Business Roundtable

When a great employee leaves, most leaders assume it was about pay. Larry Salazar has the data to argue otherwise. The single largest contributor to the financial stress that drives turnover is housing, and almost no employer is doing anything about it.Larry is the President and co-founder of NestSTEPS, a platform that turns home ownership into an employee benefit. In this conversation with David Carr he makes the business case: replacing an employee costs 50 to 200 percent of their salary, housing eats roughly a third of household spending, and financially stressed employees lose about 9 percent of their work time to money worries.He shares the personal story behind NestSTEPS, leaving a company he loved because he could not figure out how to buy his first home nearby, and what a national study revealed: 78 percent of employees would switch employers for a home ownership benefit, and 89 percent would stay even after receiving help. Then he walks through exactly how the program works, from a financial wellness platform to live workshops to an employer funded contribution at closing, and how smaller companies can offer it through a PEO.You will walk away rethinking what really keeps your best people, and what benefit could set your business apart.Connect with Larry Salazar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrysalazar/NestSTEPS: https://www.neststepsbenefits.comSign up for Larry's newsletter: https://bit.ly/3OAGcp8Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/business-roundtable--6049255/support.Connect with Steward Your Business:Book a Leadership Clarity Call: https://calendar.stewardyourbusiness.com/ccCall: +1 909.404.9865Website: https://stewardyourbusiness.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwcarrWatch more episodes and subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@steward_your_business

For thirty years, getting found meant ranking on Google. That era is ending. People now ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude to recommend a business, and those tools only surface a few names. If yours is not one of them, your next customer never sees you.Solomon Thimothy is the founder of Clickx, co-founder and CEO of OneIMS, and a USA Today and Wall Street Journal best-selling author who has spent two decades helping companies grow. In this conversation with David Carr he makes a blunt case: the founder's voice is now the growth strategy, and you cannot outsource it. If Oprah had outsourced her marketing, would Oprah be Oprah?He shows why AI tools only cite the sources they trust, third party media and podcasts, and how to build a footprint that makes you the answer when someone asks the machine who to hire. Then it gets strategic: why 10X thinking is easier than 2X, why the product with your best margin is often the one you market least, and how AI agents can follow up with every lead on autopilot.You will walk away knowing whether your business shows up where buying decisions are now made, and what to do about it.Connect with Solomon Thimothy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/solomonthimothyClickx: https://www.clickx.ioOneIMS: https://www.oneims.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/business-roundtable--6049255/support.Connect with Steward Your Business:Book a Leadership Clarity Call: https://calendar.stewardyourbusiness.com/ccCall: +1 909.404.9865Website: https://stewardyourbusiness.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwcarrWatch more episodes and subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@steward_your_business

How much money do you actually need? Most people answer with a number. Dr. Nicholas Michels says that is backwards. Don't start with a dollar amount. Start with the life you want, then let the money serve it.Nick is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professional, founder of Michels Family Financial, and author of Rich by Choice. In this conversation with David Carr he gets honest about why so many people are outwardly successful and inwardly stressed, and how to close that gap.He has lived both sides. He grew up comfortable until his family went, almost overnight, from a stay at home mom of four to a single mom working three jobs. Years later he had built real wealth as a fast rising advisor and still felt his happiness lagging behind his bank account. The turning point was a hard conversation with his wife and the humility to seek mentors. From there he shares the comparison game and the rocking chair test, why happiness comes from the steps and not the destination, how to 10X your business through your unique ability, and a legacy lens that reframes what money is really for.You will walk away ready to design the life first and let the number follow.Connect with Dr. Nicholas Michels on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-e-michelsMichels Family Financial: https://michelsfamilyfinancial.comRich by Choice (free gift): https://richbychoicebook.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/business-roundtable--6049255/support.Connect with Steward Your Business:Book a Leadership Clarity Call: https://calendar.stewardyourbusiness.com/ccCall: +1 909.404.9865Website: https://stewardyourbusiness.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwcarrWatch more episodes and subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@steward_your_business

Most owners buy the AI tool, skip the strategy, and wonder why nothing improves. Jason Alexander, CEO of Chief AI, explains why AI is a people and process problem, not a tool problem.Hand someone a guitar, and you still hear no music until you teach them to play. Jason has lived the operator side of this. Over 20 years, he built and scaled a staffing and consulting business to roughly 100 million dollars before selling, and now he helps founders turn AI into practical, measurable results.In this conversation with David Carr, he breaks down the three-year success roadmap he uses to determine where AI actually belongs, why "assess, one quick win, then scale" beats chasing silver bullets, and how to make AI part of your culture rather than hiding it from clients. He also gives a straight answer on the fear everyone carries: AI is a force multiplier, not a layoff plan. Arm 100 people to produce 400, rather than cutting headcount to save payroll.If you are a founder or leader trying to make AI pay off without losing what makes your business human, start here.Connect with Jason:ChiefAI: https://chiefai.co Jason Alexander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonalexander Free AI Readiness Score: https://chiefai.co/ai-readiness-assessment/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/business-roundtable--6049255/support.Connect with Steward Your Business:Book a Leadership Clarity Call: https://calendar.stewardyourbusiness.com/ccCall: +1 909.404.9865Website: https://stewardyourbusiness.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwcarrWatch more episodes and subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@steward_your_business

Most business owners think PR is about getting featured. More placements, more visibility, more attention. Ronica Cleary says that is exactly where it goes wrong. Visibility without a strategy behind it is not a win. It is just noise.Ronica is the founder and CEO of Cleary Strategies and a former White House correspondent who spent years in newsrooms before building her agency. In this conversation with David Carr she pulls apart what PR actually is, and why chasing placements so often backfires. Your business alone, she says, is rarely newsworthy. The real work is figuring out what is.She walks through the period of discovery her team runs with every client, turning a founder's story into four to six clear pillars, why a guarantee of a set number of placements every month is a red flag, why she personally turned down a media hit that looked like an obvious fit, and how thinking like a producer instead of a publicist is the difference between a pitch that lands and one that dies in an inbox. Running underneath it is the Steward Your Business idea that PR is not just about getting attention, it is about being ready for it.You will walk away able to tell whether your own message would hold up once it lands, and with a simple self-check to see whether you are even ready for PR.Connect with Ronica Cleary on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronica-cleary/Cleary Strategies: https://www.clearystrategies.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/business-roundtable--6049255/support.Connect with Steward Your Business:Book a Leadership Clarity Call: https://calendar.stewardyourbusiness.com/ccCall: +1 909.404.9865Website: https://stewardyourbusiness.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwcarrWatch more episodes and subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@steward_your_business