Kelly Sjol, founder and lead consultant at Storify Marketing and founder of Tech Founder X, sits down to talk about the seismic shifts happening in B2B SaaS marketing and growth strategy. We explore how AI is rewriting the rules for software companies, why so many founders confuse a sales problem with a story problem, and what it really takes to move from opportunistic growth to intentional scale. Kelly shares a remarkable case study of a quality assurance company that repositioned itself in the AI era and 10X'd its revenue — from $10,000 engagements to $100,000 contracts scaling to a million dollars a year. We also get honest about what business owners should expect from consultants today, why long-term contracts and overpromises are red flags, and how the best advisors are obsessed with your growth — not their own marketing prowess.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Why experts get trapped in jargon and fail to communicate with the people actually buying their product
• The critical difference between growth and scale — and why most companies stall because they grow on top of systems and stories that were never built to handle it
• How to vet an advisor who balances deep expertise with humility and curiosity (and why you should run from anyone promising guaranteed results on a 12-month plan)
• What AI is actually changing for tech companies: the threat of not going all-in, and the opportunity for service businesses to reposition as the strategy layer
• A real-world case study of a QA vendor that repositioned as a strategic partner in the AI era and 10X'd revenue
• Why you don't have a sales problem — you have a story problem
• The difference between a marketing manager and a marketing leader, and how that distinction changes everything
• Why being "in love with marketing" is a liability, and being "in love with growth" is the mindset that actually serves clients
• How to lead through the AI shift without getting too far ahead of your customers

CHAPTERS

0:00 Meet Your Hosts

1:54 Kelly Origin Story

5:35 Translating Nerd Speak

6:38 Expert Jargon Trap

10:54 Growth Versus Scale

14:34 Intentional Growth Mindset

17:39 Choosing The Right Advisor

20:31 Avoiding Overpromises

21:48 Marketing In The AI Era

23:57 Resetting Client Expectations

25:42 Marketing Leader or Manager

26:38 Quick Wins and Long Game

28:47 Growth First Mindset

30:03 Head of Growth Accountability

35:02 Tech Sells Itself Myth

36:02 Story That Scales Sales

38:07 AI Era Repositioning Case

41:01 Replicating the 10X Shift

43:07 AI Threats and Opportunities

48:49 Lead Through the AI Shift

51:28 Stay Human and Wrap Up

RESOURCES

Kelly Sjol on LinkedIn 

Storify Marketing

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I sat down with Dana Williams — a leadership identity expert, Gallup Strengths coach, and author of The Internal Revolution — for a conversation I can't stop thinking about. Dana has worked with organizations like Southwest Airlines and Children's Medical, and she brings a rare mix of corporate experience and personal vulnerability to how she talks about leadership. We get into why your job title is not your brand, why "strengths envy" holds so many people back from great teamwork, and the surprisingly simple daily practice Dana uses to stay emotionally grounded as a leader. If you've ever felt overwhelmed trying to do more with less, this one's for you.

Highlights

• Why leaders should focus on managing energy, not time
• The origin story of CliftonStrengths and how Dana brought it into Southwest Airlines
• What "strengths envy" is and how a team grid helps leaders build complementary teams instead of comparing themselves to others
• Dana's personal journey through a marriage crisis that led her to write The Internal Revolution
• Her Authentic Imprint framework: strengths, core values, mission, and emotional recognition
• A simple daily emotional check-in practice that takes just 5–7 minutes
• Why vulnerability and authenticity build trust — and how that shows up differently for women in leadership
• How to build relationship rapport before diving into transactional or strategic conversations
• The four team domains (executing, relationship building, strategic thinking, influencing) and why influencing is often the missing piece
• Signs a company is ready to bring in an outside advisor
• What separates a transactional advisor relationship from a truly healthy one
• Why humility — not having all the answers — is a hallmark of the best leaders

Chapters

0:00 — Meet Dana Williams

1:39 — Strengths to Energy Shift

4:42 — Dana's Top Five Strengths

6:11 — Strengths Envy and Team Grids

8:57 — Internal Revolution Origin Story

14:20 — Emotional Recognition Practices

21:13 — Authenticity to ROI

26:08 — Adaptive Leadership in Action

26:55 — When to Hire an Advisor

35:17 — Healthy Advisor Relationships

39:38 — Clarity and Humble Growth

41:46 — Where to Follow Dana

Resources Mentioned

• Dana Williams' website and Authentic Imprint assessment: danawilliamsco.com
• The Internal Revolution by Dana Williams
• Dominate Your Day on Apple
• Dana Williams on LinkedIn

Thank you so much for listening! Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review. And to learn more about the advisors who can help your business grow and scale, visit growtharchitectstable.com.

Highlights

• 57% of Your Buyers Have Already Decided Before You Talk to Them. Are You Winning or Losing That Moment? What mid-market leaders get wrong about brand strategy
• Your Brand Isn't Bland Because of Your Logo. It's Bland Because Your Leaders Are Hiding. Beth Carr on why executive visibility is now a revenue strategy
• Beth's "secret sauce": diagnosing the inner architecture and mindset of a company before prescribing any brand fix
• Why unified vision, messaging, and mission across leadership teams is critical — "many of body, one of mind"
• The shift in buyer psychology: younger buyers want to know who's behind the company, not just the logo
• Why "humble" has become "hidden" — and why that's now expensive for executives
• A client case study: a CTO-led dev company that went from blending in to being acquired for millions after committing to a visibility strategy
• How to vet a strategic partner: ask about times their strategy didn't work and what ROI/KPIs they'd guesstimate upfront
• The "doctor vs. patient" analogy for diagnosing the real business problem instead of just filling the client's initial request
• How to build an executive content strategy that doesn't require hours on camera — batching, AI tools, and repurposing
• Why brand work done right should last a minimum of 10 years
• The stat that 57% of buyers do their homework before ever having a conversation with you — and why AI search (AEO) makes visibility even more critical

Chapters

0:02 — Meet Beth Carr

1:07 — Brand Strategy Secret Sauce

2:06 — Why Teams Feel Misaligned

4:36 — Visibility in the AI Era

6:18 — Executive Personal Brand Playbook

10:33 — Case Study: From Blending In to Exit

15:36 — Unifying Messaging Across Teams

18:22 — Beth's Unusual Career Path

20:05 — Brand Work That Lasts a Decade

24:11 — ROI Accountability and Hard Questions

28:15 — Proving ROI With Receipts

31:33 — Diagnosing the Real Problem

32:57 — Diagnose Before You Prescribe

34:42 — Order Taker vs. Strategist

35:38 — When the Problem Is Bigger

37:25 — Politics, Culture, and Truth

39:57 — Phase Zero: The Mini Audition

44:00 — Executive Presence Strategy

51:29 — Batching Content With AI

55:01 — Don't Let AI Bland You

56:45 — Where to Find Beth

Resources Mentioned

• Fortified Branding — fortifiedbranding.com
• Beth Carr on LinkedIn

Thank you so much for listening! Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review. And to learn more about the advisors who can help your business grow and scale, visit growtharchitectstable.com.

Highlights

• The Reason You Haven't Reached Your Next Level Isn't a Strategy Problem. Kourtney Street on the silent thing blocking your best leadership
• High Achievers Are the Last to Know They're Burning Out - What a coach sees in you that you can't see in yourself
• The "soul line, goal line" framework: why delivering results isn't enough if you're not becoming a better human along the way
• How to know when it's time to hire a coach and the questions to ask yourself first
• What separates a great coach from someone who just put "coach" in their title (hint: 80% listening, 20% talking)
• Why high achievers are especially prone to unsustainable pace and how a coach helps you catch it
• The truth about 360 feedback: why it should never surprise you, and how to do it without blowing someone up
• Learning to distinguish a "sprint" season from a "marathon" season in leadership
• Lessons from serving as chaplain for the Orlando Pride (NWSL) and what elite athletes teach us about balancing individual and team success
• Common leadership blind spots and why building in silence and reflection is a discipline, not a luxury
• What it means to lead with alignment, especially when life outside work gets chaotic

Chapters

1:20 — Meet Sacred and Strategic

2:24 — Soul Line, Goal Line Framework

4:14 — Kourtney's Origin Story

7:26 — When to Hire a Coach

9:29 — High Achiever Patterns

13:48 — Choosing the Right Coach

19:05 — Vulnerability and 360 Feedback

22:32 — Leadership Ceilings and Inflection Points

27:59 — Wiring, Pacing, and Intensives

30:55 — Sports Chaplaincy Lessons

36:31 — Blind Spots and Silence Practice

43:15 — Getting Started and Closing

Resources Mentioned

• Sacred and Strategic

Thank you so much for listening! Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review. And to learn more about the advisors who can help your business grow and scale, visit growtharchitectstable.com.

Highlights

• Joe's unconventional path from missionary and nonprofit leader to founder of a business intelligence and systems consultancy
• Why the real challenge for most growing businesses is a knowledge gap, not a systems gap
• How to extract a leader's intuitive decision-making and turn it into organizational wisdom
• The "AI is wind, your business is the boat" metaphor for thinking about adopting AI wisely
• Why leaders should be skeptical of AI and bring it in slowly, like plumbing a new house
• Red flags when hiring advisors (hint: if their outreach reads like it was written entirely by AI, that's a problem)
• What a healthy, accountable advisor-client relationship looks like in practice
• A real example of turning a two-hour sales research process into 20 minutes
• How the discipline of asking great questions with clients has changed how Joe parents his adult kids

Chapters

0:00 — Welcome to Growth Architects Table

2:10 — Meet Joe Reed: life, family, and the road from missions to business

3:00 — From missionary work to solving for-profit growth problems

7:32 — The knowledge gap vs. the systems gap

9:06 — People, culture, and building systems around human strengths

10:59 — The patterns leaders repeat from $500K to $200M

16:00 — The sailboat metaphor: AI as wind, not a replacement for people

20:08 — Talking to leaders who are nervous about AI

24:18 — How to hire the right advisor (and spot the wrong one)

27:23 — What a healthy advisor-client relationship looks like

36:42 — A real example: cutting sales research from two hours to 20 minutes

41:34 — How this work has shaped Joe as a parent and community member

43:40 — Closing encouragement for leaders facing growth headwinds

Resources Mentioned

• Fulcrum Collective
• Joe Reed on LinkedIn

Thank you so much for listening! Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review. And to learn more about the advisors who can help your business grow and scale, visit growtharchitectstable.com.

Host Dominique Glanville, founder of Heights Growth Advisors, sits down with the coaches, strategists, and fractional executives who actually move the needle for mid-market companies — not polished keynote speakers, but practitioners who've been in the trenches and helped businesses come out stronger. Real conversations. Fast-paced, honest, and occasionally funny.

Highlights:

• What problems you should be solving before you even know you have them
• What it really costs to hire the wrong advisor
• What "great" looks like — and how to tell the difference
• Practitioner-level insight, not surface-level advice

Whether you're a business owner who wants to grow with fewer blind spots, or an advisor who wants to be part of a community doing this work at the highest level — pull up a chair.