When the Founder Has an Unexpected Personal Issue

Kris Plachy: Hey, I'm Kris Plachy, host of the Lead Your Team podcast. Running a million dollar business is not easy, and whether you are just getting started with building your team or you've been at this for a while, I'm going to bring you honest, specific and clear practices you can use. Right now today to improve how well you lead your team.

Let's go ahead and get started.

Well, hello. Hello. Welcome. Welcome to the podcast This week I wanna talk with you about when things don't go as planned, so of course. I'm recording this at the end of October, 2020, which of course has been the year where nothing has gone as planned. So like, we're just gonna, I'm just adding to my own list.

But I had this really interesting, uh, feedback from my team and it really got me thinking. And so I just think it's an important part of my mess to message to you. Uh, although I don't find it messy, I just think it's important to share. So I'm going to, about this time last year, I was in the midst of sort of pre celebrating my almost 50 birthday, which is in December.

I had just finished my annual Hawaii retreat that I lead for, um, amazing women, and this will be the first year. I haven't done that. I also was planning and getting excited for a family trip that my family took with my in-laws to Belize. We went for Thanksgiving and it was, uh, quite a trip, quite an amazing experience.

Uh, Belize and Thanksgiving dinner. So good. There was lobster. I'm just gonna say it was so good. Then I came home and a very dear girlfriend. Took me and my husband and another dear friend and her husband and some of her family to, uh, four Seasons Resort in Punta, and we stayed in a four bedroom villa on the frigging ocean.

It was, Unparalleled experience. I had this beautiful birthday party on the beach. I, I'll never forget it. It was, it was insane. And then shortly thereafter, Christmas, I went to Grand Cayman for a week by myself. So let's just say that last year at this time, I was staring down, uh, an incredible. Coming year with all sorts of fun celebrations.

And then of course, by March, you know, you all know what happened. Well, uh, unfortunately, I've also had an unexpected health issue happen to me, and so that's gonna mean that I need to have a procedure and I'm gonna be unavailable and out of the office for probably at least two weeks. I'm hoping it'll only be two, but we're gonna plan for at least three.

Hopefully not more. I don't think it'll be more, and so I, you know, I've been working very hard. I, I don't say that like, I, I think I would say we have been working very hard as a small but mighty team to build in all of our, our infrastructure. Everybody has job descriptions. Everybody knows what their roles are.

We have a much clearer plan for how we launch our business and do our business and support our clients. And so as this all started to unfold, for me personally, you know, I realized I'm not worried about being out of the office. I just kept being grateful to these women who are on my team for how capable they are.

And so we were talking about. How I was gonna notify clients, cuz I, of course just rolled out a new program. Right. That's the way it works. And, uh, I'm have some, had some concerns about how we could make that right for them while I was out and I wanted to make sure that we communicated it so I was compiling my message.

How would I, how did I want to? Tell everyone, and what did I wanna say? And, and Camille on my team offered me this insight that ironically didn't occur to me. And she said, you know, you are proving how to CEO o you are a living current example of what happens when you do know how to build a team. When you do know how to create the structure for your team, when you do.

Create team, the culture of team that you could walk away and know it will all be handled. That we all have your back. That we, that there is a plan and it's handled. And it's, like I said, it was kind of funny cuz it didn't occur to me. I was, cuz to me it was so like, oh, I was just, I've just been so grateful.

And from her perspective, she's like, No, you built that. You're modeling what you're teaching your clients because of course, so many of you, you female entrepreneur types, you don't have systems to help you. You don't have the team. You have people, but you're still working tirelessly. And so it's an incredibly important question.

Could you unexpectedly. Have to step out of your business and it would still be okay. Now, the truth is, even if you don't have anything in place, I know everything will always be okay. But what I would love for you is that you really could just like turn off the phone, turn off your slack, not check your email, know that your clients or your customers are supported, that your.

Future revenue, whatever your model is, is on the radar, right? Because that's the other big thing that happens if the founder has to step out, is sometimes it just stops the growth. Do you know that, that all of that could happen? And if you're like most of the women that I know, especially when they first meet me, the answer to that is no.

So what we do, of course as women is we put ourselves at the bottom and we don't take care of ourselves. So if I didn't have all this set up, I can tell you what would happen is I would have this procedure and then like three or four days in, I would try and figure out how I could keep working and I wouldn't heal.

I wouldn't recover the way that I know that I need to because the truth is 50 kind of sucked. I'm gonna be honest. Like pre 50 was awesome. PO slightly post like six weeks in, but the rest of 50 was a terrible crappy year. So, and it's when, this is the capstone. So 51 needs to be amazing and I need to be strong and resilient and.

I have lots of energy cuz we gotta go because there's, you know, if, if I can tell you, man, we started out a c e o, uh, four or five weeks ago and these women are so amazing. I, I get to do, I teach every week live, but that, and we interact a little, but then I get to do the office hours calls and I get to like, talk to all of them and coach them and answer questions and advise and.

What a brilliant, brilliant group of women, and for me, it's so rewarding to watch this slow but consistent confidence with every new thing they learn. Like, okay, wait. Like we had a client say to Michelle last week after a couple weeks of kind of talking about the same thing. She sat on the call and she went, oh, I get it.

That is everything because it's not enough, you guys to build a successful business. Are you building a successful life? Are you building a life you want to live? That almost like makes me wanna cry when I say it. I think that is the most important gift. I feel like it's one of the gifts I, I believe my work in the world does.

Is, it changes women's relationship with their business so that they can savor their success instead of drowning it. So we don't know what's gonna happen to us tomorrow. We don't know what's gonna happen to us later today, but your business is your legacy. And if you have a team, uh, this is how I think anyway.

I, I don't want my team to immediately not have a job if I can't be there. I, I would love to be building a business that could eventually exist without me. Now, I like it and I wanna keep being in it, so I'm not going anywhere. But I know that what I do is less about me and more about the lessons that I teach and the body of work that I've created.

And the philosophy that the work is grounded in. And I believe that has a legacy to it. But I wouldn't be able to do that if I didn't build the team to support it. And I want you to understand that I know how hard that is, and I know that you have to kiss a lot of not great employees before you find Prince or Princess Charming employee.

And you have to have a process to follow so that you're consistent with that. And you have to have difficult conversations with people that you love. I just coached someone yesterday who has to fire a best friend. This person just isn't doing the job anymore. Not, not out of, because they're terrible.

Just the, the business has outgrown their skillset. So the process of this growth is not simple and it isn't painless. I was coaching someone else last night and I was yelling at her. She didn't want, all she wanted to do was fight to keep her problems and she didn't even see it. When will it get easier?

She kept saying to me, when can I stop being so involved in everything? And there's a a lot that comes with that question. One of the first steps is building the support system for the business, which is the team. So, As I said, I'm recording this at the end of October. This will probably air several weeks from now.

So by the time this airs, everything will be all done, which will be so fun. And if you want help, and if you're ready, I want to support you. I want you to know you don't have to be drowning. There's a lot of women I'm coaching right now who are wicked successful because of the pandemic. Because the market shifted so fast and what they offer is driving people in droves to what they do.

They are so unprepared. Not for, not because that's their fault, just it's just the way the world works. And so there's a lot of you listening to this that I think actually really are drowning in your own success. You don't know where to start and how do I make time to actually hire people? How do I even do that?

I don't have time to write a job description. And of course my position on that is you don't not have time, but you can create time if you work with me in this program, because then it's your dedicated time. This is when I do this work, and in 12 weeks, your CEO Blueprint will be built. So the next one is gonna start at the end of January.

We currently are putting people on the wait list. All you have to do is go to how to CEO join.com, and you will be able to add your name. And we will be making special little, maybe offers for people who are on that wait list. So you might want to be on there soon to see what comes to you as a treat if you're on the list.

All right? Okay, everyone. So look at your life, look at your business, ask yourself. Could my business absorb my unexpected absence? And if not, why not? If it's related to team, you know what to do. If it's already designed that it could, this is good news. All right, I'll talk with you again soon. To claim your complimentary download, just go to the women who boss.com.

That's the women who boss.com. One more thing before you go. In a world of digital courses and online content, I like to work with my clients live because I know that when you have someone you can work with, ask questions of and meet with, you're so much more likely to get the success that you want. So head on over to how to ceo live.com to learn more about our very exciting, very exclusive program just for female entrepreneurs.

We'll see you there.