Every headline screams that AI will transform your business overnight. Most SMB leaders find themselves caught between two extremes: either diving recklessly into every new tool, or staying frozen on the sidelines. Ryan Paugh, publisher of Senior Executive and co-founder of Community.co, cuts through the noise with a pragmatic framework that works for small and mid-size businesses. Rather than chasing unicorn-level AI deployment or ignoring the shift entirely, Paugh reveals what the most successful companies are actually doing: staying steady, experimenting in calculated bites, and treating AI adoption as a cultural conversation, not a technology mandate.

About the Guest

Ryan Paugh is a Publisher, Senior Executive, Co-Founder, President & COO of Community.co, a company that creates vetted communities to help ambitious professionals grow their networks and expand business opportunities. He is also the author of Superconnector: Stop Networking and Start Building Business Relationships That Matter, and a renowned thought leader on creating strong communities and teams.

Episode Highlight
"The truth lies in the middle. Going crazy off the deep end thinking you need to compete with Fortune 500s on AI, or ignoring it entirely—both are tragic missteps. Stay steady, find ways to make adoption work slowly for your company." (00:03:00)

Actionable Insights

1. AI Adoption Isn't Speed, It's Steadiness: Most SMB leaders react to headlines by overcommitting to AI or avoiding it entirely. The real playbook is the middle path: experiment slowly, pick one workflow at a time, and avoid the sunk cost of "solutions that may or may not work." [03:41]
2. Work-Life Blend Beats Work-Life Balance, And It's a Retention Engine: One-size-fits-all employment is dead. Matching how people work to how they want to live isn't benevolence—it's a lever for better talent, lower turnover, and faster growth. [13:00]
3. Over-Communication Isn't Over-Communication in a Remote-First Company: Distributed teams across 35 states and four continents require a different cadence. What feels like repetitive messaging to you is actually the baseline people need to feel connected to mission and to each other. [16:41]

Ready to apply these insights to your own business? Download the free Action Kit

More About Ryan Paugh

Check out Community Co
Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn.
Grab your copy of Superconnector

More About Rob Levin & WorkBetterNow

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Out now! The New Talent Playbook: The Ultimate Guide to Building Your Dream Team 📕 Available on Amazon or visit thenewtalentplaybook.com and get the free scorecard.

Culture isn't a recruitment tactic, it's your competitive advantage. In this solo episode, Rob Levin reveals seven concrete practices that transformed WorkBetterNow into a fast-growing company. You'll walk away with immediately actionable systems: peer-driven recognition that reinforces values and clarity frameworks that eliminate "mutual mystification" (that silent killer of remote teams). Rob draws from hard-won lessons; his first venture failed partly because he deprioritized culture despite knowing better, and shares exactly what changed when he led with core values from day one.

Episode Highlight
"Recognizing people is just a really easy way to emphasize when people are doing things that are consistent with the culture that you want to have."

Actionable Insights

• Build core values intentionally, they're the foundation for everything else: Start with 4–6 core values developed with your A-players, not handed down from leadership. Use them to guide hiring, recognition, and decisions. At Work Better Now, "Put Talent First" is the first value and shapes every system.
  • Read: This Overlooked Factor Will Add or Subtract Millions From Your Business

• Install culture practices today: Rob walks through exactly what WorkBetterNow does: recognition (W Awards), humanizing people (My Story presentations), clarity + KPIs, in-person connection, transparency, remote bonding, and continuous education. Pick one and commit to it for 90 days.
  
  • Read: 7 Culture Practices Worth Stealing

• Make clarity + accountability your competitive advantage: Avoid "mutual mystification" by using simple frameworks (EOS, KPIs, Rocks). Overcommunicate: video + email. Review progress weekly. This removes friction and builds trust faster than anything else.
  • Read: How to Make Remote Work at Your Company

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More About Rob Levin & WorkBetterNow

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Out now! The New Talent Playbook: The Ultimate Guide to Building Your Dream Team 📕 Available on Amazon or visit thenewtalentplaybook.com and get the free scorecard.

Innovation isn't the exclusive domain of tech startups, it's the competitive edge every small and mid-size business must build into their DNA. But most owners centralize innovation within themselves, missing their biggest advantage: the ability to move faster than corporations. JL Heather reveals why innovation is fundamentally a cultural challenge, not a structural one. You'll learn concrete steps to build psychological safety, shift from assigning work to assigning problems, and avoid sabotage patterns, especially when integrating AI.

About the Guest

JL Heather is an innovation coach and co-founder of Centered who has spent 20 years helping teams solve problems faster without enterprise complexity. He specializes in translating agile and design thinking into practical methods for small and mid-size teams where everyone wears multiple hats. His approach cuts through buzzwords to deliver systems that actually work.

Episode Highlight

"Innovation is just the ability to continually move beyond your customer's expectations, because if all you're doing is meeting those expectations, someone's gonna catch up, someone's gonna surpass you."

Action items

1. Culture is where innovation lives, not in separate teams: Leadership sets direction, but culture lives in people. Skip skunkworks models; they disempower everyone else by saying "you innovate, the rest do your jobs." That kills distributed thinking. [00:04:00–00:06:00]
2. Switch from assigning work to assigning problems: Work assignments create doers who avoid trouble; problem statements empower teams to engage their brains. Use design sprints to validate with customers, then build prototypes over 3–9 months. [00:10:00–00:12:00]
3. Don't let tools drive your organization: When adopting AI, resist top-down implementation. Align on what "AI first" means, engage teams in defining how it supports their work, and let them experiment. This takes longer upfront but is vastly cheaper than getting it wrong. [00:21:00–00:25:00]

Ready to apply these insights to your own business? Download the free Action Kit

More About JL Heather

Check out Centered
Connect with Mike on LinkedIn.
Grab your copy of Breakthrough Innovation

Other Resources

Check out JL's podcast: Breakthrough Innovation

More About Rob Levin & WorkBetterNow

Like this show? Click on over and subscribe to our YouTube channel!
Follow Rob Levin on Substack.
Out now! The New Talent Playbook: The Ultimate Guide to Building Your Dream Team 📕 Available on Amazon or visit thenewtalentplaybook.com and get the free scorecard.

Traditional annual reviews fail because they focus on output alone, leaving companies wondering why growth stalls. Rob Levin interviews leadership coach Mike Goldman on a practical alternative: the Talent Density framework—treating people growth as profit growth's true driver. Learn to evaluate performance beyond theater, separate real results from "busy," and implement a quarterly leadership cadence that builds resilience without bottlenecking HR.

About the Guest

Mike Goldman is a leadership team coach with 35+ years of experience helping organizations build high-performing teams, from global brands like Disney and Verizon to small and midsize businesses. He's the USA Today bestselling author of The Strength of Talent and a TEDx speaker who regularly presents to business leadership communities like Vistage and EO. He also hosts the Better Leadership Team Show, where he goes deep on building teams that drive durable growth.

Episode Highlight

"Unclear expectations don't lead to unclear results—they lead to unacceptable results."

Actionable Insights

1. Stop confusing "performance" with output alone, score productivity and culture fit: Stop rating high-output people who damage team culture. Make trade-offs visible. [06:28]
2. Run a quarterly talent assessment as a leadership team (not as secret HR paperwork): CEO and direct reports calibrate together on "level one down"—eliminates bias and vague labels. [10:00]
3. Move faster on low culture fit than low productivity (because it's rarely coachable): Culture gaps rarely coach out; productivity gaps develop. Test: coachable vs. fakeable. [14:26]

Ready to apply these insights to your own business? Download the free Action Kit

More About Mike Goldman

Check out Mike Goldman and The Strenght of Talent
Connect with Mike on LinkedIn.
Grab your copy of The Strength of Talent.

Other Resources

Your next reads: Breakthrough Leadership Team and Performance Breakthrough

Listen to the Better Leadership Team Show

More About Rob Levin & WorkBetterNow

Like this show? Click on over and subscribe to our YouTube channel!
Follow Rob Levin on Substack.
Out now! The New Talent Playbook: The Ultimate Guide to Building Your Dream Team 📕 Available on Amazon or visit thenewtalentplaybook.com and get the free scorecard.

In this episode, Rob Levin (Founder of Work Better Now and author of The New Talent Playbook) distills the biggest concepts from the book into one clear framework, and introduces a key reframe: this isn't a temporary "talent crisis," it's a permanent talent shift. Rob breaks down what the top ~15% of companies do differently to attract and retain great people, why culture and core values are the foundation, how to fix retention and hiring for today's reality, why global/remote expands your options dramatically, and how AI makes great talent even more important.

Episode Highlight

"Talent deserves the same strategic attention you give revenue."

Actionable Insights

• Stop waiting for "back to normal", treat this as a permanent talent shift: In your next leadership meeting, make the language change explicit ("temporary crisis" → "structural shift"), then pick 1–2 systems you will redesign this quarter.
  
  • Read: 88% of Small Businesses Can't Find Qualified People. The Other 12% Are Doing This.

• Win candidates before they apply: clean up your employer brand (starting with Glassdoor): Go look at your Glassdoor profile today, read the reviews honestly, decide whether you have a culture problem or a visibility problem (or both), and ask 3–5 current employees for honest reviews if your culture is solid.
  
  • Read: Before Job Candidates Apply, They Check This. Have You?

• Retention that compounds: install a simple recognition + upskilling cadence: Launch one lightweight program this month (values-based recognition like the W Awards, an upskilling stipend + time, or a connection ritual like "story time").
  • Read: 3 Simple (and Proven) Ways to Turn a Good Team Into a Great One

Ready to apply these insights to your own business?

Download the free Action Kit to get started.

More About Rob Levin & WorkBetterNow

Like this show? Click on over and subscribe to our YouTube channel!
Follow Rob Levin on Substack.
Out now! The New Talent Playbook: The Ultimate Guide to Building Your Dream Team 📕 Available on Amazon or visit thenewtalentplaybook.com and get the free scorecard.

In this episode, Rob Levin sits down with Andrew Schenkel, founder of Double Play Marketing and Sales, to explore what it really takes to scale a marketing agency through intentional team design, systems, and leadership. Andrew shares how his approach to talent has evolved since launching the business in 2020, why EOS and DISC became foundational tools, and how nearshore talent and AI are shaping the future of his company. This conversation is a practical look at how great talent decisions drive great business outcomes.

About the Guest

Andrew Schenkel is an entrepreneur with a strong background in marketing and sales. He founded Double Play Marketing and Sales in 2020 as an outsourced marketing department and lead generation partner for growth-oriented companies. His agency takes a data-driven approach to building brand awareness, generating qualified leads, and delivering measurable ROI.

Episode Highlight

"In the beginning, it's who can we afford. As you grow, it becomes about having the right people in the right seats."

Actionable Insights

• Hire for clarity, not convenience: Early-stage teams often wear many hats. As companies mature, clearly defined roles and expectations become critical to sustainable growth. [01:55]
• Treat nearshore talent as true team members: Integrating nearshore professionals into meetings, PTO policies, and professional development strengthens performance and culture. [11:41]
• AI works best as an assistant, not a replacement: From process automation to content support, AI enhances efficiency—but still requires human judgment and creativity. [14:01]

Ready to apply these insights to your own business?

Download the free workbook to get started.

More About Andrew Schenkel

Check out Double Play Agency
Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn.

Other Resources

Check out EOS and DISC Personality Assessment

More About Rob Levin & WorkBetterNow

Like this show? Click on over and subscribe to our YouTube channel!
Follow Rob Levin on Substack.
Out now! The New Talent Playbook: The Ultimate Guide to Building Your Dream Team 📕 Available on Amazon or visit thenewtalentplaybook.com and get the free scorecard.

In this episode, Rob sits down with Jonathan B. Smith, Expert EOS Implementer® and negotiation strategist with The Black Swan Group, to explore how Tactical Empathy® can transform leadership, communication, and team health. Jonathan breaks down why self-awareness is a leader's greatest advantage, how every conversation is a negotiation, and why great systems (like EOS) reduce emotional fires so teams can focus on meaningful work.

About the Guest

Jonathan B. Smith has led more than 1,500 EOS® sessions with 150+ high-growth companies, helping leadership teams improve communication, execution, and results. He's also a negotiation strategist with The Black Swan Group, co-author of Fight Less, Win More, and a longtime collaborator of Chris Voss. Jonathan specializes in helping leaders communicate more effectively, navigate conflict with confidence, and remove themselves as the threat inside conversations that matter.

Episode Highlight

"People are dying to feel heard. If you can remove yourself as a threat and make your counterpart feel understood, 93% of the time you'll create a better outcome."

Actionable Insights

• Treat Every Conversation as a Negotiation: Any time a leader wants or needs something, they're negotiating. Tactical Empathy helps remove fear, create cooperation, and keep employees in a positive state—where they think 31% more clearly. (06:10)
• Systems Reduce Emotional Fires: EOS gives teams clarity and alignment, allowing leaders to spend less time putting out fires and more time having the conversations that move the business forward. (10:19)
• Human Skills Matter More in a Remote + AI World: AI can support thinking, but not connection. Tactical Empathy becomes even more essential as teams become more distributed. (12:46)

Ready to apply these insights to your own business?

Download the free workbook to get started.

More About Jonathan B. Smith

Check out Stay Curious JB
Your next read: Fight Less, Win More
Connect with Jonathan on LinkedIn.

Other Resources

Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

Traction and What the Heck is EOS? by Gino Wickman

More About Rob Levin & WorkBetterNow

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Follow Rob Levin on Substack.
Out now! The New Talent Playbook: The Ultimate Guide to Building Your Dream Team 📕 Available on Amazon or visit thenewtalentplaybook.com and get the free scorecard.

In this episode, Rob talks with Joe Romano, founder of Romano & Associates, a tax planning and preparation firm with 19 full-time employees and more than 1,500 clients. Joe shares how his team stays sane during tax season, the deliberate choices he's made to reduce burnout, and why offshore talent has become essential to both client satisfaction and employee wellbeing. He also breaks down the ROI of administrative support, the importance of professional development in a rapidly changing tax landscape, and the culture practices that have allowed his firm to maintain less than 1% client attrition and almost zero accountant turnover in nine years.

About the Guest

Joe Romano is the founder of Romano & Associates, a fully remote tax planning and preparation firm he launched nine years ago. The firm now serves over 1,500 clients with a blended team of U.S.-based accountants and WorkBetterNow offshore administrative professionals. Joe is known for his intentional leadership, strong firm culture, and commitment to investing in both client experience and team wellbeing.

Episode Highlight

"The big ROI is making sure nobody cries. Keeping everybody happy and keeping everybody sane."

Actionable Insights

• Flexibility beats rigidity during high-pressure seasons: Joe doesn't enforce strict 9–5 schedules during tax season. Instead, he focuses on outcomes and client happiness, allowing people to choose the hours that help them stay productive and sane. [04:10]
• Administrative offshore talent boosts both capacity and morale: WorkBetterNow assistants help managers and tax preparers stay focused on high-value work. This has reduced turnaround times (from 7 days down to 1–2), improved client satisfaction, and kept the team under 60-hour workweeks, even at peak season. [05:20]
• Invest heavily in professional development, especially when regulations change: Every employee clocks ~40 hours of CPE annually, even if they're not CPAs. Joe believes education and upskilling are non-negotiable for quality, confidence, and protecting the firm from risk. [15:09]

Download This Episode's Workbook
Ready to apply these insights to your own business? Download the free workbook to get started.

More About Joe Romano

Check out Romano & Associates
Connect with Joe on LinkedIn.

More About Rob Levin & WorkBetterNow

Like this show? Click on over and subscribe to our YouTube channel!
Follow Rob Levin on Substack.
Out now! The New Talent Playbook: The Ultimate Guide to Building Your Dream Team 📕 Available on Amazon or visit thenewtalentplaybook.com and get the free scorecard.