Forged For Growth

Episode Summary How a longtime educator built a course to strengthen student resilience and leadership. Kurt Wismer shares how GRiT started as a practical fix for an entrepreneurship class where students could run businesses but struggled with communication, collaboration, and leading themselves. He explains how executive coaching tools, paired with neuroscience and mental wellness metrics, became...

Episode Summary Armando Ramos shares how Lions Ark supports food and medical manufacturers with parts, equipment, and upkeep. He and Brian talk about starting a business during COVID, testing early ideas, and landing on industrial distribution for critical production. Armando explains how Lions Ark helps factories source new machines, replace components fast when lines go down, and plan preventive...

Episode Summary Sandler’s Alison Lamothe breaks down how to sell through real pain. Alison Lamothe, Director of Sales and Marketing at Sandler Training’s Manchester, New Hampshire office, shares how she landed at Sandler by accident and why the “pain step” became her biggest sales breakthrough. She and host Brian dig into what makes buyers feel understood, why awards and flash do not close deals,...

Episode Summary How Bio One Sciences aims to reduce supplement pill fatigue and support functional medicine practices. Selene Feyerabend shares how the company was founded around simplifying supplement protocols into therapeutic doses, why functional and integrative medicine focus on root causes and environmental toxins, and how access to information is changing the sales conversation. She also ex...

Episode Summary Alesondra Mora shares leadership lessons and how FlipCo lends to real estate investors. In this conversation, Mora walks through her path across real estate roles, the mentors who shaped her “bigger picture” mindset, and why delegation and team development matter for avoiding burnout. She also explains FlipCo’s approach to private lending, including creative flexibility, in-house u...

Episode Summary How Joel Pera turned golf tinkering into a niche equipment business that gives back. Joel shares how his lifelong golf background and a family sign business led to creating more affordable simulator and launch-monitor dots, then expanding into high-end club work and custom builds under Just a Potamus. He explains the tech differences between camera-based and radar-based systems, wh...

Episode Summary How Taylor Clonts builds trust-based sales in recruiting and consulting. Brian Chaney talks with Taylor Clonts, Director of Sales at Eikon-X, about her path from hospitality into staffing, why relationships and reputation often beat cold outreach, and how honesty and clear expectations shape long-term client partnerships. They dig into handling conflict early, what gets lost when e...

Episode Summary How SNH ai applies AI to repetitive background screening work and how Ashley McManus markets it. Ashley shares her path through B2B tech startups, including Affectiva’s emotion AI work and its acquisition by Smart Eye, then breaks down what it looks like to build a marketing function from scratch at an early stage company. The conversation gets practical on going narrow with messag...

Episode Summary Diandra Ford Wing, Director of Sales and Customer Success at Rectitude 3609, shares how a 25 year sales career shaped her relationship first approach to winning and growing accounts. From her early days at Dell working the EPP program and managing the HEB account, to navigating SaaS, fintech, and government sales cycles, Diandra explains what it really takes to build trust and solv...

Episode Summary Kaylee Felio explains how PartsEdge helps new car dealerships stock the right parts and operate effectively in a niche market. She breaks down how PartsEdge works inside a dealership’s existing DMS to tighten inventory decisions, fill gaps left by standard systems, and make day-to-day parts management more efficient. Kaylee also shares her path into automotive software, from managi...