Allison Nordenbrock

Your website is a trust-building conversion tool for folks to book a call with you. With a bit of “do as I do, not as I say” in mind, Madison's site is now more concrete on how we Grow Professional Services. I’m not sure how much the numbers game applies to sales in professional services. But I am convinced that trust, authority, nuance, expertise, and thoughtfully-packaged offerings all play a huge role. Those all should reliably show up during potential clients’ journey towards a signed SOW. But the reality is that client work often wins out. Partners copy-paste-edit old proposals to deliver new ones. The .PPTs you’re actively using with clients haven’t been updated since ‘07. Your Wordpress site doesn’t represent who you’re becoming or hoping to serve. The list goes on. Those are some of the gaps we fill for boutique consulting agencies. From solopreneurs to ~150 person firms, we’re cautiously optimistic for how we partner with execs committed to growth.

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The #1 LinkedIn Content Strategy for Founders 1- Top of Funnel Content Post things like stories, hot takes, behind the scenes, personal updates twice a week. This gets strangers to click onto your profile. It's NOT supposed to convert anyone. It's supposed to make people go "this person seems interesting" and check out your other stuff. Stop skipping this because it "doesn't generate leads directly” or it “feels” weird, that's the point. 2- Middle of Funnel Content Post these 3x/week: → Pain point callouts → How-to posts without giving away the full system → Carousel breakdowns This is where you show you actually understand their specific problems. You're building trust and positioning yourself as the expert who understands their problems. But you're NOT giving away the whole playbook. Solve the "what" not the "how." 3- Bottom of Funnel Content Now twice a week you MUST mix in case studies, individual results with screenshots, and lead magnets. This is where the money is. The problem is most founders ONLY post bottom of funnel. Everyone could care less though. You haven't earned the right to sell yet because they don't know who you are or trust you. Start using this strategy and I guarantee your inbounds and speed to sale will increase drastically.

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The #1 mistake early-stage founders make? You're either the bottleneck or you delegated too fast. Christine Keung (J2 Ventures) breaks it down "I've seen some founders get bottlenecked by their inability to delegate, right? When they still feel like everything has to be verticalized through them, right? And they kind of become the entire bottleneck for the entire team." But here's the trap: "I've also seen situations where founders actually delegated too quickly." 𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲? "It's less about the action and more about like, it's their kind of internal calculus, right? It's their ability to kind of assess internally... knowing when to delegate versus knowing when to actually step in and kind of take over the process is something that I think all early stage founders kind of struggle with." The result? "They usually oscillate between the two to the probably the strict grant of their, to the rest of the team." Your team suffers whether you delegate too much or too little. The fix isn't a framework. It's developing your judgment about WHEN to do what. Founders: Which side do you err on? → Bottleneck? → Delegate too fast? → Oscillate wildly between both? Learn more about how to get J2 to write that check... on the full episode. Link in the comments 👇

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The real tax on founders isn’t payroll or tools. It’s wasted time (hours lost every single week). If you’re still chasing files, re-explaining instructions, and reminding the team of things you already said… you’re quietly losing the capacity to grow your client base. So, here are 3 bottlenecks you can fix today without hiring more people: Fix 1: Build a Files Library “Where’s that PDF again?” “Is this the latest version?” Each question costs 5 minutes. Multiply across your team and clients → you lose days every month. The fix: Create a central files library. → One simple table in Notion → Organized by project/client/date → Anyone can find what they need in under 60 seconds Fix 2: End Scattered Communication This is the silent killer. Client updates are split between Slack, WhatsApp, and email. You forward the client updates to your team. This repetition creates confusion and demands more reminders internally. The fix: Set up a client portal - one dashboard per client containing: ✅ Project tracker (done / pending / in-progress) ✅ Review table (approvals + feedback) ✅ Requests tracker (no more DMs) ✅ Files library for client + team And make it the rule: All updates happen here, nowhere else. Fix 3: Stop Keeping Instructions in Your Head Here’s how it shows up: - A client handover takes hours because processes and client feedback only exist in conversations. - A new hire joins, and you find yourself re-explaining steps (despite having an SOP). - Instructions live in someone’s head (yours or a teammate’s). The risk? When that assigned person isn’t around, work slows down, stops, or gets messy. The fix: Document once → reuse forever. → Record the processes you find yourself repeating twice (Notion + Loom works great). → Turn them into a simple guide or playbook. → Next time someone asks, share the link (not your time). Why this matters: When the first instinct is to look for a new tool or more meetings, the fix is simple: You just need simple systems that give clarity and free you from daily firefighting. That’s what I build for founders: scalable operations + automated workflows that double client capacity, remove bottlenecks, and give you back space 👉 Which one of the fixes are you going to apply today? — 📌P.S. Most founders don’t realize what’s really stealing their time. In just 2 minutes, you’ll see exactly what’s breaking down on the backend. Grab the free '2-Minute Scale Breaker Finder" to quickly audit your client and team ops. DM ‘Scale’ and I’ll send it straight to your inbox.

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I audited 50 agencies in the past 8 months And the ones scaling to $1M+ Had 6 things in common: 1) One source of truth → No more Slack + Sheets + Docs chaos 2) Clear task ownership → Every deliverable has a name. No bottlenecks 3) Repeatable client journey → Onboarding → Delivery → Offboarding = Systematized 4) Monthly ops audits → Spot delays, rebalance workloads, automate what's manual 5) Internal deadlines → Not just client due dates, teams work backwards 6) Systems > hires → They scale with 5 people, not 15 If you're doing $20K+/month And want to scale delivery without hiring… Check the first link in comments👇

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Your newest hire might be the sharpest strategist on your team. Not because they’ve done more. But because they haven’t been marinating in your internal noise for 5 years. They see what you’ve stopped seeing. → Broken processes. → Wasteful workflows. → Opportunities hiding in plain sight. Listen to the fresh eyes. It’s cheaper than hiring a consultant. Contrarian truth: Innovation rarely comes from the people closest to the problem. Give all your new hires a "hall pass" to tell you what they see is broken, inefficient, or a clearly missed opportunity. Add this as a topic on their 30/60/90-day checkins. If they aren't seeing something, thats bad. Either you haven't created the culture for them to feel "safe" enough to say something, or it's a big miss on the hire. There's a near zero chance its because everything in your business is rosy.

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High-ticket buyers don't scroll for content. They scan for competence. A marketing director reached out this week. "We're stuck in a loop." Posting daily.  Grinding comments.  Showing up 5 days a week. Their ICP rarely stepped forward.  When they did, no one signed. This is what happens when experienced teams follow beginner playbooks. High-ticket buyers (In their case, $50K+ deals) aren't evaluating your posting frequency. They're scanning for credibility markers: 1. Positioning clarity Can they tell what you do and who you serve in 5 seconds? 2. Strategic depth Do your insights shift their thinking?  Or just repeat what everyone else says? 3. Proof of process Do you have frameworks and systems?  Or just opinions and tactics? 4. Relevant experience Have you solved their exact problem for someone at their level? They lurk. They read. They evaluate. When they trust you, they reach out. Not because you posted more. But because your positioning made you the obvious choice. This is what we fix in The Conversion Architecture™: Layer 1: Positioning that makes your differentiation obvious to premium buyers. Layer 2: Content that demonstrates strategic depth. Layer 3: Conversion systems that turn quiet evaluation into client conversations. Most people optimise posting frequency. Operators architect demand systems. One exhausts. The other compounds.

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If I had $500,000 to spend for a client right now, here’s how I’d do it 👇 1. $150K - Strategic Narrative + Content Flywheel Before buying media, I’d sharpen positioning into something worth amplifying. I’d align message hierarchy, content themes, and brand POV. Then I’d turn my attention to: - Long-form + Shorts for YouTube - Expert-led posts on LinkedIn - Email storytelling sequences - SEO content clusters If you don’t own your narrative, you’re just renting attention. 2. $200K - CTV + High-Intent Channels → Premium CTV with contextual targeting to scale authority. → Paired with Meta retargeting + branded search. → No spray-and-pray CPMs. Every dollar tied to a custom attribution model. 3. $100K - Owned Distribution Infrastructure CRM, funnels, automation, landing pages. The unsexy stuff that prevents lead leaks and makes paid scale. 4. $50K - Founder/Exec Brand Building People still buy from people. So I’d put the CEO front and centre with podcasts, PR, ghostwritten content, and high-impact assets like a customer POV mini documentary/case study. My reasoning behind this blueprint: I don’t chase what’s trending. I chase what compounds. Paid media works when it’s the amplifier, not the strategy. Positioning wins first. Distribution follows. 💾 Save this post to spend smarter.

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Your ops feel like a dumpster fire but you're growing? Great. That means you're doing SOMETHING right. Lots of ops issues aren't signs of failure. They're signs you're moving fast enough to outgrow your backend. And that can be a good thing. Many founders get stuck future-proofing stuff that doesn't need to last. And waste time planning for edge cases while the real upside slips away. Top operators don't fix everything. They sequence. They let certain things break - on purpose, because the upside justifies it. Think about it this way: 1️⃣ Pain is progress. ↳ If something's breaking as you grow, it means something's causing growth. Prioritize, don't panic. 2️⃣ Not everything deserves scale. ↳ Overbuilding early is just polished procrastination. 3️⃣ Ask: What's the ROI of letting this break? ↳ If it costs 10x to fix later but helps you grow 20x now, that's a win. 4️⃣ Expensive money might be worth it: ↳ If you know what you're doing with the money and outperform that rate. 5️⃣ Not everything needs optimizing. ↳ Focus on pulling the big levers - leave the small ones untouched. What looks like a mess in the short term  might be the exact tradeoff that buys you speed, market share and clarity. Don't confuse an inefficient element with an inefficient system. Optimize for the outcome. In your experience, is this tradeoff worth it?  Let me know your thoughts below 👇 ♻️ Share this to help a founder currently scaling their business. And follow me, Brad Weimert, for more on business growth.

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You know your digital presence is a mess. Your team knows it too. That LinkedIn profile from 2019 with the blurry headshot? You've been "meaning to update it." The company page that hasn't posted since March? "We've been too busy with deals." The portfolio section that still lists exits from three years ago? "It's on the list." Cool. So when did ignoring it become cheaper than fixing it? Because here's what actually happened last quarter: A founder chose a competitor with half your track record because their online presence made them look like they understood the current market. Another one ghosted after the intro call because your managing partner's LinkedIn made him look checked out. And that referral you were counting on? They did their research first and decided you weren't "the right fit" before you even got the meeting. But sure. You're too busy. The firms winning right now aren't better at deals than you. They're just better at not losing deals to preventable reputation gaps. Every month you wait is another founder making decisions based on what they found online instead of what you're actually capable of. That's not strategy. That's pride wearing a busy costume. And it's expensive. So when does fixing it become more important than pretending it doesn't matter?

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We've been thinking about social media all wrong. After years of watching B2B companies treat social like a checkbox exercise, I need to say this: Social media isn't a channel. It's not a tactic. It's a business strategy. Yet I still hear marketing teams say things like: "Let's get this out on social" "Let's put the press release on LinkedIn" This flippant thinking is why B2B criminally undervalues social media and why, for many, results are nowhere to be seen. Here's what the fastest-growing companies understand that others don't: No one cares about your company updates They care about the experiences and recommendations from PEOPLE. That might be your founder, employees, customers, creators, or communities. The most modern businesses don't have a "social media strategy." They have social media woven into their organizational DNA. Think about it: → How do people discover you? Social. → How do they recommend you? Social. → How does word-of-mouth spread? Social. It's not about posting frequency or engagement hacks. It's about understanding that social media IS how business happens now. Are the companies crushing it? They get this. The ones struggling? Still treating it like it's 2010. Time to think bigger. /Rant over. Thanks for the opportunity to get on my soapbox Lewis and Elliot. 😅

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We're testing a new feature: repurpose webinars and podcasts into high-performing SEO-rich articles and more. I'd love your feedback. After a lot of tinkering, it seems to be working. A podcast recording that I turned into an instructional article flew to #1 within 2 days, just behind a roster of Google's sponsored ads (an indication that this is a good keyword to own) and their AI answers. I'm betting this article will seep into AI answers soon enough. This feature isn't yet live for our clients but here's the idea behind it: → Most companies record meetings → Many companies do webinars → Some do podcasts The knowledge, insights, and stories are already in your recordings. There are many tools to get summaries, some even claim to write articles from recordings. But getting a really solid article that will rank is a whole different story. So we applied our models to transcribe the recording and then: → Extract key elements → Blend in proper SEO tagging → Align with strategic content goals → Retain the author's writing style It's computationally expensive. The drafts take about 20 minutes to create and require minimal polishing. We can even create one draft for the interviewer and another version with a different angle for the interviewee to use. Plus, it creates multiple LinkedIn posts and a newsletter as well (also for each guest to expand your reach by repurposing). Would you find a tool like this useful? Comment or message me please.   ♻️ Like this startup diary? Please repost. ➡️ Follow me for the victories and screw-ups at my new startup

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