Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher

How do you grow your business without losing your mind? How do you find balance when being an entrepreneur is so chaotic? This week’s guest has some insight. Sarah Dawn is a Business Growth Expert and host of The Blissed Biz Podcast. She helps entrepreneurs and professionals create the business of their dreams that supports a lifestyle they love. A seven-figure entrepreneur herself, Sarah was burned out and overwhelmed in the beginning. Despite checking all the boxes, she sacrificed her health to achieve it. Sarah knew she had to forge a more sustainable and fulfilling path for herself if she wanted to successfully scale. Sarah was hell-bent on making “this” work. Whether that be putting herself through law school or building up a successful firm, nothing was going to get in her way. It was an unhealthy obsession to be successful. Sarah had walking pneumonia five times within a year. She wore it like a badge of honor! “Look at me, I’m sick but still working.” Sarah wanted to transition from being a lawyer to being a coach. At first, she wanted to hide it from her existing clients. However, she found out that they were just as excited as her for going in this new direction. People want purpose in their life. Are you miserable and overworking in your business? If you have “control freak” tendencies, then there’s a chance you’re not empowering your employees to succeed. If anything, you’re giving them an insecurity complex. To help you ease control and let other people get stuff done, you want to delegate the results, not necessarily the tasks.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Bit.ly/clariontech Sarahdawnconsulting.com Sarah on Twitter   Resources: Scaling Up Workshop: Interested in attending one of our workshops? We have a few $100 discounts for our loyal podcast listeners!Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and leave a review. Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading Gazelles Coach. Gazelles is the term we use for fast-growing companies.   We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Scaling Up for Gazelles companies is based on the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).  

There are certain types of people in life that you just can not click with. You just don’t like them and you actively avoid them. However, is this the best way to deal with it? Bill has some thoughts. One of Bill’s clients found himself really triggered by an employee. He had no real idea where this was coming from. Everything about this person just rubbed him the wrong way, and it felt weird and wrong to just let the guy go when there was no clear reason as to “why.” Bill wanted his client to go deeper. Who else has triggered him like this in his past? Bill also asked his client to examine himself, too, when he felt a trigger happening. What was going on? What was he doing in particular? Let’s get to the bottom of this. At first, he was overwhelmed. As he developed more self-awareness of himself and his surroundings, he noticed these traits in people he loved the most. Instead of tackling it straight on and letting people know that he didn’t like something, he would instead write it off like it wasn’t a big deal. This caused a mini-cascading effect to happen within himself that he didn’t realize he had. Once he realized this trait, he was able to correct for it and make changes where it would not affect him as much, and use communication to set better expectations with people around him.   Resources: Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and leave a review. Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts. Scaling Up is the best-selling business growth book by Verne Harnish and our team of coaches. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading coach. We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash, and the 5th Decision about what kind of leader you want to be. Our purpose is helping you Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success.  

We’re diving into mindset today. Get your head in the right frame of mind to grow and succeed. Today’s guest has some actionable tips to help you get started if you’re feeling a bit sluggish and down in the dumps. Hanneke Antonelli is an author and award-winning Certified Life Coach with 16 years of experience growing businesses in various industries. Hanneke draws on her business degree, Wall Street sales experience, and her decade as an entrepreneur to help business owners upgrade their leadership skills and focus on sustainable growth. Hanneke followed what was destined for her and she joined corporate. Although it was glamorous, she found herself absolutely miserable. She had struggled with depression in the past and ended up in a psych ward in South Africa. This experience really shaped her dramatically and planted a seed for the work that she does today. Hanneke has experienced a lot of painful and traumatic adversity in her life, but the blaring light through all of it was her support system and her coaches supporting her, and believing in her. After a successful entrepreneurial career, she wanted to pay it forward by becoming a coach. You might not have had an experience like Hanneke had to go through, but we’ve all had our challenges and adversity. How do you work with your mindset when everything seems to be crumbling around you? The first step is to just ask for help. If you’re struggling, there is no reason why you should be going through this alone. Mental health is a huge problem and it’s so overlooked in entrepreneurship. We have lost so many people to the dark side of pushing yourself beyond your limits and not taking pause to breathe and put on your own oxygen mask. You don’t need to suffer in silence.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Bit.ly/clariontech Hannekeantonelli.com Hanneke on LinkedIn   Resources: Scaling Up Workshop: Interested in attending one of our workshops? We have a few $100 discounts for our loyal podcast listeners!Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and leave a review. Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading Gazelles Coach. Gazelles is the term we use for fast-growing companies.   We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Scaling Up for Gazelles companies is based on the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).  

Today’s conversation is about keeping things clear. It focuses on how to keep that vision clear while you’re busy scaling so that it doesn’t get murky along the way. Your special guest also talks about motivation and how to keep on your vision path when you’re feeling uninspired. Chris Burns is a men’s life coach and helps them activate their purpose, power, and prosperity. He has been coaching men, entrepreneurs, leaders, and professionals for almost a decade and has helped them level up to their fullest potential. Chris’s core message is community. Although he specializes with men, for our female listeners out there, don’t tune out as there is still a lot of value in this show! Chris actually used to work with women up until a year ago. The reason for the shift is that Chris looked around and noticed that there weren’t a lot of men-only support groups out there. It’s gotten harder for men to find their tribe and seek a space where they can be vulnerable. Bill notices with his guy friends, there’s a very specific purpose for when he hangs out with his friends. They’ve got a problem or particular issue that they want to talk about. He and his buddies never just ‘hang out’ the way his wife and her female friends do. Males tend to bond more when they’re doing challenges or activities together vs. sitting and chatting. It feels to Bill that men need more of an excuse to hang out. Come over because there’s a game happening, but inviting a guy friend over just to hang out and talk, seems a bit… weird? There always needs to be an activity in between in order for him to tap into the vulnerability.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Bit.ly/clariontech Menmastermind.com Chris on LinkedIn   Resources: Scaling Up Workshop: Interested in attending one of our workshops? We have a few $100 discounts for our loyal podcast listeners!Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and leave a review. Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading Gazelles Coach. Gazelles is the term we use for fast-growing companies.   We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Scaling Up for Gazelles companies is based on the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).  

A brief summary of this episode

Do you have a bad relationship with your business? Is it time to get out? Today’s guest has some insight and some answers on when it’s really time to call it quits before you get burned out. Jess Chan is the Founder & CEO of Longplay, a full-service email marketing agency for DTC e-commerce brands. At Longplay, Jess has helped brands increase email revenue by 639% within 90 days and increase average order value by over 67%. Jess has been featured in Entrepreneur, Influencer Hustle & Thought Catalog. Jess has a background in actuarial science and economics but was going through panic attacks and an identity crisis on where, and who, she truly wanted to be in life. She knew insurance wasn’t the answer. On a whim, an ecommerce brand that Jess liked had a job opening for a marketing assistant, so she applied and ended up getting the job with zero qualifications! After college, she got offered a promotion to run a multimillion-dollar ecommerce company. Jess sees it all the time with her clients when they're starting a new company. We lose ourselves in the business. We come from a mission-centric place, but as we begin to grow, we start to lose ourselves and we go further and further away from our core mission. As founders, our business is an identity for us. We take a piece of ourselves and try to create something great out of it, but as the business scales and grows, it’s important to take care of your mental health, take breaks, and consciously redefine our relationship with it. You are not your business!   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Bit.ly/clariontech Longplaybrands.com Jess on LinkedIn   Resources: Scaling Up Workshop: Interested in attending one of our workshops? We have a few $100 discounts for our loyal podcast listeners!Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and leave a review. Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading Gazelles Coach. Gazelles is the term we use for fast-growing companies.   We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Scaling Up for Gazelles companies is based on the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).  

Do you have a difficult conversation coming up? Perhaps there's a conversation that's long overdue? How do you approach it? Bill has some thoughts and tip on how to gracefully navigate those rough talks in this week's episode!   One of Bill's clients, Alex, had to have a conversation with his board about budget issues. He just knew that his board would not be happy by this news and was dreading the conversation. Bill decided to take some pressure off of his plate by doing a series of role plays to help Alex accurately prepare for a wide range of emotions. The result? Alex felt comfortable when the conversation was going badly with Bill and could still keep his mind and his points on track. Bill was a tough fictional board member! In one instance, Bill just flat out said 'no' to whatever proposal Alex threw at him. This led Alex to get creative with his requests. By the end of the session, Alex felt more confident about the upcoming conversation.   The fundamental lesson here is to roleplay! Play with the fear! Go through different scenarios and see what fits you best. You'll be surprised by the end-result after it's all over.   Resources: Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and leave a review. Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.   Scaling Up is the best-selling business growth book by Verne Harnish and our team of coaches. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading coach.   We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash, and the 5th Decision about what kind of leader you want to be. Our purpose is helping you Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success.  

Need more eyes on your business? We all understand the power of having something go viral, but where business owners fall short is that they are willing to do anything, no matter the costs, to get that attention. Here’s how you can be strategic in your quest for more attention and get the right kind of attention. Why is it that Elon Musk comes out with a cyber truck and the world stops and goes absolutely crazy? Why is it that, when SingularityU came out, it became a sold-out event almost instantly? How do these things happen so “easily”? Moral value and positive value are of no interest to the media. So what gets their intention? Novelty. Shock also adds value. If you can grab attention for your product in a new way, then the media will be ready to pounce. What are some of the ways you can grab the attention of the media? What’s your novelty angle for your product? In this Tuesday Tip, Bill breaks down how some of the greats were able to make their events/products go viral.   Resources: Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and leave a review. Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.   Scaling Up is the best-selling business growth book by Verne Harnish and our team of coaches. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading coach.   We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash, and the 5th Decision about what kind of leader you want to be. Our purpose is helping you Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success.

It can be difficult to hang on to your loyal customers as you begin to scale and grow, especially if you plan to increase your prices. Today’s guest knows a thing or two about keeping customers for life, no matter the circumstances. Paul Brown is the creator and writer of the What’s Offline column, which is featured every Saturday in the business section of The New York Times. He and his wife also wrote the Dream Home Diaries blog, also featured on nytimes.com. When he is not writing for the Times, Paul, a former contributing editor to M.I.T.’s Sloan Management Review, serves as an editorial consultant. He has worked with everyone from individuals to Fortune 500 companies and leading academic institutions such as NYU, in developing products that have ranged from software programs and videos to op-ed pieces, TED talks, books, and more. He also had his own twice-weekly blog in Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and The Harvard Business Review. Paul accidentally stumbled into writing for Forbes. His trick was to just ask as many questions as you can, and eventually, you’ll learn something. Fast forward to today, Paul has written several books, including Customer for Life, which was first published in 1990. At the time, there weren’t many books out that thought about the customer in this particular way. Paul co-wrote the book with a car dealership owner, Carl Sewell. They both realized that they had a very short attention span, which is why the book is structured in a quick and easy way for readers to process. People tend to gloss over customer service as a business strategy. Everyone sees the value of turning a one-time customer into a lifelong customer, but a tangible and tactic strategy that makes it easy to execute on is much less talked about in business. If a customer asks for something unusual, it’s your job as a service provider to deliver on it. Good customer service often looks like this. Paul shares an example of a customer asking for something somewhat ridiculous and out of the box, but by delivering on her ask, the company ended up gaining a lifetime customer.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Bit.ly/clariontech Paul on LinkedIn Paul’s work in The New York Times Paul’s Book: Customers for Life: How to Turn That One-Time Buyer Into a Lifetime Customer, by Carl Sewell and Paul B. Brown   Resources: Scaling Up Workshop: Interested in attending one of our workshops? We have a few $100 discounts for our loyal podcast listeners!Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and leave a review. Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading Gazelles Coach. Gazelles is the term we use for fast-growing companies. We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Scaling Up for Gazelles companies is based on the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).  

Is there someone on your team trying to sell you on why they haven’t been hitting their numbers? Or are you trying to sell yourself on why you can’t achieve certain KPIs? If that’s the case, then this episode is for you! How do people accomplish extraordinary things when it doesn’t look or sound very reasonable? Bill was working with a cancer survivor who was passionate about creating healthy meals for restaurants. While she was in the middle of growing her business, she found out her cancer came back. Ouch. How do you keep going when you have a health crisis? Bill knew her mission in life, and he knew as her coach, he couldn’t let her quit. She couldn’t quit. Yet, how do you prevail when you have odds, especially health odds, stacked against you? In circumstances like this, you have to use your team and your leaders more than you ever did before. You have to do that scary thing and delegate. Bill’s client knew that her project was important, and she went on to finish what she had set out to do; not by herself, but by leveraging the power of her team. She created a legacy for herself and didn’t let obstacles stop her from moving forward. Anchor yourself to possibility and your legacy, and when obstacles get in your way, get creative and solve for one problem at a time.   Resources: Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and leave a review. Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.   Scaling Up is the best-selling business growth book by Verne Harnish and our team of coaches. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading coach.   We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash, and the 5th Decision about what kind of leader you want to be. Our purpose is helping you Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success.