Joris van Huët

Grow Your Boat

Still figuring out where your revenue comes from as a Fashion brand running on Shopify doing > 30K MRR? Read on 👇

We do this:

Connect your marketing data sources,
>>>
Ask questions,
>>>
Act upon clear and actionable insights.

We cure frustrated DTC brands of their inaccurate data analytics.

It's really that simple.

Founder & CEO

marketingupgrade.pro

People call me when their marketing broke or it's slowing down. We then have a fun call after which a usually equally fun follow-up meeting takes place. By then we've narrowed down what needs to be down and how much time will be needed to get there.

Owner - Performance marketeer - EN, FR & NL

Marketing Advisor - NL

Scaled DTC brands in the Netherlands doing 1Mio+ ARR.

- Paid Social performance marketing execution.
- Growth Manager of a performance marketing team (5).

Senior Growth Specialist - NL

Helped design, build and operate inbound - and outbound marketing systems.

Digital Marketeer - NL & EN

Helped validate and / or soft launch MVP's designed by R&D departments of AAA's in the F&B, GM/HBC and Financial Services industries.

Corporate Venture Marketeer - EN & FR

Helped with the definition, conception, implementation and execution of Marketing, PR and Sales strategies. Together we aim to further establish Briqwise as a global brand.

Chief Marketing Officer - Briqwise - NL & EN

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Helped Tournify with the definition, conception and execution of Marketing, PR and Sales strategies. Together we aim to further establish Tournify as a global brand.

Chief Marketing Officer - Tournify - EN, FR & NL

I worked as a research assistant for Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch executive agency for public works and water management. My main task was to conduct a research project on how to scale the use of second hand furniture in the Netherlands to bolster sustainability in the industry.

The research project involved:

- Reviewing the literature on the environmental and social benefits of second hand furniture, as well as the barriers and drivers for its adoption by consumers and businesses.

- Conducting interviews and surveys with various stakeholders, such as furniture manufacturers, retailers, resellers, refurbishers, NGOs, and customers.

- Analyzing the data and identifying the best practices, opportunities, and challenges for scaling the use of second hand furniture in the Netherlands.

- Developing recommendations and strategies for Rijkswaterstaat and other relevant actors to promote and facilitate the circular economy of furniture.

The research project was a valuable learning experience for me, as I gained insights into the complex and dynamic system of furniture production and consumption, and the potential for circular solutions to reduce waste and emissions, while creating social and economic value. I also improved my skills in research design, data collection and analysis, report writing, and stakeholder engagement.

I enjoyed working with a diverse and motivated team of researchers, consultants, and experts from Rijkswaterstaat and other organizations. I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this important and innovative project.

(a.i.) Marketing Advisor - Rijkswaterstaat

Whether it’s a card game for two players with battling animals, a tactics game for your PC or your favorite digital board game on mobile, Grumpy Owl Games wants to turn your game experience into something that puts a smile on your face.

Smiling is a lot easier if the game you’re playing is easy to understand, nice to look at and makes you come back for more. That is why we create beautiful, accessible and high-quality games for your screens and tabletop.

Anima Cloud Efflux helps Grumpy Owl Games with the definition, conception and execution of Marketing, PR and Sales strategies. Together we aim to further establish the Grumpy Owl Games brand worldwide.

(a.i.) Marketing - Grumpy Owl Games - EN, FR & NL

Huispedia aims to democratize the real estate industry and give the power back to whom it's all about: the homeowners.

Anima Cloud Efflux helps Huispedia further establish their brand among homeowners in the Netherlands.

(a.i.) Marketing Advisor - Huispedia - NL

INNOVATE is committed to finding and supporting the Most Innovative Student in the
Netherlands. The grand ideas of tomorrow should be given a stage today. That’s why
we are looking for students with either an idea or a functioning start-up, who aim
to solve social and environmental issues. Ideas that tackle macro problems and are
being worked on to produce a head-on solution. Social inequality, climate change, the
relationship between essential data and privacy: in order to face the societal challenges
of the future, we have a hunch you’re out there coming up with innovative solutions.

(a.i.) Marketing Manager @ Innovatiefste Student van Nederland - INNOVATE

INNOVATE has the power to inspire people, and to show that innovation is something you should do, especially when things go wrong. That is why INNOVATE was there in 2020. This time we mainly manifested ourselves digitally, and not in the form of all kinds of large physical events. We developed into an online platform where others can present themselves, and organized no fewer than 5 online (live) INNOVATE Meetups with dozens of innovative parties from the Arnhem, Nijmegen and Wageningen region. This formula provided connection, inspiration and activation. In 2021, we will continue to work from that online vision for the time being. There will also be a number of offline activities, where regulations allow.

Anima Cloud Efflux helps INNOVATE with the definition, conception and execution of Marketing, PR and Communication strategies. Together we aim to further establish the INNOVATE brand, mainly in the Netherlands.

(a.i.) Marketing Manager - INNOVATE

It is only logical to use existing materials and to produce locally with fair conditions and transparent payments while designing products that last. We see waste materials as a mountain full of potential, and by simply maximizing the lifespan of materials we aim to reduce the waste pile, one bag at a time.

Introducing our bag made out of banners, car seatbelts and inner tubes from bicycles. For every occasion, we got your bag!

Co-Founder - Het Nieuwe Logisch - EN & NL

The Bin creates products from waste. With us, any company in any industry can become part of the new economy. Simluator of the circular economy.

Anima Cloud Efflux helps The Bin with the definition, conception and execution of Marketing, PR and Sales strategies. Together we aim to further establish the The Bin brand, mainly in the Netherlands.

(.a.i.) Marketing Lead - The Bin

Health organizations and insitutes come to Amulet for custom eHealth platforms, (web)apps, portal and websites. Thanks to a broad range of clients we are familiair with a number of technologies and innovations, which we can apply in each industry. Our belief is that tech is a tool the bring joy to hard-working individuals.

Anima Cloud Efflux helps Amulet with the definition, conception and execution of Marketing, PR and Sales strategies. Together we aim to further establish the Amulet brand, mainly in the Netherlands.

(a.i.) Marketing Lead - Amulet

Start-up minded companies come to IGNE for platforms, (web)apps, portal and websites. Thanks to a broad range of clients we are familiair with a number of technologies and innovations, which we can apply in each industry. Our belief is that tech is a part of your team. When your tech starts to show it's limitations, it is like a team that is not performing well. How do you start optimising your tech? IGNE guides you towards the answer.

Anima Cloud Efflux helps IGNE with the definition, conception and execution of Marketing, PR and Sales strategies. Together we aim to further establish the IGNE brand, mainly in the Netherlands.

(a.i.) Marketing Lead - IGNE

An organization commited to helping children regain inner peace and calmness in an age of information overload.

Anima Cloud Efflux helps Stichting Glimlach in je Hoofd with the definition, conception and execution of Marketing, PR and Sales strategies. Together we aim to further establish the brand among Dutch schools.

(a.i.) Marketing Specialist - Stichting Glimlach In Je Hoofd

Scanfie lets your guests order quickly and easily.

Did you know that the biggest annoyance among visiting guests the long wait for service? Sometimes guests visiting a (dining) café even have to wait half an hour before they can place their first order.

Would you stcik around around after having your patience tested like this?

This summer there were even several beach tents, cafes and other catering companies that had to close off part of the terrace or drastically shorten their opening hours due to staff shortages. An unnecessarily big disappointment for your guests and an unnecessarily large impact on your turnover.

Avoidable, with Scanfie.

Anima Cloud Efflux helps Scanfie with the researching and realization of (new) strategic partnerships for Scanfie. Together we aim to further establish the Scanfie brand in the Netherlands.

(.a.i.) Business Development Manager - Scanfie - NL

Searious Business creates business solutions aimed at increasing sustainability and limiting plastic waste. To that end, Searious Business collaborates with companies to solve plastic waste.

Anima Cloud Efflux helps Searious Business with the definition, conception and execution of Marketing, PR and Sales strategies. Together we aim to further establish the Searious Business brand in Europe.

(a.i.) Chief Marketing Officer - Searious Business - EN, FR & NL

Positive change starts from education. The BD School believes that everyone deserves a chance to build the future of their dream. The mission is simple: to enable individuals and ambitious founders to acquire the skills and knowledge they need to leave their mark in society.

Anima Cloud Efflux helps The BD School with the definition, conception and execution of Marketing strategies. Together we aim to further establish the BD School brand around the globe.

(a.i.) Chief Marketing Officer -  The BD School - EN

Stichting Oogfonds Nederland

Het aantal mensen met een oogprobleem stijgt. De oplossing ligt in voorlichting, preventie en meer oogonderzoek. Het Oogfonds financiert wetenschappelijk oogonderzoek naar het voorkomen en behandelen van oogproblemen. En steunt patiëntenverenigingen in het verbeteren van de kwaliteit van leven voor mensen met een visuele beperking.

Senior Online Marketeer

internationovel

This projected was terminated. 

- Concept was successfully validated.
- Follow-through to expand operations was more arduous than expected.
- Will be repeated in the future!

The world is changing. The way we consume literature is changing. But our mission remains the same: to bring you the best stories, from the finest writers, every single day. Sign up now and receive our novel one page a day in your inbox for free.

The Writers

Our young writers were carefully selected to form an international team composed of vastly various backgrounds. Each playing an instrumental part in this project.By signing up, you'll get access to the novel for free! You'll receive one page a day directly in your inbox.In our messages, we'll give you opportunities to support our writers (should you become a fan of their work).

The Story

Each writer narrated the story of their own protagonist. Making it that they all come from different worlds (like in real life!)In this epic fantasy tale, five unlikely heroes are brought together by a shared touch of fate.Be it so remedy their own misery or to fight for something much bigger than themselves: their convergence was no coincidence.

Founder

Infi

Infi believes in the strength of long-term and balanced collaborations. Together with our customers, we seek out the most effective and efficient road to success. Their dreams become ours, as do their problems. "Growing together" defines us best. My mission within Infi takes form with the following tasks;

- Marketing strategy
- B2B community management
- Business development
- Developer community management
- Content & social media marketing
- Brand management
- Storytelling 
- Partnership management
- Event management

In a nutshell: Infi takes pride in building loved products with our awesome clients, by writing beautiful code with their team of amazing developers. Both in Utrecht, as in Amsterdam.

#infinl

Chief Marketing Officer - EN & NL

Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences

Topics within Online Marketing; 

- Consumer Behavior 
- Content Marketing
- Influencer Marketing
- Programmatic Marketing
- Social Media Marketing (B2C / B2B)
- Storytelling in Marketing

Guest Speaker - EN & NL

United Wardrobe

Tasked with the cultivation and and nurturing of United Wardrobe's presence in France.

- Business Development
- Campaign Data Processing & Analysis
- Content Production Management
- Imagineering
- Influencer Campaign Conception
- Influencer Campaign Management
- Influencer Partnership Management
- Multichannel Storytelling Strategy

Influencer Marketeer - BE & FR (directly contributed to EXIT)

Omnicom Media Group

Tasked with with the trafficking, set-up, optimalisation and evaluation of programmatic media trading campaigns. 

- Contribution to Content Marketing
- Contribution to Copywriting
- Contribution to Translations

Account(s): Bacardi, EasyJet, Levi's, Monsterboard, PepsiCo and Renault.

Programmatic Media Planner / - Buyer & AdOps Specalist (OMD NL) - BeNeLux

Publicis Groupe

Tasked with with the trafficking, set-up, optimalisation and evaluation of programmatic media trading campaigns. 

Account(s): L'Oréal & Film1.

Digital Executive (Zenith NL) - Programmatic Media Planner / - Buyer & AdOps Trainee - BeNeLux

WeTransfer

Tasked with the acquisition of new potential advertisers in designated regions, as well as the negotiations and management of branding campaigns.

- Account Management
- "Artvertising"
- Business Development
- Channel Management
- International Sales
- Key Account Management
- Media Trading
- Sales Process Optimization (Eastern Europe, APAC, GCC)

Sales Manager - APAC, EEU, FR & GCC

We cure frustrated DTC brands of their inaccurate marketing analytics. || Founder Grow Your Boat. || Freelance End-to-End DTC & SaaS Growth Strategist.

Let's be honest, most marketing tools are stuck in the past. 

You just want that helping hand to do your thing, but tools nowadays...

They give all the credit to the 'last click' like some kind of participation trophy. 

Who cares about the last pat on the back?

You need to see the whole customer journey, 
from the wide-eyed browsing to the 'buy now!' moment.

But those old-school tools? 

Blind to all that juicy data.

This means:

→ Hidden growth opportunities waving goodbye.

→ You waste money on ineffective marketing.

→ Your competitors get ahead with better data insights! 

We clearly don't want that, 
right?

Enough is enough, 
my friend. 

We get it. 

You deserve better.

That's where we come in. 

Grow Your Boat isn't your old-school marketing tool. 

We go beyond the limitations of those old school tools and help you to see the complete customer journey, 
identify hidden growth opportunities, 
and optimize your marketing spend.

All you need to do is connect your data, 
talk to it, 
get insights,  
act upon them and generate profitable growth. 

The result? 

We've seen our clients scale their marketing from 30k MRR to 500k MRR. 

Typical problems we solve entail questions such as;

"What are the consequences if I turn off Pinterest ads? The ROAS on other channels is much better, but is Pinterest perhaps contributing to those somehow?"

+7% renvenue growth in Q1 2024.

"My return rates are eating my margins, what customer segments should I be targeting per channel to reduce the liklihood of returns?"

+3% margin increase in Q1 2024.

See where I'm going with this?

You can throw any problem at Grow Your Boat and work it out together.

That's a clear advantage you can't afford to ignore.

Until then, ask yourself:

What are your customers REALLY telling you? 

Do you know what you DON'T know?

Book a free demo to find out. 

It's a no-brainer (probably the best decision of your week).

((yes, we truly think so.))

(((jump on a call with us and you'll hear our irresistible offer.)))

((((man, even I want to get on a call with us now.))))

The world is changing. The way we consume literature is changing. But our mission remains the same: to bring you the best stories, from the finest writers, every single day. Sign up now and receive our novel one page a day in your inbox for free.

The Writers

Our young writers were carefully selected to form an international team composed of vastly various backgrounds. Each playing an instrumental part in this project.By signing up, you'll get access to the novel for free! You'll receive one page a day directly in your inbox.In our messages, we'll give you opportunities to support our writers (should you become a fan of their work).

The Story

Each writer narrated the story of their own protagonist. Making it that they all come from different worlds (like in real life!)In this epic fantasy tale, five unlikely heroes are brought together by a shared touch of fate.Be it so remedy their own misery or to fight for something much bigger than themselves: their convergence was no coincidence.

Corner Alliance

Working with government and non-profit leaders to innovate, communicate, and build better programs, including the Department of Homeland Security, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Department of Commerce.

OwnerRx.com

Building the always on AI-enabled strategic copilot for SMB owners.

Owner

Entrepreneurly

Board Member

OwnerInstitute

Owner Institute helps owners grow their businesses while achieving independence.

Entrepreneurs'​ Organization

James Lee Witt Associates

Director

SRA Touchstone Consulting Group

Principal

The Touchstone Consulting Group, SRA International, Inc.

extreme blue intern

US Senator Max Baucus

Speechwriter

CEO @ Corner Alliance | Author @ The Small Business Mentor

I spent 17 years and $200K+ hunting through every business course, mastermind, and guru to find the nuggets that actually work.

EOS? Implemented it. Scaling Up? Read it. EO/YPO? Joined both.

The result? 10,000+ hours distilled into OwnerRx - the AI coach that knows every framework, every playbook, every shortcut.

What it took me years and big dollars to learn, OwnerRx delivers in seconds for a fraction of the cost.

Alan Pentz

A consulting firm came to me at 15% margins.

Target: 20%.

Five years ago, I had a playbook for this:

Old playbook:

- Better hiring → get 1-2% back (maybe)
- Global talent → squeeze out 3-5% (with cultural pain)
- Cut overhead → another 1-2% (one-time gain)

We'd grind our way to 20% over 18-24 months.

Today? That playbook is obsolete.

Here's what I'm seeing with AI agents:

Get 10% margin expansion by holding back office costs constant and growing topline.

Not cutting. Not offshoring. Not grinding.

Growing revenue without scaling headcount.

The new math:

Professional services firm:

- Revenue: $5M
- Back office: 8 people
- Margin: 15%

Deploy AI agents for:

-Financial Analysis
-Client Reporting
-Marketing
-Proposals and Quoting
-Quality Control
-Meeting analysis and follow ups
-Employee onboarding and HR 
-Client research (80% faster)
-Hiring

Result:

- Same 8 back office people
- Revenue grows to $7M (+40%)
- Margin: 25%

Owner @ OwnerRx.com | OwnerRx uses battle-tested playbooks from decades of building and coaching SMBs to create AI agents that run your business for you. | Read my newsletter: newsletter.ownerrx.com

I spent 10 hours a day for 4 days in a row re-building all my AI workflows last week.

3 months ago, I was building OwnerRx, the newsletter, and my Linkedin. I had 4 vendors helping with each aspect. Spend was out of control at $30k a month.

Now I've replaced them all with AI agents. That saves $360k a year.

First came the client tracker agent - every interaction, deadline, and renewal date monitored automatically. 

Then the meeting analyzer that turns Zoom recordings into 5 different artifacts to track and follow up on the meeting content.

The content pipeline was the game-changer. What took 2 hours to write now takes 3 minutes to generate and 15 minutes to polish.

Total investment: 100+ hours of my nights and weekends. 
ROI: 20 hours a week saved and $360k

But there's a downside: the exhaustion is real.

Every improvement reveals 10 more possibilities. Fix the client tracker? Now you see how broken your invoicing is. Automate content? Your distribution system looks ancient.

Last week's 4-day marathon started as "quick workflow optimization." 

The shift from doing work to building tools that do work isn't optional anymore. Teams still manually tracking clients in spreadsheets are losing 15-20 hours weekly that automated teams invest in growth.

My clients now run smoother with zero employees than they would with 5. 

But the pace is picking up. Some people spend all day building tools to make their tools work more effectively.

I'm not sure how many of us can handle it but the productivity increases are real and some people are achieving breakout.

One of biggest PE firms just allocated $1.5B to buy businesses like yours at traditional multiples, deploy AI, and watch margins expand.

Their thesis? You won't adapt fast enough.

I keep having the same conversation. Four owners last month asked me: "Should I sell before AI disrupts my business?"

Meanwhile, I invested in a metal fabrication company. The owner was spending 20-30 hours per week processing purchase orders. Not sustainable when you're trying to grow.

We built an AI system in two weeks. PO processing now takes 5 minutes. He got 25 hours of his week back.

We're closing on our second acquisition next month. Same playbook: build the AI capability once, plug each new company into the same operating system.

That's exactly what the PE firms are doing. At scale.

Here's the data that matters:

95% of AI pilots fail. But the 5% who break through? 91% see revenue boost. 86% improve margins.

This isn't a technology problem. It's a commitment problem. Pilots are experiments nobody owns. The winners pick one process, assign ownership, and measure results until it works.

The rinse and repeat.

The gap between "wanting to use AI" and "actually transforming your business" is where most owners get stuck.

That's exactly the gap PE firms are exploiting.

I'm not going to pretend I'm not doing the same thing PE firms are. The difference: I'm showing you exactly how it works so you can do it yourself.

Build the capability yourself, or become someone else's margin expansion play.

What's the one process eating 20+ hours of your week that you keep saying you'll fix "next quarter"?

$300K.

That's what each failed sales hire costs when you add: salary + lost deals + operational chaos + owner time back in the weeds.

The owner I talked with last week had just gone through his third failed sales hire. 

The pattern?

"We hired for product knowledge... failed to look at character."

But here's the deeper mistake:

They were trying to hire ONE person who could do everything the founder does.

Product expertise + all the relationships + sales nuance + operations + strategy.

That's not a job description. That's a unicorn.

And unicorns don't exist.

Here's what happens when you track your sales process with AI and ask: "What am I actually doing?"

AI breaks it down:

- Marketing: 9 hours/week (lead gen and qualification)
- Admin: 5 hours/week (Writing and sending followups, updating the CRM and dashboards)
- Selling: 7 hours/week (actual conversations with buyers)
- Meetings and Reporting: 5 hours/week (in internal meetings and preparing for those meetings)
-Customer Service: 10 hours/week (Talking recent sales through onboarding issues)

You're not hiring for one role. You're trying to get one person to do a bunch of different stuff.

The AI insight:

Don't hire 1 "unicorn" at $150K who'll fail in 18 months.

Engineer it into 3 achievable roles:

- Sales Rep ($75K) - hire for relationship skills and ability to close
- Operations Coordinator ($55K) - hire for ability to track actions, update the CRM, and do follow ups.
- Customer Service Rep ($60K) - hire for deep product knowledge and ability to answer customer questions 

Then AI generates hiring scorecards for each:

- 5 character traits (integrity, ownership, learning ability, culture fit, resilience)
- 5 technical competencies (specific to THAT role, not "do everything")
- Interview questions revealing both dimensions
- Red flags from your past failed hires

The real problem:

You're not bad at hiring.

You're trying to hire another version of yourself.

The solution:

Stop looking for unicorns.

Start engineering roles AI can help you fill.

Drop your calendar export in ChatGPT and ask:

"What am I actually doing, and should this be 1 role or 3?"

OpenAI just launched ChatGPT Shopping 3 days before Black Friday. It's built for products.

But if you run a professional services firm, the behavior change matters more than the feature.

People are getting trained to ask AI for recommendations instead of searching Google. "What do I need?" "Who can help me?" "Who's best for my situation?"

Right now, that's mostly products. But the habit is forming.

So I ran an experiment.

I asked ChatGPT: "Who are the best fractional CFOs in Austin for manufacturing companies doing $5-10M?" (Congrats to vcfo Austin, you won)

What showed up varied each time I asked with a slightly different query (AI results aren't consistent like Google). But patterns emerged in what seemed to influence recommendations:

- Firms with clear website positioning about who they serve
- Those with substantial Google reviews
- People mentioned in industry publications
- Content that directly answered the type of question I asked

The firms with vague "we serve everyone" messaging? Didn't appear.

Here's my hypothesis for professional services:

Your next client might never Google you. They might ask AI. And AI appears to synthesize everything it finds about you into a recommendation. Or not.

This isn't proven science yet. But it's worth investigating.

Three things worth trying this week:

1. Ask ChatGPT who the best [your profession] in [your city] are for [your ideal client type]. Run it 3-4 times. See patterns in who shows up and what signals seem to matter.

2. Look at your Google reviews. Not just the star rating. The actual words clients use. AI reads those.

3. Check if your website clearly states who you serve and what problems you solve. Specificity seems to beat vagueness.

The shopping feature is for products. The behavior shift affects all of us.

What patterns did you notice when you ran the search for your profession?

Last month I had the same conversation with four different owners. All professional services - consulting, marketing, accounting. All asking the same question: "Should I sell before AI disrupts my business?"

Not one of them is failing. They're all profitable. But they see what's coming.

I asked each of them the same questions: 

-Are you willing to learn this yourself - not delegate it? 
-Can you force organizational change even when your team resists? 
-Will you commit 2-3 years to rebuilding how work gets done?

One went quiet. Then honest: "I'm 5 years from retirement. I don't want to spend them becoming a technologist."

That's not weakness. That's clarity.

Here's what's interesting: these are all knowledge work businesses. The consulting firm owner is more worried than the metal fabrication company I invested in. 

Professional services feels the threat more acutely because their product IS knowledge work - exactly what AI does well.

Here's what I'm seeing: Owners who built great businesses over 20 years are struggling because they can't make themselves learn new systems. 

PE-backed competitors are acquiring AI capability through rollups. Multiples that look reasonable today won't in 18 months.

So I've started having a different conversation. Three paths:

BUILD: Learn deeply, force change, create proprietary AI workflows that competitors can't copy. 2-3 year commitment minimum.

PARTNER: Bring in PE or an operator who already has AI capability. Trade some equity for transformation capacity.

EXIT: Sell while you can get 5-8x EBITDA instead of waiting until AI-enabled competitors compress your margins to 2-3x.

No wrong answer. The only wrong choice is "wait and see."

This isn't pessimism. It's strategic honesty.

Do you have an AI strategy yet ?

For the last year, I've been watching a founder I coach hold onto a toxic performer. 

He wasn't great to work with and grumbled about how he could run the business better. 

So fire him? Problem was he was bringing in $1m in revenue.

But he cost the company too. They lost 2 good employees because of Mr. Toxic.

The founder didn't want to pull the trigger and risk the revenue.

So he waited. And waited. His behavior would improve for a few months, then get worse again.

Until he started actively undermining the owner with other employees.

That finally made it unbearable.

He got fired and guess what happened?

They didn't lose any revenue. In fact, they just kept growing.

The real cost of KEEPING him? Two good people gone. $50k in recruiting and rehiring costs. And 3-4 years of stunted growth because nobody wanted to work on his team.

the founder thought he was making a business decision by keeping the million-dollar producer.

He was actually making an emotional decision driven by fear.

What I learned: Track your performance conversations.

If you're using AI to transcribe meetings, run those transcripts through an LLM to track relationship health and accountability patterns.

It will highlight the problems earlier—before you lose good people, before someone poisons the culture, before you waste years tolerating what you know needs to change.

My founder waited 3 years and racked up $50k plus in costs.

AI would have shown me the pattern in month 3.

What high performer are you tolerating because you're afraid of the revenue loss?

li_at

JSESSIONID

Talked with an owner last week who runs a $10M compliance consulting firm for large construction projects.

$3M EBITDA. Niche expertise. Regulatory moat.

But AI is coming for the core deliverable. The environmental studies his team spends weeks researching and writing? AI can now draft those in hours. Not perfectly—but good enough to commoditize the work.

His question: When do I sell?

He's the sixth owner in two months who's asked me some version of this.

The trap: Actual disruption might be 3-5 years out. But buyers see the writing on the wall earlier. By the time your industry is visibly changing, your multiple has already dropped.

You're not racing disruption. You're racing the perception of disruption.

His business trades at 5-6x EBITDA today. If buyers start pricing in AI risk, that becomes 3-4x. That's a $6M swing on the same business.

My advice to most owners: Go BE the AI change. Use AI to produce studies faster and cheaper. Become the consolidator, not the consolidated.

But that's not everyone's game. Some owners are 5 years from retirement. Some don't want to bet a 20-year business on a tech transition.

Both paths are valid. What's not valid is deciding without understanding what AI can actually do today.

I've watched owners dismiss AI while competitors train it on exactly their workflows.

I've also watched owners panic-sell businesses with 10+ years of runway.

The only way to know which camp you're in? Get your hands dirty. Not reading headlines. Actually testing AI against your deliverables.

Then you can decide instead of guess.

Are you building toward disruption or planning your exit?

How to win as a business onwer:

Just focus on the most important thing.

I know owners who spend 10 hours getting the best pricing on a service or product that makes up 5% of their cost.

You know what they’re not doing during that 10 hours? 

Selling a service or product that’s worth 100x that cost savings to them.

I see owners who read a book or hear a podcast about some new marketing technique then try to pivot their whole company to it.

What aren’t they doing? Doubling down on a tactic that is already bringing in leads.

Stop what you are doing and think about this one question: what single thing will guarantee that I won’t reach my goal? 

Then go solve that thing. Rinse and repeat and ignore everything else.

24,000 hours.

That's how much client interaction one consulting company records per year.

Most would say: "That's expensive storage."

They're thinking: "This is our competitive moat."

Here's what they discovered:

AI analyzed those recordings and found something competitors can never replicate:

Their methods deliver outcomes 1.5 standard deviations better than industry average.

Not "we think we're better."

Data-proven superiority from analyzing thousands of real sessions.

Now they can:

- Prove results to justify premium pricing
- Train new staff 3x faster using what actually works
- Continuously improve by spotting patterns in top performer sessions
- Show clients exactly why their approach works

*his is happening across industries:

A coaching business recording sales calls:

- AI identified: Top closer uses these 3 questions, bottom performers don't
- Automated quality coaching for entire sales team
- Conversion rate: 30% → 40% in 90 days

The dark data problem:

Right now, every meeting in your company contains:

- What actually works (buried in someone's memory and an unprocessed transcript)
- What clients really care about (mentioned once, forgotten)
- Patterns that predict success/failure (invisible without AI)
- Your team's best moves (can't scale what you can't see)

It evaporates the moment the meeting ends.

What AI can do with recordings:

1. Pattern recognition: What do top performers do that others don't?
2. Outcome correlation: Which approaches actually drive results?
3. Training acceleration: New hires learn from 100s of real scenarios
4. Competitive proof: Data-backed claims vs. competitor marketing fluff
5. Continuous improvement: Spot quality drift before it costs you clients

The 10x value play:

Companies recording systematically are building:

- Proprietary methodology (competitors can't copy)
- Pricing power (proven better outcomes)
- Faster onboarding (new hires effective in weeks vs. months)
- Quality consistency (AI catches drift)
- Category leadership (your data becomes industry benchmark)

First-movers are building 2-3 year leads.

The objections I hear:

"Storage is expensive" → Storage is $50/month. Lost knowledge costs $50K+
"No one will review it" → AI reviews it. Humans get the insights.
"Compliance nightmare" → SOC 2 + consent frameworks exist. Not harder than current QA.
"Clients won't consent" → Position as "quality improvement" + show benefit. 95%+ consent.

Most SMB owners think:
"We're too small for this."

Reality:
You're the perfect size. Big enough to have volume. Small enough to move fast.

The companies doing this wrong:

Recording but not analyzing. Terabytes of dark data, zero insights.

The companies doing this right:

Every recording becomes training data. AI finds patterns. Insights improve delivery. Better results justify premium pricing. Category domination.

Do you really want to share good content during Thanksgiving week?

I've got some gems saved up but kind of feel like everyone's still talking to their family at this point.

Maybe by Friday they are back on linkedin trying to do anything but talk with their family?

taplio

The Battle

Joris van Huët

Alan Pentz

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taplio

The Battle

Joris van Huët

Alan Pentz

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);}Alan Pentz's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreAlan Pentz's LinkedIn Performance