---
title: "Entrepreneur Revolution, for creators"
description: "Daniel Priestley's Entrepreneur Revolution in 13 frameworks with steps, and the six Tom Sharman lessons it backs."
canonical: https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/entrepreneur-revolution/
updated: 2026-11-03
---

# Entrepreneur Revolution: How to develop your entrepreneurial mindset and start a business that works

> Daniel Priestley's Entrepreneur Revolution in 13 frameworks with steps, and the six Tom Sharman lessons it backs.

The frameworks here are Daniel Priestley's, from Entrepreneur Revolution. Claude read the book in Tom's Brain and linked it to his lessons.

## How Tom uses this

- [Sam Stoffel: rebuild the team, then find the formats](https://tomsharman.com/lessons/sam-stoffel-rebuild-the-team-then-find-the-formats/index.md): Priestley says the entrepreneur builds the team and the team builds the business, so organising the right people comes before the work itself. (p. 131)
- [Find the voice in what already worked for them](https://tomsharman.com/lessons/find-the-voice-in-what-already-worked-for-them/index.md): Priestley says most of your IP swirls past as intuition and you find it by writing out what has already worked for you. (p. 91)
- [It is about their business, told as what the audience learns](https://tomsharman.com/lessons/it-is-about-their-business-told-as-what-the-audience-learns/index.md): The book says there is no business without a problem being solved and that you are not your buyer, so the founder's experience serves the audience's need. (pp. 90 and 98)
- [People online are selfish, so lead with what they get](https://tomsharman.com/lessons/people-online-are-selfish-so-lead-with-what-they-get/index.md): Priestley tells founders to remember they are not their buyer and to find what the buyer needs to know in order to buy. (p. 98)
- [Assumptions made too fast, and risk avoided](https://tomsharman.com/lessons/assumptions-made-too-fast-and-risk-avoided/index.md): Priestley says clarity comes at the end of the show, so you begin before you know how it will work and implement rather than over-plan. (pp. 60 and 143)
- [Macro and micro at the same time](https://tomsharman.com/lessons/macro-and-micro-at-the-same-time/index.md): The book frames the leader as the organising force who gets the thing done rather than doing it, which fits being the coach and not the bottleneck. (p. 131)

- Author: Daniel Priestley
- Pages: 220
- ISBN: 9780857089731
- Chapters: 19
- Frameworks: 13
- Categories: Lead generation, Sales and negotiation, Hiring and teams, Life and thinking, Storytelling, Personal brand
- Book 14 of 46 on the bookshelf: https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/index.md

## What it argues

Priestley argues that technology has shifted the advantage from big firms to small, focused teams, and that fortunes are made in revolutionary times. The first job is a mindset shift. You calm the reptile brain, see money as a placeholder for value, and start before you have clarity. Then you find an opportunity through four experiments (concept, audience, offer, sales), build a ladder of products that fit together, and organise a small team that implements. AI makes functional skills worth less, so vitality, context and creating are what keep you valuable. Success then comes down to luck, reputation and leverage, and the new game is love.

## Worth keeping

- Products and services don't make profit. Product and service ecosystems do (p. 117). Build the full Ascending Transaction Model before judging whether an idea works.
- Ladder: gifts, products for prospects (quick win, ideally under seven days), core offering, products for clients. Glue it with lead capture, sales conversations and servicing.
- Build the brochure before you do anything expensive or time consuming (p. 100). Survey 150 audience members, talk to at least 30, show 10 to 30 people, print 50 copies.
- Signals first, then build: waiting list, discussion group, intro event, quiz. Expect 19 out of 20 who signal interest not to buy (p. 106).
- Track a weekly LAPS dashboard of leads, appointments, presentations and sales so selling becomes a repeatable rhythm.
- An entrepreneur's job is to be the organising force, not to do the work (p. 131). Match team size to task: scout 2, fire team 4, section about 8, platoon 30-50.
- Your job each year is to create new assets, anything still valuable if you were hit by a bus (p. 139).
- Wealth flows to vital people, not functional people (p. 160). AI needs you to supply the context and spot the problem worth solving.
- Consuming drains energy and creating gives it (p. 164, 167). Remove the apps and free the time to make things.
- Oversubscribed, balanced or undersubscribed decides profit, wages or losses. Be comfortable with some people missing out (p. 201).

## The questions it answers

### What does AI actually change about the shape of a content team?

He says AI does functional work at marginal cost, so people must supply vitality, context and the problem worth solving, and small high-performing teams can beat companies with 10× bigger headcounts.

### How do you build a personal brand that generates inbound rather than requiring outbound?

He calls reputation your most prized asset, one that pays regular dividends through inbound opportunities, and says it takes years to build and minutes to ruin.

### How do you price and sell a tool you built for yourself?

He says to build the brochure before anything expensive, then climb the Ascending Transaction Model from gifts and products for prospects to a core offering, since products don't make profit but ecosystems do.

### What is the smallest team that can produce at the volume I am used to?

He gives sizes from the British Army: a scout team of two, a fire team of four, a section of about eight and a platoon of 30-50, and says a global small business has fewer than 50 staff.

## The frameworks

1. [The ten challenges](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/entrepreneur-revolution/the-ten-challenges/index.md): Ten tasks that must be done for real to activate the entrepreneur mind and remove the factory worker mentality.
2. [The day-one team](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/entrepreneur-revolution/the-day-one-team/index.md): A draft pick of five roles to have around the table when you start a business.
3. [CAOS](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/entrepreneur-revolution/caos/index.md): Four experiments to find an entrepreneurial opportunity: concept, audience, offer and sales.
4. [Discover Your Theme](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/entrepreneur-revolution/discover-your-theme/index.md): Find the lifelong passion that links your interests so you can pick the right opportunities.
5. [Discover Your IP](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/entrepreneur-revolution/discover-your-ip/index.md): Get the problem-solving methods in your head into writing so they can be scaled.
6. [Signals First, Then Build](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/entrepreneur-revolution/signals-first-then-build/index.md): Gain evidence of audience interest before launching anything.
7. [Build the Brochure](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/entrepreneur-revolution/build-the-brochure/index.md): Create the thing a customer can see and buy before doing anything expensive.
8. [Weekly LAPS Dashboard](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/entrepreneur-revolution/weekly-laps-dashboard/index.md): Track the four stages of a sales pipeline every week to get a repeatable rhythm.
9. [Ascending Transaction Model (ATM)](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/entrepreneur-revolution/ascending-transaction-model-atm/index.md): A product strategy that links four types of product with three pieces of glue so clients move from knowing little about you to buying a lot.
10. [Team Building Lessons from the British Military](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/entrepreneur-revolution/team-building-lessons-from-the-british-military/index.md): Four team sizes, each suited to a stage of building a business.
11. [The Value Creation Cycle](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/entrepreneur-revolution/the-value-creation-cycle/index.md): A predictable path that turns ideas into remarkably valuable creations.
12. [The Journey Into the Entrepreneur Revolution](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/entrepreneur-revolution/the-journey-into-the-entrepreneur-revolution/index.md): Seven levels from work to play and then to legacy, to be climbed one at a time.
13. [Profits, Losses or Wages](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/entrepreneur-revolution/profits-losses-or-wages/index.md): Three ways the demand and supply equation can play out for your business.

## More by this author

- [Key Person of Influence](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/key-person-of-influence/index.md)
- [Oversubscribed](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/oversubscribed/index.md)
- [Scorecard Marketing](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/scorecard-marketing/index.md)

## Working with Tom on this

Tom works with creators and founders one to one, from a single session to a fractional role. [Work with Tom](https://tomsharman.com/consulting/)