Exploring sales strategies in various contexts, evolving and adapting through tactical approaches, innovating with playfulness and creativity to outshine competitors, engaging stakeholders like partners, and utilizing pre-meeting intelligence for strategic conversations.

Exploring the challenges of unintentionally hybrid teams, the podcast dives into remedies for identity friction, the need for early action, and dispelling myths. Topics include transitioning to hybrid/distributed teams post-COVID, navigating frustration and self-reflection, revitalizing workspaces, aligning work preferences, fostering value in hybrid environments, and embracing vulnerability in business.

Building out from Richard's Extreme Agency Playbook we dive into the issue of co-located and distributed teams. More accurately we really dig into the current state of many teams: Unintentionally Hybrid. COVID created an industry of unintentionally hybrid teams and we're only starting to deal with the aftermath. While enterprises are forcing a Return To Office policy agency owners can't convince, beg, or bribe staff to come back into the office. The moral of the story is in-person interaction is worth fighting for. You may need to manufacture it more deliberately if you're a distributed team, but the value remains irreplaceable. How can your remote team draw on the benefits of in-person interactions? What experiments can we conduct to test the viability of different team structures? What is the underlying danger teams that were once co-located, but now distributed need to be scared of? Let's do it.

How to run an agency? Richard has notes. Colocation over distributed. 12 year strategies. Apprenticeships. No bonuses, no profit share, no exits. Suburban campuses over city offices. This episode packs a lot of heat. We're kicking off a miniseries within the podcast this week. Over the next few weeks Richard will share his playbook for the ideal agency, and how teams can make incremental progress towards his optimal state. This week we're starting with the optimal, no-constraints, 10/10 agency playbook to have an idea our conversations are aimed at. Over the next few weeks we'll explore ways to map towards this optimal agency, but it starts here with Team, Business Models, and Incentives.

Richard meets his new best friend Jay Fanelli in this episode of You Can't Lose! Jay is an agency owner, e-commerce company owner, and enterprise design leader with a unique perspective on how teams and businesses grow and evolve. A self described "vibes" over "numbers" manager, the vibes are strong in this episode with Jay this week. What was it like living through 2021's most successful IPO to date? What did Jay learn along the way? Design leadership with a splash of F1 talk? Let's go!

This week Richard and Joe focus on the conscious and unconscious decisions that shape work culture. Why does your team use Slack? Why not Discord? Whatever happened to Campfire? How about Figma, and Notion, and Basecamp, and Google docs, and where was that question someone asked you? Was it in Slack Thread? Good lord then it might be lost to antiquity for all time. Intentionality is one of the central themes of the podcast and today we go deep into the choices we make, and don't make, and how they define the shape and texture of things. Like Richard's upper lip.

This podcast episode features Jon Lax discussing his experience at Facebook, the inner workings of Meta spatial computing team, Teehan+Lax acquisition, value-based pricing, the unexpected success of iOS sticker sheet, career transitions in design studios, and embracing uncertainty in seeking inspiration for new ventures.

Dan Ostrower from 3rd Horizon discusses the value of insider/outsider perspectives in client services. Topics include sales leadership, innovation levels, and designing 3 party agreements. The podcast explores team chemistry, client relationships, and balancing personal values in professional services.

Artist Tracey Halvorsen shares insights on how relationships influence client engagements. They play a guessing game on client budgets. The conversation delves into the dynamics of client services and the importance of nurturing relationships in business. Richard drops a 'fack'. It's a mix of laughter, tears, and deep life discussions.

Richard and Joe discuss meaningful connections, reject the idea of scaling, and advocate for intentional solutions. They navigate in-person events post-COVID and highlight the efficiency of email communication. The podcast explores guest dynamics, dark patterns on LinkedIn, and the transition to in-person events. Additionally, it delves into balancing work and personal care, EOS in business operations, and embracing simplicity and core principles.