We recently connected with Rebecca Brizi and have shared our conversation below.

Rebecca, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

I somewhat banished the thought when I decided to go into business on my own. Mainly because it was part of the decision process.

There is a give and take in this decision: both being an employee and being a business owner offer risks, rewards, security, instability, and more. You are simply swapping one form of each for another. What is a risk as an employee is not as a business owner, and vice versa.

When I decided to start my own business I knew that I would be giving up security in some areas, but gaining more security in others, etc. That is how I approach it all: maximize the benefits, the perks, the upside to being a business owner, so I can tolerate, mitigate, and reduce the dangers and challenges.

Rebecca, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

After my studies and formation I was confronted with the reality that I hated the career that I had prepared for. That harsh realization pushed me to jump into something completely different, which in my case was a software startup that sold to law firms. After a couple of years I became a partner in the business and took advantage of being an early team member by hiring and growing the business around the work that I preferred to do, eventually designing my role around operations and culture.
This business first brought me to the United States (from England) to open our US office. I hired our strongest employee and closed some of the company’s biggest accounts.
And then I decided to “take my show on the road”, so to speak.
Having developed my own system and approach to internal management, I looked around and saw a gap in the market serving small businesses, and started my consultancy.

My clients are business owners who want their employees to want to come to work. Business owners for whom culture, reputation, and recognition matter as much as productivity, targets, and growth.
I work with them to establish their company culture, first and foremost. A business is not judged by its values, it is judged by its behaviors, and that is where I start. With the culture in place, we design the organizational chart based on their current resources and priorities. We then set their next objectives in place and build the process to achieve them. Once we have the culture and the resource allocation, the rest comes quite naturally.
What makes this both easy and engaging for my clients, is that I fit my system around their natural skills and preferences. They don’t have to learn new systems, terminology, or habits. Instead we build success around what comes naturally to them. A key question we always look at is: “Would you work for you?”

Have you ever had to pivot?

Pivoting has been a natural part of my life and, I believe, is one of strengths I now bring to my work.

I moved quite a lot growing up, and changed schools every few years. This was always a source of excitement for me. It felt like an adventure, getting to see what was behind door number 4, 5, 6, and so on. This meant different places, different people, and also different languages at different stages of my childhood.
I already talked about my career shifts, and each one of those was a moment of pivot too: different industries, work environments, priorities, resources, and so on.

Because change has been quite a constant in my life, I tend to be someone who at first sits back a bit and observes. I want to learn what this new world is. I want to gain some knowledge and experience, before I make major decisions. Then, as it falls into place, I become more and more proactive.

Take when I first moved to the United States. Our business sold to large companies and firms, primarily large law firms. But the language, priorities, and methods in the US were quite different from what I was used to in the UK. People network differently, negotiate differently, and communicate differently. Even something as simple as writing dates: I have to get used to a month/day/year format. So I listened, observed, and then learned to fit in enough to be understood and be part of the team, while still being myself.

The most recent major pivot was starting my consultancy, but change still happened throughout. I changed my prices early on, then my whole pricing model. I changed my target audience after a couple of years. I changed my messaging.

Any advice for managing a team?

This comes right back to making people want to come to work.

My main goal with any business is to make work simple and fun. This is a shared responsibility.

Employers have a responsibility to offer a good work environment and support for their team members, all without sacrificing business needs and priorities.
Employees have a responsibility to be productive and motivated and do the work expected of them.

This will all work when there is a proper dialogue and communication.

To maintain a productive team with high morale: set the boundaries first. Be clear about what is expected and what is allowed. Do this through a definition of your culture, your brand, and your business goals.
Then trust your team members to operate within those parameters. Let them work with their own strengths and skills. Let them experiment and grow. And let them tell you how they want to do it all.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rgbrizi.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rgbrizi/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@consultantcorner8873
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WHF3869/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0