Building Battle-Tested Business Relationships

Straight Outta Crumpton hosts Tyler Kern and Greg Crumpton were joined by Crumpton’s longtime friend, Mike Kelleher, for a discussion about that exact topic – the foundation and building of business relationships, which can often bloom into personal friendships.

Kelleher and Crumpton have been through many trials and tribulations and squared off against challenging scenarios alongside one another, and that battle-tested bond often leads to deeper connections across any relationship.

“When we met, I was working at a big corporate campus. … It [had] these really super-robust, high-technology data centers and critical environments – these places that are a little unusual. They’re exotic in their infrastructure, so, when something goes wrong with one of those things, it gets real intense, real quick,” Kelleher said.

“With you and me meeting in that environment and being able to deal with some of the things that happened there … You’re in the gauntlet with somebody, and you’re like, ‘OK, we’re going into battle together.’”

Having one another’s back is a critical aspect of any deep and lasting relationship. As Crumpton and Kelleher said, it’s about “who you want in the foxhole with you.”

The trio also discussed Kelleher’s experience in the mission-critical, data center world, how that’s informed his career and relationship with Crumpton, and more.

Make sure to follow along for more episodes of Straight Outta Crumpton!

Straight Outta Crumpton with Greg Crumpton

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

beauty
Building Beauty for Real Women: Why Brands Must Focus on Longevity, Not Hype
March 25, 2026

Walk into any beauty aisle—or scroll through your feed for five minutes—and it’s clear the industry is obsessed with what’s new. New formulas, new trends, new “rules.” But for many women, especially those who’ve been using makeup for decades, the question isn’t what’s new—it’s what actually works. And increasingly, the answer isn’t coming from the…

Read More
Physician
Fixing the Physician Experience: Why Advocacy Is Healthcare’s Next Frontier
March 25, 2026

Physician burnout has become a defining challenge in healthcare, with research showing that a substantial portion of clinicians—anywhere from roughly a quarter to over half—experience emotional exhaustion, driven more by systemic pressures like administrative burden and reduced autonomy than by individual resilience alone. As healthcare systems face growing staffing shortages and rising patient demand, the…

Read More
career
From Starting Over In A New Country To Reaching The C-Suite: A CFO’s Career Comeback
March 25, 2026

Global mobility is reshaping the modern workforce, with millions of professionals relocating each year in pursuit of opportunity, stability, or growth. Yet behind the headlines of talent migration lies a quieter, more difficult truth: restarting a career from scratch—even after years of success—is far more common than people expect. In fact, many skilled immigrants…

Read More
AI in school
How AI is Changing the Safeguarding Landscape
March 24, 2026

This episode of “Safeguarding in Focus,” hosted by Sam Eustace, features Lucie Welch, an expert in primary education and safeguarding from Services for Education. The discussion centers on how AI is transforming the safeguarding landscape in schools, exploring both the risks and opportunities presented by this rapidly evolving technology. Key takeaways: Schools must address…

Read More