Most companies define competition incorrectly.

They build spreadsheets comparing themselves to the businesses in their category. Same product. Same industry. Same lane.

But customers do not live inside your category.

They compare every experience they have across their entire life.

In this episode of Slackers, Jaime Solis and Jonathan Sasse explore the idea that modern competition is horizontal, not vertical. Your real competition is not the company that sells the same thing you do. It is the experience that trained your customer to expect something better.

• A pizza tracker from Domino’s can reshape expectations for furniture delivery.
• A seamless checkout flow from Amazon can change what customers expect from healthcare portals.
• A well-designed Little League app can influence how someone judges enterprise software.

Once customers experience transparency, speed, or simplicity somewhere else, they begin expecting it everywhere.

The conversation also explores why traditional competitive analysis often misses the point. Strategy should not be limited to spreadsheets and industry comparisons. It should function as a listening device for understanding what customers are learning from the broader world of commerce.

Key themes in this episode include:

• Why industry-based competitive analysis can create blind spots
• How customer expectations move horizontally across industries
• The Domino’s Pizza Tracker example and its ripple effects on other businesses
• Why benchmarking against the “low floor” of your competitors creates vulnerability
• How the Kano model explains the drift from delight to table stakes
• Why customer support teams must be part of strategic decision making

The core lesson is simple.

Customers compare you to the best experience they had today.

Not the company that looks most like you.

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The Slackers Podcast is produced by Jaime Solis and Jonathan Sasse.
Audio production by Stephen Kallao.
Cover art by Jonathan Sasse

Connect with the Hosts

🎙️ Jonathan Sasse — Chief Strategy Officer and executive advisor.
🔗 Connect on LinkedIn · Forbes Communication Council

🎙️ Jaime Solis — Music & Media executive, strategist, and creator of the Red Threads newsletter.
🔗 LinkedIn | Newsletter | Website
📱 Social: Instagram · Threads · LinkedIn

We want to hear from you!
🤔 Do you have a question you'd love to ask us, or a topic you think we should dive into on the show? You can leave us a voice message right here!

Thanks for listening!
If you enjoyed this episode, please follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast app—and leave a quick rating or review. It helps new listeners find the show.

AI has leveled the production playing field.

Text, images, video, wireframes. Infinite. Instant. Cheap.

So what actually matters now?

In this episode of Slackers, Jaime and Jonathan unpack how AI is fundamentally reshaping branding. When production becomes abundant, trust becomes scarce. And scarcity determines value.

This conversation builds on Part 1 of the brand series and reframes brand not as logos and aesthetics, but as a cognitive shortcut. A promise. A signal in an environment overloaded with information.

Key themes include:

• Why trust increases in value as AI content explodes
• The shift from production skill to human judgment
• Speed vs. width and how AI expands the creative menu
• Active prototyping and collapsing two-week cycles into 24 hours
• The scattering of A-player talent from large agencies to smaller firms
• Why intentional imperfection builds credibility in a polished AI world
• The difference between provenance and polish

Jaime and Jonathan explore how AI compresses workflows while expanding optionality. Teams can now move from whiteboard to wireframe in minutes, reducing ambiguity and improving alignment. But the real differentiator is not speed. It is taste. It is empathy. It is consistency.

They also examine the emerging labor shift, where top-tier talent equipped with AI can help smaller organizations compete with legacy Goliaths. This is not about replacing humans. It is about amplifying human judgment.

In a world of infinite content, the brands that win are the ones that stand for something specific and keep their promises over time.

Brand is not dying. It is becoming more valuable.

–––

The Slackers Podcast is produced by Jaime Solis and Jonathan Sasse.
Audio production by Stephen Kallao.
Cover art by Jonathan Sasse

Connect with the Hosts

🎙️ Jonathan Sasse — Chief Strategy Officer and executive advisor.
🔗 Connect on LinkedIn · Forbes Communication Council

🎙️ Jaime Solis — Music & Media executive, strategist, and creator of the Red Threads newsletter.
🔗 LinkedIn | Newsletter | Website
📱 Social: Instagram · Threads · LinkedIn

We want to hear from you!
🤔 Do you have a question you'd love to ask us, or a topic you think we should dive into on the show? You can leave us a voice message right here!

Thanks for listening!
If you enjoyed this episode, please follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast app—and leave a quick rating or review. It helps new listeners find the show.

Most teams think “brand” means design.

Logos. Fonts. Color palettes. A rebrand presentation.

But that is not what a brand is.

In this episode, Jaime and Jonathan break brand down to its simplest and most useful definition:

A brand is a shortcut and a promise.

The shortcut is the feeling that fires in someone’s mind when they see your name.
The promise is whether you consistently meet that expectation over time.

Using examples like Nike versus Hyatt, they explore why some brands feel transferable across industries while others do not. The difference is not aesthetic. It is story, identity, and trust.

The conversation moves into deeper territory:

How brands function as identity signals and tribe markers

Why founders often confuse aspiration with ability

What happens when customers define your brand before you do

Why “design spikes” are often distractions from harder strategic work

How trust becomes exponentially more valuable in an AI-saturated world

They also explore the very real risks of brand identity crises. If you do not define your brand early, the market may define it for you. And reclaiming it later can cost you your tribe.

This is Part 1 of a deeper brand series. There is more beneath the surface.

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The Slackers Podcast is produced by Jaime Solis and Jonathan Sasse.
Audio production by Stephen Kallao.
Cover art by Jonathan Sasse

Connect with the Hosts

🎙️ Jonathan Sasse — Chief Strategy Officer and executive advisor.
🔗 Connect on LinkedIn · Forbes Communication Council

🎙️ Jaime Solis — Music & Media executive, strategist, and creator of the Red Threads newsletter.
🔗 LinkedIn | Newsletter | Website
📱 Social: Instagram · Threads · LinkedIn

We want to hear from you!
🤔 Do you have a question you'd love to ask us, or a topic you think we should dive into on the show? You can leave us a voice message right here!

Thanks for listening!
If you enjoyed this episode, please follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast app—and leave a quick rating or review. It helps new listeners find the show.

In this second installment of the Slackers Listener Q&A, Jaime Solis and Jonathan Sasse respond to listener questions that sit at the intersection of strategy, culture, and day to day execution. The conversation begins with a challenge many leaders face right now: separating durable trends from hype and distraction.

Using examples like AI, NFTs, and past technology cycles, the hosts introduce simple human centered filters for deciding what deserves attention. Instead of reacting to headlines, they encourage leaders to observe behavior, adoption patterns, and whether real utility is emerging beneath the noise.

The discussion then turns to remote work and distributed teams. Jaime and Jonathan argue that remote leadership is not about recreating the office at home. It requires a shift from observation to outcomes, from surveillance to trust. They share practical ways to foster connection remotely, including investing in reliable infrastructure and creating informal digital spaces where people can bond naturally.

In the final segment, the hosts address the gap between strategy and execution. Strategy is framed not as a perfect roadmap, but as a compass. Progress happens when leaders impose constraints, decide what not to do, and introduce forcing functions like deadlines and milestones that turn ideas into action.

The episode closes with a return to the guiding principle of Slackers itself. Better work comes from intentionality. Asking who the work is for, what it is for, and choosing to show up on purpose, regardless of title or role.

–––

The Slackers Podcast is produced by Jaime Solis and Jonathan Sasse.
Audio production by Stephen Kallao.
Cover art by Jonathan Sasse

Connect with the Hosts

🎙️ Jonathan Sasse — Chief Strategy Officer and executive advisor.
🔗 Connect on LinkedIn · Forbes Communication Council

🎙️ Jaime Solis — Music & Media executive, strategist, and creator of the Red Threads newsletter.
🔗 LinkedIn | Newsletter | Website
📱 Social: Instagram · Threads · LinkedIn

We want to hear from you!
🤔 Do you have a question you'd love to ask us, or a topic you think we should dive into on the show? You can leave us a voice message right here!

Thanks for listening!
If you enjoyed this episode, please follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast app—and leave a quick rating or review. It helps new listeners find the show.

In this episode of Slackers, Jaime and Jonathan open the mailbag and work through listener questions pulled directly from the community. Rather than abstract frameworks, the conversation focuses on the friction leaders and operators actually experience inside growing organizations.

The episode begins with a shift away from funnel thinking toward customer journeys. Funnels prioritize internal conversion math and acceptable loss. Journeys force teams to confront what customers are thinking and feeling at each step. A key insight is that customer support teams should have a seat at the strategy table because they hold the clearest view of where journeys break down.

From there, the conversation moves into leadership tension around urgency and patience. The hosts unpack why urgency without a plan creates chaos, how companies fall into active inertia, and why teams must be clear on the destination before being asked to move fast.

They then address rebuilding trust after it has been damaged. Over explaining does not rebuild trust. Predictability does. Leaders rebuild credibility by making fewer promises and keeping all of them. In some cases, restoring trust also requires removing toxic high performers to signal that culture matters.

The episode also explores psychological safety and mental health as performance enablers rather than soft concepts. Safety is not a poster on the wall. It is defined by how leaders respond when bad news or uncomfortable truths surface.

The conversation closes with a practical collaboration model for cross functional teams. Instead of throwing work over the fence, Jaime and Jonathan propose a “crossfade” approach where teams overlap, share context, and jointly own transitions.

This is Part 1 of a multi episode listener Q&A series focused on turning leadership ideas into usable moves for better work.

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The Slackers Podcast is produced by Jaime Solis and Jonathan Sasse.
Audio production by Stephen Kallao.
Cover art by Jonathan Sasse

Connect with the Hosts

🎙️ Jonathan Sasse — Chief Strategy Officer and executive advisor.
🔗 Connect on LinkedIn · Forbes Communication Council

🎙️ Jaime Solis — Music & Media executive, strategist, and creator of the Red Threads newsletter.
🔗 LinkedIn | Newsletter | Website
📱 Social: Instagram · Threads · LinkedIn

We want to hear from you!
🤔 Do you have a question you'd love to ask us, or a topic you think we should dive into on the show? You can leave us a voice message right here!

Thanks for listening!
If you enjoyed this episode, please follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast app—and leave a quick rating or review. It helps new listeners find the show.

Resilience fatigue is different from burnout. Burnout often comes from monotony or overuse. Resilience fatigue comes from constant adaptation. In this episode, Jonathan and Jaime unpack what happens when high performers are expected to cope indefinitely with shifting goals, unclear finish lines, and permanent urgency.

The discussion starts with a simple but uncomfortable truth. Organizations often confuse capability with capacity. High performers can usually do the work, so leaders assume they should keep doing it. Over time, these people become the ones who absorb tension, smooth chaos, and take arrows for the team. They present as steady and professional on the outside while their nervous systems quietly disengage.

The hosts introduce the idea of the “moving finish line.” Burnout looks like pounding the same nail forever. Resilience fatigue looks like running a marathon where the route keeps changing. When leadership relies on grit instead of clarity, toughness replaces planning. Heroics become the operating model.

To address this, the episode introduces the L.C.R.M. framework. Load, Capacity, Recovery, and Meaning. The framework helps teams audit whether a plan is realistic or whether it secretly depends on everyone being heroic forever. Meaning matters, but it cannot be used as a permission slip for emotional overdraft.

The episode closes with practical leadership shifts. Stop asking general questions that invite polite lies. Start asking specific questions that surface tradeoffs. Celebrate documentation, handoffs, and de escalation, not just late night saves. When leaders design for recovery and clarity, resilience stops being an emergency response and becomes sustainable.

–––

The Slackers Podcast is produced by Jaime Solis and Jonathan Sasse.
Audio production by Stephen Kallao.
Cover art by Jonathan Sasse

Connect with the Hosts

🎙️ Jonathan Sasse — Chief Strategy Officer and executive advisor.
🔗 Connect on LinkedIn · Forbes Communication Council

🎙️ Jaime Solis — Music & Media executive, strategist, and creator of the Red Threads newsletter.
🔗 LinkedIn | Newsletter | Website
📱 Social: Instagram · Threads · LinkedIn

We want to hear from you!
🤔 Do you have a question you'd love to ask us, or a topic you think we should dive into on the show? You can leave us a voice message right here!

Thanks for listening!
If you enjoyed this episode, please follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast app—and leave a quick rating or review. It helps new listeners find the show.

This episode picks up where the last AI conversation left off. Jonathan and Jaime respond to the pushback they heard from creatives who feel unsettled by how quickly AI tools are lowering the barriers to entry across music, writing, design, and software. Instead of debating whether the shift is fair, they focus on what is actually happening and how to navigate it without losing your sense of self.

At the center of the discussion is an identity shift. When people define themselves by the noun rather than the act of creating, disruption feels personal. Jonathan and Jaime argue that much of the fear around AI is not about economics or quality, but about the discomfort of watching formerly scarce skills become widely accessible. The reaction sounds familiar because it has happened before.

Using examples from hip hop, sampling culture, and the electric guitar, the conversation draws parallels to moments when new tools were dismissed as shortcuts or “not real.” Each time, the medium evolved and expanded. AI, they argue, is simply the next instrument. What matters now is not how hard something was to make, but whether it connects, resonates, and reflects a distinct point of view.

As execution becomes cheap and abundant, scarcity moves elsewhere. Taste. Judgment. Human experience. The ability to curate, connect, and decide what matters. The episode closes with a clear reframing. Do not protect the title. Protect the practice. Be the verb, not the noun.

–––

The Slackers Podcast is produced by Jaime Solis and Jonathan Sasse.
Audio production by Stephen Kallao.
Cover art by Jonathan Sasse

Connect with the Hosts

🎙️ Jonathan Sasse — Chief Strategy Officer and executive advisor.
🔗 Connect on LinkedIn · Forbes Communication Council

🎙️ Jaime Solis — Music & Media executive, strategist, and creator of the Red Threads newsletter.
🔗 LinkedIn | Newsletter | Website
📱 Social: Instagram · Threads · LinkedIn

We want to hear from you!
🤔 Do you have a question you'd love to ask us, or a topic you think we should dive into on the show? You can leave us a voice message right here!

Thanks for listening!
If you enjoyed this episode, please follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast app—and leave a quick rating or review. It helps new listeners find the show.