In this episode, I’m joined by Jim Ristuccia, a former US Naval officer, founder/CEO, and Vistage Chair in San Diego who leads peer groups for CEOs of $5M+ companies and small business owners in the $1–10M range. We break down what actually happens inside a Vistage meeting—especially the “issue processing” that surfaces blind spots through uncomfortable but growth-producing questions. Jim shares how AI started showing up consistently after a 2024 speaker session, including a case where an IP law firm put its team through AI bootcamps, tripled personal productivity, and grew revenue 50–60% in a year. We discuss the adoption gap (CEOs vs. leadership teams vs. employees), why employees often feel threatened, and how leaders can create psychological safety. We also dig into practical implementation via AI champions, committees, process mapping, low-hanging-fruit use cases, and measuring ROI through time savings, productivity, and revenue.

01:56 What Vistage Really Is

02:45 Issue Processing Secret Sauce

04:46 When AI Hit the Groups

06:43 Why Some CEOs Lag on AI

08:44 Use Cases vs Business Model Shifts

09:45 AI Readiness and Industry Friction

11:20 Leading Change and Finding Use Cases

13:25 Prompts Training and Psychological Safety

15:01 AI Champion and Process Mapping

16:04 Why People Quit

16:32 Build AI Champions

17:58 Pick Use Cases Fast

18:33 Measuring AI Impact

20:00 Beyond Time Savings

21:02 Culture and Safety

23:48 Compliance and Knowledge

24:32 Jobs and Business Models

27:38 Adoption Takes Time

Connect with Jim:

• https://jimristuccia.com/

Connect with Raul:

• Work with Raul: https://dogoodwork.io

• Free Growth Resources: https://dogoodwork.io/resources

In this episode, I’m joined by Thaddius Ruszkowski, CTO at Fuzati, who’s built software platforms for over a decade, from 25-person internal workflow systems to consumer platforms with millions of users. Thadd isn’t just theorizing about AI agents; he’s running a fleet of them in parallel every day across multiple projects. We dig into what happens to value, intellectual property, and labor as production costs collapse, and why efficiency is only the opening round, not the real competitive advantage of AI. We also talk about managing parallel agents without losing your mind, the comeback of hardware, why on-prem/local will matter more than most people think, and why IP is actually more valuable now in a world flooded with slop. Plus, how he built an early chatbot trained on the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas.

03:12 Working With Agents

04:44 Aquinas Chat Origins

10:28 Beyond Efficiency

20:49 Net New Value

24:28 Create Net New Value

25:02 Decouple Labor From Value

27:58 Outcome Value Shift

30:26 Future Digital Assets

34:35 Three AI Futures

37:58 IP And Distribution

40:56 Local Hardware Shift

42:42 Client AI Disclosure

Connect with Thadd:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thad-ruszkowski/

Connect with Raul:

• Work with Raul: https://dogoodwork.io

• Free Growth Resources: https://dogoodwork.io/resources

• Connect with Raul on LinkedIn (DMs open): https://www.linkedin.com/in/dogoodwork/

What AI Native Consulting Actually Looks Like: The 4 Stages

00:00 Why AI Native Matters
02:26 Four Stage Roadmap
03:10 Stage One Enhancement
06:39 Stage Two Augmentation
14:15 Stage Three Parallel Ops
18:43 Agentic Workflow Examples
24:17 Stage Four Autonomy
33:10 Autonomy In Practice
37:36 Self Diagnostic Recap
41:52 Firm Of The Future

Link to the full Substack:
https://dogoodwork.substack.com/p/what-ai-native-consulting-actually