Fixers & Founders is a podcast about the partnership between visionary founders and the fractional executives who help them bring structure, clarity, and scale. Each episode features candid conversations with founders and the operators who steady the ship—highlighting how ideas get fueled, how systems get fixed, and how businesses move forward when vision and execution finally meet.
Reach Out and Touch Someone | Turn Your Network Into Real Relationships
In this episode of Fixers & Founders, Tony and Forrest sit down with Jaimie Skultety, founder of Upscale Your Business and a visibility strategist who has been helping experts get seen since 2009, to talk about turning LinkedIn connections into actual relationships—and eventually, real business opportunities.
A big network might look impressive, but a connection count alone doesn’t create value. Jaimie explains why simply posting and hoping the right people notice—what she calls “posting and praying”—isn’t enough. The real work is intentionally growing and nurturing your network, staying useful and visible, and giving people a reason to remember you when their “readiness factor” finally kicks in.
And sometimes the best LinkedIn strategy isn’t much of a strategy at all. Notice something about another person. Get curious. Start a conversation. Jaimie’s advice cuts through automated pitches, manufactured engagement, and vanity metrics with a refreshingly simple idea: go be a good human online.
In this conversation, we explore:
• Stop “posting and praying”: Why publishing content without intentionally building and engaging your network leaves too much to chance.
• Turn connections into relationships: Why collecting thousands of LinkedIn connections means very little if you never actually talk to the people behind them.
• Understand the readiness factor: Why someone might follow you for years before becoming a client—and why consistently showing up with useful expertise matters in the meantime.
• Be a good human online: How curiosity, generosity, thoughtful outreach, and simply noticing something about another person can open doors without immediately turning the conversation into a sales pitch.
If you’re a founder, consultant, or fractional executive sitting on hundreds—or thousands—of connections and wondering why they aren’t creating opportunities, this conversation is a reminder that your network may already be big enough. The question is what you’re going to do with it.
Connect with Jaimie Skultety
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaimieskultety (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaimieskultety)
Website: https://upscaleyourbusiness.com (https://upscaleyourbusiness.com)
Schedule with Jaimie: https://upscaleyourbusiness.com/schedule (https://upscaleyourbusiness.com/schedule)
Intro & Outro Music
"Which One Is the Jellyfish?" by Aunt Cynthia's Cabin
Used with permission under a non-exclusive license.
Bandcamp: https://auntcynthiascabin.bandcamp.com (https://auntcynthiascabin.bandcamp.com)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/auntcynthiascabin (https://www.facebook.com/auntcynthiascabin)
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/auntcynthiascabin (https://www.instagram.com/auntcynthiascabin)
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/artist/5XoG0H2D0vY58n32W8xI2K (http://open.spotify.com/artist/5XoG0H2D0vY58n32W8xI2K)
7 Oct 2026
Talk to the Humans | Building Systems People Actually Use
In this episode of Fixers & Founders, Tony and Forrest sit down with Katie Barnes, founder of Rise and Optimize and a fractional COO who works with Seed through Series B SaaS companies, to talk about what happens when a business is growing but its systems are not keeping up.
Katie takes a human-first approach to operations. Rather than dropping in a generic framework or immediately layering on more tools, she starts by talking to the people actually doing the work, mapping the real workflow, and building systems around how the team operates. The goal is not just to document a process—it’s to create something the team understands, owns, and will actually use.
The conversation explores why founders often misdiagnose operational problems as people problems, how broken handoffs can quietly turn into revenue leakage, and why AI should come after the workflow is clear—not before. Katie also explains why slowing down long enough to understand the process can ultimately help a company move much faster.
In this conversation, we explore:
• Talk to the Humans: Why the best operational improvements start with the people doing the work—not with a template, tool, or consultant’s favorite framework.
• Build Systems People Will Use: How involving the team in process design creates ownership, accountability, and a much better chance the system survives after the consultant leaves.
• Stop Automating the Chaos: Why adding AI or automation before understanding the workflow can simply make a broken process fail faster.
• Where Revenue Gets Lost: How weak handoffs between sales, customer success, and finance can lead to missed billing, delayed onboarding, and ARR that never gets collected.
If your team is busy, your systems are messy, and adding more tools or people hasn’t fixed the underlying friction, this episode will help you rethink how better operations actually get built.
Connect with Katie Barnes
Website: https://riseandoptimize.com (https://riseandoptimize.com)
Email: katie@riseandoptimize.com (mailto:katie@riseandoptimize.com)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-barnes-operations-leader (https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-barnes-operations-leader)
Substack: https://substack.com/@thekatiebarnes (https://substack.com/@thekatiebarnes)
Intro & Outro Music
"Which One Is the Jellyfish?" by Aunt Cynthia's Cabin
Used with permission under a non-exclusive license.
Bandcamp: https://auntcynthiascabin.bandcamp.com (https://auntcynthiascabin.bandcamp.com)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/auntcynthiascabin (https://www.facebook.com/auntcynthiascabin)
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/auntcynthiascabin (https://www.instagram.com/auntcynthiascabin)
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jnj9sPepqZOcWFZ8XMwLU (https://open.spotify.com/show/1jnj9sPepqZOcWFZ8XMwLU)
30 Sept 2026
Too Small to Get Hacked? | Rethinking Cybersecurity Risk
In this episode of Fixers & Founders, Tony and Forrest sit down with Chris Farr, Vice President of Operations at Invision Technologies and author of Built in the Trenches, to talk about a risk many small and midsize businesses underestimate: cybersecurity.
It’s easy to assume that if your company has never experienced a serious cyber incident, what you’re doing must be working. But as Chris puts it, small businesses aren’t too small for a cyberattack—they’re just too small to wind up on CNN. And when an attack does happen, the financial and reputational consequences can hit a smaller company especially hard.
Chris explains why cybersecurity is ultimately a leadership responsibility, not simply an IT problem. From email hygiene and employee training to choosing trusted technology advisors, protecting the business requires ongoing discipline—not a burst of attention when an insurance renewal or compliance deadline rolls around. The conversation also explores what happens when strong technical performers become leaders and have to stop solving every problem themselves and start developing the people around them.
In this conversation, we explore:
• Too Small to Get Hacked?: Why small and midsize businesses are still attractive cyber targets—and why their size can make the consequences even more personal.
• The Human Side of Cybersecurity: Why email remains a major vulnerability and employee training has to become an ongoing business discipline.
• Cybersecurity as a Leadership Responsibility: Why security can't live exclusively inside the IT department or become something leadership thinks about only when there's a box to check.
• From Technician to Leader: Why great problem-solvers have to learn to stop fixing everything themselves and instead develop people who can solve problems without them.
If your business has been treating cybersecurity as something the IT department handles—or assuming that having avoided a major incident means you're adequately protected—this episode will help you rethink the risk and the leadership required to manage it.
Connect with Chris Farr
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-farr-409b3585 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-farr-409b3585)
Website: https://invtech.com (https://invtech.com)
Book — Built in the Trenches: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GWFNXWGM (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GWFNXWGM)
Intro & Outro Music
"Which One Is the Jellyfish?" by Aunt Cynthia's Cabin
Used with permission under a non-exclusive license.
Bandcamp: https://auntcynthiascabin.bandcamp.com (https://auntcynthiascabin.bandcamp.com)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/auntcynthiascabin (https://www.facebook.com/auntcynthiascabin)
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/auntcynthiascabin (https://www.instagram.com/auntcynthiascabin)
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jnj9sPepqZOcWFZ8XMwLU (https://open.spotify.com/show/1jnj9sPepqZOcWFZ8XMwLU)
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