"Marcus is worth way more than you can pay him" - Andrew Coven - Box

"This group hits the mark: I get new ideas and viewpoints for dealing with the hard situations."

You spend most of your time settling differences and getting people to play nicely together.  Your team is missing deadlines and playing the blame game.  You're working harder than ever, but your team is leaving early.  Instead of leading, you're resorting to heavy-handed threats and rewards tactics.

You've tried to educate yourself about how to build a high-performing team that really delivers.  You've tried agile, scrum, kanban, Scrum-ban, agile-fall and more.  You've tried Trello, Pivotal, Jira, Asana and a dozen other tools.   You've read all the articles.  You've read a small mountain of agile, and tech management books - but you nothing you try moves you forward.

You need a safe place to continually improve and get help with real-world challenges.

Get Help From a Battle-Tested Tech leader

I'm not some ivory-tower academic, I'm an experienced, battle-hardened, proven technical leader.

In the past 17 years, I've made all the jumps, and I have the scars to prove it.

I went from Jr. Programmer at $BIG_ENTEPRISE to Assistant Director at the same company, to CTO of my own startup.

Think about it this way: I made all the mistakes so you don't have to.

In addition, I've worked for more than my share of BAD BOSSES, and I believe that every programmer deserves a good boss.

You can become the boss your team deserves.  I can show you.

New Age Mumbo-Jumbo Not Included.

Am I one of those smarmy "life coaches"?  Nope.

Will I ask you to wear a crystal or light candles?  Never.

Will we have a kumbaya circle?  Hell no.

But I will ask you to read, study, practice, think, and take a hard look at your team, your environment, and your process.

And, even harder, I'll ask you to look in the mirror.

My promise to you: you'll never go it alone.  

And when you're done, your team will thank you.

Price: $650/month

Ready to get started?

Here's How It Works

Step 1: Private Onboarding / Goal-Setting session

When you sign-up I'll send you over a brief onboarding worksheet, then we'll schedule a private session to discuss your team and your goals.  This sets the foundation for our mentoring.

 

Step 2: Get introduced to the closed Slack group

Next, I'll add you to my closed Slack group of Software Managers and Leaders.

 

Step 3: Participate in the bi-monthly Mentoring session

Every two weeks we meet as a group to discuss key topics, problems or idea.  You won't be surprised to learn that everyone has the same basic problems, and you are among friends!  We learn through guided discussion and create a safe place where people can be candid and open about their work.

What do we discuss?  We follow a broad outline of topics, hitting on all topics over a 12-month period.  This flexibility allows us to discuss timely issues, urgent questions, and real-world situations.

Key Technical Leadership topics include (but are not limited to):

  1. Recruiting, interviewing and hiring
  2. Motivating team members
  3. Creating a safe environment
  4. Offering and receiving feedback
  5. Management theories, and their practical applications
  6. Agile processes and work organizations
  7. Managing your boss and clients
  8. Leading vs. Managing
  9. Annual evaluations
  10. Scaling your team
  11. Time Management
  12. Leading remote teams

 

Step 4: Review the video recording of the Mentoring session

After the Mentoring session, you'll receive a recording of the call so you can review it and share it with your team as you see fit.

 

Step 5: Discuss problems/ideas via Slack or email between sessions

Between our sessions, we discuss topics and brainstorm ideas over slack.  Or, feel free to email me with questions, and I'll quickly reply with some new ideas for how to move forward

 

Step 6: Grab a time to chat as-needed.

Once you're one of my students, you have access to me whenever you need it.  Need ideas for tuning up your process?  Book a call.  Got the shakes before you fire someone?  Grab the phone.  Seriously.

No voice message, no virtual assistant.  ME and YOU, in-it-to-win-it.

Questions?

How many are in a group?

No more than 5 people are in each group.

 

When do the groups meet?

Groups currently meet Thursdays at two times:

  • 8am Pacific USA time
  • 5pm Pacific USA time

You choose the session when you join.

 

How long is each meeting?

Each group meets for 90 minutes twice a month to discuss a topic.  We'll rotate through topics each month, but you can ask questions or get help on any topic during any session.

Each one of you will get time to talk and ask questions during the meeting, and I'll answer them (or get you the answer).  We'll also help each other, so we all learn together.  Yay!

 

Normal Price: $650/month

(Your card won't be charged for 14 days; cancel anytime!)

Ready to get started?

The "You gotta be happy!" Guarantee

If you decide this isn't for you, for any reason, I'll immediately give 100% of your money back, no questions asked.  I want you to be happy with your decision.  No questions asked.

What people say about working with me...

I'm too busy to put something new into practice.

It might seem like you’re too busy to take another class, another training, or implement another practice, but that’s short-sighted.  It’s not difficult to imagine how busy you will be if your team can't deliver on time. If you’re already “too busy”, building a high-performance environment is one of your most important initiatives.

I'm not a good enough manager to inspire people to be loyal.

Nah!  If you can learn to code (a completely foreign thing to humans!) you can learn to relate to another human being.  This isn’t rocket science, and like any skill, it can be learned with a bit of practice.

I'll be unable to put these ideas into practice where I work.

I have never found an organization where these practices could not be implemented, from agencies, to start-ups, to enterprises.  Like anything worth doing, it will require effort on your part, but you will not be alone.

I don't have the authority to make changes needed to keep my developers happy.

Your boss doesn’t want to see turnover either, so he’s also motivated to keep your best people.  We’ll explore how you can work with upper management to create the kind of environment your people need to be happy and productive.

Will this work in any timezone?

That depends on you.  Sessions are held via video weekly at 8:30 am Pacific USA time. If you can make that work, then we'd love to see you!

Why am I doing this?

I'm not some ivory-tower academic, I'm an experienced, battle-hardened, proven technical leader.

In the past 17 years, I've made all the jumps, and I have the scars to prove it.

I went from Jr. Programmer at $BIG_ENTEPRISE to Assistant Director at the same company, to CTO of my own startup.

Think about it this way: I made all the mistakes so you don't have to.

In addition, I've worked for more than my share of BAD BOSSES, so I believe that every programmer deserves a good boss.

You can become the boss your team deserves.  I can show you.

marcus-blakenship-leaning-wall-avatar

Price: $650/month

Availability is limited

I'm only available for a few onboarding calls each month becuase current students get priority access to me.  Scheduling is first come, first served.  The sooner you apply, the sooner you will have the answer you need to get your team unstuck.

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