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Send us Fan MailMichael Preston, Executive Director, Medha Tare, Senior Director of Research, and Liza Gak, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, are leading researchers focused on child-centered educational technology. Together, they are helping edtech organizations design better products by combining learning science, participatory co-design, and thoughtful approaches to AI.

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Government contracting bids aren't all created equal, and knowing which ones to walk away from can save you hours of wasted proposal work. In this clip, Ryan Atencio a government contracting expert breaks down the two clearest warning signs that a solicitation is already wired for someone else, so you can stop chasing bids you were never going to win and focus your energy where you actually have a shot. Learn why a seven day RFP deadline usually means the government already has someone lined up, and the rare exceptions when a short suspense is still worth pursuing Understand how highly specific key personnel qualifications, like a PhD requirement or ten years on an identical contract, can signal the solicitation was written around an incumbent Discover the badge flip strategy for winning a contract built around key personnel and legally onboarding the incumbent team already in those seats Find out why the government sets such a high bar on personnel requirements and what that means for your odds as a new bidder Get a real explanation of why bad contractors rarely get terminated for cause, and why agencies often just let a bad option year run out instead Mindy gives you the federal opportunities, agency signals, recompete intel, and pursuit briefs that tell you not just what contracts exist, but which ones to chase and how to win them. Sign up for free Daily Alerts and get opportunities delivered to your inbox before the day starts.

Curtis Dery, executive vice president at Xerox IT Solutions Canada Curtis Dery, executive vice president at Xerox IT Solutions Canada (doing business as Powerland), has been living the HPE GreenLake story since before most Canadian partners knew what as-a-service infrastructure meant. At HPE Discover 2026, he joined In The Channel to talk about what this week’s announcements look like from the practitioner’s desk. Dery’s team won HPE’s Canada GreenLake Partner of the Year in 2022 and has kept the streak going, but he’s clear that the barrier to adoption was never the technology. “Customers are facing constraints financially,” he says, citing tariffs and geopolitical pressure. That’s why he sees the 90/9 financing offer and 150% credit line expansion as genuine deal-closing tools. “It helps open more doors and close deals even sooner.” He also sees the channel-only expansion of Private Cloud and Zerto as a deliberate strategy his team was ready for, thanks to deep ties with HPE’s advisory councils. The real differentiator, he says, is operationalizing customer processes so they can move from 20-30 projects a year to 50-70. Where Dery gets animated is AI. He calls the current moment “the most exciting time in any of our careers” and describes AI as a “digital goldmine.” His team runs internal hackathons to build reps with large language models, work that has already helped Powerland close four of the largest infrastructure deals in the world – all out of Winnipeg. But he’s also blunt about tokenomics: “The burn is real.” On sovereignty, Dery points to the Anthropic government oversight incident as validation for private AI. “If I’m a customer and I’m all in on that model, what would happen?” He sees HPE’s network optimization and Private Cloud AI stack as the hedge. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor at ChannelBuzz.ca and your host for the show. We’ve been on a bit of an unscheduled hiatus, but we’re back. We’re going to get back into the swing of things right now, and we’re going to start that off by finishing our coverage of this year’s HPE Discover 2026. Today’s guest is Curtis Dery, executive vice president at Xerox IT Solutions Canada, which most of the channel still knows as Powerland. Curtis is based in Winnipeg. His team covers the country. He’s been living the HPE GreenLake story since before most Canadian partners knew what as-a-service infrastructure meant. His team won HPE Canada’s GreenLake Partner of the Year back in 2022 and has kept that streak alive. They were the first partner to sell a GreenLake deal in Canada, the first to sell VM Essentials, and the first to sell a cyber vault. But Curtis isn’t just a sales exec. He’s genuinely hands-on with emerging technology, running internal AI hackathons with his team, and has a perspective on the announcements from Discover that come from actually closing the deals, not just reading the press releases. He joined me on site at Discover to talk about what the new financing tools, the channel-only expansion, and the AI story mean for partners on the ground. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Curtis Dery. Robert Dutt: Curtis, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Curtis Dery: Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Robert Dutt: Before we get into this week, I have to acknowledge – just having been in this industry a while, you’ve got Xerox and what is formerly HP at a conference here. Slightly unexpected combination on the surface. Most people’s mental model of Xerox is still copiers, but you were running Powerland as one of the leading HPE infrastructure providers in Canada long before that. What does the Xerox relationship mean in practice for the IT business? Has it changed how you go to market with HPE, or does Powerland essentially operate in its own lane? Curtis Dery: You know what, that’s a great question. The way the market’s changing, the industry is changing, businesses are needing to change. That was the reason why Xerox looked at acquiring us – to help go through the realignment and the changes that they’re making as a business. Obviously, from a print perspective, looking at the industry challenges it was going through through COVID and post-COVID and just the market shift around that, having a focus around infrastructure and technology and driving those outcomes with our customers helped them amplify the customer base that they have across North America. Robert Dutt: You were doing GreenLake before a lot of Canadian partners knew what it was. You won the Canadian GreenLake Partner of the Year back in ’22, closing deals in the as-a-service model when it was still a pretty hard sell to customers used to buying it outright. Now HPE’s on stage talking about 90/9 financing and offering 150% expansion of credit lines. For someone who’s been engineering these deals since the beginning, what do these tools mean specifically? Do they change what’s possible for you, or are you already doing – you already have your system set up and ready to go? Curtis Dery: Yeah, I mean, being fortunate to be a little bit on the front edge of GreenLake, we’re fortunate to be Partner of the Year four years in a row, and from a North American perspective, Partner of the Year to make it five. What that created was just validation that how we’re going to market and how we’re executing it is a little bit more uniquely than others, and how we’re prepared to understand the customer, the outcomes that they want, and wrap that around operationalizing it through a GreenLake model. Having flexibility in some of these announcements helps with the challenges that we’re all entering – some of it unknown, some of it shortages, all these changes, and then you wrap that around obviously the disruption of AI. So having these flexibilities of what they want to do around credit is definitely needed because customers are facing constraints financially – just with the cost of, from a geopolitical impact perspective, tariffs, all these things are real. So HP coming to the table with new offerings helps open more doors and close deals even sooner than expected sometimes. So we’re always looking at making sure, yes, we have a foundational core that we can execute on with a rinse and repeat with a proven track record, but always making sure we’re aligned with the changes that they’re making and making sure we’re enhancing our offering with them, a walk and step together. Robert Dutt: It feels like they’re acknowledging that one of the barriers to GreenLake adoption isn’t the technology, the concept, or anything like that. It’s the customer’s budget cycles. And it sounds like you’re saying that’s the right diagnosis from what you’re seeing in the Western Canada market. Curtis Dery: Yeah, and I think also people sometimes think it has to be OpEx. There’s a balance that you can still capitalize GreenLake as well too, and then do a term top-up depending on the utilization they have, but also operationalizing it from a financial [perspective]. So that flexibility is still there. I just think sometimes that message isn’t out there at the street level. So that’s where our value comes in as a partner, right? To understand where that noise and friction is and remove the friction. Robert Dutt: Three products went to channel-only at Partner Growth Summit this week: Private Cloud, PC 3000, PC 1000, and Zerto. Last year it was VM Essentials. It seems like it’s clearly a deliberate expansion of that strategy. From where you sit with that infrastructure-heavy book of business, is channel-only a meaningful strategic signal for you, or is it about filling the gaps for customers who need DR and private cloud but haven’t had a clean vehicle to buy it through you? Curtis Dery: That’s a great question. I think, fortunate to have a strategic partnership with HP, we sold the first cyber vault in the country. And so same with VME, we sold the first in the country, and same with GreenLake. So there’s a theme there, right? Being so strategically aligned with them from executive level down to technical level, I’m on their advisory council from a GreenLake perspective. My pre-sales engineer is the ambassador on the GreenLake program. Because of that exposure, we get line of sight a little bit earlier. So then we’re already preparing on how we’re going to market to augment some of these announcements that they’re doing, and then wrapping around our own little secret sauce to that to be able to expedite the sales and making sure that we’re taking down the logos together. Robert Dutt: What is that secret sauce, in whatever depth you wish to share in this forum? Curtis Dery: Well, I think sometimes getting down to the nitty-gritty of what GreenLake really does, and that’s operationalizing the customer’s process to be able to allow them to be more agile within their own business. So instead of going to a traditional market and doing a traditional way of getting quotes, going to an RFP process, all those things take time, money, and energy. And when you do that, you then don’t have time to focus on the business to drive the outcomes you can do. Now, with our customers from a GreenLake perspective, that agility of being able to streamline that process – we have our customers that are able to go from 20 to 30 projects a year to now 50 to 70 projects a year. So then they get to see the benefits of how fast we can make their business move, get the outcomes that they want so they can start to accelerate further. Robert Dutt: You heard the partner branded services announcement this week. Curious what you thought of that and how it kind of maps with what you do in terms of, are you already running that services-led model, or are you looking for opportunities to have HP back you up but still go under your brand? Just curious how it hit. Curtis Dery: For us, it definitely hit. But yes, we also do it as well that way. But again, it’s the right tool at the right place at the right time. And sometimes we may need them, they may need us, or it’s an augmentation of both. And that’s the beauty that I love about HP is the investment to the channel, always staying aligned at the street level and making sure it’s very predictable on how you can make bets jointly with them. So it’s a flexibility thing. Robert Dutt: A hundred percent. Curious what’s driving the HP business for you right now. What’s kind of hitting, what are customers talking to you about, what’s driving it forward? I have to imagine AI is part of that. Curtis Dery: Yeah. And I think AI was a little bit of paralysis in the market, right? People were frozen of like, “What do I do? Where do I start? What type of technology? Do I go to a public LLM?” Or you hear this word, “sovereign,” and what does that mean? And I think the perfect storm is brewing. But the beauty is that HP has made the right investments, right? Acquisitions to now truly be ready for what the market is going to be hitting with right now. Which is, you look at the announcement of what happened with Anthropic last week. Government oversight, they said shut down that model. Well, if I’m a customer and I’m all in on that model, what would happen? And so this created that validation of why private sovereign AI with HP wrapping around customers’ data and giving them real hardened AI outcomes within their environment, and then choosing if they need to go into the public LLM. And so getting ready for that market condition is what’s going to drive success and velocity with HP in the market. Robert Dutt: Along with the idea of tokenomics, that idea of AI projects getting stuck in, and maybe hand-in-hand with tokenomics in fact, that idea of AI projects getting stalled out in the implementation or the proof-of-concept phase and not getting to full implementation is a theme that we’re hearing from HP and from just about any vendor who’s playing in the space this year. It seems to be one of the big catches. I’m curious how you’re seeing that reflected in your customer base, if they’re kind of getting to a point of doing POCs and then starting to discover, “Well, wait a second, this could get real expensive, real fast.” Curtis Dery: I’m 1000% [there]. Right? The burn is real. We have customers that knew that they have to start getting their battle scars and learning from the AI and understanding how does it work, how do we integrate it, how do we make sure there’s no hallucinating, how do we trust it, how do we do all these different things? My analogy I like to use is, at the end of the day, we all need refrigerators. But a lot of people probably don’t remember who invented the refrigerator. They just know they needed one, right? That’s the same with the public LLMs, right? You need the refrigerator when you need to go into it. What we do with our customers is show them how to take a Coke can and put it in the fridge and bring it out of the fridge. And so we help them navigate it so then tokenomics is not exposed as much, right? They can manage their cost, manage their environment, and choose where they want to put their data. I think the tokenomics is definitely a real thing and I think we’re going to find out significantly what that means in the next 120 days. Why? Because these companies are going IPO and you now know where the math is mathing, right? And so that’s going to show us a lot on what the true tokenomics looks like. Robert Dutt: You touched a little bit on the importance of sovereignty in customer discussions, but can you tell me a little bit more about how that’s showing up in terms of what customers are asking about and how you see that trending and evolving as an interest and a care about, both on the geopolitical front and, as you say, on an issue like Anthropic suddenly having to pull access to the latest model? Curtis Dery: Yeah, a thousand percent. I think when you hear the word sovereign, I always ask people, “What does that mean to you?” Because when you look at the World Economic Forum, for example, in February, what did they announce as the next pandemic, the cyber pandemic? Why? You’ve got scale of agents running everywhere. People don’t know what is a good agent or a bad agent, right? And if you look at the internet bandwidth since December till now, it’s increased over 12x of volume. Do you know how much traffic is now coming down? So now people are going to need to get prepared about how do you control your network, your data, your access, and sovereign that so that you’re secure so that if a bad day occurs, you don’t have the public exposure. And that’s why you hear from Antonio Neri and the focus around the network. How do you optimize that network? How do you secure that traffic and have the access to where you need to go and ensure that it can handle the scale? So that’s why this storm is brewing in front of all of us right now. Robert Dutt: Looking at your background, it’s clear that you’re not just selling infrastructure. You’re genuinely interested in AI and emerging technology. And it seems like you like to get pretty hands-on. As you’re at an event like this and you’re hearing the announcements and seeing what’s coming and what they’re talking about, what are you really excited to get your hands on and play with, and beyond that to actually get in front of your customers either now or down the road as it becomes more concrete? Curtis Dery: You know, I tell people this is probably the most exciting time in any of our careers because it’s the first time in any of our careers that it’s a level playing field, where it’s up to you to grab the baton of AI and understand how do you use it, apply it, and get the outcomes and innovation that you want to do with people. The tagline I like to use with my team internally is, we’re not underpinned by anyone anymore. We have the opportunity to dream, to build, and execute, and we can use AI technology to do that. And so I call it the digital goldmine. We get to go inside these LLMs and mine what we want out of that and be able to take advantage of what we can do with our customers. And that’s the one thing I enjoy the most is understanding, okay, what tools can I use, whether it’s from PCAI and apply our own private AI strategy around that. I’ve worked with a lot of advisory around a lot of the latest LLMs that are out there, but also some of these private ones like [Mistral AI] and understanding how it’s a puppet master to the public AI and how to optimize white space within a customer’s environment to show them where they have inefficiencies, profitability, when they can take the market in a different way. And that’s what AI does – allow customers to be agile, at edge, on time, and be able to really disrupt if they choose to. And I think it sounds a lot daunting for a lot of people, right, to understand how do I get proactive now with AI and not get disrupted by it, because you don’t know if you can wake up and all of a sudden your competitor is something that you didn’t expect. And so I think being able to just dive in and learn. A lot of people say, “Well, I don’t know much about AI.” None of us do. This is all the latest technology. So I tell people to speak to it, learn from it, and just start understanding how it works. So then at the end of the day, you can now augment it because it ain’t going away. If you think about from a generational perspective, we have kids that are going to be born in AI. They don’t even understand what that means. So it’s exciting times. And I tell people embrace it, because like I said, it’s the first time in history that nobody’s really walking in a room saying, “I got 10 years in AI.” Everyone’s like, “Hey, I’ve been working with it for six months. Cool.” Just like all of us. It’s how many people are putting in the reps with it. Robert Dutt: What are you pulling out of that goldmine so far at Powerland? What are you doing in terms of both – how’s AI changing both what you’re doing customer-facing, and internally your own operations and how you think about AI within the org? Curtis Dery: Yeah, absolutely. So I mean, we were fortunate being ahead of it from an AI perspective and understanding our domain strengths, using AI to be better prepared for our customers and think through strategies with them. And with that, we were able to build out blueprints where we were fortunate to close out four of the largest deals in the world with four different vendors out of a city called Winnipeg. And a lot of people came to me and said, “Curt, I don’t get it. We’re not doing this in New York, Toronto. You were doing this in Winnipeg. How are you doing this?” And I’m like, using AI to get better prepared to understand how do we simulate an environment to say, “This is the customer. What can we do to drive out these types of outcomes? And what does this look like from a strategy?” We get the blueprint and now we go and see the customer and go, “Does this make sense?” And they go, “Yes. Well, let’s go execute that with AI.” And so that’s the advantage that we get to do. And then from an internal perspective, I love having our own internal roundtable hackathons. What’s something we want to do? Throw it on the whiteboard. Everybody has their AI account and go, “Okay, how would you approach that?” So then our team is learning how to put those reps in to say, “Well, I would approach it this way.” And it’s a cool exercise to see how everyone thinks differently. And that’s the beauty about AI. We’re all going to prompt it differently. We’re all going to work with it differently and then take those unified approach of everyone’s pieces, put it together and go, “Okay, now we solve the puzzle together.” So I really enjoy the ability to be able to scale so rapidly with it. It’s an exciting time. I feel like we’re built for this era. Robert Dutt: And I’d imagine a lot of those ideas that are coming out in the internal hackathons are eventually going to find their way into what you’re doing with customers as well. So that’s a nice plus. Curtis Dery: Yeah, absolutely. Robert Dutt: As you point out, you’re in Winnipeg, presence across Western Canada. I’ve talked to a couple of other Canadian partners this week, and I’m getting this consistent theme that Canadian customers right now are in their moment – between sovereignty, between AI infrastructure refresh, between really starting to get AI in play rather than playing with AI. Does that map with what you’re hearing from your customers in the prairies and the West? And where do you see HPE fitting into that story for the balance of the year and beyond? Curtis Dery: Yeah, I think we touched on it lightly, right? The changes that happened with the government oversight last week, I think opened people’s eyes on what their approach is to public LLMs. And then also understanding costs, constraints, all these things that have been hitting our markets and hitting customers’ budgets and challenges. It’s a difficult time to be a CIO right now. When you’re sitting there and you have to protect them from a cybersecurity perspective, you have to have a future of understanding where AI fits into this, and never mind constraints around cost and all that stuff. It’s a tough time to be an executive for a business right now and understand how you can be profitable, scale all these things while you’re facing all these challenges in the market. So being prepared in Canada of how we’re going to our customers is understanding how to package what HP has done effectively well on the overall strategy around GreenLake and saying, “How do we now enter the customer and say, ‘You can now do on-demand AI in your environment predictably, cost-effectively, compliance and govern, and now you can choose how you want to scale that rapidly?'” I think finally, we’re starting to see that curve get around the corner where customers are jumping into wanting to do it this way. It’s just such a learning dynamic exercise right now, right? Because at first it was ChatGPT and then it was Grok and then it was Claude and it just kept going and going. People are not talking about the disruption that happened out of China too with their LLMs. So if you look at DeepSeek, Kimi and all these models, they’re doing exactly what Claude and these others can do at 75% cheaper. So when people start to realize, “Well, I can run that SDK natively inside my environment way cheaper than going to a public API Claude license,” people are going to look at that and go, “Oh, what makes sense now? Because the math ain’t math.” Robert Dutt: That theme is coming up in a lot of different places, isn’t it? Last one for me, whether it’s something we’ve already covered off or something else, what’s the one thing that’s really caught your attention here at Discover this week, the thing that you’re going to take back to the team and on Friday or Monday or whenever you’re first in there saying, “By the way, this is what I heard. This is what we got to get ready for.” Curtis Dery: Well, a few things. One is truly being prepared on the foundation of the network and understanding what does that mean to have an optimized AI network both internally and externally for the customer. I think there’s a high, high value in that. I learned that on the journey with cloud. Everybody wanted to go to cloud. Love the destination. Nobody talked about the highway to the cloud. Nobody talked about the cloud tax of egress coming out of there. So there’s a lot of lessons and best practices that came from the cloud journey that we can now reapply to the AI journey. So focusing on that is huge. And then understanding the intelligence layer and understanding [NVIDIA] Morpheus is an extremely powerful tool and understanding how does that fit into the entire reference architectural stack with PCAI and understanding how do we build on top of that. And that’s some of our secret sauce of what we’re doing, being able to do our own private SDK on top of PCAI so customers can truly control their own AI platform. And so that’s the focus that we’re going to do. And we’re super excited to get velocity going into Q4 with HP so that in 2027, I expect a big year. Robert Dutt: All right. Well, good luck on bringing that back to the team next week and good luck on that big year. And thanks again for taking the time on what I’m sure has been a very busy week. Curtis Dery: Absolutely. And I welcome the time and being able to share this conversation with you. So we look forward to doing it again. Robert Dutt: There you have it. Curtis Dery from Xerox IT Solutions Canada. I’d like to thank Curtis for his time. If you’re finding value in these interviews, I’d appreciate if you’d follow or subscribe to the show. You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and most major podcast directories. Ratings and reviews are always welcome. A few things that stood out for me from this conversation. One is Curtis’s framing that the real barrier to GreenLake adoption has never been the technology, it’s the customer’s budget cycle. The 90/9 financing and expanded credit lines aren’t abstract partner program benefits. They’re deal-closing tools for partners who are already in the room with constrained CIOs. Another is his digital goldmine metaphor for AI. The idea that for the first time in our careers, the playing field is level and what matters is who’s putting in the reps. But he’s also refreshingly blunt about the burn on tokenomics and the need for partners to help customers manage costs as AI moves from proof-of-concept to production. I appreciated his point about sovereignty not being theoretical anymore. The Anthropic incident gave customers a concrete reason to ask hard questions about public LLM dependence. Finally, it’s worth noting that the company is closing some of the largest infrastructure deals in the world out of Winnipeg. The Canadian channel is not a Toronto-only story, and this is a reminder of that. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel.

Send us Fan MailSue Khim is the Co-founder and CEO of Brilliant, the interactive learning platform that has helped millions of learners build deep understanding in math, science, and computer science. In this episode, she shares how Brilliant's new AI tutor, Koji, is designed to develop critical thinking rather than simply provide answers.

https://youtu.be/1Fjm6P43i8k Anastasia Golovko, President and CEO of Tino Digital Agency, is helping businesses build user experiences that work by creating intuitive digital experiences that simplify complex systems and improve the way people interact with technology. By combining strategy, design, and engineering, she helps startups, enterprises, and organizations in highly regulated industries deliver products that people actually enjoy using.  In this conversation, Anastasia introduces the Agency Growth Framework: Build Relationships, Find What’s Broken, Help Your Team Flourish, Nurture Creativity, and Offer Your Customers Relief. She explains why trust is the foundation of lasting client relationships, how identifying user friction creates immediate value, and why empowering creative teams leads to better products and stronger business outcomes. Anastasia also shares how eliminating user friction through live UX audits accelerates business growth, improves customer satisfaction and conversion rates, and demonstrates the importance of user experience in government digital services. — Build User Experiences That Work with Anastasia Golovko  Good day. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast, and my guest today is Anastasia Golovko, President and CEO of Tino Digital Agency, a team of experts specializing in helping companies and startups achieve their goals by providing comprehensive solutions in strategy, design, and engineering. Anastasia, welcome to the show.  Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.  Well, it’s very interesting that you combine strategy, design, and engineering. I have not seen this combination before. So where does this come from?  The foundation for all of this is user experience and the connection to the user that we’re trying to build for many companies. As soon as you start thinking about the user and their experience, they get to enjoy the product more and more, and they get to find the buttons that the clients want them to find in their product.  Okay. So basically, you have to have a strategy first, then you come up with a design, and then you engineer it. Yeah.  The design supports the strategy, and then you have a good product.  Exactly. We also work with startups, and we work with established companies. With startups, we encourage them to reach the market as fast as possible so that they get to prove their hypothesis. Because up until it reaches the customer and starts getting feedback from the customer, it’s all in numbers. It’s all in the… But it’s still a hypothesis of how it will perform. The sooner we’re there—with as few features as possible, while still being valuable—the better. Some clients call it an MVP, and some clients call it a Minimum Lovable Product. Then they can start getting feedback, and those relationships start building between the final user and the product. Yeah, that makes sense. And Lovable is actually also a vibe coding platform, isn’t it? Yeah.  Yeah. That’s right. Maybe that’s where it comes from—that you can get a lovable MVP very fast with vibe coding. So let me start by asking you, what is your personal “why,” and how are you manifesting it in Tino Digital Agency? I recalled such a wonderful story that I want to share with everyone from my childhood. I was born when it was still the USSR. I’m originally from Ukraine, and when the USSR fell apart, everyone was poor. When I was 13 years old, I remember talking to my friends and saying, “When I grow up, I’m going to drive a Jeep Grand Cherokee.” They completely mocked me. They said, “That’s impossible.” I remember that question to this day: “Do you even know how much money that costs? Have you ever seen that much money?” My brain just flipped a switch. I thought to myself, “That’s just money.  It can be made.” Money is there to be made. That mindset, I think, separated me from my childhood friends by giving myself permission to dream big without limitations. Just like somebody dreamed about sending a car to space, they gave themselves permission to think that up. So, ironically, I ended up owning a Jeep Grand Cherokee. We had it for 10 years. A while ago, there were floods in Houston, and the Jeep Grand Cherokee has very good ground clearance, so we were able to get through them.  After I got that car, I remembered this conversation from back in the day. So we started our agency with zero capital and zero connections. Without growing into connections here, that created a set of blocks. So we were attracted to subcontracting for top agencies in LA, Silicon Valley, and Switzerland. Eventually, we landed a massive contract with one of the top Swiss banks, modernizing their digital products as well as rethinking their strategy toward the younger generation. That was my wake-up call. I realized, “Wow, we’re incredibly good at this.” The Swiss bank had such high standards that we had to fit within their branding. They couldn’t rebrand just because we thought something up.  We had to fit into their tight branding and produce a good product within those guidelines. It made me look around the States and realize that—I had already lived here for more than half of my life—we have so much anxiety around finance and healthcare. After that moment, I decided to move our company in those two directions. Maybe our team can actually reduce that anxiety and make a real dent in the well-being of the nation—the well-being of the people who interact with products that are convenient, don't add to the problem, but instead resolve it and make it intuitive.Share on X  Yeah. That’s great. I never heard the combination of finance and healthcare phrased this way—that both of them are a big source of anxiety for people. And if you can fix their problems in these areas, then you can actually reduce their anxiety and increase their well-being. That makes perfect sense. I also love the example of, you know, “what the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve” kind of thing. Visualization is very powerful. It worked in my life as well.  So this is a podcast about frameworks. It’s called Management Blueprint, and what I’m looking for is some kind of, it could be a mental model. It could be some kind of process. Something that simplifies the world and allows you to see things more clearly, make better decisions, or create a bigger impact. So what comes to mind?  I love this question. I love this question, and I love viewing the answers from your other guests to this question, and how everybody approaches it differently. For different people, it is their own world that they built. So, in our world, first, we build relationships. No cold calls. We build these relationships with our clients and with our team.Share on X The digital agency market is oversaturated with low-quality providers who sign the client, then disappear for four weeks, come back, and drop a product that doesn’t relate at all.  Then they come to us. Some of our clients come to us and say that the agency disappears. It’s really important for us to stay in contact. So our first step is building these in-person relationships. That also means visiting conferences, visiting events, showing up wherever it’s needed—before, during, and after the process as well. So I think what we do by building relationships is that we sell trust, not just the code or the design.  Of course. Yeah, that makes sense. In this AI age, when there’s so much noise. When you’re online, you don’t know what’s real and what’s not. But when you meet someone in person at a conference, then you know they’re a flesh-and-blood human being. Yes. And also, describing to a person that user experience is important, that I can do it, and that I do it really well doesn’t really give them value. Rather than just telling them, I can look through the site face to face and find certain things that are broken right there on the spot. It’s not a simple presentation. It’s already proof of my value. So that helps. So that’s first. The next one is the human element. The human element of the team. Our designers and developers are not machines. Each of those teams needs its own approach. They need their own conditions to flourish.  They need their own conditions to be successful. If we keep a creative person locked into FinTech, compliance-driven products for too long, they’ll burn out. It’s two-faced. We try to avoid that as much as possible, but we consider what they’re telling us. We listen. If a designer tells us something isn’t working out, or they’ve hit a creative block, we try to rotate them, give them different exercises, give them a break, and so on. So, listening and rotating. Rotating between different types of projects. But whenever the FinTech project comes back, we need the FinTech team to work on it.  So at this point… Sorry, I have a clarifying question. The previous point was helping your team flourish, basically. By rotating them, is it about helping them gain more experience, not burn out, or create more ideas? So what’s behind this idea of rotating?  It’s the creativity that for it to exist, it needs different challenges. Let’s imagine a FinTech dashboard. It’s tables. It’s tabular. It’s a similar task that they’re solving. They’re solving how to convert tabular formats into digestible formats. Converting tabular formats into something that the user can comprehend quickly. With a food delivery app or a calorie-tracking app, they get to add more colors, use different styles, and solve a different problem. So I think that when they get to solve different problems, they keep their full creative potential.Share on X  Yeah. You’re not allowing them to fall into a rut and just go on autopilot, basically.  Not everyone. Not everyone. We mainly listen. We listen, and whenever we hear the signs that a person is asking for something more creative, we do that. Happy humans build great products.  Yeah, that’s true.  And we’re a service company. Our team is our main advantage.  All right. So you build relationships, you find what’s broken, you help your team flourish, you stimulate or nurture their creativity. So what’s next? What’s the last piece of the puzzle? Is there another piece of the puzzle, or is that it?  Yes. The next step is to provide relief. We could be building everything for everyone, but over time—my company is 10 years old now—and over those 10 years, we became really good at turning something that is complex or heavily regulated. For some reason, clients know that it has to be intuitive. To be competitive, it has to be convenient. Sometimes it’s in industries where they have a lot of competition. Whoever is more convenient for the client will move forward. Not for the client—I mean, for the final user.  Apple philosophy. Yeah. So, to be a relief, to be their right hand, we need to be looking for companies that are undergoing some changes. Maybe it’s a digital transformation. Once, we completed a merger for companies that were providing hosting and security. They merged into one. They needed all of that infrastructure to be brought together. Their internal teams were too busy doing their internal tasks. So for that overhaul, that digital transformation, we come in as a relief squad with the skill to make it intuitive. So we can call it becoming a reliefShare on X Offering relief.  Yeah.  Yeah. It’s a mindset, really. It’s thinking about, “How can I make these people’s lives easier? can I help them do their work better, with less mental strain and less cognitive load?”  And for them, in the end, it’s for their users as well. I often say that we build experiences that work. Every business owner comes up with an idea of what they want their end users to do, but they don’t always find it. They don’t always find it because, somewhere along that chain, there was a UX designer, a UI designer, and a developer who all worked together on that user experience, and something didn’t go right. Typically, with a little bit of data, or just complaints, or just suggestions, the owners and the product owners know what’s not working.  They can see that some registrations aren’t happening, some sign-ups aren’t happening, some applications aren’t being filled out completely, and so on. Some tickets aren’t getting booked. Marketing worked fine, but somehow the carts are being abandoned. Why is my cart being abandoned at the moment when we spend so much money on marketing? We don’t do marketing. We know what marketing is trying to do, but what happened then? So you’re treating the client’s effort as a complex system, and you want to optimize that system so that everything serves the same purpose, it’s simple, and you have a team that keeps improving it.  Yeah. If they have some kind of Google Analytics or Hotjar analytics, it’s always easier to put a number to the words. We can say that this user experience is broken because the consumer is overloaded at the cart. Maybe you’ve seen those shopping carts where there’s a timer, additional upsells, and also some additional decisions they have to make, whether they want insurance or not, and so on. It becomes very overloaded. Sometimes people just close it. It’s too much. So we look at the cart and see how it can be improved to be more pleasant.  Yeah. That’s great. That’s fantastic. So, switching gears here a little bit, what drives growth in your particular business?  That’s what I actually started to talk about. I now realize that this friction audit, UX review, UX evaluation—that gives immediate value. It is the foundation of our business growth.Share on X The thing is how it’s delivered. If I present it in a room and talk about user experience, how it’s important, and how to lay things out, the perceived value is hard to communicate. It can sound abstract unless we’re talking about something specific. Our real growth driver is a live, maybe casual, friction audit.  For example, at a recent conference, a business owner asked me to look at her website. Right there on my phone, I pointed out a few specific UX blocks that were delaying the purchase. I was like, “Look here. Every second user is delayed. They’re drifting away. They have to make two extra clicks to get where they need to be. This click is not necessary. You can remove it. You can place it here instead.” Control dropped. She said, “That’s exactly what I needed.” When business owners see exactly where they’re losing money in real time, that value is undeniable. So you go to these conferences, then you talk to people, they show you their website, and you point out a couple of friction points. Immediately they see, “Wow, you guys could fix that.” That already is value. Then, probably, if you found two friction points in two minutes, if you dive deeper, then you’ll find a lot more, right?  Yeah. That is the ultimate path, which we don’t always take. We can only go to so many conferences and have so many of these conversations. But the opportunity to have that conversation is where the most growth comes from. That’s the optimal way to grow—by showing, not just telling. We definitely have a good presence on the platform for designers called Dribbble. If you search on Dribbble for finance or FinTech products, you'll find me. That already speaks to our experience.Share on X  But this kind of conversion of experience into value for our clients, for those business owners, that’s an add-on. That doesn’t come from a pretty picture. I have many pretty layouts, and those who understand user experience can see it, but that’s not always the case. To understand user experience, you have to have experience. You have to be in that area. Typically, that’s for repeat entrepreneurs. A part of our clients are serial entrepreneurs who keep opening businesses. They can’t stop opening businesses. I think when you’re in that mindset, it’s hard to stop.  Yeah. Some people are good at starting companies, and other people are good at building companies and growing them.  Yeah.  So what’s one thing, Anastasia, that you’re actively trying to figure out in your business right now? I’m actively trying to figure out how to get into the government space—government contracting. That’s a whole different animal. To get a government contract, one of the rating criteria is previous government experience. Today, it’s 2026. Every agency has a website. It means they have a vendor. It means they’ve had a vendor, or somebody has a preferred group of vendors, and so on. Large companies are taking a big part of that market. The market is oversaturated.  Somebody comes in and does a website for dirt cheap, and it’s not good. Not always, but we’ve seen it. We’ve been trying to break into our local market in the city near where I used to live. They had an RFP for a website. I thought, “Oh, I wish I could do that. I know them so well.” But another company came in with a lower offer. I think the website became worse than it was before.  You know, there’s a big gap between commercial company websites and government websites. You try to pay a bill to the government, like taxes, and there are a million clicks. It’s so complicated, and it doesn’t have to be. I can totally relate to this. I say, “Why don’t these people fix this up?”  And I think it partially comes from one of the points that I was making before. It’s that understanding user experience and understanding the value of it isn’t a given. It’s not something that existed a while ago.  That was not one part of the rubric when they evaluated the offers. Exactly. It has to match the existing system. It has to transmit data. It has to be ADA compliant. But nowhere does it say that it has to be convenient for the users.  Yeah.  And we can quantify it. We can gather a user group, gather their feedback, and so on. So right now, on Monday, I’m doing a demo for our first nearly completed government contract. That client actually prioritizes user experience, and she asked, “Could we possibly do user testing with my actual users?” I cannot tell you how much I love that question. Just the fact that she prioritizes that is exactly what we do.  Yeah. Well, you bring a lot of passion to solving problems, and I love that. So if you had a magic wand to fix one thing inside your company in the next 12 months, what would that be?  Being the person who’s always trying to fix something—and in my family, it’s great that I have my business, because otherwise I’d be going around fixing them. Yeah. Yes. My husband would be just enough. So I think the first thing would be to focus on our team and make sure they're always heard. That they get the time they need. That they get their problems resolved on time by senior leadership, by HR, or by whoever is needed.Share on X I’ve noticed several situations where that’s been postponed, or the person doesn’t speak up, or they see that I’m busy, someone else is busy, and they just think, “We didn’t want to bother you.”  Then there comes a point where they’re not happy. That’s too late. We don’t want them to become unhappy. So if I had a magic wand, I would make sure that my team is heard. That’s the most important thing. Once they’re heard, then we can see if it’s solvable, if it’s not solvable, and so on.  Yeah. That’s very important because, ultimately, you said that you want a happy team. Because a happy team does great work. If people feel heard, they’re going to be happier and deliver.  And if somebody’s selling widgets, it’s the equivalent of saying, “I want my widget to be perfect.” For my widget to be perfect… Because we test for skill before we hire, so they already have the skill. They already have good teamwork. I think the environment that we’ve built is already there. We have those foundations for them to be able to apply themselves properly. But then, what if something happens along the way?  Yeah. Love it. I love this human-centric approach that you take—not just for your team, but also how you look at the human user experience, the people, to improve the lives of your customers by designing good products.  Yeah.  So if someone would like to take advantage of your services, or they have some friction that they want to alleviate, or they’re a government agency and they figure, “Well, maybe these guys down in Houston can help us,” where can they reach you, and how can they connect with you personally? It’s very easy. Tino.design is our website. There, you can schedule a call with me. Just choose any time on my calendar and speak with me or my right-hand person. Alexander is also available. Whichever time is more convenient, we can just have a conversation and see whether we can help or not. Okay. So you heard Anastasia Golovko, President and CEO of Tino Digital Agency, down in Houston. She really cares about your company, your user experience, and making sure your people aren’t frustrated using your technology. If you liked what you heard, reach out to them. Check out Tino.design. Book a call. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you follow us on YouTube, give us a review on Apple Podcasts, and stay tuned because every week we have an exciting entrepreneur come and share their best-kept secret framework with us. So thanks, Anastasia, for coming, and thank you for listening. Thank you, Steve. Important Links: Anastasia's  LinkedIn Anastasia's  website

Send us Fan MailJoin hosts Ben Kornell and Alex Sarlin as they cover major edtech acquisitions, the biggest AI announcements from ISTE, the future of assessment, and how AI is reshaping teaching and learning.✨ Episode Highlights:[00:04:15] ETS acquires ACT, reshaping the future of assessment and college admissions[00:08:02] Handshake acquires Uplimit to expand AI upskilling and workforce learning[00:11:55] The debate over screen-free learning and the rise of Yoto[00:17:41] ISTE rebrands and launches a new Edtech Index[00:19:07] Google unveils Gemini Notebooks and new AI tools for classrooms[00:21:10] MagicSchool and Brisk expand their AI platforms for schools[00:27:15] Microsoft survey finds AI adoption reaches 92% of students and 88% of educatorsPlus, special guests:[00:32:10] Karlo Young, CEO of Teachstone, on why human relationships remain the foundation of great teaching in the age of AI[00:53:46] Tom Sayer, Co-founder and CEO of Ello, on building AI tutors that teach like great educators

Shriram Sridharan is the Co-founder and CTO of Rox, an AI-first revenue operating system that helps enterprise sales teams research accounts, automate workflows, and act on timely customer insights. He helps lead the company's product and technical strategy, building AI agents that make sales processes more focused, efficient, and repeatable. Before Rox, Shriram held engineering leadership roles at Confluent and Amazon Web Services, where he worked on scalable data and cloud infrastructure. His work focuses on using AI to turn complex revenue operations into practical systems that help teams win. In this episode… Enterprise sales can do more than track leads and manage deals — it can surface the right signals, automate repetitive work, and give teams more time to build customer relationships. But what separates a sales team using AI as another tool from one using AI agents to actually move revenue forward? Shriram Sridharan, a technical leader who has built large-scale systems at AWS and Confluent, says the key is using revenue agents to automate or augment the entire revenue lifecycle. He highlights the importance of connecting customer data, public signals, and internal workflows so AI can handle account research, meeting preparation, outbound personalization, and RFP detection. Instead of forcing account executives to switch between tools or spend hours on manual research, Shriram explains how agents can deliver the work behind the scenes with a human in the loop. The result is a more focused sales organization where teams spend less time on grunt work and more time generating pipeline, preventing churn, and growing revenue. In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Shriram Sridharan, Co-founder and CTO of Rox, to discuss how revenue agents are reshaping enterprise sales. Shriram breaks down AI agent orchestration, sales signals, data warehouses, outbound automation, and RFP detection. He also shares his founder journey and key influences.

https://youtu.be/_i6C7OstTEI Courtney Berry, President and Co-founder of Bandits & Friends, is driven by a desire to build an advertising agency where trust, creativity, meaningful relationships, and building energy instead of burnout replace bureaucracy and transactional client engagements. Inspired to create more opportunities for women in executive leadership and eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy, Courtney founded Bandits & Friends to prove there is a better way to build both an agency and lasting client partnerships.  In this conversation, Courtney introduces the Bandits & Friends Growth Flywheel: Choose the Right Opportunity, Create Clarity, Empower Ownership, Protect Your Point of View, and Build Energy Instead of Burnout. She explains why selecting the right clients is the foundation of sustainable growth, how clarity and ownership eliminate friction, and why agencies create the most value when they offer strategic judgment instead of simply executing requests. Courtney also explains how trust creates a self-reinforcing growth flywheel and how Bandits & Friends leverages culture, AI, and fractional talent to scale without sacrificing creativity or client relationships. — Build Energy Instead of Burnout with Courtney Berry  Good day, everyone. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast, and today my guest is Courtney Berry, the President and Co-founder of Bandits & Friends, a full-service creative advertising agency that specializes in stealing attention for brands. Courtney, welcome to the show.  Thank you, Steve. Thanks for having me. It’s good to see you.  Well, you have to tell us first about the choice of the brand—Bandits & Friends. I mean, bandit is not typically something that people would want to start building trust with. But obviously your brand is an award-winning one, so you must be doing something right.  That’s right. Well, we’re in the world of advertising. It’s all about branding, so we had to make sure that we had a good name to back it up. Our name, Bandits & Friends, is as much an operating ethos as it is a name. Bandits—we steal attention on behalf of brands. And Friends, that part of the equation, is how we refer to our clients.Share on X We actually try to never even use the word client in our agency because it creates a certain kind of them-versus-us mentality. And so that’s how we got to the name. We liked that it really infused the way that we operated as much as who we were at the end of the day.  Yeah, I like it. And how do clients react to being called friends? Do they take it at face value, or do you choose clients that you feel could fit—could become friends? How do you do that?  That is a great question. One, when we started, we fully thought the Bandits part of the equation was going to be the thing that potential clients really liked. We thought they would understand that that’s exactly what they’re going to an agency for. But what we have found is that it’s the Friends part of the equation that they have all sparked to so much more. Because sometimes it is a very transactional relationship between clients and agencies.  Sometimes there’s a strong difference of opinion when it comes to certain things, and that can create tension between clients and agencies. So when we talk about friendship, what we really mean is that the basis of all of it is trust. We have to trust each other in terms of the brief being right. We have to trust each other to have really honest conversations with one another to get to the real solution that we’re all trying to reach. Friends don’t waste each other’s money at the end of the day. We don’t want to waste our clients’ money, and we don’t want them to waste ours.  Also, friends are really looking for the best for each other. When we want the best for our clients, and they also want the best for us—because friendship really does go two ways—that's a really important component.Share on X And to your other point, not every client is a friend. Not every client really wants to play in that world of having a back-and-forth relationship, with give and take. If that’s not something they’re interested in, then at the end of the day, they’re probably not the right fit for us and our agency culture. It really resonates with me. I used to be kind of an agency owner. It was an investment banking firm. Whenever we had a friendly relationship with a client who really trusted our judgment, who would let us lead, and who would not be receptive to divide-and-rule tactics from acquirers, then we could get so much more out of the transaction.  Absolutely.  We could negotiate harder because we knew they had our back, and we could really push the envelope to get the best results for them. If we didn’t have that, then it was much harder.  It’s so true. When you don’t have that kind of trusting foundation, there’s an element of fear. There’s an element of fear that they’re not going to do good work for me, or they’re going to overcharge me, or they’re going to do a bait and switch. So yeah, you’re exactly right. It’s the same kind of philosophy and mentality in order to get to better work for them and better outcomes.  Yeah. Yeah, love it. Love it. So let me ask you, what is your personal “why,” and how are you manifesting it in Bandits & Friends?  Yes. I had to think about this question a lot, Steve. Unfortunately, I don’t really have a positive answer for this one. I listened to all of your other podcasts, and I thought, “Oh man, mine’s a little bit of a Debbie Downer.” But I guess it is what it is. I started Bandits & Friends because I was really frustrated by two things. First, when I looked around the industry, there just weren’t many examples of women in real power.  In my last role before starting this agency, there wasn’t a single woman in the C-suite of the holding company that I was working for. Not one. There weren’t women making the biggest decisions. There weren’t many examples of the career path that I was looking for. At some point, I realized I could either wait for someone else to carve out that path or I could be the one to help create it for myself and help create a lot of the opportunities that I wish I had seen. So that’s the first one.  The second one—and I think it really manifests itself in an independent agency culture—is that I was really fed up with the bureaucracy of everything. There was too much energy in our industry being spent on politics, approvals, or process instead of the things that make our work happen: the people, the clients, and the work itself. So I really wanted to build a company that could move faster, trust people more, and focus on the things that actually matter.  What we’re being paid for is to focus our time and energy on our clients’ businesses and on creativity. Removing all the bureaucracy really allows us to focus on that. So I guess, to sum up those two things—and really 343: Build Energy Instead of Burnout with Courtney BerryShare on X  Yeah. I mean, Steve Jobs said there are two functions in business: marketing and innovation. In some ways, those two things are the same because if you don’t keep innovating in marketing, you’re not going to steal anyone’s attention. And you have to remove the bureaucracy to create a culture where people can be creative. That’s right. I love it. That is very interesting.  So tell me about this framework. This is a podcast about frameworks. Maybe it’s a little bit misworded in the description that it’s a shortcut. It doesn’t have to be a shortcut. It’s more of a mental model. It’s a way of looking at and simplifying the world that allows you to do good work or create that Bandits impact. So what’s a framework that you could share with the listeners?  Yeah. To your point, I think it’s more of a mentality and approach versus steps that we take because we don’t work in a very linear business. Often, things are running on parallel paths. The way that I try to approach things—and really what ultimately becomes the culture that we're trying to create at this agency—is removing friction to create momentum.Share on X Because if we’re ever static, we’re wasting our money or we’re wasting our clients’ money. Or, to your earlier point, it means that someone else is going to be able to steal attention before we can on behalf of the brands that we work for.  So, removing friction to create momentum. There are kind of five different components that I’ve thought about for this. The first one, which seems so basic, is that I think a lot of times we get so excited by an opportunity that we forget to stop and ask, “Are we choosing the right opportunity for us and what we can do for the brand?” Because not every opportunity that comes across our desk deserves that momentum. When we first get an RFP or an RFI, or some kind of pitch that’s going to happen, we really ask ourselves two things.  One: Can we make money? Sometimes, in this business, you can’t. The answer is no. The other question that we ask ourselves is, “Can we make great creative?” If neither one of those things is true, we move on, and that helps prevent wasting energy and wasting time. If we can’t answer those questions, then we ask more questions of the prospective client. A lot of times, those clients can’t answer either one of those questions, and in those cases, we also move on. So the first step is really about choosing the right opportunities that we think deserve momentum and deserve the stealing of attention.Share on X  The second point is clarity. I think that, in order to be a great leader, you have to be decisive. You have to be someone who is willing to make decisions when no one else can, or no one else is really tasked with making those decisions. So we’re all about creating clarity because momentum really dies in a world of ambiguity. We’re asking ourselves, “What are we solving for? Who owns this? What does success look like? What is the budget?” Don’t ever leave a meeting without knowing the next steps. I think this is also a step that a lot of people skip, or maybe shortchange, and then you’re going to pay for it later.  Third one is all around ownership. When you’re kind of just starting out, you’re just getting going. At the lowest level, people operate with the mindset of, “I do what is assigned to me.” Right? And then managers get to that managerial level, and they’re all about managing on outcomes. “I’m going to make sure this thing that is my responsibility is going to succeed.” Ultimately, what we’re trying to build are the highest-operating types of people who say, “If I see a gap, I close it.” It might be a gap where no one has assigned the task yet, or no one has even identified that it is a gap.  No one owns the problem, but they see it, they own it, and they move it forward. So we're really trying to create that culture where we don't wait for permission to solve problems, and we don't wait for those problems to even be identified.Share on X And that’s where we can really add value to our clients. We don’t wait for that ownership. We just kind of assume that it’s ours, and we run with it.  Love it.  The fourth piece is protecting our point of view. This is probably one of the most difficult. But as a creative agency, we really don’t exist to execute instructions. We exist to bring judgment to a brief. We talk a lot about partnership, and especially at Bandits & Friends, obviously friendship. But what that really means is that we’re not adding value if we’re simply taking instructions and just executing what’s already known. The best agencies come in to provide perspective and judgment because every single time there’s an opinion in the room, if we surrender our point of view, we’re no longer providing that value.  If you think about it, the Apple “1984” commercial, right? That almost didn’t air because Apple’s board hated it. They wanted to pull it. They didn’t want it to go anywhere. So if they had listened to every stakeholder concern, then arguably one of the best ads that a gazillion people are aware of would’ve never existed. It would’ve never aired. So that is a daily struggle and a daily debate for us. But I can’t even believe I’m going to say this on the record, but in our business, the customer is not always right.  We have to make sure that we can defend why we believe that or why we think that there might be a better path forward for them to consider. And last but not least, honestly, it's about having fun. I think a big part for us is that we have to build energy among both our employees and the clients that we're serving instead of burnout.Share on X Again, it’s not always easy, and it’s not just necessarily a cultural thing. It is very behavioral in terms of the way that we do things, the way that we operate under stress, and the way that we take feedback. But the work itself is hard enough already. I’ve never seen people do their best work in a miserable state or a miserable environment.  Again, that goes for both employees and clients. When we do talk about our clients, we often talk about one of our goals being to try to be the best part of their day, and to be the ones who are actually going to have the best meeting they've had that entire week.Share on X And if we only achieve that 50% of the time, at least it’s 50% more fun than they would’ve had otherwise. So, choosing the right opportunities, bringing clarity to what those opportunities are, empowering ownership, protecting our point of view, and having some fun while we’re doing it.  Wow. You really did a good job. I hope you won’t send me a bill for coming up with that. But I resonate with it. Just to your last point, we’re in the experience economy, right? People don’t just want to buy a service. They want to buy an experience. They want to feel good about the process of why they’re doing this ad or why they believe in this creative.  You want to energize them as well because they ultimately have to sell it. If they don’t believe in it and aren’t excited about it, then it’s not going to work as well. I have the same view with my clients. I typically see them once a quarter, and I know that I have to show up. I have to recharge them so that they come out of the meeting feeling like they want to tear apart the next quarter. Yes. That’s right. Otherwise, what separates you from someone else who can tactically and executionally do the exact same thing that anyone else can?  Or AI, even. I mean…  Oh, 100%. Yeah.  I think the emotional part is our competitive advantage compared to AI. Yes. Love it. So, Courtney, tell me, what drives growth in Bandits & Friends? It’s what I’ve been referring to, I guess, kind of throughout our whole conversation, which is, again, maybe on the surface, a little oversimplified. But for us, the biggest driver of growth is trust. Again, it goes back to our philosophy of treating clients like friends, not just because it's a nice thing to say, but because trusted relationships are where the best work happens.Share on X So that becomes the most scalable asset that we have. When you really think about it, creativity—the business that we’re in—is very vulnerable.  So first, you need trust in order to create great work. Then great work creates more trust with the clients you’re working with. That trust can lead to referrals. It can lead to recommendations, which is where a lot of our new business comes from. Those create more opportunities. We’re in a people business at the end of the day. When referrals create opportunities, we’re attracting more talent.  The talent that we have here wants to stay longer, and they want to give more because they’re working on fun and exciting opportunities, briefs, and brands. Then you have talent that creates better work. So it becomes this flywheel at the end of the day. It’s something that we really feel responsible for every time we’re taking on a new friend at the agency. Do we feel like we have the right kind of chemistry to build trust with them in order to create that flywheel? Our clients don’t necessarily hire us because we’re the cheapest.  They don’t necessarily hire us because we have the biggest team. They hire us because they trust our judgment, and they trust the way that we operate. Once that exists, everything starts to open up. Everything starts to move faster. When you can move faster, get to more work, and get that work out into the world, that continues to open up more opportunities and more growth at the end of the day.Share on X  Yeah, I love that. Do you find that you have to lead with your own trust to get trust?  That is such a great question. Yes. I think that we have to prove that we are trusting that they’re coming to us with all of the information that they can give us. I have to trust that they’re being transparent and truthful about the budget they’re giving us. I have to trust, to be honest, that this is a real opportunity they’re coming to us with, that has been approved by all the necessary parties, and that it’s something that’s actually going to move forward and happen.  It’s really hard to do when you’re picking up a call from somebody you’ve never worked with before. You have to assume good intent. At least starting from that place of positivity, I think can help to then create that path towards the ongoing conversations, us proving that we have trust in everything that they’re telling us, so that then they return that same favor to us. Yeah. I mean, sometimes I get the criticism that I’m too trusting of people. Yeah. But it’s a little bit like optimism. If you don’t have optimism, then you have no positive vision to strive for. If you don’t trust people, you have no chance to earn their trust.  Right.  Maybe it’s vulnerability. It’s something to do with vulnerability. Right. But you’re totally right. You definitely have to have those guardrails around trust to make sure that your trust and your optimism aren’t clouding your judgment at the end of the day. That is one of the hardest things, I think, that we have to do with new opportunities because you’re making a lot of assumptions. Sometimes those assumptions are stated, and sometimes they’re not, and you just have to roll with it. Obviously, you win some, you lose some. But hopefully, the more we do it, the more it becomes that positive net effect.  Yeah. So, Courtney, what is something that you’re actively trying to figure out in your business?  Well, I won’t talk about AI because I feel like everyone’s talking about AI, but that is definitely an obvious answer. Operationally, are we using all of the best tools that are out there? Are we staying compliant with our agency agreements and client agreements when we introduce some of those new AI tools? And then, of course, in the world of creativity, everybody’s really questioning how much we should be using AI in final assets versus the human part of things.  From our perspective right now, we’re interested in exploring. We’re interested in understanding how things can continue to help us remove friction from a process in order to get to those fast-moving flywheels that we want everyone at the agency to be operating on. But also, how do we make sure that we’re continuing to bring craft and fidelity to all of the campaigns that we’re working on? So AI is a very obvious one. I think the other thing we’re really trying to figure out at the agency is scaling. The more we’re trying to grow, the more we’re trying to scale.  The processes and behaviors that you have as a young agency can be quite different from those of a more mature agency with several hundred people. What we’re trying to instill is making sure that the behaviors and processes we’re creating and adopting now are scalable for the future. Sometimes that’s easy to figure out, and other times it’s something we really have to evaluate and take into consideration. For example, time sheets. That’s not something we care to do at an independent agency.  One, we think they’re wildly inaccurate. As somebody who used to work at a bunch of holding companies, my Wi-Fi would be turned off if I didn’t enter my time sheets within a certain amount of time. But I think they’re wildly inaccurate. We’re not lawyers. We’re not accountants. We don’t turn our brains off by the hour. We’re constantly thinking about the briefs that we have. I’ve been challenged multiple times on whether that’s a scalable behavior and process for the future.  When you’re several hundred people, you’re going to want to know exactly how much time so-and-so spent on which project. I just don’t think it’s necessary for us. I think there’s a level of organization that we can bring to the way we operate where something like a time sheet is going to be obsolete in our future. But it really all comes down to how we scale and whether we’re making the right choices every single day to support that scale and that growth. Yeah, this is fascinating. Peter Drucker said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Some people say that the most enduring professional service businesses build a unique culture, and that becomes their competitive advantage. So they’re scaling the culture rather than the frameworks, the processes, or whatever else they have. That’s an interesting idea.  As an agency co-founder, what would your advice be to other professionals—maybe on Madison Avenue or wherever they are—working in professional services in some kind of leadership position and thinking about breaking out to do their own thing? What’s one thing you would advise them that maybe wasn’t obvious to you when you got started?  I think, first, if people are really thinking about it and weighing the pros and the cons, if you’re not willing to take a bet on yourself, then that’s a larger conceptual, philosophical conversation that you need to have with yourself. I think, at the end of the day, that’s one of the ultimate things that pushed me forward to start this agency. I wanted to take a bet on myself.  I felt like I had proven myself in a number of different opportunities and roles, and that I was ready for it. If it failed, then all right—that’s a problem for another day. Honestly, on a very tactical level, I think today’s world and the way that we operate in a remote and very fractional sense has been one of the most helpful things for us as an agency. I didn’t know about the world of fractional bookkeeping, fractional CFOs, fractional benefits and payroll providers, or fractional HR.  That creates so much back-office power for us. And it’s so important in terms of making sure that, again, we have behaviors and processes that can scale, where we don’t necessarily have to have all of those employees from an overhead standpoint. That has truly been eye-opening for me in terms of the world that exists outside of hiring full-time employees and this ecosystem that’s there that so many people can tap into in order to really have that firepower to show up in a very legitimate and credible way. Wow. Okay. That’s great. You’re running a remote business, you have fractional people, and you’re leveraging AI without hurting the creativity, hopefully. That’s a model for the 2020s—or the 2030s, potentially. Fantastic. So if someone is yearning for the kind of creative juice that your team is bringing, and they have a product or service that they want to steal some attention for, where can they learn more about Bandits & Friends, and where can they connect with you? Sure. Anyone can go to our website at banditsandfriends.com, or they can email us at hifriend@banditsandfriends.com. We’d love to have a conversation with anyone who’s ready to steal attention and operate with that mindset and philosophy of trust and friendship in order to get to the best ideas that are really going to help drive business results. All right. Well, if you want to befriend Courtney and her friends at Bandits & Friends, then reach out to her. So, Courtney Berry, President and Co-founder of Bandits & Friends, thanks for coming and sharing your unique ideas with us. And if you enjoyed listening, stay tuned to our YouTube channel, follow us, and give us a review. Thanks for coming, and thanks for listening. Important Links: Courtney's  LinkedIn Courtney's  website Courtney's email: hifriend@banditsandfriends.com

Welcome back to #WithSONAR! In this episode, we're walking through the latest enhancements to Batch Rate Intelligence—now upgraded from a simple bulk lane rate lookup tool into a full RFP pricing analysis workspace. With these new enhancements, teams can analyze bids faster, identify margin risk, monitor lane volatility, and make more informed pricing decisions before submitting to customers.

Send us Fan MailSmita Saxena is the Founder of Maestro, an AI coaching platform helping K-12 STEM teachers improve instruction and student outcomes. Alexia Lewis is an 8th Grade Algebra I teacher at KIPP Polaris and a Maestro coach whose students achieved remarkable gains using the platform.

RFP - 'The Japanese Comfort Women and Sexual Slavery during the China and Pacific Wars' (War, Culture and Society) by Caroline Norma, discussed by Caroline Norma and Sheila Jeffreys.A live webinar recorded on 5th July 2026 at 10am UK time.On Sundays (10am UK time), our webinar series Radical Feminist Perspectives offers a chance to hear leading feminists discuss radical feminist theory and politics.Attendance of our live webinars is women-only, register at https://bit.ly/registerRFP

Building relationships with contracting officers before a solicitation ever drops is one of the most overlooked strategies in federal contracting, and it's exactly what separates small businesses who win from those who just show up to bid. In this clip from the Federal Help Center podcast, Randie Ward breaks down how one small business turned years of relationship building into a $2 million job order contract win, plus a federal opportunity that got shortlisted simply because the right people already knew her name. If you are tired of submitting proposals into a black hole, this episode shows you what to do months before the RFP even exists. How researching forecasted opportunities and pre-solicitations before they post helped win a 51-page proposal against multiple competitors Why job order contracts (JOCs) function like an IDIQ and how relationship building unlocked a $2 million, two-year project The rule every contractor should know: program managers and contracting personnel can still talk to you before the RFQ or RFP drops, but not after How maintaining a multi-year relationship with an FAA contact who later became a contracting officer led to new opportunity alerts Why attending industry conferences like SAME (Society of American Military Engineers) and simply introducing yourself can connect you directly with a head of contracting EPISODE CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Introduction to building relationships before bidding 0:32 - How a JOC relationship led to a 2 million dollar win 1:09 - Why the 51 page proposal required strategic preparation 1:46 - Researching pre-solicitations and forecasted opportunities early 2:33 - The rule on contacting officials before the RFQ or RFP 3:10 - Maintaining a long-term relationship with an FAA contracting officer 3:57 - Turning a Christmas check-in into a new contract lead 4:33 - Why showing up on their radar changes your odds 5:08 - Building courage as an introvert to network in person 5:51 - Audience questions on building relationships and getting found 6:14 - Meeting a head of contracting at a SAME conference 7:11 - Closing thoughts on stepping outside your comfort zone Mindy gives you the federal opportunities, agency signals, recompete intel, and pursuit briefs that tell you not just what contracts exist, but which ones to chase and how to win them. Sign up for free Daily Alerts and get opportunities delivered to your inbox before the day starts.

Send us Fan MailJoin hosts Alex Sarlin and special guest host Daniela Pico, Head of Platform at Forum Ventures, as they discuss the AI backlash, workforce transformation, AI literacy, social media regulation, and the evolving future of education technology.✨ Episode Highlights:[00:03:37] Anthropic launches a $150M Claude Core fellowship program for AI workforce development[00:09:09] Why organizations need AI implementation strategies and not just AI licenses[00:15:13] The rise of dedicated AI teams and AI leadership inside organizations[00:16:35] OECD and the European Commission introduce an AI literacy framework for K–12[00:26:10] Bradley County Schools wins a $27M social media lawsuit against major tech platforms[00:29:12] Why edtech should not be conflated with social media and screen time[00:37:15] The decline of EdSurge and what it means for edtech journalism[00:44:37] AI backlash grows as mainstream media shapes public perception[00:49:29] Rebuilding trust in AI through thoughtful implementation and educationPlus, special guests:[00:58:32] Dr. Ran Liu, Chief AI Scientist at Amira Learning, on the evolution of AI-powered reading tutors and the future of intelligent tutoring systems[01:18:39] Antonio Pietri, CEO of PowerSchool, on rebuilding trust, strengthening cybersecurity, and the future of AI in K–12 education

In this episode, we kick things off by examining a massive shift in how freight contract pricing is getting done as Triumph debuts a powerful new RFP management tool designed to help brokers keep pace with drastically compressed pricing cycles. In today's supply-constrained market, some shippers are now repricing contracts as frequently as every thirty days, a brutal acceleration from the traditional annual cycles. The platform draws on real transaction and carrier payment data tied to more than one hundred seventy thousand carriers, providing visibility into approximately seventy percent of North American brokered freight transactions. Next, we explore a major legal battle that could reshape broker disclosure requirements across the entire industry. The case involving Pink Cheetah and Total Quality Logistics heads to oral arguments before the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia on September eleventh. The dispute centers on documents revealing that the carrier received only fifty-six percent of payment for a load, with TQL extracting approximately forty percent commission rather than the customary fourteen to sixteen percent. Finally, we unpack the critical developments surrounding North America's signature trade pact after the U.S. rejected automatic renewal of USMCA in its current form, triggering annual reviews until issues are resolved or the agreement expires in twenty thirty-six. Despite North American trade reaching historic highs last year, this decision creates uncertainty for the trucking industry and the hundreds of billions of dollars in cross-border freight moving annually through major gateways like Laredo, Detroit-Windsor, and Otay Mesa. Follow the FreightWaves Today Podcast Other FreightWaves Shows Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we kick things off by examining a massive shift in how freight contract pricing is getting done as Triumph debuts a powerful new RFP management tool designed to help brokers keep pace with drastically compressed pricing cycles. In today's supply-constrained market, some shippers are now repricing contracts as frequently as every thirty days, a brutal acceleration from the traditional annual cycles. The platform draws on real transaction and carrier payment data tied to more than one hundred seventy thousand carriers, providing visibility into approximately seventy percent of North American brokered freight transactions. Next, we explore a major legal battle that could reshape broker disclosure requirements across the entire industry. The case involving Pink Cheetah and Total Quality Logistics heads to oral arguments before the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia on September eleventh. The dispute centers on documents revealing that the carrier received only fifty-six percent of payment for a load, with TQL extracting approximately forty percent commission rather than the customary fourteen to sixteen percent. Finally, we unpack the critical developments surrounding North America's signature trade pact after the U.S. rejected automatic renewal of USMCA in its current form, triggering annual reviews until issues are resolved or the agreement expires in twenty thirty-six. Despite North American trade reaching historic highs last year, this decision creates uncertainty for the trucking industry and the hundreds of billions of dollars in cross-border freight moving annually through major gateways like Laredo, Detroit-Windsor, and Otay Mesa. Follow the FreightWaves Today Podcast Other FreightWaves Shows Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Freight procurement is still stuck in a world of portals, spreadsheets, and three-month RFP cycles, even though the freight market can flip in weeks. I'm joined by Ryan Soskin, CEO and founder of GoodShip, to unpack why that gap creates expensive surprises for shippers and impossible commitments for brokers and carriers. Ryan's career arc from Coyote Logistics to Convoy gives him a rare view of both execution on the ground and what it takes to build automation that actually works at scale. We get specific about what breaks contract freight pricing: most bids share only origin, destination, volume, and equipment type, while real truckload economics depend on lead time, seasonality, days of week, facility hours, and constraints that never make it into the RFP. That missing context fuels winner's curse, fragile routing guides, tender rejection spikes, and more spot market exposure. From there, we connect procurement to performance management and the need for a shared source of truth, so QBRs stop turning into arguments about on-time definitions and start turning into decisions. Ryan also introduces the idea of network drift: even a “perfect” annual routing guide drifts away from optimal as rates, volumes, and carrier performance change. GoodShip positions itself as a TMS-agnostic system of action that unifies transportation data and recommends corrective moves, including mini-bids and routing guide adjustments. We close with Laney, GoodShip's AI transportation analyst, and where proactive, always-on logistics analytics can take freight network optimization next. If you found this useful, subscribe, share it with a transportation leader on your team, and leave a review with the biggest freight procurement pain you want fixed next.Follow The Freight Pod and host Andrew Silver on LinkedIn.Thanks to our sponsors:Cloneops.ai: Not just AI. Industry-born AI.cloneops.aiBitfreighter: Scale Freight. Not Integration Costs. Win More. Accept More.bitfreighter.comTriumph: Accelerate quote-to-cash with AI-powered invoicing, bank-grade carrier payments, and transaction-based market intelligence.triumph.io/morecapacity

Oklahoma Farm Bureau, the state's largest generalist farm and ranch organization, with a presence in all 77 counties, runs one of the most surprising and effective rural entrepreneurship programs in the country. What started with census data showing rural population decline turned into a state-designated rural business accelerator, a $5.75M rural venture fund, and a statewide technical assistance network. In this conversation, the team shares the origin story, the program structure, the wins, and the hard-won lessons about communicating economic development work to people who've never heard the jargon and don't need to.Topics CoveredThe origin story: how census data, a legislative RFP, and a visionary board turned Farm Bureau into a rural accelerator operatorResults to date: 42 startups, 36 rural communities, 129 jobs created, $20M+ raised, a 95% post-graduate survival rateOklahoma Grassroots Rural and Ag Business Accelerators: a six-month, hybrid (25% in-person) program built for people with farms, families, and full-time jobsSSBCI technical assistance: one-on-one coaching split across western (Sadie) and eastern (Garrett) OklahomaCurriculum work with Oklahoma FFA to support student-run "legacy businesses" and build an agribusiness pathway for the next generationLaunch Rural OK: the resource hub, interactive map, statewide conferences, and the "resource round robin" format that replaced traditional trade-show boothsHow the team finds entrepreneurs: not by going direct to founders, but by building relationships with the first people they call for help (chambers, colleges, legislators, lenders)The venture fund deep dive: how OKFB partnered with Generation Food Rural Partners Fund to become the first fund in USDA history permitted to operate this way, investing only in Oklahoma while giving LPs a return across a $48M national fundA founder story: how a health-tech air filtration startup pivoted into food processing through a single introduction made during the accelerator's boot camp stageWhy "we're on your team for the long haul" and what follow-on support looks like after the six-month program endsThe real barrier in rural economic development: not lack of resources, but communication and trust, and why repeating your story, over and over, in plain language, is the jobHow other states can get started: walk into your local Farm Bureau office, or call Oklahoma Farm Bureau directlyResources: Connect with AmarieLaunch Rural OK

Send us Fan MailJoin hosts Alex Sarlin and special guest co-host Gemma Lenowitz Picot of Samvid Ventures as they break down the latest developments in AI, workforce development, edtech adoption, and education policy.✨ Episode Highlights:[00:03:26] OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic expand AI workforce training initiatives[00:10:30] Data center investments create new opportunities for workforce development[00:15:59] Anthropic launches Claude Core to help nonprofits adopt AI[00:21:00] AI safety concerns raise questions about education-specific AI models[00:27:23] Khanmigo tops the new EdTech AI Visibility Index[00:33:40] Teacher requests for AI tools on DonorsChoose have tripled[00:38:26] AI adoption may accelerate growth in microschools and school choice[00:41:22] UK proposes banning social media access for children under 16[00:42:37] UK expands AI tutoring access for low-income students[00:50:18] Satya Nadella introduces the concept of AI-powered organizational learning loopsPlus, special guests:[00:54:02] Tom ap Simon, President of Higher Education and Virtual Learning at Pearson, on AI readiness, career pathways, and workforce outcomes [01:16:03] France Hoang, Founder and CEO of BoodleBox, on AI collaboration, financial literacy, and preparing learners for an AI-powered future 

Send us Fan MailAnthony Salcito is President & GM of Enterprise at Coursera, where he leads partnerships with enterprises, universities, and governments to build job-relevant skills at scale. Previously, he held leadership roles at Microsoft and Nerdy (Varsity Tutors), and has spent his career at the intersection of technology, education, and workforce development.

RFP - 'Zest for life - Lesbians' Experience of Menopause' by Jennifer Kelly discussed by Sheila Jeffreys, Renate Klein and Jennifer Kelly.A live webinar recorded on 28th June 2026 at 10am UK time.On Sundays (10am UK time), our webinar series Radical Feminist Perspectives offers a chance to hear leading feminists discuss radical feminist theory and politics.Attendance of our live webinars is women-only, register at https://bit.ly/registerRFP

Shaping a government solicitation before the RFP drops is one of the most powerful competitive moves a small business can make and in this episode, Ryan Atencio walks through a live sources sought response strategy designed to nudge an active DoD training requirement toward a small business set-aside on Seaport Next Generation. This is real BD strategy in action, not theory. How to structure a sources sought response that recommends minimum requirements, acquisition strategy, and contract type all designed to eliminate low-price technically acceptable (LPTA) races to the bottom and filter out unqualified competitors Why joint venturing with the large business incumbent before the solicitation drops is the smartest teaming play a small business can make, and how to position that JV as a zero-risk transition solution for the contracting officer The staffing and recruiting mindset that drives wins in professional services contracting why putting the right people in seats is the only skill that truly matters for service contract capture How to use past performance from elite DoD customers like Naval Special Warfare (SEAL Teams) to build confidence with risk-averse contracting officers who hate change Why Eric prices every bid as if it is LPTA regardless of contract type and how that discipline keeps him competitive even when best-value trade-off evaluations are in play EPISODE CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Introducing Mindy AI and the federal research gap 0:30 - Welcome to the Federal Help Center podcast 0:52 - Seaport NxG strategy to cut out LPTA competition 1:20 - Why staffing and recruiting wins all service contracts 1:50 - Using elite past performance to build contracting officer confidence 2:48 - Why customers want the incumbent and how to neutralize that 3:17 - Joint venturing with T3i as a zero-risk transition play 4:17 - Writing industry recommendations that shape the requirement 5:14 - Pushing the set-aside, contract type, and NAICS strategy 5:39 - Pricing everything like LPTA even on best-value awards 6:36 - Adding specialized capabilities like UAS and pyro to the requirement 8:03 - Firm fixed price versus time and materials risk explained 9:55 - Final thoughts on small business set-aside advantages Mindy gives you the federal opportunities, agency signals, recompete intel, and pursuit briefs that tell you not just what contracts exist, but which ones to chase and how to win them. Sign up for free Daily Alerts and get opportunities delivered to your inbox before the day starts.

If you've ever wondered how to verify government contract outreach is legitimate, this episode breaks down exactly what to look for before you respond to that surprise DOD or Air Force email. A small business owner shares a message he received from a self-described government partner asking to "share his account list," and Colin and the Federal Help Center community walk through how to separate a real opportunity from a setup. Key takeaways from this episode: How to cross-reference a contact's LinkedIn profile and sam.gov or FPDS listing to confirm they're a real government partner Why CEOs and agencies almost never cold-contact small businesses unless it's tied to a source sought notice, RFP response, or notice of award How to spot the "pay $8,000 to get this software and we'll send you contracts" scam and other pipeline-selling schemes Why a notice of award means you won, and why protesting a small SAP award under $250K is usually a waste of time How to build out your sam.gov profile, NAICS codes, and capability statement to position yourself for subcontracting work while you build prime relationships Why the government is risk-averse, never pays upfront, and what that means for your invoicing process EPISODE CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Welcome to the Federal Help Center podcast 0:57 - Building a capability statement and sam.gov profile 1:36 - A mysterious DOD Air Force contact reaches out 3:40 - Why legitimate agencies rarely cold contact small businesses 4:49 - Verifying outreach through LinkedIn sam.gov and FPDS 5:31 - Red flag the 250000 dollar app scam 6:02 - Source sought RFPs and notice of award explained 7:55 - Why government agencies never pay contractors upfront 9:05 - You're not new to work just to govcon Mindy gives you the federal opportunities, agency signals, recompete intel, and pursuit briefs that tell you not just what contracts exist, but which ones to chase and how to win them. Sign up for free Daily Alerts and get opportunities delivered to your inbox before the day starts.

Donald Berryman is the Founder & Managing Director at ProfectusCX. He is based in Florida, USA. Don writes a LinkedIn newsletter called The CX Advisor Perspective. He recently published several newsletters focused on how the enterprise to BPO relationship needs to develop - to bridge new AI technology use and also to change how BPOs charge for their services. Mark Hillary called Don to explore the issues he raised and how he sees the future of the bridge between the enterprise and BPO and the RFP supplier selection process.   ProfectusCX https://profectuscx.com/ Don Berryman - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/don-berryman/ The CX Advisor Perspective https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/the-cx-advisor-perspective-7460298175136911361/   Summary Mark Hillary and Peter Ryan discuss the evolving CX landscape with Don Berryman, an advisor at Bain and founder of ProfectusCX. Berryman's LinkedIn newsletter, "The CX Advisor Perspective," highlights the need for both BPOs and enterprises to adapt to AI technology. He argues that enterprises must move beyond outdated procurement methods and focus on strategic AI investments to improve customer experience. Berryman emphasizes the shift from headcount-based pricing to outcome-based models, such as per resolved issue or CSAT. He also stresses the importance of co-managed contact centers and the need for BPOs to invest in strategic people and technology to stay competitive.

Most client briefs describe symptoms, not the real problem. In this episode, Emma Beckmann explains why Consultative Selling starts by challenging assumptions, uncovering hidden business challenges, and reframing the conversation before proposing a solution. Harry sits down with Emma Beckmann, Group Chief Growth Officer at Landor, to explore why many B2B sales teams, agencies, and consultants accidentally commoditize themselves by responding to briefs at face value. From sales discovery and value based selling to proposal strategy, growth strategy, and trusted advisor relationships, Emma shares a practical framework for uncovering what clients actually need rather than simply delivering what they ask for.

Send us Fan MailGeorge Siemens is the Chief AI & Innovation Officer at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) and one of the most influential learning theorists in modern education. He is the creator of Connectivism, co-creator of the first MOOC, and a leading voice on how AI is reshaping learning, higher education, and knowledge itself.

Friday, June 19, 2026 - Week 25   June 21 is SYNGAP1 Awareness Day, but we have made it SYNGAP1 Awareness month!  Why 6/21? Because 6p21.32  Donate!  cureSYNGAP1.org/Donate    #ThisIsOursToLose & #BurdenHopeProgress watch #S10e208 https://curesyngap1.org/podcasts/syngap10/tony-update-thisisourstolose-more-great-results-from-camp4-nightofimpact-in-9-days-s10e208/    New family email, very good, lots of questions.  It's all here.  Reach out, we are here for you and you are welcome in this community – you are part of it whether you like it or not. Raise money.  Join our host committee for 2nd SF event next year. Believe that we are doing the best we possibly can, and you would be adrift without a PAG.  If you think this is painful, imagine if we weren't here! Register for the Conference.  Book tickets to DEN now.  cureSYNGAP1.org/Denver Join us -- make this org better for all of us and all our kids for all their lives.   Complex work doesn't fit neatly in 10 minutes anymore... Health Economics and Market Access work is going well, we will put out an RFP shortly.   NATURAL HISTORY Goes On!  Make sure you are in it. https://curesyngap1.org/resources/studies/syngap1-prommis/ Orlando/McKee Grant "Validating Remote Developmental Assessments in SYNGAP1-Related Disorders" cureSYNGAP1.org/PR49    

Send us Fan MailJoin hosts Alex Sarlin and special guest co-host Thomas Rodgers of Whiteboard Advisors as they explore the latest developments in AI, edtech policy, learning outcomes, cybersecurity, and the future of AI-powered education.✨ Episode Highlights:[00:03:39] Anthropic's Claude Fable launch sparks discussion about the next generation of AI capabilities[00:09:07] Meta launches a workforce academy initiative focused on data center and skilled trade careers[00:17:47] The growing edtech and AI “techlash” raises questions about technology's role in schools[00:20:01] Why screen-time debates often overlook the quality of technology use in classrooms[00:29:50] New NAEP results show recovery among 9-year-olds but continued challenges for older students[00:30:38] Reading for fun among 13-year-olds continues its long-term decline[00:33:23] Code.org rebrands as CodeAI, signaling a broader shift toward AI literacyPlus, special guests:[00:34:57] Yi Ng, Founder of Curiosities AI, on designing AI that builds curiosity, critical thinking, and communication skills[01:11:23] Dr. Rob Abel, Former CEO of 1EdTech and Founder of EdTech Futures, on the Instructure Canvas breach, cybersecurity risks, and accountability in edtech infrastructure

In a relationship-driven niche like healthcare IT, the deal happens in the room, not the inbox. In this episode of Content Amplified, Larry Kaiser, Chief Marketing Officer at Optimum Healthcare IT, explains why a little over 60% of his budget goes to events and how he stretches each one across his whole content engine. Larry walks through his year at the two biggest healthcare IT shows, Vive and HIMSS, where he runs booths, stage presentations, and sponsored white-labeled receptions that put his team in front of CIOs as the only vendor in the room. He shares how he takes a single filmed event presentation and repurposes it into a blog post, a white paper, and a podcast episode to pull maximum value out of a $25,000 sponsorship. He also makes the case for LinkedIn-first distribution, with 205,000 followers and close to 60,000 newsletter subscribers, because email is dead with healthcare IT CIOs who told him it will never reach them. Plus why he keeps his content roughly 90% brand and 10% individuals. If you spend real money on events, this conversation shows you how to make it work harder.About LarryLarry Kaiser is the Chief Marketing Officer at Optimum Healthcare IT, a staffing and digital transformation consulting firm that works with provider organizations on Epic EHR, ServiceNow, Workday, and AWS. He has spent 22 years in healthcare IT, an industry he never expected to stay in this long. Larry got his start as an RFP manager and became CMO about six years ago, hitting nearly every aspect of marketing in healthcare IT along the way.Show NotesConnect with Larry on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lawrencekaiser/Text us what you think about this episode!

Alex is back. The Knicks are World Champions! The World Cup is here, and so are many people from all over the world discovering American delicacies like BBQ, Costco, and complimentary chips and salsa. Zorhan was at the finals and the World Cup, and had time to drop the hottest RFP for NYC Groceries, with all of New York's best studios chomping at the bit for the job. Coke launches collectible World Cup cans. Coors launches a super tallboy (not filled with beer, yet). Stadiums debrand at FIFA's request. JKR rebrands KFC. Tom Brady launches Good Nut. This and more right from the epicenter of it all, NYC!

Send us Fan MailIn this special crossover episode, Edtech Insiders host Ben Kornell joins Allison Salisbury, author of The Humanist, for a wide-ranging conversation about AI, education, workforce development, and the future of learning. Together, they explore how AI could reshape assessment, personalized learning, school design, and the skills students will need to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

Capture management is the govcon skill most small businesses ignore, and it's exactly why they keep losing to companies that start working the opportunity before the RFP ever drops. In this episode, Ryan Atencio pulls back the curtain on his live source-sought response process, showing exactly how he shapes solicitations to scope toward his company, knock out low-price competitors, and signal to the government that his firm is the obvious choice before evaluation even begins. What you'll learn in this episode: How to use a source-sought response to nudge an acquisition toward a contract vehicle like Seaport that limits your competition pool before the solicitation is even released Why pushing the government from LPTA to best value trade-off is one of the most powerful competitive moves a prime contractor can make, and how to justify it in writing How to suggest minimum past performance requirements, including contract numbers and work descriptions, that disqualify unqualified competitors right inside the solicitation language Why Ryan prices every proposal as if it's LPTA even when it isn't, and how that discipline protects your margins without costing you the win How to align your source-sought response language directly to the statement of work so that when the solicitation drops, the agency already sees your company reflected in it EPISODE CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Mindy AI intro and what it does for small businesses 0:30 - Welcome to the Federal Help Center Podcast 0:48 - Ryan Atencio breaks down his capture management approach 1:29 - Live walkthrough of a real source-sought response 2:26 - How to write an executive summary that mirrors the SOW 2:38 - Why Seaport narrows competition and how to nudge toward it 4:16 - Making recommendations inside your source-sought response 4:44 - Why Ryan always pushes from LPTA to best value trade-off 6:16 - How evaluation factors and pricing strategy work together 9:03 - Requiring contract numbers to eliminate unqualified bidders 10:04 - How to know if your source-sought nudge worked when the RFP drops 10:36 - Federal Help Center community close and call to action Mindy gives you the federal opportunities, agency signals, recompete intel, and pursuit briefs that tell you not just what contracts exist, but which ones to chase and how to win them. Sign up for free Daily Alerts and get opportunities delivered to your inbox before the day starts.

RFP - 'Woman Hating' by Andrea Dworkin, discussed by Elizabeth Miller. A live webinar on 14th June 2026 at 10am UK time.On Sundays (10am UK time), our webinar series Radical Feminist Perspectives offers a chance to hear leading feminists discuss radical feminist theory and politics.Attendance of our live webinars is women-only, register at https://bit.ly/registerRFP

Send us Fan MailJoin hosts Alex Sarlin and guest co-host Matt Tower of Whiteboard Advisors as they explore the latest developments in AI, workforce learning, edtech innovation, and literacy instruction.✨ Episode Highlights:[00:03:24] OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI prepare for potential IPOs[00:07:45] Anthropic surpasses OpenAI in valuation as enterprise AI adoption grows[00:08:59] Byju Raveendran's legal challenges raise questions about edtech governance[00:11:23] Handshake's growth contrasts with Chegg's struggles in the AI era[00:14:03] Coursera, Udemy, and the future of AI-driven workforce upskilling[00:19:10] The debate over AI's impact on jobs, careers, and the labor market[00:25:41] AI enables the rise of highly scalable one-person companies[00:27:32] The emergence of “purple collar” jobs in the AI economy[00:31:45] Why AI upskilling may be the biggest opportunity in education[00:33:34] OpenAI expands higher education partnerships across major university systems[00:38:33] Embedded learning and AI-powered skill development inside workplace tools[00:40:48] Balancing educational technology benefits with screen-time concernsPlus, special guests:[00:42:12] Vikas Pota, Founder of T4 Education, on the Global EdTech Prize, educator-led innovation, and the opportunities and risks of AI in education[00:57:30] Keri Dixon, CEO of Wilson Language Training, on the science of reading, structured literacy implementation, and AI as a tool to support effective teaching

Writing an RFP can feel overwhelming, especially when you're tasked with creating one for the first time. In this episode of Confessions of a Higher Ed CMO, Jaime Hunt sits down with Louis Miller to demystify the RFP process and share practical advice for higher education marketers navigating agency partnerships, procurement requirements, and major marketing investments. Drawing on years of experience from both the campus and agency sides, they explore what separates effective RFPs from frustrating ones, how institutions can attract stronger vendor responses, and why clarity around goals, timelines, and budgets leads to better outcomes. Whether you're preparing for a website redesign, brand refresh, media campaign, or another strategic initiative, this conversation offers actionable guidance for creating RFPs that drive real results. Guest Name: Louis Miller, Executive Partner, Electric Kite Guest Social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louismiller/ Guest Bio: Louis Miller is an Executive Partner at Electric Kite, a full-service creative marketing agency specializing in helping higher ed partners tell their stories in engaging ways. He is also General Manager of Volt, where higher ed marketers go to sharpen their skills to be the force that pushes their institutions forward. . He has worked with partners from the Ivy League to K12 and everything in between. Prior to his current roles, Louis held marketing and digital strategy roles at Comcast and Audible.com. - - - -Connect With Our Host:Jaime Hunthttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jaimehunt/https://twitter.com/JaimeHuntIMCAbout The Enrollify Podcast Network:Confessions of a Higher Ed CMO is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you'll like other Enrollify shows too! Enrollify is made possible by Element451 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Send us Fan MailIn this episode of the WTR Small-Cap Spotlight podcast, Gautam Garg, Vice President of Finance of eGain Corporation (NASDAQ: EGAN), joins host Tim Gerdeman, Vice Chair, Co-Founder, and Chief Marketing Officer of Water Tower Research, and WTR Analyst James Kisner.eGain is a leader in AI-powered knowledge management, helping Global 2000 enterprises unify siloed content into an AI Knowledge Hub that delivers accurate, compliant answers across customer service and adjacent functions.Garg explains why trusted knowledge has emerged as core AI infrastructure and why enterprise AI initiatives frequently underperform when built on stale or inconsistent data. He walks through recent product launches including the AI Knowledge Suite for Retail Banking, the IVA voice agent, Evaluator, Agentic Studio, and the developer-focused Composer platform, which supports integrations with Copilot, Claude, Gemini, and Cursor via MCP connectors.The conversation also covers a surge in RFP activity, a fast-growing partner ecosystem, expansion into HR and field service verticals, and eGain's profitable, debt-free financial profile heading into fiscal year 2027.

#senado #pnp #tierraspúblicas El Senado investiga cómo se dieron y con qué cabilderos, los decretos a desarrollo de lujo en Distrito de Convenciones. ¿Llegarán hasta cómo se vendieron parcelas en administración Pierluisi a un ex jefe de agencia de Luis Fortuño, sin subasta ni RFP? O ¿sólo lo que implica a que son clientes de Politank? Te traemos la historia con evidencia y documentos. ¡Conéctate, comenta y comparte! #periodismoindependiente #periodismodigital #periodismoinvestigativo Síguenos en nuestras redes sociales: tiktok.com: https://x.com/Bonita_Radio Facebook: / bonitaradio Instagram: / bonitaradio X: https://x.com/Bonita_Radio

Send us Fan MailLisa Gevelber is the founder and leader of Grow with Google, Google's economic opportunity initiative focused on helping people build skills, careers, and businesses. Through Google Career Certificates and AI training programs, she has helped millions of learners develop workforce-ready skills and navigate an increasingly AI-driven economy.

In this episode of Better Business, Better Life, Debra Chantry-Taylor explores how EOS and AI can give your team 10 hours back every week with AI strategist, author, and CEO of Bizukka, John Munsell.As AI continues to reshape the way organisations operate, many businesses are rushing to implement new tools without the governance, training, or strategy needed to use them effectively. John explains why this approach creates significant risks and often prevents companies from achieving the productivity gains they expect.Drawing on his experience as CEO of Bizukka and creator of the AI Strategy Canvas, John introduces the concept of the 10 Levels of AI Mastery, a framework designed to help organisations build AI capability in a structured and responsible way. Rather than jumping straight into advanced automation, he argues that businesses must first develop collective expertise, clear processes, and strong AI governance.Throughout the conversation, John shares practical examples of how AI can dramatically improve efficiency when implemented correctly. One standout case study reveals how a CEO used AI to streamline complex RFP responses, reducing a three-week process to just three days and saving more than $70,000 in the process.Debra and John also discuss the growing security concerns surrounding AI, including phishing attacks, autonomous agents, and the risks of employees using AI tools without proper oversight. John warns that poor AI adoption is not simply a technology problem. It is a leadership problem that requires education, accountability, and clear policies across the organisation.The discussion covers how businesses can integrate AI into every department, the importance of upskilling employees, and why organisations that invest in training can unlock 10 to 12 hours of productive time per employee every week.John also shares insights into advanced AI tools, practical implementation strategies, and the importance of balancing innovation with governance. He introduces his AI Impact Analysis tool and explains how businesses can assess their readiness for AI before making significant investments.This episode is essential listening for business owners and leadership teams who want to harness the power of AI while avoiding the costly consequences of poor AI adoption, ensuring technology becomes a competitive advantage rather than a business risk.CONNECT WITH DEBRA:   ___________________________________________        ►Debra Chantry-Taylor is a Certified EOS Implementer | Entrepreneurial Leadership & Business Coach | Business Owner►Connect with Debra: debra@businessaction.com.au ►See how she can help you: https://businessaction.co.nz/►Claim Your Free E-Book: https://www.businessaction.co.nz/free-e-book/___________________________________________      GUEST'S DETAILS: ► John Munsell – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwmunsell/► Website: Bizzuka: www.bizzuka.comEpisode 275 Chapters:  00:00 – Introduction00:40 – Impact of AI on Businesses04:23 – Levels of AI Mastery12:54 – AI in Business Operations17:50 – Common Mistakes in AI Implementation26:11 – AI Governance and Security34:41 – Tools and Resources for AI Implementation35:00 – Practical Tips for AI Adoption35:16 – Community and Support for AI Implementation37:17 – Final Thoughts and Next Steps

Send us Fan MailJoin hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell as they discuss the growing backlash against AI and screen time in schools, the launch of a federal education tax credit, promising new evidence for AI-powered remediation, workforce disruption from AI, and the future of higher education with Noah Pickus of Duke University.✨ Episode Highlights:[00:03:40] AFT shifts its position on AI and screen time in schools[00:07:25] i-Ready faces growing parent backlash despite strong adoption and efficacy data[00:13:36] New federal Education Freedom Tax Credit could accelerate school choice and supplemental learning[00:17:46] Education savings accounts create new opportunities for edtech business models[00:20:09] New research highlights AI's potential to help students catch up academically[00:23:16] Guided practice emerges as a promising framework for AI-powered learning[00:24:56] Survey finds 99% of executives expect AI-driven workforce reductions within two years[00:31:29] Anthropic's rapid growth reshapes the competitive landscape for generative AIPlus, special guests:[00:35:39] Noah Pickus, Head of Global Strategy and Partnerships and Senior Advisor to the Provost at Duke University, on the Future Universities Alliance and reimagining higher education globally

Charles Hoskinson recently addressed the challenges facing Cardano in a candid video, highlighting the limits of his influence and the realities of on-chain governance. In this episode we explore what the shift to community-driven decision making really means for the ecosystem, the treasury funding debates, and why several projects are struggling in the current market.We break down the governance era, the role of D-Reps, Project Catalyst learnings, and the practical difficulties of reviewing dozens of technical proposals. The discussion covers why executive function is needed, how allocated budgets and RFPs could improve the process, and what it will take to steer Cardano through the current bear market while retaining talent and research capacity.0:00 Intro1:45 Charles Has No Control4:20 The Governance Era Shift8:10 Treasury and Funding Reality12:30 Why Projects Are Failing16:45 D-Reps and Voting Challenges21:10 Lessons From Project Catalyst25:40 Improving the Process29:15 Where to From Here33:50 Wrap UpKey Takeaways:- Charles Hoskinson has no direct control over Cardano governance, treasury, or protocol changes after the Genesis keys were burnt.- On-chain governance has moved decision-making power to the community through proposals and voting.- Multiple projects including TapTools and JPEG Store are facing closure due to difficult market conditions and lack of sustainable funding.- The Cardano treasury once held significant value but has declined with market conditions; spending decisions are now fully community-driven.- D-Reps (Delegate Representatives) help voters delegate their voting power when they lack time or expertise to review proposals.- High volume of governance proposals (around 99 recently) makes informed voting difficult for many participants.- Project Catalyst provided valuable early learnings on on-chain governance before the current system launched.- Suggestions for improvement include allocated budgets per vertical, RFP-style bidding, and clearer strategic direction.Links & References:- TapTools - YouTube: https://link.learncardano.io/7iia6DWebsite: https://link.learncardano.io/bQ68RcX/Twitter: https://link.learncardano.io/3a1QtvDisclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only. Nothing constitutes financial advice.DISCLAIMER: This content is for informational and educational purposes only and is not financial, investment, or legal advice. I am not affiliated with, nor compensated by, the project discussed—no tokens, payments, or incentives received. I do not hold a stake in the project, including private or future allocations. All views are my own, based on public information. Always do your own research and consult a licensed advisor before investing. Crypto investments carry high risk, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. I am not responsible for any decisions you make based on this content.

Finding the government contracting decision maker before an RFP is posted is the difference between a reactive bid and a winning pursuit. In this episode, Randie Ward walks you through the exact research process she uses to identify program managers, contracting officers, and end users at target agencies long before a solicitation ever hits SAM.gov. If you've been waiting for the RFP to drop before you start your outreach, this episode will change how you run your pipeline. How to use Acquisition Gateway to pull names from upcoming opportunities and identify the first person of interest at a target agency or office Why the small business liaison is your first line of defense and exactly how to frame your outreach when they don't respond The SAM.gov search technique that reveals whether a contracting officer regularly awards in your NAICS code, so you know which relationships are worth building How to cross-reference names from SAM.gov against LinkedIn to map the decision-making team at a specific office before any questions are allowed on an RFP Why govcon consultants log contracting officers by contract type across clients, and how that intelligence compounds into a repeatable business development system EPISODE CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Mindy AI intro and govcongiants.com ad spot 0:30 - Welcome to the Federal Help Center podcast with Eric Coffie 0:57 - Why pre-RFP relationship building wins more contracts 1:59 - How to find decision makers at your target agencies and offices 2:36 - Using Acquisition Gateway to identify names on upcoming opportunities 3:15 - Identifying SDVOSB set-aside contacts at the National Cemetery Administration 3:51 - Why the small business liaison is your first outreach point 4:36 - How to frame outreach when the small business person does not respond 5:05 - Searching LinkedIn to locate program managers and administration specialists 6:28 - Using SAM.gov to find contracting officers by NAICS code 7:03 - How to confirm a contracting officer's contract history and NAICS patterns 7:43 - Why consultants log decision makers across clients for long-term BD leverage 8:05 - Closing and join the Federal Help Center community Mindy gives you the federal opportunities, agency signals, recompete intel, and pursuit briefs that tell you not just what contracts exist, but which ones to chase and how to win them. Sign up for free Daily Alerts and get opportunities delivered to your inbox before the day starts.

Megan Buchbinder, Director of Marketing at Wilmington and Beaches CVB, joins Adam to challenge how DMOs measure value, why Google Ads may be doing more harm than good, and how she redesigned her agency RFP process from scratch — and actually made it fun. Subscribe to our ⁠⁠⁠⁠newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠! The ⁠⁠⁠⁠Destination Marketing Podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠ is a part of the ⁠⁠⁠⁠Destination Marketing Podcast Network⁠⁠⁠⁠. It is hosted by Adam Stoker and produced by Brand Revolt. If you are interested in any of Brand Revolt's services, please email ⁠⁠⁠⁠adam@thebrandrevolt.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ or visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.thebrandrevolt.com⁠⁠⁠⁠. To learn more about the Destination Marketing Podcast network and to listen to our other shows, please visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.thedmpn.com⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you are interested in joining the network, please email ⁠⁠⁠⁠adam@thebrandrevolt.com⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Michael R. Caplan is the Chief Operating Officer of Lowenstein Sandler, where he oversees the firm's business, financial, and administrative operations. Before joining Lowenstein, Mike served as COO at an Am Law 50 firm for nearly a decade and spent years leading legal operations at Goldman Sachs and Marsh McLennan, giving him a client-side perspective most law firm COOs simply don't have. With more than 25 years of experience across accounting, financial services, and consulting, he has worked with more than 30 general counsels on data analytics, technology implementation, and law firm relationship management. His leadership has earned him recognition as one of the Financial Times North America's top five Legal Intrapreneurs, Legal Innovator of the Year from The Changing Lawyer Awards, and a spot on NJBIZ's Law Power List for two consecutive years. WHAT'S COVERED IN THIS EPISODE ABOUT HOW A CLIENT-FACING COO IS CHANGING THE BUSINESS OF LAW Law firm COOs typically manage operations and execute on what firm leadership puts forward. They respond to partners, oversee administration, and stay behind the scenes while lawyers own every client relationship. Even when clients have their own operational counterparts who would benefit from connecting with their law firm's business professionals, those introductions rarely happen. Michael Caplan has spent the last decade building a different model. At Lowenstein Sandler, he and his Business Enterprise Solutions Team work alongside lawyers in pitches, RFP negotiations, and client meetings, bringing expertise in pricing, technology, project management, and data analytics directly into the relationship. The approach requires internal trust, a firm culture that supports it, and the right people on both sides of the conversation. But when it works, clients get a partner that understands both the practice of law and the business of law, and the firm differentiates itself in ways that go beyond the legal work. In this episode of The Lawyer's Edge, Elise Holtzman talks with Michael Caplan of Lowenstein Sandler about what it looks like when business professionals are embedded in client development, how to build internal trust so lawyers bring operations leaders into client relationships, the financial discipline that separates good revenue from bad revenue, and where private equity and AI may reshape law firm operations in the years ahead. 2:43- How Mike's client-side experience at Goldman Sachs and Marsh McLennan shaped his approach 5:53 - Building the Business Enterprise Solutions Team (BEST) at Lowenstein 7:18 - Getting lawyers on board and building internal trust 8:55 - Showing wins to bring more lawyers into the model 9:27 - The financial side of the COO role and negotiating pricing with clients 12:49 - Where emerging partners need the most help on collections and client management 15:14 - What smaller and midsize firms should think about when building an operations team 20:02 - Non-lawyer ownership, private equity, and the MSO model in law firms 22:26 - AI, legal technology, and why firms that invest in business resources will be more profitable 27:22 - Why most COOs wouldn't do this podcast and what holds firms back 33:31 - What clients actually get from a firm that embeds operations into relationships 36:19 - Getting the right people in front of the right clients Mentioned in How a Client-Facing COO is Changing the Business of Law Lowenstein Sandler | LinkedIn Michael Caplan on LinkedIn Get connected with the coaching team: hello@thelawyersedge.com The Lawyer's Edge SPONSOR FOR THIS EPISODE This episode is brought to you by the coaching team at The Lawyer's Edge, a training and coaching firm that has been focused exclusively on lawyers and law firms since 2008. Each member of the team is a trained, certified, and experienced professional coach—and either a former practicing attorney or a former law firm marketing and business development professional. Whatever your professional objectives, our coaches can help you achieve your goals more quickly, more easily, and with significantly less stress. To get connected with your coach, fill out our contact form.

Government contracts can pay 2.5x more than residential jobs, yet many service businesses overlook them entirely. In this episode of Masters of Home Service, host Adam Sylvester sits down with Anatoly Nazarov, owner of N&P Cleaners, to unpack how small businesses can break into government contracting and start winning profitable bids. From finding bids to understanding RFPs, Anatoly shares what contractors need to know before getting started. Show Notes: [00:26] Where can small businesses find government contracts? [01:07] RFQs and mandatory bid meetings  [01:50] Inside a 100-page government RFP packet [03:38] How does government contract bidding work? [04:32] How long does it take to win a government contract? [05:07] Government contracts vs commercial jobs [06:27] How long do government contracts last? [07:47] The cash flow delay behind government contracts [08:40] How Anatoly and his wife built a woman-owned cleaning business [10:08] Can government contracts become passive income? [11:59] Common mistakes new government contractors make [12:43] How government contractors cover payroll  New to Jobber? Masters of Home Service listeners can claim an exclusive discount for Jobber at https://bit.ly/4olKiNR

Freight costs are rising - but most shippers aren't capturing the savings hiding in their own data. In this episode of Supply Chain Now, Scott Luton and Kimberly Reuter talk with Shannon Vaillancourt, President of RateLinx, about how companies can uncover 5–15% in transportation savings in weeks, not months, without running a full RFP. They discuss common overspending traps, the power of clean, unified data, optimizing carrier mix, and making smarter, data-driven decisions to reduce costs while improving operational efficiency.The episode unpacks key strategies for optimizing transportation spend without launching a full RFP, including identifying hidden costs across carriers, modes, and accessories, optimizing carrier mix with clean, unified data, and realizing anywhere from 5 to 15% in transportation savings in weeks rather than months. Listeners also get insights on managing LTL versus parcel shipments, evaluating carrier performance beyond on-time delivery, and understanding how poor master data can quietly inflate costs across networks.Together, they explore why real-time, integrated freight data is critical for decision-making, how companies can quickly act on actionable insights, and why relying solely on contracts or historical assumptions can leave money on the table. They share real-world examples where minor operational adjustments yielded millions in savings, emphasizing the importance of consistent monitoring and supply chain visibility in an ever-changing freight landscape.Jump into the conversation:(00:00) Intro(02:33) Welcoming Shannon Vaillancourt, CEO of RateLinx(03:12) Chicago Bears draft talk (quick icebreaker)(04:37) Why shippers overspend: hidden & unmonitored charges(05:54) Where technology falls short: data integration & visibility(07:28) Identifying red flags: underperforming carriers & dirty data(08:40) How RateLinx uncovers savings without a sourcing event(18:12) What RateLinx reveals first: data quality & routing context(20:20) Using the right carrier for the right product(22:15) Real-world example: the toilet company & a $200K routing fix(24:32) Parcel vs. LTL: how to know when to shift modes(38:10) Flash poll results: biggest freight cost headaches(53:00) Key takeaways & free savings snapshot from RateLinxAdditional Links & Resources:Connect with Shannon Vaillancourt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-vaillancourt/Connect with Kimberly Reuter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-reuter-csg/Learn more about RateLinx: https://www.ratelinx.com/Learn more about our hosts: https://supplychainnow.com/aboutLearn more about Supply Chain Now: https://supplychainnow.comWatch and listen to more Supply Chain Now episodes here: https://supplychainnow.com/program/supply-chain-nowSubscribe to Supply Chain Now on your favorite platform: https://supplychainnow.com/joinWork with us! Download Supply Chain Now's NEW Media Kit: https://supplychainnow.com/media-kit/WEBINAR- From AI Pilots to Performance: How Supply Chain Leaders Are Scaling Agentic AI: https://bit.ly/49hCqIqWEBINAR- Amazon Supply Chain 101: Enabling efficiency and growth for businesses everywhere–and everywhere they sell: https://bit.ly/49r8N7DWEBINAR- The Expanding Role of Supply Chain Optimization Teams in Driving Business Impact: https://bit.ly/3PHRAAfThis episode was hosted by Scott Luton and Kim Reuter, and produced by Trisha Cordes, Joshua Miranda, and Amanda Luton. For additional information, please visit our dedicated show page at: https://supplychainnow.com/how-reduce-freight-spend-without-full-rfp-1590

Show Notes: Mehdi Frikha, founder at  mzx.ai, explains that mzx.ai builds a crew of agents for all knowledge workers, including colleagues in the Umbrex network.  Generating Brand Proposals from RFPs He introduces the first agent, Hector, which generates brand proposals from RFPs or client pitches, from as little as half a page of information. He explains that you input your output language, preferences about proposal approach, the target, the tone etc. Users can include their own PowerPoint template,  and the agent will provide a proposal that is 100% branded and 100% compliant with context, objectives, and the firm's approach. Integrating Firm Knowledge Mehdi mentions that the product is more targeted towards the European and Middle Eastern markets, where long proposals are common. He confirms that the agent can integrate the firm's knowledge, CVs, credentials, and any proprietary databases to generate a full proposal. The final product is fully branded and can be up to 40-50 pages, including all necessary elements to win the RFP or project.  Demonstrating the PowerPoint Output Mehdi demonstrates the 41-slide PowerPoint output, which is a technical proposal for an economic development strategy for AIDO(Abu Dhabi Investment Office) and offers to make the  41-slide PowerPoint output available for viewers. He explains how users simply send the request to the agent. The agent delivers a comprehensive 41 slide presentation based on the information sent.  Mehdi demonstrates how the agent presents the context and objectives of the project including the importance of AI in translating Abu Dhabi's national ambitions into localized investment. The proposal includes global benchmarks, structural drivers, competitive windows, and institutional timing. The proposal also addresses economic and market risks, environmental spatial constraints, and demographic and talent challenges. Structuring the Proposal Mehdi explains that the overall approach to the project is laid out in phases, which can be customized based on the RFP or the firm's preferences. The agent can provide guidance on the structure of the approach, including the number of phases and steps. The detailed version of the approach in this demonstration is 11 pages and can be used as a more detailed project plan. Agent Attention to Detail  Mehdi highlights the attention to detail, including real bullets, semantic selection of icons that reflect the content of the page, and consultant-compliant quality. Mehdi mentions that the agent can be trained to include details such as a placeholder slide for pricing or investment, and any necessary disclaimers in the proposal  in the future. Mehdi introduces the next agent, which translates PowerPoint presentations automatically, including complex slides with timelines and Gantt charts. He demonstrates the translation feature, which translates slides and injects the content in the right place, including right-to-left languages and timelines that read right to left. It has the ability to mirror complex slides and the potential time-saving benefits. Mehdi shows how the platform can generate research reports on any topic, using the request for an overview of nuclear submarine coolant pumps as an example. The Platform Pricing Structure In the demonstration of the third agent, Mehdi explains that the entry subscription will be $20, allowing 120 slides. Enterprise offers will be available for firms that want to deploy the platform in a private cloud, ensuring data security. Mehdi provides the website for sign-up and mentions that there is a closed beta available for interested users, and he mentions that there are many agents in development and invites feedback from Umbrex members for new product ideas. Timestamps: 01:51: Details of Hector's Proposal Generation  03:47: Examination of the Proposal Example  05:34: Customization and Detailed Approach 08:56: Additional Features and Pricing 11:04: Translation and Research Report Generation  20:00 Future Developments and Pricing Structure  Links:   Website: https://mzx.ai/ Proposal permalink: https://umbrex.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Proposal_example_Economic_Development_Strategy_for_Al_Dhafra_Region_English.pptx Report permalink: https://umbrex.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Report_example_Nuclear_submarine_reactor_pump_manufacturers_overview.pptx This episode on Umbrex: https://umbrex.com/?p=287037 Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com. *AI generated timestamps and show notes.  

Marketing a GSA schedule the right way can completely change how a small business grows inside federal contracting, especially when AI and cybersecurity are reshaping every RFI and RFP hitting the street. In this episode Zack Golden and the GovCon Giants team break down how active contractors, aspiring consultants, and entrepreneurs can position themselves around the hottest demand signals in the federal market right now, including AI governance, autonomous systems, and the massive Air Force Research Lab opportunity coming out of contract. Here is what you will learn in this episode: How to market a GSA schedule by expanding divisions, leaning into industry days, and using local site visits to win agency attention Why AI governance and AI security layers are showing up on nearly every federal RFI and RFP and how to position a client or your own company to capture that demand How to become a govcon consultant for AI and tech companies without burning out by managing one client to maintenance mode before signing the next How to build complementary teams by pairing AI companies with audit trail, robotics, and aerospace firms to deliver true turnkey solutions to federal buyers How to chase the $10 billion Air Force Research Lab AI IDIQ and other large vehicles by partnering with primes, IDIQ holders, and GSA schedule holders already inside the door EPISODE CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Meet Mindy your federal opportunity AI assistant 0:30 - Welcome to the Federal Help Center podcast 0:52 - Marketing a GSA schedule for small business 1:21 - Expanding divisions into cybersecurity and maintenance services 1:50 - Industry day strategy for GSA schedule holders 2:20 - Inside the OpenCube IQ AI tools and CRM 2:49 - Using AI agents for capability statements and FAR research 3:19 - Consulting opportunities with AI governance companies 3:48 - Why AI is the federal buzzword every agency wants 4:16 - Managing multiple consulting clients without burning out 4:44 - Building complementary teams around AI governance and audit trails 5:41 - Finding partner companies that compliment your AI offering 6:37 - Chasing the $10 billion Air Force Research Lab AI IDIQ 7:07 - Robotics autonomous systems and secured AI document platforms 8:03 - Adding AI offerings to existing GSA schedules and IDIQs Mindy gives you the federal opportunities, agency signals, recompete intel, and pursuit briefs that tell you not just what contracts exist, but which ones to chase and how to win them. Sign up for free Daily Alerts and get opportunities delivered to your inbox before the day starts.

Government contracting procurement readiness is the difference between being treated like a serious prime and being talked down to by a small business rep who thinks you don't know what you're doing. In this episode of the Federal Help Center Podcast, Randie Ward breaks down exactly how to show up to agency meetings, capabilities briefings, and DOD opportunities with your homework already done. If you've ever wasted a 25-minute meeting because you weren't prepped, this one is for you. Here's what you'll learn: How to control the room in a capabilities briefing so the small business specialist treats you like a peer, not a beginner Why your SAM.gov keywords and capability narrative function as the agency yellow pages and how to structure them so buyers can actually find you The exact project sheet format Randie uses with clients including scope, location, dollar value, and complexity details that move you faster through sources sought responses How to position past experience versus past performance on your capability statement when you're a newer company or bidding as part of a teaming arrangement How to surface real differentiators that survive AI-driven proposal screening and make you stand out among hundreds of capability statements Why PIEE registration is non-negotiable if you plan to do business with DOD and what lives inside the enterprise from RFP response to invoicing EPISODE CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Welcome to the Federal Help Center podcast 0:25 - First impressions set every future agency interaction 1:00 - Forest Service capabilities briefing client story 2:30 - SAM registration and keyword optimization for buyers 3:30 - Building project sheets that move you faster 4:30 - Gathering resumes for proposal team members 5:00 - Capability statements and past experience versus performance 5:45 - Finding real differentiators that beat AI screening 7:00 - PIEE registration requirement for DOD contractors 7:55 - Closing thoughts and community invite Market Intelligence gives you the federal opportunities, agency signals, recompete intel, and pursuit briefs that tell you not just what contracts exist, but which ones to chase and how to win them. Sign up for free Daily Alerts and get opportunities delivered to your inbox before the day starts.