How Getting Laid Off a Few Years Ago Led Me Into PLG Consulting (And What I’ve Learned Since)
A few years ago, I was laid off from my Product Management role.
Like most people, I immediately tried to get back into the workforce. I spent months preparing for interviews, refining resumes, and going through hiring cycles.
At some point, I realized something uncomfortable:
I was preparing for companies… but I wasn’t learning anything new.
That realization changed everything.
The Pivot
Instead of chasing another job, I decided to double down on myself.
I went deep into:
- Product-Led Growth vs Sales-Led models
- Activation and retention mechanics
- Monetization strategy
- Pricing psychology
- Experimentation frameworks
At the same time, I expanded into AI automation — not as hype, but as a lever to scale growth systems and reporting.
I built:
https://product-led-growth.com
At the time, I didn’t even know if I wanted to be a consultant.
Then something unexpected happened.
I landed my first client organically through SEO — without spending a dollar on marketing.
That’s when it became real.
Lesson #1: Don’t Over-Optimize Your ICP Too Early
Many founders obsess over defining the perfect ICP from day one.
From what I’ve seen, early-stage products need learning more than precision.
Start slightly broad.
Let your messaging hit multiple segments.
Watch who resonates.
Then narrow.
Your real ICP reveals itself through traction — not theory.
Lesson #2: Landing Page Clarity Drives Conversion
The SaaS pages that convert well usually follow this structure:
- Clear problem
- Who it’s for
- Outcome-first value message
- Why this solution wins
- Assurance (risk removal)
Assurance is underrated.
Free trials. Transparent pricing. Support guarantees.
Remove risk → remove friction → improve conversion.
Lesson #3: Pricing Is Always an Experiment
For SaaS, pricing is not something you “solve.”
It’s ongoing experimentation.
You need alignment between:
- Value metric
- Cost structure
- User incentives
I learned this firsthand in my own consulting journey.
When I first started, I was charging $45/hour.
At that time, my positioning wasn’t sharp. My offer was broad. My messaging lacked clarity.
As I refined my positioning, clarified my offer, and focused on delivering structured outcomes, I increased my rate to $90/hour — with client approval and continued engagement.
The work didn’t change dramatically.
The clarity did.
That was a major lesson for me:
Pricing confidence comes from offer clarity.
And interestingly, that shift also changed the type of clients I started attracting.
Even now, pricing remains a work in progress. Consulting isn’t packaged as cleanly as SaaS, and estimating solution cost before diagnosis can be tricky.
But clarity, alignment, and transparency still matter.
Looking to Collaborate
I’m looking to work closely with 5 SaaS founders who are actively trying to improve:
- Activation
- Retention
- Pricing
- Offer clarity
In exchange for transparency and collaboration, I’ll:
- Audit your growth bottlenecks
- Review your landing page and offer
- Analyze your pricing and value metric
- Provide structured PLG feedback
My goal is to turn these into detailed case studies and shared learnings for the community.
If you’re interested, comment below or DM me.
Let’s build something worth documenting.
The landing page clarity framework is solid, but there's a gap between "knowing the structure" and executing it well that trips up most founders.
The five-point structure you outlined (problem, audience, outcome, differentiation, assurance) works, but the execution failure usually happens in the first 3 seconds. Most SaaS landing pages fail because visitors can't answer "what is this?" within that window. They lead with features, or vague benefits, or clever taglines that require interpretation.
The test I use: can someone who's never heard of your product land on the page, read only the hero section, and accurately explain what it does to a colleague? If not, conversion is handicapped before assurance or differentiation even matter.
The other thing that's underrated: specificity in the problem statement. "Save time" is generic. "Stop losing customers who ghost your onboarding on day 2" is a problem that makes someone lean in. The tighter the problem articulation, the faster someone self-identifies as your ICP.
Your point about assurance is spot on. Free trials remove one type of risk (financial), but they introduce another (time/effort). The best converting pages I've seen combine multiple risk-removal strategies: free trial + public demo video + live chat + transparent pricing. Each removes a different objection.
Good luck with the case studies. Documenting real PLG transformations beats theoretical frameworks every time.
This is a really good breakdown — especially the “first 3 seconds” point.
You’re absolutely right. Knowing the five-part structure is one thing. Executing it with clarity is another.
The hero test you mentioned is one I’ve started using as well: if someone can’t explain what the product does after reading just the first section, the rest of the page doesn’t matter.
In practice, I’ve found that data helps remove guesswork there. Watching session recordings or looking at drop-offs often reveals exactly where clarity breaks. The messaging usually feels clear to the founder — but not to a cold visitor.
And I completely agree on specificity. “Save time” is invisible. A tightly articulated problem makes the right ICP self-select almost instantly.
Your point on layered assurance is also strong. Financial risk removal isn’t enough — effort risk is often bigger.
Appreciate you adding depth to the discussion. This is exactly why documenting real transformations matters more than frameworks alone.
Nice story, you turned a layoff into a learning phase and validated it by landing a client through SEO. The key takeaways are clear: keep your ICP broad at first, make landing pages simple and reassuring, and treat pricing as something you refine as your positioning improves. The rate increase coming from clarity, not extra work, is the big insight.
Thanks — really appreciate this! That SEO validation felt like proof that the system thinking was working (even before I knew I wanted to consult). You’re absolutely right — refining positioning and clarity made the pricing shift easier. Hearing other founders reflect on that pattern reinforces how important value understanding really is.
The pricing confidence point really resonates. I've seen this play out in mobile apps too. When I first launched, I was afraid to charge anything, then afraid to charge more than a few dollars. The irony is that lower prices often attract worse customers (higher support burden, more complaints, faster churn).
What I've learned: the willingness to charge more usually comes after you've talked to enough users to understand what you're actually solving for them. It's not arrogance, it's just better pattern recognition about who gets value and who doesn't.
The ICP lesson is spot on too. I wasted weeks building elaborate user personas before shipping anything. In reality, the people who ended up loving the app weren't who I expected. Some segments I thought would be perfect ignored it completely. The data told the real story.
Good luck with the consulting work. The case study approach is smart for building credibility in a space where everyone claims expertise.
Thanks for your kind words. And I totally agree with hat you said. Once you start talking to actual users, you quickly learn where the real value sits and who truly benefits. That knowledge makes it much easier to price with confidence instead of fear. Thanks for sharing your experience — definitely aligns with what I saw in mobile and SaaS contexts.
Hello there , I like your post and I think I have been following a similar kind of strategy for my app voicevoyage io.
Wonderful. Let me know if we can collaborate to create case study or you need a hand. Best of luck.
Thanks! I recently launched the MVP of VoiceVoyage.io — a voice-to-blog platform for hikers and trekkers.
It’s only been live for about 2 weeks, so I’m currently focused on early validation and organic distribution experiments (mainly Reddit and niche communities).
If you’re open, I’d love to compare notes on early-stage traction and possibly document the learning process as a transparent case study.
Great. Lets connect. Touch base with my site product-led-growth.com and we can chat more. I can definitely help you strategize the pmf. Looking forward. Thanks