White space in a greenfield by a blue ocean
Or as Monty Python’s Flying Circus would put it, Now for something completely different.
Today I’m formally launching The Strategy Coach Company, a business I’ve been actively building for a year and preparing for a few decades longer. I deliberately chose a descriptive name because a coaching service aimed at agency strategists (and people with similar roles) doesn’t seem to exist, until now. What we do here might not be obvious if I chose a suggestive name like UpStrat or Deckr, or an abstract name like Brize or Keanu.
Professional development for strategists is not new, of course. There are all sorts of strategy training options: team training, workshops, online and in-person courses, conferences. What makes The Strategy Coach Company different is that it’s 1-on-1 coaching, where strategists are given real-time feedback tailored around their experience, ways of working, ways of thinking, and specific projects. It’s the difference between watching a YouTube video on how to swing a golf club, and having a PGA Professional video your swing and showing you how your stance contributed to that slice.
And it’s focused on actual work in progress, not something you do in the evenings or weekends. I believe pretty strongly that improving your craft shouldn’t be a side hustle. So to continue the previous metaphor, the PGA pro working with you doesn’t have you hitting buckets of balls on the driving range; they’re walking the 18 holes with you while you play. You’re getting better and your score is improving at the same time. (Be warned: that’s undoubtedly the first of many tortured sports metaphors on this blog.)
Professional coaching is also not new. But it’s most commonly reserved for executives. One of the core beliefs behind The Strategy Coach Company is that the people who are still ascending in their careers benefit the most from coaching, and so do the organizations that employ them.
I’ve talked to a lot of strategists who want to develop their crafts but feel like they’re largely left to figure it out on their own. Naturally their agency supports the idea - they want more skillful strategists as well. But the experts who could develop them are either spread too thin with other work, or not on staff. This leaves strategists feeling like their careers have stalled. And it leaves leadership left to look outside for more senior talent. Most agency leaders I’ve talked to would prefer to not do that. They’d rather develop the people who already know their ways of working and culture, if only they had the time and resources to do it.
So that’s the demand side of the equation. The supply side - me, for now - is that coaching and development has been part of my job for decades. And over the past few years especially, it’s the part I’ve found the most rewarding. The only thing stopping me from making coaching strategists my entire job is that the job didn’t exist. So I solved that problem. That’s what we strategists do.