#37 Working at a top professional services firm: how to grow through the ranks

Why climbing to C-level inside a strong services firm is often the fastest path to money, impact, and ownership and the four skills that get you there.

I rarely give career advice, but today I want to share a perspective I genuinely wish I had 10 years ago, before I started Belkins.

Growing to an executive level inside a strong professional services firm is often easier and faster than starting your own agency and trying to win.

There, I said it.

If your goal is financial freedom, meaningful work, strong compensation, and real influence, then for most people, the smartest path is not “start your own firm.” It’s: join an already-established firm and grow through the ranks to leadership, ideally C-level.

The best setup is a firm that’s already real: 10+ people, in a line of work you actually like (sales, customer success, account management, marketing, finance, whatever your lane is), with a clear service offering and clients they can retain.

I’ll explain why this path works, and then I’ll break down how to do it, step by step. My goal here is to spark something in talented people reading this newsletter:

• those who dream of starting their own firm one day, and

• those who want to accelerate inside their current company and earn significantly more, salary, bonuses, and even equity.

Why this path works

Different people want different things: impact, variety, money, autonomy. But if we’re talking about a true C-level role in a high-performing firm, you can realistically get all of it.

The difference between a founder and a C-level executive isn’t intelligence or ambition. It’s the risk curve.

A founder has to navigate darker waters early: uncertainty, cash flow stress, market fit, hiring mistakes, churn, and making payroll. More risk can equal more reward if you survive.

A strong executive, on the other hand, gets to step onto a moving train. You don’t need to light the engine from zero, you just need to make it go faster. And the best agencies become top firms when founders figure out two things early:

1. What train they’re building, and

2. Who they need to develop (or hire) to run it.

When that happens, everyone on the train wins: clients, team, leadership, and yes, the executives who helped accelerate the machine.

To be honest, not that many people are inspired to become an executive. Most people dream about being the founder.

Let me share an example from my own experience.

Lack of leadership talent

Personally, outside of Belkins, Vlad and I still want to start more agencies. We have ideas, and we see opportunities to expand into offerings beyond lead generation. We’ve tried and will keep trying, but the biggest challenge I face isn’t the market. It’s the lack of great executives.

Not “operators” who can keep things afloat. I mean real executives, people who can come in and build the business operationally, run the ship, being partners.

Those people are rare in any industry. And the irony is: starting an agency is often easier than building a startup. The failure rate is lower because you’re selling services.

One of the oldest professions in the world is selling services =:)

So the bottleneck isn’t product. It’s people. Finding the right person to run the ship is one of the hardest tasks in business.

In the last two years I tried this five times. Only one attempt truly worked. And when I look back, the reasons the other four didn’t work weren’t complicated either.

The Executives, I am looking for

To be a successful executive inside a top professional services firm, you need four skillsets developed at a very high level:

1. People leadership
   Hiring, training, motivating, performance management, culture, retention.

2. Sales
   Lead generation, qualification, closing, forecasting → building predictable revenue.

3. Marketing
   Positioning, brand, content, distribution → building trust before the sales call.

4. Operations
   Systems, processes, frameworks → turning chaos into repeatability.

The good news: you can develop these skills inside almost any professional services firm. You start as an individual contributor and grow through the ranks if you’re intentional about what you’re building.

People like me, founders who want to start a new agency, can bring a lot to the table: infrastructure, early capital, systems, a network, even initial clients and a clear decision-making process that helps the business get early wins. But none of that matters without the right captain steering the ship, on a daily basis.

That’s the bottleneck.

So how do you become that captain?

Here’s the first obvious thing I learned after 10 years of building agencies:

You have to aim for it.

Not “Head of Sales.” Not “VP of Customer Success.” Not “Marketing Lead.” I mean: can you realistically become the CEO (or GM / Managing Director) of the agency you’re working at? And if not, why?

What exactly stops you from becoming the CEO in the next 5–10 years?

Most people’s ambition ends at one or two promotions and a salary that buys a comfortable life. Nothing wrong with that. But if you want executive trajectory, you have to expand your focus.

Not just honing your direct craft: sales → sales, marketing → marketing.But building the full set of skills that actually run the business: people leadership, sales, marketing, and operations.

Once you think that way, you start noticing the gaps in the company. And you start contributing beyond your job title. That’s what makes you hard to replace.

The Serving Leader

Here’s a truth about leadership that most people learn too late:

Leaders aren’t appointed by their own confidence. They’re appointed by everyone else’s trust.

I didn’t wake up one day and decide, “I want to be CEO.” I had to become one, because the business demanded it, and people looked to me to lead. That’s what real leadership is. It’s not being the loudest in the room. It’s when responsibility lands on you, and you consistently get the job done.

Usually, the strongest leaders are not the ones with the title yet. They’re the ones who:

• deliver value to everyone around them,

• take ownership of messy, complex problems,

• organize themselves and others without drama,

• and turn chaos into results.

Not “project managing” for the sake of it, actually owning the outcome.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with these types of people over the years. They’re not flashy. They’re not always the loudest. But no matter how hard the task is, they get it done. They’ll find a way.

It’s not always obvious how. It sometimes takes time. But the result is consistent: the work gets completed, and the outcome holds.

And the best part is, they’re not just solving the immediate problem. They solve problems in a way that prevents future problems.

They anticipate what’s coming, and when they fix something today, they build a foundation that makes tomorrow easier. So when a storm hits the boat, it rarely catches them off guard.

If you’re that person, give yourself credit. You’re a rare asset.

And yes, many of you reading this can relate. You’re also probably earning more than your teammates on average, because value tends to get rewarded. But here’s what happens next.

What stops you from becoming the one

Once you reach that stage of success, a new comfort zone shows up. And it quietly becomes your ceiling.

The more successful you become in one lane, the more you lean on that expertise. And then, without realizing it, you start avoiding new challenges that aren’t directly attached to your current role.

Example:

“I’m successfully leading sales. I’m a high performer. Things are working. Why would I step into marketing as well and aim for a CRO-level role? Why risk it?”

There are two fair answers:

One camp says: “You shouldn’t. Stay in your lane and be great.” That’s valid.

The other camp, the one I personally lean toward, says: if you want executive trajectory, you have to intentionally swim into unfamiliar waters.

Because companies don’t just need great Heads of Sales or great Marketing Leads. They need more people who can own growth end-to-end: Chief Revenue Officers, Chief Growth Officers, GMs. And to do that well, you typically need real experience across both sales and marketing at a high level.

I rarely see marketing leaders stepping into sales, or sales leaders stepping into marketing. Not because they can’t, but because it’s uncomfortable.

And that’s the point. Most people stay in their lane even when their capabilities could expand into other areas and create massive leverage for the organization.

That choice feels safe. But it’s also how careers plateau.

When you’re building your own firm, you don’t get to stay inside your domain. You’re forced to operate like a Swiss Army knife. That’s why I loved a point from my interview with the CRO of PandaDoc (a ~$500M ARR company). He described top executives using the T-shaped model:

You have broad competence across many areas, and then you can go deep in one area when the moment demands it, like the letter “T.”

If you start developing that skill early in your career, it becomes a huge advantage later.

Executive growth is a collaboration game

Some of the best leaders I’ve met are exceptional at cross-functional collaboration both top-down and sideways. Your ability to collaborate with stakeholders across the company is one of the biggest predictors of how fast you’ll climb.

Because no organization is purely “horizontal” or purely “vertical.” Every company is four-dimensional. So when you think about your work, train yourself to ask:

• How does this affect the people below me?

• How does this affect the people above me?

• How does this affect my peers in other departments (including the ones I rarely talk to)?

• And what are the second-order consequences I’m not seeing yet?

The stronger your connections across all those directions, the sharper your decisions become and the more value you create around you.

A lot of people complain about:

• “I don’t have enough information.”

• “Leadership isn’t transparent.”

• “Other teams are siloed.”

Sometimes that’s true. But most of the time, if you really look at it, the person complaining is also part of the problem. Because at higher levels, nobody hands you context on a plate. You’re expected to go collect it.

Your job is to create your own communication pathways and learn how to gather signal constantly, so your decisions improve.

If you become a great cross-functional collaborator, you start seeing:

• opportunities from above,

• capability gaps and growth paths below,

• and the most efficient ways to help your peers execute.

How to build this muscle (practically)

My advice is simple and very doable.

1) Be present in the company’s “signal”
Show up consistently: all-hands, key channels, internal updates. Support the brand externally too, engage with company posts, share/like/comment when it makes sense, be a brand ambassador. This is the bare minimum, and it keeps you informed.

2) Build “motivation portraits” of the people around you
What does my CEO care about right now?
What pressures are they under?
What does success look like for my peers?
What do my direct partners need to look good?

When you build real relationships, it becomes easier to raise ideas and solve problems fast, without politics.

3) Stay sharp on the outside world
Be curious about the market: competitors, clients, and where your category is going. Then bring the best insights back internally. Some of the most valuable ideas in a company are simple: “Hey, this is shifting. Here’s what I’m seeing. Here’s what we should test.”

And sometimes you’re not just the messenger, you’re the person who can run the experiment.

To summarize everything

If you want to grow into an executive role at a top firm or join a smaller firm and help it reach the next level, you need four things, developed to a high standard:

1. You have to aim for it.
   Not just the next promotion. Not just “manager.” You’re building toward executive ownership.

2. You need T-shaped range.
   Great executives aren’t narrow specialists. They have working competence across sales, marketing, people leadership (HR), and operations and can go deep when needed.

3. You’re the person who gets it done.
   In messy, ambiguous, disadvantaged conditions. You lead without needing the spotlight. You solve problems, build foundations, and make outcomes happen.

4. You operate in 4D.
   You stay engaged across the organization (up, down, sideways) and you stay active in the market, the industry, competitors, and client reality. You collect signals and turn them into better decisions.

If you’re reading this and thinking, “That sounds like me,” or “I want to become that person,” then you’re on the right track.

And if your goal is to build a great professional services firm, whether as a founder or as an executive, these are the people who take you to the top.

Thanks for reading today’s edition!