Your Best Customer Is Dying. Now What? Artwork

Spartan Leadership with Josh Kosnick

Good and Great Are the Enemies of Possible™️

Leadership and business coach Josh Kosnick has conversations with some of the greatest minds in leadership both in business, community, and politics. Guests provide insights from years of experience, delivering powerful messages to help you live a more inspired and impactful life.

All Episodes

Spartan Leadership with Josh Kosnick

Your Best Customer Is Dying. Now What?

August 10, 2026 • Josh Kosnick

0:00 | 1:24:06

Send us Fan Mail

In-N-Out took 80 years to become a legend. Raising Cane's did it in 36 — with worse chicken and a better marketing team. Two founders sat down with Josh at the Book & Bourbon Club fly-in to debate what actually wins in 2026: the slow, silent build or the personal-brand turbocharge.

Guests: Dennis Leis (investor, MetPro, LRT, Whole Body Fitness) and Trace Miller (founder/CEO of Konala — high-protein drive-thru restaurants, konalafranchise.com).

Three debates, no filler:

The personal branding debate — can you still grow a massive business silently? The In-N-Out vs. Raising Cane's case study, the "sellout" question every founder wrestles with, and why your best customer is literally dying every day.

The AI debate — Dennis is all-in, Trace is skeptical, and Josh is in the middle. China just passed a law that you can't lay someone off and replace them with AI. Salesforce is cutting tens of thousands. Only 2% of the world is actually using it. What "ethical capitalism" looks like when the tokens cost more than the labor.

The hiring debate — Dennis hires for his weaknesses and openly admits he has zero desire to be a CEO. Trace wants to grow into his weaknesses, Gymshark-style. Two founders, two very different answers to the oldest question in business.

Plus Dennis unveils the AI-powered talent-matching platform he's building in beta — outbound recruiting for cultural fit instead of skills-first hiring.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Follow Dennis Leis: Instagram @dennis.leis
Follow Trace Miller & Konala: konalafranchise.com
Book & Bourbon Club: joshkosnick.com

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Books mentioned:
• Raving Fans — Ken Blanchard
• Unreasonable Hospitality — Will Guidara
• Good to Great — Jim Collins
• Blue-Collar Cash — Ken Rusk

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Follow Josh Kosnick:
Website — joshkosnick.com
Instagram — @joshkosnick
LinkedIn — linkedin.com/in/joshkosnick

Subscribe for weekly conversations on leadership, faith, and building a life worth living.

#SpartanLeadership #JoshKosnick #DennisLeis #TraceMiller #Konala #PersonalBranding #AIinBusiness #EthicalCapitalism #FounderPodcast #HiringStrategy