Wayfinding Growth

What is a Personal Brand?

It's always helpful to start at the beginning. Dan and George break down what a personal brand is and what it means to businesses and employees both.

According to Wikipedia, personal branding is the practice of marketing people and their careers as brands. It is an ongoing process of developing and maintaining a reputation and impression of an individual, group, or organization.

Dan and George talk about how a personal brand is the packaged reputation you put forth through your actions. 

"Personal branding is packaging up who you want to be in the world." - George B. Thomas

It's a managed reputation. It's what people say about you when you're not in the room. 

George also says that personal branding has zero to do with what you do or where you do it. For instance, it's not necessarily your job and the company you work for. Those things matter, but it matters more who you are.

Today's Episode is Brought to You By:

This episode of Wayfinding Growth is brought to you by Sprocket Talk. If you’re ready to take your HubSpot experience to a whole new level, you need to join Sprocket Talk as a Free VIP member. Tutorials, courses, training, HubSpot updates and more. Head to SprocketTalk.com/WG to join the movement and get an exclusive Wayfinding Growth deal! 

Why Personal Branding Matters for Businesses

In this digital age, relationships matter more than ever. People do business with people they get to know, like and trust. Now more than ever, they have the opportunity to find their tribe wherever they want and trust whom they want to trust. "Birds of a feather flock together," George says. If a business promotes personal brands within the company, it's more likely to find its tribe. 

A rising tide lifts all vessels. As the personal brands within a business gain momentum, that business reaps the rewards through better relationships. 

Conversely, as the business builds and grows, personal brands improve. 

Personal branding within businesses matter because people matter. 

Are Personal Brands Risky for Businesses?

Sure, a powerful personal brand could put your business at risk for losing great employees. The more attention a person gets, the more people know them and the more offers they may receive. 

But here's the question to ask yourself: Would you rather help your employees improve at the risk of losing them? Or would you rather keep your people mediocre so they stay?

The reward outweighs the risk. Create a culture where your people don't want to leave, and let them build the personal brand to help your brand grow. 

Let the stallions run free. With fencing.

George talks about letting your people grow and get creative, and more than just loosening the reins. Let them run free and when they hit that fence, let them know. 

For those of you building your personal brand, know that when you hit that fence and you're kept in check, it's not personal. Just find new ways to keep building your brand. 

Your Personal Brand Compass

Speaking of building your personal brand, George offers up the idea of a Personal Brand Compass.

Happy, Humble, Helpful, Human. That is George's compass. 

Everyday he strives to live in happiness and humility. He works hard to be helpful. And he tries to be more human (compassionate and empathetic and real). 

They act like core values against which George measures each day. When you start your day with your compass, you set the stage. Then as you end your day and see if your choices and actions align with your compass, you can rest knowing you tried and you can get better every day.

Get to Know George B. Thomas

• George at Impulse Creative
• George B. Thomas Speaker
• George on Twitter
• George on Facebook
• George on LinkedIn

Subscribe for New Episodes Every Week

Be sure to subscribe on your podcast player of choice (or the email notifications below) for new episodes every week, Tuesday mornings at 7:00am EST. Wayfinding Growth is the go-to podcast to inspire entrepreneurs, business owners and leadership. “For better or worse, in richness and in want” may be for weddings, but it’s also for businesses. We will be your navigator in this journey, no matter your level.

Love what we're doing? Leave a review wherever you listen!

Reputation's Effect on Growth

When relationships are critical to your business, your reputation is probably one of the most important assets you manage. Unfortunately, many companies don't think about their reputation management until they're in crisis mode. At that point, it could seriously affect your growth. 

This is why thinking about reputation management and growth is vital.

Bill Coletti, Founder and CEO of Kith, is a reputation management, crisis communications and professional development expert, keynote speaker, Wall Street Journal Risk & Compliance panelist, and best-selling author of Critical Moments: The New Mindset of Reputation Management.

Bill has more than 25 years of global experience managing high-stakes crises, issues management, and media relations challenges for both Fortune 500 companies and winning global political campaigns.

Today's Episode is Brought to You By:

This episode of Wayfinding Growth is brought to you by Sprocket Talk. If you’re ready to take your HubSpot experience to a whole new level, you need to join Sprocket Talk as a Free VIP member. Tutorials, courses, training, HubSpot updates and more. Head to SprocketTalk.com/WG to join the movement and get an exclusive Wayfinding Growth deal! 

Crisis Communication

Bill got his start in reputation management and crisis communication in politics. He learned that a lot of messaging in politics is really all about managing crisis communications.

"In politics it's one of two things. Either you're trying to create a crisis for your opponent, or you're dealing with a crisis your opponent created for you." - Bill Coletti on politics and reputation management

Don't Wait Until a Crisis

If you're managing your brand and your reputation, you may feel like they're the same. Bill positions the two as related but different. 

A business can lay out a plan for its brand and can "control" that message. That then feeds the public's opinion of that business, along with their personal experience. That's the business's reputation.

"A company owns its brand. But it's the public that owns its reputation." - Bill Coletti on reputation vs. brand

The beauty of reputation management, especially in relation to your growth journey, is that if you're working on it all along—and not just in a crisis when the ship hits the fan. When you're proactive and build trust, you have "mistake equity." 

When something goes wrong, and you've managed your reputation well, you'll have believers in your brand come to your defense. 

In a crisis, you get the benefit of the doubt or a reservoir of goodwill. Your supporters will say something like, "Well, that's not the company I know."

Managing your reputation proactively helps you build brand affinity and a solid reputation. 

Get to Know Bill

• Bill's Website
• Kith
• Bill on LinkedIn
• Kith on Twitter

Subscribe for New Episodes Every Week

Be sure to subscribe on your podcast player of choice (or the email notifications below) for new episodes every week, Tuesday mornings at 7:00am EST. Wayfinding Growth is the go-to podcast to inspire entrepreneurs, business owners and leadership. “For better or worse, in richness and in want” may be for weddings, but it’s also for businesses. We will be your navigator in this journey, no matter your level.

Love what we're doing? Leave a review wherever you listen!

An Origin Story

Does anyone care why you started your company? 

At some point in the business relationship, your origin story matters to some of your audience. It could be early on when they're deciding whether your story fits into theirs. It could be further down the journey when they're deciding between you and a competitor. 

Whenever it matters to them, they should be able to find it. 

That's why it's time to dive into the origin story of Impulse Creative.

Today's Episode is Brought to You By:

This episode of Wayfinding Growth is brought to you by Sprocket Talk. If you’re ready to take your HubSpot experience to a whole new level, you need to join Sprocket Talk as a Free VIP member. Tutorials, courses, training, HubSpot updates and more. Head to SprocketTalk.com/WG to join the movement and get an exclusive Wayfinding Growth deal! 

The Beginning

January 2020 marks 13 years for Impulse Creative. 

In January 2007 Remington came home from a vacation and decided that it was time to own his career and "do this marketing thing." 

At the time, Remington was pursuing a management career in hospitality and the restaurant business. He'd gone to school for graphic design but didn't graduate.

"I didn't like the business of college and the business it had become. So I decided to pave my own way." - Remington Begg on his college years.

Because he likes working with people and was already in the restaurant business, he was on the management track. However, Remington realized that he couldn't have the impact he wanted. So he decided to turn his side business Remington Graphics into a full-fledged small business.

The transition was slow to start, with Remington as a solopreneur. Add into the mix the fact that 2007 and 2008 was a terrible time to start a business in South Florida—remember The Recession?—and you have a recipe for an overnight success story!

Want to know another reason why Remington started his own agency rather than joining an existing company? Listen to the "you're overqualified = you're a threat" portion of the episode at 6:44.

Early on and then throughout the life of Impulse Creative, Remington found that being nimble and innovative (early on it was because he had no budget and had to compete with bigger competitors) has helped differentiate the agency.

Because he had to know a plethora of skills, he was able to help clients early on with more than one thing. This would lead to long term relationships that could grow and evolve. 

We still do that today. Some companies call it upselling. We call it serving our clients better with more integrated services. 

The Middle

In the first year, Rachel joined the company back when Remington would have to create vinyl signs by hand and print business cards, and website were just an add-on to services. 

The evolution of brand went from Remington Graphics to Impulse Creative Studios to build the business beyond a one-person show. But it wasn't yet a marketing agency.

"I didn't want to be a quote-unquote 'agency' because of the box that put us in. We wanted to be though of as a creative studio." - Remington Begg on the evolution of Impulse

What's Our Why?

Remington says his why, which becomes the company's why, is that "There has to be a smarter way to help businesses grow." 

Before starting the company, Remington would have regular conversations with one of his customers. Phil was in management for a company and would often complain that the launch for a trade show was coming up and he'd have to have the same conversation each week with different people on the marketing, the launch, the promotion and the branding. 

This conversation Phil would have, feeling like it was Groundhog Day all over again, would happen with the trade show team, then the web designer, then the sales team and beyond. 

Remington saw an opportunity to help Phil's company grow with one partner handling all of the branding, marketing and communications. 

This all led to one of our original ideas in our mission being, "Helping companies create a consistent marketing message." That threads continues to this day, 13 years later.

"There's a difference between a company that can be remembered and one that can't." - Remington Begg on basic branding.

What's Next

Growth. Over the years Impulse Creative has evolved and grown with the needs of its clients. Sometimes that growth goes off the rails (see episode 2.17 The Chrysalis Effect below). 

More than a decade into our existence and we continue to grow and serve clients around the world. 

Resources:

• Episode 2.17: The Chrysalis Effect
• About Impulse Creative 
• Impulse Creative on Instagram
• Impulse Creative on Facebook
• Impulse Creative on LinkedIn
• Impulse Creative on Twitter

Subscribe for New Episodes Every Week

Be sure to subscribe on your podcast player of choice (or the email notifications below) for new episodes every week, Tuesday mornings at 7:00am EST. Wayfinding Growth is the go-to podcast to inspire entrepreneurs, business owners and leadership. “For better or worse, in richness and in want” may be for weddings, but it’s also for businesses. We will be your navigator in this journey, no matter your level.

Love what we're doing? Leave a review wherever you listen!

United States Marine Angie Morgan

On today’s episode we’re talking with Angie Morgan. Angie founded Lead Star, a leadership development consulting firm. She’s also the bestselling author of the business book, Leading from the Front: No Excuse Leadership Tactics for Women and her second book, Spark: How to Lead Yourself and Others to Greater Success.

To honor veterans this week, as Veterans Day was yesterday, we’re talking with Angie about leadership lessons from the military. Her leadership expertise formed after she graduated from the University of Michigan and served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps.

Angie founded Lead Star to help professionals understand how they can achieve greater success by implementing leadership practices into their work routines. Her remedy: designing leadership programs that are culturally relevant for her clients and focused on results. As a keynote speaker and workshop facilitator, Angie inspires individuals to take action to ensure their performance is high and their goals are achieved.

She has written numerous articles on leadership and organizational excellence appearing in a wide variety of publications including Forbes, Fast Company, and SUCCESS. She’s been a dynamic guest on CNBC, FOX News, and CNN.

Prior to creating Lead Star, Angie worked for Pfizer and Merck as a sales professional where she had firsthand experience working in business operations. This results-oriented mindset is brought to every project she is engaged in.

Angie’s leadership expertise formed after she graduated from the University of Michigan and served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps. She also holds an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Today's Episode is Brought to You By:

This episode of Wayfinding Growth is brought to you by Sprocket Talk. If you’re ready to take your HubSpot experience to a whole new level, you need to join Sprocket Talk as a Free VIP member. Tutorials, courses, training, HubSpot updates and more. Head to SprocketTalk.com/WG to join the movement and get an exclusive Wayfinding Growth deal! 

Anyone Can be a Leader

Even if you're not "in leadership," you can lead. That's a big premise of the book Spark. Sparks are people who make things happen, who help turn the tide. Leader shouldn't be tied to your title or position, but to you doing.

Angie sees leadership as a verb, not a noun. You don't "achieve leadership" at a certain level. She says you make leadership happen by being the leader and taking action, rather than waiting for someone to give you permission by calling you a leader.

Verb versus noun.

"Leadership, in the Marines, is a verb or a behavior. It is available and accessible to everyone." - Angie Morgan on leadership

Angie says everyone needs to develop leadership skills at every level. We all have leadership roles, even if it's 'just leading ourselves.'

An Early Shipwreck for Lead Star

Angie shared the story of a shipwreck Lead Star survived - and learned from in the process. 

In the early days, they wanted to play with idea of leadership. The emphasis on ship led them to set up an event, a leadership cruise. 

the idea was a week on a cruise ship, immersed in leadership training and experiences. 

Unfortunately, it bombed. "Many leaders in the world are working moms. They can't be away from their families on a cruise ship for a whole week," Angie remarked. So they learned, got to know their audience, and moved forward. 

No more cruises. 

What is Seeding Your Inspiration?

Angie's biggest piece of advice as a Wayfinder to leaders and entrepreneurs is to consider what's seeding your inspiration.

What are you listening to? What are you reading? 

Whether you're an intrapreneur or an entrepreneur or somewhere in between, people are often stuck in the mindset of their role and their responsibilities. We don't often get to bring in outside influences to sharpen us. 

This needs to be a priority if we want to spark creativity & ideas for growth. 

Find podcasts, music, interviews, books, videos and other inspiration seeds to develop your spark.

Want Success? Build a Diverse Crew

Angie talks about the navigational tools that helped her to grow to the level she enjoys currently. One of the biggest assets, she said, is a diverse crew around her.

From gender to socioeconomic backgrounds to race to just life experience, different perspectives help sharpen your skills, your knowledge and your leadership. 

Get to Know Angie Morgan

• Angie on LinkedIn
• LeadStar
• Book - Spark
• Book - Leading from the Front

Subscribe for New Episodes Every Week

Be sure to subscribe on your podcast player of choice (or the email notifications below) for new episodes every week, Tuesday mornings at 7:00am EST. Wayfinding Growth is the go-to podcast to inspire entrepreneurs, business owners and leadership. “For better or worse, in richness and in want” may be for weddings, but it’s also for businesses. We will be your navigator in this journey, no matter your level.

Love what we're doing? Leave a review wherever you listen!

Don't Let GOALS Become a Buzzword

From personal goals to revenue goals to SMART goals, the term "goals" is quickly becoming a buzzword. 

But don't let it lose its power. Goals can be critical to a brand's growth. 

A fan of Gino Wickman's Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business, Remington has taken the teachings and turned them into an Objective-Key-Results (OKR) system for Impulse Creative and out clients. 

By using clear communication, Remington says it helps cast the vision for the entire team.

"Your company or department can have a goal, but the individual people need objectives that will help accomplish that [goal]." - Remington Begg

 By slicing the goal into manageable pieces, growth can happen strategically and purposefully.

Today's Episode is Brought to You By:

This episode of Wayfinding Growth is brought to you by Sprocket Talk. If you’re ready to take your HubSpot experience to a whole new level, you need to join Sprocket Talk as a Free VIP member. Tutorials, courses, training, HubSpot updates and more. Head to SprocketTalk.com/WG to join the movement and get an exclusive Wayfinding Growth deal! 

Goals Help with Clear Communication and Feedback

Feedback and clear communication are critical in a healthy business. Whether that's with a partner like a marketing agency or between employees and management, it vital that communication happens. 

Setting goals— and setting them together— helps set up a business for successful communication. 

Then it's on the humans to create the feedback loop that takes that communication to a new level. 

And it's all centered on those goals. It's like a big happy cycle!

Avoid Paralysis: Make it Manageable

When the goals are too big to grasp, we're easily paralyzed by fear. It's also called paralysis by analysis. 

Or just procrastination.

Setting clear goals, then breaking them down into manageable key objectives can help.

It's the difference between, "OMG I need to bring in $1,000,000 in new business this year!" and looking at that huge number as $250,000 per quarter. If your average product size is $10,000 then that's 25 customers per quarter, about 8 per month, or basically 2 per week.

Take a 3-year plan and break down yearly goals. Then look at quarterly rocks you have to hit to make that happen. Once there, look at monthly goals, then weekly and even daily tasks. 

A marathon is finished one step at a time.

Resources:

• Impulse Creative 2020 Strategic Roadmap
• Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman

Subscribe for New Episodes Every Week

Be sure to subscribe on your podcast player of choice (or the email notifications below) for new episodes every week, Tuesday mornings at 7:00am EST. Wayfinding Growth is the go-to podcast to inspire entrepreneurs, business owners and leadership. “For better or worse, in richness and in want” may be for weddings, but it’s also for businesses. We will be your navigator in this journey, no matter your level.

Love what we're doing? Leave a review wherever you listen!

The Journey to Personalized Perks

Sarah Bedrick is cofounder and VP of marketing at Compt, an HR software that helps companies create perk stipends so employees can get the perks they want and need most. 

Prior to Compt, Sarah worked for HubSpot for more than six years. That's where she crossed paths with both Dan and Remington. Her most recent role was to lead the certifications program, leading the HubSpot Academy website strategy and co-PMed the Learning Center application they developed.

Sarah has seen startup to scale-up growth, true startup growth and the disruption of an industry. 

At Compt, Sarah and her co-founder Amy Spurling, businesses get help creating a 1-to-1 (as opposed to 1-to-many) experience with perks. 

Today's Episode is Brought to You By:

This episode of Wayfinding Growth is brought to you by Sprocket Talk. If you’re ready to take your HubSpot experience to a whole new level, you need to join Sprocket Talk as a Free VIP member. Tutorials, courses, training, HubSpot updates and more. Head to SprocketTalk.com/WG to join the movement and get an exclusive Wayfinding Growth deal! 

HR is Ripe for Disruption

When Sarah was with HubSpot early on, she saw the rise of the marketer and the power of the customer. The internet gave consumers the power to find what they want when they want it, while giving marketers access they hadn't previously enjoyed. She says the profession of human resources and employee retention is at a similar inflection point.

"Where companies have been screaming 'customer success,' a lot of companies are now saying 'Wait a minute! What about employee success?" - Sarah Bedrick

Businesses have operated in the space that perks mean things like 401k and break rooms with food. Sometimes the more innovative companies have given employees on-site gyms or free beer and bean bags. 

But today, as the landscape evolves and talent becomes more difficult to attract and retain, the leading-edge brands are using more personalized perks like stipends for health and wellness. Employees can use this for gym memberships of their own so they aren't working out with colleagues. They're using them for 5k or marathon training and race fees. Or they're using a stipend for massage therapy. It's personalized. 

Compt helps those businesses plan, implement and manage custom solutions for these modern team members. It's growth through custom, personalized perks.

Personal Growth Through Coaching

Sarah attributes much of her growth both professionally and personally to coaching. Her biggest shipwreck came when she was six years into her stellar career at one of the biggest up and coming SaaS companies, HubSpot. Many friends and family members kept telling her that she had it perfect - a great career, a good salary, great perks, a team she co-founded - but she was no longer feeling fulfilled.

Christine Hassler calls this an expectation hangover. Despite building a charmed life, Sarah felt like she was stuck. Through coaching and a lot of self-reflection, she realized that she needed a new challenge, and it was okay that she was ready to move on from this "perfect life" she'd built.

The growth she experienced, in her words, came through coaching. She's become a major proponent of personal and professional coaching, and says if you want to take a growth journey, that's the ticket.

"When you feel like you belong, you can do unimaginable things." - Sarah Bedrick

Get to Know Sarah Bedrick

• Sarah's website
• Compt
• Sarah on Twitter
• Sarah on LinkedIn 

Subscribe for New Episodes Every Week

Be sure to subscribe on your podcast player of choice (or the email notifications below) for new episodes every week, Tuesday mornings at 7:00am EST. Wayfinding Growth is the go-to podcast to inspire entrepreneurs, business owners and leadership. “For better or worse, in richness and in want” may be for weddings, but it’s also for businesses. We will be your navigator in this journey, no matter your level.

Love what we're doing? Leave a review wherever you listen!

What is The Chrysalis Effect?

Over this season, Remington and Dan have talked about an event in the history of Impulse Creative referred to as The Chrysalis Effect. 

Let's start with what a chrysalis is:

A quiescent insect pupa, especially of a butterfly or moth.

• the hard outer case enclosing a chrysalis
• a transitional state

Remington uses the transitional state as his North Star in this story. Impulse went through a severely transitional state in 2014. A team of 9 (including the co-founders Rachel and Remington) was whittled down to 3. 

That fall, Remington had put a person into leadership, who promptly went on vacation and never came back. This person went to a competing agency. Soon after another member of the team "was poached, then incentivized to bring others with them."

At the time, Rachel was expecting their first child, so both leaders at Impulse were beginning to wear parental hats and priorities began to shift. New leadership was meant to ease that transition for the co-founders, while keeping the business moving forward for its clients and incoming clients. 

"We put people in roles just to fit them somewhere," Remington said of the time. "We had people who weren't clear in their communication. We were focused on output, not on how people felt."

Today's Episode is Brought to You By:

This episode of Wayfinding Growth is brought to you by Sprocket Talk. If you’re ready to take your HubSpot experience to a whole new level, you need to join Sprocket Talk as a Free VIP member. Tutorials, courses, training, HubSpot updates and more. Head to SprocketTalk.com/WG to join the movement and get an exclusive Wayfinding Growth deal! 

Triggered: Learn Lessons Through History

It's important to learn from history. It's why history classes are critical in school. But it's also why self-reflection is critical to business owners and leaders. 

For Remington, this self-awareness and situational awareness has helped keep the triggers away. The pieces are currently in place just as they were before The Chrysalis Effect. 

• We're growing - new clients and more revenue
• We just hired a leadership position - Director of Inbound Juli Durante
• The Begg family is expanding
• It's the same time of year

Without keeping their eyes on the past while moving forward in knowledge, Rachel and Remington could easily feel the familiar anxiety or negativity of the situation, caving into triggers and shutting down. 

Instead, they're charging forward with wisdom and compassion, and working to keep communication open among the crew. 

"The people you hire shouldn't have to earn your trust. You hire them because you trust them. But they need to keep your trust. You're hiring people to do a job. You need to trust that they will." - Remington

You're Going to Skin Your Knees Along the Entrepreneurial Journey

Be Careful What You Wish For

Growth. It's the goal of any business. But sometimes the growth we hope for isn't the growth we plan for. Remington reflected on aggressive growth tracks for businesses, including the track Impulse Creative was on just prior to The Chrysalis Effect. 

HubSpot's case study on Impulse Creative lays out the history well. 3X increase in revenue in 2 years. 6X increase in retainer client revenue in 2 years. 5.3X increase in monthly leads year over year. 

"This sounds exciting for anyone who doesn't do it," Remington said. "Six-X growth is really uncontrollable in a lot of cases." 

The growth Impulse experienced push the team and the leadership to its limits. Remington believes a large part of The Chrysalis Effect came directly from this growth chapter in Impulse's story.

The lesson: Be careful what you wish for. Controlled growth is better than chaos.

Subscribe for New Episodes Every Week

Be sure to subscribe on your podcast player of choice (or the email notifications below) for new episodes every week, Tuesday mornings at 7:00am EST. Wayfinding Growth is the go-to podcast to inspire entrepreneurs, business owners and leadership. “For better or worse, in richness and in want” may be for weddings, but it’s also for businesses. We will be your navigator in this journey, no matter your level.

Love what we're doing? Leave a review wherever you listen!

Growth in the Financial Industry

Meet Mark Ritter. Mark is CEO of Member Business Financial Services. That’s a Credit Union Service Organization, serving multiple credit unions. He’s an expert on credit unions and the business loan world. On this episode, he takes us on his growth journey and what it was like to be the fifth CEO in 5 years at MBFS, an organization that had never made money prior to his leadership. 

Mark was the founder of Members 1st FCU's credit union business lending program that grew to be one of the top ten in the nation in number of loans and balances outstanding for federal credit unions. He also developed a participation program that grew to one of the top buyers and sellers of credit union business loans in the eastern United States. He's done extensive work with branch retail staff, business lending operational and sales staff, and credit unions throughout the Mid-Atlantic States to educate and train them on the merits of member business lending. His primary role at MBFS is leading the day-to-day operations of the organization and consulting with credit unions on planning the delivery of business services to their membership.

Today's Episode is Brought to You By:

This episode of Wayfinding Growth is brought to you by Sprocket Talk. If you’re ready to take your HubSpot experience to a whole new level, you need to join Sprocket Talk as a Free VIP member. Tutorials, courses, training, HubSpot updates and more. Head to SprocketTalk.com/WG to join the movement and get an exclusive Wayfinding Growth deal! 

Taking the Helm of a Troubled Ship

After building Members 1st Federal Credit Union’s business lending program’s into the top ten in the nation in the number of loans and balances outstanding for federal credit unions, Mark took on the challenge of being the CEO of MBFS. Mark was the fifth CEO in five years for the organization, which lost money every month of its existence. In the past six years at MBFS, Mark increased the number of credit unions the CUSO services by over 500%, grew the revenue by 800%, and ensured positive cash flow every full year he’s been at the CUSO. 

What's it like taking over a business that's stumbling, to put it nicely? What challenges did Mark face? 

Mark says taking over involved a lot of listening and investigating. His intention was to find out what was working and what wasn't, no matter the area. 

"Part of the problem wasn't just figuring out what was wrong. It was figuring out why things were wrong, and keep going back a couple steps." - Mark Ritter

The Decision to Go Remote

When Mark took over as CEO for MBFS, they were an in-house organization. Today they're completely remote.

MBFS began the remote journey with its IT team. Seeing the value in hiring for culture and talent rather than those who happen to be close to the company has proven to be a great move. 

In fact, clients didn't realize the move had been made until MBFS announced it months later, proving that the move was seamless. 

Mark says hiring for a home-based employee is much different. He says they look for people where the job is a good fit for them, and they're a good cultural fit for MBFS. 

Get to Know Mark Ritter

• MBFS
• Mark on LinkedIn

Subscribe for New Episodes Every Week

Be sure to subscribe on your podcast player of choice (or the email notifications below) for new episodes every week, Tuesday mornings at 7:00am EST. Wayfinding Growth is the go-to podcast to inspire entrepreneurs, business owners and leadership. “For better or worse, in richness and in want” may be for weddings, but it’s also for businesses. We will be your navigator in this journey, no matter your level.

Love what we're doing? Leave a review wherever you listen!

Meet Audrey

In the creative circus of our day-to-day work, Audrey DeMartinis is the ringmaster that keeps the show rolling on schedule. She’s depended upon by clients and the team alike, to keeps our projects on course from start to launch. There’s also no one in the office that appreciates a color-coded project timeline more than this Florida Gulf Coast U grad and native Ohioan.

When she’s not wrangling the team, Audrey relaxes with wine, friends, wine, family, wine, all-things-Disney, wine and fancy food.

Audrey is also one of the co-hosts of Maiden Voyage, a podcast by the women of Impulse Creative. With "Women Making Waves" as their tagline, you know she's a feisty mermaid.

Today's Episode is Brought to You By:

This episode of Wayfinding Growth is brought to you by Sprocket Talk. If you’re ready to take your HubSpot experience to a whole new level, you need to join Sprocket Talk as a Free VIP member. Tutorials, courses, training, HubSpot updates and more. Head to SprocketTalk.com/WG to join the movement and get an exclusive Wayfinding Growth deal! 

How Processes Fuel Growth

Without repeatable, scalable processes, a business grows by accident. This is not a solid business strategy. 

Whether you're documenting the process of onboarding a new team member or you're laying out how to post an update to your blog, creating a road map (a process) is critical.

In addition to the process itself, empowering a point person to help manage all of the moving parts can take your growth journey to new levels. This is where a project manager like Audrey comes in, along with her tools for growth.

The Tools to Strategic Growth

Growing strategically needs to include the right tools. You wouldn't set off to circumnavigate the globe without the right navigational tools, and backups for when things go wrong. 

In the same way, having the right tools to grow your business needs to include ways to document processes, plan out projects and communicate effectively.

"I don't know how you'd grow as a business without tools like we use at Impulse Creative." - Audrey on growth tools

Audrey uses a slew of "navigational tools" to keep the team and our clients aligned and moving in the same direction. Here's a list of many of her tools.

• Asana for project organization
• Tettra for documenting processes and collaborating (Listen to Tettra's co-founder Nelson Joyce)
• Slack for continuous, real-time communication (internal and external)
• Harvest for time tracking
• Harvest Forecast for time planning across teams

Bonus tip from Audrey: Be willing to learn new tools based on your clients. If they don't use Slack, don't force it. Use email, phone calls, texting... be where they are. Audrey uses regular meetings to keep in alignment, along with software like Basecamp and others depending on their needs.

How Hospitality Led to Project Management

If you want someone who can handle many spinning plates, unexpected obstacles, new challenges everyday and quick communication, Audrey says someone from the hospitality field might be perfect. Audrey worked in restaurants before Impulse Creative. She says experience that includes waiting tables, working with the public (clients!), a fast-paced environment and then managing all of that helped shape her into the kick-ass project manager she is today.

So if you're willing to hire for culture and passion, then let that someone grow into the position, hiring from hospitality could set you up for an interesting growth journey.

Get to Know Audrey

• Audrey's Crew Page
• Audrey on LinkedIn
• Audrey on Twitter

Subscribe for New Episodes Every Week

Be sure to subscribe on your podcast player of choice (or the email notifications below) for new episodes every week, Tuesday mornings at 7:00am EST. Wayfinding Growth is the go-to podcast to inspire entrepreneurs, business owners and leadership. “For better or worse, in richness and in want” may be for weddings, but it’s also for businesses. We will be your navigator in this journey, no matter your level.

Love what we're doing? Leave a review wherever you listen!

Meet Doug Davidoff

Doug Davidoff founded the agency Imagine Business Development. As the CEO, he’s directly advised more than a dozen companies who have successfully sold for a combined value of more than $1 billion. Imagine is also a HubSpot partner.

For more than 20 years, Doug has advised small and mid-market companies that are committed to serious growth who want to hear the truth about achieving it. Doug’s worked, firsthand, with more than 1,500 companies (and seen their financial statements), so he knows the difference between what works, and what sounds good and doesn’t work.

What we love about Doug is that he takes a "no-holds-barred, no bullshit approach" to business growth. He's a true wayfinder and natural explorer.

Doug’s both quick to adopt new ideas, methods and technologies; and remarkably cynical of products and strategies dubbed “the next thing.” As you'll here in this Wayfinding Growth episode, he combines an in-depth knowledge of sales and marketing theory and strategy, with front-line execution expertise to know what works, what doesn’t and why it is so.

Today's Episode is Brought to You By:

Today’s Sponsor is Impulse Creative’s Video Marketing Masterclass - George B Thomas built out an 11 module On-Demand Course on how to leverage Video in your Business. He covers everything from how to choose the right equipment, to what you can do videos about in your business. Check it out at impulsecreative.com/vfm and preview 2 modules for Free.

What is BFSC?

BFSC is something Remington discovered this year. The letters stand for Better, Faster, Stronger, Cheaper.

How does BFSC apply to business growth?

Remington describes this BFSC idea as a bit of an alternative to a SWOT analysis. It's a different way to think about your business, about projects and about the growth journey. 

Part of Doug's culture at Imagine is that every employee is encouraged to look around and anything they see that could be done better, faster, stronger or cheaper (less expensively, but cheaper works for brevity) to speak up. Regardless of whether it's directly related to their job, they're all given permission to speak up.

Making it a team culture helps everyone buy into the business's growth.

Listen to the full discussion starting at about 22:00 into the episode.

The Flawed "Only Bring Me a Solution" Mentality

Don't bring me a problem unless you have a solution. It's a common idea in business. But it's flawed. 

Sometimes we have a problem we can see, but may not have the right solution, which means we can't approach leadership or management. 

Too often a manager will say "Here's the problem," and the employee will say, "Yes I knew that." 

When the manager asks why nothing was said, the natural response is because the employee was told only bring solutions, and they had none. 

We need to foster solutions while staying open to team members bringing us problems without a solution so we can collaborate.

"No one know how to do a job better than the person doing it. But that doesn't mean they know how to do their job." Doug Davidoff

It's a Trap!

The phrase "This is the way to do it" is a trap in sales.

Doug says there's always more than one way to do something in sales. 

You have to be curious and open to suggestion. 

This is especially obvious when a leader hires someone from a company who had success in a specific project or tactic. Because this person was at that company and involved in it, we often think they figured out how to do it. 

The fact is they learned one way to do it in that particular situation, but may not understand all of the nuances that went into the entire situation. 

"You do have to be an observer," Doug says. "You have to be able to ask a lot of questions. If you ever say 'The way to do that [in sales] is...' then you don't know enough about sales and you're going to run into problems. There is no one way to do it." 

The right path in sales for you is determined by many factors. 

Chill Out About The Path and Obsess Over the Destination

In a business's growth journey, leaders often focus on how to get somewhere, The Path. This means they're often afraid to make mistakes because they get hyper-focused on how each decision impacts the micro-moments, the how. Instead, David offers, focusing on The Destination, the where, and getting there through mistakes and learning opportunities, is a better strategy. 

We've heard it said "Fail fast, fail often." Another cliche is that it's only a failure if you don't learn from it. Doug adds his own spin, because he's confident in where he's going and knows the how will work itself out as he works.

"I may be wrong often, but I'm rarely in doubt." Doug Davidoff

David says it's not perfect of course. Some years "we kicked you know what, and other years we were kicked." But when you fix the issues and you're on the right trajectory, growth happens purposefully.

Get to Know Doug:

• Imagine Business Development (Doug's agency)
• Doug on LinkedIn
• Doug unfiltered - on Twitter
• Doug's writing on HubSpot

Subscribe for New Episodes Every Week

Be sure to subscribe on your podcast player of choice (or the email notifications below) for new episodes every week, Tuesday mornings at 7:00am EST. Wayfinding Growth is the go-to podcast to inspire entrepreneurs, business owners and leadership. “For better or worse, in richness and in want” may be for weddings, but it’s also for businesses. We will be your navigator in this journey, no matter your level.

Love what we're doing? Leave a review wherever you listen!