I’ve spent my career learning what makes businesses, people and leaders successful together.
I didn’t begin my career as a consultant or coach. I started at the bottom in sales, selling a paper product on straight commission in Silicon Valley.
If your product didn’t work, you weren’t making your customer money, or you couldn’t get someone’s attention in 30 seconds or less, you didn’t stand a chance.
I learned what it felt like to carry a bag and manage a book of business. To find new leads and put a gain on revenue. To collect from past-due clients and pray the next one passed credit. To earn a customer’s trust, hear the word no, figure out what worked, and come back the next day ready to do it all over again. (In pearls and high heels, signing contracts on the back of tailgates, on dirt roads no less!) We met our clients where they were!
We sold “air” in adjacent markets, holding up products from neighboring markets that existed next door but not yet in the one we were selling in to. We walked door to door. We got stood up more times than I care to remember. And yes, we occasionally brought a coworker along to appointments in the sketchier parts of town. (How does every town have one?)
Day by day, month by month, year by year, I learned what it took to lead salespeople. Then managers. Then offices. Then multiple offices and markets.
Eventually, I became a Regional Vice President responsible for one of the largest regions in the company, approximately $50 million in annual revenue, five offices, 150 sales representatives and 15 managers.
Then I left Corporate America and became a business owner myself.
I understand salespeople because I was one. I understand sales managers because I built and led award-winning teams, again and again and again, from the ground up. I didn’t inherit them. I built them. I understand executives because I became one. And I understand owners because I’m one of those, too.
And after years of working with owners, founders and executives, I’ve learned something else.
The higher you go, the harder it can be to find someone willing to tell you the truth.
Successful people tend to have plenty of people cheering them on. What they don’t always have is someone close enough to understand what’s happening, experienced enough to see where it may be headed, and strong enough to say, “I think you’re about to drive this thing off a cliff.”
That’s part of my job.
I’m not there to agree with everything you say. I’m not there to win your approval, play company politics, or tell you what I think you want to hear. I’m there to be in your corner. Sometimes that means supporting the decision you’re making. Sometimes it means challenging it. And sometimes it means being willing to sit in the discomfort long enough for you to be irritated with me while we make sure we’re still on the highway.
Being in your corner doesn’t mean always agreeing with you. Sometimes it means caring enough about you, your people and your business to tell you the thing no one else will.
Today, I bring that same perspective to every engagement. When something is happening inside a business, I rarely see just one side of it. I’m thinking about the leader, the employees, the customer, the revenue, the strategy, the execution, and how one decision affects everything and everyone else.
Because in business, nothing happens in isolation.
I’m going to ask a lot of questions.
I’m curious by nature. I listen closely. I pay attention to what you say, how you say it, what you hesitate around, and sometimes what you don’t say at all.
Because the first explanation of a problem isn’t always the whole explanation.
You may come to me because sales are down, a key employee isn’t working out, your leadership team is struggling, growth has created chaos, or you have a decision you can’t seem to get clear on. We’ll start there.
Then I’m going to ask questions.
I want to understand what happened before this. Who is involved. What you’ve already tried. What changed. What the numbers are telling us. What your people are telling us. What you think is happening. And what you might be missing because you’re simply too close to it.
Sometimes we’ll discover that the problem you brought me is exactly the problem we need to solve.
Sometimes we won’t.
My job isn’t to walk into the room pretending I already know the answer. It’s to stay curious long enough to understand the right question.
And once I understand what’s happening, I’m not afraid to use what I know.
I’ll bring the business experience, the leadership experience, the education, the tools and the perspective I’ve built over more than two decades. I’ll connect dots. I’ll teach when it’s useful. I’ll challenge an assumption when I think it needs challenging. I’ll help you separate what matters from what doesn’t and work with you to find a practical way forward.
Sometimes you need a strategist. Sometimes you need a coach. Sometimes you need a consultant, a sounding board, a teacher, or someone willing to roll up her sleeves and help you work through the damn thing.
I don’t need the problem to fit neatly into a box. I need to understand what’s happening and what you need from me.
And the deeper we work together, the more honest those conversations tend to become.
There’s no advantage in pretending with me. I don’t have a dog in the race. I’m not protecting a title, a department, a career path, or company politics. My interest is you, your people and the health of the business.
That gives us room to put the whole thing on the table, look at it together, and figure out what comes next.
And that’s where the magic starts.
The magic is in connecting the dots. Then reverse engineering the way forward.
I have a knack for seeing connections other people miss. A sales problem may connect to a management issue. A management issue may trace back to unclear expectations. A revenue problem may have very little to do with how hard the sales team is working. And the thing everyone is focused on may not be the thing that needs to change.
Once we can see what’s really happening, one of my greatest strengths kicks in: reverse engineering.
Where are we now? Where do we want to be? What has to be true for us to get there? What needs to change first? What comes next? Who needs to be involved? What could get in the way?
Then we work backward until there’s a path.
I’ve done this with sales goals, struggling teams, leadership challenges, organizational problems, growth strategies, difficult decisions and businesses trying to get from where they are to somewhere they’ve never been before.
Sometimes the answer is a major strategic shift. Sometimes it’s surprisingly simple. Sometimes we find three things that have to happen before the thing everyone wanted to tackle first will ever work.
That’s the part I love: taking something that feels tangled, complicated or out of reach and figuring out how we get from here to there.
And once we can see the path, we move.
Begin where you are...
The people I work with are very capable people. They’re used to having answers. Making decisions. Leading other people. Carrying responsibility. Being the person everyone else looks to when something needs to get figured out.
That doesn’t mean they always know what to do next.
You don’t need to walk into our conversations with everything organized, figured out, or packaged neatly. You can show up with a problem, an opportunity, a half-baked idea, a big goal, a mess you need to untangle, or twelve things happening at once.
Throw it all on the table.
The numbers. The people. The frustration. The ideas you’re excited about. The decisions you’re second-guessing. The employee you love but don’t know what to do with. The opportunity you don’t want to screw up. The thing you’re embarrassed you haven’t figured out yet. The goals that sound a little crazy when you say them out loud.
Lay it all down. We’ll figure out what’s worth picking back up as we work.
No judgment. No need to have it figured out before we start. We’ll sort through it, connect the dots, work the issues, and determine what needs your attention first.
I’ll bring everything I have to the table: experience, perspective, judgment, and a willingness to get into it with you. But the business and the decisions are still yours.
I’ll help you determine what matters, what doesn’t, what needs to change, what can wait, and what needs to happen next.
Sometimes I’ll challenge you. Sometimes I’ll teach you. Sometimes I’ll ask a question that changes the entire conversation. Sometimes I’ll simply give you enough room to hear yourself think.
My job is to help you see more clearly, think more deeply, and move forward knowing why you’re making the moves you’re making.
