New Episode: I’d Like to Thank the Academy… But My Therapist Says No

It’s award season again.
Or at least LinkedIn says it is.

“Top 100 Places to Work (With Unlimited Bagels).”
“Best (insert whatever) Within 3 Miles of a Trader Joe’s.”
“Most Improved Use of a Branded Hashtag in Q2.”

We’ve all seen it.
And yeah, I’ve played the game over 30 years—I’ve got 18 awards to prove it.

But this episode isn’t about the wins.
It’s about what they cost.

The life moments you quietly traded away.
The mental toll of chasing perfection.
The physical crash your body eventually cashes in on.

As Tyler Durden said in Fight Club:
“The things you own...... they end up owning you.”

And yeah—turns out that includes the shiny trophies too.

There are no awards for setting boundaries.
No trophies for avoiding burnout.
No LinkedIn badge for choosing your health or your loved ones over your ego.

But maybe there should be.

This week on Beyond the Bottom Line, we’re talking about the price of the climb—and what it takes to reclaim your definition of success.

Catch the full episode now. Bring your honesty, and maybe a stiff drink!

#BeyondTheBottomLine #LeadershipWithoutTheLie #BurnoutIsNotABadge #TrophiesDontHugYouBack #EntrepreneurshipUnfiltered

Beyond the Bottom Line is back—with less fluff, more grit.

We’re back. And if you're reading this, you’re probably in the thick of running a business, building a team, or trying to fix what someone else broke. Same.

In this relaunch of Beyond the Bottom Line, I get into what sparked it all—standing in the grocery store meat aisle trying to buy chicken thighs, and realizing: this is exactly how AI is treating candidates. We’ve turned people into products, and recruiting into a pattern-matching game where resumes are filtered like packages of poultry.

This episode is part rant, part reality check, and fully grounded in 30 years of scars, screw-ups, and figuring it out the hard way. I’m not anti-AI. I’m anti-bad process, bad training, and the idea that automation should ever replace actual connection.

So if you’re a recruiter, a leader, a founder, or just someone trying to hire and retain people the right way—pull up a seat.

Let’s talk about hiring with purpose, fixing what’s broken, and why the hell we all need to stop letting tech make decisions we should be owning.

Introducing: THE RON TABLE — Episode 1 is officially live!

Where real people, real entrepreneurs, and real talk crash headfirst into unfiltered, unpolished, and sometimes uncomfortable honesty.

This isn’t just another podcast. It’s a table full of bold takes, hard truths, belly laughs, and brutally honest convos about business, leadership, startups, recruiting, growth—and all the messy sh*t no one warns you about.

Whether you're leading a company, plotting your escape from your 9-to-5, or building something from scratch— pull up a chair, and maybe a strong drink.

The advice is real. The stories are raw.

The takes? Sometimes borderline ridiculous—but always what people need to hear.

This week, Nicole Gray, CTACC and I dive into what it’s REALLY like to become an entrepreneur.

-Not the Insta or FB ad versions.

-Not the “12 steps to freedom” pitch.

-Not the “Buy this course and manifest millions” BS.

Because if starting and scaling a business was that easy… the Kardashians would’ve franchised it by now.

So yeah—follow us, tune in, and welcome to The Ron Table.

We’re not here to sugarcoat it. We’re here to say the stuff everyone else is too scared to post on LinkedIn.

“You want answers?” We think you can handle the truth 😉