BLTnT Podcast

Ashok Sivanand grew up overseas, came to Canada for engineering school, and now runs Nous. He’s built software for companies like Ford and Honda. His whole career has been translating what the business wants into something engineers can actually build.

The road there was messy. He was an ADHD engineering student who failed out of school. He got back into school. He quit. And in doing that, he learned he could become someone he didn't know yet, as long as he knew what he was walking away from.

That same instinct shapes how he looks at AI. Start with the problem. Then go test it yourself.

What we covered:

→ Cutting a three hour workshop down to 50 minutes the night before

→ The two questions he asks before anything gets built: who's it for and what's it for

→ Whether vibe coders and programmers end up being the same job

→ Why offshoring companies are where AI money gets made and lost

→ Checklists, evals, and a plumber losing $30 on every missed call

Ashok doesn't trust anybody's AI timeline, including his own. "Go find out for yourself" is the most honest advice I've heard on the subject.

Ashok, thank you for sitting down with me less than a day after running a room of 120 people with golf pencils. Cutting three hours to 50 minutes overnight and still landing it is no small thing.

Chapters

00:00:00 Intro

00:00:47 Cutting a three hour workshop to 50 minutes

00:03:54 Talking to engineers so the salespeople don't have to

00:07:03 Three shoeboxes and who it's actually for

00:16:26 Groupthink, post-its, and earning the right to solve

00:25:19 Will vibe coders replace programmers

00:36:22 The businesses Ashok won't back

00:46:09 Model overhang, checklists, and evals

00:57:18 Real AI wins from cables to plumbers

01:06:33 How the workshop finds your biggest problem

~~~

Connect with Matt

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattloria/

https://www.facebook.com/mattloria

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Matt “Opi” Opificius runs SLED at Auxiom IT - building the network infrastructure, security, and the hardware that gets the internet to classrooms.

With Auxiom’s AI innovations, networks have started fixing themselves - districts running AI-driven infrastructure are seeing 80 to 90% fewer support tickets, because the network catches them before a human even notices.

On this episode of The BLTnT Podcast, we covered:

→ What "SLED" means and how E-Rate funding changes the game

→ Why AI can solve network problems human engineers physically cannot see

→ The difference between "AI for the network" and "Network for AI"

→ How "stuck ports" on security cameras and IoT sensors can be resolved automatically without a single help desk ticket

Thanks to Opi for being the first internal guest ever on BLTnT and for showing us how to stop firefighting and start leading!

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:00 Meet Opi and what Sled actually means

06:03 How E-Rate funding pays for school networks

09:51 The Waymo car and the self-driving network

13:07 From IT intern to network architect

21:17 Why the Mist platform was built from scratch

28:16 Replacing a school's entire network overnight

35:08 Ninety percent fewer tickets and the strategic shift

45:55 Foggy runways, bad cables, and cameras that quit

57:27 Building the Sled practice and Opi off the clock

~~~

Connect with Matt

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattloria/

https://www.facebook.com/mattloria

https://www.instagram.com/loriamatt/

Prefer to Listen?

https://pod.link/1742631726

This episode is powered by Auxiom.

Finally ready to outsmart your IT chaos?

https://auxiom.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/auxiom-llc

Dave Sokol grew up in Sterling Heights, went to West Point, and led soldiers through Desert Storm before he ever sold an insurance policy.

In 2010 he took over a struggling Northwestern Mutual benefits office in Detroit that had already burned through three or four leaders before him. Sixty nine days in, he knew it was worse than anyone told him. He thought about walking away at the six month mark. Three years later he bought the company anyway, mortgaging his house and his retirement to do it, and lost his biggest client thirty days before the deal closed.

He spent eighteen months just stopping the bleeding. Then he built the systems, the culture, and the team that turned Wilshire Benefits Group into one of the top five privately held benefit firms in the state, recognized eight years running as one of the best places to work in Detroit. Now he's watching his three sons come into the same business he almost lost before it started.

What we covered:

→ Getting recruited to West Point and serving with the 101st Airborne in Desert Storm

→ Taking over a company that was losing money and almost walking away

→ Mortgaging his entire life to buy the business he was already running

→ Why healthcare costs keep climbing and where the real money is going

→ Building the Wilshire Way and raising three sons into the family business

Good, clean living and doing the right thing pays off, even when it takes years to see it.

Dave's been a friend for years before he was ever a guest, and he still showed up ready to talk about the hard parts, not just the highlight reel. Thanks for making the time, Dave.

Chapters

0:00 Intro

1:20 Meet Dave Sokol, president and CEO of Wilshire Benefits Group

4:44 Getting recruited to West Point

7:57 Leading soldiers into Desert Storm

12:54 From bill collector to the benefits industry

24:19 Taking over a company that was bleeding money

28:04 Mortgaging everything to buy the business

37:00 Why healthcare costs keep climbing

42:24 Building the Wilshire Way and Detroit's best places to work

56:07 Raising three sons into a family business

~~~

Connect with Matt

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattloria/

https://www.facebook.com/mattloria

https://www.instagram.com/loriamatt/

Prefer to Listen?

https://pod.link/1742631726

This episode is powered by Auxiom.

Finally ready to outsmart your IT chaos?

https://auxiom.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/auxiom-llc

John Ninkovich almost lost everything the first time he became a CEO. Now he spends his career coaching other CEOs through the exact same thing.

In October of 1997, he took over as CEO of a startup computer training company that was completely upside down. Cash was tight, he had two young kids at home, and he spent weeks on the couch barely sleeping. He calls that place the doom loop. It was not the last time he ended up there.

A single Chrysler project brought in enough cash to turn the company around, and investors saw a 500 percent return over the next ten years. From there he ran a home health care company, then a staffing company, before becoming an executive coach at 50. Now he spends his time pulling other CEOs out of the same loop he once lived in.

What we covered:

→ What the CEO doom loop actually looks like and why it hits almost everyone who runs a company

→ Building an A player leadership team that can hold each other accountable

→ Why so many CEOs struggle to hear the truth about their own leadership

→ The Gallup question most employees can't answer about their own job

→ Why consistency beats chasing the big win, and the 20 mile march story that proves it

John built and lost more businesses than most people attempt in a lifetime, and every one of those failures is exactly what makes him good at his job now.

Thanks to John for making the trip in with Lisa by his side. Seriously, after everything he’s been through, it says so much about who he is that he’s still willing to pull up a chair and talk.

Chapters

00:00:00 Intro

00:01:00 What is the CEO doom loop

00:03:56 Imposter syndrome on his first day as CEO

00:06:24 Growing up in the family dry cleaning business

00:10:23 Betting everything on a computer training franchise

00:15:57 The Chrysler deal that saved the company

00:21:10 What Gallup taught him about employee engagement

00:26:24 Home health care, staffing, and becoming a coach at 50

00:37:18 Building a cohesive A player leadership team

00:54:53 The 20 mile march and the case for consistency

~~~

Connect with Matt

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattloria/

https://www.facebook.com/mattloria

https://www.instagram.com/loriamatt/

Prefer to Listen?

https://pod.link/1742631726

This episode is powered by Auxiom.

Finally ready to outsmart your IT chaos?

https://auxiom.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/auxiom-llc

Sandy Kronenberg has started two companies from nothing. The second time, on a credit card he wasn't sure his dad would let him keep using.

He's also spent the last three years watching AI turn old school fraud into something faster and harder to catch. A finance worker in Hong Kong wired close to $30 million after 17 video calls with someone who looked and sounded exactly like his CFO. He wasn't.

Sandy built a company called Netarx to catch that kind of thing before it happens, a tool that puts a traffic light on your screen during any call to tell you if the person on the other end is real. Along the way he's run into North Korean operatives applying for remote jobs, water utilities with China already inside their networks, and a theory he calls the biggest heist of the century. Not the kind anyone's going to jail for.

What we covered:

→ How a British construction firm lost $25 million to a deepfake video call

→ Why he started his first business on his dad's credit card

→ North Korean operatives getting hired as remote IT workers

→ Why water utilities have become one of the softest targets in the country

→ What he means by "the biggest heist of the century"

→ What happens to jobs and cars over the next ten years

Every person on a call today should probably be asking themselves if the face on the other side of the screen is actually who it says it is.

Thanks to Sandy for carving out the time to go deep on all of this with me. There's a lot here worth sitting with.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

02:17 The $25 Million Deepfake Heist

05:11 Why Humans Are the Weakest Link in Cybersecurity

06:54 Starting a Company on His Dad's Credit Card

13:51 From a $65 Million Exit to a Wall Falling Down

21:19 Building Netarx and the Deepfake Detecting "Nick"

25:44 North Korea Is Getting Hired Into Your Company

30:53 Why Water Plants Are Becoming the Softest Target

36:52 The Biggest Heist of the Century

1:00:52 Cars, Jobs, and the Next Ten Years

~~~

Connect with Matt

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattloria/

https://www.facebook.com/mattloria

https://www.instagram.com/loriamatt/

Prefer to Listen?

https://pod.link/1742631726

This episode is powered by Auxiom.

Finally ready to outsmart your IT chaos?

https://auxiom.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/auxiom-llc

Dan Beaudoin runs DMF Bait, the family owned live bait company his dad and two other school teachers started in 1977 in Pontiac, Michigan.

What started as a summer side gig turned out to be a scam they didn't realize they'd bought into… a pyramid scheme left them holding millions of worms nobody wanted. After pivoting to nightcrawlers, they got a meeting with Kmart, and the rest is history.

DMF Bait became the number one product in its department, then built out shipping nationwide, and grew into a company moving 300 million worms a year out of seven buildings.

In this episode of The BLTnT Podcast, we covered:

→ How a red worm scam turned into a nightcrawler business

→ The letter that saved the company's shot at Kmart

→ Acquiring a competitor and what the due diligence looked like on paper routes

→ Rebuilding company culture through Vistage and EOS

Thanks to Dan for pulling back the curtain on the wholesale bait industry. I appreciate you making the time on this podcast brother!

Chapters

0:00:00 Intro

0:01:43 Meet Dan Beaudoin and DMF Bait

0:06:17 The Red Worm Scam That Started It All

0:16:23 Landing Kmart and Nearly Losing It

0:34:19 Finding Vistage and Facing the Culture Problem

0:42:31 Building the DMF Culture

0:45:09 Why Live Bait Beats Every Lure on the Shelf

0:55:39 Switching to a Biodegradable Cup in 2010

1:05:07 Acquiring Waltz and What They Learned

1:12:06 The Night the Power Goes Out

~~~

Connect with Matt

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattloria/

https://www.facebook.com/mattloria

https://www.instagram.com/loriamatt/

Prefer to Listen?

https://pod.link/1742631726

This episode is powered by Auxiom.

Finally ready to outsmart your IT chaos?

https://auxiom.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/auxiom-llc

Mark Wisniewski is a rare "unicorn" in today’s legal world: he joined Kitch Attorneys & Counselors as an associate in 1990 and has led the firm as CEO since 2014, working out of the same building for 36 years.

Mark shares an "out of the box" solution he engineered to save a major client relationship: when a pending merger threatened to force a client to choose between him and a rival counsel, Mark proactively merged his practice with his competitor.

The move earned the client's gratitude and effectively doubled their business.

In this episode of The BLTnT Podcast, we covered:

→ Mark growing up on Detroit's east side

→ The bankruptcy that taught Mark not to put all his eggs in one basket

→ Deciding to merge two firms before a client had to pick a side

→ How Mark separates work and home completely

→ Advice for young lawyers navigating AI and a completely different practice of law

Thanks to Mark for carving out time between depositions, parade planning, and running a 200 person firm to sit down and tell these stories!

Chapters

0:00 Intro

1:00 How Kitch and Auxiom's partnership started

10:25 Growing up on Detroit's east side: a cop for a dad, a nurse for a mom

15:52 DeLaSalle, brothers, and friendships that still hold 35 years later

32:06 Referrals, relationships, and why he skips Google when hiring a lawyer

35:04 Showing up in person and sponsoring Detroit's St. Patrick's Day Parade

42:05 Watching downtown Detroit come back to life

48:19 AI, changing technology, and advice for young lawyers

1:00:25 Mentors, organization, and never bringing work home

1:05:54 The firm's name, his legacy, and staying the underdog

~~~

Connect with Matt

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattloria/

https://www.facebook.com/mattloria

https://www.instagram.com/loriamatt/

Prefer to Listen?

https://pod.link/1742631726

This episode is powered by Auxiom.

Finally ready to outsmart your IT chaos?

https://auxiom.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/auxiom-llc

Eli Green, owner of Stumblebum Beer Co., breaks down his career arc that includes NYC acting, voiceover work, IT, and the brewery life in Troy, Michigan.

After Eli ditched the stage, he stumbled into an obsession with beer and cheese, and is now scaling his brewery’s culture around The Hobo Ethical Code of 1889.

In this episode of The BLTnT Podcast, we covered:

→ How a beer and cheese lecture in New York changed Eli’s whole career trajectory

→ Why Eli goes by Mayor Mickey's at his own bar

→ The hobo code of ethics and why Rule 15 runs his business

→ Marrying into a different faith without making it complicated

→ Where he wants Stumblebum's community work to be in five years

Thanks Eli for carving out time between running a brewery and being a brand new dad to sit down for this one. Glad to have you here!

Chapters

0:00 Intro

1:00 Improv, acting roots, and the mindset behind "yes, and"

7:21 Who Eli is off the resume, and his obsession with animated shows

11:36 How beer and cheese turned into an obsession

15:56 Stumblebum today: the taproom and community events

22:30 Theater roots and the move to New York City

28:29 Leaving acting, voiceover work, and cutting his teeth in IT

31:05 Meeting his wife and choosing Detroit over Nashville

36:46 The hobo code and how Stumblebum got its name

43:43 Rule 15, and building a legacy bigger than beer

~~~

Connect with Matt

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattloria/

https://www.facebook.com/mattloria

https://www.instagram.com/loriamatt/

Prefer to Listen?

https://pod.link/1742631726

This episode is powered by Auxiom.

Finally ready to outsmart your IT chaos?

https://auxiom.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/auxiom-llc

Josh Britton became CEO of imageOne without ever planning to. He'd spent years telling his wife, telling anyone who'd listen that he was a great number two and wanted to stay that way.

But Rob and Joel asked him anyway.

Rob Dubay showed up at a peer forum to talk about mindful leadership and walk a room full of executives through a meditation. Josh was on the list of companies he'd been researching. A year of mentorship later, the opportunity materialized on its own.

What we covered:

→ Why imageOne eliminated the two-week notice and how they actually execute it

→ Two second lean: where it came from, how they run it daily, and what a good lean actually looks like

→ Open book finance: how a near-loss year in 2013 cracked the company open

→ Building a ten-year vision with the whole company without collapsing into consensus

→ Running an automation startup inside a 35-year-old managed print company

Josh, thank you for being so open about everything! The imposter syndrome, the ripcord experiments, the lonely startup years before any of this.

Chapters

00:00 - Intro

01:00 - Who Josh Britton is and how he ended up at imageOne

03:25 - Mindful transitions: why they got rid of two weeks notice

08:07 - imageOne's origin story: sold, bought back, and the decision to build something different

11:19 - Small Giants, Tugboat Institute, and what it means to want to be great instead of big

14:52 - Josh's path: consulting, the education nonprofit, and finding imageOne

22:03 - Running a process automation startup inside a 35-year-old print company

25:06 - The CEO who didn't want the job: imposter syndrome and the long handoff

27:15 - How they build a ten-year vision with the whole company

38:32 - Two second lean: what it is, how they run it every morning, and a real example

54:00 - Why none of this is impulsive: experiments, ripcords, and getting buy-in

59:22 - Open book finance: how a near-loss year changed everything

01:04:42 - Family, kids, and what actually keeps him grounded

~~~

Connect with Matt

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattloria/

https://www.facebook.com/mattloria

https://www.instagram.com/loriamatt/

Prefer to Listen?

https://pod.link/1742631726

This episode is powered by Auxiom.

Finally ready to outsmart your IT chaos?

https://auxiom.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/auxiom-llc

Father Tim McCabe grew up blue collar in Detroit, worked construction, ran refugee programs, and spent years with people at the bottom before he ever put on a collar.

He was assigned to a day center for the homeless in 2015. But after five people died of fentanyl overdoses within a couple of days, his team sat together and someone said it doesn't have to be this way.

So he started building and he raised nearly $40 million without a donor database.

The Pope Francis Center now has a bridge housing facility designed around trauma, with wide hallways, natural light, on-site medical and psychiatric care, a full curriculum, and people graduating to housing.

Here's everything we covered:

→ Why trauma-informed care is the only approach that works for chronic homelessness

→ How he raised $13 million from a family in California who found him on a Google search

→ Why Housing First doesn't fix "habitual homelessness”

→ The moment he knew the building was going to happen

→ Where the work goes next: housing, trades, and ending the cycle for good

Father Tim didn't wait for permission, a budget, or proof it would work. He just started moving and kept going until the resources caught up.

Chapters

0:00 Intro

1:00 How We Met: A Hospital, a Saturday, and a Stranger Who Stayed

9:03 The Pope Francis Center and What It Was Before

14:54 Five Deaths in a Week: Why He Decided to Build

16:08 The Consulting Firm Said He'd Never Raise $3 Million

19:25 The Google Search That Led to $13 Million

23:36 What Trauma-Informed Actually Means in a Building

35:34 Father Tim's Life Before the Priesthood

41:23 Why Government Money Makes the Problem Worse

50:53 A Day in the Life Running a 37-Person Operation

55:37 What Comes Next: Housing, Trades, and Finishing the Bridge

~~~

Connect with Matt

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattloria/

https://www.facebook.com/mattloria

https://www.instagram.com/loriamatt/

Prefer to Watch?

https://youtu.be/FPfT5vDdwRo

This episode is powered by Auxiom.

Finally ready to outsmart your IT chaos?

https://auxiom.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/auxiom-llc