In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Billy Goldberg, a strategist for Fortune 500 companies and outsourced COO for small businesses. After sponsor messages for Anchor and Authors Unite, Goldberg shares a formative story from his early career in a Hollywood talent agency mailroom, where he stood up to a high‑powered executive on a basketball court and was promoted to the executive’s assistant. He explains his core expertise of finding "white space"—unrealized growth opportunities—by designing revenue‑driving processes for companies of any size. Goldberg offers practical business advice, emphasizing the "ground ball" mindset of pursuing every opportunity, the importance of mentorship, and focusing on the present moment for happiness. He distills insights from many business books into a three‑step success framework: define a clear goal, build systems and processes to achieve it, and manage personal energy to sustain those systems. He shares his favorite quote, "When in doubt, dunk," as a mantra for decisive action. The episode concludes with his online presence (www.billygoldberg.com and social media).
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All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Billy Goldberg with us. He's a strategist for Fortune 500 companies and a trusted advisor and outsourced COO for small businesses. Billy is known for finding white space, a company's unrealized opportunities for growth. So welcome to the show, man.
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Of course, man. Grateful to have you on. So, Billy, the first question we ask on this show is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Sure. Well, this happened at the very beginning of my career. I was in the mailroom, and it, like I said, happened at the beginning of my career, and it's stuck with me ever since and has proven valuable to me, and I've shared it with others. I was in the mailroom of a talent agency in Hollywood, which is not a glamorous job but a good place to start. And I was playing on the company basketball team and a high-powered executive was on our team and started making comments to me and yelling at me on the court. And I said to him, in the office, you know more than me, but here you don't. And don't ever speak to me that way again. And a week later, I had been— I was pulled out of the mailroom and became his assistant. And so the moral of that was basically, you know, just because you're an expert in one domain doesn't mean you're an expert everywhere. And that no matter where— what your station is in life, you should speak up for what you believe in because it can work out for you. And so by me sort of pushing back on what I was getting, It worked out for me and I was moved up the first step of the ladder and it has spoken to me and worked for me for the last 27 years since or whatever it was.
Wow, dude, thank you for sharing that. That's awesome. So, so the next one I have for you is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
So I think that it comes down to, um, there's a solution for every problem. One of the things that we've done for all of our clients, whether that is, um, a big corporation or a smaller company making a million or $2 million a year, is that we've been able to design processes for them that lead to revenue. So whatever the issue is, if you're willing to ask the right questions, you can get to the right answer.
And then it probably— well, it definitely does, um, but what's your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.
Again, I, I, I think that it comes down to things that you can figure things out, but it probably starts with me, which is the advice that I give to a lot of people, which is running out every ground ball, right? Every opportunity that comes your way, you've got, unless you're busy every single second of the day, everyone's got time in the car or getting on a plane, whatever, If people are coming up to you with opportunities, you know, make that call during that downtime to figure out what that opportunity can lead to because you never know what can happen. So I run out every ground ball because I never know where that's going to take me.
And then if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Find a mentor. I think that having a mentor gets you the questions that you need answered before you know that it's a question that you're going to even have. So getting information that other people know you might need before you have the concern saves you a lot of time and can get you where you want to be faster.
And then kind of going down a little bit of a different path here, in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Making— it's a great question, I love that. It's making the most of where you are in that moment, right? So if you are in the mailroom, it's being the best damn mailroom person you can be. If you are anywhere, just even in the middle of the afternoon, making sure that that's the place that you are focused on. It's hard to be happy if you're focused on the past or the future, so just be where you are.
And then what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
So I've read a ton of books and listen to 2 or 3 business books a week as I'm driving around. And so I don't have one particular book that I go to, but what I've learned from many books in the recent years is, to sort of summarize several books, is that there there's a 3-step process to success. Number 1 is defining the goal, figure out what you want. Number 2, setting up systems and processes to achieve that goal. And then the 3rd thing that people overlook the most is figuring out ways to manage your own energy so that you can manage those systems and processes to achieve the goal. I think people, uh, talk about self-care a lot and talk about you know, what practices they use to take care of themselves and to manage their energy. But I don't know that they do it enough. And that's the key to the whole thing, is managing your energy so that you can manage the systems and the processes to achieve your goal. So that's sort of a summary of many books that I've read over the years, and I think that that's super important.
And then what is your favorite quote and why?
So when I was in college, there was a guy who played on our school basketball team, and his quote was, that they listed in the program, was, "When in doubt, dunk." And I think that that can apply to everything in life. You know, it's basically go after what you want rather than sitting and questioning where you should go, what you should do, taking a step forward and just doing it. So whenever I'm in doubt, I just dunk it.
Yeah, I love that. Um, well, thank you so much for coming on. The last one I have for you before we let you go is, where can our audience best find you online?
So that would be at my website at www.billygoldberg.com, and, um, I'm Billy Goldberg all over social media as well.
Perfect. Thank you again for coming on, man.
All right, really appreciate it, Tyler. Look forward to speaking to you again.
