Permission Not Required

Building careers that don't require a boss's approval.

Listen

Putting Ego Aside to Fill the Pipeline

Colleen landed a six-month part-time AI consulting contract and two go-to-market coaching clients. All within a week of reaching out to her network.


Colleen landed a six-month part-time AI consulting contract and two go-to-market coaching clients. All within a week of reaching out to her network.

Joe spent 50 hours building his own Substack clone before realizing the code wasn't the important part. Strategy was. He threw it all away and finally made peace with where his content lives.

Topics covered

  • Using your network when you need work (and putting your ego aside to do it)
  • Shadowing an AI head to learn what companies actually need from AI enablement
  • Why marketing services are a harder sell than technical services to founder-led companies
  • The mental drain of coaching calls and keeping scope contained
  • Joe's rebrand from "the Hotwire Native guy" to mobile apps for Rails businesses
  • Building a productized service vs. getting too comfortable with a long contract
  • Using Claude as a business partner for strategy and copy iteration
  • Why solo consultants can adapt faster than agencies in the AI era
  • The domain name problem when your last name is hard to spell
  • Work retreats and the mental freedom of being away from home responsibilities