Brian Dordevic

Delivering profitable web design with SEO first approach. Official Google partner.

I started as a $4/hr offshore virtual assistant and became a USA citizen & business owner.

I help you generate more profit with your existing traffic efforts by optimizing conversion rates, improving your site speed & content strategy.

Chief Executive Officer

As the CEO of Alpha Efficiency, I steer the strategic direction of the company while managing an expanding team of 30+ professionals, spearheading growth initiatives, and driving operational efficiency.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) & Achievements:

Team Leadership & Management: Championed a culture of performance and accountability that led to a 35% boost in operational efficiency. Regularly oversee talent acquisition and retention strategies to ensure our team is well-equipped for success.

SEO & Content Management: Supervised the creation and execution of our SEO strategy, which saw a remarkable 60% surge in organic website traffic within six months, augmenting our brand's digital visibility.

Paid Media Strategies: Pioneered the deployment of innovative paid media campaigns, resulting in a 50% increase in brand awareness and a 30% rise in customer acquisition, significantly expanding our market footprint.

Performance Benchmarking: Developed and implemented performance benchmarks to ensure constant progress. The systematic monitoring of these metrics brought about a 20% improvement in overall productivity.

Stakeholder Management: Successfully maintained robust relationships with key stakeholders, attaining a 90% satisfaction rate, testament to our commitment to delivering value and fostering transparency.

Financial Management: Maintained stringent control over fiscal operations, consistently delivering profitability and surpassing financial objectives by 15% in the previous year, solidifying our position in the market.

This multifaceted role requires a delicate balance of leadership, strategic thinking, and operational excellence. It's my mission to continue propelling Alpha Efficiency forward, driving sustainable growth, and adding value for our stakeholders.

Most web devs ship the site and disappear.

Client is left with:

• Title tag: “Just another WordPress site”
• /wp-admin begging to get hacked
• No favicon, no brand memory

Client never checks this stuff.
But Google and bots do.

Amateurs build pages.
Pros protect assets.

Be the dev who makes them money and keeps them safe.

Add $60,247 per month for your law practice with AI-driven local SEO (without blowing up your Advertising budget). | Hubspot, Google & SEMRush Partner | View my portfolio for inspiration and revenue-generating ideas.

Here is how my web design agency hit $500,000 this year (without burning out and drowning in sales calls):

1. Build an infinitely recurring offer

We stopped selling random projects.
We focused on three core outcomes:

• Tech stack we can support for years
• Clear care plan attached to each client
• Design that loads fast and CONVERTS

Every new website came with maintenance baked in, not as an optional extra.

This moved us from 80% one time revenue to 80% RECURRING revenue. 

Life gets easier when you know where your next payment is coming from.

2. Then we stacked layered recurring revenue

Instead of pitching “full service marketing” up front, we did:

• Website first
• Then Local SEO
• Then email automations
• Then grow into ads management

One win at a time.

Clients stayed because each layer made their funnel more profitable, not more complicated.

3. Make recurring work feel like a product, not chaos

We treated retainers like products:

• Fixed deliverables
• Fixed reporting rhythm
• Fixed weekly meeting cadence

Clients knew what was happening every month.
Team knew what to ship every week.
This killed most of the “emergency” calls.

4. Do the hard things competitors avoid

While others chased AI short term tactics to avoid hard work, we:

• Fixed technical SEO properly
• Cleaned tracking and analytics
• Optimized page speed and UX
• Talked to clients’ intake teams about lead quality

Unsexy work.

But it is what moved revenue for clients and made our retainers untouchable.

5. Turn happy clients into a referral engine

We did not beg for referrals.
We engineered them:

• Case studies that show revenue growth
• Simple “Who do you know like X?” asks
• Partner deals with vendors already serving our clients

Result: referrals drove more revenue than cold outreach.

6. Protect energy, not just profit

To avoid dying on sales calls, we:

• Had short, focused discovery calls
• Said “no” to clients who wanted chaos
• Used templates and checklists to scope fast
• Pre qualified leads through forms and content

Fewer calls.
Better clients.
More energy for actually building.

If you run a service business and want to turn it into a recurring revenue machine without living on sales calls, reply “SYSTEM” and I will send you a breakdown you can implement in your agency.

Corporate HATES remote work.

That's why my team loves our 100% remote agency (and ZERO commute).

Yet that doesn't stop us from:

• Driving around $2,000,000 in revenue for a disability law firm
• Shipping enterprise grade web development for a major non profit
• Adding over $4,000,000 in revenue for a home improvement business

All delivered from laptops in Ibiza, Paris, Palma de Mallorca and Chicago.

No HQ. No fancy boardroom. No glass tower with a logo on it.

Just:

• A MacBook
• Nitro cold brew
• Blazing fast internet
• Senior operators who care more about results than clocking in

Here is what we do not have:

• Office politics
• Pointless water cooler talk
• Commutes that drain everyone before work even starts

Here is what we do have:

• Deep work
• Fast shipping cycles
• Clients who measure us on revenue, not timesheets

Remote is not an excuse for lower standards.
For us it is the reason we can focus on the only thing that matters: 

RESULTS.

Want to see what this kind of fully remote operation produces?

Check out our portfolio!

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People flex with watches.
But owning your time is the real flex.

Most people signal status with what is on their wrist.
I use mine to remember I never want to sell my time again.

I own three watches:

• A $1,000 Apple Watch Ultra
• A $5,000 Breitling
• A $500 Tissot

You would think I wear the Breitling the most.

I do not.

The Apple Watch used to run my life.
Notifications. Activity rings. Constant pressure to do more.

It made me productive.
It did not make me free.

Then two clients came along.

We built and scaled their crypto platform.
Those projects alone brought over $200,000 for Alpha Efficiency.

As a thank you, they sent me the Tissot.
Paid for in crypto. (reminder that tech moves fast)

That watch did something the Apple Watch never could:

It disconnected my self worth from the clock.

I stopped timing my workouts.
Stopped checking messages every few minutes.
Stopped living by notifications.

Every time I look at that Tissot, it reminds me:

• Technology should serve you, not own you
• One right deal can buy you years of optionality
• Your time is a reflection of the clients you choose

Later I bought the Breitling to prove something.
To myself. To the industry. To people who play status games.

It mostly sits at home now.

Because the real status upgrade was not the luxury brand. It was a regulated nervous system.

Learning how to get clients that pay you so well that you stop trading hours for money.

That is the game I care about teaching.

If you want more clients like that, and fewer that drain your energy and calendar,
I broke down my systems inside Infinite Deals.

It is where I document how I:

• Attract high ticket clients online
• Buy back more of my own time each year
• Turn a few great projects into multiple six figures

The watch is just a reminder.

The real asset is the skill of getting the right deals.

Developer made $3,246 mistake that blew up our advertising budget. (And the easy fix no one talks about)

When I worked at eTech, the SEO team pushed a site update in the middle of the day...

• No warning
• No coordination
• Just a routine update

Except it crashed the website.

And our Google Ads kept spending.

For three straight hours, every click went to a dead page.

By the time the site came back up, we burned $3,246 on nothing.

That one screw-up taught me a rule I still follow today:

Never send PPC traffic to your main website.
Ever.

Use a landing page platform that doesn’t break when someone edits a menu, updates a plugin, or pushes a deploy.

That’s why I run everything on HubSpot landing pages now.

Cleaner. Faster. Safer. Built for conversion, not chaos.

Here’s what it gives you:

• Your ads keep running even if your site goes down
• Predictable performance while others burn money
• A/B tests without asking a dev to push code
• Tracking that doesn’t leak data
• No SEO signal pollution
• Faster load speeds
• No team collisions

Three hours.
Three thousand two hundred forty six dollars.

One rule that never fails me.

If you're running paid traffic, book a call with me on ways I can setup your Google and Meta Ads for success. (Link in comments)

Landed in Chicago 12 years ago (photo from THE South Side)

Rented room
Cracked laptop 
Safety Net ZERO

No investors. No agency mastermind.
Just wifi and the decision to figure it out.

Fast forward.
Last quarter my agency helped clients add multiple seven figures in revenue.

Concrete wins, not theory:

• Around $2,000,000 in revenue for a disability law firm
• Over $4,000,000 in revenue for a home improvement company
• Enterprise grade web development shipped for a major non profit

None of that happened by accident.

Here is the operating system behind it:

Pick a painful problem

I focused on lawyers and local pros.
When their leads stop, payroll hurts.
Solve that consistently and they remember your name.

Sell the smallest real win

Not a massive “done for you everything” promise.
Just one clear outcome: Website + Local SEO sprint.

Easy yes.

Once they see it working, bigger checks make sense.

Create proof in public

Endless hundreds of proposals on Upwork
Daily posts on X and LinkedIn
Documenting what works

The content brings people in already half sold.

Let systems do the follow up

HubSpot workflows, intent data, and simple pipelines.
No “just checking in” energy.

Prospects move through a process whether I am online or not.

Stack rare skills

AI, technical SEO, CRO, local search.
Enough depth to solve hard problems.
Enough range to connect the whole funnel.

Treat cash like oxygen

Weekly money reviews.
Profit targets.
I built for boring predictability instead of viral spikes.

Borrow other people’s trust

Partner with vendors who already serve attorneys.
They send us their clients.
We send them better performing websites.

Everyone wins.

If you are in a new city, with no network and nothing but a laptop, you do not need permission.

Steal one of these.
Stack all seven.

Then let the internet do what it does best:
Turn specific skills into an agency that quietly prints results.

Your pal, Brian
P.S. I'm getting that hairline BACK.

The first time I “celebrated” Thanksgiving, I was not even in America.
I was in a small apartment in Serbia.

Cracked laptop. Weak WiFi.
Working remotely for an American tech company for $700 per month.

On my screen I saw what Thanksgiving was supposed to look like.

Big tables. Big families. Big bird in the middle.
Football on TV. Warm light. Full plates.

On my side of the screen?

Cheap food.
Cold apartment.
Trying to make the numbers work so I could get to that country one day.

Back then, Thanksgiving felt like another planet.

And here is what always fascinated me about it:

On Thursday, everyone is grateful.
On Friday, everyone loses their mind over fake discounts.

• Same people
• Same houses
• Different tabs open

They say a prayer over the turkey, then twenty four hours later they fight over televisions that were “discounted” after the price was quietly increased.

While that was happening, I was grinding for $700, trying to answer a much simpler question:

“How do I build a life where gratitude is not a costume I wear once a year?”

So I did the only thing I could control.
I stopped waiting for a good break.
I started becoming more valuable.

SEO. Content. Design. Systems.
Anything that made me harder to replace than the next resume in the pile.

One skill at a time.
One client at a time.
One small win at a time.

Then came the leap.

• I moved to the U.S.
• Built a 20 person SEO team.
• Drove over a million dollars in organic calls.
• Started my own agency.
• Hit consistent six figure months.

The plates at Thanksgiving look very different now.

But here is the part most people miss:

Gratitude is not what you post on Thursday.
Gratitude is the work your past self did when nobody watched.
The sacrifices nobody clapped for.

The discipline that did not get likes and comments.

Your former self paid the price.
You live the upside.

So the real question is not “What are you thankful for this year?”

The real question is:
Are you living in a way that makes your past sacrifices worth it?

This Thanksgiving I am giving back.

While many throw out Fake Discounts and hope you won’t notice.
I am running my best sale yet. One that will change your life if you act on it.

My Substack yearly plan includes my two best selling courses - (people valued them at $349). Link to my substack is in the comments.

Infinite Deals - That teaches you how to get clients on repeat.
Profitable Websites from Scratch - That teaches you how to build websites that convince AI and Google that your website is the real deal.

Add the community, and you’ll get all of this for $99. I am pulling this offer 23:59 EST. And won’t run it again. Sign up on my Substack profile and DM me your email for the bonuses.

Why 99% Stay Addicted and 1% Get Rich

When I was a kid, technology was a TV in the living room and a plastic shovel in the sandbox.

Today I walked past my old kindergarten and remembered how we used to dig holes in the playground.

• No apps
• No screens
• No notifications

Just dirt, tiny shovels, and a group of kids trying to reach the center of the earth.

Now look around.

Heads down. Blue light. Infinite scroll.

We removed boredom from life, and with it a lot of real growth.

Yet your entire financial future depends on attention.

If you cannot capture and direct attention, you are invisible.
If you can, you are playing a different game.

When I quit my job, it was not bravery. It was math.

I knew I could take a stranger from the internet and turn them into a paying client often enough that I would be fine.

• Not warm leads
• Not referrals

Cold traffic.

That one skill quietly funded my life:

• Training without guilt
• Travel without panic about money
• Good restaurants instead of counting every bill
• Time to think while my team and AI agents do the boring parts

None of that came from hacks.
It came from learning how to turn cold to closed.

Most people treat Black Friday as a chance to buy another screen.

New gadget
Same income
Same calendar
Same problems

If I could only buy one thing on Black Friday, it would not be hardware.
It would be the skill of converting cold attention into buyers.

Once you can turn:

Stranger to visitor
Visitor to booked call
Call resulting in a paying client

You stop worrying about opportunity. You decide when to turn it on.

That is what I am teaching in alphaOS.

How I think about attention.
How I structure offers so strangers get it in seconds.
How I turn cold traffic into booked calls.
How I run most of it from my phone with a lean team.
How doctors, lawyers, dentists and other local businesses can plug this into what they already sell.

For Black Friday I opened a short presale on Substack (on yearly plan).

You get included with Substack annual subscription:

• Access to a community for a full year (where you can ask me questions)
• Profitable Websites from Scratch (my web design course)
• Infinite Deals (how to turn prospects into clients)

You are already surrounded by overstimulated attention.

The only real question is whether you keep donating yours, or turn it into income.

A decade-old SEO is sold as an AI breakthrough.

And somehow, everyone’s acting like they’ve uncovered a hidden variable.

• 90% of “AI visibility” is just SEO.
• One lucky mention doesn’t make you relevant.
• The “new tactics” are just retrieval doing it's thing.

5 pieces last week shattered the illusion that AI changed everything:

1. Your "AI Strategy" is "Just SEO" with Better Marketing

Behind the hype, AI visibility still depends on the same technical foundations that power traditional search. Most supposed breakthroughs are just old SEO principles dressed as something new. 
https://hubs.la/Q03WywpV0

2. ChatGPT Turns Shopping Into a Personalized Research Engine

ChatGPT now adapts to your product preferences in real time. Shopping becomes a guided conversation powered by real-time data and personalized context. 
https://hubs.la/Q03WyCl10

3. The Hidden Cost Behind “Fast and Cheap” SEO

SEO still runs on the same triangle of time, cost, and quality, and cutting corners always comes back as rework and lost visibility. 
https://hubs.la/Q03Wyy5s0

4. A 50% Deletion Test Boosted Traffic Instead of Killing It

Deleting over half a site’s content sounds reckless, but this audit proved the opposite. Removing 1,000 outdated, low-value pages boosted organic traffic, tightened funnel performance, and raised conversions.
https://hubs.la/Q03WyzRR0

5. $227M Went Into the Wrong AI SEO Trend

Investors poured millions into LLM monitoring while the real defensibility sat in agentic SEO tools. The competitive edge is in shipping faster, better, and across more channels.  
https://hubs.la/Q03Wyv050

Clarity and structure have carried brands for years.

But the pressure to use them is rising...

If you want yours to hold up, join me on a quick call: https://hubs.la/Q03Wyvqh0

There is a 44% chance your lawyer is an addict.
Not to alcohol, but to “no new cases” at 1:13 AM.

36% of attorneys screen positive as problem drinkers.
9% report prescription drug misuse.
And no stats for illegal drugs use...

That is one in two.

What pushes them there?

Not the hours
Not the verdicts
Not even the clients

It is the gap between running their own practice vs. being burnt down by corporate management.

Those that went solo suffer when: 

• The phone does not ring
• There is no next case in sight
• Payroll is coming and cash is not

Those that are in corporate are drinking through: 

• Persuasive arguments
• Worrying about the appointed judge
• Client that lied to them in disposition

Those that left Big Law for freedom, quietly count credit karma drops and debt.

Those that stayed worry about their spouse secretly despising them for being absent. (and filing divorce paperwork)

If only they could pick and choose their cases...

The best source of new cases is already decided for them:

• AI Search
• Google Ads
• Google Maps
• Local Service Ads

When someone prompts “disability lawyer New York” or “estate planning attorney Chicago” they are not looking for content...

They are looking for a lawyer.
NOW.

Yet most firms are barely investing into these channels. Or they tried once, burned money, and walked away.

It's not that search doesn't work..
But their investment in it is not.

• No call tracking
• No real lead magnet
• No intake automation

Just a generic homepage and a lonely “Contact us” button that doesn't get any clicks.

So even when Google actually sends them a live prospect, the visitor bounces, gets distracted, or calls a competitor with a better offer, clearer next step, or faster intake.

If half of the energy spent worrying about money went into building one predictable search engine pipeline, a lot of partners would sleep better and drink less.

Here is what the calm firms do differently:

• Treat AI, Google Maps, LSAs and Ads like rent, not a lottery ticket
• Use a clear lead magnet that filters and warms up prospects
• Track every call and form so they know what works
• Turn that data into a repeatable acquisition system

Predictability is the real antidote.
And no engine creates more predictable intent than AI & search.

If you are a lawyer and want to see why your firm is not getting a steady flow of cases from Google Maps, Local Service Ads and Google Ads, comment AUDIT and I will show you exactly where the leaks are in your funnel.

16 years in SEO. 

This is the biggest opportunity I’ve seen.

AI pushed the industry into a reset.

And the advantage moved with it.

These are 5 signals from last week redefining the landscape:

1. You’re Late to SEO. That’s Your Advantage in 2025

If you're only starting now, you get to skip unlearning a decade of tricks. Ride AI tools, and go straight to long-tail keywords that will actually bring you customers. 
https://hubs.la/Q03TNLs70
 
2. AI Sends 1% of Traffic and Controls Most Customers

The new Conductor report reveals AI referrals are tiny in volume but huge in influence, shaping which brands customers trust before they even think about clicking through. 
https://hubs.la/Q03TNBqs0

3. The Smartest Brands Use AI Like a Scalpel, Not a Firehose 
 
If most of your AI effort vanished, would your customers feel the difference, or would your marketing still sound like everyone else’s? That’s your real AI strategy audit. 
https://hubs.la/Q03TNGWB0 

4. Google’s AI Now Shops for Your Customers, Are You Still on the Shelf?

With Search and Gemini comparing options and closing purchases, the brands that earn the spot are the ones the AI sees as the safest, smartest “yes.” 
https://hubs.la/Q03TNFlG0

5. AI Is Killing Data Silos and Forcing Your Team to Share One Customer Reality

As AI connects signals across every system, it also pushes you from tool-centric reporting to a single shared view of the customer that no team can dodge. 
https://hubs.la/Q03TNymt0

Your brand has a split second to make sense. Let's use it wisely. 

Pick a time and upgrade the moment: https://hubs.la/Q03TNLrj0

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Talks about #ppc, #seo, #webdesign, #ppcmarketing, and #webdevelopment

What do you do when CTR falls off a cliff?

AI Overviews just cratered them.

−61% organic, −68% paid.

The aftermath isn't pretty. 

Let's take a look on last week's hits: 

1. AI Overviews Broke Google’s Click Economy

Recent data shows organic clicks down 61% and paid down 68% on queries with AI Overviews. Even when the feature doesn’t appear, users are clicking less everywhere. 
https://hubs.la/Q03SDBFw0

2. AI’s Split Personality: ChatGPT Expands, Google Tightens

New Semrush data reveals a quiet power shift. ChatGPT is citing 80% more sources (experimenting wildly) while Google’s AI Mode is tightening its circle. 
https://hubs.la/Q03SDCMB0

3. The Profound Index: Unveiling the Titans of AI Search

Profound just launched a live leaderboard showing which brands dominate LLM visibility and what fuels their AI discovery wins.
https://hubs.la/Q03SDBbw0

4. Google’s Double-Serving Rule Is Rewriting Fair Play

A recent policy lets one advertiser take two ad spots on the same page, tilting the auction in favor of big spenders. Sounds pretty unfair, doesn't it?
https://hubs.la/Q03SDv3L0

5. Google’s PMax Now Reaches Drivers on Waze

Performance Max just added Waze ads to its inventory, letting brands reach drivers through navigation pins while unlocking new channel performance reporting.
https://hubs.la/Q03SDDJp0

The click economy broke.

But even if metrics crash and trends flip, authority keeps converting.

Ready to meet the signals that still move markets? 
Book your call → https://hubs.la/Q03SDBfb0

POV:

You work with Alpha Efficiency on your top of line revenue:

Alpha Efficiency

Strategy & Finance Executive | Scaling Impact-Driven Companies Beyond $10M | Strategic CFO | Certified Scaling Up Advisor

Scaling Founders Beyond $10M with Strategy, Financial Clarity, and Leadership Expansion

Most companies stall not because of lack of effort—
but because the founder has outgrown the systems, strategies, and financial models that once worked.

At Ascend Growth Ventures, we partner with CEOs of $3M–$10M companies to implement Scaling Up, strengthen financial infrastructure, and elevate leadership teams—building businesses that scale profitably and predictably, without burning out the founder.

By integrating Scaling Up, Exponential Organizations, and CFO-level financial insights, we deliver a complete, battle-tested system for sustainable, high-performance growth.

🔹 We Work With CEOs Who Want To:
✔️ Scale revenue and profits without chaos
✔️ Build self-managing leadership teams
✔️ Unlock hidden cash flow and improve financial decision-making
✔️ Sharpen their strategy for exponential growth
✔️ Prepare for capital raises, acquisitions, or exits

🔹 Our Core Focus Areas:
  * Strategic Scaling Up Implementation

  * Financial Strategy & Cash Optimization

  * Leadership Team Development

  * Systems for Predictable Growth

  * Valuation Prep and Exit Strategy

✅ Why Work With Me?
25+ years of experience scaling businesses from the inside out:
➡️ Regional CFO, GE Gas Power (LATAM, +1.5GW record year)
➡️ Strategic finance and underwriting leadership at GE Capital
➡️ Business/project development for 8-figure ventures
➡️ Trusted advisor to founders scaling past $10M and beyond

✅ Industries We Specialize In:
✔️ Clean Energy & Decarbonization
✔️ Industrial Goods & B2B Services
✔️ Impact-Driven Companies
✔️ Scaling Coaching & Consulting Firms

🧠 If You're Ready to Scale Intelligently and Sustainably

Let's have a strategic conversation about where you are—and where you can go.

Easiest way to work with me?

Book a private power hour call and let's create your vision.
https://calendly.com/cruzagamboa/90-min-power-hour

Cruz Gamboa

Some companies don’t stall because of strategy.
They stall because of perception.

You can have the right model, metrics, and playbook—
and still struggle to scale
because trust isn’t in the culture.

We think scaling is about systems, KPIs, and offers.
But it’s really about energy, alignment, and belief.

Teams don’t reject initiatives.
They reject inconsistency.
They sense when the leader says one thing
and embodies another.

Every interaction in a growing company is a mirror—
it reflects the culture that’s actually being built.

Before you refine your next OKR,
refine your presence.

Because the best strategy in the world can’t fix a trust gap.

➡️ People follow clarity before they follow goals.
➡️ Integrity scales faster than intensity.


#leadership #scalingup #growth #trust #mindset

The market tells stories. Your financials & metrics tell truth.

In 2001, Amazon's stock cratered from $113 to $6.

Wall Street declared it dead.

Let's be clear: that had to be terrifying. Even for Bezos.

Watching 95% of your valuation evaporate. Hearing the whispers. Feeling the pressure from every direction.

But here's what separated him from founders who fold in those moments, he kept coming back to his dashboard:

Customer acquisition costs...improving. 

Fulfillment efficiency...improving. 

Contribution margin per unit...improving. 

Defect rates...declining.

The stock price reflected fear. 

The operating metrics reflected reality.

Confidence isn't the absence of fear. It's choosing to trust what you can measure over what you can't control.

This is Financial Intelligence: knowing which numbers actually predict your future, especially when everything around you is screaming that you're losing.

Watch the video. Bezos is calm. 

Not because he wasn't scared, but because he had clarity.

He knew exactly what was true inside his business.

That's how you survive what looks like a reversal, and come out the other side stronger.

That's how $6 becomes $1.7 trillion.

So here's my question for you:

What would it be worth to have that kind of clarity the next time everything feels like it's falling apart?

To know—not hope, not guess—that you're on the right track?

That's the game worth playing.

Check out comments for details

#founder #growth #ceo #scalingup

Helping Founders Break the $10M Ceiling | Strategy, Cash Flow & Leadership Systems | Scaling CFO

𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘁𝗼 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀.

Hamdi Ulukaya didn’t just build a yogurt brand, he redefined an industry.

No investors. No marketing budget. Just purpose, grit, and belief.

In 2005, he saw an ad.
An abandoned Kraft yogurt factory.

Everyone saw a money pit.
He saw possibility.

He didn’t have the money.
So he took a loan.

Bought the factory.
Kept 5 employees who believed when no one else did.

No income.
No sales.
No marketing.
Just faith, and a recipe from home.

Two years later, in 2007, Chobani was born.

No ads. Just bold packaging and pure taste.

Retailers hesitated.
But the people loved it.

Within 5 years, #1 yogurt in America.

Over $1B in sales.
The giants, Dannon, Yoplait, couldn’t catch up.

He stayed private.
Gave 10% of the company to his employees.

Hired refugees.
Put people before profit.

When asked why, he said:

👉 “Business is the strongest force for good, if it puts people first.”

From a shepherd in Turkey…
To a billionaire who still walks the factory floors.

Lesson?
You don’t need investors.
You need integrity.
You don’t need luck.
You need courage.

Because the dream still works, if you do.

Loved this story. Let me know your comments. 

What problem in your business keeps calling for your most creative energy?

#CEO  #FOUNDER #GROWTH #SCALINGUP

Two friends, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield.

One dropped out.
One got rejected from med school.
But both wanted to build something.

First idea: bagels.
Too expensive.
So they pivot to ice cream.

No experience. No investors.
Just a $5 correspondence course from Penn State.
$2.50 each.

They find an abandoned gas station in Vermont.
Borrow $12,000.
Do the renovation themselves.

Ben can’t even taste properly, a condition called anosmia.
So he focuses on texture.
Big chunks. Wild swirls. Bold flavours.

What others saw as a weakness became their edge.

Within months, lines formed outside the door.
Free Cone Day became a tradition.
Word spread fast.

Few years later, they launched Cherry Garcia.
The brand took off across the country.
Soon, Ben & Jerry’s was making over $500M a year.

All from $12,000 and a $5 course.

Lesson?
You don’t need the perfect start.
You need creativity, courage, and the guts to turn constraints into leverage.

#scalingup #ceo #founder #growth

They emailed eBay 200 times.
eBay ignored every single one.
Most people would’ve given up.

But Marc, Oliver, and Alexander Samwer weren’t “most people.”

They cloned eBay.
Launched it in Germany.
Executed with speed and perfection.
Within months… eBay bought it back for $43 MILLION.

Then the brothers doubled down.
They built Rocket Internet, the company that turned cloning into a billion-dollar machine.

They copied.
They improved.
They scaled.
And they sold again, and again, and again.

Here’s the truth:

👉 They weren’t chasing approval, they were chasing execution at scale.
👉 They didn’t wait to be discovered, they created their own leverage.
👉 They mastered the one principle most founders overlook:
Doing it better beats doing it first.

Critics called them “copycats.”
But behind the noise, the Samwer brothers built an empire worth billions.

Most people stop when they hear “no.”
The one who succeed?
They push when it’s uncomfortable.
They build when others hesitate.
They turn rejection into momentum.

If you want outsized results, do what most won’t:
Step past comfort.
Step past doubt.
Step past fear.

Because the biggest payoffs live right beyond the point where almost everyone quits.

#scalingup #growth #ceo #bostonfounders

𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁.

Steve Jobs said it best, the greatest people are self-managing.

They don’t need direction. They are the direction.

When you’re scaling, this is the difference between speed and stagnation.

You can’t build a $10M company micromanaging every move.
You build it by surrounding yourself with people who:

➡️ See the problem before you do.
➡️ Fix it without asking.
➡️ Then tell you how they made it better.

That’s who scales companies.
Not followers.
Not “yes” people.
Builders.

If you have to keep pushing your team to move, 
you don’t have a scaling problem,
you have a people problem.

The truth?
The best teams don’t need managing.
They need mission.

Hire those who act like owners.
Give them the target.
Then get the hell out of their way.

That’s how you scale.
That’s how you win.

#scalingup #ceo #founder #growth

He built a dating site that generated exactly zero activity.
No users. No traction. No revenue.

Most leaders call that a failed model.
I call it an early audit.

Three ex-PayPal employees launched “Tune In Hook Up,” expecting market fit.
What they got was silence.
Operational cost? Rising.
User acquisition? Non-existent.
ROI? Negative from day one.

But here’s what mattered:
They reviewed the data instead of reacting to the emotion.

They noticed users trying to upload videos
Not for dating, but for everyday moments.
Unintended behaviour, but real demand.

So they executed the smartest financial move any early-stage team can make:
A low-cost pivot.

Same infrastructure.
Same upload system.
Zero additional burn.
Just a shift in positioning:
Share any video.

And that decision changed their entire valuation trajectory.

Users scaled exponentially.
Cost per acquisition plummeted.
Engagement skyrocketed.
Suddenly, they weren’t running a dating site…
They were running the internet’s first true video platform.

By 2006, their risk profile had flipped
High growth. High virality.
And high legal exposure.

Enter Google.
They offered $1.65B in stock for a business that still had no established monetisation engine.
From a financial lens?
That’s called derisking the future.

Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim accepted.
Smart move.
They transferred operational liability…
And secured generational wealth.

Today, YouTube contributes over $40B in yearly ad revenue
and sits at a valuation north of $500B.

All from a product that started as a complete miss 
until the data told a different story.

Lesson:
You don’t scale perfection.
You scale what the market proves it wants.
Listen to the numbers, not the narratives.
And never underestimate the ROI of a well-timed pivot.

#CFOInsights #Leadership #Strategy #Scalingup

She sold her engagement ring for $10,000.
Ten years later, Vicky Tsai built a $500M skincare empire.

Most people call that crazy.
I call it commitment.

She walked away from a six-figure job…
Moved back into her childhood bedroom at 30…
Got rejected for 18 months straight…
And kept going anyway.

1,000 units.
Her last $5,000.
No safety net. No backup plan.

Month one? $2,000 in sales.
Most people quit here.
Vicky didn’t.

She packed every order by hand.
Wrote thank-you notes to strangers.
Built trust one customer at a time.

Then the internet found her.
Demand exploded.
Sephora called.
And the bedroom startup became one of the fastest-growing skincare brands in America.

In 2019, Unilever bought Tatcha for $500 million.
The $10,000 ring she sold?
It turned into 50,000x.

Lesson?
You don’t need permission.
You need conviction.
And the courage to burn Plan B. 

#ceo #founder #growth #scalingup

She was 20. A housewife. No experience. No degree.

Just a dream, and a recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

Everyone said it would fail.
“Cookies? That’s not a business.”

Banks said no.Experts laughed.

The market was ruled by Oreos and Chips Ahoy.

But Debbi Fields didn’t care.
She took a $50,000 loan with her husband.

Rented a small store in Palo Alto.

Rent: $800/month.
Failure wasn’t an option.

Opening day:
By noon, not a single sale.
She panicked. Grabbed a tray.
Walked outside.
“Try one. They’re free.”

That one line changed everything.
Crowds formed.

They sold out by evening.

She baked fresh every 2 hours.
Never sold day-old cookies.
If they sat too long, she gave them away.

Advisors hated it.
Customers LOVED it.

Year one: $200,000 in sales.
Then store #2.
Then San Francisco.
Then malls.
Then the world.

By the 1990s:

➡ 600+ stores
➡ $500M in annual sales
➡ And a new category: premium cookies

All from one woman who ignored logic and trusted her gut.

The takeaway:
If everyone says your idea is crazy,
you might just be onto something.

#scalingup #founder #growth #ceo

He got fired.
The company he built said, “We don’t need you anymore.”
Everyone forgot him.

But Steve Jobs didn’t stop.

He poured tens of millions into a failing company called Pixar.
Everyone thought he was crazy.
Most would have quit.

12 years later… that gamble sold for $7.4 BILLION.

Here’s the thing:

👉 He wasn’t chasing money. He was chasing vision.
👉 He embraced risk when others ran from it.
👉 He bet on what he believed in, even when the world said no.

Most people quit right before the payoff.
The real winners? They push through when it’s hardest.
They see opportunity where others see failure.

If you want massive results, you need to do what most won’t.
Step past comfort. Step past doubt. Step past fear.

Because the biggest payoffs live just beyond the point where almost everyone quits.

#scalingup  #growth #ceo

Steve Jobs

He built pole barns to pay for college.

Decades later, John Menard Jr. built Menards, an $18B home improvement empire.

Most people call that luck.

I call it financial discipline.

He opened a small lumber yard in 1964…

Kept prices rock-bottom by building his own factories…

And built every store with cash, not debt.

No investors. No loans. No noise.

While others chased speed and Wall Street, John chose control.

He knew his margins by product line. He tracked cash flow like a pilot tracks altitude. He made the numbers his single source of truth.

Store by store. State by state. Slow, steady, unstoppable.

When 2008 hit, he didn't scramble; he expanded.

Today?

340+ Menards stores. $13B+ revenue. 3rd third-largest home-improvement chain in America. Still 100% private.

The lesson?

You don't need to grow fast. You need to grow right.

That means: 
→ Knowing your profit margins by service line 
→ Tracking cash flow weekly, not just at tax time 
→ Building systems so the business works, not just you

Financial clarity isn't about being a "numbers person."
It's about building simple, repeatable habits that let you scale with confidence.

Have the courage to own every decision, starting with your numbers.
#founder #growth #businessmindset #financialclarity #scalingup

Most people think success comes from working harder, dreaming bigger, or thinking smarter.

Here's the truth: none of that matters if you don't act.

In one simple test, a $50 bill was up for grabs. 

Everyone wanted it. 
Everyone talked about it. 
Everyone wished they had it…

Except Debbie.

She stood up. She walked forward. She took it.

That's it. 

That's the difference between winners and everyone else.

While everyone else burns time and money chasing online strategies that become less effective every day…

The smartest entrepreneurs thriving in 2025 are walking away from their screens and adding an extra 7-figures through live events.

Real humans. In-person communities. High-profit partnerships.

The ultimate advantage in the age of AI isn't replacing humanity with efficiency; it's experiences that are deep, connective, transformative, and profitable.

Getting face-to-face with your ideal clients AND peers is the most consistent solution to the Trust Recession.

I'll be at Event Profit Engine in Austin (December 10-12)...and I still have 4 discounted tickets.

If you're ready to get clarity on the financial blind spots keeping you from scaling, this is your moment.

Don't sit in the room wishing. 

Be Debbie.

P.S. Stop waiting for perfect timing. The money, the deal, the break… it's waiting for the first person who moves. Will it be you? DM me AUSTIN for ticket details.
#scalingup #CEO #founder #growth

Most founders don't fail because of competition.
 They fail because of the blind spots they never see coming.

Cash looks fine… until it doesn't. Revenue grows… but profit disappears. You hire fast… and spend months fixing mistakes. You work harder… but scale refuses to unlock.

I spent 20+ years at GE Capital navigating these exact challenges at a corporate level.

Closing an $800M+ power plant deal? That taught me cash flow precision. Managing international transactions? That revealed the profit leaks most miss. Building high-performance teams? That showed me the cost of hiring fast vs. hiring right.

Those frameworks didn't just help me lead deals—they gave me the blueprint for scalable growth.

Now I help founders apply these same battle-tested systems to their businesses.

The 7 blind spots in this carousel? They're the ones holding 90% of founders back from predictable, profitable scale.

If you want to go deeper… Download my free ebook in the comments. 

Fix the blind spots. Scale with clarity. Build a business that runs like a pro—because you learned from one.
#scalingup #founder #ceo #growth

7 Blind Spots

𝗛𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮.
𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿.

Most founders know Pinterest.

Almost no one knows Paul Sciarra, the guy who paid early salaries out of his own pocket, skipped taking income, and carried the company when no one else believed.

He wasn’t a “supporter.”
He was the architecture.

And then the quiet part of startup life happened.
Not a blow-up.
Not a fight.
Just… inches.

One meeting he wasn’t invited to.
One decision he didn’t have visibility into.
One board conversation that happened without him.

By the time Pinterest crossed millions of users and raised over $100M…
Paul was out.

He walked away with ~$15M.
Not nothing.
But painful when your original idea becomes a $25B enterprise.

This isn’t a story about betrayal.
It’s a story about leadership, governance, and identity.

𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗱𝗮𝘆.
They lose it when:
 • they stop owning the financial strategy
 • they delegate governance without understanding it
 • they avoid hard conversations
 • they let investors define the path
 • they disconnect from the role of architect

You can build something extraordinary…
and still get written out of your own success if you don’t stay in the seat you were meant to own.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 $𝟯𝗠–$𝟭𝟬𝗠 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻.
The product works.
The company has traction.
Teams are growing.

 But governance, capital strategy, and leadership identity aren’t keeping pace.
That’s the real risk.

𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻:
Your idea can change the world,  but only if you stay in the role of architect as it scales.

Own your equity.
Protect your seat.
Upgrade your thinking.
Build with intention.
The threat isn’t being pushed out.
The threat is drifting out of your power.

𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:
 Are you building like the founder…
 or leading like the architect?

#ceo #founder #scalingup #growth

He was dropped at an orphanage at seven.
No food. No money. No choice.

By 14, he was on a factory floor, making metal frames.
One wrong move crushed part of his finger. Permanent injury.

Most people would quit. Most people would settle.
He didn’t.

He watched. He learned.
Every machine. Every process. Every decision.
Night classes. Every penny saved. Knowledge accumulation.

At 26, he opened a tiny eyewear shop in the Italian Alps.
Nothing fancy. No connections. Just him, a few employees, and an obsession with understanding the craft end-to-end.

Most competitors sold parts. He had a different idea: make complete frames. Control the product. Own the market.

By the 1980s, he was making designer frames for fashion houses.
By 1995, he bought LensCrafters—suddenly he controlled both the product and the retail.

Then came Ray-Ban.
Everyone said he overpaid $640 million for a dying brand.
He didn’t see risk. He saw opportunity.

Ray-Ban wasn’t just glasses anymore.
Movies. Celebrities. Fashion statements.
Value multiplied. Brand exploded.

He kept buying. Oakley. Sunglass Hut. Prada. Versace. Chanel. Pearle Vision.
Vertical integration? Check. Market dominance? Check. Monopoly? Almost.

When he died in 2022, Leonardo Del Vecchio had $25.8 billion.
One orphan. One factory worker. One relentless learner.

Lesson:
You don’t need luck. You need mastery, observation, and relentless execution.
Start small. Learn everything. Then own the ecosystem.

#ceo #scalingup #growth #founder

Passion isn’t happiness.
It’s pain.
It’s grinding when no one is watching.
It’s suffering through every mistake, every rejection, every late night, just to build something nobody thought was possible.

Jensen Huang didn’t follow the market.
He didn’t wait for AI to be big.
He invested 10,000 engineer-years ahead of demand.
He pivoted Nvidia from graphics chips to AI dominance.
That’s vision. That’s first-principles thinking. That’s suffering smarter than everyone else.

Breakthroughs aren’t born in comfort zones.
They’re born when you refuse to quit, when you embrace the grind, and when you’re willing to suffer today for what the world will celebrate tomorrow.

Extraordinary isn’t given.
It’s earned.
Through struggle.
Through relentless work.
Through being willing to do what everyone else won’t.

If you want to be great, get comfortable being uncomfortable.

#scalingup #growth #ceo #founder

Mastermind Scaling Dinner 

This past Wednesday night in Boston, twelve leaders got uncomfortably honest about their real constraints.

No pitch decks. No surface-level networking. 

Just the Hero's Journey framework and one question: 

"What's actually stopping you from scaling?"

Three principles guided the conversation:

🪞 Your Business is a Mirror 

The bottleneck in your business is a reflection of a constraint in your leadership. 

Stop fixing symptoms. Fix the leader, and the business scales.

🐉 Constraints are Your Greatest Leverage

 Your biggest constraint is not a problem—it's the dragon guarding your next treasure. 

The right constraint, once identified and solved, unlocks massive, non-linear growth.

⚖️ Not All Success Has the Same Price

 You can build a company that breaks you, or one that fulfills you. 

Alignment + Clarity = Sustainable Success.

🎯 What showed up:

Estate planning. Cybersecurity. Medical devices. Food distribution. Banking. Fractional sales leadership. IT services. M&A law. Green infrastructure. Urban revitalization. Job search acceleration.

Different industries. Same truth: Every business grows until it hits a constraint, then grows no further.

The magic wasn't in solving everything in one night. 

It was in naming the real constraint out loud - not the sanitized version we tell at networking events, but the 2am version that keeps us up.

Some constraints were about capital. Others about people, partnerships, or positioning. A few were about letting go of what got them here to embrace what gets them there.

🤝 The vulnerability created immediate value: Real partnerships forming. 

Actual introductions being made. Problems being reframed. Resources being shared.

Thank you to Adrian Mendoza and the Mendoza Ventures team for hosting us.

And to everyone who showed up: Marco A. Schiavo , Geoffry Gilton, Joshua Sigsworth, PT, DPT, Dominic Endicott, Jacques Cohen, Maud Dentico, Vasant Narayan, Raffi Yardemian, CSL, Paul Smith, Alex Khalarian, and Sam "Butch" Nigro.

This is what happens when you build community around truth instead of transactions.

The Mastermind dinner happens monthly ( but we are taking a break in December). If you're a founder or executive in Boston or Greater Boston working on something real and willing to get honest about your constraints, let's talk.

We are going to start hosting Metro West dinners as well. More to come.

P.S. - Curious about finding the constraint for your business? Drop a comment or DM.

Most founders don’t fail because they’re lazy.
They fail because their goals are small.

Small goals keep you grinding.
Big goals force you to rebuild the system.

When you raise the target to 10x, everything changes:
your strategy, your thinking, your standards, your circle.

You stop playing in the crowded middle
and start operating where very few people dare to go.

10x isn’t harder.

It’s cleaner. 
It’s clearer. 
It’s smarter.

Stop playing safe. Start playing big.

I learned this lesson the hard way.

I wanted to grow my LinkedIn presence to 100K in a year.
I had 2k followers. 

A few people said that it would take years and that I was unrealistic.

Maybe they would have been right - if I'd believed them

I tried anyway. 
I took a course to learn from others who were ahead of me.
I showed up here every day.
Continuously improved my content (and my mindset)
Hired people to help me.

Did I accomplish my goal?
NO. 

I am still at 72k followers today, a year into that challenge.
But I am still grateful for the results. 

Can you imagine what would have happened if I had played small?
I may be at 15K followers at best. 

And that's the whole point. 

Even if you miss the 10X mark, it beats linear thinking. 

This same principle is why I help founders identify the 7 financial blind spots killing their scale - because small thinking about money keeps you grinding, while 10x financial clarity forces you to rebuild the system.

Want to apply 10x thinking to your finances? 

I've identified the 7 blind spots most founders miss. 

Download the guide; link is in the comments. 

#founder #ceo #growth #scalingup

10X Thinking = 10 X Results

He bought a bankrupt textile factory for $15 million.
Forty years later, Bernard Arnault built a $500B luxury empire.

Most people call that impossible.
I call it vision.

He didn’t invent anything.
He didn’t design a product.
He didn’t chase trends.
He just saw what others couldn’t.

Buried inside that dying company was a forgotten gem: Christian Dior.
Everyone overlooked it.
Arnault didn’t.

He sold everything except Dior.
Bet the house on one iconic brand.
And rebuilt from zero.

Then he made an even crazier move
He went after LVMH.
Louis Vuitton. Moët. Hennessy.
The crown jewels of French luxury.

The elite hated it.
The media mocked it.
It was the most hostile takeover France had ever seen.
Arnault didn’t blink.

He bought the shares quietly.
Took control boldly.
And turned LVMH into a global machine.

One acquisition at a time.
Fendi. Tiffany. Givenchy. Sephora.
Dozens of brands reborn under one ruthless strategy:

Let creators dream.
But keep the business razor sharp.

While tech giants chased disruption…
Arnault chased timelessness.

While others discounted…
He raised value.

In 2023, he became the richest man on Earth.
Quiet. Precise. Unshakeable.
He outplayed every tech titan without writing a single line of code.

Lesson?
You don’t need to invent.
You need to see the hidden gem
And have the courage to bet everything on it.

#entrepreneur #growth #businessstrategy #founder #scalingup

𝗛𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗽𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼𝘀.
𝗛𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻-𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

Back in the early 2000s, Jon Oringer wasn’t building empires, he was just trying to find affordable stock photos for his tiny online business.

But what he found instead… was an opportunity.

Stock images back then cost $300+ per photo, a luxury small creators couldn’t afford.

So Jon did something different:

▶ Bought a camera
▶ Took 100 photos a day
▶ Built his own website
▶ Uploaded 30,000 photos
▶ Charged $49/month for unlimited downloads

That’s how Shutterstock was born.

No fancy investors. No marketing team.

Just a subscription model, executed brilliantly.

He wasn’t selling images,
he was selling convenience, freedom, and access.

And the best part?

Every sale cost him nothing to reproduce.Pure passive income.

By the time Shutterstock went public in 2012,
Jon still owned 55% of it.

His net worth crossed $1 billion,
built from a camera, a simple website, and consistency.

That’s not luck.
That’s vision meeting execution.

Because the smartest entrepreneurs don’t wait for an opportunity,
they create it by solving a problem once
and selling the solution over and over again.

𝐋𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧:

Stop chasing “new.”
Find one problem.

Solve it better than anyone else.
Then systemize, scale, and sleep while your solution works for you.

#Entrepreneurship #ceo #BusinessModel #founder #scalingup

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