It’s 2026. You’ve probably set some goals. Maybe you’ve mapped out what you want to accomplish this year. But here’s a question most people skip: Do you have the right people around you to actually make it happen?
I’m not talking about whether your partner is supportive or if your friends are nice. I’m asking if you’ve intentionally built a squad that can help you succeed at the specific things you’re trying to achieve.
Most of us don’t think this way. We take what we’ve got. Our relationships just sort of accumulate over time. Family is family. Work colleagues are whoever sits near you. Friends are people you met somewhere along the way. And we hope it all works out.
But hoping isn’t a strategy.
The Problem with Random Teams
Phil M. Jones talks about this in his book Exactly Where to Start. He shares a personal story that hit me hard when I first read it.
During the early days of building his business, Phil was struggling. Money was tight. The economy was rough. And every time he talked to his family about his business challenges, they’d send him job listings. They loved him. They wanted to help. But their advice was killing his confidence.
Here’s what Phil realized: He was asking the right people for the wrong things.
His mother had been a great mom and a solid employee at a garden center. But she’d never navigated building a business in a terrible economy. She couldn’t possibly give him the business advice he needed. And it wasn’t fair to expect her to.
He was asking his mom to be his career advisor, his sister to be his business coach, and an employee to be his best friend. Good people. Completely wrong roles.
Sound familiar?
What a Squad Actually Is
A squad isn’t just your circle of friends or your professional network. It’s a deliberately constructed team where each person plays a specific role in helping you succeed.
Think about it like casting a play. You wouldn’t ask your lead actor to also run the lighting board. You wouldn’t expect the costume designer to write the script. Each role requires different skills, different perspectives, different kinds of support.
Your life and career work the same way. You need different people for different purposes.
Phil breaks down the key roles in a working squad:
Cheerleaders
are the people who celebrate your wins and encourage you when things get hard. They want to see you succeed and they’re not shy about saying so. Everyone needs people who are genuinely in their corner.
Role Models
give you a roadmap. These are people who have already done something similar to what you’re trying to do. You can study their journey, learn from their mistakes, and see what success actually looks like in your field.
Mentors
share their experience directly with you. Unlike a role model you might admire from a distance, a mentor knows you and can offer guidance specific to your situation. They’ve been where you are and can help you make better decisions.
Coaches
do something different entirely. A great coach doesn’t tell you what to do. They ask you the questions you haven’t asked yourself yet. They help you think differently, hold you accountable, and pick you up when you stumble.
Trainers
teach you specific skills you’re missing. If you need to learn how to use a particular software, manage finances, or give better presentations, you need someone who can actually teach you those things.
Resources
are the people who handle tasks outside your skillset so you can focus on what you do best. Web developers, graphic designers, accountants, virtual assistants. These aren’t nice-to-haves. They’re essential.
Advisors
are the specialists you can turn to when you need specific expertise. You don’t need to know everything. You need to know who to ask when you don’t know something.
Aspirational Peers
might be the most important group. These are people on a similar journey to yours who inspire you to level up. They can play multiple roles and they understand what you’re going through because they’re going through it too.
The Advice vs. Opinion Problem
Here’s where most people mess up their squad: They confuse advice with opinion.
Both are valuable. Both come from people who care about you. But treating opinion like advice can wreck your progress.
The difference comes down to experience. Is this person sharing insights based on having done exactly what you’re trying to do? That’s advice. Are they sharing what they think might work based on general knowledge or assumptions? That’s opinion.
Your mom might have a strong opinion about whether you should quit your job and start a business. But unless she’s done it herself, it’s not advice. It’s a well-intentioned opinion.
Your college friend might have thoughts on your career move. But if they haven’t made a similar move themselves, they’re guessing.
This doesn’t mean you ignore opinions. It means you know what you’re getting. You weigh it accordingly. You don’t let someone’s opinion about something they’ve never done stop you from doing something you need to do.
Your Action Step: Do a Squad Audit
If you’re serious about making 2026 your year, you need to get serious about your squad.
Start with these three steps:
1
Name Your Roles
List the key people in your life right now. Next to each name, write down the role or roles they currently play for you. Not the role they should play. The role they actually play.
Is your spouse playing therapist? Is your business partner playing cheerleader? Is your friend playing career advisor? Get specific about what you’re actually asking from each person.
Then ask yourself: Is this role constructive for what I’m trying to accomplish this year?
Also, if you’ve got people who consistently discourage you, drain your energy, or make you question your goals, you need to either change their role in your life or reduce their influence.
2
Identify Your Gaps
Now look at Phil’s squad categories. Which roles do you have covered? Which ones are completely missing?
Do you have a coach? A real one, not just someone you call for advice occasionally?
Do you have role models whose journeys you’re actively studying?
Do you have trainers who can teach you the specific skills you need this year?
Do you have aspirational peers who are pushing you to level up?
Write down the specific roles you need to fill. Be honest about what’s missing.
3
Fill the Vacancies
This is where most people stop. They realize they need people but they don’t actually go find them.
You need to actively recruit for your squad. Join groups where your aspirational peers hang out. Attend conferences. Engage in online communities. Reach out to people whose work you admire.
This takes time. It takes money sometimes. It takes intentional effort.
It may feel like slow going, but this is what successful people do. They deliberately build their squad. They didn’t just hope the right people would show up.
One Thing Before You Go
If you read through Phil’s squad roles and realized you don’t have a coach, that’s worth paying attention to.
A coach fills a specific gap that no other role can fill. They’re not there to give you advice based on their experience. They’re there to help you discover your own answers. They’re there to ask the questions that make you uncomfortable. They’re there to hold up a mirror so you can see your own blind spots.
Most high performers have coaches. Not because they’re struggling. Because they know the value of having someone in their corner who’s completely focused on their success and has no ego in the outcome.
If you’re facing a major transition, preparing for something big, or feeling stuck despite knowing what you should do, coaching might be the missing piece in your squad.
But before you get ahead of yourself, first just do the audit. Figure out who’s on your team and whether they’re the right people for where you’re trying to go this year.
Because you can’t build what you want by yourself. But you also can’t build it with the wrong people.
Want to explore whether coaching could be the missing piece in your squad? Let’s have a conversation. Visit https://ewtscoaching.com to learn more about EWTS Coaching.
