Sam Szuchan

Founder @ Soleo. LinkedIn strategy for industry leaders. Clients work w/ Apple, Amazon, Google + published in FT, Bloomberg, etc.

Creator of influence. Nice things folks have said about me:

"Recently, a lot of Sam's posts have been taking off. Last week, he helped me reach 400K+ enterprise professionals with a single post. A third of them from companies with 10,000+ employees. When recruiting teams start sharing your content internally, you know you're doing something right."
—Very major recruiting tech CEO

"Each time that I post [a post Sam made], 100+ people enroll in a course that changes their lives, and my business does twelve or thirteen grand in revenue in that day. A total win-win."
—B2B educator you 100% definitely follow

"Sam helped me clarify my goals and think strategically to reach 150K people in my target demographic – largely founders, CEOs, and senior execs. Prospects frequently mention my LinkedIn content."
—CEO of very cool agency working with Google and many other big tech co's!

"Sam's ability to understand who you are and become an extension of you online is second to none. He provides strategic direction, insightful research, and a relentless desire to bring your strengths and knowledge to light."
—Forbes 30u30 founder who basically invented consumer-facing recruiting tech

You have probably read a few dozen posts I've written without realizing it. Thanks for stopping by :)

Founder

Formerly Saga. Leveraging the world's largest B2B platform to create overwhelming lead pipelines for B2B firms.

"As long as the history books get it right, take some pride in letting the newspapers get it wrong."

Sam Altman wrote that in 2020. A year earlier, he walked away from Y Combinator's presidency to bet everything on OpenAI. 

Everyone thought he was insane.

YC was the most powerful platform in startup land. Direct access to hundreds of founders per year. The ability to shape how an entire generation thinks about building companies. A reputation machine that had already minted Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe.

Remember, this was 2019 - way before OpenAI’s rise. He left YC for (what was then) a nonprofit-controlled AI lab that still looked more like a research shop than a product company.

Looking back, EVERY move he made throughout his career was the maximum leverage option available to build influence, way before anyone realized:

- Chose computer science at Stanford in the early 2000s when finance was the prestige path
- Dropped out to do YC and build Loopt when he could have gone straight to Google or Facebook
- After Loopt, launched Hydrazine Capital to invest in YC companies, making himself essential infrastructure for the next generation of founders
- Became YC president at 28 and turned it into a distribution network across hundreds of startups
- Left YC to become CEO of OpenAI's new "capped-profit" structure

Throughout his entire career, he's been 5-10 years early on the most influential position possible. It's happened too many times to be a coincidence.

His pattern works because he understands how influence compounds. Every YC batch, he met dozens of founders at their most malleable stage.

He saw the raw decks, the dysfunctional teams, the early flashes of product-market fit. Some became Instacart, DoorDash, and Coinbase.

Each founder he helped became a future allocator of equity, attention, and introductions.

Their founders remembered who took them seriously when they were pitching half-finished slides.

"The question isn't 'How do I stop caring what people think?'" Altman wrote. "It's 'Whose opinions should I care about and on what timescale?'"

November 2023 proved the pattern works. When OpenAI's board tried to oust him, hundreds of employees threatened to walk. Microsoft made it clear the partnership was with Altman, not the corporate shell.

He didn’t survive through maneuvering.

He survived because of the protective layer of influence he built.

Because influence isn't a cooler job title—

It's pure leverage.

It's a 15-year bet on who and what matters later, and how you can own it before anyone realizes it’s the next big thing.

“The newspapers will get it wrong. The history books will get it right.”

That's the bet he's made his entire career - and he's making it again.

What could you build by choosing history books over newspapers?

P.S. Full breakdown of Altman's 15-year playbook in the comments

Sam Altman Chose Influence Over Billions (And Got Both)

Beatrice Gutknecht 🦘

BADASSERY by B

Providing badass brand strategy services for service-based SMBs that will differentiate their brand from competitors and streamline their marketing efforts to reach and convert their target audience effectively.

Badass results:
•  Build loyalty
•  Lower churn rate
•  Increased referrals
•  Quicker sales cycle
•  Higher customer lifetime value
•  Improved audience associations and feelings about your brand.
•  A distinct and memorable identity.
•  Increased word of mouth
•  Increased inbound leads 

I know the rules and when to break them.

Founder, Brand Strategy Consultant

The Art of Branding Podcast

What if you could take your seemingly 'boring' business and shake up how it's seen, inside-out to go from plateau to pop star?

Beatrice Gutknecht (Brand Positioning Badass) is on a mission to help you do that while avoiding dropping big bucks on harmful rebrands.

The Art of Positioning podcast teaches you how to rewire operations around new positioning.

The goal? Ready to implement tips, aka actionable ideas, shared by Beatrice and expert guests.

Rebrands, fluffy words, and pictures can take a walk.

Check your brand health today: www.badasserybyb.com/brand-health-audit

Let’s freakin’ gooooo!

Podcast Host

Cloud Focus

About Cloud Focus: We design, operate, and build cloud-based solutions such as e-Commence, Chat Box bot, Digital Marketing, ERP, Logistic Management, and many other cloud-based solutions. 

•	Developed a two-week integrated marketing campaign with 160K reach, 11K engagements, and a sales growth of $41K at a cost per link click $0.01 - $0.004. 
•	Adapt operations according to the political climate (military coup) to maintain the safety of the team and the changing consumer requirements.
•	Create and implement business and marketing strategies and plans.
•	Establish the brand and set goals for marketing and business growth.
•	Setting goals for marketing and business performance and growth.
•	Develop various online and offline revenue streams to maximize the turnover.
•	Manage relationships with partners, vendors, and customers using HubSpot CRM.
•	Strengthening team members’ capabilities with mentorship and training.
•	Evaluate performance by analyzing financial, marketing, and operational data.
•	Drive financial decision-making and risk management.
•	Work closely with directors to evaluate and develop areas of expansion.

Chief Operating Officer

GCP Hospitality (Gaw Capital Group)

•	Develop marketing, strategy, and communications strategies resonating with key markets to deliver brand awareness campaigns, tactical campaigns, brand amplification, and loyalty program support.
•	Managing PR and influencer agencies and communicating with the media resulted in over 33 million readership circulation. 
•	Oversee the marketing communications plan, database management, content creation, and management across platforms and channels.
•	Execute integrated marketing campaigns attributing to over US$500K in total revenue, over 750K combined social media engagement, and 1 million reactions. 
•	Execute email marketing and membership programme resulting in an additional US$4K monthly average of attributed revenue. 
•	Coordinating campaign execution from research into best-performing projects and campaigns, delivery, final review, and optimization.
•	Improving structure, design, SEO and content of the brand websites.
•	Measuring digital performance, using insights for improvements to strategy.
•	Developing existing and identifying new traffic and revenue-generating initiatives, including partnerships with Thai Airways, Bulgari, Franck Muller, Moët & Chandon, local banks, and guest bartenders attributing to over US$35K in revenue.

Director of Marketing - Strand Hotel and Cruise

Bagan Star Hotel

•	Establishing strong branding and visibility at the hotel, online through social media platforms, website, and offline media from pre-opening.
•	Implement and guide the marketing and website strategy and framework.
•	Create and collaborate for marketing designs using Adobe Suite. 
•	Work with outsourced paid media team to optimize paid search and social campaigns. Recommend and prioritize budget allocations for the marketing plan.
•	Deliver and set short and long-term budgets and strategic goals.
•	Using financial statements to execute strategies to maximize room yield and hotel revenue via innovative sales practices and yield management programs.

General Manager

Branding and Marketing Consultant

Your Property Finder

•	Handling international property listings marketing and sales of multi-family, other residential, commercial, and office spaces with multi-million dollar valuations 
•	Training, mentoring and leading a team of 3 to 6 real estate agents.
•	Design coordination of new marketing material using Adobe Suite.
•	Manage roadshows, property launches, print media designs, and social media. 
•	Advise on market conditions and legal requirements, including contracts. 
•	Inspecting properties and liaising with owners about points of improvement, maintenance, and pricing.

Senior International Properties Leasing

Wa Minn

Wa Minn’s diverse business operations cover; property development, earth works, construction, mining, gold refinery, garment making, and enamelware.
• Management of websites, SEO, and social media platforms
• Use marketing strategies and sales plans for each business sector to secure international investment in multi-million dollar developments and projects.
• Organizing significant events, including ground-breaking ceremonies and launches, with 500+ attendance with fit-outs, marketing material, and placement.

Sales and Marketing Executive Manager

Redlink Myanmar

•	Evaluate employee conduct and customer service gaps and establish policies and processes to eliminate these gaps.
•	Creation of training packages for service personnel, sales, and marketing team.

Customer Service Consultant

Serco Sodexo Defence Services

•	Oversee and train a team of 6-7 in front and back of house roles.  
•	Management of reports, profit and loss statements, budget, and sales targets.

Accommodation Manager

Strategy that differentiates streamlining leads to your business. 𝐃𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐥𝐲. 𝐃𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐛𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐲.

Ask yourself: “Is my brand all it could be?” 
How about: "Are my marketing dollars working?"

When businesses have been around for decades, I've seen that despite an active sales team and referrals, there are fewer customers and growth plateaus.

And that's when different marketing tools are tested, from SEO, a fresh website, to ads. 

But nothing works. 

And that's because marketing is guided by a direction AKA your brand. 

Most brand ‘specialists’ give you a template-based strategy…and claim they will craft your business a personality with a guidebook. Focus mainly on graphics or copy-based 'rebrand'. Give you ‘life-changing’ advice before you’ve had the opportunity to tell them about your business and goals. 🤦‍♀️

Except that 56-page guidebook is going to end up in a folder somewhere. 

And that rebrand, well, it's going to shoot the perception that you've built up so far in the leg, hitting trust, loyalty, market share, and value. 

The alternative? 

Repositioning your brand to create distinction around your brand and then strategically implementing that throughout your whole business, not just marketing. 

Or what I like to call creating a seductive lifestyle around your business.

One that works internally and externally. 

And that's the Badassery by B approach that's doubled down with a blueprint.

The B.A.D.A.S.S.E.R.Y. Blueprint:

🦘 Brand analysis
🦘 Articulate internal brand
🦘 Deep dive market landscape
🦘 Assess positioning & differentiation
🦘 Structure voice
🦘 Shape brand story
🦘 Establish visual element pivots
🦘 Rollout implementation throughout the business
🦘 Yearly audit material

The results:

• Lower churn rates
• Quicker sales cycle
• Increased referrals 
• Building brand loyalty
• Increased inbound leads
• Increased word of mouth
• Higher client lifetime value
• Customers willing to spend more
• A distinct and memorable identity


If you have an established service-based SMB and: 

• Want to level up your clients 
• Want to shake things up in your industry 
• And want to be considered as the obvious choice

This is for you. 


If your business is:

 • In its first 3 years
 • An agency, consultancy, or coaching
 • Run in a corporate hierarchical manner

This is NOT for you. 


Ready to experience what your Badass Brand Potential could look like?

• Shoot me a DM to chat situation 📩 (no pitches incoming)
• Email me directly: beatrice@badasserybyb.com

Limited spaces each year.

Founder and Branding Strategy Consultant

Providing badass brand strategy services for service-based small to medium-sized businesses that will differentiate their brand from competitors and streamline their marketing efforts to reach and convert their target audience effectively.

Badass results:
•  Build loyalty
•  Lower churn rate
•  Increased referrals
•  Quicker sales cycle
•  Higher customer lifetime value
•  Improved audience associations and feelings about your brand.
•  A distinct and memorable identity.
•  Increased word of mouth
•  Increased inbound leads 

I know the rules of branding and when to break them.

3 years of Badassery by B, and it’s been a ride. 

Over the weekend, I celebrated the brand turning 3 with a gathering themed: ‘I wish I had somewhere to wear this.’

The reason for the theme lies within the why. 

See Badassery by B from day 1 has represented a push back against 'this is how it's always been done.' 

Against the social norms you and I see in both business and personal life. 

Like the ‘2.5 kids, I am blessed and have a white picket fence.’

Or the ‘if that company is doing X, and is successful, therefore we should also do X.’

It makes up every pore of the brand and the BADASSERY approach, but it’s been a journey to have it as effusive as it is now. 

Looking back, it really is the whole, you don’t know what you don’t know:

Year 1: 

● The brand started off as marketing and brand strategy before realizing doing both would dilute the brand.
● I was looking at other ‘influencers’ on LinkedIn for content ideas. (yeah, I know, I know.)
● The Art of Positioning podcast started (as The Art of Branding), breaking down what Brand Strategy is made up of (catch season 1 to hear those breakdowns.) This was learning a whole new world for me.

Year 2: 

● Honed in on brand strategy, but still had no clue who I was targeting, and it showed.
● I was saying brand strategy is the fix, but saying what that looks like in application beyond Googleable platitudes
● The podcast season 2 evolved into how to shake things up and how businesses were differentiating.

Year 3:

I’d gotten into a dry cycle of content without realizing it, and my apartment robbery shook me clear out of it. The 3 weeks after led to several realizations:

● My prowess is in my operations background, bolstered by marketing and brand. Real application (and the effects in how their business is seen), is what has surprised business owners I’ve worked with.
● In the services industry, hyped rebrands are purely surface-level (visual or copy only). AKA the things customers had an issue with, and what the business is remembered for - HAVEN’T CHANGED. Enemy = Honed in.
● The biggest turning point in brand strategy honed to repositioning - this is where all business decisions can be driven from.
● Because of that, season 3 of the podcast became solely focused on repositioning, with pre-picked guests and topics to create what is like an audiobook on implementing repositioning in business.
● Every piece of content now is with the end in mind. Like this one (to share my journey and to help those starting off.)

These first 3 years wouldn’t be without people (geniuses) outside to call me out on my bs and help along the way:

- Michael Clift - Behind many business decisions
- Elijah D. - Behind the podcast
- Peter Tomanka - Behind the website (new version coming soon!)
- Comfort Egbanabo - Behind early editions of the newsletter

I’m looking forward to what year 4 and onwards hold.

🦘 Who would your business not be without for their genius?

📸: Brandon Jackson

*uck rebrands. Brand strategy embedded in operations, marketing, delivery. So it’s lived, not shelved. Made in 🇦🇺.

Photo of Beatrice Gutknecht - Brand Strategy Consultant and Founder of Badassery by B, working with established service-based businesses to shift their brand,  values, and how they operate in such a way that everyone knows what they're doing. So, business owners aren't left to feel like they're herding cats with a stick.

A building materials supplier spent 6 months updating their messaging to "comprehensive solutions for every project."

Contractors saw it and thought: "So...you have stuff? Like everyone else?"

Revenue didn't move.

A custom home builder went with "luxury craftsmanship."

Buyers wanted "on-time, on-budget with no surprises."

Pipeline stayed the same.

Both businesses worked hard to clarify their message. Both accidentally made themselves sound generic.

Last week, I broke down the 5 tests that tell you whether your positioning connects with what your market actually cares about. 👉 https://lnkd.in/gkTGXSXP 




Ps. What terms need to be deleted from your industry's vocab because they’re overused and yet…say nothing at all? 🦘

Pps. Day 2 of celebrating 3 years of Badassery by B (thus the completely unrelated to this post yet algo stirring photo)

📷: Brandon Jackson Photography

Positioning statements fail because they don't pass 5 basic tests.

I've been breaking down businesses for 8 weeks now and the pattern is clear.

Everyone's saying the same thing.

"We deliver excellence."
"We provide superior solutions."
"The best experience for our customers."

You could swap these taglines between companies and nobody would notice.

So here's the framework I use to separate real positioning from words that sound nice, but don't do shh.

5 tests. Your positioning needs to pass all of them.

1: Specific

No fuzzy wording. "Quality service" means nothing. 
"Frameless glass with sightlines under two inches" means something.

2: Verifiable

Can you prove it true or false? 
"We care about our customers" can't be proven. 
"We respond to emergencies within 2 hours" can.

3: Meaningful

Does it help buyers make decisions? 
"Experienced team" doesn't fill bank accounts. 
"We specialize in helping businesses scale from $2M to $10M" does.

4: Different

Is it something your competitors won't or can't claim? 
If everyone in your industry could (and does) say it, it doesn't pass.

5: Accountable

Can you fail at this? 
If there's no risk, there's no real positioning. 
Safe claims like "we work hard" have zero stakes.

Most businesses fail at least 3 of these.

They build positioning around things that sound good but mean nothing.

I've repositioned businesses from lawn care to accounting to lumber supply over this series.

The pattern's always the same.

They've got real capabilities that would pass all 5 tests. 

But they bury them under generic messaging because it feels safer.

Sadly, it's not safer. It's invisible.

So, when I ran these 5 tests on a window company, their original positioning failed all of them. 

A fresh repositioning for them? "Colorado's frameless glass specialists for luxury mountain homes where unobstructed views define daily living."

Specific. Verifiable. Meaningful. Different. Accountable.

That's positioning that works operationally, think business decisions, not just on a homepage.

How does your business positioning fare for these 5 tests?

Ps. *uck rebrands that just make things sound prettier.

This is week 8 of me breaking down businesses and showing what positioning with teeth looks like.

A handful of people wearing too many hats. 

At $3M, chaos starts to win.

All of them figuring it out as they go. It got you here.

But your business kept growing. More projects. More complexity. 

And the margin for error kept shrinking.

Nicole Downer from Downer Brothers Landscaping watched it happen. Her team was brilliant, but brilliant generalists hit a wall when the business needs specialists. 

People who live in the numbers. 

People who focus just on operations. 

People who go deep in one area instead of touching everything.

The ones who thrived on variety couldn't make the shift. 

And that meant letting go of people who helped build this.

It's the conversation nobody prepares you for.

Nicole walks us through this roadblock (and the $1M one) on this episode of The Art of Positioning Podcast.

Full episode 👉 https://lnkd.in/gRmJ5ZWs

Chick-fil-A had a 3M-follower goldmine. They told her to stop.

Merriam Webb was posting staff meals on TikTok, and millions of people watched. 

She was building the kind of organic reach most brands would seriously kill for, and she was keepin’ it real.

Then corporate panicked and shut it down.

She left and got a Shake Shack deal to do exactly what she'd been doing for Chick-fil-A for free.

Yeah, that's the cost of not recognizing potential when you see it. 

So, how do you get employees to promote your business without making it feel like you’re getting them to do a Bulgarian split squat?

Cassandra Babilya (ex-CIA analyst turned internal comms leader) says it starts with psychological safety. If your team can't speak without worrying about being perfect, they're not going to speak at all.

Tara Turk-Haynes (VP of Talent Acquisition and DEI) says it starts even earlier, during onboarding, before you're thinking about brand ambassadors.

They're both right, and on this fresh episode of The Art of Positioning podcast they break down:

- Why your team won't post (and it's not what you think)
- The culture setup that happens before anyone posts a thing
- What to do when employees go "off brand"
- How to spot potential instead of shutting it down
- The line between encouragement and obligation

This one's for anyone tired of being the only voice for their business.

Full episode 👉 https://lnkd.in/gBAj9M4z

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Beatrice Gutknecht 🦘

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The Battle

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