Any marketing expert or agency can tell you why your business isn’t growing – 

But they’ll likely try to find external reasons. The ads aren’t performing, they’ll say. The algorithm has changed. Google adjusted their rules. Your Meta pixel isn’t seasoned. Your offer isn’t strong enough. Your shipping time needs to improve. Facebook isn’t spending. And on, and on, and on.

I know these answers, because I am a marketer. I’ve given those exact answers more times than I care to admit. And I know these answers because I build companies – I’ve grown more than 80 directly. And I was CMO for two global brands.

First hand, I’ve watched companies making $25 million a year crumble to nothing in a matter of months. And I’ve seen companies go from $5 million one year, to $18 million the next. That level of growth, and that level of destruction, doesn’t happen easily. It requires effort.

And they often happen for the exact same reason.

And it’s the reason that most marketers won’t have the balls to tell you why your business isn’t growing. It’s why they’ll look for some surface issue – any issue, of course, which makes sense. It’s why they think your ads don’t work. Or why any marketer will tell you the economic conditions are terrible. Or why the conversion rate on your website sucks.

Because those reasons make sense. And it saves their asses from being fired.

But are they the real reason? I don’t believe so.

Four years ago, I was the CMO of a global brand in the telecomm space. When I joined, they were making $5 million a year. By the following year, the company was generating over $18 million. That’s an increase of over $1m per month. How?

I could tell you it was because the products were phenomenal. They solved a genuine problem. And we built a team that would put those products into the hands of the people who needed them. The marketing worked. It was product market fit. Check mate.

But that wasn’t the real reason it exploded in growth.

The company grew because the owner stepped out of the way. He recognised his limits – and allowed smarter people (ahem, me) to come in and fill in the gaps of his knowledge. We built out a team and executed the strategy for growth. And my God, did it grow.

In the companies I’ve grown over the last 12 years, which includes 300+ clients I’ve worked with directly and the 80 I’ve directly grown by my own work, there’s only one commonality for the businesses that really grow. I’m not talking about the businesses that grow by 5%.

No, I’m talking about the business that went from $30,000 a year to $1.1 million a year in 18 months. Or the company that went from $1M in 2018, to $9 million in 2019.

What grew them exponentially?

It’s not cash in the bank (though that helps).

It’s not the world’s best marketing strategy (that, too, also helps).

And it’s definitely not having the sleekest, sexiest website.

Nor the best shipping or customer service or even having the best product!

The only common trait those businesses shared was the willingness of the owner to get out of their own way.

When a business owner steps in the way of their company’s growth, I find it comes in two ways: their ego and their fear.

Let me explain…

Problem 1: Ego

Growing a business isn’t easy. It brings an emotional rollercoaster that makes any trip to a theme park seem easy. As the business grows you will begin to face emotions you didn’t think were possible, at extreme heights that become almost unbearable.

And that’s when any smart business operator knows they can’t do it all alone.

They’re forced to make a choice. And there’s only two options:

1. They hire a team of minions, to execute everything they want, with complete micromanaging over them, or – 

2. They hire a team of individuals who are experts in their field, and leave them to do their magic.

The first option is the easiest. By hiring a group of “yes” soldiers, you become a field operator. You become the general in front of the platoon, guiding them in the battle. You’re Napoleon in Waterloo. You dictate their every move. You control their very existence, and have to manage every small battle that comes across your desk.

Sounds tiring? It’s exhausting. And you’ll end up with more work than you signed up for. The worst part about option 1? You’ll end up with a team who despises you, who clocks out at 4:45, and can’t wait for Friday to roll around.

The second option will cost you much more in salaries. But it will save you from having to make many of the small decisions. By hiring a team of experts, you’re removed from the daily battle of business. It allows you to be the Field Marshall, overseeing the entire war and moving the chess pieces around. You focus on strategy – not on the technicalities. You become Churchill in the War Rooms – moving the pieces and controlling the strategy.

The downside to either option is one that isn’t talked about often. And this is where I see most operators fail. They let their ego get in the way. They hire an expert only to undermine them at every angle. They think they’re better or smarter than their newly hired employee.

That’s fucking dangerous. When you believe you’re smarter than the team you’ve hired, something is deathly wrong. Operators who can’t swallow their ego and let go, allowing someone far smarter then them to control their area of expertise, are destined for failure.

That’s the first problem: never letting your ego go.

Problem 2: Fear

Back when I was CMO, we were launching a new product. It was a pair of sports shoes, being targeted towards a specific type of customer. We spoke to our existing customers and asked them what they wanted in a new shoe. We went to our sales people, our wholesale accounts, and even the large retail stores. We listened to their feedback and came to several conclusions.

One conclusion, the cause of an internal company debate, was the number of colour choices a customer could choose to buy the shoes in. Customers told us they wanted 3 options: an all-black shoe, an all-white option and a blended black/gold version.

The product development team agreed. The sales team, being on the ground with the customers, agreed. The retailers and wholesalers agreed. My marketing team all agreed. It was decided: 3 colour options.

The CEO had a different mentality. “Let’s play it safe,” he said, vetoing the all-black option, causing an internal debate. We’d lose sales, the argument was made. Customers want the option to buy everything they wear in black. Black is almost always the bestselling colour for any product.

Yet we were vetoed. “We’re playing it safe.”

Three months later the shoe launched. The results were disastrous. Comments, reactions, feedback all poured in. And most of it was one question: “where’s the black version?”

I tracked the sales: 13% bought the blended black/gold version. 87% bought the all-white. That’s odd. The previous year, the blended black/gold option sold higher than any other colour. And the overall sales were far lower than we had expected. Why? Because we didn’t give customers what they were begging for.

In a post-purchase survey, we asked a question: is there anything that almost stopped you from buying this item?

All of the answers were the same: I want a black shoe.

Over the next 12-months my marketing team calculated how many sales we lost because we didn’t offer what customers actually wanted. We estimated it was over $1 million worth. The number is probably far higher – but we’ll never know.

The company failed to give the customers what they really wanted. And it was purely from fear – fear of losing $250,000 in stock.

The ripple effect from this wasn’t just lost sales. We lost customers. Customers wanted to be able to buy every product we had in black and if they couldn’t they’d go our competitors. And that’s what happened.

There’s no way we can accurately assess how much we lost because of that fear-based decision. It was enough that we saw the dip in sales.

And that’s the problem with fear. It typically comes from fear of failure, or especially in the business world, fear of success.

That’s why fear will destroy any business if you succumb to it.

Overcoming Ego & Fear

Ego and fear. They’re two main reasons a business will thrive or die.

Sure, there’s cashflow issues, taxes, marketing issues, supplier issues, staffing problems – they’re all to be expected.

None of those matter if you’re making strategic decisions based on your ego or fear.