The First 100 Days: What I Planned, What Surprised Me, What Matters Most
By Mitchell Schuckman, PCC | Founder, The Schuckman Group
The first Monday after I left PwC was quiet. Too quiet.
For decades, my mornings started with a wall of emails, nonstop calls, and a calendar that left no space to breathe. Then suddenly, it was just me, my laptop, and silence.
I had planned for this new chapter. I thought I was ready. But the truth is, no amount of planning prepares you for stepping into a new identity.
That’s what my first 100 days as founder of The Schuckman Group have taught me. The surprises, the clients I didn’t see coming, the programs that only happened because of a single phone call. And the reminder that in a world racing toward AI, presence and trust still matter most.
The Silence After the Noise
My first Monday after retiring from PwC was quiet. Too quiet. For decades, my mornings started with a wall of emails, back-to-back calls, and a calendar that barely left room for lunch. That Monday, the screen was empty. No flood of requests. No meetings lined up. Just space.
It was liberating. It was unsettling. After years of moving at high gear, I had stepped off the treadmill. For the first time, I was fully in charge of my own time.
I thought I was ready. I had planned for this moment, written down what I would do, even imagined what my new coaching and leadership development firm would look like. But the silence made something clear: no plan, no matter how thorough, prepares you for stepping into a new identity.
That’s where Herminia Ibarra’s book Working Identity rang true. She says you don’t wait until you design the perfect move. You take a step, live it, observe it deeply, and then adjust. That has been the heartbeat of my first hundred days as founder of The Schuckman Group.
It hasn’t gone according to plan and that’s exactly what has made it rewarding.
The Clients I Never Saw Coming
If you had asked me who my first clients would be, I could have given you a list. None of those names ended up being first. Instead, my early work came from leaders who were hungry to learn, eager to grow their businesses, and open to rethinking how they developed their people.
They surprised me with their openness. They weren’t looking for a polished playbook. They wanted a fresh perspective. They wanted someone to challenge how they think about growth and how they support their teams.
That shift forced me to stretch. I couldn’t just recycle old material from my years leading pursuits and coaching leaders. I had to take what I knew and bring a fresh view to it. I had to look at skills I had spent decades honing and reimagine how they applied in new contexts.
Those clients have given me more than just work. They have reminded me why I started this firm. They have pulled me back into the joy of discovery, the same joy I felt in the early years of my coaching role at PwC, when everything was new and the learning curve was steep.
The Program that Wouldn’t Exist Without a Phone Call
Around the same time, I got a call from Dr. Jennifer Byrnes. She had been contemplating ways to apply behavioral therapy tools, originally built for people facing serious emotional challenges, to business leaders who were struggling under pressure. She was certain that these tools would help business leaders and she asked if I wanted to collaborate.
I didn’t have that on my roadmap. I said yes anyway.
Together we built what is now The Whole Leader Program. It blends her psychological expertise with my experience coaching executives and leading global teams. It helps leaders understand how stress actually works in the body, and it gives them practical tools to reset in the middle of high-stakes situations. Then we pair the training with one-on-one coaching to make the learning stick.
If you had told me even six months ago that I’d be co-creating a leadership program rooted in behavioral science, I wouldn’t have believed you. Yet here we are, delivering sessions where we give leaders the tools that actually work in the pressure they’re under.
That’s the lesson I keep coming back to: sometimes the best things happen when you step into something you didn’t plan.
Why Fractional Beats Outsourcing
Another surprise has been the growing value of what I call fractional support.
Years ago, the word would have been outsourcing. That always felt cold to me. Outsourcing is transactional. You toss work over the wall, someone does it, and it gets tossed back.
Fractional feels different. When I step in as a fractional Pursuit leader, I don’t just draft proposals. I embed myself with the team. We shape the story together. We push the pricing until it’s right. We coach presenters until they sound authentic, not rehearsed. And we use AI in smart ways that build stronger materials that are customized for the audience, created faster and at lower cost. That efficiency isn’t just about winning one pursuit. It leaves behind tools and approaches the team can keep using long after I’m gone. I don’t sit on the outside. I show up like I’m part of the team, because in that moment, I am.
The same applies to training. I don’t want to be the outsider who delivers a workshop and walks away. I want to be the fractional learning and development resource who works with leaders to build something that feels like theirs, in their voice, for their priorities. Then I stay long enough to help it land.
Fractional doesn’t mean partial. It means full presence for as long as the team needs it, and then stepping aside when they’re stronger because of it.
Why Coaching Turns Training Into Results
Working with my clients with the mindset of an invested team member has confirmed something I suspected. Training is useful, but training plus coaching is transformational.
A workshop sets the stage. It introduces concepts, gets people thinking, and creates a shared language. But when the workshop ends, the real work begins. People go back to clients, teams, and deadlines. Without support, most of what they learned fades away.
That’s where coaching changes the game. One-on-one sessions after training are where people test the concepts against their own realities. They bring in live situations. We practice, we adjust, we experiment. That’s when they shift from “I know this in theory” to “I can do this in practice.”
Training changes awareness. Coaching changes behavior. And behavior change is where the real return on investment shows up.
Living in the Fog of AI
All of this has been unfolding in a market that feels more unsettled than any I’ve seen in my career.
Economic uncertainty. Geopolitical unrest. Regulations that change overnight. All of that weighs heavily. But nothing compares to the disruption of AI.
I remember when computers first entered the workplace. We went from typewriters and paper files to spreadsheets and databases. That was a seismic shift. This feels bigger.
Leaders today aren’t just curious about AI. They’re anxious. They don’t know if it will transform their jobs and their businesses next year, next quarter or next week. They don’t know what skills to bet on. They don’t know how to reassure their teams when they don’t feel sure themselves.
In that fog, coaching has become a stabilizer. I’ve helped leaders ground themselves, stay present, and focus on where they still add value. AI can do the work. But it can’t build the relationship. It can’t sit with a client before a board meeting and help them decide what matters most. It can’t sense when a team is running on fumes.
Presence still wins. And leaders who can bring that presence are the ones who will thrive in this new era. Being the coach who sits with them in those moments doesn’t just change their trajectory, it changes mine too. Each conversation stretches me, sharpens me, and reminds me why this chapter matters. I’m not just helping leaders navigate disruption. I’m watching them grow, and in the process, I’m growing right alongside them.
Looking Back, Looking Forward
So what do I know a hundred days in? That no plan can capture the reality of living into a new chapter. That the clients you never expected may be the ones who teach you the most. That collaboration can create programs you never dreamed of. That fractional is not a trend, it’s a way of showing up. That training opens doors, but coaching helps people walk through them. And that in a world shaped by AI, trust and presence are what still set you apart.
The first hundred days have been humbling, surprising, and energizing. I’ve felt the quiet of working alone after decades in a global firm. I’ve felt the thrill of seeing leaders light up when a tool or an idea lands. I’ve felt the satisfaction of helping teams win together.
And I’ve learned, once again, that the best chapters aren’t the ones you script perfectly. They’re the ones you step into, live fully, and shape as you go.
That’s how I intend to write the next hundred days.