Unpolished MBA

About Unpolished MBA

Entrepreneurs are sometimes called "unpolished" because they are scrappy and unconventional when starting a business. On this podcast, we speak with entrepreneurs and innovators. Some went to Business School and have a formal MBA degree while others don't. Did it make a difference? Nope! They share the answer to that as well as other pieces of wisdom. To listen to all episodes, apply to become a guest, or a sponsor go to www.unpolishedmba.com

Publisher

Unpolished MBA®

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

28 Jul 2020

Latest episode

23 Jan 2026

Latest episodes

8 of 177 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   23 Jan 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Episode 158 - Kind but cut-throat -Wrapping Up Season 11

   Wrapping up Season 11 of Unpolished MBA. Lesson of 2025: People may appear kind/nice/assertive/confident and be ill-intentioned and cut-throat in business. Become an Unpolished MBA Guest: https://unpolishedmba.com (https://unpolishedmba.com/) Follow Monique Mills LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moniquemills/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/moniquemills/) Bio Website: https://moniquemills.biz/ (https://moniquemills.biz/) TPM Focus - Strategy Firm for Startups and SMBs: https://tpmfocus.com/ (https://tpmfocus.com/)

2. 

   20 Dec 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Episode 157 - No More Guesswork: Scaling CPG and Food and Beverage with Sabeen Abbas

   In this episode, we're joined by Sabeen Abbas, founder of Hatch Line Consulting, to unpack what it really means to turn product strategy into action in the CPG and food and beverage world. Sabeen shares how she transitioned from corporate America to entrepreneurship just one year ago, why she chose to focus on CPG, and how she uses decision frameworks and stakeholder clarity to help founders and leadership teams stop stalling and start moving. They dig into the reality that “strategy” is often misunderstood, and that what leaders call “too tactical” is sometimes the exact mechanism required to execute. Sabeen explains her approach to fractional product and commercial leadership, why the shelf is where the truth lives in CPG, and how a company’s packaging decision is never just design, it is context, category dynamics, and buyer and consumer behavior. Key takeaways and insights Entrepreneurship is not always a side hustle story. For some people, it starts when they are ready to own their own hamster wheel instead of running on someone else’s. In CPG, product strategy is inseparable from retail reality. The shelf context and category are part of the strategy, not an afterthought. Decision-making is a leadership skill. Delaying decisions creates momentum and focus problems across the organization. Stakeholder management drives execution. Many “contradictions” in meetings are actually stakeholder pressure playing out in real time. A useful rule of thumb for options: if you only have two, you have not thought hard enough. If you have a hundred, you have not filtered. Aim for a strong option C. “Strategy” is getting a bad reputation because some leaders have never learned how to connect strategy to action. Good strategy is operational, not performative. Follow Sabeen Abbas LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabeenabbas/ Company: Hatch Line Consulting https://www.hatchline.co/ Follow Monique Mills LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moniquemills/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/moniquemills/) Bio Website: https://moniquemills.biz/ (https://moniquemills.biz/) TPM Focus - Strategy Firm for Startups and SMBs: https://tpmfocus.com/ (https://tpmfocus.com/) Become an Unpolished MBA Guest: https://unpolishedmba.com (https://unpolishedmba.com/)

3. 

   5 Dec 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Episode 156 - Greedy, Lazy and Wrong? Rethinking the Story We Tell About Capitalism with guest Douglas Stevens PhD

   Monique Mills interviews Douglas Stevens PhD, who analyzes capitalism's pressures and explores rebuilding its moral foundation by examining past thinkers and economic theory.

Inside a recent episode

Episode 158 - Kind but cut-throat -Wrapping Up Season 11

Published 23 Jan 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] And so and really for for leaders in general. So assertiveness is not aggression. It's not dominance. It's not micro management. It's it's clarity. It's saying what you mean and meaning what you say and setting expectations without an apology. And so she talked about it so clearly and the line that line that is setting expectations without apology, that line really stuck with me because as I look back at the lessons learned in 2025 business wise, I have a whole list. I mean the defend the learning never ends. But one of the things it's not just in business. I would say life overall is that I've learned that there are very nice people in business who are very cutthroat. […]

Who has been a guest on Unpolished MBA

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Douglas Stevens
• Andy Goldstrom
• Dr Julie Gurner
• Lisa McGuire
• Lisa Shaw

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

5 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 54 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

84

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

60

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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