In his new book, Story Business, Gavin McMahon argues that the best-packaged ideas—not just the best ones—win in the marketplace. Drawing on his background as an engineer and his work in the defense, automotive, and other industries, Gavin frames storytelling as a fundamental business device baked with emotion. 

He moves beyond simple marketing, providing a practical framework across six genres—value, product, brand, sales, leadership, and culture. His creative guidance shows leaders of any kind how to transform dry data into compelling narratives that inspire action and drive success.

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Jonathan Stark needs no introduction in the value pricing world. Many years ago, Jonathan came to the realization that hourly billing was not a workable solution for him and his software development clients. He eventually ditched the billable hour in favor of value pricing.

Flash forward to the present, and he's recorded more than 500 episodes on his podcast, Ditching Hourly, and he's impacted well into the thousands of people he's coached, mentored, and spoken to as they have transformed their billing practices as Jonathan once did.

On this show, we discuss Jonathan's short and impactful book, Hourly Billing is Nuts. Even if you do not work in professional services, you'll learn much from this conversation.

At the end, Mark has a surprise as he retells one of his favorite stories of all time, which is about hourly billing that winds up having a positive ending.

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The subtitle of Ehsan Ehsani's new book Finding Value in Numbers is The Essential Investing Toolkit to Win on Wall Street.

If I may, I'm adding my subtitle too, which is Learn a Handful of Key Financial Concepts for Your Small and Growing Enterprise. Accordingly, this book is not just for Buffett-like value investors but for CEOs, finance directors, operating managers, and board members.

In this conversation we hit on some new ways to approach ROIC, which goes far beyond some of the conventional thinking and math found in finance textbooks. We also bust a few sacred cows, such as discounted cash flow analysis.

Finding Value in Numbers is far from a finance book for value investors with repackaged recycled content found in other similar books. The content is fresh, interesting, and even entertaining at times.

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They called him 'Chainsaw Al.' In 1996, Al Dunlap took over a struggling Sunbeam and did what he did best: he cut. He let go 6,000 employees and closed 18 factories. The stock price? It nearly quadrupled in less than two years. To Wall Street, he was a superstar. But the 'turnaround' was a house of cards. 

To meet impossible targets, Dunlap used 'cookie-jar' accounting and 'channel stuffing'—basically booking future sales today to hide massive losses. 

By 1998, the board fired him, the SEC banned him for life, and Sunbeam was headed for bankruptcy. So, was he a genius who saved companies, or a corporate 'psychopath' who destroyed them for a quick buck?

In this episode, I bring back my friend Gordon Graham, the author of The Intrepid Brotherhood, who knows what it's like to work for a psychopathic leader. We explore this topic as we go through some of the key ideas in John Byrne's book, Chainsaw.

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Kyle Hegarty is a gifted, story-centric writer, as evidenced by his first book, The Accidental Business Nomad. Kyle's newest book describes the sales recession B2B sales teams are facing and offers remedies to overcome sales ineffectiveness rooted in an outdated playbook.

The book is Sales Punks, and in this easy-to-follow narrative, Kyle explains the difference between the seller's journey and the buyer's journey and why that mindset shift is required. We also learn why most reps don't hit sales quotas, why that trend continues to drop, and why training is being scrapped throughout sales organizations.

You do not need to work in sales to enjoy this conversation or the book. At the end, Mark treats us to his seven favorite sales-centric books of all time. 

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He helped to navigate a violent and catastrophic economic crisis in Argentina. He helped shape the playbook for a Dominican Republic bank bailout, which nearly brought the country to its knees, and he was at the helm of this international bank during the financial crisis, which made money during that time period.

Howard Green's book, Gimme A Crisis, is a roadmap for becoming a CEO, understanding the differences between liquidity and capital, learning the essentials of risk management, and the role of people skills at the CEO level.

Howard is making his second appearance on the show, and if you like Railroader, you will not be disappointed with his newest book.

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Over the past thirty years, Kevin Boehm has opened forty restaurants, been awarded the highest honor in his profession, and served everyone from Mick Jagger to President Obama. 

Kevin's new book is a memoir entitled The Bottomless Cup. During this conversation, we hear how Kevin endured a chaotic relationship with his surrogate father and what it was like to learn of his biological father when he was a college student. Despite many obstacles and hardships, Kevin was a successful restaurant flipper until he hit a snag in Nashville.

We learn what success looks like in the restaurant industry. More importantly, Kevin shares his insights about success beyond the kitchen.

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If you like the topics of organizational performance, personal and professional excellence, and thought-provoking mental models, then Superperformance by George Pesanky is worth reading.

In this conversation, we'll learn about The Golden Hour, Root Cause Success, the Thomas-Kilman Conflict Model, the Prison of Expectations, and the Kano Model.

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I am a customer of Bull Market Gifts, and when I spend time on their website, I'm hooked and have a difficult time leaving.

Last year, I purchased some vintage annual reports, and I bought another before I interviewed the co-founder and owner of this niche retailer.

Their product offering also includes old stock certificates and a deep assortment of New York Stock Exchange memorabilia. 

During this conversation with Mike Oaklief, you will hear about Gordon Gekko, Enron's Code of Ethics, and a story about an American Exchange stock certificate that can be yours for more than $3,000.

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When I began studying the root causes of business failure early in my career, I believed that faulty cognitive limitations and weaknesses were the primary drivers of poor decisions, ultimately leading to business failure. 

Taras Wayner is the producer and host of a new podcast called A Case Study in Corporate Fear, where he addresses one of the central emotions in the affective mindset: fear.

During this conversation, we learned how fear impacted the decision makers at Yahoo!, Atari, and Jaguar. We also address the areas of red teaming, resulting, and other biases that contribute to the fear-based mindset.

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I'm calling Ken Iverson the Alan Mulally of CEOs in the 1980s and 1990s. "Plain Talk" by Ken Iverson is one of my favorite business books, despite its lack of self-congratulation and the absence of so-called transformational management concepts.

Instead, this is a book about how people were treated, the concept of decentralization, bonus structures, and using instincts to make business decisions.

Plain Talk will also undergo a revival period, as the Audible version was released this month. In this conversation, you'll find out why Mark and Bruce rate this a five-star book.

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