Susanne Ekström

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

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

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

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


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


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


𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝: Combining 20+ years in management consulting, over a decade in leadership, and hard-earned lessons from my dot.com collapse led me to develop a foolproof system to help CEOs like you:
✅ Boost your profits
✅ Keep your best people
✅ 'Buy back' +8 hours a week
✅ Build a scalable business model for growth


Great leaders aren't born; they're made.
True transformation can be challenging, so I've designed my system to help you save time, reach your potential, and become a top-notch CEO. 


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



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


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

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

Founder & CEO | BeaSmarterLeader

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

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

As the Founder & CEO, I work confidently with you while providing all of the dynamic tools and coaching methodologies required to take your business to the next level with The CEO Profit System!

Ultimately, I’m here to help enable the conditions for your peak performance, and you'll drive your business forward in ways previously unimagined. Sign up today to double your profits and cut your daily workload by 50% in less than 4 weeks!

👉 www.beasmarterleader.com/ceopsli (With a Large Discount)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


👉 Anything you'd add?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


👉 Anything you'd add?


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

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

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

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

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

And then the shift happens.

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

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

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

Are meetings making you money... OR costing you? 
 
I'm pretty frankly really frustrated with how we treat our people's time when it comes to meetings. 
 
If you were a machine that stopped, we would try to fix you (the machine) asap to keep production flowing, BUT we tend not to have any problem inviting people to meetings without questioning how much of their time we consume. 
 
Even worse, if we don't have a clear goal and agenda for the meeting, people will feel frustrated and stressed. 
 
Cutting down the number of meetings and/or meeting time is one successful way in which you can: 
 
✅ Reduce costs 
✅ Delete the frustration of boring meetings 
✅ Make your business more productive & profitable 
 
...at the same time. 
 
A study at Bain & Company found that a single weekly meeting of mid-level managers costs one organization $15 million annually! 
 
Do you think those meetings generated more than $15 million annually? 
 
Are the meetings within your company making or costing you money? 💜 

👉 Anything you'd add?

CEOs: You make million-dollar decisions...
...but are you treating your own time like a 10x growth lever?

Most leaders think they are stuck in "2x tasks" (incremental growth).
The reality? Most are stuck in 0x tasks.

If your revenue is $8M–$20M, your time is worth ~$2,000 per hour.
But you're likely spending it on "low-leverage" tasks that yield $0 in new value.

𝗟𝗲𝘁’𝘀 𝗿𝘂𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗻 "𝗕𝘂𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸" 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝟭𝟬𝘅 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗽:
💰 CEO Effect: Reclaiming 8 hours a week = $16,000 in unlocked value every week.

💰 C-Suite Effect: If 5 leaders reclaim 8 hours (at $500/hr), that’s $20,000 per week.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁?
That’s $1.8M in leadership capacity currently being "leaked" into zero-ROI low-value busy-work.

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟭𝟬𝘅 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁:
↠ Stop doing the "0x" low-leverage tasks that don't move the needle.

↠ Reinvest those 48+ hours into the 20% that creates 10x momentum.

↠ Watch your impact 10x as you ditch your "Firefighter" mode.

👉 What is one low-leverage task you are doing today that provides $0 in growth?

PS. You can't build a 10x future while living on a 0x schedule. 💜

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

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

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

💢 ask questions
💢 get her decision on a specific matter

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

WHAT DID WE DO?

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


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

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

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


👉 Anything you'd add?

How to Design a Killer Agenda

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But now, I see a future for him. 💜

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

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

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



👉 Anything you'd add?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


👉 Anything you'd add?

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

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

Imagine being a CEO and having hours back in your day. Unthinkable? 
Here is the reality... 👇 
 
❌ 𝗗𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀:
↳ Micromanage employees 
↳ Fail to delegate effectively 
↳ Fail to prioritize your calendar 
↳ Spend much time on low-priority tasks 
↳ Attend meetings without a clear agenda 
 
✅ 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀: 
↳ Paint the big picture for your company 
↳ Develop & execute a strategic plan 
↳ Build a kickass company culture 
↳ Lead & inspire by example 
↳ Recruit & nurture talent 
 
 
And...
DITCH the Chief Problem Solver hat! 💜 
 
 
👉 Anything you'd add?

𝗗𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀
- Avoiding hard conversations, Westley Harnett
- Too many "priorities" at once, Jill Avey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sometimes leadership starts with a pizza. 💜 


👉 Anything you'd add?

Uncomfortable conversations - how do you deal with them?

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

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

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

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

The author can see how you vote. Learn more

I Build Companies That Sell For Millions And Teach Founders How to Do the Same

Billion Dollar Exits is the first programme designed to help you sell your company for the highest possible price.

You'll be joining a network of founders who've sold over $3.6 billion worth of businesses between them, all of whom are invested in helping you do the same. We work together to figure out what's holding back your growth and then actually fix it.

This could mean building a leadership team, making your sales engine more predictable, or getting your pricing where it should be.

And when you're ready to go to market, we introduce you directly to buyers and help you get the deal done.

Message me to join the waiting list.

Timothy Armoo

Nobody cares about you, and that's the best news you'll hear today.

At the gym last week, I watched a young woman hover near a piece of equipment because she wanted to use it but didn't know how.

Phone in hand, watching a TikTok tutorial, she still couldn't build up the confidence and started walking away.

I asked if she needed help, and she was so grateful. She said:
"I just didn't want to look dumb in front of everybody else."

I tried to imagine what she thought people might think:
"You'll never guess what happened at the gym today! There was this woman who tried to use the machine, and she didn't know how to, so she walked away. She must be a complete loser!"

Obviously, nobody was thinking this because they had their mind on other matters.

She was an insignificant moment in everybody's day.

A few years back, my laptop died mid-presentation in front of thousands of people, which was awkward.

Except within 24 hours, everyone forgot about it.

I know this because I'm human and I spend most of my time caught up in my own thoughts and preoccupations, not focusing on the tiny blips of other people's lives.

If I think like this, other people think like this too.

We become fearful when we worry about how others might judge us if we fail, but they won't judge us and they probably won't even think about us.

So go ask for help, try the new thing, and take the risk.

You're just a moment in their day!

Business Builder | Global Speaker | #1 Sunday Times Bestselling Author

This is 25 hungry founders who’d rather spend their Saturday building their business than anything else!

For hours, we spoke about how they could get more done and solved the biggest bottlenecks in their businesses that were preventing growth.

Some were selling aftershave, others were scaling drinks companies, and there was even someone doing OOH advertising through mural art. The diversity of entrepreneurs was insane.

People who’d been stuck for months suddenly had answers, and 24 hours later I was flooded with videos of founders at their whiteboards until midnight, plus messages saying they couldn’t stop working because they were still buzzing after the event.

That’s what happens when hungry founders come together and actually do the work instead of just talking about it.

To the 25 who showed up ready to build - you know what you need to do now!

Winners win. 🏆

P.S. I asked 20 exited founders how much they sold for and what really drove their exits. Here’s what they said: https://lnkd.in/eYUXxFjF

Getting customers isn't hard if you know what you're doing.

Most founders think they have a sales problem when they actually have an attention problem, and they're trying to close people who don't even know they exist.

The businesses that win don't just market better, they get eyeballs first and then turn those eyeballs into buyers with a system that actually works.

In this video I break down how I'd get customers for different businesses:

- Barber
- Plumber
- Gardener
- Marketing Agency

Each one needs a different approach, but the principle stays the same...

Grab attention, then convert it into sales.

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What is the best way to get customers? 

With Daniel Priestley

Would you pitch for investment in your bathing suit?

Rachel Peru was the first contestant in our new IG series - Invest OR Next?

She pitched her body confident swimwear range outside in this ever-reliable British weather 😅 

Rachel has already built a body positivity community and she is targeting an excellent niche with a powerful message... 

But was it enough to say yes or did I hit next?

How do you network when you're a nobody?

This is a tactical masterclass from Daniel Priestley that got viewed 220k times on Instagram with 4,549 shares - incredible stuff!!

He breaks down exactly how he built a network before anyone knew him.

This is the stuff I swear by - I even dedicated an entire cheatcode to networking in my book - What's Stopping You?

You can certainly magic a network from thin air... as long as you have a strategy! 

Watch the below reel to steal how Dan built his with just 2 weeks in the UK:

This is the story of how I met Richard Branson!

It was amazing to speak to a room of hungry founders at Virgin HQ.

Some advice I always like to give people who are starting a new business or venture is to always find the 'third door' and make opportunities happen for yourself.

You can manufacture your own luck.

What do you think?

My first YouTube video is live!!

I grew up on a fourth floor council estate in South London, raised by Ghanaian parents in one of the poorest parts of the city, with a dad who worked every hour he could.

But by 27, I had sold a company to Brainlabs in a multi eight figure all cash deal.

However, the part people rarely talk about is everything that happened in between.

It began with a £500 bet at 14 that turned into my first business, and by 17 I had built and sold an online magazine for £110k. 

What followed was far less tidy. I spent years building seven businesses in a row that completely failed, and during that time I also lost my dad at 21.

Eventually I built Fanbytes to a team of 80 people, working with brands like Nike and McDonald’s.

Along the way I landed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, wrote a book that reached number one on the Sunday Times bestseller list, and reached a £30M net worth before turning 30.

None of it came in a straight line, and the straight line version of the story is not the useful one anyway.

I made this video because I wanted people to see the real version, not the highlight reel. The doubt, the losses, and the moments where it genuinely could have gone the other way.

If someone who grew up where I grew up can build something like this, then far more is possible than most people realise.

Link to watch is here: https://lnkd.in/eUa5_Fh8

One of my biggest regrets is not working for someone else first before starting a business!

I know that sounds wild coming from me 😂

But honestly, so many of the mistakes I made in the early days of Fanbytes were completely avoidable...

If I'd spent even a year shadowing someone who'd already built and sold a business, I would have seen the pitfalls coming from a mile away.

Instead I learned everything the hard way.

Wasted money on the wrong hires. Took deals that looked good on paper but drained us. Spent months figuring out things someone experienced could have told me in an afternoon.

Working for someone else isn't giving up on your dream - it's borrowing their mistakes so you don't have to make them yourself. 

You get to copy what works, skip what doesn't, and show up to your own business with a serious head start.

I say this a lot when I speak to Gen Z founders especially.

You have time!! You're young!!

The urgency you feel to start right now is real, but it's not always right. 

A year or two learning inside someone else's business could save you five years of painful trial and error.

The best founders I know didn't just have ideas. They had context. 

Go get some 💪🏿

By copying someone word for word, I made £400,000 from one talk.

Early in my career at Fanbytes, I sucked at selling from the stage, whether it was webinars, events, or pitches. I just didn't know what I was doing.

Then I found Russell Brunson's 'Perfect Webinar' method, and at our next event for fashion brands, I followed it word for word, every step, every transition, every close.

From that one talk, we generated £400,000 in bookings. The answer I needed was hiding in a book the whole time!

People feel ashamed about copying because they think copying someone's work means wanting to be like that person, but that's flawed thinking.

Leonardo da Vinci spent years copying the great artists before him. Beethoven emulated Haydn and Mozart. The Beatles sang cover songs. Bruce Lee perfected existing martial arts before creating Jeet Kune Do. Linus Torvalds mastered existing operating systems before building Linux.

They all copied to achieve mastery, then created something lasting.

If you want to be a writer, copy good writers. If you want to be a hairdresser, copy good hairdressers. If you want to be an entrepreneur, copy good entrepreneurs, because copying is the shortest path to mastery.

Last week I flew to Milan with Visa and Revolut Business for the Olympic Winter Games!

They handed me their new Visa Titan card and set me a challenge: use it the way I'd genuinely use a card day to day and see if it actually holds up.

I told them I would only share about it if it earned its place in my wallet.

It did.

Here’s some of my favourite bits of the card.

1. Free subscriptions to WeWork, Perplexity & The Economist

An absolute game changer. I have not seen any other card doing this!

2.10GB eSIM every month

So if you’re travelling somewhere rather than getting hit with roaming charges or having to faff with random apps that may or may not work, you get 10GB included automatically.

3. Access to over 1400 lounges

If you travel a lot, the worst bit is needing to crack on with work and having nowhere decent to sit and focus.

With the Visa Titan card you get access to 1400 plus lounges worldwide, so you can land, get set up, and get the final bits done properly.

Business cards have suffered from a crazy lack of innovation for years and it’s refreshing to see Revolut Business actually bringing something different to the table.

If you’re an entrepreneur building a company, the Visa Titan card can definitely make your life that little bit easier (and more fun).

Thanks again to Visa and Revolut Business for the weekend… I now love figure skating.

Learn more about the Visa Titan card and sign up for one yourself here: https://lnkd.in/gu5qpFbV

#PaidPartnership

Steal other people's audiences!

When you use influencer marketing it's more than just an advertising exercise - you're utilising the audience that they have spent years building without having to ever have built an audience yourself.

However, to do it successfully, you can't just throw cash at anyone, you need to have a clear strategy on WHO's audience you're going to steal.

So that's exactly why myself and Revolut awarded funding to Nick's business.

They had a clear data backed influencer marketing strategy that tracked their return on ad spend, and allowed them to optimise their ad spend budget.

Which is exactly what you can do too, with any budget... £10, £100, or £1000!

So, to help you test an ad strategy of your own, Revolut Business is offering you £100 to spend on tools, ads or anything your business needs; all you need to do is open a new Revolut Business account and add money to it by the end of February.

P.S. As an added bonus, I'll be looking at all the accounts created before the end of February and we'll personally choose one extra business to win another £1000!

Click the link below to join: https://lnkd.in/eRYu4deb

My book What’s Stopping You? just got featured in Forbes Magazine!

In the article by Jodie Cook, I shared five simple ways to uncover what’s actually stopping you (and win big in business).

BUT more importantly I have a massive opportunity for you, Jodie is looking for interesting entrepreneurs to potentially feature in Forbes...

So, if you think you deserve to be featured in Forbes, drop your story in the comments and tell Jodie what you’re building and why she should write an article about you 👀

And if you’re not ready to pitch, thumbs up your favourite response and help get someone else’s story noticed.

P.s. Jodie will be reading!

Your calendar is costing you more than you think!

The biggest ops risk at Fanbytes wasn’t revenue. It was my memory…

When we were scaling, my calendar was stupid.

I had back-to-back calls with brands, creators, investors, team members and half the time I was typing while someone was speaking… Trying to listen and summarise at the same time.

A week later someone would ask me:
“What did they say about the budget? Did we agree to change scope?”

And I’d scroll through my notes trying to decode what I wrote.

I’d read it and ask myself what was I even talking about… but the scary part is I didn’t think it was a problem - we all just accepted it back then 🤦

If a client referenced something from three months ago, we’d dig through Slack hoping it was there.

When you are small you can get away with it, but as you grow it becomes messy.

Until we switched to using Otter AI.

Every call was being recorded, every conversation was searchable and If someone asks what was said 4 months prior, we’d pull it up word for word using their AI interface. Sounds boring until the day you need it. Now, I don’t live without it.

Check it out and see how Otter for Enterprise can keep your team connected to every conversation: https://hubs.ly/Q042Xb5m0

I've sold 3 businesses over the last 5  years.

The best deals (all cash, minimal earnouts) had these 3 things in common.

1. They started preparing before they felt ready.

Most founders think they'll wake up one morning and just know it's time. Then they scramble to get everything in order while a buyer is already at the table.
 
Selling your business is the biggest financial decision you'll ever make, and it deserves more thinking and more planning than anything else you've done as a founder.

The ones who win start 2 to 3 years early.

(If you actually want to build sellable biz, check the bottom of the post)

2. They dated their buyers.

Two of the businesses I sold ended up going to people who were already in the founder's network.
 
Customers, partners, even competitors they'd built a relationship with over the years. 

If you're serious about selling at some point, you should be building those relationships now, long before you ever send a teaser document.

3. They knew exactly what buyers in their space were paying for.

Every industry values different things. Some buyers care about recurring revenue, others care about your team, others care about IP. 

The founders who got crazy multiples understood what similar companies were being valued on and reverse engineered their business to match. 

If you don't know what your buyer cares about, you're building blind.

On March 4th, I'm running a live workshop on “how to build a sellable business”. 

I'll walk you through how to do all three of these properly so you can start building a business that sells on your terms.

Join me here >> https://lnkd.in/evepyXhD

"I'm not ready to sell my business yet."

I hear this all the time, and I get it - you've got a business to run, and thinking about an exit that's three years away feels like a luxury you can't afford.

I know this because I almost got it wrong myself. 

Three years before I sold Fanbytes, I had someone do a mock valuation of my business because I wanted to know what a buyer would actually see if they looked under the hood.

What I discovered surprised me. I had been obsessing over the wrong things entirely.

One example: there's this concept called "quality of earnings." It's basically how "real" your profits are and whether a new owner could replicate them. Most founders have never heard of it, but buyers care about it enormously.

When I understood that, I changed how I priced our services, restructured certain deals, and made decisions that seemed small at the time but ended up adding significant value to the final number.

None of that would have happened if I'd waited until I was "ready to sell."

You can't fix these issues in six months! They take years to engineer properly.
Thinking about an exit is something you start doing while you still have runway.
By the time you're ready to go to market, the work should already be done.

I'm running a free workshop on what to know before selling your business. It's for founders who are smart enough to start designing for that outcome now, while they still have time to do it right.

Here's the link: https://lnkd.in/evepyXhD

P.S. The founders who get premium multiples all say the same thing: "I started preparing way earlier than I thought I needed to." The ones who got disappointing offers wish they had that time back.

This screenshot is the reason why I spent 2 years writing my book What's Stopping You?

Because no one wrote it for me.

Growing up on a council estate, I had no one who looked like me, came from where I came from, and had actually made it.

So I spent 2 years in my bedroom writing the book I wish someone had handed 18-year-old me.

The one that says: here's what's actually possible, here's what's actually in the way, and here's how to move through it.

Two years is a long time to sit with your own story and wonder if anyone will care.

But then the messages started coming in.

People saying the book cracked something open for them. That they finally felt seen. That they're now taking the leap they'd been putting off for years.

That's the whole point!!!

Not the Sunday Times bestseller list (though I'm not going to pretend that didn't feel incredible).

It's the kid on a council estate somewhere who picks it up and thinks: if he did it, why can't I?

I speak to hundreds of founders every year who want to exit their business.

The most common complaint I get is that they’re still stuck in their business.

So I tell them to do a Disappearance Test.

Literally, once a month be completely unreachable. 

Then when you come back, go through every single message and every request that landed while you were gone and write them all down. 

You'll start to see a pattern pretty quickly - some of those things genuinely needed you and most of them could have been handled by someone else entirely.

Do this once a month for 90 days and you start to see exactly where you're the bottleneck and where your team is perfectly capable of running things without you. 

The questions that keep coming back are the ones worth building a process around, and the ones that got answered without you are proof that you were never needed there in the first place.

After 90 days, most founders I work with have already pulled themselves out of half the things that were keeping them stuck.

Also business starts looking a lot more like something a buyer would actually want because it runs without you being in the middle of everything.

I'm running a workshop on March 4th where I walk through the full process of making your business less dependent on you.

I’ll also leave some time at the end for questions.

Here’s a link to register >> https://lnkd.in/evepyXhD

You self-sabotage more than you realise.

And I only clocked this looking back at my first paid speaking gig. It was at a marketing conference in Belfast where they'd cover travel and accommodation, and I just needed to quote my fee.

I felt a knot in my stomach thinking about what to charge, because I'd spoken publicly before, but getting paid felt completely different 😩

I mustered the courage to ask for £800 and to my surprise they agreed immediately. 

The day arrived and I was terrified, so I faffed and hesitated and delayed until by the time I reached check-in, my flight had left. 

That missed flight wasn't an accident because a tiny part of my brain offered me an escape route, and if I missed the flight, I could tell a story that excused me from the anxiety-inducing commitment.

Self-sabotage is sneaky because it happens beneath the surface!

Sometimes it looks like procrastination, where you tell yourself you're not quite ready or that delaying has some strategic benefit when the real reason is fear.

Sometimes it looks like perfectionism, where you hold yourself to an unrealistic standard not because excellence is the goal, but because the standard becomes a reason to avoid starting at all.

Watch for self-sabotage whenever you feel fear around a specific task and slow down to examine your true motives.

A PR agency came to me last year asking for $12m…

When I looked at the numbers it was $1.4m in revenue and $300k in profit, which meant the market would price it closer to $1.2m. 

They were convinced their relationships and culture justified the gap, even though buyers do not pay for stories, they price risk.

So we focused on four levers that actually move multiples in service businesses.

I call this the LOCK framework:

Locked revenue - by moving key clients onto longer term contracts with auto renewals so income was visible.

Owner optional - by removing the founder from day to day client work so the business could run without her.

Category authority - by narrowing positioning to a defensible niche instead of generic PR.

Key people committed - by tying senior team incentives to staying post acquisition.

Fourteen months later they had not hit $12m, but they moved from roughly $1.2m to $7m without changing revenue or profit. 

The risk profile changed, so the multiple followed.

P.s. I interviewed 27 founders on how they secured their exits and put it all into one blueprint: Sellers Secrets.

If you want to build something buyers actually want, it’s all here: https://lnkd.in/eXb4rq4Z

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The Battle

Susanne Ekström

Timothy Armoo

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