommidlifeJoin our private Facebook Group here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of #29DaysOfMagic we sit with Ama McKinley, the founder and creative director of Ilium Wing Ama shares her journey from working in advertising to becoming a goldsmith and eventually moving to Mexico City. She discusses the importance of finding a place that feels like home, the significance of quality of life, and the value of relationships. Ellen encourages listeners to embrace change, pursue their passions, and take the leap to explore new opportunities. She also reflects on her younger self and the lessons learned along the way, emphasizing the need for creativity and rest in our lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Prince William's three-day visit to Saudi Arabia was always going to be diplomatically significant but it unfolded under the shadow of intensifying headlines back home. In this special episode, Andrea is joined by Hello!'s editor and royal correspondent Emily Nash, fresh from the trip, with behind-the-scenes insight into what the tour was really designed to achieve: trade talks, cultural diplomacy, and the long-term relationship-building that comes with being a “king-in-waiting.” 00:00 Intro01:36 Welcome + what you'll learn (Saudi visit + wider royal context)02:30 Why William's Saudi trip mattered diplomatically (trade/defence/culture)03:24 Why Saudi is sensitive and why this visit raised eyebrows04:18 Two “kings in waiting”: William & MBS dynamic05:12 The Epstein file release: what's driving renewed scrutiny07:02 Why William & Kate's statement mattered (and the focus on victims)08:08 Arrival in Saudi: heritage welcome + private audience & dinner09:01 Human rights questions: what can be raised publicly vs privately10:02 Buckingham Palace statement: “ready to help police” and why that's major13:38 Public reaction, heckling, and how the royals read the “national temperature”18:01 On the ground in Saudi: modernisation and what surprised Emily19:02 Women's sport shift: girls' football, national team ambitions, equal pay22:18 AlUla & the desert day: wildlife reserve, Arabian leopard, soft power23:34 The changed programme: walking the old town instead of the cultural hub visit24:40 What happens next + half-term breathing space26:18 Wider Europe: Norway/Sweden royal scrutiny in the Epstein files29:29 Closing thoughts: weathering the storm + sign-off Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You don't need a viral audience to monetize social media. Jess Freeman is proof. With a small, non-viral audience on Threads, she secured $6,000 in summit sponsorships in just two months — without a hard sell, course, or product launch. The founder of Jess Creatives and The Ordinary Business, Jess has spent 14 years building a service-based business, but recently found incredible success when the idea for a summit dedicated to ‘ordinary' business owners fell into her lap. In this episode, she breaks down how she monetized her small but mighty Threads platform, her approach to locking in four figures in event sponsorships, and how she leveraged ordinary relatability to create extraordinary demand. Get exclusive access to our full case study interviews every Monday on our premium podcast feed: https://cubicletoceo.co/podcast Connect with Jess: www.theordinarybusiness.com www.instagram.com/theordinarybusiness www.threads.com/jesscreatives Iconic business leaders all have their own unique genius. Take this quick 10 question quiz to uncover your specific CEO style advantage: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://cubicletoceo.co/quiz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you enjoyed today's episode, please: Post a screenshot & key takeaway on your IG story and tag me ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@missellenyin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@cubicletoceo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ so we can repost you. Leave a positive review or rating at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.ratethispodcast.com/cubicletoceo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to our premium feed for high-quality episodes every Monday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Wrist Enthusiast Radio, Craig, Ben, and Derek sit down with John, the founder of Axia Time, one of the most unconventional watch brands in the industry. Instead of building a traditional microbrand, John has grown Axia through high-end custom projects and major partnerships, including becoming the official watch of the College Football Playoff and working with the Heisman. Then John drops a huge announcement on the podcast: Axia Time has officially signed a licensing deal to create watches for the FIFA World Cup 2026. We also dive into his work with government agencies including the Secret Service, the NRO, and even the CIA, plus what it really takes to build a watch brand through trust, relationships, and execution.   Learn more about Axia Time: https://axiatime.com/   Make sure to check out the sponsor of our podcast, Delugs! Delugs is a great place to get all your watch straps and accessories. Definitely check them out! Delugs website: https://delugs.com/   Follow us on Social Media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wristenthusiast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wristenthusiastradio Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wristenthusiast TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wristenthusiast   Follow Craig: https://www.instagram.com/craig_karger/ Follow Ben: https://www.instagram.com/benswatches/ Follow Derek: https://www.instagram.com/theminutemon/

WindBorne Systems is transforming global weather forecasting by deploying long-duration weather balloons that fly for weeks instead of hours. What began as a Stanford Student Space Initiative project has scaled to 100 balloons aloft simultaneously, targeting 500 by end of next year, with an end goal of 10,000 balloons monitoring Earth's atmosphere. In this episode of BUILDERS, I sat down with John Dean, Co-Founder and CEO of WindBorne Systems, to explore how the company secured its first government contract in under three years without lobbyists, achieved 4x annual manufacturing growth, and built Weather Mesh—an AI weather model that outperforms competitors from Google DeepMind. Topics Discussed: The technical evolution from Stanford project to operational constellation of altitude-controlled balloons Strategic decision to pursue government revenue before building B2B forecasting products Navigating Defense Innovation Unit and Air Force Lifecycle Management Center procurement as a founder Timeline from founding to first grants (within six months) and first data delivery contract (two and a half years) Current roughly 50/50 revenue split between civilian agencies (NOAA, international weather services) and Department of Defense Building Weather Mesh after Huawei's Pangu Weather validated end-to-end AI forecasting viability Transitioning from founder-led sales by promoting a Palantir hire from proposal writer to public sector growth leader The 30-year vision of millions of fingernail-sized atmospheric sensors creating a planetary nervous system GTM Lessons For B2B Founders: Study the bureaucracy's incentive structures before pitching product value: John spent years mapping how government procurement actually works rather than leading with product capabilities. The critical insight: in DoD sales, the warfighter (end user) doesn't control purchasing decisions. Success requires understanding each stakeholder's specific mandate and aligning your solution to their organizational incentives, not just operational needs. For civilian agencies like NOAA, the dynamics differ entirely. Founders entering govtech should invest 6-12 months learning procurement mechanics before expecting revenue. Use government contracts as non-dilutive scaling capital for hardware businesses: WindBorne secured SBIR grants within six months, then landed their first Air Force data delivery contract through Defense Innovation Unit at the two-and-a-half-year mark. John explicitly treated early grants as equivalent to venture funding but without equity dilution. For companies building physical infrastructure at scale (satellites, hardware networks, manufacturing operations), government contracts provide the runway to reach technical milestones that unlock larger B2B opportunities. This sequencing—government funding first, then B2B products built on that foundation—proves more capital-efficient than attempting to raise massive venture rounds upfront for unproven hardware. Integrate with legacy systems rather than attempting wholesale replacement: WindBorne doesn't aim to replace the 1,000 radiosondes launched daily worldwide—they're expanding coverage from the current 15% of Earth (where humans can launch traditional balloons) to 100%. The hardware is revolutionary (weeks of flight versus two hours), but the go-to-market integrates into existing weather agency workflows and feeds into established models like GFS and ECMWF. This approach accelerated adoption because agencies could add WindBorne data without overhauling their entire forecasting infrastructure. The displacement of radiosondes becomes economically inevitable long-term, but only after proving the system at scale. Move fast once adjacent technology validates your thesis: WindBorne wasn't investing in AI-based weather forecasting until Huawei's Pangu Weather paper demonstrated that end-to-end neural weather models could compete with physics-based simulations. Once that validation appeared, John's team moved immediately—adopting the open architecture and expanding it into Weather Mesh before the approach became widely adopted. The lesson isn't to wait for competitors, but to monitor adjacent technological developments and move decisively when validation emerges. They built a top-performing model by being early to a proven approach, not first to an unproven one. Hire for mid-level roles and promote based on demonstrated judgment: John hired Dana from Palantir as a proposal writer, not as a sales executive. He watched her demonstrate strong opinions that consistently proved correct, then promoted her to build and lead the entire public sector growth organization. This internal promotion model worked better than external executive hires because the person already understood WindBorne's technology, customers, and internal culture. For specialized domains like government sales, bringing in experienced operators at individual contributor levels and promoting them as they prove their judgment builds more effective organizations than hiring executives to parachute in. // Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co // Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

What if you could skip the job application—and still land the client? That's exactly what JoAnne Hopkins did when she spotted a job post on Indeed, did a little sleuthing, and cold-pitched the founder directly. The result? A $7,800 freelance project doing what she loves most: tech design. In this episode, JoAnne shares how she turned burnout from running her own brand into clarity, confidence, and a booked-out freelance business she actually enjoys. If you've ever questioned your niche, your path, or your pricing—this episode will give you real talk, real strategy, and a whole lot of permission to do things your own way.Resources:266: From Self-Doubt and a Factory Job to Freelance Biz Owner: Caroline's One-Year TransformationAbout JoAnne:JoAnne is an apparel technical design leader with over a decade of experience specializing in men's swim and surf, as well as women's swim, surf, activewear, resort, and lifestyle apparel. She has collaborated with both established brands and start-ups to bring exceptional products to market, with a strong focus on achieving the perfect fit.Connect with JoAnne:Email her at afibrands@gmail.com  Follow her on InstagramConnect on LinkedIn  

Christopher Price lays out the game plan for Super Bowl week, and takes listener questions about the Patriots and Seahawks in advance of Super Bowl LX. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For the latest Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper, we continued our coverage of the 2026 Chain Winter One-Act Festival. This time we welcomed on three more shows and the artists behind them to chat about their works. So be sure you hit play and get your tickets today!Chain Winter One-Act FestivalFebruary 5th- March 1st@ The Chain TheatreTickets and more information are available at chaintheatre.orgAnd be sure to follow our guests to stay up to date on all their upcoming projects and productions: Stalled written and performed by Diego Aguirre and directed by David Zayas Jr February 12th, 15th, and 16thUse code STALLED26 for 20% off@diego.aguirre.actor@dzcs4uScenes of Disconnections performed by Mary McCarthy February 8th, 15th, 17th, 20th, 22nd, 28th Use code CONNECT26 for 20% offmarymccarthyactress.com Look What Crashed Through the Portal and Landed in Brooklyn written and co-directed by Jose Rivera and co-directed Sara Koviak February 26th, 27th, and 28thUse code CRASHED26 for 20% off@sarakoviak@muchosanosdespues

1.29.26 Hour 3, Nicki Jhabvala from The Athletic joins The Kevin Sheehan Show to discuss the decision making process for the Commanders hiring their new offensive and defensive coordinators this offseason and talks about players on the current roster that could have a bigger role next season. Former Washington Wizards point guard John Wall joins The Kevin Sheehan Show to talk about his time on the Wizards, what year he thought the team was the best and what happened in the playoff series wins and losses.

ON TODAY'S SHOW: Prison Park On Ange Underdogs: Mitchell & Sarah Fifi, Fev & Nick Bulletin Fifi's Oura Ring Update Fev's New Housemate Update Subscribe on LiSTNR: https://play.listnr.com/podcast/fifi-fev-and-nickSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Davitt, chief meteorologist for Spectrum News NY1, talks about the first big snowstorm to hit the city in a while, and the extreme cold front that is settling in across the region.

In just three minutes, Nina’s What’s Trending breaks down the stories everyone’s talking about—but this time, one international headline takes a seriously unexpected turn

Justin invites Ian O'Connor onto the show to talk about how the Giants hired Harbaugh, how involved John Mara was with the process, and What Schoens relationship is with Harbaugh.Buy Ian O'Connors book here:https://www.amazon.com/Never-Stop-Leadership-Takes-Great/dp/1668095742https://www.amazon.com/Out-Darkness-Mystery-Aaron-Rodgers/dp/0063297868 Follow on twitter:https://x.com/Ian_OConnor?s=20Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use promo code JMFOOTBALLStart your free online visit today at https://Hims.com/giants for your personalized ED treatment options00:00 Ian O'Connor On How John Harbaugh Landed the Giants Job 08:55 Ian O'Connor joins the show12:25 Page 1 for Harbaugh17:10 Selling the Giants to Harbaugh20:45 John Mara's involvement with the Giants23:35 Mara's role in getting Harbaugh25:50 What does Chris Mara do 36:00 Harbaugh reporting to Schoen or Mara41:00 Benefits of the new structure43:50 Harbaugh's impact on the operation51:15 How does Schoen fit with HarbaughCheck out our Merch: https://shop.jomboymedia.com/collections/talkin-giantsSubscribe to JM Football for our NFL coverage: https://www.youtube.com/@JMFootballFollow all of our content on https://jomboymedia.com#giants #nygiants Gambling Problem? Call one eight hundred GAMBLER. New York: call eight seven seven eight HOPENY or text HOPENY. Connecticut: call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas. Wager tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. Twenty one plus in most states. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bet must win to receive Bonus Bets which expire in 7 days. Minimum odds required. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see D K N G dot co slash audio.Limited time offer. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I almost deleted the email that changed my year.There it was, sitting in my inbox while Josh and I were testing out our new standing desks in our Bali villa, a speaking invitation to Saudi Arabia that looked way too good to be true. And honestly? I thought it was a scam. But this is the story of how that "sketchy" email turned into me standing on stage as the only female keynote speaker at one of Saudi Arabia's largest entrepreneurship events, flying business class, staying at the Ritz Carlton, and getting paid to share a message I deeply believe in.More than that, it's about what happens when you plant seeds without knowing where they'll grow, when you show up with intention even when no one's watching, and when you stay open to possibilities that sound impossible. Because the real twist? The reason I got invited traced back to someone I'd spoken to six years ago and a manifestation practice I started at the beginning of 2025.If you've ever wondered how big opportunities actually happen, or felt called to think bigger about what's possible for you in your work and life, this one's for you.What You'll Learn:How a random email in my inbox turned into a dream speaking opportunity (and why I thought it was a scam)What Saudi Arabia is really like in 2025, the massive transformation happening, what surprised me most, and what I got totally wrongWhy being the only female keynote speaker felt like both a privilege and a responsibilityHow someone I spoke to six years ago became the reason I got invited and what that teaches us about showing up authenticallyWhat it's really like to speak on an international stage Why this trip reminded me that the world is more open, more curious, and more interconnected than we think Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode was recorded for my UK Column show.Ferdinand Santos, a scientist with a background in physics and IT, shares his sceptical views on space exploration and scientific narratives.He argues, using probability theory, that many historical space events, like the moon landing, were staged and questions the authenticity of the evidence presented. Ferdinand adds that the technology and logistics claimed by NASA doesn't add up, and uses probability theory to challenge their claims.He also discusses his views on scientism, suggesting that much of what is accepted as science is driven by philosophical rather than empirical evidence.Ferdinand is critical of mainstream narratives and encourages critical thinking to question established beliefs.✉️ Subscribe to my excellent newsletter

It's John Harbaugh's introductory press conference and the guys react to the biggest themes, the tone, and the energy inside the fieldhouse as the Giants officially turn the page. Harbaugh hits on what matters most, toughness, physical football, “the team” above everything, and a clear message that he wanted this job and believes the Giants can win. Then Giants GM Joe Schoen joins the show and walks through how the hire came together so fast, why the Giants were prepared for unexpected coaching movement, and what made Harbaugh the perfect fit. Schoen breaks down the collaboration he expects with the new head coach, how Jaxson Dart factored into the appeal of the job, and why he believes the roster has enough pieces to keep building quickly. The conversation also gets real about Schoen's tenure, how he grades himself, the pressure that came with the Daniel Jones decision, and why he refused to chase short term fixes at the expense of sustainability. Plus, they touch on roster priorities heading into free agency and the draft, and why the Giants believe they are set up for a legit turnaround under Harbaugh.

Giants general manager Joe Schoen joins the show fresh off the hiring of John Harbaugh and walks through how the process came together so quickly. Schoen details why the Giants were prepared for unexpected coaching movement, how early research mattered, and why they moved decisively once Harbaugh became available. Schoen also opens up about roster construction, the importance of Jaxson Dart's development, and why the Giants believe their young core made the job attractive. He addresses his own performance as GM, the Daniel Jones decision, resisting short term fixes, and the plan to keep building through free agency and the draft. The conversation closes with roster priorities, staff building, and why Schoen believes the Giants are positioned for a real turnaround under Harbaugh.

Join Captain Jeff, Captain Nick, Producer Liz, RJ. Enjoy! APG 691 SHOW NOTES WITH LINKS AND PICS 00:00:00 Introduction 00:05:58 NEWS 00:06:17 British Airways – A388 Over Atlantic Ocean on Dec 6th 2024, Turbulence Injures 2 00:16:27 Ariana Afghan A313 at Delhi on Nov 23rd 2025, Landed on Wrong Runway 00:23:29 India Express B738 at Ras al-Khaimah on Apr 22nd 2025, Tail Strike on Landing 00:30:01 Saudia B773 at Islamabad on Oct 14th 2024, Landed on Wrong Runway 00:37:59 Star E170 at Chennai on Feb 25th 2025, Lined up With Edge Lights for Departure 00:42:45 Woman Arrested For Impersonating a Flight Attendant After Airline Refused To Hire Her

Want to Start or Grow a Successful Business? Schedule a FREE 13-Point Assessment with Clay Clark Today At: www.ThrivetimeShow.com   Join Clay Clark's Thrivetime Show Business Workshop!!! Learn Branding, Marketing, SEO, Sales, Workflow Design, Accounting & More. **Request Tickets & See Testimonials At: www.ThrivetimeShow.com  **Request Tickets Via Text At (918) 851-0102   See the Thousands of Success Stories and Millionaires That Clay Clark Has Helped to Produce HERE: https://www.thrivetimeshow.com/testimonials/ Download A Millionaire's Guide to Become Sustainably Rich: A Step-by-Step Guide to Become a Successful Money-Generating and Time-Freedom Creating Business HERE: www.ThrivetimeShow.com/Millionaire   See Thousands of Case Studies Today HERE: www.thrivetimeshow.com/does-it-work/  

We talk about details of how the Giants "wined and dined" John Harbaugh. Also, who is the next coveted head coach candidate out there.

Ed, Rob, and Jeremy took some time from Thursday's BBMS to share their reactions to John Harbaugh's new job in New York. Are you surprised he landed the job?

Austin shares his experience in getting 3 promotions in 5 years at Microsoft and how you can put yourself in the best position possible to get that promotion you want!Time Stamped Show Notes:[0:25] - How Austin got promoted 3 times in 5 years at Microsoft[2:31] - Have the conversation early[4:06] - Make your goals clear[5:35] - Create an objective roadmap with your managerWant To Level Up Your Job Search?Click here to learn more about 1:1 career coaching to help you land your dream job without applying online.Check out Austin's courses and, as a thank you for listening to the show, use the code PODCAST to get 5% off any digital course:The Interview Preparation System - Austin's proven, all-in-one process for turning your next job interview into a job offer.Value Validation Project Starter Kit - Everything you need to create a job-winning VVP that will blow hiring managers away and set you apart from the competition.No Experience, No Problem - Austin's proven framework for building the skills and experience you need to break into a new industry (even if you have *zero* experience right now).Try Austin's Job Search ToolsResyBuild.io - Build a beautiful, job-winning resume in minutes.ResyMatch.io - Score your resume vs. your target job description and get feedback.ResyBullet.io - Learn how to write attention grabbing resume bullets.Mailscoop.io - Find anyone's professional email in seconds.Connect with Austin for daily job search content:Cultivated CultureLinkedInTwitterThanks for listening!

Today on the podcast, I'm talking with Isabella Montano Ghazarians, the founder of Isabella MG. Isabella MG is a Latina-owned stationery brand known for its cheerful, light-hearted cards and cositas, that's Spanish for little things.  One of the things I really enjoy about Isabella's work is how naturally she weaves her culture into her products, creating designs that are both in English and Spanish. These products feel thoughtful, inclusive, and genuinely joyful.  In this episode, Isabella shares what it's been like growing her business since she launched in 2020 while also navigating some really big personal shifts. We're talking about becoming a mom recently, moving from San Diego to Los Angeles, and continuing to lead a growing team remotely. We also talk about building products that resonate across cultures, managing that remote team we mentioned, and the opportunities that have helped bring Isabella's work into big box retailers like Target and HomeGoods. Today's episode is brought to you by our Paper Camp program. Paper Camp is our wholesale coaching program where we teach you everything you need to know to build strong wholesale foundations. Over the course of 4 weeks, we tackle your product line, sales tools, and marketing plan, and we even talk about how to exhibit at trade shows if that's what you want to do. We start with your product line and go into everything from how often you should be releasing new products to ensuring that your numbers are sustainable for the wholesale market and their price for profit. Then we move into sales tools you must have for selling wholesale so you make a strong first impression with buyers like catalogs and your terms and conditions. Then, we cover marketing strategies and ways to reach various store owners.  Each week's teachings build on the previous week, and we host weekly live engaging coaching calls to answer all of your questions. We will open enrollment for our next round of Paper Camp soon, and we sell this program out every time we run it. Join the waitlist, and you'll get early access to enroll. SIGN UP FOR THE WAITLIST You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/425  Quick Links: Free Wholesale Audio Series Free Resources Library Free Email Marketing for Product Makers PTP LABS Paper Camp  

Today on the podcast, I'm talking with Isabella Montano Ghazarians, the founder of Isabella MG. Isabella MG is a Latina-owned stationery brand known for its cheerful, light-hearted cards and cositas, that's Spanish for little things.  One of the things I really enjoy about Isabella's work is how naturally she weaves her culture into her products, creating designs that are both in English and Spanish. These products feel thoughtful, inclusive, and genuinely joyful.  In this episode, Isabella shares what it's been like growing her business since she launched in 2020 while also navigating some really big personal shifts. We're talking about becoming a mom recently, moving from San Diego to Los Angeles, and continuing to lead a growing team remotely. We also talk about building products that resonate across cultures, managing that remote team we mentioned, and the opportunities that have helped bring Isabella's work into big box retailers like Target and HomeGoods. Today's episode is brought to you by our Paper Camp program. Paper Camp is our wholesale coaching program where we teach you everything you need to know to build strong wholesale foundations. Over the course of 4 weeks, we tackle your product line, sales tools, and marketing plan, and we even talk about how to exhibit at trade shows if that's what you want to do. We start with your product line and go into everything from how often you should be releasing new products to ensuring that your numbers are sustainable for the wholesale market and their price for profit. Then we move into sales tools you must have for selling wholesale so you make a strong first impression with buyers like catalogs and your terms and conditions. Then, we cover marketing strategies and ways to reach various store owners.  Each week's teachings build on the previous week, and we host weekly live engaging coaching calls to answer all of your questions. We will open enrollment for our next round of Paper Camp soon, and we sell this program out every time we run it. Join the waitlist, and you'll get early access to enroll. SIGN UP FOR THE WAITLIST You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/425  Quick Links: Free Wholesale Audio Series Free Resources Library Free Email Marketing for Product Makers PTP LABS Paper Camp  

Welcome to the Freedom Forge! In this first episode, Paula Mateer from the Steamboat Emerging Leaders Council sits down with Carine Hajjar, an opinion journalist for The Washington Post's Opinion section, former columnist and Editorial Board member at The Boston Globe, and Steamboat Institute Fellow. They talk about being a conservative at Harvard, going on to a career in journalism, and more!

In this episode the host delves into the Law of Detachment, highlighting how the principle of releasing attachment to specific outcomes can help in achieving your wildest dreams. The episode emphasises the importance of clarity, identity work, and emotional intelligence in manifesting success and fulfillment. Real-life examples and actionable steps are provided to help listeners embody the identity of their desired future self and attract the outcomes they seek. A personal story of how Marcia landed her dream keynote speaking gig, illustrates how surrendering to the process can bring unexpected opportunities, demonstrating the power of trust, intention, and receptivity. 00:00 Introduction: Creating Your Dream Life 01:28 Understanding the Law of Detachment 03:09 Defining Your Desires and Identity 05:49 Embodying Your Desired Identity 07:18 The Power of Emotional Intelligence 08:02 A Personal Story of Manifestation: Keynote Speaking Opportunity  11:01 The Importance of Identity Work 19:41 Overcoming Self-Doubt and Embracing Your Potential 21:36 Conclusion: Trusting the Process IG: @marciacolosi | TikTok: @marciacolosi LI: @marciacolosi | FB: @marciamiatke  Ready to take your life and relationships to the next level? Follow The EQ Academy Official where you'll learn to optimise your emotions, leverage your feminine and masculine energies and show up your most confident and radiant self!

Your first paid workshop doesn't come from feeling “ready.” It comes from learning how to position and trust your experience—even before you see yourself as a speaker.In this behind-the-scenes episode, I'm sharing the full story of my first-ever paid workshop—how I landed it and the strategy I was using before I had a long speaking resume.We'll cover:My first ever paid workshop + how I landed itWhy pitching can (and should) be part of your strategy at any stage of your speaking journeyThe balance between actively pitching and attracting opportunitiesThe single skill that's helped me—and my clients—land the majority of our speaking gigsIf you're a speaker, coach, or creative entrepreneur who wants to get paid for workshops, trainings, or facilitation—but feels like you need more experience first—this episode will help you rethink what qualifies you and how to move forward anyway.Press play if you're ready to stop waiting to feel ready and start building paid speaking opportunities in a way that's aligned, strategic, and sustainable.Enjoyed the show? Make sure you rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.WORK WITH STEPH

Former Elon quarterback Landen Clark committed to LSU. Tommy gets the details on the new Tiger with Mike Detillier, WWL analyst, co-host of Sports Talk

After a friendly interaction at a doctor's office today, Scoot is bullish on people being nice to one another

How do you go from being the Ohio State University mascot to an ICU Nurse, and finally to a top-tier Pharmaceutical Sales Rep at Pfizer in just 11 weeks?In this episode of Medical Sales U, I sit down with Corey Stewart to break down his incredible career transition.- The "Hospital Cafeteria" Interview: The insane story of how Corey interviewed for Pfizer while his wife was in labor (and still crushed it).- The STAR Method: Watch a live roleplay of how to answer the "Tell me about a time..." question using courage and clinical experience.- Salary Negotiation: Full transparency on the numbers. See how Corey negotiated a $112k offer up to a $158k total first-year package.-Networking Strategy: Why reaching out to the team is more important than reaching out to the manager.If you are a nurse, teacher, or athlete looking to break into Medical Device or Pharma Sales, this will give you some insight.CHAPTERS0:00 - Intro: Meeting Brutus Buckeye & The "Expert of One" Mindset2:15 - Why Leave Nursing? Burnout, Family, and Income8:45 - The Strategy: Networking with Peers vs. Hiring Managers15:30 - Master Class: Using the STAR Method in Interviews (Live Example)24:10 - The "Courage" Story: Challenging a Surgeon in the ICU32:45 - Must See: Interviewing for Pfizer While His Wife was in Labor!40:20 - The "Re-Close": How to Tell Them You Got the Job45:50 - Money Talk: Negotiating Base Salary, Commission, & Relocation ($158k Total)52:10 - Final Advice: Betting on YourselfWANT TO BREAK INTO MEDICAL SALES? Ready to leave the bedside or the classroom and start a 6-figure career? Apply to Medical Sales U today: medicalsalesu.com/ABOUT THE GUEST: Corey Stewart is a former Ohio State "Brutus" mascot, a Cardiovascular ICU Nurse, and now a Pharmaceutical Sales Representative at Pfizer. He successfully transitioned into the industry in just 11 weeks using the Medical Sales U coaching program.#MedicalSales #Pfizer #NurseToSales #SalaryNegotiation #OhioState #BrutusBuckeye #PharmaSales #CareerTransition #InterviewTips #DaveSterrett #MedicalSalesUDisclaimer: The views expressed in this video are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.

Here's a first look from our upcoming podcast with  Jon Miller, the President, Acquisitions & Partnerships for NBC Sports. The full podcast will be out on December 23.  In this preview clip, Miller discusses how he was able to bring in Michael Jordan as a special contributor on NBC's NBA coverage and his longtime relationship with Jordan. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and more.  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here we are Leatherhead Nation... The show we have ALL been waiting for for YEARS! Lou and Kev have FINALLY pulled the Rabbit out of the hat and Landed the big one!! Denis Leary is a five-time loser at the Emmy Awards. He hopes to one day also lose an Oscar, a Grammy and a Tony. In his long and storied entertainment career Leary has also never won The Stanley Cup, The Nobel Peace Prize or an argument with his wife. Denis most recently starred in Amazon's OH. WHAT. FUN. alongside Michelle Pfeiffer and Chloë Grace Moretz. Released on December 3, 2025, the film quickly hit #1 on Amazon Prime's movie chart. Leary will next be seen in season two of FOX's Going Dutch, a comedy about outspoken U.S. Army Colonel Patrick Quinn, reassigned to command a small base in the Netherlands, premiering Thursday, January 15, 2026 on FOX. He co-created and starred in seven seasons of FX's acclaimed drama Rescue Me, as well as the FX comedy Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll. His film credits include Captain George Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man and voice roles as Francis in A Bug's Life and Diego in the Ice Age franchise. Leary also founded The Leary Firefighters Foundation, which provides critical equipment, technology, and training to fire departments across the United States. Going to be another great show. We will get the whole skinny. You don't want to miss this one. Join us at the kitchen table on the BEST FIREFIGHTER PODCAST ON THE INTERNET! You can also Listen to our podcast ...we are on all the players #lovethisjob #GiveBackMoreThanYouTake #Oldschool #Tradition #volunteerfirefighters #FDNY #nationalfallenfirefightersfoundation #learyfoundationBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gettin-salty-experience-firefighter-podcast--4218265/support.

1. Travis Kelce Reveals Where Taylor Swift's ‘The Life of a Showgirl' Landed on His Spotify Wrapped (US Weekly) (36:29) 2. Jen Shah Released from Jail After Serving 33 Months Behind Bars for Telemarketing Fraud Scheme (Exclusive) (PEOPLE) (46:32) 3. Why Alix Earle and Braxton Berrios split after two years together (Page Six) (54:40) 4. Howard Stern hits back at Kim Kardashian's claim he mocked her 2016 Paris robbery (Page Six) (1:06:30) 5. UES soccer mom kicks up controversy asking about private jet for son's games: ‘He's never flown commercial' (Page Six) (1:10:50) The Toast with Claudia Oshry (@girlwithnojob) and Jon Bouff (jon.bouff) and Alexandra Madison (@alexandramadisonn) The Toast Patreon  Toast Merch  Girl With No Job by Claudia Oshry The Camper & The Counselor Lean In https://www.flow.page/leanin Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices