[#007] My First Billion: Outgrowing Toxic Momentum
This week started with something “small” that will matter more than most people realize.
Based on team feedback, I decided we’re changing our CEO Update from weekly to monthly.
Not because there’s less happening, if anything, there’s more, but because the company has reached a point where signal matters more than frequency.
In other words, alignment now comes less from how often I share updates and more from how clear those updates are when they land.
For context: our CEO Update is the internal note I send the team to clarify direction, priorities, the long-term vision we’re building toward and where we are in relation to our goals, mission and vision.
In that update, I shared our North Star:
- The mission
- The 100-year lens
- Current focus
- The 3, 5, 10, and 20-year visions
- And our three concrete targets and outcomes for 2026
(a pic of our North Star)
Then I asked the team to do something simple, but not easy:
Pick one to three goals for 2026 that directly support the three company goals in our North Star.
One of our operations leaders, Tarryn, replied with questions.
Great questions.
She said:
“I don't really understand some of this, and how we implement it (maybe you can go through it on AHOD)”
Then she went on to say…
Tarryn: 3 years - what does that mean and how do we implement it?
My Reply: Building a community where clients stay, get results, refer others, and build together. We're already implementing it! :-)
Tarryn: 5 years - Worldwide - how?
My Reply: Technically, we're already worldwide lol
We have clients that are in different countries, and half of our team is international. That's going to continue to grow.
Tarryn: 18 years - What is Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting?
My Reply: You ever heard of Warren Buffett? Berkshire Hathaway is his company - trailing twelve months
(TTM) revenue for the period ending September 30, 2025, was approximately $372.13 billion for their company.
The Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting is Warren Buffett’s yearly event where tens of thousands of shareholders come together.
It’s part business update, part education, part community, and it’s the most famous ‘company gathering’ in the world.
In other words, it's the Super Bowl of business meetings, people fly in just to learn, connect, and be part of the Berkshire culture.
Ours will be part shareholders and partners, and part clients and prospective clients and partners.
We’re modeling our 10-year vision after that. One massive annual event where founders come to learn, get updates, Connect, and feel like part of a movement, not just a program (which ties back to the 3 yr target).
Does this make sense?
Tarryn: 28 years -LPs? How
My Reply: Limited partners (LPs) are people who invest into other businesses.
As the businesses grow inside the community, strategic partnerships will happen where people can invest in each other's businesses and we'll be building a fund also with a focus on doing partnerships with the right clients (so far beyond just a "coaching or consulting" company).
Let me know if you have any other questions. I love talking shop with you and you helping me clarify my thinking.
***End Email Dialogue***
As I answered her, I realized something.
Most people don’t struggle with ambition. They struggle with context.
When you don’t understand the frame, the vision feels abstract.
Once the frame clicks, the same vision feels inevitable.
And that set the tone for the rest of the week.
Progress Didn’t Come From Hustle, It Came From Decisions
Tuesday was coaching day.
Two client moments stood out.
One client finally made a decision he’d been delaying for over a year.
The result was an extra $3,000/month to his bottom line.
Not from a new funnel.
Not from more leads.
From a conversation he’d been avoiding.
We did the math together.
That delay cost him $36,000.
What decisions are you delaying right now?
How much is that costing you?
Another client shared that he paid off $50,000 in debt.
Wins like that don’t show up in screenshots.
But they compound louder than revenue spikes.
The pattern keeps repeating:
Growth doesn’t stall because of lack of information.
It stalls because of delayed decisions.
Systems Are Replacing Willpower
Behind the scenes, we’re tightening the machine.
- We finalized the promotion of our Head of Sales, fully removing me from day-to-day sales leadership.
- Management isn’t a strong suit of mine and can be draining.
- We doubled down on refining our 2-Day Intensive, now centered on launching a full client attraction system in 10 days or less.
- We locked in our January 3-Day live challenge:
Get Clients With AI, focused purely on lead generation and conversion. - We tested a pop-up Zoom workshop with less than 48 hours notice to talk
about our Strategic Scale Summit.
Over 100 people showed up.
We maxed out the room.
Tickets moved (we’re almost half sold out)
No long runway.
No overthinking.
Just relevance + timing.
That’s a system working.
Wanna join me in Atlanta for 2 days to work on your business together?
Get the details and your ticket here before the price increases.
I’m excited about this event because…
Rather than the typical model of events that are "consumption" based…
We went with the "creation" based approach, where 1/2 of the content will come FROM
the stage, and the other 1/2 of the content will be ACTIVATED from the audience.
Rather than just "inputs" (sitting, listening, taking notes), the creation-approach is both input & output-focused (answering questions, engaging in deep conversations, working on stuff, installing systems live etc).”
Life Still Happens While You’re Scaling
Midweek, my wife hit a deer driving home from church.
She was okay.
The truck wasn’t totaled (just had a black eye).
Insurance covered it as an act of nature.
That moment slowed everything down.
It’s easy to talk about scale, leverage, and long-term vision.
It’s harder, and more important, to remember that none of it works or matters if the people you love aren’t covered.
Favor isn’t always loud.
It can show up in quiet protection.
The Numbers Are Telling the Truth
I spent time auditing our assets and funnels.
One stood out.
Our Client Attraction Playbook funnel, something we haven’t even fully focused on has been quietly profitable since April.
I know I’ve talked about this in previous issues and performance was up and down.
Here’s what the numbers showed when we zoomed out:
- AOV: $33.88
- CAC: $61.41
- Backend performance: ~3x
- And plenty of room to optimize decisions, not traffic
Here’s a snapshot of the dashboard Tarryn put together to help make the decision:
No hype.
No massive push.
Just proof that when a system works, it works even when you’re not paying attention.
This is one of the funnels we’re doubling down on going into 2026 and just partnered with someone to assist with it.
The Reframe I’m Sitting With
This week was full.
Meetings.
Clients.
Family.
Church.
Content.
Decisions.
But the real shift wasn’t in the activity.
It was in the weight of decisions being made faster, by more people, with clearer context.
That’s what Strategic Scale actually looks like.
Not doing more.
But making fewer things matter and letting systems carry the rest.
I’ll leave it here.
More soon.
Marquel Russell
