After having spent the better part of the last 30 years working for small and large companies, and the last 10 co-founding and building a startup business from the ground up, the time felt right for a change. Having exited the company I co-founded, I felt I had the luxury to be a little picky about what came next. After months of introspection both before and after the exit, a few recurring self evaluation themes came through:
1) I get my greatest satisfaction out of helping others. This is not meant to sound self glorifying or aggrandizing in any way. But I have always been very independent and reluctant or uncomfortable taking value from others, and much more comfortable adding value. In fact, one of the character traits I dislike most in a person is selfishness. This does not mean I would not try to leverage knowledge, contacts or past relationships to get ahead. It just means that I like to feel like the other person is getting something out of our relationship too.
2)I believe success comes from collaboration and the honest sharing of ideas. Working in small business has many advantages, but one of the things I missed most was being part of a larger team. My children can attest to the fact that I have always said "everything is better when you get to share it". I feel strongly about this in the context of business successes and yes, failures as well. To me there is no better feeling then celebrating an important win, milestone or deal with colleagues and friends, or working through challenges to a better outcome with a group of people with varying perspectives. My greatest pleasure of all was in watching colleagues I mentored and coached go on to promotions, more senior positions elsewhere or some other success. Plain and simple...having a small part in seeing people I truly like and care about achieve success is a feeling that is irreplaceable.
3) I have a pretty unique set of experiences (as do most people). It has been my experience that most people have not had success in Small, Large Corporate and Startup business throughout their career. Most people pick a lane and spend their career there. Employees "climb the corporate ladder". Entrepreneurs "bet the farm" repeatedly and so on. I have been fortunate to have been afforded great life experiences at all levels of business as a result of my career trajectory. Experiences that I can leverage from, blend into relevant counsel, and use my talent for boiling information down to it's most simple to communicate form to benefit others. These experiences include Business Development, Coaching, Product Launch Processes and Team Building.
When I looked at these themes it became clear that a Fractional Sales Executive business would scratch a lot of these itches, namely: Helping others, Leveraging my vast network, Adding value, Working with teams on short medium and long term mandates, and being entrepreneurial.
By working with small and midsize business looking for ways to get to the next level, helping them analyze their short, mid and long term goals and then developing and implementing the strategy to get there, those clients can benefit from executive level knowledge they perhaps couldn't afford full time, while I get the pleasure of working with their organization however big or small to inspire meaningful change and success. A real WIN WIN situation.
