We recently connected with Cleveland Justis and have shared our conversation below.

Cleveland, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

We are a company focused on supporting companies and people who are leading change.

You may feel that your company or organization is unprepared for the challenges of the future. Yet we are willing to bet you are less unprepared than they were last time a big crisis hit. Because we do, in fact, learn and relearn. Slowly. Change seeps into the mainstream drip by drip, as those working in the unique niches and corners of industries start to build a movement behind new ideas. Person by person. Business by business. Sector by sector.

Society is recognizing, or re-recognizing, or probably re-re-recognizing, that solitary sectors acting as large, independent structures are too slow and clunky to be responsive to our needs. We know this doesn’t have to be. We recognize that an active and adaptive government is essential to a high-performing society. And of course, business has freedoms and financial incentives that are remarkable at generating innovation. And nonprofits often can be the most creative at all, forced by limitations to experiment with new models and ideas.

Indeed, a breed of innovator and entrepreneur blurs the boundaries between these sectors, recognizing that distinct advantages available at the intersection. Businesses are starting to maximize social returns as well as financial returns, governments are increasingly becoming nimble, and nonprofits are blending all of these approaches. But while this is un-chartered territory for many. From real estate development, to vaccine development, to building world-class park systems, the commonality is that great leaders need to work between governments, businesses, and nonprofit organizations to accomplish great things.

We are a firm that support those organizations that lead at the intersection of business, government, and nonprofits. We help them plan for the work at this intersection, recruit senior talent skilled at this intersection, and find board members who can help these organizations thrive.

This work at the intersection is complicated and we belive it is the future of our country and our world.

Cleveland, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Who We Are Potrero Group is a leadership consulting firm that helps changemakers thrive. We provide strategic planning, executive search, board search and development, and facilitation for leaders across business, government, and nonprofit who are shaping a better future.

Our clients are committed to long-term change that serves future generations. Potrero Group invigorates organizations with new perspectives, strategies, and top-tier executive and board talent, ensuring our clients stay effective, relevant, and resilient over time.

How We Work

I founded Potrero Group to harness the power of multi-sector partnerships to solve complex problems, effect systems change, and transform and strengthen institutions. I have deep experience in business, the nonprofit sector, and government. I found that rarely can big problems be solved by any of these sectors working independently. I found that the most powerful leaders know how to bring together different sectors and help them work synergistically. It’s powerful when it happens!

We are rigorous thought partners who understand the complexities of organizations that are driving positive change. We have helped social entrepreneurs, founders, executive directors, and public agency leaders grow and evolve their organizations through every phase.

We understand the social impact sector and what makes leaders and organizations in this field extraordinary, recruiting top talent from across the nation to lead social sector institutions and causes. We know what makes opportunities in this field exciting and compelling, and we are realistic about its challenges and the kind of leadership required to support effective partnerships and achieve lasting, grounded impact.

Potrero is known for bringing together public, private, social sector leaders to move forward projects in the public interest and are sought after by powerful agencies, businesses, and nonprofits. We have activated philanthropic and business partnerships for the National Park Service, which generates billions of dollars in economic benefits. We recently led the feasibility, business planning, and senior leadership recruitment of the first statewide philanthropic partner to the California State Parks system—the second largest state park system in the world—which has mobilized hundreds of millions in support of climate resilience and access for all.

We help our clients envision what is possible at their growth edge and navigate the steps to get there. Sometimes, changemakers can get stuck and lose perspective, especially when they have been working on the same problem for a long time. We help our clients break out of their status quo so they can reach a new level of excellence and continue to make a lasting impact.

Our process is tailored to gain a nuanced understanding of our clients and their needs. We are experts at identifying the skills and next steps that will support an organization’s current phase of growth and development, and recruit top tier executive and board talent who will lead them into a promising future. Many of our clients choose to work with us again because of the level of trust and understanding we develop through our engagements. Our custom partnership with each client helps us to bring the right blend of executive experience, passion for the mission, social intelligence, and strategy skill to realize our clients’ highest ambitions.

Potrero Group provides organizations the tools and talent they need to elevate diverse voices and maximize strategic insight. In addition to a nuanced understanding of the sector, we also understand how important it is to engage authentically with our clients’ constituents from the very beginning of every engagement. We bring deep listening skills to every engagement and are experts at building trust.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

Potrero Group was a side hustle 13 years ago and now we’re a multi-million dollar company with a thriving team and global clients. Sometimes I can’t believe it. Because I had a large mortgage and two young children, I was scared to leave my full-time job. So, I started Potrero with my best friend who also had a full-time job with flexibility. And we kept our day jobs. We found subcontractors to help us. We worked lots of late nights and weekends.

It’s both scary and exhilarating to start a business this way. But it was the only way we could do it. And our limitations had a side benefit — we couldn’t spend too much money because we didn’t have it. We worked leanly and smartly. And we delivered relentlessly high-quality deliverables. We could over-deliver because we didn’t really need the money because we had our day jobs.

We focused on being lean and building a tribe of customers who raved about our work. We have always been picky about who we bring on as customers because we want to be successful. And we want them to love our work. We always believed that “Growth for growth’s sake is cancer.” This means that we grew more slowly than many but that we’ve grown steadily with clients that our best source of referrals.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Our best strategy has been to find the right clients, form a partnership, build trust, and over-deliver results! This sounds easy, but it isn’t. It is incredibly challenging because, as an entrepreneur, it is easy to continue chasing all clients just to make payroll.

One of our fastest-growing lines of business, board search, was co-developed with a client. The client needed to find new talent for their board. And other clients have had the same challenge. The traditional approaches weren’t working to solve the problem. We could try a completely new approach because we have a long-term and trusting relationship with our client. And the results have been stunning! And board search is now the fastest-growing part of our business.

It was a fun journey with our client to try something new. Yes we made some mistakes but we learned a lot on the way. And because we trusted one another the impact of the mistakes was minimal. And we could prototype a new offering in real-time.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.potrerogroup.com and www.dontleadalone.com (the second website is for a book we wrote that elaborates more about how we do our work).
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clevelandjustis/
• Other: If possible, please encourage readers to check out our book, Don’t Lead Alone: Think Like a System, Act Like a Network, Lead Like a Movement. The book is available on Amazon, etc. The Audiobook is on Amazon, Apple, and Spotify. The book’s website is www.dontleadalone.com

Image Credits
I have the rights and permissions.