Builders & Doers

Horizon Search
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Builders & Doers is where founders, operators, and investors get practical about building. Each episode unpacks one decision that mattered, the options on the table, and the evidence behind the choice. Clear lessons you can use to launch stronger, lead smarter, and stay ahead. A Horizon Search production. Get The Searchlight newsletter: https://www.thesearchlight.com/subscribe

  1. 17H AGO

    The Hidden Cost CEOs Don't See Until They're Burned Out - Jon Basford | 70

    Jon Basford is the founder of Lateral Solutions, a consulting firm that helps founders, CEOs, and nonprofit leaders build the internal operations their growth actually depends on. After a career that took him from law school to association management to the startup world as a fractional COO, Jon now runs operational audits that unpack the gap between what leaders think is working and what their teams already know isn't. He's a champion of what he calls "curiosity as an operating system" — a way of thinking, working, and connecting that he argues is the real foundation of operational excellence. In this conversation, Jon walks us through why founders under-invest in internal operations (and what it costs them), the four-part audit he uses to diagnose an organization, why the word "change" often fails and what to say instead, how micromanagement quietly pushes out your best people, where AI actually helps leaders versus where it's fancy reporting, and the single question every leader should be asking their team. Find Jon: https://jonbasford.com Lateral Solutions: https://think-lateral.com Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search. 0:00 Intro — curiosity as an operating system 0:36 From law school to fractional COO to operational consulting 1:43 Nonprofit vs for-profit — the same dysfunctions 2:19 What curiosity looks like in an operating world 3:32 Creating a curious culture and "see it, say it, sorted" 5:13 The 4-part operational audit 5:47 The fastest win — duplicate payments and $0 accounting fixes 6:53 The biggest hidden cost — under-investing in internal operations 7:56 Why founders can't see what an outsider can 10:27 You have to convince leaders there's a problem before you can fix it 11:00 Change management and the regression to the status quo 12:02 Why the word "change" backfires — and what to use instead 13:48 The CEO who couldn't envision video (20 years after he started) 14:23 Global expansion, cultural nuance, and rowing the same boat 16:39 Multi-generational teams and allowing people to speak up 17:58 The burned out founder — 68 hours a week and nothing moves 19:16 Why letting go is the hardest part 20:13 Where AI actually helps leaders vs fancy reporting 21:22 A curiosity KPI: psychological safety as the leading indicator 22:14 What CEOs should stop doing today 23:29 The human body analogy — 18 quintillion processes you don't manage 25:30 Why it's chronic with founders (it's their baby) 26:57 The micromanager who thought she wasn't — and the star she lost 28:19 Jon's final ask: stop asking how people are doing, start asking what they're seeing 30:00 The 500-700% ROI of leadership coaching 30:55 Where to find Jon

    31 min

  2. 17H AGO

    Why Most People Go to Therapy Isn't What You Think - Dr. Emily Anhalt ｜69

    Dr. Emily Anhalt is a clinical psychologist, co-founder of Coa (the gym for mental health), and author of Flex Your Feelings: Train Your Brain to Develop the 7 Traits of Emotional Fitness. After interviewing 100 psychologists and 100 entrepreneurs, she identified the seven traits emotionally healthy people are working on all the time — and built a practice around helping founders, leaders, and teams treat mental health the way they treat physical health: proactively, consistently, and as an ongoing practice rather than a crisis response. In this conversation, Dr. Emily walks us through why most people go to therapy (it's not what you think), the catch-22 of being healthy in an unhealthy society, why she tells people to strive for agency instead of control, the 7 traits of emotional fitness and why mindfulness is the foundation, how to tell emotional fitness from emotional performance, and one "emotional pushup" you can do today. Find Dr. Emily: dremilyanhalt.com Instagram: @dremilyanhalt Book: Flex Your Feelings — available anywhere books are sold Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search. 0:00 Intro 0:57 Growing up with ADHD in Silicon Valley 2:57 What ADHD actually is (and what it's not) 3:25 Why everyone now has "ADHD-like" symptoms — the dopamine machine in your pocket 4:34 Spectrum vs disorder — when does it become a problem? 5:34 Explanation vs excuse — the responsibility you still own 6:00 Strive for agency, not control 7:17 The catch-22: healthy individuals, healthy society 9:44 The pre-modern mind — what did we trade away? 11:14 Why emotional fitness is like physical fitness 13:30 Why psychology isn't taught in schools 15:42 Emotional fitness and the zombie test 19:50 Why success doesn't fix unhappiness (Morning Brew and rock stars) 22:22 Why people don't change even when they know what to change 23:45 The British "stiff upper lip" problem 25:31 Emotional pushups — 5 minutes of feeling without judgment 27:19 Where and how to feel your feelings appropriately 32:26 The 7 traits of emotional fitness 37:06 Can you fake emotional fitness? (Steve Jobs, success, and manipulation) 40:15 Emotional fitness isn't about being happy all the time 43:02 Pharmaceuticals and psychedelics — the "fever" framework 47:34 5 days of darkness and the all-or-nothing problem 49:09 Writing a book, AI, and the loss of humanity in writing 51:20 What she wants readers to walk away with 52:07 Dr. Emily's favorite emotional pushup — the text message 53:28 Coaching vs therapy — you don't have to wait for a problem 56:13 Where to find Dr. Emily

    57 min

  3. 5D AGO

    When You're Absolutely Positive, That's Your Warning Sign - Mitch Weisburgh | 68

    Mitch Weisburgh is an educator, author, and founder of MindShifting, a framework built on three capacities he believes the world urgently needs more of: resourcefulness, resilience, and collaboration. After nearly four decades at the intersection of education and technology, a 2017 email from a university in Niger sent him on a new path: pulling together insights from neuroscience, cognitive science, military strategy, systems theory, and psychology into a single practical framework. He's the author of MindShifting: Stop Your Brain from Sabotaging Your Happiness and Success, and the follow-up Conflict and Collaboration. In this conversation, Mitch walks us through why the human brain is wired against us in modern life, the five limbic responses that hijack our decisions, OODA loops and the Cynefin framework for handling different kinds of problems, why you should never put experts in charge of complex situations, and the one warning sign that tells you your survival brain is running the show. Find Mitch: https://www.mindshiftingwithmitch.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mweisburgh/ Book: MindShifting: Stop Your Brain from Sabotaging Your Happiness and Success Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search. 0:00 Intro 0:50 The mission: 5 million more resourceful, resilient, collaborative people 2:24 The 2017 email from a university in Niger that changed everything 5:30 Reading 11 books across disciplines to build the framework 8:30 Teaching in Niger and the standing ovation 9:47 Optionality, ghosting, and why we've stopped growing 11:04 How the human brain actually works 12:34 Survival brain vs prefrontal cortex — 2 hundredths of a second vs 2 seconds 13:56 The 5 limbic responses: fight, flight, freeze, habits, mimicking 16:20 Why your prefrontal cortex just justifies what you've already decided 17:50 Confirmation bias is universal, not partisan 19:58 Can the brain actually change? Four techniques 25:04 Staying resourceful when the odds are stacked against us 26:59 OODA loops — the slow loop and the fast loop 30:58 Resourcefulness vs resilience — why they're not the same thing 31:44 The Cynefin framework: clear, complicated, complex, and urgent problems 39:00 Why you shouldn't put experts in charge of complex situations (the COVID example) 40:35 Making change feel possible when it seems impossible 45:44 The warning sign: when you're absolutely positive, you're probably limbic 48:21 Why your brain treats a bear and public speaking the same 49:00 Instant vs delayed gratification — evolution working against us 50:02 Discomfort as the fuel for growth 51:47 Mitch's mission and where to find him

    53 min

  4. 5D AGO

    Why Your AI Strategy Is Backwards — and What to Do Instead - Peter Swimm | 67

    Most companies are letting AI make decisions it shouldn't and missing the simple moves that would actually save them time and money. Peter Swimm has spent 30 years in tech, from Chicago libraries to Microsoft, and he's built a smarter way to think about conversational AI, autonomous agents, and what it really means to own your company's brain. Find Peter: peterswimm.com Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search. 00:00 Weather and Location: A Warm Welcome 00:51 Career Path: From Tech Origins to Product Management 06:39 COVID-19: A Catalyst for Change in Work Culture 12:43 Communication Tools: Shaping Company Culture 19:32 Navigating Remote Work Challenges 24:58 Balancing AI Innovation with Practical Needs 30:50 Cultivating Curiosity in Teams 39:56 Recalibrating Business Aspirations 45:54 Surprising Uses of Conversational AI

    51 min

  5. 5D AGO

    From a Target Aisle to $1.2M Pre-Seed - Zarina Bahadur | 66

    Zarina Bahadur is the founder and CEO of 123 Baby Box, a subscription box company she launched as a student at UC Irvine after spotting an exhausted mom struggling in a Target baby aisle. She's since grown the business 245% in a single year, closed an oversubscribed $1.2M pre-seed, and been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, BuzzFeed, and NASDAQ. She's also a Harvard Startup Partners, MasterCard, XRC, and Draper alum. In this conversation, Zarina walks us through the grocery-store moment that sparked the company, how she found product-market fit by surveying moms in Target aisles, why her mentor pushed her to raise twice what she planned, what it was like fundraising as a young woman who wasn't yet a mom, and how the business is now pivoting into early language and literacy with 123 Book Box. Find Zarina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zarinabahadur Shop the box: https://123babybox.com Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search. 0:00 Intro 0:36 The Target aisle moment that started 123 Baby Box 1:25 Why subscription was the obvious model 2:09 Heart-led, not business-led — finding the market 4:40 245% growth and the truth about product-market fit 6:03 Harvard, MasterCard, XRC, and Draper accelerators 7:41 Closing a $1.2M oversubscribed pre-seed (planned for $500K) 9:32 Fundraising as a woman — and not yet a mom 12:16 Persistence, the common thread in investor no's 15:40 "Winners are just losers who never gave up" 17:09 Pivoting from diapers & wipes to developmental toys 18:23 Retention, the 0–5 age window, and launching 123 Book Box 21:39 The Forbes feature that changed everything 22:52 The hardest founder decision — letting people go 23:34 Equity vs salary and having the real conversation upfront 25:44 Supply chain lessons (including tariffs) 27:06 The 5-year vision for the company 28:18 Will AI personalization reshape subscription? 29:39 Why the unboxing experience still wins 31:52 What she'd do differently if starting today 33:26 Where to find Zarina

    34 min

  6. 5D AGO

    The Hardest Person You'll Ever Lead Is You - Jen Ostrich | 65

    Jen Ostrich is an executive coach, Enneagram expert, and founder of Grow Collective. After a career in advertising and brand leadership, she trained at the Hudson Institute and has spent the last decade and a half helping leaders understand the "why" behind how they think, feel, and act. She's certified in Integrative Nine (IEQ9), co-created the Shift Positive 360 feedback process, and hosts The Work of You podcast. In this conversation, Jen walks us through why 95% of the time we're the ones in our own way, how the Enneagram opens the door to your belief system (not just your behavior), and why real leadership change happens at the belief level — not the behavioral one. We also cover transactional vs transformational coaching, the Grow Effect model, and one small practice for leaders who keep repeating the same pattern. Find Jen: https://growcollective.us The Work of You podcast: https://theworkofyou.com Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search. 0:00 Intro 0:40 From advertising leadership to executive coaching 2:35 Hudson Institute: leading from behind and self-as-coach 5:38 The hardest person you'll ever lead is you 7:14 The leadership gap no one's talking about (EQ vs IQ) 8:19 Introducing the Enneagram to skeptical executives 9:30 The iceberg: behavior, personality, and the core fear underneath 13:16 Removing the "teapot lid" — when personal meets professional 18:03 What makes Integrative Nine (IEQ9) different 20:54 The Enneagram as a map for growth, not just a typing tool 22:31 The biggest misunderstanding: behavior vs motivation 24:38 How the Enneagram shapes Jen's coaching style 26:17 Sequencing the Enneagram with Shift Positive 360 27:39 Spiraling up — are we ever done growing? 32:25 Gabor Maté and the courage of public vulnerability 33:14 Why traditional 360 feedback often does more harm than good 34:39 Evaluate vs evolve: the case for strengths-based coaching 39:17 The Grow Effect model — strengths, Enneagram, then 360 43:03 What's changed in executive coaching post-COVID 45:52 Transactional vs transformational coaching (and where AI fits) 49:22 One small practice for leaders stuck in a pattern 51:24 The Hoffman Process 51:57 Where to find Jen

    53 min

  7. APR 21

    From Sleeping on Couches to Building a Seven Figure Insurance Agency - David Price | 64

    Fifteen years ago David Price was battling addiction, sleeping on couches, and had no car. Today he runs a thriving insurance agency and mentors hundreds of agents across the country. His path from rock bottom to building a business that grows without him is a masterclass in grit, long-term thinking, and knowing when to stop believing the lies. Find David: youtube.com/@DavidPriceOfficial Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search. 0:00 Intro 0:57 What drew David to insurance in his mid-30s 3:10 The three prerequisites 5:33 Resilience, grit, and a rough childhood as a business advantage 8:18 Sports as the first turning point — wrestling and building confidence 12:10 Being always the new kid and how it built social skills 15:38 Why sales was always survival for David 17:23 Introvert who leads hundreds of agents 19:57 The teacher that changed everything — Miss Krats 22:01 Ethical insurance — principles before production 24:47 Why David sells final expense life insurance 26:40 Long term decisions over short term cash grabs — lessons from recovery 31:43 Three traits that separate six figure agents from those who never break through 35:28 Scaling from solo producer to running an organization 38:14 Leads drove everything — the math equation behind agency growth 45:47 Lead flow strategy — quality over quantity and the custom lead portal 52:08 From owning a job to owning a business 55:39 Time is the real currency 57:19 What is next for the Price Group — AI powered CRM and lead innovation 59:52 Final message — find the right mentor, have the right attitude, take the right action 1:00:41 Where to find David Price

    1h 1m

  8. APR 18

    Why Hiring Family Could Be Killing Your Business - Liz Weber | 63

    Liz Weber is a certified management consultant, executive advisor, and author ranked among the top 30 global gurus on leadership. After building a career helping founder-led and family-owned businesses navigate succession, strategy, and leadership development, she's become the person owners call when the hard decisions can't wait. In this conversation, Liz walks us through the number one mistake family businesses make with succession planning, how to hold even family members accountable to company values, and what it actually takes to transition from best producer to best leader. Find Liz: https://youtu.be/EzDkMUmbP58 Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search. 0:00 Intro 0:49 Putting family before the role 1:10 Family business working hard for thin margins 3:18 The 7am emergency call 4:16 When company values get tested by your own son 5:53 Why accountability needs an outside voice 7:22 Top 30 global leadership guru 8:53 Imposter syndrome vs self belief 11:26 The mindset shift new leaders miss 13:00 Becoming the calm in the storm 15:15 Balancing mindset skill and strategy 17:47 The number one mistake when promoting from within 19:18 From best producer to best leverager of talent 20:18 Why cousin Rich should not get the sales role 23:59 The first lever Liz pulls when entering a company 26:51 Strategic plan as the anchor for leadership 27:44 Don't Let Them Treat You Like a Girl 32:11 Leadership outlook for 2025 37:27 One practice to lead more strategically today 38:53 Where to find Liz Weber

    39 min
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About

Builders & Doers is where founders, operators, and investors get practical about building. Each episode unpacks one decision that mattered, the options on the table, and the evidence behind the choice. Clear lessons you can use to launch stronger, lead smarter, and stay ahead. A Horizon Search production. Get The Searchlight newsletter: https://www.thesearchlight.com/subscribe

Information

  • Creator
    Horizon Search
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    70
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Horizon Search
  • Show Website
    Builders & Doers