[#014] My First Billion: After the Win Comes the Work

By the time you’re reading this, we’ve just wrapped the first iteration of the Strategic Scale Summit.

Despite weather warnings, travel concerns, and all the usual friction that comes with something new…

It was well attended, high quality, and exactly what it needed to be.

Monday, my business partner Adrian and I did the real work: the debrief.

Celebrating the win and tightening systems, refining flow, making sure new clients are onboarded and insuring we have the infrastructure to run these quarterly without unnecessary chaos.

Momentum is easy to chase.
Integration is where durability is built.

What This Week Actually Looked Like

On paper, it wasn’t flashy.

But it was high-leverage.

→ We stabilized the sales team after a senior advisor off-boarded and watched a newer advisor step up without drama.

→ I kicked off work with a new coach to pressure-test blind spots and sharpen the way forward.

→ I designed a front-end funnel specifically for six- and seven-figure online coaches; fewer people, better fit, higher standards.

→ I finished the copy, refined it again after sitting with it longer and handed it off for build.

→ We began consolidating six years of business data into a single system so we have one source of truth, instead of tons of spreadsheets.

That last one doesn’t look exciting and it’s the work most won’t do. But it’s easily $10,000-an-hour work.

You don’t make clean decisions without clean data.

The Other Kind of Work

Wednesday started with a meeting at my 12-year-old’s school.

His teacher told him something most kids don’t get to hear:

That one of his advantages is having two parents who show up, ask questions, and stay engaged.

That hit.

Right after, my wife and I kept our weekly sync meeting over green smoothies.

She’s the CEO of the house, so we have to stay aligned.

Later that day, my tax advisor and accountant helped me not over-engineer a new entity for the Summit partnership.

Run it cleanly.
Learn for 6–12 months.
Then decide.

Experience teaches you when not to complicate things.

This is why having a Board of Advisors is so important.

A Moment I Don’t Want to Miss

This week, during a coaching call, I told clients I needed to relocate out the home office to be downstairs
when my six-year-old, RyPie, got home.

One of them said,
“Isn’t that amazing you get to do That? Be there at the door when your son gets home. Most people can’t do that.”

He was right.

It’s normal for me now, but it wasn’t always.

And I don’t want success to make me numb to the life it was supposed to protect.

Where I’m At

This week wasn’t about acceleration.

It was about:

→ Consolidation
→ Stewardship
→ Making sure momentum doesn’t outrun alignment

The wins are quieter now.
But they last longer.

That’s the work.
Marquel