Lesson #1: Stick to Your Knitting.
When I started Quinn Strategy Group in 2010, I worked hard to clearly define the work I did and the value to my clients. It was critical that I do so. I was leaving the comfort of a large firm that had a good reputation and was known in the marketplace.
With each engagement, I spent time fine-tuning the services and expertise I was delivering and learning from my clients as they articulated the value and outcomes they saw from our work. Today, I don’t deviate from those services or from my value proposition – I am crystal clear about what I do best.
This focus helps me every step of the way.
The referrals I receive are spot on because people understand when I can help. Developing a scope of work and closing the sale are easier because I understand the value I bring and the outcomes the organization can expect. I’ve worked with enough organizations at various stages of growth that I know how to keep my clients focused as well. This is important because building clarity around strategy and taking action is messy stuff.
Finally, my clients reach the end of the engagement in a much better place, they’ve enjoyed the process and they’re smarter, too. They’re happy to refer me to a colleague, give a testimonial or act as a reference for my next prospect.
Be clear on what you do best.
Lesson #2: Invest in Relationships.
I love meeting and working with people. I’m interested in their businesses and care about their interests. I’ve been working with several clients for years, and in some cases they’ve become my friends. We have shared a lot of ups and downs – both professionally and personally. These relationships make my work and my life very rewarding.
When I first started out in my career, I got the card of a very prominent business leader at a networking event. The next day, I emailed that person to ask if they’d be willing to meet. I had no business asking this person to meet me and they had no reason to make the time. But they did make the time and I used their time wisely, and taking that chance to develop a new relationship helped move me forward professionally.
From that experience, I learned how important it is to make the time for someone else when I’m asked.
I’m always willing to meet for a cup of coffee, to help with a business challenge, make connections to others in my network or help someone find that next job, funder or advisor. The investment I’ve made in building a large, connected network has been returned a hundredfold.
Lesson #3: Being Curious is Better than Being Smart.
Maybe I’m not the smartest person in the room, but I am endlessly curious. Curious about business models, market trends, people’s motivations, why some organizations succeed and others fail.
I read. I research. I ask lots of questions.
Curiosity serves me well because I don’t assume I know the answer and I’m comfortable staying in that “learning” space while I gather more information – and, over time, I’ve seen my clients benefit from this approach in more ways than one.
Rather than being handed a fast, “smart” answer, they get to see the data and thinking that goes into my response. Additionally, they themselves learn more from this approach because it leaves room for each person involved to add more of their own discoveries and thinking throughout the process.
Simply put, choosing to be curious always results in better, richer outcomes.
Lesson #4: The Shoemaker's Children SHOULD HAVE SHOES.
I spend time working on my business as if Quinn Strategy Group was a multimillion dollar organization with dozens of employees.
I have a strategic plan and goals and objectives to make that plan actionable throughout the year. I have identified the key business and financial metrics that drive my business and I review my progress monthly.
I also have a group of peers with whom I meet quarterly to check in, report on progress and hold myself accountable – and I don’t skimp on employing advisors. From taxes to marketing and branding, I seek out the outside expertise and resources I need to grow my business.
In other words, I take the advice that I give to my own clients and make time to do the work by finding the best people to do what’s not in my wheelhouse or that which I shouldn’t be spending time on if I truly want to grow. After all, I am building something with lots of potential – I need to take that seriously, and if I tell people I’m a strategic advisor – their Chief Action Officer no less – there darn well better be a strategic plan for my own business and all kinds of meaningful action.
Lesson #5: There’s More than One Way to Spell Success.
All my schooling and much of my early career experience reinforced a very narrow version of success that goes something like this:
Hop on the corporate ladder, work like crazy, hope you get recognized, get bigger projects and a bigger team, and move to the big corner office with the window and the assistant.
When I started Quinn Strategy Group, my reality didn’t resemble this at all.
I was working out of my home office, all by myself, meeting clients and prospects in coffee shops. This was not the vision I’d been sold, I thought. Yet clients and work came my way, my brand and reputation in the marketplace were recognized and valued, the phone was ringing.
Long before I could recognize that I had arrived at a different way to spell success, all the signs were there. But it took me months to settle into that reality and to really begin to enjoy the challenge, flexibility and freedom of my new success.
So how do I spell success now?
Taking a client that really interests me, just because they really interest me. Having the success, and failure, of my business rest entirely on my shoulders. Doing client work and building my business. And yes, taking the occasional afternoon off to take a run or go to yoga.
This shift in perspective has made so many things possible.
It prompts me to ask myself if I’m really fulfilled far more often than I ever would have on the march to the corner office. It helps me drill down deeper with my clients about their own visions of success (and not just assume that more, more, more is always what an organization wants or needs). It even allows me to help my clients to personally adjust and shift in their own businesses.
Most of all, finding my own definition of success has helped me enjoy my first five years more than I could have imagined. It’s been quite an adventure and I wouldn’t trade what I’ve learned along the way for anything.
To all who’ve helped make my first five years in business not only successful, but also so memorable and rich – THANK YOU. Here’s to the next five!
