The Rainmaker Blog – Building People, Leaders, Teams & Economic Moats

Team pushing together up a hill, representing aligned effort and operational discipline

Some Years You Win and Some Years You Build Character

May 20, 2025

Steve Jobs famously stated, "I am convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance." Jobs' timeless quote ...

mental models for scaling founder ceos frameworks

Scaling Up

The Mental Models Every Founder/CEO Must Master to Scale with Discipline

May 13, 2025

Most Founder / CEOs fail due to lack of frameworks Most Founder/CEOs do not fail because of a lack of ambition—they fail because of a lack of mental models or frameworks. Mental ...

The Key To Scaling a Company is CEO Critical Self Awareness

Scaling Up

You Are the Bottleneck: Why Critical Self-Awareness Is the CEO’s Most Underrated Performance Tool

Apr 22, 2025

Executive Summary: Most founders obsess over fixing their team — better hires, tighter meetings, clearer KPIs — but ignore the biggest leverage point: themselves. This piece makes ...

Get rid of the elephant in the room with The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Scaling Up

About Your Elephant in the Room: Why Teams Fear Real Conversations

Mar 19, 2025

"Why was this not brought to my attention sooner?" Recently a Client I have contact with once every year or two called me and said, "Chris, I believe I have a problem..." He then ...

Stop fooling yourself - build and scale a team that wins

Scaling Up

Hire, Develop, and Scale Like You Mean It

Mar 13, 2025

Stop Fooling Yourself If you expect to scale your business model, nothing and I mean NOTHING matters more than having a mission, vision, values (purpose) coupled with the right ...

Scaling Up

Are You Lucky or Are You Good?

Mar 11, 2025

Luck Is Not a Strategy Success in business is often attributed to a combination of skill, strategy, and timing. However, there is an uncomfortable question that every founder and ...

High-performing teams row with discipline

Scaling Up

The Secret to Building High-Performing Teams.

Mar 6, 2025

The Secret To Building High-Performing Teams Is DISCIPLINE. High-performing teams do not occur by accident. High-performing teams are thoughtfully designed and built through ...

A-Players are the lifeblood of your company. Never hire sheep.

Mindset Scaling Up

People – Your Most Important Scaling Up Decision

Feb 4, 2025

Do you hate losing more than you love winning? Ditto. Get to know me and you will quickly learn that I hate losing more than I love winning. There is no need to reinvent the ...

The 20 Mile March requires disciplined people, thoughts and actions

Scaling Up

Meeting Rhythms - THE Backbone of Your 20 Mile March

Jan 29, 2025

As a Founder or CEO, you are well aware that success in business is rarely about dramatic leaps forward. Success in anything - especially building and scaling a business is about ...

THE RAINMAKER