Instrumentum

Changing the surgical landscape by offering reliable and efficient offsite instrument sterilization to Ambulatory Surgery Centers and Hospitals.

Chief Operating/Growth Officer

Cruxible Partners

Finding talent is a full-time job.  The best candidates aren't looking, they're performing somewhere else.  We'll find them. We've never failed to fill a role.  Period.

Chief Executive Officer

www.eatingcrowpodcast.com

If you are a leader or an entrepreneur this podcast will speak to you (well, I guess that's the point). These are stories of amazing people with the courage to lead and often admit they were wrong and challenge long-held beliefs to make change. Many of these everyday heroes have evolved into leaders and entrepreneurs, and most of their stories have never been heard, until now. Pete Durand interviews people from all walks of life - the military, finance, business, sports, government and education. We learn from their challenges, pitfalls, lessons and how, by eating crow, they used an open mind to adjust their way of thinking and lead others, including their families.

Host of the Eating Crow Podcast

Saebo, Inc.

Saebo, Inc. is a medical device company primarily engaged in the discovery, development and commercialization of affordable and novel clinical solutions designed to improve mobility and function in individuals suffering from neurological and orthopedic conditions. With a vast network of Saebo-trained clinicians spanning six continents, Saebo has helped over 100,000 clients around the globe achieve a new level of independence.

Board Advisor

Netsertive

Chief Revenue Officer

RivalHealth

SaaS enterprise exercise and nutrition app.  Merged with gBehaivor to form www.gopivotsolutions.com

Integrian

Digital video solutions for public safety and transportation.  Sold to Catalyst Manufacturing

Entivity, Inc.

PC-based automation and control platform.  Sold to www. phoenixcontact.com

President and COO

Director of E-Business

ObjectAutomation

Director of Marketing

I'm fortunate to lead two great organizations.

After helping many companies scale with great talent, I've joined Instrumentum as their Chief Operating and Growth Officer, it was just too good to pass up.  My task?  Help the company scale profitably.  How?  People, Process, and Culture.  Fortunately, Cruxible Partners has provided the experience to do just that.

Instrumentum is doing great things - and Cruxible Partners is in the hands of an amazing team, so both are thriving.  Stay tuned as I share how Instrumentum is growing and changing the surgical landscape and how the leadership and talent lessons I've observed and shared over the last seven years at Cruxible are being applied.

Remember:

The average cost of hiring the wrong employee can go as high as $240,000, according to 2021 research from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Ouch.  Been there.

On the flip side, McKinsey & Co. states that hiring a ‘top performer’ over an ‘average performer’ yields up to 67% more productivity and profit.  

Been here too.  Much better place to be.

I've spent 30+ years in corporate America, worked at three startups, and founded two companies myself.  Building teams was and is the most challenging part of the job.

For the past five years I've been working with companies in the following areas:

-Product/market fit
-Marketing strategy and content
-Board advisory and consulting
-Attracting and retaining talent

If you'd like to learn more about how we can work together, please DM me or send me an email at

pdurand@cruxiblepartners.com

Pete Durand

Haven't posted in a while.  

Got me thinking:  "What am I doing here?"

I know many talented people who've used LinkedIn to build a brand or a business.  It didn't happen overnight.  They put in YEARs of work and tweaked their approach along the way.

To name a few:

Alex B Sheridan
Ravi Rajani
Darren McKee
Tom Simmons

I don't "do" business on LinkedIn, but I use it - to network, learn and when appropriate, offer insight into my POV and background, for those who care.

So why did I come back today?

The people I mentioned above keep putting out content I enjoy, learn from and find inspiring.  That simple.

I should do more here, and share what makes #Instrumentum such a great place to work.  I'm blessed - our team is incredible and we've built something special.  

Mishaps along the way, but that's the good stuff.  Mistakes, bad assumptions, pleasant surprises and lessons that help us steer the ship.

Hopefully your feed is full of smart people sharing their knowledge (and scars).

Check out Alex, Ravi, Darren and Tom; you will learn from them every day.

President, Instrumentum | Host of the Eating Crow Podcast | Chairman, Cruxible Partners

Michal Bohanes

Alpha Lead Academy

WHAT WE DO
We help you (B2B consultant or agency owner) build an effective client acquisition system and stop depending on referrals.

HOW DO WE DO IT
We promote the principle "Sales Before Marketing"
Sales = Interrupting someone and asking for their business.
Marketing = becoming known, liked and trusted (via content). 
Sales comes first.
Marketing (i.e. content) serves as Sales Enablement. 
It's there for the person you reached out to - they should see your business has a pulse and that you know your stuff.

WHAT MOST B2B SERVICE PROVIDERS GET WRONG
1) They depend on their network and referrals. Because of that...
--> 2) They don't specialize enough. Revenue uncertainty leads to accepting too many different deals. Because of that...
--> 3) They don't create conveyor-belt style service delivery. Everything they sell is a custom-tailored suit. Because of that...
--> 4) They cannot delegate or automate. Everything depends on the founder. Because of that...
--> 5) They don't have enough time to think strategically and systemically
--> back to 1)

So far, EVERY single client of ours who consistently applied our methodology had at least 300% ROI. That's why we say: If you don't make your money back with our systems in the first 6 months of working with us, we'll refund you.

KNOW MORE? 
Learn more & book a call at www.alphaleadacademy.com

Founder and CEO

Forbes

I wrote 10 articles on Forbes which got a total readership of 150,000+
Portfolio: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michalbohanes/

Writer

Teespring

♦ Grew European revenue run rate by 2.5x in 2015, while the US business was in decline. 
- Pioneered a contest format that grew seller performance by 40% and has since been copied by most Teespring competitors
- Created an education program that improved EU seller success rates by 120% and was then rolled out globally
- Focused the account management team on building closer relationships with the seller base to increase loyalty
- Tightened the org chart (largest team size: 23), created clearer job profiles and drove an output-oriented work ethic
♦ Hired a new Head of Partnerships who achieved the goal of growing partnerships sales from 2% to 10%, earlier than expected
♦ Successfully changed the mindset of the EU product team toward taking frequent and in depth feedback from VIP customers
♦ Nurtured and promoted a key report who subsequently took on a role with global responsibility
♦ Identified underperforming areas of the business and made a team of two redundant
♦ The Commercial team’s account management and customer support were frequently held up as the gold standard across the company.

Commercial Director

Skimlinks

♦ Co-built a new Audience Data product, measuring users' purchasing intent. 
♦ Developed new beta clients: Data Management Platforms and large publishers' marketing leaders

Director of Programmes

Dinnr

♦ Identified market opportunity to deliver recipe ingredients to busy office workers, adapting a successful concept from Scandinavia.
♦ Alpha-tested the opportunity, engaged a co-founder with complementary skills, launched website www.dinnr.co.uk, hired an operations manager and went to market in under 4 months 
♦ First 5 months of trading showed promising revenue growth of 30% month-on-month, with 220 customers and 1200+ signed up users (bootstrapped operations). Subsequent traction proved insufficient, leading to shutdown in January 2014 
♦ Raised crowdfunding of £60k via Seedrs in May 2013
♦ 96% of customers rated experience as “Very Good” or “Excellent”, Net Promoter Score >50 
♦ Positive reviews and mentions in Guardian, Telegraph, Evening Standard as well as several food blogs 
♦ Gained strong experience in managing design and web development projects, team management and motivation, market research and concept validation as well as customer acquisition and retention

Co-founder and CEO

Google

Closed and launched 12 new AdSense and AdX partners, realizing gross revenue of $10m per year.
Developed and nurtured a pipeline of 60+ prospects at B and C level, representing over $100m in potential joint revenue.
Launched first ever AdSense partnership with a transactional e-commerce provider in Germany. 
Launched AdMob In-App Search Ads with a partner, as of June 2012 one of only 3 such implementations in the region.
Advocated for the usage of monetization of non-converting users on e-commerce sites as a speaker at industry events.

Strategic Partner Manager

Region 1 Partnerships Team
Acquiring new and managing existing partners for Google AdSense

Associate Partner Manager

Mindshare

As an MBA final project, identified innovative advertising opportunities and presented recommendations to Mindshare senior management for how to optimise their social media strategy

Developed a conceptual framework to capture value from advertising on Social Networks

Part-Time Freelance Consultant

Strategic Partner Development Intern

Booz Allen Hamilton

Mostly working on projects in Media and Telecommunications in Germany, UK, Belgium, Italy and the Middle East:

♦ Led a team of 15 in developing and implementing productivity performance indicators for a German Telecommunications firm
♦ Conducted market research and managed the development of a new electronic media product used to halt negative growth in a Belgian publishing house, resulting in revenue increase by 2% (EUR 350k)
♦ Developed a media sector privatisation roadmap for a Middle Eastern government by modeling impact scenarios on ad revenues, new technology penetration and profitability of public broadcaster
♦ Co-founded a charity project for Booz Allen in Vienna and raised over EUR 30k
♦ Ranked in the top 15% of cohort performance upon promotion to Associate

Associate

Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)

Summer Intern

Stop Depending on Referrals. Helping 120+ B2B Consultants Add an Extra $30k/m & Solve Client Acquisition Forever

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 #𝟏 for Owners of B2B Service Businesses: 
Depending on Referrals, Inbound & Network --> Revenue Volatility.
𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Learn how to approach & convert strangers. Here's how we'll do it 👇

🏭 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐖𝐄 𝐃𝐎 and 👨 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐖𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐄 👩
We work with Agencies, Consultants & other B2B Service Providers
We help you
✅ define 3-5 offers &  5-10 pain points
✅ reach out to strangers via Cold Email & DMs
✅ test different pain-offer combinations, see what books sales calls
✅ build consistent deal flow that eliminates volatility & adds $10-50k/month revenue

Most of all, we help you reach a predictable CAC-LTV ratio
(Client Acquisition Cost - Customer LifeTime Value)
Once we're done with you, you will know your formula:
Put $1 in, get $3-5 out.
Consistently.
Predictably.

190+ clients served.
Every one of them who followed our playbook
…got at least a 300% ROI within six months (many got way more than that)

🥂 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐒
𝐍𝐢𝐤 𝐋𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐨𝐬 - Data & AI consultant depending on referrals. Closed $85k in new business from 3 deals originated via LinkedIn conversations.
𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐊𝐚𝐮𝐟𝐦𝐚𝐧 - Productized his done-for-you service into a course & coaching format, went from 0-$20k/mo in a few months' time
𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐚 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐚 - from employee to marketing agency owner - closed her first $4k client within 6 weeks
"That clarity I got in our first session was worth the entire investment"
𝐓𝐨𝐧𝐲 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐬𝐨𝐧 - Fractional CFO - signed his first $5k/month retainer client within 2 months
𝐏𝐚𝐯𝐥𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐡𝐚𝐣𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐜 - PE consultant, added 4 large retainer clients
𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐂𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐬 - Fractional CMO. 126 personalized outreaches, 3 calls booked, 1 closed (at $5.5k/mo)
𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐖𝐨𝐣𝐜𝐢𝐤 - HR consultant, from inconsistent 5-$10k months to $25k/mo
"The results I got were nothing short of incredible."
𝐋𝐢𝐳 𝐃𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧 - closed her first $5k coaching client (who paid on the call) within 5 days of working with us 
“I can’t believe what just happened, happened!”

Many more on: www.AlphaLeadAcademy.com (scroll down)

🧪 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐃𝐎 𝐖𝐄 𝐃𝐎 𝐈𝐓?
Cold email & DMs, Lead Nurturing, Closing.
It's not difficult. 1000s people just like you have done it. You can do it, too.

Best part - we have a money back guarantee.
If you don’t make money, we don’t make money.
The risk is 100% on our end, so we’re on the hook to get you the results 😬.

Curious?
Go to www.AlphaLeadAcademy.com (sorry, you’ll have to copy-paste this one)

I see you over there!
Much love
Michal

WHAT WE DO
We help you (small B2B company, solopreneur) build an effective client acquisition system taking into account that some people want to sign up NOW and others need more time.

HOW DO WE DO IT
We help you implement The Funnel 🔻and The Pot 🍲 in your business - 
🔻 Create a compelling acquisition journey for your inbound prospects, taking into account all possible questions and objections they may have.
🍲 Gradually build a content powerhouse that allows you to nurture the "maybe later" people who simply need more time.
Our system allows you to do both: Win new clients instantly as well as create assets for the long run. 

SPECIAL SAUCE
We're not a one-size-fits-all kind of company. 
✅ You need to win new clients pronto? No problem, we'll create a plan to do that. (watch how Dana got herself a client in her first two weeks and Liz in 4 days and Matt made $30k within 11 days of working with us: www.alphaleadacademy.com)
✅ Business is fine, you just want to add rocket fuel? Bingo, we'll create the greatest Pot 🍲 the world has ever seen.
So far, EVERY single client of ours who consistently applied our methodology had at least 300% ROI. And even if it takes you a while - we work together until you start winning big.

KNOW MORE? 
Learn more at www.alphaleadacademy.com

One of our best clients went from one client to 12 clients. $20k/month run rate now.
His numbers? Not spectacular. 

2% call booking rate on LinkedIn. 

One deal per 200-300 people reached.

So what made the difference?

His level of involvement.

Leo came to us without much social proof. No success stories in the field he wanted to enter. Starting from scratch.

And he didn't treat us like we were supposed to solve his problem for him.

A lot of clients do that. They think "I paid you. Now fix my problem."

If that's your energy... "Michal, your system isn't working"... you'll fail.

Here's the analogy… 

Normal college student: consumer mindset. "I'm here. Feed me. This is on you."

MIT PhD student: shows up with an agenda. Obsessed with something. Uses resources to inform THEIR agenda. But they own the process.

Leo was the ultimate elite student.

He milked the program for everything it was worth. Constantly on calls. Constantly asking questions. Submitted every single LinkedIn post for my review.

Sometimes I thought "Jesus, again?"

But he did it exactly right.

Most clients launch a campaign, it doesn't work immediately, and come to us: "It's not working."

That's a consumer mindset. They're expecting me to solve it.

Leo didn't do that. He came in thinking "I'm going to extract every ounce of value. I'm going to test. I'm going to iterate."

That's why he's at $20k/month now.

Not because his numbers were amazing.

Because his MINDSET was amazing.

So ask yourself.

Do you have a consumer mindset or an elite student mindset?

Are you expecting someone to solve your problem?

Or are you going to own your success?

We help B2B service businesses who Depend On Referrals build their first sales system | CEO & Founder at Alpha Lead Academy | 200+ clients served, 2000+ sales calls booked

What shift in B2B client acquisition are people not preparing for?

10X content output without turning into AI slop.

It used to be: one good YouTube video a week. That was the gold standard.

I think we're heading toward a world where top performers produce a video every single day.

Why?

Streamers have the strongest parasocial relationships of any content creators.

Why? Sheer volume of exposure. They stream five hours a day.
(How TF do ppl have time for that? But it works.)

The more exposure, the stronger the connection. It's just math.

As ad costs rise and cold email ROI declines, you need volume AND quality in content.

Most people will respond by producing AI slop. Pump out garbage with ChatGPT.

The real winners will figure out how to extract everything in their brain in a way that's authentic and valuable.

Here's one thing I'm testing 👇

I'm on calls all day. Sometimes I drop actual gems (imagine that!). The client reacts: "Good point."

But how do I capture it without using their video?

I'll have a VA find the timestamp, cut my portion out, feed it into a custom GPT. The GPT spits out a YouTube script. Then I record based on that.

One way to scale without AI slop.

The formula: Quality x Volume = Value.

Quality score of 5/10. 

Each minute = one token. 

One minute at quality 5 = five value units.

The more minutes at that quality level, the more value you create.

And that bar is constantly rising.

If you want to win with content, maximize BOTH quality and volume.

Not one or the other. Both.

That's the shift people aren't ready for.

What do you do when someone ghosts 👻 you after a sales call?

Here's the truth: You can't fix it.

A certain percentage of people will ghost you. 

It's incomprehensible to me.
After an actual human interaction? 
After they've spent an hour analyzing your problem, trying to help you?
And you just f*17!; ghost them?

That's extremely rude.

But - 
getting upset doesn't serve anyone.

Accept it as a fact of life. Like people cutting you off in traffic.

Focus on being so good at sales that you uncover their actual pain points. Go deep. Make them think "wow, this guy saw into my soul."

Then they'll buy. And they won't ghost.

Is there a pattern to who ghosts more?

Yeah.

Bad business people ghost more than good ones.

Salespeople almost never ghost you. And when they do, they're usually not very good.

Employees ghost all the time. Especially lower level ones who aren't decision makers.

(There is a CORRELATION between employee/bad business owners and ghosting)

Don't worry about the "real reasons" someone ghosted. You can't see inside their head.

If you want to reduce it, be disarming on the call: "Okay, so you'll let me know in two days. Really? You're not going to ghost me?"

Light tone. Might get a reaction.

But honestly? Don't focus on it.

Focus on becoming better at sales. 

That's the only thing you can control.

I took on a client I wasn't sure would work.

He helps companies expand into two specific European countries.

When we onboarded him, I thought... how many companies even have this on their agenda?

Felt like a gamble. 
But we offer money back guarantee, so I said let's try it.

It worked.

Surprisingly well.

Turns out a lot of companies DO have geographic expansion on their roadmap.

His numbers weren't spectacular. 1-2% call booking rate on LinkedIn. But he closed deals.

It was a lesson myself. 

Don't over-intellectualize it. 
Just launch.

He didn't succeed on his first campaign. Or his second. Third or fourth is when it started working.

We've worked with 200+ clients. 
We've collected everything that works. 
We're a good resource.

But there's only so much we know. 

Very often it's unpredictable.

In this case, I wasn’t 100% certain it would work. But it worked.

Here's what really matters:

👉 He didn't quit after the first campaign flopped.👈

He kept iterating. 

Most people run one campaign, it doesn't work, and they say "cold email doesn't work."

No.

YOU didn't work.

You gave up too early.

Launch. Test. Iterate. Repeat.

That's the game.

Me: "Hi John. Why did you decide to book the call?"

John: "Well your team was so persistent in their follow ups, they wore me down and here I am."

Me: "haha, yea well we'll help you install similar persistent follow up systems in your own sales funnel."

(40 minutes later)

John: "OK, let's work together. How do I pay?"


"Normal humans" don't make sales happen.

Always remember: 
Sales is a game. 
With its own rules.
It's a special type of human to human interaction. 
You don't win the game by being your normal, friendly, next-door neighbor type. 
You win by doing the things great salespeople do - such as following up until you get told to F-off. 

Is it annoying to the recipient sometimes? 
Sure is.
Just like pre-roll ads, billboards, and 7 Google Ads above the fold. 

But guess what? This stuff makes the world go round. It fuels the economy. It leads to you enjoying your latest iPhone, $29 toaster and latest AI innovation.

(and if you don't like those things, you can opt out of ads, avoid the internet & phones, and live a monk life on a mountain top. You're free to do that.)

So whenever you see someone whining about people not being "real" or "human" in their DMs, just understand: They don't know how to play the sales game. 

You do. 
So play it well.

We help B2B service businesses who Depend On Referrals build their first sales system | CEO & Founder at Alpha Lead Academy

If you have a remote team in the Philippines

...check in on them. A Super Typhoon went through this weekend.

And Taiwan is next. 

Be well everyone over there.

I turned away a prospect last month.

She wanted to create an impact measurement system for purpose-driven businesses. Become the global standard. 

Noble goal.

Terrible business.

When evaluating any business, you need four things: 

Large enough TAM (Total Addressable Market)
Easy to find your prospects
High enough price point
Painkiller, not vitamin

👉 Her business failed all four 👈

TAM: 10,000 companies.

Price: $3,000 LTV. 

Too small. 

Here’s a hard and fast rule: TAM x Price should equal at least $1 billion in potential.

She had maybe $30 million total addressable market. That's not a business. 

That's a hobby 💅

I told her this openly. She acknowledged it. She's going to keep pushing anyway. It's her mission.

But I'm not taking on that risk.

Before you even think about client acquisition, make sure your business fundamentals aren't broken.

Fix the business model first.

Or don't.

But don't come crying to me when it doesn't work.

Here's the big problem with Client Acquisition Cost. 

They keep rising. Unless...

...you ACTUALLY invest into content. 

I know, you heard it before, but few people understand the math here:

Say your CAC with ads or cold email is 30% now. 
(= revenue per client is 10k, CAC = 3k)

That sucker is going to rise over time. 
Faster than you can offset it with higher pricing. 
Soon you'll charge 12k
But CAC will have risen to 5k, i.e. 40%.

And so on it goes. 

The solution: Do content. 
Every day LinkedIn.
Every week YouTube.

High quality stuff. 
Not "Be kind" 🐂💩
No AI slop.
No ghostwritten platitudes. 

The real deal. 
1-2 hours a day. That should be worth your time. 

Because soon you'll have 10% of your total clientele come from content. 
And then 20%. 

The great thing about content-generated revenue? 
It's free. 
(sure, there's the fixed overhead of producing content, but you'll squeeze that into G&A)
And very scalable. 

One month you get 1 client from content
Next month you get 5 - from the same content. 

And as your ad cost rise 
your share of revenue from content rises
which means

👉 Your blended total CAC is falling👈

That's the only way to defeat ever rising CAC.

You have to work 60h/week if you have kids

80h/week if no kids. 

That's the bare minimum you need to clear if you want to get to the next level of business existence. 

👉 From referral/network dependence to having a client acquisition system that books calls with strangers
👉 From solo with VAs to having your first full-time employee
👉 From non-paid ads to paid ad VSLs
👉 From you in the weeds of client delivery to to your just doing high-level relationship management. 
👉 From weekly to daily 2h of content production

If you're not putting in the time, you will stay stuck at your current level. 

The Pillow People 🛌 will tell you "Work smart, not hard"
And that's why they are Pillow People 🛌
(broke, ADD, constantly scrolling, self-righteous about their mediocrity)

The raw number of focused hours per week you're putting in - matters.

"Just put out content and the right people will come to you."

This advice drives me up the wall.

Not because content is bad. 

(We're betting our entire future on content)

But if content is your ONLY strategy early stage... you will starve.

You'll put out content for six months, twelve months, see no ROI. 

Meanwhile you need to eat.

Here's my philosophy, stolen from guys smarter than me:

Sales before marketing.

Sales = interrupting somebody and making an offer. 

Cold email. Cold calls. Ads. Interruption based outreach.

Marketing = becoming known, liked and trusted.

Use sales to get to seven figures first.

Why am I betting everything on content then?

Because cold email and ads work NOW. I'm booking 15 calls a day. 

👉 But costs always go up. ROI slowly declines.👈

Building a personal brand is the best insurance policy against rising acquisition costs.

Here's the roadmap… 

Get 10 success stories using sales. Don't charge much. Just get validation.

Outsource as much transactional sales as you can.

Invest all your freed up time into content.

The outreach? That's the stopgap that keeps you from going hungry while you build the real asset.

Your personal brand.

But you need sales revenue first to fund it.

Stop putting the cart before the horse.

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭: "So you're a leadgen agency?"
𝐌𝐞: "No. We're system builders."
𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭: "What's the difference?"

𝐌𝐞: "Imagine you have a magic trumpet. If you play it in front of a forest, animals come out to see what's up."

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭: "Go on?" 

𝐌𝐞: "The thing is - the trumpet is not very well tuned* and all kinds of animals come out. But you only want wild boars. You're not interested in deer, squirrels... and whatever those things are called that look like Elijah Wood."

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭:  "Owls?"

𝐌𝐞: "Exactly. Owls. The second problem is: The forest edge is 100 meters away. Hard to hit a boar, especially when there's a bunch of other animals around that you're not interested in."

So the first thing we have to do is to fine-tune your trumpet to only or mostly attract wild boar. 

The second thing: We want to coax the wild boar out to come closer. That way, you can aim at it from close up."

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭:  "And that's what you do?"

𝐌𝐞: "Exactly. A leadgen agency is someone who blows the trumpet, throws a lasso at the animals, drags one of them out a few meters as it's struggling to break loose, all the while they shout at you to shoot it quick, all the while you're scrambling to take aim at long range."

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭: "And you? What do you do differently? 

𝐌𝐞: "For starters, we give you your own trumpet. You want to learn to play it because this is about your own livelihood. If you eat wild boar, you have to know how to hunt it."

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭: "Makes sense. And then?"

𝐌𝐞: "Then we help you fine tune* it so that only boar come out and you don't have to bother with squirrels and Elijah Wood.

And then finally, we show you how to lay acorns at 2 meter intervals so that the boar gradually comes out of the forest until it's in front of you and you can easily hit it."

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭: "What are the acorns in this analogy?"

𝐌𝐞: "Content. Explainer videos, nurturing emails, client testimonials etc. Bombard your prospects with real value so that they're half-sold when they join the call."

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭:  "A compelling picture. You, Michal, are a true genius in instructive didactive storytelling."

𝐌𝐞: "I know. People tell me all the time."

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭: "When can we start?" 

Conversation only edited for clarity. 
Definitely happened. 




* I assume you tune trumpets. Dunno. 

This post is inspired by Lewis Dennen.

"27 touchpoints needed before making a B2B Sale"

BS. 

All you need is
1) A good cold email
2) A super solid 10-30 minute Thesis video where you explain what you do and how
3) Undeniable social proof. 

We routinely sign clients off the back of that. 
People peddling the "27 touchpoints" nonsense are just trying to sell you something that's unnecessarily complicated.

Would you agree to this pact? 

1) Go to jail for 2 years. 
2) After 2 years, $1,000,000 land in your bank account, tax free. 
(btw - this pact assumes you're not a millionaire. Stay with me)

Tricky, eh? 

Here's the fine print:
It's a special jail.
You sit in a jail cell, alone, for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week.
No cellmates, no other people. 
Nothing for you to do there. All you can do is meditate for 12 hours a day. 
No books, no internet, no entertainment.  
And - In the evening you go back to your family, have dinner, spend the night, have breakfast.
Back to jail the next day. 
Sundays, you get off - can spend the whole day with your family. 
Once a year, you get 1 week to go anywhere you'd like.
You won't see anyone else but your immediate family. 
All the while, your loved ones are provided for. 
You can quit any time.

So that's the deal.
Would you agree to this?

Don't lie :-)
Of COURSE you would. 

So if that's a yes, 
...it should be a breeze to agree to these terms:
1) Instead of going to jail, you just quarantine yourself off from 
a) any social interaction outside of core family
b) any form of entertainment
c) any other vice (so that you have optimal health)

2) You work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week on the biggest bottleneck in your business. 

3) You engineer your business towards $100-200k revenue months being a possibility. 
(e.g. by making value delivery to clients not depend on you personally)

Assuming you have a 1-person consulting business at $5-20k/mo right now
...don't you think it's LIKELY that after 2 years of this, you'd reach $100k/mo?

Or at least, don't you think it'd be worth a shot? 
Suck it up for 2 years and make a significant jump in your net worth? 

The shocking thing:
Most people would actually NOT do it. 
And that's your chance. 
If you say yes to these VERY doable terms, you're already in the top 1%.

Now just execute.

Reminder: This is your permission 

...to stop talking to the Pillow People 🛌 who want you to play small so that they don't feel bad about their own under-achievement. 

It's ok to stop talking to these people 👇.
I don't talk to them anymore. 

A big dream is a very fragile thing. 
Influential people in your orbit can snuff it out. 
Don't let them. 

Every single time someone influential around you
(or even someone online commenting on your post)
tries to influence you with BS like 

--> "Well not everyone needs to be rich"
--> "What's the point of working so much"
--> "You're wasting your life away, live a little."

...you need some form of defense. 

🧱 Some people can just compartmentalize and ignore. 
🧱 Others need to clap back.

Other people (and I'm one of them) get influenced easily. 
I'm too empathetic.
I tend to care about people's opinions too much.

And so I need to 

🧱 withdraw. 
Because their words infect my thinking. I give them too much credence. I listen. And I can easily fall for their siren song of comfort and mediocrity. 

And so my rule is:
If you don't support me in my goals and aren't cheering me on in the accomplishment of milestones on my way, I'm not going to have you in my life.

And then I think "isn't this very self-absorbed like I'm the center of the universe?"
(told you, I care about others' opinions too much)

It isn't. 
If they have goals, I'll support them and cheer THEM on. 
How cool is it having a friend who's training for an Ultra Marathon, an Everest Climb, a shot at playing in the Carnegie Hall?
I'd be their biggest fan, ask about progress, and be genuinely thrilled if they break through a barrier. 

All I ask for is that you do the same with me.

Yes, it can get lonely. 
But that's the price to pay.
And that's ok.

What's the actual process for writing cold emails that book calls?

Most people overthink it.

Here's what we do with every client:

In depth analysis of pains and problems.

There's a difference.

Pain = "I have a stomachache" 
Problem = "You have an ulcer"

Your prospects come with pain. They feel something is wrong. But they often misdiagnose the problem.

Classic example: Company has high employee churn.

Their diagnosis: "People don't want to work anymore."

Real problem: They're not paying enough. Or culture is toxic. Or the CEO is a tyrant.

When you link their pain to the specific problem... then present yourself as the solution... instant rapport.

👉A good cold email needs to attract the brain AND the heart 👈

Brain = attracted to the offer. 

"We help you build an outreach system that gets 10-20 calls/month."

Heart = triggered by the pain point. 

For us: "depending on referrals."

Most of our clients HATE depending on referrals. That one line has made us over a million dollars.

Pain. Problem. Offer.

Your clients have multiple pain points. Figure out which one is the BIGGEST.

That's the one that gets attention.
That's the one that books the call.
Hit both brain and heart.

Or you're wasting your time.

"There's more to life than money"

Here's why that's a 5tup!d take 👇

I can't believe how often grown men on LinkedIn are arguing with me about how it's bad to pursue wealth creation.
"Not everyone has these goals"
"There are more important things than making money"

Yes, darling. There IS more to life than money. 
Of course. 

BUT:
If you don't prioritize making money
...then all of those other, also-important and arguably more-important, things will be
--> harder
--> less enjoyable
--> far more painful because in many situations, an empty bank account will make decisions for you. 

Perfect example: A sick pet. 
Would you pay $7,000 for a life-saving surgery for your dog? 
Well, if you're a "there's more to life than money" type of person, then $7k might be too much of a stretch and you'll have to put Buster down. 

How's that for quality of life? 
How are those "more important things" going for ya? 

The key thing is, though - I'm not arguing with these people
...to change THEIR minds. 

They're lost.
Deep down they know they're wrong, and their public virtue signalling is nothing but a cope.
But now that they have committed to this goody-two-shoes identity, they'll defend it forever.
And they defend it loudly.
There's SO many of them.
And they have a lot of time on their hands. (naturally)
The LinkedIn comment section is chock FULL of them.

I'm only arguing with them to show you I'm here. 

Because this NPC "there's more to life..." slop is EVERYWHERE. 
It surrounds you in life, at work, on LinkedIn. 
And if you don't build up massive, impenetrable walls around you to prevent this propaganda from seeping into your brain, you'll fall for it. 

You'll become the pulled-down crab in the bucket. 

The truth is: 
If you have the smarts, the guts and the dream to build wealth, you MUST do it. 
You owe it to your family.
Everything else would be selfish.
You need to realize your potential. 
Otherwise you're like a musically talented kid who allows their skills to atrophy due to laziness.

Your dream is your burden to carry.

So instead of listening to the NPCs and their little five-figures-a-year type of conditional happiness (= conditional on not having dreams and no disaster striking them ever)...

👉...go find your tribe 👈 

The people who agree with you and help pull you up towards a higher plane of existence. 

The plane where you 
--> paying for Buster's surgery is a foregone conclusion (and you won't even have to make adjustments)
--> don't have to fix up your own garden (you just pay a landscaper)
--> don't have to weigh your luggage before a flight (you just fly business, first, or private)
--> don't have to drive 54 minutes round trip to do pilates (you just set up your own gym at home and have the trainer come to you)

Find the others.
They are out there. 
Don't listen to the NPCs.

taplio

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