Dynamic Decisions Podcast

ALIVE Podcast Network
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

🎙️ Welcome to Dynamic Decisions – where the best decisions start with great conversations. Hosted by Teasha Cable, CEO of CModel, this show dives into the stories, strategies, and decisions behind some of the most innovative leaders in business today. Each episode, we sit down with visionaries who are leveraging data to rethink the status quo, solve complex challenges, and create lasting impact in their fields. Tune in to discover how top leaders are using data to transform their businesses—and how you can too.  Learn more: cmodel.io

  1. She Used Data to Add More Love to the World. It Closed the Achievement Gap.

    5d ago

    She Used Data to Add More Love to the World. It Closed the Achievement Gap.

    Dr. Bernadette Howlett has spent her career at the intersection most people don't think about: where data science, machine learning, and human-centered education meet.  As Operations Analytics and Experiential Product Director at Western Governors University, she leads a team using predictive modeling and decision intelligence to help students finish the credentials they started faster, with better outcomes, and with less debt.   Her mission has a name: Stop the drop with debt Because a student who leaves without a credential but with loan payments is the worst possible outcome and it's preventable.   In this conversation, Dr. B breaks down how WGU deploys a 78-feature predictive mode to:  Flag student momentum Surface personalized faculty outreach through a language model called FOME (Faculty Outreach Message Engine) Uses social norming principles to nudge students toward action The faculty always reviews and can modify before anything goes out.  The human is always in the loop.   She also shares the lesson that almost derailed the whole system: well-intentioned SLA dashboards that faculty loved in theory and resented in practice because managers turned them into performance metrics.  The fix? Remove the dashboard entirely when they launched decision intelligence.   Other highlights from the conversation: How WGU reduced accreditation reporting from weeks to hours without removing human verification The employer who stood up in a meeting and said flatly, "We don't trust you" and why Dr. B thinks he was right Her decision-making persona breakdown: 50% values, 30% strategy, 10% contrarian, 10% evidence-based Why she calls evidence-based practice "the vessels that feed the heart"   If you work in higher ed, workforce development, or anywhere humans are trying to use data to help other humans, this one's for you. cmodel.io

    49 min
  2. Paul Revere Didn't Follow the Playbook

    Jun 22

    Paul Revere Didn't Follow the Playbook

    Lexington, Massachusetts is the birthplace of American Liberty and home to nearly three million square feet of life sciences space a sector now decentralizing and forcing a hard rethink of the town's economic future. Sandhya Iyer, Tourism and Economic Development Director, joins host Teasha Cable to talk about leading economic development where history is both a competitive asset and a complicating factor. In this episode: why converting vacant lab space to workforce housing is a long-term play, not a concession; the difference between historic preservation and historic character; and why competing with neighboring communities by copying them is a losing strategy. Sandhya also walks through her decision-making persona: 40% values-driven feeler, 30% data interpreter, 20% long-range planner, 10% assumption challenger. Her core belief: it's not the numbers that tell the story, it's how you narrate them to your community. If you work in economic development, municipal leadership, or regional strategy, this one will make you rethink what a "win" actually looks like.

    33 min
  3. Founder Drag Is Killing Your Growth. Here's the Fix.

    Jun 18

    Founder Drag Is Killing Your Growth. Here's the Fix.

    Jason Jackson has spent more than two decades walking into companies that have built something real and then gotten stuck. As founder and operating partner at Redwood Ridge Strategies, he specializes in diagnosing the operational constraints that prevent growth-stage SaaS companies from scaling past product-market fit. And more often than not, the constraint has a title: Founder. In this episode, Jason joins Teasha Cable to unpack what he calls "founder drag," the invisible pattern where the very behaviors that built a company begin to cap its growth. He shares real examples, including a founder answering customer emails at 1am with the wrong name on them, and explains how he helps leaders see the bottleneck they've become, then systematically build the systems and team capability to grow without them. The conversation covers: How Jason used an LLM-based support system at Suzy to cut $1.5 million in annual overhead, while simultaneously moving team members into higher-value, higher-growth roles instead of eliminating their jobs.Why the per-seat SaaS pricing model is losing relevance and how to gather the willingness-to-pay data you actually need to build a pricing philosophy that fits today's market.The difference between sales-led and product-led growth, and why PLG demands a fundamentally different relationship between your product and your customer.What sustainable consulting actually looks like, including why Jason deliberately builds clients who don't need him anymore. If you lead a growth-stage company, or advise one, this episode will reframe how you think about where your real constraints live.

    36 min
  4. Why You Should Stop Paying Venture Capital Management Fees

    Jun 15

    Why You Should Stop Paying Venture Capital Management Fees

    Ryan Baird is third-generation Silicon Valley. His grandfather held patents with Lockheed. His parents retired from HP.  And Ryan spent his career managing $50M+ clients at Morgan Stanley, running a hedge fund, raising $35M for his own startup in Southeast Asia, and eventually building Baird Augustine an investment bank working with 38 family offices deploying over $20 billion annually. In this episode of Dynamic Decisions, host Teasha Cable sits down with Ryan for a candid conversation about institutional finance, and why so much of what people assume about investing is flat-out wrong. Here's what they dig into: Venture capital is the hardest asset class Velocity of capital beats yield Recycling management fees is a philosophy, not a tactic Curating for quality changes everything  Ryan's investor community Focus on Risk, and the annual Silicon Valley Economic Forum, exist because most startup events are built for founders, not investors. The solution wasn't better marketing. It was inverting the model entirely. If you're in capital markets, economic development, or just trying to understand how serious institutional money actually moves, this conversation is essential listening.

    53 min
  5. The Servant Leader's Secret to Doubling Revenue in 90 Days

    Jun 10

    The Servant Leader's Secret to Doubling Revenue in 90 Days

    What happens when you combine servant leadership with a hard-charging startup mentality?  Serial entrepreneur David Guttman shares his formula for doubling revenue in 90 days by putting people first.  In this podcast, youll learn: How to empower your team through bottoms-up financial ownership Surface game-changing insights through 1:1s Build trust through transparent decision-making Align everyone around a data-driven growth mission Whether you're in a scrappy startup or an established enterprise, Guttman's battle-tested servant leadership playbook can help you unlock massive results.  Tune in to learn how to serve your way to hockey-stick growth, without sacrificing your values. Your team (and your bottom line) will thank you.

    40 min
  6. Ribbon-Cutting Announcement, or Real Economic Transformation?

    Jun 8

    Ribbon-Cutting Announcement, or Real Economic Transformation?

    Most economic development wins are measured in ribbon cuttings. Jeremy Stratton measures them in decades. In this episode of the Dynamic Decisions Podcast, host Teasha Cable sits down with Jeremy Stratton, Director of Economic Development for the City of Griffin, Georgia. With nearly 30 years spanning municipal government, Chamber of Commerce leadership, and private sector logistics, Jeremy has a perspective most people in his field never get: he's been on all sides of the table. His track record: 16 corporate relocations, 9 expansions, 2,500 jobs, and $310 million in capital investment during his tenure in Danville, Virginia alone. But the numbers aren't the story. The decisions behind them are. Here's what this episode covers: The 10% Rule. Why Jeremy caps change at 10% per year, and why leaders who ignore this spend all their energy fighting the people they're supposed to be leading.The Land Play Nobody Saw Coming. How quietly assembling 3,500 acres with no press release eventually anchored an $800M casino that nobody predicted.Griffin's Strategy. How a city 50 miles from Atlanta stays competitive without racing every other small city to the bottom on incentives.Chamber vs. City. What Jeremy learned running a chamber that was losing money, and what government can do that chambers never could.Who Gets a Yes. Why Jeremy turns down deals, what he's actually reading when a company comes to town, and how he spots the ones that won't last. If you work in economic development, civic leadership, or regional planning, this conversation will change how you think about what "winning" actually looks like. Subscribe and share!

    28 min
  7. What Happens When a Debt Collector Runs a Manufacturing Floor?

    Jun 2

    What Happens When a Debt Collector Runs a Manufacturing Floor?

    Sean Greenhouse didn't come from manufacturing. He came from debt collections. And that unconventional path is exactly why Lenita Design and Manufacturing is still standing today. Sean is the Chief Operating Officer at Lenita Design and Manufacturing Corporation in Buffalo, New York a company that fabricates complex, engineered-to-order water control equipment for hydroelectric infrastructure. He joined as a sales manager in 2012, two weeks before the company nearly collapsed. He stayed, rebuilt, and never left. In this episode, Teasha Cable and Sean dig into: - How Sean took a near-bankrupt industrial manufacturer from break-even to a $35 million project backlog without a traditional manufacturing background - The decision to slash six product lines at once, and why narrowing focus was the move that made growth possible - How Lenita went from 13 shop employees to 30+ to execute two massive infrastructure contracts simultaneously - Why relationship-driven leadership was considered "soft" in heavy steel fabrication and why Sean did it anyway - The surprising parallels between being a good COO, a good salesperson, and a good actor - Sean's decision-making DNA: 60% values-driven, 23% challenger of assumptions, and unafraid to say most of his best calls came from gut instinct backed by 14 years of industry knowledge Sean also opens up about getting sober in 2009, and how turning around his own life gave him the conviction that he could turn around a company. If you lead a team, run an operation, or have ever been told your background doesn't fit the role this one is for you.

    44 min
  8. Stop Chasing Smokestacks. Grow What You Have.

    May 27

    Stop Chasing Smokestacks. Grow What You Have.

    Most rural communities have a comprehensive plan. Very few have one that changes anything.   John Shepard, AICP, has spent 30 years in planning and economic development across the Midwest and Mountain States, and he has seen more plans collect dust than he cares to count.  They make great doorstops. In this episode, he makes the case that the failure isn't in the strategy, it's in how plans get built, adopted, and forgotten.   Key tensions this episode gets into:   Why zoning codes written decades ago are quietly blocking the businesses rural towns need most, and why enforcement is often politically impossible even when the code is clear What made Burwell, Nebraska's award-winning plan actually implementable, and why it came down to one person who had real skin in the game The difference between a comprehensive plan and a doorstop, and why the thickness of the document is inversely related to the likelihood it gets used How rural economic development shifted from "smokestack chasing" to "economic gardening," and why most small towns still haven't made the switch Why the data rural leaders need to measure success often doesn't exist below the county level, and who is trying to fix that   You'll leave this episode with a sharper sense of what separates the communities that execute from the ones that plan and wait.

    45 min
See All (111)

About

🎙️ Welcome to Dynamic Decisions – where the best decisions start with great conversations. Hosted by Teasha Cable, CEO of CModel, this show dives into the stories, strategies, and decisions behind some of the most innovative leaders in business today. Each episode, we sit down with visionaries who are leveraging data to rethink the status quo, solve complex challenges, and create lasting impact in their fields. Tune in to discover how top leaders are using data to transform their businesses—and how you can too.  Learn more: cmodel.io

Information

More From ALIVE Podcast Network

You Might Also Like