Paul Higgins Podcast

Why you should listen

1. Mark Emond shares his strategic pivot from traditional marketing automation to AI transformation services, offering a proven roadmap for consultants looking to evolve their positioning before the market forces them to.
2. Discover how to identify and attract visionary clients who are ready to invest strategically rather than just experiment—learn the signals that separate early adopters from those who'll waste your time with endless pilot projects.
3. Get practical insights on building an internal AI Innovation Lab that drives both client value and operational efficiency, including how to structure experimentation without killing momentum or burning budget.

I'm watching too many consultants get paralyzed by AI—either ignoring it completely or drowning in tool experimentation without a strategy. Mark Emond made a bold pivot, repositioning his B2B marketing consultancy to lead AI transformation for enterprise CMOs. In this conversation, we dig into how he identified the shift before his clients demanded it, how he's separating visionary buyers from tire-kickers, and what he's learning by building an internal AI Innovation Lab where his team plays with everything from ChatGPT to Make and Clay. If you're sitting on technical expertise but wondering how to package it for the AI era without becoming a commodity, this episode shows you exactly how one founder is skating to where the puck is going.

About Mark Emond

Demand Spring’s founder, Mark has a tremendous passion for helping marketing leaders transform their Revenue Marketing practices with AI, enabling them to become strategic leaders within their organizations. A Forbes Council member and contributor to MarketingProfs, Mark brings thought leadership to the marketing community, sharing insights on cutting-edge strategies, industry trends, and AI-driven marketing transformation. 

Prior to founding Demand Spring, spent 17 years in marketing leadership roles at IBM, Cognos, Watchfire, and Corel. Mark happily resides in Ottawa, the coldest capital city in the world, with his wife and teenage daughter. He combines his passion for athletics and developing young people as the coach of one of the top competitive girls basketball teams in Ontario. 

Resources and Links

• Demandspring.com
• Mark's LinkedIn profile
• Brandlight
• Make
• Clay
• n8n
• Replit
• Wispr Flow
• Tiga AI
• Previous episode: 647 - The Cost of Figuring It Out Alone
• Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Join our newsletter
• Suggested resources

Ever feel like you're burning through tactics (LinkedIn, conferences, outbound) with nothing sticking while your spouse picks up the financial slack? You're smart enough to execute anything, but you're making million-dollar decisions about equity, offshore teams, and pipeline strategy completely alone. Your peer group can't help because they're still solopreneurs. Your casual mentors give generic advice. And you'd pay someone a fortune just to tell you what you did wrong in the last 12 months. Two consultants I spoke with, both mid-to-high six figures and both technically brilliant, were living this exact reality. One's a Salesforce partner wrestling with niche versus product focus. The other's an Airtable partner navigating equity deals with a peer group that's outgrown. In this episode, I break down why strategic isolation kills growth and reveal the three things you can't get from your current support system: pattern recognition across multiple businesses, permission to challenge your assumptions, and execution frameworks that compress time.

Resources and Links

• Watch the video here
• Apply for Mentoring here
• Previous episode: 646 - Why This Consultant Targets Job Postings Instead of Cold Outreach (And Gets Better Results) with Andy Culligan
• Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Join our newsletter
• Suggested resources

Why you should listen

1. Discover why targeting companies posting job ads on LinkedIn crushes cold outreach, and how Andy positions himself to connect directly with decision-makers actively looking for his expertise (no complex funnels required).
2. Learn how podcasting opens doors. Andy shares how it  gets him in front of impossible-to-reach prospects, plus the truth about why most consultants quit after two episodes.
3. Get Andy's exact visibility playbook including how to leverage awards and PR for massive LinkedIn engagement, why offline networking is making a comeback, and the AI-powered intent data strategy that identifies which accounts are actively searching for solutions like yours right now.

Most consultants hit the same wall. Their personal network dries up. Cold outreach feels like screaming into the void. Every marketing guru pushes complex funnels and expensive ad campaigns that don't work for high-ticket consulting.

In this episode, Andy Culligan breaks down how he built his fractional CMO practice serving $10M-$50M SaaS companies without cold outreach at scale or massive marketing budgets.

We explore why SaaS companies get stuck at key revenue milestones and what changes in their go-to-market approach. Andy shares his team's MarTech stack and how they've automated client operations using AI agents that analyze contracts and recommend pricing to prevent churn.

If you're selling high-ticket services and tired of tactics that don't work for consultants, this delivers the blueprint.

About Andy Culligan

Andy is a fractional CMO, and CEO / Co-Founder at purple path, a GTM partner for B2B SaaS companies.

Andy describes himself as a sales person stuck in a marketer's body, and excels in aligning marketing and sales teams to drive revenue growth.

With over a decade of experience in SaaS martech, Andy has built and lead teams to success, making him the go-to CMO resource at a fraction of the cost.

Resources and Links

• Purplepath.io
• Andy’s LinkedIn profile
• growth path Podcast
• Apollo.io
• Clay
• Bombora
• Leadfeeder
• Riverside
• Previous episode: 645 - How to Build AI Automations That Actually Make You Money with  Jason Alberti
• Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Join our newsletter
• Suggested resources

Why you should listen

1. Jason Alberti reveals his complete end-to-end automation system built on N8N that transforms website leads into qualified prospects with research reports, generates customized proposals from call transcripts, and eliminates the hours you're wasting on repetitive client work.
2. Discover why strategically keeping humans in the loop at specific checkpoints prevents AI disasters and builds trust with clients who can tell when everything is automated versus thoughtfully assisted by technology.
3. Learn why focusing on one core principle (automation) beats being a jack-of-all-trades, and how Jason wrote an entire book in 8 weeks using the same AI frameworks he teaches clients.

You're spending hours researching prospects before calls, writing custom proposals from scratch, and drowning in follow-up tasks that could be automated. Meanwhile, your competitors are closing deals faster because they've systemized what you're still doing manually. In this episode, I sit down with Jason Alberti, an AI automation consultant who helps conscious entrepreneurs escape tech overwhelm. We dive into his exact workflow for automating lead qualification, pre-call research, and proposal generation using tools like N8N, Perplexity, and ChatGPT. Jason also shares his journey from jack-of-all-trades to automation specialist, why referrals remain his best go-to-market strategy, and how he wrote a complete book in 8 weeks using AI. If you're tired of being buried in repetitive tasks instead of serving clients, this episode will show you the practical path forward.

About Jason Alberti

Jason Alberti is a seasoned entrepreneur, AI expert, and digital strategist with over 20 years of experience in marketing, systems design, and business optimization. He’s the creator of Freedom From Chaos, a groundbreaking framework that helps conscious entrepreneurs streamline their lives and businesses using the power of AI. Jason is passionate about making advanced technology accessible, practical, and deeply human. His work bridges the gap between automation and authenticity, empowering business owners to reclaim their time, amplify their impact, and live with intention.

Resources and Links

• Jason's LinkedIn profile
• Jason on Facebook
• Freedomfromchaosbook.com
• Get Your Free Personal Identity & Brand Identity Templates
• N8N
• ChatGPT
• Claude
• Perplexity
• Apify
• Suno
• Tl;dv
• Fireflies
• Fathom.video
• 636 - The Systematic Approach to Building Bigger AI Consulting Deals with Taireez Niswander
• 643 - From Tech Chaos to White-Label Software in 90 Days with Robin Alex
• Previous episode: 644 - From $10K Deals to $200K Deals: A Business Model Story
• Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Join our newsletter
• Suggested resources

You're spending thousands on outreach agencies, cold email tools, and marketing tactics—but your revenue is stuck. You keep trying new strategies, but nothing seems to move the needle.

Here's the hard truth: the problem isn't your tactics. It's your business model. And you can't see it because you're inside the jar.

In this episode, I share two real client examples who transformed their revenue—not by running faster, but by fixing their fundamental business model. One went from confused positioning across three platforms to one clear niche. The other went from $10K deals to $200K deals—same person, different model.

Most consultants are selling too many things to too many people, doing deals too small for the complexity, and competing on price instead of value. No marketing tactic fixes a broken business model.

Resources and Links

• Apply for Mentoring here
• Previous episode: 643 - From Tech Chaos to White-Label Software in 90 Days with Robin Alex
• Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Join our newsletter
• Suggested resources

Why you should listen

1. Robin Alex shares the exact problem that led to creating GoHighLevel—and how solving your own biggest pain point can become an 8-figure business opportunity
2. Learn why the most successful agencies focus on outcomes instead of showcasing their impressive tech stacks, and how to reposition your business accordingly
3. Discover the emerging opportunities in AI, WhatsApp, and desk phone integration that are driving unexpected growth for consulting partners right now

I've watched too many consultants drown in their own tech stacks.

They build these impressive automation workflows, connecting 15 different tools through Zapier, and then wonder why clients aren't lining up to work with them. The tech is brilliant. The business results? Not so much.

In this episode, Robin Alex and I tackle the fundamental question facing every consultant right now: where do you actually sit when SaaS, AI, and no-code platforms are all converging at once?

We explore the practical reality of white-labeling your IP (spoiler: it's an 80/20 split between turnkey solutions and custom work, not the 100% out-of-the-box dream you're imagining). Robin shares why natural language prompts are about to eliminate the multi-click workflows we've all gotten used to, and how to think about AI integration without getting paralyzed by the endless options.

The biggest insight? Stop building tech museums. Your clients don't want to tour your impressive automation setup. They want their problem solved fast, and they want to know you can do it again for the next problem.

If you're sensing the consulting model is shifting but can't quite see where to place your bet, this conversation will give you the clarity you need.

About Robin Alex

Robin Alex's journey from IT analyst to SaaS entrepreneur spans over two decades in technology. Starting as a system administrator and technical services director, Robin founded his first company, AbsoluteGaming.net, in 2003, followed by Innovate Fast in 2015. His hands-on experience managing technical operations and running multiple ventures gave him unique insights into the challenges agencies face when trying to scale.

In 2018, Robin co-founded HighLevel after recognizing that agencies were trapped trading time for money with fragmented tech stacks. Drawing from his technical background and entrepreneurial experience, he built a solution that allows consultants to become SaaS company owners—helping thousands break through the 6-figure ceiling without the complexities of software development.

Resources and Links

• Robin’s LinkedIn profile
• Paulhigginsmentoring.com/ghl
• Typingmind
• Acquired Podcast
• The Twenty Minute VC
• Previous episode: 642 - Stop Being a Platform Expert - Why Business Growth Advisors Win in the AI Era with Sarah McDevitt
• Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Join our newsletter
• Suggested resources

Why you should listen

1. Sarah McDevitt shares insider insights from HubSpot's Partner Experience team, revealing what separates successful partners from those stuck in license-selling mode
2. Learn why data quality is the hidden bottleneck preventing partners from delivering on AI promises—and how to fix it before it destroys client trust
3. Discover HubSpot's innovative use of AI tools to democratize partner feedback and accelerate decision-making across their ecosystem

You're stuck selling licenses when you should be solving business problems—but every time you pitch "transformation," clients just want to know the price per user.

In this episode, I sit down with Sarah McDevitt, who leads the Partner Experience team at HubSpot, and we cut through the AI hype to talk about what actually matters. Sarah spent 16 years in agency land before joining the "dark side" (her words) at HubSpot seven years ago, so she knows both sides of the partner equation intimately.

We explore why the best partners stop being platform experts and start being business growth experts. Sarah reveals how HubSpot uses AI internally to democratize partner feedback, the real reason behind their partner program changes, and why selling AI without fixing data structure first will be your downfall.

If you're a consultant partnering with any SaaS platform—or considering it—this conversation will change how you think about your role. Stop reading the toaster manual to clients. Start asking better questions about their actual business problems.

About Sarah McDevitt

Sarah Stone McDevitt is a Radio broadcasting graduate who spent the early part of her career in local radio before moving into agency life. She spent 16 years working across creative, media, content and web development agencies before joining HubSpot almost 7 years ago. She initially joined to manage the CC team in EMEA, and shortly after that, she added the EMEA Onboarding team and Pro Services teams to her management portfolio. In 2020 at the height of the pandemic, she took over the Pro Services NAM and EMEA businesses. Today, Sarah leads HubSpot's Partner Experience team, where she focuses on creating exceptional experiences for HubSpot's global partner ecosystem. 

In this role, she has emerged as a thought leader in the field of Relational Intelligence (RI), pioneering approaches that demonstrate how human relationship-building and emotional intelligence work alongside artificial intelligence to drive business success. Sarah advocates for the irreplaceable value of authentic human connections in an increasingly AI-driven world, showing how RI and AI complement each other to create more meaningful customer and partner relationships.

In her personal life, Sarah is married with four children and lives in Dublin, Ireland. She proudly served 13 years in the reserve army in Ireland as a corporal in a communications unit. She is the founder and chairperson of a charity called Help Us Give Smiles which has seen her travel to Kenya for almost 20 years working with vulnerable children and communities. And finally, she is an LGBTQ+ activist focused in particular on the rights of LGBTQ+ parents.

Resources and Links

• Hubspot.com
• Sarah's LinkedIn profile
• Watch “Why the Future of Work is More Human Than You Think“
• Speechify
• Notebook LM
• Previous episode: 641 - How to Escape the Delivery Trap Without Sacrificing Revenue Growth
• Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Join our newsletter
• Suggested resources

If you're drowning in delivery work, putting in 80-hour weeks, and feeling like your business controls you instead of giving you freedom, this episode is for you. I'm sharing the story of one of my clients who was completely maxed out—working across multiple SaaS partner relationships, positioned as an hourly contractor, and so exhausted he looked like he'd fall asleep on our calls. Sound familiar?

Here's what most technical consultants don't realize: you're solving the wrong problems. You love complex technical challenges, but you're getting trapped in solving every problem instead of asking if these are the right problems to solve—and if you're getting rewarded properly for solving them. In this episode, I walk you through the exact transformation we achieved using my three Multiplier Method, taking him from 80-hour weeks to landing deals worth one-third of his annual revenue in a single month. If you're ready to break free from being the bottleneck in your own business, this is how it's done.

Resources and Links

• Apply for Mentoring here
• Previous episode: 640 - How to Stop Being Invisible to Microsoft's 30,000-Person Sales Force with Rob Fegan
• Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Join our newsletter
• Suggested resources

Why you should listen

1. Rob Fegan shares the exact 4-phase framework he used to transform his Microsoft partner business from zero to millions in annual revenue—and how SMB partners can replicate this success even as "small fish" in a 30,000-person sales ecosystem.
2. Learn how to leverage Microsoft's Commerce Incentives Fund to access thousands in funded engagements per customer, essentially getting Microsoft to pay you to deploy their solutions while you focus on high-margin services.
3. Discover why connecting with AI specialists (not just AEs) is the key to unlocking Microsoft's FY26 priorities, and how to position your messaging so Microsoft's field teams become your biggest sales asset instead of just another vendor relationship.

You're running a solid Microsoft partner business, delivering real results for clients, but you feel completely invisible to Microsoft's massive sales organization. You watch bigger partners effortlessly access pipeline opportunities, co-sell motions, and vendor support while you're stuck fighting for scraps. You know the opportunity is there—Microsoft has 30,000 salespeople who could be feeding you qualified leads—but you have no idea how to cut through the noise when you're just a 1-10 person shop.

In this episode, I sit down with Rob Fegan from RYZE Partners who spent 15 years building and scaling Microsoft partner businesses before a successful exit. Rob breaks down his proven 4-phase framework that turns Microsoft's field teams into your biggest sales asset, even as a small partner. We dive into the four critical areas most partners get wrong, why SMB partners are suddenly Microsoft's top priority after years of enterprise focus, and the specific funded programs that can inject thousands of dollars per engagement into your business. If you're tired of being stuck, overlooked, and sidelined while bigger partners dominate the conversation, this episode gives you the exact playbook to change that.

About Rob Fegan

Rob Fegan is the founder of Venvito and co-founder of RYZE Partners, where he helps Microsoft SMB partners go from invisible to in-demand. After 15+ years in the Microsoft ecosystem, Rob built his own Microsoft practice from zero to millions in annual revenue before a successful exit. Now he's on a mission to help 10,000 Microsoft partners escape what he calls "SOS Mode" - being Stuck, Overlooked, and Sidelined - through his proven frameworks for demystifying selling WITH Microsoft. Rob's approach has helped partners transform from vendor status to becoming Microsoft's go-to referral sources, turning field teams into their biggest sales asset.

Resources and Links

• Ryze-partners.com
• Venvito.net
• Rob's LinkedIn profile
• Previous episode: 639 - How to Stop ChatGPT from Lying to You (AI PhD Reveals the Fix) with Garima Agrawal
• Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Join our newsletter
• Suggested resources

Why you should listen

1. Garima Agrawal bridges the gap between PhD-level AI research and practical consulting applications—she understands both the Formula One engine and how to help you drive the car better.
2. Learn the layered prompting technique that eliminates most hallucinations and turns ChatGPT into a thinking partner rather than a content generator you can't trust.
3. Discover which LLM to use for specific tasks—ChatGPT for analysis, Claude for coding, Gemini for technical research, and Perplexity for citations—so you stop wasting time with the wrong tool.

You're using ChatGPT every day, but deep down you don't fully trust it. You've been burned by hallucinations. You watch it confidently give you wrong information, and you're left wondering which parts are reliable and which parts are fiction. You know AI should be making you more productive, but instead you're second-guessing every output and spending more time fact-checking than creating. Meanwhile, you see other consultants talking about Claude, Gemini, Perplexity—and you're not sure if you should be using those instead or if ChatGPT is fine. You're stuck in this loop of knowing AI is powerful but not knowing how to harness it properly. This week, I sat down with Garima Agrawal, who brings a rare combination: PhD-level AI research expertise and real-world consulting experience running her own firm. She breaks down the exact framework that eliminates most hallucinations, reveals which LLM actually performs best for specific consulting tasks, and shares the prompting mistakes that sabotage your results before you even start. If you're ready to stop fighting with AI and start using it as the leverage tool it should be, this conversation gives you the practical roadmap you need.

About Garima Agrawal

Garima Agrawal is the founder of HumaConn LLC, a consulting firm focused on empowering businesses and investors with tailored AI solutions. At HumaConn, she specializes in designing strategies for effective AI integration—helping clients enhance efficiency, streamline operations, and identify high-potential AI-driven opportunities that bridge innovation with real-world impact.

She also serves as Head of AI Models and Services at Minerva CQ, where she leads the development and deployment of real-time, goal-oriented AI systems that power agentic, human-in-the-loop assistance in customer contact centers—boosting engagement and operational performance.

Garima holds a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence from Arizona State University, where her research focused on making AI knowledge-aware—enabling large language models to reason reliably in specialized domains. Her core expertise includes reducing hallucinations, optimizing retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and building cost-effective, trustworthy AI pipelines.

With over a decade of experience spanning software engineering, data science, and AI leadership, Garima bridges the gap between cutting-edge research and real-world application—helping organizations build AI that delivers meaningful, measurable results.

Resources and Links

• Humaconn.com
• Garima's LinkedIn profile
• Garima’s Google Scholar profile
• ChatGPT
• Claude
• Gemini
• Perplexity
• Previous episode: 638 - The Rapid ROI Methodology
• Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Join our newsletter
• Suggested resources