About Craig and Jessica Laughlin
Everything this firm teaches, I learned the expensive way first. This page tells that story in the order it happened, from an agency that gave its best advice away to the life Jessica and I built after I lost it all to the grind.
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Before the story · The agency
Before any of this, I built a full-service digital marketing agency in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. Three thousand square feet and a team I believed in. I paid my people well and kept my own draw low, by choice.
Clients kept pulling me into conversations that had nothing to do with marketing: cash flow, pricing, hiring, how the business was structured. I answered every question and charged for none of them.
One afternoon I fixed a client's spreadsheet and joked that it would cost him $500. He said, without blinking, “Can you invoice me?” I had been advising business owners for years. I had never once sent them a bill for it.
Pit to Peak
Pit to Peak is our name for that climb, and it is the order of the chapters below. Awakening and Submitting were mine to walk. I had begun Becoming when Jessica stepped into the work. We are in Liberating together now.
Chapter one · Awakening
My stepdaughter knocked on my office door and asked if we could go outside and bump the volleyball. I said what I had said too many times before: “Just give me one more hour.”
One hour became three. Three became five. The sun went down and dinner was missed. The volleyball was never touched.
She had smiled when I said it, and that night I understood the smile. She had heard the promise before. At 14, she had already learned not to expect me.
“Doing it FOR family while it was keeping me FROM family.”
You built this FOR your family. Don't let it keep you FROM them.
Chapter two · Submitting
The fall came in one season. My marriage was already fracturing from toxicity on both sides, and the business consumed what was left. The marriage ended, and a business partner dissolved our company without warning. I lost my wife, five stepdaughters and my business to the grind. That Christmas morning I sat alone in my room, giving my family the space I had been asked to give them.
In that same season, a text thread that had gone quiet came back to life. Jessica and I had known each other since Hartwick College in 1999. The texts became calls, and the calls became daily. She was the one person I told everything to, and she did not leave.
Then a friend and mentor asked me to come to Tennessee. I prayed about it and woke up with a peace I had not felt in years. I packed my truck, loaded up my dog and drove from Florida to the Nolichucky River. For three months it was just me, God, my dog Penny, my business, and the smallmouth bass in the river that ran behind the house. I stopped forcing outcomes.
Chapter three · Becoming
So I rebuilt, personally and professionally. I hired and studied other business coaches. I studied what the most profitable companies in the world do to make profit repeatable. Those became the frameworks I teach today, and having them in place is what made me ready for Jessica.
Enter Jessica. We married at the river house on July 4, 2023, and together we built the daily, weekly and monthly habits that turned those frameworks into a life of freedom, built around experiences, not things, and time with our family.
We are equal partners in this firm. I run the advisory work: the frameworks, the coaching and the training. Jessica runs delivery: onboarding, project management, the creative, and the final check on everything that leaves here. That frees me to do my best work, and she keeps me on track while I do it.
What our story means for you: more hours never fixed anything for us. Doing the right work in order, with other owners beside us and someone holding us to it, is what changed things.
Rather talk to a person first? Write To Craig And Jessica.
Chapter four · Liberating
Laughlin Business Advisors is how we do it. I bring the frameworks and lead the coaching. Jessica makes sure every piece of the work lands on time and done right, so owners get what we paid years to learn.
We still keep evenings, weekends and holidays for our family, and we plan the work around them on purpose. That is the life we are selling, so it is the life we live first.
Our local Council is The Owners Council · Northern Virginia, with chapters recruiting now in Alexandria and Fairfax. Owners in each chapter meet each month (on Zoom until the chapter has five members, then in person in its own town), train together online in The Council Training, and stay in touch every day in the Council's online community.
What we believe
Every firm says it has values. These four change what we do.
If you shade the truth about your business to feel better, we cannot help you. Every plan starts from what is true, even when that talk is hard.
Good ideas are easy to find. What we add is the order to work them in, and people who check in each week to ask whether you did.
Revenue feeds your potential. Profit feeds your family. More sales will not fix a profit problem, so we start with what you keep from every sale.
Most owners make the hardest calls alone. A room of owners gives you people who have faced the same problem and can tell you what they tried.
Who you would be working with
None of this matters as much as whether the work gets you your time and money back. You should still know who you are dealing with before you hand anybody your profit and loss.
Craig has owned and run businesses for 16 years, so the advice comes from the same owner’s seat you sit in, not from a textbook or a classroom.
Five and a half years as a Director of Coaching, working with more than 250 owners a year in the US, Canada, England and Australia.
Craig holds all five: Certified Launch Acceleration Expert, Certified Profit and Exit Acceleration Expert, Master Business Coach, and Certified Warrior Trainer.
Project Management Professional. Jessica runs operations and delivery, gives every piece of work its final quality check, and serves clients of her own too.
Craig helped launch BNI Super NOVA, a networking chapter in Falls Church, and serves as its president. The firm is an Alexandria Chamber member.
Craig speaks to owner groups on “The Volleyball Was Never Touched,” “Infrastructure Over Inspiration” and “The Expensive Advisor Problem.”
The proof shelf
These are some of the books behind the frameworks. We kept what held up with real owners and layered it into one system you work in order, with us beside you.
And three that Craig wrote. Each one is free, on its own page.
Profit Acceleration SecretsStand out, say the right thing and close more of the people who call.Get the book free
The Entrepreneur's Playbook40 strategies for more profit from the business you already run.Get the book free
Leads Unleashed52 ways to bring in new customers without outspending anyone.Get the book free
Your next step
Start Here takes about two minutes. It points you to the one path that fits your business today: Launch, Profit, Exit or Coach Acceleration. Your result shows on screen, and your email is optional.
Rather talk to a person first? Write To Craig And Jessica.
