Consulting Rainmakers Podcast

Agentee Digital

Featuring successful B2B consulting and advisory firms. Every episode is their story and what they picked up building it. Guests come from across the advisory world: strategy and operations consulting, sales and leadership development, finance and accounting, fractional CFO and tax advisory, IT and security, HR and people. My hope is that a founder a few years behind listens and takes something from it. Not so they avoid the same mistakes. Mistakes are fine if you learn from them. So they get there faster. If you run a firm like that, this show is for you.

  1. 1h ago

    The Sale Is Never The Real Goal (Adam Herbig)

    Adam Herbig is the Founder of DigBig, a brand strategy and retail marketing consultancy. Adam Herbig started out designing trade show exhibits and retail displays, then spent about 13 years at Kendal King Group, a retail marketing group that helps brands get into stores and come to life on the shelf. There he went from designer to client contact, leading Nickelodeon work such as a SpongeBob shopper marketing program at Walmart, and learned that sales and design are one job: a good designer is a good problem solver who asks the right questions. Eight years ago he founded DigBig to help brands make their retail decisions further upstream. He has worked with Major League Soccer and the US Soccer Federation on concepts and sell-in packages for retailers ahead of the World Cup, and his brand and retail work has served retailers including Walmart, Target, Dick's Sporting Goods and CVS. In this conversation, Adam walks through his formula for brand expression, intellect plus emotion equals action, reads a protein drink can live, and explains why a brand going to retail has to win the buyer before it can win the shopper. Expect to learn why the real goal of a brand is never just the sale, how one brand stays consistent while looking different at Walmart and at Dick's Sporting Goods, how to decode what a package is telling you, why a logo is not a brand, how to de-risk a retail buyer before launch, why the AI pendulum will swing back towards authenticity, and why the best consultants walk in with questions instead of answers, and much more… - 0:00 Cold open 0:31 Welcome 0:46 Leaving An Agency To Start DigBig 2:40 Why Sales And Design Are One Job 4:26 Selling The World Cup Into Retail 7:26 Intellect Plus Emotion Equals Action 9:17 Reading A Protein Can Live 13:37 The AI Pendulum Will Swing Back 16:12 Your Brand Is More Than A Logo 19:10 Why DigBig Asks The Dumb Questions 21:12 Where To Find Adam Herbig - 🔗 Guest & Resources Connect with Adam Herbig: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamherbig Website: https://www.digbigllc.com - Get in touch: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikulaszach/ Apply to be a guest: https://consultingrainmakers.com/ Email: mikulas.zach@agenteedigital.com

    The Sale Is Never The Real Goal (Adam Herbig)

  2. 17h ago

    This Is The Leader AI Cannot Replace (Emily Haruko)

    Emily Haruko is the CEO and Founder of Saroca. Emily Haruko started her first business at 19, ran it for three years, then moved into advertising and marketing, moved overseas and worked in media production in the gaming industry. When travel no longer fit family life, she trained as an executive and leadership coach in 2013, following her father, who is considered one of the pioneers of the coaching industry for bringing sports coaching and psychology into business in the early 1980s. Four years ago she founded Saroca to move from personal coaching into business to business work, and today she supports tech companies around the world with leadership development, keynote speaking and one on one coaching for CEOs, founders and senior executives. In this conversation, Emily explains how she finds where a leadership team has broken down, why burnout is about where you spend your time, and how leaders can make themselves the part of the business AI cannot replace. Expect to learn why trust is not a yes or no question and the six domains Emily uses to find where it has broken, how a Seattle research institute narrowed more than thirty ideas from 90 leaders down to one half a million dollar project, what your zone of genius has to do with how much stress you can carry, the thoughts that signal burnout is coming, why doom scrolling and binge watching do not actually lower your stress and what the research suggests instead, why AI is the bricklayer and the leader is the blueprint, and what four years of hosting a podcast taught her about sharing what you know, and much more… - 0:00 Cold open 0:29 Welcome 0:42 From First Business To Executive Coach 2:46 What She Helps Tech Companies Solve 4:38 The Six Domains Of Trust 7:34 Burnout And The Zone Of Genius 9:50 Why Doom Scrolling Does Not Reduce Stress 11:33 Where Her Frameworks Come From 12:39 The Leader AI Cannot Replace 14:41 What Four Years Of Podcasting Taught Her 16:18 Where To Find Emily Haruko - 🔗 Guest & Resources Connect with Emily Haruko: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-haruko-0b735776 Website: https://saroca.co - Get in touch: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikulaszach/ Apply to be a guest: https://consultingrainmakers.com/ Email: mikulas.zach@agenteedigital.com

    This Is The Leader AI Cannot Replace (Emily Haruko)

  3. 19h ago

    Nobody Needs To Fix Their Data Before Using AI (Richard Jeffers)

    Richard Jeffers is the Managing Director of Two6 Services. Richard Jeffers spent the first 20 or so years of his career in operations and maintenance management, mostly at Heineken UK, where he was site general manager of the brewery in the northeast of England that made Newcastle Brown Ale and then engineering lead for the UK sites, running a £150 million capital programme across the UK manufacturing network. He then moved into service provision and founded RS Industria inside RS Group, building industrial IoT, condition monitoring and maintenance solutions. In 2024 he set up Two6 Services to work on industrial asset management with an AI twist, and he is now joined by a business partner. A Chartered Mechanical Engineer, he is also researching a part-time PhD at the University of Manchester on AI in industrial asset management. In this conversation, Richard explains why the fixes in a factory are simple but hard to embed, the three layers where AI creates value, and why it is a fallacy to fix your data before you use AI. Expect to learn what precision maintenance means in practice, how AI creates value in the tactical, operational and strategic layers, where manufacturers really are on AI adoption, the monthly habit of asking ChatGPT to audit how you use it, why you cannot sprinkle AI fairy dust on a factory, how to judge whether your data is good enough, and how to get better data out of engineers at two in the morning, and much more… - 0:00 Cold open 0:32 Welcome 0:44 From Heineken To Founding Two6 2:47 The Gap Two6 Fills 3:52 Simple Fixes, Hard Culture 5:27 What The Basics Really Are 6:39 Three Layers Of AI Value 9:52 Where Manufacturers Are On AI 12:17 Make ChatGPT Audit Your Usage 15:11 Is Your Data Good Enough 18:41 The Vision For Two6 - 🔗 Guest & Resources Connect with Richard Jeffers: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-jeffers-2860a08 Website: https://two6.co.uk - Get in touch: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikulaszach/ Apply to be a guest: https://consultingrainmakers.com/ Email: mikulas.zach@agenteedigital.com

    Nobody Needs To Fix Their Data Before Using AI (Richard Jeffers)

  4. 21h ago

    27 Of 30 AI Ideas Belong In The Bin (Ron Cappello)

    Ron Cappello is the Founder and CEO of Infinia Group. Ron Cappello has spent some 30 years in brand consulting. After studying economics at the University of Colorado, he joined a brand firm inside the WPP group in the mid 1990s, a firm that later became Enterprise IG, where he went on to serve as worldwide president. His job was new business: when he arrived the firm was doing about $3.5 million a year in revenue, and eight years later, when he left, it was doing $33 million. Among the clients won in that time was NationsBank during its merger with Bank of America, a project of global research, a new identity and internal communications for a nervous workforce. In 2003 he founded Infinia Group, a branding, marketing and business development firm that helps organizations tell a quick, clear story about who they are, how they are different and what they do. In this conversation, Ron explains why a consultant sells an approach rather than raw intellect, how AI changes the work of a senior advisor, and why the human element still decides who wins the engagement. Expect to learn why change events like mergers create demand for brand consultants, what a big firm teaches you before you go out on your own, why being the best learner in the room beats being the smartest, what senior leaders really want from a consultant, why every brand project needs a sponsor at the top, why the job in the age of AI is curation rather than generation, how to test an idea until it is right, and why being generous in a first meeting wins clients, and much more… - 0:00 Cold open 0:31 Welcome 0:53 Growing A WPP Brand Firm From $3.5M To $33M 5:23 What A Big Firm Teaches You Before Going Solo 7:06 Be The Best Learner In The Room 9:34 Starting A Consultancy Today With AI 12:33 Why Every Brand Project Needs A Sponsor 16:13 If The Script Is Bad, Nobody Can Save It 18:37 Of 30 AI Ideas, 27 Get Thrown Away 21:30 Winning A Client Before You Are Paid 26:15 Where To Find Ron Cappello - 🔗 Guest & Resources Connect with Ron Cappello: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roncappello Website: https://infiniagroup.com - Get in touch: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikulaszach/ Apply to be a guest: https://consultingrainmakers.com/ Email: mikulas.zach@agenteedigital.com

    27 Of 30 AI Ideas Belong In The Bin (Ron Cappello)

  5. 23h ago

    This Is Why AI Pilots Die On The CFO's Desk (Chris Resch)

    Chris Resch is the Founder and Principal of Strong Tide AI. Chris Resch started his career as a network engineer at Hearst, where he spent years chasing whatever was newest, from interactive media to early podcasting. He then joined Amazon Web Services in the early days of cloud adoption as part of the original AWS Professional Services team, and went on to spend a decade leading revenue at private equity backed firms across the AWS, Google, Databricks and Snowflake ecosystems, including EVP at 2nd Watch and Chief Revenue Officer at 66degrees and Indicium. About six months ago he started Strong Tide AI, a vendor neutral firm that helps mid market companies take AI from pilot to production. In this conversation, Chris explains why AI adoption has to start with the business outcome, why most AI pilots never make it into production, and how he runs his own company on AI agents. Expect to learn where AI fits first in a mid market company, why he starts AI adoption with the sales team, the two reasons AI pilots fail, how an AI resource allocation tool helped a company place its field crews, how he uses a board of directors made of LLMs, why he runs his CRM and invoicing headless, what he thinks of the SaaSpocalypse, how a chief of staff agent builds worker agents for you, and much more… - 0:00 Cold open 0:31 Welcome 0:45 From Network Engineer To Strong Tide AI 2:57 Where AI Fits In A Mid Market Company 4:37 Why AI Adoption Starts With Sales 6:14 Why AI Pilots Fail In Production 7:54 Using AI To Place Field Crews 9:46 Running A Business On AI 15:48 Headless Apps And The SaaSpocalypse 20:40 Chief Of Staff Agents 25:09 Where To Find Chris Resch - 🔗 Guest & Resources Connect with Chris Resch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisresch Website: https://strongtide.ai - Get in touch: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikulaszach/ Apply to be a guest: https://consultingrainmakers.com/ Email: mikulas.zach@agenteedigital.com

    This Is Why AI Pilots Die On The CFO's Desk (Chris Resch)

  6. 1d ago

    There Is No Talent Shortage In Accounting (Tim Miron)

    Tim Miron is the Founder of Pursuit CPA. Tim Miron spent years at a traditional accounting firm that billed by the hour, working Saturdays from January and 61 days straight through tax season, until he got sick and tired of only living for the second half of every year. With the help of a coaching program and a mentor, he rebuilt how his practice works and launched Pursuit CPA about five years ago, a firm that works exclusively with entrepreneurs on a monthly subscription, with no hourly billing and no timesheets. By its fourth year, his whole team went through tax season with no weekends and no overtime. In this conversation, Tim explains why most accounting firms do not have a talent shortage so much as a job problem, how his team uses AI, and why so many business owners show a profit but have no cash. Expect to learn why Pursuit CPA moved from billable hours to a subscription, the four financial pillars every entrepreneur should plan around, the pricing mistake that cost his firm two years of unpaid work, how AI took a three to five day bookkeeping job down to under 30 minutes, why accountants using AI will replace the ones who ignore it, and what to check in your numbers before a small problem costs you a year and a half of profit, and much more… - 0:00 Cold open 0:32 Welcome 0:54 A Firm Born Out Of Burnout 3:47 Subscription Pricing And The Four Financial Pillars 5:50 Lessons Learned The Hard Way 7:18 Hiring Without A Talent Shortage 9:22 How His Team Uses AI 12:25 The Downside Of AI And Who It Replaces 15:29 The Real Problem Is Lack Of Clarity 17:19 Profitable But No Cash 18:45 Your Numbers Are More Than Compliance - 🔗 Guest & Resources Connect with Tim Miron: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tjmiron Website: https://pursuitcpa.ca - Get in touch: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikulaszach/ Apply to be a guest: https://consultingrainmakers.com/ Email: mikulas.zach@agenteedigital.com

    There Is No Talent Shortage In Accounting (Tim Miron)

  7. 1d ago

    AI Is Not Replacing Jobs, It Is Augmenting Them (Robin Merritt)

    Robin Merritt is the Founder and CEO of The Merit Company. Robin Merritt has held operating seats at Bridgewater Associates, Box and Gainsight, across privately held, publicly traded and VC and PE backed companies. At Box she led global internal communications, and at Gainsight she spent seven years, first leading Strategy and Ops and later as Chief People and Operations Officer across 16 countries. She founded The Merit Company to help CEOs, boards and investors get through the critical inflection points where a business starts to outgrow the way it is run, a moment she calls the growth wobble. The firm works founder-led and partner delivered, bringing in a bench of operators and subject matter experts for each engagement. In this conversation, Robin explains why scaling problems are never as sudden as they look, how a five step diagnosis she learned at Bridgewater lets her find what is actually broken, and why AI is changing what it means to be a smart executive. Expect to learn the four areas that start to wobble as a company grows, why the leader who fits a Series A company is rarely the one for Series C, what running your own firm really involves, how a leading venture capital firm is training its people to become AI native executives, why Robin believes AI is augmenting jobs rather than replacing them, the three traits that make someone persuasive in the room, and much more… - 0:00 Cold open 0:32 Welcome 1:30 The Growth Wobble 3:24 The Bridgewater Five Step Diagnosis 4:46 Why Leadership Teams Fall Out Of Sync 7:30 What Running Your Own Firm Really Takes 10:46 How Her Clients Use AI 13:35 Hiring In The Age Of AI 19:17 What Is Next For The Merit Company 21:11 Three Traits That Persuade A Room 22:56 Where To Find Robin Merritt - 🔗 Guest & Resources Connect with Robin Merritt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robinjmerritt Website: https://www.themeritcompany.com - Get in touch: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikulaszach/ Apply to be a guest: https://consultingrainmakers.com/ Email: mikulas.zach@agenteedigital.com

    AI Is Not Replacing Jobs, It Is Augmenting Them (Robin Merritt)

  8. 1d ago

    Nobody Should Fully Rely On An Employer (Nicole Craveiro)

    Nicole Craveiro is the Founder of CraveHRO. Nicole Craveiro started her career in administration at accounting firms, and when her third firm tripled its staff in its first year, HR fell into her lap as the only non-financial person in the office. She loved it, went back to school for a master's in HR management, and joined a professional employer organization as an HR business partner, where during COVID she supported 75 small employers and around 2,000 employees. After an in-house HR role whose values did not match her own, she walked out in the middle of the day and started CraveHRO, which gives small employers HR support on a monthly subscription. In this conversation, Nicole explains the biggest misconception people have about HR, how she built her business almost entirely on networking, and why she believes nobody should fully rely on an employer. Expect to learn why HR is about far more than paperwork, how a tiered HR subscription works for small businesses, why the right networking group can take years to pay off, what she got wrong in her first year in business, how she uses AI every day without uploading sensitive employee data, the story behind her book From Hell to HR, and why paid leave in the US looks so different from Europe, and much more… - 0:00 Cold open 0:30 Welcome 0:42 How HR Fell Into Her Lap 3:40 The Biggest Misconception About HR 7:18 Building A Business On Networking 12:02 Early Struggles And Letting Go 13:58 How She Uses AI In HR 16:53 From Hell To HR 19:23 Never Rely On One Employer 20:07 Paid Leave In The US Vs Europe 21:59 Where To Find Nicole Craveiro - 🔗 Guest & Resources Connect with Nicole Craveiro: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ncraveiro Website: https://cravehro.com - Get in touch: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikulaszach/ Apply to be a guest: https://consultingrainmakers.com/ Email: mikulas.zach@agenteedigital.com

    Nobody Should Fully Rely On An Employer (Nicole Craveiro)
See All (169)

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Featuring successful B2B consulting and advisory firms. Every episode is their story and what they picked up building it. Guests come from across the advisory world: strategy and operations consulting, sales and leadership development, finance and accounting, fractional CFO and tax advisory, IT and security, HR and people. My hope is that a founder a few years behind listens and takes something from it. Not so they avoid the same mistakes. Mistakes are fine if you learn from them. So they get there faster. If you run a firm like that, this show is for you.

Information