Helping professionals launch another income stream in 2024. Click + Follow for posts and articles on business.

I work as a senior digital adviser and strategic sounding board for founders and entrepreneurs building online.My role isn’t to provide formulas, playbooks, or constant direction. Instead, I help people think more clearly about ideas, business models, and decisions — drawing on perspective shaped over decades of working across multiple internet cycles, from early email and web, through mobile, marketplaces, performance marketing, and now AI.Alongside this work, I write and research the business game — an ongoing exploration of how business actually works in practice: incentives, timing, leverage, and why many people lose by copying what looks successful without understanding the rules underneath.Some of this thinking is tested in public through a small working lab called Strategy with Danny, where founders pressure-test one clear offer and learn what actually converts before they scale systems, teams, or platforms.I’m not a coach or a traditional consultant, and I’m not embedded in execution. This work is best suited to independent founders who want a calm, experienced perspective to pressure-test ideas, spot risks early, and avoid scaling the wrong thing at the wrong time.Most of my value comes from pattern recognition, context, and judgment — helping reduce noise, fragility, and unnecessary complexity in how businesses are built.

Danny Mallinder

Very few people choose the business game.
They just start playing.

Most think they are struggling with execution.
They are not.

They are struggling with something earlier.
They never chose the rules they are living under.

Pulled in by confident voices.
Podcasts. Threads. Timelines.
Revenue goals and hustle norms borrowed from others.

Every business rewards something different.
Some reward speed.
Some reward depth.
Some demand constant presence.
Others reward quiet consistency over years.

None of these are wrong.
But they are not interchangeable.

Here is the pattern I keep seeing:
- depth thinkers stuck in speed games
- freedom seekers trapped by visibility
- misalignment blamed on tactics
- builders exhausted by volume

Most business problems are downstream.
They start before pricing or marketing.

I wrote a short essay on this idea.
Choosing the game before you optimise it.

Read it here:
https://lnkd.in/eKePpQBw

Are you playing a game you actually chose?

#businessdesign
#foundermindset
#longtermthinking

Most people pick businesses for money.

That is how they waste years.

A business is not just income.
It is a direction of travel.

Once something works financially, it locks you in.
The schedule.
The stress.
The identity.

People do not fail by choosing badly.
They succeed in the wrong direction.

The pattern I see every year:
→ money first, alignment later
→ identity built on momentum
→ success that becomes a trap
→ staying because leaving feels like failure

2026 will not be wasted by inaction.

It will be wasted by full commitment to the wrong game.

#businessdesign
#founderjourney
#strategicthinking

I help personal brands go from lost to go-to | 2x Founder | Become the go-to expert in your niche

Your content isn’t the problem.
Your narrative is.

Most CEOs and company leaders don’t lack visibility.
They lack clarity of influence.

Their message blends in.
Their thinking doesn’t land.
And the market never quite understands what they stand for.

You don’t shape markets by posting more.
You shape them by owning a narrative people recognize, remember, and repeat.

I’ve spent the last several years studying one thing obsessively:

Why some leaders become category-defining voices, 
while others stay invisible despite having great ideas.

The difference isn’t consistency.
It’s strategic clarity.

That insight helped me generate 5.4M+ impressions in a year, build a 28,000+ person audience, and work with founders and companies who use LinkedIn not as a content platform, but as a narrative lever.

No paid ads.
No viral chasing.
Just clear positioning, expressed consistently.

What I’ve learned is simple:

Attention doesn’t move markets.
Narratives do.

Today, I help CEOs and company leaders:

• Clarify the narrative they want the market to associate with their name
• Translate complex thinking into clear, resonant ideas
• Use LinkedIn as a thought-leadership channel (not a growth treadmill)
• Turn their personal brand into long-term market influence

This isn’t about hacks, templates, or “posting more.”

It’s about becoming the leader people reference,
even when you’re not in the room.

If you’re ready to stop blending in
and start shaping how your market sees you,

Let’s talk.

(Selective partnerships and strategic collaborations only.)

Dustin Hauer

Most people think success looks like a staircase.

Step 1 → Step 2 → Step 3 → Win.

This video proves something different.

The artist keeps jumping for the next level…

and keeps missing.

From the outside, it looks like failure.
From the inside, it’s calibration.

Every miss gives him more data:

Where to push harder.
Where to shift weight.
When to commit.

That’s exactly how real growth works.

Not clean.
Not predictable.
Not linear.

The leaders who win aren’t the ones who never fall

They’re the ones who keep adjusting in mid-air.

For CEOs, founders, and builders:

You don’t need a perfect plan.
You need the courage to jump, observe, and jump again.

Progress isn’t about avoiding the drop.
It’s about learning how to land higher each time.

If you’re in a season that feels messy or behind schedule (you’re probably closer than you think).

I help CEOs & company leaders shape narratives that influence their market

People talk themselves out of a new beginning before they even try.

They repeat the same lines.

It is too late.
I missed my chance.
I am too old to start something new.

Here is the truth they never say out loud.

Dreams do not expire.

→ Your age does not disqualify you.
→ Your past does not define your future.
→ Your failures do not limit your next move.

What matters is what you choose to do now.

I watched someone rebuild their entire life at an age when most people settle.

New career.
New skills.
New confidence.

Every day became proof that starting over is always available.

Here is the part that stuck with me.

A fresh direction begins the moment you decide it does.

The clock is not against you.
The clock is handing you another chance.

What dream are you ready to chase next?

Most companies lose before they ever compete.

Not because their product is bad.
Not because their team isn’t talented.

But because they let someone else tell the story.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth 👇
If you don’t control the narrative, you inherit one.

And inherited narratives are almost never flattering.

Market leaders obsess over three narratives long before they obsess over content:


1️⃣ The Problem Narrative

Who defines what the real problem is wins.

If you don’t define it, you get dragged into feature comparisons and price pressure.


2️⃣ The Cost of Inaction Narrative

Most companies avoid this because it feels uncomfortable.
Leaders don’t.

They clearly articulate what staying the same is costing,

revenue, momentum, talent, relevance.


3️⃣ The Future State Narrative
People don’t buy products.

They buy the version of themselves that exists after the problem is solved.

If you don’t paint that future, someone else will.


And here’s the part that should bother you:

👉 Most competitors never do this work.
👉 Which means the bar is lower than you think.
👉 And the opportunity is bigger than you realize.

Yet every day, companies post more content…
run more ads…
chase more tactics…

While quietly letting competitors define the story.

That’s not a marketing problem.
That’s a leadership blind spot.

Save this.
Because once you see this, you can’t unsee it.

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The Battle

Danny Mallinder

Dustin Hauer

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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);}Danny Mallinder's LinkedIn Performance

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