Richard Russell Coaching

ADHD Coach

I split my time between Luxembourg and London.
Available for NED and Fractional Hybrid roles also.

Product Leadership Coach

Whether you’re scaling a product-led company or transforming how you work, I can help you move faster, with less pain *

* There's always pain. Anyone who says otherwise is lying.

But we can make the pain worth it.

My product and engineering background from Google, Amazon and my exposure to countless startups and corporates means I understand where you're coming from.

My experience across every function (marketing, strategy, partnerships, operations, customer service and more) and in many industries (SaaS, Consumer Internet, Retail, Travel, Logistics, Banking, Insurance, MedTech, Crypto, Media, etc) means I know where you want to go.

The key for most of my clients is helping them empower themselves so they can empower their teams. This means transforming from tactical and functional to strategic and cross-functional, developing courage to take the right risks, and balancing the need to hold firm on some topics while disagreeing and committing to the rest of the executive team on others.

If this sounds like you, book a free chemistry call and we can get to know each other and see if there is a fit.

Scaleup Leaders

I host a video podcast and write a newsletter for and about leaders who are scaling up.

Creator & Host

Amazon

Two roles, firstly driving pan-European technology projects to improve the European customer experience, and secondly in consumer localization, where we translate and localize millions of product listings each day across all Amazon’s marketplaces

* Acting Director for Consumer Localization from Jul-Nov 2015 with multi-discipline team of 100
Leading 2016 planning with 2.5x revenue growth (goal met in October 2016), and 2017 planning with 2x revenue growth

* 2015 Q4 Localization output exceeded previous seven quarters combined, and 2016 year end goal met during 2016 Q2

* Cut the time to launch new languages by six months (50%), without affecting revenue or customer experience

* Led “language of preference” program for global consumer websites, delivering second language experience on multiple marketplaces (e.g. Amazon.de and Amazon.co.jp in English), and a program of ongoing expansion to new market segments

* Proposed and secured funding for a broad technology transformation program covering hundreds of interdependent services to allow Amazon’s consumer websites to use non-latin languages

Senior Manager Product Development

High Street Labs

Developed Wlcome (yes, welcome without the e) a mobile loyalty app for brick-and-mortar stores, using geo-location to automatically check a customer into a store location to provide personalised service, loyalty rewards, and payments.

I developed the proof of concept, then product managed ongoing development with offshore dev team. I launched pilot in two coffee shops with 60 weekly actives after 1 month. I learnt a huge amount about marketing and innovation - the hard way!

In November 2013, after becoming a father, I took an interim role as Chief Product Officer at MoPowered, a listed mobile commerce startup.

MoPowered provides a SaaS solution to online retailers, enabling them to sell on the mobile channel. I took on management of the R&D division (Engineering, Product, QA, UX and Security).

- Implemented an agile transformation, accelerating release cycle from quarterly to weekly

- Halved merchant integration costs, reduced maintenance cost per issue from days to hours

- Implemented UI overhaul to enable metrics-driven user experience improvements, increasing basket size and conversion rate for our customers, and enabling improvements across multiple clients at once

- Created a hiring pipeline, set up recruiting process, and trained team on interviewing techniques, doubling team size from 8 to 18 people in 4 months.

- Proposed strategy to reduce cash burn, reducing locations and headcount, bringing key functions in-house, and focusing on product development, implemented by new management after I left

Founder

Google

I was part of the engineering team reporting through the sales division. Over four roles, I was responsible for: delivering Google AdSense technology to European partners including search engines (eg Ask Jeeves, Seznam.cz), portals (AOL, Yahoo), publishers (eg El Pais, De Telegraaf, Le Monde), and broadcasters (eg Channel 4, Sky); developing eCommerce payment partnerships for Google Checkout (eg Kiddicare, eBuyer); negotiating partnerships for global public transport agencies (eg TfL London, Deutsche Bahn, and MTA New York) to put their data on Google Maps; and managing a client solutions team supporting advertising agencies (WPP, Publicis, Omnicom) buying ads through DoubleClick BidManager.

- Recruited and managed a team of 5 in London and Paris offices, receiving a 94% rating as a manager from my team, representing top quartile performance across the business

- Built tools used by DoubleClick Bid Manager Sales & Services teams saving >20 FTEs globally

- Executed EMEA Bid Manager upgrade project, exceeding US counterpart team on all key metrics

- Developed tools to enable scaling of map data operations, launching 4x faster with 50% fewer FTEs

- Product managed european Checkout features including VAT, Chip-and-PIN, and Contactless Payments

- Managed AdSense Broadcast, Publishing and Portal partnerships worth £100M/yr with 80% YoY growth

Senior Engineer & Manager

Deutsche Bank

Ran a team which would now be known as DevOps, managing the build and deployment process and environments for Deutsche Bank’s market-leading online wholesale foreign exchange, bonds and derivatives trading platform, Autobahn, working with traders from DB and white label clients.

- Promoted to team lead, developed release process and launched new product 3x faster than before

- Planned and executed the first successful Business Continuity Test in Global Markets eCommerce

Lead Deployment Engineer, Global Markets eCommerce

Yellow Goanna PTY LTD

IT Infrastructure Consulting - clients included The RSPCA South Australia, The South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service, Austrics (Trapeze), a Satellite ISP Startup, and a B2B Accounting Startup
- Deployed a Satellite ISP and Education CDN in schools around rural South Australia
- Consulted for an online accounting startup, advising on technology strategy
- Developed and run a diploma level IT course for TAFE SA

Systems Administrator and Consultant

Department for Environment and Water

Managing production, development and testing Solaris server environments for mission-critical services for Department of Environment and Heritage (DEH), a preceding agency of DEW.

Systems Administrator

Trapeze Group

Developing a new user interface for a public transport management product.

Programmer - AUSTRICS (Acquired by Trapeze)

Helping leaders do more with less | OKRs & Leadership | ex Amazon & Google

* There’s always pain. Anyone who says otherwise is lying.
But we keep it to a minimum—and make the progress worth it.

You've read the books.
You're working harder than ever.
But the changes aren't sticking, and you're slipping behind.

Ever felt like that?

The three usual suspects:

𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭: Teams pull in different directions
𝐎𝐰𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐆𝐚𝐩𝐬: Decisions stall in deadlock
𝐒𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Bold slides, but nothing ships

If you don't change, you’ll miss opportunities, exhaust talent, and watch faster players overtake you.

And it will keep getting worse.

I help you break that cycle — fast.

I’ve led large teams at Amazon and Googl, helped 20+ startup executives navigate these challenges successfully and worked with corporates up to Fortune 500 scale. I love helping leaders like you bridge the gap between technical excellence and business leadership.

These challenges show up differently for every leader, but here are some recent results:

🔥 Series C CEO – Unblocked strategy, shipped a scalable fix in weeks, then raised a Series D.
🔥 Series A CEO – Broke the decision bottleneck, strengthened delegation, and cut attrition.
🔥 Series C VP Eng – Beat impostor syndrome, shaped strategy, and stepped up to CTO.
🔥 GM, Traditional BU – Shifted a 70-person product org from tech-focused order-takers to customer-centric empowered teams.

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧?

Here's how I can help:

✅ Focused coaching, one-to-one or with your leadership team, to get you unstuck fast
✅ Facilitated strategy, OKR, planning and review workshops to create momentum
✅ Develop proven leadership habits to help you maintain progress
✅ Targeted training to upskill teams

As an individual, this will help you:

👉 Move from functional leadership to company-wide impact
👉 Build alignment across growing teams
👉 Navigate relationships with co-founders and stakeholders
👉 Transition from BigTech or Corporate to Scaleup leadership

For your organisation, this will help you:

🎯 Build your management operating system
🎯 Develop clear vision, strategy, and goals (OKRs)
🎯 Create cross-team alignment and buy-in
🎯 Build execution and review cadences that drive consistent results

Message me to explore if we're a good fit.

Richard Russell

“Best Conference Ever”
“One and a half days of inspiration”
“We made so much progress”

Real quotes from leaders at a transformation conference for a Swedish company that I really enjoyed leading over the past two days.

Heading home now - tired, but energised and happy.

I could do this again. :-)

Performance Coach for ADHD Leaders | Business Coach for Product and Scaleup Leaders | I help you move faster — with less pain*

No alternative text description for this image

I'm on my way to Stockholm for a transformation workshop with a client.

Looking forward to this!

Who doesn't love to receive feedback like this?

"The conference was one of the best, if not in fact the best conference I have attended" - from Håkan Johansson, Lead Business developer,  Tietoevry Industry.

At the end of the conference, I asked each of the 45 attendees for one word that described their experience. The number of people who said some variation of "hope", "inspiration", "progress", or "team" was overwhelming - such a thrill to hear.

I loved the energy, enthusiasm, and potential in this team - and it was a privilege to lead them through this conference kicking off their transformation project. I'm excited to see what they come up with.

I’m in Sweden, at this lovely villa in the snow. The conference starts in 90 minutes and I’m all set.

Yes, most of the preparation happened last minute. I spent a few weeks percolating ideas, with very little to show for it. Then the deadline looms, adrenaline kicked in and I focused like a weapon and got the whole workshop built in a day.

I used to think of this as procrastination and beat myself up for not getting it all done ahead of time.

But now I know this is how I do my best work. The time before the deadline is my brain doing the work in the background. Making connections, testing insights, iterating through concepts.

I have made peace with it, and it works.

How do you do your best work?

Is ADHD really a “deficit” or a “disorder”?

Technically yes, that’s what the definition says.

But practically, it’s just a difference, which at least 5% of the population share - and likely more.

The real deficit and disorder is in our expectation that everyone should be the same.

Yes there are disadvantages to having ADHD. But the with every disadvantage comes an advantage.

Distractability —> Curiousity
Impulsivity —> Creativity
Hyperactivity—> Drive

The challenge is not how to compensate for the weaknesses so much as how to maximise the advantages.

Build a career that fits your brain.
Don't try to adapt your brain to suit someone else's ideal career.

Most careers demand attention to detail and consistent execution. Fast brains tend to fail at this.

 You'll be told to adapt, be more consistent, get organized, try harder, hustle more.

But here's the truth: you're trying to wear someone else's career.

It's like wearing someone else's underpants—fun initially, but gets weird fast, and you're gonna end up with a career wedgie.

So start with your brain.

Find out what your real strengths are. Not just what you're good at, but what gives you energy.

Because if you build around that, your work amplifies you instead of fighting you. That's when you can be world-class.

Ask yourself:
→ What do I do effortlessly that others find hard?
→ What lights me up?

Design around the overlap. Build a career that works for you.

If you agree, hit the share or like button.

If you're a fast brain leader frustrated by the gap between your potential and actual performance, you probably know what to do.

Exercise, sleep, nutrition, habits, productivity systems—it's not rocket science.

But here's the problem: knowing isn't doing.

When you're a fast brain leader, you know what to do, how to do it, when to do it, why to do it.

But actually doing it? That's the hard part.

There's one key thing that makes the biggest difference:

Being surrounded by people who are trying to do the same thing.

* Your spouse as a supportive partner
* Friends who get it
* A coach (reach out if interested)

But one of the best ways is community

That's why I'm setting up Fast Brain Leaders—a community for people working on closing that gap between potential and performance.

We share the same challenges.
We support each other through them.
We've just started.

Check it out at fastbrainleaders.com

Is ADHD overdiagnosed?

No.

About 5% of the population have ADHD.
About 0.5% of the population have a diagnosis.

Yes, we're seeing a lot more awareness and a lot more diagnoses now than ever before. 

But when telescopes were invented, and people got hold of them and started pointing them at the night sky, we started seeing more stars than ever before. 

That doesn't mean that the new stars we saw were "over-detected" or were created by the telescope. We just got better at seeing them.

Same with ADHD.

We are more aware. We're better at assessing it. There are more people qualified to make assessments than ever before (but still nowhere near enough). So we're seeing more of it.

If you're finding yourself frustrated by the gap between your potential and your performance, and you find some things hard that other people find easy, and if "trying harder" or "discipline" just doesn't seem to work for you, maybe you should get checked out too.

Who cares what the nay-sayers think? This isn't about them - it's about you, and finding out what works for you.

But even if you can't find an assessment (there can be long waiting lists), you might benefit from non-medical help like coaching or community. Nothing stops you from getting help without a formal diagnosis.

“See, in my world, leftover pizza is not a thing. If I order a pizza, I’m going to eat THE PIZZA. Not a slice or two, but THE PIZZA. There won’t be leftover pizza. Heh. Leftover pizza. Even the name sounds funny. It’s like leftover wine. It’s not a real thing for the majority of us with ADHD.” - Peter Shankman , Faster Than Normal

ADHD-dar: that seemingly supernatural ability of people with ADHD to find and befriend other people with ADHD in any group setting, even when they aren’t (yet?) diagnosed themselves.

FAQ: Yes I am still offering product leadership, scaleup exec team, and transformation coaching.

I’ve been talking about ADHD coaching for leaders a lot because I love it, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped doing what I was doing.

If you need help with:
- transition to the product model (eg from projects or feature factory)
- strategy development and execution including OKRs
- becoming a leader whether as a CEO, CPO, executive or even first time manager of product manager

I’m here for you. 

I work with leaders from vc-backed startups (eg series B-D CEOs), Fortune 500 companies (eg VP product), and individual leaders.

There’s still time left if 2025 to get help within this years budgets.

Connect and send a DM for a chat.

“You just have to try harder.”

Every ADHDer’s heard this — from teachers, bosses, even friends.

And for most people, it’s good advice. Doing important things gives their brains a dopamine hit — the “feel-good” that powers motivation.

But ADHD brains work differently.
We’re already trying harder.
The problem isn’t effort — it’s chemistry.

We don’t get dopamine from what’s important.
We get it from what’s interesting — things that are novel, challenging, urgent, or fun.

That’s why what’s easy for most people can feel impossible for us, and what they find hard can light us up.

So stop trying harder.
Start working with your brain:
make tasks interesting, share the load, trade strengths.

Effort isn’t the issue.
Alignment is.

I’m excited because the founding group of fast brain leaders kicks off tomorrow (Thursday) at 4pm UK/5pm Europe, and every Thursday after that.

Interested?

Send a DM!

Most day planners make fast-brain leaders feel worse, not better.

You open them up and they’re full of:

abandoned weeks
half-finished days
old goals you don’t even recognise
and the quiet shame of “why can’t I just stick to this?”

I’ve tried everything:
Bullet journals, GTD, digital calendars, beautiful spreads, colour coding…
And every system eventually collapsed under the weight of its own expectations.

Here’s what finally worked for me:

👉 A one-page daily plan you throw away at the end of the day.

No backlog.
No planner guilt.
No flipping through old failures.
Just a clean slate — every single morning.

I’ve been using this for months now, and it’s the first planning system that genuinely works with (not against) a fast brain.

I recorded a short video showing exactly how I use it, including:

how to time-block your day realistically
how to choose your One Thing
how to adapt the plan when life inevitably changes
why throwing the page away is the magic

🎥 Watch the video here:
https://lnkd.in/eWaV37Z4

📄 And if you want the free Fresh Start Daily Planner PDF:
https://lnkd.in/eukdqBTp

If you struggle with consistent days — or feel a bit ashamed looking at your old planner — this might help you reset your relationship with planning altogether.

A fresh start, every day.

Sometimes when people connect to me I ask them if they are just here for the content or if they are dealing with ADHD themselves.

It’s a way to open up conversations - and seems pretty natural to me as an ADHD coach who mentions it in my banner, my headline and most of my content.

But last week, the question upset someone who considered it too personal and “unprofessional“.

What’s your take?

Bear in mind that my reason for posting about ADHD on LinkedIn, and the reason most people connect with me is because a core part of my business is helping people with ADHD, and so my question is basically “are you looking for my help?”.

Just listened to Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal’s three episodes on Google (links in comment).

Had two realisations:

1) Google’s best days were approximately 2006-2012 - not coincidentally, the years I was there. I can’t claim credit for everything, but I played my part!

Released or acquired in that period: YouTube, DoubleClick, Android, Docs, Chrome, Nexus (now Pixel), “the cat paper” (which led to the Transformer that is the T in GPT), Drive, Workspace, Appengine (now Cloud), Checkout (now Wallet), Analytics, Calendar, Transit and Traffic (on Maps), Play store, Photos, Hangouts (now Meet), Translate, etc

2) Google is not a product company. It’s a technology company. Every really successful product is built on a technical insight (and brilliant infrastructure), not a product or customer insight.

Similarly, Amazon is an operations company. Microsoft is a sales and marketing company. Netflix is a media company.

Apple and Meta (Facebook) are the only big tech product companies.

What’s your thoughts?

Throwing away my day plan at the end of every day was the key that unlocked the power of day planning for me!

I used to use the Time Block Planner from Cal Newport, but flicking through the days and weeks of failed plans always got me down and made it hard to restart.

Try this method: https://lnkd.in/eMqaAuih (free pdf template)

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

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

Mark my words.

Don't use AI for creative tasks like writing. 

You'll regret it 5 years from now when your critical thinking faculties will have vanished, your brain is mush and you'll be a drooling, unemployable ADD-riddled mess who cannot even write a correct English sentence that's longer than "Be kind." 

Use AI for 
surface level research
orienting yourself in a new field of knowledge
extracting key info from large volumes of data
and a ton of other clerical, lower value activity. 

But do NOT use it for writing, especially long form. 

Writing is crystallized thinking. 
If you stop writing, your thinking will become muddled, circular and blunt. 

Don't outsource your key moneymaker.

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

A very bad sales habit. 

Avoid it at all cost 👇

The narcissistic urge to sell "your way". 

When a prospect tells you to pitch them, for Goodness' sake - pitch them. 

Don't try to
🙄 establish rapport
🙄 build a relationship
🙄 ask smart, insightful questions

Just cut to the chase and pitch. 

The more money our business makes, the more I can spend on services. 
And the less patience I have for 🐂💩.

Rookies and broke people buy based on emotion. 
You need to ingratiate yourself with them and find the right angle. 
They're the ones who'll complain about pitchslapping and how "LinkedIn is for networking and relationship building, not for pitching"
They're well justified for saying that. 
They're broke, after all.

And most people would rather confirm their identity than to change it 
(which is painful)

But when you sell to successful people*
...two things happen
1) You get less opportunity to find out about them. They'll tell you less about themselves. They have no time to waste on a stranger. 
2) You can charge way more.

That means your pitch needs to be tight & clean. 
No fluff. 
No emotional debris. 
Just pure value in as few words as possible. 

Here's what our friend Harvey should have said instead of foolishly insisting on "no slam pitches"

"Hey Michal, appreciate the straight talk. 
So here's what we do - we have a unique prospecting method that removes the cognitive load from the setter by cautiously using AI, all the while keeping conversational pitches very personal and non-AI looking.
The result: 5-10% call booking rate from conversational prospecting at a ~$3k/mo cost per LinkedIn account. 
We're seeing ~1-2 calls booked per day. At 20-40 calls / month and a modest 10% close rate and a $10k ticket, this could be a 10x ROI for you. 
Is that worth a 20 min chat and demo?"

Here's why this would be a great pitch
--> Clearly states what they specialize in: Conversational prospecting on LinkedIn.
--> Hints at a unique methodology that removes a frequently occurring pain point: Cognitive effort in convo prospecting. (a problem indeed) 
--> Shows he knows his numbers. 
--> Shows he cares about my results. 
--> By choosing to pack it tightly into a pitch, he respects my time, and I can tell I'm going to be working with a pro. 

When a prospect tells you to pitch them, pitch them. 

And do it well. 

This is basic Sales 101: Sell like the prospect wants to be sold to. 


* I'm not counting myself among the "successful" yet. 
But at least I'm more successful now than I was 1,2,3,4,5 years ago. 
It's all relative anyway.

Mark went from sub-$10K --> $30K/month in 6 months.

When he came to us, he had 0 outbound skills. 100% reliant on referrals.

And he was deeply uncomfortable with sales.

His biggest problem? Mindset.

He wasn't working enough. He was too relaxed about the business. Didn't want to work past 5pm.

Had a wife and small kid. So working evenings and weekends felt like a sacrifice.

But here's the reality: if you want to go from $10K to $30K, you have to work more.

At least for a couple years.

We helped him accept that. Accept that he'd need to put in 60-80 hour weeks for a while.

Evenings. Weekends. Whatever it takes.

That's just the price of admission.

Mark also needed structure.

He was super friendly. Extroverted. Great with people. Charismatic on camera.

But frazzled. Disorganized. Not a numbers guy. Not a spreadsheet guy.

We got him tracking his numbers. We got him organized. We got him doing content consistently.

And we taught him how to do conversational prospecting on LinkedIn.

He started approaching strangers. Having friendly conversations. Booking calls.

He was hitting 100+ connection requests per week. Then ramped to 200/week using automation.

35-40% invite acceptance rate. 
50% of connections turned into conversations. 
20% of conversations turned into calls. 
25-30% of calls converted to customers.

The numbers worked.

But here's the meta lesson:

You can't just "be yourself" and expect to scale from $10K to $30K.

You have to change a few things about yourself.

Mark was proud of his work. He loved his craft. He wanted to stay in his world and just practice his art.

But to scale, he had to become friendly with spreadsheets. He had to track metrics. He had to get comfortable with sales.

He did. And it took him from sub-$10K to $30K/month.

He ended up with three active clients (I'm sure more since we parted ways). 
A solid pipeline. 
And the confidence that he can get new clients whenever he needs them.

That's the transformation.

From "I hope someone refers me" 
...to "I know how to get clients whenever I want."

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?

Everyone tells you to niche down from day one.

"Pick your avatar. Get specific. Narrow your focus."

And they're half right.

Which makes them completely wrong.

Because there's actually three phases to building a successful B2B service business. And if you skip the first phase... or stay stuck in it too long... you'll fail.

When you're starting out, you have no idea what works. You don't know who to sell to. You don't know what to sell. You don't even know if you're good at anything.

So you sell everything to everyone. 

You carry people's fridges downstairs if they need it.

This isn't a mistake. 
This is REQUIRED.
You're experimenting. 

I did this for years. 
I was a "content marketing agency"
👉 Wrote newsletters for VC firms. 
👉 Whitepapers for HR tech scaleup
👉 Ghostwrote a hardcover book for an SEO agency
👉 Even wrote some travel slop for someone on UpWork for $20/hr.

Whatever you needed, I wrote it. It was messy. But necessary.

That gets you to 10k/month.

Once you hit 10k, everything changes. 👇
Now you need to narrow down. Exclude more people. Do fewer things.
Why? Because delivery at scale matters.

You need a conveyor belt. Someone comes in, you put them on the belt, they go through your system. You can't do that if you're doing custom work for everyone.
This phase is about ruthlessly cutting.

We went from 
"Content marketing agency" 
to "helping coaches, consultants, and agency owners build client acquisition systems" 
to "building cold outreach funnels for consultants and agency owners."

No more coaches - too many woo woo types. 
No more "client acquisition systems" - too broad
Just cold outreach funnels. That's it.
Fewer things. Fewer people. 
More revenue.

That gets you from 10k to 300k/month.
This is where most people get stuck. They stay broad too long. Or they never narrow enough.
Then there's phase three. 

Once you're past $3 million... THEN you can go broad again.
Why? Because now you can hire world class people. Pay them $300k/year. They build you new verticals.
But you're not there yet. 
(And neither am I)

The hourglass looks like this:
--------- Start broad. Learn what works. Get to 10k.
----        Go narrow. Build systems that scale. Get to 300k.
--------  Go broad again. Hire people who can handle complexity. Get past 3M.

Most people do it backwards.
They niche down immediately. Before they know what works. They pick the wrong niche. They're stuck.

Or they stay broad forever. They hit 10k and plateau. Can't scale because everything is custom.

Start wide. Narrow down. Then wide again.
That's the path.

* Serious business coaches we still work with, as long as their work leads to positive ROI. Just no life, confidence, and mindset coaches.

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.

I care about how many hours you work.

I care if in your spare time you come up with ideas to make the business more money.

I care if you act like a co-owner in the business, even if you aren't.

Because those qualities will stand you in very good stead:
1) I'll reward you
2) You'll carry this reputation with you wherever you go
3) You'll expand your opportunities - whether you want to stay employed or have your own business at some point.

If you insist on walking the dog, taking 75 minute lunch breaks, and working from the beach, you're much less likely to make the business more money

...than your colleague who's locked in, working 10 hour days for the business.

If, as a young person, you prioritize work life balance over achievement and success, you'll regret it later in life.

A LOT.

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.

Money Twitter content is spectacularly good. 

LinkedIn business content is borderline retärded. 

People posting
--> incredibly obvious business platitudes "in the end, business is all about the people." 
--> wondrous excitement about wheel reinventions "guys, I think we have to work SMART, not hard!"
--> virtue signalling a la "I hired a psychotic hobo as our new CFO, and he's amazing. Give people a chance #BeKind"

There's a reason people make fun of LinkedIn content on Reddit and X. 
This place is the laughing stock of the cool kids. 

But guess what - The median cool kid is broke. 
X is a place of extremes. 
You have the all-time greats on there, the true cream of the crop. 
X is the only channel Alex Hormozi uses himself, personally.
Heck - even Elon uses it himself, doesn't use a ghost writer. 
But you ALSO have an ocean of newbies and wannabes on there. 
So you have the top 0.001%
And the bottom 80%.

And don't get me started on the average Reddit user. 

LinkedIn - this is where the top 5-20% go. 
The people who have their 💩 together. 
Solid upper middle class folk.
Decision makers, key employees.
Small business owners.

Sadly, they're very cautious with their views.
They have a lot to lose, and don't want to rock the boat.
So they make sure to performatively engage on the LinkedIn content cringe fest. 
And that's how we ended up with the Brigettes of the world.

But here's how you can use this fact:
👉 Learn & grow on X, hunt on LinkedIn 👈

Just don't get sucked into the psyop and believe that this is what cutting edge business insights actually look like.

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.

Most coaches are broke.

And I'm going to tell you exactly why.

I've held 1,000+ sales calls with coaches, consultants, and agency owners.

Even excluding life coaches and mindset coaches... business coaches are far more broke than any other B2B service provider.

For every consultant making 10-20k/month, there are 10 coaches scraping to get by.

Most coaches still have a corporate job they don't list on LinkedIn.

Why is coaching such a losing proposition?

Four reasons.

𝐎𝐧𝐞. 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐡.

There's far more demand for agency and consulting work than coaching.

Companies need people doing actual work. Hands on deck. Moving projects along.

They don't need someone telling them how to behave.

Of all the money I've spent on services... 90% went to employees, subcontractors, people doing stuff.

Only 10% went to coaches.

And I'm someone who's open to coaching.

Most companies? Nine out of ten times they need something DONE. Not advice.

𝐓𝐰𝐨. 𝐂𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞.

Telling people how to shovel sand is more pleasant than actually picking up the shovel yourself.

Because it's nicer work, way more people pile into this profession.

That pushes prices down.

𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞. 𝐂𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝.

When you coach someone and their life doesn't change... you can always blame them or circumstances.

But if you're an agency running Facebook ads? Or a consultant decreasing supply chain costs by 10%?

Results show in 3-6 months. Clear accountability.

That doesn't exist in coaching.

So more people pile in. Losers. Charlatans. Airheads.

Which makes it harder for ethical players to stand out.

Clients have no way to tell if you're good.

𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫. 𝐋𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐬.

Coaching testimonials: "Jane is amazing. Such a great coach. Helped me break through obstacles."

Subjective. Can't be measured.

Agency testimonials: "Grew Facebook ad revenue by 50%."

Binary. Yes or no.

My advice? 

If you're struggling to get coaching clients... or thinking of becoming a coach without a 0.001% track record, Brandon Burchard level…

Stop.

Start an agency instead.

Promise specific results. Do it in an area where agencies already exist. Don't be creative. Copy what's working.

Marketing. Sales. Video editing. UX. Recruiting.

Or if you have specific functional knowledge... do consulting. Manufacturing. Operations. Supply chain. Finance.

Charge very little at first. Admit you're breaking into the space. Go out of your way to deliver value.

Learn on the customer's dime. That's not unethical if you're charging little and working hard.

Collect 10-20 proven success stories. People on camera saying "This is the result they brought us."

THEN you can start coaching.

Otherwise, you're just setting yourself up for years of poverty while pretending you have a business.

How do you get clients without social proof? 

By doing 2 things:

1) Personalizing your outreach. A custom, non-AI video goes a LONG way. 
2) Lowering the action threshold. Fancy way of saying "give the client stuff for free."

But not just ANY sort of free stuff. 

Deploy it strategically. 

👉 First, check with the client if they are worthy. 
Do they seem like they have their sh1t together? 
Are they already successful at what they do?
Are they high-energy, positive people? 
Do you have a good gut feeling with them that they'll actually pay you if you deliver?
==> Don't offer free taster sessions or custom work to broke losers. 

👉 Second, make the free stuff ACTUALLY valuable. 
It cannot be a "free audit" if you yourself don't have a track record of success. 
It has to be tangible value like
A) Identify, calculate, and document 3 savings opportunities of $50k+ / year - for free
B) 3 sales calls booked and only if you're happy, you start paying
C) Or a blanket "Work for free for a full week, only then decide if the results warrant a paid engagement"

👉 Third, make it really easy to say yes to. 
No conditions, no exploding offers, no if-thens they feel obliged to, no guilt tripping in advance.
Just a gentlemens' agreement, a virtual handshake. 
At this point, they are doing YOU a favor by spending (potentially wasting, from their pov) time with you. 
So be grateful for that. 
Don't thank profusely like a 17th century beggar. 
Just thank them for the opportunity.

👉 Fourth, go out of your way to deliver value.
That should go without saying.

👉 Fifth, be a good sport if they decline a collaboration
Maybe your results won't be good enough for them. 
Objectively, you hit the goal. 
But they're not happy for whichever reason. 
It has to be a fit in all aspects.
And if it's not a fit for them, don't hold a grudge. 
Ask them for a quick friendly review for LinkedIn or Trustpilot. 
And move on. 


PS. Our client (see pic) did exactly that (Steps 1-3)
He just signed a client with this approach.
A week after joining, with zero experience in his new chosen field. 
That's how it's done.

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.

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

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The Battle

Richard Russell

Michal Bohanes

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The Battle

Richard Russell

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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);}Richard Russell's LinkedIn Performance

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