The Liar, The Thief
A business fable.
Launching June 2026
Eli Thompson is a project manager at a cabinet shop in Franklin, Tennessee. He's working hard, the numbers look fine, and the business is growing. But he has no idea it's slowly bleeding out.
The Liar, The Thief is the story of what Eli discovers when someone finally shows him where to look and what it costs him that nobody showed him sooner.
Key Concepts Introduced in the Book
What the book teaches through the story.
The Growth Paradox
More revenue, more crews, more complexity but same or worse profit. Why volume stops being the answer and what to do instead.
The Liar, The Thief
Gross margin is the liar. Misallocated overhead is the thief. Together they make a high-revenue business look healthy while quietly hollowing it out.
The Three Pricing Questions
What do you have to charge? What can you charge? What should you charge? Most contractors only ever answer one. The gap between the three is where profit lives or dies.
LEARN TO SAY NO
Once you can see which jobs are building the business and which ones are bleeding it, the next skill is learning to act on that information - saying no to the wrong work with confidence.
Ready to apply this inside your own business?
Purchase your copy and spend time with the stories, questions, and reflections at the heart of this work.