Yes. We did it.
We wrote the prequel to Play Bigger. And it’s the book we should’ve written first.
For almost a decade, something’s been bugging us. We introduced Category Design to the world with a best seller. But we never clearly named the problem it was solving.
The guys who preach Frame it, Name it, Claim it…Never named it. Kinda ironic, right?
Like the electrician with bad wiring. Or the mechanic whose car is always in the shop.
Call it a blind spot. Call it life. But we finally saw it. And once we saw it—we had to write it.
It’s called The Existing Market Trap.
It’s what happens when you build something new— and the market compares it to something old.
When you’re solving a real problem— but get dismissed as a “nice feature.”
When you’re trying to change the game—but you’re still playing by someone else’s rules.
We have seen it again and again. Across more than 100 companies, we worked with.
Startups and scale-ups. B2B and B2C. Seed to post-IPO. Brilliant teams. World-class products. Stuck in categories they didn’t create. Fighting uphill. Losing belief.
That’s the Existing Market Trap. And it’s everywhere. So we mapped it.
13 Deadly Sins—patterns we’ve seen destroy companies from the inside out.
And we built a system to help founders, CEOs, execs, and investors escape it.
This isn’t a storybook. It’s a diagnostic. It’s a belief-building field guide. And this one… this one is personal.
Christopher Lochhead and I got the band back together. Along with two new band members—Jason Wellcome and Mary Grice.
But it wasn’t always like this. After we launched Play Bigger, Chris and I went in different directions. We disagreed. We separated. And it hurt.
But the one thing we never lost was belief. In the work, in the problem. And—most importantly—in each other. Love is powerful. So is belief. That word—belief—is the real heartbeat of our new EMT book.
Belief is the most powerful thing you can build. And most companies never do.
We believe this work matters.
We believe it can help teams go from stuck to unstoppable.
We believe there’s a language for what you’re going through.
If you’ve ever felt like:
You’re not alone. You’re not failing. You’re likely in the trap.
The Existing Market Trap
The book we should have written before Play Bigger.
Out now. Short, sharp and very real. Written for founders who are in flight.
Available on Amazon: SHOP NOW
Let me know what lands. Let me know what doesn’t.
A minus 1 is just as powerful as a plus 1. Let’s make building belief a discipline.
P.S. Our new book crew includes Chris Stanley, Zoe Norvell and Carrie Drew.