We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Robert Westheimer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Robert, appreciate you joining us today. Can you recount a time when the advice you provided to a client was really spot on?

In 2006 I founded Newspring (www.newspringcenter.org), a Christ-centered 501(c)(3) organization aimed at economic development in an at risk community in Houston. One of our activities is to advise small businesses and startups, hoping to stimulate job growth. We have also created and operated a business plan competition for the community. Over the years, I have counseled numerous would-be entrepreneurs. Each one, of course, has his or her own specific challenges and problems. But one common thread has applied to virtually all of them, which has led me to the best advice that I have given. Consistently, we see business owners who have not appreciated the leverage they can achieve from their personal networks. Often, this stems from a lack of confidence, or recognition of the people who admire and respect them, like them, and are willing to help them through their personal networks. Significant help is available to a budding entrepreneur, even if from several degrees of separation. These individuals, after hearing my encouragement and advice, consistently find that their reputation and goodwill, as well as their personal network, are among their most valuable assets. Once they understand this, they are able to leverage resources well beyond their personal capacity.

Robert, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a retired CPA/business consultant whose career was spent with the accounting/consulting firm of Arthur Andersen & Co. After the Enron scandal, I started Newspring as a way to give back and follow where I felt I was being led in a spiritual context. The clients helped by Newspring are typically owner-managed and quite small, including startups. Most are women-owned. Many of them have little more than a dream. Newspring has assembled a large team of advisers, all of whom work at no pay. Our experience ranges across the business spectrum, from accounting to marketing, real estate, legal and more. We have subject matter experts who can cover most any topic.
Most of our advisers have been recruited from local area churches. While they might volunteer at a food pantry (and that is needed), they instead find that Newspring offers them a volunteer opportunity that taps their business skills while at the same time addressing their spiritual calling.
I have written a book about this, “When God Calls, How do You Answer?”

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When Newspring business advisers assist our clients, we build relationships with our clients. After all, our mission is completely relational, and that’s what our advisers like about it. In some cases, the business relationships turn to personal questions. We tell our advisers that they can just stop any conversation that goes beyond a business topic. However, they are free to listen to pretty much anything, and we have found that (1) a small business owner finds it extremely difficult to segregate business issues from personal ones and (2) many of them have no neutral party with whom to share. Some of my most rewarding conversations have steered beyond business advice into listening to personal problems. We do have to be careful to emphasize that we are not pastors or therapists. But honestly, most people just want someone to listen.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Of course, I had to pivot from my career at Arthur Andersen & Co., consulting with large corporate clients, to those at Newspring, small, owner-managed ones, many of which were startups with no employees. After 28 years of working with large clients, it was certainly refreshing to work with smaller businesses. However, it also meant that we were called to deal with the widest possible range of issues, and help our clients find answers in the absence of the layers of support that I enjoyed at AA&Co. It’s liberating in a sense, but it did require a significant change in perspective. As a partner in AA&Co., I had staff to do the work. At Newspring, I must roll up my own sleeves.