042: How to Thrive Through Your Brand’s Growing Pains

Get ready because everything is about to change. There's a new way of living life and doing business that will blow your mind. This is a podcast all about the timing of life and the timing of success. It's what we call the Right on Time Life. And you are listening to the Right on Time podcast with Amber McHugh. Here we go. I'm so excited to dive into today's episode with you because we are continuing our episode and our series where we are talking about how it's time to ditch your to do list and it's time to engage and start leveraging the modern CEO must do list. And in this series we have already talked about in our last episode how to shift into a modern CEO mindset, a growth mindset. And we've also talked about what your focuses need to be depending on where your business currently is, whether you're in a startup phase, a ramp up phase, a scale up phase, or a CEO up phase phase. And I want to just reset and talk about this idea of the to do list real quick. If you look down at your to do list right now, I'm frankly not going to look at mine right this second because sometimes they get long, they get out of control. In fact, I said to my clients yesterday, I'm like, I'm just going to update what is on my list because sometimes they get wild. And mine is one of it's in one of those stages where I'm like what just happened? What just happened to my list? Because it's not looking like a modern CEOs must do list. It's looking like an out of control to do list. And what has currently happened to my to do list is I have a number of things on there that are open and unfinished and that causes me a little bit of unnecessary stress. So I come back to what we are talking about right now and I look at my to do list and I factor in are these my CEO must do's based on two things. Based on my role in the organization and the commitments that I have made to my team and my clients and frankly my family as well. And I think about my values. So I look at my role but I also look at the focuses of our business right now and the stage we are at in our business right now. And I compare what is on my list and what is on my in progress list. Because like I said, some of these things are open and in progress and they're not finished and that causes me extra unnecessary stress and I'm looking at those things and I'm starting to prioritize what needs to remain because it is a must do for me as a modern CEO. And those things that are not must do's. That's when I start to employ my 3D strategy, the triple D. It is a delete because it doesn't need to be there. It's a $5 bill, not a hundred dollar bill. So we can delete that. I don't even need to delegate it. Which brings us to the third D. Delegate it. If it needs to stay, it's not a delete. It needs to stay, but you don't need to do it. You can delegate it. And then the third D is to delegate or to do it. Excuse me, we've got the three Ds. Delete it, delegate it. Or sometimes you just need to do it. But make sure the things you choose to do are align with the role you play in the business and they align with the priorities you have set for your business right now. And if you're just diving in with us and you haven't listened to the prior two episodes, I invite you to check them out at some point because these episodes build upon themselves. The last two, plus this one, and one more, as we're looking at what needs to be on the modern CEOs to do list, which we've reframed as the modern CEOs must do list. Because what happens to a to do list? It starts with a couple things and then it turns into 10 things and then it turns into pages and pages and pages of things and it's frankly never ending. And then this thing pops up. You get invited to speak at an event, you identify a new opportunity in your business that would be relevant and important to execute on, and it would be a strategic priority for your business. But oh my gosh, look at that to do list. You don't have time for that right now. And this endless to do list isn't helpful because it hasn't been prioritized. And this is where the modern CEO must do list helps us reframe and prioritize for what's important to the business and what will actually help move your business forward faster, more efficiently, and with a greater sense of ease. And you know, I am all about building ease in because there is enough hard out there for us all ready. And that endless to do list just keeps growing and keeps growing and it doesn't enable us to focus on what matters and what's going to move our business forward. And that's where overwhelm starts to Set in. That's where stuck starts to set in. And as you grow in your business, the list will only grow with you, my friend. The list will only build and grow. In fact, in our photography business, we are making shifts and we are making changes. In this season of change, we had already planned to make some changes and they're happening differently. We've had a giant pause in our work activity because in person shoots are not available in this moment while we are. And almost all of our states have stay at home orders, but we are not shooting in any of our states right now. And so we're resetting some things and we've expanded to states and so we're looking at setting up those states and it has created a whole new volume of workload. And I'm looking at my must do list and there are things that I could do because I know how to do them. And it would be very easy for me to shift into old roles and old patterns that I have had, but it would not necessarily be the best thing for the business if I step out of my CEO role and I step into an HR role. Right? I could do that. I've played those roles before, both as a consultant and on an HR team. But it would not be the best thing for any of my business or my clients or my team if I step back into those roles, because it would take me away from being strategic and setting the vision and keeping my eye on the growth and the future of the business, and I would lose elevation. So I very quickly identified, hey, I've got a partner that we already work with in the business as a consultant who also has HR experience, who's also a client of mine, who, who we could tap into very, very, very quickly. And I reached out to her as I had that. Aha. And I'm looking at the to do list and I'm looking at these unfinished business. And I came back to the modern CEO must do list. And she said, yes, I have bandwidth, let's do it. Oh, thank goodness. And immediately I stepped out of potential overwhelm and I stepped out of what was definitely mounting stress. And I stepped back into the CEO role and I almost flipped back into the state of being in Hustle. So that was a. I dodged. I dodged a bullet, so to speak, there. And I'm back into that space of leadership. And I want to I share this story with you because these things come up over and over and over again as we grow the business. I used to frequently say, a new devil, new level, new devil. Oh, My gosh. I'm mixing it up because it's mixed up. I used to say new level, new devil, and now I have realized it is also new level, old devil. Like, we can fall back into old patterns as we grow. And now as we elevate and as we learn more about ourselves and as you learn more about the leader that you want to be and the business you want to build, you get the opportunity to choose over and over and over and again. We are making that choice to continue to grow in a certain way and to continue to build a certain business. And this is where I want to invite you to be observant and I want to invite you to learn with me. The modern CEO must do list danger zones, or as I like to call them, the red alerts. So with those, we're going to look at these by business level again. The four business levels that we have broken out for this maturity map are startup, ramp up, scale up, and CEO up. But we're just walking stairs sometimes, right? For example, in our photography business, we are very much at scale up and CEO up, but we're in a startup mode as we open up new cities, we go back to startup mode as we achieve new levels of our business and we have to redesign some things. So we just, we just work those stairs. We're up, we're down, we're up, we're down. So again, new level, old devil. But it's all very relevant. So think about the level your business is at right now and these may be relevant for you. Again, as you're in a new season of business, even though you're firmly planted in CEO up, you may find yourself just walking back down the stairs knowing that you're going to walk back up those stairs. And this may be even more relevant. This stair analogy may be even more relevant as we think about the season we are in with COVID right? Let's be very real about this season we are in right now because there is nothing, nothing normal about this. So I'm going to talk about the startup danger zone first, the red alert that I want to invite you to consider. The goal is not to build out perfect when we are in startup mode. So when we're in startup mode, when you are building out new, when you are scaling up rapidly, right? It's going to get a little bit messy. So many talented business owners and modern CEOs get stuck in this phase thinking it's got to be perfect, has to be the final version of the offer before we launch. Resources and terms that I did not create but I want to invite you to look at here are related to the Lean Startup project. So check out Lean Startup project and check out things related to minimum viable product. Clients of mine started referring to this also as the minimum lovable product product. And this is simply what is the bare bones. What is the basic offer or product that you could put out there that people will, people will start buying and people will start falling in love with that you can engage in, start selling and start to get feedback on. Because I am telling you second, you put something out there and start getting feedback, you are going to learn and you are going to get more ideas and and you will come up with things to make what you are creating even better. So again the red alert is if you've got, oh, I've got to make this perfect. I've got to get this just right in the back of your head. I want to invite you to think minimum lovable product. Okay, the next danger zone is at the ramp up phase. You might be in the ramp up phase if you've actually sold some products like hey, this is work but you don't have a system around your sales yet. Okay, so this is the ramp up phase. We created a new offer in the last couple of months in response to not being able to shoot in person. We created the virtual photo shoot thevirtualphotoshoot.com and we are in ramp up phase with the virtual photo shoot now. So I'm very here with you and we had this red alert top of mind and the red alert for our ramp up stage is do not try and boil the ocean. Focus on what truly matters to you and your business. Short term, midterm, long term. Many times people try and write their entire operations manual during the ramp up phase, right? Many times. Even as we are going to build out this virtual photo shoot. Oh, let's start our affiliate program now. Let's get all the coupon codes set up. Let's do all the things before and while we are ramping up. But we can do things in phases, right? Affiliate program is going to potentially come next month. In the meantime, we set up a coupon code and we've done some other things to ramp up. Slowly but surely slow and steady will win the race. Right? And it's going to be a little bit messy and it's not all going to be perfect. Taking a note from our startup playbook, but it's going to get done. And sure enough, the virtual photoshoot.com is growing and we are getting bookings and we've added new team members to help us grow and expand that product line and to serve more people. And I'm going to tell you, since you are listening now, or maybe you saw this in my email last week. If you are not on my email, we send out things and you get things early and in advance there and special things. But if you want to book a virtual photo shoot, check out thevirtualphotoshoot.com and use my coupon code that I have for you, your discount. The code is the A team. The A team, no spaces, all one word, all mushed together to get a special on that. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your support and we'd love to shoot with you. I was not planning that. That is just something that I thought, oh, I want to share that with you in case you're interested in that. The virtual photo shoots are a ton of fun. But danger zone, back to our danger zone. Don't try and boil the ocean. If you are in that ramp up phase. Focus on the most important things for your business, for your clients, with your team, for your life, for your family. Focus on the hundred dollar bills, not the ones, not the fives. Little by little, it's all going to come together. Okay, next danger zone I've got for you at our scale up phase. Now at scale up, you have consistent sales of your offers that you've got those systems in place, right? Danger zone. Many entrepreneurs at this stage start thinking about burning down the business even though you've done the work to get to this point. There's resistance to growth, there's question about growth. Is this the right thing? You're in this middle ground of like it's happening, but there's so much more to hit that CEO level. You're in this season of change where you're coming out of hustle, right? If you were in a phase of hustle and high productivity and being a, what some of my clients have referred to as, I'm like almost like a machine. I can crank it out. And you're starting to move away from that. If you were in that season and you're wondering how you make the pivot from being a machine to stepping truly into that leadership role. And it may feel easier just to go back to a day job. It may feel easier just to burn it down and start fresh. I want to invite you to resist the urge because you have built something great. Great. You are building something great. You are this close to the breakthrough. And yes, sometimes there are breakdowns before the breakthrough. But if you can double down on what's working, you will break through and scale this business. Trust me, it is coming. It is coming. So stick with it. Pay attention. This is just a red alert, but you can persevere. Just like my unfinished to do list yesterday, like red alert, you've got a lot of unfinished items. Come back to the tools and resources you inevitably have in your toolbox. And if you're like, I don't have. I don't know what tools I have in my toolbox, reach out. We've got you, we've got you. Next up, CEO up. You've got a great business, you've got a team to trust you at this point, potentially, maybe not. Maybe you don't have a great team. Maybe you don't have a team in place right now and you need that. Let's talk about that. But you are in a leadership role right now, in a danger zone. As you move from scale up to CEO up is your danger zone is starting to think bigger than yourself. As you scale your business, you're also scaling the impact you can make with it. And it's hard to think bigger outside. And I find sometimes, like, can I really do this? Are people really listening? Can I really impact them? Impact people, serve people, help people in the way that I have that nudge, that calling, that instinct, that, that hint of belief that I think I can. And I want to tell you, you can, you will. This. What you have built and what you are doing starts with a seed of an idea. And it's incredible to think how far you have come and your role as leader, the next level of leadership is really just beginning. So as those hints of can I really do this? Right, Danger zone, that hint of doubt, they new level, new level. Old devil, right? It comes up and you're entering a new level of leadership. And I want to invite you to lean in. I want to invite everyone who's listening right now. You who are listening, lean in and listen to that voice you are hearing that voice, that nudge, that calling for a reason, and you have prepared for your next level of success. It is coming. It is right on time. And with the next episode in the Right on Time podcast, we are going to dive very specifically into very tangible examples of things that you may or may not want to have on your modern CEO to do list. So we've talked, we've set up the structure, we've talked about mindset, we've looked at danger, danger zones, red alerts. Next up, we're going to get super tangible and we're going to call out specific things that you may and may not want to keep on that modern CEO must do list. Thank you so much for listening. If any of this has helped you, I would love to hear from you on social media. I would be so grateful if you would leave a review. If you got a nugget out of this. I cannot wait to hear from you and I'm so grateful to be on on this journey with you. I will catch you in our next episode right on time.