#18: How to lead as Leaders with Kris Plachy, Expert in Entrepreneurial Management
Author John Maxwell once said, “ A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.
But have you ever thought about how even the best leaders need help leading?
In this episode, I was joined by Kris Plachy, Expert in Entrepreneurial Management, who helps women with 7-9 figure business’ lead their team.
Kris talked about how:
To grow a business, you have to grow the woman running it
There is a lack of “female founder focus”
Leadership is just connection with other human beings
We were taught leadership is masculine, but it's actually feminine.
She uses her Five Step Management System to help her clients build a team they love
Make sure to tune into this episode if you are interested in learning more about how to lead your team with pride and confidence!
Learn more about Kris here, or check her out on Instagram @krisplachycoach.
Are you a visionary entrepreneur who wants to create change with your company in the world? If so, I want to let you know about a free masterclass that I just wrapped up. In this short but powerful training, I teach you exactly how to create a brand that inspires the hearts and minds of your audience and invites them into massive action. These are the very same frameworks that I've used to help my own private consulting clients and national companies you know and love, spread their mission, launch expansion, and accelerate influence. To join in, visit https://joybrandcreative.com/movement.
Listen to the Show:
Laura (00:00):
This is the Scale with Joy show, episode 18: how to lead as leaders with Kris Plachy.
(00:10):
Welcome to the Scale with Joy show, a podcast about scaling your company while living your most purposeful life, because here's the thing: there are no rules to say you can't grow a massively profitable empire and have joy in the everyday. My name is Laura Meyer and let's get started.
(00:36):
At each stage of growth of our business, is it true that we actually need to reinvent ourselves as leaders? Well, if you're asking leadership expert and master certified life coach Kris Plachy, she says absolutely. And not only that, but she has five specific ways in which you can continue to evolve as a leader, as a manager, as somebody who not only needs to lead other people but lead yourself as well. Kris has some great observations around things that I know I've experienced in growing and scaling businesses and whether you're just getting started or you're well into seven figures, you're going to get so much from this interview. Kris keeps it real and I can't wait to share her tips with you up next on the Scale with Joy show, Kris Plachy.
(01:25):
Hey everybody. I wanted to welcome you back here to the Scale with Joy podcast. I'm here with Kris Plachy and she is an expert in leadership, not only just leadership, but specifically helping women lead who have seven and eight and nine figure businesses. And she has just been an incredible just leader for me. We had never met before, but I've listened to her on podcasts in the past. And I was saying in no other setting could have. I laughed at myself and also related so much. A little bit of tears and a little bit of laughter because when you were talking about how you've dealt with your own management lessons and you've helped other people with their leadership toughest lessons learned that there was so much wisdom and there was a little bit of humor in there, which I think we appreciate. And there was just so much, so much joy that I think that you are able to create on the other side of these tough lessons. So I just want to welcome you and thank you for being here.
Kris (02:29):
That was lovely. Thank you for that introduction. I'll keep you with me.
(02:36):
So before we, in our little green room, right, and our zoom green room, we were talking about why this is so difficult for so many women. And why do you think that leadership is not only challenging in the beginning stages of business ownership, but as you scale into that seven, eight figures, why is this so hard for us?
Kris (02:58):
Well, I think, you know, I have a lot of hypotheses, but the one that I have landed on recently that I really am nurturing is that I actually believe that leadership is feminine, but I think that we have been taught to believe it's very masculine and most of our models as leaders, right, have been men in the several hundred years, right. We could probably even go back longer than that. And so I think for a lot of women, there's this belief that I should adopt another way of being to be effective at managing and leading my team versus actually using what it is I have that makes me so unique and amazing because I think also a lot of us, you know, are very nurturing, kind, there's a compassionate element, a connection element for female leaders and founders.
(03:58):
But we are told that soft and not positioning ourselves in strength. So I actually think you can use all of that and still be incredibly strong and clear and specific, and really build a team that presents and manifest who you want to be as a leader and what you want in your business. But there's so much, there's so much body of work in what it means to be a leader that I don't think resonates for women. Now, I think that's changing really, really quickly, which I'm excited about. And so we're seeing a massive movement, right? We have so many female entrepreneurs, it's just so exciting, but we've got to all find our footing. So that's my, my generalized sort of thesis right now. Why people struggle? Why women struggle a bit more like you get to be who you are and lead, but you have to learn.
(04:50):
And I think the last thing I would add to that is a lot of women because we are naturally, you know, collaborators and we bring people together and we take care of people. We think we should just be good at it. Right? You should just know how to handle these things that happen in your business. And so you don't see that, no, this is actually a skill to learn and it's okay if you're not good at it.
Laura (05:12):
It is okay. It's okay. I'm going to unpack this a little bit, because this is something that I have personally struggled with. I have many friends that have owned businesses up until the nine figures who have struggled with this. And is there such thing as being too soft?
Kris (05:32):
Well, soft in my mind means you don't hold boundaries and you want people; you're over invested in other people changing so you can feel better. Ouch. So when you stay in that space, when it's like, I don't want to hurt their feelings. I don't want them to not like me. I don't want to disrupt the team balance. The, you know, the culture. And so you don't hold, what's valuable to you. And so you, you sort of over honor their emotional health or whatever you want to say that you lose your strength as a leader. And, you know, I'm sure you've heard me say this as you listened to the podcast, you know, we have to remember as people who have businesses, the reason that you hire employees is to deliver results always. You don't hire people to employ them. I've never met an entrepreneur who said, I can't wait to have a business so I can manage people, It's not the dream. Right. Then once they start being in our space, we forget. Like, so I think you always have to come back to the reason that you're in this agreement with these employees is to deliver results. No other reason. Now, if you do good work together and you enjoy one another, that's all good news. But that's incumbent upon you as the boss to set up the framework for how that happens, how you make that work together.
Laura (07:06):
Yes. And I think for many leaders, it's how long do you wait? Or how much do you invest until you get those results? Like, what is realistic and what isn't realistic.
Kris (07:17):
Yeah. Well, I, I do think you have to have, you know, I say this over and over again, there's five elements. I always check in with my clients. Right. There's five elements always. And so when, even as a brand-new person, if you were to call me today and say, this is my problem, I'm going to look at these five. Right. And I'm happy to talk to you about what those are, because until you really know that you have those five, you can't know. That question becomes overwhelming. Have I done enough? Is it them? Is it me? Am I the problem? Yeah, we have to verify, do I have these five pieces in my business? If I have these in my business, then I know that I've set the table and I've held them accountable and I've given them the feedback. And now I can know it's not me. Could you give me an example of those five in action? So in order for us to be able to really be able to assess someone's skill, we first have to know why our business exists. Right. And I know a lot of people think this is like very unsexy. So I'm just going to say that off the top Laura, this is not, this is not nearly as fun as like how much money can we make today.
Laura (08:24):
It's one of the first questions I asked my clients, like, why do you want to grow? What would, what types of values do you have in your organization? Because you really can't, I'm more on the marketing side. You're more on the leadership side. We serve a very similar clientele with a very similar approach, but you really can't do either until, you know, those answers to those questions.
Kris (08:46):
So well said absolutely. And the reason that's so important to have your visions, which are the first to your vision and your values clear is that is part of attraction process of the employees you get, right? So if I'm not clear about where I'm taking this business, and I'm not clear about what I value, which the way that I teach values is this is how you hire and fire people. And so you don't have those in place, how do you even have a rudder, right, right for how you've brought them on, and then how you help them grow or help them lead.
(09:15):
So we have to have your vision and your values. And we have to have clearly defined expectations and expectations, speak to two elements in every role. We need to speak to the behaviors that people need to demonstrate at work. And then we also need to speak to the production that people need to deliver at work. And unfortunately, we tend to be pretty good at the production part, but not so good at the behavior part. But the majority of the problems you have with team members tend to be behavior. When I say behavior, I mean, things like lack of attention to detail, not prioritizing, not meeting deadlines, right? These are all driven by behavior. Those are not skillsets. And so if we don't have clear behavior expectations that interferes with our ability to assess someone's performance, and then the last two are measures and role clarity.
(10:18):
So everybody's job needs to be really clear. And as you, I'm sure know, most entrepreneurs in general, but I'll say female entrepreneurs, we just bring people in when we first get started to help us. And I put that in air quotes, right. And we don't really design a role for them. And so it's usually our most tenured employees that we have the hardest time answering that question. How do I know if it's time? Because those folks came on before we really had any structure. And so we have to build the structure and we can do that. I just did a podcast two weeks ago called the re-offer. Right? You build the structure in, even if they've been with you for 10 years and you re-offer them the job, you put it back in place, you put it there.
(11:09):
And then you have to have measures to assess how people are doing against everything. I just told you and give them feedback. So you put those in place. And honestly, I've, I have women who hire me and within 30 days we get this built. And we know because people will either rise to that structure. They'll love it. It might be the element that's been missing, or they'll completely resist it. They don't want the accountability. They don't want to be held to an actual outcome. And then they show you like, no, this isn't, this isn't my jam. And then, you know, also, but in the absence of those five things, it's tough to know.
Laura (11:49):
Why do you think as women, we tend to show up vague with these things? Why do we want to be kind of, well, you should just know to show up on time, or why are we afraid to be clear about it?
Kris (12:04):
It's such a good question. There's a couple things that are coming to my mind. First of all, that thought they should just know, this common sense thin, is really common. A lot of my clients say things like you would think, you would think someone with this much experience would know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right?
Laura (12:29):
It's come out of my mouth.
Kris (12:30):
You would think someone I'm paying a hundred thousand dollars would know, right? That's the other one, when we attach what we pay people. That is just an assumption. Now that's coming out of the cocktail of your mind and your thinking, because entrepreneur, look at yourself, you are a hustler. You get it done. People who are not entrepreneurs who think like you or everybody would be one. So that belief, first of all, that people think like you is poison. They don't. That's why, like my girlfriend, Brooke Castillo says, if I want people to read my mind, I have to write it down. Literally. So they can read it. The second thing echoes what I started off with that I don't want to disappoint people. I don't want to upset people. I don't like conflict. I don't like things that are difficult. So I will put myself behind this and not prioritize what matters to me in deference to what matters to you. And we're taught to do that. A lot of women are taught to do that. And a lot of women feel more comfortable doing that. Putting other people's needs ahead of theirs.
Laura (13:46):
Or is there, is there a time where it swings to the other side of the pendulum, where maybe you have somebody who has grown up in a male oriented leadership environment? Like I know 10 years ago I was part of these male dominated business groups. And I was by far the only woman in there. And if I, if there were other women, they acted and talked like men, there were not, they were not 31-year-old creative entrepreneurs. They were really conditioned to show up in a very masculine way. So I don't begrudge those experiences because at that age, I mean, my goodness, I had an incredible education when it came to finance and business operations, but it really was a little bit confusing for me personally, because I didn't know what leadership looked like for me. So have you seen that too, where you had to there's women where you had to kind of bring them back and say, hey, let's soften this a little bit more?
Kris (14:50):
Yeah. For years I actually, the two of the books I wrote are about difficult people and leading them, managing them, coaching them and being one. And so I, I say that because I've coached a lot of women who, to your point, lost all soft edge for other reasons, right? Fear of being vulnerable, fear of showing insecurity. All of the other reasons that we can grow tough, tough skin. And the impact of that is, is alienating the team and chewing and spitting people out, you know, to use that metaphorically. People just churn. You can't hold people cause they don't want to work for you. And so, you know, what I've always said is we're going to keep the edge, we're just going to put some velvet on it, right. You've got to be able; the leadership is just connection with human beings. It ultimately is that if you only see other humans as a method to get results, meaning like robotically, you will, you will not connect and people won't want to do hard work and work hard for you.
(16:01):
If you are just only a place where people come and it feels amazing, but they don't ever get to win or be successful or be seen as really powerful people who can contribute. They also won't stay because there's no edge, right? So it's a dance, right? But leadership at the end of the day is how well you connect with yourself and others to achieve a goal. I mean that to me, is it? And so all the work is within you, right? If you want to grow the business, you have to grow the woman running it. It's not outside of you. It's always inside you.
Laura (16:42):
Hey there! Are you a visionary entrepreneur who wants to create change with your company in the world? If so, I want to let you know about a free masterclass that I just wrapped up. In this short but powerful training, I teach you exactly how to create a brand that inspires the hearts and minds of your audience and invites them into massive action. These are the very same frameworks that I've used to help my own private consulting clients and national companies you know and love, spread their mission, launch expansion, and accelerate influence to join in, visit joybrandcreative.com/ movement. That's joybrandcreative.com/movement. Also available in the show notes. Now, back to the show.
(17:31):
And where my mind went next is that I know that you are a coach with the life coach school, and that's actually how I found you. And is there a component of that in this connecting to yourself that you coach around?
Kris (17:45):
The first time I ever about coaching was a very long time ago. I'm almost very young. I was 24, but it was in 1994. So it was a long time ago. So I followed this path for many years of learning about life coaching. I have never heard of it. I didn't know what it was. And as soon as I went to the first workshop, I knew I was, you know, quote unquote home. And this was before it was an industry like this just didn't exist in the world. And so as I continued to pursue my work and get more and more training, and I did meet Brooke Castillo in 2005, that's the first time I learned the thought model that she teaches. I took that model and turned it into an entire program. I was at the time leading and managing about 250 people. And I turned that into a whole program that then became a national initiative and then became, I created my own coaching team within this business to drive self-awareness and leadership as a, as a marriage, if you will.
(18:54):
And because you, how you live is how you lead and all of this, this stuff that people say about I'm going to, I checked my emotions at the door. You know, people don't know this about me, but this is really who I am. No, they do know. Everybody knows. Everybody everyone's watching you. They know it's like our kids, like are the biggest truth tellers right. Of us. So our employees. And so, so for me, understanding human behavior and understanding the impact of external circumstances on who we are as human beings is essential to help leaders because leaders will come to me and say, I'm so frustrated. I can't deal with this guy anymore. He's making me crazy. Right? This person in that moment, she thinks I just need to get rid of him and I will feel better. But what we know for sure is difficult employees, challenging moments with team members is a game of whack-a-mole. Right. And as soon as one is done, there's another one.
Laura (20:03):
Why is that? Why does this happen?
Kris (20:08):
And so for you to find the perfect team members who won't ever disrupt your apple cart, it's for you to become really comfortable with disruption. Right. That's why I know the women who I've been working with for a long time. They handled this pandemic with really, they managed it, massive disruption, but they knew where to go, to find the solutions to support themselves. And it started first with them, their own, own self coaching, right. Their own thinking about it. It's huge difference.
Laura (20:43):
Is there an example that you could share of somebody who had to go inward before making external decisions?
Kris (20:52):
Yeah. So I guess I would probably talk about Alyssa there's. I actually just did a podcast with three of my clients. And Alyssa was one of the ones that we were going to talk to about it as well. She has a floral shop in New Hampshire. And so if you take a brick and mortar, right? Like a floral shop, when all weddings, all events, everything has been canceled. And she took a minute. And when this all started, so I flew home on March 13th and on March 14th, I ran a free coaching call for female entrepreneurs. I had about 80 people come and we started looking at what, what are you making this mean? And the first exercise I had everybody do was your worst-case scenario, which I know sounds a little doomsday, but I needed everybody to know what is your worst-case scenario? What's the monster in the closet? So Alyssa did that and it, it was bankruptcy and everything gone. Right. I mean, that was the truth. If I can't get any clients and we told the truth, we had to do that. But then we agreed like, okay, that's it.
(22:04):
That got your attention. We have a plan, but now who do you want to be in the moment? And she got to work. And so her first thing she did is she created a fundraiser where people could donate bouquets arrangements. And she took them to nursing homes all over her community. And they donated them in the name of whoever was sending them to the nursing homes because of police. Of course, nobody could go into nursing homes, but the people in the nursing home would get these personalized bouquets. And in some cases they weren't even from anybody who knew them, they were just, yes, I want to donate to XYZ nursing home because she had all this inventory. She had all sorts of inventory and she had team members that she wanted to keep working. And so she did that first and she was really, really good with her social media and how well she talked about it and how she really broadcasted it.
(23:02):
And along that she built an online store, which is, I'm sure this will echo your work that you do with your clients, but every brick and mortar, that's one lesson that I think every brick and mortar business has learned through this process is if you don't have a way to take money online, you're going to really struggle. Within two weeks, had an up and running gorgeous online business. And then she did something she's never done. She learned how to deliver flowers across the country. She's never done. She just went to town. And so then she's making, she had a bigger April this year than she did last year. How that's an amazing, how was all her? That was all her, deciding who she wanted to be as a leader in that moment.
Laura (23:51):
And there may have been for some people who go through that exercise, that they look at bankruptcy and shutting everything down and they're like, actually that's the best option. It was for me at one point in my career and it is the best option. And it's the option that I believe is the right path in this season. And then there'll be other people who look at it and make peace with it, which probably gives them the opportunity to move on from it.
Kris (24:17):
And I've actually had those conversations with two of my clients as well, who were considering that like maybe bankruptcy is the right solution here. And it's just as much of a leadership decision as it is a tactical one. Right? Yeah. It's got to be aligned with who you want to be in the moment. And you're absolutely right. I think for some people it's a great opportunity for graceful exit.
Laura (24:39):
Yes. Yes. And for me that was it. And it was, I had a brick and mortar. I had personally guaranteed that I didn't see things changing. I didn't wherever I was looking at, I just didn't see possibility. And it was the best way for me to honor commitments and make sure that I, I took care of everybody in the right way. And then I called it a day, graceful exit. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I know many of your clients are brick and mortar. And so what do you think is particularly challenging about brick and mortar that lends itself to really, not that not everybody needs leadership coaching, but particularly makes it difficult to the point where they need it. What is it about brick and mortar that makes it particularly challenging for people?
Kris (25:35):
Yeah. So I know we were talking in our green, green room moment there before we started. Right? Because I do coach people who have online businesses, as well as brick and mortar and the challenges everybody faces are the same. The difference is that managing a public facing business, when your employees don't do what they're supposed to do, it's very, it's like in front of people. And if they don't show up to work, you have to be there. It's more difficult for women who run brick and mortars to set it up so that they don't have to be present. So that's the one thing I've watched. And of course it's the one thing they crave more than anything is I don't want to go in today. I don't want to be there today. Yes. Retail jail.. So that I think is the biggest hurdle. The process is honestly the same, whether your team's virtual or sitting in front of you. It's just that when I can see it, it's harder to let go of it because of, I built it. Right.
(26:41):
You built a brick and mortar, like this is mine. I coached Angela Kim who's one of my favorite is clients. She runs savor beauty and she would go into her gorgeous skincare studio and her skincare products wouldn't be lined up the way she wanted them to be. You just lose your mind. And yet it probably wasn't the end of the world. But for her and that, I watched that. It's like the swooping thing I talk about in my podcast, like founders of brick and mortars will just walk in and see everything that needs to be different. And where that parallels for online. Like, I can speak for myself. I just looked at an email that was supposed to go out today. I'm like, no. So I totally swooped this morning. I ran in there and I changed the email, right. So that's a founder quality that we have to acknowledge is true for us. But in the, when they're in front of you like that, it's just a little harder to release it and practice the, letting the system manage that versus you having to hover over it.
Laura (27:49):
And this is why I was laughing so much when I've listened to your past podcasts, because the amount of times I've been accused of swooping, with those exact words made me laugh so hard. I thought, oh good. It's sort of, it's exciting and comforting and terrifying all at the same time, but you're not the only one.
Kris (28:12):
Well, and I think that it's, you know, important to just say like, that's part of what it means to work for a female founder is at any given time, I might just show up late, but that could happen. But I've also coached women through it onto the other side, right, where, you know, I worked with a woman for a year who has a very thriving, cosmetic dentistry practice in Georgia. And we finally got to, she didn't think this was ever going to happen. She only works one day a week. It's great. And she made a lot more money. She's a beautiful team. She actually has less people now than when we started. And it's because they put the systems in place to allow more management to happen outside of just her. But she had to trust that in order to make it happen.
Laura (29:00):
Yes. It's absolutely a process. Isn't it? Yeah. So share that. There's sometimes where I'll go into a company where the founder is no longer there and I've actually started to back away from taking those clients because there is a component of soul that's missing that comes from a little bit of the swooping. So you've kind of got to, you know, figure out how to balance it. But I think sometimes, and I know this has happened for me, is you'll look at something and you're like, that's not right. Like that shouldn't go out like that or that's going to impact customer experience. And you're trying to be quiet because you, you just say to yourself, you know what, it's, I need to walk away. I need to trust. And then of course it doesn't generate the same amount of sales as it would have as if you had inserted your opinion because for the most part, the customers are there because of this original brand that you created with who you are. And so are there are certain times that you find that it's advisable to insert yourself versus other times.
Kris (30:07):
Well, I think it's such a great question. I think that what I usually advise my clients is we have to kind of have non-negotiables and then we have to let some of the other things go, you know, our tolerance, our intolerance for mistakes is directly related to how much money we do or don't make a so the more you are willing, like there's mistakes that we have. Like they like I'll use myself as a bad example. Right? Me fixing that email today was probably not the best idea because what I really needed was the people I just hired to do my funnels and my follow-up. Right. Need to learn that themselves. That that's the truth. And if that means I miss one sale, maybe I do today because it's the learning that has to happen. Is that going to close my business? No, that's not a big deal really. Right.
(31:04):
But for me in the moment, it felt like a really big deal. So we have to kind of have that gauge for ourselves about what we're really, really matters and what is just our baby. Right. You know, so many of the clients I work with it is about the client, it's the customer, it's that experience. So you can just keep that, but then let's let the rest of the details. Let's allow some people, they may have better ideas than you do. Let's allow them to play with it a little bit, but that intolerance for mistakes gets people into trouble long-term. Plus it just keeps you tied to your business and it's exhausting.
Laura (31:44):
Yes. And it's so funny because now that I'm on the consulting side, I find myself advising my clients on the things that I probably, my team would have said about me when I was on the entrepreneur side of things. Right. So one of which is focused and this happens on the marketing and the business strategies that I tend to work on. And I know when I was in their shoes, I did the same thing. And how do you think focus impacts the employee experience? Like either positively or negatively?
Kris (32:23):
So what you mean is lack of female founder focus.
Laura (32:29):
Yeah. Staying with something long enough or, you know, saying to the team we're rowing in this direction and now we're rowing in that direction.
Kris (32:37):
And, oh my gosh, I went on a walk today and I think we should do this. Yes. It's not that those words have ever come out of my mouth. I actually put worksheets visionary constraint because visionaries, which most of us are, this is the thing that we, I mean, this is the moneymaker, right. Is the ideas the way that you put things together that nobody else can? And it has been for most of my clients also though, the superpower yes. It got them to where they are. So, yeah. So, so from my perspective, we don't want to lose it. We just want to have a process for capturing it. So, you know, for me, I'm joking, but I'm serious. When I go on walks, I get, I don't know what happens to me, but I flooded with ideas.
(33:28):
Right. Which is a completely unreasonable expectation that I will ever do most of them. But I, on my phone while I'm walking will send myself emails. That's how I capture them. And then I have a folder that I put them all in, which is just my ideas. It's an ideas folder. So as a woman who does probably have a lot of ideas as a founder, you have to capture your ideas. You've got to give yourself grace, that they're all interesting. Don't dismiss them, but we don't have to act on them all right away. And to your point, the impact, the impact on the team, when you change your mind all the time is exhausting. It wears people out. They don't know how to win. They don't know how to help you. They become tired of you. And they don't, eventually may not execute on something that really matters for you because they're waiting for you to just change your mind.
Laura (34:25):
Right. I've seen that too.
Kris (34:27):
Yeah. So it is a real problem. And I just was coaching, actually, a gentleman, I have a one on one client. Who's a guy who runs a marketing service. And he and I just had this conversation. He just flipped his whole team and his brain is exploding. And about three weeks ago, I said to him, I'm like, you are moving 400 miles an hour. And they're like a 10 mile an hour pace. They just got here. You're going to kill them all. They're not going to keep up with you. And he, he heard it two weeks later, he finally got it. He's like, okay, I need to slow down. I said, yeah, you're not going to get what you want. This isn't working.
Laura (35:09):
Right. And on the business strategy side, I think many entrepreneurs worry that if they don't take advantage of the opportunity, the minute up pops into your head, right. It's cash, you know, it's just, it's missed cash. It's missed opportunity. Whereas now that I've been on both sides of being a seven-figure entrepreneur, as well as being an advisor to one, you start to see that it's actually how the idea unfolds over time. Yeah. That is the, it's the most lucrative opportunity. Yeah. But it's, it took me a while to, it took me awhile to figure that out as well. And now what's what is very fun and I'm sure it's the same for you is that your biggest lessons become your biggest opportunities to help others. And that has been very much my situation as well.
Kris (36:01):
That's great. Cause then you can help people stay, stay the course. Right. Because I agree with you like that little seed of an idea is so great. But then when it, when we really could put resources behind it, it's exciting what that can become.
Laura (36:14):
And then it's even more maddening if you bring in investors or private equity or hired management. I've had a couple clients and some friends do that as well. And now you're overruled. All your ideas are overruled. And now it's like real reality check running them through a filter because professional management approaches things very differently than a founder would. And it's getting that balance. And it's often an interesting balance to find the benefits of those new, fresh ideas that are really important to drive the business forward. And then also understand the degree to which once you have bigger teams and bigger infrastructure, it's just more to move and it needs to get run through more filters.
Kris (37:01):
Can we talk about that for just a second? Big companies. So, you know, I think a lot of times when we talk about female entrepreneurs, we're thinking about a small business, maybe, you know, 30 people or less, but there are a lot of female founders who are running 300 plus employee organizations. That is where if we don't learn as women, what you and I talking about, we have 15 employees, when we have 30 employees. The thing is, it's overtaken you. Right? And I have a client that I am not currently working with, that I have talked with, who has an employee base of about 300 in COVID stopped paying herself, is working 20 hours a day, is going through every right, like trying to make everybody else happy, keep, take care of everyone else. And she's in the ground. And not trusting her own ideas, right. There's just so much instability. And I just know that that could be changed here, right. When we're starting at $1 million of a business, we do this then. Now, you can exponentially grow because I really don't believe revenue buys you confidence. I think a lot of people think it does, Oh, you own, now I have a $45 million business. I know what I'm doing. Not really.
Laura (38:29):
Not necessarily. You just have more problems and just bigger.
Kris (38:34):
Yes. So all of the elements to that, you've talked about, you start getting all these voices, these competing voices, if you're not confident in who you are as a leader and what your vision is and what your values are, you get blown in the wind and you don't know what to fight for either.
Laura (38:52):
Or a filtering system for what you will and won't do. I think that happens a lot on my end of things. And it was really funny because there's been times I've been brought in and I know the founder, I have a good relationship with the founder because I understand, I've been hurt before I get it. Why you'd want to pursue every shiny object that comes into your mind because I'm made that way too. And I totally understand that it's private equity people come to me and say, hey, can you talk to her about, can you just run in between these two? I said, yes, as long as she knows that you asked me to do that, that's fine. There's no secrets here. But as long as we all have the conversation together, I'm happy to do that because that's how I maintain trust with everybody.
(39:44):
But it's, it is interesting to, to see, how to do that, how that balances, cause like I said, when it's totally missing, it's really difficult to build a powerful brand, a meaningful brand. It just comes across generic and not captivating. And then when you have too much of it is what we're talking about now you'll end up just spinning your wheels, trying to move forward and you'll do it with brute force instead of strategy. So I've had that same, it's interesting that we come at it from very different perspectives but had such similar experiences to grow businesses.
Kris (40:25):
And I really liked what you just said when you said generic, because I think that's what you risk as a leader. If you don't have a point of view also. You're just, you're sort of like, like I would much rather people, as soon as they meet me are like, no, I don't want to work for her. Right. I'm all in that's good news. Just like a client, right? Like, no, I don't want to hire you. Okay. Or how do I, how do I work for you? How do I hire you? Right. That's that, that makes you know, you have a definitive position. That's a leader.
Laura (41:00):
Yeah. Because then there's that less risk of bringing in the wrong person or there's a lower risk of working with the wrong client or attracting the wrong person to your brand. Or I always say in the absence of differentiation, customer always, always default to price. And so when you have something very generic ends up being a price competition that. Y.
Kris (41:21):
You could probably say the same thing then about salary.
Laura (41:24):
Right, right. Oh yes. It's a very good rate. Yeah. Very cool.
Kris (41:29):
Nice overlap there. I need to write it down for my podcast. You might, you might see that sometime soon.
Laura (41:37):
Let me know. I'll let everybody else know too. So just as we kind of wrap up here, what are some of your just parting thoughts or things that you would want our listeners to know when it comes to having that authentic approach to leadership that's feminine, but not so much so that you are generic.
Kris (41:58):
Yeah. That's a great question. I think first of all, I would tell anybody, listening, who's leading a team that you're not expected, you shouldn't be expecting yourself to be good at it. If you haven't been taught or learned basic fundamental entrepreneurial management skill. That is at the heart of what you're doing. And you might be a genius when it comes to products and customer attraction and all the other things, but that doesn't necessarily translate into being a great boss and knowing how to hold people accountable and set up performance expectations and have difficult conversations and give feedback. That's all stuff you can learn though. It is a learnable skill. And I don't like to say it's easy, but I do think it's pretty simple.
(42:45):
And what I've always told my clients is I just want you to be able to handle any leadership moment at any time with anyone anywhere. I just want you to have that internal confidence because the circumstances of leading and managing will vary. And when you're at 400k to, you know, one and a half million to 10 million, the challenges are different, but the dynamics are the same. So there's always this little formula to me, that's running in the background once you know that it doesn't really matter how complex everybody else thinks it is. You will have this foundation that helps you answer all of it, no matter what.
(43:32):
So, and then the second thing I would say about this for women is it's okay to ask for help and to reach out. And if you, and you know, to your point, Laura, you said you were in groups where you learned lots of great things. I think a lot of women think that somehow they should just be their own person. I think you should be asking for a lot of help, a lot of support looking for it in places maybe you're not expecting it because how well you do lead and develop yourself as a, as a woman, as a leader, as a business owner, does determine the longevity of success and scalability of your business. They are inextricably connected. There's no way to get there without it, without being completely exhausted on the other end. So acknowledging that this is a skill and it's okay if you kind of suck at it right now, you're better. And also acknowledging that there's lots of ways to get support and help in this space. I think a lot of people don't know that exists. And once you have this kind of confidence in how you lead a team, you really can handle anything they bring to you. It doesn't matter.
Laura (44:41):
The analogy that just came into my head was the Maybelline commercial. It's like maybe she was born with it maybe she had to learn it the hard-freaking way. Maybe she hired a coach.
Kris (44:54):
Maybe all of us should right? I think, I don't know how, I don't know how you know, executive leaders, CEOs, founders function without one because you can't coach, you can't go into your team for your own coaching. Your employee’s job is not to coach you.
Laura (45:12):
They're not your peers.
Kris (45:14):
Even if you've been with them for 10 years.
Laura (45:15):
They're still not here to tell you what you should be doing better and give you feedback. And yep. I've seen that too. So, yeah. And so people want to connect with you, they want to learn more about your services, where should they go?
Kris (45:30):
Krisplachy.com is the best place to go. You'll find all of the information about the programs that we offer. I have one on one coaching and I also have a program called the founders lab that's specifically for women who are at seven figures or higher. It's a really intimate coaching group for women who run their own business. And then if you like to connect with people a little more casually, you can find me on Instagram at @Krisplachycoach, which is where Laura, I think connected with me. And then I'm also on LinkedIn. I connect with people everywhere. I'd love to see you.
Laura (46:10):
That's great. We'll include it in the show notes too. So thank you Kris, for being here and sharing your wisdom. And I really appreciate it.
Kris (46:17):
It's my pleasure.
Laura (46:22):
Make sure to visit our website, joybrandcreative.com/podcast where you can subscribe to the show in iTunes, Stitcher, or RSS so that you'll never miss an episode. While you're at it, if you find value in this show, we'd appreciate a rating on iTunes or if you just simply tell a friend about it, that would help us out a lot too. Thanks so much for listening.
The Scale with Joy podcast dives into the mindset and strategies of scaling your company to the million dollar mark and beyond. Each week, we follow the journeys of innovators, disruptors, experts and leaders - sharing behind the scenes stories of their most challenging moments and greatest lessons learned-all while building their multi-million dollar empires.