How to be a truly good leader? Here’s a little pro-tip from today’s guest for Coffee with Closers. Check yourself first. Allow yourself to be a bit vulnerable. Ask yourself in challenging moments why you are feeling this way and have the willingness to be open. Good leadership is not about withholding, it’s about being a challenger with empathy. ]Meet Russell Benaroya - co-founder at Stride, a serial entrepreneur with 20+ years of experience, and a man who’s not afraid to leap into the unknown i...
May 10, 2021•46 min
Don’t give up before the miracle happens, even if you think that the client is never going to work with you. And don’t be afraid to hire people who are smarter than you. They are going to be the ones who will come up with such ways of doing things you wouldn’t even think about. These pieces of advice are coming from someone who immediately saw the opportunity in him being laid off from a 5 billion dollar software company and someone who got into Harvard simply because he wasn’t afraid to try (st...
May 03, 2021•33 min
Throw out your old-school business management textbooks. Doing the right thing doesn’t have an ROI. The best strategic moves aren’t always measurable. Today’s guest is convinced that what makes a sale successful is not a “methodology” but being a human and treating your customers like one. And I couldn’t agree more! Meet David Meerman Scott, entrepreneur, author, speaker, advisor, a father, a passionate surfer, and an amazing storyteller. After being fired from a highly-paid job in marketing and...
Apr 26, 2021•36 min
Shut your mouth, ask questions, keep your product in the bag, and learn as much as you can. You wouldn’t expect to hear such advice as a salesperson, would you? Today’s guest is convinced that good salespeople should not pitch or show the product until they fully know that it could help. And man, he is so right! Meet Bob Perkins, founder and chairman of AA-ISP (American Association of Inside Sales Professionals), a nationally-recognized Inside Sales innovator, a golfer, a father, a husband, and ...
Apr 19, 2021•40 min
Starting one’s own business, being one’s own boss… Who wouldn’t like that? Everything we hear around lately makes us believe that entrepreneurship is easy and straightforward, but is it though? Today’s guest knows for sure that building a successful company is extremely challenging, but it’s also rewarding at the same time. Meet Greg Salzman, a former CEO and founder of Aleyant - automated print software solutions for growing print business. Greg started from zero and grew the company to more th...
Apr 12, 2021•43 min
If we were to describe today’s guest for Coffee with Closers in a single sentence, we’d say he’s the man who didn’t allow the circumstances to define him. He’s literally the person that started from the bottom and made it to the founder and CEO of his own business in NYC. Meet William Diaz Jr – a former military policeman at the US Army Reserve, low voltage cabling expert, fiber optic GURU, and an extremely interesting person to be around. In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about a challeng...
Apr 05, 2021•34 min
You can’t let the circumstances define your life and you can’t let the fear overtake your dream, no matter how bad things are at the moment. Imagine this. First, you’re having a crisis at work; Next, you’re getting demoted - all while going through a divorce. What would you do? Our today’s guest for Coffee with Closers quit that job, sold his house, moved to California, and started his own business, bigger and better! Meet Michael Kurland, an award-winning CEO of a successful facilities manageme...
Mar 29, 2021•40 min
How do you help your sales guys get over the fear of cold calling? Here’s a little trick from today’s guest for Coffee with Closers. Have them selling pizza to hundreds of random businesses on their first day. And when they’re done, tell’em it was their worst cold calling day ever and that it’s only going to go upwards from there. How crazy is that? :) Meet Mark Kosoglow, VP of Sales at Outreach – a sales engagement platform that accelerates revenue growth by optimizing interactions throughout t...
Mar 22, 2021•43 min
Young and naive is a good thing when it comes to making bold moves like starting a business in a new city with only $1000 in your pocket. Today’s guest on Coffee with Closers was only 25 years old when he came to Chicago with his big dreams, and the ambition to start a new kind of staffing agency. Meet Bejan Douraghy - CEO and founder of Artisan, a creative haven for top talent that balances the demands of businesses needing digital, creative, and marketing staffing. Bejan knows from personal ex...
Mar 15, 2021•28 min
Don’t spend money you don’t have and don’t hire people that you need to look after. These are just some of the lessons you’ll learn from today’s guest on Coffee with Closers. Meet Jonathan Sapir - a successful entrepreneur with over thirty years' experience, the founder and CEO of SilverTree Systems and Work-Relay, a book author, and someone you could listen to for ages when it comes to project and process management. Jonathan has shifted from the corporate world to entrepreneurship many years a...
Mar 08, 2021•31 min
Building a business is a lot harder than it seems. You need to wear multiple hats and prepare to deal with a lot of things one can hardly anticipate. But in the end, the outcome is worth all the effort. Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers is an open-source executive, solution seller, architect, developer, evangelist, and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in sales and management experience with Fortune 50 to SMBs. Tune in for a super informative conversation with Robert Jacobi! • Wh...
Mar 01, 2021•33 min
Just because you’ve done it in one industry doesn’t mean you can do it as easily in another field. Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers knows from his experience that taking time, being ready to learn, and having someone to validate your ideas are extremely important for building a business is a completely unfamiliar sphere. Ricardo Regalado is a serial entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in Sales, Marketing and Brand Management in various industries. Ricardo got a business idea from ...
Feb 22, 2021•34 min
Running a US-based business while living abroad - is that even possible? For sure! Today’s guest on Coffee with Closers is going to show you how. Meet Vincenzo Villamena, an expert in taxation, and an ex-pat business owner currently living in South America. After moving from the US in 2010, Vincenzo recognized the need for an accounting firm that could meet the unique needs of ex-pats and business owners with transparent and straightforward solutions. That’s how Online Taxman was born. In this i...
Feb 15, 2021•40 min
The most successful and effective salespeople are the ones who recognize that the customer has a process. They also know for a fact that the sales process is less important than the buying process. But how do you actually understand the buyer? Today’s guest will teach you all about it. Meet Dan Dal Degan - a role model for every aspiring salesperson, a CEO and advisor of numerous businesses, a husband and a father of five, and, as he puts it, “a disciple of the early days of Salesforce” who had ...
Feb 08, 2021•50 min
Everybody has the best product, but whether people are going to trust the product depends on how you market it. Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers is convinced that marketing success in such a big industry as cybersecurity is all about convincing people and building trust. Meet Nina Ruhe, a content marketing expert with multimedia journalism and entrepreneurial background. She leads a content team, whose main focus is multimedia, video, and different new-level types of content creation. Nina ...
Feb 01, 2021•10 min
We hear a lot about the importance of company culture. But how many businesses take time to get things done right from the beginning? Business owners are usually more passionate about the product or service and are generally less engaged when it comes to procedures, policies, and documentation. In this interview, we’ll talk about the reasons why it might not be the best strategy. Today’s episode on CWC is a deep conversation with Adam Radulovic, a lifelong learner with a passion for technology. ...
Jan 25, 2021•25 min
Remember that saying, “your eyes are bigger than your stomach”? Today’s guest believes that it’s also applicable to business. Many companies fail because they take up more than they can handle. Following the right road and not going into multiple directions too quickly might be a secret ingredient to success. Meet Jack Behar, Senior Executive with broad experience in all aspects of sales and telecommunication, a leader in AI and Machine Learning, and a founder of three successful companies. In t...
Jan 25, 2021•31 min
PR is valuable if you know how to use it well. It’s not something you seek when you have a crisis and a single press release won’t work without a well-developed strategy behind it. Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers is a true expert in making businesses look good. Meet Michelle Damico – CEO at Michelle Damico Communications, a 10 years old boutique PR and marketing firm serving businesses who need a story that will help them grow by attracting new customers, generating leads, and increasing t...
Jan 19, 2021•22 min
When you start your business at a young age, you always feel like you need to compensate for it. You’re under pressure to know it all, so you try extra hard for people to take you seriously. But at the end of the day, age is just a number. What matters is real-life experience, passion, and vision. Today’s guest is also one of those early starters. I’m happy to introduce you to Andrew Hoeft - Founder & CEO of Pinpoint Software. He started his business when he was 18 years old, feeling all kin...
Jan 14, 2021•48 min
Marketing has many facets and every detail matters. Even the presence of the right brain and left brain thinkers in your marketing team can make a difference in the way your content turns out. Today’s guest on Coffee with Closers knows everything about creating and promoting great content pieces and leveraging different marketing channels. Meet Chris Vandermarel, Director of Product Marketing at PathFactory and digital marketing expert with more than 10 years of industry experience. In this vide...
Jan 12, 2021•22 min
A lot has changed in the way people buy. Modern customers are more likely to educate themselves. They tend to only reach out to the company when they really need help. Today’s guest believes it’s not a bad thing. After all, there are many ways for businesses to turn it into their favor. Meet Pete Caputa - sales and marketing expert who used to work for HubSpot but eventually became their 7th largest agency partner. Pete is CEO at DATABOX - a versatile analytics platform built to help organizatio...
Jan 04, 2021•33 min
When it comes to change management, communication is everything. If the company takes a holistic approach to implement new business practices and serving their customers, they are sure to succeed. Today’s guest on Coffee with Closers has been in the manufacturing industry for over 25 years. Meet Joel Schneider - founder and president of Liberty Technology Advisors - ERP and IT consulting company that helps mid-market manufacturing, distribution, and other companies improve their business perform...
Dec 29, 2020•33 min
Many organizations reach out to attorneys after they have pulled the trigger on an important decision. But no matter how sure you are about some course of action, you can only control yourself. It will cost a lot more money later to fix something that could have been prevented in the first place. Today’s guest on Coffee with Closers is a living proof that good lawyers aren’t here to make money. They are interested in doing good work for good people. Meet Matthew Formeller - founding Partner at F...
Dec 22, 2020•26 min
Connecting with people and helping them accomplish their dreams is priceless. Today’s guest on Coffee with Closers is here to prove that close rate and revenues are not everything. Meet Mark Roberge - founder and MD of Stage 2 Capital, author of “The Sales Acceleration Formula” book, and Harvard Lecturer. Mark is also a 4th employee of HubSpot who expanded its revenue from $0 to $100 million and helped to transform it into the innovative marketing company it is today. In this episode, you’ll le...
Dec 15, 2020•35 min
You can’t manage what you can’t measure, and you certainly can’t optimize things if you don’t have enough data on how they perform. Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers is convinced that businesses shouldn’t be afraid to fail provided that they fail fast and make it a learning experience. Meet Brian Berg - President and CEO of BB Direct - a provider of direct marketing data and data related services. In this episode, we’ll be talking about the changes in the way customers interact with business...
Dec 08, 2020•26 min
Even if it seems that there is no space for innovation, chances are you’re taking the wrong entrance. When you think of starting a business with a top-down perspective, you’re most likely to fail. But if you take a bottom-up approach and really listen to what your customers are saying, you discover amazing opportunities. Today’s guest went from working as a strategy consultant for IBM and Walmart to starting his own tech company. Meet Chris Chae, co-founder of Pixelic - collaboration and project...
Dec 01, 2020•31 min
Drive and willingness to spot an opportunity can go a long way. With enough hard work, perseverance, and integrity, one can build a thriving business in any sphere. Today’s guest joined a family-owned business four years ago, and the way she combines innovation and legacy preservation in a company that did not invest in marketing for more than 20 years is just incredible. Meet Adriana Osorio, COO of Osorio Metal Supply Inc. and the face of the company, who is currently working on growing the bus...
Nov 24, 2020•20 min
Perseverance is key to achieving success in business. Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers knows better than anyone else that it might take many lessons to figure out what works for you, but at the end of the day, hard work pays off. Meet Kristina Wynne, an aspiring entrepreneur with a background in healthcare who worked in the family business for almost a decade and started her own company from scratch. Kristina wears multiple hats careerwise and she eagerly shares her knowledge with others to...
Nov 17, 2020•20 min
The best way to learn something is by immersing in it fully. Today’s guest grew up in small business. He knows from experience that everything in business takes longer than you expect, and he can easily explain why you should have a vision for where you want to be at various points in time if you ever want to achieve success. Meet Steve Whitney - founder and President of Medical Solutions who used to work with tech giants like Polaroid and W.W. Grainger. Steve has led the Whitney team through ma...
Nov 09, 2020•20 min
We all know that marketing can help people make a lot of money. But how can you use marketing for a greater cause? Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers can teach you a couple of valuable lessons. Meet Chris Lesner, founder and CEO of Project World Impact - the leading nonprofit hub providing innovative ways for people to connect with and support nonprofits. Having built two successful companies (one in marketing and service sector and one in NGO and software space), Chris knows what it might ta...
Nov 02, 2020•29 min
