Meet Kelsey Paasch | Business Consultant and Coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kelsey Paasch and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kelsey, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I always knew that owning my own business was my ultimate dream, but exactly what type of business that was remained unclear to me as I graduated college with a degree in General Business and an emphasis on Entrepreneurship. While it was discouraging at the time, I now reflect on my career journey and I am extra grateful for this unknown, as it allowed me to be open to new opportunities which led me to where I am today.

After graduating college from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, I took a leadership role with a brick-and-mortar retail company. During my time with this company, I learned how to manage people and how to engage them in delivering exceptional customer service. After a few short years, I was running a store and continuing to develop my team leadership skills. Fast forward a few more years, and I received an offer to work for an online retail company, and I jumped at the opportunity. During my time with this company as an Operations Leader, I learned the importance of operational excellence and continuous process improvement. My previous role developed my ability to manage people, this role is where I learned how to manage a process.

While I enjoyed my time at this company, I had a small family with three young children and I knew that to be the Mom I wanted to be, I would need to find something that did not demand so much of my time. This realization led me to an opportunity with a local home builder where I enthusiastically began to grow my knowledge about this industry. Different from my experience within large corporations, the structure of a small business that was quickly expanding allowed me to leverage my experience of operations and team leadership to maximize my impact within the company. As my network with other business owners and leaders began to grow, I began to see a gap, and I knew my extensive operational and leadership management skills could help more than the one company I was working for. This realization led me to the decision to begin my consulting firm.

In August of 2022, I started my company Contour Consulting with a vision to help business owners and leaders effectively organize their business goals and plans into simplistic, actionable steps to move their company forward quickly. The process I have developed intentionally starts with the owner or leader creating a vision for “WHAT” they want to accomplish in a “Directional Plan”. From there, we take that vision and break out into a quarterly plan, called Q-plans, showing the “HOW” it will be done. The purpose of my Q-Plans is to take the “WHAT” and break it into simple steps, aligned with completion dates. This process allows the leader to develop the talent of their team by educating the individual to think critically about the root cause of the problem and to develop a realistic timeline in which they will execute the steps necessary to correct the problems. This approach gives leaders the structure to then support and provide feedback to their team, ensuring that the work is completed. By the end of the year, the leader and their team will have four completed Q-Plans, which can then be efficiently and easily rolled into an annual review.

My coaching not only focuses on how to build these plans but even more importantly on how to create the routines to sustain them in perpetuity. Most often, when a business leader develops a directional or strategic plan, it begins with great intent but quickly fails because the vision and the necessary steps to complete it are not clearly defined and communicated. Additionally, the week-to-week routine necessary to ensure its success never gets put into place and practiced. However, by utilizing my process, the plans become like a living document that engages the team in aligning with the company goals. It establishes regular check-ins and updates to ensure progress is being made and creates an opportunity for feedback to be shared to encourage and problem-solve where needed. All these things help align the team together to ensure that there is ownership, support, and feedback from start to finish.

As I reflect today on my past year and a half of business, I am proud that I have been able to help local small and mid-size companies, as well as expand my client base nationally across the U.S. I have had great success in a variety of industries, company sizes, leadership level, as well as in profit and non-profit organizations. I thrive at being able to teach leadership organization and being able to implement and standardize a common structure that will allow all members of an organization to align with intentionality. All of this is not something I would have been able to ever imagine if I didn’t have the journey that I have had. While some entrepreneurs may see a direct path to their business dreams, mine required a little extra patience and progression as I developed the skills necessary to be able to serve my clients at the level I do today. Just as I coach my clients, the work isn’t about perfection, but progression… which is a great moto for of us entrepreneurs chasing our dreams.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
As I reflect today on my past year and a half of business, I am proud that I have been able to help local small and mid-size companies, as well as expand my client base nationally across the U.S. I have had great success in a variety of industries, company sizes, leadership level, as well as in profit and non-profit organizations. I thrive at being able to teach leadership organization and being able to implement and standardize a common structure that will allow all members of an organization to align with intentionality. All of this is not something I would have been able to ever imagine if I didn’t have the journey that I have had. While some entrepreneurs may see a direct path to their business dreams, mine required a little extra patience and progression as I developed the skills necessary to be able to serve my clients at the level I do today. Just as I coach my clients, the work isn’t about perfection, but progression… which is a great moto for us entrepreneurs chasing our dreams.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If I had a friend in town visiting, we would go downtown Janesville and then over to Milton for some shopping. We have some of the most amazing boutique shops that are locally owned and operated. I also would take them to a local winery followed by dinner at one of my favorite restaurants. We could end the night walking along the river downtown or head to Papa Docs for some Axe and Star Throwing.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would love to recognize my husband Kevin for all the love and support he continues to give me as I chase after my dreams. And to our three children, Joshua, Michael, and Beverleigh whom I will love always and forever.

I would also love to recognize my sister Keighton who has always been my biggest cheerleader in life and always encouraged me when I doubted myself. I wouldn’t be here without you sis! Love you.

Website: www.contourconsulting.co

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Kelsey_E_Paasch

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/kelseypaasch

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kelsey.E.Paasch

Other: LinkTree Link: linktr.ee/Kelsey_E_Paasch

Image Credits
Lee Ann Hare