ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Josh Saffran has spent his career in sales, first for Colgate-Palmolive and now connecting corporations with supply chain startups through Plug and Play, the Silicon Valley venture firm. He also co-owns The Gents Place in Bentonville, Arkansas, a barbershop built like a members club, complete with a concierge at the door and a speakeasy business lounge.
That mix makes him the right person to ask what AI does to a business where the person-to-person relationship is everything. His answer is to move the ringing phone and the supply order away from the people doing the serving, so their full attention lands on the person in the chair. From there, the conversation moves through churn, curiosity, leadership, and what it takes to keep a promise to a customer over time.
In this episode
- Why Josh set out to build a business that was Walmart and Amazon proof, and where AI fits into it anyway
- Inside The Gents Place, where a concierge greets you and the phone never rings in the shop
- A doctor's appointment that shows what happens when professionals spend their time on keystrokes
- Using AI to make a sales concierge better at the job instead of replacing one
- What's your real job, and how much of your day goes to tasks that keep you from it
- Why doing five things well beats doing fifteen things badly
- What selling to Walmart and Target taught Josh about asking questions
- Raising kids who can look someone in the eye, and the difference between AI writing your homework and AI editing it
- Doug McMillon's list of retailers that disappeared, and spotting icebergs from two miles out
- Why Josh runs his manager meetings as a democracy
- Churn, member-for-a-day passes, and why happy members make the best brand ambassadors
- What a marriage can teach a membership business about retention
- Strategic empathy, emotional labor, and the choice between optimizing for more or for better
Worth repeating
> "It's not here to take people's jobs. It's here to upskill and enhance." – Josh
> "I hate yes men or women. Challenge me. Tell me why I'm wrong." – Josh
> "Doing 15 things in an average or poor way is in no way better than doing 5 to 10 things awesome." – Jonathan
> "I am not trying to maximize acquisition in my marriage. I am trying to maximize the retention of my marriage." – Jaime
Chapters
- 00:00 Cold open and introducing Josh
- 02:09 From Colgate to Plug and Play to a barbershop
- 03:58 AI beyond the tech hubs
- 06:09 Building a Walmart and Amazon proof business
- 09:10 Inside The Gents Place experience
- 13:24 The doctor who was 20 minutes late
- 14:54 Upskill and enhance
- 16:50 What creatives misunderstand about their value
- 19:29 Don't use AI for the sake of using AI
- 20:18 Bringing AI to a team that cuts hair
- 22:29 What's your real job?
- 26:07 Fifteen things on the list
- 29:21 What selling toothpaste taught Josh about listening
- 31:09 Raising kids in the age of AI
- 33:39 Is AI bending us back toward service?
- 37:08 Curiosity as the question of our time
- 39:33 Your thoughts first, AI second
- 42:11 Doug McMillon's list and the iceberg
- 43:37 Stuck in strategy or stuck in execution
- 46:10 Hire for your blind spots
- 47:42 Leadership and paying it forward
- 51:08 Pour into the team first
- 52:37 Filling the pipeline, and why churn keeps Josh up at night
- 56:02 The top-of-funnel hamster wheel
- 58:02 In the business of relationships
- 59:45 The speakeasy and Gents TV
- 01:01:46 Reading the room
- 01:07:47 Delivering on the promise
- 01:09:51 Strategic empathy and emotional labor
- 01:12:29 Embrace it or go drive the bus
- 01:14:53 Jaime and Jonathan's debrief
- 01:19:22 Activity, progress, and the assembly edit
- 01:22:24 Optimizing for more or for better
Connect with Josh
- The Gents Place
- Plug and Play
- Josh Saffran on LinkedIn
Mentioned in this episode
- Center for Creative Leadership
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The Slackers Podcast is produced by Jaime Solis and Jonathan Sasse.
Audio production by Stephen Kallao.
Cover art by Jonathan Sasse
Connect with Jonathan & Jaime
🎙️ Jonathan Sasse — Co-Founder Tandem Studio and executive advisor.
🔗 LinkedIn · Forbes Communication Council
🎙️ Jaime Solis — Music executive, Content & Media advisor, founder Red Threads newsletter.
🔗 LinkedIn · Threads · Instagram
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