Why Growth Stalls After Early Success

0:00Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch and I'm going to do a solo show today. That's right. Just me. No guests. I want to talk about some things that, you know, I can say that it's been brewing recently, but, you know, in hindsight, when I look back, it's probably something that I've recognized over 20 years or so. And here's the question I'm going to start with. why do smart businesses, smart business owners keep hitting the same ceiling? That's what I'm going to talk about today. I feel very qualified to talk about this because I'm a founder.

0:37I've experienced some of the same things I'm going to talk about today. And I think that, quite frankly, has helped me recognize why this is happening. So we work with a lot of founder-led businesses. And what we've typically found is that they don't have a very well-developed strategy. I mean, We've built almost our entire practice on the idea of strategy before tactics. And many of the clients come to us for a strategy first type of engagement. In every case, they are helped. They have better thoughts. They have better priorities. They have better tactics. One of the things that I've found is that even as the business grows, many times they come up against the same hurdle time and time again.

1:20And a lot of it's because the founders' patterns have stayed the same. How they view the business, how they view delegating, how they view growth, their fears. These are some of the things that I think really end up holding a business back. So it ultimately can't necessarily change, even though we've installed a better marketing approach in many cases. So here are some of the things I've seen. Tell me if any of these apply to you. The founder's still very involved in every or at least many decisions. The team, if they've assembled one, kind of waits around for like, what do we do next rather than owning things?

2:08Delegation, while it's a good idea, every quarter I'm going to really commit to it, never really sticks. there's not a lot of accountability or it's fuzzy as far as who's going to do what. And so it's like the business keeps circling around the same issues time and time again. So I'm wondering, are you feeling that bottleneck? Do any of these symptoms or ideas sound familiar to you? And what's it costing? I guess that's the next question too. I know that when we have worked with a client. In some cases, when we can't get past this issue, the strategy, no matter how good it is, it really stalls or gets undermined, at least.

2:50Alignment that hopefully sometimes comes out of this strategy engagement falls. People get hesitant. Growth certainly slows as well. So what's the solution?

3:00John Jantsch:Well, one of the things that we have added, and we're going to do it as a standalone, frankly, but certainly as part of or the front end of any strategy engagement that we do is to add an element that we're calling the founder's day. So the idea behind this is to have a very intense, guided, facilitated workshop, if you will, with the founder of the business before we ever start talking about their ideal client and their core message. because I think real change, of course, has to start with that founder. And really, before the business can transform, I mean, a lot of times we have to teach them what it is that we're going to install, but then also how we're going to reinforce it.

3:45So here's what it is. It's a structured, facilitated experience focused on the founder's change. It's not therapy, although maybe sometimes it's not really coaching or certainly not

3:58John Jantsch:coaching theater that you sometimes see out there. It's not a strategy session. It's a process designed to really surface the patterns, the assumptions, the behaviors really that are actually limiting and holding back growth. So the goal to that day or to that session or that element, it's not really just insight. I mean, it's to create a shift that can support the real organizational change that is going to come from us installing strategy first, installing a marketing operating system. So it's going to begin with business goals. Again, that's another thing I think is I've learned the hard way, but I think it's sort of odd that a lot of marketing folks get hired to do marketing plans, to do marketing strategy, to do marketing tactics.

4:48John Jantsch:And there really hasn't been much discussion, if at all, about what the goals of the organization are, what the goals of the business are. And we really need to tie those two things together. So we're going to start there, really get very clear on what the company wants before we start talking about how the founder is going to change in order to get there. And then, of course, how marketing is going to eventually support that. We're going to ask you to make some honest reflection to help move you out of the way of growth. I know that sounds really harsh, And I can say it again. I think I can say it because, frankly, I've lived it myself.

5:24John Jantsch:In many cases, we have to really change the behaviors that have been in the way and have been, quite frankly, become part of the culture. And the only way you can change them is to recognize that they exist. So we're going to walk you through, facilitate a day, frankly, of helping you understand what those, not only what the goals for the business are, we're going to start there, but then we're going to actually talk about what are the constraints, what's holding you back, what has held you back. And it's going to, in many cases, it's going to take some vulnerabilities, some brutal honesty. I know that, you know, when I'm sort of challenged on being the issue, being the problem, you know, it's really human nature to actually respond in a way that is defensive.

6:07And I think that we all know if you've been doing this at any time at all, I mean, that obviously is not helpful for the business itself.

6:15John Jantsch:So what's so amazing is what got you here is that you have the desire, you have the smarts, you have the really the drive to build that business. But what we've discovered, especially when a business has grown to a certain level, one to$20 million, I mean, clearly something is going right. But what we have found is that's where they kind of bump up against the ceiling of sorts. And it's that kind of old cliche of what got you here won't get you there, won't get you to the next level. So understanding what the next level is and then also understanding or at least having a guided facilitation around, you know, why some of these patterns keep happening, what's going to change, how are you going to commit to change too?

7:01It's not really supposed to be just a nice day where everybody sits around and talks about their feelings.

7:08John Jantsch:It is going to be a day where you tie what you want to do to how you're going to lead and to really come up with a personal change plan for how you're going to lead that we believe is the thing that's going to kind of unleash you going to the next level. Now, there are many elements, obviously, in the execution and strategy first in installing the marketing operating system. But what we've discovered is this is the key to really unlocking a true transformation in the business and making it stick. Many of us have experienced temporary experiences, temporary transformations. The key to this is really this is what's going to make it stick.

7:50John Jantsch:So this is something that we have just introduced and we're going to start offering as a standalone product, if you will, or experience. However, I've got an opportunity for you to experience it free of charge. March 31st through April 2nd, we are going to hold an event that we are calling How to Future Proof Your Marketing Agency. It is targeting agencies and consultants in this particular case because that's a market that we serve. And so we are going to offer three days. The first day is going to be this founder day. I'm going to walk people through it. You're going to go away with a workbook.

8:27John Jantsch:You're going to go away with lots of questions. It's going to be a group setting. So it's certainly not going to be the intimate one-on-one session that might and probably needs to happen. But we want people to experience this is part of duct tape marketing. This is part of our marketing system now. The second day, and what we're going to do is one hour a day. We're going to give you homework. We're going to give you workbooks. you're going to really, we're calling it a working experience. It's not a workshop. It's not a webinar. So day two is going to be thinking in terms of how do we move from selling tactics to selling transformation, to delivering transformation for our clients?

9:03John Jantsch:Because I think that is the future. That is how we're going to future-proof our business. And then day three, we are actually going to introduce attendees to something we call the marketing operating system. It is, in my estimation, it is the way that you can make yourself really impervious to what's going on with AI. It is something that AI can't replicate, and you are going to be in the driver's seat with it. I'm not suggesting we're not going to use AI. We're going to use AI in all the ways that it is meant to be used, in all the ways that are practical, in all the ways that deliver value. But if all you're doing is delivering value using AI tools, well, you're going to be replaced by that very tool.

9:46John Jantsch:But if you actually have a framework and a system that we call the marketing operating system, AI can't produce that. Now, it can help you deliver it, but you are going to make future-proof your practice. So three days, we will certainly be promoting this in other ways. But if you're interested and want to go sign up for free, it is dtm.world slash future. That's DTM, like duct tape marketing, dot world slash future. And I believe it could be one of the most eye-opening experiences that you can have, particularly if you're one of those people out there thinking, am I going to get replaced by AI?

10:26John Jantsch:Is the agency world changing? Do I need a new model? I think we're going to introduce you to some ideas that might answer some of those questions for you. So last time, March 31st through April 2nd, three days in a row, hour a day, Plus, you're going to get homework and workbooks. DTM.world slash future. And if nothing else, I think the experience of going through the founder day of asking some deeper questions than maybe what do I need to do today might be well worth the time invested. So that's it for today. Hopefully, we'll see you one of these days soon out there on the road.

11:09Thank you.