I reached out to the serial entrepreneur, family man, and kiteboarder that was profiled. Now 16 years old, I offered to work unpaid in exchange for his mentorship because I understand the value of surrounding myself with world-class practitioners and people - and he was both an astute business person and great overall guy. 

He accepted, and I haven't looked back since. I not only stayed on staff for more than a year, but worked an additional year as a salaried team member at the new VC-backed enterprise software startup my mentor had created. I was responsible first for customer success with our accounts like Citrix, Amazon, Hubspot, Mailchimp, and others, and later led our company's first attempt at an outbound sales strategy. In the years since I've left the company, they've raised additional rounds of funding and now have thousands of paying customers for their employee engagement and culture management tools. 

I was one year into writing my first book - which went on to become the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015" according to the Axiom Business Book Awards and earn accolades from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, former Mashable Chief Revenue Officer Seth Rogin, Malala Fund co-founder Shiza Shahid, and many of the major media outlets. I wanted to learn from a New York Times bestselling author, and so I cold-emailed dozens of them in search for an expert in the field I was entering. 

I could have taken a "day job" with this thought leader. But, I didn't stop there... 

I began working with more and more clients. I helped the founder of a billion dollar fashion brand release his first book and relaunch a legendary career. Now he speaks all around the country and saves business owners decades of time and millions of dollars by helping them to avoid the same mistakes he made after he sold his iconic company UGGs to another corporation. Then, I helped a popular change management speaker create marketing and business development systems that would help him grow his successful, but word-of-mouth driven business, so he and his wife could rely on a more sustainable business as they started thinking about slowing down and retiring one day. Not to mention, more people would soon be exposed to his incredible research, and who knows how much more productive top executives have been after hearing him speak. 

Again, and again, and again, I helped clients and their successful small businesses while I built my own personal brand on the side. It's important I not only talked the talked, but walked the walked because having integrity is a cornerstone to what we do here at Kleinert Ventures. 

Today, I'm fortunate enough to have written two books in a bestselling and award-winning series on subject matter experts in the Millennial generation, and I've spoken at two TEDx events and one TED conference, not to mention dozens of other stages for organizations like IBM, Samsung, Citi, Bacardi, Ogilvy, AdAge, and even the United Nations. I've raised money, led successful product launches under my own companies, inked articles in TIME, Forbes, Huffington Post, and other media giants, and represented the United States as a delegate to the 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia.

I don't say all this to impress you, but to impress upon you that we are not like other consultants you may have worked with in the past. 

We stand by our work, support our clients in any meaningful way possible, and continuously reinvest in our processes and methods for getting results because we know how important your work is to others. 

When Seth and Kristen hired us, they had already spent years planning a new media platform, as well as marketing strategies to grow their respective businesses, but were struggling to execute. 

They were months out from launching their new media platform, but they didn’t know who their Ideal Reader or Contributor was, and their marketing and business development ideas were way out of line with their actual lifestyle goals. 

With hundreds of thousands of dollars invested and a publicly-announced launch date in the works, new strategy was needed desperately to ensure a successful launch and ROI for their marketing investments. Read the case study to learn what happened next...

Also, we are an entrepreneurial marketing agency, and so we are best at the early stages of our clients' attempts to experiment with new ideas for growing untapped marketing channels, or scaling the business altogether, and therefore we are resourceful as hell when it comes to identifying your Ideal Customers and creating new marketing channels that will help you reach more consumers quickly, effectively, and sustainably. 

With this in mind, read the following to really understand if this experience is right for you:

You are a new entrepreneur and don't have a business, or your business hasn't had any customers or users yet. While we have worked with serial entrepreneurs who are launching new businesses, or product lines for their existing companies, if you've never owned a business, and haven't earned a single customer in the past through any entrepreneurial ventures, it's probably too early to bring us in for help. You need to get the basics down first as a business owner, and come back when you're ready to accelerate. 

You don't offer a high quality, proven product or service. Not only will we be available to scale your "get rich quick" scheme, but ultimately, no amount of marketing or business development will help you if your work sucks. If this is you, instead of investing in a VIP Day, take your money and time and hone your craft. 

You're looking for us to generate leads and referrals for you. While we can temporarily take this on after a client VIP Day if our firm is rehired for a multi-month consulting engagement, we expect our long-term clients to consider us for a VIP Day first in order to test our working relationship. During our all-day, in-person intensive, we are going to be working on developing marketing and business development strategy that can actually teach you how to generate revenue sustainably and predictably for yourself rather than having to rely on any outside party for your success long-term. Fair enough?

You are betting every last dollar you have on our work together. While we understand this is an investment, it shouldn't be your last resort. If this is the case, your business probably needs help at its foundation, and isn't ready for growth while it's in jeopardy. We understand if our price point is simply too high for you, and if that is the case, then we are OK with that stance. Our experience with discounting services hasn't always been great with previous clients, and so we avoid it. We hope you understand. 

You are running a successful business already, and you are interested in scaling through an upcoming launch or new marketing channels. These are the two use cases we are most helpful in. If you are launching a book, online course, crowdfunding campaign, product line, or new business if you are a serial entrepreneur already, we can provide some entrepreneurial gusto and subject matter expertise in getting you off the ground. If you're trying to create a more sustainable business, or looking to grow through untapped marketing channels you simply haven't explored yet, we can help you here too.

You have an ability to execute like crazy. During the VIP Day, we will provide you with an actionable step-by-step strategy you can use to grow your business, but after our day together, the work is up to you to complete. Can you execute? If so, everyone will walk away happy, and you'll get incredible results like most of our previous clients. 

You are like me and seek out high-integrity individuals in collaborators. I told you my story earlier, and I'm not looking to work with anyone who is a former white collar convict, screws over their customers, or doesn't like puppies. I'm guessing neither are you, and so hopefully you see how much we've gone into painstaking detail to be honest and upfront with you about who we are, what we do, and how we can help you. If it makes sense to work together, it'd be our pleasure to serve you. 

You are someone that other people love hanging out with. While you don't have to match the caliber of person we've worked with in the past, from Olympians to Rhodes Scholars, near-death survivors, members of the United States military, parents of special needs children, and entrepreneurs who "side hustle" by managing rock bands, you do have to be nice, honest, and cool enough to make it through 8-12 hours of work together. Honestly, if you're on this page, and you've read this far, you are probably an incredible human being with some awesome hobbies, quirks, and stories, and I'd love to hear them!

Hunter is the founder of Delight Consulting, a small team of passionate designers and developers who combine their exceptional service and innovative ideas to make amazing apps and websites for their clients. Venture-backed startups, nonprofits, and even film festivals rely on Hunter and his team to connect their customers, show off their work in the nicest way possible, and create unique user experiences via web and mobile apps. 

When Hunter isn't leading his team, he's managing a band of childhood friends who are beginning to ride their wave to stardom. From international tours to press events like NPR Music's Tiny Desk Concert series, Hunter is living life like, and with, actual rockstars. It's not all glamorous, but the recent success of his business is allowing him to take more time away from the office to focus on his friends and having fun. We've grabbed many beers together in the depths of hippy Brooklyn.