Ground Control: Sponsored by RocketDocs

What can a 150-year-old cavalry defeat teach a modern RFP team racing against the clock? More than you'd think. In this episode of Ground Control, Perry Robinson sits down with David Fivecoat, a West Point graduate, 24-year Army veteran, executive coach, and author of Growing Your Grit , to explore how battlefield decision-making translates into everyday business leadership. David runs immersive l...

What happens when guardrails aren't enough? On this episode of Ground Control, host Perry sits down with Dr. Craig Kaplan, cognitive psychologist, AI researcher, and founder of SuperIntelligence.com , for a wide-ranging conversation on why safety has to be built into AI's architecture, not bolted on after the fact. Craig's path into AI started as an undergraduate studying psychobiology, which led...

What does it mean to be "suffocated by success" and how do you break free? In this episode of Ground Control, Perry Robinson sits down with Jonathan Maddock, a systems engineer turned program manager turned attorney with nearly 30 years inside the Department of Defense. Jonathan brings a rare perspective forged at the intersection of military leadership, government bureaucracy, and commercial ente...

Breaking Into Government Contracts: What You Need to Know Before You Start Selling to the government sounds like a dream. Steady clients, long-term relationships, and reliable revenue. But the path to becoming a government-approved vendor is anything but simple. In this episode, Bryan and Perry sit down with Lori Crooks, founder and CEO of Cadra, a compliance consulting firm helping small and mid-...

In this episode of Ground Control, Sr. Director of Customer Success Lindsey Bohlender and Customer Success Associate Mallory Ulrich sit down to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing proposal teams, content managers, and business development professionals today: how do you build a knowledge management system that actually stays current, organized, and valuable over time? Whether you are a bra...

RocketDocs CTO Gary Murry joins Perry Robinson and Bryan Jenkins on Ground Control for a conversation that covers a lot of ground. Gary started his career as a mathematician, landed a contract role at Apple in the late eighties, and has spent the decades since working across some of the most interesting corners of Silicon Valley technology. Now he leads engineering at RocketDocs, where his team is...

In this episode of Ground Control, host Lexi Hotchkin sits down with Perry Robinson and Bryan Jenkins to tackle the most pressing questions hitting proposal and RFP teams right now. How do you keep your brand voice when AI is writing your responses? What happens when buyers start banning public AI tools from the RFP process? And is building your own AI solution actually saving you money, or quietl...

Most proposal professionals focus on answering RFP questions, but Kristina Nolan reveals how mastering the art and science behind proposals can unlock exponential growth for your team. Discover how strategic thinking, building relationships, and understanding the buyer's mindset can transform a standard response into a powerful competitive advantage. Kristina, Proposal Strategy Manager at the Deal...

The procurement landscape is shifting at light speed. In this episode of Ground Control, we sit down with Christina Godfrey Carter, Founder of Stargazy.io and host of  ⁨@thestargazybrief⁩ , to deconstruct the future of proposal management. We explore the seismic shift caused by AI—moving beyond "spreadsheet chaos" and toward sophisticated, data-driven decision-making. Christina shares her expertis...

The future of procurement is moving at Mach 1. As AI evolves from a luxury to a baseline requirement, the biggest risk isn't being left behind: it's sounding exactly like everyone else. In the inaugural episode of Ground Control , your mission leads, Perry and Bryan, dive into the high-stakes intersection of traditional proposal management and the high-tech future. We tackle the tough questions fa...