Ground Control: Sponsored by RocketDocs

Prepare for liftoff! Welcome to Ground Control, the podcast where we navigate the high-velocity frontier of enterprise innovation. Sponsored by RocketDocs and LUMA, we serve as your mission-critical link to the future. In a world where the "noise" of emerging tech can feel like a chaotic meteor shower, we provide the steady trajectory and expert navigation needed to keep your organization on course. We aren't just talking about what’s next; we’re analyzing the propulsion systems: AI, proposals, and governance, that will get you there. Each episode, we strap in with industry pioneers and tech visionaries to explore the core pillars of your mission: The AI Stratosphere: Moving beyond the "blue sky" dreaming to the actual mechanics of enterprise AI and automation. Proposal Trajectory: How to optimize your response engines to win more business at orbital speeds. The Tech Stack Command Center: Auditing your digital infrastructure to ensu

Ground Control: Sponsored by RocketDocs is a business podcast hosted by RocketDocs, with 13 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

RocketDocs hosts Ground Control: Sponsored by RocketDocs, a business show with 13 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #13

  How to Win B2B Proposals Using Behavioral Science | Will Leach

  Aug 7, 202647 minS1

  Most B2B proposals lose before anyone reads a word of the pricing. In this episode of Ground Control, the podcast on AI, proposals, and governance sponsored by RocketDocs, host Perry Robinson talks with Will Leach, best-selling author of Marketing to Mind States and founder and CEO of the Mind State Group. A former military engineer turned behavioral scientist, Will spent 25 years studying why people really buy and the answer is almost never the reason they give you. The core lesson: 95% of decisions are made below conscious awareness, inside temporary emotional states Will calls mind states. Identify the four factors behind one goals, motivation, regulatory approach, and cognitive biases and you can write a proposal, email, or RFP response that fits how the reader actually decides, instead of competing on features. Along the way Will covers the PULL framework for qualifying real opportunities, how he uses AI to embed psychological cues in his deliverables, the graphic-novel trick that makes buyers feel like the hero, selling to committees you never meet, and Bevi, his behavioral intelligence system that lets brands ask a virtual customer what it thinks. His closing line: all we did was put science around intuition. Connect with Will Leach Work with Will: https://mindstategroup.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-leach/ Get the book (Marketing to Mind States): https://a.co/d/0cnopkoY Find Ground Control Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075 All episodes: https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast Find RocketDocs The response management platform built for regulated industries - trusted since 1994. Website: https://rocketdocs.com Book a demo: https://rocketdocs.com/demo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs

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  Episode #12

  AI Adoption vs. AI Governance: Why 57% of Companies Have Lost Control of Their Data

  Jul 31, 202654 minS1

  An AI assistant that gave itself a phone number, and a startup that let a bot buy a $40,000 Davos delegacy. Host Perry Robinson and RocketDocs AI practitioner Bryan Jenkins use those stories to show that teams are adopting AI faster than they are governing it. They cover vendor diligence, data sovereignty, and the new Sovrinty partnership. The mantra: policy is a promise, architecture is a guarantee. Episode Chapters 00:00 Welcome + what's to come 00:25 What today's episode covers 00:58 AI adoption versus AI governance 02:11 The IAPP and EY study: 77% working on it, 57% not in control 03:59 Most people do not know how their AI handles data 04:45 Open-agent tools and losing control of AI 05:39 The assistant that gave itself a phone number 06:50 The startup AI that bought a $40k Davos delegacy 07:51 Marketing security claims versus reality 09:26 When "secure" is just a contract, and terms change 10:44 Read the privacy policy, not the marketing 13:15 You are the data: cheap AI, big deficits, lock-in 14:13 Trusting AI answers you know are wrong 15:35 Prompt injection in resumes and the proposal space 16:29 Both sides use AI: answering and evaluating RFPs 17:26 Asking ChatGPT how to evaluate AI vendors, and itself 19:34 Vendors that deflect the data flow question 20:58 ChatGPT's own no-go indicators 23:33 Why de-identified and aggregated is not enough 24:55 Court cases, legal holds, and "once it is out, it is out" 26:02 Policy is a promise, architecture is a guarantee 26:50 Contract terms flowing down: a financial services example 27:49 The overnight scramble to re-qualify a vendor 28:39 Coming enforcement actions and downstream fines 29:42 Defining data sovereignty 32:29 How little control most people actually have 33:37 Better AI results from controlling what it sees 35:18 Source citations and countering hallucination 36:06 Introducing Sovrinty: keeping knowledge current and approved 39:00 Portability, Glean, and 150 fractured repositories 41:27 Sovrinty versus Snowflake 45:29 Closing checklist: do real diligence, do not just rely on AI 46:40 Invest now in accurate AI sources 47:20 SOC 2 scope: is the AI even covered? 48:51 Ask for a data flow diagram and the vendor's AI contract terms 51:23 Think different: stay skeptical of AI 52:07 Keep your company's unique voice 53:15 Wrap-up and a call for listener stories Find Ground Control Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075 All episodes: https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast Find RocketDocs The response management platform built for regulated industries - trusted since 1994. Website: https://rocketdocs.com Book a demo: https://rocketdocs.com/demo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs

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  Episode #11

  The Human Discernment Enforcer: Winning Proposals in the AI Age (Juliet Fletcher)

  Jul 24, 202655 minS1

  Juliet Fletcher has spent nearly 40 years in proposals and helped her clients win more than a billion dollars in awards, but the experience that shaped everything she does came before she ever wrote one. As an intern for the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, she reviewed proposals for compliance and sat through panel hearings all the way through award. That reviewer's seat is what she calls her secret sauce, and it taught her the lesson that runs through this whole conversation: design your document so the reviewer can instantly find what they need, because if they have to hunt for it, they start to like you less. She and Perry get into the mindset she trademarks on the spot as the "human discernment enforcer." She wants every proposal to be compliant, valid, and awardable, yet weak AI-generated narrative convinces her to cut it. Her fix is evidence: quotes with a real name, title, and agency, past performance backed by real metrics, and authority markers like ISO, CMMI, NIST, and CMMC. A strong proposal writer, she argues, is not a technical writer but a persuasive communicator. They dig into knowledge as a competitive advantage, why you should record performance while you execute, and why AI only amplifies what you feed it. Point a powerful tool at crap and you get crap back, which is why machine-written responses come out vanilla and vacuous. The talk also covers the friction freelancers and teaming partners face, getting the best out of subject matter experts, starting slow and starting smart, and bid/no-bid discipline: read your competitive intelligence report like a diagnostic and do not chase an opportunity you cannot win. She closes with her mantra, that persuasive communication is never about you, it is about them, and the line she brought to the proposal world: write without fear, edit without mercy. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Juliet Fletcher and her expertise 01:13 Juliet's background in proposal review and compliance 03:01 Designing proposals for reviewer ease 06:06 The human discernment enforcer mindset 07:47 The importance of evidence and proof points 11:07 Organizing proposal content as a database 14:35 Using AI tools for proposal drafting 19:00 Persuasive communication and storytelling 23:28 Challenges with AI-generated content 28:02 Engaging SMEs and making them feel valued 33:47 Starting early and learning from past proposals 39:11 Best practices for post-proposal analysis 44:11 Evaluating AI tools and competitive intelligence reports 51:20 Final advice and how to connect with Juliet Connect with Juliet Fletcher: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julietfletcherwritingiseasy/ Website: https://writingiseasy.com

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  Episode #10

  Leadership Lessons from the Battlefield, with David Fivecoat

  Jul 10, 202647 minS1

  What can a 150-year-old cavalry defeat teach a modern RFP team racing against the clock? More than you'd think. In this episode of Ground Control, Perry Robinson sits down with David Fivecoat, a West Point graduate, 24-year Army veteran, executive coach, and author of Growing Your Grit , to explore how battlefield decision-making translates into everyday business leadership. David runs immersive leadership programs that take corporate teams to historic battle sites, from Gettysburg to the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where standing on the actual ground makes the lessons stick in a way no conference-room keynote can. Perry and David dig into Custer's fatal failure to adapt when the Native American coalition changed the rules of engagement, and why that's the perfect metaphor for leaders navigating AI and rapid change today. They unpack John Boyd's OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act) and why speed and a willingness to update your mental model matter more than ever when time kills deals. David also breaks down how to write a leader's intent that actually aligns an ad-hoc team, the discipline of real goal setting, and why the best leaders never stop studying their craft. Whether you're formally managing a team or just taking charge of the next big push, this conversation is packed with practical, hard-won ideas you can put to work tomorrow. Want a copy of David's book, Growing Your Grit ? The first 20 listeners to email us (marketing@rocketdocs.com) or repost this episode on LinkedIn and tag @RocketDocs will get one. Learn more about David at TheFivecoatConsultingGroup.com or connect with him on LinkedIn (David Fivecoat / The Fivecoat Consulting Group). Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Leadership and Military History 01:39 The Concept of Staff Rides and Leadership Training 04:29 Experiential Learning on Battlefields 07:36 Lessons from the Battle of Gettysburg 10:33 The Battle of Little Bighorn: A Case Study 13:19 Adapting Leadership in Times of Change 16:33 The OODA Loop and Its Application 19:29 Time Management and Decision Making in Leadership 22:32 Crafting Effective Purpose Statements and End States 25:17 Measuring Success in Leadership 27:08 Developing Leadership Skills 32:09 The Importance of Self-Study 33:43 Understanding Grit and Purpose 37:09 Effective Goal Setting 39:52 Writing and Publishing a Book 48:12 Connecting with David Fivecoat

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  Episode #9

  Designing AI You Can Actually Trust, with Dr. Craig Kaplan

  Jul 3, 202657 minS1

  What happens when guardrails aren't enough? On this episode of Ground Control, host Perry sits down with Dr. Craig Kaplan, cognitive psychologist, AI researcher, and founder of SuperIntelligence.com , for a wide-ranging conversation on why safety has to be built into AI's architecture, not bolted on after the fact. Craig's path into AI started as an undergraduate studying psychobiology, which led him to Carnegie Mellon, where he worked alongside Nobel laureate Herbert Simon, one of the field's founding figures. From there he founded IQ Company in 1993 and, later, Predict Wall Street, a crowdsourced hedge fund built on a simple but radical bet: that the aggregated opinions of millions of everyday retail investors could outperform the best-funded quant researchers on Wall Street. It worked. The fund ranked in the top 10 of its class before Craig sold the company in 2020, having proven what he calls collective intelligence in the most competitive arena imaginable. That experience became the foundation for how Craig thinks about AI safety today. He argues that the dominant approach to building large language models, pouring in more data and compute to create ever-larger "black box" systems, is fundamentally the wrong design. Guardrails added after training are a losing game of whack-a-mole: easy to jailbreak, impossible to fully patch. Instead, Craig makes the case for something closer to a democracy than a dictator: architectures built from many smaller, checkable intelligences that create transparency, checks and balances, and distributed power, the same qualities that make human institutions resilient to bad actors. Perry and Craig also dig into what this means practically for businesses adopting AI: why companies should never rely on a single model for mission-critical decisions, how to make sure a company's own values and ethics get explicitly built into the systems it deploys, and what obligations companies have to be transparent with employees and customers about where their AI comes from and how it's being used. The conversation closes with a rapid-fire round covering Craig's revised AGI timeline, what Herbert Simon might make of his work today, and why Craig believes the data shows humanity's track record is better than the doomer narrative suggests, if we can just get AI to match our values. Guest: Dr. Craig Kaplan, LinkedIn | SuperIntelligence.com 0:00 Introduction: Meet Dr. Craig Kaplan 0:50 From Psychobiology to AI: Studying Under Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon 3:06 Founding IQ Company in 1993 4:06 The Three Eras of AI: Symbolic, Machine Learning, and Reasoning 7:58 Quantifying the Pace of AI Progress 10:15 Predict Wall Street: Proving Collective Intelligence in the Markets 16:22 Why AI Guardrails Fail: An Ounce of Prevention 23:07 Designing Safer AI: Black Boxes vs. Democratic Architecture 29:13 Sovereign Intelligence and Owning Your Data 34:36 Bounded Rationality and the Case for Mixture of Experts AI 40:53 What Do Companies Owe Users About Their AI? 49:27 Rapid Fire: Predictions, Regrets, and Final Thoughts

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