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Cut The Tie Podcast with Nate Woodbury

What happens when you stop chasing vanity metrics and start answering the exact questions your future clients type into Google, YouTube, and ChatGPT? In this episode of Cut The Tie, Thomas Helfrich talks with Nate Woodbury, a YouTube strategist and longtime entrepreneur who helps experts turn niche answers into qualified inbound demand. Nate explains his Leaf Strategy, why most B2B creators need a focused channel with clear intent, and how generosity builds trust that converts.

About Nate Woodbury:
Nate is a YouTube lead-generation strategist and creator who has spent 16 years building systems that help coaches, speakers, consultants, and course creators turn videos into referral-quality leads. After early years in web design and SEO, he pivoted fully to YouTube and now teaches the Leaf Strategy through weekly webinars, his “Nate Woodbury” channel, and his new “Nate the Producer” channel.

In this episode, Thomas and Nate discuss:
• Cutting ties with tactics that don’t move revenue
Why Nate left beautiful-but-barren websites and even classic SEO to pursue YouTube content that converts.
• The Leaf Strategy for precise demand
How “leaves and branches” map real questions to videos that rank on Google, YouTube, and now show in ChatGPT results.
• Two paths on YouTube and why B2B must choose
Lead-gen focus versus ad-revenue entertainment, and how mixing them can stall both.
• Give away the playbook, win the client
Why teaching everything builds trust and surfaces paid help where execution gets hard.
• Founder discipline and scheduling
How blocking time, tracking inputs, and measuring the right metrics sustain output and health in the long game.

Key Takeaways:
• Strategy beats hustle
Pick a lane, define the audience’s questions, then publish with intention.
• Your best leads arrive warm
Helpful videos create trust, so sales calls feel like referrals.
• One channel, one promise
B2B creators grow faster when a channel has a single clear purpose and offer.
• Education filters and qualifies
A webinar or book preps buyers, saves time, and improves close rates.
• Consistency is a system
Calendar blocks, repeatable workflows, and clear metrics keep you shipping.

Connect with Nate Woodbury:
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nate-woodbury/
🌐 The Leaf Strategy Webinar: https://theleafstrategy.com/
▶️ YouTube – Nate Woodbury: https://www.youtube.com/@NateWoodbury

Connect with Thomas Helfrich:
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelfrich
📘 Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cutthetie
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thelfrich/
🌐 Website: https://www.cutthetie.com
📧 Email: t@instantlyrelevant.com
🚀 Instantly Relevant: https://instantlyrelevant.com

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Cut The Tie Podcast with Nathan Strum

What if artificial intelligence didn’t replace people—but helped them grow? In this episode of Cut The Tie, Thomas Helfrich sits down with Nathan Strum, CEO of Abby Connect, to talk about how a twenty-year-old live receptionist company is redefining success by blending human connection with AI innovation.

From cutting the tie to “doing everything for everyone” to leading his team through one of the biggest technological shifts in business, Nathan shares how focus, courage, and empathy drive sustainable growth. His approach proves that AI doesn’t have to eliminate jobs—it can elevate people into new, higher-value roles.

About Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum is the CEO of Abby Connect, a Las Vegas–based company helping small businesses capture every opportunity through a hybrid of live and AI receptionists. Under Nathan’s leadership, Abby Connect has become one of the most trusted names in client communication, known for balancing technology with a people-first philosophy. He’s passionate about building cultures where employees rise, clients feel heard, and innovation serves humans—not the other way around.

In this episode, Thomas and Nathan discuss:

• Why AI isn’t taking jobs—it’s transforming them
  Nathan explains how new technology is upskilling employees and opening career paths that didn’t exist before.
• Cutting the tie to “doing everything for everyone”
  How Abby Connect learned to focus on its best customers and say no to distractions that dilute value.
• Listening to clients the right way
  The difference between gathering feedback and asking the questions that actually drive business growth.
• Turning a service company into a product company
  The challenge of shifting from live services to software while staying true to the company’s human DNA.
• The tie he’s still cutting: building less to build better
  Why focus and simplicity matter most when developing new AI tools and customer solutions.

Key Takeaways

• AI creates more jobs than it replaces
  The future belongs to businesses that use technology to empower people, not eliminate them.
• Success is when your people feel successful
  Leadership is measured by how much you elevate others.
• You can’t please everyone
  Focus on the customers who align with your strengths and values.
• Fail fast, fail forward
  Every mistake is a data point for growth.
• Stop listening to influencers—start trusting yourself
  Your best business instincts come from experience, not noise.

Connect with Nathan Strum

🌐 Website: https://www.abby.com
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanstrum

Connect with Thomas Helfrich

🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelfrich
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cutthetie
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomashelfich
🌐 Website: https://www.cutthetie.com
📧 Email: t@instantlyrelevant.com
🚀 https://www.instantlyrelevant.com

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What if kids could launch their first business before high school? In this episode of Cut The Tie, Thomas Helfrich sits down with Krystal Popov, entrepreneur, real estate investor, and founder of FuturePreneur, a company that helps kids and teens ages six to sixteen build and launch their first business.

From corporate engineer to network marketing to commercial real estate and now youth entrepreneurship, Krystal’s story is about breaking cycles of fear, redefining success, and teaching freedom through ownership. She shares the ties she had to cut—control, fear of judgment, and the illusion of “safety” in corporate life—to build a business and a family that thrive on choice and impact.

About Krystal Popov
Krystal Popov is the founder and CEO of FuturePreneur, a hands-on program that teaches kids how to start real businesses from home. Based in Tucson, Arizona, Krystal is also a commercial real estate entrepreneur who operates over 20,000 square feet of coworking and retail office space. A former engineer turned business owner, she’s passionate about empowering the next generation to build confidence, creativity, and financial independence through entrepreneurship.

In this episode, Thomas and Krystal discuss:

• Teaching kids how to own their future
  How FuturePreneur helps kids and teens launch real businesses with guided video modules, business plans, and peer-led lessons.
• Why corporate “success” left her unfulfilled
  Krystal recalls sitting in a quarterly review meeting and realizing, “I’m climbing this ladder and I don’t even like the top.”
• How network marketing built her confidence
  Despite early failures and judgment, it taught her the most valuable lesson: You can’t sell if you don’t talk—and you can’t care what people think.
• Building real estate that buys her time
  Krystal explains how her coworking business gives her the freedom to start new ventures, travel, and raise her family without losing control of her time.

Key Takeaways

• Entrepreneurship breeds happiness
  Studies and real life both show it: business owners report more fulfillment and autonomy than employees.
• Failure is feedback, not final
  Every failed venture, from MLM to downtown coworking, became the data behind her success.
• Debt can be a tool, not a trap
  Smart, asset-backed debt fuels growth—don’t fear leverage, understand it.
• If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no
  The advice that reshaped how Krystal manages time, business decisions, and priorities.

Connect with Krystal Popov

🌐 Website: https://www.futurepreneur.com
🎁 Free Resource: Teach Your Kids to Dream (Check the website)
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krystalpopov
📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/krystalpopov

Connect with Thomas Helfrich

🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelfrich
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cutthetie
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomashelfich
🌐 Website: https://www.cutthetie.com
📧 Email: t@instantlyrelevant.com
🚀

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Serious about LinkedIn Lead Generation? Stop Guessing what to do on LinkedIn and ignite revenue from relevance with Instantly Relevant Lead System