Decline Invite Podcast

Summary:

Ryan Drumheller sits down with Angela Burgess, a nonprofit coach, professional speaker, two-time TEDx speaker, best-selling author, and president and CEO of Broad Oaks Consulting. They dig into fundraising, nonprofit branding, the great wealth transfer, and why small acts of generosity can create real change.

Angela brings a rare mix of wealth management experience and nonprofit leadership, which makes her take on fundraising practical, ethical, and people-centered. If you work in nonprofits, leadership, sales, or any role that depends on trust and storytelling, this conversation is packed with useful perspective.

Timestamps

00:00 - Introducing Angela Burgess and her nonprofit leadership background

01:03 - Why she would decline a nonprofit gala invitation

02:02 - Why foster care is especially close to her heart

03:28 - Why she prefers the TEDx stage over the boardroom

04:46 - What 25-year-old Angie thought her career would become

05:32 - Lessons wealth management taught her about money and people

07:52 - Why making wealthy people wealthier felt empty

11:26 - The career shift into nonprofit planned giving

16:42 - A key lesson for anyone considering a major career change

19:12 - What fundraising really is beyond asking for money

20:12 - Why donor needs should come before organizational needs

22:00 - The ethical way to handle a donor who is not a fit

24:22 - What the great wealth transfer means for nonprofits

26:15 - How deeply nonprofits shape everyday life

27:37 - Why nonprofit funding is more concentrated than people realize

31:29 - The one thing she would fix in a nonprofit first: branding

34:44 - Why nonprofit leaders struggle to tell their story

37:25 - Building systems instead of trying to teach everything

40:20 - Why nonprofits are more like small businesses than people think

41:31 - The idea behind her TEDx talk on humanness and change

45:48 - What it means to deploy your humanness in practical ways

49:42 - Moments that confirmed her work was making a difference

53:29 - Why leaders should decline more time-sucking commitments

58:35 - The best advice she has ever received

59:42 - The one takeaway she hopes listeners remember

Guest:

Angela Burgess: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelaburgesshtx/

Broad Oaks Consulting: http://www.broadoakconsulting.com/

Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHL7R6CM?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

Host:

Ryan Drumheller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-drumheller/

Summary:

Ryan Drumheller speaks with Brad H. Hill, author of No One is Normal and host of No One Is Normal, about adversity, recovery, leadership, and why chasing “normal” can keep people stuck. Brad shares deeply personal lessons from alcohol misuse, domestic violence recovery in his family, and the long process of rebuilding identity through honesty, journaling, and ownership.

We discuss how setbacks reshape careers and relationships, why excuses block growth, and how resilience is built through action, not perfection. This is a vulnerable, practical conversation about accepting reality, telling the truth about where you are, and taking one step at a time.

Timestamps

00:00 - Why chasing “normal” can hold people back

03:10 - A strange hotel convention story that became a lasting lesson

07:06 - Why there is no real normal

10:05 - How the book is structured around memory and reflection

13:50 - Journaling, trauma, and recovery after abuse

16:50 - Why sharing the story is worth the judgment

19:25 - Red flags, isolation, and seeing the warning signs sooner

21:30 - What rock bottom looked like in practice

23:23 - The OWI that forced a reckoning

26:34 - Why starting over is never a straight line

31:51 - How excuses keep people stuck

35:36 - Rebuilding identity after major setbacks

38:39 - Why failure is part of progress

42:25 - Resilience, scars, and making change one step at a time

44:43 - Why leaders struggle with vulnerability

48:05 - How company culture shapes difficult seasons

49:48 - The leadership lesson of not fearing failure

52:16 - Best advice: what people think about you is none of your concern

53:04 - Adversity teaches resilience

54:13 - Success means helping other people succeed

56:54 - What to do tomorrow morning if you feel stuck

59:30 - Brad’s closing message: you were meant to be you

Guest:

Brad H. Hill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-h-hill-1baaa33ab/

Website: https://www.bradhhill.com

Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G2TD8FZF?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

Host:

Ryan Drumheller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-drumheller/

Summary:

AI adoption, leadership, and building company-specific intelligence with James Lang

Ryan Drumheller talks with James Lang about how businesses should actually approach AI, not as a shiny tool rollout, but as a leadership, culture, and systems problem. They dig into why the best AI strategy starts with people, process, governance, and context, then moves into tools only after the use case is clear.

James shares how he thinks about AI as a force multiplier for business owners, why ownership of data and infrastructure matters, and how companies can avoid the trap of vendor lock-in and bad implementations.

Timestamps

00:00 - James Lang’s background and why he treats AI as a business problem

01:18 - Every business owner’s best friend: solving patterns without replacing people

02:49 - What people misunderstand about AI right now

03:19 - From models to orchestration across tools and contexts

06:12 - Why data islands and privacy matter in regulated industries

07:16 - Perplexity for citations, research, and human-like drafting

10:10 - Governance, sign-off, and avoiding bad AI outputs

11:37 - Why citation quality matters in legal and research workflows

13:57 - Buzzwords that do not belong in leadership meetings

14:50 - Creating a culture where people can actually speak up

18:24 - Fake friendliness versus real leadership

20:47 - “Unfucking a situation” and solving the system, not blaming people

25:13 - Chris Voss, Simon Sinek, and asking better questions

27:08 - Why prompting AI is like setting up a teammate for success

28:43 - Back to basics: project plans, quick wins, and adoption readiness

31:54 - Why adoption timelines are improving but still take real effort

33:04 - Fear-based AI rollouts and why they damage trust

34:01 - Why the heart of a teacher matters in AI consulting

35:07 - Mandates, KPIs, and the companies doing AI badly

36:30 - Bring the right people into governance and training

39:18 - The old “smartphones can do everything” hype and AI marketing today

41:12 - Why you should not outsource your brain to the machine

42:08 - AI as a thought partner for drafting, organizing, and researching

44:45 - Creativity, vision, and why AI still needs human direction

45:50 - How layoffs and consulting cycles can be hidden behind AI narratives

50:30 - Speaking CFO and making a case for AI with real business value

55:16 - The healthier model: let employees choose tools, measure usage and value

58:28 - Future-proofing employees by collaborating and automating pain points

61:45 - James’ most exciting AI use case: handling mom’s text messages and insurance workflows

64:28 - Why the real win is giving humans more creative time

68:42 - The one thing leaders should focus on: people, questions, and removing friction

71:35 - Where to find James Lang and learn more about Overlang

Guest:

James Lang: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-overlang/

OverLang Venture Partners: https://www.overlang.com/

Host:

Ryan Drumheller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-drumheller/

Summary:

Ryan Drumheller speaks with Philippa Gamse, a digital analytics expert who has reviewed more than 5,000 websites over 25 years and written Website Wealth. The conversation focuses on a simple but important idea: the numbers may be accurate, but the conclusions people draw from them are often incomplete.

We discuss how to separate real business value from surface-level metrics, why AI reporting needs human judgment, and how leaders can spot hidden opportunities in website data before they get missed.

Timestamps

00:00 - Why this episode matters: data is not always the problem

01:18 - What drew Philippa into analytics and digital strategy

04:42 - The danger of only reading page-one dashboard metrics

06:23 - Why humans obsess over bad news in reports

10:12 - When agencies report success but miss the business outcome

12:19 - The difference between correct data and the wrong question

13:44 - Why content and products can be “obvious” only to insiders

16:03 - Site search as hidden market research

17:13 - Why context matters more than raw numbers

18:13 - Seasonal sales drops and why AI may flag but not explain them

20:35 - A paid ads case where the real problem was elsewhere

22:30 - Sales friction in the signup form, not the ad campaign

25:59 - Using Claude to scan websites, then applying human judgment

28:42 - How visitor behavior reveals unmet product demand

30:12 - Turning consumer interest into a side e-commerce business

32:22 - Another opportunity:

34:48 - Why teams may miss value when they only trust their own reporting

37:50 - “Death by data” and the risk of analysis paralysis

38:16 - Why video view counts can hide massive drop-off after the first minute

41:52 - AI hallucinations and the need to verify what it tells you

42:48 - Screen recordings uncover a form bug AI could not diagnose

47:15 - The questions leaders should ask before major analytics-driven decisions

49:24 - What success looks like for Philippa now

51:46 - Where to connect with Philippa and book a decision confidence call

Guest:

Philippa Gamse: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippagamse/

Website: http://www.websitesthatwin.com/

Website Wealth Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FCDN68P9?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

Host:

Ryan Drumheller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-drumheller/

Summary:

AI Implementation Is a Human Problem

This episode explores why AI initiatives fail when businesses treat them like a technology rollout instead of a people and leadership challenge. Ryan Drumheller is joined by Ted Wolf, co-founder and CEO of GuideWise and author of The Intelligent Business Equation, who shares lessons from scaling an IT staffing company from two people and $1,000 to 650 employees, and how those lessons apply directly to AI adoption.

They break down why business operations, technology, and people have to improve together, why leadership drift quietly breaks alignment, and why the future belongs to organizations that build trust, clarity, and critical thinking into their AI strategy.

Timestamps

00:00 - Why AI implementation is really a human challenge

01:27 - How Ted built a 650-person company from two employees

02:30 - Why change initiatives and AI pilots fail so often

04:53 - Lessons from earlier technology cycles and why AI is different

09:08 - The turning point: business problems are rarely just operational

10:36 - The three forces that shape business value

13:03 - What Ted means by an intelligent business

14:57 - ROI from AI and why returns can compound fast

16:05 - Demographics, labor shortages, and why AI matters to workforce supply

20:04 - Why humans still drive the AI outcome

24:46 - Leadership drift and how organizations lose alignment

27:13 - Trust, clarity, and ownership as the core of leadership

30:35 - Why AI fails when business processes are weak

33:36 - AI as a new way of thinking, not just a tool

35:05 - Why AI creates a continuous input-process-output loop

36:03 - Victor Frankl, response, and human awareness

42:46 - Building an intelligent business with five closes and better project management

46:54 - Why AI can hurt when it is implemented without judgment

48:32 - Working through setbacks and turning difficulty into growth

52:35 - Why people should embrace AI instead of fear it

54:28 - Where to find Ted Wolf and GuideWise

Guest:

Ted Wolf: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedwolftwo/

Guidewise: guidewise.ai

Email: [email protected]

Host:

Ryan Drumheller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-drumheller/

Summary:

Ryan Drumheller sits down with Kevin Carlson, fractional CTO, CISO, executive coach, and partner at Tech CXO, for a practical conversation about the realities behind executive technology leadership. They cover why so many business issues are really people and process issues, how fractional leadership works in practice, and where companies keep getting AI and security wrong.

Timestamps

(00:00) Intro to the episode and Kevin Carlson’s background

(01:34) How Kevin’s career evolved from developer to CTO and CISO

(03:09) Why leadership became just as important as technology

(04:33) Learning workplace psychology, coaching, and executive presence

(07:20) Why most business problems are process and people problems

(11:56) Why fractional executive roles have grown so quickly

(14:14) How AI accelerated the appeal of fractional leadership

(17:53) Leaders becoming the team’s backup system

(21:02) Where companies get AI implementation wrong

(24:38) Experimenting with AI versus operationalizing it

(27:00) Data privacy and security risks in AI adoption

(33:06) Where leadership teams underestimate cyber risk

(36:32) How executives should think about AI governance and security

(40:57) The hardest part of moving technologists into executive roles

(44:47) The most underrated leadership trait

(47:12) What success means to Kevin today

(50:19) Where to find Kevin and what he has coming up

Guest:

Kevin Carlson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevincarlson/

TechCXO: : https://www.linkedin.com/company/techcxo

Executive Shift Newsletter

Weber's Law, Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H49ZZKNN/?bestFormat=true&k=weber%27s%20law&ref_=nb_sb_ss_w_scx-ent-bk-v2_k0_1_11_de&crid=1M3S51D7AT0H9&sprefix=Weber%27s%20Law

Host:

Ryan Drumheller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-drumheller/

Episode Summary

Ryan Drumheller talks with Fergus Dyer-Smith about enterprise AI adoption, governance, agentic systems, vendor dependency, and why real-world implementation matters more than the model itself.

Key Topics

Fergus’s path from science to technology and product building

Why AI deployment fails more often than AI development

The role of change management and human adoption

Why most organizations are not ready for AI governance

Agents, memory, tools, and orchestration

Vendor lock-in and model-agnostic strategy

Leadership’s role in successful AI adoption

What success means in a rapidly changing AI era

Guest

Fergus Dyer-Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fergusdyersmith/

CPO, MSQ Global Studios: https://www.linkedin.com/company/msq-partners/

Host

Ryan Drumheller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-drumheller/

Summary

In this episode of Decline Invite, Ryan Drumheller speaks with Ofer Lidsky, founder and CEO of Excellent Brain, about the intersection of neurotechnology, ADHD, leadership, and AI. Ofer explains how neurofeedback works as a brain-training method that uses real-time brainwave feedback to improve attention and cognitive performance, especially for people with ADHD. The conversation also explores the difference between the human brain and AI, the risks of overreliance on technology, and why integrity, empathy, and human connection remain essential in leadership.

Chapters

0:00 — Intro and guest introduction

1:54 — Ofer’s early tech background

3:24 — Discovering the brain as a system

7:24 — “Upgrading the human operating system”

10:43 — Technology and attention spans

18:07 — What neurofeedback is

21:41 — ADHD, statistics, and real-life impact

29:03 — The future of neurotechnology

31:10 — How AI is accelerating the space

35:19 — Brain training, fitness, and cognitive decline

38:19 — Leadership lessons from human connection

44:41 — Integrity and mental performance

46:23 — Defining success

47:46 — Advice for people with ADHD

49:54 — Where to learn more about Excellent Brain

50:38 — Outro

Links

Website: https://www.excellent-brain.com

Ofer's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oferlidsky/

Host: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-drumheller/

Summary

Ryan Drumheller sits down with global support leader Mykel Salomon to explore how organizations can adopt AI without losing sight of the people affected by it. They discuss the importance of empathy, responsible implementation, workforce reskilling, customer experience design, governance, and why AI should support human judgment—not replace it. Mykel also shares his path from IT support to global leadership and explains why customer support is fundamentally emotional labor.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: Staying human while building with AI

02:01 Mykel’s global background and leadership perspective

06:13 From IT support to customer experience leadership

10:33 Why AI needs a stronger human conversation

14:52 Technology should serve humanity

18:11 Governance, planning, and responsible AI adoption

20:38 The real and hidden costs of AI

25:18 Customer support as emotional labor

29:06 Designing customer experiences before choosing technology

32:37 How AI is reshaping customer support

35:45 Pattern recognition and preventing customer issues

39:18 Why organizations need clarity and strategy

42:19 AI adoption is a people project

44:00 The human skills organizations underestimate

49:13 What support teams can teach every business

50:59 What success means to Mykel

53:21 Where to connect with Mykel

53:51 Closing remarks

Links:

Mykel Salomon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mykelsalomon/

Human Protocol Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-human-protocol/

Host: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-drumheller/

Show Notes

Episode Summary

Ryan Drumheller talks with Raj Singh about building products, teams, and businesses in an AI-native era. The conversation covers startup lessons, consumer vs. enterprise dynamics, the changing nature of product moats, and how AI is reshaping execution, distribution, and team design

Chapters

00:00 — Intro and Raj Singh’s background

02:10 — Raj’s founder origin story

03:39 — Why he keeps building

06:12 — Early-stage vs. large-company work

10:20 — Lessons from startups and exits

14:31 — Startup life vs. larger organizations

20:19 — AI adoption inside large companies

25:23 — How AI changes product decisions

30:20 — Humans, agents, and the future of work

34:36 — AI as a new abstraction layer

40:04 — Why disruption becomes a moat

45:04 — How moats are changing in AI

47:32 — Personal brand, growth, and distribution

51:23 — Underrated founder skill: creativity

53:59 — Builders vs. dreamers

57:27 — Biggest startup lesson: take more risk

59:41 — Where to find Raj

Links:

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/MobileRaj

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajansingh/

Firefox: https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/

Host: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-drumheller/