Big Talk About Small Business

Hosted by Big Talk About Small Business

Business Entrepreneurship

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Episodes

154

Latest episode

Aug 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

Hosted by Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Our Mission is to inspire, empower, and equip entrepreneurs with the knowledge and insights they need to succeed in their ventures. Through engaging conversations with industry experts, seasoned entrepreneurs, and thought leaders, we aim to provide valuable strategies, actionable advice, and real-world experiences that will enable our listeners to navigate the challenges, seize the opportunities, and build thriving businesses.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

August 19, 2026Episode 1501 hr 3 min

Radical Responsibility: Ignoring Guru Advice to Scale with Jerry Brazie

Entitlement is a quiet business killer. When comfort replaces the drive to survive, companies stall and founders fail. Today, we sit down with Jerry Brazie, a serial entrepreneur who leveraged a relentless, street-survival mindset to generate nearly half a billion dollars in revenue across dozens of companies. We get into the daily reality of scaling businesses in the trenches. The conversation covers the necessity of working in and on your business simultaneously, managing cash flow turns versus vanity revenue, and why listening to stylized advice from internet gurus will sink your operation. Jerry shares a unique philosophy rooted in his survivalist background: a caveman-like purpose driven purely by feeding his family and a total refusal to delegate the dirty work until he has mastered it himself. Building an organization takes a heavy toll that rarely makes it to social media feeds. We break down the exhaustion of working eight straight days on no sleep, the stress of facing a massive payroll with an empty bank account, and the isolation that comes with leading a growing team. You will walk away with a harsh but necessary mindset shift about taking complete ownership of your failures and learning to function comfortably inside constant discomfort. If you care about raw operational strategy, radical responsibility, and mastering the daily grind, you’ll get a lot from this. Please remember to Subscribe and Share this episode with another founder who needs to hear it. What is the most painful mistake you’ve had to take complete ownership of in your business? Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business! Stay Connected: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtalk.pod/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564547079280 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-talk-about-small-business TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtalkpod https://www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com/

August 12, 2026Episode 14942 min

Unlearning Trust: The Hard Lessons of Scaling | Featuring Host Eric Howerton

Passivity, complacency, and the illusion of comfort will quietly destroy your company. Right now, social media is selling a sanitized, glamorous version of the founder lifestyle that leaves real leaders entirely unprepared for the actual fight of keeping a business alive. This week we flip the script and interview our very own, Eric Howerton, CEO of podcastvideos.com and co-founder of Adfury AI. He flips the script on the startup narrative and brings a relentless, frontline perspective on what it actually takes to build a brand from the ground up. We get into the gritty mechanics of true entrepreneurship and why the title of "founder" has lost its weight in the modern era of passive investing. The conversation covers navigating the constant threats of an evolving market, the fundamental difference between building a business and simply funding one, and why relying on the fractional solopreneur mentality can fracture your company's foundation. Eric also shares his realization that the true secret formula to overcoming catastrophic business failures isn't a higher IQ, but a massive capacity for emotional intelligence. Building a company is often a dark, grueling process that demands everything you have. We dig into the heavy reality of financing a business on personal credit cards to buy groceries, going months without a paycheck, and carrying the crushing weight of keeping a team employed when resources are completely tapped out. You will walk away with a blunt understanding of the resilience required to survive the daily betrayals of business and a completely shifted mindset on what it means to be a genuine leader in a highly skeptical market. If you care about building real resilience, stripping away corporate vanity titles, and leading with radical authenticity, you’ll get a lot from this. Make sure to subscribe to the channel and share this episode with someone who is currently in the trenches building their own business. What is the hardest lesson you've had to actively unlearn on your professional journey? Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business! Stay Connected: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtalk.pod/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564547079280 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-talk-about-small-business TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtalkpod https://www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com/

August 5, 2026Episode 1481 hr 1 min

LLC vs Corp: The Costly Setup Mistakes Founders Make with ScherriePrince

Working in silos is a massive profit leak that leaves your business exposed to disaster. Relying on disconnected CPAs, tax preparers, and generic legal forms is a fast track to losing everything you have built when life throws an unexpected curveball. We sit down with attorney Scherrie Prince, who specializes in helping entrepreneurs merge their estate plans with their business plans to put a protective moat around their hard-earned assets. We get into the specific mechanics of entity structures, including why defaulting to an LLC is not always the right move and how CC-Corps can leverage accountable plans for better tax strategy. The conversation breaks down the critical difference between tax preparation and tax planning, the hidden dangers of ignoring outdated beneficiary designations, and the strategic advantage of executing conflict waivers. Scherrie’s core philosophy revolves around acting as the quarterback for your money team, ensuring your advisors actually talk to each other instead of just talking to you. The reality of entrepreneurship involves navigating the brutal consequences of divorces, unexpected deaths, and predatory lawsuits that can sink an improperly structured company overnight. Setting up a trust-centered estate plan and properly bifurcating assets takes time, money, and uncomfortable conversations about worst-case scenarios that most founders prefer to avoid. You will walk away from this discussion with a clear understanding of why your personal and business liabilities must be separated, and how to start building a unified team of advisors that actively protects your blind spots. If you care about asset protection, tax optimization, and building a resilient business foundation, you’ll get a lot from this. Please take a moment to subscribe to the channel and share this episode with a fellow founder who needs to get their legal house in order. What is the biggest gap in your current business structure that you are ready to finally fix? Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business! Stay Connected: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtalk.pod/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564547079280 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-talk-about-small-business TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtalkpod https://www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com/

July 29, 2026Episode 14749 min

Ignore the Mirage: The True Cost of Entrepreneurship

Unrealistic expectations are quietly eroding the drive of modern business owners and their teams. In a culture obsessed with immediate gratification and flawless work-life balance, the instinct to simply survive and grind has been completely buried by social media highlight reels. Mark and Eric use this episode to strip away the pop-culture mirage of entrepreneurship and break down exactly why feeling overwhelmed isn't a sign of failure, but a mandatory part of the job. We get into the mechanics of the "mashed potato mindset" and how looking backward to the primal urge for daily survival can actually cure your modern business anxiety. The conversation covers the dangers of pop-culture pollution, the myth of the five o'clock cutoff, and the corrosive effect that passive media consumption has on your internal customer. The core realization requires a distinct shift in perspective: acknowledging that the daily barrage of problems isn't a distraction from your job, but rather the actual job itself. Building a company means taking financial hits, sacrificing personal comfort, and occasionally feeling completely isolated from the rest of the nine-to-five world. We lay out the heavy toll this path takes on mental health and explain why keeping cancerous negativity out of your ranks requires swift, often uncomfortable leadership decisions. You will walk away with a grounded framework for self-correction, a strategy for curating your daily inputs, and a clear understanding of why enduring the struggle is the only way to earn the right to lead. If you care about protecting your company culture, managing founder anxiety, and building an organization rooted in actual purpose, you’ll get a lot from this. Please remember to Subscribe to the channel and Share this episode with a fellow business owner who is currently in the trenches. What is the most toxic pop-culture myth about work that you see impacting your industry today? Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business! Stay Connected: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtalk.pod/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564547079280 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-talk-about-small-business TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtalkpod https://www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com/

July 22, 2026Episode 14656 min

Invest to Scale: Surviving the Ad Overload with Devon MacDonald

Cutting marketing first when cash is tight guarantees your business will fail to scale. In an era where consumers are bombarded by thousands of digital messages daily, treating advertising as an optional expense is a fast track to irrelevance. Devin MacDonald, President of Cairns ONeil media agency, joins us to unpack exactly how founders can allocate capital to break through the noise and scale responsibly. We get into the specific mechanics of budgeting for the growth gap rather than just sustaining your baseline revenue. The conversation covers the friction between multi-touch attribution and the mystery of brand awareness, emphasizing why strictly chasing short-term performance clicks is a trap that ultimately shrinks your market share. Devin shares his core philosophy that marketing is simply gas on a fire, and without acknowledging the emotional psychology of the buyer, even the most data-driven campaigns will inevitably burn out. Scaling a brand requires sacrifice, whether that means taking a temporary compensation deduction or accepting tighter initial margins to adequately fund your media spend. We discuss the hard reality that a $25,000 monthly ad budget barely moves the needle for national digital campaigns, forcing founders to make difficult choices about hyper-localizing their focus. You will walk away with a clear framework for defining your growth targets and a stark warning about forcing traditional creative onto platforms like TikTok without understanding their native culture. If you care about structuring sustainable growth metrics, navigating agency specializations, and moving beyond basic word-of-mouth referrals, you’ll get a lot from this conversation. Please subscribe to the channel and share this episode with a founder who needs a reality check on their marketing strategy. What is the hardest expense you have had to justify when aggressively trying to grow your business? Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business! Stay Connected: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtalk.pod/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564547079280 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-talk-about-small-business TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtalkpod https://www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com/

July 15, 2026Episode 14535 min

Survival Comes First: Flipping the Script on Business

The absolute priority for any business has to be basic survival before achieving a lofty vision. Right now, founders are drowning in complex growth strategies while neglecting the foundational habits that actually keep the lights on and the doors open. In a special turn of events, Jeremiah "Baang" Pickett steps in to flip the script and interview Mark Zweig about his decades of experience building companies, managing high-risk investments, and serving on multiple corporate boards. We get into the raw mechanics of staying afloat and building lasting operations from the ground up. The conversation unpacks the strategic advantage of choosing industry expertise over discipline expertise, the hidden potential in simple service businesses, and the undeniable return of consistently returning phone calls and emails. Mark also shares his core philosophy on tackling your most dreaded daily task first and why treating your reputation as your most valuable asset is the bedrock of long-term success. Building a diverse portfolio takes a heavy personal toll that rarely gets discussed in traditional business circles. We explore the difficult burdens of maintaining significant personal overhead, navigating complex family crises, and the sobering reality of getting fired when you have a young family counting on you. You will walk away with a grounded perspective on why speed of response matters more than a flawless business plan and how to systematically manage entrepreneurial risk without blindly rolling the dice. If you care about building resilient operations, managing entrepreneurial risk, and mastering the fundamentals of business survival, you’ll get a lot from this. Please subscribe to the channel and share this conversation with a fellow founder who could use a straightforward reality check. What is the one difficult task on your desk right now that you need to tackle first thing tomorrow? Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business! Stay Connected: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtalk.pod/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564547079280 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-talk-about-small-business TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtalkpod https://www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com/

July 8, 2026Episode 1441 hr 0 min

Stop Endless Planning: Start Sweating Now with Mason Edwards

Endlessly fantasizing about business success over coffee won't get you anywhere. The modern service industry rewards action and execution over perfect business plans and venture capital pitch decks. We sit down with Mason Edwards, founder of Edwards Gutter Cleaning, who bootstrapped a side hustle in college into a thriving home services operation. We get into the raw mechanics of scaling a blue-collar business and successfully moving the owner out of the truck. The conversation covers the grueling process of transitioning to monthly recurring revenue, building comprehensive home maintenance plans, and streamlining operations with over-the-phone quoting. Mason’s defining approach centers on leveraging a narrow, low-competition entry point like gutter cleaning to build trust and effortlessly upsell window washing and power washing services. Building a localized trade empire requires eating the cost of bad estimates on the chin and navigating the absolute nightmare of software integrations. You will walk away from this discussion understanding why you must empower your field technicians to make immediate customer service decisions and why funding growth through actual customer revenue always beats diluting your ownership for outside money. If you care about home service models, bootstrapping strategies, and operational scalability, you’ll get a lot from this. Please subscribe and share the show to help us reach more active business builders. What is the biggest operational bottleneck you are currently facing in your daily workflow? Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business! Stay Connected: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtalk.pod/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564547079280 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-talk-about-small-business TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtalkpod https://www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com/

July 1, 2026Episode 14354 min

Speed to Market: Prototyping Physical Goods Fast with Garrett Peters

Entrepreneurship is a war zone, and isolation is the fastest way to become a casualty. As digital channels blur together and third-party knockoffs flood the market, relying entirely on borrowed audiences is a massive vulnerability for modern brands. Garrett Peters, co-founder of Duncan & Stone Paper Co., joins the show to unpack the mechanics of scaling an online physical goods brand while retaining complete ownership of the customer relationship. We sit down to examine the shifting landscape of digital commerce and the reality of platform erosion. Garrett outlines the tension between Amazon acquisition and DTC margin, the complexities of managing retention marketing flows, and how his team is accelerating physical product design to capture fleeting market trends. The core philosophy here is simple but demanding: success isn't about finding one tactical silver bullet, but rather turning on the entire e-commerce flywheel and refusing to over-complicate your distribution before you're ready. The actual execution of these systems takes a heavy toll on founders, demanding a constant evolution of self-awareness. We dig into the operational fatigue of managing multiple storefronts and the creeping realization that the person who started the company might not be the right executive to scale it. You will walk away from this conversation with a clear framework for auditing your own bandwidth, evaluating when to say no to new marketplaces, and managing the psychological friction that comes with business growth. If you care about direct-to-consumer strategies, omnichannel brand building, and the psychological realities of leadership, you’ll get a lot from this. Please make sure to subscribe to the channel and share this episode with another founder who is in the trenches. What is the hardest part of stepping out of the daily operations to actually act as the CEO of your business? Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business! Stay Connected: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtalk.pod/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564547079280 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-talk-about-small-business TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtalkpod https://www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com/

June 24, 2026Episode 1421 hr 1 min

Engineering Efficiency: Redesigning Workflows for Growth with Matt Lewis

Hitting a production ceiling in your business isn't a lack of effort; it is a lack of altitude. Navigating the brutal transition from daily tactical operations to high-level strategic planning is the only way to break through plateaus and scale a company sustainably. Matt Lewis of Lewis Automotive Group, breaks down exactly how he restructured operations and empowered leadership to build a highly efficient, 300-employee enterprise. We get into the exact mechanics of process engineering, from redesigning physical dealership infrastructure to optimize 4,000 monthly repair orders, to building workflow efficiencies that rival dedicated quick-lube chains. Matt unpacks the critical timing of immersing yourself in the weeds versus getting above the storms to call the right audibles for your team. The real turning point arrives when leaders finally accept the delegation multiplication formula, realizing that a team executing at a fraction of your perfectionism ultimately multiplies your total overall output. The transition from the initial startup hustle to an established, mature enterprise is heavily demanding and requires checking your ego at the door when early strategies inevitably fracture. We look closely at the heavy friction of handing over the reins, the mental drain of chronic frustration when standards aren't met perfectly, and the harsh realities of de-escalating highly explosive customer disputes. You will walk away with a tactical framework for active listening and a "drain the swamp" conflict resolution method that directly converts your angriest critics into your fiercest brand advocates. If you care about process optimization, scalable leadership, and building bulletproof operational efficiency, you’ll get a lot from this. Please Subscribe to the channel and Share this conversation with a fellow founder who needs to step back and look at the big picture. What is the most difficult daily task you know you need to finally hand off to your team but haven't yet? Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business! Stay Connected: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtalk.pod/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564547079280 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-talk-about-small-business TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtalkpod https://www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com/

June 17, 2026Episode 14156 min

Owner Dependency: The Exit Killer with Renee Russo

Selling a business shouldn't cost you your identity. With shifting markets pushing more founders to step away, preparing for the sale is just as critical as preparing for the day after the money clears. Business coach and exit planning expert Renee Russo joins the show to unpack the operational and psychological hurdles of preparing a firm for an acquisition. We get into the mechanics of making a business portable, the danger of owner dependency in the sales function, and the structural limitations of the seller-doer method. We sit down to explore why only 30% of companies that go to market actually close, and how to spot the readiness illusion before it ruins a deal. Renee shares her realization that the real value of exit planning isn't securing a payout, but preserving your ability to live life by design after the transaction is complete. Walking away from a company you built from the ground up often triggers a severe transition gap. Founders frequently face isolation, regret, and a total loss of purpose when they lose their wartime CEO status. You will walk away from this conversation with a clear framework for establishing a personal life plan, identifying your actual wealth gap, and learning how to step out of the daily grind without falling apart. If you care about building a transferable business, navigating post-exit identity, and the practical application of execution systems like EOS, you’ll get a lot from this. Please take a second to subscribe and share this episode with a fellow business owner who needs to hear it. What is the primary operational dependency you need to break before you can step away from your firm? Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business! Stay Connected: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtalk.pod/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564547079280 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-talk-about-small-business TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtalkpod https://www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com/