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In this episode of The Money Mondays Podcast, Dan Fleyshman sits down in Las Vegas with Bradley Sugars, founder of ActionCOACH, one of the world's largest business coaching organizations operating in 85+ countries and responsible for billions in client revenue.Brad shares decades of hard-earned wisdom on what truly separates struggling operators from successful business owners. From why most entrepreneurs stay stuck doing $20/hour tasks to how real wealth is built through systems, coaching, and accountability, this conversation pulls back the curtain on money, mindset, and scale.They dive deep into:Why business coaching delivers a 6–7x ROI and how to know if you're actually coachableThe difference between being a great operator vs. a true ownerWhy “how” kills most goals — and what to focus on insteadHow to think about investing once you've made money (businesses, real estate, and rules)Why talking about money openly is essential — especially with friends and familyThe real purpose of wealth, legacy, and giving backBrad also breaks down his philosophy on goal-setting, investing only where you're an expert, and why most people would rather look rich than be rich. This is a masterclass in business thinking, long-term wealth, and building a life that actually feels successful.If you want to make more money, invest smarter, and understand wealth at a deeper level, this episode is required listening.Like this episode? Watch more like it
What if the only way to build a company and a life with true resilience was to let everything break? Are you burned out, questioning leadership, or stuck in a plateau while everyone expects you to “scale perfectly”?In this episode, host Sivana Brewer sits down with Matt Rhodes, COO of The Phoenix Method and co-founder of Polaris Capital Investments. Matt shares his raw story of rising from rock bottom, both in business and marriage, using a radical combination of systems, self-accountability, and explosive mindset shifts.Discover how Matt and his wife Jen rebuilt trust, transformed company culture, and mastered the uncomfortable art of letting go… all while weathering the chaos of COVID and scaling new ventures.Skip the endless analysis and unlock the real, actionable playbook for bouncing back stronger. Tune in now or risk staying stuck in mediocrity. This episode is an exclusive masterclass for COOs tired of perfection and ready for exceptional impact.Timestamped Highlights[00:00] – Why COOs must “let systems break” to escape perfection traps[01:16] – The harsh wake-up call that shattered business—and marriage[04:01] – How COVID exposed fragile culture—and forced total reinvention[07:07] – The critical hiring shift: moving from sales stars to customer-first teams[10:33] – Letting go, delegation, and the painful process that actually fueled growth[13:52] – Fresh eyes: Why bringing in outsiders is the hidden superpower in scaling[15:17] – The vital metrics Matt tracks weekly to prevent disaster before it hits[19:07] – How Matt and Jen divided CEO/COO roles to leverage their strengths[24:02] – Why top COOs never go it alone—the ROI (and resistance) of world-class coaching[32:12] – Breaking isolation: Why environment and peer groups are every COO's money-making secret[36:43] – The one mindset shift that transformed results, inside and outAbout the GuestMatt Rhodes is the COO of The Phoenix Method and co-founder of Polaris Capital Investments, with over 25 years of leadership experience across corporate America, fitness franchises, and strategic investing. Known for his real-world resilience and trailblazing company culture turnarounds, Matt is a go-to coach for leaders intent on transforming challenges into growth opportunities. His current roles reflect his commitment to systems-led scaling, paired with the uncommon honesty few executives dare to share.
As we wrap up the year, I'm joined by Kevin Johnson, Max Ceron, and Frankie Vargas for our annual end-of-year cross-pod roundtable. We talk candidly about FabTech, the real ROI of in-person podcasting, and why live shows don't always move the needle the way people expect. Kevin breaks down what went into this year's Fabricator Olympics, what he learned running a large-scale event, and why organization and efficiency matter just as much in events as they do in fabrication shops. We also dig into arc-on time, shop inefficiencies, and why welding is often only a small percentage of what a welder actually does day to day. The conversation shifts into the welding labor shortage and skills gap—where those numbers come from, whether they're accurate, and why retention, culture, apprenticeships, and shop conditions matter just as much as recruiting new welders. We also cover why so many welders leave the hood for other roles, how benefits factor into pay decisions, and what schools and employers need to change if they want people to stay in the trade. This is an honest, unscripted conversation about where the industry really is—and where it needs to go next. Arc Junkies Podcast: Instagram: @Arcjunkiespodcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@arcjunkiespodcast9253 Email: Show@arcjunkies.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-becker-45407b72?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3BKipEwR3uQXCmCjaEfNzo6w%3D%3D Arc Junkies Website: https://arcjunkies.com Arc junkies Merch: https://shop.threadmob.com/arcjunkie/shop/home Underground Metal Works: https://www.underground-metalworks.com/ Friends of the Show: American Welding Society Conferences Inspection Expo and Conference https://www.aws.org/community-and-events/conferences-and-events/inspection-expo-and-conference/ Use ARCJUNKIES at Checkout and get a free gift at the event. Outlaw Leather LLC Outlawleather.com Instagram: @outlawleatherusa Use ARCJUNKIES for 15% off all in-stock leather goods Everlast Welders Instagram: @everlastwelders YouTube: Everlast Welders Online: https://bit.ly/37xJstI Use Codeword ARCJUNKIES at checkout to get upgraded to a free Nova Foot Pedal and TIG Torch with the purchase of any machine that comes with a stock foot pedal and TIG Torch. Fronius: Instagram: @FroniusUSA Website: https://bakersgas.com/collections/fronius-accupocket ISOTUNES: Instagram: @isotunesaudio Online: https://shop.isotunes.com/arcjunkies10. Use ARCJUNKIES10 at checkout and save $10 on your purchase
Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 1917: Sherice Jacob breaks down the misunderstood concept of data quality, emphasizing that perfection isn't the goal, relevance, accuracy, and consistency are. Through clear steps like data profiling, error management, and adherence to key quality dimensions, she offers a practical roadmap for businesses to improve decisions, customer experience, and ROI. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://neilpatel.com/blog/data-quality/ Quotes to ponder: "Data quality is very much a delicate balancing act, juggling and judging accuracy and completeness." "The first step toward successful integration is seeing where the data is and then combining that data in a way that's consistent." "Taking the time now to map out what data quality means to your company or organization can create a ripple-effect of improved customer service, a better customer experience, a higher conversion rate and longer customer retention."
Most producers say they want to dominate 2026, yet many are still waiting for permission. Waiting for the “right time” to invest in themselves. Waiting to see if someone else will sign off on it. That mindset quietly keeps people stuck—and it's far more common than most want to admit.In this episode, I sit down with my client and friend, Andy Neary, for an honest, no-fluff conversation about what actually holds high performers back. We talk about why driven professionals often struggle with self-worth, why chasing a “guaranteed ROI” can sabotage momentum, and how confidence isn't something you wait to feel—it's something you build by consistently showing up for yourself.This is a real conversation about responsibility, ownership, and what it takes to stop playing small as the new year approaches.About The Guest: Andy Neary is a speaker, author, podcast host, and coach dedicated to helping professionals build the mindset, habits, and strategies needed to excel in business and life. A former professional baseball player in the Milwaukee Brewers organization, Andy leveraged discipline, unshakeable drive, and consistent daily habits to succeed at the highest level — despite being undersized for his position. Andy Neary - Speaker, Author, ConsultantToday, he applies those same lessons off the field through Complete Game Consulting, a coaching and training company he founded in 2019, where he advises insurance professionals and agencies on mindset, marketing, branding, and performance. Andy is also host of Bullpen Sessions, a podcast for driven professionals focused on mindset and tactics for success. He's a contributing author to the Amazon best-selling book Breaking Through the Status Quo and is a sought-after keynote speaker for events and podcasts. Andy lives in south-central Wisconsin.If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a comment on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser and Castbox about what you'd like us to talk about that will help you realize that at any moment, any day, you too can decide, it's your turn!
Side Hustle with Soul | BUSINESS | ENTREPRENEURSHIP | PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT | CREATING A SIDE HUSTLE
In this bonus epsiode, Dielle shares exactly how she learned to never wastes a five figure coaching investment and how to always get a major ROI, especially in a large investment in your business.
Can intentional design actually boost your short-term rental profits?Find out in this week's episode featuring Vacation Rental Design Strategist Erica Dike. We dive into why the most successful rentals combine eye-catching style with smart strategies for ROI.Erica shares her journey from student Airbnb host to expert designer, offering actionable tips for balancing personal taste with guest appeal, all while maximizing profitability.Whether you're an investor, homeowner, or design enthusiast, this episode is packed with stories, expert advice, and practical insights you can use for your next project. Subscribe and hit the notification bell so you never miss an episode!Things we discussed in this episode:The importance of strategy and intention in short-term rental design, beyond aesthetics.Erica DK's journey from Airbnb host to professional designer and her “Designing for Dollars” formula.Balancing guest needs with owner preferences to maximize occupancy and profitability.How to design for your target guest and create a strong, appealing property identity.Managing design challenges on a tight budget and prioritizing ROI-driven upgrades.The role of color and local inspiration in making properties stand out.Systematizing design project implementation from sourcing to setup for smooth execution.Common design mistakes and pet peeves in short-term rentals, like poor layout or missing essentials.Client experiences and success stories, including the “tilted oak” lake house project.Insights into evolving trends and the value of working with a professional designer or “design coach.”Get in touch with Erica:Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-dike/Website - https://www.ericaooh.com/#SmartStayShow #realestate #realestateinvestor #realestateagent #RealEstateInvesting #ShortTermRentals #BusinessPartnership #VacationRental #Entrepreneurship#PropertyManagement #TeamBuilding #STRBusiness#RealEstateInvesting #WorkLifeBalance #RentalSuccessFollow Us!Join Jason Muth of Prideaway Stays and Straightforward Short-Term Rentals and Real Estate Attorney / Broker Rory Gill for the first episode of SmartStay Show!Following and subscribing to SmartStay Show not only ensures that you'll get instant updates whenever we release a new episode, but it also helps us reach more people who could benefit from the valuable content that we provide.SmartStay Show Website and on Instagram and YouTubePrideaway Stays Website and on Facebook and LinkedInStraightforward Short-Term Rentals Website and on InstagramAttorney Rory Gill on LinkedInJason Muth on LinkedIn
Highly engaging music can double your return on media investment. Yet most brands treat music as an afterthought, leaving millions on the table.This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by Roscoe Williamson, Global Strategy Director at MassiveMusic. Together, they dig into groundbreaking research proving music is a tangible driver of marketing effectiveness. Roscoe shares findings from a study with the IPA that tested hundreds of UK TV ads and reveals which types of music increase brand fame, willingness to pay, and campaign ROI.Topics covered: [01:00] The history of music in advertising from jingles to sonic ecosystems[09:00] Why longer-form music has been a black hole in effectiveness research[14:00] How engaging music can double return on media investment[17:00] Examples of brands using music to drive effectiveness[23:00] Why CMOs should mandate music testing for campaigns over $1 million[27:00] The future of sonic branding and generative AI music To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter. Resources: IPA & Massive Music Report: https://resources.massivemusic.com/sound-science-whitepaperRoscoe Williamson's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roscoewilliamson/ Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
If you want to grow in 2026, you cannot rely on outdated playbooks or wait for a perfect case study to tell you what to do. In this two-part series, I'm breaking down the real fundraising trends I'm seeing across every organization in my ecosystem, not theory, not headlines, not generic Google wisdom. These trends are based on live data, donor behavior, digital strategy sessions, leadership conversations, and thousands of campaigns across my programs, and they're already reshaping how nonprofits grow.In Part 1, I cover six strategic and visibility shifts that will define the highest-performing organizations in 2026, from audience growth as a core revenue engine to the rise of laptop fundraising, human amplifiers, scrappy leader-driven content, superfan retention, and the ROI of LinkedIn thought leadership. If you want to reduce lag time, lead with clarity, and raise more with less friction, this episode provides the roadmap.Topics:Audience growth as a primary revenue engine for 2026The rise of laptop fundraising and email-first digital campaignsShort, fast “sprint” campaigns outperforming long, traditional plansThe power of human amplifiers and Social Street Teams®Why authenticity-driven, “break the fourth wall” content converts betterCreating long-term superfans instead of one-time donorsLinkedIn is the most underutilized high-ROI visibility channelWhy clarity, action, and visibility will outperform caution in 2026For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.Bloomerang is the complete donor, volunteer, and fundraising management solution that helps thousands of nonprofits deliver a better giving experience and create sustainable, thriving organizations. Combining robust, easy-to-use technology with people-powered support and training, Bloomerang empowers nonprofits to work efficiently, improve supporter relationships, and grow their donor and volunteer bases. Learn more here.Resources: Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser's Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more. May contain affiliate links
Go to www.LearningLeader.com for full show notes The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire one person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world has the hustle and grit to deliver. My Guest: Brian Kelly is the founder of The Points Guy, which he built from a side hustle blog into a travel media empire that he sold for $28 million. At 42, he's now an angel investor in 15+ companies, including Bilt (valued at $11 billion). In this conversation, he shares lessons on manifestation, selling too early, building yourself into the brand, and why vulnerability beats wins in interviews. Key Learnings (in Brian's words) In 1995, I was 12 years old, and I was great with computers, so I started booking all of my dad's travel for work. He'd pay me $10 per booking. Then it turned into points, when my dad showed me all the American and US Air miles he had. "If you can figure out how to use all of them, we can go on a family trip." And the rest is history. That was my first real, oh wait, this points thing is amazing. Points were a way for us to live a fabulous lifestyle. I grew up thinking we were poor, but I really wanted to live a fabulous life. My parents were very humble and did not spend money lavishly. For me I always wanted to travel. When I was a kid, I would spin the globe and be like, This is where I'm going. I would actually research Oman. Somehow genetically, I got this gene of I need to be rich and travel the world. I used to call Mercedes, get all of their glossy pamphlets for all their new cars, and I would cut them out and stick them on my wall. Manifesting alone won't make you wealthy, but visioning helps. I do believe being able to visualize what it looks like and taste it and get close to it helps you take the smaller steps to actually achieve it. When I think of my investments, I actually envision what they're gonna be. I envision that they're multi-billion-dollar companies. I believe it unlocks a level of pushing you to reach these mini steps that you can't see throughout the process. I started The Points Guy in 2010, but there were already Titan bloggers. I for sure felt imposter syndrome, but I saw that what they lacked was creativity. Points and miles are very clinical. Very few people were translating that for an audience. I knew I had an opportunity. I'm in my twenties, living in New York City. I'm gonna explain what everyday people need to know. Building a media brand became my moat. No one else in the points world was doing media. Doing media's frightening. While it was scary going on TV the first couple times (I almost fainted), I knew that each time I did it, I got better. That was the moat I would build. I would build The Points Guy into a brand more so than any of the others who had come before me. I saw from the beginning to double and triple down on that strategy of building something that's more than just a blog, but a lifestyle that people want to achieve. "I made a million bucks in my first six months of just blogging, but using affiliate links." In 2011, within six months of learning about affiliate marketing, I made six figures a month using the credit card links in my blog. I was still working at Morgan Stanley. My mom was like, this sounds too good to be true. You can't leave Morgan Stanley. I was making like $300,000 a month in affiliate. Meanwhile, at Morgan Stanley, my salary is $70,000 a year. But it didn't pay right away. My parents actually lent me $10,000 just to pay my rent. I remember where I was in Madrid when that first Chase deposit of $490,000 hit from months of back pay on the blog. I sold for $28 million because I thought the industry would collapse. When Bankrate offered me $28 million in May 2012, I kind of had this negative mindset over where the industry was going. About a hundred blogs started when people knew they could make money on affiliates. Most bloggers have zero business sense. They were writing stuff like, "Cancel your Amex, cancel your Chase, cancel, cancel. Then get new cards." I saw this really bad business sense, very shortsighted greediness. I'm watching this thinking they're gonna pull the rug. Do I regret selling? Yes, the company is way more than what I sold it for. But at the time, you always have to remember what the landscape was. We're coming out of the recession. There were still a lot of weak indicators. Building myself into the brand gave me leverage. I had a three and a half year earnout. Over that time, the business really started to grow, but then I realized, well, I am also the business. So, the more press I did, when I negotiated with that parent company to stay on, they paid me a lot of money and still a cut of the business to grow it as CEO. It's kind of crazy to think 13 years after selling, I'm still here. But because I built myself as a core part of the business as The Points Guy, I've been able to stay on with less risk, getting paid well to do what I love. I'm more of the brand visionary, the consumer person. I'm very much an ideas person. When we're speaking with our longtime clients or pitching new ones, that's really where my special sauce is used and not in the day-to-day. People are not mind readers. In 2020, I had this breakdown where I thought I would actually leave. I went to the owners, and I was like, I just can't do it anymore. They said, "Brian, we've been waiting for you to say that. You don't need to be CEO. We have plenty of smart people." It was this aha moment. I think in life we often think polar, black or white. That's advice I give to people. Whether it's your parent company, your boss, your mentor, people are not mind readers. While there is risk to leveling with someone and saying, "Hey, this role is just killing me," more often than not in my career, the more vulnerable I was, the more it turned out to be such a blessing. Check Your Spam Email Frequently: In 2011, I was featured in the New York Times, but the email came to my spam email. At that time, the narrative that points were dead, blackout dates, etc. I was the only blogger putting a positive spin on points. And I tried to do it in an informative and fun way. I'm 6'7", so putting my personal angle on my travel reviews had a huge impact on being the face of this industry. As a founder, I was a tough boss because it was so personal. If I look back at my time as CEO, I still took it very personally. I do take the integrity of this site. As we expand, we can't forego quality. In hindsight, I didn't highlight enough of the wins. I would focus too much on mistakes. That's advice I would give if I could do it all back over again, to just be much more positive reinforcement over negative. Founders need someone who can check them. You need to have someone around you, a leadership team, someone that can check you. I didn't have that for a very long time, and that's my fault. Making sure you have good people on your team that can be honest with you, and you create an environment of inviting that feedback and not freaking out when they give it to you, is important. I know I would be a much different CEO today if I did it again. Stop BSing in the interview process. Too many people take jobs not knowing what is going on whatsoever at the company. Far too many senior executives walk into positions and they're like, oh wait a minute. I like to be brutally honest in the interview process. Truth-telling is the beginning of having a great relationship because I want you to understand exactly what's in front of you. If you don't want to take it, that's so much better than hiring a senior exec and six months later, you just lost a year. Stop telling me the wins. In the interview process, stop telling me the wins because anyone can make their job look successful. "Oh, 200% ROI, this, that the other." In an interview, you're not gonna be able to fact-check any of this. We all know people can cherry-pick the data. It's really just diving deep into vulnerable moments about their leadership, the challenges as leaders they had with their teams. I'll tell them my challenges when I was CEO. I want people to be real and allow me to understand how they think, the type of leader they are. Charismatic people can trick you. The problem is that very charismatic people can trick you easily. I've been blinded by a great interview, especially when you're exhausted as a CEO and then someone's bantering with you. You're like, oh, that was fun. But I've hired plenty of people who are all talk. I don't want personality hires. I'm the personality. My engineering team, I really need people to ship updates. I still wake up in the middle of the night asking if my bills are paid. I still have imposter syndrome about "is this crazy what I've built?" It's for sure not about the car, but I will say investing in a home that's beautiful and makes you feel really good is important. For a long time, I was traveling a lot. I never put roots down, and I always felt like I was in transit. Now I have this beautiful farm with animals and horses in New Hope, Pennsylvania. It takes my blood pressure down immediately. Angel investing has basically become an addiction. In 2020, I opened up a space where I decided I wanted to have kids even though I was single, and also started investing and advising in relevant companies. The first one was Encore Jane, who was building Built, a credit card loyalty platform for renters. I'd always thought, how cool would it be to earn points on rent? I said, You're crazy, but if it does work, it'll be massive. Built is now at $11 billion valuation. I'll make more money now, probably on Built than I will at The Points Guy, which is wild to me. I have probably about 15 other companies I put my personal money in. I love it because I can help advise founders on everything I've done, and help open doors. Using that to build wealth has become an addiction. Relentlessness is what I see in leaders who sustain excellence. I am amazed at Encore's ability to push. If he's got 10 major things impacting his business, most CEOs will start with one or two, put the others on the back burner. He will relentlessly push for excellence. I don't wanna work for Encore, but to be in the room and strategize, every time I leave a meeting with him it keeps me fresh and active. Find mentors, not just companies. For recent college grads, find people, even at a company where you might not see your future. Find someone at that company that you connect with. If you're looking for a job, interview until you find that hiring manager that you feel is on an upward rise and that you can learn from. We often focus too much on the line of work or the company. Stop focusing on that and look at that manager or the CMO whose organization you would join. If they've done amazing things, get in right away and start networking. Put time on the CMO or CEO's calendar. Be bold. Every senior executive loves to see people come in with eagerness to learn. Show up and do extracurriculars at work. Go to the lunch and learn with the senior executive and actually get face time with them. Make sure they know your name. Those are the things that matter because when it comes time for compensation and reviews, the senior person may not work with you day-to-day, but they're like, oh yeah, that's the person I really like. They are a future leader. That's how you get ahead. Even if that boss leaves to another company, they might take you. Reflection Questions Brian says manifesting alone won't make you wealthy, but visioning what it looks like helps you take the smaller steps to achieve it. What specific vision do you have for your future that you could make more tangible (like his Mercedes pictures on the bedroom wall)? How might making it more concrete change your daily actions? He emphasizes that in interviews, he wants people to stop telling him the wins and instead dive deep into vulnerable moments about their leadership and challenges with their teams. If you were in an interview tomorrow, what's one vulnerable leadership moment you could share that would demonstrate how you think rather than just what you've accomplished? Brian realized he needed to tell his parent company, "I just can't do it anymore" as CEO, and they responded with relief, offering him a better role. What conversation are you avoiding right now because you assume the answer will be no, when the other person might actually be waiting for you to speak up? More Learning #525 - Frank Slootman: Hypergrowth Leadership #540 - Alex Hormozi: Let Go of the Need of Approval #510 - Ramit Sethi: Live Your Rich Life
Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3404: Craig Stephens reflects on his ambitious plan to retire by age 55, beating his father by one year, and the financial realities that threaten that goal. With his children's college expenses looming in the same year as his intended retirement, he explores the deep impact of generational choices, personal sacrifice, and the ROI of higher education. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.retirebeforedad.com/greatest-risk-to-retirement-goal/ Quotes to ponder: "I reject the notion that because younger generations are statistically more likely to live longer than our parents, we will need to work longer." "More than a decade ago when my Dad retired from his teaching career at age 56, I told him my retirement goal was to beat him and stop working at age 55." "According to a recent study by Alicia H. Munnell at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, the average age of retirement for men in the US is 64." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A $20 billion AI deal while you were away?
Keith shares a mindset-shifting quote from John D. Rockefeller that challenges the idea of trading time for money. He revisits some of the year's most powerful real estate investing lessons, and breaks down the big forces shaping today's housing market—affordability, supply & demand, demographics, and interest rates. All of this sets the stage for his data-driven national home price outlook for next year—without the usual crash-and-doom hype. Episode Page: GetRichEducation.com/586 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments. For predictable 10-12% quarterly returns, visit FreedomFamilyInvestments.com/GRE or text 1-937-795-8989 to speak with a freedom coach Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search "how to leave an Apple Podcasts review" For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— GREletter.com or text 'GRE' to 66866 Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript: Keith Weinhold 0:00 Welcome to GRE. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, learn from a quote attributed to the world's first billionaire, it will change how you see wealth building. I'll explain why national home prices have never crashed. Then it's gre, 2026, home price appreciation forecast. You'll learn the future the exact percent that home prices will appreciate or depreciate next year. Today on get rich education Speaker 1 0:29 since 2014 the powerful get rich education podcast has created more passive income for people than nearly any other show in the world. This show teaches you how to earn strong returns from passive real estate investing in the best markets without losing your time being a flipper or landlord. Show Host Keith Weinhold writes for both Forbes and Rich Dad advisors and delivers a new show every week since 2014 there's been millions of listener downloads of 188 world nations. He has a list show guests include top selling personal finance author Robert Kiyosaki. Get rich education can be heard on every podcast platform, plus it has its own dedicated Apple and Android listener phone apps build wealth on the go with the get rich education podcast. Sign up now for the get rich education podcast, or visit get rich education.com Corey Coates 1:14 You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is get rich education. Keith Weinhold 1:30 Welcome to GRE from Lake Huron, Michigan to Lake Tahoe, California and across 188 nations worldwide. I'm Keith Weinhold, and you're listening to get rich education. You know something I love, quotes that shift your entire mindset, paradigm, and once your mind is shifted, actions follow. Actions develop into patterns. Those patterns become habits, and habits become the new, transformed you few quotes hit harder than the one from resource tycoon John D Rockefeller. He lived from 1839 to 1937 in fact, Rockefeller is widely regarded as the world's first billionaire. His quote, you might have heard it before. It is this, he who works all day has no time to make money. That sounds paradoxical, even provocative. It's sort of like it's inviting you to come in and want to learn more about it. And this is because most people's concept of income generating is to work 40 hours a week for a salary or an hourly wage. But what does that quote really mean? He who works all day has no time to make money, and be sure to capture the all day part of that quote that ties right back into the show that I did with you two weeks ago about the K shaped economy breakdown, where you learned about how capital compounds labor doesn't most people sell their time for dollars, but trading time for money makes you too busy to actually build Wealth. Working and building wealth. Those things are two separate distinct activities in how you're investing your time and energy. Now, most people start out with a wage or a salary job. I surely worked by pushing brooms and cubicle dwelling before investing in my first rental property. But if you're working all day in a job, physically or mentally well, then you're consumed by tasks that only pay you. Once you're occupied, you can often get exhausted and you're only concerned with short term output. You're focused on the next deadline, not the next decade, when all your hours are spent on labor, you have no bandwidth to do what you need to do, which is, create vision, acquire assets, build a portfolio, develop systems, learn tax strategy, evaluate investment deals, network with like minded investors, or refine your strategy with a GRE investment coach. Be cognizant that labor only pays today. Wealth building pays forever. Even if your work a day job, salary doubled, you would have to ask, how would that even build wealth? You could retire earlier, but you would have to keep working the hours, and let's remember that wealth equals freedom. You can't architect a wealth plan from the assembly line. Now, that's something that Rockefeller would have agreed with. Wealth requires less. Leverage and labor has none. So working all day means no leverage. You are the engine instead making money, that means using leverage, and instead of you being the engine, well, the engine is something else, like assets, systems, technology, other people's time, other people's money, and borrowing to inflation profit. Rockefeller believed and proved that leverage beats labor 100 to one. He's not discouraging work. In fact, it's just the wrong type of work, because he was one of the hardest working people alive. And really the bottom line here, with this quote, he who works all day has no time to make money, is that Rockefeller meant that if you spend your life doing tasks, you'll never rise high enough to own things that pay you for life. Earning a living is a different activity than building wealth, and once your mindset is shifted, actions follow, yep, actions develop into patterns, and those patterns become the new you. well as the last episode of the year on the show here, 52 weeks worth, I sure hope that I've helped you think, learn and grow your wealth, as have our guest contributors here early in the year, the father of Reaganomics was here, a man that frequently advised a president inside the White House. He told us how much he dislikes tariffs. Tariffs block free trade, and trade improves our lives. Major apartment investor, Ken McElroy, was here this year, and he predicted that the American home ownership rate will fall below 60% that would be major it's currently at 65 if the home ownership rate falls to 60% that would unleash millions of new renters into the market, and it has not been that low in decades, if ever you got a lot of mortgage insights with chailey Ridge, including learning how you can qualify for income property loans without a w2 job, without a pay stub or without tax returns by instead getting a DSCR loan. You'll recall this year that I discussed 50 year mortgages, and I did that before it even hit the news cycle, telling you that it could be coming and that it could be proposed. I explained why I like 50 year mortgages more than 30 year loans, but be aware it is not imminent that they're coming. Also this year, economist Richard Duncan and commentator Doug Casey discussed the Fed. Richard told us how the President is trying to totally restructure who serves on the Fed, trying to get low interest rate pushers in there. And then just last week, Doug and I discussed how fed decisions just keep hollowing out the middle class. A and E television star Todd drillette told us how to negotiate. I had four good discussions with our own investment coach, nuresh this year, more than usual, a pastor and I discussed a rare topic, what the Bible says about money. You learned how to use AI in your real estate investing and when not to. We had a few episodes about that. But above all the shows this year, they were about you, probably more than any other year that we've had here. I did more listener question episodes where I answered your questions as you wrote in, and I also had more listeners come right onto the show and tell me how this show has personally built their wealth. And of course, this year, I got to meet more of you in person when I served as a faculty member on the terrific real estate guys Investor Summit to see and I got to meet you personally for more than just a handshake. The event was set up so that chances are you had dinner with me as well. So rather than this show being a one way chat from me to you this year was more of a dialog between you and I and more two way communication. A lot of new topics are coming for next year, both me teaching and some great guests. If there's something on the show that you'd like to hear more of or less of, let us know. Write into us or use your voice to tell us either way you can do that. At get rich education.com/contact, let us know what you want to hear more of or less of. Do you like shorter term tactics like when and how to increase the rent? Or do you like mid range tactics like how to constantly do cash out refinances and get a tax free windfall from your properties every year. Or do you like more of the long term strategies like specifically how you profit from inflation? Let us know what you like again, at get rich education.com/contact, now, even if you're listening 10 years. Years from now, which I know you very well. May, I'm going to break down next year's home price appreciation forecast, but I'll do it in a way where you'll learn how to analyze a market for all time coming up. It's gre 2026, national home price appreciation forecast. Learn the future to the exact percent. First listen to this from Freedom family investments and Ridge lending group, because I'm a client of both myself and they can help you. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold Keith Weinhold 10:29 you know, most people think they're playing it safe with their liquid money, but they're actually losing savings accounts and bonds don't keep up when true inflation eats six or 7% of your wealth. Every single year I invest my liquidity with FFI freedom family investments in their flagship program. Why fixed 10 to 12% returns have been predictable and paid quarterly. There's real world security backed by needs based real estate like affordable housing, Senior Living and health care. Ask about the freedom flagship program. When you speak to a freedom coach there, and that's just one part of their family of products, they've got workshops, webinars and seminars designed to educate you before you invest. Start with as little as 25k and finally, get your money working as hard as you do. Get started at Freedom, family, investments.com/gre, or send a text now it's 1-937-795-8989, yep, text their freedom coach, directly. Again, 1-937-795-8989, Speaker 2 11:40 the same place where I get my own mortgage loans is where you can get yours. Ridge lending group and MLS, 42056, they provided our listeners with more loans than anyone because they specialize in income properties. They help you build a long term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. Start your prequel and even chat with President Caeli Ridge personally. While it's on your mind, start at Ridge lending group.com that's Ridge lending group.com Robert Kiyosaki 12:14 this is our Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Author Robert Kiyosaki. Listen to get rich education with Keith Weinhold. And there is, I respect Kate. He's a very strong, smart, bright young man. Keith Weinhold 12:35 Welcome back to get rich education. It's episode 586 the last show of the year. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, I am proud to present to you in this segment of the show gre 2026, national home price appreciation forecast, where I use my insight and experience so that you'll learn the exact percent that national home prices will either appreciate or depreciate next year. It's the fifth consecutive year that we're doing this. I nailed the first three spot on and then this year happened. I'll get to reviewing my track record, total accountability. First understand something, real estate values have never crashed in your entire lifetime, even if you're 90 years old, to grab eyeballs, slack jawed, tick tock. Call them crash talk. Economists keep making awful predictions about a housing price crash, and none of them have been worse than one that published last month in Newsweek, which outlines a as it's called, correction worse than 2008 and says national home prices will fall 50% five zero, starting as soon as next year. That's absurd, and I can't believe that a respectable publication would platform a view from an analyst like that, and I'm not going to call out that Doomsayer analyst's name. That's not my style. I'm sure you can find it that crash is about as likely as one social media post changing your political affiliation later today. Look, doomsayers don't care about you. They make dire predictions because they care about them. It elevates their clicks, their followers and their name recognition, and they never hang around to follow up on that prediction, but it harms you, because you miss out on the equity gains, and that's the real damage. In fact, this particular analyst also called for this year to have the second largest home price decline since World War Two. Well, national home prices have only fallen twice in that time period. In fact, going further back. Back to the 1930s Great Depression. They've only fallen twice. Yes, that means home prices have risen every single year since the 1930s except for two periods, a small decline of less than 1% around 1990 and then, of course, the severe downturn from the housing bubble and great recession from 2007 to 2011 or 2012 that's where prices dropped in total, 25 to 26% from peak to trough. Now why do I say that that period around 2008 was not a housing price crash. Well, because it wasn't. Instead, it was a slow bleed. The definition of financial crash is a sudden, sharp and widespread drop in prices. That's the definition. Well that can happen in some other asset classes like stocks or Bitcoin or perhaps even precious metals, but not real estate. It is neither sudden nor sharp. The worst year, 2008 saw home prices drop 12% in that one year and some of the other years bracketing it, home prices fell three to 4% in each of those years. So then during this time period of price attrition, during the global financial crisis, each month, real estate values fell just a few tenths of 1% maybe half of 1% or even one full percent, not a crash, a slow bleed. This means that it took about five years for values to fall, a total of near 25% I mean, that makes it really clear that it's not a crash. And again, this period was about 2007 to 2012 don't get me wrong, it was bad. I was a real estate investor both before and during 2008 but to call it a crash is hyperbolic, and that is because words mean things. I think a lot of media consumers get so conditioned to mass media sensationalism that they've forgotten what a crash even means. At some point, it begins to bend our very lexicon back around 2007 I remember I frequently checked a website called implode meter. Yeah, that's the name of it. It tracks, failing banks. I looked the other day and implodemeter.com is still in existence, even though it's not nearly as spicy as it used to be during the GFC, because lending has been pretty stable for a long time, and loans are well and carefully underwritten. So home prices are unusually stable over time, because, in a sense, housing is not a normal market. It is slow, regulated, credit driven, and it's emotionally sticky, even though rental property is less emotional. Well, the values of one to four unit property are tied to primary residence values, and that's where the emotion exists. So if you put all those together, you get prices that creep upward most years and rarely fall at all. Nationally. The real estate market moves too gradually to be crash susceptible. It is the place for real wealth building values also are not going to double annually if you want to scroll for dopamine hits from the couch. Well, you can do that with a prediction market like call she or in crypto with altcoins, while your real estate keeps leveraging dollars in a stable way in the background. That's how you can think about it. All right, so we've established since the Great Depression, home values have fallen twice and once substantially. Well, right now, home prices are up about 2% year over year. Most places have appreciated, especially the more affordable markets. Not only has home price growth been slow, though, rent growth has been slow as well. Single Family rents are up 1% per totality. Apartment rents are down one to 2% per Zumper. But back to our focus today, forecasting national home prices. Everything we're discussing is nominal price change, meaning not inflation adjusted, and it's single family homes up to fourplexes. Well, as we use context to build up to the big reveal today, where I'll tell you the exact percent that home prices will rise or fall next year. Could 2008 happen again any time soon? Let's isolate that out. It's important to look at history rather than. Having some uninformed hunch in both periods with price attrition around 1990 and 2008 these two falls have some attributes in common. So let's look at that. What led to these rare falls in home prices, irresponsible lending, forced selling, a vacancy issue and overbuilding. All four of those factors were in place during those two periods now leading up to 1990 the irresponsible lending was on the commercial side. That was the savings and loan crisis, but it did trickle into the residential market, and then in 2008 it was on the residential side. But of all four of those factors, none of them are in place today. Zero borrowers are strongly underwritten because they've got those full documentation loans, and virtually no one is forced to sell in a fire sale. In fact, homeowners still have these record equity positions of about 300k fewer than 3% of homeowners have a negative equity position, and there is no vacancy issue. Because, in fact, we've been under building. We'll look at that. So for next year, no substantial price of drawdown is coming. None's expected. We can isolate that out. Since I was investing directly in real estate through 2008 I know what happened is that when people walked away from properties, they did so because the economy got rough, their variable rate mortgages rose, they couldn't make their payments, or they just had no motivation to make their payments because they were underwater and had zero protective equity. In a lot of cases, it's almost impossible for that to happen today, homeowners can make their payments, and they're motivated to do so because they have that erstwhile equity to protect, like I said last week, through the Census Bureau data and realtor.com we know a couple things. Four in 10 homeowners have no mortgage at all. They own their property free and clear. Among the group with mortgages, 70% of borrowers still have a mortgage rate locked in at under 5% and blending those together for you means that then 82% of borrowers either have no mortgage or they've got a rate under 5% this translates to really affordable payments, along with The protective equity, even if inflation heats up again, it still cannot touch a borrower's mortgage payment amount because it is fixed. As we're leading up to the big reveal of next year's number, we're about to look at affordability, supply, demand and the effect of mortgage rates on prices. Of course, that word affordability, that has been the most central word to home buying for a couple years now, affordability will improve in three main ways. If either home prices fall, mortgage rates fall, or wages rise, it takes at least one of those three things, the good news is that this year, wages have been rising faster than both stated inflation and home prices. Wages have been rising close to 4% that looks to continue at least into the early part of next year. Well that improved affordability allows home prices to move up, and it gives room for rents to move up as well. Now when it comes to mortgage rates, if you're new to listening to me, it will be groundbreaking for you to realize that today, mortgage rates are low, and increases to mortgage rates usually lead to increases in home prices, not decreases. If you're new here, both of those facts might leave you saying what I thought it was the opposite. How can that be? I won't spend much time on this because longtime listeners already know these two things, but they do go into the forecast the long term 30 year fixed rate mortgage averages 7.7% per Freddie Mac thirst, that set goes back to 1971 and rates are lower than that now, and mortgage rates have risen 1% or more seven different times since 1994 and home prices increased all Seven times right alongside those rising mortgage rates. In fact, when rates more than doubled in 2022 what happened? Home prices soared to their highest appreciation year in a long time. It reinforced this so, yes, way higher rates equaled way. Higher prices. It's not that one directly causes the other. This is correlation versus causation. It's because rate increases confirm that the economy is doing well. I have discussed that extensively in previous episodes, so mortgage rates actually don't have that much to do with home prices, and that's why it is hardly going into the forecast for next year. I'll tell you what trying to forecast mortgage rates to then use that to predict home prices, that is a fantastic way to waste your time. Now, 1x factor that could make that different for next year is that this President, he imposes his will to make rates low no matter what. So even if the economy is good, which typically leads to higher rates, wholesale push to make rates low, and that's an artificial phenomenon. Wouldn't that make home prices boom if we had a strong economy and low rates? The fact that affordability is still historically low today, though, we appear to be off the bottom. Affordability is still historically low today, that has less to do with mortgage rates than most people think, since, again, rates are low when they're in the low sixes, like they currently are. Instead, affordability is soured, because over the long term, decades, wages haven't kept up with true inflation. That's what's really going on with affordability and what everybody misses, and because affordability is still strained, home prices cannot rise a lot, say 10 or 12% next year. That can't happen on a national basis next year, now, a bill is advancing through Congress now to make housing more affordable. It's got bipartisan support relaxing zoning requirements in such a bill that could help build more homes, but if the government tries to help by making access to loans easier, that is going to lead to even higher prices and really will not help with affordability beyond the short term. In fact, just this month, the Fed has resumed QE quantitative easing. And that effectively means that it is ramping up the number of dollars being printed. And these are just more dollars in existence coming in to chase real estate and every other assets values higher we look at the employment picture. Although unemployment has been ticking up lately, it is still low at under 5% what about housing supply versus demand? And future supply versus demand? Well, this is basic econ and it will totally affect future prices. Actually visited the home of the father of economics, Adam Smith in Scotland this year, the man that nearly invented the supply demand concept starting with supply. I think anyone in real estate knows that generally, over six months of housing supply is too much. Under six months is too little. Six months is sort of that balanced point. What does that really mean? Well, months of supply is how long it would take to sell all the homes currently for sale if no new listings came on the market. All right, that's all that means. Well, currently, that level is 4.2 months that is low, and that puts some upward pressure on prices as well. Another way to think about it is with the active listing count of single family homes and condos. All this means is the number of homes currently for sale and available to buy right now. That's what active listing count means when you see that statistic out there? Well, one and a half to 2 million is the normal level of units needed to adequately house our growing population, for single family homes and condos. Well, that figure bottomed out in 2022 and it's only hovered around one or 1.1 million for a few months now, we are under supplied, and it takes a long time to build our way out of it. Now, apartment buildings are a different story. They are oversupplied, but again, today, we're here focused on the future price direction of one to four unit properties. So that's supply, not as tight as it was, but still on the tight side, and then demand. Where is demand coming from? It comes from us. There's more of us. As our population keeps growing, there is a lot of housing demand coming. Not only is there pent up demand from those trying to afford a home as soon as they can, but more broadly. Demographically, I will point back to that period where there was a surge of us births from 1990 to 2010 there were over 4 million births every single one of those years, births peaked in 2007 if you add 40 years to that, because 40 years is now the average age of the first time homebuyer. That's still a mind blowing figure to me, 40 years the average age of the first time homebuyer. You add that to 2007 that peak birth rate year, and this demand won't even peak until about 2047 Speaker 2 30:36 and this doesn't even include additions from immigration, demand, demand, demand, propping up prices for decades, but for next year, improved affordability, which is expected that boosts the demand for those that have the capacity to pay. Well, considering everything we've covered, I'm about to reveal the number for next year. But first, I mean, gosh, don't you wish everyone actually followed up on their past forecasts, like I'm about to I don't think I've ever seen a price crash predictor follow up, because they're always wrong. Well, what is the track record of get rich, education, home, price appreciation forecasts. It's the fifth straight year I'm doing this, and I always release the forecast in the final days of the year in anticipation of the coming year, just like you and I are doing together now. For 2022 I said that prices would rise nine to 10% the year ended, and they came in at 10% 2023 a lot of people said home prices would fall because they had just seen a terrific run up. I said a price fall would not happen, largely due to that jaw droppingly low supply that we had then. I said zero, there wouldn't be any change. They came in at exactly zero. There was no price change in 2023 for 2024 I forecast 4% they came in at exactly 4% this is all documented. You can go back and listen to those episodes. They're all near year end. So yes, three straight years, I nailed it to the exact percent. How about this year? Just before the year began? Do you remember what my forecast figure was from listening here about a year ago, it was 5% home price appreciation. The year is not over yet, and real estate statistics move pretty slowly. Figures lag, but we pretty much know where it's going to end up. And as we look at this same stat set that I consistently use, which is the NARS national median existing single family home price, it is 2.2% as of late in the year, and it's almost certainly going to end up at 2% appreciation. So I would call that a miss, probably not a terrible call, but far enough apart to call that a miss, 5% forecast versus 2% actual for this year. That's the track record. So before I reveal the number for next year, in the last four I've nailed three of them spot on, and why was appreciation less than I expected for this year? Well, a few reasons. One of them is that inflationary pressure from tariffs was postponed. That Tariff Schedule was changed more times than anyone could have possibly forecast, and affordability stayed stubbornly low too. And here we go for 2026 how much home price appreciation or depreciation do I expect? Well, I haven't said this in any of the previous forecasts, because it's the easiest thing to say, and I often avoid saying the easiest thing, but this is just what I see coming, and that is, I expect more of the same. It's the first time I've said more of the same, which is drumroll here, 2% home price appreciation for next year. No wild figure or hyperbolic material here, in order to attract attention that is my best target for the truth, I'm here to do my best to be accurate and help you make the most informed decision, 2% for next year. So a 500k property today should cost you about 10,000 more dollars next year, and as we know, with a figure like 2% which is less appreciation than the long run historic 5% or so, with this 2% appreciation on new purchases, you leverage that five to one with your 80% loan, and you get a 10% return on your down payment. And you add in the other four ways real estate pays to your 10% leverage appreciation and at historic norms, you can end up with a 29% total ROI. That's realistic. I outlined the math of that in an earlier episode this year when I discussed how real estate pays five ways in a slow market, there you have it, 2% forecast home price appreciation for next year. If you want the charts that support the forecast and more, there's a way for you to get a hold of that, and also the best real estate maps, stories and investment opportunities that you won't see in any headlines. They are all in my free weekly newsletter. The newsletter also gives you access to my free real estate pays five ways. Video, course, that is it. GRE letter.com Get it all at one easy place. Gre letter.com I look forward to talking to you in the new year. I'm Keith Weinhold, don't quit your daydrem Speaker 3 36:06 nothing on this show should be considered specific, personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of get rich Education LLC, exclusively. Keith Weinhold 36:34 The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth building, GetRichEducation.com
Is your sales strategy built around how buyers should behave—or how they actually behave? Imagine walking into a store and seeing a shirt for $50. Fine. Unremarkable. You might buy it, you might not. Now imagine seeing that same shirt with a tag that reads: $100 NOW $50. Suddenly, you're interested. You found a deal. You beat the system. You're a hero. Same price. Same shirt. Completely different emotional response. That psychological gap between logic and emotion cost JCPenney roughly $1 billion and offers one of the most important lessons in sales psychology you'll ever learn: people don't buy with logic—they buy with emotion and justify with logic later. The Fair and Square Disaster In 2012, JCPenney hired Ron Johnson as CEO. Johnson was a retail rock star, the architect behind Apple Store's legendary success. He walked into JCPenney and saw chaos: endless coupons, manufactured "original prices," and constant sales cycles. His solution? Kill it all. Johnson launched "Fair and Square"—a radically transparent pricing model. No games. No coupons. No inflated prices marked down. Just one everyday low price on everything. That $100 shirt marked down to $50? Now it was simply $50. Honest. Logical. Clean. The market's response was brutal. Within one year, sales dropped 25%. The company lost nearly $1 billion. Stock price went into freefall. Johnson was fired. What Johnson Got Wrong About Sales Psychology Johnson made a catastrophic assumption: he believed customers were rational economic actors who would reward transparency and honesty. He was dead wrong. For decades, JCPenney's customers had been playing a game. They clipped coupons, timed sales, scrutinized flyers, and planned shopping trips around promotions. The weekly coupon wasn't just a discount—it was a ritual. Their insider advantage, their badge of savvy shopping honor. Johnson stripped away their emotional satisfaction and replaced it with sterile efficiency. Without the "$100 now $50" comparison, the flat $50 price lost all psychological weight. No thrill. No victory. No story to share. Same price. Different feeling. The Sales Psychology Principle You're Ignoring Loss aversion is twice as powerful as gain motivation. Your prospects don't just want to gain something—they want to feel like they won, like they're in control, like they made a smart decision that will impress their boss. When you strip away their buying process, when you force them into your "more efficient" workflow without their input, they don't see the gain. They experience loss. You've taken away their control, their ritual, their power, their role as the hero. In sales, that feeling is deadly. Your Customers Have Rituals Too Think about your best accounts. What do they actually value? It's probably not your features or your ROI calculator. It's the rep they've worked with for years. It's the quarterly business review they rely on. It's the reporting cadence that makes them look good internally. It's the buying process that lets them feel competent and in control. That's their ritual. When you try to "streamline" their process, when you push them toward a different point of contact, when you change the reporting structure they trust—you're doing exactly what Ron Johnson did. You're selling logic when they're buying a feeling. Stop Leading With Features and Benefits Most salespeople lose deals before they even start because they lead with logical arguments: "Our platform reduces processing time by 40%." "We integrate with 200+ systems." "Our customer support response time is under 2 hours." All logical. All true. All useless if your buyer doesn't feel something first. Your prospect doesn't wake up excited about efficiency gains. They wake up stressed about looking good in front of their VP, avoiding mistakes, and maintaining control of their budget. Research is clear: emotional decisions get made first, then logic comes in to justify them. Your job isn't to build a logical case. Your job is to help your buyer feel like a hero, then give them the logical ammunition to defend that emotional decision internally. How to Apply This Starting Today Identify Their Rituals Watch how your customers actually operate. Do they need three stakeholders in every meeting? Do they always loop in procurement at a specific stage? Do they have a preferred communication cadence? Don't fight it. Work with it. Their process is their psychological anchor for stability. Frame the Win They Can Own Frame your solution so the customer feels in control and gets the credit. Instead of: "Our platform will solve your problem." Try: “This approach could help you demonstrate a 30% cost reduction in Q2—giving your team clear wins to share with leadership.” Make them the hero of their own story. Highlight Emotional Outcomes, Not Just Logical Ones Don't just talk about what your product does. Talk about how it makes them feel. "You'll have complete visibility so you're never caught off guard in executive meetings." "Your team will finally have the data they need to look proactive instead of reactive." "You'll be the person who solved the problem everyone else said was impossible." Guide, Don't Force Lead your prospects toward better outcomes without stripping away their sense of control. Instead of forcing a complete switch to your system, collaborate on how your solution enhances their existing trusted process. Make them feel like a collaborator, not a passenger. The Takeaway Ron Johnson wasn't wrong that consumers should prefer transparent, honest pricing. He wasn't wrong that the coupon game was exhausting and complicated. He was wrong about what people actually buy. They buy feelings. Control. Victory. Status. The story they tell themselves about being smart. Your prospects are no different. They're not buying your SaaS platform, your consulting services, or your enterprise solution. They're buying the feeling of being competent, in control, and successful. The difference between average salespeople and top performers isn't product knowledge or work ethic. It's understanding the sales psychology behind how buyers actually make decisions. When you appeal to emotion first and back it up with logic second, you stop losing deals to “no decision” and start winning consistently. Because at the end of the day, sales isn't about having the best product. It's about making your customer feel like they made the best decision. Ready to master buyer psychology and close more deals? Download the ACED Buyer Style Playbook and discover how to match your sales approach to the four core buyer personalities. Stop selling logic. Start selling the way your customers actually buy.
In this episode, Gene Hammett interviews AJ Cassata, founder of Revenue Boost, about AI-driven lead generation in B2B marketing. AJ emphasizes the collaborative use of AI in sales, warns against full outsourcing, and explains his "10-80-10 rule." He discusses the effectiveness of outbound strategies like cold emailing and LinkedIn messaging, stressing the importance of personalization and audience segmentation. AJ recommends tools like Clay.com for automating outreach and concludes with key factors for successful campaigns, urging listeners to embrace AI while maintaining human oversight and persistence. Episode Highlights & Time Stamps 1:15 The Power of AI in Sales 2:57 Challenges in B2B Sales 5:10 Email vs. LinkedIn Effectiveness 8:35 Standing Out on LinkedIn 11:24 Leveraging AI for Personalization 14:18 Common Mistakes in AI Outbound 17:13 The Future of AI in Outbound 20:33 Enhancing Sales with AI 21:57 Key Takeaways for CEOs AI in Modern Sales — Collaboration Over Automation Gene speaks with AJ Cassata, founder of Revenue Boost, about using AI in B2B outbound sales. AJ explains that AI should be treated as a collaborative partner rather than a replacement for human judgment. He cautions against fully outsourcing sales and marketing to AI due to its tendency to "hallucinate" or generate inaccuracies. AJ introduces his "10-80-10 rule," where humans control strategy and final review while AI handles execution at scale. Why Outbound Sales Still Works AJ breaks down why outbound sales, cold email, cold calling, and LinkedIn outreach remain a highly effective and cost-efficient lead generation channel. He emphasizes the importance of testing different approaches and targeting specific industries or companies to generate high-quality leads. The conversation compares email and LinkedIn outreach, noting LinkedIn's higher response rates but lower scalability versus email's broader reach and lower engagement. Personalization, Empathy, and Common Mistakes The discussion turns to practical outreach tactics, with AJ stressing the importance of deep personalization through prospect research and industry understanding. He advises focusing messaging on the prospect's needs rather than promoting services. AJ outlines common AI-powered outbound mistakes, including low outreach volume, generic messaging, and poor audience segmentation, reinforcing that tailored messaging is critical for resonance. Tools, Strategy, and Keys to Success AJ highlights tools like Clay.com that support AI-driven lead research and personalized outreach. He discusses AI's evolving role in sales, particularly for tasks like scheduling and qualification, while underscoring the continued need for human oversight. As the episode concludes, AJ shares five key drivers of outbound success: list quality, messaging, offer strength, outreach volume, and email deliverability. He encourages leaders to experiment, iterate, and remain patient when leveraging AI-powered outbound strategies to grow their sales pipeline. Key Takeaways AI is a force multiplier, not a replacement. AI delivers the best results when paired with human strategy, oversight, and decision-making rather than fully automating sales and marketing functions. Outbound sales remains a high-ROI growth channel. Cold email, cold calling, and LinkedIn outreach continue to produce quality leads at a lower cost compared to many inbound or paid marketing channels. Strategy should follow the 10-80-10 rule. CEOs should stay involved in setting direction and reviewing outcomes while leveraging AI for scalable execution in the middle. Personalization drives performance. Outreach that demonstrates understanding of a prospect's business and challenges consistently outperforms generic, AI-generated messaging. Volume and focus both matter. Effective outbound requires sufficient outreach volume paired with clear segmentation and targeted messaging to avoid diminishing returns. Technology enables scale, not shortcuts. Tools like AI-powered research and personalization platforms can accelerate outbound efforts, but poor inputs still lead to poor results. Human oversight reduces AI risk. AI can hallucinate or make incorrect assumptions, making review and refinement essential before deployment. Five factors determine outbound success. List quality, messaging clarity, offer strength, outreach volume, and email deliverability must all work together for consistent results. Iteration beats perfection. Sustainable outbound success comes from continuous testing, learning, and refinement rather than one-time campaign execution. Leadership mindset matters. CEOs who embrace AI experimentation while maintaining accountability and patience are better positioned to build predictable, scalable pipelines. Resources & Next Steps Ready to take your leadership energy to the next level? Explore free training and resources at training.coreelevation.com to help you identify energy leaks, strengthen your leadership presence, and elevate your team's performance. Explore More: training.coreelevation.com Listen to the Full Episode: Growth Think Tank Podcast
This week, we are having an honest and heartfelt conversation about the sacrifices that come with building a life through real estate investing. We reflect on our individual financial journeys and the lifestyle changes we made early on—living below our means, rethinking spending habits, and strengthening our personal financial foundations before taking on larger investments. We share what it looked like during our DIY era, the risks we embraced as entrepreneurs, and the lessons we learned by building something from the ground up. While those seasons required hard choices, they also clarified our values and helped us align our lives with what truly mattered.We also talk about the rewards that come from those sacrifices and how intentional living has allowed us to create both financial freedom and personal fulfillment. We discuss the motivation that comes from milestones like receiving a first rent payment, the importance of community and surrounding ourselves with like-minded women, and why sacrifice doesn't have to mean a joyless life. Travel, self-care, and finding joy in small moments remain priorities for us, even as we continue to grow. Ultimately, this episode is a reminder that it's okay to quit, pivot, and try again—and that with patience, alignment, and support, real estate investing can lead to a life that feels purposeful, balanced, and deeply rewarding. Resources:Simplify how you manage your rentals with TurboTenantGet in touch with Envy Investment GroupGrab our property management checklistMake sure your name is on the list to secure your spot in The WIIRE Community Leave us a review on Apple PodcastsLeave us a review on SpotifyJoin our private Facebook CommunityConnect with us on Instagram
Jack Scoville, Price Futures Group, with perspective on what host Chip Flory called "a defensive day" in the grain markets. Chip talked with Chris Barron from AgView Solutions about working ad hoc payments into the 2025 farm financials and about looking for opportunities to cut expenses and to keep a thin, but positive, ROI in 2026. Cary Artac with a chart update.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM How frontier firms rethink processes with AI, not bolt it on. Samuel Boulanger shares practical ways to drive Copilot adoption: educate, empower champions, and start from scratch to redesign workflows. He shows how agents and workflow automation unlock meaningful ROI, and why applied, hands‑on skill beats theory. Clear guidance for tech pros: use it everywhere, iterate fast, and let the people closest to the work surface the highest‑impact use cases.
Start making $150k - $200k+ in your first year of medical sales. Stop chasing crowded "old school" roles like Orthopedics and Spine. The real money—and the life-saving innovation—is in Oncology and Specialty Pharma. Today, I reveal the exact blueprint to reinvent your career and break into the most lucrative sector of healthcare. Whether you're a nurse, a teacher, or stuck in a "middle-class mindset," this episode breaks down why your background doesn't matter. Only your preparation does.I share my personal journey from a non-profit minister making $70k to a high-level oncology rep, and explain why "casual advice" from friends will get you rejected. If you want to master the interview, crush your clinical knowledge, and build a 6-figure life, this is the masterclass you need.WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE:- The "Gold Rush" Shift: Why you should ignore Orthopedics and focus entirely on Oncology, Diagnostics, and Genetic Testing.- The 3 Essential Mindset Shifts: How to move from "winging it" to becoming an obsessively prepared candidate.- Real Success Stories: How Kanika (immigrant to Dallas), Sydney (nurse), and others went from zero experience to $200k roles.- The "Ride-Along" Trap: Why you need a brutal coach, not a nice mentor.- The HEART Framework: The 5 character traits (Humility, Energy, Active Listening, Resilience, Trust) that hiring managers look for.- Confidence vs. Arrogance: How to show "grit" without sounding like a jerk.- Daily Habits of Top 1% Earners: The 5 AM club, the "20 LinkedIn adds" rule, and why your degree (MBA) has a lower ROI than coaching.- The Michael Jordan Rule: Why even the greatest of all time hired coaches for their specific weaknesses.TIMESTAMPS00:00 - Introduction: The Program Focus (Oncology vs. Orthopedics)01:34 - Dave's Story: Reinventing Career from Ministry to Medical Sales03:44 - Success Stories: How Nurses & Immigrants Got Hired (Kanika, Sydney)06:47 - Mindset Shift #1: Be Coachable (Why Friends Can't Help You)09:20 - Mastering Virtual Interviews (Lighting, Camera & Background)10:32 - Mindset Shift #2: Be Curious (Understanding Clinical Trials & FDA)12:32 - Salary Reality: Device Associate ($80k) vs. Oncology ($155k+)13:55 - Mindset Shift #3: Collaboration (Working with MSLs & Nurse Navigators)16:28 - Confidence vs. Arrogance (The "Grit" Trap)18:02 - The H.E.A.R.T. Framework (Humility, Energy, Listening, Resilience, Trust)19:00 - Daily Habits: 5 AM Wake-ups, LinkedIn Strategy & Handling Rejection20:00 - The"Middle Class Mindset" Trap: Why Degrees Have Low ROI22:25 - Using AI for Resumes Without Sounding Like a Robot25:55 - The "Why": Patient Outcomes & Life-Extending Impact29:35 - The 3 Questions You Must Ask Yourself31:01 - The Michael Jordan Analogy: Why Even the Best Hire Coaches.ABOUT MEDICAL SALES U: Medical Sales U is the premier training program for professionals looking to break into high-paying careers in Medical Device, Pharmaceutical, and Genetic Testing sales. We turn "outsiders" into top 1% candidates.CONNECT WITH US: Learn more about coaching and career support at medicalsalesu.com/#MedicalSales #OncologySales #CareerPivot #SalesCoaching #HighIncomeSkills #DaveSterrett #MedicalSalesYou #InterviewTips #SalesJobs #PharmaceuticalSales
Internal communications is not about messages.It's about alignment.In this episode, Chris Willis talks with Keith Berman about how internal communications creates real business impact, even when attribution is messy. They unpack why alignment drives retention, productivity, and customer experience, how communicators act as the connective tissue of the business, and what leaders actually listen for when evaluating ROI.They also tackle AI. What it helps with. What it cannot replace. And why the hype cycle feels familiar to anyone who lived through the early 5G promises.For communicators who want to prove value, not volume.
Welcome to the Med Spa Success Strategies Podcast, presented by Ricky Shockley of Med Spa Magic Marketing.Heading into 2026, most med spa owners are asking the same question: "What should I focus on right now to stay busy, protect cash flow, and grow next year?" In this episode, Ricky and Lauren break down practical marketing “quick wins”, how to think about marketing as an investment (not an expense), and how to use remarketing + boosted content to build momentum in your local market.This is a tactical, end-of-year checklist-style episode designed to help you fill the schedule, improve your SEO + Google Business Profile, strengthen retention, and create more know-like-trust deposits that make future patients choose your practice.We cover…✅ Quick wins for med spa marketing in 2026 (what to do now)✅ How to use SMS blasts to re-engage your existing patient list✅ Why tox offers consistently win for retention and schedule filling✅ When “tox + bonus” offers work (and when they don't)✅ Retention promos + segmentation (bringing back Botox, filler, weight loss, and lapsed patients)✅ On-page SEO quick fixes: service + city page titles, headings, and dedicated service pages✅ Why you should embed simple cell phone videos on service pages to boost conversions✅ How to improve your website calls-to-action + add lead capture forms (for “not ready to book” traffic)✅ Google Business Profile updates that increase calls and clicks (photos, services, and visibility)✅ A better way to ask for Google reviews (and how to get past reviews updated)✅ Why marketing budget cuts can hurt revenue if your ROI is working✅ How to use boosted posts + remarketing to build local trust and long-term demandIf you're a med spa owner who wants more booked consults, lower CAC, stronger retention, and better ROI, this episode gives you a clear plan you can execute heading into the new year.If you're ready to implement more efficient & effective marketing strategies for your practice, book your FREE strategy session & marketing plan: https://go.medspamagicmarketing.com/scheduleFollow us on social media: https://www.instagram.com/medspamagicmarketing/https://www.linkedin.com/company/med-spa-magic-marketing/https://www.facebook.com/MedSpaMagicMarketing/https://www.tiktok.com/@medspamagicmarketing
Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. AI agents are your next customers. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ https://youtu.be/vEdq8rpBM3I In this data-rich keynote, Jay McBain deconstructs the tectonic shifts reshaping the $5.3 trillion global technology industry, arguing that we are entering a new 20-year cycle where traditional direct sales models are obsolete. McBain explains why 96% of the industry is now surrounded by partners and how successful companies must pivot from “flywheels and theory” to a granular strategy focused on the seven specific partners present in every deal. From the explosion of agentic AI and the $163 billion marketplace revolution to the specific mechanics of multiplier economics, this discussion provides a roadmap for navigating the “decade of the ecosystem” where influence, trust, and integration—not just product—determine winners and losers. Key Takeaways Half of today's Fortune 500 companies will likely vanish in the next 20 years due to the shift toward AI and ecosystem-led models. Every B2B deal now involves an average of seven trusted partners who influence the decision before a vendor even knows a deal exists. Microsoft has outpaced AWS growth for 26 consecutive quarters largely because of a superior partner-led geographic strategy. Marketplaces are projected to grow to $163 billion by 2030, with nearly 60% of deals involving partner funding or private offers. The “Multiplier Effect” is the new ROI, where partners can make up to $8.45 for every dollar of vendor product sold. Future dominance relies on five key pillars: Platform, Service Partnerships, Channel Partnerships, Alliances, and Go-to-Market orchestration. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Keywords: Jay McBain, Canalys, partner ecosystem, channel chief, agentic AI, marketplace growth, multiplier economics, B2B sales trends, tech industry forecast, service partnerships, strategic alliances, Microsoft vs AWS, distribution transformation, managed services growth, SaaS platforms, customer journey mapping, 28 moments of truth, future of reselling, technology spending 2025, ecosystem orchestration, partner multipliers. T Transcript: Jay McBain WORKFILE FOR TRANSCRIPT [00:00:00] Vince Menzione: Just up from, did you Puerto Rico last night? Puerto Rico, yes. Puerto Rico. He dodged the hurricane. Um, you all know him. Uh, let him introduce himself for those of you who don’t, but just thrilled to have on the stage, again, somebody who knows more about what’s going on in, in the, and has the pulse on this industry probably than just about anybody I know personally. [00:00:21] Vince Menzione: J Jay McBain. Jay, great to see you my friend. Alright, thank you. We have to come all the way. We live, we live uh, about 20 minutes from each other. We have to come all the way to Reston, Virginia to see each other, right? That’s right. Very good. Well, uh, that’s all over to you, sir. Thank you. [00:00:35] Jay McBain: Alright, well thank you so much. [00:00:36] Jay McBain: I went from 85 degrees yesterday to 45 today, but I was able to dodge that, uh, that hurricane, uh, that we kind of had to fly through the northern edge of, uh, wanna talk today about our industry, about the ultimate partner. I’m gonna try to frame up the ultimate partner as I walk through the data and the latest research that, uh, that we’ve been doing in the market. [00:00:56] Jay McBain: But I wanted to start here ’cause our industry moves in 20 year cycles, and if you look at the Fortune 500 and dial back 20 years from today, 52% of them no longer exist. As we step into the next 20 year AI era, half of the companies that we know and love today are not gonna exist. So we look at this, and by the way, if you’re not in the Fortune 500 and you don’t have deep pockets to buy your way outta problems, 71% of tech companies fail over the course of 10 years. [00:01:30] Jay McBain: Those are statistics from the US government. So I start to look at our industry and you know, you may look at the, you know, mainframe era from the sixties and seventies, mini computers, August the 12th, 1981, that first IBM, PC with Microsoft dos, version one, you know, triggered. A new 20 year era of client server. [00:01:51] Jay McBain: It was the time and I worked at IBM for 17 years, but there was a time where Bill Gates flew into Boca Raton, Florida and met with the IBM team and did that, you know, fancy licensing agreement. But after, you know, 20 years of being the most valuable company in the world and 13 years of antitrust and getting broken up, almost like at and TIBM almost didn’t make payroll. [00:02:14] Jay McBain: 13 years after meeting Bill Gates. Yeah, that’s how quickly things change in these eras. In 1999, a small company outta San Francisco called salesforce.com got its start. About 10 years later, Jeff Bezos asked a question in a boardroom, could we rent out our excess capacity and would other companies buy it? [00:02:35] Jay McBain: Which, you know, most people in the room laughed at ’em at the time. But it created a 20 year cloud era when our friends, our neighbors, our family. Saw Chachi PT for the first time in March of 2023. They saw the deep fakes, they saw the poetry, they saw the music. They came to us as tech people and said, did we just light up Skynet? [00:02:58] Jay McBain: And that consumer trend has triggered this next 20 years. I could walk through the richest people in the world through those trends. I could walk through the most valuable companies. It all aligns. ’cause by the way, Apple’s no longer at the top. Nvidia is at the top, Microsoft. Second, things change really quickly. [00:03:17] Jay McBain: So in that course of time, you start to look at our industry and as people are talking about a six and a half or $7 trillion build out of ai, that’s open AI and Microsoft numbers, that is bigger than our industry that’s taken over 50 years to build. This year, we’re gonna finish the year at $5.3 trillion. [00:03:36] Jay McBain: That’s from the smallest flower shop to the biggest bank. Biggest governments that Caresoft would, uh, serve biggest customer in the world is actually the federal government of the us. But you look at this pie chart and you look at the changes that we’re gonna go through over the next 20 years, there’s about a trillion dollars in hardware. [00:03:54] Jay McBain: There’s about a trillion dollars in software. If you look forward through all of the merging trends, quantum computing, humanoid robots, all the things that are coming that dollar to dollar software to hardware will continue to exist all the way through. We see services making up almost two thirds of this pie. [00:04:13] Jay McBain: Yesterday I was in a telco conference with at and t and Verizon and T-Mobile and some of the biggest wireless players and IT services, which happen to be growing faster than products. At the moment, there is more work to be done wrapping around the deal than the actual products that the customer is buying. [00:04:32] Jay McBain: So in an industry that’s growing at 7%. On top of the world economy that’s grown at 2.2. This is the fastest growing industry, and it will be at least for the next 10 years, if not 2070 0.1% of this entire $5 trillion gets transacted through partners. While what we’re talking to today about the ultimate partner, 96% of this industry is surrounded by partners in one way or another. [00:05:01] Jay McBain: They’re there before the deal. They’re there at the deal. They’re there after the deal. Two thirds of our industry is now subscription consumption based. So every 30 days forever, and a customer for life becomes everything. So if every deal in medium, mid-market, and higher has seven partners, according to McKinsey, who are those seven people trying to get into the deal? [00:05:25] Jay McBain: While there’s millions of companies that have come into tech over the last 10 to 20 years. Digital agencies, accountants, legal firms, everybody’s come in. The 250,000 SaaS companies, a million emerging tech companies, there’s a big fight to be one of those seven trusted people at the table. So millions of companies and tens of millions of people our competing for these slots. [00:05:49] Jay McBain: So one of the pieces of research I’m most proud of, uh, in my analyst career is this. And this took over two years to build. It’s a lot of logos. Not this PowerPoint slide, but the actual data. Thousands of people hours. Because guess what? When you look at partners from the top down, the top 1000 partners, by capability and capacity, not by resale. [00:06:15] Jay McBain: It’s not a ranking of CDW and insight and resale numbers. It is the surrounding. Consulting, design, architecture, implementations, integrations, managed services, all the pieces that’s gonna make the next 20 years run. So when you start to look at this, 98% of these companies are private, so very difficult to get to those numbers and, uh, a ton of research and help from AI and other things to get this. [00:06:41] Jay McBain: But this is it. And if you look at this list, there’s a thousand logos out of the million companies. There’s a thousand logos that drive two thirds of all tech services in the world. $1.07 trillion gets delivered by a thousand companies, but here’s where it gets fun. Those companies in the middle, in blue, the 30 of them deliver more tech services than the next 970. [00:07:08] Jay McBain: Combined the 970 combined in white deliver more tech services. Then the next million combined. So if you think we live in an 80 20 rule or maybe a 99, a 95 5 rule, or a 99 1 rule, we actually live in a 99.9 0.1 parallel principle. These companies spread around the world evenly split across the uh, different regions. [00:07:35] Jay McBain: South Africa, Latin America, they’re all over. They split. They split among types. All of the Venn diagram I just showed from GSIs to VARs to MSPs, to agencies and other types of companies. But this is a really rich list and it’s public. So every company in the world now, if you’re looking at Transactable data, if you’re looking at quantifiable data that you can go put your revenue numbers against, it represents 70 to 80% of every company in this room’s Tam. [00:08:08] Jay McBain: In one piece of research. So what do you do below that? How do you cover a million companies that you can’t afford to put a channel account manager? You can’t afford to write programs directly for well after the top down analysis and all the wallet share and you know exactly where the lowest hanging fruit is for most of your tam. [00:08:28] Jay McBain: The available markets. The obtainable markets. You gotta start from the community level grassroots up. So you need to ask the question for the million companies and the maybe a hundred thousand companies out there, partner companies that are surrounding your customer. These are the seven partners that surround your customer. [00:08:48] Jay McBain: What do they read, where do they go, and who do they follow? Interestingly enough, our industry globally equates to only a thousand watering holes, a thousand companies at the top, a thousand places at the bottom. 35% of this audience we’re talking. Millions of people here love events and there’s 352 of them like this one that they love to go to. [00:09:13] Jay McBain: They love the hallway chats, they love the hotel lobby bar, you know, in a time reminded by the pandemic. They love to be in person. It’s the number one way they’re influenced. So if you don’t have a solid event strategy and you don’t have a community team out giving out socks every week, your competitors might beat you. [00:09:31] Jay McBain: 12% of this audience loves podcasts. It’s the Joe Rogan effect of our industry. And while you know, you may not think the 121 podcasts out there are important, well, you’re missing 12% of your audience. It’s over a million people. If you’re not on a weekly podcast in one of these podcasts in the world, there’s still people that read one of the 106 magazines in the world. [00:09:55] Jay McBain: There are people that love peer groups, associations, they wanna be part of this. There’s 15 different ways people are influenced. And a solid grassroots strategy is how you make this happen. In the last 10 years, we’ve created a number of billionaires. Bottom up. They never had to go talk to la large enterprise. [00:10:15] Jay McBain: They never had to go build out a mid-market strategy. They just went and give away socks and new community marketing. And this has created, I could rip through a bunch of names that became unicorns just in the last couple of years, bottoms up. You go back to your board walking into next year, top down, bottom up. [00:10:34] Jay McBain: You’ve covered a hundred percent of your tam, and now you’ve covered it with names, faces, and places. You haven’t covered it with a flywheel or a theory. And for 44 years, we have gone to our board every fourth quarter with flywheels and theory. Trust me, partners are important. The channel is key to us. [00:10:57] Jay McBain: Well, let’s talk at the point of this granularity, and now we’re getting supported by technology 261 entrepreneurs. Many of them in the room actually here that are driving this ability to succeed with seven partners in every deal to exchange data to be able to exchange telemetry of these prospects to be able to see twice or three times in terms of pipeline of your target addressable market. [00:11:26] Jay McBain: All these ai, um, technologies, agentic technologies are coming into this. It’s all about data. It’s all about quantifiable names, faces, and places. Now none of us should be walking around with flywheels, so let’s flip the flywheels. No. Uh, so we also look at, and I sold PCs for 17 years and that was in the high times of 40% margins for partners. [00:11:55] Jay McBain: But one interesting thing when you study the p and l for broad base of partners around the world, it’s changed pretty significantly in this last 20 year era. What the cloud era did is dropped hardware from what used to be 84% plus the break fix and things that wrap around it of the p and l to now 16% of every partner in the world. [00:12:16] Jay McBain: 84% of their p and l is now software and services. And if you look at profitability, it’s worse. It’s actually 87% is profitability wise. They’ve completely shifted in terms of where they go. Now we look at other parts of our market. I could go through every part of the pie of the slide, but we’re watching each of the companies, and if you can see here, this is what we want to talk about in terms of ultimate partner. [00:12:43] Jay McBain: Microsoft has outgrown AWS for 26 straight quarters. They don’t have a better product. They don’t have a better price, they don’t have better promotion. It’s all place. And I’ll explain why you guess here in the light green line. Exactly. The day that Google went a hundred percent all in partner, every deal, even if a deal didn’t have a partner, one of the 4% of deals that didn’t have a partner, they injected a partner. [00:13:09] Jay McBain: You can see on the left side exactly where they did it. They got to the point of a hundred percent partner driven. Rebuilt their programs, rebuilt their marketplace. Their marketplace is actually larger than Microsoft’s, and they grew faster than Microsoft. A couple of those quarters. It is a partner driven future, and now I have Oracle, which I just walked by as I walked from the hotel. [00:13:31] Jay McBain: Oracle with their RPOs will start to join. Maybe the list of three hyperscalers becomes the list of four in future slides, but that’s a growth slide. Market share is different. AWS early and commanding lead. And it plays out, uh, plays out this way. But we’re at an interesting moment and I stood up six years ago talking about the decade of the ecosystem after we went through a decade of sales starting in 1999 when we all thought we were born to be salespeople. [00:14:02] Jay McBain: We managed territories with our gut. The sales tech stack would have it different, that sales was a science, and we ended the decade 2009, looking at sales very differently in 2009. I remember being at cocktail parties where CMOs would be joking around that 50% of their marketing dollars were wasted. They just didn’t know which 50%. [00:14:23] Jay McBain: And I’ll tell you, that was really funny. In 2009 till every 58-year-old CMO got replaced by a 38-year-old growth hacker who walked in with 15,348 SaaS companies in their MarTech and ad tech stack to solve the problem, every nickel of marketing by 2019 was tracked. Marketo, Eloqua, Pardot, HubSpot, driving this industry. [00:14:50] Jay McBain: Now, we stood up and said the 28 moments that come before a sale are pretty much all partner driven. In the best case scenario, a vendor might see four of the moments. They might come to your website, maybe they read an ebook, maybe they have a salesperson or a demo that comes in. That’s four outta 28 moments. [00:15:10] Jay McBain: The other 24 are done by partners. Yeah, in the worst case scenario and the majority scenario, you don’t see any of the moments. All 28 happen and you lose a deal without knowing there ever was a deal. So this is it. We need to partner in these moments and we need to inject partners into sales and marketing, like no time before, and this was the time to do it. [00:15:33] Jay McBain: And we got some feedback in the Salesforce state of sales report, which doesn’t involve any partnerships or, or. Channel Chiefs or anything else. This is 5,500 of the biggest CROs in the world that obviously use Salesforce. 89% of salespeople today use partners every day. For the 11% who don’t, 58% plan two within a year. [00:15:57] Jay McBain: If you add those two numbers together, that’s magically the 96% number. They recognize that every deal has partners in it. In 2024, last year, half of the salespeople in the world, every industry, every country. Miss their numbers. For the minority who made their numbers, 84 point percent pointed to partners as the reason why they made their numbers. [00:16:21] Jay McBain: It was the cheat code for sales, so that modern salesperson that knows how to orchestrate a deal, orchestrate the 28 moments with the seven partners and get to that final spot is the winning formula. HubSpot’s number in separate research was 84% in marketing. So we’re starting to see partners in here. We don’t have to shout from the mountaintops. [00:16:44] Jay McBain: These communities like ultimate Partner are working and we’re getting this to the highest levels in the board. And I’ll say that, you know, when 20 years from now half of the companies we know and love fail after we’re done writing the book and blaming the CEO for inventing the thing that ended up killing them, blaming the board for fiduciary responsibility and letting it happen. [00:17:06] Jay McBain: What are the other chapters of the book? And I think it’s all in one slide. We are in this platform economy and the. [00:17:31] Jay McBain: So your battery’s fine. Check, check, check, check. Alright, I’ll, I’ll just hold this in case, but the companies that execute on all five of these areas, well. Not only today become the trillion dollar valued companies, but they become the companies of tomorrow. These will be the fastest growing companies at every level. [00:17:50] Jay McBain: Not only running a platform business, but participating in other platforms. So this is how it breaks out, and there are people at very senior levels, at very big companies that have this now posted in the office of the CEO winning on integrations is everything. We just went through a demographic shift this year where 51% of our buyers are born after 1982. [00:18:15] Jay McBain: Millennials are the number one buyer of the $5 trillion. Their number one buying criteria is not service. Support your price, your brand reputation, it’s integrations. The buy a product, 80% is good as the next one if it works better in their environment. 79% of us won’t buy a car unless it has CarPlay or Android Auto. [00:18:34] Jay McBain: This is an integration world. The company with the most integrations win. Second, there are seven partners that surround the customer. Highly trusted partners. We’re talking, coaching the customer’s, kids soccer team, having a cottage together up at the lake. You know, best men, bate of honors at weddings type of relationships. [00:18:57] Jay McBain: You can’t maybe have all seven, but how does Microsoft beat AWS? They might have had two, three, or four of them saying nice things about them instead of the competition. Winning in service partnerships and channel partnerships changes by category. If you’re selling MarTech, only 10% of it today is resold, so you build more on service partnerships. [00:19:18] Jay McBain: If you’re in cybersecurity today, 91.6% of it is resold. Transacted through partners. So you build a lot of channel partnerships, plus the service partnerships, whatever the mix is in your category, you have to have two or three of those seven people. Saying nice things about you at every stage of the customer journey. [00:19:38] Jay McBain: Now move over to alliances. We have already built the platforms at the hyperscale level. We’ve built the platforms within SaaS, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday, Marketo, NetSuite, HubSpot. Every buyer has a set of platforms that they buy. We’ve now built them in cybersecurity this year out of 6,500 as high as cyber companies, the top five are starting to separate. [00:20:02] Jay McBain: We built it in distribution, which I’ll show in a minute. We’re building it in Telco. This is a platform economy and alliances win and you have alliances with your competitors ’cause you compete in the morning, but you’re best friends by the afternoon. Winning in other platforms is just as important as driving your own. [00:20:20] Jay McBain: And probably the most important part of this is go to market. That sales, that marketing, the 28 moments, the every 30 days forever become all a partner strategy. So there’s still CEOs out there that believe platform is a UI or UX on a bunch of disparate products and things you’ve acquired. There’s still CFOs out there that Think platform is a pricing model, a bundle model of just getting everything under one, you know, subscription price or consumption price. [00:20:51] Jay McBain: And it’s not, platforms are synonymous with partnerships. This is the way forward and there’s no conversation around ai. That doesn’t involve Nvidia over there, an open AI over here and a hyperscaler over there and a SaaS company over here. The seven layer stack wins every single time, and the companies that get this will be the ones that survive this cycle. [00:21:16] Jay McBain: Now, flipping over to marketplaces. So we had written research that, um, about five years ago that marketplaces were going to grow at 82% compounded. Yeah, probably one of the most accurate predictions we ever made, because it happened, we, we predicted that, uh, we were gonna get up to about $85 billion. Well, now we’ve extended that to 2030, so we’re gonna get up to $163 billion, and the thing that we’re watching is in green. [00:21:46] Jay McBain: If 96% of these deals are partner assisted in some way, how is the economics of partnering going to work? We predicted that 50% of deals by 2027. Would be partner funded in some way. Private offers multi-partner offers distributor sellers of record, and now that extends to 59% by 2030, the most senior leader of the biggest marketplace AWS, just said to us they’re gonna probably make these numbers on their own. [00:22:14] Jay McBain: And he asked what their two competitors are doing. So he’s telling us that we under called this. Now when you look at each of the press releases, and this is the AWS Billion Dollar Club. Every one of the companies on the left have issued a press release that they’re in the billion dollar club. Some of them are in the multi-billions, but I want you to double click on this press release. [00:22:35] Jay McBain: I’m quoted in here somewhere, but as CrowdStrike is building the marketplace at 91% compounded, they’re almost doubling their revenue every single year. They’re growing the partner funding, in this case, distributor funding by 3548%. Almost triple digit growth in marketplace is translating into almost quadruple digit growth in funding. [00:23:01] Jay McBain: And you see that over and over again as, as Splunk hit three, uh, billion dollars. The same. Salesforce hit $2 billion on AWS in Ulti, 18 months. They joined in October 20, 23, and 18 months later, they’re already at $2 billion. But now you’re seeing at Salesforce, which by the way. Grew up to $40 billion in revenue direct, almost not a nickel in resell. [00:23:28] Jay McBain: Made it really difficult for VARs and managed service providers to work with Salesforce because they couldn’t understand how to add services to something they didn’t book the revenue for. While $40 billion companies now seeing 70% of their deals come through partners. So this is just the world that we’re in. [00:23:44] Jay McBain: It doesn’t matter who you are and what industry you’re in, this takes place. But now we’re starting to see for the first time. Partners join the billion dollar club. So you wonder about partnering and all this funding and everything that’s working through Now you’re seeing press releases and companies that are redoing their LinkedIn branding about joining this illustrious club without a product to sell and all the services that wrap around it. [00:24:10] Jay McBain: So the opening session on Microsoft was interesting because there’s been a number of changes that Microsoft has done just in the last 30 days. One is they cut distribution by two thirds going from 180 distributors to 62. They cut out any small partner lower than a thousand dollars, and that doesn’t sound like a lot, but that’s over a hundred thousand partners that get deed tightening the long tail. [00:24:38] Jay McBain: They we’re the first to really put a global point system in place three years ago. They went to the new commerce experience. If you remember, all kinds of changes being led by. The biggest company for the channel. And so when we’re studying marketplaces, we’re not just studying the three hyperscalers, we’re studying what TD Cynic is doing with Stream One Ingram’s doing with Advant Advantage Aerosphere. [00:25:01] Jay McBain: Also, we’re watching what PAX eight, who by the way, is the 365 bestseller for Microsoft in the world. They are the cybersecurity leader for Microsoft in the world and the copilot. Leader in the world for Microsoft and Partner of the Year for Microsoft. So we’re watching what the cloud platforms are doing, watching what the Telco are doing, which is 25 cents out of every dollar, if you remember that pie chart, watching what the biggest resellers are converting themselves into. [00:25:30] Jay McBain: Vince just mentioned, you know, SHI in the changes there watching the managed services market and the leaders there, what they’re doing in terms of how this industry’s moving forward. By the way, managed services at $608 billion this year. Is one and a half times larger than the SaaS industry overall. [00:25:48] Jay McBain: It’s also one and a half times larger than all the hyperscalers combined. Oracle, Alibaba, IBM, all the way down. This is a massive market and it makes up 15 to 20 cents of every dollar the customer spend. We’re watching that industry hit a trillion dollars by the end of the decade, and we’re watching 150 different marketplace development platforms, the distribution of our industry, which today is 70.1% indirect. [00:26:13] Jay McBain: We’re starting to see that number, uh, solidify in terms of marketplaces as well. Watching distributors go from that linear warehouse in a bank to this orchestration model, watching some of the biggest players as the world comes around, platforms, it tightens around the place. So Caresoft, uh, from from here is the sixth biggest distributor in the world. [00:26:40] Jay McBain: Just shows you how big the. You know, biggest client in the world is that they serve. But understand that we’re publishing the distributor 500 list, but it’ll be the same thing. That little group in blue in the middle today, you know, drives almost two thirds of the market. So what happens in all this next stage in terms of where the dollars change hands. [00:27:07] Jay McBain: And the economics of partnering themselves are going through the most radical shift that we’ve seen ever. So back to the nineties, and, and for those of you that have been channel chiefs and running programs, we went to work every day. You know, everything’s on fire. We’re trying to check hundred boxes, trying to make our program 10% better than our competitors. [00:27:30] Jay McBain: Hey, we gotta fix our deal registration program today, and our incentives are outta whack or training programs or. You know, not where they need to be. Our certification, you know, this was the life of, uh, of a channel chief. Everybody thought we were just out drinking in the Caribbean with our best partners, but we were under the weight of this. [00:27:49] Jay McBain: But something interesting has happened is that we turned around and put the customer at the middle of our programs to say that those 28 moments in green before the sale are really, really important. And the seven partners who participate are really important. Understanding. The customer’s gonna buy a seven layer stack. [00:28:09] Jay McBain: They’re gonna buy it With these seven partners, the procurement stage is much different. The growth of marketplaces, the growth of direct in some of these areas, and then long term every 30 days forever in a managed service, implementations, integrations, how you upsell, cross-sell, enrich a deal changes. So how would you build a program that’s wrapped around the customer instead of the vendor? [00:28:35] Jay McBain: And we’re starting to hear our partners shout back to us. These are global surveys, big numbers, but over half of our partners, regardless of type, are selling consulting to their customer. Over half are designing architecting deals. A third of them are trying to be system integrators showing up at those implementation integration moments. [00:28:55] Jay McBain: Two thirds of them are doing managed services, but the shocking one here is 44% of our partners, regardless of type, are coding. They’re building agents and they’re out helping their customer at that level. So this is the modern partner that says, don’t typecast me. You may have thought of me in your program. [00:29:14] Jay McBain: You might have me slotted as a var. Well, I do 3.2 things, and if I don’t get access to those resources, if you don’t walk me to that room, I’m not gonna do them with you. You may have me as a managed service provider that’s only in the morning. By the afternoon I’m coding, and by the next morning I’m implementing and consulting. [00:29:33] Jay McBain: So again, a partner’s not a partner. That Venn diagram is a very loose one now, as every partner on there is doing 3.2 different business models. And again, they’re telling us for 43 years, they said, I want more leads this year it changed. For the first time, I want to be recognized and incentivized as more than just a cash register for you. [00:29:57] Jay McBain: I want you to recognize when I’m consulting, when I’m designing, when you’re winning deals, because of my wonderful services, by the way, we asked the follow up question, well, where should we spend our money with you? And they overwhelmingly say, in the consulting stage, you win and lose deals. Not at moment 28. [00:30:18] Jay McBain: We’re not buying a pack of gum at the gas station. This is a considered purchase. You win deals from moment 12 through 16 and I’m gonna show you a picture of that later, and they say, you better be spending your money there, or you’re not gonna win your fair share or more than your fair share of deals. [00:30:36] Jay McBain: The shocking thing about this is that Microsoft, when they went to the point system, lifted two thirds of all the money, tens of billions of dollars, and put it post-sale, and we were all scratching our heads going. Well, if the partners are asking for it there, and it seems like to beat your biggest competitors, you want to win there. [00:30:54] Jay McBain: Why would you spend the money on renewal? Well, they went to Wall Street and Goldman Sachs and the people who lift trillions of dollars of pension funds and said, if we renew deals at 108%, we become a cash machine for you. And we think that’s more valuable than a company coming out with a new cell phone in September and selling a lot of them by Christmas every year. [00:31:18] Jay McBain: The industry. And by the way, wall Street responded, Microsoft has been more valuable than Apple since. So we talk in this now multiplier language, and these are reports that we write, uh, at AMIA at canals. But talking about the partner opportunity in that customer cycle, the $6 and 40 cents you can make for every dollar of consumption, or the $7 and 5 cents you can make the $8 and 45 cents you can make. [00:31:46] Jay McBain: There’s over 24 companies speaking at this level now, and guess what? It’s not just cloud or software companies. Hardware companies are starting to speak in this language, and on January 25th, Cisco, you know, probably second to Microsoft in terms of trust built with the channel globally is moving to a full point system. [00:32:09] Jay McBain: So these are the changes that happen fast. But your QBR with your partners now less about drinking beers at the hotel lobby bar and talking dollar by dollar where these opportunities are. So if you’re doing 3.2 of these things, let’s build out a, uh, a play where you can make $3 for every dollar that we make. [00:32:28] Jay McBain: And you make that profitably. You make it in sticky, highly retained business, and that’s the model. ’cause if you make $3 for every dollar. We make, you’re gonna win Partner of the year, and if you win partner of the year, that piece of glass that you win on stage, by the time you get back to your table, you’re gonna have three offers to buy your business. [00:32:51] Jay McBain: CDW just bought a w. S’s Partner of the Year. Insight bought Google’s eight time partner of the year. Presidio bought ServiceNow’s, partner of the year over and over and over again. So I’m at Octane, I’m at CrowdStrike, I’m at all these events in Vegas every week. I’m watching these partners of the year. [00:33:05] Jay McBain: And I’m watching as the big resellers. I’m watching as the GSIs and the m and a folks are surrounding their table after, and they’re selling their businesses for SaaS level valuations. Not the one-to-one service valuation. They’re getting multiples because this is the new future of our industry. This is platform economics. [00:33:25] Jay McBain: This is winning and platforms for partners. Now, like Vince, I spent 20 minutes without talking about ai, but we have to talk about ai. So the next 20 years as it plays out is gonna play out in phases. And the first thing you know to get it out of the way. The first two years since that March of 23, has been underwhelming, to say the least. [00:33:47] Jay McBain: It’s been disappointing. All the companies that should have won the biggest in AI have been the most disappointing. It’s underperformed the s and p by a considerable amount in terms of where we are. And it goes back to this. We always overestimate the first two years, but we underestimate the first 10. [00:34:07] Jay McBain: If you wanna be the point in time person and go look at that 1983 PC or the 1995 internet or that 2007 iPhone or that whatever point in time you wanna look at, or if you want to talk about hallucinations or where chat chip ET version five is version, as opposed to where it’s going to be as it improves every six months here on in. [00:34:30] Jay McBain: But the fact of the matter is, it’s been a consumer trend. Nvidia got to be the most valuable company in the world. OpenAI was the first company to 2 billion users, uh, in that amount of speed. It’s the fastest growing product ever in history, and it’s been a consumer win this trillions of dollars to get it thrown around in the press releases. [00:34:49] Jay McBain: They’re going out every day, you know, open ai, signing up somebody new or Nvidia, investing in somebody new almost every single day in hundreds of billions of dollars. It is all happening really on the consumer side. So we got a little bit worried and said, is that 96% of surround gonna work in ag agentic ai? [00:35:10] Jay McBain: So we went and asked, and the good news is 88% of end customers are using partners to work through their ag agentic strategy. Even though they’re moving slow, they’re actually using partners. But what’s interesting from a partner perspective, and this is new research that out till 2030. This is the number one services opportunity in the entire tech or telco industry. [00:35:34] Jay McBain: 35.3% compounded growth ending at $267 billion in services. Companies are rebuilding themselves, building out practices, and getting on this train and figuring out which vendors they should hook their caboose to as those trains leave the station. But it kind of plays out like this. So in the next three to five years, we’re in this generative, moving into agentic phase. [00:36:01] Jay McBain: Every partner thinks internally first, the sales and marketing. They’re thinking about their invoicing and billing. They’re thinking about their service tickets. They’re thinking about creating a business that’s 10% better than their competitors, taking that knowledge into their customers and drive in business. [00:36:17] Jay McBain: But we understand that ag agentic AI, as it’s going to play out is not a product. A couple of years ago, we thought maybe a copilot or an agent force or something was going to be the product that everybody needed to buy, and it’s not a product, it’s gonna show up as a feature. So you go back in the history of feature ads and it’s gonna show up in software. [00:36:38] Jay McBain: So if you’re calling in SMB, maybe you’re calling on a restaurant. The restaurant isn’t gonna call OpenAI or call Microsoft or call Nvidia directly. They’re running their restaurant. And they may have chosen a platform like Toast Square, Clover, whatever iPads people are running around with, runs on a platform that does everything in their business, does staffing, does food ordering, works with Uber Eats, does everything end to end? [00:37:08] Jay McBain: They’re gonna wait to one of those platforms, dries out agent AI for them, and can run the restaurant more effectively, less human capital and more consistently, but they wait for the SaaS platform as you get larger. A hundred, 150 people. You have vice presidents. Each of those vice presidents already have a SaaS stack. [00:37:28] Jay McBain: I talked about Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday, et cetera. They’ve already built that seven layer model and in some cases it’s 70 layers. But the fact is, is they’re gonna wait for those SaaS layers to deliver ag agentic to them. So this is how it’s gonna play out for the next three and a half, three to five years. [00:37:45] Jay McBain: And partners are realizing that many of them were slow to pick up SaaS ’cause they didn’t resell it. Well now to win in this next three to half, three to five years, you’re gonna have to play in this environment. When you start looking out from here, the next generation, you know, kind of five through 15 years gets interesting in more of a physical sense. [00:38:06] Jay McBain: Where I was yesterday talking about every IOT device that now is internet access, starts to get access to large language models. Every little sensor, every camera, everything that’s out there starts to get smart. But there’s a point. The first trillionaire, I believe, will be created here. Elon’s already halfway there. [00:38:24] Jay McBain: Um, but when Bill Gates thought there was gonna be a PC in every home, and IBM thought they were gonna sell 10,000 to hobbyists, that created the richest person in the world for 20 years, there will be a humanoid in every home. There’s gonna be a point in time that you’re out having drinks with your friends, and somebody’s gonna say, the early adopter of your friends is gonna say. [00:38:46] Jay McBain: I haven’t done the dishes in six weeks. I haven’t done the laundry. I haven’t made my bed. I haven’t mowed the lawn. When they say that, you’re gonna say, well, how? And they’re gonna say, well, this year I didn’t buy a new car, but I went to the car dealership and I bought this. So we’re very close to the dexterity needed. [00:39:05] Jay McBain: We’ve got the large language models. Now. The chat, GPT version 10 by then is going to make an insane, and every house is gonna have one of the. [00:39:17] Jay McBain: This is the promise of ai. It’s not humanoid robots, it’s not agents. It’s this. 99% of the world’s business data has not been trained or tuned into models yet. Again, this is the slow moving business. If you want to think about the 99% of business data, every flight we’ve all taken in this room sits on a saber system that was put in place in 1964. [00:39:43] Jay McBain: Every banking transaction, we’ve all made, every withdrawal, every deposit sits on an IBM mainframe put in place in the sixties or seventies. 83% of this data sits in cold storage at the edge. It’s not ready to be moved. It’s not cleansed, it’s not, um, indexed. It’s not in any format or sitting on any infrastructure that a large language model will be able to gobble up the data. [00:40:10] Jay McBain: None of the workflows, none of the programming on top of that data is yet ready. So this is your 10 to 20 year arc of this era that chat bot today when they cancel your flight is cute. It’s empathetic, it feels bad for you, or at least it seems to, but it can’t do anything. It can’t book you the Marriott and get you an Uber and then a 5:00 AM flight the next morning. [00:40:34] Jay McBain: It can’t do any of that. But more importantly, it doesn’t know who you are. I’ve got 53 years of flights under my belt and they, I’m the person that get me within six hours of my kids and get me a one-way Hertz rental. You know, if there’s bad weather in Miami, get me to Tampa, get me a Hertz, I’m driving home, I’m gonna make it home. [00:40:56] Jay McBain: I’m not the 5:00 AM get me a hotel person. They would know that if they picked up the flights that I’ve taken in the past. Each of us are different. When you get access to the business data and you become ag agentic, everything changes. Every industry changes because of this around the customers. When you ask about this 35% growth, working on that data, working in traditional consulting and design and implementation, working in the $7 trillion of infrastructure, storage, compute, networking, that’s gonna be around, this is a massive opportunity. [00:41:30] Jay McBain: Services are gonna continue to outgrow products. Probably for the next five to 10 years because of this, and I’m gonna finish here. So we talked a lot about quantifying names, faces, places, and I think where we failed the most as ultimate partners is underneath the tam, which every one of our CEOs knows to the decimal point underneath the TAM that our board thinks they’re chasing. [00:41:59] Jay McBain: We’ve done a very poor job. Of talking about the available markets and obtainable markets underneath it, we, we’ve shown them theory. We’ve shown them a bunch of, you know, really smart stuff, and PowerPoint slides up the wazoo, but we’ve never quantified it for them. If they wanna win, if they want to get access, if they want to double their pipeline, triple their pipeline, if they wanna start winning more deals, if they wanna win deals that are three times larger, they close two times faster. [00:42:31] Jay McBain: And they renew 15% larger. They have to get into the available and obtainable markets. So just in the last couple weeks I spoke at Cribble, I spoke at Octane, I spoke at CrowdStrike Falcon. All three of those companies at the CEO level, main stage use those exact three numbers, three x, two x, 15%. That’s the language of platforms, and they’re investing millions and millions and millions of dollars on teams. [00:42:59] Jay McBain: To go build out the Sam Andal in name spaces and places. So you’ve heard me talk about these 28 moments a lot. They’re the ones that you spend when you buy a car. Some people spend one moment and they drive to the Cadillac dealership. ’cause Larry’s been, you know, taking care of the family for 50 years. [00:43:18] Jay McBain: Some people spend 50 moments like I do, watching every YouTube video and every, you know, thing on the internet. I clear the internet cover to cover. But the fact is, is every deal averages around these 28 moments. Your customer, there’s 13 members of the buying committee today. There’s seven partners and they’re buying seven things. [00:43:37] Jay McBain: There’s 27 things orchestrating inside these 28 moments. And where and how they all take place is a story of partnering. So a couple of years ago, canals. Latin for channel was acquired by amia, which is a part of Informa Tech Target, which is majority owned by Informa. All that being said, there’s hundreds of magazines that we have. [00:44:00] Jay McBain: There’s hundreds of events that we run. If somebody’s buying cybersecurity, they probably went to Black Hat or they probably went to GI Tech. One of these events we run, or one of the magazines. So we pick up these signals, these buyer intent signals as a company. Why did they wanna, um, buy a, uh, a Canals, which was a, you know, a small analyst firm around channels? [00:44:22] Jay McBain: They understood this as well. The 28 moments look a lot like this when marketers and salespeople are busy filling in the spots of every deal. And by the way, this is a real deal. AstraZeneca came in to spend millions of dollars on ASAP transformation, and you can start to see as the customer got smart. [00:44:45] Jay McBain: The eBooks, they read the podcasts, they listened to the events they went to. You start to see how this played out over the long term. But the thing we’ve never had in our industry is the light blue boxes. This deal was won and lost in December. In this particular case, NTT software won and Yash came in and sold the customer five projects. [00:45:07] Jay McBain: The millions of dollars that were going to be spent were solved here. The design and architecture work was all done here. A couple of ISVs You see in light blue came in right at the end, deal was closed in April. You see the six month cycle. But what if you could fill in every one of the 28 boxes in every single customer prospect that your sales and marketing team have? [00:45:30] Jay McBain: But here’s the brilliance of this. Those light blue boxes didn’t win the deals there. They won the deals months before that. So when NTT and Software one walked into this deal. They probably won the deal back in October and they had to go through the redlining. They had to go through the contracting, they had to go through all the stuff and the Gantt chart to get started. [00:45:54] Jay McBain: But while your CMO is getting all excited about somebody reading an ebook and triggering an MQL that the sales team doesn’t want, ’cause it’s not qualified, it’s not sales qualified, you walk in and say, no, no. This is a multimillion deal, dollar deal. It’s AstraZeneca. I know the five partners that are coming in in December to solidify the seven layers, and you’re walking in at the same time as the CMOs bragging about an ebook. [00:46:21] Jay McBain: This changes everything. If we could get to this level of data about every dollar of our tam, we not only outgrow our competitors, we become the platforms of the next generation. Partnering and ultimate partnering is all here. And this is what we’re doing in this room. This is what we’re doing over these couple of days, and this is what, uh, the mission that Vince is leading. [00:46:43] Jay McBain: Thank you so much. [00:46:47] Vince Menzione: Woo. Day in the house. Good to see you my friend. Good to see you. Oh, we’re gonna spend a couple minutes. Um, I’m put you in the second seat. We’re gonna put, we’re gonna make it sit fireside for a minute. Uh, that was intense. It was pretty incredible actually, Jay. And so I’m, I think I wanna open it up ’cause we only have a few minutes just to, any questions? [00:47:06] Vince Menzione: I’m sure people are just digesting. We already have one up here. See, [00:47:09] Question: Jay knows I’m [00:47:10] Vince Menzione: a question. I love it. We, I don’t think we have any I can grab a mic, a roving mic. I could be a roving mic person. Hold on. We can do this. This is not on. [00:47:25] Vince Menzione: Test, test. Yes it is. Yeah. [00:47:26] Question: Theresa Carriol dared me to ask a question and I say, you don’t have to dare me. You know, I’m going to Anyway. Um, so Jay, of the point of view that with all of the new AI players that strategic alliances is again having a moment, and I was curious your point of view on what you’re seeing around this emergence and trend of strategic alliances and strategic alliance management. [00:47:52] Question: As compared to channel management. And what are you seeing in terms of large vendors like AWS investing in that strategic alliance role versus that channel role training, enablement, measurement, all that good stuff? [00:48:06] Jay McBain: Yeah, it’s, it’s a great question. So when I told the story about toast at the restaurant or Square or Clover, they’re not call, they’re not gonna call open AI or Nvidia themselves either. [00:48:17] Jay McBain: When you look out at the 250,000 ISVs. That make up this AI stack, there is the layers that happen there. So the Alliance with AWS, the alliance they have with Microsoft or Google is going to be how they generate agent AI in their platforms. So when I talk about a seven layer stack, the average deal being seven layers, AI is gonna drive this to nine, and then 11, then probably 13. [00:48:44] Jay McBain: So in terms of how alliances work, I had it up there as one of the five core strategies, and I think it’s pretty even. You can have the best alliances in the world, but if the seven partners trusted by the customer don’t know what that alliance is and the benefits to the customer and never mention it, it’s all for Naugh. [00:49:00] Jay McBain: If you’re go-to market, you’re co-selling, your co-marketing strategies are not built around that alliance. It’s all for naught. If the integration and the co-innovation, the co-development, the all the co-creation work that’s done inside these alliances isn’t translated to customer outcomes, it’s all for naugh. [00:49:17] Jay McBain: These are all five parallel swim lanes. All five are absolutely critically needed. And I think they’re all five pretty equally weighted in terms of needing each other. Yes. To be successful in the era of platforms. Yeah. [00:49:32] Vince Menzione: And the problem is they’re all stove pipe today. If, if at all. Yeah. Maintained, right. [00:49:36] Vince Menzione: Alliances is an example. Channels and other example. They don’t talk to one another. Judge any, we’ve got a mic up here if anybody else has. Yep. We have some questions here, Jacqueline. [00:49:51] Question: So when we’re developing our channel programs, any advice on, you know, what’s the shift that we should make six months from now, a year from now? The historical has been bronze, silver, gold, right? And you’ve got your deal registration, but what’s the future look like? [00:50:05] Jay McBain: Yeah, so I mean, the programs are, are changing to, to the point where the customer should be in the middle and realizing the seven partners you need to win the deal. [00:50:15] Jay McBain: And depending on what category of product you’re in, security, how much you rely on resell, 91.6%. You know, the channel partners are gonna be critical where the customer spends the money. And if you’re adding friction to that process, you’re adding friction in terms of your growth. So you know, if you’re in cybersecurity, you have to have a pretty wide open reseller model. [00:50:39] Jay McBain: You have to have a wide open distribution model, and you have to make sure you’re there at that point of sale. While at the same time, considering the other six partners at moment 12 who are in either saying nice things about you or not, the customer might even be starting with you. ’cause there is actually one thing that I didn’t mention when I showed the 28 moments filled in. [00:51:00] Jay McBain: You’ll notice that the customer went to AWS twice direct. AWS lost the deal. Microsoft won the deal software. One is Microsoft’s biggest reseller in the world. They just acquired crayon. NTT who, who loves both had their Microsoft team go in. [00:51:18] Question: Mm. [00:51:19] Jay McBain: So I think that they went to AWS thinking it was A-W-S-S-A-P, you know, kind of starting this seven layer stack. [00:51:25] Jay McBain: I think they finished those, you know, critical moments in the middle looking at it. And then they went back to AWS kind of going probably WWTF. Yeah. What we thought was happening isn’t actually the outcome that was painted by our most trusted people. So, you know, to answer your question, listen to your partners. [00:51:43] Jay McBain: They want to be recognized for the other things they’re doing. You can’t be spending a hundred percent of the dollars at the point of sale. You gotta have a point of system that recognizes the point of sale, maybe even gold, silver, bronze, but recognizing that you’re paying for these other moments as well. [00:51:57] Jay McBain: Paying for alliances, paying for integrations and everything else, uh, in the cyber stack. And, um, you know, recognizing also the top 1000. So if I took your tam. And I overlaid those thousand logos. I would be walking into 2026 the best I could of showing my company logo by logo, where 80% of our TAM sits as wallet share, not by revenue. [00:52:25] Jay McBain: Remember, a million dollar partner is not a million dollar partner. One of them sells 1.2 million in our category. We should buy them a baseball cap and have ’em sit in the front row of our event. One of them sells $10 million and only sells our stuff if the customer asks. So my company should be looking at that $9 million opportunity and making sure my programs are writing the checks and my coverage. [00:52:48] Jay McBain: My capacity and capability planning is getting obsessed over that $9 million. My farmers can go over there, my hunters can go over here, and I should be submitting a list of a thousand sorted in descending order of opportunity. Of where my company can write program dollars into. [00:53:07] Vince Menzione: Great answer. All right. I, I do wanna be cognizant of time and the, all the other sessions we have. [00:53:14] Vince Menzione: So we’ll just take one other question if there are any here and if not, we’ll let I know. Jay, you’re gonna be mingling around for a little while before your flight. I’m [00:53:21] Jay McBain: here the whole day. [00:53:22] Vince Menzione: You, you’re the whole day. I see that Jay’s here the whole day. So if you have any other questions and, and, uh, sharing the deck is that. [00:53:29] Vince Menzione: Yep. Alright. We have permission to share the deck with the each of you as well. [00:53:34] Jay McBain: Alright, well thank you very much everyone. Jay. Great to have you.
In this episode, Robin Merttens is joined by Dr Thomas Kuhnt (HDI Global SE), Ed Ackerman (Qover) and Vincent De Ponthaud (AXA) for a rare C-suite perspective on Agentic AI — what it is, how it's being deployed and why senior leaders are walking a tightrope between bold innovation and operational risk. Agentic AI promises transformative value, but for decision-makers at the top, it also brings real uncertainty. What do you build vs. buy? How do you prove ROI? And how do you prevent over-trusting agents that are inherently probabilistic? In this conversation, Thomas, Ed and Vincent share: Why Agentic AI is different from past tech trends and why this one feels real The cultural and leadership challenge of balancing excitement with governance How AXA and HDI are enabling safe experimentation at scale across complex organisations How Qover is building 20+ AI agents to automate claims micro-tasks — and when they build vs. buy What customers really think about AI agents and why nearly none opt out The risks of shadow AI and why IT needs to move faster than ever Why “human in the loop” is flawed and how user trust in AI could become a blind spot What's missing: industry standards, agent evaluation tools and new roles like “agent managers” The case for cautious iteration, deep collaboration and constant re-evaluation Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.
Most enterprises aren't ready for agentic AI, but ChristianKleinerman, Snowflake's EVP of Product, shares practical advice on what it takes to succeed: data readiness, governance, AI economics, and workforcestrategy.In this episode of CXOTalk, Kleinerman draws on 25 years ofenterprise technology experience to give leaders a realistic roadmap for AI adoption. He explains how to evaluate AI vendors in hours instead of months, which use cases deliver measurable ROI today, and how to build the data foundation that makes AI agents effective.
BONUS DISCUSSION: Dr. Lucy Barnhouse, assistant professor of History and director of Medieval And Renaissance Minor at Arkansas State University, joins the "ROI" team to discuss "The Footnoting History" podcast.The host for the 641st edition in this series is Jay Swords, and the history buff is Rick Sweet.Opinions expressed in this program are those of the hosts and the guest(s), and not necessarily those of KALA-FM or St. Ambrose University. This program is recorded at KALA-FM, St. Ambrose University, Davenport, Iowa, USA!
Dr. Lucy Barnhouse, assistant professor of History and director of Medieval And Renaissance Minor at Arkansas State University, joins the "ROI" team to discuss "The Footnoting History" podcast.The host for the 641st edition in this series is Jay Swords, and the history buff is Rick Sweet.Opinions expressed in this program are those of the hosts and the guest(s), and not necessarily those of KALA-FM or St. Ambrose University. This program is recorded at KALA-FM, St. Ambrose University, Davenport, Iowa, USA!
The insider strategy behind landing your content on platforms like USA Today, AP, & Business Insider. The Big 6 distribution approach that transforms organic visibility, why traditional PR tactics fall short, and how businesses measure real ROI from premium media placement without the advertising trap. Ethos Media & Marketing LLC City: Washington Address: DC - MD - VA - LA - FL Website: https://www.ethosm2.com Phone: +1 202 935 9953 Email: info@ethosm2.com
Podcast diario para aprender español - Learn Spanish Daily Podcast
Hoy Paco y Roi charlan por última vez antes de que acabe el año y comentan cosas como libros, series o películas españolas.
Hidden listing keywords. An Amazon & TikTok Shop reality show. And a tool that exposes the Amazon influencers hyping your competitors' products. Special edition Weekly Buzz today. Let's go! We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton, and Helium 10's Principal Brand Evangelist, Carrie Miller. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. 1️⃣ Listing Builder combines 8 tools into one, integrating keyword research and listing creation so you can find, analyze, and optimize Amazon listings in one place. 2️⃣ Helium 10's Scale Stories YouTube series follows real sellers at different stages, with expert mentors guiding beginners and stuck sellers step by step to grow. 3️⃣ TikTok Product Finder helps sellers discover winning TikTok Shop products using filters like category, price, sales, GMV, affiliates, and influencers. 4️⃣ Helium 10's Chrome extension now supports Amazon Saudi Arabia, letting sellers analyze sales and opportunities in this fast-growing market. 5️⃣ TikTok Hot Videos shows top-performing TikTok Shop videos by keyword, category, and timeframe, helping sellers and influencers replicate high-converting content. 6️⃣ Amazon Influencer Finder helps sellers discover, analyze, and contact Amazon influencers making product videos, making it easy to recruit proven creators for listings. 7️⃣ TikTok Shop Ads tool lets sellers analyze GMV Max ads by platform, product, and video to spot top-performing creatives and improve ROI. 8️⃣ Helium 10 Share of Voice shows how much page-one visibility your brand owns across organic, sponsored, and video placements, revealing true share of shelf beyond rankings. 9️⃣ Keyword Tracker now includes built-in translation, letting sellers instantly understand and analyze foreign-language keywords across global Amazon marketplaces.
Math doesn't lie — and it exposes why saving alone keeps you stuck. In this powerful segment of The Abundance Mindset, Vinney Chopra and Gualter Amarelo break down the math behind wealth using one simple concept: the Rule of 72. Vinney shows how low returns stretch wealth-building timelines into decades, while strategic returns compress them into years. Gualter brings real-life examples, from education investments to seller financing, showing how intentional deployment changes everything. Vinney Smile Chopra emphasizes that wealth is not about chasing risk — it's about understanding return, compounding, and positioning your capital wisely. Gualter shares how investing in education and mentorship produced exponential returns that no savings account could ever match. Together, they explain why wealthy people review their portfolios, reposition buckets, and allow money to work harder than they do. What listeners will take away:
Thanks to our Partners, Shop Dog Marketing, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode Recorded live at AAPEX 2025, this episode features Tara Topel, the new president of Vehicle Service Experts (VSE), and Missy Stephens, Community Engagement Manager for the Auto Care Association. The discussion highlights the rebranding of the Auto Care Association's Car Care Professionals Network (CCPN) to VSE, reflecting the broader industry that includes heavy-duty vehicles. Key initiatives include: Resource Hub:An online center covering topics from shop coaching to ADAS best practices.Industry Relevance:Translating Auto Care market data into actionable insights for shop planning.Best Practices:The VSE council, currently 10–12 members, aims to grow to 15–20, compiling guidance on apprenticeships, ADAS, and more. The episode also covers the Right to Repair movement. The association needs real-world examples where shops lacked access to data or support, to counter Congress's claims. Shop owners can submit stories via a QR code on the Auto Care website and are encouraged to share their experiences by hosting legislators. Get involved, share your experiences, and take an active role in shaping the policies that affect your shop and the entire industry. https://www.autocare.org/networking-and-development/communities/car-care-professionals-network https://www.repairact.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Shop Dog Marketing Shop Dog Marketing at Shop Dog Marketing.com. "Want to see your auto repair shop thrive? Let Shop Dog Marketing be your guide. Our customer-first approach, combined with AI-driven creative content, ensures top rankings. Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ Thanks to our Partner, KUKUI Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI's integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. Get industry-leading customer support with KUKUI at https://www.kukui.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Pit Crew Loyalty You're probably tired of chasing new customers who never return. We understand. Pit Crew Loyalty ends the...
In this episode of Excess Returns, we sit down with Paul Eitelman, Global Chief Investment Strategist at Russell Investments, to unpack their 2026 outlook and the idea of a “Great Inflection Point” for markets and the economy. Paul explains why the U.S. economy may be shifting from resilience to reacceleration, how artificial intelligence is moving from hype to measurable returns, and why market leadership could finally broaden beyond the Magnificent Seven. The conversation blends macroeconomic analysis, behavioral finance, and real-world portfolio implications, offering investors a framework for thinking about growth, risk, and diversification as we head into 2026.Main topics covered• The cycle, valuation, and sentiment framework and how it shapes investment decisions• Why economic growth may reaccelerate in 2026 after navigating policy headwinds• Accelerating AI adoption and what early signs of ROI mean for productivity and profits• The J-curve of new technologies and where AI may sit today• Capital spending, leverage, and profitability risks among hyperscalers and large tech firms• Energy demand, labor market impacts, and other societal risks tied to AI• Tariffs, immigration, and uncertainty as fading or manageable economic headwinds• Financial conditions, fiscal stimulus, and deregulation as emerging tailwinds• The gap between hard economic data and weak consumer sentiment• Why recession forecasts have been wrong and how to think about recession risk going forward• Inflation dynamics, the Federal Reserve's priorities, and the outlook for rates• The case for market broadening beyond the Magnificent Seven• Global diversification, small caps, international equities, and emerging markets• Behavioral finance, investor sentiment, and staying invested through volatility• Portfolio construction implications, including real assets and alternativesTimestamps00:00 Introduction and the Great Inflection Point outlook03:00 Cycle, valuation, and sentiment investing framework05:50 From economic resilience to potential reacceleration07:00 AI as a transformational technology and historical parallels09:20 Measuring returns on AI investment and productivity gains11:00 The AI J-curve and timing of benefits13:00 Capital intensity, leverage, and risks for big tech15:00 Energy demand, labor markets, and AI risks19:00 How Paul uses AI in his own research workflow20:30 The case for economic reacceleration into 202621:40 Tariffs and their real economic impact23:20 Immigration and labor supply effects24:10 Uncertainty, confidence, and business decision-making26:10 Financial conditions and household wealth28:00 Fiscal stimulus and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act29:20 Deregulation as a potential growth tailwind30:40 Hard data versus soft data in the economy34:10 Why recession forecasts failed37:10 Recession risk outlook for 202640:30 Inflation dynamics and the Fed's focus43:50 Broadening market leadership beyond the Magnificent Seven46:10 Investor sentiment, panic, and opportunity49:00 Translating macro views into portfolio strategy51:30 Real assets, alternatives, and diversification54:30 Investing lessons, compounding, and staying invested
IP Fridays - your intellectual property podcast about trademarks, patents, designs and much more
Brian is: Managing Director, GlassRatner LinkedIn bio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianbuss I am Rolf Claessen and my co-host Ken Suzan and I are welcoming you to episode 170 of our podcast IP Fridays! We also want to wish you a happy holiday season and a successful year 2026! Today's interview guest is Brian Buss. He is the managing director of GlassRatner and my co-host Ken Suzan talks with him about the valuation of intellectual property rights and damages in infringement cases. But before we jump into the interview, I have news for you! A US start-up called Operation Bluebird is trying to take over the “Twitter” trademark. It has asked the USPTO to cancel Twitter word marks, arguing that Elon Musk's company X no longer uses them after the rebrand. Led by a former Twitter trademark lawyer, Operation Bluebird also filed its own “Twitter” trademark application. Commentators note that X could face challenges defending the legacy marks if they are truly no longer in use. In parallel, the US debate on patent quality and review procedures is intensifying. The USPTO proposed controversial rule changes that would restrict Inter Partes Review (IPR). The proposal triggered substantial backlash, with more than 11,000 public comments submitted—over 4,000 of them via the civil liberties group EFF. In the EU, a major trademark reform will take effect on 1 January 2026. It aims to simplify procedures, recognize new types of marks (including hologram, multimedia, and motion marks), and make fees more SME-friendly (e.g., lower base fees for the first class and discounts for timely renewals). Opposition procedures will be further harmonized across the EU, including a mandatory “cooling-off” period, so mid-sized brand owners should adjust filing and monitoring strategies accordingly. The Unified Patent Court (UPC) continues to see strong uptake, especially in Germany. In the first 18 months since its launch on 1 June 2023, well over 900 cases were filed, with German local divisions (Munich, Düsseldorf, Mannheim, Hamburg) leading in patent actions. While many early cases were filed in German, English now dominates as the main language of proceedings. The court has largely met its timelines, with oral hearings typically held within 12 months of filing. China has reached a milestone in its patent system: for the first time, a country has surpassed 5 million active invention patents. CNIPA emphasizes a strategic shift from “quantity to quality,” citing growth in “high-value” patents and higher commercialization rates for university inventions. China has also led global PCT filings for six consecutive years—signals of rapid technological progress relevant to IP planning for German SMEs. On 4 December 2025, the USPTO issued new guidance on “Subject Matter Eligibility Declarations.” These declarations allow applicants to submit additional evidence to support patent eligibility for emerging technologies such as AI systems and medical diagnostics, aiming to reduce the risk that breakthrough inventions are excluded from protection under strict eligibility case law. In December, the European Patent Office (EPO) introduced new patent-quality measures. Third parties can now submit observations on published applications or granted patents via a simplified online form. These Third-Party Observations—supported by evidence and even filed anonymously—go directly to examination teams to flag potential obstacles early. The Interview with Brian Buss: Ken Suzan interviews Brian Buss, a valuation and damages expert who describes his work as “financial detective” work: identifying what intellectual property and other intangible assets are worth and how they translate into measurable economic benefits such as sales, profit, earnings, or cash flow. Buss emphasizes that “IP” should be understood broadly, not only as formal rights (patents, trademarks, copyrights), but also as brands, technology portfolios, internet and social media assets, know-how, and other business intangibles that help generate economic value. A central point is that IP is often a company's most valuable resource but is rarely measured well. Buss cites a “value gap” he observed in middle-market public companies: market capitalization often exceeds the asset values shown on balance sheets, and much of the gap is explained by intangible assets and IP. He argues that valuation helps companies understand ROI on IP spend (prosecution, protection, enforcement) and supports better strategic decision-making. He outlines common scenarios that trigger IP valuation: internal management needs (understanding performance drivers), disputes about resource allocation (e.g., technology vs. marketing), external events (M&A, licensing, partnerships, franchising, divestitures), and pricing strategy (how exclusivity supported by IP should affect product/service pricing). On “how” valuation is performed, Buss summarizes the three standard approaches—cost (replacement/replication cost), market (comparable transactions), and income (present value of future benefits). He adds that strong IP valuation requires integrating three dimensions of analysis: financial factors (performance data and projections), behavioral factors (customer demand drivers, perceptions, brand recall, feature importance), and legal factors (registration/enforcement history and competitive IP landscape). For practical readiness, he advises companies to improve data discipline: maintain solid books and records; develop credible budgets, forecasts, and business plans; document marketing activities; and actively collect/monitor website and social analytics (e.g., traffic sources, engagement). He stresses that these datasets inform valuation even for technology assets like patents, because they reveal whether protected features are actually marketed and valued by customers. A concrete example is domain names, which he frames as “virtual real estate.” In due diligence for a domain sale, he would focus on analytics showing whether the domain itself drives traffic (direct type-ins, branded search terms, bookmarks) versus traffic driven by other marketing efforts. The key question is whether the address is known and used as a pathway to the business. In closing, Buss argues that while gathering the necessary information requires effort, the investment typically pays off through greater awareness of the most valuable assets, better strategic decisions, and stronger support for growth opportunities. He presents IP valuation as a virtuous cycle of information, insight, and improved decision-making—summed up in his recurring theme: knowledge of IP value is “power” to increase business profitability and enterprise value. Here is the full transcript: Ken Suzan: Our guest today on the IP Fridays podcast is Brian Buss. Brian is a managing director with Glass-Rattner Advisory and Capital Group. Brian provides financial analysis, corporate finance, and expert testimony around the world. Ken Suzan: Mr. Buss provides strategic advice for owners of intellectual property portfolios, transactional services such as acquisition due diligence and purchase price allocation, and valuation services for trademarks, patents, copyrights, brand assets, trade secrets, technology assets, and intangibles. Ken Suzan: During his career, Mr. Buss has provided valuation opinions and financial analysis in business disputes and in transactions, and he has been retained as a testifying expert and consulting expert in federal court, state courts, and arbitration proceedings. Ken Suzan: As an expert, Mr. Buss has provided over 100 expert opinions, served as an expert witness at trial and deposition, and has been published in numerous journals and publications. He is also a participant in the International Task Force on Intellectual Property Reporting for Brands. Ken Suzan: Brian holds an MBA from San Diego State University and a bachelor's degree from Claremont McKenna College. Welcome, Brian, to the IP Fridays podcast. Brian Buss: Thank you, Ken, for having me. I appreciate the opportunity. Ken Suzan: Excellent, Brian. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about your professional background and what you do in the world of IP? Brian Buss: Sure. I'm a valuation professional and an economic damages expert. Most of my work involves valuing intellectual property and intangible assets and, in litigation contexts, assessing economic damages—often related to IP disputes. My role is frequently to translate legal or technical issues into financial outcomes. Ken Suzan: When people hear “IP,” they often think patents, trademarks, and copyrights. In your work, how broadly do you define intellectual property and intangible assets? Brian Buss: I define it very broadly. Of course, there are the formal rights—patents, trademarks, copyrights—but there are many other intangible assets that drive value: brand reputation, customer relationships, proprietary know-how, trade secrets, data, software, domain names, social media assets, and the systems and processes a business builds over time. All of those can create economic value, even if they're not always captured well on a balance sheet. Ken Suzan: Why is IP valuation important for companies—especially mid-sized businesses that may not have a large in-house legal or finance team? Brian Buss: Because IP and intangible assets can be a large portion—sometimes the largest portion—of what makes a business valuable, yet they're often not measured or managed with the same discipline as tangible assets. Valuation can help companies understand what is actually driving revenue, profit, and enterprise value. It can also help them justify investment in IP creation, protection, and enforcement, and it can support strategic decisions like licensing, partnerships, acquisitions, or pricing. Ken Suzan: You've talked elsewhere about a “value gap” between what's on the balance sheet and what the market thinks a company is worth. Can you explain that concept? Brian Buss: Sure. If you look at many companies—particularly in the middle market—you'll often see that market capitalization exceeds the asset values recorded on the balance sheet. A significant portion of that difference is attributable to intangible assets and IP that accounting rules don't fully recognize unless there's an acquisition. That “gap” is essentially the market saying, “There is value here beyond tangible assets,” and much of it comes from intangibles. Ken Suzan: What are the most common situations where a company needs an IP valuation? Brian Buss: There are a few big categories. One is transactions—M&A, due diligence, purchase price allocation, and financing. Another is licensing and partnerships—setting royalty rates, structuring deals, or evaluating whether a proposed license makes economic sense. A third is internal management: understanding ROI on R&D, marketing, or IP spend, or resolving internal debates about what is really driving business performance. And of course, litigation—damages, reasonable royalties, lost profits, and other economic remedies tied to IP. Ken Suzan: In practical terms, how do you value IP? What methods do you use? Brian Buss: The valuation profession generally relies on three approaches: the cost approach, the market approach, and the income approach. The cost approach looks at what it would cost to recreate or replace the asset. The market approach looks at comparable transactions—if you can find good comparables. The income approach is often the most relevant for IP: it looks at the present value of future economic benefits attributable to the IP, based on cash flows, risk, and time. Ken Suzan: In addition to the financial methods, what other factors matter? For example, legal strength or market perception? Brian Buss: Exactly. A strong valuation integrates financial, behavioral, and legal analysis. Financial is obvious—historic results, projections, margins, pricing. Behavioral is about demand drivers—what customers value, how they perceive the brand, how features influence purchasing decisions, and what drives loyalty or switching. Legal involves the nature of the IP rights, scope, enforceability, registration and maintenance history, and the competitive landscape. IP exists at the intersection of all three. Ken Suzan: What kind of information should a company have ready if they want to do an IP valuation? Brian Buss: Good books and records are essential—reliable financial statements, product-level revenue and cost data if possible, and credible budgets and forecasts. They should also document marketing activities, product positioning, and the role of IP in commercialization. For digital and brand assets, analytics matter—website traffic sources, conversion data, engagement metrics, and social media statistics. The more you can connect the IP or intangible asset to measurable economic outcomes, the stronger the valuation. Ken Suzan: That's interesting—people might not think that marketing analytics matter for patents. Can you explain how those link up? Brian Buss: Sure. A patent might cover a particular feature or technology, but the key economic question is: does that feature drive demand? If customers value it and it supports pricing power, adoption, or market share, that's important. Marketing materials, customer communications, sales training, and analytics can help show what the company emphasizes and what resonates with customers. It helps tie the legal right to real-world economic value. Ken Suzan: You mentioned domain names earlier. Many people underestimate them. How do you think about domain names as an asset? Brian Buss: I often describe domain names as virtual real estate. The question is whether the domain is a meaningful pathway to the business. In a valuation context, you'd look at the domain's role in generating traffic—direct navigation, branded search, bookmarks, and repeat visits. You'd also look at how much traffic is attributable to the domain itself versus paid marketing. If the domain is known and drives organic traffic and credibility, it can be quite valuable. Ken Suzan: So, if you're doing due diligence on a domain sale, what would you look for? Brian Buss: I'd look closely at analytics: traffic volume over time, sources of traffic, geographic distribution, conversion rates, and the relationship between marketing spend and traffic. If traffic is mostly paid and disappears when marketing stops, that's different than sustained direct navigation. I'd also look at brand alignment, risk factors, and whether there are disputes or competing rights. Ken Suzan: For a mid-sized company listening to this, what are the biggest “misses” you see—things companies do that reduce the value they can capture from IP? Brian Buss: A big one is not collecting and organizing information that demonstrates value. Another is not aligning IP strategy with business strategy—filing patents or trademarks without a clear plan for how they support products, markets, and revenue. Some companies also underinvest in documenting commercialization and customer impact, which becomes important in transactions and disputes. And sometimes they simply don't revisit their portfolios to understand what is still relevant and what is not. Ken Suzan: How should companies think about ROI on IP spend—both the costs of prosecution and the costs of enforcement? Brian Buss: They should start by identifying the economic role of the IP: is it supporting pricing power, is it protecting market share, is it enabling licensing revenue, is it reducing competitive entry? Then they can compare the costs—filing, maintenance, monitoring, enforcement—against the value it protects or creates. Valuation can provide a framework for that, and it can also help prioritize where to spend resources. Ken Suzan: When valuation is used in litigation, what are the typical types of damages analysis you're asked to perform? Brian Buss: Commonly, reasonable royalty analysis, lost profits, unjust enrichment, and sometimes disgorgement depending on the jurisdiction and the claims. The specifics depend on the legal framework, but the core is the same: quantify the economic harm and connect it causally to the alleged infringement or misappropriation, using financial data, market evidence, and assumptions that can be tested. Ken Suzan: Are there misconceptions about valuation that you'd like to correct for our audience? Brian Buss: One misconception is that valuation is purely subjective or that it's just an “opinion.” A good valuation is grounded in data, established methodologies, and transparent assumptions. Another is that intangibles can't be measured. They can be measured—often through the economic benefits they create and through evidence of customer behavior and market dynamics. It takes work, but it's doable. Ken Suzan: If a company wants to prepare for a future transaction—say a sale or a major partnership—what are some practical steps they can take now to make their IP story stronger? Brian Buss: Maintain clean records, develop credible forecasts, and document the link between IP and business results. Make sure registrations and maintenance are up to date. Track how IP supports products and competitive differentiation. Collect evidence of brand strength and customer loyalty. And if possible, structure internal reporting so you can see performance by product line or offering. That helps in due diligence and helps buyers or partners understand what they're paying for. Ken Suzan: Any final thoughts or advice for owners of intellectual property portfolios, transactional professionals, or executives listening to this? Brian Buss: I'd emphasize that the investment in gathering the information needed for evaluation typically pays off. It creates awareness of the most valuable assets, supports better strategic decisions, and makes it easier to pursue growth opportunities. IP valuation is a virtuous cycle of information gathering, analysis, deeper understanding, and then decision-making. Knowledge is power, and knowledge of the value of your IP is the power to increase the profitability and value of your business. IP valuation is a key element of the management toolkit. Ken Suzan: Brian, well said, and thank you so much for taking time today to be on the IP Fridays podcast. Brian Buss: Thank you, Ken. I really appreciate the opportunity.
Blood Pressure Control Crisis in Primary Care: New AI Study Reveals What's Going Wrong Join us as Dr. Andrew M. Davis and Amy Wainwright from University of Chicago Medicine reveals how AI-powered analysis of 37,000+ patients exposed a crisis hiding in plain sight: nearly 30% of hypertensive patients have dangerously uncontrolled blood pressure despite regular primary care visits. Using cloud-based machine learning across 112 providers, Dr. Davis's team identified critical gaps traditional metrics miss—underutilized medications, missed referrals, and troubling disparities in care. More importantly, they developed interventions that work. Discover how to leverage advanced analytics for measurable ROI, implement real-time clinical intelligence at scale, and empower providers with data-driven feedback that reduces cardiovascular risk at the point of care. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen/
Welcome to The Chrisman Commentary, your go-to daily mortgage news podcast, where industry insights meet expert analysis. Hosted by Robbie Chrisman, this podcast delivers the latest updates on mortgage rates, capital markets, and the forces shaping the housing finance landscape. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just looking to stay informed, you'll get clear, concise breakdowns of market trends and economic shifts that impact the mortgage world.In today's episode, we look at how originators are winning business in modern times. Plus, Robbie sits down with Brian Levy for an interview on Chrisman Commentary expansion. And we close by looking at which direction rates are likely to go.Thanks to Gallus Insight, which is transforming employee analytics into actionable insights. Gallus' ROI tool for learning and development activity is the most powerful in the world, and also the easiest to use.
Hot Options Report: Nvidia & Tesla Lead a Holiday-Shortened Volume Charge In this post-Christmas episode of The Hot Options Report, Mark Longo breaks down a high-stakes, shortened trading week. While the holiday session started light, volume poured into the heavy hitters by the closing bell. We go "around the horn" from Broadcom to Nvidia, tracking the dominant option chains and the "0DTE" expiration trades that won (and lost) the day. The Top 10 Countdown: #10 Broadcom (AVGO): Opening call action at the 352.5 strike. Did the late-day rally save the bulls? #9 Amazon (AMZN): A 232.5 call battle. We analyze the 40-cent premium and why the "Amazonians" were left wanting more. #8 AMD: 54,000 contracts on the 215 calls as the stock sits a penny shy of the strike. #7 Netflix (NFLX): 94.5 calls seeing heavy volume for just a dime. #6 Meta: A rough day for the 665 calls as Facebook's successor slips. #5 MicroStrategy (MSTR): "The Monster" reverses losses. Why the 160 call sellers are the big winners today. #4 Apple (AAPL): 128,000 contracts on the 275 calls. A deep dive into the 30-cent premium trap. #3 Palantir (PLTR): The Trade of the Day. We break down the 190 puts that turned 41 cents into a $1.29 windfall. #2 Tesla (TSLA): 3.15 million contracts. A massive sweat for the 480 call sellers as Tesla dips 2%. #1 Nvidia (NVDA): The undisputed king of the tape with 3.25 million contracts. We look at the 192.5 call frenzy. Market Insights & Education: Intraday vs. Closing: Why "writing it into the close" was a dangerous game for call buyers this Friday. Winning Put Spreads: A look at how Palantir's volatility offered the best ROI on the board. 0DTE Dynamics: Analyzing the decay of cheap "lotto ticket" premiums in a post-holiday environment. Resources & Links: Free Options Data: Get the professional-grade data mentioned in the show for free at HotOptionsReport.com . Options Insider Pro: Join the community, get the Pro Trading Crate, and access the upcoming Vol Death Match 2.0 at TheOptionsInsider.com/Pro . Mobile App: Access the full Radio Network on iTunes and Google Play .
Roi de la muscu sur Internet, Tibo InShape s'est imposé comme un des premiers youtubeurs français et cumule plus de 26 millions d'abonnés. Sur les réseaux sociaux, il a patiemment construit son personnage : celui d'un garçon sympathique, un peu rustre, toujours débordant d'enthousiasme. Mais derrière les barres de muscu et les encouragements criés face caméra, transparaît aussi un attachement marqué aux valeurs d'ordre, de nation, de patrie. Un tropisme qui alimente, depuis plusieurs années, les soupçons : Tibo InShape serait-il le parfait cheval de Troie d'une extrême droite encore marginale dans le monde de l'internet mainstream ? Programme B est un podcast de Binge Audio présenté par Thomas Rozec. Réalisation : Paul Bertiaux. Production et édition : Charlotte Baix. Générique : François Clos et Thibault Lefranc. Identité sonore Binge Audio : Jean-Benoît Dunckel (musique) et Bonnie El Bokeili (voix). Identité graphique : Sébastien Brothier et Thomas Steffen (Upian). Direction des programmes : Joël Ronez.Hébergé par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.
Jusqu'au 4 janvier, retour sur les épisodes les plus glaçants de l'année 2025 !C'est une nuit calme de la mi-juillet 1709 à Versailles : le vieux Louis XIV observe une cassette scellée. Il y a quelques jours, le monarque a ordonné la destruction de l'entièreté des archives royales concernant le plus grand scandale de son règne. Trente ans après la fin de l'affaire des poisons, le souverain souhaite plonger cette histoire dans un “éternel oubli.” Empoisonnements en série, sorcellerie, messes noires, rebondissements sordides et secrets d'État… Avec 442 personnes inculpées issus de toutes les strates de la société et des victimes innombrables, l'affaire qui nous occupe aujourd'hui a durablement marqué l'histoire de la justice française.
Henry DeVries - Indie Books International On Marketing With Authority: "The book is more than a calling card. The book is the greatest brochure." There are a few things you can do to make yourself important in the eyes of the people you meet. One of the best ways is to be the author of a book. But how do you write and publish a book? Henry DeVries knows that entrepreneurs are good at their thing, but writing and publishing a book can be a daunting and time-consuming task. So he started Indie Books International to help professionals get their books published and in the hands of the people that will soon be their clients. This is something no postcard or brochure could ever dream of doing. Listen as Henry explains in detail what it takes to become a published author and how your book can be used as a marketing tool to help you grow your business. Enjoy! Visit Henry at: https://indiebooksintl.com/ Podcast Overview: 00:00 "Why Editing Matters" 03:19 "Nonfiction Books as Business Cards" 08:03 "Don't Cut Corners on Publishing" 10:01 "Authors Question Publisher Practices" 13:52 "How to Get on TV" 19:00 "Expert Publishing and Education" 20:55 "Overcoming Traps to Publish" 25:35 "Rise of Print and Amazon" 28:26 "Books as the Ultimate Brochure" 31:13 "Indie Publishing Support Network" 35:35 Editing and Writing Service Costs 36:52 "Delegation and Leadership Insights" 41:49 "AI in Publishing: Challenges & Risks" Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan Podcast Transcription: Henry DeVries [00:00:00]: The world changed. There was two parts of the digital revolution that changed the business. One was print on demand publishing where you didn't have to do big print runs to get the cost down. So my first book, you know, first run was 2,500 books. Second run was another 2,500 books. It was called the second printing. The joke is, yeah, my book went to two printings because the first one was blurred, but no. So you would earn extra printings. Henry DeVries [00:00:24]: But with print on demand it's just, just as economical to print one book as the unit price. On the 2500 books. James Kademan [00:00:35]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service as well as the Bold business book and live switch. Today we're welcoming, slash, preparing to learn from. Let's see here, Henry, I'm going to try to say your last name. Devries. Henry DeVries [00:01:06]: There you go. Henry Devries with the cheese. James Kademan [00:01:10]: I love it. Of Indie Books International. And we're talking books and marketing and all that jazz. So Henry, how is it going today? Henry DeVries [00:01:18]: It is so great. I'm so excited to talk about the virtues of a book marketing with a book that you're proud of. James Kademan [00:01:26]: I love it. I love it. You know, you raise an interesting point here. I just want to give you a really quick anecdote before we run down the road of marketing with your book. I was given a book by someone that they were hustling as something I suppose like a business card. Probably what we'll mention. Henry DeVries [00:01:43]: Sure. James Kademan [00:01:43]: And I had started reading it and it was, it was bad. It was really bad. It's not to say the content itself was bad. I felt like it was very poorly written and not edited at all. So I saw this guy later at a different networking function. I'm like, hey man, your book was interesting. Who did you use for an editor? And he's like, oh yeah, I edit it myself. I don't need to pay someone to edit it. James Kademan [00:02:08]: And I was like, oh, okay, great. Fantastic. Way to go. You can totally tell I didn't say that. Henry DeVries [00:02:15]: James, we have a saying. The world does not need another crappy self published book. James Kademan [00:02:21]: Oh, I love that saying. That's perfect. That's perfect. So let's start with what you got going on, Henry. How long have you been in the book marketing world? Henry DeVries [00:02:32]: Indie Books International. We started on April 1, 2014. I'd been a ghost writer for books for years before that. So officially 11 years publishing over 200 books in that time. James Kademan [00:02:48]: All right, well, that's a fair number that is Any specific genre. Henry DeVries [00:02:55]: Yes. Well, business books. So according to Barnes and noble, there are 16 subcategories of books. And then since we're nonfiction, some of our books fall under self help, or they'll fall under whatever industry the person is in. So it. It. But it tends to be these nonfiction books to help business people find right fit prospects. James Kademan [00:03:19]: Right on. You know, it's interesting you say that. I, I assume as you know, I wrote and published a book, and it was interesting because I use it essentially as a business card. But I had somebody ask me if I ever made money from the book, and I was like, no, no, I would love to be Stephen King or something like that. Where you're making thousands of dollars every month off your book and to not have to fight to find a publisher, that was not the case. So in that non fiction realm, I guess I'm saying that to say I feel like in the non fiction realm, that's more of the case rather than the fiction realm. I don't. Correct me if I'm wrong here. Henry DeVries [00:04:01]: Well, in the nonfiction realm, it's all about marketing with a book. I didn't write the book marketing a book. I did it marketing with a book, meaning it's what happens as a result of the book. And our authors have found they've gotten returns of 400 to 2000% ROI by marketing with a book and a speech. We like to say publishing the book is the starting line. The book is your ticket to ride. It's your ticket to get into the game. James Kademan [00:04:32]: I love. Okay, so essentially what you're saying is the book is a marketing tool. You're not marketing the book, you're marketing with a book. Okay, that's way better. Clarification. Henry DeVries [00:04:42]: One of my authors made a million dollars, and he didn't even care how many books he sold, but he gave away hundreds and hundreds of books. And. And that resulted in clients. Five figure clients. And that he says it adds up to over a million dollars that he got as a result of being the author of that book over and above what he would have made. James Kademan [00:05:07]: I love it. All right, so let's dig into why someone would want to market with a book rather than throwing ads on the Internet or a big billboard or cold calling or something of that nature. Henry DeVries [00:05:18]: Well, because you want to be seen as the authority in your Space for a certain group of people who have a certain problem. You're the authority and you can't spell authority without the word author. So authors are respected because of the research they've done, the people they've talked to and the results that they share. And then that attracts people especially right fit prospects to them. And they're not chasing the prospects. It's like a magnet that's attracting the prospects to them. James Kademan [00:05:51]: I love it. You mentioned self publishing. Is that typically where you're steering people to or what you're steering people to do? Henry DeVries [00:05:59]: Oh no, we call it self publishing, the S word. Even if you do it, don't ever say your book was self published because that has a stigma to it. It's like what crazy old grandpas do? You indie publish your book. You might cobble together a team to help you indie publish the book. The person in your example, he missed a big player at it. An editor. And there's different types of editors. I'm a developmental editor. Henry DeVries [00:06:26]: I help people develop a manuscript, an idea how it would play in the marketplace, how to bake marketing into it. But you also need line editors, people who make sure that you don't use the wrong word or the styles right, or a typo. James, I'll tell you, you triggered my all time worst story of somebody who came up to me, was so proud of their book and he handed me his book and he said, what do you think? And on the COVID it said forward F O R W A R D by this name. Well, it's actually F O R E. W O R D is a forward, a word that comes first in a book. So he had this major glaring typo on the COVID of his book. James Kademan [00:07:16]: Oh no. Henry DeVries [00:07:17]: And he said, well, what do you think? I said, well, I've got to point out you have this glaring typo on the COVID of your book. Oh, oh, I printed 5,000 copies. What should I do? And I said Fahrenheit 451. If you know science fiction and Ray Bradbury, that's the temperature books burn at. Fahrenheit 451. Famous science fiction book. So I was telling him to burn 5,000 books, which he did. Because I said I don't even want you to give these away or donate them to some thrift store because every time somebody sees your name and this book and that typo, it's bringing you down in the market. Henry DeVries [00:08:03]: The same thing with a crappy self published book where they said, oh, you know, I can do it cheap. I said, okay, well, let's say you have a big speech and people have paid you $5,000 to come speak to them, and you got to wear something. Are you going to go to Goodwill and see if somebody donated something good that week? Or, you know, maybe there's an Armani suit there,
2025 is coming to an end and Andrea and Taleesa are taking a look at what they've learned this past year as business owners in this fun episode. Join Andrea and Taleesa as they share some of the lessons they've learned from 2025, chat about new ways to grow your business while prioritizing what's important, and give you real-life tips to make 2026 your best year yet!If you enjoyed this episode please share, rate and review it! Also mentioned in today's episode: Recognizing what projects will bring you ROI 8:06Why you should be celebrating small wins 13:23Staying organized and focused with weekly meetings 17:30Creating better boundaries 25:18Links:Estie Social Suite:https://smithandcrawford.com/aesthetically-social-suite2026 Visibility Vault:https://smithandcrawford.com/visibility-vaultBenable List: https://benable.com/smithandcrawford/medspa-must-haves-little-luxuries-that-make-a-big-differenceShow transcripts: https://smithandcrawford.com/notesEmail us: hello@smithandcrawford.comJoin our newsletter: https://smithandcrawford.com/newsletterhttps://calendly.com/smithandcrawford/30-min-strategy-session?back=1&month=2024-10https://calendly.com/smithandcrawford/aesthetically-discovery-call?back=1&month=2024-08https://smithandcrawford.com/
durée : 00:20:08 - Lectures du soir - "Tout le peuple, ravi de voir tant de richesses que rapportait le Chevalier, le suivait avec mille acclamations dont le bruit parvint jusqu'au palais. Le roi ne put croire une chose si extraordinaire, il courut chez la reine pour l'en informer. "
Podcast: PrOTect It All (LS 26 · TOP 10% what is this?)Episode: Legacy Tech, AI Hype & Cyber Risk: What IT and OT Leaders Must Get RightPub date: 2025-12-22Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationAI promises transformation - but legacy technology, process gaps, and cyber risk often stand in the way. In this episode of Protect It All, host Aaron Crow sits down with veteran IT and cybersecurity leader Neil D. Morris, who brings over 30 years of experience across aerospace, defense, and energy sectors. Together, they cut through the hype to explore what really matters when modernizing technology and managing cyber risk in complex, real-world environments. Neil shares candid insights on why legacy systems still power critical operations, why replacing them isn't as simple as it sounds, and how organizations can unlock real value from AI without increasing risk. The conversation dives into tech debt, regulation, ROI, and the often-overlooked role of process in successful transformation. You'll learn: Why legacy systems aren't going away anytime soon The hidden risks of chasing AI without strong foundations How to balance security, usability, and business value Why process and governance matter more than tools How IT leaders can communicate cyber and AI value in business terms Where AI creates opportunity - and where it creates new attack paths Whether you're leading digital transformation, managing cyber risk, or advising the business on AI adoption, this episode delivers real talk and practical wisdom from the front lines of IT and OT leadership. Tune in to learn how to modernize responsibly, manage risk intelligently, and separate AI reality from hype only on Protect It All. Key Moments: 00:00 "Legacy Tech in Modern Firms" 06:22 "Technology, Change, and Customer Focus" 09:51 "Challenges in Articulating Cybersecurity Value" 12:27 "Tech Solutions Must Drive Value" 15:43 Sell Ideas Beyond the Code 19:03 "Ransomware Risks in Acquisitions" 24:02 Government, Services, and Compliance Debate 25:35 Balancing AI, Cybersecurity, and Regulation 30:33 BlackBerry's Downfall: Ignored Innovation 32:06 "Evolution and Misuse of AI" 34:45 "Opportunity to Lead Change" 37:52 "AI Without Guidance Backfires" 41:07 "AI: Smart but Context-Lacking" 46:45 "AI Empowering Business Transformation" 50:30 "Effortless Tech-Fueled Imitation" About the guest : Neil D. Morris is a senior enterprise technology leader with 25+ years of experience in digital transformation, cybersecurity, and AI at scale. He currently serves as Head of IT at Redaptive and previously held CIO roles at Ball Aerospace and Maxar Technologies. Neil is known for guiding organizations through complex modernization efforts while balancing security, risk, and business value. How to connect Neil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neildmorris/ Connect With Aaron Crow: Website: www.corvosec.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronccrow Learn more about PrOTect IT All: Email: info@protectitall.co Website: https://protectitall.co/ X: https://twitter.com/protectitall YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PrOTectITAll FaceBook: https://facebook.com/protectitallpodcast To be a guest or suggest a guest/episode, please email us at info@protectitall.co Please leave us a review on Apple/Spotify Podcasts: Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/protect-it-all/id1727211124 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1Vvi0euj3rE8xObK0yvYi4The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Aaron Crow, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
For any entrepreneur, the most valuable currency to buy back is time. Yet many remain trapped, losing time with family and struggling to break free from the business.But today's guest has become the embodiment of building freedom through creativity, community, and leveraging advisory opportunities.Pat Flynn is the creator of Smart Passive Income, bestselling author of Will It Fly? and Superfans, advisor to top tech companies such as Teachable, Circle, SquadCast, and Riverside, and one of the most respected voices in online business. Since being laid off as an architect in 2008, he's built multiple 7-figure businesses, generating millions of podcast downloads, and launching a wildly successful Pokémon YouTube channel with almost 2 million subscribers. In this episode, Pat shares how he identifies winning opportunities, his Airport Test framework for evaluating business ideas, how advisory shares became one of his highest-ROI wealth builders, and how he's intentionally designed his life so that work supports family—not the other way around. In this episode, you'll learn: 1.) How Pat turned a layoff into a launchpad for building multiple passive income businesses.2.) A simple framework to evaluate business ideas before investing time or money.3.) Why advisory shares became one of his highest-leverage income streams—and the criteria he uses to decide which companies to work with.Show Notes: LifestyleInvestor.com/270Tax Strategy MasterclassIf you're interested in learning more about Tax Strategy and how YOU can apply 28 of the best, most effective strategies right away, check out our BRAND NEW Tax Strategy Masterclass: www.lifestyleinvestor.com/taxStrategy Session For a limited time, my team is hosting free, personalized consultation calls to learn more about your goals and determine which of our courses or masterminds will get you to the next level. To book your free session, visit LifestyleInvestor.com/consultationThe Lifestyle Investor InsiderJoin The Lifestyle Investor Insider, our brand new AI - curated newsletter - FREE for all podcast listeners for a limited time: www.lifestyleinvestor.com/insiderRate & ReviewIf you enjoyed today's episode of The Lifestyle Investor, hit the subscribe button on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen, so future episodes are automatically downloaded directly to your device. You can also help by providing an honest rating & review.Connect with Justin DonaldFacebookYouTubeInstagramLinkedInTwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
We all want to see positive growth and good numbers in our cafe. We also want to see the ROI for the effort we put in to generate those numbers. For many, to look at the reports and see profit and everything looking healthy is a sure sign that all is well and we are doing the right things. The issue is that even with a growing profitable business, the numbers don't tell he whole story and can lull you into a false sense of confidence. Today on shift break we will be talking about the difference between the numbers and quality numbers. Quality meaning that behind that number we know is a happy and enthusiastic customer. We will also discuss why your efforts contribute to that quality and ultimately an ROI you actually can have confidence in. Related Episodes: SHIFT BREAK: When Numbers Lie SHIFT BREAK: Adjusting Our View of Labor Cost
[Original air date: June 5, 2025]How can finance leaders identify where their capital is silently going to waste and where it can be better used to drive growth? In this episode, CJ interviews Russell Lester, the CFO of Tropic, where capital allocation is both the product and the mission. Russell introduces the concept of “spoilage”, deployed capital that fails to deliver its intended value. He also talks about “levers”, positive actions that force multiply your efforts, and “leakages”, headwinds or detractors that sap momentum. Russell believes it is the job of the CFO (or “Chief Alignment Officer”) to proactively go looking for these levers and leakages. He then explains how he uses his “center of the table” framework to redeploy the freed-up capital to fuel growth. Russell also covers how to address misalignment, what helicopter skills are and why you need them, what a data safari is and why you should take one daily, and why every CFO needs a spend management tool.—SPONSORS:Tipalti automates the entire payables process—from onboarding suppliers to executing global payouts—helping finance teams save time, eliminate costly errors, and scale confidently across 200+ countries and 120 currencies. More than 5,000 businesses already trust Tipalti to manage payments with built-in security and tax compliance. Visit https://www.tipalti.com/runthenumbers to learn more.Aleph automates 90% of manual, error-prone busywork, so you can focus on the strategic work you were hired to do. Minimize busywork and maximize impact with the power of a web app, the flexibility of spreadsheets, and the magic of AI. Get a personalised demo at https://www.getaleph.com/runFidelity Private Shares is the all-in-one equity management platform that keeps your cap table clean, your data room organized, and your equity story clear—so you never risk losing a fundraising round over messy records. Schedule a demo at https://www.fidelityprivateshares.com and mention Mostly Metrics to get 20% off.Sage Intacct is a cloud financial management platform that replaces spreadsheets, automates workflows, and keeps your books audit-ready as you scale. It unifies accounting, ERP, and real-time reporting for finance, retail, logistics, tech, and professional services. With payback in under six months and up to 250% ROI, and eight years as the customer-satisfaction leader, Sage Intacct helps you take control of your growth: https://bit.ly/3Kn4YHtMercury is business banking built for builders, giving founders and finance pros a financial stack that actually works together. From sending wires to tracking balances and approving payments, Mercury makes it simple to scale without friction. Join the 200,000+ entrepreneurs who trust Mercury and apply online in minutes at https://www.mercury.comRightRev automates the revenue recognition process from end to end, gives you real-time insights, and ensures ASC 606 / IFRS 15 compliance—all while closing books faster. For RevRec that auditors actually trust, visit https://www.rightrev.com and schedule a demo.—LINKS:Russell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russell-lester-aa98463/Tropic: https://www.tropicapp.io/CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com—RELATED EPISODES:Wasted Capital and Where to Find It The CFOs Guide to Spoilage Levers Leakageshttps://youtu.be/xOby7CcdljI—TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 Mostly Classics: Russell Lester on Capital and Alignment00:00:48 Sponsors — Tipalti | Aleph | Fidelity Private Shares00:04:07 Russell Lester Joins the Show00:06:45 Capital Spoilage and Wasted Spend00:08:34 Why Spoilage Goes Unnoticed Inside Companies00:10:16 Creating Accountability for ROI00:11:08 Spoilage Beyond Tools and Software00:13:04 Strategy Drift and the Sunk Cost Trap00:14:14 Sponsors — Sage Intacct | Mercury | RightRev00:17:44 Levers and Leakages: A Framework for Momentum00:19:27 Identifying Levers Across the Funnel00:21:48 Efficiency Levers Inside the P&L00:23:31 Common Spend Leakages in Practice00:24:21 The Center of the Table Framework00:26:47 Budget Ownership vs Corporate Stewardship00:28:49 The CFO as Chief Alignment Officer00:31:31 Trust, Tact, and Executive Leadership00:33:35 Helicopter Skills for Finance Leaders00:35:41 Curiosity as a CFO Superpower00:36:02 Data Safaris and Asking Better Questions00:38:16 Breaking Down Net Dollar Retention00:40:32 Navigating Data Overload00:42:16 Building a Single Source of Truth00:43:03 Intelligent Spend Management in Action00:44:44 Capital Allocation as the CFO's Core Job00:46:04 How Spend Management Drives Growth00:49:14 Why Companies Delay Spend Tools00:50:49 A Career Mistake with Investors00:52:49 Auto-Renewals: Revenue vs Leakage00:54:07 Advice to a Younger CFO#RunTheNumbersPodcast #CFOLeadership #CapitalAllocation #FinancialStrategy #SpendManagement This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cjgustafson.substack.com
Thanks to our partners Promotive and Wicked FileTraining might be the most misunderstood investment in the auto-repair industry — and one of the most expensive when done wrong.In this week's episode of Business by the Numbers, Hunt Demarest, CPA with Paar Melis & Associates, sits down with David Boyes, President of Today's Class, to unpack why so many training programs fail, how to actually measure technician growth, and what modern training looks like in the era of mobile learning, data tracking, and personalized development paths.From eliminating wasted classroom hours to using data-backed insights to assign work more intelligently, this episode reveals what separates shops that get real ROI from training… from those burning thousands on ineffective education.Whether you're trying to develop apprentices, sharpen your A-techs, or build a learning culture that your entire team buys into, this episode gives you the roadmap.This episode is a must for shop owners, service advisors, training managers, and anyone responsible for technician development or operational performance.What you'll discover…(03:00) The evolution of training methods (05:08) The false assumption shop owners make when they “check the box” by sending someone to class(06:00) Why broad, general classes often fail and how personalization changes everything(09:00) How data reveals technician strengths, weaknesses, and readiness for advanced courses(12:44) What “daily, 3–5 minute micro-training” looks like and why it works(17:15) The “soft ROI” shops miss: engagement, retention, and knowledge-sharing culture(20:00) Why your techs “don't want training” and what shop owners are doing wrong(24:05) Should shops pay techs for training? Or position it as part of the job?(26:00) How data can reshape dispatching and technician workload(27:25) Can older techs adapt to micro-learning and app-based training?Thanks to our partner PromotiveIt's time to hire a superstar for your business; what a grind you have in front of you. Introducing Promotive, a full-service staffing solution for your shop. Promotive has over 40 years of recruiting and automotive experience. If you need qualified technicians and service advisors and want to offload the heavy lifting, visit https://gopromotive.com/Thanks to our Partner WickedFileTurn chaos into clarity with WickedFile, the AI for auto repair shops. Transform invoices into insights, protect cash flow, and stop losing parts, cores, or credits to maximize your bottom line. visit https://info.wickedfile.com/Paar Melis and Associates – Accountants Specializing in Automotive RepairVisit us Online: www.paarmelis.comEmail Hunt: podcast@paarmelis.comText Paar Melis @ 301-307-5413Download a Copy of My Books Here:Wrenches to Write-OffsYour Perfect Shop The Automotive Repair Podcast Network:
In this Best of So Money 2025 episode, we revisit the conversations that best captured how AI is reshaping our careers, how we learn, and how we protect our money. Workplace expert Dan Schawbel breaks down what employers really think about degrees in the age of automation, Pat Flynn shares a smarter way to build skills without overwhelm, cybersecurity founder Martha Underwood explains how AI is supercharging scams—and how to defend yourself right now. And last, Amanda Holden offers investing guidance amidst fears of an AI bubble bursting in 2026.Featured Guest ExcerptsDan Schawbel (Episode 1781) – The shifting ROI of college, the automation threat to entry-level work, and the skills employers say matter most nowPat Flynn (Episode 1838) – “Lean Learning,” the one-one-one strategy, and how to build confidence and clarity by serving one real person firstMartha Underwood (Episode 1883) – AI-powered fraud, voice cloning and spoofing, and practical steps to protect your identity (including family “safe words”)Amanda Holden (Episode 1915) – Investing in the age of AI hype, bubble anatomy, and what diversification really means when mega-cap tech dominates indexes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The AI Breakdown: Daily Artificial Intelligence News and Discussions
A fast-paced walkthrough of 51 charts that capture where artificial intelligence stands right now and what matters most heading into 2026, spanning capabilities, infrastructure, markets, economics, vibe coding, jobs, and politics. The episode connects model performance, cost curves, hyperscaler spending, enterprise adoption, ROI data, coding agents, labor impacts, and emerging political pressures into a single narrative about how AI is evolving and what that evolution means for the year ahead Brought to you by:KPMG – Discover how AI is transforming possibility into reality. Tune into the new KPMG 'You Can with AI' podcast and unlock insights that will inform smarter decisions inside your enterprise. Listen now and start shaping your future with every episode. https://www.kpmg.us/AIpodcastsBlitzy.com - Go to https://blitzy.com/ to build enterprise software in days, not months Robots & Pencils - Cloud-native AI solutions that power results https://robotsandpencils.com/The Agent Readiness Audit from Superintelligent - Go to https://besuper.ai/ to request your company's agent readiness score.The AI Daily Brief helps you understand the most important news and discussions in AI. Subscribe to the podcast version of The AI Daily Brief wherever you listen: https://pod.link/1680633614Interested in sponsoring the show? sponsors@aidailybrief.ai