Big Talk About Small Business

Big Talk About Small Business
  • 5.0 (8)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Hosted by Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Our Mission is to inspire, empower, and equip entrepreneurs with the knowledge and insights they need to succeed in their ventures. Through engaging conversations with industry experts, seasoned entrepreneurs, and thought leaders, we aim to provide valuable strategies, actionable advice, and real-world experiences that will enable our listeners to navigate the challenges, seize the opportunities, and build thriving businesses.

  1. 1d ago

    Own the Money: Closing High-Ticket Sales with Don Cagle

    A stagnant pipeline kills a growing operation, yet many representatives abandon prospects at the first sign of friction. Building a reliable book of business requires extreme discipline and the willingness to ask direct, uncomfortable questions without hesitation. Don Cagle, sales director at HomePro Pool Company, breaks down his aggressive approach to maintaining high-volume closing rates on six-figure outdoor construction projects. We sit down to map out the exact mechanics behind filling an active pipeline and treating every lead like a financial asset. The conversation covers the process of proactive data gathering, managing custom fiberglass installations, and turning past clients into an active referral engine. Don shares his "own the money" philosophy, proving that confronting financial costs directly, like secondary electrical or landscaping requirements, builds lasting trust instead of scaring buyers away. Working in high-ticket trades involves managing upset buyers, delayed material shipments, and early mornings that start long before the rest of the team wakes up. Pushing through those high-stress moments requires taking personal responsibility for the client's experience from the initial pitch through the final project cleanup. You will walk away with a functional framework for organizing your daily workflow, re-engaging cold prospects, and using direct communication to protect your brand's reputation when a project goes sideways. If you care about direct sales strategy, pipeline consistency, and high-ticket closing, you’ll get a lot from this. Please subscribe to the channel and share this episode with your team. What is the hardest financial expectation you have to set with your clients before signing a contract? Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business! Stay Connected:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtalk.pod/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564547079280 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-talk-about-small-business TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtalkpod https://www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com/

  2. Aug 26

    Ego vs. Reality: Surviving a Business Collapse with RJon Robins

    Pretending you have everything under control is the fastest way to bankrupt a business. When founders prioritize the appearance of success over doing the hard, repetitive work, the entire operation becomes fragile. RJon Robins joins the show to unpack how his own refusal to follow his coaching advice led to losing his business and home to foreclosure, and what it took to build it all back. We get into the mechanics of recovery and scaling, breaking down how a fractional C-suite model levels the playing field for small operations. The conversation covers the psychology of the accordion relationship, the financial mechanics of transitioning to 18-month client contracts, and why investing in eight weeks of paid training for new hires is cheaper than a bad placement. RJon shares his breakthrough realization that getting hung up on by prospects is a liberating experience rather than a fatal blow. Rebuilding from scratch means swallowing your pride and making the cold calls you actively avoided. RJon addresses the financial stress of being unable to afford basic groceries while acting like a thriving authority figure to his clients. You will walk away with a stark reminder that reality does not negotiate, and a clear understanding of why launching a venture with zero funding forces you to fix systemic problems instead of paying to hide them. If you care about removing founder ego, structuring profitable service contracts, and maintaining the humility to remain a student, you’ll get a lot from this. Please subscribe to the channel and share this episode with a fellow founder. What is the one uncomfortable conversation in your business that you are currently using money to avoid? More from RJon Robins: Apple Podcasts  YouTube RJon Robins: From the Vault The Exponential Entrepreneur Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business! Stay Connected:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtalk.pod/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564547079280 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-talk-about-small-business TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtalkpod https://www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com/

  3. Aug 19

    Radical Responsibility: Ignoring Guru Advice to Scale with Jerry Brazie

    Entitlement is a quiet business killer. When comfort replaces the drive to survive, companies stall and founders fail. Today, we sit down with Jerry Brazie, a serial entrepreneur who leveraged a relentless, street-survival mindset to generate nearly half a billion dollars in revenue across dozens of companies. We get into the daily reality of scaling businesses in the trenches. The conversation covers the necessity of working in and on your business simultaneously, managing cash flow turns versus vanity revenue, and why listening to stylized advice from internet gurus will sink your operation. Jerry shares a unique philosophy rooted in his survivalist background: a caveman-like purpose driven purely by feeding his family and a total refusal to delegate the dirty work until he has mastered it himself. Building an organization takes a heavy toll that rarely makes it to social media feeds. We break down the exhaustion of working eight straight days on no sleep, the stress of facing a massive payroll with an empty bank account, and the isolation that comes with leading a growing team. You will walk away with a harsh but necessary mindset shift about taking complete ownership of your failures and learning to function comfortably inside constant discomfort. If you care about raw operational strategy, radical responsibility, and mastering the daily grind, you’ll get a lot from this. Please remember to Subscribe and Share this episode with another founder who needs to hear it. What is the most painful mistake you’ve had to take complete ownership of in your business? Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business! Stay Connected:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtalk.pod/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564547079280 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-talk-about-small-business TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtalkpod https://www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com/

  4. Aug 12

    Unlearning Trust: The Hard Lessons of Scaling | Featuring Host Eric Howerton

    Passivity, complacency, and the illusion of comfort will quietly destroy your company. Right now, social media is selling a sanitized, glamorous version of the founder lifestyle that leaves real leaders entirely unprepared for the actual fight of keeping a business alive. This week we flip the script and interview our very own, Eric Howerton, CEO of podcastvideos.com and co-founder of Adfury AI. He flips the script on the startup narrative and brings a relentless, frontline perspective on what it actually takes to build a brand from the ground up. We get into the gritty mechanics of true entrepreneurship and why the title of "founder" has lost its weight in the modern era of passive investing. The conversation covers navigating the constant threats of an evolving market, the fundamental difference between building a business and simply funding one, and why relying on the fractional solopreneur mentality can fracture your company's foundation. Eric also shares his realization that the true secret formula to overcoming catastrophic business failures isn't a higher IQ, but a massive capacity for emotional intelligence. Building a company is often a dark, grueling process that demands everything you have. We dig into the heavy reality of financing a business on personal credit cards to buy groceries, going months without a paycheck, and carrying the crushing weight of keeping a team employed when resources are completely tapped out. You will walk away with a blunt understanding of the resilience required to survive the daily betrayals of business and a completely shifted mindset on what it means to be a genuine leader in a highly skeptical market. If you care about building real resilience, stripping away corporate vanity titles, and leading with radical authenticity, you’ll get a lot from this. Make sure to subscribe to the channel and share this episode with someone who is currently in the trenches building their own business. What is the hardest lesson you've had to actively unlearn on your professional journey? Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business! Stay Connected:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtalk.pod/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564547079280 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-talk-about-small-business TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtalkpod https://www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com/

  5. Aug 5

    LLC vs Corp: The Costly Setup Mistakes Founders Make with ScherriePrince

    Working in silos is a massive profit leak that leaves your business exposed to disaster. Relying on disconnected CPAs, tax preparers, and generic legal forms is a fast track to losing everything you have built when life throws an unexpected curveball. We sit down with attorney Scherrie Prince, who specializes in helping entrepreneurs merge their estate plans with their business plans to put a protective moat around their hard-earned assets. We get into the specific mechanics of entity structures, including why defaulting to an LLC is not always the right move and how CC-Corps can leverage accountable plans for better tax strategy. The conversation breaks down the critical difference between tax preparation and tax planning, the hidden dangers of ignoring outdated beneficiary designations, and the strategic advantage of executing conflict waivers. Scherrie’s core philosophy revolves around acting as the quarterback for your money team, ensuring your advisors actually talk to each other instead of just talking to you. The reality of entrepreneurship involves navigating the brutal consequences of divorces, unexpected deaths, and predatory lawsuits that can sink an improperly structured company overnight. Setting up a trust-centered estate plan and properly bifurcating assets takes time, money, and uncomfortable conversations about worst-case scenarios that most founders prefer to avoid. You will walk away from this discussion with a clear understanding of why your personal and business liabilities must be separated, and how to start building a unified team of advisors that actively protects your blind spots. If you care about asset protection, tax optimization, and building a resilient business foundation, you’ll get a lot from this. Please take a moment to subscribe to the channel and share this episode with a fellow founder who needs to get their legal house in order. What is the biggest gap in your current business structure that you are ready to finally fix? Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business! Stay Connected:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtalk.pod/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564547079280 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-talk-about-small-business TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtalkpod https://www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com/

  6. Jul 29

    Ignore the Mirage: The True Cost of Entrepreneurship

    Unrealistic expectations are quietly eroding the drive of modern business owners and their teams. In a culture obsessed with immediate gratification and flawless work-life balance, the instinct to simply survive and grind has been completely buried by social media highlight reels. Mark and Eric use this episode to strip away the pop-culture mirage of entrepreneurship and break down exactly why feeling overwhelmed isn't a sign of failure, but a mandatory part of the job. We get into the mechanics of the "mashed potato mindset" and how looking backward to the primal urge for daily survival can actually cure your modern business anxiety. The conversation covers the dangers of pop-culture pollution, the myth of the five o'clock cutoff, and the corrosive effect that passive media consumption has on your internal customer. The core realization requires a distinct shift in perspective: acknowledging that the daily barrage of problems isn't a distraction from your job, but rather the actual job itself. Building a company means taking financial hits, sacrificing personal comfort, and occasionally feeling completely isolated from the rest of the nine-to-five world. We lay out the heavy toll this path takes on mental health and explain why keeping cancerous negativity out of your ranks requires swift, often uncomfortable leadership decisions. You will walk away with a grounded framework for self-correction, a strategy for curating your daily inputs, and a clear understanding of why enduring the struggle is the only way to earn the right to lead. If you care about protecting your company culture, managing founder anxiety, and building an organization rooted in actual purpose, you’ll get a lot from this. Please remember to Subscribe to the channel and Share this episode with a fellow business owner who is currently in the trenches. What is the most toxic pop-culture myth about work that you see impacting your industry today? Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business! Stay Connected:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtalk.pod/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564547079280 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-talk-about-small-business TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtalkpod https://www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com/

  7. Jul 22

    Invest to Scale: Surviving the Ad Overload with Devon MacDonald

    Cutting marketing first when cash is tight guarantees your business will fail to scale. In an era where consumers are bombarded by thousands of digital messages daily, treating advertising as an optional expense is a fast track to irrelevance. Devin MacDonald, President of Cairns ONeil media agency, joins us to unpack exactly how founders can allocate capital to break through the noise and scale responsibly. We get into the specific mechanics of budgeting for the growth gap rather than just sustaining your baseline revenue. The conversation covers the friction between multi-touch attribution and the mystery of brand awareness, emphasizing why strictly chasing short-term performance clicks is a trap that ultimately shrinks your market share. Devin shares his core philosophy that marketing is simply gas on a fire, and without acknowledging the emotional psychology of the buyer, even the most data-driven campaigns will inevitably burn out. Scaling a brand requires sacrifice, whether that means taking a temporary compensation deduction or accepting tighter initial margins to adequately fund your media spend. We discuss the hard reality that a $25,000 monthly ad budget barely moves the needle for national digital campaigns, forcing founders to make difficult choices about hyper-localizing their focus. You will walk away with a clear framework for defining your growth targets and a stark warning about forcing traditional creative onto platforms like TikTok without understanding their native culture. If you care about structuring sustainable growth metrics, navigating agency specializations, and moving beyond basic word-of-mouth referrals, you’ll get a lot from this conversation. Please subscribe to the channel and share this episode with a founder who needs a reality check on their marketing strategy. What is the hardest expense you have had to justify when aggressively trying to grow your business? Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business! Stay Connected:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtalk.pod/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564547079280 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-talk-about-small-business TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtalkpod https://www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com/

  8. Jul 15

    Survival Comes First: Flipping the Script on Business

    The absolute priority for any business has to be basic survival before achieving a lofty vision. Right now, founders are drowning in complex growth strategies while neglecting the foundational habits that actually keep the lights on and the doors open. In a special turn of events, Jeremiah "Baang" Pickett steps in to flip the script and interview Mark Zweig about his decades of experience building companies, managing high-risk investments, and serving on multiple corporate boards. We get into the raw mechanics of staying afloat and building lasting operations from the ground up. The conversation unpacks the strategic advantage of choosing industry expertise over discipline expertise, the hidden potential in simple service businesses, and the undeniable return of consistently returning phone calls and emails. Mark also shares his core philosophy on tackling your most dreaded daily task first and why treating your reputation as your most valuable asset is the bedrock of long-term success. Building a diverse portfolio takes a heavy personal toll that rarely gets discussed in traditional business circles. We explore the difficult burdens of maintaining significant personal overhead, navigating complex family crises, and the sobering reality of getting fired when you have a young family counting on you. You will walk away with a grounded perspective on why speed of response matters more than a flawless business plan and how to systematically manage entrepreneurial risk without blindly rolling the dice. If you care about building resilient operations, managing entrepreneurial risk, and mastering the fundamentals of business survival, you’ll get a lot from this. Please subscribe to the channel and share this conversation with a fellow founder who could use a straightforward reality check. What is the one difficult task on your desk right now that you need to tackle first thing tomorrow? Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business! Stay Connected:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtalk.pod/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564547079280 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-talk-about-small-business TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtalkpod https://www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com/

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

Hosted by Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Our Mission is to inspire, empower, and equip entrepreneurs with the knowledge and insights they need to succeed in their ventures. Through engaging conversations with industry experts, seasoned entrepreneurs, and thought leaders, we aim to provide valuable strategies, actionable advice, and real-world experiences that will enable our listeners to navigate the challenges, seize the opportunities, and build thriving businesses.

Information

  • Creator
    Big Talk About Small Business
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    156
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Big Talk About Small Business
  • Show Website
    Big Talk About Small Business