Rooted In Revenue

Two unrelated client projects landed in Susan Finch's lap the same week — a document hub for Dan Pflugshaupt (Gallery of Homes, CSSE, NRBA) and FAQ content built for AI answer engines for Michele Scherger on Florida's Treasure Coast. Different clients, different states, same underlying problem: ads and content that dump people on a homepage instead of giving them a real answer. Susan walks through...

When agency owners hit a wall, the first instinct is usually to add a new tool — a new Slack channel, a project management upgrade, maybe an AI feature. Melissa Morris, founder of Agency Authority, says that is almost never the fix. In this episode, Susan Finch and Melissa dig into why communication overload and workflow chaos are not tool problems — they are clarity problems. Before any tool can...

Most podcasts don't die because the host runs out of things to say. They die because nobody wrote anything down. In this solo episode, Susan Finch walks through the operational framework Funnel Media Group uses to keep shows running — even when teams shift, guests go quiet, or life gets in the way. She covers the non-negotiables: documented SOPs for every step from guest outreach to post-productio...

You did your homework from Key Man Part 1. You know who your key people are. Now what? Susan Finch and Lany Sullivan are back — still in the same room, still making the most of Lany's four-hour drive to tackle the part most business owners skip: how to actually approach your team about documentation without triggering a panic spiral. Someone's going to feel like their job is on the line. Someone's...

Most business owners think they know who the key person in their organization is. They think of the CEO, the founder, the executive. But Susan Finch and Lany Sullivan have a different perspective, and once you hear it, you cannot unhear it. In this episode, Lany opens with a concept borrowed from the insurance world: Keyman Insurance, which is an actual policy that protects a business when somethi...

While editing an episode of Leader Generation, I heard something that stopped me mid-cut. The guest — Mariano Bosaz, VP of Global Consumer Strategy at Coca-Cola and author of The Digital Mindset — had dreamed of becoming an ambassador for a country. Official title, formal post, the works. It didn't happen. (Turns out without a family diplomat connection, they just send you somewhere terrible when...

Susan Finch sits down with Laura Patterson, President and Co-Founder at VisionEdge Marketing. They explore why businesses chase shiny new tools instead of maximizing what already works, the real cost of remote work on mentorship and professional development, and how strategic restraint might be the most powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. Laura brings decades of experience helping companies a...

After getting flooded with AI-generated guest pitch emails, Susan and Lany decided to remind everyone what Rooted in Revenue is really about. It's not just about making money. Everything you do impacts your revenue: your sleep patterns, your workspace, your team, even that specific spot on your couch where you always fall asleep. The podcast is about how to keep money from draining out of your bus...

Technology promises to solve every business problem, but what if the tools themselves are creating the chaos? Susan Finch and Lany Sullivan explain some reasons why organizations continue to struggle despite investing in the latest software, platforms, and systems. The pattern is predictable: Someone attends a conference, hears about a game-changing tool, signs up immediately, and brings it back t...

Susan Finch and Lany Sullivan dig into something nobody wants to talk about but everybody needs to hear. A client's new bookkeeper asked a simple question about canceling a former employee's card. The owner said they already had the card. Turns out the physical card was in a desk drawer, but the numbers were saved in the employee's personal Amazon account. For 18 months. Lany brings her banking ba...

We're drowning in content glut. Empty posts churned out to keep up with everyone else. There's no joy, no depth, no controversy. You can FEEL the difference between obligated content versus real engagement. What are we losing? The skill of conversation. The skill of listening. Those spontaneous "hey, come look at this" moments. Pulling each other into offices to analyze something together. These a...

Stop drowning in business chaos - your SOPs are the life raft you need. In this game-changing episode, Susan Finch and Lany Sullivan expose why your team's knowledge hoarding is sabotaging growth and share their proven system for creating procedures that actually get used. They reveal why writing at a 5th-grade level isn't dumbing down - it's smartening up your business operations. From horror sto...

You earned that certification. Now what? If you're like most professionals, you invested time and money into leveling up your expertise... only to let that shiny new credential sit quietly in your inbox, in your bank statement, rather than on your LinkedIn profile. Sound familiar? In this episode of Rooted in Revenue, I'm sharing the exact 14-day launch plan I use with clients to transform profess...

Join Susan Finch in this solo episode of Rooted in Revenue as she shares actionable strategies for maximizing your conference investment through smart pre-event marketing. Instead of relying on generic conference-provided graphics, Susan explains how to create your own branded announcements that showcase your attendance and build anticipation. Learn how to develop a comprehensive branding package,...

Are you losing your best people and don't know why? In this final episode of our four-part series with Frederic Lucas-Conwell, founder of GRI.co, we tackle the most expensive problem in business: top talent walking out the door. Most companies think they understand why high performers leave. They're wrong. From boardroom battles to manager missteps, Frederic reveals the behavioral mismatches that...

Moving your business email from one system to another sounds straightforward until it isn't. Susan learned this the hard way during a weekend-long migration that revealed every hidden complexity you never think to ask about upfront. In this episode, she breaks down the five critical questions every business owner must answer before switching email systems - questions that could save you from your...

Today's episode could save you 20% or more on overhead costs while boosting employee retention by up to 45%. My guest is Alane Boyd, Co-CEO of BiggestGoal.ai and workflow automation expert with nearly two decades in tech. But here's what sets her apart: instead of forcing you into complicated project management tools you'll hate, she works with what you already use and love. Alane's built her phil...

Google First, AI Second: The Smart Agent Strategy Your prospects aren't abandoning Google - they're using it PLUS asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude for deeper research. Here's the reality: Google still processes 373 times more searches than ChatGPT. But the 1% of prospects using AI answer engines? They're your highest-intent leads spending 23+ minutes researching before they ever call an agen...

You've hired great people individually, but your team still isn't performing at its potential. Sound familiar? Most companies focus on individual talent while completely missing the multiplier effect of understanding how team members naturally function together. In Part 3 of our series with Frederic Lucas-Conwell, President of GRI (Growth Resources Institute), we dive into "The Team Performance Mu...

The Crisis Killing Service Organizations - And How to Save Them Rotary clubs, Lions International, Chambers of Commerce, and countless other service organizations are dying. Membership is aging out, younger generations aren't joining, and traditional models that worked for decades are failing spectacularly. In this eye-opening episode of Rooted in Revenue, host Susan Finch and guest Miguel de Jesu...

Your son just graduated college with excellent grades, but can't get past the "AI robot" screening resumes. Meanwhile, companies like Nike are using AI filters as their first hiring step, eliminating potentially brilliant candidates before any human ever sees them. What's going wrong with this approach? In Part 2 of our series with Frederic Lucas-Conwell, President of GRI (Growth Resources Institu...

Most hiring managers are drowning in resumes, conducting endless interviews, and still ending up with costly mis-hires that drain productivity and morale. What if the problem isn't finding good candidates—it's understanding what you actually need before you start looking? In this episode of Rooted in Revenue, host Susan Finch sits down with Frederic Lucas-Conwell, President of GRI (Growth Resource...

When Frank Scavo sent me his latest article about consulting skills, I knew we had to dig deeper. After 20 years of working together—first as his client, then as colleagues—we've lived the collaborative consulting model he champions. In this conversation, we explore why seasoned executives often struggle to transition into consulting, the critical difference between having authority and wielding i...

Local SEO just got a reality check. Darren Shaw, founder of Whitespark, joins Rooted in Revenue to debunk some widely held myths while sharing what actually drives results for small businesses trying to dominate local search. If you're a real estate agent sharing office space with ten competitors, a service provider working from home, or any brick-and-mortar business wondering why your Google rank...

I heard Aaron Grando drop the term "pretotypes" on Leader Generation this morning and had to hit pause. Three minutes in, I realized I'd been vibe coding for months without knowing there was a name for it. But pretotypes? That's when I knew I had to get him on the show immediately. We're talking about taking your stream-of-consciousness ideas and building working drafts before you've even figured...