You Don't Build a $3M Business Being a $300K Leader

Monday I was at the ribbon cutting for my client Jessica Cohen's new firm, Centsible Solutions. Jessica has more than 20 years of experience as a CFO inside other companies.

But when she opened the doors this week, she didn't open them as a first-year founder figuring it out.

Her identity is beyond that.

She’s operating as the founder her business is going to need a few years from now.

She spent the last 20 years thinking about her future self and working to become that person.

How is that different?

Most founders look at their business like it's the thing that needs to grow.

You look at revenue, you look at the team, you look at the pipeline, and you go find the next thing to fix.

And then you fix it yourself, because you can, because you're good at it, and it's faster.

And the business grows a little. But then it stops. So you go do more.

And you might continue that cycle until you burn out, or until it hits you that the business can't outgrow you.

You're building it the way you currently know how.

It's built around the way you think and the way you operate, and this is what that becomes.

If you're running it like the founder of a $300K business - meaning you're in every deal, you're the one who solves it when it breaks, you're the one the team waits on - then you're going to get a $300K business.

It'll still route back to you because you're still operating it that way.

The thing that has to grow first is YOU.

And I don't mean read more books. I mean you have to start operating like the YOU who runs the $3M version, right now, before the business is there.

That's what Jessica is doing.

She didn't wait for leftover money before she invested in herself. She hired me and joined The Daily Drip's thought leadership program at the same time, so she'd be working on her strategy and her visibility together.

She stopped doing work she's good at because she knew it would pull her value down, and handed it to someone else.

She decided what the firm is and isn't before she opened it, and she turns down work that doesn't fit, even when it pays.

And that's uncomfortable, because none of it is what got her here.
But it is what’s going to take her beyond just here.

The same will apply to you.

The stuff that got you here was being the best producer in the room.

To get beyond here, you have to stop being that version of yourself and become the version of YOU the business needs to lead it into a bigger future.

That's what I mean when I say you don't build a $3M business being a $300K leader.

You can look at your business as a reflection of you.
​

It will show you exactly who you are.
​
So if you want it to look different, you go first.

And if you're ready to talk about how,
reply back with "Go time!"

Founders Supporting Founders

Great to see other clients and familiar faces, all showing up to support Jessica. Joe Gannon and Daniel Wakefield are both founders of expertise-driven businesses I have the honor of working with, and both have made the producer-to-leader shift Jessica is making now. Romi Wallach, Nicole Mastrangelo Vildosola, and Lidice Porro came from The Daily Drip thought leadership program.

We're building the support system that every founder needs. This is what that support system looks like.

👉👉👉 Google will now let you add me as a Preferred Source.
And I'd be honored if you did.

Let's go build the business you envision,

​
​

#golden-0826