Meeting Title: Brainforge Go-to-Market Strategy Discussion Date: 2026-01-15 Meeting participants: Clarence Stone, Luke Scorziell, Luke’s Notetaker
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1 00:00:48.440 ⇒ 00:00:49.949 Clarence Stone: Hey, Luke, what’s up?
2 00:00:49.950 ⇒ 00:00:51.610 Luke Scorziell: Hey, Clarence, how’s it going?
3 00:00:52.590 ⇒ 00:01:01.560 Clarence Stone: Yeah. It’s been a busy week. I’ve not been able to clear out all the messages in the Slack channels.
4 00:01:02.220 ⇒ 00:01:06.550 Clarence Stone: for, like… All of this year so far.
5 00:01:06.550 ⇒ 00:01:16.210 Luke Scorziell: Oh, dang. Yeah, that’s… that’s a lot. How… just, I mean, I know you’re kind of launching this new operating system with Brainforge. Is that…
6 00:01:16.420 ⇒ 00:01:18.459 Luke Scorziell: That’s just requiring a lot from you.
7 00:01:18.690 ⇒ 00:01:33.450 Clarence Stone: No, no, no, I don’t think it’s that. You know, I think that the team is doing amazing, in terms of, like, taking up ownership and starting to, you know, pick up characteristics of leadership.
8 00:01:33.790 ⇒ 00:01:36.620 Clarence Stone: I, I think a lot of this is, you know.
9 00:01:37.140 ⇒ 00:01:51.110 Clarence Stone: just to indicate that Brainforge is a really communicative company, like, there’s a lot of conversations going on. That’s a good thing, like, it’s just for me, like, I should be on top of all of it, because, like, all of it touches, you know, the strategies that I’m putting together, it’s just…
10 00:01:51.500 ⇒ 00:01:53.650 Clarence Stone: Just too much.
11 00:01:53.650 ⇒ 00:02:12.899 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, yeah. No, that makes sense. Well, hopefully I’m not… I won’t message you too much, I guess. But, yeah, I mean, I guess, thanks for making the time to chat. I figured it’d just be good to get to know you a little more.
12 00:02:13.150 ⇒ 00:02:17.790 Luke Scorziell: Like, obviously being on, like, the go-to-market side and marketing, there’s more of a…
13 00:02:18.110 ⇒ 00:02:24.689 Luke Scorziell: Like, there’s a bit of a… maybe split a little bit between us and the,
14 00:02:25.140 ⇒ 00:02:35.880 Luke Scorziell: delivery and engineering side. But yeah, I’ve really… I mean, obviously, like, I think the… what we’re rolling out in terms of the new leadership structure is really interesting. It’ll be interesting to talk about.
15 00:02:36.150 ⇒ 00:02:41.840 Luke Scorziell: like… on… on our channel, like, LinkedIn and whatnot, too.
16 00:02:42.260 ⇒ 00:02:46.930 Luke Scorziell: But, yeah, I guess I’d love to hear more about, like, your background, where you’re coming from, what…
17 00:02:46.930 ⇒ 00:03:02.379 Clarence Stone: Oh yeah, sure. Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these intro calls, so I keep forgetting. I do need to fully introduce myself. I, so, how do I explain how I got here? I, like,
18 00:03:02.820 ⇒ 00:03:11.490 Clarence Stone: I left Ernst & Young, last year, and my role there was being head of go-to-market for AI,
19 00:03:11.490 ⇒ 00:03:12.159 Luke Scorziell: Oh, okay.
20 00:03:12.160 ⇒ 00:03:36.880 Clarence Stone: specifically for the financial services sector. So, I had a $20 million book of business that was… I was kind of holding for over three and a half years, and I was just not getting a promotion to partner coming anytime soon because of, like, just the market constricting and stuff like that. So, kind of dropped all of that and said, hey, I’ll go and create my own, platform that provides local AI inference
21 00:03:36.900 ⇒ 00:03:42.670 Clarence Stone: Because a lot of the clients that I had, we couldn’t sell to because they didn’t want to put their data on the cloud.
22 00:03:42.780 ⇒ 00:03:52.409 Clarence Stone: I’m talking about, like, PEs and hedge funds where they’re making trade or fund decisions, and they don’t even want other people in the organization to know what their trade strategies are, right?
23 00:03:52.410 ⇒ 00:03:52.990 Luke Scorziell: Yeah.
24 00:03:52.990 ⇒ 00:04:03.600 Clarence Stone: So, asking them to put that on the cloud, that’s… that’s out of the question. So, I created this inference system, and funny enough, towards the tail end of last year, it got,
25 00:04:03.810 ⇒ 00:04:18.329 Clarence Stone: the licensing for it, got purchased by a private equity company, out in Shiner. So it’s a family-owned PE that’s been around forever. They bought the technology and, hired my two employees.
26 00:04:18.329 ⇒ 00:04:29.939 Clarence Stone: So I went to Tom, and I was like, hey, I don’t have much going on, is there anything I can help with? And, you know, initially it was just, you know, for me to give them the strategy and formula for operationalizing teams.
27 00:04:29.940 ⇒ 00:04:33.620 Clarence Stone: But now, I’m kind of in it.
28 00:04:34.330 ⇒ 00:04:42.040 Clarence Stone: And, quick recap, prior to all of that, you know, I did, 11 years as an Army Reservist, cyber officer.
29 00:04:42.040 ⇒ 00:04:42.670 Luke Scorziell: Okay.
30 00:04:42.890 ⇒ 00:04:56.820 Clarence Stone: I, out of college, I had a venture-backed startup that didn’t go very far, because we were all a bunch of 22-year-olds. And then, like, rest of my career is a lot of front-end design, UX design, product management, and stuff like that.
31 00:04:57.300 ⇒ 00:05:00.879 Luke Scorziell: Oh, dang, okay, cool. So you’ve done… you’ve kind of been all over.
32 00:05:00.880 ⇒ 00:05:01.880 Clarence Stone: Yeah.
33 00:05:01.880 ⇒ 00:05:08.140 Luke Scorziell: Nice. Very cool. Yeah, it’s funny, so I… I guess I can give you a little bit of my story. I…
34 00:05:10.470 ⇒ 00:05:16.560 Luke Scorziell: Grew up in Lake Arrowhead, so mountain town, and SoCal. I don’t know, where are you… where are you based right now?
35 00:05:16.560 ⇒ 00:05:20.950 Clarence Stone: Oh yeah, I grew up in Jersey, but I’m in San Antonio now.
36 00:05:21.310 ⇒ 00:05:23.270 Luke Scorziell: Okay, so you’re… yeah, so…
37 00:05:23.910 ⇒ 00:05:28.339 Luke Scorziell: It’s, like, 2 hours outside of LA, up in the mountains. I guess they don’t even have mountains in Texas.
38 00:05:28.560 ⇒ 00:05:29.870 Luke Scorziell: Which is crazy to me.
39 00:05:30.750 ⇒ 00:05:40.700 Luke Scorziell: But yeah, then came… went to school at USC, got a journalism degree, kind of learned about entrepreneurship the final year that I was there.
40 00:05:40.920 ⇒ 00:05:45.930 Luke Scorziell: Just coming up on, like, 4 years ago now. And…
41 00:05:46.410 ⇒ 00:05:54.500 Luke Scorziell: Just in, yeah, I wanted to kind of launch my own stuff, so try to do, like, a marketing, freelance stuff, and an online leadership course for someone.
42 00:05:54.720 ⇒ 00:06:00.679 Luke Scorziell: Like, a former banking executive up in Seattle. So it was really fun, but then I got a job
43 00:06:00.860 ⇒ 00:06:03.670 Luke Scorziell: Maybe you’d be familiar with, ThirdBridge?
44 00:06:05.190 ⇒ 00:06:06.270 Clarence Stone: Yeah, I’ve heard of them.
45 00:06:06.640 ⇒ 00:06:13.360 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, like, Like, they’re an expert network, so they work pretty closely with private equity firms.
46 00:06:13.470 ⇒ 00:06:17.190 Luke Scorziell: So I worked with, like, on the Bain and BCG accounts, and then…
47 00:06:17.410 ⇒ 00:06:19.719 Luke Scorziell: Led my own book of business with,
48 00:06:20.150 ⇒ 00:06:23.639 Luke Scorziell: two PE firms up in San Francisco,
49 00:06:23.860 ⇒ 00:06:27.690 Luke Scorziell: And… yeah, it was interesting, but I think just more… I’m more on the creative…
50 00:06:27.960 ⇒ 00:06:44.820 Luke Scorziell: like, side, and I think discovering marketing. So I quit that job about 2 years ago, and then on the, just with the vague sense of, I’d like to do something in marketing and branding. So I started having, kind of, coffee chats, and then launched my own brand strategy services.
51 00:06:44.980 ⇒ 00:06:50.009 Luke Scorziell: For smaller businesses, and then I’ve kind of been, then did all the marketing stuff.
52 00:06:50.380 ⇒ 00:06:53.080 Luke Scorziell: Ad campaigns and whatnot, and then,
53 00:06:53.400 ⇒ 00:06:56.459 Luke Scorziell: pitched, Brainforge at some point.
54 00:06:57.130 ⇒ 00:07:01.249 Luke Scorziell: Early last year, and then I guess it ended up working out,
55 00:07:01.760 ⇒ 00:07:02.200 Clarence Stone: No.
56 00:07:02.200 ⇒ 00:07:06.390 Luke Scorziell: So I’m sure there’s a lot that I would love to learn from you on the go-to-market.
57 00:07:06.390 ⇒ 00:07:11.690 Clarence Stone: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I guess,
58 00:07:11.830 ⇒ 00:07:14.600 Clarence Stone: Wait, wait a sec, are you still out in Cali, by the way?
59 00:07:14.600 ⇒ 00:07:16.549 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I live in West LA.
60 00:07:16.960 ⇒ 00:07:19.739 Clarence Stone: Nice! I wonder if it’s so good.
61 00:07:19.740 ⇒ 00:07:23.600 Luke Scorziell: I know, it’s like 72 and sunny right now, so…
62 00:07:24.510 ⇒ 00:07:27.809 Clarence Stone: It is… it’s 64, that’s not too bad here today.
63 00:07:27.810 ⇒ 00:07:28.730 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, that’s pretty good.
64 00:07:28.900 ⇒ 00:07:36.020 Clarence Stone: It was 40 degrees this morning, though, I was just like, this is unacceptable, I need to move. Can’t go looking farther south.
65 00:07:36.170 ⇒ 00:07:42.080 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, yeah, literally. Well, Southern California is always, always open for you.
66 00:07:42.080 ⇒ 00:07:54.750 Clarence Stone: So I have some cousins that are up in the Bay Area, so I do go up to San Fran, every other year, but I never get to make it down to SoCalibor since I left EY.
67 00:07:54.750 ⇒ 00:08:03.410 Clarence Stone: I have a… I had a client, Oak Tree, that was right in downtown. I would, stay at the Intercontinental, and…
68 00:08:03.410 ⇒ 00:08:04.020 Luke Scorziell: Oh, yeah.
69 00:08:04.020 ⇒ 00:08:08.560 Clarence Stone: Like, it… on the bajillionth floor, it was the best deal.
70 00:08:08.560 ⇒ 00:08:15.220 Luke Scorziell: No, that’s fine. We would go in college, to Intercontinental, and you can go up to, like, the 73rd floor, because it’s the…
71 00:08:15.220 ⇒ 00:08:15.819 Clarence Stone: Oh, yeah.
72 00:08:16.270 ⇒ 00:08:22.719 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, and then we would just walk around, and they have, like, yeah, just these decks and, like, a urinal that’s, like, you’re peeing on the window.
73 00:08:24.990 ⇒ 00:08:31.380 Clarence Stone: Crazy that, like, you can wake up, and then go outside, and you’re, like, literally in the clouds when you go to that lobby.
74 00:08:31.680 ⇒ 00:08:35.679 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, that’s insane. I’ve never spent the night there, but… That’s,
75 00:08:35.870 ⇒ 00:08:42.049 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, that’s… that’s… that’s crazy. So, yeah, I guess…
76 00:08:42.190 ⇒ 00:08:46.040 Luke Scorziell: And what… where were you in the military? You said Army?
77 00:08:46.300 ⇒ 00:08:47.090 Clarence Stone: Yeah.
78 00:08:47.090 ⇒ 00:08:48.850 Luke Scorziell: Okay, as a cybersecurity?
79 00:08:49.130 ⇒ 00:08:55.880 Clarence Stone: Yeah, so I actually started as a signal officer, because I am that old. If you didn’t have a cyber group, you know.
80 00:08:55.880 ⇒ 00:08:57.510 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, I have no clue what any of that means.
81 00:08:57.510 ⇒ 00:09:22.430 Clarence Stone: And I transitioned over to being a cyber officer when they initiated the pipeline. I was in the second cyber cohort, for officer classes, yeah. So, we were like the guinea pigs that wrote a lot of the SOPs, the documentation, or the structure of, like, how you want to, you know, coordinate offensive cyber effects. So, yeah, I mean, as an officer, like, it sounds like I’m on the keyboard doing all this
82 00:09:22.430 ⇒ 00:09:42.689 Clarence Stone: hacker stuff, it’s not. I’m managing teams, I’m managing processes, I’m trying to communicate how we coordinate fires with, you know, actual battlespace effects. I’m talking with a lot of, you know, ground forces to coordinate all that. So it’s… it’s a lot more managerial, with the topic of cyber, yeah.
83 00:09:42.690 ⇒ 00:09:55.040 Luke Scorziell: And now you’re kind of doing, I mean, at least for right now, the… like, it sounds like some of that forebrain Forge, where you’re helping with the culture and structure of the organization, and yeah, I guess, how has that been?
84 00:09:55.370 ⇒ 00:10:13.309 Clarence Stone: Oh, it’s been great! I find it really interesting, because, like, I’ve come from organizations that have tons of Type A personalities, right? A lot of back-going people that will probably fill up an entire call block if you let them.
85 00:10:13.610 ⇒ 00:10:21.659 Clarence Stone: And I’m not naturally, extroverted, like, it’s an adaptation that, over time, has gotten better and better.
86 00:10:21.810 ⇒ 00:10:22.210 Luke Scorziell: Huh.
87 00:10:22.210 ⇒ 00:10:38.219 Clarence Stone: But walking into this organization, it’s so different, because you have a lot of, like, really technically proficient people who are less Type A, right? And… but they want to… they wanna learn how to do that, right? So, it’s…
88 00:10:38.220 ⇒ 00:11:03.040 Clarence Stone: it’s really, like, a… the opposite or a flipped task from what I normally see, right? Because, like, I will get tons of communication, a lot of, you know, questions, a lot of talking when I… when I implement a new system like this. This group was fairly quiet until I started reaching out to people individually, making sure that they knew that, you know, this is a safe space. I’m… I’m not here to fire anybody, was the first thing that I had to
89 00:11:03.040 ⇒ 00:11:27.919 Clarence Stone: go and tell everyone, because they were all just so scared to talk to me. And then, like, you know, we launch this program, everyone gets a 5% bonus. They’re like, okay, Clarence really isn’t here to 5 bonus. Right? So, yeah, the challenges are a little different, but the tasks are all the same. And, you know, I just have to adjust the way I manage change here compared to other organizations because of that.
90 00:11:29.030 ⇒ 00:11:33.920 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, yeah. Huh, interesting. Yeah, that’s interesting. I mean, I’m still… I feel like every…
91 00:11:34.690 ⇒ 00:11:36.250 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, as much as I can learn.
92 00:11:36.250 ⇒ 00:11:44.879 Clarence Stone: from everyone here is helpful for me. Yeah, I mean, think about it this way, and this is, like, something that’s been on the back of my mind,
93 00:11:45.740 ⇒ 00:11:56.230 Clarence Stone: Like, if you were to distill consulting into its most perfect form, it’s like the pinnacle of communication transferred into actions or results.
94 00:11:56.230 ⇒ 00:12:15.320 Clarence Stone: Right. So, like, when we talk with our clients, and we fully understand what they need and how we can help them and support them, we fully understand what we need to build, and therefore the product that we provide them, or the service or the solution we give them, is going to be outclassed by anything that they can make themselves or their organizations can make.
95 00:12:15.320 ⇒ 00:12:16.230 Clarence Stone: Right.
96 00:12:16.410 ⇒ 00:12:17.400 Clarence Stone: So…
97 00:12:17.590 ⇒ 00:12:30.300 Clarence Stone: Like, when… when that becomes the basis of success, and you have tons of technical talent that you need to flow into a communication state,
98 00:12:30.300 ⇒ 00:12:31.630 Luke Scorziell: How do you…
99 00:12:31.860 ⇒ 00:12:37.840 Clarence Stone: You know, explain this gray area of relationships to people who think about things mechanically.
100 00:12:37.840 ⇒ 00:12:56.379 Clarence Stone: Right, so they go, I would like a checklist of all the work products that I need to create for managing my client. Well, your project is not like any other project. The way your client likes to work is not like how every other client likes to work. So as much as, like, I can give you advice.
101 00:12:56.380 ⇒ 00:13:14.720 Clarence Stone: on how to handle each situation, I cannot give you a checklist of everything that you need to do for that client. You have to kind of feel it, and build a relationship, and understand kind of stuff, right? There’s, like, no wax on, wax off to this, and I think that has been the challenge for
102 00:13:15.060 ⇒ 00:13:20.319 Clarence Stone: like, communicating that to the group, because up until, I think, like.
103 00:13:21.070 ⇒ 00:13:28.170 Clarence Stone: starting with this week, I used to get a lot of questions like that. It’s like, can you just give me a list of exactly everything I need to do?
104 00:13:28.440 ⇒ 00:13:32.520 Clarence Stone: Right, I’m like, okay, here’s the checklist. Build a relationship with your client.
105 00:13:33.010 ⇒ 00:13:33.780 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, yeah.
106 00:13:33.780 ⇒ 00:13:35.269 Clarence Stone: Be their best friend.
107 00:13:35.460 ⇒ 00:13:40.489 Clarence Stone: They’re like, okay, then how do I do that? I was like, well, there’s no max off to that, right?
108 00:13:40.950 ⇒ 00:13:57.490 Clarence Stone: But you can, like, you know, deconstruct conversations. You can bring me an email, you can come to me with a problem, and say, like, this is what the client said, this is what the mood was in the room, this is the situation, right? How should I read it? Yeah, we can deconstruct those things, right?
109 00:13:57.490 ⇒ 00:14:06.209 Clarence Stone: and come to an answer, but there isn’t, like, a logic flow you can go through in your head to make that all make sense. And I can’t document that for you.
110 00:14:06.970 ⇒ 00:14:07.570 Luke Scorziell: Huh.
111 00:14:07.820 ⇒ 00:14:15.049 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, which is interesting, because… yeah, well, one, I’m kind of the opposite, where, like, if you give me a list of things to do, it’s like.
112 00:14:15.630 ⇒ 00:14:16.390 Luke Scorziell: just…
113 00:14:16.390 ⇒ 00:14:18.410 Clarence Stone: Doesn’t compute. I mean, it’s like…
114 00:14:18.410 ⇒ 00:14:43.120 Clarence Stone: That’s what I’m saying, like, like, there’s, like, just two such different, distinct types of personalities, and they’ve all created adaptations in the workplace to help them succeed in their own past. But, like, the reality, you know, I think this is the biggest, you know, transformation flip with AI, is that all of these technical experts are realizing, waking up every day, realizing that AI is actually coming for their jobs for
115 00:14:43.790 ⇒ 00:14:49.429 Clarence Stone: Right, and what matters more is actually the soft skills that allow them to actually deliver quality products.
116 00:14:50.190 ⇒ 00:14:55.800 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think it’s really interesting that I think, like, I don’t know, we’ll see over the next few years, but it seems like
117 00:14:57.120 ⇒ 00:15:06.299 Luke Scorziell: a lot of the stuff that’s happening online might eventually move off. I mean, I don’t know, this is one of the theories that I have, where AI is doing most of it, and then people
118 00:15:06.370 ⇒ 00:15:18.840 Luke Scorziell: and the relationships that you have becomes infinitely more important than it ever has been, because it’s just… I mean, I don’t know, hopefully, that’s kind of my hope, is that, you know, we go back to more of a relational society than what we’re currently…
119 00:15:18.840 ⇒ 00:15:23.449 Clarence Stone: I mean, like, on the sales side, right, Luke? I…
120 00:15:23.930 ⇒ 00:15:34.990 Clarence Stone: I get a ton of work coming in from EY on my own, you know, like, consulting company, and I don’t want that work. I want that work to go to Brainforge.
121 00:15:35.210 ⇒ 00:15:47.220 Clarence Stone: That has been my task since the beginning of December, is like, how do I just take all of this work and transition it over to Brainforge and actually win even more work?
122 00:15:47.330 ⇒ 00:15:48.300 Clarence Stone: Right?
123 00:15:48.300 ⇒ 00:15:48.779 Luke Scorziell: Yeah. To that.
124 00:15:48.780 ⇒ 00:15:51.979 Clarence Stone: like, you know, we can actually grow the book here at Brainforge.
125 00:15:52.110 ⇒ 00:15:59.169 Clarence Stone: I don’t have to manage overhead and all this crap, right? And, can I integrate the two? So, like.
126 00:15:59.480 ⇒ 00:16:13.339 Clarence Stone: they’re, like, somebody would probably ask me, like, hey, how do you do it? Can you give me a step-by-step? There isn’t a step-by-step. There’s just a gut feeling at every gate where I go, this is the time to build that bridge or relationship.
127 00:16:13.340 ⇒ 00:16:14.640 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, yeah.
128 00:16:15.260 ⇒ 00:16:31.339 Clarence Stone: So, like, early December, like, I was helping EY win a $5 million deal for a client that I had before. That client just literally wanted to see my face and say, whatever’s on the screen, that’s good. So EY literally paid me just to go, like, go in and say, yes, that.
129 00:16:31.910 ⇒ 00:16:32.470 Luke Scorziell: Huh.
130 00:16:32.470 ⇒ 00:16:39.269 Clarence Stone: Right? And the client knows me, they’ve seen me all the time, so they just go, okay, well, if Clarence is gonna be involved, like, we’re good.
131 00:16:39.680 ⇒ 00:16:40.120 Luke Scorziell: Huh.
132 00:16:40.120 ⇒ 00:16:53.550 Clarence Stone: So we want that work, but in the morning, I would, you know, Claire was still worried because she’s the partner at EY that runs the account. She was like, well, you’re actually not involved, right? So, like, how do we actually deliver this Snowflake product?
133 00:16:53.810 ⇒ 00:16:58.790 Clarence Stone: So, when she was asking me all those questions, I was just like, hey, you should talk to Utah.
134 00:16:59.710 ⇒ 00:17:04.710 Clarence Stone: So, I pulled them into a 7AM pole together, and now she knows him.
135 00:17:05.339 ⇒ 00:17:05.889 Luke Scorziell: Huh.
136 00:17:05.890 ⇒ 00:17:17.380 Clarence Stone: Right? And now that we’ve won the work, and they’re trying to staff it, and actually construct the approach, right? Like, the first thing she’s pinging me yesterday, or, like, earlier this week, is, hey.
137 00:17:17.619 ⇒ 00:17:21.130 Clarence Stone: I’m thinking about using Brainforge as the vendor.
138 00:17:21.800 ⇒ 00:17:22.690 Luke Scorziell: Oh, wow.
139 00:17:22.690 ⇒ 00:17:26.320 Clarence Stone: Yeah, so now I go, okay, who else needs to know? Well…
140 00:17:26.849 ⇒ 00:17:33.250 Clarence Stone: whoever EY is talking to from Snowflake, better be recommending Brainforge.
141 00:17:34.150 ⇒ 00:17:37.990 Clarence Stone: So, Robert knows, I’m like, whoever you know at Snowflake.
142 00:17:38.210 ⇒ 00:17:42.319 Clarence Stone: You guys better, like, come up as the first suggestion for an external vendor.
143 00:17:43.120 ⇒ 00:17:43.819 Luke Scorziell: Yeah,
144 00:17:43.820 ⇒ 00:17:47.569 Clarence Stone: Because now, if she hears it twice, there’s no way she can say no.
145 00:17:47.850 ⇒ 00:17:50.369 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, yeah, interesting.
146 00:17:50.370 ⇒ 00:18:00.629 Clarence Stone: So it’s like constructing those connectors and relationships, right? Which eventually becomes deal building, which is, you know, kind of the things that you’re focusing on and seeing in your role.
147 00:18:01.130 ⇒ 00:18:09.269 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, yeah. Well, I’m curious, too, I mean, I know we’re going to talk about services and whatnot, but I… like, from your perspective with go-to-market on more of the, like.
148 00:18:09.600 ⇒ 00:18:11.259 Luke Scorziell: services company.
149 00:18:11.440 ⇒ 00:18:27.750 Luke Scorziell: I mean, I’m just… I’m, like, I’m, like, drinking out of a fire hose right now with learning, like, what the heck is Brainforge doing? Also, like, okay, go to market at a B2B, like, services firm. So I’m, like, learning as much as I can. I’m enjoying it, but yeah, I’d be curious to hear your perspective on…
150 00:18:28.070 ⇒ 00:18:45.070 Clarence Stone: Yeah, Luke, you know, you’re in luck, because I’ve… I’m probably one of the few people who have really thought of this and can explain it really simply, and luckily enough, you’re working with a services company, so the explanation’s super simple. This is actually super, like, Paleolithic view of humanity.
151 00:18:46.200 ⇒ 00:18:46.930 Luke Scorziell: Huh.
152 00:18:46.930 ⇒ 00:19:02.729 Clarence Stone: every individual has things that they need. They have fears, concerns, you know, they want an advisor sometimes. They want somebody to do things for them sometimes. They just need to hear the same thing that they’re hearing in their minds back to them sometimes.
153 00:19:02.730 ⇒ 00:19:03.340 Luke Scorziell: Yeah.
154 00:19:03.340 ⇒ 00:19:21.629 Clarence Stone: Right? And that’s always been a need throughout humanity, regardless. Like, it is, like, a human thing to want those things. So as consultants, we fill that gap, right? You want to build something, and you have aspirations, but you don’t know how, we can build it for you. If you’re, you know,
155 00:19:21.760 ⇒ 00:19:29.370 Clarence Stone: Not sure about the quality of your work products, or you’re not sure your team’s actually doing their work fully, we can vet that for you and let you know.
156 00:19:29.370 ⇒ 00:19:42.829 Clarence Stone: Right? If you want us to help you advocate for a project you want to do, and promote that within your company, and actually say, hey, what Luke is suggesting is a really great idea, here’s why, here’s the market data, and here’s what we can do for you, we can do that for you.
157 00:19:43.070 ⇒ 00:19:52.660 Clarence Stone: Right? But, like, at the… at the… if you were to distill all of it, we are just helping whoever our client is at this company, right.
158 00:19:52.770 ⇒ 00:20:11.670 Clarence Stone: with those, you know, like, I guess, like, those Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It’s that comfort, and that safety layer, and then that freedom to innovate, right? And we’ll just keep stacking those wins as they’re more and more comfortable with working with us. And, you know, that’s how that working relationship starts to build in my mind.
159 00:20:11.670 ⇒ 00:20:20.380 Clarence Stone: So that’s… that’s really consulting in a nutshell. It doesn’t matter what the topic is, you… at the base of it, it’s just building that relationship and bridge.
160 00:20:21.040 ⇒ 00:20:25.870 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, yeah. Which is interesting, because the last, like, year and a half has been me doing my own agency.
161 00:20:25.970 ⇒ 00:20:29.919 Luke Scorziell: And it’s like, I’ll come in, and I’m, like, talking to a client, and…
162 00:20:30.420 ⇒ 00:20:41.000 Luke Scorziell: I just… I’m always, like, I… I don’t want to pitch you on, like, oh, I will do this particular thing as much as, like, I build a relationship, they end up really liking me.
163 00:20:41.000 ⇒ 00:20:50.489 Luke Scorziell: And then I kind of can pull on the people that will help me do whatever it is that, like, I need to do for that client. But yeah, for me, it’s, like, always the…
164 00:20:50.780 ⇒ 00:20:58.799 Luke Scorziell: the relationship, and just, I was on, like, one of the first sales calls, I guess, I’ve been on, or it wasn’t even intended to be a sales call, it was just a meeting with a CMO, and
165 00:20:58.940 ⇒ 00:21:02.650 Luke Scorziell: He’s, yeah, we were talking, and it was just like…
166 00:21:03.100 ⇒ 00:21:10.570 Luke Scorziell: It’s, like, talking about, like, how he wants, you know, the industry that he’s in, which is, like, reselling music supplies, like, quite behind, and…
167 00:21:10.760 ⇒ 00:21:14.189 Luke Scorziell: They wanna, like, I don’t know, just, like, saying all this stuff of, like.
168 00:21:14.670 ⇒ 00:21:33.750 Luke Scorziell: you know, where they could be, but not necessarily… and I was like, well, why… why not you? Like, what… why are you skirting around? Just that, like, we could build this stuff for you. So that was really exciting to me. It was like, oh, it’s just like… and he’s like, well, like, the people that I’m accountable to want to see, like, more operational improvements. I’m like, okay, well, like, we can do that, like, too. Like, you know, it’s not like…
169 00:21:33.910 ⇒ 00:21:39.629 Luke Scorziell: We’re not just, like, a one-size-fits-all thing, like, we can start there and figure it out, so…
170 00:21:39.810 ⇒ 00:21:43.830 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, I don’t know, I really like the relational component. I think it’s just, like.
171 00:21:44.140 ⇒ 00:21:49.280 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, how do I… how do you start translating that into… Some of the more, like.
172 00:21:50.240 ⇒ 00:21:53.469 Luke Scorziell: I guess marketing messaging, and… Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
173 00:21:53.470 ⇒ 00:21:59.269 Clarence Stone: So, I mean… I haven’t really, like, thought through
174 00:21:59.830 ⇒ 00:22:10.889 Clarence Stone: what the marketing side is, or actually, I, like, I’ve seen Brainforge ads, but my brain doesn’t see ads, so I don’t even remember what was in it.
175 00:22:11.050 ⇒ 00:22:13.200 Clarence Stone: I could at least say that, like.
176 00:22:14.070 ⇒ 00:22:33.879 Clarence Stone: we should figure out what, like, our three unique value props are and push hard on that. I know Utam’s been, like, thinking about specializing in certain verticals and messaging specifically for those things. I think in today’s world, when it comes to ads and just presenting ourselves externally, it’s just simply about hype and brand awareness.
177 00:22:34.030 ⇒ 00:22:42.300 Clarence Stone: Like, I just want to be able to talk to people, and then have them say, oh, I’ve seen that somewhere before. And that’s, like, good enough.
178 00:22:42.430 ⇒ 00:22:49.399 Clarence Stone: In terms of, like, the size of our organization, like, if people have said, like, oh, I’ve seen an ad for that.
179 00:22:49.430 ⇒ 00:23:05.109 Clarence Stone: you know, or, somebody, you know, mentioned you guys at this conference or something like that. That kind of notoriety actually built a ton more credibility, at our level, you know, than, you know, trying to specify exactly what, you know.
180 00:23:05.300 ⇒ 00:23:19.260 Clarence Stone: path or sector we want to chase. That’s just in my perspective. What’s really cool is, like, I talked to some people at EY that I used to work with, and they’re like, oh, you’re with Brainforge. I actually saw an ad for that in LinkedIn.
181 00:23:19.840 ⇒ 00:23:20.980 Luke Scorziell: Heh,
182 00:23:21.340 ⇒ 00:23:30.459 Clarence Stone: And you know what’s crazy? People actually do go to that website, and so I respond to them, like, hey, if you were to give me a guess on the size of this company.
183 00:23:31.200 ⇒ 00:23:32.250 Clarence Stone: Right, like…
184 00:23:32.250 ⇒ 00:23:32.870 Luke Scorziell: Yeah.
185 00:23:33.210 ⇒ 00:23:34.730 Clarence Stone: Like, what would you think?
186 00:23:35.000 ⇒ 00:23:51.320 Clarence Stone: He’s like, well, just based on all the services and the case studies I see here, you guys are probably at, like, 10 million, 20 million? I was like, that’s good, right? Like, having this outward appearance that we’re a large organization that can actually support all your, your, you know, technical needs.
187 00:23:51.540 ⇒ 00:23:53.029 Clarence Stone: I think that’s, like…
188 00:23:53.170 ⇒ 00:24:02.999 Clarence Stone: The first grounding component that we need to be able to communicate, you know, not just the fact that we can do it, but make ourselves look like a big organization that can support it.
189 00:24:03.620 ⇒ 00:24:04.290 Luke Scorziell: Yeah.
190 00:24:04.750 ⇒ 00:24:07.819 Luke Scorziell: It’s interesting, because, I mean, more of,
191 00:24:08.640 ⇒ 00:24:15.750 Luke Scorziell: like, last year, also for me, was diving deep… deeper into, like, the creative and, like, brand… I really like the brand strategy side of things.
192 00:24:15.750 ⇒ 00:24:16.790 Clarence Stone: And…
193 00:24:18.630 ⇒ 00:24:27.779 Luke Scorziell: I’ve kind of been thinking, like, it’d be really cool to have a, like, a brand video for Brainforge that features, like, a customer like ABC Homes, or,
194 00:24:28.080 ⇒ 00:24:33.409 Luke Scorziell: Someone that we can kind of, like, really tell their story, show the transformation, and make it, like, emotionally resonant.
195 00:24:33.550 ⇒ 00:24:39.469 Luke Scorziell: And then just have that, and maybe it’s, like, an ad that we just run.
196 00:24:41.160 ⇒ 00:24:44.309 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, I don’t know, so that’s interesting. I’ll have to think about that.
197 00:24:44.910 ⇒ 00:24:55.840 Clarence Stone: So, of all the, like, the jobs I’ve had in the past, one of the things that I did early on in my career was work for, for Gray, which is, like, an ad agency.
198 00:24:55.840 ⇒ 00:24:56.420 Luke Scorziell: Huh.
199 00:24:56.420 ⇒ 00:25:12.319 Clarence Stone: the UX designer, so I still get to flex some of that every once in a while, and I’ll just drop this for you. I’m a part owner of this chocolate company, and I think, like, this looks like such a banger for a mom-and-pop shop that’s just, like, my buddy and his mom making chocolates.
200 00:25:15.100 ⇒ 00:25:17.050 Luke Scorziell: I know, this is well done.
201 00:25:23.970 ⇒ 00:25:27.539 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, the photographer… it’s like, all of the product photos are great.
202 00:25:27.810 ⇒ 00:25:31.850 Clarence Stone: Oh yeah, that’s all of this gear, like, right here on my shelf.
203 00:25:32.240 ⇒ 00:25:33.200 Luke Scorziell: Oh, did you do that?
204 00:25:33.200 ⇒ 00:25:33.740 Clarence Stone: Yeah.
205 00:25:33.870 ⇒ 00:25:38.550 Luke Scorziell: Oh, that’s so funny. And did you do the design, too? With, like, the… Yeah. Did you just do the whole thing?
206 00:25:38.550 ⇒ 00:25:40.110 Clarence Stone: Yeah.
207 00:25:40.110 ⇒ 00:25:43.580 Luke Scorziell: Oh, that’s so great. Yeah, that’s pretty… that’s… this is dope. Oh, and there’s a video, too.
208 00:25:43.860 ⇒ 00:25:47.329 Luke Scorziell: Give yourself a treat this summer and enjoy it locally.
209 00:25:47.330 ⇒ 00:26:06.430 Clarence Stone: Yeah, they were on, like, TV, so it, like, encompasses the description of all the stuff they make and stuff, so that was, like, the brand video that I ended up using for them, but yeah, I love your vision on that, like, there should be something that tells a story about, like, what is it that we do, and what kind of transformation we make, and what is the product that we actually sell.
210 00:26:06.430 ⇒ 00:26:14.550 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, I should send you, I logged in on.
211 00:26:15.110 ⇒ 00:26:21.899 Luke Scorziell: One of my… I guess, business partners that I’ve worked with a lot, and also just a friend,
212 00:26:24.770 ⇒ 00:26:26.730 Luke Scorziell: He runs a production company.
213 00:26:27.230 ⇒ 00:26:36.379 Luke Scorziell: Just free… rebranded to, griffin Productions, which has been cool, but they did a video…
214 00:26:39.580 ⇒ 00:26:40.690 Luke Scorziell: Griffin.
215 00:26:44.300 ⇒ 00:26:46.680 Luke Scorziell: For a bus routing company?
216 00:26:46.890 ⇒ 00:26:50.619 Luke Scorziell: called Bus Ride, and it’s like… it’s like a…
217 00:26:51.890 ⇒ 00:26:55.010 Luke Scorziell: Software that they use to,
218 00:26:57.180 ⇒ 00:26:58.310 Luke Scorziell: See if I can pull it up.
219 00:26:58.870 ⇒ 00:27:15.470 Luke Scorziell: I don’t even know what the software is, honestly. Like, I sort of do, but, like, sort of don’t. But the video that they made for it was, like, documenting a bus driver, like, from the beginning of someone entering into kindergarten until them graduating high school, and, like, showing how basically, like, they get to
220 00:27:15.820 ⇒ 00:27:22.020 Luke Scorziell: Or I’ll just send this to you. Well, I can be… Slack it.
221 00:27:22.600 ⇒ 00:27:26.980 Luke Scorziell: kind of with them the whole time, and so I… again, like, this is something that I could see…
222 00:27:27.290 ⇒ 00:27:30.079 Luke Scorziell: I’d just be curious now to hear your perspective.
223 00:27:30.470 ⇒ 00:27:37.339 Luke Scorziell: This is their website, but then I also need a specific video.
224 00:27:47.120 ⇒ 00:27:51.989 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, it’s like… Like, this… they said that… they showed this video to people.
225 00:27:53.010 ⇒ 00:28:01.139 Luke Scorziell: At the company, and people just started, like, weeping, because it was so powerful. At least in reflecting what it is that they do.
226 00:28:01.290 ⇒ 00:28:04.510 Luke Scorziell: And so, that’s kind of…
227 00:28:04.660 ⇒ 00:28:17.779 Luke Scorziell: Again, like, I don’t know that people need to be weeping at, like, a brain forge, you know, brain video, but I think, like, we made your life a lot easier, and now I get to really focus on the things that matter to me video. It would be, like, really cool.
228 00:28:18.050 ⇒ 00:28:20.600 Luke Scorziell: So I think…
229 00:28:20.600 ⇒ 00:28:22.289 Clarence Stone: Well produced, this is cool.
230 00:28:23.080 ⇒ 00:28:27.919 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, no, they’re… I mean, they’re, like, super legit, a good friend.
231 00:28:30.970 ⇒ 00:28:31.720 Clarence Stone: Nice.
232 00:28:32.770 ⇒ 00:28:37.579 Luke Scorziell: But Yeah, I don’t know, I’ll, what are you thinking?
233 00:28:38.150 ⇒ 00:28:44.639 Clarence Stone: Back to you. How has your time been so far? And you just started recently, right? Like, how many…
234 00:28:44.850 ⇒ 00:28:46.000 Clarence Stone: How many weeks?
235 00:28:46.000 ⇒ 00:28:46.600 Luke Scorziell: Ew.
236 00:28:46.760 ⇒ 00:28:51.649 Clarence Stone: Oh, yeah, you just started, so, like, how are things? How’s the Luke?
237 00:28:51.820 ⇒ 00:28:57.830 Luke Scorziell: Well, so I had week… I had… did consulting last month, so it’s not, like, I guess, like.
238 00:28:58.210 ⇒ 00:29:00.349 Luke Scorziell: super… I’m not, like…
239 00:29:01.280 ⇒ 00:29:09.169 Luke Scorziell: I mean, I am hitting the ground running, but I guess I had last month to kind of ease in. But yeah, it’s been good. I think I’m still learning…
240 00:29:10.130 ⇒ 00:29:19.300 Luke Scorziell: I think it’s a lot, all… from all directions, of just, like, this is… I’m the first full-time, I think, go-to-market that they’ve had, and…
241 00:29:19.400 ⇒ 00:29:22.240 Luke Scorziell: I think it’s, like, exciting. Maybe…
242 00:29:22.580 ⇒ 00:29:31.080 Luke Scorziell: to have someone that, like, Robert and Tom now feel like they can kind of just, like, throw all of their different, marketing things at. So I’m still getting sorted in terms of, like.
243 00:29:31.950 ⇒ 00:29:40.020 Luke Scorziell: How to prioritize what is, like, the most important for me to be doing on a day-to-day basis versus, like, what are just the things that, like.
244 00:29:40.690 ⇒ 00:29:46.659 Luke Scorziell: Could happen, and… but yeah, other… like, I’ve loved… I feel like…
245 00:29:47.650 ⇒ 00:29:51.920 Luke Scorziell: I was not looking for a role, when they came to me.
246 00:29:52.090 ⇒ 00:29:55.689 Luke Scorziell: But just… and over the course of talking about how
247 00:29:55.950 ⇒ 00:30:12.729 Luke Scorziell: like, they wanted someone that’s entrepreneurial and wanted someone that can really, like, roll with the punches and just learn on the job. Like, that felt really interesting and exciting to me, and then also just getting to lead. So, yeah, I think it’s been good, you know, I think adapting to, like, being around a bunch of engineers.
248 00:30:12.880 ⇒ 00:30:16.250 Luke Scorziell: or just very execution-oriented people. Yeah.
249 00:30:16.860 ⇒ 00:30:20.550 Luke Scorziell: Is different for me. And then…
250 00:30:21.610 ⇒ 00:30:29.079 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, I think being back in, like… obviously, this isn’t, like, a corporate, corporate environment, but being back in more of, like, an organizational environment versus, like.
251 00:30:29.370 ⇒ 00:30:31.440 Luke Scorziell: Kind of doing the freelance on my own stuff.
252 00:30:31.660 ⇒ 00:30:32.460 Clarence Stone: Yeah.
253 00:30:33.210 ⇒ 00:30:36.730 Luke Scorziell: So, yeah, it’s… it’s been good. Definitely…
254 00:30:38.320 ⇒ 00:30:40.910 Luke Scorziell: I’m enjoying the growth. I think it’s pushing me a lot.
255 00:30:40.910 ⇒ 00:30:44.650 Clarence Stone: That’s good, that’s good. You know, I think…
256 00:30:45.090 ⇒ 00:31:00.269 Clarence Stone: one of the hardest parts of starting in a role like yours is probably getting a good single site picture of all the activities that are happening around, like, the market. That’s probably, like.
257 00:31:01.030 ⇒ 00:31:08.970 Clarence Stone: where I would suggest you start, and I bet you’ve already kind of, you know, dug deep into that to figure out how you can just, like, consolidate all of this stuff.
258 00:31:09.160 ⇒ 00:31:19.069 Clarence Stone: Because, like, yeah, I agree with you, Luke, like, that Holly call was the first time I even realized that there’s, like, vendor partners that we have.
259 00:31:19.210 ⇒ 00:31:26.810 Clarence Stone: Right? And I was like, oh man, like, this is a lot to track, right? And…
260 00:31:27.130 ⇒ 00:31:29.040 Clarence Stone: I don’t think it’s gonna be…
261 00:31:29.600 ⇒ 00:31:41.329 Clarence Stone: I think once you do that, though, it’ll be much easier for you to figure out what’s the priority for the day, or the week, or the month, right? Because you’ll have a single site picture of all of it.
262 00:31:41.330 ⇒ 00:31:50.649 Clarence Stone: But getting there, I don’t think is… is very simple, right? So, yeah, that’s probably my best advice for you on that… on that front. But,
263 00:31:51.370 ⇒ 00:32:00.460 Clarence Stone: On that note, though, Holly’s call helped me realize that we should be pressuring those channel partners more to give us opportunities. And that’s why, like.
264 00:32:00.470 ⇒ 00:32:07.189 Luke Scorziell: After that call, I just pressured the crap out of, like, Utam and Robert to, like, call everyone they know at Snowflake.
265 00:32:07.650 ⇒ 00:32:11.760 Clarence Stone: And make sure that they’re getting, you know, promoted.
266 00:32:12.720 ⇒ 00:32:17.230 Luke Scorziell: Huh. Huh. And when you say, like, a single pay… or…
267 00:32:17.420 ⇒ 00:32:22.169 Luke Scorziell: like, in my mind, I’ve been like, I think I just need to create, like, a brain-forged Bible for myself of, like.
268 00:32:22.220 ⇒ 00:32:23.280 Luke Scorziell: Who is…
269 00:32:23.330 ⇒ 00:32:39.330 Luke Scorziell: every single partner that we work with, all the different softwares and vendors, the different clients that we’ve had. And, like, I… because I was talking with Robert about it a little bit, and he’s like, well, I don’t know that you entirely need that, and it’s not necessarily… it’s just for me, I think I need one place to kind of, like, organize
270 00:32:39.330 ⇒ 00:32:48.310 Luke Scorziell: Like, what the heck is going on? Because it’s, it’s like, there’s so much. And then watching, like, sales calls and learning, like, that’s been super helpful for me.
271 00:32:48.380 ⇒ 00:32:55.080 Luke Scorziell: And… But yeah, it’s… and then it’s like… Obviously, there’s the partner.
272 00:32:55.250 ⇒ 00:33:07.299 Luke Scorziell: Like, we can go to market more with partners, we can go to market more for, like, certain clients, but we can go to market with services that we want to offer, and, like, which of those
273 00:33:07.920 ⇒ 00:33:10.950 Luke Scorziell: yeah, the priorities between each of them, I guess, and like, how do we…
274 00:33:10.950 ⇒ 00:33:20.620 Clarence Stone: Well, it depends on… okay, the way I look at sales from a GTM perspective is, like, on a day-to-day basis, I have two major focuses in my mind.
275 00:33:20.620 ⇒ 00:33:44.079 Clarence Stone: One is making sure that I maintain communications with whoever I’ve had a first or second or third or a bajillionth call with, regardless of whether, you know, I think they’re close to, you know, closing with us or not. Like, at least once a week or once a month, like, for the, you know, lukewarm kind of, like, I’m not sure where we stand kind of leads. I just want to say hi and, like, add some value to their lives.
276 00:33:44.080 ⇒ 00:33:58.889 Clarence Stone: Right? That helps you stay top of mind, and, you know, you might ping them at the right time where they’re doing a huge, you know, organizational, you know, transformation or something like that, and they just go, wow, okay, well, we’ll just go with these guys, they’re right in my inbox, right?
277 00:33:58.890 ⇒ 00:34:03.429 Clarence Stone: So, there’s that prospecting aspect of things, and then, like.
278 00:34:03.480 ⇒ 00:34:12.559 Clarence Stone: My main focus when I was doing GTM on a day-to-day basis was, how do I just drive to closing these deals?
279 00:34:12.560 ⇒ 00:34:29.699 Clarence Stone: Right? Like, regardless of whether it’s on my plate or not, like, I’m going to pressure people to get SOWs written. I’m going to pressure people to, get their, capability estimates in, so that I know, you know, what I can sell and what I can’t sell, right?
280 00:34:30.130 ⇒ 00:34:35.509 Clarence Stone: I will probably be pressuring people to make me demos, because at the EY level, like.
281 00:34:35.790 ⇒ 00:34:42.520 Clarence Stone: a lot of our clients want to see something that’s working before they want to invest in, you know, their version of it, so… Yeah.
282 00:34:42.620 ⇒ 00:35:01.939 Clarence Stone: Yeah, like, on a day-to-day, it’s how do I just drive these, like, you know, top of the funnel kind of leads into a sale, right? So, I think that’s how I would prioritize those two things. Like, your channel, to me, matters less, because, like.
283 00:35:02.340 ⇒ 00:35:11.769 Clarence Stone: like, it doesn’t matter if it came from LinkedIn or a channel partner or something else, right? To me, it’s like, I’m gonna focus on the deals that I can close.
284 00:35:12.490 ⇒ 00:35:14.819 Clarence Stone: Right? And,
285 00:35:15.690 ⇒ 00:35:32.280 Clarence Stone: it’s just like any other relationship. If you don’t say hi for a while, even if the, you know, like, they were gonna buy from us to begin with, they might not. Somebody else might have, you know, scooped in and talked to them, right? So, you know, I kind of like to strike where the iron is hot and try to move to a close as soon as I see some interest.
286 00:35:32.960 ⇒ 00:35:33.580 Luke Scorziell: Yeah.
287 00:35:34.120 ⇒ 00:35:50.180 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, it’s interesting, because that same call we were… Robert and I were just on, it was, like, totally in zero expectation of it turning into a pitch, but just listening to him was like, well, this makes a lot of sense. So then I’m… now I’m… this is the first time that I’ve gone through the process of, okay, we just got off of a call, it went well.
288 00:35:50.930 ⇒ 00:35:51.790 Luke Scorziell: Now.
289 00:35:51.790 ⇒ 00:36:00.819 Clarence Stone: Yeah, so the question that you should ask, instead of what next, is, how do I add value to them, their life, immediately?
290 00:36:01.470 ⇒ 00:36:05.319 Luke Scorziell: Yeah. And show your full capability on what you can offer on top of that.
291 00:36:05.320 ⇒ 00:36:10.900 Clarence Stone: Right, so, like… I worked with a lot of PEs, so they always run into issues with, like.
292 00:36:11.790 ⇒ 00:36:30.630 Clarence Stone: figuring out, you know, you know, their taxable income, or doing income structures, like, whatever it is, I’ll just ping them and say, like, hey, we built this tool, it actually solves your problem, here’s a quick, you know, video demo of it, you know, and, you know, the secret was X, Y, and Z.
293 00:36:30.750 ⇒ 00:36:34.080 Clarence Stone: But happy to build your version, right?
294 00:36:34.340 ⇒ 00:36:43.049 Clarence Stone: Something like that, or to say, like, hey, this is how we actually resolved it by making an easy Copilot agent. You can just do this yourself, I know you have Copilot.
295 00:36:43.600 ⇒ 00:36:45.680 Clarence Stone: Right? Add value for free.
296 00:36:45.860 ⇒ 00:36:54.929 Clarence Stone: Because I know that, you know, even if I don’t win work in that… in that way, they’ll… they’ll come to me for advice later on, and that might be a sale, too.
297 00:36:59.080 ⇒ 00:37:05.669 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, no, that’s… that’s so… that’s so interesting, because it’s like, all the stuff that I’ve learned working more with small businesses.
298 00:37:06.360 ⇒ 00:37:14.289 Luke Scorziell: Like, that same advice, like, you just need to keep adding value, adding value, adding value, until, at some point, you’re building yourself up to become
299 00:37:14.520 ⇒ 00:37:19.389 Luke Scorziell: someone that they trust a lot. And then you’re not… you’re not just looking to close.
300 00:37:19.640 ⇒ 00:37:20.260 Clarence Stone: Yeah.
301 00:37:20.460 ⇒ 00:37:22.109 Luke Scorziell: Because, like, here’s the thing.
302 00:37:22.110 ⇒ 00:37:29.610 Clarence Stone: having one client win for, like, 50, 50K, that’s awesome. That is one great win. But…
303 00:37:29.750 ⇒ 00:37:43.399 Clarence Stone: if… just from the deal sizing and the size of the company, I know Robert’s been creating a matrix of that, like, what is the actual company’s revenue or, like, their size versus, like, our engagement size with them, right? Yeah.
304 00:37:43.400 ⇒ 00:37:49.079 Clarence Stone: you know, if it’s a 50K worth of work.
305 00:37:49.080 ⇒ 00:38:13.060 Clarence Stone: it’s very clear there’s a lot more we can do from that relationship, right? So, I wouldn’t ever see it as, like, a single sale, but rather, this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship. How do we continue to add value, right? What can we sell you next? What can we build together next? What are all the problems that you’re talking about within your, you know, organization that we can actually solve?
306 00:38:13.270 ⇒ 00:38:29.040 Clarence Stone: And it could be, like, something really simple, like, you know, ABC, I get to go to their office because they’re close by. I’ll say something like, hey, I was walking your halls, I heard, you know, somebody say this about reporting. Did you know that, you know, in Tableau you can do this? Here you go, bye.
307 00:38:29.760 ⇒ 00:38:30.800 Clarence Stone: Right.
308 00:38:31.000 ⇒ 00:38:31.520 Luke Scorziell: -
309 00:38:31.520 ⇒ 00:38:50.549 Clarence Stone: Like, those kinds of messages mean so much for those organizations, because, like, they don’t see it as you saying, like, you know, here’s some free advice. They go, like, well, Luke actually knows his shit, and if I have, like, a question, I’m just gonna go to him first. Like, clearly, the people within our organization aren’t solving it.
310 00:38:50.880 ⇒ 00:38:52.749 Luke Scorziell: And that’s why we need rainfall.
311 00:38:54.430 ⇒ 00:38:55.090 Luke Scorziell: Yeah.
312 00:38:57.640 ⇒ 00:39:01.899 Luke Scorziell: So… And I know we’re all over time, so do you have to hop off or anything.
313 00:39:02.880 ⇒ 00:39:04.519 Clarence Stone: Yeah, I’ve got, like, a few more minutes.
314 00:39:06.740 ⇒ 00:39:12.030 Luke Scorziell: Would that then be, like, if I’m like, okay, I just got off of this call, I’m 2 weeks in.
315 00:39:12.370 ⇒ 00:39:14.229 Luke Scorziell: I know enough to have…
316 00:39:14.360 ⇒ 00:39:19.619 Luke Scorziell: spoken to him in a way that made him, like, interested, but I don’t really know, like, enough to, like.
317 00:39:19.850 ⇒ 00:39:28.760 Luke Scorziell: you know, close the next loop. Is that, like, I go to the engineering channel, or, like, the… and just say, like, hey, add someone who’s interested in having us solve some operational problems, like.
318 00:39:29.150 ⇒ 00:39:32.549 Luke Scorziell: what can we do? Or I guess I could obviously talk to Robert and Utam.
319 00:39:34.190 ⇒ 00:39:38.129 Clarence Stone: So, I would do a problem analysis. That call’s probably recorded, right? So you can probably go.
320 00:39:38.130 ⇒ 00:39:38.730 Luke Scorziell: Yeah.
321 00:39:39.420 ⇒ 00:39:43.219 Clarence Stone: And say, like, okay, client said this, right?
322 00:39:43.690 ⇒ 00:39:45.559 Clarence Stone: Brainforge can do this.
323 00:39:46.990 ⇒ 00:40:06.809 Clarence Stone: Right? And, just validate that with either Robert or Tom or engineers, right? And say, like, hey, based on the call that we had, this is, like, what I analyzed in terms of services and capabilities we might be able to, deliver, can you verify that? Right? If everybody says, yeah, like, this is a list of services that we can do, Luke, right?
324 00:40:06.810 ⇒ 00:40:07.170 Luke Scorziell: Yeah.
325 00:40:07.170 ⇒ 00:40:14.129 Clarence Stone: Okay, so, like… your follow-up could be, hey, I heard you say this.
326 00:40:14.340 ⇒ 00:40:18.150 Clarence Stone: Right? I would love to talk to you more about that.
327 00:40:19.140 ⇒ 00:40:22.880 Clarence Stone: And show you some of the things that I’ve done before.
328 00:40:23.670 ⇒ 00:40:24.230 Luke Scorziell: Yeah.
329 00:40:24.230 ⇒ 00:40:29.070 Clarence Stone: Right, so Luke, I hear, you like Pilot G2 pens. Is that 05 or 07?
330 00:40:29.420 ⇒ 00:40:31.160 Luke Scorziell: It’s 5, yeah.
331 00:40:31.380 ⇒ 00:40:33.369 Clarence Stone: I’m a big fan of the 5, too.
332 00:40:33.370 ⇒ 00:40:34.090 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, it’s my favorite.
333 00:40:34.090 ⇒ 00:40:43.279 Clarence Stone: Actually, like, one of the coolest things that I do is I 3D print, like, a, you know, like, a bolt action version, and you just drop the ink in. It’s kind of neat.
334 00:40:43.520 ⇒ 00:40:44.040 Clarence Stone: Right?
335 00:40:44.260 ⇒ 00:40:45.020 Luke Scorziell: Huh.
336 00:40:45.020 ⇒ 00:40:46.779 Clarence Stone: Do you… would you want to see some of that?
337 00:40:47.510 ⇒ 00:40:48.420 Luke Scorziell: Yeah.
338 00:40:48.420 ⇒ 00:40:51.809 Clarence Stone: Yeah, I gotcha. That’s how you get your second call.
339 00:40:53.890 ⇒ 00:40:54.590 Luke Scorziell: Huh.
340 00:40:55.240 ⇒ 00:40:57.270 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, that does not feel like sales at all.
341 00:40:57.270 ⇒ 00:40:57.910 Clarence Stone: No.
342 00:40:58.670 ⇒ 00:41:00.329 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, it’s just, so it’s like, hey…
343 00:41:00.330 ⇒ 00:41:01.460 Clarence Stone: Talk to you, man.
344 00:41:01.840 ⇒ 00:41:03.250 Clarence Stone: I like pens, too.
345 00:41:03.870 ⇒ 00:41:04.430 Luke Scorziell: Yeah.
346 00:41:04.570 ⇒ 00:41:06.579 Luke Scorziell: Well, that’s the thing, is I’m genuinely, like.
347 00:41:06.590 ⇒ 00:41:11.440 Clarence Stone: He’s interested in doing stuff. It sounds like he has operational supervisors that don’t want to do it.
348 00:41:11.440 ⇒ 00:41:16.259 Luke Scorziell: Because they have a few specific things that they’re worried about. So I’m like, well, here, why don’t we just…
349 00:41:16.610 ⇒ 00:41:19.050 Luke Scorziell: Help you solve the things that they’re worried about first.
350 00:41:19.050 ⇒ 00:41:20.680 Clarence Stone: Yeah. We can help you.
351 00:41:20.680 ⇒ 00:41:26.019 Luke Scorziell: With the rest of the digital transformation later on, if you want to, that’s not it, but, like, you know.
352 00:41:26.650 ⇒ 00:41:39.729 Clarence Stone: Yeah, and here’s some, you know, here’s, digital transformations that we’ve done for other clients, and, you know, the ROI that they’ve gotten, you know, if you’re curious about what they’ve done, you know, if…
353 00:41:41.580 ⇒ 00:41:48.359 Clarence Stone: you know, happy to talk to you about some of the challenges we ran into, you know, things like that. Because…
354 00:41:48.500 ⇒ 00:41:51.910 Luke Scorziell: Huh. You know, I went to ABC last week.
355 00:41:51.910 ⇒ 00:41:52.780 Clarence Stone: and…
356 00:41:53.230 ⇒ 00:42:02.410 Clarence Stone: their executive team said that no one’s ever given them a market report on where they stand in comparison to the rest of the, like, the Texas industry.
357 00:42:02.940 ⇒ 00:42:03.600 Luke Scorziell: Huh.
358 00:42:03.600 ⇒ 00:42:18.169 Clarence Stone: I literally just gave them a standard, like, PE sector analysis and company analysis, like, it’s what we would do if, like, one of our clients wanted to acquire, right? It’s like, you can do this company for me. Well, I did that for them. They’re like, no one’s ever done this for us.
359 00:42:18.400 ⇒ 00:42:26.739 Clarence Stone: We have some newer questions, so I was like, the first thing I… I should have talked to you something about this, but, like, my instinct was, hey, we can do this for you every quarter.
360 00:42:28.790 ⇒ 00:42:29.880 Clarence Stone: Where do you want to work?
361 00:42:30.210 ⇒ 00:42:30.990 Luke Scorziell: Huh.
362 00:42:31.160 ⇒ 00:42:31.900 Luke Scorziell: Wow.
363 00:42:32.320 ⇒ 00:42:34.189 Luke Scorziell: And then, all of a sudden, you’ve just set up a night.
364 00:42:34.190 ⇒ 00:42:36.989 Clarence Stone: We’re like, heck yeah! Like, tell us what’s up every quarter.
365 00:42:37.690 ⇒ 00:42:38.330 Luke Scorziell: Yeah.
366 00:42:39.100 ⇒ 00:42:39.820 Luke Scorziell: Huh.
367 00:42:40.930 ⇒ 00:42:43.360 Luke Scorziell: Okay, that’s not so con… yeah, okay.
368 00:42:45.320 ⇒ 00:42:54.239 Clarence Stone: Right? Like, I don’t see it as a sale. It’s like me adding value, right? You know, I… I brought you this, like, no one’s ever brought you this. Well, I can do that for you over and over again.
369 00:42:55.820 ⇒ 00:43:01.819 Clarence Stone: Right, I mean… Yeah. There’s no hard sale.
370 00:43:02.250 ⇒ 00:43:10.220 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, huh. I know, this is good. I feel like this is helping me get ideas churning.
371 00:43:10.780 ⇒ 00:43:12.430 Luke Scorziell: And, like, a more…
372 00:43:13.900 ⇒ 00:43:23.159 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, because I’m seeing that maybe if it’s literally just get on the phone, build a relationship with the client, build, like, keep doing that kind of over and over, and then the rest of the funnel is, like, bringing them to that point.
373 00:43:23.160 ⇒ 00:43:32.259 Clarence Stone: Well, Luke, always go back to that Maslow hierarchy of needs, right? Are they looking for security? Are they looking for comfort? Are they looking to build something? Like, just be able to clearly identify that.
374 00:43:32.440 ⇒ 00:43:51.569 Clarence Stone: Right? And then in part two, like, be able to, you know, clearly articulate what you want them to do about it, right? Because that was very clear to you, like, hey, would you like to talk to me more about these mechanical, you know, bolt-action pens that I made? Right? Like, I’m super direct on what I want you to do next.
375 00:43:52.290 ⇒ 00:43:52.860 Clarence Stone: Right.
376 00:43:52.860 ⇒ 00:43:53.350 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, fuck.
377 00:43:53.350 ⇒ 00:43:56.380 Clarence Stone: And if they follow up on that, they’ve already bought in, man.
378 00:43:57.750 ⇒ 00:44:11.049 Clarence Stone: Right? Like, by committing their time, they’ve already put in an investment to say, I’m interested in this. So that becomes a moment for you to, like, walk into that meeting knowing that, you know, you’ve got, you know, their actual attention.
379 00:44:12.560 ⇒ 00:44:15.859 Luke Scorziell: And it’s like, it’s not like I need to spend, like, an hour coming up with, like.
380 00:44:16.000 ⇒ 00:44:19.880 Luke Scorziell: Whatever, but I… even with this, like, hey, here’s a case study on what we’ve done for another client.
381 00:44:20.320 ⇒ 00:44:20.790 Clarence Stone: Yeah.
382 00:44:20.790 ⇒ 00:44:21.389 Luke Scorziell: More about that.
383 00:44:21.390 ⇒ 00:44:43.870 Clarence Stone: And, you know, there’s tons of things not included in the case study that, like, you know, would be, you know, great insights into how you’re doing your transformation journey. We’d love to just follow up and talk to you about that. I’ll bring in some of the, one of the leaders from the team that accomplishes this huge, massive, you know, transformation, that can help answer, you know, any of the specific questions as well. Things like that.
384 00:44:44.450 ⇒ 00:44:46.599 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, yeah. Okay. Huh.
385 00:44:47.130 ⇒ 00:44:51.380 Luke Scorziell: I mean, that’s cool. I mean, it’d be really cool. They were, like, an $80 million reseller.
386 00:44:52.010 ⇒ 00:44:53.630 Luke Scorziell: company, so.
387 00:44:54.550 ⇒ 00:45:03.450 Clarence Stone: I hate to cut this short, because I always love, you know, these calls. I’m always happy to provide advice, but I do have a deal flow that I’m trying to work on, so…
388 00:45:03.450 ⇒ 00:45:06.500 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, thank you for your time, Clarence, I really appreciate it.
389 00:45:06.500 ⇒ 00:45:12.510 Clarence Stone: Anytime, seriously, I just try to find another block if you want to follow up on this, or just want to connect.
390 00:45:12.640 ⇒ 00:45:14.710 Luke Scorziell: Cool. Yeah, alright, have a good day.
391 00:45:14.900 ⇒ 00:45:15.930 Clarence Stone: Thanks, Luke. Bye.