Client Zero
Everything in this series was field-tested on me first.
I am Client Zero. Everything in this series was field-tested on me first.
I didn’t learn these lessons in a classroom or from an MBA case study. I learned them in one of the most disrupted industries of our time, publishing. For two decades, I was a digital production consultant and freelancer to the comics entertainment industry. Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and many more.
My clients were household names. My vantage point was unusual: close enough to see the tectonic shifts up close, but independent enough to work with all of them in their own unique situations.
I watched Marvel go from bankruptcy to buyout. I watched the rise of digital comics. I watched the birth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
I learned the hard way that disruption doesn’t politely knock. It kicks the door down.
The Marvel Wake-Up Call
When Spider-Man with Tobey Maguire rang up huge global revenues, I congratulated a friend at Marvel. “You must be thrilled.”
His answer stopped me cold: “Not so much.”
Why? Marvel had licensed the rights to Sony on a fixed contract. Sony cashed in. Marvel got the flat fee. #ouch.
That painful moment became Marvel’s pivot point. They realized they needed to own the pipeline, not just create the content. Over the next few years, Marvel innovated itself into a new identity by launching the MCU. Beginning with Iron Man and eventually securing the Disney buyout.
That’s when I started noticing a pattern: some publishers innovated themselves again and again. Others sat stunned, wondering what just happened.
Comics vs. Magazines
I had a foot in both worlds. I’d leave Marvel or DC’s offices buzzing with energy, cross the street, and ride an elevator up to see my magazine friends. Two industries. Two cultures. Two playbooks.
Marvel went bankrupt, then pivoted birthing the MCU.
Life Magazine clung to weekly photo spreads until the world moved on.
Dark Horse spotted their edge: “We make beautiful books.” Soon, Zelda and Overwatch art books sat on coffee tables everywhere.
Gourmet Magazine had the recipes and the brand but missed the digital food revolution. Food bloggers ate their lunch.
DC Comics experimented: “What if stories came weekly instead of monthly?” 52 proved cadence could change and win.
Newsweek tried to be a weaker version of Time. The internet erased the need.
Archie Comics saw kids weren’t at spinner racks anymore but were on iPhones. The digital leap gave them enough runway to reinvent as Riverdale.
TV Guide kept printing listings when the listings were already on the screen. Becoming obsolete by design.
One afternoon, after leaving the comics offices with a head full of ideas, I walked into a hundred-year-old flagship magazine publisher I had visited dozens of times. Only this time the door was chained and padlocked.
That was the contrast in stark relief:
Comics innovated themselves, redefining products, formats, even their identities. They transformed rapidly.
Magazines clung to the BIG Playbook, wishing the good old days would return. They transformed slowly, as their hoarded resources dried up.
One played for the future. The other clung to the past.
That contrast was the playbook.
And it was that moment, watching the difference between industries that reinvented themselves and those that didn’t that pushed me to build a framework. I wanted to create a simple, teachable method for ordinary people to innovate extraordinarily. A framework solopreneur could use to move from problems to profits, and to win again and again. That’s why you’re here.
A Personal #boom
Once at DC Comics, I had a one-on-one meeting with a friend. I came prepared with ideas for new projects.
Instead, he cut through my autopilot with a single question: “Why are you doing this?”
I wasn’t sure what he meant. “Doing what?”
He clarified: “Why are you building someone else’s IP instead of creating your own?”
#boom.
That question shattered my default mode. I walked out of that office rattled. Soon after, I went independent. I determined to study innovation seriously; to codify the instinctive winning practices I had observed into a framework that was simple, sustainable, and human.
My Apprenticeship
I buried myself in Peter Drucker until his teachings soaked into my bones. I practiced GTD faithfully because I knew I had to be “organized enough” to innovate myself. I took the Kolbe A Index and discovered my volitional strengths, my 4-4-9-1 wiring, and finally understood why some approaches energized me and others drained me.
If my Kolbe A Index result of 4-4-9-1 looks like code, here’s what it means: I’m what some Kolbe practitioners call a flaming Quick Start. I thrive in vision, innovation, and pivots. But I’m also a maintainer and an explainer, so I don’t blow things up just for the fun of it.
That’s the beauty of the MVP Framework. It’s powered by your DNA. My wiring fuels my version of it. Yours will fuel yours. Your MVP Framework won’t look like mine. It will be uniquely yours. That’s the point. It’s not about changing who you are. It’s about innovating as yourself.
This was my apprenticeship. Drucker taught me to see opportunity. GTD gave me a system for execution. Kolbe showed me how I was wired to work. Together, they became my personal foundation and the scaffolding on which I built my framework.
For 15 years, I refined it. It was the hardest work of my life. I freelanced. I side-hustled. I swam against the current.
And when I finally presented my framework to the BIG Industrial Complex, I got polite smiles and zero interest.
Why? It was opportunity-first, and they were invested in problem-first pipelines.
I had built it, and they didn’t come.
The One Million Cups Pivot
Then I found myself at One Million Cups, a grassroots founder community where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas and get blunt feedback over coffee.
I went in looking for feedback about niches. I thought founders would help me figure out markets where my framework might fit.
Instead, I got three truth bombs:
You’ve built everything, but you have no customers.” #ouch.
“You’re the Dave Ramsey of innovation.” #wow.
“Ken, you need to innovate yourself.” #hmm.
I went in searching for niches. I walked out realizing I needed a pivot.
Turning to Solopreneurs
So, I turned to solopreneurs.
In workshops, they lit up. Over and over, I heard the same things:
“I took notes the whole time and I NEVER take notes.”
“This framework is the real deal. You’re the real deal.”
“Can I share this with my mom?” (from a developer who connected instantly with the framework).
One founder carried his workshop notes everywhere in his binder. Another told me the whole method could fit on a napkin, and he was right. (We tried it at a workshop) I heard it from a nonprofit founder, a crypto builder, an inventor seeking grants, even a programmer who wanted to teach her mom. The diversity was striking, but the resonance was the same.
Over and over, solopreneurs told me: “Forget the BIG Industrial Complex. This is for us.” They were right. I realized that the people I was serving weren’t corporations or institutions. They were solopreneurs like me. Everything I teach now is for one person in particular: ten years ago, Ken.
That was my pivot and why I’m writing this series for you.
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