Latest / Amplify Your Marketing Message with Christine Campbell Rapin / 185 - Founder to CEO: Letting Go, Hiring Smart, and Growing Global

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185 - Founder to CEO: Letting Go, Hiring Smart, and Growing Global · 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 more clients, create more impact and more
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  revenue in your business, TuneIn to amplify your marketing
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  message with Christine Campbell Rappin.
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  Every week we're going to take you through how to build an
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  audience of buyers, mastering your marketing message, making
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  offers. Every business I know, whether
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  you are at your first 100K or an 8 figure business, all started
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  at the same place. All of us start at Ground Zero
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  and many of us, most of the entrepreneurs that I encounter
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  are bootstrapping, which means they are self funding and
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  building as revenue moves north. And today, I'm super excited to
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  bring a guest who has walked that somebody who started from
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  Ground Zero built to a team of over 200 people and an 8 figure
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  global business one step at a time.
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  So please give a very warm welcome to our guest today on
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  Amplifier marketing message. This is Jacqueline Belsito.
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  I'm excited to have you with us today.
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  Thank you so much, Christine. It's an honor.
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  Excited to to have this conversation and hopefully reach
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  other entrepreneurs. I love it.
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  Thank you for coming to talk business with me.
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  So you've started this business called Seed X.
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  And when you started, did you ever imagine First off that you
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  would build such a business with so many people spending so many
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  clients and really creating sizable revenue moving through
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  the business as you serve other people?
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  No, I, I think, I think I'll answer that question in kind of
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  an oxymoronically way. I think I had no idea.
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  And that and at the same time I always had huge ambitions that
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  it would be a great big success even beyond where we are today.
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  But the way that we got there and what we've become is
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  different from what I originally envisioned.
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  And I think that that is just a testament to the fact that I was
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  bootstrapping. I was just responding to the
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  market and evolving myself and evolving the company as kind of
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  made sense with, you know, financially, with our values,
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  with what people needed. And so I could have never
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  imagined where we are and who we are today, but I always had
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  faith that we would get to to a big place, if that makes sense.
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  It does, I think. I think faith in a cup of
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  ambition creates amazing journeys and amazing stories.
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  And I wanted to take you back to the very beginning because one
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  of the podcast episodes that that I recently shared that will
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  resonate very well in sequence with what you've just said is,
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  you know, I, I had this evolution and I responded to it.
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  But I want to know in the very beginning, when you talk
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  bootstrapping, what was the reality?
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  Did you have support? Did you have funding?
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  Did you think I needed money to get this going?
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  What was it like at the very beginning stages?
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  Well, I think my situation was a little bit unique or maybe maybe
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  not so unique, just this the situation.
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  I was really young when I started Seed XI was about 22 and
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  it started as me freelancing, trying to figure out what to do
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  in the entrepreneurship world. And so I had no money.
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  I don't come from like family money or anything like that.
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  I didn't have a I turned down a full time job at Google, which
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  everyone around me thought was the dumbest thing that I could
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  possibly do. I turned down a scholarship to a
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  law school program. So my parents were infuriated
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  with me and terrified. And they were like, what are you
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  doing so. Many levels.
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  Yes, on one-on-one hand I was completely broke, but on the
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  other hand I was also so, so young and so used to being
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  broke, having just left school, that it didn't affect me in the
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  same way that I think it would today having children and you
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  know, bills that I can't ignore and things like that.
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  So, so yes, but the, the reality really was that I didn't have
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  income, I didn't know what to expect from this business.
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  And so it was a big, a big risk in retrospect.
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  I love this. I think there are two very
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  different camps when it comes to the financial side of this when
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  you don't have any. I love that you say this.
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  I didn't know that I was living any leaner than I was already
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  living lean. And the other side is when you
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  you have had a corporate salary or you have had some stability
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  or the illusion of stability in a corporate world.
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  You're also biggest fear is I don't want to go back to being
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  lean. And I will tell you, being
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  hungry, whether that is, you know, from a real physical side
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  of you or from an ambition point of view, from a dreaming point
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  of view, hunger fuels. I have to find a way.
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  So I'm curious, as you started to find your way, when was it
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  really clear to you that it had to go beyond you?
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  That there was a possibility you could expand to take on more
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  than what you were physically one person capable of handling.
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  Yes, I think a lot of that kind of evolved from listening to the
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  market, right. So I think I had a really good
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  vision for what I wanted marketing to look like, what
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  eventually became seed X, but it was impossible for me to do it
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  all on my own, especially as client expectations evolved.
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  I, I'm a can, I can get by designing a website, for
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  example, but I'm by no means a user experience designer or a
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  web developer. And that I bring up that
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  specific example because that's, I close this deal to build an
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  app. And that's when I kind of said
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  to myself, I'm way in over my head, I have to start
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  experimenting with the idea of hiring people.
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  And I think it just came into like, it just came through me
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  understanding I didn't have the expertise to do everything.
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  And and so that's, that's what led to my first hires.
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  And I think my relationship with hiring has changed a lot over
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  time because I didn't like letting go of work at the
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  beginning. And now I love finding great
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  people who can do things better than myself.
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  But that's where it started, at least.
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  This is really important for people to hear and it's a tough
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  transition and I applaud you for being honest that it wasn't
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  pretty looking in the rearview mirror that first hire, the
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  first few hires, it's hard to learn to delegate and there is a
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  real truth to get to the next level, to serve in another
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  level. We've all been head over deep
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  going, Oh dear. But there's great talent.
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  There are people who love areas that you don't have talent in
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  yet and you cannot simply do it all and create stability,
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  enduring Ness and longevity because evolution is key.
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  And this concept you have of I let the market tell me what it
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  needed and I responded to it is so important.
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  I think a lot of entrepreneurs go off course because they're
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  like, I created a great product, now where do I sell it?
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  And you're saying I have skills that the market needed and I
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  listened to what the market wanted, but you have to get the
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  marriage. And a lot of creative struggle
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  with this. A lot of marketing agencies
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  really struggle with this, this idea that I don't just get to
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  create, I have to build a business.
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  I have to understand job functions of sales and
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  marketing. So where did you start to
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  realize there's a difference and an alignment that needed to be
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  intentionally built? Between between creating and
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  responding to the market. Specifically.
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  I, I think that it's funny, I, I always remember when I was first
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  getting interested in entrepreneurship, reading and
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  books by famous leaders that you have to be responding to in
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  need. And I don't think you really
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  understand that until you start experiencing it.
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  And I think, I think you really, you really start to see that the
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  market people in specific roles, people at different types of
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  companies respond to different value propositions, different
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  messaging, different things that are filling needs that they
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  have, that they have that are either eternal, they're kind of
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  Evergreen needs or their needs that exist in this exact moment.
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  And typically when you get when you're actually filling.
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  I mean, I, I'm experiencing this even now, my current, my current
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  kind of challenge right now at work is expanding our sales team
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  and the messages that work the best.
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  And this is what I learned at the beginning too, but have to
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  remind myself are the messages that really touch on what people
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  are experiencing now and the products that help fulfill those
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  needs. It's interesting to hear you say
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  I'm in an expansion of sales team.
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  And I want to talk about when you first started to realize
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  that you didn't need to lead every sales call because when
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  you first start out as a solopreneur, we're wearing all
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  the hats. And I know a lot of people are
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  like, I can't wait to outsource sales.
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  And yet it's one of the hardest challenging things to do because
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  it is confronting. It is hard to find great talent.
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  And I want to know when you started to make that shift and
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  realizing I am the bottleneck if I'm always the founder lead
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  salesperson to the place where you're now saying I have a team
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  and I'm expanding it. And how did you get there?
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  Sure. Um, I think for a while,
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  especially as a marketing company owner, it was easy and
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  necessary for me to be the salesperson because we were
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  focusing so much on building out our operational arm like hiring
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  the people to actually deliver on and create strategic
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  marketing. And so for a while from a
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  financial perspective, because we are financially limited by
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  our revenue, we, I, I think smartly focused on making sure
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  we had operations done well and that we weren't over hiring and
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  then creating, there's kind of a juggle between sales and
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  actually being able to deliver on those sales, right.
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  So for a while, it made sense for me to sit in the sales seat
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  while our team kind of caught up.
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  And then we reached a place where we had almost just like
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  too much availability. Like we had a team that was in a
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  great place. We were no longer having like
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  mistakes come up and our deliverables, our projects, for
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  the most part, we're running really well.
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  Our clients were happy and there wasn't enough work.
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  And I myself was not able to generate the amount of work
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  necessary or the amount of work that was reliable, which is
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  probably really important because I'm pulled in so many
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  different directions. I'm doing a podcast, I'm talking
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  to clients, I'm managing our team.
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  I am. And then that's just
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  professionally. I have 100 roles.
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  I have a bunch of roles at home too.
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  I'm a mom, I'm a wife, I have dog.
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  That's like all these things. I'm a person.
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  I just realized that I myself cannot consistently show up for
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  this one role in the way that it needs to be shown up for to
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  create success for for not just myself, but for our team to
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  sustain them. This requires a lot of
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  self-discipline to recognize this because this never changes.
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  And I think this is the illusion.
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  We have to pop the bubble on. So guys, settle down, butter
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  cups, we're going to go there. There's a time and place when
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  you realize you are always solving capacity.
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  Either in your case, we have spare capacity with great team.
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  We want to keep working and staying with us.
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  So we must sell more. And when we sell more, we always
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  have to backfill. Potentially strategic hires who
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  can do fulfillment and what is your next strategic hire is one
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  of the most important hats that you wear as a CEO and you are a
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  CEO and often an employee. So you're playing duality here,
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  but to recognize this is critical.
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  And it's when you face that demon, when you face that, Oh my
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  gosh, moment, you have to move swiftly to bringing in and
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  working to equalize the best of both worlds.
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  You can't do it when you have a limited finite bandwidth because
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  they'll never be convenient to have enough sales calls.
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  But sales? This is the most important
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  lesson I learned in corporate Sales equals headcount.
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  Yeah, that was the sales. You do not have a business.
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  You do not have the way to keep the doors, lights and build
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  zings functioning. You can't delay sales forever.
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  And if it reaches capacity, you have to hire for it and hire
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  well for it. So as you look at your business
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  right now, because you say your team is in a sales growth mode,
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  what are you specifically looking for and what do you
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  think is going to help your business continue to be stable,
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  to continue to see the right dream, high paying clients come
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  your way? What is on the forefront of your
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  mind in this period of hiring? What's on the forefront of my
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  mind? It's a great question.
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  I think that I have one of the magical things about founder LED
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  sales and I think one of the difficult things about agency
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  sales specifically is that I know all of our service lines
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  pretty well or you know, very well because I work with our
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  team, I know our whole team, I know exactly how our projects
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  work, I know what case studies we have, etcetera.
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  And so I, I want to find people for our team who are going to
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  care enough to really listen to people's business challenges
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  when they come to speak with us. And then also be able to speak
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  to maybe not just one business line, but how are our approach
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  and our team and our process can support them specifically.
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  And so that's always the biggest challenge is finding someone who
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  is willing to learn a holistic approach to marketing and not
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  just a single product. Like a lot of sales people
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  nowadays have a lot of experience in SAS and software
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  and it's very product focused. There's only a few different
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  ways to use that product, right? And I think the way that we
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  approach sales is very much like like a doctor helping to create
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  a solution for that patient. And so I'm looking for someone
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  who can kind of bring that emotional intelligence and also
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  be open to, to, to learning all there is to learn.
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  We need thinkers, you know, and this is potentially thing in the
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  world of AI and this seems ironic because I think we've
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  forgotten and we are certainly dumbing down our capabilities of
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  thinking. And I know that's why I champion
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  in the way I do for my business and for my clients is like, I
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  want you to be able to navigate anything.
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  They want you to actually connect the dots.
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  I want you to learn your own reasoning because that will be
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  the way you create your own economy.
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  You survive the product evolutions, the evolution,
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  responsiveness to the clients and the marketplace, because I
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  got to tell you, when you show up, you please bring your brain.
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  And that's, that's, I know, a real controversial opinion in
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  circles that I'm part of. They're like, well, how do we
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  automate the not thinking? I'm like, I think that's
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  dangerous. It's not how we'll build our
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  business. That's a choice I want the
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  mentally stand on. Yes, absolutely.
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  I think every sale is different. And I've had, I've had
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  challenges with that because there are some forms of sales
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  that are very based on urgency and pushing and creating deals
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  and things like that. And they're so opposed to how I
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  want to do sales that it can be challenging to find someone who,
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  like you said, wants to really engage and think through, think
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  through each person as an individual.
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  Well, and I have great faith they are out there.
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  And the coolest bit about business and I love how you hold
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  your North Star here because I want to find the people that are
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  right for me because my business has gone from zero to a
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  substantial 8 figure business. And it has done so because of
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  your stewardship and stewardship because you brought your
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  humanness to the equation. You're building relationships,
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  global teams, you've got family commitments in life that you
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  choose to say this is me. And I'm not going to apologize
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  for any of it because I love what I'm building.
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  And that's that cup of faith, cup of audacious, let's do this
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  that I think I certainly applaud and love to bear witness to it.
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  Truthfully, I think the world is more of it.
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  Thank you so much. You are so welcome.
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  So I want to ask you a question because it's important in this
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  world like you are a mom and you're building this and you're
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  staying true to what you believe in.
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  What tips would you give to somebody right now who is at the
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  wobble of can I show up as all of me to win in this
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  marketplace? I think, I think it's a it's a
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  difficult question and it's one that I would be remiss to admit
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  that I I deal with still, especially during difficult
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  times and I my advice would really be to to take it day by
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  day. I think that we putting a lot of
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  pressure on ourselves to see a change in, you know,
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  immediately, especially with how quickly our world feels like
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  it's moving with the our rate of communication.
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  But for, for me, what keeps me grounded and sane, especially on
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  days where my 3 year old gets sick and it throws my entire
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  schedule off and I have a million things to do and then I
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  get sick and you know how? Um, I just, I treat life like,
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  like a triage when those things happen and I, and I try to have
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  faith, it goes back again to having faith that if I show up
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  to that day the best that I can, then I'm building the bricks to
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  get to the next level. Even if that day the, you know,
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  the work doesn't look as great as it did the day before.
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  And so that's, that's what I try, especially since having
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  kids, I think I've had to kind of reassess my expectations of
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  myself on a day-to-day and look at the whole little bit more.
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  I love that change how your success is defined based on the
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  season that you are in because some days Mach 10 hair on fire
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  will feel very different than tomorrow's.
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  I have mock 10 hair on fire because I got out of bed.
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  And I think we all need to really choose our success and
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  how we define it and reset their expectations and let the guilt
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  go as best we can. It's not perfect, but it is a
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  brick by brick process. So I want to ask this guy, asked
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  all my guests who come on to the show, what's working right now
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  for you and your business to continue to find high paying
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  clients that you love to work with that are thrilled to say
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  yes, let's do this. Yes, great question.
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  And I think a lot of it goes back to that same, that same
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  concept that we've been talking about, which is really
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  connecting with people in the market on a human level and
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  understanding and meeting them where they are.
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  And so I really love to work with business owners and
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  marketers who are, have the same values as us.
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  They're, they want to grow, they want to be challenged.
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  And so typically that's where I'm, I'm looking at how do these
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  people currently need or what do these people currently need to
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  have their needs met? And a lot of that right now is
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  around the conversation for us at least been around the
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  conversation of how, how is AI and LM's and search all going to
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  change the the way that marketing looks.
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  And so what's working for me right now in terms of connecting
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  with more people and building relationships for the business
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  is just giving people good content on those topics, meeting
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  them where they are and continuing to, to really just be
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  of service to this moment, to the people that we like to work
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  with, which I think is a lot of it in line with how I started.
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  Maybe, you know, I, I knew less, I was less experienced, so I was
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  meeting different people in a different way.
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  But as we evolve, that's really I think what just stays, stays
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  at the centre. It does.
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  So how do people find you, connect to you, and learn more
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  about Cedex? Yes, So I am pretty active on
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  LinkedIn. I post often and I'm happy to
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  connect to and talk to whoever would like to.
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  It's just under my name, Jacqueline Basulto, and our
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  website is seed X dot US if you want to learn more about the
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  company. Guys, please go connect to this.
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  When you are starting, you might not envision just the ripples
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  that you can cast in your family life, in your business, but it
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  always comes and starts with a cup of ambition, a lot of faith
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  and a willingness to say, can I respond PDF service and lean
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  into the discomfort of changing success measures.
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  I think you're a great light. I'm so glad you came into our
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  world and said, let's have a conversation.
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  We rise together and we don't always have it easy.
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  In fact, most of us have a story that would break your heart.
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  But you can bootstrap your business to a really big dream
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  by simply saying, I'm in, I'm here.
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  Let's evolve and I celebrate a new year of success for you and
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  the team at FedEx. Thank you for being our guest
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  today on amplifier marketing message.
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  It's go time, my friends. Step in.
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  The water's great. We'll see you there.
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  Thank you so much. That's a wrap on another amazing
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  episode of Amplify Your Marketing Message with me, your
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  host, Christine Campbell Rappin. Be sure to subscribe on your
• 23:53
  favorite podcast platform so you don't miss another great
• 23:56
  episode. And be sure to visit
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  christinecampbellrappin.com/podcast to get a free resource on how to
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  master your marketing message. We'll see.