{"podcast":{"title":"Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts)","slug":"lead-the-team-top-2-of-podcasts-1064768","podcast_index_feed_id":1064768,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/leadtheteam/","website_url":"HTTPS://benfanning.com/blog","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/10af0b95-04e6-42cc-b03d-73690ea3bb8a/QKJ4Hxs4kaKpd554m1ArvK6B.jpg","author":"Ben Fanning","episode_count":480,"summary":"Real CEOs. Real Stories. Hosted by Ben Fanning—2025 Gold Stevie Award winner for Best Business Podcast and ranked in the Top 2% globally—Lead the Team draws on over 600 CEO interviews to take you inside the minds of leaders from brands like Honeywell, HP, IBM, Dunkin’, and L’Oréal. In each episode, you’ll hear raw, unfiltered stories of leading through rapid growth, high-stakes decisions, and make-or-break moments—plus the CEO-tested tools and strategies they use to build high-performing teams. From turning around billion-dollar brands to sparking innovation at scale, these leaders share lessons you can put into action right now to lead your own team better. Subscribe now. ------------- https://www.benfanning.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/benfanning/","last_synced_at":"2026-09-23T12:21:49.293200+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/lead-the-team-top-2-of-podcasts-1064768"},"episode":{"title":"How to Beat a Monopoly and Outsmart AI | CEO, Thryv Joe Walsh","slug":"how-to-beat-a-monopoly-and-outsmart-ai-ceo-thryv-joe-walsh","published_at":"2026-08-02T19:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/lead-the-team-top-2-of-podcasts-1064768/how-to-beat-a-monopoly-and-outsmart-ai-ceo-thryv-joe-walsh","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/lead-the-team-top-2-of-podcasts-1064768","url":"http://www.benfanning.com/theceosessions/joe-walsh","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/696778ae-c14c-460f-b98e-1c87927403c7.mp3","summary":"He Beat a Monopoly. Then Had to Reinvent Everything. What do you do when the business model that made you billions faces sudden, total obsolescence? Most executive leaders miscalculate technological shifts—they either panic and move too early, or ignore the noise and move too late. In this episode of Lead the Team , host Ben Fanning sits down with Joe Walsh, Chairman and CEO of Thryv , to break down the tactical frameworks required to lead a legacy brand through the absolute chaos of print, digital, SaaS, and now AI revolutions. Joe famously scaled Yellow Book from $38 million to a $2 billion national powerhouse by dismantling an entrenched phone company monopoly. But his greatest leadership test wasn't storming the castle—it was repeatedly reinventing the business when the entire technological landscape shifted underneath him. If you are currently navigating massive industry uncertainty, AI implementation, or market disruption, this conversation serves as your executive blueprint for the new rules of survival. CHAPTERS 00:00 – The Real Definition of a CEO: Predicting the Future for Your People 04:08 – The Danger of the Bleeding Edge: Why the Second Mouse Gets the Cheese 07:16 – Shattering a Monopoly: The Hertz-Avis Strategy That Scaled Yellow Book to $2B 11:31 – The Core Principles of Value: Giving Proof and Credibility in Advance 14:43 – The NASDAQ Turnaround: Converting a Dying Print Giant into an MRR Machine 19:43 – Managing Wall Street & Fighting Legacy Inertia Simultaneously 25:36 – Corporate Blindspots: Why Enterprise Missed the Main Street Tech Boom 33:38 – The AI Landscape for Local Business: Democratization vs. Tech Debt 37:37 – Leading Through the Blur: The Golden Rule of Modern Disruption 41:17 – \"Stay Calm and Carry On\": Overcoming Executive Overwhelm…","meta_description":"He Beat a Monopoly. Then Had to Reinvent Everything. What do you do when the business model that made you billions faces sudden, total obsolescence? Most…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2622,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/lead-the-team-top-2-of-podcasts-1064768/episodes/how-to-beat-a-monopoly-and-outsmart-ai-ceo-thryv-joe-walsh/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/lead-the-team-top-2-of-podcasts-1064768/how-to-beat-a-monopoly-and-outsmart-ai-ceo-thryv-joe-walsh.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}