The Founder's Growth Show

How do you transition from a "scrappy dream" to a highly structured, multi-million dollar enterprise? In this episode of  The Founder's Growth Show , host John Hill, AKA Small Mountain, sits down with JP Keesy, Co-Founder of Fort Worth-based managed service provider F1 IT. JP shares his 25-year journey scaling an IT services firm past $5M in gross revenue while navigating high-stakes industry regu...

Join host John Hill, AKA Small Mountain, and his special guest Dan Bennett, founder of Hot Sauce Video, for a deep dive into the psychology of founder growth and the power of authentic storytelling. Dan shares his journey from a touring musician to a high-end filmmaker and agency owner, revealing how he eventually embraced the very service he tried to avoid: video editing. He also explains why "vi...

In this episode of The Founder's Growth Show, host John Hill, AKA Small Mountain, sits down with Brent Garrett, the founder of Sirius Plumbing and Air Conditioning and a veteran business consultant known as The Skilled Trades Coach. Brent shares his profound journey from working at the end of a shovel to building, scaling, and successfully selling a multimillion-dollar residential services enterpr...

Why do so many rapid-scaling startups struggle to sustain their revenue after an influx of new clients? Because they mistake reactive customer support for a proactive growth strategy. In this episode of  The Founder's Growth Show , host John Small Mountain sits down with Noah Hallett, a startup consultant and fractional Chief Customer Officer (CCO). Operating from Lisbon, Portugal, Noah shares his...

What is the true difference between building a scalable business and simply monetizing a personal skill set? In this episode of The Founder's Growth Show, host John SmallMtn sits down with Michael R. Hunter, the co-founder of Spiffy Checkouts and PersonalBrand.com, to unpack the hidden mechanisms behind sustainable business growth and leadership alignment. Michael shares his evolutionary journey f...

Is AI a threat to your livelihood, or the ultimate tool to scale your next venture? In this episode, host John Hill, AKA Small Mountain, sits down with tech pioneer, former NASDAQ company CEO, and international bestselling author Jay Samit to dissect how seasoned professionals can claim their "Second Act Advantage." Jay pulls back the curtain on his newest book, sharing insights gained from raisin...

What happens when the world's foremost startup accelerator rejects your business idea—not once, but twice? For most founders, it's where the dream stalls out. For Edward Haryono, it was the exact friction required to build a resilient, high-growth enterprise. In this episode of The Founder's Growth Show, host John Hill, AKA Small Mountain, sits down with Edward Haryono, co-founder of Saudara (an A...

In this episode of The Founder's Growth Show, John Hill, AKA Small Mountain, sits down with Dr. Corey Wilks , a Clinical Psychologist and Founder of Creator Alchemy , to bridge the gap between deep psychological insights and practical business growth. Corey shares his journey from clinical addiction treatment in rural Appalachia to executive coaching for high-level creators like Ali Abdaal. We dis...

Transitioning from a top-tier individual producer to a resilient organizational leader requires a radical shift in mindset, clarity, and execution. In this episode, John sits down with Leslie Venetz, a 3-time Head of Sales, award-winning sales expert, USA Today Bestselling Author, SKO Speaker, and the Founder of the Sales-Led GTM Agency. Bypassing standard corporate jargon, Leslie shares her groun...

In this episode, we sit down with Andrea Mohamed, Co-Founder of QuantumBloom, to discuss the systemic "leaky bucket" in STEM industries. Andrea shares how her organization is moving the needle on retention by treating culture as a business outcome rather than a moral initiative. Topics Discussed: The STEM Exit: Why 70% of women leave technical paths by age 30 and how to stop the bleed. Founder-Led...

What does it take to turn 26 years of deep subject matter expertise into a global brand and a lasting legacy? In this episode, we sit down with Andrea Donsky, Nutritionist and Co-Founder of Morphus, to explore the evolution of a founder who has successfully navigated three distinct businesses with the same partner for over two decades. Andrea shares the vulnerable reality behind her 13-year journe...

In this episode, John Hill, AKA Small Mountain, sits down with  Brett Chotkevys , CEO and Founder of Assisted Living Mansion . Brett shares his journey from flipping 50 houses a year to revolutionizing the senior care industry through high-end memory care "mansions." We dive deep into his hands-on approach to leadership, the necessity of founder grit, and how to build a resilient culture in a high...

Are you leading by design, or leading by default? In this episode, John Hill (AKA Small Mountain) sits down with Diana Urbina , founder of Sharro Solutions and a 21-year veteran of  Microsoft and Xbox . Diana's career has spanned the extremes of corporate culture—from the high-intensity Steve Ballmer era to the cultural transformation under Satya Nadella. She's seen firsthand that no amount of pro...

In this episode of The Founder's Growth Show, John Small Mountain sits down with Nicholas Kirchner to discuss the complexities of running both a high-level service agency and a US-based manufacturing brand. Nicholas challenges the "optics-first" mentality of many founders, urging a return to life-alignment and data-driven decision-making. Topics discussed include: Breaking through the $500k revenu...

In an era where every founder is "running with their hair on fire" toward AI automation, Morgan J. Ingram (Founder of AMP Social) is sounding a necessary alarm: Efficiency without connection is a dead end. In this episode, John Small Mountain and Morgan dig deep into the messy transition from a high-performing "Lone Wolf" seller and sales trainer to a scalable Business Owner. Morgan shares the raw...

If you feel like you're barely hanging on or are at your wit's end about how to help your business (and yourself!) thrive, this episode is the map to getting unstuck. In the second half of our conversation, Blake Schofield (founder of Impact With Ease) shares her transition from corporate burnout to building a $500k business on a 15-hour work week. We move past the surface-level hacks to discuss t...

Most founders don't realize they're burned out until their body forces them to stop. Blake Schofield spent 16 years as a top performer in corporate retail before hitting a total breakdown—three times. Now, she helps leaders solve the root causes of the burnout cycle that so many of us go through without even realizing it, at least, not until it's too late. This was a two-hour interview, and in Par...