Stop Chasing Growth: Build a Business on Leverage, Not Hustle | Patrick Bell

In this episode of Unconventional Wisdom About Conventional Wisdom, Kim Miller-Hershon sits down with Patrick Bell, a doctoral AI researcher and AI transformation advisor who works directly with CEOs to turn AI into measurable business results. His core insight is that most organizations don't struggle with AI because of the technology. They struggle because their leadership systems can't absorb it, so companies end up with activity that looks like progress but fails to deliver real outcomes. Patrick's own path to that thesis is anything but linear: trained as a police officer in Canada, he spent years smuggling Bibles into Eastern Europe during the revolutions, taught English in Japan for 12 years, ran a safari company's marketing in Kenya, and now lives largely out of a single suitcase on the island of Madeira with his wife of 37 years. In this conversation, Patrick challenges a piece of conventional wisdom that costs a lot of founders dearly: build something great and the customers will come. He learned the hard way, several times, that a good product is necessary but rarely sufficient. Distribution, trust, relationships, and timing matter as much or more. So today he's less interested in building things that win by being slightly better and more interested in building things that are simply harder to replace, through ecosystems, network effects, and real defensibility. That leads into one of the sharpest threads of the episode: the false promise of the roadmap. Patrick spent roughly 10,000 hours studying business-growth expert Jay Abraham, eventually building profit-acceleration software used by thousands of coaches. What he learned training hundreds of them personally is that the vast majority, he'd guess 90 percent or more, could run the software and produce a beautiful roadmap but got completely lost when it came time to actually help a client implement, because they'd never grown a business themselves. The tool wasn't the problem. Kim connects it straight to her own mantra: a roadmap only works if you personalize it to the system and to yourself. This episode explores: Why a great product is necessary but rarely sufficient Building for defensibility and network effects, not just being slightly better The false promise of the roadmap, and why the tool isn't enough Why a roadmap only works when you personalize it to yourself Staying curious and importing ideas across cultures and industries Why "AI expert" is nearly meaningless, and expertise is always narrow Why every AI project is really a leadership project The wobbly-bicycle metaphor: AI amplifies every existing weakness The coming backlash against agents that loop instead of helping If you're a CEO, founder, or leader trying to make AI deliver real results instead of just activity, this conversation offers practical insight, honest talk about decision-making under uncertainty, and a refreshing case that the goal was never more growth. It was leverage, and a life worth living. Connect with me here: Website: https://www.kimmillerhershon.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmillerhershon Newsletter: https://link.kimmillerhershon.com/widget/form/aEdmdA1W5MhoMCMfy5O8 Webinar: https://webinar.kimmillerhershon.com/?utm_source=Podcast Guest Details: Guest: Patrick Bell Company: AI Transformation Partners Focus: AI transformation advisory for CEOs; doctoral AI research; leadership and AI adoption Website: https://www.aitransformationpartner.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aitransformationpartners/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.