Podcasts about Partnering

Send us a textOn the Season Seven kickoff of the Stories to Create Podcast, Cornell Bunting sits down with Bryan Blackwell, a longtime Southwest Florida resident who has proudly called Lee County home for over 35 years.Bryan spent more than two decades building and successfully selling a Financial Services practice in Fort Myers, Florida. Community involvement played a major role in that success, as Bryan consistently invested his time, treasure, and talent into local organizations, partnerships, and civic leadership—including running for the Florida State House of Representatives in 2020.A veteran of the United States Marine Corps and the Florida Army National Guard, Bryan has earned multiple honors for his service, including the Navy Commendation Medal.Now embracing his entrepreneurial spirit in a new chapter, Bryan joins the show to share how he's applying a lifetime of experience in business, management, capital, financial strategy, and marketing to the cattle industry. Partnering with family members who bring generations of expertise in beef production, Bryan is helping make healthy, American, pasture-raised beef accessible directly to people's doorsteps.In this episode, Bryan opens up about the lessons learned along the way, the importance of being intentional with time, and how purpose continues to guide his journey forward. Support the showThank you for tuning in with EHAS CLUB - Stories to Create Podcast

Pete Poggi is the founder and CEO of John Galt Insurance Franchising, where he scaled his property and casualty insurance agency from $3 million to $150 million in premiums in under seven years. A seasoned entrepreneur who once helped grow a chain of family salons before jumping into insurance, Pete is on a mission to teach everyday people—many with zero experience—how to build seven- and eight-figure insurance agencies through his proven system. He's also the author of PNC Insurance Accelerator and creator of the Million Dollar Producer program. On this episode we talk about: *  How Pete transitioned from family business to building one of Florida's fastest-growing insurance firms*  The flaws of traditional insurance franchise models and how John Galt flips the script*  Why independent agencies have the upper hand in today's market*  Pete's “relationship-first” business model that fuels 95% of his agency's growth*  How to build recurring income and financial freedom through property and casualty insurance Top 3 Takeaways 1.  The insurance industry offers unmatched recurring revenue potential—once you build your client base, income compounds year after year.2.  Focus on relationships, not transactions. Partnering with mortgage brokers and real estate agents can create a steady referral pipeline.3.  You don't need sales aggression to win in insurance—being genuine, consistent, and coachable drives long-term success. Notable Quotes *  “I don't really know any poor insurance people. Let me check this insurance thing out.”*  “If you follow the system and put in the work, I can almost make anybody successful.”*  “The insurance business is the best-kept secret to financial freedom ever invented.” Connect with Pete Poggi: *  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petepoggi*  Website: https://www.johngaltinsurancefranchising.com*  Training Program: https://www.petepoggi.com*  Learn more: https://www.myjgi.com  Travis Makes Money is made possible by High Level – the All-In-One Sales & Marketing Platform built for agencies, by an agency. Capture leads, nurture them, and close more deals—all from one powerful platform. Get an extended free trial at gohighlevel.com/travis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guests - Jonathan & Oksana PlateroHosted By - Courtney Ortiz and Lesley MealorIn Episode 251 of Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast, professional dancers and educators Jonathan and Oksana Platero share their extensive experience with partnering and lifts. From stints on So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing With The Stars, and Strictly Come Dancing, as well as years of teaching on the convention circuit, these two bring both performer and educator perspectives to the conversation!Topics Include:The responsibilities of both the leader and the follower in partneringHow to help dancers develop trust and confidence in each other for liftsThe most misunderstood parts of lifting and being lifted in danceHelp support our podcast! Join Making The Impact's Platinum Premium Subscription today! Your membership includes:Monthly Q&A episodes released to members onlyPriority to have your questions answered each month on the live Q&A.Ad-free listening for all of Seasons 4 through 7. No sponsored ads!20% off all IDA MerchandiseExclusive bonus content released throughout the yearDiscounted IDA Online CritiqueGroup Zoom check-ins 3x per season with Courtney Ortiz!Your support helps us produce future episodes of Making The Impact for years to come!Making The Impact's Platinum Premium - Sign up now for only $5/month!Follow your Hosts & Guests!Courtney Ortiz - @courtney.ortizLesley Mealor - @miss.lesley.danceJonathan Platero - @jonplaterodudeOksana Platero - @oksanaplateroCheck out our guest's current projects! Blood Love - A Vampire Pop Opera - get tickets for Jonathan and Oksana's new off-Broadway musical running from February 13-March 29!This episode is sponsored by:Check out IDA Affiliated Dance Competition The Artistry Tour!Visit their website to register for a 2026 event!Check out our service: IDA Online Judge's CritiquesSend us a video of your dance and an IDA Judge will critique your routine! You can request a genre-specific specialty judge or add on 10 minutes of additional feedback. 24 hour rush delivery available! Submit your video now! Connect with us! Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast Community Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts! We would love to hear from you! Join our Newsletter for weekly episode releases straight to your inbox! Support the show

Join us on an exciting episode of The Hospitality Mentor Podcast as host Steve Turk dives into the incredible journey of Francesco Balli, co-CEO of Grove Bay Hospitality Group. Discover the unique paths that led Francesco and his partner from being CPAs to successful restaurateurs, the challenges they overcame, and the wisdom they've gathered along the way. This episode is a must listen for anyone interested in the hospitality industry, as Francesco shares insights on building a business, the impact of AI, and the exciting future of their ventures. Special thanks to our sponsor Lodgify for making this episode possible. Don't miss out on this inspiring conversation!00:00 Introduction to the Hospitality Mentor Podcast00:44 Sponsor Spotlight: Lodgify01:38 Guest Introduction: Francesco Bali02:08 Francesco's Early Career and First Job in Hospitality02:28 The Journey from CPA to Hospitality02:51 Family Influence and Entrepreneurial Spirit04:34 The Leap from Ernst and Young to Areas USA15:36 Navigating the Concession World18:40 The Birth of Grove Bay Hospitality Group24:27 Acquiring the Airport Restaurant26:06 Winning the Coconut Grove Contract28:01 Launching Glass and Vine30:37 Partnering with Top Chef Jeremy Ford33:11 Expanding with Stubborn Seed and Stiltsville Fish Bar35:01 Venturing into Airport Concessions41:10 Future Prospects and AI in Hospitality42:57 Advice for Young Entrepreneurs

This episode explores how Drew Haney built wealth through clarity, discipline, and land investing while redefining success, purpose, and fulfillment beyond money, showing why the real work begins after financial freedom arrives.See article: https://www.unitedstatesrealestateinvestor.com/building-wealth-without-illusions-and-finding-purpose-beyond-the-deal-with-drew-haney/(00:00) - Welcome Back and Introducing Drew Haney(00:06) - Drew Checks In From Sunny Los Angeles(00:25) - Drew's Bird's-Eye View of His Land Business(03:47) - Funding Deals as an Equity Partner and Profit Splits(03:47) - Underwriting the Operator Versus Underwriting the Deal(04:57) - Bigger Land Plays and Subdividing Large Acreage(05:41) - Owner Financing and Selling Notes for Cash Now(06:07) - Why Drew Does Not Bank on Appreciation(07:48) - A Personal Property Plan With Three Kitchens and a Future Triplex(08:27) - Off-Market Flips Versus On-Market Value-Add Deals(09:17) - Deal Timelines, Days on Market, and Absorption Reality(12:42) - Land Due Diligence, Fat Spreads, and Limited Comps(15:11) - Desert Land Versus East-of-the-Mississippi Complexity(15:39) - Having Realtors Walk Land as Boots-on-the-Ground Support(15:51) - Why Sellers Accept Discounts and Want the Easy Button(18:28) - Landowners, Time Value, and Why Realtors Avoid Small Land Deals(19:26) - Delinquent Tax Lists as a Simple Way to Start(20:37) - Houses Are Emotional, Land Feels Like a Commodity(22:06) - Drew's Golden Nugget: Networking Creates Referral Income(24:32) - Key Person of Influence and Getting the Best Deals First(26:23) - Partnering to Learn and Start Without Capital(26:56) - Book Recommendation: Key Person of Influence(27:09) - Book Recommendation: How to Get Rich and the Real Cost of Wealth(28:22) - Drew's Podcast: The Other Side of Enough(29:11) - Flow State, Climbing the Mountain, and Loving the Build(31:18) - Always Be Building Something(31:26) - Where to Find Drew Online(32:10) - Wrap-Up, Subscribe, and Final DisclaimerContact Drew Haneyhttps://drew-haney.com/https://www.facebook.com/andrew.haney.94https://www.instagram.com/drewhaney318/https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajhaney/https://www.youtube.com/@theothersideofenoughIf this conversation reminded you that wealth is built through clarity, discipline, and purpose, take that mindset into your next move and keep building something that matters. Visit https://reiagent.com

Have you ever wondered why Moses 6 says so much about Enoch more than Genesis does and what that reveals about the gospel from the very beginning? Dr. Kerry Muhlestein takes a powerful deep dive into Moses 6 exploring how the restored doctrine unlocks record-keeping, priesthood, and covenant family partnership.YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/aYdQvbMX1KUALL EPISODES/SHOW NOTESfollowHIM website: https://www.followHIM.coFREE PDF DOWNLOADS OF followHIM QUOTE BOOKSNew Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastNTBookOld Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastOTBookBook of Mormon: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastBMBook  WEEKLY NEWSLETTER https://tinyurl.com/followHIMnewsletter  SOCIAL MEDIA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followHIMpodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastTIMECODE:00:00 Part 1 - Dr. Kerry Muhlestein1:57 Episode teaser5:29 Bio6:59 Come, Follow Me Manual8:22 Tips for studying the Old Testament10:15 The Scriptures are Real & The Essential Old Testament Companion14:09 Additional tools15:41 Background to the Book of Moses19:25 Adam and Eve and their children23:37 Cain and Abel26:02 Record keeping30:04 Bible translations33:02 Priesthood power36:39 Symbolic or literal?40:05 Patriarchal order46:31 Preachers of righteousness48:20 Bifurcation of the human race51:23 Enoch and seership54:34 The Holy Ghost and seership57:41 The anger of God1:01:22 I'm young and everyone hates me1:04:47 Partnering with Christ1:09:17 High places1:12:25 People listen to Enoch1:17:22 End of Part 1 - Dr. Kerry MuhlesteinThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Cofounder, Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsAmelia Kabwika: Portuguese TranscriptsHeather Barlow: Communications DirectorSydney Smith: Social Media, Graphic Design "Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Most photographers think partnering with charities is just a feel-good move. But what if it's actually your smartest marketing strategy? This episode unpacks how to use charity partnerships to tap into a stream of ideal, trust-filled clients—while doing work that matters. You'll learn: ● How to spot high-converting charity partners (and which to avoid) ● A proven event structure that raises money and books premium clients ● Real student examples of raising $43K+ while building six-figure studios If you're craving clients who see your value before you even pick up your camera, this episode shows you how to find them—through giving back. RESOURCES:  Photography Business Tools to Get Started 37 CLIENTS WHO CAN HIRE YOU TODAY https://info.photographybusinessinstitute.com/37-clients-optin   INSTAGRAM – DM me "Conversation Starters" for some genuine ways to strike up a conversation about your photography business wherever you are. https://www.instagram.com/sarah.petty   FREE COPY: NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLING BOOK FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS www.photographybusinessinstitute.com/freebook    BOUTIQUE BREAKTHROUGH – 8-WEEK WORKSHOP www.photographybusinessinstitute.com/boutiquebreakthrough   FREE FACEBOOK GROUP: Join and get my free mini-class: How I earned $1,500 per client working 16 hours a week by becoming a boutique photographer. https://www.facebook.com/groups/ditchthedigitals    YOUTUBE: Check out my latest how to videos:  https://www.youtube.com/photographybusinessinstitute   LOVE THE SHOW? Subscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/worth-every-penny-joycast/id1513676756

In this episode of Case Studies, Casey Baugh sits down with Kent Alder, former CEO of TTM Technologies, to unpack how a quiet leader from Cache Valley helped build a $7 billion public company. From humble beginnings to orchestrating bold acquisitions and navigating industry chaos, Kent's story is one of resilience, discipline, and vision.Kent reveals the behind-the-scenes playbook that led TTM from a tiny PCB manufacturer to an industry giant. He shares how aligning incentives, focusing on execution over hype, and making countercyclical moves during downturns drove long-term success. You'll hear lessons on navigating private equity partnerships, building strong cultures, and evolving as a leader across decades. This episode is a masterclass in how to lead through market chaos, think long-term, and win as a team.00:00 | Introduction to Kent Alder01:29 | Building TTM: From Roll-Up to $7B Public Company03:19 | Competing in a Tough, Low-Margin Industry04:18 | Early Career: From Finance to Circuit Boards07:26 | Lessons from Early Mentors and Risk-Taking08:26 | Turning Around a Tiny Manufacturer10:29 | Becoming CEO and Strategic Expansion13:46 | Partnering with Private Equity15:04 | Going Public and the Dot-Com Era22:21 | Navigating the Dot-Com Crash26:14 | Acquiring Honeywell Assets in a Crisis29:29 | Acquisitions That Worked: Culture & Fit30:09 | Buying Back Tyco: Integration and Vision32:14 | Incentive Structures and Company Culture34:48 | Strategic Discipline in a Commoditized Market36:18 | Customer Relationships as True Partnerships39:18 | Leadership Through Crisis & Market Cycles43:20 | Personal Growth as a CEO45:56 | Lifelong Learning & Team Development49:39 | Delegation and Building Teams at Scale53:31 | Working the Night Shift: Leading by Example55:52 | Legacy, Succession, and Long-Term Culture59:42 | Sacrifices, Travel, and Company Dedication01:03:19 | Legacy: Impact Over Titles01:06:04 | Marriage, Support Systems & Family Balance01:09:14 | Faith, Values, and Navigating Trade-offs01:12:26 | Advice for Young Entrepreneurs01:13:58 | The Misunderstood Journey of Success Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tyson Singer (Head of Tech & Platforms @ Spotify) joins us to unpack how Spotify is transforming its product development lifecycle across creation, experimentation and maintenance to shift from "localized speed" to "systematic speed." We explore why the industry's current obsession with the "Build It" phase of development is shortsighted, and how Spotify is aggressively deploying AI in the "Think It" (prototyping/strategy) and "Maintain It" (fleet management) phases. Tyson also details the internal tools driving this shift, including AiKA and Honk, and shares why the future of engineering relies on moving from I-shaped specialists to T-shaped generalists. ABOUT TYSON SINGERTyson Singer is the SVP of Technology & Platforms at Spotify, where he leads technology infrastructure, developer experience, cybersecurity, and finance IT. Tyson is the executive behind Spotify's internal developer portal, Backstage, and Spotify's experimentation system, Confidence, which are now both commercially available. He has a background as an engineer, architect, and product lead, and he holds a Master's in Computer Science from Stanford University. Tyson is also an avid outdoor adventurer. This episode is brought to you by Retool!What happens when your team can't keep up with internal tool requests? Teams start building their own, Shadow IT spreads across the org, and six months later you're untangling the mess…Retool gives teams a better way: governed, secure, and no cleanup required.Retool is the leading enterprise AppGen platform, powering how the world's most innovative companies build the tools that run their business. Over 10,000 organizations including Amazon, Stripe, Adobe, Brex, and Orangetheory Fitness use the platform to safely harness AI and their enterprise data to create governed, production-ready apps.Learn more at Retool.com/elc SHOW NOTES:Tyson's 9-year journey @ Spotify: From the "crucible" of hyper-growth to leading Tech & Platforms (3:46)The pivot from "localized speed" to "systematic speed" (7:27)Core principles of Spotify's Platform org: Partnering with customers & "Taking the pain away" (10:37)The "Think it, Build it, Ship it, Tweak it" lifecycle framework & why the industry obsession with "Build It" (coding agents) is missing the bigger picture (14:57)How Spotify is investing in the "Think It" phase: AI prototyping with deep business context (16:49)AiKA (AI Knowledge Assistant): Context engineering for humans and bots (18:47)"Honk": Spotify's internal framework for large-scale automated code changes (22:17)Addressing the decline of code quality and the bottleneck of human PR reviews (25:50)Probabilistic vs. Deterministic code reviews: A new approach to quality checks (29:43)Identifying bottlenecks to company value outside of R&D (Legal, Licensing, etc.) (32:12)Why systems change is fundamentally about people and identity shifts (35:57)Rapid fire questions (38:49) This episode wouldn't have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan's also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Send us a textIn this episode, we sit down with AJ Dummitt, the new Global Missions Promotions Director, to discuss how partnership between North American churches and missionaries fuels the work of Global Missions. AJ Dummitt shares his ministry journey through pastoring, district missions leadership, serving Global Missions, and how his role helps strengthen the connection between the North American churches and the mission field.https://www.globalmissions.com/enroll-as-pim/

In episode 103 of Venture Everywhere, Jenny Fielding, co-founder and managing partner at Everywhere Ventures, talks with Ethan Schwarzbach, co-founder of Flychain, a startup building the financial operating system for small to medium-sized healthcare providers. Ethan shares his journey from investment banking to fintech at Orchard, where insights from Square's merchant processing data inspired Flychain's initial product. He discusses how underwriting healthcare businesses revealed a critical gap in financial infrastructure, leading Flychain to build a specialized platform that replaces QuickBooks and delivers AI-powered financial insights for practices.In this episode, you will hear:Bridging cashflow gaps of healthcare providers.Addressing financial infrastructure crisis in healthcare practices.Leveraging accurate EMR data for AI-driven decision-making.Partnering with healthcare networks to reach underserved practices.Positioning for value-based care and consolidation landscape shifts.Learn more about Ethan Schwarzbach | FlychainLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-schwarzbach-baa09571/Website: https://www.flychain.us/Learn more about Jenny Fielding | Everywhere VenturesLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennyfielding/Website: https://everywhere.vc

Health Calls Season 6, Episode 9 explores how Catholic health care extends beyond hospital walls through parish nurse programs. Host Brian Reardon and Executive Producer Josh Matejka welcome Megan Timm, Regional Director of Community Health for SSM Health in Wisconsin, to discuss a model that has flourished in SSM Health's local communities.Timm explains how parish nurses serve as trusted health resources within parishes and neighborhoods, blending clinical expertise with community connection. These nurses provide screenings, education, and navigation support while addressing social needs and offering spiritual care, embodying the whole-person care that Catholic health systems strive to provide. Megan also shares insights on program impact, recruitment strategies, and the importance of adapting to evolving community needs. This episode underscores collaboration as a cornerstone for improving health outcomes and strengthening ties between faith and care. Health Calls is available on the following podcast streaming platforms:Apple PodcastsSpotifyYouTubeLearn more about The Catholic Health Association of the United States at www.chausa.org.

Partnering with a spirit of complaint is a very serious matter for anyone's mental health and especially, for the life of a person of faith. Choosing to focus on the good in spite of the reality of the hard requires an activation of your hope and a conscious act of the will. But doing so leads to not only peace of mind but also tremendous health benefits. This episode unpacks the detrimental impact of negativity and why it must be uprooted from our spirits if we are to move forward in vitality and hope. For more information on my book Unshakeable: Stories To Anchor You Through Life's Storms as well and how to reach me on social media or read my weekly blog, visit my website at: https://www.opentogracealaska.com/

In this episode of the Kelsi Sheren Perspective, Kelsi passionately discusses the dangers of Canada potentially partnering with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). She expresses her concerns about the implications of such a partnership, drawing parallels to historical authoritarian regimes and emphasizing the need for Canadians to recognize the reality of the CCP's oppressive nature. Kelsi argues that the Canadian government is ignoring the lessons of history and the stark differences between democratic freedoms and the authoritarian practices of China. She urges listeners to educate themselves about the realities of life under the CCP and to take action against the growing influence of communism in Canada.00:00 Introduction and Show Growth02:57 The Dangers of Partnering with China09:00 China's Environmental Hypocrisy12:08 Chinese Interference in Canadian Affairs15:15 The Reality of Trade with Authoritarian Regimes19:36 The Consequences of Complacency - - - - - - - - - - - -One Time Donation! - Paypal - https://paypal.me/brassandunityBuy me a coffee! - https://buymeacoffee.com/kelsisherenLet's connect!Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@thekelsisherenperspectiveInstagram -  https://www.instagram.com/thekelsisherenperspective?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw%3D%3DX: https://x.com/KelsiBurnsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/kelsie_sheren/Substack:  https://substack.com/@kelsisherenTikTok -   https://x.com/KelsiBurnsListen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1O3yiobOjThKHtqyjviy1a?si=6c78bdc2325a43aeSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS - - - - - - - - - - - -MasterPeace - 10% off with code KELSI - MasterPeace.Health/KelsiKetone IQ- 30% off with code KELSI - https://ketone.com/KELSIGood Livin - 20% off with code KELSI - https://www.itsgoodlivin.com/?ref=KELSIBrass & Unity - 20% off with code UNITY  - http://brassandunity.com- - - - - - - - - - - - -CHARITYHeroic Hearts Project - https://www.heroicheartsproject.orgDefenders of Freedom - https://www.defendersoffreedom.usBoot Campaign - https://bootcampaign.org

The AI gap will kill companies.What is it? it's the large divide between AI's crazy impressive capabilities and what most companies are actually using them for. And one of the biggest reasons for the AI gap? Talking. Like... no one understands how to talk about AI because the technology changes faster than Usain Bolt in Beijing. You wanna talk to your AI team about LLMs? PFT. They're running Ralph Wiggum loops in Claude Code and just kinda reading the code before it hits production. Yeah, the divide is WIIIIIDE. So we're gonna tackle it together on the second volume of our Starter Series: AI Without the Jargon: The AI Language Every Business Leader Needs to live by in 2026 -- An Everyday AI Chat with Jordan WilsonNewsletter: Sign up for our free daily newsletterMore on this Episode: Episode PageJoin the discussion on LinkedIn: Thoughts on this? Join the convo on LinkedIn and connect with other AI leaders.Upcoming Episodes: Check out the upcoming Everyday AI Livestream lineupWebsite: YourEverydayAI.comEmail The Show: info@youreverydayai.comConnect with Jordan on LinkedInTopics Covered in This Episode:AI Jargon Barrier for Business LeadersGenerative AI Basics and Lingo BreakdownChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini Model ComparisonUnderstanding Tokens and Context WindowsLarge Language Models: Prompt to OutcomeParameters, Model Power, and Cost ImplicationsRetrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) ExplainedEmbeddings, Vector Databases, and ChunkingAgentic Models vs. Transformer ModelsAI Risks: Hallucinations, Prompt Injection, GuardrailsModel Context Protocol (MCP) and ConnectorsScaffolding for Complex AI WorkflowsAI Success: ROI, Risk, and Implementation StrategiesTimestamps:00:00 "Join Start Here Series Community"03:21 Bridging AI and Business Leaders09:35 Partnering for Generative AI Success12:26 "AI Models Operate Using Tokens"15:41 "Shift to Smaller AI Models"18:56 "Understanding RAG and Its Impact"22:38 "AI Tools Connecting via MCP"24:56 "Minimizing AI Hallucinations Effectively"28:45 "Fast, Careful AI Implementation"30:53 "AI Guide for Business Leaders"Keywords: AI language, AI jargon, artificial intelligence terminology, AI lingo, large language model, generative AI, prompt engineering, context engineering, context window, tokens, tokenization, model architecture, model parameters, neural network connections, Send Everyday AI and Jordan a text message. (We can't reply back unless you leave contact info) Ready for ROI on GenAI? Go to youreverydayai.com/partner 

#749 How do you grow a t-shirt hustle from your parents' basement into a $6 million brand? Today's guest, Tom Rauen, did just that! As the founder of 1-800-Tshirts, Tom shares how he scaled his custom apparel business from a local screen printing startup into a national brand — without relying on paid advertising. Hosted by Brien Gearin, this episode dives into how Tom partnered with his mom as his first employee, figured out when to wear multiple hats versus hire help, and used outside-the-box marketing stunts (like breaking a Guinness World Record) to fuel viral growth. You'll also hear how he uses personalized customer service, branded online stores, and high-quality swag to help small businesses turn merch into a profit center. This is a masterclass in scaling, branding, and customer experience! (Original Air Date - 5/25/25) What we discuss with Tom: + From basement startup to $6M brand + Partnering with his mom early on + Scaling to 42 employees + Navigating hiring and delegation + Acquiring the 1-800-Tshirts brand + Creating branded online stores + Turning merch into a profit center + Prioritizing customer experience + Unique marketing stunts and PR + Competing with big players like 4imprint Thank you, Tom! Check out 1-800-Tshirts at ⁠1800Tshirts.com⁠. Follow Tom on ⁠Facebook⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠YouTube⁠. Watch the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠video podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ of this episode! To get access to our FREE Business Training course go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MillionaireUniversity.com/training⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To get exclusive offers mentioned in this episode and to support the show, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠millionaireuniversity.com/sponsors⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Should dementia really be written into wedding vows—or is that the wrong question altogether? In this thought-provoking conversation, Teepa Snow and Greg explore what care partnering truly means, and why it doesn't always mean providing hands-on care. They also explore the ways that couples can rethink roles, strengths, and shared commitment as life—and brain change—reshapes the relationship. Care partnering isn't just about tasks — it's about relationships, roles, and shared humanity. A Family's Journey Through Dementia — A Play brings these realities to life through storytelling, humor, and honest moments that reflect how couples and families adapt together over time. This DVD invites us to rethink partnership, recognize strengths beyond hands-on care, and explore what commitment can look like as life and brain change evolve.

Mark interviews Tara Cremin, Director of Kobo Writing Life about Kobo, Kobo Plus, and the self-publishing platform Kobo Writing Life (KWL). Prior to the interview, Mark shares a personal update and a word about this episode's sponsor. This episode is sponsored by an affiliate link to Manuscript Report. Use code MARK10 at checkout and save 10% off your own personalized report. In their interview, Mark and Tara talk about: Tara's background and how she got into the reading/writing world and Kobo Kobo's distinct identity as a platform that is exclusively dedicated to READING How Kobo is the 2nd largest seller of eReading devices in the world Kobo releasing 1 to 2 devices a year and the importance of a distraction-free reading experience The Kobo Clara Colour and the Kobo Libra Colour devices The option of connecting your Google Drive and OverDrive (AKA Libby) library account to a Kobo device for seamless reading of your personal content and library books Being able to add different colours to your highlights when making notes on your Kobo Tara's advice for readers who've not yet attempted a "digital reading diet" The "forever reading" option that now exists within the Kobo reading experience The self-publishing platform Kobo Writing Life and how it's designed to making the publishing process as painless as possible What listeners can expect to hear on the Kobo Writing Life Podcast Kobo Writing Life's "worst-kept secret" of the marketing tab/tool A little bit about how Kobo Plus works for authors The growth in revenue of Kobo Plus around the world in the past few years (it's now available in 28 countries) Partnering with a publisher in Portugal to create a subscription service The importance for authors of always thinking about Kobo in a global sense The value that comes with being in front of the most engaged readers And more... After the interview Mark reflects on numerous things about Kobo that authors should consider when thinking about marketing their books (as well as the amazing people who work there)   Links of Interest: Kobo Kobo Writing Life KWL Blog KWL Podcast Manuscript Report (Mark's affiliate link - use MARK10 to save 10%) Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Mark's YouTube channel ElevenLabs (AI Voice Generation - Affiliate link) Mark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup) An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City Only Monsters in the Building Once Bitten (Novella) The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard Merry Christmas! Shitter Was Full!: A Trivia Guide to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation I Think It's A Sign That The Pun Also Rises   Tara Cremin is the Director of Kobo Writing Life (KWL), Kobo's self-publishing platform. Combining her love for books with a decade of indie publishing expertise, she champions independent authors. Tara is focused on making KWL the most intuitive, author-friendly platform, helping authors reach readers globally. Leading a team of book enthusiasts, she also hosts live events featuring authors and industry experts, sparking engaging conversations and is a regular voice on the Kobo Writing Life Podcast.   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Jeff Browning - nicknamed "Bronco Billy" (or simply "Bronco"), is a highly accomplished American ultramarathon runner and endurance coach. He's widely regarded as one of the most successful and consistent ultrarunners, particularly in mountainous and extreme terrain races. Join us for a conversation about Jeff's remarkable 26-year career in ultramarathons, sharing insights into the evolution of coaching and performance in the sport, his deep passion for ultra running, adventure, and storytelling. Jeff discusses the unique camaraderie and connections formed while competing against fellow runners, his take on the Lift. Run. Shoot. experience, footwear choices, training, and more! Follow along: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cameronrhanes  Twitter: https://twitter.com/cameronhanes  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camhanes/  Website: https://www.cameronhanes.com  Follow Jeff: https://www.instagram.com/gobroncobilly/  Timestamps: 00:00:00 – 26 Years of Running Ultra Marathons 00:06:32 – How Coaching Has Evolved & the History of Performance 00:13:05 – A Love for Ultra Running, Adventure, and Storytelling 00:18:12 – An Epic Storm at Hard Rock 00:26:39 – Sharing a Connection While Running with Competitors 00:29:18 – Jeff's Thoughts on the Lift. Run. Shoot. Experience 00:37:08 – Max Jolliffe and Ian Sharman 00:41:07 – Partnering with Sponsors, Marketing, & Branding “Bronco Billy' 00:51:35 – Footwear Sponsors, the Ultimate Running Shoe, & Working with KEEN 01:01:10 – What the Perfect Running Shoe Looks like to Jeff (Fit, Color, Boas, Laces, Etc) 01:06:17 – Making it as a Full Time Pro Runner & Having a Personality 01:14:16 – Diversity in the Sport (Woman Racers and Filmmaking) 01:17:00 – Conversation, Muscle for Longevity, and Mobility Training 01:32:46 – Jeff's Ultra Running Mentors 01:38:26 – Up & Coming Racers: Hans Troyer and Rachel Entrekin 01:40:17 – Creating Iconic Ultra Running Films & the Film “The Chase” 01:50:59 – Giving Back Through Storytelling 01:54:20 – QA: F**k, Marry Kill: Western States, Hard Rock, UTMB 01:56:10 – QA: Is a 50K a Real Ultra Race? 01:58:08 – QA: A Race Against Kilian Korth at Cocodona 01:59:06 – QA: How do you Blend the Dirtbag Mentality with New Science? 02:02:01 – QA: What's Ultra Running's “Free Solo” Film? 02:05:09 – QA: How Can We Make People Who Don't Run Truly get What Running Ultra Marathons Really Is Like? 02:08:23 – Final Thoughts Thank you to our sponsors: LMNT: Visit https://drinklmnt.com/cam for a free sample pack with any purchase Black Rifle Coffee: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/ Use code KEEPHAMMERING for 20% your first order Ketone IQ: https://www.ketone.com/Cam use code CAM for 30% off your first subscription Grizzly Coolers: https://www.grizzlycoolers.com/ use code KEEPHAMMERING for 20% off Montana Knife Company: https://www.montanaknifecompany.com/ Use code CAM for 10% off  MTN OPS Supplements: https://mtnops.com/ Use code KEEPHAMMERING for 20% off

All links and images can be found on CISO Series. Check out this post for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode, co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Jerich Beason, CISO, WM. Their guest is Pam Lindemoen, CSO and vp of strategy, RH-ISAC. In this episode: From loudest to most trusted Letting go of the win Listening over proving Beyond right and wrong Huge thanks to our sponsor, Alteryx Alteryx is a leading AI and data analytics company that powers actionable insights that help organizations drive smarter, faster decisions. Alteryx One helps security, risk, and operations leaders cut hours of manual work to minutes, generate trusted insights at scale, and turn raw data into action faster than ever. Learn more at www.alteryx.com.  

As more nations realize that space is no longer just a scientific domain but a foundation of economic power and national security, a new question is emerging: who will actually build the infrastructure that underpins it? Orbitworks believes the answer lies in sovereign capability: designed locally, manufactured locally, and operated with speed and control.Founded by Hamdullah Mohib, a former national security advisor and diplomat who spent years operating at the highest levels of geopolitics, Orbitworks sits at an unusual intersection of statecraft and space manufacturing. Based in Abu Dhabi, the company is building one of the region's first commercial satellite manufacturing facilities and developing Altair, a native constellation designed to move beyond raw imagery and toward information-driven services for both sovereign and commercial customers.We discuss:How Orbitworks is building a commercial satellite industry from scratch in the UAEThe strategic logic behind flexible architectures over fixed hardwareHow the Middle East is positioning itself as a serious node in the global space economyWhat it takes to build talent, supply chains, and culture in a brand-new space ecosystem • Chapters •00:00 - Intro00:59 - Hamdullah's journey from government and geopolitics to space05:11 - What is Orbitworks?06:25 - Partnerships with Orbitworks08:43 - A joint venture09:40 - Partnering with Loft Orbital17:09 - Differences that founders experience in the Middle East21:26 - Altair constellation23:29 - Dual use commercial and government26:34 - Building a facility in KEZAD33:02 - Cultivating and nurturing talent34:30 - How the Middle East is thinking about space40:21 - Priorities of sovereign wealth funds42:33 - Lessons in leadership47:08 - Fundraising plans/goals48:47 - Hamdullah's vision for space in the Middle East50:46 - What excites Hamdullah the most about the space industry? • Show notes •Orbitwork's website —https://www.orbitworks.space/Mo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislamPayload's socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspaceIgnition's socials — https://twitter.com/ignitionnuclear / https://www.linkedin.com/company/ignition-nuclear/Tectonic's socials  — https://twitter.com/tectonicdefense / https://www.linkedin.com/company/tectonicdefense/Valley of Depth archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/ • About us •Valley of Depth is a podcast about the technologies that matter — and the people building them. Brought to you by Arkaea Media, the team behind Payload (space), Ignition (nuclear energy), and Tectonic (defense tech), this show goes beyond headlines and hype. We talk to founders, investors, government officials, and military leaders shaping the future of national security and deep tech. From breakthrough science to strategic policy, we dive into the high-stakes decisions behind the world's hardest technologies.Payload: www.payloadspace.comIgnition: www.ignition-news.comTectonic: www.tectonicdefense.com

SPOILERS FOR ALL FAE & ALCHEMY SERIESIn chapters 37-45, Lexi and Nicole dive deeeepppp into the chaos – starting with the Evenlight Ball! Saeris is publicly disavowed by Tal, names Foley as the new Lord of Midnight, and then watches in horror as her court dissolves before her eyes (thanks to Tal and Iseabail). The rot is also at Cahlish's doorstep, forcing the group to flee through a shadowgate — only to face a surprise feeder attack that leaves Kingfisher missing and key pages of Edina's journal mysteriously gone. There is much to unpack this episode!Receive 50% off your first order. To claim this deal you must go to https://hiyahealth.com/FFG.Bonus Chapters:The Gate Pt 1+2, The Fox, The Boots, The Dress: https://calliehart.com/kingfisher/The Maze: In the back of the new hardback and in the ebookOrlena: In the UK Waterstones deluxe editionCHECK OUT THE FANTASY FANFELLAS PODCAST FEED: https://open.spotify.com/show/2JVloDSbL0b6NSeztH88PA?si=cb02cb48bd0e4f7fCheck out our recent sponsors: https://www.fantasyfangirls.com/sponsorsJoin the FanClub: https://fantasyfangirls.com/fanclubShop our merch: https://fantasyfangirls.myshopify.com/Support the show through our Amazon Shop: https://www.amazon.com/shop/fantasyfangirlspodcastNewsletter: https://fantasyfangirls.com/newsletterWebsite: https://www.fantasyfangirls.com/Upcoming events:*March 6-8 - The Dreamers & Readers Festival - Use code FFG for a discount off your ticket!April 8th - Partnering with the Denver Nuggets for a Fourth Wing Night April 19th - Seattle Live show (Check out our socials for when tickets go on sale)May 29+30 Star Fall Ball in Denver CO - SOLD OUTSeptember 11+12 - The Dragon Gauntlet - SOLD OUT*For all Event Discounts - go to https://fantasyfangirls.supercast.com/subscriber_v2/posts/6891Listen now:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/24KydMMzrYfVpDggkFZx4j?si=fd7dc956393041b8Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-fangirls/id1706179464YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fantasyfangirlsFollow us:Instagram: @fantasyfangirlspod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@fantasyfangirlspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pastor Craig Cooney joins us today to talk about stewarding your finances faithfully.We dive deep into tithing, partnering with God in business, and letting go of false identities that keep you small and plagued by a spirit of poverty.We also cover right belief about God and the truth about being "in a season of waiting" (hint: it's not biblical).If you want to get your money mindset right biblically, give this episode a listen.In this episode:0:00 Intro1:11 Craig's Influential Word6:19 Generosity vs Stinginess15:26 Discernment in generosity20:39 Trusting when money is tight27:00 Pride in poverty?30:41 Partnering with God33:50 Balancing action-taking and waiting on God39:16 What belief we need about God to multiply43:39 How to titheResources Mentioned:Daily Prophetic on IG: https://www.instagram.com/daily.prophetic/Daily Prophetic: https://dailyprophetic.com/Craig's Books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Craig-Cooney/author/B092TQTG9S/---

In this candid video podcast episode, I open up about the 3 biggest mistakes I've made as a small business owner — lessons learned the hard way that cost me time, money, and stress. If you're an entrepreneur or aspiring business owner, these insights could save you from the same pitfalls! Mistake #1: Not understanding taxes — I didn't set aside enough for tax bills, leading to scrambling at deadline time. Mistake #2: Partnering with the wrong people — Bad hires, subcontractors, and even clients drained my energy and resources. Mistake #3: Ignoring my numbers — Without knowing my finances inside out, I lacked confidence in pricing and nearly undervalued my services.

Who's more important? The operators on the ground or the aviators in the sky? It's hard to seize the objective without boots on the ground; but if you can't get to the objective in the first place, there's no mission at all.The reality is that operators need aviators and aviators need operators. Green Berets and the pilots of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment share bonds that transcend their MOS and their mobility platform. Live from the 2nd Annual Stars and Stripes Classic, I sat down with Chairman of the Green Beret Foundation retired Lieutenant General Ken Tovo and Chief Warrant Officer Sean McCormick to talk about what it takes to build true interoperability between air and ground units, and why there is no such term as “more important.”Chief McCormick served as a lead pilot in the 160th SOAR after a career in 75th Ranger Regiment; he also served as General Tovo's pilot while the General was the USASOC Commander. Their partnership and friendship provides a rare perspective on the leadership, trust, and relentless commitment that define Special Operations. Together, they shared how those experiences shaped their understanding of teamwork, mission focus, and the ability to take on any challenge. They also share an unknown secret about GBF's upcoming POW/MIA recovery missions with Project Recover.The Stars and Stripes Classic is more than a lacrosse game. It's a moment to honor the warriors who always step forward, the families who support them, and the community that preserves their legacy through the Green Beret and Navy SEAL Foundations. Special thanks to the Premier Lacrosse League for hosting another thrilling game. Highlights0:00 Introduction1:42 Welcome to the Jedburgh Podcast3:25 Service in the 160th SOAR4:57 Defining Interoperability6:15 Planning and Customer Centric in the 160th10:54 Building a SOF team14:08 Defining De Opresso Liber16:00 Honoring MACV-SOG18:30 Partnering with Project RecoverQuotes“It was a great honor, great experience, and a lot of good stories about that.”“Sometimes the most difficult and important part of a mission is actually just getting there.”“You are the RCO's representative when you're the LNO.”“We're going to plan and rehearse as much as we possibly can before that mission takes place.”“You can't be an expert if you do more than one thing.”“They're problem solvers who figure out “What do I need to do to do what I signed up to accomplish.”“No matter what happens, you're going to accomplish the mission.”“99% of the time, we're working through a partner force to accomplish whatever our mission is.” “Even in our own community, a lot of what MACV-SOG did is really not even part of the history because it's been classified until recently.” “58 Green Berets still are yet to be found in Vietnam from that era.” Follow the Jedburgh Podcast and the Green Beret Foundation on social media. Listen on your favorite podcast platform, read on our website, and watch the full video version on YouTube as we show why America must continue to lead from the front, no matter the challenge.

On this episode of the Sea Captain Leadership Podcast, host Phil Bender is joined by Devon Volker and Jennifer Goldman, the dynamic leaders behind My Virtual COO and new Affiliate Partners of Sea Captain Performance.My Virtual COO helps businesses stop struggling and start improving by transforming operations into a true growth engine. Through a powerful blend of coaching, consulting, and fractional COO services, Devon and Jennifer help leaders gain traction, build accountability, and scale sustainably—especially in today's fast-moving environment shaped by technology and AI.In this conversation, Phil, Devon, and Jennifer explore how operational clarity, human-centered leadership, and adaptive systems are redefining what it means to lead well.Key Topics Covered:The My Virtual COO MissionHow My Virtual COO was founded in 2005 and how its mission—“Stop Struggling, Start Improving, Reach Your Vision”—has evolved alongside modern leadership challenges.The Trifecta of Growth: Coaching, Consulting, and SaaSWhy true transformation happens when leadership coaching, strategic consulting, and the right technology work together—and where clients see the biggest breakthroughs.The Human Side of OperationsHow culture, communication, and trust must evolve alongside systems and processes to create lasting operational change.AI, Technology, and Fluid RecalibrationJennifer introduces the concept of “fluidity around recalibration” and explains how leaders can responsibly integrate AI while staying aligned with their values and people.The Three P's FrameworkA foundational model for sustainable growth—and how leaders can quickly identify which area is out of alignment inside their business.Aligning People, Processes, and ProvidersMy Virtual COO's approach to sequencing outsourcing partners, technology platforms, and workflows to drive growth without chaos or burnout.Partnering with Sea Captain PerformanceWhy this affiliate partnership expands what's possible for advisors and leaders—and how leadership coaching and operational strategy together create a powerful competitive advantage.About Our GuestsDevon Volker and Jennifer Goldman are the founders of My Virtual COO, where they serve as trusted operational advisors, coaches, and strategists to growing organizations. Their work helps leaders move from friction to flow, turning complexity into clarity and vision into execution.About the PodcastThe Sea Captain Leadership Podcast is hosted by Phil Bender, CEO of Sea Captain Performance, where we help leaders chart a clear course for growth, culture, and impact.Connect with usSeaCaptainCoaching.com
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Can you really build a profitable real estate portfolio in a place like Santa Cruz, California? Matt Mainini has done exactly that—and in this episode of The Property Profits Podcast, he shares how. From house hacking and seller financing to short-term rentals and affordable housing, Matt breaks down the smart strategies that helped him thrive in one of the priciest markets in the country. He also talks about his latest project: converting a hotel into over 100 studio units, the majority of which are reserved for veterans. Get Interviewed on the Show! - ================================== Are you a real estate investor with some 'tales from the trenches' you'd like to share with our audience? Want to get great exposure and be seen as a bonafide real estate pro by your friends? Would you like to inspire other people to take action with real estate investing? Then we'd love to interview you! Find out more and pick the date here: http://daveinterviewsyou.com/ #RealEstateInvesting #CaliforniaRealEstate #ShortTermRentals #AffordableHousing #VeteranHousing #PropertyProfitsPodcast

Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. AI agents are your next customers. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this exclusive interview, Vince Menzione sits down with Darryl Peek, Vice President for Partner Sales (Public Sector) at Elastic, to decode how Elastic achieved the rare “triple crown”—winning Partner of the Year across Microsoft, Amazon, and Google Cloud simultaneously. Darryl breaks down the engineering-first approach that makes Elastic sticky with hyperscalers, reveals the rigorous metrics behind their partner health scorecard, and shares his personal “one-page strategy” for aligning mission, vision, and execution. From leveraging generative AI for cleaner sales hygiene to the timeless lesson of the “Acre of Diamonds,” this conversation offers a masterclass in building high-performance partner ecosystems in the public sector and beyond. https://youtu.be/__GE0r2fPuk Key Takeaways Elastic achieved “Pinnacle” status by aligning engineering roadmaps directly with hyperscaler innovations to become essential infrastructure. Successful public sector sales require a dual approach: leveraging resellers for contract access while driving domain-specific co-sell motions. Partner relationships outperform contracts; consistency in communication is more valuable than only showing up for renewals. Effective partner organizations track “influence” revenue just as rigorously as direct bookings to capture the full value of SI relationships. Generative AI can automate sales hygiene, turning scattered meeting notes into actionable CRM data and reducing friction for sales teams. The “Acre of Diamonds” philosophy reminds leaders that the greatest opportunities often lie within their current ecosystem, not in distant new markets. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Keywords: Elastic, Darryl Peek, public sector sales, hyperscaler partnership, Microsoft Partner of the Year, AWS Partner of the Year, Google Cloud Partner, partner ecosystem strategy, co-sell motion, partner metrics, channel sales, government contracting, Carahsoft, generative AI in sales, sales hygiene, Russell Conwell, Acre of Diamonds, open source search, observability, security SIM, vector search, retrieval augmented generation, LLM agnostic, partner enablement, influence revenue, channel booking, SI relationships, strategic alliances. Transcript: Darryl Peek Audio Episode [00:00:00] Darryl Peek: I say, I tell my team from time to time, the difference between contacts and contracts is the R and that’s the relationship. So if you’re not building the relationship, then how do you expect that partner to want to lean in? Don’t just show up when you have a contract. Don’t just show up when you have a renewal. [00:00:13] Darryl Peek: Make sure that you are reaching out and letting them know what is happening. Don’t just talk to me when you need a renewal, right? When you’re at end of quarter and you want me to bring a deal forward, [00:00:23] Vince Menzione: welcome to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering. I’m Vince Menzi. Own your host, and my mission is to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. [00:00:34] Vince Menzione: We just came off Ultimate Partner live at Caresoft Training Center in Reston, Virginia. Over two days, we gathered top leaders to tackle the real shifts shaping our industry. If you weren’t in the room, this episode brings you right to the edge of what’s next. Let’s dive in. So we have another privilege, an incredible partner, another like we call these, if you’ve heard our term, pinnacle. [00:01:00] Vince Menzione: I think it’s a term that’s not widely used, but we refer to Pinnacle as the partners that have achieved the top rung. They’ve become partners of the year. And our next presenter, our next interview is going to be with an organization. And a person that represents an organization that has been a pinnacle partner actually for all three Hyperscalers, which is really unusual. [00:01:24] Vince Menzione: Elastic has been partner of the Year award winner across Microsoft, Amazon, and Google Cloud, so very interesting. And Darrell Peak, who is the leader for the public sector organization, he’s here in the Washington DC area, was kind enough. Elastic is a sponsor event, and Darryl’s been kind enough to join me for a discussion about what it takes to be a Pinnacle partner. [00:01:47] Vince Menzione: So incredibly well. Excited to welcome you, Darryl. Thank you, sir. Good to have you. I love you. I love your smile, man. You got an incredible smile. Thank you. Thank you, Vince. Thank you. So Darryl, I probably didn’t do it any justice, but I was hoping you could take us through your role and responsibilities at Elastic, which is an incredible organization. [00:02:08] Vince Menzione: Alright. Yeah, [00:02:09] Darryl Peek: absolutely. So Darrell Peak vice President for partner sales for the US public sector at Elastic. I’ve been there about two and a half years. Responsible for our partner relationships across all partner types, whether that’s the system integrators, resellers, MSPs, OEMs, distribution Hyperscalers, and our Technology Alliance partners. [00:02:26] Darryl Peek: And those are partners that aren’t built on the Elastic platform. In regards to how my partner team interacts with our team. Our ecosystem. We are essentially looking to further and lean in with our partners in order for them to, one, understand what Elastic does since we’re such a diverse tool, but also work with our field to understand what are their priorities and how do they identify the right partners for the right requirements. [00:02:50] Darryl Peek: In regards to what Elastic is and what it does elastic is a solution that is actually founded on search and we’re an open source company. And one of the things that I actually did when I left the government, so I worked for the government for a number of years. I left, went and worked for Salesforce, then worked for Google ran their federal partner team and then came over to Elastic because I wanted to. [00:03:11] Darryl Peek: Understand what it meant to be at an open source company. Being at an open source company is quite interesting ’cause you’re competing against yourself. [00:03:17] Vince Menzione: Yeah, that’s true. [00:03:18] Darryl Peek: So it’s pretty interesting. But elastic was founded in 2012 as a search company. So when you talk about search, we are the second most used platform behind Google. [00:03:28] Darryl Peek: So many of you have already used Elastic. Maybe on your way here, if you use Uber and Lyft, that is elastic. That is helping you get here. Oh, that is interesting. If you use Netflix, if you use wikipedia.com, booking.com, eBay, home Depot, all of those are search capabilities. That Elastic is happening to power in regards to what else we do. [00:03:47] Darryl Peek: We also do observability, which is really around application monitoring, logging, tracing, and metrics. So we are helping your operations team. Pepsi is a customer as well as Cisco. Wow. And then the last thing that we do is security when we’re a SIM solution. So when we talk about sim, we are really looking to protect networks. [00:04:03] Darryl Peek: So we all, we think that it’s a data problem. So with that data problem, what we’re trying to do is not only understand what is happening in the network, but also we are helping with threat intelligence, endpoint and cloud security. So all those elements together is what Elastic does. And we only do it two ways. [00:04:18] Darryl Peek: We’re one platform and we can be deployed OnPrem and in the cloud. So that’s a little bit about me and the company. Hopefully it was clear, [00:04:24] Vince Menzione: I’ve had elastic people on stage. You’ve done, that’s the best answer I’ve had. What does Elastic do? I used to hear all this hyperbole and what? [00:04:32] Vince Menzione: What? Now I really understand what you do is an organiz. And the name of the company was Elasticsearch. [00:04:36] Darryl Peek: It was [00:04:37] Vince Menzione: elastic at one time when I first. Worked with you. It was Elasticsearch. [00:04:40] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. Yeah. So many moons ago used to be called the Elk Stack and it stood for three things. E was the Elasticsearch which is a search capability. [00:04:48] Darryl Peek: L is Logstash, which is our logging capability. And Cabana is essentially our visualization capability. So it was called Elk. But since we’ve acquired so many companies and built so much capability into the platform, we can now call it the elastic. Platform. [00:05:00] Vince Menzione: So talk to me about your engagement with the hyperscalers. [00:05:02] Vince Menzione: You’ve been partner of the Year award winner with all three, right? I mentioned that, and you were, you worked for Google for a period of time. Yes. So tell us about, like, how does that work? What does that engagement look like? And why do you get chosen as partner of the year? What are the things that stand out when you’re working with these hyperscalers [00:05:19] Darryl Peek: and with that we are very fortunate to be recognized. [00:05:23] Darryl Peek: So many of the organizations that are out there are doing some of the same capabilities that we do, but they can’t claim that they won a part of the year for all three hyperscalers in the same year. We are able to do that because we believe in the power of partnership, not only from a technology perspective, but also from a sales perspective. [00:05:39] Darryl Peek: So we definitely lean in with our partnerships, so having our engineers talk, having our product teams talk, and making sure that we’re building capabilities that actually integrate within the cloud service providers. And also consistently building a roadmap that aligns with the innovation that the cloud service providers are also building towards. [00:05:56] Darryl Peek: And then making sure that we’re a topic of discussion. So elastic. From a search capability, we do semantic search, vector search, but also retrieval augmented generation, which actually is LLM Agnostic. So when you say LLM Agnostic, whether you want to use Gemini, Claude or even Chad, GBT, those things are something that Elastic can integrate in, but it actually helps reduce the likelihood of hallucination. [00:06:18] Darryl Peek: So when we’re building that kind of solution, the cloud service provider’s you’re making it easy for us, and when you make it easy, you become very attractive and therefore you’re. Likely gonna come. So it becomes [00:06:28] Vince Menzione: sticky in that regard. Very sticky. So it sounds like very much an engineer, a lot of emphasis on the engineering aspects of the business. [00:06:35] Vince Menzione: I know you’re an engineer by background too, right? So the engineering aspects of the business means that you’re having alignment with the engineering organizations of those companies at a very deep level. [00:06:44] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. So I’m [00:06:45] Vince Menzione: here. [00:06:45] Darryl Peek: Yeah. And being at Elastic has been pretty amazing. So coming from Google, we had so many different solutions, so many different SKUs, but Elastic releases every eight weeks. [00:06:54] Darryl Peek: So right before you start to understand the last release, the next release is coming out and we’re already at 9.2 and we just released 9.0 in May. So it’s really blazing fast on the capability that we’re really pushing the market, but it’s really hard to make sure that we get it in front of our partners. [00:07:10] Darryl Peek: So when we talk about our partner enablement strategy, we’re just trying to make sure that we get the right information in front of the right partners at the right time, so this way they can best service their customers. [00:07:19] Vince Menzione: So let’s talk about partner strategy. Alyssa Fitzpatrick was on stage with me at our last event, and she Alyssa’s fantastic. [00:07:25] Vince Menzione: She is incredible. Yes, she is. She was a former colleague at Microsoft Days. Yes. And then she, we had a really interesting conversation. About what it takes, like being in, in a company and then working with the partners in general. And you have, I’m sure you have a lot of the similarities in how you have to engage with these organizations. [00:07:42] Vince Menzione: You’re working across the hyperscalers, you’re also working with the ecosystem too. Yes. ’cause the delivery, you have delivery partners as well. Absolutely. So tell us more about that. [00:07:50] Darryl Peek: So we kinda look at it from a two, two ways from the pre-sales motion and then the post-sales. From the pre-sales side. [00:07:56] Darryl Peek: What we’re trying to do is really maximize our, not only working with partners, because within public sector, you need to get access to customers through contract vehicles. So if you want to get access to some, for instance, the VA or through GSA or others, you have to make sure you’re aligned with the right partners who have access to. [00:08:12] Darryl Peek: That particular agency, but also you want domain expertise. So as you’re working with those system integrators, you wanna make sure that they have capability that aligns. So whether it is a security requirement, you wanna work with someone who specializes in security, observability and search. So that’s the way that we really look at our partner ecosystem, but those who are interested in working with us. [00:08:30] Darryl Peek: Because everybody doesn’t necessarily have a emphasis on working with a new technology partner, [00:08:36] Vince Menzione: right? [00:08:36] Darryl Peek: So what we’re trying to do is saying how do we build programs, incentives and sales plays that really does align and strike the interest of that particular partner? So when we talk about it I tell my team, you have to, my grandfather to say, plan your work and work your plan. And if you fail a plan, you plan to fail. So being able to not only have a strong plan in place, but then execute against that plan, check against that plan as you go through the fiscal year, and then see how you come out at the end of the fiscal year to see are we making that progress? [00:09:01] Darryl Peek: But on the other side of it, and what I get stressed about with my sales team and saying what does partners bring to us? So where are those partner deal registrations? What is the partner source numbers? How are we creating more pipeline? And that is where we’re now saying, okay, how can we navigate and how can we make it easier? [00:09:17] Darryl Peek: And how can we reduce friction in order for the partner to say, okay, elastic’s easy to work with. I can see value in, oh, by the way, I can make some money with. [00:09:25] Vince Menzione: So take us through, have there been examples of areas where you’ve had to like, break through to this other side in terms of growing the partner ecosystem? [00:09:33] Vince Menzione: What’s worked, what hasn’t worked? Yes, I’d love to learn more about that. [00:09:36] Darryl Peek: I’ll say that and I tell my team one, you partner program is essential, right? If you don’t have an attractive partner program in regards to how they come on board, how they’re incentivized the right amount of margin, they won’t even look at you. [00:09:49] Darryl Peek: The second thing is really how do you engage? So a lot of things start with relationships. I think partnerships are really about relationships. I say I tell my team from time to time, the difference between contacts and contracts is the R and that’s the relationship. So if you’re not building the relationship, then how do you expect that partner to want to lean in? [00:10:07] Darryl Peek: Don’t just show up when you have a contract. Don’t just show up when you have a renewal. Make sure that you are reaching out and letting them know what is happening. I like the what Matt brought up in saying, okay, talk to me when you have a win. Talk to me when you have something to talk about. [00:10:22] Darryl Peek: Don’t just talk to me when you need a renewal. When you’re at end the quarter and you want me to bring a deal forward, that doesn’t help ab absolutely. [00:10:28] Vince Menzione: So engineering organizations, sales organizations, what are, what does a healthy partnership look like for you? [00:10:35] Darryl Peek: So I look at metrics a lot and we use a number of tools and I know folks are using tools out there. [00:10:41] Darryl Peek: I won’t name any tools for branding purposes, but in regards to how we look at tools. So some things that we measure closely. Of course it’s our partner source numbers, so partner source, bookings, and pipeline. We look at our partner attached numbers and pipeline as well as the amount or percentage of partner attached business that we have in regards to our overall a CV number. [00:11:00] Darryl Peek: We also look at co-sell numbers, so therefore we are looking at not only how. A partner is coming to us, but how is a partner helping us in closing the deal even though they didn’t bring us the deal? We’re also looking at our cloud numbers and saying what amount of deals and how much business are we doing with our cloud service providers? [00:11:15] Darryl Peek: Because of course we wanna see that number go up year over year. We wanna actually help with that consumption number because not only are we looking at it from a SaaS perspective, but also if the customer has to commit we can help burn that down as well. We also look at influence numbers. [00:11:27] Darryl Peek: Now, one of the harder things to do within a technology business is. Capturing all that si goodness. And saying how do I reflect the SI if they’re not bringing me the deal? And I can’t attribute that amount of deal to that particular partner, right? And the way that we do that is we just tag them to the influence. [00:11:44] Darryl Peek: So we’re able to now track influence. And also the M-S-P-O-E-M work that we are also tracking and also we’re tracking the royalties. And lastly is the professional service work that we do with those partners. So we’re looking to go up into the right where we start them out at our select level, we go to our premier level and then our elite level. [00:12:00] Darryl Peek: But left and to the right, I say you gotta go from zero to one, one to five, five to 10, and then 10 to 25. So if we can actually see that progression. That is where we’re really starting to see health in the partnership, but also the executive alignment is really important. So when our CEO is able to meet with the fellow CEO of the co partner company that is really showing how we are progressing, but also our VPs and others that are engaged. [00:12:20] Darryl Peek: So those are things that we really do measure. We do have a health score card and also, we track accreditations, we track certifications as well as training outcomes based on our sales place. [00:12:30] Vince Menzione: Wow. There’s a lot of metrics there. Yeah. So you didn’t bring, you didn’t bring any slides with that out? [00:12:35] Darryl Peek: Oh, no. I’m not looking at slides, by the way. [00:12:40] Vince Menzione: Let’s talk about marketplace. [00:12:42] Darryl Peek: All right? [00:12:42] Vince Menzione: Because we’ve had a lot of conversations about marketplace. We’ve got both vendors up here talking about marketplace and the importance of marketplace, right? You’ve been a Marketplace Award winner. We haven’t really talked about that, like that motion per se. [00:12:55] Vince Menzione: I’d love to s I’d love to hear from you like how you, a, what you had to overcome to get to marketplace, what the marketplace motion looks like for your organization, what a marketplace first motion looks like. ’cause a lot of your cut a. Are all your customers requiring a lot of direct selling effort or is it some of it through Marketplace? [00:13:14] Vince Menzione: Like how does it, how does that work for you? [00:13:15] Darryl Peek: So Elastic is a global organization. Yeah. So we’re, 40 different countries. So it depends on where we’re talking. So if we talk about our international business, which is our A PJ and EMEA business we are seeing a lot more marketplace and we’re seeing that those direct deals with customers. [00:13:28] Darryl Peek: Okay. And we’re talking about our mirror business. A significant amount goes through marketplace and where our customers are transacting with the marketplace and are listing. On the marketplace within public sector, it’s more of a resell motion. Okay. So we are working with our resellers. [00:13:39] Darryl Peek: So we work our primary distribution partner is Carahsoft. So you heard from Craig earlier. Yes. We have a strong relationship with Carahsoft and definitely a big fan of this organization. But in regards to how we do that and how we track it we are looking at better ways to, track that orchestration and consumption numbers in order to see not only what customers we’re working with, but how can we really accelerate that motion and really get those leads and transactions going. [00:14:03] Vince Menzione: Very cool. Very cool. And I think part of the reason why in, in the government or public sector space it has a lot to do with the commitments are different. Absolutely. So it’s not government agencies aren’t able to make the same level of commitments that, private sector organizations were able to make, so they were able to the Mac or Microsoft parlance and also a AWS’s parlance. [00:14:23] Vince Menzione: Yeah, [00:14:24] Darryl Peek: definitely a different dynamic. Yeah. And especially within the public sector. ’cause we have Gov Cloud to work with, right? That’s right. So we’re working with Microsoft or we’re working with AWS, they have their Gov cloud and then we Google, they don’t have a Gov cloud, but we still have to work with them differently. [00:14:35] Darryl Peek: Yeah. Within that space. That’s [00:14:36] Vince Menzione: right. That’s right. So it makes the motion a little bit differently there. So I think we talked through some of this. I just wanna make sure we cover our points [00:14:43] Darryl Peek: here. One thing I’ll do an aside, you talked about the acre of diamonds. I’m a big fan of that story. [00:14:47] Vince Menzione: Yeah, let’s talk about Russ Con. Yeah, [00:14:49] Darryl Peek: let’s talk about it. Do you all know about the Acre Diamonds? Have you all heard that story before? No. You have some those in the audience. [00:14:55] Vince Menzione: I, you know what, let’s talk about it. All [00:14:56] Darryl Peek: See, I’m from Philadelphia. [00:14:57] Vince Menzione: I didn’t know you were a family. My daughter went to Temple University. [00:14:59] Vince Menzione: Ah, [00:15:00] Darryl Peek: okay. That’s all I know. So Russell Conwell. So he was, a gentleman out of the Philadelphia area and he went around town to raise money and he wanted to raise money because he believed that there was a promise within a specific area. And as he continued to raise this money, he would tell a story. [00:15:14] Darryl Peek: And basically it was a story about a farmer in Africa. And the farmer in Africa, to make it really short was essentially looking to be become very wealthy. And because he wanted to become very wealthy, he believed that selling his farm and going off to a long distant land was the primary way for him to find diamonds. [00:15:28] Darryl Peek: And this farmer didn’t sold us. Sold his place, then went off to to this foreign land, and he ended up dying. And people thought that was the end of the story, but there was another farmer who bought that land and one time this big, and they called him the ot, came to the door and said you mind if I have some tea with you? [00:15:43] Darryl Peek: He said, all right, come on in. Have a drink. And as he had the drink, he looked upon the mantle and his mouth dropped. And then the farmer said what’s wrong? What do you say? He says, do you know what that is? No. He said no. Do you know what that is? He says, no. He said, that’s the biggest diamond I’ve ever seen, and the farmer goes. [00:16:01] Darryl Peek: That’s weird because there’s a bunch right in the back where I go grab my fruits and crops every day. So the idea of the acre diamonds and sometimes that you don’t need to go off to a far off land. It is actually sometimes right under your feet, and that is a story that helped fund the starting of Temple University. [00:16:16] Vince Menzione: I’m gonna need to take you at every single event so you can tell this story again. That’s an awesome job. Oh, I love it. And yeah, they founded a Temple University. Yeah. Which has become an incredible university. My daughter, like I said, my daughter’s a graduate, so we’re Temple fan. That’s great story. [00:16:31] Vince Menzione: That is a very cool, I didn’t realize you were a Philadelphia guy too, so that is awesome. Go birds. Go birds. All right, good. So let’s talk, I think we talked a little bit about your ecosystem approach, but maybe just a little bit more on this, like you said, like a lot of data, a lot of metrics but also a lot of these organizations also have to under understand the engineering side of things. [00:16:53] Vince Menzione: Oh, yeah. There’s a tremendous amount to become. Not everybody could just show up one day and become an elastic partner [00:16:58] Darryl Peek: absolutely. Absolutely. So take us [00:16:59] Vince Menzione: through that process. [00:17:00] Darryl Peek: Yeah. So one of the things that we are trying to mature and we have matured is our partner go to market. [00:17:06] Darryl Peek: So in order to join our partner ecosystem, you have to sign ’em through our partner portal. You have to sign our indirect reseller agreement. ’cause we do sell primarily within the public sector through distribution. And we only go direct if it is by exception. So you have to get justification through myself as well as our VP for public sector. [00:17:21] Darryl Peek: But we really do try to make sure that we can aggregate this because one thing that we have to monitor is terms and conditions. ’cause of course, working with the government, there’s a lot of terms and conditions. So we try to alleviate that by having it go through caresoft, they’re able to absorb some, so this way we can actually transact with the government. [00:17:36] Darryl Peek: In regards to the team though we try to really work closely with our solution architecture team. So this way we can develop clear enablement strategies with our partners so this way they know what it is we do, but also how to properly bring us up in a conversation. Also handle objections and also what are we doing to implement our solutions within other markets. [00:17:55] Darryl Peek: So those are things that we are doing as well as partner marketing. Top of funnel activity is really important, so we’re trying to differentiate what we’re doing with the field and field marketing. So you’re doing the leads and m qls and things of that nature also with partner marketing. So our partner marketing actually is driven by leads, but also we’re trying to transact. [00:18:10] Darryl Peek: And get Ps of which our partner deal registration. So that is how we align our partner go to market. And that is actually translating into our partner source outcomes. [00:18:18] Vince Menzione: And I think we have a slide that talks a little bit about your public sector partner strategy. [00:18:23] Darryl Peek: Oh yeah. Oh, I share that. So I thought maybe we could spin it. [00:18:25] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. [00:18:25] Vince Menzione: I know you we can’t see it, but they can. Oh, they can. Okay. Great. [00:18:29] Darryl Peek: There it’s there. [00:18:30] Vince Menzione: It’s career. [00:18:31] Darryl Peek: One thing, I think this was Einstein has said, if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. So that was the one thing. So I always was a big fan of creating a one page strategy. [00:18:39] Darryl Peek: And based on this one page strategy one of the things when I worked at Salesforce it was really about a couple things and the saying, okay, what are your bookings? And if you don’t have bookings, what does your pipeline look like? If you don’t have pipeline, what does your prospecting look like? [00:18:51] Darryl Peek: Yeah. If you don’t have prospecting what does your account plan look like? And if you don’t have an account plan, why are you here? Why are you here? Exactly. So those are the things that I really talk to my team about is just really a, it’s about bookings. It’s about pipeline. It’s about planning, enablement and execution. [00:19:05] Darryl Peek: It’s about marketing, branding and evangelism, and also about operational excellence and how to execute. Very cool. So being able to do that and also I, since I came from Salesforce, I talk to my team a lot about Salesforce hygiene. So we really talk about that a lot. So make, making sure we’re making proper use of chatter, but also as we talk about utilizing ai, we just try to. [00:19:21] Darryl Peek: How do we simplify that, right? So if we’re using Zoom or we’re using Google, how do we make sure that we’re capturing those meeting minutes, translating that, putting that into the system, so therefore we have a record of that engagement with that partner. So this is a continuous threat. So this way I don’t have to call my partner manager the entire time. [00:19:36] Darryl Peek: I can look back, see what actions, see what was discussed, and say, okay, how can we keep this conversation going? Because we shouldn’t have to have those conversations every time. I shouldn’t have to text you to say, give me the download on every partner. Every time. How do we automate that? And that’s really where you’re creating this context window with your Genive ai. [00:19:53] Darryl Peek: I think they said what 75% of organizations are using one AI tool. And I think 1% are mature in that. But also a number of organizations, it’s 90% of organizations are using generative AI tools to some degree. So we are using gen to bi. We do use a number of them. We have elastic GPT. Nice little brand there. [00:20:11] Darryl Peek: But yeah, we use that for not only understanding what’s in our our repositories and data lakes and data warehouses, but also what are some answers that we can have in regards to proposal responses, RP responses, RFI, responses and the like. [00:20:23] Vince Menzione: And you’re reaching out to the other LLMs through your tool? [00:20:26] Darryl Peek: We can actually interact with any LLM. So we are a LLM Agnostic. [00:20:29] Vince Menzione: Got it. Yep. That’s fantastic. And this slide is we’ll make this available if you don’t have a, yeah, have a chance. We’ll share it. I [00:20:36] Darryl Peek: am happy to share, yeah. And obviously happy to talk, reach out about it. Of, of course. I simplified it in order to account for you, but one of the things that I talk about is mission, vision of values. [00:20:45] Darryl Peek: And as we start with that is what is your mission now? How is anybody from Pittsburgh, anybody steal a fan? Oh wow. No, there’s a steel fan over [00:20:54] Vince Menzione: here. There’s one here. There’s a couple of ’em are out here. So I feel bad. [00:20:57] Darryl Peek: The reason why I put immaculate in there is for the immaculate reception, actually. [00:21:00] Darryl Peek: Yes. And basically saying that if you ever seen that play, it was not pretty at all. It was a very discombobulated play. Yeah. And I usually say that’s the way that you work with partners too, because when that deal doesn’t come in, when you gotta make a call, when you’re texting somebody at 11 o’clock at night, when you’re trying to get that at, right before quarter end. [00:21:17] Darryl Peek: Yeah. Before the end of it. It really is difficult, but it’s really creating that immaculate experience. You want that partner to come back. I know it’s challenging, but I appreciate how you leaned in with us. Yes, absolutely. I appreciate how you work with us. I appreciate how you held our hand through the process, and that’s what I tell my team, that we have to create that partner experience. [00:21:32] Darryl Peek: And maybe that’s a carryover from Salesforce, Dave. I don’t know. But also when we talk about enhancing or accelerating our partner. Our public sector outcomes that is really working with the customer, right? So customer experience has to be part of it. Like all of us have to be focused on that North star, and that is really how do we service the customer, and that’s what we choose to do. [00:21:48] Darryl Peek: But also the internal part. So I used to survey my team many moves ago, and I said, if we don’t get 80% satisfaction rate from our employees how do we get 60% satisfaction rate from our customers? Yeah. So really focus on that employee success and employee satisfaction. It’s so important, is very important. [00:22:03] Darryl Peek: So being able to understand what are the needs of your employees? Are you really addressing their concerns and are you really driving them forward? Are you challenging them? Are you creating pathways for progression? So those are things that I definitely try to do with my team. As well as just really encouraging, inspiring, yeah. [00:22:19] Darryl Peek: And just making sure that they’re having fun at the same time. [00:22:21] Vince Menzione: It shows up in such, I, there’s an airline I don’t fly any longer, and it was a million mile member of and I know it’s because of the way they treat their employees. [00:22:29] Vince Menzione: Because it cascades Right? [00:22:30] Darryl Peek: It does. Culture is important. [00:22:32] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Absolutely. [00:22:32] Darryl Peek: What is it? What Anderson Howard they say what col. Mark Andresen culture eat strategy for [00:22:37] Vince Menzione: breakfast. He strategy for breakfast? Yes. Very much this has been insightful. I really enjoyed having you here today. Really a great, you’re a lot of fun. You’re a lot of fun. [00:22:43] Vince Menzione: Darry, isn’t you? Amazing. So thank you for joining us. Thank you all. Thank And you’re gonna be, you’re gonna be sticking around for a little while today. I’m sticking around for a little while. I’ll be back in little later. I think people are gonna just en enjoy having a conversation with you, a little sidebar. [00:22:55] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. I’m looking forward to it. Thank you all for having me. Glad to be here. And thank you for giving the time today. [00:23:01] Vince Menzione: Thank you Darryl, so much. So appreciate it. And you’re gonna have to come join me on this Story Diamond tool. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for tuning into this episode of Ultimate Guide to Partnering. [00:23:12] Vince Menzione: We’re bringing these episodes to you to help you level up your strategy. If you haven’t yet, now’s the time to take action and think about joining our community. We created a unique place, UPX or Ultimate partner experience. It’s more than a community. It’s your competitive edge with insider insights, real-time education, and direct access to people who are driving the ecosystem forward. [00:23:38] Vince Menzione: UPX helps you get results, and we’re just getting started as we’re taking this studio. And we’ll be hosting live stream and digital events here, including our January live stream, the Boca Winter Retreat, and more to come. So visit our website, the ultimate partner.com to learn more and join us. Now’s the time to take your partnerships to the next level.

In this episode, Kelsi Sheren reflects on the growth of her show in 2025 and introduces the controversial topic of 'Dying with Dignity' and its recent partnership with the Pancreatic Cancer Society. She discusses the implications of legacy planning as a deceptive tactic for promoting euthanasia and calls for action against the pro-death agenda that is gaining traction in Canada and beyond. Kelsi emphasizes the need for awareness and advocacy to combat this troubling trend in healthcare.One Time Donation! - Paypal - https://paypal.me/brassandunityBuy me a coffee! - https://buymeacoffee.com/kelsisherenLet's connect!Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@thekelsisherenperspectiveInstagram -  https://www.instagram.com/thekelsisherenperspective?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw%3D%3DX: https://x.com/KelsiBurnsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/kelsie_sheren/Substack:  https://substack.com/@kelsisherenTikTok -   https://x.com/KelsiBurnsListen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1O3yiobOjThKHtqyjviy1a?si=6c78bdc2325a43aeSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS - - - - - - - - - - - -MasterPeace - 10% off with code KELSI - MasterPeace.Health/KelsiKetone IQ- 30% off with code KELSI - https://ketone.com/KELSIGood Livin - 20% off with code KELSI - https://www.itsgoodlivin.com/?ref=KELSIBrass & Unity - 20% off with code UNITY  - http://brassandunity.com

I sat down with two-time UFC Champion TJ Dillashaw to discuss the "delusional optimism" and biohacking protocols, like stem cell therapy and zone two training, that fueled his legendary career and his recovery from a dark identity crisis. Now, we're diving into how he's applying that same championship grit to disrupt the supplement industry with Wild Society Nutrition, proving that the pursuit of excellence in business and longevity is the ultimate human journey. Get the Longevity + Performance Stack here: https://bit.ly/3YPMNO4 Full Audience: Use code GARY15 for 15% off (one-time purchase) CLICK HERE TO BECOME GARYS VIP!: https://bit.ly/4ai0Xwg Connect with TJ Dillashaw Website: https://bit.ly/499sJLj  YouTube: https://bit.ly/4q9vfIE  Instagram: https://bit.ly/4avH5bk  Facebook: https://bit.ly/3MURVhk  TikTok: https://bit.ly/49jB8fp  X: https://bit.ly/4jlszVY  LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4jeEXH4  Thank you to our partners H2TABS: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4hMNdgg BODYHEALTH: “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: http://bit.ly/4e5IjsV BAJA GOLD: "ULTIMATE10" FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3WSBqUa COLD LIFE: THE ULTIMATE HUMAN PLUNGE: https://bit.ly/4eULUKp WHOOP: JOIN AND GET 1 FREE MONTH!: https://bit.ly/3VQ0nzW AION: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4h6KHAD A-GAME: “ULTIMATE15” FOR 15% OFF: http://bit.ly/4kek1ij PEPTUAL: “TUH10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4mKxgcn CARAWAY: “ULTIMATE” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3Q1VmkC HEALF: 10% OFF YOUR ORDER: https://bit.ly/41HJg6S RHO NUTRITION: “ULTIMATE15” FOR 15% OFF: https://bit.ly/44fFza0 GOPUFF: GET YOUR FAVORITE SNACK!: https://bit.ly/4obIFDC GENETIC METHYLATION TEST (UK ONLY): https://bit.ly/48QJJrk GENETIC TEST (USA ONLY): ⁠https://bit.ly/3Yg1Uk9 Watch  the “Ultimate Human Podcast” every Tuesday & Thursday at 9AM EST: YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RPQYX8 Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3RQftU0 Connect with Gary Brecka Instagram: https://bit.ly/3RPpnFs TikTok: https://bit.ly/4coJ8fo X: https://bit.ly/3Opc8tf Facebook: https://bit.ly/464VA1H LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4hH7Ri2 Website: https://bit.ly/4eLDbdU Merch: https://bit.ly/4aBpOM1 Newsletter: https://bit.ly/47ejrws Ask Gary: https://bit.ly/3PEAJuG Timestamps 00:00 ​Intro of Show 02:14 TJ Dillashaw identity & the transition from professional fighting 03:44 Early wrestling roots and "Hazardous Hal" 04:47 Dropping out of grad school for MMA 05:53 The rapid growth of the UFC and bantamweight class 09:43 Career evolution and the "overworking" trap 10:46 Meeting Coach Sam Calavita and measuring toxins 13:11 Mastering energy systems and Zone 2 training 13:29 Understanding VO2 Max and lactic thresholds 22:58 Facing the legendary Joe Soto on 24 hours' notice 24:32 The power of delusional optimism and positive affirmations 26:36 Re-injuring the shoulder during a tetherball challenge 27:21 Using stem cells to avoid career-ending surgery 35:15 Adversity, suspension, and taking extreme ownership 40:08 Rebuilding identity and the "walk back" to the octagon 44:03 Disrupting the supplement industry with Wild Society 45:29 The "Caveman Eats" 20oz ribeye innovation 49:36 Partnering with Sprouts and avoiding "kill list" ingredients 57:41 Dana White's documentary on life after fighting 1:03:12 What does it mean to you to be an Ultimate Human? The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice, and no doctor/patient relationship is formed. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast is at the user's own risk. The Content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TT#71 kicks off with Luke Pearsall from Trail Goods Company, who shares insights into the challenges and successes of producing freeze-dried meals for hunters. Luke discusses the importance of creating meals that are both delicious and practical for backcountry adventures, bringing the comfort of home-cooked food to the wilderness, enhancing the overall experience for hunters. Next, Brad Brooks from Argali Clothing Project talks about the launch of their new technical clothing line, designed specifically for Western hunters. Brad emphasizes the need for high-quality, functional clothing that meets the demands of serious outdoor activities and shares the meticulous process behind developing their products. Finally, Dioni Amuchasti from Deadfall Designs introduces the Guardian chest plate, an innovative product designed to enhance the functionality of binocular harnesses by allowing users to mount a holster for easy access to their firearm. Talk then shifts towards the other Rokslide.com gear reviews and a recap of the latest Western news. Trail Goods Company-https://trailgoods.co/ Build a Freeze-dried meal- Rokslide thread Argali Clothing Project-https://argalioutdoors.com/pages/argali-clothing-project Join in the discussion-https://rokslide.com/forums/threads/the-argali-clothing-project.418073/ Deadfall Designs Guardian chest plate-https://sandsarchery.com/products/guardian-chest-plate   Howl for Wildlife- Take Action   Check out Rokslide's 2024 Best Gear- https://www.rokslide.com/best-gear-of-2024-rokslide-edition/   Visit Rokslide's Rokcast Forum to submit questions, request a topic or give feedback. To be a guest on Tipsy Tuesday please send an email to Sam@Rokslide.com   [ Rokcast is powered by onX Hunt. For 20% off, use Promo Code “Rokcast” at onX Hunt here https://www.onxmaps.com/hunt/app    

Welcome back to the Shift with Elena Agar Podcast! In today's episode, Elena sits down with Michael Berlingo, founder of Starteryou, a platform designed to bridge the gap between education and early career experience for students. Michael opens up about his entrepreneurial journey, starting from his high school reselling days to launching a company that's redefining how young people access work opportunities. Together, Elena and Michael dive into the challenges Gen Z faces when entering the workforce, the failures of traditional career centers, and the evolving needs of students and employers alike. You'll hear firsthand how Starteryou empowers students to build real-world skills, experiment with different industries, and confidently step into their professional lives—all while bypassing outdated resume requirements. Whether you're a student, a parent, an educator, or an employer curious about the next generation of workers, this episode is packed with insights, inspiration, and practical advice. Let's dig in!Time stamps:00:00 "Reselling Pallets and Storage Units"05:43 Navigating Careers Without Networks07:23 Schools Fail Career Preparation10:26 Flexible Student Ambassador Opportunities14:41 "Personalized Job Application Platform"17:09 "Targeted Student Job Opportunities"19:46 "Tech Interns: Build Versatile Skills"23:31 Revolutionizing Student Career Readiness28:57 "Lessons from Starting a Company"30:32 "Partnering with StarterU Students"Connect with Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mblingo/Starteryou Website: https://linktr.ee/starteryouLinkedin company pagehttps://www.linkedin.com/company/starteryou/Starteryou Events Pagehttps://luma.com/starteryou?k=cStarteryou Newsletterhttps://substack.com/@starteryouFollow Elena: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenaagaragimova/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elenaagaragimova/Website: https://elenaagar.com/Listen on:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shift-with-elena-agar/id1530850914Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5UKh6dWcuQwJlmAOqD8wijIf you like this video, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Your support is extremely valued! #careercoaching #careertips #careerresilience #futureofwork #careerstrategy

Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. AI agents are your next customers. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ https://youtu.be/vEdq8rpBM3I In this data-rich keynote, Jay McBain deconstructs the tectonic shifts reshaping the $5.3 trillion global technology industry, arguing that we are entering a new 20-year cycle where traditional direct sales models are obsolete. McBain explains why 96% of the industry is now surrounded by partners and how successful companies must pivot from “flywheels and theory” to a granular strategy focused on the seven specific partners present in every deal. From the explosion of agentic AI and the $163 billion marketplace revolution to the specific mechanics of multiplier economics, this discussion provides a roadmap for navigating the “decade of the ecosystem” where influence, trust, and integration—not just product—determine winners and losers. Key Takeaways Half of today's Fortune 500 companies will likely vanish in the next 20 years due to the shift toward AI and ecosystem-led models. Every B2B deal now involves an average of seven trusted partners who influence the decision before a vendor even knows a deal exists. Microsoft has outpaced AWS growth for 26 consecutive quarters largely because of a superior partner-led geographic strategy. Marketplaces are projected to grow to $163 billion by 2030, with nearly 60% of deals involving partner funding or private offers. The “Multiplier Effect” is the new ROI, where partners can make up to $8.45 for every dollar of vendor product sold. Future dominance relies on five key pillars: Platform, Service Partnerships, Channel Partnerships, Alliances, and Go-to-Market orchestration. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Keywords: Jay McBain, Canalys, partner ecosystem, channel chief, agentic AI, marketplace growth, multiplier economics, B2B sales trends, tech industry forecast, service partnerships, strategic alliances, Microsoft vs AWS, distribution transformation, managed services growth, SaaS platforms, customer journey mapping, 28 moments of truth, future of reselling, technology spending 2025, ecosystem orchestration, partner multipliers. T Transcript: Jay McBain WORKFILE FOR TRANSCRIPT [00:00:00] Vince Menzione: Just up from, did you Puerto Rico last night? Puerto Rico, yes. Puerto Rico. He dodged the hurricane. Um, you all know him. Uh, let him introduce himself for those of you who don’t, but just thrilled to have on the stage, again, somebody who knows more about what’s going on in, in the, and has the pulse on this industry probably than just about anybody I know personally. [00:00:21] Vince Menzione: J Jay McBain. Jay, great to see you my friend. Alright, thank you. We have to come all the way. We live, we live uh, about 20 minutes from each other. We have to come all the way to Reston, Virginia to see each other, right? That’s right. Very good. Well, uh, that’s all over to you, sir. Thank you. [00:00:35] Jay McBain: Alright, well thank you so much. [00:00:36] Jay McBain: I went from 85 degrees yesterday to 45 today, but I was able to dodge that, uh, that hurricane, uh, that we kind of had to fly through the northern edge of, uh, wanna talk today about our industry, about the ultimate partner. I’m gonna try to frame up the ultimate partner as I walk through the data and the latest research that, uh, that we’ve been doing in the market. [00:00:56] Jay McBain: But I wanted to start here ’cause our industry moves in 20 year cycles, and if you look at the Fortune 500 and dial back 20 years from today, 52% of them no longer exist. As we step into the next 20 year AI era, half of the companies that we know and love today are not gonna exist. So we look at this, and by the way, if you’re not in the Fortune 500 and you don’t have deep pockets to buy your way outta problems, 71% of tech companies fail over the course of 10 years. [00:01:30] Jay McBain: Those are statistics from the US government. So I start to look at our industry and you know, you may look at the, you know, mainframe era from the sixties and seventies, mini computers, August the 12th, 1981, that first IBM, PC with Microsoft dos, version one, you know, triggered. A new 20 year era of client server. [00:01:51] Jay McBain: It was the time and I worked at IBM for 17 years, but there was a time where Bill Gates flew into Boca Raton, Florida and met with the IBM team and did that, you know, fancy licensing agreement. But after, you know, 20 years of being the most valuable company in the world and 13 years of antitrust and getting broken up, almost like at and TIBM almost didn’t make payroll. [00:02:14] Jay McBain: 13 years after meeting Bill Gates. Yeah, that’s how quickly things change in these eras. In 1999, a small company outta San Francisco called salesforce.com got its start. About 10 years later, Jeff Bezos asked a question in a boardroom, could we rent out our excess capacity and would other companies buy it? [00:02:35] Jay McBain: Which, you know, most people in the room laughed at ’em at the time. But it created a 20 year cloud era when our friends, our neighbors, our family. Saw Chachi PT for the first time in March of 2023. They saw the deep fakes, they saw the poetry, they saw the music. They came to us as tech people and said, did we just light up Skynet? [00:02:58] Jay McBain: And that consumer trend has triggered this next 20 years. I could walk through the richest people in the world through those trends. I could walk through the most valuable companies. It all aligns. ’cause by the way, Apple’s no longer at the top. Nvidia is at the top, Microsoft. Second, things change really quickly. [00:03:17] Jay McBain: So in that course of time, you start to look at our industry and as people are talking about a six and a half or $7 trillion build out of ai, that’s open AI and Microsoft numbers, that is bigger than our industry that’s taken over 50 years to build. This year, we’re gonna finish the year at $5.3 trillion. [00:03:36] Jay McBain: That’s from the smallest flower shop to the biggest bank. Biggest governments that Caresoft would, uh, serve biggest customer in the world is actually the federal government of the us. But you look at this pie chart and you look at the changes that we’re gonna go through over the next 20 years, there’s about a trillion dollars in hardware. [00:03:54] Jay McBain: There’s about a trillion dollars in software. If you look forward through all of the merging trends, quantum computing, humanoid robots, all the things that are coming that dollar to dollar software to hardware will continue to exist all the way through. We see services making up almost two thirds of this pie. [00:04:13] Jay McBain: Yesterday I was in a telco conference with at and t and Verizon and T-Mobile and some of the biggest wireless players and IT services, which happen to be growing faster than products. At the moment, there is more work to be done wrapping around the deal than the actual products that the customer is buying. [00:04:32] Jay McBain: So in an industry that’s growing at 7%. On top of the world economy that’s grown at 2.2. This is the fastest growing industry, and it will be at least for the next 10 years, if not 2070 0.1% of this entire $5 trillion gets transacted through partners. While what we’re talking to today about the ultimate partner, 96% of this industry is surrounded by partners in one way or another. [00:05:01] Jay McBain: They’re there before the deal. They’re there at the deal. They’re there after the deal. Two thirds of our industry is now subscription consumption based. So every 30 days forever, and a customer for life becomes everything. So if every deal in medium, mid-market, and higher has seven partners, according to McKinsey, who are those seven people trying to get into the deal? [00:05:25] Jay McBain: While there’s millions of companies that have come into tech over the last 10 to 20 years. Digital agencies, accountants, legal firms, everybody’s come in. The 250,000 SaaS companies, a million emerging tech companies, there’s a big fight to be one of those seven trusted people at the table. So millions of companies and tens of millions of people our competing for these slots. [00:05:49] Jay McBain: So one of the pieces of research I’m most proud of, uh, in my analyst career is this. And this took over two years to build. It’s a lot of logos. Not this PowerPoint slide, but the actual data. Thousands of people hours. Because guess what? When you look at partners from the top down, the top 1000 partners, by capability and capacity, not by resale. [00:06:15] Jay McBain: It’s not a ranking of CDW and insight and resale numbers. It is the surrounding. Consulting, design, architecture, implementations, integrations, managed services, all the pieces that’s gonna make the next 20 years run. So when you start to look at this, 98% of these companies are private, so very difficult to get to those numbers and, uh, a ton of research and help from AI and other things to get this. [00:06:41] Jay McBain: But this is it. And if you look at this list, there’s a thousand logos out of the million companies. There’s a thousand logos that drive two thirds of all tech services in the world. $1.07 trillion gets delivered by a thousand companies, but here’s where it gets fun. Those companies in the middle, in blue, the 30 of them deliver more tech services than the next 970. [00:07:08] Jay McBain: Combined the 970 combined in white deliver more tech services. Then the next million combined. So if you think we live in an 80 20 rule or maybe a 99, a 95 5 rule, or a 99 1 rule, we actually live in a 99.9 0.1 parallel principle. These companies spread around the world evenly split across the uh, different regions. [00:07:35] Jay McBain: South Africa, Latin America, they’re all over. They split. They split among types. All of the Venn diagram I just showed from GSIs to VARs to MSPs, to agencies and other types of companies. But this is a really rich list and it’s public. So every company in the world now, if you’re looking at Transactable data, if you’re looking at quantifiable data that you can go put your revenue numbers against, it represents 70 to 80% of every company in this room’s Tam. [00:08:08] Jay McBain: In one piece of research. So what do you do below that? How do you cover a million companies that you can’t afford to put a channel account manager? You can’t afford to write programs directly for well after the top down analysis and all the wallet share and you know exactly where the lowest hanging fruit is for most of your tam. [00:08:28] Jay McBain: The available markets. The obtainable markets. You gotta start from the community level grassroots up. So you need to ask the question for the million companies and the maybe a hundred thousand companies out there, partner companies that are surrounding your customer. These are the seven partners that surround your customer. [00:08:48] Jay McBain: What do they read, where do they go, and who do they follow? Interestingly enough, our industry globally equates to only a thousand watering holes, a thousand companies at the top, a thousand places at the bottom. 35% of this audience we’re talking. Millions of people here love events and there’s 352 of them like this one that they love to go to. [00:09:13] Jay McBain: They love the hallway chats, they love the hotel lobby bar, you know, in a time reminded by the pandemic. They love to be in person. It’s the number one way they’re influenced. So if you don’t have a solid event strategy and you don’t have a community team out giving out socks every week, your competitors might beat you. [00:09:31] Jay McBain: 12% of this audience loves podcasts. It’s the Joe Rogan effect of our industry. And while you know, you may not think the 121 podcasts out there are important, well, you’re missing 12% of your audience. It’s over a million people. If you’re not on a weekly podcast in one of these podcasts in the world, there’s still people that read one of the 106 magazines in the world. [00:09:55] Jay McBain: There are people that love peer groups, associations, they wanna be part of this. There’s 15 different ways people are influenced. And a solid grassroots strategy is how you make this happen. In the last 10 years, we’ve created a number of billionaires. Bottom up. They never had to go talk to la large enterprise. [00:10:15] Jay McBain: They never had to go build out a mid-market strategy. They just went and give away socks and new community marketing. And this has created, I could rip through a bunch of names that became unicorns just in the last couple of years, bottoms up. You go back to your board walking into next year, top down, bottom up. [00:10:34] Jay McBain: You’ve covered a hundred percent of your tam, and now you’ve covered it with names, faces, and places. You haven’t covered it with a flywheel or a theory. And for 44 years, we have gone to our board every fourth quarter with flywheels and theory. Trust me, partners are important. The channel is key to us. [00:10:57] Jay McBain: Well, let’s talk at the point of this granularity, and now we’re getting supported by technology 261 entrepreneurs. Many of them in the room actually here that are driving this ability to succeed with seven partners in every deal to exchange data to be able to exchange telemetry of these prospects to be able to see twice or three times in terms of pipeline of your target addressable market. [00:11:26] Jay McBain: All these ai, um, technologies, agentic technologies are coming into this. It’s all about data. It’s all about quantifiable names, faces, and places. Now none of us should be walking around with flywheels, so let’s flip the flywheels. No. Uh, so we also look at, and I sold PCs for 17 years and that was in the high times of 40% margins for partners. [00:11:55] Jay McBain: But one interesting thing when you study the p and l for broad base of partners around the world, it’s changed pretty significantly in this last 20 year era. What the cloud era did is dropped hardware from what used to be 84% plus the break fix and things that wrap around it of the p and l to now 16% of every partner in the world. [00:12:16] Jay McBain: 84% of their p and l is now software and services. And if you look at profitability, it’s worse. It’s actually 87% is profitability wise. They’ve completely shifted in terms of where they go. Now we look at other parts of our market. I could go through every part of the pie of the slide, but we’re watching each of the companies, and if you can see here, this is what we want to talk about in terms of ultimate partner. [00:12:43] Jay McBain: Microsoft has outgrown AWS for 26 straight quarters. They don’t have a better product. They don’t have a better price, they don’t have better promotion. It’s all place. And I’ll explain why you guess here in the light green line. Exactly. The day that Google went a hundred percent all in partner, every deal, even if a deal didn’t have a partner, one of the 4% of deals that didn’t have a partner, they injected a partner. [00:13:09] Jay McBain: You can see on the left side exactly where they did it. They got to the point of a hundred percent partner driven. Rebuilt their programs, rebuilt their marketplace. Their marketplace is actually larger than Microsoft’s, and they grew faster than Microsoft. A couple of those quarters. It is a partner driven future, and now I have Oracle, which I just walked by as I walked from the hotel. [00:13:31] Jay McBain: Oracle with their RPOs will start to join. Maybe the list of three hyperscalers becomes the list of four in future slides, but that’s a growth slide. Market share is different. AWS early and commanding lead. And it plays out, uh, plays out this way. But we’re at an interesting moment and I stood up six years ago talking about the decade of the ecosystem after we went through a decade of sales starting in 1999 when we all thought we were born to be salespeople. [00:14:02] Jay McBain: We managed territories with our gut. The sales tech stack would have it different, that sales was a science, and we ended the decade 2009, looking at sales very differently in 2009. I remember being at cocktail parties where CMOs would be joking around that 50% of their marketing dollars were wasted. They just didn’t know which 50%. [00:14:23] Jay McBain: And I’ll tell you, that was really funny. In 2009 till every 58-year-old CMO got replaced by a 38-year-old growth hacker who walked in with 15,348 SaaS companies in their MarTech and ad tech stack to solve the problem, every nickel of marketing by 2019 was tracked. Marketo, Eloqua, Pardot, HubSpot, driving this industry. [00:14:50] Jay McBain: Now, we stood up and said the 28 moments that come before a sale are pretty much all partner driven. In the best case scenario, a vendor might see four of the moments. They might come to your website, maybe they read an ebook, maybe they have a salesperson or a demo that comes in. That’s four outta 28 moments. [00:15:10] Jay McBain: The other 24 are done by partners. Yeah, in the worst case scenario and the majority scenario, you don’t see any of the moments. All 28 happen and you lose a deal without knowing there ever was a deal. So this is it. We need to partner in these moments and we need to inject partners into sales and marketing, like no time before, and this was the time to do it. [00:15:33] Jay McBain: And we got some feedback in the Salesforce state of sales report, which doesn’t involve any partnerships or, or. Channel Chiefs or anything else. This is 5,500 of the biggest CROs in the world that obviously use Salesforce. 89% of salespeople today use partners every day. For the 11% who don’t, 58% plan two within a year. [00:15:57] Jay McBain: If you add those two numbers together, that’s magically the 96% number. They recognize that every deal has partners in it. In 2024, last year, half of the salespeople in the world, every industry, every country. Miss their numbers. For the minority who made their numbers, 84 point percent pointed to partners as the reason why they made their numbers. [00:16:21] Jay McBain: It was the cheat code for sales, so that modern salesperson that knows how to orchestrate a deal, orchestrate the 28 moments with the seven partners and get to that final spot is the winning formula. HubSpot’s number in separate research was 84% in marketing. So we’re starting to see partners in here. We don’t have to shout from the mountaintops. [00:16:44] Jay McBain: These communities like ultimate Partner are working and we’re getting this to the highest levels in the board. And I’ll say that, you know, when 20 years from now half of the companies we know and love fail after we’re done writing the book and blaming the CEO for inventing the thing that ended up killing them, blaming the board for fiduciary responsibility and letting it happen. [00:17:06] Jay McBain: What are the other chapters of the book? And I think it’s all in one slide. We are in this platform economy and the. [00:17:31] Jay McBain: So your battery’s fine. Check, check, check, check. Alright, I’ll, I’ll just hold this in case, but the companies that execute on all five of these areas, well. Not only today become the trillion dollar valued companies, but they become the companies of tomorrow. These will be the fastest growing companies at every level. [00:17:50] Jay McBain: Not only running a platform business, but participating in other platforms. So this is how it breaks out, and there are people at very senior levels, at very big companies that have this now posted in the office of the CEO winning on integrations is everything. We just went through a demographic shift this year where 51% of our buyers are born after 1982. [00:18:15] Jay McBain: Millennials are the number one buyer of the $5 trillion. Their number one buying criteria is not service. Support your price, your brand reputation, it’s integrations. The buy a product, 80% is good as the next one if it works better in their environment. 79% of us won’t buy a car unless it has CarPlay or Android Auto. [00:18:34] Jay McBain: This is an integration world. The company with the most integrations win. Second, there are seven partners that surround the customer. Highly trusted partners. We’re talking, coaching the customer’s, kids soccer team, having a cottage together up at the lake. You know, best men, bate of honors at weddings type of relationships. [00:18:57] Jay McBain: You can’t maybe have all seven, but how does Microsoft beat AWS? They might have had two, three, or four of them saying nice things about them instead of the competition. Winning in service partnerships and channel partnerships changes by category. If you’re selling MarTech, only 10% of it today is resold, so you build more on service partnerships. [00:19:18] Jay McBain: If you’re in cybersecurity today, 91.6% of it is resold. Transacted through partners. So you build a lot of channel partnerships, plus the service partnerships, whatever the mix is in your category, you have to have two or three of those seven people. Saying nice things about you at every stage of the customer journey. [00:19:38] Jay McBain: Now move over to alliances. We have already built the platforms at the hyperscale level. We’ve built the platforms within SaaS, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday, Marketo, NetSuite, HubSpot. Every buyer has a set of platforms that they buy. We’ve now built them in cybersecurity this year out of 6,500 as high as cyber companies, the top five are starting to separate. [00:20:02] Jay McBain: We built it in distribution, which I’ll show in a minute. We’re building it in Telco. This is a platform economy and alliances win and you have alliances with your competitors ’cause you compete in the morning, but you’re best friends by the afternoon. Winning in other platforms is just as important as driving your own. [00:20:20] Jay McBain: And probably the most important part of this is go to market. That sales, that marketing, the 28 moments, the every 30 days forever become all a partner strategy. So there’s still CEOs out there that believe platform is a UI or UX on a bunch of disparate products and things you’ve acquired. There’s still CFOs out there that Think platform is a pricing model, a bundle model of just getting everything under one, you know, subscription price or consumption price. [00:20:51] Jay McBain: And it’s not, platforms are synonymous with partnerships. This is the way forward and there’s no conversation around ai. That doesn’t involve Nvidia over there, an open AI over here and a hyperscaler over there and a SaaS company over here. The seven layer stack wins every single time, and the companies that get this will be the ones that survive this cycle. [00:21:16] Jay McBain: Now, flipping over to marketplaces. So we had written research that, um, about five years ago that marketplaces were going to grow at 82% compounded. Yeah, probably one of the most accurate predictions we ever made, because it happened, we, we predicted that, uh, we were gonna get up to about $85 billion. Well, now we’ve extended that to 2030, so we’re gonna get up to $163 billion, and the thing that we’re watching is in green. [00:21:46] Jay McBain: If 96% of these deals are partner assisted in some way, how is the economics of partnering going to work? We predicted that 50% of deals by 2027. Would be partner funded in some way. Private offers multi-partner offers distributor sellers of record, and now that extends to 59% by 2030, the most senior leader of the biggest marketplace AWS, just said to us they’re gonna probably make these numbers on their own. [00:22:14] Jay McBain: And he asked what their two competitors are doing. So he’s telling us that we under called this. Now when you look at each of the press releases, and this is the AWS Billion Dollar Club. Every one of the companies on the left have issued a press release that they’re in the billion dollar club. Some of them are in the multi-billions, but I want you to double click on this press release. [00:22:35] Jay McBain: I’m quoted in here somewhere, but as CrowdStrike is building the marketplace at 91% compounded, they’re almost doubling their revenue every single year. They’re growing the partner funding, in this case, distributor funding by 3548%. Almost triple digit growth in marketplace is translating into almost quadruple digit growth in funding. [00:23:01] Jay McBain: And you see that over and over again as, as Splunk hit three, uh, billion dollars. The same. Salesforce hit $2 billion on AWS in Ulti, 18 months. They joined in October 20, 23, and 18 months later, they’re already at $2 billion. But now you’re seeing at Salesforce, which by the way. Grew up to $40 billion in revenue direct, almost not a nickel in resell. [00:23:28] Jay McBain: Made it really difficult for VARs and managed service providers to work with Salesforce because they couldn’t understand how to add services to something they didn’t book the revenue for. While $40 billion companies now seeing 70% of their deals come through partners. So this is just the world that we’re in. [00:23:44] Jay McBain: It doesn’t matter who you are and what industry you’re in, this takes place. But now we’re starting to see for the first time. Partners join the billion dollar club. So you wonder about partnering and all this funding and everything that’s working through Now you’re seeing press releases and companies that are redoing their LinkedIn branding about joining this illustrious club without a product to sell and all the services that wrap around it. [00:24:10] Jay McBain: So the opening session on Microsoft was interesting because there’s been a number of changes that Microsoft has done just in the last 30 days. One is they cut distribution by two thirds going from 180 distributors to 62. They cut out any small partner lower than a thousand dollars, and that doesn’t sound like a lot, but that’s over a hundred thousand partners that get deed tightening the long tail. [00:24:38] Jay McBain: They we’re the first to really put a global point system in place three years ago. They went to the new commerce experience. If you remember, all kinds of changes being led by. The biggest company for the channel. And so when we’re studying marketplaces, we’re not just studying the three hyperscalers, we’re studying what TD Cynic is doing with Stream One Ingram’s doing with Advant Advantage Aerosphere. [00:25:01] Jay McBain: Also, we’re watching what PAX eight, who by the way, is the 365 bestseller for Microsoft in the world. They are the cybersecurity leader for Microsoft in the world and the copilot. Leader in the world for Microsoft and Partner of the Year for Microsoft. So we’re watching what the cloud platforms are doing, watching what the Telco are doing, which is 25 cents out of every dollar, if you remember that pie chart, watching what the biggest resellers are converting themselves into. [00:25:30] Jay McBain: Vince just mentioned, you know, SHI in the changes there watching the managed services market and the leaders there, what they’re doing in terms of how this industry’s moving forward. By the way, managed services at $608 billion this year. Is one and a half times larger than the SaaS industry overall. [00:25:48] Jay McBain: It’s also one and a half times larger than all the hyperscalers combined. Oracle, Alibaba, IBM, all the way down. This is a massive market and it makes up 15 to 20 cents of every dollar the customer spend. We’re watching that industry hit a trillion dollars by the end of the decade, and we’re watching 150 different marketplace development platforms, the distribution of our industry, which today is 70.1% indirect. [00:26:13] Jay McBain: We’re starting to see that number, uh, solidify in terms of marketplaces as well. Watching distributors go from that linear warehouse in a bank to this orchestration model, watching some of the biggest players as the world comes around, platforms, it tightens around the place. So Caresoft, uh, from from here is the sixth biggest distributor in the world. [00:26:40] Jay McBain: Just shows you how big the. You know, biggest client in the world is that they serve. But understand that we’re publishing the distributor 500 list, but it’ll be the same thing. That little group in blue in the middle today, you know, drives almost two thirds of the market. So what happens in all this next stage in terms of where the dollars change hands. [00:27:07] Jay McBain: And the economics of partnering themselves are going through the most radical shift that we’ve seen ever. So back to the nineties, and, and for those of you that have been channel chiefs and running programs, we went to work every day. You know, everything’s on fire. We’re trying to check hundred boxes, trying to make our program 10% better than our competitors. [00:27:30] Jay McBain: Hey, we gotta fix our deal registration program today, and our incentives are outta whack or training programs or. You know, not where they need to be. Our certification, you know, this was the life of, uh, of a channel chief. Everybody thought we were just out drinking in the Caribbean with our best partners, but we were under the weight of this. [00:27:49] Jay McBain: But something interesting has happened is that we turned around and put the customer at the middle of our programs to say that those 28 moments in green before the sale are really, really important. And the seven partners who participate are really important. Understanding. The customer’s gonna buy a seven layer stack. [00:28:09] Jay McBain: They’re gonna buy it With these seven partners, the procurement stage is much different. The growth of marketplaces, the growth of direct in some of these areas, and then long term every 30 days forever in a managed service, implementations, integrations, how you upsell, cross-sell, enrich a deal changes. So how would you build a program that’s wrapped around the customer instead of the vendor? [00:28:35] Jay McBain: And we’re starting to hear our partners shout back to us. These are global surveys, big numbers, but over half of our partners, regardless of type, are selling consulting to their customer. Over half are designing architecting deals. A third of them are trying to be system integrators showing up at those implementation integration moments. [00:28:55] Jay McBain: Two thirds of them are doing managed services, but the shocking one here is 44% of our partners, regardless of type, are coding. They’re building agents and they’re out helping their customer at that level. So this is the modern partner that says, don’t typecast me. You may have thought of me in your program. [00:29:14] Jay McBain: You might have me slotted as a var. Well, I do 3.2 things, and if I don’t get access to those resources, if you don’t walk me to that room, I’m not gonna do them with you. You may have me as a managed service provider that’s only in the morning. By the afternoon I’m coding, and by the next morning I’m implementing and consulting. [00:29:33] Jay McBain: So again, a partner’s not a partner. That Venn diagram is a very loose one now, as every partner on there is doing 3.2 different business models. And again, they’re telling us for 43 years, they said, I want more leads this year it changed. For the first time, I want to be recognized and incentivized as more than just a cash register for you. [00:29:57] Jay McBain: I want you to recognize when I’m consulting, when I’m designing, when you’re winning deals, because of my wonderful services, by the way, we asked the follow up question, well, where should we spend our money with you? And they overwhelmingly say, in the consulting stage, you win and lose deals. Not at moment 28. [00:30:18] Jay McBain: We’re not buying a pack of gum at the gas station. This is a considered purchase. You win deals from moment 12 through 16 and I’m gonna show you a picture of that later, and they say, you better be spending your money there, or you’re not gonna win your fair share or more than your fair share of deals. [00:30:36] Jay McBain: The shocking thing about this is that Microsoft, when they went to the point system, lifted two thirds of all the money, tens of billions of dollars, and put it post-sale, and we were all scratching our heads going. Well, if the partners are asking for it there, and it seems like to beat your biggest competitors, you want to win there. [00:30:54] Jay McBain: Why would you spend the money on renewal? Well, they went to Wall Street and Goldman Sachs and the people who lift trillions of dollars of pension funds and said, if we renew deals at 108%, we become a cash machine for you. And we think that’s more valuable than a company coming out with a new cell phone in September and selling a lot of them by Christmas every year. [00:31:18] Jay McBain: The industry. And by the way, wall Street responded, Microsoft has been more valuable than Apple since. So we talk in this now multiplier language, and these are reports that we write, uh, at AMIA at canals. But talking about the partner opportunity in that customer cycle, the $6 and 40 cents you can make for every dollar of consumption, or the $7 and 5 cents you can make the $8 and 45 cents you can make. [00:31:46] Jay McBain: There’s over 24 companies speaking at this level now, and guess what? It’s not just cloud or software companies. Hardware companies are starting to speak in this language, and on January 25th, Cisco, you know, probably second to Microsoft in terms of trust built with the channel globally is moving to a full point system. [00:32:09] Jay McBain: So these are the changes that happen fast. But your QBR with your partners now less about drinking beers at the hotel lobby bar and talking dollar by dollar where these opportunities are. So if you’re doing 3.2 of these things, let’s build out a, uh, a play where you can make $3 for every dollar that we make. [00:32:28] Jay McBain: And you make that profitably. You make it in sticky, highly retained business, and that’s the model. ’cause if you make $3 for every dollar. We make, you’re gonna win Partner of the year, and if you win partner of the year, that piece of glass that you win on stage, by the time you get back to your table, you’re gonna have three offers to buy your business. [00:32:51] Jay McBain: CDW just bought a w. S’s Partner of the Year. Insight bought Google’s eight time partner of the year. Presidio bought ServiceNow’s, partner of the year over and over and over again. So I’m at Octane, I’m at CrowdStrike, I’m at all these events in Vegas every week. I’m watching these partners of the year. [00:33:05] Jay McBain: And I’m watching as the big resellers. I’m watching as the GSIs and the m and a folks are surrounding their table after, and they’re selling their businesses for SaaS level valuations. Not the one-to-one service valuation. They’re getting multiples because this is the new future of our industry. This is platform economics. [00:33:25] Jay McBain: This is winning and platforms for partners. Now, like Vince, I spent 20 minutes without talking about ai, but we have to talk about ai. So the next 20 years as it plays out is gonna play out in phases. And the first thing you know to get it out of the way. The first two years since that March of 23, has been underwhelming, to say the least. [00:33:47] Jay McBain: It’s been disappointing. All the companies that should have won the biggest in AI have been the most disappointing. It’s underperformed the s and p by a considerable amount in terms of where we are. And it goes back to this. We always overestimate the first two years, but we underestimate the first 10. [00:34:07] Jay McBain: If you wanna be the point in time person and go look at that 1983 PC or the 1995 internet or that 2007 iPhone or that whatever point in time you wanna look at, or if you want to talk about hallucinations or where chat chip ET version five is version, as opposed to where it’s going to be as it improves every six months here on in. [00:34:30] Jay McBain: But the fact of the matter is, it’s been a consumer trend. Nvidia got to be the most valuable company in the world. OpenAI was the first company to 2 billion users, uh, in that amount of speed. It’s the fastest growing product ever in history, and it’s been a consumer win this trillions of dollars to get it thrown around in the press releases. [00:34:49] Jay McBain: They’re going out every day, you know, open ai, signing up somebody new or Nvidia, investing in somebody new almost every single day in hundreds of billions of dollars. It is all happening really on the consumer side. So we got a little bit worried and said, is that 96% of surround gonna work in ag agentic ai? [00:35:10] Jay McBain: So we went and asked, and the good news is 88% of end customers are using partners to work through their ag agentic strategy. Even though they’re moving slow, they’re actually using partners. But what’s interesting from a partner perspective, and this is new research that out till 2030. This is the number one services opportunity in the entire tech or telco industry. [00:35:34] Jay McBain: 35.3% compounded growth ending at $267 billion in services. Companies are rebuilding themselves, building out practices, and getting on this train and figuring out which vendors they should hook their caboose to as those trains leave the station. But it kind of plays out like this. So in the next three to five years, we’re in this generative, moving into agentic phase. [00:36:01] Jay McBain: Every partner thinks internally first, the sales and marketing. They’re thinking about their invoicing and billing. They’re thinking about their service tickets. They’re thinking about creating a business that’s 10% better than their competitors, taking that knowledge into their customers and drive in business. [00:36:17] Jay McBain: But we understand that ag agentic AI, as it’s going to play out is not a product. A couple of years ago, we thought maybe a copilot or an agent force or something was going to be the product that everybody needed to buy, and it’s not a product, it’s gonna show up as a feature. So you go back in the history of feature ads and it’s gonna show up in software. [00:36:38] Jay McBain: So if you’re calling in SMB, maybe you’re calling on a restaurant. The restaurant isn’t gonna call OpenAI or call Microsoft or call Nvidia directly. They’re running their restaurant. And they may have chosen a platform like Toast Square, Clover, whatever iPads people are running around with, runs on a platform that does everything in their business, does staffing, does food ordering, works with Uber Eats, does everything end to end? [00:37:08] Jay McBain: They’re gonna wait to one of those platforms, dries out agent AI for them, and can run the restaurant more effectively, less human capital and more consistently, but they wait for the SaaS platform as you get larger. A hundred, 150 people. You have vice presidents. Each of those vice presidents already have a SaaS stack. [00:37:28] Jay McBain: I talked about Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday, et cetera. They’ve already built that seven layer model and in some cases it’s 70 layers. But the fact is, is they’re gonna wait for those SaaS layers to deliver ag agentic to them. So this is how it’s gonna play out for the next three and a half, three to five years. [00:37:45] Jay McBain: And partners are realizing that many of them were slow to pick up SaaS ’cause they didn’t resell it. Well now to win in this next three to half, three to five years, you’re gonna have to play in this environment. When you start looking out from here, the next generation, you know, kind of five through 15 years gets interesting in more of a physical sense. [00:38:06] Jay McBain: Where I was yesterday talking about every IOT device that now is internet access, starts to get access to large language models. Every little sensor, every camera, everything that’s out there starts to get smart. But there’s a point. The first trillionaire, I believe, will be created here. Elon’s already halfway there. [00:38:24] Jay McBain: Um, but when Bill Gates thought there was gonna be a PC in every home, and IBM thought they were gonna sell 10,000 to hobbyists, that created the richest person in the world for 20 years, there will be a humanoid in every home. There’s gonna be a point in time that you’re out having drinks with your friends, and somebody’s gonna say, the early adopter of your friends is gonna say. [00:38:46] Jay McBain: I haven’t done the dishes in six weeks. I haven’t done the laundry. I haven’t made my bed. I haven’t mowed the lawn. When they say that, you’re gonna say, well, how? And they’re gonna say, well, this year I didn’t buy a new car, but I went to the car dealership and I bought this. So we’re very close to the dexterity needed. [00:39:05] Jay McBain: We’ve got the large language models. Now. The chat, GPT version 10 by then is going to make an insane, and every house is gonna have one of the. [00:39:17] Jay McBain: This is the promise of ai. It’s not humanoid robots, it’s not agents. It’s this. 99% of the world’s business data has not been trained or tuned into models yet. Again, this is the slow moving business. If you want to think about the 99% of business data, every flight we’ve all taken in this room sits on a saber system that was put in place in 1964. [00:39:43] Jay McBain: Every banking transaction, we’ve all made, every withdrawal, every deposit sits on an IBM mainframe put in place in the sixties or seventies. 83% of this data sits in cold storage at the edge. It’s not ready to be moved. It’s not cleansed, it’s not, um, indexed. It’s not in any format or sitting on any infrastructure that a large language model will be able to gobble up the data. [00:40:10] Jay McBain: None of the workflows, none of the programming on top of that data is yet ready. So this is your 10 to 20 year arc of this era that chat bot today when they cancel your flight is cute. It’s empathetic, it feels bad for you, or at least it seems to, but it can’t do anything. It can’t book you the Marriott and get you an Uber and then a 5:00 AM flight the next morning. [00:40:34] Jay McBain: It can’t do any of that. But more importantly, it doesn’t know who you are. I’ve got 53 years of flights under my belt and they, I’m the person that get me within six hours of my kids and get me a one-way Hertz rental. You know, if there’s bad weather in Miami, get me to Tampa, get me a Hertz, I’m driving home, I’m gonna make it home. [00:40:56] Jay McBain: I’m not the 5:00 AM get me a hotel person. They would know that if they picked up the flights that I’ve taken in the past. Each of us are different. When you get access to the business data and you become ag agentic, everything changes. Every industry changes because of this around the customers. When you ask about this 35% growth, working on that data, working in traditional consulting and design and implementation, working in the $7 trillion of infrastructure, storage, compute, networking, that’s gonna be around, this is a massive opportunity. [00:41:30] Jay McBain: Services are gonna continue to outgrow products. Probably for the next five to 10 years because of this, and I’m gonna finish here. So we talked a lot about quantifying names, faces, places, and I think where we failed the most as ultimate partners is underneath the tam, which every one of our CEOs knows to the decimal point underneath the TAM that our board thinks they’re chasing. [00:41:59] Jay McBain: We’ve done a very poor job. Of talking about the available markets and obtainable markets underneath it, we, we’ve shown them theory. We’ve shown them a bunch of, you know, really smart stuff, and PowerPoint slides up the wazoo, but we’ve never quantified it for them. If they wanna win, if they want to get access, if they want to double their pipeline, triple their pipeline, if they wanna start winning more deals, if they wanna win deals that are three times larger, they close two times faster. [00:42:31] Jay McBain: And they renew 15% larger. They have to get into the available and obtainable markets. So just in the last couple weeks I spoke at Cribble, I spoke at Octane, I spoke at CrowdStrike Falcon. All three of those companies at the CEO level, main stage use those exact three numbers, three x, two x, 15%. That’s the language of platforms, and they’re investing millions and millions and millions of dollars on teams. [00:42:59] Jay McBain: To go build out the Sam Andal in name spaces and places. So you’ve heard me talk about these 28 moments a lot. They’re the ones that you spend when you buy a car. Some people spend one moment and they drive to the Cadillac dealership. ’cause Larry’s been, you know, taking care of the family for 50 years. [00:43:18] Jay McBain: Some people spend 50 moments like I do, watching every YouTube video and every, you know, thing on the internet. I clear the internet cover to cover. But the fact is, is every deal averages around these 28 moments. Your customer, there’s 13 members of the buying committee today. There’s seven partners and they’re buying seven things. [00:43:37] Jay McBain: There’s 27 things orchestrating inside these 28 moments. And where and how they all take place is a story of partnering. So a couple of years ago, canals. Latin for channel was acquired by amia, which is a part of Informa Tech Target, which is majority owned by Informa. All that being said, there’s hundreds of magazines that we have. [00:44:00] Jay McBain: There’s hundreds of events that we run. If somebody’s buying cybersecurity, they probably went to Black Hat or they probably went to GI Tech. One of these events we run, or one of the magazines. So we pick up these signals, these buyer intent signals as a company. Why did they wanna, um, buy a, uh, a Canals, which was a, you know, a small analyst firm around channels? [00:44:22] Jay McBain: They understood this as well. The 28 moments look a lot like this when marketers and salespeople are busy filling in the spots of every deal. And by the way, this is a real deal. AstraZeneca came in to spend millions of dollars on ASAP transformation, and you can start to see as the customer got smart. [00:44:45] Jay McBain: The eBooks, they read the podcasts, they listened to the events they went to. You start to see how this played out over the long term. But the thing we’ve never had in our industry is the light blue boxes. This deal was won and lost in December. In this particular case, NTT software won and Yash came in and sold the customer five projects. [00:45:07] Jay McBain: The millions of dollars that were going to be spent were solved here. The design and architecture work was all done here. A couple of ISVs You see in light blue came in right at the end, deal was closed in April. You see the six month cycle. But what if you could fill in every one of the 28 boxes in every single customer prospect that your sales and marketing team have? [00:45:30] Jay McBain: But here’s the brilliance of this. Those light blue boxes didn’t win the deals there. They won the deals months before that. So when NTT and Software one walked into this deal. They probably won the deal back in October and they had to go through the redlining. They had to go through the contracting, they had to go through all the stuff and the Gantt chart to get started. [00:45:54] Jay McBain: But while your CMO is getting all excited about somebody reading an ebook and triggering an MQL that the sales team doesn’t want, ’cause it’s not qualified, it’s not sales qualified, you walk in and say, no, no. This is a multimillion deal, dollar deal. It’s AstraZeneca. I know the five partners that are coming in in December to solidify the seven layers, and you’re walking in at the same time as the CMOs bragging about an ebook. [00:46:21] Jay McBain: This changes everything. If we could get to this level of data about every dollar of our tam, we not only outgrow our competitors, we become the platforms of the next generation. Partnering and ultimate partnering is all here. And this is what we’re doing in this room. This is what we’re doing over these couple of days, and this is what, uh, the mission that Vince is leading. [00:46:43] Jay McBain: Thank you so much. [00:46:47] Vince Menzione: Woo. Day in the house. Good to see you my friend. Good to see you. Oh, we’re gonna spend a couple minutes. Um, I’m put you in the second seat. We’re gonna put, we’re gonna make it sit fireside for a minute. Uh, that was intense. It was pretty incredible actually, Jay. And so I’m, I think I wanna open it up ’cause we only have a few minutes just to, any questions? [00:47:06] Vince Menzione: I’m sure people are just digesting. We already have one up here. See, [00:47:09] Question: Jay knows I’m [00:47:10] Vince Menzione: a question. I love it. We, I don’t think we have any I can grab a mic, a roving mic. I could be a roving mic person. Hold on. We can do this. This is not on. [00:47:25] Vince Menzione: Test, test. Yes it is. Yeah. [00:47:26] Question: Theresa Carriol dared me to ask a question and I say, you don’t have to dare me. You know, I’m going to Anyway. Um, so Jay, of the point of view that with all of the new AI players that strategic alliances is again having a moment, and I was curious your point of view on what you’re seeing around this emergence and trend of strategic alliances and strategic alliance management. [00:47:52] Question: As compared to channel management. And what are you seeing in terms of large vendors like AWS investing in that strategic alliance role versus that channel role training, enablement, measurement, all that good stuff? [00:48:06] Jay McBain: Yeah, it’s, it’s a great question. So when I told the story about toast at the restaurant or Square or Clover, they’re not call, they’re not gonna call open AI or Nvidia themselves either. [00:48:17] Jay McBain: When you look out at the 250,000 ISVs. That make up this AI stack, there is the layers that happen there. So the Alliance with AWS, the alliance they have with Microsoft or Google is going to be how they generate agent AI in their platforms. So when I talk about a seven layer stack, the average deal being seven layers, AI is gonna drive this to nine, and then 11, then probably 13. [00:48:44] Jay McBain: So in terms of how alliances work, I had it up there as one of the five core strategies, and I think it’s pretty even. You can have the best alliances in the world, but if the seven partners trusted by the customer don’t know what that alliance is and the benefits to the customer and never mention it, it’s all for Naugh. [00:49:00] Jay McBain: If you’re go-to market, you’re co-selling, your co-marketing strategies are not built around that alliance. It’s all for naught. If the integration and the co-innovation, the co-development, the all the co-creation work that’s done inside these alliances isn’t translated to customer outcomes, it’s all for naugh. [00:49:17] Jay McBain: These are all five parallel swim lanes. All five are absolutely critically needed. And I think they’re all five pretty equally weighted in terms of needing each other. Yes. To be successful in the era of platforms. Yeah. [00:49:32] Vince Menzione: And the problem is they’re all stove pipe today. If, if at all. Yeah. Maintained, right. [00:49:36] Vince Menzione: Alliances is an example. Channels and other example. They don’t talk to one another. Judge any, we’ve got a mic up here if anybody else has. Yep. We have some questions here, Jacqueline. [00:49:51] Question: So when we’re developing our channel programs, any advice on, you know, what’s the shift that we should make six months from now, a year from now? The historical has been bronze, silver, gold, right? And you’ve got your deal registration, but what’s the future look like? [00:50:05] Jay McBain: Yeah, so I mean, the programs are, are changing to, to the point where the customer should be in the middle and realizing the seven partners you need to win the deal. [00:50:15] Jay McBain: And depending on what category of product you’re in, security, how much you rely on resell, 91.6%. You know, the channel partners are gonna be critical where the customer spends the money. And if you’re adding friction to that process, you’re adding friction in terms of your growth. So you know, if you’re in cybersecurity, you have to have a pretty wide open reseller model. [00:50:39] Jay McBain: You have to have a wide open distribution model, and you have to make sure you’re there at that point of sale. While at the same time, considering the other six partners at moment 12 who are in either saying nice things about you or not, the customer might even be starting with you. ’cause there is actually one thing that I didn’t mention when I showed the 28 moments filled in. [00:51:00] Jay McBain: You’ll notice that the customer went to AWS twice direct. AWS lost the deal. Microsoft won the deal software. One is Microsoft’s biggest reseller in the world. They just acquired crayon. NTT who, who loves both had their Microsoft team go in. [00:51:18] Question: Mm. [00:51:19] Jay McBain: So I think that they went to AWS thinking it was A-W-S-S-A-P, you know, kind of starting this seven layer stack. [00:51:25] Jay McBain: I think they finished those, you know, critical moments in the middle looking at it. And then they went back to AWS kind of going probably WWTF. Yeah. What we thought was happening isn’t actually the outcome that was painted by our most trusted people. So, you know, to answer your question, listen to your partners. [00:51:43] Jay McBain: They want to be recognized for the other things they’re doing. You can’t be spending a hundred percent of the dollars at the point of sale. You gotta have a point of system that recognizes the point of sale, maybe even gold, silver, bronze, but recognizing that you’re paying for these other moments as well. [00:51:57] Jay McBain: Paying for alliances, paying for integrations and everything else, uh, in the cyber stack. And, um, you know, recognizing also the top 1000. So if I took your tam. And I overlaid those thousand logos. I would be walking into 2026 the best I could of showing my company logo by logo, where 80% of our TAM sits as wallet share, not by revenue. [00:52:25] Jay McBain: Remember, a million dollar partner is not a million dollar partner. One of them sells 1.2 million in our category. We should buy them a baseball cap and have ’em sit in the front row of our event. One of them sells $10 million and only sells our stuff if the customer asks. So my company should be looking at that $9 million opportunity and making sure my programs are writing the checks and my coverage. [00:52:48] Jay McBain: My capacity and capability planning is getting obsessed over that $9 million. My farmers can go over there, my hunters can go over here, and I should be submitting a list of a thousand sorted in descending order of opportunity. Of where my company can write program dollars into. [00:53:07] Vince Menzione: Great answer. All right. I, I do wanna be cognizant of time and the, all the other sessions we have. [00:53:14] Vince Menzione: So we’ll just take one other question if there are any here and if not, we’ll let I know. Jay, you’re gonna be mingling around for a little while before your flight. I’m [00:53:21] Jay McBain: here the whole day. [00:53:22] Vince Menzione: You, you’re the whole day. I see that Jay’s here the whole day. So if you have any other questions and, and, uh, sharing the deck is that. [00:53:29] Vince Menzione: Yep. Alright. We have permission to share the deck with the each of you as well. [00:53:34] Jay McBain: Alright, well thank you very much everyone. Jay. Great to have you.

Andrew is a self-proclaimed tragic sneaker fan and proven brand builder. After nearly a decade of leading multiple marketing functions at Google, Andrew and two of his colleagues embarked on a mission to build the world's fairest hype commerce platform. As CEO, Andrew leverages his marketing expertise and first-hand fandom experience to drive this mission forward. After launching just over a year ago, EQL has managed more than 10,000 high-heat launches in 15 markets. When not helping culture-making brands get their goods into the hands of real fans, Andrew can be found spending time with his wife and three children, and dressing younger than he should.In This Conversation We Discuss: [00:00] Intro[03:51] Crafting launches that reward real customers[06:06] Callouts[06:16] Streamlining experiences through integrations[07:51] Adding connection where generic tools fall short[10:25] Designing pre, in, and post-launch strategies[13:29] Connecting with audiences in launch moments[19:32] Partnering with experts for better launchesResources:Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on YoutubeBetter launches for in-demand products eql.com/Andrew Lipp au.linkedin.com/in/andrew-lipp-7b291722If you're enjoying the show, we'd love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!

What You'll Learn:In this episode, host Patrick Adams interviews Natalie Howden, a new team member at Lean Solutions, about her career journey and the importance of standard work in Lean environments. Natalie shares her background in pharmaceuticals, lithium-ion, and office furniture, highlighting her transition from a scientist to a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. She emphasizes the value of standard work in achieving consistency and improving processes, using examples from her experience.About the Guest:As an Executive Lean Coach at Lean Solutions, Natalie Howden helps organizations transform how they operate by reducing waste, accelerating flow, and embedding continuous improvement into everyday culture. Lean Solutions' mission is to empower people through training, coaching, and talent solutions. Building the skills, systems, and culture needed for sustainable success.Partnering with organizations across manufacturing, healthcare, services, and professional industries, Natalie identifies inefficiencies and quality gaps and applies proven lean tools to redesign processes and deliver greater value with fewer resources. Through coaching leaders and teams, she builds lasting problem-solving capabilities and drives sustained performance by aligning systems, structures, and behaviors with lean thinking.Links:Natalie Howden's LinkedInLean Solutions 2026 SummitLean Solutions Website

Welcome back to Bropostles, where the boys talk about the role of men and women in society today and answer some dating questions including, how do I get to a date when I'm just chatting online and more!Get rid of your cravings for p0rn or these guys will work with you for free until you do: https://thefreedomgroup.cohttps://i.convinceyourfriends.com/maryFor more content: bropostles.comSunday and Wednesday! Our Wednesday episode is exclusive to our supporters at $10/month and up on Patreon, which you can access at patreon.com/bropostlesFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/bropostles Join our Discord community: https://bit.ly/crunchdiscordSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/bropostles/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. AI agents are your next customers. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this episode, Vince Menzione sits down with SHI leaders Joseph Bellian and Stefanie Dunn, alongside Microsoft's Marcus Jewett, to dissect SHI's massive evolution from a traditional Large Account Reseller (LAR) to a strategic Global Systems Integrator (GSI). They explore the cultural and operational shifts required to move from a transaction-heavy model to a services-led approach, highlighting their alignment with Microsoft's MSEM methodology, the implementation of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), and their cutting-edge work with AI Labs and Agentic AI. Key Takeaways SHI has evolved from a transactional powerhouse into a Global Systems Integrator (GSI) focused on services and outcomes. The organization implemented the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to align vision, people, and data across sales and delivery. SHI serves as “Customer Zero” for Microsoft AI, implementing Copilot internally to better guide customers. The partnership mirrors Microsoft's MSEM methodology to ensure seamless co-selling and customer success lifecycles. SHI's AI Labs in New Jersey provides a secure environment for clients to build and test custom AI solutions. The shift requires moving from a “Hulk” (strength/sales) mindset to a “Tony Stark” (brainpower/strategy) mindset. Key Tags: SHI International, global systems integrator, Microsoft services, Joseph Bellian, Stefanie Dunn, Marcus Jewett, AI labs, agentic AI, MSEM methodology, entrepreneurial operating system, digital transformation, customer zero, copilot implementation, solution provider, cloud migration, data governance, services led growth. Ultimate Partner is the independent community for technology leaders navigating the tectonic shifts in cloud, AI, marketplaces, and co-selling. Through live events, UPX membership, advisory, and the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® podcast, we help organizations align with hyperscalers, accelerate growth, and achieve their greatest results through successful partnering. Transcript:Transcript: Joseph Bellian – Stefanie Dunn – Marcus Jewett WORKFILE AUDIO [00:00:00] Vince Menzione: We’ve got it. So it is interesting how these sessions kind of follow each other. Hopefully you’re seeing kind of a flow from marketplaces and the conversation about how to be a really great ISV to how an ISV took and built a channel strategy and how they integrated alliances and channels together. [00:00:16] Vince Menzione: Well, we have an, we have another really great example here to talk through. I have this, uh, incredible like background. Like I’m a hundred years old, basically. I don’t even want to tell anybody that. But, uh, I got to work with this organization way back in my days at Microsoft. They are, they were and are one of the top, I’ll call them, they were classically a reseller company. [00:00:40] Vince Menzione: They one of the largest, we call ’em large account resellers back in the day. Uh, their leader built a multi-billion dollar organization. I’m gonna let them talk through who they are today, but we have an opportunity to talk about transformation. From that lens now too, like how does an organization that’s really good at doing one thing evolve, transform and take advantage of these tectonic shifts we’re seeing? [00:01:03] Vince Menzione: So, uh, we’ve got some incredible leaders. I’m gonna have them come up on stage. And everybody introduced themselves from SHI and also from Microsoft. And we’re gonna have a really great conversation today. Great to have you. [00:01:26] Vince Menzione: So I’m gonna let, I’m gonna let you guys introduce yourselves because, uh, everybody knows you as DJ Marco Polo. So we’re gonna, we’ll start with you over in the far end, Marcus. Okay. Vince, I, [00:01:36] Marcus Jewett: I’ll try to be shy. [00:01:37] Vince Menzione: No, [00:01:37] Marcus Jewett: uh, hi everyone, my name is Marcus Jut, I am the Global Partner Development Manager for the SHI partnership. [00:01:43] Marcus Jewett: Uh, I have been overseeing this partnership for just under 12 years. Wow. So I have seen the evolutional journey of this partner and really proud of where they, uh, have matured their business and the partnership with Microsoft. [00:01:57] Stefanie Dunn: Thank you. Oh. [00:01:58] Marcus Jewett: Is there, is yours on? Oh, [00:02:00] Vince Menzione: mines [00:02:00] Stefanie Dunn: on. Hi, I am Stephanie Dunn, a director of Microsoft Services at SHI. [00:02:07] Stefanie Dunn: And it is an, it’s a pleasure to be here. It’s a pleasure to have Marcus as our PDM and, uh, Joe and Vince, uh, very, very happy to be here. Um, and I lead our Microsoft Services sales, uh, area. So across, uh, cloud AI business transformation and, uh. And, uh, data and ai. [00:02:28] Joseph Bellian: Great, great to have you, Stephanie. Thank you. [00:02:30] Joseph Bellian: Joe. Joe Bellion. I’m the VP of Microsoft Alliances and programs. Uh, I’ve been here at SHI for about eight months now, but been in and around the partner ecosystem for about a decade. Uh, I think of my organization of like kind of two aspects. So leading the charge around alliances, aligning our field sellers and specialists with Microsoft, as well as the, the programs backend incentives and operations. [00:02:51] Joseph Bellian: But, um, the real focus is driving the go to market strategy here at SHI. [00:02:55] Vince Menzione: Yeah. So great. So I started to allude to this earlier about like traditional, one of the top three or four companies actually. And we used to use the term, uh, LSP back in the day, or lar, we’ve got several iterations. Microsoft’s gone through several iterations of that name. [00:03:11] Vince Menzione: Marcus knows all of them probably by heart. Tell us what was the impetus to change the organization? Become more like a ser, a services led company as opposed to a transaction led organization? [00:03:21] Joseph Bellian: Yeah, absolutely. Throw one more acronym. SSP. SSP, that was another one. So, uh, solution provider. Um, but, uh, yeah, I, I’d say probably a couple things. [00:03:29] Joseph Bellian: Um, one, the big one, no news to anybody in the room and online as well. The shift with EAs, director of Microsoft, as well as, uh, the whole CSP hero motion. So we do recognize that opportunity, uh, to have services attached, to engage with our clients as well as our joint partnerships with Microsoft, uh, with services out in the field. [00:03:48] Joseph Bellian: Uh, the second one, probably the biggest one is our clients. Hearing out our clients that shift. Um, we’re talking about ai, ai, everything, AI services. Uh, we’re now in the whole era of agentic ai. What does that mean? How do you take advantage of those offerings? And so we recognize that, that our clients are spending millions of dollars with the Microsoft products, but how do you take advantage of that investment and maximize it in their environment? [00:04:13] Joseph Bellian: And so having services to help navigate those complex solutions, that’s where we’re, we’re leaning in. [00:04:18] Vince Menzione: So what did it take to change? Transformation doesn’t come easy. There’s mindset. There’s all these cultural changes that need to happen. From your perspective, both of your perspectives, what did it take internally for this change to happen? [00:04:31] Joseph Bellian: Yeah. Um, so if you, if you heard of the entrepreneurial operating system EOS Yes. And we’ve adopted that internally. Um, if you’re not familiar, it kind of comprises of six components. So vision, people, data, um, process. Issues and, um, uh, traction. So I apologize, that’s, uh, but take, take that model and put it into our business of what we did. [00:04:57] Joseph Bellian: Um, so two kind of twofold. One, moving our entire services practice organization under one, one operating rhythm, um, under Jordan Ello, our CTO. So pre-sales and delivery. So looking at that, the how we go to market with our services, single vision. Uh, single process. So it’s consistent as we’re engaging not only through our partners, but through our clients, but then also on the other side of the house, our Microsoft practice, having all of our resources under one roof so that it’s a single way we go to market. [00:05:28] Joseph Bellian: Aligning our go to market strategy, one-to-one with Microsoft. Why it, it does two things. One, it allows us to be very clear of how we are going to market to our clients, but it allows us to partner even better with our Microsoft counterparts. Yeah, when, when Microsoft, it’s always ever changing. You’re familiar, every six months to a year solution plays and the go-to-market strategy changes, uh, we’re there at the forefront in ensuring that we have our solutions mapped a hundred percent so that we can just co-sell together. [00:05:58] Joseph Bellian: Break down those walls. Let’s do more together. [00:06:00] Vince Menzione: And, uh, geographically you were sep, your teams were separated. You have a big operation in Texas. You also have a big New Jersey operation, which was where the company was founded, in fact. So I’d love to get the perspective on this, Marcus. From your perspective, like what did it do, what was it like before and what did it become? [00:06:17] Marcus Jewett: Oh yeah, let’s go back in the way back machine to 12 years ago. Um, it was a different partner, a different operating model, uh, in those early days. And this is really when we started to move customers from on-premises to more cloud-based subscription technologies. Uh, SHI was always just an incredible selling machine. [00:06:36] Marcus Jewett: If they could not do anything, they could always sell. And for any of you who are familiar with the Marvel movies, um. I, I, I, I use a reference internally with them. SHI was always like the Hulk root for strength. You know, you tell ’em to go sell something, Hulk Smash, they can knock that out. Well, as we really needed these partners to evolve and really help our customers with their technologies, whether it’s driving adoption, monthly active usage, consumption. [00:07:02] Marcus Jewett: We needed them to be more like Tony Stark, right? We needed the brain power, and so over the last, let’s call it five or six years, SHI has continued to invest in their Microsoft practice. They went from an organization that was really focused on management of EA acquisition of new Microsoft logo. To continuing to develop that muscle, but also investing in ways to help customers through their managed services, through their professional services. [00:07:28] Marcus Jewett: And it’s been a, a journey. Right? SHI is a large organization. For a long time they were Microsoft’s largest partner. And from a transactional build revenue perspective, and they still are in many ways, but we really needed them to demonstrate that they could help our, their customers, our shared customers take full advantage of all of the entitlements and the technology they, that they’ve purchased from us. [00:07:50] Marcus Jewett: And that’s really where the evolution has been with SHI when I first started, uh, this is like, God, 12 years ago, there were 20 people that were Microsoft centric resources that really were focused on. Customer acquisition and net new logos. And today that organization from a sales perspective is over 150 sellers. [00:08:09] Marcus Jewett: Wow. That are just focused on Microsoft. So that CSP, they, they fill the top of the funnel for services to help drive program utilization. And that’s not even talking about the dedicated services resources that works under Stephanie. So it’s been. An incredible journey. Microsoft has invested in SHI and in turn, SHI has invested into Microsoft. [00:08:31] Marcus Jewett: They’ve basically taken their approach in terms of how they go to market with Microsoft, and they’ve mirrored that almost like how Joe and I are wearing the same jacket. That’s really how they’ve aligned their, their go to market strategy, really making it a mirror where they take it. They’ve taken our Microsoft M methodology. [00:08:50] Marcus Jewett: And they’ve essentially adopted it and made it their own. So now when our sellers are talking with SHI sellers, they’re speaking the same language. [00:08:58] Vince Menzione: You’re teeing it up beautifully for your conversation with Stephanie here. Stephanie, I want to hear like how you’ve done all those things. ’cause it’s really your organization that’s focused on this, right? [00:09:06] Stefanie Dunn: Yeah, absolutely. So for us it’s all about shared outcomes. It we’re listening to the. Customer. We’re listening to Microsoft and we’ve really taken that to heart. Uh, the customer is at the center of every single thing that we do. I know all of us as partners. That’s really our vision, likely, and the reason why we’re here is our customers. [00:09:26] Stefanie Dunn: But really understanding how to take advantage of that partnership and build something incredible. And it is transformative. Uh, you know, we started as a licensing powerhouse, as Marcus alluded to, and now we’re going deep into services. So we’re aligning to co-sell motions. We’re aligning to the, the industries. [00:09:46] Stefanie Dunn: Uh, we’re creating marketplace offers. We’ve got our programs, uh, tied to all of our services offerings. And so when we look at the broader ecosystem, we see the vision of Microsoft. Uh, we’ve hired the right people, we’ve put the right processes into place, and we have the technology expertise in-house to really share. [00:10:08] Stefanie Dunn: In the journey with our customers and leading them. [00:10:11] Vince Menzione: And you know, you talk about like solution plays. You talked about industry. People don’t always recognize this when you talk to Microsoft sellers. They’re very focused on the industry they’re in, and you have to have those conversations that, this came up earlier, but we never got into this. [00:10:25] Vince Menzione: But you’re aligning your solution plays, you’re aligning your conversations to be very like healthcare and education, all those different markets, right? [00:10:32] Stefanie Dunn: We are. We are, which is very new for SHI in the services industry, and so you know, we’re taking our CSP plays. Um, our licensing plays and really saying, well, what can you do with that? [00:10:43] Stefanie Dunn: Right. You know, how can we advise you? And then we, we dig into the actual industry verticals to, to get tactical with them. You know, it’s, it’s about providing the strategy. It’s about providing the extra hands. They all need extra hands. They, you know, our, our customers need us. As an extension of their team. [00:11:01] Stefanie Dunn: And so for us it’s really important to dig into that and, and be, and be that, that listening ear and you know, that expert in the room for them, uh, from advisory standpoint. And so all of our se services sellers are advisors as well. They’re not selling a product, they’re not selling, uh, something individual. [00:11:19] Stefanie Dunn: We are selling to. Fill and fulfill their goals and business outcomes, which is extremely unique, I will say, because we do have that end to end. So it does start with the licensing. It starts with assessing what you really have, meeting with those advisors, and then putting together a roadmap to help them. [00:11:37] Stefanie Dunn: Understand. Okay, well this is what it’s gonna take to get you here. Here’s our, uh, we love reverse timelines at SHI and so, um, it’s d minus din and so this is where you wanna go and this is when you wanna get there. So this is how we’re gonna help you, uh, along that roadmap. [00:11:53] Vince Menzione: I am gonna put you on the spot here with m Sem. [00:11:55] Vince Menzione: ’cause I think Microsoft finally laid out a process a couple years ago for you to like line up to, ’cause you were doing one piece of it before. Do you want to talk about m how em plays in here and how SHI is leveraging it? [00:12:07] Marcus Jewett: Right. So, uh, across our SEM stages, there are five different stages, and this is the customer journey from these, you know, pre-sales, scoping, uh, engagements with customers all the way through delivery. [00:12:19] Marcus Jewett: And then of course, like that customer success lifecycle and managed services. Again, this was not a language or a way that SHI really approached their business. Again, it was very much like, let’s. Get the customer to purchase on an EA or let’s renew the customer. And then once that cycle was complete, then it, it was almost like adding fries. [00:12:38] Marcus Jewett: Would you like some services with your ea? Right. And, uh, it took a, it took a while, right? Some very, uh, difficult conversations, but we were able to find, finally get the right people in the room to make the right investments. And now when you think about how SHI goes to market, they don’t necessarily leverage the term SEM internally, but. [00:12:59] Marcus Jewett: All of their customer methodologies or their sales methodologies in terms of how they service their customers aligns perfectly. Even when we get into the descriptive part of building out our, uh, partner business plan, we did that across every stage of the M SEM methodology. So that we can ensure that the teams at SHI are in perfect alignment with the teams at Microsoft. [00:13:20] Marcus Jewett: So, uh, I’m, I’m really excited about how we’ve been able to mature the practice and how SHI is now 100% aligned with Microsoft across all of our solution areas, whether it’s. Security, you know, cloud and infrastructure or AI business solutions. There’s a very mirrored approach to how we support customers. [00:13:39] Marcus Jewett: Yeah. I want [00:13:40] Vince Menzione: to double click on the AI component. You know, we were up here earlier, Irwin and I were up here talking about being a frontier firm, and I’ll open it up to all, all of you to individually answer this. I know, Marcus, you have some insights here about the ai. You mentioned AI already. But also to Stephanie and Joe about how you’re taking AI and modern work and workplace and, and, and, and addressing this market specifically. [00:14:07] Vince Menzione: Where, where, where do we wanna start there? [00:14:09] Joseph Bellian: Yeah. One big one. Um, if you’re not familiar, we have ai, an AI labs, um, onsite, uh, lab, and based out of Jersey, one of our headquarters. So on the forefront of the AI technology, but the real focus there is being able to meet with our clients and obviously joint partnerships, um, to build and develop solutions safe, um, offline in a safe, secure environment. [00:14:33] Joseph Bellian: Because let’s be honest, I mean, ai, it’s moving fast and, and we, we, we need to ensure that our data’s secure. Um, and there’s a lot of risk out there. And so we are partnering, um, um, out there with Nvidia and other other providers, um, but specifically with Microsoft in the cloud, um, and securing that environment. [00:14:51] Joseph Bellian: So AI Labs, bringing our clients in, building custom solutions, the area of a jet AI’s here. It’s [00:14:57] Vince Menzione: there. It is here. Yeah, it is here, Stephanie. [00:15:00] Stefanie Dunn: Thank you. Yes, and I’ll just add, uh, for, for our customers, they need to make sure that their foundation is right. You know, they’re coming from maybe all different other clouds. [00:15:09] Stefanie Dunn: They’ve, you know, got multi-tenant really understanding what their structure looks like, and then. Creating that secure foundation. So we’ve got a lot, you know, we do a lot around, uh, just full M 365 migrations and then into understanding the identity and the security baseline under that, making sure that that’s correct. [00:15:29] Stefanie Dunn: And then we can start journeying into some of these other conversations. Data governance, data engineering, uh, all that is extremely important. We have an entire dedicated team, uh, within services sales. Pre-sales with essays or solution architects and delivery, uh, as well as just the project management. [00:15:48] Stefanie Dunn: And, and it’s just this full life cycle to understand where are you and we need to make sure that, that your structure’s built correctly or else it’s never gonna succeed. So a little bit, we take it back to the foundation level, I’ll just say from a customer, uh, engagement perspective to make sure that what they wanna do, they can do securely. [00:16:06] Marcus Jewett: Very cool. I, I’d like to add one other piece there. Um, you know, obviously to Joe’s point earlier, like if anyone says they know exactly what the AI journey will look like for most customers in six months, they’re probably not telling you the truth. Right? This is, we’re, we’re building the plane in the air. [00:16:22] Marcus Jewett: But, uh, one thing Microsoft has really built a foundation on is looking at our partners. And the ones who have adopted AI internally, especially Microsoft Technologies, and we call it Customer zero, right? Ensuring working with partners who have invested in their internal usage of Microsoft AI technology. [00:16:41] Marcus Jewett: So it’s all the various flavors of copilot. Rolling it out and implementing it across their organizations and building their own internal use cases, which they can go in turn and use to go help drive successful engagements with their end customers. So SHI has also been one of our, uh, brightest partners when it comes to that customer Zero journey. [00:17:01] Marcus Jewett: Uh, and it’s something I’m very, very proud of to see. Uh, we’re leveraging the, the use cases and the learnings our SHI is to really go out there and help customers navigate through their own. Uh, complexities of their AI journey as well. So, uh, my kudos to SHI as customer. Zero. Very proud of you and opera feels great. [00:17:20] Marcus Jewett: And you’re [00:17:20] Vince Menzione: providing support engineering, organ organization that supports this function? [00:17:24] Marcus Jewett: Oh, absolutely. As a globally managed partner, I mean, we’re, we’re gonna always be there to help our partners through the journey, right? So whether they need internal readiness or technical support, uh, whether it’s workshops, however we can help the partners best. [00:17:38] Marcus Jewett: Uh, position and posture themselves to go help customers with these, uh, AI engagements. Uh, we’re, we’re there to invest. Uh, we’ve invested in SHI for the last several years across, uh, ai, and we will continue to do so. [00:17:52] Vince Menzione: So what’s the message for the partner community, Joe, that, that, like, how should they perceive you? [00:17:57] Vince Menzione: How should they think about you? Should they, how should they think about engaging with you? Okay. [00:18:02] Joseph Bellian: Yeah, so I mean, obviously we’re an SSP, we’re never gonna, we’re never gonna, um, lose that, that accreditation with Microsoft. But the, the real focus of what we wanna be recognized as A-G-S-I-A global systems integrator, um, being able to engage our clients jointly, co-selling together and meeting them where they’re at across their digital journey. [00:18:21] Joseph Bellian: Uh, we have the capabilities to handle their licensing and understanding the complex matrix in their environment, their IT infrastructure. But being able to have a solution for every part of the journey of where they’re at, because every client’s in a different situation. Yeah. So, so in reality, it’s A-G-S-I-A global systems integrator, being able to engage across their journey. [00:18:42] Vince Menzione: So that’s a, did everybody hear that? ’cause I, I heard that for the first time. That’s a very different perception of the, of the previous organization and getting there. Uh, and you also, I remember this from the transactional side of the business. You were at the very type, at the top of the pyramid, right? [00:18:56] Vince Menzione: Yeah. You handled some of the largest corporations in the, in the world. Yeah. And you know companies as well as organizations like government, governmental organizations across different markets as well. [00:19:07] Joseph Bellian: Yep. A hundred percent. [00:19:08] Vince Menzione: Yeah. So GS. Yeah. [00:19:11] Marcus Jewett: And it’s really important to, for SHI to, to develop that GSI muscle. [00:19:15] Marcus Jewett: Uh, you mentioned at the beginning, Joe, that Microsoft, uh, we have various routes to market. Uh, one of those routes to market, uh, especially in the enterprise space or in our strategic space, is for customers to procure direct. Uh, SHI has longstanding relationships with those customers, and as these customers renew their agreements into a direct model with Microsoft, the way they stay engaged and add value to these prop, uh, to these customers is through their services, their professional services, their managed services. [00:19:42] Marcus Jewett: So going back to Joe’s Point around really defining themselves as a, uh, A GSI, that is also an SSP has been paramount to their overall transformational journey and their overall success. [00:19:55] Vince Menzione: And you also work, so I would assume you work with some of the ISVs in the room too. Yeah, I would think there’s some really great relationships or synergies. [00:20:01] Vince Menzione: Is that, is that an area of muscle you’ve been building out or, yeah, it’s battle, it’s an opportunity. [00:20:06] Joseph Bellian: I mean, I, I believe you have a segment coming up as well on it, um, around NPO. Um, and so there’s a, there’s a play in every motion from services, play services attached through ISVs, your SaaS offers. Um, we do recognize that that’s an opportunity. [00:20:18] Joseph Bellian: Uh, we’re having great success when you look at the marketplace, um, through the multi private party offers. Um, it allows us to expand our footprint and take, uh, take advantage of those relationships and co-sell together. So, absolutely. Wow. [00:20:30] Vince Menzione: Very cool. So you’re gonna be around most of the day today? Yes. I hope. [00:20:34] Vince Menzione: Mm-hmm. So for the partners that are in the room, I think that great conversations with both of you, Stephanie and Joe, and, uh, great conversation. Is there anything else we wanna share with everyone? [00:20:46] Marcus Jewett: Uh, no. It’s just, I would, I would leave you all with the fact that, again, uh, for every partner. Uh, make certain that you, you’re finding a way to differentiate yourself and tell your story. [00:20:57] Marcus Jewett: Uh, you may be doing some amazing work, uh, but if you’re not finding ways to, to tell that story and make certain your customers, and for me, Microsoft, make certain that, that the Microsoft teams you’re working with have very clear understanding of what your capabilities are today, then you may be missing the mark. [00:21:13] Marcus Jewett: I, I, I use this analogy all the time. Uh, the largest retailer on the planet. Who is it? Come on, help me out. I’m sorry. Largest retailer. Box Box. Walmart. Walmart, that’s right. You can turn on a television on any given day and you will still see a Walmart commercial. So yes, tell your story. Yes, very [00:21:34] Joseph Bellian: smart move. [00:21:34] Joseph Bellian: And one more, um, I just wanna make sure I land out there, is the success and where we go from here. Um, it’s this right here in the room. Um, us partnering together, bringing the partner ecosystem together. Um, in reality, we’re not competing together. We should be collaborating together and working together, um, in our client’s joint environments. [00:21:52] Joseph Bellian: Microsoft says it well, it’s that one Microsoft story. It’s that better together story and the more we can work together, the more success we’ll have together. [00:22:00] Vince Menzione: Awesome. I want to thank you so much for your sponsorship and for being here. Uh, big news here, I think it should be like on the front page of the partner ecosystem journal that you’re now, you’re now GSII think that that says quite, that says volumes to, to the community out there. [00:22:15] Joseph Bellian: Yeah. [00:22:15] Vince Menzione: Thank you. [00:22:15] Joseph Bellian: Absolutely. [00:22:16] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you both for joining us. So great to have you both. Thank you. Thank you, Marcus, to have you as well. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you very much Stephanie. So great. So great to spend time with you. Thank you. And this.

Sam Maxwell (Co-founder, Cold Life) joins us to share what he's learned during his journey from literally nothing, having to pressure wash, to building an eight-figure e-commerce business. After his Amazon businesses were failing, his photo booth brand was failing, and he was losing all his money, practically going to zero, and was addicted to Adderall, Sam channeled his desire to get off the prescription by turning to cold plunging and into a relentless drive to succeed. In this episode, Sam breaks down his rise in e-commerce, the transition from his photo booth business that he didn't have a passion for, to focusing all his efforts on the Cold Life, the high-ticket lessons he gained from his prior business, and why he believes the founder's content is the top-performing ad for his business. Join us to discover the strategies behind scaling an e-commerce brand, why having a quality product and customer experience matters, and how to turn massive failures and nearly going out of business into an eight-figure valuation. Chapters: 0:00 - Introduction & Sam's Rock Bottom 2:02 - The Birth of The Cold Life 6:30 - Partnering with Kyle & Creating the "Human-Sized Yeti Cup" 10:20 - The Chiller Crisis & Nearly Going Out of Business 14:10 - The Gary Brecka Partnership That Changed Everything 18:46 - Raising Capital & The Mark Wahlberg Investment 24:29 - Marketing Strategy: From Meta to Multi-Channel 32:00 - Why Founder Content Became Their Top-Performing Ad 38:19 - High-Ticket E-Commerce as an "Info Offer" 40:40 - Pivoting to Subscription Revenue & Building a Wellness Brand

Before Anne Bonny. Before Grace O'Malley. There was Sayyida al-Hurra — the Pirate Queen of the Mediterranean. In this episode of For the Love of History, we uncover the extraordinary true story of Sayyida al-Hurra, a Muslim woman who rose to power in the late 1400s and became one of the most feared pirates in history. Born in Granada during the violence of the Reconquista, Sayyida was forced to flee Spain as Catholic rulers Ferdinand and Isabella expelled, enslaved, and murdered thousands of Muslims. That injustice would shape her destiny. After becoming governor of Tetouan (Tétouan), Morocco, Sayyida didn't just rule — she fought back. Partnering with the legendary Ottoman pirate Hayreddin Barbarossa (Redbeard), she launched relentless naval attacks against Spanish and Portuguese ships, dominating the Mediterranean and earning her title as the unrivaled pirate queen. Her piracy wasn't just about wealth; it was about defense, revenge, and protecting displaced Muslim communities. This episode explores: The Reconquista and the forced expulsion of Muslims from Spain How Sayyida al-Hurra became a female political leader and naval commander Her alliance with Barbarossa, one of history's most famous pirates Pirate warfare, ransom, and Mediterranean power politics How piracy rebuilt Tetouan into a thriving city Why European powers feared her — and her people adored her Her unprecedented marriage to the Sultan of Morocco on her own terms Sayyida al-Hurra's legacy lives on in the walls of Tetouan, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in the history of women who refused to be erased. If you love pirate history, women in power, Islamic history, and stories of resistance against empire, this episode is for you. Grab your sword, your most dramatic blouse, and let's set sail. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Carolyn Foster, MD, FAAP, discusses the financing of pediatric home health care. David Hill, MD, FAAP, and Joanna Parga-Belinkie, MD, FAAP, also speak with Emily Johnston, MD, and Sarah McCarthy, PhD, about partnering with caregivers in bereavement research. For resources go to aap.org/podcast.

Having grown up in a small-business family, I'm a big proponent of free enterprise. But I detest corporatism.The corporate powers try to co-opt the enterprise label, but in fact they are direct opposites and opponents. Indeed, the word “free” in free enterprise is not a benign adjective, but a fiery verb. It expresses the constant struggle by families like mine – Main Street businesses, farmers, artists, co-ops, and others – to free-up their enterprises from the monopoly control and raw political force of domineering financial elites.That's why I admire the spunk of Azalea Fresh Market in Atlanta, Georgia. It's a new supermarket offering high-quality fresh foods at affordable prices to the people in a poor, inner-city neighborhood. Until Azalea opened, a few sad convenience store bananas were the only “fresh” grocery items sold in the area. City officials kept trying to entice major corporate grocery chains to open a store to serve that community. But it was always “no.” Mayor Andre Dickens says: “That totally burned me up.” So, “Screw it,” he declared, “We're gonna do it ourselves.”And they have! Partnering with a small local chain of enterprising grocers, Atlanta's public development fund financed Azalea, which is now providing good food at good prices for customers long disdained by corporatists.Corporate ideologues mindlessly bark that the public should not be involved in business. Hogwash! When the corporate establishment fails to deliver such basic needs as healthy food, housing and health care, the public can – and must – step into the void. To learn more about the benefits and potential of public enterprises, go to Institute for Local Self-Reliance: ilsr.org.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

For episode 275, we are continuing a new series on the Metta Hour, centered on kids, in honor of Sharon's first children's book, Kind Karl, out now! Co-authored by Jason Gruhl, this illustrated picture book is for 4-8 year-olds and is a new children's adaptation of Sharon's beloved book Lovingkindness. To learn more about Sharon's children's book, Kind Karl, and pre-order a copy with a special pre-order gift, you can visit Sharon's website, right here.For this podcast series, Sharon speaks with educators, caregivers, and researchers about the ways meditation, mindfulness, and lovingkindness can impact children of all ages and the family systems that support them. For the fourth episode of the series, Sharon speaks with Ali Smith, Andres Gonzales and Atman Smith of the Holistic Life Foundation.Andy, Ali, and Atman co-founded the Holistic Life Foundation in 2001, a non-profit organization bringing yoga, meditation, and breath-work to thousands of at-risk kids in Baltimore and beyond. Their work has received wide national attention due to their remarkable results in public schools where suspension rates plummet and graduation rates skyrocket. Outside of the Holistic Life Foundation, Ali, Atman, and Andy also teach to diverse populations worldwide, including drug treatment centers, mental crisis facilities, homeless shelters, and Yoga, Wellness, and Mindfulness Festivals. Their first book, “Let Your Light Shine” was published in 2022 by Penguin Random House.In this conversation, Sharon, Atman, Andres and Ali speak about:• The creation of the Holistic Life Foundation• Experiencing meditation early in life• Working in underserved communities• Teaching with trauma awareness• HLF Retreats and certification programs • The importance of sharing love • Benefits of mindfulness for kids• Partnering with schools and education systems • Modifying practice for younger minds• How to champion love• Encouraging authentic, in-person interaction• Giving from a place of overflow• Caring for ourselves to better care for othersThe episode closes with a guided practice. You can learn more about the Holistic Life Foundation's work on their website, right here. And get a copy of the book“Let Your Light Shine” right here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.