And it goes like this: How much is it? - It's not that bad… Look, it's simple. Just give me a number. OK? - It's 20% - not that bad, right? WOW… Your churn is 20% monthly?  *issues a small prayer to all the SaaS gods* The above is a conversation I recently had with a potential coaching client… GOOSEBUMPS! Let me put this into perspective...

How do you deal with having a powerful new idea that inspires you to change the direction of your business? Many times on the journey  you will find yourself shifting priorities and jumping on new opportunities. That one meeting, conversation or feedback from a client makes you realize that there is a niche to be filled and you can take things to a whole new next level. Being flexible and creative is awesome, but it is not easy to get

If you’re in sales, you never want to come off like this: “Listen here, pal… This is the product you need and it will definitely solve all your problems! 100%! If you don't buy this today, you and your company will regret it for the rest of your life!” I call this having “Commission Breath”. Everytime I hire a sales person, at some point this happens. 

Imagine the following… You’re growing fast and you need to hire a new biz dev guy.  He’s convinced that he's going to add a lot of value to your company, and asked for 1% of your startup, so you give it to him. After a few months, you pivot the business and he’s no longer needed (plus he didn’t actually do anything while he was around). Next thing you know, you are just about to raise the first round of

You're a cash-starved startup owner. You go hard after one of your big enterprise clients and they pay for a whole year of your service in advance… Just like this, without any additional questions or arrangements. This is what happened to Vivek Sharma back in the day, when his now $50+ mil ARR company MovableInk was struggling to score its first few corporate clients.  But this idea to ask for a 12-MONTH ADVANCE PAYMENT didn't come out of nowhere. 

When I started Flowtown, a marketing Saas product I built in San Francisco, over a decade ago... there was one thing I knew we had to do right: Content marketing. So I built out this epic content strategy that grew to 350,000 unique views per month. What a difference that made! Then I did it all over again with Clarity.fm… and again with my current coaching business. After doing it so many times - from scratch - I’ve learned a

A few months ago I gave a talk at a local high school here in Moncton. I shared my journey, went deep in the challenges I overcame, and gave my ALL to help inspire these kids live a bigger life. But during the Q&A, the tables got turned. And it was this kid in the front row. Someone I’ve never met before. Who with ONE question, hit me right at my core. 

What's the first thing you need to do when starting a business? (A lot of entrepreneurs get this part wrong.)  Now, I know... everything starts with "there's a problem that needs solving and I can solve it."  Then, if things go right, you reach a point where you have 25+ people... and all of a sudden, they're making decisions against the values your business stands behind - the core of the company.  Meaning, the first thing you should set in

I recently shared an uber with my buddy, Kevin, when the topic of naming his new startup came up. And when you think about it… There’s SO much pressure in getting this right. Not only is the name of your startup gonna be front and center for the next few years (or decades) of your life… … but it’s gonna be one of the FIRST things that potential customers use to judge you and your company. Meaning, before you even

"Why are you here? … What are you doing here?" Those are the 2 questions Brian asked me. … Brian. Brian was one of the guards in the Saint John Regional Correctional Facility where I was doing an eleven-month sentence for the severity of my crimes. I was 16… And Brian was the guard who got me out of the room where I spent 3 days in solitary confinement (aka The Hole), because of a fight.