Founders Future

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Ammar Elm, Audrey Malautea, owner of Salt MedSpa in Fayetteville, Georgia, shares her journey from cosmetology and corporate leadership to taking over and rebranding a holistic med spa. Audrey discusses how Salt MedSpa stands out with its focus on halo therapy (dry salt therapy), a unique approach that combines wellness and beauty through respiratory and skin benefits. She dives into the spa’s membership model, the challenges of acquiring and retaining top talent, and her vision for expanding Salt MedSpa into a nationally recognized lifestyle brand.

Audrey also opens up about the realities of purchasing an existing business, the importance of hands-on leadership, and how she’s fostering a culture of education around natural health solutions. From renovating the spa to building a "dream team," she emphasizes the power of community impact and why Salt MedSpa’s mission—helping people look and feel better—makes it a scalable franchise opportunity. Whether discussing lymphatic drainage or the future of franchise growth, Audrey’s passion for holistic wellness shines through.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Mishal Saeed, Andrea Butcher, CEO and founder of Abundant Empowerment, shares her journey from HR leader to pioneering a human-centric approach to leadership development. With over 20 years of experience, Andrea reveals how her company—spanning executive coaching, consulting, and a thriving leadership podcast—helps leaders and organizations unlock their potential by focusing on self-discovery rather than prescriptive frameworks. She dives into her unique "growth experience" methodology, designed to foster alignment in executive teams and empower founders through her Collab AE community.

Andrea also discusses the evolving landscape of leadership development, emphasizing the growing demand for personalized coaching in an era of workplace uncertainty. From leveraging LinkedIn for organic growth to her vision of scaling through a network of trusted coaches, she offers insights on balancing service delivery with strategic marketing. Listeners will walk away inspired by her mission: helping leaders "be more of who they already are"—and her plans to repurpose decades of content to amplify Abundant Empowerment’s impact.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Ammar Elm, we sit down with Keith Davis, founder of Davis Communications Group and a seasoned sales leader with decades of experience scaling revenue teams. Keith shares his journey from corporate sales leadership to launching his own consultancy, driven by a passion for people-centric growth and a frustration with the "cog-in-the-machine" mentality of traditional sales orgs. He breaks down his proprietary Pipeline Ignition system—a behavioral-based, omnichannel lead generation engine that combines DISC profiling, AI-powered voice outreach (Tori), and intent data to deliver a 20-63% lift in qualified meetings for SMBs in tech, logistics, and professional services.

Keith dives into the challenges of transitioning from hands-on sales leadership to entrepreneurship, including the art of delegation and cutting through market noise. He reveals his 12-month goal of reaching $500K in revenue by onboarding 30 clients, emphasizing the importance of niching down, authentic messaging, and strategic partnerships. Whether you're a consultant struggling with predictable lead flow or a founder looking to systemize sales without adding headcount, Keith’s blend of tactical frameworks and philosophical insights offers a masterclass in revenue growth.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Ammar Elm, we sit down with David Lewallen, founder and CEO of Impact Marketing (soon rebranding to Verbatim Digital), a boutique digital marketing agency specializing in SEO, AI optimization, and full-service digital strategies. David shares his 15-year journey from starting in the agency world during the 2008 financial crisis to acquiring and scaling his own agency, emphasizing the seismic shifts in digital marketing—from early SEO tactics to today’s AI-driven landscape. He reveals how he’s positioning Verbatim Digital as a pioneer in AI visibility optimization and the lessons he’s learned about niching down, leveraging offshore talent, and building scalable processes.

David dives into his vision for the future, including the development of proprietary software to measure brand performance in AI platforms like ChatGPT—a tool he plans to use as both a service and a lead magnet. He also discusses the challenges of transitioning from word-of-mouth growth to predictable lead generation and his plans to dominate the AI marketing space through industry events like Brighton SEO. Whether you’re an agency owner, marketer, or entrepreneur navigating the AI revolution, David’s insights on adaptability, remote team management, and the future of search optimization are packed with actionable takeaways.

In this episode of Founders, Future, host Jae Encarnacion sits down with Rich Diviney, retired Navy SEAL and founder of The Attributes, to explore how innate human qualities—not just skills—drive peak performance under pressure. Rich shares his journey from leading SEAL Team 6’s selection process to revolutionizing leadership development for businesses, sports, and military teams. He breaks down why attributes like adaptability and resilience matter more than skills in high-stakes environments and how his company helps organizations build unstoppable teams.

Rich also dives into the challenges of scaling his impact-driven venture, from refining his core assessment tools to navigating bottlenecks as a founder. With insights on AI’s role in the future of human performance and lessons from elite military training, this episode is packed with actionable wisdom for entrepreneurs and leaders aiming to optimize their teams—and themselves.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Ammar Elm, we dive into the inspiring journey of Tom Miller, executive coach, charter school strategist, and founder of Leaders Building Leaders. Tom shares how he transitioned from a government education role to launching his own leadership coaching business, emphasizing the power of stepping outside one’s comfort zone. He discusses the evolution of his business model—from one-on-one consulting to scalable mastermind groups—and reveals key lessons on niching down, leveraging relationships, and creating passive income streams in the coaching industurytom opens up about the challenges of balancing entrepreneurship with a full-time leadership role in education, the importance of building communities, and how COVID unexpectedly accelerated his business growth. He highlights the critical shift from working in the business to working on it, ensuring long-term sustainability. Whether you’re an educator, coach, or entrepreneur, Tom’s insights on leadership, client acquisition, and business scalability offer invaluable takeaways for anyone looking to make a greater impact.

in this episode of Founders, Future, host Jae Encarnacion sits down with Jackson Elliott, founder of Duffy and Boyd, to unpack how intentional workflow design can transform organizational friction into seamless execution. Jackson shares his journey from project manager to operational advisor, revealing why most companies misdiagnose workflow problems by treating operations as a "role" rather than a system. He breaks down his 3-pillar approach—advisory, fractional ops, and training—that helps leaders design workflows with the same precision as building architecture, ensuring teams deliver without burnout or bottlenecks.

Jackson dives into the hidden costs of reactive operations, from misaligned tech stacks to dysfunctional handoffs, and why founders must map work horizontally (not just vertically). He also shares his unconventional growth strategy—leveraging storytelling and community over traditional sales—and why solving operational dysfunction starts with listening to how work actually moves (not how leaders think it does).

In this episode of Founders, Future, host Jae Encarnacion sits down with Jeffrey Klubeck, founder of Get A Klu, Inc. and creator of The Integrity Game. A former professor turned "soft skills architect," Jeffrey shares how he cracked the code on accountability by offering two free coaching sessions (not one)—a strategy that transformed his practice. He reveals how his 10-point Integrity Game framework helps leaders and teams "retrofit their structural integrity" through playful yet profound dialogues, and why he’s on a mission to certify entire organizations in the model.

From accidental entrepreneur (launching during the 2008 recession) to thought leader, Jeffrey unpacks his journey with raw honesty—including the pitfalls of branding ("Nobody wants to be a Get A Klu coach") and his pivot to The Integrity Game as a scalable IP. He also drops golden insights on why most goal-setting fails ("People confuse it with hope, wish, dream") and how solopreneurs can leverage speaking gigs and "white-label" coaching to drive consistent revenue without traditional ads.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Mishal Saeed, we sit down with Joe O’Connor, founder of The Transformer—a consultancy blending military resilience with entrepreneurial strategy. Joe shares his extraordinary journey from surviving two near-fatal accidents (a childhood car crash and a 400-foot fall during SAS selection) to building a coaching practice that helps entrepreneurs and veterans overcome adversity. His signature "Pathfinder" methodology—structured around reconnaissance, strategic advance, and tail-end review—combines battlefield logic with business growth, delivered through masterminds, one-on-one coaching, and a veteran-focused podcast.

Joe reveals how he’s scaling The Transformer while staying true to his ethos: "Failure isn’t fatal—it’s feedback." He discusses leveraging LinkedIn (despite recent neck surgery recovery), ethical AI integration, and why his mastermind groups thrive on collective problem-solving. For founders, his hard-won advice cuts deep: "Your biggest obstacle is often you. Build a team that covers your weaknesses, and remember—apathy is the enemy of growth." 

In this episode of Founders, Future, host Mishal Saeed sits down with Jeremiah Patterson, Founder & CEO of Lunabre Inc, a human performance optimization consultancy that helps businesses maximize their operational outcomes through behavioral science. Jeremiah shares his journey from a self-taught developer launching ventures at 14 to a 20-year Air Force veteran blending military precision with corporate strategy. He reveals how Lunabre’s unique approach—focusing on culture, communication, and accountability—has delivered ROI as high as 364x for clients, including averted crises like a $14.7M talent exodus at an AI firm.

Jeremiah discusses Lunabre’s shift from mid-market to enterprise clients, their rejection of traditional consulting models, and why their "tracer" assessments and intensives flip the script by making teams own their solutions. He also opens up about the challenges of transitioning from product-based to service-based businesses, the power of referrals over ads, and his vision for scaling Lunabre’s impact—one domino at a time.