Company building

Articles

• What breaks when a services company grows fast

  Fast growth strains delivery oversight, hiring, ownership of functions, finance and cash. What broke as my podcast company grew, and what to set up first.

  EssayOct 14, 2026

• How to prepare for business growth

  What breaks when a service business grows fast, from delivery and hiring to finance and cash flow: my December 2023 essay on scaling Content Allies.

  EssayDec 28, 2023

• How I take new businesses to market

  My 2023 routine for a new offer: wait 30 days on an unexpected idea, build a sales deck fast, sell to my network, then go all in on one marketing channel.

  EssayNov 17, 2023

• Fountainhead philosophy in business: Roark vs Wynand

  My November 2023 essay on Roark and Wynand in The Fountainhead, and the founder's pull between meaningful work and giving the market what it wants.

  EssayNov 14, 2023

• My framework for starting a new business

  My 2021 checklist for starting a new business: a growing market, the RESCUE test, three sales from my network in about 30 days, then operations.

  EssayJun 8, 2021

• Why Entrepreneurs Succeed by Leveling Up as Leaders

  My May 2020 essay on moving from doing the work yourself to coaching people to contribute more, with what I said about letting go five years later.

  Point of viewMay 26, 2020

• Lead Cookie: moving beyond a productized service

  Why I was moving Lead Cookie toward hand-qualified outreach in May 2020, the changes it required, and what I said about the business five years later.

  EssayMay 19, 2020

• The hard emotional side of entrepreneurship

  My April 2020 essay on owner decisions that hurt, like layoffs and pay cuts, and the weekly question and one-week pause I used to stop delaying them.

  EssayApr 7, 2020

• The importance of iteration for entrepreneurs

  My February 2020 essay on why no business reaches a perfect state, how Lead Cookie's market commoditized, and why I learned to keep iterating.

  EssayFeb 25, 2020

• The shortcut and shortfall of selling to your peers

  My February 2020 essay on selling to peers: why Content Allies' first clients, owners like me, churned, and why I then targeted consultants earning $250k+.

  EssayFeb 18, 2020

• The evolutions of freedom from your business

  My January 2020 essay on the six stages of stepping back from a service business, from doing the work yourself to a company that markets without you.

  EssayJan 28, 2020

• Handing off founder-led sales: how I did it at Lead Cookie

  My January 2020 account of handing off sales at Lead Cookie: why my first attempt failed, then the playbook, hire and 90-day plan that worked.

  EssayJan 23, 2020

• I failed at selling Lead Cookie, here is what I learned

  My January 2020 account of trying to sell Lead Cookie in 2019: cleaning up the books, hiring a broker, and an LOI that fell apart in due diligence.

  EssayJan 14, 2020

• How We Ran Lead Cookie's 90-Minute Weekly Team Meeting

  The 90-minute weekly agenda I ran for Lead Cookie's remote team of about 26 in 2019, built from EOS and Chet Holmes, and what has changed since.

  EssayOct 29, 2019

• The art of thinking through your business model

  My July 2019 questions for choosing a business model: what you want, ten-year relevance, platform risk, recurring need, agency or product, and the numbers.

  EssayJul 16, 2019

• The problem with productized marketing services

  Why single-channel marketing services churn by design and work best as a tripwire into an agency: my June 2019 essay, from running Lead Cookie.

  EssayJun 25, 2019

• Lessons learned for my second productized service

  My May 2019 essay on starting Content Allies after Lead Cookie: reducing platform dependence, hiring before the first sale and growing slowly on purpose.

  EssayMay 29, 2019

• What is the "Queen Bee Role" and why does it matter?

  My April 2019 essay on the Queen Bee Role from Mike Michalowicz's Clockwork, and how I took admin work off the account strategy role at Lead Cookie.

  EssayApr 23, 2019

• The Weekly Metrics Dashboard I Used to Run Lead Cookie

  The weekly sheet I ran Lead Cookie on: customers, billed and projected MRR, leads, calls, profit and retention, and what I would add to it today.

  EssayMar 26, 2019

• The painful consequences of not focusing

  My February 2019 essay on running Lead Cookie, a sales role and consulting at once, what it cost, what focus changed, and how my view shifted by 2020.

  EssayFeb 25, 2019

• How My Personal Brand Built Lead Cookie’s Revenue

  My 2019 account of how my personal brand drove Lead Cookie’s revenue through podcast relationships, and later lessons on who a podcast should serve.

  EssayFeb 7, 2019

• Sales call script: the seven-stage Lead Cookie framework

  The seven-stage sales call script behind my reported 375 calls and 154 closed deals at Lead Cookie, with supporting emails and what has changed.

  Practical guideDec 3, 2018

• Productized service lessons: Lead Cookie's first six months

  My January 2018 lessons from Lead Cookie's first six months as a productized service, from the first pitch to $33,168 MRR, and my 2019 correction.

  EssayJan 15, 2018