Business Builder's Playbook

What happens to a business when nobody on the team knows where it is headed? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush shares the five plays he runs to build a 90-day game plan. David starts with why businesses without a game plan struggle: a confused team does nothing, reactive decisions crowd out the important work, and when nothing is a priority, everything is. Fro...

How many great employees does it take to cancel out one unhappy one? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Chris Dawson, head coach for Seven Critical Needs and a former high school English teacher and football coach, and Walt Brown, an EOS Implementer and the creator of the Seven Critical Needs framework. Walt's answer comes from Gallup's s...

What happens when a $60,000 job goes to the ninth company that picks up the phone? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Jacob McGill, founder and CEO of 8020 Ops, and BDR AI co-owner Jeff Bush for a live Q and A on the growth engine behind predictable revenue. Jacob shares what he sees inside client businesses, from an automotive client with 6,000...

Why do nine out of 10 businesses close within their first 10 years? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush takes the football playbook he grew up with and turns it into five plays for business owners. David explains that random business development leads to random results and that a pipeline that swings from month to month swings your emotions with it. His answer i...

What do you do as a leader when your team is divided and you've promised a team manager one night in a uniform? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Coach Jim Johnson, author of A Coach and a Miracle, and a high school basketball coach with more than 428 career wins. Jim is the coach who handed Jason "J-Mac" McElwain a jersey on senio...

If your top leader walked out tomorrow, who on your team is ready to step into the seat? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Nanette Miner, Ed. D., a succession planning expert with 35 years in learning and development and a doctorate in adult learning theory. Nanette works with companies of 100 to 700 employees, and she has watched too many of them w...

Why do so many experienced entrepreneurs stay invisible when they know their craft better than anyone else in their market? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Christine McIver, founder of ICN Signature Summits. Christine has produced thousands of episodes of live shows, podcasts, and summits, and she has spent her career helping experts see the v...

What happens to your business when the few people who know how everything works walk out the door? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Jon LoDuca, speaker, author, and founder of PlaybookBuilder. Jon was employee number 12 at a Midwest software company that sold for a quarter of a billion dollars in two years, and he has spent the last 20 years he...

How many deals did your team lose last quarter that it should have won? In this episode of Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush welcomes John Asher of Asher Strategies, a sales leader who helped build an engineering company to $165 million in annual revenue and has spent decades on sales performance. John kicks off a monthly webinar series with the hiring process he has refined over 25...

What do you do when you finally get everything you prayed for and still feel empty? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Jeff Rasor of Blue Sky Academy, a breakthrough guide who has spent 25 years helping entrepreneurs, business owners, and executives through seasons of transition. Jeff spent nearly a decade in financial services, served as creativ...

What if the revenue you need is already sitting in your LinkedIn connections and a folder of proposals nobody followed up on? In this solo episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush, co-owner of BDR AI, shows founder-led B2B owners how to find the relationship assets they already own and turn them into new cash flow. David walks through the seven places hidden revenue tends to...

What if your business grew entirely through referrals, with no ads and no funnels? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Jose Escobar, founder of the Connected Leaders Academy. Jose grew that community to 46 countries and 697 members, taking his business from zero to seven figures in 15 months without a website, paid ads, or a single email blast. He...

What if the reason your outreach isn’t converting has nothing to do with your sales team?  In this episode of Business Builder’s Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Doug Greenberg, co-founder of Data Aviator and a 30-plus-year wealth advisor to founders and business owners, to break down why so many B2B companies are chasing cold leads without realizing it.  Doug explains how AI-powered inten...

What if the reason you can't find "the right hire" has nothing to do with the candidates and everything to do with the fact that you never defined what success actually looks like? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Kate Morgan, founder and CEO of Boston Human Capital Partners and author of the bestselling book Custom-Fit: A Straigh...

What happens when a CEO finally hits the brakes instead of running the business redlined? In this episode of Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Eric Smith, a C12 chair who spent years in HR leadership walking companies through mergers, acquisitions, growth phases, and brand transitions before dedicating his career to helping Christian CEOs build businesses that don't run t...

What if the best person for your next hire isn't sitting in your local job market at all? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Charlie Dino, a global hiring veteran with 30 years of experience at GE, ADP, and now Griffin Global Technologies, to break down the seven secrets behind building offshore teams that actually perform. Charlie has hired across t...

What does it actually cost to win in business if you lose your marriage, your family, and your peace along the way? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Greg King, a retired Army Colonel, executive coach, and C12 peer advisory chair, for a live Q&A on staying anchored to what matters most while building a company that succeeds. Greg spent decades l...

Why do talented, hardworking teams still feel stuck? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Cheri Kuhn, a certified EOS Implementer who has run close to 500 sessions with leadership teams and now coaches other implementers at EOS Worldwide. Cheri breaks down exactly what keeps strong teams stuck and what it actually takes to break through. Here's what yo...

What's the real problem leaders are running into with AI? According to David Hickman, it's overwhelm: too many tools and too many opinions about which one is right. In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with David Hickman, expert EOS Implementer and author of the new book The Intelligent Business, to talk about how leadership teams can move past...

What does it take to build a sales team that actually sells? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Walter Crosby, founder of Helix Sales Development and creator of the Sales Hiring Secrets framework. Walter brings 40 years in sales and direct experience inside 27 EOS-driven organizations to identify the eight blind spots that cause founders, CEOs, a...

What if the reason your AI investment hasn't paid off has nothing to do with the tools you picked? In this episode of Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Abigail Merrill, AI consultant, speaker, and founder of Business Growth Partners, who has been working in generative AI since before ChatGPT existed. Abigail breaks down why most businesses are drowning in tools an...

What happens when the expert who spent a career studying how the mind breaks down finally has to face her own? In this episode of Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Nino Fincher, a mental performance coach, licensed counselor, and TEDx speaker who works with CEOs and executives stuck at ceilings they can't quite name. Nino's path into this work started with her...

What if the thing holding you back from your biggest impact isn't skill, money, or connections? What if it's just that you haven't found the right room yet? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, hosts David Bush and Jeff Bush sits down with Stacey Lauren, founder of the Do the Thing podcast and community, former staffing company owner with a successful eight-figure ex...

What happens when the founder who built a business to $10 million becomes the very thing keeping it from reaching $50 million? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Maria Trysla, a former two-time CEO and multi-year CMO of fast-growing technology companies who now works as a revenue architect and go-to-market executive advisor. Maria specializes in...

What if the exit planning conversation you've been avoiding is actually the one that unlocks your next level of revenue? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Mark L. Vincent — founding member and facilitator of the Sage Group Collective, executive advisor, and one of the most experienced guides for organizational succession and business continu...