#489: Ryan & Kim | The Profit War Room. Inflation Is Coming. Do You Have a Battle Plan?

My protein powder went from $62 to $122. The company's response was a mass email that started with "we understand your frustration." That is exactly how most businesses handle price increases. No plan. No segmentation. Just a surprise and an apology nobody asked for.  

Kim Clark and I sat down to talk about pricing. Not theory. The real conversation that happens when your input costs are moving and you have to decide what to do about it. We started with a protein powder subscription that went from $62 to $122 in a single month with no warning, no communication plan, and a mass apology email nobody asked for. From there we got into why pricing is an ownership decision that runs through valuation, cash flow, and distributions. I walked through the income statement to balance sheet to ownership decision chain the way I do it in a quarterly board meeting. 

Kim broke down rates of change analysis on your input costs as the early warning system, the customer segmentation framework for who gets a phone call, who gets a personal email, and who gets the mass communication, and how to give your sales team the "why" and the training to hold the line. We also talked about what is happening right now with the Strait of Hormuz, what that means for supply chains, and why this is different from every other inflationary cycle most of us have lived through. 
 

Top 10 Takeaways 

• Pricing is an ownership decision. The math runs through valuation, distributions, and cash flow. That conversation belongs in the boardroom, not with your VP of Sales. 

• The Strait of Hormuz is closed right now. Twenty percent of the world's oil and fifty percent of its helium are not flowing. Pull up IMF PortWatch and see for yourself. 

• You cannot print molecules. Money printing is one problem. Physical supply chain disruption is a different problem. Both are happening at the same time. 

• The boiling frog kills more businesses than the crisis. A container going from $2,500 to $20,000 gets an emergency call. Margins sliding from 43% to 37% over seven months gets ignored. 

• Rates of change on your input costs are the early warning system. The 3-month rate leads the 12-month rate. When those diverge, your tire pressure light just came on. 

• Build tiered battle plans before you need them. If input costs hit 8%, here is Plan A. If they hit 12%, here is Plan B. Do the math now so you are not doing it in a panic. 

• Your salesperson is caught between company pressure, customer pressure, and the fear of losing the deal that pays their mortgage. Without the "why" and the tools, you are sending them into an impossible position. 

• Segment your customers before you communicate a price increase. Tier 1 gets a personal visit. Tier 2 gets a personalized email from leadership. Tier 3 gets the mass communication. 

• State what is NOT changing before you discuss what IS changing. Casey Brown calls these power statements. Anchor the customer on the value that continues, then explain the adjustment. 

• Run at least one full pricing analysis per year and rotate which customer segments get increases. Pricing discipline is a cadence, not a crisis response. 
   

Kim Clark- This is a co-hosted episode with Kim Clark, iBD's Chief Revenue Officer. Kim spent years at ITR Economics before joining iBD, and her background in economic forecasting and revenue operations is all over this conversation. Ryan and Kim recorded this as both a standalone episode and an introduction to the Profit War Room workshop (April 27, 2026). The protein powder story that opens the episode came from a real text exchange with Ryan's buddy Michael the week before recording. 

Chapters:  

(00:00) Introduction - pricing and margins 

(01:27) The boiling frog: margins sliding from 43% to 37% ignored 

(05:11) Build tiered battle plans before you need them 

(06:06) The Strait of Hormuz is closed; you cannot print molecules 

(13:57) Pricing belongs in the boardroom, not with your VP of Sales 

(35:37) The math runs through valuation, distributions, and cash flow 

(41:05) Rates of change on input costs: the early warning system 

(49:51) Segment your customers before you communicate a price increase 

(55:15) State what is NOT changing; empower salespeople with the "why" 

(1:09:41) Profit War Room Workshop: April 27th, 9–noon, $100 

This episode was produced by Castos Productions. 
 
Resources: 
 
iBD Profit War Room Workshop — April 27, 2026 | 9:00 AM–12:00 PM CT | $100 Register here — Half-day working session with Ryan Tansom, Kim Clark, and economic speaker Alex. Morning session on the geopolitical landscape, afternoon breakouts to build your own input cost tracking and pricing communication plan. 

Casey Brown / Boost Pricing — boostpricing.com | caseybrown.com — Pricing expert and author of the power statements framework for sales teams. Referenced throughout this episode; featured in Ep. 487. 

ITR Economics — itreconomics.com — Economic forecasting firm where Kim Clark and workshop speaker Alex both built their forecasting backgrounds. The 3-12 and 12-12 rates of change methodology comes from ITR's analytical framework. 

IMF PortWatch — portwatch.imf.org — Live shipping traffic data including the Strait of Hormuz. Ryan pulls this up daily to get an objective read on what is actually moving through the strait versus what is being reported. 

Lyn Alden — lynalden.com — Macroeconomist Ryan follows for supply chain analysis, global liquidity, and US dollar dynamics. Referenced for the "upside-down pyramid" framing of the global financial system. 

Luke Gromen / FFTT — fftt-llc.com — Macroeconomist and founder of Forest for the Trees. Ryan references Gromen's morning Strait of Hormuz chart-check habit and his analysis of petrodollar dynamics. 

Ray Dalio — principles.com — Referenced for his framing of the current geopolitical conflict as a generational shift in the world order. 

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight — Amazon — Ryan's recommended business memoir. The "what do I know to be true?" decision-making framework Phil Knight uses throughout the book is the lens Ryan applies to navigating uncertainty. 

Ep. 487 — Casey Brown: The Fear That's Eating Your Margins — Previous episode referenced. Check your Castos dashboard for the link. 
 
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kimberlyclark  
 
Ryan Tansom Website https://ryantansom.com/