Many entrepreneurs start their companies by doing what needs to be done. They sell, they manage, they solve problems, they chase opportunities, and they keep the business moving forward. But at some point, that same effort can become the obstacle.
If the founder is still the company’s best salesperson, if every important customer relationship depends on one person, or if revenue depends more on hustle than process, the business may be growing, but it may not yet be scalable.
Today’s guest is Sean Shannon, founder of Strategic Growth Design. Sean brings more than three decades of sales leadership experience to his work with small and medium-sized businesses, helping them build sales systems, improve messaging, develop stronger pipelines, and create more predictable revenue growth.
His background includes leadership roles in local broadcasting, where he helped businesses think beyond advertising and focus on sales and marketing strategies that actually produced results.
Sean’s work centers on a question every entrepreneur eventually has to face: can this business grow without depending on the founder to personally drive every sale?
Sean’s Company:
https://strategicgrowthdesign.com
Mike Konrad entered the electronics manufacturing industry in 1985. Four decades later, he continues to dedicate his career to advancing reliability within the industry. In 1992, he founded Aqueous Technologies, an equipment manufacturer serving the electronics sector. Becoming an entrepreneur was never part of his plan, he simply had a passion for a product he designed. When his employer declined to build it, he realized the only way forward was to create it himself.
Mike entered business with strong technical skills but no business acumen. His early assets were ego, passion, arrogance, ignorance, and above all, a poor assessment of risk. Ironically, those traits proved useful in the beginning, ignorance really was bliss. But as his company grew, Mike recognized that those same traits could lead to its downfall. To survive, he had to transform himself, developing business acumen, adopting sustainable strategies, and evolving from reckless enthusiasm into purposeful leadership.
Today, with 40 years of industry experience, Mike shares both his technical expertise and his entrepreneurial journey, offering lessons from personal and professional growth, the near-misses that almost derailed him, and the strategies that carried him forward. He is also a strong advocate of “conscious marketing”, moving beyond traditional chest-thumping advertising toward education-driven authority building. By offering value through knowledge rather than hype, Mike helps organizations connect with a new generation of decision-makers who prefer independent research over bold claims.
