Built for This

In this episode of Built for This, Carly Pepin sits down with Josh Block, President of Block Imaging and author of People Matter at Work, for a powerful conversation about leadership, trust, company culture, and what it takes to scale a business without losing sight of people.

Josh shares the story of unexpectedly stepping into leadership at just 29 years old after his father transitioned him from sales representative to president over the course of a single weekend. At the time, the company was still recovering from a painful round of layoffs known internally as “Black Thursday,” forcing Josh to confront difficult lessons around transparency, trust, and leadership very early in his presidency.

Throughout the conversation, Josh explains how the philosophy of “People Matter” evolved from a simple idea into the cultural foundation that helped grow Block Imaging from $30 million to more than $250 million in revenue. Carly and Josh unpack the importance of psychological safety, transparent communication, leadership development, and creating ownership within teams rather than simply managing employees.

The episode also explores succession planning in family businesses, navigating difficult employee transitions, leading remote teams, and why meaningful workplace relationships can transform not just organizations, but families and lives.

This conversation is a thoughtful and practical look at modern leadership, proving that companies grow strongest when people are treated as human beings first, not just resources.

Key Themes:

Memorable Quotes:

“When people matter at work, everything changes. Business grows, families thrive, and lives are transformed.”

About Josh Block:

Under his leadership, Block Imaging grew from $30 million to more than $215 million in revenue while building a culture centered on trust, transparency, leadership development, and meaningful human connection. His work focuses on helping organizations become places where both businesses and people thrive together.

Connect with Josh Block:

In this episode of Built for This, Carly Pepin sits down with Tommy Lather, founder of Takeoff Monkey, to explore how automation, customer service, and operational simplicity helped transform a hands-on service business into a highly scalable company.

Tommy shares his unconventional journey from working in landscaping and estimating to building a rapidly growing takeoff services company that now processes hundreds of projects daily for contractors across the United States. Along the way, he taught himself software development and began building custom automations that dramatically improved efficiency across the business.

One of the biggest breakthroughs Tommy discusses is how Takeoff Monkey reduced overhead by roughly 70% through strategic automation, process optimization, and smarter systems. Instead of relying on huge teams or outside funding, the company focused on simplifying repetitive workflows, eliminating bottlenecks, and using AI-driven tools to scale sustainably.

Carly and Tommy also dive into the realities of managing remote teams across the United States and India, building strong culture inside a fully remote company, and why responsiveness and reliability have become the foundation of customer loyalty. Beyond operations, the conversation explores the emotional side of entrepreneurship, including founder loneliness, staying focused during growth, avoiding shiny object syndrome, and why persistence is often the biggest differentiator between success and failure.

This episode is a practical and honest look at building a modern business through systems, simplicity, and relentless consistency.

Key Themes:

Memorable Quotes:

“You can’t teach someone to give a shit.”

About Tommy Lather:

With more than 25 years of experience across supply, operations management, sales, and estimating, Tommy developed a passion for building systems and processes that improve efficiency and simplify operations. Today, he combines industry expertise with automation and software development to help customers save time, reduce costs, and operate more effectively.

Connect with Tommy Lather:

In this episode of Built for This, Carly Pepin sits down with Hadley Nightingale, CEO of New Zealand Property Buyers, to unpack the realities of building a fast-growing business while navigating some of life’s hardest personal and professional challenges.

What started as Hadley’s own property investment journey quickly revealed a major gap in the New Zealand real estate market: buyers lacked true representation and strategic guidance when making one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives. That realization became the foundation for New Zealand Property Buyers, a company designed to help investors confidently navigate property acquisition, renovation, project management, and long-term property management.

But this conversation goes far beyond real estate. Carly and Hadley dive deep into the realities of entrepreneurship, including the pressure of scaling too quickly, hiring before systems are ready, and trying to build multiple divisions before the core business is fully stabilized. Hadley also speaks candidly about building a company while navigating divorce, custody battles, financial stress, and immense uncertainty, revealing the emotional resilience required to keep moving forward when life and business collide.

The episode also explores remote team culture, accountability, offshore hiring, leadership, and why documented systems and processes become essential as businesses grow. Together, Carly and Hadley unpack what truly creates sustainable success: ownership, consistency, operational clarity, and the willingness to improve imperfectly over time.

This episode is an honest and practical look at entrepreneurship without the highlight reel, showing that long-term growth is rarely linear, but it is possible when resilience and systems work together.

Key Themes:

Memorable Quotes:

“People want the perfect house, but the perfect house never comes along.”

About Hadley Nightingale:

New Zealand Property Buyers offers a fully integrated, end-to-end investment service covering acquisition, renovation, compliance project management, and ongoing property management. Hadley’s focus is on helping investors avoid costly mistakes while creating systems and operational structures that allow businesses and people to scale sustainably.

Connect with Hadley Nightingale:

In this episode of Built for This, Carly Pepin sits down with Keziah Wonstolen, founder of Vannin Chief of Staff, to explore why the chief of staff role has become one of the fastest-growing and most valuable positions in modern business leadership.

Drawing from her background at Accenture and her own experience serving as a chief of staff, Keziah shares how she built a company dedicated to helping CEOs scale more effectively through operational support, strategic execution, and leadership alignment. What began as a fractional consulting model evolved into one of North America’s leading chief of staff talent providers before eventually being acquired by the Chief of Staff Association.

The conversation dives into the critical differences between executive assistants, chiefs of staff, and COOs, and why more founders, private equity firms, and scaling companies are turning to chiefs of staff to operationalize vision, manage change, and improve organizational execution. Carly and Keziah also unpack the realities of growth, implementing frameworks like EOS and Scaling Up, building intentional culture, and creating structures that allow leaders to spend more time in their zone of genius rather than drowning in operational complexity.

Keziah also opens up about the deeply personal experiences that pushed her toward entrepreneurship and her passion for helping leaders reclaim their most valuable resource: time.

This episode is a practical and insightful look at modern leadership, operational scale, and why the right support structure can completely transform a company’s growth trajectory.

Key Themes:

Memorable Quotes:

“Leaders are managing more change than they ever have in the past.”

About Keziah Wonstolen:

Through Vannin, Keziah and her team specialized in supporting private equity firms, portfolio companies, and family offices, helping leaders optimize execution, improve alignment, and build scalable leadership structures. Her work has earned recognition including the Denver Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 and participation in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program.

Today, she is recognized as a leading voice in the evolving chief of staff space and continues shaping how modern organizations approach executive leadership and operational strategy.

Connect with Keziah Wonstolen:

In this episode of Built for This, Carly Pepin sits down with Buddy Teaster, President and CEO of Soles4Souls, to explore how business principles can create sustainable social impact around the world.

Buddy shares how Soles4Souls evolved from a disaster-relief nonprofit into a global organization focused on creating economic opportunity through entrepreneurship. Rather than relying solely on traditional charity models, Soles4Souls helps people, especially women in developing countries, build businesses using donated shoes and clothing as inventory. The result is not just aid, but ownership, dignity, and long-term transformation for families and communities.

The conversation dives into the difference between handouts and empowerment, why entrepreneurship restores hope, and how even small economic opportunities can completely change the trajectory of future generations. Buddy also opens up about the major organizational turnaround he led after joining Soles4Souls in 2012, including rebuilding company culture, implementing operational discipline, strengthening leadership systems, and scaling global logistics operations.

Carly and Buddy explore the realities of leading a mission-driven organization, the complexity of sustainable nonprofit growth, and why emotional storytelling must be paired with strong systems and accountability to create lasting impact.

This episode is a powerful look at leadership, purpose, operational excellence, and how entrepreneurship can become one of the most effective tools for fighting poverty.

Key Themes:

Memorable Quotes:

“When a woman is a customer and not a recipient, it is a big deal.”

About Buddy Teaster:

Known for blending philanthropy with entrepreneurship and operational excellence, Buddy has helped transform Soles4Souls into one of the most respected nonprofit organizations in the world, earning recognition as one of The Nonprofit Times’ Best Nonprofits to Work For multiple years in a row. He is also the host of the re:Purpose podcast and author of Shoestrings and From Tailspin to Tailwind.

Connect with Buddy Teaster:

In this episode of Built for This, Carly Pepin sits down with Mark Kenigsberg, VP at Azami, to explore what it really takes to transform a traditional sales-led organization into a scalable, product-led growth business.

Mark shares how he joined Azami, a legal tech company specializing in intellectual property and patent software, during a period of major organizational change. Instead of focusing solely on short-term marketing campaigns, the company invested heavily in rebuilding systems, aligning teams, and deeply understanding customer behavior before aggressively scaling growth efforts.

Carly and Mark unpack how marketing can become a catalyst for company-wide transformation, not just lead generation. From rebuilding CRM and revenue systems to aligning departments around shared customer outcomes rather than isolated KPIs, Mark explains how sustainable growth requires operational alignment and cultural change.

The conversation also dives into the challenge of marketing innovation to a naturally risk-averse audience. Through webinars, education, thought leadership, and direct customer conversations, Azami introduced new technology in a way that felt collaborative rather than disruptive. Along the way, they explore broader themes around product-led culture, customer-centric growth, AI in legal tech, and why businesses often lose sight of the humans behind the metrics they measure.

This episode is a thoughtful look at systems thinking, leadership, and how companies create sustainable growth by aligning around genuine customer value.

Key Themes:

Memorable Quotes:

“Revenue is an ecosystem rather than four departments.”

About Mark Kenigsberg:

His work specializes in integrating sales-led and product-led growth models without disrupting the systems already working inside organizations. Mark also publishes the Product Marketing Weekly newsletter and regularly speaks internationally on growth strategy, marketing transformation, and organizational alignment.

Connect with Mark Kenigsberg:

In this episode of Built for This, Carly Pepin sits down with Chris Farr, VP of Operations at Envision Technologies, to explore how the IT industry has evolved from reactive “break-fix” support into a strategic partnership that directly impacts business growth, cybersecurity, and operational efficiency.

Chris shares his journey from hands-on network engineer to operational leader, reflecting on what it has taken to help scale Envision from a single-location managed service provider into a growing multi-location technology integrator serving businesses across Georgia.

The conversation dives into leadership, accountability, and operational clarity inside a scaling organization. Chris explains how adopting EOS principles helped improve delegation, ownership, and internal communication while maintaining a strong service culture. Carly and Chris also unpack the rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape, including phishing attacks, ransomware, employee training, cyber insurance requirements, and why businesses of every size are now potential targets.

They also discuss the power of a white-glove, concierge-style approach to IT, where the goal is not simply fixing technical issues, but becoming a trusted strategic partner that helps businesses operate more efficiently, securely, and with less friction. This episode is a practical look at leadership, scaling operations, cybersecurity, customer experience, and the systems that support long-term business growth.

Key Themes:

Memorable Quotes:

“If the clients aren’t happy, we don’t have a job.”

About Chris Farr:

Having worked through the rapid evolution of IT, from early infrastructure environments to today’s cloud-driven and cybersecurity-focused landscape, Chris brings a practical, real-world perspective to technology leadership. He is passionate about guiding organizations through IT challenges, building strong teams, and helping businesses understand the strategic role technology plays in growth and risk management.

Connect with Chris Farr:

In this episode of Built for This, Carly Pepin sits down with Shari Cedar, CEO and co-owner of AK Building Services, to explore what it really takes to build and scale a people-driven business over the long term.

Shari shares her unconventional journey from a successful career in television production to co-building a commercial cleaning company alongside her husband. What began as a gradual transition evolved into a 25-year leadership journey, growing a company that now supports a team of hundreds in a demanding and highly regulated industry.

The conversation unpacks the realities of scaling beyond the early stages of business. Shari explains how the discipline of production, preparation, execution, and continuous refinement, became the foundation for building strong operational systems and sustainable growth. Carly and Shari also explore the challenges of maintaining culture across a distributed, night-shift workforce, and why connection must be created intentionally through communication, leadership presence, and consistent human interaction.

This episode offers a grounded perspective on leadership, showing that real growth is not just about expanding revenue or headcount. It is about building systems that support scale, developing people who can lead independently, and creating a business that can thrive beyond its founders.

Key Themes:

Memorable Quotes:

“If you have your hands on everything, then you’re doing nothing.”

About Shari Cedar:

Before entering the commercial cleaning industry, Shari worked in television production, an experience that shaped her approach to leadership and execution. Today, she is actively involved in industry and community organizations, including BOMA, CREW Network, and the Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce, while also serving on multiple nonprofit and advisory boards.

A dedicated leader and working mother of two, Shari is passionate about building businesses that create meaningful impact for both people and the communities they serve.

Connect with Shari Cedar:

In this episode of Built For This, Carly Pepin sits down with entrepreneur and innovator Kate Doerksen, co-founder and CEO of Sage Haven, a safer messaging platform designed to protect children from cyberbullying, harmful content, and unhealthy digital habits.

Kate shares her remarkable entrepreneurial journey, beginning with the creation of Ditto, a pioneering augmented reality and AI eyewear technology company that ultimately served more than 70 million users worldwide before being acquired by 1-800 Contacts. She opens up about the realities of building a venture-backed startup, raising $35 million in funding, navigating years of costly litigation, and staying committed through more than a decade of challenges before achieving a successful exit.

The conversation then turns to the deeply personal experiences that inspired Sage Haven. After witnessing the devastating impact of cyberbullying and harmful online content on a close family member, Kate became determined to create a safer digital environment for children. Through extensive research with parents, kids, psychologists, and technology experts, she identified a critical gap in the market and built a platform designed with children's wellbeing at its core.

Carly and Kate also discuss the lessons learned from building multiple companies, the unique experience of partnering with her sister as a co-founder, how AI is reshaping entrepreneurship, and why mission-driven businesses often create a level of resilience and energy that purely commercial ventures cannot.

This episode is a thoughtful exploration of entrepreneurship, technology, leadership, and the responsibility of creating products that positively impact future generations.

Key Themes:

Memorable Quotes:

“I don't follow the trend. I don't give a shit. I'm just building a product that a lot of people need.”

About Kate Doerksen:

Before launching Sage Haven with her sister Anne, Kate founded Ditto, a groundbreaking augmented reality and AI eyewear technology company that served more than 70 million users globally before being acquired by 1-800 Contacts in 2021.

Kate holds an MBA from Stanford University and a Bachelor's degree in Entrepreneurship from Ball State University, where she was inducted into the Hall of Fame for her academic and athletic achievements. She lives in Danville, California, with her husband and two children.

Connect with Kate Doerksen:

In this insightful episode of Built for This, Carly Pepin sits down with Tim Berney, founder and CEO of VI Marketing and Branding, to explore how marketing can go beyond visibility and actually influence real human behavior.

With more than three decades of experience, Tim shares how his work has shifted from traditional awareness campaigns to behavior-driven strategies that shape decisions, habits, and even societal norms. From early recycling initiatives to large-scale water conservation campaigns that saved billions of gallons, he explains how small, consistent actions, when scaled, can create extraordinary impact.

Carly and Tim break down the science behind behavior change marketing, including the role of data, modeling behavior, and crafting messaging that resonates both individually and collectively. They also explore how creative execution plays a critical role in driving results, and why even the best strategy falls flat without ideas that connect emotionally.

Beyond marketing, the conversation expands into leadership, culture, and the future of the industry. Tim shares how he built a company grounded in continuous learning, intentional communication, and long-term thinking, while also offering his perspective on how AI is reshaping the marketing landscape. This episode is a thoughtful look at how marketing, when done well, becomes a powerful force for meaningful change.

Key Themes:

Memorable Quotes:

“We’re not just trying to get people to buy something… we’re trying to change behaviors.”

About Tim Berney:

His work centers on helping organizations move beyond awareness to influence real decisions, with a strong focus on trust, credibility, and human-centered strategy. Tim is also a frequent contributor to leading business and marketing publications and is widely recognized for his insights on leadership, brand credibility, and the evolving role of AI in marketing.

Connect with Tim Berney: