The Empty Chair

I recently had a conversation with an independent insurance advisor.

We talked about business, growth, and some of the decisions that come with working for yourself. Somewhere in the conversation, he shared something that stayed with me.

He felt alone.

Not alone in the sense of having nobody around him. He has clients, colleagues, family, and people he can call.

It was a different kind of alone.

The kind that can come from being the person who has to make the decision.

I have been thinking about that conversation since.

Then this week, I came across research looking at years of data from small businesses receiving one-to-one advice. The researchers found a connection between more time spent with an advisor and improvements in business growth.

I am always careful with numbers like these. I do not believe an hour of advice magically creates a certain percentage of revenue, and every business is different.

But the research echoed something I had just heard in a real conversation.

Sometimes the chair across from the business owner is empty.

The Hero Still Has to Walk the Road

We often admire the entrepreneur who figures everything out alone. The person who carries the decisions, solves the problems, answers the questions, and somehow keeps everything moving.

But in most good stories, even the hero has a guide.

The guide does not make the decision.

The guide does not face the challenge for them.

And the guide cannot walk the road in their place.

Perhaps the guide simply helps the hero see the road differently.

That made me think of my friend Mike Knap, who works with business owners as a coach.

I have seen how a thoughtful question from someone outside the business can help a person look again at something they have been carrying for a long time.

Not because Mike knows their business better than they do.

He does not need to.

The business owner remains the hero of the story.

Sometimes the value of the person in the other chair is simply that they can see what is difficult to see from inside our own story.

Who Sits in the Other Chair?

I see this in my own conversations with business owners too.

Someone will show me a process they have used for years. A spreadsheet that keeps growing. A phone call that keeps getting missed. A security concern they have learned to live with. Information being entered two or three times because that is simply how it has always been done.

Often, they already know their business better than anyone else.

They do not need someone to arrive with all the answers.

Sometimes they need someone to sit across from them, ask a few questions, and notice something with them.

It could be a business coach like Mike. A colleague. A mentor. A customer. A friend. Or someone who understands enough to ask the question we have stopped asking ourselves.

Perhaps that is why the empty chair matters.

Not because we cannot do things alone.

Because we may not need to.

So the question I am carrying with me today is:

Who sits in the chair across from you when you need to see your business differently?

If there is something in your business that keeps bothering you, repeating itself, or simply feels harder than it should, perhaps the first step is not another tool.

Perhaps it is deciding who should sit in the other chair.

Sometimes growth begins with a conversation.

Strong businesses are built on awareness.

Awareness gives you time. Time gives you choices.

Technology helps. Awareness protects.