Expertise

I’m a seasoned second-in-command.

My 25-year career is marked by mission and servant leadership.

I’m an integrator. I’m at my best when I am partnered with visionary leaders, founders, CEOs, and division leads. I help them articulate their ideas and plan missions to achieve their goals.

Where visionaries of a business are idea machines; my role as an integrator is to bring the right ideas to life. Where the visionary is responsibility for laying out directional horizon goals, my responsibility is to plan a roadmap around pitfalls and milestones. Where they lead from the front, I rally the rank and file.

I focus on 30% YoY compounded growth among the companies I serve.

Working through core values of ownership, clarity, diligence, and accountability, I build and launch commercial operating systems.

I scale companies via three levers:

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Development

I create growth systems for any business between $1M and $100M along three stages.

• Revenue Growth – I generate new business, develop programs for account retention & expansion, and lead offering development.
• Margin Growth – I focus on profitability and converting project-based revenue to much more lucrative recurring revenue.
• M&A Growth – I advise and target investments that complement the core platform offerings of the company.

My Sales Background

Like many American children, I began my career in sales peddling products to raise funds for my school. Each year, I sold holiday cards and gifts door-to-door to my neighbors in Newton, Kansas. I learned to send catalogs to work with my parents and I’d leave them in the reception hall at church. I still remember the sense of accomplishment when someone agreed to buy a box of cards. They’d sign the simple form and write me a check, which I’d proudly show my friends.

I got my first sales job with hands-on training at age 14. Again, going door-to-door, I sold the Dallas Times Herald when Dallas had two major daily papers. My manager was a larceny ex-con named Buster who put me on a team of dopeheads and dropouts. He hauled us around the DFW metroplex in a beat up windowless van and dropped us off in strange neighborhoods. I routinely out-sold everyone on my team to earn bonuses. I dressed presentably and quickly canvased my neighborhood. I would then work nearby businesses or an adjacent apartment complex where I could pitch more people in the same amount of time. Later, I met with a few real estate agents who’d give me lists of newcomers to the area, a much more qualified prospect. Hitting the hot evening pavement with a motley crew of delinquents is not the most glamorous form of sales training, but I gathered street smarts and learned how to work intelligently in a competitive environment.

In college, I collected bounced check for a startup collection agency. For our safety, we didn’t use our real names. I operated under the pseudonym Bill Marshall (get it? GET IT?!). My knowledge of skip tracing, customer handling and industry legislation became invaluable when the company president selected me for the first formal sales team. I helped land the Pizza Hut account which vastly expanded our business. Under the exceptional training of my sales manager, I learned how to sell financial services to small businesses, and train new-hires to do the same thing. For better or worse, this job taught me swagger and street before “hustle” became fashionable among wantrepreneurs. The Feds caught up with the founder in Miami on racketeering charges.

After college, I started Stream Studio, one of the first web agencies in Austin, Texas. I applied my professional solution-sales training to generate high-value sales channels and close large per-contract deals. I’ve won many government and corporate RFPs, a task often avoided by sales professionals because of time and effort building champions and navigating the inevitable procurement apparatus. I credit both preparation and presentation for winning these contracts.

As a digital leader advertising agencies like GSD&M, HCN Health and Sanders\Wingo, I helped win new business at all stages of the pitch. Once we had the clients in our roster, I actively pitch new business to grow the accounts and retain their business through customer success.

As the VP of Business development at FirstView, I led sales, marketing, client experience & product strategy in the world if IoT. The world of embedded design brought me to leading companies in automotive, med-tech, industrial controls, security & consumer electronics. I’m especially proud to have helped land a lucrative $26M deal to bring the innovative Smartnav and SmartLINQ fleet monitoring to market for Peterbilt.

As an Account Executive at WordPress VIP at Automattic, and later as a client strategist and head of partnerships for 10up + Fueled, I promoted the world’s most popular CMS to global brands, publishers, media companies, universities, and public sector organizations. I led complicated full-cycle deals and megadeals ($1M/yr) among technical and economic buyers in the C-suite that led to multiple rounds of private equity investment.

Marketing

I’ve worked with amazing CMOs, strategists, and ad men my entire career, some of whom have recommended me on LinkedIn. As an advertising producer, performance marketer, and the former analyst relations guy for the WordPress open source project to Gartner, Forrester, and IDC, I bring a ton of marketing experience and a strong network of pros.

Strategic Partnerships

I’ve developed formal programs tailored as a business growth engine, not merely a source for deals. I go beyond picking low hanging fruit to plant orchards. Greg Portnoy is a strong influence on approach to program development, launch, and management. 

Public Speaking & Expert Advisor

I’ve served on dozens of committees, sub-committees and non-profit boards since the 1990s. I’ve spoken at marketing and leadership conferences, retreats and expert panels at SXSW and B2BOnline. I’ve been a guest on multiple podcasts, and an expert advisor to venture capital research firms, as well as journalist analysts reporting on digital trends. I’ve even emceed several benefit dinners (50 to 500 people) with all the commiserate event planning and promotion.

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Operations

Offering Development

I help global brand leaders leverage design thinking and digital technologies to bring smart offers to market.

I manage all areas of the software development life cycle (SDLC) with a blend of traditional and agile methods appropriate to the client, the team and the project.

Digital Technologies + Design

I speak geek. Having started as a data modeler and full-stack web developer in 1996, I follow trends, tools and best practices on commercial and open-source platforms.

As a digital strategist, I’ve watch the convergence of marketing and technology into a complex array of digital technologies and focused disciplines of content, UX, analytics, and mobile delivery. I’ve studied and applied the best of Web 2.0, IoT, Web3, and am currently immersed in the rapid shift from branded web pages to AI agents.

Client Success

I’ve had the privilege to work with exceptional strategists among global brands in technology, retail, fintech, and health care. I manage systems for measuring account health, retention, and expansion as a core pillar of a company’s growth.

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Administration

Data, Information, and Technologies

I understand the value of data as a business asset and the need to measure what I matters. I translate insights and trends to business needs and technical architecture.

My contributions in this area are mostly helping technical leaders grok the “why” and soften their delivery during sales. Where there is typically a conflict between sales and technical people, I’ve been able to develop a healthy tension between sales and engineering leadership. I do this by not being proscriptive in problem solving when I’m selling a solution, rather, respecting (and admiring) the creative & clever perspective of the engineering mind.

Human Resources

Liz Ryan is a personal mentor, and I’m listed in her official coaching directory. She’s the CEO of Human Workplace, a prolific writer, and social media influencer on HR best practices (hiring, firing, leadership, management, systems, approaches steeped in human dignity)

Finance & Governance

I understand the value

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Lead people. Manage things.

I’m a critical thinker that balances the hard truth of data-driven business decisions with the soft languages of humanity. I work diligently to order systems and people toward growth that is mutually beneficial for my people, my partners, and my customers.

Recognizing the health of the company serves the common good, the dignity of each individual is at the heart of our success. My empathy lies amid the deepest longings of every human heart… to be seen, and to be heard, and to know that our efforts matter.