Jan 14, 2022 · 1h 8m · startup-ideas
The Power of Becoming a Feedback Magnet with Kat Cole | Where It Happens
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of Where It Happens, hosts Kyle and Greg Isenberg sit down with executive operator Kat Cole to explore actionable frameworks for scalable management, active listening, and continuous feedback. Together, they analyze how unbundling executive coaching and enterprise tools can empower modern founders, frontline managers, and creators.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Greg holds 19.1% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Greg as informed peer 4.9 Guest teaching 5.0 Guest disagreement 1.1 Greg pushing back 1.0
speaking balance: gold is Greg, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 37:54 Dismissing vague ego advice
Kat pushes back on the common platitude to 'remove ego' when dealing with feedback, calling it unhelpful counsel and immediately pivoting to her own structured mental model.
Hardest push from Greg ▶ 29:48 Challenging investor bias against human coachingKyle rejects the prevailing Silicon Valley VC mindset that insists coaching must be purely automated to scale, citing multi-billion dollar precedents like Spring Health and Lyra.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 40:20 Operationalizing the MMDD logKat educates the hosts on how to run a Made My Day Difficult log to continuously surface micro-frictions, detailing a 20-year proven management system.
Greg holds their own ▶ 58:45 Quebec marketing localization nuancesGreg showcases strong expertise on cultural advertising nuances by explaining why Quebec favors Pepsi over Coke and rebrands global chains like KFC into PFK.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Greg as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Greg pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Squid Game, Mr. Beast, and Creator-Driven Value | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Greg demonstrates strong domain fluency in Web3 and IP open-sourcing by explaining CC0 frameworks, Cryptoads, and the remora-shark symbiotic metaphor. Kyle responds cooperatively while building on the analogy. | |
| Startup Framework: Unbundling Enterprise Tools for Creators | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | The hosts brainstorm unbundling enterprise software for creators and small businesses. Greg conceptualizes a 'Hootsuite for IP' and references internal tooling practices at Facebook and Stripe. | |
| Freemium Growth & Disruption Opportunities in Analytics and Logistics | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Greg cites his personal portfolio investment in VidIQ to explain freemium growth strategies in creator tech, while Kyle outlines opportunities in Twitter analytics and dispatch logistics. | |
| Introducing Kat Cole and Framing Management Coaching | 4 | 6 | 1 | 1 | Kat Cole is introduced and unpacks the platform mechanics of Marlo, breaking down how digitizing non-unique feedback loops allows executive coaching to scale down to middle managers. | |
| Coaching Business Models: Infrastructure, B2B Expansion, and Therapy Overlap | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Kat outlines the subtle tension between managerial coaching and personal therapy. Kyle and Greg contribute their venture perspectives on coaching infrastructure vs B2B enterprise models. | |
| Merging Personal Roots with Professional Performance Coaching | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Greg shares his firsthand experience selling his startup Islands to WeWork, noting that most coaching uncovers personal psychological drivers rather than purely tactical business issues, which Kat strongly validates. | |
| The Macro Impact of Workplace Coaching and Talent Retention | 3 | 7 | 1 | 1 | Kat explains the macro corporate talent landscape, arguing that internal talent retention and promotion through coaching directly solves the biggest labor challenges facing executive boards. | |
| Becoming a Feedback Magnet: Signal vs. Noise and Eavesdropping for Intel | 4 | 8 | 1 | 1 | Kat shares her foundational leadership method of hiding in restroom stalls to gather raw signal and intel from employees. She lays out her core 'ask, answer, act' principle. | |
| Overcoming Sensitivity: Redefining Failure and the MMDD Log | 5 | 8 | 2 | 1 | Greg asks how to overcome sensitivity to criticism. Kat dismisses abstract advice about 'removing ego' as unhelpful and delivers her concrete reframe of FAIL ('First Attempt In Learning') alongside the practical MMDD ('Made My Day Difficult') log. | |
| Productizing Continuous Feedback: The 'Feedback Magnet' Concept | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Greg and Kyle brainstorm startup ideas to productize Kat's feedback systems into an automated Slack bot called 'FeedMag,' while Kat endorses the concept based on decades of operational use. | |
| Cultivating Feedback Culture and Actionable Performance Tracking | 4 | 7 | 1 | 1 | Kat cautions that software tools fail without an accompanying cultural alignment and leadership maturity to process candid inputs without defensiveness. | |
| Kat Cole's Monthly 30-Day Check-in Framework for Relationships and Business | 3 | 8 | 1 | 1 | Kat breaks down the exact recurring 6-question framework she and her husband use for monthly 30-day check-ins, explaining how it cross-applies to executive management and relationship tracking. | |
| Building Authentic Trust: The Egypt Call to Prayer Experience | 3 | 7 | 1 | 1 | Kat recounts her experience in Egypt connecting with local franchise partners over the Adan (Call to Prayer), demonstrating how embracing 'narrative violations' builds authentic cross-cultural trust. | |
| Cultural Localization and Listening Leadership: Lessons from Quebec | 7 | 6 | 1 | 1 | Greg brings up deep local knowledge of Quebec's marketing dynamics (Coke vs Pepsi and PFK), prompting Kat to share her operational failure and turnaround while opening the first Hooters in Gatineau. | |
| Interview Outro with Kat Cole | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | After thanking Kat, Greg and Kyle summarize their key takeaways on tactical coaching adoption, setting self-investment budgets, and actionable startup frameworks. |
Statements from this episode (16)
Unguarded intellectual property will win the future of Hollywood productions
“And I think that's kind of the same aha moment I'm having with a lot of, like, Hollywood productions where you're either, like, Very guarded or unguarded, and the ones that are going to win are going to be unguarded.”
Big tech's internal software is a goldmine for B2B startup ideas
“Maybe that's the case for, like, going to work at one of these big companies, is like, you're getting a first hand look at the potentially greatest internal software, and then you can just use that and bring it to different verticals.”
Isenberg: The best way to win a market is launching freemium first
“Obviously the best way to, like, win a market is just to, like, give it away for free, and then as you're learning about it, Then you just add paid products, monthly subscription”
Target big businesses with unoptimized mobile websites to find startup ideas
“Find mobily unoptimized websites in, like, for big businesses, and, like, if you're looking for a business idea, like, go compete with them, right? Totally. And just make it, like, digitally native, mobile first.”
Cole: Managers need confidential human reflection to process feedback data
“There is still an element of confidential reflection that's needed for a manager to process what they're seeing, even if you give them really great data.”
Greg Isenberg: 70% of my founder coaching was just personal psychology
“I had a coach for a few years, and that coach, like, helped me basically sell
My last company Islands to WeWork, like just through the whole process, and I would say like,
30% of the stuff we worked on was literally business, like, tactical, professional stuf…”
Kat Cole: You cannot AI your way out of mommy issues
“You know, something that a Marlowe or any of these companies that are breaking it down into its parts and getting feedback, at some point it requires a human touch, like a one-on-one.
You can't AI your way to like your issues with your mom.”
Kat Cole: Pairing Human Coaching with Data Is the Right Approach Long-Term
“That's what's interesting about
Marlowe are platforms like it where they're pairing together the human coaching element with the data-driven feedback, the process orientation, and that is scaring away some companies and it's scaring away some investors, but I …”
Cole: Providing coaching at all levels boosts internal promotions and retention
“Getting people coaches at all levels increases the likelihood that some of your talent moves up from within, and you don't have to go find it externally. And then the retention is higher, and the cultural knowledge is higher, and they're all, it shouldn't be e…”
Kat Cole hid in Hooters bathroom stalls to eavesdrop on candid feedback
“When I worked for Hooters and I was running the training department, so I was a, I don't know, a twenty-four-year-old director of training. For the corporate office, and when I would lead these workshops for managers and for franchisees, whenever we would go o…”
Kat Cole uses 'Made My Day Difficult' logs across all her companies
“I have used A literal version of the MMDD log for 20 years in business. It's now a Slack channel in all the companies I run and advise or an email if the culture isn't comfortable with an open Slack channel.”
Employee feedback frequency should scale directly with the rate of organizational change
“The less change, the less often you need to ask. The more change, the more often you need to ask. So if there's a lot of shit going on, it's a made my day difficult every day, and every day there's change. If it's, you know, a little more spread out, you can d…”
Kat Cole: Feedback tools require cultural alignment and manager ego removal to work
“If you put in this feedback bot magnet, some MMDD log, Made My Day Difficult log, there must be an accompanying alignment around anyone who is in charge of receiving and acting on the feedback around the attitude, the culture, the removal of ego to the extent …”
Kat Cole's six-question monthly check-in framework for business and marriage
“We scheduled a monthly check-in. We asked the same questions every month. What's been the best part of the last 30 days? What's been the worst part of the last 30 days? Tell me one thing I can do differently to be a better partner for you. And that is either a…”
Kat Cole: The Gulf is Cinnabon's largest market outside the US
“The Gulf is the largest market outside the U.S. For Cinnabon.”
Opening Hooters in Quebec was Kat Cole's toughest international market launch
“It was the toughest time in building trust and relationships I had in any country, anywhere in the world, out of 80 countries, because of this, one, it was a pattern of American brands entering the space without the respect and partnership, so there was just t…”