“You know a lot, but you don’t know everything.”
– Mary J. Blige
Prepping for this interview led me to think back to how Brian would spend his time when I was at HubSpot at $30M ARR, $50M, $75M and $100M+. Most months I wouldn’t see Brian in the office more than once or twice. And one of those days was for our all-day executive leadership meeting.
During my tenure, Brian spent a lot of his time working on the business (rather than in the business) – meeting externally with investors, customers and partners. This practice led the senior team, as functional executives, to become self-sufficient and run our own departments without many dependencies.
But companies aren’t the only thing that need to learn to scale during periods of growth, individuals also need to learn these lessons. Myself included.
My natural tendency is to want to sit at my desk and get deep into the details of the product, marketing or another area of Drift’s business. I feel like I’m helping when I do this, but at Drift’s current size, I need to change this behavior. I need to spend less time sitting at my desk and more time outside the building. I need to spend more time working on the business versus in the business. Because these are the areas where I can really contribute and have a larger impact.
So how am I planning to do this? I’m getting rid of my desk to avoid regressing. It’s time to elevate my game, contribute more to the business and let the team truly grow and scale.
– DC
PS What will you do differently to scale your business, your team or in your current role? Let me know by replying to this email.