From the Ground Up

Mary Howerton, founder of La Belle Route Custom Tours, joins From the Ground Up to discuss how intentional travel can create deeper cultural connection and more meaningful experiences. She shares how her decades in educational and experiential travel led her to build a company focused on immersive journeys rather than checklist tourism. The conversation explores literary trips, fandom travel, student programs, accessibility, and how travelers can design trips around purpose, story, and connection.

Janese Murray, founder of Inclusion Impact Consulting, joins From the Ground Up to discuss how workplace culture, feedback, and inclusion shape professional growth. She explores why playing small can become a career trap, especially for women navigating rooms where they may be underrepresented. The conversation covers imposter syndrome, perfectionism, mentorship, speaking up, and how professionals can better understand the value they bring.

In this episode, Anthony Vinci, founder and CEO of VICO, explains how his company is using AI, mathematics, and data science to forecast global events and improve high-stakes decision-making. Drawing on his background in intelligence, technology, hedge funds, private equity, and his book The Fourth Intelligence Revolution, Vinci breaks down why leaders need to think in probabilities rather than binary outcomes. The conversation explores prediction markets, geopolitical risk, supply-chain resilience, AI’s impact on startups, and why modern entrepreneurs need to build forecasting into how they run their businesses.

Kirsty Sharman, founder and CEO of Referral Factory, shares how she built a company around one of the most overlooked growth channels in business: existing customers. This conversation explores her entrepreneurial journey from South Africa to Europe and Armenia, along with her views on referral marketing, SEO, and building an AI-first company. It is a candid look at what it takes to grow a modern business in a fast-changing digital world.

Andy Hedrick shares what has changed in sales and why so many deals are lost before a real conversation ever happens. He explains his 2V2R framework and how companies can improve close rates by showing value, proof, and credibility earlier. This episode is a practical look at what modern buyers respond to and how sales teams can adapt.

Andy Hedrick shares what has changed in sales and why so many deals are lost before a real conversation ever happens. He explains his 2V2R framework and how companies can improve close rates by showing value, proof, and credibility earlier. This episode is a practical look at what modern buyers respond to and how sales teams can adapt.

Andy Hedrick shares what has changed in sales and why so many deals are lost before a real conversation ever happens. He explains his 2V2R framework and how companies can improve close rates by showing value, proof, and credibility earlier. This episode is a practical look at what modern buyers respond to and how sales teams can adapt.

Andy Hedrick shares what has changed in sales and why so many deals are lost before a real conversation ever happens. He explains his 2V2R framework and how companies can improve close rates by showing value, proof, and credibility earlier. This episode is a practical look at what modern buyers respond to and how sales teams can adapt.

Andy Hedrick shares what has changed in sales and why so many deals are lost before a real conversation ever happens. He explains his 2V2R framework and how companies can improve close rates by showing value, proof, and credibility earlier. This episode is a practical look at what modern buyers respond to and how sales teams can adapt.

Greg Whalen, CTO of Prove AI, joins the show to explain why the biggest challenge in generative AI is not just building models, but making them observable, governable, and supportable at scale. The conversation explores telemetry, AI governance, and why leaders need to get closer to the details as software development changes under GenAI. It is a practical look at what enterprises must do now to avoid operational pain later.