Marcos Rivera

Most B2B SaaS leaders build value.
But forget to capture it.

Let me guess:

- You’re guessing your price
- You’re losing revenue
- Scaling feels stuck

What if pricing could drive growth?

Here’s what I help you do:

→ Capture more value
→ Make pricing your edge
→ Build pricing confidence

Why should you trust me?

- 25+ years in tech pricing
- Ex–Head of Pricing at Vista Equity
- Priced 400+ SaaS products
- Author of *Street Pricing*
- Trusted by MBAs and SaaS CEOs

Beyond coaching, 

I’m an:

→ Investor 
→ Speaker
→ Entrepreneur 

passionate about helping businesses unlock their full revenue potential.

Ready to take control of your most powerful growth lever—pricing?

Checkout my featured section.

Founder and CEO

We help growth-stage B2B SaaS companies design the right pricing model to scale up

Ready to shift your pricing from guesswork to framework?

For the first time in my career, I lowered our growth forecast.

A few weeks into 2026, and I made a decision that felt counterintuitive: we're going to grow less this year. On purpose.

Here's my thinking.

I've been watching F1 lately, there's a scene in the new movie where Brad Pitt tells the pit crew: "Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast."

That line stuck with me.

What got us to 25 people and on the way to $10M bootstrapped isn't going to get us to the next stage. 

We're about to launch our first product. 
We're shifting from pure services to technology-enabled transformation.

That's a pivot. And you can't pivot at full speed.
The sports analogy holds up everywhere. 
Tennis, basketball, skiing, you have to slow down before you change direction. 

Get your balance underneath you. 
Build momentum. 
Then move.

Business is no different.

Here's what slowing down actually looks like for us:
→ Keeping quality at 98% satisfaction instead of chasing volume.
→ Reducing the number of engagement types. Fewer SKUs, less variability.
→ Saying no to projects that don't fit the middle of our fairway, even when the money's good.

Why? Because it's way harder to recover from a quality drop than a revenue dip. 
One bad quarter of delivery can undo years of reputation.

If you're considering a similar move, here's my framework:

1/ Identify the pivot. 
2/ Reduce variability first. 
3/ Protect what got you here. 
4/ Get alignment before you announce. 

The target is lower now. 
Less ambitious. 
But it's more achievable, and it sets us up for what's actually coming.

Sometimes slowing down is the most aggressive move you can make.

What's a decision you've made that felt counterintuitive but turned out right?

CEO of Pricing I/O • Award-Winning Author • Sought after Slayer of Bad Pricing

Everyone told me I was crazy to leave.

High-paying role at a PE firm. 
Direct access to a billionaire's inner circle. 
I was flying to portfolio companies on 24 hours notice, promising boards 18% revenue increase, and delivering.

But I was hitting airline status in two months flat, with a 4-year-old at home and a daughter on the way.

So I walked away and started Pricing I/O with a credit card and my savings.

That was the beginning. 

We're 25 people now, approaching $10M, and I still get a little stunned when I see how many seats we fill at team get-togethers.

I sat down with Mark Osborne, MBA, CEPA® on the B2B Growth Blueprint podcast and got into the full journey—the leap, how we actually scaled, and the leadership framework I use to run the business today.

Watch the full conversation:
→ https://skd.so/kPle2t

Most SaaS companies are pricing blind.

They copy competitors who are also guessing. 

They slap "AI-powered" on the pricing page and hope it justifies a premium. 

They build credit systems because everyone else is doing it, without understanding why credits work for Audible but might destroy their business.

And then they wonder why sales cycles drag, why customers push back on renewals, why the board keeps asking uncomfortable questions about unit economics.

We all have seen this pattern. Right?

→ The CEO who approved a "usage-based transformation" only to watch churn spike 40% because customers couldn't predict their bills.

→ The VP of Product who spent 6 months building an AI feature, then gave it away for free because nobody knew how to price it.

→ The founder who copied HubSpot's model without realizing HubSpot has 15 years of pricing iteration behind every decision.

Here's what I've learned: pricing isn't a simple math problem. 
It's a strategy problem disguised as a spreadsheet.

Is to understand the psychology behind why customers say yes, and structure their pricing to remove friction, not add complexity.

That's why I built this playbook.

A single page with the frameworks we actually use when we're in the trenches with B2B SaaS clients.

It's dense, but I can send you the high-res version. 
Comment "playbook" ↓

Today Satya Nadella leads a $3 trillion company with 228,000 employees.
But when he took over in 2014, Microsoft was stuck.

Losing mobile. 
Windows-obsessed. 
Falling behind Amazon in cloud. 
→ Market cap at $300 billion while competitors lapped them.

Most people expected a safe, incremental CEO.
Instead, Satya rewired the culture without burning it down.

Killed the stack-ranking system that turned teams against each other. 

Replaced "know-it-all" with "learn-it-all." 
Bet everything on cloud when Azure was still a distant second to AWS.

That bet alone now generates $75B+ in annual revenue.

But what I admire most isn't the strategy.

Technical depth. Emotional intelligence. Business instinct. 
Most leaders I've worked with have one, maybe two. Satya has all three, and deploys them quietly.

No theatrics. No ego. 
Just calm, steady decisions at a scale most of us can't comprehend.

He turned a legacy software company into the world's second-most valuable business by doing what every great leader must: read the room, commit to the shift, and bring the whole organization with you.

That last part, bringing people with you, is the hardest part of any transformation. Pricing, product, culture, doesn't matter.

I've seen it across hundreds of companies. 
The team leading the change matters more than the change itself.

A decade of selling B2B SaaS to PE firms teaches you something most pricing strategists never learn firsthand.

James joined us as a Pricing Strategist after years on the other side of the table.

If you've ever sold to PE, you know, they understand value as well as anyone, and they're ruthless about ROI.

That experience shaped how James thinks about pricing: always tie it back to quantifiable business outcomes. Never be vague about value drivers. Surface the trade-offs so clients can make better decisions, not just hear what they want to hear.

That mindset is exactly why we wanted him here.

What surprised him most about joining?
"We're a lean organization that punches well above its weight. Everyone on the team is incredibly sharp and moves fast."

He also mentioned being staffed on two client projects in his first week. That's not an accident, it's a vote of confidence in what a sales background brings to strategy work.

His mindset says it all.
Sales and product team alignment is the most crucial step in executing any pricing strategy.

Simple. True. And something most companies underestimate until it's too late.

Oh, and his karaoke song is "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)."

Make of that what you will.

Glad to have you on the team, James.

"Claude, let's code this SaaS, try not to hallucinate this time."

Honestly? We're getting there.

Recently we watched founders spin up products in weeks that used to take engineering teams 18 months.

→ Claude writes the code
→ Cursor ships the features
→ Bolt scaffolds the whole thing

But then the product is live, and someone asks: 
"What do we charge for this?"

That's where the vibe coding stops.
Because pricing isn't a code problem.

It's a "which metric scales with their success" problem.
It's a "what does your customer actually value" problem.
It's a "what does your board need this to say about your business" problem.

I've worked with 400+ SaaS companies. 
I've never seen a model spit out the right answer to those questions.

Not because AI isn't smart enough.

Because the answer lives in your customers, your data, your market, and someone who's seen enough patterns to know the difference between a pricing model and a pricing strategy.

That's still a human job.

If the pricing conversation is already giving you a headache, that's exactly what we do at Pricing I/O.

Let's talk.

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$285 billion wiped from software stocks in 48 hours.
The reason? Investors finally realized what we've been saying for 2 years, per-seat pricing breaks when AI agents replace human users.

Salesforce lost 7% in a day. ServiceNow, Adobe, Workday, all hit.

But here's what's wild: most SaaS companies I talk to are STILL running per-seat models with zero backup plan.

The "SaaSpocalypse" wasn't a surprise. 
It was a pricing model catching up with reality.

If your revenue model depends on headcount growth, and AI is shrinking headcount, and just like that: you have a monetization crisis.

"Rapid pricing experimentation" is dangerous advice.

I keep seeing the same pitch from billing platforms and entitlement tools: configure your pricing, launch a test, learn fast, iterate, repeat.

Sounds great in theory.

If you're selling a $9/month product to 100,000 users? Sure. 

Test away. Change that $9 to $9.99 and see what happens. 
You've got statistical significance and low stakes.

But if you're negotiating a $150K deal with a CFO at a Fortune 500?

→ Try explaining that your quote from last week was "just a test."
→ Try telling your sales reps that pricing changed again—third time this quarter.
→ Try building credibility when the prospect remembers seeing different prices six months ago.

Expertise over experimentation. 
That's my stance.

I'm not against testing. 
Testing is essential. 

But blind, rapid iteration creates more problems than it solves: internal confusion, external credibility risk, sales teams who don't know what to sell, and customers who don't know what to trust.

The answer isn't more speed. 
It's more intention.

Informed. Measured. Deliberate.

If your team is about to make a pricing decision too fast, that's exactly what we work through at Pricing I/O. Drop a comment or DM me.

Most SaaS companies blame product for churn.
But the data usually points somewhere else: pricing.

3 steps. 10 minutes. 
You'll know if churn is pricing-driven or product-driven.

Segment by cohort. Compare NRR vs. LTV. 
Read churn surveys for the real signals.

If customers say "can't justify cost", that's not a product problem.

2026 is the year the pack separates.
Not with a dramatic crash, more of a slow exposure.

On one side: companies that are deliberate about AI integration, honest about their metrics, and strategic about pricing.

On the other: the copycats. The aimless AI adopters. The ones chasing "Wishful Thinking ARR" with creative revenue definitions and 50x valuations.

The fallout we expected in 2025? 
I think it shows up in 2026. 

Here's why:
→ AI scrutiny goes up (budgets need justification now)
→ Differentiation pressure increases (the checkbox AI gets exposed)
→ Companies under pressure make desperate pricing moves

And here's the opportunity: the smart operators will start picking up technology AND talent from the companies that couldn't adapt.

Acqui-hiring in 2026 is going to be massive.

The question is: which side of the separation are you building for?

The best pricing leaders are readers.
And these are the 12 books every SaaS pricing expert should read.

Save this one to read later ↓

→ Month 1:
Monetizing Innovation
The Pricing Roadmap

→ Month 2:
Street Pricing
Blue Ocean Strategy

→ Month 3:
The Cold Start Problem
Hooked

→ Month 4:
The Go-To Market Handbook
The Lean Startup

→ Month 5:
Influence
Predictably Irrational

→ Month 6:
The Art of Pricing
The Subscription Boom

If you want to go deeper than books, this is what we work on every day at Pricing I/O.
Drop a DM and let's talk.

After working with 400+ SaaS companies, I see three types when it comes to AI integration, and only one of them survives the next 2 years.

Most companies say they're using AI.
Very few can explain why.

The difference isn't budget. It's not talent either.
It's whether AI is a checkbox or a strategy.

Some companies know exactly where AI fits in their pricing, packaging, and go-to-market. 

They've mapped the ROI. 
They've planned the process change.

Others bolted AI onto a roadmap with no monetization strategy behind it, and their boards are starting to notice.

Where does your company fall on this spectrum?

I almost lost myself to AI news last year.
Every day there was something new. 

OpenAI did this. Anthropic launched that. Google's catching up. Startups raising at 50x revenue.

I was reading everything. 
Trying to understand every perspective. 
Watching every announcement.

And then I noticed something: 
I was paying less attention to my team.

The conversations were shorter. 
The check-ins were surface-level. 

I was physically present but mentally somewhere else, chasing the next headline, the next hot take, the next "you need to know this" thread.

FOMO was pulling me away from the work that actually matters.

Here's what I've been obsessing over instead: clarity.

Not mission statements. Not OKRs. 
Actual clarity, where your team can articulate what they're doing, why they're doing it, and how it connects to where you're going.

It sounds simple. 
It's brutally hard.

I've started asking my direct reports one question:
"Do you understand what we're doing and why?"

If they have a different point of view, I want to hear it. 
If they're confused, I need to know. 

A 10-second answer tells me everything: 
"Yes, I get it, I think we're going the right direction." 

Great. But more often, that question opens a door to something I was missing.

Here's my test:
→ If you have 5 direct reports and all 5 say the same thing about your direction—high five, you're leading well.
→ If all 5 have completely different views of what you're trying to do? That's not a them problem. That's a you problem.

People can feel when you're paying attention. 
They can also feel when you're not.

Forget FOMO. Focus.

2026 isn't the year SaaS dies.

It's the year people finally realize AI needs SaaS as much as SaaS needs AI.

Distribution, data, workflows, customer trust, none of that disappears because ChatGPT exists. 

But the SaaS companies scrambling to slap "AI-powered" on their pricing page without rethinking what they actually deliver? Those are the ones in trouble.

We've watched this play out across hundreds of companies.

Companies treating AI like a feature are missing the real forcing function, the question they've been avoiding for years: what outcome are we actually selling?

Seat-based pricing made sense when humans were the unit of consumption. 

When AI agents are doing the work, you're not selling seats anymore, you're selling results, throughput, outcomes that scale beyond headcount.

Most SaaS companies haven't touched their pricing model in years. 
AI just made that procrastination expensive. 

→ Boards are asking harder questions. 
→ Valuations are getting squeezed. 
→ And every month without a clear answer is revenue left on the table.

To surf the hype in 2026, get deliberate about monetizing what AI actually delivers.

That's what we spend every day working on at Pricing I/O, and the urgency we're hearing from founders and boards right now is unlike anything from the last few years.

The window to get ahead of this is open. It won't be for long.

I had to look in the mirror and ask myself a hard question.
Am I drinking my own Kool-Aid?

I've sat in rooms with founders who had their goggles on. 
Convinced they're smarter than everyone. 
Convinced the market is theirs for the taking.

And I've watched them fail.

Smart. Ambitious. Dedicated. Motivated.
Still failed.

So when I started building our new product, I made myself three promises:

1/ Assume there won't be a warm reception.
2/ Assume my assumptions are wrong.
3/ Assume this is a longer journey than I think.

Mike Tyson said it best: 
"No plan survives the first punch in the face."

We're going to get punched in the face. 
Every product does.

The question isn't whether it happens. It's how we react.

So instead of chasing a blowout launch, I'm building systems. 

Feedback loops. 
Prioritization frameworks. 
Quick cycles to learn and pivot.

How do I figure out how to figure out stuff?

That's the real question.

If we get a blowout launch? Hallelujah.

But I'm planning for the worst and hoping for the best.

Building something new is freaking hard. 
And it's full of trapdoors.

What's one assumption you're making about your business that might be wrong?

I think Mark Benioff is overrated.
I'll say it out loud.

Look, Salesforce is the godfather of SaaS. 
Many people give it that title, and it's earned. 

They pioneered cloud software. Built a $40B+ company.

But I think that was more Mark's team and the great people he had around him than Mark himself.

He's good at sales. He makes smart decisions. He’s a pioneer.  
I'm not saying he's bad.

But I lost a lot of respect for him when he said AI would be easy. 
That he could sell the world on his AI overnight.

That's obnoxious.

AI isn't easy. Anyone who's actually building with it knows that. 
Anyone who's helping companies integrate it knows the complexity, the change management, the friction.

Saying "AI is easy" tells me you're selling, not building.

I'd rather follow leaders who are thoughtful than leaders who are loud.
Give me Satya Nadella's calm over Benioff's bravado any day.

Pricing for the wrong thing is one of the most expensive mistakes I see.
(And still most companies miss this completely)

In a PLG motion, pricing does the heavy lifting early. 
→ It's the packaging, the free tier boundary, the upgrade trigger that converts users before a human ever gets involved.

In a sales-led motion, pricing shows up late. 
→ It's a negotiation lever, a discounting battlefield, and often an afterthought bolted onto whatever the rep promised on the call.

I've seen 400+ SaaS companies try to use the same pricing playbook for both motions. 

It doesn't work, because the moment where pricing creates or destroys value is fundamentally different.

The consequences cascade:
→ Your packaging
Does it need to sell itself on a webpage, or does it need to survive a 6-month procurement process?

→ Your discounting exposure
PLG has almost none. Sales-led can hemorrhage 20-40% if there are no guardrails.

→ Your expansion path
PLG expands through usage and upgrades. Sales-led expands through rep-driven upsell conversations.

→ Your pricing team's focus
Optimizing conversion rates vs. optimizing deal structures.

Neither is wrong. 

Your go-to-market motion dictates where your pricing has leverage.

If you're not sure your pricing is built for your motion, that's the first thing we diagnose at Pricing I/O. 

To book a free discovery call drop me a DM.

Most companies wait until something breaks to revisit pricing. 
Here are the 7 signals it's time to take a closer look.

In this video I'll talk you through:
→ Triggers that indicate pricing needs attention
→ Why "not the right time" is costing you money
→ Common patterns from 400+ SaaS companies

#saas #pricing

When people ask who I'm being inspired by, I don't have a good answer.

I never looked for figures to follow.
No heroes. No role models I'm trying to copy.

Just me, trying to make more good decisions than bad decisions. 

Keep learning forward. 
Treat people right.

That's it. That's the whole philosophy.

I like outside perspective. I get inspired by others. But what works for them doesn't necessarily work for me.

And I think that's okay.

Not everyone needs a leader to chase.

Some of us just need to stay honest with ourselves about where we're strong and where we're not.

Be introspective. 
Be blunt with yourself. 
Make trade-offs intentionally.

In the end, business is all about getting people to do stuff for you. 

→ Engineers to build for you
→ Employees to work for you
→ Customers to buy from you

Once you figure out how to do that, there's really no limit to what you can do.

No heroes required.

SaaS Founder: Stop copying competitor pricing pages.

That pricing page you're copying was built for a completely different business.

Here's how to fix it.

Watch more pricing insights here https://skd.so/E9ur5M

Susanne Ekström

I Coach CEOs to Build Winning Companies Where People 💜 to Work (SME:s) | +$30M Client Profit Generated | Top Ranked Management & Leadership Creator Globally (#1 in Sweden) | Serial Entrepreneur

💡 Are you enthusiastic about waking up in the morning to be the master strategist of your company, or are you dreading another day spent fighting fires and not getting anything significant done?

👋 Hey! I'm Susanne, a CEO Coach, entrepreneur, #1 international bestselling author, and the founder of BeASmarterLeader and SEE Management.

𝐌𝐲 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧: To guide CEOs like you in reaching the top of your game.
I specialize in turning your big business dreams into reality, making your company richer, your team happier, and your business more robust.
And if you're up for it, we'll boost your bottom line by $499k in 99 days.


𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐈 𝐆𝐨𝐭 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞: Back in 2001, life was amazing. I co-owned a big Swedish dot.com company and started our Netherlands office. I invested my heart, time, and money into it. But then, everything fell apart when the company went bankrupt. I lost everything, and it was devastating—going from a dream job to no job at all.


𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐖𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐖𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠: We made these 4 epic failures!
⛔ We didn't delegate effectively
⛔ We weren't ready for massive growth
⛔ We didn't have streamlined processes in place
⛔ We, the C-Suite, stopped listening to our people


𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝: Combining 20+ years in management consulting, over a decade in leadership, and hard-earned lessons from my dot.com collapse led me to develop a foolproof system to help CEOs like you:
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Great leaders aren't born; they're made.
True transformation can be challenging, so I've designed my system to help you save time, reach your potential, and become a top-notch CEO. 


𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫: Strategies to:
⭐ 'Buy back' your time so you can lead, not be 'all-over the place'
⭐ Create a CEO role that you'll absolutely LOVE having
⭐ Create space for innovation & big-picture planning
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⭐ Build a winning, scalable company culture



𝐌𝐲 𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬: CEOs of SME companies on the U.S. East Coast, Canada, and Europe.
But why is this Swedish lady targeting the U.S. and Canada?
The mindset around the importance and value of a coach differs in the US and Canada from the rest of the world. I also love to speak English.
𝘚𝘔𝘌 = 𝘚𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘶𝘮-𝘴𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘌𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦


𝐍𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩: Book a 15-minute Opportunity Call today!
👉 https://calendly.com/susanne-ekstrom/15mincall

Susanne Ekström
📞 +46 70 205 40 44
✉ susanne@beasmarterleader.com
🌐 www.beasmarterleader.com

Founder & CEO | BeaSmarterLeader

🔥 We help CEOs and Owners of Companies with $5-20 Million in Revenue, Strategically Work ON the Business Instead of Being Stuck IN it.

BeaSmarterLeader is 100% dedicated to helping CEOs and Owners across dynamic industries scale business operations and obtain unparalleled marketplace advantages to unlock transformative, growth-driven futures.

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Ever hired someone brilliant… but “a little odd”?
🤔 Maybe they avoided small talk.
🤔 Could never sit completely still.
🤔 Had problems with eye contact.
🤔 Laser-focused on obscure details.
🤔 Struggled with time management.
🤔 Or asked questions no one else dared to ask.

You might have chalked it up to personality.
But what if it was neurodiversity?

Yesterday, I shared a personal post about my son and me, both navigating life with ADHD and autism in different ways. Today, I want to discuss what that looks like in your company.

Because here’s the truth:
You already have neurodivergent people on your team.
- Some have been diagnosed.
- Most haven’t.
- And many won't dare to tell you even if they have been diagnosed.

If you don’t know how to lead them, you’re leaving potential (and revenue) on the table.

CEOs ask me, “How do I support these folks without lowering the bar?”
That's the wrong question.

The right one is: "How do I design a culture that brings out the best in every kind of brain?"

Especially when one of those brains might be… your own. 💜 

Because many of the founders and execs I coach have ADHD or autism themselves, and they’ve spent decades compensating, masking, or white-knuckling through systems that were never built for them.

Tomorrow, I’ll share about how to leverage neurodiversity as a leader, without burning out or losing control.

𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 - look around your team.
- Who’s been labeled “difficult,” “intense,” or “disorganized”?
- What might change if you saw them through the lens of neurodiversity?
- And most importantly, do you know what it means to be neurodivergent?

This is personal for me. As a mom. As a founder. 
Because when we get this right, everyone wins.


👉 Anything you'd add?

PS. I'll add the link to yesterday's post in the comments.

I Coach CEOs to Build Winning Companies Where People Love to Work (SMEs) | +$30M Client Profit Generated in the Last 5 Years | #1 International Best-Selling Author | Serial Entrepreneur

How do you know if someone on your team might be neurodivergent?
Short answer: You often don’t.
Longer answer: You notice patterns. And you lead accordingly.

Because not everyone will tell you they have ADHD or autism.
Some don’t even know themselves.
But their behavior might whisper it.
If you’re listening.

As a mom to a son with ADHD and autism, and in my work with founders and teams, I’ve learned to watch for two kinds of signs:

𝗖𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀
- Asks unexpected questions that challenge assumptions
- Hyper-focused one moment, totally distracted the next
- Struggles with transitions or shifting between tasks
- Strategic brilliance, but forgetful with logistics
- Comes across as blunt, intense, or “too much”
- Thrives with structure… or resists it entirely
- Sensitive to noise, light, or smells

𝗣𝗵𝘆𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗖𝘂𝗲𝘀
- Avoids or resists eye contact
- Constantly fidgeting or can’t sit still
- Forgets next steps unless written or visual
- Looks disengaged, but later recalls everything
- Tunes out during long explanations or detailed talks
- Needs headphones, sunglasses, or quiet spaces to focus
- Paces while thinking or prefers movement to concentrate

These aren’t flaws.
They’re flags that someone might need something different to thrive.

Not lower expectations, but more transparent communication, better scaffolding, or more autonomy.

You don’t need a formal diagnosis to support someone’s best work.
You just need to notice how they work best, and meet them there.

That’s not therapy.
That’s leadership. 💜 


👉 Anything you'd add?


PS. This is my 4th and last post on neurodivergence, for now.
I'll add the links to my previous posts in the comments.

If your company can’t run 30 days without you, you don’t own a business.
You 𝙖𝙧𝙚 the business.

I was sitting with a CEO who was exhausted.
He told me, “𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬. 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘺, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦’𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘴. 𝘐𝘧 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴.”

That’s the reality for many CEOs.
The business runs, but only because they’re pushing every lever.
It feels responsible. It feels necessary.
But it’s also the ceiling on growth.

Here’s what I see again and again:
❌ Culture depends on their mood that week.
❌ Decisions get stuck waiting for their approval.
❌ The CEO’s calendar is owned by everyone but them.
❌ They delegate activity, not ownership, so work bounces back.

And then the shift happens.

When the CEO reclaims their time, everything changes:
✅ They spend hours painting the bigger picture instead of chasing details.
✅ Their leadership team starts owning results, not just tasks.
✅ Culture becomes the engine, not the weight.
✅ The company scales beyond them. Finally.

That’s when leadership becomes lighter.
That’s when growth feels possible again.

If your company had to run for 30 days without you, what would break first?
If you don’t like your answer to that question, send me a DM.
We’ll discuss how to make the change. 💜 
 
 
👉 Anything you'd add?

Are you planning your agendas, or are your meetings a time-suck?

Lisa, a CEO with 85 employees, conducted many meetings that kept her busy almost all week.

When she had some time in between the meetings, she had a line of employees who wanted to:

💢 ask questions
💢 get her decision on a specific matter

She rarely had time to work on her essential tasks during office hours.

WHAT DID WE DO?

We:
〰️ Drastically decreased the meeting time
〰️ Implemented the tips for crafting a "Killer" agenda


THE RESULTS WERE:
✅ 45% more free time in just 3 weeks
✅ Better prepared, motivated participants
✅ Enhanced accountability/results pre & post meetings

...& this was just the first step on our list for her & her people to be more productive.

Do you want to be the next Lisa? 💜
Send me a DM with the word "Killer."


👉 Anything you'd add?

How to Design a Killer Agenda

From pitch black to a life worth living in 2,5 months.
How I helped my son turn his life around.

I’m a single mother of two sons, and one of them has autism and ADHD.

Little over 2,5 years ago, he had been home for 4 years, 24*7.
❌ Not going out at all
❌ Not attending school
❌ Not having any IRL friends
❌ Not doing ANYTHING with his life

So, about 30 months ago, I started transforming our relationship completely.

This led him to move to a specialized boarding school and ‘restarting’ his life!

From being 4 years behind in school when he started, he’s now on track to graduate from high school in 3 months' time (only 1 year behind).

If you are a parent of a child or children with autism and/or ADHD, and you’re:
😢 Feeling you’re failing your kid
😢 Feeling love and affinity is lost
😢 Feeling like everything is hopeless
😢 Feeling like there’s nothing more you can do

I GET YOU! 💜
This is how I felt for many years.

HOW COULD I MAKE THIS POSSIBLE?
I attended a course, and while I was participating, it hit me hard.

〰I want to FIX my son!
〰Because this is NOT the life I was supposed to have.
〰AND I’m the reason we’re stuck!

Even if we have a great relationship, something needs to change.

I need to shift the way I speak to him and the way I listen to him.

I also realize – I can love him for everything he is and also for everything he isn’t.

For me, my kids are the most important thing in my life.

Seeing one of them not ‘participating in life’ has been totally devastating.

But now, I see a future for him. 💜

This video shares one of the questions I got when I spoke at the LeadHERship Unveiled, a 3-day virtual summit, about my journey as a person, a CEO coach, and a mother.

PS. If you know a parent like this, please tag them in a comment.

PPS. The link to my whole speech is here: https://lnkd.in/eyNk_WeQ



👉 Anything you'd add?

In 5 words or less, what advice would you give a CEO who's always busy and never has time?

If you're a CEO with ADHD or autism, you're not wired for business-as-usual.
You're wired for vision, velocity, and out-of-the-box thinking.

You can’t lead the way everyone else does, and you don’t have to.

You’ve probably been told to be more organized, more consistent, more emotionally neutral, more… something.

As a mother to a son with ADHD and autism, and also in my coaching work with neurodivergent founders, I’ve seen:

💫 Pattern recognition that’s lightning-fast
💫 Brains that leap to insights no one else sees
💫 Creative thinking that breaks through walls others never question

You’re not “too much.” You’re exactly enough when you stop trying to lead like someone else.

The key isn’t to mask or muscle through.
It’s to design a business that matches your brain. 💜 

It’s about building systems around your strengths and delegating tasks around your struggles.
- Hire great people who love the details
- Set check-ins so nothing relies on memory
- Shape your role around what energizes you

This isn’t about doing less.
It’s about doing what only you can do.
And building the right team to do the rest.

Neurodivergent leadership isn’t a liability. It’s a competitive edge.
But only if you stop fighting yourself...
and start building systems that fit.


👉 Anything you'd add?

PS. This is my 3rd post on neurodivergence. I'll add the link to my previous posts in the comments.

PPS. This is how my son explains what his ADHD/autism brain sounds like:
https://lnkd.in/e3JxK3VP (video credit to connorcallec, it's not my son)

The Day I Earned My Place -- with a Kebab Pizza!!
When I was new at a management consulting firm, I was invited to join a colleague at a client site.

As soon as I arrived, the CEO told me:
“We have a special tradition for new consultants, haha, you’ll see.”

At lunchtime, he took me to a pizzeria and said,
“This is your challenge. No other consultant has ever finished this.”

He ordered me the "House Special” - a kebab pizza loaded with sauce, fries, and extra everything.

I thought, "This is my moment," so I ate the whole thing.

He looked at me and said, “Wow. Not even I have finished it. I always leave the crust!”

And then he said, “I’m in love. Shall we go home and share 2 kilos of tenderloin?”

That afternoon, as we walked around the office, he kept telling people:
“She ate the whole pizza. She ate the 𝙒𝙃𝙊𝙇𝙀 pizza.”

Looking back, it was more than just a funny memory; it was also a test of my resilience.

Here’s what I learned about leadership from that pizza challenge.

- 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀
It wasn’t about the pizza. It was about showing up, saying yes, and giving something your best shot - even when it’s uncomfortable, unusual, or hard. 

- 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁
Had I refused or given up halfway, the outcome might have been different. Often, people respect the effort even more than the result, but in this case, finishing was what mattered.

- 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝘄𝗻 “𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘀”
Whether it’s the first big client meeting, a difficult decision, or (yes) a giant pizza, teams test how you show up under pressure. Leaders remember that and help others succeed in those moments.

- 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿
Yes, we laughed. But I also felt accepted. Leaders create moments that people remember. Those moments often mix challenge, kindness, and fun.

Sometimes leadership starts with a pizza. 💜 


👉 Anything you'd add?

Uncomfortable conversations - how do you deal with them?

Are you approaching them head-on, delaying them, or sticking your head in the sand and hoping they will solve themselves somehow?

This is what I'll be talking about in today's episode of 'Uncomfortable Conversations' on e360tv.

Hi all - time for a poll!
What do you say about this one? :)

If you could travel back in time and relive your life, would you choose the same career/life?

The author can see how you vote. Learn more

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