Susan Linder is not your typical consultant. A cultural anthropologist from the Bronx who hitchhiked through Central American war zones, trained as an AIDS epidemiologist, and stumbled into PR on a blind date, she has spent 30 years proving that the right story - told the right way - changes everything. Today she is the Founder and CEO of Innovation Storytellers and recognized as the world's leading expert on innovation storytelling.

Jack and Susan trace her path from answering her dad's tool-sales phone at eight years old to working in Thai brothels in the 1990s and eventually helping Fortune 100 companies like GE, AT&T, and Citi win funding, drive acquisitions, and get their breakthrough ideas across the finish line. Along the way: why fear is a terrible long-term motivator, what it actually means to be the hero of your own story, and why innovation teams keep getting their credit stolen.

Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction and the koala fingerprint fun fact 00:48 - Scrappy roots: immigrant parents, a station wagon full of tools, and the family business 05:00 - Sitting with the adults: growing up curious and always interviewing 08:00 - Phones, orders, and selling at eight years old 09:00 - Flea markets, freelance gigs, and financing college yourself 13:00 - Discovering cultural anthropology by accidentally inventing it 16:00 - Junior year abroad and hitchhiking through Central American war zones 22:00 - Thailand, HIV, and the storytelling insight that changed everything 29:00 - From the CDC to a blind date with a Forbes editor to the PR world 34:00 - Building Innovation Storytellers: the scrappy evolution from Lotus to today 37:00 - Helping innovation teams pitch the Joint Chiefs, the CFO, and everyone in between 39:00 - Lightning round: ChatGPT jokes, inbox zeros, and the font formatting confession

Connect with Susan: https://www.innovationstorytellers.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanjlindner/ https://www.instagram.com/innovationstorytellers/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCId9xpyIaSwD25Z9ZsiZ3-g https://www.facebook.com/InnovationStorytellers

Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-tompkins/ https://www.pineapplecf.com https://www.pineappleanalyst.ai https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCalnj5yLU0ZH9y_tVl1J4ng

Jay Rooney is the founder of Spawn Point Marketing, a fractional CMO practice for indie and AA game studios, and the publisher of Game & Word - an award-winning Substack examining video games through interdisciplinary academic lenses. In this episode, Jay breaks down why most indie studios are invisible at launch (hint: they started marketing too late), walks through his 6-component Functional Marketing Framework, and shares the scrappy story of how he grew a mobile game from zero to hundreds of thousands of users without a single dollar in ad spend. Plus: the high school vending machine protest campaign that started it all.

Chapters: 00:00 - Intro and fun fact: the AI personalities of Pac-Man ghosts 01:00 - Scrappy or sophisticated? Jay makes his case 01:40 - Growing up between New Orleans, Mexico City, and Miami 03:43 - Life with a foot in two worlds - and the entrepreneurial spark it lit 04:46 - The high school vending machine protest campaign 08:14 - Grades, curiosity, and learning how to think vs. what to think 10:05 - Game & Word: examining games through interdisciplinary academic lenses 14:49 - The $200B gaming industry and why discoverability is the real crisis 15:34 - The 6-component Functional Marketing Framework for indie studios 22:33 - How to get content creators to notice your game (the scrappy way) 27:34 - Wishlist momentum, revenue projections, and getting data-driven 29:25 - Favorite games growing up: Final Fantasy VII, Zelda, and Earthbound 31:37 - The founding of Spawn Point Marketing - sink or swim 36:48 - Getting first clients through inbound only (no cold outreach) 38:36 - Lightning round: desk setup, inbox chaos, and 63,403 unread emails 42:56 - What makes Jay feel sophisticated: buying the house and signing the office lease 43:43 - Three takeaways: start early, stay consistent, own your marketing 48:38 - Where to find Jay and the June 9 webinar

Spawn Point Marketing: https://spawnpointmarketing.com Launch Readiness Scorecard: https://scorecard.spawnpointmarketing.com SPM Substack: https://spawnpointmarketing.substack.com Game & Word Substack: https://gameandword.substack.com Jay's Webinar (June 9): https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/building-a-marketing-engine-for-your-game-without-a-cmo-tickets-1988318245396?aff=jay Jay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayrooneysf/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-tompkins/ https://www.pineapplecf.com https://www.pineapplejacktompkins.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCalnj5yLU0ZH9y_tVl1J4ng

Eric Tjoeng grew up in Indonesia in a family of seven entrepreneurs, started his first business venture at age 12 promoting a comedy show, and eventually moved to Australia to build a career starting at Deloitte. After 20+ years in senior executive roles at multinationals - including GM of a $1.4B automotive group - he founded Business Growth and Exit Specialists (BGES) in Sydney, where he now helps small and medium businesses grow strategically and exit successfully. He's 100% sophisticated, and the data agrees.

Chapters:

00:00 - Intro and Australia Fun Fact: The Dingo Fence 01:11 - Scrappy or Sophisticated? Eric's Answer 02:45 - Growing Up in Indonesia with 7 Entrepreneurs 05:28 - Age 12 Comedy Show Promoter and First Investment 07:14 - Deloitte, Multinationals, and the SME Shift 10:34 - Why SME Owners Work Hard But Don't Get Returns 13:27 - The Dashboard Formula and Data-Driven Strategy 17:35 - Founding BGES and Getting That First Client 25:40 - The Australia Exit Crisis: 200K Exits, 45K Walk Away With Nothing 31:10 - The BGES Exit Formula and Business Valuation 38:44 - Speed vs. Strategy - Eric's Answer 40:27 - Lightning Round: Inbox, Celebrations, and Vetting Clients 43:39 - Final Verdict: 100% Sophisticated

Guest Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/etjoeng/ https://bges.co

Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-tompkins/ https://www.pineapplecf.com https://www.pineappleanalyst.ai https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCalnj5yLU0ZH9y_tVl1J4ng

What does it really take to build a business that creates higher returns AND more joy? Tina Dao, founder of Liberated Leaders, has lived the answer - from baking cupcakes for her dad's hunting camps and negotiating car loans with her grandpa at 17, to leading operations at Amazon, Fitbit, and Walmart before launching her own fractional COO firm. In this episode, Tina and Jack dig into conscious capitalism, the "silver tsunami" of business transitions, why the trades are safer than college right now, and how to know when your company needs to move between scrappy and sophisticated.

Chapters: 00:00 - Intro + fun fact: butterflies taste with their feet 00:54 - Scrappy vs. sophisticated: Tina's take on the tension between the two 02:00 - Growing up in Western Colorado with sheep ranchers and serial entrepreneurs 09:04 - First hustles: baking for hunting camps, babysitting, and cleaning houses at 12 13:42 - Negotiating a car loan from grandpa at 17 - with a term sheet 15:32 - A 2.0 GPA, 98s on every test, and why the trades beat college right now 19:06 - US Navy electronics technician to corporate operations 25:32 - Starting Liberated Leaders and the case for conscious capitalism 29:25 - Landing the first client, the family bet, and the real cost of going out on your own 35:15 - Lightning round: scrappy studio, inbox limits, and corporate pet peeves 43:39 - The Liberated Leaders pitch: 5-10x returns, more delight, and the silver tsunami

Tina Dao - Liberated Leaders https://www.liberatedleaders.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinaldao/

Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-tompkins/ https://www.pineapplecf.com https://www.pineapplejacktompkins.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCalnj5yLU0ZH9y_tVl1J4ng

What happens when a corporate employee discovers Amazon, teaches himself e-commerce, becomes a CMO, and then realizes the whole agency model is broken? You get Tanner Rankin - founder of Source Approach, Referazon, and the Brand Source OS - and a seriously compelling story about turning scrappy roots into a sophisticated operating system for brands.

Tanner breaks down how he built the Brand Operating System from a pile of spreadsheets, why most brands fail their agency partners (not the other way around), and what it actually looks like to make marketing predictable and repeatable. If you're tired of random acts of marketing, this one's for you.

Chapters: 0:00 - Intro and fun fact 0:52 - Scrappy roots: corporate robot turned Amazon seller 4:07 - The CMO role and the cold hard look in the mirror 12:34 - Building Source Approach and the first Brand OS 19:35 - Entrepreneur ADD, Referazon, and solving the right problems 26:09 - Fake it till you make it and the MVP trap 30:44 - Who Source Approach serves today 33:06 - The woodsman in a suit: office tour and lightning round 45:42 - KPIs, client success, and what makes marketing repeatable

Connect with Tanner: Website: https://www.sourceapproach.com Personal site: https://www.tannerrankin.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tannerrankin/ Referazon: https://www.referazon.com

Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-tompkins/ https://www.pineapplecf.com https://www.pineapplejacktompkins.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCalnj5yLU0ZH9y_tVl1J4ng

Phil Risher didn't have entrepreneurs in the family - he had a single mom, a pest control dad, a rap career in high school, and eventually a school bus he lived in while figuring out his next move. Somehow it all led to Phlash Consulting, a 22-person marketing and data firm that grew home service businesses an average of 27% last year. In this one, Jack and Phil trace the full origin story - from selling autographed CDs out of a backpack to managing a $300K/month Enterprise branch at 25, to quitting corporate on his honeymoon and building something entirely his own.

Topics covered:

• 0:00 - Intro and fun fact - the most expensive pineapple in history
• 0:52 - Scrappy vs. sophisticated and Phil's honest opening take
• 1:16 - Growing up outside DC, immigrant hustle, and the high school rap career that launched it all
• 7:36 - Ruby Tuesday's, commission brain, and the first real entrepreneurial unlock
• 8:22 - Geneva College, three majors, studying abroad in Rome and China, and $30K in student loans
• 10:12 - Paying off debt in 12 months, buying a condo at 25, and building zero-debt infrastructure
• 12:04 - Enterprise Rent-a-Car, the BMI report, and running a $300K/month branch on data alone
• 17:47 - The school bus trip, the duck cleaning company, and when all the worlds collided
• 22:08 - The three levers every home service business needs: marketing, data, and automations
• 25:15 - The growth thresholds - systems to 3M, data to 5M, people to 10M
• 27:15 - How Tom fired Phil to set him up, the name Phlash, and the private equity framework that built the whole business
• 35:28 - Profit First, abundance mindset, and leading a team with a vision big enough for everyone
• 38:13 - Minimalist office, 100% on or off, and making the Inc. 5000 Best Workplaces list

Connect with Phil Risher: https://phlashconsulting.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/philrisher/ https://www.instagram.com/philrisher/

Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-tompkins/ https://www.pineapplecf.com https://www.pineapplejacktompkins.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCalnj5yLU0ZH9y_tVl1J4ng

Elizabeth Rose is President and Lead Coach at Garth Rose Consulting Group, where she brings 27 years of mediation experience and a decade of executive coaching to leaders and teams. But before the polished practice, there was a VW camper rolling through Europe, a Starbucks apron, and a borrowed conference room. Elizabeth's path from Long Island to law school to barista-turned-mediator is one of the scrappiest origin stories we've had on the show - and her work is as rigorous as her roots are "ready, fire, aim." In this episode, Jack and Elizabeth dig into somatic experiencing (yes, your body is keeping score), why emotional intelligence is the real ROI lever for your sales team, and why great leadership now means admitting when your two-year-old kept you up all night.

Chapters:

00:00 - Intro + Fun Fact: Mangoes Rule the World

01:22 - Long Island Roots and an Accidentally Wild Upbringing

07:01 - Senior Year of High School in Hong Kong

10:47 - From Retail Buyer to Stay-at-Home Mom to Law School With Three Kids

13:14 - Three Months as a Lawyer, Then the Pivot to Mediation

15:04 - Getting Her First Client as a Starbucks Barista

16:43 - Building a Practice Out of a Borrowed Conference Room

22:32 - Where Elizabeth's Emotional Intelligence Approach Comes From

24:49 - What Is Somatic Experiencing?

30:21 - The Two-Minute Body Scan: A Practical First Step

34:04 - Somatics in the Boardroom: Executive Coaching in Practice

39:15 - Measuring the ROI of Emotional Intelligence Work

42:10 - Lightning Round: Scrappy vs. Sophisticated

Connect with Elizabeth:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethroseesq

https://garthrose.com

Connect with Jack:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-tompkins/

https://www.pineapplecf.com

https://www.pineapplejacktompkins.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCalnj5yLU0ZH9y_tVl1J4ng

Nick Reich is the co-founder of Abundant Empowerment and the founder of CoLab - a peer-powered community for consultants and leaders. A first-gen college kid from Evansville, Indiana, Nick went from school social worker to building the fastest state championship basketball program in Indiana high school history, and then spent the next 15 years turning those lessons into a people first framework for building high performing teams. His book, Every Player is Bigger Than the Program, drops September 8th. This one covers a lot of ground.

Topics covered in this episode:

• How Nick's blue collar upbringing as a first-gen kid in Evansville shaped his people first philosophy
• His first job in 1995: quality-testing an early online dating app - officially scrappy
• The hat, haircut, or tattoo framework for cutting analysis paralysis and making faster decisions
• How Nick built Indiana's fastest state championship basketball program starting from a school with no gym
• Why people first leadership is NOT soft - it means high expectations and high accountability
• How Abundant Empowerment came together when Nick merged River and Green with Andrea's decade-old vision
• What give first actually means and why Nick deliberately disconnects generosity from expecting anything back
• The book Every Player is Bigger Than the Program - what it's about, when it drops, and where to get it

0:00 - Welcome and fun fact: palm trees are actually grass 1:07 - Blue collar roots: first-gen college kid from Evansville 3:47 - First job: quality-testing a 1995 online dating app 8:31 - Hat, haircut, or tattoo - the decision framework that changes everything 11:25 - Quitting the team and what it taught about second chances 14:56 - Coaching teens vs. coaching executives - the correlation 18:54 - Indiana's fastest state championship, built from scratch 22:38 - Defining success when there's no scoreboard 26:38 - From River and Green to Abundant Empowerment 30:25 - Faking it till you make it - and still doing it 33:46 - Rapid fire: texts, audiobooks, and the networking escape plan 39:42 - Give first: disconnecting generosity from the ask 43:31 - Every Player is Bigger Than the Program

Connect with Nick: https://www.abundantempowerment.com, https://www.peoplefirstplaybook.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-reich05/

Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-tompkins/ https://www.pineapplecf.com https://www.pineapplejacktompkins.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCalnj5yLU0ZH9y_tVl1J4ng

Ryen Salo is the Client Experience Manager at CherryBecker, a 10-year CX veteran, Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM) member and speaker, Finnish sauna enthusiast, and self-described "one and fun" mom living just outside Portland, Oregon. In this episode, Ryen takes us from selling candy and running a seven-dollar blackberry stand in Grants Pass, to driving a 50-mph Mug Root Beer VW Bug for Pepsi Cola, to dropping in and out of college for years before finally finishing her degree through an adult completion program - all while working full-time and being newly married. She breaks down what client experience actually requires (spoiler: it's curiosity), why you have to stop making it about yourself, and why she and Jack are both speaking at the AAM Summit in Palm Springs this May.

In this episode:

• 00:00 - Intro and the bell pepper bump fun fact you will never forget
• 02:42 - Growing up scrappy in Grants Pass, Oregon and a mom who quietly ran the school
• 08:15 - Learning differently, the teachers who really saw her, and why grades don't tell the whole story
• 11:21 - Raising her son in a Title I school and celebrating neurodiversity in 2025
• 16:06 - The winding college road - Eugene to California to Portland, food stamps, and finally finishing
• 18:50 - Driving the Mug Bug - Pepsi Cola's 50-mph soda car and sampling at events
• 26:46 - Working at The Climb (while not outdoorsy at all) and winning the guac off two years running
• 28:50 - What client experience actually requires - curiosity, listening, and getting out of your own way
• 33:28 - The CX partnership philosophy - becoming an extension of the client's team
• 35:45 - The Jefferson Memorial and the five whys - how Jack and Ryen both think about root causes
• 37:20 - AAM (Association for Accounting Marketing) and what to expect at the Palm Springs summit
• 42:28 - Lightning round - airports, inbox philosophy, JBL earbuds, and the final scrappy vs. sophisticated verdict

Connect with Ryen Salo:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryen-salo/
• AAM (Association for Accounting Marketing): https://accountingmarketing.org/

Listen on:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3zSMlS41U0FfttadYBYbri?si=f856281edcae4c53
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/scrappy-but-successful-consultants-personalities-when/id1878384628

Connect with Jack Tompkins:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-tompkins/
• Pineapple Consulting Firm: https://www.pineapplecf.com
• Speaking: https://www.pineapplejacktompkins.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCalnj5yLU0ZH9y_tVl1J4ng

What do a $180 driveway shoveling gig, a fake million dollar bill at the Houston airport, and raising over $2 billion in capital all have in common? Brad Blazar. This week on Scrappy But Successful, Jack sits down with the founder of Capital Connections - a knighted speaker, bestselling author, podcast host, and genuinely one of the most interesting people to ever sit across from Jack. Brad breaks down his trademarked philosophy "Beliefology," the psychology behind raising capital without desperation, and some legendary scrappy moves that prove you don't always need a marketing budget - just a Starbucks tab and the right mindset.

In this episode:

• (00:03) Intro - Snails, scrappiness, and meet Brad Blazar
• (01:55) Moving city to city as a kid and becoming a social chameleon
• (06:51) Paper routes, snow shoveling, and the $180 driveway hustle
• (10:17) Investing, philanthropy, and why distributions beat W-2 income
• (16:27) Beliefology - the trademarked philosophy and the story of Jack going from 480 lbs to Men's Fitness cover
• (20:19) Fear = False Evidence that Appears Real - and why comfort is your worst enemy
• (24:02) How to raise capital without sounding desperate - slow down, discovery first, pitch last
• (33:05) The $3 Starbucks strategy that unlocked Dallas's wealthiest doors
• (40:24) Lightning round - first class, Centurion Lounge, and metal business cards
• (43:43) The million dollar bill, AirTag luggage hacks, and surviving CrowdStrike Day in flip flops

Learn more about Brad: https://www.bradblazar.com

Connect with Jack: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-tompkins/ Company: https://www.pineapplecf.com Speaking: https://www.pineapplejacktompkins.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCalnj5yLU0ZH9y_tVl1J4ng