The Strategy Session

Camper Bull
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Join seasoned entrepreneur and fractional CMO Camper Bull as he pulls back the curtain on building successful businesses in both digital and physical spaces. With over two decades of experience scaling companies to multi-million dollar valuations, Camper delivers actionable insights on marketing, business growth, and entrepreneurial success. Each episode of Strategy Session combines real-world case studies with proven frameworks that you can implement immediately. Drawing from his extensive experience as a fractional Chief Marketing Officer, Camper breaks down complex business challenges into clear, actionable strategies. Whether you're launching your first venture or scaling an established business, you'll gain valuable insights on: Modern marketing tactics that drive real results Building and scaling profitable business models Navigating the intersection of online and physical business spaces Revenue optimization and growth strategies Common pitfalls to avoid as you scale your company Decision-making frameworks for entrepreneurs No theory - just battle-tested strategies from someone who's been in the trenches. Listen in as Camper shares the unfiltered truth about what it takes to build and scale successful businesses in today's competitive landscape. New episodes drop weekly. Subscribe now to join the conversation with one of business's most experienced operators and marketing minds

  1. 3d ago

    The Book Deal That Worked And Still Cost Her | with Camper Bull

    The Book Deal That Worked And Still Cost Her | with Camper Bull There is a version of this decision that nobody argues with and almost nobody runs. Score it properly and the answer usually arrives faster than the argument does. The pattern Camper Bull keeps meeting is an author treating a traditional deal as the senior option and their own imprint as the runner up, then finding out years later that the advantage had been pointing the other way the whole time. The episode is built around a breakfast conversation in which one author discovered exactly that, out loud, years after she signed. In this episode of The Strategy Session from Ventured Gained, Camper works through the hybrid move he now recommends to almost every author who tells him they want a traditional deal. Put the book out yourself first. Let it work inside the business for twelve to eighteen months. Then look again, with proof in hand. The math on a publishing contract has been published for thirty years, and almost no author runs it on their own book before signing. What You'll Learn: ✓ How one breakfast conversation changed the first question Camper asks an author ✓ Why a deal that succeeds by the publisher's own definition can still be the expensive route ✓ The hybrid move, and the two outcomes it produces after twelve to eighteen months ✓ How to walk into a publisher conversation talking about terms rather than asking permission ✓ What changes in your work when an imprint stops functioning as a verdict on it A major imprint is a real credential, and in a few specific markets it is the thing that gets an author booked. The question is narrower than it sounds. Is that particular market worth a year and a half of waiting, the rights you sign away, and a smaller share of every copy sold? Answer it with numbers and the choice stops feeling like a referendum on whether you are a real author. A publishing guru sells you the framework and moves on to the next cohort. Camper Bull is a fractional CMO and COO who sits at the seam between marketing and operations, because at one to five million dollars that is where the leak is, and a book lands directly on that seam. The Publishing Route Decision Matrix is the worksheet behind this episode. Five scored inputs, one verdict, and a contract checklist for the authors who still decide to sign. Get The Publishing Route Decision Matrix: https://venturedgained.com/publishing-route/    Let's Connect: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camper-bull/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CamperBull Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VenturedGainedOfficial Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ventured.gained.official/ X: https://x.com/CamperBull Website: https://venturedgained.com/

  2. Sep 25

    With Your Shield Or On It: How To Hand Off Work | with Camper Bull

    With Your Shield Or On It: How To Hand Off Work | with Camper Bull The president of the company walked out of his office as the elevator doors were closing and gave Camper Bull five words. He was on his way to the airport to negotiate a contract worth somewhere between fifty and a hundred million dollars, priced three and a half cents at a time, and up to that moment nobody had told him how to do any of it. That silence was deliberate, and it is the reason the deal worked. In this episode of The Strategy Session from Ventured Gained, Camper takes that handoff apart and looks at what his president gave him and, more usefully, at what his president refused to give him. He calls the model the Handoff Line. Above the line are three things a leader owns and has to transfer clearly: the outcome, the guardrails, and the stakes. Below the line is the method, which belongs to the person doing the work and to nobody else. Most delegation breaks because the leader hands over the task and holds onto the how, which was the only part worth handing over in the first place. The reason this is hard is the same reason you were promoted. You were the best operator in the room, so telling people how to do the work feels like the most generous thing you have to offer. Camper argues the case against himself here as well, on the days when prescribing the method is genuinely correct, and on when the temporary ladder has to come away again. What You'll Learn: ✓ What the president did not do on the way to that elevator, and why the instruction he refused to give was the part that mattered ✓ What people do with their effort when the why is taken away from them, and why they will fill the blank you left with a target you never set ✓ How a guardrail makes someone's freedom usable, and why a limit set before the work starts carries further than a leader standing over the work ✓ The difference between initiative with a check in and instruction with a leash ✓ Which of the three things above the line leaders forget most often, and the five minute fix to run before the next handoff The how is the part you are best at. It is the reason you were promoted and it is the reason the work keeps finding its way back to your desk. Hand over the finish line, the constraint and the weight. Then let the doors close. The guru version of this is a model, a download and good luck with the rest. Camper is a fractional CMO and COO who sits at the seam between marketing and operations, because at one to five million dollars that is where the leak is, and he sits across the table from founders while they write the handoff that decides whether the work comes back. The Handoff Line Worksheet is the one page version of the model in this episode, filled in before the handoff rather than after it has already gone wrong. Get The Handoff Line Worksheet: https://venturedgained.com/handoff-line/ Let's Connect: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camper-bull/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CamperBull  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VenturedGainedOfficial  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ventured.gained.official/  X: https://x.com/CamperBull  Website: https://venturedgained.com/

  3. Sep 22

    The Book Title Mistakes Every Expert Author Makes | with Camper Bull

    The Book Title Mistakes Every Expert Author Makes | with Camper Bull Camper Bull's first book got a title with zero poetry in it, and that single decision opened more doors than almost anything else in his career. A graduate program offered him a course. A professional speaking community invited him in. Clients started calling, and the book had not done a single day of paid marketing yet.  On this episode of The Strategy Session, Camper Bull, fractional CMO and COO and founder of Ventured Gained, explains why clear beats clever when it comes to naming a book, and walks through the exact process of finding the keyword your buyer is already using to describe the problem you solve. A solo fractional CMO can help you market a book once the title is locked. This episode covers the decision that happens before that, the one you cannot edit after the book ships.  What you'll learn: ✓ Why a title that needs an explanation has already lost the sale ✓ How to run the three second rule with five people in your actual target audience ✓ How to find the keyword your buyer already uses instead of inventing new language for them to learn ✓ Why the hundred bad titles exercise breaks perfectionism faster than waiting for the perfect idea ✓ Where cleverness actually belongs, so it never costs you the sale The right title is already sitting in your buyer's search bar. This episode gives you the exact process to go find it. Get the Title Generation Worksheet: https://venturedgained.com/title-generation/    Let's Connect: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camper-bull/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CamperBull  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VenturedGainedOfficial  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ventured.gained.official/  X: https://x.com/CamperBull  Website: https://venturedgained.com/

  4. Sep 18

    Go From Outline to Manuscript in a Weekend | with Camper Bull

    Go From Outline to Manuscript in a Weekend | with Camper Bull Camper Bull is dyslexic. He has also published twenty three books, and he has a specific explanation for how both of those things are true at once. For years he assumed the problem was discipline, that if he could just sit down and force himself to write, the book would come out. What actually stood between him and the book was the medium. On this episode of The Strategy Session, Camper Bull, fractional CMO and COO and founder of Ventured Gained, explains why most expert books die in a Word document and lays out the method he has used to publish twenty three books without sitting down to write any of them. The books were built entirely through speaking, starting with four recorded seminars that became his second project management book. An agency will edit your manuscript once it exists. This episode is about how the manuscript gets made in the first place. What you'll learn: ✓ Why writing punishes people who think in spoken language, and how speaking restores your actual voice ✓ The arithmetic that turns a weekend of recordings into a full length manuscript, at one hundred and thirty to one hundred and fifty words per minute ✓ How to teach to capture, so a paid course or workshop funds the recording of your book ✓ The room setup and recording day workflow that keeps a manuscript sounding like one voice ✓ Why batching recordings into one or two focused days beats a year of scattered evenings A different medium is what actually finishes a carried book, and this episode gives you the exact setup to switch. Ask yourself which twenty minute recording you could make this weekend. Get the Recording Day Checklist: https://venturedgained.com/recording-day-checklist/   Let's Connect: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camper-bull/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CamperBull Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VenturedGainedOfficial Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ventured.gained.official/ X: https://x.com/CamperBull Website: https://venturedgained.com/

  5. Sep 15

    The Expert Author Bio Mistake You Cannot See | with Camper Bull

    The Expert Author Bio Mistake You Cannot See | with Camper Bull Almost every expert Camper Bull works with badly underestimates their own credibility. Their own experience stopped feeling rare the moment it became normal to them. The thing you built, the company you ran, the room you walked into and figured out- by the time you have done it twice, it just feels like Tuesday. In this episode of The Strategy Session, the podcast from Ventured Gained, Camper runs his own credibility audit live, reading out loud the list of things that are normal to him: contributing to the project management body of knowledge, building the logistics that delivered every Harry Potter book in the United States, six New York Times bestsellers, two of them in the same year. Then he shows you how to build and use that same list for your own book.  What you will learn: ✓ Why your own experience feels too ordinary to mention, and why that instinct is wrong ✓ The Rembrandt audit, the fifteen-item list that surfaces the credibility you stopped noticing ✓ The five categories of credibility, and the two most authors overuse ✓ Why education and credentials are often the weakest category for an expert book ✓ How to match your credibility to the specific reader instead of pasting the same bio into every book Your credibility is not your résumé. It is the specific evidence this reader needs before they trust your guidance. I sit across the table from founders and authors every week, and the math on this has been consistent the whole time: the specific detail wins the reader's trust, the generic résumé does not. Treat your credibility like a library, and pull only what belongs on this shelf for this reader. Get The Credibility Inventory Worksheet: https://venturedgained.com/credibility-inventory/ Let's Connect: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camper-bull/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CamperBull  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VenturedGainedOfficial  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ventured.gained.official/  X: https://x.com/CamperBull  Website: https://venturedgained.com/

  6. Sep 11

    Imposter Syndrome: Why Successful Founders Feel Like Frauds | with Camper Bull

    Imposter Syndrome: Why Successful Founders Feel Like Frauds | with Camper Bull Why do high achievers feel like frauds even when there is years of evidence that they know what they are doing? One mistake, one harsh review, or one unanswered question can suddenly outweigh a long record of wins. That is the one mistake myth, and it is one reason imposter syndrome can feel so convincing. In this episode of The Strategy Session, Camper Bull explores how negativity bias affects the way founders remember their own performance. Your brain tends to preserve failures and criticism more strongly than positive evidence, which means self doubt can end up running the numbers on a badly distorted record. Camper also breaks down the difference between useful doubt about a decision or skill and the kind of doubt that becomes a judgment about whether you belong at all. What You'll Learn: ✓ Why high achievers can experience imposter syndrome despite strong evidence of competence ✓ How negativity bias causes mistakes and criticism to carry more weight than wins ✓ The difference between calibrated doubt about the work and doubt about your own worth ✓ How to turn a gap in knowledge into a clear assignment instead of a personal verdict ✓ Why keeping a written record of your wins can help challenge the story imposter syndrome tells you Your brain may not reliably keep the evidence in your favor. The Evidence File gives you a place to document your wins, turn knowledge gaps into clear action items, and use the mentor test when self doubt starts turning into a verdict. Get The Evidence File: https://venturedgained.com/evidence-file/ You do not need to eliminate doubt to move forward. You need to keep the doubt pointed at the work and stop letting it decide whether you deserve to be doing the work at all. Let's Connect: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camper-bull/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CamperBull Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VenturedGainedOfficial Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ventured.gained.official/ X: https://x.com/CamperBull Website: https://venturedgained.com/

  7. Sep 8

    How to Overcome Creative Block and Find Better Ideas | with Camper Bull

    How to Overcome Creative Block and Find Better Ideas | with Camper Bull Why do readers stop reading business books even when the ideas are good? Often, the problem is not the content. It is the chapter structure. In this episode of The Strategy Session, Camper Bull shares the Four-Part Chapter Architecture he uses to structure business book chapters so readers stay engaged, understand the lesson, and know what to do next. The framework has four parts: Story Principle Substance Action Camper explains why the order matters and how each part serves a different purpose. A story lowers the reader's resistance and gives the lesson context. The principle distills the chapter into one clear idea. The substance provides the proof, examples, frameworks, and evidence that support the principle. And the action gives the reader one specific next step they can actually take. In this episode, you'll learn: How to structure a business book chapter so readers keep reading Why stories can make business teaching more persuasive How to identify and state the core principle of a chapter How to use examples, evidence, and frameworks without overwhelming the reader Why each chapter should end with one specific action Camper also shares the lesson he learned while speaking to 180 high school students for two hours and why that experience shaped the way he has structured chapters ever since. If you are writing a business book, revising a manuscript, or trying to understand why your chapters feel more like articles than chapters, this episode gives you a practical architecture you can apply immediately. Get the Four-Part Chapter Architecture: https://venturedgained.com/creative-cliff/ The one-page checklist includes the four parts, the questions to ask for each one, and a worked example you can keep beside your manuscript as you write. Question to consider: What is the last business book you stopped reading before you finished it? The answer may tell you more about chapter architecture than you think.

  8. Sep 1

    How to Find Your Target Audience Before Writing a Book | with Camper Bull

    How to Find Your Target Audience Before Writing a Book | with Camper Bull Most founders who write a book try to make it useful to as many people as possible. Beginners. Experienced operators. Different industries. Different business models. But in trying to reach everyone, the writing can become specific to no one. In this episode of The Strategy Session, Camper Bull explains how to find your book's ideal reader by starting with a surprisingly useful person: yourself, three to five years before you found the answer your book now delivers. He shares why a reader's psychographics matter more than demographics when you are writing chapters, how concrete details create the feeling that an author truly understands the reader, and why choosing one specific beachhead reader can ultimately expand rather than limit a book's reach. What You'll Learn: ✓ How to identify your ideal reader by writing to a past version of yourself ✓ Why demographics tell you who the reader is while psychographics tell you what to write ✓ How to uncover the fears, wants, failed attempts, and quiet pride that make writing more specific ✓ Why focusing on one beachhead reader can strengthen credibility and word of mouth ✓ How describing your reader's actual week can become a calibration tool for every chapter A book does not need to speak directly to every possible reader. It needs to understand one reader deeply enough that everyone like them recognizes themselves in the writing. Reader Avatar Profile If you want to define that reader before you write your next chapter, use the Reader Avatar Profile. It is a one-page tool based on the framework in this episode, including the reader's fears, wants, failed attempts, quiet pride, and typical week. Get the Reader Avatar Profile: https://venturedgained.com/reader-avatar/  Let's Connect: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camper-bull/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CamperBull Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VenturedGainedOfficial Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ventured.gained.official/ X: https://x.com/CamperBull Website: https://venturedgained.com/

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About

Join seasoned entrepreneur and fractional CMO Camper Bull as he pulls back the curtain on building successful businesses in both digital and physical spaces. With over two decades of experience scaling companies to multi-million dollar valuations, Camper delivers actionable insights on marketing, business growth, and entrepreneurial success. Each episode of Strategy Session combines real-world case studies with proven frameworks that you can implement immediately. Drawing from his extensive experience as a fractional Chief Marketing Officer, Camper breaks down complex business challenges into clear, actionable strategies. Whether you're launching your first venture or scaling an established business, you'll gain valuable insights on: Modern marketing tactics that drive real results Building and scaling profitable business models Navigating the intersection of online and physical business spaces Revenue optimization and growth strategies Common pitfalls to avoid as you scale your company Decision-making frameworks for entrepreneurs No theory - just battle-tested strategies from someone who's been in the trenches. Listen in as Camper shares the unfiltered truth about what it takes to build and scale successful businesses in today's competitive landscape. New episodes drop weekly. Subscribe now to join the conversation with one of business's most experienced operators and marketing minds

Information

  • Creator
    Camper Bull
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    168
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2024
  • Show Website
    The Strategy Session