This week I hit a cash flow problem.
Not catastrophic. But real enough to feel it. That tight, low-grade panic that sits in your chest when the numbers don’t line up the way you need them to.
I did what I usually do first — I grabbed a coffee, went outside, and sat with a pad of paper. Thinking and brainstorming with myself, trying to logic my way through it alone.
And then it hit me:
I need another person.
I called T.S. She picked up on the last ring. I gave her no preamble, no story — just the facts of the situation. Then I asked her to brainstorm with me.
Fifteen minutes later I was free. Clearheaded. In action.
Problem solved on the following day. Not because the answer was complicated — but because I finally stopped carrying it alone.
Last week, one of my clients called me at 9:02 PM. Unscheduled. He needed to talk.
I picked up. No story, just the situation. We worked through it together.
Fifteen minutes later, he was off the phone and operating at a whole new level.
Here’s what I’ve come to believe after years of coaching small business owners:
We don’t just do it alone — we don’t even think about reaching out.
And it makes complete sense why.
You can’t show doubt to your staff. The moment you do, the anxiety spreads, and suddenly you’re managing their fear on top of your own. So, you project confidence regardless of how you feel.
Can you be fully honest with your business partner? There’s lots of history, too much at stake, some competing interests wrapped up in the same problem you’re trying to solve.
You edit yourself at home. You’ve already brought too much through the front door last week. You don’t want to be that conversation again. So, you say “it’s fine” and carry it quietly into the evening.
And your friends? They care — but they don’t really understand. They’ll either minimize it or panic with you, and neither helps.
So, you end up back at the pad of paper. Back inside your own head. Turning the same problem over and over, alone, with the same blind spots you started with.
The tragedy isn’t that the problem is unsolvable.
It’s that the solution was one phone call away — and reaching out never even crossed your mind.
That’s what a coach is for. Not a consultant with a framework. Not someone who tells you what to do.
Someone who picks up. Someone you can call with just the facts, no performance required and think out loud with until the path forward appears.
Maybe you have a trusted person in your network, and if you do, then that’s great. My question is: how often do you use your network? What is your default pattern of action?
Most problems don’t need a miracle. They need fifteen minutes with the right person.
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