Quick Sprout

To this date I have been an advisor to 17 companies. 16 of these advisory positions were obtained 3 to 5 years ago and I joined 1 more in the last year. Over time I dropped a decent amount of these advisory positions, but before I get into that, let me first explain what being an “advisor” is.

Companies can grant stock options to individuals who aren’t employees. The stock options usually vest over a period of 3 or 4 years and in exchange for the stock you have to help the company out with whatever they need.

If the company does well, the stock options will be worth a lot and you will have made more money in the long run than if you just asked for cash up front for your advice. On the flip side if the company fails, your stock is worth 0 dollars and you don’t get anything for your time.

In my case companies would ask me for marketing help and instead of paying me in cash for my advice they would offer me stock options. By doing this 17 times, here is what I learned: [click to continue…]

120 comments

Although I don’t do much consulting these days, I used to run a consulting company. It was an Internet marketing agency that helped small and large brands like GM, HP, Samsung, Viacom, AOL, boost their traffic through search engine optimization and social media marketing.

I did it for around 6 years and boy did I make a lot of mistakes. Running a consulting company is tough and sadly it’s a lot less sexier than it seems…

Here are 7 things I learned from running a consulting company: [click to continue…]

147 comments

Do you want to get good at sales? Because if you do, there is a lot of money to be made. But before I can teach you how to sell, I need to first teach you what not to do.

If you want to make money through selling, you don’t have to be a great sales person, you just need to avoid these common mistakes: [click to continue…]

155 comments

Think it really matters how you dress? If you’re an overall good person, shouldn’t people realize it and not judge you based off your threads?

Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but people judge you based off of the clothes you wear. I don’t care if you’re walking down the street, or sitting in a business meeting; people are constantly looking at what you’re wearing.

Over the past 10 years I’ve dressed like a bum, worn decent clothes, and dressed like a boss. I must admit, there is a huge ROI in wearing nice clothes… especially in the business world. [click to continue…]

242 comments