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177 - Lead Yourself First: The Real CEO Work Behind Sustainable Success · Amplify Your Marketing Message with Christine Campbell Rapin

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  If you are a B2B service based business owner and you are
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  looking to gain clients, create more impact and more new in your
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  business to amplify your marketing message, Campbell
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  Rappin and take you through the buyers mastering your marketing
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  and making offer consistently well on the inside.
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  Welcome back to amplify your marketing message.
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  I think the most important lesson is today's episode.
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  It is about being the business owner who leads themselves
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  forward because guys, you are both the CEO and the employee of
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  your business. But leadership happens at every
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  level. And I am super excited to
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  introduce our guest today. She's a friend that I have had
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  the opportunity to watch her business grow to be a brainstorm
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  thinking partner with her. And I think what she does is
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  really amazing. So I was thrilled and she said,
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  I'll come talk about leadership to your community.
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  Guys, please give a very warm welcome to Lynn Rowe.
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  Lynn, welcome to our show today. Thank you so much for having me
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  here today. Just because you think like I
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  think which is leadership is not a one thing once and done and
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  you have this philosophy that lead in three ways.
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  Let's talk about what do you mean by that?
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  So as a business owner, you, you have to be the CEO, but that
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  means that you have to lead your business in three different
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  ways. You have to be the person who
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  leads the business itself. And that that is things like
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  setting the direction for the business, the strategic plan for
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  how you're going to get there, the systems and processes you
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  need to put in place to get there.
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  So it's leading the business itself.
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  And the second way you have to be a leader is you have to lead
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  your team. You lead your team so that they
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  that everybody is on the same page, so that we all know what
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  we're doing now, know what direction we're headed in.
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  And you have to support them and encourage them and serve them so
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  that they can become the best that they can be to serve your
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  business for you. But the third way you have to
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  lead is you have to lead yourself because there's nobody
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  else to lead you. In order for your business to
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  grow, you have to grow. You have to become a different
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  person, the kind of person who has the skills of the person
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  who, who would be running the bigger business that you want.
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  So that's the three ways that I, I believe every small business
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  owner has to lead. I love this so much, guys.
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  It does sound like adulting. It is.
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  I think, you know, we, we think that we get into this freedom
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  concept of like there'll be no responsibilities and I can get
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  up and do what I want and it's all just going to magically come
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  together. And yet what we realized is we
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  start to have reality sink in is that if it's going to be, it's
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  up to me. And I love this direction of
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  lead the business, lead the team, lead all of this into
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  action. If you want to create the big
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  ripples. And yet leadership is hard.
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  How do you really? And you know, we often think of
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  team as, you know, is it me or is it we, when we're in
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  business, talk to me about leading teams because a lot of
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  people, even solopreneurs and a lot of our audience will be
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  solopreneurs, think I don't have a team.
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  And I'm like, really? I think you do.
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  Yes, you do. Yeah.
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  So many people say I don't have a team, but actually many
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  solopreneurs have a team. They just don't work full time
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  for you. They are people that you
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  subcontract to do some work here or there to help you out, to
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  support you. And so you do have a team, but
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  you're also part of the team yourself.
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  You are the team. So if you think about it that
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  way and you think about what did I get done today, if you were
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  hiring yourself, would you wanna keep that person on?
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  Did that person do enough today and every day to be to be worth
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  paying what we're paying them? This is such an uncomfortable
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  truth. I'm so glad you went there.
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  Sometimes as the business leader, you have to have a
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  performance improvement plan with yourself with.
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  Yourself. Absolutely.
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  Because you don't get paid to show up as an entrepreneur.
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  You get paid when you get results and results that come in
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  the form of clients being served money and exchanging hands,
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  opportunity being created that lead to money exchanging hands.
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  And I love that you see of team broadly.
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  I'm curious in your business, who was the first person role
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  responsibility that you saw really when you start to go, oh,
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  I've got a team, when did that first happen for you?
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  I think when I first hired A bookkeeper, I feel like for most
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  small business owners, having someone to keep the books is the
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  first step you need. Because most of us as business
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  owners are not people trained in finance, trained in bookkeeping,
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  trained in accounting. We don't really know that, that,
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  that area. And when we try to do it
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  ourselves, so often I see my clients, they, they get so mixed
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  up with what they've got. One client said to me, can you
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  please take a look at this the my books?
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  Because I know I should have money, but I don't have money,
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  right? And we did do a deep dive into
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  his books, even though I'm not a bookkeeper, but I was able to
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  look at his books and say, OK, first of all, you've got almost
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  $100,000 out there waiting to be collected that you haven't
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  collected, right? I've done all the work but I'm
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  scared to get invoiced and paid. Exactly.
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  And then you've got this other business, you've got a lot of
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  business and he's still finding, and this was months ago and he's
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  still finding places where he's bleeding money because he's not
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  charging for services that they're doing that they're
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  providing. So and, and the same client
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  actually also said to me, I haven't raised my prices in
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  seven years. Now.
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  He's an IT professional. And, you know, the cost of
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  everything has gone up in seven years, right?
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  He hasn't raised his prices. So he was wondering, why am I
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  not making money? Because I was making money.
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  Well, of course you were, but that was seven years ago.
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  You were making money. Today you're not.
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  So, you know, it's a lot of things that a bookkeeper can
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  look at your books and say, yeah, this is this is a place
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  where you're losing money. This is a place where you're
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  bleeding money, and this is a place where you can very quickly
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  find some of that money that you're missing, right?
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  I think it's important you talk that that is one of the first
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  team members you, you personally brought on board.
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  I, I think it was definitely in my days as well.
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  And for me, I'm a bit unusual because I, I could do the P&L's,
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  I could do that because of my education that came before my
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  business, but I don't want to. No, I didn't want to.
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  Do it. But I don't want to.
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  I could. And I probably make her crazy
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  because you know, when I see the panel, I'm like, why is there
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  $6.70 in that journal entry? And she's like, really?
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  I'm like, I know I shouldn't have anything in that category,
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  but yeah, your financial people are part of your team.
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  It's not just your virtual assistants, not just your tech
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  stack, your financial people, whether they be a bookkeeper of
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  CFSC, certified professional advisor, whether they are your
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  tax people, they are your team. They're there to help guide your
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  business. We supported the strategy and
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  the vision and all of the action, and I love that you
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  brought this to the table. So I wanna make the point also
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  that they're part of your team, but that doesn't mean you just
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  let them do it and run with it and you never look at it because
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  that's the other thing that happens.
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  I see a lot of people say, well, I've got my bookkeeper doing
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  that, but they never look to see, is the bookkeeper putting
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  things in the right buckets or is my money going to the right
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  places and in the right amounts? You know, it's, it's really a
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  conversation you should be having at least once a month
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  with your bookkeeper. Is everything going where it's
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  supposed to be? Because if you wait and you
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  don't do it every month, Oh my God, it can be such a mess to
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  try to fix, you know, at the end of the year. 100% What's
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  interesting even beyond that is your leadership is not the same
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  as advocating, right? So you can say I hired somebody
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  and I delegated this, but leadership doesn't disappear
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  simply because you now have team.
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  You said it when we started, he said a big part of this is
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  leading team. It's setting the oversight,
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  setting the standards, checking yes, to a degree the work.
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  Because at the end of the day, the buck stops with you because
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  you're the leader of the organization and your ultimate
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  job is the survivability of the organization.
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  Money is a very big broad to play here.
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  And if you're looking at your books at least once a month,
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  you're able to see trends. You know this this trend is
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  starting to happen bad or this trend is happening and that's
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  good. And you can do more of the good
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  and less of the bad, or you can stop the bad from bleeding
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  before it becomes a really big deal.
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  So, so that's another piece of it, just looking at things and
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  looking for the trends. Because not everybody as a CEO
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  that's part of your job is seeing the trends.
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  Where, where are we headed and are we headed in the right
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  direction? And not everyone, even your
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  accountant and your bookkeeper, are trained to be looking at
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  those kind of trends. For ultimate job and I, I think
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  the CEO is an interesting mindset for solopreneurs or
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  entrepreneurs in the emerging space because many of us never
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  one comfortably think about that hat or have they really thought
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  about what does the CEO do other than what we hear in the news,
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  which is they get paid a lot of money and I always think.
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  The time I don't want to be CEO, that's why.
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  Can I say the CEO does have an amazing role to play?
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  They have, they hire the brightest people around them
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  that they can. They can, they can justify their
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  pricing around and you get them to be the experts.
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  You don't abdicate responsibility, but you hire
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  smart people and when they need support, you're the oversight,
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  right? You are the person still solving
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  problems. You're looking for the patterns.
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  You have that view that's a little further ahead than the
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  day-to-day, but you still manage and oversee the day-to-day.
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  And whether you wanted to aspire to being a CEO as a business
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  owner, the buck stops with you. Use whatever title you like,
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  it's the same. Yeah, it is.
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  You have to be the person who looks at it all.
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  Yes, and that that that is both a beautiful gift and going wow,
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  who gave me all of the freedom you did day you said yes, yes.
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  I want to talk about leading yourself though, because this
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  this is sometimes the biggest challenge.
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  It really is. It really is, and it's a lot of
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  people try to do it totally on their own and I don't recommend
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  that. I think, you know, finding
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  groups, maybe mastermind groups, maybe a coach, finding other
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  people who have been there and done that or can get, can start
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  to look at you and your business from a different perspective is
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  hugely helpful. And, and I, and I really believe
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  they need to be someone who's not in your industry because
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  it's relatively easy to find information about how other
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  people in your industry are doing things.
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  Because you go to an industry conference or whatever, you meet
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  other people who do it and you naturally have those
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  conversations. But in order to be able to think
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  outside the box and look at different possibilities,
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  different options, you really need somebody else with a
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  different perspective. So that's why I say, yes, you
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  can think about it for yourself. And I think you should, you
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  should absolutely be thinking, OK, if I want to get to this
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  next step, what is the next thing I need to learn?
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  So one of my clients said, OK, I've gotten really good with my
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  sales. Next thing I really need to
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  learn is is marketing. You know, I need to learn it
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  well enough so that I can delegate it.
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  Yes. Yes, right now, well enough so
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  that I can ask the right questions to the person that I'm
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  delegating it to and so I can oversee it and make sure they're
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  doing what I, what I'm intending to have done right.
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  Um, so yeah, it's, it's that combination of what do I need to
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  learn in order to get myself to the next level and to bring the
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  business to the next level. It brings to mind this
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  conversation while you're leading yourself and while
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  you're leading team and you're leading advocates and other
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  people in your community. This is the question that's
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  coming to mind. The very thing is who's leading
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  you? And I think sometimes the
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  misnomer of people at the leadership level is I don't need
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  somebody leading me. And I'm still saying what you
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  loved, I loved it. Be independent, have your own
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  opinion. But when you don't know what you
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  don't know, somebody does need to lead you.
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  And I love that you think of this broadly of somebody from a
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  different industry that has a perspective that doesn't buy
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  into the blind spots of your industry because just because
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  it's done that way doesn't mean it will ensure survivability if
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  all of you are falling off the same Cliff.
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  And yes, and, and often if you just follow what everybody else
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  is doing, you, you are no longer unique.
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  You're vanilla, right? So in order for you to start
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  doing things a little differently to make you unique,
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  you need to listen to other perspectives and then find the
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  one that works best for you. That doesn't mean you go blindly
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  go off and do something else either.
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  But maybe it's a combination of what some, some other industry
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  is doing and what your industry is doing, and that's the best
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  thing for you. So it takes a little figuring
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  out and it takes time to focus on it.
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  That's another thing that that entrepreneurs don't do is they
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  don't very often give themselves time to focus on what's the big
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  picture of my business, you know, developing the strategy of
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  where we're headed and how we're going to get there.
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  They're they're so busy, bogged down with the day-to-day.
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  I got to do this and I've got to do that and I've got to get this
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  done and get that done. And they don't take that step
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  back and say, where are we going and how are we getting there?
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  That's such a little piece of leadership.
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  If you are not clear, your team doesn't have a hope in being
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  clear. And I had a perspective that you
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  had shared when we met recently and it was not just clear on
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  where you are today, but the business you want to be down the
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  road because that horizon piece is so important.
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  And the leader, whether you're the CEO, owner, whatever like
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  Tyler, you'd like is so important.
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  But how did you learn the mistake or the potential risks
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  of only managing who I was and who I am now?
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  And how do we actually not fall trap to that?
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  So I came from a strategic planning background, corporate
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  and not-for-profit. And when I, when, when I first
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  started this business, I, my, my daughter fell down some stairs
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  and got a severe concussion at college.
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  And she, of course, she called and said, can you bring me home?
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  I, we said yes, of course. And the doctor said she'll be OK
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  in about two weeks to two months.
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  Well, in two months she was not OK.
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  And then they said, well, two months, two years, and in two
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  years she was not OK. She was still bumping into
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  walls. She couldn't walk without
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  assistance. She was falling down anyway, on
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  and on. It was, it was a rough time.
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  And this was just as I started my business and I, and I've had
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  to think to myself, how do I build a business where I need to
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  devote so much of my time to caring for my daughter and I, I
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  fell back on my strategic planning.
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  Strategic planning for bigger businesses can be similar to
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  strategic planning for a smaller business.
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  And so I started with myself and the question I asked is what is
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  the lifestyle I want to be living and how do I design my
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  business to support that lifestyle?
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  So for me at the time, it was how do I have a lifestyle where
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  I can still be there to support my daughter and, and at that
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  point they were saying three years to maybe forever she would
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  be like this. And so I, I started planning for
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  how do I build my business and still have this ability to get a
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  stay, stay with her. So Fast forward, it took eight
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  years for her to come back to normal are relatively to normal
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  10 years after the fall and the concussion, she was able to go
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  back to college and she finished college about a year ago as a
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  she went back to college as a 28 year old freshman and and
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  graduated about a year ago. So, so the story ended up being
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  a happy story. So the second part of that is
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  every year you have to ask yourself, what is the lifestyle
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  I want to be living and how does my business support that, right?
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  So my lifestyle no longer is. How can I be there for my
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  daughter because she's independent at this point, But
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  it's other things, you know, how, how can I have time now to
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  travel? How can I other things that I
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  want to do? So, so that's a place to start.
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  And that's where I start with myself and with all of my
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  clients. Heard Lynn, how are you doing
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  this, taking care of your, your daughter and doing, you know,
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  and building a business at the same time.
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  And they said, can you do that with me?
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  So that's how I started building my practice of doing strategic
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  planning with entrepreneurs and helping them build the business
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  that supported the lifestyle that they wanted.
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  I love this so much and your goals will change and your
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  capabilities shift in ebb on life, life and cause all of us.
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  I mean, I'm so grateful it became a good story for your
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  daughter. There are that isn't always the
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  case. The Silver Linings don't always
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  arrive in the timelines and the ways we expect.
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  And I think the biggest shift in your momentum comes from what do
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  I want it to be and what investments do I need to make
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  today? What support do I need today?
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  What team do I need today to get me to that place?
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  Because if your business some clothes, if you need to step
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  away, you have not structured a business, you've structured a
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  job and yet you don't have the benefits and safety of
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  employment that maybe you would have in a corporate environment
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  and that's a high risk strategy. It is in my case, I could
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  probably, I probably couldn't have maintained a corporate job
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  at all because I needed to spend so much time with my daughter
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  and I was able to do that. So that was one of the nice
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  things about being an entrepreneur is you can make
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  your own time. You can lead yourself to create
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  what you want. Yes, that's the ultimate freedom
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  of entrepreneurship. Yes.
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  I'd love to ask all of my OHP. Go ahead.
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  Yeah, I was going to say the more money you earn as as an
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  entrepreneur, the more options, the more freedom you have to do
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  the things you want to do. Yes.
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  So I always say to clients, don't stay at the really lean
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  part of this equation. I want you to accelerate past it
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  so that you actually do create the freedoms and you have the
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  resources and you have the fun factor of what do I want now?
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  Well, we want to go do this in our business resources to do
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  that and team and leadership around us that says I'll step
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  in. Exactly.
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  In the fun leagues, I love it. Then I want to ask all my guests
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  this because I think it's important to see how diverse
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  success looks like and how we choose to get there.
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  So what are you doing right now in your business to amplify it,
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  to find clients and to create the life that you want at the
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  success that you defined? So two things.
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  One is I attend conferences where my ideal client is likely
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  to be hanging out, right? I love to travel and it gives me
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  the opportunity to travel and I usually try to attack a day or
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  two onto whatever conference I'm going to to enjoy. 100%.
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  So that's, that's one thing I'm doing.
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  And the other thing I'm doing is setting up my own events so that
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  I can I can meet with people and talk to them for more than just
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  a few minutes. So that so that.
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  They have an opportunity to get to know me and I have an
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  opportunity to get to know them. I love it.
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  You get to curate your own community and you get to curate
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  your own people. I love that so much.
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  And I think it's such a big shift happening right now.
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  And I I, I was cringing the other day in my social media
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  where the current mantra is swinging from you needed
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  funnels, you needed tech, you needed me, you needed your
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  systems really complicated, complicated, complicated to
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  relationships with the new capital and like relationships
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  were always the. Capital always there.
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  They were always critical. We've always built our business
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  on people. We've always been gotten into
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  rooms, we've been willing to travel.
• 20:47
  And that's of course how you and I met was many miles away from
• 20:50
  both of us live brought together by a common interest with
• 20:53
  different businesses, different backgrounds and saying I'm going
• 20:55
  to learn. From you exactly.
• 20:57
  And I've got something maybe that can help you along the way
• 20:59
  as well. So then how do people find you
• 21:02
  and what you do to help them build the lifestyle that they
• 21:05
  want to have a business that supports it?
• 21:08
  And find me online at LSR Consultants with an S on
• 21:13
  theend.com. So that's LFSR Consultants with
• 21:17
  an s.com. Alright guys, go connect to Lynn
• 21:20
  Roche is someone you want in your corner.
• 21:22
  She is an amazing person. I want to thank you Lynn for
• 21:24
  being our guest today. We've been talking about
• 21:26
  business owners and really owning the leadership piece to
• 21:29
  build the life that feels like oxygen.
• 21:31
  Thanks so much, Christine. You are so welcome guys.
• 21:34
  Here next week, we're going to help you find your next client
• 21:37
  fast, build the business of your dreams, because trust me, you
• 21:41
  can. I'll see you there.
• 21:46
  That's a wrap on another amazing episode of amplify your
• 21:49
  marketing message with most Christine Campbell Robin be
• 21:52
  subscribe on your fate cast platform.
• 21:54
  So you don't need another great episode.
• 21:56
  Be sure to visit christinekim.com/podcast to get
• 22:00
  free resource on Haster. Your marketing map will see you
• 22:03
  all on our next episode.