Kelly Bond, Bridgepoint Advisors
Feat.: Connie Moorhead, The CMOOR Group
Running a business is often a rewarding endeavor, but it also comes with its own set of challenges and stressors that can lead to sleepless nights. Business owners juggle multiple responsibilities, from managing finances to ensuring customer satisfaction, and the weight of those duties can create significant anxiety. Each month, I have the pleasure of speaking with many of these owners who are willing to share what is causing them to lose sleep and how they are working to overcome it.
This month I talked with Connie Moorhead, CEO of The CMOOR Group, a 25+ year old business based in Louisville, KY. The CMOOR Group provides innovative education services for the security and fire / life safety industries which facilitates the next generation of training and compliance.
Connie, what’s one thing that you find keeps you up at night?
As I sit writing this at midnight on a Saturday night, it’s almost ironic that I am addressing what keeps me up at night. As an entrepreneur, it’s possible to ruminate over many things in the darkness – whether it’s cash flow uncertainty, customer satisfaction and retention or scaling challenges. The biggest concern that I battle always comes back to strategic direction and questioning whether I’m making the right long-term decisions for my business, especially when faced with emerging technologies or shifting market trends.
The weight of critical decisions falls squarely on my shoulders, bringing such questions at all hours. Are we innovating enough? Are we innovating in the right direction? Should we pivot or stay the course? Also, adopting the correct technology to improve organizational efficiency presents particular challenges. If I invest too early in unproven technology, we risk wasting resources. But if we wait too long then competitors may gain unassailable advantages. This “technological FOMO” can be paralyzing. Additionally, market shifts can compound this uncertainty. Customer preferences evolve rapidly, new competitors emerge unexpectedly, and economic conditions change without warning. I constantly question whether my business model will remain viable or if I am facing disruption.
How have you worked to overcome it?
Building a diverse advisory network has been crucial. I’ve cultivated relationships with mentors who’ve navigated similar challenges, industry peers for perspective, and advisors with complementary expertise. Their collective wisdom helps me see blind spots and validate or challenge my thinking. I’ve adopted a more structured decision-making framework that balances data with intuition. This includes scenario planning where we map multiple potential futures and identify key indicators that would signal which scenario is unfolding. This reduces the anxiety of binary “all-in” decisions. I’ve also become more comfortable with incremental testing by launching smaller initiatives to gather real-world feedback before making larger commitments. This “minimum viable strategy” approach reduces risk while generating valuable learning. Perhaps most importantly, I’ve learned to differentiate between productive strategic thinking and unproductive rumination. Setting specific times for strategic consideration prevents it from constantly occupying my thoughts at all hours.
What advice do you offer other business owners?
Based on my experience, the primary advice I’d offer other business owners is to embrace strategic thinking as an ongoing process, not a one-time event. Set regular intervals to reassess your direction rather than constantly second-guessing yourself between reviews. Secondly, develop a comfortable relationship with imperfect information. No decision will ever have complete data, so we learn to identify what information truly matters versus what’s just creating noise in our decision-making. I would also advise other business owners to create a culture of constructive dissent within your leadership team. Surround yourself with people who will respectfully and willfully challenge your assumptions rather than simply affirming your existing beliefs.
It is essential that you maintain a clear understanding of your company’s core strengths and values. These should serve as anchors, helping you evaluate which opportunities align with what makes your business unique. Then, balance long-term vision with short-term flexibility. Have clarity about your destination but remain adaptable about the path to get there as conditions change. This is not negotiable. Finally, invest in business intelligence capabilities to spot emerging trends earlier. The sooner you can detect meaningful shifts in your market, the more time you have to respond thoughtfully rather than reactively. Knee-jerk calculations are very dangerous as the leader of any organization. Remember, though, that strategic paralysis is often more dangerous than imperfect action. Making thoughtful moves forward, even with some uncertainty, always beats standing still while the market changes around you.
Thank you, Connie, for the insight. It’s abundantly clear that in your business, it is imperative to spend adequate time thinking strategically, especially as technology is evolving at a break-neck pace. Your suggestion of making strategic thinking a habit should apply to business owners, sales people, technicians, and students alike as we can benefit from consistently assessing our direction.
About Kelly:
Kelly Bond brings over twenty-five years of industry experience to her clients. A 2024 inductee into the Security Sales and Integration Hall of Fame, she serves as Partner of Bridgepoint Advisors LLC, representing buyers and sellers of alarm and integration companies.
About Connie:
Connie is the CEO of the CMOOR Group, most notably the parent company of SecurityCEU.com, an industry leading provider of education and learning. Connie leads the overall executive vision for the organization and provides oversight on product development and implementation of strategic plans to facilitate growth. She also serves as the Executive Director of the WBFAA Apprenticeship Program for Fire/Life Safety Technicians and serves in various advocacy groups for women in security, including ASIS, SIA, and the CAA.