The Built To Scale Podcast

By Shmuel Herschberg

Everyone talks about scale, but how do brands really scale? That’s what Shmuel Herschberg is uncovering on The Built To Scale Podcast. Join him for a behind-the-scenes look as he sits

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FAQs about The Built To Scale Podcast:

How many episodes does The Built To Scale Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 18 episodes available.

The Built To Scale Podcast episodes:

July 09, 2026Why Not Me? The Growth Mindset That Changes Everything | Dr. Charles Livingston
Most people ask "why me?" Dr. Charles Livingston learned to ask "why not me?" That one shift turned a chiropractor into a digital marketer, and a digital marketer into the founder of one of DTC's most respected premium coffee brands.
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What you'll learn:
How Charles validated Life Boost Coffee with affiliates before spending a single dollar on paid media
Why he still forwards every customer support ticket to his personal Gmail, even with 40+ employees
How to navigate commodity pricing swings and supply chain chaos without blowing your margins
The exact channel sequencing he used: affiliates first, then paid, then multi-channel expansion
Why "certified organic" isn't enough, and how third-party toxin testing became a core differentiator
How the GLP-1 trend is reshaping product formulation across the health and beverage space

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About Dr. Charles Livingston:
Dr. Charles Livingston is a chiropractor turned serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Life Boost Coffee. Before Life Boost, he built Fat Loss Factor and Perfect Origins, two of the affiliate marketing world's most successful digital health brands. He has been operating in direct response marketing for over a decade and brings a practitioner's lens to product development, performance marketing, and scaling DTC brands.

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Key moments:
0:00 Cold open: "Why not me?" The mindset shift that changed everything
3:52 How bulletproof coffee led to founding a company
9:00 Affiliate-first go-to-market: validating before spending on paid
12:09 Why Charles still reads every support ticket
15:00 Navigating coffee commodity pricing and supply chain chaos
32:25 Managing 50+ SKUs and the cost of too many products
34:46 GLP-1s, protein trends, and where product innovation is heading
45:41 The retail leap: Whole Foods, purchase orders, and floating cash
47:42 What a holiday vendor show taught him about buyer psychology

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Connect with Dr. Charles Livingston:
Website: lifeboostcoffee.com
Email: [email protected]

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About The Built To Scale Podcast:
Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/
For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/
If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].
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57min
July 02, 2026This Advertising Channel Beats Meta | Andra Ionescu
The affiliate marketing playbook that worked in 2022 is not just outdated. It is actively working against you. Andra Ionescu, started off as an affiliate manager at MaxWeb, and has recently been promoted to the CEO role. She has seen every side of this industry since 2012, and is here to tell you exactly what has changed and what to do about it.
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What you'll learn:
Why native advertising is the most underrated channel in performance marketing right now and how to structure your first campaign with a pre-lander that actually converts
How to run the 70/30 budget split between a scaling pipeline and a testing pipeline so you never run dry on winners
Why Meta's Andromeda update killed the old targeting playbook and why creative volume is now your primary lever
How AI overviews have taken over 60% of supplement-related searches and what you need to do now to stay visible
Why making your account manager your best friend is the single highest-leverage move any new affiliate can make
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About Andra Ionescu:
Andra Ionescu is the CEO of MaxWeb, one of the leading CPA performance networks in direct response and e-commerce. She has been in the industry since 2012, working across vendor, affiliate, and operations roles before taking the top seat. MaxWeb works across Meta, native, Google, and email, running exclusive offers at scale in health, nutra, and e-commerce.
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Connect with Andra Ionescu:
Website: www.maxweb.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andraionescu90/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andra.ionescu.90/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andra.ionescu.90
Affiliate World Budapest: (Shmuel and Andra are both speaking): https://affiliateworldconferences.com/
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Key moments:
10:12 - Why VSLs still work when the hook lands in the first minutes, and why the staged, polished format is dying
17:45 - Why native is the long-term play and how Meta's Andromeda update changed the cost and learning curve
30:12 - How AI overviews are dominating supplement search results and why the old affiliate SEO playbook is broken
38:51 - Why the next phase of affiliate marketing is about training AI, not just people
40:48 - The single most important move any new affiliate can make before spending a dollar on ads
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About The Built To Scale Podcast:
Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/
For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/
If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].
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44min
June 29, 2026What You've Got to Fix Before You Scale | Francisco Bervis
Affiliates and media buyers don't build your funnel. They pour gasoline on a fire that's already burning. Francisco Bervis, Head of Marketplace at Everflow, breaks down exactly what brands need to prove before any partner will touch them, and the real math behind who gets a $400 CPA and who gets $60.
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What you'll learn:
Why your brand needs tested creatives and a working funnel before any affiliate will work with you
How to validate a lander or ad creative for as little as $20 to $50 before scaling spend
The real CPA gap between premium GLP1 weight loss brands and smaller competitors, and what drives it
How a "quadruple win" referral structure builds long term affiliate loyalty instead of one off introductions
Why relationship marketing still beats pure performance metrics in affiliate partnerships
What Everflow's marketplace actually does for brands looking for the right partners

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About Francisco Bervis:
Francisco Bervis is Head of Marketplace at Everflow, where he audits and matches brand offers with the affiliates, publishers, and media buyers who can actually scale them. His path there runs through zoology, lead generation, business development for East Fifth Avenue, and cart recovery strategy at HelpGrid, giving him a rare view into both sides of the affiliate equation.

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Key moments:
0:00 - Francisco's gasoline analogy: what media buyers actually do for your brand
6:37 - The cold call that generated $1.6 million for a nonprofit fair, and the lesson behind it
18:35 - What Everflow actually is, and why lifetime value matters more than first look conversion
30:21 - Why untested creatives are the fastest way to get rejected by a media buyer
38:24 - The real CPA numbers behind GLP1 weight loss brands, big and small
43:08 - The quadruple win: why Francisco gives away 2% of revenue for life
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Connect with Francisco Bervis:
Telegram: http://t.me/fbervis
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatsfrank/

Everflow Marketplace: https://www.everflow.io/enablement/everflow-marketplace
Affiliate World: https://affiliateworldconferences.com/

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About The Built To Scale Podcast:
Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/
For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/
If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].
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52min
June 23, 2026What Remote Hiring at Scale Actually Looks Like | Michele Lambert
Most hiring fails before a single resume is reviewed. The job description is vague. The compensation range is too low to attract the right talent. The "one role" you posted is actually three jobs crammed into one. And then you wonder why six weeks in you're starting over.

Michele Lambert has been inside this problem since 2012. She has built remote teams for direct response brands, internet marketers, and multi-million dollar online businesses. She has supported New York Times bestselling launches, built a Rolodex of thousands of vetted A players, and now runs Bella Connections, a recruiting and team-building firm built specifically for the online business world.
This conversation gets into the stuff most founders skip.

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What you'll learn:
Why you should build your 90-day KPIs before you ever write a job description, and how that one shift changes everything about the hire
How listing a narrow comp range quietly filters out your best candidates before you ever see their resume
What values alignment actually looks like in a remote team, and why it matters more than skills
The resume mistakes that get candidates blacklisted across the entire direct response space
Why applying straight through the process beats DMs and intro requests every time
How AI is reshaping hiring right now, which companies are winning, and what candidates need to do to stay irreplaceable

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About Michele Lambert:
Michele Lambert is the founder of Bella Connections, a remote recruiting and team-building firm specializing in the direct response, e-commerce, and online business space. She has been building high-performance remote teams since 2012 and maintains a curated Rolodex of thousands of vetted operators, marketers, and executives. She is also co-launching Level A, a career program designed to help people land six-figure roles in the online business world.

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Key moments:
4:32 - The two mistakes founders make before posting a single job (clarity and comp)
13:23 - The 90-day desired outcomes framework: how Michele sharpens the hire before searching
17:45 - Why most A-player candidates won't even look at sub-six-figure listings
19:49 - How to tailor your resume without lying
28:22 - What makes a candidate unforgettable
35:26 - Michele's honest take on AI replacing jobs, and where she's hopeful and scared
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Connect with Michele Lambert:
Website: https://bellaconnections.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michele-lambert-66792395/
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/michele.lambert.14811

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About The Built To Scale Podcast:
Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/
For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/
If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].
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48min
June 17, 2026The Best AI and Marketing Principles That are Really Working | Kristen Palmer
Most marketers chase what's trending. Kristen Palmer has spent two decades identifying what never stops working.
What you will learn:
Why the webinar funnel is generating six and seven figure weeks in 2026 and how to build one that converts
Live vs. evergreen: which price points demand which format and why cold audiences cannot handle high ticket
What a real eight-figure audit actually uncovers (and why it will make you want to audit your own funnels today)
Where AI is most dangerous for marketing teams and how to set rules of engagement before it creates chaos
How Kristen replaced a project manager role with an EA and an AI agent connected to ClickUp and Slack
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About Kristen Palmer:
Fractional CMO and founder of 5D Strategy. Nearly two decades in direct response and health and wellness, including Agora Publishing where she helped 10x their affiliate program. Specializes in moving eight-figure brands toward nine and ten figures by fixing marketing and cross-functional systems simultaneously.
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Key moments:
06:31 The one marketing principle that will still work 20 years from now
08:03 Why the webinar funnel is making a full comeback in 2026
11:13 Three webinar funnels running at the same time: how it actually works
25:24 Eight-figure companies that still do not know their own metrics
28:47 Real audit finds: broken calendars, two brand guides, two ICPs in circulation
34:10 The AI skill managing a 10-person video team via ClickUp and Slack
36:40 The AI media buyer skill: 8 weeks in and already calling campaigns accurately
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Connect with Kristen Palmer:
Website: https://5dstrategy.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenpalmer/
Email: [email protected]
Calendly: https://calendly.com/kristinpalmer

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About The Built To Scale Podcast:
Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/
For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/
If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].
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46min
June 11, 2026Copy Over Capital: From Pool Cleaning to a 7-Figure Supplements Business | Paul Lawrence
Most supplement companies need a doctor, a media budget, and a team. Paul Lawrence built Naturecast with none of those things. What he had instead was a ruthless understanding of copy, a willingness to outlast everyone else, and a list so loyal that 40% of his recent orders came from subscribers who had been with him for five years or more.
What you'll learn:
How Paul reverse-engineered a predictable customer acquisition system before the internet existed, with a one-page flyer and a 3.5% response rate he could bank on
Why copy built around a mechanism outperforms copy built around personality, and how Paul used that insight to build his biggest supplement seller
How JV swaps became his primary growth channel and why finding the right partners matters more than having a massive budget
The email-first business model that generates consistent revenue from a 50+ market that buys on trust and stays for years
What Paul would do differently if he launched Naturecast today, and why he would skip the info products and go straight to supplements

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About Paul Lawrence:
Paul Lawrence is the founder of Naturecast, a lean direct response supplement business with over 30 products. He built his foundation in direct mail before discovering copywriting through a mentorship with Agora legend Mark Ford. His promotions have generated millions in sales, and he has built a subscriber list that continues to produce revenue years after subscribers first joined.

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Key moments:
The pool cleaning flyer that taught Paul everything he needed to know about CAC and conversion before those terms existed
How a ballroom dance instructor gig led to a mentorship with Mark Ford and a $6,500/month royalty check at 2%
Why negative spend works for large operators but not lean ones, and how Paul structured his business around that reality

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Connect with Paul Lawrence:
Email: [email protected] (Use subject line: "Heard you on Shmuel’s podcast") Website: naturecastproducts.com

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About The Built To Scale Podcast:
Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/
For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/
If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].
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54min
June 05, 2026Connected TV and the New Rules of Scaling | Kyle Kostechka
If your business is stuck in low ticket, you may be funding your own slow decline. Kyle Kostechka, former ClickBank performance marketing leader and advisor at Trident Growth, makes the case for why high ticket has shifted from "nice to have" to essential in this economy and what that means for how you buy traffic, build funnels, and think about 2026.
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What you'll learn:
Why targeting premium buyers is now a survival strategy, not just a growth lever, and how the current economy backs that up with data
How a $27 front end product can justify a $200 CPA when the high ticket backend is structured correctly
The types of high ticket offers almost any business can bolt on right now: coaching, done-for-you, access, masterminds, and premium customization
Why Meta's Andromeda update is penalizing aggressive VSLs and what a compliant, converting funnel actually looks like in 2026
Why Connected TV is the most underpriced paid media inventory available right now and how to get in before the big budgets follow
How Kyle's team deployed an AI support agent that took a Hebrew-speaking customer from a 2 AM refund request to buying more products

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About Kyle Kostechka:
Kyle spent over a decade at ClickBank mastering performance marketing at scale. He now runs Triton Growth, a venture studio focused on high ticket offer ascension, affiliate strategy, and premium product development. He has spoken from stages on Connected TV and AI-driven marketing, and works with brands building offer structures that can survive and thrive in today's market.

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Connect with Kyle Kostechka:
Email: [email protected] (reach out for a free affiliate program audit or a free high ticket offer assessment… Just tell him Shmuel sent you!)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-kostechka-aa0b504/
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Key moments:
01:44 - Why high ticket is a critical survival move in a contracting economy
07:25 - What price point actually defines high ticket ($10K is the floor)
11:24 - The $27 front end with a $200 CPA: how high ticket transforms your media buying math
25:39 - The death of aggressive marketing (not TSLs) and what Meta's algorithm is actually seeing
32:06 - Channel breakdown: Meta, YouTube, Native, and why Connected TV is the next big move
42:22 - How Kyle reduced headcount substantially without losing revenue or output using AI
51:15 - How to build AI tools for your business without blowing your budget or losing control of your data
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About The Built To Scale Podcast:
Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/
For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/
If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].
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1h
June 01, 2026The 5 Profit Levers: How to Actually Scale Your Business Profitably | Jeremy Reeves
A lot of companies are scaling themselves into a cash flow crisis and they have no idea it's happening. Jeremy Reeves has built five eight-figure offers and generated over $200 million in revenue, and his biggest finding is that acquisition is the least important part of the equation.
What you'll learn:
How to calculate your real allowable customer acquisition cost (most brands get this completely wrong)
Why lifetime value is a misleading metric unless you contribution-margin-adjust it and measure by cohort
The five profit levers in Jeremy's Scalable Profit Model: contribution margin, acquisition economics, LTV, operational efficiency, and capital return velocity
Why a 1% improvement in contribution margin can drive 4 to 6% in additional profit, and why most founders never touch it
How to use overhead per customer to diagnose whether your business is bloated or lean (with a concrete dollar figure)
Why AI is about to erase marketing advantages entirely, and what that means for how you compete

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About Jeremy Reeves:
Jeremy Reeves is the founder of Scale Advisors and author of The Scalable Profit Model. He started as a direct response copywriter and sales funnel strategist before building and scaling multiple eight-figure supplement and health brands. He now consults with DTC businesses on a performance basis, helping them add profit without adding ad spend.

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Connect with him at:
Website: https://scaleadvisors.com/
Book: https://scaleadvisors.com/book
The Scale Advisors Podcast: https://scaleadvisors.com/podcast
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@scaleadvisors
X: https://x.com/JeremyReeves
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyreeves/
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Key moments:
[~11:00] The five levers of the Scalable Profit Model, explained one by one
[~13:00] Why the standard way founders calculate LTV is wrong, and what to use instead
[~20:00] The real cost of a bloated operation: how Jeremy spotted a $600K inefficiency in under 10 minutes
[~37:00] Capital return velocity: the metric Jeremy coined because no one else had named it yet
[~42:00] A dead simple cash flow win: switch to a 60-day credit card and stop paying for airline points
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About The Built To Scale Podcast:
Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/
For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/
If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].
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51min
May 26, 2026Lessons in Lifetime Value: Turn a $30 Buyer Into a $5,000 Client | Max Kramer
Most brands are sitting on a revenue stream they have never touched. The moment someone buys your front-end offer, supplement, course, or gadget, there is a window of peak intent that closes fast. Max Kramer built an entire company around owning that window for other brands, and his model converts fresh buyers into $5,000 high-ticket coaching clients before the transaction is even a memory.

What you'll learn:
How Kramer Media operates as a white-label coaching division for info, supplement, and ecom brands without disrupting what those brands are already doing
Why the moment of purchase is the highest-leverage contact point and why email follow-up is already too late
The trust formula Max learned from marketer Eben Pagan: explain the customer's problem better than they can and they will trust you instantly
Why Max believes AI will never fully replace human coaching, and the one psychological dynamic that makes human accountability irreplaceable
The monkey brain problem with SOPs: why it is not enough to build systems, you have to become a slave to them even when your instincts say otherwise
Where Max lands on the quality vs. quantity dial for sales teams, and why his answer might surprise you
Why Max's biggest fear is not AI or competition but something entirely internal

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About Max Kramer:
Max Kramer is the founder of Kramer Media, a white-label coaching company that plugs into brands in the info, supplement, and ecom space and converts front-end buyers into $5,000 high-ticket coaching clients. He built his first coaching brand in the dating advice space in 2012, grew it to over one million social media followers, and used that decade of operational experience to build a backend coaching engine that now serves multiple verticals. He is based in the world he built from scratch, starting with nothing but a personal problem and a willingness to solve it.

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Connect with him at:
Email: [email protected]
Telegram: @kramermedia
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Key moments:
05:46 - The white-label insight that changed everything
17:01 - What coaching actually is and why AI cannot replace it
24:44 - The trust principle Max learned from Eben Pagan that closes $5K sales
33:05 - The monkey brain problem and how SOPs save you from yourself
35:52 - Quantity vs. quality: where Max sets the dial on leads and salespeople
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About The Built To Scale Podcast:
Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/
For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/
If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].
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41min
May 20, 2026Your Company Thinks It's Using AI. It Isn't. | John Munsell
Most companies think they've "adopted AI." They have a Copilot license, maybe a chatbot on the website. John Munsell calls that dipping your toe in the water. Real adoption looks completely different and the gap between where most companies are and where they need to be is costing them millions.
What you'll learn:
Why "AI adoption" is being measured wrong and what the right metric actually is
How John's 10 Levels of AI Mastery framework pinpoints exactly where your team is falling short
Why 90%+ of employees at most companies are stuck at level two or below (and how to fix it fast)
How proper training can compress 19-24 months of individual AI growth into 4-6 weeks
Why governance and training are the two things companies leave for last and why that is the most expensive mistake they make
How team makeup (the PAEI framework) determines whether your AI initiatives succeed or stall
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About John Munsell
John Munsell is the CEO of Bizzuka and the author of "InGrain AI." He sold his digital marketing agency client portfolio in 2022, right before ChatGPT went public, and spent the following years building a framework to help companies move from AI curiosity to full workforce transformation. His InGrain AI Certified Implementer Program is developing the next generation of Chief AI Officers.
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Key moments
(06:54) The $19K website that became a $150K engagement.
(13:33) Why "AI adoption" is a lie.
(14:22) Introducing the 10 levels of AI mastery. John breaks down the framework his firm uses to assess real proficiency, not usage, across entire organizations.
(21:03) The brick exercise. John splits 40 employees into groups and gives them five minutes to list as many uses for a brick as possible.
(28:36) Shadow AI is already in your building.
(33:57) The three-tier governance model.
(44:40) What the 10 levels of AI adoption actually look like.
(47:18) Training and governance are last on every company's list.
(50:25) How to get a resistant workforce to actually adopt AI.
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Connect with John Munsell:
Website: https://www.bizzuka.com
Book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F2Z6H53T/
New book waitlist: https://www.ingrain.ai/2026
Free economic impact assessment (valued at $547, but free for my listeners! Use code SHMUEL for 100% off): https://www.bizzuka.com/impact
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About The Built To Scale Podcast:
Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/
For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/
If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].
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55min

FAQs about The Built To Scale Podcast:

How many episodes does The Built To Scale Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 18 episodes available.