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These Systems Set You FREE in Your Business (Alex Foulkes, CoLabs)

December 22, 2025

⚡️ Highest Converting Websites Swipe File (Steal The Best Designs on the Internet):

https://www.mmgdesign.net/visualswipefile

In this episode of Marketing by Design, I sit down with Alex Foulkes, founder of CoLabs, to unpack how service-based and blue-collar business owners can scale without chaos.

Alex shares how joining Vistage forced him into uncomfortable rooms that accelerated his growth, how he went from restaurants to building real operational infrastructure, and why the biggest wins often come from the actions that don’t feel productive in the moment.

If you’re overwhelmed, wearing too many hats, and stuck in the day-to-day, this one will hit.

Connect With Alex

Website
https://www.colabshq.com

LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/a-foulkes

Connect With Andy

Website
https://www.mmgdesign.net/

LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmilligan/

Timestamps

00:00 – How I structure intros + narrative editing
00:58 – Vistage: why Alex almost said no
03:09 – “Smallest person in the room” discomfort
04:30 – The Vistage speaker that changed Alex’s AI thinking
06:24 – The real value: confidence, exposure, and perspective
10:08 – The unexpected ROI: Vistage paid for itself
17:52 – Why storytelling is the underrated skill
21:19 – From restaurant chaos to structured operator
25:34 – Buying a $600K restaurant with $10K down
31:12 – How CoLabs started (no site, no logo, just proof)
37:26 – The skill behind clarity: poker + strategy
47:06 – Tactical: how Alex finds bottlenecks with data

Team

🎙 Host — Andy Milligan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/

🎥 Production — MMG Design
https://www.mmgdesign.net/

‍

These Systems Set You FREE in Your Business (Alex Foulkes, CoLabs)

Connect With Alex

Connect With Andy

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