EYES WIDE | the podcast

EP 26 | DOWN 22: What Jalen Brunson Did Before the Comeback

Tuesday night. Eastern Conference Finals. Game 1 at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks are down 22 with under eight minutes left. The building is dead quiet. Jalen Brunson calls a timeout, pulls his team into a huddle, and says something nobody outside that circle hears. What follows is a 44-11 run — the largest comeback in Knicks franchise history — and a 115-104 overtime win. The Knicks are now up 2-0 in the series. Craig Palmer isn't here to talk about basketball. He's here to talk about what happened in that huddle. The moment before the moment. The private decision that produces the public comeback. And why most people — leaders, sales professionals, high performers — get the sequence exactly backwards. In this episode: The Moment Before the Moment — why the comeback started in the huddle, not with the first bucket, and what that means for how you lead under pressure. The Big-Box Problem — the real reason Cleveland collapsed in the fourth quarter, and the dangerous mindset it exposes in sales organizations built around protecting leads instead of building them. The Mountain Bike Call — the afternoon a CEO told Craig the board was shopping his replacement, what he did that evening, and how The Simple System was born out of one of the hardest moments of his career. The Brunson Blueprint — three things elite leaders do when they're down 22: shrink the frame, stay in their identity, and create belief before the evidence shows up. The Knicks are up 2-0. Game 3 is tonight in Cleveland. The series is alive. So is this conversation. Real Stories. Brutal Lessons. Zero Fluff. 👉 eyeswidecp.com/podcast

EP 25 | Bieberchella: What Justin Bieber Just Taught the World About Authentic Leadership

Justin Bieber just delivered the most criticized — and most commercially dominant — performance in Coachella history. In this episode, Craig Palmer breaks down what actually happened in the desert and why it has nothing to do with music and everything to do with authentic brand power, leadership under pressure, and the courage to show up as exactly who you are when the world tells you to be something else. What you'll hear: * The full Bieber arc — from a YouTube bedroom to the biggest stage in the world * The moment that stopped 125,000 people cold * Why the marketplace responded the way it did — and what it means for your brand * The silent, invisible work that nobody sees — and why it's where everything is actually won * Why the people telling you to be less are not trying to make you better Keywords: Justin Bieber, Coachella 2026, authentic leadership, personal brand, sales leadership, resilience, brand strategy, comeback, business lessons, Bieberchella, Skylrk, self-belief, leadership podcast, sales podcast, motivational podcast EYES WIDE | the podcast — Real Stories. Brutal Lessons. Zero Fluff.Host: Craig Palmer | Sales Leader, Speaker, Coach🔗 eyeswidecp.com/podcast📧 craig@eyeswidecp.com [craig@eyeswidecp.com]

EP 24 | RELAUNCH: What Artemis Teaches Us About Getting Back to the Moon

In April 2024, I got a call I didn't see coming. Twelve years. A hundred and fifty people. Zero to fifty million dollars. A NASDAQ IPO. Thirteen consecutive quarterly earnings beats. And it ended on a Microsoft Teams call. As the new CEO read me a script about restructuring and new directions — I stopped hearing him. My mind went somewhere else entirely. It went to my daughters. Not the highlights. The ones I missed. This episode is about what happened next. The board member who told me I had nine months before my shine wore off. The months of silence and doubt and rebuilding. The moment I realized the relaunch I was planning wasn't the relaunch that would change my life. And what four astronauts pointing themselves at the moon — for the first time in fifty-four years — taught me about all of it. This isn't a career comeback story. It's a story about aiming at the wrong moon. About what we sacrifice on the altar of ambition. About the belief that to be elite at work you have to give up everything at home — and why that belief is not just emotionally wrong, but strategically wrong. And it's about the question I want to leave you with today: What have you been calling a pause — that you secretly fear might be an ending? Eyes Wide. See Everything. KEYWORDS / TAGS Primary: * Career relaunch * Leadership podcast * Medical device sales * Sales leadership * Personal development * Career setback recovery * High performance mindset Secondary: * Getting fired * Starting over * Work life balance * Sales motivation * Med tech careers * Pharmaceutical sales * Executive leadership * Career transition * Fatherhood and career Trending / Topical: * Artemis II * NASA moon mission 2026 * Apollo vs Artemis * Career pivot Brand: * Eyes Wide podcast * Craig Palmer * The Simple System * The Fire Inside * Find Tomorrow in Today

EP 24 | RELAUNCH: What Artemis Teaches Us About Getting Back to the Moon

In April 2024, I got a call I didn't see coming. Twelve years. A hundred and fifty people. Zero to fifty million dollars. A NASDAQ IPO. Thirteen consecutive quarterly earnings beats. And it ended on a Microsoft Teams call. As the new CEO read me a script about restructuring and new directions — I stopped hearing him. My mind went somewhere else entirely. It went to my daughters. Not the highlights. The ones I missed. This episode is about what happened next. The board member who told me I had nine months before my shine wore off. The months of silence and doubt and rebuilding. The moment I realized the relaunch I was planning wasn't the relaunch that would change my life. And what four astronauts pointing themselves at the moon — for the first time in fifty-four years — taught me about all of it. This isn't a career comeback story. It's a story about aiming at the wrong moon. About what we sacrifice on the altar of ambition. About the belief that to be elite at work you have to give up everything at home — and why that belief is not just emotionally wrong, but strategically wrong. And it's about the question I want to leave you with today: What have you been calling a pause — that you secretly fear might be an ending? Eyes Wide. See Everything. Primary: * Career relaunch * Leadership podcast * Medical device sales * Sales leadership * Personal development * Career setback recovery * High performance mindset Secondary: * Getting fired * Starting over * Work life balance * Sales motivation * Med tech careers * Pharmaceutical sales * Executive leadership * Career transition * Fatherhood and career Trending / Topical: * Artemis II * NASA moon mission 2026 * Apollo vs Artemis * Career pivot Brand: * Eyes Wide podcast * Craig Palmer * The Simple System * The Fire Inside * Find Tomorrow in Today KEYWORDS / TAGS

EP 23 | THE HUMAN PREMIUM: What AI Can't Touch and Why It's Your Greatest Advantage

Everyone is talking about AI. The disruption. The displacement. The fear. And the noise is loud right now — 93% of jobs flagged as vulnerable, 45,000 tech positions already cut in Q1 2026 alone, and every boardroom in America having the same conversation. But here's what the panic merchants are missing. This week I was at LSI USA '26 at the Waldorf Astoria in Laguna Niguel — one of the most electrifying gatherings of med-tech innovators, investors, and commercial leaders in the world. And in the middle of billions of dollars chasing the next breakthrough in medicine, I had a moment of absolute clarity. Not about AI. About people. About what we bring to this industry that nothing else can touch. In this episode I break down the Human Premium — the three compounding skills that no model can replicate, why the most valuable reps and leaders in 2026 are MORE valuable because of AI, and why the reps who are scared right now may be scared for the wrong reasons. This is not an anti-AI episode. I used AI at LSI and I'll tell you exactly how. But I'll also tell you exactly where it ended — and what happened next that no algorithm could have scripted. If you are in med-tech, pharma, medical device, or any complex B2B sales role — this episode is for you. Right now. What you'll hear in this episode: * The real numbers behind AI disruption — and what they actually mean for sales professionals * Why "AI vs. Human" is the wrong framing — and what the right framing is * The three pillars of the Human Premium: Situational Intelligence, Trust Under Pressure, and Belief Transferability * How I used AI at LSI — and where human execution took over * Three questions every rep needs to answer honestly right now * What winning looks like in 2026 Connect with Craig:🌐 eyeswidecp.com🎙️ eyeswidecp.com/podcast📧 craig@eyeswidecp.com [craig@eyeswidecp.com]📱 TikTok: @eyeswidecraig📸 Instagram: @eyeswidecp▶️ YouTube: @EyesWide-h4x KEYWORDS / TAGS: medical device sales, med-tech sales, pharma sales, B2B sales, sales leadership, AI and sales, artificial intelligence disruption, human skills, sales career 2026, sales podcast, Eyes Wide podcast, Craig Palmer, human premium, sales motivation, sales training, medtech careers, healthcare sales, sales mindset, future of sales, AI vs human, sales performance, situational intelligence, trust in sales, belief in sales, LSI 2026, sales professionals, career development, sales coaching, medical sales rep, sales strategy, Claude, Chat, GPT, Gemini, Grock