Please tell us about yourself and your business background.
I come from a small town in NorthWest Indiana, I classify myself as socially mobile and this is important as it’s a factor of why I am so driven. I was born to teenage parents, and I definitely bore witness to their hustle. It made me really grateful for the opportunities they gave me so I could avoid the challenges and suffering that they had to endure by nature of not having that education and the same opportunities. For me doing a good job has never really been good enough for me, I tend to push things a little bit extra but I think that so much of that comes from wanting to make my parents proud and I wanted to make the most of what I was given, as I am so grateful for that.
I was a first generation University graduate, at University I was involved in everything, so from very early on I started pushing and wanting to go above and beyond. It wasn’t until much later I realised that it stemmed from a lack of self worth, so even though I still do it now, I do it for much healthier reasons. I have always been involved in the world of work, from recruitment advertising to HR technology, working predominantly with the biggest companies such as the Fortune 500 on a global basis both as an individual contributor and sales manager. During my time as a founding team member my primary responsibility was to drive revenue and lead the teams and work closely with the board of directors. However, in startups you really are jack of all trades, there is no staying within the confines of your job. Founding and going through the process of selling these companies with my friends and seeing the toll it took on them and also on myself led to a passion of wanting to usher in a new market economy that is kinder, more honest and easier to navigate. It’s going to take a lot of courage from the next generation of leaders to carry this off, they’ll need a lot of support which I don’t think really exists at scale. This is why I completed my psychology training and my psychotherapy certification because it enables me to take my infield experience and then back it up with research proven scientific methods to help people to curate inner peace as they tackle some of the biggest challenges in the world and create this new market economy and set up the next generation of influential companies.
What is the most common problem faced by inexperienced business people and how can this be overcome?
The biggest problem is the lack of self belief, I believe a lot of people don’t push as hard as they can because they believe they aren’t ready. They start to doubt themselves or they are easily influenced into making away moves because they feel like they should be doing things a certain way. They are inundated with examples of ‘you have got to be like Steve Jobs, you have got to be like Elon Musk’, there are all of these stories that glamourise this burnt out culture that suggests you can’t have boundaries, you can’t have balance and that you need to sacrifice everything in order to succeed.
I think the biggest problem that I see inexperienced business people facing is buying into the bullshit, not just doing what feels right to them and trusting their gut and instead allowing themselves to be influenced. One of the greatest assets to have is that beginner’s mindset when coming into start a business, as you are not jaded by the processes that you think you should be following or the methods you think you should be deploying. Unfortunately I see too many people hand over that power quite quickly, particularly once they start working with business advisors or investors or BC firms. They hand over their agency far more quickly than they need to and I think some of that might be a lack of clarity around what their values are and conviction into making aligned decisions, what we call making towards moves in the ACT framework and deviating from their mission.
To follow on from that, to be able to overcome this you need to do the inner work and be really clear on what your values are. Realistically you are not going to have more than 3. You need to work out what the 3 things are that matter most to you. It’s a challenging process, it sounds so easy on the surface, finding 3 values, but it’s tough. It brings some stuff up, as you can often feel the things that should matter or that are important to you actually aren’t that important. Park all of your self judgement whilst you navigate this process. Also, know you will end up making away moves, everyone does, life is messy and complicated and things get in the way. There is no such thing as transcending the human experience and eradicating all suffering, but you can get clear on these values and put stuff into place like journalling and routine check-ins to take a deep look and what causes you to make these away moves. It won’t be easy, but this is where the growth lies, so having the courage to face those away moves will help so much in the long run.
What are the most important things to consider before starting your own business?
For me the most important thing is unequivocally why you are doing it and again the same rules apply here. Be incredibly honest with yourself about what your reasoning is. Heading into any business without being 100% crystal clear on why you are doing it will put you on the path to failure. You need to put in the work to understand your reasoning and be brutally honest with yourself about what you are looking to achieve.
It’s so critical that you do this work as I honestly believe that many people don’t and this is why most people fail, as they aren’t connected to that WHY. It is also a reason that sets up a lot of people for suffering in the long run if they do go on to successfully exit or build a company to sustainability and have to pursue a life outside of that initial business. When you are not connected to what your larger why is and how your business fits into that picture you are setting yourself up for all kinds of issues.
~Business Game Changer Special Promotion~
What is the best way to recruit / hire members of your team? For example, should you recruit based on their attitude or experience?
Recruitment for startups is tough. There is a very big difference between the skillset required to build something versus the skillset required to maintain something. There is also the reality of where you are in your startup lifecycle, you may not be able to pay a competitive salary or overall compensation package or the benefits that more seasoned professionals might be looking for.
The other reality you have to face is that roles are not clearly as defined within a startup as they are within a large established organisation. There is of course some variation depending on what stage your startup is at, but the reality is you will need a person who is open to seeing jobs that need to be done and doing them. You need someone who is comfortable working cross functionally. For the more experienced folks they may be used to having their expectations clearly outlined and knowing exactly what they need to do in order to drive success and won’t like going through the change management process as frequently as needed in a fast paced hyper growth startup environment. There are some great opportunities to hire in an unconventional way, so working with consultants or freelancers can be a great way to avoid hiring someone at a high ticket value that may not be the best match from an attitude perspective even though on paper it looks like they have the experience you need. Also working with interns, can be a phenomenal opportunity to bring new ideas and creative input into the organisation.
I think attitude is incredibly important, someone who has psychological flexibility, who is adaptable, who is quick to learn, who is bought into your mission, who is a challenger and will push back if things aren’t right and ask the tough questions, you don’t just want a yes person. You need people that will push you across the organisation.
Finally, keep an open mind in terms of how you recruit and shield yourself against hiring very high value professionals that are maybe past wanting to have to be as flexible as they will need to be. In order to avoid this make sure you are really clear about what you want the role to be.
How has the pandemic changed business?
It’s radically changed everything in a positive way, it has escalated and accelerated the shift in how business is conducted. We have been moving in the direction of creating a new market economy for some time. We have seen the rise of the B Corp globally, we’ve seen green movements, we’ve seen an increased focus on diversity and inclusion across organisations of all sizes. However, I think there has always been a lot of lip service in these things and greenwashing and a lot of brand pushes and not actually much evidence to back it up. If you have a proper look at the statistics, trust levels were poor, many people believed that companies were just doing these things to gain positive PR for themselves.
Post pandemic though we have seen a huge shift. If we look at things like the great resignation and other things that are occurring, it shows that people are becoming more discerning and seeing they have options and they don’t have to work inside the confines of the things that have been forced upon them. So it’s caused a lot of disruption, a lot of discernment, people are far less afraid to walk away even if they don’t have something lined up for themselves which in my eyes is a really good thing.
It’s a phenomenal opportunity for us to claw back some of the ethical fading that has happened over the years and rethink how our market economy works. Whether that’s re-specialising and pulling back on globalisation, or whether that’s the wellbeing and inclusions policies we put in place. There are a lot of things that are being reimagined and we have a blank canvas now to do it. I honestly believe a silver lining for me from the pandemic is that whilst these conversations were happening before, the pandemic accelerated them for good. We have global government, private and not for profit sectors all working together to think about how we just do better and revamp the world of work and business moving forward so it doesn’t suck anymore.
I also believe it gave people a renewed appreciation for just how fragile life is and how important it is to feel fulfilled and good in what you do with your life. Your job and career is just one piece of your life and not the whole thing and this has had a huge impact on business and how we rethink things.
What is the most important lesson you have learnt as a result of your business? This may also be advice you can offer to budding game changing business professionals.
The most important lesson that I’ve learnt over my career is that I need to trust myself in all situations. I need to make sure that I always give myself a minute to pause, and don’t make rash or overly emotional decisions. It’s not about reacting to every feeling that you’ve ever had, it’s about giving yourself the space to go within and connect with how you really feel about a decision and whether or not the decision you’re about to make is in alignment with your values.
There is no one way to get things done, and quite the contrary based on all the answers to the questions up until this point. My personal view is that we have the opportunity to rewrite the way everything is done and to create new systems to create a new market economy. This is going to take creative thinking and new ways of doing things. So retain your agency, trust yourself, get clear on your values and don’t let anyone shake you. If you need help to have the coverage to get out there everyday and be unapologetically you, making decisions in service of your why and in line with your values then get it, you don’t have to do this alone. The only tools in your toolkit are not just your board of advisors, not just your investors, you need to go and find people that have been in your shoes and that have built their business in line with how you want to build yours.
Don’t compromise on your why, don’t compromise on your values, trust your gut, even when everyone else thinks you are crazy – trust yourself!
About the author
Ashlie, the founder of Humane Startup is a two times founding team member for tech startups – so she has walked the difficult path that the leaders of today are facing.
Her science-based approach is built on a foundation of physiology, neurochemistry and psychology, establishing Mind-Body Coherence that will help leaders stop “succeeding” and start thriving.
In her experience, every area of the business is affected by the health of the leadership team. But advisors are heavily focused on profitability and speed, leaving everyone exposed to considerable risk (and missions compromised) as leaders are placed under increasing pressure to survive.
Ashlie is an accredited Psychotherapist and certified Complementary Medicine practitioner, giving her the practice to complement her experiences in business, and allowing her to challenge the status quo.
Humane Startup believes that Healthy leaders build inspiring companies. They are a coaching, training and consulting company focused on supporting leaders and their sales teams.
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