Dennis Geelen

Business Coach | Keynote Speaker | Author of The Happy Accidents newsletter and The Accidental Solopreneur book

I’ve spent most of my career helping people navigate change.

Sometimes that meant working with leadership teams and organizations.
Sometimes it meant coaching solopreneurs who were building something new after an unexpected turn.
And more recently, it’s meant telling true stories that remind us how unpredictable, strange, and meaningful real life can be.

At the core of everything I do is one idea:
people don’t change because of frameworks alone, they change because of perspective.

What I Do

I’m a speaker, author, and consultant who helps individuals and organizations make sense of uncertainty, transition, and unexpected opportunity.

My work focuses on:
 • Leadership and change
 • Human-centered decision making
 • Serendipity, timing, and “happy accidents”
 • Stories that challenge neat narratives about success and control

I’m currently building The Uncanny, a storytelling project exploring true stories that sound impossible but actually happened.

Who I Work With
 • Event organizers looking for keynote talks that are thoughtful, grounded, and story-driven
 • Organizations and nonprofits navigating change, leadership transitions, or cultural shifts
 • Individuals who want practical clarity through focused, one-hour coaching conversations

(I’m no longer actively promoting large programs or long-term coaching, but I still take on select conversations and workshops when there’s a strong fit.)

What I’ve Created
 • Author of The Zero In Formula and The Accidental Solopreneur
 • Host and creator of story-driven newsletters, podcasts, and short-form video content
 • Speaker on topics including change, leadership, serendipity, and starting before you feel ready

Want to Connect?

If you’re reaching out about:
 • Speaking engagements
 • A focused workshop or session
 • A thoughtful one-on-one coaching conversation

Feel free to DM me.

And if you’re someone who loves true stories that make you pause and say, “That can’t be real”…
you’ll probably enjoy what I’m building next.

Founder

Coaching and mentoring to help you start and scale your one-person business.

Most leadership training gets this backwards.

We teach people how to manage others…
before they know how to manage themselves.

And then we wonder why teams struggle.

There’re some uncomfortable truths we don’t like to acknowledge when it comes to leadership: 

- If you can’t manage your own reactions,
you can’t manage conflict.

- If you don’t understand your own personality, you’ll misread everyone else’s.

- If you don’t take responsibility for your results, you’ll blame your team.

- If you can’t prioritize your own time,
you’ll create chaos for everyone around you.

Contrary to what we like to think, leadership doesn’t start with strategy. 

It starts with self-awareness.

In my 12-week leadership coaching program through Zero In, the first four weeks are entirely about leading yourself.

It’s the foundation for everything that comes afterwards (where we then focus on leading individuals and then leading teams).

In those first four weeks, we dig into personality, stress triggers,
how others actually experience you,
how you respond under pressure,
and how you prioritize what matters.

Because once you can lead yourself…
leading others becomes exponentially easier.

If you’re serious about becoming the kind of leader people actually want to follow,
start there.

Speaker | Author | Consultant - Guiding organizations through leadership transitions and complexity

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Some of the most damaging leaders I’ve seen weren’t incompetent.

They were unregulated.

Don’t get me wrong, they were smart,  strategic, and experienced.

But they couldn’t manage themselves.

They couldn’t control their reactions in tense moments.

They took feedback personally.

They blamed circumstances when results slipped.

They said “yes” to everything and then created chaos trying to deliver.

And their teams paid the price.

Leadership isn’t just about vision or communication.

It’s about emotional control.
Self-awareness.
Responsibility.
Discipline with your time and energy.

If you can’t lead your own habits, emotions, and priorities, you end up outsourcing the consequences to everyone around you.

And that’s when trust erodes.

Have you ever worked for a leader who struggled to lead themselves?

What did that look like and how did it affect the team?

Is it your goals?
Is it your habits?
Is it your purpose?

Or is it actually none of those things?

Director, Demand Generation | Demandbase Top 20 Revenue Marketer for 2023

I'm a husband, a father of two boys, and marketer with a focus on demand generation. I focus on growth for B2B SaaS companies, particularly with paid media, SEO, email, and marketing automation. 

Here are some of my values:

— Jesus is Lord

-- We yield greater results when we work as a team.

-- You can learn something from every single person in your organization, regardless of job title.

-- In a world of givers and the takers, be a giver.

Ryan Williams

I had the privilege of spending my week, courtesy of Commonstate, with some lifelong friends in Bend, OR. Spencer Bradshaw Cassidy Dickens 

And yes, Bend is everything it appears to be. 

I remember vividly, about 3 years ago, one of our clients treating us to a steak dinner. This week, we got to treat some of our team to a steak dinner. Grateful for the journey with building a business and the ability to experience things I never would’ve imagined.

Now, back to my wife and boys! Needless to say, this is a future vacation spot for our family.

Head of Marketing @ ZenMaid | Co-Founder @Commonstate | Father, Husband, Christ Follower, Worship Drummer

💥 We crossed 50%.

In February, ZenMaid hit a 50%+ Trial → Paid conversion rate.

That means 1 out of every 2 people who start a trial become a paying customer.

For context:

In February 2023, we were at 25.5%.

We’ve literally doubled it.

That doesn’t happen because of one clever campaign.

It happens because product, design, engineering, ops, support, customer success, and marketing are aligned around the same goal:

✅ Better activation.
✅ Better onboarding.
✅ Better early-stage experience.

Every tweak compounds:

Onboarding improvements

Activation optimizations

Better demos

Faster follow-up

Clearer content (i.e. more qualified trials)

And this is a big validation moment for “Day 74.”

We said we were going to get serious about early retention and activation.

The numbers are responding.

Now zoom out.

If we continue to:

✔ Improve Month 1 retention
✔ Improve Month 2 retention
✔ Maintain (or grow) this CVR momentum

We don’t just grow.

We compound.

When strong conversion meets stronger retention, MRR accelerates fast. 📈

Huge shoutout to the entire ZenMaid team. 

This is a real milestone.

But we’re not done.

What would doubling your activation rate do to your business? 👇🏻

I haven’t been posting much lately. Here’s why.

We’ve been deep in “Day 74” at ZenMaid.

Amar Ghose literally named me the 'Day 74 CEO.'

I told my mom and everything. 😄 

If you don’t know what Day 74 is, it’s the moment where we earn lifelong customers' trust. The make-or-break window.

Phases 0 and 1 are done.

We’re now in Phase 2.

And for the first time in a long time, we’re attacking retention cross-functionally:

✅ Marketing
✅ Customer Success
✅ Operations
✅ Product

All rowing the same direction.

We just had our highest Month 1 Revenue Retention % in the last 2+ years.

Honestly? This is a dream for me. Working on the highest-level business impact levers.

Trial → Paid CVR is also at 47% this month. A record.

That’s not “more traffic.”

That’s better alignment.

The best part though?

The culture.

We’ve always had a strong one.

But this feels different.

Hard work.
Focus.
Shipping.

And doing it with people you actually like.

Day 74 isn’t about plugging churn leaks.

It’s about building a company that deserves to keep its customers, and building the most world-class cleaning service software. Period.

What’s one operational change that completely changed your team’s momentum? 👇🏻

Proud of this season.

The last 3.5+ years have stretched me in ways I didn’t expect.

Building Commonstate.
Helping scale ZenMaid.
Raising three boys.
Trying to be a decent husband in the middle of all of it.

It’s been a lot.

But here’s what I’m most proud of:

At Commonstate, we didn’t chase growth.

We chased:

✔ Reputation
✔ Retention
✔ Referrals
✔ Real performance inside the CRM

The result?

Steady multi-year growth.
Recurring revenue stability.
A business that runs on trust, not cold outbound.
An agency brand that stands on its own; not on the back of one founder.

No flashy “we 10x’d in 90 days” nonsense.

Just disciplined execution.
Month after month.
Year after year.

At the same time, stepping deeper into ZenMaid has sharpened me in a different way.

Demand gen is fun.

But retention?
Churn?
Revenue quality?

That’s where the real operators live.

Working cross-functionally.
Owning Day 74.
Driving record conversion rates.
Pushing for alignment between marketing and customer success.

It’s forced me to zoom out.

To think in terms of:

Revenue retention
Payback periods
LTV
Operational capacity
Leadership structure
Not just leads and CPL.

And here’s the honest truth:

There were seasons I felt stretched thin.
Moments where I questioned if I was overcommitted.

But I’ve learned something:

You can build two things at once…

If you’re ruthless about focus and honest about your capacity.

Commonstate taught me discipline.
ZenMaid is teaching me scale.

Both are teaching me leadership.

And I’m grateful for the reps.

If you’re in a season of building - maybe even building more than one thing - what’s it stretching in you right now? 💥

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The Battle

Dennis Geelen

Ryan Williams

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taplio

The Battle

Dennis Geelen

Ryan Williams

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);}Dennis Geelen's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreDennis Geelen's LinkedIn Performance