Shift & Thrive: CEO Insights on Driving Change

Why B2B Deals Stall and How to Fix It - Paul Terry - Shift & Thrive - Episode # 97

What does it actually take to lead a commercial transformation before anyone else believes in it, and what happens when the biggest threat to closing a deal is not your competitor, but your buyer's fear of being wrong? In this episode of Shift & Thrive, host Natalie Nathanson sits down with Paul Terry, global go-to-market leader, advisor, and investor at Tech Operators, who brings over 25 years of experience building and scaling international sales teams. Paul shares the hard-earned lessons from leading one of the earliest social selling rollouts at Forrester Research in 2012, before LinkedIn Sales Navigator was even a household name. He and Natalie dig into the evolution of B2B buyer behavior, the FOMU (fear of messing up) phenomenon that is quietly killing deals, and the practical frameworks Paul uses today when advising early and mid-stage tech founders on ICP, international expansion, and go-to-market clarity. Candid, grounded, and full of real examples, this conversation is one every GTM leader and founder needs to hear. Takeaways: *  Pre-wire your frontline managers before rolling out any change initiative. They are the culture carriers closest to your team, and without their buy-in, even the best ideas will land in silence. * Overcommunicate through multiple channels and formats until it feels repetitive to you. The audience receiving the message needs far more repetition than the leader driving the change. * Recognize that today's buyers fear making the wrong call far more than they fear inaction. Shift your sales motion at the right moment from urgency-driving to comfort-building, and use social proof, peer dinners, and transparent risk conversations to help buyers feel safe saying yes. * Narrow your ICP down to a specific wedge before expanding. Targeting everyone is functionally the same as targeting no one, and trying to go broad too soon is one of the most common and costly go-to-market mistakes founders make. * Build product-market fit and repeatability in a core market before expanding internationally. Have a proven motion, a defined ICP, and a scalable operation before paying the tax of internationalization. * When entering new markets globally, standardize your operations at the corporate level but hire and trust local expertise for that last-mile cultural execution. One size will lose you business; total localization will prevent scale. * The fuse is lit the day you say yes. Whether you are joining a PE-backed company or any scaling business, leaders are brought in to fix something, and the expectation for change starts immediately. Quote of the Show: * “Feel the fear and do it anyway. There are a lot of decisions in our lives that can instill uncertainty and fear, but just because we’re afraid of them, that’s not a good enough reason not to do them.” Links: * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-terry/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-terry/]  * Website: https://www.techoperators.com/ [https://www.techoperators.com/]  Ways to Tune In: * Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2D1YbT2QhKxIwbREpU7EMb [https://open.spotify.com/show/2D1YbT2QhKxIwbREpU7EMb]  * Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/id1740828813 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/id1740828813]  * Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/fa60b654-1955-4055-93df-fdd40c2a5c8f/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change [https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/fa60b654-1955-4055-93df-fdd40c2a5c8f/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change]  * iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shift-thrive-ceo-insights-166792501 [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shift-thrive-ceo-insights-166792501]  * Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shift-and-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/PC:1001086797 [https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shift-and-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/PC:1001086797]   This show is sponsored by Magnetude Consulting, bringing you the thinking-Power of a Growth Consultancy and the Getting-It-Done Power of a full-service B2B Marketing Agency.  Learn more at: https://www.magnetudeconsulting.com [https://www.magnetudeconsulting.com]

8 Questions Every CEO Must Answer - Sangram Vajre - Shift & Thrive - Episode # 096 (Re-air)

What if the reason your go-to-market isn't working has nothing to do with your tactics and everything to do with how your leadership team defines, owns, and executes it in the first place? In this Re-air episode of Shift & Thrive, host Natalie Nathanson is joined by Sangram Vajre, Co-Founder and CEO of GTM Partners, bestselling author of Move, and pioneer of account-based marketing, for a candid conversation on what it really means to build go-to-market as a company-wide operating system. Together, they explore why GTM must live at the CEO level, how the eight-question GTM operating system drives clarity across every stage of business growth, and what it looks like when AI is layered on top of strategic foundations versus used as a shortcut around them.  Takeaways: * GTM is a transformational process, not a one-time plan. Treat every go-to-market decision as ongoing and iterative rather than the output of a single off-site or strategy session. * Build clarity, alignment, and trust before deploying tactics. These three leadership fundamentals are what separate executive teams that execute well from those that stay stuck in misalignment, regardless of tools or AI adoption. * Use the GTM operating system's eight questions to anchor strategy at every stage. The questions stay the same across problem-market, product-market, and platform-market fit; only the answers change as your business evolves. * Focus on what is unchangeable in go-to-market: being better, faster, or cheaper for your customer. In a world drowning in new tools and tactics, anchoring to these constants creates durable competitive positioning. * Understand the business of your function, not just the function itself. Whether you are in marketing, sales, or customer success, the leaders who grow fastest are the ones who understand the business economics behind their discipline. Quote of the Show: * “ Once you start looking at go-to-market as a transformational process, you recognize that every time you make a go-to-market decision, it will transform your business, one way or the other. It's an ongoing process, and there's no finality in it.” Links: * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sangramvajre/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sangramvajre/]   * Website: https://gtmpartners.com/ [https://gtmpartners.com/]   * GTM Monday: https://gtmonday.substack.com/ [https://gtmonday.substack.com/]   Ways to Tune In: * Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2D1YbT2QhKxIwbREpU7EMb [https://open.spotify.com/show/2D1YbT2QhKxIwbREpU7EMb]  * Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/id1740828813 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/id1740828813]  * Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/fa60b654-1955-4055-93df-fdd40c2a5c8f/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change [https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/fa60b654-1955-4055-93df-fdd40c2a5c8f/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change]  * iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shift-thrive-ceo-insights-166792501 [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shift-thrive-ceo-insights-166792501]  * Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shift-and-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/PC:1001086797 [https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shift-and-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/PC:1001086797]   This show is sponsored by Magnetude Consulting, bringing you the thinking-Power of a Growth Consultancy and the Getting-It-Done Power of a full-service B2B Marketing Agency.  Learn more at: https://www.magnetudeconsulting.com [https://www.magnetudeconsulting.com]

Leading from the Inside Out - Kevin Bailey - Shift & Thrive - Episode # 095

What happens to a founder's mental performance when the company is winning on paper but quietly unraveling from the inside, and what does neuroscience say about fixing it? In this episode of Shift & Thrive, host Natalie Nathanson sits down with Kevin Bailey, CEO and Co-Founder of Dream Fuel and a three-time Inc. 500 founder, to explore the intersection of leadership, mental performance, and neuroscience. Kevin opens up about hitting a wall as a first-time CEO scaling past 100 employees, and how a chance encounter with a neuroscientist transformed not just his leadership style, but the foundation of his next company. Together, they unpack how the same psychological tools used with elite athletes apply directly to tech founders and executive teams, why the leader's mental state is the ceiling on a company's performance, and what concepts like non-dual awareness actually mean for the way you show up every single day. Key Takeaways: * Build a meditation practice before you need it. Psychological stability is a prerequisite for leading at speed, not a recovery tool. Start with transcendental meditation or breathwork to regulate your nervous system before pressure demands it. * Learn to distinguish intuition from fear. Intuition typically arrives as a quiet signal, not a loud, urgent voice. Use somatic breathwork to quiet reactive networks in the brain and access clearer, deeper decision-making. * Your mental state flows through your organization. Leaders who are dysregulated will see that instability reflected in their teams and, ultimately, in their product. Investing in your own mindset is an investment in company performance. * Act on small trust erosions before they become large ones. Awareness-driven leadership means noticing subtle behavioral patterns early and making decisive, values-aligned moves before small problems compound into bigger ones. * Use AI as a tool, not a replacement for thinking. Offloading writing and logical reasoning to AI can atrophy core leadership capabilities. Use it with intention and preserve the cognitive muscles that matter most. * Bring mental performance work to the leader first. Mindset coaching only cascades effectively when the leader participates directly. Sending a team through the work while opting out yourself limits the impact. Links: * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinjamesbailey/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinjamesbailey/]  * Website: https://www.dreamfuel.com/ [https://www.dreamfuel.com/]  * Email: kevin@dreamfuel.com [kevin@dreamfuel.com]  * The Greatest Secret: https://a.co/d/04t3NkhR [https://a.co/d/04t3NkhR]  * David Bingham: https://davidbingham.org/ [https://davidbingham.org/]  Ways to Tune In: * Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2D1YbT2QhKxIwbREpU7EMb [https://open.spotify.com/show/2D1YbT2QhKxIwbREpU7EMb]  * Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/id1740828813 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/id1740828813]  * Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/fa60b654-1955-4055-93df-fdd40c2a5c8f/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change [https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/fa60b654-1955-4055-93df-fdd40c2a5c8f/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change]  * iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shift-thrive-ceo-insights-166792501 [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shift-thrive-ceo-insights-166792501]  * Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shift-and-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/PC:1001086797 [https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shift-and-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/PC:1001086797]   This show is sponsored by Magnetude Consulting, bringing you the thinking-Power of a Growth Consultancy and the Getting-It-Done Power of a full-service B2B Marketing Agency.  Learn more at: https://www.magnetudeconsulting.com [https://www.magnetudeconsulting.com]

The Category Creation Playbook - Kat Wendelstadt - Shift & Thrive - Go-To-Market deep dive - Episode # 094

What does it actually take to build a market category that doesn't yet exist, and how do today's go-to-market leaders use AI to accelerate that process without losing the human edge? In this Go-To-Market Deep Dive episode of Shift & Thrive, host Natalie Nathanson sits down with Kat Wendelstadt, CMO at Electric Twin and a three-time CMO with a track record of scaling venture-backed startups to billion-dollar valuations. Kat unpacks the discipline behind category creation, from naming and seeding language through PR to reading the market signals that tell you it's working. She shares how she approaches ICP discovery in brand-new markets, why she pushes back on the AI-replaces-everything narrative, and how she has structured lean but effective marketing teams in a world where AI handles more of the execution. The conversation also covers her own AI tool stack, a freelancer-first hiring philosophy, and the career pivot from large corporates to high-growth startups that shaped how she thinks about building. Takeaways: * Commit to category language. Constantly changing how you describe your product creates confusion; pick your language, and give it at least 18 months to take hold. * Start ICP discovery with a pain hypothesis, then find the fastest feedback loop. Combine tools like Reddit and landing page tests with your existing network to validate whether your solution matches real buyer pain before scaling spend. * AI accelerates execution but does not replace human judgment in enterprise GTM. Getting a person on the phone still closes at a meaningfully higher rate than automated outreach. * Scale marketing headcount with freelancers first. Specialists who require minimal onboarding let you move fast and test fit before committing to a permanent hire. * Adopt AI tools by pruning. Try several, drop what creates friction early, and build an integrated stack so you retain the mental space needed for creative thinking. * Tailor AI adoption programs to individual strengths. Not everyone on a team engages with these tools the same way; building around archetypes rather than a one-size-fits-all rollout gets better outcomes. Quote of the Show: * “You have to take people with you on a journey of what is going to be. That is the job of a category creator. And then you have to create the language around that and stick with it because category creation is not instant. It's a continuous effort.” - Kat Wendelstadt  Links: * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kat-wendelstadt-gtm/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kat-wendelstadt-gtm/]  * Website: https://www.electrictwin.com/ [https://www.electrictwin.com/]  Ways to Tune In: * Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2D1YbT2QhKxIwbREpU7EMb [https://open.spotify.com/show/2D1YbT2QhKxIwbREpU7EMb]  * Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/id1740828813 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/id1740828813]  * Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/fa60b654-1955-4055-93df-fdd40c2a5c8f/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change [https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/fa60b654-1955-4055-93df-fdd40c2a5c8f/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change]  * iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shift-thrive-ceo-insights-166792501 [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shift-thrive-ceo-insights-166792501]  * Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shift-and-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/PC:1001086797 [https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shift-and-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/PC:1001086797]   * YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClf9QxGUxZw_Sv8_4bZP34Q [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClf9QxGUxZw_Sv8_4bZP34Q]  This show is sponsored by Magnetude Consulting, bringing you the thinking-Power of a Growth Consultancy and the Getting-It-Done Power of a full-service B2B Marketing Agency.  Learn more at: https://www.magnetudeconsulting.com [https://www.magnetudeconsulting.com]

Breaking Through the Noise - Compilation - Shift & Thrive - Episode # 093

What does it actually take to reach buyers in a world where AI has flooded every inbox, gated white papers have lost their pull, and generic personalization is table stakes? In this special compilation episode of Shift & Thrive, host Natalie Nathanson brings together five of the sharpest go-to-market minds from previous episodes to tackle one of the biggest disruptions in B2B today.  Kerry Cunningham dismantles the "blank slate fallacy" and explains how LLMs are reshaping mid-funnel evaluation. Kristina McMillan shares how one portfolio company used deep research AI to deliver CEO-to-CEO custom market reports at scale. Jacki Leahy makes the case that the bar for outreach has been permanently raised and argues for visceral empathy over automation. Sajag Chikarsal walks through how to build custom GPTs that compress days of BDR research into minutes, and Yossi Carmon makes a bold prediction: the next go-to-market frontier is authenticity, and old-school, high-touch tactics are making a comeback. Takeaways: * Stop treating buyers as blank slates. In established categories, buyers already know you and your competitors. Ungating content and building genuine preference beats form fills and self-promotion. * Use AI to deliver value before you ask for anything. Creating custom, account-specific research reports at scale is now achievable and far more effective than traditional cold outreach. * Recognize that generic AI personalization has a short shelf life. The bar for what counts as a "personalized" outreach has risen sharply; go-to-market teams need to match it with real resourcefulness and empathy. * Build AI efficiency behind the scenes for your sales teams. Automating meeting prep and account summaries can recover significant rep hours per week without requiring everyone to become a prompt engineer. * Develop a focused custom GPT library for ABM at scale. Targeted prompt systems trained on earnings reports, personas, and competitive data can give BDRs actionable intelligence in minutes rather than days. * Lean into authenticity as a strategic differentiator. As AI-generated content floods every channel, buyers are craving real, human, and experience-driven engagement. Word-of-mouth and high-touch tactics are regaining ground. Quote of the Show: * “The bar has been raised. Our creativity and resourcefulness also needs to be raised." — Jacki Leahy” Links: * Kerry Cunningham’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kerrycunningham [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerrycunningham/] * Kristina McMillan’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kristinamcmillan [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinamcmillan/]  * Jacki Leahy’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jackileahy [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackileahy/] * Sajag Chikarsal’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sajagchikarsal [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sajagchikarsal/] * Yossi Carmon’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yossicarmon [https://www.linkedin.com/in/yossicarmon/] Ways to Tune In: * Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2D1YbT2QhKxIwbREpU7EMb [https://open.spotify.com/show/2D1YbT2QhKxIwbREpU7EMb]  * Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/id1740828813 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/id1740828813]  * Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/fa60b654-1955-4055-93df-fdd40c2a5c8f/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change [https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/fa60b654-1955-4055-93df-fdd40c2a5c8f/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change]  * iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shift-thrive-ceo-insights-166792501 [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shift-thrive-ceo-insights-166792501]  * Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shift-and-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/PC:1001086797 [https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shift-and-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/PC:1001086797]   * YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClf9QxGUxZw_Sv8_4bZP34Q [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClf9QxGUxZw_Sv8_4bZP34Q]  This show is sponsored by Magnetude Consulting, bringing you the thinking-Power of a Growth Consultancy and the Getting-It-Done Power of a full-service B2B Marketing Agency.  Learn more at: https://www.magnetudeconsulting.com [https://www.magnetudeconsulting.com]