From hockey stick growth to flat on your face, it hurts and Collin Stewart can tell you firsthand. He had one customer before he left his full-time job, the problem was he still had one customer 18 months later. In his first endeavor this entrepreneur built what he thought everyone needed and kept showing them and expecting them to say how great it was, but they didn’t. “I was building my idea. I wasn’t building what the customer’s wanted.”

The lesson, it’s all about the customer, what they need and want.

Rapid-Fire Mentions

• Book: Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard Rumell
• Podcast: Acquired FM
• Advice to CEOs: Lead with relationships and real value. Outbound still works, but only if your product-market fit is strong. If you’re early-stage, skip the pitch and focus on helping first.

Connect With

• Collin Stewart: LinkedIn | Website
• Collin’s book: The Terrifying Art of Finding a Customer
• Alice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

When CEOs struggle to connect with customers, teams, or investors, it's rarely a strategy problem, it’s a storytelling problem. In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman sits down with Jeff Abracen, Founder of Disruptive Influence and storytelling coach to tech leaders, to uncover why a great story is a terrible thing to waste.

Jeff shares how he turned a high school “disruptive influence” label into a superpower for transforming leaders into magnetic storytellers. With a focus on the Disruptive DNA framework, Jeff teaches CEOs how to own the stage, captivate their audience, and get results, whether it’s on LinkedIn, in a boardroom, or at a major conference.

🔑 What you’ll learn:

• How to use storytelling to increase sales, alignment, and executive presence
• The Disruptive DNA Framework: Differentiate, Narrate, Activate
• Why preparation, not memorization, is the secret to confidence and clarity

Jeff doesn’t just talk about storytelling, he lives it. You’ll hear actionable advice and real coaching examples from working with SaaS founders and technical executives. If you’re a CEO or founder who needs to inspire action, this episode will help you turn information into influence.

Mentioned in the Rapid-Fire:

• Book Recommendation: The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
• Podcast Recommendation: Diary of a CEO
• Advice for CEOs: “Facts tell, stories sell. Get into people's hearts before you worry about getting into their minds and their wallets.”
  
  

Connect with:

Jeff Abracen: LinkedIn | Disruptive Influence

Request the Disruptive DNA framework: DM Jeff on LinkedIn and mention this podcast

Alice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

There are two key ways to get in front of the people most likely to buy from you and Alice believes you may be overlooking them.

The first is something she talks about all the time. So if you haven’t started expecting your team to do it, now is the time.

Referral selling. Yes, you get a few referrals here and there but why not make it a regular occurrence. Alice explains briefly in this episode but for more details listen to episode 147 For more on this listen to episode 147 https://aliceheiman.com/use-the-power-of-referrals-to-close-more-deals/ You must train your team to ask for referrals and then expect them to do it by measuring it and reporting on the results.

But Alice shares another great way to get in front of the right people, one that is tried and true and has been working and continues working, events. And in this episode she talks about a very specific type of online event, a Round Table. You invite your target audience and they reason they attend is because they will get to share and learn. Rather than a webinar with talking heads, you invite your target audience to share about something that is happening in their marketplace. Not only are great ideas shared, they all get to meet each other and network. As Alice exclaims, “It’s a win, win, win, win.”

Win 1 - You win because you get in front of the right people

Win 2 - You win again because you have the right people to follow up with

Win 3 - They win because they share and hear all the ideas shared

Win 4 - They win because they meet people in their industry they might not have otherwise

Alice explains that she discovered an unexpected side benefit of holding the round table. She had no idea all of the conversations she would have from responses to the invitations. She had so many conversations with people who couldn’t attend. Just what salespeople want, conversations with people who can buy.

Alice shares the example of a round table she did recently where she invited CEOs to share, “What CEOs need to know to win in this market.” She’s done 2 others since then and shares those below.

You can gather those most likely to buy at a round table and have a win, win, win, win, too.

Here are the insights from 3 of the Round Tables Alice has held recently.

CEO to CEO: What You Need to Know to Win in This Market

CEO to CEO: What is Actually Working in B2B Lead Generation Now

CEO to CEO: How CEOs Are Rethinking Hiring GTM Talent: Insights from the C-Suite Roundtable

Connect with Alice Heiman:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliceheiman
Website: https://aliceheiman.com