Harvey Woodworking is proving that small teams can outrun industry giants.

For decades, industrial growth followed a predictable script. Add people. Add management. Add process. Expand distribution and defend share.

Scale meant safety.

But the environment modern manufacturers operate in no longer rewards mass alone. Customers expect dialogue. Product cycles move faster. Technology reshapes expectations in real time. Supply chains flex. Competitors appear from unexpected categories.

In that climate, size can become friction.

Which has prompted a new, uncomfortable question inside boardrooms:

What if staying small is actually an advantage?

Harvey Woodworking has chosen to treat that idea not as theory, but as architecture.

Reinventing how a company listens

As a small company, traditional outreach, research, and marketing vehicles available to larger brands was not an option. Harvey Woodworking leaned into direct relationships with users. While much of the industry relied heavily on traditional distribution distance, Harvey Woodworking invested in direct-to-consumer engagement powered by social media.

Those platforms were not treated as advertising channels. They were intelligence systems.

Customers asked questions publicly. They suggested improvements. They shared workarounds. They revealed frustrations.

Harvey Woodworking built internal habits around absorbing those signals quickly.

Now the same philosophy is evolving again. AI tools inside workflows help compress communication even further, allowing a compact organization to analyze feedback, prioritize needs, and move from idea to execution with unusual speed.

The company didn’t just adopt new technology.

It refined how information travels.

The structure behind the speed

At a small company like Harvey Woodworking, research and development, service, marketing, and operations work in tight orbit. The people who hear pain points are steps away from the people who can engineer solutions.

There are fewer layers to convince, fewer handoffs to dilute urgency.

“If a customer says something today, we want momentum on it tomorrow,” says Rayson Esquejo.

That urgency is reinforced by how responsibility is distributed across the company.

“We care less about titles and hierarchy,” Esquejo adds. “Everyone pulls their own weight, and every role can implement ideas that improve efficiency. Everyone acts as an owner.”

Proximity turns feedback into fuel. Ownership turns it into action.

The moment the process becomes visible

The Baby Gyro began not as a breakthrough brainstorm, but as repetition.

Woodworkers wanted serious suction in compact footprints. They wanted a quick cleanup. They wanted flexibility. Phone calls requested it. Service teams confirmed it. Online conversations amplified it.

Inside a traditional structure, those signals might wait for planning cycles or budget windows.

Inside Harvey Woodworking, they converged quickly.

R&D translated need into design. Production aligned around feasibility. Marketing prepared education and launch. The result was a mini cyclone platform that supports traditional dust collection roles while also performing as a capable vacuum and high-pressure blower.

In one move, Harvey Woodworking served existing customers better while nudging itself into a wider competitive arena.

The product is tangible.

But the real story is the speed of translation.

Small team, expanding reach at the right time.

Agility like this is often associated with startups, not manufacturers serving international markets. Yet Harvey Woodworking’s compact structure supports customers across North America, Europe, and Asia.

Technology amplifies the team rather than replacing it. Communication remains direct. Ownership remains clear.

Economic and technological volatility are punishing slow decision-making. Companies weighed down by layers frequently discover that by the time information reaches authority, the opportunity has already moved.

The organizations thriving tend to share a different trait: tight feedback loops, empowered teams, rapid execution, pivot to demand.

In other words, they operate more like Harvey Woodworking.

“If the world is going to keep changing this fast,” Esquejo says, “you need a structure that can change with it.”

A new meaning of scale

Scale used to mean size.

Increasingly, it means responsiveness.

It means hearing sooner, deciding faster, and delivering while relevance still exists.

“Our advantage isn’t headcount,” says Sam Valdez. “It’s how short the distance is between signal and solution.”

The companies built for the next decade

The firms most at risk in the coming years may not be the smallest. They may be the ones least able to turn.

By deliberately staying lean, investing early in direct communication, and now enhancing that capability with AI, Harvey Woodworking is arguing for a future in which adaptability becomes the most defensible asset a business can own.

Small doesn’t mean fragile.

It can mean ready.

And readiness travels fast.

Were you turned down by Stryker Digital for local digital marketing services like SEO or paid ads? There may still be hope for you out there.

Hello local business owner. I know how it feels to get turned down when you really want to do something. I wanted to go to NYU Stern for their master’s program right before the pandemic, but my job at USC wouldn’t give me a time sponsorship, so I wasn’t qualified to move forward with my application.

That really bummed me out because I spent a lot of time responding to an inquiry from the school when they said they were interested in having me.

Me? Having a master’s degree at one of the top business schools in the world?

Wow, that would’ve been amazing!

But unfortunately, it didn’t happen and it was kinda sad to see…

Anyway, you probably feel the same way I did at the time. Knowing you need to go out there and do something, only to find out that there’s a roadblock preventing you from doing it.

Whether it’s SEO or paid ads or growing your digital presence in general, you probably saw what kind of results you could get with Stryker Digital and thought your bottom line would increase.

Unfortunately, things didn’t work out for you.

So now you’re here, reading my content.

Don’t worry, I’m not here to judge. But I do want to let you in on a little secret.

Maybe being turned down by them was the best thing that could ever happen to you.

Let me explain why.

So over the past decade, here are some of my digital marketing achievements:

Revenue Generated

• $250m generated in health and medicine
• 8 figures generated in finance and education
• 7+ figures generated in the trades (new area of expertise, but this stuff is so easy compared to the work I’ve been doing in the past).

Help Me Get Results Like This!

Organic Website Traffic

• Took 5 year old site getting 1 million views a year to 6 million annually in 4 years; 10 million views in year 6
• 2 million organic search engine clicks from SEO in 2 years on a brand new site that was getting less than 100 clicks a month
• Hundreds of pages on the first page of Google
• Ranked #1 on single word keyword, tax, taxes, and dual keywords, tax specialist, tax consultant, tax problem, tax audit, tax expert, and tax return, on local map pack in Google
• Ranked #4 in Marysville, Washington for single keyword, landscaper, on local map pack in Google in two months

I Want More Web Traffic Than My Competitors

Paid Ads, Conversion Rate Optimization and Lead Generation

• 151x return on ad spend on general construction on META
• 80x return on ad spend on landscape construction on Google
• 10x blended return on ad spend on radon detector on META
• 9x blended return on ad spend on a financial course
• Reduced tax relief lead costs from ~$250 a lead for SEM in Google to ~$50 a lead, while maintaining quality (no fake bs PMAX leads)
• Averaging $24 a lead for landscape construction

I Want My Business to Print Money

Media Relations & Press (Direct Access to Over 60 TV Stations and Over 1,000 Media Outlets)

• Syndicated 150 pieces of content into TIME, Forbes, Inc., International Business Times, Quartz, Medical Daily, Sporting News, Apple News & more for one brand
• Got a brand new company featured in dozens of publications, ranging from Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc., US News, CEO World and more
• Assisted individuals in getting featured in Entrepreneur, Inc. Magazine, Forbes and more; also assisted some people in acquiring columns at publications.

I Want to Be In My Favorite Media Publications

Pretty cool stuff right?

Well, you’re probably wondering, is this guy going to be able to do what I need him to for my company?

So let’s go over my specialties.

Digital Marketing Specialties

• Digital Marketing
• Demand Generation
• Growth Marketing
• Media Relations
• Paid Ads
• Conversion Rate Optimization
• Landing Page Creation
• SEO
• General Search
• Local Map Pack
• Local Search
• Account Based Marketing
• Lead Generation
• Branding
• Personal Branding
• Thought Leadership
• Email Marketing

I Want to Take My Business to the Next Level

Seem like a fit?

It could be!

But if you’re not sold yet, here’s a little bit more about me personally.

Personal Achievements

• 300 media features in Fortune, CMO, Forbes, CNBC, Yahoo!, NBC Sports, NewsMax, Success, Thought Catalog, Fast Company, AdWeek, Business Rockstars, SEMRush, Entrepreneur, Inc. Magazine, Tech in Asia, Slate, GQ, BBC, the Sun, Cosmopolitan, Thrive Global, Brand Quarterly, BBC, LA Times, Fox News, Search Engine Journal, NBC Sports, Glassdoor, Moneyish and more.
• Spoken at TEDx, Salesforce, universities such as Johns Hopkins Carey, Pasadena Design Center, Cal State, Cult the Gathering, multiple marketing conferences around the world and more.
• McGraw-Hill Business author on the topic of digital marketing and personal branding

I Want to Work With You Leonard

If this all sounds good to you and you want to explore working together, we can hop on a call and I can interview you to see if you’re a fit.

It’s safe to say I get results. And I can tell you that if and only if you’re my client, I will take every measure to grow your business.

But there ARE some things you have to understand about me.

• I’m not a clutch performer. Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge blew it in the World Series, but they had immaculate seasons before the playoffs. I consistently win, but if you put the pressure on me, you’re gonna see some horrible plays unfold.
• I don’t tolerate disrespect. If you were denied by Stryker Digital because you’re a dick, I don’t want to work with you either. I have to maintain my peace of mind and balance in my own life.
• If you plan to hop around with multiple companies, just skip the discussion, because if we work together, we’re in it to win it until the end of time.

Anyway, that’s all I gotta say.

So if you wanna work together, then reach out by clicking the link below, then filling out the form and let’s see what happens.

Let’s Work Together Leonard!

We live our lives, setting goals, which lead to expectations of ourselves. We expect others to stay our friends forever and to help us in our times of need. We even expect to arrive at a certain destination if we live our home at a specific time.

Yet, when we live in this world, nothing ever goes as planned.

We can miss some outrageous goal we set for ourselves, such as selling 25 cars a month when the average is 8. We can fall short by two vehicles and become completely devastated.

Why?

Because we set ourselves up with an expectation, yet failed to meet it.

We can expect our friends to listen to us when we are sad. Sometimes, they won’t be able to drop everything and get around to it. Then we feel ignored and unloved.

Why?

Because we set ourselves to expect more of our friends, even though they have their own lives.

We can even expect to make it to work in an hour if we leave at a specific time. If there is an accident along the way, then we become panicked because we’ll end up becoming late.

Why?

Because we expect the world to go according to our plans.

All of these expectations just lead to disappointment down the line. It is impossible for us to hit all our own goals. It is impossible for our friends to always be there for us. It is impossible to even get to a destination on time, all the time.

The best way to deal with disappointment is to avoid it altogether. To do that, we need to eliminate our expectations.

Without expectations, there is no disappointment.

For me personally, this was one of the hardest lessons I had to learn. I always put huge expectations upon myself, like wanting to get rich, to outperform everyone, to be wildly successful, yet I always fell short. Then I would go home and cry in bed for months because I missed my mark.

Instead, what I found to work for me was that I needed to adopt a philosophy of consistent and never-ending improvement. I needed to work on myself, not what the world expects of me. I needed to forget about comparing myself to others and how well they are doing. I eliminated the concept of Darwinism, or survival of the fittest. I just focused on bettering myself, in all aspects of my own life.

In turn, my life flipped right side up. Then everything just started to go right for me.

Your position in the world isn’t to compete with others. It’s to become the best human being that you can become.

Leonard blogs at LeonardKim.com

If you liked this post, recommend it.

Leonard Kim is Managing Partner at InfluenceTree. At InfluenceTree, Leonard and his team teach you how to build your (personal or business) brand, get featured in publications and growth hack your social media following.

Wondering why you haven’t made it to the C-suite yet? This is it.

I’ve been on two different sides of life. One where I had to claw my way through to almost be able to make a living. The other where I kind of created a system where it felt like everything was handed to me on a silver platter.

The funny thing is that the only real thing that changed between the two situations was perception. Or the influence that I held over others.

Now, don’t get me wrong. The person who I was when I was clawing my way through life to the person I was when I was being invited to speak at different venues and TV shows is almost identical. They are both just me. Plain old Leonard. Yet, one just was perceived to be someone that others needed on their side, while the other… No one really wanted anything to do with.

That’s really the power of influence. It takes you and turns you into this expert that people look up to. And you don’t need to learn any new skills or talents to evolve into that expert. Chances are, if you’ve been working for over a decade, you already have a set of expertise. You just haven’t showcased it to an outside audience.

Now there’s 3 key reasons you aren’t achieving true influence:

1. No one outside of your company knows you are an expert

How long have you worked at your position? Was it five years? 10? 20? Sure, you may be taking home a great paycheck, but the real question is how long will that income truly last?

There are many real problems you face when no one outside of your company knows that you are an expert. Let’s say you get laid off one day. What are you going to do then?

The job market is competitive — more so than you have ever imagined — and executives who have years upon years of experience are often seen as too talented for the roles that are available, or too junior for the more advanced roles. Even if you make it past the interview stages, you will end up losing your position to the next candidate who has built up something called social proof.

But you probably aren’t thinking about losing your job. That’s the last of your worries. You probably want to climb the corporate ladder of success. You’re probably looking at your director position and wondering how to break through into a vice president or the C-suite of a company like IBM, Cisco, or whatever it may be.

Internally, people may feel that you are talented at your craft, but that isn’t enough. You need to be seen as an expert — both inside and outside of your company. if you plan to climb the internal ladder of success, you still face huge issues. You can have people advocate for you outside of the company as well. You need to be seen as a leader and be recognized for your expertise, both inside and outside of your company. That means you need to start building your digital presence, because that digital presence is a direct reflection of you and who you are in person.

You can solve this problem by going out there and showcasing your content to the outside world. Get your thought leadership out there so more people recognize that you are the expert that you truly are. And when you do that, you open up the opportunity to more job opportunities, both internally and externally. That opens up more ability for advancement within your career. That allows more people to come to you and seek you out for your expertise. And as you build that out, it could lead to speaking engagements, book deals and more.

2. You are trying to relay the perfect image

Perfection. It’s what you strive for. It’s how you want to be seen.

Flawless.

Like a diamond.

From a logical standpoint, it makes sense to want to be seen as a perfect being. It’s hard to admit having flaws afterall. And most of society has told us to bury what we are weak at and focus on our strengths instead.

But why is that bad? Why does it not work when we try to portray ourselves as perfect?

Well, aside from the fact that no one is perfect, it’s because we become unrelatable. Others aren’t able to connect or relate with you.

This is exactly what goes through someone’s mind when they see a person who is portraying someone to be perfect. “Oh, this person is so perfect. I can never become like them. I can’t work with them either. In fact, I can’t relate to them at all because they’re perfect and I’m flawed.”

Instead of building a bond that allows the other person to connect and relate, you push them further away from you. When building out your online presence, this doesn’t help people buy in to you. Instead, it pushes them away.

So to solve this problem, what you have to do is be vulnerable. You have to showcase some of your weaknesses and failures. Have a blunder here and there. That blunder gives you a breath of humanity and makes you more relatable. If you want to truly drive differentiation, create loyalty and build true connections with others, you need to dive into your vulnerabilities and showcase your weaknesses. Because your weaknesses are your true strengths.

3. You go searching for clients

When I was 21 years old, I used to do sales. I worked at a Toyota dealership and you know what was the best thing about it? People came to me. They walked into the doors of the dealership wanting a car. All I had to do was get them to drive one then take it home.

Later, when I switched companies, my sales role changed and I had to call people. I had to make calls and send emails trying to convince people not just to listen to me, but to buy the product I was offering as well.

That’s why most people hate sales. Because you have to get people to buy into both you and whatever product you’re offering. No one wants to go and sell two things, or have two things that could be rejected. Both themselves and the product. Plus, talk about the pain of prospecting.

But what if you could flip that situation around? Kind of like how I had it when I worked at the dealership.

To have people come to you instead, looking specifically for what you have to offer.

Guess what?

It changes everything.

Now, how do you go out there and do that?

I’ve been creating content for the last four years. I’ve got over 10 million reads on my content, and people have seen my videos, my talks, and all different stuff in the media, and guess what happens from that?

People start contacting me. What ends up happening is, they go to my site, and when they go there, they’re like, “Hey, you could hire Leonard. Oh, let me click this button.” They fill it out with their information. They put in their budget. They put in what they want to accomplish. They put in all their contact information, so all I have to do is schedule a call with them, and just close it.

And, guess what? People from major companies, Fortune 100 companies, consulting firms, venture capitalists, and all these other people, come to me for my expertise. Just because of all the content that’s out there. I don’t have to go looking for a single client. I haven’t even looked for a single one. I’ve never made a call to anyone saying, “Hey, do you want to work with me?” Instead, they come to me, which is a great thing.

That same thing can happen for you once you create content and get it distributed onto the web. And you will never have to actively look for a new client again either, because they will come to you.

Want to position yourself for a role within the c-suite?

Want others to relate to you?

Want people coming to you for your expertise?

Then you need to stop being selfish and holding onto all your knowledge and insights. It’s time for you to start building out true influence by sharing your expertise to an external audience.

These Are The Top 3 Things You Are Doing Wrong (Especially if You Want to Achieve True Influence) was originally published in Be Yourself on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The best way to find good friends is to become a good friend. If you want to find people who care about you and are looking out for your best interests, you need to start caring about others and their best interests.

I would suggest smiling and having an attitude of gratitude. Each morning, think of at least three things for which you’re grateful for. Get in touch with your inner child. Try to recapture the who you were when you used to play in the sand pit at school. That genuine smile from the smallest of things. That curious nature. That uncanny sense of excitement for what is yet to come.

How to find mentors, that’s a tough one. Reach out to people who you respect. Someone will respond and be willing to help. Everyone takes great pride in cultivating a protege.

—

Leonard blogs at LeonardKim.com

If you liked this post, recommend it.

Leonard Kim is Managing Partner at InfluenceTree. At InfluenceTree, Leonard and his team teach you how to build your (personal or business) brand, get featured in publications and growth hack your social media following.

True love is when you know how absolutely flawed the other party is, yet you still love them for who they are, and vice versa.

True love does last forever. My grandmother and grandfather stayed together until his untimely death.

He married her when she had nothing. She was working at a military commissary in Korea on minimum wage and already had two teenage children of her own. He took her to America and showed her a whole new world. He gave her the opportunity to live her dreams with the man she loved.

She took care of him when he was absolutely helpless, couldn’t remember who he or she was, or was able to properly use the restroom. She took responsibility and stood by his side, taking him around on a wheelchair and changing his diapers, even though there was absolutely nothing that he could ever do for her any longer. She stayed by his side until he passed away, then buried him.

Talking about him to this day will still make her cry. She tries her best to forget, but deep down… She still loves him with all her heart. She always will. Even if the world were to split apart or become consumed by flames, their love for each other… That is something that will never change.

—

Leonard blogs at LeonardKim.com

If you liked this post, recommend it.

Leonard Kim is Managing Partner at InfluenceTree. At InfluenceTree, Leonard and his team teach you how to build your (personal or business) brand, get featured in publications and growth hack your social media following.

• To help others less fortunate than you. (The more unfortunate you are, the more you should volunteer.
• To bring joy to others.
• To see the world from a fresh perspective, through the eyes of the people you’re helping.
• To learn.
• To practice generosity.
• To provide a sense of being, a reason for existence.
• To create a mind set of abundance.

—

Leonard blogs at LeonardKim.com

If you liked this post, recommend it.

Leonard Kim is Managing Partner at InfluenceTree. At InfluenceTree, Leonard and his team teach you how to build your (personal or business) brand, get featured in publications and growth hack your social media following.

Being through absolutely everything in life, I have come to dismiss almost all my fears.

Two remain, both new and never felt before.

The first would be the fear of death. I used to never feel like death could be scary at all. I felt that I was invincible. That I would live forever. That slowly changed, as I quickly watched how i could fall down a forty foot cliff. One wrong move and I would cease to exist. The situation was so intense, that after I was saved by a kind stranger, my life had flashed before my eyes.

The second would be heights. This is something that is buried deep within my subconscious mind. I have no control over it at all. Whenever I’m on a ladder or at a high altitude, my legs shake uncontrollably. I feel fine. Everything looks okay. I don’t consciously feel fear. Yet, when I jumped over a fence and broke two bones in my ankle, my subconscious mind just shatters to pieces in fear and forces me to act insecure and without any control in a situation that I used to be okay with.

These are my only two fears.

However, in the past, I feared many things.

I feared not being able to get the love of my life back.

I feared being alone forever.

I feared being poor and unable to reach my dreams.

I feared being seen as a scam, for being someone who was completely fake, untrue to myself.

I feared losing my soul.

I feared losing all my friends.

I feared missing my goals.

I feared failing others, especially myself.

I feared losing absolutely everything I had.

Yet, all of these happened, at some point and time. I made it through all of these without a problem.

Then two new fears arose. Two fears that I might never be able to overcome…

—

Leonard blogs at LeonardKim.com

If you liked this post, recommend it.

Leonard Kim is Managing Partner at InfluenceTree. At InfluenceTree, Leonard and his team teach you how to build your (personal or business) brand, get featured in publications and growth hack your social media following.

On Quora, someone asked:

“I have been participating in hackathons and startup weekends for about two years. Last year I was on the winning team in 3 events. This year I have just repetitively lost over and over, participating in maybe 15 this year. If I keep failing at hackathons and startup weekends, should I take a break in between to assess things and not continue until I feel better or just keep powering through?”

This is how I responded:

If you want to win, you need to go home and reassess what you did. If you don’t care about winning, then you should just go out every weekend to play.

Personally, I went through a long phase of my life where I hopped from one thing to the next and never really took time to reassess what I went through, nor what I could learn. It kind of hindered me. Instead of gaining more skill, I lost insight, while my skill level stayed the same.

—

Leonard blogs at LeonardKim.com

If you liked this post, recommend it.

Leonard Kim is Managing Partner at InfluenceTree. At InfluenceTree, Leonard and his team teach you how to build your (personal or business) brand, get featured in publications and growth hack your social media following.

On Quora, someone asked:

“Dilemma: A client is pushing you to the limit to get a huge discount on a service, knowing you really need the business at the moment. Do you think you should deliver the same quality of service as you would to a client that is paying full price?”

This is how I responded:

He knows you need his business and he’s pushing a steep discount?

How badly do you need the business?

If it’s not in an act of pure desperation, ditch the client. He’s going to whine and complain at every corner and then write bad reviews of you.

Your worst paying customers are your unhappiest customers. Get rid of them before they get rid of you, publicly.

—

Leonard blogs at LeonardKim.com

If you liked this post, recommend it.

Leonard Kim is Managing Partner at InfluenceTree. At InfluenceTree, Leonard and his team teach you how to build your (personal or business) brand, get featured in publications and growth hack your social media following.