Scaling With People

Gwenevere Crary
  • 5.0 (27)
  • MANAGEMENT
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Tired of spinning your startup wheels but never gaining traction? Buckle up, founders and CEOs, because this podcast is your rocket fuel to profitability! Every week, we ignite explosive conversations with bold-faced founders, brainy experts, and even a few out-of-this-world vendors. Get ready to crack the code on growth, master employee engagement, and blast through your scaling goals. We’re talking real-world strategies, actionable tips, and perspectives that’ll make your business do a cosmic dance. So, strap in and prepare for lift-off!

  1. 2D AGO

    Scale Faster With Intentional Systems with Matt Granados

    Send a text Growth gets noisy when speed outruns structure. We invited Matt Granados, CEO of Life Pulse, to show how to turn that noise into a rhythm teams can sustain. Instead of glorifying grind, Matt reframes productivity as alignment: purpose tied to goals, people equipped with simple systems, and performance measured by outcomes, not seat time. The result is a path from high output at a breaking pace to high output at a sustainable pace—optimal performance. We dig into weekly reverse planning, a lightweight framework that reduces overwhelm by handling the 80 percent you can control while leaving margin for the 20 percent you can’t. Matt explains why scheduling every minute backfires, how to reset plans when new variables hit, and why planning is more valuable than the plan. We talk through the 100-80-100 hiring rule—bringing on people who can deliver 100 percent of responsibilities at 80 percent of their ability—so growth, hiccups, and innovation don’t push the team into the red. We also confront symptom chasing with a simple root cause method: ask “why” five times until the real blocker shows up. The people side takes center stage. Personal life does bleed into work, and leaders are often the last to know. Matt shares how equipping individuals—rather than shoulding on them—transforms performance. We explore leading with explanation instead of defense to build trust and clarity, plus the “unsell” step in interviews that sets honest expectations and attracts the right talent for fast-changing environments. And yes, we tackle AI head-on: if a tool 5x’s output with quality, reward it. Optimize for results, not optics. If you’re ready to scale without burning out your team, this conversation delivers practical systems you can use next week. Subscribe for more bold, unfiltered strategies, share this with someone building something big, and tell us: what’s the first productivity myth you’re dropping? Support the show

    27 min

  2. FEB 18

    Hiring Across Borders Without Losing Momentum with Matthew Hellrung

    Send a text Compliance doesn’t have to slow you down. We sat with immigration attorney and founder Matthew Hellrung to map out how smart teams turn visas, I‑9s, and global mobility into a talent advantage while staying out of audit crosshairs. If you’re recruiting engineers, data scientists, or AI specialists, the numbers are clear: a huge share of the best graduates need sponsorship. We walk through the policy choices that keep your funnel open, your people informed, and your risk controlled. Matthew explains what the latest enforcement push really means for companies, including ICE’s expanded I‑9 audits and how fines stack up. You’ll hear when E‑Verify helps, when it hurts, and how to decide based on your workforce and contracts. We dig into the biggest “oops” moments that burn startups—like inconsistent sponsorship decisions that look discriminatory, sloppy document storage, and untracked location moves that break H‑1B terms. Then we offer practical fixes: a simple, public immigration policy; internal ownership with HR enablement; and direct access to counsel to cut anxiety and speed decisions. We also hit the realities of a borderless workplace. From social media vetting at consulates to stricter travel screening, we flag issues leaders should address before trips and transfers. If you send U.S. employees abroad, we outline visitor vs. work activities, the rise of digital nomad visas, and how to avoid triggering substantial presence and tax exposure. To close, Matthew shares a founder lesson—delegate and elevate—so you can focus on the few moves only you can make for the business. If this helped you think clearer about hiring across borders, tap follow, share it with a builder who needs it, and leave a quick review so more founders can find these playbooks. Support the show

    32 min

  3. FEB 11

    Jet Fuel For Smarter Growth with Kathryn Strachan

    Send a text Growth isn’t a mystery; it’s a system. We sit down with award-winning fractional CMO and bestselling author Kathryn Strachan to unpack the moves that turn scattered marketing efforts into a commercial engine that compounds. From the mindset shift that frees founders from bottlenecking their teams to the exact sequence for building demand and then layering sales, Kathryn shares a clear, proven path to scale. We start with the hardest habit to break: doing everything yourself. Kathryn explains how she stepped out of the weeds, hired senior operators, and aligned teams around outcomes instead of tactics. Then we go deep on foundations—positioning, ICP clarity, and validated messaging—so every tactic has a purpose. She walks through the first levers she pulls inside a company: rebuild the website as a true conversion hub and run a spend audit to stop wasting money on channels that don’t move pipeline. The result is a tighter story, a cleaner funnel, and a budget that works harder. Kathryn also challenges a common startup reflex: hiring sales before marketing. Her approach flips the order. Keep founder-led sales while a fractional marketing leader builds brand, content, and credibility that drive inbound. Six months later, add sales to convert that momentum and amplify with targeted outbound. We explore how personal branding fuels trust at scale, why technical founders struggle with commercial storytelling, and how a visible leader can win enterprise attention without a giant ad budget. Finally, we tackle the 2025 reality: AI is the new search. If your brand isn’t cited across the web, AI won’t surface you. Kathryn outlines a practical strategy to expand your digital footprint—third-party features, consistent expert content, and multi-channel visibility—so you become “pickable” by AI systems and human buyers alike. It’s a candid, no-fluff masterclass in scaling smarter. If this conversation sparked ideas, share it with someone building something big, subscribe for more bold, practical strategies, and tell us: what lever will you pull first? Support the show

    28 min

  4. FEB 4

    Reading Signals In A Noisy Market with Daniel Nikic

    Send a text Markets aren’t just noisy; they’re rewiring in real time. We sit down with global investment researcher Daniel Nikic to decode what founders should actually track, how to turn headlines into decisions, and why the most resilient companies pick problems that will matter for the next five to ten years. If you’ve felt overwhelmed by AI hype, shifting supply chains, and choppy investor sentiment, this is your field guide to clarity. We start with the investor lens: what problem are you solving and how durable is it? Daniel shares how he reads signals from trade flows, raw goods, and energy dynamics to spot second-order effects before they hit revenue. From Detroit’s auto halo to fertilizer shocks tied to war, he shows how “faraway” events change your cost structure and demand curves. The playbook is simple and sharp: track a few leading indicators that map to your model, define thresholds, and pre-decide your moves so you act fast when the line gets crossed. AI takes center stage as leverage, not oracle. Daniel frames today’s tools as junior analysts that excel at scraping, summarizing, and formatting secondary research. The win is speed; the risk is unexamined bias and hallucinations. We dig into human-in-the-loop workflows, practical use cases for founders (market mapping, interview synthesis, competitor baselines), and why experience turns data into insight. Expect clear guidance on when to trust the model, when to audit, and how to keep outputs actionable. We also hit the founder operating system: persistence through rejection, pivoting without drama, and reputation as a compounding asset. With limited resources, you’ll hear how to use free pilots and testimonials to compress trust and lower CAC. On the macro map, Daniel spotlights the Middle East’s surge in entrepreneurship and LP capital, along with America’s ongoing edge in innovation. Looking ahead, we explore a bold trendline: smaller teams powered by AI, building faster with tighter focus and sharper distribution. Enjoy the conversation. If it sparks an idea, share it with a builder who needs it, and subscribe for more unfiltered, practical strategies. Got a takeaway or a challenge to our view? Drop us a note—we’d love to hear your signal. Support the show

    26 min

  5. JAN 28

    Motivation That Sticks with Tara Landes

    Send a text Want to stop pushing people and start pulling results? We brought in Tara Landes, a certified Cialdini influence trainer who’s advised 300+ leaders, to unpack why most managers overestimate their people skills—and what to do differently when the stakes are high. From the moment you hear the 15.5% lift that a single authority sentence can create, you’ll see why intros, handoffs, and meeting setups are the hidden levers in sales, fundraising, and recruiting. We dig into ethical influence—persuasion that benefits both sides—and show how small, honest shifts create outsized outcomes. You’ll learn how to build quick, real rapport that improves negotiation results, how to pre-frame price with smart anchoring, and why endowed progress keeps momentum alive in long buying cycles. Tara connects these to motivation that lasts: belonging, autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Expect pragmatic tactics like scripting third-party credibility in your inbound flow, adding “you’re free to choose” autonomy cues, and designing strengths-first performance systems that compound talent. We also tackle the fastest way leaders tank morale: inconsistency. Your team can handle tough goals, but they won’t follow a moving target. We share simple ways to be predictably you, even in hybrid and AI-heavy environments where communication shifts channels but human drivers don’t. If you lead people, sell ideas, or negotiate complex decisions, this is your field guide to influence without manipulation and motivation without gimmicks. If the playbook helps, follow the show, share it with a founder or manager who needs it, and drop your biggest takeaway in a review—what tactic will you try first? Support the show

    23 min

  6. JAN 21

    Scaling Without Breaking Culture with Ryan Hogan

    Send a text What if the difference between stalling at $8M and exiting at $55M wasn’t luck, but a set of repeatable choices about people, process, and stage-fit hiring? That’s the jump Ryan Hogan made, and we unpack exactly how he did it—from the hard lessons of a viral zombie race that crashed to the systems and recruiting moves that helped Hunt A Killer scale fast without losing its soul. We start with the foundation most founders skip: vision, mission, and values that actually drive decisions. Ryan explains why talent sits on top of that foundation—and why mis-hires rarely come from bad resumes, but from poorly defined problems and vague expectations. We dig into the mistake of hiring a leader from a $100M company to run a $25M org, and how to find operators who have done the exact jump you need right now. You’ll hear how to set roles by outcomes, not titles, run a blank-slate org chart to reveal gaps, and reset expectations with early hires as the company evolves. Then we get tactical on recruiting. Real recruiting isn’t posting and praying; it’s outbound sourcing, targeted outreach, and selling a meaningful mission to candidates who aren’t looking. Ryan shares why small and midsize companies need expert, stage-aware recruiting to win, how structured interviews and reference loops beat gut feel, and how EOS and peer groups like Vistage create the cadence and accountability to keep teams aligned as complexity grows. The result is a blueprint for building teams that scale, stay aligned, and deliver measurable outcomes under real-world constraints. If you’re a founder, operator, or hiring manager who wants compounding growth without the cultural hangover, this conversation gives you the playbook: hire for the stage you’re in, design the org you actually need, and treat recruiting like the competitive advantage it is. If this resonated, subscribe, share it with a builder who needs it, and leave a quick review—tell us the one hiring move you’ll change this quarter. Support the show

    26 min

  7. 12/31/2025

    AI Recruiting That Actually Works with Ben Johnson

    Send a text AI can sift resumes, flag cheaters, and surface real talent—but only if you pair it with clear roles, smart assessments, and disciplined communication. That’s the system Ben Johnson, CEO of Particle 41, walks us through as we compare notes on hiring at scale, building global engineering teams, and turning remote work from transactional to tight-knit. We get specific on how an AI resume scorer and assessment workflow cut through 500+ applicants a week, why an 85% relevance threshold saves recruiter time, and how anti-cheating tools keep the signal clean across technical and non-technical roles. From there, we zoom out to the leadership moves that unlock elite performance. Accountability charts replace names with roles and outcomes, giving us a cleaner way to design teams, define expectations, and reduce constant reorgs. Ben’s “practice squads” create small, cross-client groups that meet monthly, rotate moderators, and blend personal and professional growth—so engineers become confident consultants, not just coders. Layer on lightweight rituals like daily focus updates and weekly client status reports, and you get fewer meetings, clearer priorities, and faster delivery across time zones. We also unpack the product playbook: start with design to force hard decisions, define the real MVP, and make smart build, buy, or partner calls where customers feel it most. Before chasing “more AI,” get your SOPs in order, let teams prototype improvements with ChatGPT, and target one workflow at a time—aim small, miss small—to avoid overspending and measure impact. We close with a pragmatic security reminder: never reuse passwords, use a password manager, and assume AI is accelerating both offense and defense. Subscribe, share this with a builder who needs it, and tell us the one workflow you’ll automate first. Support the show

    28 min

  8. 12/24/2025

    From Burnout To Brilliance with Nelly Gal

    Send a text Growth shouldn’t require sacrificing your sanity. We sit down with first‑gen founder and medical professional Nelly to unpack how she turned a survival hustle into a sustainable business by aligning purpose, hormone health, and a team she can trust. Her story moves from 3 a.m. anxiety and cortisol spikes to clear decisions, warmer leadership, and a brand that converts through real connection, not pressure. We dig into how sharing your story creates trust, referrals, and retention in any service business. Nellie explains why burnout isn’t just a workload problem; it’s a biology problem. She breaks down the hormone mechanics behind confidence—what happens when cortisol stays high, how sleep and nutrition affect dopamine and serotonin, and when targeted supplementation or hormone replacement can restore energy, mood, and focus. Along the way, we explore practical tools: the seven whys to clarify purpose, building a simple spiritual or reflective practice, and setting boundaries that protect your best work. Then we shift to scale. Delegation turns self-employment into ownership, and the right manager can collapse stress while multiplying output. We talk about hiring for trust, giving experts the wheel, and why founders should keep a baseline understanding of every function without trying to master them all. Marketing, finance, operations—once specialists own these lanes, you reclaim time for the work you love and the impact only you can deliver. If you’re feeling stretched thin, this conversation offers a roadmap: stabilize your body, tell a truer story, build a team that thinks, and let your energy guide what grows. Subscribe for more bold, people-first strategies, share this with a builder who needs it, and leave a review to tell us the one task you’ll delegate this week. Schedule a 30 to 45 minute consultation with Nelly. Just mention Scaling with People on her instagram at https://www.instagram.com/live_vibrant_medspa/ Support the show

    24 min
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5
out of 5
27 Ratings

About

Tired of spinning your startup wheels but never gaining traction? Buckle up, founders and CEOs, because this podcast is your rocket fuel to profitability! Every week, we ignite explosive conversations with bold-faced founders, brainy experts, and even a few out-of-this-world vendors. Get ready to crack the code on growth, master employee engagement, and blast through your scaling goals. We’re talking real-world strategies, actionable tips, and perspectives that’ll make your business do a cosmic dance. So, strap in and prepare for lift-off!

Information

  • Creator
    Gwenevere Crary
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    122
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Scaling With People
  • Show Website
    Scaling With People