Small Business Stories

Hosted by Loralyn Mears, PhD

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Oct 2026

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Welcome to Small Business Stories, the podcast where we celebrate the real-life journeys of small business owners. We dig into inspiring tales of triumphs, challenges, and the tough lessons we learned along the way. Each episode is packed with relatable anecdotes and practical tips that you can use to fuel your own entrepreneurial dreams. Whether you're just starting out or looking to grow your business, you'll find motivation and insight in every story. Tune in and get ready to be inspired by the heart and hustle of small business owners just like you! We say it like it is - no filters. Being an SMB owner isn't easy, but we're compelled to do it.

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October 26, 2026Episode 8925 min

How to Invest in Rental Properties Without Being a Landlord featuring Melissa Nash

S6:E89 "Passive income" may be one of the most misunderstood phrases in entrepreneurship. It can conjure images of money arriving without work, risk, systems, expertise, or responsibility. Melissa Nash sees it differently. The founder of Passively Rich with Rentals joins Dr. LL for a grounded conversation about long-term rental real estate, what "passive" actually requires, why she invests outside her home market, and the assumptions that prevent people from considering opportunities that may look very different once properly examined. If people don't trust the opportunity, they won't investigate it. If they don't trust the people or systems surrounding it, they won't act. But if the reason for saying no is based on an assumption rather than evidence, they may be making a decision about something they never actually understood. Loralyn Mears, PhD, aka "Dr. LL ," brings you thoughtful conversations with entrepreneurs and small business leaders navigating visibility, leadership, and growth. Thank you for being here. 👤 Guest Melissa Nash Founder, Passively Rich with Rentals Long-term rental real estate investing and investor education ⚠️ Core Problems Discussed • Why "passive income" doesn't mean no work is required to build the system • The difference between active real-estate investing and owning professionally managed rentals • Why investors can become trapped by assumptions about their local market • Trusting people and systems when the asset is hundreds or thousands of miles away • Distinguishing emotional barriers from actual financial barriers • Understanding tenant, vacancy, maintenance, and property-management risks • Why starting later doesn't automatically mean starting too late 🥡 Practical Takeaways • Passive systems generally require active setup. • Don't assume your local real-estate market defines the opportunities available elsewhere. • Inspections, appraisals, contracts, and professional management serve different risk-management functions. • Ask prospective property managers operational questions not merely what they charge. • Risk doesn't disappear because an investment is professionally managed; reserves and realistic expectations still matter. • Long-term buy-and-hold investing is fundamentally different from seeking a quick return. • Before accepting "I can't do this," determine whether the constraint is factual or assumed. ⏱️ Timestamps 01:02 Who can actually invest in rental property? 03:27 The truth about "passive" income 05:45 Escaping the time-for-money trap 08:10 Investing thousands of miles away and trusting the system 09:13 Due diligence, inspections, and walking away 11:18 How to evaluate a property manager 12:27 Fear versus financial barriers 13:33 Why people don't know these options exist 15:23 Tenant risk and preparing for vacancies 17:38 Researching landlord-friendly markets 19:08 Why one rental isn't a get-rich strategy 20:16 Is it too late to start? 23:09 Why this is a long-term play 🔖 Who This Episode Is For Entrepreneurs and professionals interested in building additional income streams but unwilling (or unable) to create another full-time job for themselves. At STEERus, Constraint Assumption is one way misinterpretation risk enters decision-making before we even recognize it. Sometimes the signal telling us "this isn't possible for me" isn't coming from the opportunity at all. It's coming from our interpretation of what the opportunity requires. Subscribe and share Small Business Stories for grounded conversations about entrepreneurship, visibility, leadership, trust, and the decisions that shape small businesses. ✅ Subscribe for weekly conversations on entrepreneurship 🔁 Share this episode with someone who needs to be heard Follow STEERus on social media: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrLLSmallBusiness Instagram: https://instagram.com/steerus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/steerus Twitter: https://x.com/steerus_io #entrepreneurship #smallbusiness #podcast #passiveincome #realestate

October 17, 2026Episode 8833 min

How to Be a Better Leader by Listening More & Leading With Heart Featuring Payman Lorenzo

S6:E88 After nearly 450 conversations on his Leaders With a Heart podcast, Payman Lorenzo has heard extraordinary stories of leadership, adversity, failure, resilience, and reinvention. But one of his most important lessons is surprisingly basic: Listen. Really listen. Queue up this episode of Small Business Stories for a deeply human conversation about leadership, boundaries, assumptions, patience, setbacks, and why making another person feel seen and heard may be one of the most consequential things a leader can do. If people don't trust that you're listening, they stop telling you what you need to hear. If we assign motives before understanding someone's circumstances, we may react to an intention that never existed. And if leadership is built around our interpretation rather than another person's actual experience, even good intentions can produce the wrong impact. Loralyn Mears, PhD, aka "Dr. LL ," brings you thoughtful conversations with entrepreneurs and small business leaders navigating visibility, leadership, and growth. Thank you for being here. 👤 Guest Payman Lorenzo Host, Leaders With a Heart Leadership, podcasting, human connection, and entrepreneurship ⚠️ Core Problems Discussed • Listening to respond rather than listening to understand • Assuming intent from incomplete information • Confusing kindness with an obligation to say yes • Allowing poor boundaries to create exhaustion and resentment • Trying to force someone else's growth before they're ready • Interpreting setbacks only through "Why me?" rather than asking what can be learned • Losing sight of the human being while pursuing the business outcome 🥡 Practical Takeaways • Genuine listening makes people feel seen and heard. • Service becomes more sustainable when helping another person succeed also creates mutual value. • Boundaries protect your ability to continue helping others. • A "no" delivered with respect can be more constructive than a resentful "yes." • Before reacting to someone's behavior, question the meaning you've assigned to it. • You can't force someone to change before they're ready. • Asking "What is this trying to teach me?" can change how we interpret difficult experiences. Payman describes that shift as life-changing. ⏱️ Timestamps 02:05 Why connection and trust changed Payman's life 06:04 "I'm a collector of success stories" 08:17 What genuine leaders do differently 11:21 Leading with heart doesn't mean always being nice 13:47 Why Payman stopped giving everything away for free 14:38 When saying yes to everyone means saying no to yourself 17:07 The dirty-dishes lesson that taught Payman boundaries 19:37 Perceived intent versus what someone actually means 20:10 The question Payman says changed his life 21:43 Failure, depression, and how podcasting helped him rebuild 26:02 What happens when good intentions have the wrong impact? 28:12 A leader with heart is someone who listens 🔖 Who This Episode Is For Founders, managers, entrepreneurs, and leaders trying to navigate difficult relationships without losing empathy, boundaries, or themselves in the process. At STEERus, we see Assumption Filling as a recurring source of misinterpretation risk. When information is incomplete, human beings naturally construct meaning from what they can see and then may make decisions based on that interpretation as though it were fact. Subscribe and share Small Business Stories for grounded conversations about entrepreneurship, leadership, visibility, trust, and what it really takes to build something meaningful. ✅ Subscribe for weekly conversations on entrepreneurship 🔁 Share this episode with someone who needs to be heard Follow STEERus on social media: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrLLSmallBusiness Instagram: https://instagram.com/steerus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/steerus Twitter: https://x.com/steerus_io #entrepreneurship #smallbusiness #podcast #leadership

October 7, 2026Episode 8746 min

Why Higher Sales Aren't Fixing Your Cash Flow with Matan Bar CEO Xero US

S6:E87 Overall, small business sales are growing. So why do so many owners still feeling the squeeze? The answer is hiding underneath the headline. Matan Bar, CEO of Xero U.S ., joins Dr. LL to unpack what Xero's U.S. Small Business Insights data reveals when you look beyond one encouraging number: sales may be improving, but businesses are also contending with rising costs, longer waits for payment, geographic differences, and a financial picture that varies dramatically depending on what kind of business you actually operate. This isn't simply a conversation about accounting. It's about interpretation . If people don't trust the numbers, they can't confidently make decisions from them. If a headline accurately reports one measure while obscuring several others, the conclusion can still be wrong. And if AI can slice, summarize, and visualize enormous amounts of data, the ability to understand what that information actually means becomes more important, not less. Loralyn Mears, PhD, aka "Dr. LL ," brings you thoughtful conversations with entrepreneurs and small business leaders navigating visibility, leadership, and growth. Thank you for being here. 👤 Guest Matan Bar CEO , Xero U.S. Small business technology, payments, financial operations, and AI ⚠️ Core Problems Discussed • Why improving sales don't necessarily indicate improving business health • Longer payment cycles and the pressure they create on small-business cash flow • The tension between businesses wanting to get paid quickly while preserving their own cash as long as possible • How outdated payment systems add unnecessary friction • Why national averages obscure substantial geographic and industry differences • Whether AI will widen the productivity gap between large and small businesses • The risk of having more data without correctly interpreting what it means 🥡 Practical Takeaways • Business health requires looking beyond sales to cash flow, costs, payment timing, and the circumstances of the individual business. • Faster payment technology can benefit both sides by allowing payers to hold cash longer while still delivering payment on time. • Geographic differences may reflect the industry mix and business characteristics inside each region rather than geography alone. • Small businesses may adopt AI differently from enterprises because limited budgets force them to focus on demonstrated value. • Matan believes AI ultimately has the potential to give small businesses capabilities once reserved for much larger companies. • Better dashboards don't automatically produce better decisions; interpretation remains essential. • For financial decisions where accuracy matters enormously, Matan argues for keeping knowledgeable humans in the loop. ⏱️ Timestamps 02:25 The encouraging small-business headline and what it misses 05:02 Are small businesses actually underperforming? 07:48 New businesses, AI, and changing economic averages 11:49 Why businesses are waiting longer to get paid 14:10 The overlooked problem of non-payment 17:20 Are generous payment terms hurting small businesses? 23:27 Why faster payments can actually mean holding cash longer 24:19 State-by-state differences hidden inside national averages 29:14 Could AI create a productivity divide? 30:15 Why Matan thinks AI will level the playing field 34:41 Dr. LL introduces misinterpretation risk 36:11 Matan on "accountable intelligence" and human judgment 39:09 What Matan wishes every small business owner knew 🔖 Who This Episode Is For Small business owners, entrepreneurs, advisors, accountants, and leaders trying to make sense of what economic headlines, financial data, and AI actually mean for the decisions they need to make. At STEERus, Data Distortion is one expression of misinterpretation risk: information can be factually correct while the conclusion drawn from it is incomplete or wrong. Increasing the volume of information doesn't solve that problem; businesses need clearer signals and better interpretation. Subscribe and share Small Business Stories for grounded conversations about entrepreneurship, visibility, leadership, AI, and what business owners are actually experiencing behind the headlines. ✅ Subscribe for weekly conversations on entrepreneurship 🔁 Share this episode with someone who needs to be heard Follow STEERus on social media: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrLLSmallBusiness Instagram: https://instagram.com/steerus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/steerus Twitter: https://x.com/steerus_io #entrepreneurship #smallbusiness #podcast #CEO #cashflow #money #finance

October 2, 2026Episode 8632 min

How an Overlooked Service Business & Dirty Job Makes Money with Mark Regan

S6:E86 The businesses people overlook may be the ones worth examining. Especially those ew - yucky - services! Entrepreneurship culture gives enormous attention to innovation, technology, and businesses that sound impressive. Mark Regan built something very different: a recurring-revenue company around a simple problem many people do not want to solve themselves. In this episode of Small Business Stories , Mark and Dr. LL unpack what it actually takes to turn an unglamorous idea into a durable service business from pricing and route density to customer retention, franchising, and the unexpected challenge of getting AI to understand what kind of business you actually are. If people don't understand what you do, they may underestimate its value. If AI doesn't understand what you do, you may never surface when someone is looking for it. Loralyn Mears, PhD, aka "Dr. LL ," brings you thoughtful conversations with entrepreneurs and small business leaders navigating visibility, leadership, and growth. Thank you for being here. 👤 Guest Mark Regan Co-founder, Poop Away Service-business operations, recurring revenue, customer retention, and franchising ⚠️ Core Problems • Looking past viable businesses because they lack status or glamour • Mistaking revenue for profitability without understanding the operating math • Getting categorized incorrectly when a business crosses traditional industry boundaries 🥡 Practical Takeaways • Start with a problem people genuinely want solved. • Recurring revenue only works when the operating economics work. • Customer trust can become a competitive advantage even in a seemingly transactional service. • In the AI-search era, business categorization is becoming part of business strategy. ⏱️ Timestamps 03:15 — "Who would pay for that?" becomes a business 07:35 — The operating mistakes Mark wishes they had avoided 11:29 — Customer service as a retention strategy 21:16 — The operator mindset required for franchising 23:27 — Misinterpretation risk meets AI search 🔖 Who This Episode Is For Entrepreneurs searching for realistic business opportunities, service-business owners trying to build recurring revenue, and founders whose businesses do not fit comfortably inside one familiar category. At STEERus, we study what happens when the value is real, but the signals people and machines use to interpret that value are not clear enough. Subscribe to Small Business Stories for more real-world conversations about what it actually takes to build, operate, and sustain a business and share this episode with an entrepreneur who may be overlooking the opportunity right in front of them. ✅ Subscribe for weekly conversations on entrepreneurship 🔁 Share this episode with someone who needs to be heard Follow STEERus on social media: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrLLSmallBusiness Instagram: https://instagram.com/steerus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/steerus Twitter: https://x.com/steerus_io #entrepreneurship #smallbusiness #podcast #dogs

September 30, 2026Episode 8530 min

The Ripple Effect of Intentional Leadership with Lisa Even

S6:E85 People experience your leadership long before you make a formal leadership decision. It's in how you enter a room. How you react when you're stressed. Whether you acknowledge someone. The story you tell. The difficult interaction you choose not to pass along to the next person. Lisa Even calls it the ripple effect: everything we say and do creates one, whether we're consciously choosing it or not. In this episode, Lisa and Dr. LL explore intentional leadership, workplace culture, experimentation, small moments of human connection, and why impact doesn't have to be enormous to become meaningful. If people don't trust what version of you is going to walk into the room, they start preparing for you. If employees repeatedly experience something different from the leadership values an organization claims, those interactions become more credible than the words. And if we're unaware of the signals we're continually sending, other people are left to interpret them for themselves. Loralyn Mears, PhD, aka "Dr. LL ," brings you thoughtful conversations with entrepreneurs and small business leaders navigating visibility, leadership, and growth. Thank you for being here. 👤 Guest Lisa Even Founder, Lisa Even International Leadership, workplace culture, intentional impact, and keynote speaking ⚠️ Core Problems Discussed • How stress and chaos affect the energy leaders bring into interactions • Why employees remember small experiences that leaders may barely notice • The difficulty of influencing people when you may never see the downstream outcome • Leading different people as individuals rather than using one leadership approach for everyone • Perfectionism preventing leaders and entrepreneurs from testing new approaches • Passivity creating outcomes leaders never consciously chose • Assuming meaningful impact requires a grand gesture 🥡 Practical Takeaways • Everything you say and do creates a ripple, even when you never see where it travels. • Stories can make abstract leadership principles easier for people to remember and apply. • Small experiments give entrepreneurs permission to learn without needing perfection. • Different employees may require different questions, communication styles, and approaches. • Intentional leadership doesn't guarantee outcomes, but it makes those outcomes less accidental. • Small interactions can become disproportionately memorable. • Think of your energy like weather: people may already be preparing themselves for what you bring into the room. ⏱️ Timestamps 01:34 What "ripple effect" actually means 04:08 The coffee-shop encounter that illustrates how behavior travels 07:15 Choosing your impact even when you never see the result 09:32 How to gently interrupt someone's negative ripple 15:53 Why Lisa treats business like a laboratory 17:21 Different people require different leadership experiments 18:35 Intentional versus accidental leadership 19:56 What happens when leaders become passive about outcomes 23:24 Mr. Dale and the tiny interaction Lisa's family remembered 26:32 Lisa's "weather" experiment for leaders 🔖 Who This Episode Is For Leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, and business owners who want to create stronger relationships and healthier cultures without turning leadership into another overwhelming initiative. At STEERus, we see Accidental Signaling as a recurring source of misinterpretation risk. Organizations carefully manage what they intend to communicate, but trust is often formed through hundreds of smaller signals nobody thought to manage at all. Subscribe and share Small Business Stories for grounded conversations about entrepreneurship, leadership, visibility, trust, and building businesses people can understand. ✅ Subscribe for weekly conversations on entrepreneurship 🔁 Share this episode with someone who needs to be heard Follow STEERus on social media: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrLLSmallBusiness Instagram: https://instagram.com/steerus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/steerus Twitter: https://x.com/steerus_io #entrepreneurship #smallbusiness #podcast #leadership #personalbranding

September 26, 2026Episode 8439 min

How to Become an Expert in Your Field with Katrena Friel

S6:E84 It has never been easier to look like an expert. That may be precisely why genuine expertise matters more. AI can help produce polished content, sophisticated branding, books, social posts, and an increasingly convincing professional presence. But none of those things automatically demonstrate depth, judgment, experience, or the ability to create results. In this episode, Katrena Friel , founder of Becoming the Expert, joins Dr. LL to explore the increasingly important difference between being visible and being trusted. In my opinion, Katrena is AMAZING. She speaks her truth and knows her subject. If people don't trust the evidence behind your expertise, reach alone won't create authority. If your personal brand requires you to perform someone you're not, consistency eventually becomes exhausting. And if AI makes everyone sound increasingly polished, the messy, specific, deeply human evidence of real expertise may become even more important. Loralyn Mears, PhD, aka "Dr. LL ," brings you thoughtful conversations with entrepreneurs and small business leaders navigating visibility, leadership, and growth. Thank you for being here. 👤 Guest Katrena Friel Founder, Becoming the Expert Expert positioning, personal branding, business ecosystems, and entrepreneurship ⚠️ Core Problems Discussed • Mistaking influence or reach for genuine authority • Building audiences that don't translate into meaningful business • Using AI to create polished content without substantive expertise underneath it • Chasing automation and low-touch products when clients may want direct access to expertise • Becoming indistinguishable inside increasingly similar AI-generated content • Building multiple revenue streams that fragment rather than reinforce a core business • Performing a personal brand that doesn't feel authentic 🥡 Practical Takeaways • Authority is deeper than visibility; evidence and substance matter. • Social media can support due diligence without needing to become the entire business strategy. • A book can function as positioning even when it isn't primarily a revenue generator. • Multiple offers work better when they're expressions of one underlying philosophy. • Authenticity doesn't mean eliminating strategy; Katrena describes it as strategically "editing" distractions without becoming someone else. • AI can save enormous amounts of time without needing to replace the human voice or expertise itself. • Longevity comes from refining durable expertise rather than continually chasing the next shiny object. ⏱️ Timestamps 01:18 Influence versus authority 02:31 Visibility isn't the same as being trusted 04:45 "Cardboard cutouts" and performed expertise 07:15 Why Katrena believes high-touch expertise is returning 11:49 AI and Dr. LL's "sea of sameness" 15:05 Building multiple revenue streams from expertise 19:32 Personal branding without becoming a persona 25:10 Can we still trust content in an AI-generated world? 29:48 Seven revenue streams but one philosophy 32:34 Where authority building actually begins 🔖 Who This Episode Is For Experienced consultants, coaches, speakers, founders, and subject-matter experts trying to turn what they genuinely know into a clearer, more sustainable business. At STEERus, we see Authority Theater as an emerging misinterpretation risk: the digital signals associated with expertise are becoming easier to reproduce while the underlying substance remains much harder to manufacture. Visibility works best when the signals people and AI encounter accurately represent the expertise behind them. Subscribe and share Small Business Stories for thoughtful conversations about entrepreneurship, visibility, leadership, AI, and building businesses people can understand and trust. ✅ Subscribe for weekly conversations on entrepreneurship 🔁 Share this episode with someone who needs to be heard Follow STEERus on social media: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrLLSmallBusiness nstagram: https://instagram.com/steerus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/steerus Twitter: https://x.com/steerus_io #entrepreneurship #smallbusiness #podcast #AI #mentorship

September 23, 2026Episode 8326 min

Why Your Small Business Isn't Scaling with Joseph Shalaby

S6:E83 How do you know when persistence is serving the business? Or at what point does attachment to what you've built prevent you from seeing it clearly? Joseph Shalaby knows something about operating through uncertainty. As founder of eMortgage Capital, he has built within an industry shaped by economic cycles, regulation, changing consumer expectations, and a persistent trust problem. But this conversation goes well beyond mortgages. Joseph and Dr. LL explore what ownership means from buying a home to building a company and the responsibility that comes with both. They discuss financial literacy, entrepreneurship, faith, service, consistency, and one of the most uncomfortable questions an owner can confront: Is what I've built actually working? If people don't trust your industry, credentials alone may not change their perception. If owners don't trust—or confront—the evidence inside their own businesses, they can mistake persistence for progress. And when what we believe becomes stronger than what the evidence shows, misinterpretation can begin with us . Loralyn Mears, PhD, aka "Dr. LL ," brings you thoughtful conversations with entrepreneurs and small business leaders navigating visibility, leadership, and growth. Thank you for being here. 👤 Guest Joseph Shalaby Founder, eMortgage Capital Mortgage lending, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and business growth ⚠️ Core Problems Discussed • Homeownership feeling increasingly out of reach for many consumers • The long-standing trust and perception problem surrounding the mortgage industry • Entrepreneurs becoming emotionally attached to companies that may no longer support their goals • Scaling while facing regulatory, operational, and financial complexity • Building consistency when results and market conditions aren't predictable • Separating personal identity from objective business performance • Using faith and service as guiding principles through uncertainty 🥡 Practical Takeaways • Financial literacy can reveal options that assumptions hide. • Growth requires more than determination; infrastructure, resources, and repeatable systems matter. • Ask measurable questions: Are you profitable? Growing? Retaining talent? Creating value? • Past investment doesn't automatically justify continuing the same model. • Trust has to be rebuilt through evidence, particularly in industries carrying historical skepticism. • Consistency and adaptation aren't opposites. • Service can provide a durable organizing principle beyond short-term revenue. ⏱️ Timestamps 04:39 Financial literacy and the possibility of homeownership 06:11 Why Joseph sees ownership as more than an asset 10:52 Innovation and building for growth 13:14 Why the mortgage industry has a perception problem 15:39 Faith as Joseph's foundation through volatility 17:11 "I'm just a servant": Joseph's philosophy of service 18:35 The questions struggling owners need to confront 20:09 What Joseph wants his legacy to mean 21:41 Education as the first step toward changing financial trajectory 🔖 Who This Episode Is For Entrepreneurs navigating uncertainty, founders struggling to separate their identity from the company they've built, and business owners thinking seriously about what sustainable growth requires. At STEERus, we see Ownership Blind Spot as one way misinterpretation risk begins inside the business. When identity, history, and investment overpower contradictory evidence, the signals owners send outward can stop matching the reality customers, employees, partners, and increasingly AI encounter. Subscribe and share Small Business Stories for grounded conversations about entrepreneurship, visibility, leadership, AI, and the realities behind building something that lasts. ✅ Subscribe for weekly conversations on entrepreneurship 🔁 Share this episode with someone who needs to be heard Follow STEERus on social media: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrLLSmallBusiness Instagram: https://instagram.com/steerus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/steerus Twitter: https://x.com/steerus_io #entrepreneurship #smallbusiness #podcast #businessgrowth #scaling #finance

September 18, 2026Episode 8233 min

Why You're Wasting Money on Google Ads with Andy Janaitis

S6:E82 Better Data, Better Decisions with Andy Janaitis What if your advertising dashboard says you're succeeding but your bank account says otherwise? That's not necessarily a marketing problem. It may be an interpretation problem. Queue up this episode of Small Business Stories with Andy Janaitis, founder of PPC Pitbulls , for a grounded look at what increasingly automated advertising requires from small businesses: better data, clearer objectives, and enough human judgment to know whether the algorithm is optimizing the right thing. Andy began his career in data science, where he learned an enduring lesson: sophisticated models cannot rescue bad inputs. Today, he sees the same problem playing out inside Google Ads, Meta, CRMs, e-commerce platforms, and increasingly AI. A platform can report a conversion without that conversion becoming meaningful revenue. A business can optimize for cheap clicks and attract the lowest-quality traffic. Two systems can report different versions of the same result. And a founder can spend tens of thousands of dollars before realizing the metric everyone celebrated wasn't measuring what mattered. If people don't trust the numbers, they can't confidently act on them. If leadership misunderstands what a metric actually represents, better technology can accelerate the wrong decision. And if AI interprets an incomplete picture of the business, "mostly right" may still be wrong enough to make the right customer effectively invisible. Loralyn Mears, PhD, aka "Dr. LL, " brings you thoughtful conversations with entrepreneurs and small business leaders navigating visibility, leadership, and growth. Thank you for being here. 👤 Guest Andy Janaitis Founder, PPC Pitbulls Data scientist turned PPC strategist specializing in paid advertising performance ⚠️ Core Problems • Starting with an advertising tactic instead of a business objective • Optimizing for cheap traffic rather than valuable customers • Feeding automated systems incomplete or incorrect conversion signals • Trusting platform dashboards without examining what the numbers actually represent • Different systems producing conflicting versions of performance • Attribution becoming more complicated across AI search, organic search, social, and paid channels • DIY AI advertising removing too much human judgment from the process 🥡 Practical Takeaways • Start with the outcome: what does the business actually need the advertising to accomplish? • Cheap clicks aren't necessarily good clicks; algorithms optimize for what you ask them to optimize. • Validate what a "conversion" actually represents before treating it as success. • Establish one source of truth for the business outcome that matters. • Revenue and profit are not interchangeable measures of advertising success. • Omnichannel attribution is complicated, but small businesses don't need perfect modeling before they begin measuring. • Automation works best when strong data signals are paired with human oversight. • AI-generated understanding that is mostly correct can still miss the nuance that differentiates the right customer from the wrong one. ⏱️ Timestamps 01:10 Why "we need ads" is the wrong starting point 03:12 How PPC shifted from manual targeting to automation 04:51 When to trust the algorithm and when not to 07:13 Why advertising automation lives or dies on data 09:38 Rebuilding trust after businesses have been burned by agencies 13:24 Garbage in, garbage out: Andy's data-science lesson 16:07 Amplifying weak signals with more marketing 17:24 The metrics that actually matter 20:36 What's a realistic return on ad spend? 23:33 AI search, omnichannel discovery, and attribution 26:17 Why DIY AI still needs business strategy 29:09 The 20% AI gets wrong 🔖 Who This Episode Is For Founders and small business owners who want to understand whether their advertising is producing real business value rather than simply producing attractive dashboard metrics. At STEERus, we see False Signal Confidence as an increasingly consequential form of misinterpretation risk. A signal doesn't become trustworthy simply because it is measurable and once AI begins acting on a misunderstood signal, the error can become faster, cheaper, and easier to scale. Subscribe and share Small Business Stories for grounded conversations about entrepreneurship, visibility, leadership, AI, and making better business decisions. ✅ Subscribe for weekly conversations on entrepreneurship 🔁 Share this episode with someone who needs to be heard Follow STEERus on social media: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrLLSmallBusiness Instagram: https://instagram.com/steerus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/steerus Twitter: https://x.com/steerus_io #entrepreneurship #smallbusiness #podcast #advertising #ppc #Googleads

September 16, 2026Episode 8133 min

Why Your Marketing Isn't Working with John Elbing

S6:E81 Businesses usually think about marketing from the inside out. Here's what we do. Here's why we're good. Here are our features. Here are our credentials. John Elbing thinks we should turn the entire thing around. As founder of Standpoint and creator of the Storybuilding approach, John helps businesses see themselves through the customer's eyes. His starting point is deceptively simple: before customers care about your company, they need to recognize that your company understands them. That conversation takes an especially interesting turn when John and Dr. LL explore what happens when AI becomes another interpreter standing between a business and its customer. John shares the example of a company that surfaced correctly when queried through ChatGPT but was then described as expensive, despite having no pricing information on its website. After they changed the company's digital messaging, the characterization changed. That is misinterpretation risk happening in the wild. If people don't trust you, more promotion doesn't necessarily solve the problem. If people don't understand you, more content may simply amplify the confusion. And if AI doesn't interpret your signals correctly, your business may never reach the customer who was looking for exactly what you provide. 👤 Guest John Elbing Founder, Standpoint Creator of Storybuilding Marketing strategist focused on customer-centered communication ⚠️ Core Problems Founder-centric rather than customer-centric messaging Trying to appeal to everyone Explaining features before establishing relevance Confusing differentiation with cleverness AI-generated content that strips away authentic voice Spending more on promotion before diagnosing an interpretation problem 🥡 Practical Takeaways Recognition comes before persuasion: customers first need to see themselves in your message. Niching enables self-selection and can reduce wasted sales and marketing effort. Customers need to understand what you do quickly. Differentiation can come from understanding what customers actually care about—not simply claiming superior quality. AI can help refine thinking, but it cannot substitute for understanding the customer. Customer interpretation ultimately matters more than the message the company believes it delivered. ⏱️ Timestamps 03:16 Why businesses resist narrowing their audience 04:25 Recognition: getting customers to say "that's me" 08:09 The curse of proximity 10:32 Clarity versus cleverness 12:24 AI search and business interpretation 14:42 Recognition, perception and projection 16:55 Storybuilding versus storytelling 19:46 The consequences of marketing misinterpretation 21:41 AI slop and disappearing authenticity 25:04 Interpretation versus promotion 26:28 Dr. LL's interpretation-promotion-connection triangle 🔖 Who This Episode Is For Business owners, founders, marketers and consultants who suspect that their problem isn't simply reaching more people—it's helping the right people understand them. At STEERus, this is the heart of misinterpretation risk : what a business intends to communicate and what humans or AI systems actually understand are not necessarily the same thing. Closing that gap creates signal clarity. Subscribe and share Small Business Stories for grounded conversations about entrepreneurship, visibility, leadership, AI and the realities of building a business people can understand and trust. ✅ Subscribe for weekly conversations on entrepreneurship 🔁 Share this episode with someone who needs to be heard Follow STEERus on social media: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrLLSmallBusiness Instagram: https://instagram.com/steerus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/steerus Twitter: https://x.com/steerus_io #entrepreneurship #smallbusiness #podcast #marketing #digitalmarketing

September 14, 2026Episode 8023 min

Should AI Replace Humans in Customer Service? Guest Nathan Strum has Thoughts

S6:E80 AI, Empathy & Why Humans Still Matter with Nathan Strum AI can answer the phone. It can schedule appointments. It can listen to sales calls, extract insights and eliminate tedious administrative work. But can it make someone who has just lost their cat genuinely feel heard? Nathan Strum doesn't think so. For more than 20 years, his company Abbey Connect has built its reputation around human receptionists. About a year ago, Nathan faced the same decision confronting millions of business owners: how do you embrace AI without destroying the human experience that made the business valuable in the first place? He didn't reject AI. Quite the opposite. Nathan calls the technology a game changer and believes businesses that ignore it are doing themselves a disservice. But Abbey Connect has approached implementation by asking where technology can support people rather than automatically replace them. If people don't trust how AI is being introduced, efficiency alone isn't enough. If employees fear that every new AI tool is ultimately designed to eliminate their jobs, customers may eventually feel the effects of that distrust. And if customers believe they're interacting with a caring human when they're actually interacting with software engineered to simulate empathy, the business introduces an entirely different trust problem. 👤 Guest Nathan Strum Founder, Abbey Connect Customer service, human receptionist services, culture and AI integration ⚠️ Core Problems Treating human replacement as the default objective of AI adoption Confusing simulated empathy with human connection Introducing automation without communicating with employees Automating the customer experience without considering customer preferences Focusing exclusively on AI-related job losses while overlooking small businesses growing because of AI Preserving culture while transforming a long-established business 🥡 Practical Takeaways AI adoption doesn't have to equal headcount reduction. Start with the humans and identify where technology can remove friction from their work. Some complex processes become economically possible for small businesses because AI can supplement human capabilities. Transparency matters when customers interact with AI. Human empathy still carries a signal technology cannot perfectly reproduce: another person actually understands what you're experiencing. Employee trust comes before customer trust. Nathan believes AI may ultimately allow humans to spend more time with one another—not less. ⏱️ Timestamps 01:32 Why the telephone and humans still matter 04:41 Culture as the foundation of customer service 08:04 AI, solopreneurship and the future of small business 09:24 Bringing AI into a human-first company 11:54 What genuine empathy actually looks like 12:46 Can AI ever replicate empathy? 14:00 Starting AI transformation with humans 15:15 "Nobody lost their job" 16:00 Could AI actually bring humans closer together? 16:45 Trust and the first principle of AI adoption 18:21 Nathan's "Stop Firing Humans" campaign 🔖 Who This Episode Is For Founders and small business leaders who know they need to use AI but don't believe becoming more technologically capable requires becoming less human. At STEERus, this connects to a recurring Efficiency-Trust Tradeoff. Misinterpretation risk can emerge when a business optimizes an experience so aggressively that customers begin receiving a different signal than leadership intended: you're a transaction to process rather than a person to understand. Subscribe and share Small Business Stories for thoughtful conversations about entrepreneurship, AI, leadership, trust and building businesses people can understand. ✅ Subscribe for weekly conversations on entrepreneurship 🔁 Share this episode with someone who needs to be heard Follow STEERus on social media: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrLLSmallBusiness Instagram: https://instagram.com/steerus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/steerus Twitter: https://x.com/steerus_io #entrepreneurship #smallbusiness #podcast #AI #customerservice

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