Richard Broo is a project management turnaround specialist and founder of True North PMP Consulting, with more than four decades of experience helping Fortune 500 companies and mid-market organizations recover projects that are bleeding budget, sliding on timelines, or losing leadership alignment. In this episode, Richard breaks down the invisible forces that cause most projects to fail quietly — long before anyone at the top realizes what is happening.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Why project failures almost always trace back to a specific three-way intersection of planning, execution, and people discipline
• How scope creep accumulates undetected, and what a proper scope statement must include to stop it
• Why assumptions and constraints function as “invisible assassins” that undermine even well-planned projects
• The hidden financial and emotional costs of executive sponsors who disengage mid-project
• The structured triage and root-cause corrective action process Richard uses to close critical bottlenecks within 60 days
• What small and mid-sized businesses can learn from General Electric’s project discipline model

If your organization is juggling multiple initiatives or struggling to keep a key project on track, Richard’s frameworks will give you a clear, actionable path forward. Visit truenorthpmpconsulting.com to book a free consultation.

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Shabnum Bi is the Founder and Director of Early Nurture Preschool in Birmingham — an Ofsted Outstanding setting that has attracted international delegates, earned a place in the Montessori International Awards finals, and brought Shabnum to a World Leaders Summit at the University of Oxford. In this episode, Shabnum shares how she rebuilt her early years’ setup from scratch after a forced liquidation, and why refusing to scale is her most deliberate business decision.

In this episode, Shabnum covers:

• How to balance daily hands-on leadership with a growing public profile and media presence
• Why she caps enrolment at 30 children — and how that ceiling creates competitive advantage
• The lessons from losing a 20-year business with half a day’s notice and launching again four weeks later
• How deep community roots translate into trust, referrals, and resilience
• Teaching three-year-olds lifelong skills: civic awareness, emotional regulation, and global empathy
• What international collaboration — from South Korea to the USA — looks like inside a small Birmingham preschool

Ready to transform how your community thinks about early education? Visit www.earlynurturepreschool.co.uk to learn more about Shabnum’s approach.

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Sridhar Ravilla is a fractional transformation executive and author with more than 25 years of senior leadership experience at AT&T and Tech Mahindra, where he led enterprise-scale programmes spanning cloud, AI, and digital modernisation. He joins John Golden to diagnose a pattern he has seen across industries: well-funded, well-led transformations that collapse not at the strategy stage, but in the moments right after strategy is approved.

In this episode, Sridhar and John cover:

• Why accountability diffuses into committees and dashboards the moment a transformation moves from planning to execution
• How green dashboards hide unresolved trade-offs and what leaders should be asking instead
• The deferral committee trap — and why “let’s get more data” is a risk-relocation strategy in disguise
• Why AI delivers 270 degrees of visibility and what fills the critical remaining 90 degrees
• The resignation test: the single question every large-scale transformation needs to answer before launch
• How to structure named ownership so that the right person — not the AI, not the committee — carries the outcome

If accountability in transformation is something you wrestle with, Sridhar’s frameworks are immediately applicable. Connect with him directly at linkedin.com/in/sridharravilla/.

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About the Guest: Amir Berenjian is the founder and CEO of REM 5 Studios, a Minneapolis-based production house helping global brands leverage VR, AR, and spatial computing. After a career in investment banking. Berenjian tried the Oculus Rift in 2016, saw the potential of immersive technology to democratize experiences, and left finance to found REM 5. Since then, he’s immersed over 150,000 people in VR headsets across clients ranging from pro sports teams to the Gates Foundation.

Episode Overview

SalesPOP! host John Golden and Amir Berenjian explore how immersive technology is reshaping brand storytelling at events. Berenjian shares real-world examples and breaks down the current platform landscape. He makes the case that spatial computing will become the primary way we interact with AI.

Key Insights

1. Start with Distribution, Not the Demo Berenjian’s first question isn’t about the creative — it’s about who’s putting on the headset and where. VR content without a distribution plan is just an expensive reel. For his clients, events are the answer.

2. VR Expands the Market — It Doesn’t Replace It. Minnesota United FC’s game-day VR experience gave fans access to the locker room and tunnel. Drawing lines at the State Fair and driving real ticket sales.

3. Immersive Content Creates Memories, Not Just Messages. The Gates Foundation’sVR polio campaign, shown at 50+ global events, including the UN General Assembly, resonates with policymakers because the brain processes it as a real experience.

4. The Hardware Has Arrived Meta Quest 3 delivers VR/AR with hand tracking for $300. Apple Vision Pro is redefining interface design. Ray-Ban smart glasses offer AI access in a normal form factor.

5. Spatial Computing Is AI’s Next Interface. Berenjian argues immersive tech and AI are converging — hand gestures and voice will replace typing and dropdown menus as the way we interact with AI systems.

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Leadership isn’t a personality trait — it’s a practice. That’s the core message from Dr. Garland Vance, a 25-year leadership veteran, in his recent Sales POP! interview.

His framework is simple but demanding: lead with character, communicate with clarity, and build genuine community within your team. Most leaders fail not from a lack of effort, but from a lack of intention in these three areas.

The biggest surprise? Dr. Vance says the leaders who doubt themselves most are often the most effective. Humility beats confidence every time.

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Management has a missing step problem. For every 100 men promoted into leadership roles, only 87 women make the same climb—and even fewer people of color advance.

Christine Sandman Stone calls these “broken rungs,” and they’re costing organizations their best talent. After 35 years transforming companies like Dell and McDonald’s, she knows the fix starts with transparency.

Audit your promotion data. Build real mentorship programs with executive sponsorship. Make advancement criteria crystal clear. The solution isn’t complicated—it just requires intentional action.

Because here’s the truth: diverse leadership teams don’t just check boxes. They innovate faster, solve problems better, and build stronger organizations. The companies winning today are the ones repairing their broken rungs.

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Most automation projects fail—not because of bad technology, but because of bad people strategy.

Dr. Don Capener from Chang Robotics shares game-changing insights on successfully implementing AI and robotics. His approach? Put humans first, technology second.

The winning formula includes involving frontline workers from day one, communicating the “why” behind changes, and treating AI as a copilot rather than an autopilot. When Chang Robotics deployed hospital delivery robots, they didn’t replace nurses—they freed them to focus on patient care. The result: 94% approval from the very people who could have resisted.

Key takeaway: Diverse implementation teams catch problems that homogeneous groups miss. Safety—both physical and psychological—creates the foundation for innovation.

Listen now to discover why the future of work isn’t humans versus machines, but humans empowered by machines.

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Amrit Dhaliwal bought into the franchise dream—turnkey business, proven system, guaranteed support. She got none of that. Her first franchise left her struggling with “entrepreneurial poverty”: owning a business but barely surviving.

So she built Walfinch differently. Her home care franchise rejects half its applicants, provides real coaching, and goes fully digital in a paper-obsessed industry. The mission? Help franchisees actually thrive, not just survive.

Waldfinch’s “Time to Thrive” philosophy extends to clients as well. Through Thrive Clubs’ yoga and art classes, they’re redefining aging as an opportunity, not a decline.

Dhaliwal’s advice for entrepreneurs: Make purpose your filter for every decision. Growth without alignment isn’t success—it’s just noise.

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