AI conversations for people doing the work.
Your best people are brilliant, but they're buried. Research shows high-performing teams lose nearly 70% of the week to Admin Drag, the data entry, re-keying, and status updates that were never the actual job. You're paying for expert judgment and getting expensive busywork.
The AI Hat Podcast is where practitioners, not futurists, talk about fixing that. Host Mike Allton, Director of Partner-Led Growth at Agorapulse and founder of The AI Hat, sits down with operators, revenue leaders, marketers, and industry specialists, from insurance agencies to sales floors, to name the drag and show how a governed Digital Crew of AI agents takes it back. The thread through every episode: redesign the work first, then deploy the AI. It's why most pilots fail, and what to do instead.
In each episode, we break down:
• The Agentic Shift — moving from AI that talks to AI that does the work.
• Sanctioning the Shadow — turning ungoverned AI risk into governed advantage.
• Redesign the Work First — why 95% of pilots stall, and the fix.
Whether you sell, serve, or build, the drag is the same.
Get the guide: Download The Executive Guide to Shadow AI at TheAIHat.com/shadow-ai
Connect with Mike: linkedin.com/in/mikeallton
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Your best people are losing most of the week to work they were never hired to do - and the fix isn't another tool.
In this solo episode, Mike Allton opens with a confession: there was a stretch of his career when a guest canceling on his own podcast felt like relief. Two of his shows died at exactly twelve episodes each, and between those funerals he changed everything - the tools, the format, the frequency, the topic - except the one variable that killed them both.
That story turns out not to be a podcasting story at all. It's the same reason 95% of enterprise AI pilots fail: companies make a software purchase when the situation calls for a staffing decision. Nobody writes the role. Nobody defines what the AI is responsible for, who it reports to, or how anyone would know it's doing a good job.
So Mike makes the argument he's building his entire business around: AI belongs on your org chart, not your tech stack. Not to replace the people you have - to finally staff the work no one was ever hired to do.
You'll hear:
- Why every business runs on two org charts - the official one, and the real one hiding in your team's calendars
- The job description that took interview prep from two-plus hours to twenty minutes, and took the show past 120 episodes
- The Apollo answer to "this is how the replacement starts"
- Why an off-the-shelf AI employee is still a software purchase wearing a name tag
- A ten-minute homework assignment: find the seat that's been empty the longest
Read the full manifesto at theaihat.com: https://theaihat.com/ai-belongs-on-your-org-chart-not-your-tech-stack/
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Stop Losing $30K a Month Per Rep: The AI Sales Enablement Playbook with Vernon Ross
Season 1 · Episode 121
Sunday, June 14, 2026 • Duration 38:22
If your top reps are stuck training new hires instead of closing deals, this AI sales enablement playbook will help. Enterprise seller Vernon Ross joins Mike Allton to show how to scale your best performers' knowledge without stealing their selling time, and why that "teaching jail" is quietly costing you around $30K a month per rep.
Vernon has carried quota, closed enterprise deals, and built the AI training tools that make other sellers faster. Inside, he shares the one diagnostic question that finds your highest-ROI automation, why AI pilots die the moment they add friction instead of removing it, and how he uses NotebookLM, private podcasts, and voice cloning to cut top-rep onboarding from 30 hours down to 10. He and Mike also get tactical on where AI belongs inside a MEDDPICC deal, how to tie content consumption to real revenue, and the one automation any team can build this quarter without a six-figure budget.
Vernon Ross drove 75 to 85% increases in new client acquisition at a 32% conversion rate, closed deals with Procter & Gamble, GE, and AT&T, and has generated over $500,000 in enterprise SaaS sales. As president of Vernon Ross Consulting and an enterprise podcaster, he now advises Fortune 1000 companies on AI-driven learning.
The hard truth: you cannot clone your top performers. So you stay stuck in an endless loop of manual knowledge transfer while your competitors build AI-powered learning engines that run around the clock. This episode is how you break the loop.
Still letting shadow AI run unmanaged on your sales floor? Download the free Executive Guide to Shadow AI at theaihat.com/shadow-ai.
Chapters:
00:00 Top Rep Pain Points
00:59 Podcast Theme Intro
02:08 Show Mission Setup
03:15 Guest Vernon Ross
05:11 Sales Enablement Gap
07:34 AI Adoption That Sticks
10:58 AI Hosted Training Podcasts
13:46 NotebookLM And Voice Clones
16:28 MEDDPICC With AI
18:52 Onboarding Without Teaching Jail
21:25 Shadow AI Sponsor Break
22:33 Measuring Podcast ROI
28:38 Fast Time To Value
30:37 Compliance And Risk
33:48 First Automation To Build
36:34 Where To Find Vernon
37:18 Final Wrap Up
Resources:
Vernon Ross: linkedin.com/in/vernonross | vernonross.com | enterprisepodcaster.com | aiplanner.com
Mentioned in this episode: Wondercraft.ai, Google NotebookLM, Wispr Flow, ZoomInfo, Apollo, HubSpot, Otter.ai, Claude Code, Gemini, Supporting Cast, MEDDPICC
Connect with Mike Allton: linkedin.com/in/mikeallton | Newsletter theaihat.com/newsletter | Podcast theaihat.com/podcast
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Map the Workflow Before You Buy the Tool
Season 1 · Episode 120
Tuesday, May 19, 2026 • Duration 34:02
Your revenue team doesn't have a tools problem. It has a process problem.
Dan Knowlton, co-founder of UK-based Knowlton Marketing, joins Mike Allton for an honest, boots-on-the-ground conversation about what's actually working in AI implementation - and what isn't. No polished frameworks. No hype. Just real lessons from an agency owner who is figuring this out in real time while growing a business.
In this episode, Dan shares how his team recently won a pitch with one of Europe's largest health and wellness brands - not because they were the most creative, but because AI caught every objection the prospect raised in the discovery call. Objections that would have been missed with manual notes.
You'll learn how to stop chasing shiny AI tools and start asking the one question that separates useful technology from expensive distraction. Dan also breaks down how to identify which workflows should be handed to AI, where human experience is irreplaceable, and how to run a simple calendar audit that surfaces hours of recoverable time in your team's week.
If your AI pilots keep stalling, this episode will show you why - and where to start instead.
🎁 Download the free Executive Guide to Shadow AI: https://theaihat.com/shadow-ai
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Manual Sales Discovery
01:00 Podcast Theme Intro
02:31 Why AI Pilots Fail
03:46 Shiny Tool Syndrome
05:29 Problem First Approach
06:05 AI-Powered Pitching
07:24 Transcripts Close Deals
10:05 Where AI Shouldn't Pretend
13:59 Humans Plus AI Creativity
16:47 Overcoming Team Pushback
19:42 Shadow AI Governance Ad
20:56 Tool Stack and Evaluation
27:06 Making Time for AI Learning
29:25 Workflow Audit to Start
32:19 Wrap Up and Where to Connect
33:18 Final Outro
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Redesign the Work First: Inside a Revenue Team's AI-Connected Stack
Season 1 · Episode 119
Sunday, April 19, 2026 • Duration 45:42
If your revenue team is hitting a ceiling despite adding headcount and new tools, the problem isn't your people - it's your architecture.
In this episode, Mike Allton sits down with Amanda Rubin, SVP of Revenue at Frameplay and former EVP of Growth at Enthusiast Gaming, where she drove four consecutive years of revenue growth. Amanda unpacks what she calls the "architect's mindset" - the long-view, systems-first approach that separates true Revenue Leaders from sales managers who are simply trying to hit this quarter's number.
You'll hear how Amanda built scalable GTM frameworks from the ground up - first with nothing but a color-coded Google Sheet, and now with an AI-powered tech stack that eliminates admin drag and gives sellers back the time they need to actually sell. She breaks down exactly how she structures account lists, ladders sales teams, and deploys tools like We Flow, Fyxer AI, and Apollo to create a revenue engine that scales without breaking.
What you'll walk away with:
Why the difference between a Sales Leader and a Revenue Leader changes everything about how you build your org
How to structure account tiers so no opportunity falls through the cracks
The AI tech stack Amanda is architecting right now at Frameplay - and the honest truth about what it takes to implement it
Connect with Amanda Rubin: LinkedIn
Resources mentioned:
We Flow - AI-powered activity tracking and pipeline intelligence
Fyxer AI - AI email organization and post-meeting draft automation
Apollo - Sales sequencing and outreach automation
Download the free Executive Guide to Shadow AI: theaihat.com/shadow-ai
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Meeting Follow Up Basics
00:23 Podcast Intro Theme
01:32 Welcome and Mission
01:56 Scaling Chaos Problem
02:33 Meet Amanda Rubin
04:05 Sales vs Revenue Leadership
05:53 Revenue Architect Mindset
07:07 GTM Narrative and Positioning
08:01 Designing the Sales Org
10:21 Frameworks That Break
11:14 Account Lists and CRM Discipline
12:44 Tiering and Activity Tracking
13:36 People Roles and Incentives
15:18 Enthusiast Gaming Playbook
17:29 Packaging and Storytelling
19:41 Building Seller Pods
22:07 Diagnosing Capacity Leaks
23:27 Support vs Sales Spend
24:29 AI for Spec Sheets
24:52 Wildfire GPT Brain
25:59 Shadow AI Governance
27:15 Fix Workflows First
27:42 WeFlow Setup and CRM
30:51 Conference Intelligence Dashboards
33:33 Fyxer Inbox and Followups
35:09 Apollo Sequences and Outreach
36:37 Frameplay Pitch and Audience
39:06 WeFlow Activity Warnings
41:25 Fail Fast Tool Decisions
42:56 Story Before Headcount
44:01 Connect on LinkedIn
44:42 Final Shadow AI Reminder
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Your Prospects Aren't Googling Anymore - Scrunch's Kevin White on the AI Visibility Crisis
Season 1 · Episode 118
Tuesday, March 10, 2026 • Duration 39:24
Your prospects stopped Googling. They're asking ChatGPT which CRM to buy, asking Perplexity which marketing automation platform solves their problem, asking Gemini to compare your category - and AI is recommending your competitors, not you. This isn't a "future of search" problem. This is a pipeline problem. Right now.
Kevin White, Head of Marketing at Scrunch (and formerly leading growth at Twilio Segment, Retool, and Common Room), saw this crisis coming and built the measurement infrastructure to fix it. His clients are seeing 100% to 260% visibility gains in AI search in just 60 days - and tracking customers who convert specifically because they appeared in ChatGPT answers.
In this episode, Kevin deconstructs the "Citation Economy" - why chasing Reddit mentions is a trap, which citation sources actually drive AI recommendations in your vertical, and the exact workflow his team uses to go from "invisible in AI" to "recommended by LLMs" in under two months.
You'll learn the diagnostic every Revenue Leader should run Monday morning to find out if your brand exists when prospects ask AI for solutions. You'll discover why the "long, long tail" of AI search (20+ word prompts vs. 5-7 word Google queries) creates greenfield opportunities for brands willing to architect intent-driven content. And you'll hear how Scrunch's Agent Experience Platform delivers AI-optimized content to LLM crawlers without breaking the human website experience.
This is not theory. Kevin walks through Scrunch's own dogfooding - how they use their product to track competitive intelligence, diagnose content gaps, and systematically close citation opportunities. He shares the specific technical optimizations that actually move the needle (spoiler: it's not just adding FAQs). And he reveals how agentic workflows - using Claude Code to build marketing apps, automate spreadsheet enrichment, and analyze customer calls - are reclaiming hours his team used to lose to manual synthesis.
If your marketing team thinks they're winning because they rank on Page 1 of Google while your pipeline bleeds invisible in ChatGPT, this episode is your wake-up call. Kevin delivers the audit, the workflow, and the hard truth: you can't optimize what you don't measure.
Run the diagnostic. Close the gaps. Win the prompts that matter.
Show Notes & Transcript: https://theaihat.com/your-prospects-arent-googling-anymore-scrunchs-kevin-white-on-the-ai-visibility-crisis/
CHAPTERS
00:00 LLM SEO Lore
00:36 Podcast Intro Theme
01:45 AI Hat Welcome
02:10 Why Google Rankings Fail
02:53 Kevin White Joins
04:14 Wake Up Call Moment
07:15 Measuring AI Visibility
10:34 Citation Myths Debunked
13:57 Long Long Tail Search
16:45 Three Citation Buckets
19:07 Workflow To 260% Gains
24:15 Shadow AI Ad Break
25:25 Making Sites AI Readable
29:57 Dogfooding Scrunch Tactics
32:19 Top Priorities This Quarter
35:33 One Prompt Audit Trick
37:16 Where To Connect
38:40 Final Wrap Up
Kevin White on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevbosaurus/Scrunch: https://scrunch.com/
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Sanctioning the Shadow: A Payments Executive's Playbook for Governed AI
Season 1 · Episode 117
Tuesday, February 24, 2026 • Duration 42:43
If you're a VP of Sales watching your revenue team paste customer data into ChatGPT, you don't have an adoption problem - you have a governance crisis. Your best people are uploading signed NDAs to Claude and feeding pipeline data into Perplexity because 70% of their day is admin drag, and AI is the only thing fast enough to keep them above water.
Financial services tried to ban AI. It failed spectacularly. So they built governance frameworks that let teams move faster and sleep at night.
Dr. Angela Murphy - known as Payments Elsa - reveals the "Amnesty and Orchestration" playbook she architected for banks navigating the GENESIS Executive Order. She's a PhD strategist, 2024 PayTech Women Emerging Trendsetter, and advisor to financial institutions on AI governance and ethical AI mandates.
You'll learn the three-step governance audit every Revenue Leader should run this quarter - before Legal does. Angela shares real stories of teams using ChatGPT for payment disputes and compliance workflows, creating massive liability. She reveals the conversation framework to surface Shadow AI without triggering panic, the three policies you can implement in 30 days, and why explainability isn't compliance theater - it's revenue protection.
This isn't a "fire your team and replace them with bots" episode. Angela proves ethical AI can surface hidden revenue channels, identify products to sunset, and reveal sales cycle biases costing you deals.
The regulatory hammer is coming. Financial services just got hit first. Will you architect governance now, or audit the damage later?
Download the Executive Guide to Shadow AI at theaihat.com/shadow-ai.
Subscribe to AI for Revenue Leaders: The AI Hat Podcast and stop being a Pilot Purgatory statistic.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Ethical AI = Revenue Growth: Find Gaps, Biases & New Channels
01:24 Show Intro & Theme Song: Welcome to The AI Hat Podcast
02:56 The Shadow AI Compliance Time Bomb (Real-World Examples)
03:43 Meet Dr. Angela Murphy (Payments Elsa) + Why Banks Try to Ban AI
07:41 Shadow AI in the Back Office: Spreadsheets, PII, and Manual Ops Risks
11:04 Why Revenue Leaders Should Watch FinTech: Payments Rails & Stablecoins
13:04 Genesis Executive Order Explained: “Suggestulation” and What’s Coming
16:24 From Fear to Frameworks: Finding Low-Hanging AI Wins with Guardrails
19:24 Resource Break: Executive Guide to Shadow AI
20:33 Orchestration 101: Tool Inventory, Training, and Policy from Existing Governance
23:33 Explainable AI: Decisions You Can Defend (Underwriting Example)
27:51 Ethics, Bias & Revenue Outcomes: Avoid Lawsuits and Unlock Better Decisions
31:19 Biggest Misconceptions: You Can’t Ban AI—and Education Isn’t Optional
37:30 Monday Morning Action Plan: Start the AI Policy, Audit Tools, Target Pain Points
40:46 Where to Find Angela + Final Wrap and Next Steps
Show Notes & Full Transcript: https://theaihat.com/why-your-sales-teams-shadow-ai-is-a-lawsuit-waiting-to-happen-a-fintech-cros-governance-playbook/
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Gemini's Scheduler Just Fixed Sales Meeting Prep (And Killed the 90-Minute Research Grind)
Season 1 · Episode 116
Tuesday, February 17, 2026 • Duration 18:40
Your sales team spends 70% of their time on admin work - not selling. Do the math: if your top AE makes $120K and only spends 30% of their time on revenue activities, you're paying $84,000 for data entry and CRM updates. That's the Admin Drag tax killing your pipeline velocity in 2026.
But here's the real problem: you bought AI six months ago (Gemini, ChatGPT, Einstein), rolled it out with a 45-minute webinar, and… crickets. Adoption is at 14%. Your VP is asking what you're paying for.
This isn't a technology problem. It's a leadership problem. You installed software when you needed to redesign the workflow.
In this episode, Mike Allton (Director of Partner-Led Growth at Agorapulse) deconstructs the 95% AI pilot failure rate and shows you exactly what Revenue Architecture looks like in practice. You'll discover:
• The real cost of manual meeting prep (90 minutes vs. 8 minutes with Gemini's Scheduler)• How to build a "Digital Crew" that automates research, briefing docs, and objection prep• Why Gemini's 2 million token context window changes everything for sales intelligence• The 3-day audit that reveals where your team is hemorrhaging time• How to move from "Human-in-the-Loop" to "Human-on-the-Loop" automation
Stop installing tools your team won't use. Start architecting workflows that reclaim 25-30 hours per rep, per week.
Resources: TheAIHat.com/speaking
CHAPTERS
00:00:00 - Introduction: The $600K Call She's Unprepared For
00:02:20 - The $84,000 Admin Drag Tax (Do the Math)
00:03:41 - Why 95% of AI Pilots Fail (It's Not the Technology)
00:04:05 - The Da Vinci Workshop: Building a Digital Crew
00:05:17 - Pilot Purgatory: The 6-Month Failure Timeline
00:07:06 - The Old Way: 90 Minutes of Manual Meeting Prep
00:08:48 - The Digital Crew Way: Gemini Scheduler in Action
00:11:48 - Why Gemini Is Structurally Different
00:12:16 - Native Workspace Integration (Friction Removal)
00:12:36 - The 2 Million Token Context Window
00:13:20 - Multimodal Native (Not Franken-Botted)
00:14:23 - Grounding with Google Search (The Accuracy Engine)
00:14:43 - The Scheduler: The Agentic Unlock
00:15:36 - Your Homework: The 3-Day Time Tracking Audit
00:17:01 - How to Architect Your Digital Crew (Workshop Info)
00:17:45 - Closing: Stop Installing Software, Start Architecting Systems
Show Notes & Transcript: https://theaihat.com/geminis-scheduler-just-fixed-sales-meeting-prep-and-killed-the-90-minute-research-grind/
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$1M in Sales in 6 Months Using AI Voice Agents - Thoughtly's Will Del Principe on the Agentic Shift
Season 1 · Episode 115
Tuesday, February 10, 2026 • Duration 32:28
$1M in sales. $500K saved. Zero new headcount.
Your sales team isn't ignoring dead leads because they're lazy - they're drowning in admin drag. While you're debating whether to hire two more SDRs, your competitors have stopped asking "Who do I hire next?" and started asking "What system do I build next?"
Will Del Principe (Growth & Solutions Engineering Leader at Thoughtly) reveals how AI voice agents have crossed the quality threshold - handling objections, qualifying leads, and booking meetings at scale. Will personally drove close to $1M in sales in 6 months using voice agent workflows, and his clients are generating hundreds of thousands per month by reactivating dead pipeline.
You'll learn:
Why voice agents are fundamentally different from chatbots (and why that matters for stalled pipeline)
How to design re-engagement campaigns that resurrect cold leads without damaging your brand
Quality benchmarks for evaluating voice AI providers (70% of prospects don't detect it's AI)
The mindset shift from headcount scaling to system architecture
The low-risk pilot strategy for testing voice agents this quarter
Who this is for: VPs of Sales, CROs, and RevOps Directors in mid-market to enterprise B2B who need workflow architecture that produces measurable P&L impact - not pilot purgatory.
Download the free Executive Guide to Shadow AI at theaihat.com/shadow-ai
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Introduction: The Efficiency Crisis Killing Your Pipeline02:08 - Your Sales Team Isn't Lazy - They're Drowning in Admin Drag03:27 - Meet Will Del Principe: $1M in Sales Using AI Voice Agents03:58 - The Coffee Invitation: When AI Crossed the Uncanny Valley06:00 - What Is a Voice Agent? (And Why It's Not Just Another Chatbot)08:05 - The Podcast Guest Analogy: How AI Removes Bottlenecks Without Replacing People11:14 - Mixing Outbound and Inbound: The New Campaign Architecture13:20 - Why You Can't Cold Call with AI (And How to Get Consent)15:07 - The Handoff: When Does AI Transfer to Human Sales Reps?16:22 - Reactivating Dead Leads: 650 Meetings Booked in 90 Days18:04 - Mid-Roll: The Executive Guide to Shadow AI20:23 - Quality Benchmarks: What Makes a Voice Agent Sound Human?24:22 - The Thoughtly Roadmap: Omnichannel AI Personas Are Coming26:49 - From "Who Do I Hire?" to "What System Do I Build?"28:10 - How to Pilot a Voice Agent: The Low-Risk, High-ROI Use Case29:47 - The CRM Graveyard Audit: What Would 10% Reactivation Mean for Your Revenue?31:02 - Where to Learn More About Thoughtly31:46 - Outro: Download the Shadow AI Guide
CONNECT:Will Del Principe - Thoughtly: thoughtly.co | thoughtly.co/demoMike Allton - The AI Hat: theaihat.com | theaihat.com/shadow-ai
AI for Revenue Leaders is your operational playbook for the Agentic Era. Host Mike Allton deconstructs how practitioners are deploying sanctioned AI to hit quota and reclaim sales capacity lost to admin drag. Stop guessing. Start architecting.
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How a RevOps CEO Identifies a $21M Revenue Opportunity in 24 Hours (Not 3 Weeks)
Season 1 · Episode 114
Tuesday, February 3, 2026 • Duration 38:10
If your revenue team takes three weeks to deliver a diagnostic report - and still misses the $21 million opportunity hiding in your pipeline - this episode reveals why manual analysis is costing you deals and how a RevOps CEO architected an AI agent that does it in 24 hours.
Tara Kinney, Founder and CEO of Atomic Revenue, has led 18 CRM implementations across 76 companies. She knows what "normal" looks like in revenue operations - and she blew it up. Her agency used to spend weeks qualifying prospects and delivering diagnostics. Now her Digital Crew does it in 24-48 hours, cuts the sales cycle by 90%, and finds revenue opportunities her manual analysis missed.
In this episode, Tara walks through the exact workflow: how the Revenue Reality Check agent integrates with HubSpot and Slack, how it auto-assigns prospects to the right strategist based on industry and pain point, and why the "Human-in-the-Loop" governance layer is non-negotiable. She also reveals the $21 million story - the moment her AI agent identified a conversion bottleneck she hadn't even tracked, proving that agents don't just save time, they see what humans miss.
This isn't theory. This is a deployable blueprint for Revenue Leaders who need to stop drowning in Admin Drag and start architecting workflows that deliver measurable P&L impact.
You'll Learn:
Why manual revenue diagnostics are too slow (and too shallow) for 2026 B2B velocity
The 24-hour diagnostic workflow that cut Atomic Revenue's sales cycle by 90%
How AI found a $21M opportunity by modeling scenarios humans can't calculate at scale
The HubSpot + Slack + Multi-LLM integration stack behind the Revenue Reality Check
Why "Human-in-the-Loop" governance prevents hallucination risks and protects your brand
The three revenue killers hiding in your pipeline: Sales handoffs, legal bottlenecks, and client onboarding gaps
Guest: Tara Kinney, Founder & CEO, Atomic RevenueCredentials: 76 companies supported, 18 CRM implementations, RevOps practitioner with real P&L accountability
If you're a VP of Sales, CRO, or RevOps Director tired of waiting weeks for answers while your competitors move faster, this episode gives you the audit framework and workflow architecture to deploy your first diagnostic agent.
Resources:
Try the Revenue Reality Check: atomicrevenue.com
Download the Executive Guide to Shadow AI: theaihat.com/shadow-ai
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction: The Impact of AI on Sales Processes
00:51 Meet Mike Allton and The AI Hat Podcast
02:00 Welcome to AI for Revenue Leaders
02:21 The Problem with Traditional Revenue Diagnostics
03:00 Introducing Tara Kinney and Atomic Revenue
03:55 The Evolution of Revenue Diagnostics with AI
06:07 How AI Transforms Revenue Reality Checks
08:45 The Role of AI in Enhancing Sales Strategies
17:00 The Human-AI Collaboration in Revenue Diagnostics
33:32 Key Metrics and Questions for Revenue Leaders
36:22 Conclusion and Next Steps
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80% Lead Conversion Without AI: What Sales Expert Aleasha Bahr Knows That You Don't
Season 1 · Episode 113
Tuesday, January 27, 2026 • Duration 36:28
If your sales team is stuck at 25% conversion despite investing in AI tools, this episode reveals why most AI pilots fail - and the sales methodology audit every Revenue Leader should run first.
Sales strategy expert Aleasha Bahr (author of Black Sheep Sales) walks through the 3-step diagnostic to identify broken sales processes, explains the difference between "Admin Drag" (tasks AI should handle) and "Relationship Moments" (where humans must stay in control), and shares the counterintuitive truth about taking fewer calls to close more revenue.
You'll learn:
Why "automating a broken process" is the #1 reason AI pilots end up in "Pilot Purgatory"
How to identify if your team is wasting capacity on leads that were never going to close
Where AI actually fits in a high-converting sales workflow (hint: it's not messaging)
The Sales Methodology Audit framework to run before your next AI investment
Aleasha's methodology has helped clients achieve 80% lead conversion rates - without pressure tactics or massive AI stacks. Over 15 years in the sales trenches, she's helped sell tens of millions in offers by focusing on what most teams skip: a repeatable, authentic process built on clarity and connection.
Your sales team isn't selling. They're updating CRM fields, doing prospect research, chasing down meeting notes - spending 70% of their time on what Mike Allton calls "Admin Drag." And here's the kicker: You've probably already tried to fix this with an AI pilot. But six months later, the conversion rates are still stuck, the pipeline is still stalled, and you're wondering if you just wasted another chunk of budget on software that promised magic but delivered more logins your team ignores.
Here's what nobody's telling you: The problem isn't the AI. The problem is that you're automating a broken sales process. If you can't answer the question "What does a high-converting sales process actually look like?" - then no chatbot, no cadence tool, no "AI SDR" is going to save you.
This is the pre-mortem you should have run six months ago.
Download the free Executive Guide to Shadow AI: theaihat.com/shadow-ai
00:00 The Problem with Too Many Sales Calls
01:17 Introduction to The AI Hat Podcast
02:26 The Hidden Costs of Admin Drag
03:12 Introducing Aleasha Bahr and Black Sheep Sales
04:33 Key Elements of a High-Converting Sales Process
10:46 The Role of AI in Sales Efficiency
18:46 Balancing AI and Human Touch in Sales
34:08 Final Thoughts and Resources
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