In 2018, I started teaching sales and entrepreneurship at the Ivey Business School. I fell in love with the role, and have since exited my other businesses to focus on teaching full-time. In 2022, after the birth of our fourth (fourth!) child, I took a one-year sabbatical to give my family my best hours and contemplate the next chapter of our lives. After conversations with mentors, practitioners, and academics, my plan is to forego a traditional Ph.D. and execute on this plan to: create or curate valuable and original ideas (research) that are, distributed widely (articles, podcasts, video), curated and packaged (courses, resources, frameworks), and applied in practice (consulting/coaching).

1. How to Become a World-Class Educator
Revised: 8/5/23
(My Alternative to a PhD)
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2. Background
My Story
In 2018, I began teaching sales and entrepreneurship at the Ivey Business
School. I fell in love with the role, and have since exited my other businesses to
focus on teaching full-time.
In 2022, after the birth of our fourth (fourth!) child, I took a one-year sabbatical
to give my family my best hours, and contemplate the next chapter of our lives.
After conversations with mentors, practitioners, and academics, my plan is to
forego a traditional PhD and execute on this plan to: create or curate valuable
and original ideas (research) that are, distributed widely (articles, podcasts,
video), curated and packaged (courses, resources, frameworks), and applied
in practice (consulting / coaching).
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3. Alternative PhD Overview
My Motivation
• Become a more credible expert (as an industry practitioner and in academia)
• Stay relevant and keep close ties with industry practice
• Study and understand my areas of expertise (sales, revenue growth, entrepreneurship and personal development) more deeply
• Become a colleague (meet and know experts in the industry)
• Contribute meaningfully to the practice of sales / growth / management
• Stretch, fail and be humbled
• Develop my own opinions (thesis or articles)
• Become a world-class teacher
• Get uncomfortable: break down and rebuild my own courses based on new insights about teaching and learning
• Ego: Become a sought-after speaker, expert, consultant
• Be well compensated
• Create legacy through impact
• Be proud of the body of work / knowledge and impact that I create
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4. Purpose
To make sales education more accessible and applicable.
ACCESSIBLE APPLICABLE
Clear
Curated
Fun
Useful
Easy-to-share
Improves Outcomes
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5. Teaching Flywheel
To create valuable & original
ideas that are distributed
widely, curated and
packaged to provide value,
and applied in practice.
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6. Without hands-on research and the discipline to write it up, I’ll
be teaching the same thing that I did 10 years ago.
A) Valuable & Original Ideas (RESEARCH)
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7. Valuable Ideas (Research)
Baseline level of understanding.
• Take a seminar / research course at Ivey (shadow PhD course)
• Study Studying Studies Series from Peter Attia: https://peterattiamd.com/ns001/
• Take an online course
• (2 hours) Academic Research Foundations on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/learning/academic-research-
foundations-quantitative)
• JSTOR Research Basics (https://guides.jstor.org/researchbasics/welcome)
• Intro to Research Online Course (https://www.coursera.org/learn/research-methods)
• Meet with top sales researchers for advice (Neil Rackham, Ben Shapiro, Mark Vandenbosch, Willy Bolander, Frank
Cespedes)
• Do some “real” research writing (with a colleague)
• Conduct more practitioner research then write and publish new cases at Ivey based on learnings
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8. B) Distributed Widely (WRITING+)
You cannot write clearly until you have thought clearly.
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9. Distributed Widely
How to be a world-class writer?
1. Take a writing course (Write of Passage, Annie Dillard, or similar).
2. Write weekly: Develop and follow a writing habit.
3. Write for an editor: Have writing deadlines and get them critiqued.
4. Write a book: Pitch a book concept and write
fi
rst book.
5. Drumbeat: State of sales.
6. Host a world-class podcast.
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10. C) Curated & Packaged (TEACHING+)
You remember best things you have explained under constructive
emotional stress.
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11. Curated and Packaged (Teaching)
How to be a world-class teacher?
1. Teach more, in di
ff
erent formats, to di
ff
erent audiences, and have an expert
watch, give feedback, integrate and teach again.
2. Observe great teachers and take notes to implement in my own teaching
(Executive Education, HBA, MBA, PhD Programs).
3. Study pedagogy/approaches - what can I learn/integrate?
4. Interview / learn from world-class teachers. Identify top teachers that I know
personally and make time to interview them (podcast), then write up and
summarize learnings. Start with Ivey’s best that live in London!
5. Level-up by co-teaching with those better than me.
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12. D) Applied (CONSULTING)
Deconstruction creates knowledge. Recombination creates value.
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13. Applied (Consulting)
Working with best
fi
t clients.
1. Is it a topic that I’m interested in?
2. Is it an industry that I’m interested in, or varied so that I can learn?
3. Is the company a good
fi
t?
4. Is the geography a good
fi
t with current desire to travel (or not)?
5. Will I get to work with great people who I can learn from?
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14. What does great look like?
1. Conducting research in partnership with credible
experts and organizations.
2. Co-authoring articles with a respected academics.
3. Co-authoring articles in practitioner journals.
4. Writing case studies.
1. Writing regularly for a publication (Inc., Globe &
Mail, Fast Company)
2. Writing a weekly blog post or article.
3. Hosting a top-rated podcast.
4. Growing mailing list to 10,000.
5. Growing follower base (Linkedin) to 100,000 &
posting daily.
1. Teaching live courses at Ivey (HBA & MBA).
2. Developing new courses and teaching content (executive
education, online courses, bootcamps).
3. Generating downloadable playbooks, guides, resources.
4. Writing a book.
5. Winning teaching awards (Ivey, Poets & Quants)
1. Working with top-tier consulting clients on a project basis.
2. Select 1:1 coaching (paid).
3. Mentorship (free).
A) Valuable & Original Ideas (RESEARCH) B) Distributed Widely (WRITING+)
C) Curated & Packaged (TEACHING+) D) Applied (CONSULTING)
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15. A) Valuable & Original Ideas (RESEARCH) B) Distributed Widely (WRITING+)
C) Curated & Packaged (TEACHING+) D) Applied (CONSULTING)
2023 KPIs
1. Write CRO Handbook.
2. 1 research collaboration project with an academic.
3. 1 HBR article with mentor.
4. Finalize and publish draft cases.
5. Attend 1 industry & 1 academic conference.
6. Book overview.
1. Take writing course.
2. Write one article/week starting in September.
3. Grow Linkedin followers to 20,000.
4. Grow mailing list to 10,000.
5. Pitch a concept to credible partner.
1. Observe 5 great teachers.
2. Interview 5 teaching legends.
3. Teach to new groups and in new formats (Boundless)
4. Teach 1 new cohort of Sales Reframed.
5. Develop one new course (Sales Management).
6. Develop a set of downloadable playbook, guides,
resources.
1. Take on 3 new consulting clients / case studies.
2. Develop Kitchen Cabinet of Sales Mentors.
3. Develop service o
ff
ering menu on website.
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