Josh Levine is the Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Color More Lines, a boutique e-commerce consulting firm that helps brands accelerate growth on Amazon and Walmart by providing a white-glove, performance-based service. Under Josh’s leadership, Color More Lines has scaled brands to impressive growth, leveraging a team of experienced e-commerce experts and helping clients navigate the world’s leading retail platforms.
With a diverse background spanning government, technology, and entertainment, Josh has held roles at Microsoft and Disney. He is known for his growth strategy expertise and dynamic career journey, which includes working at the White House before launching successful tech ventures. He is also the Managing Partner at Growth Avenue, an advisory firm helping entrepreneurial CEOs scale smarter, exit faster, and win defining moments.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- [00:20] How top entrepreneurs build powerful industry connections that last
- [02:18] Josh Levine’s surprising story of getting kicked out at age 13
- [04:09] What life was like as a young intern inside the White House
- [10:09] Behind the scenes of the global Windows XP product launch
- [12:04] How Josh brokered the first-ever Microsoft–Google partnership
- [14:17] The health risks of constant overwork: Josh’s personal wake-up call
- [18:37] The real story behind startup wins, VC pitfalls, and tough lessons
- [22:48] Tips for connecting with high-level leaders at major companies
In this episode…
Many professionals want to build meaningful relationships with influential leaders, but figuring out how to break through can feel overwhelming. When your career spans politics, global tech companies, and entrepreneurship, the stakes — and the lessons —mrise even higher. What does it actually take to turn unexpected challenges into long-term success and lasting connections?
Josh Levine, an expert in e-commerce growth and strategic partnerships, learned this firsthand. Early experiences — from being kicked out of a baseball card convention at 13 to navigating fast-paced work in the Clinton White House — taught Josh how adaptability and genuine rapport open doors. Josh later drove major initiatives at Disney and Microsoft, including negotiating the first Google–Microsoft collaboration, before weathering the unpredictable world of Silicon Valley startups.
Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Josh Levine, Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Color More Lines, about forging meaningful industry connections. Josh also discusses navigating major career pivots, lessons from high-pressure roles, and how curiosity fuels innovation in a rapidly changing landscape.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Special Mention:
Quotable Moments:
- “If you really want to make true change, go do something amazing and use that money to help people.”
- “Control the controllables; know what’s in your control and let go of the rest, or you risk breaking yourself down.”
- “I’ve always learned more from my mistakes than my successes; what do you really learn from success?”
- “Meet people where they are — understand what makes them tick and help them succeed within their own organization.”
- “You’re the average of the five people you hang around most; surrounding yourself with learners is infectious.”
Action Steps:
- Build authentic relationships by providing value first: Focus on helping influential people achieve their goals to break through noise and establish trust.
- Immerse yourself in the culture and communication style of your target contacts: Learn how organizations and individuals prefer to work so you can meet them where they are and collaborate more smoothly.
- Maintain integrity and reliability in all interactions: Consistently follow through on commitments to build a trusted reputation that leads to referrals and ongoing opportunities.
- Invest in face-to-face connections whenever possible: Prioritize in-person interactions to deepen relationships and more easily navigate challenges.
- Expand your network by engaging in diverse communities: Participate in organizations and events to stay relevant, discover opportunities, and surround yourself with peers who support growth.
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Episode Transcript
John Corcoran: 00:00
Okay. Today we’re talking about how to connect with influential people in your industry. My guest today is Josh Levine. I’ll tell you more about him in a second, so stay tuned.
Intro: 00:10
Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where we feature top entrepreneurs, business leaders, and thought leaders and ask them how they built key relationships to get where they are today. Now let’s get started with the show.
John Corcoran: 00:26
All right. Welcome, everyone. John Corcoran here. I’m the host of this show. And you, every week we feature smart CEOs, Founders, and entrepreneurs from all kinds of companies.
And if you check out the archives, we’ve got Netflix and Grubhub, Redfin, Gusto, Kinkos, Ypo, AEO, Activision Blizzard, lots of great episodes. So check out those archives. And before we get into it, this episode is brought to you by our company, Rise25, where we help businesses to give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships by creating B2B podcasts, helping them to run a podcast and content marketing. And we do three things strategy, accountability, and full execution through our platform Podcast CoPilot. So if you want to learn more, go to our website, rise25.com, or you can email us at support@rise25.com.
All right. I’m super excited about today’s guest because he and I have interesting parallels in our backgrounds. Both started our careers in government and then migrated over to the worlds of business and entrepreneurship. And so we have a lot in common in that sense. He’s the Co-Founder and managing partner of Color More Lines, which is a boutique performance-based e-commerce agency that gives brands a white glove experience on Amazon and Walmart, Walmart.
And he has had a number of different stops along the way, including Microsoft. He’s got a story around Google, and we’ve got stories around Disney and all these sorts of things. But let’s start with Josh. I’d love to get to know my guests are like what they were like as a kid. And you got a story about your go to sell baseball cards at a convention, which I was a baseball card collector, where I think we’re about the same age.
And I went to some of those conventions, and you figured out some kind of roulette game that got you kicked out of a baseball card convention, which is insane. You’re like, 13 years old, and they’re kicking you out of a of a baseball card convention, so clearly you’re some hooligan. But tell us the story.
Josh Levine: 02:18
Yeah. No. Thank you. I mean, it was it was a funny story. We were just kids.
It was me and my brother. I was probably 12 years old. 13 years old. My brother’s a couple years younger. And we were getting into baseball cards.
I mean, this was the 80s. It was cool. It was fun, right? Open up boxes and packs and finding the good cards and all that. And then we ended up with, like, all these cards that were worthless, like less than penny cards.
So we just put up this little bulletin board and we had a couple dice. And, you know, you roll the two dice and if you get snake eyes, you get a great card. And if you get two boxcars, you know, you get, you know, the best card and whatever. But everything else in between was kind of junk cards, and it was just a way to attract people to come to the booth. But we didn’t know it was going to be so popular.
And there’s this kind of line out, out the convention there for people wanting to roll the little game. And then, I don’t know, I guess all the other vendors got pissed. And yeah, some old guys just kind of like ripped the kids out and told us, you can’t do that. Get out of here. It’s kind of funny.
John Corcoran: 03:12
Well, I have to say that that still really works at conventions, because I was just last week at the HubSpot inbound conference in San Francisco, and there were a couple of booths that had figured this out. There was one that had like a craps table. You didn’t pay to play it. It was just like a little gimmicky thing. And then another one that had some kind of game where you had a like a metal thing that you had to.
And these lines were, you know, you would think that they were giving away free cake or something like people were lining up to, to engage in these games.
Josh Levine: 03:39
Yeah. And it was like a dollar to roll or whatever. And then, you know, the two good cards on the board, the Ken Griffey Jr and the Wade Boggs or whatever it was, whatever, 20, 30, $40 card. And it was fun.
John Corcoran: 03:50
That’s cool. All right, so let’s jump forward. You and I have this interesting shared background where we were both interns in the Clinton White House. You did it in the press office in 92. So shortly after the change in administrations.
I’m super curious to know what that experience was like. You were working with Dee Dee Myers was press secretary at the time.
Josh Levine: 04:09
Yeah, it was incredible. I mean, Deedee’s incredible. First woman press secretary of the United States. I was a kid at the time, you know, finishing up my junior year in college. And I had this incredible opportunity through the UCDC program, University of California.
John Corcoran: 04:22
Which I did as well. Yeah. Same program.
Josh Levine: 04:24
Yeah, exactly. And so, you know, I’m studying abroad my junior year in England and not thinking about anything. All of a sudden, I get this letter that I was so surprised they chose me. Right. And then, wow, you know, it was on White House letterhead.
You’ve been accepted, you know, show this paper at the gate, you know the game, right? And then and then go on, go on in. And it was 92. It was the first year of office. So it was an incredible time.
I, you know, started working in the old executive office building and working in press and ended up working, working directly with Deedee, which was which was incredible. And, you know, it was the whole crew was there. There was James Carville and Paul Begala were just getting started. And Janet Reno was large and in charge and amazing there. And, you know, got to meet cast of characters.
I mean, I think the thing that was most interesting for me was, you know, seeing the swearing in of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the Rose Garden, that was. And I’ll never forget that.
John Corcoran: 05:16
Yeah. What was it like being in those hallways? Because just walking in the hallways of the West Wing and passing governors and senators and the president of the United States and Secret Service and all that? What was that experience like for you?
Josh Levine: 05:31
It was just awe inspiring. I just was I was a kid, I was wide eyed. I was like, I cannot believe it was like a little bit of imposter syndrome. Like, I can’t believe I’m here, right? Yeah.
And like, I know you asked for some stuff, so, like, this is a little prop. I don’t know if you can see this. Probably not. Right.
John Corcoran: 05:47
Blurring a little bit. No. Okay.
Josh Levine: 05:49
No maybe not. It’s anyway, like I had this old picture of like it’s crazy. President of the President. United States. Vice President, United States.
You know, General Shalikashvili, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of Defense. Crazy. Like we’re just sitting in the Rose Garden watching these people talk. Right. Yeah.
And it’s like. Anyway, it was it was wild.
John Corcoran: 06:08
Yeah, it’s a crazy experience going through that. And when people ask me about it, I usually say that there were times when it was just like, almost mundane. You’re just doing your job, doing whatever it is, like the press office. Maybe you were doing the clips, which is these days, I’m sure it’s done digitally, but back then, you know, you had to like, cut out articles and put it on a photocopy or the photocopy would always break. You know.
Josh Levine: 06:32
I had that actually in my closet if you want, like I have all those clips, like we were doing all that craziness. Right.
John Corcoran: 06:37
Yeah.
Josh Levine: 06:37
And like, the other thing is, you know, it’s naive, right? And the reason why the reason why I went there originally was I always wanted to help people. And I thought like, this would be an incredible opportunity. And maybe in, you know, politics, you could help, you know, a whole population move maybe this far. And I did psychology undergrad with the idea that clinical psych.
Maybe you could help one person maybe move this far. And I was kind of toying with that idea is kind of just getting out of college. And I was also a little jaded when I got there. I don’t think regardless of your political affiliation, it doesn’t matter who’s in office. It’s like the wheels of political change don’t move as fast as you think they do, right?
I just remember sitting there in the press briefing room and I remembered I won’t mention this person’s name. I remember they were positive on some policy, doesn’t matter what it was, but they wanted to give a cake to the president on his birthday. I was supposed to take that cake and give it to Deedee and the whole thing and whatever, and she’s like, look, you know, you can’t give it directly to the president, right? Because the president of the United States, he honestly doesn’t have time to take this. And I saw them literally change their policy opinion on something they were for and now against.
And these are the, quote, guardians of our democracy. Right. So it’s just it’s fascinating to kind of see all that up front and realizing that, you know what? I think if you really want to make true change, in my opinion, I just went into business because I watched kind of, you know, my time later, you know, Microsoft, we can chat about all this. You know, I really saw the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation literally eradicate polio in India by writing a check, right?
Not dealing with policy and all that. And I got quite excited about, okay, if you want to make real change, like, you know, go do something that’s amazing and use that money to help people.
John Corcoran: 08:13
Yeah. You end up a couple of years later at Disney, working at Disney. What was that experience? How did you first of all, how do you end up going from the white House to Disney? Was there?
Josh Levine: 08:22
Well.
John Corcoran: 08:23
There was a few years in between, but yeah.
Josh Levine: 08:25
There was a few years in between in business doing a bunch of things. But then I went back and got my MBA, and that was at the Pomeroy School of Business at UC Irvine. And they had an amazing technology program, which was an amazing experience there. And, you know, it’s right close to Disney and Disneyland. So there was a there was a great, great program there.
And I got into the program and it was an interim program. And at the time they were building Disney California Adventure, which was, you know, brand new theme park in the year 2000 right next to Disneyland, and it was an amazing experience. I mean, we’re in business planning, figuring out what attractions go in the park. You know, it was kind of half MBAs, half engineers. And, you know, if you get tired or stressed out, you just walked out and rode Space Mountain.
So what could be bad?
John Corcoran: 09:07
And you actually got stuck on one of the new rides.
Josh Levine: 09:10
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they asked us. We were doing some at the time. DCA was like Disney California Adventure was like, you know, all dirt. And we were doing ride testing on like, I think it was called the Sunwheel or something, which was kind of like a Ferris wheel thing that had these little pods in between, and you’re kind of spinning in the pod. And then on the bigger.
John Corcoran: 09:26
Oh yeah. It’s still there. Yeah, it’s still there.
Josh Levine: 09:28
But I remember.
John Corcoran: 09:29
We were one ride. My kids got sick on there like they couldn’t handle it the back and forth.
Josh Levine: 09:33
Imagine you’re doing ride testing. You can’t get off the damn ride. Right?
John Corcoran: 09:36
So it’s like.
Josh Levine: 09:37
You know, like, stuck in this pod. Of course it’s summer and it’s a million degrees out there and we’re like, get me out of here.
John Corcoran: 09:43
That’s a great story. That’s a great story. So that’s cool. So you experience Disney and from Disney to Microsoft that’s an interesting transition to how.
Josh Levine: 09:52
I finished business school and I really went. They had a really strong technology MBA. I really wanted to go get into that, and I got recruited by Microsoft at the time and honestly just made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. And, you know, moved my life to Seattle.
John Corcoran: 10:05
And what was working at Microsoft in that stage of time, like.
Josh Levine: 10:09
I mean, it was incredible. I’m really a big fan of that podcast acquired, you know that one, right? It was funny listening to their stories on Microsoft’s like two parts, but it was fascinating. And being there, frankly, in part one, I was like, oh man, I remember that, remember that. But I recruited into the windows group and worked on the windows XP launch team doing partnerships for Microsoft, and it was the most amazing experience I don’t think ever will I have that opportunity to be on a product team and launch at that type of scale globally, that those size budgets, those amount of people was.
I learned so much.
John Corcoran: 10:46
Good thing it wasn’t Windows Vista because I still have bitterness towards that.
Josh Levine: 10:49
There you go. Hey, listen, I take no responsibility for that. But I will say, you know, Windows XP is incredible. It’s the first time that Microsoft shipped a product in 150 countries. 50 languages.
Let’s go. Right. Yeah. And huge partnerships. Yeah.
And I actually was doing partnerships in the windows group.
John Corcoran: 11:06
Tell us about the first deal between Google and Microsoft.