The Business Leader's Legacy Podcast

What happens to everything your people know when they walk out the door? Bill Kaplan has spent nearly three decades in knowledge management, and he says the hardest part is something AI cannot do yet: move what is in one person’s head into another’s. Hear why the human has to stay in the lead.

Bill Kaplan is the founder of Working Knowledge CSP and the author of Losing Your Mind: Capturing, Retaining, and Leveraging Organizational Knowledge. A retired U.S. Air Force veteran, he has helped public and private sector organizations avoid losing what they know.

What you’ll hear

• Why AI makes good knowledge management matter even more, not less
• Why you need a human in the lead, not just in the loop
• What AI still cannot do: pull knowledge out of one person’s head and pass it to another
• Why messy data can give you a wrong answer that sounds convincing
• Why you have to meet people where they are, not where you want them to be
• Why a strategy comes before the tools, and how to start building one

Timestamps
1:03 Bill’s story: from the Air Force to knowledge management
4:15 What keeps him passionate: watching change happen
7:08 AI and knowledge management: keep the human in the lead
12:10 What AI still can’t do: capture what’s in people’s heads
14:35 Why you need a strategy before you invest in tools
19:15 Giving back through knowledge management mentoring
22:39 Legacy: knowledge at the point of execution

Connect with Bill Kaplan
Website: https://www.workingknowledge-csp.com

About Chris
Chris Bruner is the CEO and Founder of Simple AI Solutions, based in El Cajon, CA. He helps small and mid-sized businesses bring in more clients and spend less time on busywork using AI plus human systems. His background is in healthcare operations and process improvement, with an MBA, an MS in Management, and a Six Sigma Green Belt.

About the show
The Business Leader’s Legacy Podcast goes behind the scenes with business leaders to uncover their vision, strategies, and the challenges they’ve faced along the way.

Connect with Chris
Website: https://www.simpleaisolutions.org
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbrunersimpleaisolutions/
Podcast LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-business-leaders-legacy-podcast/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@The-Business-Leaders-Legacy

If this one hit home, subscribe and share it with a leader who wants their organization to use what it knows.
#KnowledgeManagement #AIinBusiness #OrganizationalKnowledge #HumanInTheLead

What happens to a business built on relationships when its founder is ready to step back? David Martin has worked in brand strategy since the mid-1980s, and he is now building a firm that can last beyond him. Hear how he keeps his expertise fresh and why he wants a legacy that goes beyond ego.

David Martin is the founder and president of Catalyst Branding. He spent more than a decade as president and CEO of Interbrand North America, where he helped build deeper, long-term client partnerships instead of one-off projects.

What you’ll hear

• Why expertise has a shelf life, and how to keep yours fresh in a fast-changing business
• How a virtual network of senior partners helps a small firm move fast and keep fees fair
• How to build your next-generation network when your best relationships are retiring
• How to use AI as a learning tool by checking one LLM against the others, and why professional judgment still sets leaders apart
• How to use a tough year to capture your best thinking and plan a firm that outlasts its founder

Connect with David Martin
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-john-martin-csuite-advisory
Website: https://catalystbranding.com

About Chris
Chris Bruner is the CEO and Founder of Simple AI Solutions, based in El Cajon, CA. He helps small and mid-sized businesses bring in more clients and spend less time on busywork using AI plus human systems. His background is in healthcare operations and process improvement, with an MBA, an MS in Management, and a Six Sigma Green Belt.

About the show
The Business Leader’s Legacy Podcast goes behind the scenes with business leaders to uncover their vision, strategies, and the challenges they’ve faced along the way.

Connect with Chris
Website: https://www.simpleaisolutions.org
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbrunersimpleaisolutions/
Podcast LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-business-leaders-legacy-podcast/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@The-Business-Leaders-Legacy

If this one hit home, subscribe and share it with a leader who is thinking about what comes next.
#BrandStrategy #BusinessLegacy #SuccessionPlanning #SmallBusinessLeadership

A new sales hire brings in a burst of business, then it flattens out around month eight. Keith Bradt has watched that happen for 20 years, and he built his firm to fix the sales process behind it.

Keith is the Owner and Sales Development Director of Kallan Sales Development in East Rochester, New York. He started out in applications and design engineering, moved up through technical sales and sales leadership, and now helps engineering-based manufacturers and founder-led businesses build sales systems that keep working after he walks away.

What you’ll hear:

• Why a new sales hire’s book of business usually plateaus within six to eight months
• Why your sales reps are the last people who should be cold calling
• How to pick AI and sales tools when a new one shows up every week, starting with knowing your own sales process
• Why an engineer had to rethink how he sells his own fractional sales business, and why strategic partners now matter more than knocking on doors
• How flipping your messaging from services to problems helps buyers see the result
• What it means to leave a client’s team better than you found it

Connect with Keith:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithbradt
Website: https://kallansalesdev.com

About Chris:
Chris Bruner is the CEO and Founder of Simple AI Solutions, based in El Cajon, CA. He helps small and mid-sized businesses bring in more clients and spend less time on busywork using AI plus human systems. His background is in healthcare operations and process improvement, with an MBA, an MS in Management, and a Six Sigma Green Belt.

About the show:
The Business Leader’s Legacy Podcast goes behind the scenes with business leaders to uncover their vision, strategies, and the challenges they’ve faced along the way.

Connect with Chris:
Website: https://www.simpleaisolutions.org
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbrunersimpleaisolutions/
Podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-business-leaders-legacy-podcast/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@The-Business-Leaders-Legacy

Timestamps:
0:57 From engineer to sales leader, and why Keith started Kallan
4:51 Why he’d rather help a team execute than hand out advice
9:47 Your highest-dollar asset doing the lowest-value work
11:39 Process first, then the AI tool
13:08 What’s working: fractional sales operations
14:57 “Do as I say, not as I do”: selling his own business
18:57 Staying small on purpose and flipping his message
23:57 The legacy Keith wants to leave

If this one helped, subscribe and share it with a founder who’s still carrying the sales load alone.

#SalesProcess #FractionalSales #ManufacturingSales #SalesOperations #FounderLed

Dave Loomis has done more than 10,000 customer interviews, and one pattern keeps showing up. When a big deal is close, buyers pick the person they know, like, and trust.

Dave is the founder and president of Loomis Marketing, a B2B consultancy that uses voice-of-customer research to help companies understand what their customers are trying to accomplish. He’s also the author of Customer Outsight, a book on exactly how he runs those interviews.

What you’ll hear:

• How to put the customer first so they win, and you sell more because of it
• How to stay current on AI in marketing without freezing up at all the options
• Why personal relationships matter more as sales tools get louder
• Why the best sales connection starts with questions, before your talking points
• How Dave sorted 15 years of projects to find the focus that pays off
• Why you don’t have to wait for permission to be a leader

Connect with Dave:
Website: https://www.loomismarketing.com
Book: https://customeroutsight.com (also on Amazon under David Mayo Loomis)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidloomis

About Chris:
Chris Bruner is the CEO and Founder of Simple AI Solutions, based in El Cajon, CA. He helps small and mid-sized businesses bring in more clients and spend less time on busywork using AI plus human systems. His background is in healthcare and process improvement, with an MBA, an MS in Management, and a Six Sigma Green Belt.

About the show:
The Business Leader’s Legacy Podcast goes behind the scenes with business leaders to uncover their vision, strategies, and the challenges they’ve faced along the way.

Connect with Chris:
https://www.simpleaisolutions.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbrunersimpleaisolutions/
https://www.youtube.com/@The-Business-Leaders-Legacy

Timestamps:
0:00 Meet Dave Loomis and Loomis Marketing
3:04 The curious kid who became a customer interviewer
6:08 AI, sales spam, and staying current
9:41 Why relationships still win million-dollar contracts
14:03 The Good to Great exercise that sharpened his focus
20:29 Choosing sustainable over bigger, plus nonprofit work
26:11 A Stone Age story about listening
29:24 It’s never too early to be a leader

If this one helped, subscribe and share it with a business owner who’s trying to grow the right way.

#VoiceOfCustomer #B2BMarketing #CustomerResearch #SalesRelationships #BusinessLeadership

Most business owners are stuck on the hamster wheel. They're surviving, but they're not thriving. Daniel Feiman has spent 30 years helping them get off it by starting at the finish line and working backward.

Daniel is the Managing Director of Build It Backwards, a consulting and training firm in Redondo Beach, CA that just celebrated its 30th anniversary. He's a Certified Management Consultant, a former commercial banker of almost 20 years, and the author of four books on strategy, succession planning, and leadership. He has worked in 31 countries on four continents.

What you'll hear:

• Why his first business, handmade skateboards, went bust at age 12
• The difference between succession planning for your company and transition planning for you
• What happened when one client grew to two-thirds of his revenue, and the rule he follows now
• How he rewrote his training programs for virtual delivery when COVID grounded his travel
• How a self-described late adopter is testing AI carefully, without becoming a slave to it
• Why finding and training the right people is his biggest growth challenge this year

Connect with Daniel:
Website: https://www.builditbackwards.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielfeimanbuilditbackwards1

About Chris:
Chris Bruner is the CEO and Founder of Simple AI Solutions, based in El Cajon, CA. He helps small and mid-sized businesses bring in more clients and spend less time on busywork using AI plus human systems. His background is in healthcare and process improvement, with an MBA, an MS in Management, and a Six Sigma Green Belt.

About the show:
The Business Leader's Legacy Podcast goes behind the scenes with business leaders to uncover their vision, strategies, and the challenges they've faced along the way.

Connect with Chris:
Website: https://www.simpleaisolutions.org
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbrunersimpleaisolutions/
Podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-business-leaders-legacy-podcast/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@The-Business-Leaders-Legacy

Timestamps:
00:00 Welcome and introduction
00:59 The skateboard business that cost $11 to sell for $10
03:05 Getting clients off the hamster wheel
06:38 Succession planning vs. transition planning
09:09 When one client was two-thirds of the business
10:47 The COVID pivot that saved Build It Backwards
12:09 A late adopter's careful approach to AI
15:36 A fifth book and the search for the right people
19:00 The legacy Daniel wants to leave

If this conversation helped you think about where your business is headed, subscribe and share it with a business owner who needs to hear it.

#SuccessionPlanning #ExitPlanning #StrategicPlanning #SmallBusinessGrowth

What if every repetitive problem in your business could be solved once, permanently, instead of just patched for now? Coltrane Kubo, co-founder of the AI automation agency Aidgentic, explains why that one shift changed how he builds AI systems for founder-led businesses.

Coltrane Kubo is the co-founder of Aidgentic, an AI automation and AI agent agency that helps founder-led businesses, career coaches, real estate agents, and fractional operators put AI to work without needing to become technical themselves.

What you'll hear:

• The "light bulb moment" that took Coltrane from a 50-hour workweek to building his own AI automation agency
• Why Coltrane believes AI can finally solve problems "permanently" instead of just patching them
• How he's teaching non-technical founders to build their own AI agents, including a "chief of staff" agent that manages your inbox and calendar
• The honest challenge behind selling AI: separating real results from "hope and hype"
• Why partnerships and free AI education are at the center of Aidgentic's next stage of growth
• The legacy Coltrane hopes to leave in an industry full of AI skepticism

Connect with Coltrane: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coltrane-kubo | [email protected]

About Chris Bruner:

Chris Bruner is the CEO and Founder of Simple AI Solutions, based in El Cajon, CA. He helps small and mid-sized businesses bring in more clients and spend less time on busywork using AI plus human systems. His background is in healthcare and process improvement, with an MBA, an MS in Management, and a Six Sigma Green Belt.

About the show:

The Business Leader's Legacy Podcast goes behind the scenes with business leaders to uncover their vision, strategies, and the challenges they've faced along the way.

Connect with Chris:

Website: https://www.simpleaisolutions.org

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbrunersimpleaisolutions/

Podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-business-leaders-legacy-podcast/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@The-Business-Leaders-Legacy

Timestamps:

0:00 - Meet Coltrane Kubo, co-founder of Aidgentic

0:57 - The night a 50-hour workweek sparked a business

2:52 - Why Coltrane believes AI solves problems "permanently"

4:46 - Teaching founders to build their own AI chief of staff

7:25 - Where Aidgentic is seeing the most growth right now

10:27 - The real challenge behind selling AI: hope vs. hype

12:59 - Coltrane's next 6 to 12 months for Aidgentic

18:02 - The legacy Coltrane wants AI to leave behind

Thanks for listening. Subscribe and leave a review so more leaders like Coltrane can find the show.

#AIAutomation #FounderLedBusiness #AILiteracy #SmallBusinessAI

What happens when your business grows so fast that you become the thing holding it back? Katrina Purcell tripled her client list this year. Then she noticed the problem: every meeting, every decision, and every project still ran through her.

Katrina is the founder of her own growth operations consultancy. She works with seed to Series C tech startups and nonprofits, helping them build the systems they need to scale. She calls herself the fixer, the person you call when a project is stuck. She also hosts Managed Chaos, a podcast of 15-minute episodes on scaling and growing a business.

What you'll hear:

• Why AI can't help a business that hasn't written down its own processes
• How she trained an AI agent on her own decision-making so her clients' teams could keep moving while she took a vacation
• The client she liked and still let go, and why saying no to money kept her business on mission
• Why starting a business to own your schedule usually means owning less of it at first
• Her plan to double the business with a steady team instead of doing every project herself
• Her legacy picture: one rock tossed in the water, and ripples across many businesses

Connect with Katrina:
Website: https://katrinapurcell.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrina-purcell

About Chris:
Chris Bruner is the CEO and Founder of Simple AI Solutions, based in El Cajon, CA. He helps small and mid-sized businesses bring in more clients and spend less time on busywork using AI plus human systems. His background is in healthcare operations and process improvement, with an MBA, an MS in Management, and a Six Sigma Green Belt.

About the show:
The Business Leader's Legacy Podcast goes behind the scenes with business leaders to uncover their vision, strategies, and the challenges they've faced along the way.

Connect with Chris:
Website: https://www.simpleaisolutions.org
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbrunersimpleaisolutions/
Podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-business-leaders-legacy-podcast/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@The-Business-Leaders-Legacy

Timestamps:
00:00 Welcome and introduction
01:25 From bleeping cuss words on live TV to chief of staff
03:38 Why everyone said "just call Katrina"
05:22 The AI problem nobody talks about: undocumented processes
07:11 Tripling the client list in one year
08:39 Letting go of a client she liked
11:03 "I'm the bottleneck"
16:42 Building a second Katrina with AI
20:10 Legacy: the rock and the ripples

If this conversation helped you, subscribe and share it with a business owner who's trying to grow without burning out.

#GrowthOperations #StartupOperations #AIForBusiness #Solopreneur

Most medspa owners are great clinicians who were never taught how to run a business. And the people giving them advice usually have a sales quota to hit.

Rebecca Landriault is the CEO of Apex Aesthetic Consulting, a coaching firm for medspa and plastic surgery owners. She spent about 20 years in aesthetics as an esthetician, laser tech, practice owner, and medical device sales rep before starting Apex two years ago. Chris and Rebecca talk about what she saw from every side of the industry, and what she's building now.

What you'll hear:

• Why so many medspa owners buy equipment they don't need
• How a solo practice can use an AI receptionist to stop losing new leads
• Why patients who research on TikTok and AI search are harder to consult with
• The lesson that turned her expertise into a real business
• How she plans to grow past being the only person clients can call
• The legacy she wants to leave: the most trusted firm, not the biggest

Connect with Rebecca:
Website: https://www.apexaestheticconsulting.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-landriault-8b0a7b62

About Chris:
Chris Bruner is the CEO and Founder of Simple AI Solutions, based in El Cajon, CA. He helps small and mid-sized businesses bring in more clients and spend less time on busywork using AI plus human systems. His background is in healthcare operations and process improvement, with an MBA, an MS in Management, and a Six Sigma Green Belt.

About the show:
The Business Leader's Legacy Podcast goes behind the scenes with business leaders to uncover their vision, strategies, and the challenges they've faced along the way.

Connect with Chris:
https://www.simpleaisolutions.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbrunersimpleaisolutions/
https://www.youtube.com/@The-Business-Leaders-Legacy

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Welcome and Rebecca's 20-year path through aesthetics
• 04:28 Great clinicians who were never taught the business side
• 05:43 When every advisor in the room has a quota
• 09:02 AI receptionists and the new tech in medspas
• 15:49 Growing a consulting business on referrals alone
• 19:02 Leaving corporate sales and learning to sell yourself
• 21:34 Scaling past being the only one clients can call
• 26:54 The legacy question

If this one helped, subscribe and send it to a practice owner who needs to hear it.

#MedspaBusiness #AestheticPractice #MedspaConsulting #PracticeGrowth #SmallBusinessGrowth

In 2017, Chris Cervantes watched a fire tear through his own home. He had spent his whole career in disaster recovery, and even he found the process confusing. That moment stayed with him. Years later, when fires swept through Malibu, the Palisades, and Altadena, he saw people left without an advocate — and he decided to be one. That's how Disaster Restoration Consulting (DRC) was born. Today, Chris and his team step in as the owner's representative when hotels, hospitals, and other commercial properties face major disasters, coordinating the contractors and the insurance company so owners can get back to running their business. The lesson he carries: when someone is having their worst day, slowing down and communicating clearly is the most caring thing you can offer.

What you'll hear:

• How a fire at his own house planted the seed for a new business
• Why respect as a leader has to be earned, not claimed — and the boss who taught him that
• How "bringing calm to the chaos" became DRC's real secret sauce
• What AI is changing in insurance claims — and what it can't replace
• Why qualified doesn't always mean right, and the strength it takes to move on
• Why slow, steady growth protects the boutique feel clients trust

About Chris Bruner:
Chris Bruner is the CEO and founder of Simple AI Solutions, an AI agency in El Cajon, California, that helps small and mid-sized businesses grow through lead generation and automation. He's a husband and father who believes business is about people first.

About The Business Leader's Legacy Podcast:
The show where we go behind the scenes with business leaders to uncover their vision, strategies, and the challenges they've faced along the way.

Connect with Chris Cervantes:
Website: https://disaster-consult.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-cervantes-15625b18
Email: [email protected]
Based in La Verne, California

Connect with Chris Bruner:
Website: https://www.simpleaisolutions.org
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbrunersimpleaisolutions/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@The-Business-Leaders-Legacy

Timestamps:
00:46 – Welcome to the show
01:50 – From asbestos abatement to the top of a company
03:48 – The fire that changed everything
06:18 – "I will never call myself a servant leader"
09:27 – What AI can and can't replace
13:46 – Bringing calm to the chaos
20:47 – When qualified isn't the right fit
24:07 – Choosing slow, steady growth
29:15 – The legacy he wants to leave

#BusinessLeadership #ServantLeadership #DisasterRecovery #CommercialRestoration #InsuranceClaims #SmallBusinessGrowth #Entrepreneurship

What happens when a creative director builds an entire business philosophy around identity instead of imitation? Austin Calam, Creative Director at Malibu Creative, joins the show to unpack how his agency helps businesses discover what makes them truly unique — and why that clarity, not another marketing tactic, is what actually creates momentum.

Austin shares how a decade in film production, starting with backyard videos and a Windows Movie Maker crash course, eventually led him to lead the creative team behind work for brands like the NHL and Chick-fil-A. He opens up about the season Malibu Creative tried to be everything to everyone, the friction that created, and the decision to narrow their focus to a few core services instead. He also walks through how his team is building a sales training system rooted in each person's real strengths and values, so recommending a solution never feels like a pitch.

Along the way, Austin talks through how Malibu Creative uses AI-generated pitch decks to align creative vision early in a project, what it means to "drink your own Kool-Aid" as an agency, and the legacy he hopes to leave — more business leaders walking in their true identity.

Connect with Austin:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austincalam/
Website: malibucreative.net.

If this conversation encourages you, hit subscribe — we'd love to have you back for the next one.