Why I Wrote Ramping Your Brand

In the first two years of my ‘business,’ I bounced around in the chaotic, awkward process of finding the right services to offer the early-stage CPG community. I went to everything. I charged a minimal consulting fee simply to get deeper interaction with founders. I had my e-mail address and cell phone number on my website. I spoke with basically anyone who wanted to, regardless of their desire for ‘free advice.’ I did extensive stakeholder research among investors, brokers, founders, sales consultants, etc.

I had originally thought that I would simply offer a scaled-down, high-growth adapted version of what I used to do for BigCo when advising on their strategic plans: gather all their data, synthesize, isolate overlooked areas to optimize per the brand’s growth targets, and apply my case study/behavioral knowledge.

What I discovered was the following:

• Most founders still do not come from a business background
• Very few were learning from early fans and iterating to fine-tune a hero UPC
• Too many were looking for shortcuts, not better plans
• There was a shocking lack of disciplined thinking and planning as founders made huge decisions (with their own money!)
• No one seemed able to distinguish between the chest-beating bro team with a derivative idea and the more humble innovator experiencing exponential growth of a brilliantly designed product
• Not enough focus on the critical KPIs for healthy, early-stage growth
  
  

Yet, I had spent the final four years of my BigCo consulting career isolating those KPIs. And I had also written a spreadsheet entitled “Survival Home Budget” in 2018 as our savings and income dwindled. The only objective was: don’t lose the house we live in. 

I had a vast knowledge gap and knew I had to fill it as a service to the industry and a way to attract high-performing clients to my own business.