Chris Cicconi

Paying it Forward 👉 One Day at a Time

Salesperson 💸 --> Coach ✍️ --> Leader 🙋‍♂️
Sometimes a content creator 🎥 - always a goofball 【ツ】

I love building things, but not physical things.

I have a passion for building teams, networks, processes, procedures and revenue but most importantly people. 

This had led me to helping founders pivot from founder led sales to a sustainable and scalable sales engine.

Hit me up if you want to talk sales, fractional leadership, 👟or ☕️.
--------------------
I was once given an opportunity that has allowed me to build my wonderful career.
I want to make sure others have the same chance.
#payitforward

Content Creator

Host of "The War Room: The Kards Pre-Game Show" by 983 Media (a game by 1939 games)
Host for all Kards Official eSports events, including the World Championship Series
Host of "The Frontline" The Official Kards Podcast by 983 Media
Gwent Qualifier Caster and Gwent Partner (a game by CD Projekt RED)

Chris 🦄 Cicconi

Want to know my morning routine?

5:30 - Alarm goes off. Immediately Snooze. Regret.
5:40 - Struggle to get out of bed and find my pants.
6:00 - Gym, because I signed up for races this year and don't want to embarrass myself
7:30 - Get home, my daughter decides she MUST wear her unicorn pants that are 2 sizes to small for her today
7:35 - Too under caffeinated to deal with it, I let her do it, judge me all you want daycare educators
7:45 - Make coffee (ARC Roasters of course)
7:58 - Take 2 sips of it and out the door
8:00 - Drop daughter off at daycare. 
8:15 - Get home and open laptop
8:16 - Cats harass me for breakfast, rolling around on my keyboard making it impossible to work
8:20 - Forget that I haven't had breakfast yet and make oats, because microwave and water is all I can handle
8:31 - Ask myself why the first 3 hours of my day feel like a full 24.

No ice baths, no fancy Himalayan sea salt drinks or smoothies, no rubbing banana peels on my face. Survival. 

Oh and all those people with "perfect morning routines" are either full of 💩 or don't have kids.

Building Sales @ KnowledgeNow | Still Fixing GTM. Still Roasting Bad Takes.

If you can't afford to pay people, don't hire them.

"Commission only" isn't the draw you think it is.

It's not that I don't believe in my sales skills.

It's that I don't believe in your offering, at least not nearly as strongly as you do.

And when you don't have customers, money, or product-market fit?

I'm not putting my living on the line for your dream.

I've lost 40 lbs eating ice cream 5 days a week.

A sub 250 calorie pint of ice cream (and 20+ grams of protein)

Because the Ninja Creami is funking magic.

(No, not sponsored, but not opposed to it SharkNinja 👀)

This is my go to recipe for a macro friendly Oreo McFlurry rip off. 
Shout to FitnessProductFinder on Instagram for the base recipe. 

400ml of 0% Fairlife Milk (or any other ultra filtered high protein milk)
45g of Monkfruit sweetner
15g of Vanilla Extract
1g of salt
1g of xantham gum 

3 Oreo Thins - these are your mix ins, save them for later 
(some people scrape the cream out to save like 8 calories or something but that's way too much work)

Freeze it for 18-24 hours.  

When you're ready to eat it, leave it on the counter for 30 minutes. Then run the sides and bottom under hot water for 30 seconds. 

This makes it softer, more like a Blizzard or McFlurry, if you like something harder, don't leave it out that long.

Spin it on light ice cream. Scrape down the sides with a knife when it's done, throw your 3 Oreo thins in and run it on the mix in setting and you're golden.

242 calories. 22g of protein. 5g of fat. 30g of carbs.

If you dig this and want my Rocky Road or Reese's Peanut Butter Ice Cream recipe drop a comment for which one you want to see next!

Fiverr Pro isn’t cheap, but it’s expensive to get it wrong.

When we launched ARC Roasters, we were running on a non-existent budget.

So we tried saving money on branding and web.

What did we actually buy with the nickels and dimes we found in our couch cushions? 
Revisions.
Broken builds.
Lost momentum.

When your company’s brand is on the line, mistakes don’t just cost money.

They cost credibility.

And for a small business, credibility is your strongest currency. 

Here’s what I’ve learned:
The most expensive hire isn’t the expensive one.
It’s the wrong one.
That’s why Fiverr Pro makes sense for high-stakes business projects.

Vetted professionals.
Proven expertise.
Even managed support when the project demands it.

If the outcome matters, hire like it does.

Brand partnership • Building Sales @ KnowledgeNow | Still Fixing GTM. Still Roasting Bad Takes.

I made a commitment to myself this year.

To stop stressing about LinkedIn.

When to post.
What to post.
How often to post.
How to maximize engagement.
How to best monetize my platform.
Blah blah blah...

Instead I decided to post what I want, when I want, as often as I want about whatever I want. 

In the last year, I generated 1.1M impressions.
In the last 90 days? 528k 

Nearly half of them, in a quarter of the time. 
So far, I'd say my strategy is working out just fine.

Is it the best to optimize lead gen, monetization or whatever other buzzword we feel like tacking on?

Probably not, but I'm enjoying it a whole heck of a lot more.

69,613 people saw my Oreo cake recipe.

That's about 69,000 more than my professional posts.

Nice.

I've been quietly going through a pretty big health journey over the last year,  losing weight, running, training for Hyrox and making lots and lots of ice cream along the way.

I started posting about it on weekends on a whim.

But 3 posts. 100k impressions. 50+ new followers. Lots of DMs.

Apparently Oreo and running hit different than cold outreach tips. 

So I have a question for the people who just followed me:
What do you actually want to see?

More health/fitness content? Recipes, training updates, the whole journey?
Or was this just a fun detour and you just want me to go back to mocking Grant Cardone and Andy Elliott? 

Please drop a comment! I'm genuinely curious.
(seriously, asking you to drop a comment isn't actually me trying to hack my engagement...this time 🙃)

Most AI tools are great at sounding smart.

They'll draft a beautiful email.

To the wrong person.
At the wrong company.
At the wrong time.

Because the AI doesn't actually know what's actually happening in your accounts. 

It's working off whatever you tell it, not unified buyer intelligence, not identity-resolved signals, not complete account context across your CRM, product, and engagement data

You have a choice, spend an hour researching your account, feed that information into AI, saving you no time OR check out Common Room's new Claude integration.

With Common Room connected to Claude, it’s no longer guessing from a prompt.

It’s reasoning over unified, continuously updated buyer intelligence.

Based on which accounts are heating up. Who just engaged. What signals matter.

Not vibes. Not guesses. Not a LinkedIn stalk that took 45 minutes.

For a solo seller like me with no RevOps team and no massive marketing budget behind me?

This is the closest thing I've found to having a full team in my corner.

Claude becomes the interface. 
Common Room powers the intelligence behind it.

My DMs are filled with outreach asking to "partner".

I'm starting to think I might have a different definition of partner than others.

If our engagement involves me giving you money for a service, it's not a partnership, I am your client.

I realize folks are trying to use "softer" words in cold outbound to feel less salesy, but using imprecise language is even worse, in my opinion.

But I'm also a bit anal about language, so maybe I'm in the minority here?

If somebody is trying to sell you their service, would you rather than come right out and say it instead of using words like "partner" or "synergies" or whatever other buzzwords are hot right now?

I finally got a treadmill this winter.

I was convinced I’d hate it.

Turns out, it wasn’t so bad.

While I don’t miss how soggy my feet currently are, I am happy that it’s 6 degrees and I can get back outside.

And it was also an excellent reminder that I do, in fact, hate the treadmill.

No alternative text description for this image

How to make a million dollars.

The easy way.

Ask Dad. 

But seriously, she goes on to explain how she plans on making a million dollars before she turns 20, but when the plan starts with:

"I work for my Dad's company" you start to lose a bit of credibility. 

It's just another reminder that generic advice on social media is almost always 🐴  💩 

Because unless you have a rich pops who can give you a job, this probably isn't relevant to you.

Or maybe I'm just jealous 🤷

I’ve seen some wacky 💩 in sponsored content contracts lately.

Not sure if it’s because the LinkedIn influencer space is still maturing…

Or because some companies are testing how much they can get away with.

I try to live by: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

But these two from the past week made me pause.

1️⃣ “We own the content you produce for us.”

Hard no.
If the content lives on my account, it’s mine.
You’re paying for distribution and audience access.
Want usage rights?
Great. Let’s price a license.
But ownership of something published on my platform? Not happening.

2️⃣ “We’ll pay you after all 3 posts go live.”

Why is the creator financing the campaign?

I’ve seen too many brands:
Delay payment
Renegotiate after performance
Or decide a post “didn’t go viral enough”
Meanwhile the creator has already delivered the asset and the reach.

Ideally: paid upfront.
At minimum: paid per post.
Anything else shifts all the risk to one side.

If you’re a creator navigating a contract, I’m happy to take a look.

And if you’re a brand… structure deals like a partnership, not a gamble.

Any experience creators see other wild clauses in creator contracts?

I used to brag about size.

Pipeline size that is, get your mind out of the gutter.

Felt like a large pipeline was a guarantee that I'd hit my number.

Until I realized, pipeline is made up.

All the "happy ears" in the world won't help you hit quota when you're avoiding what really needs to be done.

Qualification. 

That means asking the tough questions.
That means disqualifying prospects. 
That means your boss might ask you "what's wrong with your pipeline>!"

So we avoid it.
And we pad the list, instead of dealing with our poopy pipeline.

Is LinkedIn using AI too much to enforce their policy?

Or are they thinking about my mental health?

Because the a-🕳️ I was referring to in the comment that they took down?

Me. Full self deprecating. 

Apparently they decided I'm not allowed to harass myself! 

...not sure why they think they can kink shame me like that.

Any other runners have this problem....

Or is it just me?

I swear they all have a purpose!
The Hoka Mach 6 are my outdoor spring/slushy beaters
Adidas Boston 13 are my long run (10km+)
Adidas Supernova Rise 2 are my recovery shoes
New Balance Fuel Cell v4 are for intervals (and likely to be my Hyrox race shoe)
Adidas Evo SL are my shorter run shoe (less than 10km)

Though to be honest, as many awards as the Evo won...I kinda don't like em 😅, not particularly stable in my opinion.

...and yes Adidas has a big sale earlier this year.

Which begs the question, am I the only one who collects running shoes and convinces himself they all serve a purpose?

Never go back and review your answers on a multiple choice test.

75% of what you just read are wrong, designed specifically to trick you.

Your brain can't tell the difference anymore.

It starts second-guessing the things it actually knew.

Kinda like scrolling LinkedIn for 20 minutes.

What's with all the pizza party hate?! 🍕 

Pizza is great.

Sure, as a reward from corporate it kind of blows, but why would we take the pizza away?

This should be an AND situation, not an OR situation.

Give me pizza AND a bonus.

#bringbackthepizzaparty

PS: Pizza from one of the best spots in Montreal and no, not just because I'm related to the owners 😅  Forno Pizza Frankie's

Ice cream for weight loss.

Rocky Road edition.

Yes, you can eat ice cream every day and still lose weight.

BTW am I the only one who didn't know Rocky Road was just marshmallows and nuts in chocolate ice cream? 

Recipe via Eli Mack at FitnessProductFinder (link in comments):
400g Fairlife Chocolate Shake (topped up to 400 with high protein milk)
20g Monk Fruit Sweetner
10g cocoa powder 
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Xantham gum

Mix-ins
10g crushed walnuts
10g dehydrated mini marshmallows 

Mix it together. Freeze 24 hours. Leave out for 20 minutes.
Run hot water around the sides & base for 30 seconds to break down any ice crystels.
Spin on light ice cream.
Add 10g of crushed walnuts & 10g of dehydrated mini marshmallows.
Run the mix-in setting.

357 calories
31g protein
11g fat
40g carbs

Get spoon. 
Eat entire pint.
No sharing necessary. 

Let me know if you want the Reese's Peanut Butter Ice Cream next!

Hamish Stephenson 🦘

Award winning GTM Recruiting Expert | CEO @ Selr.io

Ex-President's Club seller, turned Entrepreneur. Since becoming an Entrepreneur, I have been hand picked by Linkedin as one of their Sales Insiders, been included in LDN's 40 under 40 and been a key note on a lot of high end sales podcasts. Sales is my life. I am a sales expert and startup advisor with over 10 years of experience in SaaS, sales, GTM and recruitment. As the Founder and CEO of Selr.io, I help companies build their sales and revenue functions, and retain their staff.I am also a strategic advisor for several tech startups, where I share my insights and expertise on product-market fit, customer acquisition, and growth. I am passionate about solving problems, creating value, and empowering others. I am always open to connecting with like-minded professionals and learning new things. Some of my interests include skiing, NFL, music and rugby. Talk to me about Avicii, Sydney Roosters 2013 Premiership win or Blink-182 and you'll have my ear all day.

Strategic Advisor

What is Selr.io?

Selr.io is a sales enablement and recruiting company, providing expert sales training, sales recruiting and advisory. We believe in upskilling individuals from all walks of life, preparing them and partnering with them in their career in SaaS sales.

Why is Selr.io different?

Many try to overcomplicate sales. We simplify it and make it relatable. Selr.io has built their program based on emotive selling. Since like people, all sales processes are different.

How can Selr.io help companies?

We can help you recruit, train and build a GTM plan and/or sales function. We can coach/train your sales team in prospecting, discovery and deal strategy. We are ex SaaS sales people, turned sales recruiters and trainers. 

How can Selr.io help individuals?

We can help you get into SaaS sales and develop your skills. We can help you if you're struggling with prospecting, sales process and/or closing. We can train, coach, recruit and mentor you to become an elite seller.

taplio

The Battle

Chris 🦄 Cicconi

Hamish Stephenson 🦘

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreChris 🦄 Cicconi's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Chris 🦄 Cicconi

Hamish Stephenson 🦘

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Chris 🦄 Cicconi's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreChris 🦄 Cicconi's LinkedIn Performance