Master of all

Or master of one?

I listened to a brilliant podcast with Emma Grede and Mellody Hobson - both hugely successful business women who have built themselves from the bottom up. While every single word that comes out of both these womens mouths resonates, one thing Mellody said really made me think.

She talked about the power of expertise - which is knowing one thing extremely well.

When I started my business, it was only me - learning every single function of the business intimately so that I could make the right decisions and understand how to move the business forward.

I made sure I understood line haul and how timber is turned, hinge types and lighting compliance, tax law and warehousing systems, international port congestion and how to make a pretty email. During what was probably the greatest learning curve of my life, I leaned into experts and people who had done this all before me, asking a hundred and one questions and going to bed with a brain so full of new info I felt it would explode.

As the business grew and I had the courage to let go a little and hire people to help, I started being ok with knowing less and less - trusting my team to run their own divisions, and leaning into what I actually enjoyed - which normally correlates with what you’re good at.

After doing it all for the first 3 intense years - I finally had the space to think about what my key expertise is - and this is still a journey of discovery.

I know I love brand building - which ultimately is telling the brands story every single day through every single output - through product, through written word, through team culture, in the way we speak to our customers.

I know I enjoy marketing which ties into branding but is also very much about communication and coming up with ideas to bring the message to the customer.

I know I enjoy numbers and doing my daily P&L’s. I’m known to gleefully pull my laptop into bed on a Sunday morning to fill out my spreadsheets.

I love the idea of finding my own niche, what I’m good at it - and what I enjoy - and outsourcing other functions to experts in those areas.

Knowing what you’re good at means that you have something to fall back on, a skill set that you can hone in on - and that you can take ownership of.

Knowing what you’re not an expert at is an even more powerful moment - allowing us to delegate and let someone else shine. The combined shine of experts working side by side to achieve a shared vision is where and how real growth happens - and I’m here for it.