Posts tagged Startups
Don't Be Like Lucy

How to scale your business by fixing the weakest link first

Recently, on a sunny Saturday afternoon, I was browsing Hulu when a flash of red hair and bright lips caught my eye. It was a timeless masterpiece and one of the most well-known shows of classic TV - an episode of I Love Lucy titled The Chocolate Factory.

Have you seen it?

In the episode, Lucy and Ethel are hired to work on the assembly line of a chocolate factory. Their task is simple - pick up each piece of chocolate that comes down the conveyor belt, wrap it, and place it back on the belt.

Sounds easy, right?

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I spent months creating a new free offer. Here’s what I learned.

At the beginning of this year, I set a goal for myself that I wanted to share the knowledge and methodology behind my work with more people. I’ve seen how Lean has transformed the businesses I’ve worked with, and I want others to be able to achieve the same. So over the past few months, I’ve been working to make that happen.

I’m thrilled to have recently released the BE Lean Assessment - a free tool to give business owners expert insight into whether they have the systems, structure, and culture in place to achieve sustainable growth.

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Beating Imposter Syndrome

By revisiting the worst week of my career

It was 8pm on December 12, 2016. After three hours of tense back and forth discussion, we had just decided to fold our company. Just five days later, December 16th, was greeNEWit’s last day in business.

I’ve thought a lot about this moment in the time that’s passed since. The failure of greeNEWit after nine years in business is what motivated me to start my own company, BE Lean. I’ve been driven by the desire to prevent other businesses from ending with the same fate. To help others achieve what greeNEWit never could: a sustainable business model.

And while greeNEWit’s failure inspired me to start my company, it’s also held me back. If I’m brutally honest, since the moment I started BE Lean, I haven’t been able to shake the imposter syndrome whispering in my ear, “If you couldn’t make greeNEWit succeed, what makes you think you can help others succeed?”

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Replacing Hustle with Humanity

Hustle has Eroded Workplace Culture. Let’s Fix That.

“Excellent post, Brad! We absolutely should be having deeper conversations about what it takes to start and operate a successful business, regardless of industry or size. Thanks for bringing a little light to this!”

I lit up with excitement, my pride beaming momentarily, after receiving this message on LinkedIn in response to an article I had published on rethinking what it means to be an entrepreneur. This was exactly the sort of engagement I was hoping for. I didn’t skip a beat and replied back, hoping to solicit an interview for a new post in my “Entrepreneurship In Real Life” series.

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Is the Entrepreneurial Dream Wasting Millennial Talent?

America has a love affair with entrepreneurs. We idealize successful icons like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk, and we tune in to shows like Shark Tank and The Profit to watch people just like us try to achieve their own success. It’s not hard to see why. Entrepreneurship represents the very essence of the American dream. Entrepreneurs are literally able to take their dreams and turn them into reality. But is this vision of entrepreneurship an accurate representation, or is it simply the picture we want to see?

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