What happens when the coffee runs out, and everything else goes sideways too?
Kris and John are back with a new episode format built around three segments: what's been hard, what's been inspiring, and what's been shipping. No highlight reels. Just the real stuff.

🔥 Into the Fire - What's Been Hard
Momentum was built around great amenities. Draft lattes. Cold brew on tap. Pour-over. The works. So when the RO water system ran dry and the kegs went empty first thing in the morning, chaos ensued. Kris breaks down their own version of "Watergate" — and what it revealed about turning a customer frustration moment into surprise and delight.
John gets honest too: the constant tension between deep builder mode and staying on top of customer support is real. Plus — why good AI support bots are genuinely useful, and why bad ones make you want to throw your laptop.

📖 Fan the Flames - Recommendations Worth Your Time
John just finished Alex Hormozi's $100M Money Models and one subtle pricing reframe completely changed how he thinks about annual plans. Instead of offering a discount, give bonus months. Small shift, big psychological difference.
Kris connects it to membership sales at Momentum and brings in Ryan Serhant's obsessive follow-up philosophy: people who don't respond aren't always uninterested. A three-month-cold lead just booked a tour.
Kris's tool pick: Jesse Itzler's wall calendar for mapping out an entire year intentionally, personally and professionally. They used it to plan 75 events without losing their minds.

✨ Embers - Small Wins & Things Shipping
John shipped Ember, a brand new embeddable podcast player for Fireside, and then turned a single customer feature request into a working playlist player in under an hour. The customer's response? "This is unreal."
The lesson: getting something good to production fast beats waiting for perfect. AI-assisted development has changed what's possible for small teams, and John's sticky note says it all "What has to be true for it to take half the time?"
Chris closes with some news: he's been named Outstanding Young Business Leader of the Year by the South Bend Regional Chamber, and yes, he announced it at Christmas dinner to very confused nieces.

Standing in the Fire is about what it actually feels like to own and grow SaaS products. Hosted by John and Kris, owners of Fireside.fm. New episodes dropping consistently, sometimes.
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In this episode, Kris and John dig into what's been hard and stretching lately — from December's packed schedules to leveling up the Box Out conference booth, hiring challenges at the print shop, and keeping Momentum's big vision alive through the day-to-day grind.

John shares his obsession with Claude Supermax and how switching to Opus-level AI coding has unlocked a "Neo in the Matrix" moment — pushing Speaker Deck links, Flipper Expressions, Box Out page views, and Fireside episode duplication all forward in a single week.

Kris recommends Opus (the video tool) for turning landscape podcast footage into vertical social clips.

They wrap up with goals for the new year: John wants to 2-4X his output, while Kris is focused on filling Momentum, growing strategically, and finding better work-life integration.

In this episode of Standing in the Fire, John and Kris return after a summer break and settle into the new Fireside studio inside the Momentum Entrepreneurship Hub—an ambitious space they helped bring to life in South Bend. With Garrett remote in Colorado, the two hosts talk about why recording in-person felt like the right move for now, how the summer unfolded, and what it took to get the hub open, from construction chaos to a packed ribbon-cutting.

They share stories about landing big-name visitors—including the co-founder of Hotwire and an early investor in Facebook and Slack—along with pitch nights, food in the fridge, and the surprisingly important role of community. The conversation drifts into reflections on their first year owning Fireside: the plans they thought they’d tackle, the reality of maintenance and customer needs, and the satisfaction of making publishing reliable and metrics faster again.

From T-shirt shipments across the world to planning the next iteration of the Fireside marketing site, John and Kris talk openly about learning to set more realistic goals, building foundations before flash, and the excitement of seeing long-term vision start to take shape.

They wrap by looking ahead—Black Friday plans, product improvements, onboarding upgrades, and maybe even hosting a creator gathering in South Bend. It’s casual, honest, funny, and a great reset episode before the momentum picks up again.