Do Good Work

In this episode, I talked with Keith Jacobs, CEO of geniant, and Grant Baldwin, Partner at geniant, about why most AI investments never show up on the P&L, and what the small group of companies making real money on AI actually does differently. Grant walks through a McKinsey study of 1,700 companies where only 6% are making real money on AI, and Keith and Grant make the case that what sets tha...

In this episode, I talked with Garrick Van Buren about pricing as value creation and why every price is really set against the status quo of “doing nothing,” meaning you must outcompete the comfort of not fixing a problem. We break down value as transformation from current to future state and how to quantify it through revenue gains, cost savings, time savings, and especially retention/churn, with...

In this episode, I sat down with Phil Berry, founder and CEO of Northwind Health, who has bootstrapped the company for nearly 18 years to over 100 people and close to $100M in revenue while taking on massive healthcare incumbents. We compare his early survival-mode years—keeping headcount lean, fearing payroll, and carrying the business himself—with his shift toward intentional growth, leadership...

I sat down with Bill Benjamin to break down his research on the “last 8%”—the small but crucial part of a difficult conversation or decision we often hold back because it feels risky. Bill shares how the idea started with two executives, then expanded through studies of 34,000+ people, showing we leave an average of 7.56% unsaid, and why our brains treat conflict like a threat. We talk about recog...

AI As Strategy Workshop: Work and Grow at the Speed of Your Thoughts Most conversations about AI begin with the model. This workshop begins with the business. In this episode explores AI as a strategy question across ownership, ethics, operating design, pricing, and net new value. Raul breaks down the AI COO harness he built for Do Good Work, explains the 5 ingredients inside it, and shares practi...

In this episode, I sit down with Taylor Black, who leads AI and venture ecosystem work in Microsoft’s Office of the CTO and brings a deep “better-formed humans” conviction to the AI conversation. We draw a hard line between intelligence (statistical knowing) and insight—where a human knower makes the categorical leap to “this is true,” what Taylor calls grasping the “virtually unconditioned.” We t...

In this episode, I sit down with Michael Lopez, a Fortune 500 transformation consultant and author of “Change,” to break down why stress and resistance can be biological signs that change is working and why leaders often abandon transformation too early. We unpack Michael’s national workforce study, Rethinking Change Management, which surveyed 1,000 U.S. employees and found “zero overlap” between...

In this episode, I’m joined by Jim Schleckser, founder and CEO of The CEO Project, to break down how CEOs identify and fix the real constraint in their business. We cover practical signals for finding the “kink in the hose,” including where inventory accumulates, cycle time slows, congestion builds, or customer complaints spike—and why top-performing CEOs consistently spend meaningful time at the...

I sat down with John Johnson, founding CEO of Patmos Hosting, to unpack how he bootstrapped a data center company with no outside capital after a big tech host threatened to cancel a client, leading him to pursue independence by “controlling the dirt.” We talk about his rule “he who pays, rules,” why he believes VC money erodes a founder’s mission, and how owning infrastructure and going upstream...

In this podcast, I sat down with Ronan Leonard, founder of Intelligent Resourcing, to break down how he helps sales teams eliminate the 40% of their day spent manually researching companies and instead deliver real buying signals directly into the CRM so reps can take action. We talked about how fast AI is reshaping business models—Ronan compared it to waking up and finding the snow gone overnight...

How AI Will Evolve the 7 Parts of Your Business Model:  Leverage AI to enable you to solely focus on client relationships, belief and the nuances of your work 00:00 The Bold Pricing Vow 01:42 AI Labs Enter Services 03:29 Your Offer Is Not The Moat 05:00 Seven Model Ingredients 06:47 How AI Changes Each Part 15:25 The Evolved Model Blueprint 25:26 Three Breakthrough Signals 29:49 Four Steps To Rede...

In this episode, I talk with Jeffrey Meade, founding director of entrepreneurship at Paul Quinn College, about the school’s “Every Quinnite is an Entrepreneur” program, where by 2028 every student must launch a real business that generates revenue before graduating. Jeff explains why traditional schools optimize for employment but the job market is changing, making entrepreneurial thinking—creativ...

In this episode, I interviewed Patrick Rooney, a cognitive science–trained AI practitioner and founder of Leonis Strategy, about how founders mischaracterize AI by collapsing “scripted autonomy” (agents doing tasks while you step away) into personhood autonomy (will, rights, interiority). Patrick argues this isn’t just sloppy language but a leadership issue that shapes how teams relate to technolo...

In this episode, I’m joined by Jim Ristuccia, a former US Naval officer, founder/CEO, and Vistage Chair in San Diego who leads peer groups for CEOs of $5M+ companies and small business owners in the $1–10M range. We break down what actually happens inside a Vistage meeting—especially the “issue processing” that surfaces blind spots through uncomfortable but growth-producing questions. Jim shares h...

In this episode, I’m joined by Thaddius Ruszkowski, CTO at Fuzati, who’s built software platforms for over a decade, from 25-person internal workflow systems to consumer platforms with millions of users. Thadd isn’t just theorizing about AI agents; he’s running a fleet of them in parallel every day across multiple projects. We dig into what happens to value, intellectual property, and labor as pro...

What AI Native Consulting Actually Looks Like: The 4 Stages 00:00 Why AI Native Matters 02:26 Four Stage Roadmap 03:10 Stage One Enhancement 06:39 Stage Two Augmentation 14:15 Stage Three Parallel Ops 18:43 Agentic Workflow Examples 24:17 Stage Four Autonomy 33:10 Autonomy In Practice 37:36 Self Diagnostic Recap 41:52 Firm Of The Future Link to the full Substack:  https://dogoodwork.substack.com/p...

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Tracy Christopherson and Michelle Troseth —co-founders of Missing Logic and authors of Polarity Intelligence—to talk about a major pivot they made from serving healthcare leaders to serving entrepreneurs, and how they had to use their own polarity framework when tension rose in their partnership. We unpack how to tell the difference between solvable problems an...

Most conversations about AI in consulting stop at productivity. Doing the same thing faster. That's the wrong frame entirely. In this episode, I break down the three form factors for digital products: information products, software products, and what I'm calling actors. An actor is an AI agent or multi-agent orchestration that deploys your expertise on your behalf without requiring your ongoing pr...

What happens when you stop thinking about AI as a replacement tool and start thinking about it as a value creation engine? In this episode, Raul shares the paradigm shift he taught his 4-year-old son about money and value creation, rebuts Mark Cuban's argument about AI token costs, and walks through how to find your own net new value as a service founder or consultant. Chapters 00:00 - A 4-Year-Ol...

In this episode, Raul and John discuss why hiring an agency feels risky today—cost, quality, outcomes, and commoditized “SEO/PPC shop” buying—then explore a shift toward providing open-ended marketing leadership focused on strategy, positioning, and execution using a mix of people, AI, automation, and outside resources. They argue project fees don’t fit a fast-changing landscape and consider retai...

In this podcast episode, JJ discusses ZeroEyes, an AI weapons-detection software-as-a-service created in response to the Parkland shooting to make existing security cameras proactive rather than reactive. The platform works with current IP cameras (720p minimum) to detect brandished firearms (not concealed weapons) and sends detections within seconds to the ZeroEyes Operation Center, where trained...

In this episode, I interviewed Dirk Vander Noot, founder of Tell Tale Ops, who runs thousands of automations monthly and helps small businesses use AI and automation without losing the human touch. He discussed what you can build with AI versus what you should build, emphasizing focusing on tasks that drain time and energy but don’t gain value from a human doing them. Dirk explains how to identify...

Your Offer Is Your Positioning: Selling in the Post Scope Era Resources: Services Stack:  https://dogoodwork.substack.com/p/the-service-stack-what-remains-when The New Value Quadrant https://dogoodwork.substack.com/p/the-new-value-quadrant-how-to-price 00:00 Budgets Tighten Up 01:54 Entering Post Scope Era 03:51 Outcomes Over Deliverables 05:36 Scope Creep vs Partnership 06:41 Clients Buy Safety 0...

The New Value Quadrant: How to Price Consulting & Agency Services in the Agentic Era Read this on the newsletter:  https://dogoodwork.substack.com/p/the-new-value-quadrant-how-to-price Services Stack  https://dogoodwork.substack.com/p/the-service-stack-what-remains-when 00:00 AI Is Deflationary: The Pricing Squeeze Hits Agencies 00:20 The “AI Discount” Story & the AI Pricing Trap 01:38 Jev...

AI's Impact on Client Services: What You Need to Know Read the newsletter:  https://open.substack.com/pub/dogoodwork/p/the-service-stack-what-remains-when 00:00 Introduction: The AI Revolution in Client Services 00:33 Real-World Applications of AI 02:41 The Future of Client Services 04:50 Understanding the Services Stack 05:46 Layer 1: Execution 07:30 Layer 2: Template Strategy 09:19 Layer 3: Judg...