I was trapped in a corporate cubicle and going crazy!

So, I did the only sane thing I could do!

I quit and started consulting in the middle of a recession!

After seven years as an Air Force pilot, I wanted to explore the world of business.

So, I joined one of the world’s largest high-tech companies.

Eight years later I was going crazy, trapped in a corporate cubicle, watching bad decisions and internal politics destroy the division.

I wanted independence, to chart my own course, and to have a chance at higher income.

So, of course, I chose the middle of a recession to quit and became an independent consultant.

Two years later that division went bankrupt, and all those who had stayed for "safe" secure jobs were unemployed.

Working in “Big Corporate” did not mean security for the thousands working there.

The first years as a consultant were tough!

The first few years as an independent consultant were tough! I made half what my corporate salary had been.

I sold my house and bought a duplex to cut my expenses.

I was an “expert” in technology and marketing. While flying in the Air Force, I’d gone to graduate school for an MS Physics and an MBA in Marketing and Finance. I thought being a consultant would be easy. Was I wrong!

The schooling gave me knowledge about my fields, but I knew nothing about building and growing an independent consulting business, finding my niche, building a brand, winning clients, calculating fees, pulling together teams, or scaling the business.

I was starting from scratch!

With the only book on consulting I could find, no mentors, and no consulting community, I faced years of "learning opportunities", those painful lessons that teach you something important.

How I wished I had a community or someone to coach me on consulting.

Four years and many painful lessons later I was making
six figures.

A few more years and I was making
seven figures.

I was still a solo consultant.

But I was using strategies, tactics, and systems that worked!

As the wins came, I documented what worked...

I started documenting those "learning opportunities" and recording what worked; the strategies, tactics, and systems that drove success. As a former military pilot, I knew the importance of checklists and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). 

The strategies, tactics, systems, and tools learned over the years became a foundation for Critical to Success.

Proven strategies and tactics built a great client list...

Using a brand and marketing system that focused on high-value, defendable niches, I built a professional brand with a solid portfolio of clients.

Proven systems made consulting easier...

The Imposter Syndrome and uncertainty disappeared. The confidence came with proven strategies, tactics, systems, and tools.

Proven systems built the brand and income...

Professional productivity methods like our proprietary Cornerstones to Capstone™ system evolved over years but that system helped me write 27 books published by J Wiley and Macmillan. It gave me, a solo practitioner, tremendous productivity. Four of those books became international best-sellers with more than 3 million copies sold.

Proven strategies, tactics, and systems made a great work-life balance...

Using proven systems in marketing, client sales, and productivity pulled me out of the Feast-or-Famine cycle that steals time and family from solo consultants.

Our family loves travel and adventure. We used many consulting projects as opportunities to travel. Here's our family on a Rhine cruise from Basel, Switzerland to Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Something about me!

If I’m not learning new strategies, tactics, and tool, then I’m exercising with weights, biking, or hiking.

I don’t bicycle on US roads much anymore as I’ve twice seen friends deliberately run off the road by pickup trucks.

But should you get on a Peloton, watch the leaderboard for RonEndorFun, a member of #BensArmy and #IAmICanIWillIDo. Get on a "High-Intensity Hills" or a "PowerZone" ride and we’ll High Five each other.

Join Us!

If you are on your road bike, I hope we meet somewhere along the thousands of miles of dedicated bike trails crisscrossing the US and Europe.

Our family loves to travel so our plan for 2025 is to ride the dedicated bike trials from Stockholm down the Rhine valley, over the Alps from Munich to Venice, along Lake Garda, one of the most beautiful bike paths in the world, then over to a small cafe in Croatia. If you are a cyclist, wave to us, or better join us on the path and check out the trails on EuroVelo!

I am expecting it to be a fun, easy ride since my wife says she’ll pull the luggage trailer behind her eBike. (Our first long date was a bike trip that circled South Island, New Zealand.)  :)

If you are a cyclist, wave to us, join us, and check out the USA and EuroVelo bike trails.

Here's to what's Critical to Your Success,
Ron
[email protected]
https://linkedin.com/in/ronperson/