About
About Craig Paxson: I didn't plan to become a CEO. But it changed everything about how I think about strategy.
I was a process improvement consultant when the CEO of one of my clients — a man with Parkinson's disease — could no longer lead the company. The CFO didn't want the job. The private equity firm needed someone. They asked me.
I said yes. And then the reality hit.
My first year, a hurricane devastated Puerto Rico — home of my largest and most profitable account. Overnight, 80% of that revenue disappeared. I had to decide who to let go. I made the calls. It sucked.
And I learned something that no consulting engagement had ever taught me: being ultimately responsible is completely different from being good at your job.
I hired an executive coach. I had hard conversations I'd been avoiding. I gave my managers real accountability instead of asking for permission on every decision. I turned a business that had lost $500,000 the year before I arrived into one that made $300,000 two years later — and eventually led its successful acquisition by a private company.
That experience changed how I think about strategy.
When you're the one ultimately responsible, you can't afford to plan in a vacuum. You need to know why customers choose you over anyone else. You need to know what your market will actually support. You need someone in your corner who sees what you're too close to see.
That's what I needed in my hardest moments as a CEO. And that's exactly what I now build with the owners I work with.
Here's what I came to understand — and what drives everything I do:
"The most important thing for a business is to have a competitive advantage and build its business around it. The most important thing for a business owner is to protect their time so they can create that competitive advantage."
Both problems are solvable. Most owners are just starting in the wrong place.
Most strategy sessions start with goals. I start with your market.
I research your competitors, your market growth rate, and the position nobody else is claiming. Then we work inward — building your strategy around a real competitive advantage, not a wish list.
That outside-in approach is the single thing that separates this work from every other coach or consultant operating at this level. It's not a philosophy. It's the methodology I've built an entire practice around.
Craig Paxson — Strategy Architect | Visionary Results
- MBA, Belmont University
- Board Certified Executive Coach
- Certified Strategy Planning Professional
- Creator, Visionary Velocity Method
- Author, Visionary Velocity and Strategy is the Menu
- Podcast Guest — Media Kit
If you're a $1–20M business owner who suspects the problem isn't effort — it's strategy — I'd like to talk.
Not a sales call. A real conversation about where you are and whether there's a better way forward.
Book a Discovery Call