Do Good Work

In this episode, I talked with Garrick Van Buren about pricing as value creation and why every price is really set against the status quo of “doing nothing,” meaning you must outcompete the comfort of not fixing a problem. We break down value as transformation from current to future state and how to quantify it through revenue gains, cost savings, time savings, and especially retention/churn, with examples like a real estate brokerage commission tool where agent retention drove the true value. Garrick shares his “value stack,” customer rediscovery interviews to uncover unpriced value and unmet needs, and a “How’s My Driving” approach to re-segment customers and refine positioning. We also discuss AI, speed-to-value premiums, services vs product tradeoffs, incremental pricing rollouts, and why founders must remove their own money emotions from pricing using metrics like percentage of annual revenue and risk mitigation. 00:00 Pricing Against Status Quo 04:34 Quantifying Value Shifts 06:24 Revenue Retention and Churn 08:35 The Value Stack Framework 09:59 Real Estate CFO Case Study 14:17 Net New Value With AI 17:52 Customer Rediscovery Calls 19:56 Unpriced Value and Missing Offers 21:31 Services Strategy and Time to Value 23:21 AI as New KPI 24:41 Niching and Positioning 25:01 Customer Rediscovery Buckets 27:03 Pricing Power Signals 29:18 Incremental Price Rollouts 33:02 AI Discounts Debate 34:26 Speed to Value Premium 39:23 Jobs to Be Done Lens 42:28 Detach Emotions from Pricing 45:40 Risk Transfer and Credibility Connect with Garrick: • https://forstarters.substack.com • https://linkedin.com/in/garrickvanburen • https://pricingfromthestart.com Connect with Raul: • Work with Raul: https://dogoodwork.io/apply • Free Growth Resources: https://dogoodwork.io/free-growth-resources • Connect with Raul on LinkedIn (DMs open): https://www.linkedin.com/in/dogoodwork/

In this episode, I sat down with Phil Berry, founder and CEO of Northwind Health, who has bootstrapped the company for nearly 18 years to over 100 people and close to $100M in revenue while taking on massive healthcare incumbents. We compare his early survival-mode years—keeping headcount lean, fearing payroll, and carrying the business himself—with his shift toward intentional growth, leadership hiring, and asking what the business is “called to do” beyond his personal identity. Phil shares how meaning emerged through employee wins and patient outcomes, shaped by his Catholic faith and a focus on human dignity, which he frames as serving “souls,” not “lives” or “belly buttons.” We also unpack why the healthcare system functions as “sick care,” why big players can’t structurally reduce costs, and how Northwind aims to scale high-touch, waste-removing, outcomes-driven care. 01:13 Founder Mindset Shifts 02:18 Early Hiring and Survival 06:24 Finding Meaning in Work 10:25 Planning Beyond Survival 13:10 Belief and Big Bets 14:42 Stewardship and Scaling 20:04 Separating Identity from Business 22:08 Is Growth Always Right 26:46 Leading in the Tension 30:06 Human Flourishing Thesis 34:01 Fixing Sick Care at Scale 39:14 Human Dignity in Healthcare 42:49 Defining a Human Soul Connect with Phillip: • Northwind https://www.northwindhealth.com Personal website: https://www.phillipberry.com [email protected] Connect with Raul: • Work with Raul: https://dogoodwork.io • Free Growth Resources: https://dogoodwork.io/resources • Connect with Raul on LinkedIn (DMs open): https://www.linkedin.com/in/dogoodwork/

I sat down with Bill Benjamin to break down his research on the “last 8%”—the small but crucial part of a difficult conversation or decision we often hold back because it feels risky. Bill shares how the idea started with two executives, then expanded through studies of 34,000+ people, showing we leave an average of 7.56% unsaid, and why our brains treat conflict like a threat. We talk about recognizing last 8% moments through body cues and behaviors, the two pillars of high-performing teams (connection and courage), and common defaults like avoiding or “making a mess.” We also cover why psychological safety alone isn’t enough, how leaders can model curiosity and set team norms, and why these human skills matter even more as AI adoption struggles due to fear and disengagement. 00:07 Why We Hold Back 01:33 What the Research Shows 02:36 Brain Science of Fear 03:06 Last Eight Percent Moments 03:42 Individual vs Environment 05:03 Body Awareness Framework 07:58 Beyond Psychological Safety 09:53 Avoiders and Make a Mess 11:10 Skillful Hard Conversations 12:32 Founder Modeling and Norms 14:50 AI Makes Humans Matter 18:51 Disengagement and Connection 20:09 Who Does It Best 22:20 Bill Personal Turning Point 24:06 Toughest Partner Moment Connect with Bill: • www.ihhp.com • https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-benjamin-12b671/ Connect with Raul: • Work with Raul: https://dogoodwork.io • Free Growth Resources: https://dogoodwork.io/resources • Connect with Raul on LinkedIn (DMs open): https://www.linkedin.com/in/dogoodwork/

AI As Strategy Workshop: Work and Grow at the Speed of Your Thoughts Most conversations about AI begin with the model. This workshop begins with the business. In this episode explores AI as a strategy question across ownership, ethics, operating design, pricing, and net new value. Raul breaks down the AI COO harness he built for Do Good Work, explains the 5 ingredients inside it, and shares practical examples of how agents support his work without taking control of the relationships or decisions that matter. Use the episode as a workshop with your team. By the end, you will have 2 questions to work through: what you wish your business could do today, and where your business model will need to evolve next. What You'll Learn Why a good model is just a brilliant stranger, and what makes AI useful inside a real business The 3 parts of AI sovereignty: your data, the model, and the harness around both How the restaurant analogy explains orchestrators, agents, skills, hooks, memory, and rules The 5 ingredients every owned AI system needs Why every product carries a belief about people, and how Raul's 9 operating values protect human flourishing Why memory, security, compliance, and human approval have to be designed together The difference between automation, augmentation, and net new value 5 examples from Raul's AI COO, including daily briefings, content production, searchable business memory, relationship research, and quality control How AI moves value up the Service Stack toward judgment, transformation, accountability, and belief The 4 pricing choices in the New Value Quadrant Why speed to value is becoming a critical measure for product and fulfillment teams 2 reflection questions to help you decide where AI belongs in your business Chapters [00:00] Why I'm sharing this workshop [01:14] Work and grow at the speed of your thoughts [01:24] The goal: own your AI instead of only renting access [01:45] What the workshop will help you decide [02:10] Why I built my own AI COO [03:14] The experience that shaped what I built [03:48] AI sovereignty: data, model, and harness [04:33] Why a good model is just a brilliant stranger [05:17] The restaurant analogy for an AI harness [06:43] The 5 ingredients: agents, skills, hooks, memory, and rules [08:29] Human flourishing and the values inside the system [10:43] Why memory improves the system over time [11:08] Security, compliance, and human approval [12:04] One orchestrator with a team of specialists [14:06] What AI actually makes possible [14:38] Automation, augmentation, and net new value [19:54] Examples from inside my own AI COO [24:28] Quality loops and the chain [26:10] How AI moves value up the Service Stack [28:08] The AI pricing trap [29:40] How service business pricing is already changing [30:21] The 4 choices in the New Value Quadrant [34:46] Speed to value as a new KPI [35:31] Why the advantage window will not stay open forever [36:34] The written workshop and reflection questions [36:49] Question 1: what do you wish you could do but are not doing [38:34] Question 2: where will your business model evolve [39:37] The build manual and additional resources Reflection Questions 1. What do you wish you could do, but are not doing today? Name the bottleneck, opportunity, client outcome, product, or operating improvement you already know deserves attention. Then decide whether it is actually solvable with AI, which data and model it requires, what should live in the harness, and which decisions must stay human. 2. Where will your business model evolve, or be forced to change? Review your value proposition, customer segments, channels, customer relationships, revenue structure, costs, and key partners. Look for where AI compresses an input and where that new capacity can create greater value for the people you serve. Resources Free Build Manual The AI Growth Harness Manual: the open sourced architecture to build an owned AI system with your own agent More on Strategy How AI Will Evolve the 7 Parts of Your Consulting Business Model On Creating Net New Value The New Value Quadrant: How to Price in the Agentic Era The Service Stack: What Remains When AI Eats Client Services

In this episode, I sit down with Taylor Black, who leads AI and venture ecosystem work in Microsoft’s Office of the CTO and brings a deep “better-formed humans” conviction to the AI conversation. We draw a hard line between intelligence (statistical knowing) and insight—where a human knower makes the categorical leap to “this is true,” what Taylor calls grasping the “virtually unconditioned.” We talk about how LLMs can pattern experience to help us reach insight but can’t replace judgment, and why venture building should be anthropology-first: every product ships an implicit view of the human person. We cover the risk of using AI as an oracle that shortcuts productive struggle (especially in education), the importance of humility and sustaining the tension of inquiry for product-market fit, and Taylor’s “cold storage” idea—using AI as a context engine to shelve, monitor, and revive ventures when conditions change. We close on the key builder question: not what can we build, but what ought we build? 02:08 Intelligence vs Insight 02:58 Statistical Knowing 05:02 Virtually Unconditioned 09:02 Using AI Without Outsourcing Judgment 11:39 Formation in Venture Building 14:19 Anthropology First Product Design 17:56 Hard Rules for Human Flourishing 18:53 What Ought We Build 21:20 Humility and Idea Flow Playbooks 24:19 Probabilistic Products and Implicit Anthropology 28:48 AI as Oracle in Education 34:29 Cold Storage for Venture Ideas Connect with Taylor: • https://substack.com/@pourbrew • https://www.linkedin.com/in/blacktaylor/ • https://leonum.catholic.edu/ • https://innovate.pourbrew.me/ Connect with Raul: • Work with Raul: https://dogoodwork.io • Free Growth Resources: https://dogoodwork.io/resources • Connect with Raul on LinkedIn (DMs open): https://www.linkedin.com/in/dogoodwork/