“Right. I know who to talk to. I’ll go speak to them now.”
That’s how our 15-minute project check-in ended. He almost forgot to say goodbye, but I was delighted.
He knew exactly what to do, who to talk to, where to insert himself to get the project back on track.
But rewind a few months and this founder couldn’t even find time to think about his business. Saturday mornings. 7pm. Bank holidays. That was when he had space to actually stop and look at what was going on.
He knew some projects were going over. He could feel it. And sometimes after the fact he’d be hit with a financial hole he didn’t see coming. But he was too deep in the day-to-day to figure out which ones or why.
So we built a simple view of what was happening across his projects. One page, updated as work happened, no annoying admin.
Now he blocks 15 minutes a week. I walk him through what needs his attention. He finishes the call and goes straight to the right person.
The thing that changed wasn’t how much time he had - I don’t think that is ever on the cards. It was that he stopped spending it trying to figure out what his gut was already telling him.