As Matt was finishing listening to his weekend edition of  Kara Jones’s podcast, thumbing through the paper and sipping coffee, Cory knocked on the door to his office. “Hey partner, how was the weekend?”

“Hey, it was great. Sabina and I knocked out that training run Saturday and laid low yesterday. I'm feeling it today. What about you guys?” Matt asked.

“Real good. We went over to the gym and climbed last night with Jodie, and we started the conversation about expansion,” Cory answered.

It had been six months since Cory and Matt had first convened The Climbers, which had grown to 22 people meeting every two weeks at 7:00 a.m. to climb and network. Jodie, the owner of the climbing gym, was happy to continue offering the space for free because six of the people in the group had already purchased memberships. Jodie had become a member of The Climbers herself because she was exploring how to scale out the business through franchising and she figured she could use some expert advice.

“Fantastic,” Matt said. “Yeah, I want to get that PowerPoint finalized that lays out specifically our process for helping organizations scale. I'm hoping Jodie will be the first client and a great use-case for future ones.”

Once Matt and Cory had secured their first client, whom they met through The Climbers, Cory built a budget and determined he was in a strong position to leave his job to start the new business, Carney & Schneider, a boutique management consulting firm. He had thought about taking a few weeks off in between to decompress and maybe take an extended trip with Jesse, but the prospect of getting to work felt more exciting. Their first consulting project was in the public sector, which Cory would focus on leading, while Matt was concentrating on building relationships and offering management consulting services to private sector companies and private foundations. Their early branding drew on environmental themes, and the first edition of their newsletter would tell inspiring stories about the positive difference that companies and public agencies were making to protect open lands. They were also looking at putting together a quarterly lunch series with guest speakers.

Saul popped into the office to check on his protégés. “How's the office working out, gents?”

“Saul, the office is great. Thank you,” Cory answered. “I can't believe that only a couple months have passed. I'm amazed at how quickly everything has begun to unfold.”

“Oh, trust me,” Saul said, “it gets faster. Don't forget to slow down and appreciate the journey. By the way, I was talking with an old friend of mine. She's on the board of an open land organization in Montana, where they have a summer home. They're about to receive an estate gift and need some help figuring out how to structure it. Mind if I make the introduction?”

Matt smiled. “That would be great. Thanks, Saul.” As it turned out, they had not asked for nor needed the $100,000 in operating runway given Matt's ability to continue to serve his existing clients while carving out time for the new prospective clients under the business Cory and he had created. Cory had sent a few referrals to Coopers & Tompkins when he knew that both Matt and himself didn't have the capability to do the client work. Cory supported a thoughtful transition for his successor at the Forest Preserves and continued to maintain strong relationships with his public sector contacts.

“And how is the business?” Saul asked.

“Really good,” Matt explained. “We took your advice to serve as a provisional or part-time chief strategy officer for smaller clients that have ongoing needs and want us at the table on an ongoing basis. We've developed that as a retainer model and think we will fill up quickly in addition to selling some of the more traditional strategy projects clients occasionally need. How is it working for you?” Matt asked, sensitive to the changing nature of his employment relationship.

Saul gathered his thoughts. “You know, I think it's fine. Financially, the firm continues to make money on the engagements you are working on, not to mention the referrals you and Cory have sent, and this has created a sort of interesting example about how we get into other niche markets. So yes, even though this arrangement is creative in some ways, it all makes sense. The alternative is you would have stayed here and been unhappy, and then, at some point, you would quit and have posed more of a competition risk for us. In my mind, this is smarter.”

“Well, we're grateful for how this has worked out. Saul, I wanted to remind you,” Matt continued, “that we're headed to Yosemite next week for our hiking outing with about 15 people, including that woman, Monique, you sent our way. The forecast is perfect fall weather.”

“Oh, I won't need you. On the other hand,” Saul responded, with sarcasm, “Who leaves a pregnant wife? Maybe Sharon and I will invite her over one night. We've got something for her.”

“I'm sure she would love that.” Matt smiled back.