Josh Braun

Be the mint scoop in a sea of vanilla sales messages so you can start more conversations with skeptical prospects.

I created the Badass Growth Guide to eliminate commission breath. It gives you the best possible chance of starting conversations with people you don't know. It's a radically honest approach where prospects feel safe telling you the truth because they don't feel "sold" or "manipulated."

💥WHAT YOU GET:
➡️ More conversations with your ideal prospects.

I post weekly content about sales on LinkedIn.  
👍Like the content? Follow me. 👍

❤️I DON'T KISS AND TELL, BUT MY CLIENTS DO ❤️
"In one year, Josh has helped my company grow from 10 enterprise customers to over
200 with brand names like Twitter, Viacom, and Brown University" - Claire Coder, CEO at Aunt Flow

"We’ve got about 40 new meetings out of the training you provided." - Chris Murray, CEO at Oomph Inc.

“I used the email template from your playbook and it worked. I got to the decision-maker in one email and ultimately got the sale.” - Richard P. Perrott, WatchTower

💥NEWSLETTER💥
Join my list to get tips on being a red ❌ is a sea of white circle sales messages. 
https://joshbraun.com/newsletter/

💥WORKSHOPS💥
I facilitate workshops on two things: (1) cold calling + defusing objections (2) cold emailing. Inquire here -joshbraun.com/connect

💥PRODUCTS💥
THE BADASS B2B GROWTH GUIDE
https://courses.joshbraun.com/p/badass-b2b-growth-guide

POKE THE BEAR COLD CALLING METHOD
https://courses.joshbraun.com/p/poke

The Discovery Call Course
https://courses.joshbraun.com/p/discovery

TONGUE TIED SALES OBJECTION FLASHCARDS
Know what to say when prospects put you on the spot.
https://gumroad.com/l/objectionflashcards

💥INSIDE SELLING PODCAST💥
Learn sales tactics and strategies that will help you sell without selling your soul. 
Listen here -https://joshbraun.com/podcast
Learn more at joshbraun.com

Founder

Are you sending lots and lots of cold emails but getting little to no responses?

Wish you could start more conversations with skeptical prospects?  

Wish granted: https://academy.joshbraun.com/p/badass-b2b-growth-guide

Email me: josh@joshbraun.com

Microsoft’s AI chief says we have 18 months before all white-collar work is automated.

18.

Months. 

This is the same company that predicted: 

People wouldn’t want phones without physical keyboards.
Zune would outshine the iPod.
Bing would take over Google.
Nobody will every need more that 64mb of memory. 

We’ve been “18 months away” from everything being replaced for 30 years.

VR replacing offices.
Paperless workflows.

If AI is replacing white-collar workers who is buying what Microsoft is making? 

If Outlook can’t find the attachment I literally just downloaded… I’m not betting on it replacing every lawyer, marketer, data scientist and accountant by next Christmas.

What’s your take on this?

Struggling to book meetings? Getting ghosted? Want to sell without pushing, convincing, or begging? Read this profile.

graphical user interface, text, application

Beth is a successful AE who is unapologetically herself.

She’s a little goofy.
Laughs at her own jokes.

She claps when someone explains something clearly.

Waves at dogs on Zoom calls.

Does this little shoulder dance when a prospect says something interesting.

Says things like,
“Okay, this might be a weird question that I probably shouldn’t ask…”
and then asks it anyway.

Admits, “I’m slightly biased here.”

And it’s so refreshing.

Because most of us try to become who we think we’re supposed to be.

More serious.
More “professional.”

But here’s what I’ve noticed.

When you try to be someone you’re not, people feel it.

There’s a stiffness.
A script.
A performance.

When you’re fully yourself, there’s ease.

Why? 

You come across as more real.
More authentic.
More relatable.

The irony?

The thing you’re tempted to hide
is often the thing that makes people trust you.

And why does trust matter?

In a world of similar products, trust is why people choose you.

You don’t need a persona.

You need to be a person.

If AI can do the work of 2 people, is a CEO irresponsible for keeping both?

That’s not a theoretical question.

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Block, the parent company of Square, just replaced 
 ~4,000 jobs with AI. 

This wasn’t a company on life support.

This was strategic.

The market loved it.

The stock went vertical.

Somewhere else, something dropped.

A dad staring at a severance email before picking his kid up from school.

A woman refreshing LinkedIn at midnight trying to rewrite her headline.

A family recalculating the mortgage.

You can say this is evolution.

You can say this is progress.

You can say leaders have a duty to shareholders.

All true.

And still.

There is something in my gut that tightens when a career becomes a cost center.

If AI can do the work of two people, the math says cut one.

But a life is not math.

A life is mornings and commutes and coffee mugs left on desks and inside jokes and health insurance and pride and identity.

When the stock goes vertical, someone else’s goes horizontal.

Maybe this is inevitable.
Maybe it’s necessary.

But it’s worth sitting with the discomfort instead of racing past it.

When success is defined only by margin, humanity becomes overhead.

IBM

2023:
“We’re pausing hiring. AI will replace 7,800 jobs.”

2026:
“We’re tripling Gen Z hiring after discovering the limits of AI.”

We automated the jobs.
Then remembered who fixes the automation.

The cycle seems to be:

Hype.
Cut.
Regret.
Rehire.

No alternative text description for this image

Whenever I’m on a discovery call with multiple people, I like to start with this:

“Matt, tell me something amazing about Beth you wish more people knew.”

It always leads to a compliment.

“She’s the glue on our team.”
“She’s way funnier than people realize.”
“She’s incredibly steady under pressure.”

And you can feel the shift.
(Yes, it’s a feeling.)

Shoulders drop.
Faces soften.

People lean in.
They smile.

Energy changes.

Most calls start with tension.
An up front contract. 
An agenda. 

But when you open with appreciation it reminds everyone in the room:

We’re humans first.
Job titles second.

And that kind of energy travels through the rest of the conversation.

Two people selling umbrellas.

Matt stands on a sunny street corner.

Perfects his opener.
Sharpens his rebuttals.
Refines his tone.

“Hey just of of curiosity, what are you doing today if it rains?”

He gets smoother.
Faster.
More confident.

But it’s 72 and clear.

Meanwhile…

Mandy checks the weather radar.

She walks to the subway entrance
right as the sky opens up.

People are already wet.
Already annoyed.
Already thinking, “I should’ve brought one.”

She doesn’t need a pitch.

She just says,
“Want to stay dry?”

Matt focused delivery.
Mandy focused on timing, context and relevance.

Matt tried to create need.
Mandy aligned with one. 

That’s what top BDRs do. 

They’re not better on the phone.

They call people who already feel the rain.

Thomas Edison failed thousands of times trying to invent the light bulb.

At least that’s the story people like to tell.

One reporter finally asked him:
“How does it feel to fail 1,000 times?”

Edison smiled and said:
“I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”

Think about that.
Same events.
Two completely different interpretations.

Most people see attempts that didn’t work and call it failure.
Edison saw progress.

Data.
Clues.

Each step telling him what didn’t work so he could get closer to what did.

Here’s where we get stuck:
→ We treat one bad result as a verdict
→ We think mistakes mean we're not capable
→ We assume progress should look smooth

But progress doesn't looks smooth.
It looks messy.
Crooked.
Embarrassing.

Full of things that don’t work.

The difference isn’t talent.
It’s interpretation.

Call it failure and you stop.
Call it information and you continue.

So the next time something doesn’t work:
Pause.

Ask a different question.
“What did this just teach me?”

Sometimes the only difference between quitting and inventing the light bulb…
…is the story you tell about the step you’re on.

3 ways sellers create resistance without realizing it:

1. Attachment to the outcome.

When you believe it’s your job to talk someone into buying, you start behaving in ways that feel pushy. 

And whenever people feel the push, they pull away. 

The muscle to build is letting go of the assumption that there’s a problem that needs your solution. 

Instead, ask yourself: “Is there actually a problem here?”

2. Rushing.
When you talk too fast or move the conversation forward too quickly, nervous systems hear one thing: “I’m out of here.” 

Slow down. Reflect back what you heard. “That sounds challenging.” Or, “What’s your theory on why that’s happening?” 

Then pause. Let the conversation breathe.

3. Convincing.

If you’re convincing, you’re losing. 

Nobody likes being told what to think or what to do. 

The antidote to convincing is asking. 

Ask a neutral question about a potential issue without steering toward your preferred answer. 

For example: “I’m not sure if this is relevant, but a lot of annual physicals miss heart risk markers like LDL particle size. How are you currently testing small, medium, and total LDL particles?”

Resistance isn’t something prospects create.

It’s often something we trigger.

I help SaaS and high-growth companies unlock exponential ARR growth by building partner ecosystems, affiliate programs, and GTM systems that scale.

Unlike most leaders who specialize in either sales or partnerships, I bring both:
	•	Closed 7-figure enterprise deals as an AE.
	•	Built partner programs adding $10M–$40M+ ARR.
	•	Designed affiliate systems activating thousands of high-performing partners.

My approach blends direct sales experience with a playbook for recruiting, activating, and scaling partner ecosystems that deliver measurable revenue impact.

Currently applying this GTM playbook inside Instantly.ai, where I’m documenting the journey in real time — frameworks, wins, and lessons that any GTM leader can adapt to scale faster.

What I do best:
	•	Design & scale high-impact partner programs.
	•	Build integrated GTM systems combining affiliates, agencies, integrations, and brand alliances.
	•	Turn real-world results into repeatable, monetizable frameworks.

I also work with select founders, execs, and investors through consulting, advisory, and JV opportunities — helping them structure partnerships that multiply revenue and create leverage.

📌 Core Competencies:
• Partnership & Affiliate Revenue Growth
• GTM Architecture & Execution
• Enterprise Sales & Negotiation
• Strategic Alliances & Integrations
• Business Process Optimization
• Leadership & Coaching High-Growth Teams

If you’re building a partner-sourced GTM function and want to scale faster, let’s connect.

Marc Gaudett

We just wrapped a global outbound webinar with the team at HubSpot — and the biggest takeaway wasn’t “AI writes better emails.”

It was this:

Cold outreach doesn’t fail because of AI.
It fails because of weak targeting and disconnected systems.

Here’s what actually matters:

1. Targeting > Personalization
Spray-and-pray is dead.
Micro-segmentation, real buying signals, and relevance win.

2. Infrastructure > Volume
If your deliverability is weak, more emails just mean more ignored emails.
1–3% reply rates are normal. Below that? It’s usually ICP, offer, or setup.

3. CRM Connection = Revenue
Outbound gets attention.
Connected systems close deals.

When outreach feeds directly into HubSpot:
• Positive replies create deals
• Closed-lost re-enters nurture
• Buyer intent triggers follow-up
• Nothing falls through the cracks

AI amplifies clarity.
It doesn’t replace strategy.

Big thanks to:
Eoin McGuinness
Hans Dekker
Brandon Charleson
Katey Norris
Fabian Hartmann
Yaroslava Tensina



If you were on the webinar and didn’t grab the special offers from Instantly.ai
 (free month, VIP offer etc.), DM me and I’ll send them over.

What’s your biggest outbound bottleneck right now — targeting, messaging, or pipeline?

Leading the Partnerships Team at Instantly | Building $100M+ Partner-Sourced ARR+ Case Study

taplio

The Battle

Josh Braun

Marc Gaudett

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreJosh Braun's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMarc Gaudett's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Josh Braun

Marc Gaudett

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Josh Braun's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMarc Gaudett's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJosh Braun's LinkedIn Performance