We Live to Build

Which is harder: being a founder or being an investor? Mike Lazerow has done both, building and selling companies for nearly $1 billion and now running a $400M VC fund and a PE firm. His answer might surprise you. In this interview, Mike unpacks the "existential dread" of entrepreneurship versus the challenges of deploying capital. He shares why he's most excited about AI transforming "boring" bus...

Jeff Archibald is one of the lucky few who was able to sell his agency, and now he advises other agency owners. In this interview, he reveals what he would do differently if he had to start his agency all over again. We break down the critical mistakes most founders make, starting with the failure to set revenue goals and reverse-engineer a plan to meet them. Jeff explains why being too risk-avers...

Everyone is talking about an "AI-First" content strategy, but it's the wrong mentality, and it's killing your founder authority. In a world drowning in noise, you don't need to be everywhere; you need to be "undeniable where it counts." This interview with Ethan Monkhouse, founder of Naviro, breaks down the new rules for building authority as a founder. We explore why quality content is a hundredf...

For many ambitious founders, bootstrapping is a slow death. After building a profitable, high seven-figure SaaS company for 10 years, Sameer Narkar realized his self-funded model was no longer enough to win. In this interview, Sameer explains why the AI revolution is forcing successful bootstrapped companies into raising funds to move faster. He breaks down his decision to seek investment after a...

Are you making the #1 mistake in AI pricing? Many founders are using their old SaaS pricing model, but for AI, that’s a huge error. As pricing expert Dan Balcauski explains, it’s like showing customers your “underpants”, and it’s killing your sales. In this guide to AI pricing, Dan breaks down why the game has changed. Unlike traditional SaaS, AI products have significant variable costs and unpred...

How do you get a 70% reply rate on LinkedIn DMs? In this episode, I sit down with Gabe Lullo, CEO of the 8-figure sales development agency Alleyoop, who shares his exact method for filling his sales pipeline every single day. Gabe unpacks the hard truths about modern sales, explaining why most LinkedIn outreach is just noise and how hyper-personalized voice notes can get you a 7x higher response r...

A shocking statistic reveals that 80% of leaders are dangerously behind on AI, and the window to catch up is closing fast. Most are trapped by day-to-day "urgent" tasks, ignoring the "important" work of AI adoption that will determine their company's future. In this episode, executive coach and founder of NewPo, Arielle Lechner, explains why so many leaders are failing to integrate AI and provides...

What if your "great" work ethic is secretly sabotaging your business? It's a tough question, but one every founder needs to confront. The toxic hustle culture sold by Silicon Valley isn't just unhealthy, it's often unprofitable. In this episode, Personal Growth Advisor Brad Farris joins me to dismantle the "grind" mindset. We explore why overworking kills the creativity needed for breakthroughs ,...

Why stop building a startup from scratch when you could just buy a profitable business instead? For many entrepreneurs, acquiring an established company is a faster and more direct path to success. In this interview, Neel Bhargava, Founding Partner of the private equity firm NB Group Investors, unpacks his playbook for entrepreneurial investing. He explains the real differences between private equ...

Ever wonder how someone bought an $8M/year company with only $5,000? Gary Shelton did just that, and in this interview, he reveals his exact model. Gary is "The Coaching King," having acquired, scaled, and sold 12 different businesses over the last 50 years, each hitting 8-figures per year. He explains why mindset is the #1 reason most entrepreneurs never hit $1M a year in revenue and shares the l...

Are you accidentally destroying your team with a "Hero Leader" mindset? Many leaders believe their job is to be the primary problem-solver, but this approach can secretly sabotage team performance and create a massive bottleneck. This is the "Hero Leader" Delusion. In this interview, executive coach Dr. Carla Fowler (MD, Ph. D.) breaks down the psychology of leadership and reveals how even well-in...

Why do billionaires subtract? It’s a powerful mindset that separates the ultra-successful from everyone else. In this dense masterclass on productivity, Todd Hagopian, who runs a $90 million business division, breaks down the wealth framework he learned from a billionaire: poor people add, rich people multiply, and billionaires subtract. He explains why you must ruthlessly focus on your "profit pe...

The New B2B Buyer Doesn't Want to Talk to You. Nearly 60% of B2B buyers are now millennials who grew up online and expect a seamless, self-service experience. In this interview, B2B expert David explains why personalization and a frictionless, multi-channel journey are the keys to winning over the modern buyer. Learn how to blend digital self-service with a strategic sales team, why your business...

Do you know Why AI Makes Your Website MORE Important, Not Less? While AI agents seem to be replacing everything, your website is the one place you control your message and the primary "repository of information" that large language models use to learn about your business. In this interview, domain broker Jeffrey Gabriel explains that without a well-written website, AI models can't easily find, und...

Every founder needs to hear this: A Bad Investor is Worse Than No Investor. Before you start chasing venture capital, you must understand the risks. In this interview, M&A expert Scott Kelly explains why bootstrapped founders of seven, eight, and even nine-figure brands often love their lives, while many VC-backed founders are miserably stressed. We break down the cautionary tale of FanDuel, w...

I took a sales ability test, and this sales test revealed my #1 weakness. The results showed that in a sales context, I have a tendency to believe that talking is more important than asking good questions. In this unique episode, sales expert Mike Irving, founder of Advanced Business Abilities, analyzes my live test results, breaking down my strengths (like being a "Hunter") and my opportunities f...

What if the biggest obstacle to your company's growth isn't the problems you can't solve, but the ones you aren't creating? This counterintuitive idea is the key to radical business transformation. In this episode, Sean Weisbrot sits down with Ted Santos, President of Turnaround Investment Partners, to explore why leaders must stop solving problems and start creating them on purpose. We dive into...

Most AI-generated content is easy to spot, and journalists are hitting 'delete' the second they see it. So, what are the tell-tale signs, and how do you avoid them? I sat down with Curtis Sparrer, a PR expert and founder of Bospar, to find out. He reveals The #1 Mistake in AI-Generated Content (And How to Fix It): using AI as your final draft instead of your first. We discuss why AI will reward hu...

We've all heard the phrase "The Customer Is Always Right," but what if following that advice is secretly burning out your team and killing your business? I sat down with Borja Cuan, CEO of Four15 Digital, who learned this lesson the hard way. He shares his powerful story of why he now believes "The Customer Is Always Right" is a Destructive Lie, and why he made the controversial decision to priori...

What is the AI toolkit that top e-commerce founders are using to scale their brands? It's a mix of proprietary and public tools that automate everything from product research to marketing. I sat down with Neil Twa, CEO of Voltage Holdings, who has built multiple seven and eight-figure e-commerce brands. He shares his 8-Figure E-commerce Founder's AI Toolkit, including specific tools for copywritin...

Everyone talks about the risks of owning Bitcoin, but what if the real danger is not owning it at all? I sat down with Frank Hepworth, founder of the crypto consultancy Yieldschool, who helps high-net-worth individuals navigate the digital asset space. He makes a powerful case for Why Not Owning Bitcoin is Your Biggest Financial Risk, arguing that as the best-performing asset class on the planet,...

What is the real danger of AI? It's not that AI will become our overlords; it's that we will become so reliant on it that we lose control of ourselves. I sat down with William Welser IV, CEO of Lotic.ai, to discuss this critical issue. He argues that The Real Danger of AI: We're Losing Control of Ourselves comes from offloading our "cognitive responsibility" to sycophantic AIs that simply agree wi...

Every business owner is asking how to build an AI moat, but most are going about it the wrong way. I sat down with Alberto Rizzoli, CEO of V7 Labs, who argues that hiring expensive AI consultants is a "recipe for disaster". He shares his framework for How to Build an AI Moat for Your Business (Without Consultants) by starting with small, internal experiments, finding your in-house "tinkerers," and...

Cold outreach is broken, but what if you could train an AI agent to replicate your most effective, human-sounding emails? I sat down with Jim Weldon, CEO of Prospect Desk, whose team is building a "digital twin org chart" where human sales reps manage teams of specialized AI agents. He breaks down his exact process for How I Trained an AI Agent to Do My Cold Outreach, feeding it hundreds of his "f...

Landing Fortune 500 clients seems impossible for a new business, but it's not. The secret isn't hustle; it's strategy, planning, and leveraging your unique story. I sat down with Alexandra Gonzalez, who left an 18-year corporate career at companies like Johnson & Johnson to build her own successful agency, Savvy Marketers. She reveals How I Landed Fortune 500 Clients After Leaving My Corporate...