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This Week In Startups is made possible by:LinkedIn Ads - http://linkedin.com/thisweekinstartupsDevStats - https://www.devstats.com/twistCrusoe - https://crusoe.ai/buildToday's show: FINALLY, you can hang out with Kylo Ren and Olaf the Snowman… thanks to the magic of AI.On TWiST, we're digging into the mega OpenAI-Disney deal. Mickey is giving Sam Altman a $1 billion investment AND will allow is copyrighted characters to appear in Sora and ChatGPT images.Of course, Jason predicted this would happen WAY BACK during the summer months and even showed off his “Darth Calacanis” creation on the “All-In Podcast.”PLUS Amazon has been launching and pulling AI features from Prime Video… what gives? Jason's predictions on the coming AI blowback and who's on what side. Why he's so focused on Education, Health Care, and Housing as issues. AND why founders should always take calls from Big Companies, even if it might just be a fishing expedition.It's a new Friday TWiST! Check it out!Timestamps:(00:00) Lon joins Alex and Jason to talk about the big Disney-OpenAI deal bringing Disney characters to Sora(03:10) Jason totally called the Disney-OpenAI stuff on All-In(9:42) LinkedIn Ads: Start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. Launch your first campaign and get $250 FREE when you spend at least $250. Go to http://linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups to claim your credit.(18:59) DevStats - DevStats integrates your dev work and your business goals into a shared language that everyone can understand. Get 20% off, plus access to their dedicated Slack channel. Just go to https://www.devstats.com/twist.(20:15) Why Amazon Prime Video pulled its AI recaps and anime dubs(24:44) Who gets to set the rules around AI: The Debate Continues(26:13) Jason's predictions on the AI blowback coming in 2026… with clips!(30:11) Crusoe Cloud: Crusoe is the AI factory company. Reliable infrastructure and expert support. Visit https://crusoe.ai/build to reserve your capacity for the latest GPUs today.(31:21) Is AI here to help people or replace them?(35:55) It's all about EHH: Education, Health Care, Housing(40:47) How all of this and MORE will be impacted directly by AI automation(45:35) Why Alex wants to lower the temperature around AI Doomerism(51:19) JUST FOR FOUNDERS: When should you take a call from a BigCo?(53:45) Why Jason thinks just about everyone in media will lose to TikTok and YouTubeSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com/Check out the TWIST500: https://twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp*Follow Lon:X: https://x.com/lons*Follow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm/*Follow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis/*Thank you to our partners:(9:42) LinkedIn Ads: Start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. Launch your first campaign and get $250 FREE when you spend at least $250. Go to http://linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups to claim your credit.(18:59) DevStats - DevStats integrates your dev work and your business goals into a shared language that everyone can understand. Get 20% off, plus access to their dedicated Slack channel. Just go to https://www.devstats.com/twist.(30:11) Crusoe Cloud: Crusoe is the AI factory company. Reliable infrastructure and expert support. Visit https://crusoe.ai/build to reserve your capacity for the latest GPUs today.
Brandon Sammut (Chief People and AI Transformation Officer at Zapier), Jenny Molyneaux (VP of People, Vercel), and Valerie Gobeil (Head of Talent Management, Workleap) joined us for a live session on how HR teams are actually using AI today. We talked about how to get organizations AI-ready, avoid “AI debt,” make smarter build vs buy decisions, and we walked through live demos of AI-powered performance reviews, hiring workflows, interview coaching, engagement insights, and more.---- Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode272Sponsor Links:
This week, we discuss how Netflix is disrupting media, IBM's Confluent acquisition, and Anthropic buying Bun. Plus, an important discussion on fonts and typography. Watch the YouTube Live Recording of Episode (https://www.youtube.com/live/nNpiI00HPDg?si=s_G3zr_Z8yPvGNbB) 550 (https://www.youtube.com/live/nNpiI00HPDg?si=s_G3zr_Z8yPvGNbB) Runner-up Titles Blame the children I never liked that font No emojis, this is business time Mahalo You need a Chief Economist On the cutlery tray Rundown Rubio Deletes Calibri as the State Department's Official Typeface (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/us/politics/rubio-state-department-font.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share) Cartridge (https://www.fontspring.com/fonts/simplebits/cartridge) Source Code Pro (https://adobe-fonts.github.io/source-code-pro/) It's Official: Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros. in Deal Valued at $82.7 Billion (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/netflix-warner-bros-deal-hollywood-1236443081/) Confluent stock soars 29% as IBM announces $11 billion acquisition deal (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/08/ibm-confluent-deal-data.html) Bun is joining Anthropic (https://bun.com/blog/bun-joins-anthropic?utm_source=changelog-news) Claude Code is coming to Slack, and that's a bigger deal than it sounds (https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/08/claude-code-is-coming-to-slack-and-thats-a-bigger-deal-than-it-sounds/) OpenAI enterprise usage study (https://cote.io/2025/12/10/highlights-from-that-openai-the.html). Relevant to your Interests Antigravity Is Google's New Agentic Development Platform (https://thenewstack.io/antigravity-is-googles-new-agentic-development-platform/) Amazon CTO Werner Vogels' Predictions for 2026 (https://thenewstack.io/amazon-cto-werner-vogels-predictions-for-2026/) ‘End-to-end encrypted' smart toilet camera is not actually end-to-end encrypted (https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/03/end-to-end-encrypted-smart-toilet-camera-is-not-actually-end-to-end-encrypted/) AWS AI IDE, AgentCore throw down gauntlets for Microsoft (https://www.techtarget.com/searchsoftwarequality/news/366635669/AWS-AI-IDE-AgentCore-throw-down-gauntlets-for-Microsoft) Admins and defenders gird themselves against maximum-severity server vuln (https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/12/admins-and-defenders-gird-themselves-against-maximum-severity-server-vulnerability/) Andy Jassy says Amazon's Nvidia competitor chip is already a multibillion-dollar business (https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/03/andy-jassy-says-amazons-nvidia-competitor-chip-is-already-a-multi-billion-dollar-business/) 52 things I learned in 2025 (https://medium.com/@tomwhitwell/52-things-i-learned-in-2025-edeca7e3fdd8) State of AI | OpenRouter (https://openrouter.ai/state-of-ai) Microsoft has a problem: nobody wants its poor AI products (https://www.windowscentral.com/artificial-intelligence/microsoft-has-a-problem-nobody-wants-to-buy-or-use-its-shoddy-ai) DHH & Open Source (https://ma.tt/2025/12/dhh-open-source/) Gruber: Apple employees 'giddy' about Alan Dye's departure - 9to5Mac (https://9to5mac.com/2025/12/04/gruber-apple-employees-giddy-about-alan-dyes-departure/) Apple announces (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/04/apple-announces-departure-lisa-jackson-kate-adams.html) the (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/04/apple-announces-departure-lisa-jackson-kate-adams.html) departure of general counsel and policy chief (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/04/apple-announces-departure-lisa-jackson-kate-adams.html) Nonsense All of the Men's Clothing We Loved (and Didn't) From Costco's Kirkland Signature (https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/costco-kirkland-signature-menswear/) Conferences cfgmgmtcamp 2026 (https://cfgmgmtcamp.org/ghent2026/), February 2nd to 4th, Ghent, BE. Coté speaking and doing live SDI (https://www.softwaredefinedinterviews.com) with John Willis. DevOpsDayLA at SCALE23x (https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/23x), March 6th, Pasadena, CA Use code: DEVOP for 50% off. Devnexus 2026 (https://devnexus.com), March 4th to 6th, Atlanta, GA. Whole bunch of VMUGs, mostly in the US. The CFPs are open (https://app.sessionboard.com/submit/vmug-call-for-content-2026/ae1c7013-8b85-427c-9c21-7d35f8701bbe?utm_campaign=5766542-VMUG%20Voice&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_YREN7dr6p3KSQPYkFSN5K85A-pIVYZ03ZhKZOV0O3t3h0XHdDHethhx5O8gBFguyT5mZ3n3q-ZnPKvjllFXYfWV3thg&_hsmi=393690000&utm_content=393685389&utm_source=hs_email), go speak at them! Coté speaking in Amsterdam. Amsterdam (March 17-19, 2026), Minneapolis (April 7-9, 2026), Toronto (May 12-14, 2026), Dallas (June 9-11, 2026), Orlando (October 20-22, 2026) SDT News & Community Join our Slack community (https://softwaredefinedtalk.slack.com/join/shared_invite/zt-1hn55iv5d-UTfN7mVX1D9D5ExRt3ZJYQ#/shared-invite/email) Email the show: questions@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:questions@softwaredefinedtalk.com) Free stickers: Email your address to stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com) Follow us on social media: Twitter (https://twitter.com/softwaredeftalk), Threads (https://www.threads.net/@softwaredefinedtalk), Mastodon (https://hachyderm.io/@softwaredefinedtalk), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/software-defined-talk/), BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/softwaredefinedtalk.com) Watch us on: Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/sdtpodcast), YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi3OJPV6h9tp-hbsGBLGsDQ/featured), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/softwaredefinedtalk/), TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@softwaredefinedtalk) Book offer: Use code SDT for $20 off "Digital WTF" by Coté (https://leanpub.com/digitalwtf/c/sdt) Sponsor the show (https://www.softwaredefinedtalk.com/ads): ads@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:ads@softwaredefinedtalk.com) Recommendations Brandon: Short Power Extension Cord Outlet Saver (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H9MCTGL?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1) Matt: Everything is Tuberculosis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything_Is_Tuberculosis) Octopus Project - Music is Happiness (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6y5hisXx7s) Coté: The Octopus Organization (https://www.theoctopusorganization.com). Photo Credits Header (https://unsplash.com/photos/white-and-black-dice-on-black-surface-IrQrT37qDQE)
It's the dream: starting your career as a mechanic and working your way up to running one of the largest bike companies in the world. Ben Coates recently joined Canyon Bicycles to lead their North American division, and in our discussion, we dug into his journey to learn everything we could about the steps he took and how he handled some of the wildest curveballs imaginable. Show Notes: Ben Coates: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-coates-669997a/ Canyon Bicycles: https://www.canyon.com/en-us/ Professor Galloway: https://www.profgalloway.com/ John Burke: https://www.instagram.com/jbtrek08/ Travis Campbell - Eagle Peak: https://www.linkedin.com/in/straviscampbell/ The Noto Group: https://www.notogroup.com/ The First 90 Days (Book): https://amzn.to/4r6NUpt People For Bikes: https://www.peopleforbikes.org/ LeBron James x Canyon: https://www.pinkbike.com/news/video-lebron-james-and-canyon-bicycles-partner-to-inspire-a-new-generation-of-riders.html BPC - Brand, Product, Content: Sage Flyrod: https://farbank.com/pages/sage The Science Of Scaling (Book): https://amzn.to/4r6MviC Mountains Of The Moon (Trailer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlY-gn7yVyM Join us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/second-nature-media Meet us on Slack: https://www.launchpass.com/second-nature Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secondnature.media Subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.secondnature.media Subscribe to the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@secondnaturemedia
Is Xabi Alonso's Jon under serious threat after City come from behind to beat Madrid? Noni Madueke's stunner set Arsenal on their way to a sixth win in six, but did he really mean it? How important was it that Liverpool beat Inter Milan after Arne Slot left Mo Salah out of the squad? Gary, Alan and Micah also discuss a good point away at Leverkusen for Newcastle, as Alan is left dreaming of what might have been. The Rest Is Football is powered by Fuse Energy. To sign up and for terms and conditions, visit fuseenergy.com/football.Join The Players Lounge: The official fantasy football club of The Rest Is Football. It's time to take on Gary, Alan and Micah for the chance to win monthly prizes and shoutouts on the pod. It's FREE to join and as a member, you'll get access to exclusive tips from Fantasy Football Hub including AI-powered team ratings, transfer tips, and expert team reveals to help you climb the table - plus access to our private Slack community. Sign up today at therestisfootball.com https://therestisfootball.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=episode_description&utm_content=link_cta For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Apple Silicon's Johny Srouji says he's staying, Australia enforces a sweeping social media ban for kids, Netflix makes a massive $72 billion gamble against YouTube, ChatGPT can use Photoshop for you, and Meta gives you some control over its algorithm.Ad-Free + Bonus EpisodesShow Notes via EmailWatch on YouTube!Join the CommunityEmail Us: podcast@primarytech.fm@stephenrobles on Threads@jasonaten on ThreadsMusic by Breakmaster Cylinder------------------------------Sponsors:CleanMyMac - Get Tidy Today! Try 7 days free and use my code PRIMARYTECH for 20% off at clnmy.com/PrimaryTechnology1Password - Secure your small business with 1Password. Learn more at: 1password.com/primarytech------------------------------Links from the showIs Apple Cooked? - YouTubeStephen Lemay Bio - Cult of MacApple Rocked by Executive Departures, With Johny Srouji at Risk of Leaving Next - BloombergApple Silicon chief Johny Srouji reportedly commits to staying at Apple for now - 9to5MacMillions of children and teens lose access to accounts as Australia's world-first social media ban begins | Social media ban | The GuardianTim Cook meets lawmakers in effort to shift App Store age proposal - 9to5MacNetflix Just Made a $72 Billion Bet Against YouTubeNetflix is buying Warner Bros. for $83 billion | The VergeParamount Makes Hostile Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery - The New York TimesGoogle Project Aura hands-on: Android XR's biggest strength is in the apps | The VergeGoogle details Gemini in Chrome's agentic browsing securityInstagram gives you more control over your Reels algorithm | The VergeInspired by all of you who started "dear threads algo" requests, we're going to test a new feature where if you post "dear algo" it will actually put more of that content in your feed!Sam Altman's Sprint to Correct OpenAI's Direction and Fend Off Google - WSJHere are iPhone's most downloaded apps and games of 2025 - 9to5MacOpenAI hires Slack's CEO as its chief revenue officer | The VergeYou can buy your Instacart groceries without leaving ChatGPT | TechCrunchChatGPT can now use Adobe apps to edit your photos and PDFs for free | The VergeTrump could introduce ‘mandatory' social media reviews for travelers | The VergeSpaceX Said to Pursue 2026 IPO Raising Far Above $30 Billion - BloombergTIME Person of the Year 2025: How We Chose | TIMEWhat Amazon's New Flagship Kindle Scribe Colorsoft Gets Write ★ Support this podcast ★
“HR Heretics†| How CPOs, CHROs, Founders, and Boards Build High Performing Companies
One of our biggest episodes of this past year was with Zapier's CPO Brandon Sammut, ICYMI or as a refresher, in this essetial Heretics 101 feature, he demonstrates AI agents transforming HR workflows: from automating bar raiser interview prep to performance evidence collection, while explaining their four-level AI fluency framework.Support our Sponsor:Metaview is the AI platform built for recruiting. Check it out: https://www.metaview.ai/heretics* Our suite of AI agents work across your hiring process to save time, boost decision quality, and elevate the candidate experience.* Learn why team builders at 3,000+ cutting-edge companies like Brex, Deel, and Quora can't live without Metaview.* It only takes minutes to get up and running.KEEP UP WITH NOLAN + KELLI ON LINKEDINNolan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nolan-church/Kelli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellidragovich/__LINKS:For coaching and advising inquire at https://kellidragovich.com/—TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Intro(00:26) Why AI Fluency is Required for 100% of New Hires(02:00) The 4-Level AI Fluency Rubric: Capable to Transformational(03:38) Demo 1: Bar Raiser Interview Agent(04:33) 730 Employees, 10 VPs - Job Level Discipline(05:47) Agent Explains WHY It Chose Each Question(06:27) The Spectrum of AI Interview Approaches(08:18) Demo 2: Performance Review Evidence Collection(09:21) The Blob Notes Emoji: Triggering Evidence Collection(10:33) Don't Let Perfect Be the Enemy of Good(11:21) Future Vision: AI Coach Idling in Slack(13:25) “It's Like Steroids” - Not AI Overlords Taking Over(13:51) Sponsor: Metaview(15:41) Live Demo: Blob Notes in Action(18:13) Employee Choice vs Mandates: Marketing Over Requirements(19:27) Leadership Doing Real Work - Few Companies Have Real Use Cases(21:00) Demo 3: One-on-One Meeting Coach (Most Sophisticated Build)(23:20) Calculating Talk-to-Listen Ratios(24:40) Scaling HR Business Partners - Every Company's Manager Problem(26:07) Implementation Choices: On-Demand vs Required(27:35) Transparency: What Data? Where Stored? Who Sees It?(28:44) The Iron Man Suit vs AI Overlords(28:56) Where to Find Brandon - LinkedIn(29:12) Wrap This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hrheretics.substack.com
improve it! Podcast – Professional Development Through Play, Improv & Experiential Learning
In this milestone episode of Workday Playdate, Erin celebrates five years of learning, laughter, pivots, and powerful conversations. From the early days as “Failed It!” to today's “Workday Playdate,” Erin reflects on how staying open to evolution have shaped the show and the community behind it.This special anniversary episode spotlights the Top 10 listener-favorite episodes of all time. These conversations sparked breakthroughs in leadership, empathy, financial mindset, well-being, team culture, emotional intelligence, and authentic communication. Whether you've been here since episode one or you're just joining the fun, this roundup reminds us why soft skills aren't soft at all… they're essential skills for the modern workplace.Erin unpacks how improv comedy continues to unlock creativity, why pivoting creates progress, and what the past five years have taught her about resilience and leading with play.Inside This Episode:Pivoting Is Progress: How changing the show's name, format, and focus led to deeper alignment and higher impact.The Power of Improv Comedy: Why improv is one of the most effective development tools for communication, adaptability, listening, and soft skills. Your Favorite Conversations (Ranked!): A countdown of the 10 most streamed, shared, and talked-about episodes + the big lessons from each one. Radical Candor + Empathy: Why caring personally and challenging directly builds trust, psychological safety, and high-performing cultures.Your Money Mindset Matters: How shifting your relationship with finances can expand abundance, reduce stress, and reshape decision-making.Who This Episode Is For:People leaders building cultures rooted in empathy, candor, and psychological safety.Professionals craving growth, clarity, and workplace skills that actually matter.Anyone who loves learning, laughter, leadership, and a good pivot chapter.You've tried the Slack hacks, rewriting the meeting agendas, and promised yourself you'd protect your team's time. But somehow hybrid work still feels like an endless game of communication ping-pong. More messages, more overwhelm.Enter The Remote Leader's Reset: your 5-step guide to lowering the noise, resetting expectations, and helping your team finally exhale. These simple, human-centered resets will help you reduce friction, create clarity, and make your people feel seen—no matter where they're working from.Download it here.No, You Hang Up First (Let's Keep Connecting)Did today's episode resonate with you? Leave us a review sharing your favorite insight and we'll send you a free signed copy of I See You! A Leader's Guide to Energizing Your Team through Radical Empathy.Have another question that we can answer? Leave us a Speakpipe audio clip and we'll answer it in an upcoming episode.Don't want to miss another episode? If you're a Spotify listener, find our show here and click “Follow.” If you're an Apple Podcast listener, click here and make sure to hit “+Follow.”Want access to a bunch of free resources for your work life? This is your personal jackpot that gives you access to the frameworks that help us thrive both personally and professionally. Whether you're trying to improve your daily routine, flesh out an idea that you've had for quite some time, or want to add more play into your day - these resources have got your back.Want 2 emails a week from us? One with a quick tip you can implement right away to enhance your personal and/or professional lives & one of our famous F.A.I.L. Fourward Friday newsletters? Subscribe here.Top 10 Episodes of All TimeEpisode 301: Real Talk: How to Stop Guessing What Your Boss Wants and Start Managing Up with Confidence with Melody WildingEpisode 299: Want to Nail Employee Engagement? Here's What Actually Works (No Gimmicks Needed) with Dr. Angela JacksonEpisode 307: Stop People-Pleasing: Lead with Clarity and Confidence with Amy Green SmithEpisode 303: Are We Settling Without Even Knowing It? Steffani Lefevour Spills the Truth and How to Break FreeEpisode 80: You CAN give feedback as a Leader, and it CANNOT be triggering with Kim ScottEpisode 95: Building a Kick A$$ Culture of Inclusivity with Kim Scott + Trier BryantEpisode 101: The Rise of the Empathetic Leader with Career Development Visionary, Ryan McCreaEpisode 268: How Can Top Corporate Leaders Use Negotiation to Drive Unstoppable Success? Unlocking Secrets with Kwame ChristianEpisode 266: What Does It Take for Women to Gain Respect, Power, and Influence in the Workplace? Alison Fragale Spills the TeaEpisode 258: Is the Way You Think About Money Holding You Back? Dr. Darnyelle Reveals THE Million Dollar Mindset SecretsEpisode 234: Tiffany Sauder on Dual Career Families: Can You Really Have it All Without Sacrificing What Matters Most?Connect with Erin Diehl x improve it!Erin's websiteErin's InstagramErin's TikTokErin's LinkedInimprove it!'s websiteimprove it!'s InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The AI Breakdown: Daily Artificial Intelligence News and Discussions
Today's episode breaks down Trump's decision to allow Nvidia to export H200 chips to China, a reversal of a decade of bipartisan China-hawk policy that could radically reshape global AI power dynamics, US industrial strategy, and the geopolitical balance around compute, with a close look at industry reaction, national-security concerns, and why this move may accelerate China's capabilities even as it deepens their reliance on US hardware. In the headlines: Google readies a full line of AI smart glasses for next year, Claude Code lands inside Slack, Apple's chip chief signals he is staying put, and IBM announces an $11B acquisition of Confluent to strengthen its AI data platform. 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/AIpodcastsGemini - Build anything with Gemini 3 Pro in Google AI Studio - http://ai.studio/buildRovo - Unleash the potential of your team with AI-powered Search, Chat and Agents - https://rovo.com/AssemblyAI - The best way to build Voice AI apps - https://www.assemblyai.com/briefLandfallIP - AI to Navigate the Patent Process - https://landfallip.com/Blitzy.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
Miles to Go - Travel Tips, News & Reviews You Can't Afford to Miss!
Watch Us On YouTube! Thanks to Thrifty Traveler for sponsoring this episode! Visit ThriftyTraveler.com/Premium and use code GO20 to save $20 on annual memberships. In this week's episode of the Miles to Go podcast, Ed is joined in person by Julian Keel from Points Path with Richard Kerr checking in fresh off a Disney cruise. We kick things off with the breaking news everyone in our Slack community has been waiting for: Was Julian really reinstated by Uber… and did it last more than one ride? Then Richard gives a brutally honest review of his Disney Dream holiday sailing—including the chaos of a packed holiday sailing. We also dig into: • A targeted Frontier elite status offer that can get you to Gold or even Platinum (with companion benefits) for far less than you'd expect • Whether United quietly walked back their close-in award surcharge, and why United miles keep losing value • Why American and Alaska are increasingly where the sweet spots are hiding for North American awards • Some insane Thrifty Traveler Premium business class deals, like Delta One to Australia and Avios to Europe that lined up perfectly with Bilt Rent Day's 100% transfer bonus • Julian also shares some news from Points Path Get hydrated like Ed in Vegas with Nuun Use my Bilt Rewards link to sign-up and support the show! If you enjoy the podcast, I hope you'll take a moment to leave us a rating. That helps us grow our audience! If you're looking for a way to support the show, we'd love to have you join us in our Travel Slack Community. Join me and other travel experts for informative conversations about the travel world, the best ways to use your miles and points, Zoom happy hours and exciting giveaways. Monthly access Annual access Personal consultation plus annual access We have witty, funny, sarcastic discussions about travel, for members only. My fellow travel experts are available to answer your questions and we host video chats multiple times per month. Follow Us! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/milestogopodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@milestogopodcast Ed Pizza: https://www.instagram.com/pizzainmotion/ Richard Kerr: https://www.instagram.com/kerrpoints/
What was Alan's message to Erling after he beat his record for getting to 100 Premier League goals? Why was the Norwegian superstar particularly fired up for this season, by people not talking about him over the summer? Why has Erling started his own YouTube channel and what is he hoping to showcase on it? Gary and Alan travel up to Manchester to speak to Erling Haaland and celebrate his achievement of scoring 100 Premier League goals in record time. They get into a deep dive on the art of goalscoring, with more than 1,000 goals between the trio. The Rest Is Football is powered by Fuse Energy. To sign up and for terms and conditions, visit fuseenergy.com/football Whether it's the same roast every year or something new that somehow becomes tradition overnight - Tesco's food helps make every Christmas feel like Christmas. Shop Tesco food this Christmas, either in-store or online. Introducing Save Your WayTM from Hotels.com. Get instant savings now with Member Prices, or bank as rewards for later. Learn more at hotels.com/product/save-your-way-uk/ Join The Players Lounge: The official fantasy football club of The Rest Is Football. It's time to take on Gary, Alan and Micah for the chance to win monthly prizes and shoutouts on the pod. It's FREE to join and as a member, you'll get access to exclusive tips from Fantasy Football Hub including AI-powered team ratings, transfer tips, and expert team reveals to help you climb the table - plus access to our private Slack community. Sign up today at: therestisfootball.com https://therestisfootball.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=episode_description&utm_content=link_cta For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jake is running for charity! If you would like to support his effort, donate HERE: https://fundraisers.hakuapp.com/wbjakeJake is running in the Rose Bowl Half-Marathon in January 2026 and would love to raise money for the McCourt Foundation (TMF). TMF raises money to fight neurological diseases like MS and Alzheimer's. The What's Bruin Show is happy to raise funds for this worthy charitable endeavor!Enjoy the What's Bruin Show Network!Multiple shows to entertain you on one feed:Support WBS at Patreon.com/WhatsBruinShow for just $2/month and get exclusive content and access to our SLACK channel.Twitter/X: @whatsbruinshow Instagram: @whatsbruinshowCall the What's Bruin Network Hotline at 805-399-4WBS (Suck it Reign of Troy)We are also on YouTube HEREGet Your WBSN MERCH - Go to our MyLocker Site by Clicking HEREWhat's Bruin Show- A conversation about all things Bruin over drinks with Bruin Report Online's @mikeregaladoLA, @wbjake68 and friends!Subscribe to the What's Bruin Show at whatsbruin.substack.comEmail us at: whatsbruinshow@gmail.comTweet us at: @whatsbruinshowWest Coast Bias - LA Sports (mostly Lakers, Dodgers and NFL) with Jamaal and JakeSubscribe to West Coast Bias at wbwestcoastbias.substack.comEmail us at: WB.westcoastbias@gmail.comTweet us at: @WBwestcoastbiasThe BEAR Minimum - Jake and his Daughter Megan talk about student life and Cal Sports during her first year attending UC Berkeley.Subscribe to The BEAR Minimum at thebearminimum.substack.comEmail us at: wb.bearminimum@gmail.comTweet us at: @WB_BearMinimumPlease rate and review us on whatever platform you listen on.
I got to sit down with the legendary Dave Brown and talk about winning the up with the oilers, fighting every tough guy in his era, rooming with a rookie named Eric Lindros and a lot more. Sign up to become a Friend of the Show to access a Slack community, behind the scenes content, discounts on merch, and more: https://www.patreon.com/dropping_glovesFollow the Show:MerchPatreonFacebookInstagramTwitter / XYouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A loss at home and three red cards, will Xabi Alonso even make it to the end of the week? Reports in Spain suggest he could be out the door if Real Madrid don't beat Manchester City in the Champions League. Can he turn things around for Los Blancos? After Ferran Torres' hat-trick vs Real Betis, who is Barcelona's first choice Number 9? Gary & Alex also break down Villarreal's impressive six-game winning streak in La Liga and discuss whether the Yellow Submarine are genuine title contenders Join The Players Lounge: The official fantasy football club of The Rest Is Football. It's time to take on Gary, Alan and Micah for the chance to win monthly prizes and shoutouts on the pod. It's FREE to join and as a member, you'll get access to exclusive tips from Fantasy Football Hub including AI-powered team ratings, transfer tips, and expert team reveals to help you climb the table - plus access to our private Slack community. Sign up today at: therestisfootball.com https://therestisfootball.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=episode_description&utm_content=link_cta For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A special Christmastime podcast reflecting on some of the guests I've hosted this year, along with a special fundraising appeal during my limited time only discount window.Through December 12, you can support the podcast and get great benefits by becoming a Member at a special rate of 30-40% off. You'll not only help me work, but also get paid subscriber access to Substack, an exclusive monthly solo podcast, Member-only Zooms, and access to a private Slack community discussion group.You can become a Member annually for $360/year - 40% off the regular monthly price: https://www.aaronrenn.com/subscribe?selectedPlanId=founding36000usdYou can also become a Member monthly for $35/month - 30% off the regular price: https://www.patreon.com/aaron_renn/membershipThank you so much for your support. Send me your podcast feedback and suggestions.
Has Mo Salah just issued Liverpool an ultimatum with his post-match antics — is it him or Arne Slot? And if so, who's really in the wrong? After Aston Villa's huge win over league leaders Arsenal, the gap tightens once again. Is it finally time to talk about Villa as genuine title contenders? Micah also joins the pod from Abu Dhabi after watching Lando Norris win the Formula One World Championship, what was it that made it one of the best days of his life? The Rest Is Football is powered by Fuse Energy. To sign up and for terms and conditions, visit fuseenergy.com/football.Join The Players Lounge: The official fantasy football club of The Rest Is Football. It's time to take on Gary, Alan and Micah for the chance to win monthly prizes and shoutouts on the pod. It's FREE to join and as a member, you'll get access to exclusive tips from Fantasy Football Hub including AI-powered team ratings, transfer tips, and expert team reveals to help you climb the table - plus access to our private Slack community. Sign up today at therestisfootball.com https://therestisfootball.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=episode_description&utm_content=link_cta For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Kris and David are back to discuss the (almost-)week that was December 4-8, 1998. Topics of discussion include:The WWF running their second UK-only PPV. Capital Carnage, featuring crazy promos from the McMahons, special ringside enforcer Vinnie Jones being A Hard Man, and evem some nudity.Jim Ross finding out about his mother's death while in England, stressing him to such a degree that he suffered his second attack of Bell's Palsy during the PPV.Steve Austin getting "crucified" (symbolified?) by The Undertaker on a wild episode of Raw.AJPW and NJPW finishing off their annual tag league tours.The WCW vs. WWF promotional war ventures down to Mexico as WCW talent begin working at Arena Mexico just as WWF Super Astros launches on Univision in the U.S.Another WCW talent raid of ECW.Roller Jam taping their first shows, which feature quite a bit of pro wrestling influence.Nitro does major business at the Astrodome in Houston…and puts on one of the worst episodes of the show in its history.Terrible skits and short matches featuring horrendous booking abound on that Nitro, so yes, this is a definite MUST-LISTEN WCW section.This was a thoroughly entertaining show, so please take a listen!!!!Timestamps:0:00:00 WWF1:56:55 Eurasia: AJPW, NJPW, BJPW, FMW, IWA Kokusai, Michinoku Pro, MUGA, SPWF, Wrestle Yume Factory, Arsion, & CWA2:24:49 Classic Commercial Break2:29:31 Halftime3:05:44 Mexico: AAA & CMLL3:23:55 Other USA: USA Pro, IWF (NJ), ECW, MarylandCW, MEWF, NWA Mid-Atlantic, OMEGA, Don Fargo, OVW, Music City, Power Pro, Wrestling Superstars 2000, & Roller Jam4:04:21 WCWTo support the show and get access to exclusive rewards like special members-only monthly themed shows, go to our Patreon page at Patreon.com/BetweenTheSheets and become an ongoing Patron. Becoming a Between the Sheets Patron will also get you exclusive access to not only the monthly themed episode of Between the Sheets, but also access to our new mailbag segment, a Patron-only chat room on Slack, and anything else we do outside of the main shows!If you're looking for the best deal on a VPN service—short for Virtual Private Network, it helps you get around regional restrictions as well as browse the internet more securely—then Private Internet Access is what you've been looking for. Not only will using our link help support Between The Sheets, but you'll get a special discount, with prices as low as $1.98/month if you go with a 40 month subscription. With numerous great features and even a TV-specific Android app to make streaming easier, there is no better choice if you're looking to subscribe to WWE Network, AEW Plus, and other region-locked services.For the best in both current and classic indie wrestling streaming, make sure to check out IndependentWrestling.tv and use coupon code BTSPOD for a free 5 day trial! (You can also go directly to TinyURL.com/IWTVsheets to sign up that way.) If you convert to a paid subscriber, we get a kickback for referring you, allowing you to support both the show and the indie scene.You can also use code BTSPOD to save 25% on your first payment — whether paying month to month or annually — when you subscribe to Ultimate Classic Wrestling Network at ClassicWrestling.net!To subscribe, you can find us on iTunes, Google Play, and just about every other podcast app's directory, or you can also paste Feeds.FeedBurner.com/BTSheets into your favorite podcast app using whatever “add feed manually” option it has.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/between-the-sheets/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Today we are joined by Toby Wright. Toby is an online coach and personal trainer with a passion for mental health. Toby believes true wellness begins from the inside out. Blending evidence-based training with a focus on mental health and mindset. [Dec 8, 2025] 00:00 - Intro 00:26 – Dr. Abbie Maroño Intro 00:51 - Intro Links - Social-Engineer.com - http://www.social-engineer.com/ - Offensive Security Vishing Services - https://www.social-engineer.com/offensive-security/vishing/ - Offensive Security SMiShing Services - https://www.social-engineer.com/offensive-security/smishing/ - Offensive Security Phishing Services - https://www.social-engineer.com/offensive-security/smishing/ - Call Back Phishing - https://www.social-engineer.com/offensive-security/call-back-phishing/ - Adversarial Simulation Services - https://www.social-engineer.com/offensive-security/adversarial-simulation/ - Social Engineering Risk Assessments - https://www.social-engineer.com/offensive-security/social-engineering-risk-assessment/ - Social-Engineer channel on SLACK - https://social-engineering-hq.slack.com/ssb - CLUTCH - http://www.pro-rock.com/ - innocentlivesfoundation.org - http://www.innocentlivesfoundation.org/ 02:17 - Toby Wright Intro 03:09 - Having a Purpose 04:02 - The Accountability Factor 05:36 - Mindset 07:02 - Finding What Works For You 08:37 - The Happiness Scale 12:40 - When to Push Through 15:53 - Finding Balance 17:39 - Masterclass Ad - https://www.masterclass.com/socialengineer 19:12 - Focus on the 95% 21:33 - Know What You're Taking 23:34 - Cover Your Bases First 25:27 - You Just Gotta Go 29:54 - Find Toby Wright Online - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tobyywright/ 31:08 - Mentors 32:24 - Book Recommendations - SAS: Who Dares Wins - Ant Middleton 34:15 - Guest Wrap Up & Outro - www.social-engineer.com - www.innocentlivesfoundation.org
In this inspiring episode of the Featured Mentor Podcast, we sit down with Arthur, a 28-year-old professional whose path from Brazil to the U.S. and Europe reveals what it really takes to build an international career in finance. From early days at a prep school to studying at Wharton and landing roles at Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, Arthur opens up about the challenges of ambition, adapting across cultures, and learning to define success on his own terms. Listeners will gain insight into: How early mentorship and family values shaped Arthur's global outlook The realities of navigating investment banking and private equity interviews Lessons in resilience, personality, and authenticity in high-pressure careers Perfect for students, young professionals, and anyone redefining what success looks like in global finance and leadership.
From studying Business Data Science to landing a role in investment banking at Centerview Partners, this is my honest story of how I discovered my path, the mistakes I made, and what I wish every student knew before starting their career. In this video, I share how I transitioned from college to corporate life — the lessons I learned outside the classroom, why real-world experience matters, and how small opportunities can lead to big growth. Whether you're a university student, career changer, or just curious about finance and personal growth, this episode will give you insight, motivation, and practical steps to help you find your direction.
Learn how to transform your ADHD or learning disabilities from obstacles into your greatest business superpower. If business focus feels like an impossible challenge, you're not alone. As someone diagnosed with one of the worst cases of learning disabilities my doctor had ever seen, I know firsthand how overwhelming it can feel when your mind wants to go in a million directions at once. But here's what I've discovered after working with thousands of founders and CEOs - that scattered, high-energy, idea-generating brain that feels like a curse? It's actually your secret weapon. In this episode, we dive deep into Katie Stoddart's "Magic of Focus" methodology and explore how entrepreneurs with ADHD, dyslexia, and other neurodivergent traits can harness their unique wiring to build wildly successful businesses. I'm thrilled to have Katie Stoddart join us today - she's the brilliant mind behind "The Focus Bee" and author of "The Magic of Focus." Katie brings a fascinating background as both an engineer who mapped sea floors and a transformative leadership coach who's cracked the code on helping high-performers sustain peak performance. Her work with three distinct types of focus - short-term, long-term, and selective - has helped countless entrepreneurs break through the overwhelm that keeps them working 80-hour weeks while feeling like they accomplished nothing. KEY TAKEAWAYS: Even "normal" non-neurodivergent people develop unhealthy focus habits due to constant app distractions and digital overwhelm. Neurodivergent entrepreneurs often struggle with analysis paralysis because they take in too much information and can't decide where to place their focus. The key to managing overwhelm is writing down all ideas first, then categorizing them into urgent, important, or "can wait" buckets. Most entrepreneurs get reactive in the morning by immediately checking phones, emails, and Slack, which destroys their ability to focus on what matters. The three founder traps that kill growth are: setup trap (word-of-mouth only), sales trap (founder-led sales only), and scale trap (founder involved in every decision). To scale beyond seven figures, you must shift your identity, upgrade your peer group, and raise your standards for what you'll tolerate. Comfort is the enemy of growth - you should crave mild discomfort as a sign you're leveling up and building resilience. Breaking down overwhelming tasks into single, manageable actions (like organizing one shelf at a time) makes the impossible feel achievable. Katie Stoddart's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiestoddart/ Website: https://katiestoddart.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@thefocusbee Growing your business is hard, but it doesn't have to be. In this podcast, we will be discussing top level strategies for both growing and expanding your business beyond seven figures. The show will feature a mix of pure content and expert interviews to present key concepts and fundamental topics in a variety of different formats. We believe that this format will enable our listeners to learn the most from the show, implement more in their businesses, and get real value out of the podcast. Enjoy the show. Please remember to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss any future episodes. Your support and reviews are important and help us to grow and improve the show. Follow Charles Gaudet and Predictable Profits on Social Media: Facebook: facebook.com/PredictableProfits Instagram: instagram.com/predictableprofits Twitter: twitter.com/charlesgaudet LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/charlesgaudet Visit Charles Gaudet's Wesbites: www.PredictableProfits.com www.predictableprofits.com/community https://start.predictableprofits.com/community
(00:00) Zolak & Bertrand begin the hour with RJ Bell of pregame.com giving his best bets for Week 14.(8:14) We touch on the World Cup Draw and Tom Brady making an appearance, along with The Slack.(21:50) The guys finish the day with calls on everything and Zo's old leather pants.(31:18) Fake Promo Friday.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week, we discuss AWS re:Invent announcements, Agentic Development, and OpenAI's Code Red. Plus, a Digital ID field test and more on silverware sorting. Watch the YouTube Live Recording of Episode (https://www.youtube.com/live/Xl7lVVTd4DM?si=APR633y2hmXPHHdb) 549 (https://www.youtube.com/live/Xl7lVVTd4DM?si=APR633y2hmXPHHdb) Runner-up Titles Did you order the Code Red? In the year 2000 Jane go swiftly Another day in the coal mine Goal Driven Development I want to believe Prove me wrong AI's going to dig this hole faster Tornado of Innovation Revenue times Story Rundown SiteAngel - bonus press quote from Brandon (https://www.nextgov.com/digital-government/2000/10/angel-watches-over-web-sites/243841/) AWS Amazon announces $50B investment to expand AI and supercomputing capabilities for US government (https://siliconangle.com/2025/11/24/amazon-announces-50b-investment-expand-ai-supercomputing-capabilities-us-government/) Top announcements of AWS re:Invent 2025 (https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/top-announcements-of-aws-reinvent-2025/) All the biggest news from AWS' big tech show re:Invent 2025 (https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/02/all-the-biggest-news-from-aws-big-tech-show-reinvent-2025/) AWS announces preview of AWS Interconnect - multicloud (https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2025/11/preview-aws-interconnect-multicloud/) The Future of AWS CodeCommit | Amazon Web Services (https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/devops/aws-codecommit-returns-to-general-availability/) Nova Act (https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/build-reliable-ai-agents-for-ui-workflow-automation-with-amazon-nova-act-now-generally-available/) Code Red OpenAI CEO declares “code red” as Gemini gains 20 0 million users in 3 months (https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/12/openai-ceo-declares-code-red-as-gemini-gains-200-million-users-in-3-months/) Anthropic reportedly preparing for one of the largest IPOs ever in race with OpenAI: FT (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/03/anthropic-claude-reportedly-preparing-ipo-race-openai-chatgpt-ft-wilson-sonsini-goodrich-rosati.html) Microsoft stock sinks on report AI product sales are missing growth goals (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/03/microsoft-stock-ai-foundry-sales.html) AI & Cloud Trends for November 2025 (https://www.thecloudcast.net/2025/12/ai-cloud-trends-for-november-2025.html) Relevant to your Interests Under My Roof Home Inventory + App - App Store (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/under-my-roof-home-inventory/id1524335878) Thoma Bravo invests in Azul (https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/108009/thoma-bravo-invests-in-azul) Streamline Development with the Google Workspace Extension (https://allen.hutchison.org/2025/11/19/bringing-the-office-to-the-terminal/) As its voice dictation app takes off, Wispr secures $25M from Notable Capital | TechCrunch (https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/20/as-its-voice-dectation-app-takes-off-wispr-secures-25m-from-notable-capital/) Valve makes almost $50 million per employee (https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/pc-gaming/valve-makes-almost-usd50-million-per-employee-raking-in-more-cash-per-person-than-google-amazon-or-microsoft-gaming-giants-350-employees-on-track-to-generate-usd17-billion-this-year) HelixGuar (https://helixguard.ai/blog/malicious-sha1hulud-2025-11-24)d (https://helixguard.ai/blog/malicious-sha1hulud-2025-11-24) What to know about a recent Mixpanel security incident (https://openai.com/index/mixpanel-incident/) ServiceNow to Expand Security Portfolio With Acquisition of Veza's Leading AI-native Identity Security Platform (https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251201652471/en/ServiceNow-to-Expand-Security-[…]tion-of-Vezas-Leading-AI-native-Identity-Security-Platform) Vista-Backed LogicMonitor Buys Monitoring Startup Catchpoint (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-02/vista-backed-logicmonitor-buys-mon[…]ing-startup-catchpoint?srnd=phx-deals&embedded-checkout=true) Google releases Nano Banana Pro, its latest image generation model (https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/20/google-releases-nano-banana-pro-its-latest-image-generation-model/) Years of JSONFormatter and CodeBeautify Leaks Expose Thousands of Passwords and API Keys (https://thehackernews.com/2025/11/years-of-jsonformatter-and-codebeautify.html) Netflix kills casting from phones (https://www.theverge.com/news/834655/netflix-phone-casting-chromecast-support-killed) Nonsense Victorian Name Generator (https://codebeautify.org/victorian-name-generator) Conferences cfgmgmtcamp 2026 (https://cfgmgmtcamp.org/ghent2026/), February 2nd to 4th, Ghent, BE. Coté speaking and doing live SDI with John Willis. DevOpsDayLA at SCALE23x (https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/23x), March 6th, Pasadena, CA Use code: DEVOP for 50% off. CFP open until Dec. 1st. Devnexus 2026 (https://devnexus.com), March 4th to 6th, Atlanta, GA. SDT News & Community Join our Slack community (https://softwaredefinedtalk.slack.com/join/shared_invite/zt-1hn55iv5d-UTfN7mVX1D9D5ExRt3ZJYQ#/shared-invite/email) Email the show: questions@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:questions@softwaredefinedtalk.com) Free stickers: Email your address to stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com) Follow us on social media: Twitter (https://twitter.com/softwaredeftalk), Threads (https://www.threads.net/@softwaredefinedtalk), Mastodon (https://hachyderm.io/@softwaredefinedtalk), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/software-defined-talk/), BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/softwaredefinedtalk.com) Watch us on: Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/sdtpodcast), YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi3OJPV6h9tp-hbsGBLGsDQ/featured), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/softwaredefinedtalk/), TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@softwaredefinedtalk) Book offer: Use code SDT for $20 off "Digital WTF" by Coté (https://leanpub.com/digitalwtf/c/sdt) Sponsor the show (https://www.softwaredefinedtalk.com/ads): ads@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:ads@softwaredefinedtalk.com) Recommendations Brandon: Dampf Good BBQ (https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/north-carolina/cary_2986745/restaurant/dampf-good-bbq) Matt: UmamiPapi (https://umamipapi.com.au/) chilli oil Coté: Anta (https://anta-keelpastilles.nl/smaken/classic/), slightly more in English (https://www.dutchexpatshop.com/en/anta-flu-classic.html). Also XdgBaseDirs (https://cote.io/2025/12/02/an-xdg-library-for-java.html). Photo Credits Header (https://unsplash.com/photos/a-wooden-block-spelling-the-word-website-on-a-table-Vagh0KcwvwQ)
The Truth About Athlete Sponsorship Kelly Newlon is leading the way with her approach to athlete sponsorship in the trail running space, and we get into the ethos of her process. Athlete sponsorship is going through some incredible changes at the moment, and this conversation with Kelly highlights the opportunities for both brands as well as athletes - in any sport. Show Notes: Kelly Newlon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-newlon-5245569/ RAD Boulder: https://www.radboulder.com/ USATF Agent Test: https://www.usatf.org/resources/athlete-representatives/prospective-authorized-athlete-representatives Jennifer Lichter - Freetrail podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jenn-lichter-from-orphan-to-trailblazer/id1492327668?i=1000722502523 BPC - Brand, Product, Content Unreasonable Hospitality (Book): https://amzn.to/47QaET8 Dirt Dispatch: https://www.instagram.com/dirtdispatch/ Join us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/second-nature-media Meet us on Slack: https://www.launchpass.com/second-nature Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secondnature.media Subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.secondnature.media Subscribe to the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@secondnaturemedia
How often are you interrupted in your property management business? Tenant and owner phone calls, emails, maintenance requests, team member questions… it's an endless cycle of wasted time and stolen profits. In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth experts Jason and Sarah Hull discuss the hidden thief in every property management business: the Interruption Burglar. You'll Learn [01:23] The Burglar Stealing From Your Business [07:41] Becoming Aware of Your Company's Time Loss [13:20] If Your Business Isn't Growing, It is Dying Quotables "There's a burglar that lives inside everybody's business." "One interruption is going to cost you somewhere between 15 minutes and 30 minutes of wasted labor." "All it takes is questions to make you conscious of things you're unconscious of currently." Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason Hull (00:00) Nobody can even see this guy running around stealing until we do some of these exercises with our clients. And then they start to become conscious and they can now see this interruption burglar sneaking around, stealing money, stealing profits, wasting everybody's time. Welcome everybody. We are Jason and Sarah Hull the owners of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. For over a decade and a half, we have brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we have spoken to thousands of property management business owners, coached, consulted, and cleaned up hundreds of businesses, helping them add doors. improve pricing, increase profit, simplify operations, and we run the leading property management mastermind with more video testimonials and reviews than any other coach or consultant in the industry. We are the best in the world. And at DoorGrow, we believe that good property managers can change the world and that property management is the ultimate high trust gateway to relationships, real estate deals, and residual income. And our mission at DoorGrow. is to transform property management business owners and their businesses. We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Now, let's get into the show. All right, so today, Sarah and I thought we would chat about, she said, you've been wanting to talk about this for a little while. So we're going to be chatting about what? Interruption. All right, specifically, the interruption burglar. So maybe I'm dating myself a little bit, but I don't know if you remember the Hamburglar. I do. McDonald's, okay, all right, that's good. so for those of you listening, maybe you remember like McDonald's had the Hamburglar and he was this sneaky, creepy guy going around stealing people's cheeseburgers, right? And there's another burglar. There's a burglar that lives inside everybody's business. and it's the interruption burglar. And the interruption burglar is stealing your money by interrupting. And so every interruption in a business is a hidden thief stealing from your business. And most business owners give a blank check out to every tenant and owner that they bring on that says, call me whenever you want to, interrupt me whenever you want to, steal all my profits. And a lot of property managers think they have to talk to everybody and that's what they're paid to do. And so they have to always be available. So we're going to kind of throw a wrench into that sort of level of thinking because we've talked to lot of clients get out of the trap of lacking profit, lacking margin by helping them escape or eliminate or tear up this blank check and eliminate the interruption burglar, or at least put some guardrails around that guy. so according to Gary Keller's book, The One Thing, it cites a study saying that one interruption costs 18 minutes of productivity. Dan Martel's book about time management says I think it's like 26 minutes of productivity. So I don't know if we're just that much worse when we get interrupted now. But basically One interruption is going to cost you somewhere between 15 minutes and 30 minutes of wasted labor. Why? Because when we get interrupted, if we're in the flow or we're working on things and we're being productive as a team member or as a CEO or COO or whatever our role is, we get interrupted. We then have to rebuild that house of cards that we were in the middle of working on, figure out where was I, what was I working on, you know, kind of reestablish our thinking, get back into the groove of what we were trying to accomplish, what we were working on, especially when we're trying to get into deep work where things get really productive and effective. And so one interruption, if it happens every 20 minutes or so, which in a property management business is not hard to do, you may find you feel like you're just spinning your wheels or your team members are working and busy all day long, but they're not actually producing a whole lot of output. And so this can be very expensive in a property management business. Not only that, but usually a lot of times the interruptions are internal. So you ever heard of sneaker net? Like somebody walks into your office, it's the most inefficient network ever, and then you're like, hey, do you got a minute? Or I have this question, and maybe you're the person they're all coming to ask questions to because you're the boss, and they're interrupting you all the time. And so then you're like, well, getting interrupted. And now you've got two people. One's interrupting the other and you're wasting a lot of labor. And then we set up scenarios in which one person has the ability to interrupt multiple people in the business. This is where we set up Slack channels and other stupid communication methodologies that people think is more productive, where there's one too many communication, which becomes one too many interruptions. So one interruption, instead of costing you like maybe 15, 20 minutes of labor or a half hour of labor, It can quadruple. It can be 10 people at a time. It can be really expensive. And then, you know, sometimes, you know, one's interrupting the other. So you've got it's doubling. You know, people are just wasting your time and money. And so it's really easy for you to lose all of your profits and all your margins to staff through interruptions and a lack of productivity. And we see people get stuck at small door counts on a per person basis. They're like, I can only manage 50 units by myself, or a property manager with a whole team, I can only manage 100 units. And a lot of people think, well, that's pretty good, but it's not. Sarah managed 265 at her peak, basically by herself. Eventually had one part-time person. I had one part-time person. Yeah, eventually. was part-time, but between us we You weren't even a full-time equivalent. Yeah, and that's because you had eliminated a lot of interruptions because you just didn't want to deal with them. And you set really good boundaries. Well, yeah, which was to not be interrupted. Yeah. So cool. So that's the interruption burglar. This is one of the things we help clients figure out. We help them figure out how do we eliminate the interruptions? How do we create better, healthier, more effective communication systems Sometimes your clients do this. Sometimes your team members do it. Yeah. We've got to be able to separate ourselves where we can and reduce or completely eliminate interruptions. Yeah. That's the goal. So we have methodologies that we take our clients through to, one, identify their own interruptions, the things that are interrupting them. And then we have a process for taking their team through a process so that they become conscious of the interruptions so that they can, everybody in the business can start to protect the business from this interruption burglar because interruption burglar, sneaky. Nobody can even see this guy running around stealing until we do some of these exercises with our clients. And then they start to become conscious and they can now see this interruption burglar sneaking around, stealing money, stealing profits, wasting everybody's time. And nobody likes the interruptions anyway. So by reducing them, everybody's happier. Even the people that are interrupting you, like tenants and owners are happier and less anxious. If you set better guardrails, better expectations, better boundaries, they actually can trust you more to do the job instead of feeling like they need to micromanage the person that's managing their rental property, which is ridiculous. Why don't they just cut you out if they're going to micromanage something, right? So yeah, they don't need to do that. Okay. I don't know what else we need to say about this, but. Well, one of the things that I had created recently within the last two months was a time optimization assessment that you can go through and take and you can do it every day. Kind of get a grade and a score and see what went well and what didn't go so well and then it will help you figure out what can you optimize and what can you change and You can do that even Right now so if you would like to get access to that it's a longer link So it's not like I can just give you the URL to it So I would say the easiest way to get it if you would like access to it is just email me and Sarah doorgrow.com s-a-r-a-h at doorgrow.com So if you'd like that I would be very happy to send you the link and you can use that as long as you would like but you'll essentially go through answer a couple of questions and then it will email you your results and your score so it will tell you overall you know what were the things that didn't go so well and Oftentimes when you're filling a report out like this at the end of the day It just makes you very conscious of it because sometimes our days tend to get away from us and they wonder then at the end of the day, man, how did that happen? I didn't get to that thing that I really wanted to do. Man, I was busy all day long, but I just don't feel like I was very productive or I don't feel like I got to the things that I wanted to get to. Well, this will help you while you're answering these questions. It'll just point to a few things that you can optimize. And sometimes I've tested this out with our clients a few times too. go, ⁓ as they're taking this assessment and just answering the questions, they're going, well, I can already tell what kind of day this was. This was not good. This was not good. This was not good. And then the good news is just by taking that assessment, you have a better idea of how to approach things and hopefully a better plan for the following day. Sometimes all it takes is questions to make you conscious of things you're unconscious of currently. And when we're unconscious of the interruption burglar, he gets away with murder. Like he's just stealing your money. So we've got to stop that guy. All right. So we've got a sponsor. So let me share that with everybody real quick. We appreciate our sponsors. So our sponsor today is Blanket. And Blanket is a property retention and growth platform that helps property managers stop losing doors, add more revenue and increase the number of properties they manage. Wow, your clients with a branded investor dashboard and an off market marketplace, while your team gets all the tools they need to identify owners at risk of churning and powerful systems to help you add more doors. And so it helps you retain the doors, even if your clients sell or leave. You can keep the the units, it's really a cool system. I recommend everybody uses it. And we coach and recommend our clients use it. I think it's a great system. So. For sure. All right. I think also we had just had our clients go through a time optimization challenge. We did. Using some of the things that we talk about in the program, some of the components that we coach on and some of the things that you will see in that time optimization assessment. Not all of the things, but. Some of the things in the assessment are on there and then of course there's a lot more. So what we've noticed and what a lot of people had noticed when they went through that assessment and that challenge is, wow, there is a lot of time in the business that just gets eaten up by different things and it's not hard at all to get lost. It's not hard to kind of get consumed by the day to day. It's not hard to get lost in all of the tasks that are required by a property management company. And this really goes for you and it goes for your team. Because just looking at every person's time on the team can be really, really helpful. One person might be wildly efficient. And if that person that's efficient is, let's say, the business owner, the business owner might. assume then, well, everybody on my team is really efficient because I'm really efficient. And that may not be the case. So our goal is to help you figure out, you know, who is efficient and who is using their time wisely and perhaps who is not. So that way we can figure out what are the things that we can shift? What are the things that we can change? And oftentimes it's not even really hard to change. you know what you're doing or how you're doing it. It is different and it can sometimes feel uncomfortable because you just have to do things differently. And I think in the world of property management and especially how things are running today is everyone assumes that you need to just be responding to everything immediately and be on top of everything and be super communicative with everybody. That's not always the case. That may not get you the best results. So it can create a lot of work. But being busy and being productive are two very different things. So it's our goal always to help property managers figure out what can I do to actually be more productive? And how can I make sure that somebody on the team is always having time to focus on the income generating activities? Because if you are not focusing on growth in the business, it is slowly dying. So if there's no one who's focused on growth or if there's one person who's just a little bit, it's like, well, I do it for, you know, five hours a week when I can. And when I'm not busy doing all of these other things, what's happening is we just get stuck on this hamster wheel where it's kind of like Groundhog Day. You wake up. You do things, you make no progress. You think, I'll do it again tomorrow. You wake up, you do a whole bunch of things, you're busy, but you're not making progress. And then that day just repeats over and over and over. So we're just spending all of our time doing all of these things that aren't actually helping the business grow or helping the business make progress. You're just doing the day-to-day tasks and then it's really hard to grow because sometimes it gets scary to grow. And they go, well, if I'm this busy at 40 units, there's no way I can handle 80. There's no way I can handle 150. There's no way I can handle 500. And if you're running the 500 units the same way you're running the 40 units, the answer is yes, there's no way you can do it. So you need to just look at doing it a different way. Yeah. Yeah, you need to start running your business the way you would at a thousand doors when you have a small amount of doors because it's going to be completely different. And a lot of people, when they first start out, think they need to please everybody, take care of everybody in a special way, and they don't set healthy boundaries. They take on too difficult a clients. They make a lot of mistakes. So by optimizing your time and our goal with our clients isn't just to make you more productive. Our goal with clients is to make sure as a business owner that you are more fulfilled, that you're enjoying your day more. It's not just about being able to somehow accomplish and do more work. The goal really is for you to do more of the things you enjoy and less of the things that you don't enjoy. And so usually for most business owners, that very first exit you need to do in the business is to exit doing the frontline work. If you can make it past that, everything gets a lot easier, it's a lot nicer. But when you're doing frontline work, or when you have an entire team, but they're asking you questions on how to always do or make decisions about the frontline work, you're not out of the frontline work. And so you got to exit the frontline work, then you got to exit managing everybody. And then you got to, the next step is then you're like a CEO or you're a leader and you might want to go to some higher levels of exit, but. A lot of people can't escape the frontline work. They can't figure out how to do that. So they just sell the whole business. They jump all the way to the last exit. They're like, let's go. I need freedom. And then they go start another business and they kind of paint themselves into a corner again and they're miserable. So there's a very simple path that we can take clients through to help them get that freedom. And so if you feel like you're frustrated and you're asking this question all the time, like, why won't my team? just think for themselves. It's because you've built the wrong business. The business is not built around you. The business is built around the business, which means you are now the servant to the business instead of the reverse. And so you built the wrong business, which means you also built the wrong team and you can't see it. Sometimes it takes some outside perspective to get perspective so that you can see it. And that's one of the things we enjoy helping our clients figure out. Sometimes replacing their entire team. And yeah, if you've if you're not enjoying your day to day role and you have an entire team, you built the wrong team because you built it around the wrong person. You're showing up wearing hats and doing things in the business that you shouldn't be doing because you're not the best at this. You're not somebody that enjoys it. And I guarantee if there's certain hats or roles you're wearing or holding on to right now that you don't enjoy, somebody else out there would be better at it than you. And I know that's humbling to think in the beginning. It's a very humbling thing to see, a team member and see them perform better than you, outperform you. But ultimately smart business owners know that you want to build a team of people that are better at the stuff you don't enjoy. Because if you don't enjoy it, you're never going to be great at it. We've got a lot of tactics. We've got a lot of methodologies. There's a lot of little things we could share about that. but in interest of time, if you're interested, Sarah's already offered very generously her cool assessment. Send an email to Sarah with an H at doorgrow.com. It's got to the H otherwise I don't get it. If you spell my name wrong then you don't make the top of it. Wow, okay, yeah. No patience for that. right. Cool. All right. Well, if you've ever felt stuck or stagnant, you want to take your property management business to the next level, reach out to us. You can check us out at doorgrow.com. For a free training on how to get unlimited free leads, text the word LEADS to 512-648-4608. And we will send you a hour long training that shows you how to get unlimited leads for free in your property management business. That will blow your mind. Also join our free Facebook community just for property management business owners at doorgrowclub.com And if you'd like to get the best ideas in property management, join our newsletter at doorgrow.com slash subscribe. And if you found this even a little bit helpful, don't forget to subscribe And until next time, remember the slowest path to growth is to do it alone. So let's grow together. Bye everyone.
Send us a textIs your calendar full of holiday chaos and client deadlines, but you're the one burning the midnight oil? A yes in December = resentment in January.In this Thursday rant, Dawn Andrews drops a boundary-setting truth bomb every female founder needs before year-end burnout hits. If your Slack is full of time-off requests and your inbox is brimming with client deliverables, this episode shows you how to stop playing Santa and start leading like a CEO. Learn how to use AI to draft warm, clear boundary scripts that don't make you sound like the Grinch — and walk into Q1 energized, not resentful.Download The Feedback Fix — Get the free script-filled guide that shows you how to say what you mean without sounding harsh. Perfect for holiday boundary-setting, team feedback, and boss moves that actually land.Key TakeawaysYes in December = Resentment in January — Boundaries aren't mean; they're strategic and essential for sustainable leadership.The 3 Boundary Buckets — Know your non-negotiables, your flex zones, and your intentional gifts.Real Scenarios, Real Scripts — Dawn shares 3 holiday-season dilemmas and gives you the exact AI prompts to handle them with clarity and compassion.Train Your AI to Talk Like You — Use AI as your boundary translator, not your boss. It works with your voice, not against it.Leadership Is Not a Popularity Contest — Your team will respect you more when you're clear and consistent, not just "cool." Resources & LinksThe Feedback Fix (Free Download) — Scripts to help you set boundaries and give feedback that sticks.AI for Founders Community — A safe space to test prompts and talk boundaries without burnout.Related EpisodesEp 108 — 3 AI Systems That Help Female Founders Manage Time, Clients, and Business During the Holidays → A perfect companion episode if you're juggling end-of-year chaos and wondering where AI can take real work off your plate.Ep 102 — 3 Standard Operating Procedures Every Founder Should Build in 30 Minutes (Using AI to Write Your SOPs) → If you're ready to stop reinventing the wheel every December, this one shows you how to use AI to streamline team ops.Want to increase revenue and impact? Listen to “She's That Founder” for insights on business strategy and female leadership to scale your business. Each episode offers advice on effective communication, team building, and management. Learn to master routines and systems to boost productivity and prevent burnout. Our delegation tips and business consulting will advance your executive leadership skills and presence.
Podcast Hosts:Grant Broggi: Marine Veteran, Owner of The Strength Co. and Starting Strength Coach.Jeff Buege: Marine Veteran, Outdoorsman, Football Fan and LifterTres Gottlich: Marine Veteran, Texan, Fisherman, Crazy College Football Fan and LifterJoin the Slack and Use code OKAY:https://buy.stripe.com/dR6dT4aDcfuBdyw5ksCheck out BW Tax: https://www.bwtaxllc.comBUY A FOOTBALL HELMET: https://www.greengridiron.com/?ref=thestrengthco14th Marine Reg T Shirts: https://usafulfillmentservices.com/14th-marine/Massenomics Gym Tour: https://youtu.be/WidS2OUEct4?si=cIZlib7Nq_TZX1ug TIMESTAMPS:00:00 - Intro04:00 - Staff Brief14:12 - Outlying Stations15:57 - Grant's Buddy Reveal24:05 - Turkey Pull & Preparing For A Meet33:38 - Outdoor TV's39:05 - College Football54:17 - Tres' Picks of The Week01:15:39 - Chow Talk01:21:19 - MRE Challenge01:29:02 - Truck Ticket01:34:52 - Sign Off
Spencer Reagan leads R&D at Airia, working on secure AI-agent orchestration, data governance systems, and real-time signal fusion technologies for regulated and defense environments.Overcoming Challenges in AI Agent Deployment: The Sweet Spot for Governance and Security // MLOps Podcast #349 with Spencer Reagan, R&D at Airia.Join the Community: https://go.mlops.community/YTJoinInGet the newsletter: https://go.mlops.community/YTNewsletterShoutout to Airia for powering this MLOps Podcast episode.// AbstractSpencer Reagan thinks it might be, and he's not shy about saying so. In this episode, he and Demetrios Brinkmann get real about the messy, over-engineered state of agent systems, why LLMs still struggle in the wild, and how enterprises keep tripping over their own data chaos. They unpack red-teaming, security headaches, and the uncomfortable truth that most “AI platforms” still don't scale. If you want a sharp, no-fluff take on where agents are actually headed, this one's worth a listen.// BioPassionate about technology, software, and building products that improve people's lives.// Related LinksWebsite: https://airia.com/Machine Learning, AI Agents, and Autonomy // Egor Kraev // MLOps Podcast #282 - https://youtu.be/zte3QDbQSekRe-Platforming Your Tech Stack // Michelle Marie Conway & Andrew Baker // MLOps Podcast #281 - https://youtu.be/1ouSuBETkdA~~~~~~~~ ✌️Connect With Us ✌️ ~~~~~~~Catch all episodes, blogs, newsletters, and more: https://go.mlops.community/TYExploreJoin our Slack community [https://go.mlops.community/slack]Follow us on X/Twitter [@mlopscommunity](https://x.com/mlopscommunity) or [LinkedIn](https://go.mlops.community/linkedin)] Sign up for the next meetup: [https://go.mlops.community/register]MLOps Swag/Merch: [https://shop.mlops.community/]Connect with Demetrios on LinkedIn: /dpbrinkmConnect with Spencer on LinkedIn: /spencerreagan/Timestamps:[00:00] AI industry future[00:55] Use cases in software[05:44] LLMs for data normalization[11:02] ROI and overengineering[15:58] Street width history[20:58] High ROI examples[25:16] AI building challenges[33:37] Budget control challenges[39:30] Airia Orchestration platform[46:25] Agent evaluation breakdown[53:48] Wrap up
You're probably using AI agents without even knowing it.
Have Arsenal already got one hand on the trophy? They consistently look like the best team in the Premier League right now. Meanwhile, Liverpool look out of ideas with problems all over the pitch, how much are they missing Trent Alexander-Arnold? Sunderland sit 6th in the Premier League, is this one of the most impressive performances from a promoted side in recent years? The Lads also break down Aston Villa's terrific run of form, which has propelled them into the top four, plus Micah delivers a superb rendition from every English club he's played for during his career. The Rest Is Football is powered by Fuse Energy. To sign up and for terms and conditions, visit fuseenergy.com/football. Join The Players Lounge: The official fantasy football club of The Rest Is Football. It's time to take on Gary, Alan and Micah for the chance to win monthly prizes and shoutouts on the pod. It's FREE to join and as a member, you'll get access to exclusive tips from Fantasy Football Hub including AI-powered team ratings, transfer tips, and expert team reveals to help you climb the table - plus access to our private Slack community. Sign up today at therestisfootball.com https://therestisfootball.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=episode_description&utm_content=link_cta For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Raised with strong faith values across multiple religious traditions, Meshell Baker discovered early on that the best people she encountered weren't defined by their specific beliefs, but by how consistently they practiced core principles of love, kindness, and service. In the beginning of her career, Meshell was exposed to diverse spiritual communities while selling Yellow Pages advertising in the most racially diverse county in America. Her experience would later become the foundation for everything she built. After a period of incarceration that stemmed from personal trauma and lost confidence, Meshell threw herself into rebuilding through corporate success. She became exceptional at climbing the ladder. You know the routine, the one that involves chasing promotions, better cars, bigger paychecks. On paper, she was winning. But she felt like she was running on a hamster wheel, hitting milestones that gave her five minutes of satisfaction before she had to chase the next achievement high. The turning point came during a Bible study group where she discovered her gift for helping women transform their confidence and step into their power. She realized this work brought her more joy than any corporate achievement ever had. Now as an entrepreneur and confidence coach, Meshell has learned the crucial difference between transformation and transaction. She emphasizes that once you transform internally, the external transactions (success, money, opportunities) naturally follow, but the reverse isn't true. Her story illustrates how confidence isn't something you summon on demand like an Amazon delivery. It's a way of being that you embody through consistent practice and self-compassion, even when, or especially when, you don't feel like it. Resources: Meshell Baker's website: https://meshellrbaker.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meshellrbaker Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MeshellRBaker Instagram: http://instagram.com/MeshellRBaker Meshell's Hype Song is Confident by Demi LovatoInvitation from Lori:This episode is sponsored by Zen Rabbit. Smart leaders know trust is the backbone of a thriving workplace, and in today's hybrid whirlwind, it doesn't grow from quarterly updates or the occasional Slack ping. It grows from steady, human communication. Plenty of companies think they're doing great because they host all-staff meetings, keep “open door” policies, and throw the occasional team-building event. Meanwhile, leaders who truly care about culture are choosing better tools. That's where I come in. Forward-thinking organizations bring me in to create internal podcasts that connect people through real stories, honest conversations, and genuine community—your old printed newsletter reinvented for the way people actually work now. If you run, work for, or know a company ready to upgrade communication and strengthen culture, reach out at Lori@ZenRabbit dot com. Because when people feel heard, they engage. When they engage, they perform. And when they perform, the business succeeds beyond projections.
How to Build a Winning Strategy for Your B2B Brand In a fast-paced business environment, marketers, agencies, and consultants must proactively help clients differentiate their brands in the marketplace. One way of doing this is by analyzing the strategy, messaging, and brand positioning, both for their own brands and key competitors. So how can teams conduct this kind of brand research and competitive analysis in a way that's insightful, efficient, and actionable for planning the next steps? Tune in as the B2B Marketers on Mission Podcast presents the Marketing DEMO Lab Series, where we sit down with Clay Ostrom (Founder, Map & Fire) and his SmokeLadder platform designed for brand research, messaging and positioning analysis, and competitive benchmarking. In this episode, Clay explained the platform's origins and features, emphasizing its role in analyzing brand positioning, core messaging, and competitive landscapes. He also stressed the importance of clear, consistent brand positioning and messaging, and how standardized make it easier to compare brands across multiple business values. Clay also highlighted the value of objective, data-driven analysis to identify brand strengths, weaknesses, and gaps, and how tools like SmokeLadder can save significant time in gathering insights to build trust with clients. He provided practical steps for generating, refining, and exporting brand messaging and analysis for internal or client-facing use. Finally, Clay also discussed how action items and recommendations generated from analysis can immediately support smart brand strategy decisions and expedite trust-building with clients. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4_o1PzF1Kk Topics discussed in episode: [1:31] The purpose behind building SmokeLadder and why it matters for B2B teams [12:00] A walkthrough of the SmokeLadder platform and how it works [14:51] SmokeLadder's core features [17:48] How positioning scores and category rankings are calculated [35:36] How differentiation and competitors are analyzed inside SmokeLadder [44:07] How SmokeLadder builds messaging and generates targeted personas [50:24] The key benefits and unique capabilities that set SmokeLadder apart Companies and links: Clay Ostrom Map & Fire SmokeLadder Transcript Christian Klepp 00:00 In an increasingly competitive B2B landscape, marketers, agencies and consultants, need to proactively find ways to help their clients stand out amidst the digital noise. One way of doing this is by analyzing the strategy, messaging and positioning of their own brands and those of their competitors. So how can they do this in a way that’s insightful, efficient and effective? Welcome to this first episode of the B2B Marketers in the Mission podcast Demo Lab Series, and I’m your host, Christian Klepp. Today, I’ll be talking to Clay Ostrom about this topic. He’s the owner and founder of the branding agency Map and Fire, and the creator of the platform Smoke Ladder that we’ll be talking about today. So let’s dive in. Christian Klepp 00:42 All right, and I’m gonna say Clay Ostrom. Welcome to this first episode of the Demo Lab Series. Clay Ostrom 00:50 I am super excited and very honored to be the first guest on this new series. It’s awesome. Christian Klepp 00:56 We are honored to have you here. And you know, let’s sit tight, or batten down the hatches and buckle up, and whatever other analogy you want to throw in there, because we are going to unpack a lot of interesting features and discuss interesting topics around the platform that you’ve built. And I think a good place to start, perhaps Clay before we start doing a walk through of the platform is, but let’s start at the very beginning. What motivated you to create this platform called Smoke Ladder. Clay Ostrom 01:31 So we should go all the way back to my childhood. I always dreamed of, you know, working on brand and positioning. You know, that was something I’ve always thought of since the early days, but no, but I do. I own an agency called Map and Fire, so I’ve been doing this kind of work for over 10 years now, and have worked with lots and lots of different kinds of clients, and over that time, developed different frameworks and a point of view about how to do this kind of work, and when the AI revolution kind of hit us all, it just really struck me that this was an opportunity to take a lot of that thinking and a lot of that, you know, again, my perspective on how to do this work and productize that and turn it into something that could be used by people when we’re not engaged with them, in some kind of service offering. So, so that was kind of the kernel of it. I actually have a background in computer science and product. So it was sort of this natural Venn diagram intersection of I can do some product stuff, I can do brand strategy stuff. So let’s put it together and build something. Christian Klepp 02:46 And the rest, as they say, is history. Clay Ostrom 02:49 The rest, as they say, is a lot of nights and weekends and endless hours slaving away at trying to build something useful. Christian Klepp 02:58 Sure, sure, that certainly is part of it, too. Clay Ostrom 03:01 Yeah. Christian Klepp 03:02 Let’s not keep the audience in suspense for too long here, right? Like, let’s start with the walk through. And before you share your screen, maybe I’ll set this up a little bit, right? Because you, as you said, like, you know, you’ve built this platform. It’s called Smoke Ladder, which I thought was a really clever name. It’s, you like to describe it as, like, your favorite SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tool, but for brand research and analysis. So I would say, like, walk us through how somebody would use this platform, like, whether they be a marketer that’s already been like in the industry for years, or is starting out, or somebody working at a brand or marketing agency, and how does the platform address these challenges or questions that people have regarding brand strategy, analysis and research? Clay Ostrom 03:49 Yeah, yeah. I use that analogy of the SEO thing, just because, especially early on, I was trying to figure out the best way to describe it to someone who hasn’t seen it before. I feel like it’s a, I’m not going to fall into the trap of saying, this is the only product like this, but it has its own unique twists with what it can do. And I felt like SEO tools are something everybody has touched at one point or another. So I was using this analogy of, it’s like the s, you know, Semrush of positioning and messaging or Ahrefs, depending on your if you’re a Coke or Pepsi person. But I always felt like that was just a quick way to give a little idea of the fact that it’s both about analyzing your own brand, but it’s also about competitive analysis and being able to see what’s going on in the market or in your landscape, and looking specifically at what your competitors are doing and what their strengths and weaknesses are. So does that resonate with you in terms of, like, a shorthand way, I will say, I don’t. I don’t say that. It’s super explicitly on the website, but it’s been in conversation. Christian Klepp 05:02 No, absolutely, absolutely, that resonated with me. The only part that didn’t resonate with me is that I’m neither a coke or a Pepsi person. I’m more of a ginger ale type of guy. I digress. But yeah, let’s what don’t you share your screen, and let’s walk through this, right? Like, okay, if a marketing person were like, use the platform to do some research on, perhaps that marketers, like own company and the competitors as well, right? Like, what would they do? Clay Ostrom 05:32 Yeah, so that’s, that is, like you were saying, there’s, sort of, I guess, a few different personas of people who would potentially use this. And initially I was thinking a little more about both in house, people who, you know, someone who’s working on a specific brand, digging really deep on their own brand, whether they’re, you know, the marketing lead or whatever, maybe they’re the founder, and then this other role of agency owners, or people who work at an agency where they are constantly having to look at new brands, new categories, and quickly get up to speed on what those brands are doing and what’s the competitive space look like, you know, for that brand. And that’s something that, if you work at an agency, which obviously we both have our own agencies, we do this stuff weekly. I mean, every time a new lead comes in, we have to quickly get up to speed and understand something about what they do. And one of the big gaps that I found, and I’d be curious to kind of hear your thoughts on this, but I’ve had a lot of conversations with other agency owners, and I think one of the biggest gaps is often that brands are just not always that great at explaining their own brand or positioning or differentiation to you, and sometimes they have some documentation around it, but a lot of times they don’t. A lot of it’s word of mouth, and that makes it really hard to do work for them. If whatever you’re doing for them, whether that’s maybe you are working on SEO or maybe you’re working on paid ads or social or content, you have to know what the brand is doing and kind of what they’re again, what their strengths and weaknesses are, so that you can talk about that. I mean, do you come across that a lot in your work? Christian Klepp 07:33 How do I say this without offending anybody? I find, I mean jokes aside, I find, more often than not, in the especially in the B2B space, which is an area that I operate in, I find 888 point five times out of 10. We are dealing with companies that have a they, have a very rude, rudimentary, like, framework of something that remotely resembles some form of branding. And I know that was a very long winded answer, but it’s kind of sort of there, but not really, if you know what I mean. Clay Ostrom 08:17 Yeah. Christian Klepp 08:17 And there have been other extreme cases where they’ve got the logo and the website, and that’s as far as their branding goals. And I would say that had they had all these, this discipline, like branding system and structure in place, then people like maybe people like you and I will be out on a job, right and it’s something, and I’m sure you’ve come across this, and we’ll probably dig into this later, but like you, it’s something I’ve come across several times, especially in the B2B space, where branding is not taken seriously until it becomes serious. I know that sounds super ironic, right, but, and it’s to the point of this platform, right, which we’re going to dig into in a second, but it’s, it’s things, for instance, positioning right, like, are you? Are you, in fact, strategically positioned against competitors? Is your messaging resonating with, I would imagine, especially in the B2B context, with the multiple group target groups that you have, or that your company is, is going after? Right? Is that resonating, or is this all like something that I call the internal high five? You’ve this has all been developed to please internal stakeholders and and then you take it to market, and it just does not, it just does not resonate with the target audience at all. Right? So there’s such a complex plethora of challenges here, right? That people like yourself and like you and I are constantly dealing with, and I think that’s also part of the reason why I would say a platform like this is important, because it helps to not just aggregate data. I mean, certainly it does that too, but it helps. To put things properly, like into perspective at speed. I think that might be, that might be something that you would have talked about later, but it does this at speed, because I think, from my own experience, one of the factors in our world that sometimes works against us is time, right? Clay Ostrom 10:19 No, I totally agree, yeah, and, you know, we’re lucky, I guess would be the word that we are often hired to work on a company strategy with them and help them clarify these things. Christian Klepp 10:33 Absolutely. Clay Ostrom 10:34 There are a million other flavors of agencies out there who are being hired to execute on work for a brand, and not necessarily being brought in to redefine, you know what the brand, you know they’re positioning and their messaging and some of these fundamental things, so they’re kind of stuck with whatever they get. And like you said, a lot of times it’s not much. It might be a logo and a roughly put together website, and maybe not a whole lot else. So, yeah, but I think your other point about speed is that was a huge part of this. I think the market is only accelerating right now, because it’s becoming so much easier to start up new companies and new brands and new products. And now we’ve got vibe coding, so you can technically build a product in a day, maybe launch it the next day, start marketing it, you know, by the weekend. And all of this is creating noise and competition, and it’s all stuff that we have to deal with as marketers. We have to understand the landscape. We’ve got to quickly be able to analyze all these different brands, see where the strengths and weaknesses are and all that stuff. So… Christian Klepp 11:46 Absolutely. Clay Ostrom 11:46 But, yeah, that, I think that the speed piece is a huge part of this for sure. Christian Klepp 11:51 Yeah. So, so we’re okay, so we’re on the I guess this, this will probably be the homepage. So just walk us through what, what a marketing person would do if they want to use this platform, yeah? Clay Ostrom 12:00 So the very first thing you do when you come in, and this was when I initially conceived of this product, one of the things that I really wanted was the ability to have very quick feedback, be able to get analysis for whatever brand you’re looking at, you know, right away to be able to get some kind of, you know, insight or analysis done. So the first thing you can do, and you can do this literally, from the homepage of the website, you can enter in a URL for a brand, come into the product, even before you’ve created an account, you can come in and you can do an initial analysis, so you can put in whatever URL you’re looking at, could be yours, could be a competitor, and run that initial analysis. What we’re looking at here, this is, if you do create an account, this is, this becomes your, as we say, like Home Base, where you can save brands that you’re looking at. You can see your history, all that good stuff. And it just gives you some quick bookmarks so that you can kind of flip back and forth between, maybe it’s your brand, maybe it’s some of the competitors you’re looking at and then it gives you just some quick, kind of high level directional info. And I kind of break it up into these different buckets. Clay Ostrom 13:23 And again, I’d love to kind of hear if this is sort of how you think about it, too. But there’s sort of these different phases when you’re working on a brand. And again, this is sort of from an agency perspective, but you first got the sort of the research and the pitch piece. So this is before maybe you’re even working with them. You’re trying to get an understanding of what they do. Then we have discovery and onboarding, where we’re digging in a little bit deeper. We’re trying to really put together, what does the brand stand for, what are their strengths and weaknesses? And then we have the deeper dive, the strategy and differentiation. And this is where we’re really going in and getting more granular with the specific value points that they offer, doing some of that messaging analysis, finding, finding some of the gaps of the things that they’re talking about or not talking about, and going in deeper. So it kind of break it up into these buckets, based on my experience of how we engage with clients. Does that? Does that make sense to you, like, does that? Christian Klepp 14:28 It does make sense, I think. But what could be helpful for the audience is because this, this almost looks like it’s a pre cooked meal. All right, so what do we do we try another I mean, I think you use Slack for the analysis. Why don’t we use another brand, and then just pop it into that analysis field, and then see what it comes out with. Clay Ostrom 14:51 So the nice thing about this is, if you are looking at a brand that’s been analyzed, you’re going to get the data up really quickly. It’ll be basically pop up instantly. But you can analyze a brand from scratch as well. Just takes about a minute or so, basically, to kind of do some of the analysis. So for the sake of a demo, it’s a little easier just to kind of look at something that we’ve got in there. But if it’s a brand that you know, maybe you’re looking at a competitor for one of your brands, you know, there’s a good chance, because we’ve got about 6000 brands that we’ve analyzed in here, that there’s a good chance there’ll be some info on them. But so this is pipe drive. So whoever’s not familiar Pipedrive is, you know, it’s a CRM (Customer Relationship Management), it’s, it’s basically, you know, it’s a lighter version of a HubSpot or Salesforce basically track deals and opportunities for business, but this so I flipped over. I don’t know if it was clear there, but I flipped over to this brand brief tab. And this is where we we get, essentially, a high level view of some key points about the brand and and I think about this as this would be something that you would potentially share with a client if you were, you know, working with them and you wanted to review the brand with them and make sure that your analysis is on point, but you’ll see it’s kind of giving you some positioning scores, where you rank from a category perspective, message clarity, and then we’ve got things like a quick overview, positioning summary, who their target persona is, in this case, sales manager, sales operation lead, and some different value points. And then it starts to get a little more granular. We get into like key competitors, Challenger brands. We do a little SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis, and then maybe one of the more important parts is some of these action items. So what do we do with this? Yeah, and obviously, these are, these are starting points. This is not, it’s not going to come in and, you know, instantly be able to tell you strategically, exactly what to do, but it’s going to give you some ideas of based on the things we’ve seen. Here are some reasonable points that you might want to be looking at to, you know, improve the brand. Make it make it stronger. Christian Klepp 17:13 Gotcha. Gotcha. Now, this is all great clay, but like, I think, for the benefit of the audience, can we scroll back up, please. And let’s just walk through these one by one, because I think it’s important for the audience/potential future users,/ customers of Smoke Ladder, right? To understand, to understand this analysis in greater depth, and also, like, specifically, like, let’s start with a positioning score right, like, out of 100 like, what is this? What is this based on? And how was this analyzed? Let’s start with that. Clay Ostrom 17:48 Yeah, and this is where the platform really started. And I’m going to actually jump over to the positioning tab, because this will give us the all the detail around this particular feature. But this is, this was where I began the product this. I kind of think of this as being, in many ways, sort of the heart and soul of it. And when I mentioned earlier about this being based on our own work and frameworks and how we approach this, this is very much the case with this. This is, you know, the approach we use with the product is exactly how we work with clients when we’re evaluating their positioning. And it’s, it’s basically, it’s built off a series of scores. And what we have here are 24 different points of business value, which, if we zoom in just a little bit down here, we can see things like reducing risk, vision, lowering cost, variety, expertise, stability, etc. So there’s 24 of these that we look at, and it’s meant to be a way that we can look across different brands and compare and contrast them. So it’s creating, like, a consistent way of looking at brands, even if they’re not in the same category, or, you know, have slightly different operating models, etc. But what we do is we go in and we score every brand on each of these 24 points. And if we scroll down here a little bit, we can see the point of value, the exact score they got, the category average, so how it compares against, you know, all the other brands we’ve analyzed, and then a little bit of qualitative information about why they got the score. Christian Klepp 19:27 Sorry, Clay, Can I just jump in for a second so these, these attributes, or these key values that you had in the graph at the top right, like, are these consistent throughout regardless of what brand is being analyzed, or the least change. Clay Ostrom 19:42 It’s consistent. Christian Klepp 19:43 Consistent? Clay Ostrom 19:44 Yeah, and that was one of the sort of strategic decisions we had to make with the product. Was, you know, there’s a, maybe another version of this, where you do different points depending on maybe the category, or, you know, things like that. But I wanted to do it consistent because, again, it allows us to look at every brand through the same lens. It doesn’t mean that every brand you know there are certain points of value that just aren’t maybe relevant for a particular brand, and that’s fine, they just won’t score as highly in those but at least it gives us a consistent way to look at so when you’re looking at 10 different competitors, you know you’ve got a consistent way to look at them together,. Christian Klepp 20:26 Right, right, right. Okay, okay, all right, thanks for that. Now let’s go down to the next section there, where you’ve got, like this table with like four different columns here. So you mentioned that these are being scored against other brands in their category. Like, can you share it with the audience? Like, how many other brands are being analyzed here? Clay Ostrom 20:51 Yeah, well, it depends on the category. So again, we’ve got six, you know, heading towards 7000 brands that we’ve analyzed collectively. Each category varies a little bit, but, you know, some categories, we have more brands than others. But what this allows us to do is, again, to quickly look at this and say, okay, for pipe drive, a big focus for pipe drive is organization, simplification. You know, one of their big value props is we’re an easier tool to use than Salesforce or HubSpot. You can get up to speed really quickly. You don’t have all the setup and configurations and all that kind of stuff. So this is showing us that, yes, like their messaging, their content, their brand, does, in fact, do a good job of making it clear that simplicity is a big part of pipe drive’s message. And they do that by talking about it a lot in their messaging, having case studies, having testimonials, all these things that support it. And that’s how we come up with these scores. Is by saying, like the brand emphasizes these points well, they talk about it clearly, and that’s what we base it on. Christian Klepp 22:04 Okay, okay. Clay Ostrom 22:06 But as you come, I was just gonna say as you come down here, you can see, so the green basically means that they score well above average for that particular point. Yellow is, you know, kind of right around average, or maybe slightly above, and then red means that they’re below average for that particular point. So for example, like variety of tools, they don’t emphasize that as much with pipe drive, maybe compared to, again, like a Salesforce or a HubSpot that has a gazillion tools, pipe drive, that’s not a big focus for them. So they don’t score as highly there, but you can kind of just get a quick view of, okay, here are the things that they’re really strong with, and here are the things that maybe they’re, you know, kind of weak or below average. Christian Klepp 22:58 Yeah, yeah. Well, that’s certainly interesting, because I, you know, I’ve, I’ve used the, I’ve used the platform for analyzing some of my clients, competitor brands. And, you know, when I’m looking at this, like analysis with the scoring, with the scoring sheet, it, I think it will also be interesting perhaps in future, because you’ve got a very detailed breakdown of, okay, the factors and how they’re scored, and what the brand value analysis is also, because, again, in the interest of speed and time, it’d be great if the platform can also churn out maybe a one to two sentence like, summary of what is this data telling us, right? Because I’m thinking back to my early days as a product manager, and we would spend hours, like back then on Excel spreadsheets. I’m dating myself a little bit here, but um, and coming up with this analysis and charts, but presenting that to senior management, all they wanted to know was the one to two sentence summary of like, come on. What are you telling me with all these charts, like, what is the data telling you that we need to know? Right? Clay Ostrom 24:07 I know it’s so funny. We again, as strategists and researchers, we love to nerd out about the granular details, but you’re right. When you’re talking to a leader at a business, it does come down to like, okay, great. What do we do? And so, and I flipped back over to slacks. I knew I had already generated this but, but we’re still in the positioning section here, but we have this get insights feature. So basically it will look at all those scores and give you kind of, I think, similar to what you’re describing. Like, here’s three takeaways from what we’re seeing. Okay, okay, great, yeah, so we don’t want to leave you totally on your own to have to figure it all out. We’ll give you, give you a little helping hand. Christian Klepp 24:53 Yeah. You don’t want to be like in those western movies, you’re on your own kid. Clay Ostrom 24:59 Yeah. We try not to strand you again. There’s a lot of data here. I think that’s one of the strengths and and challenges with the platform, is that we try to give you a lot of data. And for some people, you may not want to have to sift through all of it. You might want just sort of give me the three points here. Christian Klepp 25:19 Absolutely, absolutely. And at the very least they can start pointing you in the right direction, and then you could be, you could then, like, through your own initiative, and perhaps dig a little bit deeper and perhaps find some other insights that may be, may be relevant, right? Clay Ostrom 25:35 Totally. Christian Klepp 25:36 Hey, it’s Christian Klepp here. We’ll get back to the episode in a second. But first, I’d like to tell you about a new series that we’re launching on our show. As the B2B landscape evolves, marketers need to adapt and leverage the latest marketing tools and software to become more efficient. Enter B2B Marketers on a Mission Marketing Demo Lab where experts discuss the latest tools and software that empower you to become a better B2B marketer. Tune in as we chat with product experts. Provide unbiased product reviews, give advice and deliver insights into real world applications and actionable tips on tools and technologies for B2B marketing. Subscribe to the Marketing Demo Lab, YouTube channel and B2B Marketers on a Mission, on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Christian Klepp 26:21 All right. Now, back to the show, if we can, if we could jump back, sorry, to the, I think it was the brand brief, right? Like, where we where we started out, and I said, let’s, let’s dig deeper. Okay, so then, then we have, okay, so we talked about positioning score. Now we’re moving on to category rank and message clarity score. What does that look like? Clay Ostrom 26:41 Yeah. So the category rank is, it’s literally just looking at the positioning score that you’ve gotten for the brand and then telling you within this category, where do you sort of fall in the ranking, essentially, or, like, you know, how do we, you know, for comparing the score against all the competitors, where do you fall? So you can see, with Slack, they’re right in the middle. And it’s interesting, because with a product like Slack, even though we all now know what slack is and what it does and everything. Christian Klepp 27:18 Yeah. Clay Ostrom 27:19 The actual messaging and content that they have now, I think maybe doesn’t do as good of a job as it maybe did once upon a time, and it’s gotten as products grow and brands grow, they tend to get more vague, a little more broad with what they talk about, and that kind of leads to softer positioning. So that’s sort of what we’re seeing reflected here. And then the third score is the message clarity score, which we can jump into, like, a whole different piece. Christian Klepp 27:48 Four on a tennis not a very high score, right? Clay Ostrom 27:52 Yeah. And again, I think it’s a product, of, we can kind of jump into that section. Christian Klepp 27:57 Yeah, let’s do that, yeah. Clay Ostrom 27:59 But it’s, again, a product, I think of Slack being now a very mature product that is has gotten sort of a little vague, maybe a little broader, with their messaging. But the message clarity score, we basically have kind of two parts to this on the left hand side are some insights that we gather based on the messaging. So what’s your category, quick synopsis of the product. But then we also do some things, like… Christian Klepp 28:33 Confusing part the most confusing. Clay Ostrom 28:36 Honestly to me, as I get I’d love to hear your experience with this, but coming into a new brand, this is sometimes one of the most enlightening parts, because it shows me quickly where some gaps in what we’re talking about, and in this case, just kind of hits on what we were just saying a minute ago. Of the messaging is overloaded with generic productivity buzzwords, fails to clearly differentiate how Slack is better than email or similar tools, etc. But also, this is another one that I really like, and I use this all the time, which is the casual description. So rather than this technical garbage jargon, you know, speak, just give me. Give it to me in plain English, like we’re just chatting. And so this description of it’s a workplace chat app for teams to message, collaborate, share files. Like, okay, cool. Like, yeah, you know, I get it. Yeah, I already know what slack is. But if I didn’t, that would tell me pretty well. Christian Klepp 29:33 Absolutely, yeah, yeah. No, my experience with this is has been, you know, you and I have been in the branding space for a while. So for the trained eye, when you look at messaging, you’ll know if it’s good or not, right. And we come I mean, I’m sure you do the same clay, but I also come to my own like conclusions based on experience of like, okay, so why do I think that that’s good messaging, or why do I think that that’s confusing messaging? Or it falls short, and why and how can that be improved? But it’s always good to have validation with either with platforms like this, where you have a you have AI, or you have, you have a software that you can use that analyzes, like, for example, like the messaging on a website, and it dissects that and says, Well, okay, so this is what they’re getting, right? So there’s a scoring for that, so it’s in the green, and then this is, this is where it gets confusing, right? So even you run that through, you run that through the machine, and the machine analyzes it as like, Okay, we can’t clearly, clearly define what it is they’re doing based on the messaging, right? And for me, that’s always a it’s good. It’s almost like getting a second doctor’s opinion, right? And then you go, Aha. So I we’ve identified the symptoms now. So let’s find the penicillin, right? Like, let’s find the remedy for this, right? Clay Ostrom 30:56 Yeah, well, and I like what you said there, because part of the value, I think, with this is it’s an objective perspective on the brand, so it doesn’t have any baggage. It’s coming in with fresh eyes, the same way a new customer would come into your website, where they don’t know really much about you, and they have to just take what you’re giving at face value about what you present. And we as people working on brands get completely blinded around what’s actually working, what’s being communicated. There’s so much that we take for granted about what we already know about the brand. And this comes in and just says, Okay, I’m just, I’m just taking what you give me, and I’m going to tell you what I see, and I see some gaps around some of these things. You know, I don’t have the benefit of sitting in your weekly stand up meeting and hearing all the descriptions of what you’re actually doing. Christian Klepp 31:59 I’m sorry to jump in. I’m interested to know, like, just, just based on what we’ve been reviewing so far, like, what has your experience been showing this kind of analysis to clients, and how do they respond to some of this data, for example, that you know, you’re walking us through right now? Clay Ostrom 32:18 Yeah, I think it’s been interesting. Honestly, I think it can sometimes feel harsh. And I think again, as someone who’s both run an agency and also built worked on brands, we get attached to our work on an emotional level. Christian Klepp 32:42 Absolutely. Clay Ostrom 32:42 Even if we think about it as, you know, this is just work, and it’s, you know, whatever, we still build up connections with our work and we want it to be good. And so I think there’s sometimes a little bit of a feeling of wow, like that’s harsh, or I would have expected or thought we would have done better or scored better in certain areas, but that is almost always followed up with but I’m so glad to know where, where we’re struggling, because now I can fix it. I can actually know what to focus on to fix, and that, to me, is what it’s all about, is, yes, there’s a little bit of feelings attached to some of these things, maybe, but at the end of the day, we really want it to be good. We want it to be clear. We don’t want to be a 4 out of 10. We want to be a 10 out of 10. And what specifically do we need to do to get there? And that’s really what we’re trying to reveal with this. So I think, you know, everybody’s a little different, but I would say the reactions are typically a mix of that. It’s like, maybe an ouch, but a Oh, good. Let’s work on it. Christian Klepp 33:55 Absolutely, absolutely. Okay. So we’ve got brand summary, we’ve got fundamentals, then quality of messaging is the other part of it, right? Clay Ostrom 34:02 So, yeah, so this, this is, this is where the actual 4 out of 10 comes. We have these 10 points that we look at and we say, Okay, are you communicating these things clearly? Are you communicating who your target customer is, your category, your offering, where you’re differentiated benefits? Do you have any kind of concrete claim about what you do to support you know what you’re what you’re selling? Is the messaging engaging? Is it concise? You’ll see here a 7% on concise. That’s basically telling us that virtually no brands do a good job of being concise. Only about 7% get a green check mark on this, and kind of similar with the jargon and the vague words big struggle points with almost every brand. Christian Klepp 34:55 Streamline collaboration. Clay Ostrom 34:58 So we can see here with Slack. You know some of the jargon we got, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), MQLs (Marketing Qualified Lead), if you’re in the space, you could argue like, oh, I kind of know what those things are. But depending on your role, you may not always know. In something like Salesforce marketing cloud, unless you’re a real Salesforce nerd, you probably have no idea what that is. But again, it’s just a way to quickly identify some of those weak points, things that we could improve to make our message more clear. Christian Klepp 35:27 Yes, yes. Okay, so that was the messaging analysis correct? Clay Ostrom 35:33 Yeah. Christian Klepp 35:33 Yeah. Okay. So what else have we got? Clay Ostrom 35:36 Yeah, so I think one other thing we could look at just for a sec, is differentiation, and this is this kind of plays off of what we looked at a minute ago with the positioning scores. But this is a way for us to look head to head with two different brands. So in this case, we’ve got Slack in the red and we’ve got Discord in the greenish blue. And I think of these, these patterns, as sort of the fingerprint of your brand. So where you Where are you strong? Where are you weak? And if we can overlay those two fingerprints on top of each other, we can see, where do we have advantages, and where does our competitor have advantages? So if we come down, we can sort of see, and this is again, for the nerds like me, to be able to come in and go deep, do kind of a deep dive on specifically, why did, why does Discord score better than Slack in certain areas. And at the bottom here we can see a kind of a quick summary. So slack is stronger in simplification, saving time, Discord has some better messaging around generating revenue, lowering costs, marketability. But again, this gives us a way to think about what are the things we want to double down on? So what do we want to actually be known for in the market? Because we can’t be known for everything. You know, buyers can maybe only remember a couple things about us. What are those couple things where we’re really strong, where we really stand out, and we’ve got some separation from the competitors. Christian Klepp 37:18 Right, okay, okay, just maybe we take a step back here, because I think this is great. It’s very detailed. It gets a bit granular, but I think it’s also going back to a conversation that you and I had previously about, like, Okay, why is it so important to be armed with this knowledge, especially if you’re in the marketing role, or perhaps even an agency talking to a potential client going in there already armed with the information about their competitors. And we were talking about this being a kind of like a trust building mechanism, right? For lack of a better description, right? Clay Ostrom 38:03 Yeah, I think to me, what I like about this, and again, this does come out of 10 years of doing work, this kind of work with clients as well, is it’s so easy to fall into a space of soft descriptions around things like positioning and just sort of using vague, you know, wordings or descriptions, and when you can actually put a number on it, which, again, it’s subjective. This isn’t. This isn’t an objective metric, but it’s a way for us to compare and contrast. It allows us to have much more productive conversations with clients, where we can say we looked at your brand, we we what based on our analysis, we see that you’re scoring a 10 and a 9 on simplicity and organization, for example. Is that accurate to you like do you think that’s what you all are emphasizing the most? Does that? Does that resonate and at the same time, we can say, but your competitors are really focused on there. They have a strong, strong message around generating revenue and lowering costs for their customers. Right now, you’re not really talking about that. Is that accurate? Is that like, what you is that strategically, is that what you think you should be doing so really quickly, I’ve now framed a conversation that could have been very loose and kind of, you know, well, what do you think your strategy is about? What do you know? And instead, I can say, we see you being strong in these three points. We see your competitors being strong in these three points. What do you think about that? And I think that kind of clarity just makes the work so much more productive with clients, or just again, working on your own brand internally. So what do you think about that kind of perspective? Christian Klepp 40:08 Yeah, no, no, I definitely agree with that. It’s always and I’ve been that type of person anyway that you know you go into a especially with somebody that hasn’t quite become a client yet, right? One of the most important things is also, how should I put this? Certainly the trust building part of it needs to be there. The other part is definitely a demonstration of competence and ability, but it’s also that you’ve been proactive and done your homework, versus like, Okay, I’m I’m just here as an order taker, right? And let’s just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it right? A lot and especially, I think this has been a trend for a long time already, but a lot of the clients that I’ve worked with now in the past, they want to, they’re looking for a partner that’s not just thinking with them, it’s someone that’s thinking ahead of them. And this type of work, you know what we’re seeing here on screen, this is the type of work that I would consider thinking ahead of them, right? Clay Ostrom 41:18 No, I agree. I think you framed that really well. Of we’re trying to build trust, because if we’re going to make any kind of recommendations around a change or a shift, they have to believe that we know what we’re talking about, that we’re competent, that we’ve done the work. And I think I agree with you. I think like this, it’s kind of funny, like we all, I think, on some base level, are attracted to numbers and scores. It just gives us something to latch on to. But I think it also, like you said, it gives you a feeling that you’ve done your work, that you’ve done your homework, you’ve studied, you’ve you’ve done some analysis that they themselves may have never done on this level. And that’s a big value. Christian Klepp 42:08 Yes, and a big part of the reason just to, just to build on what you said, a big part of the reason why they haven’t done this type of work is because it’s not so much. The cost is certainly one part of it, but it’s the time, it’s a time factor and the resource and the effort that needs to be put into it. Because, you know, like, tell me if you’ve never heard this one before, but there are some, there are some companies that we’ve been working with that don’t actually have a clearly, like, you know, a clear document on who their their target personas are, yeah, or their or their ICPs, never mind the buyer’s journey map. They don’t, they don’t even have the personas mapped out, right? Clay Ostrom 42:52 100% Yeah, it’s, and it’s, I think you’re right. It’s, it’s a mix of time and it’s a mix of just experience where, if you are internal with a brand, you don’t do this kind of work all the time. You might do it at the beginning. Maybe you do a check in every once in a while, but you need someone who’s done this a lot with a lot of different brands so that they can give you guidance through this kind of framework. But so it’s, you know, so some of it is a mix of, you know, we don’t have the time always to dig in like this. But some of it is we don’t even know how to do it, even if we did have the time. So it’s hopefully giving, again, providing some different frameworks and different ways of looking at it. Christian Klepp 43:41 Absolutely, absolutely. So okay, so we’ve gone through. What is it now, the competitor comparison. What else does the platform provide us that the listeners and the audience should be paying attention to here? Clay Ostrom 43:55 So I’ll show you two more quick things. So one is this message building section. So this is… Christian Klepp 44:03 Are you trying to put me out of a job here Clay? Clay Ostrom 44:07 Well, I’ll say this. So far in my experience with this, it’s not going to put us out of a job, but it is going to hopefully make our job easier and better. It’s going to make us better at the work we do. And that’s really, I think that’s, I think that’s kind of, most people’s impression of AI at this point is that it’s not quite there to replace us, but it’s sure, certainly can enhance what we do. Christian Klepp 44:36 Yeah, you’ll excuse me, I couldn’t help but throw that one out. Clay Ostrom 44:38 Yeah, I know, trust me, I’m this. It’s like I’m building a product that, in a sense, is undercutting, you know, the work that I do. So it is kind of a weird thing, but this message building section, which is a new part of the platform. It will come in, and you can see on the right hand side. And there’s sort of a quick summary of all these different elements that we’ve already analyzed. And then it’s going to give you some generated copy ideas, including, if I zoom in a little bit here, we’ve got an eyebrow category. This is again for Slack. It’s giving us a headline idea, stay informed without endless emails. Sub headline call to action, three challenges that your customers are facing, and then three points about your solution that help address those for customers. So it’s certainly not writing all of your copy for you, but if you’re starting from scratch, or you’re working on something new, or even if you’re trying to refresh a brand. I think this can be helpful to give you some messaging that’s hopefully clear. That’s something that I think a lot of messaging misses, especially in B2B, it’s, it’s not always super clear, like what you even do. Christian Klepp 45:56 Don’t get me started. Clay Ostrom 45:59 So hopefully it’s clear. It’s, you know, again, it’s giving you some different ideas. And that you’ll see down here at the bottom, you can, you can iterate on this. So we’ve got several versions. You can actually come in and, you know, you can edit it yourself. So if you say, like, well, I like that, but not quite that, you know, I can, you know, get my human touch on it as well. But yeah, so it’s a place to iterate on message. Christian Klepp 46:25 You can kind of look at it like, let’s say, if you’re writing a blog article, and this will give you the outline, right? Yeah. And then most of the AI that I’ve worked with to generate outlines, they’re not quite there. But again, if you’re starting from zero and you want to go from zero to 100 Well, that’ll, that’ll at least get you to 40 or 50, right? But I’m curious to know, because we’re looking at this now, and I think this, I mean, for me, this is, this is fascinating, but, like, maybe, maybe this will be part of your next iteration. But will this, will this generate messaging that’s already SEO optimized. Clay Ostrom 47:02 You know, it’s not specifically geared towards that, but I would say that it ends up being maybe more optimized than a lot of other messaging because it puts such an emphasis on clarity, it naturally includes words and phrases that I think are commonly used in the space more so than you know, maybe just kind of typical off the shelf Big B2B messaging, Christian Klepp 47:27 Gotcha. I had a question on the target persona that you’ve got here on screen, right? So how does the platform generate the information that will then populate that field because, and when I’m just trying to think about like, you know, because I’ve been, I’ve been in the space for as long as you have, and the way that I’ve generated target personas in the past was not by making a wild guess about, like, you know, looking at the brand’s website. It’s like having conducting deep customer research and listening to hours and hours of recordings, and from there, generating a persona. And this has done it in seconds. So… Clay Ostrom 48:09 Yeah, it’s so the way the system works in a couple different layers. So it does an initial analysis, where it does positioning, messaging analysis and category analysis, then you can generate the persona on top of that. So it takes all the learnings that it got from the category, from the product, from your messaging, and then develops a persona around that. And it’s, of course, able to also pull in, you know, the AI is able to reference things that it knows about the space in general. But I have found, and this is true. I was just having a conversation with someone who works on a very niche brand for a very specific audience, and I was showing him what it had output. And I said, Tell me, like, Don’t hold back. Like, is this accurate? He said, Yeah, this is, like, shockingly accurate for you know, how we view our target customer. So I think it’s pretty good. It’s not again, not going to be perfect. You’re going to need to do some work, and you still got to do the research, but, but, yeah. Christian Klepp 49:13 Okay, fantastic, fantastic. How do, I guess there’s the option, I see it there, like, download the PDF. So anything that’s analyzed on the platform can then be exported in a PDF format, right? Like, like, into a report. Clay Ostrom 49:28 Yeah, right now you can export the messaging analysis, or, sorry, the the messaging ideation that you’ve done, and then in the brand brief you can also, you can download a PDF of the brand brief as well. So, those are the two main areas. I’m still working on some additional exports of data so that people can pull it into a spreadsheet and do some other stuff with it. Christian Klepp 49:49 Fantastic, fantastic. That’s awesome, Clay. I’ve got a couple more questions before I let you go. But this has been, this has been amazing, right? Like and I really hope that whoever’s in the one listening and, most importantly, watching this, I hope that you really do consider like, you know, taking this for a test drive, right? How many I might have asked you this before, because, you know, I am somebody that does use, you know, that does a lot of this type of research. But how much time would you say companies would save by using Smoke Ladder? Clay Ostrom 50:24 It’s a good question. I feel like I’m starting to get some feedback around that with from our users, but I mean, for me personally, I would typically spend an hour or two just to get kind of up to speed initially, with a brand and kind of look at some of their competitors. If I’m doing a deep dive, though, if I’m actually doing some of the deeper research work, it could be several hours per client. So I don’t know. On a given week, it might depend on how many clients you’re talking to. Could be anywhere from a few hours to 10 hours or more, depending on how much work you’re doing. But, yeah, I think it’s a decent amount. Christian Klepp 51:07 Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, this definitely does look like a time saver. Here comes my favorite question, which you’re gonna look at me like, Okay, I gotta, I gotta. Clay Ostrom 51:17 Now bring it on. Let’s go. Christian Klepp 51:22 Folks that are not familiar with Smoke Ladder are gonna look at this, um, and before they actually, um, take it upon themselves to, like, watch, hopefully, watch this video on our channel. Um, they’re gonna look at that and ask themselves, Well, what is it that Smoke Ladder does that? You know that other AI couldn’t do, right, like, so I guess what I’m trying to say is, like, Okay, why would they use? How does the platform differ from something like ChatGPT, Perplexity or Claude, right? To run a brand analysis? Clay Ostrom 52:00 Yeah, no, I think it’s a great question. I think it’s sort of the it’s going to be the eternal AI question for every product that has an AI component. And I would say to me, it’s three things. So one is the data, which we talked about, and I didn’t show you this earlier, but there is a search capability in here to go through our full archive of all the brands we’ve analyzed, and again, we’ve analyzed over 6000 brands. So the data piece is really important here, because it means we’re not just giving you insights and analysis based on the brand that you’re looking at now, but we can compare and contrast against all the other brands that we’ve looked at in the space, and that’s something that you’re not going to get by just using some off the shelf standard LLM (Large Language Model) and doing some, you know, some quick prompts with that. The next one, I think, to me that’s important is it’s the point of view of the product and the brand. Like I said, this is built off of 10 plus years of doing positioning and messaging work in the space. So you’re getting to tap into that expertise and that approach of how we do things and building frameworks that make this work easier and more productive that you wouldn’t get, or you wouldn’t know, just on your own. And then the last one, the last point, which is sort of the kind of like the generic software answer, is you get a visual interface for this stuff. It’s the difference between using QuickBooks versus a spreadsheet. You can do a lot of the same stuff that you do in QuickBooks and a spreadsheet, but wouldn’t you rather have a nice interface and some easy buttons to click that make your job way, way easier and do a lot of the work for you and also be able to present it in a way that’s digestible and something you could share with clients? So the visual component in the UI is sort of that last piece. Christian Klepp 54:01 Absolutely. I mean, it’s almost like UX and UI one on one. That’s, that’s pretty much like a big part of, I think what it is you’re trying to build here, right? Clay Ostrom 54:13 Yeah, exactly. It’s just it’s making all of those things that you might do in an LLM just way, way easier. You know, you basically come in, put in your URL and click a button, and you’re getting access to all the data and all the insights and all this stuff so. Christian Klepp 54:29 Absolutely, absolutely okay. And as we wrap this up, this has been a fantastic conversation, by the way, how can the audience start using Smoke Ladder, and how can they get in touch with you if they have questions, and hopefully good questions. Clay Ostrom 54:47 Yeah, so you can, if you go to https://smokeladder.com/ you can, you can try it out. Like I said, you can basically go to the homepage, put in a URL and get started. You don’t even have to create an account to do the initial analysis. But you can create FREE account. You can dig in and see, you know, play around with all the features, and if you use it more, you know, we give you a little bit of a trial period. And if you use it beyond that, then you can pay and continue to use it, but, but you can get a really good flavor of it for free. Christian Klepp 55:16 Fantastic, fantastic. Oh, last question, because, you know, it’s looking me right in the face now, industry categories. How many? How many categories can be analyzed on the platform? Clay Ostrom 55:26 Yeah, yeah. So right now, we have 23 categories in the system currently, which sounds like a lot, but when you start to dig into especially B2B, it’s we will be evolving that and continuing to add more, but currently, there’s 23 different categories of businesses in there. Christian Klepp 55:46 All right, fantastic, fantastic. Clay, man. This has been so awesome. Thank you so much for your time and for your patience and walking us through this, this incredible platform that you’ve built and continue to build. And you know, I’m excited to continue using this as it evolves. Clay Ostrom 56:06 Thank you. Yeah, no. Thanks so much. And you know, if anybody, you know, anybody who tries it out, tests it out, please feel free to reach out. We have, you know, contact info on there. You can also hit me up on LinkedIn. I spend a lot of time there, but I would love feedback, love getting notes, love hearing what’s working, what’s not, all those things. So yeah, anytime I’m always open. Christian Klepp 56:30 All right, fantastic. Once again, Clay, thanks for your time. Take care, stay safe and talk to you soon. Clay Ostrom 56:36 Thanks so much. Talk to you soon. Christian Klepp 56:37 All right. Bye for now.
Hausmeisterei Video zur Episode Text-/Audio-/Videokommentar einreichen HS-Hörer:innen im Slack treffen Aus der Preshow Alte Aussagen. Pferdegeschwindigkeit HS Workshops Neue Workshops geöffnet: Fotoprojekte & Großformat HS Workshop-Newsletter Testimonials von Workshopteilnehmern gesucht Alte Newsletter funktionieren nicht mehr, bitte neu anmelden Neue Newsletter Statt Werbung DANKE an alle Spender #hshi / #hsnachtrag Von Rico: Wieso kann man keine … „#920 – Ösen können sich lösen“ weiterlesen
Building Teams in the Age of AI: How Slack CMO Ryan Gavin is Reshaping the Future of WorkIn this episode, Ryan Gavin, Chief Marketing Officer at Slack, reveals how self-awareness in leadership and the convergence of marketing and product strategy are creating unprecedented opportunities in the agentic era. Learn why employee productivity through AI orchestration is poised to become the fastest accelerator for top line business growth companies have ever seen, and how Slack is positioning itself as the conversational work platform for this transformation.The conversation explores the critical shift from employees as doers to orchestrators, where every team member—from day-one interns to seasoned executives—will manage digital coworkers and AI agents. Discover the product principles driving Slack's approach to agent integration, the social dynamics of working alongside AI teammates, and why the traditional career ladder is being replaced by immediate access to capabilities across development, creative, analytics, and more. The discussion also covers practical frameworks for building exceptional teams, reducing AI adoption anxiety, and why picking the "right" career path matters less than crushing the job you're in.Ryan delivers actionable insights on leadership development through self-awareness, understanding how team members receive feedback and recognition differently, and connecting business opportunities with talent growth. You'll also hear his compelling argument for why marketing must sit between product and sales as a strategic amplifier, not just a message distributor, and what marketers need to do to earn their seat at product strategy and sales planning meetings.Key Topics Covered:Self-awareness as the foundation of effective leadership and team developmentWhy marketing is product and product is marketing in modern B2B organizationsThe shift from doers to orchestrators in the age of AI agents and digital coworkersHow every employee will manage AI teammates from day one across finance, HR, creative, and developmentEmployee productivity as the most underutilized growth lever for businessesSlack's product principles for agent integration: don't make me think and be a great hostReducing AI adoption fear by showcasing capability expansion rather than job displacementSocial dynamics of agent interaction in channels and preserving psychological safetyWhy there is no "right" career path and how to multiply opportunities by crushing your current roleThe changing consumer patterns of information seeking and their impact on business workflowsEpisode Timestamps:00:00 - Introduction and setting the stage02:16 - Knowing thyself: Ryan's journey to leadership self-awareness through family and life experience05:19 - What makes an amazing marketer in 2026 and bridging the marketing-product divide08:43 - From doers to orchestrators: how AI agents give every employee a team from day one11:24 - Designing agents to work like teammates: Slack's approach to intuitive AI integration14:55 - Addressing AI fear: why productivity gains lead to higher expectations rather than job loss18:03 - Advice for the next generation entering an AI-transformed workforce21:49 - Career lesson from delivering papers in 110-degree Chicago heat24:30 - Final question: why Ryan does what he does and the importance of lasting market impact
I dig into the Metro division, talk about whats going on with the two cup contenders from the past two seasons and touch on why the hell frank seravalli is talking about buble.Sign up to become a Friend of the Show to access a Slack community, behind the scenes content, discounts on merch, and more: https://www.patreon.com/dropping_glovesFollow the Show:MerchPatreonFacebookInstagramTwitter / XYouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this inspiring interview, Jonathan explains how he reinvented his career after the Army. Get real advice on networking, job searching, mindset, and using modern resources to accelerate your career.
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In this episode of Workday Playdate, Erin sits down with well-being activist, global people leader, and resilience champion Nathan Andres. Together, they explore what it really takes to live and lead with authenticity. Known as “Nate the Great,” Nathan shares his personal journey toward purpose, presence, and proactive well-being. He introduces his powerful REAL Model for building resilience: Reality, Energy, Authenticity, and Love.Together, Erin and Nathan unpack why self-care is a leadership skill, how self-compassion fuels high performance, and why self-advocacy is the backbone of sustainable success—both at work and in life. This conversation blends mindset, mental health, and modern leadership into a practical roadmap for anyone ready to strengthen resilience without losing themselves in the process.Whether you're navigating a career pivot, recovering from adversity, or simply craving a more grounded way to show up each day, this episode gives you the tools, permission, and practices to return to your most authentic self and stay there.Inside This Episode:Authenticity Is Your Advantage: Why showing up as your whole, true self creates deeper trust, stronger teams, and more sustainable well-being.Resilience Starts With Reality: How naming your truth—and seeing situations clearly—becomes the first step to taking back control.Energy, Not Exhaustion: How to redirect your emotional, mental, and physical energy toward what fuels you, not drains you. Self-Care, Self-Compassion, Self-Advocacy: Why these three practices are essential to resilience, confidence, and performance. Love Is a Leadership Skill: How love—for yourself, for others, and for the work—creates cultures where people can actually thrive.Mental Health as a Competitive Advantage: Why workplaces that prioritize psychological safety and well-being win in innovation, retention, and trust.Who This Episode Is For:Leaders who want to build cultures grounded in authenticity, empathy, and psychological safety.Professionals seeking practical tools for resilience, mental health, and personal well-being.Anyone craving a clear, compassionate framework for navigating life's roller coasters without losing themselves.You've tried the Slack hacks, rewriting the meeting agendas, and promised yourself you'd protect your team's time. But somehow hybrid work still feels like an endless game of communication ping-pong. More messages, more overwhelm.Enter The Remote Leader's Reset: your 5-step guide to lowering the noise, resetting expectations, and helping your team finally exhale. These simple, human-centered resets will help you reduce friction, create clarity, and make your people feel seen—no matter where they're working from.Download it here.No, You Hang Up First (Let's Keep Connecting)Did today's episode resonate with you? Leave us a review sharing your favorite insight and we'll send you a free signed copy of I See You! A Leader's Guide to Energizing Your Team through Radical Empathy.Have another question that we can answer? Leave us a Speakpipe audio clip and we'll answer it in an upcoming episode.Don't want to miss another episode? If you're a Spotify listener, find our show here and click “Follow.” If you're an Apple Podcast listener, click here and make sure to hit “+Follow.”Want access to a bunch of free resources for your work life? This is your personal jackpot that gives you access to the frameworks that help us thrive both personally and professionally. Whether you're trying to improve your daily routine, flesh out an idea that you've had for quite some time, or want to add more play into your day - these resources have got your back.Want 2 emails a week from us? One with a quick tip you can implement right away to enhance your personal and/or professional lives & one of our famous F.A.I.L. Fourward Friday newsletters? Subscribe here.Connect with Nathan AndresNathan's LinkedInNathan's websiteNathan's book: Your Real Life: Get Authentic, Be Resilient, and Make it CountConnect with Erin Diehl x improve it!Erin's websiteErin's InstagramErin's TikTokErin's LinkedInimprove it!'s websiteimprove it!'s InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
What's Alan's message for Erling Haaland after he broke his record as the fastest to reach 100 Premier League goals? Were Newcastle lucky to be given a penalty in their draw against Spurs? Is Jack Grealish in with a shout of making the England squad for the World Cup? Gary, Alan and Micah also discuss the big news that The Rest Is Football will be on Netflix throughout the World Cup this summer. We'll be in New York bringing you daily shows all through the tournament, and it's safe to say the lads are a little bit excited! The Rest Is Football is powered by Fuse Energy. To sign up and for terms and conditions, visit fuseenergy.com/football Whether you're hosting or guesting this Christmas, you need the UK's best mobile network and broadband technology, only from EE. Introducing Save Your WayTM from Hotels.com. Get instant savings now with Member Prices, or bank as rewards for later. Learn more at hotels.com/product/save-your-way-uk/ Join The Players Lounge: The official fantasy football club of The Rest Is Football. It's time to take on Gary, Alan and Micah for the chance to win monthly prizes and shoutouts on the pod. It's FREE to join and as a member, you'll get access to exclusive tips from Fantasy Football Hub including AI-powered team ratings, transfer tips, and expert team reveals to help you climb the table - plus access to our private Slack community. Sign up today at therestisfootball.com https://therestisfootball.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=episode_description&utm_content=link_cta For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
AndrewRed Rising: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Rising-Deluxe-Slipcase/dp/0593871529/ref=sr_1_2Dice Advent Calendar: https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Calendar-Vacation-Surprise-Suitable/dp/B0FDFLYDLD/ref=sr_1_2_sspaJoyride, Wheel of Doom Mystery Box: https://www.target.com/p/joyride-sour-strips-surprise-box-candy-3-5oz/-/A-94938813Plur1bus: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22202452/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_5_nm_3_in_0_q_plAlphabet in Motion: https://www.amazon.com/Alphabet-Motion-Letters-Their-Shape/dp/0997175915/ref=sr_1_1Alphabet in Motion, with Adam Savage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKCcqlJnZcALaurenWicked, Part 2: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19847976/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_4_tt_3_nm_4_in_0_q_wiCritical Role, Campaign 4: https://www.youtube.com/@criticalroleMighty Nein: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26453092/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_6_nm_2_in_0_q_mighVox Machina: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11247158/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_4_nm_4_in_0_q_voxStranger Things Season 5, Part 1: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4574334/?ref_=nv_srb_trend_title_0PatrickMVP Gyropalooza Box: https://discgolfdealsusa.com/products/mvp-gyropalooza-special-edition-player-packBuild by Tony Fadell: https://www.amazon.com/sThe Lady and The Dale: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12837188/?ref_=fn_t_1Will and Harper: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30321133/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_will%2520and%2520harTwitch - Live Every Monday at 7pmhttps://www.twitch.tv/mof1podcast Don't forget to sign up for Secret Santa on Slack! Watch us live on Twitch every Monday at 7pm CT: https://www.twitch.tv/mof1podcast
Jake is running for charity! If you would like to support his effort, donate HERE: https://fundraisers.hakuapp.com/wbjakeJake is running in the Rose Bowl Half-Marathon in January 2026 and would love to raise money for the McCourt Foundation (TMF). TMF raises money to fight neurological diseases like MS and Alzheimer's. The What's Bruin Show is happy to raise funds for this worthy charitable endeavor!Enjoy the What's Bruin Show Network!Multiple shows to entertain you on one feed:Support WBS at Patreon.com/WhatsBruinShow for just $2/month and get exclusive content and access to our SLACK channel.Twitter/X: @whatsbruinshow Instagram: @whatsbruinshowCall the What's Bruin Network Hotline at 805-399-4WBS (Suck it Reign of Troy)We are also on YouTube HEREGet Your WBSN MERCH - Go to our MyLocker Site by Clicking HEREWhat's Bruin Show- A conversation about all things Bruin over drinks with Bruin Report Online's @mikeregaladoLA, @wbjake68 and friends!Subscribe to the What's Bruin Show at whatsbruin.substack.comEmail us at: whatsbruinshow@gmail.comTweet us at: @whatsbruinshowWest Coast Bias - LA Sports (mostly Lakers, Dodgers and NFL) with Jamaal and JakeSubscribe to West Coast Bias at wbwestcoastbias.substack.comEmail us at: WB.westcoastbias@gmail.comTweet us at: @WBwestcoastbiasThe BEAR Minimum - Jake and his Daughter Megan talk about student life and Cal Sports during her first year attending UC Berkeley.Subscribe to The BEAR Minimum at thebearminimum.substack.comEmail us at: wb.bearminimum@gmail.comTweet us at: @WB_BearMinimumPlease rate and review us on whatever platform you listen on.
#327: When AI tools suggest putting glue on pizza, it's a harmless laugh. But when autonomous AI agents start managing your infrastructure, the stakes become much higher. The reality is that current AI technology isn't ready for unsupervised deployment in critical systems, and treating it like it is could lead to catastrophic failures. The challenge isn't just about AI capabilities—it's about management and oversight. Most developers aren't trained as managers, yet they're being asked to supervise AI agents that need constant guidance and correction. Just like hiring a new employee, AI agents require company-specific knowledge, proper guardrails, and ongoing supervision to be effective. The same principles that apply to managing human workers—code reviews, testing, and performance evaluations—need to be adapted for AI management. As the ecosystem around AI continues to evolve rapidly, new challenges emerge. From sleeper agents that activate on specific dates to the need for completely new approaches to technical SEO for LLMs, the landscape is changing faster than most organizations can adapt. Darin and Viktor explore these challenges and discuss practical approaches for keeping AI systems from going rogue while maintaining the productivity benefits they can provide. YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/devopsparadox Review the podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://www.devopsparadox.com/review-podcast/ Slack: https://www.devopsparadox.com/slack/ Connect with us at: https://www.devopsparadox.com/contact/
The Voices of WholeLife 2025: The Family Table - Julie and Bradley CassellThe family table is more than a place to eat — it's a sacred space where connection, gratitude, and faith are built one moment at a time. From sitting and savoring to sharing and serving, discover how ordinary meals can become holy encounters. Join us as we explore the power of the table to restore relationships, strengthen families, and reflect the heart of Jesus.Let us know your thoughts by reaching out and joining the conversation with your questions and comments using the information below:Text/Voicemail: 407-965-1607Email: podcast@wholelife.church#ThisIsWholeLife
Real Madrid have now drawn three straight games in La Liga, and some Madridistas are already calling for Xabi Alonso to be sacked. Is he genuinely under pressure this early in his tenure? Meanwhile, Diego Simeone's Atlético Madrid have won seven in a row in all competitions. After parts of the fanbase questioned his future just weeks ago, could El Cholo actually turn things around and mount a serious title challenge? Gary & Alex also discuss La Liga clubs losing their grip on European football. English sides have beaten Spanish teams in 10 of the last 11 meetings. Is this the end of an era for La Liga's dominance in Europe? Join The Players Lounge: The official fantasy football club of The Rest Is Football. It's time to take on Gary, Alan and Micah for the chance to win monthly prizes and shoutouts on the pod. It's FREE to join and as a member, you'll get access to exclusive tips from Fantasy Football Hub including AI-powered team ratings, transfer tips, and expert team reveals to help you climb the table - plus access to our private Slack community. Sign up today at: therestisfootball.com https://therestisfootball.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=episode_description&utm_content=link_cta For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this episode of The Impostor Syndrome Files, we dive into the psychology behind high performance with developmental theorist Max Stephens. Max's work is rooted in a bold premise: the greatest chokehold on any business or career isn't the market or the competition, it's our own personal psychology. And until we understand and address that, we'll continue to get in our own way.Together we explore the hidden forces that shape high performers, from early emotional wounds that fuel relentless ambition to the dysfunctional patterns that drive success but undermine fulfillment. Max shares why so many achievers feel an insatiable need to “get there” yet never arrive, and how shifting from self-focused achievement to contribution-focused growth changes everything.We also examine the deeper purpose of personal development as self-transcendence, how expanding our “circles of concern” leads to more meaningful leadership and why forgiveness, mortality awareness and radical honesty are essential starting points for transformation. Finally, Max offers powerful insights into how we can break free from cultural narratives, reorient our goals around contribution and create ripple effects of positive change in the people and systems around us.About My GuestMax Stephens is a personal development coach, speaker, philosopher and author of What the F*ck Do You Really Want? who works with executives, entrepreneurs, and high performers who have achieved traditional success but still feel something is missing. Through a sharp, no-BS approach, he dismantles outdated success narratives, helping individuals discover their authentic contribution—the key to unlocking their deepest potential. Blending philosophy, psychology, and real-world application, Max's work isn't about abstract theory; it's about guiding people to a tangible, measurable way of living at their highest level. His book and coaching provide a roadmap for those ready to move beyond materialism and into a life of true meaning and significance.~Connect with Max:Website: MaxStephensCoaching.com~Connect with Kim and The Impostor Syndrome Files:Join the free Impostor Syndrome Challenge:https://www.kimmeninger.com/challengeLearn more about the Leading Humans discussion group:https://www.kimmeninger.com/leadinghumansgroupJoin the Slack channel to learn from, connect with and support other professionals: https://forms.gle/Ts4Vg4Nx4HDnTVUC6Join the Facebook group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/leadinghumansSchedule time to speak with Kim Meninger directly about your questions/challenges: https://bookme.name/ExecCareer/strategy-sessionConnect on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimmeninger/Website:https://kimmeninger.com
Send us a textIn this episode, we sit down with illustrator, designer, and jill of all trades Marisol Ortega for a conversation that's equal parts honest, hilarious, and deeply relatable for anyone navigating a creative career.Marisol talks about leaving full-time work (again!) to return to freelance life, why office-centric culture doesn't support the way many creatives actually think and work, and how being a parent shaped her career decisions. We dig into the reality of juggling big-name clients, managing energy, working with a rep, and building a sustainable freelance practice that doesn't drain your soul.She also walks us through her thriving, but intentionally chill, product shop, what she's learned from vending at events like Adobe MAX, and why she reins herself in on new product ideas. We also get into plant obsessions, tattoo pain scales, imposter syndrome (yes, she feels it too!), and dreaming bigger with kids' apparel and creative collaborations.All that and more when you listen to this episode:Why Marisol officially returned to full-time freelancing this yearThe challenges of in-office creative roles when you're a parentHow kindness and not burning bridges led to years of referral-based workWhat it's really like working with major brands (Target, Pringles, sports teams & more)Navigating freelancers' “ebb and flow” without relying on social mediaHow a creative rep supports her business and workloadLessons learned from vending at events and deciding what's worth investing inHow imposter syndrome shows up even when you're thrivingWhy her dream projects now involve kids' apparel and playful designThe power of experimenting, staying in your lane, and keeping your head down at workHow plants, cooking, and hobbies outside design help her recharge Connect with Marisol OrtegaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/marisol.ortega/ Website: https://www.marisolortega.com/ Shop: https://www.marisolortega.com/shop Mentioned in this episode:Adobe MAX https://www.adobe.com/max.html AIGA Seattle https://seattle.aiga.org/ Renegade Craft https://www.renegadecraft.com/ Aqui Mercado Events https://www.instagram.com/aquimercado.seattle/Aaron Draplin https://www.instagram.com/draplin/ Yoto Player https://us.yotoplay.com/ Connect with Katie & Ilana from Goodtype Goodtype Website Goodtype on Instagram Goodtype on Youtube Love The Typecast and free stuff? Leave a review, and send a screenshot of it to us on Slack. Each month we pick a random reviewer to win a Goodtype Goodie! Goodies include merch, courses and Kernference tickets! Leave us a review on Apple PodcastsSubscribe to the showTag us on Instagram @GoodtypeFollow us on Tiktok @lovegoodtypeLearn from Katie and IlanaGrab your tea, coffee, or drink of choice, kick back, and let's get down to business!
TroytlePower Presents: The Power Play-Throughs Podcast, with TroytlePower
Social Media:See everything TroytlePower related by visiting this page!Follow the show on Twitter at @TPPTPPTPwTP or follow Troytle directly at @TroytlePower!Support the show, hear episodes early, get bonus content, and even request specific episodes by checking out the Patreon Page!Check out The Power Play-Throughs Podcast on Youtube for video versions of some episodes!We Can Make This Work Probably Network:Follow the We Can Make This Work Probably Network to keep up with this show and discover our many other podcasts! The place for those with questionable taste!Join the Probably Work Discord!ProbablyWork.comTwitter, Facebook, Instagram: @ProbablyWorkEmail: ProbablyWorkPod@gmail.comGeek to Geek MediaFollow Geek to Geek Media to join our community in geeking out about the things we love.Join our Slack or Discord!GeekToGeekMedia.comTwitter, Instagram: @GeekToGeekMedia
Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson l Presented By Marigold
A quick-hit Bathroom Break with Jay Schwedelson and Daniel Murray that actually makes social feel manageable again — from tiny boost budgets that move mountains to a commenting play that beats mindless posting. You'll also hear why short video still wins, how to turn email into a social flywheel, and a sneaky Stories tactic Daniel swears by.ㅤFollow Daniel on LinkedIn and check out The Marketing Millennials podcast for sharp, no-fluff marketing insights. Subscribe to Ari Murray's newsletter at gotomillions.co for sharp, actionable marketing insights.ㅤBest Moments:(03:00) LinkedIn's new comment impressions make thoughtful replies a growth channel, not an afterthought.(04:31) Micro budgets work: toss $5 on YouTube or under $50 on IG/LinkedIn to amplify content that's already winning.(05:41) Treat short video like share fuel for DMs, Slack, and group chats with a tight first three seconds and a clean loop.(07:00) Stop propping up losers and only boost winners, plus link newsletter hero images straight to your social posts.(08:00) Balance rented and owned audiences so people see you wherever they actually pay attention.(08:45) Use IG Stories with DM keywords and simple automation to spark replies that lift your story distribution.ㅤCheck out Jay's YOUTUBE Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@schwedelsonCheck out Jay's TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@schwedelsonCheck Out Jay's INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/jayschwedelson/
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: Hi Dave and Jamison, I've been in QA/QA automation for 13 years now with a CS degree, and I've been trying to change my role to a software developer for a while. My only issue is that every time I brought my career aspirations to my managers they seemed to “not care” or give vague answers to “kick the can down the road”. In the past I fully demonstrated I can do the work by submitting bug fixes, writing and deploying a few microservices by myself (all product feature work), on top of performing my QA duties. I get high marks in my performance reviews, but that doesn't seem to be enough! I also seem to attract some resentment from my team (silently but it's noticed) as they see a QA trying to soak up their dev work and I get a strong “stay in your lane” vibe. I do it to help them, not take all of their work. Any advice? Am I approaching this the wrong way? And what would you do in my situation? Thanks and all the best! Hi! Three years ago, I relocated from a third-world country to Europe for work. I tend to undersell myself a lot. I know I am a competent, hard-working, and smart engineer. I have strong opinions and can evaluate trade-offs. I can participate in discussions about complex systems, and I have experience managing projects. But sometimes I'm afraid of looking dumb and scared of confrontation. This means I rarely voice my opinions or suggestions. I often let go of them at the slightest objection, even if I believe the other person is mistaken. Whenever I speak or comment on a subject in Slack, I always use phrases like “I'm not 100% sure”, “as far as I remember”, or “I have to look it up but I think … “. These would not matter If I was showing my confidence through other means like participating in discussions confidently, but these all add up to create an image of someone reliable in getting things done, but not reliable at taking more responsibility. I was not like this before moving. Occasionally I struggle with the language when in big meetings or talking about complex matters, but I'm comfortable with English. It has an effect for sure, but it is not the cause. I'm going to start a new position and I want to have a longer career there. But I'm afraid that I can not give myself the head start I know I'm capable of. How can I improve my own personal onboarding process and let my new colleagues and manager know how lucky they are to have me on their team?
Are Chelsea the biggest challengers to Arsenal winning the title? Are we about to see the next evolution of Liverpool after Mo Salah was benched in their win at West Ham? Why does Lucas Paqueta have to take responsibility after his stupid sending off for dissent? Gary, Alan and Micah also discuss Sunderland's stunning comeback as their fantastic start to the season continues, with Alan already having an eye on the Tyne-Wear derby in a couple of weeks time. The Rest Is Football is powered by Fuse Energy. To sign up and for terms and conditions, visit fuseenergy.com/football When you've done enough, Uber Eats - https://eats.sng.link/A99vk/mi87?_dl=ubereats%3A%2F%2F&_smtype=3&_forward_params=1&pcn=&_fallback_redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ubereats.com Join The Players Lounge: The official fantasy football club of The Rest Is Football. It's time to take on Gary, Alan and Micah for the chance to win monthly prizes and shoutouts on the pod. It's FREE to join and as a member, you'll get access to exclusive tips from Fantasy Football Hub including AI-powered team ratings, transfer tips, and expert team reveals to help you climb the table - plus access to our private Slack community. Sign up today at therestisfootball.com. https://therestisfootball.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=episode_description&utm_content=link_cta For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Kris and David are back as we discuss the partial week that was November 27-December 1, 1986 which means THANKSGIVING WEEK!! Topics of discussion include:Starrcade '86 with a full rundown of everything that went down in both Atlanta and Greensboro, featuring Ric Flair vs. Nikita Koloff, the Midnight Express vs. Road Warriors scaffold match, Dusty Rhodes vs. Tully Blanchard in a first blood match, Paul Jones becoming a BALD-HEADED GEEK, and so much more.“Bullet” Bob Armstrong making his return to WTBS after 2 years away to help his son Brad against Bill Dundee and Jimmy Garvin.Bruiser Brody issuing a grandstand challenge to Antonio Inoki.Bob Roop getting fired as the booker in Florida.The Fabulous Ones returning to Memphis, which pisses off the Rock 'n' Roll RPM's.Jonathan Boyd showing tbe world his New Zealand Death Box on TV, much to Lance Russell's consternation.Fritz Von Erich battling Abdullah the Butcher at Reunion Arena and why Bruiser Brody was there even though he wasn't booked.Saturday Night's Main Event headlined by Randy Savage vs. Jake Roberts. Andre the Giant giving us an update from London after he gets reinstated.All of the big Thanksgiving shows from around the country.This show was pretty damn awesome in our opinion, and we hope that you agree!!!Timestamps:0:00:00 Jim Crockett Promotions1:27:30 Int'l: AJPW, NJPW, Stampede, EMLL, UWA, & WWC1:43:54 Classic Commercial Break1:47:46 Halftime2:44:08 Other USA: NWF, Deep South, CWF, Continental, CWA/Memphis, UWF, WCCW, AWA, & Portland4:07:57 WWFTo support the show and get access to exclusive rewards like special members-only monthly themed shows, go to our Patreon page at Patreon.com/BetweenTheSheets and become an ongoing Patron. Becoming a Between the Sheets Patron will also get you exclusive access to not only the monthly themed episode of Between the Sheets, but also access to our new mailbag segment, a Patron-only chat room on Slack, and anything else we do outside of the main shows!If you're looking for the best deal on a VPN service—short for Virtual Private Network, it helps you get around regional restrictions as well as browse the internet more securely—then Private Internet Access is what you've been looking for. Not only will using our link help support Between The Sheets, but you'll get a special discount, with prices as low as $1.98/month if you go with a 40 month subscription. With numerous great features and even a TV-specific Android app to make streaming easier, there is no better choice if you're looking to subscribe to WWE Network, AEW Plus, and other region-locked services.For the best in both current and classic indie wrestling streaming, make sure to check out IndependentWrestling.tv and use coupon code BTSPOD for a free 5 day trial! (You can also go directly to TinyURL.com/IWTVsheets to sign up that way.) If you convert to a paid subscriber, we get a kickback for referring you, allowing you to support both the show and the indie scene.You can also use code BTSPOD to save 25% on your first payment — whether paying month to month or annually — when you subscribe to Ultimate Classic Wrestling Network at ClassicWrestling.net!To subscribe, you can find us on iTunes, Google Play, and just about every other podcast app's directory, or you can also paste Feeds.FeedBurner.com/BTSheets into your favorite podcast app using whatever “add feed manually” option it has.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/between-the-sheets/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands