If your firm keep spinning its wheels and strugglig to stick to a positioning and strategy, the problem may actually be you.

I recently worked with a founder to reposition his boutique firm. But we didn't start with positioning work. We started by working on him. During discovery, he mentioned to me that he and his team had worked with several marketing consultants in the past on positioning, but just couldn't get it to where he wanted it to be. He said, "I'm just not excited about the direction of the firm, and I feel like I am not in control". Upon hearing that, I redirected the conversation from positioning, to owner's clarity.

It's easy to get lost in what others believe is right for you, or to get confused by the disparity between how you want to live your life and run your business. And while all of that is happening in your head, your business keeps moving forward, and you keep feeding the beast - you keep giving it your time and resources to identify your ideal clients, build a brand, deliver impacable service, etc. But as your team gets tired of the whiplash of consistently trying new things, you get burned out because all the joy has been sapped from the work.

As a founder of a boutique firm, you need to first be personally excited about the direction of the firm before anything else can happen. This means ensuring there is alignment between your personal purpose and values, and that of your firm. No amount of positioning and marketing will matter, if that critical clarity work isn't done first.

The uncomfortable truth: You need to give the GPS a destination

Pretend you've decided to go on an impromptu vacation, to get away from it all, unplug, and relax. You throw your swim suit and some other clothes in a duffle, grab your sunglasses, jump into your convertible, bring the top down. With anticipation, you type in "relaxing vacation spots usa" into the GPS. Without looking, you select the first option that pops up, and start driving.

30 minutes later you find yourself 30 minutes away from your house, at a local resort. Not an aweful idea, but not exactly what you were thinking. You try it again. "Relaxing natural beauty places usa" you type into the GPS, select the first option that pops up, and start driving. 2 hours later, you find yourself in the middle of the desert. It's picturesque and serene, and the landscape is like nothing you have seen before. But again, not really what you were going for.

You are now tired of driving around aimlessly without getting to where you want to go, so you decide to ChatGPT your way out of this mess.

Prompt: I am looking to go on an impromptu getaway. I need to be able to completely unplug, not be around a lot of people, but I also don't want to feel like there is nobody around for miles. I want to be on a quiet beach, so I can hear the waves crashing while I sit on the deck. I want to have a nice neighborhood coffee shop or bakery to go to in the mornings to sit, be around people, and write or read. I want the drive to get there to be picturesque so I can enjoy it in my convertible. I don't want to drive for more than 12 hours to get there. I am driving from Phoenix. Give me 1 and only 1 recommendation.

Response:

Go to: Cambria, California (Moonstone Beach)

Why it fits: It’s a quiet, small coastal town (pop. ~6k) with wide open shoreline and mellow vibes—enough people to feel alive, but nowhere near SoCal crowds. You can stay right on Moonstone Beach and listen to waves from your deck.

The drive (convertible-worthy, <12 hrs): Phoenix → I-10 west → cut to US-101 → CA-1 for the final coastal stretch into Cambria. Highway 1 around San Luis Obispo County is open and scenic; the Moonstone Drive pull-off gives classic ocean views as you arrive. Typical drive time is about 10 hours (≈590 miles).

Stay right on the water: Book an ocean-view room with balcony/patio along Moonstone Beach—e.g., Cambria Landing Inn or Fireside Inn—so you can sit outside and hear the surf.

Morning coffee/bakery (walk or short drive):

• Cambria Coffee Roasting Co. (7am–5:30pm daily).
• Linn’s (restaurant & bakery; opens 8am).

Unplug activity (no crowds): Take the easy Bluff Trail in Fiscalini Ranch Preserve—boardwalk along ocean bluffs, benches to sit and zone out to the waves.

Ok, so I don't own a convertible, and I have two kids, including an infant, so taking an impromptu trip by myself isn't really an option right now, but this recommendation sounds A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! It's exactly what I would want to do, if I could. All I would have to do is put Cambria Landing Inn into the GPS, and off I would go.

This same scenario plays out in many boutique firms. Not the poor vacation selection, but the whiplash of the founder who doesn't exactly know what they want out of the business, so they keep jerking the business in various directions because they believe they want to grow and sell at some point. But grow how? Grow why? Sell when? Sell for how much? What will you do after you sell? And many other necessary questions go unanswered, leaving the founder without conviction or confidence of getting to the right destination.

The Symptoms of Not Having Owner's Clarity

If your destination is ambiguous, or if it's being dictated based on where others believe you should go, here is what you are likely experiencing inside your organization.

Once or twice a year key strategic components change. Maybe it's a new niche, or a chance to your ICP. Maybe it's a shift in your offer or value proposition. Maybe it's a new service offering that feels like it will be a major unlock. Maybe it's a new partner or an acquisition to take the company in a new direction. Individually, none of these things are necessarily bad. But a pattern of consistent strategivc whiplash is a major problem, and will inevitably stall an organization and stretch it too thin.

Culture static is under strain. You have high standards, but low consistency due to the consistent priority shifts. This leads to a burned-out team, and your top performers often becoming demoralized and skeptical of leadership. And speaking of leadership, partners are often focused on alterior motives, pulling the organization in various directions based on how the moves impact their department, their initiatives, and their inventive payouts.

And with that, you likely have a pipeline that is more noise than signal. There is a lack of BD focus, with a revolving door of not best-fit clients because best-fit has lost it's meaning due to the continual strategic shifts, and executive misalignment.

And is it any wonder that a founder dealing with these symptoms within their firm will be uninspired and lacking conviction? It's a self-reinforcing downward spiral. It's a scenario where your GPS continuously tells you "No results found" and you keep wondering "why?"

What is Owner's Clarity?

In short, Owner's Clarity are the explicit, personal constraints that govern the firm’s direction. It's understanding how these constraints impact what success looks like in owning this business now and in the future. It needs to be specific. It needs to be measurable. It needs to be personal. It allows you to paint a clear picture of your personal vision of what business ownership needs to do for you.

This means getting clear on your purpose, values and principles. Your purpose is your personal "why". Your values are why you choose to do something or not. And your principles are how you live out your purpose and values. Additionally, we can't forget your pesonal financial needs. Your consulting firm isn't an altruistic endeavor, even though it might fund those for you. We live in a capitalist system. You absolutely deserve to focus on building a firm that gets you what you need financially. These four things become your system for making life choices with conviction and confidence. Your business is a major part of your life, so the choices you make in your business, should be governed by this system.

As a founder of your firm, you have several roles - you are a leader, you are an operator, and you are an investor. These roles can sometimes cause you to have internal conflict within yourself. Take my client, for example. Where as a leader, he was inclined to give his team autonomy and make decisions democratically; as an operator, he felt like there wasn't a consistent decision making system in place for his team to operate by; and as an investor he wanted to take control, and make decisions unilaterally that he felt would be better for him as the sole shareholder of the business.

It is exactly these situations where having clarity on your purpose, values, and principles becomes critical. It allows you to avoid this internal conflict and make decisions that are defensible both internally to yourself (and possibly your family) and externally to your team. Onwer's clarity allows you to answer questions like:

• What type of firm are you building? (lifestyle, boutique premium, build-to-sell)
• What are you unwilling to do? (non-negotiables)
• What risks are you willing to accept this year? (capital, people, reputation)
• What are you optimizing for in the next 24 months? (profit, revenue growth, revenue stream diversification)

Notice that these are all critical strategic questions, the answers for which if you don't have conviction and confidence, you will struggle to keep the firm moving forward.

Owner's Clarity Isn't Optional; It's Primary

Owner's Clarity is your GPS - it helps you select the destination, and the route you will take to get there. Owner's Clarity is foundational: Owner’s Clarity → Strategic Guardrails → Positioning → Operating Model

Here is how this might play out. Let's say you are the founder of a boutique environmental engineering firm. Your purpose is to make your community a safer place for your kids and the next generations. Your personal financial goals are to be able to have comfortable and consistent cash flow so you can maintain your lifestyle, be able to consistently have unique experiences with your family, so you can spend quality time together, and ensure that your kids have a running on "The American Dream" by paying for college and downpayments for their first home.

You value sustainability, empathy, family, honesty, and stability

Your are principled about:

• Safety & sustainability first: Decline work that materially increases community risk or pollution; prioritize projects with measurable risk reduction.
• Truth before transaction: Always publish a discovery/risk summary before proposing any design or build.
• Family time protected: No travel more than 7 nights/month, and no weekend fieldwork without compensating time off.
• Financial discipline: Price to target 30% EBITDA; never discount below floor; keep the 4-month cash buffer.
• Stakeholder empathy: Design approvals include operator impact reviews and neighborhood considerations.

Here is how this translates to potitioning:

• ICP: Serve two verticals only: Municipal water/wastewater treatment plants and chemical manufacturing plants within the region.
• People: Hire only senior industry veterans with plant/municipal experience)
• Process: Mandatory fixed-fee discovery before any design; no staff-augmentation work.
• Go-to-Market: Community involvement and thought leadership from founder and partners.

Here is how this translates to an operating model:

• Offers, Packaging and Pricing: offer ladder of discovery, 90-day pilot, and program rollout, each with a published starting at price.
• Go-to-Market Execution: founder spends 40% of time on POV creation, community briefings, and discovery calls.
• Finance and Operations: monthly scorecard with core EBITDA, runway, AR, and client concentration KPIs

Bring Clarity to Your Team

If your team doesn't understand where you are coming from, they will continue to be skeptical of your decision making. This doesn't mean that everyone who works for you needs to know your personal financial targets, but your partners definitely should. But everyone who works for you should know your purpose, values, and principles.

Just like your positioning, your Owner's Clarity needs to be re-examined on a regular basis, and maintained. Whenever there is a major life change, ensure that you still have clarity. Whenever there is a major market change, ensure that you still have clarity. Whenever new hires are made, ensure that they understand your clarity. Remember, until you have clarity, nothing compounds.

Want Help With Gaining Clarity?

Schedule a Focus Session with me to get a trusted second opinion, so you can have more conviction and confidence in making the next strategic investment in your business.

No fluff. No slide decks. Just sharp thinking and a clear next move.

Here's how it works:

You send over the necessary background info.

I prep and put together an agenda.

We work through your situation for an hour.

You gain confidence in the right next move.

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