Curious Business: Insights for B2B Growth

Chris Brogan's Secret Weapons

Nov 5, 2025

Chris Brogan, a ten-time author and strategic advisor, shares his candid insights on leadership and growth. He discusses the importance of embracing failure and how it can lead to a more adaptable organization. Chris reveals lessons learned from helping scale a B2B SaaS company and explores the need for continual learning, including his journey into coding. He offers valuable cold email marketing tips and highlights the traits that define great leaders. With a touch of humor, he reflects on how companies can retain their flexibility amidst rapid growth.

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ADVICE

Start With Humanity, Not Titles

Lead with your humanity, not just a corporate title, to build relationships at a distance.
Put the human part first when using web tools to create authentic connections.

ADVICE

Keep Executives Focused On Vision

Gatekeep escalations and help executives solve problems without pulling them into day-to-day issues.
Keep the CEO focused on vision by fixing messy conflicts and clarifying muddy decisions.

ADVICE

Find The AI Human Skill Slider

Balance AI usage: avoid doing everything for you, but don't ignore powerful tools that increase productivity.
Find a middle ground where human skill plus AI tooling produces superior outcomes.

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Chris Brogan shares some brutally honest insights about leadership, growth and being helpful. He's a self-proclaimed expert at failing, but what does that mean? And how can leaders learn from it to keep their organisations flexible and effective even as they grow at speed?

Ten-time author, executive coach, strategic advisor, writer, photographer and co-host of the internet’s Backpack Show and Playing For Time, Chris is a master communicator. As Chief of Staff at Appfire, he most recently helped steer the B2B SaaS company from $10m to $275m of ARR (annually recurring revenue). Despite this, he claims he's never been ‘capable or qualified’ for anything he's done professionally.

This is a conversation packed with wisdom, experience and smart thinking. And a very dry reference to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers that went right over my head at the time. Listen to discover:

what Chris thinks is crucial about failure and failing,
the traits that make for great (and not so great) leaders,
why companies lose their elasticity as they grow - and what you can do about it,
what he wants to do for the rest of his life,
why he’s learning to code,
some excellent tips for cold email marketing, and
the philosophical lessons we should take from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

Connect with Chris on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cbrogan/

Sign-up for his newsletter:
https://chrisbrogan.com/#newsletter

Check out that Anthony Kiedis/Red Hot Chilli Peppers reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DyziWtkfBw

Due credit goes to The Adaptavist Group's Jari Worsley for the story about his dad training spreadsheet users back in the day. Read more here:
https://bit.ly/4onTjXJ