Ep148 Josh Brammer, Founder of Lantern: Don't Feed the Growth Monster – Or It'll Devour Your Dreams

Default Profitable

In this episode of Default Profitable, host Matt Nettleton chats with Josh Brammer, a seasoned marketing veteran turned business coach, about the gritty realities of starting, running, and scaling creative businesses. Drawing from his experience managing four agencies, selling one, and now guiding solopreneurs through Lantern, Josh shares candid insights on entrepreneurial pitfalls, the importance of clarity over vague ideas, and why focus trumps endless growth. Topics range from pivoting after an agency exit amid AI disruptions to translating skills like video editing and youth pastoring into business empathy, all while emphasizing profitable problem-solving over ego-driven ventures.

Have you ever wondered if your "brilliant" business idea is really just an entrepreneurial seizure waiting to flop? What does it take to pivot from agency life to coaching without accidentally restarting a consulting grind? And what kind of founder realizes that feeding the growth monster with random projects leads to a bloated, insatiable beast? Josh unpacks these with humor, revealing how his youth pastor days taught him to sell tough concepts—like a Jewish carpenter to skeptical seventh graders—better than any sales pitch.

Learn more about Josh Brammer and Lantern at https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrammer.

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