Shows / Big Talk About Small Business
Big Talk About Small Business
Hosted by Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Our Mission is to inspire, empower, and equip entrepreneurs with the knowledge and insights they need to succeed in their ventures. Through engaging conversations with industry experts, seasoned entrepreneurs, and thought leaders, we aim to provide valuable strategies, actionable advice, and real-world experiences that will enable our listeners to navigate the challenges, seize the opportunities, and build thriving businesses.
Episodes
- Big Talk About Small Business
Software is Collapsing: Surviving the AI Shift with Dusty Gulleson
Standard software is collapsing, and traditional CRMs are creating costly friction. Dusty Gulleson breaks down how his vertically integrated firm, Tectonic…
- Big Talk About Small Business
Niche Concepts: Surviving Small Town Seasonality with Hillary Zio
Opening a restaurant without mastering overhead costs is a guaranteed path to closure. Sommelier and restaurateur Hillary Zio details her transition from big…
- Big Talk About Small Business
Niche Concepts: Surviving Small Town Seasonality with Hillary Zio
Opening a restaurant without mastering overhead costs is a guaranteed path to closure. Sommelier and restaurateur Hillary Zio details her transition from big…
- Big Talk About Small Business
Process Over People: Fixing Key-Person Risk with Jimmy Lewis
Manual data entry is quietly killing your operational efficiency. Jimmy Lewis of TrueFocus Automation builds custom bots that eliminate repetitive friction for…
- Big Talk About Small Business
Process Over People: Fixing Key-Person Risk with Jimmy Lewis
Manual data entry is quietly killing your operational efficiency. Jimmy Lewis of TrueFocus Automation builds custom bots that eliminate repetitive friction for…
Big Talk About Small BusinessFree Work Wins: Hijacking Competitor Blueprints with Rens Hayes
Structural engineering is quietly bleeding developers dry through unmanaged design decisions. Rens Hayes of H+O Structural Engineering explains how…
Big Talk About Small BusinessAutomated Lead Gen: Stopping Silent Leaks with Elias Curtis
Search traffic is migrating to artificial intelligence platforms, leaving static websites behind. Elias Curtis of Transformed Design Inc. joins the show to…
Big Talk About Small BusinessDitching Corporate: Engineering a Creative Business with Dan Bennett
Burnout forces hard pivots, but stepping away often provides the exact blueprint needed to scale. Dan Bennett of Hot Sauce Video unpacks his transition from…
Big Talk About Small BusinessBeating Big Budgets: Competing with Institutional Buyers with John Medina
The real estate market punishes operators who prioritize volume over vetting. John Medina transitioned from plumbing to executing hundreds of flips and…
Big Talk About Small BusinessMonetize Your Expertise: The Digital Twin Playbook with Stephanie Sylvestre
Scaling a service business traditionally means trading time for dollars until capacity breaks. Stephanie Sylvestre explains how digitizing your operational…
Big Talk About Small BusinessDisrupting the Trades: Building the Uber of Lawn Care with Quinn Childress
Transforming a push-mower hustle into a nationwide network requires serious operational grit. Quinn Childress explains how he built Willow Street Lawns and…
Big Talk About Small BusinessOwn the Money: Closing High-Ticket Sales with Don Cagle
A stagnant pipeline kills a growing operation, yet many representatives abandon prospects at the first sign of friction. Building a reliable book of business…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEgo vs. Reality: Surviving a Business Collapse with RJon Robins
Pretending you have everything under control is the fastest way to bankrupt a business. When founders prioritize the appearance of success over doing the hard…
Big Talk About Small BusinessRadical Responsibility: Ignoring Guru Advice to Scale with Jerry Brazie
Entitlement is a quiet business killer. When comfort replaces the drive to survive, companies stall and founders fail. Today, we sit down with Jerry Brazie, a…
Big Talk About Small BusinessUnlearning Trust: The Hard Lessons of Scaling | Featuring Host Eric Howerton
Passivity, complacency, and the illusion of comfort will quietly destroy your company. Right now, social media is selling a sanitized, glamorous version of the…
Big Talk About Small BusinessLLC vs Corp: The Costly Setup Mistakes Founders Make with ScherriePrince
Working in silos is a massive profit leak that leaves your business exposed to disaster. Relying on disconnected CPAs, tax preparers, and generic legal forms…
Big Talk About Small BusinessIgnore the Mirage: The True Cost of Entrepreneurship
Unrealistic expectations are quietly eroding the drive of modern business owners and their teams. In a culture obsessed with immediate gratification and…
Big Talk About Small BusinessInvest to Scale: Surviving the Ad Overload with Devon MacDonald
Cutting marketing first when cash is tight guarantees your business will fail to scale. In an era where consumers are bombarded by thousands of digital…
Big Talk About Small BusinessSurvival Comes First: Flipping the Script on Business
The absolute priority for any business has to be basic survival before achieving a lofty vision. Right now, founders are drowning in complex growth strategies…
Big Talk About Small BusinessStop Endless Planning: Start Sweating Now with Mason Edwards
Endlessly fantasizing about business success over coffee won't get you anywhere. The modern service industry rewards action and execution over perfect business…
Big Talk About Small BusinessSpeed to Market: Prototyping Physical Goods Fast with Garrett Peters
Entrepreneurship is a war zone, and isolation is the fastest way to become a casualty. As digital channels blur together and third-party knockoffs flood the…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEngineering Efficiency: Redesigning Workflows for Growth with Matt Lewis
Hitting a production ceiling in your business isn't a lack of effort; it is a lack of altitude. Navigating the brutal transition from daily tactical operations…
Big Talk About Small BusinessOwner Dependency: The Exit Killer with Renee Russo
Selling a business shouldn't cost you your identity. With shifting markets pushing more founders to step away, preparing for the sale is just as critical as…
Big Talk About Small BusinessSlow Growth Secrets: Why Raising Capital is a Trap
Raising venture capital is an absolute profit trap for 90% of small businesses. When founders prioritize immediate micro-trends and massive funding rounds over…
Big Talk About Small BusinessBest of Big Talk: Finding Purpose in the Hustle
A business plan will never replace the messy reality of execution. In a landscape increasingly obsessed with automated solutions and theoretical strategies…
Big Talk About Small BusinessShark Tank Secrets: Turning Big Ideas Into Tech Realities With Dmitri Love
Venture capital is a relentless game of adaptation where overnight disruption can wipe out years of systematic progress. Relying on single points of failure in…
Big Talk About Small BusinessCheck Your Ego: Building a Global Franchise from a Frat House Kitchen
Downtime is a profit leak, but over-complicating your systems before you even prove your market is an absolute cash killer. Many aspiring founders stall out…
Big Talk About Small BusinessManagement vs. Leadership: The Truth About Scaling
Scaling a business from $1 million to $10 million is where most founders hit a wall that feels impossible to climb. The "missing middle" is a profit-killing…
Big Talk About Small BusinessMarketing Or Die: Why Specialized AI Wins
Revenue decline is rarely a mystery; it’s usually the result of silent marketing and a refusal to adapt. Many business owners watch their numbers drop by 40%…
Big Talk About Small BusinessDebt as Leverage: Scaling Without Running Dry
Running a business is statistically a bad idea, yet entrepreneurs dive in anyway because of a necessary, often dangerous level of optimism. This optimism is a…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEarned Media: Why Relationships Aren't Strategy with Ronica Cleary
Most people buy PR the wrong way: they ask “who do you know?” and hope connections turn into coverage. We sit down with Ronica Cleary, founder of Cleary…
Big Talk About Small BusinessWagyu Wealth: Cracking the Vertical Integration Code
A lot of business advice sounds clean on paper until you’ve lived through thin margins, messy partnerships, and the daily grind of managing people. Mark sits…
Big Talk About Small BusinessCommunity Rounds: Beyond Traditional Crowdfunding
Most founders try to raise money by pitching people who don’t understand their market, don’t share their mission, and still want control. We sit down with Read…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEconomic Engagement: Beyond Open-Book Management Basics with Bill Fotsch
Big companies can hide behind layers of reports and still survive. Small businesses don’t get that luxury, so we brought on Bill Fotsch to talk about what…
Big Talk About Small BusinessSell Through Trust: Building Real Relationships
Sales is the part of business most people want to outsource first, and it’s also the part you can’t afford to ignore. We get real about why founders have to…
Big Talk About Small BusinessFighting the Slop: How to Win the War Against AI Garbage
Most small businesses think growth comes from squeezing margins. We’ve learned the opposite can be true: lower prices, ship more, and let volume create the…
Big Talk About Small BusinessChicken in the Box: Why Your Business Model is Broken with James Hatfield
Speed decides who wins. That’s the hard truth we unpack with James Hatfield, the blue-collar builder turned Chief Revenue Officer at LiveSwitch, a video-first…
Big Talk About Small BusinessYour Anxiety is Killing Your Profit with Abi Harmon
Ever feel like your brain is running a marathon while your body waves a white flag? We sat down with Abby Harmon, ex-Amazon leader and founder of House Harmon…
Big Talk About Small BusinessKill the Hobby: Why I Risked My Family's Future for YouTube
What does it take to walk away from a thriving family restaurant and bet your future on YouTube lawn care tutorials? We sit down with Travis, whose winding…
Big Talk About Small BusinessHow to Lead When Everything is Falling Apart (Lessons from a Lt. Colonel)
Cities don’t become great by accident, they get there when people from every corner of the built environment share a clear purpose and a practical playbook. We…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 124 - Cash Flow Runs Franchises with Nolen Hughes
Cash flow, quality, and quiet scale: that’s the real story behind building a B2B service franchise that most people never see but everyone relies on. We sit…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 123 - From Chick-fil-A to Cityscapes: Building Without a Safety Net | With Cameron Clark
The empty building at the corner isn’t an eyesore, it’s a question waiting for a brave answer. We sit down with developer Cameron Clark to unpack how a…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 122 - Myths About Small Biz Funding | With Levi King
Revenue that covers costs beats any term sheet. That’s the thread running through our conversation with Levi King, founder of Lendio and Nav, who lays out a…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 121 - Partnerships, Pitfalls, and Payoffs With Joe Saumweber
Stop chasing startup fairy tales and start building a life that actually works. We sit down with Joe Saumweber, co-founder of RevUnit, to unpack how he grew an…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 120 - Overselling Kills Trust
Markets move fast and new competitors can appear overnight. We unpack how small businesses keep their edge by acting quickly, listening hard, and building…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 119 - Entrepreneurship Ain’t Fun: It's a Fight
If you’ve been told entrepreneurship is “fun,” consider this your permission to delete that myth. We get honest about what building a business actually feels…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 118 - Build Through Meetings, Not Just Marketing
Tired of “storytelling” as a buzzword? We dig into the gritty, practical side of it: stories that earn meetings, align teams, and drive revenue. We start with…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 117 - STOP Chasing Passion. Start Making Money.
What if we took the pressure out of starting and put revenue back at the center? We sit down with Jim Beach, author of School for Startups and host of a…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 116 - Why Most Small Business Owners Panic
The ground is always moving under small businesses, but panic isn’t a plan. We pull back the curtain on how owners can stay liquid, avoid blind spots, and turn…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 115 - Solo Versus Scale: The Realities Of One-Person Companies
Think a one-person business is a fast track to freedom? We pull back the curtain on what it actually takes to build a resilient solo operation—where pricing…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 114 - From Paycheck To Practice
Ever feel torn between the safety of a paycheck and the pull to build something of your own? We sit down with Shawn, a software engineer well-versed in bank…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 113 - From Overwhelm To Order: How Entrepreneurs Choose What To Do First
Overwhelmed by a wall of tasks and not sure what actually moves the business forward? We get honest about the real work of prioritization: choosing one must-do…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 112 - From Niche To Exit: Building A Sellable Business
Want a buyer to knock on your door with a premium offer you didn’t see coming? We dig into how to build a company that’s simple to acquire, hard to replace…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 111 - Inside The Hard Truth Of Management Transitions
Growth doesn’t stall when the product falters; it stalls when management turns into bureaucracy. We dive straight into the messy middle of leadership…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 110 – Strategy Is Not a Spreadsheet
Strategy only matters if it survives Monday. We take a candid look at how small businesses can turn plans into progress by focusing on action, clear ownership…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 109 - Stop Faking Corporate: Lead Like a Founder
Most leadership advice assumes you’ve got time, staff, and cash to spare. We don’t. We take you straight into the realities of small business leadership where…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 108 - Stop Being the Victim
Tired of waiting for perfect conditions before you finally feel engaged at work? We get real about why that moment never comes and how to build momentum…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 107 - Entrepreneurs Don’t Take Vacations
Stop chasing balance like it’s a prize you win at the end of the grind. We delve into the real operating system of small businesses, managing imbalance, where…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 106 - From Door-to-Door to Eight Figures
Growth isn’t magic, it’s math. We sit down with entrepreneur Joe Rare to unpack how he turned a failing, everything-for-everyone agency into a focused…
Big Talk About Small BusinessEp. 105 - The High Cost of Cheap Legal Advice
What's the real cost of cutting legal corners in your startup? Attorney Lucas Regnier explains why your choice of business structure can significantly impact…