Vistage Chair | M&A Advisor
Lamar Rutherford
Vistage Chair and CEO, Excellens Solutions
3,320
LinkedIn followers
335
Subscribers to The Buyer's Lens
9
First-person posts in the last six weeks
Destinationlinkedin.com/in/lamarrutherford
Writes forOwners of $5M to $50M companies weighing growth, transition or sale
ScoredOctober 13, 2026
The 7 on 7+ Assessment
Professional Brand 7 on 7+ Score
Profile Score
20 / 49
Profile effectiveness as evidence of leadership thinking. Seven criteria, each scored 1 to 7. Built on methodology developed by Alan Power and Gair Maxwell.
IDEA Score
28 / 49
Power of your complete digital presence, including social, search, gen-AI - to generate PULL.
Profile Score
20
Tracks your profile effectiveness.
+
IDEA Adjustment
4
Adjusts for your complete digital footprint.
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7 on 7+ Score
24
Your legend-building signal.
Category Leader
John Warrillow, The Value Builder System
27
Profile
39
IDEA
Named tools, a quarterly research index and 500+ podcast episodes give owners a reason to come back.
Executive Takeaway
Lamar Rutherford writes in her own voice and on a rhythm: nine first-person items in six weeks, a biweekly LinkedIn newsletter called The Buyer's Lens, and a Forbes quote this summer on why businesses fail to sell. The profile around that writing still reads as a role list, with a skyline banner, no recommendations, and Featured slots that hold a newsletter card and two press links. Her story posts draw the strongest response, and that is the material to build on. The next build is a headline that says who she serves and what changes for them, with one made asset on top that lets a CEO hear her think before the first call.
Profile Score — By Criterion
Seven criteria, each scored 1 to 7 by Alan Power and Gair Maxwell. The sum is your profile score out of 49. Vistage room average: 13 to 14. A score above 20 is genuinely strong.
2
First Impression
Immediate 2-3 sec WOW factor. Instant clarity on who this profile speaks to.
The name line carries the MBA and the photo is a professional headshot. The headline reads "Vistage Chair, M&A Advisor & Consultative Business Broker," three roles that any chair or broker could list, so a visitor learns her jobs before learning who she helps. The next build is a headline that names the owner she serves and the change she makes for them.
1
Impact
A signature asset. Genuine human connection, story-based rather than promotional.
Featured holds three items: The Buyer's Lens newsletter card and two posts pointing to her advice in Forbes and the Union-Tribune. All three are written or linked material. Her three short videos sit in the Activity tab rather than on the profile. The next build is one made asset pinned at the top of Featured, a piece built to introduce her.
3
Originality
A distinctive point of view. Instantly recognizable. Not category-standard advice.
The advice on the profile covers standard sell-side ground. What repeats is a label, The Buyer's Lens, with the subtitle "Real Stories from the Deal Table," alongside the $5M to $50M owner band named in her newsletter issues. The lens phrase doubles as the Excellens tagline, so a visitor reads it as the firm's line first. Next: name the idea that belongs to her alone and carry it into the headline and About.
3
Culture
Real personal material indicating a full human. Not a credential list.
The About section is in first person and opens at the deal table: "For more than a decade, I've sat across the table from CEOs and business owners." It then moves to credentials and a four-item list of what leaders come to her for. The novel CodeY and the La Jolla cafe she founded appear only as entries further down. The next build is a few lines of her own story in the About, the person behind the CPA and the deals.
5
Consistency
Track record of publishing current, original content in a recognizable format.
Ten dated items run from September 3 to October 12, nine written in her own voice, and The Buyer's Lens publishes biweekly with four issues so far. The record behind that rhythm is short: four issues, and the video format she calls "this week's video" has produced one piece this fall after two short clips last December. The next step is holding both formats steady long enough that a reader can count on them.
4
Audience Reach
Numbers indicating a growing community. Evidence of genuine engagement.
3,320 people follow the profile, the About ends with her phone number and email, and the newsletter card carries a Subscribe button showing 335 subscribers. Recommendations received: none, so the profile carries no word yet from owners she has served. The next build is a set of recommendations from owners she has sold for and members she has coached.
2
Visuals
Cohesive visual elements reflecting personal brand. Distinctive design language.
The headshot is professional. The banner is a stock-style photo of the San Diego skyline over a marina with no message on it, and no recurring graphic treatment ties the profile, the newsletter and the posts together. The next build is a banner that carries her idea and a simple visual system the newsletter can share.
IDEA Score — The Signal Before the Click
How She Shows Up in the World
The IDEA Score measures what happens before someone reaches her profile, the off-site signal that shapes perception from the first search, the LinkedIn scroll, the founder post.
28
out of 49
IDEA Score — Digital Footprint
The Idea That Changes Everything
Seven axes. Each one measures a different dimension of how your off-site signal lands, not what your profile says, but what the world hears before anyone clicks.
Pull vs. push. Category of one vs. category of many. A founder voice vs. a corporate signal. These are the levers that determine whether a prospect arrives already interested, or arrives already skeptical.
4
Pull vs. Push
Content creates gravity vs. broadcast/promotional
Her stories draw the most response. The September 28 post about her father and the poem Dad's Gift earned 46 reactions and 15 comments, and the Erin Calver member story earned 41 reactions. Vistage promotions and newsletter shares sit between 2 and 8, and the median across ten items is about 7.5 against 3,320 followers. The next build is more story-first posts and fewer announcements.
4
ONLY vs. Category
Proprietary language/named POV vs. sounds like every competitor
The phrase buyer's lens appears in the newsletter title, in her posts and in the firm's tagline, and it is the one line in her feed a reader could tie to her. Around it sits the standard vocabulary of the role: owner dependence, add-backs, quality of earnings. The next step is a small set of terms built around the lens so it reads as a point of view.
3
Audience Building
Clear who it's for AND building following beyond buyers
Reach stays inside her existing network for now: 335 newsletter subscribers and a median of about 7.5 reactions per post. The reader is clear, owners of $5M to $50M companies named in the September 23 and September 30 posts, and the biweekly issue gives them a reason to return. The next build is distribution that puts The Buyer's Lens in front of owners who do not know her yet.
4
Different-er vs. Better
Competes on distinctiveness/belief vs. features/specs/price
Beliefs run through her writing: the owner who runs everything becomes the ceiling a buyer will test, honest criticism is rare and worth seeking, and add-backs that fail a buyer's review can erase millions, as in her $8.4M story. Her BizBuySell listing still leads with the record: 100+ sales, a Tuck MBA, a former CPA license and the CEPA credential. The next step is putting the belief first and the record second.
4
IDEA vs. Best Practices
Organizing belief visible across all channels vs. channel-by-channel
The Buyer's Lens is a repeatable shape: biweekly, a named subtitle, and four issues, two of them told through a deal, such as the owner who believed his company was unsellable and was wrong by $13 million. Eight of her ten recent items sit outside that shape, in Vistage event posts, stories, a coaching recap and a comment share, and the shape lives on one channel. The next build is one format that every post and channel echoes.
5
Founder/Leader Voice
Named human with consistent opinionated first-person presence
Nine of ten items in six weeks are written in her own voice, with opinion backed by operator stories and data, such as the September 23 read on PwC's private equity figures. The voice is first person and steady, and the opinion runs softer than the stories. The open space is a sharper stance a reader could argue with, repeated until it becomes the reason people follow her.
4
Cultural Relevance
Signal connects to a larger shift in the world vs. exists in isolation
A Forbes article by Melissa Houston in July quotes her on why businesses fail to sell, her advice ran in the Union-Tribune business section, and she has been a podcast guest, most recently found in 2023. A name search finds no panels or association leadership roles, and the coverage is quotes rather than a platform of her own. The next step is a standing place on someone else's stage, a column, panel or podcast, where owners hear her regularly.
Digital Footprint Scan
Where She Can Show Up Next
LinkedIn Profile
Active
3,320 followers and nine first-person items between September 3 and October 12. Story posts lead on response.
The Buyer's Lens
Active
Biweekly LinkedIn newsletter with 335 subscribers and four issues so far, subtitled Real Stories from the Deal Table.
Native Video
Weak
Three short videos so far: a 1:38 piece on the owner as bottleneck in September and two holiday clips last December.
Press and Podcasts
Weak
A Forbes quote in July and Union-Tribune advice. Podcast guest spots found date to 2020 and 2023.
YouTube
Absent
No channel found. Open space for a home where owners can watch more than one of her videos.
Personal Website
Absent
No site under her own name. The LinkedIn profile is the destination.
Strategic Opportunity
How to Build Her Legend
Short Term
Answer the B.H.O.Q. in one line
Clarify: who is Lamar beyond Vistage Chair and broker? Pieces of the answer appear in her posts: the buyer's lens, the owner as operating system, a father who tested every idea. Decide which one leads, and let it replace the role list in the headline.
Decide what is Lamar's and what is the firm's
Clarify: the buyer's lens serves as both the Excellens tagline and her newsletter title. Decide whether it is her point of view that the firm borrows or the firm's line that she carries, and name the voice that owns it.
Choose the format to commit to
Clarify: the newsletter, a weekly video and story posts are all in motion. Pick the one that will carry the answered B.H.O.Q. and the rhythm she will hold.
Medium Term
Identity: a signature video at the top
One made piece, built from her deal stories and pinned in Featured, so a CEO hears how she thinks before the first call.
Identity: About and banner rebuilt around the answer
A first-person story of the person behind the CPA and the deals, and a banner that carries her idea instead of a skyline.
Growth: a distribution loop for The Buyer's Lens
Guest spots, Vistage speaker networks and cross-posts that bring owners from outside her network into the newsletter, with a simple measure of who joins and from where.
Competitive Landscape
Who's Setting the Pace
John Warrillow
Founder, The Value Builder System | Toronto
Leads with a title, but the profile carries named tools (Value Builder Score, PREScore), three books, a quarterly Exit Readiness Index and 59 recommendations. Built to Sell Radio has passed 500 episodes. His About now addresses advisory firms. Part of his audience is Lamar's peers rather than her buyers.
Pete Martin
Exit advisor and author, Scale Up Faster | Cleveland
His headline says who he serves and what changes: grow faster, hire smarter, exit richer. A custom banner carries his book. Next to it sit a Book an appointment button and 12,507 followers. He runs Bootscaling workshops for Vistage members and writes for $1M to $50M founders, the same owners Lamar serves.
Steven Smith
Vistage Chair and M&A advisor | Rancho Santa Fe
A fellow San Diego County Vistage Chair who posts nearly every day: long first-person essays that end in a question, with coined ideas such as Analog Intelligence and Moral Intelligence. The profile trails the writing, with a keyword headline, a plain banner, external link cards in Featured and no recommendations.
The Open Seat
Where Lamar Can Stand Apart
None of the three combines live deal work with leading a CEO peer group: Warrillow measures readiness at scale, Martin teaches growth and Smith writes on leadership. Lamar sits beside owners as their Chair and across the table as their broker, and her deal stories come from both seats. That double seat is the open position in this set.
Market Context
Why This Is Harder, and Easier, Than It Used To Be
Owners now research advisors on their own before they ever call, and a named person with a clear point of view stands out in a feed filling with machine-written posts.
95%
of B2B buyers say strong thought leadership makes them more open to a firm's outreach
Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, 2025
74%
of buyers name domain expertise as a top factor in the final decision
Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, 2025
83%
of business decision-makers research on their own before talking to a seller
SurveyMonkey and Reddit B2B buyer study, 2026
1.2B
LinkedIn members, with video uploads up more than 20% in a year
LinkedIn Q4 FY25 Business Highlights, 2025
What Keeps You Up at Night
The forces shaping Lamar Rutherford's competitive environment, and why standing still is not an option.
Machine-written posts crowd the feed
41% of long LinkedIn posts in a 2026 sample were flagged as fully AI-generated.
Pangram study via Fortune, 2026 HeadwindOrganic reach is falling
Average creator views fell 50% year over year across a 1.8 million post sample.
van der Blom, Algorithm Insights Report, 2025 HeadwindLinkedIn is filtering low-effort content
A new report button and demotion filters target automated and low-quality posts.
Fortune, 2026 HeadwindWhere the Opportunity Lives
The same forces creating pressure are also creating openings for those willing to lead.
Video watch time is growing
Time spent watching LinkedIn video rose 36% year over year.
Microsoft FY25 Q3 earnings, 2025 TailwindNamed people earn more trust than machines
73% trust peer recommendations, against 39% for AI chatbots.
SurveyMonkey and Reddit, 2026 TailwindNewsletters reach a large audience
LinkedIn reports hundreds of millions of newsletter subscribers on the platform.
LinkedIn, 2025 TailwindUnlock Your Full Roadmap
Her Future-State Professional Brand
The full roadmap takes Lamar's answer to the B.H.O.Q. from a line on a profile to a professional brand that owners find before they need her.
Phase 1
Clarify
Phase 2
Identity
Phase 3
Growth