Decline Invite Podcast

Decline Invite

The only invite worth accepting!

  1. Sep 29

    The Power of NonProfits with angela Burgess

    Summary: Ryan Drumheller sits down with Angela Burgess, a nonprofit coach, professional speaker, two-time TEDx speaker, best-selling author, and president and CEO of Broad Oaks Consulting. They dig into fundraising, nonprofit branding, the great wealth transfer, and why small acts of generosity can create real change. Angela brings a rare mix of wealth management experience and nonprofit leadership, which makes her take on fundraising practical, ethical, and people-centered. If you work in nonprofits, leadership, sales, or any role that depends on trust and storytelling, this conversation is packed with useful perspective. Timestamps 00:00 - Introducing Angela Burgess and her nonprofit leadership background 01:03 - Why she would decline a nonprofit gala invitation 02:02 - Why foster care is especially close to her heart 03:28 - Why she prefers the TEDx stage over the boardroom 04:46 - What 25-year-old Angie thought her career would become 05:32 - Lessons wealth management taught her about money and people 07:52 - Why making wealthy people wealthier felt empty 11:26 - The career shift into nonprofit planned giving 16:42 - A key lesson for anyone considering a major career change 19:12 - What fundraising really is beyond asking for money 20:12 - Why donor needs should come before organizational needs 22:00 - The ethical way to handle a donor who is not a fit 24:22 - What the great wealth transfer means for nonprofits 26:15 - How deeply nonprofits shape everyday life 27:37 - Why nonprofit funding is more concentrated than people realize 31:29 - The one thing she would fix in a nonprofit first: branding 34:44 - Why nonprofit leaders struggle to tell their story 37:25 - Building systems instead of trying to teach everything 40:20 - Why nonprofits are more like small businesses than people think 41:31 - The idea behind her TEDx talk on humanness and change 45:48 - What it means to deploy your humanness in practical ways 49:42 - Moments that confirmed her work was making a difference 53:29 - Why leaders should decline more time-sucking commitments 58:35 - The best advice she has ever received 59:42 - The one takeaway she hopes listeners remember Guest: Angela Burgess: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelaburgesshtx/ Broad Oaks Consulting: http://www.broadoakconsulting.com/ Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHL7R6CM?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback Host: Ryan Drumheller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-drumheller/

  2. Sep 25

    No One Is Normal with Brad H. Hill

    Summary: Ryan Drumheller speaks with Brad H. Hill, author of No One is Normal and host of No One Is Normal, about adversity, recovery, leadership, and why chasing “normal” can keep people stuck. Brad shares deeply personal lessons from alcohol misuse, domestic violence recovery in his family, and the long process of rebuilding identity through honesty, journaling, and ownership. We discuss how setbacks reshape careers and relationships, why excuses block growth, and how resilience is built through action, not perfection. This is a vulnerable, practical conversation about accepting reality, telling the truth about where you are, and taking one step at a time. Timestamps 00:00 - Why chasing “normal” can hold people back 03:10 - A strange hotel convention story that became a lasting lesson 07:06 - Why there is no real normal 10:05 - How the book is structured around memory and reflection 13:50 - Journaling, trauma, and recovery after abuse 16:50 - Why sharing the story is worth the judgment 19:25 - Red flags, isolation, and seeing the warning signs sooner 21:30 - What rock bottom looked like in practice 23:23 - The OWI that forced a reckoning 26:34 - Why starting over is never a straight line 31:51 - How excuses keep people stuck 35:36 - Rebuilding identity after major setbacks 38:39 - Why failure is part of progress 42:25 - Resilience, scars, and making change one step at a time 44:43 - Why leaders struggle with vulnerability 48:05 - How company culture shapes difficult seasons 49:48 - The leadership lesson of not fearing failure 52:16 - Best advice: what people think about you is none of your concern 53:04 - Adversity teaches resilience 54:13 - Success means helping other people succeed 56:54 - What to do tomorrow morning if you feel stuck 59:30 - Brad’s closing message: you were meant to be you Guest: Brad H. Hill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-h-hill-1baaa33ab/ Website: https://www.bradhhill.com Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G2TD8FZF?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback Host: Ryan Drumheller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-drumheller/

  3. Sep 22

    From Freelance Writer to a $100M MedTech Exit with James Lang

    Summary: AI adoption, leadership, and building company-specific intelligence with James Lang Ryan Drumheller talks with James Lang about how businesses should actually approach AI, not as a shiny tool rollout, but as a leadership, culture, and systems problem. They dig into why the best AI strategy starts with people, process, governance, and context, then moves into tools only after the use case is clear. James shares how he thinks about AI as a force multiplier for business owners, why ownership of data and infrastructure matters, and how companies can avoid the trap of vendor lock-in and bad implementations. Timestamps 00:00 - James Lang’s background and why he treats AI as a business problem 01:18 - Every business owner’s best friend: solving patterns without replacing people 02:49 - What people misunderstand about AI right now 03:19 - From models to orchestration across tools and contexts 06:12 - Why data islands and privacy matter in regulated industries 07:16 - Perplexity for citations, research, and human-like drafting 10:10 - Governance, sign-off, and avoiding bad AI outputs 11:37 - Why citation quality matters in legal and research workflows 13:57 - Buzzwords that do not belong in leadership meetings 14:50 - Creating a culture where people can actually speak up 18:24 - Fake friendliness versus real leadership 20:47 - “Unfucking a situation” and solving the system, not blaming people 25:13 - Chris Voss, Simon Sinek, and asking better questions 27:08 - Why prompting AI is like setting up a teammate for success 28:43 - Back to basics: project plans, quick wins, and adoption readiness 31:54 - Why adoption timelines are improving but still take real effort 33:04 - Fear-based AI rollouts and why they damage trust 34:01 - Why the heart of a teacher matters in AI consulting 35:07 - Mandates, KPIs, and the companies doing AI badly 36:30 - Bring the right people into governance and training 39:18 - The old “smartphones can do everything” hype and AI marketing today 41:12 - Why you should not outsource your brain to the machine 42:08 - AI as a thought partner for drafting, organizing, and researching 44:45 - Creativity, vision, and why AI still needs human direction 45:50 - How layoffs and consulting cycles can be hidden behind AI narratives 50:30 - Speaking CFO and making a case for AI with real business value 55:16 - The healthier model: let employees choose tools, measure usage and value 58:28 - Future-proofing employees by collaborating and automating pain points 61:45 - James’ most exciting AI use case: handling mom’s text messages and insurance workflows 64:28 - Why the real win is giving humans more creative time 68:42 - The one thing leaders should focus on: people, questions, and removing friction 71:35 - Where to find James Lang and learn more about Overlang Guest: James Lang: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-overlang/ OverLang Venture Partners: https://www.overlang.com/ Host: Ryan Drumheller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-drumheller/

  4. Sep 18

    Why data often misleads leaders, and how to ask better questions with Philippa Gamse

    Summary: Ryan Drumheller speaks with Philippa Gamse, a digital analytics expert who has reviewed more than 5,000 websites over 25 years and written Website Wealth. The conversation focuses on a simple but important idea: the numbers may be accurate, but the conclusions people draw from them are often incomplete. We discuss how to separate real business value from surface-level metrics, why AI reporting needs human judgment, and how leaders can spot hidden opportunities in website data before they get missed. Timestamps 00:00 - Why this episode matters: data is not always the problem 01:18 - What drew Philippa into analytics and digital strategy 04:42 - The danger of only reading page-one dashboard metrics 06:23 - Why humans obsess over bad news in reports 10:12 - When agencies report success but miss the business outcome 12:19 - The difference between correct data and the wrong question 13:44 - Why content and products can be “obvious” only to insiders 16:03 - Site search as hidden market research 17:13 - Why context matters more than raw numbers 18:13 - Seasonal sales drops and why AI may flag but not explain them 20:35 - A paid ads case where the real problem was elsewhere 22:30 - Sales friction in the signup form, not the ad campaign 25:59 - Using Claude to scan websites, then applying human judgment 28:42 - How visitor behavior reveals unmet product demand 30:12 - Turning consumer interest into a side e-commerce business 32:22 - Another opportunity: 34:48 - Why teams may miss value when they only trust their own reporting 37:50 - “Death by data” and the risk of analysis paralysis 38:16 - Why video view counts can hide massive drop-off after the first minute 41:52 - AI hallucinations and the need to verify what it tells you 42:48 - Screen recordings uncover a form bug AI could not diagnose 47:15 - The questions leaders should ask before major analytics-driven decisions 49:24 - What success looks like for Philippa now 51:46 - Where to connect with Philippa and book a decision confidence call Guest: Philippa Gamse: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippagamse/ Website: http://www.websitesthatwin.com/ Website Wealth Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FCDN68P9?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback Host: Ryan Drumheller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-drumheller/

  5. Sep 15

    AI Implementation, Change Management, and People Resistance with Ted Wolf

    Summary: AI Implementation Is a Human Problem This episode explores why AI initiatives fail when businesses treat them like a technology rollout instead of a people and leadership challenge. Ryan Drumheller is joined by Ted Wolf, co-founder and CEO of GuideWise and author of The Intelligent Business Equation, who shares lessons from scaling an IT staffing company from two people and $1,000 to 650 employees, and how those lessons apply directly to AI adoption. They break down why business operations, technology, and people have to improve together, why leadership drift quietly breaks alignment, and why the future belongs to organizations that build trust, clarity, and critical thinking into their AI strategy. Timestamps 00:00 - Why AI implementation is really a human challenge 01:27 - How Ted built a 650-person company from two employees 02:30 - Why change initiatives and AI pilots fail so often 04:53 - Lessons from earlier technology cycles and why AI is different 09:08 - The turning point: business problems are rarely just operational 10:36 - The three forces that shape business value 13:03 - What Ted means by an intelligent business 14:57 - ROI from AI and why returns can compound fast 16:05 - Demographics, labor shortages, and why AI matters to workforce supply 20:04 - Why humans still drive the AI outcome 24:46 - Leadership drift and how organizations lose alignment 27:13 - Trust, clarity, and ownership as the core of leadership 30:35 - Why AI fails when business processes are weak 33:36 - AI as a new way of thinking, not just a tool 35:05 - Why AI creates a continuous input-process-output loop 36:03 - Victor Frankl, response, and human awareness 42:46 - Building an intelligent business with five closes and better project management 46:54 - Why AI can hurt when it is implemented without judgment 48:32 - Working through setbacks and turning difficulty into growth 52:35 - Why people should embrace AI instead of fear it 54:28 - Where to find Ted Wolf and GuideWise Guest: Ted Wolf: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedwolftwo/ Guidewise: guidewise.ai Email: ted@guidewise.ai Host: Ryan Drumheller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-drumheller/

  6. Sep 11

    Leadership, Fractional CTO Work, AI, and Cybersecurity with Kevin Carlson

    Summary: Ryan Drumheller sits down with Kevin Carlson, fractional CTO, CISO, executive coach, and partner at Tech CXO, for a practical conversation about the realities behind executive technology leadership. They cover why so many business issues are really people and process issues, how fractional leadership works in practice, and where companies keep getting AI and security wrong. Timestamps (00:00) Intro to the episode and Kevin Carlson’s background (01:34) How Kevin’s career evolved from developer to CTO and CISO (03:09) Why leadership became just as important as technology (04:33) Learning workplace psychology, coaching, and executive presence (07:20) Why most business problems are process and people problems (11:56) Why fractional executive roles have grown so quickly (14:14) How AI accelerated the appeal of fractional leadership (17:53) Leaders becoming the team’s backup system (21:02) Where companies get AI implementation wrong (24:38) Experimenting with AI versus operationalizing it (27:00) Data privacy and security risks in AI adoption (33:06) Where leadership teams underestimate cyber risk (36:32) How executives should think about AI governance and security (40:57) The hardest part of moving technologists into executive roles (44:47) The most underrated leadership trait (47:12) What success means to Kevin today (50:19) Where to find Kevin and what he has coming up Guest: Kevin Carlson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevincarlson/ TechCXO: : https://www.linkedin.com/company/techcxo Executive Shift Newsletter Weber's Law, Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H49ZZKNN/?bestFormat=true&k=weber%27s%20law&ref_=nb_sb_ss_w_scx-ent-bk-v2_k0_1_11_de&crid=1M3S51D7AT0H9&sprefix=Weber%27s%20Law Host: Ryan Drumheller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-drumheller/

  7. Sep 9

    Why Most AI Projects Fail at Deployment with Fergus Dwyer-Smith

    Episode Summary Ryan Drumheller talks with Fergus Dyer-Smith about enterprise AI adoption, governance, agentic systems, vendor dependency, and why real-world implementation matters more than the model itself. Key Topics Fergus’s path from science to technology and product building Why AI deployment fails more often than AI development The role of change management and human adoption Why most organizations are not ready for AI governance Agents, memory, tools, and orchestration Vendor lock-in and model-agnostic strategy Leadership’s role in successful AI adoption What success means in a rapidly changing AI era Guest Fergus Dyer-Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fergusdyersmith/ CPO, MSQ Global Studios: https://www.linkedin.com/company/msq-partners/ Host Ryan Drumheller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-drumheller/

  8. Aug 2

    Upgrading Your Internal Operating System with Ofer Lidsky

    Summary In this episode of Decline Invite, Ryan Drumheller speaks with Ofer Lidsky, founder and CEO of Excellent Brain, about the intersection of neurotechnology, ADHD, leadership, and AI. Ofer explains how neurofeedback works as a brain-training method that uses real-time brainwave feedback to improve attention and cognitive performance, especially for people with ADHD. The conversation also explores the difference between the human brain and AI, the risks of overreliance on technology, and why integrity, empathy, and human connection remain essential in leadership. Chapters 0:00 — Intro and guest introduction 1:54 — Ofer’s early tech background 3:24 — Discovering the brain as a system 7:24 — “Upgrading the human operating system” 10:43 — Technology and attention spans 18:07 — What neurofeedback is 21:41 — ADHD, statistics, and real-life impact 29:03 — The future of neurotechnology 31:10 — How AI is accelerating the space 35:19 — Brain training, fitness, and cognitive decline 38:19 — Leadership lessons from human connection 44:41 — Integrity and mental performance 46:23 — Defining success 47:46 — Advice for people with ADHD 49:54 — Where to learn more about Excellent Brain 50:38 — Outro Links Website: https://www.excellent-brain.com Ofer's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oferlidsky/ Host: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-drumheller/

See All (42)

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

The only invite worth accepting!

Information

  • Creator
    Decline Invite
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    42
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Decline Invite
  • Show Website
    Decline Invite Podcast