Growth Insights for CEOs

When the Founder Is the Rainmaker: How to Scale Without Losing the Spark
In many founder-led businesses, the founder isn’t just the leader—they’re also the best (and often only) rainmaker. They land the big deals. They have the trusted relationships. They know the pitch inside and out because they are the pitch.
It works—until it doesn’t.
As the business grows, this model creates a bottleneck. Every new opportunity depends on one and only person. And it’s the same person every time. But there’s a downside. When that person is also responsible for running the business, mentoring the team, and shaping the vision, something eventually gives.
Recent Posts

Under the Influence: How Your Employees Can Drive Your Social Marketing Engine
Tue, Jan 25, 2022 — Did you know that you might have the next Kim Kardashian or Kylie Jenner on your staff? Though it’s likely that none of your mild-mannered employees have 300 million social media followers piled up –like the aforementioned sisters – it IS possible to turn a team player into a social influencer.

Infographic: 5 Social Media Insights from My Viral LinkedIn Post with Over 120,000 Views
Tue, Jan 29, 2019 — How to Create Engaging Content and Gain More Followers When Visual Capitalist republished an updated visual of Jeff Bezos’ Empire on January 11th, I posted the following on LinkedIn: The Jeff Bezos Empire in One Giant Chart (Infographic). Within 2 days, the traffic went viral- achieving over 120,000 views in less than a week. Typically, a viral LinkedIn topic is one that exceeds 100,000 views beyond the normal life cycle of a post (2 days). Viral video content has a much higher bar for the number of views in a 3- to 7-day period. As a reference point, most of my LinkedIn posts get a few hundred views and a handful of likes or comments. For a summary of the 5 social media tips, see Infographic at the end of this article.

"I Don't Know Anyone Here" - 8 Tips on What Not To Do!
Sun, May 12, 2013 — This is a revised blog, originally posted on UNDER30CEO. I am sure most of you have been in a situation similar to mine. Last month, I attended Social Slam in Knoxville, Tenn. I knew absolutely no one who was going to the conference, but I decided to attend because I believed it was relatively close to my new home in Charleston, S.C. (Seven hours later, in a tremendous rainstorm, I arrived. I stand corrected.) The experience gave me the opportunity to adopt a fresh perspective on attending a conference as an unknown. I knew it would be hard to go and meet people, but I figured, “So what? I’m an adult.” I was up for it — and you should be, too. Pushing myself beyond my comfort zone improved my networking skills and expanded my circle in new ways.
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Customer Retention, or BJs Chickens Have Flown The Coop!
Fri, Aug 31, 2012 —

Embrace Social Media--You Know You Have To, But How?
Mon, Jul 16, 2012 — What About Some Lessons? Many CEOs/CMOs have been persuaded (some dragged kicking and screaming) to the value of social media and other inbound marketing techniques. However, being persuaded of the value and knowing what to do are entirely different issues. It's overwhelming. It's a bit like persuading your "unmotivated" teenager of the value of a college education and then getting them to actually study. You have successfully persuaded them of the long term value, but the short term work it is going to take is a different story.