Founders Future

In this episode of Founders, Future, host Mishal Saeed sits down with Dr. Michael Abelson, founder and CEO of The Abelson Group, a premier organizational consulting firm specializing in psychological assessments like DISC, motivators, and emotional intelligence. With over 45 years of experience and 650,000+ assessments sold, Dr. Abelson shares his journey from academia to entrepreneurship, detailing how his firm helps organizations optimize hiring, leadership, and team dynamics through data-driven insights. He discusses the challenges of scaling a consulting business, the power of referrals, and his vision for digitizing offerings to maximize impact.

Dr. Abelson dives into the science behind behavioral assessments, explaining why most DISC tools fall short and how his approach delivers unmatched accuracy. He also reveals his strategies for client retention, the surprising truth about turnover, and why private equity isn’t part of his succession plan. Whether you're an HR leader, entrepreneur, or executive, this episode offers invaluable lessons on leveraging human potential for long-term organizational success.

In this episode of Founders Future, host Mishal Saeed sits down with Brad Blazar, founder of Capital School and a global authority on raising capital from high-net-worth investors. Brad shares his journey from building a billion-dollar oil company to launching Capital School, revealing how he identified the critical gap between entrepreneurs’ dreams and their access to funding. With over $2B raised in his career, Brad breaks down his "investor-ready" framework, the 3 ways to work with him (coaching, collaborations, or investing alongside him), and why most coaching programs fail to address the advanced strategies needed to attract family offices and institutional capital.

Brad also dives into his client acquisition playbook—from 6-7% ROAS on paid ads to global speaking stages—and the mindset shifts required to scale beyond "randomness in motion." He shares hard-won lessons on building remote vs. in-person sales teams, why 90% of entrepreneurs self-sabotage by not fully committing to coaching, and his vision for international bootcamps to democratize capital access. For anyone tired of small checks and ready to play at the "big kids’ table," this episode is a masterclass in systemic fundraising and the compounding power of persistence.

In this episode of Founders, Future, with host Jae Encarnacion, Girard Newkirk, CEO of Genesis Block ILM, shares his visionary blueprint for rebuilding Main Street economies through blockchain and community empowerment. From his roots in rural North Carolina to Silicon Valley leadership, Girard reveals how his "NewKirkonomics" model combines procurement pipelines, entrepreneur training, and blockchain infrastructure to create what he calls "the Bloomberg terminal for neighborhood economies." He breaks down Genesis Block’s 12 pilot projects, 40-city tour launching August 2025, and their mission to digitize opportunity for underserved entrepreneurs—particularly in HBCUs and global South communities.*

Girard dives into the 5 P’s driving Genesis Block’s next phase (People, Pilots, Platforms, Podcasts, Publishing) and how AI tools like Gamma and Zoho help his small team punch above their weight. For founders, his hard-won advice cuts deep: "Genuine knowledge only comes through direct experience—your 'fails' are just first attempts at learning." The conversation is a masterclass in aligning technology with grassroots impact, proving blockchain’s potential as a force for economic justice.

In this episode of Founders, Future, with host Jay Encarnacion, Dr. MaryJo Burchard, founder of Concord Leadership Group, shares her transformative approach to helping leaders navigate chaos with resilience. With a PhD in organizational leadership and a background spanning academia, nonprofits, and crisis response, MaryJo reveals why 70% of organizational changes fail—and how her trauma-informed "Change Readiness" model flips the script. She explains her unique 6-dimension trust assessment, why leaders need "mental de-escalation" tools during upheaval, and how she helped organizations recover from events like mass shootings by reframing trauma as a change management challenge.*

MaryJo unpacks her shift from word-of-mouth consulting to scalable programs, including executive retreats and org-wide "Change Readiness Intensives." She shares hard-won lessons on niching down ("You can’t buy-in to a hurricane, but you can prepare for one"), the AI tools streamlining her work, and why she’s betting on community over hard sales. For founders fearing pivots, her advice cuts deep: "What is to give light must endure the burning"—clarify your core thread, even if it means shedding "good" opportunities to focus on your transformative niche.*

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Mishal Saeed, we meet Jovana Meeks, founder of boutique branding and operations agency Maven and Muse, who reveals how her decade of experience uncovered a critical gap in the market: businesses crumbling under operational chaos despite polished exteriors. Jovana shares her "depth over volume" philosophy, offering 6-month intensive engagements where she diagnoses internal fractures—from team dysfunctions to founder blind spots—before helping clients rebuild with clarity. Her unique approach combines one-on-one CEO coaching with team-level interventions, creating alignment she calls "the invisible foundation of scalable branding."

Jovana opens up about the challenges of scaling a high-touch consultancy while maintaining quality, admitting her current bottleneck is her own capacity as a solopreneur. With plans to hire support staff and develop digital products, she discusses her vision to "scale clarity, not noise" by focusing on sustainable systems over rapid growth. For founders, her advice cuts through the hype: "Don’t let AI or trends distract you—solve human problems first, and the marketing will follow

In this episode of Founders, Future, with host Jay Encarnacion, Bryan Gray, founder and CEO of Revenue Path Group, shares his revolutionary approach to sales in the AI era. With over three decades of experience and a neuroscience-backed methodology, Bryan explains how traditional sales strategies are failing in today’s market—where decision-making teams are larger, margins are shrinking, and AI is reshaping seller roles. He dives into his "Priority Sale" framework, emphasizing the need to engage executives before they enter a buying journey, reframing sales as a margin-creation engine rather than just revenue generation. Bryan also discusses how Revenue Path Group helps businesses avoid commoditization by aligning with buyer priorities and leveraging AI to scale human capability, not replace it.

Bryan unpacks the urgent shifts required for sales teams to thrive, from "threat radar" positioning to consensus orchestration in complex deals. He reveals why 80% of seller tasks will soon be automated—and why the remaining 20% (executive-level strategy, trust-building, and risk framing) will define future success. The conversation explores scaling Revenue Path Group through thought leadership, AI-augmented coaching, and his upcoming book, Max Your Margins, while leaving listeners with a bold call: Adapt to perpetual disruption or risk irrelevance in the high-velocity, AI-driven sales landscape.

In this episode of Founders, Future, with host Jay Encarnacion, Dax Hamman, CEO and co-founder of FOMO.ai, shares how his company is helping businesses navigate the AI-driven disruption of traditional marketing. With 25 years in digital marketing and ad tech, Dax reveals why AI search (ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.) is the new battleground for brands—replacing outdated SEO and paid ad strategies—and how FOMO.ai’s hybrid human-AI approach delivers 10x the results at a fraction of the cost. He breaks down their "playbook" for dominating AI search, the pitfalls of legacy agencies, and why topical authority (not keywords) is now the key to high-margin traffic.*

Dax also dives into FOMO.ai’s rapid scaling, from managed services for enterprise clients to a new self-serve model for SMBs. He discusses the bottlenecks of founder-led growth, why cold outbound email still works, and his contrarian take on VC funding in a fast-evolving AI landscape. With predictions on the death of SaaS (thanks to OpenAI’s agents) and actionable advice for businesses to "just use AI more," Dax leaves listeners with a urgent call: Adapt now or risk obsolescence as AI reshapes marketing faster than the internet ever did.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Mishal Saeed, we welcome Robbin Jorgensen, founder and CEO of Women Igniting Change, who shares her 20-year journey from corporate leadership to pioneering a global movement for women’s empowerment. Robbin reveals how her own experience being "thrown into the deep end" as a female leader inspired her to create experiential, non-traditional training programs that help women shed imposter syndrome and lead authentically. She breaks down her bold 2025 pivot from B2B corporate partnerships to direct-to-consumer offerings, including her 8-week Ignite Your Impact course and year-long Changemaker Accelerator, designed to help women align purpose with professional growth.

Robbin discusses navigating the shifting DEI landscape by doubling down on her mission: "Every woman has a difference she’s meant to make—our job is to help her name it and claim it." With programs already impacting women in 31 countries, she shares her vision for scaling through global collaborations, paid ads, and eventually a full-scale media campaign to establish Women Igniting Change as the go-to brand for purpose-driven female leaders. Her hard-won advice? "Anchor everything in your ‘compelling purpose’—it’s what pulls you through fear and uncertainty."

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Mishal Saeed, we sit down with Khris Kennedy, founder of Focused Consulting Group, who shares his unconventional journey from pastor to insurance mogul to leadership transformation expert. Khris reveals how scaling one of America’s largest insurance agencies led him to discover his true passion: helping organizations fix their "people problems" through his signature "4 Cs" framework (Clarity, Critical, Cohesion, Cascade). He breaks down his unique "cascade coaching" model that embeds consultants at every organizational layer to uncover unvarnished truths—a strategy that’s earned him a 90% close rate and a waiting list of clients, all through word-of-mouth alone.

Khris discusses the challenges of scaling a consultancy where clients demand his expertise, sharing how he’s training senior consultants to take the "first chair" while maintaining quality. He also teases an ambitious new venture: creating the first-ever foundational leadership certification (CLMP) to address America’s leadership training gap. For founders, his hard-won advice cuts through the noise: "Clarity is kindness—whether setting expectations with teams or clients, directness prevents disaster and builds trust.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Mishal Saeed, we sit down with Jamie Crosbie, founder and CEO of Proactivate, who’s redefining talent acquisition with her 20-year-old firm’s unique "fixed fee" model. Jamie shares how her early career at CareerBuilder exposed the flaws in traditional recruiting—especially for sales roles—and inspired her to build a deeply behavioral interview process that evaluates mindset (80% of success) alongside skills. She reveals how Proactivate’s 85% referral-driven business thrives by focusing on "revenue insurance" for clients, ensuring they’re never caught off guard by talent gaps.

Jamie breaks down her vision for scaling in an AI-dominated industry, emphasizing that human-centric evaluation (like Proactivate’s 2-hour simulation-based interviews) will always outperform algorithms for high-stakes roles. With 65% recurring revenue and plans to expand strategic partnerships, she offers hard-won advice on differentiation: "Solve the customer’s problem in a way others don’t—like our model that eliminates conflict-of-interest fees." For founders, she stresses leaning into uncertainty: "The best time to stand out is when others are pulling back."