Wayfinding Growth (video)

Time to Pull Back the Curtain on Impulse Creative

On this episode, Remington and Dan unpack the growth journey at Impulse Creative, and how Remington can actually call in sick! Yes entrepreneurs and owners and executives ... it CAN happen!

Sure, you're a critical component. But if you've navigated the growth journey well, you have a team that can handle it when you're gone. Especially when your health is at risk. Let's set a course for growth!

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!

It's Scary

Remington begins by unpacking why it's scary to have to walk away from your business. Even when you trust your team, it's a big deal to be able to let go of the reins and let the people you've hired for their skills actually exercise them!

When a business owner or high level executive is burning their candle at "too many ends," it's time to implement self-care. While he usually bounces back pretty quickly, this time around Remington was down for the count. So this wasn't just a one-day reprieve from work. This was a few days, plus extra days where he was out of commission for extended periods of days.

Getting to the point where as a leader you can rely on the team to keep moving forward, knowing your clients won't even miss you, is a proud but scary moment.

Don't worry. Your team still needs you.

One Step at a Time

When it comes to being a wayfinder CEO, Remington suggests taking it one step at a time. It's like if your business was your baby. You don't enroll her in a marathon. You teach her to walk first, with a few stumbles and well-timed catches.

"Just because your baby's walking doesn't mean you don't have hands on either side ready to catch." - Remington Begg

If you think your team is ready for a little time without you, maybe take an afternoon off. Or if you take a day, be available by phone if needed. Then work your way up to completely unplugging.

From there, it's a matter of measuring your team's confidence and aptitude - again you've hired them for a reason, so let them soar - and increasing the time away and the level of disconnection.

Unplugging = Self Care

Whether it's a vacation or calling out sick, taking time away and truly unplugging is critical to not only a CEO's mental and physical health, but it's great for the team.

When your team can run the business without your hand in every decision, magical things happen like scaling up and wins beyond what you thought possible. It may feel like you know the answers, but being the last to talk in a meeting, and being able to empower your employees to make decisions, means you're leading well.

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!

Growing a Business "Abroad"Kevin Barber is the founder of Lean Labs,a marketing agency and HubSpot partner that describes itself as "an outsourcedgrowth team for SaaS and Tech Brandsthat want to grow lean."Not long after launching a marketing consultancy, Kevin moved to Costa Rica and grew the company, through trial and error, to what it is today.Over the years, Kevin has launched two iterations of a marketing agency with different focuses and levels of success. His journey to Costa Rica plays a huge part in his growth journey, which we get into in the conversation.We learn how changing your perspective is critical, how empathy plays a major role in growth, and what a CEO's job should be in a growth-oriented company. Plus more. Sit back and set a course for growth.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 toSprocketTalk.com/WGto join the movement and get an exclusive Wayfinding Growth deal!Communication and EmpathyEven a factor as simple as time zones taught Kevin that leading and growing a team, and business, should rely on empathy and communication.In Costa Rica, Kevin's time zone was Central for part of the year. But that country doesn't recognize Daylight Saving Time, so for part of the year it was Mountain Time.With clients and team members in several countries, a dozen different time zones, and different cultures, timing and communication paired with digital-first communication meant a lot of effective, efficient communication, a dash of empathy and a generous portion of grace.Without great communication and lots of empathy, it's much more difficult to grow your business and your team.Tracking Assets as a Growth-Minded CEOAs the CEO, Kevin says, it's your job to grow your employees, not your customers. It took him a little time to discover this philosophy and truly implement it, but Kevin says he's so glad he did.Kevin used to think that the "stream of income" he had to focus on were the clients. Over the years he's realized that his focus should center on the team, since they're the ones producing for those clients. If he focuses on the team, the team can focus on the clients. 🤯This mindset shift means Kevin focuses on developing the assets of Lean Labs - the employees. As the development moves forward, the team is then responsible for developing and implementing for clients.It seems like a small shift, and a common-sense approach, but Kevin said it was life changing to the growth in his business over the last 18 months.Running Your Business by Getting Out of Your BubbleRunning an American company from a different country can help you get out of your bubble. For Kevin, that meant going from his market in Kansas City, where his local work brought him to a level of known and trusted, to a different world where remote work led to a new network where Kevin and the brand were not as known.Kevin ran a small agency - himself and two other people - for about 10 years. He knew how market, he owned about 75% of it, and he was comfortable. "With my customers, my network, my circle of friends, my sphere of influence, my neighborhood... we were doing well," Kevin says. "It was a dream life where we worked and I was able to go to the lake on Fridays and spend time with my family. I liked it so much, I wanted more freedom."That's when Kevin moved his family to Costa Rica. In about six months, his circle had grown to the point where he realized his success in Kansas City was a much smaller pie than he had thought."I had climbed through the foothills and thought I'd climbed a mountain. Only to see that the mountain was still in front of me." - Kevin Barber on perspectiveKevin found himself surrounded by other business owners and entrepreneurs with larger businesses, which drove him to see a new perspective. So he launched Lean Labs with a new mindset for a marketing agency, and found even greater success - even though at times he felt like a small fish in a large ocean.Kevin's lesson - Get out of your bubble for a new perspective. Maybe it's not moving to a foreign country. But you can step outside of your sphere and learn how the rest of the world works. It's a big, big world out there.Helpful LinksConnect with Kevin.Lean LabsGet to Know KevinLean Labs on TwitterKevin Barber on LinkedInKevin Barber on TwitterSubscribe for New Episodes Every WeekBe 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!

Christopher Lochhead: A Legendary Communicator

Christopher Lochhead hosts the top podcast Follow Your Different, wrote two life changing booksPlay Bigger andNiche Down, and he's a 3-time Silicon Valley CMO. The dude is legendary. He's also animated and authentic. Don't let the kids hear him...

Christopher has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups, is a venture capital limited partner and a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO, entrepreneur, and co-author of two bestsellers: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “Off-putting to some” by The Economist.

We dive deep into growth, marketing, category design, and more in this episode.

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!

Category - Brand - Product

A great example of how we think of businesses that Christopher offered was this: If your tooth hurts, what do you think of first? You go category (I need a dentist) then brand (my dentist Dr. Smith is great) and then product (I need to get a cleaning and filling).

If you can own your category, you win.

Design Your Legendary Life

When thinking about designing your market so you can own it, Christopher says look to Google as inspiration. They own search because they thought about the category, then the product.

At the time, we surfed the web through portals. When Google started, they said "We're not a portal. We're a search engine. Find what you want through us."

They changed the category and created a new one, then designed a product that fit that category and do one thing well, then changed our behavior. Google distinguished themselves from companies like Yahoo, Excite, Alta Vista and others instead of saying they were "a little better."

Google purposefully positioned a new paradigm called search.

"They focused on this one thing. They got product design, company design, and category design right. They didn't say 'We're a portal 2.0.'" - Christopher Lochhead on Google's category design

Now they've become that portal (Google, News, Music, Play store, email...) that they unseated early on.

Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Product

If you want to truly grow as a business, Christopher talked about a new mindset. Instead falling in love with your product, you need to fall in love with the problem you're solving for your customers.

This helps you see the solution beyond just your product. You could have an entire category in front of you, but not even realize it because you've created a product just incrementally better than the last business who solved the problem.

See the problem, and figure out what solves it, then create the category around that. The product should follow that.

"Big E Entrepreneur" Versus "Little e entrepreneur"

We're not all "Big E Entrepreneurs." Those are companies like Google, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram.

Christopher describes it: "I have some technology, I go to Silicon Valley or another tech mecca, find startup funding, and create a mutlibillion dollar category."

This world is where Christopher spent the majority of his professional career. He's learned lessons and shared them in Play Bigger.

Then there's the businesses Christopher calls the "Small e entrepreneur." It's like if three friends get together and start a bar in their hometown with craft beer and vintage arcade games, and call it Barcade. This idea might grow into a chain of bars from the one legendary location.

This example is similar in getting the holy triangle of category-product-brand dialed in, just on a different scale. Either way, you're navigating your growth journey by designing your category and your business.

Connect with Christopher:

Follow Your Different with Christopher Lochhead

The Lochhead on Marketing podcast

Lochhead on the Web

Lochhead on Facebook

Lochhead 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!

Legendary CMO/podcaster/author Christopher Lochhead breaks down legendary growth in the next episode of Wayfinding Growth. Tuesday at 7:00am www.wayfindinggrowth.com/208

"We were talking about keggerators and beer and bean bags and a nice open-air office. We still have those things. But when did those things years ago, the reason was for 'culture.' Now we're doing things to make people more comfortable."Dan and Remington pull back the curtain and talk about what culture means to Impulse Creative, how a brand maintains it, and how it looks for a hybrid team.Tune in Tuesday morning 7:00am eastern for the full episode on your podcast player of choice. www.wayfindinggrowth.com/207

The King of Clarity, Steve Woodruff

Steve Woodruff helps business owners, leaders and others discover their fit if they’re in charge of a business or brand, and are asking these kinds of questions:

With all this stuff that we could be doing, where should our strategic focus be?

How can we differentiate in the marketplace?

Do we have a core message that our customers are grasping and remembering?

Steve does this through something he calls Clarity Consulting. He says it's like a combination of personalized strengths-discovery, strategic brainstorming, and targeted branding. The goal is simple:Discover Your Fit. Then, he helps you craft the words that become your verbal business card. Words that lead to the ultimate business advantage – referrals.

Sound like a plan for growth?

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 atimpulsecreative.com/vfmand preview 2 modules for Free.

Clarity is: Identity, Focus, Message

Every company needs to be crystal-clear on their identity. What's your mission? You vision? Who are you really? #identity

Where do you fit in the marketplace? Who do you reach? #focus

How do you tell people about what you do and who you are? #message

Steve has found that many companies that come to him are lacking in at least one of these areas, more commonly two or three.

When you don't know who you are, you don't know who to go after, and you don't know how to say what you do.

This work, Steve says, really has to be done by the people running the company. Founders, C-level executives... the leaders of the brand who set the vision. If you don't have the captain of the ship using a compass, you're sunk!

"It's a scary thing because you're going to have to say yes to very specific things. Which means you'll say no to a lot." - Steve Woodruff on getting clarity

Clarity Leads to a Simple, Memorable Message

Steve describes his original consulting gig in the pharma world as the "eHarmony of Pharmaceutical Training." It's a great way to give people a quick picture on who he was. This is the goal of your clarity exercise: get your message to people in a simple-to-understand way.

This symbol, or metaphor, is the pinnacle to clarity. It's the most powerful way to portray who you and what you do in a matter of seconds. Take everything you've uncovered, your who, your what, your why... and distill it down into symbolic language. A word picture, an analogy. That's the goal.

Navigational Tool to Growth: Your Network of People

One of the most powerful tools for navigating your growth you have, and may not even realize, is your network. Steve learned that as his happy clients became his ambassadors, having a clear message helps tremendously in empowering them to help you grow.

This network should be full of people you can help, who can help you, and where you can be mutually beneficial when it comes to things you need like input and mental support.

"Look beyond your tools and software. It works much better when you have a bunch of sympathetic souls with you." - Steve Woodruff on the importance of a network

Sometimes Your Niche Has More to Grow

You can't be everything to everyone. Find your niche, and explore it deeply. Steve works in the world of pharma training, which one would think gets tapped out quickly with only a few big players in the industry. What he's found, even in his own work, is that he's "barely scratched the surface."

Like many entrepreneurs, Steve faces the risk of shipwrecks due to lack of focus. Some call it shiny object syndrome. He found that over time he'd want to branch out and find clients in other industries. But diluting his message and chasing clients outside of the industry in which he's well known slowed down Steve's growth. Instead, focusing on his niche and digging deep gave him more ideal clients and more business.

Connect with Steve

Steve's website

Steve on LinkedIn

Steve on Twitter

Clarity Wins the book

Other Helpful Links

Forging an Ironclad Brand by Lindsay Pederson

Whiskey Nate

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 quickest way into someone's mind is an analogy or a metaphor... Can you do that with your business's message? On the next episode of Wayfinding Growth, The King of Clarity Steve Woodruff breaks down how clarity will help your growth journey.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.

What Does it Look Like (and Feel Like) to Transition to a Distributed Team

Impulse Creative hasn't always been a partially remote team. Before adding distributed team members, we were a completely in-house team totally headquartered and housed in Fort Myers, Florida.

A few years ago, Impulse Creative faced a challenge. 70% of the team left the company all at once during what Remington called "a poaching by another agency." In that moment, Impulse needed to hire new talent and quickly. Co-founders Remington and Rachel considered remote workers to fill that need of "getting a butt in the seat, fast."

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 atimpulsecreative.com/vfmand preview 2 modules for Free.

Being able to have an employee, no matter where they are in the country, pivot to your business quickly, can make the difference between two weeks and four weeks (or longer) for a new team member. Sometimes a need drives change that benefits your business in the long run.

Forget location. Focus on talent. Stay agile.

Remington and Dan dive deep into what it "feels like" for an owner/founder to realize that the traditional "if your business is healthy, you're increasing office space and building a team you can see" is changing. You may not be able to point to your team in person, but you can include worldwide talent as part of your team instead.

It's also a common concern that with remote workers, collaboration may go away. You have to combat that with technology, culture, and a focused effort.

Technology has made it so your business can grow beyond local talent. You no longer have to move someone (and potentially their family) if you hire someone from across the country. That may feel uncomfortable for some business owners or leaders, but it's something Remington says is freeing as well.

Hiring That First Remote Employee

It's not an easy thing to make the transition and hire that first remote employee. For Impulse Creative, that person was Danielle. She's still with the company. But it wasn't a simple road for either side.

Remington honestly lays out the early conversations, where he told Danielle that this was a new direction for the company, that it won't be easy, but if both sides are willing to learn, it could be exciting. He says open dialogue and candor are critical to the success of this transition.

In-House Team Benefits

Over the course of the conversation, Remington talks about benefits to having a team in-house. This may mean you'll want to have a mix of in-house and remote, or it may mean that you'll need to consider how to encourage some of this for your distributed team. Or you might end up finding a new way to encourage these benefits.

Passive Communication

When your team is all together, they get a feel for their coworkers and what's going on with them. Maybe one person hears two others talking about an issue they're trying to fix. That third person overhears it, and drops in to offer a quick thought that solves it. That passive communication doesn't naturally happen when miles separate the team.

This also means that when your team isn't in the same room, things like recognizing mood or making personal connections may not happen as easily. When people are together every day, they get to know each other through interpersonal, non-verbal communication. A distributed team has to find a different way of coming together.

Empathy and Awareness

"It's harder to identify when someone is struggling, when they're not right there," Remington says. As a leader, manager, or business owner, you're probably in tune with your team. You can tell when they're struggling with a task or a project. You may even be able to tell when they're having a bad day.

"You can hear their sighs. With the in-house team, when someone makes a sigh in a certain way, I know they need help even if they don't ask for it."

When you're with them in-person, empathy and awareness are more natural and easy.

Distributed Team Benefits

With a distributed team, comes specific benefits. Here are a couple the guys cover in the conversation.

Talent Pool

Relocation happens when you find talent outside of your geographical area. But that can add expense, it can increase risk for both the company and the employee, and it takes time. Remote workers can be up and running faster, they get to stay where there home already is, and you don't need to pay for relocation. With a distributed team, your talent pool expands.

Flexibility

When you have team members who can work from anywhere, they can work... from anywhere! At the time of this recording, our graphic designer Jeffrey (lives/works in northern Florida) was working while traveling. He was in southern California, where he's from, on a personal trip. He was able to take some time off during the trip, but also work to save some of the time off.

If your team member has to travel but can still work, they're able to have more flexibility for themselves and your business.

Some Tools to Help Your Distributed Team

From software to hardware to cultural focuses, the tools you put into play for your distributed team are critical. Here are a few we cover.

15Five

This helps with performance and engagement of employees by continuously asking questions and starting the right conversations.

Video First Culture

Video helps connect us. Instead of standard phones, we go right to video. It helps with non-verbal communication and face-to-face connection.

Slack

Instant communication. Also, random conversations. We have channels like #random, #gifgab, #music and others.

Asana

Having a productivity tool is key to any team. It's even more critical for a remote team. It helps with communication, accountability, and more.

Tettra

Documentation is key. Where can employees go to find past learnings, processes and more? We use Tettra. A ton.

Purposeful In-Person Gatherings

Whether it's an annual event or monthly visits from different team members, it's critical to include your distributed team in events at headquarters.

Work from Home Test

Build empathy and test the system. Impulse Creative put a test in place for the in-house team - a work from home week. Hear about that experience at 20:30 into the conversation. Remington learned a lot about himself in this one...

"Donuts"

In-house employees have the opportunity to have coffee talk, water cooler conversations, snacks together... what about a distributed team? We put a practice into play where we randomly pair employees together for a casual conversation. It helps to connect and build relationships. (Go back to the video culture point!)

Helpful Links

Zenpilot Podcast Episode (hear a deeper dive into Impulse Creative's growth story)

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!

Team photo byBrooke CagleonUnsplash

Dan and Remington explore the journey from an completely in-house team, to a 50% distributed team in the latest episode of Wayfinding Growth. Tuesday morning at 7:00am on your podcast player of choice!