Viewing HR as a Cost and Not a Value-add is Not Managing Costs, it's Expired Logic. This blog will walk you through the real numbers behind the value of an HR function.

Get the location right and many other mistakes become survivable. Get it wrong and even excellent operations may not save you.

This blog will present a top-level project timeline Rise Above uses with clients — 17 work streams across 5 phases. We've framed it the way we think about it: as a countdown. T-0 is the soft opening. Everything else is measured in months before that day.

Real numbers, line by line, of the cost to open a climbing gym — from Rise Above, who has helped open gyms across the globe.

We now have first-hand, lived comparisons between our clients that are using AI and those that are not. This blog is our assessment and recommendations based on what we are seeing in real time

This guide will walk you through how to structure an equity raise, how to model the investment so it makes sense, and how to pitch it without it feeling awkward or amateur.

A new way to go about designing and building your climbing walls for your climbing gym.

2026 is going to be about performance, and more performance., More gyms are opening, the market is getting more educated and competitive. Build a great company that can keep up now.

The following insights are aggregated from our unique, first-hand look under the hood in the climbing gym industry

At least once a month, someone reaches out to me about selling their climbing gym business. In this blog we will discuss some of the key considerations for selling your climbing gym

Strategic planning is what connects your vision to measurable results. It’s how you align your team, clarify your purpose, and track progress in a way that’s specific, realistic, and achievable

If you run a climbing gym, an incident is going to occur. Someone is going to get hurt. Potentially seriously. This isn't an "if" situation, it's a "when". So the question is: WHEN this happens, are your staff ready? Are you ready? Is your business ready?

Adaptability requires you to change, resilience requires you to hold steady. Which is right for your business today? And which comes most naturally to you as a leader?

Would you rather be innovative or efficient? Of course, we would all choose both if we could, but innovation is inherently inefficient with many stops and starts along the way. Efficiency meanwhile requires that we don’t waste resources on things we aren’t positive will work.

Commanding and Collaborative are complementary antonyms because the complete leader must understand when it is most valuable to inspire their team and when it is more important to mentor them. And the complete leader must equally be able to perform both functions.

what makes a good decision and how you, as a leader, should be self aware in how you approach your decision making.

You can’t effectively grow your business if you’re not actively growing the capabilities of your leadership.

Rise Above Consulting Announces Multiple-time CEO Pete Ward as Partner

transformative success is only possible if our industry, our businesses and our careers are self-directed, not reactionary.