In this episode, hosts Myles Biggs and Patrick Patterson sit down with Cody Lee, Principal on the Peak Performance Group at Summit Partners, to trace a career that spans pharmaceutical advertising, poetry, copywriting, growth marketing, and private equity. Cody leads the Marketing Center of Excellence, supporting more than 120 portfolio companies in technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer, and more. His path is anything but linear, and that is exactly the point.

What holds it all together? A conviction that the fundamentals of marketing do not change. How people think, what motivates them, how markets work. Cody introduces one of the most useful mental models in the episode: separating what is valid from what is relevant. It is a framework he learned from his father at 16 in a client meeting, and it is now more critical than ever as AI floods every organization with valid content that lacks relevance.

Tune in to learn how to connect marketing to a financial investment thesis, why the four Ps still win, what generative search is actually doing to your funnel, and how expanding your surface area of opportunity is the best career advice for anyone starting out, especially right now.

Key Takeaways

• Valid vs. Relevant: Learn the mental model Cody inherited from his father and has applied across every stage of his career, from client meetings to AI prompting. Many things are valid. Only a few are relevant. The best leaders know the difference.
• The Liberal Arts Foundation of Great Marketing: Cody never took a single marketing class in college. Instead, he studied psychology, economics, and creative writing, the disciplines that explain how people think, what motivates them, and how words connect to commercial outcomes.
• Marketing Inside Private Equity: Understand how to connect your marketing programs to the investment thesis of your business. Learn to speak the language of value creation levers, lead with what is relevant to the board, and translate marketing impact into financial outcomes.
• AI Amplifies the Fundamentals, It Does Not Replace Them: The leaders getting the most from AI are the ones investing heavily in context-setting upfront. AI is extraordinarily good at producing valid output. The human operator defines what is relevant.
• The Four Ps Still Win: No promotion strategy can save a broken product, misaligned pricing, or poor distribution. Cody makes the case, with a Fyre Festival reference, that the most durable framework in marketing is still the one from the textbook.
• Increase Your Surface Area of Opportunity: Stop treating each career step as final or fatal. Every move expands your access to people, worlds, and opportunities you cannot yet imagine. It is a grounding message for anyone navigating an AI-disrupted job market.

Resources and Links

Guest:

Cody's LinkedIn: Connect with Cody Lee

Marketing Order of Operations article: Read the framework

Connect with the show:

Myles's LinkedIn: Connect with Myles Biggs

Patrick's LinkedIn: Connect with Patrick Patterson

Level Agency: Learn more about Level Agency

Special Offer:

AI Visibility Audit: Find out how prepared your business is for the AI Search Revolution. Get your AI Visibility Scorecard today.

In this episode, hosts Myles Biggs and Patrick Patterson sit down with Tommy Cooperrider, Principal at Dynamic Core Capital Partners (formerly Dubin Clark), to explore his remarkable journey from a self-proclaimed "hippie" middle schooler to a leader in high finance. With a unique background in engineering and economics, Tommy offers a masterclass in leveraging a diverse skillset for success.

Are you prepared for a future where AI is an accessible virtual assistant for everyone? Tommy unpacks his prediction for 2026 and what it means for personal and professional productivity. But what about the journey to success? This conversation confronts the challenges of personal growth, from embracing awkward phases to the importance of mentorship and stepping out of your comfort zone.

Tune in to learn how to embrace your own unconventional path, why "good enough isn't," and how to cultivate a mindset of continuous improvement.

Key Takeaways

• Embrace the Unconventional Path: Learn how Tommy's journey from a "hippie" phase to high finance was shaped by unique experiences and a willingness to diverge from the expected.
• The Power of Mentorship: Discover the crucial role that influential teachers and mentors played in shaping Tommy's career trajectory and personal growth.
• Leverage a Diverse Skillset: Understand how the combination of engineering and economics provided a unique foundation for problem-solving and business acumen.
• The Future of AI as a Virtual Assistant: Get insights into Tommy's prediction that AI will become a much more accessible virtual assistant for the average person by 2026.
• Good Enough Isn't Good Enough: Explore the mindset of continuous improvement and the importance of pushing beyond your comfort zone to achieve excellence.

Resources and Links

Guest:

Tommy Cooperrider's Substack: Subscribe to Tommy

Tommy Cooperrider's LinkedIn: Connect with Tommy

Connect with the show:

Myles's LinkedIn: Connect with Myles Biggs

Patrick's LinkedIn: Connect with Patrick Patterson

Level Agency: Learn more about Level Agency

Special Offer:

AI Visibility Audit: Find out how prepared your business is for the AI Search Revolution. Get your AI Visibility Scorecard today.

In this episode, hosts Myles Biggs and Patrick Patterson sit down with Krish Sailam, Level Agency's new SVP of Artificial Intelligence, to explore the real-world application of AI beyond the hype. With two decades of experience driving innovation for brands like Amazon, Cisco, and BMW, Krish offers a masterclass in navigating technological disruption.

Are you prepared for a future where every customer interaction is personalized and instantaneous? Krish unpacks the immense opportunity AI presents for revolutionizing customer service and creating unparalleled experiences. But what about the risks? This conversation confronts the dark side of AI, from the erosion of trust caused by deepfakes to the broken hiring market flooded with AI-generated resumes. Krish provides a framework for how to think about these challenges and what it takes to lead with empathy and authenticity in an increasingly digital world.

Tune in to learn how to be a "market maker" in the age of AI, why empathy is your most critical tool for innovation, and how to build and maintain trust when you can no longer believe what you see online.

Key Takeaways

• Become a Market Maker: Learn the principles of translating complex technological shifts into actionable business strategies that put you ahead of the curve.
• Leverage Empathy for Innovation: Discover why understanding the human experience is the most crucial element in designing breakthrough products and services.
• Navigate the AI Trust Crisis: Get actionable insights on how to foster authenticity and build meaningful connections in a world saturated with AI-generated content and deepfakes.
• Rethink Your Hiring Process: Understand why the traditional resume is dead and how to find top talent in a market overwhelmed by AI-driven applications.
• Prepare for the Future of Customer Experience: Explore the tangible ways AI will reshape customer service and what you need to do to prepare your business for this seismic shift

Resources and Links

Guest:

• Krish Sailam’s LinkedIn: Connect with Krish

Connect with the show:

• Myles’s LinkedIn: Connect with Myles Biggs
• Patrick’s LinkedIn: Connect with Patrick Patterson
• Level Agency: Learn more about Level Agency

Special Offer:

AI Visibility Audit: Find out how prepared your business is for the AI Search Revolution. Get your AI Visibility Scorecard today.

Dan Monaghan, founder, investor, and author of The AI Search Revolution, joins hosts Myles Biggs and Patrick Patterson to sound the alarm on how AI is quietly rewriting the rules of search and fundamentally breaking the traditional business funnel. Drawing on his experience co-founding WSI Digital in 1995, years before Google, Dan shares why the current AI revolution is the most significant technological disruption he has ever witnessed.

This episode is a masterclass in strategic thinking, urging listeners to move beyond using AI for simple tasks like writing emails and instead leverage "Einstein in your pocket" for high-level problem-solving and strategic growth. Dan discusses the importance of identifying the number one constraint in your business and applying AI to solve it, a principle he uses to guide his own ventures. The conversation also covers the need for adaptability, the power of curiosity ("think like Sherlock"), and a look at the cutting-edge AI tools Dan uses in his daily life.

Key Takeaways

• The Broken Funnel: Learn why your website traffic may be dropping and how AI-driven search is fundamentally changing the customer journey, making traditional SEO and marketing funnels obsolete.
• Strategic AI Utilization: Discover the "hierarchy of AI utilization" and why the biggest leverage comes from using AI for strategic decision-making, not just content generation.
• The Constraint Theory: Dan explains how to apply the Theory of Constraints to your business, using AI to pinpoint and eliminate the biggest obstacle to your growth.
• Adaptability and Curiosity: Hear why "thinking like Sherlock" and maintaining a high level of curiosity are the keys to thriving in an environment of rapid technological change.
• AI in Action: Patrick shares a personal, real-world example of using a large language model to create a personalized educational game for his son, illustrating the power of on-demand, personalized software.

Resources and Links

Learn more:

• Dan’s Book: The AI Search Revolution: Adaptive SEO for the Age of AI
• Dan’s LinkedIn: Connect with Dan Monaghan

Connect with the show:

• Myles’s LinkedIn: Connect with Myles Biggs
• Patrick’s LinkedIn: Connect with Patrick Patterson
• Level Agency: Learn more about Level Agency

Special Offer:

AI Visibility Audit: Find out how prepared your business is for the AI Search Revolution. Get your AI Visibility Scorecard today.

With Lonn Shulkin (President, BAM Strategy)

Episode Summary

This week, Myles Biggs and Patrick Patterson sit down with Lonn Shulkin, founder of BAM Advertising, for a candid conversation about leadership, trust, and what it actually takes to build an agency that lasts.

From Lonn’s early career lessons to BAM’s growth and eventual partnership with Level Agency, this episode explores how people-first leadership, emotional intelligence, and long-term thinking outperform short-term tactics. Lonn shares hard-earned insights on managing ego, earning trust with clients and teams, and why retention, not acquisition, is the true indicator of success.

Rather than chasing hacks or hype, this conversation focuses on building organizations grounded in values, accountability, and genuine care for people.

If you care about leadership, sustainable growth, or creating work environments people don’t want to leave, this episode is for you.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• From ego to empathy: How self-awareness and humility shape better leaders and healthier teams.
• Trust as a growth strategy: Why trust, not tactics, is the foundation of long-term client and employee retention.
• Retention over acquisition: Why keeping clients and people matters more than chasing constant new wins.
• Values-driven growth: How aligning principles made the BAM × Level partnership possible.
• Leadership under pressure: Navigating insecurity, decision-making, and responsibility at scale.
• Marketing that feels like value: Why the best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing at all.
• Culture as a competitive advantage: How strong internal culture translates directly to client outcomes.

Featured Guest

Lonn Shulkin — Founder, BAM Advertising
Entrepreneur and agency leader focused on trust-based relationships, long-term growth, and people-first leadership.

Learn More

• Lonn Shulkin on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lonnshulkin/
• Level Agency – https://www.level.agency

Takeaways for Operators & Leaders

• Start with trust, not tactics, internally and externally.
• Retention is a lagging indicator of leadership quality.
• Growth without values creates fragility, not scale.
• Ego is often the hidden constraint in leadership decisions.
• The best marketing creates value before asking for anything in return.
• Partnerships work when cultures align, not just balance sheets.

Connect With the Show

• Level Agency – https://www.level.agency
• Patrick Patterson – https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattersonwork/
• Myles Biggs – www.linkedin.com/in/mylesjbiggs/

How to Support the Show

• Subscribe so you never miss an episode.
• Rate & review if this conversation brought you value.
• Share the episode with leaders building people-first organizations.

Higher education is operating in a more competitive and consumer-driven environment than ever before, and new data reveals what actually drives enrollment growth.

In this episode of the Career Education Report, Patrick Patterson, CEO of Level Agency, and Prithwi Dasgupta, President of LeadSquared North America, join host Dr. Jason Altmire to unpack findings from a national benchmarking study analyzing more than 500,000 student inquiries and $100 million in higher education advertising spend.

Together, they discuss how student behavior, marketing channels, and operational execution intersect, and where institutions are falling behind.

In this conversation, you’ll learn:

• Why responding to student inquiries within the first five minutes can increase enrollment conversion rates by nearly 30%
• How AI and automation enable faster, more personalized student engagement
• Why brand building is a critical (and often underestimated) driver of enrollment performance
• How channel mix decisions impact cost per enrollment, not just cost per lead
• Where institutions are misallocating marketing dollars—and how to course-correct
• What “great execution” looks like from first inquiry to enrollment

Practical insights for enrollment leaders, marketers, and executives looking to move beyond surface-level metrics and design student-first experiences that convert.

Resources & Links

• Learn more about Level Agency: https://www.level.agency
• Learn more about LeadSquared: https://www.leadsquared.com
• Check out the Career Education Report Podcast: Linked here
• See the full benchmarking report: Click here

To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities (CECU), visit:
https://www.career.org

with Stephen Arthur (Director of AI & Analytics, ECPI University)

Episode Summary

This week, Myles Biggs and Patrick Patterson sit down with Stephen Arthur, Director of AI and Analytics at ECPI University, one of the first institutions boldly pushing toward an AI-first university model. While most universities are still debating whether students should be “allowed” to use ChatGPT, Stephen and his team have already built a proprietary AI learning platform, integrated it into curriculum design, student support, faculty workflows, and the operational backbone of the university.

Stephen shares how his unusual journey, from aerospace engineering to marketing analytics, to AI product leadership, shaped the mindset needed to drive change in one of the most tradition-bound industries in America. You’ll hear how ECPI is breaking higher-ed inertia, converting AI skeptics into evangelists, and redefining what it means to prepare students for the workforce of the future.

If you’ve wondered whether AI will replace universities, or remake them, this episode is your front-row seat.

• AI’s existential question for higher ed
• How ECPI became an early AI-first university
• Change management: flipping skeptical faculty into AI champions
• Marketing, analytics, and the engineer’s mindset
• The Three C’s that ensure universities survive AI
• The future of work and which careers AI won’t replace soon
• Operational AI across the institution

Stephen Arthur — Director of AI & Analytics, ECPI University
Engineer turned marketer turned AI builder, leading ECPI’s transformation into one of the first AI-first universities.

Stephen on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-arthur/

ECPI University Newsroom – https://www.ecpi.edu/newsroom

• AI won’t replace universities, but universities that ignore AI may become irrelevant.
• Experience beats access: AI enables one-to-one tutoring at scale, something higher ed has dreamed of for centuries.
• Adoption requires solving faculty pain first, not just student pain.
• Curriculum must evolve constantly: AI isn’t a topic to teach, but a medium through which all learning happens.
• Operational AI matters: IT support, financial aid, and student services can all be reimagined with LLMs.
• Statistical literacy is a superpower in marketing, analytics, and now AI deployment.
• The human element still wins: Community and accountability remain irreplaceable advantages of real institutions.

Level Agency – https://www.level.agency/

Patrick Patterson – https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattersonwork/
Myles Biggs – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mylesjb/

• Subscribe so you never miss an episode.
• Rate & review if this conversation brought you value.
• Share the episode with colleagues exploring AI, higher ed innovation, or organizational transformation.

with Brooks Canavesi (Baryons)

Episode Summary

This week, Myles Biggs and Patrick Patterson sit down with Brooks Canavesi, serial entrepreneur, technologist, and co-founder of Baryons, an AI company building personal mentors designed to help people flourish. Brooks shares his journey from competitive athlete and founder to a wilderness rehab turning point, and why “good enough isn’t” only works when it’s paired with well-being. We unpack the science of flourishing (PERMA), how Baryons’ voice-first AI uses memory, intention, and post-call processing, and why the goal isn’t more hustle, it’s human agency.

If you’re curious about human-centered AI, personal growth, or building tech that actually helps people live better, this one’s for you.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why flourishing beats hustling, and how the PERMA model frames daily choices.
• How a personal AI mentor can surface root causes (not just symptoms) and drive real change.
• Memory that matters: recency/frequency, decay, and context graphs that feel human.
• Dialogue as product: designing questions, “be quiet” modes, and proactive nudges.
• Guardrails & compliance: building safety for students, teams, and B2C users.
• The power of transitions: why moments of change are the best time to adopt a mentor.
• Group Baryon: private, on-meeting insight that later guides each person 1:1.
• What AI can and can’t replace, and how to keep the human in human-centered AI.

Featured Guest

Brooks Canavesi — Co-Founder, Baryons
Serial entrepreneur and technologist focused on human-centered AI. Brooks blends product, engineering, and flourishing science to build voice-first AI mentors that help people and teams grow.

On X: @brookscanavesi
Sign up: https://baryons.com/
LinkTree (all socials): https://linktr.ee/baryons

Learn more

Baryons — Personal AI mentors for work and life: https://baryons.com/

Takeaways for Operators & Leaders

• Start with outcomes for people, not features for models; measure flourishing, not just usage.
• Treat conversation as a UI: craft prompts, toggles (yes/no), and check-ins with intention.
• Build proactive systems: memory, decay, and context so AI shows up with an agenda to help.
• Safety isn’t optional: define escalation paths, compliance checks, and when to stay silent.
• Focus the roadmap: say “no” to assistant sprawl; be the best at a narrow, high-value job.
• Design for transitions (new role, school, parenting, retirement) where impact compounds.

Connect With The Show

• Level Agency – https://www.level.agency/
• Patrick Patterson – https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattersonwork/
• Myles Biggs – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mylesjb

How to Support the Show

• Subscribe so you never miss an episode.
• Rate & review if it brought you value, share it with a friend.

with Bill Nance (StrataTech Education Group)

Episode Summary

This week, Myles Biggs and Patrick Patterson sat down with Bill Nance, an education operator and change leader, now the CEO of StrataTech Education Group. Bill’s journey spans art & design, IT, operations, finance, and strategy, experiences he’s used to rebuild how schools work from the student's perspective.

Bill shares why great leaders do the hard work themselves until they understand it, make the call without perfect data, and protect the brand by owning demand rather than renting it. You’ll hear how he balances quarterly pressure with long-term purpose, why referrals outperform short-term volume, and how AI can widen opportunities, from adaptive learning to securing real funding for real students, without sacrificing human connection.

If you care about student experience, sustainable growth, or pragmatic AI in higher education, this one’s for you.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Student-first operations: How structuring programs (pricing, devices, materials) levels the playing field and frees faculty to teach.
• Own the brand, don’t rent demand: Why overreliance on pay-per-lead hurts referrals, show rates, and long-term unit economics.
• Referrals as a north star: What Bill learned when cohorts sourced from aggregators didn’t refer, and how that changes the math.
• Leadership under uncertainty: Making 50/50 calls, communicating pivots, and earning trust by explaining the “why.”
• AI as a leveler (not a chatbot gimmick): Practical use cases that improve outcomes without degrading the front-door experience.
• Adaptive learning’s moment: Why true personalization at scale finally looks feasible with modern AI.
• Funding discovery at scale: Bill’s Monday-morning AI experiment to surface grants, workforce funds, and employer sponsorships for each student.
• Skilled trades at scale: Why the next five years demand high-ROI programs that meet community and employer needs.

Featured Guest

Bill Nance – CEO, StrataTech Education Group; former executive at Delta Career Education and Ancora; operator focused on student experience, brand ownership, and technology-enabled transformation.

Bill Nance on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/billnance/

Learn more

• StrataTech Education Group - https://stratatech.com/

Takeaways for Operators & Leaders

• Start with the student, design the service: Treat curriculum as the product and everything around it as the service layer, price, materials, devices, financing, so day one is equitable and predictable.
• Brand ownership compounds: Leads you generate yourself have higher intent, higher referral rates, and better downstream economics than rented demand.
• Measure what matters (referrals): Track referral % per source; if a channel suppresses referrals, its “cheap” volume is more expensive than it looks.
• AI ≠ call-deflection: Avoid front-door chatbot traps that erode trust. Prioritize AI that adds value (adaptive learning, call summaries with human QA, funding discovery).

Connect With the Show

• Level Agency – https://www.level.agency/
• Patrick Patterson – https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattersonwork/
• Myles Biggs – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mylesjb

How to Support the Show

• Subscribe so you never miss an episode.
• Rate & review if it brought you value,

with Dr. Michael Hageloh & Dr. Bruce Fraser (Indian River State College)

Episode Summary

This week, Myles Biggs and Patrick Patterson sit down with two innovators who are shaping the future of higher education: Dr. Michael Hageloh and Dr. Bruce Fraser of Indian River State College in Florida.

Together, they discuss how AI is disrupting higher ed, not as a technology problem, but as a change management challenge. From Steve Jobs’ lessons at Apple to democratizing knowledge in the classroom, Michael and Bruce share their experiences leading transformation at scale.

They make the case that students are customers first, that knowledge is no longer scarce, and that AI, used wisely, can help colleges unlock creativity, adaptability, and epic wins for the next generation of learners.

If you care about innovation, the future of education, or how to lead through massive change, this conversation is packed with insights.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• How Apple’s product philosophy shaped Michael’s approach to education leadership
• Why “customers don’t know what they want” still applies to students in 2025
• The death of the click economy and what it means for marketers & schools
• How IRSC is using AI to move students from curiosity → enrollment → success
• The role of fidelity (taste, judgment, human refinement) in an AI-driven world
• Why higher education must shift from “knowledge scarcity” to AI-abundant, collaborative learning
• Predictions for the future: apprenticeships, stackable credentials, and billion-dollar one-person companies

Featured Guests

Dr. Michael Hageloh – VP of Marketing at Indian River State College, former Apple executive, author, and change leader.

Dr. Bruce Fraser – Faculty leader at IRSC with a background in psychology, epistemology, and AI research, specializing in organizational change and faculty development.

Learn more:

• Indian River State College - https://www.irsc.edu/
  
  
• IRSC AI Thought Leadership Article: The Death of the Click Economy - https://medium.com/@michaelhageloh/the-death-of-the-click-economy-how-ai-is-altering-human-agency-and-commerce-533e9ac6aeb4

Takeaways for Operators & Leaders

• AI adoption is a change management problem, not a tech problem. Leaders need to prepare their organizations for cultural and structural adaptation, not just tool rollouts.
• Democratization changes the business model. Just as iTunes democratized music, generative AI democratizes knowledge; leaders must rethink what unique value their institutions or companies add.
• Customers (and students) don’t always know what they want. Leaders must guide people through a journey, painting the vision before delivering the product.
• Entry-level work is evolving. Education and employers must fill the gap with apprenticeships and practical, AI-augmented learning to prepare talent for higher-value roles faster.

Connect With the Show

• Level Agency - https://www.level.agency/
• Patrick Patterson’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattersonwork/
• Myles Biggs’ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mylesjbiggs/

How to Support the Show

• Subscribe so you never miss an episode.
• Share this episode with someone wrestling with GenAI adoption.
• Rate & review if it brings value, helps us reach more listeners!