A few days ago, I was out on a walk around the office. I call it a Clarity Break, which sounds more intentional than “I need to get away from my screen for a minute,” but both are true.
As I looked up, I saw the ConocoPhillips building in the distance. To most people, that would have been just another office tower. To me, it stopped me in my tracks.
That building represented my very first client as a newly minted LSU graduate starting out as a technology consultant. I can still remember going on site with Tracy Derr, learning the ropes, trying to act like I knew what I was doing, and soaking up every bit of the experience. I even remember Tracy reenacting an old office commercial where a guy had to twist and contort his way through a chaotic workspace like he was doing competitive yoga. I still cannot remember the name of that ad, but apparently that memory made the cut while plenty of more useful information has long since left the building.What hit me in that moment was not just nostalgia. It was perspective.
This July marks 22 years of consulting, coaching, advising, and serving clients in one form or another. That number is hard for me to say without doing a double take. Twenty two years. Long enough to have seen industries change, technologies come and go, businesses rise, struggle, reinvent themselves, and grow again. Long enough to know that while the tools evolve, the real work has always been about people.
That has been the constant.
Client service, at its best, is not about presentations, deliverables, or sounding smart in meetings. Those things matter, sure. But the real work is helping people make progress on things that matter to them. It is stepping into someone else’s world, understanding what is at stake, and doing your part to help them move from where they are to where they want to go.
Sometimes that work is exciting and energizing. Sometimes it is messy and exhausting. Sometimes it means long nights, weekends, hard conversations, missed expectations, recovered trust, and figuring things out in real time with other people counting on you. And yet, I would not trade it.
When I think about the last 22 years, I do not first think about titles, projects, or billable hours. I think about the clients who trusted me, the mentors who taught me, the teammates who had my back, the lessons I learned the hard way, and the friendships that came out of shared pressure, shared purpose, and the occasional shared misery.
That is the part people do not always see from the outside. Client service can be demanding. It asks a lot of you. It stretches your patience, your judgment, your resilience, and your ability to stay calm when things are not calm at all. But it also gives you a front row seat to transformation. You get to help leaders think more clearly. You get to help teams get unstuck. You get to watch businesses become healthier and stronger. You get to be useful in moments that matter.
That building in the distance felt like a reminder. Maybe even an omen, if I am allowed to be a little dramatic about it. It reminded me where I started. It reminded me how much of my life has been shaped by serving clients. And it reminded me that I am still energized by the work ahead.
I still love helping people achieve personal and business results. I still love the challenge of bringing clarity to complexity. I still love being in the room when leaders decide to stop spinning and start moving. I still believe great client service can change the trajectory of a business, and sometimes the trajectory of a life.
Not a bad thing to remember on a walk around the office.
So here is to 22 years of client service. To the clients, the mentors, the late nights and early mornings, the lessons, scars, wins, and friendships and to whatever comes next. I am grateful for all of it.