No Plan Survives is about what happens when our business vision crashes into our business reality – and the new things we create as a result.
This is a limited series: Two entrepreneurs, five days, five topics. Each day we each bring one story from our business journeys, told in three acts:
· What was your plan?
· How did reality wreck it?
· What was born as a result?
Then we interrogate those stories – and each other.
This is a business show that feels more “beer at five” than “Monday morning coffee.” You might hear our tips and frameworks, but it’s not about the frameworks. It’s about what happens when theory crashes into practice – and transforms.
And we get transformed, too.
Hosts:
· Benjie Hughes is the founder of Hopeless Marketing and a classic “Act 1” builder: In his 20s he started a music business from scratch, grew it, scaled it, exited it. Now he’s in his 40s and starting from scratch again.
· Mike Carpenter is the owner and CEO at RH Adhesives and a classic “Act 2” builder: He took over an existing manufacturer with a 75-year legacy and then doubled its business. Now he’s building software tools that might just find a market beyond his own shop’s needs.
They say no plan survives first contact with the enemy. That’s true in all this week’s topics: Vision, revenue, marketing, data and uncertainty.
But it’s also true that when plans die, new things rise up to take their place.
Find and follow Mike and Benjie at noplan.show.
What about the curveballs nobody saw coming? In this fifth and (for now) final episode of No Plan Survives, Mike Carpenter and Benjie Hughes talk about the business challenges no one knew were coming. From unanticipated flops to market shifts and tech transitions, it seems the only thing we’re always coping with is change. ➡️ Mike opens with the story of how his company found a major new opportunity for a decades-old adhesive – and then failed the test that would have opened the door. Ho...
28 Sept 2026
Day 4: Dreams vs Data
When do numbers lead and when do they deceive? In this fourth episode of No Plan Survives, Benjie Hughes and Mike Carpenter discuss how business data can clarify or obscure – and explore how numbers seem to serve us best when we keep humans at the center of our choices. ➡️ Benjie talks about his first board, his first P&L, and how the pendulum swing from having no reports to over-measuring – and then back again. He shares how he simplified his first company’s reporting and why the K...
21 Sept 2026
Day 3: Message vs Market
What if your customers don’t care as much as you do? In this third episode of No Plan Survives, Mike Carpenter and Benjie Hughes discuss how mission impacts messaging – and ask what happens when customer behavior doesn’t line up with the things we want it to. ➡️ Mike recounts how his company shifted from relying on resellers in the B2C space to managing its own B2C sales – and unpacks the messaging challenges that came along with that. If your B2B audience is quality-obsessed and your B...
14 Sept 2026
Day 2: Values vs Revenue
Do financial needs reshape your other priorities? In this second episode of No Plan Survives, Benjie Hughes and Mike Carpenter talk about how values shape the way we manage growth – and what happens when the right thing and the profitable thing don’t seem to line up right. ➡️ Benjie tells the story of how his Chicago wedding music business expanded fast, imploded faster and finally bore unexpected fruit – but only after a drastic reinvention. He reflects on how his value of empowering p...
7 Sept 2026
Day 1: Founder vs Owner
How does reality reshape your business vision? In this first episode of No Plan Survives, Mike Carpenter and Benjie Hughes talk about the difference between being a business founder and becoming a business owner - and how business reality reshapes what success means. ➡️ Mike traces his entrepreneurial path from childhood hustles to buying RH Adhesives, a manufacturer in his hometown with a 75-year legacy. He explores the unexpected setbacks that came with growth and the resilience required ...
13 Aug 2026
This is No Plan Survives.
No Plan Survives is about what happens when our business vision crashes into our business reality – and the new things we create as a result. This is a limited series: Two entrepreneurs, five days, five topics. Each day we each bring one story from our business journeys, told in three acts: What was your plan?How did reality wreck it?What was born as a result?Then we interrogate those stories – and each other. This is a business show that feels more “beer at five” than “Monday morning coffee....
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
12 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
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