Unscripted Small Business

Abbey Crane
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Marketing

Our Unscripted Collaborative hosts Keith Bresee, Zaneta Chuniq, Keiron Bailey & 17 year SEO industry expert Jeremy Rivera are having unscripted interviews small business owners, founders and creators across the United States, learning about their challenges, successes and insights into the world of SMBs.

  1. 1d ago

    Don't Give Your Happiness Away - Anil Gupta, The Love Doctor

    Anil Gupta has a rule you already follow for your right shoulder - you'd never hand it over just because someone asked - and he wants you to apply it to your happiness. Anil is a relationship coach who goes by The Love Doctor (LinkedIn). He tells Jeremy Rivera why he defines love as acceptance, why forgiveness is something you do for yourself, and the happiness formula he teaches: give, grow, gratitude. The full episode recap has the whole conversation, or you can watch it on YouTube. In this episode The house between your ears - you'd never let a guest who trashed your house stay. "The most expensive real estate in the world is between your ears." Anil says forgiving doesn't mean forgetting. "It doesn't mean that you're letting them get away with it, it's just that you're not giving them your power." The right shoulder rule - "What if you had the same rule for your happiness? Under no circumstances will I give my happiness away." Someone cuts you up, you miss the train, someone says something to you. He wants you to be a nonstick frying pan. If you run a business, that rule works at the counter too. Intent - Anil tells a story about throwing his wife to the ground, and then why: a poisonous snake was about to bite her. "It's all about intent." Languaging - he coaches students to swap labels for "I had an experience" and to "look at things as they are, not what they mean." Anil's views on language and labels are his coaching views, not medical advice. If you're dealing with trauma or PTSD, work with a qualified professional. Couples - the question he'd have Jeremy ask his wife: "Honey, what can I do to make you feel even more loved?" Plus a repair script for when you hurt your partner, and why your partner, not the kids, comes first. The three-foot rule - anyone within three feet of Anil gets a compliment or a joke. "We never know what other people are going through." Anil's story Anil says he was born in Kenya, moved to London in 1966 and practiced as an optometrist for 20 years before moving to America. He says he lost everything in the stock market and real estate in 2008 and was suicidal, and that's when he started helping people. "My identity was money. Now my identity is love." If you're struggling, call or text 988 (US) to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Chapters (00:00) What is love? Love is acceptance(01:14) Forgiveness is the express pathway to freedom(03:09) The most expensive real estate is between your ears(04:09) Don't give your power away: the right shoulder rule(08:09) The snake story: it's all about intent(10:16) The happiness formula: give, grow, gratitude(11:03) Anil's story: from money to love(13:03) Languaging is everything(18:22) How couples adjust as they change(20:14) Healing hurt: the repair conversation(27:00) Be so amazing that you cannot be ignored(27:49) The three-foot rule(30:22) How to reach Anil Notable quotes "Forgiveness is the express pathway to freedom." - Anil Gupta "Be so amazing that you cannot be ignored." - Anil Gupta David Levine talked about old school service on the show, and Francie Jain about burnout and group coaching. Find Anil at ...

    Don't Give Your Happiness Away - Anil Gupta, The Love Doctor

  2. 1d ago

    AI Bookkeeping Depends on the Input - Maya Weinreb, Solvency Now

    An AI can sort your bank export in seconds, but Maya Weinreb - whose team at Solvency Now Bookkeeping keeps the books for more than 150 companies - says the answer is only as good as the input and your understanding of it. Maya, founder and CEO of Solvency Now, has done bookkeeping since straight out of high school, more than 20 years. She tells Jeremy Rivera what she spots in the first five minutes of a new client's books, why she still wants a person checking the AI, and why the LLC is a legal shield and not a tax break. The full episode recap has the whole conversation, or you can watch it on YouTube. In this episode The five-minute check - "Do you have a bank account called Office Supplies?" If the answer is no, the books are wrong. Most new clients either have a mess or no records at all. Know enough to check the work - Maya runs AI agents all day, just not on client books. "Claude does a lot of things right, but it always depends on the input." She can tell when Claude gets bookkeeping wrong because she knows bookkeeping. Rich Thomas made a related point about sales: AI brings the lead, a human closes it. A person you can reach - her team replies within one business day and writes down every client's procedures so another bookkeeper can step in. She heard of one AI bookkeeping company that needed outside bookkeepers to fix the AI's mistakes, and it shut down. Sole prop, S-corp or LLC - her rule of thumb puts an S-corp election around 50 to 100,000 in revenue with decent profit, but "it differs by your situation and what your CPA or tax planner tells you." Matthew Fornaro made the same point about choosing a structure with your accountant. The 1099 threshold - Maya says the $600 line that stood for decades changed this year to $2,000, indexed to inflation. Her habit: get a W-9 before you pay anyone who might be a contractor, and check your own situation with your CPA. More IRS notices - in her tax and accounting groups, she's seeing more notices than ever since the IRS started using AI, and some are wrong. "If you want to get out of trouble, don't get in trouble in the first place." Rental property - Jeremy brings up Alex Zweydoff of ClearLead Digital, the property management marketing agency Jeremy just interviewed him about. Maya says most investors put each property in its own LLC for the legal protection, and "if you have anything that's making you money, you should treat it as a company." Chapters (00:00) Meet Maya Weinreb of Solvency Now Bookkeeping(00:45) The low-hanging fruit: a mess or no records at all(04:43) What freelancers and solopreneurs need to know(08:37) Sole prop, LLC or S-corp election(14:42) AI in bookkeeping: you don't know what you don't know(19:57) The 1099 threshold change(24:52) TikTok tax tips: vehicles, home offices and clothes(32:50) Rental property and what an LLC really does(36:51) Everybody should have a company Notable quotes "The answers are gonna depend on the input and your understanding." - Maya Weinreb "Go bu...

    AI Bookkeeping Depends on the Input - Maya Weinreb, Solvency Now

  3. 2d ago

    AI Brings the Lead, a Human Closes It - Rich Thomas, CHAOS Moto

    Three new customers in one month came from one habit - calling an AI-sourced lead back within an hour. Rich Thomas, co-founder and VP of Sales at CHAOS Supplies, the company behind CHAOS Moto, tells Jeremy Rivera why AI can find the buyer, but a person still has to close the deal. CHAOS stands for Chemical Handling And Occupational Safety supplies. It started in a bedroom more than 25 years ago and now manufactures in the US for one of the largest privately held tire companies in the world. CHAOS Moto makes wheel-service chemicals and grips for tire shops, and CHAOSRXOptics handles prescription safety eyewear. The full episode recap covers how a salesman bored by building websites ended up winning deals through AI. In this episode Hire a complement, not a copy - Rich's biggest fear is hiring somebody exactly like himself. "You really need somebody who's different and can bring an opposing view, but still be positive and moving in the right direction." He also wants somebody who's "really good, but not so good that they leave you." Hand off the work that bores you - after years of trying to build websites himself, he hired his friend Alex Storch, who has a master's in digital marketing from USC. "Sales is what I do. Anything outside of that, I struggle with." AI without the shiny object - Jeremy credits Jeremy Moser of uSERP with the phrase "shiny AI object syndrome," and brings up Daniel Hebert of Oleno on SOPs that give a whole team shared context, so everybody uses AI the same way instead of going off on their own AI adventure. Forty AI agents - Rich says Alex runs forty AI agents and has probably found over $75,000 in billing, invoicing and accounting oversights in six months. A site that matches the search - visitors who come from AI see what they searched for. That is how a 10,000-person utility company found CHAOS for prescription safety glasses. "AI will get you there to one point, but now you have to do the rest of the work." Speed to lead - Jeremy cites Jake Melendy's mystery-shop study, where over half of the service businesses contacted never responded at all. Rich picked up three new customers in the last month who told him why they moved: "We called back within an hour of the lead coming in off of AI." Jeremy also points to Alex Zweydoff of ClearLead Digital, who makes speed to lead a focus. The messy middle - Keith Perhac of SegMetrics on who gets credit when a buyer finds you in AI, Googles you, then comes in direct. The glasses that never fit - a customer went two and a half years without wearing his prescription safety glasses. Rich sent three samples to try and told him, "You're gonna be a customer for life, right?" Then: "AI's not gonna do that." Chapters (00:00) Meet Rich Thomas of CHAOS Moto(02:28) Hire someone different, not a copy of yourself(10:34) Hand off the work that bores you(14:27) Forty AI agents in the back office(18:20) Three new customers from calling back within...

    AI Brings the Lead, a Human Closes It - Rich Thomas, CHAOS Moto

  4. 3d ago

    You Can't Scale Chaos - Mitchell Wilson, Coachbirds

    You can't scale chaos. Mitchell Wilson, founder of Coachbirds, coaches tradies and local service business owners, and he tells Jeremy Rivera what happens when a business grows without systems: the owner ends up with a busy job with overheads. His fix starts with the boring stuff, done consistently, and knowing your numbers. Mitchell's framework is sales, systems and strategy. He gets the sales process producing the same result time and time again before chasing more leads, builds simple systems as the team grows, then sets the direction. The full episode recap walks through each step, and Mitchell lays out the same order in his BOSS system. In this episode Mindset, then habits, then systems - habits "like it is brushing our teeth," and once there is a team, written systems kept "really, really simple. So people actually follow them." The big fish problem - step one is knowing your numbers and your client stack. A small business can adapt faster than the big guys. A shared AI playbook - Jeremy brings up his conversation with Daniel Hebert of Oleno about a team working from shared context instead of everyone using AI their own way. Mitchell sees an earlier gap: the owner has AI, and the team has no access or authority to use it. The AI manager - Mitchell expects a new role, like the social media manager once was. Jeremy points to the director of automations at Siege Media from his episode with Ross Hudgens, and to Dr. Gleb Tsipursky on why teams resist AI. More confident owners - an owner got the same contract advice from ChatGPT in seconds that a lawyer later billed five figures for. Mitchell's advice: "Please go to the lawyer still." Speed to lead is a systems job - Jeremy cites Jake Melendy's mystery-shop study, where over half of the service businesses contacted never responded at all. Mitchell: "I don't actually think that's an AI job. I think that's sort of more of a systems job." Keep a human in the process - Jeremy also brings up Alex Zweydoff of ClearLead Digital on replying the moment a form comes in. Mitchell wants AI as a tool with a person in the loop, and Jeremy adds Brett Schklar's line that AI is not taking your job, it's taking your tasks. Shiny objects vs. what works - Jeremy raises the listicle fad Jeremy Moser of uSERP pointed out. Mitchell separates chasing what everyone else does from repeating what already works for you. Chapters (00:00) Meet Mitchell Wilson of Coachbirds(02:52) Mindset, then habits, then systems(04:48) The big fish problem and knowing your numbers(08:40) A shared AI playbook vs. giving the team access(17:23) More confident owners and the contract story(22:27) How AI turned his biggest weakness into a strength(24:05) Speed...

    You Can't Scale Chaos - Mitchell Wilson, Coachbirds

  5. Oct 21

    Why Employees Resist AI - Dr. Gleb Tsipursky

    Your gut is the wrong guide for rolling out AI to your team. Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts and author of The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work: From Resistance to Results (Georgetown University Press), tells Jeremy Rivera why owners get excited about AI while their employees get anxious, and how a small business closes that gap. Read the full episode recap. Gleb is a behavioral scientist who runs an eight-person consulting firm and works mainly across the US, Canada and the UK. He opens with the research he cites on why rollouts stall: MIT found 95% of AI initiatives fail to scale, and Pew found 52% of people are more anxious than excited about AI tools, with only 9% more excited than anxious. Owners tend to sit in that 9%. Their teams usually don't. In this episode The empathy gap - the owner shows off a cool demo, and the team hears "this will replace me." Group dynamics over the tool - Gleb points to McKinsey research where 80% report individual productivity from AI, but only about 6% of businesses see a material bottom-line impact. AI workslop as quiet resistance - polished output with problems inside. The Stanford and BetterUp Labs study he cites, covered in Harvard Business Review, found 40% of respondents received workslop in the past month, and each instance took about two hours to fix. Why AI is not a CRM rollout - you can't stand over someone's shoulder or run an IT-led implementation, because each person customizes their own "executive assistant." Three profiles, three fixes - for AI alarmists, commit to growth over job cuts, and make it clear the people who use AI well are the ones who stay. Go slow to go fast with pragmatic resistors - survey the tasks people hate and what blocks the work they love, then build prompts and agent skeletons for those first, the same idea behind a Claude skill that does your pre-work. Leadership modeling for reluctant adopters - talk about your own AI use, open a Slack or Teams channel for use cases, and reward the best one each month. Chapters (00:00) Meet Dr. Gleb Tsipursky of Disaster Avoidance Experts(00:22) His new book and why AI rollouts fail to scale(02:18) The empathy gap between leaders and employees(04:45) Group dynamics, not the technology(06:42) The cool demo that scares your team(07:40) AI workslop as a form of resistance(09:11) Does culture change AI adoption?(11:23) Why AI is not a CRM rollout(13:57) The three psychographic profiles(19:27) AI alarmists: commit to growth and flip the script(22:38) Pragmatic resistors: go slow to go fast(24:57) Reluctant adopters: leadership modeling(27:19) Eating his own dog food(29:05) Ownership mindset and why resistance is rational(33:01) Wrap-up Notable quotes "The leader needs to understand that her or his gut does not lead to the right outcome with AI adoption because their gut emotions, their intuitions are at odds with the emotions of their employees." - Dr. Gleb Tsipursky "AI is showing individual productivity, but the group dynamics is where it's at. And that's not the technology." - Dr. Gleb Tsipursky "It's not by using AI tools t...

    Why Employees Resist AI - Dr. Gleb Tsipursky

  6. Oct 19

    Building an Organic Tequila Brand With a Mission - AgaveLuz

    Pamela Maria De La Luz spent twenty years selling tequila before she got tired of watching big brands cut corners, so she built AgaveLuz, a certified organic tequila made with two ingredients. Her rule for anyone launching a product: "We don't wanna do things right now. We wanna do things right. So everything takes time." Pamela is from Mexico and has worked in spirits sales for over two decades, in direct contact with the people who buy the bottles. She watched mass producers rush the process with additives, colorants and sweeteners, and decided to make the tequila she remembered. AgaveLuz uses only organic agave and water - no yeast added, open fermentation, agave grown seven to eight years - distilled by Las Americas, a family of organic farmers in Amatitán, Jalisco. Getting certified organic took passing over seventy tests. The full conversation is written up in the episode recap, and you can watch the full episode on YouTube. In this episode Three years to launch - labels, bottle design and approval of every word by the CRT, plus a bottle nobody wanted to make. Standing out among 4,000+ tequila brands in Southern California without competing with the celebrity labels. Giving back with every bottle - Pamela has rescued and cared for street cats in Los Angeles for years, and AgaveLuz donates to local animal rescues in California and Las Vegas. Why cause partnerships open doors - Jeremy on nonprofit marketing budgets and co-branded community cleanup events. In-person tastings and demos, with the founder working the table like a regular demo person. Genuine marketing versus AI slop, and why people are leaning back toward human connection. Las Vegas as a launchpad - partnering with the city's biggest rescue led to menus, out-of-state requests and new stores. Pet-owner influencers - a bottle and a doggy toy, and creators who make videos because they want to be part of it. Chapters (00:00) Pamela Maria De La Luz and AgaveLuz(01:48) Two ingredients and certified organic(03:17) Why mass-produced brands cut corners(05:17) Three years to launch: labels, the CRT and a bottle nobody would make(06:16) 4,000+ tequila brands in Southern California(07:07) Animal rescue and giving back with every bottle(08:39) Partnering with nonprofits for reach(15:25) In-person tastings and demos(16:20) Genuine marketing in the age of AI(17:55) New generations making smarter decisions(19:02) The real challenge: getting to the people(21:05) Las Vegas and the rescue partnership(22:21) In-house marketing and pet-owner influencers(23:40) Advice: do things right, not right now(27:07) Build it with love, not for a quick exit Notable quotes "The same the words is very easy. But to actually prove it and actually doing it, that's different." - Pamela Maria De La Luz "So we are with the biggest rescue in Las Vegas. That has been our key to open so many big doors." - Pamela Maria De La Luz "Starting a business thinking that you're gonna be a millionaire in the next few months and the next year and then sell...

  7. Oct 19

    Rich M. Smith - Growth Is Not an Accident or a Black Box

    Most buyers decide on emotion and justify it afterward. Rich M. Smith has been chief marketing officer of seven companies over 25 years, and at Rich M. Smith Growth Studio he helps founder-led businesses grow in a predictable, systematic way instead of by luck. On this episode of Unscripted Small Business, Rich and Jeremy Rivera get into why behavioral science explains so much of marketing, how to turn "web traffic is up" into a number a CEO cares about, what Rich learned as CMO of AIG Bank during the 2008 financial crisis, and why AI engines now work as your outsourced customer service and your outsourced sales team. Read the full recap: Growth Is Not an Accident. More from Rich on his blog. He also hosts The Revenue Science Podcast. In this episode Emotion first, logic second. Rich trained in classical economics and rational-actor theory. Behavioral science, and the 188 cognitive biases he cites, says people decide on emotion and rationalize later. More on psychology-based marketing. Framing is not manipulation. The ground beef test: 10% fat or 90% fat free. Same product, honest framing. Speak CEO. Swap "web traffic is up 15%" for "we increased potential demand by 15%," then talk about conversion. Rich wrote it up as think like a marketer, talk like a CEO. Attribution you can defend. Controlled regional tests, a multi-channel attribution model built on tested assumptions, and why you should give paid some credit for organic. The AIG Bank decision. Keep a tarnished brand everyone knows, or rebrand to one nobody knows. Rich kept it, and the bank was back to profitability within 18 months. Authenticity equals credibility. Never make up an answer. Say what you're going to do, then do it. AI as outsourced sales. Why third-party mentions, reviews, local press and podcast appearances carry more weight with AI engines than your own website. Answer the problems customers already have. The HubSpot example, and what a Nashville pool company should be publishing. Chapters (00:00) Rich's 25 years and seven CMO seats (01:13) Why people decide on emotion and rationalize later (05:47) Is marketing manipulation? (07:02) Translating marketing-speak into CEO-speak (11:38) Attribution when you can't see everything (17:52) AIG Bank, 2008, and the rebrand decision (23:54) Authenticity equals credibility (27:22) The ground beef framing test (28:08) AI as outsourced customer service and outsourced sales (33:50) Third-party validation and what AI engines weigh (36:15) Answer the problems your customers already have (39:08) Growth is not an accident (41:22) Where to find Rich Notable quotes "We make emotional decisions and then we rationalize them later and we tell ourselves that those are rational decisions." - Rich M. Smith "What is being said about you, what you put...

    Rich M. Smith - Growth Is Not an Accident or a Black Box

  8. Oct 18

    Your Name in Every Box - Neil Thubron on Leading and Selling Outcomes

    Neil Thubron is an executive coach, the creator of the Whiteboard Value Selling methodology and the founder of XNRG. His last corporate role had 450 salespeople and a 1.6 billion target. Today he works with founders whose business can't run without them, and with sales teams stuck in product-led pitches. Read the full write-up on the Unscripted Small Business recap of this episode. What we cover Why Neil has founders draw an org chart "even if your name's in every single one of those leadership roles" Bringing in a fractional CFO, then a CMO, then a fractional board Values and standards: "people are not mind-readers" Logos, pathos and ethos value, and why B2C buyers lean on pathos and ethos Moving from a technical sales conversation to a business outcomes conversation Internal ambassadors in B2B deals Why intent decides the sale, and why he still wants salespeople motivated by money Where AI should replace tasks, and the human piece it can't Three kinds of value Neil borrows from Aristotle. Logos value is the commercial benefit, the part that goes into the business case and the effect on EBITDA. Pathos value is how you make someone feel during the process and after they buy. Ethos is trust in you and your brand. B2B deals need all three; B2C purchases often skip the business case entirely. Intent over technique Jeremy asks whether being honest with a client and getting paid are in conflict. Neil's answer: "If you're there to help someone and your genuine intent is to do that, then you will be successful." He wants money-motivated salespeople, but you can't sell something to someone who doesn't need it more than once. AI and the human piece Neil's advice to owners under pressure is to ask where AI can take over tasks so the team can focus on higher value work. Only 7% of communication is the words, and "AI can do 7%." The tone and the physiology are still yours. Connect with Neil at neilthubron.com or on LinkedIn.

    Your Name in Every Box - Neil Thubron on Leading and Selling Outcomes
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About

Our Unscripted Collaborative hosts Keith Bresee, Zaneta Chuniq, Keiron Bailey & 17 year SEO industry expert Jeremy Rivera are having unscripted interviews small business owners, founders and creators across the United States, learning about their challenges, successes and insights into the world of SMBs.

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