Episode Description

In the inaugural episode of Executing the Vision, Josh Elledge of UpMyInfluence interviews the creator and host of the show, Brad Hunter. Brad is the President of Emerge Labs, which offers businesses unique software solutions, tailored to their needs.

Brad discusses his love of engaging with entrepreneurs from various industries, the insights he gained from these interactions, and his evolution into a business consultant and software developer.

The podcast aims to feature guests who are visionary entrepreneurs, sharing their unique stories and experiences in scaling their businesses. Brad and Josh highlight the importance of technology, particularly AI, in improving business efficiency and invite visionary guests to join future episodes.

Want to learn more about Brad's work at Emerge Labs? Check out their website HERE.

Connect with Brad Hunter on LinkedIn HERE.

Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply HERE.

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Show Notes

welcome to executing the vision podcast
I'm your host Brad Hunter
president of Emerge Labs
on the podcast
we'll get to know the person behind the vision
their successes
their challenges and their plans for the future
if you're interested in becoming a guest
or know someone who might be a good fit
stick around to the end and we'll discuss how to apply
now enjoy the show
welcome to the inaugural Episode 4
executing the vision
conversations with Visionary Leaders
I am not your typical host
but I am so honored that I get to introduce your host
in this movie trailer of sorts for the show
Brad Hunter you are the host
this is your show um
you know thrilled uh
to have this uh
podcast in in the world
because of the impact that
I think
this is gonna have on a lot of great business leaders
out there and quite frankly
there's a lot of
amazing stories that don't necessarily get told
that will be told on the show
so first off
congratulations and I'll let you say hi to our audience
I guess yeah perfect
oh yeah
thank you Josh
um and yeah
to me you know
the podcast just seems like a perfect flow of
the things that I enjoy doing
um I
I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs
um my
my parents and aunts uncles and things
a lot of that
so just have always been around that environment
and then post college
my first actual real job ended up being a very small
random job but we blew up right out of the gates
so I was the first employee hired at a company
and it went bonkers
and so from a very like kind of young age
I was just around a lot of very successful people
and in that company too
we grew from one to 3,000 employees
and that was all in my early
you know early 20s
well 20s
30s
and so in that we went crazy
we ended up having like
500 locations across the country
um and then
that spawned a lot of the people that were
the executives there I was the CEO of that company um
ended up then you know
as time goes on
they end up spawning their own companies
in their own industries in their own
you know and so then it's like
now
the vast majority of my friends are just entrepreneurs
and then you kind of keep finding yourself involved
deeper and deeper and deeper in this community
um so it's been great
and to me the concept of being able to just extend
what I love doing anyway
talking to entrepreneurs kind of hearing their stories
uh it seems like just a great fit and super fun for me
we think about you know
leaders that may have stumbled upon this show and and
and I think most of us realize
you know that
that law of association a fact right
when we hang out with other visionaries um
I'd love your take on that
what happens when you hang out with other visionaries
haha
uh yeah
it's great I mean
the conversations are always just fun and interesting
right
cause it doesn't matter what industry somebody's from
you're kind of facing the same
problems in a lot of different ways
and so somebody from a totally
totally different industry
that you would think would have
very little insight on what
you're trying to accomplish
just being able to hang out
and have a conversation with them
it's just the ideas
that are constantly kind of getting put in your head of
like oh
you know what that's a great point
I need to go back and kind of take a look at that
implement that and so I love that um
love that whole thing and
and starting to get more involved
and like
some of the world of masterminds and things like that
but yeah for the most part
I thankful
get to spend a lot of time in just normal life
with all sorts of different entrepreneurs
yeah um okay
so we should probably explain what you do like what
you know who Emerge Labs is
because that is actually
put you in a pretty unique position
where you continue
to associate with a lot of visionaries
especially I think once folks understand what you do
aha you
you just spoiler alert you
become the right hand person and you know
a good enabler for a lot of those visionaries
creating good things in the world yeah
and you know it's fun
it's it's all been such an evolution of course right
um first had that big company for the first 10 years
that really blew up and went crazy um
then thankfully
was able to do the thing where I just took a year off
and just traveled the world
and had some really cool experiences there
and then came back and started Emerge Labs
and that
initially started with a slightly different concept
we're gonna be like this buying group consulting thing
but like anything
it just evolved and the next thing you know
we ended up developing software
and we developed a niche in that space
that today is still one of the top um
in the wireless space
we have a SAS platform that's used by the top retailers
and so we first started there
um and thought that like
that's what I'm gonna do
is just focus in this little niche here
but then it kind of evolved into
you know I had this software development team
and through my network of people
you know other friends hey
we need software too and I was like
oh well I have a team of guys what what's your problem
what do you need
and so then started you know kind of pivoting to like
okay we still have this platform that's doing great
what else can I be doing
and started developing software
you know kind of for a friend in this space
and then talk to other people
and the next thing you know
I'm developing software for a friend in this space
and then in that process too
you sit down
you're really talking with him about their business
and what are we trying to get out of this
and this and that and the next thing you know
I didn't even have intentions at all
and now I'm a business consultant
and legitimately had zero intentions of ever
doing either of those things
but just been such a natural progression of
you sit down you really start talking with somebody
even about software and then they're like
you know what could you
could you just come in and start working with us
and you know I guess yeah
I mean both both long term consulting
my first two were very much so like that process
I came in sat down with a whole team
sat down with the executives kind of just talks about
you know what things I think could help their business
and then the following week I got an invite
you know I
I didn't even offer this to hey
could you come in and start doing this
could you would you
come in and start working with our team
on a regular basis
so then that's kind of where things are at
in my life right now in general
is that idea of kind of
that mix of consulting and software developing
which to me is just fun I don't
I mean half the time when it comes to clients
like I don't even push hard in the beginning
I don't have some sort of a compensation thing
I'm pushing towards and I'm like
let's just see if we can work
let's just talk about this
let's see if there's a good fit and see where things go
yeah um
you know I have to imagine Brad
just from my perspective as
you know founder of a company and we've got
you know about 20 employees and
you know we've then so excited
um it feels like we're in a more law
moment of tack right now
with everything that AI is opening up
and of course you know
when you have AI involved
it's just you know
it's it's absolutely that compounding opportunity
as far as new technical innovations
that I would imagine a lot of your clients are
people in your world are probably
you know where they're realizing
now is a really great opportunity to evaluate
you know their own offerings or their user experience
and so you know
be able to have a partner like you
uh probably pretty important
yeah you know
and the biggest thing we find is even AI for sure
but even like a step below AI
it's once a company gets to a certain scale yeah
the inefficiencies of their tech
really start to have such a big impact
when you're super small and you're like
this solution works for us that solution works for us
then when you hit a certain point
like those things that aren't
the perfect solution for your company calls
all those inefficiencies on a on a fairly basic level
right not even stuff that's super advanced have a very
very big impact
and that's usually kind of where we start
is that concept of what's
look what you're doing right now
and let's figure out how much is this
how well is this working for you
how much is this actually
have you taken the time to look and see
how much this is costing you
and usually the answer is no because you're just going
going going focused on those things
you don't take that time to stop and examine just
the systems you have
so usually starts at a real basic thing
and then of course like the AI stuff yeah
it's still I mean shoot
every day I get blown away by the things that are
available on that front and
you know
we're still trying to wrap our heads around okay
great cute wonderful new technology
how are we truly fitting that into your business
to really change your business
not just like it's this cuckoo new thing
it can
it can create little marketing messages and it's like
okay well that's cute like
how does that truly revolutionize your business
does it or is it just this little thing that like okay
so you can eliminate one assistant
yeah uh
so you know
again getting back to the concept Brad of this show uh
you know again
there there's a power in hanging out
and associating with other visionaries
because it just kind of rubs off on you
so I'm
I'm actually quite thrilled for our listener right now
who stumbled upon this all I can say to you is
hit subscribe and start binge listening
and Brad who are some of the types of folks that
you are gonna be having conversations with
on this podcast uh yeah
you know very focused on
the idea of podcast is called executing a vision right
so what I'm looking for is
you know those people that had a
a unique vision you know
something maybe that's a little different
those entrepreneur types and understand
you know how did they get there
you know how are they gonna take things forward
but you know
very much so kind of those entrepreneurs and
and that that um
space where you've grown your business to be
you know a good size successful business
how how do we make that jump to that next level
to really being a large nationwide business
and not just kind of plateaued at that range of like
yeah we've been around for 10 years
we're doing pretty well but keep pushing
things forward
yeah and so also um
there may be someone listening right now that knows
a visionary or two
that deserves to be celebrated on this podcast and um
you're taking guess uh
and we'll just share uh
that you just simply go to Emerge Labs dot us uh
and uh once you get there um
you're gonna look at the top
there's a link that says podcast
that's of course the show page
uh for uh this podcast um
which that would be a great place if you wanted to
let's say
that you knew someone within the organization that
you want or you
the leaders you want to share this podcast with
just share them that you are all um
so they can subscribe on their favorite podcast app um
but also
you're gonna see on that page is there is a guest link
it says uh you know if you're interested being a guest
um you can click here to um to apply and then um
they can get scheduled there
so um Brad
um just you know kind of again a little bit more um
like your dream ideal guest would be on this podcast
I don't know if you can maybe describe that
to kind of stimulate some ideas
yeah um
you know it's to me the small to medium size
you know I
I too like
the idea of somebody that's even just getting started
in the space and has this vision of
what they want to create um
I love having those conversations
um cause I've kind of
I've been down that path multiple times
with my own companies with other people
so people on that you know
start up phase of really you know
kind of helping them
kind of work through and flush out some things
and then also that phase to me
of when you're going from being
you know a really solid
small to mediumish sized business
and really trying to get over that hump
to really become a true multi million dollar business
that that level of you're an entrepreneur
and you want to become a true CEO
business owner and making that shift
that's where a lot of my
kind of work has been in the past
is that idea of how do you make that shift
really grow that team um
so yeah you know
that's kind of the typical range of
people that I'm used to dealing with
yeah uh
and again emerge labs dot us and again
just click on podcast and that's the podcast page
and then you'll see the guest application
just right there so was fantastic again
Brad I'm going to switch chairs with you now
you can thank you
I've warmed up the host chair
it's yours I'll let you take it
and again to our friend that's listening to this
just hit subscribe right now
start listening to visionaries
um
again there's just mean over selfish
but there's just that I can just tell you in my life
hanging out with brilliant people
doing brilliant things
always thinking about what's next
always trying to innovate in their own industries
in their own companies that excites me
that inspires me and it's almost like kind of like
you know this podcast serves as your daily dose of uh
you know being around those types of people
so Brad uh very
very excited for this congratulations awesome
yeah thank you
thank you and yeah
I mean same thing here
I I love the idea of
you know just having those conversations
be able to talk to different people
and then in the end
of kind of known as a networking type person
because I know so many people right
so I sit down and I have a conversation with somebody
and by the end of the conversation
there's always that like you know what
there's somebody you should talk to
and kind of putting people together
to me that's
you know a really big part of this whole thing
is being able to kind of
make some of those connections
and see if you know
different people can help each other out
there's just nothing better than like
good people working with good people
yes excellent
alright well
it's time to execute the vision Brad
thank you so much for letting me introduce you and
and I can't wait to listen to the next episode
alright thank you
thank you for listening to executing the vision
if you'd like to be a guest
go to a merge labs.us and click on the podcast page
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please share the episode subscribe
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we'd love to hear your thoughts on the show
and what you'd like to see in future episodes
thank you again and have a great day