Today we’d like to introduce you to Jared Polak.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Several months into our family’s two years of world travel, I found myself at the bottom of an ancient tomb in Luxor, Egypt. If you’ve never climbed down into one, it’s a dark, difficult descent — and at the bottom it’s pitch black, it smells a little, there’s no cell signal, and you feel completely cut off from the world. My first thought was, “I hope I get out of here.” My second thought surprised me: even standing there, completely unreachable, our business was running without me. Every function was working. Every client was taken care of. Nothing needed me. It was one of the most peaceful moments of my life — and it took nearly twenty years to build.
The story really starts with a skydiving accident. Years ago, my parachute got tangled and I had to cut it away in free fall to pull the reserve. A second free fall makes you re-evaluate everything. At the time, I was working long hours with very little freedom or flexibility. After Amy and I got married, we dreamed of building a life of freedom — and honestly, a little selfishly, we wanted to create a business that gave us the life we wanted to live. We also wanted to help other people create the same thing for themselves. That led us into coaching, and Entre Results was born.
Over nearly twenty years, Entre Results has coached hundreds of business owners and executives, and along the way I wrote two books, Entre Business and Entre Balance. Everything we built sits on one belief: building a great business and living a great life are not competing goals.
But belief is one thing — proof is another. Two years ago, we decided to test everything we teach. With our son, who was ten, and our daughter, who was seven, we left Houston and spent the better part of two years abroad. We didn’t hop from city to city. We slow traveled — living out of Airbnbs for weeks or months at a time across most of Western Europe, plus extended stays in Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey. We worked from local coworking spaces, found local churches to serve in, and made friends at neighborhood parks. Our kids grew up in the world: our son came home twelve, our daughter nine. And we flew back to Houston a few times along the way — for family and a few meetings, because there are people here we love.
While we were gone, our two businesses did two different things. Entre Results became the ultimate lifestyle business: Amy and I coached our clients virtually, less than ten hours a week, and it was still a joy to serve people. EntreAdmin, our operations company, truly ran without us — a small management team in place, team members owning every function, and my role reduced to occasional team meetings to set vision and direction.
When we came home, we codified exactly how we did that into the EntreRun™ methodology. Today, that’s what EntreAdmin does for other business owners: we build the systems, leverage, and team that let a business run at a higher level — with or without the owner in the room. Or, as I learned in Luxor, even at the bottom of a tomb.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Mostly smooth — but no road worth taking is completely smooth.
The biggest obstacle wasn’t operational. It was between our ears. Taking a relatively young family abroad for two years — while owning a home and a growing business — is something most people can’t comprehend. Plenty of people thought we were crazy, and when you’re doing something that unusual, the hardest work is mindset: deciding you’ll do it anyway, and preparing contingency plans in case the business didn’t continue to flourish while we were away.
Then, about six months into our travels, one of those contingencies became real: our largest client ended their engagement. We never position any single client to be able to debilitate the business — but I won’t pretend it wasn’t a little scary. One day you’re living the dream on a Mediterranean island, and the next you realize you need to go win new clients. It turned out to be the best stress test we could have asked for. The systems held, the team kept serving, and we rebuilt the pipeline from abroad. That season confirmed that the preparation we did before leaving wasn’t wasted — and it gave me a lot of empathy for what our clients feel when a big account walks out the door.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
EntreAdmin — part of the Entre family of companies, alongside Entre Results, our business coaching firm. (“Entre” is short for entrepreneur; it’s the thread that runs through our companies and my books.)
EntreAdmin is a strategic operations partner for small business owners. Most owners who need help have two options: hire an expensive consultant who hands you a strategy and disappears, or hire staff who execute without ever thinking about the bigger picture. We built the third option. Using our EntreRun™ methodology — where strategy meets execution — we help owners delegate, outsource, and systematize their business. We design the systems first, use technology and AI to create leverage before adding headcount, and then provide coach-trained specialists for executive admin, marketing, and bookkeeping who operate like an extension of your leadership team.
We work mostly with trades businesses — plumbers, electricians, HVAC, mechanical — and professional service firms like attorneys and insurance agencies. Owners who are spending more time working in the business than on it, and who are ready to change that.
What am I most proud of? That we ran our own playbook first. EntreRun™ isn’t theory — it’s the exact methodology that let our family spend two years abroad while EntreAdmin ran without us and our coaching clients stayed fully served. We would never ask a client to build something we haven’t lived.
As for what’s ahead: technology is evolving fast, and our team’s skills have evolved with it. In this AI era we’re able to deliver even more results for small businesses at an even more affordable level — because our focus isn’t adding hours to your business, it’s adding efficiencies. The next six to twelve months are going to be game-changing for the owners who decide to work with us.
How do you think about luck?
The best bad luck I ever had was a tangled parachute. That accident forced me to re-evaluate what I was building my life around, and without it, I don’t know that Entre Results, EntreAdmin, or our two years around the world ever happen. So I’ve learned not to be too quick to label luck as good or bad — some of the worst moments turn out to be the ones that redirect you.
Beyond that, I mostly believe luck is what preparation looks like from the outside. When our largest client left while we were abroad, it looked lucky that the business survived without me flying home. It wasn’t luck — it was systems, contingency plans, and the right people. We’ve been blessed with an incredible team and clients, and I don’t take that for granted. But in business, I’d rather be prepared than lucky.
Pricing:
- $1500-$3000 Per Month
Contact Info:
- Website: EntreAdmin.com & EntreResults.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/businessconsultanthouston/
