My goal is to be the best advisor in the world. Its a lofty statement that I couldn’t say out loud until I worked with my own executive coach for about three years. In finding this clarity I have guided my professional steps with this theme in mind. I know I will not reach this feat tomorrow, but I can take steps to get there everyday. One of the ways I do this is by putting more people into business. This happens in the form of operating, coaching, investing, and now helping them grow their own fractional consulting practice with the launch a new business.
The theme of becoming a better advisor has been a core principle of how I make decisions – from the people I choose to work with, companies I invest in, founders/execs I coach, and really what I do with my life. I wrote about what I am doing with my life and what I am optimizing for which is wealthy vs. rich, but I was lacking a platform in which I could do this at scale, until now. Now, when I get asked the question “how do I do fractional work like you?”
I haven’t talked about this publicly before, possibly because of embarrassment or shame, but I was one of the unlucky ones laid off in 2020. The pandemic had huge impacts on many, and at the time I didn’t feel comfortable sharing it openly as many do today. I struggled for a long time in how to wrap my head around it – “me?” “am I a failure?” “what could I have done differently?” and the questions haunted me. I realized soon after, that doing what I do best, was exactly what I should be doing; Fractional work with amazing people. I threw myself into Fractional COO work, executive coaching, and investing (where possible). The magic was that all three are intricately connected, but more on that later.
For the last 4 years I have been a Fractional COO – building a practice of business operating excellence for clients. I have carved out a niche, and pride myself on being someone others come too when they want to do the same. I would constantly have “coffee chats” and “can I pick your brain” time with friends and colleagues who saw what I was doing and wanted to do the same thing. Some wanted to do something similar in a different discipline. A handful of times I brought in outside help to turbo charge work done for a client. Then about two years ago, I reunited with one of the smartest CTOs I know and we began connecting our old engineer network with early stage companies that needed to ship faster.
I realized recently that I have been putting people into business my entire career. I am someone that people lean on when they are at critical junctions in their careers, are at a crossroad in their life, or are otherwise thinking about what is next. I have been lucky to work with and manage some incredible people, some who have managed to reach incredible professional heights. Obviously I am not saying that I am solely responsible for their successes, but I would like to think that I played a role and contributed to their foundations. Its been empowering, exhilarating, and humbling. Through this network I have grown my own practice, again operating, coaching, and investing in some of them.
Putting engineers into companies that need them is an incredible feeling. Its lucrative for the engineer, great for companies, and the part time work gives them time to build on the side – chasing their passion. This has led to some amazing outcomes – fundraises, full time jobs, and more.
At the same time, I became the go-to “fractional coo” which has turned into fractional cfo for vc funds guy that people wanted to talk too to launch their own consulting path. For this reason I started to focus all my efforts into graphadvisors.com
This is a personal post, and away from the typical hyperbole of a launch, minus the marketing speak and growth hack headlines to make you click.
If you are thinking about what might be next and want to explore consulting I would love to hear from you – we are growing an incredible community of “people like us”. This can also be a place for now, as its ok to work full time!
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