Builders & Doers

Zero to $30 Billion: Inside Sam's Club Scan & Go - Rick Ton | 78

Rick Ton is a 20-year veteran of growth and go-to-market, having spent his career scaling revenue at companies like Meta, Sam's Club, Walmart, Under Armour, Walgreens, and several high-growth startups. He was a founding team member on Sam's Club's Scan & Go — a self-checkout app that grew from zero to roughly a third of Sam's Club's total revenue (an estimated $30 billion run rate) in about four years. Today he advises founders on growth, GTM, and the discipline of setting (and hitting) the number. In this conversation, Rick walks us through the Scan & Go playbook (including the superhero costumes, piped-in rotisserie chicken smells, and tear-away $5 cards used to break customer habits), how to tell a true plateau from a stall, his "good money vs bad money" framework for early-stage founders, why most rebrand and pricing decisions need real benchmarking before you launch, the "print it and show a stranger" idea-validation hack, the 25% IC rule he's followed for a decade, and his single tattoo-worthy GTM truth: get the number, set the number, get the number. Find Rick LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickton/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickton/] Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search [https://www.horizonsearch.com]. 0:00 Intro 0:42 The path: Meta, Sam's Club, Walmart, Under Armour, Walgreens 1:48 The Scan & Go origin — a hackathon, two engineers, and a founding team 2:50 Zero to ~$30B run rate in four years 4:03 Plateau vs stall — the early signals 4:52 Cohorting early adopters from the mainstream 5:35 Disrupting the peripheral plane: signage, superheroes, and rotisserie smell 6:18 The free $5 tear-away card that broke the line 6:55 Lyft's free-ride card story (and what it had in common) 7:03 Coaching founders through step-changes when nothing's working 8:18 The Good Money / Bad Money framework 9:30 The campaign that wasn't thought through — what would success look like? 10:42 Why even seasoned operators fall into vanity metrics 11:09 Pricing without benchmarking the market — a moving-and-storage cautionary tale 12:04 What a Series A vs pre-product team should actually measure 13:07 Validating pricing without alienating customers 14:01 "What almost made you bounce?" — the conversion-rate hack 14:47 Build the basket, not the single-item conversion 15:00 When to push the market vs pivot to meet it 17:04 You can't strategy your way out of testing 17:43 Print your idea and show it to a stranger 18:29 Underrated PMF validation methods 20:01 The most misunderstood thing about growth right now 20:55 Luck vs discipline — and the post-it-on-the-wall workshop 22:42 The cultural hire — why ideas should come from anywhere 22:50 The 25% IC rule (and why managers lose touch) 23:38 Most and least forgiving startup mistakes 24:48 Cooking, hot sauce, and the kitchen as solitary work 26:17 Hosting a tavern-style Chicago pizza supper club 27:18 Tattoo this on every founder's arm: get the number, set the number, get the number 29:07 Why he advises founders alongside enterprise work 30:32 Failing 50% of the time — but in small measures 31:51 Where to find Rick

From the Fortune 500 to a Mission-Based PR Agency - Blair Huddy | 77

Blair Huddy is the co-founder of a mission-based PR agency she runs with her husband, focused on companies and projects that help people and the planet. After 15+ years in the corporate marketing world — including a tenure leading the rebrand and growth of a $7B affordable housing company that later sold for over $700M — she went out on her own and took the Clean Creatives Pledge, refusing to work for fossil fuel or tobacco companies. Her work spans Fortune 500 sustainability reporting (mapping clients to the UN's 17 SDGs), a software platform used by NASA and the U.S. Space Force, and a Guinness World Record attempt for the world's fastest fast food delivery with an Indy 500 team. In this conversation, Blair walks us through how to turn PR and comms into pipeline (her "drumbeat" jam-board process), the rebrand mistake mid-market companies repeat, when a company is actually PR-ready (and the 5% revenue rule), what crisis management actually looks like (the Astronomer-Coldplay and American Eagle examples), why industry publications outperform Forbes for revenue, and a six-week credibility sprint for founders. She also shares her personal experience with vitamin B6 toxicity from a hydration product sold at Costco — a story NBC News covered twice — and what she'd do differently as a CMO if a synthetic vitamin was in her product.This episode includes a personal health experience shared by our guest. This is not medical advice. Always consult a licensed medical professional regarding diet and supplementation. Find Blair: LinkedIn — Blair Huddy [https://www.linkedin.com/in/blairhuddy/] On all other socials: @realblairhuddy Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search. 0:00 Intro 0:58 PR + comms — what it actually entails 2:07 The "back to office" email that pushed her to start her own agency 5:50 Mapping the Fortune 500 to the UN Sustainable Development Goals 8:40 Taking the Clean Creatives Pledge — using your gifts only for good 10:38 The rebrand playbook that grew a $7B company to $9B 13:54 Why brand experience starts on day one of onboarding 14:40 The rebrand mistake mid-market companies repeat — your rebrand isn't news 15:25 The Ray-Bans stunt that won back 85% of lapsed clients 17:30 The Jaguar and Cracker Barrel rebrands — why you don't touch a legacy brand 18:55 When a company is actually PR-ready — the three signals 21:43 The 5% of revenue rule for PR budgets 22:05 PR KPIs — why no single ember caused the wildfire 22:54 The "jam board" process for finding your three to five core messages 27:12 Crisis management — protecting reputation when something breaks 30:26 The Astronomer-Coldplay crisis (and how they handled it) 32:38 What a six-week credibility sprint looks like for founders 35:23 Memorable PR stunts — Indy 500, Guinness World Records, NYC tents during wildfires 38:05 Vitamin B6 toxicity — a hydration product sold at Costco 40:55 100% of the recommended daily value, every day, for five months 42:40 What synthetic vitamins to watch for (and where they hide) 44:15 If she were CMO of that supplement company tomorrow 47:00 What to do before supplementing — get a blood test 49:50 Healing isn't linear — a year into recovery 53:25 Why LinkedIn is the place for founders right now 53:40 Where to find Blair

97% of Business Owners Never Crack $1M. Here's Why. - Chris Kille | 76

Chris Kille is a Boston-based entrepreneur, author, and operations expert with four profitable exits behind him — including a payments business he scaled more than 10x in five years using just one domestic employee and four remote office assistants. After a cardiac event caused by burnout, he founded EO Staff, a premium remote staffing company that places elite virtual assistants into fast-growing businesses. He's the author of The Rise of Virtual Assistants, has been published 100+ times in Forbes and Entrepreneur, and now lives off a dirt road in a 700-person town in Maine — by design. In this conversation, Chris walks us through why he's "self-employed by force" (and bad at being an employee), the credit card processing company he started out of spite, why 97% of business owners never crack $1M, the operational bottlenecks founders almost always neglect (their email and calendar), the difference between A players and C players, why "80% done by someone else is 100% awesome," how to do a five-day time study to find the work you should delete or delegate, why his health scare became the catalyst for selling his most profitable business, and the marginal-gains philosophy that makes a boring business the most valuable one to sell. Find Chris: Instagram @iamchriskille EO Staff: https://eostaff.com Book: The Rise of Virtual Assistants [https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Virtual-Assistants-Entrepreneurs-Guidebooks-ebook/dp/B0CBN5J2M6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=198G8RLRZDGVE&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.eMEE8yoe8FH6ebtzUPRYIQqXnWPXKFHhCxvDmGbA9rON-5YMNzKc1x70AY-HoCfEjGEo-t9hCAacs7D_cazsadmzOkG7eF4gMXRSbbW_pT76aB3Ub3XQsKKcAALyiU9mFinQmNm5lGZ9feqQgGYwFehLERfIbbMAdV--U8jGgHDuM9japmkLBjlIW1oyGRdYB1CSjba2MW-jY1cjg-pxQKSHPcUWK3yXewF2sjqFSck.Vm88bDXckG4oyz7uINQB8oDkKm5lkOwJRB-vJiMyhv8&dib_tag=se&keywords=The+Rise+of+Virtual+Assistants&qid=1777915371&s=digital-text&sprefix=the+rise+of+virtual+assistants+%2Cdigital-text%2C222&sr=1-1] Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search. 0:00 Intro 0:55 Door-to-door at 10 — growing up hustling 2:21 "I'm very unhireable" — entrepreneur by force 2:41 Four profitable exits and counting 3:12 The C-player hiring trap and the revenue ceiling 4:38 The credit card processing company started out of spite 6:54 Out-of-spite as a motivator (and when it's not) 9:23 Removing yourself from day-to-day operations 10:24 The "business in a box" — what makes a company truly sellable 11:09 Why breaking $1M is an operational problem 13:13 What AI means for virtual assistants — adapt or replace 15:08 Remote vs in-person hiring after COVID 17:33 The delegation trap — why founders pull tasks back 18:12 "It's not an emergency, no one's going to die" 20:13 Building SOPs the right way (show, then teach back) 21:01 What to look for after the honeymoon period ends 22:17 The 90-day nesting period and zero tolerance for late 24:20 The radar problem — small habits that cost you the job 27:57 Neurodiversity, output, and choosing your battles on lateness 31:27 Specialize: one offer, one avatar, one price point 33:29 The bottleneck founders neglect — their email and calendar 36:36 Defeated by your inbox by 2pm 39:27 Phone on Do Not Disturb for years (and why) 44:42 Health scare, burnout, and exercise as a non-negotiable 45:36 Marginal gains — the British Olympic cycling story 46:55 Boring businesses sell best 48:36 The 5-day time study — find what to delete or delegate 50:00 Where to find Chris

The Pretending Pandemic in Your Workplace - Angela Cox | 75

Angela Cox is an executive coach, founder of Purseda 360, and host of the Leader Unmasked podcast. After more than a decade running lean transformation at Lloyds Banking Group, change management at Barclays, and strategy for a half-billion-pound business at Compass Group, she moved into coaching full-time — bringing the operational rigor of root-cause analysis into a profession she felt was still running on 1980s models. In 2021, after her husband Martin's brain injury, she built Purseda 360 into a formal academy training the next generation of coaches. She's pursuing a doctorate in coaching at Cambridge / King's College London, and runs a national coaching conference whose proceeds fund the Blue Light Bursary — coaching training for NHS, police, and ambulance service leavers. In this conversation, Angela walks us through why operational change leaders make different coaches, the four masks people wear at work (perfectionist, people pleaser, persecutor of self, persecutor of others), the "silent middle" of high-performing employees quietly burning out, why recording sessions destroys the unmasking process, why coaching ROI may be the wrong question (and what the right one is), and how to know when wearing the mask is a conscious choice versus autopilot. Find Angela * LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelacoxpaseda360/ * Purseda 360 — https://purseda360.com Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search. 0:00 Intro 0:36 From Lloyds, Barclays, and Compass to executive coaching 2:32 Bringing root-cause analysis from transformation into the coaching room 3:52 Her husband Martin's brain injury and the legacy that built Purseda 360 6:32 What's actually wrong with 1980s coaching models 8:29 The pretending pandemic — and why "open culture" rarely is 9:30 The four masks: perfectionist, people pleaser, persecutor of self, persecutor of others 11:51 The silent middle — high performers quietly eroding12:50 How to surface masking inside an organization13:40 Why she built an academy instead of just scaling her practice 15:41 Cambridge, King's College, and the credentialing problem in coaching 17:20 Why recording client sessions undermines the work 18:02 Integrating psychology and neuroscience without crossing into therapy 19:35 The "swimming swan" she saw years before she had words for it 20:49 Hiring a coach for your leadership team — what to look for, what to avoid 23:10 Coaching ROI is the wrong question — what's the cost of NOT doing it? 24:36 The Blue Light Bursary — coaching for NHS, police, and ambulance leavers 26:13 The question she asks every podcast guest (that she'd ask herself) 27:48 Congruence as a daily reflection practice 28:40 Conscious masking vs autopilot masking — why the choice matters 30:42 The cost of wearing the mask in your own life 31:16 Where to find Angela

Choose Change or Else - Barbara Salopek | 74

Barbara Salopek is an economist, author, and innovation consultant who grew up in Croatia and built her career in Norway. She teaches at BI Norwegian Business School, advises companies on bringing ideas to market, and is the author of an Amazon bestseller on innovation that scored 8/10 with getAbstract editors. Her work sits at the intersection of individual psychology, group dynamics, and the systems that either let innovation thrive or quietly kill it. In this conversation, Barbara walks us through why suffering only makes sense when there's something better on the other side, why 4,500+ mousetrap patents don't equal innovation, the difference between a creative solution and an innovation that actually creates value, why "innovate!" as a top-down command almost always fails, the hidden cost of big players buying every promising small company, why leaders can't ask their teams to change while staying the same themselves, and the simple reframe that turns change from something happening to you into something you choose. Find Barbara: https://barbarasalopek.com On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-salopek/ Book: available on Amazon and major retailers worldwide Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search. 0:00 Intro 0:51 The meaning behind suffering — and why all our heroes had hard lives 1:21 What science actually says about adversity and creativity 2:39 "Better to suffer now for the benefit later" — and why younger generations push back 3:09 Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea at age 14 4:24 Risk-aversion is personal — entrepreneurs as control of one's own destiny 5:58 We're learning what we're willing to tolerate 6:21 What innovation actually is — value, not just ideas 7:10 The 4,500 mousetrap patents that aren't innovation 8:18 Signal vs substance — institutions, prestige, and follow-through 10:29 Big universities and big consulting — and why hungry small firms still matter 11:48 The danger of everyone selling out to the big tech oligarchy 12:53 Imposter syndrome and the desire for external validation 14:36 The generational shift — from CV prestige to quality of life now 15:05 Why a good idea isn't enough — the market has to be ready 17:50 Oversimplification, social media, and the danger of using AI in fields you don't know 19:30 From idea to product-market fit — what actually has to be true 21:18 Functional fixedness and creativity as a survival mechanism 22:33 The Croatia / Norway counterexample — adversity isn't the only path to excellence 23:06 We are individuals AND part of groups — why innovation frameworks miss this 26:05 What leaders should actually do to invite change 28:07 Everyday creativity vs scientific creativity — everyone has it 30:20 Don't change for change's sake — frame the why 30:45 What's the one thing we can stop doing today? 33:09 The founder paradox — you can't be the same person at company size 100 35:20 You can't ask others to change while you resist change yourself 36:00 Small experiments that change team dynamics — who speaks in meetings 40:08 Choose change vs change happens to you — the driving seat reframe 41:18 Early adopters vs naysayers and why both views have value 44:42 High-trust vs low-trust environments (Norway vs Croatia, COVID example) 45:33 The long view — climate, AI, and what actually matters 46:48 Where to find Barbara