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This week, Nicole and I unpack the ugly truth of modern networking: we spend time, money, and energy “connecting,” only to get funneled into cold, automated pitches that make you want to fake your own death and sail off the Florida coast. (We’ve considered it.)

PS: We did not digitally YEET co-host Laine Belcastro—she’s on a well-earned vacation in the great Northeast and will be back at the table.

What we get into:

• Why 90% of business cards end up in the trash (and the other 10% live in your glove box)
• Contact collecting vs. relationship building (hint: one works)
• Non-cringey, human follow-up that isn’t “Dear {FirstName}…”
• How to be intentional at events (and online) without feeling like a one-person off-Broadway show
• Mining events for ideas and intel—even when the room isn’t your market
• Use your existing network: stop ghosting the people who helped you when they change jobs
• LinkedIn hygiene: who stays, who goes, and why activity matters

FTW / WTF this week:

• FTW: College football is back and the weather finally stopped trying to melt us.
• WTF: Ketchup smoothies (Hines x Smoothie King). Also: the Bronx rollercoaster—Yankees fans, we ride at dawn.

Chandler check: “Could I be any less interested in your pitch?”—yes, if it’s an auto-drip

If you’re over the networking hangover, ditch the card-collecting and build real relationships. Like, comment, and share if you’ve ever been ghosted mid-pitch—or dropped into someone’s bot funnel against your will.

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Before we built businesses, we survived the trenches.

In this episode of The Ron Table, Nicole Gray, Laine Belcastro and I unpack how corporate America—love it or hate it—can actually sharpen you for entrepreneurship. From bad bosses and office politics to endless approvals and Kool-Aid culture, corporate life is less a career ladder and more like Shawshank: you crawl through the muck, but you come out tougher.

We talk about:

• Why a tour through corporate is the best (and cheapest) training for future entrepreneurs.
• The “Five Ps” corporate life teaches you: Process, Policy, Politics, People, and Pacing.
• Learning when to play the game… and when to break the rules.
• How scars from corporate trauma actually prepare you to survive entrepreneurship’s chaos.
• Why burning bridges on the way out is the worst rookie mistake you can make.

Don’t downplay the time you spent in the system—it might just be the playbook that fuels your rebellion.

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Is AI your new best friend… or the smug guy in skinny jeans pretending to be your brand voice while low-key gunning for your job?

In this episode of The Ron Table, Nicole Gray, Laine Belcastro and I rip the “AI will save us” narrative wide open. We get real about the facts (and the feelings), why most small businesses are using AI wrong, and why efficiency without empathy is just a spreadsheet with an attitude.

From hallucinating chatbots to résumé-shredding ATS systems, self-checkout culture, and LinkedIn authenticity wars—we call out what AI can do, what it can’t do, and why you still need a human behind the wheel.

Also in this episode:

• Micro-retirements (and why Gen X is side-eyeing them hard)
• The Texas floods, humanity over politics, and wins worth celebrating
• Celebrity privilege, public trials, and why the court of public opinion smells exactly like your dad said it did

Use the tool—don’t become one.