So Much Learning in Trajectify's Five Years

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So Much Learning in Trajectify's Five Years

This month, August 2018, is the 5th anniversary of Trajectify. Words cannot express how grateful and lucky I am to have been able to build this business and accomplish all that we have. HOW A BUSINESS IS BORN. I decided to leave startup #7, Real Food Works, in May 2013. I had turned 50 a few months earlier and found myself wondering, “what do I want to be when I grow up.” I told myself no more startups. So I embarked on what turned out to be a three month discovery mission that led me to create Trajectify in August 2013.

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Not Falling Into the Chasm, Jamie's Post-Graduation Perspective

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Not Falling Into the Chasm, Jamie's Post-Graduation Perspective

My last semester of college was filled with fear and panic, wondering if I had spent my higher education preparing for a career that was not meant for me. After graduation, college students are faced to take a leap of faith and enter the real world. As we approach the cliff, far from the safety net of secured and structured education, and jump head first into the unknown, it is impossible to not fear what is next. With no idea what I was heading into, the overwhelming feeling of insecurity and possible failure seemed inevitable. To cross the chasm it takes momentum and trajectory, neither of which graduating college students have.

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Clarity, Transparency, Focus: Critical Differentiators Between High Performers and the Rest

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Clarity, Transparency, Focus: Critical Differentiators Between High Performers and the Rest

I’ve had the good fortune of working in a variety of industries, building scale into growing businesses and advising executives on strategic initiatives. Despite the variety of products, services, and customers, I’ve observed certain constants across all businesses that separate the elite performers from the average.

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Peter Shankman, Entrepreneurial Effectiveness and ADHD

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Peter Shankman, Entrepreneurial Effectiveness and ADHD

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to participate in a breakfast program with Peter Shankman. He is a successful entrepreneur, author and investor. You may know him as the founder of HARO (Help A Reporter Out), or the author of “Faster Than Normal,” or have heard his Ted talks or other keynote speeches. He's quite quotable and I've been know to borrow a line from him now and then. I especially like his “I have ADOS - Attention Deficit, Oooh Shiny.”

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2018 Summer Reading List to Relax, Unwind, and Feed Your Mind

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2018 Summer Reading List to Relax, Unwind, and Feed Your Mind

Every year, Trajectify coaches and clients put together a list of books they've been reading and recommending. With summer approaching, vacation time and opportunity for days away from the office ensue. Wherever your adventures take you (even if it's just in your backyard hammock!), use this OOO time to de-stress, reflect, read, and learn.

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The Best Growth Strategy is to Make Yourself Dispensable (Lesson #4 of 8 Lessons Growing 8 Companies)

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The Best Growth Strategy is to Make Yourself Dispensable (Lesson #4 of 8 Lessons Growing 8 Companies)

It took me three years to go from VP Engineering to CTO to COO to CEO. How does someone grow that quickly? Yes, I worked hard and focused on results. Yes, I was afforded an opportunity being at a good place at a good time. Still, no amount of hustle, talent or luck could have made such a rapid transition successful. What made it possible?

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A NYC Space for Entrepreneurs Who Are Growing Their Business Organically, 7 Tips from April

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A NYC Space for Entrepreneurs Who Are Growing Their Business Organically, 7 Tips from April

The NYC Bootstrappers Breakfast is back… with new mentors to help facilitate serious conversations about starting and growing a business. Thanks to our friend Alex Portera, Co-Founder of Nowhere Men Media, here are a few quick and valuable points from the inaugural NYC Bootstrappers Breakfast comeback.

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How Do You Get Work Done When There's 100 Events In One Week?

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How Do You Get Work Done When There's 100 Events In One Week?

I attended my first Philly Tech Week (PTW) in 2012. There weren't a ton of events, but my notes say I attended 14, and scheduled another 8 meetings in between events.  Pretty intense, especially for someone who leans introvert. That year I also hosted the first Philly Bootstrappers Breakfast during that week (more on that below).

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Mike's Insights on Leadership Communication as He Pushes Himself (and you) To Do More Video

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Mike's Insights on Leadership Communication as He Pushes Himself (and you) To Do More Video

In a recent video, Mike shared three basic and effective essentials to achieve greater leadership communications.  (1) Feel It. You are your company's evangelist, you need to show that passion. (2) Speak It. You need to talk loud and clear. (3) Communicate It. Your words and meaning must be coherent, so write them in advance and practice-practice-practice.

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4 Valuable (and inexpensive) Business Tips from Bootstrapping Entrepreneurs

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4 Valuable (and inexpensive) Business Tips from Bootstrapping Entrepreneurs

Bootstrappers Breakfast is a mastermind-style meetup where we have serious conversations about growing a business. This group offers a combination of brainstorming, education, peer accountability and support in a group setting to sharpen your business and personal skills. As a group, we diagnosed the following four topics: referral marketing as a powerful lead generation tool, the importance of practicing your pitch, learning not to stand in the way of your own success, and validating product ideas through user research.

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Review Your Business Model to Get Better Results

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Review Your Business Model to Get Better Results

Most of us take care of things that are important to us on a regular basis – maintaining our car, going to the dentist for a checkup, and updating software on our computer. But do we take a step back and invest the energy to look at our business model to see if everything is working the way we’d like it to? When you take time to review your business model, you may be surprised by the value you discover by making some tweaks – or perhaps even reinventing what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.

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3 Challenges Bootstrapping Entrepreneurs Face When Building a Business

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3 Challenges Bootstrapping Entrepreneurs Face When Building a Business

When starting a business, it’s no secret there are going to be risks involved and difficult decisions to make. It may take a while to find a steady stream of revenue. One mistake could end up costing you lots of time and money. You’re aware of the relatively high possibility that your company could eventually fail. But most entrepreneurs know this and are prepared to take challenges head-on with grit and determination. Here we share three common challenges entrepreneurs face when building their own business.

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Lessons from Star-Studded Coaching at Grant Cardone's 10XGrowthCon

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Lessons from Star-Studded Coaching at Grant Cardone's 10XGrowthCon

I was planning to be entertained, which I was, but surprised at how many notes I took. Speakers like Ed Mylett, Andy Frisella, Hank Norman, Tim Storey, Micheal Burt, and Lewis Howes were surprisingly moving and informational - hence motivational. I also got to meet Silicon Valley mogul Naveen Jain. We also had speakers for sales training and marketing education, one who sold $3M in product right after his presentation. Who needed training when you could watch the masters sell right in front of you?

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Peer Groups are more than just Words With Friends

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Peer Groups are more than just Words With Friends

Peer groups are not a new concept. One of the notable first suggestions of the benefits of business peers working together was by Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich (1937). In his huge best seller (some say as many as 20 million copies), he wrote about a “master mind alliance… with one or more persons who will encourage one to follow through with both plan and purpose.” In a later book, Master Key to Riches. Hill writes “every mind needs friendly contact with other minds, for food of expansion and growth.”

Why a peer group is the most powerful business and leadership development tool.

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2017 Summer Reading for Your "Think" and "Relax" Time

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2017 Summer Reading for Your "Think" and "Relax" Time

With summer upon us comes an opportunity for days away from the office - fun Fridays, vacations, hammock and beach days, or quiet mornings at the campsite. If you’ve planned for it, you should be able to turn off “work” for a fews days or more and shift your balance. Tune your body with healthy activities. Fuel your body with good food and drink. Then feed your mind. Take this opportunity to read, learn, and reflect.Trajectify coaches and clients each year share what we’ve been recently reading and recommending. We hope you find something here to enjoy and grow your awareness, skills, and confidence.

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It’s All About the People, the Team, and its Values (#3 of 8 Lessons Growing 8 Companies)

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It’s All About the People, the Team, and its Values (#3 of 8 Lessons Growing 8 Companies)

As a leader or entrepreneur, you get to create vision, set goals, and define success. As a business coach, I’d be negligent if I didn’t say that money (revenues & profits) is important. A business needs to be able to sustain itself (and its principals, team, investors, etc.). To make money, we need people. To attract and keep people, we need team and well-defined values. There is a direct relationship between money, people, values, culture, and organization. Who you hire and how you lead and build team is critical to the long term success of anything you may undertake where organization is necessary.

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Why You Need Access to Inspiration and Experience (#2 of 8 Lessons Growing 8 Companies)

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Why You Need Access to Inspiration and Experience (#2 of 8 Lessons Growing 8 Companies)

Amidst the tension, I was making every rookie management mistake in the book. Except I didn’t even have a book. I had no management experience and no training, nor did anyone around me. I made hiring mistakes. We were offered a course on Behavioral Interviewing, (which was the best thing I learned and saved my book, 20+ years later, pictured here), but even with the training, I put the wrong people in the wrong jobs. I recall my QA Manager being a disaster. There were other performance issues on my team. Wondering what to do when I found an employee sleeping under his desk. I didn’t know how to handle any of them. I tried to use my engineering skills to fix the problems, but you can imagine how that turned out.

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