I Had the Website, the LLC, and the Office Line Before I Posted a Single Thing. It Still Took a While.
I advise startup founders on their GTM motion. How to launch right, how "build it and they will come" is a lie, how long the runway actually is before you stop wondering if this will work. This is my third company. I could do the talk in my sleep because I've given it dozens of times to other people.
So when I launched Rise of Us, I quietly assumed I'd get to shortcut the line because I know the cheat codes by now. Unlike my previous launches in which I ran the go-to-market motion, this business was sales strategy itself. A business built around my superpower, the problem I uniquely can solve, and the type of CEO who needs it most. It felt like it would be easier than my previous launches because I've seen this movie so many times.
It wasn't. It still took two years to gain anything I could call real momentum.
Here's what finally started moving in the last six months.
What you'll get
What happened in the last six months, the wins and the overdue fixes
What it actually taught me about trust, timing, and my own identity outside a corporate logo
What's next, including a talk I'm building around all of this, my "send the ladder back down" moment
What I'd do differently, and what I'm doing now so the next person doesn't have to learn it the hard way
What happened
If you read the last update, you'll know I took a hard look at the business at the end of
last year and took my own medicine. I locked my offer, pricing, and GTM strategy for the year and gave it a name after the fact: no more spaghetti factory, no more throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.
I had a big unlock around my positioning in March. In a live cohort a comment from a CFO stopped me in my tracks; I had been entirely wrong about the ROI I bring to my clients. I tuned out of the cohort and started writing furiously. Once I understood and could communicate the ROI, things tarted clicking.
I pitched myself as a speaker at TechCon SoCal, and afraid I wouldn't get it, also applied for a press pass. I got both, what a week that was!
I joined Vistage, which I had been eyeing since my launch but thought it was "too expensive"; file this in the "wish I had done it sooner box". It's thousands of leaders for whom good enough isn't, and helping community members is baked in to the culture.
Someone I met in the audience of my TechCon panel invited me to speak at San Diego Startup Week; she remembered me as the person who's "all about growth strategies".
The website re-do I launched in the spring finally had enough signals to show where I was showing up in searches and there were two that rose to the top: why sales hires fail and how to grow revenue without adding headcount. It's exactly my work, but I finally had the specific buyer language I needed to describe it.
None of those four things happened in isolation. They're the same intentional work told four ways. The Vistage join is actually the one I'm least proud of the timing on. I'd been trying to build a community around Rise of Us myself, to save the membership cost, instead of paying for the ready-made version that already existed. It was working, slowly, and I kept meeting people without finding many who had "how can I help" baked in the way I do.
That's the exact trap I solve for other people: muscling through instead of paying for the obvious fix, and calling the time and momentum you lose along the way a good trade because at least you saved the fee. I'd actually left room in the 2026 budget for this, specifically because an expensive miss the year before taught me to plan for it. I still didn't pull the trigger until June.
That's the exact trap I solve for other people: muscling through instead of paying for the obvious fix.
The locked positioning is the thing that made the speaking invitation possible, not a coincidence sitting next to it. I used to treat positioning like a milestone, get it right once and revisit it yearly like a lease renewal. Then I went too far the other way, chasing a single lead from a partner like it was proof I'd cracked the code, ready to rebuild the whole message around a sample size of one. The fix was a lock, not a freeze. I still iterate. I don't tear the whole thing down anymore. A message finally getting to sit still long enough for someone to remember it is, apparently, how you end up getting asked to speak at things.
And TechCon landed the way it did specifically because it took so long to get there. People kept saying some version of "oh, you're finally doing the in-person thing," with zero idea I'd been on stages dating all the way back to my corporate life and it was always part of the plan here. Nobody sees the ramp-up. They just see the debut.
What I learned
The people I was trying to convince were never actually asking whether I could do the work. I've spent my entire career doing growth strategy for mid-sized companies. That was never the question, and the work itself didn't need to change one bit.
What had to get proven was that it was actually me doing it, not the institution I used to work inside of. Was I the strategist, or was I just a really good worker bee for someone else's strategy? I knew the answer. Nobody else did yet, and there was no logo left to vouch for me while I proved it. Getting sharp enough that I didn't blend into every other fractional sales exec, sales consultant, and sales coach out there took real time. So did building enough visibility and credibility from zero to get recognized and trusted on my own name.
The other question buyers were holding wasn't about capability. It was whether I'd still be doing this in 90 days, or whether I'd get uncomfortable and go take a job. That's a staying-power question, and you cannot muscle past it with a logo, virtual address, or all the other trappings of a "real" company. People decide when they trust you're not a flight risk, on their own clock, not yours. It doesn't help that my projects run ten to twelve months. Nobody hands a year of their growth strategy to someone who just hung a shingle, however good that person is, and honestly, that's not an unreasonable thing for a CEO to hesitate over.
The first three years are a slow build. Nobody says that part out loud on social media, and I'd bet money it's a lot more common than "I retired from corporate and immediately replaced my salary"; these are the unsexy stories no one really wants to tell.
What's next
I have the busiest fall conference season since my first year as corporate VP of Sales, back when I was building my career as the face of the organization. I would ask someone if it pointed to revenue, and while it doesn't directly, it's the personal brand building and "getting out there" that is a critical part of the process.
A new and exciting strategic partnership... stay tuned!
Build Your Personal Brand Before You Think You'll Need It
Speaking of personal brand building, I'm building a talk out of the first half of this story, called Build Your Personal Brand Before You Think You'll Need It. The infrastructure I put in place before I ever announced anything wasn't wasted effort, even though it didn't buy me the speed I expected. It's the reason I had something to stand on while the slower, harder trust-building happened underneath it. I also filled it with actions I wish I had taken years before I went solo. I don't have a time machine, but I can send the ladder back down.
If you're still in a corporate seat telling yourself you'll get serious about your own name "someday" or "when you have more time" this is the talk that's going to make the case for starting the groundwork now, quietly, before you need any of it.
What I'd do differently
If I'm being honest about what I'd change, most of it is about timing, not direction.
I'd have paid for the ready-made community sooner instead of spending a year building a slower version myself to save a membership fee. The fee was never the real cost, it was the year and whatever opportunity was left on the table.
I'd have trusted the lock on my positioning earlier instead of letting one good lead talk me into thinking I'd found the final answer. A signal is a data point. It's not a verdict, and treating it like one cost me a detour I didn't need.
I'd have trusted my own instincts sooner instead of thinking I needed someone else to show me the way. My first business, the one before this, the expensive consultant I wasted money on last year... all of them were because even I didn't truly believe I could do this 100% solo.
And I'd send the ladder back down faster than I did. I spent three years mostly figuring this out alone, one expensive lesson at a time, because I didn't know anyone far enough ahead of me to ask. If you're earlier in this than I am, that's the whole reason I'm writing this down in this much detail. Take the shortcut. Build the infrastructure now, before you think you need it. Pay for the obvious fix instead of the slow homemade version of it. And find your own version of Vistage a year sooner than I did, because the only thing that timing bought me was the years of doing it alone.
FAQ
Is it normal for visibility and trust to take years to build after going independent? Yes, and it rarely gets said out loud. The work itself usually isn't the hard part. Getting recognized as the one doing it, separate from wherever you used to work, is what takes the time nobody puts a number on.
How often should positioning actually change? Not on a set-it-and-forget-it yearly cycle, and not on every single win either. One good signal is a data point, not a verdict. Test it before you build a whole strategy on top of it. Look for leading indicators that the market has moved past your positioning. I recommend to my clients - review it quarterly if you're doing well and monthly if you're not.
Does building business infrastructure early actually speed up landing clients? Not directly. It removes objections about legitimacy, but it doesn't answer the real question buyers are holding, which is whether you'll still be doing this in three months or six. It does give you something solid to stand on while that trust builds.
Let's talk
If you're a founder who recognizes the "will they still be here in 90 days" hesitation from the other side of the table, that instinct is worth naming out loud instead of working around. Book a Diagnostic and let's talk about what you're actually weighing when you bring in outside help.
If you're earlier in your own version of this and want the ladder sent down properly, that's exactly what the talk is about, head over to Luma to find the next one or Sessionize to book one for your group.
Rise of Us, led by sales strategist Summer Poletti, works with B2B companies between $2M and $30M ARR that need to avoid wasted money, momentum, or reputation on sales investments that fall flat. Through the Revenue RISE™ Framework, we diagnose what's actually blocking the revenue, stop the waste, and build the architecture that fits your company.
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