Charles E. Gaudet II

Most 6-, 7- and 8-figure founders share the same frustration:
"I built something successful… but I can't step away. I'm trapped inside my own company."

That's the Founder's Trap™ - and I've spent 16+ years helping entrepreneurs escape it.

The International Business Times named me "The Go-To Business Coach for 7 and 8-Figure Entrepreneurs" and MSN calls me "the leading coach to 8 and 9 figure CEOs." 

But what matters most isn't what the press says - it's what I've helped my clients achieve.  A few client highlights:

→ $250k a year to $250k every 3 weeks
→ $1M to $24.1M in 3 years
→ $1.4M in revenue to a $45M valuation (and an exit)

And countless others who escaped the grind and created more predictability in their revenue (https://predictableprofits.com/testimonials/ ) 

Recognition:

✅ #1 Marketing & Sales Thought Leader 2025 – DMNews
✅ "The CEO Whisperer" – Yahoo Finance
✅ "The leading coach to 8 and 9 figure CEOs" – MSN
✅ Certificate of Leadership Development – U.S. Army War College (nominated and selected)
✅ "10 Innovative CEOs to Follow" – CEO Weekly
✅ "Top 20 Business Experts to Follow" – Grit Daily
✅ "Top 50 Industry Influencers" – American Geniuses
✅ "Top 15 Business Coaches" – Disrupt Magazine
✅ SUCCESS Magazine Emerging Entrepreneur Finalist
✅ Ernst & Young: "One of the Best Seed Stage Companies" (and selected as such by VentureOne)

Featured in Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur Magazine, Fox Business, The Globe and Mail, Yahoo Finance, Thrive Global, and 100+ other publications worldwide.

My story: Entrepreneur since age 4. First multi-million dollar company at 24. Today I lead Predictable Profits - the premier coaching company for 7-, 8-, and 9-figure CEOs who are ready to scale without sacrificing their health, family, or sanity.

➡️ Author: "The Predictable Profits Playbook"
➡️ Podcast: Beyond 7-Figures (named a Top CEO Podcast by Inc. Magazine)
➡️ 3x State Wrestling Champion | 2x Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Gold Medalist

The discipline that builds champions on the mat is the same discipline required to scale a company.

Ready to escape the Founder's Trap?

✉️ DM me "SCALE" or visit PredictableProfits.com
🔈 For keynote and other speaking opportunities, visit CharlesGaudet.com

CEO & Founder | Business Coach for 7 & 8 Figure Companies

Predictable Profits is an international network of premium business coaches and strategists for 7- & 8- figure entrepreneurs who seek better sales and revenue systems for more predictability, profitability, and scalability in any economy.  

The company follows The Predictable Profits Methodology created in 2010, which has helped thousands of businesses in over 55 industries scale faster.

Advice from our team is featured on Fox Business, Forbes, Inc., Success, Entrepreneur, and countless other media channels around the world.

See what countless others have said about their experience with us here: https://predictableprofits.com/testimonials/

Charles II

LinkedIn replaced its entire algorithm. 

Most founders have no idea...

It's called 360Brew. A 150-billion parameter AI that reads your content, checks your profile, and decides if you have the authority to say what you're saying.

The old LinkedIn rewarded popularity. Enough likes in the first hour, and you won the feed.

That's over.

What matters now:

- Saves are the new super-signal. One save carries 5 to 10x the weight of a like.

- Dwell time triggers a reach multiplier. 15+ seconds reading your post, and the algorithm notices.

- Topic consistency over 90 days. Same 2 to 3 topics or the system never categorizes your expertise.

- Profile-content alignment. Headline says one thing, posts say another?

- Distribution gets suppressed. No notification. Just silence.

What's dead: 
-Engagement pods. 
-Hashtags. 
-Links in the first comment. 
-Generic AI content. 

All penalized.

The old algorithm rewarded people who were good at LinkedIn. The new one rewards people who are good at their craft.

Big difference. HUGE!

I put together a checklist for optimizing under 360Brew and the latest on LinkedIn's 2026 algorithm changes. Want a copy? Let me know in the comments.

“The CEO Whisperer” (Yahoo Finance) | Business Coach for Top 6, 7 & 8 Figure Founders | I Help You Build a Company That Scales Without You | 1,000+ CEOs | $1B+ in Client Revenue

The Marine wouldn't take me out until it snowed.

I went through SEER training as a civilian. 

Survival, 
Evasion, 
Escape, 
Resistance. 

The same course that puts special operators through their worst days. He agreed to run me through it.

But not in fall. 
Not in mild weather.

"Anyone can survive when it's comfortable," he said. So we waited. Winter. Snow. The coldest stretch he could schedule.

And it didn't take long before I saw parallels with other aspects of life, like business.

Bull markets are warm weather. 

- Consumers aren't discerning when money is flowing. 
- A weak offer still closes. 
- Mediocre positioning still generates revenue. 
- Your messaging feels sharp because people are buying anyway. 

You think you've figured it out. 
You haven't. 
You've just been training in warm weather.

Bear markets tell the TRUTH.

When money gets tight, the cracks show. 
- The positioning you were convinced was differentiated gets ignored. 
- The differentiation you thought was clear turns out to be noise. 
- The clients you assumed were loyal start shopping around.

That's not punishment. That's information.

Every weakness in your strategy, your offer, your Unique Advantage Point - it shows up when spending dries up. 

Which is EXACTLY what you needed to see. You just didn't want to look.

This is why I've been quoted in the media for years, saying: I love a bad economy.

Because when you fix what's broken in winter, you don't just survive. When the market warms back up, you capture more market share faster than the founder who spent the cold months hiding.

The Marine was right. 

Anyone can survive when it's comfortable.

Build your strategy for snow.

Your talent is your trap.

I've coached 1,000+ founders through this... and nobody wants to hear it. 

But it's the most important thing I can tell you...

The qualities that built your business... being the best in the room, making every call, relentless standards... become the ceiling. 

Because the business can only move as fast as YOU can personally move.

That's the Founder's Trap. And it's invisible at first.

Every time you step in, it works. Client stays happy. Crisis solved. Deal closed.

That positive reinforcement makes you think you need to be there.

You don't.

You know you're trapped when:
- Revenue is flat despite 60+ hour weeks
- Every major decision sits on your desk
- A key employee quits, and you realize the business runs on tribal knowledge, not systems
- You can't take a real vacation without the phone blowing up

The data is stark: 

**Founders who remain the primary decision-maker grow 3x slower after $1M than those who systematically replace themselves.**

Three times slower. While working more hours. For the same money.

The founders who break through 3M...5M...$8M... $10M+ don't find more talent.

They build infrastructure that works WITHOUT them.

Three places to start:
- A sales system that closes without you on the call
- A decision filter your team uses before it hits your desk
- One documented process per week until nothing critical lives in your head

The business you want doesn't need less of your talent.

It needs less of your time.

I put together the 5 exact places founders build their own ceiling (and the sequence to dismantle them.)

If you want the list, I'm happy to give it to you.  Just let me know and I'll send it over.

The business that got you to $1M will fight you past $2M.

Not slow you down. FIGHT you.

I kept doing more of what worked. More hustle. More personal involvement. For two years, I tried to clone myself instead of building processes that made cloning unnecessary.

At $1M, you're still the star player.

At $3M, you have to become the coach who builds other star players. 

If you can't make that shift, you'll spend years in the $1M-$3M purgatory, wondering what's wrong.

Here's what I wish I'd known sooner:

The referral engine that built your first million TOPS OUT around $2M...

...After that, you're one lost relationship away from a revenue collapse, and you don't see it coming.

Predictable $100K months beat unpredictable $200K months. 

Every time. 

I chased every shiny opportunity instead of building a machine that could hit the same numbers quarter after quarter without me.

And the Founder's Trap isn't a possibility. It's a guarantee. The only question is whether you recognize it early enough to build your way out.

Someone in our private community for founders asked what I know now that I wish I knew at $1M. 

That was my answer.

If you're generating between $250k - $20M and you want an invite into our Founder's Community, drop a comment or send me a message directly. Happy to send one your way (no cost).

This morning I sat with my executive team for our Q1 review.

We're close to our goal. But close isn't there yet...

So I said something that might sound extreme...

"Imagine this company is publicly traded. Imagine we have a board of directors watching every number. If we told them we'd hit this target, we'd have to hit it. No excuses. No, we'll try harder next quarter."

Here's the thing...

Most founders do NOT have that pressure. And it's KILLING their growth.

When you miss a goal and nothing happens, you train yourself to miss goals. 

It becomes a pattern. 
Then a habit. 
Then an identity.

You stop setting real targets. You set wishes.

I watched this play out hundreds of times. 

A founder sets a revenue goal in January...
Misses it by March...
Shrugs...
Resets the number...
Misses again in June...
By October, they've stopped tracking altogether.

Not because they're lazy. Because there's no consequence for falling short.

Think about it. 

If a public company CEO told Wall Street they'd hit and they were off but a single penny per share... the stock gaps down. There's a reckoning. The board calls an emergency meeting. People lose their jobs.

But when a private founder misses by 18%? They pour another coffee and say, "We'll try harder next quarter."

That gap. Between what you said you'd do and what you actually did. 

THAT'S WHERE GROWTH GOES TO DIE.

One of the things our clients tell us most often is that accountability changed everything. 

The strategies. The frameworks. The AI Bots.
These were icing on the cake. 

However, the fact that someone was watching. Someone who wouldn't let them off the hook.  That gave them focus.

You already know what you need to do.

The question is whether anyone's going to hold your feet to the fire when you don't...

What's the one goal (personal or professional) you set this year that you've already let slide? And who's holding you accountable to it?

He was impressive. I still did NOT want to work with him.

I had lunch with someone most people in my industry would recognize. The kind of person you'd be flattered just to get a meeting with...

For two hours, he talked...

...and talked...

...and talked some more.

His company. His results. His methods. His vision. 

At some point, I stopped waiting for him to ask me a question and just started listening.

At the end of the meal, he leaned back and said, "This was great! We should definitely do something together."

I smiled. Nodded. And knew I would never call him back.

Not because he wasn't talented. He was. But the entire conversation was about him....

He had no idea what I was working on, what I needed, or whether we were a good fit.

I watch founders and their sales teams do the exact same thing.  

They cover the offer. Walk through the results. Explain what makes them different. Get off the call feeling like it went great.

The prospect goes quiet.

You see, a good doctor doesn't prescribe the moment you walk in. They ask questions first. Then they tell you what's wrong.

Three questions worth asking before you ever present anything:

- What's your current situation?
- What's the ultimate result you want to achieve?
- What's stopping you, right now, from reaching it?

Let them answer. Really answer. Dive deep.  Understand.

That does more to move the sale than an hour of pitching will ever do.

By the time you present a solution, it lands differently. Because it's solving THEIR problem. 

Not showcasing your credentials.

People don't work with the most impressive person in the room.

They work with the one who made them feel UNDERSTOOD.

What question do you ask early in a call that gets the real conversation started?

The telephone was supposed to make life easier.

So was the internet. Then the smartphone. Now AI.

Every single one of these technologies promised the same thing: more freedom, less work, better life.

Every single one delivered the OPPOSITE.

Not because the technology was bad. But because each breakthrough quietly reset the expectations placed on the people using it.

- Telephone: be reachable.
- Internet: be informed.
- Smartphone: be available.
- AI: be superhuman.

I wrote about this pattern in my latest newsletter. Specifically, what it's doing to founders right now...

Because the founders I'm talking to aren't just tired. They're running faster than they ever have and somehow falling further behind.

The answer isn't to reject the tools. 

It's something most founders have never stopped long enough to figure out.

Read the article below and share your thoughts. I read every reply.

View newsletter: The Predictable Profits Letter

Before the telephone, a letter took days. Sometimes weeks. Nobody expected an instant reply. You sent your message, you moved on, you did your work. P

Open article: Every New Technology Promised You Freedom. It Lied. by Charles E. Gaudet II • 5 min read

Every New Technology Promised You Freedom. It Lied.

If you're a founder or CEO - this message is, arguably, the most critical concept to understand in 2026.  Ignore it at your peril.

AI is building an expert profile on you right now. The truth is that if your content sounds like everyone else's, you're invisible to the algorithm.

Most founders think they're creating "thought leadership" when they're really just echoing the same tired frameworks everyone else is using.

The AI doesn't care about your credentials.

It cares about whether you're saying something nobody else is saying. Whether you have original frameworks. Whether you have proof that backs up your contrarian takes.

Charles E. Gaudet II, CEO and Founder of Predictable Profits, has helped clients generate over $100 million in additional revenue by turning founder-dependent businesses into systematized growth machines.

His take on the current market reality cuts through the noise.

The companies winning right now aren't the ones with the biggest marketing budgets or the flashiest websites. They're the ones creating content that the AI algorithms recognize as genuinely expert-level and original.

Because consumption drives conversion.

Nothing else matters if your ideal customers never see your content in the first place. The AI gatekeepers are deciding who gets visibility and who gets buried in the noise.

Content isn't marketing anymore. It's survival.

Are you creating original frameworks that only you can teach, or are you just another voice saying what everyone else is saying?

Drop a comment if you want the full conversation about how Charles is helping founders build content strategies that actually move the needle.

"We specialize in everything."

I'm not sure founders hear how that sounds...

What THEY mean is: we're experienced, capable, and ready to help. 
What the PROSPECT hears is: we don't have a specialty. 

^ There's a difference. A big one.

I spent years watching founders add services like armor. 

Another offering to protect against slow months. 
Another product to widen the net. 
Another vertical to hedge against risk.

The intent was sound. 
The result wasn't.

When you're trying to be EVERYTHING to everyone, nobody can tell what you're actually for...

And unclear businesses lose to focused ones. Every time.

Here's what our most successful clients do instead...

The founders who narrowed down to: 
- One primary offer. 
- One primary audience. 
- One primary outcome... 

...started closing FASTER. 

Not because they got lucky. 

Because clarity is a conversion tool.

The prospect doesn't have to guess. Doesn't have to translate your capabilities into their specific problem. They see themselves in what you do, and they reach out.

SIMPLICITY scales because focus COMPOUNDS. 

Each campaign gets sharper. 
Each referral is more targeted. 
Each testimonial fits the exact client you want next.

So here's the reality... a smaller net... aimed at the right pond...catches more fish than a massive net dragged through the wrong water.

^ read that again.

You're not leaving money on the table by narrowing. You're making room for the right money to find you.

Dr. Emad Rahim, PMP, CSP-SM, CMgr

Associate Professor/ Cohort Chair

CenterState CEO

Operating the first BIPOC tech accelerator program in Central NY. The Syracuse Surge Accelerator is a one-year in-person accelerator that provides direct resources and support for Black-Indigenous-Persons of Color (BIPOC) entrepreneurs who want to launch and accelerate their tech-related startup in Syracuse, New York. We provide capital support, loan options, grants, business advisement, partnership opportunities, trainings, customer discovery, mentorship, coaching and so much more. The Accelerator is operated out of The Tech Garden and powered by CenterState State CEO. Severed as Judge, Advisor or Application Reviewer for GENIUS NY, Startup NY, Panasci Competition (Syracuse University), Dolphin Tank (Le Moyne College), Blackstone LaunchPad, and NYBPC statewide business plan competition.

Surge Entrepreneurship Manager 

Bellevue University

Serving as the Kotouc Family Endowed Chair for the Project Management Center of Excellence, Program Director of Project Management Degree Program (MPM) and Full Professor (Kotouc Family Professorship) in the College of Science & Information Technology at Bellevue University. Teaching and overseeing graduate level courses in project management. As the Endowed Chair and Program Director, I am responsible for leading the product lifecycle of new online degrees, courses and training programs from start to finish, and faculty supervision, recruitment, performance management, training and course scheduling, advisory board leadership, program assessment, and accreditation oversight.

Kotouc Endowed Chair/ Full Professor/ Director - PM Center of Excellence 

Ztudium

Partner at Ztudium, a new kind of consultancy for the information age – a multi-media engine and technology and communications specialist that builds businesses and brands.

Equity Partner/ Board

Project Management Institute

Conducted over a dozen accreditation campus visits, supporting the mission of the Gobal Accreditation Center (GAC).

Global Accreditation Center (GAC) Reviewer – Site Visitor, Self-Study, Accreditation Proposal

University of Arizona Global Campus

Adjunct Professor

Vera House, Inc.

Honorary Co-Chair of White Ribbon Campaign 

Claremont Lincoln University

Dean of Social Impact 

City of Syracuse

Candidate for Syracuse Common Council  3rd District 

Bryant & Stratton College, FIT, Keiser, Columbia, SNHU, Norwich, UOP, Grand Canyon, Scranton, LVC

RIT Kosovo (A.U.K)

Fulbright Specialist 

Specialties: Entrepreneurship, Project Management, Higher Education, Curriculum Design, Community Outreach, Nonprofit Management, Program Development, Strategic Planning, Marketing, Leadership. 

Dr. Emad Rahim is a distinguished Fulbright Recipient, TEDx Speaker, Postdoc Fellow, and award-winning Author, Entrepreneur, and Educator. With a proven track record in higher education administration, program/project management, and business leadership, Dr. Rahim is renowned for his rapid business assessments and strategic action plans. He excels in forming strategic partnerships and securing sponsorships.

Dr. Rahim holds post-doctorate credentials from Tulane University, Harvard University, and the University of Maryland Global Campus. His academic journey includes a Ph.D. in Organizational Sustainability from Capitol Technology University, a Doctor of Management (D.M.), and an MS in Project Management and Business Management from Colorado Technical University. He completed his undergraduate studies at SUNY Empire State College and SUNY Onondaga Community College, and received an honorary Ph.D. from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

Dr. Rahim is certified in various industry standards, including Certified Scrum Master/Agile (CSM, A-CSM, CSP-CM, SAFe 6 Agilist), Online Marketing Certified Professional (OMCP), Certified Manager (CM, C.Mgr.), Project Management Professional (PMP, CPM, APMC), and Certified Business Manager (CBM).

Dr. Emad Rahim's distinguished career is marked by numerous accolades and honors. He holds an honorary Ph.D. from The Chicago School, has been inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame at SUNY OCC, and received the prestigious 2025 Dr. Curt Reimann Baldrige Scholarship and Quality Award. Recognized as an Empact100 Honoree by the United Nations Foundation, Dr. Rahim has also been awarded a Congressional Award for Civic Engagement and the John H. Mulroy Founder's Award from the SUNY OCC Board of Trustees. In February 2021, Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh issued a City Proclamation for his Volunteerism. Dr. Rahim's contributions have further been celebrated with the LGS Leadership Alumni Award from Leadership Greater Syracuse and receiving the Geneva Mayor Certificate of Recognition. Additionally, he was named Community Volunteer of the Year by the CNY Business Journal, Diversity Champion by the YWCA of Syracuse & Onondaga County in 2019, and received the Community Impact Award from SUNY Empire State College in 2018.

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Charles II

Emad Rahim, PhD., DM., PMP

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Emad Rahim, PhD., DM., PMP

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