Running a business—especially in distress—is not about one big move. It is about sustained effort across all three disciplines—managing energy, adapting to conditions in real time, and pushing through the moments when every part of you wants to stop. And, the last happens constantly.
Endurance Is Not a Metaphor. It is a Business Skill.
5:00 a.m. The pool. An hour later, the bike. After that, the run. Not because it feels good—most of the time it does not—but because my life is built around a simple principle: do hard things.
Triathlete. Business Operator. Problem-solver. Years inside businesses have made one thing clear: the skills that carry a company through pressure are not glamorous. They are not clever. They are just hard—and getting comfortable with that is the whole point.
Business turnarounds work the same way. There is no single heroic move that saves a struggling company. It is the relentless, disciplined execution across operations, finance, people, and strategy—day after day, problem after problem—that pulls a business back from the edge. Most people underestimate how long and how hard that work really is. An operator who trains like an endurance athlete or who has otherwise experienced similar adversity does not.
The Transition Zones Are Where You Win or Lose
In triathlon, the transitions—T1 between the swim and the bike, T2 between the bike and the run—are where races can be won and lost. They are not glamorous. Nobody cheers for a fast shoe change. But the athletes who have practiced those moments, who have made the mundane automatic, are the ones who gain minutes on the field.
In a business turnaround, the transitions are just as critical. The shift from diagnosing the problem to building a plan. The pivot from planning to executing. The move from stabilizing to growing. Most fractional COOs and consultants focus on the big, visible strokes—the strategy deck, the restructuring plan. But the details in between are where operators earn their keep. Obsessing over those transitions is essential, because that is where things fall apart when nobody is paying attention.
Training for Pain vs. Reacting to Pain
There is a difference between experiencing pressure and being prepared for it. In business, pressure shows up as tight cash flow, declining revenue, team uncertainty, and constant decision fatigue.
Most leaders in struggling businesses are in reactive mode. Everything feels like a crisis. Cash is tight, morale is low, customers are leaving, and every day brings a new fire to put out. The natural response is panic—or paralysis. What an operator with endurance training brings is something different: a nervous system and a mindset that have been deliberately conditioned for exactly this kind of sustained pressure. No panic. Assess, prioritize, execute. Not fearlessness—preparation.
I have spent years in the trenches of business operations, navigating everything from cash flow crises to team restructuring to market uncertainty. Our fractional executives at 2GO Advisory Group have done the same, repeatedly stepping into high-stakes situations with little margin for error. That experience is what prepares us for the challenges facing the beverage industry today.
Proof of Concept: Turning Around a Brewery During COVID
Want to know what “doing hard things” looks like in practice? Try turning around a brewery during COVID.
Let that sink in. A business built on people gathering together—in taprooms, at bars, at events—suddenly stripped of its entire operating model. Revenue cratered. Supply chains broke. Staff were scared. The playbook everyone had been running was useless overnight.
There was no single solution. It took the same thing a triathlon takes: the discipline to keep moving forward when every signal is telling you to stop. Operations got restructured. New revenue channels emerged. Hard decisions about costs got made. Honest communication with the team and customers became the daily standard. And the business came out the other side not just surviving, but stronger.
That is not a case study from a consulting deck. That is what happens when an operator who does hard things steps into a hard situation.
The Difference Between Finishing and Competing
A lot of people finish triathlons. Fewer actually race them. Finishing means you survived. Racing means you had a strategy—you knew when to push, when to conserve, and how to position yourself for the strongest possible finish.
The same distinction applies in business. Plenty of consultants and advisors can help keep a struggling company alive. But an operator—someone who has been in the arena, who has made payroll during impossible months, who has rebuilt teams and renegotiated deals and found revenue where there was none—that person does not just help you survive. That person helps you compete again and thrive.
The goal is never just to keep the lights on. The goal is to win. And, in the beverage industry today, which is going through serious struggles, the opportunity to win is still there. The 2GO Advisory Group can help you do just that.
Your Business Needs Someone Who Does Hard Things
Every struggling business faces the same fundamental question: Who is going to do the hard work of getting us out of this?
Not the strategy. Not the framework. Not the deck. Who?
The answer is someone who is trained for this. Someone who does not flinch at 5:00 a.m. wake-up calls, painful conversations, or months of grinding when progress is measured in inches. Someone who has conditioned themselves—through sport and through years of operating businesses—to do the hard things that other people avoid.
That’s what this is about. And the next hard thing is waiting.
Jeff Ottoboni is a COO Partner, leading the Food & Beverage Practice at 2GO Advisory Group. He brings to our clients years of deep experience in the beverage alcohol industry, encompassing virtually all business operations and companies large and small. Jeff emphasizes talent development, education, team building, employee recognition, coaching, and encouraging cross-functional participation and viewpoints in critical business decisions.
For your Talent needs in direct hire, full-time or part-time contract staffing, in Food and Beverage and Consumer Products, contact Executive Recruiter, Leesa Meintzer at leesa@2gorecruiting.com.
Leesa Meintzer is an executive recruiter with more than 20 years of experience in talent acquisition. She excels in partnering across various business functions and brings a comprehensive perspective to talent acquisition. She works with Engineering, Healthcare, Product, Finance, Accounting, Business Operations, Sales, Legal, Human Resources, Learning & Development, and Talent Acquisition for corporate and high-growth start-ups.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
