For business owners under pressure or in transition
Find your footing. Decide what comes next.
One-on-one mentorship for business owners facing burnout, hard decisions, partnership strain, and transition, from someone who spent seventeen years building and running a company.
I help owners slow down, see clearly, consider the whole picture, and take a responsible next step.
What I help with
Relationships, family, health, and identity are part of the conversation too, because pressure at work rarely stays at work.
- Burnout and exhaustion. When the business has taken more than you have left to give.
- Difficult decisions. Whether to push forward, restructure, sell, or step back.
- Partnership strain. When co-founders, partners, or a board stop pulling in the same direction.
- Business transitions. Growth, restructuring, leadership changes, and exits.
- Direction after leaving. Working out what comes next once the business is no longer yours to run.
Three routes to the same summit
Launching or growing?
You're starting or scaling a company, maybe in a regulated or emerging industry, and want an experienced sounding board for the decisions ahead.
More about BuildingTreading water with an anchor?
Cash, debt, legal questions, or a strained partnership are crowding your thinking. We sort out what's urgent, steady your footing, and work out the next practical step.
More about BreakingIn transition?
You've exited, stepped back, or are preparing to. We look at how to finish well and what you want to build next.
More about BecomingWhy work with me
I'm not a coach who studied business owners. I've been one, through every stage, for seventeen years.
- 17 years building in California's legal cannabis market, from the medical era to licensed retail
- Founded and scaled a business generating $12 million in annual revenue at its peak
- Nearly 20 years at the director level and above, including nonprofit boards and policy organizations
- Helped shape regional and state cannabis policy, working directly with elected officials and regulators
- A decade of experiential education and facilitation, including team programs for Fortune 500 companies
- Firsthand experience exiting a business, and what that process teaches
How it starts
Free introductory call
Twenty minutes to talk about what's going on and whether we're a good fit.
Crossroads Session
A 90-minute conversation, followed by a concise written summary of your priorities and next steps.
Ongoing mentorship
Sessions as you need them, or a monthly retainer if you'd like a steady rhythm.
What this is, and isn't
I work alongside your attorney, your accountant, and your therapist, not instead of them. I don't give legal, tax, or clinical advice. What I bring is the view of someone who has stood where you're standing, plus the practical judgment to help you use your advisors well.
Start with a conversation.
Twenty minutes, no cost, no obligation.
Approach
Strategy and the inner life are the same conversation.
Most owners in a hard season get help in pieces. Lawyers handle the legal side, accountants the numbers, and a therapist, if there is one, the rest. Nobody holds the whole picture, and the owner is left to stitch it together while tired.
I hold the whole picture with you. We work on the decisions in front of you and on what those decisions are costing you, because under pressure they're hard to pull apart.
The path: four phases
Every hard transition has a shape. The old structure changes, there's an uncertain middle, and eventually a return to solid ground. People have long recognized this as a rite of passage. I use that shape as our map.
Ground
Steady the person first, then the situation. We slow things down, protect what needs protecting, and decide what can wait.
Clarify
Map what's actually true: the numbers, the relationships, the obligations, the options, and the worries. The situation is often different from the story in your head.
Cross
Make the hard decisions and carry them out. I help you prepare, stay steady through difficult conversations, and work well with your advisors.
Return
Rebuild direction, identity, and work on the other side. What you learned, who you are now, and what comes next.
Not everyone starts at the beginning. An owner building a company may only need Clarify and Cross. Someone after an exit may arrive at Return.
What guides the work
- Lived experience, not theory. I've made payroll in lean months, negotiated with regulators, and exited a business myself.
- The whole person. Fatigue, worry, grief, and identity are part of the strategy, not distractions from it.
- Your grounding, your terms. Some clients draw on faith, some on nature, some on practice, some on none of these. I meet you where you are.
- Nature as a teacher. For clients in the Pacific Northwest, sessions can happen walking in the forest. Hard conversations often go better outside.
- Your team stays your team. I work alongside your attorney, accountant, and therapist, and help you use them well.
- Discretion. What you share stays between us, within the limits of the law. Our agreement spells this out.
Slow down enough to see clearly
Under pressure, the instinct is to move fast. Many of the costly decisions I've seen, including some of my own, were made in a hurry by someone tired and reacting to the loudest problem in the room. Much of our work is making enough space to respond instead of react.
- Pause before deciding. Before a hard call, we separate what's urgent from what only feels urgent, and give the real decision the time it needs.
- Expect change. Markets shift, partnerships end, and your role in the company won't stay the same. Seeing that plainly makes it easier to let go of what's ending and put your energy where it counts.
- Keep compassion in the room. For yourself, and for partners, employees, and family, including the people you disagree with. It doesn't mean going easy. It means hard conversations are more likely to go somewhere.
- You are not your company. You can care deeply about the work without letting its fate decide your worth. Loosening that grip often makes you a better owner, and a steadier person when the business changes hands.
Body and mind, effort and recovery
Pressure rarely stays at work. It comes home, into relationships, into how we parent, and into our bodies. Stress usually shows up there before it shows up in the numbers: short sleep, a tight jaw, a short temper, getting sick the moment you finally slow down. Exhaustion makes every decision worse, so we pay attention to it.
The habits I suggest are simple and practical: a few slow breaths before a hard call, a walk before a big decision, protected time to recover after a demanding stretch. A business can't run at full effort forever, and neither can you. A sustainable plan has recovery built into it, for you and for your team.
Signs you may be running on empty
- You're making decisions late at night that you'd question in the morning
- Small problems set off big reactions
- Rest doesn't feel restful anymore
- The people closest to you are getting the worst of you
- You can't remember the last time the work felt like yours
Where some of this comes from
A few traditions have shaped how I work, and I keep them separate.
For more than twenty years I've been a student of Tibetan Buddhism. It has taught me much of what I know about staying present under pressure, meeting change without panic, and treating people with compassion, including the people I disagree with.
I also practice vinyasa yoga. It keeps me honest about how the body and mind affect each other, about breath and steadiness, and about balancing effort with recovery.
I've also spent many years in ceremony, including multi-day vision quests and ceremonial plant medicine work within Indigenous traditions of North, Central, and South America. I hold that work with deep respect, and it remains its own path, apart from my practice with clients.
I'm a lifelong learner in each of these, not a teacher. I don't teach meditation or yoga, I don't lead ceremonies, and I don't provide or arrange plant medicine experiences. What you'll find in our work is what these practices have taught me, put in plain language and applied to the decisions in front of you.
Optional: post-ceremony integration. If you've had your own ceremonial or plant medicine experience, I'm glad to help you make sense of what came up and bring it into your decisions, relationships, and work. This is entirely optional and never required.
When you need more than me
Some of what people carry needs clinical care: addiction, depression, trauma, or thoughts of ending your life. I'm not a therapist or a doctor, and I won't pretend to be. If you need that kind of help, I'll help you find it, and I can keep working with you alongside it.
If you're in danger right now, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, US), or call 911.
Mentorship
Three routes to the same summit.
Owners come to me at different moments. Whichever route you're on, we start at the same trailhead: a free introductory call to see whether we're a good fit.
BuildingLaunching or growing
You're starting or growing a company, especially in a regulated or emerging industry where the rules are new and the stakes are high. I've built from zero more than once: licensing, local ordinances, buildouts, compliance systems, hiring a first team, and holding relationships with regulators and the community.
We meet on a regular rhythm, and you leave each session with clear decisions and next steps.
BreakingWhen the pressure is heavy
It can feel like treading water with an anchor. Cash is tight, debts are adding up, a partnership is strained, or legal questions are crowding your thinking. Or you're simply worn out and can't see the next move clearly.
I help you sort what's urgent from what isn't, organize the facts, and make the decisions in front of you, with your attorney and accountant doing their parts. Advice from your professionals tends to go further once things are organized.
Typical work: prioritizing, preparing for hard conversations with partners, lenders, or buyers, weighing whether to continue, restructure, sell, or close, and staying functional at home while it's happening.
BecomingDuring and after a transition
You've exited, stepped back, wound down, or you're preparing to. Some pieces may still be unfinished, and that's normal. Underneath is a bigger question: who are you without the company? Many owners discover how closely they were tied to the business only when it's time to step away.
I've exited a business myself. I help owners finish well, take honest stock, and build what comes next with intention rather than restlessness. That often includes changes at home too, in relationships, family, and daily life.
Ways to work together
Introductory call
Twenty minutes to talk about what's going on and whether we're a good fit.
Free
Crossroads Session
A 90-minute conversation, followed by a concise written summary of your priorities and next steps.
$350
Pay-as-you-go mentorship
60-minute sessions booked when you need them, paid at booking.
$250per session
Monthly mentorship
Four 60-minute sessions a month, plus limited email support between sessions. Paid monthly in advance. Additional sessions are $250. No minimum commitment.
$900per month
Founder Circles
A small group of 5–7 owners meeting every two weeks, facilitated by me. Ask to join the waitlist.
Forming now
Email support is for brief questions and clarification between sessions, with replies within two business days. It isn't unlimited access or an emergency line. For clients in the Pacific Northwest, sessions can take place in person, outdoors, or walking.
Also available by inquiry
Partnership Realignment
A facilitated 2–3 day intervention for co-founders, partners, or boards in conflict or transition, before or alongside the lawyers.
By inquiry
Fractional & project advisory
Hands-on operating help for a set number of days per month. Very limited availability.
By inquiry
About
I've always taken the path less traveled.
Wilderness leader, team builder, and for seventeen years a founder and CEO in California's cannabis industry, from the medical era to licensed retail. Now I mentor business owners through the seasons that test them most.
The longer story
My story starts with loss. I lived through deep losses as a child, and I was raised as the adopted son of a blue-collar entrepreneur. I grew up watching what it takes to keep a small business alive, and what it takes out of the person running it.
For years I struggled with conflicting ideas about spirituality and where I belonged. I found my connection outdoors. Wilderness gave me something I couldn't find anywhere else, so I followed it. I studied at one of the top wilderness leadership colleges in the US, then spent the better part of a decade leading people through experiences designed to change them, including team-building programs for Fortune 500 companies. I learned how people act under pressure, how groups break and repair, and how much changes when you take a hard conversation outside.
From there I moved into organizational leadership, and then into building my own company. In 2009 I stepped into an industry that barely existed yet: California cannabis. For seventeen years I built through every stage of it, from the medical era into the licensed market. I founded and scaled a business generating $12 million in annual revenue at its peak. I also led and organized one of the first licensed cannabis retail and music events in the US.
Much of that work happened in public. Over many years I was influential in shaping both regional and state cannabis policy, working directly with elected officials, government administrators, and regulators to build rules for an industry that didn't have any. I've served on nonprofit boards and led emerging policy organizations through complex board transitions, internal conflict, and periods of real instability. I served as executive director of the Santa Cruz Psychedelic Society, and today I remain an active board member. All told, I've served at the director level and above for nearly twenty years.
I've always taken the path less traveled, and it's beat the hell out of me. That's the cost of the unknown. In 2026 I exited from the business, and that transition is teaching me as much as the years of building did. It has shown me, again, what owners go through when things get hard: the isolation, the decisions nobody else can make, and how easily the business can swallow the person running it and the people who love them.
Through all of it, I've done my own work. I've had mentors and coaches of my own for many years, and I've completed multiple multi-day vision quests and leadership retreats. I don't ask clients to go anywhere I haven't gone myself.
That's the work I do now. I help owners build, steady themselves, and move on, with the practical judgment of someone who has done it and the presence of someone who knows what it costs.
Today
I live in the Pacific Northwest with my wife and our kids. I'm a longtime forager and a student of mycology at The Evergreen State College, and I'm building a new food company rooted in the forests of the Pacific Coast. I'm still a founder, still in it, and I think that makes me a better mentor.
Background
- Nearly 20 years at the director level and above
- 17 years as a cannabis founder and CEO, 2009–2026
- Founded and scaled a business generating $12 million in annual revenue at its peak
- Influential in shaping regional and state cannabis policy; co-founder, Association for Standardized Cannabis
- Former executive director and current board member, Santa Cruz Psychedelic Society
- Degree from one of the top wilderness leadership colleges in the US
For attorneys & advisors
Your client needs you. They may also need someone else.
You've seen it: an owner in the middle of a dispute, a restructuring, or a sale who is too overwhelmed to give clear instructions. They call late at night, change their minds, and spend your time on things that aren't legal problems.
That's where I come in. I help owners get steady and organized, so they come back to you clearer, calmer, and ready to make decisions.
Who to refer
- Owners in partnership disputes, litigation, or serious debt
- Clients going through a sale, wind-down, or other exit
- Co-founders whose conflict might still be resolved before it becomes a case
- Owners in regulated and emerging industries facing licensing, compliance, or regulatory pressure
What I do, and don't do
I provide strategic mentorship and personal support. I don't give legal, tax, accounting, or clinical advice, and I don't second-guess your counsel. My agreements with clients say so plainly. If a client needs something outside my lane, I send them back to you or to the right professional.
How a referral works
Introduce
Introduce us by email, or give your client my contact information.
First conversation
Your client starts with a free introductory call or a Crossroads Session.
Share, with permission
With your client's permission, I can share an organized summary that helps them work with you more efficiently.
Stay yours
The client relationship remains yours. I'm a resource alongside you, not a replacement.
A note on confidentiality
My conversations with clients are confidential, but they aren't protected by attorney-client privilege. When a matter is in active litigation, I'm glad to coordinate with you on what's appropriate for us to discuss.
I don't pay or accept referral fees. Referrals go both ways: my clients often need good counsel, and I send them to people I trust.
Insights
Notes from the owner's path
I'll be writing about leadership under pressure, partnerships, regulated industries, and what happens to owners after the company.
Planned articles
- What to do when the well runs dry Planned
- The decision you're avoiding is making all the others Planned
- Nobody tells you what happens after you exit Planned
You can also connect with me on LinkedIn.
Contact
Let's talk.
The easiest first step is a free 20-minute introductory call. If you already know you'd like to dig in, you can request a Crossroads Session instead.
Email me with a few lines about where you are, and I'll reply within two business days to find a time.
colin@colindisheroon.com
Open in your email app
What to include
- Your name and the best way to reach you
- Whether you'd like a free introductory call or a Crossroads Session
- A few words about what's going on
- Which route fits best, if you know: Building, Breaking, Becoming, or not sure
Please don't share confidential legal details by email. We'll talk privately.
Attorneys & advisors
Email me directly to introduce a client, or see how referrals work.
Based in the Pacific Northwest. I work with owners anywhere by video, and in person in the region.