Dearest friends, clients, and partners,
Collective Results is turning four, and wow — what a wild journey it’s been! It feels fitting to say that the theme of this year was evolution — one where we got better attuned to our environments, adapted, and emerged stronger and more certain of our identity and direction than ever before. The concept of evolution aligns so well with our core value of learning. We’re constantly listening, evaluating, reflecting, and searching for evidence with open minds to better our relationships and our results. Here are some of my reflections on the ways that we’ve evolved over the past year.
Surviving and Thriving in a Year of Change
In nature, organisms best adapted to their environments are the most likely to survive and reproduce. This year, we certainly channelled our inner chameleons! We faced some fluctuations on the staffing front, which, for a small business, can make a big impact. We learned a lot of lessons on how to navigate staffing changes while continuing to provide responsive, high quality services to our clients, all while trying to maintain a strong, supportive culture in the midst of change. We tried out new organizational structures, roles and responsibilities, and new recruitment methods. We collected feedback and applied lessons to refine the way we work together. It wasn’t always easy, and we didn’t always get it 100% right, but through it all, we kept learning, adapting, and growing. We’re so grateful to have developed an incredible, talented, dream team that’s ready to take on the challenges of the next year with all we’ve learned in mind.
A Thriving Ecosystem of Happy Clients
Our projects are as interesting and impactful as ever. We’re really feeling like we’re starting to hit our stride with our consulting work. We’re weaving our learnings from the past four years into every engagement. As a result, our work with our clients and our team feels seamless and easy, and we’re able to provide high quality end products that we’re proud of because we know they’re meeting our clients’ needs. With each project, we’re more confident in our consulting processes, and it feels as if we might have reached an evolutionary sweet spot where we’re able to bring clarity to complexity with ease.
Nothing makes us happier than a thriving ecosystem of happy clients, and this year brought more repeat clients and referrals than ever before. It’s like when a species finds its ideal habitat: our clients feel the impact, and they’re coming back again and again. Every returning client and new referral is a vote of confidence that we’re playing in the right niche, and we’re beyond grateful for the incredible relationships that keep growing.
Intentional Evolution in Business Development
All ecosystems need to get energy from external sources to thrive. Plants get energy from the sun, herbivores get energy from plans, and carnivores get energy from other animals. Similarly, we’re taking what we can from the experiences that we have to fine-tune our business strategy and approaches. And this has certainly been energizing for us! We’ve learned so much this year from our professional networks and from other businesses who have been so generous with sharing their time and advice. We’ve learned more than we could have dreamed of about the needs of our clients and the ecosystems that they’re working in. We’ve made great progress on defining who we are, the value that we deliver, and who we are best positioned to support. We even launched a new website that reflects the work that we’ve been doing (more to come on that in a future blog).
This year we made a big leap from a more “organic” business approach to a more “intentional” one. We’ve learned so much about what it takes to thrive long-term, and that’s helped us to get even clearer on our direction. We’re not just surviving, we’re thriving, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for us next.
Thank You to Our Community
We wouldn’t be here without the many people who have supported Collective Results along the way. Thank you to our clients, our dream team members, and everyone who’s believed in us as we’ve grown and adapted. We’re excited to continue this journey of evolution with all of you in the years ahead, embracing every new opportunity to learn, adapt, and evolve together.
With gratitude and excitement,
Amy Estill
