All In...

Six months ago I left my job and was unemployed for the second time in as many years. I was laid off in May of 2016 which left me in a situation I had never been forced to deal with before. Three months later I was fortunate enough to help an early stage start-up turn a corner. About a year after that, it made sense (for the business and myself) that I again exit my W2 employer and that's what brings me here today.

I WENT ALL IN A WEEK AGO. After six months of grinding to make something out of nothing, I was in a crossroads. Nine days in SF, two conferences, a training, and multiple opportunities to network would offer me the chance to find out if I should continue attempting entrepreneurship or position myself more strategically to join a company. It's been seven days as I write this and here's what I've experienced...

An early flight from PDX to SFO 3/1, straight to the RevenueSummit'18 to catch the best in marketing and sales strategize and discuss collaboration therein with a unified approach to customer acquisition. Incredible speakers and a phenomenal event. Above you'll find Jen Spencer, Haley Katsman & Kharisma Moraski, moderated by Richard Harris in "Sales + Marketing + Customer Success Alignment = Building a Winning Enablement Feedback Loop." Long story short: Let's align the funnel. Bring all facets of customer acquisition in line to drive the lowest possible CAC and the highest margins as quick as possible within the lifecycle. Align the ICP and buyer personas for marketing, sales and customer success across the board so everyone solicits, closes and services each account accordingly.

Revenue Summit '18 closed with Godard Abel, Co-Founder & Exec. Chairman of G2 Crowd telling his entrepreneurial story: "Lessons Learned From Scaling Three Entrepreneurial Summits." There was some mumbo jumbo in there about revenue development and business strategy and I'm sure I should have paid better attention to that part - but what I caught? DON'T STOP. NO MATTER WHAT. DON'T STOP. AND EVENTUALLY YOU'LL GET TO THE TOP. As you could expect with this being the foray into my "all in" trip, it was to say at least moving and motivational. To break the incredible fear of eating only what you kill into a binary solution simplified the matter to a size that my feeble mind could comprehend: Stop or Don't Stop - In or out - Yes or No - Up To You.

3/2 was a complete blur, as though yesterday wasn't the same with a 3:45AM alarm to hit the 6:30 PDX to SFO and into the conference, mind blowing presentations and more sessions than my mind could take. The next day was pivotal. After months of deliberation and discussion about revolutionary approaches to customer driven growth, we finally broke through. Unable to divulge the details yet, I can say that the newest growth strategy isn't sales. It isn't marketing. It isn't customer success/support/account management or anything else. It's wholistic in nature, values customer centricity first and brings all areas of the business into a single focus. Marketing Success is a growth strategy that will revolutionize how SaaS companies succeed. I am lucky to call Kasey Jones and Dave Connors co-founders and friends. And what we're going to do with RevDev.io. will be nothing short of spectacular.

Speaking of spectacular...a weekend in San Francisco. What could be better? An opportunity to reconnect with old friends, meet new amazing people and just experience one of the best city's in the world. Mission Dolores Park, as seen above, is one of the greatest places around. What an amazing vortex of intelligence, collaboration and innovation this bay provides and although most that live here won't agree, I think this place is THE BEST. I don't care what they say in SF, I think it's second to none and I was stoked to get a few days to roam around and interact with incredible people everywhere I went.

...and then Monday came! Customer Success Summit '18! Produced by Totango. I was here last year, albeit in a slightly different capacity and love this year's speakers, content and networking opportunities even more. The customer success technology space is only getting more prevalent in the enterprise everyday and Totango is consistently in front of the market, bringing new functionality and opportunities to their customers. The Summit is the same and I learned from, met and befriended many amazing people along the way.

Spark, Totango's latest innovation to hit market, enables their customers to drive down TTV from day one. It's a new way of relating success management into blocks of effort and allows modulation of customer success and account management duties. However, just like life...the greatest part of the CS Summit isn't the product or the technology...it's the people. An incredible opportunity for a budding entrepreneur throwing his chips into the center, the Summit creates a comfortable environment with open minds looking to simply expand the thought leadership and cooperation that is the customer success professional landscape today. I love this industry, the technology vendors and people invested in bettering the CS industry as a whole and am thankful conferences such as Totango's CS Summit exist. I'll be back in a month for Pulse, produced by Gainsight...by the way, so keep your eye's peeled for that story.

Believe it or not, there was sunny a day or two. And here are some nice pics from SF. The greatest city in the world - no matter what the locals say...

This trip has brought me through the crossroads: I'm not going to stop. I'm going to be an entrepreneur. That's it. If I just don't quit, I will eventually get to the top of the mountain. It will be difficult. It will be harder than the alternative. But at the end of my days, I'll be better for it. I've decided that I will release the fear of failure and own the opportunity.

Thank you for reading this - if you did. Or thank you for scrolling to the bottom, Please share. This is a true story. Written late at night. From the heart. Reach out if you'd like to share your story, I'd love to hear it.