The Quiet Work

Welcome to The Quiet Work — where I sit down with founders, operators, and quiet builders to explore what it really takes. Honest conversation about the work that matters.If you’re building something of your own, you’re in the right place.

The Quiet Work is a business podcast hosted by Matt Wis, with 49 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.

Matt Wis hosts The Quiet Work, a business show with 49 episodes published.

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  The Quiet Work

  EP. 100 | He Was on Shark Tank. Then AI Happened. (Kevin Williams, AscendAI)

  Aug 12, 202654 min

  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-williams-ascendai/ https://ascendlabs.ai/ Kevin Williams was building consumer brands, buying patents, selling in 50 countries, spending close to eight figures on Facebook ads — and then Apple's privacy changes nearly killed the whole operation. So he leaned into machine learning to solve the attribution problem. Sold the brands to private equity. And launched AscendAI literally one week after ChatGPT dropped. Episode 100 of The Quiet Work Podcast. We talk about Shark Tank, Chinese factories copying his product within weeks of the episode airing, how to actually govern AI inside a company (not just talk about it), the AI Ambassador Program, why most AI ROI goes to side quests instead of the real problem, and the difference between plugging AI into your company vs. rebuilding for it. Timestamps: 0:00 – Welcome to EP. 100 + Kevin introduces AscendAI 1:48 – He was in AI before AI was cool — how it really started 2:10 – Buying patents and testing them with $500 Facebook campaigns 3:31 – One week: Costco, Walmart, AND Shark Tank called 3:57 – Getting yelled at by Mr. Wonderful — and what happened after 4:03 – Chinese factories were watching too 4:38 – Spending eight figures on Facebook when Apple killed tracking 5:45 – Selling to PE five minutes before ChatGPT dropped — then launching AscendAI 6:35 – The exit that wasn't quite a beach retirement 8:47 – How he found patent deals in Washington DC 10:07 – The mini MVP: testing ideas for $500 before spending real money 12:48 – AI governance: what it actually means inside a company 17:00 – The AI Ambassador Program — what it is and how it works 22:00 – Build vs. Buy vs. Wait: the framework for every AI decision 26:00 – The electricity factory analogy — why plugging in AI isn't the answer 30:00 – Side quests vs. leverage points: where AI ROI actually goes 35:14 – Email is flooded — what great marketing looks like now 39:01 – Who Kevin likes working with most (it's about leadership, not industry) 41:31 – What he'd tell 30-year-old Kevin: find peace with the non-highlighted path 44:53 – Ikigai: things you like, things you're good at, things people pay you for 49:11 – TEDx talk coming: why speaking is natural but typing is learned 49:49 – He's dictated over 2 million words in 6 months 52:00 – New program: AI governance for citizen development teams 53:23 – "Here's to episode 200"

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  The Quiet Work

  EP. 99 | They Call Him Mr. Strategic

  Jun 22, 202650 min

  https://www.linkedin.com/in/richerich/ https://richerich.com/ Richard Richardson runs five businesses at once. Brand strategy, logistics, 3PL, distribution, and hospitality. He's been doing it for over 20 years and the nickname that stuck — Mr. Strategic — wasn't something he invented. His clients gave it to him. We talk about how he learned to sell by fitting into his customer's plan instead of pushing them into his, why he never calls for orders, how he divides his time across multiple businesses, what the "tour of love" actually costs you, and why he'd change nothing about the road he's traveled. Timestamps: 0:00 – Welcome + Richard introduces himself and RicheRich LLC 0:43 – Serial entrepreneur, logistics, distribution, hospitality — all at once 1:49 – How "Mr. Strategic" was born (his clients named him) 3:41 – Corporate world lesson: fit into your customer's plan, not yours 5:07 – Why he never called for orders — and always hit his number by month 5 8:04 – The "tour of love" — what clients show you vs. what's really happening 9:53 – Why knowing the bad stuff matters before you market anything 12:05 – How he divides his time across five businesses 14:47 – 100 hours in your own business vs. 100 hours for someone else's 17:00 – Supply chain as a strategic truth-teller 20:00 – How logistics reveals what's actually wrong in a business 25:00 – What brand equity actually means (and why most companies get it wrong) 30:00 – The lean machine: why he doesn't keep every expert on staff 38:00 – Bringing in collaborators when they're better suited — and not hoarding business 43:18 – "We become part of the team, so they gotta win" 43:43 – What he'd tell younger Richard: change nothing 45:31 – The filing cabinet in his head — and what's useful vs. bar talk 45:54 – Nietzsche, the Knicks, and closing thoughts

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  The Quiet Work

  EP. 96 | Hard Skills Get You the Job. Human Skills Keep It. (w/ Mike Miles)

  May 26, 202653 min

  https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-j-miles/ https://www.milestone-leadership.com/blog Mike Miles spent 20 years at Microsoft. Led teams of 700 people across 11 countries. Helped launch Bing in 75 markets. Held two patents. And nearly burned out trying to take a company public before 9/11 ended that dream. What he walked away with wasn't the stock options. It was a question: is that really the leader I want to be? Today Mike runs Milestone Leadership, coaches executives and impact-focused founders, sits as board chair at Watson Institute, and runs 90-mile events in his spare time. We talk about the Blue Task vs. Red Task framework, how to build the line out your door, why AI is making human skills more valuable than ever, and what 20 years at Microsoft taught him that no business school ever could. Timestamps: 0:00 – Welcome + Mike introduces Milestone Leadership 0:39 – Three things he focuses on: new skills, balance, delegation 1:48 – From IPO to sold for pennies: the pre-Microsoft burnout story 3:54 – The line out your door — the best leadership measure nobody talks about 5:47 – Why coaching leaders wasn't a thing at Microsoft in the early 2000s 6:30 – Hard skills vs. human skills — why we don't value what we can't measure 8:48 – How he works with clients: the 4 assessments (360, DISC, balance, energy) 12:52 – The running question — and why endurance is a leadership lab 13:21 – Stepping outside your comfort zone in another dimension 15:18 – 90 miles in Park City, Utah — and a 100K coming this September 16:48 – Nature, thinking, and what the desert is missing 21:27 – The patent cubes on the shelf — what Microsoft gives you for innovating 22:54 – What gives him the most fulfillment now vs. leading 700 people 26:10 – The Blue Task vs. Red Task framework explained 29:07 – How to delegate, defer, or delete your red tasks 30:44 – The four things you can do with any email: respond, delegate, defer, delete 32:57 – How Mike keeps his workweek under 40 hours on purpose 33:50 – The business manager who's been with him for 25 years 38:30 – Why he blogs without AI — and why that matters 41:55 – Bring Back Blogging — a new hashtag is born 42:57 – What he'd tell his younger self: invest in human skills earlier 45:14 – You can't learn to swim by reading about water 47:15 – The reps that count — and why presence is the rep 49:05 – Running without headphones — and why being alone with yourself is hard 50:06 – Closing thoughts

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  The Quiet Work

  EP. 95 | You Carried Your Burnout Into Your Business (w/ Candice Van Dertholen)

  May 26, 202642 min

  https://www.linkedin.com/in/candicevandertholen/ https://heal.me/candice Candice Van Dertholen spent years building other people's businesses — launching a YogaSix studio from four walls and a concept to 400 members, managing Anytime Fitness to 1,500 members, creating communities where people felt at home. Then she burned out. And when she started her own business, she realized she'd carried the exact same energy patterns with her. Today Candice is the founder of The Warrior Within Healing, a speaker, retreat facilitator, and private advisor to conscious business owners. We talk about why most entrepreneurs unknowingly duplicate their burnout in their own companies, what energy work actually is (without the woo), how clarity of self always comes before clarity of strategy, and why the best growth tool she ever used was just being herself in conversations. Timestamps: 0:00 – Welcome + Candice introduces herself and The Warrior Within Healing 0:37 – What a "conscious business owner" actually means 1:20 – Who she works with: high performers leaving high-pressure industries 3:36 – How it started: franchise work, Anytime Fitness, and launching YogaSix 4:37 – From four walls to 400 members — how she built community from scratch 7:12 – Why burnout patterns follow you into your own business 9:29 – How to explain energy work to someone who's brand new to it 10:04 – We all carry energy — and everything we put in our system affects it 12:49 – The boomerang effect: what you give comes back 13:42 – What transformation actually looks like: from burnout to first launch 16:07 – Human Design and how it helps identify where your energy has been displaced 19:00 – The identity crisis moment that comes before real clarity 22:14 – The Jerry Maguire exit — and what really happens in business year one 26:17 – The best visibility strategy: get really good at being you 27:43 – Why AI is pushing everyone back toward in-person connection 29:20 – How she built referral partnerships just by showing up as herself 30:43 – Reputation takes time — put in the reps 31:00 – How to hold space for people at a four-day retreat without burning out 33:12 – In New Hampshire: asked the Divine for guidance before a heavy talk 34:40 – Going back to a contract job in 2024 — and what she learned from it 35:04 – What gives her the most fulfillment 36:20 – Matt's personal takeaway: energy habits follow you from career to career 40:19 – It's a constant evolution — and that's the beauty of it

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  The Quiet Work

  EP. 94 | The FBI Said He Was on an ISIS Kill List

  May 17, 202654 min

  https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomkirkham/ https://www.kirkhamirontech.com/ Tom Kirkham has been in cybersecurity for 26 years. He's seen everything from bragging rights hackers in the late 90s to an industrial-scale trillion-dollar criminal industry. But nothing changed his perspective quite like the day an FBI agent showed up at his office and told him he was on an ISIS kill list — because a company he signed an NDA with got hacked. Today Tom runs Kirkham IronTech, a managed security services provider ranked in the top 250 MSPs globally for four consecutive years. We talk about how hacking became a $10 trillion industry, why 95% of breaches are caused by human error, how AI is now scaling personalized attacks to target anyone, what ransomware actually looks like from the inside, and why your coffee machine might be your biggest security risk. Timestamps: 0:00 – Intro: What Kirkham IronTech does 1:01 – 26 years in IT and security — top 250 MSP globally 2:06 – Starting the company from a dining room table on January 1, 2000 3:02 – When hackers did it for bragging rights — and when that changed 4:11 – 95% of breaches are caused by human error, not technical exploits 5:00 – How a ransomware campaign works — the math behind $10M paydays 5:26 – The FBI showed up and said: you're on an ISIS kill list 6:19 – How he ended up on the list (a Sun Microsystems NDA got hacked) 9:14 – Stoicism helped him make peace with it in weeks 13:31 – The number one threat to every business: ransomware 14:33 – Hacking is now a $10 trillion industry — third largest GDP on the planet 16:39 – AI now scales personalized attacks to everyone, not just high-value targets 17:05 – Matt's real experience: CEO identity stolen, employees sent to buy gift cards 18:14 – Proactive vs. reactive: how Kirkham operates 19:07 – Gas pump skimmers, phishing, and cybersecurity beyond the office 20:17 – Why traditional antivirus (Norton, McAfee) is no longer enough 22:59 – Chinese cyber warfare and the greatest IP theft in human history 26:10 – The three pillars: technology, training, governance 27:28 – Why old laptops are costing you more than new ones 28:48 – Why Tom replaced every Mac in the company within 6 months of Apple Silicon 30:22 – They qualify clients as much as clients qualify them 32:36 – Clients who've been with them 20+ years — and why churn is minimal 35:29 – From a dining room to a radio show — how he built regional brand awareness 37:50 – AI in the company: privacy governance comes first 42:49 – Executive intelligence briefings — what's coming next 46:55 – What Tom would tell his younger self: trust your gut, embrace failure 50:17 – MSP 4.0: managed intelligence providers and the AI governance opportunity 53:09 – Closing thoughts

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