Your Brand Amplified

Anika sat down with Mitch Matthews to explore how professionals can turn their existing expertise, passion, and brilliance into a profitable side business without burning down their current lives. The conversation revealed a counterintuitive truth: the obstacle isn't a lack of time—it's how we approach focused execution, incremental novelty, and owned authority rather than borrowed corporate roles. Mitch's extensive experience as a success coach and host of the Dream Think Do podcast offered practical pushback against the myth of overnight success, alongside a fresh distinction between being burned out versus being "bored out."

In This Episode

• The transition from pharmaceutical sales and corporate training into full-time success coaching and entrepreneurship
• Recognizing a bad-fit job within 48 hours and navigating the "sitcom life" of single income and mortgages while building an exit strategy
• The kitchen table conversation that sparked a career pivot into coaching and personal development
• Changing friend groups and giving yourself permission to outgrow unsupportive environments
• Building owned authority versus relying on borrowed authority tied to a corporate title
• The difference between burnout and being "bored out"—and why 15 minutes of intentional novelty is the cure
• Debunking the time myth: how Parkinson's law enables building a business in 30 minutes a day
• Finding authority through perspective rather than age or position
• The power of being interested instead of interesting in professional networking

Timestamps

• 00:01 Introduction: Unravelling the intricacies of thriving businesses with Mitch Matthews
• 02:51 The corporate chapter: Pharmaceutical sales, massive territory in Montana, and a quick-turnaround bad-fit promotion
• 06:31 The sitcom life reality: Managing a mortgage, a single income, and planning an exit strategy
• 08:22 The kitchen table catalyst: How a magazine article sparked a transition to coaching
• 12:21 Navigating naysayers and giving yourself permission to change your peer group
• 14:17 Launching the Dream Think Do podcast and building owned authority
• 20:09 The Authority Bridge: Mining your brilliance and turning experience into impact and income
• 25:18 Finding your authority through perspective: The "millennial whisperer" case study
• 29:38 Burned out vs. Bored out: Recognizing the true diagnosis and the antidote of daily novelty
• 35:52 Overcoming the time misconception: Applying Parkinson's law to build a business in 30 minutes a day
• 43:22 The ultimate mentoring advice: Stop worrying about being interesting and start being interested

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: A Bad-Fit Job Can Be the Wake-Up Call You Need
Hitting a wall in a corporate role doesn't mean your entire career path was a mistake. When a promotion shifts you out of your sweet spot, it can serve as a powerful catalyst to wake up dormant dreams of entrepreneurship and reclaim control over your own work.

Insight 2: Build Owned Authority, Not Borrowed Authority
Authority tied to a corporate position, job title, or employer is "borrowed authority"—if the job goes away, the authority goes with it. True professional security comes from building owned authority by teaching, sharing, and creating content on platforms and properties you control.

Insight 3: You Might Not Be Burned Out—You Might Be "Bored Out"
High achievers often experience frustration, fatigue, and lower fulfillment, assuming it is burnout. However, performing repetitive tasks over and over can cause "bored out"—a state curable not by quitting your life, but by introducing intentional 15-minute daily injections of novelty and learning.

Insight 4: Parkinson's Law Proves You Have Enough Time
Many aspiring entrepreneurs believe they need massive blocks of free time to build a business. In reality, a task expands to fill the time given. By focusing intently for 30 minutes a day, four days a week, you can make extraordinary progress without burning down your current lifestyle.

Insight 5: Authority Comes from Perspective, Not Just Age
Youth and inexperience are not barriers to authority. By leaning into unique perspectives—such as interpreting the needs and communication styles of younger generations—professionals can immediately establish credibility and connect with senior leadership.

Insight 6: Be Interested, Not Interesting
When stepping into intimidating rooms or networking events, trying hard to look interesting creates friction and anxiety. Shifting the focus entirely to being genuinely curious and interested in others makes you the most engaging person in the room.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Dream Think Do Podcast: http://www.dreamthinkdo.com
• Special offer on Mitch's Masterclass with code: YOURBRANDAMPLIFIED

• Making Time for Your Next Chapter: https://members.matthewstraininginternational.com/next-chapter

• Ann-Laure Le Cunff (Neuroscientist and researcher on "bored out")

About Mitch Matthews

Mitch Matthews is a keynote speaker, success coach, and the host of the top-ranked Dream Think Do podcast. Having guided hundreds of executives, entrepreneurs, and leaders across the globe, Mitch specializes in helping high achievers mine their brilliance, overcome burnout, and design their next professional and personal chapters through practical strategies and intentional execution.

Connect with Mitch

Website: MitchMatthews.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchmatthews/

YBA was named the top PR podcast in the US by FeedSpot! Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you follow your favorite podcasts alongside blogs and news in one place.

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Check out our Website: https://www.yourbrandamplified.com
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Anika Jackson sat down with Tim Kuglin—founder of RQ Lab and the governance research lab of ZIPR Inc.—to explore what happens when you stop talking about responsible AI in theory and actually put it into practice in real-world environments like university classrooms and live publishing projects. The conversation reveals a counterintuitive truth: students and professionals don't just want a machine to spit out answers; given the right system, 80% of students prefer a governed Socratic method that forces them to think. Tim shares insights from nine months of deployments at Northern Arizona University, the 25 architectural buckets required for true AI governance, and why traditional venture capital speed runs are antithetical to building long-term, safe infrastructure.

In This Episode

• Installing governed AI at Northern Arizona University across data analytics capstones and management courses
• The three-part architecture: Decision Architect (DA), Evaluation and Variance Analysis (EVA), and the Project Manager
• How the Decision Architect uses the Socratic method to enforce metacognition and eliminate copy-paste behavior
• Drawing a parallel to memory outsourcing (remembering phone numbers vs. subcontracting thought to a machine)
• The National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Education inquiries driving a massive architectural push
• Why the biggest tech companies cannot truly self-govern and why independent governance is necessary
• Structuring as a public benefit corporation to balance long-term public good with financial sustainability
• The massive impending compliance crisis in the legal system with a 4,000% increase in pro se cases

Timestamps

• 01:23 — Nine-month NAU deployment results and initial student response to structured friction
• 02:15 — Breaking down the 3-part system: Decision Architect (DA), EVA, and Project Manager
• 03:56 — The danger of copy-paste education and outsourcing human memory to machines
• 12:02 — Key student sentiment data: 80% prefer a governed Socratic method over an answer machine
• 15:20 — Identifying 25 architectural buckets for end-to-end AI governance (only 20–25% exist today)
• 18:35 — Why public benefit corporations reject fast venture capital models in favor of long-term stability
• 21:59 — The geopolitical AI arms race and why big tech is suddenly advocating for corporate "governance"
• 26:37 — Maintaining the psychological boundary: treating AI as a capable machine rather than a human pal
• 37:30 — Institutional education hurdles: bridging students, teachers, parents, and administration
• 41:19 — The legal system crisis: navigating a 4,000% increase in AI-assisted pro se court cases

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: Students Prefer Thinking Over Copy-Pasting
Despite fears that students would reject friction, data from nine months of classroom deployments at NAU reveals that 80% of students prefer a governed Socratic system over a quick-answer bot. When forced to reason through problems step-by-step rather than copying and pasting, students engage deeper cognitive faculties and rediscover the joy of learning.

Insight 2: True AI Governance Is Massively Underdeveloped

Out of 25 distinct architectural buckets identified as necessary for genuine, end-to-end AI governance, only about 20% to 25% exist today in peer-reviewed systems or working software. The remaining 75% relies on nascent white papers and ongoing research, meaning true enterprise-grade governance is still in its infancy.

Insight 3: Independent Governance Cannot Be Self-Regulated
While massive tech companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft have the resources to build powerful infrastructure, they cannot objectively govern themselves. Just as societal laws require an external, independent legal entity, enterprise AI governance must exist as a separate, model-agnostic layer.

Insight 4: Public Benefit Corporations Prioritize Long-Term Stability
Fast-paced venture capital models demand rapid scale and short-term financial returns, which run counter to the careful, measured, and rigorous approach required to build safe AI governance. Public benefit corporations legally balance financial outcomes with long-term public good, attracting patient family offices and high-net-worth investors.

Insight 5: Regulated Industries Will Mandate Governed AI
Education is only the testing ground. Highly regulated fields—including legal systems facing thousands of AI-generated case filings, medical boards, and government defense sectors—will soon legally require fully audited, governed AI frameworks to prevent systemic failure and inaccuracy.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• RQ Lab Official Website
• National Science Foundation (NSF)
• U.S. Department of Education (Institute of Education Sciences)
• Northern Arizona University (NAU)

About Tim Kuglin
Tim Kuglin is an enterprise systems engineer with nearly 50 years of experience designing mission-critical, zero-failure systems spanning military communications, high-stakes live broadcast television, satellite video conferencing, and high-security architectures. As the founder of RQ Lab (the governance research lab of ZIPR Inc., a public benefit corporation), he is spearheading the engineering and practical deployment of true relational AI governance and metacognitive educational frameworks.

Connect with Tim

Website: rqlab.ai

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timkuglin/

YBA was named the top PR podcast in the US by FeedSpot! Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you follow your favorite podcasts alongside blogs and news in one place.

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Check out our Website: https://www.yourbrandamplified.com
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Anika sat down with Scott Stirrett to explore why the uncertainty we try hardest to eliminate from our businesses and careers is actually our biggest competitive edge. The conversation revealed a counterintuitive truth: the ability to handle not knowing matters far more than what you already know. Scott’s journey from founding Venture for Canada in 2013—scaling it into an $80M charity supporting over 10,000 young Canadians—to receiving the Meritorious Service Medal from Canada's Governor General and walking away at the top offered practical pushbacks against traditional career security, alongside a sharp look at navigating OCD recovery, building uncertainty muscles, and launching a long-term holding company through entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA).

In This Episode

• The founding story of Venture for Canada and why quitting Goldman Sachs at 22 was the ultimate calculated risk
• How Venture for Canada evolved differently from Venture for America by focusing on local ecosystem impact
• Surviving early bootstrap scarcity and navigating a 2017 hypergrowth team expansion crisis
• Transitioning from charity founder to launching Carrying Place Holdings to buy and run a business for the long term
• The reality of a full-time search: cold calling, M&A advisors, and the crucial requirement of endurance
• The OCD diagnosis during COVID, undergoing exposure and response prevention therapy, and realizing the power of sitting with uncertainty
• Why the popular advice to "follow your passion" is often poor, rigid guidance that overlooks changing interests and practical skills
• The six core pillars of the uncertainty advantage: self-adaptation, antifragility, risk-taking muscles, and generalist skills

Timestamps

• 00:01 Introduction: Unraveling thriving businesses and welcoming Scott Stirrett
• 01:22 Launching Carrying Place Holdings and the unique Canadian meaning of the portage metaphor
• 03:10 A month into full-time business search: cold outreach, M&A advisors, and solo endurance
• 05:24 Turning down Goldman Sachs at 22 to launch Venture for Canada
• 06:55 The key differences between Venture for Canada and Venture for America's evolution
• 10:03 Early funding hurdles, shoe-string budgets, and surviving a 2017 team-scaling crisis
• 13:48 Overcoming COVID-era uncertainty, OCD diagnosis, and learning to love the unknown
• 18:03 Exposure and response prevention therapy: breaking free from compulsive behaviors
• 23:14 The six pillars of the uncertainty advantage: self-compassion, antifragility, and risk muscles
• 29:50 Pushing back against "follow your passion" advice and focusing on useful skills
• 32:21 Small risks: why grabbing coffee with a complete stranger builds your uncertainty muscle
• 33:41 Turning career setbacks and uncertainty into multi-million-dollar entrepreneurial exits
• 35:50 Avoiding shiny object syndrome and locking into your core big hairy audacious goal
• 38:49 Defining the acquisition search parameters: geography, B2B services, and AI-proof compliance
• 41:51 The Uncertainty Advantage Quiz and developing self-awareness around the unknown

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: Uncertainty Is a Muscle That Must Be Trained
Just like physical fitness, our relationship with uncertainty can atrophy if we constantly run from it. Through intentional exposure—such as breaking compulsive avoidance behaviors or taking small professional risks like meeting a stranger—anyone can transition from fearing the unknown to using it as a competitive advantage.

Insight 2: "Follow Your Passion" Is Often Poor Advice
Telling young professionals to strictly "follow your passion" can lead to negative outcomes because passions change over time, people have multiple interests, and raw passions are not always monetizable. True fulfillment comes from developing generalist skills that make you genuinely useful to the world, letting passion emerge organically.

Insight 3: Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition Requires Solo Endurance
Buying an established business from a retiring owner (ETA) demands a unique blend of active deal-sourcing, cold outreach, and quiet, independent analytical work. Success requires psychological resilience, patience, and comfort working through ambiguity.

Insight 4: Self-Compassion Drives Antifragility
In an era of rapid change and unexpected setbacks—whether dealing with a health crisis or a failed business launch—treating yourself the way you would treat a good friend prevents perfectionism from paralyzing your progress and builds true antifragility.

Insight 5: Geographic and Industry Focus Dictates Search Success
When searching for a business to acquire, balancing geographic constraints (such as focusing on specific Canadian provinces) with industry criteria (like B2B services with recurring revenue and legal compliance protections) ensures a focused, strategic deal-sourcing pipeline rather than chaotic wandering.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Scott Stirrett's Official Website & Uncertainty Quiz: https://www.scottstirrett.com/quiz
• The Uncertainty Advantage by Scott Stirrett
• Venture for Canada
• So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport

About Scott Stirrett

Scott Stirrett is a Canadian entrepreneur, author, and advisor focused on entrepreneurship, economic development, and how people adapt to technological change. He is the Founder of Venture for Canada, a national charity he launched in 2013 that has supported more than 10,000 young Canadians and raised over $80 million. He is also the author of The Uncertainty Advantage, published by Dundurn Press, which explores how people can build successful careers in a world shaped by uncertainty and artificial intelligence. Scott currently serves as a Senior Advisor to the Shorefast Institute for Place Based Economies. Earlier in his career, he worked at Goldman Sachs in New York and studied at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service. He is an Ashoka Fellow and Globe and Mail Changemaker. In 2026, he received the Meritorious Service Medal from Governor General Mary Simon.

Connect with Scott

• Website: scottstirrett.com
• Substack & Book Resources: https://substack.com/@scottstirrett
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottstirrett/

YBA was named the top PR podcast in the US by FeedSpot! Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you follow your favorite podcasts alongside blogs and news in one place.

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Check out our Website: https://www.yourbrandamplified.com
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Anika sat down with Beth Trejo to explore how social media strategy has evolved over fourteen years of digital change, moving far beyond simple posting to address deep operational systems, multi-location complexities, and consumer trust. The conversation revealed a counterintuitive truth: while artificial intelligence offers powerful tools for administrative sorting and research, over-relying on automated content and high-volume posting often alienates audiences, triggering public pushback and eroding brand equity. Beth’s journey from a chamber of commerce worker to founding the remote-first agency Chatterkick offered practical pushbacks against hustle culture, alongside a sharp look at the power of human-centered storytelling, real photography, and clear operational expectations.

In This Episode

• The accidental origin story of launching Chatterkick in the Midwest amidst a pregnancy plot twist
• Defining the core mission of doing social differently, advancing women in tech, and maintaining a human touch
• The danger of treating social media as an afterthought and why complex, regulated industries need specialized operational support
• Moving beyond AI slop: Why real photos, authentic video content, and human-in-the-loop checks build deeper customer trust
• Transitioning a company to a remote-first work culture and utilizing digital equity squares to keep teams collaborative
• Navigating multi-location chaos and franchisee dynamics without losing individual local voice
• Managing regulatory compliance in healthcare and finance without falling into silence or leaving dangerous gaps in engagement
• Avoiding the invisible sale by educating customers, building strong email databases, and leading with helpful insights
• Hiring for flexibility and resourcing rather than expecting a single marketer to handle every creative task
• The power of humor and cleverness in brand communication to stand out in a crowded digital landscape

Timestamps

• 00:00 Introduction: Unraveling thriving businesses and welcoming Beth Trejo
• 00:53 Launching Chatterkick 14 years ago amidst community work and a pregnancy plot twist
• 03:32 The philosophy of doing social differently and advancing women in the tech workplace
• 08:42 Recognizing that social media challenges often stem from operational systems rather than bad posts
• 10:33 The importance of real-world content capture, real photography, and guarding against AI slop
• 14:57 Evolving a remote-first agency culture and implementing digital equity on camera
• 17:44 Managing multi-location franchise chaos, brand consistency, and local autonomy
• 22:19 Overcoming regulatory compliance fears in healthcare and finance without ignoring customer engagement
• 24:58 The invisible sale: Educating customers, building strong databases, and leading with helpful insights
• 27:06 Operational hiring tips: Finding versatile resource allocators instead of burnt-out generalists
• 30:21 The power of humor, cleverness, and human context in brand building
• 33:55 Quality over quantity: Crafting realistic posting cadences and choosing the right platform mix
• 38:56 Free communication resources, ebooks, and advice on eliminating unexpressed expectations

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: Real Content Beats Automated Perfection

While generative AI can assist with administrative tasks and research, over-relying on it for visual design and high-volume posting creates generic content that audiences quickly reject. Real photography, authentic video, and human oversight remain essential for building genuine trust.

Insight 2: Social Media Friction Is Usually Operational

Struggles with brand consistency and engagement rarely stem from a single bad post. Complex organizations—particularly multi-location franchises and regulated industries—require robust operational systems, clear approval workflows, and aligned internal communications.

Insight 3: Compliance Should Not Mean Silence

Highly regulated industries like healthcare and finance often fall into the trap of over-caution, leaving community comments unanswered during a crisis. Training teams to engage safely while knowing when to escalate protects brand reputation and prevents minor issues from escalating.

Insight 4: Remote Culture Requires Digital Equity

Transitioning to a remote work model succeeds when companies intentionally design collaboration to be inclusive. Ensuring every team member has an equal visual presence on screen prevents dominant voices from controlling the room and supports a strong internal culture.

Insight 5: Quality Outweighs Posting Volume

Posting frequently without purpose sets brands up for PR risks and reader fatigue. Aligning realistic posting cadences with quality content tailored to specific platform strengths yields much better business results than chasing algorithms with low-value volume.

Insight 6: Unexpressed Expectations Breed Resentment

Clear communication is vital for both leadership and marketing. Vaguely defined goals for teams or audiences lead to misunderstandings, whereas explicitly stated guidelines and expectations foster healthier professional relationships.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Chatterkick Free Resources

About Beth Trejo

Beth Trejo helps CEOs and marketing teams uncover the operational chaos behind their social media and fix it fast. She
focuses not only on improving efficiency but also on building the systems and structures that make awesome content possible. As the CEO and Co-Founder of Chatterkick, she works with multi-location, franchise, and regulated organizations that struggle with complex teams, compliance needs, and unclear workflows. Beth specializes in making social media manageable, stable, and effective by aligning people, processes, and platforms. For more than a decade, Beth has helped organizations bring clarity to the messy, behind-the-scenes work that most leaders never see. Beth has been featured in USA Today, Forbes, Yahoo, and Business Insider, and has twice been named to Comparably’s Top 50 CEOs for Women.

Connect with Beth

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethtrejo/
• Website: https://chatterkick.com/

YBA was named the top PR podcast in the US by FeedSpot! Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you follow your favorite podcasts alongside blogs and news in one place.

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Check out our Website: https://www.yourbrandamplified.com
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Anika sat down with Jordan Truster and Jillian Reece, the co-founders of Loveleigh Loops, to explore how they turned a shared hobby into a thriving, community-driven education business teaching modern calligraphy to more than 60,000 students worldwide. Despite their backgrounds in engineering and data analysis, Jordan and Jillian leveraged analytical precision to break down artistic skills into approachable, step-by-step frameworks. The conversation covers the power of starting with digital downloads on Etsy, building engaged student communities, scaling intentionally without losing trust, and why analogue hobbies provide a vital, mindful escape in an increasingly automated world.

In This Episode

• Turning an accidental wedding hobby into a global online calligraphy education and community business
• Why an analytical, step-by-step teaching style makes creative skills approachable for beginners
• Scaling from local in-person workshops to digital Etsy downloads and structured online courses
• The unique dynamics and mutual support of running a successful business as twin co-founders
• Experimenting with platforms like Teachable, Circle, and School to find the right student experience
• Cultivating a positive, spam-free community centered around creativity, mindfulness, and slow living
• Balancing email marketing cadence with high-value newsletters and strict subscriber preference tags
• Embracing analogue hobbies as a powerful, meditative counter-trend to AI and digital fatigue
•

Shifting creator focus from endless complexity and self-promotion to student success and simplification

Timestamps

• 00:00 Introduction: Unraveling thriving business stories and welcoming Jordan Truster and Jillian Reece
• 01:42 The origin story: From childhood art enthusiasts to reconnecting through wedding calligraphy
• 03:29 The "Letter Logic" breakthrough: How analytical thinking transformed artistic teaching methods
• 06:04 The evolution of scale: Transitioning from in-person workshops to Etsy digital downloads and online courses
• 08:45 Co-founding as twins: Leveraging shared minds, complementary strengths, and life transitions
• 11:33 Platform evolution: Experimenting with Teachable, Circle, and School for online communities
• 13:26 Cultivating positivity: Building an encouraging, spam-free community of engaged learners
• 17:10 Writing the book: Collaborating with a publisher to bring calligraphy into physical form
• 19:07 The analogue renaissance: Using calligraphy as a meditative, mindful escape from AI and digital noise
• 22:32 The shift to student-centric design: Simplifying courses and focusing on accountability and experience
• 27:54 Email marketing mastery: Balancing monthly newsletters, valuable resources, and strict segmentation
• 31:11 Passing the torch: Inspiring the next generation and modeling creativity for young daughters
• 32:02 Key takeaways: Focusing on student experience and leaning into your natural strengths
• 34:00 Guiding stars: Favorite mantras on slowing down and building great things through small steps
•

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: Leverage Your Unique Backgrounds

Your past professional or academic experiences—even analytical ones like engineering and data science—can bring fresh, structured perspectives to creative industries, making complex skills approachable for others.

Insight 2: Prioritize the Student Experience Over Complexity

Instead of trying to prove your expertise by cramming endless information into a course, focus on simplification, accountability, and making it as easy as possible for students to succeed.

Insight 3: Cultivate Intentional Communities

Building a successful online community relies on fostering genuine connection and shared values rather than allowing spaces to become breeding grounds for cross-promotion and spam.

Insight 4: Embrace the Power of Analogue

In a world dominated by AI, automation, and fast digital communication, hobbies that require slowing down and working with your hands offer essential mental health benefits and flow states.

Insight 5: Protect Your Email List Trust

Maintain long-term audience trust by sending thoughtful, high-value content, providing clear opt-out preferences, and communicating consistently without forcing arbitrary daily cadences.

Insight 6: Lean Into Strengths and Curiosities

Sustainable business growth comes from pursuing projects you genuinely enjoy alongside a trusted partner, rather than chasing every high-ticket trend that doesn't fit your core passion.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Loveleigh Loops (Official website for calligraphy courses, free resources, and community)
• Lettering for Planners by Jordan Truster and Jillian Reece
•

Teachable, Circle, and School (Platform tools discussed for courses and communities)

About Jordan Truster and Jillian Reece

Jordan Truster and Jillian Reece are the twin co-founders of Loveleigh Loops, where they have taught modern calligraphy to over 60,000 students worldwide. Combining backgrounds in mechanical engineering and data analysis with a passion for art, they built a thriving digital education platform, active online communities, and co-authored the book Lettering for Planners. Today, they champion the joy of slow, analogue hobbies, helping students find mindfulness and creative confidence through the art of beautiful writing.

Connect with Jordan and Jillian

• Website: https://loveleighloops.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loveleighloops
• Calligraphy Together: https://www.calligraphytogether.com/

YBA was named the top PR podcast in the US by FeedSpot! Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you follow your favorite podcasts alongside blogs and news in one place.

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Check out our Website: https://www.yourbrandamplified.com
Speak to my Delphi Clone: https://www.delphi.ai/amplifywithanika

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Anika sat down with Chris Shurian to explore why scaling multiple companies, pursuing endless hustle, and chasing surface-level accolades often lead entrepreneurs into a trap of stress and burnout. The conversation revealed a counterintuitive truth: true entrepreneurial success isn't measured by awards or 80-hour workweeks—it's measured by work-life balance, strong personal boundaries, and the freedom to build a life you actually enjoy. Chris’s journey from a residential fence builder to serial entrepreneur, recession survivor, cancer conqueror, and founder of Founders Exchange and the Bootstraps and Battle Scars podcast offered practical pushbacks against hustle culture, alongside a sharp look at the power of mindset, mentorship, and community.

In This Episode

• The origin of the term "entreprolic" and why spreading yourself across too many shiny objects can damage your core business
• Transitioning from serial expansion to intentional focus, working to live rather than living to work
• The accidental start of a multi-million-dollar building and remodeling career from a neighborly fence-building side hustle
• Surviving the 2008 economic crash, navigating heavy bank leverage, and selling classic cars to feed his family
• The power of community karma: How building extreme-makeover homes for families in need shaped banking relationships
• Why setting firm work-life boundaries is a core business strategy rather than a personal luxury
• Turning off digital notifications and training clients and employees to respect personal time
• Moving past the illusion of awards and celebrating the true reward of mentoring future business leaders
• The creation of Founders Exchange: Providing a safe, non-advisory peer group where founders can share hard truths
• The resilience mindset: Overcoming cancer diagnoses, divorces, and training for Ironmans with unwavering optimism
• The shifting landscape of small business, the squeeze on middle-market restaurants, and the enduring value of the trades

Timestamps

• 00:00 Introduction: Thriving businesses and welcoming Chris Shurian
• 03:43 The danger of shiny object syndrome and spreading multiple businesses too thin
• 07:09 Embracing the "entrepreneur whisperer" role and coaching founders from hard-knock experience
• 11:18 The 2008 economic crash, heavy financial leverage, and navigating weekly banker meetings
• 16:40 Community karma: The extreme-makeover Christmas houses that built lasting regional bank goodwill
• 19:41 Boundaries as a core business strategy: Protecting family time and avoiding entrepreneur burnout
• 27:46 The illusion of awards versus the true reward of seeing former employees build thriving companies
• 32:02 Founders Exchange: Creating safe, non-advisory peer advisory groups where no advice is allowed
• 35:36 The resilience mindset: Facing cancer, divorce, and Ironman training with blind optimism
• 43:24 Small business realities: The squeeze on middle-market brick-and-mortar stores and the power of the blue-collar trades

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: Avoid the "Entreprolic" Trap

While starting multiple businesses sounds exciting, chasing every shiny object often spreads a founder too thin. True growth requires narrowing focus, mastering one core project, and avoiding distractions that drain energy from your main enterprise.

Insight 2: Boundaries Are a Core Business Strategy

Entrepreneurs often feel obligated to be available 24/7, leading to chronic burnout. Setting firm boundaries, turning off digital notifications, and teaching clients and employees to respect personal time are essential for long-term health and sustainable business operations.

Insight 3: Success Is Measured by Impact, Not Awards

Surface-level accolades and awards matter very little when real economic pressure hits. True success is reflected in strong company culture, sustainable profit, and the pride of watching former employees and mentees build their own successful exits.

Insight 4: True Peer Groups Require Safety and Shared Experience

Isolation is one of the greatest challenges for business owners. Creating safe peer advisory spaces where founders share vulnerable experiences—without giving unsolicited advice—allows leaders to solve complex problems collaboratively.

Insight 5: Optimism and Resilience Drive Survival

Severe economic downturns, health crises, and personal challenges are inevitable in life and business. Maintaining an optimistic, persistent mindset and reframing obstacles as lessons ensures founders can navigate hard days and emerge stronger.

Insight 6: Find a Mentor Who Has Walked the Path

No entrepreneur succeeds in a vacuum. Seeking out experienced mentors within or adjacent to your industry provides invaluable shortcuts, wisdom, and guidance derived straight from the school of hard knocks.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Bootstraps and Battle Scars (Chris's podcast highlighting self-made entrepreneur stories)
• Founders Exchange (Chris's peer advisory group for business owners and CEOs)
• The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber (referenced regarding entrepreneurial seizures)

About Chris Shurian

Chris Shurian is a serial entrepreneur with nearly 30 years of experience building standout ventures, including Classic Construction Services (a $15 million Utah homebuilding company), Water’s Edge Resort in Bear Lake, and Cody’s Gastro Garage. Recognized as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, a Utah Business Forty Under 40 honoree, and a Big 50 Award recipient, Chris is dedicated to creating experiences that strengthen families and communities. Outside of business, he is a devoted husband to Rachel, proud father of 8.5, grandfather of two, and dog-dad to his Berne-Doodle, Harley. A two-time Ironman finisher, diehard sports fan, and hot rod enthusiast, Chris believes true success is measured by building a life that celebrates happy humans and lasting memories.

Connect with Chris

• Website: www.bootstrapsandbattlescars.com
• Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@chrisshurian2025

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Anika sat down with Julie Colombino-Billingham to explore how a single sentence in a Haitian tent camp sparked a 16-year journey into ethical manufacturing and social enterprise. The conversation revealed a counterintuitive truth: long-term human alleviation isn't about handouts or aid—it's about sustainable livelihoods. Julie's transition from a disaster responder and former professional dancer to founding Deux Mains (formerly Rebuild Globally) offered practical pushbacks against the traditional white-savior mindset, alongside a sharp look at how empowering local leadership creates resilience even amidst extreme geopolitical and gang-controlled strife.

In This Episode

• The pivotal moment in a Haitian tent camp where a woman declared, "I don't need water, I need a job"
• Transitioning initial recycling efforts from tire sandals to luxury fair-trade leather handbags
• How local leadership under partner Jolina Desroche built the true foundation of the factory
• Navigating extreme adversity, natural disasters, and operating in a gang-controlled red zone in Port-au-Prince
• The power of the Haitian spirit, tenacity, and the daily reality of running a solar-powered facility
• Expanding impact through school shoe production and providing steady community support
• The evolution of ethical retail partnerships with brands like Nordstrom and Kenneth Cole
• Balancing purposed-driven mission with the hard business realities of customer demand and sales
• Moving past the white-savior complex through genuine listening, local agency, and shared human connection
• The deeply personal, life-saving impact of shared purpose and building a lasting legacy from loss

Timestamps

• 00:00 Introduction: Unraveling thriving business strategies and welcoming Julie Colombino-Billingham
• 01:38 The origin story: A fateful sentence in a post-earthquake Haitian tent camp
• 03:39 Building a factory from a tarp shack to a solar-powered manufacturing center
• 08:01 From recycled tire sandals to luxury fair-trade leather handbags
• 10:32 The Haitian spirit of tenacity: Crying for three seconds and getting back to work
• 13:30 Operating in a Port-au-Prince red zone, gang dynamics, and producing school shoes
• 15:19 The power of purchasing choice and fair-trade verification with Nordstrom
• 17:35 Lessons from Cirque du Soleil, ballet, and disaster response applied to CEO leadership
• 19:15 Respecting Haiti's rich history and dismantling white-savior dynamics
• 22:29 Integrating nonprofit job training with a guaranteed manufacturing career path
• 26:35 Writing the memoir From Lost to Legacy and capturing colleague stories
• 28:16 Personal redemption, infertility, and growing alongside team members like Roni
• 31:12 Strategic partnerships, fair-trade federation validation, and balancing sales with ethics
• 33:02 Maintaining on-the-ground perspective through frequent travel and shared reality
• 34:46 Learning hard business lessons from Kenneth Cole on customer appeal
• 36:39 Expanding the brand: Opening the first storefront in Lake Worth Beach, Florida
• 38:00 Why local middle and high management is the secret to surviving civil unrest
• 39:49 North Star: "Dignity through work is the greatest human right"

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: Jobs, Not Aid, Drive Long-Term Recovery

Immediate disaster relief provides critical emergency support, but lasting human alleviation requires economic empowerment. Providing dignified, living-wage employment restores personal autonomy and rebuilds communities from the inside out.

Insight 2: Local Leadership Prevents Collapse

Foreign-run enterprises in volatile regions often fail when external support withdraws. Empowering local leadership and ensuring high management teams are native community members ensures a business can survive severe civil unrest and geopolitical disruption.

Insight 3: Purpose Must Meet Market Reality

Operating a social enterprise does not exempt founders from core business fundamentals. Purpose-driven brands must still create exceptional, high-quality products that consumers genuinely want to buy based on craftsmanship and style alone.

Insight 4: Guard Against the White-Savior Complex

True collaboration requires respecting local customs, history, and institutional systems rather than imposing external assumptions. Listening to local partners and acknowledging their expertise is essential for authentic social enterprise.

Insight 5: Perspective Requires Proximity

It is easy for leaders operating from comfortable environments to lose touch with the daily realities of their frontline workforce. Staying deeply connected to the ground ensures empathy and operational decisions remain grounded in human need.

Insight 6: Dignity Through Work Is a Fundamental Right

True entrepreneurial success and social impact go beyond financial metrics. Ensuring that every individual has access to meaningful, fairly compensated labor is one of the most powerful rights we can secure for humanity.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Deux Mains (Fair-trade luxury leather accessories brand and solar-powered factory)
• Rebuild Globally (Nonprofit pathways to education and job training)
• From Lost to Legacy (Julie's memoir sharing her journey and colleague stories)
• Fair Trade Federation

About Julie Colombino-Billingham

Julie Colombino-Billingham is a social entrepreneur, disaster responder, author, and the founder of Deux Mains. After spending years in disaster relief and witnessing firsthand the need for economic opportunity in post-earthquake Haiti, she partnered with local leaders to build Port-au-Prince's premier women-owned, solar-powered manufacturing facility. Today, Deux Mains provides dignified, living-wage employment, crafts luxury fair-trade leather goods, distributes school shoes to children, and partners with major retailers like Nordstrom. She is the author of From Lost to Legacy and an advocate for the principle that dignity through work is a fundamental human right.

Connect with Julie

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deuxmains_official/
• Website: https://deuxmains.com/

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Anika sat down with David Salerno to explore why so many entrepreneurs become trapped inside the very businesses they built to achieve freedom. The conversation revealed a counterintuitive truth: the problem isn't a lack of hustle or effort—it's a lack of clarity, structure, and scalable systems. David’s journey from scaling a multi-million-dollar B2B packaging company to writing Built for Freedom and developing the Sherpa Method offered practical pushback against the "hustle culture" narrative, alongside a sharp look at how founders can reclaim their time and build businesses that truly run without them.

In This Episode

• The transition from a student painter franchise and corporate management to founding Solpact
• The reality of falling into the founder trap and realizing the business model lacked sustainable margins
• The pivotal moment of the bank visit where an outsider noticed the calm, phone-free office environment
• The creation of the Sherpa Method: structuring a business around growth, sustainability, and service
• How 27 core questions can help founders solve operational bottlenecks and find true clarity
• The power of the "where have you been all my life?" conversation for identifying true product differentiation
• Transitioning a company to remote operations and running it while working less than 12 hours a week
• Redefining hiring, team agency, and the art of "unrecruiting with compassion"
• The future of AI for entrepreneurs, creating AI-driven business models, and building automated advisory tools
• Channeling entrepreneurial wisdom into a new fiction book exploring life lessons through nine cars

Timestamps

• 00:00 Introduction: Freedom, flexibility, and welcoming David Salerno
• 01:32 From student painter franchises to corporate foundations and founding Solpact
• 04:56 Realizing profit model flaws and restructuring for sustainable margins
• 06:56 The romanticism of entrepreneurship versus the reality of founder burnout
• 08:04 The banker's realization: Walking into a calm, phone-free office environment
• 09:12 The Sherpa Method: The core pillars of growing, sustaining, and serving
• 11:10 Building team agency, trust, and navigating team growth over time
• 13:01 The 27 core questions every founder needs to answer to escape the business trap
• 15:12 Bundling services, unique offers, and pricing for high-margin success
• 18:25 Managing a remote business while working less than 12 hours a week
• 21:29 The keystone of business friction: Solving systemic structure over people problems
• 24:42 The heydays of AI in small business: Balancing automation efficiency with human synthesis
• 29:33 Exploring AI-driven mentorship and interactive business frameworks
• 31:44 Unrecruiting with compassion: Handling team alignment and respectful exits
• 33:52 Selling with empathy and matching the right customer shape to your business model
• 38:09 Expanding the Sherpa framework and writing a new fiction book titled A Life in Nine Cars
• 44:57 North Star: Detachment, positive impact, and building a legacy that outlasts us

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: Founders Usually Have a Clarity Problem, Not a Hustle Problem

Most entrepreneurs do not fail because they lack work ethic; they fail because they lack structural clarity. When a business relies entirely on the founder's daily intervention, it is a sign of missing systems, overlapping responsibilities, and poorly defined roles.

Insight 2: Your Real Product is Your Business, Not Just Your Goods

While a product or service matters, the true scalable product is the business itself. Designing a company with clear values, documented systems, and empowered team members allows the enterprise to operate seamlessly in the founder's absence.

Insight 3: Unrecruiting with Compassion Protects Culture and Growth

When team members no longer fit an evolving business, forcing them to stay creates friction. Compassionate unrecruiting—guiding people through honest walking discussions about strengths, clarity, and alignment—often leads to mutual realizations that benefit both the company and the individual.

Insight 4: Say No to the Wrong Business

Chasing every incoming deal because it brings short-term revenue can paralyze operations. True profitability and efficiency come from deeply understanding your ideal client, protecting your pricing model, and having the discipline to say no to mismatched projects.

Insight 5: AI as an Operational Enabler, Not Just Sloppy Slop

While AI brings unprecedented opportunities to streamline thousands of documents and scale advisory models, founders must maintain ownership of synthesis and critical reflection rather than blindly delegating complex human decisions to automated text generation.

Insight 6: Success Means Designing for Freedom and Legacy

True entrepreneurial success is not measured by 80-hour workweeks or constant firefighting. By establishing a business built on systems and trust, founders can achieve genuine flexibility, spend meaningful time with family, and create a lasting legacy.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Built for Freedom (David's book featuring the Sherpa Method)
• Entrepreneur Sherpa (David's mentorship and coaching platform for founders)
• Solpact Packaging Solutions (David's B2B compostable food packaging company)
• The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber (referenced regarding key friction and systems)

About David Salerno

David Salerno is a serial entrepreneur, author, and Vice-Chair of the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) — Canada's leading free-market think tank. Over more than twenty years, he founded and scaled Solpak Packaging Solutions to eight-figure revenues and 530+ clients across Canada, then executed a strategic exit. His book, Built For Freedom, introduces the Sherpa Method: a nine-step system for building scalable, founder-independent businesses. A three-time consecutive Mercuriades finalist and Forbes Business Council member, David now leads Entrepreneur Sherpa, coaching growth-stage entrepreneurs across North America.

Connect with David

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davidvsalerno
Instagram: instagram.com/david_salerno/
Facebook: facebook.com/david.vincenzo.salerno/
X/Twitter: x.com/david_salerno

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Anika sat down with Kym Insana to explore what happens when corporate advertising burnout forces a leap into entrepreneurship. The conversation revealed a counterintuitive truth: the problem isn't balancing work and life through rigid formulas—it's choosing your hard and prioritizing time over everything else. Kym's two-decade transition from scaling New York City ad campaigns to founding a multimillion-dollar Inc 5000 agency offered practical pushback against traditional corporate structures, alongside a sharp look at where digital marketing goes wrong when it leans too heavily into sloppy AI shortcuts.

In This Episode

• The tipping point of motherhood in corporate ad agencies and the push toward entrepreneurship
• The reality of being laid off and turned into an accidental business owner overnight
• Building a flexibility-first agency model that retains elite talent through trust and autonomy
• Why always-on digital service means checking campaigns when others log off for the weekend
• The blind spot of performance marketing and why brand awareness still rules the physical and digital landscape
• Managing professional burnout, imposter syndrome, and self-doubt in seasons of growth
• Redefining success as happiness and time rather than a high-paying corporate yacht lifestyle
• The power of choosing your hard and rejecting traditional 9-to-5 societal programming

Timestamps

• 00:00 Introduction: Unraveling thriving business strategies with Kym Insana
• 01:01 The balancing act of motherhood and corporate ad climbing in NYC
• 02:18 Seeking job shares in the 90s and the inspiration for flexibility
• 04:01 Transitioning from corporate advertising to starting Always On Digital
• 05:14 The unexpected layoff and being pushed off the diving board into business ownership
• 08:19 Hiring trusted peers and building a seamless flexible work culture
• 13:18 The danger of sloppy AI shortcuts and maintaining authentic marketing human touch
• 17:28 The origin story behind the name "Always On Digital" and 24/7 accountability
• 20:22 The over-reliance on performance metrics and the timeless power of brand awareness
• 25:29 Seasons of burnout, handling founder guilt, and giving yourself grace
• 30:13 Redefining success: Why time and happiness outweigh millions on paper
• 32:47 Scaling Always On Digital with caution, quality, and clear roadmaps
• 34:27 Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: There is no gatekeeping in business
• 35:45 Mantras for resilience: Conquering hard days and choosing your hard

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: Flexibility Breeds Extraordinary Loyalty

When agencies offer true flexibility rather than rigid corporate oversight, employees deliver exceptional work because they are personally driven to protect their lifestyle. Trusting people to manage their time around life's demands builds a resilient, hard-working team.

Insight 2: AI Shortcuts Destroy Brand Authenticity

The rush to adopt automated marketing tools often leads to sloppy execution and robotic output. True consumer trust requires a human eye to eyeball reporting, oversee creative integrity, and maintain real connection.

Insight 3: Performance Metrics Cannot Replace Brand Awareness

The obsession with digital attribution and cost-per-click metrics has caused many brands to neglect foundational brand awareness. True market presence relies on a healthy balance of both performance campaigns and broad-scale brand visibility.

Insight 4: Burnout Happens in Seasons

Entrepreneurship does not exempt founders from stress, self-doubt, or parenting guilt. Recognizing burnout as a seasonal reality and carving out time for health, mental boundaries, and grace is essential for long-term survival.

Insight 5: Redefining Success Beyond Wealth

Societal programming equates success with endless climbing and financial accumulation. True success is measured by time, presence with family, and personal happiness rather than corporate titles or high-pressure valuations.

Insight 6: Choose Your Hard

Working a demanding corporate job is hard; starting and running a business is hard. Aspiring entrepreneurs must recognize that there is no easy path, and success comes down to choosing the hard work that aligns with your personal values.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• AlwaysOn Digital (Kym's multimillion-dollar digital agency)
• Inc 5000 Agency List

About Kym Insana

Kym Insana is a multi-million dollar business owner, digital marketing expert, and founder of AlwaysOn Digital, a women-owned agency helping brands like the U.S. Air Force, Enfamil, and Johnston & Murphy scale through impactful campaigns. With over 20 years of experience, Kym left her demanding NYC advertising career to build a company that offers flexibility and balance—values she champions as a wife and mother of four. AlwaysOn Digital thrives by empowering talented working parents to blend career success with family life. A sought-after speaker, Kym has shared her journey and expertise on national stages, including The Big in San Francisco and iMedia Brand Summit.

Connect with Kym

• Website: https://getalwayson.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyminsana/
• Kym’s profile: https://accessspeakers.biz/speaker/kym-insana-speaker-digital-marketing-expert-business-owner/

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Anika sat down with Nani Israel to explore how service-based founders and entrepreneurs can escape the trap of key-man risk, overcome perfectionism, and transition from hustle to strategic delegation. Drawing from her extensive background in digital marketing and her work as the founder of AirAssistant IO, Nani shared practical insights into building premium digital infrastructures, leveraging warm audiences through conversion events, and positioning businesses for high-ticket success.

In This Episode

• Scaling AirAssistant IO to install digital growth marketing infrastructures for service-based founders and consultants
• Moving past key-man risk and breaking the trap where everything in the business depends on the founder's mood or memory
• The core realization that tying something as finite as time to something as infinite as money guarantees a ceiling on growth
• Overcoming the primary barriers to delegation: perfectionism, unnecessary work distractions, and fear
• Leveraging warm audiences through short-form conversion sprints and high-converting launch events
• Harnessing the power of human connection, strategic brand partnerships, and done-for-you elements in an AI-driven economy

Timestamps

• 00:01 Introduction: Uncovering stories, strategies, and secrets of thriving business leaders
• 01:29 Nani Israel's daily life as a founder, mother, and creator of AirAssistant IO
• 02:52 Key-man risk and the trap of wearing all the hats in a service-based business
• 05:07 Finding purpose by solving a major problem and transitioning from charm school to digital infrastructure
• 08:56 The difference between a hustle problem and a leverage problem, and investing in high-level mentorship
• 17:48 Why perfectionism and distraction prevent founders from delegating authority and outcomes
• 24:15 Pre-selling belief systems through indoctrination engines before sales calls begin
• 31:45 The enduring power of human connection, done-for-you services, and strategic brand partnerships
• 37:13 Special offers for listeners: scaling CEO assessments and multi-million dollar strategy vaults
• 40:25 Guiding principle: making large amounts of money quickly by becoming the person capable of the journey

Key Insights & Traits

Insight 1: Time is Finite, Money is Infinite

Tying a finite resource like personal time to an infinite concept like income guarantees that a business owner will eventually hit a growth ceiling. True leverage requires building systems, automation, and delegation.

Insight 2: Delegation Means Assigning Outcomes

True delegation is not just handing off random tasks; it is assigning the ownership of specific departmental outcomes to people who are experts in their areas of genius, allowing the CEO to focus entirely on top-of-funnel visibility and bottom-of-funnel conversion.

Insight 3: High-Ticket Pricing Requires Radical Self-Belief

Founders often underprice their services due to scarcity mindsets. Shifting toward value-based pricing and serving a small, concise group of premium clients changes the entire economic model of a business.

Insight 4: Marketing Fundamentals Never Change

While artificial intelligence and automation enhance efficiency, the core drivers of business growth—human connection, relationship building, and strategic brand partnerships—remain timeless.

Insight 5: Warm Audiences Drive Immediate Cash Injections

Founders with small followings do not need massive cold traffic to scale. Tapping into existing email lists, text message databases, and social media followings through a targeted conversion sprint creates fast, high-converting revenue.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• AirAssistant IO (Nani's digital growth marketing infrastructure firm)
• The Golden Thread and the Lineage of the Light by Nicolette Halliday (referenced in context)
• Madam C.J. Walker (historical case study on affiliate and brand partnerships)
• Myron Golden (sales trainer and pricing philosophy reference)

About Nani Israel

Nani Israel is the founder of AirAssistant IO, a digital growth marketing infrastructure firm dedicated to helping service-based founders, coaches, and consultants quantum leap their results. Having generated multiple millions in closed sales and helped her tribe accumulate nearly $20 million, Nani specializes in installing leadership, systems, and high-ticket sales frameworks that free founders from the daily grind. Her overarching mission is to help founders reach $100M in reported revenue while living lives that do not demand sacrificing their nervous system in exchange for success.

Connect with Nani

• Instagram:@airassistant.io
• LinkedIn: Nani Israel, M.Ed
• Website: http://www.airassistant.io
•

Special Offer for YBA Listeners:

Text PODCAST to 217-745-6987 to schedule a free Scaling CEO Assessment (valued at $3,000), gain instant access to a $13M strategy vault, and claim a free seat inside the Scaling CEO School, where experts and service providers gather to learn how to consistently sell high-ticket (B2B and B2C).

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Anika sat down with Nicolette Halliday to explore how personal transitions, corporate burnout, and navigating life changes can inspire a profound pivot into entrepreneurship and creative expression. Drawing from her background in corporate project management, her journey as a single mother, and her experience founding Inspired Hearts Publishing, Nicolette shared practical insights into the power of storytelling, overcoming imposter syndrome, and building a business rooted in authenticity.

In This Episode

• Transitioning from a demanding corporate project management career to launching a virtual assistant company for online business owners
• Learning the publishing industry from the inside out by supporting other independent publishers and multi-author book projects
• Founding Inspired Hearts Publishing to help soul-led creators and women share their meaningful stories through anthologies and solo books
• Publishing her first mythic memoir, The Golden Thread and the Lineage of the Light, written during a period of personal healing and boundaries exploration
• Overcoming self-doubt, fear of vulnerability, and the common internal barriers writers face when sharing their personal truths
• Embracing the belief that businesses can act as authentic extensions of one's true self rather than corporate facades

Timestamps

00:01 Introduction: Uncovering stories, strategies, and secrets of thriving business leaders
01:19 Nicolette Halliday's journey from corporate project management and virtual assistance to founding Inspired Hearts Publishing
09:32 Publishing her first anthology, *Mystics Revealed*, as a catalyst for professional growth and personal healing
13:44 Experiencing creative flow and writing 75% of her solo book, *The Golden Thread and the Lineage of the Light*, within a month
21:43 Practical writing strategies: starting with the end in mind, brainstorming out loud, and being interviewed to capture natural voice
23:23 Writing from the wound versus sharing from the scar: navigating vulnerability and safe storytelling
29:13 Modern publishing trends: the rise of accessible audiobook production, short-form content consumption, and the importance of author advocacy
35:49 Raising children to follow their inner wisdom and trust their own authentic paths
40:31 Building an aligned business where transparency and core values naturally attract the right clients
46:12 Guiding principle: cultivating self-knowledge and being a lifelong learner in the pursuit of authenticity

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: All Past Skills Transfer to New Ventures
Skills developed in corporate project management or virtual assistance are never wasted. Every career pivot brings forward a wealth of organizational and tactical capabilities that accelerate future business success.

Insight 2: Write From the Wound, Share From the Scar
Vulnerability is a powerful connector, but writers should ensure they share personal stories from a place of healed perspective and hindsight rather than active, raw grief.

Insight 3: A Book Builds Deep Personal Clarity
While authors often pursue publishing for surface-level business authority or marketing, the internal process of writing provides profound self-clarity that permanently shifts how they view their work and life.

Insight 4: Business as an Extension of Self
Operating a business without a corporate facade—anchored entirely in personal values and humanity—creates deeply aligned relationships and a natural magnet for the right clients and partners.

Insight 5: Authors Must Be Their Own Best Advocates
The gatekeeping of traditional publishing has largely dissolved, but the responsibility of championing a book, driving interest, and utilizing it as a foundational tool remains entirely with the author.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Inspired Hearts Publishing Website (Official website for author circles, publishing services, and resources)
• The Golden Thread and the Lineage of the Light by Nicolette Halliday (Her debut mythic memoir)
• Mystics Revealed: Unconventional Success Stories from Extraordinary Leaders (Inspired Hearts anthology)
• Substack (Alternative platform for long-form writing and audience connection)

About Nicolette Halliday

Nicolette Halladay is the author of The Golden Thread and The Lineage of the Light and the founder of Inspired Hearts Publishing. Through her work as a publisher and storytelling guide, she helps entrepreneurs, creatives, and change-makers turn their lived experiences into powerful stories that inspire transformation. Nicolette believes that writing a book is more than a creative project. It is an act of self-trust and a way to share the wisdom gathered through life’s turning points. Her work explores themes of healing through storytelling, creative expression, and the alchemy that can emerge when we follow the deeper thread of our lives.

Connect with Nicolette

• Website:Inspired Hearts Publishing
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicolette.inspired/
• Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/nikki.richardsonhalladay
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolette-halladay555/

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Anika sat down with Andrea Engstrom to explore how entrepreneurs can build highly profitable businesses and scale to seven figures without relying on paid advertising. Drawing from her background scaling a 30-person digital marketing agency, diving into real estate investing, and coaching hundreds of women, Andrea shared practical strategies for leveraging organic relationships, providing upfront value through free coaching sessions, and mastering high-value activities.

In This Episode

• Transitioning from working in a family business coaching firm to building and selling a 30-person digital marketing agency
• Diving into real estate investing during the pandemic and closing 10 deals in six months
• Leaving a secure $12,000-a-month coaching role to bet on herself and launch Bold Mastermind
• Scaling a seven-figure coaching business without running ads by focusing entirely on organic relationships
• The four-step magnetic direct message sequence: gratitude, genuine compliment, good question, and a gift
•

Working a focused three-day schedule while maintaining $100,000 monthly sales through high-value activities

Timestamps

• 00:01 Introduction: Unraveling the stories, strategies, and secrets of thriving business leaders
• 02:13 Growing a digital marketing agency to 30 team members and selling it to a client during the pandemic
• 05:35 Transitioning into real estate investing and closing 10 deals in her first six months
• 06:57 The breaking point: realizing the lack of freedom while working for someone else's dream
• 08:11 Betting on herself, leaving a steady income, and launching the Bold Mastermind coaching program
• 13:59 Why entrepreneurs should avoid running ads until they have tested their concept and organic cash flow
• 15:58 Creating a magnetic direct message sequence using the four Gs: gratitude, genuine compliment, good question, and a gift
• 32:59 Transitioning to a focused three-day work week by ruthlessly delegating and eliminating low-value tasks
• 40:12 Integrating AI prompt pathways and digital assistants to streamline student success and business scaling
• 43:36 Guiding principle: betting on yourself and embracing the courage to try rather than wondering what-if

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: Organic Relationships Trump Paid Ad Spend

While many coaches and founders believe they must immediately run ads and build complex funnels, businesses can scale to seven figures entirely through organic network building, strategic outreach, and genuine human connection.

Insight 2: Provide Massive Value Upfront

Offering upfront value—such as three free coaching sessions to help clients gain clarity—builds deep trust, creates an effortless transition into a paid program, and results in exceptionally high conversion rates.

Insight 3: Remove Emotional Baggage Through Systematic Processes

Outreach and lead generation often trigger a fear of rejection. Streamlining the process with clear scripts, automation, or a virtual assistant removes personal emotional friction and keeps the calendar consistently booked with high-value sales calls.

Insight 4: Ruthlessly Delegate Low-Value Tasks

Business owners frequently spend 20 hours a week on tasks that could be outsourced for $25 an hour. Freeing up time to focus exclusively on highest-value activities—such as closing sales—is the key to working fewer days while dramatically increasing revenue.

Insight 5: Bet on Yourself and Overcome the Fear of Success

Stepping out of a secure corporate or coaching role to build your own enterprise requires profound courage. Embracing the mindset of a "thinking day" and asking "what would have to happen for that to be so" bridges the gap between vision and reality.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• AndreaEngstrom.com (Official website for coaching programs and resources)
• Bold Confidence by Andrea Engstrom (Book on stepping into confidence and starting organic business conversations)
• A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson (Featured inspirational quote)
• Facebook (Primary organic networking platform utilized for client acquisition)
• Claude & ChatGPT (AI tools utilized for prompt pathways and business streamlining)

About Andrea Engstrom

Andrea Engstrom is the founder of BOLD Mastermind, the author of Bold Confidence, and the host of the Andrea Engstrom Show. Her mission is to help women entrepreneurs gain clarity, confidence, and powerful connections so they can build thriving businesses and lives on their own terms. She specializes in guiding women to turn their expertise into high-value coaching programs that generate significant income while supporting freedom, fulfillment, and intentional lifestyles.

Connect with Andrea

• Website: http://andreaengstrom.com
• Free Masterclass: https://jointhemasterclass.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/likeandreaengstrom/
• Facebook Group: http://facebook.com/groups/boldwomeninbusinesssisterhood/
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/coach.andreaengstrom/
• YouTube: ​​http://youtube.com/channel/UC0p5U2Xz3mY6T-nRaAtfu5w
• LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/andrea-engstrom-7aaa208/

YBA was named the top PR podcast in the US by FeedSpot! Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you follow your favorite podcasts alongside blogs and news in one place.

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Anika sat down with Joshua Evarts to explore how the rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence and digital communication impacts the fundamental engine of every business: human relationships. Drawing from a diverse career leading national security software companies, managing historic building restorations, running a community cigar lounge, and parenting a son working at OpenAI, Joshua offered practical insights into balancing technological automation with authentic connection, intentional culture building, and genuine curiosity.

In This Episode

• Transitioning from early software programming on a Commodore 64 to leading national security tech companies
• The accidental pivot from accounting to building Easy Street Draw for automobile accident and homicide investigations
• Deploying to Iraq and working with New Scotland Yard on post-blast investigations
• Surviving stage 3 pancreatic lymphoma in 2020 and how facing mortality reshaped his perspective on presence
• Opening a historic cigar lounge and discovering that authentic generosity is contagious
• The reality of parenting an OpenAI employee and navigating generative AI at the dinner table
• Why genuine relationships and curiosity remain the ultimate competitive advantages in an automated world
• The philosophy behind his book series, starting with If Jesus Smoked Cigars: Eight Lessons in Relational Leadership

Timestamps

• 00:03 Introduction: Balancing AI integration with thoughtful, ethical, and strategic human guidance
• 02:54 Early programming roots on a Commodore 64 and leaving accounting for tech entrepreneurship
• 07:15 The three sentinel shifts: accelerating communication speed, COVID-19 distancing, and the advent of AI
• 09:12 Battling stage 3 pancreatic lymphoma during 2020 and choosing gratitude as a daily mindset
• 10:14 Choosing presence over devices: leaving phones behind and prioritizing real human interaction
• 14:38 Writing If Jesus Smoked Cigars: using cheeky titles and obscure historical stories to teach relational leadership
• 26:45 Navigating generative AI slop, social media echo chambers, and the obsession with capturing digital data
• 29:21 Advice for the next generation: pursuing math, logic, and curiosity rather than fearing replacement
• 41:47 Recognizing that relationships are hard work and require intentional daily effort

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: Relationships Cannot Be Outsourced to AI

While generative AI automates routine tasks and text generation, it cannot replace genuine human connection. In an increasingly automated business world, the ability to build trust, listen deeply, and maintain authentic relationships serves as an irreplaceable discriminator.

Insight 2: Reckless Generosity Builds Thriving Communities

Treating business relationships purely as transactions limits growth. True generosity is contagious; when business owners genuinely support their peers and foster inclusive environments, the entire community benefits and rises together.

Insight 3: Focus on Culture and Process Over Outcomes

Founders and leaders cannot control external market conditions or outcomes—they can only control their attitude and actions. Prioritizing a healthy, people-first culture and mastering daily processes naturally attracts top talent and loyal customers.

Insight 4: Curiosity Outweighs Perfection

Entering unfamiliar rooms and asking genuine questions creates unexpected opportunities. Being infinitely curious and willing to admit what you do not understand allows professionals to successfully navigate major career pivots across entirely different industries.

Insight 5: Avoid Confusing Market Velocity with Productivity

The rapid speed of technological advancement often tricks organizations into measuring activity rather than true business impact. Leaders must evaluate whether new tools genuinely serve their mission or create unnecessary friction for human users.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• https://ifjesus.com/ (Joshua's official website for workshops, book info, and direct contact)
• If Jesus Smoked Cigars: Eight Lessons in Relational Leadership by Joshua Evarts

About Joshua Evarts

Joshua Evarts is an author, entrepreneur and former technology executive with more than 30 years of experience building businesses in technology. He is the author of If Jesus Smokes Cigars: Eight Lessons in Relational Leadership, a book exploring how leaders and professionals can build stronger relationships in a tech-saturated world. After decades in tech, Joshua opened a cigar lounge built around conversation, storytelling and authentic connection, which became a real-world expression of his belief that innovation matters, but people still come first. As the father of a son who works at OpenAI, Joshua brings both personal and professional perspective to conversations about AI, the future of work and the human skills that technology cannot replace.

Connect with Joshua

• Website: https://ifjesus.com/

YBA was named the top PR podcast in the US by FeedSpot! Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you follow your favorite podcasts alongside blogs and news in one place.

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Check out our Website: https://www.yourbrandamplified.com
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Anika sat down with Mike Barton to explore why digital accessibility is frequently overlooked by marketers and why treating it as a core growth lever can transform a brand. The conversation revealed a counterintuitive truth: digital accessibility is not just a compliance checkbox or a legal defense against lawsuits, but a powerful driver of customer retention, SEO performance, and overall user clarity. Mike’s diverse journey—shaping executive messaging at Adobe, building a customer marketing function from scratch at Zenoti, and leading corporate communications and content marketing at AudioEye—offered a practical look at how treating enterprise buyers as humans first changes the way brands tell stories.

In This Episode

• The Northwestern IMC Roots: Merging data-driven decisions with creative marketing to treat the end user as a human.
• Building from Scratch at Zenoti: Why executive buy-in, measurable outcomes, and diverse team skills matter more than theoretical strategies.
• The Accessibility Aha Moment: Discovering how common digital content excludes the 1 in 4 Americans living with a disability.
• Compliance vs. Growth: Shifting enterprise conversations away from fear-driven legal defense toward marketing tech stack investments.
• Rising Tides and SEO: How clear image descriptions, precise code structures, and accessible design naturally boost search rankings and LLM visibility.
• The Loyalty Multiplier: Why consumers with disabilities and their tight-knit communities represent an exceptionally loyal customer base.
• Decoding Content Slop: Balancing the power of AI amplification with authentic human storytelling to avoid the sea of digital sameness.

Timestamps

• 00:03 Introduction: Digital accessibility as an overlooked growth lever
• 01:07 The Northwestern background: Marrying data-driven decisions with creative storytelling
• 04:43 Building customer marketing from scratch at Zenoti and the importance of measurable outcomes
• 10:28 Discovering digital accessibility: Breaking down misperceptions and the 1 in 4 statistic
• 14:29 The push-pull of compliance: Moving from reactive fear of lawsuits to proactive marketing investments
• 17:59 Travel industry case study: How making websites accessible increased traffic and SEO performance
• 23:03 Clarity for all: Why accessibility best practices simplify messaging for human users and LLM crawlers alike
• 25:29 Common marketer misconceptions: The false belief that people with disabilities do not use or spend on products
• 30:43 The content creator's dilemma: Using AI to amplify work without falling into "AI slop"
• 39:46 What AudioEye actually delivers: Combining scalable automation with expert human auditing
• 42:57 The future of content strategy: Simplifying messages in a digital world inundated with noise
• 45:58 Final thoughts: Embracing life's detours as the true path you are supposed to be on

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: Enterprise Buyers Are People First

Whether marketing to consumers or enterprise buyers, the underlying audience consists of humans who go home and watch Netflix to unwind. Powerful marketing must combine logic and emotion to reframe how people think and build genuine brand loyalty.

Insight 2: Accessibility Lifts All Marketing Boats

Investing a small percentage of a marketing tech stack budget into accessibility does more than maintain compliance. It improves SEO performance, enhances LLM crawler comprehension, and clarifies copy for every user, making it a true rising tide for all digital channels.

Insight 3: The Untapped Power of an Overlooked Audience

Marketers frequently make the self-fulfilling assumption that people with disabilities do not engage with their products or possess spending power. In reality, addressing the needs of this community unlocks massive market potential and builds unmatched customer loyalty.

Insight 4: Simplicity Is the Hardest Part of Writing

As digital noise increases and AI generates vast amounts of generic content, the winning strategy belongs to writers who can simplify complex ideas. Succinct, clear messaging cuts through the clutter faster than over-engineered corporate jargon.

Insight 5: Embrace the Career Detour

Professional setbacks, whether a failed campaign, a missed strategy, or a layoff, are rarely true detours. Shifting perspective to view unexpected changes as the intended path helps professionals seize new opportunities sooner.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• AudioEye (audioeye.com)
• Max Ivy (The Blind Blogger)
• Sprout Social (survey research on social media demographics)
• "Assume That I Can" (global awareness campaign on Down syndrome)

About Mike Barton

Mike Barton is the Vice President of Corporate Communication and Content Marketing at AudioEye. With a career spanning executive messaging at Adobe, building customer marketing from scratch at Zenoti, and shaping content strategy at enterprise software giants, Mike specializes in human-centric storytelling and digital accessibility. He holds a degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University.

Connect with Mike

• Website: http://www.audioeye.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omnibarton/

YBA was named the top PR podcast in the US by FeedSpot! Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you follow your favorite podcasts alongside blogs and news in one place.

Like the show? Leave us a rating or review: https://lovethepodcast.com/67940257010b317cdaa9d857
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Check out our Website: https://www.yourbrandamplified.com
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Anika sat down with Holland Martini and Maria Vorovich to explore how Good Ques transformed the traditionally rigid world of market research by embracing creativity, humor, and psychological safety. The conversation revealed a counterintuitive truth: to get to real human insights, you cannot ask robotic questions; you have to shift the perspective and design an experience that makes people comfortable telling the absolute truth. Holland and Maria's unique journey—from working side by side at Grey in New York and navigating the unexpected hurdles of launching a business right before a global pandemic to earning recognition from Inc. Magazine and working with giants like P&G, PepsiCo, Adobe, TikTok, and Meta—offered a practical look at how two co-founders with contrasting working styles ("waffle brain" and "spaghetti brain") built an anti-research research company on mutual respect, clear communication, and purposeful creativity.

In This Episode

• The Waffle and the Spaghetti: How balancing statistical rigor with big-picture creative strategy builds an indestructible co-founder partnership.
• The Spark in the Cream: Turning a New Year's Eve conversation about stale corporate jargon into a mission to reinvent consumer insights.
• Surviving the Pivot: How an early client backing out right before COVID unexpectedly forced them into the research boom.
• The TikTok Validation: Landing early major enterprise accounts by showing up with a genuinely different point of view.
• Rewiring the Factory: Why using AI to innovate the ultimate output rather than just speeding up the assembly line matters.
• The Power of Memes in Healthcare: How a viral internet joke helped a healthcare client accurately double their anticipated market size.
• The Empathy Deficit: Why modern brands get lost in best-practice perfection and forget to design human experiences for respondents.
• Co-Founder Dynamics: The importance of clear role separation, shared values, and leaving ego at the door.

Timestamps

• 00:00 Intro: The anti-research research company
• 02:05 Waffle brain vs. spaghetti brain
• 03:54 The origin story at Grey
• 06:20 Taking off corporate guardrails
• 09:30 Carving a distinct agency path
• 11:42 Good Ques: Asking better questions
• 13:35 The 2020 pandemic pivot and TikTok
• 15:58 AI integration and industry innovation
• 20:53 Pitching enterprise clients
• 23:55 Creative research tweaks
• 25:10 The condom meme case study
• 29:26 Comfort with creative boundaries
• 31:32 Co-founder rules and motherhood
• 37:35 Remote culture and global teams
• 43:07 The respondent experience
• 46:26 What's next for Good Ques
• 47:24 Advice for new founders
• 49:32 Favorite quotes and business mantras

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: Invisibility Isn't a Content Problem—It's a Strategy Problem

Traditional market research is bogged down by rigid, robotic phrasing that invites equally robotic, surface-level responses. When researchers focus entirely on extraction rather than the respondent's experience, they miss the underlying truth. Asking better questions requires designing an environment of psychological safety where people feel comfortable revealing their real behaviors.

Insight 2: Creativity Belongs in Methodology, Not Just Execution

Many corporate brands assume creativity only applies to advertising copy or visual design. True innovation happens when creativity is applied to the research methodology itself—using tools like creative drawing, changing the frame of reference to bypass social desirability bias, or even incorporating internet culture like memes to capture authentic consumer sentiment.

Insight 3: AI Should Innovate the Output, Not Just the Assembly Line

While many companies use generative AI simply to streamline traditional processes and speed up data collection, true market leaders use it to reimagine the final product. Technology should be leveraged to push beyond industry averages and discover entirely new frontiers of understanding rather than just producing faster mediocrity.

Insight 4: Counterbalance Is the Anchor of a Strong Co-Founder Partnership

A successful co-founder relationship relies on having complementary skill sets rather than duplicate visions. Pairing a structured, analytical mindset with a fluid, big-picture creative approach creates a resilient leadership team, provided there is absolute clarity in roles, deep mutual respect, and zero ego.

Insight 5: Embrace Discomfort as a Metric for Growth

Building a disruptive company requires a constant willingness to step outside the boundaries of convention. Whether it is pitching unconventional methodologies to skeptical executives, riding a bicycle across a bridge in freezing weather during a crisis, or pivoting business models overnight, treating discomfort as a sign of progress is essential for long-term survival.

Resources & Links Mentioned

GoodQues.com

Good Ques LinkedIn

Columbia University (guest lecturing)

About Holland Martini & Maria Vorovich

Holland Martini and Maria Vorovich are the co-founders of Good Ques, widely known as the anti-research research company. Having met while working in strategy and data at Grey New York, they bonded over a shared frustration with stale industry jargon and rigid methodologies. Together, they built an award-winning agency recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S., delivering breakthrough consumer insights for global brands like Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Adobe, TikTok, and Meta. Holland serves as Chief Insights Officer, bringing statistical rigor and data precision, while Maria serves as Chief Strategy Officer, driving creative vision and disruptive positioning.

Connect with Holland & Maria

Website: https://www.goodques.com/

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/company/goodques

YBA was named the top PR podcast in the US by FeedSpot! Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you follow your favorite podcasts alongside blogs and news in one place.

Like the show? Leave us a rating or review: https://lovethepodcast.com/67940257010b317cdaa9d857
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Check out our Website: https://www.yourbrandamplified.com
Speak to my Delphi Clone: https://www.delphi.ai/amplifywithanika

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Anika sat down with George Khachatryan to explore the evolving landscape of AI-driven marketing, personalization, and the massive trust gap currently sitting between brands and consumers. The conversation revealed a counterintuitive truth: while 93% of marketing leaders believe AI helps them understand their customers, only 53% of consumers agree. George’s unique journey—from earning a PhD in mathematics at Cornell and building an early ed-tech AI company to founding OfferFit and navigating its $325M acquisition by Braze—offered a practical look at how reinforcement learning and predictive data science are permanently replacing the manual grind of traditional A/B testing.

In This Episode

• How a background in mathematics and early intelligent tutoring systems laid the groundwork for complex AI architectures.
• Stepping away from specialized tech to learn foundational company building through management consulting and operational transformations.
• Moving beyond rigid "Next Best Action" rules to autonomous reinforcement learning agents that experiment at the individual customer level.
• The strategic decision behind merging OfferFit with Braze in a $325M deal and why deep data science and engineering alignment matters.
• Why hidden bots, lack of transparency, and mismatched brand expectations are eroding consumer confidence.
• Blending predictive machine learning models (for timing and offers) with LLM agentic copy generation for maximum impact.
• Why students and early-career marketers must embrace AI literacy to stay competitive in a rapidly shifting job market.

Timestamps

• 00:00 Introduction: The math, the $325M exit, and the AI trust gap
• 02:00 From Cornell mathematics and early ed-tech to management consulting
• 04:18 The limitations of traditional "Next Best Action" and the birth of reinforcement learning
• 09:22 Real-world personalization: How brands like Yum Brands optimize customer engagement 12:39 The acquisition journey: Why OfferFit chose to integrate with Braze
• 16:53 The 93% vs. 53% problem: Why consumers feel misunderstood by brands
• 20:41 Hybrid AI systems: Stitching together LLM copywriting and statistical decisioning
• 23:33 The personal cost of a "Sydney is just a bot" moment: The importance of transparency
• 28:32 The reality of enterprise caution vs. consumer expectations
• 29:56 Agentic commerce and the future of bot-to-bot interactions
• 34:39 Managing negotiation bots and complex consumer retention scenarios
• 37:25 Generational divides: Gen Z's dual relationship with AI adoption and career anxiety
• 40:59 Lessons for founders: Aligning philosophical visions before a merger
• 43:35 Final thoughts: Embracing the historic and fascinating shift in marketing technology

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: Personalization Requires True One-to-One Experimentation

Traditional marketing relies on segmenting audiences and applying rigid, rule-based logic. True optimization requires reinforcement learning agents that operate at the individual customer level, autonomously testing variables like messaging, timing, and offers to discover what drives incremental engagement.

Insight 2: The Danger of Hidden Bots and Broken Trust

Consumers do not mind interacting with AI or automated tools, but they expect transparency. When a brand masks an AI agent as a human—and fails to take responsibility for its actions—it creates a deep sense of betrayal that permanently damages customer loyalty.

Insight 3: The Power of Hybrid AI Infrastructure

The most effective marketing systems do not rely on a single flavor of AI. Combining statistical reinforcement learning (to determine when and what to communicate) with LLM agentic text generation (to personalize how it is phrased) yields performance lifts of over 100%.

Insight 4: Shared Vision is the Anchor of Any Successful Acquisition

For founders navigating a potential exit, technical integration is only half the battle. Long-term success relies on frank, open discussions about philosophical alignment, shared visions, and mutual risk mitigation before signing a deal.

Insight 5: Enterprise Caution vs. Consumer Speed

While marketers are often bogged down by internal alignment and slow decision-making processes, consumers are interacting with cutting-edge AI tools daily. Brands that fail to bridge this expectation gap risk becoming obsolete.

Resources & Links Mentioned

Braze

2026 Global Customer Engagement Review

OfferFit

Yum Brands & Home Security (Client case studies discussed in the episode)

About George Khachatryan

George Khachatryan is a mathematician, entrepreneur, and executive leader serving as the Head of OfferFit by Braze. Holding a PhD in mathematics from Cornell University, George previously co-founded the ed-tech pioneer Reasoning Mind and worked as an associate partner at McKinsey. He co-founded OfferFit, an AI decisioning engine that utilizes reinforcement learning to automate marketing experimentation, culminating in its acquisition by Braze in 2025 for $325 million.

Connect with George

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-khachatryan/

Website: https://www.braze.com/

YBA was named the top PR podcast in the US by FeedSpot! Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you follow your favorite podcasts alongside blogs and news in one place.

Like the show? Leave us a rating or review: https://lovethepodcast.com/67940257010b317cdaa9d857
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Check out our Website: https://www.yourbrandamplified.com
Speak to my Delphi Clone: https://www.delphi.ai/amplifywithanika

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Anika sat down with Andrew Colsky to explore a powerful counterintuitive truth: by the time a client reaches out to a professional, they have already decided who they are hiring. Drawing from a 30-year career as a trial attorney, litigator, and mediator, alongside his subsequent transition into a licensed mental health clinician specializing in sleep medicine and anxiety, Andrew revealed how human behavior is fundamentally driven by the pursuit of comfort. His insights offer a fresh framework for professional service providers looking to build credibility and master the "Left of Trust" space using modern AI search engines.

In This Episode

• The transition from trial law and employment mediation to becoming a licensed mental health clinician
• Why people don't hire the most qualified professional, but rather the person who makes their fear stop
• Harry Harlow's surrogate mother experiments and how the innate human drive for comfort dictates decision-making
• The concept of "Left of Trust" and the massive open space where clients search for answers late at night
• The new digital land grab: why optimizing for AI search engines today dictates long-term business survival
• Building the Credibility Generator: automating content creation, YouTube videos, and blog drafts for professionals
• Vocabulary seating: how using your own natural language online trains AI search engines to recommend you exclusively
• The free assessment tool on be-picked.com to help service providers analyze their strengths and weaknesses

Timestamps

• 00:00 Introduction: Understanding the emotional root of why people start legal and professional processes
• 00:48 Welcome to Your Brand Amplified with Anika Jackson and guest Andrew Colsky
• 01:31 Andrew's journey from trial attorney and mediator to mental health clinician and entrepreneur
• 02:54 Leaving the exhausting world of litigation and finding a deeper understanding of human behavior
• 06:51 The new digital land grab: comparing the early days of the internet to modern AI search optimization
• 10:28 Expanding into behavioral sleep medicine and building a massive weekly radio audience
• 13:46 The overt versus covert reality of mediation rooms and the universal need for comfort
• 15:16 Harry Harlow's wire versus cloth monkey experiments proving comfort is a primary human need
• 18:40 Discovering treatments for OCD and sleep medicine that create rapid, major shifts for patients
• 21:00 The genesis of the Credibility Generator: automating administrative marketing hurdles for professionals
• 24:43 Defining "Left of Trust": the space before a client trusts you where they search for pain relief at 3:00 AM
• 30:31 Cognitive trust versus affective trust: factual credentials versus the feeling of alleviated distress
• 34:15 Leveraging digital twins and YouTube videos to answer client pain points without spending hours on camera
• 38:46 Why waiting to adopt AI search strategies means constantly playing catch-up
• 40:11 What to expect in Andrew's upcoming book Left of Trust
• 44:17 A free assessment tool and gold button report on be-picked.com to evaluate your marketing readiness
• 45:42 Maya Angelou's guiding quote on how people remember how you made them feel

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: Clients Hire the Person Who Makes the Fear Stop

Professional service providers often lead with cognitive trust credentials—degrees, licenses, and years in practice. However, clients in pain are driven by affective trust. They choose the professional whose material makes their anxiety dissipate and moves them from a state of fear to comfort.

Insight 2: Comfort is an Innate Human Necessity Above All Else

Drawing from Harry Harlow's classic 1950s university experiments with baby monkeys and surrogate mothers, human beings inherently seek comfort above all else. Understanding that clients initiate legal or professional processes because they are uncomfortable and seeking a return to comfort is the foundational basis of effective communication and marketing.

Insight 3: The AI Search Era is the New Internet Land Grab

Just as early domain grabbers shaped the original internet, modern AI search engines represent a brand-new frontier. When clients lie awake at night searching for solutions to specific pain points, AI search engines recommend trusted authorities. Professionals who fail to publish content addressing these concerns will forever play catch-up.

Insight 4: Vocabulary Seating Compounds Your Online Credibility

Every professional uses unique words and phrasing to describe concepts. By consistently putting out content—such as blogs, LinkedIn posts, and videos—using your natural vocabulary, you train search engines to connect those specific terms directly to you, making you the inevitable expert clients find when they search.

Insight 5: By the Time They Call, They Have Already Decided

If a professional invests time into building online credibility in the "Left of Trust" space by answering specific client questions across multiple touchpoints, the client's decision is already made before the first phone call. They do not call to evaluate you; they call because they know you are the solution.

Resources & Links Mentioned

https://www.be-picked.com/ (Andrew's company website featuring a free 15-question strength and weakness report)

Left of Trust: Clients Choose You Before They Know You (Andrew's upcoming book)

The Credibility Generator (automated content tool for professional service providers)

Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine

About Andrew Colsky

Andrew Colsky spent over 30 years as a trial attorney, litigator, and mediator, helping build what became the largest employment mediation program in the world. Driven by a lifelong fascination with human thinking and persuasion, he returned to school to earn a mental health degree, becoming a licensed mental health clinician specializing in obsessive-compulsive disorder and behavioral sleep medicine. As a radio host reaching roughly 70,000 listeners per week and an entrepreneur, he combined his legal, clinical, and technological expertise to found Be Picked and create the Credibility Generator. He helps professional service providers understand the science of fear, master the "Left of Trust" space, and build automated digital credibility.

Connect with Andrew

Website: https://www.be-picked.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewecolsky/

YBA was named the top PR podcast in the US by FeedSpot! Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you follow your favorite podcasts alongside blogs and news in one place.

Like the show? Leave us a rating or review: https://lovethepodcast.com/67940257010b317cdaa9d857
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Check out our Website: https://www.yourbrandamplified.com
Speak to my Delphi Clone: https://www.delphi.ai/amplifywithanika

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Anika sat down with Leysan Zigangirova to explore how marketing leadership must evolve as artificial intelligence makes content creation almost free. The conversation revealed a crucial truth: AI cannot replace human judgment, strategic risk-taking, or deep audience insight. Leysan’s 15-plus-year background spanning Procter & Gamble, Philip Morris, Microsoft, Nebius, and now Async offered practical insights into transitioning from consumer marketing to tech startups, rebranding major products, and keeping human taste at the center of innovation.

In This Episode

• The early career roots in consumer market intelligence at P&G and managing the Marlboro Gold original rebrand
• Shifting from fast-moving consumer goods to enterprise tech at Microsoft
• Building Yandex Cloud from scratch and leading the visual identity and brand name creation for Nebius
• Taking a 15-country sabbatical around the world and how it built mental agility for the AI era
• Why marketing must share a revenue KPI with sales to eliminate department silos
• The danger of waiting for perfect data versus making bold, human-driven decisions
• Why Async shifted from Podcastle to focus on asynchronous creativity and editing co-creation
• The growing importance of human taste as a competitive advantage against AI-generated "slop"

Timestamps

• 04:11 — Managing the Marlboro Lights rebrand to Marlboro Gold and navigating ethical challenges within restricted tobacco markets.
• 07:13 — Transitioning into the technology sector at Microsoft and working on the Azure cloud rollout.
• 08:58 — Building Yandex Cloud from scratch and co-founding the brand identity for Nebius, leading to $700 million in strategic financing.
• 10:33 — Taking a life-changing 15-country global sabbatical and using that mental agility to adapt to fast-paced AI environments.
• 16:11 — Unifying metrics: Why marketing and sales must share revenue KPIs to build trust and eliminate departmental silos.
• 18:37 — Navigating uncertainty: The danger of waiting for complete data and why human risk-taking separates leaders from AI.
• 21:30 — Balancing AI automation with human judgment, resource reality, and operational limitations.
• 23:48 — The evolution of Async: Transitioning from Podcastle to an AI-native editing co-pilot for asynchronous creativity.
• 25:44 — The value of human taste: Why subjective perspective and authentic quality serve as the ultimate competitive defense against AI "slop".
• 31:47 — Advice for modern founders: Starting with core user conversations and anchoring strategy in founder passion.

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: AI Lacks Resource Reality and Risk-Taking

While AI optimizes productivity and text/image generation, it cannot comprehend internal team dynamics, operational capabilities, or resource realities. Furthermore, AI avoids risk, whereas human leadership relies on making bold decisions with incomplete data.

Insight 2: Marketing Must Share Revenue KPIs

Treating marketing purely as a brand equity exercise builds a wall between departments. When marketing shares a revenue KPI with sales, data tracking improves, inter-departmental hostility dissolves, and both teams work cohesively.

Insight 3: Speed Trumps Perfect Data in Fast-Moving Markets

Planning cycles have shrunk from annual strategies down to monthly or bi-weekly alignments. Waiting for complete data causes organizations to miss their window; modern leaders must embrace calculated risks and navigate blind spots faster than competitors.

Insight 4: Human Taste is the Ultimate Competitive Advantage

As AI-generated content increases, the internet is flooded with low-quality "slop". True market distinction stems from human taste, subjective perspective, and genuine emotional connections that technology cannot replicate.

Insight 5: Rebranding Requires a Deep Structural Pivot

A successful rebrand goes far beyond semantics. When Podcastle evolved into Async, it mirrored a complete structural shift toward asynchronous video creation, ensuring the brand identity aligned directly with evolving user needs and product reality.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Async (formerly Podcastle)
• Nebius
• Microsoft Azure

About Leysan Zigangirova

Leysan Zigangirova is a seasoned marketing leader with over 15 years of experience scaling global brands. Starting her career in consumer and market intelligence at Procter & Gamble and managing iconic portfolios at Philip Morris, she later transitioned into technology. She spent four years at Microsoft, helped build Yandex Cloud from scratch as a founding member, created the brand identity for Nebius—which attracted $700 million in financing—and traveled across 15 countries on a life-changing sabbatical. Today, she serves as the Chief Marketing Officer at Async, helping creators and teams embrace asynchronous video creation and AI-driven editing.

Connect with Leysan

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lzigangirova/

Website:https://async.com

YBA was named the top PR podcast in the US by FeedSpot! Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you follow your favorite podcasts alongside blogs and news in one place.

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Anika Jackson sat down with Mark Williams, founder of NUUX Design Studios, to explore why so many businesses keep UX design and marketing completely isolated—and how bridging that gap can make or break a brand. Streaming live from Madrid, Spain, Mark shared his unexpected journey from a pre-med neuroscience and psychology major to leading a remote design agency working with enterprise clients. The conversation offered a look into how founders can use modern AI workflows to bring ideas to life without massive budgets.

In This Episode

• The Pre-Med Pivot: Why Mark walked away from the MCAT, research labs, and a medical track during lockdown to jump into advertising and UX design.
• The UX-Marketing Disconnect: Why sending traffic to a broken website (or designing a great website with no traffic strategy) kills conversions.
• Moving Beyond Blind Redesigns: Why looking at data, heat maps, and user sessions matters more than guessing solutions with AI.
• The Remote Agency Model: Managing a global team across time zones with a startup hustle mindset.
• AI-Native Workflows: Using tools like Claude Cowork, Motion, and voice dictation to automate tasks and build foundational design systems faster.
• The Imposter Syndrome Reality: Relying on the grounded support of friends and family when making massive life leaps.

Timestamps

• 00:00 Introduction: Building in parallel with modern AI tools
• 01:09 Meet Mark Williams from Madrid, Spain: Celebrating the World Cup energy
• 03:13 From Pre-Med Psychology and Neuroscience to UX Design
• 07:05 Why UX and Marketing need to talk to each other
• 08:35 Where enterprise teams and marketers get design wrong
• 10:48 Case study: Restructuring and improving conversion rates for auto insurance brands Amax and Alpha
• 13:16 Balancing the need for speed with foundational quality in an AI era
• 16:58 Taking the leap from agency employee to starting NUUX Design Studios in LA
• 18:44 Building a global, remote team based on capability over location
• 21:54 What small businesses and SMBs can learn from enterprise workflows
• 23:11 Mark's favorite AI tools: Claude Cowork, Motion, and voice dictation workflows
• 26:52 Design trends: Are we making a mistake skipping mid-fidelity wireframes?
• 29:11 Dealing with imposter syndrome and the support of family
• 32:37 Expanding NUUX Design Studios to compete with the industry giants
• 34:48 Maya Angelou, belonging, and finding your footing anywhere in the world

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: UX and Marketing Cannot Live in Isolation

Mark points out a critical flaw in many companies: marketing teams send traffic to web experiences without checking if they work, while design teams focus purely on aesthetics without looking at the business goals. True conversion happens when both sectors communicate constantly. If your landing page experience is broken, all the ad spend in the world won't save it.

Insight 2: Data Tells You What Is Happening, Not Why

Many teams see a drop in a metric and immediately prescribe a complex redesign or blindly prompt an AI tool for a new layout. Mark emphasizes that real optimization requires looking deeper at heat maps, user session recordings, and heuristics to understand user behavior before making targeted changes.

Insight 3: Leverage AI to Move Faster, But Keep the Foundation

Founders today don't need massive budgets to bring ideas to life. By utilizing AI agents and workflows (like Claude Cowork or automated task planners), lean teams can move at lightning speed. However, for enterprise stability, building a strong, consistent brand design system once prevents fragmented, chaotic user experiences down the line.

Insight 4: Hiring for the Startup Hustle Mindset

When running a remote, global agency, location doesn't matter nearly as much as execution. Mark looks for team members who share an entrepreneurial drive—people who take ownership, get the work done under any circumstance, and keep the client experience human, approachable, and deeply collaborative.

Insight 5: You Are More Capable Than You Think

The barrier to entry for building a business or bringing a creative vision to life has never been lower. Armed with modern digital tools and the courage to take risks—whether moving across the country to LA or relocating abroad to Madrid—founders can parallel-track multiple projects and accomplish far more than previous generations could.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• NUUX Design Studios: Mark's UX and marketing agency (nuuxdesignstudios.com)
• Upwork: The platform where Mark initially sourced early global clients
• Claude & Claude Cowork: AI assistants used for workflow automation and content structuring
• Motion: AI-powered time-blocking tool for daily scheduling
• ClickUp: Project management tool used in Mark's daily automation stack
• ContentSquare & Hotjar: Tools for analyzing user sessions and heat maps
• Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown (featuring the Maya Angelou quote on belonging)

About Mark Williams

Mark Williams is the founder of NUUX Design Studios, a remote design agency based out of Madrid, Spain. With a background in psychology and neuroscience from his pre-med days, Mark brings a deeply human-centric, analytical approach to user experience design, bridging the crucial gap between digital marketing and high-converting web interfaces. He manages a global team helping businesses optimize their digital ecosystems while living the digital nomad dream abroad.

Connect with Mark

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/msijuadewilliams/

Company Website: nuuxstudios.com

YBA was named the top PR podcast in the US by FeedSpot! Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you follow your favorite podcasts alongside blogs and news in one place.

Like the show? Leave us a rating or review: https://lovethepodcast.com/67940257010b317cdaa9d857
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Check out our Website: https://www.yourbrandamplified.com
Speak to my Delphi Clone: https://www.delphi.ai/amplifywithanika

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Anika sat down with Kyle Bailey to explore why home service businesses—from roofers to remodelers—frequently struggle to gain digital traction despite having high-value expertise. The conversation revealed a counterintuitive truth: SEO isn't just about keywords; it’s about understanding the "babysitter and therapist" dynamic of the trades. Kyle’s transition from decades on the construction site to building a specialized marketing agency offered practical pushback against the "big-box" SEO model, alongside a sharp look at how ADHD and empathy-driven leadership can transform client relationships.

In This Episode

• The trade floor origin story: Why sawdust and coffee are the foundation of Kyle's marketing perspective
• Transitioning from physical labor to virtual strategy: How "speaking the language" of the trades wins clients
• The "internal branding" trap: Why business owners fail when they brand for themselves instead of the customer
• ADHD as an asset: How neurodivergence reshaped Kyle's workflow, empathy journey, and business operations
• The "front burner" philosophy: Identifying what actually drives marketing success
• Why volume-model SEO agencies are failing the trades and how to spot predatory contracts
• Local SEO strategy: The importance of subdivision-level content and hyper-local relevance
• The role of LLMs in local search: Why "selfies at a subdivision sign" and other physical proofs matter
• Building a culture that lasts: Why recruiting and retaining overseas talent beats churn-and-burn cycles

Timestamps

• 01:51 The Trades Advantage: How years of physical labor formed a blueprint for digital strategy.
• 05:02 The Branding Trap: Why businesses fail when they market to themselves instead of their customers.
• 08:57 Reframing ADHD: Turning a late diagnosis into a tool for empathy and operational success.
• 14:21 SEO Myths: Why the "single-page website" fallacy is killing your local search rankings.
• 17:28 Hyper-Local Dominance: The strategy of ranking by neighborhood rather than by major city.
• 21:32 The "Big Agency" Problem: Why expensive, high-volume models are failing small businesses.
• 27:26 Empowered Teams: The value of building long-term, human-first international partnerships.
• 36:40 AI Proof-Points: The specific homepage content that actually influences AI visibility.
• 46:58 Baked-In Values: How to ensure your core principles survive every customer touchpoint.

Key Insights & Takeaways

Insight 1: Invisibility Isn't a Marketing Problem—It's a Translation Problem

Many home service owners struggle because they speak in internal jargon rather than the language of the homeowner. Whether it’s a confusing brand logo or a website that hides information, business owners often build for themselves. The fix is to walk in the shoes of the customer who just wants their pipe fixed or their kitchen remodeled—not to explain the philosophy behind the business owner's choice of font.

Insight 2: SEO is a Local, Physical Game

The "big city" search volume is a trap. Home service businesses often waste money trying to rank for a massive metropolitan area where competition is fierce and relevance is low. Instead, winning happens at the subdivision level. Content that focuses on specific suburbs or neighborhoods—and provides physical proof (like photos of local work)—creates fast, high-converting wins that build momentum toward larger territory.

Insight 3: ADHD as an Operational Compass

For Kyle, late ADHD diagnosis was a turning point. Instead of fighting a "lazy" label, he learned to offload weaknesses and leverage his unique focus. This translated into a leadership style that favors empathy over berating. He views client and employee struggles not as failures of character, but as challenges of the "toolbox" they currently possess.

Insight 4: Don't Rent Your Foundation

A massive trap for local businesses is signing with "Big Box" marketing firms that lock clients into multi-year contracts and "own" their website assets. Kyle emphasizes that if you pay to build something, you should own the keys. Transparency in ownership is the hallmark of a healthy, long-term client-agency relationship.

Insight 5: AI Doesn't Need a New Index, It Needs Proof

AI is not killing search; it is amplifying the need for documented expertise. Modern AI models cross-reference Google’s index with tangible evidence of reality. A simple sentence on a homepage detailing a thousand completed jobs in a specific area is now a primary ranking factor. AI is looking for "proof of life"—and that proof starts with your local footprint.

Insight 6: Empathy is a Business Metric

Whether dealing with a frustrated client or an underperforming vendor, "calling back to the vision" is more effective than arguing. By affirming that everyone is doing their best with their current toolbox, leaders can move past blame and refocus the energy on solving the problem. This empathy-first approach builds the trust necessary to sustain long-term business growth.

Resources & Links Mentioned

FrontBurnerMarketing.net (Free rank checker, glossary, and tools)

What's Your Story? (Kyle Bailey's upcoming book)

Goodfellas (The "13 blueberries" muffin metaphor for process consistency)

About Kyle Bailey

Kyle Bailey spent decades in the trades—from framing houses and roofing to heavy landscaping—before transitioning into the digital space. As the founder of Front Burner Marketing, he applies his boots-on-the-ground experience to help home service businesses navigate the complexities of SEO and lead generation. He is a staunch advocate for business owner transparency, empathy-based leadership, and the power of localized, strategic digital visibility.

Connect with Kyle

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@burnermarketingkyle

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/thekylebailey/

Website: https://frontburnermarketing.net

YBA was named the top PR podcast in the US by FeedSpot! Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you follow your favorite podcasts alongside blogs and news in one place.

Like the show? Leave us a rating or review: https://lovethepodcast.com/67940257010b317cdaa9d857
Send us a Message: https://podcastfeedback.com/67940257010b317cdaa9d857
Check out our Website: https://www.yourbrandamplified.com
Speak to my Delphi Clone: https://www.delphi.ai/amplifywithanika

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.