On this episode of The SmartMAI Consulting Edge Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Marc Reynolds, Founder and President of Dr. Marc Consulting and Found Your Voice Consulting. For more than two decades, Marc has worked with executives and organizations on leadership development, executive presence, communication, team performance, culture, and organizational alignment.We get into why a strong strategy can still fail when leaders lack trust, communication is unsafe, and stated values do not match daily behavior. Marc walks through his Growth Alignment Model - trust development, clear communication, and cultural alignment - and how leaders can spot hidden misalignment before it shows up in the financial results. We also cover executive presence and high-stakes communication, what really changes during post-acquisition integration, and where AI can genuinely help (or quietly undermine) authentic leadership.If you lead people, this conversation is a good reminder that sustainable performance cannot be separated from the humans responsible for creating it.#SmartMAI #ConsultingEdge #Leadership #OrganizationalCulture #ExecutivePresence

Burnout isn't a personal failing — it's a systems problem. In this episode of The SmartMAI Consulting Edge Podcast, host Dan Mulberry sits down with Lindsay Othen, founder of Fluorescence Coaching & Consulting, to unpack what it really takes to build a healthy, high-performing organization in the age of AI.Lindsay holds an M.S. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and is SHRM-certified, and she brings a rare blend of behavioral science and practical business strategy to the conversation. Dan and Lindsay dig into:- Why burnout should be treated as a systems issue, not an individual one- The Gallup data showing roughly 20% of the workforce is truly engaged — and what that costs a business- How psychological safety (drawing on Amy Edmondson's research) drives real performance gains- Why AI works best as a thought-partner for leaders, not a replacement for judgment- The psychology behind why founders become the bottleneck in their own companies- Lindsay's Flourishing Intelligence Assessment, a tool for diagnosing organizational healthWhether you're a founder, an executive, or leading a team through change, this conversation offers a grounded, research-backed look at sustainable growth.Connect with Lindsay Othen and learn more about Fluorescence Coaching & Consulting at her LinkedIn and company site.The SmartMAI Consulting Edge Podcast — Real conversations. Practical strategies. Smarter solutions for business growth. Learn more at www.smartmai.ai

In this episode of The SmartMAI Consulting Edge Podcast, host Dan Mulberry sits down with Valerie Peck, Managing Partner of Elevate-X Consulting Group, to explore why traditional customer experience (CX) has to evolve into Applied Customer Intelligence.

Companies have never had more data about their customers — surveys, NPS scores, CRM activity, website behavior, and more — yet many still struggle to answer basic questions: which customers create the most value, why people leave, and what the business should actually do about it.

Valerie explains why journey maps often lie, why NPS alone isn't customer intelligence, and how AI can only be as useful as the data and decisions behind it.

About Valerie Peck:
Valerie is Managing Partner of Elevate-X Consulting Group, where she helps organizations use customer intelligence to drive acquisition, retention, and growth. She co-created the SuiteCX methodology and has spent over three decades in CX, CRM, and data-driven marketing.

Learn more: https://elevatexconsulting.com

The SmartMAI Consulting Edge Podcast — real conversations, practical strategies, and smarter solutions for business growth.
Learn more at https://www.smartmai.ai

On this episode of The SmartMAI Consulting Edge Podcast, host Dan Mulberry sits down with William Branum, a retired U.S. Navy SEAL who spent 26 years in elite military service, including work as a SEAL sniper instructor and in specialized undersea operations. After retiring from the Navy, William founded Naked Warrior Recovery and developed the GET NAKED framework: Never Quit, Accept Failure, Kill Mediocrity, Expose Your Fears, and Do the Work.We cover: what actually separates elite performers from everyone else, why effective SEAL leadership relies more on trust and communication than command-and-control, how to build accountability without creating a culture of fear, why "Accept Failure" comes right after "Never Quit" in the GET NAKED framework, what it was like psychologically when the mission suddenly ended after 26 years, why recovery is part of the performance system rather than something you earn afterward, which SEAL habits translated into entrepreneurship and which ones William had to unlearn, and where human judgment fits alongside AI in building a high-performance team.Learn more about William and grab his free guide, Five SEAL Secrets, at FiveSealSecrets.com, or visit WilliamBranum.com.#Leadership #NavySEAL #Resilience #Entrepreneurship #Podcast

On this episode of The SmartMAI Consulting Edge Podcast, host Dan Mulberry sits down with Adam Roach, Founder & Visionary CEO of I Love Coaching Co., to explore why so many capable coaches do everything "right" by the book and still can't build a business that feels like their own. Adam explains why borrowed frameworks create imposter syndrome, and how his REAL Coach Method (Relevant, Experiential, Authentic, and Leader) helps coaches turn their own experience into a clear, sellable offer.Adam Roach has spent more than 20 years building businesses, teams, and leaders across tennis, real estate investing, brokerage leadership, and recruiting technology. At Keller Williams, he helped build and lead an organization that supported more than 700 agents and nearly $2 billion in sales, and he later built a recruiting technology company that helped place more than 130,000 real estate agents across North America. Today he leads I Love Coaching Co., helping experienced coaches, consultants, and leaders turn what they already know into a clear, profitable coaching business.We cover: why coaching skill alone doesn't guarantee business success, the danger of "borrowed authority" and how to find your own IP, the REAL Coach Method for identifying your unique voice, building a sellable offer around clarity instead of cleverness, the one-to-many "first paragraph" model for scaling beyond one-on-one coaching, using AI as a "second brain" to organize your own expertise, and the psychology of confirmation bias in growing repeat clients.Learn more about Adam and the I Love Coaching Co. community at ILoveCoachingCo.com.#Coaching #BusinessCoaching #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #Podcast

On this episode of The SmartMAI Consulting Edge Podcast, I sit down with David Flesh, Principal Advisor at DCF Consults, an advisory firm focused on IT management strategy, AI implementation, and enterprise technology adoption.Every CIO and technology leader today is under pressure to "do something" with AI, but pressure alone doesn't create value. Too many AI initiatives turn into isolated science projects that never make it into the real workflow of the business.David draws on 30 years at the center of the enterprise technology market - including leadership roles at ServiceNow and Freshworks - to explain what separates AI initiatives that actually move the needle from the ones that just generate noise.We cover:Why so many AI projects stall out as "science projects" instead of real business toolsWhat "outcome-driven architecture" means and why it matters more than the tool itselfHow treating AI as a workflow system, not a standalone product, changes adoptionWhat CIOs should ask before green-lighting the next AI initiativeHow David's time inside ServiceNow and Freshworks shapes his advice to enterprise buyers todayLearn more about David and DCF Consults at DCFConsults.com.

On this episode of The SmartMAI Consulting Edge Podcast, I sit down with Brett Hovanec, Founder of On The Fly Ops, a fractional Revenue Operations consultancy for B2B SaaS companies.Growing companies often respond to revenue problems by adding more software, more dashboards, and more automation, but when sales, marketing, and customer success run on different processes and conflicting data, more technology just makes the system harder to manage.Brett explains why Revenue Operations connects the entire customer journey, why smaller companies should stop copying enterprise best practices built for 500 person organizations, and how businesses can use AI without multiplying bad data and broken processes.We cover:How Brett's career led him into RevOps before the term even existedWhy he tells clients to build it to work before you build it to scaleThe enterprise best practices that quietly hurt smaller companiesHow he diagnoses a disorganized revenue engine in his first days on an engagementWhy AI cannot fix bad data, and can make a weak data environment more dangerousWhere AI is actually creating value in RevOps todayWhat a founder should look at first before buying more software or adding AILearn more about Brett and On The Fly Ops at OnTheFlyOps.com.

On this episode of The SmartMAI Consulting Edge Podcast, I sit down with David Boim, CEO of DSB Management Consultants and Founder of the KC Business Strategy Group, a peer community of 1,600+ business owners built on the belief that "no one is smarter than all of us." We dig into where EBITDA quietly leaks out of a business, why management depth matters more than a stack of manager titles, and how measurable accountability and scorecards separate businesses that are actually ready to sell from those that just look ready. David also shares his take on embracing change, where AI can become a genuine thought-partner (and where it's a risk), the marketing and sales discipline buyers look for, and the valuation factors that actually move the needle at exit.If you're building a business you'll eventually want to sell - or just want it to run better while you own it - this conversation is packed with practical takeaways.#SmartMAI #ConsultingEdge #EBITDA #BusinessValue #ExitPlanning

On this episode of The SmartMAI Consulting Edge Podcast, I sit down with Craig A. Stevens, Founder & President of e-WBS.com, to talk about what it actually takes to drive lasting operational change.Craig grew up around his family's hotel-turnaround business, watching properties get transformed from a front-row seat, long before he built a career in industrial engineering, Lean Six Sigma, and change management. Over four decades later, he's distilled that experience into a seven-step framework for operational excellence — leadership, culture, customer focus, people, core competencies, processes and systems, and performance measurement — and explains why that order matters. Most companies fail, Craig says, because they try to fix processes first instead of starting with leadership and culture.To learn how AI, automation, and smarter systems can support measurable business growth, follow SmartMAI and subscribe to the SmartMAI Podcast.#ChangeManagement #OperationalExcellence #LeanSixSigma #Leadership #BusinessGrowth #Podcast #SmartMAI

Kenneth Greenberg, Senior Managing Director and Partner at Auctus Search Partners, joins The SmartMAI Consulting Edge Podcast to talk about executive search in the context of M&A.We discuss what "leadership before the deal" really means, how PE firms and portfolio companies should think about executive talent as a value-creation lever, and the red flags Ken watches for when evaluating candidates for high-stakes leadership roles.Hosted by Dan Mulberry.#ExecutiveSearch #PrivateEquity #Leadership #MergersAndAcquisitions