Whiskey Is for Closers

Erin Saxton didn't set out to build a network — she built a bridge. The Erin Network exists so people with something worth saying can actually get heard, no bullhorn required.  This week on Whiskey Is For Closers, Erin joins Craig, Steve, and Drew to talk about naming a company after yourself (no pressure), what "comfortable uncomfortable" actually teaches you, and why the gap between a great mess...

Dustin Riechmann built 7-Figure Leap on a simple bet: the fastest way for a mission-driven expert to build a 7-figure brand isn't more ads — it's telling your story on someone else's stage. He calls it Profitable Podcast Guesting, and today he's putting his own playbook to the test, live, in our chair.  He joins Whiskey Is For Closers with a Dr. Pepper Zero in hand to talk about borrowed audiences...

Jamie Munoz spent years teaching visionaries and integrators to stay in their own lanes — she built a whole company, Catalyst Integrators, around that idea.  Then her own sales hire walked out the door, and Jamie found herself right back in the seat she'd built a career telling people to leave.  She joins Whiskey Is For Closers with a Coca-Cola in a fancy whiskey glass (yes, really) to talk fracti...

Rafael Pinho kept running into the same story: founders who built something real, then found out they only had one way out — sell it all, all at once, on somebody else's timeline.  So he founded Talentum to hand owners more doors instead of fewer: partial exits, recaps, patient timelines, anything but the forced march to the closing table. And apparently "more options" extends to breakfast, too —...

Jay Cash's LinkedIn headline calls him a "6x Founder & Exited Operator." Real estate broker, celebrity golf event producer, Home Depot sales leader, signage franchise owner, and one costly lesson selling a courier business in his mid-20s — all before he ever advised anyone else's business.  Today we go through the chapters, including the one where a bigger company almost talked him out of what...

Every founder hits the wall where hustle stops working and identity has to catch up. Suzette Bravo hit hers the hard way — and paid for it. Now she coaches founders and leaders through the exact bottleneck she couldn't see from the inside: the moment being the "doer" stops being enough.  In this episode of Whiskey Is For Closers, Suzette joins us stone-cold sober — nine years and counting — with t...

Ask Tori Stevens what's broken inside most growing companies and she won't say "sales." She'll say trust. In this episode of Whiskey Is For Closers, Tori joins us to talk about the real reason good people stall out inside growing organizations: not a talent shortage, but a trust-and-ownership gap.  We get into what she saw on the inside that convinced her talent isn't the bottleneck, how she gets...

Here's a pattern we've noticed across this whole season. Every great seller we've put on this show — and the great ones we've watched — share one move.  They diagnose.  They sit in silence.  They surface the thing the prospect won't say out loud.  They reframe the problem before they pitch the solution.  In other words: the best closers do exactly what the best therapists do. In this episode, the...

Chris Cornelison bought his grandfather's pharmacy. Then he ran it into the ground. What happened next — a business coach, a turnaround, a national reputation, a sale, a supplement company, a book, and a keynote career — is one of the more honest founder journeys we've had on this show. In this episode of  Whiskey Is For Closers, Chris joins Craig & Steve with a glass of HYDR (Hell Yeah Damn R...

Most founders have a plan. Few have a system for actually following through on it. Carl Cox — Founder of 40 Strategy and 40 Accounting — has spent years helping founder-led businesses close the gap between their bold goals and their daily reality.  Armed with world-class strategy, an obsession with accountability, and a glass of Lagavulin with a story attached, Carl brings the kind of clarity most...

Joel Libowsky has built a company whose tagline could end the episode early: Work hard. Play hard. Give hard. As Co-Owner of Jeckil Promotions, Joel helps clients build real pride in their brand — not the kind that goes on a poster, the kind that goes on a hat your employees actually wear on weekends. In this episode of  Whiskey Is For Closers, Joel joins Craig and Drew with a High West Double Rye...

What happens when the guy who sells seeing things from a distance sits down with three people he's never recorded with before? You get this episode. James Hatfield runs the Ambassador program at LiveSwitch — a community of home-services founders using video to do business smarter than the giants. He joins Craig, Steve, and Drew to talk about chickens in boxes (yes, really), what David-versus-Golia...

It's May. You wrote the plan in January. Five months in, the gap between what you said this year would be and what it's actually been is staring you in the face. The pipeline is soft. The numbers are off. The team feels it. And in your gut, you already know — something has to change. The next move you make is the one that makes or breaks the rest of 2026. In this bonus episode, the three of us cra...

Every founder hits a stop on the journey where what got them here won't get them there. The skills are different. The conversations are different. The version of themselves they need to become is different. Piper Moore, executive coach and founder of PM Morning, has built her career sitting with leaders in exactly that moment.  In this episode of Whiskey Is For Closers, Piper joins us with a Shirl...

What if you could assemble a crack team of industry titans – seasoned experts precisely where you need them, from cutting-edge technology and strategic marketing to high-impact sales and crucial operational support – all while orchestrating their efforts through a proven, rapid-scale system?  AND what if this level of elite talent wasn't a distant dream requiring a fortune, but a tangible reality...

Most visionary leaders have the ideas. They have the hustle. What they don't have is clarity—because they're too busy drowning in their own stuff to see the real problem. Today we sit down with Ben Weaver from Breakers Consulting to talk about why the best sales strategy isn't about closing deals; it's about closing the gap between who you are and who you need to become.  We dig into an origin sto...

Hillary Spreizer didn't set out to build a staffing powerhouse—but 24+ years later, The Latitude Group is connecting top tech talent with companies nationwide.  In this episode, we sit down with Hillary to talk about scaling a woman-owned recruiting firm, why honest compensation conversations are a closer's best friend, and what it really takes to build a team that sticks around. Plus, she shares...

You know that feeling when you're at a networking event and everyone's just trying to extract something from you? Clay Hicks felt it too. So he built the H7 Network to prove there's a better way. We're breaking down the framework behind H7's success, why trust comes before tactics, and how to build a network that doesn't make you feel like you need a shower afterward.   Clay shares how he built a...

Let's be honest, most founders are out here wasting money on sales reps who aren't managed, processes that don't exist, and AI tools that just make bad outreach faster. It's a mess. And throwing more budget at it isn't fixing anything. In this episode of Whiskey Is For Closers, we sit down with Sean O’Shaughnessey, founder of New Sales Expert, to talk about what's actually burning your cash—and wh...

You've built something incredible. Now comes the hard part: making sure you're ready to let it go. Rich Hall helps business owners navigate one of life's most critical transitions—and it's rarely about maximizing dollars. It's about alignment: personal goals, financial security, and business sustainability all working together. In this conversation, Rich breaks down the biggest mistakes founders m...

Most founders don't take the straight path—and Anne Candido & April Martini prove that's actually the point. In this episode of Whiskey Is For Closers, we're joined by the dynamic duo behind Forthright People, a brand strategy consultancy built on the radical idea that being direct actually works. Anne and April didn't follow the traditional founder playbook—they zigged when others zagged, and...

Most founders are out here trying to close customers. Braxton Kilgo is out here trying to impact a billion people. In this episode of Whiskey Is For Closers, we pour something smooth and sit down with Braxton, founder of I Believe In You (IBIY)—a movement built on four simple words that have traveled from a small-town school assembly to wrists and phones around the world. Braxton shares how a hand...

AI is everywhere. It's writing emails, qualifying leads, and apparently coming for all our jobs (if you believe the headlines) . But here's the thing—we're not so sure. In this episode, we crack open our bourbon and dig into what AI actually means for sales, why we think human connection is about to become more valuable, not less, and how we're thinking about weaving AI into Altezza without losing...

What happens when two founders decide to combine life's two greatest indulgences—alcohol and ice cream—into one ultra-creamy, award-winning, totally-adult treat? On this episode of Whiskey Is For Closers, we're joined by Jenn Randall and Dirk Brown, the co-founders of PROOF Hard Ice Cream. They didn't just launch a product—they built an entirely new category. And spoiler alert: it wasn't easy. We...

Most founders start their business with passion, not spreadsheets—but eventually, every entrepreneur faces the moment when gut feelings aren't enough anymore. In this episode, we sit down with Ben Cooper, founder of Amplify, who's helped over 100 businesses transform from financial guesswork to strategic growth. We'll dive into why so many founders struggle with their numbers (spoiler: it's not ab...