The Joe Jaap Podcast

A membership organization grows when people feel seen, supported, and invited to contribute.
In this episode of ScaleCraft, The Joe Jaap Podcast, Joe Jaap talks with Earl Husbands, National Membership Director for the United Postmasters and Managers of America (UPMA). Earl spent 20 years as a mail carrier before a mentor helped him see a path into leadership. Now he is working to help other postal employees find that same opportunity.
Earl shares how he traveled across Illinois to meet members face to face, built teams to support them locally, and carried those lessons into a national role. He also reflects on what his years in consumer affairs taught him about listening to customers, taking responsibility, and improving service.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
Why admitting you don’t know an answer can make you a stronger leader
How one mentor changed the direction of Earl’s career
Why face-to-face conversations remain central to membership growth
How UPMA helps aspiring postal leaders develop their skills
Why representation works best with honesty and accountability
What Earl hopes stronger postal leadership will mean for members and the public
Growth matters to Earl because of what it makes possible: more people helping one another, more capable leaders, and better service.
Subscribe to The Joe Jaap Podcast for more conversations about building and scaling organizations.
Produced by EmoryDay. New episodes weekly.
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What if your next million dollars in revenue starts with the people who already know your name?
In this solo episode of ScaleCraft, The Joe Jaap Podcast, Joe Jaap walks through a simple exercise for uncovering overlooked opportunities among current and former customers, past prospects, and your personal and professional network. All it takes is three spreadsheet tabs, two uninterrupted hours, and one strong cup of coffee.
Joe explores why businesses often chase new leads while existing relationships go cold, how to revisit a stalled opportunity with a meaningful reason to talk, and why creating more value for a customer starts with staying interested after the invoice gets paid.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
How three simple lists can reveal opportunities you’ve stopped paying attention to
Why “no” and “not now” deserve different follow-up
What to say instead of “just checking in”
How to earn referrals by making your results easy to explain
Why potential opportunity belongs in your spreadsheet before it belongs in your revenue forecast
How to choose ten relationships and turn them into ten useful conversations
The goal is to find a real problem you can help solve, a credible reason to reconnect, and a useful next step.
Three tabs. Sixty names. Ten conversations. Five business days. Then measure what happens.
Subscribe to The Joe Jaap Podcast for more practical ideas and conversations about building and scaling a business.
Produced by EmoryDay. New episodes weekly.
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The people and decisions that get a business to one stage may not be the ones that take it to the next. In this ScaleCraft episode of The Joe Jaap Podcast, Joe Jaap talks with Chris Hessler, founder and CEO of The Advisory Bench, about what changes as a company grows and why even experienced CEOs need perspectives beyond their own. 
Chris shares how his first advisory board helped him build a business around a U.S. Postal Service contract. Years later, that board challenged him to stop investing in a second product and focus on the core business, which grew to $120 million in revenue. Drawing on his experience building and selling companies and working in private equity, Chris explains why scaling demands difficult decisions about people, priorities, and leadership. 
In this episode, you’ll hear: 
Why the team that gets a company to $10 million may not get it to $50 million 
What humility and coachability look like in a CEO.
How the right advisors can challenge a decision without taking it away from the leader 
Why a promising new idea can distract from a proven core business.
How to work backward from the company you hope to sell in three to five years.
Where AI helps leaders, and where experience and judgment still matter.
Many of the problems a growing business faces have been solved before. The challenge is finding people who have lived through them and being willing to listen. Produced by EmoryDay. New episodes weekly.

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Views, clicks, leads, and website traffic can tell you something is happening. But they can’t tell you whether your marketing is actually creating a stronger business.
In this solo episode of The Joe Jaap Podcast, Joe Jaap explores what separates marketing activity from a true growth engine: a measurable system that connects demand, customer action, revenue, and ultimately margin.
Joe breaks down the three concepts he believes businesses need to understand first: active prospects, passive prospects, and the destination where interest becomes action. He also examines what happens after a prospect raises their hand, why follow-up is a revenue issue, and how measurement can reveal the real constraint holding growth back.
You’ll learn:
Why attention is useful, but revenue is the real scoreboard
How active and passive prospects require different approaches
Why marketing doesn’t end when a lead arrives
How to identify constraints in your message, follow-up, or delivery
Where practical AI can help strengthen customer handoffs
Why disciplined, incremental improvement creates more durable growth
Follow one real opportunity through your system. Find the first broken handoff. Then fix one thing.

Produced by EmoryDay. New episodes weekly.

The biggest opportunities rarely arrive with complete certainty.
Sometimes they look inconvenient, risky, or completely outside the way you normally operate. The challenge is knowing whether you’re looking at a reckless gamble or a calculated opportunity to grow.
In this solo episode of The Joe Jaap Podcast, Joe Jaap shares the story of a decision that opened an important chapter in EmoryDay’s growth and the framework he now uses to think through opportunities: SCALE.
Signal. Capacity. Appetite. Leverage. Execute.
Joe explains how an unconventional performance-based opportunity led EmoryDay into the As Seen on TV marketplace, eventually contributing to nearly 300 campaigns, more than $5 million in annual revenue, and recognition on the Inc. 500.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
Why waiting for certainty can become a form of inaction
How to separate real signals from excitement
What “mostly ready” actually means
Why wanting the outcome isn’t the same as wanting the work
How leverage expands what a business can accomplish
Why execution turns assumptions into useful information
How experience and instinct can inform calculated risk
You don’t need to know the entire path. You need enough evidence, readiness, and conviction to take the next meaningful step.

Produced by EmoryDay. New episodes weekly.