Whiskey Is For Closers, Joel joins Craig and Drew with a High West Double Rye to talk about the Pay It Forward program he's built into Jeckil's DNA, why "making people better" isn't just a tagline but the operating system behind every client relationship, and what happens when the guy who builds brand identity for a living has to do it for himself. 

Less promo booth. More proof of concept.

He joins Craig, Steve, and Drew to talk about chickens in boxes (yes, really), what David-versus-Goliath actually looks like when David runs a moving company, and why "AI can't fix a pipe or move a couch."

Plus a whiskey he swears will reset our standards. Less tactics, more truth. Pour something good. Press play.

The pipeline is soft.

The numbers are off.

The team feels it.

And in your gut, you already know — something has to change.

The next move you make is the one that makes or breaks the rest of 2026. In this bonus episode, the three of us crack open the hardest conversation a founder ever has with themselves: how do you know when it's time to pivot? Why do most founders see it too late? And once you know — what actually has to change? Product, ICP, pricing, channel, story, or you?

We pull stories from Altezza's own pivots, the founders we've watched do it right (and very, very wrong), and the signals telling you to stop hoping and start moving. Pour one out for the plan that didn't work. We've got eight months left.

In this episode of Whiskey Is For Closers, Piper joins us with a Shirley Temple and extra cherries to talk about her own story — what made her finally hang her own shingle, what she had to unlearn, and the inner work most founders bury under a busier calendar. This is the conversation about the gap between who you were as a builder and who you're being asked to become as a leader. And the surprisingly small moves that close it.

AND what if this level of elite talent wasn't a distant dream requiring a fortune, but a tangible reality for the cost of a single employee? That's not a hypothetical; that's the powerful promise delivered by Growth Concierge. 

This episode of Whiskey is for Closers goes beyond the surface to unpack exactly how they make this unprecedented model work. We’re diving deep into an unfiltered conversation that reveals how founders can finally stop compromising and start leveraging truly elite resources. Prepare to discover how this approach not only drives exponential profit growth but also fortifies your business with essential stability, propelling you towards new, ambitious heights.

We dig into an origin story that started at 14, unpack what it means to build on rock instead of sand, and explore how spiritual maturity and personal wholeness become your unfair advantage in scaling. 

Plus, find out what we’re pouring today!

In this episode, we sit down with Hillary to talk about scaling a woman-owned recruiting firm, why honest compensation conversations are a closer's best friend, and what it really takes to build a team that sticks around. Plus, she shares the one thing founders often get wrong when it comes to hiring—and how to actually fix it. 

Grab a glass of wine and join us for a conversation about recruiting, retention, and what it means to build a business on genuine relationships.

Clay shares how he built a thriving community of entrepreneurs and decision-makers—and why the secret sauce isn't what most people think. We're diving into the Connect, Serve, and Ask® methodology that's transformed how thousands of professionals network, the biggest mistakes founders make when trying to scale their networks, and why focusing on relationships instead of transactions changes everything. If you've ever felt uncomfortable "selling" your business or struggled to build genuine referral partnerships, this one's for you. Clay's got insights (and his favorite drink) ready to go

In this episode of Whiskey Is For Closers, we sit down with Sean O’Shaughnessey, founder of New Sales Expert, to talk about what's actually burning your cash—and what to do about it. Over bourbon, Sean breaks down how to fail gloriously at sales management, where AI belongs (and where it absolutely doesn't), and what it actually takes to turn your scrappy sales setup into something a buyer would pay real money for.

If you've ever bought a tool, hired a rep, or "implemented AI" and wondered why nothing got better, this episode is your intervention. Pour a glass, check your ego, and let's figure out where your money's actually going.

In this conversation, Rich breaks down the biggest mistakes founders make (many without realizing it), the cost of being unprepared, and the specific moves that separate "exits that work" from "exits that haunt you." We talk about founders who built themselves into irreplaceability traps, why your sales dependency might be your exit vulnerability, and what the most prepared founders are doing differently.

This one's essential listening for anyone who's ever dreamed of stepping away.

In this episode of Whiskey Is For Closers, we pour something smooth and sit down with Braxton, founder of I Believe In You (IBIY)—a movement built on four simple words that have traveled from a small-town school assembly to wrists and phones around the world.

Braxton shares how a handful of stickers and a middle school talk went unexpectedly viral, why he turned that moment into a tech-enabled bracelet and app, and what it really takes to sell hope, kindness, and connection in a world that’s more depressed and divided than ever. We get into the founder grind behind the feel-good mission: early sales, turning a movement into a business, getting into schools, building high-level relationships from scratch, and staying sane when you’re the one carrying the vision.

If you’re a founder trying to scale something bigger than yourself—whether that’s a sales engine or a full-on movement—this conversation will hit home.

We're not AI experts. We're sales people who've built something real. And this is us thinking out loud about the future—unfiltered, un-scripted, and maybe a little uncertain. Just like every founder figuring out what's next.

Pour one and join us.

Check out her books HERE.