Business Unscripted - Triumph Business Solutions

Triumph Business Solutions
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship

Welcome to Business Unscripted, the podcast where real business conversations happen. Hosted by Dave Worden, founder of Triumph Business Solutions, this podcast dives into the raw, unfiltered realities of running and growing a business. Each episode explores the struggles, strategies, and accountability moments that shape the journey of entrepreneurs and business owners. With a mix of solo episodes, co-host partners, and guest appearances from other business owners, Business Unscripted offers diverse perspectives and actionable insights. Whether you're navigating challenges, seeking strategies, or just looking for honest conversations about business, this podcast has something for you. Join us weekly as we tackle the unscripted moments that define success, all while fostering accountability and connection with our listeners. Subscribe now and follow Business Unscripted for stories, strategies, and actionable insights that will inspire your own business journey. New episodes drop every Friday!

  1. Aug 28

    The Money In Your Account Isn't Yours | Business Unscripted Ep. 76

    Most owners think the problem is revenue. It usually isn't. Solo episode this week — Duarne is off — and Dave spends it answering the questions he actually gets asked: by prospects, by clients, and around the table at Alliance meetings. The answers braid into one idea. Money that lands in your account is not yours yet, and you can't know what is until your pricing and your books tell you the truth. He starts where most owners start: making money and still feeling broke. The fix is a cash management system, not more revenue — give every dollar a purpose the moment it arrives. Direct costs first, then profit, then owner's pay, then the tax man, then operating expenses. And never borrow between accounts. Dave did, on a "just this once" bill, and abandoned Profit First inside six months. He's been rigid about it for a year and a half since. From there: how to build a 13-week cash forecast from three months of bank statements so you see October's negative balance in August. When it's actually time to hire a bookkeeper, an accountant, or fractional support — and why the first 30 to 60 days cost you more, not less. Why entry-level bookkeeping is going away. And why you can't put AI on top of a broken system without exponentially expanding what's broken. Then the math most owners get wrong. If a job costs $1,000 and you want a 40% margin, invoicing $1,400 puts you at 28.5%. The formula is cost divided by one minus your margin — $1,667. That's $267 an invoice you've been giving away. Plus the one-question test for whether an expense is cost of goods sold, and what your gross margin is really telling you about the money in your account. Episode 76 Send us Fan Mail Visit www.triumphbusinesssolutions.pro to learn more about our services and our Profit First Cash Clarity Programs. Learn more about Triumph Business Solutions www.triumphbusinesssolution.pro Receive a Complimentary Business Stability Snapshot and see how your business stacks up again 100,000+ successful businesses. https://triumphbusinesssolutions.pro/triumph-assessment Schedule a 30-Minute Cash Clarity Conversation - Guaranteed Value or full refund - $97: https://stan.store/TriumphBusinessSolutions ​​Want to be a guest on the podcast? Register for a future episode here:  https://calendar.triumphbusinesssolutions.pro/businessunscriptedguest

  2. Aug 21

    The Two Lists That Tell You What To Automate First | Business Unscripted Ep. 75

    Most owners don't have an AI problem. They have a "what do I fix first" problem. Solo episode this week — Duarne is taking a well-earned Friday off — and Dave spends it on the question that comes before every tool decision. The answer is two lists. List one is everything you do manually, every day, with an honest time estimate next to each item. List two is everything you should be doing, or want to be doing, and can't — because of list one. That second list isn't only business: more time away, fifty-hour weeks instead of seventy, an actual vacation. Put the two side by side and you have a roadmap instead of a rabbit hole. Along the way: why AI and automation are not the same thing, and why picking the wrong one costs you months. The real adoption numbers — only 8 to 10% of small businesses use AI in a genuinely impactful way, so you are not behind. The Claude-to-Codex adversarial review loop Dave runs on every build, and the human reason it works: we are all preferential to our own work. Why your AI skills quietly degrade after every model release. A three-step email triage you can copy this afternoon. And the one rule Dave won't bend — nothing goes out to a prospect unless a human approves it. Plus the lesson a prospect handed him this week: the proposal was too much, she never saw the vision, and the fix was to make it visual and cut the scope in half. The math that ties it together — one hour a week is 52 hours a year, two hours is over a hundred. But time you free up and don't spend on purpose was never really saved. Homework: write the two lists this weekend. Episode 75 Send us Fan Mail Learn more about Triumph Business Solutions www.triumphbusinesssolution.pro Receive a Complimentary Business Stability Snapshot and see how your business stacks up again 100,000+ successful businesses. https://triumphbusinesssolutions.pro/triumph-assessment Schedule a 30-Minute Cash Clarity Conversation - Guaranteed Value or full refund - $97: https://stan.store/TriumphBusinessSolutions ​​Want to be a guest on the podcast? Register for a future episode here:  https://calendar.triumphbusinesssolutions.pro/businessunscriptedguest

  3. Aug 14

    Stop Doing The Work, Start Directing It | Business Unscripted Ep. 74

    Dave and co-host Duarne Bernhagen start with the distinction almost nobody makes correctly: automation and AI are not the same thing, and most real workflows need both. An automation moves a document from point A to point B with zero AI in it. AI is the interpretation layer you drop in where it earns its place. Then the conversation most owners haven't had yet — liability. Insurers are quietly carving AI out of errors-and-omissions coverage because they can't price the risk. If your chatbot tells a customer something wrong, that's on you; an airline learned that in court over a bereavement fare. Dave and Duarne walk through what belongs in your client agreements now, and why an opt-out checkbox and a two-tier price shares that risk instead of parking all of it on you. The rest is about getting your time back. Why an outcome-based agent that stops for your approval beats a fully generative one. How to think like a director instead of a doer. The 80/20 rule applied to your calendar, not just your revenue — and why the bottom 40% of your time is provably unprofitable. Why "coach them up or coach them out" is the only honest answer with a team, and how "that's not my job" tells you exactly who your bottom 20% is. Plus the real math on outsourcing, and the client who doubled his business by handing off his phone. Dave closes with homework: two lists. Everything manual that's eating your week, and everything you know you should — or want to — be doing instead. Write both this weekend, then pick one thing. New episodes every Friday morning. Subscribe wherever you listen, and send this to an owner who needs their time back. Episode 74 Send us Fan Mail Visit www.triumphbusinesssolutions.pro to learn more about our services and our Profit First Cash Clarity Programs. Learn more about Triumph Business Solutions www.triumphbusinesssolution.pro Receive a Complimentary Business Stability Snapshot and see how your business stacks up again 100,000+ successful businesses. https://triumphbusinesssolutions.pro/triumph-assessment Schedule a 30-Minute Cash Clarity Conversation - Guaranteed Value or full refund - $97: https://stan.store/TriumphBusinessSolutions ​​Want to be a guest on the podcast? Register for a future episode here:  https://calendar.triumphbusinesssolutions.pro/businessunscriptedguest

  4. Aug 7

    Your Work Environment Is Either Fuel Or Friction | Business Unscripted Ep. 73

    Dave was a work-from-home believer through COVID. Five days a week back in an office changed his mind — not because home is bad, but because the distractions he kept telling himself he'd "make up later" never got made up. Duarne built an office across the yard from his house for the same reason: when he walks in, dad's at work. This one starts on environment and ends up somewhere else entirely, which is usually how these go. Dave and Duarne get into why your workspace is either fuel or friction, how to audition a co-working space before you sign one (ask for a free day and see whether anyone actually talks to you), and how to read the energy signals your own body gives you about clients, opportunities, and time-sucks. The back half is the conversation nobody has clearly: AI and automation are not the same thing. Automation repeats a process — recurring invoices, follow-up sequences, the ticketing system that auto-replies and quietly satisfies your one-hour SLA. AI reads context, drafts, summarizes, and routes the work intelligently. Used together, they give a small business owner the leverage to operate like a much bigger company. They also cover why human approval is the line on AI-assisted messaging, how to clean up your social algorithm in twenty minutes, why you are the only person who sees 100% of your content, and how to become the expert in the room by picking rooms your competitors are not in. Duarne's takeaway: before you blame your head for an unproductive week, take a minute and look at your environment. Episode 73 Send us Fan Mail Visit www.triumphbusinesssolutions.pro to learn more about our services and our Profit First Cash Clarity Programs. Learn more about Triumph Business Solutions www.triumphbusinesssolution.pro Receive a Complimentary Business Stability Snapshot and see how your business stacks up again 100,000+ successful businesses. https://triumphbusinesssolutions.pro/triumph-assessment Schedule a 30-Minute Cash Clarity Conversation - Guaranteed Value or full refund - $97: https://stan.store/TriumphBusinessSolutions ​​Want to be a guest on the podcast? Register for a future episode here:  https://calendar.triumphbusinesssolutions.pro/businessunscriptedguest

  5. Jul 31

    A 5% Price Increase Can Lift Net Profit 50% | Business Unscripted Ep. 72

    Most owners try to fix a stuck business by working harder. This solo episode starts with the lens that creates clarity fastest — the 80/20 rule. Dave walks through how to run an 80/20 review across your clients, service lines, products, and your team, so you can see what is actually driving gross profit, where your time is leaking, and which "extra offerings" are quietly dragging you down. Ask most owners when they last reviewed their services and the answer is "never." Before you start you need three things: expenses tracked by service line, a real block of time, and a plan to implement what you decide. Then the part most owners avoid — pricing. If you are high quality and low volume, your real competition may be the higher-end option, not the bargain provider you have been measuring yourself against. Dave covers how to collect pricing data with a simple customer survey, why average purchase value matters more than the percentage, and the math nobody runs: on a million-dollar business at 10% net profit, a 5% price increase adds 50% to net profit, because it flows straight to the bottom line. Run it backward and it bites just as hard — absorbing a 5% cost increase is really a 25% cut to your own income. He also breaks down how to roll out a price change by relationship: 60 to 90 days and a one-on-one conversation for advisory clients, a group announcement for mastermind or low-touch offers, and for small-ticket retail, no announcement at all. Last, a practical tech note — how Dave is using Hermes as the bridge in his AI stack, connected through Slack, to run local workflows, fix code from his daughter's ballgame, and give the team client channels that research and answer while he is still in a meeting. The point is not more AI. It is less stress, faster answers for clients, and room to work on what actually grows the company. What is the one service, client type, or workflow you are ready to cut or fix first? Drop it in the comments. Episode 72 Send us Fan Mail Visit www.triumphbusinesssolutions.pro to learn more about our services and our Profit First Cash Clarity Programs. Learn more about Triumph Business Solutions www.triumphbusinesssolution.pro Receive a Complimentary Business Stability Snapshot and see how your business stacks up again 100,000+ successful businesses. https://triumphbusinesssolutions.pro/triumph-assessment Schedule a 30-Minute Cash Clarity Conversation - Guaranteed Value or full refund - $97: https://stan.store/TriumphBusinessSolutions ​​Want to be a guest on the podcast? Register for a future episode here:  https://calendar.triumphbusinesssolutions.pro/businessunscriptedguest

  6. Jul 24

    Your Best Clients Never Haggle On Price | Business Unscripted Ep. 71

    Your tech stack either quietly saves you hours every week or slowly bleeds your time and money. Dave and Duarne start with the question every owner asks — Mac or Windows — and land somewhere more useful: it barely matters anymore, because most of us live in a browser all day. What does matter is RAM, storage, and how long the machine will actually last. 16GB is the new floor, 24 to 32GB if you run heavy workflows, and buying used is still one of the easiest write-offs a newer business has. From there it turns into a straight business conversation. Own your own data, and ask a vendor where it lives and who can touch it before you sign up. If you are commissioning custom software, get the ownership terms in writing — changing 10% of the code makes it legally not a copy. And stop switching tools every few months, because software fatigue is something you do to your own team. The second half is the part worth staying for. Duarne's brother paid $750 a month for a phone system, roughly ten times the going rate, and it was still the right call, because the old setup was costing him customers every month. That same week, Duarne withdrew a live proposal from a client who kept pushing for a lower price. Dave ties it together: your best clients are the ones who never haggled, and the painful ones almost always negotiated you down first. If someone wants to negotiate the investment, negotiate the scope with them. If you got something out of this one, share it with another business owner and leave a review so more people can find the show. Episode 71 Send us Fan Mail Visit www.triumphbusinesssolutions.pro to learn more about our services and our Profit First Cash Clarity Programs. Learn more about Triumph Business Solutions www.triumphbusinesssolution.pro Receive a Complimentary Business Stability Snapshot and see how your business stacks up again 100,000+ successful businesses. https://triumphbusinesssolutions.pro/triumph-assessment Schedule a 30-Minute Cash Clarity Conversation - Guaranteed Value or full refund - $97: https://stan.store/TriumphBusinessSolutions ​​Want to be a guest on the podcast? Register for a future episode here:  https://calendar.triumphbusinesssolutions.pro/businessunscriptedguest

  7. Jul 20

    Stop Trusting Memory, Start Trusting Systems | Business Unscripted Ep. 70

    The fastest way to stall a growing business isn't a lack of ambition, it's a missing system. We're on the road for a tournament, short on coffee, and talking through a surprisingly high-stakes topic: why checklists, SOPs, and onboarding processes fail when you need them most, and how to rebuild them so your business can run without constant heroics. We dig into real examples from hiring and client work where “the checklist existed” but the documentation behind it was outdated, generic, or trapped on someone's computer. That's where stress spikes, training breaks, and even billable work can't be tracked or invoiced. We also get practical about communication systems: quick acknowledgement emails, out-of-office notices, and setting expectations like an SLA. When customers know you heard them, they stop spiraling and you stop getting buried in follow-ups. Then we shift into AI productivity for small business operations. Duarne shares a powerful ChatGPT feature, “branch into a new chat,” and how it keeps marketing plans, brand strategy, website content, and logo tasks clean and focused. We also talk about mixing tools, using ChatGPT for heavy drafting, Claude for polished formatting, and Gemini inside Google Workspace for data extraction, spreadsheet cleanup, and even building dashboards from Sheets. Finally, we weigh cloud AI against local LLMs, covering data sovereignty, hardware cost, maintenance, and what's realistic for most owners today. If you want more time, cleaner operations, and systems your team can actually follow, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a business owner friend, and leave a review with the one process you're ready to document next. Episode 70 Send us Fan Mail Visit www.triumphbusinesssolutions.pro to learn more about our services and our Profit First Cash Clarity Programs. Learn more about Triumph Business Solutions www.triumphbusinesssolution.pro Receive a Complimentary Business Stability Snapshot and see how your business stacks up again 100,000+ successful businesses. https://triumphbusinesssolutions.pro/triumph-assessment Schedule a 30-Minute Cash Clarity Conversation - Guaranteed Value or full refund - $97: https://stan.store/TriumphBusinessSolutions ​​Want to be a guest on the podcast? Register for a future episode here:  https://calendar.triumphbusinesssolutions.pro/businessunscriptedguest

  8. Jul 10

    How To Sell Without Sounding Desperate | Business Unscripted Ep. 69

    A stranger called us during a client meeting and used call screening to claim they needed bookkeeping help, then flipped the script and launched into a software pitch. That one move highlights a bigger problem in modern sales: when we lie, push, or chase a win at all costs, we train good prospects to resist us and we burn trust before we even start. We break down what went wrong, why it feels so bad on the receiving end, and what ethical selling looks like when you actually want long-term clients. We talk sales strategy for business owners who didn’t plan on “being in sales” but now realize it’s part of the job. That includes how to start discovery calls without sounding desperate, why “thanks for your time” can backfire, and how non-committal language like “possible path forward” lowers defenses. We also dig into the daily realities of business development: if you’re not prospecting consistently, your pipeline can dry up 60 to 120 days from now, even if you feel busy today. Then we get practical about growth and hiring. If client work is consuming every hour, that’s often the signal to bring in support so you can protect time for outreach, leadership, and vision. We close with persuasion-style questioning (inspired by Jeremy Miner and NEPQ) to handle resistance and objections without pressure, including how to quantify the cost of doing nothing and let the buyer persuade themselves. Subscribe for weekly, practical business advice, share this with a business owner who hates selling, and leave a review if it helps. What sales habit do you want to improve next? Episode 69 Send us Fan Mail Learn more about Triumph Business Solutions www.triumphbusinesssolution.pro Receive a Complimentary Business Stability Snapshot and see how your business stacks up again 100,000+ successful businesses. https://triumphbusinesssolutions.pro/triumph-assessment Schedule a 30-Minute Cash Clarity Conversation - Guaranteed Value or full refund - $97: https://stan.store/TriumphBusinessSolutions ​​Want to be a guest on the podcast? Register for a future episode here:  https://calendar.triumphbusinesssolutions.pro/businessunscriptedguest

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About

Welcome to Business Unscripted, the podcast where real business conversations happen. Hosted by Dave Worden, founder of Triumph Business Solutions, this podcast dives into the raw, unfiltered realities of running and growing a business. Each episode explores the struggles, strategies, and accountability moments that shape the journey of entrepreneurs and business owners. With a mix of solo episodes, co-host partners, and guest appearances from other business owners, Business Unscripted offers diverse perspectives and actionable insights. Whether you're navigating challenges, seeking strategies, or just looking for honest conversations about business, this podcast has something for you. Join us weekly as we tackle the unscripted moments that define success, all while fostering accountability and connection with our listeners. Subscribe now and follow Business Unscripted for stories, strategies, and actionable insights that will inspire your own business journey. New episodes drop every Friday!

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