Margins and Mandates
Join Jeff Lortz as he explores the critical balance between
profitability and growth mandates. Each episode delivers frameworks,
insights, and real-world strategies from leaders who've
navigated high-stakes business challenges.
AO GROWTH ADVISORS
The podcast where strategy meets execution for ambitious operators
Essential Listening for Operators
Strategic conversations that tackle the real challenges of balancing margins and mandates
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Johan AbadieIn this episode of Margins and Mandates, Jeff reconnects with Johan Abadie, VP of Demand Generation and Revenue Strategy at SalesIntel, for a candid conversation about building pipeline in an era of AI hype, cheap data traps, and shifting buyer expectations.
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Nate Burke
In this episode of Margins and Mandates, Jeff sits down with Nate Burke, CMO at 7 AI, to unpack what it really takes to build and run a marketing organization inside an emerging AI cybersecurity company.
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Steve Martin
In this episode, Jeff sits down with Steve Martin, a seasoned CMO who’s been in the trenches of SaaS, CRM, and PE-backed growth stories for the past two decades. From his early days at Lotus post-IBM acquisition to his recent role leading marketing at Act!, Steve opens up about the evolving challenges of scaling software compan
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Pam Boiros
In this episode of Margins and Mandates, Jeff sits down with Pam Boiros, fractional CMO, marketing strategist, and co-founder of . Pam shares her journey from leading marketing at major HR tech companies to building her consulting practice,
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Michelle Katz
In this episode of Margins and Mandates, host Jeff Lortz sits down with Michelle Katz, founder of From Prospects — a data-driven intelligence platform shaking up the traditional world of legal recruiting and firm research.
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Ryan De La Parra
This is a long , thin type of bread of French origin, that is distinguishable by its length and crisp crust
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Jeff Nulsen
In this episode of Margins and Mandates, Jeff Lortz sits down with Jeff Nulsen, a seasoned marketing executive, to unpack how he helped transform a brand overshadowed by security crises into a thriving, trusted growth engine while serving as CMO at N-Able.
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Margins and Mandates explores how business leaders build resilient, high-performing organizations in demanding markets. Hosted by Jeff Lortz — an experienced CEO, operator, and founder of the Agile Operator playbook — each episode features candid conversations about the strategies, challenges, and decisions that define real leadership. If you’re an executive, founder, or senior operator driving growth and results, this is your playbook for leading under pressure.
Ed Gaudet is the founder and CEO of Censinet, a healthcare-focused governance, risk, and compliance platform that started in third-party risk management and expanded into enterprise risk and compliance.
In this episode, Ed shares why going “all-in” on healthcare is fundamentally different than treating healthcare as just another vertical, and how Censinet built a multi-sided network connecting health systems with their ecosystem of third parties.
We dig into the early days: raising capital with an idea, building v1 through a design partner program, and why Ed believes there’s no playbook for the next thing — including a candid take on how PE playbooks can fill a leadership void while also constraining the definition of success.
Ed also breaks down growth phases shaped by disruption: launching into March 2020, then navigating post-pandemic aftershocks. He explains the strategic pivot to invest in product, the operating rhythm behind near-biweekly releases, and how weekly customer conversations (plus internal transparency) became a competitive advantage.
Finally, we close with Censinet’s AI approach: architected into the platform, secure by design and secure by default, with customers choosing when to enable capabilities — and an internal mandate for teams to adopt AI in their daily workflows.
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