CrunchGrowth

For a long time, the biggest hurdle for business owners wasn't the AI itself, it was the technical friction. Michael La Spisa discusses trying to navigate API keys, complex integrations, and "plumbing" between platforms like n8n stopped a lot of people in their tracks.

But the shift I’m seeing now is a game-changer.

We are moving away from manual workflows and toward tools like Claude Code and Claude Cowork. Instead of building from scratch, you simply take an existing SOP, plug it into the environment, and tell the AI: "Automate this."

The best part? It can actually navigate your computer to find what it needs, removing the "technical fear" that keeps so many founders from scaling.

Automation isn’t about being a coder anymore. It’s about being a great process owner.

Catch the full breakdown on this week’s episode of Crunching Growth.

https://e360tv.com/networks/episode/crunching-your-growth/S5-E26-How-Michael-La-Spisa-Built-a-7-Figure-Pet-Brand-and-Turned-AI-Into-a-Revenue-Tool

This is a game changer for SMB's.

We spent years running our agency looking at the same frustrating pattern.

I’d sit across from founders of mid-sized companies, businesses doing great work, hitting decent revenue, but completely stalled. They had the ambition to scale, but they were trapped in the "middle."

They couldn't afford to hire the full army they needed; an SEO specialist, a social media manager, a copywriter, an ad buyer, and a creative director. But they couldn't afford not to, because the competition wasn't slowing down. They were drowning in the manual labor of trying to do it all themselves, or worse, gambling on disconnected tools that promised results but delivered chaos.

That was the "aha" moment.

We realized that if we wanted to help these companies actually break through that ceiling, we couldn’t just offer "more services." We had to change the underlying infrastructure of how work gets done.

So, we stopped trying to build a bigger agency and started building an OS.

We developed Trellios.ai.

The goal was simple: provide these companies with a managed team of specialist Agents; Strategist, Copywriter, Social Manager, all under a lead "CMO" Agent. It gives them the depth of a full marketing department without the overhead of a dozen full-time hires.

But then, something unexpected happened.

We started showing it to enterprise-level clients. We assumed they had the resources to hire anyone they wanted, so they wouldn't need an orchestration platform.

We were wrong.

The enterprise companies were struggling with the exact same problem, Chaos. They had the people, but their brand voice was fractured, their data was leaking across teams, and their token costs were spinning out of control. They didn't need more people; they needed governance. They needed the same thing our mid-market clients needed: an audit trail, human-in-the-loop approvals, and a way to ensure that "AI" didn't become "liability."

It turns out, whether you're a mid-market brand trying to survive or an enterprise trying to scale without imploding, the need is the same.

We aren't just selling a tool. We’re providing the operating system for teams that do real work.

If you’re tired of the "AI chaos" in your business, or if you’re an agency owner who wants to stop trading time for money and start selling a scalable system, this is the shift you’ve been looking for.

Check out what we’re building at https://trellios.ai/

Crunching Your Growth is close to hitting 100,000 monthly viewers, and this week’s episode is a great one to help us get there.

My guest is Kun Yang, Co-Founder and CEO of Pricklee Natural Hydration, the natural hydration brand built around prickly pear cactus fruit.

Kun’s journey is exactly why I love doing this show. He went from pharmacist to founder, took an overlooked natural ingredient, built a beverage brand, appeared on Shark Tank, secured a deal with Barbara Corcoran, and kept pushing the brand forward in a very competitive market.

This episode is about more than beverages. It is about innovation, persistence, category disruption, and the hard work behind building a consumer brand.

Please watch, share, comment, and tag a founder who would enjoy this conversation.

Let’s push Crunching Your Growth past 100,000 viewers together. The channel link is below



https://e360tv.com/networks/play_series/crunching-your-growth

Is your team confusing collaboration with productivity?

We’ve all been there: endless meetings, follow-up emails, and "let’s revisit this next week." It feels like work, but it’s actually gridlock.

As Coach Phil points out, communication isn’t the same as decision-making. When everyone is involved but no one is empowered to decide, your work becomes a hostage to the process.

Stop the organized delay. Start making moves.

Every founder loves the polished success story.

But the real story usually starts with chaos.

For Toby Ricco and Bimotal, the company’s first hire came in March 2020, just two weeks before lockdown. They were building a hardware product, a removable e-bike motor, and suddenly the normal path to demos, customer feedback, and product testing disappeared.

So they got creative.

They filmed the product on Lombard Street in San Francisco to show people what it could do. They found ways around every obstacle. And even while fighting for the life of the startup, they looked for ways to help with bigger problems around them.

That is one of the most underrated traits in great founders.

When your mission is bigger than your own survival, you find energy you did not know you had.

Business will test you. Startups will test you harder. But if you stay focused on solving real problems and creating real impact, you keep moving.

Great conversation with Toby Ricco on this week’s episode.

At some point, strategy stops being preparation and starts becoming a very sophisticated hiding place.
The founder is thinking. Mapping. Naming pillars. Reworking frameworks. There is a tremendous amount of internal movement happening.

But here’s the problem: The market isn't moved by any of it.

Too many founders get addicted to the feeling of almost being ready. It feels responsible. It feels smart. It feels safer than actually putting something into the world where reality can have an opinion.

But a business isn't built on beautifully organized hesitation. It’s built on action, feedback, adjustment, and reps.

You have enough strategy to last several winters. What you need now is exposure to consequences.

Stop planning. Ship something. Learn from it. Then think again.

Adding more products doesn’t mean more opportunity. Sometimes it just means you're running a buffet with trust issues.

The company launched another product, but nobody actually knows what the core offer is.

The diagnosis? Aisle fatigue.

Too many founders think abundance is a strategy. They give the customer six tabs, four bundles, three service levels, two starter kits, and a mild headache. Businesses do this because adding feels easier than choosing. Choosing is uncomfortable.

But when everything is important, nothing stands out. And when nothing stands out, the buyer stalls and goes to a competitor who had the decency to make one clear promise.

Stop hiding behind a crowded lineup. Your business needs a hero. One offer people remember. One path that carries the weight.

Pick a hero product, simplify the path, and make it easier to buy than to hesitate.

We’ll be in the film room this week. Back to the fundamentals.

Ending a sales call with 'let us know your thoughts' isn't being helpful. That’s a polite surrender." 🏳️🗣️

Your team is booking plenty of calls. There is a tremendous amount of talking happening. But very little actual selling.

The breakdown? They are treating a commercial negotiation like an information dump. 🧠📉

They over-explain, they ramble, and they answer questions nobody asked. By the end of the call, the prospect has heard a lot of words but felt zero confidence. A good sales call shouldn't feel like wandering into someone’s garage while they explain their business mechanics in real time. 🚗✖️

If your close sounds like you’re asking permission to exist, the market picks up on that weakness instantly.

Stop the verbal jogging. Less explaining. More leading. Ask better questions, tighten the call structure, and actually guide the decision.

The most dangerous thing an entrepreneur can do? Take directions from someone who has never left the parking lot.

You can’t teach the battlefield from a classroom. True business coaching isn’t about rigid templates or buzzwords—it’s about ex*****on, scars, and knowing what it actually feels like to make payroll or navigate a high-stakes exit.

Stop taking advice from people who haven't been where you want to go. Find a guide who has already walked the path.