Welcome to Coffee with Closers, where we sit down with inspiring entrepreneurs and leaders to learn more about their journey and the lessons they've learned along the way. Today, we are excited to have Anthony Kennada, CEO and Co-Founder of AudiencePlus. His entrepreneurial journey is one for the books – from launching successful marketing campaigns for popular companies like Hopin and Front to creating a Customer Success category at Gainsight, he's now living his own business dream. During this...
Mar 10, 2023•51 min
Join us for Coffee with Closers as we chat with Naomi Kent, Managing Director at Felix, and a leading board advisor to highly successful businesses and brands. In this episode, we'll discuss the importance of having a board and how it differs from a consultancy firm. We will also discuss the reasons to become a board member as an entrepreneur, the benefits of joining one, and what to do when the board fails to provide good advice. Naomi will share valuable lessons she learned throughout her care...
Feb 24, 2023•43 min
Today's guest for Coffee with Closers is Joseph Aaron, the founder of Multiply Inc., a purchasing and consulting company focused on helping entrepreneurs build their businesses up quickly. Joseph has experienced his fair share of hardships in his life. However, it was through this experience that he learned the importance of money in achieving dreams and making a positive impact on the world. Now, he dedicates his time to helping others succeed so they can make their own difference too. During o...
Feb 17, 2023•42 min
Welcome to Coffee with Closers, the show that brings you the best interviews with today's top sales and marketing leaders. It is my pleasure to welcome Zack Wenthe, CDP Evangelist at Treasure Data. Zack is a top-tier marketer and strategist passionate about helping companies break down silos and operate more efficiently in order to develop a true understanding of their customers. In this episode, we talk about his journey and experience as a marketer, the role of evangelists in a growing busines...
Feb 10, 2023•45 min
Welcome to another episode of Coffee with Closers! My guest today is Alisa Kolodizner - a nationally ranked and top-performing relationship, financial management, and strategic business consultant who has worked for Fortune 500 companies for over a decade. We'll be talking about her experience in developing relationships with $1B+ businesses and clients, her strategies for running two distinct businesses in completely different industries, the best ways to build trust within the team, and method...
Jan 27, 2023•48 min
Welcome to Coffee with Closers! On today's episode, we have Jeff Pieta, CEO of AIS Inc., a man who dropped out of college and rose from working-class roots to become a successful entrepreneur. We'll talk with Jeff about his entrepreneurial journey from how he founded AIS and managed to build a strong executive team despite limited resources to how he built and successfully exited Shiftgig. Jeff has plenty of insight into the importance of innovation for driving progress in business, managing inv...
Jan 20, 2023•44 min
In this episode of Coffee With Closers we’re having a chat with Amanda Holmes. She’s the CEO of Chet Holmes International, the daughter of late sales guru Chet Holmes, and she’s ready to share her insights with you. During our conversation, Amanda dives deep into the concept of a core story and how to leverage market data to educate and persuade your buyers. She also shares Chet's famous Dream 100 concept, which is all about finding the best buyers for your company. ClickFunnels grew from $0 to ...
Jan 13, 2023•35 min
One of the coolest things about entrepreneurship is watching people grow. It doesn’t matter who you are and what skills you have. Go out and do it. You will learn along the way. Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers is a living embodiment of those words. He grew up hearing that he was useless, dropped out of college, but ended up becoming a Co-Founder and President of a super successful business. Today, his company generates $11 million in sales with about 25-30 employees. His only regret is not...
Dec 23, 2022•34 min
It's no secret that it takes guts to be an entrepreneur. You have to be willing to take on new challenges and have a high risk tolerance if you're going to make it. Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers is a great example of someone who was able to identify opportunities when they presented themselves, regardless of how risky they may have seemed. Meet Nate Guggia, Co-Founder & Head of Brand at Before You Apply. Nate has extensive experience in employee branding and talent acquisition. He is...
Dec 16, 2022•37 min
Small daily habits. Why are they so crucial for entrepreneurs? Life is shaped by our consistent actions. It is important to choose the right habits and to discipline yourself enough to establish them. Meet Trent Dyrsmid - serial entrepreneur, CEO & founder of Flowster.app, passionate content creator, and a true expert when it comes to creating scalable business processes. Trent has always been one to develop systems and habits to try and make sure that he's doing the little things each and e...
Dec 02, 2022•45 min
Today on Coffee with Closers, I’m joined by @David Brier – founder of @DBD International, an accomplished author, entrepreneur, and branding expert who is about to break LinkedIn with his massive ever-growing audience. David has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world and knows what it takes to create a successful branding strategy. In this episode, David shares his insights on how to make your customers feel appreciated and special, cementing relationships that will keep them coming...
Nov 07, 2022•50 min
What’s the difference between an owner-funded and an investor-funded company? In a privately owned business, when sales are down, the owners have the freedom to keep things as they are. If they are okay with it, everyone else is too. In an investment-owned business, it’s more intentional. When sales are down, everyone becomes concerned because they have certain expectations from outside. I want you to meet @Damon Pistulka - a mergers & acquisitions expert, host of multiple YouTube shows, and...
Nov 04, 2022•41 min
Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers had just sold her house in order to finance her business in the event industry. It was a big move, but she was confident that it would pay off. And then, one year later, covid hit. The business ground to a halt as people stopped hosting events and traveling. It was a tough time, but she refused to give up. She worked tirelessly to find new ways to market and attract customers. And finally, after months of hard work, things started picking up again. The compa...
Nov 04, 2022•12 min
How do you retain good people in your team? It’s always a battle. And it’s a battle for any company, not just a growing one. Free lunches, unlimited vacations, massages, and ping-pong tables are insufficient to keep the company culture going. Perks are great, but at the end of the day, people make their career choices on a lot more meaningful things. Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers has a lot to share about building fast-growing companies and preparing successful exit strategies. As someone...
Nov 03, 2022•28 min
Here's a great business lesson from today’s guest for Coffee with Closers. Be humble. Don’t be afraid to surround yourself with people who know more than you do about every aspect of your business – better product managers, marketers, R&D managers, engineers, and everybody else. Being aware of your limitations is the key to success. This principle still drives him after 20 years in entrepreneurship and 12 years in sales and marketing. Meet Ran Oelgiesser – co-founder and CEO of RightBound. H...
Nov 02, 2022•25 min
Early entrepreneurs often underestimate the importance of understanding both the craft and the business side of things. For example, they might enjoy doing PR, but they don’t know how to run a PR agency. That small gap is what differentiates an entrepreneur from a business leader. Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers found herself facing similar challenges. She had to learn a lot in the process of building her own company, but everything turned out fantastic. Meet Nicole Morgan – public relatio...
Nov 01, 2022•35 min
When did you have an idea for your first business? 🤔 Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers noticed there was a huge problem in the startup space while still in college. People needed software development, but they had no way of finding the right team, managing it, or holding it accountable. Guess what issue he's been solving successfully since then? Meet Dawei Li – Co-founder & Outsourcing Strategist at Aloa. Dawei teaches business owners and startup founders how to effectively leverage the...
Oct 31, 2022•42 min
Being an entrepreneur doesn’t necessarily mean starting your own business. It’s about owning what’s in front of you. Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers strongly believes in it. When you start taking that approach with your role, whether it’s a company that you’re working with or the company that you own, you learn to think about the business in a more wholesome way. Meet Randy Frisch - Chief Evangelist for Content Experience and Co-founder & President of Uberflip. He’s the best-selling au...
Oct 30, 2022•43 min
When we are faced with challenging life situations, we naturally seek help and good advice from a family member or close friend. But what if they have no experience with whatever we're going through? Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers solves this problem every single day. Meet Derek Lundsten - President and CEO at LifeGuides, a transformative platform helping leaders empower their teams to feel at their best. Together with the team, he’s been taking peer support and mentorship to a whole diff...
Oct 29, 2022•41 min
Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers has a life story that everyone should hear. Born into a family of seven, he sold a gifted stamp collection to pay off high school so he could enroll in one of the world's best military academies in the world. As he followed his heart and passion, the opportunity to succeed and diversify his career came one after another - from serving as a Lieutenant-Colonel in NATO forces to becoming Spokesman for the European Economic Communities at the United Nations. Tod...
Oct 15, 2022•40 min
If you’re fulfilled, success is a given. My today’s guest for Coffee with Closers believes that you can do good and do well at the same time. They are not mutually exclusive. You don’t need to be apologetic about making money because if you’re not making money, you can’t survive as a business. And consequently, you won’t be able to serve others and work for your mission. Likewise, if you treat the people in your business as individuals with worth, if you recognize their value, and if you care ab...
Oct 15, 2022•43 min
Here’s the hard truth founders often don’t want to hear. Whatever you’re building isn’t cool enough to sustain without sales. If you don’t build your entire organization around sales, you’ll fail eventually. My today’s guest for Coffee with Closers has provided sales training and consulting services to some of the world’s fastest-growing companies like Google, Slack, Tableau, DropBox… And all those companies eventually got sales reps even though many of them would pride themselves on having a pr...
Oct 13, 2022•43 min
Everybody has a story. And you either let that hold you back or propel you forward. Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers is living proof that no one has any excuse for why they can’t change their circumstances. You’ve got to take ownership and knock on every door. That’s exactly what he did back in the day. Meet Collin Mitchell, a 4x founder passionate about Sales, Entrepreneurship, and Podcasting. Collin is the Co-Founder of Salescast and Host of Sales Transformation. He started with nothing b...
Aug 29, 2022•34 min
Here's a thought for you. The more successful your customers, the more advocacy you have, the easier it is to sell, and the lower is your acquisition cost. Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers believes that everything changes when your customers have power. Meet Nick Mehta, the CEO of Gainsight – the leading customer success company. Since 2013, Nick has led the company through multiple rounds of funding, raising a total of $156 million. He grew the business from a handful of employees to over ...
Aug 22, 2022•38 min
The biggest entrepreneurial struggles are internal. It's much more important to overcome your mental barrier to actually starting a business than to learn the basics about it. Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers went from being the first employee in several businesses and leading engineering teams to starting his own company. And it grew to over 150 employees in just a year and a half! How did he do it? That’s what we’re going to talk about today. Meet Karl Hughes, founder and CEO of Draft.dev...
Aug 15, 2022•40 min
In general, developers are more interested in features and functionality, but today’s guest for Coffee with Closers approaches everything from a business perspective. He believes that before you even start working on something, you need a core unshakeable understanding of your customer - what their challenges are, what their pain points are, and really what drives them. After all, the fundamentals of sales and marketing apply to everything. Meet Ethan Drower, a software engineer turned entrepren...
Aug 08, 2022•40 min
You don’t have to be an outgoing extroverted person to become successful in sales. It’s not about the personality but about a set of skills everyone can master. And today’s guest for Coffee with Closers is THE person to teach you. Meet Brian Bar – the founder and CEO of Victory Lap, a leading sales education company. He’s also a guest lecturer at Northwestern Kellogg School of Management on the topic of B2B sales. Victory Lap Sales Bootcamp has graduated over a thousand students into sales roles...
Aug 01, 2022•44 min
How do you go from Physics major to building one of the most popular ABM tools in the world? That’s an interesting story! Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers says he just followed his passion. Meet Jon Miller, a marketing entrepreneur and thought leader. He is currently the CMO at Demandbase, the leading account-based marketing platform. Previously, Jon was the CEO and founder of Engagio (acquired by Demandbase) and was co-founder at Marketo, a leader in marketing automation. Jon is the author...
Jul 25, 2022•36 min
How do you approach PPC in your organization? Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers knows everything about it. Meet Frederick Vallaeys, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, author, and leading influencer in PCC search marketing. As one of Google’s first 500 employees, Fred quickly established a reputation as a pioneer of PPC marketing as the company’s first AdWords evangelist. Today, he is a co-founder and CEO of Optmyzr – a leading multi-award-winning PPC management software. He distinguishes three k...
Jul 18, 2022•42 min
True entrepreneurs always have this itch to create. They just can’t stop. Today’s guest for Coffee with Closers took a long time off and even wrote a fiction book, but he eventually got back in the game because the market clearly needed his expertise. Meet Joe Pulizzi, founder of The Tilt. He’s the best-selling author of 7 books including Content Inc. and Epic Content Marketing, which was named a must-read business book by Fortune Magazine. Joe is best-known for his work in content marketing, fi...
Jul 11, 2022•43 min
