BIO: Drew Neisser is the founder of Renegade and CMO Huddles. Drew has helped dozens of CMOs unleash their inner renegade via multiple award-winning campaigns.
STORY: Drew made the mistake of increasing his staff from 40 to 100 and tripling his office space. Then one of his clients refused to pay the $500,000 owed. He was left with a real estate and cash flow problem.
LEARNING: Be conscious about recurring versus non-recurring revenue. Be careful not to lose your business focus while chasing revenue.
“Sweat, then figure out where that opportunity is.”
Drew Neisser
Guest profile
Drew Neisser is the founder of Renegade and CMO Huddles. Drew has helped dozens of CMOs unleash their inner renegade via multiple award-winning campaigns and told the stories of over 500 marketers via his podcast Renegade Marketers Unite, Ad Age column, and two books. His 2nd book, Renegade Marketing: 12 Steps to Building Unbeatable B2B Brands, was named the top B2B audiobook of 2022.
Drew is ranked among LinkedIn’s Top 15 marketing voices of 2022 and has been a featured marketing expert on TV, radio, print, and dozens of podcasts.
Says bestselling author Jay Baer, “Drew Neisser is among the strongest B2B marketing thinkers in the world.”
Worst investment ever
Renegade grew tremendously between 2005 and 2008. The company had 40 people, but it really needed 100 people to handle this brief moment. So Drew tripled the company’s office space, which soon became a problem.
In addition to being in this gigantic space, Drew had the genius idea that this was the moment to buy Renegade from the parent company. The plan was to fund the deal with pending payments. Forty-five days into the agreement, Drew got a client call saying they wouldn’t pay the $500,000 they owed because someone had scammed the client.
At this point, the company was over-extended in real estate and had too many product lines. At the time, the company was doing event marketing, guerilla marketing, website development, and social media. Then the financial crisis hit, and Drew had a real estate problem and a cash flow problem.
Lessons learned
- Don’t let the chase for revenue make you lose focus on what you’re really good at.
- Join a community first and get to know it well, and participate before you start your own.
Andrew’s takeaways
- The chasing revenue phase can take you to many exciting places, but eventually, it will overextend you.
- Be conscious about recurring versus non-recurring revenue.
- Consider joining and starting a community.
Actionable advice
Be real estate light, especially if you’re a service company since clients rarely visit offices now.
Drew’s recommendations
- Drew recommends checking out Renegade.com. There, you’ll find links to his podcast, a monthly newsletter that a lot of folks in business subscribe to, and a blog that’s constantly being updated and has transcripts from all the podcast episodes.
No.1 goal for the next 12 months
Drew’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to work four days a week instead of six. At the same time, he wants to grow Renegade and CMO Huddles while enjoying every minute of it.
Parting words
“Don’t be afraid. Just get out there and do it.”
Drew Neisser
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