You Can't Lose!

It's Story Time again on the pod! Richard has a sordid story about browser tabs, and then Joe has a story about a client video conference pitch fumble. From there we unpack pitching. It's so weird! Why is this the way? Richard has notes.

Jon Lax of Teehan + Lax and Meta fame is our first brave Story Time contributor. Thank you Jon! Jon is the best and his story weaves a client pitch nightmare that will sound familiar to many, and haunt your dreams. We screw up all of the value Jon brings by talking about the Vision Pro release, the nightmare of Vision Pro personas, whether or not we are merely meat spaceships piloting the alien fl...

Small Teams & Identity + The Sports Illustrated RFP Story Come for the sales conversation, stay for Richard's deep thoughts on identity, the power of small teams, and work culture. We go deep fast. Then in the wake of Sports Illustrated's seeming demise Joe dusts off the SI RFP story. It's 2013 and SI wants a complete Mobile First redesign in time for NFL training camp 4 months awa...

Look at James White or @signalnoise to his friends. The man is a vibe standing out in a crowded marketplace. A complete idea of who he is and what he does snaps into place once you've made the connection to him and his personal brand. As salespeople, as colleagues, as members of social networks it pays dividends when your personal brand/vibe/identity snaps into focus clearly and completely too...

The InVision Design Maturity Assessment surfaced the unmeasured value of collaboration, EQ, cross discipline relationships, and open communication. In this episode Richard reveals more about the origin and value of the DMA, what it surfaced, and how the same ideas can apply in a host of areas. Meanwhile somehow in the same podcast Joe explains the aggregate suit remedy for "professionalism,&q...

We're back from holiday break and digging into mistaking happiness as an achievement, what's misunderstood about hard work, following the way the buttons on your shirt pull you towards where you need to be, producing over consuming, some truly harrowing wisdom from Charles De Gaulle who to be fair, was around for some harrowing things, and embracing the clean sheet of paper a new year prov...

For the first half of the podcast Joe and Richard revisit familiar ground re: wellness and relationships. Joe overshares about working out as only he can. Thankfully his wife does not listen to the pod. At the 30 min mark we dig into the latest news about the end of InVision. Richard shares his thoughts and reflections as someone who experienced peak InVision in many ways and it turns out like mos...

Recipes are for baking. Businesses run on equations, variables, and probabilities. In this episode we discuss the illusion of sales and leadership recipes and how they fail to adapt and reflect context. Instead let us make the case that formulas full of people, variables, and uncertainty are the responsible way to manage teams, lead organizations, sell services, and generally exist in a universe w...

Richard and I both attempted to connect our networks. One of us was successful, the other was me. In this ep we get into the wonky details of how to collect & connect your tribes. I'll post what worked separately. The theme we keep coming back to are the invisible forces and triggers that generate valuable outcomes. How focusing on what's measurable in sales incentivizes the wrong fabr...

Human connections and networks and brands and group events are all better when powered by authentic chemistry and vibes. In a work travel fueled rant Joe tries to invent SXSW and other events that already exist in the hopes of kindling valuable network interactions while Richard channels post-vacation vibes to adjust the volume and surface insights about quality of connections over quantity, &quot...

Growing teams is hard. This we know. Communicating with growing teams, managing operations and process among growing teams, hiring and evolving sales within growing teams, and maintaining an identity within a growing team are all topics on the table in this episode. Learn the origin of #turdstorm! and the magical, universal time when all services agencies hire their first dedicated biz dev person...

Acronyms and jargon can become the building blocks of corporate culture and build unintended barriers. This week we dive into how to engage with strange new company cultures. How good leaders destroy obstacles while recognizing their limitations. And how context permeates and informs everything. Then it needs to change.

In this episode we challenge the traditional sales playbook, examining the real impact of common tactics like AdWords, LinkedIn marketing, and Clutch.co profile creation. We underscore instead the crucial need for personalization in business, with a particular focus on the pivotal role of CEOs and business leaders in forging direct, meaningful engagement with customers. We unpack the art of creati...

We’re having too much fun making the podcast which leads us to question, is this “too much fun” to be called work? In this episode we dive into the transformative power of integrating playfulness into our work lives. Challenging the entrenched 'grind culture' that glorifies overwork and undervalues leisure, we unravel how adopting a playful approach can lead to more meaningful and sustaina...

PhilaMade is a professional community in Philadelphia and its successful return signal some interesting opportunities and trends in the industry. From there Richard tackles the topic of pricing and estimating and if you estimate projects hourly, price hourly, track hours, or generally think time is anything more than a flat circle, he's got something to tell you. Sources cited: 1. Ask ChatGPT...

Richard and Joe could barely wait to record this episode as they both dive into GPTs. ChatGPT launched GPTs, enabling users to build their own LLM and AI-based applications. Your Losers (Richard & Joe? Is that a thing?) immediately built a variety of experimental GPTs and plunged into building a sales enablement GPT based on their catalog of writing, consulting, podcasts, and more. The result...

In this week's AMA Joe discussed different approaches to pricing and emphasized the importance of making profitability and efficiency a priority for the team. He suggested celebrating profitability through bonuses and recognition and creating clear project manifestos to align goals. He also recommended focusing on creating high-value opportunities with partners rather than just closing deals w...

Medium shapes the message too often if we're not careful. Enterprise CRM tools shape and dictate sales strategy unintentionally. A marketing website is redesigned at great expense because it's the tool a designer understands. LinkedIn is chosen over TikTok because of biases about the platform. The remedy might opening up the door you didn't realize was available the whole time. Experim...

This week Richard asks Joe "How are you?" and Joe answers truthfully, he's having a crap day. Richard rises to the occasion and coaches Joe through the negative feelings he's wrestling with. Richard sharpens frustration into strategy and unpacks a lot of thoughts around mood following action, how product companies can better tap into market fit by reversing their thinking, when i...

Richard and Joe talk about the unsurpassed value of qualitative research. Whether determining market fit or attempting to answer other questions, you can waste time and money chasing results that qualitative research would have told you, just aren't there. Richard provides tips for conducting effective qualitative conversational research as well as tips for providing exponential value to each...

Richard Banfield and Joe Rinaldi dig into the way we work together, the way we define our own value, and the freedom that comes from realizing You Can't Lose! In this episode Richard and Joe reunite! They dig into marginal gains and the value of habit-forming, process-oriented thinking over outcome-oriented thinking, the value of intimacy and vulnerability, and losing for the right reasons.

Joe and Richard discuss how automation tools that promise scale actually remove the most valuable thing: Intention. Intent is the hidden frequency communicating value to other humans. When effort is intentional we feel valued. When connection feels automated or nonspecific we don't just perceive an absence of value, we feel devalued. Taking away the hard part undermines our efforts.

OK, marketing automation is increasingly less effective. Authenticity cuts through the noise, but how do we get started? The short answer is get started. The longer discussion in this episode is about experimenting and finding success. It's about the non-linear approach to finding your strategy. Creating space for outcomes to organically occur instead of trying to manufacture results. How do y...

In a marketplace dense with sales automation, the importance of personal outreach and cultivating relationships with leads is more critical than ever.

It's difficult to change the way internal product teams collaborate, so sometimes it requires drastic measures. What would happen if you erased all of your organization's scheduled ongoing meetings? How many would fight back?