Why We Started Thrive
For the final episode of Season 1 of Thrive in Five, I wanted to do something a little different.
Over the last 17 episodes, Sarah and I have talked about a lot of the work we care deeply about.
Grant writing. Strategic planning. Entrepreneurship. Community development. Leadership. Partnerships. Growth.
But we have not spent much time talking about why we started Thrive Community Partners in the first place.
And really, it comes down to something we kept seeing over and over again.
Good people doing important work were getting stuck.
We Kept Seeing the Same Gap
We met communities with thoughtful strategic plans and no capacity to implement them.
Organizations doing meaningful work that needed funding but did not have someone who could dedicate the time or expertise to pursue it.
Entrepreneurs with really good ideas who needed someone to sit across the table and help them figure out what came next.
Leaders carrying more than anyone around them realized.
The problem was rarely that they did not care enough.
It was not that they were not working hard enough.
And it certainly was not a lack of ideas.
Often, they simply needed capacity, expertise, perspective, or another person in the room.
Sometimes that meant writing the grant.
Sometimes it meant helping turn a strategic plan into a 90-day action plan.
Sometimes it meant connecting an entrepreneur with the right resource.
And sometimes it meant having an honest conversation that helped someone see the problem differently.
Sarah and I kept seeing that gap.
Eventually, we decided we wanted to help fill it.
We Did Not Want to Hand You a Report and Leave
When we built Thrive, we were very intentional about the word Partners in Thrive Community Partners.
Because that is what we wanted this work to feel like.
There is absolutely a place for consultants who come in, analyze a situation, deliver recommendations, and move on.
That just was not what we wanted to build.
We wanted to stay for what happens next.
We want to be there for the difficult planning conversations, the grant rejections, the pivots and, especially, the wins.
Because the work does not end when the strategic plan is finished.
It does not end when the grant is submitted.
It does not end when the business launches.
Often, that is when a completely different kind of work begins.
We Have Been on the Other Side of the Table
Part of what shapes the way Sarah and I work is that we understand what it feels like to be on the other side of these conversations.
We have worked inside organizations and communities.
We have dealt with limited capacity and competing priorities.
We have watched good ideas run into real-world constraints.
We have experienced plans that changed, funding that did not come through, partnerships that required hard conversations, and projects that looked very different in implementation than they did on paper.
We have learned a lot from those experiences.
Sometimes the easy way.
Sometimes not.
And we bring all of that with us when we sit down with a client.
We are not there to tell you that we have all the answers.
We are there to help you ask better questions, see more possibilities, and figure out what moving forward actually looks like.
What We Believe About This Work
If you have listened to Season 1, you have probably noticed a thread running through these episodes.
We believe plans should lead to action.
We believe relationships matter.
We believe small communities have tremendous assets.
We believe entrepreneurs do not have to have everything figured out before they begin.
We believe asking for help can be a leadership skill.
We believe a grant rejection can be information instead of an ending.
We believe sustainable growth matters more than growth for growth's sake.
And maybe most importantly:
We believe good things happen when the right people have the support they need to move a good idea forward.
That is what Thrive is here to help do.
This Is Only the Beginning
If something in these first 18 episodes made you stop and think, gave you an idea, helped you ask a different question, or made you approach your work differently, then Thrive in Five is doing exactly what we hoped it would do.
Five minutes.
One practical idea.
Something you can take back to your organization, business, or community and actually use.
And we are not finished.
Season 2 of Thrive in Five is coming soon.
We have more conversations to have, more lessons to share, and plenty more ideas we want to explore with you.
Until then, if one of these episodes has made you realize there is something in your organization, community, or business that you are ready to work through, reach out.
Maybe you need a grant strategy.
Maybe you have a strategic plan that needs to start moving.
Maybe your community is trying to bring the right people together.
Maybe your business is growing and you are not quite sure what the next stage should look like.
Or maybe you just know something needs to change and you need someone outside the situation to help you think it through.
That is why we built Thrive.
Thank you for spending these first 18 episodes with us.
I'm Renee with Thrive Community Partners. This article is based on an episode of Thrive in Five, where we share practical ideas for moving organizations and communities forward in five minutes or less.
