Type A: Unhinged
Welcome to Type A: Unhinged, the podcast for high-achievers who know that a little chaos is part of the master plan. We’re your hosts: a performance marketing guru who lives for data and a creative services director who makes words and websites sing. Together, we’re the professional working partners who are also a hoot, bringing organized chaos to marketing and beyond. Each week, we dissect the systems, strategies, and delightful madness behind success. We’ll bring you no-fluff marketing advice, interviews with whip-smart guests who are masters of their craft (from finance to aviation and AI), and our unfilt...
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AI is the Intern: Scaling Customer Lifecycle with Hibbett's Kayla Brown
<p>“If you stop learning, you stop leading.” In this episode of Type A: Unhinged, Nate and Di sit down with Kayla Brown, Director of Customer Lifecycle at Hibbett, to audit what it really takes to scale a career and a tech stack in the high-velocity world of retail sneakers and sports.</p> <p>Kayla has been at Hibbett for eight years, moving from Email Marketing Specialist to Director—a rare feat in an industry where “jumping ship” is the standard. We dive into her “Yes, And” mentality and how she manages a massive plate that includes CRM, Loyalty, Email, Mobile, and Pa...
Forklifts, French Espresso, and the 4-Day Shopify Sprint
<p>“Everything is figureoutable.” That is the mantra of today’s guest, Nicole Williams. Nicole is a Type A powerhouse who transitions between high-stakes worlds like a pro, from the calculated environment of Private Equity to building high-end ecommerce sites and serving as the CEO and Board President of USA Dodgeball.</p> <p>In this episode, we audit the “Whatever it Takes” mindset that defines Nicole’s career. We dive into the legendary 2015 Wine Opener Incident, where she stood up a full Shopify store, managed affiliate marketing, and launched a Black Friday campaign in exactly four days. All while learning how to opera...
Hobbies: The Unpaid Secondary Careers
<p>In this episode, Nate and Di confess to the “Pro-Grade Trap.” Why do Type A people buy the $600 version of something before they’ve even finished the tutorial?</p> <p>The Highlights:</p> The $600 Racing Wheel: Nate’s “closet of shame” and why he won’t let guests see his pro-shifter. The Yarn Basket of Broken Dreams: Di’s unfinished “knitting in the round” projects and the Etsy shop that almost was. The Sourdough Sentient Roommate: Why Nate let his starter die (and why he’s actually okay with it). The Tire Changer Math: How Nate changed 14 sets of tires for friends just...
Interview with the "Clown Shoe" COO
<p>From Cleaning Rental Shoes to Chief Operating Officer 👠📦</p> <p>We sit down with Amanda, the COO of our day job, a mother of five (including one-year-old twins), and the woman who can move 10,000 boxes while managing a “stroller blowout.”</p> <p>The Highlights:</p> The Tuxedo Trauma: The specific item found in a rental pant leg that made Amanda vow to own the company one day. The Imposter Syndrome Sprint: How she led Product Development without a design degree by “optimizing the process” instead of the art. Warehouse vs. Toddlers: Why getting five kids into a car is officially har...
Agentic Hype, Bathroom Pitches, and a Ghost from the Fjord: eTail 2026 Recap
<p>We are officially back from eTail Palm Springs, and while the “polite panic” of the show has subsided, our to-do lists are at peak capacity. In this episode, we audit the Agentic AI hype, recount the most unhinged sales pitch in conference history, and reveal the technical ghost that nearly caught us on the hook before we even left for the airport.</p> The Lars LLM: How a “Salmon Fisher and Efficiency Enthusiast” from Norway used our own “Type A” language to bypass our triage—only to turn out to be a ghost in the machine. The Bingo Audit: Nate officiall...
eTail 2026: The Bingo Board, The Packing Rituals, and The "Polite Panic"
<p>The sun is finally out in Minnesota, but Nate and Di are trading 50-degree weather for the palm trees of eTail Palm Springs. In this “Pre-Game” episode, we break down the high-stakes logistics of surviving one of the biggest retail conferences of the year without letting our daily operations—or our minds—implode.</p> <p>In this episode, we cover:</p> <p>The Out-of-Office Triage: How Nate protects his ad spend and Di preps her team to “divide and conquer” so the “polite panic” doesn’t turn into a real crisis.</p> <p>Bingo Board Live Build: We’re building our high-st...
Why Your Resolutions Fail by January 15th (And How to Upgrade the System Instead)
<p>The January 15th slump is real. While the rest of the world is mourning their broken resolutions, Nate and Di are busy re-engineering the friction out of their lives. In this episode, we’re moving past the “all-or-nothing” trap of New Year’s goals and focusing on System Upgrades.</p> <p>We dive into how to stop beating yourself up for failing a binary goal and start building “sanity-saving” workflows for your real life.</p> <p>In this episode, we discuss:</p> The Hangout Spot: Why Nate spent his PTO building a privacy-forward social app just to remove the “Red Receipt An...
The Task List Apocalypse: That Time Marketing Got Sent to the Warehouse
<p>What happens when your perfectly curated task list meets a crisis it can’t triage? You get sent to the warehouse.</p> <p>In this episode, Nate (Performance) and Di (Creative) pull back the curtain on the “Task List Apocalypse” at their day job. They cover the whiplash of a “polite panic” season, the 90-degree demand spike that buried operations, and the unhinged moment they were flown out to pack boxes (and research poly-bag sealers).</p> <p>Tune in for a real-talk post-mortem on:</p> The Systems Break: The exact moment Nate resorted to voice-to-text and Di’s blended system crumb...
Scaling Yourself: The Art of Strategic Surrender
<p>You’re the visionary, the lead salesperson, the head of product… and the person who has to fix the printer. Every founder hits a wall where the business can’t grow because they can’t scale. For Type-A control enthusiasts, the idea of letting go is a personal nightmare.</p> <p>In this episode, Nate and Di tackle the hardest part of growth: the shift from being an Operator (in the trenches, pulling the levers) to an Orchestrator (on the podium, conducting the symphony).</p> <p>Tune in to learn:</p> <p>Nate’s data-driven framework for letting go with dashb...
Beyond the Demo: The Human Error in Your AI Rollout
<p>You invested a small fortune in a shiny new AI platform, sent out the logins, and were met with… the sound of crickets. It’s a story playing out in offices everywhere, and the problem isn’t the technology. It’s the human connection.</p> <p>Teams don’t resist change; they resist ambiguity. In this episode, Nate and Di break down why even the best tech fails and give you the Type A: Unhinged playbook for rolling out AI without inciting a full-scale mutiny.</p> <p>Stop demoing features and start demoing outcomes. This is your guide to connecting...
