Business Builder's Playbook

What do you do when you finally get everything you prayed for and still feel empty?

In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Jeff Rasor of Blue Sky Academy, a breakthrough guide who has spent 25 years helping entrepreneurs, business owners, and executives through seasons of transition. Jeff spent nearly a decade in financial services, served as creative director at Promise Keepers, and pastored a church outside Denver for 10 years before turning to high-achieving Christian leaders who look successful on paper and feel stuck underneath.

Jeff explains the quiet crisis many leaders carry, why the ceiling of success is a signal worth listening to, and how a living set of personal blueprints helped a fundraising executive who had finished second for two nonprofit roles land the ministry role that fit him and an entrepreneur double his revenue in 18 months.

Here's what you'll learn by watching or listening to this full episode:

* How to recognize the early signs of a breakthrough season, such as irritability and quiet apathy

* How to treat the emptiness you feel at the top as a signal that something more is waiting

* Why chasing significance goes further than setting bigger goals

* How to sort the greater yeses from the lesser yeses when your calendar is already full

* How to merge your spiritual journey and your career plan into one playbook

* How to spot the lies that keep high achievers on autopilot and stalled out

* How to slow down to speed up with a process built on surrender, momentum, clarity, and purpose

* How a fundraising executive who finished second twice found the role that fit him and how his team grew from 5 to 50

* How an entrepreneur stuck on a three-year revenue plateau doubled his business in 18 months

Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.BusinessBuildersPlaybook.com/Jeff-Rasor

What if the revenue you need is already sitting in your LinkedIn connections and a folder of proposals nobody followed up on?

In this solo episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush, co-owner of BDR AI, shows founder-led B2B owners how to find the relationship assets they already own and turn them into new cash flow. David walks through the seven places hidden revenue tends to live, how to rank your contacts by trust and fit, and the 90-day pilot he uses with clients to move people from a first message to a booked meeting.

Here's what you'll learn by watching or listening to this full episode:

* How to take inventory of the seven places hidden revenue lives: past clients, old leads, lost proposals, your LinkedIn network, referrals, your content library, and strategic partners

* How to use a trust-and-fit matrix to decide who gets your attention this quarter and who gets nurtured over the next 90 to 180 days

* How to reconnect with past prospects and lost proposals using one simple "If I could show you a way..." question

* How to find referral partners, centers of influence, and strategic allies who already know the people you want to serve

* How to turn one webinar into an article, an executive briefing PDF, and short video clips that keep you in front of your network

* Where AI helps most: segmenting lists, personalizing messages at scale, triggering follow-up, and summarizing insights

* How to run a 90-day pilot: inventory and messaging in days 1 to 30, relationship building in days 31 to 60, and conversion in days 61 to 90

* How to track a simple scorecard of connections, conversations, meetings, pipeline, and closed revenue

* Why you should make deposits before you ask anyone for their time

Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.BusinessBuildersPlaybook.com/David-Bush-Unlock

What if your business grew entirely through referrals, with no ads and no funnels?

In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Jose Escobar, founder of the Connected Leaders Academy. Jose grew that community to 46 countries and 697 members, taking his business from zero to seven figures in 15 months without a website, paid ads, or a single email blast.

Here's what you'll learn by watching or listening to this full episode:

* How to identify the power connectors already sitting in your phone

* How to turn a $20 book into thousands of dollars in referral business

* Why complexity is the biggest threat to actually executing your growth strategy

* How to nurture a relationship without asking for anything back

* Why 90 percent referral-based growth means Jose never needed to spend on ads

* How to vet the people you let into your network

* How David's deposit-and-withdrawal framework explains when you've earned the right to ask for something back

* How to show up the same way online and in person every time

Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.BusinessBuildersPlaybook.com/Jose-Escobar

What if the reason your outreach isn’t converting has nothing to do with your sales team? 

In this episode of Business Builder’s Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Doug Greenberg, co-founder of Data Aviator and a 30-plus-year wealth advisor to founders and business owners, to break down why so many B2B companies are chasing cold leads without realizing it. 

Doug explains how AI-powered intent data has moved past the hype phase, why the gap between marketing and sales is usually the real problem, and how founder-led companies can build a predictable pipeline without adding headcount or hours to the week.

Here’s what you’ll learn by watching or listening to this full episode:

* How to tell the difference between a targeting problem and a sales effort problem before it costs you deals

* Why intent data has to be tracked from real behavior instead of statistical guesswork to actually work

* How fast buying signals go stale, and why one client’s results changed when Doug moved their data cycle from 10 days down to 2

* How to build an ICP around real behavior instead of assumptions, including the story of a campaign that was targeting the wrong gender entirely

* Why a single 45-minute conversation can be worth more than 10,000 cold messages

* How to calculate the real ROI on an outreach investment before scaling it

* What a realistic 30-day plan looks like for combining better data, AI, and outreach into one system

* Why patience and professional persistence, not pressure, are what actually close founder-led deals

Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.BusinessBuildersPlaybook.com/Doug-Greenberg

What if the reason you can't find "the right hire" has nothing to do with the candidates and everything to do with the fact that you never defined what success actually looks like?

In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Kate Morgan, founder and CEO of Boston Human Capital Partners and author of the bestselling book Custom-Fit: A Straight-Talking Guide to Hiring Top Talent for Entrepreneurs & Small Business Owners. Kate has spent more than two decades helping startups and small businesses hire, develop, and retain the people who actually move the needle, and her approach skips the HR theory in favor of a founder-led, straight-talking hiring strategy.

Here's what you'll learn by watching or listening to this full episode:

• How to build a hiring plan off your business plan, with clear gates for when to bring on sales, marketing, or engineering

• Why projecting what success looks like 12 months out matters more than filling the role fast

• The real cost of a bad hire and why the psychological toll outweighs the dollar amount

• The blunt test that separates a genuine core value from a nice-to-have

• How to interview past rehearsed answers and get to the truth behind the résumé

• Why the "urgency trap" wrecks hiring decisions, even with a stacked candidate pipeline

• When to bring on a full-time employee versus a fractional exec, contractor, or outsourced partner

• Why most founders cap their own growth long before their market does

Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.BusinessBuildersPlaybook.com/Kate-Morgan

What happens when a CEO finally hits the brakes instead of running the business redlined?

In this episode of Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Eric Smith, a C12 chair who spent years in HR leadership walking companies through mergers, acquisitions, growth phases, and brand transitions before dedicating his career to helping Christian CEOs build businesses that don't run them into the ground. Eric shares the framework behind what he calls the CEO's pit stop, a planned, regular pause that lets business leaders assess what's actually happening in their company before something breaks.

Here's what you'll learn by watching or listening to this full episode:

• How to spot the blind spots that speed is hiding from you.

• Why moving fast can quietly become a liability for a CEO who never stops to assess.

• How to use a five-point alignment matrix to check the health of your sales, operations, team, finances, and purpose.

• Why delegation isn't optional, and how to hand off responsibility.

• How to escape the technician trap and start leading like an architect instead of a mechanic.

• Why a tri-value model, measuring economic, team, and spiritual results, gives you a fuller picture of whether you're actually winning.

• How to shift from ownership to stewardship, and what that shift does for your stress level.

• Why isolation is one of the most common blind spots for CEOs, and how to build a team of advisors who will tell you the truth.

• How to know when it's time to help an employee move on without losing your values in the process.

Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.BusinessBuildersPlaybook.com/Eric-Smith

What if the best person for your next hire isn't sitting in your local job market at all?

In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Charlie Dino, a global hiring veteran with 30 years of experience at GE, ADP, and now Griffin Global Technologies, to break down the seven secrets behind building offshore teams that actually perform. Charlie has hired across the U.S., India, Mexico, and Brazil, and for the last six years has helped companies build offshore teams in Kenya and Ethiopia that stick around and deliver.

Here's what you'll learn by watching or listening to this full episode:

• How to decide which roles belong offshore and which ones your best talent should keep doing

• How confusion, more than cost, ends up causing most offshore hiring failures

• How to set up SOPs and clear expectations before you ever post the role

• Why English proficiency testing matters as much as technical skill

• How to vet global talent using both AI tools and a human in the loop

• Why video introductions beat resumes for finding the right fit

• How to build a communication system your offshore team can actually use

• Why the best offshore team is the one your employees forget is offshore

• How to hold offshore and onshore employees to the exact same standards

• What a realistic timeline looks like for hiring your first global employee

Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.BusinessBuildersPlaybook.com/Charlie-Dino

What does it actually cost to win in business if you lose your marriage, your family, and your peace along the way?

In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Greg King, a retired Army Colonel, executive coach, and C12 peer advisory chair, for a live Q&A on staying anchored to what matters most while building a company that succeeds. Greg spent decades learning the hard way what it costs to lead a business without a plan for leading a life, and now he coaches Christian CEOs through the exact tension he used to live inside.

Here's what you'll learn by watching or listening to this full episode:

• How to spot the isolation that quietly builds inside every high-capacity leader, even the ones with a full calendar and a strong team

• How to recognize the slow drift from a healthy pace into a business that runs your family instead of the other way around

• Why complacency rarely looks dangerous while it's happening, and what it actually looks like in real time

• How to shift from measuring success by growth and revenue to measuring it by stewardship

• Why so many leaders rationalize an unhealthy pace as "just a season," and what's really driving that rationalization

• How to tell when ambition has stopped serving you and started quietly running the show

• Why a "robust good health" standard matters more than chasing a bigger number

• How to read the warning signs before a business decision costs your family more than you realized you were spending

Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.BusinessBuildersPlaybook.com/Greg-King

Why do talented, hardworking teams still feel stuck? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Cheri Kuhn, a certified EOS Implementer who has run close to 500 sessions with leadership teams and now coaches other implementers at EOS Worldwide.

Cheri breaks down exactly what keeps strong teams stuck and what it actually takes to break through.

Here's what you'll learn by watching or listening to this full episode:

• How to spot the real reason your leadership team feels stuck, even when everyone on it is talented

• Why "simplify" is the leadership ability that runs underneath all the others

• How to stop being the bottleneck by delegating your thinking, not just your tasks

• Why unclear expectations, not laziness, are usually behind poor execution

• How to use the Delegate and Elevate tool to get to the root of overwhelm

• Why turnover on a leadership team in year one is normal, and sometimes necessary

• How to build a scorecard that turns you from a firefighter into a smoke detector

• Why "you get what you accept" should change how you handle accountability

• How to create healthy tension on a team without breaking people

• How to know when it's time to change the team instead of just adding more tools

Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.BusinessBuildersPlaybook.com/Cheri-Kuhn

What's the real problem leaders are running into with AI? According to David Hickman, it's overwhelm: too many tools and too many opinions about which one is right.

In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with David Hickman, expert EOS Implementer and author of the new book The Intelligent Business, to talk about how leadership teams can move past the noise and start using AI with intention. David has spent almost 10 years helping companies get clear on where they're going, rally their teams, and execute, and his book lays out the forces he believes every leader needs to build an intelligent business: cadence, clarity, momentum, and connection.

Here's what you'll learn by watching or listening to this full episode:

• How to stop chasing every new AI tool and instead pick one LLM, stick with it, and let it learn your business.

• How to use AI in the meeting room to capture context and decisions without turning note-taking into the main event.

• Why David's "Two Quiet Minutes" exercise gets a team's real, unfiltered thinking on the table before groupthink sets in.

• How AI acts as a mirror for leadership by showing a team exactly what was said and what actually matters in the room.

• Why a visual "priority palette" makes it nearly impossible for a team to keep avoiding the real elephant in the room.

• How to avoid the single most expensive AI mistake: losing hours in the rabbit hole instead of handing the exploration off to someone who has the time for it.

• Why protecting trust, empathy, and real human connection gets more important as AI takes over the busywork. How to turn a vague goal into a SMART rock by letting AI sharpen the metrics and milestones while a human still owns the call.

• How to start using AI in your next leadership meeting with one simple move: record the session, transcribe it, and let AI sort the priorities and action items.

• Why letting AI generate a team's priorities without real ownership behind them quietly kills follow-through.

Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.businessbuildersplaybook.com/David-Hickman