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Business Owners Tell All

Business Owners Tell All

De : Jamie Seeker
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 On The Seeker Solution Podcast, your host, Jamie Seeker encourages business owners to tell all! They'll share not only their expertise, but their stories and their purpose and what it takes to run a successful business. We cover a wide range of topics – the good and exciting, the challenges and sometimes the ugly. Experiences and lessons learned that our guests have faced along the way. We believe that every person has a unique message which can make a positive impact . We let our guests share on the subjects they’re well-known for. No matter the topic, you’ll be hearing real stories from real people. *This podcast is not affiliated with any other show of the same or similar name. Business Owners Tell All: What It Takes is a project of Seeker Solution, featuring conversations with real business owners.Copyright 2026 Jamie Seeker Direction Economie Management Management et direction
Épisodes
  • From SEO to AI: Reinventing How Businesses Get Found

    From SEO to AI: Reinventing How Businesses Get Found
    Oct 29 2026
    In this episode of Business Owners Tell All: What It Takes, Dennis Kirwan shares his entrepreneurial journey from venture capital to co-founding Dymic Digital in 2013.Dennis discusses how the 2008 financial crisis forced him to rebuild his career after experiencing significant financial losses. His transition into digital marketing eventually led him to launch his own agency, motivated by the need to create a business that could adapt beyond traditional SEO.The conversation explores how artificial intelligence is transforming digital marketing, particularly the shift from traditional search engines toward AI-powered discovery platforms like ChatGPT.Dennis emphasizes that although AI can dramatically improve productivity, human expertise, critical thinking, and fact-checking remain essential. He explains why businesses should use AI to enhance their employees' capabilities rather than replace professional judgment.The discussion also examines continuous learning, hiring highly skilled professionals, sharing knowledge across teams, and adapting to rapidly changing industries.Dennis closes by reflecting on the resilience, determination, and willingness to evolve required to sustain a business over the long term.Key Discussion Points1. Entrepreneurship, setbacks, and starting overDennis describes beginning his career in financial services as a teenager, eventually raising capital for investment projects. After becoming overleveraged during the 2008 financial crisis, he experienced substantial financial setbacks.He later transitioned into digital marketing, helping an agency expand its international sales operations before co-founding Dymic Digital in 2013.2. The evolution from SEO to AI-driven search Dennis explains how traditional search behavior is shifting toward conversational AI platforms. He believes AI-driven discovery will continue transforming how businesses attract customers and build credibility.He also discusses how Dymic Digital began preparing for this transition several years ago.3. Continuous learning and knowledge sharingKeeping up with technology requires consistently researching developments, identifying credible industry experts, and learning from customer experiences.Dennis explains how his team researches different subjects and shares insights, allowing the organization to develop a broader understanding of emerging trends.4. Why AI still requires human expertise Dennis emphasizes that AI output depends heavily on the expertise of the person directing it.He uses website development and home construction as examples of why AI-generated work still requires experienced professionals to evaluate quality, accuracy, and effectiveness.He also discusses the dangers of AI-generated misinformation, biased responses, and businesses relying too heavily on automation.5. Using AI to accelerate learning and productivity Dennis describes using AI for meeting documentation, organizational knowledge, and explaining complex information.He shares how he sometimes uses AI to answer questions from his six-year-old daughter in language she can understand.His larger point is that AI can become a learning tool when people ask it to explain concepts rather than simply provide answers.6. Hiring highly skilled professionals Dennis shares how Dymic Digital recruited an experienced SEO professional who previously worked for one of its vendors.He predicts that businesses will increasingly operate with smaller teams of highly skilled specialists rather than larger teams of entry-level employees.7. What it takes to be a business ownerDennis identifies grit, resilience, adaptability, and a willingness to continuously learn as essential entrepreneurial qualities.Drawing on his experience of financial success, loss, and rebuilding, he emphasizes that long-term business ownership requires the ability to withstand uncertainty and keep evolving.Memorable QuotesDirect quotes from Dennis Kirwan, with timestamps for editing and promotional clips.Recognizing AI's impact“This is gonna change everything.”Human expertise and AI“It's all about… who's at the helm.”Quality of AI output“Garbage in, garbage out, right?”Overreliance on AI“They're almost, like, outsourcing their thinking.”AI accuracy and credibility“It's a real huge brand risk.”AI as a learning tool“Advance and accelerate your own learning through the process.”Entrepreneurship“I think it takes a lot of moxie, a lot of grit.”Adaptability“You're not rigid, you're… you understand that, you know, it's evolve or die.”Entrepreneurial resilience“It's a strange comfort and chaos, I guess, for me.”
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    28 min
  • When Hustle Stops Working: Developing People Who Can Grow With the Business

    When Hustle Stops Working: Developing People Who Can Grow With the Business
    Oct 22 2026
    Chris Jungjohann, Founder and CEO of Recess Creative in Cleveland, Ohio, shares how an early career in photography and design unexpectedly turned into 17 years of entrepreneurship. Growing up around his family’s restaurant gave him early exposure to business ownership, but he ultimately pursued art and design before realizing he wanted the creative freedom of a smaller agency combined with the opportunity to work with larger clients. That realization eventually led him to start Recess Creative from his basement. Pasted textToday, Chris has expanded beyond Recess Creative to build Buds & Pals, a video, photography, animation, and content studio, and Super Average. He explains that his ability to expand into additional businesses came largely from building a strong team at Recess, including employees who have stayed with the company for 10 to 15 years. One of his biggest leadership lessons has been learning to hire people who are better than he is at specific disciplines and then actually letting go. Pasted textLearning and development are deeply embedded in Chris’s approach to leadership. Recess encourages employees to pursue classes, tutorials, outside projects, freelance opportunities, and emerging tools such as AI. Rather than expecting every creative professional to develop in the same way, Chris recognizes that people bring different strengths and encourages continued learning both inside and outside the agency. Pasted textHis passion for development also comes from his experience teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Art and community college. That same philosophy now appears in Recess Creative’s rolling internship program. Interns are treated as members of the professional team and given opportunities to participate in real brainstorming sessions, client projects, pitches, and presentations rather than being relegated to administrative work. Three former interns have become full time employees, including Recess Creative’s creative director, who began as an intern 11 years ago. Pasted text Pasted textChris also speaks candidly about the personal cost of entrepreneurship. During the early years, balancing young children, teaching, and building the agency forced him to make choices about where to invest his time. Today, part of his definition of success is being able to be present for his team when he is working and present as a father when he is home. Building the right team has been critical to making that possible. Pasted textUltimately, Chris says business ownership requires belief, hunger, passion, energy, continual learning, adaptability, and even a little bit of “delusion.” Owners have to believe they will find a way through difficult periods while remaining willing to learn and evolve as technology, their people, and the marketplace change. Pasted textKey Episode NotesThe accidental entrepreneur: Chris grew up around entrepreneurship through his family’s restaurant in Western New York, where his first jobs included bussing tables and washing dishes. He later studied photography and design, worked in education and agencies, and eventually realized he wanted to combine small agency culture, big client work, and creative freedom. Pasted textBuilding beyond yourself: One of Chris’s biggest lessons has been surrounding himself with talented people who share the vision. His growth as a leader required recognizing when someone else was better at something and giving that person the freedom to own it. Pasted textLearning cannot stop: Chris encourages formal and informal education, experimentation with AI, outside projects, freelance work, and personal brand development. Learning is not limited to company directed training. Pasted textInternships should provide real experience: Recess Creative's philosophy is essentially “make art, not coffee.” Interns work on actual client projects and can participate in pitches and presentations. Chris sees the relationship as mutually beneficial because young professionals receive experience while the agency benefits from their fresh perspective and energy. Pasted text Pasted textFailure is part of development: Chris views failure as necessary to learning and success. Rather than protecting interns from meaningful work because they may fail, Recess gives them opportunities to participate in professional projects where their ideas may either be discarded or make it all the way to senior client decision makers. Pasted textDevelop leaders over time: Three former Recess interns are now full time employees. One progressed all the way to creative director after joining the company as an intern 11 years earlier. Chris’s own mentoring role has consequently changed because that creative director now develops newer members of the team. Pasted text Pasted textLeadership requires selective transparency: Chris discusses protecting employees from some of the pressures owners experience. Business can be a roller coaster, with a major win in the morning ...
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    25 min
  • We Built It Bigger. Then We Built It Better

    We Built It Bigger. Then We Built It Better
    Oct 15 2026
    In this episode of Business Owners Tell All: What It Takes, Victor Huynh, cofounder and CEO of Ready Artwork, shares what more than 22 years in business have taught him about learning, adapting, and staying relevant through constant change.Victor and his cofounder Emily started Ready Artwork almost accidentally. Both had full time jobs when freelance design projects began piling up. Eventually, they decided they were young enough to take the risk, make mistakes, and go back to traditional employment if the business failed. Pasted textTheir original business centered on graphic design, packaging, branding, and print. When the financial crisis brought business nearly to zero, they were forced to reinvent themselves. They recognized an opportunity between technology focused web companies that lacked design expertise and designers who lacked technical expertise. That became Ready Artwork’s next evolution. Over time, the company continued adding and removing services as the market changed until it found another sweet spot serving technical B2B and industrial companies. Pasted textThat pattern of reinvention became one of the central themes of the conversation. Victor describes Ready Artwork’s 22 year journey in one word: pivoting. Rather than viewing change as an interruption to business, he sees the ability to change as fundamental to surviving in business. Pasted textVictor also discusses the latest major disruption facing his industry: AI. He compares the current transition from traditional search to AI driven answers with the earlier transition from search engines such as Yahoo and AOL to Google. While the technology feels revolutionary, Victor believes businesses that have lived through previous digital shifts recognize a familiar pattern. The platform changes, customer behavior changes, and companies have to learn how to become relevant within the new environment. Pasted textThe conversation also explores how AI is changing talent and development inside agencies. Work that was previously outsourced can increasingly be completed with AI, which means Victor believes agencies must move toward higher level strategy and become even more human centered. Technology can handle more execution, but he sees human relationships, judgment, guidance, and communication as increasingly important differentiators. Pasted textVictor shares another important learning point from his partnership with Emily. Early in the company, they were both doing essentially the same creative work. Victor eventually made the difficult decision to step away from the creative work he loved and focus on sales and client relationships while Emily concentrated on creative and production. That division allowed each founder to develop a distinct role and helped accelerate the company's growth. Pasted textEven after decades in business, Victor continues having to challenge his own preferences. One example was remote work. Although both founders prefer working in the office, Victor realized the company needed to become more flexible. After trying hybrid work and finding that managing it created additional complexity, Ready Artwork moved toward remote work while maintaining office space for employees who want it. Pasted textVictor ultimately brings the conversation back to the lesson that has defined his entrepreneurial career: business owners have to embrace change. His answer to what it takes to be a business owner is simple: pivot, adapt, and recognize that refusing to change eventually means being left behind. Pasted textKey Episode NotesPrimary theme: Learning and DevelopmentStrong secondary themes: Adaptability, continuous learning, AI, business evolution, cofounder dynamics, specialization, changing workforce expectations, remote work, human connection.Victor’s business journey: Freelance graphic design → print and branding → financial crisis → websites → SEO → digital advertising → B2B industrial specialization → AI driven marketing evolution. Pasted textBiggest Learning and Development takeaway: Learning is not presented as formal training. Victor’s story demonstrates organizational learning through continuous experimentation, recognizing when something no longer works, developing new capabilities, abandoning services that are not a fit, and changing individual roles as the company evolves.Strongest founder lesson: Victor had to stop doing creative work he loved so that he and Emily could develop complementary roles. He moved toward sales, relationships, and company direction while Emily focused on creative, production, and strategy. Pasted textStrongest current business insight: AI may make lower level execution easier and cheaper, but Victor believes that increases the importance of strategy and human connection rather than eliminating them. Pasted textSignature answer: What does it take to be a business owner? Pivoting and embracing change. Victor says that is the essence of business because, “If you don’t ...
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    22 min
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