In this streamlined episode, Kareen Walsh, CEO of Revampologist, LLC, shares strategies to scale your business beyond year one. If you struggle with sustainability or trust, you won’t want to miss it.
You will discover:
– How to simplify growth by focusing on supply, demand, and cyclical evaluation
– Why 90% of businesses fail in years 2-5 without a clear long-term vision
– How to identify your CEO role (Creator, Entrepreneur, Operator) to lead effectively
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again to the start, scale and succeed podcast, the only podcast that grows with you through all seven stages of your journey. As a founder, and I know we’ve all heard the crazy statistics around how many businesses fail, yet as founders, we I also know that we all ignore that and go for it anyway. We fight, we scratch, we claw, we try and get through those early days thinking, hey, if I can get my business to one year, if we’ll be okay. But the reality of it is that year isn’t enough, and according to our guest today, over 90% or actually 90% of businesses fail in years two through five, which is stunning. We’re going to figure out why, and we’re going to show you how to solve it here in just a moment, because that is all due to our wonderful guest, who is Karine Zarr Walsh. She’s here to help us beat the odds, and she’s a visionary business and people strategist. She’s an author, podcaster and investor, and a seven figure business building entrepreneur, making her the ultimate business healer with nearly two decades of experience optimizing performance in the health and wellness e commerce, technology and finance industries and running top performing teams in complex environments, Karine has a proven track record of helping C suite executives to turn their vision and of impact into action. She’s worked with trillion dollar businesses, including BlackRock and broad Broadridge, to execute their strategic initiatives, as well as helping startups like pure vitality and drip hydration build growth strategies to scale. She’s here with us today. Karine, very excited to have you on the show. Every entrepreneur out there knows that year one is hard, right? We walk into it hopefully knowing what we’ve signed up for, to some extent. But you cite the statistic that 90% fail, not in year one, but in years two through five. So why is making it through that first year? Not enough? What’s going on that causes so many of us to fail?
Kareen Walsh
It’s great to be here. Scott, thanks for having me. I find that year one, it kind of is a adrenaline push that gets you through it right. Like, if you can imagine getting into all the doing of it all to establish your business, it’s very easy to be almost distracted if you don’t have a clear strategy of what it would look like by year two through five. And I think in my methods, especially when I created my evolve method, like I love to work with my founders, thinking about, all right, you have this amazing idea, but how do you actually want to exit this business when, when it actually reaches what your ultimate vision is? And that, I think, is the differentiator to hit that two through five year and plus, right? Like, if you really want a sustainable business, a legacy based business, if that’s your goal, you have to start thinking of, what does that future state look like, and then year one needs to be that found out foundational year to build upon after that. And I think that’s tends to be the missing mark, because most people have great ideas, and they think it might be a business, but they’re not necessarily sure what sustainability of that business would look like.
Scott Ritzheimer
Right, right. I don’t know this for sure, because I wasn’t here 100 years ago, but it seems like starting a business today is more complex than ever. It’s just so many things happening so many different ways. Does it have to be that complicated? Or is there a way to simplify the route to success, especially in these early days?
Kareen Walsh
Yeah. I mean, I think the foundation of all business is supply and demand, and if you don’t understand what you’re supplying and clear on where the demand is, then you don’t have a business like that’s the root of all business that was ever created from the beginning of time. I think what’s created complexity is the comparison model that people get caught up in, that their business has to reflect how other people are doing it, and that’s where they create more disconnect from what they’re truly trying to do, and probably create more problems within their business, because they’re bringing in other people’s influence versus what’s best for them as the leader of the business, and what does it mean for them to actually supply the right services against that ideal demand? Who are their ideal clients? What do they want? And why would they keep coming back to us? I think is, is what has made it more complex?
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, it’s interesting because there, there is something to be learned from others, right? But in the same token, if you’re running someone else’s race, you’re all but set up to fail from the get go. So how do you help founders to really identify if they’re if they’re copycatting to their detriment, or if they’re copying best practices to further their success?
Kareen Walsh
Yeah, it all. It all comes down to being really clear on the business they’re in and how they craft their offers to a. Aligned with what service they actually provide, or product suite they actually want to put out there, knowing that it is meeting the need. So copycatting is a stress inducing scenario. If you don’t have the same acumen as who you’re copying, right? Like that’s where the gap becomes. So if you don’t know your innate qualities and the gaps of who else you would need in your business to do it, and you’re trying to copy someone with a totally different business acumen than you have. That’s when you’re setting yourself up to fail. It’s one of the biggest things when I’m asked to come into companies and evaluate and strategically think with them on how do they scale? Because year two through five is generally a scaling. Proof of concept, is one to two, and then two to five is a scaling and trying to target new sustainability within the business. And in order to do that, you have to kind of look at yourself and be like, am I actually the right leader to help get us there? And a lot of the times, if you’re sitting in the creator role of your business, of your business, the one that’s coming up with the solutions, the one that’s more on the innovative side. I guarantee you’re struggling in operations and and what I call entrepreneurship, which is really the sales of the business. It’s the CEO model that I talk about all the time, where each of us have to play one role, but we’re trying to do all three. And I think that is where the complexity comes when you’re trying to be a copycat, because you can’t copy someone else’s acumen.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I think that’s so important, and I want to unpack that a little bit. What are those three roles and and how do you figure out which one is right for you?
Kareen Walsh
Yeah, this was something that over, I don’t know how many years in my in my advisory and coaching practice? I think it’s the last eight years I came up with this model. And it’s the CEO conundrum, basically because we’re all sitting in it. It’s because I felt it myself when I was looking to scale my business and and I had to get out of my own way. The Creator is the C, the entrepreneur is the E and the operator is the O. And every single company needs all three roles fulfilled, but most of us fall between, and if you can visualize it like a triangle between two of the three. But really, most of us really love playing just one. There are people that love process. Love to be focused on the how to get things done. That’s the operator role. There are people who love the new innovation, the creative side, the one that if you have anyone on your team, or if you’re this person, that’s like, the what if person, and what if we did this, and what if we did that, and you’re constantly doing scope creep, or, you know, adding on more things to actually deliver and then causing stress on everybody else, because you didn’t even master the first thing. You’re the creator of the team, and then you have the entrepreneur, the one that’s masterful in sales, masterful in relationships, masterful in making it an actual business, right? Because there has to be that outbound aspect of it that so many entrepreneurs are afraid of, because there’s the taboo around sales and, you know, putting themselves out there. So in order to identify which one you are actually did create a quiz which anyone can go and take. It’s Hey, karine.com/ceo, if you really want to know which one you land in, because that identity alone shifts how you lead your business 100% when I did it for myself, I realized I was a trained operator. That’s what I did in corporations, that when I had a job and I grew up as an executive, I was well known for how to get things done, and so I was trained that way. But my innate side like what I actually enjoy doing, what the things that light me up, that want to show up every day, I’m between that creator and entrepreneur on that side of the triangle. So truly, I’m an entrepreneur in the I love the business modeling. I love the numbers. I love to get the money, you know, and then the creation comes in the solution mindset that I just can’t turn off. So I made that a business. But when I did that, that’s I literally scaled my business to seven figures in less than six months, because I got out of my own way. And that is something that I feel every entrepreneur needs to understand their role in their business in order to own it in a way that aligns with who they actually are, as opposed to posturing into roles that actually bring them a lot of pain, and that’s why they’re not seeing it in the numbers.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, can a founder choose any of the three, or that they really have to carry one or two of them specifically.
Kareen Walsh
You can choose any of them. I know a lot of founders that try to do all of them when they get and that’s why their business growth is stunted, because you really aren’t staying along. But what I would say is, when you answer the quiz questions, do it from a place of what lights you up, and you’ll find that you really don’t want to do the other two. Whichever one you identify with is the thing that actually makes you feel excited to show up for. And I think if you can build business based on that, then you really are growing in a way that is sustainable, because you’ll love showing up in it every day.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, when it comes to. To setting vision early on. It’s easy to kind of discount them. If we had a whole team and all of us could spend three days at a vision off site, you know, sure that’d be easy, but we don’t have time for any of that. How do you how do you set vision in those early days?
Kareen Walsh
So I mean, the sessions I find is you can have short term visions, but you have to be able to pause and assess how it’s going against that vision, and then pivot if you need to. I think that is the winning formula for sustainability as well. Is that it’s not just about a pie in the sky. Oh, I want to see this happen, and then you’re chartering towards it, and you’re realizing that you’re really trying to climb a big mountain that you no longer really want to climb, but that’s what you said you wanted to do. So I think it’s a combination, which is why my evolve method is a cycle. Because you you literally want to evaluate where you are today, recast your vision, right? So that’s the V and so it’s Evolve is, is evaluate and then visualize, and then you go into leveraging what you have to do and making sure you’re in the right ownership role to do it, but you’re doing it in a cyclical way so that you’re consistently growing based on your learnings. I don’t think we pause enough to really assess, especially early on, when I grew my business to seven figures, I was doing an evaluation every week. Am I on target towards what I’m planning? Is this target still what I want is the method at which I’m doing it the right method, and I would just keep tweaking it week over week. I would suggest you do it at least every 30 days if you’re in a really good growth spurt, because then that will help you truly get traction in an aligned way, and also let you let things go that aren’t working. And I think, you know, we fear that as well. A lot of the failure in business too is because there’s a lot of carrying of, let’s call it dead weight, things that you tried, but you’re still sustaining it. But there’s not really people buying it or, you know, and then, as opposed to just making the decision that didn’t work, let’s move on to what does.
Scott Ritzheimer
Right, there’s kind of two equal and opposite problems when it comes to vision and putting that vision into action. And I really like this cyclical model, because I think it helps us to stay in between these two. But one is to say, hey, here’s where we’re growing. This is the big pie in the sky thing. And then be so committed to it, then when it proves to be wrong, you can’t pivot right, and you’re just trapped there. The other one is to just take the wheel and just crank it every single week right and and what I really like about this idea of of repeating it cyclically, as long as you have some degree of of, you know, willingness to either be wrong or willingness to turn the wheel is you don’t have to get it 100% right the first time right and and instead of having to yank the wheel, if you do it frequently enough, it’s just adjustments each step of the way. I really, really like that. I really like that.
Kareen Walsh
That you can manage and keep assessing right. Because then, if you have that muscle of of pause, assess and then revisualize and then reset right, like if you, if you stay in that cycle, it also makes you feel like you’re more in control of, actually, what’s happening in your business, and it shows you how to be use discernment. It’s like, what’s a fit and what’s not. It also helps you lead better as you build up your team. Because part of, I’m sure, some of your listeners who have small teams, or they maybe are just at that point where they’re bringing on some operational help, or they’re thinking, you know, I just want to get, like, Stop, get this off my plate, which is a great way to start your hiring process, to clear your plate, to then be more strategic and forward thinking on where you want to take it. I think there’s sometimes the challenge of also up leveling your team, or re establishing your team when you hit also certain parts. So when you do these type of valuations, and I would say quarterly is a really good cycle, every 90 days to do a strategic check in on where are you on your vision, what actions have been taken, what’s going really well, you know what we need to stop doing. What’s the next best thing for the business? Are we still align, you know, and then who do I need? Who do I need? Is a really critical question, because some people sit in strategy and they don’t think about the people side. Yeah, and if you can hire experts in who you need, versus trying to figure it out all on your own all the time, that trajectory is huge to accelerate.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s so true. It’s it changes over time, right? It’s not a fixed thing. I love that. I love that that that again, that cyclical, taking that time. And the other word that I love, that you use, is pause. It’s not stop, right? It’s not like abandon everything and it but it’s just pause, reflect. Collect and then move. That’s very, very cool, very cool. All right, so there’s this question that I have. I ask all my guests. I’m very interested to see what you have to say. Yeah. And the question is this, what is the biggest secret you wish wasn’t a secret at all. What’s that one thing you wish everybody watching or listening today knew?
Kareen Walsh
What’s the biggest secret? I think the biggest secret is that, you know, or the pain I see right in a lot of people, is mistrust, like they feel like they can’t trust anybody else to handle what is on their plate, or see their business the way they need to. They need to in order to get it off their plate right. Like entrepreneurs get stuck in this control a lot of times, and the biggest secret is that that trust is within yourself and like and how you actually lead it, and you are still in control. Even as you bring in people, it’s up to you to master the way to lead them and make sure they understand the boundaries, the quality, the the method at which you want them to perform in order to get that job done, so that you can scale your business. I think that’s the biggest secret in what it actually takes to scale anything is really trusting in yourself to lead better, versus sitting in this story of I can’t trust anyone, and no one can do this like I can. Yeah, I think that if we could squash that secret, we’d have a lot more success out there.
Scott Ritzheimer
It’s so true. It’s a lot less comfortable in some respects, too, because it points the the arrow back to you, right? Because folks are sitting at this stage. We actually call the stage the reluctant manager, and they’re sitting there thinking, what’s wrong with these people, you know, and and the reality of it is is no, no, no, you have to change the way that you lead. And I could not have said it better. It was just fantastic. So Kareen, there’s some folks listening to this. They’d love to hear more about the work that you do and connect with you. How can they find out more?
Kareen Walsh
Yeah, so I appreciate that, Scott, it’s been fun. I actually just launched my Hey Karine app, so you can go to heykareen.com and find out all the things about me, but also get access to my entrepreneurial guide, an AI coach that I created, I cloned myself, and so you can have access to it. And I just actually made the whole platform free, so anybody who wants to dialog with all the years of acumen that I’ve had and really get the entrepreneurial support they need as they’re growing and scaling their business like that, is the place to go. Hey, heykareen.com connecting with me on LinkedIn, which is Karine Walsh, and then also I am on Instagram, if you want to see behind the scenes and be a little bit more personal on the journey I take in life and business. I do share it there.
Scott Ritzheimer
Fantastic, fantastic. Well, Kareen, thanks for being on the show. It’s just a privilege and honor having you here today. Love this conversation, and for those of you watching and listening, you know that your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact Kareen Walsh
Kareen Walsh is a visionary business and people strategist, author, podcaster, investor, and a 7-figure business-building entrepreneur, making her the ultimate Business Healer. With nearly two decades of experience optimizing performance in the health and wellness, e-commerce, technology, and finance industries and running top-performing teams in complex environments, Kareen has a proven track record of helping C-Suite executives turn their vision of impact into action. She has worked with trillion-dollar businesses, including BlackRock and Broadridge, to execute their strategic initiatives, as well as helping startups like Pure Vitality and Drip Hydration build growth strategies to scale.
Want to learn more about Kareen Walsh’s work at Revampologist, LLC? Check out her free AI coaching app at heykareen.com/ceo and connect with her on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kareenwalsh/ or get a behind the scenes look on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/kareenzwalsh