Unconventional Wisdom About Conventional Wisdom

Kim Miller - Hershon
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Entrepreneurship

Unconventional Wisdom About Conventional Wisdom: Where clichés come to retire and fresh thinking we inspire. Smart minds don’t think alike—and that’s the point. Unconventional Wisdom About Conventional Wisdom takes you inside the messy, brilliant, and bold thought processes of high-achieving leaders, entrepreneurs, and out-of-the-box thinkers. We skip the clichés and spotlight the real talk: the strange decisions that worked, the brilliant ideas that bombed, and the thought patterns that defy the rulebook—but still lead to growth, impact, and the occasional mic drop. If you’re tired of surface-level advice and crave the kind of wisdom that makes you pause, laugh, and level up—this is your new favorite listen. Because let’s face it: playing it safe never built anything worth bragging about.

  1. 5h ago

    Scaling a Bankruptcy Law Firm, Hiring, and Leading Through Growth with Chad Van Horn

    In this episode of Unconventional Wisdom About Conventional Wisdom, Kim Miller-Hershon sits down with Chad Van Horn, Esq., founding partner of Van Horn Law Group, P.A., a bankruptcy and debt relief firm headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with a growing office presence in his hometown of Pittsburgh. Since founding the firm in 2009, Chad has grown it from himself and one secretary, neither with any real experience, into a 120-person firm that's helped thousands of individuals, families, and businesses navigate financial distress and restore their dignity. A certified specialist in both consumer and business bankruptcy, admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, he's the author of Everything You Need to Know About Bankruptcy in Florida and The Debt Life, and a professor at the University of Florida. He's also, memorably, "Player 286" on Netflix's Squid Game: The Challenge, where he finished in the top 10 and came within reach of the $4.56 million prize (his best friend on the show, Player 287, won it). In this conversation, Chad challenges a piece of conventional wisdom that traps a lot of small-business owners: that top-line revenue equals success. He tells the story of hitting his big goal, a million dollars in revenue, only for his accountant to deliver the good news alongside the bad, that he'd lost $17,000 that year. It reframed everything. It's not how much you make, it's how much you keep, and for small businesses that bottom-line number matters far more than the headline one. Kim reinforces it with her own coaching experience: owners with nearly identical revenue can pay themselves wildly different amounts, from $80,000 to over a million, depending entirely on how the business is built. On imposter syndrome, Chad is refreshingly plain. He still drives a Vespa to work, doesn't own a car, and sees himself as the same approachable attorney who started the firm. The discomfort shows up in the big-company CEO role he never trained for, as a first-generation lawyer without built-in mentorship, and in the knowledge that at hundreds of filings a month, one small mistake can replicate into 200. His answer is the through-line of the episode: make the decision, keep moving, and learn from it either way. This episode explores: Why top-line revenue is a vanity metric, and net income is what matters The million-dollar year that lost $17,000, and what it taught him Changing your own role as the company grows Moving from operator to business owner, building a firm that runs without you Why keeping the wrong-fit person sends a message to your best people Being slow to hire the right way, not the paralyzed way What the firm really sells: hope, not just legal services The national shortage of bankruptcy attorneys and mentoring the next generation How AI and self-driving cars threaten the hustle economy his clients rely on Benchmarking against the best companies in the world, not just your industry Why "we've always done it that way" is never a good enough answer Leading from humility while still being clearly in charge Beating imposter syndrome by deciding, moving, and learning Chad's perspective is a powerful reminder that running a great business and practicing a profession are two different skills, and that the founders who scale are the ones willing to change their own job description and build something bigger than themselves. His journey from a two-person startup to a 120-person firm, with a detour through a global hit reality show, shows that staying grounded, taking care of your people, and looking outside your own industry are what turn a practice into a legacy. Connect with me here: Website: https://www.kimmillerhershon.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmillerhershon Newsletter: https://link.kimmillerhershon.com/widget/form/aEdmdA1W5MhoMCMfy5O8 Webinar: https://webinar.kimmillerhershon.com/?utm_source=Podcast Guest Details: Guest: Chad Van Horn, Esq. Company: Van Horn Law Group, P.A. (Fort Lauderdale, FL, with a growing office in Pittsburgh, PA) Focus: Bankruptcy and debt relief; Chapter 7, Chapter 11, and complex debt restructuring Books: Everything You Need to Know About Bankruptcy in Florida and The Debt Life Also: Professor at the University of Florida; competitor on Netflix's Squid Game: The Challenge Free resources for listeners: Fresh Start Blueprint webinar, a free live training walking through your legal options for financial recovery: https://my.demio.com/ref/zX1PBwOtSAcEpu8Y Free consultation through Let's Fix Debt: https://letsfixdebt.com Free consultation page: https://www.vanhornlawgroup.com/consultation Find Chad online: Website: https://www.vanhornlawgroup.com Instagram: @chadvanhorn_law and @vanhornlawgroup Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    Scaling a Bankruptcy Law Firm, Hiring, and Leading Through Growth with Chad Van Horn

  2. 3d ago

    Stop Chasing Growth: Build a Business on Leverage, Not Hustle | Patrick Bell

    In this episode of Unconventional Wisdom About Conventional Wisdom, Kim Miller-Hershon sits down with Patrick Bell, a doctoral AI researcher and AI transformation advisor who works directly with CEOs to turn AI into measurable business results. His core insight is that most organizations don't struggle with AI because of the technology. They struggle because their leadership systems can't absorb it, so companies end up with activity that looks like progress but fails to deliver real outcomes. Patrick's own path to that thesis is anything but linear: trained as a police officer in Canada, he spent years smuggling Bibles into Eastern Europe during the revolutions, taught English in Japan for 12 years, ran a safari company's marketing in Kenya, and now lives largely out of a single suitcase on the island of Madeira with his wife of 37 years. In this conversation, Patrick challenges a piece of conventional wisdom that costs a lot of founders dearly: build something great and the customers will come. He learned the hard way, several times, that a good product is necessary but rarely sufficient. Distribution, trust, relationships, and timing matter as much or more. So today he's less interested in building things that win by being slightly better and more interested in building things that are simply harder to replace, through ecosystems, network effects, and real defensibility. That leads into one of the sharpest threads of the episode: the false promise of the roadmap. Patrick spent roughly 10,000 hours studying business-growth expert Jay Abraham, eventually building profit-acceleration software used by thousands of coaches. What he learned training hundreds of them personally is that the vast majority, he'd guess 90 percent or more, could run the software and produce a beautiful roadmap but got completely lost when it came time to actually help a client implement, because they'd never grown a business themselves. The tool wasn't the problem. Kim connects it straight to her own mantra: a roadmap only works if you personalize it to the system and to yourself. This episode explores: Why a great product is necessary but rarely sufficient Building for defensibility and network effects, not just being slightly better The false promise of the roadmap, and why the tool isn't enough Why a roadmap only works when you personalize it to yourself Staying curious and importing ideas across cultures and industries Why "AI expert" is nearly meaningless, and expertise is always narrow Why every AI project is really a leadership project The wobbly-bicycle metaphor: AI amplifies every existing weakness The coming backlash against agents that loop instead of helping If you're a CEO, founder, or leader trying to make AI deliver real results instead of just activity, this conversation offers practical insight, honest talk about decision-making under uncertainty, and a refreshing case that the goal was never more growth. It was leverage, and a life worth living. Connect with me here: Website: https://www.kimmillerhershon.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmillerhershon Newsletter: https://link.kimmillerhershon.com/widget/form/aEdmdA1W5MhoMCMfy5O8 Webinar: https://webinar.kimmillerhershon.com/?utm_source=Podcast Guest Details: Guest: Patrick Bell Company: AI Transformation Partners Focus: AI transformation advisory for CEOs; doctoral AI research; leadership and AI adoption Website: https://www.aitransformationpartner.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aitransformationpartners/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    Stop Chasing Growth: Build a Business on Leverage, Not Hustle | Patrick Bell

  3. Jul 24

    Rejected Five Times for a Loan — So She Rebuilt How Credit Works | Kristy Kim

    In this episode of Unconventional Wisdom About Conventional Wisdom, Kim Miller-Hershon sits down with Kristy Kim, founder and CEO of TomoCredit, an AI startup based in San Francisco built on a beautifully simple premise: no credit score, no problem. Kristy immigrated to the US from Seoul, South Korea, and after getting rejected from auto loans five times, she turned her own frustration into a company reimagining how creditworthiness gets assessed for the no-file and thin-file population. Her origin story starts even earlier though. She came to the US alone at eleven years old, living with a host family in Portland, Oregon, because she asked to, having decided as a kid that she wanted to see the world and experience a different culture. In this conversation, Kristy challenges a piece of conventional wisdom that shaped her entire early life: work hard and everything will figure itself out. She did exactly that, studied hard, landed a good job, secured the visa, and still hit a wall when she tried to buy a car, because after more than a decade in the country she had no credit history. Nobody had told her the clock needed to start, and she didn't know to ask. Her conclusion is sharper than the platitude she grew up with: don't just work hard, be smart, understand the system, and get the right information, because that matters more than effort alone in a world moving this fast. The episode closes on something quietly radical. Kristy's parents never asked her to achieve anything. They wanted her happy, nearby, playing golf on weekends. Because she felt fully validated at home, she never needed the external kind, and that's what lets her say the work has value regardless of the outcome. As a runner, she puts it this way: you run faster, you run slower, and nobody really knows but you. This episode explores: Why "work hard and it'll work out" isn't enough on its own Being smart about the system, not just diligent within it You don't know what you don't know, and the cost of no one telling you Building a company from the pain you personally experienced Rethinking creditworthiness with alternative data Why anger burns the house down, and how to step away instead Separating self-worth from external validation and business outcomes Just keep showing up, because the value of the work is there either way Kristy's perspective is a powerful reminder that the systems we treat as neutral often just haven't figured out how to see certain people yet. Her journey from an eleven-year-old arriving alone in Oregon to a founder rewriting how credit gets measured shows that the problems worth solving are usually the ones you've lived, and that the message underneath the product matters as much as the product: the system hasn't figured out how to understand you yet, but you are good. If you're a founder, leader, or anyone who's ever been told you don't qualify, this conversation offers practical insight, honest talk about leadership growth, and a refreshing case that being enough has nothing to do with a score. Connect with me here: Website: https://www.kimmillerhershon.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmillerhershon Newsletter: https://link.kimmillerhershon.com/widget/form/aEdmdA1W5MhoMCMfy5O8 Webinar: https://webinar.kimmillerhershon.com/?utm_source=Podcast Guest Details: Guest: Kristy Kim Company: TomoCredit Focus: AI-driven credit assessment using alternative data for no-file and thin-file consumers Find TomoCredit online: Instagram: @tomocredit TikTok: @tomocredit Facebook: @tomocredit YouTube: @tomocredit LinkedIn: @tomocredit Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    Rejected Five Times for a Loan — So She Rebuilt How Credit Works | Kristy Kim

  4. Jul 21

    Consistency Is Undefeated: How to Build a Business That Fits Who You Are | Dennis Mark Interdonato

    In this episode of Unconventional Wisdom About Conventional Wisdom, Kim Miller-Hershon sits down with Dennis Mark Interdonato, a New Jersey realtor with a genuinely out-of-the-box approach to the business. Dennis treats his brand like a business and his business like a brand, and he's big on getting "belly to belly" with everyone he works with. He loves an underdog and will go to bat for anyone who needs him, and after a quarter century in the game he's got a deep well of stories, hard-won experience, and one clear goal: to inspire, motivate, and help people win. He's also, for the record, a nationally ranked Google restaurant reviewer sitting in the top 10 percent of the country, a self-described foodie to the max who walks in unannounced, orders, eats, and reviews, purely for the love of it. In this conversation, Dennis challenges one of the most universal pieces of conventional wisdom in real estate: that every new agent has to "dial for dollars" to build a business. He doesn't like talking on the phone, so instead of forcing himself into a method that didn't fit, he leaned into what he was already good at. With a marketing background and a solid existing following, he built his brand on social media, and six years in, roughly 85 percent of his business comes from it. The bigger lesson isn't "do social media", it's that the one-size-fits-all playbook only works if it fits you. Find a method you can actually execute, then run it consistently, because consistency is undefeated. Dennis and Kim also dig into the gap between the highlight reel and the reality. Everyone assumes he's crushing it because of what he posts, but they don't see the deals it takes to make payroll or the losses he mostly keeps offline. He'll occasionally share a loss, though, because losses humanize you, and Kim adds the coaching frame: if you're sweating a single close, the real problem is a pipeline that isn't robust enough. They range widely from there, into serving instead of selling (the heart of "belly to belly"), why you should push hardest when you're busiest so people remember you when things slow down, the frustration of a saturated industry full of weekend warriors, and a rich exchange on gratitude as something you feel rather than just journal. And on imposter syndrome, Dennis offers a clean reframe: if you're in the room, someone put you there because they believe you belong, so never be afraid to be the least knowledgeable person in the room, because you can only go up from there. This episode explores: Why "dial for dollars" is the wrong method if it isn't you Finding a business-building approach you can actually execute Why consistency is undefeated Leading from the front: boss versus leader, drill sergeant versus squad leader Never getting held hostage by an employee's skill set Owning your documents, passwords, and systems before it's a crisis Why the highlight reel hides what success actually costs Sharing losses to humanize your brand Building a pipeline robust enough that no single deal defines you Dennis's perspective is a powerful reminder that success rarely comes from copying someone else's playbook, it comes from finding the approach that fits who you are and running it relentlessly. His journey from self-described selfish beginner to a service-first realtor who leads from the front shows that the fastest way to grow a business is to stop selling, start giving, and treat the people around you like they matter. If you're a realtor, small-business owner, or leader trying to build something that lasts, this conversation offers practical insight, honest talk about the gap between image and reality, and a refreshing case that you don't have to do it the conventional way to win. Connect with me here: Website: https://www.kimmillerhershon.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmillerhershon Newsletter: https://link.kimmillerhershon.com/widget/form/aEdmdA1W5MhoMCMfy5O8 Webinar: https://webinar.kimmillerhershon.com/?utm_source=Podcast Guest Details: Guest: Dennis Mark Interdonato Focus: New Jersey real estate; out-of-the-box, social-media-driven, service-first branding Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    Consistency Is Undefeated: How to Build a Business That Fits Who You Are | Dennis Mark Interdonato

  5. Jul 17

    You Can Only Control How You Respond: Staying Calm and Leading Under Pressure with Stephan Bajaio

    In this episode of Unconventional Wisdom About Conventional Wisdom, Kim Miller-Hershon sits down with Stephan Bajaio, a CEO, co-founder, and CMO with 20 years of experience in the SEO and digital marketing space. He's helped brands like FedEx, Comcast, and Siemens win in search, and previously co-founded Conductor before starting Vibe Logic, which helps businesses navigate the collision of AI and organic search. Today Stephan helps marketers stop chasing algorithms and start building strategies that actually last. He also, in a moment that captures his whole philosophy, once came face to face with a great white shark in a cage off South Africa, and walked away realizing there's no use panicking, because whatever happens, happens in a split second you can't control anyway. In this conversation, Stephan challenges a piece of conventional wisdom he built his identity around: the drive to be indispensable. In role after role, he was the one who created the system from scratch, and while being indispensable is normal when you're building something, he's come to see the ego trap inside it. A servant leader, he says, should be trying to work himself out of the center of any system he built, making the people around him feel empowered and capable rather than making himself the linchpin. The deeper insight: indispensable doesn't have to mean CEO. The founders he admires most handed off the CEO role to free themselves for the strategy work they actually loved, instead of climbing a ladder that gives them no real dopamine. The episode closes on Stephan's most counterintuitive growth habit: talk the prospect out of it. Most people don't actually know what they want. They've been told the box, the name, the service is what they want, so the consultative move is to understand what they're really solving for, and to be upfront when it doesn't fit. The people he's turned down come back later, with others, saying this is someone I can trust. Either you get their business or you get their trust, and both are worth having. This episode explores: Why chasing indispensability is an ego trap for leaders Working yourself out of the center of the system you built Why "indispensable" doesn't have to mean CEO "You can only control how you respond," and building the tools before you need them Starting with the story you tell yourself, not just the reaction Why "nobody can do it as well as me" is usually a training problem Setting your team up for success instead of blaming underperformance Decision fatigue and managing your calendar around energy, not just time Why our physiology hasn't caught up to our digital inputs Being a survivor who owns their story, not a victim The hidden cost of taking on the wrong-fit client Why saying one thing and doing another erodes trust fastest Building a "gut checker" and radical transparency into your culture Why communication skills, and leadership, can be learned Stephan's perspective is a powerful reminder that the parts of leadership that feel like strength, being indispensable, being the expert, being needed, are often the very things holding your business and your people back. His arc from search strategist to serial founder shows that the healthiest thing you can build is a system that doesn't depend on you, and the most trustworthy thing you can do is tell someone the truth even when it costs you the sale. If you're a founder, marketer, or leader trying to build something that lasts, this conversation offers practical insight, honest talk about ego and trust, and a refreshing case that you don't have to know it all. You just have to be open to learning it. Connect with me here: Website: https://www.kimmillerhershon.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmillerhershon Newsletter: https://link.kimmillerhershon.com/widget/form/aEdmdA1W5MhoMCMfy5O8 Webinar: https://webinar.kimmillerhershon.com/?utm_source=Podcast Guest Details: Guest: Stephan Bajaio Company: Vibe Logic Focus: Helping businesses navigate AI and organic search (SEO/AEO/GEO); previously co-founded Conductor LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanbajaio/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    You Can Only Control How You Respond: Staying Calm and Leading Under Pressure with Stephan Bajaio

  6. Jul 14

    Building a Career Without Pretending to Be Someone Else | Jason Clark

    In this episode of Unconventional Wisdom About Conventional Wisdom, Kim Miller-Hershon sits down with Jason Clark creative leader and marketing strategist with a career spanning more than three decades. Since 1990, Jason has worked at the intersection of design, technology, and storytelling, helping organizations translate complex ideas into clear, compelling brands. He bought into a small ad agency in 2003, bought out his partner, grew the business to 18 employees, and in 2023 almost exactly 20 years later sold and merged it into a larger digital services firm now known as Tectonic, where he serves as chief marketing officer. He's also spent 30-plus years throwing dance music parties, and opens the conversation with a genuinely uncanny story about hunting a rare set of books for years and walking into a Chicago bookstore fifteen minutes after someone sold them across the counter. In this conversation, Jason challenges the piece of conventional wisdom most professionals absorb without question: that you should keep who you really are separate from who you are at work. Early in his career he assumed he'd have to hide the tattoos, sand down the weirdness, keep the LinkedIn profile safely bland. Then his business partner said something that rearranged his thinking if someone won't do business with us because of your tattoos, I don't want to do business with them. The reframe wasn't "be weird and you'll succeed." It was that people want to work with people who are actually interesting, and the real task is finding a way to connect your values to your work rather than performing a version of yourself you can't sustain. Jason and Kim also dig into the myth of the one-size-fits-all playbook. He can trace the line from high schooler to near-retirement at 55, but only backward he had no idea what he was doing moving forward, and the path that got him here won't get anyone else there. If a single program really worked every time, they agree, we'd all be billionaires and they'd teach it in grade school. They talk about mining unlikely life experience for real transferable skill (his rave promotion taught him P&Ls; Kim's volunteer work taught her operations), about the difficult transition from business to enterprise, and about the founders who stay in everyone's way until the stress becomes a health issue. And on imposter syndrome, Jason offers the cleanest antidote in the episode: self-awareness beats omniscience. "I don't know" is a complete sentence. "I'll find out for you" is another. This episode explores: Why keeping your real self out of your work eventually breaks you The tattoo conversation that changed how Jason ran his business Finding a way to align your values with your career without "finding your passion" Why there's no one-size-fits-all path, and every playbook is someone else's Mining unconventional life experience for transferable skills Making the shift from technical skill to leadership skill IQ to EQ Knowing when you need a coach (and when you just need to get out of your own way) Why so much flowing through the founder stunts the whole team The hard transition from business to enterprise Building something that outlasts you, then letting it go Jason's perspective is a powerful reminder that success rarely follows the map you were handed and that the parts of yourself you were told to hide are often the parts that make the work worth doing. His arc from a kid with no money to an agency owner to a CMO shows that money buys choices, but a life spent performing someone else's version of professionalism buys misery. If you're a business owner, creative, or leader stuck in your own way, this conversation offers practical insight, honest talk about growth and self-awareness, and a refreshing case that the most interesting person in the room is usually the one asking the questions. Connect with me here: Website: https://www.kimmillerhershon.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmillerhershon Newsletter: https://link.kimmillerhershon.com/widget/form/aEdmdA1W5MhoMCMfy5O8 Webinar: https://webinar.kimmillerhershon.com/?utm_source=Podcast Guest Details: Guest: Jason Clark Company: Tectonic — Chief Marketing Officer Focus: Design, technology, and brand storytelling Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    Building a Career Without Pretending to Be Someone Else | Jason Clark

  7. Jul 10

    Business Exit, a Fortune 500 Lawsuit, and Building Resilience Through Hard Times | Kettia Ming

    In this episode of Unconventional Wisdom About Conventional Wisdom, Kim Miller-Hershon sits down with Kettia Ming entrepreneur, author, business strategist, and nonprofit executive whose work explores resilience, reinvention, and the realities of building a meaningful life and business. Kettia founded and scaled a childcare company in New York City before selling it in a multimillion-dollar acquisition, and now serves as executive director of Black Theatre United, where she leads programs and partnerships designed to expand access and opportunity across the Broadway industry. She's also the founder of The Childcare Collective and Evergreen House Press, and the author of Run the Mile You're In: One Founder's Journey Through Success, Loss & Reinvention. A lifelong runner who has completed 13 marathons, including Boston, she brings the lessons of endurance, identity, and starting again into everything she does and the medals on her wall are less about the finish line than the journey it took to get there. In this conversation, Kettia challenges one of the most reflexive beliefs in business: that success always means growth. Early on, she assumed a successful business meant more locations, more revenue, more employees just more, because that's what the internet tells you. But growth brings complexity, and in a business built on leases and the licensed care of small humans, more can quietly become unsustainable. The better questions, she found, weren't about scale at all: What am I building? Why? And what will it require of me to sustain it? A turning point in Kettia's story arrived the day after the Boston Marathon, on the Amtrak home, when she finally opened a string of emails she'd been ignoring. A Fortune 500 buyer claimed her new center violated a non-compete by 100 feet. She had measured the distance carefully, the way you walk, drive, and run it; they measured it "as the crow flies," a term she'd never encountered, calculated by a surveyor she didn't know existed. With her family's future, home, and the proceeds of her sale all sunk into the new startup, she moved through denial, anger, and fear — then did the opposite of panic. She went completely still, went inward, and focused on one question: how do I get through this in one piece, with my family intact? The episode closes on the tools that keep her steady: walking away from a problem to let the solution surface (wisdom from her late father, who believed every problem already contains its answer if you get quiet enough), and treating imposter syndrome the way she treats the voice of doubt — acknowledge it, refuse to fight it, and don't give it a vote. This episode explores: Why "always grow" is the wrong default — and the better questions to ask Building for sustainability instead of scale for its own sake How owners become employees of their own business — and how to stop Moving forward before you feel confident, because the answers come as you move The 100-feet "as the crow flies" lawsuit and what she couldn't have known Letting go of "I should have known" when you did everything right Going still under pressure instead of spinning out Throwing out the belief that a leader must have all the answers Why psychological safety has to start at the top Leading a multigenerational, multicultural team with a real sense of belonging Walking away from a problem to let the solution find you Asking your subconscious the question before you sleep Working with imposter syndrome instead of against it Kettia's perspective is a powerful reminder that resilience isn't loud sometimes it's the stillness you find when everything's in jeopardy, and the refusal to beat yourself up for what you couldn't have known. Her journey from a basement childcare startup to a Fortune 500 legal fight to a thriving nonprofit shows that you don't have to run all 26 miles at once. You just have to run the mile you're in. If you're an entrepreneur, nonprofit leader, or anyone facing something hard right now, this conversation offers practical wisdom, hard-won honesty about doubt and imposter syndrome, and a refreshing case that surviving the worst can leave you stronger than before. Connect with me here: Website: https://www.kimmillerhershon.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmillerhershon Newsletter: https://link.kimmillerhershon.com/widget/form/aEdmdA1W5MhoMCMfy5O8 Webinar: https://webinar.kimmillerhershon.com/?utm_source=Podcast Guest Details: Guest: Kettia Ming entrepreneur, author, business strategist, and executive director of Black Theatre United; founder of The Childcare Collective and Evergreen House Press Book: Run the Mile You're In: One Founder's Journey Through Success, Loss & Reinvention Website: https://www.kettiaming.com Find Kettia online: Website: https://www.kettiaming.com Newsletter — Run the Mile You're In on Substack Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kettia/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kettiaming Speaking, podcast, and partnership inquiries: mingkettia@gmail.com — invite Kettia to speak, join your podcast, lead a conversation, or work with your organization around resilience, reinvention, entrepreneurship, leadership, and the business of childcare Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    Business Exit, a Fortune 500 Lawsuit, and Building Resilience Through Hard Times | Kettia Ming

  8. Jul 7

    Building a Team That Doesn't Need You: Resourcefulness, Focus, and the "I Belong" Mindset | Christian Espinosa

    In this episode of Unconventional Wisdom About Conventional Wisdom, Kim Miller-Hershon sits down with Christian Espinosa best-selling author, cybersecurity entrepreneur, and 24-time Ironman triathlete who built and sold Alpine Security and now leads Blue Goat Cyber, securing medical devices for FDA compliance. A blood clot survivor, Christian shares practical strategies for overcoming adversity, building resilient leadership, and navigating cybersecurity challenges. His books, The Smartest Person in the Room and The In-Between, explore how mindset shifts and emotional intelligence drive success. He's also, it turns out, a qualified Formula Four driver and the conversation opens on the track, where he's learned that slow is smooth, smooth is fast, and brute force only runs you off the road. In this conversation, Christian challenges a piece of conventional wisdom he swallowed whole with his first company: that everybody needs what you sell, so you should sell to everybody. Trying to push fifteen cybersecurity services to every vertical at once, he diluted his brand, diluted his messaging, and landed nowhere. The fix was counterintuitive — say no to fourteen things and go all in on one. At Blue Goat Cyber, doing one thing extremely well brings in far more revenue than chasing everything did. Niche down, know your ideal client, solve one real pain point. Christian and Kim also dig into a leadership habit that separates founders who scale from founders who don't: refusing to be the answer to everything. When his team asks him something he could easily answer, he often points them to the resources instead, because handing over the answer every time keeps people dependent and keeps him the constraint. As Kim frames it, a leader who supplies every answer becomes a slave to the business, unable to unplug, unable to step away, unable to grow the thing past themselves. A successful business, Christian insists, shouldn't need him at all. The two also explore the stories we tell ourselves — the theme of Christian's next book. They trade notes on the power of "I am" statements as identity, the smoker who quits versus the non-smoker who simply is one, and the danger of ignoring the gut voice that already knows. They talk about tuning in rather than tuning out, choosing yourself over reliving old trauma, and doing the inner work so you stop recreating the same circumstance. And when the talk turns to imposter syndrome, Christian offers the most concrete fix of the episode: a bracelet engraved "I belong," worn and read every day until the room he doubted became the room he owned. Change the story, and the conversations change with it. This episode explores: Why "everybody needs it" is a trap — and how niching down grows revenue Unlearning the craving for security to step into entrepreneurship Teaching your team to be resourceful instead of dependent Why a leader who answers everything becomes a slave to the business Tuning in to the gut voice instead of rationalizing it away Choosing yourself over reliving old trauma The stories we tell ourselves, and the power of "I am" statements Interrogating a big reaction before responding to the trigger Doing the inner work so you stop recreating the same situation If you're an entrepreneur, leader, or anyone wrestling with the gap between what you know and what you do, this conversation offers practical insight, honest talk about imposter syndrome, and a refreshing case that the story you tell yourself is the one thing you always get to rewrite. Connect with me here: Website: https://www.kimmillerhershon.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmillerhershon Newsletter: https://link.kimmillerhershon.com/widget/form/aEdmdA1W5MhoMCMfy5O8 Webinar: https://webinar.kimmillerhershon.com/?utm_source=Podcast Guest Details: Guest: Christian Espinosa Company: Blue Goat Cyber Books: The Smartest Person in the Room and The In-Between (with a new book on the stories we tell ourselves expected early next year) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    Building a Team That Doesn't Need You: Resourcefulness, Focus, and the "I Belong" Mindset | Christian Espinosa
See All (98)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Unconventional Wisdom About Conventional Wisdom: Where clichés come to retire and fresh thinking we inspire. Smart minds don’t think alike—and that’s the point. Unconventional Wisdom About Conventional Wisdom takes you inside the messy, brilliant, and bold thought processes of high-achieving leaders, entrepreneurs, and out-of-the-box thinkers. We skip the clichés and spotlight the real talk: the strange decisions that worked, the brilliant ideas that bombed, and the thought patterns that defy the rulebook—but still lead to growth, impact, and the occasional mic drop. If you’re tired of surface-level advice and crave the kind of wisdom that makes you pause, laugh, and level up—this is your new favorite listen. Because let’s face it: playing it safe never built anything worth bragging about.

Information