Out of the Shadow
Some of the clearest business lessons don’t come from strategy sessions.
They come from real conversations.
A client had an idea she was excited about – and almost immediately followed it with, “I just don’t even know where I’d start.”
So we talked it through.
We untangled the idea.
Looked at the pieces.
Found a place to begin.
By the time we hung up, she had two simple action steps.
The next day she called, excited. She’d already done both – and we talked through what came next.
At one point she said something about how helpful it was to have someone think things through with her.
It was a familiar moment – this is the kind of work I do every day with website clients. Book launches. Fundraisers. Email campaigns.
And then it hit me.
Projects.
When I went back to my own website, I could see why maybe the coaching part of my business hadn’t been growing the way I hoped.
I’d been calling it Business Coaching.
It wasn’t wrong.
But it didn’t reflect the reality of the work.
Business Coaching is wide.
So wide that it doesn’t bring anything specific to mind.
And when nothing specific comes to mind, people move on.
What I actually help with are projects.
Ideas that need structure.
Plans that need next steps.
Messy middles that need direction.
Changing the word on my website didn’t change the work.
It clarified it.
For now, Project Coaching feels closer to the truth of what I do.
Whether this shift leads to different results remains to be seen. But the process itself has already been useful. It reminded me that when something isn’t landing in a business, the answer isn’t always more effort.
Sometimes it’s refinement.
Sometimes it’s naming what’s already there more clearly.
That idea led me to these lines from T.S. Eliot:
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the shadow…
Bringing clarity into those shadowed spaces – definition, direction, action – has always been at the heart of my work. I’m grateful for the clients who help me see my own work more clearly, too.
If you’re standing in that in-between space right now, I’d love to help you think it through.
