Sometimes, a fresh, objective point of view makes all the difference. That was certainly the case for Colby Collier, owner of the full-service production company CNS Productions in Oklahoma City.

I met Colby several years ago. He started out as a frequent guest at my webinars and a reader of the Intentional Success newsletter. Later, I engaged with Colby in some one-on-one coaching. It was a good time to start fresh, and Colby desperately needed a mentor.

“I needed someone with industry experience who I could bounce ideas off of, get feedback from, and continue my trajectory of growth in a way that met milestones along the way.”

The Benefits of a Fresh Perspective

Colby understood how his company was doing on a general level, but that wasn’t enough to succeed, especially with competition ramping up. He needed a mentor with an objective point of view to make sense of his business’s granular details.

That’s where I came in. I adequately compared CNS Productions’ performance to that other AV companies. This way, Colby could more easily understand whether he was achieving his goals.

“Before I began working with Tom, I really had no ability to compare or test my ideas. I also didn’t know if I was headed in the right direction or not.”

Now, Colby and I have a monthly one-on-one call. He runs ideas by me and we assess how his business is doing. He also participates in the Intentional Success® Club, a peer group of like-minded owners.

During our most recent call, Colby told me that before he approached me, he considered hiring another employee. Ultimately, he decided against it. If all went well and I helped him gain the efficiency he was looking for, he had a feeling the need for a new employee would become obsolete. His intuition was correct.

“Tom’s always held me to a high level of accountability. That’s something that’s really hard to do as an internal process within yourself.”

The Right Way to Achieve Your Goals

After consulting me, Colby realized he tended to over-engineer solutions that should have been kept simple. Rather than staying tuned to the issue at hand, Colby would manufacture complicated answers that led him to lose focus of his goals.

Colby’s “ah-ha!” moment came when I showed him how to draw a roadmap for his business.

It’s important to understand the “what and where” of your business. Only then can you outline where you want your company to go and how to overcome your problems. Once Colby mapped his goals, we worked on making them actionable.

Now, Colby sets a goal, assigns actions to achieve it, and follows the plan until he solves the problem.

“In terms of trajectory, Tom helped a lot by giving us a roadmap to work with. Map in hand, we were able to establish our identity and work it into the marketplace.”

The Best Time to Reach Out Is Right Now

It’s important for a business owner to consult someone with an objective point of view who has their company’s best interests at heart. That’s the service I provide — and the only way I can keep my end of the bargain is by being honest.

I provide a perspective my clients don’t have of themselves. I tell them if they’re being a bad manager or if they’re too emotionally attached to a problem. They expect me to do so.

Plus, my clients don’t just have access to my mind and experience — they have access to all my other clients’ experiences through the peer group. Peer groups provide valuable insights you can’t get anywhere else.

“The peer group is something I can’t assign a value to,” Colby says. He learns from other people’s mistakes before he makes them himself and has to pay the price. That’s golden.

No man is an island. If you feel stranded, follow Colby’s lead and give me a call.