The year of 2020 was supposed to be one of perfect vision and clarity. But we ended up with “pandemic,” “unprecedented,” and new phrases like “social distancing” and “Don’t forget your mask.”
Twenty years ago, no one could have predicted that 2020 would end this way. But I wasn’t even focused that far into the future. I was too busy founding and building a social enterprise business that grew to a $4.5 million dollar revolutionary business.
And that’s the same business I left 5 years ago after I fired myself. If you missed that story, you can catch up on podcast episode 61.
That business was also the location of the biggest failure of my career and is the same thing that I’d bet is the biggest challenge for you as your business begins to flourish.
In this episode, you’ll get:
What keeps your business mission-driven without burn-out
A counterintuitive way to look at the stages of business growth
The challenge with loving an idea or product
The problem when you can’t take care of your clients by yourself any longer
3 steps to SIMPLIFYING your business
And, you’ll hear the For Love of Team mission and how we can help you during the next 25 years...with perfect vision and clarity.
So what is the biggest failing of my career as a founder, four and a half million dollar revolutionary business? Well, I bet it's also the biggest challenge for you as your business begins to flourish coming up. Welcome to season two. I'm your host Winston Faircloth. And this is Episode 62. of the For Love of Team podcast. We're here to help you, the enlightened entrepreneur, serve surf more while doing more of the work you love. Simplify your business by eliminating automating and delegating and surrounding yourself with others doing the work that they love. Now, earlier this week, I was talking to my successor at this four and a half million dollar social enterprise started back in the year 2000. It's now five years after I left the organization. And this week talking to him was a great trip down memory lane. Now jr has taken our original vision and multiplied it many fold. His team has grown by 50%. And the reach into the smaller customer market has expanded his customer base by 10. x. He's attracted some amazing talented team members, including several former associates of mine, and they are taking new ground in product development and expansion of services. And yet, despite change of leadership, they are still true to that original North Star admission we formed over 20 years ago. And the difference. A leader who loves his team, as much as he loves his products and clients. The founders journey to a sustainable and successful business goes through at least three stages. Most consultants will point you to top line revenue metrics to gauge the stages of growth. Instead, I want to share a different way of looking at your business from maybe a maturity or an emotional perspective. Stage One Love of Product. Let's face it. Most of us founders are idea people, we'd love to solve problems seize opportunity create solutions. But we have more ideas than we have bandwidth. And our first constraint is air time. As the solo entrepreneur, we started wearing many hats. We were the head of product development, the head of customer service, the head of marketing sales administration, what keeps us going is our idea. Yeah, even there, we spread ourselves too thin. We try multiple ideas at once, because we don't know what idea is going to hit or work. It's like trying to build three bridges at once to the other shoreline. Sometimes we run out of time we run out of money, or we run out of patience. And we never connect our bridge to that island of opportunity over there. So eventually, we learn that it's better to develop only one product at a time. And it's a hard lesson for the idea generator we are well, there is a discipline needed to sell yourself on one idea at a time. And we show you how to do that in for love of team, helping you serve more while doing the work you love. Stage Two is what I call for love of clients. Boom, we finally get traction to one of our ideas. Money starts to flow in our now our ideas beginning to serve other people. We're getting feedback, we're making adjustments, and we're getting results. Yet, with each new launch and cohort of clients, we gain the hats we wear each one of them starting to get bigger and harder and heavier. It's just becoming difficult to keep up with the demand. Balls we were juggling start to fall because we have a heart for our idea. And as we begin to work through this stage of working with others, we want our client experience to be as great as our original product, idea or service. And yet because these balls are beginning to fall, we inevitably recognize that we need help like yesterday. Now this is a very dangerous time for founders. Because we're so committed to our idea, looking for traction. We often fail to document how we've done things by ourselves. And now that we have success, attracting paying clients to our idea, we don't even know what to delegate. Or even worse how we will find the time to train anyone once we hire them. The stress at this stage grows, and our loved one see even less of us. Even as our top line revenue looks really awesome and successful. Well, we're trapped about to hit the wall. And this is when many founders begin to spending spree to relieve the pain. We hire expensive consultants or contractors to plug holes. Perhaps we start looking for offshore part time VA is often at the lowest price per hour we can find. And then we hire several more. Well, managing this group takes us further and further from both our idea we love and now our clients we love and it can feel miserable when we hear the word team. We love our idea, we love our clients. And team can just feel like a means to a larger end. In fact, many times, not intentionally. We put our teams through the wringer just to satisfy a new idea, or demanding client need. It's not our intent. But it just happens. And that for love of team, we help you simplify your business by eliminating, automating and delegating first, before you start hitting the wall of complexity. Now, this was the stage the love of clients where I left my former organization, I was the hat leader, an idea and a client base I absolutely loved and dedicated 15 years of my career to serving. But I was blind to a third more enlightened state of business building. And thankfully, my conversation with jr my successor helped me to see it and experience it once again from afar. Stage Three, for love of team. Now we're going to spend a lot more time on what for love of team means and upcoming episodes. And with founders who model this in their thriving and growing business. Now fundamentally, I define this stage from the founders perspective as doing more of the work you love, surrounded with people doing the work, they love. That doesn't that sound great? imagining doing more of what you love, and knowing that you're supported, surrounded by people who are focused on your vision, delivering great impact, doing more of what they love. And keep this in mind. Ultimately, your client experience will only rise to the level of your team's experience with your business that we've all seen in different team members behind a retail counter. Well, because they're a cog in the machine, we end up feeling like a number, not a person as a client and a customer. The opposite is also true. We've all experienced amazing customer service. And you can bet that they feel respected, trusted, appreciated, maybe even honored to work there. Perhaps we go so far to say that they feel loved. So how do you get to stage three? Well, that's our mission here at for love of team. We meet you where you are on this journey, helping you anticipate and become more intentional about building that business and impact of your dreams. Now for us, this is our 25 year commitment. Our moonshot, if you will. We understand how countercultural this movement appears to most early stage founders. But you're not like other founders. You're here to change your little bit of the world. And you are who we are here to serve. So let's take an honest assessment of where we are in our own founders journey this day. Are you at the love of product stage. This is why we got into this so many founders love their product, love their idea. Others are at the stage of loving their clients. And they are serving them with a big heart and with increasing complexity in their organization, and others are at the stage of loving their team. Now, I'm not suggesting that we love one over the other, a good balance of loving your product, love and your clients and ultimately loving your team is the right combination to a business that flourishes and one that you will look back with pride and admiration about 25 years from now. So are you hitting the wall of complexity? Your business does the idea of team feel like a four letter word to you? Are you spending more time grinding in the business than enjoying the fruits of your labor. And when you're ready to multiply your impact your income, your margin and your freedom in business for love of team is for you. For love of team is not a course is not a program. It's not yet another informational product. We lock arms with you, the enlightened business leader, helping you build a culture and a team we absolutely love working with with intention, you'll wake up each workday and energized to connect, create and conquer. With your hand selected on mission teammates to make a difference in your world. And make this vision come to life is not a 12 week sprint. It's an ongoing journey of growth and discovery. And when you look back 25 years from now, the teamwork you've experienced that you helped to build will be the essence you most Remember, our intimate, immersive and interactive for love of team journey helps you serve more while doing the work that you love. Simplify your business by eliminating automating and delegating and surround yourself with others doing the work that they love. And when you're ready to experience this type of business. Text me and my personal number at 1-754-800-9461. That's 1-754-800-9461 share your name and story I want to hear from you. My personal number again is 1754 194 61. And finally, like I say at the end of each of our podcast, remember that loving your team multiplies your results and your reach. I'll catch you on the next love of team episode.