From Decision Fatigue to Leadership Clarity Navigating Growth Beyond Seven Figures

Well, Hey, happy, happy. Welcome to the podcast this week. This is Kris Plachy. I am your host and you are listening to Leadership Is Feminine. And I am reporting from a walk on a very muddy trail in the North Shore of Oahu, right at Turtle Bay Resort. And we had gorgeous, hard rain all day yesterday. The last day of my Hawaii retreat and fortunately I was able to rent a beautiful suite.

And so we were indoors, but we had the slider open. It was really lovely. You know, I always like to do at least one podcast while I'm here. My walks, I always seem to kind of get these downloads. And on the heels of podcast on the One Hour Leader, I've been thinking a lot about the concept of the One Hour Leader and the work I'm going to do with my clients.

And that, as a reminder, that starts at the end of January. And you can learn everything at thevisionary.CEO. It's exclusively for million dollar business owners who are women. And really, those of you who are kind of facing that crossroads of team design and knowing that who you have isn't the right- is that they're not the right people, or maybe not all the right people. And maybe you need to add people. You're just not really sure how to go forward. And so we're gonna do that. We're gonna do that in eight weeks So we're gonna do it live and it's - oh, I almost just slipped - and it's gonna be, it's gonna be amazing.

What I wanted this podcast to be about is really for my three million dollar and up clients and listeners. That doesn't mean if that's not you, you shouldn't listen. I just am speaking very specifically to the very unique challenges that I see in my clients after you hit seven figures for the first time, but then you keep growing. And you don't do some of the team work, team design adjustments, and you managed to get your business to three or five million. In my opinion, I think you can get to 5 million with a relatively small team.

I've seen it done over and over and over again. I don't think team size is necessarily indicative of revenue capacity. However, what I do believe is true is that team size is incredibly indicative of leaders capacity, founders capacity. By the time we're getting to 5 million, if you're the primary leader, you make the decisions, you set the vision, the course, the strategy, you make all the primary, large decisions, you are giving all the primary, most important, deliverable direction, I know a few things about you.

I know that you have decision fatigue. I know that you spend a lot of time wishing someone else could think like you.I know that you wonder if this is sustainable. The answer, shortcut, is no. I know that you wonder if this is as good as it's going to get the answer shortcut is no And I also know that you have fear because it is your business. You're still assuming all the risk and you have fear about finding someone who you would feel comfortable enough giving responsibility to that you have had since you started your business. And so therefore, this is a dance that gets very very complicated.

Now, many of you who are at this place in your business probably have one really solid person that you've worked with, the majority of the time that you've had your company. It's often that person that is either the one that is like, "Thank God for this person. I wouldn't be able to do it without this person," right? Or, "This person has been with me since I started, but they can't keep up. They're not the right one. They won't let me change. They won't let me hire people when I hire people. They're really difficult. They don't want me to hire anyone to help them." Right? We kind of do this dance.

Either way, if that's true, we have to be careful that we're not handcuffed so much by our feelings for this person, either our emotional connection or our dependency, right? We've put so many eggs in the basket of this person that if they walked away tomorrow, you are like, you have nothing. You don't know. You don't even know where the keys are, kind of a thing. That's an exaggeration, but you know what I'm talking about. Or they really aren't the right person anymore. But again, you feel sort of held hostage by what they know about the business and how much they help you with.

That tends to be the case for people who are around three to five million, even a little lower or higher than that. So what I know is that you're in what we call sort of this cool sweet spot. You're probably making really good money, which is fun. But it's time to make some investments in building the infrastructure of this business so that it can thrive without you.

And that's what the one hour leader really is all about, is let's do that triage work because that's really what this is. A team design. Getting your promise clear. Getting your expectations clear. Getting the agreements clear. Being really clear about who you want to invite into your organization, or what I like to call your queendom.

How do we design co-creative, you know, work agreements so that the people that you're bringing in are really aligned to what the vision of this business is, and also who you are, love. This is small business, right? If you're Microsoft, listen, they need bodies and arms and hands and fingers to get stuff done. Most of my clients most really have under 50 employees, not all, but most.

And so this is not just, you need a number and a body. You need someone who really can be a partner, a curator of a very important promise. And so there are skills that I know you have that I just don't think you give yourself credit for, because you've been so focused on building a successful business model.

I want to help you build that very successful leadership model, right? That team model so that no matter what, when all goes wrong- it's like a client said to me today. "Like, it can be going so great. And then all of a sudden it's not." This is true. When it comes to team, we don't get to control that. And honestly, I don't want you to feel like you should control that.

I feel like what we really need to practice is, that is out of your control: people quitting, people transferring, people getting pregnant, people' spsouse. It's a new job. Like there's so many things that can happen. People skidding out on the rails. You know that happens too, right? I've heard that more than once. "I had this really great employee and just kind of fell apart." You're not alone.

So how do we do that? We follow the One Hour Leader process. Because what I want for you is no matter what is ever happening in your business, you've got this formula that you're always going to go back to. Because that's what I do.

And it's what I've done for 30 some odd years, right? Like once I knew, "Oh, okay. This is how you design a successful team." Sure. It's a bummer when somebody leaves or when you realize someone's not the right person. Of course it is. We're human. But it doesn't need to stop the vision. It doesn't need to stop the success of the company and it doesn't need to be such a big deal for you that you drag your feet, and you don't go forward.

Because of course, the first thing we should ever do when we have a hole in our business is get about the business of filling it. But we don't want to do that out of desperation. We want to do that out of the plan, right? So if you're at three to five million and you're feeling this, honey bunny, you're not alone. There are so many women like you. Leaders like you, not just women. I just work with women

That's a truth that so many of us are facing because we have to confront that we need more layer in our business. We need another role or two to support the decision making, to support the oversight of the tactics, and to support the day to day mundane things that always have to be done so that you can be focused on the vital role that you play for your organization.

So, if you don't ever work with me, and you just are a podcasty person, which is fine, the thing you need to do today, if this is all you, is I want you to sit down and I want you to think about, "Okay, what is my current job in this company?" Write down everything that cannot be done unless you do it, unless you decide it, unless you approve it, unless you read it, write it all down.

Now I want you to go back after you've done that and I want you to really ask yourself, "What of those things that I'm doing are vital? Vital to the success of the business." So as an example, I just did this with my clients here in Hawaii.

I use the word vital signs all the time, right? What are the vital signs of your business? What are the vital signs of your life? I like vital signs, because vital signs has a very clear distinction. If we're talking about a body. What are the vital signs of the body? Blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen, temperature, right? And why do we use those?

Because we know that everyone so far, that's a human, has a body. And every body has those signs and those signs tell us what's going on. They give us indicators of what's happening in the body. Now, if you're two years old versus a hundred years old, those vital signs are going to be different and we have different expectations of those, but nonetheless, they're the same.

So when it comes to you and your contribution to the organization, what are your vital signs? What is vital that you do? And I am willing to bet a lot that you are involved in a hell of a lot that is not vital. You think it is, but the only reason you think it is, is because you're controlling or you haven't found someone to do it right. Or you haven't learned how to hire someone who can do it right. Or you haven't learned how to onboard people so they can do it right. I mean, is that too confrontational? No.

Secondly, now, let's look at what are the vital signs for the business. What makes that business of yours function? Like, well, do you know what they are? And if they start to sound like, create consistent graphic design, no.That would be like, "My hair is pretty," would be a body vital sign. But no, a pulse is a vital sign, love. What are vital signs? Revenue? New client? Sometimes it's compliance. Sometimes it's your AR, your AP. What is it? What do you got? If you don't know this shit, you need to. And if you don't know this, you need to work with me. I don't know what else to tell you about. Okay.

So that's your assignment. Because why? Because if we're going to bring people to the organization that supports the growth of the organization, the operations of the business, the decisions that are made in the business, then we have to get really clear about first, what are you doing that we need to get you out of? Because that reveals who we need to start looking for and attracting and fantasizing about. Okay.

So a three to five million business that is struggling with team issues that has a founder who's confused about what to do next, about who to hire next, about feeling overwhelmed, feeling like she's never going to get out, feeling like she's built her own cage.First of all, it's right on time. And second of all, it's all fixable.

What are you gonna do about it? You ready? I'll talk to you next week.

So the One Hour Header starts at the end of January 2024. If you're listening to this two years from now, and the current offer is all available on the website. You could join the waitlist, I think, right now. I don't know if we've opened it up yet by the time you'll be listening to this.

And if you ever have questions, you just go to [email protected] to get them answered. And you can also find me on the Instagram and on LinkedIn. If you want to ask me any questions, you can do that there too. All right.

So go to thevisionary.com and then click on One Hour Leader and you are three quarters of the way there. All right. Talk to you next week.