Thomas Strider

Business & Corporate Financial Consultant (FP&A)

RightMessage

RightMessage helps pro creators and online businesses segment their audience and personalize their website, opt-ins, and email marketing. No code required.

Angel Investor

Entrepreneur Media

Contributing articles on the future of entrepreneurship.

Contributing Writer

Brainz Magazine

Contributing writer on the topics of entrepreneurship, marketing, and personal development.

Executive Contributor | Global 500 Award Winner

Helping solopreneurs close ideal clients | Learn to craft offers, develop sales systems & write authoritative content in my newsletter, the Laptop Lifestyle | Currently working in the nearest coffee shop ☕️

Short version: 

I help solopreneurs sell and scale with improved offers and system building frameworks.

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Long version:

In 2015, I worked in a hospital as a pharmacy tech. I was underpaid, overworked, and barely scrapping by... even with a 4 year college degree.

At the end of 2015, I told myself "enough is enough."

I quit. Which was risky, given I had 0 savings and 0 plan. I started freelancing, beginning with photography, then content writing. 

From 2016 to summer 2018 I worked for myself, before burning out and returning to corporate. I need a reset, and to determine better systems for entrepreneurship moving forward.

So between the years of 2018 and 2021 I was promoted 3 different times, from advisor → senior banker → sales trainer → wealth and small business consulting.

I quit my consulting job in the banking industry in 2021 to pursue a job in financial analytics for the healthcare startup, MainStreet Family Care. During this time I also began an accelerated MBA program (graduating in August 2022).

At the time I began my career in financial analytics, I launched my consulting practice, where I help service-based businesses with financial reporting, operations, budgeting, and forecasting.

To recap, In 2021 I made some massive moves:

- Shifted to a 9-5 in financial analytics
- Launched my operations & consulting firm
- Started my MBA program (graduating in August 2022)

I still operate my consulting business helping service-based companies with financial reporting and analysis.

But I also have taken all of my skills and knowledge from entrpreneurship... and launched my latest company in 2024: Coffee Shop Nation (CSN)

CSN is an educational platform for internet business owners, helping them start and grow their online business + personal brand.

We provide tools, resources, community and courses with the goal of helping people maximize their income while designing their business around their ideal lifestyle.

If you're interested in starting or growing your internet business, check out everything we offer at CoffeeShopNation.com, including our free weekly newsletter The Laptop Lifestyle.

If you'd llike to explore working together 1:1, my profile is open to receive messages from everyone. Shoot me a message and let's chat. 

Rooting for you.

Founder

The best online education platform for solopreneurs and micro-business owners.

Get online business & content creation tips for free every Friday: https://www.coffeeshopnation.com/the-laptop-lifestyle

Deckability

Building brands & decks that eyes & ears download instantly -- serving CEOs who want to translate their story into dollars

Co-Founder

Sandbox

Coaching student founders on brand storytelling, capital raising, and deck building

Expert Advisor

Leland

Coaching on brand storytelling, capital raising, and deck building

Coach

Linford Magic

Engaging, funny, and deeply confusing corporate magic shows: think conferences, summits, dinners, and luncheons

Professional Magician

Scan123

I research for, connect with, and create relationships with partners, groups and vendors

Head of Business Development

CEO calls me the "analytical Swiss-army knife." I help the strategy team make better decisions with better data, metrics, and research

Chief of Staff

Fourthwall Corporate Entertainment & Events

Classy entertainment for corporate events

Castiron

Built 79 analyses & 27 dashboards, with data housed in BigQuery, ProfitWell, Amplitude, Segment, Hotjar, & GA4

Data Analyst

RevRoad

Conducted problem interviews with business owners for a portfolio company making a pivot

Problem Interviewer

Philo Ventures

Created presentation decks (Slides), revenue models (Python & Excel), and financial pro formas (Excel) for multiple portfolio companies, used to gain new customers and partnerships.

Strategy Analyst

Brigham Young University Marriott School of Business

Utilized Python and R to build statistical models to study two-sided markets. Conducted extensive literature reviews and created qualitative surveys for analysis

Research Assistant

I build decks (sales & pitches, not patios) | professional magician | out here makin' friends

Got the best product/service since sliced bread?
You sell lights out on a call…
But struggle getting it on paper (or in a deck)?
We hear this *all* the time.

That’s why we started Deckability.

We build...
--> Brand stories that convert to dollars,
--> In decks that eyes/ears download instantly,
--> With crystalized value connected to pain points. 

So, if you’re a business executive,
Feeling like your story should pop more,
Shoot me a DM, let's talk about it. 

And me? 

I love telling stories, reading stories, and critiquing stories. 

Passion started with discovering Harry Potter (age 5). 
It grew as I worked for a pitch deck creation firm & in VC (older lol).
Reading 100+ books a year keeps the fire going in a big way (lil obsessed). 

And it’s really becoming an addiction with Deckability. 

I love talking storytelling, analytics, pitching, and art. 

If you made it this far, good on ya! 
Send a DM with your fav book, let's chat!

John Linford

We’re shutting down Deckability.
Here’s the behind-the-scenes 👇

We started in August 2023.
Sold a deck/brand project. 
Hammered out processes.
Slowly built a brand.

The brand? Helping executive teams articulate THEIR brand better, so they could raise, sell, and partner with confidence and consistency. 

We called it brand articulation, and it worked.

Highlight reel includes founders that created multi-million dollar partnerships, others that went from literally $0 to tens of millions in revenue. Three or four sold their businesses off our decks. 

In August 2024, we hired a new client.

Mental wellness AI startup.
Originally contracted to do deck/brand.
(the usual)

Then, recognizing our talent for translating complicated ideas into cohesive, simple, visual frameworks, we started helping them build their product. 

A deck/brand turned into one day a week.
Then, we were three days a week.

We hit a crisis point in January 2025.
A three-day-a-week client.
Four active clients besides.
Staring at a week of 11 sales calls.

We knew something had to change.

We either needed to drop the client, and begin our process of scaling an agency to multi-seven figures…

Or needed to consider the client's offer to get acqui-hired.

In May 2025, we decided to go full-time.

Meanwhile, we tried out a few things:
- hired a contractor team to execute DB projects
- built out a newsletter for an async offering
- flirted with trying to sell the business

Turns out, we had something special, the three of us. 
And we want to direct that genius entirely to the startup. 
So here’s to the next chapter for the Deckability squad:

We’re helping humans heal. 

LOTS more on that soon.

In the meantime, I’m still your deck guy.
I’ve got some exciting partnerships coming up. 
Still wanting to help direct founders to decks/websites.

So stay tuned there.
Stay tuned for our adventures in startup-land.
And for how I’ll be showing up here from now on.

Appreciate the support, and the community here,
So honored to build with James/Cole. 
We are, truly, just getting started. 

LFG!

Helping humans heal | talking ops, AI, & books | professional magician | out here makin’ friends

If you only read one book next year, what would it be? 

I'm considering drastically reducing my book count in 2026, dropping from over 150 to maybe 40-50.

Thinking about diving deeper into the books that have really meant something to me, the ones that changed me.

Quality over quantity. 

Not sure if I'll be able to break the habit of always having a new book to read, but could be worthwhile...open to thoughts either way.

95% of LinkedIn users are terrified of posting.
I’m here to tell ya: it’s not that scary.

I’ve gone through the ‘new guy’ experience five times.

1. The Book Guy (0-1K followers)
Started off as a ‘Ghostreader.’ I did posts about books that business professionals would be interested in, I even had a few paying clients from that. First time/way monetizing LinkedIn.

2. The Data Guy (1-1.5K)
LinkedIn became my resume/portfolio repository. I posted about my classwork (studying statistics) and talked about reading data properly.

3. The Strategy Guy (1.5-2K)
I added the strategy element because I was thinking about being a management consultant, but it ended up helping me land a job on an exec team for a software company, doing a combo of stats and strategic work.

4. The Deck Guy (2-6.5K)
Probably to the chagrin of my employer, I started posting about brands, messaging, and decks to support my side hustle. This accelerated when I quit to go full-time on Deckability, and this became our main channel for leads, 85% of our pipeline came inbound from LinkedIn. 

5. The Ops Guy (6.5K+)
Now, I’m talking about operations, AI, building startups, books, and more. Of course it’s to help build the startup we’re on, but it’s also to continue showcasing my personal brand and aptitude. There is nothing professionally that has benefitted me as much as building on here. 

So, in what era did you get on the John train??

Honored by the support yesterday.
We’re excited about the journey ahead.

If you’re interested in directly supporting us (and want to see what we’ve been up to), we’re looking for alpha testers. 

The only real qualification is to have an iPhone (sorry Android folks, coming soon).

We’re looking for a variety of personal, professional, and psychological backgrounds, very much the more the merrier here!

DM me the email associated with your Apple ID, we’ll be able to send the TestFlight link there, and I’ll get you on the list!

Onward!

taplio

The Battle

Thomas Strider

John Linford

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taplio

The Battle

Thomas Strider

John Linford

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Engagements

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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);}John Linford's LinkedIn Performance

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