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Where Adrian started

Adrian Stewart had just gone out on his own — six months of freelancing, a few retainers from previous clients, and then those retainers ended.

He had a business in name. In practice, he was a freelancer waiting for the next referral and filling the gaps with whatever came through.

“I said I had a business, but it was probably more like a glorified freelancer if I’m honest. When I wasn’t doing client work, I would be like — what do I do now? What do I focus on?”

He knew his craft. He didn’t know how to build around it.

The real problem

No system for business development meant income was unpredictable. No defined service offering meant prospects didn’t know what they were buying. No operating structure meant Adrian couldn’t step back even briefly.

The coaching started right as COVID hit. Adrian’s first instinct was to pause — he couldn’t spend on a coach during a pandemic. His second thought: this is exactly when he needed help most.

What we worked on

Direction first. Getting clear on what the business actually was, what it was for, and what it was building toward. That vision work gave the rest of the decisions somewhere to land.

Business development. Getting out of the passive wait-for-referrals mode and building something more proactive — a structured approach to growing the pipeline.

Systems and operating structure. Building the infrastructure to support growth without just adding hours. Weekly operating rhythms, financial discipline, time blocked to work on the business rather than only in it.

Where Adrian is now

The business became more predictable. Adrian had somewhere to focus between client work — a direction and a system rather than a blank week.

In his words: “After we started engaging with Tristan, things were certainly much more predictable. Tristan’s approach isn’t just all over the place — he’s very methodical. He’s got a clear step-by-step process to work you through it, especially at the beginning. That was super helpful to get clear about the vision and the direction of what I wanted to do.

The key take-out for me that made the most difference was starting to view my business more as a business rather than just me. Seeing the different hats — technician, general manager, strategist — and blocking out time to work on the business. It made a huge difference. I think I made a lot of progress over the time we worked together. A lot of where I’m at now is due to the advances I made in those stages with Tristan.”