September 23, 2025 • 31 mins
If you’re scaling your digital agency past seven figures, you already know how costly bottlenecks can be. Old leads sit untouched, team handoffs slow progress, and valuable time disappears qualifying prospects who will never buy.
That’s why I sat down with Bryce DeCora, co-founder and CEO of Closebot, to explore how AI for agencies is transforming sales and client acquisition. Bryce brings his background in AI, engineering, and sales to show how agencies are reactivating databases, qualifying leads automatically, and creating six-figure revenue surges without overworking their team.
In this episode, you’ll hear how one roofer generated $150,000 in two days, why clarity in leadership accelerates team performance, and how adopting AI now positions your agency ahead of competitors who are still waiting on the sidelines.
Listen in and discover the systems and mindset shifts that free you from bottlenecks and create more space to scale with intention.
Books Mentioned
- The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
You can connect with Bryce on LinkedIn for business and AI thought leadership, or follow his research on X.
Join Dr. William Attaway on the Catalytic Leadership podcast as he shares transformative insights to help high-performance entrepreneurs and agency owners achieve Clear-Minded Focus, Calm Control, and Confidence.
- Free 30-Minute Discovery Call:
Ready to elevate your business? Book a free 30-minute discovery call with Dr. William Attaway and start your journey to success.
- Special Offer:
Get your FREE copy of Catalytic Leadership: 12 Keys to Becoming an Intentional Leader Who Makes a Difference.
Connect with Dr. William Attaway:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. William Attaway (00:00):
It is an honor today to have Bryce Decora
on the podcast.
Bryce is the co-founder and CEOof CloseBot, where he gets to
use his background in AIengineering, sales and natural
language processing to shape thefuture of AI agents for sales.
Previously a software developerat Boeing working on new AI
(00:22):
projects, bryce's passion forlearning foreign language
eventually led him to creatingClosebot.
Bryce, I'm so glad you're here.
Thanks for being on the show.
Thank you, good to see you.
It's good to see you as well.
Bryce DeCora (00:39):
Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the
podcast designed to help leadersintentionally grow and thrive.
Here is your host author andleadership and executive coach,
dr William Attaway.
Dr. William Attaway (00:57):
I would love to start with you sharing a
little bit of your story withour listeners.
I hit a couple of the highpoints, but how has your journey
gone, particularly around yourjourney and your development as
a leader?
How'd you get started?
Intro (01:11):
Yeah, around being a leader.
It's been meandering, butreally started when we had our
first son.
Becoming a parent really forcesyou to become a leader.
Dr. William Attaway (01:26):
It changes your world, doesn't it?
Intro (01:28):
It really does.
I'm fortunate that it happenedwhen we were so young.
We weren't necessarily planningon having kids at that point,
but it really forced me to growup at a young age.
This was I was 24 at the time,so it's not like I was super
(01:48):
young, but I felt young.
So you know, having having ason, getting the first job I
could and just wanting toprovide for the family, that's
what sparked it.
Dr. William Attaway (01:59):
Wow, and this started at Boeing, or did
you start somewhere else?
Intro (02:06):
Yeah, I, we had our son straight out of college.
I had to take the first job Icould.
We grew up in South Dakota andNebraska and we really wanted to
stay around there, but theworld had other plans.
We ended up out in Washingtonstate, which we love now, but
(02:27):
that took us away from family.
We have no family in Washingtonstate.
It was just up to my wife and Inewborn new job at Boeing, um,
and that really put us out ofour comfort zone and that's
where I really started to growup and become more of a leader.
I found myself in a leadershipaccelerator program at Boeing,
(02:50):
so I learned a lot of leadershipskills there and even led some
projects while I was at Boeing.
Dr. William Attaway (02:59):
Nice.
Yeah, I can relate to kind ofbeing thrust into that
environment when you don't havefamily nearby.
We moved here to the suburbs ofWashington DC when our oldest,
our first child, was two weeksold, twelve hours away from the
closest family, no supportsystem, you know came here for a
(03:20):
job and that's a tough thingand it really does create that
bond where my wife and I had toreally lean into each other.
It sounds like you guys had todo the same thing.
Intro (03:30):
Yeah, we did Two weeks old as well, because we had to
wait until he was old enough tofly.
Dr. William Attaway (03:36):
I assumed it was the same thing, just
crazy.
And people were like you'redoing it now, you're moving now,
yeah, but you do what you gotto do, right you?
Intro (03:50):
experience so much, so much growth out of the hard
times.
Dr. William Attaway (03:54):
Yes, yes, so, so true, so you're.
So you're at Boeing, you're,you're leading some projects.
You're really getting your,your, your leadership chops
developed, sharpening that saw.
How'd you get from there to?
Intro (04:10):
starting your own business.
Well, I.
So I was a mechanicalengineering student first of all
, not computer science.
I realized I didn't likeleadership at Boeing.
It was just such a big company.
I didn't want to work my way upthe management ranks and just
get caught up in the bureaucracy.
And I also didn't likemechanical engineering.
So I was like, well, I justspent so much time and money on
(04:34):
mechanical engineering degree.
I don't like it.
I spent time in this leadershipthing.
I don't like the bigbureaucracy of this company.
I don't want to be inleadership.
But I started making more andmore friends in the computer
science department, specificallybecause I was learning foreign
language and trying to find wayswith computers to analyze the
(04:58):
way I was learning language justweird hobby stuff.
They found it interesting tooand they wanted to bring me into
their um prototype softwaregroup to do some AI stuff.
And they were happy to do thatand teach me, even though I
didn't have any computer scienceexperience or AI experience.
(05:19):
Um, they just threw me in.
Dr. William Attaway (05:21):
So I'm just totally curious here Talk about
that just a little bit, becausethis, what year was this that
we're talking about?
This was probably nine years ago.
So so you've got like.
In the last three years, maybefour, ai has really been the hot
topic.
Everybody's talking about it,particularly in the digital
(05:42):
marketing world, but nine yearsago this was not like the topic
du jour.
No, that's the very definitionof bleeding edge.
Yeah, what drew you in?
Was it just their invitation,or did this really light
something inside of you that youwere like oh man, this is
amazing.
Intro (06:03):
I was starting to love software.
One of them was my mentor and Iwas building this side project
called Finite Languages where wewould analyze written blogs
from non-native speakers andanalyze it against native
speakers.
So I was already like getting apassion for dev work.
And then they brought me intothis group and I learned the
(06:27):
right way to do things because Iwas just, you know, self-taught
and learning off the internet.
And when I started with thegroup yeah, ai very new we were
training our own foundationalmodels to pull out text from old
handwritten airplane drawingsto make it searchable, and it
(06:47):
was just really cool stuff andit was very hard.
It was not like today.
Dr. William Attaway (06:53):
So then, what Like?
How do you step from thatenvironment to stepping into a
place where there's not a realsafety net the entrepreneurial
world.
Intro (07:05):
Yeah, great question.
It was a few things.
We were in a prototype group ata huge company and I started to
realize they were never goingto use any of the software we
made.
Oh, disheartening.
They were just big old company,slow to change, and that was
disheartening and none of thework I did mattered.
(07:29):
And then at the same time, mywife was starting Laura, now our
COO.
She was starting to get sometraction in real estate and she
started making more money than Iwas.
And I was like I have amechanical engineering degree,
I'm a computer scientist doingAI at Boeing, and she doesn't
and she knows I mean nonegativity when I say this, she
(07:52):
doesn't have a degree and she'sable to just go out there and
quickly make more money than Iwas.
And I was like I'm just goingto do that.
I think so I did it on thisside.
I was working at Boeing andthen weekends and evenings I
would like knock doors and justtry to get real estate sales.
(08:13):
And when I got my first couple,I went on a leave at Boeing
unpaid leave to see if I couldmake this work full time and I
was able to hit my target of howmuch money I wanted to be able
to make.
So when my leave expired I toldhim I would not be coming back.
(08:34):
And yeah, that's when COVIDhappened.
Oh, yeah, oh Timing.
Oh, the next month COVIDhappened, and so it was the
hardest time in real estate.
Yeah, um, we also just movedinto a new fixer upper house, so
(08:55):
we had like buckets all overthe house collecting water from
the rainfall.
We had a couple of rooms wecouldn't go in and they were
sealed shut because of, likemold issues.
We found out we were pregnantwith our second At the same time
.
It was actually fleas.
That let us know Weird thingfleas are attracted to the
(09:16):
hormones of pregnant women.
So I was not getting bit and mywife was getting bit and I
looked it up and they said shecould be pregnant.
So I was like Laura, I thinkyou're pregnant, and she's like
no, I'm not.
She took a test and sure enough.
So new broken house, no jobfleas, new baby on the way, and
(09:41):
when you're put in a situationlike that, you just have to make
it work.
So, even though I realized atthis point I also didn't like
sales, I was gonna sell somehouses and I did.
You gotta provide.
Dr. William Attaway (09:54):
Yeah, yeah, you gotta provide for your
family.
Intro (09:56):
You do what you gotta do but my my interest was never in
the sales side, so almost like Iwas back in the same position
at Boeing doing something on theside.
I was doing more computer stuffon the side trying to automate
the sales process, and it's thatthat eventually became what is
(10:17):
Closebot.
Dr. William Attaway (10:19):
So talk about Closebot, because I know a
lot of our listeners may befamiliar with it, but many may
not be.
What is it, what does it do andwhy does it matter to the
customers that you serve?
Intro (10:32):
It's a conversational AI that does lead qualification and
booking.
This is designed to plug in toyour existing CRM and, with high
accuracy, qualify leads andbook them to appointments.
We are the number one bookingagent right now for high level
(10:54):
and soon to be HubSpot Wow.
Dr. William Attaway (10:59):
That's quite the accomplishment, just
that alone.
When you say conversational,you mean this is an AI that is
talking to people who may notknow they're talking to an AI
(11:24):
that it doesn't disclose it upfront.
Intro (11:25):
Totally up to you when you're building it.
We built it in such a way thatmakes it so quick and easy to
build.
You don't have to understandprompting.
We do all the hard promptingstuff on our end and you just
drag and drop components to ourscreen and the rest happens.
Dr. William Attaway (11:44):
You know we were both at a.
We met at a conference down inMexico about a month ago and
when I heard you describing thisand talking about it, it was
first time I'd heard of Closebotand I was.
I was just leaning in and I wasastounded at some of the
stories that you were telling ofhow this is making a difference
for your clients.
(12:04):
Of how this is making adifference for your clients.
Can you share a story or twowhere you've seen a client grab
onto this, take it, and it hasjust catapulted what they're
doing.
Intro (12:13):
Yeah, my favorite one to talk about is a marketing agency
that started runningreactivation campaigns for
roofers and he sent it was about700 leads through this
reactivation campaign over acouple of days and he churned up
(12:35):
over $150,000 worth of businessfor this roofer in a matter of
two days reactivating old leadshe didn't plan to ever do
anything with.
I mean, they already pay forthese leads.
They came in at some pointthrough Facebook so he had the
information already there andall it took was doing this and
(12:55):
revenue comes out the other side.
So any company you do that for,I just love you.
Dr. William Attaway (13:02):
Yeah, absolutely.
Generate $150,000 in revenue intwo days?
Yeah, I agree.
Intro (13:15):
Any company is going to lean into that.
Another one did it for achiropractic office and he ended
up getting them so muchbusiness that they were too
booked out on their calendar andhe ended up temporarily
canceling the service with thismarketing agency because he's
like, hey, we have all thebusiness we need now.
Like, first of all, thank you.
Second of all, we don't.
We don't need this serviceanymore because we're so busy.
(13:37):
Uh, maybe we can start up againin a couple months.
So wow, I mean wow, he, he lostthe client temporarily from
that, but like such a win whatan amazing case study that that
marketer can say, hey, look atthis.
Dr. William Attaway (13:54):
I mean wow.
You know, as as this show hascontinued to grow, we're
starting season four this monthand there's about 50,000 or so
people who download episodes amonth listening to the stories
that are like yours.
A lot of these people are inthe digital agency space and I
bet some of them are notfamiliar with what you're doing,
(14:15):
and what I want to do is I wantthem to get to know you and
what you're doing and why andthat's why I invited you onto
the show.
I think Closebot can be anincredible tool in the bag for
these agency owners who you know, like you say like this was
just something that they wereable to offer as part of a
database reactivation, like dothis, and what an amazing result
(14:38):
that they're getting in both ofthese stories that you're
sharing.
I love that and, of course, Imean you know your results may
vary, all of that stuff, butthis is a tool that I think
every agency should be utilizing.
Intro (14:51):
Yeah, absolutely.
And when I was on stagespeaking there, we had people
raise hands to see who was usingAI in their business and it was
surprisingly few.
I remember that.
Dr. William Attaway (15:02):
I remember that and you know I see it a lot
outside of the agency world,you know, with people who are
still kicking the tires, stillnot sure this whole thing's
going to happen.
My wife and I were at themovies a few weeks ago and the
people behind us were talkingabout AI.
We're standing in line and I'mtrying not to listen, but of
course I'm listening and there'sone guy was like hey, have you
(15:33):
tried out this new, this AIstuff?
And the other guy was like, nah, that's not going anywhere.
And I'm just laughing inside myhead thinking hold on, it's
coming to you.
Wow, this is the world that welive in and I think even in the
agency world there's a lot ofpeople who don't understand how
far this has advanced and howsomething like CloseBot can make
a dramatic difference for theirclients and the results that
(15:53):
they're getting, not to mentioncreating phenomenal case studies
for the agency that they canuse when they're doing outreach
to potential clients.
Intro (16:02):
Yeah, and you may feel like you're behind, but just
from seeing how few hands wereraised during that event, if you
take action now, you're ahead.
Dr. William Attaway (16:12):
So how does somebody get started with you,
with Closebot?
How do they jump in if theyhave not been on this train yet?
What's the first piece?
Intro (16:22):
You can find us in the app store of High Level or just
search Closebot.
We're all over the internet andcreate a free account.
We have a free account where weeven cover all the usage up to
100 messages a month, which isusually enough to get one
business off the ground.
Do that, prove it works, getthat business to pay you, and
(16:45):
that'll more than cover thecosts of an agency account.
Dr. William Attaway (16:49):
I love that .
Simple, easy, jump in and getstarted for free.
I can't say.
I know a lot of businesses thatare doing that right now.
Intro (17:00):
Yeah, we're confident that it works.
Dr. William Attaway (17:03):
And I think that's what that reflects.
I want to talk about yourleadership for a second.
At CloseBot, you know you areleading at a higher level today
than you had to even just a yearor two or three ago.
Yeah, and that same thing isgoing to be true a year, three,
five years from now, as youcontinue to grow and find more
(17:24):
and more success.
How do you continue to level up?
What do you do to stay on topof your game and be the leader
that your clients and your teamare going to need you to be in
the days to come.
Intro (17:38):
I think listening is the biggest thing, is the biggest
thing Listening to our users andlistening to our staff members.
When you listen to the pain andreally internalize why that's
there and what you can do aboutit, that tells you where you
(17:59):
need to, where you need to go,where you need to grow.
I'm trying to think of aspecific example.
I mean, not long ago, we had,like you need to grow.
I'm trying to think of aspecific example.
I mean, not long ago we had,like you said, we're growing
fast and you know, our team justfelt like they lacked vision in
it.
They didn't come out and saythey lacked vision, but they
(18:22):
kept asking what projects theyneed to work on.
And I'm a big fan of Steve Jobs.
Something people say aboutSteve Jobs is everyone knew what
to do.
The vision was so clear that noone ever had to.
Everyone knew what to do.
The vision was so clear that noone ever had to ask him what to
do.
And so I clearly saw there wasa vision problem, and that's a
(18:45):
me problem.
So I had to look at, you know,re-identifying our vision, our
mission statement, what ourfinancial goals are and how
we're going to get there, andthen organize a meeting to let
everyone know this and thenbacktrack our KPIs, both weekly
and daily, on how we're going toget there, and then everyone
(19:06):
knew.
So that's a specific example onhow listening can help guide
you on what you need to do.
Dr. William Attaway (19:12):
Bryce, I I love that.
I think what you're describingis amping up the clarity.
You know, I think Brene Brownis spot on.
She says clarity is kindness.
It's kindness with the peoplethat we lead and it's most kind
when we're clear with ourselves.
And what you did there is youforced clarity, you called a
force play and all of a sudden,now there's no ambiguity.
(19:34):
Everybody knows where we're at,where we're going and what
we're doing to get there.
And if you're a leaderlistening to this and you have
not increased the clarity withyour team, I promise you they
need it.
Ambiguity never serves anybodywell.
It is impossible for your teamto hit the bullseye if they
can't see it, if they don't knowwhere it is, if they don't know
(19:57):
what a win is for theirposition, for their team, that
they're on, they will never hitit.
So I love that you talked aboutthat.
I think that's so incrediblygood, and the way you know is to
listen.
That is one of the most powerfultools in a leader's bag.
Love that.
You shared that, thank you.
When you're thinking aboutClosebot, like where do you want
(20:19):
to go from here?
Intro (20:23):
Like what is one thing that you want most in these
coming years, as you were juston this rocket ride of growth
right now- I'm a technicalfounder, so most of my own
desires come from where I wantthe product to be the features I
wanted to have, the reliabilityI wanted to have.
I'm I'm not very focused onrevenue.
(20:48):
I do focus on revenue justbecause I know how much it costs
to bring on new developers and,um, I just want to build the
product as fast and good aspossible.
So we have our roadmap offeatures, both our public
roadmap and our private one, andI I just want to make sure we
(21:08):
get the, get it to the maturitylevel that we want it to.
You know, right now it's like achild and we're teaching it all
the lessons and growingtogether with it, and we want to
see that child become an adult,a full-fledged adult, someday.
Dr. William Attaway (21:30):
So, as you think about that and where you
want to go with it, what do youthink the biggest thing is?
That's stopping you.
Intro (21:36):
Um, yeah, I think imposter syndrome um is.
It's a big thing people have toovercome.
I have to overcome it and Ihave to set some really big
goals.
Sometimes I don't set the goalsas big as I need them to be.
Like we we just raised afriends and family round of
(21:57):
funding um late this last yearand at first I wanted to raise a
hundred to $200,000 and then,just getting real with myself,
I'm like I need to dream bigger.
So we raised much more thanthat and then in this next
funding round that we'll doearly this next year, same sort
(22:19):
of thing.
When I sat down I was trying tothink about raising as little as
possible, but that just won'tdo it.
It's scary to think aboutbringing on all that money and
having to deploy it into growinga team so fast.
But it just has to be done.
And if we put ourselves in theposition where it does literally
(22:40):
have to be done or you die, wecan usually make some pretty
incredible things happen, andI've been there in the past.
I've told you about a couple ofthe scenarios where I literally
had to make it happen or wewould die.
In some cases, death is thedeath of a business, or having
to sell a house that we love, orhaving to go back to a job that
(23:02):
we hate, but oftentimes it'sgood to be in those positions
where it's do or die.
Dr. William Attaway (23:08):
That's so good and I appreciate the
transparency there.
That is so good, and I think itis something that we can all
relate to at different points inour journey where we've been in
that exact spot and that's atheme that I've heard as you've
talked about this.
You know it's when your back isagainst the wall, it's when
there's no other way but we'vegot to make it work, and that's
(23:29):
when you come out and that'swhen the rocket starts.
You're always learning and Ithink that's when the rocket
starts.
You're always learning, and Ithink that's another theme that
I've heard throughout your story.
You know you didn't stoplearning when you left school.
You know you are continuallylearning, even outside of your
direct area of responsibility.
You're learning over here andlearning, I mean, it's part of
who you are.
(23:50):
I'm curious is there a bookthat has made a big difference
in your journey that you wouldrecommend to the leaders who are
listening?
Intro (23:58):
Yeah, the Infinite Game by Simon Sinek.
Yeah, absolutely, sinek.
It's phenomenal.
It just it talks about howinfinite your thinking needs to
be.
We're not thinking aboutcompeting with a certain
competitor today, you know.
(24:18):
We're thinking about justdriving value for our customers
now and into the future, takingall the lessons learned from
myself and other thought leadersand software products, and just
building on the back of giantsthat have already built stuff.
(24:40):
That's amazing.
Dr. William Attaway (24:42):
And I love that.
You're not focused on yourcompetitors.
I think that is wisdom and thatis what I see in the most
high-performance leaders that Iwork with.
They're not focused on who'sright behind them or who's
running perhaps even ahead ofthem.
They're focused on their thingand moving that into excellence.
And that's what I hear from you, what I heard from you when we
(25:03):
met in Mexico and what I hearfrom you today in our
conversation that that drive iswhat is behind all of this.
You're going to make somethingthat is going to be absolutely
excellent, that is going toserve your customers, your
clients, to the highest level,and it's only going to get
better.
Intro (25:21):
Absolutely.
Ai moves so fast.
There are going to be timeswhere there are certain features
we're not the leaders on.
Maybe another product is theleader in some area of features
and then we come ahead, but it'sthe infinite.
I mean, we're not playing forthe now.
It's not about the best price.
(25:43):
It's not even about the war.
It's about forever.
What we're building is for theforever goal.
Dr. William Attaway (25:54):
I love it.
You know it's easy for some ofour listeners to look at you,
bryce, and think, wow, whatsuccess, what a trajectory.
And he could never relate to me.
I mean, all the problems thatI've got he's never had, he's
never really had the challengesand you've been so open today
about sharing some of those.
This tells when your back wasagainst the wall, you did have
(26:15):
to say this has got to work andyou put your shoulder into it.
You know, even in the midst ofthe highlight reel, I think it's
important for us to understandthat the leaders that we admire
most, that we see from afar,everybody has challenges,
everybody has troubles.
If I had the ability right nowto just snap my fingers and
(26:35):
solve one problem in yourbusiness, what would you want
that problem to be?
Intro (26:41):
Oh gosh, that is a great question and I'm not hesitating
to answer because I don't haveany problems.
I'm just trying to identifywhat the biggest one is.
Dr. William Attaway (26:52):
There's a menu, a menu to choose from
right.
Yeah, I know the feeling.
Intro (26:58):
I got the same thing.
There is a menu, I think.
I think I think if you couldtell us exactly the growth
trajectory of AI over the nexteven six months, that would help
us out tremendously.
But in fact, all of us buildingAI applications are just
(27:22):
fighting blind.
Yeah, it's not like buildingother software apps, where
things change every six months.
It's like they change everyweek.
I read publications every dayand I listen to podcasts every
week about what's happening thisweek in AI, and then we have to
(27:44):
adjust our trajectoryaccordingly.
But if you, dr Attaway, couldtell me exactly the cadence of
how AI is going to improve ornot improve over the next six
months, we would be set.
Dr. William Attaway (28:04):
Well, if I develop the ability to see
around corners, I know who I'mgoing to call Perfect.
Intro (28:12):
And that's the hard thing we just don't know.
As a leader, it's your job tocollect all the information you
have, all the information fromyour past experiences and
decisions.
You made where that landed you,and then just throw the dart
and your team just follows youthere.
Dr. William Attaway (28:33):
Yeah, and there's never a point when
you're ever going to be 100%confident.
If you're waiting for 100%confidence before you move,
before you make a decision, youwill never move 100%.
Intro (28:45):
When I started this, I had no idea how to build an app.
I didn't know what high levelwas Wow.
I didn't know what high levelwas Wow.
I had only built apps formyself, so nothing ever for
other users.
Building this app as aself-taught developer, using
(29:05):
Google every step of the way Wow, and my mentors.
And then slowly, you figurestuff out.
And slowly, like you figurestuff out as things break, you
know, as you are put in pain,you figure stuff out and now it
is where it is today, where I amCTO, ceo, co-founder of
(29:27):
CloseBot, and we have a dev team, have a product manager.
They're all ex-professors at arespected university.
They taught computer scienceand C-sharp.
It doesn't happen overnight.
It happens through a lot ofpain.
Dr. William Attaway (29:43):
Yeah, a lot of sleepless nights too, yeah,
less.
Intro (29:46):
So now, now that we have a team, that's another thing.
If you're in a position whereyou're having sleepless nights
and you feel like you're on thebrink of being able to afford
someone, I would say just putyourself in a little bit of pain
, take less, pay yourself andhire someone, because my life
changed when I brought in teammembers and learned how to
(30:09):
leverage trust to them.
That was huge for me.
That's good advice.
Dr. William Attaway (30:16):
Bryce, this has been such a phenomenal
conversation.
I'm so grateful for your timeand the generosity that you've
shown in sharing sotransparently from your journey
so far, and I know the best daysare still ahead for you.
I can't wait to see whatCloseBot's going to do in the
days ahead.
I know our listeners are goingto want to connect with you,
continue to learn from you andmore about Closebot.
(30:38):
What's the best way for them todo that?
Intro (30:42):
Connect with me on LinkedIn for more big business
thought leadership type stuff.
I do my own AI research and Ishare about it there, or X is a
great way now to connect with me.
Dr. William Attaway (30:58):
Brilliant, I will have those links in the
show notes.
Perfect.
Thank you, price.
Thank you so much for today.
Thank you.
It is an honor today to have Bryce Decora
on the podcast.
Bryce is the co-founder and CEOof CloseBot, where he gets to
use his background in AIengineering, sales and natural
language processing to shape thefuture of AI agents for sales.
Previously a software developerat Boeing working on new AI
(00:22):
projects, bryce's passion forlearning foreign language
eventually led him to creatingClosebot.
Bryce, I'm so glad you're here.
Thanks for being on the show.
Thank you, good to see you.
It's good to see you as well.
Bryce DeCora (00:39):
Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the
podcast designed to help leadersintentionally grow and thrive.
Here is your host author andleadership and executive coach,
dr William Attaway.
Dr. William Attaway (00:57):
I would love to start with you sharing a
little bit of your story withour listeners.
I hit a couple of the highpoints, but how has your journey
gone, particularly around yourjourney and your development as
a leader?
How'd you get started?
Intro (01:11):
Yeah, around being a leader.
It's been meandering, butreally started when we had our
first son.
Becoming a parent really forcesyou to become a leader.
Dr. William Attaway (01:26):
It changes your world, doesn't it?
Intro (01:28):
It really does.
I'm fortunate that it happenedwhen we were so young.
We weren't necessarily planningon having kids at that point,
but it really forced me to growup at a young age.
This was I was 24 at the time,so it's not like I was super
(01:48):
young, but I felt young.
So you know, having having ason, getting the first job I
could and just wanting toprovide for the family, that's
what sparked it.
Dr. William Attaway (01:59):
Wow, and this started at Boeing, or did
you start somewhere else?
Intro (02:06):
Yeah, I, we had our son straight out of college.
I had to take the first job Icould.
We grew up in South Dakota andNebraska and we really wanted to
stay around there, but theworld had other plans.
We ended up out in Washingtonstate, which we love now, but
(02:27):
that took us away from family.
We have no family in Washingtonstate.
It was just up to my wife and Inewborn new job at Boeing, um,
and that really put us out ofour comfort zone and that's
where I really started to growup and become more of a leader.
I found myself in a leadershipaccelerator program at Boeing,
(02:50):
so I learned a lot of leadershipskills there and even led some
projects while I was at Boeing.
Dr. William Attaway (02:59):
Nice.
Yeah, I can relate to kind ofbeing thrust into that
environment when you don't havefamily nearby.
We moved here to the suburbs ofWashington DC when our oldest,
our first child, was two weeksold, twelve hours away from the
closest family, no supportsystem, you know came here for a
(03:20):
job and that's a tough thingand it really does create that
bond where my wife and I had toreally lean into each other.
It sounds like you guys had todo the same thing.
Intro (03:30):
Yeah, we did Two weeks old as well, because we had to
wait until he was old enough tofly.
Dr. William Attaway (03:36):
I assumed it was the same thing, just
crazy.
And people were like you'redoing it now, you're moving now,
yeah, but you do what you gotto do, right you?
Intro (03:50):
experience so much, so much growth out of the hard
times.
Dr. William Attaway (03:54):
Yes, yes, so, so true, so you're.
So you're at Boeing, you're,you're leading some projects.
You're really getting your,your, your leadership chops
developed, sharpening that saw.
How'd you get from there to?
Intro (04:10):
starting your own business.
Well, I.
So I was a mechanicalengineering student first of all
, not computer science.
I realized I didn't likeleadership at Boeing.
It was just such a big company.
I didn't want to work my way upthe management ranks and just
get caught up in the bureaucracy.
And I also didn't likemechanical engineering.
So I was like, well, I justspent so much time and money on
(04:34):
mechanical engineering degree.
I don't like it.
I spent time in this leadershipthing.
I don't like the bigbureaucracy of this company.
I don't want to be inleadership.
But I started making more andmore friends in the computer
science department, specificallybecause I was learning foreign
language and trying to find wayswith computers to analyze the
(04:58):
way I was learning language justweird hobby stuff.
They found it interesting tooand they wanted to bring me into
their um prototype softwaregroup to do some AI stuff.
And they were happy to do thatand teach me, even though I
didn't have any computer scienceexperience or AI experience.
(05:19):
Um, they just threw me in.
Dr. William Attaway (05:21):
So I'm just totally curious here Talk about
that just a little bit, becausethis, what year was this that
we're talking about?
This was probably nine years ago.
So so you've got like.
In the last three years, maybefour, ai has really been the hot
topic.
Everybody's talking about it,particularly in the digital
(05:42):
marketing world, but nine yearsago this was not like the topic
du jour.
No, that's the very definitionof bleeding edge.
Yeah, what drew you in?
Was it just their invitation,or did this really light
something inside of you that youwere like oh man, this is
amazing.
Intro (06:03):
I was starting to love software.
One of them was my mentor and Iwas building this side project
called Finite Languages where wewould analyze written blogs
from non-native speakers andanalyze it against native
speakers.
So I was already like getting apassion for dev work.
And then they brought me intothis group and I learned the
(06:27):
right way to do things because Iwas just, you know, self-taught
and learning off the internet.
And when I started with thegroup yeah, ai very new we were
training our own foundationalmodels to pull out text from old
handwritten airplane drawingsto make it searchable, and it
(06:47):
was just really cool stuff andit was very hard.
It was not like today.
Dr. William Attaway (06:53):
So then, what Like?
How do you step from thatenvironment to stepping into a
place where there's not a realsafety net the entrepreneurial
world.
Intro (07:05):
Yeah, great question.
It was a few things.
We were in a prototype group ata huge company and I started to
realize they were never goingto use any of the software we
made.
Oh, disheartening.
They were just big old company,slow to change, and that was
disheartening and none of thework I did mattered.
(07:29):
And then at the same time, mywife was starting Laura, now our
COO.
She was starting to get sometraction in real estate and she
started making more money than Iwas.
And I was like I have amechanical engineering degree,
I'm a computer scientist doingAI at Boeing, and she doesn't
and she knows I mean nonegativity when I say this, she
(07:52):
doesn't have a degree and she'sable to just go out there and
quickly make more money than Iwas.
And I was like I'm just goingto do that.
I think so I did it on thisside.
I was working at Boeing andthen weekends and evenings I
would like knock doors and justtry to get real estate sales.
(08:13):
And when I got my first couple,I went on a leave at Boeing
unpaid leave to see if I couldmake this work full time and I
was able to hit my target of howmuch money I wanted to be able
to make.
So when my leave expired I toldhim I would not be coming back.
(08:34):
And yeah, that's when COVIDhappened.
Oh, yeah, oh Timing.
Oh, the next month COVIDhappened, and so it was the
hardest time in real estate.
Yeah, um, we also just movedinto a new fixer upper house, so
(08:55):
we had like buckets all overthe house collecting water from
the rainfall.
We had a couple of rooms wecouldn't go in and they were
sealed shut because of, likemold issues.
We found out we were pregnantwith our second At the same time
.
It was actually fleas.
That let us know Weird thingfleas are attracted to the
(09:16):
hormones of pregnant women.
So I was not getting bit and mywife was getting bit and I
looked it up and they said shecould be pregnant.
So I was like Laura, I thinkyou're pregnant, and she's like
no, I'm not.
She took a test and sure enough.
So new broken house, no jobfleas, new baby on the way, and
(09:41):
when you're put in a situationlike that, you just have to make
it work.
So, even though I realized atthis point I also didn't like
sales, I was gonna sell somehouses and I did.
You gotta provide.
Dr. William Attaway (09:54):
Yeah, yeah, you gotta provide for your
family.
Intro (09:56):
You do what you gotta do but my my interest was never in
the sales side, so almost like Iwas back in the same position
at Boeing doing something on theside.
I was doing more computer stuffon the side trying to automate
the sales process, and it's thatthat eventually became what is
(10:17):
Closebot.
Dr. William Attaway (10:19):
So talk about Closebot, because I know a
lot of our listeners may befamiliar with it, but many may
not be.
What is it, what does it do andwhy does it matter to the
customers that you serve?
Intro (10:32):
It's a conversational AI that does lead qualification and
booking.
This is designed to plug in toyour existing CRM and, with high
accuracy, qualify leads andbook them to appointments.
We are the number one bookingagent right now for high level
(10:54):
and soon to be HubSpot Wow.
Dr. William Attaway (10:59):
That's quite the accomplishment, just
that alone.
When you say conversational,you mean this is an AI that is
talking to people who may notknow they're talking to an AI
(11:24):
that it doesn't disclose it upfront.
Intro (11:25):
Totally up to you when you're building it.
We built it in such a way thatmakes it so quick and easy to
build.
You don't have to understandprompting.
We do all the hard promptingstuff on our end and you just
drag and drop components to ourscreen and the rest happens.
Dr. William Attaway (11:44):
You know we were both at a.
We met at a conference down inMexico about a month ago and
when I heard you describing thisand talking about it, it was
first time I'd heard of Closebotand I was.
I was just leaning in and I wasastounded at some of the
stories that you were telling ofhow this is making a difference
for your clients.
(12:04):
Of how this is making adifference for your clients.
Can you share a story or twowhere you've seen a client grab
onto this, take it, and it hasjust catapulted what they're
doing.
Intro (12:13):
Yeah, my favorite one to talk about is a marketing agency
that started runningreactivation campaigns for
roofers and he sent it was about700 leads through this
reactivation campaign over acouple of days and he churned up
(12:35):
over $150,000 worth of businessfor this roofer in a matter of
two days reactivating old leadshe didn't plan to ever do
anything with.
I mean, they already pay forthese leads.
They came in at some pointthrough Facebook so he had the
information already there andall it took was doing this and
(12:55):
revenue comes out the other side.
So any company you do that for,I just love you.
Dr. William Attaway (13:02):
Yeah, absolutely.
Generate $150,000 in revenue intwo days?
Yeah, I agree.
Intro (13:15):
Any company is going to lean into that.
Another one did it for achiropractic office and he ended
up getting them so muchbusiness that they were too
booked out on their calendar andhe ended up temporarily
canceling the service with thismarketing agency because he's
like, hey, we have all thebusiness we need now.
Like, first of all, thank you.
Second of all, we don't.
We don't need this serviceanymore because we're so busy.
(13:37):
Uh, maybe we can start up againin a couple months.
So wow, I mean wow, he, he lostthe client temporarily from
that, but like such a win whatan amazing case study that that
marketer can say, hey, look atthis.
Dr. William Attaway (13:54):
I mean wow.
You know, as as this show hascontinued to grow, we're
starting season four this monthand there's about 50,000 or so
people who download episodes amonth listening to the stories
that are like yours.
A lot of these people are inthe digital agency space and I
bet some of them are notfamiliar with what you're doing,
(14:15):
and what I want to do is I wantthem to get to know you and
what you're doing and why andthat's why I invited you onto
the show.
I think Closebot can be anincredible tool in the bag for
these agency owners who you know, like you say like this was
just something that they wereable to offer as part of a
database reactivation, like dothis, and what an amazing result
(14:38):
that they're getting in both ofthese stories that you're
sharing.
I love that and, of course, Imean you know your results may
vary, all of that stuff, butthis is a tool that I think
every agency should be utilizing.
Intro (14:51):
Yeah, absolutely.
And when I was on stagespeaking there, we had people
raise hands to see who was usingAI in their business and it was
surprisingly few.
I remember that.
Dr. William Attaway (15:02):
I remember that and you know I see it a lot
outside of the agency world,you know, with people who are
still kicking the tires, stillnot sure this whole thing's
going to happen.
My wife and I were at themovies a few weeks ago and the
people behind us were talkingabout AI.
We're standing in line and I'mtrying not to listen, but of
course I'm listening and there'sone guy was like hey, have you
(15:33):
tried out this new, this AIstuff?
And the other guy was like, nah, that's not going anywhere.
And I'm just laughing inside myhead thinking hold on, it's
coming to you.
Wow, this is the world that welive in and I think even in the
agency world there's a lot ofpeople who don't understand how
far this has advanced and howsomething like CloseBot can make
a dramatic difference for theirclients and the results that
(15:53):
they're getting, not to mentioncreating phenomenal case studies
for the agency that they canuse when they're doing outreach
to potential clients.
Intro (16:02):
Yeah, and you may feel like you're behind, but just
from seeing how few hands wereraised during that event, if you
take action now, you're ahead.
Dr. William Attaway (16:12):
So how does somebody get started with you,
with Closebot?
How do they jump in if theyhave not been on this train yet?
What's the first piece?
Intro (16:22):
You can find us in the app store of High Level or just
search Closebot.
We're all over the internet andcreate a free account.
We have a free account where weeven cover all the usage up to
100 messages a month, which isusually enough to get one
business off the ground.
Do that, prove it works, getthat business to pay you, and
(16:45):
that'll more than cover thecosts of an agency account.
Dr. William Attaway (16:49):
I love that .
Simple, easy, jump in and getstarted for free.
I can't say.
I know a lot of businesses thatare doing that right now.
Intro (17:00):
Yeah, we're confident that it works.
Dr. William Attaway (17:03):
And I think that's what that reflects.
I want to talk about yourleadership for a second.
At CloseBot, you know you areleading at a higher level today
than you had to even just a yearor two or three ago.
Yeah, and that same thing isgoing to be true a year, three,
five years from now, as youcontinue to grow and find more
(17:24):
and more success.
How do you continue to level up?
What do you do to stay on topof your game and be the leader
that your clients and your teamare going to need you to be in
the days to come.
Intro (17:38):
I think listening is the biggest thing, is the biggest
thing Listening to our users andlistening to our staff members.
When you listen to the pain andreally internalize why that's
there and what you can do aboutit, that tells you where you
(17:59):
need to, where you need to go,where you need to grow.
I'm trying to think of aspecific example.
I mean, not long ago, we had,like you need to grow.
I'm trying to think of aspecific example.
I mean, not long ago we had,like you said, we're growing
fast and you know, our team justfelt like they lacked vision in
it.
They didn't come out and saythey lacked vision, but they
(18:22):
kept asking what projects theyneed to work on.
And I'm a big fan of Steve Jobs.
Something people say aboutSteve Jobs is everyone knew what
to do.
The vision was so clear that noone ever had to.
Everyone knew what to do.
The vision was so clear that noone ever had to ask him what to
do.
And so I clearly saw there wasa vision problem, and that's a
(18:45):
me problem.
So I had to look at, you know,re-identifying our vision, our
mission statement, what ourfinancial goals are and how
we're going to get there, andthen organize a meeting to let
everyone know this and thenbacktrack our KPIs, both weekly
and daily, on how we're going toget there, and then everyone
(19:06):
knew.
So that's a specific example onhow listening can help guide
you on what you need to do.
Dr. William Attaway (19:12):
Bryce, I I love that.
I think what you're describingis amping up the clarity.
You know, I think Brene Brownis spot on.
She says clarity is kindness.
It's kindness with the peoplethat we lead and it's most kind
when we're clear with ourselves.
And what you did there is youforced clarity, you called a
force play and all of a sudden,now there's no ambiguity.
(19:34):
Everybody knows where we're at,where we're going and what
we're doing to get there.
And if you're a leaderlistening to this and you have
not increased the clarity withyour team, I promise you they
need it.
Ambiguity never serves anybodywell.
It is impossible for your teamto hit the bullseye if they
can't see it, if they don't knowwhere it is, if they don't know
(19:57):
what a win is for theirposition, for their team, that
they're on, they will never hitit.
So I love that you talked aboutthat.
I think that's so incrediblygood, and the way you know is to
listen.
That is one of the most powerfultools in a leader's bag.
Love that.
You shared that, thank you.
When you're thinking aboutClosebot, like where do you want
(20:19):
to go from here?
Intro (20:23):
Like what is one thing that you want most in these
coming years, as you were juston this rocket ride of growth
right now- I'm a technicalfounder, so most of my own
desires come from where I wantthe product to be the features I
wanted to have, the reliabilityI wanted to have.
I'm I'm not very focused onrevenue.
(20:48):
I do focus on revenue justbecause I know how much it costs
to bring on new developers and,um, I just want to build the
product as fast and good aspossible.
So we have our roadmap offeatures, both our public
roadmap and our private one, andI I just want to make sure we
(21:08):
get the, get it to the maturitylevel that we want it to.
You know, right now it's like achild and we're teaching it all
the lessons and growingtogether with it, and we want to
see that child become an adult,a full-fledged adult, someday.
Dr. William Attaway (21:30):
So, as you think about that and where you
want to go with it, what do youthink the biggest thing is?
That's stopping you.
Intro (21:36):
Um, yeah, I think imposter syndrome um is.
It's a big thing people have toovercome.
I have to overcome it and Ihave to set some really big
goals.
Sometimes I don't set the goalsas big as I need them to be.
Like we we just raised afriends and family round of
(21:57):
funding um late this last yearand at first I wanted to raise a
hundred to $200,000 and then,just getting real with myself,
I'm like I need to dream bigger.
So we raised much more thanthat and then in this next
funding round that we'll doearly this next year, same sort
(22:19):
of thing.
When I sat down I was trying tothink about raising as little as
possible, but that just won'tdo it.
It's scary to think aboutbringing on all that money and
having to deploy it into growinga team so fast.
But it just has to be done.
And if we put ourselves in theposition where it does literally
(22:40):
have to be done or you die, wecan usually make some pretty
incredible things happen, andI've been there in the past.
I've told you about a couple ofthe scenarios where I literally
had to make it happen or wewould die.
In some cases, death is thedeath of a business, or having
to sell a house that we love, orhaving to go back to a job that
(23:02):
we hate, but oftentimes it'sgood to be in those positions
where it's do or die.
Dr. William Attaway (23:08):
That's so good and I appreciate the
transparency there.
That is so good, and I think itis something that we can all
relate to at different points inour journey where we've been in
that exact spot and that's atheme that I've heard as you've
talked about this.
You know it's when your back isagainst the wall, it's when
there's no other way but we'vegot to make it work, and that's
(23:29):
when you come out and that'swhen the rocket starts.
You're always learning and Ithink that's when the rocket
starts.
You're always learning, and Ithink that's another theme that
I've heard throughout your story.
You know you didn't stoplearning when you left school.
You know you are continuallylearning, even outside of your
direct area of responsibility.
You're learning over here andlearning, I mean, it's part of
who you are.
(23:50):
I'm curious is there a bookthat has made a big difference
in your journey that you wouldrecommend to the leaders who are
listening?
Intro (23:58):
Yeah, the Infinite Game by Simon Sinek.
Yeah, absolutely, sinek.
It's phenomenal.
It just it talks about howinfinite your thinking needs to
be.
We're not thinking aboutcompeting with a certain
competitor today, you know.
(24:18):
We're thinking about justdriving value for our customers
now and into the future, takingall the lessons learned from
myself and other thought leadersand software products, and just
building on the back of giantsthat have already built stuff.
(24:40):
That's amazing.
Dr. William Attaway (24:42):
And I love that.
You're not focused on yourcompetitors.
I think that is wisdom and thatis what I see in the most
high-performance leaders that Iwork with.
They're not focused on who'sright behind them or who's
running perhaps even ahead ofthem.
They're focused on their thingand moving that into excellence.
And that's what I hear from you, what I heard from you when we
(25:03):
met in Mexico and what I hearfrom you today in our
conversation that that drive iswhat is behind all of this.
You're going to make somethingthat is going to be absolutely
excellent, that is going toserve your customers, your
clients, to the highest level,and it's only going to get
better.
Intro (25:21):
Absolutely.
Ai moves so fast.
There are going to be timeswhere there are certain features
we're not the leaders on.
Maybe another product is theleader in some area of features
and then we come ahead, but it'sthe infinite.
I mean, we're not playing forthe now.
It's not about the best price.
(25:43):
It's not even about the war.
It's about forever.
What we're building is for theforever goal.
Dr. William Attaway (25:54):
I love it.
You know it's easy for some ofour listeners to look at you,
bryce, and think, wow, whatsuccess, what a trajectory.
And he could never relate to me.
I mean, all the problems thatI've got he's never had, he's
never really had the challengesand you've been so open today
about sharing some of those.
This tells when your back wasagainst the wall, you did have
(26:15):
to say this has got to work andyou put your shoulder into it.
You know, even in the midst ofthe highlight reel, I think it's
important for us to understandthat the leaders that we admire
most, that we see from afar,everybody has challenges,
everybody has troubles.
If I had the ability right nowto just snap my fingers and
(26:35):
solve one problem in yourbusiness, what would you want
that problem to be?
Intro (26:41):
Oh gosh, that is a great question and I'm not hesitating
to answer because I don't haveany problems.
I'm just trying to identifywhat the biggest one is.
Dr. William Attaway (26:52):
There's a menu, a menu to choose from
right.
Yeah, I know the feeling.
Intro (26:58):
I got the same thing.
There is a menu, I think.
I think I think if you couldtell us exactly the growth
trajectory of AI over the nexteven six months, that would help
us out tremendously.
But in fact, all of us buildingAI applications are just
(27:22):
fighting blind.
Yeah, it's not like buildingother software apps, where
things change every six months.
It's like they change everyweek.
I read publications every dayand I listen to podcasts every
week about what's happening thisweek in AI, and then we have to
(27:44):
adjust our trajectoryaccordingly.
But if you, dr Attaway, couldtell me exactly the cadence of
how AI is going to improve ornot improve over the next six
months, we would be set.
Dr. William Attaway (28:04):
Well, if I develop the ability to see
around corners, I know who I'mgoing to call Perfect.
Intro (28:12):
And that's the hard thing we just don't know.
As a leader, it's your job tocollect all the information you
have, all the information fromyour past experiences and
decisions.
You made where that landed you,and then just throw the dart
and your team just follows youthere.
Dr. William Attaway (28:33):
Yeah, and there's never a point when
you're ever going to be 100%confident.
If you're waiting for 100%confidence before you move,
before you make a decision, youwill never move 100%.
Intro (28:45):
When I started this, I had no idea how to build an app.
I didn't know what high levelwas Wow.
I didn't know what high levelwas Wow.
I had only built apps formyself, so nothing ever for
other users.
Building this app as aself-taught developer, using
(29:05):
Google every step of the way Wow, and my mentors.
And then slowly, you figurestuff out.
And slowly, like you figurestuff out as things break, you
know, as you are put in pain,you figure stuff out and now it
is where it is today, where I amCTO, ceo, co-founder of
(29:27):
CloseBot, and we have a dev team, have a product manager.
They're all ex-professors at arespected university.
They taught computer scienceand C-sharp.
It doesn't happen overnight.
It happens through a lot ofpain.
Dr. William Attaway (29:43):
Yeah, a lot of sleepless nights too, yeah,
less.
Intro (29:46):
So now, now that we have a team, that's another thing.
If you're in a position whereyou're having sleepless nights
and you feel like you're on thebrink of being able to afford
someone, I would say just putyourself in a little bit of pain
, take less, pay yourself andhire someone, because my life
changed when I brought in teammembers and learned how to
(30:09):
leverage trust to them.
That was huge for me.
That's good advice.
Dr. William Attaway (30:16):
Bryce, this has been such a phenomenal
conversation.
I'm so grateful for your timeand the generosity that you've
shown in sharing sotransparently from your journey
so far, and I know the best daysare still ahead for you.
I can't wait to see whatCloseBot's going to do in the
days ahead.
I know our listeners are goingto want to connect with you,
continue to learn from you andmore about Closebot.
(30:38):
What's the best way for them todo that?
Intro (30:42):
Connect with me on LinkedIn for more big business
thought leadership type stuff.
I do my own AI research and Ishare about it there, or X is a
great way now to connect with me.
Dr. William Attaway (30:58):
Brilliant, I will have those links in the
show notes.
Perfect.
Thank you, price.
Thank you so much for today.
Thank you.
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