Hey friends. It’s been awhile, hasn’t it? Almost a year judging by the timestamp on my last blog post.
Non-coincidentally, has been an entire year since I first launched cloveandhallow.com, thereby opening up my business (and heart) to the masses. It sounds cliche, but it has been both the longest and shortest year of my life to date. Long, because we’ve accomplished so much; short, because time flies when you’re constantly learning 😉
I can’t think of a year in which I learned or challenged myself more. To be honest, I’m not sure I want to imagine a year in which I learn or challenge myself more – I’m exhausted just thinking about it! Although I certainly fall short of being a “seasoned entrepreneurâ€, I did pick up a few critical lessons over the last 365 days that I’d like to share below.
(Please, if you’re reading this, I would *love* for you to leave a comment telling me about the #1 lesson you learned this year!)
Perspective is your most precious resource.
A lot of magic occurred over the last 12 months, but a lot of sucky things happened too. At times, I felt myself drowning underneath the learning curve, pressure, and mistakes. Born a sensitive perfectionist, my gut reaction has always been to thrust full emotional labor and my undivided attention upon every issue, no matter how big or small. Eventually, I realized there simply weren’t enough hours in the day nor enough fuel in my tank to continue that approach.
To cope, I wrote down a list of three areas that I felt were well worth my time and energy:
- Product performance/quality
- Consumer experience
- Building a team
I promised myself that if an issue didn’t fall under one of those categories, I would pass the buck and let someone else on my team worry about it. Sometimes, no one needed to worry about it at all.
I’m not perfect at executing this concept, but I’m getting better with each passing day. The trick is that once you’ve identified core areas to invest your energy – which are typically core aspects of your business – everything else is put in perspective and you realize that you have a choice: you can waste your time by not prioritizing it, or remember that perspective matters above all else and spend your time focusing on the things that actually matter.
If the mission changes, you’re in trouble.
We were blessed by many incredible opportunities throughout the past year. I squealed each time a new one came through my inbox. But underneath the excitement, there was a lot of pressure to conform and contradict our brand, mission, and/or positioning.
I had no idea if the current opportunity would be the last big one to cross my plate. I had no idea whether or not CLOVE + HALLOW would really take off. I had no idea if this thing sitting in my inbox or voice on the other end of the line was “The Moment†that would change everything. I was hungry and wanted to take every opportunity that came my way. But I didn’t and I’m glad.
Authenticity and integrity are paramount. Big opportunities with big numbers behind them don’t mean much if they don’t help advance you toward whatever end goal you have – i.e. strong retail networks or brand awareness or website conversions. When I realized that I would need to pinch and pull the core tenets of CLOVE + HALLOW to suit opportunities – that I was essentially editing our mission in my head to make it work – I no longer wanted those opportunities.
Don’t get me wrong, you can (and should) compromise on things to get your foot in the door. But never compromise your brand beliefs, voice, and mission. If you have to compromise the essence of your business for an “opportunityâ€, it’s probably not one at all.
Ugly people are everywhere, surrounded by loads of lovely people.
The first nasty email we received made me cry. I was monitoring customer service and a woman ripped us a new one for messing up her order. Despite hundreds of satisfied customers, her complaints kept me up at night.
I know we’ve all heard it before, but you really can’t please everyone. I’ve learned that the hard way; no matter how great of products we produce or how nice I am or how conscientious CLOVE + HALLOW is, there is someone, somewhere, who won’t like it and a portion of those people will choose to be ugly about it. That is okay.
For every negative email we receive, for every time my team and I have looked at each other in shock and horror at how rude people can be, I go back through our reviews and social feeds to remind myself of the bigger picture. And then I get emotional seeing just how many people use and love our products.
What I’ve learned is that even though it sometimes feels like there is so much ugly in the world, that’s only because ugly seems to always come prepared with a megaphone. So, let’s take away the stage: if you have enjoyed or really loved something or have a compliment to give, SHARE THAT. Make someone’s day. Surround the ugly in a crowd of lovely until it drowns out completely.
Timing and preparation matter, but “taking the leap†matters more.
This is a quick and easy one.
There is a very fine line between preparation and procrastination. Timing and preparation matter, but only in context: what are you preparing and planning timing for? At some point, you have to cross the chasm into action and execution.
Don’t wait longer than you have to. There is never a perfect time nor an opportunity that comes without costs and risks, and to be honest, things typically become riskier and harder over time. So just take the leap, enjoy the hell out of it, and then join the club of folks addicted to that feeling. We will welcome you with open arms.
Trusting others is the only way up.
Theoretically, I understood that delegation is critical to a successful business. In practice, the process of releasing responsibilities (aka control) was a lot tougher than I anticipated. Luckily, once I started, it was like plunging into the deep end of a cold pool: the worst was over and letting go became…fun? Liberating? Empowering? Yes to all the above!
I still know my business through and through. My hand is still in every pot to some degree. But I am only one person and can’t do everything myself – at least, I can’t do everything myself well – and there are legions of people out there waiting for the right specialized opportunity to come along that they can commit to in a way that I can’t, simply because I don’t have the time.
But you know what? It really *isn’t* just about time. It’s so much more than that. When mistakes happen or delegating gets tough, I remind myself that my end goal is to lead my business, not be a slave to it. I have a dream of building a company infrastructure that allows me to one day step back a little bit to raise my children or tackle whatever other goals I have in life beyond a career and paycheck. I have the same dreams and goals for my employees – that we grow in a way that enables CLOVE + HALLOW to plug into, rather than take over, their already complex lives.
To make this dream a reality, no one person – myself included – should function as the sole support or mastermind. Delegation is literally the key to the health of my business, because it truly does take a team, a village, a tribe, a whatever-you-want-to-call-it, to make it work.
x
Sarah
