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Expense receipts shouldn't require a search party
Adam spent 20 minutes looking for a $36 receipt. His finance team sent three Slack messages. Someone made a sticky note.
Ramp would have matched it automatically the moment he swiped. Auto-coded, in-policy, synced. Nobody had to ask Adam for anything.
This is what finance looks like when it runs itself.
Your team can be Adam. Or they can not be Adam.
The past five years of coaching & advising CEOs, small business owners, startups founders, students and young professionals has been very rewarding. These past several years, I’ve coached, mentored and advised more than 700 people, and I’ve learned a number of lessons along the way that I want to share.
Before I share some of those nuggets of lessons learned, I also wanted to describe some of the work I’ve done and the results from the past year, as well as a few success stories.
Types of Businesses Served
During 2025, I coached & advised more than 114 leaders. This was largely in the technology space with startups ranging from idea stage to lots of traction with some businesses having already generated more $10M+ in annual revenue. Most of these CEOs, small business owners and startup founders were in the central states of the USA. Places like North Dakota, Wyoming, Indiana, the great lakes region, and so on. I also had a few clients in Europe and Asia.
In 2026, I’ve met with more than 70 small businesses owners, largely in manufacturing across North Dakota and Minnesota. Having grown up and been educated in North Dakota, I returned about a year ago after spending 25 years working on the east coast and in Los Angeles. I’ve been surprised by the large number of manufacturers that are thriving in this region. The businesses I’ve met with are mostly $5M to $50M in annual revenue and 15 to 100 employees with a wide range of products from steel products, the ag industry, and supporting the oil & gas expansion across the state of North Dakota.
Types of Services Provided
I’m marketer with more than 25 years of experience creating and implementing 360-degree marketing strategies largely for manufacturers of home products, robotics, large appliances and electronics. I’ve primarily focused on brand building, customer acquisition, channel strategy, GTM strategy, distribution, online & offline advertising, leadership skill development, and marketing & sales funnels.
Success Stories from 2025
Here are just a few recent success stories from 2025:
One startup that I provided close support with GTM strategy, customer acquisition, and leadership development received $1M in initial funding.
For one of my clients, I worked with the engineering department at the University of North Dakota and we created a working commercial 3D printed prototype for their pool industry product, as well as had more than 30 conversations with industry manufacturers and distributors to find a producer.
For another client, I completed a Google Ads campaign audit and implemented a new strategy that generated more than 350 booked appointments and $500k in sales pipeline in just 90 days.
Nuggets of Wisdom
“Finding Your Audience” - as I’ve always said, finding your audience is just as important as how you position your brand and the key messaging themes. When advertising, the media you choose should have the highest possible product or service / audience match in terms of demographics. This sometimes requires a lot of evaluation and sometimes is an easy choice for a marketer. For instance, you might be thinking about how hot TikTok is, but not realize 85% of active users are under the age of 35 and your product is designed for seniors or gen x-ers.
“Slow is smooth, smooth is fast” - the best marketing campaigns in my experience have been simple and easily repeatable with a strong value proposition that is placed in front of a target rich audience.
“Don’t get impatient” - many times there are opportunities to pivot, but don’t make harsh reactionary decisions too soon because of initial results that don’t meet your expectations. Give your campaign the proper amount of time before deciding on whether it’s a success, failure, or it needs lots more optimization. Depending on your marketing funnel and product or service, analyzing ROI in the short-term can take 30 to 90 days. Analyzing long-term ROI impact can sometimes take 6 to 18 months.
“Without a good closer, marketing & sales funnels fail” - You can have excellent impressions, clicks, appointment bookings, and meeting show-up rates, but if the sales person has a closing rate of only 20%… all the work on optimizing was not effective in terms of return on ad spend (ROAS).
“Market size is not the end all, be all” - as a new business owner or startup founder you don’t have to only focus on the product or service ideas that are in the tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in potential. Remember that you are starting at zero revenue, zero brand awareness, and zero market share. All revenue is going to be upside those first several years. It’s not just about having a super attractive startup for investors, it’s about building a profitable and sustainable business with a product that customers will love.
“Company culture matters” - even at a small business or startup with 25 employees, no one wants to serve a dysfunctional boss, be poorly compensated, have to deal with constant changes on a whim, or get insults instead of high-fives for their hard work and contribution. As a CEO, don’t focus on constantly changing the tires of the car. As a business leader your aren’t going to fire your way towards success. Invest in your people, their legacy knowledge of the business, positive company culture, and compensation representative of their contribution to the business rather than “popular opinions” and “feelings”.
“Know that you get what you pay for” - so don’t expect that their is some cheat code to revenue success where new customers are free or the fantasy that AI is going to somehow do all the work for you at a low subscription level cost. Nor is your business going to somehow transform into a $100M revenue one man shop where you get all the reward for yourself without the sweat, dedication, hard work, and leadership guiding your team. Building a business requires workers, financial resources and a growth strategy to achieve your vision.
I hope you learned a few things from this recap. Know that in business, we sow and reap, and the most incredible harvests always include lots of lessons from the struggle before the reward. You can always email me at [email protected] or find me on LinkedIn when you need advice.
