Twenty years of starting companies, running sales floors, and doing the marketing myself. Brand, pipeline, people — usually all three at once.
Ownership taught me the only rule I actually trust: when there's no playbook, you write one. These are the four I keep writing.
I've started brands from a blank page — name, positioning, site, funnel, first customer. A brand isn't a logo. It's the distance between "who is this?" and "oh, I've heard of you," and that distance is worth money on every call.
Four companies founded or co-founded, including a global community for young entrepreneurs I ran for six years.
Proof: built Instant Auto Approvals from a name to a funded subprime pipeline, solo.
I've run paid and organic together because I've had to — no agency, no budget for guesswork. Google PPC, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, email. The math on each channel is different. The goal is the same: more qualified people, lower cost per deal.
I've managed six-figure ad budgets and I've started with nothing. Both teach you something the other doesn't.
Proof: ran all four paid channels at Instant Auto Approvals solo; led Cochrane Nissan's digital pivot through COVID.
Twenty years of closing rooms, training teams, and rewriting scripts that stopped working. I've sold $90k vacation memberships and $3.2M resort properties to buyers from forty countries in the same week.
I've carried the number and I've managed the people carrying it. I still jump on calls, because a manager who won't sell can't teach.
Proof: consultant to Sales Manager at Vida Vacations, in one of the most competitive sales rooms in the world.
This is the part I'm most excited about right now. I use AI where it earns its keep — research at speed, ad variations, follow-up that never drops a lead, small internal tools that delete busywork. I don't publish AI slop, and I'll tell you when it's the wrong tool.
The advantage was never the model. It's knowing which twenty minutes of your week it should be doing instead of you.
Proof: building AI-assisted lead follow-up and content systems at Complete Barndo Solutions.
Different industries, same approach. Build the brand, find the buyer, never stop optimizing.
The room. Resort sales at the highest level — buyers from forty countries, properties from $90k to $3.2M, a room where every rep was competing and the manager was expected to win too.
What I did. Arrived as a consultant and left as a manager who'd set records for volume per customer and close rate.
The problem. A pandemic closed the showroom and the old way of buying a car went with it.
What I did. Took over the marketing department, moved the store to digital and social lead generation, and trained the team to sell to people who never walked in first.
The gap. Subprime buyers get shuffled to the back of the lot. Nobody was talking to them like adults.
What I built. A brand, a lead engine across four paid channels, and the financing and delivery process behind it — start to finish, by myself.
The idea. Young entrepreneurs everywhere were doing the work alone. They needed a room, even a digital one.
What I built. A blog and worldwide community I ran as CEO — PR, contributors, interviews, the forum, and a lot of the writing.
Cell phones, lighting, cars, vacation properties, custom homes. Different products, same job: build the brand, find the buyer, train the team.
I run sales and marketing for a custom barndominium builder working across six states. Design, land, financing and the full build — one contract, one team.
Created the brand from scratch to serve buyers other dealers ignore. Financing, customer contact, delivery logistics, and every lead — Facebook, Google PPC, Instagram, TikTok.
Trained new hires, ran internet sales, then took over the marketing department and grew its reach. Led the store through COVID with no dip and some of its best months on record.
Arrived as a consultant and worked up to manager. My teams set records for volume per customer and close rate; I sold properties from $90k to $3.2M to buyers from dozens of countries.
Community, conferences and digital media for people arguing about where technology is taking us. Deliberately confrontational, deliberately memorable.
Organized Calgary's first Startup Weekend — logistics, marketing, fundraising, partnerships — then travelled to help other cities run theirs.
Helped small businesses get online and use mobile tools before either was obvious. First sale, first payroll, first everything.
Started a blog for young entrepreneurs, grew it into a worldwide community and ran it as CEO for six years — PR, contributors, editorial, events.
Justin Nowak · Teague, Texas
Cell phones in Calgary. A blog for young entrepreneurs. Resort properties on the Pacific. Custom homes in Texas. Every time I started something new, I had to learn the product, the buyer, and the market from scratch. I'm fast at that now.
I don't pitch myself as a strategist who draws on whiteboards. I've been on the floor. I know what it feels like when a deal goes cold, when a campaign bleeds money, when a new hire quits on week three. I fix those things because I've fixed them before.
Sales, marketing, AI, and what building in Texas actually looks like.
Follow me on LinkedIn →Top skills: account executives · high sense of urgency · inbound sales
A barndo on your land, a sales team that's stalled, or a brand that nobody's heard of yet. Send me the details and I'll tell you what I'd do first. No deck, no pitch.