Written By: Scott Cone, Chapter: LeTip of Sellwood Oregon, Category: Business Coach, Company: Hito Works
There was a moment during my first LeTip meeting where I stopped listening to the speaker and started doing math in my head.
I remember sitting there thinking:
I need 10 monthly clients if I’m going to make this work.
A few months earlier, I had stepped away from the small business I’d been running. While searching for my next full-time opportunity, I was trying to build a coaching and consulting practice, Hito Works, that could support my family. The problem was it wasn’t happening fast enough. I was running out of time, and I knew it.
Not long before that meeting, a friend invited me to visit his networking group. He told me something simple that ended up sticking with me:
“It takes a little time, but it starts to pay off when you show up consistently.”
At the time, I didn’t know if that would be true for me.
When I walked into my first meeting, I had no idea what to expect. I also didn’t realize visitors would be asked to give a commercial, so my initial attempt was far more improvised than prepared. Looking back, though, there was something valuable about being pushed into it without time to overthink. By the second round, I had settled in and delivered my 30-second commercial with much more confidence.
Then I sat there wondering:
Was that enough for anyone to want to talk to me afterward?
As the meeting ended, one of the members walked over to me before I had even stood up from my chair. He wanted to know more about my business. We met later that week. I came back the next week. Then another member reached out. Then another.
Slowly, conversations turned into relationships, and relationships turned into clients. Before long, I had reached the goal I originally set for myself, and more than half of my clients were coming from LeTip members or referrals.
What made the biggest difference wasn’t one meeting or one referral. It was continuing to show up. Slowly, LeTip became the place where something uncertain started becoming real.
That experience was reflected in something a client shared with me:
“LeTip was a turning point, a way to make the dream become reality.”
Today, I work with businesses ranging from startups to established companies, many of them trying to untangle operational bottlenecks, communication breakdowns, stalled growth, or the feeling that everything has become harder to manage than it should be. After more than 20 years in small business and operations leadership, I’ve learned that many owners spend too much time trying to carry those pressures alone. That is where much of my work happens now.
What surprised me most wasn’t just the business growth. It was what happened to me personally as I kept showing up in LeTip each week. Repeating my commercial time and time again allowed me to get better at explaining what I actually offered and who I could truly help. Over time, I understood that I was surrounded by people who I could genuinely support through the kinds of challenges I had spent years contending with myself—and who, in different ways, were helping me grow as well.
I didn’t understand it at the time, but those early meetings were doing more than helping me find clients. They were helping me find my footing again. Standing up, introducing myself, and talking honestly about the work I do and why someone should trust me with those challenges forced me to become more intentional and more direct in the way I communicated.
At first, that felt uncomfortable, but it progressively became one of the most valuable parts of the experience. The repetition helped me sharpen my message, but it also helped me grow more confident putting myself out there—not just within LeTip, but in conversations with business owners outside the organization as well.
Many of my clients came directly through LeTip members or referrals. But the biggest thing I gained from joining wasn’t just new business. It was consistency and the reminder that progress takes time. It gave me a place to keep showing up while I was still figuring things out myself.
The experience shaped the way I worked with clients, many of whom were dealing with the same feeling of uncertainty. One client later told me he felt like he had finally stopped “getting run around by [his] business” and had started feeling more in control of it again. Another shared that our work together helped things feel more manageable and less overwhelming, especially when tackling problems that had been building for a long time. Those conversations reminded me that most owners aren’t looking for perfection; they’re looking for support, direction, and someone willing to help them work through difficult problems alongside them.
Now, I’m grateful I said yes to that first meeting, even when I wasn’t sure anything would come from it.
Sometimes the things that change your life don’t feel significant in the moment. Often, they start with something small: a conversation, a commercial, or simply continuing to show up.
