We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Holly Myers a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Holly , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?
Boy do I love this topic because it is so true- most people do look at successful business owners and think it happened overnight or think “they got lucky.” But that is not the case at all.
When my husband and I got married, we had $200 in the bank. We were living in a single wide trailer , short on rent almost every month , living paycheck to paycheck. We had been married for 2 years when we were presented an opportunity to start a business. My husband was working retail at the time and I was a teacher’s assistant. Neither one of us had any business experience or background. I grew up in church ministry and my husband grew up on a small hobby farm in the Midwest. His dad was a truck driver and his mom stayed at home.
One of the biggest keys to scaling our business was changing our mindset. Our whole life we were taught how to think like an employee. Soon after starting our business we realized that thinking like a business owner is a completely different ballgame.
We heard that where you end up in life is determined by the books that you read and the people you associate with. So we chose to invest our time and money into those two areas.
1. Books:
We learned that you are paid in life based on the value you add so we read , not only to increase our business knowledge and expertise, but also to increase our value to everyone around us. To become a better product ourselves. Little decisions to read first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening helped us develop a habit that we still enforce today. I can probably count on one hand how many books I’’d read prior to business ownership. Now we have at least 300 books on the shelves around our house that have helped us get to where we are today.
2. Association
At the time we started our business , we really didn’t know any other business owners. Maybe one or two. We knew we wanted to get around other successful entrepreneurs in our industry , so we could learn from their experience. It is one thing to be taught theory by someone in a classroom, but it is another thing to hear knowledge and wisdom firsthand from someone who has fruit on the tree. With that being said, we chose to invest our time into business conferences and leadership events so we could immerse ourselves in the world of entrepreneurship for 2-3 days.
This wasn’t always easy. As I mentioned before , we didn’t have the greatest finances. Money was tight. But we knew , “if nothing changes , nothing changes “ and so we did whatever we had to do to get to these events. We figured it out financially -sold things, worked extra hours at our jobs , just to be able to afford these events. Instead of using our paid time off for a leisurely vacation, we used it to take off and attend a conference. We did this for several years. We wanted to be full time entrepreneurs. That was our goal so we made education and association our priority.
Scaling our business looked more like a roller coaster at times. We would set a goal with a deadline and hardly ever hit the goal by that deadline. And sometimes , we even hit goals and then our business would take a dip, fall back from that goal. But what we have learned is to never stop setting a goal. If you aim at nothing , you will hit it every time. Having a goal gives you something to work towards. Even when we didn’t reach our goal in our time frame , we would be farther along than we would have been if we had not set a goal.
There are so many stories I could share. We’ve had so many ups and downs , but I wouldn’t trade the life of a business owner with anything else. Today., we are full time business owners. We reached this goal after 8 years of building a business on the side of our full time jobs for 8 years. There is nothing like being in control of your time and income. Having the option to control your schedule and work when you want to work. The freedom and flexibility that business ownership brings way outweighs the risks in my opinion.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
We got into business by such a thin thread. My husband was working at a shoe store and a customer came through and purchased a pair of shoes. He was a business man himself. There was something he liked about my husband – his customer service , etc. , but when this man (Curtis) was in the store, Lewis was not available to talk.
However , when Curtis got in the car, he pulled out the receipt and found the store number and called Lewis then.
After meeting up several times and chatting business details and also meeting more of Curtis’ business associates, Lewis decided this would be something worth sinking our teeth into.
We like to call ourselves “need fillers.” You have a need and we will do our best to fill it.
The products that we provide to our clients are high end lifestyle products for the common household, Products that aren’t so glamorous per se, but products that everyone needs them . Everything from “green” household cleaning products , to organic supplements , vegan skin care and first class sports nutrition.
If someone needs energy- we have vitamins.
If someone needs to lose weight, we have a workout program.
Someone wants to improve the appearance of their skin – we have top of the line , vegan skin care and in-home treatments as well.
If someone wants clean water and air – we have treatment systems for these!
If someone needs to sleep better – we have sleep health.
If someone wants to “go green” , we have quality, concentrated “green” cleaning products.
We literally have something for everything.
My husband and I live by the standard that we are also the product. We go above and beyond to provide first class customer service to everyone who chooses to do business with us. We like to call it “relational commerce.” We know that our clients will be very happy with using the products , but we also do our best to add value to their lives in any way we can. From the smallest transaction, to the largest one, we want everyone to feel better about themselves after leaving our presence, which I believe is what makes them want to continue to do business with us. We like to blow their minds with how we service them and go the extra mile. If someone doesn’t want to order online, we still actually do in person deliveries(mostly local). But we don’t mind driving to ensure a client is served in the most inconvenient way possible for them!
Another “problem” we solve for people is financial. We also offer an opportunity for people to come on board and work with us , selling these products to create additional income for their family. My husband and I have been so blessed what this opportunity has provided for us, we love to teach others how to do the same.
I guess you could say one of the things we are most proud of , is the community that we have built. We have people in our lives that have been working with us for 10+ years. We go above and beyond to create an environment where everyone feels like they belong. We strive to have a place for everyone. Everyone has different goals and is working at different paces. And to us, that is ok. Our environment is one where we prioritize relationships and celebrate success – small or big and we meet them where they are to help them achieve their goals. We not only provide training events, resources and one on one coaching, we also host events where people can let their guard down, relax, build relationships with each other and have fun. We’ve thrown NYE parties, get together at Greenville Drive games and have a huge 4th of July bash where people can bring their families. It’s a ton of fun! We work hard and play hard and love living life together.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
Yes!!! Books, audios, conferences, all of it!!
These are probably my top books for working with people and thinking like an entrepreneur:
How to Win Friends and Influence People and Bringing out the Best in People are “go to” books that we go back to at least once a year. These books are so good – really break down how to truly connect with people, how to listen, and how to help others see the best in themselves.
One key book we read that helped us develop our “entrepreneurial ” mindset was Magic of Thinking Big(specifically chapters 2, 12 & 13). From it we learned about “failure diseases” and how to overcome them. How to identify “time thiefs” and minimize them, How to stop living in victim mentality and blaming others for lack of success, but take personal responsibility and realize the buck stops with us.
And of course, our all time favorite, “Live the Dream, No More Excuses”. This is an ultimate “rags to riches story”. A couple and his wife started out with nothing , living in an 800 square foot house. High school educated car wash manager and cashier. They walk through their story of how they overcame the odds, made no excuses in spite of one challenge after another and how they have become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in country today.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
I think managing a team and maintaining high morale starts with managing yourself first and learning how to maintain your own high morale. Becoming disciplined and doing what we say we are going to do, overcoming procrastination and “excusitis” has helped us earn our own respect then we can teach others how to do the same. Learning how to control our calendar and not let our calendar control us and managing our own time.
Maintaining your own high morale or having a positive mental attitude (PMA) requires positive input. We choose to do this through reading every single day, listening to audios from those who are successful within our own industry and without. We also have personal affirmations that we say on a daily basis. What you are telling yourself determines your attitude each day.
When it comes to maintaining high morale in your team, I think the first thing that is key is being a good listener. So often we want to fix people or solve their problems so they can get back to having high morale and being productive. Or, we give them a quick “ra – ra” pep talk in hopes to cheer them up real quick so we don’t have to listen to their problems.
I’m sure you’ve all heard the saying “people don’t know how much you know until they know how much you care.” We have found that to be so true. When you really take time to sit down and listen to people- whatever it is they are dealing with, it shows them that you truly do care about them and are there to listen. Sometimes that’s all that people need – someone to listen so they can get things off their chest.
Another thing that we have found when maintaining high morale with people is celebrating the small wins. We live by the motto of “win the day.” When people are doing what they can control and taking action towards their goals, that is a win. And we like to let them know that as much as we can.
One other thing- giving people the freedom to use their own creative gifts and unique talents and not try to control or “micro-manage” everything. We understand that we are not all the same and we need to gifts of everyone around us. Letting people think independently and execute in a way that makes sense to them gives them a sense of freedom, which makes them happy and inspires them to continue thriving in that way.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: 1favoredgirl
- Facebook: Holly Myers
Image Credits
LTD team and Yaritza Ramos