Two careers taught me the same lesson: nobody decides well alone.
Sheryl Pinckney-Maas
CEO of TAB North Texas
For twenty-five years I represented the United States abroad, helping American companies find their footing in markets they didn't yet understand.
Six countries. Trade negotiations, crisis response, and a great deal of sitting across the table from people whose interests didn't match mine. The job taught me how to listen for what isn't being said, and how to help two parties find the thing they actually both want.
Then I left the Foreign Service and created a technology company. For eight years I made payroll, hired badly and learned from it, lost a client I couldn't afford to lose, and discovered that none of my diplomatic training prepared me for how lonely it is to be the person everything routes back to.
I had advised hundreds of businesses. I had never once had someone to call at nine on a Sunday night who understood exactly what I was carrying.
That's why I lead peer advisory boards now. Eight to ten owners in a room, none of them competing with each other, all of them carrying something similar. The value isn't my expertise. It's the room and what happens when someone finally says out loud the thing they've been sitting on for months.
A meeting runs only 4 hours maximum. We keep the boards small and intimate. Someone brings a problem, the rest of us ask questions until it looks different than it did when they walked in, and they leave with something to do about it. Nobody is selling anything. Nobody reports to anybody. That turns out to be rarer than it should be.
I write about what I see in those rooms: the patterns, the decisions owners get stuck on, and the things that turn out to be common when everyone assumed they were the only one.
INSIGHTS
Recent writing
How Do You Build a Leadership Team That Can Run the Business Without You?
How to build a leadership team that runs the business without you: decision rights, owned numbers, and the empty-chair week for North Texas owners. ...more
Leadership
October 26, 2026•6 min read
What's the Difference Between a Business Plan and a Strategic Plan?
Business plan vs. strategic plan: one earns your lender’s confidence, the other tells your team what to do Monday. How North Texas owners use each. ...more
Strategy and Planning
October 23, 2026•6 min read
What's the Difference Between a Business Coach, a Mentor, and a Peer Advisory Board?
Business coach vs. peer advisory board vs. mentor: what each one does, and the four-question chair test DFW owners use to choose the right help. ...more
Peer Advisory Boards
October 21, 2026•6 min read
01
Endless legal battles
Litigation can drag on for months, sometimes years with no real winners.
02
Emotional exhaustion
Adversarial processes magnify stress for everyone involved, especially families.
03
Spiralling costs
Court fees, filings and attorney hours add up faster than most people expect.
04
Loss of privacy
Court records are public, your most personal matters become permanent record.
WHAT WE DO
Get the next one.
I write about what I see in these rooms, from decisions owners get stuck on, to patterns that turn out to be common. Roughly twice a month.
COMPANY
LEGAL
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