Belen Wagaw

Project 33

• Helping technical SaaS CEOs at early and mid-stage startups start & scale Founder-Led Marketing. 
• Working directly with them to share their expertise and stories online, aligning their thought leadership with their company’s GTM goals.

Content Director 

MarkMind

•Scaling the reputation of B2B SaaS CEOs and their C-suite.

Because growing personal brands makes business sense.

Founder & Fractional Head of Comms

Siteimprove

• Built an executive content strategy to align product narratives and humanize the brand 
• Launched Siteimprove Stories, increasing brand visibility with employees, customers & partners

Left to start an exec content and communications consultancy (MarkMind).

Chief Storyteller

• Operator and advisor to the leader of a $4B and 18000+ professional services organization.
• Spearheaded key strategic initiatives, worked with partners (GSIs, channel) and customers

Chief of Staff to President Services

SAP Customer Experience

• Led the communications strategy for +1200 employees in Customer Success.
• Advised senior leaders on crafting messaging that sustained trust across key internal & external stakeholders.

Communications Lead

Managed a team deploying customer surveys and extracting insights for SAP CX products.

NPS, customer satisfaction scores, and product feedback? I love that stuff.

Voice of the Customer Lead

• Managed content and enablement for + 4,500 SAP partners and customers
• Designed and executed 20+ webinars/year tailored for technical and functional audiences
• Synthesized feedback into actionable recommendations, relating them back to the product teams

Customer Enablement Manager 

Joined shortly after hybris’ (now called SAP Customer Experience) acquisition by SAP.

Customer Enablement Specialist 

Tessemae's All Natural

Brand Ambassador

Communications consultant for B2B Tech CEOs & their teams 💬 Stop losing money because of misaligned teams, confused employees and underwhelmed customers | Fractional Head of Comms | Storytelling fanatic

I’ve been obsessed with stories since I was a kid and spent way too many days getting emotionally invested in plot twists. I still believe the same thing today: every great company needs to know how to tell a great story. 

Now, I ask an unhealthy amount of questions to early and mid-stage technical SaaS founders to help them articulate their vision, explain what they’re building, and tell stories that resonate. 

Before: 
- Chief of Staff to $4BN professional services unit at SAP
- Led content and comms for a 1200+ org 
- Chief Storyteller for a $100M ARR PE-backed SaaS

Love: learning, flat whites, spicy food, bookstores, spin, Ethiopian jazz, tacos
Dislike: fixed mindsets, skipping breakfast, spiders, runny eggs (I tried)

Co-Founder

A personal branding agency for corporate and startup execs.
We take the legwork out of creating content on LinkedIn. 
You just need to give us 90 mins a month.

Chris M. Walker

8-figure businesses • Tips about Business, Entrepreneurship, Money, and Freedom • Freelancing advocate

If you're a business owner tired of wasting money on agencies that don't deliver results, I'd like to make you a crazy promise...

Having helped thousands of business owners take control of their growth without expensive agency retainers, including:

Small business owners who went from struggling to $500K+ in annual profit without hiring a single agency.

Marketing directors who were tired of managing unreliable agencies and now handle their growth in-house with better results and lower costs.

And entrepreneurs who found that agencies kept them in the dark while charging premium rates for mediocre work - who now run their marketing with full transparency and control.

I would like to promise you'll see clear growth in your business within 30 days of using the Legiit platform.

...Using our B2B growth system that puts you back in control: https://go.legiit.com/download

I'd like to promise you this so you can see I'm not just another guy talking big without backing it up.

My goal is for you to get so much value from our platform that you tell other business owners about it.

...And potentially want to explore the next steps of working with us to scale your business even faster.

So, give our growth system a try here: https://go.legiit.com/download

Just copy and paste that link into your browser and it's yours, free.

Once you've tried it, let me know if it does or doesn't work for you...

I'm always here if you need help taking control of your business growth without getting locked into agency contracts.

You can follow me across all socials: @ChrisMWalker

Let's put you back in the driver's seat of your business growth.

Chris M. Walker
Founder, Legiit

It's building multiple 7 and 8-figure businesses through trial and error. Every system I share has been tested in my own companies first.

What makes my approach different:
- I don't make you dependent on agencies or consultants
- I give you the exact tools and systems that work
- You stay in control of your marketing, not at the mercy of others
- You get access to quality freelancers without the agency markup

"Figure out what you want. Figure out what it takes. Do the work."

That's my story. What's yours?

Owner & Founder

Superstar SEO is a 7 figure SEO, Internet Marketing, and SaaS Agency specializing in small, medium & large scale businesses grow via the internet.

Sears shut down their mail-order catalog in 1993. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon one year later.

1886: A railroad station agent starts selling watches on the side.

His name is Richard Sears.

He partners with Alvah Roebuck and launches a mail-order catalog.

That catalog becomes the way America shops.

By the early 1900s, Sears sells everything from clothes to tools to house kits.

The catalog lands in nearly every home.

People call it the “Consumers’ Bible.”

By 1925, Sears opens its first retail store.

Within five years they operate over 300 stores.

After World War II, Sears becomes the anchor of the American mall.

They build category-defining brands.

Kenmore.

Craftsman.

Allstate.

By the late 1960s, Sears is the largest retailer in the world.

Annual sales hit $10 billion in the early 1970s.

Revenue equals roughly 1% of US GDP.

They employ around 350,000 people.

In 1974, they build the Sears Tower.

The tallest building on Earth.

Sears is American retail.

Then leadership shifts course.

In 1981, Sears buys Dean Witter and Coldwell Banker.

They decide to become a financial services empire.

They launch Discover in 1985.

They open financial centers inside 312 stores.

Focus drifts from retail to finance.

Stores age.

Customer experience declines.

Retail performance falls 49% below the industry median.

Walmart passes Sears in 1991.

A crown held for decades disappears.

In 1993, Sears abandons the finance strategy.

They spin off Dean Witter, Coldwell Banker, and Allstate.

Each thrives once independent.

That same year, Sears shuts down the catalog that built the company.

One year later, Jeff Bezos starts Amazon.

Sears had the blueprint for online retail and walked away before the internet boom.

In 2005, Kmart buys Sears for $11 billion.

Losses mount.

From 2011 to 2016, the company loses $10.4 billion.

In 2018, Sears files for bankruptcy.

By late 2025, only five Sears stores remain in the United States.

From 350,000 employees and the tallest building on Earth to five stores.

Meanwhile, Costco never loses focus.

Same membership warehouse model since 1983.

No brokerage firms.

No real estate empire.

No identity crisis.

One concept.

Quality goods at the lowest possible prices.

Over 900 locations worldwide.

More than 80 million paid members.

Over 90% renewal rate.

Revenue above $275 billion.

Sears tries to become everything.

Costco doubles down on one thing.

Your advantage may be the thing you are tempted to outgrow.

Your core business may be exactly what customers want.

Stop chasing distractions when your foundation still works.

Master your one thing.

Protect it.

Say no to what pulls you away.

Do not let growth become identity loss.

The companies that endure protect what made them great.

When you try to be everything to everyone, you become nothing to anyone.

Think Big.

CEO of Legiit - Helping business owners own their growth without paying expensive agencies that don’t get results. - go.legiit.com/download

No alternative text description for this image

A company with over 8,000 stores lost to a woman working out of her dorm room. Here’s how.

1921: Two brothers open a small store in Boston called Radio Shack.

They sell parts and gear for amateur radio enthusiasts who want to build and tinker with electronics.

They dominate that niche.

In the 1970s, hobbyists are obsessed.

RadioShack offers something no one else can: neighborhood stores staffed by people who actually understand electronics, stocked with components you can’t find anywhere else.

Charles Tandy buys the struggling chain in 1963 for $300,000 and turns it into a powerhouse.

At one point they’re opening three new stores a day.

In 1977 they launch the TRS-80, one of the first personal computers sold to everyday consumers.

They expected to sell 3,000.

They sold over 10,000 in the first month.

By the early 1980s RadioShack has more retail locations than McDonald’s.

They own the hobbyist electronics market.

Then leadership makes a fatal decision.

They pivot hard into wireless phone sales to chase the cell phone boom.

Stores become unrecognizable.

Instead of knowledgeable staff helping you build a circuit, they hire commission-driven phone salespeople.

Components get pushed into dusty drawers in the back.

The hobbyists who built the brand stop showing up.

The consequences hit quickly.

Carriers open their own retail stores.

Best Buy and Walmart undercut them.

Amazon crushes them online.

By 2011, cell phones account for over half of RadioShack’s revenue.

They are now competing in a crowded market where they have no advantage.

Six CEOs cycle through between 2006 and 2016 trying to fix the identity crisis.

None succeed.

2015: RadioShack files for bankruptcy after 11 straight quarterly losses.

2017: Bankruptcy again.

The brand that once had over 8,000 stores is sold for $26.2 million.

Meanwhile Adafruit is building an empire serving the exact customers RadioShack abandoned.

Founded in 2005 by an MIT engineer selling electronics kits from her dorm room.

No venture capital.

No trend chasing.

Just makers and hobbyists.

Today they have over 100 employees, more than 3,500 products, and tens of millions in revenue.

All by doing the one thing RadioShack decided wasn’t worth doing anymore.

Your biggest advantage might be the thing you’re tempted to move past.

Your core customers might be the only ones who actually care whether you exist.

When you try to be everything to everyone, you become nothing to anyone.

Think Big.

A 20-year employee walked into work one morning and was handed a termination letter addressed ‘to whom it may concern.

1949: Samuel Wurtzel is getting a haircut in Richmond, Virginia when he hears something that changes his life.

The first commercial TV station in the South is about to go live.

He sees the future before anyone else does.

He opens a small store called Wards to sell television sets.

Within years, he builds it into a chain.

By the early 1980s, the company pioneers the electronics superstore format and dominates consumer electronics retail.

In 1984, the company rebrands as Circuit City and goes public on the New York Stock Exchange.

By 1987, annual sales hit $1 billion and the stock returns over 9,000% for the decade.

Circuit City is untouchable.

Their edge is knowledgeable, commissioned salespeople who understand what they sell.

Customers walk in confused and walk out confident.

That expertise is hard to copy.

Then leadership starts cutting.

In 2000, Circuit City drops its large appliance business.

The year before, it was the second largest appliance retailer in the country with nearly $1.6 billion in sales.

They walk away.

The housing boom hits and appliance sales explode.

Competitors cash in.

Circuit City watches.

In 2003, they eliminate commissions and fire 3,900 salespeople.

They save $130 million a year.

Wall Street applauds.

Customers notice.

In March 2007, they fire 3,400 more experienced employees.

Not for poor performance.

For making too much money.

Veterans are walked out with no warning.

Some are told they can reapply later.

At lower pay.

One 20-year employee receives a termination letter addressed “to whom it may concern.”

Another 19-year employee making $35,000 is told he costs too much.

The CEO makes $8.52 million that year.

The message is clear.

If you get too good, you’re next.

Morale collapses.

Service quality drops.

Same-store sales fall 12% in 2007.

Debt passes $1.1 billion.

Suppliers demand cash.

On November 10, 2008, Circuit City files for Chapter 11.

No buyer emerges.

All 567 remaining stores close by March 2009.

Over 30,000 people lose their jobs.

Meanwhile, Best Buy invests in its people and customer experience.

Today it operates over 1,000 stores and generates more than $41 billion annually.

Circuit City’s advantage was its salespeople.

Leadership removed them to improve short-term numbers.

Your people are why customers choose you.

Treat them like an expense and you undermine your own foundation.

Cut what makes you different and you become ordinary.

Businesses that last protect what made them great.

When you fire the people who built your reputation, your reputation leaves with them.

Think Big.

The founder of Toys R Us died one week after they announced his life’s work was being shut down forever.

1948: WWII veteran Charles Lazarus opens a baby furniture store in Washington, D.C.

He notices parents keep coming back.

Not for furniture.

For toys.

Kids outgrow toys fast and always want new ones.

1957: He opens the first Toys R Us in Rockville, Maryland.

A supermarket dedicated entirely to toys.

Not seasonal aisles inside department stores.

A year-round destination stacked floor to ceiling.

He becomes retail’s first true “category killer.”

While others sell toys at Christmas, Toys R Us sells them 365 days a year.

Smaller shops can’t compete on price or selection.

By 1978, Toys R Us is the largest toy retailer in America.

Over 180 stores.

$1 billion in annual sales.

By the mid-1980s, more than 1,000 stores worldwide.

They control roughly a quarter of all U.S. toy sales.

Geoffrey the Giraffe is everywhere.

“I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Toys R Us kid.”

The brand feels untouchable.

Then comes the decision that changes everything.

2005: The company is sold to KKR, Bain Capital, and Vornado for $6.6 billion.

The buyers put up a fraction of the money.

The rest is borrowed.

And the debt is loaded onto Toys R Us.

Overnight, the company owes more than $5 billion.

Servicing that debt costs about $400 million a year.

That money could have modernized stores.

Built a real e-commerce strategy.

Strengthened supply chains.

Instead, it goes to interest.

Cash reserves shrink.

Investment slows.

Amazon and Walmart accelerate.

2017: Toys R Us files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

2018: Stores close.

33,000 employees lose their jobs.

The private equity firms collect hundreds of millions in fees during their ownership.

Charles Lazarus dies days after the final closures are announced.

He is 94.

Multiple revival attempts follow.

Pop-ups.

New ownership.

Partnerships.

None restore what was lost.

Meanwhile, LEGO faces its own crisis in the early 2000s.

Heavy losses.

Too many side ventures.

Instead of piling on debt or selling out, they refocus.

New leadership cuts distractions.

Sells non-core assets.

Returns to what they do best.

Bricks.

By 2015, LEGO becomes the largest toy company in the world.

By 2024, revenue surpasses $10 billion.

Toys R Us collapsed under debt it could not escape.

LEGO survived by protecting its core.

The lesson is simple.

Be careful who you hand the keys to.

Debt is not a growth strategy for companies that need flexibility.

The thing that built your business is likely the thing that will save it.

Protect it.

Invest in it.

Do not let short-term financial engineering destroy long-term value.

The companies that last stay obsessed with what made them matter in the first place.

Think Big.

Someone should buy LinkedIn and turn it off.

A $40 late fee made one customer so angry he built a company that destroyed Blockbuster entirely.

1985: David Cook opens a video rental store in Dallas, Texas with one advantage.

8,000 VHS tapes.

Most stores carried a few hundred titles in dim shops.

Blockbuster offered thousands in bright, clean stores with computerized inventory.

No one had done rental at this scale.

By 1987, Wayne Huizenga takes over with 19 locations.

Expansion explodes.

1988: 400 stores.

By 1990, a new store opens every 24 hours.

Friday night becomes Blockbuster night.

1994: Viacom buys Blockbuster for $8.4 billion.

2004: Peak.

9,094 stores.

84,000+ employees.

$6 billion revenue.

65 million customers.

$800 million a year in late fees.

Blockbuster dominates the market.

Then the meeting.

2000: Netflix founders Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph meet CEO John Antioco in Dallas.

Netflix has 300,000 subscribers and is losing money.

They offer to sell for $50 million.

Netflix would run online. Blockbuster keeps stores.

Physical and digital under one roof.

Antioco laughs.

Calls it dot-com hysteria.

Why pay $50 million for a startup mailing DVDs?

One of the most expensive no’s in history.

Netflix goes public in 2002.

1 million subscribers in 2003.

Streaming in 2007.

Blockbuster reacts late.

Launches Blockbuster Online in 2004.

Eliminates late fees in 2005, cutting a major revenue stream.

Leadership fights.

Strategy confusion.

Debt piles up.

2008 crisis hits.

2010: Bankruptcy. Nearly $1 billion in debt.

That same year, Netflix reaches 20 million subscribers.

Stores close by the hundreds.

By 2014, company-owned locations are gone.

Today, one Blockbuster remains in Bend, Oregon.

Netflix is worth over $300 billion.

Hundreds of millions of subscribers.

The company they laughed at reshaped entertainment.

Blockbuster didn’t fail because demand vanished.

They failed because they protected what they had instead of building what was next.

Your biggest threat won’t look big.

It will look small.

Unprofitable.

Ignorable.

That’s why it’s dangerous.

The companies that survive disrupt themselves first.

Stop laughing at the small idea.

Start listening to your customers.

Never confuse being big today with being safe tomorrow.

The business graveyard is full of giants who thought they were untouchable.

Think Big.

He called his own customers drug addicts and then wondered why they left.

1902: James Cash Penney opens a small dry goods store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

He calls it the Golden Rule store.

The concept is simple.

Fair prices.

Quality goods.

Honest service.

No credit.

No gimmicks.

Just value.

Families in mining towns across the West line up because they trust him.

By 1929, JCPenney is on the NYSE with hundreds of stores.

They survive the Great Depression because customers know what they’re getting.

By 1973, JCPenney hits its peak: over 2,000 stores in every state.

Anchor tenant in malls everywhere.

Millions of families build their lives around the brand.

For a century, the formula never changes.

Coupons.

Sales.

Promotions.

Clearance racks.

Customers love hunting for deals.

They clip coupons.

They wait for markdowns.

They check the “How Much You Saved” line on every receipt like it’s a scoreboard.

JCPenney understands its customer perfectly.

Then the board makes a fatal decision.

In 2011, they hire Ron Johnson as CEO.

Johnson built Apple’s retail stores.

Never run an entire company before.

His plan: kill the coupons, drop the sales, replace everything with “Fair and Square” pricing.

No more fake markdowns.

No more promotions.

Just one honest low price every day.

Sounds brilliant on paper.

Disaster in practice.

Johnson rolls out the new pricing in February 2012, barely three months in.

Doesn’t test it.

Customers stop showing up.

Revenue drops 25% in one year.

JCPenney loses $985 million in 2012.

Q4 same-store sales crash 32%.

Worst quarterly decline in modern retail history.

When shoppers say it isn’t working, he tells them they need to be “educated.”

He compares their love of coupons to drug addiction.

He wants JCPenney to feel like an Apple Store.

But JCPenney is not Apple.

Its core customer earns $35K-$100K and loves a good deal.

She doesn’t want to be educated.

She wants her 40% off coupon back.

Johnson is fired after 17 months.

The previous CEO returns to save what’s left.

The bleeding never stops.

JCPenney files for bankruptcy in May 2020.

A company that survived two World Wars and the Great Depression couldn’t survive one CEO who didn’t understand his customers.

Meanwhile, TJ Maxx never changes a thing.

Same off-price treasure hunt model for decades.

No reinvention.

No identity crisis.

Over 5,000 stores worldwide.

Over $56 billion in annual revenue.

Customers know exactly what they’re walking into every time.

Your customers don’t need to be “educated.”

They need to be heard.

The people buying from you right now tell you what they want every day.

Stop listening to the guy in the boardroom who’s never bought your product.

Start listening to the woman with the coupon who’s been loyal for 20 years.

The smartest companies don’t reinvent what works.

They protect it.

Because the moment you tell your customers they’re wrong for loving what you built, you’ve already lost them.

Think Big.

Redbox didn’t get killed by Netflix. Redbox got killed by trying to become Netflix.

2002: A McDonald’s exec named Gregg Kaplan has a simple idea.

Put a bright red kiosk at grocery stores and rent DVDs for $1 a night.

No membership fees.
No late fees.
No driving to Blockbuster.

Grab a movie while you buy milk and return it to any kiosk in the country.

That becomes Redbox.

By 2008: 12,000 kiosks.
By 2010: 1 billion rentals.
By 2011: 68% of Americans lived within five minutes of one.

They were everywhere.

Blockbuster couldn’t compete with $1 rentals and no storefront overhead.

Studios tried to choke them with 28-day rental delays.
Redbox sued and won.

By 2013: 43,000 kiosks and $1.97B in annual revenue.

They controlled 50% of all U.S. DVD rentals.

One red box did what Blockbuster’s 9,000 stores couldn’t.

Then they got bored with what worked.

Instead of evolving kiosk dominance, they chased streaming.

2012: Redbox Instant with Verizon.
Flop.

2017: Redbox On Demand.
Nowhere.

2021: SPAC at $693M.
Stock opened above $15, then fell to $1.61.

Layoffs followed.
Leadership looked for a buyer.

2022: Chicken Soup for the Soul buys Redbox for $375M and assumes $325M in debt.

The plan: turn Redbox into a streaming entertainment conglomerate.

Combine kiosks with Crackle, Popcornflix, and other streaming brands.

Predictable result.

Debt near $1B.
Net losses $636.6M in a year.

They couldn’t pay studios for content.
They couldn’t pay retailers hosting kiosks.

CVS, 7-Eleven, and Walgreens sued.

They eventually couldn’t pay employees.

June 2024: Chapter 11.
July 2024: Chapter 7 liquidation.

1,000+ jobs lost.
24,000 kiosks went dark.

The red boxes that dominated retail parking lots became abandoned relics.

Some stores spent up to $500 each just to remove them.

Meanwhile Netflix saw the shift early.

Netflix didn’t try to be kiosks + TV network + distributor all at once.

They picked streaming.
They went all in.
They stayed focused.

Netflix is worth $400B+.

Redbox is worth nothing.

Same industry.
Same disruption.
Completely different outcomes.

One company picked a lane and owned it.

The other panicked and tried to be everything.

Redbox didn’t die because streaming killed DVDs.

Redbox died because they abandoned what they were best at and chased a fight they were never going to win.

They had 43,000 locations.
40 million loyalty members.
Total market dominance.

Disruption isn’t what kills most companies.
Losing focus does.
Build around your unfair advantage and keep compounding it for years too.

Instead of asking “How do we make this advantage even stronger?” they asked “How do we become Netflix?”

Wrong question.

Your biggest strength isn’t the thing you move past.

It’s the thing you double down on.

Stop chasing what the leaders are doing.

Start owning what nobody else can take from you.

The companies that last go deeper, not wider.

Because when you try to be everything to everyone, you become nothing to anyone.

Think Big.

taplio

The Battle

Belen Wagaw

Chris M. Walker

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreChris M. Walker's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Belen Wagaw

Chris M. Walker

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Chris M. Walker's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreChris M. Walker's LinkedIn Performance