It was 7:00 AM. The client’s leadership team offsite started at 8:30. My slides for the day weren’t finished, and I was sitting there nearly in tears.

How did I get here?

It wasn’t for lack of caring. I had spent an incredible amount of time preparing — thinking about this team, what they were up agai...

"Sarah" was booked solid and struggling to make payroll.

She runs a business consulting firm — about $2 million a year, six people. Every piece of business came through a referral or an introduction, and she was proud of that. She'd never had to "sell" a day in her life.

She was also exhausted, and th...

A few weeks ago I told you there were five distinct sales identities most founders operate from — and then I left you hanging. “More on that another week,” I said.

This is the week.

But fair warning before we start: four of these five are the same problem wearing four different disguises. See if y...

Early in my career, I thought my job was to be the whole solution. Beat the other reps, win the deal, be the hero.

It made selling exhausting. And it kept me stuck in a game I didn't even want to play.

Here's what changed everything: I realized I didn't have to be the whole solution. I just had to...

I didn't know I loved planting flowers until we moved into a house that came with flower boxes.

That first year of planting season, I agonized over what to plant where, convinced there was a "right way" to do it, and that all the spaces needed to be filled at the beginning (not realizing the growth...

Have you ever hit a major milestone — the kind you worked toward for months or even years — only to find yourself wondering why it doesn’t feel the way you thought it would?

You achieved the goal. You got the recognition. You reached the level you were chasing.

So why does it feel… heavier than ex...

You and I both know that a full pipeline is the only thing standing between you and a stress-free finish to the year. Recently we talked about how you finish the back half of the year — whether you close it out like the Knicks or fizzle out at the end like the Spurs. Strong finishes don't happen by ...

It's halftime of your business year. Six months down, six to go.

So here's the only question that matters this week: based on the first half, are you the Spurs or the Knicks?

If you watched any of the NBA Finals, you already know why that question isn't rhetorical.

Imagine you’re on the road, the...

If you’re like most founders I talk to, you’d probably describe your growth as “successful... but sporadic”. You recognize that business development is necessary, but let’s be honest: you don’t love doing it. There’s that nagging fear of being perceived as "salesy," so you stick to what feels safe—r...

After a recent mastermind, something I've known intellectually finally landed: success isn't about piling on more—it's about peeling back what no longer serves. Here's what I'm learning as I simplify and refocus my business, and I hope it helps yours.

The thread I keep pulling on: somewhere along t...

This week I kicked off a new Sales Growth Sprint with a group of professional services founders—speakers, consultants, advisors. All seasoned professionals and successful. Different businesses. Same core struggle.

When I asked what they wanted five weeks from now, the answers were familiar:

• A st
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Over the holidays—during what we now know was the calm before the storm—I watched a series called The Playbook: A Coach’s Rules for Life.

One of the coaches featured was Doc Rivers, reflecting on the 2008 Boston Celtics championship. A team that hadn’t won in 22 years. A team stacked with talent th...