My Journey

Throughout my life, I have always been drawn to turning chaos into organization, fixing problems and helping people.  I was the child trying to make peace among friends when they argued on the playground or had disagreements throughout the ordinary struggles of being teenagers.

As an adult, I have taken the skills I developed growing up to help me manage the everyday life of my own family.  Now the mother of two boys and a wife, mediating and working through complexity have become daily tasks (and I wouldn’t want it any other way!).

Even though I started my career in accounting and finance (probably not what you would have expected based on my childhood passions!) – I quickly found myself in roles where I was helping people in different parts of the organization understand each other and work more effectively together.  I found that my understanding of both finance and operations were allowing me to be an influencer in my team and throughout the organization.  I became a “translator” between finance, operations, sales, HR…and this is where I found my unique niche.

After twenty years working in matrixed organizations, I started to realize that many companies struggle with teams working in silos and at cross purposes from one another.  I was at a crossroads in my career and was trying to figure out what was next.  That’s when I made the bold decision to turn my passions into my own consulting business.

So without further ado, I am excited to announce the official launch of Lori Smith Consulting!

 

Lori Smith Consulting

Lori Smith Consulting is all about helping companies focus on achieving their growth goals faster and smarter.  It’s about driving decisions that result in efficiencies and increased profits.  Through my stakeholder alignment, initiative prioritization and custom solution design services, I help my clients maximize the return on investment of each of their growth initiatives and their overarching strategic plan.  But the best part is, I get the team working together in harmony!

My goal is to help my clients:

• Prioritize what matters most and stop feeling as though they are boiling the ocean.
• Turn competitors into colleagues and get teams working together in synergy – NOT SILOS.
• Ensure that initiatives make it to the finish line on time and on budget by eliminating false starts, wasted time and money.

We all know that with an aligned team, anything a company wants to achieve is possible.  THIS is the essence of Lori Smith Consulting.

 

My Lessons Learned While on This New Journey

Moving from a role within a corporate environment to starting my own business has been an amazing journey – but I have learned first-hand that the path to growth can be more challenging than we expect it to be.  The truth is, we don’t have to grow the hard way – we need to grow the SMART way.

Are you trying to figure out how to transform your business or career to the next level?  Let me share with you some of my key lessons learned to inspire you on your journey.

1.      Build your business on your priorities – not the other way around.

For me, I wanted this phase of my career to give me greater life balance and control over my time.  It’s not that this wasn’t important to me before, but it has become an overarching priority.  Once I got a clear understanding that this was most important to me, I was able to take the leap into full-time entrepreneurship, because I realized this was the best way for me to achieve my priorities.

What about you?  Have your business and/or career priorities shifted in some new way?  If so, how?  Having a firm grasp on your priorities is critical in aligning your people, processes and investments toward success.

 

2.      Use your strengths and passions as the foundation for growth.

When I decided to start my own consulting business, I was having a hard time identifying and articulating the right areas to focus on for my services.  I decided to reach out to a former consulting contact I had worked with during my career for help.  Her name is Betsy Jordyn and she is an expert in helping professionals launch their own consulting businesses.  Betsy guided me through a series of steps to help me dig deep into the key components of my career that brought me fulfillment.  Through this work, I was able to draw out my passion for prioritization and getting people working together.  When I think through my career path, it was these things that made me feel as though I was able to make a difference for both the company and the people I worked with.

What are your passions and strengths?  What drives you to be your best?  These are key elements to identifying how to grow your own career and drive change within your company.  And building your team off of their passions and strengths will create a best in class organization!

3.      Know when to ask for help.

Throughout my career, I have always known when to “wave the white flag” and reach out for help.  Be it an executive, peer, colleague in a completely different part of the organization or an external consultant, supplier etc., I knew that I didn’t have the answer to everything.  A strong leader knows what they “don’t know.”  Not getting help when you need it can impair your business greatly.  Partnering with an expert to walk you through the steps to success is critical.  My partnering with Betsy, brought me structure, she invoked thoughtfulness and brought me clarity as I embarked on this journey.

Do you experience challenges with getting your teams to work in alignment?  Do you have difficulty prioritizing the long list of ideas and projects that the team is working on?  Need help getting that key project to the finish line on time and on budget?  I can help.

Let’s Work together

If any part of my personal journey feels like something you can relate to, I’d love to talk to you about how I can help you and your business.  I invite you to learn more by visiting my website at lorismithconsulting.com.

On the site, you will have access to sign up to receive a free, actionable prioritization tool that is a quick and easy way to identify which initiatives to invest in and which ones to drop.  It is designed to help you quickly get your team aligned and working together on the initiatives that have the most impact to your company’s success.  It will take you by step by step and show you how to compile and analyze your business initiatives and score them against your high-level business objectives and key financial metrics.

If you need my help or want to discuss how I can help you and your business achieve success quickly and efficiently, please use the contact link on my website or download my free initiative prioritization tool to get a jump start on your path to success.

Lastly, please join me in celebrating this milestone in my career!  I am so excited to embark on this new chapter.  I feel I have so much to offer my clients and can’t wait to get started!