Advising

Honest in your corner

For owners, founders and executives at a crossroads who want the truth from someone who cares, not a yes man.

Aaron smiling mid-conversation on a video call at his kitchen table

How a conversation goes

FIRST

"All right, tell me what's going on."

THEN

I mostly listen, and ask a lot of questions.

BY THE END

One encouragement and one thing to consider.

What I believe

Seen → Confident → Decisive → Performing

When people are seen for who they are, they get confident. Confident people make better decisions. Better decisions become better results.

How I think

This started on my office whiteboard, and it's still how I look at a leader or a business.

Passion and leadership make growth. Passion and strategy give you purpose. Leadership and strategy create vision. Where all three meet, you get confidence. And confident people make better decisions.

Aaron's original office whiteboard with the diagram and handwritten notes — The original

Aaron writing Confidence at the center of the diagram on a whiteboard — The update

Things I say a lot

Context helps explain conduct.
Curiosity builds trust.
Present the solution, not the problem.
Growth is painful.
Don't be loyal to limitations.
Exposure leads to expansion.
But what are you learning?

Ways I help

One-on-one

A standing conversation with an owner, founder or executive.

For a season

Walking alongside a leader or team through a stretch that matters.

In the room

Facilitating the hard conversation a team keeps avoiding.

Where it comes from

CPA (inactive)BBA in Accounting, Trevecca Nazarene

$30M+annual budgets in healthcare finance

17 → ~50people at 5by5 as VP of Finance, then COO

LLC → ESOPownership transition, then an acquisition

In one leadership meeting, everyone agreed we were meeting our executives' expectations. I was the only one who said we weren't close. It became an hour-long conversation the team needed to have.