Unfinished Business Ep 1: Leadership, with Erin Davison

Erin and I meet every couple of weeks, and we never finish the conversation. There's always one more thing…one more client story, one more "wait, but what about this?" So now we record it. No script. No plan. Just two people who help leaders for a living, talking it through. The idea behind the show is simple. Most leaders don't have someone they can think things through with, and most of them don't know to ask for it. I didn't either. As I said in the episode, "I wish I had that."

My first guest is Erin Davison, lead-unicorn at Davison Consulting. Erin works with small and mid-sized nonprofits and organizations, and she's one of the people I keep having this conversation with. She'll tell you nonprofit or for-profit, it's the same work. It's a business, and the reason you grow it is to help people.

What you'll hear

Clearing the fog. Here's what I've learned working with leaders: they already know what they're doing. "They all see it, they taste it, go to sleep thinking about it, wake up thinking about it…but that's the problem as well. They never stop thinking." Nobody signs up asking me to teach them ads. They say "I'm STUCK. I don't know what step to take next." So we slow down, talk it through, and put things in the right buckets. "When you clear the fog, you see the path. And when you see the path, you can put a plan to that path."

Marketing is strategy, not tools. A lot of owners believe Marketing is tactical. "Just do this thing, do this thing, do this thing, and then all your leads come in." That's a falsehood. Marketing is strategy and storytelling. The tools just help you get there. A mechanic doesn't wake up, grab a wrench, and go looking for something to twist. He finds the leak, then figures out why it's leaking, and only then picks the tool. "Don't start with tools."

Imposter syndrome. Erin asked me if I ever wake up with my heart pumping, wondering if I'm good enough. Here's the little secret. "Every human being in the world has it, and if they don't admit it, they're lying." You don't have to broadcast it, but you do have to admit it to yourself. "It feels real…but it is not real. But you don't ignore it. You put it in the right bucket."

Identifying the gaps. Erin found the useful side of it. "The good part of imposter syndrome is it helps you identify gaps. All right, there's a gap. I need to work on that." She also finds it louder in consulting than it ever was in a W-2 job, and I'd guess plenty of CEOs feel the same once the title is theirs and the boss is gone.

We cover a lot more. Leadership as influence, not a title. Why the best idea in the room doesn't need to be mine. And why "I don't have a clue, but I know how I can help" might be the most honest thing a consultant can say.

If you know my work, clearing the fog is the step between Vision and Strategy in VSPE. You can't build a plan on a path you can't see.

Where are you stuck?

If any of this sounds familiar, the "I know where we need to go, I just can't see the next step" feeling, start with the Self-Check at troykiser.com/self-check. It takes a few minutes, and it helps you name where you're STUCK…which is usually the first step out.

Take the Self-Check