Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / GEMS: Taking a Company Through an Exit with Girlboss' Lulu Liang

Transcript

GEMS: Taking a Company Through an Exit with Girlboss' Lulu Liang · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:08
  At some point in that journey, you become general manager and you lead the business through an exit and you become CEO of the company, which is just, you know, I guess when you're starting at 22 or 23, I think you said going through this journey and then becoming this key top of the company. And you've accomplished this huge thing going through an exit.
• 0:32
  What are the key learnings or takeaways from that kind of transition from exit through to CEO? Honestly, when I think about this, like my biggest takeaway from that year, I mean, obviously,
• 0:47
  tactically, like I learned a lot. Kudos to anyone who ever sells a business or exits. It's so much work from a diligence perspective and from a pitch perspective. And you have to still be growing the business at the same time and keeping it a secret from your team. So it's just like so many different factors at once. But like the first thing that I think about when you asked me that question is, I think I learned how important it is to let go and how important it is to like have an embedded mindset and how important it is to,
• 1:16
  yeah, just like reframe that part of my mind. I think like I was really, really working very hard towards like this exit. It was my North Star for the majority of that year. And like one track minded, I like a lot of other things in my life suffered. And I,
• 1:35
  I felt like even it wasn't even healthy for the sale for me to be like so, so like determined because like it was just showing up in a lot of unhealthy ways. And when I started like letting go, just like unnecessary stress and things I couldn't control and like worrying about things that you can't control. I think it's really important to like have ownership and like take responsibility for what you can control. But there's so many things that you can't control. So I honestly think like a big part of my lesson for that year is just like being
• 2:05
  like being a little like let go and more I think that's been helpful for me so far and to also like enjoy the journey as well you know like um I think the destination is obviously great a lot of founders especially the I'm sure this audience um maybe it's an eventual dream of them one day so like build this huge business and sell it for a big multiple and then it's obviously great when you achieve it but you realize once you do that there's so many like
• 2:31
  It's hard to explain. No one ever like knows until you experience it, but like the journey is actually like the most beautiful part. And when I think about like what I appreciate the most about that business and like my fondest memories, it's always been like with the team and at the office and at our off sites and like building them when we were really small and like doing all these like super scrappy things.
• 2:52
  like unorthodox, not best practice things. The romance of a startup. Yeah. And no one will ever take that away from you. Like now that I think like more than just like the result of what happened, now I have developed that skill set. So like now if I know if I like someone strips me of everything, of all of my titles, of all of my money, of like all of my success, at least I know how to do it, you know? So I'm just really grateful to have learned that through that experience.
• 3:21
  everything you're saying really resonates with me because I think,
• 3:24
  and I was on another podcast this morning and I was actually talking about this. If you don't enjoy your day to day and you don't enjoy the journey on the way to the goals that you set for yourself, you've truly lost because like the goal is just this tiny thing that happens maybe once over here or maybe once over there, but your life is the everyday. And if you're not enjoying that and making the most of it and doing great things with it, then that sucks. Basically,
• 3:57
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• 4:21
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• 4:44
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