Most challenger CPG and consumer appliance brands growth stalls because they keep operating like insurgents long after the insurgency phase has paid off.
Moving from niche to category leader requires a deliberate shift in behavior, not just more SKUs or sales channels.
Here are the actions that matter most.
1. Stop optimizing for love. Start optimizing for scale.
Early-stage brands
Are you unknowingly teaching your ideal clients to become your competitors? If you’ve written (or are planning to write) a book to grow your practice, this distinction could be costing you hundreds of thousands (or more) in lost revenue. Most trusted advisors get this wrong—and wonder why their book isn’t generating the clients they expected.
#TrustedAdvisors #BusinessDevelopment #ProfessionalServices #ThoughtLeadership #BookMarketing
Two Trusted Advisors with identical credentials walk into a prospect meeting. One has a book. One doesn’t. Guess who walks out with the premium engagement? Here’s the math behind the credibility multiplier.
After years of developing and launching innovations across diverse industries and working with countless innovation leaders, I’ve distilled the patterns that leaders repeat which inevitably lead to innovation failure.
The working title: “How Leaders Fuck Up Innovation: An Innovation Book That is Not About Innovation”
Some findings that genuinely surprised me while writing:
• Innovation doesn’t need innovation (seriously)
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Most businesses under $100 million don’t need a COO.In fact, in many, if not most, cases a COO would slow down decision-making, add unnecessary cost, confuse reporting lines, and generally be a drag on the business.But a Fractional or Interim COO like me, that’s a different story. I’m busy, and getting busier, because this is the role many companies need,
Most founders/CEOs of companies between $10M and $100M think their problems sit neatly in one bucket:
⚠️ But the truth? Those buckets are intrinsically linked.It’s not as simple as “a marketing push spikes
Most CPG founders only think they’ve made it when they reach $20M. But the real achievement isn’t $20M it’s $2M.
Hitting $2M means you’ve done the hardest stuff in business:
For a CEO, leading a sub-$100M business is not a junior version of leading a $500M one – it’s a completely different animal altogether. The difference isn’t just in the simplicity of smaller companies-fewer product lines, leaner teams, and more straightforward go-to-market strategies – it’s in the kind of leadership that drives success.The biggest shift I’ve observed? Who I’m actually