by David Kent
Welcome to the 'Lead Smarter. Not Harder' Podcast by David Kent, your window into the minds of visionary leaders, trailblazing innovators, and savvy business owners. Get ready to immerse yourself in the captivating stories and invaluable lessons from the best and brightest minds in the business.
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Publishing Since
5/6/2024
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July 23, 2026
<p>Ben Mimmack runs Sulis Capital, an independent sponsor focused on the lower middle market. He buys businesses where the founder retains a meaningful minority stake and stays operationally engaged as a leader of leaders.</p><p>Which makes day one of any acquisition a relational problem before it's an operational one. In this conversation, Ben walks through why coming in with a “my way or the highway” mindset is the fastest way to torch the value of a business you just paid millions for. He talks about how trust gets built long before the deal closes, how to free a founder to do what they love and offload what drains them, and why the best deals rarely go to the highest bidder.</p><p><br>The bigger thread underneath all of it is what it takes to lead people who know more about their work than you do. That's a leadership discipline most of us never get formal practice in, and Ben has built an entire business around it.</p><p>If you're building toward a future where partners, capital, or a buyer become part of your story, the relational groundwork Ben describes is exactly the kind of work we help clients with at Unbottleneck.</p><p></p><ul><li>(00:00) - - Introduction to Lead Smarter Podcast </li> <li>(00:25) - - Meet Ben Mimmack of Sulis Investment Capital </li> <li>(01:12) - - Insights on Leadership and Acquisitions </li> <li>(01:44) - - The Importance of Relationship-First Approach </li> <li>(03:15) - - Understanding Sulis Capital's Business Model </li> <li>(04:45) - - Navigating Founder Dynamics After Acquisition </li> <li>(06:10) - - The Role of an Empowered Advisor </li> <li>(07:00) - - Establishing Trust with Founders </li> <li>(09:45) - - Managing Founder Expectations and Communication </li> <li>(11:16) - - Building Alignment Across Stakeholders </li> <li>(12:00) - - Overcoming Negative Perceptions of Private Equity </li> <li>(14:10) - - The Importance of Open Communication </li> <li>(17:00) - - Trust-Building in Private Equity Transactions </li> <li>(19:30) - - The Value of the Lower Middle Market </li> <li>(23:00) - - Differentiating Factors in Private Equity </li> <li>(28:10) - - The Impact of Quantum Computing on Business </li> <li>(36:00) - - Advice for Future Generations </li> <li>(41:00) - - Reflection on Leadership and Relationships </li> <li>(42:01) - - Closing Remarks and Episode Wrap-Up</li> </ul>
July 9, 2026
<p><br>Brian Anderson joined me on the show, and we explored what it takes to lead an organization through a shift as big as AI, and why that kind of leadership has to start with the leader going first.</p><p><br>Brian is the CEO and co-founder of Augusto Digital, where he helps organizations harness AI, custom software, and rapid innovation to drive real business outcomes. He has spent over two decades building software, products, and teams, and has guided Augusto through a full pivot toward applied AI.</p><p><br>In our conversation, Brian was candid about the fear and uncertainty of changing direction, the decision to go all in on AI before his team was ready and what it meant to lead by example by doing the work himself first. Brian is honest about the flip side of moving forward, that not everyone comes along for the journey, including good people he valued.</p><p><br>We also got into something I keep coming back to. Brian made Augusto the first client of its own services, applying the same AI systems and processes internally before ever selling them to clients. His point was that it is a lot easier to sell something you have already lived with and have your own results to point to.</p><p><br>This was something deeper than a conversation about AI. It surfaced that change happens when the leader is willing to go first, sit in the discomfort of being ahead of the team and let the work make the case.</p><p><br>Worth your time if you can see where your company needs to go but your team isn’t quite ready to follow.</p><p><strong><br>About Brian Anderson:<br></strong><br></p><p><br>Brian Anderson is the CEO and co-founder of Augusto Digital, where he helps organizations harness artificial intelligence, custom software, and rapid innovation to drive ROI-driven business outcomes. With over two decades of experience in software, product development, and entrepreneurship, Brian leads Augusto in guiding clients across industries through complex digital transformation and product development initiatives. His current focus is Augusto's AI Solutions practice, where he works directly with leadership teams to identify low-friction, high-ROI use cases through AI Accelerator Workshops. Guided by Augusto's Digital Pace Framework, Rumble to Quick Wins to Accelerate, he helps clients unlock momentum and clarity by delivering value early and often. Before founding Augusto in 2016, Brian built and led software practices at OST and NuSoft Solutions and launched several SaaS ventures, including Tourneytopia, PayIt2, and TallySheet.</p><p><br>🌐 To learn more about Augusto, head over to: https://augusto.digital</p><p><strong><br>About the Host:<br></strong><br></p><p><br>David Kent is the host of The Lead Smarter Podcast, where he has honest, grounded conversations with leaders shaping the future of work, leadership, and organizational growth.</p><p><br>👀 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/gya-Qgx0dzY </p><p><br>🔗 Follow David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-james-kent/</p><p></p><ul><li>(00:00) - - Welcome to Lead Smarter Podcast </li> <li>(00:26) - - Introduction to Brian Anderson </li> <li>(01:57) - - Brian's Entry into Entrepreneurship </li> <li>(02:33) - - Getting Fired and Its Impact </li> <li>(03:48) - - Transitioning to Full-Time Entrepreneurship </li> <li>(05:06) - - The Journey of Becoming a Leader </li> <li>(08:03) - - Creating an Entrepreneurial Culture </li> <li>(09:08) - - Evolving Company Mission </li> <li>(10:42) - - Balancing Vision and Operations </li> <li>(12:17) - - Managing Team Engagement </li> <li>(14:13) - - Navigating AI Landscape </li> <li>(16:05) - - Embracing AI in Business </li> <li>(18:00) - - Applying AI to Own Services </li> <li>(19:57) - - Change Management in AI Adoption </li> <li>(22:37) - - Addressing Client Change Management </li> <li>(27:09) - - Importance of Focused Quick Wins </li> <li>(30:57) - - Leveraging Client Engagement Models </li> <li>(35:02) - - Surprising Outcomes from Rumble </li> <li>(39:19) - - Sources of Information for AI </li> <li>(40:11) - - Personal Development and Learning </li> <li>(41:02) - - Advice to Younger Self </li> <li>(42:07) - - How to Connect with Augusto Digital</li> </ul>
June 25, 2026
<p>"The fact that you're even willing to doubt yourself means you're self-aware enough that if you didn't feel like you were doing a great job, you would go and try to improve yourself. So David, I pronounce you, based on the power vested in me, a good leader." - Ben Arendt</p><p><br>I'd just told Ben I wasn't sure I'd qualify as a good leader if I actually took the test. He gave me a pass anyway, and his reasoning was this: a leader's willingness to ask whether they’re getting it right is the very thing that suggests they might be.</p><p><br>In this conversation, we get into </p><ul><li>Why management gets treated as a rite of passage when it should be treated as a skill set that takes real training</li><li>The two habits Ben recommends a manager start with tomorrow, beginning with an honest conversation about where you're strong and where you're not</li><li>Emotional regulation and self-awareness, the two qualities Ben would add to almost any list of what makes a manager effective</li><li>The "sugar cube" idea, meaning small, specific moments of recognition that build real trust over time</li><li>The mental shortcuts that lead managers to misread their own people</li><li>Why sales leadership is one of the toughest management transitions, and what high performers consistently miss when they step into leading a team</li><li>The single piece of advice Ben would give his younger self about how to read difficult moments with other people</li></ul><p>Management rarely comes with a manual, so if you'd rather not be the manager people complain about at dinner, consider this the kind of training most people never get.</p><p><strong>About Ben Arendt</strong> </p><p>Ben is the author of the Amazon best-selling How to Suck Less as a Manager and the founder of Depth Charge Consulting. He has spent his career advising leaders across technology, energy, government, healthcare, financial services, and beyond, supporting hundreds of executives through growth, transformation, and the work of becoming a leader people actually want to follow.</p><p>📘 Ben’s resources and books can be found here: <br><a href="https://depthchargeconsulting.com/tools-and-templates/">https://depthchargeconsulting.com/tools-and-templates/</a></p><p><a href="https://depthchargeconsulting.com/published-works/">https://depthchargeconsulting.com/published-works/</a> </p><p>🌐 To stay up to date with all of Ben’s work, head over to: </p><p><a href="https://depthchargeconsulting.com/">https://depthchargeconsulting.com/</a> </p><p>---------------</p><p><strong>About the Host:</strong></p><p>David Kent is the host of The Lead Smarter Podcast, where he has honest, grounded conversations with leaders shaping the future of work, leadership, and organizational growth.</p><p>👀 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/0ibK8lRUlvE </p><p>🔗 Follow David on LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-james-kent/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-james-kent/</a></p><p>If you got value from this episode, hit subscribe and leave a review. It genuinely helps us bring more conversations like this to the feed.</p><p><br>Building a team that needs the right people behind it? That's exactly the kind of work we help clients with at Unbottleneck: https://cal.com/david-kent/meeting-with-david-kent-unbottleneck </p><p><br></p>
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Welcome to the 'Lead Smarter. Not Harder' Podcast by David Kent, your window into the minds of visionary leaders, trailblazing innovators, and savvy business owners.
Get ready to immerse yourself in the captivating stories and invaluable lessons from the best and brightest minds in the business.
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