How We Navigated Turbulent Times At My Consulting Company [Update]
This is a follow up story for Quintessential Performance. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published over 1 year ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
Hey again! My name is Ashley and I am the Founder and CEO of Quintessential Performance, a human performance consulting company. We specialize in building peak performing teams for leaders in the corporate world and professional sports teams.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?
Wow! Where to begin? So the last 10 months have been turbulent to say the least since we last spoke.
I volunteered to deploy as part of a specialist military task force and handed control over to my business partner and COO Duncs. Whilst I was away, I had no involvement with QP and had to trust the team that they would pull out all of the stops to continue our development.
Literally weeks before I departed the UK, we lost a major contract with a luxury motor brand. This was a big kick in the private parts and knocked the confidence of the team, not the best start to my absence.
Coupled with this, one of the team suffered a severe mental health issue which again hit everyone hard. The team managed to deal with all of these situations and prioritized our own development rather than increasing our client base.
Whilst I was away, I was able to finally produce & evidence a bespoke framework of what are the critical factors of a peak performing team. This is an evidence based framework, pulling together 24 years of evidence based practice.
This is a game changer for our business model as this really helps us stand out from the crowd. Our model is unique and context free which makes it adaptable to any environment.
Here is our Q92 Framework:
What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?
As mentioned above, we had to cope with my absence for 10 months, a couple of internal team mental health issues and a major client backing out of what would have been an amazing 12 month project for the team.
So now that I am back in the driving seat, we are re-focused and re-energised on developing our community, increasing our brand awareness and creating meaningful connections with people who want to build a peak performing team.
We have re-defined our strategy, simplifying our services. We are now 100% focused on building peak performing teams. Nothing else is in our sights right now. The next 12 months will be intense!
Build a close network of trusted advisors - people who will tell you what you need to hear rather than what you want to hear.
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
Such a great question, one I asked of the team upon my return. The biggest lesson is that I am the major driving force behind our growth. Now this is to be expected but we didn’t realize how much.
Humbled by this realization, it’s also one of our major flaws that I need to concentrate on this year. I need to build a system that is less reliant on me and more inclusive of the wider team.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
This year, we are full on client development mode. I know that sounds like it should always be the case but for the past few years we have been tweaking our offer, designing new methodologies etc. Now we have all of that in place we only have two goals for the next 12 months;
- Get clients.
- Keep clients.
This fixes the team as there is no ambiguity in the goals for the next 12 months. Everyone is looking for the opportunities for us to help others and grow. We are on the verge of securing a few professional sport teams onto our client roster so watch this space!
For the next 5 years, we intend to grow our team to expand into the USA and Central Europe.
What’s the best thing you read in the last year?
Last year I decided to re-read some of the most influential books I have come across. Some of them are academic books on systems thinking in practice which really helped me design and develop our systemic performance framework Q92.
The other book to mention is Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey. Such a fascinating book and it was great to re-read at a time where I was really doubting my own and the business’ capability. The key takeaway for me was to reduce self doubt and give myself the Green Light to succeed in building this business.
As always, I listen religiously to Gary Vaynerchuk and the Gary Vee show. A ton of free brand, marketing and trends to get a feel of what he is constantly giving out to the world.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
This is such a personal question as I am living this right now. I don’t have the answers just yet but firmly believe it is a combination of;
- Self belief - if you don’t believe in yourself then how can you expect others to?
- Build a close network of trusted advisors - people who will tell you what you need to hear rather than what you want to hear.
- Find mentors - get one for every aspect of your life.
- Keep going - you never know what is right around the corner for you.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
Not right now. Last year we brought in Kempty to run the professional sport side of the house. We are on the fringes of securing an ex-Formula 1 performance consultant to add to our team.
Where can we go to learn more?
I post daily on LinkedIn about leadership, culture, peak performing teams and my dogs! There is a blog on our website where we also share our wisdom around building peak performing teams.
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
