Key To Entrepreneurial Success: Pick the Right Partner

That's amazing.

And so talk about the process now.

You know, we'll talk more about Beth a bit later, but those early years with Claremont Partners, what was it like doing the first, we'll say, five to 10 hires? Like, what were you thinking about as you were building it?

I mean, when I was thinking about when we first started building it, I was super naive.

I think I have to be very honest.

That's just who I am.

I always say now, if I would have known what I was going to go through as I built that business, I'm not sure I would have done it.

But at that point, when I started it, I was a young spring chicken.

And I said, I mean, there's nothing but success from a business like this.

I just went full force.

In the beginning, I really didn't know a lot of the mechanics of running a business.

I knew exactly what I was doing when it came to strategic consulting with C-suites, board of directors, investor relations, ESG.

That was not my issue.

But the mechanics of building a business, the basics like cash flow management, Maybe you should get your revenues, collect your revenues before you pay your vendors or have a very clear budget that you're trying to track towards so you know how to make those hires.

So going back to your question, those first few hires, we just made them because we were drowning.

We didn't necessarily have the best idea of... how are those hires from a cost perspective and also a revenue perspective going to advance our business? And so we made some missteps in the beginning.

Like we really, we were looking for expertise, but not thinking about the vision of the business.

And so it was really kind of worker bees that had really no idea what we had to really teach them again.

You know, a worker bee that's not invested in a business sometimes is what you need, but more often than not, it's someone you want that you need to grow with the business.

So those in those early days, those first few hires were I mean, we turned through them because they weren't the exact right fit.

We didn't understand the vision.

So like when we started to get to hire five and six and seven, at that point, we were a couple of years into it.

So we knew exactly what our vision was for the business.

We knew what our runway and our goals were for the business from a financial perspective.

So we were able to be more strategic with those hires to find the fits that we needed to support those goals.

That's amazing.

And so talk about the process now.

You know, we'll talk more about Beth a bit later, but those early years with Claremont Partners, what was it like doing the first, we'll say, five to 10 hires? Like, what were you thinking about as you were building it?

I mean, when I was thinking about when we first started building it, I was super naive.

I think I have to be very honest.

That's just who I am.

I always say now, if I would have known what I was going to go through as I built that business, I'm not sure I would have done it.

But at that point, when I started it, I was a young spring chicken.

And I said, I mean, there's nothing but success from a business like this.

I just went full force.

In the beginning, I really didn't know a lot of the mechanics of running a business.

I knew exactly what I was doing when it came to strategic consulting with C-suites, board of directors, investor relations, ESG.

That was not my issue.

But the mechanics of building a business, the basics like cash flow management, Maybe you should get your revenues, collect your revenues before you pay your vendors or have a very clear budget that you're trying to track towards so you know how to make those hires.

So going back to your question, those first few hires, we just made them because we were drowning.

We didn't necessarily have the best idea of... how are those hires from a cost perspective and also a revenue perspective going to advance our business? And so we made some missteps in the beginning.

Like we really, we were looking for expertise, but not thinking about the vision of the business.

And so it was really kind of worker bees that had really no idea what we had to really teach them again.

You know, a worker bee that's not invested in a business sometimes is what you need, but more often than not, it's someone you want that you need to grow with the business.

So those in those early days, those first few hires were I mean, we turned through them because they weren't the exact right fit.

We didn't understand the vision.

So like when we started to get to hire five and six and seven, at that point, we were a couple of years into it.

So we knew exactly what our vision was for the business.

We knew what our runway and our goals were for the business from a financial perspective.

So we were able to be more strategic with those hires to find the fits that we needed to support those goals.