Management Blueprint | Steve Preda

Steve Preda
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Interviews with CEOs and Entrepreneurs about the frameworks they are using to build and scale their businesses.

  1. 3D AGO

    327: 3D Print Your Software with Piyush Jain

    Piyush Jain, Founder and CEO of Simpalm and co-founder of Ducknowl, is on a mission to solve real-world challenges by combining technology and entrepreneurship. With over 15 years of experience building custom software solutions, Piyush helps businesses turn complex ideas into practical applications by blending technical depth, business acumen, and a strong problem-solving mindset. We explore Piyush’s AI Ideation Framework—Validate idea, Proof of concept, Design, Competitor analysis, and Feature selection—a practical approach to building software in the post-AI era. Piyush explains how AI can help teams better understand user personas, validate product assumptions, and rapidly prototype ideas, while human expertise remains essential in design, architecture, and production-grade development. He also shares how prompt engineering, peer-reviewed prompting, and a right-shoring delivery model can help businesses build smarter, faster, and more cost-effectively. — 3D Print Your Software with Piyush Jain Good day, dear listeners. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint, and my guest today is Piyush Jain, the Founder and CEO of Simpalm, a custom software development company, and the co-founder of Ducknowl, a candidate screening and assessment application business for high-volume recruiting. Piyush, welcome to the show.  Thank you, Steve. Thanks for inviting me.  Well, I’m very curious about the stuff that you have to share with us, and I’d like to ask first about your personal purpose. What is your “why,” and how are you manifesting it in your business?  Yeah, so that’s a very interesting question. And I think for every entrepreneur or tech founder, really, that’s the motivation—why you want to do certain things. So for me, if I look at it, my personal “why” is: why are we not solving challenges? Or why are we not solving them the right way? Why are we not transforming our lives? I grew up in India and then came to the US, so I’ve seen many different parts of the world—from Asia to North America. I see people face different challenges, but then we are not focusing on solving those problems. A lot of it I see is there’s a lot of challenges in the world because I believe there are not enough entrepreneurs. Because entrepreneurs are the ones who really take risks, combine everything, and create solutions. That was like me, right? That’s what I learned growing up, that I think I can do that, right? I can combine the technical knowledge and the business acumen and create solutions that people like, solve their challenges. Growing up, like I'm more on the technical side. Share on X I was inclined more toward science and technology, but then as I got into my undergrad and grad school, I realized that I have that entrepreneurship aspect, but it’s still around science and technology. That’s when I realized that, you know what, I cannot be a pure scientist or maybe a pure entrepreneur, but I can be someone who can combine these two, because my main driving factor is problem-solving. I can combine these two and then live my life, be very happy with what I do. That has been my motivation. I like it. So solving challenges and being an entrepreneur, and kind of combining the two—being the technical expert and the entrepreneur in one. Now, one of the things that we always talk about on this podcast is frameworks. And you have developed a really good one for AI ideation, which I think is something that everyone needs to do these days or use these days, and it helps you create business apps and other business applications. Can you share with me how that framework works, and what are the steps in it?  Sure, yeah, definitely. So just to give you a brief background, we’ve been building software for the last 15 years. Some companies have used different frameworks, whether it’s Agile or Waterfall in SDLC, in building the software, right? There are different methodology that companies have used, and they’ve been good, successful—they’ve played their role. But now, with the advent of AI, things have changed. We had to figure out, in our organization, how to use AI, and that’s how this framework was built. My team helped me building this framework as well. Share on X But we realized that we were losing business—we were losing clients—since we didn’t have an AI framework that would fit our clients. Again, for me, it’s a challenge. So anytime I see a challenge, it create brain juice in me, right? So I said, okay, let’s figure out how we create this framework. How did you do it?  So really, we built this framework—very interesting. A lot of the steps are similar, but then a lot of things are different. Share on X Whenever client comes to us and says, “Hey, we want to solve this challenge,” what we do is we do enough research. And now we use a lot of AI tools to really understand the problem better and understand the user persona. When you build any software application, there is a person who’s going to use that. Sometimes we used to do user research or focus studies to understand that. Now, with the help of AI, we can get a lot of ideas about the user persona. For example, maybe we are building a healthcare application for an anesthesiologist. I don’t know much about that. I know, I mean, because I have been through some medical surgery and all that, but I can’t fully understand their user persona or their requirements with respect to the application we’re building. But now, with AI, I can actually ask different AI models, “Hey, we are building this app for anesthesiologists. What are their pain points? How would they see it?” So all that deeper mindset and psychology we can get using AI.  You are validating the idea by interrogating AI applications.  What users are going to like and all that. So I will always use this term earlier. In software engineering, now we have this pre-AI and post-AI, right? If you read history, we talk about before Christ and after Christ, right? Yeah. So it’s a similar thing now. Yeah, exactly. Or before Covid, after Covid. Before AI, after we did all the user research and everything and created a requirements document, we would usually do design, create like a visual design of the software. But now, with the AI framework, we don't do that. That's not the next step. What we do instead is create a quick prototype using AI platforms. Share on X   So there are a lot of AI platforms—like Lovable, Claude. Now ChatGPT launched Codex for coding, and Replit. Depending on what kind of application you’re building—for example, maybe if you’re building a web-based application—then I recommend using Lovable or Replit. They’re very good at creating that. Whatever software you want to build, whatever user personas that you’re addressing, you can feed into that and it’ll create like a prototype application. Okay.  So what that does is actually, then this prototype, clients can just take it to their customers or internal users and get feedback. A picture is better than a thousand words. Organizations discussing an idea is very different from when they actually see something. Then everybody starts chipping in—“Oh yeah, I see this in the prototype, but I don’t want this,” or “I want to move things around,” or “This is what I want.” Basically, building a prototype on AI platforms is much faster than building wireframes and design prototypes like we used to do earlier. So that has changed. So you’re 3D printing your software, right?  Yes, exactly. There you go. Well, that’s a very good way you put it together. Yeah. So, yeah, exactly. You’re just 3D printing the software, right? So you can see it, visualize it, and then once you go through that, it creates a lot of better ideas about the software in faster time. So once you have that, then you go into UI/UX design. So in that also, there are two steps. One is wireframing. Wireframing is like creating the flow in black and white. It’s like creating a skeleton of your software. It does not have the color, the font, or the branding, but you just create all the different user journeys, the screens, the flow, and the fields that will be there on the screen. So we have integrated AI into that step as well. Earlier, it used to be created by a designer or a business analyst. Now we are using software like Uizard or UX Pilot, where we define what we want—what kind of user journey, flows, and screens—and it creates that. It spins out those wireframes in minutes. So really that has reduced now. The time it used to take to create wire frames is faster now.  So you’re designing the wireframes with AI?  Yes, but it’s just the wireframe part of it, and it’s still guided by our expert VA or designer—someone who knows how to really visualize things and has done a lot of wireframes and sketches. So they know what to tell the AI. Prompting is very important. It’s very important that you know how to prompt—what to ask for—so that you can get variations and differentiation in the wireframes. You don’t want a standard AI-created wireframe. Everybody can recognize AI-generated images now, right? If I show you one, you’d say, “Oh yeah, it’s AI-generated.” I know that, right? Yeah. So again, we keep the human intelligence. We’re not asking AI to create the full software end-to-end. It never works—it’ll never work. It just doesn’t. I know that’s a strong statement, but I’m saying that based on experience and an understanding of human behavior and psychology. So AI agents will not be able to code software, in your opinion?  No, they can do the coding, but they cannot build the whole software end-to-end—a production-deployed software. Because these software are being used by humans. You have to have human intelligence to understand and define what you need and how it works. Share on X You can maybe creat

    24 min

  2. MAR 30

    326: Steps to Leads on LinkedIn with Anthony Blatner

    https://youtu.be/UcnTlk-Zv3A Anthony Blatner, Founder and CMO of Speedwork Social and host of LinkedIn Ads Radio, is on a mission to help B2B companies turn LinkedIn into a predictable growth engine. With a background in technology and marketing, Anthony helps businesses cut through noise, leverage authentic content, and use LinkedIn ads to consistently attract and convert high-quality prospects. We explore Anthony’s LinkedIn Lead Funnel: Top of Funnel (Tips & Tricks + Case Studies), Middle Funnel (Lead Capture), and Bottom Funnel (Boost Post & Retarget)—a simple yet powerful framework for generating demand, capturing leads, and converting them into customers using a combination of organic content and paid amplification. Anthony shares why traditional tactics like cold connection requests are losing effectiveness, how AI is reshaping content creation, and why human-driven, personality-rich content still wins. He also breaks down how to structure content, budget effectively, and build a sustainable LinkedIn strategy—even with limited time. — 3 Steps to Leads on LinkedIn with Anthony Blatner Good day, dear listeners. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast, and my guest today is Anthony Blatner, the Founder and CMO of the Speedwork, LinkedIn Ad Agency, helping great companies get great customers with LinkedIn ads. Anthony, welcome to the show.  Hey, Steve, excited to be here and to talk to you today. It’s great to have you here. So before we dive into all things LinkedIn, I’d like to ask my favorite question on this podcast, which is, what is your personal ‘Why’, and how are you manifesting it in your business?  Yeah, I’ve always been just really into business. I grew up being around a lot of business owners. My dad ran his own business, and he was in the finance world, so he worked with a lot of other business owners. So since I was a kid, I've always been around a lot of business owners, and I've always just really enjoyed business, and then I just naturally gravitated to the marketing world there because I just really enjoyed the side of the business world. Share on X So my ‘Why’ has always been around helping and growing businesses. I come from the technology space doing software development, and now I’m in the marketing space and it’s just something I’ve always loved doing and it’s a very exciting space and it’s always changing very fast. So that’s been my personal ‘Why’, and just manifesting it every day in what we do in our work on LinkedIn. So it’s just always fun to be working with growing businesses.  Yeah, this LinkedIn is a fascinating platform. I’ve been on it, I don’t know, probably over 20 years now. Is this possible?  Yeah.  Something like that. And there were other platforms at the time like Plaxo—I think that was one competitor platform—and I was on multiple platforms. Then I quit Plaxo, and I’m glad that I actually built on the right platform. I’ve also witnessed how people are getting more and more active on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is becoming kind of non-negotiable for B2B businesses. So tell me how you see this evolution and how LinkedIn has changed over the past 10 years.  Yeah, it definitely has changed a lot. Back in the day, when we were first getting started, a lot of people would ask me, “Does anybody even use LinkedIn?” Ten years ago, it wasn’t as widely used, especially on the social side. It’s always been like the digital resume. The big change happened with Covid, when everyone was had to get online more. That’s when the big shift happened. Everyone got used to using it a lot more. And then since then, people are used to using it, and it has definitely evolved into being kind of the number one social platform for professionals. So anything business-wise, business content, people are going to go on LinkedIn to share that and talk about that. So it was kind of cemented in this place there. Then they just continued rolling out additional features and things that are useful for both users on reading, connecting with your colleagues, but then also on the marketing side of things. So the advertising platform has kind of come a long way. There’s a lot of new features, a lot of new capabilities there. So it’s been very interesting to watch how it’s evolved. And I think also at the same time we kind of see how other platforms have evolved differently. I feel like these days, if I ever go on Facebook, it’s just a lot of like AI-generated garbage content. So during the workday or during the work week, I want to be reading business stuff. I want to be learning things and I’m going to apply to my job. That’s why I go on LinkedIn to read that type of content. And I know that’s why a lot of other professionals do it. So it’s kind of just grown into its place there in the ecosystem. So people are used to using it a lot more. And there’s been a lot of new features that have come out to help marketers use it as a marketing channel.  I’m glad you brought up this AI evolution, because I see that more and more people are writing their posts with AI. There can be benefits to that, because some people don’t write as well as an AI copywriter does—most of us, perhaps. On the other hand, the posts start to look a little bit more alike. So I wonder, what is your perception of this? Do you think people are posting more, and if they post more, do people read less? How is this evolving?  Yes, it’s a continually evolving space. I don’t think we know a hundred percent what the outcome is right now, but I think what I see across all the people that we work with—and just using the platform—there’s a lot more content these days with AI. People can use AI to generate content, so there’s a lot more content out there. But volume does not always mean quality. There’s more content, but not necessarily the best content. The best stuff that we see performing well in our ad campaigns—and also organically on LinkedIn—usually has a human angle to it, where maybe you wrote it yourself.  You can use AI to generate content—AI is great for that, and it’s great for writing—but you probably want to take what it gives you and then add your own edits and personality. That’s a big piece. The more personality you have in your content, the more people are going to engage with it. So across the board, we see that human content still wins. AI is great for generating the bulk of the content, but then you want to put in your own voice, add some personality to it, and then that's going to help it perform kind of even better… Share on X   Well, that takes me to the next question, which is about connection requests and people reaching out. So how is this evolving, and how do you see people reacting to connection requests? I remember 20 years ago, it was a big deal if you got a connection request, and we basically reached out to all the people we knew and connected with everyone we could. Now, there are different schools of thought. Some say that you should not connect with anyone you don’t want to do business with because it dilutes the exposure of your content, and you’re not going to go viral. You’re also not going to be able to follow the few people you can actually do business with. Other people say the more, the merrier. So what’s your view on this topic?  I think the marketers went very heavily into connection requests—especially during the Covid period—and maybe burned it out. As users, we’ve all been burned out by the connection requests and the messages we’ve been receiving. So as a platform, and in terms of how people use it, that tactic has definitely simmered down a lot. It’s still a usable, viable tactic—prospecting is never going to go away. Whether it’s email, cold calling, or LinkedIn, delivering the right message to the right person at the right time will always matter. But it is changing and evolving. Users are burned out by the messages, so they’re much more skeptical now. People accept far fewer connection requests because they can usually see the intent coming from a mile away. I still recommend connecting with people you do know—your colleagues and your clients—and also connecting with your prospects. But be aware that everyone else is cautious when they receive a connection request. They often assume you’re going to try to sell to them. So start with the people that you do know that you are working with. Prospecting will probably never go away, but definitely the platform as a whole—and what works on LinkedIn—has definitely shifted. Connection requests don’t work as well as they used to. People have shifted more to the content side of things on LinkedIn, and I think it does provide a better user experience to the end user and also for the marketer too. At the end of the day, it’s about the end user and the experience you’re… Share on X I’m a LinkedIn user, you’re a LinkedIn user, so we want to have a good experience. We don’t want to just receive spam from everybody, or else we’re not going to use it. But the platform evolves, so it’s a lot more about the content you’re posting on LinkedIn. Other people are going to discover that content, and then maybe they choose to follow you at that point. Maybe they choose to send you a connection request. But it doesn’t have to be just that. When LinkedIn sees people starting to engage with your content, they’re going to show more of your content. So it’s kind of becoming a discovery platform, and there is a network effect to it. So there’s definitely a shift toward the content you’re posting. It’s much more about thought leadership. I know the LinkedIn product team is trying to be very intentional about the content they surface to users. They want it to be high-quality, thought leadership content. As a platform, they know they’ve had a spam problem

    25 min

  3. MAR 16

    324: Get Customers 17 Ways with Vance Morris

    https://youtu.be/47bH911YFF0 Vance Morris, consultant, coach, and speaker, helps service-based businesses break free from the ordinary and create extraordinary customer experiences that generate loyal customers for life. After spending more than a decade working for the Disney Company and learning its powerful systems and processes for customer service, Vance launched his own businesses and built them around those principles—eventually creating companies that run largely without his daily involvement. We explore Vance’s Customer Experience System, a framework for turning ordinary interactions into memorable moments that create lifelong customers. The system focuses on mapping all customer points of contact, ideating experiences for each boring touchpoint, prioritizing the biggest impact moments, and memorializing those experiences in systems or playbooks so they can be delivered consistently by the team. Vance explains how businesses can create “tellable moments,” recover from service mistakes in memorable ways, and build repeatable marketing systems that generate referrals and long-term customer loyalty. — Get Customers 17 Ways with Vance Morris Good day, dear listeners. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast, and my guest today is Vance Morris, a consultant, coach, and speaker, who helps advisor-based businesses break free from the ordinary and step into the extraordinary. Vance, welcome to the show.  I appreciate it, Steve. Thank you so much. Your background is very interesting and your whole idea of making customer experience unique, and also you have unique ways of acquiring customers. So let’s get into it. But I’d like to start with my favorite question: What is your personal ‘Why’, and how are you manifesting it in your business?  My personal ‘Why’ is very strong, and that is I never want to be an employee ever again. I make a lousy employee. I don’t like to be told what to do. And so knowing that has kept me on this entrepreneurial path for the last 19 years.  Okay, well, I can relate to this. I can relate to this. That’s a big thing when you are in charge of your own time. It’s a big blessing. Some people make a lot of money, but if they don’t own their time, it’s not ideal. I agree 100%. Yes, sir.  Yeah. Love it. Let’s talk a little bit about your journey. I mean, how did you end up being a non-employee and being your own boss and advising companies, what the route led you down this path?  Sure. Well, the long and short of it, I spent a little over a decade working for the Disney Company down in Orlando, Florida. Magnificent experience. Great company to work for. Towards the end, I was starting to get that inkling that maybe I should be doing something on my own. So I went out and worked as an employee and a consultant at the same time for a couple of different restaurant concepts. And then I had a couple of high-profile positions. I was catering director for the Smithsonian Museum System, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, things like that. And along the way, I realized that I do indeed make a lousy employee because I got fired a couple of times. So I own up to it. I’m okay with it. But I said to myself, let’s put something together that will be your own and we’ll be able to afford the lifestyle that you’re looking for. So about 20 years ago, I started a couple of home service businesses. I took all of my Disney knowledge and Disney systems and processes—both on customer experience and customer retention Share on X and importantly pricing—and put those all into those businesses and started to grow them. And people started asking me, well, geez, Vance, you don’t look like you’re working very hard. How are you doing that? So I back in 2013, I started consulting with other companies, primarily professional services, on how to really deliver extraordinary customer experiences that will lead to what I call raving fans for life, or customers for life.  I love it. No better place to learn than at Disney, right? Yeah, I mean, it was great. And one of the first things I learned there was that Disney operates 100% on systems and processes. I mean, I ain’t sure we learned how to pick up trash and smile at people, but the biggest lesson was Disney has a process for everything. You want to carry a tray in a restaurant, they got a process. You want to change a bus tire, they have a process. So I took that everywhere I went, which has actually led me to be fairly autonomous from my home service businesses because I put systems and processes in place, and I only spend about 90 minutes a week on those businesses.  That’s fantastic. So let’s talk about these processes, particularly the customer experience processes that you have installed. And actually you have a process for installing processes, which is kind of a system to enhance the customer experience and then keep customers for a long time. You talk about keeping them for life. So tell me about that system and how do you delight customers on a schedule?  Sure. So the process is called Systematic Magic, and there’s seven magic keys to this system. And it’s designed to really look at all different parts of the business in order to surprise and delight folks. Some of it is not very sexy. I will admit that ahead of time. Some of it you’ll be like, oh my God, I get it. So the first thing that you have to do, though—and this is the unsexy part of it—is you have to map out your customer journey. And you have to do it from the point of view of your customer. So what is the first point of contact a customer has with you? Is it a phone call, a visit to the office, a website? What is that first contact? And then figure out how to create an experience out of that. And then what’s the second contact? Now in between first and second contact, let’s say you’re a financial advisor, and in the first meeting you get all the numbers and all their information. You say, okay, it’s going to be about seven to ten days, I’ll get you a proposal or a plan a week and a half or so. So while the financial advisor is working, they’re actually doing something. What is the customer doing? Absolutely nothing. They’re sitting there waiting. And waiting is painful. While waiting, things start to go through your head. You start to possibly have buyer’s remorse. You’re rethinking this purchase. Is there somebody out there better? Is this guy even paying attention to me? I just met him and I haven’t seen him in a week and a half. So Disney—people wait for a lot of things at Disney. You wait for the rides. You wait for transportation. But they figured out that they need to entertain you while you’re in line to make it not feel so bad. And they call it “linertainment.” So this is something that I’ve brought to other businesses is how do you entertain your customer while they are waiting for you to do something? It could be as simple as a maybe a sequence of a handwritten note that goes out in the mail on the first day. A follow up call from your assistant saying, Hey, Bob’s working on your plan. He hasn’t forgot about you. And then maybe you’ve written a book. And so getting that book in the mail to your client would be another step, really trying to make that wait period not feel so long. And also remind the customer that you’re still thinking about them.  Yeah. Love it. That’s brilliant. So you talk about this process of mapping out the points of contact, and then you talk about the boring touch points. You talk about ideating experience in each boring touch point. So tell me about boring touch points. I understand waiting is definitely boring.  Sure.  It’s such much a touch point. It’s more of a boring time period.  Disney has figured out how to create an experience out of all of the boring and mundane things we have to do to keep our business up and running: answer the phone, greet a guest, show them how to enter a building. So I’ve brought that to the real world. Quick example. So I have a insurance broker. And he’s got Allstate agent, and he has about 17 other Allstate guys in his area, in addition to all of the other regular insurance guys in his area. And he needed a way to stand out because insurance is a highly commoditized business. You don’t really know what’s the difference between one guy and the next. One has a lizard, one has a something else. So I got to his office. I noticed that he was a rock and roll fanatic. I mean, he had autographed guitars on the wall, gold records, posters, and everything. And I said, well, I think you should lean into your personality a little bit and be the rock and roll insurance guy. Share on X And his receptionist was the one that came up with the way to answer the phone. Before, like most companies, they would say, “Thank you for calling Dave’s Insurance. How can I help you?” Boring. Everybody says that. So his receptionist suggested, well, we should probably, let’s sound like a radio DJ and really make it an experience out of answering the phone. So now they say: “Thank you for calling Dave’s Allstate, the agency that rocks.” That’s a little corny the first few times you say it, but if you think about it, your marketing is designed to do two things: repel the people you don’t want and attract the people you do want. So just by answering the phone this way, they sift, sort, and screen out anybody who would be a bad customer.  Yeah. Love it. That’s a good example. How do you know which are the biggest impact points in this series of touch points, and we have to focus your energy?  Well, what you want to do once you’ve completed journey mapping is look at points where you may have the most impact on either the experience or on your profitability. Or is there something glaring that’s like, “Oh my God, we have to fix this”? And so you look

    21 min

  4. MAR 9

    323: Take 5 Steps to Transitioning Your Business with Laurie Barkman

    https://youtu.be/_A__xfP6HBM Laurie Barkman, strategic growth advisor, former $100M CEO, M&A expert, and author of The Business Transition Handbook, helps construction, architecture, and engineering firms build scalable, sustainable businesses that create time, freedom, and long-term value. Having experienced a major acquisition firsthand and led companies through significant growth and change, Laurie now focuses on helping mature business owners navigate the complex journey of building enterprise value and preparing for future transitions. We explore Laurie’s BUILT Method—Blueprint, Unlock, Integrate, Lead, Transition—a strategic framework designed to help founders of established businesses scale beyond owner dependency and prepare for successful leadership or ownership transitions. Laurie explains how aligning the owner’s personal vision with the company’s future strategy creates clarity, why measuring enterprise value can unlock new growth decisions, and how proactive transition planning helps entrepreneurs avoid the identity crisis that often follows a business exit. — Take 5 Steps to Transitioning Your Business with Laurie Barkman Good day, dear listeners. Steve Preda here, the Founder of the Summit OS Group, and today my guest is Laurie Barkman, a strategic growth advisor, former a hundred-million-dollar CEO and M&A expert who’s helping construction and engineering companies build scalable, sustainable businesses that creates time, freedom, and value. Laurie is also the author of the Business Transition Handbook. Laurie, welcome to the show. Steve, thank you so much. I’m so excited to be with you today. Yeah, it’s great to have you. And you have a really interesting niche with the business transition and helping construction or architecture engineering firms. So what brought you to this point? What is your personal why, and how are you manifesting it in your practice? My personal why has been evolving over the years through my career. I think I was always an entrepreneur at heart. I had orbited entrepreneurial companies, like startups, in a big company. I was always the maverick. I was trying to be an intrapreneur and ultimately found myself in a position of finding a way to help business owners in the back part of their journey. While I love startups, I have found that my niche is in working with mature companies—so companies that are over five to seven years old—and helping entrepreneurs in the tough decisions. Share on X It’s the tough decisions that they really wrestle with, feel alone, and I’ve been in executive shoes, right? I’ve been lived that world. I’m living in the entrepreneurial world right now, but again, in this mature space where we think about life differently, we think about transitions differently, and I’ve just kind of embraced that idea, especially as a Gen Xer, of how to help other Gen Xers in that in-between. So is there like a personal reason why you are attracted to this whole idea of the transition?  I’ve lived a lot of transitions, especially in the corporate world, going through an acquisition about 10 years ago, I was an outside hire at a third-generation company, and they said, “We’re looking to hire you not for the next three years, but for the next 20,” which was really exciting, but it ended up being three. And the reason why is because a little Bluebird, who wasn’t so little, a global company who was very in acquisitive, I was interested in this business, third-generation company. It was over a billion in revenue. My business unit was about 10% of the total. So again, sizable business unit, and myself and the other executives had to work really, really hard to keep our foot on the gas pedal, making sure that the deal, if we were, was going to go through that we helped make it go through—which we did. It was out of the blue. The company was not on the market. But I saw firsthand the innovation, the growth, and the transition over the three generations of the stories of how it went from one to the next was just so fascinating to me. So when I ultimately was part of the integration team, I left the business. The short answer was that I was just there for three years. And so after that I really saw an opportunity to help other entrepreneurs on their journey. So this notion of that we’re going to grow, we’re going to innovate, and then eventually we’re going to transition—maybe it’s a family business, maybe it’s founder-led. Nonetheless, we want to create value, we want to have good handoffs, and I saw things were working well. Share on X As I mentioned, I joined at the point of the third generation. Then it was up to the corporate gods take it from there. And so I thought about ways to add value and work with inspired entrepreneurs who envision a future legacy for themselves, the people they love, the communities they serve Share on X but they’re just stuck. They feel stuck in some way. They’re kind of on their path. They’re not at the end of the path. They’re on it, and they need that support. That’s really what’s been motivating me and driving me for the last seven plus years. Yeah. That’s a wonderful journey, and it’s a very wordy thing because these entrepreneurs, they build a company, and then they don’t know how to allow it to grow up. And you basically are there and help them with the empty nesting and the pre-empty nesting, getting them into good courage. That’s also very important. So one of the ways you, I understand you do this is you call it the BUILT Method, which is kind of neat because you work with construction, engineering, architecture firms. So what is the BUILD Method is about, and how does it help people?  Yeah, the  BUILD Method is definitely an acknowledgement that we are in a physical world, and I appreciate you making that connection. Share on X And it’s not lost on our audience, hopefully. It’s such an important space. We really, in a time of AI and such dramatic change, the built environment of architecture, engineering, design companies that are envisioning their futures. There’s like any industry, there’s a lot of changes. And so this is a blueprint, if you will. That’s the “B,” right? It’s a blueprint for what is your vision and what is the firm model, what should it be in the future? It’s really that roadmap of future growth. The “U” is an unlocked. So many of us feel stuck. Maybe we’re stuck in the day-to-day because we have owner-dependent businesses. Maybe we feel stuck because our revenues are plateaued or declining. And we see ourselves as a bottleneck. Maybe we’re a bottleneck for a variety of reasons, which I’m sure we could talk about. The “I” is all about integration. And so, what do we need to do to document our systems and put things in place so that we don’t have risks in terms of not only owner dependency, but any other employees where there could be gaps should someone leave the organization or have some other untimely departure? The “L” is lead, and lead is not used lightly. Lead is really with clarity and not with chaos. And for owner-dependent businesses, people that have companies that can’t thrive without them, this tends to be a real challenge that they want to lead from the front, but they’re not. And they're so in the weeds in the business, they can't see the forest for the trees. They're not working on the business. So really helping my clients find that clarity is so important. Share on X And then the “T”, last but not least, stands for transition. It’s probably my favorite word at this point. And it’s not just transition or change for any sake. It’s good to have that confidence and to be in control, to be in the driver’s seat, and to be proactive about change. It’s why I wrote the book, The Business Transition Handbook. It’s really encouraging entrepreneurs to not think about an exit as a point in time and a finite point in time. It’s why I do talk about exit and I do talk about exit planning, but my recognition is that this is a finite action, and a transition is a journey. It's a path, and that's why my business is named Business Transition Sherpa, because I am with you on your journey. So the BUILT Method is really all about these different aspects and helping entrepreneurs on their journey. Share on X STEVE PREDA: Yeah. This is very cool. And there is a lifecycle to business, and there’s a lifecycle to an entrepreneur as well. And hopefully the business’s lifecycle is much longer than the entrepreneur’s. So someone is going to take it on, and you want to create a great legacy and a great business. So your way of the blueprint or your version of blueprint is different. Is it like what people call mission, vision, values kind of thing or there’s more to it? I think it does start with that. I mean, those are so fundamental, and my overall approach with strategic transition planning is the acknowledgement that there’s different aspects of the planning that we need to do as business owners, and one of those aspects is a blueprint for the business. And the business fundamentals of where do we want to be in five to seven years or ten years. Another part of that, which is a dovetail, is where does the owner want to be? What’s their personal future vision? And we start to intertwine those things, especially in this age and life stage. I work a lot with, as I mentioned, Gen Xers, and so we are in the mid-fifties of our lives, and statistically speaking, we’re about five to seven years away from a significant life transition. A lot of the Gen Xers, especially business owners I work with, are saying, “I’m looking ahead. I see what the baby boomers have done, and I don’t want to do it their way. I want to do it differently. I’m not going to die at my desk, and I want other things out of my life. My business has provided this and that f

    27 min

  5. MAR 2

    322: 3 Ways to Forge an Identity for Your Business with Josh Block

    https://youtu.be/UgAJ4-221HA Josh Block, President of Block Imaging, Founder of Cube Mobile Imaging, and author of People Matter at Work, is on a mission to restore work as a positive force in people’s lives. After unexpectedly stepping into the presidency of his family business at just 29 years old, Josh began asking a bold question: What if we could create a place where people love to work — and become someone they never dreamed of because of it? We explore Josh’s “Me Cycle” to “We Cycle” Framework (3Ts) — Work Together, Make Thoughtful Decisions, and Be Transparent — a leadership model designed to build trust, ownership, and thriving team cultures. Josh explains how slowing down sharpens decisions, why empathy must shape executive choices, and how radical transparency strengthens accountability. He also shares how defining a clear organizational identity — including mission, values, and thriving mindsets — creates a culture that attracts the right people and repels the wrong ones. — 3 Ways to Forge an Identity for Your Business with Josh Block Good day, dear listeners. Steve Preda here, the Founder of the Summit OS Group, and my guest today is Josh Block, who’s been President of Block Imaging for the last 15 years. He is also the Founder of Cube Mobile Imaging and the author of People Matter at Work. Josh, welcome to the show.  Thank you so much for having me, Steve. It’s good to be with you.  I’m excited to have you because you’ve taken over a company as president and CEO, then changed the culture, and written a book about it. So we’re going to dive into all this. But before we go there, I’m curious: what is your personal “Why,” and how are you manifesting it in Block Imaging, Cube Mobile Imaging, and your new company? Yeah, I grew up in a home that work was a positive thing. I never heard my dad complain about work. And yet as I went to college and then moved into my twenties, I recognized that work had become kind of a four-letter word in our day—more of a “have to” than a “get to.” So at 29, when I became president of our family business, the collision of my own experience and the world’s experience led me to ask the question: What if we could create a place where people love to work? Culture often gets labeled as soft stuff, but not just love to work, but become someone they never dreamed of because they’re challenged, they’re connected to a mission, they respect their leader, and go home as better people? And so, over the last 15 years, we’ve sought to create that kind of place—where kids would grow up in homes and say, “I want to work at a place like Mommy and Daddy work.” And they’d actually experienced what I experienced as a young person.  That’s great that you had such a positive experience, and I agree. I mean, that’s what we want as entrepreneurs. We want to create this experience for our people as well. So how do you actually do that? How do you create this experience? Do you have a framework that will help people? Perhaps you write about it in your book to get that. I think you call it going from the “me cycle” to the “we cycle.” What does that mean, and how do you get there?  Yeah. In most organizations, “me” is the driver. Bosses are extracting from people. They’re focused on themselves, or maybe they’re focused exclusively on performance. But in the “me cycle”, bosses look out for themselves, and then employees return the favor. And really nobody wins because it’s more of a cannibalistic approach. And so 322: 3 Ways to Forge an Identity for Your Business with Josh Block Share on X Leaders set the tone. They’re the ones who go first, and they create a culture where people are cared for. In the book, I talk about the “three Ts.” I didn’t have them at the beginning — I kind of stumbled upon upon them over the last 15 years. And really, these three Ts allow us to create a culture where people feel safe, seen, and successful. And when they do that, they feel safe, seen, and successful, they give back in incredible ways. They take ownership of the business, and ultimately, trust builds. And when that happens, it shares the burden across the leaders and the team. Everything gets easier. Everyone wins. Performance blossoms. And so that’s really what I highlight along with sharing my story into becoming president is the shift from “me” to “we”. I loved it. So when did you recognize that this was something that needed to happen, and how did you create the vision of what it would look like if you wanted to create it? So when you came into the business, was it more of a “me” culture, and did you change it, or did you pick it up, recognize it, and articulate it even though it was already there? Yeah, I think there were positives and negatives, and maybe I’d classify it as neutral. I wouldn’t say it was a thriving team culture, but I wouldn’t say it was toxic either. My care for people, my love for work, and my belief in the power of business—that really was what we were looking to embody. Share on X And so it started out just trying to be the answer to that “what if” question I shared. Little by little, because of my really quick transition from sales rep to president, the three Ts emerged. The first was together—we have to work together. It was born out of humility to sharpen decisions. Then it serendipitously became the second T: thoughtful decisions, which is careful consideration of the needs of others. And then the last piece was really a T as well that was leading how I would like to be led, which is just with lots of transparency. So many leaders are keeping so much close to the vest, and it reduces trust. Yet, when we share openly and transparently with people, trust builds, and all sorts of really cool things start to happen. Those three Ts, I kind of stumbled across, and they’ve become the framework for embodying—not manipulating—people, but really embodying the care that we already have for people.  Share on X Yeah, I love it. So working together, making thoughtful decisions, and being transparent. So let’s peel the onion here. What do you mean working together? How is it different from what most companies do?  Yeah, so in lots of companies, leaders are overwhelmed. They have too much on their plate. They’re moving so fast, and it might be a big decision or a small decision that they make, and they think, “Oh, this isn’t that big a deal. In fact, this is like eight on my list of 20 priorities.” And then they spend a lot of time clarifying, cleaning up, and fixing because they’ve moved too fast and they’ve moved thoughtlessly. And so this working together to sharpen decisions, whether it’s something that’s big or really, again, something that’s small. Sometimes the smaller decisions have an inordinate impact on people. So yeah, when I think about working together, I just think of using people in our organization—and even outside of our organization—to sharpen any decision of consequence.  Yeah. Many leaders don’t recognize that just because they can come up with a decision themselves, if there is no buy-in, people can’t weigh in. And then they don’t realize that people don’t feel ownership of this decision. And they might not get the complete context of it, and they might have some concerns that they feel like it hasn’t been seen and heard, and that can create friction in an organization. And a lot of leaders are thinking to themselves, “Well, I don’t have time to slow down. I have too much to do.” And I would say, you actually have so much to do sometimes because of moving too fast and having to clean up, fix, and address issues. I think “slow is smooth, smooth is fast.” If we actually took a bit more time in the decision, we would save time in the long run. Yeah. What about being thoughtful? If you do that—if you work together and take input from other people—isn’t that going to create thoughtful decisions? Or is there another dimension that needs to be considered?  It certainly is helpful. The more people you bring in, the broader our paradigm is in making a decision. Share on X But you have to stop and think: what is it like to be on the other side of this decision? And one of the story that comes to mind is Office Space. Right now, I’m in a corner office, and I’ve had an office for a long time. It can be easy to forget what it’s like to be in a cubicle, to work closely with 12 other people, or to deal with different lighting or temperature—whatever it is. Stopping and recognizing that there was a time when some things were important to me, but are not important anymore, and yet they’re still important to the people I lead—that’s thoughtful. This careful consideration of the needs of others asks: how does my decision impact them? And that requires knowing people and knowing what’s important to them. I also share in my book, People Matter at Work, that compensation and workspaces are two topics that are really sensitive when it comes to making thoughtful decisions.  Can you give an example where you used this principle and you made a different decision because you wanted to be thoughtful and the outcome was positive? Yeah, it is. It’s a daily endeavor. For me, oftentimes in my role today, it’s working with our leaders and asking them: how would you feel if the decision that we’ve just talked about that you’re getting to ready to roll out? How would you feel if you were 24 years old, or you were new in your role, or you were concerned about your next house payment, or your spouse was having health issues? It’s very interesting to see people stop and say, “Yeah, I think my 25-year-old self would not have been happy with the 40-year-old decision I’m about to make.” That’s really important. There’s a danger in seeing everything thro

    19 min

  6. FEB 23

    321: 7-Steps to Winning Products with Anya Cheng

    https://youtu.be/6yCIm3guPPo Anya Cheng, Founder and CEO of Taelor, is making personal styling accessible to everyday professionals with an AI-powered clothing-on-demand service built for busy men and influencers. After 15 years leading product teams at companies like Meta, eBay, McDonald’s, and Target, Anya turned her own frustration with shopping and laundry into a mission-driven business that helps people look great, feel confident, and save time—while also supporting sustainability by keeping more clothing out of landfills. We explore Anya’s Product Management Framework, the structured approach she uses to build and scale products. Instead of starting with technology, she begins by Identifying the Right Problem, then Looking at the Persona, Validating the Buying Journey, and Identifying Pain Points. From there, she Selects Decision Criteria to prioritize what matters most, Brainstorms Solutions, and finally Identifies the Right Solution based on impact, feasibility, and business value. She explains how this framework guides everything from launching Taelor to deciding which AI features to build next. — 7-Steps to Winning Products with Anya Cheng Good day, dear listeners. Steve Preda here, Founder of the Summit OS Group. And my guest today is Anya Cheng, the Founder and CEO of Taelor, an AI-powered clothing on-demand service for men and social media influencers. Anya, welcome to the show.  Hello, this is Anya from San Francisco. I’m the founder of Taelor. We use AI to pick clothes for busy men. In the old days, only celebrities had their own human stylists. Now everyone can have their own AI stylist, and we send people real clothes to rent. Before starting the company, I spent 15 years in big tech companies. Most recently at Meta, where I helped build Facebook and Instagram Shopping. I was Head of Product at eBay and helped them launch new businesses in the US, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. I was also a Senior Director at McDonald’s, where I helped build their food delivery business globally when Uber Eats just started, and I helped Target build a tech office here in Silicon Valley. I’m excited to share more.  Okay, well we already got a lot out of you, so thank you for giving this quick bio. What I’m very interested in is what drives you. So you worked for Target. I think you worked for Amazon, at least with Amazon. You worked for other big tech.  EBay, McDonald’s, and Facebook.  Yes, so big tech companies like Meta. What makes someone who is a successful leader in big tech break out start as an entrepreneur? What is your personal “Why” that drives you and that you want to manifest in your business?  Yeah, it actually start with my personal problems that I had. When I was working for Meta, I was a few female leaders there leading large technology team. So I felt a little bit of imposter syndrome. I wanted to look great, but I don’t want people to find out that I’m freaking out every day. So I tried some subscription boxes like Stitch Fix, which is similar to the old Trunk Club. It’s good that someone styles you. But once you receive those boxes, you have to decide right away: how many times am I going to wear these clothes? And you have to buy before you can wear them. So can I find something even cheaper somewhere else? How do I pair these items? And once I buy them, I have to do laundry, ironing, and folding. It’s just a lot of work. So I started using rental companies. I rented from companies like Nuuly, which is a $500 million revenue company, or companies like Rent the Runway, which is a public company. They are all great—you can rent, you don’t have to buy. But they require people to pick from hundreds of thousands of garments. You spend two hours picking, picking, picking, browsing, browsing, browsing. And I’m not into fashion. I don’t like fashion. I don’t have time to do shopping. I’m not fashion-forward, so I don’t even know how to pick. That was the “aha” moment for me— I realized most fashion companies are designed for people who are into fashion, not for people like me who just want to get ready for the day and be successful. Share on X So I started doing research. Are there other people like me—who hate shopping and laundry but need to look good, be socially active, go to meetings, close deals, get jobs? It turns out there are a lot of people like me: busy men, single guys, salespeople, consultants, pastors, recruiters, professors. There are 15 million single men, 14 million sales professionals in the U.S., and it turns out we started Taelor to help people like me look great without having to think about fashion.  Well, I don’t know—if you look at my shirt, I probably could also use some Taelor treatment, an AI telling me how to dress better. So what drives you? I understand this is a great idea and definitely necessary, but what makes you excited about it?  I think I’ve personally always been passionate about helping people achieve their goals. I started as a blue-collar kid—my mom is a housewife, my dad is a factory worker, originally from Taiwan, and they’ve been in the U.S. for 20 years. As an immigrant, I came to the U.S. and was very lucky to have a lot of people help me. I got a student long ago, went to Northwestern University, got my MBA from the University of Chicago. I came to the U.S. without knowing anyone here, but many people helped me achieve the American dream. So it has always been in my heart to help more people achieve their dreams. What I realized was that dressing well really helped me—almost like a student who buys a textbook and feels ready for the exam even though they haven’t read it yet. Share on X People using amazing software or tools will buy books or start learning and already feel smarter than before. It’s really a peace of mind that helped me. So I’ve always been passionate about how I can help more people achieve their goals, their dreams, and their full potential. I realized this business helps me do that. I’ve tried to do that in other ways before: I’ve published books, created online courses, and taught at Northwestern University. But this business is an additional way to help people achieve their goals. At the same time, my co-founder, Phoebe, who is originally from Malaysia, she has been in the U.S. for 20 years. Growing up, she wanted to be a fashion designer, but in an Asian family, she became an accountant and finance professional, eventually a CFO. She always had a little spark in her heart to do something related to fashion, and she is very passionate about sustainability. She constantly talks about how today, 30% of clothes go directly from factories to landfills, generating 10% of carbon emissions and polluting 20% of the world’s water. Sustainability is really close to her heart. By the time she had worked for 15 years, she felt ready for a change, and we both shared the same vision. That’s how we started the business together.  Love it. It’s really a mission-driven company. I didn’t realize this when we first talked, but a lot of people are held back by not being well-dressed. Again, I don’t want to be the example here. I also like the idea because my daughter talks a lot about throwing away clothes and how much damage it does to the environment. I really like that you help people wear and buy only the clothes they actually need and send back the ones they don’t. This is awesome. So let’s switch gears here. I’m really curious about how you develop your products because this is a very creative business. You have to develop a new, revolutionary concept and product. Do you have a framework for developing these products?  Yeah, absolutely. We always start with the problem we are solving. I teach product management at Northwestern University, and most people, when they think about building a product, their first thought is, “Hey, what product am I building? How do I build it? What technology should I use?” We use AI to build this—we build AI agents—but in fact, you should take a step back. There are two equally important questions you need to ask: what problem should I solve, and what solution should I pick?  Most people spend 95% of their time thinking about what solution to pick. But first, you need to figure out what problem you should solve. The problem you solve is actually the most important thing, because if you’re solving the wrong problem—one that people don’t care about, or one that won’t help your business, or one that you can’t actually solve—then no matter how great your solution is, it’s going to be a waste of time. For example, what we found is that we are totally different from women’s rental companies. The problem we are solving is for guys who are busy but socially active. They have dreams. As a realtor, I want to sell one more house. As a small business owner, I want to grow my business to open a second restaurant. So they have a dream. Dressing well and looking good is something that helps increase their chances of success—getting a job, closing a deal, showing up confidently. Share on X What we are really selling is a concierge service, an executive assistant, a fairy godmother, a gadget guy behind the superhero—it’s peace of mind. If you look at women’s counterparts, like Nuuly or Rent the Runway, they have hundreds of millions in revenue each, but they are solving a problem for women like me. So we want to look great every single day and want to wear different things. So wearing different thing versus, I don’t want to think about it, is actually totally different problem. So if you think of our business model financially is different. For example, in women’s rental businesses, margins are very low because people rent clothes and don’t buy. On top of typical e-commerce costs like shipping, there are additional costs like laundry, so margins remain low. But in ou

    22 min

  7. FEB 16

    320: 5 Steps to Heart-Driven Leadership with Hanna Bauer

    https://youtu.be/nZ_4d91QlUk Hannah Bauer, CEO of Heartnomics Enterprises and a leadership strategist grounded in Lean Six Sigma, Zig Ziglar, and Baldrige Excellence, is driven by a personal ‘Why’ of transformation—helping people live with love, excellence, and fulfillment.  We explore Hannah’s remarkable origin story: diagnosed with a serious heart condition as a child, enduring years of unpredictable tachycardia and two heart attacks at age 10, and ultimately receiving a pioneering ablation procedure that saved her life. Out of that journey, she built Heartnomics—the “economy of the heart”—and teaches her HEART Leadership Framework: Hope, Empowerment, Accountability, Results, and Trust, a values-based model that fuses emotional resilience with operational discipline to create ethical, high-performing leaders and cultures. — 5 Steps to Heart-Driven Leadership with Hanna Bauer Good day, dear listener. Steve Reda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast, and my guest today is Hannah Bauer, a leadership strategist who teaches leadership performance, continuous improvement. She’s also the CEO of Heart Enterprises, and she is well-versed in Lean Six Sigma, Zig Ziglar Baldrige Excellence, and many disciplines. So I’m excited to welcome you to the show, Hannah. Thank you Steve. Thanks for having me. Alright, so you have lots of interesting stories and lots of interesting concepts and frameworks, which we are into. I’m also interested in your personal ‘Why,’ and how are you manifesting that in your coaching practice? Well, my personal why is transformation. I believe that as human beings, we have the authority and ability to transform, and I believe the way that we do that is through love and excellence. We've all been created by love and the ability to do good works, excellent works—the ones that are going to leave a positive footprint. Share on X That’s my why. I want to be able to be fulfilled in what I do and help other people be fulfilled in the lives that they live. Wow. So love, access, and fulfillment. That is a very positive vision. I am happy to sign up for that. It’s positive. It’s true. You know, and I think that’s the thing. It’s like we really can attain that in this lifetime. And sometimes we look at it like, “Oh, it’s so far away.” or “One day,” but it’s like—that’s the amazing thing that we have as human beings. We have the ability to live that out regardless of what’s going on. Well, that’s a very significant for you to say that because it’s part of your story that when you were 10 years old—and correct me the details—you were diagnosed with a serious heart condition. So tell me your origin story, and how did you actually beat out of this huge challenge and obstacle that you had, the kind of life that you are teaching others right now? Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks for asking that. Yeah, I will say probably the ones harder than me. I would think of many points as my parents, because I was the kid, right? I was the kid. I was diagnosed at four, when at the time was considered a terminal diagnosis with heart; a lot of research had not been done yet at that time—we’re talking about like the late seventies, early eighties. So there was not really much information on heart disease.—for women, much less on kids. Kids just don’t get heart disease, right? I mean, if there’s anything, it’s like a structural thing. In mine, it was where my heart would go suddenly really fast into tachycardia, but it would also be arrhythmic, which would be abnormal rhythms. It was unexpected. It could be just—I’m just talking to you—I sneeze, and then it would just go into tachycardia, or I’m in the middle sleeping and I turn the wrong way, it will start going into that tachycardia. And that would be like—think about a resting, normal resting heart rate is between the sixties to eighties. Well, for me, a normal heart rate would be anywhere from 180 to 240. So basically like on—yeah, on like that zone five—what you all are feeling when you are working out. That’s what my heart would be as a kid. But it wouldn’t just be for like, a few minutes. It could last hours, days into the extreme. It lasted weeks, and drugs didn’t work for it. Interventions didn’t work. I’ve had a DH of 10 actually, which was significant at that time. So I went through two heart attacks. That’s really what— really the both a miracle and what opened the door. I think always our greatest opportunities are always surrounded by the greatest of circumstances and obstacles. And as much as painful as that whole experience was, it also opened the door for my parents to courageously uproot our family, come to the US in search of a cure that didn’t yet exist. And it was a journey for about five years. Nothing really inside as far as the, “Hey, if we do this, this will happen. If we do that, again.” It was a lot of the things that happened were research. It was going on hope, and that's where my lessons came in because I got to see very intelligent, dedicated professionals really rely not only on skills but really on hope. Share on X They really believed a lot in me. They believed a lot in what my heart was capable of doing. I want to say my doctor was relentless. Though I was in a heart transplant list, where it would have given me about 10 years more at that time. I would have made it most 22 years old, assuming that everything went well. He was relentless and believing and that my heart as well—the muscle. It was the electrical system that didn’t work. So in 1992, there was an opportunity for an innovative surgery called the heart ablation. And that’s where they basically did a recircuiting. They did the circuits in my heart, burning away parts that were making those fast heartbeats, being able to identify those and having a clear pathway to then energy was able to flow. And ever since then, I’ve been well. So I’m here. I am well in the heart, in a sense. I think with having five kids, they did a really good job because I’m still here. You know, the kids will cause a lot of stress, and being an entrepreneur itself, but that’s where my story started. A lot of things I couldn’t do. My childhood obviously was very different. You know, things like that were simple—going to school, getting up, getting dressed—there were no options for me. Many times I lived tied to a bed. Four weeks, I lived in the CCU, the cardiac care unit, for many weeks, months at a time. And that’s where I learned actually the beat method. That’s where I learned. That’s why I say regardless of the circumstances, as a kid, you don’t understand. I didn’t understand all it meant. I didn’t even understand what I had the surgery until 20 years later, when they called me to do a documentary on it. And that’s when I realized that I was the first of 3,000 children that were impacted by this innovative surgery that saved their lives. Wow, that’s an amazing story. And what’s even more amazing to me is that out of this experience, you built your business. It’s called ‘Heartnomics’.  Yeah. The economy of the heart. And then you have several frameworks, which are all always revolved around the heart. And one of the frameworks I want to ask you about is the Heart framework itself, which is a values-based leadership framework. So can you tell our audience about what it is, and how did you come up with it? Why did you come up with it? Yeah. And what does it look like? Yeah. Well, like I said, as a kid, there were a lot of things I was just felt like were happening to me, right? Like there was just like all this things. I didn’t really have much of an option on stuff, and I didn’t understand all the innuendo. But I did understand how people did things, and that how later on in life I came to understand that those were values—those were values that people dealt with. And that's where the heart, the values-based leadership. It wasn't just something that I learned with me; it was I learned in observing when words weren't there. Share on X Words weren’t even—I wasn’t even able to understand values—led how they did things, the things that they did do. And as I went on in my own leadership journey, I’ve been able to observe with those leaders that have high values are also leaders that are high performers and leaders that really make that impact and influence. And when I came down to really looking at what those values that really impacted me, that's where Heart comes from. The value of hope, the value of empowerment, accountability, result, and trust. Share on X Because I would see that all those five in how we do and the things that we choose to do and how we perform them. If you don’t have results in mind of what I’m doing that I’m doing, you could just be a very busy person and being an effective person. If you don’t have trust, you’re not going to be an ethical leader. And we need ethics and leadership. Accountability is not just about holding really anybody—like a punitive thing—but accountability really talks about community, because you can’t be accountable outside of being in a community. And we’re talking about the empowerment—really not just bringing solutions to the people, but bringing ownership to the people that we lead so that we can come up with those solutions together, which definitely fits back into hope. Share on X The first part, which is the beginning. I believe it is the catalyst for change but also the fuel that helps you keep on going even in light of things not working quite out. And that’s where the values, that’s where the HEART framework really comes from. So I love it. So the HEART is really the acronym. So H for Hope, E – Empowerment, A – Accountability, R – Resource. You also already explained empowerment, accountability, and trust. I’d like to a

    37 min

  8. FEB 9

    319: 3 Ways to Exit Your Business with Tim Martinez

    https://youtu.be/ecq40Pnldrw Tim Martinez, Value Creation, Strategic, and Exit & Succession Planning Advisor—also known as “The Inside Man”—is on a mission to empower entrepreneurs and make the world a better place with his philosophy of “No entrepreneur left behind.”  In this episode, Tim shares how he evolved from starting small businesses as a teenager to advising founders on high-stakes growth and exit decisions. We explore Tim’s 3 Exits Framework, which breaks exit planning into three critical phases: Mental Exit (separating identity from the business), Role Exit (building leadership and succession so the business can run without the owner), and Technical Exit (valuation, deal structure, and the formal sale process). Tim also explains why AI is accelerating business disruption, why minimalism is a competitive advantage, and what keeps so many businesses stuck at the $3M revenue ceiling. — 3 Ways to Exit Your Business with Tim Martinez Good day, dear listeners. Steve Preda here, the Founder of the Summit OS Group. And I have as my guest today Tim Martinez, who is a Value Creation, Strategic, and Exit & Succession Planning Advisor, also known as “The Inside Man.” Tim also has a successful Substack with lots of followers, which has a similar title, Inside Man. He’s also built his own ChatGPT API, so he’s running with the times. Tim, welcome to the show.  Thanks, Steve. Great to be here.  Finally, we have someone who is ahead of the curve on AI and the technological evolution that’s part of this new industry revolution. So let’s start with my favorite question. What is your personal ‘Why’ and how are you manifesting it in your practice and in your business?  Yeah. My personal ‘Why’ is to make the world a better place and to empower entrepreneurs. “No entrepreneur left behind” has kind of been my motto. Since I was a kid—I started businesses very young, like 15 or 16—people would ask me, “How are you doing this?” And I would help however I could. And it was just always felt really good to help my fellow entrepreneurs, whether I was helping them in a small way or a big way. And there's nothing better than seeing some of the advice you're able to give someone actually get implemented. Share on X Then you see them go, “Wow, oh my gosh, this is great.” And again, sometimes it’s small, sometimes it’s big. But I believe entrepreneurs rule the world, and I do my part every day—whether it’s writing my Substack, jumping on podcasts, or writing books. I’m always here just to share what I’ve learned, because I think that’s what makes the world go round.  Well, you have a boundless energy, because you are writing books, you are writing your blog, you are doing these podcasts. Then you also have to gather the information, right? You have to work with clients—otherwise there’s no raw material. That is very impressive. So what took you to this point? How did you evolve? I mean, you started at 15, but surely you were not coaching or consulting people at 15.  Yeah, so I probably spent about 10 years just starting small businesses. I had the lemonade stand, then a coffee business and a silk-screen business. I had a DJ business, a retail store, a marketing and advertising agency, a small one, but I was able to sell it. And I got lucky and sold a couple of these small businesses. I built websites, built apps—I mean, anything you can do to make a buck. I was just kind of hustling and figuring it out on my own. And at a certain point in time, maybe like 10 years later, someone asked me to help them write their business plan. It was the first time I thought, “Huh, someone wants to pay me to help them write a business plan. That sounds interesting.” Okay. And I had written all of my own business plans for 10 years. I used to go to SCORE—the Senior Corps of Retired Executives, a division of the SBA—and they would consult for free. They still do, by the way. And I always said my long-term goal was to be an old advisor at SCORE, because they helped me so much when I was a kid. Share on X So I charged money for my first business plan. That person was able to raise money from their uncle. Then they said, “Well, hey, we got this money. What do we do now?” So I said, “Well, I think I can charge you. I think this is called consulting. Maybe I’ll just charge you to help execute your business plan.” It was a small business, and I went to Barnes & Noble and bought a book that was like this big—How to Start a Consulting Business. I just sat there and highlighted the whole thing. It had CD-ROM forms in the back. I knew nothing about consulting. And probably for the next handful of years, I just focused on writing business plans and helping people. That’s kind of what got me into consulting and working with bigger businesses. It really started with business plans and small businesses. Share on X   Yeah. I mean, business plans are great because you are envisioning the future of the business, crunching the numbers—what’s going to happen with your top line, bottom line, costs, overhead, margins—and essentially it helps you visualize the skeleton of the business. Then you can put the meat on the bone, kind of thing.  Yeah. And I had worked on hundreds of business plans, and  pitch decks, financial models, and market research. That documentation aspect of a business, I had spent a good, let’s say, 10 years working very heavily with clients as an analyst in consulting firms. And that’s really what got me into the game and got me into bigger and bigger businesses, because I got very good at doing that with no formal training—and we didn’t really have what the internet is today. I remember going to the downtown library in Los Angeles, finding articles, and taking scanned copies of them. That’s how we did our market research. And business plans used to be like a dictionary. The SBA would require business plans to meet all these requirements, so we ended up with huge business plans. Now people want a one-pager, maybe a 10-slide deck, and call it a day. Where I got my chops was from understanding every imaginable nuance of every business in all verticals. I worked around the world with businesses, and I guess I was in the right place at the right time for it. Share on X   Yeah, that’s very humble. So one of the things that you do is you help people prepare for exit, and you came up with this framework called The 3 Exits Framework. I thought it was fascinating to think about exits from different perspectives and to have different mental models for them. How did you come up with this, and can you explain to the audience what it looks like, how it works, and how it helps entrepreneurs? Yeah. And it’s important to note that I started my career starting businesses, helping people get the start. And as I got older, the businesses I worked with were also getting older. And as I got a little more gray hair and a few more wrinkles, people would take me more seriously at the later stages of the business, when they maybe wouldn’t take me so seriously when I was in my early twenties. So my business had evolved from starting to growing and then eventually to exiting, and that’s where most of my clients are now. What I’ve discovered is most people enter the exit planning conversation at the very end, asking, “What is my business worth? Who wants to buy it?” Needing a business valuation is the most common first question: “Whoa, what’s it worth?” But after working with a handful of companies through this whole exit process, you start to realize that there’s far more than just the numbers. The 3 Exits Framework says there are three exits that need to occur before you’re out and on your yacht, sailing into the sunset. Share on X The first exit is the mental exit, which we can talk about at length. It’s your role—your identity in the business. Who am I if I’m not the CEO? What am I going to do with my time if I’m not running this business? Who am I if people can’t come to me with their every burning question? It’s this piece, it’s so important. And a lot of people don’t want to give up control. They don’t even know they’re control freaks, which I’ll call them for lack of a better term. But they don’t even know that they are that. You have to help them through that.  The second exit is really your role exit, because eventually someone needs to run this business in your absence. The whole tenant of selling a business is that you’re not going to be in it. You might have earnouts or some transitional involvement, but eventually, you will not run this business. So you have to replicate yourself. Most people say, “I’ve tried, but it hasn’t worked.” Well, you know what? Now’s the time for this to work. It’s time to build SOPs, standards of excellence, and get someone who could be better than you ever were in that seat. So that role exit is a big part, and that would be true succession. The other part of that is it’s not just the CEO or the owner. A lot of times it’s them and they’re number one, or they’re number two, or number three, because in many cases those people also have equity and ownership in the companies in some cases. So we need to get succession in line for multiple roles.  And then the third exit is your technical exit. It’s the one piece everyone feels like they start with that is your valuation, getting your documentation together, running a formal auction process, making sure that you’re looking at multiple buyers, whether strategic or financial. And just running a very thorough, formal process that’s going to get you the highest valuation possible. And structuring a deal that there’s going to be a little bit of give and take. Most deals die because of misaligned expectations. And they’re usually misaligned expectations on that final exit. So

    31 min
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Interviews with CEOs and Entrepreneurs about the frameworks they are using to build and scale their businesses.

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