Ground Control: Sponsored by RocketDocs

About Ground Control: Sponsored by RocketDocs

Prepare for liftoff! Welcome to Ground Control, the podcast where we navigate the high-velocity frontier of enterprise innovation. Sponsored by RocketDocs and LUMA, we serve as your mission-critical link to the future. In a world where the "noise" of emerging tech can feel like a chaotic meteor shower, we provide the steady trajectory and expert navigation needed to keep your organization on course. We aren't just talking about what’s next; we’re analyzing the propulsion systems: AI, proposals, and governance, that will get you there. Each episode, we strap in with industry pioneers and tech visionaries to explore the core pillars of your mission: The AI Stratosphere: Moving beyond the "blue sky" dreaming to the actual mechanics of enterprise AI and automation. Proposal Trajectory: How to optimize your response engines to win more business at orbital speeds. The Tech Stack Command Center: Auditing your digital infrastructure to ensure every tool is mission-capable and ready for scale. Security & Governance Shields: Hardening your defenses against the atmospheric pressure of modern data risks and regulatory shifts. Whether you’re a CTO overseeing a fleet of legacy systems or a proposal lead looking for a boost, Ground Control is your source for the intelligence, security, and strategy required to break through the status quo. The future is approaching at Mach speed. Don't let your mission drift. Initiate sequence. This is Ground Control.

Publisher

RocketDocs

Category

business · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

1 May 2026

Latest episode

2 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

16 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   2 Oct 2026

   Escaping the Hamster Wheel Trap with Peter Boolkah

   Most founders are not building a business from day one - they are building a prison. In this episode of Ground Control, the podcast on AI, proposals, and governance sponsored by RocketDocs, host Perry Robinson talks with Peter Boolkah, award-winning business coach, creator of The Hamster Wheel Trap, and author of Your Business Sucks. After 15 years climbing the ladder at McDonald's and more than 50,000 hours coaching business owners, Peter's core lesson is simple: there is no work-life balance, only balance, and it comes from competency and structure. Peter and Perry cover why year five is when founders have the most to lose, what McDonald's systemization teaches about SOPs, how to use ChatGPT or Claude to document how your business runs, why company knowledge matters through turnover, and what Pep Guardiola teaches about building a team. His closing line: the more you learn, the more you earn. Connect with Peter Boolkah Work with Peter: https://www.boolkah.com/ (https://www.boolkah.com/) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/boolkah/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/boolkah/) Get the book (Your Business Sucks): https://shop.boolkah.com/product/your-business-sucks/ (https://shop.boolkah.com/product/your-business-sucks/) Find Ground Control Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098 (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098) Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA (https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075 (https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075) All episodes: https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast (https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast) Find RocketDocs The response management platform built for regulated industries - trusted since 1994. Website: https://rocketdocs.com (https://rocketdocs.com) Book a demo: https://rocketdocs.com/demo (https://rocketdocs.com/demo) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs (https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs)

2. 

   28 Aug 2026

   Governance, Decision Rights, and AI with Catherine Webb

   Most organizations are not short on smart people or good ideas. They are short on clarity. In this episode of Ground Control, the podcast on AI, proposals, and governance sponsored by RocketDocs, host Perry Robinson and co-host Bryan talk with Catherine Webb, founder of Nova Grace Advisory and a governance leader who spent decades running PMOs, mergers, regulatory programs, and a multi-million dollar global AI deployment inside top-five financial institutions. The core lesson: a sound strategy still stalls when the execution model underneath it cannot turn that strategy into coordinated decisions. Catherine covers how to separate real governance from bureaucracy, where the truth disappears between project reporting and the executive dashboard, how to define who recommends, who decides, and who can stop the work, why a decision record has to preserve the why and not just the outcome, and who should own AI outcomes and hold the authority to pause. Her closing line: never forget your foundation. Connect with Catherine Webb Work with Catherine: https://novagraceadvisory.com (https://novagraceadvisory.com) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-webb-62218b97/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-webb-62218b97/) Find Ground Control Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098 (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098) Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA (https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075 (https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075) All episodes: https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast (https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast) Find RocketDocs The response management platform built for regulated industries - trusted since 1994. Website: https://rocketdocs.com (https://rocketdocs.com) Book a demo: https://rocketdocs.com/demo (https://rocketdocs.com/demo) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs (https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs) 00:00 Introduction and Guest Background 02:06 Experience in Mergers and Project Management 05:53 Digital Transformation and AI Initiatives 08:23 Common Challenges in Complex Projects 10:19 Organizational Clarity and Capacity Issues 11:39 Governance and Decision-Making Processes 13:33 The Role of Dashboards and Information Flow 14:53 Engaging Leaders and Understanding Business Benefits 16:27 Decision Ownership and Record Keeping 18:46 Handling Role Changes and Knowledge Transfer 21:21 Regulatory and Risk Program Insights 22:38 Decision Records and Documentation Importance 23:24 Accountability and Cross-Functional Coordination 25:11 The Role of PMO in Information Management 26:08 Creating Value Through Governance 27:36 AI Deployment and Organizational Readiness 28:27 AI Risks, Controls, and Human Oversight 29:52 Stopping AI Projects and Governance Triggers 31:53 High-Leverage Changes for Leaders 33:13 Contact and Final Thoughts

3. 

   21 Aug 2026

   When AI Promises What Your Product Can't Do | Daniel Rock

   Daniel Rock did not choose sales. He was an IT manager who realized he liked the business problem more than the technology, phoned his own telecom account manager, and six weeks later was selling IT with no sales experience at all. Twenty years on he is chief revenue officer at Suite Files, and his argument is that curiosity, not polish, is what separates good sellers from replaceable ones. In this episode of Ground Control, the podcast on AI, proposals, and governance sponsored by RocketDocs, hosts Perry Robinson and Bryan Jenkins talk with Daniel about why most reps ask a list of discovery questions and never the question after that, what AI is genuinely good at versus where it quietly invents commitments your product cannot keep, the real cost of stale answer libraries and security questionnaires, and how to write a follow up that is not "just checking in." His line for the whole thing: curiosity is a salesperson's superpower. Connect with Daniel Rock: → Work with Daniel: https://danielrock.co (https://danielrock.co) → LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielrock/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielrock/) Find Ground Control: → Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098 (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098) → Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA (https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA) → YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075 (https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075) → All episodes: https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast (https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast) Find RocketDocs: The response management platform built for regulated industries - trusted since 1994. → Website: https://rocketdocs.com (https://rocketdocs.com) → Book a demo: https://rocketdocs.com/demo (https://rocketdocs.com/demo) → LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs (https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs)

4. 

   7 Aug 2026

   How to Win B2B Proposals Using Behavioral Science | Will Leach

   Most B2B proposals lose before anyone reads a word of the pricing. In this episode of Ground Control, the podcast on AI, proposals, and governance sponsored by RocketDocs, host Perry Robinson talks with Will Leach, best-selling author of Marketing to Mind States and founder and CEO of the Mind State Group. A former military engineer turned behavioral scientist, Will spent 25 years studying why people really buy and the answer is almost never the reason they give you. The core lesson: 95% of decisions are made below conscious awareness, inside temporary emotional states Will calls mind states. Identify the four factors behind one goals, motivation, regulatory approach, and cognitive biases and you can write a proposal, email, or RFP response that fits how the reader actually decides, instead of competing on features. Along the way Will covers the PULL framework for qualifying real opportunities, how he uses AI to embed psychological cues in his deliverables, the graphic-novel trick that makes buyers feel like the hero, selling to committees you never meet, and Bevi, his behavioral intelligence system that lets brands ask a virtual customer what it thinks. His closing line: all we did was put science around intuition. Connect with Will Leach Work with Will: https://mindstategroup.com/ (https://mindstategroup.com/) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-leach/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-leach/) Get the book (Marketing to Mind States): https://a.co/d/0cnopkoY (https://a.co/d/0cnopkoY) Find Ground Control Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098 (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098) Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA (https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075 (https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075) All episodes: https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast (https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast) Find RocketDocs The response management platform built for regulated industries - trusted since 1994. Website: https://rocketdocs.com (https://rocketdocs.com) Book a demo: https://rocketdocs.com/demo (https://rocketdocs.com/demo) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs (https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs)

5. 

   31 Jul 2026

   AI Adoption vs. AI Governance: Why 57% of Companies Have Lost Control of Their Data

   An AI assistant that gave itself a phone number, and a startup that let a bot buy a $40,000 Davos delegacy. Host Perry Robinson and RocketDocs AI practitioner Bryan Jenkins use those stories to show that teams are adopting AI faster than they are governing it. They cover vendor diligence, data sovereignty, and the new Sovrinty partnership. The mantra: policy is a promise, architecture is a guarantee. Episode Chapters 00:00 Welcome + what's to come 00:25 What today's episode covers 00:58 AI adoption versus AI governance 02:11 The IAPP and EY study: 77% working on it, 57% not in control 03:59 Most people do not know how their AI handles data 04:45 Open-agent tools and losing control of AI 05:39 The assistant that gave itself a phone number 06:50 The startup AI that bought a $40k Davos delegacy 07:51 Marketing security claims versus reality 09:26 When "secure" is just a contract, and terms change 10:44 Read the privacy policy, not the marketing 13:15 You are the data: cheap AI, big deficits, lock-in 14:13 Trusting AI answers you know are wrong 15:35 Prompt injection in resumes and the proposal space 16:29 Both sides use AI: answering and evaluating RFPs 17:26 Asking ChatGPT how to evaluate AI vendors, and itself 19:34 Vendors that deflect the data flow question 20:58 ChatGPT's own no-go indicators 23:33 Why de-identified and aggregated is not enough 24:55 Court cases, legal holds, and "once it is out, it is out" 26:02 Policy is a promise, architecture is a guarantee 26:50 Contract terms flowing down: a financial services example 27:49 The overnight scramble to re-qualify a vendor 28:39 Coming enforcement actions and downstream fines 29:42 Defining data sovereignty 32:29 How little control most people actually have 33:37 Better AI results from controlling what it sees 35:18 Source citations and countering hallucination 36:06 Introducing Sovrinty: keeping knowledge current and approved 39:00 Portability, Glean, and 150 fractured repositories 41:27 Sovrinty versus Snowflake 45:29 Closing checklist: do real diligence, do not just rely on AI 46:40 Invest now in accurate AI sources 47:20 SOC 2 scope: is the AI even covered? 48:51 Ask for a data flow diagram and the vendor's AI contract terms 51:23 Think different: stay skeptical of AI 52:07 Keep your company's unique voice 53:15 Wrap-up and a call for listener stories Find Ground Control Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098 (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098) Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA (https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075 (https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075) All episodes: https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast (https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast) Find RocketDocs The response management platform built for regulated industries - trusted since 1994. Website: https://rocketdocs.com (https://rocketdocs.com) Book a demo: https://rocketdocs.com/demo (https://rocketdocs.com/demo) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs (https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs)

6. 

   24 Jul 2026

   The Human Discernment Enforcer: Winning Proposals in the AI Age (Juliet Fletcher)

   Juliet Fletcher has spent nearly 40 years in proposals and helped her clients win more than $1 billion in awards, but the experience that shaped everything came before she ever wrote one. As an intern for the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, she reviewed proposals for compliance and sat through panel hearings all the way through award. That reviewer's seat is her secret sauce: design your document so the evaluator can instantly find what they need, because if they have to hunt for it, they start to like you less. She and host Perry Robinson get into her "human discernment enforcer" mindset, why evidence beats AI-generated narrative, why a strong proposal writer is a persuasive communicator rather than a technical writer, and the bid/no-bid discipline that keeps you from chasing what you can't win. Her mantra: persuasive communication is never about you, it is about them - write without fear, edit without mercy. Episode Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Juliet Fletcher and her expertise 01:13 Juliet's background in proposal review and compliance 03:01 Designing proposals for reviewer ease 06:06 The human discernment enforcer mindset 07:47 The importance of evidence and proof points 11:07 Organizing proposal content as a database 14:35 Using AI tools for proposal drafting 19:00 Persuasive communication and storytelling 23:28 Challenges with AI-generated content 28:02 Engaging SMEs and making them feel valued 33:47 Starting early and learning from past proposals 39:11 Best practices for post-proposal analysis 44:11 Evaluating AI tools and competitive intelligence reports 51:20 Final advice and how to connect with Juliet Connect with Juliet Fletcher Work with Juliet: https://writingiseasy.com (https://writingiseasy.com) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julietfletcherwritingiseasy/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/julietfletcherwritingiseasy/) Find Ground Control Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098 (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098) Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA (https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075 (https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075) All episodes: https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast (https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast) Find RocketDocs The response management platform built for regulated industries - trusted since 1994. Website: https://rocketdocs.com (https://rocketdocs.com) Book a demo: https://rocketdocs.com/demo (https://rocketdocs.com/demo) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs (https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs)

7. 

   10 Jul 2026

   Leadership Lessons from the Battlefield, with David Fivecoat

   What can a 150-year-old cavalry defeat teach a modern RFP team racing against the clock? More than you'd think. In this episode of Ground Control, Perry Robinson sits down with David Fivecoat, a West Point graduate, 24-year Army veteran, executive coach, and author of Growing Your Grit, to explore how battlefield decision-making translates into everyday business leadership. David runs immersive leadership programs that take corporate teams to historic battle sites, from Gettysburg to the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where standing on the actual ground makes the lessons stick in a way no conference-room keynote can. Perry and David dig into Custer's fatal failure to adapt when the Native American coalition changed the rules of engagement, and why that's the perfect metaphor for leaders navigating AI and rapid change today. They unpack John Boyd's OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act) and why speed and a willingness to update your mental model matter more than ever when time kills deals. David also breaks down how to write a leader's intent that actually aligns an ad-hoc team, the discipline of real goal setting, and why the best leaders never stop studying their craft. Whether you're formally managing a team or just taking charge of the next big push, this conversation is packed with practical, hard-won ideas you can put to work tomorrow. Want a copy of David's book, Growing Your Grit? The first 20 listeners to email us (marketing@rocketdocs.com) or repost this episode on LinkedIn and tag @RocketDocs will get one. Learn more about David at TheFivecoatConsultingGroup.com (http://TheFivecoatConsultingGroup.com) or connect with him on LinkedIn (David Fivecoat / The Fivecoat Consulting Group). Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Leadership and Military History 01:39 The Concept of Staff Rides and Leadership Training 04:29 Experiential Learning on Battlefields 07:36 Lessons from the Battle of Gettysburg 10:33 The Battle of Little Bighorn: A Case Study 13:19 Adapting Leadership in Times of Change 16:33 The OODA Loop and Its Application 19:29 Time Management and Decision Making in Leadership 22:32 Crafting Effective Purpose Statements and End States 25:17 Measuring Success in Leadership 27:08 Developing Leadership Skills 32:09 The Importance of Self-Study 33:43 Understanding Grit and Purpose 37:09 Effective Goal Setting 39:52 Writing and Publishing a Book 48:12 Connecting with David Fivecoat

8. 

   3 Jul 2026

   Designing AI You Can Actually Trust, with Dr. Craig Kaplan

   What happens when guardrails aren't enough? On this episode of Ground Control, host Perry sits down with Dr. Craig Kaplan, cognitive psychologist, AI researcher, and founder of SuperIntelligence.com (http://SuperIntelligence.com), for a wide-ranging conversation on why safety has to be built into AI's architecture, not bolted on after the fact. Craig's path into AI started as an undergraduate studying psychobiology, which led him to Carnegie Mellon, where he worked alongside Nobel laureate Herbert Simon, one of the field's founding figures. From there he founded IQ Company in 1993 and, later, Predict Wall Street, a crowdsourced hedge fund built on a simple but radical bet: that the aggregated opinions of millions of everyday retail investors could outperform the best-funded quant researchers on Wall Street. It worked. The fund ranked in the top 10 of its class before Craig sold the company in 2020, having proven what he calls collective intelligence in the most competitive arena imaginable. That experience became the foundation for how Craig thinks about AI safety today. He argues that the dominant approach to building large language models, pouring in more data and compute to create ever-larger "black box" systems, is fundamentally the wrong design. Guardrails added after training are a losing game of whack-a-mole: easy to jailbreak, impossible to fully patch. Instead, Craig makes the case for something closer to a democracy than a dictator: architectures built from many smaller, checkable intelligences that create transparency, checks and balances, and distributed power, the same qualities that make human institutions resilient to bad actors. Perry and Craig also dig into what this means practically for businesses adopting AI: why companies should never rely on a single model for mission-critical decisions, how to make sure a company's own values and ethics get explicitly built into the systems it deploys, and what obligations companies have to be transparent with employees and customers about where their AI comes from and how it's being used. The conversation closes with a rapid-fire round covering Craig's revised AGI timeline, what Herbert Simon might make of his work today, and why Craig believes the data shows humanity's track record is better than the doomer narrative suggests, if we can just get AI to match our values. Guest: Dr. Craig Kaplan, LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigakaplan/) | SuperIntelligence.com (http://SuperIntelligence.com) 0:00 Introduction: Meet Dr. Craig Kaplan 0:50 From Psychobiology to AI: Studying Under Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon 3:06 Founding IQ Company in 1993 4:06 The Three Eras of AI: Symbolic, Machine Learning, and Reasoning 7:58 Quantifying the Pace of AI Progress 10:15 Predict Wall Street: Proving Collective Intelligence in the Markets 16:22 Why AI Guardrails Fail: An Ounce of Prevention 23:07 Designing Safer AI: Black Boxes vs. Democratic Architecture 29:13 Sovereign Intelligence and Owning Your Data 34:36 Bounded Rationality and the Case for Mixture of Experts AI 40:53 What Do Companies Owe Users About Their AI? 49:27 Rapid Fire: Predictions, Regrets, and Final Thoughts

9. 

   18 Jun 2026

   From the DOD to the Boardroom: Jonathan Maddock on Systems, Founders, and Scaling Smart

   What does it mean to be "suffocated by success" and how do you break free? In this episode of Ground Control, Perry Robinson sits down with Jonathan Maddock, a systems engineer turned program manager turned attorney with nearly 30 years inside the Department of Defense. Jonathan brings a rare perspective forged at the intersection of military leadership, government bureaucracy, and commercial enterprise, where competing priorities are the norm and alignment is the mission. Jonathan shares the thinking behind his book Suffocated by Success, exploring how founders and leaders unknowingly become the bottleneck in their own organizations. Drawing on his engineering and legal backgrounds, he breaks down why every business, no matter the size or industry, is a system of systems, and what happens when leaders fail to treat it that way. Perry Robinson and Jonathan dig into founder ego, the temptation to jump in and solve every problem, and why the fastest path to sustainable growth often requires slowing down first. Jonathan uses a simple but powerful analogy: letting your kids struggle through the wrong answer on their homework so they actually learn how to find their way back. The same principle applies to building a resilient team and a scalable business. The conversation also covers the role of AI in managing complex systems, how RocketDocs and businesses like it can benefit from systems thinking, how to distinguish between self-imposed urgency and real constraints, and why patience is not the opposite of speed but the foundation of it. Jonathan closes with a message that goes beyond business strategy and operational efficiency: a reminder that each of us is our own system of mind, body, and soul, and that mental health awareness, including being kind to yourself, is part of operating at your best. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to Jonathan Maddock's Background 05:32 The Concept of Being 'Suffocated by Success' 11:12 Understanding Systems in Business 16:38 The Role of Founders and Ego in Business 22:17 Integrating Engineering and Legal Systems 23:35 Understanding Legal Systems Through Engineering Principles 26:22 Breaking Down Complex Problems into Manageable Components 28:55 The Role of AI in System Management 32:38 Navigating Fragility in Business Systems 35:13 The Importance of Patience in System Development 36:35 Learning Through Challenges: The Founder’s Journey 39:27 Balancing Speed and Systematic Growth 43:35 Mental Health Awareness in System Management Connect with Jonathan on LinkedIn or visit fortivianstrata.com (http://fortivianstrata.com) to learn more about his work and pick up a copy of the book. Ground Control is sponsored by RocketDocs, the response management platform built for regulated industries and trusted since 1994. RocketDocs helps teams in financial services, healthcare, life sciences, and enterprise tech streamline RFP responses, DDQ automation, security questionnaires, and sales proposals using private AI. RocketDocs is designed to help teams win more business faster without sacrificing compliance or quality. Learn more at rocketdocs.com (http://rocketdocs.com).

10. 

    12 Jun 2026

    From Compliance to Contracts: Breaking Into the Government Space with Lori Crooks

    Breaking Into Government Contracts: What You Need to Know Before You Start Selling to the government sounds like a dream. Steady clients, long-term relationships, and reliable revenue. But the path to becoming a government-approved vendor is anything but simple. In this episode, Bryan and Perry sit down with Lori Crooks, founder and CEO of Cadra, a compliance consulting firm helping small and mid-sized businesses navigate the complex world of government contracting. Lori breaks down the alphabet soup of compliance frameworks (FedRAMP, GovRAMP, CMMC, NIST) and explains what they actually mean for your business. She shares why starting with compliance early is the single most important thing a company can do, how FedRAMP authorization can open doors far beyond federal agencies, and what continuous monitoring really looks like once you're approved. Whether you're a small business curious about government contracts or already knee-deep in the process, this conversation is packed with honest, practical guidance on what it takes to get in and stay in the government contracting space. In this episode: The difference between FedRAMP, GovRAMP, and CMMC Where to start if you're new to compliance frameworks Why policies and procedures matter more than most companies realize How AI is reshaping both cybersecurity threats and compliance tools The hidden business benefits of compliance beyond winning contracts Connect with Lori: cadra.com (http://cadra.com) | lori.crooks@cadra.com (mailto:lori.crooks@cadra.com) | LinkedIn: Lori Crooks 00:00 Introduction to Government Contracting 02:28 Navigating Compliance Frameworks 05:12 Understanding FedRAMP and GovRAMP 08:02 Starting Your Journey in Government Contracts 10:48 The Importance of Early Engagement 13:31 Maintaining Compliance and Continuous Monitoring 16:10 Automation in Compliance Processes 18:50 Organizing Information for Audits 21:39 Utilizing Tools for Compliance Management 22:55 Navigating Compliance Standards 24:06 Assessing Readiness for Compliance 25:32 The Importance of Comprehensive Policies 27:41 The Role of Documentation in Compliance 29:44 How to Reach Out for Compliance Help 32:06 Understanding the Rewards of Compliance 35:42 The Impact of AI on Compliance Standards 38:36 Future Changes in Compliance Landscape 40:58 Starting with Compliance Early

11. 

    5 Jun 2026

    Who Owns the Knowledge? Building a Content Culture That Actually Sticks

    In this episode of Ground Control, Sr. Director of Customer Success Lindsey Bohlender and Customer Success Associate Mallory Ulrich sit down to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing proposal teams, content managers, and business development professionals today: how do you build a knowledge management system that actually stays current, organized, and valuable over time? Whether you are a brand new RocketDocs customer going through onboarding or a seasoned team looking to level up your content operations, this episode is loaded with practical, real world advice you can start applying immediately. The conversation kicks off with a deep dive into content ownership and accountability, exploring how organizations of all sizes, from small teams without a dedicated content manager to large enterprises with multiple subject matter experts and compliance stakeholders, can create a culture where everyone takes responsibility for keeping information accurate and up to date. Lindsey and Mallory break down how leadership buy-in is the single most important factor in driving adoption of any new process or content management workflow, and how framing the conversation around efficiency, time savings, and risk reduction is the key to getting executives and team leaders on board. From there, the episode gets into the nuts and bolts of organizing your knowledge base in a way that mirrors your actual business structure, including how to segment content by department, product line, deal size, and ARR tier so that autofill and automated workflows can do the heavy lifting when deadlines hit. They also cover how to use usage counts, content reporting, and date tracking to identify what is performing, what is stale, and what should be archived so your subject matter experts are not wasting time maintaining records that are never being used in live proposals, RFPs, DDQs, or security questionnaires. Lindsey and Mallory also discuss the importance of proactive content review cycles, whether that means quarterly audits, annual cleanups during slower business periods, or automated review reminders built directly into your workflow, so your team is never scrambling to get fifty SMEs to review a two hundred question document the week it is due. The episode wraps with a conversation about how reducing that reactive, deadline driven chaos is not just good for efficiency but is also critical for compliance, audit trails, and demonstrating to regulators and clients exactly where your content came from and when it was approved. If you are in proposal management, sales operations, revenue enablement, legal, compliance, or anywhere in between, this episode will give you a fresh perspective on how to build a knowledge base that your whole team will actually use, trust, and maintain. 00:00 Maximizing Value from Rocket Docs 02:41 Ownership and Responsibility in Content Management 05:38 Utilizing Reporting for Effective Content Management 08:55 Determining Focus Areas for Content Updates 11:22 Organizing Information for New Customers 15:09 Implementing Effective Workflows 18:30 Leadership Buy-In for Process Adoption

12. 

    29 May 2026

    AI, Privacy and the Art of Keeping It Simple with Gary Murry

    RocketDocs CTO Gary Murry joins Perry Robinson and Bryan Jenkins on Ground Control for a conversation that covers a lot of ground. Gary started his career as a mathematician, landed a contract role at Apple in the late eighties, and has spent the decades since working across some of the most interesting corners of Silicon Valley technology. Now he leads engineering at RocketDocs, where his team is navigating one of the most transformative moments in the company's thirty-year history. In this episode, Gary breaks down the thinking behind RocketDocs' latest product release, including features built around simplifying Excel downloads from web portals, marking questions from inside the Launchpad Word plugin, locking down SharePoint permissions at a more granular level, and automating reminders so that both project contributors and knowledge base owners stay on track without needing to be chased down manually. Each feature traces back to a real pain point Gary's team heard directly from customers, and he explains how they use those conversations to decide what to build, what to generalize, and what to leave out entirely. Gary also shares a grounded and practical perspective on where AI is today versus where people imagine it to be. He talks through why RocketDocs built on a RAG-based model to reduce hallucinations, why giving the AI permission to not answer a question was one of the most important decisions they made, and where even the most advanced generative models still break down when faced with common sense problems. For anyone working in proposals or adjacent fields, his advice on how to review AI-generated content and where errors tend to sneak in is genuinely useful. The episode wraps with rapid-fire questions on favorite technologies, what Gary would and would never use general AI tools for, and why his answer to staying relevant in an AI-powered world comes down to one thing: go play with it and see what happens. 00:00 Introduction to Gary Murry and His Background 02:44 Transition from Mathematics to Technology 05:29 Joining Rocket Docs and Embracing Change 08:23 Balancing Work and Personal Interests 11:14 Feature Prioritization and Customer Feedback 14:03 Innovations in Rocket Docs and AI Impact 16:45 Navigating Customer Requests and Simplifying Solutions 20:54 Meaningful Steps in Scrum Development 21:42 The Importance of Tinkering with Technology 23:25 Understanding AI: Current State vs. Science Fiction 25:11 Limitations of AI: Common Sense and Logic 27:20 Navigating AI's Logical Leaps 28:28 Hallucinations in AI Responses 30:26 Keeping Content Healthy with AI 31:30 Future of AI in Content Curation 32:06 Favorite Technologies and Their Applications 33:32 Privacy Concerns with AI 34:37 Challenges in AI Efficiency 35:29 Essential Skills for the Future: Prompt Writing 36:27 The Joy of Tinkering and Learning

13. 

    22 May 2026

    Your AI Sounds Like Everyone Else's: Here's How to Fix It

    In this episode of Ground Control, host Lexi Hotchkin sits down with Perry Robinson and Bryan Jenkins to tackle the most pressing questions hitting proposal and RFP teams right now. How do you keep your brand voice when AI is writing your responses? What happens when buyers start banning public AI tools from the RFP process? And is building your own AI solution actually saving you money, or quietly killing your competitive edge? The conversation covers retrieval augmented generation (RAG) and why your content library is your biggest differentiator, the rise of new AI driven roles like content strategist and AI library manager, the shadow AI confidentiality risks nobody is talking about yet, and the IKEA vs Meta case study that reframes what smart AI adoption actually looks like. Whether you are a proposal manager, sales leader, procurement professional, or RFP specialist, this episode gives you the frameworks to stay competitive, stay compliant, and sound like yourself, not a robot. What you will learn in this episode: how to maintain brand voice in AI generated proposals, what RAG technology is and how it works for RFP teams, how to build and manage an AI content library, who should own your AI knowledge base, the real cost of building vs buying AI tools, how to keep subject matter experts engaged in the proposal process, what shadow AI risk means for enterprise sales teams, how AI is changing roles in proposal management and procurement, what the IKEA and Meta approaches to AI workforce strategy can teach your team, and how to write RFP responses that win whether a human or an AI is scoring them. Topics covered include RFP automation, proposal management software, AI for sales teams, enterprise AI adoption, retrieval augmented generation, content library management, human in the loop AI, AI governance, procurement technology, bid management, shadow AI risk, build vs buy AI, AI workforce strategy, content strategy, and RFP response best practices.

14. 

    15 May 2026

    Kristina Nolan Reveals the Real Power of AI in RFPs: 80% Compliant + 30% Compelling

    Most proposal professionals focus on answering RFP questions, but Kristina Nolan reveals how mastering the art and science behind proposals can unlock exponential growth for your team. Discover how strategic thinking, building relationships, and understanding the buyer's mindset can transform a standard response into a powerful competitive advantage. Kristina, Proposal Strategy Manager at the Deals Desk at HubSpot, shares her journey from international relations to proposal mastery. She explains how her background in critical thinking and game theory influences her approach. Kristina uncovers hidden tactics used to influence procurement processes, such as leveraging public information, timing, and relationship-building, even in unpredictable environments. Learn why a proactive, consultative approach often outperforms reactive tactics, especially when resources are limited. In this episode, you'll learn how to identify signals that indicate whether an opportunity is worth pursuing amidst fierce competition. Discover the secret sauce for evaluating deals based on both data and intuition. Understand why AI isn't just about automation; it’s a tool to ensure compliance and identify gaps early, while still leaving room for the human touch to craft compelling narratives. Explore the importance of understanding industry language and competitor cues to spot influence and avoid misleading AI outputs. Get practical tips for embedding equity, diversity, and sustainability into your proposal strategy, even when organizational support is limited.Mastering proposal responses is not just a skill; it’s a strategic move to dominate your market. Whether you're in SaaS, government contracting, or any competitive industry, Kristina’s insights will help you turn proposals from mere checkboxes into door-openers, creating trust, shaping buying decisions, and accelerating growth.This episode is perfect for proposal managers, sales strategists, and business leaders committed to winning smarter, not harder. If you want your proposal team to deliver more than just answers, if you aim to influence, predict, and win, this episode is your blueprint.

15. 

    8 May 2026

    From Spreadsheets to AI: One Critical Step Proposal Teams Must Take

    The procurement landscape is shifting at light speed. In this episode of Ground Control, we sit down with Christina Godfrey Carter, Founder of Stargazy.io (http://Stargazy.io) and host of  ⁨@thestargazybrief⁩ (https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCuzlnAf_sPwzlkKVGTA2dxg), to deconstruct the future of proposal management. We explore the seismic shift caused by AI—moving beyond "spreadsheet chaos" and toward sophisticated, data-driven decision-making. Christina shares her expertise on the high-stakes side of AI integration, tackling the non-negotiables: rigorous security, compliance, and the critical need for accuracy in automated responses. Whether you are a seasoned proposal writer or a procurement leader, this conversation provides a clear roadmap for the evolving role of the RFP professional in an AI-driven world. Key Takeaways The Stargazy Perspective: How modern consultancy is shaping the next generation of proposal strategy. The AI Transformation: Moving from buzzwords to core utilities in the RFP lifecycle. Security & Compliance: Why accuracy is the only metric that matters when integrating AI tools. The Human Element: Why the role of the RFP professional is shifting toward strategic knowledge curation and content management. Beyond the Spreadsheet: Navigating the transition to specialized tools for a more competitive response. Chapters 00:00 The Evolution of Procurement 05:09 Strategy Session: Creating a Comprehensive Report 20:03 The Great Shift: From Spreadsheets to RFP Tools 26:51 How AI is Rewriting the RFP Response 32:10 The Ethics of AI: Security, Compliance, and Accuracy 40:32 The Evolving Role of RFP Professionals 49:45 Future Casting: The Next Era of Proposal Writing and Stargazy’s Vision

16. 

    1 May 2026

    Beyond the Algorithm: Building the Library of Truth

    The future of procurement is moving at Mach 1. As AI evolves from a luxury to a baseline requirement, the biggest risk isn't being left behind: it's sounding exactly like everyone else. In the inaugural episode of Ground Control, your mission leads, Perry and Bryan, dive into the high-stakes intersection of traditional proposal management and the high-tech future. We tackle the tough questions facing today’s sales and procurement leaders: The Homogenization Trap: If every competitor uses AI to automate their RFPs, how do you move beyond "answering the question" to actually shaping the requirement? The Library vs. The Algorithm: In a market of "perfect" AI guesses, how do you prove your pitch is backed by a verified "Library of Truth"? Governance as an Accelerator: How to build a framework that protects your unique "Human Voice" and prevents innovation from dying in a sea of restrictive policies. A Culture of Skepticism: Addressing the danger of "plausible hallucinations" in enterprise tech and how to prioritize security over pure speed. Ground Control is officially online. Join us as we explore how RocketDocs and Luma provide the audit trails and verified data needed to win the race to the top. Let’s get to work.

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