Do More With Less: How to Operate in 2026

How the best owners run their companies has changed. AI is reshaping which work needs humans at all. Outsourcing has moved from back-office afterthought to a deliberate operating strategy. The fractional bench is deeper and sharper than it's been in a decade. The owners pulling away from their peers are the ones compounding all three.

In October, three Twin Cities operators sit down to walk through the specific moves working right now — not the frameworks, the moves. One deployed AI in a function that used to require headcount. One outsourced something material and won't bring it back in-house. One restructured the team itself: smaller, sharper, more leverage per seat. 

John Arms - Voyageur University, Head of Education

John Arms is the founder of Voyageur University and one of the early pioneers of the Fractional talent movement. A Fractional CMO, educator, author, and entrepreneur, John has helped thousands of professionals navigate the transition from traditional employment to independent, portfolio-based careers. As author of Revolt: The Rise of Fractional and the Death of Full-Time and creator of the Fractional Masters Program, John is widely recognized as a leading voice on workforce transformation, career reinvention, AI-driven disruption, and the future of talent. His work has helped shape how organizations and professionals think about the growing role of Fractional leadership and the emerging Wisdom Workforce. John speaks nationally on the changing architecture of work, helping leaders understand what comes next for talent, careers, and organizations in an age of accelerating change.

Jessica Stone - Director of Operations, Irish Titan

Jessica Stone is the Director of Operations at Irish Titan, the Minneapolis digital commerce agency known for keeping 100% of its work in-house, no contractors, freelancers, or offshore, and running on a "Business First. Online Second" philosophy. Over nearly five years there, she has risen from office manager to HR lead to head of operations, becoming the person responsible for how a growing agency actually runs day to day: the people, the processes, and the systems that keep a lean team moving. Her path into operations runs through sales, marketing, and events, with more than a decade coordinating events and marketing for Cara Irish Pubs, then account management at Hantho Outdoor Services, which gives her a ground-level read on what "doing more with less" really takes. She'll speak to the operational and team moves that let a small company punch above its size in 2026: where headcount is essential, where process and tooling can carry the load, and how the people who stay experience a leaner operation.

You'll leave with a working playbook for 2026 — the specific moves to evaluate against your own company, the trade-offs each operator accepted, and what they'd do differently starting over.

Irish Titan

Breakthrough Impact Group

Highland Bank

Lab 651

Recursive Awesome