Wednesday, November 04, 2026
Only 39.7% of small businesses actually grew revenue last year, Federal Reserve data shows. If growth feels like the fix for your cash, team or time problems, the numbers say otherwise.
Here's a diagnostic you can run on your very next coaching session, whether it's with Kevin or anyone else: time who talks. If your coach is filling more than about 30 percent of the session, you are not being coached. You are being lectured — and the two produce very different results, no matter how smart the lecture is.
Good advice delivered at the wrong ratio doesn't stick. Professional coaching standards define the discipline specifically as a process that draws out the client's own thinking and accountability, not one that hands down expert answers — and the research behind adult learning backs this up: people act far more consistently on conclusions they reach themselves than on instructions they were simply given. A coach who spends the session talking is optimising for sounding impressive, not for the client actually changing behaviour on Monday morning.
The enemy isn't expertise — Kevin's 30+ years across nine companies and boardrooms from McDonald's to IBM is exactly why clients hire him. The enemy is expertise delivered as monologue instead of as sharp, well-placed questions that make the owner find their own answer and, critically, own it.
Run this on your next three sessions with any coach or advisor.
1. Time it, roughly — you don't need a stopwatch, just a gut sense of who spoke more across the session.
2. Check what the coach's talking actually was — questions that made you think, or statements that told you what to do? Both count as "coach talking," but only one builds your own judgment.
3. Watch what happens after the session — advice you were told to follow gets deprioritised the moment the week gets busy. Conclusions you reached yourself get acted on, because you own them.
“Specific to my business requirements and takes a systematic approach. Practical, specific, and pertinent to my business.”
— Simon Keepa, Icehouse Coaching Programme
Most owners can't self-diagnose this, because a genuinely knowledgeable coach who talks too much still sounds valuable in the room — the content is good, even when the format is wrong. The tell isn't how the session feels. It's what changes afterward. If you leave every session feeling impressed but three months later your Monday-morning behaviour hasn't shifted, the ratio is the problem, not the content.
This is precisely why accountability structure matters as much as expertise in choosing who you work with — a coach who asks "what did you actually do with what we discussed last time" is running a very different relationship to one who simply delivers a new lecture every session.
If your last coach did most of the talking and none of your behaviour changed afterward, that's exactly the gap Kevin's coaching is built to close for you.
...and you become the owner who leaves every session with your own answers and acts on them.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Chasing brand awareness on a limited budget is the fastest way to spend money without moving revenue. Here's the goal that actually fits a constrained marketing budget, and how to measure it.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Most SME strategy sessions produce energy and an impressive document — and almost no lasting change. Here's what a strategy session actually needs to produce, and how to turn it into real execution.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Only 8% of small business owners say they're fully prepared for succession, and 70% have no formal plan. Here's why succession is a systems problem, not a paperwork one — and the four-question test to check if your business is actually transferable.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Rapid growth kills more SMEs than slow growth does. Here's how overtrading happens, the warning signs owners miss, and how successful scalers fund growth before chasing it.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Scaling a business requires a different identity than starting one did. Here's why coachability, not talent, is the real predictor of who breaks through.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Procrastination on the big strategic project usually isn't a discipline problem — it's a sizing problem. Here's the 20-minute rule that fixes it without more willpower.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Most lost sales die in the first fifteen minutes of the discovery call. Here's the three-question framework that qualifies leads properly and lifts close rates.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Most SME marketing restarts from zero every month. Here's why compounding content — not more content — is what actually builds momentum on a limited budget.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Most SME strategy fails from too many priorities, not too few. Here's the three-filter test for deciding what earns a place on your roadmap — and what doesn't.
Friday, September 04, 2026
73% of SME owners feel more confident than ever. 57% saw revenue stall anyway. Here's what a new 2026 report reveals about the gap between confidence and a real growth engine — and how to close it.
Friday, September 04, 2026
The second site rarely fails because of the market — it fails because the first site's success was never turned into a playbook. Here's what to fix first.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Opinions are easy to get. Follow-through is rare. Here's why accountability, not feedback, is the part of coaching that actually moves the needle.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Your team's biggest time drain probably isn't a lack of hustle — it's meetings that never needed to happen. Here's the test for which ones survive.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Most SME owners know referrals are their best lead source and still leave them to chance. Here's how to build a repeatable system around the ask.
Friday, September 04, 2026
When marketing "isn't working," the real issue is almost always positioning, not budget or channel. Here's how to test your message before you scale the spend.