The Power Of Perspective: How Creating An Ad Board Can Accelerate Results

Most leaders relate to the occasional insecurity that comes with entrepreneurship. While feeling alone in moments of uncertainty is uncomfortable, turns out it’s a normal part of the growth process.

I never would have come to this conclusion without the help of my firm’s Advisory (Ad) Board – a group of pros who have helped turbocharge my journey as Founder and CEO of Waterhouse Brands. 

Ad Boards provide business owners with a mechanism for unbiased feedback on their strategic plans, tactics and growth initiatives. Used effectively, they can serve as a guiding force for leadership teams. Their secret weapon – real world experience that lends invaluable perspective!

In this blog, I’ll share how tapping into the expertise of my firm’s Ad Board changed the trajectory of my business, and five steps you can take to successfully implement your own.  

1. Admit when it’s time for help.

Six years into our boutique agency’s journey, Waterhouse experienced its first-ever year of declining revenue and profitability. As a CEO, I felt stuck. Was this a sign I needed to downsize? Did I need to pivot or make changes to how my leadership team was holding ourselves accountable?

I raised these questions to a longtime friend and fellow CEO who had successfully built, scaled and exited an industry-leading healthcare communications firm. He said, “let me help you” with the sincerity of knowing the challenge of being lonely-at-the-top, especially when navigating macroeconomic headwinds beyond our control.  That’s when the idea for my Ad Board was born.

When leaders feel lost, our fears can take over: Sales are down! People have left! I don’t have what it takes to lead a business! By expressing our worries to trusted colleagues who “get it”, we’re able to unpack our concerns with the benefit of thought partnership.   

Takeaway: Being self-aware enough to know you need guidance is not a sign of weakness; it’s an empowering first step to moving forward productively.

2. Tap advisors you respect, trust and can learn from.

With my first advisor in place, I contacted two additional industry thought leaders who brought complementary expertise in marketing, communications and agency operations. While I knew each prospective advisor, I was intimidated by their career accomplishments and feared they might reject my request. They each signed on, validating that my firm was high potential and worthy of their time. 

Through initial conversations, I began to realize my challenges were ordinary growing pains that could be overcome. Their confidence in me helped shift my mindset from anxiety to action. My team and I adopted the EOS framework to develop our 6-year Vision, 3-year Picture and 1-year Plan and began prepping for our inaugural Ad Board meeting. 

Takeaway: Been-there-done-that advisors can help challenge self-limiting beliefs and lend insight into planning methods and metrics to guide the business.

3. Be clear on the Ad Board charter.

At the outset, I used the Ad Board to get clear on how best to define its role. My first advisor had said “the greatest value of building a business with the input of an Ad Board is the process, not the end game.” I articulated my primary objective as:

To have trusted counsel as thought and accountability partners who challenge our thinking and guide us to unlock opportunity in new ways. 

This clarity set the board up to pressure-test our plans, forecasts, and KPIs. We also invited their perspective on the strategic levers we were pulling to market and sell our work more broadly. 

During our first Ad Board meeting we shared our 2024 revenue goal and asked if our target was realistic. The resounding “NO” we received took us aback. Their take: we had not accurately forecasted the time it would take to close our revenue gap to goal. We were being overly ambitious and discounting market realities. They encouraged us to be more conservative and not have the team “running from behind” all year. We went back and recalibrated projections.

Takeaway: Listening to Ad Board input can do more than challenge assumptions: it can save a lot of angst with tangible feedback on how to course correct.

4. Set realistic expectations for engagement and compensation.

Having a productive Advisory Board is a time commitment by all parties. To keep the lift light and costs down, we initially agreed to hold one 90-minute meeting per year to discuss Waterhouse’s annual plan and provide feedback. We submitted our presentation in advance and used our time for leaders to present and advisors to provide feedback. These meetings, as well as prep time, are compensated on a flat fee.

We also meet 1:1 on an ad hoc basis throughout the year to discuss the state of our business and get planning inputs as well as insights into the industry, perceptions of our firm and agency trends. I provide updated KPIs, meeting objectives and discussion topics in advance, being mindful that my asks warrant conversation vs. a text or email.

Takeaway: Judicious, constructive use of advisors’ time demonstrates respect and fosters professional good will. 

5. Fully embrace the relationship and results will follow.

While facetime with advisors is limited, our relationship is revered and felt by every member of my leadership team. We challenge ourselves in weekly meetings to think smarter and ask more probing questions. We use learnings from our Ad Board as a filter for decision-making and a catalyst for thinking bigger. 

In the year since convening our Ad Board, we’ve made tremendous progress towards our goals. We’ve resumed our path to growth and are on track to exceed our performance metrics for the year.

Recently, I sat down with one of our senior advisors for a YTD review. “Congratulations,” he said. “These numbers are right where they need to be. You can’t argue with success!”

Endorsements like these give us confidence to make bigger leaps and investments in 2025.

Key takeaway: Having an Ad Board can up the ante on strategic planning and execution accountabilities, helping accelerate results.

I hope my experience leveraging an Ad Board inspires you to consider creating one of your own. As entrepreneurs, many of us are doing this work for the very first time, and second-guessing ourselves comes with the territory. If you are a CEO questioning if you are on the right track, take it from me: an Ad Board can help steer you down the right path and fuel your entire team’s journey!