Why am I building in public?
Jan 02, 2023I've been blow away at the response to me launching Blake Harber Consulting and building it publicly.
Why did I decide to build publicly?
I've spent the last 10 years building high growth sales teams at top tier companies. Over that time, my wife and I had 4 children.
This last year I realized how often I was saying no to activities that our family loves; camping, hunting, dirt bike riding, hiking, boating and more.
I was so consumed by my work and the teams I was building that I didn't have the emotional energy to put the effort into getting 4 kids all suited up and out into the snow during the winter. It left me questioning what it was all for?
I stepped away from Workstream in August 2022 and planned on taking the rest of the year off. I knew I would join another startup in January but wanted to spend the rest of the year with my family.
Frankly, I hadn't realized how out of touch with my kids I was until this time.
It was the first time in years I felt like I could tuck my oldest (8) in bed without checking email, replying to slacks or feeling stressed out by the meeting I was missing (after 7pm 🙄).
I didn't know him.
It had been so long since I was emotionally present with him, I had to re-learn all about him.
It took 2 months before we were 'back in a groove'. Our relationship feels much more natural now.
At the same time, I was beginning to take calls to figure out what my next role would be.
I was meeting with early stage CEOs looking to hire their first VP of Sales.
I was lucky enough to have nearly 40 calls within 30 days.
I kept walking away from these calls wondering if would I fall back into the trap of not being able to be emotionally present for my family by taking this new role. But I figured there was no other way.
From these calls, I picked up 2 consulting gigs and a few advisory roles. I had anticipated these would be side projects that would be supplementary income in 2023. I told myself, I'd have 1 more startup full time before I tried my hand at consulting full time.
My biggest concerns about consulting full time was about scalability and replacing my income.
I didn't want to take a step back in my cashflow each year as I figured I would have to.
With the anticipation of stepping back into a full time role with $400k - $500k/year earning potential, I couldn't quite wrap my head around getting anywhere near that by consulting full time.
I reached out to a few people that were consulting full time.
I quickly realized how little I actually knew about consulting.
Three did >$500k their first year. One did >$1m his first year and still had zero employees.
My mind was blown.
I had no idea these types of numbers were possible. It immediately caused me to question everything.
'But what about owning a significant chunk of equity at a high growth saas company, I would miss out on that for sure'... is what I started telling myself.
In reality, VP of Sales get 1%-3% of the company when they join. The problem is, you'll end up getting diluted along the way so the 1% will turn into <.5%. Then, your handcuffed to the vesting schedule and in reality, very very few companies sell or exit for >$100M, let alone $1B.
As I ran these numbers in my head, I realized that the same amount of time, effort and emotional energy I'd put into making another CEO wealthy, I could spend a fraction of the time making potentially more cash now but spending more time with my family.
During our Thanksgiving dinner, my wife and I had the long debate about trying consulting full time.
Thankfully we still had some savings, but we'd need to move fast to reduce our burn as we anticipated I'd be stepping into a full time role in January.
We decided that day that I would regret not trying to go all in now.
In the first 30 days I figured out how to 'pay the bills' going into January. It's a sigh of relief.
We have zero consumer debt. Only investments that we have leverage on. We can VERY comfortably live on $11,400 / month including our mortgage, two properties we own (they don't cash flow anything, they are dirt but investments for us).
In January 2023 I'll invoice $14,500.
My goal is to replace my most recent full income run rate by February 2023 ($29,000/month).
I've spent more time with my wife and kids physically and emotionally in the past month than I have in the last few years combined.
2023 will be a game changer for me personally and my family.
I'm chasing >$500k in 2023 (this might change but I honestly have no idea what to expect). Ironically this would be a decent raise for me.
The best part, I'd do it with a fraction of the time I would spending being a VP of Sales.
Plus, being a 1 man show I have never felt more freedom to do what I want, when I want and with who I want.
I've blocked off every single Monday and Friday in 2023 as optional work days.
I plan to work them, but I will not allow anyone to schedule time on my calendar. They will be used as deep work days... or boating days. ;-)
With all that said...
Why they hell am I building publicly?
Maybe I can help someone else do the same.
That's all.
I want Mothers and Fathers, Husbands and Wives the opportunity to be the best damn mothers and fathers, husbands and wives they can be.
I believe time together, with your children is better spent than building a unicorn any day of the week.
I believe making money is great, but only as a means to do what brings you the most freedom and joy.
If that's traveling the world, spending more time with family or buying a mansion...
Whatever brings you joy, I'm all in.
So, I hope to write the playbook for you. I hope to come out in my 12 month mark and say, 'here's everything I learned from A to B. Here's exactly what to do and what not to do and here's all the templates'.
I might even offer coaching, a class, IDK yet.
For now, I gotta build it. I'll just document it a long the way and share with you.
If you have feedback on what you'd like to hear about or see, shoot me an email!!
If you know any early stage founders that need to scale GTM, shoot me an intro and I'll give you a referral fee and $1,000 off to them.
