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Most business owners think poor sales performance comes down to bad salespeople.
Ben Wright disagrees.
In this episode of Built to Sell Built to Buy, Sam Penny sits down with sales strategist and founder of Stronger Sales Teams, Ben Wright, to unpack what really drives sales performance and why behaviour, process and leadership often matter more than sales skills.
Ben shares practical insights from more than 25 years in sales, including why most sales training fails, how sales and marketing teams can work together more effectively, the importance of speed-to-lead, and how a strong sales function can dramatically increase enterprise value.
If you're a founder, sales leader or business owner looking to build a business that scales beyond you, this episode is packed with actionable lessons.
In This Episode
✔ Why most sales teams underperform
✔ The biggest myth about sales performance
✔ Why behaviour beats skill in sales
✔ How to improve lead quality and conversion rates
✔ The power of speed-to-lead
✔ Why sales and marketing must work together
✔ How customer lifetime value drives enterprise value
✔ Common leadership mistakes that weaken sales teams
✔ The role of accountability in high-performing teams
✔ The mindset shift every founder needs to make
Key Takeaways
About Ben Wright
Ben Wright is the founder of Stronger Sales Teams, helping businesses improve sales performance through better leadership, behaviours, systems and accountability. With more than 25 years of experience in sales and business, Ben works with organisations to build sales teams that consistently perform and scale.
Connect with Ben
Website: https://strongersalesteams.com
LinkedIn: Ben Wright
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🎙 Built to Sell Built to Buy
What if the biggest limitation in your business isn't strategy, systems or staff... but your own leadership capacity?
In this episode of Built to Sell, Built to Buy, Sam Penny sits down with leadership strategist, culture architect and Cultural Catalyst founder Jaclyn Orent to explore the invisible forces that shape business performance.
While most business owners focus on strategy, KPIs and execution, Jaclyn argues that culture, behaviour and consciousness are the true drivers of sustainable growth. Drawing on decades of research in organisational psychology, leadership development and human behaviour, she explains why founders often become the bottleneck to their own success and how shifting leadership capacity can transform an entire organisation.
From impossible goals and identity transformation to accountability, contribution and high-performance cultures, this conversation challenges conventional thinking about leadership and growth.
If you're building a business to scale, sell or create lasting impact, this episode offers a completely different lens on what drives exceptional results.
In This Episode
You'll discover:
Key Takeaways
Culture Is the Founder Scaled
Every organisation eventually reflects the standards, behaviours and mindset of its founder.
According to Jaclyn, culture isn't created by mission statements, values posters or leadership retreats. It is created by what leaders consistently model, tolerate and reinforce.
The founder's beliefs, emotional patterns and decision-making style ripple throughout the entire business.
If the founder grows, the organisation grows.
If the founder stagnates, the organisation often follows.
Great Businesses Are Built on Behaviour
Many organisations struggle because they define values but never define behaviours.
Words like accountability, integrity and excellence sound impressive on a wall, but unless they are translated into observable actions, they remain meaningless.
High-performing cultures are built when leaders clearly define:
Behaviour is what scales.
Impossible Goals Change Identity
One of the most powerful parts of the discussion centres around the concept of impossible goals.
Jaclyn explains that transformational growth doesn't happen by simply setting bigger targets.
It happens when leaders adopt a vision that requires them to become someone new.
The goal is not just about achievement.
It's about identity transformation.
The most successful leaders create visions so compelling that they willingly let go of old habits, beliefs and limitations to become the person capable of achieving them.
Accountability Starts Within
Many leaders struggle to hold others accountable because they have not mastered accountability themselves.
Jaclyn argues that true accountability begins with self-leadership.
Leaders who avoid difficult conversations, uncomfortable emotions or personal responsibility often create teams that do exactly the same.
When leaders consistently model ownership, responsibility and emotional maturity, accountability becomes part of the culture.
Contribution Creates Extraordinary Performance
Most businesses are driven by performance metrics.
The most exceptional businesses are driven by contribution.
Jaclyn believes that once founders achieve financial success, the next level of growth comes from pursuing something larger than themselves.
When leaders connect their business to a meaningful contribution, they unlock:
The most powerful organisations don't simply generate profits.
They create impact.
Memorable Quotes
"Most businesses don't have a strategy problem. They have a standards problem.""Culture isn't something you talk about. It's something you design.""What you tolerate becomes what you get.""The founder is often the biggest lever for organisational change.""Behaviour is what scales, and what scales becomes your business.""The biggest challenge leaders face is accepting reality as it is."About Jaclyn Orent
Jaclyn Orent is the CEO and Co-Founder of the Cultural Catalyst Network and creator of the Cultural Contribution Framework.
Her work combines leadership development, organisational psychology, behavioural science and systems thinking to help founders, executives and organisations create transformational cultural change.
She specialises in helping leaders expand their leadership capacity, build high-performing cultures and align business growth with meaningful contribution.
Resources & Links
Learn More About Jaclyn Orent
Listen to Built to Sell, Built to Buy
Built to Sell, Built to Buy explores what separates ordinary businesses from exceptional businesses.
Each episode features founders, investors and experts who share practical lessons on building businesses that scale, attract buyers and create long-term value.
Whether you're preparing to sell your business, acquire one, or simply build a stronger company, each conversation is designed to help you think differently about growth, leadership and value creation.
Most founders think the answer is more clients.
More leads. More revenue. More hustle.
But what if the real problem is you?
In this episode of Built to Sell | Built to Buy, Sam Penny sits down with Jesse Gilmore, founder of Niche In Control, to unpack one of the biggest challenges facing entrepreneurs today: becoming the bottleneck in their own business.
After building businesses that consumed his life and spending years inside a $4 billion corporation eliminating single points of failure, Jesse discovered a powerful truth:
Businesses don't scale when founders work harder. They scale when founders become replaceable.
Together, Sam and Jesse explore why so many entrepreneurs accidentally build themselves a high-pressure job, how to break free from hustle culture, and the systems that create genuine freedom, scalability and business value.
In this episode:
Memorable Quotes
"Most entrepreneurs don't own a business. They own a job.""The business can't outgrow the leader.""Revenue is a milestone, not a mission.""Time freedom comes before financial freedom.""The founder is often the single point of failure."About Jesse Gilmore
Jesse Gilmore is the founder of Niche In Control, where he helps agency owners build businesses that don't depend on them. Through coaching, consulting and his Leverage for Growth podcast, Jesse has helped hundreds of founders transition from overwhelmed operators to scalable business leaders.
Resources & Links
🌐 Niche In Control
https://nicheincontrol.com
📘 Free Book: The Agency Owner's Guide to Freedom
https://nicheincontrol.com/book
🎙️ Leverage for Growth Podcast
Connect with Sam Penny
🌐 https://sampenny.com
Most founders build something that works. Very few build something that works without them.
In this episode of Built to Sell Built to Buy, Sam Penny speaks with Hadri Jaffal, founder of Iron Body Fit, about how he scaled from one EMS fitness studio to around 250 locations across multiple countries, while keeping ownership of the business and avoiding the typical venture capital path.
But this conversation is not really about fitness.
It is about business architecture.
Hadri shares how Iron Body Fit was built around a simple but powerful insight: many people want to take care of their body, but they are either too busy, too inconsistent, or too uncomfortable in traditional gyms. His answer was a fitness model designed for “lazy and busy people”, using EMS technology, trial sessions, word of mouth, franchise systems and a culture of continual improvement.
Sam and Hadri unpack what really happens when a business scales quickly: the cash flow pressure, the hiring pressure, the importance of franchisee results, the challenge of protecting culture, and the moment a founder must stop being the centre of every decision.
Hadri also explains why he gives executives full responsibility, why he hires for empathy over expertise, why some franchisees need to be removed to protect the wider community, and why simple systems like checklists and to-do lists can create enormous leverage.
If you are a founder, franchise owner, business buyer, investor or operator, this episode will make you think differently about scale.
Because growth is not just about opening more doors.
It is about protecting what happens inside them.
In This Episode
You’ll learn:
• Why Iron Body Fit was built for “lazy and busy” people
• How Hadri copied, adapted and executed a model from Germany
• Why trial sessions became the growth engine
• How he scaled through franchisees without giving away equity
• What breaks first when a business grows past 50 locations
• Why cash flow and hiring are constant tensions in fast growth
• How to document culture without creating a 500-page manual
• Why Hadri gives executives 100% trust and responsibility
• The five KPIs Iron Body Fit tracks every day
• Why removing a successful but toxic franchisee can protect the whole network
• How to build systems that reduce dependence on the founder
• Why simple to-do lists still matter in a scaling company
Guest
Hadri Jaffal
Founder, Iron Body Fit
Email: [email protected]
Call to Action
Learn more and connect with Sam:
https://sampenny.com/hadri-jaffal
What actually breaks growth in a business?
It is rarely just the ads.
In this episode of Built to Sell | Built to Buy, Sam Penny sits down with Ivan Janku, founder of Digital Rocket Ads, to unpack what really sits behind profitable growth in 2026. Ivan has helped generate more than $250 million in client revenue, building his agency from a solo freelance operation in Serbia into a global growth business with a reputation for no-nonsense execution.
This conversation goes deep into the hidden leaks most founders never see. Ivan explains why so many businesses blame traffic when the real issue is the website, the customer journey, broken tracking, weak offers, or systems that do not work together. He shares how his team audits businesses, prioritises fixes, and builds what he calls a more cohesive growth engine rather than just running platform-based marketing.
Sam and Ivan also explore what has changed in digital marketing, including Meta’s Andromeda, AI-assisted creative production, attribution challenges in a post-iOS world, and why so many founders are still making decisions from inside the business rather than through the eyes of the buyer. Ivan’s central message is clear: stop guessing, stop hiding behind vanity metrics, and start fixing the leaky bucket.
You will hear real examples from the trenches, including a fashion brand whose growth was being crushed by a cart bug, enterprise clients wasting huge ad budgets with poor reporting, and the dangerous habit of founders relying on agencies without understanding the full system behind performance.
This episode is for business owners, marketers, and operators who want to scale without chaos and build something more valuable, more saleable, and far more robust.
In this episode:
Key takeaway
If your growth feels stuck, the answer is probably not “more ads”. It is more likely better systems, better buyer understanding, cleaner tracking, stronger offers, and the discipline to fix what is broken before pouring fuel on it.
Connect with Ivan Janku
Digital Rocket Ads
LinkedIn: Ivan Janku / eCommerce Megalomania
Read the companion article:
sampenny.com/ivan-janku
What happens after you sell the business that defined you?
In this episode of Built to Sell | Built to Buy, Sam Penny sits down with Gabby Montagnese — the founder behind New Age Caravans — to unpack one of the most compelling comeback stories in Australian manufacturing.
Gabby scaled New Age into one of the country’s top RV brands before bringing in Walkinshaw and ultimately exiting. But what followed wasn’t the typical “ride off into the sunset” moment.
Instead, she stepped back into the arena.
This time, acquiring Bruder — a premium, highly innovative caravan brand that, depending on who you ask, was either under pressure… or massively misunderstood.
This is a raw, honest conversation about:
🔑 What You’ll Learn
🚐 The Bruder Acquisition — What’s Really Going On
From the outside, Bruder looked like it was under pressure.
Gabby addresses it directly:
Her perspective?
👉 The product was world-class
👉 The business needed operational and financial support
This wasn’t just an acquisition.
It was a strategic intervention.
🧠 Founder Insight
One of the most powerful moments in the episode:
“I wouldn’t have exited… I would have done the deal differently.”And this:
“You think people are there for you… but sometimes they’re there for what you have.”This episode is as much about self-awareness as it is about business.
🔥 Key Takeaway
Before you bring in capital…
Before you sell…
Before you buy…
👉 Get clear on your “why”
Because if that’s unclear, everything that follows will be too.
🌍 Links & Resources
🎧 About the Show
Built to Sell | Built to Buy is for founders who want to scale with purpose, maximise valuation, and make smarter decisions — whether they’re building, exiting, or acquiring.
Hosted by Sam Penny.
Most founders spend years obsessing over growth, valuation, and exit strategy.
But there’s one risk almost nobody plans for — and it quietly destroys businesses, derails deals, and wipes out hundreds of thousands in value:
Divorce.
In this episode of Built to Sell | Built to Buy, Sam Penny sits down with forensic accountant, CPA, and valuation expert Ryan Finley to unpack what really happens when personal life collides with enterprise value.
This is not a conversation about relationships.
This is about risk, structure, valuation, and protecting your business when life doesn’t go to plan.
🎧 What You’ll Learn in This Episode
⚠️ The Reality Most Founders Ignore
As Ryan explains, many founders don’t lose value because of bad strategy —
they lose it because of unplanned life events and structural blind spots.
🧠 Key Takeaways
🔍 Who This Episode Is For
📌 Memorable Moment
“The business needs to survive the divorce… but most owners lose focus, and that’s where value starts leaking.”🌐 Connect with Ryan Finley
For the indepth article, head to https://sampenny.com/blogs/the-bravery-digest-fast-decisions/divorce-destroys-business-value
🎙️ About the Show
Built to Sell | Built to Buy is where founders, investors, and advisors learn how to build, buy, and scale businesses that are valuable, transferable, and resilient.
Hosted by Sam Penny.
🚀 Final Thought
Most founders plan for growth.
Some plan for exit.
Almost none plan for disruption.
The ones who do… build businesses that survive it.
How to Launch, Scale & Profit from an App in 2026 (Before Everyone Else Does) | Jonathan Maxim
Alternatives:
🚀 Show Notes (SEO-Optimised)
If you’re a founder sitting on an idea… this episode might be the wake-up call you’ve been waiting for.
In this episode of Built to Sell | Built to Buy, Sam Penny sits down with Jonathan Maxim — the founder behind multiple viral apps, millions of downloads, and a proven system for getting startups from zero to 10,000 users fast.
This isn’t theory. This is the real playbook behind apps that scale.
From early mistakes that killed a promising startup… to the frameworks now used to build profitable, scalable products — this conversation breaks down exactly what it takes to win in 2026’s “fast founder” era.
💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode
⚡ Key Takeaways
1. Profit beats hype — every time
Vanity metrics don’t build businesses. If it’s not generating revenue, it’s not working.
2. Speed is nothing without focus
Running fast in the wrong direction is how most startups fail. Channel energy into one core problem.
3. Virality must be engineered
It’s not luck. It’s systems, incentives, and “forcing functions” built into the product.
4. Your onboarding is your first sale
Most apps lose 80% of users before they even start. Fix that, and everything changes.
5. The market tells you everything
Customer feedback, reviews, and behaviour will always beat your assumptions.
🧠 The 2026 Founder Reality
We’ve entered the era of the “fast founder.”
But here’s the twist:
👉 Building is easy. Launching is hard. Scaling profitably is everything.
As Jonathan puts it:
“They’re not going to come. You have to tell them.”📈 Framework: From Idea → Profit
Jonathan’s proven roadmap:
Skip steps… and the whole thing collapses.
🎯 Who This Episode Is For
🔗 Connect with Jonathan Maxim
🎙 Final Thought
2026 isn’t waiting.
You’ve got the tools. You’ve got the access. You’ve got the opportunity.
The only question left:
👉 Are you building something… or just thinking about it?
Hit me up at sampenny.com/chat
What separates a business that quietly exists from one that becomes a category leader? According to filmmaker-turned-brand strategist Jake Isham, the difference is storytelling - not as marketing "garnish," but as foundational infrastructure.
In this episode of Built to Sell | Built to Buy, Sam Penny and Jake Isham (who has generated billions of views for challenger brands) unpack why expertise alone isn't enough to build a scalable, transferable asset. If you are a founder who feels "invisible" despite your results, this conversation is your roadmap to authority.
The "Slaying Dragons" Framework
Jake argues that the most powerful stories aren't about being perfect; they are about the obstacles you've overcome.
Expertise vs. Authority: The Missing Link
Many founders are brilliant at their craft but invisible to the market because they treat these as the same thing.
Practical Tactics for "Content CEOs"
Jake breaks down how to stop overthinking and start producing:
Connect with Jake Isham
About the Podcast
Built to Sell Built to Buy explores the mechanics of building valuable, transferable companies. Hosted by Sam Penny, the show sits at the intersection of strategy and enterprise value.
What happens when you trade the "work hard, party hard" hyper-growth of WeWork for a more deliberate, design-led, and deeply human approach to scaling? In this episode, Sam Penny sits down with Mark Goldfinger, the General Manager and Head of North America at Mindspace, to discuss the craft of building culture at scale.
From opening global markets during WeWork's meteoric rise to redefining boutique hospitality in the flexible workspace industry, Mark shares firsthand lessons on leadership, accountability, and why "no one is bigger than the business."
Key Highlights
Mark’s Leadership Principles
Principle | DescriptionExtreme Ownership | Inspired by Navy SEALs, the belief that the "buck stops with the leader" regarding any team failure.
Hire Smarter | Never be afraid to hire people more talented than yourself to push the business further.
Life is Not a Dress Rehearsal | A personal mantra inherited from Mark’s father: live each day to its fullest.
The Skyscraper Rule | It’s not about which building gets to 100 stories first; it’s about which one is still standing 100 years later.
The "Mindspace" Philosophy
"If our members walk out of the door every night and they say, 'Hey, have a good night, Sam, see you in the morning,' you just feel a little bit better about yourself... they’re gonna want to be in this space."Connect with Mark Goldfinger
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