And after doing this for a while, I’ve started to notice something…

Almost every person I work with is struggling with the same internal dialogue.

They won’t say it in a team meeting. They won’t post it on LinkedIn. And they definitely don’t want their boss to hear. But in a one-on-one coaching call, once the pleasantries are out of the way, it surfaces.

Am I actually any good at this? Or is it just really hard right now?

If you’ve felt that, you’re not alone. I’ve never coached a growth leader who didn’t ask some version of it. Not once. Not even the ones with incredible LinkedIn profiles and multiple promotions and teams that love them.

This week, I made a video about the five patterns I’ve seen separate good leaders, from great ones. I'll embed it below. But I wanted to give you more context here on the stuff that didn't fit on camera - the client stories behind the patterns, and what actually changed for them.

Here are the 5 patterns:

1. They translate their brilliance into a system (instead of being the system themselves)

Most growth leaders get promoted because they were incredible individual contributors. Fast, instinctive, able to figure anything out.

But when they step into a leadership role, those same instincts start working against them.

I’m working with someone right now, I’ll call him Marcus, who is genuinely excellent at product-led growth marketing. But he’s newer to leading/ managing a team of people who are also excellent at it.

He kept getting pulled into everything. His team couldn’t make decisions without him involved. He was course-correcting project work at 11pm. And most of his one-on-ones had turned into working sessions vs prioritization support and career coaching.

His performance review was the wake-up call.

His exec team told him he was still the star of his team, and that for him to scale, he needed to create stars around him.

Together we built him a growth operations manual.

A set of decision-making frameworks. Clear definitions of what “good” execution looks like. Standard operating processes. Communication structures. Everything that lived in Marcus’s head, translated into an artifact his team could actually use when he wasn’t in the room.

He told me afterward that it was the first time the game slowed down for him. Like suddenly he could see the whole board.

If you’re not sure where to start with this, pick one system that would give your team the most leverage right now. How they make decisions. How they run experiments. How they communicate cross-functionally. Write down why it matters, what good looks like, and the steps to get there. That’s the start.

2. They treat visibility as a core part of the job (not a distraction from it)

Regardless of how many times you think you've told everybody, nobody knows what you're working on and why.

I was working with a growth leader at a tech company in the nonprofit space. Sharp, experienced, doing objectively the right things. But their CEO pulled them aside and said the team looked like they were prioritizing activity over output. Lots of busyness, with no clear connection to outcomes.

They were blindsided. They felt like they were hitting their key results.

But when we dug in, it was clear the work wasn’t the problem. The work was actually really good. The problem was that nobody above them could see the logic behind it.

They hadn’t made the strategy visible.

It looked like a duck treading water - calm on the surface, chaotic underneath.

What changed wasn’t the work. It was 3 things they started doing consistently:

1. Marketing their strategy (here’s what we’re going after and why)

2. Marketing their progress (weekly updates on what’s shipping)

3. Marketing their results (a monthly recap that closes the loop).

They did the same work. But had a different perception.

The reframe that stuck: managing up is marketing.

3. They speak two languages (growth fluent and exec fluent)

There’s a whole vocabulary inside the growth world.

Growth loops, activation rates, retention cohorts, PQLs, experimentation frameworks. When you’re talking to your team, that language is fine.

But when you take it into a room full of executives who've never done your job, it lands like a foreign language.

I learned this the hard way in my first growth leadership role.

I put together a slide deck walking through all of our activation initiatives. And by slide 3, I was underwater in questions.

“What’s the ROI?”
”What resources do we need”
“How does this connect to revenue?”
“Why are we prioritizing this over X?”

I never made it to my summary slide, which was, of course, the slide that should have been first.

The best growth leaders treat executive communication like a marketer treats audience segmentation. You wouldn’t send the same message to every customer segment. Don’t communicate your strategy the same way to your team and your CEO.

And write the executive summary first. Always.

4. They do it scared (that’s what looking confident feels like)

“Work on your confidence” is the kind of advice that sounds right but isn’t helpful.

I’m working with someone right now who looks, from the outside, like they bat a thousand percent. They have an incredible track record. Both in companies they’ve worked at and individual performance at those companies.

But they’ve been working for a new founder who chips away at their ideas, micromanages their decisions, and disrupts projects at the 11th hour.

Over time, that environment did something to them.

When I first got on a call with this person, I thought: how could I possibly help them? I should be asking for their help.

But slowly, that low-level working scared had eroded something real.

Our goal wasn’t “stop being scared.” That’s not how it works. Our goal was: feel the scared, and do it anyway.

2 tools I’ve found that actually move the needle:

The first is what I call a trophy file:

Every day, write down 3 wins. A thank-you from a colleague. Something you shipped that you feel good about. A decision you made that was right. It sounds small because it is small.

But it interrupts the automatic pattern most of our brains default to (scanning for what’s wrong) and starts building the muscle for noticing what’s going well. Do it for 30 days. It won’t fix everything. It makes things 10-15% better, and that compounds.

The second is an alter ego:

Kobe had the Black Mamba. Beyoncé has Sasha Fierce. Your highest-performing self has a posture and a way of showing up that you can practice stepping into before high-stakes moments. Figure out what it looks like for you. Then use it.

The world’s best don’t wait for the confidence to arrive. They do it anyways.

5. They know when their moment has passed (and leave before it takes something from them)

This is the one I didn’t expect to keep seeing, but it shows up constantly.

The growth leaders who feel the best and perform the best aren’t always the ones who stayed the longest. They’re often the ones who left at the right time. And the leaders who struggle most, who come to me with the most battered sense of self-worth? A lot of them stayed in the wrong role for too long.

There’s a concept I’ve started calling moment fit.

It’s the alignment between your skill set, your passions, and the specific moment a company is in.

The best growth leaders know how to read that alignment, and they know when it’s shifted.

Once a year, ask yourself: what’s the environment where I do my best work? Be specific. Company size, stage, growth problems, decision-making culture. Am I in that environment right now? If the answer is no, that’s worth sitting with.

And one more thing on this: the leaders who navigate transitions best are usually the ones who’ve been building their personal brand the whole time. Not because they’re chasing followers or hedging.

They recognize that fit is for a small window of time. And when it shifts, they don’t want to be starting from zero.

So, are you bad at this, or is it just really hard right now?

Probably both, honestly.

But the leaders who outperform haven’t figured out how to make it easy. They’re prioritizing the hard work: building the systems, the visibility, the communication, the resilience, and the self-awareness to keep going anyway.

— — —

ps - if you're a Director, VP, or Head of Growth and you want to work through these patterns with a small group of peers who are navigating the same stuff - I'm opening the Growth Council in Q2. Apply here.

Hire Overseas: One of my former coaching clients just launched an awesome business to help growth and marketing teams hire exceptional overseas talent - think paid ads, SEO, designers, content creators, and more.

If you’re looking to scale your team in 2026, this is my first stop - hireoverseas.com/value.

Navattic: One of the most impactful growth projects I've ever run was building an interactive demo and putting it on the website - I did it at Wistia and Postscript, and both times it drove higher quality signups and more conversions. Navattic publishes a free annual report breaking down data from 40k+ interactive demos.

If you're thinking about adding one to your funnel, start here

I was scrolling LinkedIn on my way into the gym when I almost spit out my coffee.

One of my old clients (head of marketing) had just been promoted to CEO.
(I wasn’t surprised she made it - just that it happened so fast.)

And when her boss made the offer, she actually did spill her coffee.

Her name is Arielle Johncox. And she built her entire career on one move.

Someone would ask if she could do something. She’d say yes. Then she’d figure out how to do it later.

Social media manager who’s never run a campaign? Yes.
Create an integrated marketing calendar with no idea what that means? Yes.
Become head of marketing at a SaaS scaleup with no marketing infrastructure? Yes.

If you only looked at her resume, you would safely assume it worked. In 6 years, she went from social media manager to CEO.

But somewhere in the middle, saying yes became a bug, not a feature.

She described it liked this:

“I had completely built my career around saying yes to every single thing. In retrospect, it made me work until 1 or 2am a lot of times, and then I'd find myself waking up at 5am again too. It was a really great way to burn myself out."

That was one of the first things we worked on together during our coaching engagement.

Arielle had recently been promoted to head of marketing. She already knew how to get stuff done. We needed to figure out what to stop.

Here’s what I’ve seen coaching people like Arielle.

The habit that gets you to head of marketing, head of growth, VP of whatever, is the same habit that becomes a liability once you’re there. You said yes to every project. You raised your hand before you knew the answer. You out-worked everybody in the room.

And then you land the role. Suddenly you’re drowning in great ideas you can’t execute. You’re in every meeting. Every decision flows through you.

The muscle memory says: say yes, figure it out, grind through.

The job now requires something different. Sequencing. Saying no to things that feel important. Being okay with mediocre in some areas so you can be exceptional in the ones that actually matter.

That transition is hard. Not because the skills aren’t there. But because the identity is still attached to the old model.

Arielle figured it out. She went from head of marketing to CEO at Balsamiq in 3 years. And the unlock wasn’t learning new skills. It was recognizing that who she’d always been was enough, just expressed differently.

We got into all of it on this week’s episode of Growing Forward.

• How the CEO transition actually happened (it involved spilled coffee).

• What she had to unlearn to lead at a different level.

• Why she stopped thinking about her career as a ladder.

• And what she’d whisper to the version of herself she was when we first started working together.

ps - and if you’re a Director, VP, or Head of Growth who’s tired of navigating this stuff alone, I’m opening a group coaching program in Q2. Join the waitlist here.

The first time, at Wistia. I started and scaled the growth team, did some of the best work of my career, and stayed for 4.5 years. It was long enough that the role became part of my identity.

The second time, at Postscript, I lasted a fraction of that time. I wasn’t that successful.

And in retrospect, it was my fault.

Budgets were tight, and I told myself I was being a team player. Instead of pounding the table for what I actually needed, I scoped everything down to singles and doubles. Projects I could execute with the limited resources I had available - and hoped my effort would be visible.

It wasn’t. And eventually I left because it felt like there was no other option.

That experience stuck with me. So when I started coaching growth leaders, I paid close attention to who stays in the role - and who doesn’t. After working with 90+ Heads of Growth, the same 3 reasons come up over and over.

I made a video breaking all of this down in more depth, including the specific interview questions I’d ask before accepting any Head of Growth role. Watch it here:

The 3 real reasons growth leaders leave in 16 months

1. Their skills don’t match the company’s stage

Sometimes you have the right skills at the wrong moment. You join a company that needs someone to do the work and manage people. A year and a half later, the company has quadrupled (this is happening at a lot of AI companies right now) and suddenly they need a pure executive. Someone who builds strategy, delegates everything, and almost never does the hands-on work.

If that’s not you, the role has outgrown you. And if you’re not honest about that mismatch early, it surfaces in much messier ways later.

2. The culture isn’t ready to be challenged

Growth teams need to question the way things have always been done. That’s not optional. You have to run tests, which means proving that pre-existing ideas might be wrong.

A lot of executives say “yes, we’re ready for that” in the interview.

Then you start, and you find out that the product team is protective of their roadmap and the marketing team isn’t excited to share their channels. What looked like alignment was just enthusiasm about hiring someone new.

You won’t know this until you’re 3 months in. Which is why you need to ask much more specific questions before you sign.

3. They don’t have enough resources and don’t fight for them

This is the one that got me at Postscript.

Short-term growth leaders work with whatever they’ve got, thinking they’re being reasonable - trying to scrap and claw their way to whatever wins are available. Long-term growth leaders push hard for what they actually need, or at minimum make sure leadership understands the trade-off they’re accepting.

When you quietly absorb a resource gap and then underperform against your goals, nobody remembers that you were trying to be a team player. They just see you didn’t hit your goals.

What the long-term ones do differently

Growth leaders who last 3+ years tend to do 3 things that shorter-tenure ones skip:

1. They market their strategy constantly.
   They spend real time upfront getting alignment, and then they keep communicating what they’re doing and why. They don’t assume people can see it.
   

2. They have the uncomfortable conversations early (and often).
   Ownership confusion between growth, marketing, and product? Surface it in the first few weeks, not when people start getting territorial.
   

3. They fight for what they need.
   They don’t absorb resource gaps quietly. They surface the trade-off and make sure it’s a conscious choice.

Looking back, I did all of this at Wistia without realizing it.

I had been there long enough that the relationships and communication were just natural.

But at Postscript, I jumped into execution mode and skipped the foundation. I paid for it.

If you’re about to start a Director, VP, or Head of Growth role

Slow down in the interview process.

Ask: what does success look like at 6 months and 12 months? What resources will I have from day one? Who do I actually work with, and how are decisions made? What’s a recent project that touched multiple teams, and how did it go?

And if they can’t answer those clearly, that’s your answer.

Once you start, spend your first 30 to 60 days getting alignment. It feels slow. But in the long run, it will help you go way faster.

It’s the difference between 16 months and 3 years.

— — —

ps - If you're a Director, VP, or Head of Growth who's tired of navigating this stuff alone, I'm opening a group coaching program in Q2. Join the waitlist here.

One of my former coaching clients just launched an awesome business Hire Overseas to help growth and marketing teams hire exceptional overseas talent - think paid ads, SEO, designers, content creators, and more.

If you're looking to scale your team in 2026, this is my first stop - hireoverseas.com/value.

Everyone thinks they’re one or two prompts away from unlocking the answers to their hardest problems.

(especially the dudes on X)

My latest interview, Jake Woodward, put that to the test.

When he found himself back in the job market, he did what any smart, resourceful person does right now.

He built a system using AI.

A 10-page “super resume” that used AI to automatically tailor a perfect application for every job posting. Every word accurate. Every role precisely matched. He was genuinely proud of it - and honestly, he should have been. It was impressive.

But it wasn’t working.

And this wasn’t some guy half-assing his job search. Jake is a former SVP of Product with 25 years of experience. Plus, he had a new house. Six kids. A family counting on him. The stakes were real, the system was airtight, and it was producing absolutely nothing. He still just applying into a black hole.

So he stopped optimizing.

One day (out of frustration), he sat down and wrote a raw, unprepared, vulnerable post on LinkedIn about how lost he felt. No frameworks, or lessons learned. Just the truth about 18 months he couldn’t seem to stop.

He didn’t even tell his wife before he hit publish.

It went mega viral worldwide. Business Insider covered it. And people reached out from all over the globe.

The most engineered version of Jake got ignored. The most human version of Jake went global.

(and if that isn't a lesson for the future of content I don't know what is)

If any of this sounds familiar - whether you’re navigating a frustrating job search or just feeling like you’re one better prompt away from everything finally clicking - this one’s worth your time.

Watch on YouTube:

Listen on Spotify:

And whenever you’re ready, here’s 3 ways I can help you increase your impact and influence in 2026.

1. Binge my best content on leading growth growth teams for free on YouTube.

2. I’ve helped 90+ growth leaders increase their impact and influence. This video outlines my exact process.

3. I’m about to open the doors to my new group coaching program. Join the waitlist here.

One day, the CEO walked over to my desk, sat down next to me, and said, “Andrew, I know what you’re doing - and I want you to stop.”

I still remember that moment vividly.

We hadn’t worked much together at that point. So it was a heart-racing moment at the time.

It looked pretty similar to this.
(except he only had 2 feet - thanks a lot nano banana)

And I had no idea what I’d done wrong.

Before I started and scaled my first growth team, I was a growth marketer focused on user acquisition.

And our CEO would occasionally Slack me fun ideas he’d heard from his startup founder buddies. Tests they’d run. Changes that had moved the needle. Channels they were scaling. And things he thought we should try.

And every single time, I said:
“Yeah, great call. Adding this to our next sprint.”

I genuinely thought I was doing the right thing. I was being helpful. I was being a team player. I was supporting the execs. And I was making my bosses boss job easier.

But he saw it a little differently.

He sat down and said: “Andrew, I really appreciate how quickly you jump on this stuff. My job is to bring growth ideas to the right person - that’s you. But your job isn’t to say yes just because I’m the CEO. Your job is to evaluate whether it’s actually the most impactful thing to do for the business - and say no when it’s not. I have bad ideas all the time.”

I remember sitting there feeling slightly embarrassed, and completely relieved.

Because I’d been saying yes to everything for years. Not just to him. To everyone. It felt like the safe move. The career-smart move. The move that kept people happy and kept me out of trouble.

What I didn’t realize was that every yes was quietly costing me.

Every yes meant something more important got delayed. Every yes meant my actual priorities got diluted. And every yes sent a signal that I didn’t have a clear point of view on what actually mattered.

Here’s what I’ve learned from coaching 90+ growth leaders since then:

The ones who build the most influence don’t say yes the fastest - or the most. They say no (when it makes sense) clearly - and explain exactly why.

“If we take this on, here’s what we’re pushing back.”

“I love this idea. It’s not the right moment - here’s what we’re focused on instead.”

“I want to make sure we’re spending our time on the thing most likely to move the needle towards our current goals. Can we revisit this next quarter?”

That’s how you build trust with a CEO. That’s how you become someone leadership actually relies on - not just someone who clears their inbox.

Saying yes got you here. Learning to say no strategically is what gets you to the next level.

This week I put together a video on the 5 prioritization skills that separate growth leaders who have real impact from the ones who stay busy.

The "saying no" piece is skill five, but honestly, it's the one that unlocks all the others.

One of my former coaching clients just launched a business Hire Overseas to help growth and marketing teams hire exceptional overseas talent - think paid ads, SEO, designers, content creators, and more.

If you're looking to scale your team in 2026, this is my first call - hireoverseas.com/value.

My guest pulled up his worst performance review mid-interview and read it out loud:

“I’ve yet to see Dan make teams greater than the sum of their parts.”

He’d been a senior leader at Reforge. Built teams at HubSpot. Sold a company before that.

Impressive resume by any measure.

And yet, the thing that made him exceptional as an individual contributor was quietly killing his team’s ability to function without him as a lead.

He jumped in when things slipped. He fixed what wasn’t done right. He held high standards by modeling them himself.

But over time, his team stopped taking risks. They waited for him to tell them what to do. To fix it. And he ended up doing more and more of the work.

Nobody told him until it was in writing.

I didn’t say anything in that moment.
Because I’ve lived a version of this myself.

I can remember reading my own annual review the night before my performance conversation.

There was a line (that’s permanently seared into my brain) about how my exec team had hoped I’d have more impact in my role.

The company had prioritized hiring more developers over staffing my team.

I was frustrated by the decision, but I understood we needed to ship more and faster. So I disagreed, and committed.

I didn’t sit around whining about it.

I scoped projects to the resources I had available vs advocating for what I really needed. I thought I was being a team player. Adjusting without complaining.

I thought that was the right thing for the company.

But the next day, sitting across from my manager, he said something that caught me off-guard:

“Your job is to pound the table for what you need. If you’re not getting it, break down 99 doors until you get through the 100th. That’s your job. Not to give up after the first no.”

My honest first reaction? I don’t want to pound the table. I just wanted to quietly do good work that spoke for itself.

But I didn’t push back. Because underneath my reaction, I knew he was right.

What I thought was being a team player was actually just playing a smaller game than the role required.

In the process I learned one of the hardest parts of growing as a leader: doing the right thing might not always feel good for you.

And the skill that earned me the role (being a great team player and adapting to changing resource constraints) was the exact skill now holding me back in it.

Dan’s version of this story is more brutal than mine.

He read the actual review out loud on the podcast. The full thing - including the presentation that got zero questions from the exec team, the manager death spiral he created without realizing it, and how he worked through all of it.

It’s this week’s episode of Growing Forward.

Watch on YouTube:

Listen on Spotify:

We can’t be the only ones who struggled. What’s your version of this?

And whenever you’re ready, here’s 3 ways I can help you increase your impact and influence in 2026.

1. Binge my best content on leading growth growth teams for free on YouTube.

2. I’ve helped 90+ growth leaders increase their impact and influence. This video outlines my exact process.

3. Apply for 1:1 coaching. I have 1 coaching spot still available in February. Click here to apply.

Mostly Directors, VPs, and Heads of - but occasionally a really ambitious senior IC too.

And I’ve noticed something that still surprises me: many really talented people get stuck at the Director level, because they focus on the wrong things.

So today, I’m sharing the exact framework I use to help leaders break through.

It’s called the Influence & Impact Map. I used it myself when I went from running marketing campaigns to leading cross-functional growth teams at two fast-growing companies. And I’ve used it with Directors, VPs, and department heads to help them move up.

We’ll cover where you might be stuck in your career, what the path ahead looks like, and the specific steps you need to take to get there.

Here’s how it works.

The Career Journey

Growing a career isn’t a straight climb.

The skills that get you from individual contributor to senior IC won’t be the ones that get you to manager or director. At each stage, your role changes. What “good” looks like changes. The way you need to share your work with others changes completely.

The journey loosely looks like this:

Team Member → You’re doing the work. Learning fast. Everything is new, exciting, overwhelming.

Senior Team Member → You’re still doing the work, but better. With more ownership and freedom to make decisions.

Player-Coach (Director at mid-size companies or department head at smaller companies) → You have your own work AND you’re managing others. You’re finally getting invited into the important rooms where big decisions are made. You have more responsibility, more influence internally.

This is one of the hardest stages. You’re overworked, under-resourced, and everything breaks because IC tactics don’t scale to teams. This is where burnout happens.

Leader → You’re setting direction and helping others be successful. The work happens through your team, not by you.

Executive → You move beyond your specific functional lane. The executive team becomes your main team. Less than 1% of workers make it here, but it’s the top of the mountain many people are aiming for.

Where People Get Stuck

Most people can make it to the player-coach level just from working hard.

From being passionate about what they’re doing and staying on top of the latest tactics and strategies. But it’s at this level that you need to change your relationship between time and effort.

To be successful at the next leadership level, it’s not about working longer or harder and being the best “doer” on your team.

It’s about finding amazing people and setting up the right systems for others to do the work. Otherwise, your career will stop here.

Regardless of your level today, the most common mistake I see is being focused on the wrong stuff for your stage.

Directors still acting like the expert on their team who does all the work. Or junior team members copying the strategic work from senior leaders at larger companies (which is also the wrong move because you’re missing all the contextual pattern matching).

You need the right playbook for the moment you’re in.

The Influence & Impact Framework

Let me walk you through the framework I use to help leaders dramatically increase their influence and impact.

(If you’re just looking for quick wins or a shortcut or a hack, this probably isn’t for you.)

Here’s why you need both impact and influence…

For a long time, the growth community was obsessed with winning. With figuring out how to grow faster, learning all the latest loops and playbooks, being the most data-driven, the most technical, the most obsessed.

But I’ve talked with a lot of folks who knew exactly how to win and still struggled to be effective, because they didn’t have influence.

They’d get stuck trying to explain their ideas to executives. They wouldn’t be able to get resources to execute their plan. Or they’d get the resources but wouldn’t know how to delegate or present their work outcomes to senior leaders.

Being right isn’t enough. Being effective isn’t enough.

You need both impact AND influence. That’s what actually moves your career forward. And when you have both, your career doesn’t just advance. It gets better. Your stakes might get higher, but you feel more focused. You’re working fewer hours. Your stress levels are hopefully going down, not ramping up.

Regardless of your current title, level, or specific ownership area - the goal is the same. Move up the ladder and increase your influence and impact.

The Three Requirements

To get there, three things must be true.

1. We have to focus on the right stuff to grow the business.

2. We need to execute really well on what we’re focused on.

3. We need to gain leverage (which looks different based on how senior you are). So that as we’re doing more stuff and becoming more senior, we’re able to level up and life gets better.

On the focus side, our job is to grow faster. On the execution side, we’re setting up an effective operating system (whether for ourselves or our teams). And to make sure we don’t get stuck at this level, we’re upgrading how we show up, make decisions, and communicate to others.

When we’re growing faster, executing really well, and showing up with more intention, work slows down again and becomes fun.

The Practical Menu (Self-Check)

This isn’t an instruction book. It’s a menu to pick and choose from based on where you’re at today.

For each item below, self-assess: Green (solid), Yellow (could improve), Red (big opportunity).

Part 1: Focus (The Goal: Grow Faster)

Find Your Main Goal

This is the single most important thing for success. Get clarity on what really matters for your role.

If you’re a marketer, that might be bringing in new users. If you’re a product manager, that might be keeping users active. If you’re a leader, that might be getting people to convert from free users to paying customers. If you’re an executive, that could be the overall revenue growth rate.

Question: If we zoomed all the way out and fast-forwarded one year into the future and you got a massive raise and promotion, what’s the main number/outcome you were able to improve?

Self-assess yourself (green, yellow, or red) based on your ability to clearly answer that.

Map Out How the Business Works

Create a visual map of all the things (steps customers take or important customer groups) that impact your main goal. Then create a spreadsheet version so you can compare your actual numbers to what they should be and figure out where you can make the biggest difference. Basically, which areas are doing well or poorly.

Figure Out What to Work On

You need to figure out how to organize all the crazy ideas swirling around your head about ways you could improve your main goal into a clear plan. I like to use a template to rank your ideas and another to organize and explain your strategy to other people who need to understand your plan.

Part 2: Execution (The Goal: Set Up a System)

Get the Right Resources

If you’re a team member, this might be tools, data, or technology. If you’re at the player-coach or leadership level, this might look like budget, hiring, and team structure.

Build the Right Dashboard(s)

You know that main goal that everything connects to, but that’s an outcome. You need insight into the right inputs and early signs to prove your work is valuable and fix things before you get too far along.

Set Rules of Engagement with Other Teams

To be successful, we need to work well with other teams. Specifically with marketing, product, and sales (if that applies) so that we’re not stepping on each other’s toes and we’re able to move quickly.

Execute Like the Top 1%

For many of us, this will include designing and documenting tests. If you’re a marketer, this might include building landing pages. If you’re a product manager, this might be designing onboarding flows. But this is the actual “doing” part of the job. Whether you’re doing it yourself or through a team.

We need to know what “good” looks like and hold ourselves or our team to that standard.

Self-assess yourself here. And as you do, I think this is where many of the folks I coach think the core part of their job is. But in reality, this is just one piece of the overall puzzle.

If you’re able to do those things (get the right resources, put together the right dashboards, set rules with other teams, and execute really well), and maybe document all that and turn it into a manual, you should be executing at a very high level.

But it’s not enough to know what to do and get it done.

That gives us impact for sure. We can become a great team member and player-coach by getting really good at these skills. But if we want influence, we’re going to need more. We need to get leverage in other ways.

Part 3: Leverage (The Goal: Gain More Influence)

Many smart, talented people just aren’t sure how to gain more leverage. It tends to be something we’re not taught. Or at least, it’s hard to learn in school. It usually happens in painful moments.

If we want to gain more leverage, there are a few options.

Enable Other Teams

A strong growth leader should be a chief learning and sharing officer. In practice, this looks like:

1. Learning a lot of stuff (which if you’re doing the rest of the things here, you should be).

2. Sharing what you learn in ways that help other teams.

A leader must be sharing on a consistent basis. That visibility (and repetition) is an important influence tool.

The way we share also matters. I’m sure you can picture times you’ve seen folks sharing updates that look like they’re just trying to get attention, versus others who do an excellent job sharing decisions and lessons (not updates).

Delegate and Manage Others

This is your ability to get great work done by managing people instead of managing the tasks yourself. It also includes your ability to run meetings, help people learn and work together, and improve how things work.

Becoming a great manager doesn’t happen by accident.

It’s a skill you need to learn, practice, have strategies for, and get repetitions on.

Communicate to “Non-Natives”

The ability to translate your ideas and work for people who aren’t experts in your capability is super important. Once you get to the Director level and above, your main team becomes the other leaders. So you’ll spend less time talking about your work to other people like you and more time translating it into business results everyone can understand.

That’s hard and different. Even the idea of a summary memo for executives was new to me.

What To Do With Your Assessment

Look at your reds and yellows. Pick the THREE that would move the needle most.

Not sure which three? Here’s a cheat sheet:

• If you’re an IC or Senior IC → Focus on Part 1 (Focus) first

• If you’re a Director/Player-Coach → Focus on Part 3 (Leverage) first

• If you’re stuck getting promoted and not sure why → Pick one from each section

Now you’ve got your roadmap.

Start Here Tomorrow

Pick one thing from your reds:

If you picked a “Focus” item: Block 2 hours this week to map your growth model on paper. Just boxes and arrows showing what impacts what.

If you picked an “Execution” item: Schedule 30 minutes with one other team lead to define where your work overlaps - and who should be involved when that overlap happens. Write it down.

If you picked a “Leverage” item: Send one update this week to someone outside your immediate team. Share a decision you made and why.

Don’t try to fix everything. Fix one thing.

Where You Are Right Now

You’ve now got a map of what it takes to level up.

If you’re serious about making that jump to the next level, you’ve got the roadmap. Behind each one of those reds and yellows are specific tools, playbooks, and systems you can start using tomorrow.

Some people prefer to figure this out on their own. Others get there faster with someone who’s been through it, can spot the blind spots, and knows which moves actually matter at each level. Someone to pressure-test your ideas, give you honest feedback, and help you avoid the time-wasting detours.

If having that kind of support sounds helpful, head to my coaching page.

We can jump on a call and figure out if working together makes sense. Or DM me “COACHING” on LinkedIn and I’ll send the link.

And if you’d rather run with this on your own, that’s great too. I hope this framework gives you what you need.

…

(originally published on delivering value)

One of the most impactful growth bets of my career was putting a lightweight, interactive demo of the product directly on the website.

I did this at both Wistia and Postscript, and it consistently drove higher engagement and better-quality signups than any feature page redesign we tried.

That pattern is now playing out at scale: interactive demo usage grew 50%, top demos are seeing 56% engagement rates. Navattic analyzed 40,000 demos to publish their 2026 State of the Interactive Demo report.

Read it here (ungated)

When I started my last Head of Growth role, I was super excited on the outside - and quietly stressing inside.

I wasn’t new to growth.

I’d started a scaled a growth team already. But this was a new company. Which meant new execs, new culture, and a clean slate.

I desperately wanted to get some W’s on the board fast, to prove they hired the right guy. But I also didn’t want to come in too hot, and step on any cultural landmines I didn’t yet see.

Nobody teaches you how to navigate those first 90 days.

And it's especially hard in growth, because most new growth leads report to someone who hasn't done their job before. So they can't guide the right operating systems, toolset, and kpis.

Most growth leads are left to “figure it out” - while feeling the pressure of everyone around them watching.

That’s why I loved my recent conversation with Jay Desai, who just joined Navattic as their Growth Lead.

Instead of jumping straight into execution, we slowed down and talked through his plan.

- what growth actually means, in this moment, at Navattic
- where he could get some early wins
- how to avoid the most common traps
- how to balance learning, trust-building, and building momentum

And we talked about using these early days to set yourself up for success 6 and 12 months down the road.

I’m currently coaching 14 different growth leads, and 4 are currently looking for new jobs (maybe you are too,) so this convo felt especially timely.

Catch our entire conversation on YouTube:

Or, listen on Spotify:

And whenever you’re ready, here’s 3 ways I can help you increase your impact and influence in 2026.

1. Binge my best content on leading growth growth teams for free on YouTube.

2. Swipe my entire growth operating system. You have a few weeks left to buy this program in it’s current form before I close it and the price goes up.

3. Apply for 1:1 coaching. I have 1 coaching spot available this february. Click here to apply.

   
   

The key word here is “principles.”

Because copying another brands tactics or playbooks is usually not a winning formula. There’s usually a lot of important context that influences if a popular tactic is successful. Tactics aren’t plug and play.

So, if you can learn the psychological principles - and when they’re most effective, you can create your own churn saving playbook.

So let’s get into it.

(and if you prefer a video version of this post - I just published a YouTube video doing a deeper dive below)

The only reason I found this flow was because I almost canceled my Canva subscription. I’m finding myself using Nano Banana a lot more these days, and figured I’d could save a few bucks by downgrading to Canva’s free plan.

In the process, I stumbled onto a masterclass about how one of the biggest PLG brands on the planet saves users from cancelling.

Because instead of the usual dull confirmation screen, Canva showed me a list of exactly how I was using the pro plan - and how many times.

Premium elements used 114 times. Background remover used 102 times. Magic Eraser used 22 times.

I paused.

Because I hadn’t realized I was using this stuff so frequently. And I wondered if I actually still needed it.

Churn Does Not Start at Cancellation

It is the final step in a long decision-making process that started weeks or months earlier.

The signs are almost always there if you know where to look.

Users stop logging in. They stop completing key actions. And stop engaging in a meaningful way. Those signals show up clearly in product data and in your CRM.

But most PLG teams ignore them.

Instead, they obsess over acquisition, onboarding, and free-to-paid conversion.

They spend enormous time and money getting users in the door. Then, after they’ve acquired an active user, they largely give up. Which is wild, because at scale, churn becomes one of the biggest growth levers in the business.

Still, even if cancellation is late in the game, it matters.

It is your last clear chance to remind someone why they paid you in the first place. And it’s your last chance to re-engage a user before they downgrade.

The Wrong Way to Reduce Churn

Many companies try to “save” users in all the wrong ways.

They add friction.
They hide the cancel button.
They force users to call support, submit tickets, or jump through hoops.

Gyms are famous for these dark UX patterns. I currently belong to two gyms, because Planet Fitness won’t let me cancel my plan online, over the phone, or using their app. Instead, I have to physically drive to the gym and cancel in person. What a pain in the ass.

It works for sure, but it damages trust.

It creates a bad brand experience that users remember (and write about on their Substack).

The better approach is clarity.

Does This Actually Work?

That was the question I had too.

So I asked my friends at Churnkey if they could share some data on different cancellation approaches - and their impact on churn.

(this isn’t a sponsored post, but Churnkey hooked up some proprietary data here - so if you do want help reducing churn, check ‘em out)

They aggregated churn data across their entire customer base - and the results are hard to ignore.

Here are four patterns that consistently reduce churn (and by how much).

1. Loss aversion

When users are clearly shown what they will lose, like the features they use or credits they haven’t consumed, over 55 percent abandon the cancellation flow immediately.

More than half simply stop and keep their plan.

2. Special offers

Targeted offers like a pause, a temporary discount, or plan flexibility save about 53% percent of users who see them.

That’s way more than I anticipated.

3. Surveys

Simply asking why someone wants to cancel saves roughly 30 percent of users at that step.

One out of three accounts pauses long enough to reconsider.

4. Double opt-out

A clear “Are you sure?” step saves about 10 percent more users from churning. Which feels small, until you stack it with everything else.

Stacked together, these patterns can be pretty impactful!

What Canva Actually Does

Canva stacks these ideas with intent.

The first thing you see is an offer to pause.

If you continue, you see your specific usage data.

Not generic features included on your plan. Your behavior based on what’s on your plan.

If you still continue, you’re asked why.

A simple survey (sometimes followed by another offer depending on your selection here.)

Nothing here feels sneaky. Nothing feels confusing. There’s no dark UX patterns.

It is direct, respectful, and (based on the data we just explored) effective.

Why This Works Psychologically

Several simple psychological forces are doing the heavy lifting.

1. Motivated reasoning.

Most users arrive at cancellation with a story already formed.
“I do not use this enough.” “It is not worth the money.” “I should cancel.”

Usage data interrupts that story.

2. Personalization.

This is not generic marketing copy written for everyone.
It is about you, your plan, and your behavior.

Personalized messages are harder to ignore and more emotionally sticky.

4. Endowment effect.

Once users see their usage, ownership kicks in.
This is my plan. These are my tools. I rely on this more than I realized.

5. Loss aversion.

Once ownership is established, losing something hurts more.That pain is what stops people mid-cancellation.

These 5 things aren’t new psychology.

We’ve learned these are powerful tools when applied in other areas of our growth model. Most companies already use these in acquisition, onboarding, and pricing.

It makes sense to apply them across the entire customer journey - including the cancellation experience.

The Real Lesson Most Teams Miss

The lesson here not “copy the Canva flow to save users from churning.”

The lesson is to bring the same rigor to retention that you bring everywhere else.

Segmentation.
Personalization.
Experimentation.
Value framing.

Most cancellation flows look like afterthoughts. They are generic. Untested. Unpersonalized. And they leave enormous value on the table

How to Apply This Without Copying Canva

Here is a simple way to start building your own cancellation eperience.

First, collect real churn reasons.

Use open-ended surveys or emails.

Second, analyze the raw response data.

Find the top two or three reasons users leave.
That is where the leverage lives.

Third, build “recipes” for each reason.

If users say they do not use the product enough, show their usage data.
If they say it is too expensive, suggest pauses or discounts.
If they say features are missing, communicate what is coming.

Fourth, stack these steps intentionally.

Order matters.
Sequencing matters.

You already know these techniques work.
You just have not been applying them to cancellation.

And if you lead the team focused on retention or growth and want to increase your impact and influence in your role, I have one spot opening up in my one-on-one coaching roster this February.

If you’re interested, you can set up a call with me and apply here.

Navattic just made it way easier to launch interactive product demos!

Their AI storyboard tool builds your demo for you, and Demo Centers let you showcase personalized flows that match each prospect’s brand - no designers needed.

Try it for free

One of the hardest stretches of my career was when I had learned all the tactical skills, but on the inside... I’d lost my confidence.

On paper, things looked fine. But inside, something felt off.

That is a brutal place to work from.

Especially if you’re in a leadership role.

And it’s why this conversation stuck with me.

So let me paint a picture.

You interview for your dream role.

It goes multiple rounds and you make it to the final stage. They eliminate every other candidate. It’s basically you… or nobody.

And they choose nobody.

Annoying. But it happens, right?!

Then a year later, the CEO reaches out to invite you to interview again. You figure, “they wouldn’t have asked me if they weren’t really interested.” And you go through four more rounds of interviews.

The recruiter says, “Expect good news on Monday.” And you can’t help but get excited.

But then...

Monday turns into Tuesday.
Tuesday turns into Wednesday.

And then, they pass again.

That happened to my guest this week.

Scott McNeely is a multi-time VP of Product.

From the outside, he looks unshakably confident.

In our conversation, he shares how this moment rattled him - and what he did so it didn’t follow him into the next chapter of his career.

We also talk about:

• What to do when confidence drops but skills haven’t

• Why “best idea wins” breaks down in real orgs

• The shift from being right to being effective

This conversation is for anyone who’s quietly wondered:

Am I actually as good as I thought I was?

Catch our entire conversation on YouTube:

Or, listen on Spotify:

Are you a Product, Marketing, or Growth Leader looking to increase your impact and influence in 2026?

Two ways I can help:

Sign-up for the Growth Operating System (before I close it)

I’m about to turn this self-guided system into a group coaching experience. You have a few weeks left to buy this program in it’s current form before I close it and the price goes up.
→ Sign up for the Growth Operating System

Apply for a 1:1 Coaching Spot

I coach a small group of experienced Directors/ VPs of Growth who want to break through plateaus - mastering growth strategy, operating system, communication, and inner-game - so you can earn your seat at the leadership table.

→Apply for a 1:1 Coaching Spot

My podcast, formerly known as Delivering Value with Andrew Capland, is now called Growing Forward!

It’s a small difference in words, but a huge difference in meaning.

I figured I’d share how I got here, because the process mirrors the exact kind of career moments this show now exists to explore.

(And if you haven’t already, I hope you’ll subscribe: YouTube, Spotify, Apple)

The Name I Chose Before I Knew What I Was Building

When I first launched the show, I had no idea what to call it.

I knew that I didn’t want to name it The Andrew Capland show, or something along those lines.

As flattering as that would be, I didn’t want the show to feel like it revolved around me. And honestly, I wasn’t sure my ego could handle it if The Andrew Capland Show didn’t take off.

I also didn’t want the word “growth” in the title.

Coming from the growth world, that word is everywhere - companies, newsletters, podcasts, frameworks, etc. This show was (and is) a creative outlet for me. And “growth” felt a little too on the nose.

So instead of overthinking it, I defaulted to action. I named the show after my coaching business: Delivering Value.

Those words have always been a mantra for my career.

Because I’ve always felt that if I focused on delivering value to users - everything else (the KPIs I was accountable for and my career progression) would take care of itself. And that has mostly been true.

At the time, calling it the Delivering Value Podcast was the right call.

It got me moving. It gave me room to experiment. And it didn’t box me into a specific premise before I understood what the show could become.

By most external measures, the podcast was doing well.

Since launching - we have slowly attracted over 1200 subs.

Downloads have been solid. The guests are sharing meaningful stories. And feedback from listeners was encouraging. Everything has been going okay.

But I felt like I was working way too hard - for the show growth I was seeing.

My gut told me that something was off. When I asked listeners what the show was about, I got a wide range of answers.

Some people said it was about growth. Others said leadership. Some said career advice, mindset, executive communication, or tactics.

None of those answers were wrong. But taken together, they pointed to a deeper issue: the show didn’t have a clear position in the listener’s mind.

That realization is what pushed me to get some help.

The Question That Changed Everything

A few months ago, I started working with a podcast coach.

Someone who’s solved these problems before and could help me shortcut this process.

My instinct was to focus on execution - asking better questions, writing sharper hooks, crafting stronger titles, designing more compelling thumbnails.

(if you’ve been following along, you’ve probably seen me experiment with all of that)

But my coach kept pulling me back to a more fundamental question:

“Why does someone choose to press play on your show instead of doing literally anything else with their time?”

At first, I resisted that question. It felt abstract. I wanted to solve concrete problems.

But once I sat with it, the answer became clearer than I expected.

People listen for two reasons.

The First Reason: They’re Trying to Move Their Careers Forward

Most people who listen to this show already know how to do growth work.

They’re competent. Experienced. Often top performers. In many cases, they’ve already mastered the growth playbooks that helped them get promoted in the first place.

But somewhere along the way, their job changed.

They started to realize there’s a difference between being an expert - and being effective.

Effectiveness requires a different skillset.

One that has less to do with execution and more to do with influence, judgment, communication, and trust. These are the skills that get you invited “into the room” where decisions are made. And more importantly, they’re the skills that help you keep your seat once you’re there.

What surprised me, both as a coach and in my own career, is how few people are explicitly taught this transition. We assume it happens naturally. Often, it doesn’t.

The Second Reason: They’re Trying to Make Sense of Hard Moments

The other reason people listen has less to do with ambition and more to do with reassurance.

Most of the career content online celebrates wins.

My friend (and co-founder of Camp Solo) John Bonini calls this, “winning in public.”

It looks like sharing your promotions, playbooks, and breakthroughs. On social media, we’re constantly surrounded by examples of people who seem to be doing everything right.

We don’t usually get to see the mistakes.

The missteps, the feedback that stings, the goals that get missed, the moments where burnout or imposter syndrome creep in.

When those things happen to us, we tend to internalize them. We assume they’re a signal that we’re not cut out for this, or that we’re in the wrong role, or that we somehow messed up beyond repair.

The truth is simpler and harder at the same time: these moments are normal. But they often don’t come with a clean playbook.

You can’t fix them by working longer hours or trying harder in the same ways that used to work earlier in your career.

From Top Performer to Top-Tier Leader

Once those two insights clicked, the rest of the show came into focus.

Growing Forward is for people making the transition from being a top performer to becoming a top-tier leader.

That transition is more jarring than most people expect. Getting the title doesn’t automatically give you influence. Being great at doing the work doesn’t always translate into being great at leading others who do the work.

Without developing a new set of skills, careers tend to stall in predictable ways.

Some people plateau as high-performing ICs. Others become burned-out player-coaches who never quite break through to the next level.

There’s nothing wrong with any of those outcomes. The problem is when they happen unintentionally.

Why These Skills Are Learned the Hard Way

Even when we know we need to work on our leadership, communication, or judgment skills - they’re hard to learn.

You don’t really learn them from a book. And you almost never learn them when things are going smoothly.

You learn them when something goes wrong.

When feedback lands harder than expected. When you miss a goal. When the old version of you (the one that got you here) starts holding you back.

Those moments force change. They reshape how you see yourself and how you show up.

That’s what this show is about.

Every episode slows those moments down. We don’t just talk about what happened or how it felt. We dig into how people changed because of those experiences, or in spite of them, so that when you face similar moments in your own career, you’re not walking in blind.

Why the Name Growing Forward Finally Fit

I debated a lot of names. Dozens of them.

For a long time, I thought the show might be called Failing Forward. But the more I sat with that idea, the more it felt off.

Because this isn’t a show about failure.

It’s about growth - but not SaaS growth.

At least not directly. Instead, it’s about personal and professional growth - from people who are leading growth teams.

(heady I know)

About what people become because of hard moments. About growing through discomfort, growing because of adversity, and sometimes growing in spite of it.

You’re not just failing forward. You’re growing forward.

Once that clicked, everything else followed.

A Final Thought - and an Invitation

You might have noticed the new artwork too. It’s a little raw. A little gritty. Intentionally unpolished.

The cassette tape on the cover isn’t random.

Many of us grew up replaying old tapes - listening again, noticing something new each time. As a skateboarder in my teens, I did this a ton.

And that’s exactly what we’re doing with this show.

We’re replaying tough moments from real careers, slowing them down, and pulling out what actually matters.

As the show continues to evolve, I want it to evolve with you.

I’d love to hear from you. What moments are you navigating right now? What topics resonate most? What kinds of stories would be most helpful at this stage of your career?

I read and respond to every message, and I’m actively shaping future episodes based on what you share.

Thanks for being here. And welcome to the next chapter of Growing Forward.

As of today (Jan 12th, 2025) I have officially become my longest employer. That’s pretty wild!

For most of that time, I grew the business in a linear way:

• improve my coaching

• raise prices a little

• take on more clients

It worked well, until I hit a capacity ceiling in 2025.

My calendar is full, my energy is finite, and I have two young kids at home who deserve the best of me, not whatever is left after a week of Zoom calls. And when you reach that point, you face a choice: keep pushing the same model harder… or rethink the entire system.

I realized it was time to rethink things.

So I’m reshaping my business in 2026 because I want more impact - without more units of work.

A few months ago, I sat down and asked myself what the next chapter of this business should look like. I realized that I want to serve more people, build something bigger, and create work that aligns with the season of life I’m in right now.

The next evolution is going to have two important building blocks.

1. The podcast

2. A group coaching program

In this piece, I’ll focus on the podcast (though I’ll share a deep-dive into how I’m thinking about group coaching later in Q1).

How the Podcast Started

I started the show without much of a plan.

Eighteen months ago, I filmed the first episode on pure instinct. I had no podcast gear and no interview skills.

But I knew two things:

1. I love story-driven conversations

2. I wanted to humanize the people in our industry who look flawless on paper (or Linkedin) - Heads of growth, heads of product, CMOs - people who moved up quickly and never seemed to make the mistakes I kept making in my own career journey.

Early in my own career, I had tons of anxiety, self-doubt, and burnout moments.

But nobody talked about that stuff publicly.

I wanted to understand if I was the only person who struggled with these. So the podcast became my way of finding out.

(And over 80+ interviews, I learned that they absolutely do.)

What Surprised Me

Some surprising things worked better than I expected.

The first, is how open guests became.

When we finished recording, every guest said (some flavor of), “I’ve never shared that publicly before,” which is cool to hear.

More importantly, that honesty created connection with listeners. I started getting messages saying the show helped them feel less alone, or helped them get through a brutal season of work.

One coaching client even told me they were experiencing such extreme burnout that it caused hair loss (they pulled off their hat to show me!) - and that the show made them feel understood for the first time in months.

And also reinforced something I’ve always believed: the human growth stories (vs the company growth stories) are what’s most important.

And the audience growth, while modest, reflects that. The show has over 1,200 subscribers with strong retention, which feels meaningful given how hard growing a podcast is.

But for every win, there were more cracks that needed fixing.

What Needed to Change

The show didn’t have a clear premise - and it caught up with me.

Growing a podcast is brutally hard.

• There’s no discovery on Apple or Spotify.

• LinkedIn hates external links.

• And, remote-interview clips, don’t stop the scroll on short-form platforms.

But my biggest problem was lack of clarity.

When I interviewed five listeners and asked how they’d describe the show, I got five entirely different answers (and none matched my vision).

I also kept hearing that people wanted to hear more of my perspective.

But I wasn’t sure how solo-episodes fit into the interview show I had created. So I held back.

The Leadership Thread Running Through Everything

The best episodes all shared the same DNA.

• They humanized the guest

• Normalized the hard moments

• And highlighted the lessons gained from them

Those three elements created the episodes people shared the most, replayed the most, and emailed me about.

And they represent something I see every day in my coaching practice: at a certain point in your career, your success stops being about tactics.

It becomes about managing yourself through pressure, uncertainty, tough feedback, and the moments where your confidence wobbles. Those are inner-game skills. They’re hard to learn from books. They’re painful to learn through mistakes. And they become transformative when you learn them through someone else’s experience.

That’s the direction the show needs to go.

Where the Podcast Is Going Next

So here’s where the podcast is heading next.

The premise is getting sharper. The structure is changing. I’m adding solo episodes. And I’m rebuilding the show to focus on the inner game of growth leadership - the part of the job nobody trains us for, but everyone eventually struggles with.

Stories will stay at the center, but they’ll sit alongside more practical lessons you can apply in your own leadership journey.

And the show is getting a rebrand:

• new name

• new artwork

• new positioning

• new publishing cadence.

It’s a full rebuild. My hope is the podcast will become one of the main pillars of the business because it will allow me reach more people and teach at scale.

This shift is about creating leverage without losing the quality or depth that makes the work meaningful.

Later this week, I’ll share the full reveal.

I’ll walk through the new name, artwork, structure, and direction - and share how it all connects to the mission that’s been shaping my work from day one.

I’m building this next version of the business to help more people navigate leadership with less stress, more clarity, and more confidence.

I’m excited about what’s coming. I’m excited about what this unlocks. And if you’ve been following my work, I hope you stick with me - because this next chapter is going to be a big one.

And if you haven’t already I hope you’ll subscribe on whatever platform(s) you use most.

YouTube
Spotify
Apple

More soon.

But depending on your environment…

Early startups.
Mid-stage scale-ups.
Late-stage, well-funded businesses.

It’s a completely different job.

This is why the role turns over so often.

And why so many smart, capable growth leaders end up frustrated, burned out, or quietly pushed out.

Most people apply for Head of Growth roles without really understanding what they’re signing up for.

And most founders hire for the title they want - not the work they actually need done.

So in this post, I’ll do my best to clear this up, based on my experience leading growth at Wistia and Postscript - and coaching 85+ other growth leaders.

Here’s what the Head of Growth actually does at:

• $1M ARR

• $10M ARR

• $100M ARR

And why getting this wrong can stall, or even derail, your career.

First: Why “Head of Growth” Is a Tricky Title

On paper, the role sounds simple.

Drive growth.
Run experiments.
Build systems.
Scale the business.

But growth isn’t a fixed function. It changes as the company changes.

What a company needs from growth at $1M ARR is nothing like what it needs at $100M ARR.

If you operate like a $100M growth leader inside a $1M company, you’ll fail fast.

If you operate like a scrappy early-stage builder inside a $100M company, you’ll stall just as quickly.

Stage matters more than title.

Let’s break it down.

Head of Growth at $1M ARR: You’re a Builder, Not a Leader

Here’s the part most founders don’t want to hear:

At $1M ARR, you don’t really need a Head of Growth.

What you need is someone who can do growth work.

Because at this stage, the company is still figuring out:

• Do we even have a real business?

• Who are our best customers?

• Why do people sign up - and why don’t they?

• Which acquisition channels might work?

• Is our early data actually meaningful?

You’re not ready to scale, because you’re still building the foundations.

What the Job Actually Is

Despite the title, this is an individual contributor role.

There’s almost nothing to “lead” or be “head of” yet:

• Tiny team

• Founders deeply involved

• No reliable testing volume

• No real systems to scale

• Limited access to data

The job is about shipping, learning, and iterating - fast.

How Your Time Is Spent

A strong growth leader at $1M ARR usually spends:

• ~80% shipping scrappy, unscalable programs, projects, bets, and (maybe some) experiments

• ~10% talking to customers

• ~10% helping wherever needed

This is not a dashboard job.
It’s not meeting-heavy.
And it’s definitely not a systems-design role.

What Success Looks Like

Success here doesn’t mean “scaling growth.”

It means:

• Learning why users buy

• Identifying 1–2 acquisition channels that might scale

• Understanding friction in activation and conversion

• Moving fast without overthinking polish

Who Thrives at This Stage

• Scrappy generalists

• Builders who like chaos

• People comfortable without clear answers

• Strong ICs with range across marketing, UX, copy, and analytics

Why This Role Fails So Often

Most failures at this stage come down to misalignment:

• Hiring a senior leader when you need a builder

• Expecting systems before the growth model exists

• Spreading effort across too many channels

• Optimizing for polish instead of speed

The title says Head of Growth.
But the job is really elastic generalist.

(by the way, if this feels familiar: I put together a free Growth Leadership Toolkit that breaks down the systems I teach at each stage - from early discovery to scaling teams. You can grab it here.)

Head of Growth at $10M ARR: The Player-Coach Phase

Once a company hits roughly $7–12M ARR, things finally start to click.

Now you:

• Have real customers

• Have meaningful volume

• Know what’s working (at least a little)

• Can start to scale intentionally

This is where the real Head of Growth role begins.

The Big Shift

The job moves from figuring out what works to making it work better.

Your focus becomes:

• Turning scrappy wins into repeatable processes

• Strengthening activation, retention, and monetization

• Building a growth operating system

• Creating leverage through people and process

Leadership Persona

This is the classic player-coach stage.

Typically, you have:

• A small team (2–5 people)

• Some engineering and design support

• A real (but still constrained) budget

• Enough volume to test with confidence

How Your Time Is Spent

A common breakdown looks like:

• ~50% execution (you’re still running experiments)

• ~20% strategy and planning

• ~20% cross-functional collaboration

• ~10% people leadership

You’re still doing the work.
But you’re also starting to lead your growth team.

What Success Looks Like

• Predictable output from 1–2 core acquisition channels

• Early definitions of new user activation and “good” usage

• A reliable a/b testing cadence

• Early forecasting confidence

• Less chaos, more focus

Skills That Start to Matter

This is where systems thinking becomes non-negotiable:

• Prioritization frameworks

• Roadmapping and sequencing

• Documented decision-making

• Clear KPIs and ownership

• Strong cross-functional communication

You’re probably still the best IC on the team.
But your leverage now comes from designing the machine - not being the machine.

Where People Get Stuck

Common breakdowns at this stage:

• Trying to do everything yourself

• Avoiding process in the name of speed

• Running too many experiments at once

• Struggling to align product and engineering

• Lacking a clear strategic narrative

This stage is the proving ground.

It determines whether you grow into a VP-level leader - or get someone hired above you.

This is the stage where most growth leaders get stuck.

(and if that’s you, take a peek at my Growth OS program which is designed to solve this exact challenge)

Head of Growth at $100M ARR: Executive, Not Operator

At $100M ARR, the job changes again - and this is where many growth leaders hit a ceiling.

You are no longer managing experiments and the day to day.

You are managing the growth model and the growth capability.

The Core Shift

This is no longer a “growth tactics” role.

It’s an executive and leadership role.

Your focus shifts to:

• Forecast accuracy

• Annual and quarterly planning

• Cross-functional alignment

• Resource allocation

• Organizational design

What the Team Looks Like

At this stage, you usually have:

• Multiple growth pods

• Dedicated product growth and growth marketing teams

• Embedded design, BI, and engineering

• Real budgets and real expectations

How Your Time Is Spent

A typical breakdown:

• ~50% leadership alignment and decision-making

• ~30% strategic planning and modeling

• ~20% people management

If you’re still doing meaningful IC work here, something’s off:

• The team

• The systems

• Or both

What Success Looks Like

• Accurate forecasting

• Improving LTV:CAC ratios

• Scaling without losing efficiency

• Strong cross-functional trust

• Clear strategies executives can repeat

Skills That Actually Matter Now

This is where the job stops being about growth tactics.

The real differentiators are:

• Executive communication

• Strategic clarity

• Judgment under pressure

• Coaching and delegation

• Translating complexity for non-growth audiences

Growth becomes your second team.

The executive team becomes your first team.

Why People Stall Here

The most common reasons:

• Poor communication

• Missed forecasts

• Hanging onto “hero” habits from earlier stages

• Inability to scale through others

The leaders who thrive here are calm, structured, high-judgment system designers.

Same Title. Completely Different Jobs.

At:

• $1M ARR → You’re a builder

• $10M ARR → You’re a player-coach

• $100M ARR → You’re an executive system designer

The title doesn’t change.
The job does.

If you align your skills to the stage, your career can accelerate faster than almost any role in tech.

If you don’t, you’ll probably be job-hunting within a few months.

If you’re in the middle of one of these transitions - or feel like your role expectations don’t match your company’s stage - this is exactly the work I do with growth leaders. I coach Directors, VPs, and Heads of Growth to increase clarity, influence, and impact without burning out.

You can learn more about working together here.

…

(this post originally published on deliveringvalue.co)

This is my fourth time doing this - and my fourth year in business as a solopreneur.

I originally started writing these for myself. I’m in a season of life where I’m doing a lot of reflection and planning, because I don’t think you build an amazing life by accident. Like anything, you have to think about exactly what you want - and then use that vision to guide your actions. So I carve out time each year to look at where I’m at, what’s working, what isn’t, and what I want to lean into next.

In the beginning, I only shared these with my family and a few close friends.

Then I sent one to a couple of coaching clients. I was embarrassed to spend so much time talking about myself. But I quickly realized nobody was judging me - and that people enjoyed learning about my life. So I started sharing it more broadly.

Somehow it turned into an annual ritual that I genuinely look forward to.

And every year I get messages from people who say it helped them reflect on their own lives and careers, which is also really cool and fulfilling.

Especially now, when it feels like we’re all spending more time talking to robots and agents and less time connecting - it feels even more important to share something personal and human.

So without further ado, here’s my 2025 annual review.

What went well

In terms of stuff that went well, I’m proud of a few things.

The big-picture story of 2025 is that I made 18% more top-line revenue than last year.

But more importantly, this felt like a year where I invested in some new things that should tee-up an amazing 2026 (more on that below).

I have a long-term goal to build a more scalable business. Right now I have a great services business - which, if you’ve ever run one, you know basically feels like a job, not a scalable machine. So I spent a lot of this year laying the groundwork for what a truly scalable coaching business could look like.

Launched a new program

The biggest step in that direction was launching a new scalable program, The Growth Operating System.

I launched it over the summer and 33 people enrolled.

That’s fantastic.

But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wish it were in the hundreds by now.

If you’ve ever launched a digital program, you know how hard it is to talk about it consistently, reinforce it, and sell it. So I’m grateful for where it’s at and proud of the traction so far. And I’m going to iterate on this more next year.

Scaled the podcast

I also invested heavily in the podcast this year, for the same reason.

I love the show (and I have a very exciting announcement coming in a few weeks about it) and I can see a future where it becomes a very large piece of what I’m doing.

But like anything worth building, it needs care, iteration, and constant improvement. If you’ve been following along, you probably saw the evolution I made on the thumbnail front, trying to level-up the packaging.

We went from this

To this:

And these (which I’m still experimenting with):

I also hired a podcast coach to help me take things to the next level.

Scaling a podcast is really hard - and I’ve never done it before. When you really get into the medium, there’s so much to learn about:

From titles to thumbnail design. Episode blocking and content architecture. Not to mention how to promote the show and get guests to share interesting information.

So when I thought about ways to grow the show, I figured there were two basic paths:

1. I could try to learn all this stuff myself, implement what I’m learning, make some mistakes, and eventually figure out what works and scale the show

2. I could find other people who’ve seen what the other side of this journey looks like who could accelerate my path to get there

That’s why I hired a coach to support the growth of the show.

I’ll publish a full piece about the changes soon, but the short version is: I’m rebranding the show with a new name, new artwork, and a slightly refined concept.

I’m excited to mix in some solo episodes with the interviews to share more of my expertise, too.

Improved my business model

I’ve spent most of my career optimizing other people’s growth models - but rarely touched my own.

So in 2025, I started doing a monthly review where I stepped out of the day-to-day role of “coach and advisor” and into the role of a Head of Growth who reports to the owner of a coaching business. And through that lens, it became obvious that I was leaving a lot on the table.

I’ve been so hesitant about coming off “too salesy” that I think I’ve actually undersold my expertise and underserved the people who want to hear from me.

So I built some simple email flows, nothing fancy, helping people discover more of my content and, if they want to work with me, making that path easier.

I also updated my bottom-of-funnel collateral.

I made a short video explaining what coaching actually is, who it’s for, and how it works. And another that I send before consult calls so folks know what to expect, what the offer looks like, and what questions to bring.

Those changes worked.

My LinkedIn reach was a little down this year. But I had my busiest year for new business anyways.

This year, I had 60 consults and signed 22 new coaching clients.

My roster was essentially full the entire year.

But with a full roster, I hit the natural ceiling of a services business. With two young kiddos at home, I couldn’t sell more of my time. So to scale from here, I have two options:

1. raise my 1:1 prices.

2. build something more scalable.

A group program is in the cards for next year.

I’ll be making more investments in that direction, especially because demand continues to rise and I only have time to support so many clients.

Camp Solo

Another highlight: I launched a second business with my good friend John Bonini, Camp Solo.

This was never meant to be a business; it kind of just… happened.

John and I have chatted monthly for years as two solopreneurs comparing notes.

At some point we created a Slack Channel, invited a few other high-ambition solopreneurs, and it grew into something special.

We eventually closed the group, made it private, and started charging.

It won’t ever replace my main business, but it’s become an important part of my life -and a really fun thing to build with a close friend.

I turned 40

On the personal side, life felt good this year.

I turned 40 on December 7th, which still feels wild. But forty sounds older than I feel.

At the beginning of 2025, I set a goal to enter 40 feeling in the best shape of my adult life. For context, in 2024 we welcomed our second baby Mia. All parents know how challenging that first year is. In the process between the lack of sleep, the late-night eating, and the lack of schedule, I basically stopped going to the gym and didn’t feel my best.

So I’ve been exercising four times a week. I’ve dramatically cut down on processed foods. And in the process, I’ve lost about 7–8 pounds.

I’ve also been doing sauna sauna and cold plunge a few times a week. I know that makes me a startup-guy cliché, but with two little kids and not much sleep… it works.

I feel good.

I golfed a lot

When I started my business, I set up a four-day workweek.

I spend my Fridays refilling my cup. I usually do something physical outside like snowboarding or hiking in the winter, and golf during the warm seasons. I took a few lessons this year, lowered my handicap by three strokes, and shot an 80 - my lowest score ever. Golf is outdoors, social, and grounding.

It’s as good for my brain as it is for my body.

Coached my son’s soccer team.

I’ve always pictured being a coach to my kids at some age but I didn’t plan on doing it this early in life.

But when the town sent out an email saying they were on volunteers, I figured the universe was sending me a sign.

I coached a team of eight 4-5 year olds. Our team name was the Black Ants. Although we didn’t technically keep score, I think we had a pretty good year

(no this picture isn’t AI - I blurred everyone except Cameron and I out of respect to the other families)

Coaching kids this young is hard, but also hilarious and rewarding.

I learned quickly the real job isn’t teaching soccer; it’s making the kids feel excited to come back and play more soccer.

So I gave lots of high-fives and tried to make it as fun as possible.

What didn’t go well

There were a few tough things this year - both personally and professionally.

My grandfather passed

My grandfather passed away this summer at 97.

He lived an incredible life and stayed healthy right up until the last week. He was a huge influence on me - both personally and professionally. And we talked almost every week.

In addition to being my grandfather, he built multiple businesses, including a leather tannery, a recycling business, and Granite Links golf course - which probably explains some of my love for golf.

And as an entrepreneur, he loved reading these annual reviews, and asking about my business.

His passing sucked. I got to say goodbye and we had a meaningful conversation before he passed. But I still miss him a lot.

Here’s a picture of him meeting my daughter (his great granddaughter) last summer.

Car Accident

My wife got into a scary car accident with both kids (on the highway) this summer.

She was going 70 mph when a large flatbed truck sideswiped her car. She spun 360 degrees across three lanes of traffic and ended up on the median. Somehow no one hit her in the process. The car didn’t flip. Everyone walked away uninjured.

But getting that call, knowing what could have happened, absolutely shook me. It forced me to slow down and remember what actually matters.

Ear infection drama

The third personal challenge: Mia, who’s now 18 months, was sick constantly.

She had seven ear infections this year.

If you’re a working parent with young kids in daycare, you know how brutal that is - the fevers, the pickups, the 3–4 days home each time.

My wife and I both work full-time. When I don’t work, I don’t get paid. So we spent a lot of this year juggling, falling behind, catching up, and doing it again. It was physically and emotionally draining.

Two unpaid invoices

On the professional side, I had two clients stiff me on payments this year.

One was a coaching client who had been paying me directly (vs having their employer pay for coaching). We’d been working together for 4 months when they were laid off.

I figured that would probably impact our engagement and I wasn’t going to be surprised if they needed to pause, or maybe end things.

But I didn’t expect what actually happened.

They immediately ghosted me. They canceled our meetings, stopped responding to my emails, and never paid for the last month of coaching (that I’d already delivered).

It wasn’t a massive amount of money, but it was disappointing on a human level.

The second was an early-stage advising client who (eventually told me) they didn’t close a funding round and couldn’t pay me.

Individually, neither situation was catastrophic. But combined, it was a pretty meaningful financial hit - and as a dad working to support a young family, it stung.

What I’m focused on next year

I’m genuinely excited about 2026.

At the end of 2025, I took time to revisit the growth model for my business. What I realized is that I want to make one major investment in each layer of that model.

1. Discovery

This is how people first find me. Next year I’m going all-in on YouTube. I’ve been dabbling already, and even with very light effort, I’ve had videos do 1000+ views and reliably drive 2–3 consults per month.

I like making video, but I can’t keep doing all the editing and thumbnails myself.

It’s too time-consuming. So I’m hiring help to improve production quality and buy back my time. YouTube has massive upside for my business, and I want to lean into it.

If you haven’t already, subscribe here.

2. Engagement

People primarily find me through LinkedIn (and eventually YouTube) but email is still the best way to build a long-term relationship.

I’ve been on Substack, but honestly, I’m underwhelmed.

It’s becoming another social network, and I can see the pay-to-play writing on the wall. So I’ll probably switch platforms in 2026 - either to HubSpot, or ConvertKit.

3. Conversion & Delivery

I’m working on a scalable coaching program. I’m not sure exactly what form it will take yet - but I’m leaning towards a live group coaching program so that people can learn from me - and from each other.

That’s something that I’ve heard a lot from my existing clients is they also want to build a sense of community and belonging with each other in a safe private place.

But that’s the direction:
YouTube → Email → Scalable program → 1:1 for the right people.

That’s the model I’m building toward next year.

Anyways that’s it for this year’s reflection.

Have questions or advice for me? Let me know in the comments. Otherwise, you can follow along right here.

Or view my previous reviews below:

2022
2023
2024

Not “a tough patch,” or a sprint.

The hardest year.

And it wasn’t close.

If you felt a constant low-grade panic for most of 2025… you definitely weren’t alone.

Tech always moves fast. That’s the part a lot of us like. But this year was overwhelming. Even for experienced operators who usually love chaos, 2025 felt like trying to sprint on a treadmill that kept quietly speeding up.

AI was obviously a big part of that.

Suddenly, everyone was expected to learn a brand-new thing… while also acting like an expert at it.

Most teams I talked to had OKRs that literally said “use more AI.” Meanwhile, headcount didn’t go up. Their workload didn’t go down. And every time you opened social media, you were already behind.

Another “10x your productivity” thread.
Another “now’s the time millionaires are made” post.

For the people who did find leverage?

We just backfilled the free time with… more work. The number of “work units” went way up in 2025. Not down.

And that was all before you add in the rest of the year: layoffs, restructuring, political chaos, market whiplash… and the scary reality that product-market fit could shift at any second.

I wanted to talk to someone who wasn’t pretending they were fine.

So I sat down with my friend, Natalie Marcotullio (Head of Growth at Navattic) to talk about what 2025 actually felt like from the inside.

Natalie said the quiet part out loud:

Things might have LOOKED okay.
But they didn’t FEEL okay.

Natalie had already been riding a lot of change at Navattic.

• Her role had shifted from growth into more product marketing.

• Mid-year, the team got smaller.

• They launched a new product with a new persona.

And meanwhile, AI was warping the conversation around what “good” even looks like.

She went to conferences and heard the same message: if you’re not using it, you’re behind. Then she went out to dinners where people chatted about their favorite prompts.

Some nights, she needed to lay on the floor after dinner just to decompress.

I know it’s the end of the year - but you won’t learn any 7-step annual planning frameworks in our full conversation.

You’ll hear an honest conversation about what a challenging year can feel like from the inside.

Catch our full conversation on YouTube:

Or, listen on Spotify:

Are you a new Product, Marketing, or Growth Leader looking to level-up in 2026?

Here’s two ways you can increase your impact and influence.

Sign-up for the Growth Operating System

Stop leading your growth team Like an IC. Install the exact plug-and-play systems for leading a cross-functional growth team like an exec. Perfect for first-time growth leads who want faster execution, more wins, and a stronger reputation.
→ Sign up for the Growth Operating System

Book a 1:1 Coaching Spot

I coach a small group of experienced growth operators who want to break through plateaus - mastering growth strategy, operating system, communication, and inner-game - so you can earn your seat at the leadership table.
→ Book a 1:1 Coaching Spot

Navattic just made it way easier to launch interactive product demos!

Their AI storyboard tool builds your demo for you, and Demo Centers let you showcase personalized flows that match each prospect’s brand - no designers needed.

Try it for free

I recently interviewed a Chief Growth Officer who made a mistake big enough to put his job at risk.

This wasn’t hyperbole.

His CEO sat him down and said, “you need to fix this - or we’ll find someone who can.”

He didn’t expect to have that conversation that day. But he knew things had been breaking (all at once). And he knew the team was feeling it too.

He also knew he had a choice about what happens next.

He could hide from the mistake. Quietly start looking for a new job. Keep his head down until the dust settled. Then, leave and start over else where he had a clean slate.

Instead he paused, took a breath and realized something that altered the rest of his career:

He was in over his head - and needed help.

So he hired a coach (who I’ve also interviewed).

And first, they rebuilt his operating system from the ground up - how his team worked, how he communicated up the ladder, how he delivered feedback.

But more importantly they worked on rebuilding trust.

Becoming more predictable. More dependable for his team. And (somewhere along the way) rebuilding his confidence too.

In our convo, Luke Wallace shares the exact moment everything broke, the feedback that forced him to change, and how he rebuilt systems, trust, and team culture after a very public mistake.

He talks about the fear, the identity hit, and the inner dialogue leaders don’t usually say out loud.

And he explains why “working through the hard stuff” is a skill anyone can learn - and how it separates the good from the best.

Catch our entire conversation on YouTube:

Or, listen on Spotify:

Are you a Product, Marketing, or Growth Leader looking to increase your impact and influence?

Here’s two ways I can help:

Sign-up for the Growth Operating System

Stop leading your growth team Like an IC. Install the exact plug-and-play systems for leading a cross-functional growth team like an exec. Perfect for first-time growth leads who want faster execution, more wins, and a stronger reputation.
→ Sign up for the Growth Operating System

Book a 1:1 Coaching Spot

I coach a small group of experienced growth operators who want to break through plateaus - mastering growth strategy, operating system, communication, and inner-game - so you can earn your seat at the leadership table.

→ Book a 1:1 Coaching Spot

One reduced headcount by 20%.

The other by 25%.

And two more haven’t faced layoffs yet… but their spidey senses are tingling. They can feel a reduction coming. They don’t know when. But they can feel things shifting.

So lately, I’ve been helping everyone update their resumes.

And the best time to do that, is before you need to. You don’t need to be job hunting to tighten up your story. “Stay ready, so you don’t have to get ready,” right?

But most of the growth resumes I see all share the same problem.

They’re a list of accomplishments and results… with no context. And no narrative. So the person reading it can’t tell if you hit a base hit or actually crushed a home run.

Which is why over the past year, I have watched talented growth leaders apply to roles they were clearly qualified for and still get ignored. It is tempting to blame the competition or the economy. It is even easier to blame yourself.

In most cases, the root issue is that your resume is not helping people understand you.

Why the Old Resume Advice Doesn’t Work Anymore

For years, the standard resume writing guidance pretty straightforward: list your highlights.

That’s why every resume looked like this:

• took [thing] from A --> B

• increased conversion rate of [thing] Z%

• scaled to $XX,XXX MRR

Good stuff you should include for show for sure.

But without the context of the business (size, stage, gtm model) the reader can’t tell if those results are a single, triple, or a home run.

The Hidden Problem Inside Most Growth Resumes

Growth roles look different across companies.

A Growth Marketer inside a PLG SaaS company plays a different game than a growth PM supporting an enterprise inside sales motion.

A Head of Growth at a 40 person startup has a completely different set of responsibilities than a Growth Leader at a 2,000 person scale up.

The same title can mean five different things depending on stage, team structure, traffic volume, and GTM model.

We (the growth community) understand those distinctions because we have lived them. But the recruiter or hiring manager reading your resume probably has not. Many have never done your role. Many assume “growth” means something entirely different. And when they look at your resume without context, they are forced to guess.

That is why strong candidates keep getting overlooked.

A New Playbook for Standing Out in 2026

After working with several growth leaders on their job searches in 2025, I started testing a different way to structure their resumes.

I wanted something that made sense to humans and also played nicely with AI screening tools. I wanted a way to help reviewers understand the full picture without making them work to connect the dots. And I wanted something simple enough that you could apply it in under an hour.

What emerged from that experimentation became the CATER framework.

It provides a structured way to tell your story so that someone scanning your resume understands the game you were playing, the levers you owned, the team around you, and the results you drove. It puts everything in the right order. It reduces guesswork. It makes your experience easier to match.

Here is what each part means in practice.

How the CATER Framework Actually Works

C is Context. This is where you set the scene. In one line, you explain the size of the company, the stage of the business, the GTM model, and where your role sits in the organization. A growth role at a PLG startup is not the same as a growth role inside an enterprise environment. A job in a high volume, fast-feedback business is not the same as a job in a slower, relationship-driven one. When you spell this out, the reader finally understands the environment you operated in and the difficulty level of your work.

A is Accountability and Ownership. Accountability is the small set of KPIs you were judged on. Ownership is the part of the growth model you directly controlled. Together, these explain the scoreboard you played on and the levers you had available. Once people understand this, your results make sense.

T is Team. Every growth role changes depending on the team behind you. If you were a team of one, people can assume you were deep in the work. If you led a small pod, they can assume you were a player coach. If you managed a larger function, they can assume your job centered around hiring, alignment, and influence. One bullet here clears up all that interpretation.

E and R are Execution and Results. This is where you show what you built and what happened. The structure is simple. System you owned, followed by the specific outcome it produced. These bullets are short, clear, and tied directly to the earlier context. And because you have already explained your environment and your ownership, the reader can finally understand the meaning of the results.

This order mirrors how strong hiring managers think.

What To Do Next

If you want to apply this for yourself, start with your most recent role.

Open a blank doc. Then write one bullet for each CATER section. Keep the language simple. Anchor everything in the reality of your environment. Then add three or four clean execution and result bullets underneath. Your goal is not to include every detail. Your goal is to make your story easy to understand.

Here’s an example of what this looks like:

To make this even easier, I created a resume template that follows the entire CATER structure (it’s free and ungated)

It includes space for each section plus examples for different types of growth roles. You can download it and use it as your starting point so you are not staring at a blank page.

If you’re updating your resume, this is also a great moment to tighten the way you operate as a leader.

Two resources that can help you do that:

1) Growth OS - my plug-and-play operating system for running a cross-functional growth team without burning out.

https://deliveringvalue.co/growth-operating-system

2) 1:1 Coaching - for growth leads who want clarity, more impact, and a leadership system that scales with them.

https://deliveringvalue.co/coaching

…

(this post originally published on: https://deliveringvalue.co/growth-essays/how-to-write-your-head-of-growth-resume)

Navattic just made it way easier to launch interactive product demos!

Their AI storyboard tool builds your demo for you, and Demo Centers let you showcase personalized flows that match each prospect’s brand - no designers needed.

Try it for free

This Growth PM thought he was having a great week.

But then, he was sharing his strategy in front of 80 coworkers when a senior exec interrupted the presentation and said:

“I don’t think you know what you’re doing... Maybe it’s your accent.”

The comment caught him completely off guard.

Because up until that moment, he thought things were going well.

His team had just taken a new product to market and won an industry award weeks earlier. He had strong relationships across the org and positive feedback from every other leader he worked with.

He genuinely felt like he was finding his stride.

And then... this.

You know that moment where one sentence makes your stomach drop?

He figured maybe it wasn’t as bad as it felt…

So he set up a meeting with that same leader, hoping for clarity.

Instead, the exec doubled down:

“You need to do something about this. I don’t know if you’ll be successful here.”

For a moment, he spiraled.

(He shares the whole story in our convo, but here’s what happened next.)

He questioned whether he was wired to succeed in this country at all. And he thought about walking away.

But instead, he reached out to people he trusted. Leaders who’d seen his work up close.

They reminded him the work was strong.
They gave him context he didn’t have.
They helped him understand the politics behind the feedback.
They reminded him he wasn’t alone.

And they gave him the confidence to keep going.

Slowly, things shifted.

And months later, he earned a promotion.

In our full conversation, Diego von Söhsten (now the Director of Product Growth at Jobber) opens up about navigating biased feedback, rebuilding confidence after a public setback, and leading through chaos as an immigrant PM trying to find his voice.

If you’ve ever questioned if you belonged, you’ll want to hear his full story.

Watch on YouTube:

Or, listen on Spotify

Are you a Product, Marketing, or Growth Leader looking to increase your impact and influence?

Here’s two ways I can help:

Sign-up for the Growth Operating System

Stop leading your growth team Like an IC. Install the exact plug-and-play systems for leading a cross-functional growth team like an exec. Perfect for first-time growth leads who want faster execution, more wins, and a stronger reputation.
→ Sign up for the Growth Operating System

Book a 1:1 Coaching Spot

I coach a small group of experienced growth operators who want to break through plateaus - mastering growth strategy, operating system, communication, and inner-game - so you can earn your seat at the leadership table.

→ Book a 1:1 Coaching Spot

Answer every Slack message.
Volunteer for every new project.
Work longer and harder than your peers.

But here’s the paradox: the people who move up the fastest usually do less, not more.

Especially once you reach the Director or VP level.

They’re not chasing every opportunity. They’re choosing the right ones - and making sure everyone knows why those choices matter.

I’ve watched this pattern repeat again and again.

First as a marketer who climbed from IC to Head of Growth.

Now as a coach to dozens of growth leaders - many of whom earned their biggest promotions not by grinding harder, but by focusing on less.

Promotions go to the people who create the most impact, not the ones who generate the most activity.

And the difference usually comes down to these four habits.

1. Clarify and Verify

If you and your boss aren’t on the exact same page about what success looks like in your role, you basically have no chance at getting promoted.

This misalignment happens all the time in growth roles.

They’re cross-functional in nature. The role is still relatively new, messy, and undefined. And typically, your boss hasn’t done the job before. Maybe your priorities are shifting every month. Maybe the company itself is still figuring it out their growth model and core channels.

So both sides move forward, working hard but not necessarily toward the same finish line.

That’s why when I coach new clients, my first question is always the same:

“What does success look like in your role?”

You’d be surprised how few can answer it clearly.

The best performers fix that fast. They can clearly describe:

• What areas of the growth model they own

• Which KPIs they’re accountable for

• How success is measured

• How their work ladders up to company goals

And they don’t assume everyone’s on the same page - they verify it.

In practice, this looks like literally asking their manager and/or execs:

“Here’s what I believe I’m accountable for. Does that match your expectations?”

This simple act removes ambiguity and builds trust.

It unlocks you to prioritize confidently, delegate effectively, and advocate for resources without hesitation.

And most importantly… it puts you and your boss on the same page about what winning looks like.

2. Learn to Say No (gracefully)

The people who get promoted aren’t doing more.

They’re doing less - but better.

When I ask VPs to list their top priorities, they share two or three.
When I ask new managers or ICs, I get seven.

That gap is the difference between activity and impact.

One (Director of Growth) client I coached recently realized she was basically saying yes to everything (and as a recovering people pleaser, I’ve been there too). She was exhausted. After we narrowed her focus to two core levers, and improved her operating system - she increased her impact in a quarter and finally got budget approved to hire more.

Here’s how to build the same muscle:

• Create a “Not Right Now” list.
  A simple place (Google Doc, Trello board, whatever) to park great ideas that don’t fit today’s priorities.

• Use an objective prioritization framework.
  Tools like an Eisenhower Matrix or ICE score help you evaluate what truly matters.

High performers protect their focus.

They don’t chase every opportunity. They double-down on a few that drive the biggest outcomes.

If this idea resonates - protecting focus, aligning priorities, and building systems that scale - this is exactly what I teach inside The Growth Operating System.

It’s a plug-and-play framework to help new growth leads drive results without becoming the bottleneck.

→ Learn more about Growth OS here

3. Manage Up Like a Pro

Most leaders I coach conceptually understand they need to manage up.

They know it’s important for their career.
They’ve heard this advice a hundred times before.
They want to improve this skill.

But what they struggle with is knowing what good managing up actually looks like in practice.

Most people think managing up means keeping their boss updated:

• sharing what they’ve done

• what they’re doing now

• what’s coming next

But that’s not managing up. That’s reporting. And reporting is low leverage.

Good managing up looks different.

It’s not about telling your boss what you’re doing.
It’s about showing them how you’re thinking.

It looks like bringing your manager or execs into:

• How you’re prioritizing your time

• How you’re making key decisions

• The trade-offs you’re struggling to make

• The potential threats you’ve got your eyes on

You’re giving them context to help you make better calls. Here’s a simple, tactical way to do it:

Add a section like this to your one-on-one doc:

“Here’s how I’m prioritizing my work based on our current goals. Would you adjust anything?”

That single question moves your 1:1 from a status update to a strategy session.

Sometimes your boss will give you new context that changes your plan. Other times, they’ll see your strategic judgment and give you more autonomy.

Either way, you’re building trust and increasing leverage - and that compounds faster than effort.

4. Make Your Work Visible (Without Playing Politics)

You can’t get promoted if people don’t know what you’re doing.

But there’s a fine line between visibility and self-promotion.

Bad visibility feels like a self-serving press-release. We’ve all had that coworker who writes 500-word slack message alerting everyone about a minor tweak.

Good visibility creates alignment and teaches others.

Let’s compare:

Typical update:

“We launched a new landing page. Shoutout to the team - it looks great! We’ll share results soon.”

High-impact update:

“One of our OKRs this quarter is to double our conversion rate. This landing page is part of a broader experiment testing whether social proof or psychology-driven language performs better. We’ll share results in a few weeks so other teams can apply what we learn.”

Same work. Different impact.

High performers share their work through the lens of why it matters - connecting it to company goals and inviting others to learn from it.

That builds influence.

And influence is the real currency of career growth.

The Four Levers That Drive Promotions

If I wanted to get promoted in 2026, I’d focus on these four levers:

1. Clarify and verify your role - know what “good” looks like.

2. Say no more often - protect your focus and go deep.

3. Manage up intentionally - align early and often.

4. Make your work visible - teach, don’t just tell.

The biggest shift you can make this year is a mental one.

Stop asking, “How can I get promoted?”
Start asking, “How can I lead like the person who already deserves it?”

Do that consistently, and the title will eventually catch up.

ps - if you’ve been trying to implement the exact systems I talked about here - clarifying your role, protecting your focus, managing up, and building visibility - but want help taking it to the next level, that’s exactly what I teach inside The Growth Operating System.

Learn more about the Growth OS

…

(this post originally published on: https://deliveringvalue.co/growth-essays/why-hard-workers-dont-get-promoted)

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Right after her presentation, this 2x CMO got the kind of message no leader wants to hear:

“Hey, got a second to chat? I want to share some feedback.”

It was from her HR lead.

Nothing spikes the anxiety like an open-ended message after a high-stakes presentation.

Your stomach drops. Your mind races through a million worst-case scenarios.
(at least mine does)

Even as a daily meditator and student of Buddhism, she wasn’t immune to that sinking feeling when her HR lead shared that an internal presentation about DEI hadn’t landed the way she’d hoped.

The year before, she’d given nearly the same presentation - and it drew praise across the company.

Her heart was in the right place, but this time, something didn’t land.

And as the feedback came in, that familiar wave of self-doubt hit.

She felt embarrassed, a little ashamed, and tempted to defend her team’s intentions - and worried what this moment said about her as a leader.

Instead, Kelly Gillease paused. Then, reached for one of her core principles:

“You can run away from a problem - or you can run toward it.”

She stayed calm, thanked them for the feedback, and resisted the urge to react.

Then she modeled what real leadership looks like - meeting with her team, owning what happened, and putting together a plan to do better in the future.

Because at the executive level, it’s not your tactics or playbooks that help you win - it’s your ability to stay calm, reflect, and lead forward.

In our full convo, we break down how top marketing, product, and growth leaders build that kind of inner game:

• how to steady your team when everything feels like it’s on fire

• how to give feedback that actually lands (and what to do when it doesn’t)

• how to build inner game that separates top performers from everyone else

If you’ve ever found it hard to control what’s happening between your ears - our full conversation will hit home.

Watch on YouTube

Or, listen on Spotify

Are you a Product, Marketing, or Growth Leader looking to increase your impact and influence?

Here’s two ways I can help:

Sign-up for the Growth Operating System

Stop leading your growth team Like an IC. Install the exact plug-and-play systems for leading a cross-functional growth team like an exec. Perfect for first-time growth leads who want faster execution, more wins, and a stronger reputation.
→ Sign up for the Growth Operating System

Book a 1:1 Coaching Spot

I coach a small group of experienced growth operators who want to break through plateaus - mastering growth strategy, operating system, communication, and inner-game - so you can earn your seat at the leadership table.

→ Book a 1:1 Coaching Spot