Episodi

  • Only 5% Have Mapped Their Real Process | Jordan Fleming on Redesigning Your Business for AI Agents

    Only 5% Have Mapped Their Real Process | Jordan Fleming on Redesigning Your Business for AI Agents
    Oct 22 2026
    Jordan Fleming bootstrapped smrtPhone from Poland, with the technical team in Romania, to just under 10 million dollars and nearly 60 people. Along the way it went from a phone system built for Podio to what he now calls an agentic conversation platform. He has since moved from CEO to chairman. His argument is that most companies spending on AI are not seeing growth from it. They drop very capable agents into processes designed around human limits, and those processes are full of invisible work that people quietly cover. Only about 5 percent of the companies he has worked with have mapped their processes the way the work actually runs. That is the subject of his book, The AI Workforce: redesign the business, one process at a time, around work shared between agents and people. ## In this episode - Four owners, distinct roles, and disagree and commit when they can't agree - Why they built in Eastern Europe, inside the EU legal and IP framework - The happy accident of building a phone system for Podio, and growing with almost no marketing - How every product update now flows into a company brain that updates help docs and agents - An agent that made 220,000 calls in three and a half weeks - Why AI spend is not turning into growth - The invisible work that never makes it onto the process map - Business structures built for one kind of labor, and what changes now - Hiring a role based AI agent and onboarding it to your company - Why voice agents built software first sound great in demos and fail in execution ## Timestamps 00:00 Welcome 01:01 Four owners, and stepping up to chairman 02:15 Splitting the roles so nobody deadlocks 03:43 Why build the company in Eastern Europe 05:18 From a PhD in music to Poland 06:08 Bootstrapping a phone system for Podio 08:09 From VoIP company to agentic conversation platform 08:45 How AI changed the way they build 09:40 220,000 calls in three and a half weeks 10:15 Why AI spend is not turning into growth 12:08 Only 5 percent map their real process 13:52 Redesigning process after process 14:42 The AI Workforce, his book 16:08 The four zones of AI 16:39 Business structures built for one kind of labor 18:47 The next 24 months 20:06 What broke as they scaled 22:05 Hiring role based AI agents 23:27 Onboarding an agent: property maintenance 25:01 Latency, and why telecom first matters 26:43 Who smrtPhone is for 28:14 Where to find Jordan and the book ## About Jordan Fleming Jordan Fleming is the cofounder and chairman of smrtPhone, an agentic conversation platform for voice and text, built for companies of 10 to 500 users. He is the author of The AI Workforce, a framework for redesigning a business around shared execution between AI agents and people. The AI Workforce, free executive briefing for listeners: https://thefutureworkforce.ai/p/os-show smrtPhone: https://smrtphone.io Listen: https://feeds.transistor.fm/the-operating-system-show Be a guest: https://crm.frontrangesystems.com/discovery
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    30 min
  • 300,000 Transactions, Under 50 People | Bryan Clayton on Building GreenPal to Run on Systems

    300,000 Transactions, Under 50 People | Bryan Clayton on Building GreenPal to Run on Systems
    Oct 20 2026
    Bryan Clayton started mowing yards in high school and grew it into a Tennessee landscaping company with about 150 people and 90 trucks. Fifteen years in, it was organized chaos every day, and he was the scaffolding holding it up. He never took a vacation longer than two days. After he sold it, he set out to build the opposite: a business with a system for almost every problem. That became GreenPal, a marketplace for lawn mowing that has handled about 300,000 transactions with fewer than 50 people, no offices, and no lawnmowers. We get into what he refused to repeat the second time, the difference between hard work and difficult work, how GreenPal keeps quality high with vendors it does not employ, and where he draws the line on what AI should never touch. ## In this episode - Why his first company was built as scaffolding around the founder - Every problem you solve unlocks five more, and why that is the job - Running a marketplace as a never ending series of experiments - From fragile to antifragile: weekly loops that make the business better on their own - Hard work versus difficult work, and the partner who wore 15 hour Sundays as a badge - What breaks in a remote first company, and why even Zoom has an office - The carrot and stick system that keeps independent lawn pros showing up - How AI gave a state school founder an MIT data scientist at the table - Why the founder should still do an hour of customer support every day - "Stop being lazy and ask Claude," and why AI makes everyone busier ## Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:49 Under 50 people, 300,000 transactions 02:35 What he did differently the second time 05:45 Landscaping versus software 08:21 A never ending series of experiments 10:01 150 employees, 90 trucks, and a mechanic shop 11:44 From fragile to antifragile 14:19 Hard work versus difficult work 16:57 Running a remote first company 18:46 Quality from vendors you do not employ 21:53 How GreenPal uses AI 24:42 Who should not build a marketplace 26:25 The four zones of AI 27:59 Why the founder should do customer support 29:28 Messy data and "stop being lazy and ask Claude" 32:16 Why AI makes everyone busier 33:26 What is next: a million users 34:11 Where to find Bryan ## About Bryan Clayton Bryan Clayton is the cofounder and CEO of GreenPal, a marketplace that connects homeowners with local lawn care pros. Before GreenPal he built and sold a landscaping company in Tennessee. GreenPal: https://www.yourgreenpal.com/ Listen: https://feeds.transistor.fm/the-operating-system-show Be a guest: https://crm.frontrangesystems.com/discovery
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    35 min
  • Fix the Data Before the AI | Jay Bourgana on Buying the Business in the Owner's Head

    Fix the Data Before the AI | Jay Bourgana on Buying the Business in the Owner's Head
    Oct 13 2026
    Jay Bourgana took a real estate brokerage from zero to 350 million dollars in sales volume in four years, then sold 70 percent of it to a much larger firm in 2018. Since then he has been on both sides of about 30 acquisitions, buying plumbing, HVAC, and IT companies. Today he runs Foresight Partners. His favorite deals are what he calls flywheel businesses: no website, no marketing, customers who keep calling anyway, strong margins, and a founder who carries the whole operation in his head. Before he even signs a letter of intent, he starts pulling that knowledge out. His warning for owners racing toward AI: fix the data first. Most companies run on duplicate records, spreadsheets stitched together by hand, and reports that arrive a month late. Put AI on top of that and it just moves faster in the wrong direction. ## In this episode - How a manufacturing mindset built a brokerage that answered new leads in seconds - The cold email he almost deleted, and selling 70 percent of his company 30 days later - Why he buys businesses that only work because the founder is inside them - The three engines he maps before closing: clients, talent, and capital - Why owners grow to five million, hate it, and shrink back to three - People, then process, then technology, and why speeding up the machine shakes everything loose - Data before AI: closed loop companies and the cost of lagging numbers - Why middle managers become the human in the loop for AI agents - Who should sell to him, and who should not - Kids Business School, teaching entrepreneurship to kids 7 to 17 ## Timestamps 00:00 Zero to 350 million in four years 00:52 Bringing manufacturing thinking to real estate 03:22 How owners can use data better 06:41 Speed to lead, then and now 09:11 The cold email that sold the company 10:43 Retiring, then getting back in 12:02 What he does first when he buys a business 14:02 When everything lives in the owner's head 16:11 Buying to own forever 17:12 Why owners shrink back to three million 20:00 People, process, technology, and the shake 21:01 How he uses AI and why data comes first 23:07 The four zones of AI 24:53 Why middle managers become the human in the loop 28:13 75 states in a 50 state CRM 31:46 If you need Excel, something is wrong 32:35 The company that could not tell him its churn 34:06 Who should sell to him, and who should not 37:50 What is next, and Kids Business School 39:39 Where to find Jay ## About Jay Bourgana Jay Bourgana is the founder of Foresight Partners, which buys and operates founder led home services and professional services businesses. He built and sold a real estate brokerage, has been on both sides of about 30 acquisitions, and is building Kids Business School, an entrepreneurship program for kids 7 to 17. Acquisitions Collective: https://acquisitionscollective.biz/ Kids Business School: https://kidsbusinessschool.com/ Listen: https://feeds.transistor.fm/the-operating-system-show Be a guest: https://crm.frontrangesystems.com/discovery
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    40 min
  • Stop Hiring Only A Players | Craig Wahl on Building a Leadership Team That Scales

    Stop Hiring Only A Players | Craig Wahl on Building a Leadership Team That Scales
    Oct 6 2026
    Craig Wahl coaches CEOs and founders whose companies got bigger, faster than they expected. He runs Njorth, works as a fractional COO for tech companies, and is finishing his first book, The Walk. His core reframe for CEOs: your job isn't to make all the decisions. It's to make sure they get made, by the right people, and that someone is accountable for them. He learned most of it scaling a team fast. He chased A players and found a team of solid B and C players was just as strong. He watched long documented processes go unused and swapped them for simple checklists the team actually ran, then tracked everything and kept iterating. ## In this episode - Why CEOs need a safe place to talk, and who they can't talk to inside the company - Your job isn't to make the decisions, it's to make sure they get made - What founders refuse to hand off, and what the CEO should be doing instead - Why hiring only A players is a fool's errand when you're scaling - The Sherpa on Everest: stop yelling down the mountain - A process nobody follows isn't a process - Trust is boring, and how leaders shortcut it - The Walk, his practical guide to the long middle of leading people - Why "use AI more" is one of the most dangerous things an executive can say - The question to ask anyone selling you AI: have you ever run a business? ## Timestamps 00:00 The show open 00:30 Meet Craig Wahl 01:14 The three things Njorth does 02:20 You don't call an electrician for a leak 02:55 Why CEOs need a safe place to talk 06:30 Make sure the decisions get made 07:33 What founders refuse to hand off 08:55 The leadership triangle 10:25 Can anyone sell as well as the CEO? 12:45 What breaks when the team gets big 13:23 Why hiring only A players is a fool's errand 14:49 The Sherpa on Everest 17:25 A process nobody follows isn't a process 18:36 Simple checklists, track everything 20:45 Trust is boring 23:10 How leaders shortcut trust 25:06 The Walk 27:14 A master's in leadership and a junior manager 29:38 What do you want people to remember about you? 30:20 How he uses AI in his own business 32:25 Why "use AI more" is dangerous 34:24 Have you ever run a business? 35:10 The four zones of AI 35:46 What error rate will you accept from AI? 38:43 Ten salespeople, selling 80% of the time 39:36 Who should hire Craig 39:59 What's next for Njorth 40:39 Where to find Craig ## About Craig Wahl Craig Wahl is a leadership architect and CEO advisor at Njorth. He coaches founders and CEOs, runs leadership alignment workshops, and works as a fractional COO, mostly for tech companies scaling from Series A to Series C. His first book, The Walk, comes out in spring 2027. Website: https://njorth.ai Listen: https://feeds.transistor.fm/the-operating-system-show Be a guest: https://crm.frontrangesystems.com/discovery
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    41 min
  • Hit Every Metric, Missed the Number | Chris Mader on Running EOS Inside His Own Business

    Hit Every Metric, Missed the Number | Chris Mader on Running EOS Inside His Own Business
    Sep 29 2026
    Chris Mader was drafted by the Chicago White Sox, spent four years in the minors, then built a business career that ran all the way to chief revenue officer. Today he runs MTA Consultancy and implements EOS inside companies doing 10 to 50 million a year. His company is named for the sign that hung over his college baseball coach's desk: Son, make the adjustment. The bad news, he tells owners, is that you are probably the problem in your business. The good news is that you are also the solution. He runs EOS inside his own company too. Last year he hit every metric on his scorecard and still missed his revenue goal. So he took a hard look at the metric itself, doubled his weekly prospect conversations, and watched revenue climb. ## In this episode - Why he runs EOS inside his own business, and what his scorecard told him when revenue fell short - EOS as the way in, and why he teaches the team to run the weekly meeting without him - Building your company as if you were selling it, even if you never will - Revenue is vanity: profit, EBITDA, and the leverage of having the choice to sell - The finance and technology seats most growing companies are missing, and when fractional beats full time - Coach Mader AI, the digital twin he trained on thousands of his own coaching calls - Do you want to be right, or do you want to win - Who EOS is not for, and who should call him ## Timestamps 00:00 From the White Sox to EOS 01:08 Son, make the adjustment 02:45 You are the problem, and the solution 03:12 Inspirationally irritating 04:12 Running EOS inside his own business 04:57 Hit every metric, missed the revenue goal 06:44 EOS as a Trojan horse 08:43 Teaching the team to run it without him 09:55 Getting the founder out of the way 11:15 Build it like you will sell it, even if you won't 12:52 Revenue is vanity, profit is fuel 15:06 Buyers won't pay for a business that is you 16:46 The chef who wants one restaurant 18:36 Why finance and technology are the missing seats 20:23 Fractional or full time 21:47 Where fractional work is headed 23:45 Coach Mader AI, his digital twin 25:55 The four zones of AI 26:39 The one person who knows everything 28:27 Do you want to be right, or do you want to win 29:50 Who should not use EOS 31:06 Who is a great fit 31:51 What is next for MTA Consultancy 33:02 Where to find Chris ## About Chris Mader Chris Mader is the founder of MTA Consultancy, an EOS implementer, executive coach, and the author of Make the Adjustment. A former professional baseball player, he spent more than a decade leading revenue teams in corporate America, rising to chief revenue officer, before starting his own firm. He works with founders who want to grow, scale, and eventually exit. Website: https://www.mtaconsultancy.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrismadermta/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismadermta Listen: https://feeds.transistor.fm/the-operating-system-show Be a guest: https://crm.frontrangesystems.com/discovery
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    34 min
  • 600 Clients on a Team of 16 | David Salerno on Why He Will Not Hire to Fix a Problem

    600 Clients on a Team of 16 | David Salerno on Why He Will Not Hire to Fix a Problem
    Sep 16 2026
    David Salerno built Solpak into one of Canada's most recognized packaging companies. Six hundred food sector clients across the country, on a team of sixteen people. He did not get there by being efficient after the fact. He decided early that headcount was a vanity metric and ran the business that way for twenty years. Zapier for a decade, now Claude. The current policy at Solpak is that nobody gets hired unless the leadership team can make a business case for the hire over automating the work. The moment it became visible to him was a banker sitting across from him for two hours. Numbers growing, obvious activity everywhere, and in two hours the phone never rang and nobody came to the door. The banker could not explain it. David could not either, until he tried, and what came out of that is the Sherpa Method he now coaches other owners through. ## In this episode - Why he treated headcount as a vanity metric for twenty years, and what that bought him - The banker who sat in his office for two hours and could not explain the quiet - Three challenges, three steps each, and the twenty seven questions behind the Sherpa Method - Why he thinks owners have a clarity problem rather than an effort problem - Giving a single number to a single person, and the prefab roof problem that dissolved once someone owned it - The hiring standard at Solpak: no new hire without a business case against automating the work - Where AI does not belong, and the call he made to a friend's AI receptionist trying to trick it - The retreat where a team member asked to stop answering the phone, and what it revealed - Who should not try to build a self managed business ## Timestamps 00:00 A show for founders who are done being the bottleneck 01:04 Six hundred clients on a team of sixteen 01:30 Why he treated headcount as a vanity metric 02:05 The frameworks that hold the ratio together 02:56 Ten years of Zapier, and what comes next 03:39 The phase where David was the company 04:19 What he took from corporate, and what he refused to rebuild 05:23 The banker who could not explain the quiet office 06:40 Growth, sustainability, and everything after 07:27 What makes a discipline stick when a framework does not 08:00 Give the number to a person and watch what happens 09:12 The prefab roof, the five whys, and a problem that dissolved 10:55 Ninety seven percent would recommend, and the alignment behind it 12:48 The failure point he sees coaching owners 13:06 Founders do not have an effort problem 14:05 Three challenges, three steps, twenty seven questions 15:00 The mindset shift nobody gets to skip 15:55 Build the business as the product 16:30 Claude at Solpak, and no hire without a business case 18:03 The four zones of AI 19:35 Calling a friend's AI receptionist to try to trick it 22:23 The retreat where a team member asked to stop taking calls 23:37 Who should not build a self managed business 25:09 Buy Back Your Time, and the thousand dollar hour 25:54 Who the Sherpa Method is actually for 27:02 What is next for Solpak and Entrepreneur Sherpa 28:01 Where to find David ## About David Salerno David Salerno founded Solpak, a Quebec based packaging company serving hundreds of food sector clients across Canada, and now works with it as a mentor and guide after selling part of the business to two partners. He wrote Built for Freedom and coaches owners through Entrepreneur Sherpa, built on three pillars, grow, sustain and serve. He is Vice Chairman of the Montreal Economic Institute. Website and free first chapter: https://davidsalerno.com Entrepreneur Sherpa: https://entrepreneursherpa.co LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidvsalerno/ --- The Operating System Show is for founders who are done being the bottleneck in their own business. If you want to be a guest: https://crm.frontrangesystems.com/discovery
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    29 min
  • Your Team Says They Are at 140% Capacity | Kati Peterman on What a Fractional Operator Actually Fixes

    Your Team Says They Are at 140% Capacity | Kati Peterman on What a Fractional Operator Actually Fixes
    Sep 10 2026
    Every founder Kati Peterman meets says a version of the same sentence. I'm just not there yet. Not there yet for a COO. Not there yet for a real operator. And she has come to believe that sentence almost never means what it sounds like it means. It is rarely about the money. It is that a visionary founder cannot picture what that person would actually do all day, so a big salary looks like a bet on a job description they cannot see. Her answer is to go find the money first. Outstanding collections, billables, how clients pay and when, merchant services. Unglamorous operational leakage sitting there in almost every company. Fix that in the first weeks and the fractional executive has paid for herself, and the founder stops arguing about whether operations deserves funding. ## In this episode - What fractional actually means now that the word has gone hot, and what it buys a company not ready for a full time hire - I'm just not there yet, and why that sentence is usually about understanding rather than budget - The quick win that funds the role, starting with money the business has already earned and not collected - A better question than calling a founder a control freak: where does my founder have fear right now - Placing the right person versus installing the system, and why the operator has to actually enjoy the work - Education as the thing that makes a system stick after the operator leaves - Where she refuses to let AI go, including refunds and cancellations, and why the sales conversation is burning leads - Teams running at 120 to 140% capacity, and what it takes to get back to 70 - Who should not hire a fractional executive ## Timestamps 00:00 A show for founders who are done being the bottleneck 01:10 What fractional actually means, and why the word got hot 03:11 The first COO offer, and the gap she kept seeing 05:04 I'm just not there yet, and what founders really mean by it 08:05 Outstanding collections, billables, and money already on the table 09:10 Founders get a bad rap as control freaks 09:54 The better question: where does my founder have fear right now 14:41 Why the operator has to actually enjoy the work 16:59 Education is true empowerment, and what makes a system stick 23:12 Teams at 120 to 140% capacity, and getting back to 70 24:35 Zero AI in refunds and cancellations 26:08 The thing that is not up for debate: response time 28:50 Who should not hire a fractional executive 30:01 Why franchisee owners became the favorite client 31:40 Where to find Kati ## About Kati Peterman Kati Peterman came up as a chief of staff and integrator inside seven and eight figure companies, then founded FRX, a national bench of fractional executives placed into small and mid sized businesses. She is also COO of Empire Operating System. FRX: https://yourfrx.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katipeterman/ If your team is at 140% and hiring is not on the table, that is the conversation: https://crm.frontrangesystems.com/discovery
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    32 min