From Philosophy Major to Serial Founder: Adam Honig on Culture and Change

Jim sits down with serial founder and anti CRM evangelist Adam Honig. They dig into what culture really is, why most digital transformation falls flat, and how AI can strip out the crap work without gutting good jobs. Adam walks through building and selling three companies, including the painful first exit that taught him more than any win. Expect honesty, laughs, and sharp takes on manufacturing sales, change management, and shiny tool syndrome.

What you’ll hear

Adam’s path from philosophy major to three-time founder, culture as what happens when you’re not in the room, value alignment versus values on a wall, why traditional CRMs fail frontline teams, the Her movie spark that led to Spiro, why manufacturing became the focus and how ERP context changes sales calls, how to make digital transformation stick by letting people author the change, AI’s near term impact on white collar work and the boomer knowledge gap, keeping retirees on retainer to transfer territory knowledge, and building products people adopt instantly.

Topics covered

Company culture and behavior, change management in factories and field sales, CRM fatigue and alternatives, AI copilots for meetings and follow ups, workforce demographics and succession, product adoption and simplicity, founder resilience and rough exits.

Key quotes

“Culture is what happens when you’re not in the room.”

“I’m a materialist. What people do beats what people say.”

“Nobody gives a shit. Pivot if you must and get back to work.”

“Sales didn’t need another system. They needed Scarlett Johansson whispering what to do next.”

“AI should do the crap work. People do the human work.”

Jim’s take

If you want change to last, stop spraying money at shiny tech and start asking your people to co author the solution. Culture shows up in behavior, not slide decks. The sales side of manufacturing is overdue a rethink and the anti CRM idea is pointing the right way. Also, that pivot line belongs on a T shirt.

Adam’s take

Make powerful things stupid simple. If your tool needs a playbook and an offsite to adopt, it’s probably not the tool. Remove the admin tax, surface the right cues at the right time, and let the humans sell.

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