The Ross Simmonds Show

The episode delivers a handful of genuinely useful ideas - workflow-first AI adoption, the CEO-as-chief-of-AI argument, and the OSINT sales process - but they are buried in dense filler, repetitive affirmations ('Right? Yeah. Right, right.'), and tangential detours into family business and legacy. The actionable insight rate per minute is moderate at best.

“If you don't think about this from a workflow first perspective, if you think about it from a tools first, a data first, you're toast in this game.”

“every seven days I have a research analyst that goes to all my core sources, looks at what's been said new in AI so all the sources that I trust it then compares it to the deck, offers suggestions for slide changes”

There are a few fresh framings - 'Darwinian pragmatist,' treating AI as an HR headcount rather than a tech stack, and the sentient/non-sentient workforce taxonomy - but the episode leans heavily on well-worn concepts: the buggy-to-car analogy, the founder's trap, balanced scorecards, and battle rhythms are all standard SMB consulting fare.

“I am not a AI evangelist, I am not a tech bro optimist. But I am a Darwinian pragmatist.”

“AI is not a technology, it is a teammate. It is a crew member.”

Symes is a genuine practitioner with real skin in the game - a portfolio of nine companies, named clients, and personal workflow examples with actual dollar figures - rather than a pure thought-leader. His credibility is regional and his firm is not widely known, which caps the score, but he has clearly done the work he describes.

“nine companies that should do about 35 million this year. And I share that openly to say we've got skin in the game. And when we talk about how to turn organizations around like our, our wallet hurts when we don't get it right.”

“it was about a um, 12, 15 million dollar business at the time. It's now a 50 million dollar business and he spends two days a week landscaping.”

The episode punches above average on specificity: named tools (Perplexity Computer, Claude, NotebookLM), real conversion data (16.5 months average B2B cycle, 28.89 touchpoints), a detailed three-touch close story with exact dollar figures, and quantified internal benchmarks. Some macro stats (IMF, WEF) are cited without sources verifiable in the transcript.

“it takes 16 and a half months for the average B2B sale to land takes 28.89 touch points”

“That dossier used to take 10 to 15 hours a week from my EA... Now, with Perplexity Computer, it is a timed agentic workflow that shows up in my inbox every morning at 6am”

The host makes genuine attempts to drill down tactically ('let's pretend tactically,' 'go into that') and occasionally lands a useful follow-up, but the session is marred by near-constant affirming filler, no substantive pushback on any claim, and a soft closing act that pivots to legacy and family stories rather than squeezing more operational insight from the guest.

“That's awesome. That is old man. Absolutely brilliant.”

“So let's pretend tactically that this use case I want to keep doubling down deeper on this one. We're having too many touch points. We want to use AI.”