In today’s rapidly evolving professional landscape, many seasoned project managers are exploring new career paths beyond traditional project delivery roles.
Galen Low is joined by Stephanie Best—Managing Director at Greannmhar—to delve into the transition from project management to consulting and discusses how the shifting dynamics of the work environment are influencing such career choices.
Interview Highlights
- The Rise of Consulting for Project Professionals [01:35]
- Consulting is increasingly popular for mid-career project professionals.
- Many explore alternatives to traditional employment, such as independent consulting.
- Consulting leverages specialized skills, offers flexibility, and meets market demand.
- Entrepreneurship culture and social media exposure influence career choices.
- Starting a consultancy varies based on individual factors like skills, network, and experience.
- Stephanie’s Transition to Entrepreneurship [05:55]
- Transitioning to entrepreneurship stemmed from a desire for autonomy and leveraging accumulated experience.
- Worked across various organization sizes, identifying operational inefficiencies as a consistent challenge.
- Focused on optimizing operations to remove roadblocks and drive value for teams and businesses.
- Developed a strategy that doubled a firm’s sales portfolio but faced operational scalability issues.
- Designed systems and tools to empower professional service firms by addressing operational barriers.
- Personal experiences, such as undiagnosed autoimmune disease, discrimination, and family responsibilities, influenced the decision to become an entrepreneur.
- Acknowledged the challenges of building a business from scratch and emphasized the importance of a strong network.
- Identified recurring “hair on fire” problems to solve in her career.
- Enhanced qualifications with certifications like DAVSC to bridge project management and operations at the C-suite level.
- Prioritized credibility, clout, and personal fulfillment in career decisions.
- Emphasized letting go of tasks no longer enjoyable or aligned with career goals.
- Advocated for gradual skill-building and exploring opportunities alongside full-time roles.
- Highlighted the value of taking the long route and celebrating steady progress.
It’s not easy to build something from scratch, and you truly start to understand the meaning of the phrase ‘your network is your net worth’ when you take the plunge.
Stephanie Best
- Challenges and Triumphs of Entrepreneurship [14:25]
- Transitioning to entrepreneurship required collaboration and compromise with family to balance risk and household needs.
- Entrepreneurship felt lonely and complex but was also invigorating, inspiring, and required optimism.
- Non-tech startups face challenges in finding community support, prompting active networking at events.
- Unexpected connections often provided the most valuable opportunities.
- Faced advice and criticism from others who often didn’t fully understand the entrepreneurial journey.
- Encountered resistance to personal transformation as some people struggled to accept a new identity.
- Overcame challenges by trusting herself and engaging in meaningful conversations with close supporters.
- Balancing Business and Personal Life [20:44]
- Emphasized flexibility and balance in managing business and family responsibilities.
- Prioritized starting slow and avoiding burnout from a relentless hustle mindset.
- Structured days to include meaningful family time, such as breakfast and school drop-offs.
- Focused on value-driven work, cutting unnecessary tasks to achieve 3–6 hours of focused effort daily.
- Integrated strategic activities like sales, relationship building, client work, and hiring external consultants.
- Stressed the importance of thinking like a CEO and understanding the value of time.
- Highlighted the need to prioritize health, community, and long-term well-being alongside business goals.
- Intentional focus on working slowly and prioritizing meaningful efforts.
- Acknowledged the challenge of breaking free from the “8–12 hours a day” mindset.
- Advocated for a shift to outcome-based work, guided by strategy and key performance indicators (KPIs).
- Stressed the importance of distinguishing value-oriented tasks from distractions and “work about work.”
- Recognized the allure of task completion but emphasized the need to focus on value-driven priorities.
- Shared past experiences of overachieving at the expense of personal well-being and family connections.
- Highlighted the hidden toll of undiagnosed health conditions like celiac disease on high achievers.
- Risk and Entrepreneurship [29:01]
- Skepticism about entrepreneurship often stems from financial constraints, lack of privilege, or high perceived risks.
- Entrepreneurship isn’t a one-size-fits-all path; it’s about timing, determination, and personalized approaches.
- Starting small or incrementally is viable—balancing full-time jobs and personal responsibilities while building a business is common.
- Energy management and focused effort are key—use peak energy hours to brainstorm and develop ideas.
- Experimentation, market research, and learning are essential; not all efforts yield results, but persistence matters.
- Entrepreneurship requires balancing freedom with customer-oriented responsibilities and adapting to market demands.
- Evaluate your risk tolerance, willingness to wear multiple hats, and desire for responsibility before committing.
- It’s okay to start imperfectly and gradually refine your business over time.
- Focus on providing value and building authentic relationships.
- Be obsessed with understanding and addressing people’s needs.
- Authenticity and transparency are essential for long-term success.
- Building B2B relationships can take time, often six months or more.
- Networking and experimentation are key to finding what works.
- Smaller or international initiatives can help drive profitability.
You have to focus on people. You need to be willing and obsessed with providing value and building relationships. Yes, money is crucial—it’s how your business survives—but you can’t reach that point of reward without authenticity.
Stephanie Best
- Alternatives to Entrepreneurship [36:40]
- Entrepreneurship isn’t the only path; alternatives exist and are equally valid.
- Options include consultancy, advisory roles, independent contributions, leadership roles, or fractional work.
- Mid-career professionals have the advantage of clarity on their skills, values, and preferences.
- Reframe your value proposition to align with desired roles, like VP-level positions.
- Invest in coaching or guidance to tailor your skills to strategic opportunities.
- Build relationships and networks to support your transition or pivot.
- Evaluate your risk tolerance and factors like family, health, and financial stability.
- Challenge your perspectives, explore alternatives, and focus on goals that resonate with you.
Meet Our Guest
Stephanie is an experienced Business Advisor, with over 15 years of experience in business transformation and project management. She held leadership roles at the Director level and as a C-Suite advisor working across sectors including sales, IT retail, full-service marketing, digital product development, not-for-profit, education, healthcare, food and beverage, and finance.

Be the CEO of your life and career. It doesn’t mean becoming an entrepreneur; it means taking control of your own path.
Stephanie Best
Resources From This Episode:
- Join DPM Membership
- Subscribe to the newsletter to get our latest articles and podcasts
- Connect with Stephanie on LinkedIn
- Check out Greannmhar
Related Articles And Podcasts:
Read The Transcript:
We’re trying out transcribing our podcasts using a software program. Please forgive any typos as the bot isn’t correct 100% of the time.
Galen Low: Hey folks, thanks for tuning in. My name is Galen Low with the Digital Project Manager. We are a community of digital professionals on a mission to help each other get skilled, get confident, and get connected so that we can amplify the value of project management in a digital world. If you want to hear more about that, head on over to thedigitalprojectmanager.com/membership.
All right, today we are talking about what it takes to transition from project delivery to project consulting, and also exploring whether that's actually becoming one of the only viable options for long tenured senior project leaders as they approach the later stages of their career.
With me today is Stephanie Best — someone who has made that transition herself from being a director of project management to becoming an executive operations consultant at her own consulting firm, Greannmhar Consulting.
Stephanie, thanks for being with us today.
Stephanie Best: Galen, it's a pleasure and I'm so glad to be here with you today.
Galen Low: Oh, I'm so honored. I love our chats. We were just jamming in the green room, having a bunch of laughs, going way off topic, but we're centering back here and I'm really excited just to share with my listeners your story. But also what I see as maybe not a trend, but Overall, a sort of fresher option or evolving option of moving from sort of day to day project management into sort of a more consulting role and what that entails, you've made that journey yourself. So I thought maybe I would start with a big question and then zoom out and work backwards towards the big question.
The big question for me is this — more and more consulting seems to be the logical path for seasoned project professionals as they progress through their career. Do you see it that way? And if so, why do you think that's happening?
Stephanie Best: Yeah, you're absolutely right. I have seen that, that more and more project professionals who are maybe midpoint in their career are taking a step back and looking at their different options, like whether or not they want to be a full time employee or if they want to be an independent contributor or a consultant.
So yes, I do see it that way. It's some people are career project managers and really pursue as many life opportunities as possible, but I do see more and more in my circle. This variety of happening, and I do think that many forces are at play here. So throughout the years, as we develop this powerhouse of skills and specialized knowledge in niche areas, consulting is a natural next step for established project professionals.
And it really leverages their expertise, offers greater impact and flexibility. And there is a demand for consultants and advisors. So people can build a profitable mid to late career this way. And so I find that as people are exploring these different options, there's also just more normalcy, in, in that.
And also don't you find that more than ever we are confronted with the culture of entrepreneurship, like when you're scrolling through your phone, so we see Flickr everywhere when we scroll, which is perhaps on average four and a half hours a day. And this exposure has an influence where we look is naturally where we go.
And personally, I see fascinating possibilities as well as in that culture, mom, these cliche word. Things to think really critically about it. Maybe say, Hey, you can really do this. Start your own site, start your own consultancy, et cetera, et cetera. But then what that looks like in actuality really varies person to person based on their network, their career, their skills, their experience, their personality.
So many different factors are at play.
Galen Low: I love those two things together. They're like a. I have noticed a bit of an upturn in this sort of being an entrepreneur, especially like post pandemic, like our view of work is a little bit different. And I think everyone, not just professionals in the sort of mid stages of their career or late stages of their career.
But it was okay, yeah, it was already gig economy. And then we were forced to be like, what if this all falls apart? Maybe we should have some kind of entrepreneurial sort of safety net or plan B or maybe plan a. And then that's a really good point about the feed. And then you're seeing.
And I do it as well, right? LinkedIn is a sort of, running billboard of people who have their own, practice or consultancy or training or book or whatever. Some of them are sharing their thoughts just because they want to. A lot of them are sharing their thoughts to build awareness of their company and what they do.
So you do get exposed to that like hours a day. But I think the thing I love the most is what you said first, which is that as project managers, we actually get exposed to a lot of business stuff and aspects of a business and like how stuff works. We are in some ways the sort of. Operational octopus that kind of gets into everything, right?
I'd like the tech team works, you've worked with creative, like comms and marketing, you're reporting up to executives. You're getting a sense of it. And so if you've got your eyes peeled, I spilled. Is that what we say?
Stephanie Best: Yeah, it's great.
Galen Low: Visual eyes field. Isn't it?
Anyways, if you're keeping your eyes open, your eyes and ears and you're listening and you're absorbing stuff, then. Throughout your career, you can accrue a lot of knowledge about how businesses work and operate. And not to say that you have this sort of You just get an MBA just by being a project manager, but you do get this perspective of like how things get done.
And it is a bit unique in the sense that then you could say, you know what, I see how the decision making process and how, how our goals manifest. I see how all this plugs together. Yeah. I could help, advise at least starting as like maybe a project consultant. I understand how projects should be put together to achieve your goals.
And then incrementing upwards towards being more what your consultancy does. Which is executive coaching and consulting inside and outside of projects.
Stephanie Best: I love how you framed that. Yeah, I completely agree.
Galen Low: I wonder if we could zoom out because I think maybe that is a good opportunity to talk about your story.
I'm curious about your own journey, just from project manager to executive consultant. What drove you to make that change from being an employee to an entrepreneur? And what was your first step? When did it become like plan a, not just like plan B or like a dream that you had on your vision board?
Stephanie Best: I made so many vision boards. I found an app for it,
Galen Low: okay, we'll link it in the notes.
Stephanie Best: Yeah, absolutely. I stopped using it. I don't know, but it's great.
Galen Low: You achieved your vision.
Stephanie Best: Yeah, I guess so. A version of it. Life is what happens when you're making plans, right? Going back, I just want to quickly address one thing that you mentioned in the last question is that, yes, as we accumulate all this knowledge and skills, we become really strategic because of our exposure to so many cross functions.
And then we can step away and think I have a business case for essentially my package of services based on my exposure, experience, education, et cetera. So I think that's a really wise thing that you said. And it's quite accurate. That's something that people can leverage in their careers and gives them a little bit more autonomy in their decision making, back to your question.
So what drove me to make the change from being an employee to entrepreneur and what was my first step? Yeah. So it always looks really different. I think Person to person, different entrepreneurial journeys, and it looks different based on, your exposure, your risk tolerance. Sometimes even your gender, right?
So here's my answer for it. Anyway, I had always seen myself as a business owner and yeah, I had spent many years in corporate for large firms, some multinational, and then I switched to medium sized agencies and I grew a little smaller too with some of the agencies, so I shrunk down. Some people work their way up and I work my way into a variety of different sizes of organizations.
And I realized each role that I'd served in had a very common theme. So people can only do their best when the system they're in supports them. So when there's a lot of work about work, when there's a lot of roadblocks and barriers. Their job becomes more hindered and cumbersome, and it's really difficult for them to find meaningful careers when they're just tied up in bureaucracy day in and day out, right?
So then I worked my way through administration, project coordination, senior project management, business analyst, then director of projects and director of sales. And in each role, I gravitated towards resolving operational issues for the betterment of people and profits. And just as a common theme, I noticed that things were always getting in the way of our ability to drive value.
And that a large percentage of my job, no matter what it Was trying to navigate operations issues or combating it so that I can actually get my stuff done. You've probably heard the phrase work about work. Does this meeting need to be an email or inbox zero? All of that stuff is work about work, right?
And there's a way that you can optimize your operations through mapping and communications that you can cut a lot of that just based on how you want to work and how you want to deliver value, which is why I became completely obsessed with this.
I became completely upset. So my first step was fatal. And then I doubled the sales portfolio of one of the last firms that I worked for. So I developed a strategy and a team executed it really effectively. However, the delivery engine was not able to keep up with the growth and we agreed on a package at the end of the day.
So ultimately it was a preventable operations issue that we saw written on the walls. And the team needed to adapt. We had a large demand for a product that we sold. But now we're backed up by many months to a year in our ability to meet market demand because of scalability and because of operations, so with some time on my hands, I designed a system and build a toolbox, which ultimately helps professional service firms empower their people by removing the roadblocks to success and drive growth. So that's a little bit about. my journey. But there's some personal elements to that as well. Like for 16 years, I struggled with undiagnosed autoimmune disease.
I faced discrimination on my maternity leaves. I have two kids, right? So there's a lot of different hurdles and things that inspired me to think I'd really like to build something for myself and be able to make these decisions on my own. However, this experience has been incredibly informative Transformative and incredibly challenging at the same time, right?
It's not easy to build something from scratch. And you really start to know the meaning of the phrase, your network is your net worth, when you take the plunge.
Galen Low: I love that story. Hey, I love it. When someone from project management or delivery or operations, or, other parts of the business as well, get into sales.
Because, you have that thing that's if we get lots of sales that's a good problem to have. And in your case, it sounds like it was not a problem that could be solved quickly enough. It's that's great. We have all this new business coming in, but we operationally cannot support it.
And we're falling apart. And you have that perspective of if only delivery was going well, if only I could do that thing I love to do, like unblock people from unnecessary work, then some of these bottlenecks would be resolved. Did you feel like you said you put together your toolkit of what your offering would be?
And at that point where you're like, yeah, I've done this before, or was it more like I'm putting some stuff together that is an offering, but I've never delivered this offering in my role?
Stephanie Best: Ooh, that was really interesting. I had to see the patterns in my career of what was most pertinent.
What was most what was the hair on fire problem that I was solving? So when I put together my toolkit, I definitely upped my certifications because I was doing something that I had practiced for about 15 years within project management, within strategy. However, I realized that there was a certification called DAVSC, or Disciplined Agile Value Stream Consultant.
And it's like project meets ops at the C suite level. And you map the value chain and you assess it for optimizing value delivery to your clients. And so there was a bit of both. I looked at what I could do. I looked at what could give me more clout and credibility. And what also was something that I felt happy doing every single day, right?
There's a lot of things that we ended up doing in our careers for many years that we're very good at that we no longer want to be known for or attached to or perform. So sometimes it is taking a leap of faith and getting some new skills or exposure and trying things out, on the side of your full time employees or something, just exploring and take the long route.
Slow wins are still very much wins. So long story short, it's a bit of both,
Galen Low: What I love about your story is the mix of things, it's okay, let me look at all the pieces and do they make a puzzle? And is there a business case here? Will I be valuable? Will I be successful at this?
Is this a sort of compelling offer so that I can then take this and create a lifestyle where there is a little bit more flexibility and freedom as I guess the words that people would use, but. It resonates strongly with me, what you said about your undiagnosed autoimmune disease, right? An invisible condition that you are getting sort of discriminated for or about in the workplace, sometimes without that organization, even knowing or understanding, because like organizations are not good at some of these sort of invisible conditions, right?
The maternity leave thing, right? All of these sort of structural double standards and biases that are like, When you say work about the work and then there's this layer of other stuff on top.
Stephanie Best: Like humanity's getting in the way of being a cog in the machine.
Galen Low: Yeah, exactly. And I think, I think that would be something that's quite appealing and sort of, liberating to sort of hear this sort of story of Yeah, it wasn't like I need to get out of here because all of these things, but if I do this, then my balance is different, right?
Yes, I'm taking on a lot more risk and I'm out there sort of pitching my services and it's a bit different than clocking into your, nine to five or nine to nine or whatever, right? But then there's these advantages, right? Time with the kids and like the sort of considerations for your health. And other things I sort of balance it out. I imagine it wasn't easy to make this transition.
What are some of the big challenges that you faced along the way? How did you conquer them?
Stephanie Best: Oh, that's such a great question. And it's such an important question to ask that as well. What challenges did we face along the way?
It was so. It was myself and my community as well who works with me and it's this transition too, right? So when you say to your spouse, Hey, listen I'd really love to become an entrepreneur. And you have to take like their risk tolerance into consideration and what are their perspectives?
What are their needs as well? Like you're a partnership at the end of the day and you're making a decision that affects both of you and your kids and your household. Yeah. And you're agreeing to take on risk. So I think it's really important to be very open and transparent and collaborative and set boundaries with people who, are reliant on you and who you rely on to show up every day.
So we set some parameters. When it first happened, we set some parameters of okay, what it needs to look like in order for our family to feel healthy in order for this to make sense. And that will be so unique to different families. Everyone's going to have a different structure, what their boundary box looks like.
And it's not you, the entrepreneur saying I need this and I'm going to do all these amazing things. And you're going to support me. Otherwise don't love me. It's nothing like that. It's about compromise and curiosity and being mutually supportive. And, you can't have your cake and eat it too maybe over time, you'll finish that cake, but it's for everybody, right?
You never buy a birthday cake for yourself most of the time. Anyway, eat that cake. It's great. But after we agreed that there was a step that our family was open to. I stepped into it and I did so much trial and error. And I learned the first thing I learned is that entrepreneurship is really lonely and complex, and it's a massive undertaking at the same time.
It's invigorating, challenging, inspiring. And there's a lot of optimism involved too. Like you have to be a little bit crazy, I think in a good way, you have to have, as Robin Williams says, like that little spark of madness and that's enough to light up your life, right? So, some of the challenges that I faced was that it just felt really solo.
I'm not a tech startup. I do plan to productize my services over time. However, I want more data before I do that. And so there's a huge movement in Calgary, Ontario, Canada, the U.S., like internationally, a lot of support for tech startups, however, non tech startups need a little bit more community, I think.
And so I've been expanding my network, going to entrepreneurship events, women's business events. Everything that I can to build a network and I've met remarkable, powerful people who I'm just so proud to know, and the most unlikely contacts have been the most valuable, like people who I underestimated or whom I didn't understand well enough.
Were the people who, when I decided to get curious about and take a shot with, like not an actual shot, but you know what, take a shot at probably, maybe I don't know, this is networking style and figure it out, but yeah, but I would speak with them and I would find just a world of opportunity would open up like an oyster with a pearl, it was phenomenal.
The next thing is that everyone has advice or criticism, yet truly most do not know what you're going through. So, it's wonderful when people get curious and ask you questions about what you're doing and what it is. And it's wonderful when they feel concerned for you, because it does look insane from the outside.
You're doing so many different things. You become a master of so many different trades when you start a business. And so you also have to understand that there's going to be a lot more pressure to put you in a box where people feel like they need you to be. And that's what I realized in my network. I noticed a shift is that a lot of people thought of me as this really friendly, outgoing project leader, or project manager they worked with years ago.
And they're having trouble accepting a new identity, this metamorphosis, this transformation. So it challenged my community to grow with me. And a lot of them have, and a lot have grown in the community a lot as well. But then there's some people who have maybe just faded away from that community because I don't match their expectations of who Stephanie was in their universe for so long, and that makes them uncomfortable.
And you have to be okay with shedding that. And just walking through it, and keeping your head high, and Trusting yourself. So that's how I guess I would say I'd overcome it is through trusting myself and by having meaningful conversations with people who are really close to me.
Galen Low: I love that. I think it's, it's fascinating.
And honestly, I love that word metamorphosis. And, I see people and I see it come up actually a little bit more, the sort of, yeah, maybe your community and the people around you sort of transform a little bit as you transform and that's probably okay. In the sense that it might not be sort of everyone's flavor or something, they feel like they can support.
Sure. And on the other hand, the people who are the unlikely folks, in your network, or I like the way you use the word community, because I think this describes it well. These folks who, yeah, you're like, I don't know if they're my people and suddenly end up being very supportive or very helpful, or if you're curious about it, there's something that you can learn from them and they can learn from you, even if it, from the outside, doesn't look like you'll sort of see eye to eye or even get along.
Stephanie Best: Absolutely.
Galen Low: I do like that distinction too, of I mean, I don't know if you see it as distinct, but Network people, in community, people who are like supporting you, they're in your corner. And what I love about it is that for some folks listening and considering, an entrepreneurial path who maybe don't have a spouse and maybe aren't close to their family and already feel alone and they're like, Oh, I'm going to get lonelier.
Like maybe I shouldn't do this and maybe they shouldn't, but also you can create community. To support you. And then man, I can't come back to the parameters bit at the beginning. I think that's so huge and yes, with family, especially if you've got, dependents and a partner or a spouse, but actually just, anyway, along the way, what are your parameters for success of knowing whether or not it's working, not just as a business, it's my business succeeding, but is my life succeeding along with it or what's the trade off?
Stephanie Best: I love that. Yeah.
Galen Low: Do you have an example of a parameter that was More personal than business Oh, if I'm not doing this thing three days a week, then my life is out of whack. And I'm spending too much time trying to grow a business.
Stephanie Best: Those are definitely like, I can relate to that type of parameter.
And I have to say that we've taken on a much more flexible approach and what it looks like in our households. Like one of the advantages to me starting a business was to start slow. And a lot of the time when people go into entrepreneurship, they feel like they have to do this 24 hours a day, hustle hustle, never sleep, never see anyone.
It's all this, like any, like you talked to a lot of the sales growers out there. They're wonderful and well meaning, but they also, they're very male oriented and they're also not very family oriented or community oriented. They're really business oriented, which. You do get burnt out when you've done it.
I've done that before. I've tried it and it's just, it's not healthy. So some of the parameters that we set is okay. Now that we have the opportunity, like I've got much more time and flexibility while being strategic about what I am building and putting time to that every single day, it's not going to be a 12 hour a day shtick.
It's going to be. I'm going to take care of my kids in the morning, I'm going to make sure they have a nutritious breakfast, I'm going to hug them when they feel sad about a drop off, and I'm not going to rush them, and that's very meaningful to us, and then I have opportunities to just take care of some of the infrastructure, this project that I told you about when we were talking, it's been wonderful and it's also been very time consuming.
And as long as I know what my priorities are, and that is growing the business and like being very clear about what we do and what we don't do, then you see how much the work about work falls away. You see how when you have your priorities in place, you focus on value driving efforts only. And when you cut the fat, you do about three to six hours of focused work a day.
And that's built on growing and that's including some mistakes and that's including, some nuance. And, but that's also very strategic. There's a lot of sales. There's a lot of relationship building. There's a lot of service offering. There's also project work, like with active clients, is.
There's some hiring involved of like external consultants. So you just focus on what truly matters. And that's when you're a business owner, you need to think like a CEO, no matter how big your company is, it's one person or 50 people. You have to think like a CEO and you have to know the value of your time because it doesn't just affect you.
If you have a family and a community, it affects everybody, and if you are a solo and if you don't have family and community. You really need to understand what health and care look like for you and understand it's not your fault where you're at, and it's really important for you to prioritize.
When you have a hard vision of okay, if I work 12 hours a day and I get this full, I'll be happy. It's what does health and longevity look like to you? And so how do you want to split your time? Do you maybe want to diversify some of those business building efforts into building community and taking some time to really care about your health and your future.
So that's a long winded answer, but yeah.
Galen Low: Honestly, I love your call out of like hustle culture and like some of the like audience that it's directed at, but that it's not the only way to do it. Becoming an entrepreneur doesn't mean, yeah, like you're doing all the, drinking all the 10 X juice and like working 18 hours a day, like it can, and that's, that's one way to do it, but it's not the only way to do it.
And I think one thing that might be, at least for me, it is right. It's jarring to sort of wrap my head around is this notion of Working three to six hours a day. And I'm like immediately my like eight hour a day or 12 hour a day brain, I've come from an agency background. We track our time, billable hours, it's like much of the world is still built around, or at least, in circles I travel in my world, like it's built around nine to five culture, like eating and yeah, like having lunch, the downtown financial district and all this, blah, blah, blah.
And like putting in your eight hours and then suddenly you're like three hours, I didn't even work, but you could make such a big impact. Suddenly it's not hours. People even think like in the consulting world. And I mean, it is true, right? The business is built on hours for service. But like growing your business, isn't you could do three hours that could land your next three, five, seven contracts that could expand your network.
You could have connected with someone that will change the arc of your business forever. Absolutely not take eight hours. You might not fill eight hours and that might be okay. But to your point, you have to think like a CEO. You're not thinking like. Did I put in my eight hours a day? You're thinking, did I make an impact that's going to grow my business, preserve my health as a leader of, either yourself or your employees.
And, did it make a change? Did I make a difference today? Not, did I put in eight hours? It's such a I imagine that being a very difficult sort of, transition as well. A bit of a metamorphosis of, your concept of time. Yes. But I think that's really like an interesting thing.
I think there's a lot of bias, I think, around entrepreneur culture, right? There's hustle culture. And then there's the, Oh, I don't see you working 18 hours a day. So you don't really have a business, do you, Stephanie? You're just like, you just chill. And, you don't rush like your drop offs. This is like a lifestyle thing.
And I mean, it's not, they're not wrong. It is for it is, it accommodates lifestyle, but it doesn't mean it's not a serious business.
Stephanie Best: Yeah, absolutely. And I am doing it slow and that's intentional. We've had some really great clients and I've worked with some really great people and that's from just being able to be focused on what actually matters.
But yeah, I love your perspective on that and thank you for summarizing it so eloquently as always do that so well. And it is hard to break out of that programming where we're like eight to 12 hours a day. Okay, I've earned my salary, earned my keep. I have proven value.
I've been so present and available and the objects tick, tick. But is there going to be a perspective shift within yourself or within your organization or both, hopefully, where it says, okay. Here are the outcomes that you need to provide. Okay. So what are like your strategy, then your KPIs for the year, and then how you break that down into your projects or the efforts that you're doing by quarter.
And then what is your daily rollout? What does it look as you're, ticking the boxes and stuff? And what's the distraction from strategy and value versus work about work versus. Things that are in the gray area. And so it's important to think, okay, yeah, I might do these top three today, but I've got a list of 8, 000 other things to do.
So then are we pursuing the addiction of checking off things on our list, or are we changing our autopilot to be value oriented? And it's really hard to do that. And it takes a lot of time because I've been there. You give me a challenge, I'll go and I'll get it. I'll achieve it. Absolutely. You give me a work challenge.
I'll do it half the time. I'll do it to impress. I'll double your expectations.
Galen Low: Give me an urgent deadline. And that's top of my list until it's done, right?
Stephanie Best: Yeah, exactly. And your blinders on and like your family doesn't see or hear from you for two days. And it's just, it's that was great.
I did that a lot in my twenties while battling a disease that's, like most people with celiac disease are undiagnosed. There's 300 signs and symptoms for it. And so they're pushing themselves even harder to prove themselves to be those high achievers. And that comes with consequences over time.
Galen Low: That's really interesting is like something about your health that drives you to then. Ignore your health to prove that you are something that yeah, exactly. Where, whereas, oh man there's so much there. There's a whole nother podcast in there.
Stephanie Best: Yeah. It's are we thinking of our post industrial late capitalist kind of society? With the edge of humanity, let's unpack that for five seconds. No, I'm just kidding, so.
Galen Low: Let's land somewhere in between. Let's go to some of the people pushing back the naysayers or, the folks that are maybe a bit skeptical. I think a lot of folks I talked to are sometimes like, yeah, it'd be great if I could do that, but I don't, I'm not looking at my savings account.
I don't have, X number of digits in my bank account. I don't come from a privilege, however, they define that. That's great for all these folks who are able to do that, who got good packages and have found an opportunity to fund their way into entrepreneurship. But that's not possible for me.
Is there sort of a situation where you're like, yeah, actually not everyone can do this. And, or is it sort of one of those things where you're like, like it's different for everybody you opened with that. And I really appreciated that. Is this an option for everybody? And maybe who is it not an option for the sort of entrepreneurial path?
Stephanie Best: I think that's a really wonderful question. And I think at the core of it, it's risk, right? We're identifying a risk profile and like for a very good reason as well, but whether that one person should or shouldn't. I think it's more of a question of how, but not if you know when, but not if you're really determined, this is something that you really want.
I don't think there's a set of parameters that would disqualify you. People have done absolutely strange things. Bill Gates as a billionaire and draw a dropout, it's like a, where you look is where you go. So you could be in a really financially tight situation. You could be dealing with personal health.
Issues you could be dealing with community or social issues or socioeconomic issues, they're very common. Most of Canadians carry credit card debt. So, I think that people really don't want to accumulate more risk in their life when they feel like the day to day is so hard, but there's different ways that you can.
Start this journey. Like I first incorporated in 2017 and then I took on full time roles as well. And it was a very elastic start to my entrepreneurship journey. And then I incorporated again in 2022 thinking, yeah, it's a really good time for me to start this business. And then I took on another director role, so I call it, sometimes I get accidentally hired.
It was just self, but your network really helps partnering with that, and so, yeah it's really different, but what I was doing when I was taking care of my kids and I was dealing with young toddlers and I still have a young toddler as well, I have six and two right now is I just wouldn't learn about it.
And I was thinking, okay if I were to design a value proposition, what were the top three things that I would stop myself? What's an elevator pitch? You just go through practicing elevator pitches for your services. Or for a product, and then just when you have the energy for it, think about when your energy peaks throughout the day and just take an hour or so to think, okay if I had all the freedom in the world for just this hour to focus on a business, what would it look like?
And how would I put some words to it and how would I want to build it? How would it take shape? And I did so much of that and it all, like my say. 80 percent of the work that I did is completely gone, and 20 percent is what's driven a valuable business. So it's the 80 20 rule. It's a lot of grind, it's a lot of experimentation and exploration and getting to know yourself and testing out the market for what works.
I looked into app development. And it was a really quite a trip and it took years to get to this place. It wasn't just when I had received my last package, which I was very privileged to get, I'm very grateful for that. It was years in the making of being like mildly distracted and obsessed with the want to become an entrepreneur, because I knew there was going to be a way that I could design.
A life for myself to an extent, right? It's not all glorious. And you don't get to choose your schedule perfectly. If you want to contact, like you have to show up for the meeting. Like you can't just like time block 40 of your hours of your week. You know what I mean? You have to work with what the market wants as well.
Like it's, you're still providing value. You still have to be customer oriented, right? Get to know what entrepreneurship would look like on you and decide if that's what you want. Do you want this responsibility? Do you want all these different hats? Do you like the risk profile? Do you want to start slow or do you want to dive in?
What are your options? Then be realistic. It's okay to start where you are. It doesn't have to look like a Bob Ross painting at the end. That's not how we start,
Galen Low: happy little trees and clouds everywhere.
Stephanie Best: Yeah. Okay. Some titanium white.
Galen Low: There's two things that I find really interesting about that one, the classic overnight success syndrome, right?
Where it's like, Oh, you started a business. You must've come up with it yesterday. No, that was like seven years in the making. You know what I mean? Like it's And it was gestation, it was planning. And to your point, it was that risk profile. Like when is the right time? Maybe not now you incorporated 2017, maybe not now, 2020, maybe not now, but it's not like it wasn't part of your roadmap, which I think is really interesting.
The other bit I really like is I have a background in business development as well. You have a background in sales and business development, and we're talking elevator pitch. And, I know a lot of people who are like, it's just so allergic to that idea of having an elevator pitch or like sales.
But what I find interesting about it is that there wasn't really anything sort of icky about your description. A lot of the time that elevator pitch is about testing your value. Is this valuable? Does this get people interested? And if you tie it back to the community thing, like that's how you get people interested in supporting you when you're able to sort of cast a vision.
It's not Hey, you want to buy a watch, two for one deal. Tell you what, like imagine, the scream horror series meets, like apocalypse. Now it's it's not the sort of like icky pitch that people kind of envision when they hear the word elevator pitch. It's a brief way.
To sort of compartmentalize your value and assess it either. You assess it or other people evaluate it. And you're testing, testing without saying. Listen, let me sit you down for four hours. I'm going to explain my business to you. You tell me if it's good or not. I tell you what, everyone's going to tune out after the first hour.
And after the fourth hour, they're going to say, sounds good.
Stephanie Best: Sounds good. And that might be 15 minutes into, you might get the sound good 15 minutes.
Galen Low: Yeah, sounds good. But it's like that little value test of, do I think it's valuable? And then if I think it's valuable to someone else, I think it's valuable.
And it's not like this icky pitch. I mean, it could be, I guess, but that's not the way you're framing it. It's what is the seed of value that will get people interested? And where can I grow that?
Stephanie Best: And what is the seed of value that'll get people interested in where can I grow that? You couldn't put it better, right?
It's truly the case. Like you have to be about people. You have to be willing. You have to be obsessed with providing value and building relationships. Yes, money is really important. That's how your business will survive, but you can't get to that reward point without authenticity, without being transparent and building those relationships and sharing what real value is in planting that seed, right?
It can take six plus months to get someone to sign on board in a B2B relationship. And that's fast on times, especially in the Canadian market right now, right? Like it's really about networking and developing these things and seeing what works and what doesn't, and you might try like smaller initiatives or international initiatives, to make profit.
Galen Low: It takes time, but I love that sort of authenticity angle. I mean, I think, We talked about a little spark of madness and being obsessive, but being obsessive about people and delivering value.
Stephanie Best: Yes, exactly. You're absolutely right. That's the right thing to be obsessed about.
Galen Low: Just to round out, we've been talking about this sort of entrepreneurial path and I framed it at the outset as something that's this is happening.
Sometimes it seems like the only viable option. But realistically, it's not the only viable option. What other alternatives are there out there for folks who are sort of at like the midpoint of their career as a project leader or maybe beyond it? What are other options? What would you have done if you hadn't gone the entrepreneurial route?
Stephanie Best: Yeah, that's a really good question. And I love it because there are so many different alternatives and it's really a matter of how well, and how willing you are to. Reframe your business case of value to the pivot that you want to make. So say entrepreneurship is not a path that you're interested in taking.
And that's valid. Nobody needs to do that just because we see it everywhere. We scroll doesn't mean that is what you should be doing. And that is what is going to make you happy. So, there are many different alternatives, right? So. And you can become an independent contributor. You can certainly take on consultancy and advisory roles.
And I think there is such an advantage to being a midpoint professional because you have a solid idea of who you are, what you like and don't like, and won't say yes to anything at all. Like when you're in your twenties and you're starting your career and it's like a lot of yes. I don't know if you can relate to that, but I was definitely like obsessed with being People pleasing.
And I said yes to absolutely everything because I wanted to prove my worth. And I really wanted people to value me there, and to like me. And then you sort of, you grow out of that, you see there's not as much value in it, but, and then when you get to the midpoint of your career, you're more value focused and you see the value of a dollar and a fleeting hour.
So, that you can't just spend. Every last minute of your day saying yes to all these in name requests. People haven't even evaluated against strategy. It's just that you have to be critical and you have to be okay with that shift in that discomfort because that's called growth. So, you can look at leadership roles.
Or fractional work as well. So if you take your picture of project management, professional experience, project experience, and you think, okay here's all of the skills that I've accumulated. Here's everything really technical. And I've got lots of great soft skills. Then also look at what the skills are to be a VP of operations or a VP of customer excellence.
And think about how your resume actually does translate into that resume. Think about how your business case, when you're talking to these C suite executives, comes to life when you express your value to them in a strategic role. Learn how to reframe yourself, hire a coach, hire somebody to help you understand your value in the context of a role that you'd really like to shift into.
Because understandably if you're managing programs or projects, a lot of the time, you might want variety, you might see a lot of value in making some strategic changes, but you don't hold the carrots, but you know that you could tailor your value package, essentially, to do that in an organization, right?
So, it's about reframing and about building those relationships. Building that network, right? So if you want to become an entrepreneur, you have to think, okay, what's your risk tolerance too, right? So family health bills are all different factors. Your network as well. And so just do the research and ask the questions and have people challenge you in what these alternatives are like, why do you want to change?
And why don't you want the entrepreneurial route and play? Devils advocate with a few of your different perspectives that feel really comfortable with you and then see what resonates and just cut the rest and start building towards your goal.
Galen Low: What I find really fascinating is that all of the things you said earlier about becoming an entrepreneur apply equally to, if you wanted to make a change as a project leader, but not become an entrepreneur, like figure out what you want.
Put together the puzzle pieces of your skills and see if it makes a full puzzle. If it doesn't, maybe try and fill in some gaps, maybe, get some kind of certification that takes you to where you want to go and build your pitch, right? Build your elevator pitch of why you'd make a great whatever you want to be.
And instead of pitching it to customers, you're pitching it internally, or you're pitching it in a job interview of how your story comes together to make a different role. And then of course, even just swinging around to the beginning of what you said, which is also, if you want to just stay a career project manager and that's what you want to do also fine, like that's also an option.
And if you want it to make a change, the skill is actually sort of having a vision for what you want to do, seeing what skills you've accrued along the way and putting those together into a pitch of some sort that your value proposition your personal brand, whatever you want to call it, but you can then mobilize that into change.
Stephanie Best: I love that you're so great at summarizing these wonderful conversations that we have. It is ultimately, it's a mindset. Be a CEO of your life, of your career. And it doesn't mean becoming an entrepreneur. It just means taking control over your path.
Galen Low: Boom. That was a good one.
Stephanie Best: Boom.
Galen Low: Awesome. Let's wrap it there. That's a great spot to end.
Stephanie Best: Boom is a good place to end.
Galen Low: Boom is a good place to end.
So Steph, thanks so much for spending time with me today. Honestly, it's always fun. I had so much fun today. And honestly, we covered a lot of ground.
Stephanie Best: We certainly did. And thank you so much for the opportunity to speak to these wonderful questions. Thank you so much for your time and for taking the interest in exploring this with me. And I really had a great time talking to you as always. It's truly a pleasure.
Galen Low: All right folks, there you have it. As always, if you'd like to join the conversation with over a thousand like-minded project management champions, come join our collective! Head over to thedigitalprojectmanager.com/membership to learn more. And if you like what you heard today, please subscribe and stay in touch on thedigitalprojectmanager.com. Until next time, thanks for listening.