Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice

Why do some businesses stay stuck for 10 years while others 10X in three? Blake Erickson, co-founder of Scaling.com and co-author of The Science of Scaling with Dr. Benjamin Hardy, joins Ryan Alford to explain the mindset and moves behind rapid growth.

Blake walks through his four steps to scale, from focusing on the future to building a team for the company you want to become. He explains why scaling is 80% psychology, why founders need to stop playing defense, and how big thinkers attract other big thinkers.

He also shares a real case study of a company that grew from $20 million to $200 million in 12 months, and how to get The Science of Scaling audiobook for free.

Topics Covered:

• Four practical steps to scale a business

• Focus and doing less, better

• Hiring for the future, not the present

• Scarcity, fear and the psychology of growth

• Playing offense in business

• A $20M to $200M case study

POWER YOUR BUSINESS WITH HIGHLEVEL

Turn more leads into customers with one platform for CRM, marketing automation, appointment booking, Voice AI and customer follow-up. Start your 30-day free trial using Ryan’s link:

https://www.gohighlevel.com/ryanalford

Links & Resources:

• Scaling.com: https://scaling.com/

• Free audiobook: https://scaling.com/free

• The Science of Scaling (Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/Rapid-Transformation-Science-Achieving-Impossible/dp/1401967639

• Blake on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblakeerickson/

Connect with Ryan Alford:

• Website: https://www.ryanisright.com/

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanalford/

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-alford/

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford

Where does your data go when you hand it to AI? Nicole Jiang, co-founder and CEO of Fable Security, joins Ryan Alford to break down the real security risks of AI adoption, and why most of them start with people, not technology.

Nicole explains how messy data and loose permissions can turn AI tools into a liability, how attackers use AI to make phishing and impersonation scams more convincing, and why Fable’s personalized, just-in-time coaching works better than annual training videos.

She also leaves listeners with easy habits to start today, from asking AI to sanitize sensitive information to regularly checking what’s being shared that shouldn’t be.

Topics Covered:

* The human side of cybersecurity

* AI adoption across different industries

* Data hygiene and AI integrations

* AI-powered phishing and social engineering

* Rethinking security training

* Practical AI security habits

POWER YOUR BUSINESS WITH HIGHLEVEL

Turn more leads into customers with one platform for CRM, marketing automation, appointment booking, Voice AI and customer follow-up. Start your 30-day free trial using Ryan’s link:

https://www.gohighlevel.com/ryanalford

Links & Resources:

* Fable Security: https://fablesecurity.com/

* About Fable Security: https://fablesecurity.com/about/

Connect with Ryan Alford:

* Website: https://www.ryanisright.com/

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanalford/

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-alford/

* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford

Getting the click is the easy part. Steve Oriola, CEO of Unbounce, joins Ryan Alford to explain what happens after it, and why so many businesses waste ad budget by sending paid traffic to generic pages instead of focused landing pages.

Steve explains how to think about customer acquisition cost all the way through to the sale, how attribution can tell you which traffic sources bring your best customers, and how Unbounce uses more than 2 billion conversion events to benchmark performance by industry. He also covers how AI is speeding up page creation and testing.

He also shares the lesson every leader is learning in the AI era: when building software gets cheap, focus becomes your biggest advantage.

Topics Covered:

• Post-click strategy and landing pages

• Acquisition cost, lifetime value and attribution

• Conversion benchmarks from 2 billion events

• AI in conversion rate optimization

• Staying focused when software is cheap to build

POWER YOUR BUSINESS WITH HIGHLEVEL

Turn more leads into customers with one platform for CRM, marketing automation, appointment booking, Voice AI and customer follow-up. Start your 30-day free trial using Ryan’s link:

https://www.gohighlevel.com/ryanalford

Links & Resources:

• Unbounce: https://unbounce.com/

• Conversion Benchmark Report: https://unbounce.com/conversion-benchmark-report/

• The State of Paid Media ROI 2026: https://unbounce.com/paid-media-roi-report/

Connect with Ryan Alford:

• Website: https://www.ryanisright.com/

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanalford/

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-alford/

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford

Scott Scovill was a self-described broken kid. He finished near the bottom of his class and flunked out of college, until a chance encounter with U2’s touring crew showed him a life he wanted badly enough to fight for. He joins Ryan Alford to talk about his new book, Tenacious: The Art of Relentlessly Pursuing Your Wildest Dreams, and the promise he made himself that night.

Scott and Ryan unpack the real fear behind not trying, which is proving your doubters right, and why the fear of failure is usually worse than failing. Scott also shares how living like he was “writing a book” led him to astronaut training, Antarctica and touring Europe as Brad Paisley’s opening act.

He also explains why grit and resilience can be learned, and how being grateful for the struggle helped him find his why.

Topics Covered:

• Fear of failure and fear of judgment
• The moment that changed Scott’s life
• Taking the first step and staying tenacious
• Living your life like you’re writing a book
• Grit, resilience and finding your why

POWER YOUR BUSINESS WITH HIGHLEVEL
Turn more leads into customers with one platform for CRM, marketing automation, appointment booking, Voice AI and customer follow-up. Start your 30-day free trial using Ryan’s link:
https://www.gohighlevel.com/ryanalford

Links & Resources:

• Tenacious (Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637633874
• Scott Scovill: https://scottscovill.com/
• Scott on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottscovill

Connect with Ryan Alford:

• Website: https://www.ryanisright.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanalford/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-alford/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford

Cisco put AI agents in the hands of all 90,000 of its employees, and Joe Vaccaro, an SVP at Cisco, is here to share what they learned. He joins Ryan Alford to break down how business leaders can roll out agentic AI quickly while still keeping the trust and guardrails that critical systems need.

Joe explains why agents act like overconfident teenagers, why clear and specific direction beats vague prompts, and how giving AI the right context changes everything. He also covers the real cost of AI tokens, how model routing will bring that cost down, and when a company should train its own model on its own data.

His closing advice is simple: don’t hand AI off to someone else. Use it yourself, because that’s the only way to see where it can really transform your business.

Topics Covered:

• Lessons from Cisco’s company-wide AI agent rollout
• Why AI is moving faster than any past revolution
• Guardrails, trust and safety for AI agents
• Prompting with clarity and context
• AI costs, model routing and on-device models
• Turning your data into a competitive advantage
• Why leaders need to be hands-on with AI

POWER YOUR BUSINESS WITH HIGHLEVEL
Turn more leads into customers with one platform for CRM, marketing automation, appointment booking, Voice AI and customer follow-up. Start your 30-day free trial using Ryan’s link:
https://www.gohighlevel.com/ryanalford

Links & Resources:

• Cisco: https://www.cisco.com/
• Joe Vaccaro (Cisco): https://newsroom.cisco.com/c/r/newsroom/en/us/executives/joe-vaccaro.html
• Joe on X: https://x.com/joevaccaro
• Project Glasswing: https://www.anthropic.com/glasswing

Connect with Ryan Alford:

• Website: https://www.ryanisright.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanalford/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-alford/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford

Derrick Hayes promised his father he would open a business. Years later, that promise became Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks, a Philly-born, Atlanta-built brand now franchising across the Southeast. The founder and CEO joins Ryan Alford to tell the story of going from selling Italian ice nobody understood to running a cheesesteak spot people fly into Atlanta just to try.

Derrick explains what fishing taught him about patience in business, why the winners keep going without proof, and why hustling without mastering your craft just makes you a “hobby hustler.” He also shares his biggest scaling lesson: be humble enough to build a team that challenges you.

He also talks about the impact of bringing a business into a community, hiring locally, and his Blue Apron program, which gives young employees a real career path.

Topics Covered:

• The Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks origin story
• Patience, belief and working without proof
• Hustling vs. mastering your craft
• Scaling and franchising a restaurant brand
• Building the right team and advisors
• Community impact and creating careers

POWER YOUR BUSINESS WITH HIGHLEVEL
Turn more leads into customers with one platform for CRM, marketing automation, appointment booking, Voice AI and customer follow-up. Start your 30-day free trial using Ryan’s link:
https://www.gohighlevel.com/ryanalford

Links & Resources:

• Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks: https://www.bigdavescheesesteaks.com/
• Franchise info: https://www.bigdavescheesesteaks.com/franchise
• Big Dave’s on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigdavescheesesteaks/
• Derrick on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialdhayes/

Connect with Ryan Alford:

• Website: https://www.ryanisright.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanalford/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-alford/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford

Arturo Nuñez has told stories for some of the biggest brands on earth, including Nike, Apple, the NBA and Pepsi. He joins Ryan Alford to explain what separates great marketing from expensive noise, and why a customer telling your story beats anything a brand can say.

Arturo shares rare stories about Kobe Bryant's savage competitiveness, Nike's open, inspirational culture versus Apple's need-to-know secrecy, and the "Bleed Blue" campaign people in India still remember 15 years later. He also predicts that AI could make apps obsolete within two years.

It all ties back to his new book, The Culture Compass: Navigate the Corporate World Without Losing Yourself. Arturo makes the case that your culture and your perspective are your edge at work, and that in a world where AI has all the answers, being uniquely human matters more than ever.

Topics Covered:

• Authentic storytelling and word-of-mouth marketing
• Nike vs. Apple culture from the inside
• Lessons from Kobe Bryant's obsession with the craft
• Apple's business model and the future of apps in an AI world
• Selling what customers actually want
• Culture as a business advantage
• Bringing your whole self to work without losing credibility

POWER YOUR BUSINESS WITH HIGHLEVEL
Turn more leads into customers with one platform for CRM, marketing automation, appointment booking, Voice AI and customer follow-up. Start your 30-day free trial using Ryan's link:
https://www.gohighlevel.com/ryanalford

Links & Resources:

• The Culture Compass (Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/Culture-Compass-Navigate-Corporate-Yourself/dp/1668032171
• Arturo Nuñez: https://www.arturo-speaks.com/
• Arturo on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arturonunezspeaks/
• Arturo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arturo-nunez-79329177

Connect with Ryan Alford:

• Website: https://www.ryanisright.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanalford/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-alford/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford

What if the most profitable car in your driveway is the cheapest one? George Madden, co-founder of Car Rental Coach, joins Ryan Alford to explain how older economy cars under $12,000 can rent for the same price as $30,000 cars. He shares how one $8,300 SUV brought in more than $15,000 in a year.

George gives the honest numbers: about $1,000 a month in revenue per car, not the $3,000 people claim online. He also covers the commercial insurance most new hosts get wrong, why you should start with fewer than five cars, and how busy professionals can co-host their fleet and simply collect the check.

Ryan also pulls out a lesson for any entrepreneur: document what you learn as you build, because your experience can become a business of its own.

Topics Covered:

• Starting and scaling a Turo car rental business
• Choosing cars with the best return on investment
• Real revenue and profit numbers per car
• Commercial rental insurance and avoiding denied claims
• Theft, trackers and keeping cars rented
• Depreciation and tax benefits
• Co-hosting for hands-off investors
• Turning expertise into a coaching business

POWER YOUR BUSINESS WITH HIGHLEVEL
Turn more leads into customers with one platform for CRM, marketing automation, appointment booking, Voice AI and customer follow-up. Start your 30-day free trial using Ryan's link:
https://www.gohighlevel.com/ryanalford

Links & Resources:

• Car Rental Coach: https://www.carrentalcoach.com/
• Car Rental Coach on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@carrentalcoach
• Car Rental Coach on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carrentalcoach/
• George on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-madden-b824142a3/

Connect with Ryan Alford:

• Website: https://www.ryanisright.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanalford/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-alford/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford

Is your job a "star" role or an "extra" role? Matt Britton, founder and CEO of Suzy and author of Generation AI, tells Ryan Alford that AI will multiply the impact of creative problem solvers. Meanwhile, anyone who shows up waiting to be told what to do is at risk.

Matt explains why Gen Alpha, the first generation raised with AI, will bring the biggest change to business and culture since the internet. He covers why the knowledge economy is collapsing, why he'd put coding and advanced math on the chopping block, and how parents can build creativity into their kids early.

Matt also breaks down the three levels of AI, from prompts to automations to fully autonomous agents that can book your family vacation. He finishes with a warning for leaders: companies that don't reorganize for speed now will be the next Circuit City.

POWER YOUR BUSINESS WITH HIGHLEVEL
Turn more leads into customers with one platform for CRM, marketing automation, appointment booking, Voice AI and customer follow-up. Start your 30-day free trial using Ryan's link:
https://www.gohighlevel.com/ryanalford

Topics Covered:

• Gen Alpha and the AI-native generation
• Why AI is replacing "extras" and 10x-ing "stars"
• The future of college, trade skills and the knowledge economy
• Should kids still learn coding and math?
• Why prompt engineering is already dead
• The 3 levels of AI: prompts, automations and agents
• Robotics, AI wearables and life after the smartphone
• Voice cloning, AI avatars and the "real human" backlash
• Speed, organizational design and why many CEOs won't change

Links & Resources:

• Generation AI by Matt Britton: https://www.amazon.com/Generation-AI-Alpha-Change-Everything/dp/139430885X/
• Matt Britton: https://www.mattbritton.com/
• Suzy: https://www.suzy.com/
• Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattbbritton/
• Matt on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattbrittonnyc

Connect with Ryan Alford:

• Website: https://www.ryanisright.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanalford/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-alford/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford

Marketing channels have changed dramatically since Jason Kocina began helping companies build websites in the 1990s, but he argues that the foundation of effective marketing remains the same. The Publicity.com partner and digital marketing president joins Ryan Alford to explain how businesses can protect their visibility as audiences move from traditional search engines to AI-generated answers.

Ryan and Jason explore the evolving relationship between earned media, SEO, content marketing, paid advertising, social media, and sales automation. Jason explains why companies need documented messaging, a clearly defined audience, and consistent brand language before an agency or AI platform can market them effectively.

They also discuss how skilled professionals use AI to work faster without sacrificing originality, strategy, or human judgment. This episode gives business owners a practical approach to choosing marketing channels, building authority, and remaining discoverable as search behavior continues to change.

POWER YOUR BUSINESS WITH HIGHLEVEL

HighLevel helps businesses manage leads, automate follow-up, book appointments, and use AI to keep opportunities moving. Start your 30-day free trial using Ryan’s link:

https://www.gohighlevel.com/ryanalford

TOPICS COVERED

• Jason Kocina’s experience in digital marketing
• The similarities between the internet revolution and AI
• Declining organic search traffic
• Referral traffic from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok
• AI visibility and the future of SEO
• Creating consistent company messaging
• Earned media and third-party credibility
• Public relations, paid media, and content marketing
• Selecting channels based on the target customer
• Marketing automation and sales follow-up
• Using AI to improve professional efficiency
• The marketing fundamentals that never change

CONNECT WITH JASON KOCINA

Publicity.com: https://www.publicity.com/

About Publicity.com: https://www.publicity.com/our-story/

Marketing Resources: https://www.publicity.com/publicity-resources/

The CEO’s Guide to Marketing: https://greenleafbookgroup.com/titles/the-ceos-guide-to-marketing

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/media-relations-inc-/

CONNECT WITH RYAN ALFORD AND RIGHT ABOUT NOW

Right About Now: https://www.ryanisright.com/

Ryan Alford: https://www.ryanalford.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanalford/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-alford/