Ground Control: Sponsored by RocketDocs

RocketDocs

Prepare for liftoff! Welcome to Ground Control, the podcast where we navigate the high-velocity frontier of enterprise innovation. Sponsored by RocketDocs and LUMA, we serve as your mission-critical link to the future. In a world where the "noise" of emerging tech can feel like a chaotic meteor shower, we provide the steady trajectory and expert navigation needed to keep your organization on course. We aren't just talking about what’s next; we’re analyzing the propulsion systems: AI, proposals, and governance, that will get you there. Each episode, we strap in with industry pioneers and tech visionaries to explore the core pillars of your mission: The AI Stratosphere: Moving beyond the "blue sky" dreaming to the actual mechanics of enterprise AI and automation.Proposal Trajectory: How to optimize your response engines to win more business at orbital speeds.The Tech Stack Command Center: Auditing your digital infrastructure to ensure every tool is mission-capable and ready for scale.Security & Governance Shields: Hardening your defenses against the atmospheric pressure of modern data risks and regulatory shifts. Whether you’re a CTO overseeing a fleet of legacy systems or a proposal lead looking for a boost, Ground Control is your source for the intelligence, security, and strategy required to break through the status quo. The future is approaching at Mach speed. Don't let your mission drift. Initiate sequence. This is Ground Control.

  1. -19 h

    When AI Promises What Your Product Can't Do | Daniel Rock

    Daniel Rock did not choose sales. He was an IT manager who realized he liked the business problem more than the technology, phoned his own telecom account manager, and six weeks later was selling IT with no sales experience at all. Twenty years on he is chief revenue officer at Suite Files, and his argument is that curiosity, not polish, is what separates good sellers from replaceable ones. In this episode of Ground Control, the podcast on AI, proposals, and governance sponsored by RocketDocs, hosts Perry Robinson and Bryan Jenkins talk with Daniel about why most reps ask a list of discovery questions and never the question after that, what AI is genuinely good at versus where it quietly invents commitments your product cannot keep, the real cost of stale answer libraries and security questionnaires, and how to write a follow up that is not "just checking in." His line for the whole thing: curiosity is a salesperson's superpower. Connect with Daniel Rock: → Work with Daniel: https://danielrock.co → LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielrock/ Find Ground Control: → Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098 → Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA → YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075 → All episodes: https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast Find RocketDocs: The response management platform built for regulated industries - trusted since 1994. → Website: https://rocketdocs.com → Book a demo: https://rocketdocs.com/demo → LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs

    When AI Promises What Your Product Can't Do | Daniel Rock

  2. 7 août

    How to Win B2B Proposals Using Behavioral Science | Will Leach

    Most B2B proposals lose before anyone reads a word of the pricing. In this episode of Ground Control, the podcast on AI, proposals, and governance sponsored by RocketDocs, host Perry Robinson talks with Will Leach, best-selling author of Marketing to Mind States and founder and CEO of the Mind State Group. A former military engineer turned behavioral scientist, Will spent 25 years studying why people really buy and the answer is almost never the reason they give you. The core lesson: 95% of decisions are made below conscious awareness, inside temporary emotional states Will calls mind states. Identify the four factors behind one goals, motivation, regulatory approach, and cognitive biases and you can write a proposal, email, or RFP response that fits how the reader actually decides, instead of competing on features. Along the way Will covers the PULL framework for qualifying real opportunities, how he uses AI to embed psychological cues in his deliverables, the graphic-novel trick that makes buyers feel like the hero, selling to committees you never meet, and Bevi, his behavioral intelligence system that lets brands ask a virtual customer what it thinks. His closing line: all we did was put science around intuition. Connect with Will Leach Work with Will: https://mindstategroup.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-leach/ Get the book (Marketing to Mind States): https://a.co/d/0cnopkoY Find Ground Control Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075 All episodes: https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast Find RocketDocs The response management platform built for regulated industries - trusted since 1994. Website: https://rocketdocs.com Book a demo: https://rocketdocs.com/demo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs

    How to Win B2B Proposals Using Behavioral Science | Will Leach

  3. 31 juil.

    AI Adoption vs. AI Governance: Why 57% of Companies Have Lost Control of Their Data

    An AI assistant that gave itself a phone number, and a startup that let a bot buy a $40,000 Davos delegacy. Host Perry Robinson and RocketDocs AI practitioner Bryan Jenkins use those stories to show that teams are adopting AI faster than they are governing it. They cover vendor diligence, data sovereignty, and the new Sovrinty partnership. The mantra: policy is a promise, architecture is a guarantee. Episode Chapters 00:00 Welcome + what's to come 00:25 What today's episode covers 00:58 AI adoption versus AI governance 02:11 The IAPP and EY study: 77% working on it, 57% not in control 03:59 Most people do not know how their AI handles data 04:45 Open-agent tools and losing control of AI 05:39 The assistant that gave itself a phone number 06:50 The startup AI that bought a $40k Davos delegacy 07:51 Marketing security claims versus reality 09:26 When "secure" is just a contract, and terms change 10:44 Read the privacy policy, not the marketing 13:15 You are the data: cheap AI, big deficits, lock-in 14:13 Trusting AI answers you know are wrong 15:35 Prompt injection in resumes and the proposal space 16:29 Both sides use AI: answering and evaluating RFPs 17:26 Asking ChatGPT how to evaluate AI vendors, and itself 19:34 Vendors that deflect the data flow question 20:58 ChatGPT's own no-go indicators 23:33 Why de-identified and aggregated is not enough 24:55 Court cases, legal holds, and "once it is out, it is out" 26:02 Policy is a promise, architecture is a guarantee 26:50 Contract terms flowing down: a financial services example 27:49 The overnight scramble to re-qualify a vendor 28:39 Coming enforcement actions and downstream fines 29:42 Defining data sovereignty 32:29 How little control most people actually have 33:37 Better AI results from controlling what it sees 35:18 Source citations and countering hallucination 36:06 Introducing Sovrinty: keeping knowledge current and approved 39:00 Portability, Glean, and 150 fractured repositories 41:27 Sovrinty versus Snowflake 45:29 Closing checklist: do real diligence, do not just rely on AI 46:40 Invest now in accurate AI sources 47:20 SOC 2 scope: is the AI even covered? 48:51 Ask for a data flow diagram and the vendor's AI contract terms 51:23 Think different: stay skeptical of AI 52:07 Keep your company's unique voice 53:15 Wrap-up and a call for listener stories Find Ground Control Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075 All episodes: https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast Find RocketDocs The response management platform built for regulated industries - trusted since 1994. Website: https://rocketdocs.com Book a demo: https://rocketdocs.com/demo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs

    AI Adoption vs. AI Governance: Why 57% of Companies Have Lost Control of Their Data

  4. 24 juil.

    The Human Discernment Enforcer: Winning Proposals in the AI Age (Juliet Fletcher)

    Juliet Fletcher has spent nearly 40 years in proposals and helped her clients win more than $1 billion in awards, but the experience that shaped everything came before she ever wrote one. As an intern for the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, she reviewed proposals for compliance and sat through panel hearings all the way through award. That reviewer's seat is her secret sauce: design your document so the evaluator can instantly find what they need, because if they have to hunt for it, they start to like you less. She and host Perry Robinson get into her "human discernment enforcer" mindset, why evidence beats AI-generated narrative, why a strong proposal writer is a persuasive communicator rather than a technical writer, and the bid/no-bid discipline that keeps you from chasing what you can't win. Her mantra: persuasive communication is never about you, it is about them - write without fear, edit without mercy. Episode Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Juliet Fletcher and her expertise 01:13 Juliet's background in proposal review and compliance 03:01 Designing proposals for reviewer ease 06:06 The human discernment enforcer mindset 07:47 The importance of evidence and proof points 11:07 Organizing proposal content as a database 14:35 Using AI tools for proposal drafting 19:00 Persuasive communication and storytelling 23:28 Challenges with AI-generated content 28:02 Engaging SMEs and making them feel valued 33:47 Starting early and learning from past proposals 39:11 Best practices for post-proposal analysis 44:11 Evaluating AI tools and competitive intelligence reports 51:20 Final advice and how to connect with Juliet Connect with Juliet Fletcher Work with Juliet: https://writingiseasy.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julietfletcherwritingiseasy/ Find Ground Control Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075 All episodes: https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast Find RocketDocs The response management platform built for regulated industries - trusted since 1994. Website: https://rocketdocs.com Book a demo: https://rocketdocs.com/demo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs

    The Human Discernment Enforcer: Winning Proposals in the AI Age (Juliet Fletcher)

  5. 10 juil.

    Leadership Lessons from the Battlefield, with David Fivecoat

    What can a 150-year-old cavalry defeat teach a modern RFP team racing against the clock? More than you'd think. In this episode of Ground Control, Perry Robinson sits down with David Fivecoat, a West Point graduate, 24-year Army veteran, executive coach, and author of Growing Your Grit, to explore how battlefield decision-making translates into everyday business leadership. David runs immersive leadership programs that take corporate teams to historic battle sites, from Gettysburg to the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where standing on the actual ground makes the lessons stick in a way no conference-room keynote can. Perry and David dig into Custer's fatal failure to adapt when the Native American coalition changed the rules of engagement, and why that's the perfect metaphor for leaders navigating AI and rapid change today. They unpack John Boyd's OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act) and why speed and a willingness to update your mental model matter more than ever when time kills deals. David also breaks down how to write a leader's intent that actually aligns an ad-hoc team, the discipline of real goal setting, and why the best leaders never stop studying their craft. Whether you're formally managing a team or just taking charge of the next big push, this conversation is packed with practical, hard-won ideas you can put to work tomorrow. Want a copy of David's book, Growing Your Grit? The first 20 listeners to email us (marketing@rocketdocs.com) or repost this episode on LinkedIn and tag @RocketDocs will get one. Learn more about David at TheFivecoatConsultingGroup.com or connect with him on LinkedIn (David Fivecoat / The Fivecoat Consulting Group). Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Leadership and Military History 01:39 The Concept of Staff Rides and Leadership Training 04:29 Experiential Learning on Battlefields 07:36 Lessons from the Battle of Gettysburg 10:33 The Battle of Little Bighorn: A Case Study 13:19 Adapting Leadership in Times of Change 16:33 The OODA Loop and Its Application 19:29 Time Management and Decision Making in Leadership 22:32 Crafting Effective Purpose Statements and End States 25:17 Measuring Success in Leadership 27:08 Developing Leadership Skills 32:09 The Importance of Self-Study 33:43 Understanding Grit and Purpose 37:09 Effective Goal Setting 39:52 Writing and Publishing a Book 48:12 Connecting with David Fivecoat

    Leadership Lessons from the Battlefield, with David Fivecoat

  6. 3 juil.

    Designing AI You Can Actually Trust, with Dr. Craig Kaplan

    What happens when guardrails aren't enough? On this episode of Ground Control, host Perry sits down with Dr. Craig Kaplan, cognitive psychologist, AI researcher, and founder of SuperIntelligence.com, for a wide-ranging conversation on why safety has to be built into AI's architecture, not bolted on after the fact. Craig's path into AI started as an undergraduate studying psychobiology, which led him to Carnegie Mellon, where he worked alongside Nobel laureate Herbert Simon, one of the field's founding figures. From there he founded IQ Company in 1993 and, later, Predict Wall Street, a crowdsourced hedge fund built on a simple but radical bet: that the aggregated opinions of millions of everyday retail investors could outperform the best-funded quant researchers on Wall Street. It worked. The fund ranked in the top 10 of its class before Craig sold the company in 2020, having proven what he calls collective intelligence in the most competitive arena imaginable. That experience became the foundation for how Craig thinks about AI safety today. He argues that the dominant approach to building large language models, pouring in more data and compute to create ever-larger "black box" systems, is fundamentally the wrong design. Guardrails added after training are a losing game of whack-a-mole: easy to jailbreak, impossible to fully patch. Instead, Craig makes the case for something closer to a democracy than a dictator: architectures built from many smaller, checkable intelligences that create transparency, checks and balances, and distributed power, the same qualities that make human institutions resilient to bad actors. Perry and Craig also dig into what this means practically for businesses adopting AI: why companies should never rely on a single model for mission-critical decisions, how to make sure a company's own values and ethics get explicitly built into the systems it deploys, and what obligations companies have to be transparent with employees and customers about where their AI comes from and how it's being used. The conversation closes with a rapid-fire round covering Craig's revised AGI timeline, what Herbert Simon might make of his work today, and why Craig believes the data shows humanity's track record is better than the doomer narrative suggests, if we can just get AI to match our values. Guest: Dr. Craig Kaplan, LinkedIn | SuperIntelligence.com 0:00 Introduction: Meet Dr. Craig Kaplan 0:50 From Psychobiology to AI: Studying Under Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon 3:06 Founding IQ Company in 1993 4:06 The Three Eras of AI: Symbolic, Machine Learning, and Reasoning 7:58 Quantifying the Pace of AI Progress 10:15 Predict Wall Street: Proving Collective Intelligence in the Markets 16:22 Why AI Guardrails Fail: An Ounce of Prevention 23:07 Designing Safer AI: Black Boxes vs. Democratic Architecture 29:13 Sovereign Intelligence and Owning Your Data 34:36 Bounded Rationality and the Case for Mixture of Experts AI 40:53 What Do Companies Owe Users About Their AI? 49:27 Rapid Fire: Predictions, Regrets, and Final Thoughts

    Designing AI You Can Actually Trust, with Dr. Craig Kaplan

  7. 18 juin

    From the DOD to the Boardroom: Jonathan Maddock on Systems, Founders, and Scaling Smart

    What does it mean to be "suffocated by success" and how do you break free? In this episode of Ground Control, Perry Robinson sits down with Jonathan Maddock, a systems engineer turned program manager turned attorney with nearly 30 years inside the Department of Defense. Jonathan brings a rare perspective forged at the intersection of military leadership, government bureaucracy, and commercial enterprise, where competing priorities are the norm and alignment is the mission. Jonathan shares the thinking behind his book Suffocated by Success, exploring how founders and leaders unknowingly become the bottleneck in their own organizations. Drawing on his engineering and legal backgrounds, he breaks down why every business, no matter the size or industry, is a system of systems, and what happens when leaders fail to treat it that way. Perry Robinson and Jonathan dig into founder ego, the temptation to jump in and solve every problem, and why the fastest path to sustainable growth often requires slowing down first. Jonathan uses a simple but powerful analogy: letting your kids struggle through the wrong answer on their homework so they actually learn how to find their way back. The same principle applies to building a resilient team and a scalable business. The conversation also covers the role of AI in managing complex systems, how RocketDocs and businesses like it can benefit from systems thinking, how to distinguish between self-imposed urgency and real constraints, and why patience is not the opposite of speed but the foundation of it. Jonathan closes with a message that goes beyond business strategy and operational efficiency: a reminder that each of us is our own system of mind, body, and soul, and that mental health awareness, including being kind to yourself, is part of operating at your best. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to Jonathan Maddock's Background 05:32 The Concept of Being 'Suffocated by Success' 11:12 Understanding Systems in Business 16:38 The Role of Founders and Ego in Business 22:17 Integrating Engineering and Legal Systems 23:35 Understanding Legal Systems Through Engineering Principles 26:22 Breaking Down Complex Problems into Manageable Components 28:55 The Role of AI in System Management 32:38 Navigating Fragility in Business Systems 35:13 The Importance of Patience in System Development 36:35 Learning Through Challenges: The Founder’s Journey 39:27 Balancing Speed and Systematic Growth 43:35 Mental Health Awareness in System Management Connect with Jonathan on LinkedIn or visit fortivianstrata.com to learn more about his work and pick up a copy of the book. Ground Control is sponsored by RocketDocs, the response management platform built for regulated industries and trusted since 1994. RocketDocs helps teams in financial services, healthcare, life sciences, and enterprise tech streamline RFP responses, DDQ automation, security questionnaires, and sales proposals using private AI. RocketDocs is designed to help teams win more business faster without sacrificing compliance or quality. Learn more at rocketdocs.com.

    From the DOD to the Boardroom: Jonathan Maddock on Systems, Founders, and Scaling Smart

  8. 12 juin

    From Compliance to Contracts: Breaking Into the Government Space with Lori Crooks

    Breaking Into Government Contracts: What You Need to Know Before You Start Selling to the government sounds like a dream. Steady clients, long-term relationships, and reliable revenue. But the path to becoming a government-approved vendor is anything but simple. In this episode, Bryan and Perry sit down with Lori Crooks, founder and CEO of Cadra, a compliance consulting firm helping small and mid-sized businesses navigate the complex world of government contracting. Lori breaks down the alphabet soup of compliance frameworks (FedRAMP, GovRAMP, CMMC, NIST) and explains what they actually mean for your business. She shares why starting with compliance early is the single most important thing a company can do, how FedRAMP authorization can open doors far beyond federal agencies, and what continuous monitoring really looks like once you're approved. Whether you're a small business curious about government contracts or already knee-deep in the process, this conversation is packed with honest, practical guidance on what it takes to get in and stay in the government contracting space. In this episode: The difference between FedRAMP, GovRAMP, and CMMCWhere to start if you're new to compliance frameworksWhy policies and procedures matter more than most companies realizeHow AI is reshaping both cybersecurity threats and compliance toolsThe hidden business benefits of compliance beyond winning contracts Connect with Lori: cadra.com | lori.crooks@cadra.com | LinkedIn: Lori Crooks 00:00 Introduction to Government Contracting 02:28 Navigating Compliance Frameworks 05:12 Understanding FedRAMP and GovRAMP 08:02 Starting Your Journey in Government Contracts 10:48 The Importance of Early Engagement 13:31 Maintaining Compliance and Continuous Monitoring 16:10 Automation in Compliance Processes 18:50 Organizing Information for Audits 21:39 Utilizing Tools for Compliance Management 22:55 Navigating Compliance Standards 24:06 Assessing Readiness for Compliance 25:32 The Importance of Comprehensive Policies 27:41 The Role of Documentation in Compliance 29:44 How to Reach Out for Compliance Help 32:06 Understanding the Rewards of Compliance 35:42 The Impact of AI on Compliance Standards 38:36 Future Changes in Compliance Landscape 40:58 Starting with Compliance Early

    From Compliance to Contracts: Breaking Into the Government Space with Lori Crooks
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À propos

Prepare for liftoff! Welcome to Ground Control, the podcast where we navigate the high-velocity frontier of enterprise innovation. Sponsored by RocketDocs and LUMA, we serve as your mission-critical link to the future. In a world where the "noise" of emerging tech can feel like a chaotic meteor shower, we provide the steady trajectory and expert navigation needed to keep your organization on course. We aren't just talking about what’s next; we’re analyzing the propulsion systems: AI, proposals, and governance, that will get you there. Each episode, we strap in with industry pioneers and tech visionaries to explore the core pillars of your mission: The AI Stratosphere: Moving beyond the "blue sky" dreaming to the actual mechanics of enterprise AI and automation.Proposal Trajectory: How to optimize your response engines to win more business at orbital speeds.The Tech Stack Command Center: Auditing your digital infrastructure to ensure every tool is mission-capable and ready for scale.Security & Governance Shields: Hardening your defenses against the atmospheric pressure of modern data risks and regulatory shifts. Whether you’re a CTO overseeing a fleet of legacy systems or a proposal lead looking for a boost, Ground Control is your source for the intelligence, security, and strategy required to break through the status quo. The future is approaching at Mach speed. Don't let your mission drift. Initiate sequence. This is Ground Control.

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