The Most Important Investment I Made This Year Wasn’t in My Business.

Over the past three decades, Proactive Worldwide has weathered more than its share of storms.

We’ve navigated the 2008-2009 financial crisis, recessions, COVID, market disruptions, and countless shifts over the past 30 years in how companies buy intelligence and consulting services. Like many small businesses, we’ve learned that resilience isn’t a slogan. It’s a requirement.

This year has presented another chapter.

Some long-time clients have reduced the amount of research they conduct with us. Others have moved work offshore in search of lower costs. A few have even decided that AI-generated research is “good enough” and brought work in-house.

Several clients using AI have already returned after discovering that “good enough” often isn’t good enough when important strategic decisions are on the line. They realized they needed primary research to capture unpublished insights. Faster and cheaper doesn’t always translate into better outcomes.

Competition has intensified. And in reality…Most consulting firms look alike. We dress alike. We use similar language. We promise similar outcomes. Differentiation has never been more difficult.

Then there are the realities every small business owner understands.

Hitting revenue targets and managing cash flow.

Watching Fortune 500 companies, who sit on billions in cash, stretch payment terms from Net 60 to Net 90…or even Net 120 Days. Effectively asking small businesses to provide an interest-free loan for four months.

Making difficult staffing decisions to better align costs with revenue. Decisions that never get easier, no matter how many years you’ve been leading. Those things weigh on me.

If you’re a business owner or executive, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Fortunately, through all of this, one thing has never changed.

Our people.

I continue to be inspired by the team at Proactive Worldwide. They consistently go above and beyond for our clients, tackle incredibly difficult assignments, collaborate, learn from one another, and live our purpose of Enriching the Fabric of People’s Lives through our values of Service, Trust, Ownership, Continuous Improvement, and Quality.

They remind me every day why I love what I do. But even with an outstanding team, leadership carries weight.

Sometimes literally.

Most people who know me would describe me as optimistic, energetic, generous, and enthusiastic.

But over the past year, something changed.

I was tired. I lacked my usual energy. My thinking wasn’t as sharp. I felt sluggish at times. I was getting winded walking up stairs.

The scale read 204 pounds, the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life.

For someone who is 58 years old and 5’9″, that wasn’t where I wanted to be.

More importantly, I didn’t like what I saw looking back at me in the mirror.

Through some personal assessments and work with my strategic leadership coach, Steve Swavely, Ph.D., CCP, I came to better understand something about myself.

My greatest strength has always been taking calculated risks. My greatest overused strength?

Self-sacrifice.

I naturally put everyone else’s needs ahead of my own. Employees. Clients. Friends. Family. The business.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped taking care of the one person responsible for leading all of them.

Me.

Ironically, that’s exactly the theme I wrote about in my book, The Sacrifice Paradox: How To Navigate Life’s Choices And Tradeoffs. Yet I found myself falling into the very trap I described. Helping everyone else while neglecting myself.

Everything changed on March 30th.

I happened to see a LinkedIn post from The High Performance Health Program – By Andrew Marsham.

Something about it resonated, so I reached out.

Soon afterward I spoke with one of his team members, learned how the program was designed specifically for busy executives, and decided to make the investment.

It wasn’t inexpensive.

But I also knew what I had been doing to get healthier wasn’t working.

I completed a detailed assessment covering my goals, food preferences, schedule, travel demands, and available workout time.

Then I started to meet weekly with my fitness and nutrition coach, Scott Ludwig, remotely. He keeps me accountable. He challenges me…in a good way. He adjusts the plan when life inevitably gets busy.

Scott designed my customized strength training program (working out 3x a week for 35-40 minutes a session), encouraged me to get in at least 10,000 steps a day, and when I tell him I am traveling, he looks for the hotel I will be at and creates a workout based on the equipment they have. He also established my nutrition goals for daily intake of calories, carbs, fat, and protein, and introduced me to something I had never done…Actually tracking what I eat via the MyFitnessPal app, which, along with my Fitbit, syncs to the High Performance Health app.

That was eye-opening. I realized how much junk food had become “normal.”

Doritos. Twizzlers. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Those were frequent travel companions stuffed inside my backpack.

Today? Real food. Balanced meals. Higher protein (180g a day). Healthier snacks (e.g., Chomps beef sticks and Quest protein chips). No supplements. No GLP-1 medications. No shortcuts.

Just better decisions. Better eating habits. Three strength workouts every week. Tracking my nutrition. Creating a daily calorie deficit. Simple concepts that were new to me. Consistently executed.

Ninety days later…

The results speak for themselves.

I went from 204 pounds to 189.5.

My body fat percentage dropped from 30% to 27%.

My A1C improved from 6.4 to 6.0, the lowest it’s been since November 2020.

My blood pressure, once typically around 140/100 even while taking medication, recently measured 100/72.

My physician was thrilled. We’ve already reduced my blood pressure dosage by half. If things continue improving over the next several months, there’s a real possibility I may come off my diabetes medication as well at the end of the year.

Those numbers matter. But they’re not the biggest change.

The biggest change has happened between my ears.

I have more clarity. More positive energy again. More focus.

I’m sleeping better. I’m showing up differently.

I’ve noticed I’m making better business decisions. Not because I suddenly became smarter, but because I’m thinking more clearly.

Stress hasn’t disappeared. Business challenges haven’t disappeared. The market certainly hasn’t become easier.

I have simply become better equipped to deal with all of it.

One morning recently, my wife Jennifer noticed me getting up at 4:30am to complete a workout before catching an early flight.

Historically, that never would have happened.

Today, it’s simply what I do. Not because I have more time. Because I finally decided my health deserved to become a priority instead of an afterthought.

For years, I convinced myself I didn’t have time.

The truth was…I hadn’t made the decision. There’s a difference.

This journey has reinforced something I now believe more strongly than ever.

As leaders, we spend enormous amounts of time investing in our companies.

We invest in technology. AI. Marketing. Sales. Innovation. Training. Strategy.

But the highest-return investment any leader can make is in themselves.

Your health affects your energy. Your energy affects your thinking. Your thinking affects your decisions. Your decisions shape your organization’s future.

That isn’t wellness.

That’s leadership!

I still have work to do.

This isn’t the end of the journey. It’s simply the first 90 days.

Maybe next year I’ll share some before-and-after photos as I work through my transformation..

For now, I’m simply grateful that I made the decision to stop sacrificing my own health.

I want to be around to watch my grandson grow up. I want to enjoy many more years with Jennifer, our children, family, and friends.

And I want to continue helping Proactive Worldwide navigate whatever disruption comes next.

If you’re a busy executive who has tried over and over to get healthier on your own and haven’t been able to make it stick, I’d encourage you to explore High Performance Health at https://hphealthprogram.com/

I don’t typically write endorsements. This one felt earned.

If my willingness to be a little vulnerable helps even one leader decide to invest in their own health, then sharing this story was worth it.

The most important investments you’ll make have nothing to do with business at all.

They begin with you.