Think Like an Owner

Build Series EP.4: Identifying and Prioritizing Value Levers with Sam Hyde & Steuart Botchford - EP.257

Jan 21, 2025

Sam Hyde and Steuart Botchford, co-owners of Northstar Fertility, share their journey in the surrogacy and egg donation business. They discuss innovative strategies for identifying value levers and enhancing growth through targeted sales and marketing investments. The duo reflects on balancing short-term successes with long-term vision, emphasizing a culture of experimentation and transparency. They also highlight their unique pricing model, aimed at simplifying the surrogacy journey while steadily fostering client trust and team empowerment.

01:01:09

Episode guests

Steuart Botchford

Sam Hyde

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Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Empowering employees to make decisions with 80% efficacy of leaders enhances organizational efficiency and promotes individual growth.

Fostering a culture of experimentation enables teams to innovate and learn from failures, which drives sustainable growth and skill enhancement.

Prioritizing sales and marketing investments over operational changes has proven more effective in achieving significant business growth.

Deep dives

Empowering Decision-Making

Encouraging employees to make decisions is crucial for organizational efficiency. When a team member can make a decision with around 80% efficacy of a leader, they should be empowered to take the lead. This delegation not only frees up executives to focus on high-stakes issues, but it also helps team members grow in their roles. Over time, through guided conversations about missed decisions, employees become more adept at making choices that align closely with leadership expectations.

Intro

3min

Reflections on Growth and Contribution

2min

Growth Strategies in Surrogacy Services

22min

Navigating Decision-Making in Uncertainty

23min

Empowering Teams Through Decentralized Decision-Making

4min

Navigating the Balance of Value Levers in Business

3min

Evaluating Value Levers: The Impact of Culture and Sales

4min

Ep.257: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Steuart Botchford (@Botchford) and Sam Hyde.

In this episode, I sit down with Sam Hyde and Steuart Botchford to dive into their journey of acquiring and growing Northstar Fertility, a leading surrogacy and egg donation agency. Sam and Steuart share their insights from building and managing the business, including how they identified value levers early on and prioritized investments in sales and marketing to drive growth. They also discuss their innovative pricing model, which offers clients greater certainty and simplifies the surrogacy journey.

We explore the challenges of balancing long-term and short-term initiatives and the lessons learned from experimentation. Sam and Steuart candidly share stories of successes and missteps, including how they refined their strategies by embedding themselves in the sales process, adapting to client needs, and fostering a culture of transparency and growth within their team.

Whether you're navigating the complexities of business growth, considering acquisition opportunities, or looking for leadership insights, this episode provides a thoughtful and engaging discussion on creating value through experimentation, client focus, and dynamic organizational culture.

Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.

Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/

Links:

Northstar Fertility - https://www.nsfertility.com/

Steuart on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/botchford/

Pacific Lake Partners - https://www.pacificlake.com/

Trilogy Search Partners - https://trilogy-search.com/

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:04:34) - Steve and Stu’s acquisitions

(00:11:31) - Spending time in Sales and Marketing

(00:15:48) - Experimenting with new concepts

(00:27:08) - Working with the board to make decisions

(00:31:07) - Dealing with failed experiments

(00:37:30) - Implementing systems

(00:40:57) - Designing incentives

(00:46:11) - Employee rating scales

(00:49:47) - Team management principles

(00:53:50) - Balancing short and long-term payoffs

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Think Like an Owner

Build Series EP.4: Identifying and Prioritizing Value Levers with Sam Hyde & Steuart Botchford - EP.257

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

Empowering Decision-Making

Cultivating a Culture of Experimentation

Sales and Marketing as Growth Drivers

Adapting Pricing Strategies

Balancing Short-Term and Long-Term Investments

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Think Like an Owner

Build Series EP.4: Identifying and Prioritizing Value Levers with Sam Hyde & Steuart Botchford - EP.257

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

Empowering Decision-Making

Cultivating a Culture of Experimentation

Sales and Marketing as Growth Drivers

Adapting Pricing Strategies

Balancing Short-Term and Long-Term Investments

Get the Snipdpodcast app

AI-poweredpodcast player

Discoverhighlights

Save anymoment

Share& Export

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Discoverhighlights

Get the Snipd
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