To a New Year & a New Business

As the year of 2023 comes to a close, we start to plan for our next trip around the sun. This year has been one of immense transition for me, leaving many projects behind and launching new endeavors on many fronts. The most significant business transition for me in 2023 was launching Libr8 with two amazing business partners. I have been working with entrepreneurs for over 30 years and LOVE helping founders get out of their own way and live the life they always dreamed of. I’ve done that through peer groups, one-on-one coaching, consulting and much more. I have lead business development teams, I’ve built communities of purpose driven leaders, yet I’ve never built a vehicle to truly liberate business owners from the day-to-day challenges they face in running their business.

Well, 2024 will change all of that. As we launch Libr8 and engage with our first group of clients, we are accomplishing a part of my dream. This idea of liberation is one that I’ve often thought about yet didn’t know how to execute on, that was until I met with my good friend, Ron Harrell. Ron is a long-time friend here in San Diego that has an amazing history of entrepreneurship and spirituality. He is supremely talented as an entrepreneur, yet equally a great human being. He is clear, direct and extremely knowledgeable. He is clear about where he has expertise and doesn’t try to be something he is not. When he presented me with the opportunity to partner with him on a new venture I jumped at it. The part I didn’t know was the other person he had in mind for the business.

In late May of this past year, I was introduced to Andrea Giralt. It turns out that Andrea and I had crossed paths on a hike a year earlier, yet we really didn’t know each other at all. Now we were given the opportunity to become business partners with Ron in this new business. Then the process of assessing each other began. At this stage of my life I have learned what is most important to me. The idea of building a great business is wonderful, yet who I spend my time with is so much more important. In previous businesses I chose people that were incredibly skilled at their craft, not thinking about EQ, not thinking about aligned values, not thinking about so many critical elements of success when it comes to building a great, aligned business. This time was different.

When I first met Andrea we didn’t talk about work at all. It was my assumption that Ron was a great judge of character and skills, so our first two meetings were all about who we were, not what we did. We talked about values, family, who we were as people, what was important in our lives and what we envisioned for a business at this stage of our lives. We spoke with our passions, our definition of success and we talked about how hard we wanted to work. We talked about a life-style business rather than a growth business and we talked about the most important things in our life, our families. In the end, we really liked each other as people. The best part that I didn’t know at the time, was how phenomenal Andrea is as a business leader.

When you start a business partnership, even with people you’ve known for a long time, you never really know how they’re going to show up until they show up! How do people value time, how do they work with boundaries, direct conversations and so much more. The more time Andrea and I spend together the more aligned we become. Our styles are extremely complementary, and our skills are even more valuable to our clients together. We are having fun creating impact with our clients and finding resources that will deliver the same value to future engagements. Together we are excited to liberate founders from their own businesses by providing the professional talent to remove barriers that have been built within the business. Most business owners that we’ve met have no idea how to do that, yet professionalizing execution is where it starts.

As we begin to liberate our clients, helping them get out of running the day to day business and getting back to what they love to do and are great at, we can help them see how to get their life back. I have met thousands of business owners on this journey, and only a small percentage will achieve the freedom they sought when they started. Unfortunately, many business owners don’t really own their business, their business owns them. At Libr8 we aim to change that and help them find their center and build a company that makes everyone’s life better. If you need to be liberated, or you know anyone else who is seeking to be liberated from their business, please let us know, we are here to help!