During the summer of 2014, I came to the realization that the best way for me to be a consultant and serve clients was by owning my own consulting business. This wasn’t an overnight epiphany. After much soul searching and talking with family, friends and trusted colleagues, I decided to take the leap…
…and landed softly with my first client, Theo Chocolate. Theo was just the beginning. As more projects and clients came my way, I realized that I needed help.
Enter Shannon Drohman. I’ve known Shannon for years. We met through LWHRA’s mentorship program. I hired Shannon to work on projects as a contractor. After a few conversations about projects and the business, though, it became clear to us both that we had an amazing opportunity.
We realized that our backgrounds, experience and skills were complementary. We discovered that our values aligned. We learned that our client-approach was remarkably similar. The more we talked, we knew that we were meant to be business partners.
Our first partnership activity was discussing our ground rules for how to be with each other and with our clients. Some of our ground rules:
Be kind.
Be honest.
Be intentional.
Do the right thing.
Always look for the humor.
Be transparent.
Treasure relationships.
Since hindsight is 20/20, we know there’s one more ground rule that should be added to the list:
Have fun!
Shannon and I are busy (and getting busier every day), and we’re also having a lot of fun. What more could we ask for?