Business Builder's Playbook

Abigail Merrill—How to Go from AI Overwhelm to AI ROI, Run Pilots That Actually Produce Results, and Scale a Revenue Engine That Keeps Compounding

What if the reason your AI investment hasn't paid off has nothing to do with the tools you picked? In this episode of Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Abigail Merrill, AI consultant, speaker, and founder of Business Growth Partners, who has been working in generative AI since before ChatGPT existed. Abigail breaks down why most businesses are drowning in tools and seeing zero return, and walks through her AI for ROI framework: a three-phase, pilot-based system for turning AI chaos into compounding competitive advantage. The conversation covers shiny object syndrome, agentic AI hype, the real reason 95% of pilots fail, and why the most valuable skill in a world full of AI is still human authenticity. Here's what you'll learn by watching or listening to this full episode: * How to identify the highest-ROI AI use cases for your specific business across sales, marketing, and operations * Why starting with the business problem before looking at tools is what separates companies that flourish from those that stay stuck in overwhelm * How to run a true AI pilot — including why 95% of pilots fail and what the ones that work all have in common * How to use Abigail's AI for ROI framework: the three-phase Align, Integrate, and Scale system she uses with clients from solopreneurs to mid-size companies * Why top-down leadership is non-negotiable for AI adoption, and what to do when your leadership is resistant or checked out * How to become an AI champion from any position in your organization, and why it might be the smartest career move you make right now * Why agentic AI is largely still hype, and what the realistic timeline actually looks like * How building safety and governance into your AI strategy from the start makes every pilot that follows faster and lower risk Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.BusinessBuildersPlaybook.com/Abigail-Merrill

Nino Fincher—How to Break Through Hidden Mental Ceilings, Build New Neural Pathways on Purpose, and Lead with Emotional Presence That Changes the Whole Room

What happens when the expert who spent a career studying how the mind breaks down finally has to face her own? In this episode of Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Nino Fincher, a mental performance coach, licensed counselor, and TEDx speaker who works with CEOs and executives stuck at ceilings they can't quite name. Nino's path into this work started with her own experience with depression after years of counseling others through it. The four-step MOVE method she built from that journey now helps leaders get to the root of what's holding them back, and fast. David and Nino dig into how the mind actually operates, why insomnia, anxiety, and lost motivation are signals worth paying attention to, and how a leader's emotional state functions like weather for the entire organization. Here's what you'll learn by watching or listening to this full episode: * How to identify which layer of your performance is breaking down: mindset, toolset, or skill set * How to use Nino's MOVE method to get free from past failures and setbacks that quietly drive your current decisions * Why high-level leaders almost always struggle with the past rather than the future, and how to stop letting it run the show * How to read insomnia, anxiety, and lost motivation as signals pointing to something deeper * Why your identity is the foundation of every ceiling you keep bumping into, and how to examine it clearly * How the brain physically builds new neural pathways, and what it actually takes to make new patterns stick * Why your emotional state as a leader spreads through your whole organization, and how to take ownership of the environment you're creating * How to set deliberate expectations for your own mind so it stops defaulting to patterns that no longer serve you Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.BusinessBuildersPlaybook.com/Nino-Fincher

Stacey Lauren—How to Break Out of Horse Mode and Build Communities That Pull People Through Comfort Circles

What if the thing holding you back from your biggest impact isn't skill, money, or connections? What if it's just that you haven't found the right room yet? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, hosts David Bush and Jeff Bush sits down with Stacey Lauren, founder of the Do the Thing podcast and community, former staffing company owner with a successful eight-figure exit, and creator of the Billion Dollar Impact Marketplace. Stacey has spent years mapping the patterns of what actually helps people take action, and she's built a model that turns community, commerce, and charity into a single engine for massive impact. Here's what you'll learn by watching or listening to this full episode: • How to identify which "comfort circle" you're in, and why understanding that changes how you lead, market, and grow • Why "horse mode" keeps your team, your clients, and even you from taking action you already know you should be taking • How to build community that actually moves people forward, instead of just a group cheering from the sidelines • Why community is the single most powerful marketing strategy for any business, and how "My People Parties" and challenges put it into practice • How Stacey's Billion Dollar Impact Marketplace lets entrepreneurs and companies grow their business while fueling charitable causes at the same time • Why finding your voice is something you have to do over and over at every new level of growth, and how to stop letting that slow you down • How to stop waiting for permission to be in the right room and start creating the room yourself • What stand-up comedy taught Stacey about rejection, perfectionism, and why loving to suck is the secret to doing the thing • How goal-based networking builds deeper relationships than any traditional networking event, and why it's the foundation of her upcoming book Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.businessbuildersplaybook.com/⁠Stacey-Lauren

Maria Trysla—Why Companies Stall Between $5M and $50M

What happens when the founder who built a business to $10 million becomes the very thing keeping it from reaching $50 million? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Maria Trysla, a former two-time CEO and multi-year CMO of fast-growing technology companies who now works as a revenue architect and go-to-market executive advisor. Maria specializes in helping companies in the $5M to $50M range diagnose what's quietly stalling their growth and build the repeatable systems to get past it. Here's what you'll learn by watching or listening to this full episode: * How to spot the early warning signs of a CEO growth plateau before it stops your momentum completely * Why telling your sales leader to hire more people is almost never the answer to a growth problem — and where the real issue is hiding upstream * How to shift from episodic, founder-driven activity to a system-driven revenue engine built on predictable pipeline * How to move from being "founder-led" to "founder-inspired" — and why that distinction determines whether your company can ever scale past you * Why treating customer success as a service function instead of a strategic growth driver is quietly draining your expansion revenue * How to use an inside-out, outside-in discovery process to uncover the real problems hiding underneath the surface-level symptoms * Why your acquisition, retention, and expansion conversations should be happening with equal urgency — and what it costs you when they're not * How to remove "decision friction" from your organization so pipeline creation accelerates instead of waiting on you * How AI can surface the expansion signals already sitting in your customer data, without digging through spreadsheets * What most companies get wrong about aligning sales, marketing, customer success, and product around shared revenue metrics Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.businessbuildersplaybook.com/⁠Maria-Trysla [https://www.businessbuildersplaybook.com/%E2%81%A0Maria-Trysla]

Mark L. Vincent—Succession & Exit Planning: How to Drive Value, Referrals, and Higher Fees

What if the exit planning conversation you've been avoiding is actually the one that unlocks your next level of revenue? In this episode of the Business Builder's Playbook, host David Bush sits down with Mark L. Vincent — founding member and facilitator of the Sage Group Collective, executive advisor, and one of the most experienced guides for organizational succession and business continuity in the game.  With more than 30 years of helping owner-founders, C-suite leaders, and partnership structures navigate succession events, Mark brings a rare combination of systems thinking, facilitation mastery, and unflinching honesty about what actually drives enterprise value — and what destroys it. Here's what you'll learn by watching or listening to this full episode: • How to reframe succession planning as a growth accelerator — not an end-of-career conversation that kills momentum • How to shift from vendor to peer-level trusted advisor — and why that single positioning move transforms what you're able to charge • How to introduce exit planning into existing client relationships without damaging trust or getting off into the weeds • Why most founders overestimate the value of what they've built — and how great advisors navigate that conversation productively • How to build a future value balance sheet that makes a succession event actually executable instead of a scramble • Why documenting leadership philosophy before a transition prevents massive value loss — and the simple interview method that surfaces it fast • What Mark calls the "invisible suitcases" founders leave behind — and why successors keep tripping over them • How to build a trusted advisor network where referrals flow both ways — and the one phrase that immediately reveals whether someone is a real partner or a wedge waiting to happen • Why anxiety is silently killing coaching and consulting practices — and how managing your own ecosystem is the prerequisite to being a non-anxious, client-centered presence • Which two strategic partners — capital wealth advisors and operations implementers — are the most critical additions to any advisor's trusted network Find all the show notes and links here:  https://www.businessbuildersplaybook.com/Mark-L-Vincent