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You Can Choose Your Bottom

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I’m Todd. I’m an alcoholic.

My parents were both the first—and only—people in their respective families to go to college. Not just college: professional degrees. They worked their asses off and built a legitimately good life. Dad had a thriving accounting practice. Mom was a nurse until she had me, then she stayed home and played a lot of tennis. We had a large suburban house, the club memberships, a beach condo, and a lake place. From the outside, it looked like a clean, stable upper-middle class win.

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Nail It Before You Scale It in the Age of AI

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“Nail it before scale it” is powerful in professional services because scaling multiplies whatever and wherever you are already. This is especially true of quality delivery, margin discipline, and operational chaos. When your core offer and delivery system aren’t repeatable, growth forces constant reinvention, creates overpromising in sales, and drives margin leakage and burnout. Nailing it first means you’ve defined a clear ICP, a standard engagement with consistent outcomes, and a delivery playbook that average talent can run without heroics. Then you can scale with confidence because you’re replicating a proven, profitable system rather than amplifying variability.

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Strategy Isn’t the Race. Momentum Is.

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Most professional services firms don’t lose because they lack strategy. They lose momentum—often before the year even begins.
For CEOs, this shows up in familiar ways: leadership teams stuck in planning mode, decisions deferred until January, and organizations waiting for “clarity” while the market moves on. By the time the year officially starts, speed has already been lost.

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Leveraging Executive Debriefs to Drive Re-Engagement

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When a consulting engagement concludes, the formal deliverables are often complete, but the relationship with the client is just beginning. Too often, firms end projects with a handoff and a “thank you,” leaving future opportunities to chance. At Empactful Advisors, we believe one of the most overlooked tools for creating long-term value is the executive debrief. Done well, a debrief not only reinforces the outcomes of the engagement but also opens the door to deeper partnerships, new projects, and expanded services.

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Execute for Success in 2026: Turning Plans Into Pipeline

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If Part 1 was “plan via the journey” and Part 2 was “fund the journey,” Part 3 is about putting it all into motion. Planning and budgeting only matter if they lead to results. Execution is where growth happens or stalls.
By January, most firms have their plans and budgets approved. The question now becomes: how do you turn those plans into measurable progress your executive team can see by the end of Q1?
From May through August, most executive teams, whether at brands or professional services firms, are knee-deep in building strategies and budgets for the coming year. But many are using outdated models: departmental budgets created in isolation, growth projections rooted in past performance and plans that treat customer experience as a byproduct rather than a priority.

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