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Vertical market strategy and B2B growth insights from Mike McCalley.

Get Vertical with Mike McCalley is a B2B strategy podcast focused on vertical market expansion and the specific growth decisions facing leaders in niche industries. Mike McCalley draws on direct operator experience to surface the insights most useful to executives pursuing vertical-specific revenue growth. The channel is built for B2B leaders who need more than generic strategy advice.

5 episodes
Channel Brief·Get Vertical! with Mike McCalley · 5 episodes
Updated May 15, 2023

Builders beat decorators: fix systems before blaming people

B2B growth depends on leadership type and organizational fundamentals, not quick fixes. This channel proves it through leadership research, sales dysfunction diagnosis, and content automation.

Get Vertical argues that sustainable B2B growth flows from fixing root causes in systems and leadership, not symptoms. The channel proves this by interviewing founders and revenue leaders who ground their advice in either research data (leadership typology, survey comparisons) or repeated patterns they observe across client engagements (pricing as a mask for deeper problems, AI content generation as a writer's tool, not a replacement).

Drawn from Get Vertical! with Mike McCalley and Dan Adams… and 2 more →

“Discounts are often used as a lazy fix for other problems in an organization, rather than fixing the underlying issues.”

Darren Doyle, Sales Xceleration, Episode 5

By the numbers

53% vs 32%

Senior leaders self-identify as builders; subordinates rate them that way

32%

Subordinates rating their senior leader as a builder

6

AI models Graibox uses for long-form content creation

What the channel argues

DataOnly 53% of senior leaders see themselves as builders, but just 32% of subordinates agree.→
InsightGraibox uses six AI models to create long-form, customizable, SEO-friendly content for agencies.→
InsightAI content generation risks include fabricated case studies, fake statistics, and competitor promotion.→
InsightRoot-cause diagnosis via the 5Ys method should prioritize fixing tools, then processes, then people.→
InsightDiscounting masks underlying problems with people, processes, or tools rather than solving revenue growth.→

What you'll learn

•Leaders who build generate higher growth expectations and actual results than decorators, remodelers, or realtors, measured by survey gap between self-perception and subordinate rating.
•AI content tools work best as structured briefs for human writers, not as final output, and require personal experience and proofreading to avoid false claims.
•Pricing problems almost always signal deeper dysfunction in sales training, compensation, or process that discounting will never solve.
•Changing organizational behavior requires recognizing non-adopters (who will resist change) separately from laggards (who may be won over).
•Entrepreneurs scaling content businesses succeed by testing many short-term clients first, learning which ones fit long-term, and building incrementally rather than betting on one model.

What to do about it

→Audit whether your senior leaders are builders versus decorators, remodelers, or realtors; measure the gap between their self-assessment and direct report feedback.
→When facing pricing or sales friction, apply the 5Ys method and fix the tool layer (CRM, compensation, training) before blaming sales people.
→If using AI for content, treat it as a brief-generation engine that produces outlines and structure, then assign human writers to add data, case studies, and expertise.

Who and what shows up

Ben Millar

President, Graibox

Explains how AI uses six models to create SEO-friendly content briefs for agencies and identifies AI risks like fake statistics and competitor promotion.

Dan Adams

Founder and President, The AIM Institute

Conducted research defining four leadership types (builders, remodelers, decorators, realtors) and found only 53% of senior leaders self-identify as builders versus 32% subordinate agreement.

Darren Doyle

Outsourced Revenue Growth Partner, Sales Xceleration

Teaches the 5Ys root-cause method and argues discounts mask tool, process, and people problems rather than solving revenue growth.

Questions this channel answers

Q

What separates high-growth leaders from ineffective ones?

Builders drive higher expectations and actual growth; only 53% of senior leaders call themselves builders, but only 32% of their subordinates agree, signaling a perception gap.

Get Vertical! with Mike McCalley and Dan Adams: Part 1 →
Q

How do you fix pricing and discounting problems?

Use the 5Ys method to find root cause, prioritize fixing tools and process over replacing people, and recognize that discounts mask deeper issues rather than solving them.

Get Vertical! with Mike McCalley and Darren Doyle: Part … →
Q

Can AI write good content by itself?

AI text generation predicts the next word based on context and is useful for creating briefs and outlines, but risks fabricating case studies and statistics; human proofreading and personal experience are required.

Get Vertical! with Mike McCalley and Ben Millar: Part 2 →
Q

How should salespeople approach customer conversations?

Be service-oriented, genuine, and focused on integrity rather than closing; the negative connotation of sales is changed by treating it as help, not pressure.

Get Vertical! with Mike McCalley and Darren Doyle: Part … →
Topics:AI content generation and SEOSales leadership and compensation structurePricing strategy and root-cause diagnosisOrganizational change management
Themes:Diagnosis before remedy: root causes hide beneath symptom-level fixesLeadership type drives organizational culture and growth outcomesSystems and tools compound more than people do, so fix them first

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