Big goals are easy to write down. Knowing what to do about them on Monday morning is the hard part. We work on both, with founders and leadership teams across New Zealand and Australia.
NEXT WORKSHOP. 35 SEATS. ONE DATE
Get Business Traction Before 2027
Don’t wait for the election.
Most business owners have quietly moved anything strategic to “after the election”. It is worth doing the arithmetic on that, because it does not mean November.
Election day is 7 November. Then the official count, then the writs, then coalition talks, which always run longer than anyone plans for. Then it is Christmas, and very little serious happens in a New Zealand business between the 20th of December and the end of January.
“After the election” is the first working week of February. From the start of September, that is 154 days.
And the reason for waiting does not hold up. New Zealand election years have averaged 3.1% GDP growth since 1990, against a long run average of 2.8%. Westpac economist Michael Gordon calls the idea that elections are bad for the economy “a bit of an urban legend”, and found no consistent pattern in house sales, building consents, vehicle registrations or job ads around them.
So there is no election effect to wait out. There is just the waiting.
✔️ A one page plan, finished before you leave the room. Not homework.
✔️ The three or four priorities that actually matter for the next two quarters, separated from everything else.
✔️ The single biggest thing you can start tomorrow to finish the year strong.
✔️ A clear read on where your business is genuinely exposed right now, & where it isn’t.
✔️ A repeatable way to run this again yourself next quarter, without us in the room.
✔️ A room of 34 other business owners doing the same thing you are. Some of these conversations will matter more than the workshop itself.
✔️ Ongoing access to a newsletter with resources, prompts & follow-up tools, so the plan doesn’t go stale in a drawer.
Morning tea provided, and a printed plan template to take away. Facilitated by Glenn Marvin and John McConnell.
Plenty of coaching produces a good looking document that nobody opens again. We are not interested in that.
Every session ends the same way. Decisions made, owners named, dates against them. You will always know the handful of things that matter most right now and who is doing each one. A plan for next year is only worth something if it survives contact with this week.
Where you are going matters, but it only counts once it turns into what you do on Monday. We spend most of our time on the second part.
We measure what changed in the business, not how many meetings we had. If a quarter goes by and nothing moved, that is our problem too.
We pick the framework that fits your situation rather than running everyone through the same one.
When John asks chief executives what the daily pressure actually feels like, this is what comes back:
If that sounds familiar, you are the person this page is for.
Different sizes of business need different things. Start where you actually are.
For owners of smaller businesses who want structure without a full one to one engagement.
A full day of strategy work each quarter, a call every fortnight for questions and accountability, and a room of other owners dealing with the same things you are. You get the same thinking we bring to larger clients, at a price that makes sense earlier.
The first group starts in November with fifteen places.
Founding members pay a reduced rate for their first year. The way in is a workshop.
For a growth push or a turnaround, where you need a second pair of hands rather than a second opinion.
Deeper than coaching. We get into the operating detail with you: the numbers, the team, the decisions that keep getting deferred. Glenn currently does this as COO of Norling Law, so it is a real service rather than a line on a page.
Deliberately selective.
We take very few of these at a time.
For founders and leadership teams, usually above about $1m in revenue.
A monthly or quarterly rhythm, proper quarterly planning with the whole leadership team, and a coach who knows your numbers well enough to argue with them.
Most of our clients are professional services firms, and most came to us because growth had started to cost them more than it returned.
John McConnell is taking new clients.
Glenn’s book is full and he keeps a waitlist.
Glenn and John are both certified Scaling Up coaches. It is a genuinely good system, we have used it for years, and it is often the right thing to reach for with a leadership team pushing hard for growth.
But it is one methodology, not the whole job. A business turning over $800k does not need the same machinery as one turning over $15m. A team that already has a decent plan usually needs help doing it rather than another framework to fill in. And a founder who is the bottleneck needs their own time back before anything else will move.
So we start with your situation and choose from there. Sometimes that is the full Scaling Up framework, run properly. Sometimes it is a simpler operating rhythm, a cash plan, or getting the leadership team to finally make a decision they have been circling for a year.
If a coach tells you their method is the answer before they have asked what is actually wrong, be careful.
Glenn brings over 18 years of experience implementing the Scaling Up methodology and 20+ years in marketing. A Deloitte Fast 500 Tech recipient, he has scaled multiple businesses to successful exit. He’s known for an honest, direct coaching style, holding leadership teams accountable to the outcomes they say they want, and giving founders back their time, money and enjoyment.
Certified Scaling Up Coach
John brings over 30 years of leading and coaching high-growth businesses. He spent 17 years on the board of Hawkins Construction as it grew from a tier-4 regional builder into a national market leader, remaining in family ownership until its sale in 2017.
He is known for cutting through complexity to the key decisions that actually move a business, and for the depth he brings to family and founder-led companies, where growth, governance and succession have to be managed together.
Real, year-on-year performance lifts from leadership teams Glenn & John have coached through the Scaling Up methodology.
The results speak for themselves. Here’s what leaders say about working with Glenn & John.
"Jumping on board with Glenn not only has helped us achieve record months 2 months in a row, but has helped the team gain clarity on our direction, nail our focus and achieve some pretty outstanding testimonials from clients along the way!"
"John helped our leadership team achieve clarity and alignment, transforming our strategic vision into real-world execution. We couldn't have scaled successfully without him".
"What we didn't expect was to achieve our forecasted six-month new sales target in just the first quarter. We're now seeing stronger, more consistent revenue streams than ever before."
"John's approach is exactly what we were looking for at Civil+Build. He brought together and aligned the leadership team behind a clear strategy and provided us with the tools to execute it with focus. I would strongly recommend the John to all growth-minded businesses; his guidance has been a game-changer!”
So you know what you are buying before you to talk to anyone.
Forty five minutes on what is actually going on. If we are not the right people, we will say so and point you somewhere better.
Revenue, margin, where the cash goes and where the founder’s week goes. Most of the useful answers are already in there.
We leave with the three or four priorities for the quarter, owners against each one, and dates. One page, not a report.
Regular sessions to keep it honest, a quarterly reset, and someone to call when a decision will not wait for the next meeting.
By day 90 you should be able to name what changed. If you cannot, we have not done our job.
No. Both our coaches are certified in it and we use it where it fits, usually with leadership teams chasing growth. If your situation calls for something simpler, we will say so.
One to one coaching suits businesses above roughly $1m with a leadership team to bring along. Group coaching is built for smaller businesses. The half day workshops are open to anyone.
Coaching works on you and your team so you make better decisions. Advisory means we get into the operating detail and help make them with you. Advisory costs more and we take very few.
A full day of strategy work each quarter, a call every fortnight for questions and accountability, and a group of other owners. Fifteen places, starting November 2026. The way in is a workshop.
Most of our clients are professional services, and that is where we know the most. We also work with importers, distributors and product businesses. The question we care about is whether the founder is the bottleneck, not what the business sells.
Auckland. We work with clients across New Zealand and Australia, in person and online, and we run our workshops in Auckland.
Tell us roughly where the business is and what is getting in the way. We will point you at whichever of the three is actually right, including telling you if it is none of them.
If the 12 October workshop is the obvious place to start, you can just book a seat.
We reply within one working day. No sequences, no drip campaign.
Tell us about your business and we’ll be in touch about next steps.
CONNECT THE DOTS WORKSHOP GUARANTEE
Don’t find it worthwhile?
We’ll refund you double.
Monday 12 October, 8:30am – 12:30pm
$150 + GST
35 seats only
Co-facilitated by Glenn Marvin & John McConnell
attend & decide it wasn’t worth it, & we’ll refund you double your ticket price. no fine print, no conditions.
