There's a version of this story where I tell you I mapped out a strategic advisory structure, identified key competency gaps, and recruited accordingly. That would be a lie.
The real version: I've spent most of my career Googling my way through problems. I'm proud of that. The ability to find answers on your own is underrated. But at some point you hit the ceiling of what isolation can teach you. I hit that ceiling more than once as a founder. And every time I did, the thing that saved me wasn't a search result. It was a person.
So when I set back out into entrepreneurship with Warden Strategy, I made two personal requirements before we wrote a single proposal or signed a single client.
First, I was going to build alongside a partner I trusted deeply.
Second, I was going to form an Advisory Network from my most trusted colleagues, mentors, and professional friends. Instead of formal commitments and financial requirements, I wanted something far more important: their mentorship, friendship, and advice that only come from real, lived experiences.
I kept saying to myself: if I get enough good people together, something good will happen.
The traditional advisory board model is built on transactions. Equity in exchange for access. Introductions in exchange for credibility. Formal agreements that turn relationships into obligations. That's not what we wanted to build out of the gate.
The Warden Advisory Network was assembled over a decade of proving relationships through action. These relationships have been built through actual life moments. Fun moments, celebratory ones, and most importantly the hard moments that show you who someone really is when things are falling apart.
I have a member of our network I've worked alongside through two or three of the most difficult professional stretches of my career. I've watched how they operate under pressure, in uncertainty, when there's no good answer and everyone's stressed (or completely freaking out and losing their sh*t).
That's worth infinitely more to me than someone with an impressive title who joined when things were going well. That's the difference between a network and a board.
A board is assembled; a network is earned.
I'm pretty sure our network doesn't do anything a traditional advisory board couldn't, technically. I still call the same people with the same questions I would have called anyway.
What's different is the feeling on both sides of that call. There's no transactional weight. Nobody's calculating whether this interaction is worth their equity stake. We're all just part of something we're building together, hoping it turns into something that deepens our relationships and maybe even creates some real wealth down the road.
The most common response I get when I describe the network is some version of: "That sounds great, but I don't have those relationships yet." My answer is always the same.
"Don't overthink it."
You don't need a large group. You don't need all senior people. Ours is a mix; some members with deep growth experience, others who are earlier in their careers but more eager, more available, quicker to make an introduction or lend a hand on something unconventional.
Both are valuable in completely different ways.
What you do need is patience. I've come to believe it takes at least three years and multiple challenges before you know if you can truly trust someone. Not three years of coffee chats. Three years of watching how they behave when something goes wrong. Or even better, building something with them.
The bigger problem though is that most people never ask. We tend to assume everyone else is too busy thinking about their own problems to have any bandwidth for ours (and honestly, that's mostly true in life).
But here's the other thing that's true: most people really want to help. Helping someone feels good. People know that when they show up for someone, there's usually something that comes back around, even if we don't let our conscious self admit this.
The founders who struggle the most aren't the ones with the fewest resources. They're the ones who try to figure everything out alone.
Right now, the network is a sounding board, a vent session sometimes, a source of honest perspective when we need it most (also a really good list of folks to text for happy hour).
But it's also quietly becoming something more. We have a current Warden Studio concept we're launching as a joint venture with one of our advisors. This was an idea that wouldn't exist without the relationship that came first. If you want to understand how the Advisory Network fits alongside our other two pillars, this article lays it out.
That's the thing about building something relational instead of transactional. You can't always see where it's going. You just have to trust that if you get enough good people together, pointed in the same direction, something good will happen. So far, it has!
If you're building something and you're doing it alone, stop. Ask someone for help. It's the best thing you can do.