The journey of an ordinary leader who overcame the pressure to do things ‘the right way’ and carved an unlikely path to success.
How does a shy, precocious, introvert end up building a national consulting firm from nothing? The journey of Advantage Management Consulting starts with Gil Davidson but gathers momentum as other amazing people join along the way. Most are still with us; some have left to live their extraordinariness elsewhere and we thank them for their part in the journey.
It’s tempting to read about others success in an effort to duplicate it – a strategy that seldom works because our paths are as unique as we are. When my Head of Marketing asked me to write this blog my first thought was that no-one would be interested in the story. I am excited about our milestone, but why would others be interested… then, the more we talked about it, the more excited I became to share my journey – Advantage Management Consulting’s journey. A journey of an ordinary leader who overcame the pressure to do things ‘the right way’ and carved an unlikely path to success. A journey guided by values-based decisions with all the costs, soul-searching, joy, struggles, tenacity, learning, growth and deep gladness that accompanied them.
My journey is a non-traditional narrative, one that refuses to be defined by expectations by ‘shoulds’ and ‘can’ts’ and my hope is that it frees you from any of your limiting narratives so that you can craft your journey to success – complete with its costs, joys, struggles and successes. So, if you choose to read further, do so to discover your own journey rather than to duplicate mine.
Despite knowing better, we often imagine a linear path to business success. If you take away one thing from this blog, I hope it is a new permission to follow whatever non-linear path your success is calling you down.
A consulting business needs to be in a big city where you have an extensive network.
Assumption 1
A consulting business needs to be in a big city where you have an extensive network. That would be the logical way to do things, and it certainly would’ve made things easier, but it didn’t fit with the broader context of our life, so I chose a different path. I started my business by moving to a town where I knew no one at all (I.e, I had no network to draw on), and where less than 2% of the businesses are large enough to fit our “ideal client”. Not to mention, I was pregnant, with two toddlers in tow. This was also my first time leaving the corporate world to strike out on my own in the field of Coaching – which, 20 years ago, was an unknown entity that few leaders understood or could rationally justify investing in. Fortunately, there were enough early adopters to tide me over the lean start-up years while I figured out how things worked outside the safety of a large corporate structure. As our reputation grew so did our clarity that we’re not in the ‘coaching business’, but rather in the business of ‘equipping leaders and teams’.
I never wanted to be a ‘kept woman’. Yet, as a mother in my early-30’s starting a business with a clear boundary around being a ‘full-time Mom and part-time business owner’, I had to admit that I was, in fact, such. My income did not even come close to adding significant value to our bottom line. My work was, however, of high quality, and added real value for my clients, while also giving me the stimulation and purpose outside the home that I sorely needed. In short, it was highly valuable to me and to the people I served, it just didn’t fit my idealistic view of what a successful trajectory as a young adult should look like.
Although I was confident that I was making the right values-based choices, I struggled to accept the very real identity cost of those choices. Acknowledging they were my choices to make and continuing to actively pursue them – despite the cost – made it easier and I eventually made my peace with it – but this was a journey all of its own.
Looking back, I see how fortunate I was to have the luxury of a slow start to my business. It allowed me lots of focused, energised time with my kids while also providing a leisurely space to gain clarity on the clients, services and structure of the business that is now reaching exponential growth. We recently became empty-nesters freeing me up to nurture this next stage of the business and transition into being a full-time business owner more smoothly – thanks in large part to the unusual path I took.
I am grateful for the gift of growth from this struggle, both for myself and, ultimately, for my business.
There is only one way to be an entrepeneur.
Assumption 2
I’m not an entrepreneur. In my family my brothers were the ones ‘made of entrepreneurial stuff’. Their entrepreneurial spirit earned them all the attention and grooming from the business relatives and friends. I envied them and their ability to ‘fake it till you make it’ – I just wasn’t wired that way.
During the ‘slow start’ of the first 10 years of my business I periodically contemplated returning to the corporate world I so loved, questioning if I was cut out for this or if I was trying to be something I’m not. Three things kept me at it:
First, I didn’t want to give up the flexibility I allowed myself. I couldn’t see myself finding a corporate job that would allow me to work at the same level I was and still have time for the things I valued, like going on family adventures.
Secondly, I was beginning to realize that while I may not have the same entrepreneurial wiring as my brothers, it is precisely my wiring that makes me good at what I do. My approach enables me to build long-term, external strategic partnerships with organizations to create lasting impact for the leaders and teams in those organizations. I came to understand that entrepreneurship has many forms and I was my own version of an entrepreneur.
Thirdly, Christine Bonney (then a member of our team) was coaching me through an existential crisis one day and reflected to me that “I know many successful business owners and none of them have anything that you don’t” – it was a turning point and the final strand in the logic I needed to believe and commit to building a business beyond myself – in short, I realized I wanted to and could scale the business.
The next logical step would be to dig down deep and focus on scaling – right? Once more, it didn’t quite fit with our broader circumstance or stage of life, so instead we chose something different.
If I am not constantly working myself to the bone
I won’t make it.
Assumption 3
If I take 9 months off my business will die. Our family has a high value around adventure and exploration. In 2013-14, we decided to enroll our three kids (then ages 14, 12 and 9) in online schooling and drag them around Europe and South Africa for nine months. Again, it was a decision based on deeply held values and priorities and I had to own that a potential cost might be the death of my business. I decided it was worth the risk, and that I was going to mitigate that risk as much as possible. One of my team members stepped forward to be the face of the company while I was away, and I made a point of introducing her to all our key stakeholders as such. A month into our trip, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to step away – the business was left without a caretaker.
The business didn’t die in those nine months; rather, it went on life support. Upon my return it took 6 months to revive. More importantly, it solidified for me that, as soon as the kids were old enough, I wanted to start the process of scaling the business.
Scaling should always be the focus.
Assumption 4
Scaling is a natural next step. That may be true sometimes, but it isn’t a step one should take without being sure. The timing and the energy to scale was finally right and in 2015 I threw myself into it. I was again in unknown territory, and it took 3 years before it finally made any difference to the bottom line. I had set myself an aggressive financial target to reach by December 2017, otherwise I would regroup and do something different. By the summer of 2016 when it felt like we were making no progress and I was about to admit defeat. My husband urged me, ‘don’t you dare give up while you’re down’. By the end of that year the new trajectory had declared itself and, with the exception of the Covid blip of 2020, we’ve stayed above my 2017 target and will have quadrupled it by the end of 2022!
Scaling is multi-faceted and demanding – it forces us to stray from our area of expertise and requires that we pay equal attention to People, Products/Services and Systems all at the same time. Although our numbers have been exciting it feels like I’ve been swimming in the deep sea, sometimes in rough waters, without many islands to rest on since the needed focus-shift to include building systems occurred in 2018. That is the year I finally decided we needed systems and invested in both paying people to help develop the back-end as well as in an office-automation system – none of it very sexy, all of it essential and life-saving (after the life-sapping development stage)!
I was keenly aware that to build a business that is ‘bigger than me’, I’d better get out of the way. Sounds simple, but it takes ongoing conscious choices to let others decide the details – details that for years you’ve meticulously held, nurtured and looked after.
I have a strict policy of only recruiting (or, as I prefer to say, inviting) people I am excited to work with to join our team. People with courage, compassion and a deep understanding of context. People who are skilled and certified and are compelled by the value of service and impact. People who are exciting to be around. If you’re going to recruit such people, you’d better make sure that you give them the room to influence how things are done. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed learning to get out of the way and seeing our business grow as a direct result of some uncomfortable conversations that have increased engagement and fostered a sense of shared creativity amongst us all.
Leaders aren’t allowed to screw up.
Assumption 5
We model what we teach. And that includes our flawed humanity. As a leader I’ve worked hard at building a fantastic team with a healthy, innovative, productive culture. These are all people I deeply respect, despite times where trust felt thin, or expectations differed enough to threaten relationship. Each time I was tempted to follow the ‘easy’ path of avoidance, I reminded myself that leadership is not for the faint hearted, that courageous leadership is good leadership. No team or leader is perfect, and each time we’ve created space for that while still upholding our shared core values. Because of this, we’ve emerged as a stronger team, better equipped to serve our clients.
We’re a leadership and team development company. We recruit leaders who are committed to life-long learning, excellence and a heart of servant leadership. We believe at our very core that how you show up provides as much, if not more learning for our clients than any leadership and team principles we may share.
When circumstances are chaotic, it is easy to justify ‘lowering our standard’. Because of all the growth and structure-building, I have an endless to-do list to complete which can result in trying to take on too much, leaving me failing those I’m committed to serving.
I recently found that simply asking “How am I honouring my team and my clients?”, “How am I honouring those I’ve pledged to serve?”, cuts through the excuses and creates the energy and clarity I need to live in integrity. I think it is largely this company-wide commitment to integrity that has set us apart.
Given the tragically high numbers of 82% – 95% of coaching businesses that fail within the first 2 years, I am particularly proud to be marking 20 years in business, marked by exponential, national growth in the last 5 years. I am grateful for our team that has kept us out of that statistic and on a clear trajectory towards becoming a nationally recognised brand.
With such a strong team I have been taking a step back from being the face of the company. Advantage Management Consulting has grown into an entity that is beyond me and bigger than any one of its members. We now have regional VPs for the East and West Coast as you will hear more about in the coming weeks.
Thanks to our wonderful team for spreading life-giving leadership wherever you go, you are Advantage Management Consulting
Our current team in chronological order:
- Anita (Kelowna, BC)
- Bruce (Toronto, ON)
- Maja (Kelowna, BC)
- Amanda (Calgary, AB)
- Sarah (Vernon, BC)
- Doug(Port Coquiltam, BC)
- Toni (Vancouver, BC)
- Hellen(Vancouver, BC)
- Sunmbo (Calgary, AB)
- Philippe (Montreal, QC,; COO – Partner – Regional VP Eastern Canada
- and coming soon Arlene (Mill River, PEI – Regional VP Atlantic Canada)