Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders
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Top 10 Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders Episodes
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Ask Questions to Uncover Opportunity - Gary Braun
Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders
12/06/22 • 42 min
The word “sales” often leaves a sour taste in people’s mouths. But sales is different than most people think, as today’s guest explains. Gary Braun, the Co-Founder of Pivotal Advisors, shares why it’s all about asking the right questions. Gary takes us on the journey of how he and his brother launched Pivotal Advisors and the lessons they have learned over the last 10+ years. We debunk negative connotations associated with “sales” and discuss why asking the right questions can build trust and lead to opportunities. Gary shares what it means to shortcut the discovery process, how to have a great pitch when you have little time, the positives of having repetitive systems, and why the fear of change is holding most sales professionals back. Gary also shares insights on creating accountability, the importance of reinforcement, and continual evolution.
Key Points From This Episode:
- The journey that led to Gary and his brother starting Pivotal Advisors.
- Debunking the negative connotations associated with being a person in sales.
- Why solving problems is the core of sales.
- How asking the right questions uncovers opportunities.
- How asking the right questions can help build trust.
- The right way to approach sales, and some wrong ones.
- Earning respect: what it means to shortcut the discovery process.
- How to stick to a quality sales pitch when time is limited.
- Why you shouldn’t chase every sale and how to identify hot leads.
- Narrowing your focus to help you grow.
- How repetitive systems can help you scale.
- Why the fear of changing behavior and mindset is the biggest thing holding sales professionals back.
- How to deal with accountability in sales: positive and constructive reinforcement.
- Why change is necessary for evolution and the importance of developing soft skills.
Gary Braun on LinkedIn
Pivotal Advisors
Pivotal Advisors on YouTube
Connection BuildersAlex Drost LinkedIn
Branch Out Podcast LinkedIn
Connection Builders LinkedIn
12/06/22 • 42 min
The Entrepreneur's Mindset - Isatou Smith
Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders
11/29/22 • 44 min
To be an entrepreneur requires hard work, self-discipline, and a tremendous amount of courage. When you are your own boss, there is no one else to look to. Therefore, everything your business needs to succeed requires your efforts and discipline. Today we are joined by the Managing Director of EisnerAmper, Isatou Smith. She is a natural entrepreneur who left a stable corporate role to gain greater autonomy and agency in her personal and professional life. In our conversation, we discuss how Isatou became an entrepreneur and what she's learned from her journey. Isatou shares examples of the challenging moments she has had to endure and ultimately persevere. Isatou also explains why all entrepreneurs need to know themselves very well, why instant gratification is a slippery slope, and how society can break you down if you let it. Finally, we discuss the importance of self-discipline, how to be intentional with how you spend your time, and why goal-setting is an entrepreneurial necessity.
Key Points From This Episode:
- Isatou's entrepreneurial journey: when it started, how she chose it, and what she learned.
- The part of her journey that forced her to endure and persevere.
- The importance of knowing yourself and what you want very well.
- Instant gratification and living in a world of 'right now'.
- How external influences could be detrimental to your entrepreneurial endeavor.
- The importance of leading both yourself and others as an entrepreneur.
- Why there's a high risk of burnout and poor mental health when you're your own boss.
- How to be self-disciplined when given full autonomy.
- Being intentional with how you spend your time.
- Why it's important to set goals as an entrepreneur.
Isatou Smith on LinkedIn
Isatou Email
EisnerAmper
Connection BuildersAlex Drost LinkedIn
Branch Out Podcast LinkedIn
Connection Builders LinkedIn
11/29/22 • 44 min
Leading Through Challenging Situations - Susan Black-Beth
Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders
11/15/22 • 47 min
From heading a family business, running franchising models, running a private equity firm, and being a mother to two, is there anything Susan Black-Beth can't do? Growing up in an entrepreneurial family, Susan's relationship with business started at an early age and has been formative to her leadership style.
In this episode, Susan shares the value of having a robust and reliable network, how to overcome unforeseen challenges, her serendipitous relationship with COVID-19, and the importance of resiliency, authenticity, and vulnerability. With years of experience in multiple spheres of entrepreneurship, Susan explains how all these skills unexpectedly came together to help her through a life-changing family crisis. Finally, bringing this all together, we hear how a shift in perspective can help improve our outlook and allow us to lead ourselves and those who depend on us.
Key Points From This Episode:
- Susan's experience with an entrepreneurial family.
- Susan and her sisters experience buying and building carwashes.
- Why Susan felt called to move away from the safety of the family business.
- How Susan overcame her limiting and self-doubting internal dialogue.
- Susan's seven-year journey in private equity.
- The life lessons Susan has learned while overcoming challenges.
- What Susan learned about leadership from the most challenging days of COVID.
- Susan's experiences with her son's heart transplant journey.
- Susan's relationship with resiliency and leadership.
- Most importantly, the power of gratitude and how it has helped Susan succeed.
Susan Black-Beth on LinkedIn
Avante Capital Partners
Connection BuildersAlex Drost LinkedIn
Branch Out Podcast LinkedIn
Connection Builders LinkedIn
11/15/22 • 47 min
Embrace Uncertainty & Take Risks - David Hartley
Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders
11/08/22 • 48 min
Today we are joined by partner, director, and advisor at Anders CPAs, David Hartley to discuss how he has found success and happiness in his career by taking risks and embracing uncertainty. You'll hear about David's professional career journey, the catalysts for change early on, and how he handled changes he encountered along the way. We also talk about why we as leaders have to accept that we do not know all the answers and instead focus on being a facilitator for problem-solving.
David also shares his view on why it is critical to be open to learning, staying up to date with technology, asking questions, and staying true to yourself. We then dig into how to handle changing circumstances, manage your mental health, and why self-care is essential. Finally, David shares a piece of advice for professionals hitting the five-to-10-year mark in their career.
Key Points From This Episode:
- David talks us through some of the pivotal points in the beginning of his career.
- How to work your way through life change.
- Why it's okay not to know all the answers.
- The importance of facilitating a group as a leader rather than dominating problem-solving.
- The importance of embracing the newest tools and latest technologies.
- How to navigate constant change.
- The importance of asking questions and being a sponge in the beginning of your career.
- Why you don't need to know everything and why it's imperative to ask questions to learn.
- The themes that came out of the new partner presentations David's company has just done.
- Why we need to manage mental health in the workplace.
- The importance of being authentic to the things you enjoy early in your career.
- David shares some advice about self-care for professionals hitting their five-to-10-year mark.
David Hartley on LinkedIn
Anders CPAs
Dare to LeadConnection BuildersAlex Drost LinkedIn
Branch Out Podcast LinkedIn
Connection Builders LinkedIn
11/08/22 • 48 min
Rethink Your Approach to Work - Dan Montgomery
Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders
11/01/22 • 36 min
In today's high-paced professional world, it's easy to lose perspective on what moves the needle in your company and get mired down in a slew of everyday tasks and emails. And while creating a structure that prioritizes reflection and planning can be challenging, it is immensely beneficial in the long run. Here to help us unpack this topic and give us a fresh perspective on our approach to work is Dan Montgomery, audit partner and director of business development at Forge Financial and Management Consulting, a forward-thinking advisory firm. In our conversation, Dan expands on how Forge's novel approach is making the busy season more manageable for their team and what they are doing to prioritize planning, reflection, and productivity at their company. We then move on to what Dan has learned from the value of journaling, reflection, and planning and how those lessons have changed the way he works and lives his life. Finally, today's episode offers a high-level breakdown of creating an innovative professional services model that allows for increased profitability, greater productivity, and, most importantly, more personal life satisfaction.
Key Points From This Episode:
- Get to know today's guest, Dan Montgomery, and his fascinating childhood in Alaska.
- Why Forge Financial Management Consulting was created and who it is meant to serve.
- An overview of Dan's firm and its approach to accounting.
- The pitfalls of the busy season in accounting and how Dan's firm is addressing it.
- Why Forge Financial Management Consulting isn't taking on new tax-only clients.
- The importance of prioritizing the most impactful work within your company.
- Defining your value proposition and why it will attract more ideal clients.
- How reflection helps Dan function in a more healthy way.
- A breakdown of how Dan prioritizes daily and weekly 'Big Three' tasks.
- The most important elements of weekly reflection.
- How to create space for focused, deep work.
- What an ideal week for Dan's company looks like.
Forge Financial Management Consulting
Dan Montgomery on LinkedIn
Dan Montgomery's Email
Connection BuildersAlex Drost LinkedIn
Branch Out Podcast LinkedIn
Connection Builders LinkedIn
11/01/22 • 36 min
Increase Revenue with Client Advisory Services (CAS) - Ed Warren
Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders
10/25/22 • 33 min
Building a Client Advisory Services (CAS) practice can be challenging, but when you identify the right business opportunities and apply a value-based pricing model, you'll not only increase your business revenue but reveal your true worth to your clients! Today's guest has identified seven tips for growing your CAS practice and is here to share his insights on growth opportunities for professional service providers. Join us in welcoming Ed Warren, an accomplished sales executive with over 25 years of professional services, sales, and marketing experience. Ed has worked in marketing, business development, and practice growth roles in Top 100 CPA firms, and today, we discuss the seven ways that practitioners can leverage a CAS model to shift the traditional service model, create a more value-added service, and function more like a fractional provider while driving increased revenue and building a more scalable practice.
Key Points From This Episode:
- Defining Client Advisory Services (CAS).
- Thinking about CAS like an on-call fractional CFO.
- Why finding and mastering your niche is critical for advisory success.
- How to leverage low-hanging fruit with existing clients.
- Benefits of thinking like a general manager, especially in an increasingly virtual world.
- The importance of systems in building a replicable model.
- Ed's tips for creating a sales and marketing plan.
- The value of being anticipatory.
- Your responsibility to understand hard trends if you want to become a thought leader.
- Recommended first steps on your CAS journey.
Edward Warren on LinkedIn
7 Tips to Increase Your Revenue with Client Advisory Services
Sage Intacct
The E-MythThe Anticipatory OrganizationConnection BuildersAlex Drost LinkedIn
Branch Out Podcast LinkedIn
Connection Builders LinkedIn
10/25/22 • 33 min
Drive Innovation with Curiosity & Discipline - Gary Thomson
Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders
10/18/22 • 44 min
Insatiable curiosity is often correlated with leadership and business success. But if it isn't combined with a healthy dose of strategy and discipline, it can have the opposite effect. With more than 35 years of experience in public accounting, Gary Thomson is a sought-after consultant and leadership development expert. His years of experience working in firm structures and as an entrepreneur make him well equipped to discuss what it takes to drive innovation and growth for yourself and your business.
Although every person and every situation is unique, Gary shares his thoughts on why curiosity and discipline are two essential keys to success and how you can cultivate these traits and use them to your advantage along your own career journey. For the technology geeks out there, we also go down a bit of an unplanned rabbit hole about the rapid pace of technological advancements today. Make sure to tune in today!
Key Points From This Episode:
- The biggest change that Gary has witnessed in his industry since his career began.
- Technological advancements that are taking place in the CPA world today.
- Why a high level of curiosity is correlated with great leadership.
- The downsides of too much curiosity amongst people within an organization.
- How taking breaks will benefit your business.
- The value in setting goals and being flexible in your approach to achieving them.
- Cultivating your curiosity within a corporate structure.
- A hypothetical example of implementing a cascading, organization-wide strategy.
- How boundaries promote creativity.
- How to foster creativity amongst your employees.
- A better way to think about sunk costs.
- Examples of indirect ROIs, and the value these hold.
Thomson Consulting
Gary Thomson on LinkedIn
True ProfessionalismExtreme OwnershipConnection BuildersAlex Drost LinkedIn
Branch Out Podcast LinkedIn
Connection Builders LinkedIn
10/18/22 • 44 min
Earn Confidence and Play The Long Game - Meahgan O'Grady Martin
Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders
10/11/22 • 36 min
Telling her story on the Podcast today is one of McGuireWoods' Women in Private Equity to Know, Meahgan O'Grady Martin. Meahgan is the Director of Business Development for Palladium Equity Partners and a chairwoman at the Association for Corporate Growth Women in Leadership committee. During our discussion, we unpack the process of enduring challenges to earn confidence, the power of building a network, and the perils of having a mindset of victimhood. Drawing on her own experience, Meaghan shares some powerful advice with listeners on how to grow from everything you experience and leverage your relationships to find success.
Key Points From This Episode:
- Meahgan's unique path to private equity and the unique skill set that helped her succeed.
- The learned and innate skill sets behind Meahgan's success.
- Distinguishing between confidence and arrogance.
- Meahgan's thoughts on victimhood and understanding that you have to work for confidence.
- Combatting victimhood with resilience and grit.
- Why self-pity is a waste of time and what you should do instead.
- Her belief in the power of looking fear in the face.
- Thinking of your career as a marathon to avoid analysis paralysis.
- Why there is always a way forward.
- The value of a network and where to find time to prioritize it.
- Why it is important to see your network as more than transactional.
- How even though she doesn't always have the answers, Meahgan knows she can figure them out.
- The reality that sometimes an opportunity is just more work in disguise.
- Leveraging the power of your network to solve problems.
- How time and maturity develop your perspective.
Meahgan O'Grady Martin on LinkedIn
Palladium Equity Partners
Connection BuildersAlex Drost LinkedIn
Branch Out Podcast LinkedIn
Connection Builders LinkedIn
10/11/22 • 36 min
Transform Your Leadership and Ignite Your Team - Dan Cremons
Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders
10/04/22 • 43 min
As a leader, your team's performance is your responsibility; if you take this responsibility seriously, you can transform your organization. Today's guest is Dan Cremons, former private equity investor and CEO and the bestselling author of The Blue Flame and Winning Moves. While writing his first book with the aim of helping leaders improve their approach to managing people, Dan had an epiphany that led him to change the trajectory of his career and become an entrepreneur. Dan is passionate about helping leaders bring out the best in their employees; he encourages conversations that revolve around figuring out what energizes people and where their strengths lie. Tune in today to hear about the fundamentals of building a thriving team.
Key Points From This Episode:
- Dan shares an overview of his journey from pre-med student to entrepreneur in the private equity space.
- An explanation of The Blue Flame concept that shares a name with Dan's first book.
- The life-changing realization that Dan came to while writing The Blue Flame.
- What Dan believes to be the fundamental responsibility of a leader.
- The self-serving element of servant leadership.
- A story that highlights how Dan's mindset has evolved since his first job of transforming a company.
- Why Dan once gave each of the managers on his team a mirror during a weekly meeting.
- Some of the most important lessons that Dan has learned through his journey as an entrepreneur.
- What a 'one-page plan' is and why it is such a valuable tool.
- Understanding the adversity quotient.
- The hiring model that involves giving big responsibilities to people early on in their careers.
- The motivation behind the creation of the Alpine CEO In-Training program and the results it has garnered.
- Three keys to building a thriving team.
Dan Cremons on LinkedIn
The Blue FlameWinning MovesConnection BuildersAlex Drost LinkedIn
Branch Out Podcast LinkedIn
Connection Builders LinkedIn
10/04/22 • 43 min
Building Credibility to Facilitate Authentic Connections - George Sirignano
Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders
12/13/22 • 42 min
Building a strong network of professional connections ultimately comes down to the time and energy you are willing to invest in those relationships. Today’s guest understands this and has managed to build credibility by consistently looking for new ways to add value. George Sirignano is the Managing Partner of Old City Investment Partners, a firm that identifies high-quality alternative investment sponsors for a growing investor base of families and institutions. George manages Old City’s investing and capital placement businesses, including those of its SEC-registered broker-dealer, and acts as the firm’s general counsel.
In this episode, he offers insight into Old City’s broker-dealer platform and what sets them apart from other firms. We discuss the importance of advocating on behalf of your clients, prioritizing authentic interactions without distraction, and being open to mentors who might not be the obvious choice, plus so much more! You could say that collaboration, credibility, and curiosity are the three C’s of George’s unique approach to facilitating engagement between broker-dealers and building a network of meaningful relationships.
Key Points From This Episode:
- An introduction to George and the services that Old City offers.
- Insight into the process of raising capital for funds and private companies.
- A look at the expertise and network value that Old City provides.
- Why George says he isn’t engaged in “pure play investment banking.”
- The role that collaboration plays in differentiating the Old City approach.
- How George facilitates engagement across the broker-dealer platform.
- The significance of acting as a trusted intermediary.
- Conflicts that can come up, and the credibility needed to resolve them.
- The huge impact that perception can have, regardless of the facts.
- Why confidence is key in any sales business.
- How Old City has evolved and why they set up the broker-dealer platform.
- What George enjoys about advocating on behalf of his clients.
- The importance of consistently working on your relationships.
- Benefits of helping investors in different areas of their careers and lives.
- George’s advice for building a network of meaningful relationships.
- What it means to be open to “conscious serendipity.”
George Sirignano on LinkedIn
Old City Investment Partners
Connection BuildersAlex Drost LinkedIn
Branch Out Podcast LinkedIn
Connection Builders LinkedIn
12/13/22 • 42 min
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FAQ
How many episodes does Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders have?
Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders currently has 113 episodes available.
What topics does Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders cover?
The podcast is about Professional, Development, Growth, Podcasts, Business, Networking and Careers.
What is the most popular episode on Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders?
The episode title 'Ask Questions to Uncover Opportunity - Gary Braun' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders?
The average episode length on Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders is 37 minutes.
How often are episodes of Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders released?
Episodes of Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders?
The first episode of Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders was released on May 21, 2020.
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