I went from “I think we’re launching a Colorado Springs chapter of the COO Collective” to a full operating system for chapter expansion in 6 days. I learned a few SMB words along the way too: -National chapter overhead allocations -Compensation based on unit economics -Fixed vs variable moderator compensation -Pre-launch reserve capital -Revenue attribution and incentive design -Standardization vs. local autonomy -Internal Capital recovery 2 things. 1. I didn’t know what half of these things meant before tonight. Still probably don’t. 2. Unique talent + Specific experience X passion/tenacity is a great formula This week, COO Collective COS launches. First forum coming in January (or February/March pending it actually working).

And son #1’s first fish 19 minutes later 🤣

First fish. Not a bad one to start with.

I have crossed over the metaphorical line I told myself I wouldn’t do with any client.

These two pictures show the difference between my level of confidence now versus 6 months ago when I had just started. Newest client and I talked about our engagement on Monday. Sent him the proposal same day. He agreed to it Monday afternoon. Sent the contract Monday night. No communication the rest of the week. 6 months ago, I would have said I got ghosted again. Yet another “unserious tire kicker.” The secret? People forget things. Business owners aren’t thinking about me. They’re running their business, managing people and trying to make payroll. When I know I can help, I’ve learned that I have to make them think about it. 21 minutes after I told him I sent the contract he was signed for 6 months. I had to learn my way out of fear at the beginning.

One thing I’ve learned is that trades under $1.5m in revenue don’t want robust, sophisticated or complicated. They want simple, useful and a solution. Colorado’s HVAC client didn’t have a way to automatically pull issues, tasks, action items, approvals, decision or ownership into a single location that could be tracked. Now he does. Meeting OS Command Center is a simple tool using Sheets, Gemini and Drive to fully automate his meetings. Is it beautiful? Not really. Is it a premium SaaS product? No way. Does it solve his problem tomorrow and operate within his Google Workspace ecosystem? Yes. Done is better than perfect.

My brother in law turns 40 tomorrow. For my 38th birthday, he and another BIL took me to the Avs/Stars Game 5 in Dallas. For my 40th they took me fly fishing. For his 40th, I bought his entire Amazon Shopping cart. It’s mind-boggling that two of my closet friends are in laws. Never thought I’d be lucky enough to have that.