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Burn The Map: Joel McKay Smith — Networking Maestro, Rural Champion, and Master of Community Capital

Burn The Map

Release Date: 10/23/2025

Burn The Map: AI Teammates, Human Judgment, and the End of Lazy Management w/ Scott Morris show art Burn The Map: AI Teammates, Human Judgment, and the End of Lazy Management w/ Scott Morris

Burn The Map

In This Episode: We talk to Scott Morris about the weird, messy, often badly managed reality of work — and why AI might actually make it better, if we stop using it as an excuse to be lazy thinkers. Scott walked us through the path from LAPD officer to longtime people executive to founder of Propulsion AI, where he’s building AI teammates designed to help companies stop treating humans like interchangeable headcount and start getting serious about performance, clarity, and meaningful work. This conversation goes way past the usual “AI will take your job” panic. Scott makes the case...

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Burn The Map

In This Episode: We talk to Chris Hood about why most companies are nowhere near as customer-focused as they think they are. Chris breaks down the gap between saying you care about customer experience and actually building a business around it — and spoiler: most brands are optimizing for internal convenience, not customer value. From bloated onboarding flows and fake “customer-first” language to AI rollouts nobody asked for, this conversation is a sharp reality check for anyone building products, managing growth, or hiding behind vanity metrics. He also walks through what good customer...

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Burn The Map

In This Episode: We talk to Grant Fuellenbach about the part of growth most operators ignore until it starts setting money on fire: the back office. Grant works with builders and trades businesses where the work is real, the margins matter, and the systems are often being held together with duct tape, habit, and optimism. He breaks down what actually happens when a company starts growing before its workflows do—and why more leads, more projects, and more hires can make the business worse if the backend never catches up. We also get into the difference between useful AI and shiny-object AI....

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Burn The Map

In This Episode: We sit down with Christian Hammer (Founder & CEO of Ngentix) to talk about the unsexy problem that breaks AI in the real world: execution across messy systems. Christian calls what he’s building “AI plumbing in the wall”—the infrastructure layer that connects tools, enforces policy, and kills the drudgery (think: PDF → QuickBooks copy/paste hell) without pretending an LLM is magically reliable. This one is for product-minded builders: we get into why “agents” can make operations worse if you don’t have a system of record, why momentum beats velocity, and...

info_outline Burn the Map: AI Agents, Trust, and Why “Do AI” Fails w/ David Espindola show art Burn the Map: AI Agents, Trust, and Why “Do AI” Fails w/ David Espindola

Burn The Map

In This Episode: We talk to David Espindola about the part of the AI boom most companies keep trying to skip: the boring, unsexy work that makes AI real—problem definition, strategy, governance, and trust. David’s written two books (The Exponential Era and Soulful) and spends his time thinking about what happens when exponential tech stops being a keynote and starts breaking things in production. We get into why “go do AI” is an executive-level failure mode, how to decide whether you’re a maker, shaper, or taker, and what it actually takes to build AI agents you can...

info_outline Burn The Map: Governance Gap, Identity Gap, & Accountability or Bust w/ Allen Martinez show art Burn The Map: Governance Gap, Identity Gap, & Accountability or Bust w/ Allen Martinez

Burn The Map

In This Episode: We talk to Allen Martinez—founder at Noble Digital and author of The Brand Experience AI Operating System (BX AI OS)—about why so many “AI initiatives” are basically expensive science projects with a chatbot slapped on top. Allen’s take is refreshingly unforgiving: if you don’t close the governance gap, the identity gap, and the accountability gap, you’re not deploying AI—you’re launching brand chaos at machine speed. We get into what it takes to turn AI from a black box into something you can actually run, audit, and improve… without letting marketing,...

info_outline Burn The Map: Delegation Chaos, Distant Assistants, & The Founder’s Escape Hatch w/ Jaime Jay show art Burn The Map: Delegation Chaos, Distant Assistants, & The Founder’s Escape Hatch w/ Jaime Jay

Burn The Map

In This Episode: We talk to Jaime Jay about going from the 82nd Airborne to homelessness (more than once), to building a company that helps founders get their time back without blowing up quality, trust, or accountability. Jaime is a hard-nosed systems thinker and one of the founders of Bottleneck Distant Assistants—where they train “distant assistants” (real humans, not “digital assistants”) using a framework he calls Delegation Intelligence. We get into the unsexy truth: delegation isn’t “hire a VA and pray.” It’s building a repeatable system so the business stops pinging...

info_outline Burn the Map: Clone Your Genius, Survive AI Change, and Middle Management Beware w/ Monica Marquez show art Burn the Map: Clone Your Genius, Survive AI Change, and Middle Management Beware w/ Monica Marquez

Burn The Map

In This Episode: We sit down with Monica Marquez, co-founder of Flipwork AI and the unofficial change management therapist every modern exec wishes they had on speed dial. Monica’s resume is a “who’s who” of places that love an acronym—NYU, Goldman Sachs, EY, Bank of America—so trust me, she’s seen every flavor of corporate resistance to tech you can imagine. Monica calls out the dirty little secret of AI in the enterprise: Buying the tech is easy; getting humans to actually use it (without mangling your workflows and ROI) is the real Olympic sport. She dishes on why middle...

info_outline Burn The Map: Holograms, Flat Squirrels, & Why You Really Need Cake on Tuesday w/ Elizabeth Bieniek show art Burn The Map: Holograms, Flat Squirrels, & Why You Really Need Cake on Tuesday w/ Elizabeth Bieniek

Burn The Map

In This Episode: We sit down with Elizabeth Bieniek: accidental innovator, corporate plane-repairer at 30,000 feet, and author of Cake on Tuesday, a book for people who like their business advice with more real talk and less corporate fluff. Elizabeth walks us through her unpredictable path—from getting an MBA at Babson and tumbling into the tech world, to launching a stealth startup inside Cisco, and then finally distilling years of chaos into 25 lessons for unlocking corporate innovation. Why Cake on Tuesday? Because frankly, what’s the point of slogging through strategy sessions if...

info_outline Burn The Map: Outfoxing Wall Street with Dr. Craig Kaplan Pt.2 show art Burn The Map: Outfoxing Wall Street with Dr. Craig Kaplan Pt.2

Burn The Map

In This Episode: We sit down with Dr. Craig A. Kaplan, the PhD-wielding brains behind Predict Wall Street (and, apparently, the patron saint of retail investors everywhere). Craig walks us through 14 years in the financial trenches, building tech to turn the “dumb money” crowd into a collective force that could actually beat Wall Street at its own game—at least until the hedge funds caught the scent and crashed the party. Brace yourself for a story that’s equal parts “wisdom of crowds,” collective intelligence research, and “what happens when the little guy dares to play with the...

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In This Episode:

We talk to Joel McKay Smith—a guy whose “Rolodex” literally stress-tested the Wrench platform—about why real power isn’t in the LinkedIn follower count, but in the relationships you actually maintain. From rural Utah dairy farms to industrial parks, Joel’s journey is a hilarious, head-spinning tour straight through the heart of economic disruption and small-town resurrection. You think you’re a “super-connector”? Please. Joel remembers your name, your birthday, and probably your lactose intolerance from a conversation in 1997, all while masterminding a carbon-neutral Olympics bid and hustling for tech that lets seniors outsmart scammers.

What We Cover:

  • How networking actually works (and why most people still get it so, so wrong)

  • The unlikely perks—and headaches—of a memory wired for deep connection

  • Building tech that transforms rural economies and gives Main Street a shot at Silicon Valley relevance

  • The art (and science) of running unforgettable events—yes, booze helps, but forcing people to talk is the real secret sauce

  • What it’ll take to make Utah ground zero for the first real carbon-neutral Olympics, and why he’s stubborn enough to try

Guest Bio:
Joel McKay Smith is that rare breed—equal parts super-connector, entrepreneur, and small-town disruptor. If you’re in Utah and don’t know Joel, you’re probably new here or you just don’t get out much. Joel’s professional Rolodex is the stuff of urban legend: 125,000 contacts deep and more engaged than half the “thought leaders” on LinkedIn. He’s stress-tested new tech, built some of the largest community groups in the region, and still remembers your name, your dog’s birthday, and probably what you were wearing at that luncheon in 2009—thanks to a brain wired for deep connection and a dash of neurodivergent genius.

In this interview, we discuss building social capital (and the importance of actually giving a damn), the state of economic development, and why rural communities are one innovation away from rewriting their fate. Joel spills on power grids, nuclear moonshots, masterminding events, and how he’s turned his own experiences—as a neurodiverse leader and the child of a swindled senior—into launching tech solutions for the next wave of aging Gen Xers. If you’re here for pretty talk, keep scrolling. If you want real talk about legacy, innovation, and how the “give first, get later” philosophy actually pays off, settle in.

Enjoy! This show was brought to you by Wrench.ai.

Follow Dan:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danbaird/
X: https://x.com/mrdanbaird

Follow Joel:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelmckaysmith/

Follow the Pod:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@burnthemappodcast
Twitter/X: https://x.com/BurnTheMapPod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/burnthemappodcast/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@burnthemappodcast
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/burnthemappodcast.bsky.social

Selected Links From This Episode:

People and Organizations Mentioned:

Show Notes & Timestamps:

  • 00:08 — Intro to Joel McKay Smith: Super-connector, Rolodex legend, and stress-tester of all things tech.

  • 01:17 – 06:41 — Neurodiversity, accidental savant memory, and networking superpowers.

  • 07:36 – 10:05 — Embracing neurodiversity, Oticon, and why Vance Jackets is a Utah tech legend.

  • 10:30 – 17:34 — Rural roots, economic disruption, and building communities that don’t suck.

  • 17:34 – 20:24 — Carbon-neutral moonshot: Utah’s Olympic dreams, industrial parks, and advanced nuclear.

  • 20:24 – 26:07 — Data centers, clean energy, and the economics of “smart” water.

  • 26:07 – 32:14 — Salt domes, micro-politan communities, visionary rural growth, and government shenanigans.

  • 32:14 – 33:12 — Main Street lessons, throwing parties worth attending, and why networking is everything.

  • 33:12 – 35:04 — Personal story: Elder scams, Silverguard, and fighting for senior safety.