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Here’s what the big boys (and girls) are doing – it’s one of the big meta-changes that’s happening at the very top end of the market (and fortunately or unfortunately, it’s all about growing up!)

But I’m still not going to wear a suit in my videos!

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51 Replies to “Growing Up (Had To Happen Eventually)”

  1. I built and managed teams in my previous life (management) – but it’s a little nervewracking when you’re a tiny business, slowly growing! Very much looking forward to future me, looking back and wondering what was preventing me from moving forward, surrounded by an amazing team!

  2. I couldn’t agree more with you message, Jeff. I used to do everything myself. Then four years ago, I hired a few people to work with me and I discovered the joy of collaboration, sharing, and mutual support. As the former surgeon general recently said, the number one health crisis in America is isolation. It’s great that we have the means for working remotely. But really, we are designed to connect with other, to enjoy the process of realizing useful things together, and through the our relatedness with other through work, finding more meaning in our lives. Good to see you again, Jeff! Give my love to mountains!

  3. If you wanna go fast you go alone, but if you wanna go far you go with a team 🙂

    Even when we are in high level competitions we depend always in a team! Even when the sport is (aparently) one person.

    As always awesome message 🙂

  4. Thanks Jeff. It is a good piece of advice. I am a cardiologist and my passion is in helping people to excel in their true potential, so I am creating programs like “Unlocking Your Genius Code” and “Upgrading Your Signature Frequency” and doing great, but now I felt the NEED of growing and I have joined forces with four amazing people (three of them clients of my programs) so I can concentrate my efforts on what I am good at. Yes, we all have limiting beliefs that we need to get rid of and excel in our own fields. Thanks again.

    • That is so profoundly wonderful coming from a cardiologist as I was just reading a NYT story about social isolation and lonliness and its impact on the heart; our health. I want to know more about what you do, as a cardiologist, in your online business. The ACEs study also comes into play for all medical fields. And justice. And education. Jeff is a rare and wondrous human who inspires community with his beloved transparency and joy of life! I look forward to seeing what you are doing. csipp@icloud.com

  5. It’s no accident that there are some common threads that run throughout all of the top leaders who are building teams (you, Stu, Ryan, Justin & Callan, Michael Hyatt, James Wedmore, Russel Brunson and many others). High-value and truly unique and transformative products or services offered by solid people with the ability to draw and attract high-value clients. These same characteristics also attract high quality teams which further enhances their their brand and what they offer. Awesome message Jeff.

  6. Having watched you build your team gives me a lot of hope. It’s part of the reason I reached out to my partner and said I need help! His skill set compliments mine (thank goodness!) We’ve then been finding the right kinds of consultants to help with bit and pieces. As the business grows I’m looking forward to finding people who share the mission, both to grow but more importantly to share connection and community. Great to have your thoughts on it!

  7. Great message Jeff. I have had the opportunity of building and working with an amazing team in real estate and now plan on doing the same Internet marketing. Just signed up and we are loving everything we are learning and seeing. Thanks for your Help.

  8. I love this approach! In fact I still haven’t started my business because I haven’t been clear about what roles I need my team members for. Struggling with the various aspects of getting started has made it pretty clear now. It’s also meant that I’ve been talking more and more about my ideas, and I’m getting some hugely enthusiastic responses, including being asked two months in a row to present to the local Youth Crime Prevention Advisory Group about them.

    In another group I attend fortnightly, a group of like-minded thought leaders wanting to make the world a better place, I’ve been assured that the group will give me all the support I need from them. From outside this group as well as from within, the team has almost created itself! When an idea’s time has come, the means for it to come into existence will present themselves.

    Teamwork also has a purpose in itself: to take enterprise beyond being the province of individuals, to group or even community endeavours. The result in my case is that some team members are actively generating the involvement of young people in implementing my idea of a symposium on children’s rights – “Children, Our Future – Let Them Be Heard”, to take place in Nottingham UK over three days next April. Part of a bigger project, which starts off with building neighbourhood mutual support groups for parents to empower their children to create their own lives of success, one of its aims is to carry community empowerment around the globe, using parents’ concerns about their children’s future as the pain point for getting their attention and involvement.

    Excuse me for trumpeting my own cause, but this video comes at the perfect time to reaffirm my belief in teamwork. Looking forward to re-subscribing to PLF just as soon as my financial situation improves when I’ve started classes for Nottingham parents locally. Speaking engagements coming up over the next few weeks will lead into those for September. Exciting that the Team will be helping me put those together!

  9. Thanks for this, Jeff. We are doing the same thing in my business. Like you, I am seeing this kind of thing happen at the top of the industry.

    When I came into this industry six years go, I was encouraged to be a solopreneur with maybe—maybe—an assistant. That almost killed me. I ended up doing a bunch of stuff I hated and wasn’t very good at. Worse, it kept me from focusing on my Desire Zone activities, where I am the most passionate and most proficient. I also think it kept me from growing my business as quickly as I could have.

    We are now at 21 full-time employees. We currently have six more positions open, and anticipate being at thirty people by the end of this year.

    As you mentioned in the video, this has enabled me and my teammates to focus on our Desire Zone activities. A team affords us with the ability to specialize and optimize our contributions.

    While most of our team is remote, all but three live in the greater Nashville area. This provides us with the benefits of working from home but also with the benefits of getting together, face-to-face, on a regular basis. In fact, we are currently renovating and office space that will be our own co-working space. No one will be required to work at the office, but everyone is welcome to work there. We will also have several meeting rooms. We plan to staff it with one receptionist/barista and provide world-class coffee products for our team.

    • @Michael: the path you’ve traveled is so interesting to me.

      You had such success in business and leadership at such a high level, I assumed that you started building your team immediately when you left corporate and started your business. It wasn’t until after we got to know each other that I realized that you had initially tried the solopreneur route.

  10. Hi, Jeff,
    Thank you so much for this week’s message. I’ve been hearing so many entrepreneurs talk about their struggles with leverage and how a team can be a bottleneck. I see teams as springboards to smart, profitable growth, and building a great team as the surest way to great impact. Thanks to PLF, you, and a few other mentors, I pivoted my business to serve just that niche. So glad to hear validation that this is the right path. And thanks for not wearing a suit … your authenticity is the foundation of why you’re a great leader.
    Warmly,
    Sandi

  11. n life, everything is a choice.
    My mentor was working with a big team and thus the tool and program cost a lot to cover all expenses and make benefits.
    When I was asked to continue after his death, I said ok, but under my rules.
    I did not want a team, to begin with, the distributors and all those who make the tool be expensive as then we are not helping the needy anymore.
    I made enemies with that choice…yes I did. People even turning to those who copied our product…
    Well, I did not loose sleep over that…Karma will deal with them 😉

    I want to make a better world, save a life TODAY, tomorrow and every day.
    That can be done if the product stays cheap, even if it’s the cheapest on the market.

    That is my goal, save a life, again and again.

  12. I a small online consulting company. I have just put together a small team of three to work on my brand and courses. I feel so good to not only find people who specialize in their field but also do the thinks I don’t like to do. I am grateful to finally come to the point of letting go and try not to do everything myself.

  13. Danelle Denney

    Reply

    I need to get that first dollar to come in. Yikes! But even here I have people around me who are my team.

    My vision is to use PLF to bring healing and wellness to people with fibromyalgia.

    Then I will bring pain relief and safe opiate use to people with chronic pain. (One lead magnet: How to keep your loved one alive while using opiates.)

    After I have both of those dialed in, I will open a pharmacy where filling Rxs is just what you do to get people in the door. It will be about robust health. Once I get that working with SOPs that generate wellness for my employees and our customers, I will open a second one. Once they are both working, I will “cooy and paste” all over the country.

    None of this can happen until I get my avatar dialed in and have money coming in to support my family in a way that allows for money to open the first pharmacy. Dialing in my avatar will also create the possibility of being able to bring people in to our pharmacy so they can find health and wellness. (Not just drugs and medical care–wellness.)

  14. Jeff Walker – got clarity of scaling and teamwork vs being capped without a team.
    It’s our choice … and may vary depending on the season.
    My questions are ;
    1. is virtual team management any easier than the traditional kind?
    2. Are there any inherent advantages because we are all absolutely doing what we love now?
    3. In what way does it get easier as we are all working much more from our higher self than from our head like before?
    Any insights from someone like you who totally understands would be great!
    Thank you again for a thought provoking post!
    Regards.

  15. I’m grateful for the people who are walking with me in this journey. Although sometimes it feels like a run too.

    My team has brought clarity, balance, freedom, and character to my biz. My mission has been encouraged. I’m not sure I’d be the same person I am now without my team.

    Great stuff Jeff! Thanks for your inspiration and development! Thanks for your transparency too

  16. YES! I am a MISFIT… my small platform is called Shelly Gruenig, A Misfit Mom. I have a powerful and amazing team of homeschool moms… someone told me “don’t hire your friends” but I did. Yes, it is complicated but I believe we are BETTER TOGETHER. We must connect with people to collaborate and grow.

  17. Great video Jeff! The key to success is not just building a team… If you build it, the money won’t necessarily come. The key is in building your systems and processes before you build your team, then hiring smart, capable people who are able to evolve and tweak your base processes into something far greater than you could on your own.

    You’ll need to be the grownup in your business in assisting your team to know what you want to achieve and how you want it done. Great team members absolutely need a structure to in the beginning or they will not grow according to the culture that you want to create.

    You cannot be a master at everything! A true lifestyle business is a vehicle that supports your vision of what you want your life to be, not a prison that forces you to micro manage or perform every task on the path yourself.

    • @George: agreed 100% … it’s easy to say “I’m going to build a team”. But there is a lot of work, and it’s a real journey. Nothing it cut-and-dried, because there are humans involved.

      And it involves a huge amount of growth for the leader/entrepreneur.

    • Another great message, Jeff…thank you! Plus such great insights from other comments. Right, personal clarity about vision, direction, and approach, then teaming with one or two tech-savvy folks to help bring that vision into form.

  18. I’m in the midst of answering that very question. Two years ago when I joined the LEAP with Justin, I decided to “get serious” about my business that has done mid 6 figures for 15 years. Prior to that, it has just been my partner and me with one part time support person, and it allowed us to be fluid and follow our passion. But after two years of adding some staff and adding complexity to our launches, I’m not sure it’s the way I want to go. In fact, it’s had a boomerang effect, and I just started a yearlong sabbatical. My partner is going to run things with a small team while I take the time to recharge and find my vision for the next iteration of my career. I thought I wanted to run with the big dogs, but now something else is happening. At 62, I feel a shift coming, but I don’t know what it is. I’m leaping into the unknown and willing to discover.

  19. Whats so great about this “style” of business is bc of low overhead you can start by yourself and slowly grow a team. Your job as a business owner is not to build a business, its to build a team, the team builds the business.

  20. I am working on my personal brand Affirm Queen, LLC (affirmqueen.com) And I am expanding my brand partnership with Nerium International (anti aging skin care and wellness). My vision is that my partnership residuals will allow me the financial freedom to take a tour in Europe and Asia in the year 2020 And I’m calling it “Perfect Vision.” I will be spreading my musical gifts and words of hope and inspiration to the masses. I also will be providing for the communities I visit with clean water food and clean clothing. Every day I remind myself of this vision working towards these goals. The more money I bring in and team members, the more people I can help. I am so grateful that someone introduced me to Nerium. In regards to the vision of my personal brand, I will continue to offer positive training of the mindset to those who need a little extra in their business and personal lives. I have over 15 years i’ve consistently reframing my own mind persevering through trials and hardships and getting a graduate degree completely paid for by the University. I believe my training both in school and in life experiences will attract the right people to who I am and where I am headed. I believe wholeheartedly in building a team of collaboration just like in music. Each individual part is important but together it’s a masterpiece.

  21. I tried doing the Philippine outsourcing twice and it went poorly because of me. I didn’t know how to hire someone and I definitely didn’t know how to manage them.
    So right now, I’m trying to build a business with systems for the first time in the many years I’ve been trying to get off the ground. Then I will know who to hire and what they will be doing.
    Ultimately, though, I want to build a business that I can sell.

    • That’s smart Lara. Sexy Systems (as I like to call them) are critical and they allow you to have your business run without you, if done well, and also eventually sell it. I even built a course called Rock Your Systems because it’s so important and has helped me build and scale my team

  22. If we want to have greater impact we need to surround ourselves with the how-to implementers. The nice thing is, we get to create the kind of company culture we wish we would have had at our last job or tried to create but were told to ‘button’ up. We can be rebels, work barefoot and run a real company all at the same time. 🙂

  23. This is very very upsetting! Really the only way to be successful is to put on a suit, preferably a really expensive one, and get a stylish haircut or perm, get a degree from Harvard or Yale, get lots and lots of degrees, speak with an British accent, and practice the best gestures that covey success and sincerity :-). Not!

  24. Just me at the moment but I can’t wait to start building a team! My selection process will be strenuous to say the least but nothing is more powerful than the synergy of a team working together for the same goal!

  25. In my experience, running a business is a big personal development journey in itself. When we add in a team we stretch and discover who we are as leaders and communicators, and while at times it has been frustrating (as we come to see the gaps in our knowledge and abilities to train, inspire, transfer knowledge etc.), the journey of building and growing together is totally worth it.

  26. It’s funny, I came out of corporate not because I hated it, but because I loved it enough to know it needed to be reinvented with genuine leadership from the VERY top. The thing I love about the trend you mention is that only those who have really pushed through and figured out that leadership is as important as entrepreneurship if you choose to grow this big are the ones who will succeed. You all are building a new definition of corporate. And it’s why I do what I do. This new entrepreneur /leader who serves his team as devoted you as his customer… And reaps the byproduct of that energy….this is the one I want to have all the financial confidence in the world. So I’m building the business that will bring them that so that they can live in this zone and change the world. I’m not exaggerating. You guys are changing the corporate landscape and the economy will shift. There is no doubt in my mind. The economy will shift because I’d your vision. Bravo and don’t stop.

  27. Jason Krausert

    Reply

    Thanks for the insight Jeff. Even at smaller levels, outsourcing is helpful to keep you focused on what you like to do so everything else doesn’t become overwhelming or too discouraging….or doesn’t hold you back because you don’t know how to do something or don’t have the time. That’s a great thing about online businesses…you decide how big you want to be and invest accordingly. Cheers!

  28. Jeff, don’t ever stop wearing t-shirts! In fact, maybe I’ll pledge to only wear t-shirts in my own videos. I love to see colleagues in suits and dresses and celebrate that for them. For me, my truth wears t-shirts, shorts, flip-flops (or bare feet) and I celebrate that too! Thanks for being such a great model for being who you are, in all areas of your life. 🙂

  29. I’ve already mentioned it to you very briefly, Jeff… And it is, in fact, what a lot of my book is about, which I JUST MAILED TO YOU this week. Thank you for saying you wanted it, i wouldn’t have sent it if you hadn’t! The book, Your Soul’s Invisible Codes, Unveiling Your Sacred Love Story is about GROWING UP, what you talk about in this video. It is also about WAKING UP, a term used in connection with growing up by Ken Wilber, Integral and Spiral Dynamics and some rare researchers on Stages of Adult Development. My book is not just about changing your life, it is about changing the world… It is about relationships, including business. Because I have always been a rebel, a renegade…and because that evolved naturally into MYSTIC (I noticed you used that word once, left it out the next time), I’m about 5-10 years ahead of myself, always have been. My yearning now is to find the Bridge between the for-profit and the non-profit world. It will probably be about three groups, the 3rd one will be Visionaries, like me, who know it is possible…and who want to figure out the WAY and then teach others HOW. I don’t know if you will read the book… A lot of people won’t, it is way outside the model, even of Integral or the Spiral. Tony Robbins applies it and is using it big time in his work. He is the mentor of Fabienne, my Executive Director, who was at Launch Club with me; she is part of his Senior Leadership team. I don’t know how to do all of the things… I do also know that my Gifts of Genius have been the engine behind a lot of success and achievement in my life. Now my worldview is different, even though I’ve lived all of the stages and still include them. The filter that organizes my life now is Consciousness and Love. I believe that it is the Conveyor Belt that can heal and potentially change not only individual lives, but the world. It is about ordinary and extra-ordinary people and the very fabric of Being that is the Essence of every soul. I would love for you to help me find the BRIDGE that is part of the next step for humankind.

  30. Yeah Jeff, it has to happen. . .some form of maturity has to follow the “Wild, Wild West” (isn’t that where all the renegades and rebels headed after the civil war?)!

    It seems that last 20 years has been like a civil war given the way the corporate world treated folks. Young and old alike have had to reinvent themselves, in much the same way “law and order” eventually came to the west as towns and communities grew.

    Same thing is going on in the IM space, as more and more businesses adopt and find they require the skills of the “unorthodox” among us. One constant we can count on. . . .change.

  31. We’d be nothing without our team. It’s exactly like being a parent – invest in their future and don’t screw them up. Thanks.

  32. Thank you Jeff, I am the author of Simultaneous Minds, and just starting on my campaign. I have been following you for awhile now and yes you are my favorite guru. My achievement level is to reach millions of people, giving stability to our unknown future. My mantra is I have come too far now to turn back. Thank you.

  33. HI, Jeff. Great video(s). 3 points:
    * A team is a group of individuals with a common goal. So whether they’re employees or contractors, vendors, clients, or friends, they’re all teams. Even though one person may be “in charge” or “own” the goal/company/book, it’s rare for someone to do it absolutely alone.
    * Great teams don’t just happen. And good teams don’t just happen day 1. Remember: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing. Every time there’s a new person on the team, every time there’s a new goal – there’s a new team, and those four steps will be repeated. Perhaps you’ll get through to Performing faster, but skipping a step doesn’t exist. Be prepared for it.
    * Schools today are all about teamwork. From K-12 and in university. And the structured activities of the kids focus on teams, too – lacrosse to dance to orchestra. All teamwork, even if the individual receives a medal. The younger generations are groomed to work in teams.
    So, I love your message. The guru who gave you that “no teams” advice may be correct about people being messy, but humans are social creatures and the best thing we can do is learn to work with each other well.

  34. Thanks, Jeff and you are right, Amy!
    * My wife teaches 2nd grade and will attest that group learning is the new and heavy emphasis in education these days. My gut reaction to you and Jeff is funny…I’m conflicted for reasons I will try to sort out in a minute but first I’m reminded how Americans have long stood out from other cultures such as Russian, Chinese or Japanese as far ‘superior’ in terms of independent decision-making and creativity (in the boardroom or battlefield) because we were NOT encumbered by group-think or ‘committee’ mind-sets. We have been the maverick builders, soldiers, pioneers and inventors – just as Jeff and other successful entrepreneurs have been.
    * Maybe our culture has simply matured with no more Wild Wests to tame or we’ve just lost our cutting-edge as others have caught up, I’m not sure which. My guess is that as ANY group develops and matures, whether nations or companies, the functional requirements and social dynamics and even the styles of leadership change and become more ‘corporate’ (i.e. collective but not necessarily stuffy or formal) to better manage the maturing group or organization – as just a fact of life.
    * Now to my mixed emotions about team-building…I have always loved being part of teams as a co-founder, co-captain or senior partner but am nervous now about leading my own new company and building a team as the solely responsible visionary/leader…IT’S A BIT SCARY! I guess it’s pretty exciting too to assemble great and talented people as team members to realize your vision and complement your abilities and deficiencies. But it’s very different than flying solo or performing as a virtuoso. Hopefully Jeff and the rest of us will enjoy the growing pains of our successful ventures or ‘projects’ that become solid life-giving organizations or, dare I say,… institutions.

  35. I found it interesting to hear that you’ve started on this in recent years – I always assumed that PLF had a whole machine of people behind it! We’ve been growing our team rapidly and now have employees too. It’s the only way to grow your business and I’m surprised that people are doling advice that suggests the opposite. If you want to provide top notch customer service and customer experience then you need the best people around you: people who are better at stuff than you are.

    The big challenge for us now is team building and bringing us closer together, despite us all working remotely. We try to meet up face to face once a quarter and we use Slack which has been tremendous for building our team. I would love to learn more about your behind-the-scenes processes in team building.

  36. My lesson the last few months is that “vision is less about distance and more about clarity.” Meaning, I don’t have a far off vision right now.

    But, what I want is to really get business more focused in successful processes, relationships and product concepts in the next 90 days.

    What I mean is that I’m busy doing a lot but much of it isn’t necessarily profitable or valuable. So, cutting down to the essentials for today so that I expand the way I serve my best relationships.

  37. Hi Jeff and all,
    Am new on following your videos. There was a lot of traffic as you said in one video and was too much. I deleted most sources so I can focus.
    I created Moving on UP when on bones of tail (a…). Just felt so strongly about the board games and launching my UPliftment coaching. Created website, facebook page, design of games etc etc with very little.
    I had expected to be on the road by now but somehow I have missed the mark.
    Kind of wanted to throw the towel in and let go of the dream but something nudges me to return to it.

    I have created a project previously with zero knowledge and it flew.
    So this project kind of perplexing. But it is another market and social media a bigger challenge than ever thought.

    I see and feel where this will take me. beyond where I live in South Africa. My eye on International (States). My studies were from there and think easier to grasp than where I am located.
    Have a legacy: to challenge, inspire and UPlift others to be their greatest version ever!

    Thanx for your request to share..gets one thinking.

    Joyous greetings, Lucinda

  38. Anyone who equates business authenticity, and probity with dress-code is deluding themselves. This is of course a corporate stereotype, there are people out there who sincerely believe that wearing a suit makes you a ‘real businessman’ – ridiculous, this is why so many of us are building digital businesses and being the architects of our lives.

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