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A conversation with Brandt Hanley brings 21+ years of executive search experience
In this compelling episode of CEOs Unscripted, host Jane Gentry sits down with Raj Choudhury, founder of Alloy Marketing and Purpose Group PE, to explore how purpose-driven leadership and strategic AI adoption are reshaping mid-market companies.
KEY TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 – Introduction: From Uganda to Atlanta – Raj’s Journey
03:45 – The Two Tracks: S1 (Blue-Collar Businesses) vs S2 (Agency Platform)
08:20 – What is The Purpose Playbook Framework?
12:15 – Open-Book Management: Why Transparency Wins
17:30 – The Four-Bucket Goal Framework (People, Quality, Brand, Financials)
23:45 – How AI is Disrupting the Agency Business Model
28:10 – Agentic Roles: The Future of Service Industries
33:25 – The Grieving Process: Managing AI-Driven Change
38:40 – Why Engineers Shouldn’t Do Sales (And Other CEO Blind Spots)
42:15 – Creating Safe Environments for AI Experimentation
46:30 – Legal and Security Considerations for AI Implementation
51:20 – The Great Game of Business Integration
55:10 – Building Context in a Social Media World
58:45 – Naivety as a Superpower in Business
1:01:30 – The Language of Business is Numbers
1:03:15 – The 8-Minute Rule: When to Stop and Reset
1:05:45 – Final Thoughts and Where to Connect
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What You’ll Learn:
🎯 The Purpose Playbook Framework – How open-book management and transparent goal-setting create employee engagement and drive sustainable growth in blue-collar businesses
💡 AI Implementation Strategy – Moving beyond tools to transform business models: Why agentic roles are disrupting the traditional services industry and how to prepare your team
📊 Breaking the Linear Growth Model – How AI is enabling agencies and service businesses to scale revenue without proportionally increasing headcount
🔄 Change Management in the AI Era – The “grieving process” employees need when core skills become automated, and how to guide teams through transformation
Featured Topics:
- Private equity strategies for blue-collar businesses
- Open-book management and financial transparency
- Conscious capitalism in practice
- Agency business model disruption
- Agentic AI and synthetic roles
- Employee engagement through shared purpose
- Strategic change management
- M&A insights for service businesses
Whether you’re scaling a mid-market company, implementing AI initiatives, or exploring PE opportunities, this episode delivers actionable frameworks and unfiltered insights from a CEO who’s been in the trenches.
📚 RESOURCES MENTIONED:
The Purpose Playbook: The Definitive Guide to Building Your Team’s Purpose, Vision, Tenets, & Values (PVTV)
By Jeff Hilimire, Teresa Caro, and Megan Barney
Companion guide to the Turnaround Leadership Series
Get it on Amazon: https://a.co/d/inK8bAt
Other Books in the Turnaround Leadership Series:
The Five-Day Turnaround
The Crisis Turnaround
The Great Team Turnaround
The Purpose Playbook
Tools & Frameworks Mentioned:
Writer.ai (AI-powered editing tool)
Google Gemini / Notebook LM
The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack
RACI Matrix for decision-making
13-Week Cash Flow Forecasting
ABOUT THE GUEST
Raj Choudhury is the founder of Alloy, a marketing agency serving mid-market technology brands, and Purpose Group, a PE firm focused on acquiring and transforming blue-collar businesses. With his partner Jeff Hilimire and co-founder David Cummings, Raj implements the Purpose Playbook framework across their portfolio companies, including Gerald Printing & Liberty Imaging. With 25 years of experience in M&A within the agency space, Raj brings unique insights into building sustainable, people-first organizations that scale profitably.
