I help established founders make better calls, act faster, and build a business that runs without them.
For owners who carry the big decisions and have nobody to think with. The aim: revenue up, prices held, and your time back.
You message me on Signal when a decision comes up. I answer in writing. No calendar booking. No one-to-one phone calls once you join.
From event crew to a $500 million exit.
When I met Dan Corkill he was event crew on $65K a year, handing out contracts at the back of the room. He built Follow Up Boss, and sold it to Zillow in a deal worth up to $500 million.
"I went from working like a maniac to running an effective team, scaling our business and working a lot less with help from James."
I'm James Schramko.
I keep a low profile on purpose.
Started my own businesses and just kept running them, then sold a few at a profit.
My view is chasing a hundred million dollars in revenue is the wrong goal for most. You can have a great life with a million dollar profit per year while compromising less.
Advice only counts from people who have done what you are trying to do, and whose life you admire.
Surfing most days. Running a quiet business that pays for a high quality life. Working since 1991, free of the job since 2008.
I have been mentoring business owners since 2008. Over 3,500 businesses advised in 18 years, in my communities and in Mentor. Mentor clients stay 5 to 7 years on average. My longest-running client has been with me since 2010.
Recurring income unbroken since July 2008, through three full changes of platform and content. The business does not depend on any platform, by design. That is the idea behind owning the racecourse you run on.
The patterns repeat.
Your problem is likely more common than it feels. It's just hard to see from inside.
The most common one: a founder who holds every open question in the business. Pricing, team, positioning. Nothing gets handed off, so everything stays with them. Often for years.
The other: the business has outgrown the way you run it. You are running a bigger company on the habits that built the smaller one.
We all feel our situation is unique, yet at the same time I've likely seen your bottleneck before. That's why I can help you make a decision in minutes that would take you months alone. That is what you are buying.
Most founders think they need more information. Usually they need a better diagnosis.
Maybe you already know your next move.
Most founders who join arrive with a decision that has been sitting there for months. Kill the weak offer. Raise the price. Replace the hire. The business keeps running, so the decision keeps sliding.
My job is to name what the delay is costing. Then I shrink the move until the first step fits inside a week. Then I hold you to the date you set.
What the delay is costing.
Take the decision you have been sitting on. Put a number on last month. What did holding it cost you, in cash or in hours? If that repeats for a year, add it up. That is what another year of the same could cost.
I don't know your number. You do.
Paul Warren worked with me over ten years ago and left. His words on coming back:
"I should have stayed."
Mentor
Ongoing input for founders who already have a working business.
What founders come to Mentor for: their week back, a business that runs when they are away, prices that hold, and fewer things that need them. That comes from making better calls, faster, and skipping the expensive detours.
I suggest clients shut down six-figure product lines when they are slowing things down. I remind clients to raise prices and remove clients who do not fit. I help clients to merge three offers into one. One client was sure he was burned out. He was underpriced. He tripled his rates, dropped two offers, and the exhaustion went away. The advice is direct. The goal is always fewer moving parts, cleaner positioning, and stronger decisions.
Many members use AI tools every day, and so do I.
Keep using AI.
But getting your AI working the right way is important. For example, moving your IP onto your own files matters, so it stops forgetting your business. When your AI is tuned right, it helps your outputs become more effective.
A week inside Mentor.
Any day: a message.
Text, a voice note, or a file from your phone, whenever a decision comes up. Every reply is me, not a bot, not an assistant. No portal, no ticket, no waiting two weeks for a call.
Once a week: the group call.
Three times to choose from. Come to any of them. You bring one win and one challenge. We work the challenge in the room: a pricing decision, a hire, an offer that needs collapsing, a launch plan. You leave with one thing to do this week, and a date. Next week I ask if you did it. You also hear what is working in other founders' businesses.
Your first week.
I look at how your business is built and how much it depends on you. You get a diagnosis in priority order. It names the three moves that will change the most, and what to leave alone while those are under way.
After that.
We cut what slows you down, fix pricing, positioning and delivery, and keep the model simple as the business changes. Expensive detours get named and cut early. The value builds because I know the business well enough to catch what you cannot see from inside it.
Half the time the founder already knows the answer. What they need is someone who has seen it before to confirm it is safe to act on. If you are avoiding something, I will name it.
This is for you if:
- You have a working business with paying customers, usually past $100K a year, or you've sold one and have the capital for the next
- You run an agency, coaching, service, training or membership, consulting, or product and ecommerce business
- You act on direct feedback
- You want clarity over motivation
This is not for you if:
- You have no customers yet and no capital to build with
- You want a course or curriculum
- You want advice but will not act on it
- You care more about motivation than strategy
If you have been coached before.
Plenty of my clients have been coached before, some by me. Around a third of my current clients worked with me years ago, left, and came back.
What they come back to is the tightest version of this work in 18 years.
Client Results
Five of many. The full list is on the results page.
"I've gone from two programs to one offer at a flat monthly rate. I now deliver in about a day and a half a week, and I have capacity for another ten clients."
"Since being a mentoring partner, we have doubled revenue, tripled profit, and brought on more than 10 team members within a year, as the business has been growing by 5-10% month after month."
"My business ran for a full week in Hong Kong while I was at Disneyland with my family. Three hours of work the entire trip. Revenue kept moving without me touching anything."
"James helped me design an offer founders actually wanted to buy and get my first client within the first month. Five years on, I run a fully remote business with clients and team spanning North America, UK and Australia."
"I've been coached by James since 2010. He's been instrumental in growing my business past 7 figures while valuing lifestyle and family."
Investment
Pay month to month. No lock-in contract. Cancel any time, in writing, at least 24 hours before your next billing date. No application. If this page speaks to you, join. If it doesn't, don't. If you are unsure, start with the Playbooks. They are free.
JOIN MENTORNo lock-in contract. On purpose.
Lock-in contracts hold clients in when the coaching should be the reason they stay. I don't use them.
The work builds your judgment, so you make more of the calls yourself over time. Clients stay for years because they choose to, month after month.
Availability
I keep fewer than 50 Mentor clients at any one time. That is on purpose. Each one gets more of my attention.
You will never be lost in a group of hundreds.
Common Questions
Yes, briefly. If you have a question that only a conversation will settle, contact me through ASK JAMES and we will find 15 minutes. It is a fit check, not a coaching session. Once you join, the coaching happens in writing or voice message, so that is the part to test.
Send me a specific question through ASK JAMES and I will answer it myself, in writing or voice message. Or ask Hammond AI below the facts about how Mentor runs. In my experience, frequent written answers get more done than scheduled calls.
Have a question before you decide?
Ask Hammond AI, the system I run. It will tell you straight whether Mentor fits and how it works day to day. Anything it can't answer, it hands to me.
Hammond AI is new to this page. If it gets something wrong, tell me through ASK JAMES and I will fix it.
Ready?
JOIN MENTORNot ready for ongoing mentoring?
Start with the Playbooks. The same thinking I use with clients, written up so you can apply it yourself. Free.
BROWSE THE PLAYBOOKS