Independence by Design™ #453: Jennifer Davis | From Chaos to Cash: The Comp Plan That Frees You to Lead
If you’re trying to grow your business without creating a mess of misaligned incentives, resentment, or comp plans that backfire—this episode is for you. I brought Jennifer Davis back on because she built one of the most intentional compensation systems I’ve ever seen. We walk through how she tied her company’s mission and KPIs directly to each person’s comp—and connected it all the way down to their personal goals. We talk about cleaning up old promises, removing politics, and building a system that creates momentum instead of confusion. It’s tactical, practical, and deeply aligned with what we talk about in Independence by Design™—because comp is strategy. And when you get it right, everything gets easier.
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Jennifer Davis is the co-founder and former CEO of Davisware, a bootstrapped ERP platform scaled to over $20M in revenue and sold to private equity. She’s a tech entrepreneur, mom of 10, and author of two books including Living Exponentially. Now through her new venture BExponential, she helps growth-minded women lead with clarity and purpose. Her story blends grit, systems thinking, and a deep commitment to impact.
Chapters:
- (00:00) Introduction- guest Jennifer Davis
- (04:19) The three assets that matter: brand, culture, customers
- (26:31) The gap between expectations and reality
- (30:24) Using a fake sale to rethink structure
- (32:31) From firefighting to structure
- (39:27) The pyramid: from brand to bonus
- (53:47) The 80/20 bonus plan
- (1:06:24) The timeline: clarity in two years
- (1:26:48) Tying comp to life goals
- (1:30:17) 100% KPI transparency
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Resources:
Jennifer's site: jenniferleedavis.com (consulting/retreats/book).
BExponential: bexponential.com (women's leadership).
Davisware: davisware.com (former ERP company).