Some of the biggest threats to your firm aren’t competitors or market conditions—they’re internal “black holes” that quietly consume time, focus, and profit.

In this episode of Breaking BizDev, John Tyreman and Mark Wainwright unpack the everyday practices that feel productive but actually limit growth. From utilization tracking and meeting bloat to hourly billing, shiny object syndrome, and social media overuse, these black holes pull firms away from what matters most: client outcomes and real business development.

You’ll hear:

• Why utilization and billable hours distort decision-making
• How internal meetings quietly drain leadership capacity
• Why new tools don’t fix broken processes
• How hourly pricing caps scalability and creates misalignment
• When social media is an asset—and when it becomes a trap

This episode challenges long-held assumptions inside professional services firms and offers a clearer way to refocus on impact, value, and growth.

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Sales doesn’t fail because of bad stages—it fails because of missing behaviors.

In this episode, John Tyreman and Mark Wainwright break down the eight elements of sales choreography that help professional services sellers build trust, maintain momentum, and guide opportunities forward without being pushy.

From curiosity and synchronous conversations to mirroring, permission, and guiding the process, this episode focuses on the actions you can control—regardless of where a buyer is in their journey.

If you’re tired of stalled deals and vague “maybes,” this conversation will change how you think about sales execution.

Past episodes referenced:

• Create, Choreograph, Contract: A Business Development Framework
• Part 2. Choreograph Your Sales Activities
• Building Trust At Scale (Without 1,000 Coffee Chats)

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The AEC world is full of brilliant engineers, architects, and builders—yet many firms still struggle to grow the way they should. In this episode, John and Mark break down what’s actually broken in AEC business development by bringing in three guest voices who see the problems up close every day.

First up is Aaron Moncur, founder of Pipeline Design & Engineering and host of Being an Engineer. Aaron shares why so many engineers hesitate to market themselves, why “humble brags” feel impossible, and how he built a media ecosystem—podcasts, community, events—to escape the expensive black hole of traditional trade shows.

Then, Leslie Blaize makes the case that AEC firms dramatically underuse one of the most powerful tools in business development: storytelling. She explains why technical expertise alone can’t win a project, how emotion drives buying decisions, and why firms should be capturing, curating, and reusing their best project stories instead of letting them disappear after a single proposal.

Finally, Perryn Olson brings a construction-focused lens to what’s broken—namely, over-reliance on founder-led sales and a lack of clear ideal client profiles. He unpacks why these habits choke growth, destroy succession value, and leave firms trapped in a cycle of “sell only what the founder can sell.”

John and Mark tie all three conversations together, highlighting themes across engineering, architecture, and construction—from cultural reluctance around marketing to the chaos of co-opetition to the structural challenges of building a scalable BD function.

If you’ve ever wondered why AEC firms struggle to tell their story, stand out, or build a real sales engine… this episode brings the receipts.

Share your feedback in our listener survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8V9T6Z7