Fullfunnel.io

At Fullfunnel.io we are growing B2B companies with long and complex sales cycles since 2006.

We were and still are “in trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, and bring to the table our 30+ years of combined experience and knowledge.

I've been selling and marketing B2B tech and services since 2006. 

What makes Fullfunnel.io different?

1. Ins and outs of selling to enterprise

Coming from the mid-market and enterprise world, I know all the ins and outs of selling to these segments: the research and evaluation processes, decision-making procedures inside the buying committee and the approval workflows.

We’ve been there, done that, and know how to generate opportunities with these segments and influence the decision-making processes.

2. Niche experience

While we could help many B2B business, since 2007 we focus exclusively on two verticals: high-value B2B tech (enterprise SaaS, blockchain technology, hardware) and service-based companies (software development, consulting, cybersecurity, DevOps as a service, etc).

We were and still are “in the trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, so you’ll get access to 30+ years of our combined experience and knowledge.

3. Knowledge transfer and in-house operations

We believe that the real growth can only be driven in-house. You need to have people who are in the trenches every day, talking to customers, experiencing the sales hurdles, refining the messages and positioning.

We join your team as external marketing advisors, provide consistent support and training including step-by-step playbooks, templates, marketing and sales dashboards, tech stack and process maps.

As a result, you get an evergreen in-house growth engine.

Co-founder

Trenches - B2B marketing community

Trenches — a community created by B2B marketers for B2B marketers who are in the trenches every day getting their hands dirty in growing B2B companies with high ACV and long sales cycles.

We talk about ABM (account-based marketing), marketing-sourced pipeline, demand generation, lead nurturing, GTM strategy, buyer’s journey, and all other hot topics that are ignored in the sales communities.

Community is FOREVER FREE.

Co-Founder

6-Week ABM Playbook

An actionable account-based marketing playbook and training to consistently land sales opportunities with your dream clients in 6 weeks or faster. 

Cut through the noise and get busy decision makers to respond to your campaigns without spammy outreach, wasting money on enterprise tech stack or expensive ip-based advertising, and significant shifts in the company’s organization.

The account-based marketing strategy and campaigns we are sharing in this playbook can be executed by a team of 2 people (1 marketer + 1 sales) on a Ramen budget.

Author

Scale XL

Helping B2B entrepreneurs install a reliable process to predictably fill their pipeline with high-value clients. 

Scale XL process addresses the 4 critical challenges of client relationship building:

1. TARGETING: identify, target and engage with more of YOUR business’ ideal potential clients, not someone else’s. 
2. ATTRACTING: define, create and communicate compelling messages that cut through the noise and clearly establish your business as a natural answer to your ideal potential client’s problems.
3. QUALIFYING: qualifying which prospects are ideal for YOUR business and which of them are ready, and then applying different processes to sales-ready leads and those that need nurturing.
4. ROI: fix low return and underwhelming results of B2B marketing 

Scale XL relies on a process to build relationships with more key decision makers in your market by targeting, attracting and nurturing your ideal clients, not someone else’s.

And if your business is anything like 100+ niche B2B software and service companies I’ve helped before, it’s likely that my methodology could help you do just that.

To find out if this process can work for your business, feel free to get in touch here, or visit our website at scalexl.com.

Founder

Lean Startup Circle Brussels

We're a group of entrepreneurs taking lean startup and customer development techniques to practice in our startups. We're ready to talk implementation and share data from our experiments.

http://www.meetup.com/lean-brussels/

Every meetup addresses a different (lean) startup topic (minimum viable products, go to market, sales for startups, customer interviews...)

Most startups fail not because they fail to execute and build their product, but because they fail to build a viable business around it. Lean startup helps us validate our business model as fast as possible. Lean startup is a collection of techniques built around maximizing validated customer learning thought fast Build/Measure/Learn iteration loops.

*The Lean Startup is a trademark and service mark owned by Eric Ries.*

Co-Founder and Organizer

Growth Hacking Belgium

Your new business went online yesterday and you've got a marketing budget of zero. How are you supposed to create a movement around your product? How can you get to your first thousand - or million - customers? Starting from zero, it feels impossible. Enter the growth hacker. You may not have heard of growth hacking yet, but you've certainly used the billion dollar brands built by it: Hotmail, AirBnB, Facebook, Dropbox, amongst many others. This group is for people who want to adopt the growth hacker mindset. It is all about sharing hands-on tactics that bring you results.

Grant Snap

Grant Snap is an online service that helps you get your innovation funded by providing guidance in preparing winning R&D grant proposals.

€375 billion gets granted annually in the EU. Get your share.

Sirris

I help software companies in different phases of product development and innovation:
•	For entrepreneurs: to turn their ideas into viable product concepts by applying customer development and lean startup™ methodologies
•	For companies building product for early adopters: introduce flexibility needed to quickly respond to new opportunities and changing customer requests 
•	For companies shifting their focus from customer to market: to master product management
•	For companies established in a market: to deal with increasing product complexity and how to differentiate through innovation

Account Manager Software Industry

Development activities (middleware components of a distributed data storage system, test management system, framework and tools used for automation of system tests) 

Participating in introduction of agile methodologies in two R&amp;D teams and setting up test automation infrastructure

Senior Software Engineer

Sony

Participating in the transition of an R&amp;D team into a product development organization 

Development activities (several packages of DVB MHP standard for digital television, an integrated environment used for development, execution and automatic reporting of functional tests for digital television)

Setting up a test department (conceiving a test strategy and infrastructure, test specifications/reviews, recruiting, supervising and training of testing personnel)

Full-funnel ABM for B2B brands with 5+ figure deals | Co-Founder @ FullFunnel.io

You need more pipeline that turns into revenue. But:
- Most marketing leads never convert to deals
- ⁠Outbound is in continuous decline 
- All the investments in trendy programs, agencies or tech didn’t move the needle. 

It’s time to try implementing full-funnel sales and marketing programs. 

Why? 

So you can:
- Accelerate this quarter’s revenue while building the future pipeline
- ⁠Convert 5-15% accounts to pipeline
- ⁠Bring marketing and sales teams together to drive the KPI that matters the most: sales velocity. 

We helped dozens of B2B tech companies implement full-funnel marketing and sales programs with 10%+ account-to-pipeline ratio. 

We will take your team by the hand and together, implement a scoped pilot program with clear milestones to prove the key KPIs, before investing in operationalization and scaling. 

To learn more or ask me anything, connect with me here or visit our website at fullfunnel.io



Vladimir Blagojević

No VP of Sales ever said: "I expect marketing to orchestrate our engagement playbooks". 
Yet this is what often happens with ABM:

Marketing:

- Creates multiple sales playbooks & engagement sequences
- Designs timeline
- Add best practices

Then, marketing shares with sales 87-pages deck and asks to implement.
One month later: "Sales doesn't use our playbooks and content".

This year we've interviewed two dozen enterprise B2B Saas VP of Sales to dive deeper into the challenges they want to solve with ABM and get marketing hands-on help.

Here are 5 core areas:

1. AWARENESS AMONG STRATEGIC ACCOUNTS

Awareness is not created by running more ads, drip personalized nurturing and outbound cadences.

Awareness is not created by creating more AI content nobody is going to read.

Awareness is created through the engagement with ICP ecocystem:

- High-quality thought leadership program with SMEs & execs
- Top-notch events
- Collaborations and direct engagement with the target accounts
- Constant engagement with the communities and thought leaders

2. CONTENT THAT CHALLENGES THE STATUS QUO

Modern B2B buyers don't need one more "How to cut your costs" whitepaper. Modern buyers want to see:

- Industry trends and stats
- Concrete practical examples and best practices: dashboards, workflows, templates
- How to challenge an internal inertia and status quo

In most cases, sales don't use marketing content because it doesn't fall in any of these categories. 

3. COMPLETE ACCOUNT ENGAGEMENT

Most organizations use lead handoff as a default function:

MQL generated -> assign to SDR.
Webinar signed up -> Assign to SDR

In 2026 to cut through the noise you need to have a holistic visibility:

- Who engaged with what content and ads
- What were historical interactions
- When was a spike in high-intent page visits
- Which events buying committee members has attended

This way sales move from desperate pitching to meaningful 1-1 account planning.

4. BUYER ENABLEMENT

You don't win deals with fancy pitch decks. You win when your Champion can sell your product at the next internal meeting.

Sales can create business cases showing challenges, cost of inaction, and recommended solutions.

But they need marketing's help with:

- Product screenshots that address specific buyer questions
- Relevant customer testimonials and references
- Data snapshots

5. CLEAR MESSAGING

Nothing frustrates sales more than prospects asking: "But what exactly does your product do?"

--- 

In many organization, sales ignore marketing, don't buy in for joint programs like ABM, and gate-keep access to customers. 

How to fix this:

- Make both functions revenue-responsible
- Get fundamental alignment on GTM strategy (ICP, buyer journey, value prop, metrics)
- Fix knowledge gaps through joint planning, involvement of SMEs
- Define a small pilot team on one market/vertical
- Run regular pipeline review meetings during the pilot
- Document and share results before scaling

Full-Funnel ABM and Demand Gen For B2B Companies w/ High ACV | Co-Founder @ FullFunnel.io

Why Sales Ignore Marketing

What's marketing role in sales outreach and engagement?

A VP at Snowflake got this question at a sales summit:
"How can a rep get your attention with cold outreach?"

His answer: "You can't."

"I don't trust cold outreach. But if someone I trust vouches for the solution, I'll take a look."

This is the reality for most enterprise buyers.

They ignore cold outreach, skip your ads, filter out your nurture emails.

But they listen to their team, peers and trusted industry voices.

That's why your ABM team can't just target buyers.
(and why marketing needs to own part of the engagement)

Here's how to engage the entire ecosystem around your buyers:

1. Peer-to-peer multithreading

The other day I heard from a VP of Sales: "it's hard for a young SDR to get the attention from a senior executive".

Their solution? Their CEO and CMO regularly share thought leadership insight on LinkedIn, and book senior executives as guests on on their podcast.

2. Non-decision makers with influence

Back to the Snowflake VP: "The best way to get my attention is to have my team bring something to me."

Executives rarely care about the tactical problem your product solves.

Here's how it works: A power user experiences a problem daily (e.g. losing candidates to poor hiring experience). That problem impacts a business objective the executive does care about (e.g. slowing market expansion).

You engage the power user. They bring it to their boss when the problem comes up. 

3. Industry peers

People trust their peers more than they trust vendors.

Our buyers mention they discovered our content because someone from their network engaged or shared it. Often someone who will never buy from us.

The more you're present and connect to people from the industry, the more your brand or content get recommended.

4. Industry voices 

These can be leaders in renown companies, leaders from technology partners, or even local "micro-influencers" known in a city or a region.

We regularly host partner webinars, local partner events in target locations, and run an annual summit with people respected by our buyers. 

5. Niche media and communities

Event organizers, industry media companies, communities and podcasts. 

♜ Arthur Castillo shared: "The best community sponsorships weren't standard packages. They were custom programs: co-hosting research, integrated campaigns, or bringing community members to our dinners in key cities."

--- 

Cold sales outreach won't get you in the door with senior buyers.

But when the whole team builds relationships across the ecosystem, you become known, and increase the chance of ending up in their consideration set.  

That's the shift: marketing isn't just generating leads and providing air cover.

Marketing creates trust, presence, and recommendations in the networks your buyers already rely on.

P.S. Andrei Zinkevich and me are breaking down the role of marketing in ABM on our next Full-Funnel Live: 
https://bit.ly/48azQnB

ABM ≠ industry & persona personalization. This misses: 
- Actions matching buyer intent & awareness
- Progressive discovery & personalization 

Here's a framework that shows this more clearly. 

1. Level of intent (vertical axis)

- TAM*:  Any company that could potentially use your solution (e.g. My HR solution is used by companies 200+ employees)
- ICP*:  Companies matching your ideal profile (e.g. 200+ people tech companies who are actively hiring)
- Cluster: Priority segment with competitive advantage (e.g. SaaS companies with distributed dev teams, hiring remote developers)
- Need:  Validated problem that needs solving
- Buying: High-priority, can't postpone, actively looking for solutions

(* yes, I know that strictly speaking "TAM" and "ICP" are about fit, rather than intent - but look at my drawing skills, do you think I could draw a 3D diagram?)


2. Level of awareness (horizontal axis)

- Cold: No awareness of your solution
- Aware: Know what you do, no relationship yet
- Relationship: Active back & forth conversation
- Meeting: Discovery calls with buying committee members


3. Aligning actions w/ level of intent and awareness

ANY + TAM → Qualify. Do they fit our ICP?
COLD + ICP → Create awareness
AWARE + ICP → Research to uncover cluster and account insights
AWARE + Cluster → Build relationships, start progressive discovery
RELATIONSHIP + ICP or Cluster → Validate the need through progressive discovery
RELATIONSHIP + Need → Book discovery calls
MEETINGS BOOKED → Discover needs, priorities, stakeholders. Create the opportunity.

(In practice, we use a simpler framework with three lists:
- Cluster ICP: Researched accounts, unaware, unknown need. Goal: create awareness.
- Future Pipeline: Vendor aware, need unknown. Goal: validate need and build relationships.
- Active Focus: Validated need, established relationship. Goal: book discovery calls and create opportunities.)


4. Progressive discovery and personalization 

By progressive discovery, I mean: 
- Account research 
- Progressively gathering insider information, challenges and priorities shared by target buyers via
→ Content collabs
→ Webinar polls/Q&As/registration forms
→ Social and email conversations
→ Transcribed interviews and calls

With each new insight, personalization becomes better. 

--- 

The mistake? Assuming that industry and persona personalization is enough. 

In reality
- Same industry ≠ same challenges. Relevant personalization requires deeper insight 
- Most relevant insights come from buyer conversations 
- Outreach by unknown people gets ignored even when relevant

You have one quarter. 20% of content marketer's time. And you need to generate pipeline.

What do you do? 

1. Place smart bets

Look at your best recent deals and figure out WHY they purchased.

What was the underlying business objective? Why now? Why you?

Drill down to specific attributes, needs, pain points, events and situations so you can:

- Find other accounts with similar needs and priorities (=account cluster)
- Understand what will attract their attention

2. Plan an educational event 6-8 weeks into the quarter

The event (webinar, field event) should address a key challenge or transformation that accounts from the target cluster need to solve.

Why events work:

- Focuses the team on a concrete deliverable 
- Forces them to break down generic challenges into specific jobs to be done, problems, solutions and root causes — then connect them into a narrative
- Each element of the event narrative becomes a LinkedIn post
- Creates a natural milestone with a hard deadline
- Genuinely useful to target accounts

3. Turn the event into LinkedIn content for sales

Sales shares content directly from their profiles because
- They connect daily with buyers
- It creates opportunities to start conversations 

This also shortens the feedback loop: you see which content resonates and leads to conversations. 

4. Break content into three streams 

#1 Expert content (Goal: Nurturing). 
Infographics, templates, proprietary data, how-tos
→ positions sales as trusted advisors
→ each post becomes input for the event deck

#2 Curated content (Goal: Engagement). 
Collaborations, roundups, co-created posts
→ pulls in voices of buyers, peers, partners
→ lets sales use collaborations to start conversations and get insight from target buyers

#3 1:1 account content (Goal: Awareness). 
"Account love letters" and personalized content hubs tailored to specific high-potential accounts
→ guaranteed awareness at target accounts
→ works incredibly well to start conversations with buyers

5. Repurpose outputs

Each piece of content feeds into the next:

LinkedIn --> Event Deck --> Content Hub 
Content collabs (& webinar polls) --> LinkedIn --> Event --> Market research report 

--- 

This is the process we use with clients and for FullFunnel.

In Q4, we did it for a cluster of B2B companies struggling to prove marketing attribution to pipeline while juggling executive pressure to do more with AI.

Results:
- 12 new posts
- 1072 webinar signups 
- 160 people shared their top priorities and challenges with us 
- 52 accounts with deeper back&forth conversations 
- 2 new closed-won deals 

The step most companies struggle with?

Selecting a cluster where they have a highest chance to win, and linking it to a content strategy that will cut through the noise, and help sales start conversations. 

Andrei and me are  breaking this down in detail on the next Full-Funnel Live: 
https://bit.ly/4pSSPZN

"Can you give examples of 1:1 content? And the format you deliver it in?"

Here are three examples, along with a step-by-step how-to. 

EXAMPLE 1. Account Love Letter 

Example: "Here is how I'd optimize the new enterprise pipeline ABM strategy for multi-regional B2B tech company like Agicap."
(https://lnkd.in/ebUxaR6w)

Format: LinkedIn post + content hub + 1:1 messages. 

How to: 

1. Every week, check new engagement and intent signals for your target accounts 

2. Identify accounts that reach criteria to be promoted 
- From Cluster ICP to Future Pipeline list (e.g. repeated visits to high intent pages + 1+ named buyer engaged via social or newsletter or webinar)
- From Future Pipeline to Active Focus (e.g. provided insight about priority problem via progressive profiling)

3. Run account research and define blind spots 

- Map the buying committee, their responsibility and KPIs 
- Research information we need to know about the target account to create relevant content and a personalised offer (e.g. they started an expansion to a new region, challenges: lack of brand awareness in target regions, stronger local competition...)
- Plan touchpoints to get insider information (=progressive profiling)

4. Plan the activities you will use 

In this example, Andrei Zinkevich created the "account love letter" LinkedIn post, and used it to connect to the members of the buying committee. He also created a personalized content hub and used in in follow up (see below). 

EXAMPLE 2. Personalized Solution 

Example: "What do cycling and complex B2B SaaS have in common?"

Format: 1:1 letter sent in a parcel with a book about the prospect's hoby (Alpine cycling). 

How to (continued): 

5. Start mapping your value proposition with the identified KPIs, goals, and challenges of every buying committee member.
6. Write a 1-page personalized solution for target buying committee members. Include:
- Context
- How exactly your product helps to achieve their goals or solve the challenges
- Relevant social proof

EXAMPLE 3. Personalized Content Hub 

Example: in both examples from above, we created a personalized content hub. 

Format: deal room tools (e.g. we use Aligned), to quickly spin up 1:1 content hubs. 

How to (continued): 

7. Map content that can help demonstrate how you can solve the challenges identified in research, along with any relevant social proof, product information and answers to questions frequently asked by buyers 

8. 1:1 distribution of the content you've created to the buying committee members. 

---

BONUS EXAMPLE: Answer to Buyer's Question 

The first line of this post was actually a question we got during our last week's Full-Funnel Live. 

I decided to create this LinkedIn post as an answer, and use it to "show, not just tell". 

Next step: I'm going to share it with the person who asked.

Do reps even matter, if 80% B2B buyers buy from vendors they preferred BEFORE contact with sales? 

Here's what Jon Miller says (quoting Kerry Cunningham's update of 6sense's B2B Buyer Experience Report for 2025):  

1. SALES RELATIONSHIPS AS BRAND AWARENESS 

Reps are a critical part of building your brand preference and awareness. 68% of buyers *personally knew a seller* from the winning company before the buying process began (Kerry’s research).

We see this over and over again. The teams who involve salespeople early in the buying process always see way better results from their programs. 

2. PREVIOUS VENDOR EXPERIENCE > BRAND AWARENESS

95% of net-new wins came from *existing vendor relationships* - not just brand awareness. 

For new business deals: 
- 48% already bought from that vendor
- 13% used the vendor at a prior company
- 34% evaluated the vendor (but didn't buy)

And get this: less than 5% had no direct experience but were familiar with the brand.

The disheartening conclusion here: our efforts to build a brand have a very small effect (5%). 

Category leaders - companies with the biggest market share - have an enormous advantage. 

But what should the rest of us do? 

Jon's advice: 
✅ Hire sellers with experience selling to your core ICP
✅ Give them time and air cover to build relationships outside active buying cycles
✅ When you lose a deal, make sure you have complete notes, named champions, mapped stakeholders, and a clear path to reconsideration. Because that "loss" might be the reason you win the next opportunity

I'd add: 

☑ Double down on expansion and renewal programs 

And practically, in your net-new programs: 

PRIORITIZE accounts with: 
☑ Buyers who are a former customer 
☑ Existing relationships 

INCREASE "RELATIONSHIPS AS BRAND AWARENESS" by:
☑ Letting sellers work on future pipeline and relationships, too
☑ Increasing the footprint in target accounts by multithreading 
☑ Involve non-sellers (your subject-matter experts, executives...) with industry connections 

MEASURE:
☑ Don't only measure revenue from won deals, but also relationships, target account footprint, and ALL qualified net-new opportunities (remember: lost opportunities account for 34% of future won deals). 

Because, as Jon puts it, the deals you win next quarter were decided 6 months ago.

"We struggle with 1:1 and 1:Few ABM. We just can't figure out personalization at scale" - VP of Marketing shared on a call (and was laid off a week after). 

Here's the brutal reality in many B2B orgs:

- Teams pressured to "personalize at scale"
- Any "non-scalable" approach is disregarded
- Teams deploy AI research and/or AI SDRs
- Every prospect receives a "uniquely irrelevant message" (Jon Miller)

Teams get blamed. Leaders let go.

Why? 

Because they MISUNDERSTAND what personalization is.

Personalization ≠ "{first}, {some unique insight / signal}" followed by a pitch asking for a call. 

ABM personalization = matching account insights with individual buyer needs across the buying journey.

Here's how we go from manual personalization to personalization at scale.

1. Pick an engaged strategic account

Together with an experienced AE, define:
- Key questions and information you need to know about this account 
- Sources and platforms where you can find that information 
- Run an actual research on that account 

Save as an example of high-quality output.

2. Train AI with proper input

- Deep insights and research about the target ICP segment
- Always request quotes to prevent hallucination and preserve buyer language
- Give AI detailed prompt describing the research questions and sources 
- Show it what 'good looks like' with the example of high-quality output to use as a quality benchmark

3. Make account research a joint responsibility

AI research is complemented by:
- RevOps input on buying signals, engagement and intent data
- Marketing research of industry trends and competitive landscape
- SDRs research of the buying committee, and recent role changes

4. Include insider information 

The deepest insights you gain only from 1-1 conversations.

SDRs and AEs run regular 1-1 engagements with buyers to build relationships, understand where they are in the buyer journey, and their current needs.

5. Create a 360° account view

Create a holistic account dashboard with all collected insights.

6. Create account-specific content, not "personalized templates"

Match content with the buyer journey stages, buyer persona, and current needs.

Sales distributes it manually to target buyers and listen to their feedback.

Save successful examples validated by the buyers (with responses, engagement and calls). 

7. Feed the proven formats to your AI model to replicate them in the future. 

You'll then only need to polish and customize it.

Same principles: deep insight + playbook as prompt + quotes + quality benchmark. 
---
Personalization at scale is only possible when there is a proven playbook in place.

The only way to create the process and quality output benchmarks is MANUAL first. When you see what works, you can scale it with AI.

But it requires JOINT marketing and sales work, not just pushing your VP of marketing to find a solution to "personalization at scale".

Customer interviews are overrated. 
Use progressive discovery instead. 


1. Turn natural touchpoints into progressive discovery

Customer interviews = conversations you have with your customers, from the moment they are prospect through the whole lifecycle. 

→ First sales calls with prospects
→ Business case building with your champion 
→ Demos & discussions with other buyers 
→ The moment someone signs 
→ Onboarding sessions with new customers
→ Quarterly business reviews with existing accounts
→ Support tickets and feature requests

Even: conversations you have with prospects and customers on industry events. 

Where you make a difference: 

2. Ask the right questions at the right time

Good conversations always focus on their world, and ask the right question at the right time. 

E.g. 

- Business triggers, problems, how did they discover you → initial discovery 
- Cost of doing nothing → business case building
- Purchase criteria → consensus building & demos with users and buyers 
- Why us → when they sign 
- Value → post onboarding, reviews 
- General "out of buying cycle" topics → buyer research, customer events, social... 

3. Systematically process and develop customer insights

Interviews ≠ Insights. 

Record, transcribe, structure and process the input to get to real insight. 

Regularly review the insight and updates with the team. 

4. Turn the insight into action

Insights ≠ Actions. 

Lots of teams collect insight, and only use it to update their copy. 

You can do much more. Refine targeting, qualification and disqualification criteria, account research process, content strategy, buyer enablement... 

5. Voice of customer

Use their actual words. 

Not your positioning deck. Their language. Their pain points. Their priorities. 

--- 

Thank you Patrick Cumming  for starting this discussion. 

Patrick's workflow is brilliant: mine first sales call transcripts, extract the top 5-7 pains/gains, use their exact words in your ads.
He saw a 40% lift in SQLs with the SAME budget. Just "using their exact words to build ad content". 

Bottom line: customer research is not a project.

It's an essential, evergreen process that includes progressive discovery, structured insight collection and review, and continuously refining your GTM as the market and your understanding of it evolves.

Ranked #1 Global Positioning | Founder of Beyond Brilliant ™ | Award-Winning Founder & Speaker | Ex-U.S. Congress Comms Director | 35M +Views

Iza Montalvo is an award-winning journalist, founder, speaker and expert in strategic communication. 

For two decades, she has  reported news, shaped public narratives for elected officials, crafted messaging for high-stakes campaigns, and trained Fortune 500 executives to command any stage.

Her purpose is to help brilliant leaders move past modesty to master the art of what she calls "Graceful Self-Promotion” in the new Brilliance Economy.

Montalvo has observed that for two decades, natural modesty, the belief that "work should speak for itself" can hold back the most capable leaders from promotions, stages, and deals. 

She argues that this is not about imposter syndrome or lack of confidence, but a strategic blind spot where brilliant operators mistake necessary visibility for arrogance.

As the founder of the Beyond Brilliant movement, Montalvo teaches a unique approach to visibility rooted in the invisible mechanics of perception to ensure her clients' brilliance is seen and rewarded. 

Montalvo's work on influence and messaging has been formally recognized on the floor of the U.S. Congress and permanently archived in the Library of Congress.

Connect with Iza: She is available for keynote speaking engagements (including her talk, "Why Brilliant Women Undersell Themselves"), media commentary, and strategic consulting on influence and visibility.

Iza Montalvo 🧲

Everyone reads your presence before your words 💥 
(The 4 ways people read you)

Studies show people form first impressions in under 1 second.

If you show up small, people read you small. 
If you show up vague, people read you vague. 
If you show up steady people trust you. 
If you show up clear people follow you. 

The same principle applies to your leadership:

If you treat people like helpers, they shrink. 
If you treat people like thinkers, they grow. 
If you treat people like placeholders, they leave. 
If you treat people like owners, they lead. 

Leadership and visibility share the same rule: 

People respond to the way you carry yourself 
before they respond to the words you say. 

Skills get you in the room. 
Presence is what people follow. 

If you want people to rise around you, 
show them what rising looks like.

Leaders don't do things for you...
they inspire you to grow. Agree? 

PS: Get access to 74-high performing hooks
here: izamontalvo.com/joinnow

➕ Follow me Iza Montalvo 🧲 for more

Ranked #1 Global Positioning | Founder of Beyond Brilliant ™ | Award-Winning Journalist & Speaker | Ex-U.S. Congress Comms Director | 35M+Views

The first hour of your day is prime real estate.
Spend it on work that moves you forward.

I see the same pattern in almost every leader and operator I work with:

They open the day with tasks that look productive, but don’t change anything.

Email.
Admin.
Quick replies.
Low-stakes work.

It feels safe.
It feels tidy.
But it doesn’t shift the needle.

The important work, the one task that demands focus or courage
gets pushed to the afternoon.

Then the afternoon fills up.
Then the task gets carried to the next day.
And the cycle repeats.

Morning is the one window where your mind is clear.
No demands.
No fires.

Use that block for the work with weight.

A project that moves the business forward.
A decision you’ve delayed.
A problem that needs thought, not speed.
A task that shapes the week, not one that fills an hour.

Block your first hour.
Protect it.

You end the day lighter.
You end the week with momentum.

If this lands, try it tomorrow: give your first hour to the task you’ve been avoiding.

Watch what shifts.

♻️Repost if you agree 
➕Follow Iza Montalvo 🧲 for more

The real performance gap isn’t hours.
It’s operating systems.

Do you trade time for output?
Top operators trade focus for output.

I’ve reviewed teams with high output and teams with low output.
The difference is structural, not personal.

Meetings are tools, not habits.
30-minute max.
Agenda or cancel.

One protected deep-work block.

👍 Daily.
👍 No interruptions.
👍 No exceptions.

Delegation based on leverage.
If the task doesn’t match their rate → offloaded.

Recovery is built in.
Clear mind equals sharp execution.
Fatigue means poor judgment.

Work ends when thinking degrades.
Not when the clock hits a number.

Teams that operate this way show:

🔥 Higher throughput
🔥 Fewer errors
🔥 Stronger decisions
🔥 Lower turnover
🔥 Predictable results

Long hours don’t scale.
Systems do.

If your calendar is full, your judgment is weak.
If your day is reactive, your output is low.
If you stay late, your systems are broken.

Remove one low-leverage task today.
Replace it with one high-leverage block tomorrow.

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Ranked #1 Global Positioning | Founder |Award-Winning Journalist & Speaker | Ex-U.S. Congress Comms Director | 35M+Views

5 YEARS OF FOCUS 

If you feel behind, this is your sign: you’re not.

Every goal you label “out of reach” it’s possible next year.
I used to roll my eyes at reinvention.
Now I understand it.

Here’s what one focused year turned into:

🌟 Featured in Forbes
🌟 On a magazine cover
🌟 On a Times Square billboard
🌟 Gave an international talk
🌟 Joined the global faculty at Maven
🌟 Served clients across Europe
🌟Ranked #1 Globally in Branding & Positioning (Favikon)
🌟Brand partnerships 

…and more is on the way.

The shift wasn’t magic.
It was focus and career experience.
It was starting despite feeling "too old."

If you want a different 2026, begin with one step:

One clear sentence about who you help and how
One story that proves your work
Clean one part of your profile: Headline, About, or Featured

You don’t need a full plan.
You need a starting point.
And the courage to keep going.

PS: I’m opening the “Founder Authority Lab” a private container for founders. This is for founders who want authority, not just activity.

Limited enrollment. 

More details here: https://lnkd.in/eBvTaXW8

If your private success is bigger than your public presence…
this isn’t your fault.

(It’s your system)

Influence isn’t built from occasional brilliance.
It’s built from the signals you repeat,
the perceptions you reinforce,
and the identity you make your digital footprint.

There are only 3 things people use to judge your influence:

1️⃣ What they see you talk about
If your expertise isn’t visible, it isn’t perceived.
People assume you’re an authority when they can predict your point of view on a topic.

2️⃣ How consistently you show up
Repetition builds recognition.
Recognition builds trust.
Trust builds demand.
You aren’t under-valued, you’re under-seen.

3️⃣ The proof you make public
Wins. Lessons. Patterns.
Not to brag, but to signal what you know, how you think, and why you’re credible.
Private success only matters publicly when you translate it into visible evidence.

And here’s the part most people miss:

Your reputation doesn’t grow because you’re good.
It grows because you make your value unmistakable.

Influence grows when your signals become a system:
a repeatable rhythm that teaches people who you are,
what you stand for, and why your voice carries weight.

When you control the signals,
you control the perception.

When you control the perception,
you control the opportunity.

And the real shift is this:

You don’t need to become someone different to grow your influence.
Make the real you, the skilled, proven, exceptional you, the version people recognize.

Influence isn’t a spotlight.
It’s an operating system.

Build the system,
and the visibility follows.

PS: I talk about these topics every week in my free newsletter.
Sign up here and get 74 high-performing hooks: izamontalvo.com/joinnow

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I spoke with a founder who’d been in his field for almost 20 years.
Not the “social media expert” kind of experience.

The real kind.

The kind that holds companies together when everything feels like it’s falling apart.

👉 He led teams.
👉 Handled crises.
👉 Built things people relied on.

But when he tried to build something for himself, a side income, a little freedom, nothing moved.

He spent months trying to understand how others were using LinkedIn and AI to make a steady income, book stages and get featured as experts in top-tier media.

As someone who has ran campaigns for big names, and learned how to leverage LinkedIn in 1 year, I understand the pain too well. 

Then he confessed…

“I’ve signed up for webinars”
“I’ve tried posting more”
“I’ve tried writing in the right tone.”
“I’ve tried figuring out personal branding”

Every attempt ended the same way:

🚫 No traction.
🚫 No interest.
🚫 No real path forward.
🚫 Less money in the bank.

One night, he told me he sat in his car after work for almost an hour.
He didn’t want to walk into his house and pretend he wasn’t disappointed.
He said, in a quiet voice:

“I feel like I did everything right. And it still didn’t turn into anything for me.”
That’s the part most founders never share.
That’s what I call “The Hamster Wheel Trap.”

You’re not stuck because you lack experience.
You’re stuck because you think: 

I need to post more motivational content.
Which is getting you messages like: 
"You're so inspiring"
but not DMs asking for your help. 

You wait for something to click.
You spend hours prompting ChatGpt.
And none of it works.

That weekend, I showed him the part he’d been missing:

✅ How to package what he already knows.
✅ How to use AI to reduce the time it takes.
✅ How to build a simple machine that brings clients, media and stages
to him.

He didn’t expect much.
Not after months of quiet failure.

But he tried anyway.
Eleven days later, he brought in $12,400.

He didn’t cry because of the money.
He cried because something finally worked.

He said, “I just needed someone to show me the part nobody ever showed me.”
If you’re in "The Hamster Wheel Trap", era read this:

Your experience isn’t the issue.
The missing system is.
And that can be fixed.

PS: If any of this felt too familiar, that’s not failure.
It’s a sign you have been carrying everything alone. 

I speak about these topics in my newsletter: 
Sign up here: izamontalvo.com/joinnow

📸 Hotel Catalonia, Santo Domingo, November 2025

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Ranked #1 in Global Branding | 35M+ Reach | 3M+ Media For Clients | Advisor To Fortune 500 & Public Figures | I Reengineer How You’re Seen For More Clients, Stages & Press 💫

She ran a company that moved markets. 
But online, her presence didn’t match her power.

That gap cost her millions in lost deals.

Most CEOs build their public presence like they're managing risk.
The ones who win build it like legacy.
This is perception engineering.

She came to me in August with a stacked résumé:

→ Board positions  
→ A leadership record
→ Negotiations across the US

Her public presence was polished and forgettable.
That’s the most expensive brand position a CEO can have.

So we tore the whole thing down and started again.
We rebuilt her public identity from the foundation.

No corporate filler. 
No recycled commentary. 
No messaging that sounded like her comms team.

🧲 We made her thinking unmistakable. 
🧲 We made her decisions quotable. 
🧲 We positioned her with the force she uses behind closed doors.

Here’s what happened when her presence finally matched her influence:

→ 120,000 + monthly impressions (up from 200) 
→ Prospects in her inbox without outreach 
→ Podcast hosts requesting her as a guest 
→ Media booking her without a pitch 
→ Industry peers treating her like the authority she is

This is what it took:

✅ A defined public identity 
✅ A messaging strategy using my proven frameworks
✅ A clear link between values and vision 

If your public persona undersells you, your deals run slower and your room access shrinks.

P.S. The gap between who you are and who you appear to be online is costing you more than you realize. 

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Staying in a place you’ve outgrown isn’t loyalty.
It’s a slow kind of shrinking.

Most people don’t stay because they’re fulfilled.
They stay because it’s familiar.

Because it’s quiet.
Because it asks nothing new of them.
But there’s a cost to that kind of comfort:

💔 Your skills level off
💔 Your ideas stay small
💔 Your drive dims

Your network stays narrow
Your confidence stalls
You feel it long before you name it.

The meetings get predictable.
The work stops teaching you anything.
The ceiling lowers a little more each week.

You’re not dramatic.
You’re not impatient.
You’ve simply outgrown the room.

The people who move forward don’t wait for a crisis.
They pay attention to the early signs.
They choose places that stretch them.

They leave before their talent goes quiet.
You don’t need permission to want more space.
You only need to trust the part of you that knows when the season has ended.

Staying small isn’t stability.
It’s delay.
Leaving isn’t chaos.
It’s courage.

Your life expands the moment you do.

♻️ Repost if someone you know is staying somewhere they’ve outgrown
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The struggle isn’t blocking your rise, it’s shaping you for it.

Ever feel like every step forward comes with another test?
You’re not the only one.

But what if the leaders you admire didn’t rise despite their hurdles…
but because they stayed long enough to learn what those hurdles were trying to teach?

You treat this challenge like a glitch, like life dropped the wrong assignment on your desk.

But you know this pattern.

The moment you avoid is the moment that forces the shift you’ve delayed.
Not fate.
Not a lesson wrapped in a bow.
Just pressure pointing at what needs your attention.

Try this: 

1/ Take one breath before you respond.
It gives you space to see the situation, not your fear.
2/ Ask a clear question:
“What does this open right now?”
The answer often sits in plain sight.
3/ Change the method, not the aim.
If the straight line fails, use the turn.
The target stays the same.
4/ Look at what the moment exposes.
A gap.
A habit.
A truth.

Treat it as information, not judgment.
If you’re carrying something heavy today, don’t rush past it.
Stay with it long enough to understand it.

There’s direction inside it…
And once you see it, the next step becomes obvious.

PS: What is the obstacle in front of you trying to tell you?

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