EdSales Edge Show
EdSales Edge is the strategy podcast for education founders, consultants, operators, and leaders selling into education.
For years, this show was known as Breaking the Grade, a space to challenge the status quo in education and think differently about how change actually happens. That mission hasn’t changed.
But the work has.
Over time, one thing became clear:
Education founders don’t just need inspiration.
They need clarity.
They need real strategies for selling into schools.
They need predictable ways to generate leads.
And they need to understand how trust is built in a system that doesn’t move fast, and doesn’t give many second chances.
EdSales Edge was rebuilt to match that reality.
Hosted by Josh Chernikoff, a two-time education founder who’s built and exited companies in this space, the show breaks down how selling into education actually works—across B2C, B2B, B2B2C, and B2E—always through the lens of how education institutions really make decisions.
This is not a show about hacks, shortcuts, or quick wins.
Education doesn’t work that way.
On EdSales Edge, you’ll hear:
- Real strategy for selling into education systems
- Conversations with education decision-makers who explain how buying actually happens from the inside
- Stories from founders, CEOs, and operators who’ve built real traction selling into schools—what worked, what didn’t, and what actually moved deals forward
- Teachings from the EdSales Elevation Experience, the system used to help education founders move from unclear and invisible to trusted and in demand
You’ll learn how to:
- Define your Perfect Client
- Pull the right credibility lever
- Move from being hidden… to trusted… to building a real lead engine
Josh is joined by his good friend and mentor, John Gamba—Director of Innovative Programs and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Penn GSE, and a former education founder who’s led companies through real growth and successful exits. John brings the institutional lens, shaped by years inside districts, universities, and education systems, seeing how decisions get made when the doors are closed and what earns trust over time.
Together, they sit on both sides of the table, the builder side and the system side, so the show stays grounded in reality, not sales theory.
If you sell into education and you’re tired of guessing,
guessing who to talk to,
guessing how decisions get made,
guessing why interest doesn’t convert—
this show is built for you.
EdSales Edge
Clarity. Credibility. Real traction.
If you sell into education, this is where you earn your edge.
EdSales Edge Show
Brian Zapf: On Loving Numbers, People and Telling A Financial Story That Soars
Brian Zapf has always been good at math. And the strategic CFO has taken those number skills from his start at a community bank to investment banking, to M+A advising, and his strategic CFO business today.
But – it wasn’t until an accounting course at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University that Zapf fully grasped how financial statements for a business tell an important story that any business owner needs to know.
By listening to our show today about this math man who has created over $1 billion in value for his 100-plus clients over his career, you’ll learn about:
- How Zapf went from an Econ/Poli Sci major at the University of Michigan to work at a bakery to starting his current company Flight Financial;
- How working for multiple companies across multiple industries has led Zapf to become a seasoned strategic accounting advisor to his clients in the education space;
- And what Zapf learned from failing his first accounting class in college and a failed partnership with his best buddies.
Breakers band together as we talk to a man who is right on the money with his knowledge and caring personality – Brian Zapf.
