Fix My Fees

Recruiters are staring at 200 resumes that all look identical — because everyone's

using the same AI prompt. Here's how to not be one of them.

Chris Berta has spent 20+ years placing executives at Amazon, Microsoft, PayPal, Expedia, Disney, and DuckDuckGo — he's filled most of DuckDuckGo's exec suite over the years. He knows exactly why your application is disappearing, and what companies should be doing differently on the other side of it.

WHAT YOU'LL GET:

- Why the shotgun approach died the moment ChatGPT showed up

- The sniper method — five companies, one human contact each, zero online applications

- How to write a resume that tells a story instead of listing bullets

- Why a Microsoft person often fails at Amazon, and what that means for your own hires

- How to make your application process hard enough to filter out the bots

- What "comfortable with AI" actually means to a hiring manager right now

- The equity math that almost cost one candidate the job she wanted

Chris Berta is a Partner at The Laurel Group, a boutique executive search firm working with growth companies and PE/VC-backed teams, and Managing Partner at Urgency.

Connect with Chris:

Website: laurel-group.com

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: Chris Berta

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Fix My Fees helps business owners stop overpaying on merchant processing.

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→ FixMyFees.com

Got a business story nobody's telling? [email protected]

Your people are smart. They work hard. They still don't deliver what they promised more than 60% of the time — and Chris Major says the missing 40% isn't laziness, software, or strategy. It's coordination waste, and it's invisible.

Chris coined the term "team cohesion" back in 1983, spent three years helping the U.S. Army redesign how it trains soldiers, ran a classified year with Special Forces, then took that body of work to AT&T, Intel, Microsoft, Nike, Cargill, and Capital One. In this episode he explains why most of what we call "modern management" was invented by people born in the 1800s to turn farm workers into factory labor — and why it's quietly breaking your business today.

He breaks down the four quadrants of every working conversation, why the negotiation phase is where almost everything falls apart, and the rule he teaches every client: never take a first yes.

If meetings are breeding meetings, everything takes longer than it should, and your A-players are getting quiet — this one's for you.

Chapters
00:00 Why merchant processing is boring and Chris isn't
01:07 Rugby, skiing, and a business plan with one flaw
02:20 Three years with the Army and a blank check from Special Forces
04:30 Management practices designed for Henry Ford
05:45 You're not a knowledge worker. You're a coordination worker
07:09 Why Slack and Notion won't save you
08:38 The two-minute exercise where every single hand goes up
09:50 The four quadrants: formulation, negotiation, fulfillment, satisfaction
12:01 Never take a first yes
13:17 The thank-you you never got and what it cost your boss
15:00 Coordination waste: the 40% you can't see
16:09 The telltale signs your company already has this problem
17:18 Why you can't just train the quarterback
20:33 "2 to 3% of your people will quit. I don't charge extra for that."
24:12 Understanding is not competence. Only your body learns
27:20 What high performers actually spend on development
27:52 Why promoting the finance guy backfires
30:09 Fire walking, the Inca Trail, and the truth about Seattle rain
32:54 Where to find Chris

Connect with Chris Major
Human Potential Project: https://humanpotentialproject.com
Book — The Power to Transform

Got a story worth telling? Email Tavious at [email protected] to come on the show.

Fix My Fees helps business owners stop overpaying on merchant processing.

Keep more. Grow more. Live better.
https://FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees

Grace Sanchez has helped raise more than $1 billion for nonprofits. She started the Grace Group 23 years ago with one client and a name suggested by her 12-year-old son.

In this episode, Grace breaks down how grant funding actually works — the four pillars of giving, why her team is usually the fifth one an organization hires, and the 190-page, four-month application that landed a hospital $12 million. She also explains the detail that gets applications declined on sight (hint: it's the paper).

Then it gets personal. Grace shares losing her sister to ovarian cancer, quitting her job at Deutsche Bank to spend her mother's final year with her, and how a single comment from a scholarship student pushed her to convert her soap company, Hudson Naturals, into a social enterprise where 100% of profits fund student scholarships.

If you've ever wondered why corporations really give money away, how to turn one gift into five years of funding, or what it looks like to move from success to significance — this one's for you.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Meet Grace Sanchez
1:17 Fundraising, Deutsche Bank, and the year everything changed
8:21 Who actually needs a grant writer
11:48 The $12M grant — and the detail that gets you declined
13:47 Why they're usually the fifth team hired
14:45 The secret sauce: finding the right funders
15:10 The report that wins you the next five gifts
18:11 Why corporations give money away
20:22 Buying a soap company to save her body butter
24:16 The student comment that changed everything
26:47 Turning Hudson Naturals into a social enterprise
29:57 Golf, cooking, and coming back richer
32:37 Generational generosity and the rice paddy proverb
34:39 Her #1 secret to success
36:50 How to reach Grace

CONNECT WITH GRACE
Email: [email protected]
Hudson Naturals — soap and body butter where profits fund student scholarships

ABOUT FIX MY FEES
Merchant processing is boring. The people running real businesses aren't. Every week, host Tavious sits down with founders, operators, and leaders who share what actually worked, what it cost them, and what they'd do differently.

Keep more. Grow more. Live better.
FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees

Want to be a guest? Reach out: [email protected]

You got the bill. It's wrong. You paid it anyway.

Emily Bernstein has erased $1.9 million in medical debt for her clients, and she says most people never even try to fight — because hospitals and insurers count on you not knowing you can.

She founded Wheelhouse Health Navigation after her mom's brain cancer diagnosis showed her how impossible the system is to navigate while you're also trying to get well. Named Advocate of the Year in 2024, she now averages about $40,000 saved per client — including one man whose $600,000 in hospital bills across three facilities she got wiped out over two years of appeals.

If you run a business, this one matters twice: once for your own family, and once for the employees whose health plan you're paying for.

In this episode:
• Why you should never pay a medical bill you don't believe you owe
• The financial assistance fund every nonprofit hospital is legally required to offer — and rarely tells you about
• How a $120,000 bill got waived entirely
• Why HR has more leverage with your insurer than you do
• What employers should actually look for when choosing a plan
• The new trend of hospitals demanding money upfront, and why you shouldn't pay it

Connect with Emily: wheelhouse-health.com (chat with her directly and book a consultation)

Want to be on the show? Email [email protected]

More at FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees
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Your credentials aren't bringing patients in the door. Your problem statement is.

Jonathan Marx has spent 25 years in healthcare and medical marketing — 10 of them with the CDC, another 10 on a federally funded ADHD project that trained 33,000 clinicians and pulled a million YouTube views. He's now 325+ episodes into his own show, GoToHealth.

In this episode he breaks down why most practice websites are built backwards, the mantra he's used for two decades ("multiple media, multiple times"), and the two structural changes that decide whether AI recommends your business or skips right past it.

If you own a practice, a clinic, or any local service business, the section on schema and FAQs is worth the whole episode.

What we get into:
• The single biggest mistake healthcare professionals make with their messaging
• Why people retain 2–5% of anything you tell them once — and what to do about it
• Schema markup and the FAQ block that makes AI bots understand your site
• Google search is shrinking. What's replacing it, and how to be the answer
• How to pick social platforms by audience instead of doing all of them badly
• What AI will and won't do inside the exam room
• Building a media network so 300 experts promote each other

Connect with Jonathan Marx
Website: gotohealthmedia.com
Email: [email protected]
GoToHealth on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify

Fix My Fees
Keep more. Grow more. Live better.
FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees

Got a business worth talking about? Reach out: [email protected]

Wes Michael had the idea in 2000. He didn't start the company until 2013.

What finally moved him wasn't a business plan — it was his wife landing a job with health insurance, right as his employer asked him to work a few months without pay.

Thirteen years later: 12,000 studies, 1,500 conditions, and more than $18

million paid directly to patients and caregivers for sharing their stories.

Earlier this year he sold Rare Patient Voice to Canova.

In this episode Wes breaks down how a client telling him "no" became the entire business model, why he pays people cash instead of gift cards, how LinkedIn became his primary client channel without a sales team, and why he named the company for the patients instead of the buyers.

If you're building something that serves two completely different audiences, this one's for you.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Meet Wes Michael

00:59 What Rare Patient Voice actually does

02:23 Why they pay cash instead of gift cards

03:27 Why drug companies need to hear from patients

05:08 From Wheaties and McCormick to healthcare

06:50 The hemophilia project that started everything

07:50 The client who said "no" — and gave him the idea

08:25 Why he waited 13 years to launch

09:20 12,000 studies, $18M paid, and the exit

10:10 The most invigorating part of the work

13:42 What he wishes more people knew

15:36 Marketing to patients and clients at the same time

16:39 Why LinkedIn works better than a sales pitch

18:25 Conferences, events, and the referral partner model

21:02 What retirement looks like

22:13 Peanut butter, peaches, and small portions

CONNECT WITH WES

Rare Patient Voice: https://rarepatientvoice.com

LinkedIn: search "Wes Michael"

Patients and caregivers — any condition, not just rare — can sign up at

rarepatientvoice.com to take part in paid, confidential surveys and interviews.

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Fix My Fees is the podcast where merchant processing is so boring, we bring on interesting people and ask them about their business instead.

Want to be a guest? Email Tavious at [email protected]

More at FixMyFees.com

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The big box gym model has a quiet problem: it makes the most money from members who never walk through the door. Jon Cerf spent a year inside that world as a trainer, decided it felt criminal, and at 23 opened his own studio with 900 square feet and no backers.

Nineteen years and half a million training sessions later, Core Progression is opening location number ten. Jon sits down with Tavious to break down why a premium price tag actually makes people show up, why a client can train five days a week for three months and change nothing, and why most gym owners don't own a business at all — they own a job. He also gets into the movement assessment most trainers skip, the client who lost 100 pounds twice, and the unpopular truth about entrepreneurship nobody on YouTube wants to say out loud.

Chapters
00:00 Wealth means nothing once your health is gone
01:32 Launching Core Progression at 23
04:39 Seashells, snow shoveling, and a lifelong hustle
07:01 Building boutique fitness before boutique existed
08:39 Why systems beat one great trainer
11:07 The real reason people quit before results show
12:44 The gym model that felt criminal to him
15:32 The assessment that changes everything
18:36 You hire a CPA and a mechanic. Why not for your body?
22:42 100 pounds lost, twice
26:03 What actually separates Core Progression
28:37 Not everyone is built to own a business
31:11 Golf, family, and the finish line nobody skips
33:37 How to connect with Jon

Connect with Jon Cerf
Core Progression: coreprogression.com

Got an interesting business? Come on the show.
Email Tavious: [email protected]

Fix My Fees helps business owners stop overpaying on merchant processing.

Keep more. Grow more. Live better.
FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees

Kate Mihevc Edwards was training for a half Ironman when her watch read 400. She assumed the Garmin was broken. It wasn't.

It took a year to diagnose. Kate has a rare genetic heart condition that running makes worse, and she went from multiple marathons a year and 5 a.m. track workouts to two slow miles a week, never alone. She's a physical therapist who spent her career building a life around running, and she had to rebuild it without the running.

She's back, and what she does now is called running medicine: a multidisciplinary approach that pulls together physicians, physical therapists, sports dietitians, and sports psychologists around a single athlete. Her clinic, Precision Performance, has two Atlanta-area locations, and most of the people who end up in her office are elite athletes or high-performing CEOs.

This one is for the founder who treats their body as the one asset they never maintain. Kate's take on that is refreshing: she says most type-A entrepreneurs have stressed themselves out about being healthy to the point where the stress itself is the problem. Her advice is to do less, not more.

In this episode:
• What running medicine actually is, and why one practitioner is rarely enough
• The heart condition that ended her competitive running, and what came after
• Why she says between 20% and 80% of runners get injured every year, depending on the study
• Two form cues worth fixing (arm swing and posture), and why you should only change one at a time
• Why where your foot lands matters less than how far in front of you it lands
• Under-fueling as an injury driver, and the link she draws between low carbs and stress fractures
• Strength training as the thing that lets you put more miles on your body
• Why the most comfortable shoe is the right shoe, and why the local running store beats Amazon
• "Count your breaths, not your reps"

Connect with Kate
KateMihevcEdwards.com
[email protected]
App: RunSource
Podcast: Interdisciplinary Case Miles

Got an interesting business and want to be on the show? Email [email protected]

Does your business accept credit cards? It takes 60 seconds to see what you're overpaying on processing. FixMyFees.com

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FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees

🎧 Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube

Nothing in this episode is medical advice. Talk to your doctor before starting or changing an exercise program.

Matt Tait tried to do his own books. It cost him $10,000 at tax time to have someone redo all of it — and that mistake became the reason he started Decimal, an accounting firm that has since served over 1,000 companies in 48 states before he sold it and went all-in on franchising.

In this episode, Matt breaks down the money blind spots that quietly cap growth: why he calls most companies "bank account businesses," why your largest revenue line is often your least profitable, and why he thinks any amount of outstanding accounts receivable is a problem worth confronting.

If you've ever avoided the awkward "you still owe me" conversation with a long-time client, this one's for you.

What we cover:
• The $10,000 bookkeeping lesson that started a company
• "Bank account businesses" — and why $50M companies still run this way
• Tax compliance vs. tax advising vs. strategic business advice (three different jobs)
• The 70% vs. 20% margin story: revenue isn't income
• Why Matt says any AR is bad AR — and how to charge interest without losing the client
• Weekly AR reports as the single habit that changes owner behavior
• The tool stack he puts every client on
• Why he's a great leader and a terrible manager — and hired accordingly
• Fighting for work-life balance, plus a month working from Costa Rica

Have an interesting business? Reach out to be on the show: [email protected]

Keep more. Grow more. Live better.
FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees

Rebecca Mariolis-Baker started as a hairstylist. She ended up running health and wellness for Groupon, servicing accounts at Target, CVS, Walgreens and Costco along the way. Then at 42 she had her third baby, walked away from the corporate machine, and co-founded a wellness company with her husband — built on a federal farm bill loophole most people still don't know exists.

In this episode she breaks down how she and her husband took the business back from a five-person team, rebuilt it around 30 AI agents, and scaled it without staying up until 2 a.m. debugging their own website. The brand is Urmawm — pronounced "Your Mom," named after the joke she used to torment her teenagers with — and the tagline tells you everything about her approach to stigma: so chill, your mom would approve.

She also gets honest about the double standard. The same mentors who judged her for the smell of weed were doing bumps in the bathroom between trade show meetings.

If you're an entrepreneur who's tired of the crash, curious about AI you can actually deploy, or building something the market isn't ready to say out loud yet — this one's for you.

What we cover:
• Why data beat gut instinct in her career, starting in her 20s
• What actually changes when you swap alcohol for something else
• The amino acid behind urfocus and focus without the 5 p.m. Adderall crash
• How to vet a wellness brand in a "wild west" market before you buy
• Running 30 AI agents without losing the human check-in
• Why joy and awareness can both be true at the same time

Connect with Rebecca
Brand: Urmawm — pronounced "Your Mom"
Email: [email protected]
Products: urfocus · urchill · ursleep · urbalm · Drops of Joy

One more thing: if you catch the "your mom went to college" reference, drop it in the comments. Tavious has a gift for you.

Got an interesting business and want to be on the show? Email [email protected]

Keep more. Grow more. Live better.
FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees

🎧 Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube

21+. Nothing in this episode is medical advice. Talk to your doctor before starting any supplement.