Five years. Over 265 episodes. Listeners tuning in from more than 50 countries. When I sat down to record episode 614 of the Conquer Local Podcast, I knew that one was going to be different. It was the last time I’d be sitting in that chair as host, and I wanted to go out with something meaningful.
Instead of doing another interview, I counted down the 10 episodes from the Conquer Local archive that I believed every salesperson, agency owner, and entrepreneur genuinely needed to hear. The conversations that stayed with me. The guests who said something so real, so sharp, it changed how I thought about the work.
This article walks you through that countdown. What each episode was about, who was in it, and why it made the list.
Episode #10: Vendasta CEO Brendan King on 2020, the Year Everything Changed
Episode 367 opened the countdown, and it made sense to start there. Brendan King’s annual year-in-review for 2020 came out at a time when nobody fully understood what was happening in the world. Remote work, the e-commerce explosion, and the scramble to digitize everything. Brendan was already thinking three moves ahead.
In that episode, Brendan talked about Vendasta’s vision of a full tech stack. Not just marketing software, but a real “business in a box” where channel partners could deliver HR software, accounting tools, insurance, and more to local businesses. He also laid out his idea of a peer-to-peer network between partners, which felt almost ahead of its time when he first described it.
What made this episode land was its honesty. 2020 was brutal and disorienting, and Brendan didn’t pretend otherwise. He just pointed at where things were going.
Episode #9: Finding a Sales Mentor with Stephen Defina
Episode 401 with Stephen Defina tackled something most salespeople quietly wish they had but never actively pursue: a real mentor. Stephen broke down what it actually takes to find one, build that relationship, and make it productive for both sides.
The conversation was grounded and practical. No abstract advice about “finding someone you admire.” Stephen got into the mechanics. How to approach people you respect, how to frame the ask, and how to show up as someone worth a mentor’s time. For anyone who has ever felt like they were figuring out sales completely alone, this episode was a direct response to that.
Episode #8: The Lighthouse Strategy
Episode 345 introduced what I called the Lighthouse Strategy. The idea was simple: the most valuable thing a sales organization can do is identify a small, clearly defined group of ideal customers and become the undisputed expert for that group.
The analogy holds up. A lighthouse doesn’t try to illuminate everything. It plants itself, shines bright in one direction, and the right ships find their way to it. Agencies and sales teams that try to serve everyone end up serving no one particularly well. Define your customer. Own that space. Let the right clients come to you because you’re the obvious choice.
This episode made the list because it’s advice I still give today. I’ve watched agencies triple their close rates just by narrowing their focus.
Episode #7: The Customer Deciding Journey with Tim Riesterer
Episode 393 brought in Tim Riesterer, author and Chief Strategy Officer at Corporate Visions, to break down what he called the Customer Deciding Journey. Tim’s argument, backed by behavioral psychology research, was that the sales process we’ve all been trained on gets the customer’s role exactly backwards.
The old model puts the salesperson at the center. Tim flipped it. He laid out four distinct moments of value in the customer journey, and the first question a customer is silently answering before any decision is even possible:
“Why should I change? Why should I change now? Why should I choose you? Why should I stay loyal?”
Tim Riesterer, Corporate Visions
Getting the sequence right matters more than having the best pitch. Most salespeople never get to the third question because they haven’t answered the first one properly.
Episode #6: Finding Your Ideal Customer
This episode picked up a thread that runs through a lot of what makes sales teams fail: the inability to say no to a bad-fit prospect. Finding your ideal customer profile goes beyond being a marketing exercise. It’s a survival strategy for a sales team.
The episode tackled the real cost of spinning cycles on customers who will never be profitable, never become advocates, and drain your team’s energy in the process. Clarity on who you’re building for changes your outreach, your messaging, and your close rate. The best agencies I’ve worked with could describe their ideal customer in one paragraph, and everything else followed from that.
Episode #5: Adapt to Digital or Die with the Late Paul Plante
Episode 348 holds a special place for me. Paul Plante was a co-founder and director at Big Five Digital, and someone I genuinely respected as a colleague and friend. He passed away after this episode aired, which makes this conversation something I go back to with a different kind of weight.
Paul’s message in this episode was urgent and unambiguous. The businesses and salespeople who refused to adapt to digital were not going to survive. Not because the world was being cruel, but because customers were already moving and weren’t going to wait. The title of the episode says it plainly: adapt or die. Paul lived by that principle, and he gave it to us straight.
Including this episode in the countdown was also a way of honoring him. He deserves to be remembered for the clarity and conviction he brought to every conversation.
Episode #4: Outcome Based Selling with Phil M. Jones
Phil M. Jones, author of Exactly What to Say, brought a sharper lens to something salespeople often get wrong. We spend too much time selling solutions and not enough time connecting those solutions to outcomes the customer actually cares about.
Phil’s framework in episode 431 was built around shifting the conversation from features to futures. What does the customer’s world look like after working with you? What problem goes away? What opportunity opens up? Outcome-based selling requires more preparation and more curiosity, but it produces a fundamentally different quality of conversation. One where the customer is already mentally in the outcome before you’ve made the close.
Episode #3: Elevate Your Personal Brand with Nina Blankenship
Episode 353 with Nina Blankenship tackled a subject that salespeople still underestimate. Your personal brand is working for you or against you before you ever get on a call.
Nina walked through the specific ways a salesperson can build credibility and trust through their online presence. LinkedIn, content, the digital footprint that a prospect will absolutely check before agreeing to a meeting. She gave actionable guidance on how to show up as someone worth listening to, not just someone with a quota to fill. This episode made the list because the advice translates directly to pipeline. A strong personal brand shortens the trust-building phase of every sale.
For more on how to build credibility through your digital presence, read my thoughts on how to leverage your online reputation to increase sales.
Episode #2: Prospecting 101
Episode 403 was one of those conversations that felt almost too simple, until you realize how many salespeople are doing prospecting completely wrong. This solo episode broke down the fundamentals without apology.
What I covered: how to build a targeted list, how to research a prospect before making contact, how to write a first outreach message that actually gets a response, and how to follow up without being the person everyone dreads hearing from. The basics aren’t glamorous, but they’re the difference between a full calendar and a dead pipeline. This episode consistently ranked at the top of our download charts for a reason.
Episode #1: Lead Generation Guide with Brock Anthony
The number one spot went to episode 406, and it wasn’t a close decision. Brock Anthony’s breakdown of lead generation strategy remains one of the most practically useful episodes the Conquer Local Podcast ever produced.
Brock drew a clear distinction between two types of leads that most marketers conflate: informational leads and transactional leads. An informational lead, like someone who downloads a guide or reads an article, requires a longer nurturing cycle. A transactional lead, like someone who clicks a demo button or signs up for a free trial, has much higher intent and shorter sales cycles.
“The only difference between an informational lead and a transactional lead is really time span. The informational lead requires a lot more nurturing.”
Brock Anthony
Understanding that distinction changes how you build campaigns, how you budget your time, and how you set expectations with clients. This episode earned the top spot because the clarity Brock brought to lead generation applies whether you’re running a one-person shop or a 50-person agency.
Five Years, 265 Episodes, and What Comes Next
Recording that final episode was one of the harder things I’ve done professionally. Five years of conversations, relationships, and learning, compressed into a 21-minute countdown felt inadequate. But it was also exactly right. The best way to honor what the podcast built was to send people back into the archive with a map.
The Conquer Local Podcast continues with new leadership, and the content is still out there. If any of the episodes above caught your attention, go find the full version. Every one of those guests brought something real to the table.
As for me, the move to Harvard Media as Executive Vice President and Managing Partner was the next chapter. Ten years of working with media companies across the world, now applied at home in the Prairies. The learning never stopped. Just the venue changed.
If you’ve been a listener of the Conquer Local Podcast, thank you. And if you want to keep following along with what comes next in sales, marketing, and building things worth building, you’re in the right place.
Which of these 10 episodes resonates most with where you are in your sales journey right now? I’d love to hear from you.