Healthcare Innovation & Growth with Brian Anderson, CEO of Augusto

How do AI, automation, and digital consulting help healthcare organizations scale and innovate?

In this episode of Curve Ahead, host Brian Wiles chats with Brian Anderson, CEO of Augusto, about:

✅ AI’s role in healthcare & marketing analytics
✅ The inbound flywheel & its impact on business growth
✅ Scaling a business while maintaining strong leadership & culture
✅ How AI & data-driven insights refine business strategies

🎧 Tune in for expert insights on leveraging AI, automation, and digital transformation!

Transcript

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Welcome back to Curve Ahead, the podcast where we uncover strategies and insights from industry leaders. Today I'm joined by Brian Anderson, the CEO and co founder of Augusto, a digital consultancy firm specializing in healthcare innovation and growth strategies. In this episode, we cover the power of the inbound flywheel. Augusto helps healthcare clients scale through digital transformation. The role of AI in data insights and marketing. How businesses can use AI driven analytics to refine their strategies and maximize impact. One key takeaway if you're looking to leverage AI automation and growth marketing to accelerate your business. This conversation is packed with actionable insights you won't want to miss. Let's jump in. Hey, Brian, welcome to the podcast. Do you mind introducing yourself? Hey, Brian. Thanks. Yep. My name is Brian Anderson. I'm the CEO and co founder of Augusto and I live here in Grand Rapids, Michigan. What inspired you to start Augusto? I was an employee for, I think, 17 years of my life. I would see problems that I wanted to fix and I couldn't fix them within the structures. I realized at that stage that it was time for me to be an entrepreneur. I had a lot of ideas, a lot of vision around what I wanted to do and kind of what I wanted to do differently and what I wanted to take, what I learned through that journey. And so I wanted to build a company that embodied those thoughts and embodied like kind of the idea around abundance and building a great culture to work within. So that's really some of the early inspiration. And I knew a lot about digital and tech and software and design and consulting. And so I kind of worked on putting those elements together into Augusto. And I'm a big believer investing in myself. Invest in everybody. I would tell invest in yourself. Warren Buffett, I think says that often is like the best investment you can make is in yourself. You know, I got, like you said, like you went to school well, you know, you could justify that one way or another. It's expensive. But like, I would think in hindsight, you know, you learned a ton and you invested in yourself and you're still reaping those benefits, you know, over time. So there's never anything wrong with investing in yourself, no matter what it is. I think that there's. There are cheaper ways to do it, right? You spend a lot of time learning if you're reading a lot. So this is kind of, this continued learning for me is having conversations with other founders and CEOs and just kind of understanding what inspired them to be where they are, where they stumbled along the way, and then hopefully, like, I can Keep some of those life lessons in the back of my head as I move through my organization and have that grow that I'm like, oh yeah, I remember talking to someone and they saw this thing and then they fell into this ditch. So let's try to avoid that and move past it. Yeah, you're so right, like 100%. And, and I think, yeah, your previous point is like, there is nothing like just doing it. You can read it and study it and go to school about it, but until you actually do it and deal with the ups and the downs and the struggles of it and the learning and the growth from it, like it's, it's all theory. And so, yeah, and then when you get into that journey, it's definitely about people, you know, I mean, there's a mission and you want to get people around you that can help you in different ways. Let's talk about that. Like, let's talk about the people who are the critical people in your mind that you need should surround yourself with early on in the development of an organization. Like, who are the key people that you should seek out? That I should seek out early on in my organization growth? That's a great question. I think there's layers of that, right? So in the very early stages, I think that it's really important to have partners. I also think it's really good to get in tune with who you are as a person. I remember going through a phase where I was taking as many personality tests as I could because I didn't completely understand what my strengths and weaknesses were. And getting to the point where you actually have a pretty good clarity around what are your strengths and understanding that you don't have to be great at all of your weaknesses. You really just should be really great at your strengths and then improve your weaknesses. But they don't have to get as much attention as improving your strengths, you know, because those will create a lot more flow for you. And so it's like kind of that whole idea of like getting in tune with yourself. Know what your strengths are and then find partners that actually have opposite strengths, you know, or complimentary strengths to what your strengths are and figure out how to synergize with them, how to like create win scenarios where if you work together and you grow together that you're both going to benefit or you're all three or four. However, your many partners you need. But like start there because you know you can really. That's the core of what I've done in everything that's how I'm able to work across multiple businesses is because I build up partners, and then from that extends teams. And, you know, I would consider, you know, a fair amount of my team members partners, although maybe they're not, you know, equity owners in the business, but, like, they're definitely partners. And I want to build people that, like, we're building incentivization programs and we're, like, trying to win together, work on problems together. That and again, complimenting what my strengths are and finding other people that have strengths in other places or can take. Take things away, delegate. I can delegate to them, and I can trust them and know that they're going to play their role and I'm going to play my role and it's going to multiply each other. Right. So partners and teams have been huge in my life to be able to scale anything that I'm doing. Business is about relationships, whether it's inside of the business or outside of the business. If you're seeking a customer or client, it starts with forming a relationship with those people and establishing trust. And that takes time and takes communication. Right. So it's a process. And understanding your strengths, I think really helps be able to develop those relationships with others around you a little bit better, because then, you know, what you can lean on yourself for, but also what isn't your core competency and that you're going to need help with. Yes, I agree. And, you know, like, I. I kind of came to the realization that I was a visionary person and I'm a creator kind of personality. So, like, you. You don't want me to be the person that's, you know, dealing with all the details and all the operational details or financial details. Like, you will get. You'll get good, but you won't get great, you know, and so I want to make sure that, like, I put people into those roles that, like, that's their passion, that's what they're great at, and that, like, we definitely could build trust. Everything is built on trust. Like, we have a at Augusto, we actually developed this equation that we. We talk about all the time. It's called the growth equation. And it's growth equals value times trust. And we believe on that internally. And we also preach that around how we consult with our clients is growth equals value times trust. So it's like add value and build trust, and they will multiply in each other, and that's what's going to create growth. That's our. That's our theory. So Far in a decade that's been ringing true repeatedly. I'm going to definitely steal that one. I think that another thing around, like, building teams and delegating and elevating is like, you know, organizing those teams, right? Like, focusing, like, if you don't. The most powerful thing I think we can do is organize and focus. Like, once we get the right people on the bus, like, we gotta focus and organize. And so for us, we implemented eos, the entrepreneurial operating system, over five years ago now, and we run that across multiple businesses. And it's just been absolutely huge for us because it gets people into the right cadence. It gets us focused on, like, goals and rocks and tasks and working together as a team and these, like, L10 meetings. And it just gives us the tools that we don't have to invent. Earlier in my entrepreneurial journey, as I was going through a lot of this learning, like, were inventing all these things that we had learned from other companies and being part of those other companies and trying to piece together how do we run a business. You know, I think you could shortcut a lot of that if you just start with an operating system like eos. We learned that along the way. And then, and then it really helps accelerate everything that you're doing if you get disciplined into running those processes with your teams. You've mentioned a couple of times now being involved with multiple organizations. How do you balance your time across everything and make sure that nothing is being dropped? Well, I think that, again, it comes down to decisions around focus. And I have been guilty of losing my focus because I'm focused on too much. And I think another area around people to go back to would be advisors. I invested in myself by joining the Jander Noah entrepreneurial mentorship program, which was kind of challenging to get into in West Michigan. And they pair you with mentors. And so I had a mentor. Joan Budden, the former CEO of Priority Health, was my mentor for three years. And that's probably the number one thing she worked on with me, is learning how to focus and, like, getting all that energy to focus. Tell me more about what it is that you guys do. Well, Augusto is a digital consulting company that's focused on healthcare. And so, like, it's easier for me to explain Augusto in terms of our flywheel of what we do. I, I, if I could share, is it possible for me to share in here? I could just show you one slide, and I think you kind of understand kind of how Augusto works. I think that there's A. I, I don't know if you see it on your side. I, I do have a share button, but I don't know if I. It's only for me. If it's for you too, I'll share this. I can share a presentation here. I think I can just share my screen. This, this flywheel is a good way of understanding what Augusto does because we're a consulting company. We do consulting and solutions for mostly health care focused clients these days. And we developed this Flywheel concept off of our strategy and off of learning about it through HubSpot. Right. So there's this idea of the inbound flywheel, and the idea of the inbound flywheel is really a growth strategy around attracting, engaging and delighting customers. And so we started to adopt like, what we do around this concept of the flywheel because. And what, and what we offer to clients through the flywheel. So like, when we work with clients, we get really focused on like, what are they actually trying to do, like, what are they dreaming about, what is the big goal they're trying to accomplish. And a lot of times, you know, that is rooted in growth. So if you work your way out from the center, that's growth. They want to grow their business or their product. And we've got a four step process called the acceleration process where we get immersed with them and we help them strategize. We do these rumble workshops. They're very specific processes around how we bring people together across silos inside of organizations. And then we help to kind of move projects forward that are of like the digital nature. People are usually trying to improve their digital experiences with their customers and attract more customers and delight them along the way. And so that leads us into mapping of what it is and like what a roadmap looks like of what's next. And then that leads us into augmenting their teams. So we end up partnering with them on different projects and initiatives across these different disciplines. And so Augusto, over time has built up expertise around these areas and we have leaders that are focused on each one of these things that we call them our service lines, but we also call them our bearings. So like, the bearings are intended to reduce the friction to spin those outer flywheel rigs. So when we work at Augusto, like we're doing, you know, a lot of experience design or a lot of software engineering, or we'll be working with clients on a product strategy, we'll be helping them with project management because sometimes they don't have Enough of that across, especially across different silos. We'll do support maintenance. We're doing data insights and dashboarding. We're early into AI work, definitely around custom GPTs. How do we leverage that? How do we leverage that in growth marketing? How do we work on growing businesses and the digital footprint of their business? How do we get them also working at a digital pace? Those are the kinds of consulting problems that we work on every day. I love that, I love that you call your disciplinary areas of discipline your bearings. Because now that you mention it, and I'm sure you get. Guys did this intentionally. Like, in my mind, all I see now is a skateboard wheel. Like, and I love it. I think it's the coolest thing. Yeah, yeah. It took us about like eight years to get to the point where it was this articulated, you know, but over time we grew. Right. I mean, we started with software engineering and project management and then, you know, we worked on adding experience design and that's rapidly grown and product strategies outgrown from that and kind of it was blended in. So it just, it's like all these areas, if you work on these digital businesses, if you work on SaaS or if you work with companies that are trying to do a digital experience, you quickly realize that, like, all of these things are necessary. If you don't have them, then you're going to find points of friction. And so we want to work with our clients to help align their teams so that we're focused and that we can reduce friction in their systems and in their processes. And that ultimately leads to, like, you know, in healthcare, it's like better patient experiences, better outcomes, and, you know, using digital to streamline things that used to have to only be done in person. So the other thing that comes to mind looking at this is just kind of your initial three layers, your inner layers. It reminds me of the Simon Sinek start with why. So seeing the dream at the middle, it kind of reminds me of like his diagram that's quite similar of why in the middle. Do you ever, as part of like your rumbles or like your process, do you ever kind of have your clients articulate the why to put that, have that help formulate the dream? Yeah, absolutely. Yep, yep. And, and you're right, were highly influenced by Simon Sinek. You know, like, we've watched his videos and read books and stuff. And yeah, like, that's part of the inspiration of this flywheel is like, we could focus on the why and we could put the why at the center. And then when we work with our clients and we're, you know, going through our acceleration process and we're rumbling with them and their teams, like, we want them to get clear on their why. And, you know, sometimes they aren't, you know, and we consult with them to get them very close to it. And then, you know, it definitely gives us. Gives us something to orbit around or spin around, however, whatever analogy we want to use here. So you had mentioned kind of like the two newest additions. You said, Data Insights and AI and growth marketing. How have those come into play recently. For you guys, the data Insights and the AI? We're actually kind of having a debate right now about splitting AI out into a separate bearing because it is unique. But we're helping clients with custom GPTs take advantage of technologies that are integrated with AI, like conversational chat agents, chatbots, like we did one of those for Boston Children's Hospital. And then they're constantly evolving. And then as you look at, like, you know, because there's kind of like the integration of that AI into these different solutions, but there's also, once you start building these custom GPTs, you can start to think about, how do we leverage the content that it can produce and how can we leverage that in growth marketing? And how can we, you know, run campaigns and streamline the process of the development and the execution of these campaigns with AI? Then you start thinking about things like AI agents, and you start to think like, oh, we can start to automate more of that stuff. We can start to have these agents that are thinking and doing research or doing sales or doing different kinds of, you know, content strategy work. And. And it just opens up so many more opportunities around thinking around growth marketing. And that would be like me describing coming from AI into growth marketing. But traditionally, we're also working with clients on content strategy and working on SEO and working on the consolidation of thousands of pages of website content. When a health system does a large merger, how do we get. How do we get the right content merged in. How do we help build, you know, into that, whatever the new brand is or the consolidated brand? So there's a lot of work going around Content in growth marketing. It's just a big. Yeah, it's a big. Yeah. I mean, for. For me, in my business, in my mind, right, like, the content is always part of the upper funnel, right? Outreach, whether that be warm or cold, like that. That's upper funnel. And then content is also that because it helps build brand awareness or you Know, gives people additional insights into what it is that you do or how you're accomplishing something. So, like, content has to be and should be key pillars of most brands when they're talking about anything in their. In their business. Exactly. And then, and then as you start to think about how content is integrated into your digital experience and your website, you know, that's usually leading you into a funnel, right? It's leading you to, like, you know, getting educated. You're working through the buyer's journey, you know, and you're trying to get to the point where you want them to convert and you want them to, like, do something on your website that leads to a conversion that leads to you doing business, making more revenue with, you know, more customers, 100% and your existing customers and driving the LTV of your existing customers and, you know, making that a delightful experience where they become promoters of your business. And that kind of goes back to the data insights and analytics, or data insights and AI. You can use AI and data insights to refine that process or see where things are getting stuck or, you know, just evaluate kind of that the whole pipeline approach that you are trying to create from this growth marketing and your content creation. Absolutely, absolutely. Like, a lot of times it's interesting because there's these different disciplines and so, like, you know, people will get all excited about running campaigns and, you know, building all this content stuff, but it's like, did it actually work? You know, are there ways to test that earlier to see if it was going to work before we invested $100,000 into it? You know, and so, like, getting to the point where you have people who, like, know how to collect the data, organize the data, report on the data, build the dashboards, build the weekly emails that are coming at you know, those things become extremely valuable and help guide you to make the right decisions around what you do in growth marketing and product strategy work? Yep, 100%. This is, this is awesome. I think that this is something. Another thing that I might kind of steal and modify for my own practices. Well, good luck. It's, you know, I, I think it is meaningful and I think that, like, you know, obviously we want to continue to differentiate, and it takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of depth. You know, you got to build a team. No one person is capable of all this stuff, you know, and you need people who really care about these areas that want to go deep into them and want to work together with each other and want to help clients and want to. And clients you know, want to, you know, listen to you and take your advice and actually like, you know, help. Help you be successful with them as well as you help them be successful with their growth strategies. So let's talk about your original core competencies and how they've kind of evolved over the last 10 years as you've realized these additional areas needed to be added. So you had mentioned that software engineering, project management, or your initial core competence competencies, how have those roles and positions in your organization evolved over the last 10 years to support all this additional work that's coming in? Well, I mean, if you just think about like the journey of an entrepreneur, right, you're an entrepreneur, and in the beginning it's kind of a hypothesis, right? It's kind of like you have a feeling and you kind of have, like, desire and you have will at the moment to like, make your vision come alive. And so like, the beginning is like, you know, we're starting small. I mentioned software engineering was like where my partner's core competencies were with me. And I, you know, I had sales and vision and I knew experienced designers, I knew project managers and stuff, but we wanted to go out and help clients build apps or, you know, systems. And we had a, we have depth there because we had a lot of experience. But, you know, like, that was a hypothesis and were able to win a few clients that let us, you know, work with them in those areas. Software engineering, probably the primary one to start with. And we recognized, like, how important experience design was to software engineering, especially in this digital space where you're creating experiences for people. We realized how important project management was. So we started to, like, grow our competency. We started to attract people that wanted to work on these problems. And, and we had, and were selling deals, so we had opportunities. So, you know, we experimented with those areas and we would develop talent through contracting or through hiring and then, and some people would work and some people wouldn't work. And so we just, we would like, make decisions around, you know, based on the success of the growth of that area of the business, how much we would invest in it, and eventually get to the point where we could establish, like, leaders who are employees of our company that really own that area of the business and that, you know, they are incentivized and they are driven to grow that part of the business with us. And then, you know, that enables us then to grow again, like, you know, product strategy kind of emerging out of that work and then growth marketing emerging. And so like, we will be open to those opportunities, and we'll experiment with the delivery of those services until we gained enough of the right people on our team that have the depth and competency to become the leaders of those areas. And then we really focus on organizing. You know, we focus on using EOs and getting people into a rhythm of. Of growth. You know, we're. We're executing this flywheel for ourselves, in a sense. Right? Like, we have the same strategy. Our dream is to grow Augusto. You know, Love this. Love this. So, Brian, it's been a great conversation so far. Thank you for putting up with all of my questions. But were coming to the end of our podcast episode, so this is where I give you 90 seconds to plug anything that you are passionate about that could be Augusto. It could be another organization, it could be a charity. So without further ado, the next 90 seconds are yours. Well, thanks, Zeke. I, you know, I'm. I'm really excited about the team at Augusto and the work that we get to do with clients. I'm really excited about some of our clients and some of their foundations. You know, Boston Children's Hospital has been a terrific client. We really enjoy working with them and helping them grow. And I, I definitely plug their foundation that the Boston Children's Trust is doing, like, miracles for people, and they always can use, you know, support and donations. And so I definitely would plug them. I would do the same for Corwell. Corwell is the largest employer in Michigan. They're going through a huge merger with a few health systems, and. And they're. They're really making a difference in people's lives. And. And their digital experience is getting, like, better and better every day, and we're helping them with that. And. And their foundation is doing amazing things as well. They got a gala coming up in the spring in West Michigan, so it's like, we're going to be there and. And I definitely encourage others to support them as well. So, definitely passionate about our healthcare clients and their foundations and want to see, you know, want to plug them as well. I'm really excited also, like, that, you know, my team continues to evolve, our marketing and sales team. And so, like, we just published a Boston Children's Hospital case study that they. We worked with them on and got approvals. And, you know, that's actually a process. And so that's, like, starting to come out on LinkedIn. And then also we published a white paper this year because we've been working with, you know, these health care clients. Health systems, Health tech entrepreneurs, investors, health information exchanges. We've learned a lot about health care over the last, you know, decade here, and we published a white paper. We put a lot of effort and time into putting a white paper out there. So I'd encourage you to, if you want to learn more about what we're doing and what our opinions are around the healthcare industry and what we're seeing, definitely download that white paper on our website and, you know, reach out. If we can be of help. We would, we'd love to help. Awesome. Thanks again, Brian. Thank you, Brian.