02 - Going Solo: From VP to $1M in 90 Days - with Josh Grant, Founder of Stacked GTM

00:00 Introduction 04:35 Why Josh left his VP role to go solo 07:52 Building an audience you can monetize 08:05 Why audience quality matters more than size 15:08 The danger of being a marketing generalist 15:30 The audience-to-services flywheel 16:31 Finding your niche: The Trojan horse strategy 17:35 Finding your first clients: Outbound before inbound 18:26 FOMO marketing: Turning competitors into prospects 20:15 Selling yourself, facing rejection, and self-doubt 22:43 Rewriting your homepage 12 times in 5 months 28:39 Have we normalized slow starts too much? 29:18 Your in-house experience is your superpower 33:25 Premium pricing: How to hold your ground 36:15 Why you should start with a premium offer 37:39 Planning your escape from corporate life 38:48 Why you need a plan-ish, not a perfect plan 40:18 Why operators are the next influencers 45:34 Signs you're not ready to go solo 47:09 The inevitable "What have I done?" moment Josh Grant went from being the VP of Growth at Webflow to booking over $1 million in revenue in his first 90 days as a solo founder. Sounds like an overnight success story... right? Not quite. In this episode of Marketers Beyond the Ladder, I talked to Josh about what made that explosive start possible: growing a high-quality audience while working in-house, finding a niche, turning content into a client acquisition engine, and knowing when to pivot your business model. I also asked Josh about the things that worry me personally about going solo: How to stay consistent when your day job already consumes all your energy How to find your first clients How to hold your pricing when self-doubt kicks in (and there's plenty of self-doubt.) Josh has rewritten his homepage about a dozen times since launching, admits that selling himself is uncomfortable, and says he still wakes up thinking his business is failing - despite his remarkable results. We also discussed whether we've normalized slow starts too much, why experienced in-house marketers have an advantage when building their own businesses, and how to know when you're ready to take the leap. Guest: Josh Grant, founder of Stacked GTM and former VP of Growth at Webflow.