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9 articles
Endless follow-up calls feel like momentum, but they are usually a verdict delivered slowly. Here is how to read the meeting pattern, set a graceful deadline, and reclaim the time you were never going to be paid for.
If your strategic plan needs a binder, a kickoff summit, and a glossary to explain itself, you may be holding a wish list rather than a strategy. Here is the compression exercise I run with founders — and what it reveals about what was never load-bearing in the first place.
Many founders hire consultants not to learn something new, but to have a trusted outsider confirm what they already suspect. This piece examines the economics of validation, why it persists, and how both founders and advisors can tell the difference between counsel and comfort.
Selling advice is harder than selling inventory because the buyer can't kick the tires before signing. For mid-market clients in particular, skepticism is the default posture — and the consultants who win are the ones who manufacture tangibility on purpose.
Most consulting engagements that feel like a waste of money were never really about the analysis. This piece argues that leaders should be honest about whether they need clarity or permission — because the two demand very different purchases.
Every founder loves to say their best business comes from word of mouth. That's true — and it's also why so many growth plans quietly stall. Referrals are a reward for past work, not a plan for the next four quarters.
Most professionals believe they know their reputation. Few have ever tested it. This article introduces a simple exercise — the referral audit — that reveals the gap between the story you tell about yourself and the story your clients tell about you.
Most service businesses price for approval, not for profit — and the market reads that instantly. This piece argues that underpricing is a strategic choice with strategic consequences, and offers a disciplined way to raise rates without losing the clients who matter most.
Growing companies don't have a growth problem — they have a prioritization problem. Here's my contrarian case that the fastest path forward for most American SMBs runs through what they stop doing, not what they start.