Podcasts about levers

On the Saturday August 8, 2026 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we meet stand-up comedian Andrew Barr. A recovering addict who turned his struggles into powerful, hilarious material, Barr has built a reputation for fearlessly tackling tough topics like addiction, sobriety, and everyday absurdities in a way that connects with audiences. Today we talk about his comedy special ”Andrew Barr Goes Nowhere,” streaming globally on YouTube in partnership with ComedyBarMAX. The premise of the special is unusual: Barr ran continuously on a treadmill for 12 hours straight—covering exactly 104 kilometers (the equivalent of two and a half back-to-back marathons) and burning over 7,000 calories—before immediately stepping off the machine to deliver a live, hour-long stand-up comedy performance. Beyond the grueling physical challenge, the 12-hour feat carried profound personal significance and we’ll talk about that in this interview. Then, we meet Don Levers, a Vancouver-born author who dives deep into one of Canada’s most audacious and mysterious crimes inn his new book "The (Almost) Perfect Heist: The Incredible True Story of the Vancouver Safety Deposit Robbery.” What began as research for a novel became a years-long investigation into a bold caper involving seasoned criminals, an impenetrable vault, and millions in unrecovered loot. Part true-crime thriller, part investigative memoir, this book explores how close the thieves came to pulling off the perfect crime — and why so many questions still remain decades later.

Why does one cafe boom while another goes bust?  We asked some of the top cafe operators (Hugh Kelly, Beta Coffee, Onyx Coffee Lab, and Carlos Escobar) to reveal the hidden levers that quietly make or break a business. Join us as we unpack some of the biggest silent killers of cafes, and share the practical strategies you can use to avoid them.  Coffee Break is your weekly inside scoop into the coffee community. Everything from on the fly barista tips, honest and unfiltered cafe reviews (eek), hospitality stories and gate kept coffee secrets. Thanks to: Hugh Kelly: https://www.instagram.com/hugh_t_kelly/  Beta Coffee: https://www.instagram.com/beta_coffee/  Onyx Coffee Lab: https://www.instagram.com/onyxcoffeelab/  Carlos Escobar: https://www.instagram.com/carlos.esco.bar/  Want more coffee content?  IT'S JUST COFFEE: https://linktr.ee/itsjustcoffeepod?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=4e8cead0-6644-4c4a-b419-28c825b1b236 Want to get in touch? Hit us up at hello@itsjustcoffeepod.com for any questions or comments. Proudly sponsored by: Apax Lab: https://apaxlab.com/   Riverina Fresh: https://www.riverinafresh.com.au/ Thanks for listening!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you eating well, moving your body, and trying to sleep better — but still feeling older than you should? Stiffer joints, lower energy, and a sense that the last few years have aged you faster than the years before? That feeling has a cause, and it is not laziness or bad genetics. In this episode, we dive into why aging happens inside your cells first, and how your body catches up later. I walk through the 4 specific drivers that accelerate cellular aging and the 5 evidence-backed levers you can use to slow — and in some cases reverse — that process. Stay until the end for the clinical trial where participants did not just slow cellular aging… but after five years, they measurably turned it backward. In this episode, you'll learn: • Why your biological age — not the number on your driver's license — determines how you feel, think, and move • The 4 key mechanisms breaking down your cells right now, including telomere shortening, mitochondrial decline, slowed autophagy, and senescent cell buildup • How telomeres work like the plastic tips on a shoelace, and why emotional stress wears them down faster than almost anything else • What autophagy is, why your cellular cleanup crew slows with age, and how to switch it back on • Why resistance training is the single most powerful tool for building new mitochondria and slowing cellular aging • The specific fats that keep your cell membranes flexible and springy — and the ones that make them brittle • How deep sleep triggers growth hormone release, clears damaged proteins, and runs the brain's overnight repair cycle • The 9 blood biomarkers from a 2018 study in the journal Aging that predict longevity better than chronological age • The five-year lifestyle trial where one group lengthened their telomeres by 10% while the control group's shortened by 3% Find out what's really happening inside your body with advanced at-home biomarker testing — which includes a 60 minute consultation to review your results and learn about our cellular healing protocols at The Health Institute → http://mybloodwork.com Thank you to our sponsors! Sunlighten Sauna: https://get.sunlighten.com/axepodcast Manukora Manuka Honey: https://manukora.com/axe Watch The Dr. Josh Axe Show every Monday & Thursday on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@drjoshaxe?sub_confirmation=1

On this episode of For Mac Eyes Only: Join Mike, Darren, and Macstock volunteers, Brian Henson and Brian Flanigan-Arthurs to share a behind-the-scenes look at Macstock including what goes in to putting on Macstock each summer, why they volunteer and their favorite parts of doing so, highlights from Macstock 10, and how Macstock has changed throughout the years…and what they hope will never change. Mike shares a FMEO Quick Tip for generating QR codes within Firefox. We close the show with Darrens's Essential App pick: Cardhop!

This is part two of my ‘how to be a convicted b*tch' series. In part 2, I'm walking you through the 7 levers that actually build unwavering belief in yourself, your work, and your business, PLUS the exercises to help you put each one into practice. If you haven't listened to part one yet, go back and start there first!In this episode, we cover: The thing most people do when they lose conviction that makes it worse (not better!)Why self confidence might be the wrong muscle to build (and what to focus on building instead)How to "borrow" belief before you have proof it's going to workThe difference between conditional and unconditional conviction, and which one you're running onWhy keeping tiny promises to yourself matters *more* than any strategy tweakHow to detach your goals from a timeline, without losing momentumWhy being intentional with who you surround yourself with might be the biggest lever of allThese levers work together, so don't just listen and move on. Pick one, do the exercise, and notice what shifts. If this episode resonated with you, send me a DM @iamnoravirginia and let me know which lever you're starting with!Listen to Similar Episodes: 256. How to Be a Convicted B*tch (Part 1): Find Where Your Conviction Is Leaking244. Become the Sales Sorceress: How to Sell From THIS Identity Instead of Desperation242. How to Stay Hungry in Business & Reignite Your Inner Fire212. 5 Simple Ways to Build Confidence in Business P.S. When you rate and review the podcast, you'll receive my Connect to your Higher Self Visualization as a thank you! Click here to claim your gift. Ways to Work with Nora: 1:1 Coaching Waitlist – Add your name to the waitlist to be the first to learn when spots open.90-Minute Intensives Waitlist – Limited openings for deep-dive, high-impact sessions. Join the waitlist to be notified when spots become available.Courses – Explore Nora's signature programs:Full Throttle – The ultimate business strategy courseElite – Business energetics + identity work course Podcasting for Business Growth – Turn your podcast into profitConnect with Nora – Follow her on Instagram @iamnoravirginia for updates, tips, and inspiration.

On this episode, Jackie Joelson, Head of Private Equity and Venture Capital Practice at Oracle NetSuite, joins Shiv to break down why ERP transformation has become one of the established levers sponsors pull inside their portfolio companies.Learn how buy-and-build roll-ups, sponsor-backed carve-outs and decades-old legacy systems each demand a different approach to ROI and change management to unlock the full enterprise value potential. Plus, hear why clean, consolidated data has to be a priority, and the challenges of benchmarking AI readiness across portfolios.The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.

"I just need to get more patients into the office." It's something almost every owner tells themselves, but it's rarely what their practice needs.In this episode, you'll learn the five levers that decide how much your practice actually produces. The DPH coaches share their own experiences of freezing in front of patients, getting honest feedback from their teams, and coaching associates who want a raise.Topics discussed:(00:00) Introduction(03:02) What to do when an associate wants more money(06:29) Why chasing new patients keeps you stuck(08:13) Are you doing comprehensive treatment planning?(09:46) Five levers that decide what you produce(12:47) Why so many doctors freeze or hold back(16:27) The honest feedback your team isn't telling you(19:05) Setting standards and measuring outcomesThis episode was produced by Podcast Boutique https://www.podcastboutique.comCheck out the Growth Program Here Join our Newest and Best Coaching Program, Click Here for More InformationTake Control of Your Practice and Your LifeWe help dentists take more time off while making more money through systematization, team empowerment, and creating leadership teams.Ready to build a practice that works for you? Visit www.DentalPracticeHeroes.com to learn more.

Hour Two of A&G features... The Artificial Intelligence jailbreak... Grievance bots... The most haunting rendition of The National Anthem...ever!... Joe brings us some extra headlines! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hour Two of A&G features... The Artificial Intelligence jailbreak... Grievance bots... The most haunting rendition of The National Anthem...ever!... Joe brings us some extra headlines! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

(04:48) Brought to you by SpeechifyAITired of text-to-speech that sounds robotic or costs too much at scale? SpeechifyAI's new Simba 3.2 model ranks #1 on Artificial Analysis for realness, priced under $10 per million characters. Building something conversational? Check out the Simba Voice Agents API for low-latency, natural back-and-forth interaction. Try it free at speechify.ai.Why do the same software delivery illusions keep fooling smart engineering teams? Elisabeth and Joel show how systems thinking, through signals and levers, helps you spot the illusions of progress, predictability, and control before they cost you.In this episode, Elisabeth Hendrickson and Joel Tosi, co-authors of Signals & Levers, share the story behind the book and trace the “software crisis” back to a 1968 NATO conference, arguing it never actually went away. They explain why software delivery is an adaptive sociotechnical system, and why treating it as a simple linear process leads leaders to pull the wrong levers.Elisabeth breaks down why proxy metrics like velocity are made-up numbers dressed up as science, and why cycle time tells a truer story. Joel walks through the CREATE framework (capacity, risk, execution, adaptability, trust, and economics), and how it can help leaders spot unintended consequences before they happen. They also dig into the three illusions leaders live under: illusion of progress, predictability, and control.The conversation closes with a candid look at where AI fits into all of this, when it amplifies good systems, when it makes bad ones worse, and why optimizing for learning matters more than ever.Timestamps:(00:00:00) Trailer & Intro(00:02:34) The Backstory Behind “Signals & Levers”(00:05:55) Why Has the ‘Software Crisis' Never Actually Gone Away?(00:08:41) Why Do the Same Software Development Problems Keep Appearing?(00:10:55) What is an Adaptive Sociotechnical System?(00:15:09) Why Do Business Executives Fail to Understand Software Development?(00:20:03) What Are Signals and Levers in Engineering Leadership?(00:24:31) What Makes Proxy Metrics Like Velocity and Lines of Code Dangerous?(00:28:23) Are DORA Metrics a Good Proxy for Software Development Productivity?(00:32:50) What is the CREATE Framework for Avoiding Unintended Consequences?(00:38:26) How Do You Quantify and Apply the CREATE Framework?(00:44:09) What Are the Three Illusions That Leaders Face in Software Delivery?(00:50:27) Will AI Truly Speed Up Software Development?(00:55:55) How Should Leaders Integrate AI Into Systems Thinking?(01:00:53) Can AI Be a Thinking Partner for Systems Thinking?(01:04:26) Why Is the U-Curve a Powerful Tool for Modern Leadership?(01:09:17) 3 Tech Lead Wisdom_____Elisabeth Hendrickson & Joel Tosi's BioElisabeth Hendrickson is a technology leader with 30+ years of experience, having served as VP R&D at a public company and VP Engineering at a Series B startup. She's the author of Explore It! and There's Always a Duck, and now helps tech leaders improve collaboration, decision-making, and execution.Joel Tosi has spent over 25 years delivering software products. For the past decade, he's helped teams see the systemic issues holding them back and stop “change theater,” using the techniques from Signals & Levers to give everyone a shared view of reality. He's presented these ideas internationally for over five years.Follow Elisabeth & Joel:LinkedIn (Elisabeth) – linkedin.com/in/testobsessedLinkedIn (Joel) – linkedin.com/in/joel-tosi-531a3bWebsite – signalsandlevers.comSignals & Levers – itrevolution.com/product/signals-and-leversSignals & Levers workshops – maven.com/signalsandleversLike this episode?Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/265.Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn and Instagram.Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

On the Saturday August 8, 2026 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we meet stand-up comedian Andrew Barr. A recovering addict who turned his struggles into powerful, hilarious material, Barr has built a reputation for fearlessly tackling tough topics like addiction, sobriety, and everyday absurdities in a way that connects with audiences. Today we talk about his comedy special ”Andrew Barr Goes Nowhere,” streaming globally on YouTube in partnership with ComedyBarMAX. The premise of the special is unusual: Barr ran continuously on a treadmill for 12 hours straight—covering exactly 104 kilometers (the equivalent of two and a half back-to-back marathons) and burning over 7,000 calories—before immediately stepping off the machine to deliver a live, hour-long stand-up comedy performance. Beyond the grueling physical challenge, the 12-hour feat carried profound personal significance and we'll talk about that in this interview. Then, we meet Don Levers, a Vancouver-born author who dives deep into one of Canada's most audacious and mysterious crimes inn his new book "The (Almost) Perfect Heist: The Incredible True Story of the Vancouver Safety Deposit Robbery.”   What began as research for a novel became a years-long investigation into a bold caper involving seasoned criminals, an impenetrable vault, and millions in unrecovered loot. Part true-crime thriller, part investigative memoir, this book explores how close the thieves came to pulling off the perfect crime — and why so many questions still remain decades later.

In this episode of Pro Mindset® Podcast, host Craig Domann sits down with author, speaker, and corporate leadership coach Randy Lyman to explore the challenges of emotional awareness in modern athletics, business, and everyday life. From navigating the shift toward identifying emotional blind spots to protecting high performers from the pitfalls of burnout and choking under pressure, Randy's insight on internal regulation, breath work, and core character provides a vital playbook for growth.Randy shares his experiences with building intentional self-improvement habits, the critical role of self-awareness in long-term success, and why suppressing difficult emotions can derail a leader's dream of reaching their full potential. He emphasizes the importance of relational listening, managing internal drivers over short-term fixes, and maintaining emotional regulation in high-stakes environments. Randy also highlights the vital role of radical honesty with oneself and embracing the lifelong journey of self-discovery.Additionally, Randy balances his leadership expertise with thirty-six years of deep personal growth and business building. His friendship and mutual respect with Craig shines through this conversation. It's a reminder that Craig entered this business not to guard territory, but to help people achieve their goals and dreams — and Randy's collaborative approach to building championship mindsets is living proof of that.Episode Takeaways: 

In this episode, Spencer Greenberg discusses the 12 levers that actually help you change your life and explains why lasting personal growth isn't about finding a single breakthrough technique—it's about knowing which tool fits the challenge you're facing. Drawing from his new book, The 12 Levers: The Complete Psychological Toolkit for Improving Your Life, Spencer shares how nearly 500 self-improvement methods can be organized into 12 core psychological strategies. He also explore habit change, values, fear, acceptance, and thinking more clearly, while showing why understanding the root cause of a problem is often the key to creating meaningful, lasting change. Free Guide: Outsmart the Hidden Saboteurs of Self-Control. What's been holding you back lately? In this free guide, Eric shares the six common saboteurs that quietly derail our best intentions—like autopilot behavior, self-doubt, and emotional escapism—and offers practical strategies to help you regain control and move forward. Download your free copy at oneyoufeed.net/ebook. Key Takeaways: Why self-improvement techniques can be organized into 12 core psychological levers How understanding the root cause of a problem leads to more effective change The ABC method for uncovering the thoughts and beliefs behind difficult emotions Why analyzing your past successes is one of the most effective ways to build new habits How identifying your values, priorities, and guiding principles leads to better decisions Why gradually facing fear is more effective than avoiding it The difference between accepting reality and approving of it How resistance often creates more suffering than the problem itself Practical ways to recognize and challenge distorted thinking Why personal growth works best as a toolbox—not a search for a single solution For full show notes, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!⁠⁠ If you enjoyed this conversation with Spencer Greenberg, check out these other episodes: Tiny Habits for Behavior Change with BJ Fogg Behavior Change with Dr. John Norcross How to Integrate Behavior Change with Your Values with Spencer Greenberg This episode is sponsored by: Talkiatry⁠⁠⁠ connects you with licensed psychiatrists for personalized, evidence-based mental health care, all online and covered by most major insurance plans. To get matched with an in-network psychiatrist in just a few minutes, visit ⁠⁠⁠Talkiatry.com/FEED.⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Pebl⁠⁠ – an AI-powered platform that helps companies hire and manage global teams in 185+ countries. Get a free estimate at ⁠⁠hipebl.ai⁠ ZocDoc - Taking care of your health just got easier – start here with Zocdoc Shopify – The commerce platform that helps you build, grow, and manage your business all in one place. Start your $1/month trial at shopify.com/feed. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tiny Health⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠'s at-home gut health test provides science-backed insights into your microbiome, along with personalized recommendations to help you improve your digestion, energy, and overall well-being. Get $50 off your first test kit at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ tinyhealth.com/FEED⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Monarch⁠⁠: Take control of your finances with Monarch, the all-in-one personal finance app that helps you budget, track spending, monitor investments, and work toward your financial goals. Get 50% off your first year of Monarch Core, go to https://www.monarch.com/ and enter Promo Code: FEED ⁠⁠ButcherBox:⁠⁠ Make dinnertime easier with ButcherBox, delivering high-quality 100% grass-fed beef, organic chicken, wild-caught seafood, and more, right to your door. Get $20 off your first box, plus your choice of free ground beef for life or free chicken thighs or top sirloins for a year, with free shipping always. Visit ⁠⁠ButcherBox.com/FEED⁠⁠ to claim your offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brand equity is essential to win on AI platforms. Equity can't be built without memory, and memory can't be built without attention. WARC's Alex Brownsell discusses what role attention plays in AI visibility for brands, and practical advice to implement, with experts Dr. Karen Nelson Field, Carl Wåreus and Scott Reinders. Guests: Dr Karen Nelson-Field, Founder & CEO of Amplified Carl Wåreus, Head of Partners & Specialists, Google Nordics Scott Reinders, COO, Connect - part of The Up&Up Group Chapters: 00:00 - Intro: Brand, AI Search and Attention on The WARC Podcast 02:08 - From Blue Links to Conversations: How AI is Changing Search Behaviour 03:31 - Collapsing the Messy Middle: LLMs as the New Consideration Engine 04:41 - Brand Equity as an AI Ranking Signal: Google Example from Sweden 06:54 - Levers vs Drift: Managing Brand Signals AI and LLMs Can See 08:21 - Automated Creative at Scale: Avoiding the ‘AI Slop' Trap 10:32 - Visibility Starvation: The Risk of Low-Attention, Fast-Decay Media 12:32 - Misattribution and Invisibility: How Low Attention Hurts LLM Visibility 14:54 - Media Quality Redefined: High-Attention vs High-Intent Environments 16:14 - Silent Zone vs Vocal Zone: Human Noise, Reviews and AI Training Data 18:37 - Moving Beyond an Attention Metric: Attention as System Architecture 19:35 - Inside Attention AI: Generative Attention Modelling for Media and Creative 22:54 - Media Ceilings, Creative Hooks: How Formats and Assets Shape Attention 26:58 - Practical Advice: Multiplying Brand Equity, Attention and AI Visibility For 40 years, WARC has been providing the marketing industry with rigorous, unbiased evidence and expert effectiveness guidance. The WARC Podcast publishes a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe to The WARC Podcast here: https://www.warc.com/en/warc-podcastsSign up to daily WARC News for free: https://www.warc.com/en/latestBook a demo: https://www.warc.com/en/subscribe

What does it actually take to build a better life? In The 12 Levers, Spencer Greenberg and Jeremy Stevenson argue that the sprawling world of self-help can be boiled down to a dozen core strategies for change. And in The Good Life, Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz share the central lesson from the world's longest scientific study of happiness.

Seventeen weeks into writing a weekly newsletter on LinkedIn, Shane has landed on a simple but powerful idea: leadership levers. This episode explains what makes a lever different from a project or a habit, why it has to be small enough to do tomorrow morning without telling anyone, and why it has to live inside something already in your week, like a meeting or a handover. Drawing on John Sweller's research on cognitive load and Stephen Rogelberg's studies on meetings, Shane makes the case that most leadership problems aren't solved by trying harder, but by placing effort somewhere better.You'll learn why a single sentence sent before a meeting can prevent hours of follow-up confusion, and why two minutes at the end of a meeting assigning names to actions can stop decisions turning into vague memories. Shane also shares how learning a framework for difficult conversations freed up enough mental space to actually listen better, rather than working out the opening line from scratch every time. If you're looking for practical, repeatable moves rather than another big initiative, this episode gives you a way to think about where to place your effort for maximum return.Resources & Links Mentioned:Education Leaders Intensive programmeEpisode Partners:International Curriculum AssociationSisiJoin Shane's Intensive Leadership Programme at educationleaders.co/intensiveShane Leaning, an organisational coach based in Shanghai, supports school leaders globally. Passionate about empowment, he is the author of the best-selling 'Change Starts Here.' Shane is a leading educational voice in the UK, Asia and around the world.You can find Shane on LinkedIn and Bluesky. or shaneleaning.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Sloan is Aligning its Teams, Tools and Strategy to Drive Profitable Growth Parthiv Amin of Sloan shares how the company is creating profitable growth by taking a more customer-centric approach across the entire value chain. From specifiers and designers to contractors, wholesalers and facilities teams, Sloan has built a strategy that helps the right people make the right decisions at the right time. Parthiv shares with Alexander Group Partner Kyle Uebelhor how Sloan brings sales, marketing, customer experience and product leadership together under one umbrella to create positive competitive tension and better business outcomes. The team is improving efficiency while driving top-line growth and EBITDA. Listen for the full discussion.

In this episode of People Solve Problems, Jamie Flinchbaugh steps up to the microphone without a guest to talk about a pattern he keeps seeing in organizations: leaders trying to solve big problems by pulling big levers. Whether the problem shows up first and the lever follows, or the lever is pulled in hopes of solving something, Jamie states the result is usually the same. The connection between cause and effect gets lost. Jamie starts with a distinction that frames the whole episode. Most big problems are not really single problems at all. A budget problem, he explains, is actually a thousand small budget problems: overspending here, under-earning there, all adding up to something that looks like one giant issue. That aggregate is a theme, not a problem, and themes cannot be solved with one sweeping move. Real progress comes from understanding the details underneath. The first big lever Jamie examines is AI, a topic he recently explored in his blog article titled “AI Fragility: Why I'm Not Pro-AI or Anti-AI, but Pro-Thoughtfulness.” He uses AI regularly and never presents its work as his own, but he sees organizations rushing into adoption without a clear problem statement. When he asks what problem an AI strategy is meant to solve, the honest answer is often fear of missing out. He points to Starbucks pulling out an inventory control AI after nine months of building, deploying, and training as an example of what happens when the lever comes before the problem. His counsel is reassuring: it is very hard to be truly left behind, the tools keep improving, and there is plenty of time to catch up. What matters is being specific about what each deployment is meant to accomplish and whether you can evaluate the result. The second lever is organizational design. Jamie offers two truths that apply every time. First, an org change is never the only way to solve a problem; process design, culture and behaviors, or new capabilities can usually address the same issue, and often better. Second, every org design creates new problems. He calls it the shell game: waste gets moved around rather than removed. Solid lines on an org chart do not equal control, and leadership and culture still have to do the real work after the boxes move. The third lever is the return-to-office policy. Jamie describes it as a generic solution to a generically defined problem, usually labeled culture. Bringing people back may make culture easier to observe, but it does not fix it. When employees commute in only to sit through a full day of video meetings, the experience undermines the policy. He points to the book “The Year Without Pants” as an example of a fully remote company that was deliberate about how people spent time together in person. Jamie closes with three questions worth asking before any big lever gets pulled: What problem are you fundamentally trying to solve? Are there other pathways to that result? What new problems will this solution create? The details, he reminds us, are where the work is done and where the results are found. Read Jamie's AI Fragility article at https://www.jflinch.com/ai-fragility-why-im-not-pro-ai-or-anti-ai-but-pro-thoughtfulness/ and learn more about his work at https://www.jflinch.com. Check out the book Jamie was referencing in this episode

Building a global citizen family? The levers that decide your child's citizenship mostly close forever at 18. In this video, you'll learn all six ways your baby can become a passport collector, plus the obligations most marketing never mentions.Read the full analysis here.Access a suite of powerful tools and the world's #1 private investor community as an IMI Sovereign. Use code SOV10 for 10% off your first month.

This interview was recorded for the GOTO Book Club.http://gotopia.tech/bookclubElisabeth Hendrickson - Advisor, Coach, Speaker & Co-Author of "Signals & Levers"Joel Tosi - Co-Founder & CTO at Dojo & Co & Co-Author of "Signals & Levers"Charles Humble - Freelance Techie, Podcaster, Editor, Author & ConsultantCheck out more here:https://gotopia.tech/episodes/448RESOURCESElisabethhttps://ruby.social/@testobsessedhttps://github.com/testobsessedhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/testobsessedhttps://curiousduck.ioJoelhttps://mastodon.social/@joeltosihttps://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-tosi-531a3bCharleshttps://bsky.app/profile/charleshumble.bsky.socialhttps://linkedin.com/in/charleshumblehttps://mastodon.social/@charleshumblehttps://conissaunce.comLinkshttps://ruthmalan.comhttp://www.ask-force.org/web/Discourse/Rittel-Dilemmas-General-Theory-Planning-1973.pdfDESCRIPTIONElisabeth Hendrickson and Joel Tosi open by explaining why systems thinking is having a moment right now: organizations that went all-in on Agile and DevOps are finding those returns plateauing, and the rise of AI is forcing engineering teams to reexamine where their real bottlenecks are. The book, Signals & Levers, gives software engineers a practical vocabulary and toolkit for that examination. A core insight is that most organizational dysfunction isn't caused by bad people or bad intentions, but by systems that produce bad outcomes predictably and structurally. The named archetypes in the book — over 20 of them, covering patterns like escalating technical debt, the "fixes that fail" loop, and the boiling frog — give teams a shared language to recognize and reason about those patterns without having to discover them from scratch.The most practically actionable section of the conversation covers signals versus levers: understanding the difference between information (a signal) and an intervention point (a lever) is the foundation for making changes that actually work rather than changes that feel productive and achieve nothing. On AI, both authors are cautious in the right ways: Elisabeth uses it daily as a thinking partner but keeps herself firmly at the steering wheel. Joel's warning is starker — AI amplifies whatever is already true about your organization, including dysfunction, and if it lets you ship faster than you can learn, the consequences may be severe. The book closes with an exercise for the reader: if AI doubles your delivery speed, what happens when you can ship faster than you can adapt?RECOMMENDED BOOKSElisabeth Hendrickson & Joel Tosi • Signals & Levers • https://amzn.to/4g6Fb3CDiana Montalion • Learning Systems Thinking • https://amzn.to/3ZpycdJDon Norman • The Design of Everyday Things • https://amzn.to/4fV6QVlGene Kim • The Unicorn Project • https://amzn.to/3woXQDzGene Kim, Kevin Behr & George Spafford • The Phoenix Project • https://amzn.to/3X9cYxaPeter Degrace & Leslie Hulet Stahl • Wicked Problems, Righteous Solutions • https://amzn.to/3ScP0D9Frederick Brooks Jr. • The Mythical Man-Month • https://amzn.to/4gd10OVGerald Weinberg • An Introduction to General Systems Thinking • https://amzn.to/4dZCsaODonella H. Meadows • Thinking in Systems • https://amzn.to/3XtqYCVBlueskyInstagramLinkedInFacebookCHANNEL MEMBERSHIP BONUSJoin this channel to get early access to videos & other perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs_tLP3AiwYKwdUHpltJPuA/joinLooking for a unique learning experience?Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket: gotopia.techSUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL - new videos posted daily!

What if the next level of growth in your business isn't about doing more? In this episode, I'm sharing why simplifying your strategy and focusing on the biggest needle movers can create far more momentum than adding another offer or funnel. I'm also talking about a mindset shift that's helped me become a stronger leader by not letting my external circumstances dictate how I show up. Because the truth is, the way you lead yourself will always influence the way you lead your business. If you're ready to grow with more intention, clarity, and confidence, this episode is for you.

In this episode, Craig Jeffery speaks with Ryan Frederick of Transform Labs about the personal side of AI transition and what professionals should understand as AI reshapes work. They discuss why companies must treat AI as a core operating capability, not just a faster tool, and how staff can move from task-oriented work toward higher-value contributions involving judgment, relationships, problem-solving, and systems thinking. The conversation emphasizes that professionals should actively learn how to work with AI systems, direct agents, improve workflows, and become agents of change inside their organizations. Company Websites: Strategic Treasurer: Corporate Treasury Consultants » Strategic Treasurer Transform Labs: https://transformlabs.com

This week on Democracy Dialogues, Frances Cayton speaks with four experts on Polish politics about the success of Poland's opposition coalition in 2023, and the headwinds that democracy continues to face today. What challenges do parties and civil society face in building pro-democracy electoral coalitions? If victorious, how do these challenges affect post-election governance and efforts at pursuing democratic renewal? This episode brings together politicians, political scientists, and civil society leaders who each played a critical role in the 2023 elections to examine what made Poland's pro-democracy mobilization possible, the gains the 2023 coalition has achieved since entering power, and the challenges it continues to face in pursuing democratic renewal.This episode was originally recorded as a part of the Lessons from Global Democratic Resistance panel series. The series brings together frontline activists, civic leaders, institutional actors, and field‑informed scholars to examine how democratic actors have resisted, responded to, and learned from democratic backsliding across countries. The series aims to identify practical lessons and comparative insights for those defending democracy today and is organized in collaboration with the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University; Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania; the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame; the Democratic Futures Project at the University of Virginia; Stanford's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law; and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mikołaj Cześnik, Director of the Institute of Social Science at SWPS University, Chairman of the Council of the Stefan Batory Foundation Michał Wawrykiewicz, Member of the European Parliament (MEP). Co-Founder of the civic initiative Wolne Sady (Free Courts) Marek Tatała, President and Co-Founder of the Economic Freedom Foundation Dominika Lasota, Student and Activist in the Youth Climate Strike Poland, Co-Founder of Inicjatywa WSCHÓD Frances Cayton is a PhD Candidate in Government at Cornell University. Her research focuses on questions surrounding democratic backsliding, civil society, and political communication. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

This week on Democracy Dialogues, Frances Cayton speaks with four experts on Polish politics about the success of Poland's opposition coalition in 2023, and the headwinds that democracy continues to face today. What challenges do parties and civil society face in building pro-democracy electoral coalitions? If victorious, how do these challenges affect post-election governance and efforts at pursuing democratic renewal? This episode brings together politicians, political scientists, and civil society leaders who each played a critical role in the 2023 elections to examine what made Poland's pro-democracy mobilization possible, the gains the 2023 coalition has achieved since entering power, and the challenges it continues to face in pursuing democratic renewal.This episode was originally recorded as a part of the Lessons from Global Democratic Resistance panel series. The series brings together frontline activists, civic leaders, institutional actors, and field‑informed scholars to examine how democratic actors have resisted, responded to, and learned from democratic backsliding across countries. The series aims to identify practical lessons and comparative insights for those defending democracy today and is organized in collaboration with the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University; Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania; the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame; the Democratic Futures Project at the University of Virginia; Stanford's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law; and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mikołaj Cześnik, Director of the Institute of Social Science at SWPS University, Chairman of the Council of the Stefan Batory Foundation Michał Wawrykiewicz, Member of the European Parliament (MEP). Co-Founder of the civic initiative Wolne Sady (Free Courts) Marek Tatała, President and Co-Founder of the Economic Freedom Foundation Dominika Lasota, Student and Activist in the Youth Climate Strike Poland, Co-Founder of Inicjatywa WSCHÓD Frances Cayton is a PhD Candidate in Government at Cornell University. Her research focuses on questions surrounding democratic backsliding, civil society, and political communication. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

This week on Democracy Dialogues, Frances Cayton speaks with four experts on Polish politics about the success of Poland's opposition coalition in 2023, and the headwinds that democracy continues to face today. What challenges do parties and civil society face in building pro-democracy electoral coalitions? If victorious, how do these challenges affect post-election governance and efforts at pursuing democratic renewal? This episode brings together politicians, political scientists, and civil society leaders who each played a critical role in the 2023 elections to examine what made Poland's pro-democracy mobilization possible, the gains the 2023 coalition has achieved since entering power, and the challenges it continues to face in pursuing democratic renewal.This episode was originally recorded as a part of the Lessons from Global Democratic Resistance panel series. The series brings together frontline activists, civic leaders, institutional actors, and field‑informed scholars to examine how democratic actors have resisted, responded to, and learned from democratic backsliding across countries. The series aims to identify practical lessons and comparative insights for those defending democracy today and is organized in collaboration with the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University; Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania; the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame; the Democratic Futures Project at the University of Virginia; Stanford's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law; and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mikołaj Cześnik, Director of the Institute of Social Science at SWPS University, Chairman of the Council of the Stefan Batory Foundation Michał Wawrykiewicz, Member of the European Parliament (MEP). Co-Founder of the civic initiative Wolne Sady (Free Courts) Marek Tatała, President and Co-Founder of the Economic Freedom Foundation Dominika Lasota, Student and Activist in the Youth Climate Strike Poland, Co-Founder of Inicjatywa WSCHÓD Frances Cayton is a PhD Candidate in Government at Cornell University. Her research focuses on questions surrounding democratic backsliding, civil society, and political communication. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/politics-and-polemics

This week on Democracy Dialogues, Frances Cayton speaks with four experts on Polish politics about the success of Poland's opposition coalition in 2023, and the headwinds that democracy continues to face today. What challenges do parties and civil society face in building pro-democracy electoral coalitions? If victorious, how do these challenges affect post-election governance and efforts at pursuing democratic renewal? This episode brings together politicians, political scientists, and civil society leaders who each played a critical role in the 2023 elections to examine what made Poland's pro-democracy mobilization possible, the gains the 2023 coalition has achieved since entering power, and the challenges it continues to face in pursuing democratic renewal.This episode was originally recorded as a part of the Lessons from Global Democratic Resistance panel series. The series brings together frontline activists, civic leaders, institutional actors, and field‑informed scholars to examine how democratic actors have resisted, responded to, and learned from democratic backsliding across countries. The series aims to identify practical lessons and comparative insights for those defending democracy today and is organized in collaboration with the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University; Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania; the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame; the Democratic Futures Project at the University of Virginia; Stanford's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law; and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mikołaj Cześnik, Director of the Institute of Social Science at SWPS University, Chairman of the Council of the Stefan Batory Foundation Michał Wawrykiewicz, Member of the European Parliament (MEP). Co-Founder of the civic initiative Wolne Sady (Free Courts) Marek Tatała, President and Co-Founder of the Economic Freedom Foundation Dominika Lasota, Student and Activist in the Youth Climate Strike Poland, Co-Founder of Inicjatywa WSCHÓD Frances Cayton is a PhD Candidate in Government at Cornell University. Her research focuses on questions surrounding democratic backsliding, civil society, and political communication. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Jason breaks down the five critical levers for motivating your team in construction. Drawing on Lean principles, human psychology, and decades of field experience, he explains why standards, training, reinforcement, habits, and incentives are essential to get work done efficiently and safely. What you'll learn in this episode: Why visible standards are the foundation of motivation. How proper training transforms potential into performance. The role of reinforcement in making behaviors stick. How habits and incentives support sustainable change. Why leaders must drive work, not just set rules. Are your teams truly motivated, or are they just following instructions without engagement? If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free and you'll never miss an episode.  And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two

Body recomposition is one of the most contested concepts in physique development — and one of the most misunderstood.The traditional dogma says you have to pick a lane. You're either bulking or you're cutting. You can't gain muscle in a deficit. And once you're past the beginner stage, recomp isn't on the table.But the research over the past several years has made it increasingly clear that this framing is an oversimplification of how energy balance actually translates to body composition. And there are specific levers that, when pulled correctly together, can drive recomp outcomes in trained individuals who've spent years thinking it wasn't possible for them.On this week's episode of the CHASING CLARITY HEALTH & FITNESS PODCAST, I'm following up on my recent conversation with Dr. Eric Helms with a solo deep-dive into the two topics we didn't get to cover — the most recent body recomp research published this year, and the three primary levers I pull with my clients to actually drive recomp outcomes in the real world.This episode is for:Trained lifters who've been told recomp is no longer on the tableCoaches who want a clear framework for programming recomp phasesAnyone stuck between cutting and bulking and ready to try a different approachListeners who heard the Helms episode and want the practical playbookHERE'S WHAT WE COVER:A FOUNDATIONAL RECAP OF WHAT BODY RECOMP IS & THE 3 FORMS IT CAN TAKEA DEEP DIVE INTO THE LATEST RECOMP STUDY BY VARGAS-MOLINA ET AL. 2025LEVER 1: DEFICIT SIZE & WHY SMALLER DEFICITS BEAT AGGRESSIVE ONES FOR RECOMPLEVER 2: PROTEIN INTAKE & THE TIERED APPROACH I USE BASED ON BODY FAT LEVELLEVER 3: TRAINING DOSE & THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WORKING OUT VS. TRAININGWHY MOST LIFTERS HAVE NEVER TRULY TRAINED CLOSE ENOUGH TO FAILURE TO DRIVE RECOMPHOW TO PULL ALL THREE LEVERS IN ALIGNMENT TO MAKE RECOMP HAPPENThis is the practical follow-up to the Helms conversation — the actionable playbook for anyone who wants to take their recomp efforts seriously.If you've been spinning your wheels between cutting and bulking without making the progress you want, this episode will give you the clarity you've been missing.

This is the finale of a three-part trilogy on finding and freeing the growth already sitting inside a business you own. EP 65 covered what to keep and what to kill. EP 66 covered the hidden money in your market. EP 67 answers the next question: who actually captures it, and what happens when your team, or you, becomes the thing slowing everything down. Dustin and Jimmy soften a hard title into a useful one. As the founder, you are part of the team too, so this is not about blame. It is about a simple truth: most problems in a business are system performance problems, and the fastest way to fix them is to remove the bottleneck. Money loves speed. The four levers covered in this episode: Revenue per employee (RPE). The one diagnostic most owners have never calculated. Take total revenue, divide by total headcount, and you have a proxy for how efficiently your business turns people into profit. Jimmy shares how his team went from about $37,000 per team member to roughly $125,000, a 3x jump in 18 months, by getting the right people in the right seats. Time allocation and task audit. Where your hours actually go, and what to stop doing. The highest performers are almost all signal and no noise. Growth usually comes from subtraction, not addition. The founder as the bottleneck. The hardest one to look at. If someone else can do your job, you may be in the wrong chair. Ask your team one question tomorrow: what are you not doing that you would love to do if I got out of your way? Systems and AI integration. How to move fast without breaking what matters. Aggressive and secure are not mutually exclusive. If you are going to use AI in a business that handles sensitive data, do it the right way. Get the resources for this episode at MomentumInsiders.com. Become an insider and get the revenue per employee calculator (Google Sheets and Excel), the benchmarks, and the time and task audit that walk you through all four levers. Next month: what is your business actually worth? Everything in this trilogy feeds into that one calculation. Hosted by Dustin Burleson and Jimmy Nicholas. Get additional resources, scorecards, and working frameworks at WealthyMomentumPodcast.comSubscribe on YouTube: YouTube.com/@WealthyEntrepreneurHQLearn more: WealthyEntrepreneur.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this special takeover episode of Mortgage Marketing Radio, I sit down with my good friend Jennifer Butcher, a 25+ year mortgage industry veteran and host of the She Talks Money podcast, to discuss one of my favorite topics: outbound prospecting through social media.Jennifer shares how she went from consistently creating content without seeing a measurable return on investment to building a prospecting system that filled her calendar with meaningful meetings, podcast opportunities, strategic partnerships, and referral relationships—all by making one intentional connection each day.One of my favorite parts of our conversation is hearing Jennifer break down the results from completing the Drivers & Levers 30-Day Challenge. We discuss why most professionals are focused on generating leads instead of creating opportunities, how personalized messaging dramatically increases conversion rates, and why relationships—not viral content—are still the greatest driver of business growth.We also dive into the importance of identifying your ideal audience, creating content that builds trust instead of chasing views, and how AI can help support your content strategy without replacing authentic human connection.If you're a loan officer, real estate professional, entrepreneur, or salesperson looking for a more intentional and sustainable approach to prospecting, this episode is packed with practical strategies you can implement immediately.Connect with JenniferInstagram: @jenniferbutcherofficialPodcast: She Talks MoneyConnect with Michelle:Website: https://bermanmediapd.com/Instagram: @BermanMediaSocialYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BermanMediaPDNeed a Dynamic Speaker for an Event or Group? Duh...Me!Email: Michelle@bermanmediapd.com

Tim Billings, Senior Partner at Quad-C, joins Sean Mooney to discuss how the firm evaluates founder-led businesses and partners with "mountain climber" CEOs who want more than capital. He breaks down the traits Quad-C looks for, including superior service, sticky customers, pricing power, multiple growth levers, and leadership teams ready to scale. Tim also explains how value creation comes to life through sales and marketing, executive talent, finance and IT support, disciplined M&A, and thoughtful AI adoption. For private equity leaders and CEOs building toward the next peak, this conversation is worth the climb—hit play. Episode Highlights 2:00 - Growing up in Northern Virginia, working early jobs, and discovering finance 3:16 - Learning to think like an investor through banking and underwriting committees 9:38 - What Quad-C looks for in founder-led business services companies 11:56 - Why "mountain climber" CEOs are critical to private equity value creation 16:43 - Quad-C's owner mindset and hands-on approach to scaling portfolio companies 21:34 - Sales, marketing, talent, and M&A as core growth levers 30:15 - Tim's advice to his younger self: choose great people and take off the blinders For more on Quad-C, go to https://www.quadc.com/ For information on Timothy Billings, go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothy-billings-67549058/

A local news publisher with no paid paywall is still pulling reader revenue, and it's working.In this episode, Pete and Tyler break down an incognito digital-only publisher (about 60k monthly visitors, per Similar Web) running a model that ignores the usual playbook. There's no hard wall on the content. Everything stays free to read after a generous registration step, and the paid upgrades come from community perks instead of locked articles.If you've been nervous that putting up any kind of wall will tank your traffic, this one's a useful counter-example. It shows how to capture emails, build confidence with a wall, and turn free registered readers into paying members.Key TakeawaysThe generous registration wall. Readers get 3 free articles off the street. On the 4th view, a free registration wall unlocks unlimited access. That setup is hitting a 5.7% conversion rate against wall views and brought in 2,200+ registered readers in about 3 months, which Tyler says is far beyond what their old sidebar email widget ever did. The plan is to tighten the wall to two or one free article over time, and Tyler thinks conversion could roughly double when they do.Move commenting off Facebook. Tyler's take: turn off comments on your Facebook page and pull the conversation back to your own site. Gating comments behind registration (or paid membership) keeps the discussion clean and easy to moderate, since people with their name and payment details attached tend to behave. You also keep the eyeballs on your site instead of handing them to social.Levers for paid upgrades beyond content. Since articles are free after registering, paid upgrades run on membership perks: on-site commenting, an ad-free experience, a physical welcome gift (a hat or bag), discounted tickets to events held a few times a year, and a subscriber-only newsletter. Paid subscribers can also email questions directly to the editorial staff.The pay-what-you-can option. Below the main pricing cards sits a small donation option for readers who want to support local journalism but won't commit to full-price membership. Tyler says a measurable number of people take it, spending $5 to $9 who'd otherwise have spent nothing.The text-only editorial newsletter. No images, no standard teasers. It reads like a personal note from the editor, with article links woven into the writing and a support CTA at the bottom. Pete also flags the reply-to-the-editor angle: when readers actually hit reply, Gmail reads that engagement as a quality signal and is less likely to bury your newsletter.Learn more about our paywall strategies: https://leakypaywall.com/ 

In this episode of Ask George, Dr. George Hariri shatters the industry myth that achieving more than 10% same-store growth is impossible. For the modern dentist, transitioning from an exhausted clinician to a strategic CEO requires executing targeted dental growth strategies. Rather than forcing generalized systems onto your team, true leadership means diagnosing your clinic's unique bottlenecks. To scale efficiently, stop treating every operational issue equally and focus your administrative time on the constraints that generate massive dental practice profitability.This episode serves as your survival guide for mastering dental practice management. George reveals the four operational levers that guarantee sustainable dental practice growth:- Patient Flow: Implement the Retain, Open, Fill method. Lock the back door by mastering hygiene reappointment rates, then open new columns.- Case Acceptance: Empower your staff to co-diagnose. When the team leads patient education, doctor production becomes completely predictable.- Consistency: Close the performance gap between your best and worst clinical team members to instantly elevate the practice floor.- Efficiency: Play "Whac-A-Mole" with your metrics. Identify massive operational leaks, like a high missed call rate, and resolve them immediately.Elite dental business strategies require you to leverage your time. If you only spend a few hours a week working on the business, you must direct that energy toward your weakest links. Customizing your dental growth strategies to target these precise inefficiencies guarantees predictable expansion year after year.Ready to take the next step in your dental practice journey? Visit https://sharedpractices.com to learn more about our Buyer Representation and Coaching services, designed to help dentists buy, grow, and optimize profitable practices. You can also use our Free Look to evaluate dental practice opportunities with real data before making a decision. For daily Dental Moneyball insights, strategy tips, and updates, follow us across our social channels.

The episode where Klieg gets his just desserts. Can the Cyber Controller escape Jamie's knot work? In this podcast, we behave unreasonably as a cult. This episode was recorded on 30 May 2026. Email us at thedoctorswatcher@gmail.com. I guess people listen to podcasts on YouTube now? Follow us on Tumblr at the-doctors-watcher. I finally made us a Bluesky account. Check out Circuit 23's music at http://soundcloud.com/circuit23 and email him at circuit.23@gmail.com. Listen to his album “Mens Vermis” at https://circuit23.bandcamp.com/album/mens-vermis. The font “Doctor Who” (https://www.dafont.com/doctor-who.font) by “JJE990” is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/).

Read the full transcript here. Why is so much self-help useless, and why is some of it genuinely life-changing? What separates a powerful psychological technique from vague advice? Why is “love yourself” often less useful than a concrete sequence of actions? How can insight into the causes of suffering become a path to change rather than just an explanation? When does understanding the past help, and when does it distract from the controllable patterns happening now? Why can a simple realization about approval-seeking, avoidance, or fear reorganize a person's life? What does exposure therapy reveal about the gap between what the anxious mind predicts and what reality actually delivers? Why is the stretch zone so important for change? How do thoughts, attention, speech, and the body become the real machinery of self-improvement? And what would it mean to build a toolkit around what people can actually control? Links: Jeremy's Website Jeremy and Spencer's Book: The 12 Levers Dr. Jeremy Stevenson works as a clinical psychologist at Adelaide Psychology and Co., and as a researcher at Spark Wave. Staff Spencer Greenberg — Host + Director Ryan Kessler — Producer + Technical Lead WeAmplify — Transcriptionists Igor Scaldini — Marketing Consultant Music Broke for Free Josh Woodward Lee Rosevere Quiet Music for Tiny Robots wowamusic zapsplat.com Affiliates Clearer Thinking GuidedTrack Mind Ease Positly UpLift [Read more]

What if healing wasn't random? What if the body was designed with intelligence, order, rhythm, and frequency built into it? In this powerful philosophical episode of the MoChihChu Podcast, Dr. Fred Schofield unpacks "The 7 Levers" a deep dive into chiropractic philosophy, nervous system communication, spinal alignment, frequency, tone, healing, self-regulation, and the true purpose of the adjustment. This isn't surface-level chiropractic talk. This episode bridges ancient principles, modern nervous system science, innate intelligence, spinal biomechanics, breathwork, energy, heart rate variability, posture, clinical certainty, and the foundational laws that govern healing and human performance. Dr. Fred explores: The neurological connection between the brainstem and body Chiropractic adjustments and frequency restoration The meaning of subluxation and nervous system interference Why structure influences function How stress, cortisol, and poor tone affect healing The role of posture, breathing, movement, and spinal molding Heart rate, vitality, and nervous system adaptability Clinical certainty and patient communication Self-healing, autopoiesis, and innate intelligence Why consistency and discipline create long-term transformation From Palmer philosophy and upper cervical concepts to practical patient care and personal development, this episode is packed with searchable, thought-provoking conversations around chiropractic healing, wellness, nervous system regulation, holistic health, and peak performance. If you're a chiropractor, chiropractic student, wellness practitioner, or someone passionate about health, healing, energy, mindset, and the power of the human body… this episode will challenge the way you think about healing itself. "You are self-organizing. You are self-regulating. You are self-restoring." - Dr. Fred Schofield   Subscribe, share, and step deeper into the philosophy, science, and art of chiropractic.

Shownotes - https://www.nerdnest.tv/podcast/episode-151

How much cash is hiding in your business? See if you qualify for a Free Financial Health Check Financial Intelligence Toolkit Most specialty contractors know cash flow is important. What they do not know is what actually controls it.In this episode Steve walks through the four levers that determine whether a contracting business has cash or not. They are not complicated, but if you do not know what they are, you cannot pull them. And if you are busy and still broke, at least one of them is working against you right now._______________________________________Disclaimer:The views expressed here are those of the individual Coltivar Group, LLC (“Coltivar”) personnel quoted and are not the views of Coltivar or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, Coltivar has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation.This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendations. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. Please see https://www.coltivar.com/privacy-policy-and-terms-of-use for additional important information.LinkedIn | YouTube coltivar.com

In this episode, Josh interviews Norm Lanier, CEO of a long-running Amazon private label business. Norm discusses his journey from side hustles to full-time e-commerce, the challenges of increased competition and inventory management, and insights gained from Josh's business strategy audit. Key takeaways include focusing on the most profitable products, increasing strategic ad spend, and shifting from “base hit” to “home run” products. The conversation highlights the importance of data-driven decision-making and adapting business strategies to sustain growth and profitability in a rapidly evolving e-commerce landscape.Chapters:Introduction & Guest Background (00:00:00)Josh introduces Norm Lanier, outlines his Amazon business experience, and sets up the episode's focus on the business audit.Norm's E-commerce Journey (00:00:59)Norm shares how he started in e-commerce, his transition from HP, and his experience across multiple marketplaces.Challenges in E-commerce (00:02:24)Norm discusses recent challenges: increased competition, economic downturn, and feeling out of touch with business metrics.Importance of Data & Inventory Control (00:03:15)Norm explains the need for granular dashboards, product-level profitability, and efforts to clean up catalog and manage inventory.Purpose of the Strategy Audit (00:04:15)Norm describes his motivation for the audit: getting an expert's perspective and actionable insights beyond what accountants provide.Key Audit Takeaways: Advertising & Levers (00:05:28)Norm highlights the realization that increasing advertising spend is a major growth lever, a unique insight from the audit.Profitability & SKU Management (00:06:00)Josh and Norm discuss the struggle with profit margins, managing 7000 SKUs, and the need to focus on high-value activities.Mindset Shift: From Base Hits to Home Runs (00:07:28)Norm reflects on shifting from launching many small products to focusing on bigger opportunities that can significantly grow the business.Action Items & 80/20 Focus (00:10:02)Josh summarizes three action items: prioritizing high-impact levers, simplifying by focusing on top-performing products, and strategic PPC investment.Keyword Strategy for PPC (00:13:19)Norm and Josh discuss the importance of identifying and categorizing keywords before increasing PPC spend for maximum impact.Audit Value & Closing Thoughts (00:14:05)Norm shares the value of the audit, the benefit of an expert's perspective, and appreciation for the insights received.Wrap-up & Future Outlook (00:15:04)Josh and Norm conclude, expressing interest in a follow-up episode to track progress and encouraging listeners to seek similar audits.Links and Mentions:E-commerce Platforms  "Amazon": "00:01:06"  "Shopify": "00:01:06"  "Etsy": "00:01:06"  Business Tools and Evaluation  "Dashboards and Tools for Business Evaluation": "00:03:15"  "Comprehensive Business Strategy Audit": "00:00:00"  Marketing and PPC  "PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Management": "00:10:02"  "Keyword Strategy for PPC": "00:13:19"  Business Strategy and Mindset  "Mindset Shift for Entrepreneurs": "00:09:02"  "Identifying Levers for Business Impact": "00:11:03"  "20/80 Rule (Pareto Principle)": "00:12:16"  "Simplifying Business by Focusing on Top Products": "00:12:16"Transcript:Josh 00:00:00  Today I am speaking with Norm Lanier. He is the CEO of his own Amazon private label business that he's been running for over a decade now, and he has lots of experience. In fact, Norm is one of the lucky winners of my comprehensive business strategy audit sessions. And so today, I'm super excited that we're going to be diving into the conversation, the audit that we just performed on Norm's business, and he's going to be sharing his takeaways, the insights that he's gleaned. he is already doing millions of dollars in business, but he has aspirations to continue to grow his business and to hopefully one day be able to exit that business. And today, that's the conversation that we had and we talked about. So, Norm, with that introduction, I want you to kind of give us a quick intro about yourself, how you got started into the e-comm world and what you've been doing over the last decade.Norm 00:00:59  Yeah. Thanks, Josh. I appreciate the opportunity to talk with you and your listeners also.Norm 00:01:06  I've been doing, First. e-com business. I kind of, came in the back door and started that in 2004. I started building some side hustles while I was an employee at at HP. I got to the point where I was making more of my side hustles than my real job. So for my 50th anniversary, I 50th birthday, I turned in my resignation. And I've been doing Amazon and Shopify, Etsy, a lot of different marketplaces since then full time. And that's kind of where I'm at today.Josh 00:01:44  I love it, and Norm and I dance in the same space. Sometimes we might be considered competitors, but there's such a big marketplace out there that we were able to, you know, really kind of lift up, open the hood today and really dive into each other's businesses. He was able to ask me a lot of questions, and hopefully I was able to share some valuable insights with you, Norm. And that's what we'll talk about. Norm, we first started off by talking about, you know, what is your overall goal in in your business.Josh 00:02:15  Right. And what are the biggest obstacles that you're facing. So why don't you go ahead and kind of reiterate what we started our conversation off with.Norm 00:02:24  Yeah. So, you know, just taking a look, you know, I think I'm fall into the same category as most people are selling in the e-commerce space right now, dealing with more competition. things are constantly moving. you know, the economy is down to a degree. So I think in our space, we're, we're seeing, you know, some pullback on, on spend over the last couple of years. So that's created challenges, right. And you know, as we as we mentioned, I've been doing this for a long time, and I really had gotten to the point where, a couple of years ago and stuff. I really felt like I was out of touch that before. It was pretty easy for me. I really felt like I had it dialed in, and over the past few years, it really felt like I was kind of losing control.Norm 00:03:15  And a lot of that had to do with not having the proper dashboards and tools to be able to evaluate kind of where we're at on a very granular level. Right. Because it's one thing to see your big number and your paychecks and all of those things come in on a monthly basis. But, you know, on a product level, after shipping fees and advertising and all of those refunds and so forth, what is each product actually generating as far as income and what is really driving bottom line growth? And once I got the proper tools in place, really kind of opened my eyes that a lot of products that we had, it's like, why am I even bothering with this when it's all said and done? I'm not making any money. It's certainly not worth the effort on this. So we've really have gone in and cleaned up our catalog and eliminated a lot of stuff. A lot of exce...

228: On this episode, Shadow Systems goes from private equity owned to father and son owned, Derya breaks out some new Lever guns, Beretta brings a new update to their pistol line with the new 94X Performance and a whole lot more! Also have our friend Eric Kamps on to talk about his upcoming Level 2, The Brew City Open! Sign up below and come out and have a great time in Southeastern Wisconsin! Sign up here - https://practiscore.com/brew-city-open-2026/register Check Out Our Partners & Affiliates For The Best Deals On Gear:

In this talk at AppsFler MAMA SF 2026, Steve P. Young breaks down the latest app monetization strategies that are actually working in 2026, including onboarding paywalls, paid intro offers, reverse trials, hard paywalls, discount pricing psychology, and subscription optimization.Drawing from real app case studies and experiments, Steve shares actionable tactics that have helped apps dramatically increase trial activations, trial-to-paid conversion rates, retention, and overall revenue.If you're building a subscription app, SaaS app, AI app, or mobile startup, this session is packed with practical insights you can implement immediately.You'll Learn:✅ Why your paywall should be inside onboarding✅ The “3 Screen Paywall” strategy is increasing trials by 56%+✅ Paid intro offers vs free trials✅ Reverse trials that boosted conversions 10X✅ Discount pricing psychology that increases revenue✅ Real monetization experiments from top appsWhether you're focused on ASO, user acquisition, subscriptions, retention, or app growth, these monetization insights can help you scale faster.

228: On this episode, Shadow Systems goes from private equity owned to father and son owned, Derya breaks out some new Lever guns, Beretta brings a new update to their pistol line with the new 94X Performance and a whole lot more!Also have our friend Eric Kamps on to talk about his upcoming Level 2, The Brew City Open! Sign up below and come out and have a great time in Southeastern Wisconsin!Sign up here - https://practiscore.com/brew-city-open-2026/register Check Out Our Partners & Affiliates For The Best Deals On Gear:

Performance marketers are running out of levers — and the one most teams haven't pulled yet is signal. In this episode, we speak with Shumel Lais , Founder of Day30, about signal engineering and why it may be the most important skill in performance marketing right now. Shumel explains what signal engineering actually is, how prediction models use behavioural data to identify high-value users before they ever convert, and why synthetic events — goals you engineer rather than observe — help ad platforms like Meta find better users faster. He also shares how subscription apps have achieved up to 50% reductions in CAC, and why, with everything else becoming automated, signal is now one of only two levers performance marketers still control. If you work in user acquisition or subscription growth, this is a must-listen. Today's topics include: What signal engineering is — and how it differs from simply tracking conversion events How prediction models use behavioural data to score users by conversion probability Synthetic events — engineering goals that don't yet exist to give ad platforms a sharper target Why subscription apps generate the behavioural data depth that makes signal engineering work The three components of an effective signal: volume, velocity, and precision Why performance marketers are down to just two levers — creative and signal Links and Resources: Shumel Lais on LinkedIn Day30 Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry Quotes from Shumel Lais “The concept of signal engineering is to see how we can manipulate that event to give the ad platforms a stronger correlation to the business value that you're after." "A synthetic event is, ultimately, when we're creating an event that doesn't actually exist. These are not things that have actually occurred — but based on the data we take in, we can build this from scratch." "When I think of performance marketing now, everything's become very algorithmic and very black box. There's less and less levers available for marketers to pull. I think there's only really two levers left — one is creative, and the second lever is signal." Host Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

What would happen if you woke up tomorrow and were suddenly taxed an extra 33% on every dollar of profit your business produced? In this rerun episode, I break down why that scenario isn't far off from what many founders are already doing, simply by failing to optimize their pricing, overhead, and after-tax income. Listen in as I walk through the three profit levers that matter most, why they drive more impact than almost anything else you can do, and how they can meaningfully increase your net income without hiring more people or scaling harder. You'll hear real examples from the eCommerceFuel community, data from the Trends Report, and practical steps you can take right now to strengthen your margins, streamline your operations, and dramatically improve your after-tax results. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://tinyurl.com/z984zhyt  Interested in our Private Community for 7-Figure Store Owners?  Learn more here.  

Your next dollar is not hiding in a new ad campaign. It is hiding inside the business you already built. In this episode, Jimmy Nicholas and Dr. Dustin Burleson pick up where Episode 65 left off. Once you have decided what stays in your business based on principle, the next question is how to make what stays more efficient. The answer: 15 to 30 percent of additional revenue is usually already there, with no new customer required. They walk through five profit levers you can pull this month. LEVER 1 — Database Reactivation Rekindling a relationship costs a fraction of buying a new one. A short, personal "are you still interested" message can restart conversations that ad spend cannot touch. Dustin shares why customers reactivate as far out as 24 months, a pattern visible in public filings from a large direct-to-consumer brand, and why "they are not coming back" is almost always an excuse. The deeper point: reactivated buyers often want to buy differently, so listen to what they are actually asking for. LEVER 2 — Missed Calls and Speed to Lead Almost no one leaves a voicemail anymore, so a missed call is usually a lost sale. The hosts cover AI receptionists, instant text-back, and after-hours coverage, with client examples discussed in the episode including a multi-location group that recovered tens of thousands in a single month from previously ignored missed calls. The principle stays simple: answer the phone, and answer it like a human whenever you can. LEVER 3 — No-Shows and Schedule Gaps You often do not have a lead problem. You have a scheduling problem. Dustin explains how opening hours competitors do not offer, and staggering the team, turned slow days into the busiest ones. Jimmy contrasts that with a real customer experience of a gate coming down at lunch, and how availability alone can win the business. LEVER 4 — Pricing and Case Acceptance Competing on price alone is fragile. Offering good, better, and best tiers reveals price elasticity you did not know you had. The hosts also cover how AI can audit billing and coding to surface revenue that was being left on the table. LEVER 5 — Referral Systems People do not refer good-enough service. Give them an experience worth talking about, and know exactly who your referral sources are. The episode covers why most referrals go untracked, and what changes the moment you start tracking them. The throughline: AI now does in minutes what used to take data scientists and months. The operators who win ask a better question of the customers they already have. Pick one lever. Whichever one makes you lose a little sleep is probably the one to start with. RESOURCES Get the tools referenced in this episode at MomentumInsiders.com: the Hidden Profit Finder and the 5-Word Text Template. Complimentary. Log in and they are waiting for you. COMING NEXT EP 67: Your Team Is the Bottleneck. Why headcount is not the same as capacity, and the one number that tells you which one you actually have. First Friday of next month. ABOUT THE SHOW The Wealthy Momentum Podcast is a monthly first-Friday show where Jimmy Nicholas and Dr. Dustin Burleson go deep on one topic per episode for practice owners and service business operators, with tactical patterns you can implement before the next episode drops. New episodes the first Friday of every month.   To your momentum, Jimmy and Dustin. Get additional resources, scorecards, and working frameworks at WealthyMomentumPodcast.comSubscribe on YouTube: YouTube.com/@WealthyEntrepreneurHQLearn more: WealthyEntrepreneur.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Your nervous system has a finite capacity. When it's full, everything spills over — the reactivity, the exhaustion, the overwhelm that shows up no matter how organized your life looks on paper.There are two main reasons this keeps happening. And until you see both of them clearly, you'll keep managing the symptoms instead of changing the situation.In this episode, I'm breaking down the two levers that actually control your overwhelm — the faucet (everything flooding into your system) and the drain (your blocked ability to release and recover) — and why all the planning, scheduling, and discipline in the world can't fix what is fundamentally a nervous system problem. This isn't another productivity conversation. It's the one that changes how you think about all the others.The Capacity Audit is happening TOMORROW — Wednesday, June 3rd. It's free, it's live, and it's specifically designed to show you where your capacity is holding strong and where it's quietly costing you the most. You'll leave knowing exactly which area is your highest-leverage move — and with tools to start working on it.  Register at https://michellegrosser.com/audit.What you'll learn:The two root causes of capacity overload — and why most women are dealing with both at the same timeWhy optimization, better systems, and tighter routines only solve part of the problem (and which part they miss entirely)The difference between capacity constrictors and capacity expanders — and how to start identifying yours-->>> Register for The Capacity Audit free live workshop June 3rd 

https://youtu.be/gS7aHfIiXjQ Preetha Pulusani, CEO of DeepTarget, is passionate about helping people realize their potential and leveraging technology to create meaningful business growth. After spending 25 years in corporate America and learning hard lessons from an early entrepreneurial failure, Preetha built DeepTarget into a bootstrapped fintech growth company that helps banks and credit unions acquire, engage, cross-sell, and retain account holders through advanced data analytics and intelligent marketing. In this conversation, Preetha shares the DeepTarget Bootstrap Framework, a leadership and innovation model built around five principles: Combine Pros with Fresh Graduates, Think Big but Start Small, Be Agile with a Flat Structure, Fail Quickly, and Keep a Tight Customer Feedback Loop. She explains how blending experienced professionals with emerging talent creates powerful teams, why rapid experimentation outperforms large-scale product launches, and how customer feedback should guide innovation. Preetha also discusses using data to drive growth, selling outcomes instead of technology, and building a successful SaaS company without outside funding. — Pull 5 Levers to Bootstrap Your Firm with Preetha Pulusani  Good day. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint, and my guest today is Preetha Pulusani, the CEO of DeepTarget, a company that helps hundreds of financial institutions increase loan demand, promote product adoption, and support intelligent marketing through advanced data mining and analytics. Preetha, welcome to the show.  Thank you, Steve. Thank you for having me. Thank you for inviting me. I’m looking forward to it.  Yeah. You have a very interesting business and very interesting profile, so I can’t wait to jump in. But let me ask you my favorite question. What is your personal ‘Why’, and how are you manifesting it in your business?  I guess you could say that my personal ‘Why’ has evolved over several years. I spent 25 years in corporate America, and that was the best business education I could have ever received. My first failure as an entrepreneur, though, added to that significantly, and that was right before I started DeepTarget. Luckily, it was a quick failure, but that doesn’t mean it was not a difficult one. And in every way, the lessons learned have come in handy today. So I believe that I’m in my final chapter of my career, so I can speak from years of experience. And my personal ‘Why’ is—it’s always been about people for me. I’ve never believed in the lone genius.  I believe that every person has some spark of genius in a different way. And I have always been inspired by pulling out that spark and weaving a tapestry of people.Share on X And that happened even in my job in corporate America, but it happens even more with my team today as an entrepreneur at DeepTarget. So it’s about empowering people to use that spark rather than focusing on something that they may not be as good at. It’s pulling out that strength and making it the collective strength of a solution, of how we serve customers, and of the business itself. Does that make sense?  Oh, yeah. This is great. I love that. My experience is that nearly none of the companies I talk to—or basically none of them, literally none of them—capitalize on the maximum talent of their team. Because it’s impossible to maximize it completely, but you can work on it, and that is wonderful.  Yeah.  So do you have a process for how you do that? Is there a mental process? Is it just an awareness? Is it a curiosity? Is it a natural thing that you do, or do you actually have a way of doing this?  So I have found that I think I read people. I think I’m intuitive in that way. And so I see myself as being the orchestrator of whatever it is, whether I’m working on today’s problem or whether I’m working on the big vision. I don’t know that it’s a process so much, but I have used it over and over again. It’s become a very natural thing for me.  So you talk about the big vision. What is that big vision?  So as a company, my focus is on making our clients successful. What that means is helping them grow their financial institutions.Share on X We work with credit unions and banks, and it’s all about growth. And we use innovation to leverage that growth for them. How do you acquire new account holders? How do you cross-sell to them? How do you communicate with them? How do you retain them? I’m a techie at heart, so it’s been about how do I leverage data? How do I leverage—today, of course—AI, kind of a combination of data and AI, to make sure that they are able to see the growth they need for their financial institutions? And that’s kind of become the mission that we have adopted for the company.  Yeah. I noticed that on your website you have this map of, I think, seven or eight different ways that you’re driving adoption and contact with people and—  It’s highly data-driven. It’s not wishy-washy. We’ve evolved from being a marketing company to a growth company. And when you take anything that’s data-driven into marketing, yeah, it’s something that people like to do. But what we like to do is use the technology to get to the human—to get to the individual. So we are helping our credit unions and banks reach individuals, understand each account holder, and understand what their financial needs are. And the only way you can do that at scale is by using technology and data. So we’ve built a platform that enables them to do that. That’s why the front end is all data, right? We can accept as much data as they want to give us so that we can do the right things to help them grow and engage their account holders.  Yeah. I like that you’re very techy, as you say—techy and data-driven. So I wonder, what is your mental model when you think about the end customers of your financial institution clients? What’s your mental model for how you innovate this process? So what are the major elements? If you had to synthesize it down to maybe three to five elements—your levers that you can pull—what are those?  Great question. So I’m going to start with the people because, for me, everything revolves around people. What I’ve been able to do is combine very seasoned pros with fresh graduates from local universities, and that has been a potent combination. Okay? That’s number one. Whether I’m talking about development, customer success, or sales, that’s been the combination that has worked for me. And as a bootstrapper, that has also helped me financially. You have a very seasoned pro that I’ve worked with for years, and you know exactly what their strengths are.  And then you put some fresh graduates under them. I’m telling you, there’s nothing better. That combination is second to none. The second thing is, I believe in thinking big, but starting small and scaling quickly. I learned that over time. There was a time when we used to have the big-bang theory of creating products.Share on X We have moved so far away from that. So think big, start small, and be agile. And as a small company, that’s a big advantage for me. We have a very flat structure. And so we’re able to have the agility we need to move markets, frankly. If you’re going to fail, fail quickly.  Have a tight customer feedback loop. And if something isn’t going to work for your customer, just abandon it. Abandon it quickly. I can’t say, in all honesty, that I’ve done that every time, but it’s always on my mind: “Should we really even pursue this?” I know we’ve had projects that we thought would be very successful, but they weren’t. But when you’ve only made a small investment, it’s easier to set it aside. “Okay, it’s not working. This is not what we need to do. Let’s move on.”  Yeah, I love that. Can you give an example where you invested in a process and really believed in it, and it turned out not to work, and then you had to pivot from it?  So the way we help banks and credit unions engage and cross-sell to their account holders is primarily through digital banking. We put up very personalized offers using data in the digital banking environment and use that real estate very effectively. It works like a charm. That’s what we do today. We did get a little sidetracked by expanding that into email, and we didn’t see the kind of growth we expected. So we tried to understand that. We did kind of an autopsy. And the difference is that when you log into digital banking, you’re being served something. The difference with email is that you’re pushing something out. It has its uses, for sure, but the particular aspect of what we had done in the product didn’t take off like we expected. So we just said, “Okay, let’s do more of what we can do within the digital banking environment.”  But that works for farming existing customers of the banks, right? Do you also help banks acquire new customers?  Yes. And that’s where email works, by the way. And so does direct mail, and so do digital ads. When you’re cross-selling to existing account holders, you have a lot of information about them. For example, if they rent a home, you would never give them a HELOC offer, right? But on the other hand, what we’re doing for new account acquisition is still using data. We’re looking at who the most profitable customers are that your credit union or bank has, and using that as the model to find more likely customers within a particular radius of their branches. So we are still using data, but in a different way and using different channels to reach them versus digital banking.  That’s fascinating. So what drives growth in your business?  Well, if you had asked me that question 10 years ago, I would have said innovation drives growth. But what we have found and learned over time is that innovation is an engine.Share on X Innovation, in a way, actually causes friction because when you innovate, you’re creating something new. So you first have to go out and educate the market. You have to make them understand that there’s a new way of doing things, and not everybody is open to change.  So if I go talk to a marketing professional and say, “Hey, here’s a new way of doing things. We’re using data.” I put myself in the place of that marketing person who is already constrained by bandwidth, who is already doing so many things, saying, “You’re bringing another new tool for me to learn and use? For what purpose?” While innovation is the engine, what we have learned is not to focus on the innovation, but to focus on the impact. And we do that by really working hard to get into the C-suite. So we are talking to the CEO, the COO, the Chief Digital Officer, or the Chief Technology Officer of these banks and credit unions, helping them understand the outcomes. What is it we do? We acquire new customers. We cross-sell to existing customers. We help you retain them. I receive these direct-mail solicitations from mega banks like Chase and Wells Fargo.  They’re paying me $900, $1,500 to open a checking account. It’s expensive to acquire new accounts. That’s just an example, right? So we are helping you grow through new account acquisition, but we also have a whole playbook for how you retain those new accounts that you acquire. So when you talk at the C-suite level, all of a sudden they’re not seeing a tool. What they’re seeing is an outcome. “How soon can we see results?” is the question we get asked. So we grow through a different way of selling what we do to these institutions.  So people don’t care how you achieve the result. They just want you to talk about the result?  Exactly. Especially the CEO. I mean, they don’t really care. They do care about things like data privacy, and we’ve addressed all of that. We’ve been doing this business for so long that data security is table stakes. But they care less about how you do it and more about why. So we have to talk to the individuals who care about the why rather than the how, although the how plays such a big part in building a business, right? But that’s what we focus on.  That’s behind the wall. That’s your problem, basically.  That’s right. That’s the secret sauce. We used to take great pains to explain the secret sauce at one point in time, but not anymore.  That’s interesting. So why do they listen to you? I mean, why do they believe that you can get these results? Do you show them testimonials, or how do you prove it?  We have over 200 customers now—customer contracts. It’s actually closer to 300. So we have a lot of testimonials and references that we can show them. We also let them know that there are barriers to using software like ours, such as, “Do I need to have somebody operate the software?” No, because part of what we offer is a managed service. We will operate the software for you using your branding and everything else that you have. So we’ve kind of removed all of the barriers. The biggest barrier today is creating awareness in the broader market, because this is a huge market.  And on my bootstrapping budget, I have to make sure people know that such a solution exists. What we find is that once we reach the decision-maker, it’s a fairly straightforward sale. I would say that if I’m constrained by anything when it comes to growth, it’s because I’m a bootstrapper. I watch every penny carefully, and I have built the company funded entirely by revenue. And one of these days that’s not going to be enough. But so far, so good. Yeah. Okay. So basically you create broader awareness of your products. You have all these testimonials and references. When you get in front of these decision-makers, you talk about the outcome and show them the results you can get.  And we have direct sales, right? I mean, we do call on, we have a couple of people. All they do is work the phones, emails, and LinkedIn to get us meetings in front of the right people. You know, also, Steve, in this day and age of everything digital, what we have found with banks and credit unions is that first important meeting with the CEO—we’re finding that doing it in person makes a huge difference. So that’s another thing that we do.  That’s interesting. So does that limit you geographically?  We’re having so much success with that model that it only helps us. More revenue means I can invest more in sales. So we are limited to the United States. We have customers on both coasts, a pretty good map of customers on both coasts, and in the Midwest. And there are some blank spaces, and we’re trying to address those blank spaces.  So you actually have people fly all over the country to meet with CEOs?  Yes. And it’s making a big difference. This is a change that we made not too far back. I would say maybe about 18 months ago or so, and it’s made a big difference for growth.  That is so interesting because after the pandemic, a lot of companies kept doing video sales calls.  As did we. As did we.  As probably you did as well. But the assumption was that there’s no point in traveling. It’s an extra expense and doesn’t make a huge difference. But you’re saying it’s the opposite—that it does.  Yes, it makes a huge difference. You’re talking to the CEO of a bank. Banks still have a more traditional generation of leaders. Even I didn’t believe it when I was first sold on this whole concept, but I’ve become a believer now. That meeting—the CEO not only is in the room with you, but brings in his or her key executives to talk to you. When you’ve made the trip all the way to Sacramento, they’re going to do that, right? So it’s made a difference.  So there’s a reciprocity involved. They see that you’re making the trip. Okay, then we might as well put more into it. And it’s kind of a self-fulfilling process.  And by the way, when you have more people in the room, you get more objections, but you’re able to address those in person. Yeah. Even if you have a video call with the CEO, if the CEO goes and talks to the CTO and brings up the objection, “You really need to worry about these guys and their data security,” we never hear about that. We just hear silence. We don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. So you get that opportunity to address all of that kind of in person. And I think it actually works out more cost-effectively, surprisingly. Yeah, as long as those are resulting in deals.  Yes. So maybe that’s an inside thing, but I’m just wondering, what is the upside of something like that? If you convert one of the CEOs and they start using the system—maybe that’s a business secret—but what is the value of that conversion? Let’s say the 12-month value of that conversion that makes you want to do that trip.  So let me give you an example. We sell annual subscriptions with five-year terms. That’s a big deal, right? And when we sell five-year terms, it can become very significant. So we price based on the asset size of the financial institution because that kind of determines how large they are, how many branches they have, and how many account holders they have. So let’s take an institution that’s, say, a billion dollars. I’m just going to give you some rough numbers, right? For a five-year contract, you’re talking about $300,000 or so.  Okay. That makes sense. It’s definitely worth the trip.  Yes, it’s worth the trip.  Yeah.  The other way to have that personal interaction, which we have found to be very effective, is conferences—focused conferences. Many of these banks and credit unions have state leagues, regional leagues, or certain technology-focused groups that meet. And those are kind of the best venues to do our prospecting.  And then do you sponsor these conferences?  Well, we do. We’re very selective, but we have booths, and in addition to that, we may do some other sponsorships. Yeah.  Yeah. That’s great. So switching gears here, I’m really curious. What is something that you’re actively trying to figure out in your business? So if you had a magic wand and you could wave it, what would you want to fix in the next 12 months?  I’ve kind of told you that I’ve been a bootstrapper, and I’ve been a bootstrapper very intentionally. Because one of the things that I said I would do is that I wouldn’t be so stubborn as to never take any outside capital. But the thing that I wanted to figure out before taking external capital was what would give me a multiplier effect. So if I took a dollar in, how would I be able to multiply that? And I’m getting very close to figuring that out on the sales and marketing side. So if I had more dollars, and if I have a sales formula that I know works—that I’m confident works—then I should be able to take that formula, add those dollars, and simply add salespeople, right, to grow.  Scale it up, yeah.  So that’s kind of been the biggest issue I’ve had for the past, say, five years. But I would say that over the past 12 to 18 months, a lot of that has become clearer to me. And so I think I’m getting close to having that solved—to having that formula where I can say, “Okay, if I put in more dollars, I’m going to get X return.”  Yeah. Some people call this the coin-operated marketing and sales system. You keep dropping the coin and—  Yeah. Yeah. It’s taken me years to figure it out. I spent a lot of my early years at the company building a very robust technology platform because without that, everything else becomes secondary. And then I had this focus on, how do I get sales and marketing? And I’ve tried many things, and they haven’t necessarily worked, right? I’ve built up a customer base by slogging over time, but then you want that formula if you want to throw money at it.  Yeah. And that’s where I think I’m getting closer to getting there.  Yeah. And then marketing media is changing all the time. Different platforms come and go. Then you have different advertising formulas, and they burn out. So it’s actually difficult to stabilize it and make something that’s permanently coin-operated, so to speak. Yeah. And when we say everything is data-driven, it’s not just on the front end that everything is data-driven. We are able to tell the credit union or bank how many products we actually sold. What loans did you sell? How many auto loans? How many mortgages? How many HELOCs? How many credit cards? How many deposit accounts did you open each month that were influenced by our campaigns? We’re able to go back and tell them that. And what are the new balances you generated as a result of that? So it’s not about impressions and clicks. On the back end, we actually give them very deep data analytics so they can see, “This is the revenue I generated last month, and these are the new balances I generated last month.” And so that makes a difference, too.  Yeah. I saw on your website that many customers get a 500% ROI on their investment.  Yeah. Which only says that I’m charging them too little.  Yeah. Yeah.  No, but I mean, if you look at the balances and how they measure, we’re almost afraid to put the actual numbers out there. But we show them a growth grid that shows, month by month, here’s what you made using these campaigns. We can even show them what happens when they turn off the campaigns and what the impact is.  So in terms of bootstrapping, is that a strategy? Let’s say you figure out your scalable sales formula. Would you then go raise money, or would you still want to bootstrap?  If the revenue that I’m generating can be used toward growth, I won’t have to go raise money. But I won’t be so stubborn and silly that I wouldn’t take outside capital. I get calls all the time from investment bankers and capital firms. In fact, I was talking to one just yesterday, and I said, “I’m probably getting a bit closer to being open to capital. Give me another six months. By the end of the year, I should know.” So yes,  I would raise money if I had that sales formula, if I knew for sure. And I think part of this, Steve, is because I talked about my first failure as an entrepreneur. It was a very quick failure, but it was a hard one because I had taken money from friends and family, and it was used up, and they didn’t get much in return. When I had to shut down that company, I actually gave them shares in this company. I guess I got a bit burned, so I’m more resistant to taking outside capital until I’ve figured out what the solution is. But I think I’m getting very close. You get to a point where it’s silly not to take capital.  Yeah, because someone might copy it. You figure out a formula, and someone might copy it. Then they put more money behind it, they dominate the market, and you lose. Yeah. So that’s the only concern.  Yeah.  Yeah. If there are listeners who hear this and say, “Wow, I’d like to learn more because I’m involved with a financial institution, and we need to improve our sales, get more customers, and upsell more customers,” where can they find out more, and how can they reach you?  So our website has, I think, a wealth of information. So certainly they can go to our website just to learn more about the solution. They can contact us at success@deeptarget.com. That’s probably the easiest way to get a deeper dive into what we do and have that one-on-one meeting. And I think that’s the best way to learn more. Whether you’re interested in going forward or not, that’s the best way to learn.  Yeah. Okay. Well, definitely. I checked out the website, and it’s pretty informative. You get good visuals of what Preetha’s team is doing, and it’s pretty complex, I would say. There’s a lot of nuance to it, so I found it fascinating. So definitely check out deeptarget.com if you’d like to learn more. Preetha is also on LinkedIn, and you can email them at success@deeptarget.com. Any famous last words for the audience? Something that would help an entrepreneur who wants to bootstrap their business? What would you recommend they do?  I think starting a business is no easy feat, and I don’t believe in overnight success. It’s a journey. It’s been one of the most inspiring and interesting journeys, and probably the greatest learning journey, that I’ve been through. So I think you shouldn’t focus just on the end result or overnight success. Instead, come for the journey.  Yeah. You have to love the journey in order to reach the destination, right?  It’s tough, right? Yeah. It can be tough at times, but then you reach a point where it’s just the best thing.  Yeah. Well, that’s great inspiration for the founders listening to this. And if you enjoyed the podcast, then definitely follow us on LinkedIn, subscribe on YouTube, and give us a review on Apple Podcasts. And Preetha, thanks for coming. That was an eye-opening discussion. I don’t recall having many bootstrapper tech companies on the show, so this is definitely a new element for us and a really good perspective. So thanks for coming, and thank you for listening. Important Links: Preetha's LinkedIn Preetha's website Preetha's email: success@deeptarget.com

Todd Caponi is a sales strategist, keynote speaker, author, and advisor passionate about elevating the sales profession through behavioral science and transparency. A three-time author—including The Transparency Sale and The Transparent Sales Leader—Todd helps organizations rethink how they sell, negotiate, and lead by building trust through honesty rather than perfection.Blending his fascination with decision science, sales methodology, and learning theory, Todd works with customer-facing teams to create more confident, frictionless B2B buying experiences. Through speaking, teaching, and advising, he equips leaders and sales professionals with simple, practical frameworks that drive stronger relationships, better outcomes, and long-term growth.SHOW SUMMARYIn this episode of the Selling from the Heart Podcast, Larry Levine and Darrell Amy welcome sales strategist, author, and transparency advocate Todd Caponi to explore why trust should never disappear when negotiations begin.Drawing from his latest book, The Four Levers of Negotiation, Todd challenges traditional negotiation tactics that often turn collaborative sales conversations into adversarial battles. He explains that while sales professionals spend months building credibility and trust, many unknowingly undermine those relationships the moment pricing discussions begin.Todd introduces a practical framework built around four universal business drivers—volume, timing of cash, length of commitment, and timing or predictability of the deal. By helping buyers understand the true factors that influence pricing, sales professionals can negotiate transparently, trade value instead of giving away discounts, and create outcomes that benefit both parties.The conversation dives into behavioral science, decision-making, confidence in pricing, and why transparency consistently outperforms manipulation. Whether you're negotiating enterprise contracts or everyday business agreements, this episode provides a modern, trust-centered approach to creating win-win outcomes while strengthening long-term customer relationships.KEY TAKEAWAYSTransparency creates stronger outcomes in sales, leadership, negotiations, and customer relationships.Many salespeople build trust throughout the sales cycle only to abandon it during negotiation.Every B2B pricing discussion is influenced by four key factors: volume, payment timing, contract length, and deal predictability.Buyers are less likely to push aggressively for discounts when they understand the rationale behind pricing.Negotiation works best when both sides openly collaborate rather than hide information and play games.HIGHLIGHT QUOTESTransparency sells better, leads better, negotiates better, and creates stronger customer advocates than pretending to be perfect.We spend months building trust with our buyers. Why would we risk losing it the moment the negotiation begins?The best negotiations don't feel like battles. They feel like two sides working together to create value.Every pricing conversation is driven by four simple levers: volume, timing of cash, length of commitment, and deal predictability.The minute you give away a concession for free, you diminish its value—and your own.ADDITIONAL RESOURCESExplore the secrets of heart-centered leadership and thriving workplace cultures with Culture from the Heart Podcast! Nominate a visionary CEO at www.culturefromtheheart.com!Listen to Larry Levine's Bestselling Book: Selling in a Post-Trust World! Now available on Audible! Transform your sales approach with insights that matter.  Subscribe to The Selling from the Heart Podcast Youtube Channel! Stay updated with the latest episodes and leadership tips: Selling from the Heart YouTubeGet Your Daily Dose of Inspiration:Click Here for Your Daily Dose

By the time he landed at his current Private Equity-led company, Matt Kreuger had 15 years under his belt building out ecommerce from scratch, growing global operations, and learning what it takes to drive growth across all different routes to the consumer. But as he says, “what was”doesn't mean “what is”. Everything is always changing, and Matt, from his seat as SVP Digital Commerce and Marketplaces at Buffalo Games, is engineering growth with a lean and agile team and processes that are continually refined for today's opportunities, and preparing for tomorrow's. In addition to all the tech and the processes though, he finds more often than not that his secret weapon is empathy.