Are you fully tapping your company's growth potential, or are hidden gaps in talent, culture, and client strategy quietly holding you back?

If you're leading a services-based business, or any company where people are the product, you know how hard it is to scale without burning out your team or losing your edge. This episode hits right at that tension: how to grow sustainably when hiring is tough, AI is reshaping roles, and your culture has to do more than just sound good; it has to work. You'll hear how a CEO is navigating these exact challenges in real time, so you can pressure-test your own approach.

Here's what you'll walk away with:

• A clearer way to think about sustainable growth by focusing on clients as long-term partners—not just one-off revenue

• Practical insight into retaining top talent and building a culture people actually want to stay in

• A grounded perspective on how AI should augment your team without undermining your future workforce

Press play now to uncover a smarter, people-first approach to scaling your business—and start unlocking your true growth potential today.

Check out:

• [00:03:00] Employee ownership & culture as a growth driver
  Why putting employees first—and giving them ownership—directly fuels retention, engagement, and long-term growth potential.

• [00:11:00] AI's real impact on productivity and hiring
  A practical breakdown of how AI is reducing task time (hours → minutes) and what that means for staffing, efficiency, and future roles.

• [00:16:00] Managing utilization in an employee-owned firm
  A candid look at how to balance profitability, transparency, and team buy-in when your people are also your shareholders.

About Carrie Stokes

Carrie Stokes, PE, is the Chief Executive Officer and President of Barge Design Solutions. With nearly three decades of leadership experience, she is committed to fostering collaboration, innovation, and growth that empowers employees, strengthens client relationships, and enhances communities.

Stokes began her career at Barge as a student intern and steadily advanced through key leadership roles, including serving as the firm's inaugural Chief of Staff. She has led Barge's largest division, played a key role in shaping its five-year strategic growth plan, and has served as a member of the board of directors since 2015. In 2025, she was appointed CEO, becoming the first woman to lead the company in its 70-year history. As CEO, she is focused on strengthening enterprise systems, expanding leadership development, fostering innovation, and enhancing the company's employee-owned culture.

Are you building an AI workforce that actually increases your business worth—or just adding more complexity to your team?

You're probably feeling the pressure to adopt AI, but the real challenge isn't the technology—it's figuring out how to use it effectively without exposing your data, slowing your team down, or making costly hiring mistakes. This episode flips the script by showing you how AI isn't just a tool—it's something you need to manage like a team. If you've ever wondered why AI initiatives stall or why your team struggles to get value from it, this conversation will hit close to home.

By listening, you'll walk away with:

• A smarter way to think about managing an AI workforce using the same skills you use to lead people

• Practical insight into protecting your data while still moving fast with AI adoption

• Real-world lessons from scaling companies on hiring, leadership, and avoiding costly mistakes in high-growth environments

Hit play now to learn how to turn AI from a confusing experiment into a managed asset that actually drives results.

Check out:

• 00:04:30 — How AI moved from analytics to real business applications
  Bethany shares her early experience with AI, from voice analytics to pricing and supply chain use cases, and explains where AI creates measurable business impact.

• 00:14:30 — The hidden data risk behind AI adoption
  A strong section on over-permissioning, Copilot/Gemini/Claude readiness, and why messy access controls can quietly derail your AI workforce plans.

• 00:31:00 — Why managing an AI workforce requires management skills
  One of the best takeaways in the episode: Bethany explains why delegation, context, feedback, and expectation-setting matter just as much with AI as they do with people.

Bethany Ayers has helped raise over $200M and built the go-to-market engines that transform startups into market leaders. As the CEO at Metomic, an AI cybersecurity company (previously COO @ Peak.ai) and board member for cutting-edge AI companies, she's the executive who turns innovative ideas into revenue-generating machines.

She's not just another executive—she's the leader who's been in the trenches, made the mistakes, and cracked the code on sustainable scaling. When your audience needs real talk about building businesses that last, Bethany delivers.

Are you overcomplicating your path to growing your business worth—when the real advantage might come from a simple focus on people, not processes?

If you've ever struggled to align your team, improve sales conversations, or make better leadership decisions, this episode hits close to home. You're constantly balancing performance, personalities, and priorities—and it's easy to get lost in complexity. What you'll hear here is how simplifying your approach—especially through understanding people—can unlock better results faster.

By listening, you'll gain:

• A clearer way to use personality insights to improve communication, sales, and team performance

• A practical framework for building stronger, more balanced teams that actually work well together

• A mindset shift toward simplicity, practicality, and focus that cuts through noise and drives better decisions

Hit play now to discover how a simple focus on understanding people can immediately improve how you lead, sell, and grow your business.

Check out:

• 00:06:30 – Tony's early door-to-door sales story and how it shaped his career in selling and communication

• 00:18:45 – The pivotal moment he chose simplicity, practicality, and focus as his core philosophy

• 00:32:10 – How assessments (like DISC) can transform team performance and decision-making in real business scenarios

About Dr. Tony Alessandra

Dr. Tony Alessandra has a street-wise, college-smart perspective on business, having been raised in the housing projects of NYC to eventually realizing success as a graduate professor of marketing, Internet entrepreneur, business author, and hall-of-fame keynote speaker. He earned a BBA from Notre Dame, an MBA from the Univ. of Connecticut and his PhD in marketing in 1976 from Georgia State University.

Tony is Founder & Chairman of Assessments 24x7 LLC, a company that offers a variety of online assessments, including the widely used DISC profile, the Emotional Intelligence 360 assessment, the Motivators (Values/PIAV) assessment, and several 360º leadership and sales-effectiveness assessments.