Accomplishing anything significant usually requires a team. Sure, one person may be able to do it, but it will be many times harder and take much longer. The thing that makes teams so special is their synergy. Teams comprising members whose strengths and weaknesses are complementary in important areas are strong and may make the difference between the business succeeding or failing.

Not embracing this fact—or, for that matter, even knowing it—hindered me at various points in CCAW’s journey. You’d think I would have learned my lesson, but I didn’t. I didn’t know any better and didn’t have people pointing out this oversight until late in the journey. It was a huge knowledge gap.

Early on I had an idea, but I didn’t know if it would work. I focused on testing and figuring everything out myself. The end result was good: I got a product/market fit. But it took much longer than it should have. Like, years longer. I missed out on first-mover advantage in our space. We played catch-up while key vendors benchmarked us against a competitor.

Years later, we were at around $7 or $8 million in annual revenue. We had developed a reputation for being well run and fair to customers and vendors. We reached a point where a comprehensive go-to-market strategy was needed to get to my $100 million goal. How should we market to customers and installers? How could we most effectively partner with suppliers and manufacturers? How could we acquire customers cost-efficiently and predictably? All extremely important questions! I didn’t have experience in these areas, nor did anyone on the team. I tried to find people to bring on board, but I didn’t make it a top priority. So, we had a huge weakness in a critical area because I didn’t add the right people. We never hit the $100 million goal.

Creating a vision for CCAW was important. Honestly, It took me years to figure it out—much longer than it should have. Operating in our space was difficult because it was constantly shifting. My big mistake was in not thinking deeply about the skills required to achieve my vision and making it a priority to add people who had them to our team.

If you’re thinking of accomplishing something significant (personal or professional), consider what skills are needed to make your vision reality. Then figure out who has the skills you lack. Answering these questions could put you on the path to greatness with a great team.  

Today marks my ninetieth consecutive day of sharing my thoughts in posts. (I previously described how this started.) I recently spoke with a peer about my experience. He’s considering doing it too and wanted to ask me a few questions. By the time we finished chatting, I had had an epiphany: I understand things better when I share my thoughts widely.

I tend to think deeply about things. I try to understand by identifying connections that aren’t obvious. I used to ruminate and perhaps talk with one or two people very close to me. That approach was flawed. It didn’t help me achieve my ultimate goal: understanding.

It was a mistake to not share my thoughts or to do so only with a few like-minded people. I avoided opening up to others with different perspectives who would test my thinking or point out my blind spots (we all have them). I wasn’t really trying to understand, because I wasn’t talking to people who would be likelier to disagree with me. Naturally, I saw things only through the lens of my life experiences. My reality. I would come to understand an issue, or think I did, but since I looked at it only from my own narrow angle, I ended up missing things.

Sharing my thoughts broadly invites feedback. It sparks great conversations—opportunities for me to listen. I get glimpses of other people’s realities. I see things from their angle! I’ve learned that truly understanding something means getting as close as possible to a 360-degree view of it. The more people I talk to who are different from me, the closer I get to that goal.

Sharing my thoughts daily has illuminated all of this. Sometimes my initial thinking is wrong. (Whose isn’t?) When I share my thoughts with the world, I’m inviting others to help me acquire true understanding. Each person bridges a gap in that 360-degree circle.

I didn’t envision understanding things better as a benefit of sharing when I began posting every day, but it is, and I’m thankful for it.

I encourage everyone to share their thoughts more widely. It doesn’t have to be through writing; do it in a way that works for you. When you get feedback, listen. You’ll understand things much better.

In an earlier post, I shared my views on the power of listening to understand. I’ve continued to think about how we can help each other through this turmoil.

As CCAW grew, our team grew. I was no longer involved in every decision or even aware of every initiative. An empowered team making decisions without me was my goal. Inevitably, some decisions didn’t result in the desired outcome. Translation: things blew up sometimes.

No one is perfect, and my team members had good intentions. We were all in it together, working to build a great company. Naturally, we sometimes had different ideas about how to do it. Our different perspectives were valuable and often lead to amazing outcomes. But sometimes they caused us to miss the mark.

By the time something reached my desk, it usually meant a decision had worked out poorly. Instead of beating a dead horse, I learned to focus on the reasons for the decision. Why did you do it that way? Why was that the chosen path? What led up to you making that decision? Asking these questions was far more valuable than casting blame. I listened with the intent to understand, and ultimately, I did—I understood their why. Then I was able to work with them to develop solutions that supported their why.

Understanding why begets perspective. More importantly, it gives insight into the other person’s perspective. Understanding why someone makes the choices they do is a building block in (or even the foundation of) the positive working relationship required to achieve a common goal.

We’re all in this together, but that doesn’t mean we all see things the same way. Consider listening to understand why. When you do, you can begin to see things from a different perspective.

You might be interested in this short video about Colin Kaepernick's and Army veteran Nate Boyer’s desire to understand one another. It led Nate to “understand that we’re not that different, and we probably want the same things at the end of the day” and to a compromise that incorporated both perspectives.

Be part of the solution. Understand why.

Founding teams have been on my mind lately. I’m curious about what traits increase their chances of success. I’ve heard many opinions on this, but the Hipster–Hacker–Hustler concept kept coming up. I decided to look into it further. Here’s what I found:

• Hipster – The Hipster focuses on the product being desirable to customers. They think about things like user experience and product design. They tend to be in tune with what’s trendy and cool. They have a unique customer-driven perspective.
• Hacker – The Hacker is the builder. Building new stuff excites them and they can focus intensely on it. They are driven by data and logic. They see the world as black and white and may not have as much charisma.
• Hustler – The Hustler makes sure that things get done. They relate well with people and are persuasive. They can hold people accountable to results, sell to customers, and rally people behind their vision.

I think this is a great template for a founding team. It probably won’t work in all instances, but it’s a good framework to consider.

I’m a Hustler for sure. I’m laser focused on achieving the desired result, enjoy talking with people, and take psychological ownership of what I say I’ll do. As I kid, I convinced neighbors and classmates to become customers. I bootstrapped CCAW from nothing to eight-figure revenue. All by being a Hustler. At times it was painful, but I learned a lot about others and myself. I can see now how a Hipster and Hacker could have added a lot of value and accelerated CCAW’s success.

I encourage rising entrepreneurs to consider the makeup of their founding team. Being a solo founder can work against you. So can having a team of founders with similar expertise and perspectives. Diversity is important and can lead to amazing things!

Today, Memorial Day, I'd like honor the fallen soldiers . Their ultimate sacrifice is for our country is worthy of this day and I'd like to say thank you!

I hope everyone had a safe and healthy memorial day with loved ones!

A new entrepreneur asked where ideas about critical features of CCAW’s system came from. These features allowed us to streamline our management of large amounts of data and set ourselves apart from competitors. They ultimately became the foundation for growing rapidly while keeping to the quality standards we were known for. My response? Conflict. The entrepreneur was surprised.

When a challenging problem needed to be solved, I’d have a whiteboard session with company leaders. We’d agree on what the problem was and then begin debating how to solve it. We often were of different minds. Sometimes our disagreements were intense and tempers would flair. Usually, everything worked out—we would come up with an amazing solution that borrowed from everyone’s perspective.

To make sure our conflict stayed healthy, we had to establish ground rules. Basically, we adhered to the golden rule: we had to treat each other as we wanted to be treated. When things got heated and we were about to break that rule, we suspended the meeting until everyone was calm. We reminded each other that everyone is entitled to their opinion and it’s OK to agree to disagree.

My big takeaway from those sessions was that healthy conflict can bring good outcomes. We didn’t see eye to eye, and we each thought we were right, but we respected each other. Genuinely listening with the intention of understanding allowed us to view the problem through a different lens. After hearing everyone out, we saw the problem completely differently. That helped us see a different path to a solution. I often noticed that when they understood a team member’s perspective, people would have a burst of ideas. We fed off each other’s ideas until we reached a solution that we all thought was ideal.

I don’t like to argue, but I have an appreciation for the value of someone else’s perspective. I may not agree with it, but I enjoy the process of trying to understand it. When you’re building a company, you’re often trying to solve problems that others can’t solve. Constructive conflict is a powerful tool that mature teams can use to solve problems in unique ways.

How has constructive conflict helped you solve a problem?

One of the most consequential decisions I made as an entrepreneur was to seek out mentors. Over time I had a few as CCAW transitioned. It took me several years to find my first really good mentor, but when I did it made a world of difference. At the time, CCAW was doing around $500,000 in annual revenue. The company was just me and one team member. My mentor was in a different industry, was doing around $60 million in annual revenue, and had more than a hundred employees.

I recently reflected on what made the relationship so impactful. There are lots of things, but one especially stands out: credibility.

When I described a challenge, my mentor could relate to it because years earlier his company had been at the stage where CCAW was. He drew on the specific experiences that helped him resolve the same challenge or one that was similar. His credibility came from having already achieved what I was trying to achieve. He shared his blueprint for success, which comprised knowledge amassed over many years. He essentially laid the path to success at my feet. I still had to walk the path, but I didn’t have to figure out where it was or what it looked like.

I believe that everyone could benefit from this type of wisdom and should consider establishing a relationship with a credible mentor. To increase the likelihood of a fruitful mentorship, I encourage people to first decide on the answers to two simple but powerful questions: What am I trying to accomplish? Has my prospective mentor successfully done the same sort of thing? If you can’t answer the first, you’re not ready to be mentored. If you can’t say “yes” to the second, you haven’t found the right mentor.

When seeking knowledge from another person, always consider whether he or she is credible. On my business journey, the wisdom of credible people has been a game changer many times.

For years, I’ve struggled with managing certain relationships. I do fine with family and close friends—I’m in touch with them regularly. (Mom may beg to differ sometimes.) It’s people outside this inner circle that I have trouble keeping up with. They get my attention at random times. Someone will pop into my mind and I’ll reach out to them when I get home (if I don’t forget).

After acknowledging my weakness, I decided to do something about it. I did some research and spoke with people about what I was trying to do. A close friend recommended the Fabriq app. It’s new and still evolving, but I decided to give it a try. I’m using it for my personal contacts. (I take a different approach to nurturing professional relationships.)

Here are some of my takeaways:

• Circles – The app triggered me to think about the type of relationship I have with each person and what circle they’re in (inner, middle, outer, etc.). This exercise took a bit of time, but it was very helpful.
• Schedule – You set the touch point frequency for each contact, and the app nudges you when it’s time to reach out. This has been useful—it’s helping me work toward establishing a habit.
• Reminders – Custom reminders can be set for important dates, follow-up activities, and anything else you like.  
• Notes – Information can be added for each contact. After a call I sometimes create a note about something important that I just heard but that I’m not likely to remember. I look over my notes about a person before calling them next time.
• Initiate contact – Texts and calls can be initiated from within the app. There are templates for conversation starters too.

Overall I’m pleased with the app. It’s not perfect, but it has improved how I manage relationships. I like how proactive Fabriq’s team is. They’re constantly improving the app, so I predict that it will get better over time. That said, it’s not a silver bullet. I still have to make the effort to use the app consistently.

What’s your strategy for managing personal relationships?

Yesterday I got an unexpected call. It was a group FaceTime from a few old friends. They were celebrating Cinco de Mayo, quarantine-style of course, and wanted me to join them. There were five of us. We live in four different states in three different time zones. We seldom see each other face to face: we’re all in the same place once every couple of years, if we’re lucky, because of the planning and travel required.

Today I reflected on the call. We have a regular group text, so we’re connected. We call each other for one-to-one conversations too. Even with all this, FaceTime enhanced our communication. Why?

Here’s my theory. Throughout history, most of us have communicated using our

• voice,
• hearing, and
• eyesight.

Text messages engage only our eyesight, and only in a limited way—we can look only at words, not faces. Tone, humor, and other subtleties are difficult to convey, though emoji help.

Phone calls let us use our hearing and voice. Humor, tone, and mood are more easily understood. But calls don’t require sight and, like texts, don’t allow us to communicate through body language (for example, facial expressions).

FaceTime and other video platforms allow us to communicate verbally and nonverbally. Tone, humor, mood, and body language all have a good chance of being understood.

I think video is powerful because it engages our voice, hearing, and eyesight. It’s the next best thing to communicating in person. Using all three just feels more natural.

Video isn’t new. FaceTime, Zoom, WebEx, Houseparty, and others have been around for years. But use of these tools is now soaring. People of all ages who once relied on traditional phone calls and in-person communication are now embracing video.

We’ve seen rapid-fire mass adoption because the pandemic is keeping people apart. Restrictions on in-person communication have created a void, and video-based tools are filling it. They allow us to communicate in the way that feels most natural—using our voice, hearing, and eyesight.

Face-to-face communication is irreplaceable, but video will play a much larger role in people’s lives from now on because we’ve been compelled to get used to it. I predict that entrepreneurs with experience in video or ideas about how to enhance video communication will be highly sought-after by investors and venture capitalists.

How do you see communication evolving?

I recently spoke with an entrepreneur whose business is falling off due to the pandemic. He’s starting to see about a 25% drop in customers and revenue. We talked about rightsizing to avoid unprofitability.

We categorized each of his expenses as fixed or variable. Most of the latter should decrease effortlessly because he’ll be using products and services less. I encouraged him to try to reduce fixed expenses by proactively contacting the people he’s paying and letting them know his situation. He told me he’s begun doing this and has been able to negotiate some savings—most notably, a 40% reduction in rent for the next few months. It turned out that his landlord appreciated the proactive communication and wants to keep him as a tenant. No doubt it helped that the entrepreneur has paid on time for five years and rent payments aren’t the landlord’s primary income.

My big takeaway from this conversation is that proactive communication is powerful. He didn’t procrastinate until things became dire. He acknowledged what’s happening, came up with helpful ideas, and openly discussed the problem with other people it affects. The upshot was an amicable win–win resolution that will help his business survive the downturn and avoid disasters like bankruptcy and lawsuits.

I encourage anyone navigating rough waters to look reality in the face and communicate honestly with other stakeholders sooner rather than later. What you don’t ask for, you won’t get.

How has proactive communication kept you from running aground?