Welcome to a new episode of Business Lunch! In this episode, Roland Frasier and Richard Lindner take a look at the current trend of running businesses with ultra-lean teams, the role of AI in operational efficiency, and the real impact these choices have on business value and potential for acquisition. Whether you’re a founder, operator, or executive looking to optimize your team, scale profitably, or prepare your business for sale, this episode is packed with insights on balancing technology, human capital, and long-term growth.

Highlights:

"It’s a badge of honor to operate with as few people as possible."

"If you’re a lifestyle business, build a lifestyle business. If you’re building to sell, you’re selling the ability to execute."

"Trying to be lean in customer support is usually to give poor customer support."

"Small businesses that are overly lean are just not going to be as marketable as companies that have redundancies."

Timestamps:

00:00 – Introduction

01:05 – The Lean Team Trend: Entrepreneurs and the new badge of honor

02:44 – Three Business Models: Lifestyle, lean tech, and scalable teams

05:49 – Technology as Amplifier: Roles for tech and humans

08:13 – The Customer Support Cautionary Tale: $40M savings gone wrong

12:16 – Human Touch in Customer Service: Why empathy matters

15:45 – Transferable Value: The importance of cross-training and redundancy

19:28 – Critical Roles for Lean, Profitable Companies: Finance, marketing, sales, and tech

24:26 – Departmental Tech Specialists: Bridging humans and AI

30:16 – Digital Marketer’s AI Solutions: How to get started and who it’s for

CONNECT

• Ask Roland a question HERE.

RESOURCES:

• 7 Steps to Scalable workbook

• Get my book, Zero Down, FREE

To learn more about Roland Frasier 👉 https://msha.ke/rolandfrasier/

Connect with me on social:

🎵 TikTok:

/ rolandfrasier

📸 Instagram:

Welcome to a new episode of Business Lunch! In this episode, Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss dive into the emerging trend of rolling up traditional businesses and supercharging them with AI. They discuss the opportunities and pitfalls of this strategy, offer advice for old-school business owners, aspiring platform companies, and investors, and share real-world examples of value creation through AI integration. This episode is perfect for entrepreneurs, business owners considering acquisitions, and anyone curious about the intersection of AI and business growth.

Highlights:

"Roll ups fail at the integration level, and the integration is really what systems do we have to do that?"

"If you don't invest in up-leveling and AI-fying your business now, you'll be acquired on the cheap."

"The basic building blocks of why you would do a roll up, applied with AI and tech, make perfect sense to me."

"If you're planning on just shutting it down or letting it die a slow and profitable death, then cool. But if it's longer than that, you either have to get on the bus or face being put out of business."

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

04:15 AI and Roll-Ups: Success and Failure

07:16 Advice for Old-School Businesses

10:30 Investor Strategy and Execution

16:05 Management and Systems for Roll-Ups

17:56 Investor Strategy: Mergers and Acquisitions

20:52 Value Addition through AI

CONNECT

• Ask Roland a question HERE.

RESOURCES:

• 7 Steps to Scalable workbook

• Get my book, Zero Down, FREE

To learn more about Roland Frasier 👉 https://msha.ke/rolandfrasier/

Connect with me on social:

🎵 TikTok:

/ rolandfrasier

📸 Instagram:

Welcome to a new episode of Business Lunch! In this episode, Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss dive into the real challenges facing small and medium-sized businesses today, cutting through the marketing spin of industry reports. If you’re a business owner, entrepreneur, marketer, or anyone interested in practical strategies for growth, customer acquisition, and leveraging AI, this episode is for you. Tune in for candid insights, actionable advice, and a few laughs along the way.

Highlights:

“I’ve never once in my entire life heard a small business owner use the word ‘resilience.’”

“If your offer is confusing, it’s not going to work, simplicity wins right now.”

“AI is the single biggest disruptive event any of us have ever experienced.”

“Let people buy the way they want to buy.”

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction

01:36 – Salesforce Report: Hype or Help?

03:57 – Do Business Owners Really Say ‘Resilience’?

05:14 – AI Adoption: Fear of Losing the Human Touch

07:38 – What Are the Real Top Challenges?

11:07 – How Macroeconomics Impact Sales

15:23 – Simplifying Offers for Better Results

17:41 – Creating a ‘Happening’ to Re-Engage Customers

21:05 – AI-ifying Your Business: Pivot or Perish

28:04 – Acquisitions: The Private Equity Playbook for SMBs

CONNECT

• Ask Roland a question HERE.

RESOURCES:

• 7 Steps to Scalable workbook

• Get my book, Zero Down, FREE

To learn more about Roland Frasier 👉 https://msha.ke/rolandfrasier/

Connect with me on social:

🎵 TikTok:

/ rolandfrasier

📸 Instagram:

/...